Podcasts about Rutgers University

Amid widespread concern that our approach to testing and grading undermines education, two experts explain how schools can use assessment to support, rather than compromise, learning. Anyone who has ever crammed for a test, capitulated to a grade-grubbing student, or fretted over a child's report card knows that the way we assess student learning in American schools is freighted with unintended consequences. But that's not all. As experts agree, our primary assessment technologies—grading, rating, and ranking—don't actually provide an accurate picture of how students are doing in school. Worse, they distort student and educator behavior in ways that undermine learning and exacerbate inequality. Yet despite widespread dissatisfaction, grades, test scores, and transcripts remain the currency of the realm. In Off the Mark: How Grades, Ratings, and Rankings Undermine Learning (but Don't Have To) (Harvard University Press, 2023), Jack Schneider and Ethan Hutt explain how we got into this predicament, why we remain beholden to our outmoded forms of assessment, and what we can do to change course. As they make clear, most current attempts at reform won't solve the complex problems we face. Instead, Schneider and Hutt offer a range of practical reforms, like embracing multiple measures of performance and making the so-called permanent record “overwritable.” As they explain, we can remake our approach in ways that better advance the three different purposes that assessment currently serves: motivating students to learn, communicating meaningful information about what young people know and can do, and synchronizing an otherwise fragmented educational system. Written in an accessible style for a broad audience, Off the Mark is a guide for everyone who wants to ensure that assessment serves the fundamental goal of education—helping students learn. Ethan Hutt is the Gary Stuck Faculty Scholar in Education at the University of North Carolina.  Jack Schneider is the Dwight W. Allen Distinguished Professor at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst.   Max Jacobs is a PhD student in education at Rutgers University. He currently sit on the Graduate Student Council for the History of Education Society. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/american-studies

Amid widespread concern that our approach to testing and grading undermines education, two experts explain how schools can use assessment to support, rather than compromise, learning. Anyone who has ever crammed for a test, capitulated to a grade-grubbing student, or fretted over a child's report card knows that the way we assess student learning in American schools is freighted with unintended consequences. But that's not all. As experts agree, our primary assessment technologies—grading, rating, and ranking—don't actually provide an accurate picture of how students are doing in school. Worse, they distort student and educator behavior in ways that undermine learning and exacerbate inequality. Yet despite widespread dissatisfaction, grades, test scores, and transcripts remain the currency of the realm. In Off the Mark: How Grades, Ratings, and Rankings Undermine Learning (but Don't Have To) (Harvard University Press, 2023), Jack Schneider and Ethan Hutt explain how we got into this predicament, why we remain beholden to our outmoded forms of assessment, and what we can do to change course. As they make clear, most current attempts at reform won't solve the complex problems we face. Instead, Schneider and Hutt offer a range of practical reforms, like embracing multiple measures of performance and making the so-called permanent record “overwritable.” As they explain, we can remake our approach in ways that better advance the three different purposes that assessment currently serves: motivating students to learn, communicating meaningful information about what young people know and can do, and synchronizing an otherwise fragmented educational system. Written in an accessible style for a broad audience, Off the Mark is a guide for everyone who wants to ensure that assessment serves the fundamental goal of education—helping students learn. Ethan Hutt is the Gary Stuck Faculty Scholar in Education at the University of North Carolina.  Jack Schneider is the Dwight W. Allen Distinguished Professor at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst.   Max Jacobs is a PhD student in education at Rutgers University. He currently sit on the Graduate Student Council for the History of Education Society. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/sociology

Amid widespread concern that our approach to testing and grading undermines education, two experts explain how schools can use assessment to support, rather than compromise, learning. Anyone who has ever crammed for a test, capitulated to a grade-grubbing student, or fretted over a child's report card knows that the way we assess student learning in American schools is freighted with unintended consequences. But that's not all. As experts agree, our primary assessment technologies—grading, rating, and ranking—don't actually provide an accurate picture of how students are doing in school. Worse, they distort student and educator behavior in ways that undermine learning and exacerbate inequality. Yet despite widespread dissatisfaction, grades, test scores, and transcripts remain the currency of the realm. In Off the Mark: How Grades, Ratings, and Rankings Undermine Learning (but Don't Have To) (Harvard University Press, 2023), Jack Schneider and Ethan Hutt explain how we got into this predicament, why we remain beholden to our outmoded forms of assessment, and what we can do to change course. As they make clear, most current attempts at reform won't solve the complex problems we face. Instead, Schneider and Hutt offer a range of practical reforms, like embracing multiple measures of performance and making the so-called permanent record “overwritable.” As they explain, we can remake our approach in ways that better advance the three different purposes that assessment currently serves: motivating students to learn, communicating meaningful information about what young people know and can do, and synchronizing an otherwise fragmented educational system. Written in an accessible style for a broad audience, Off the Mark is a guide for everyone who wants to ensure that assessment serves the fundamental goal of education—helping students learn. Ethan Hutt is the Gary Stuck Faculty Scholar in Education at the University of North Carolina.  Jack Schneider is the Dwight W. Allen Distinguished Professor at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst.   Max Jacobs is a PhD student in education at Rutgers University. He currently sit on the Graduate Student Council for the History of Education Society. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

Episode Summary Benoy and his co-host David Magid, who is the founder and managing member of YSG Solar which is solar plus storage developer, discuss current major news and insights on the US Solar and Storage Market.  They are calling it the League which will be a weekly update of the major news in the Renewable Energy Industry.   In the first episode of the League, David and Benoy discuss the great opportunity with the Inflation Reduction Action(“IRA”),   US community solar update, and the difference between developing solar on rooftops compared to land.   Benoy Thanjan Benoy Thanjan is the Founder and CEO of Reneu Energy and he is also an advisor for several solar startup companies.  He has extensive project origination, development, and financial experience in the renewable energy industry and in the environmental commodities market.   This includes initial site evaluation, permitting, financing, sourcing equipment, and negotiating the long-term energy and environmental commodities off-take agreements. He manages due diligence processes on land, permitting, and utility interconnection and is in charge of financing and structuring through Note to Proceed (“NTP”) to Commercial Operation Date (“COD”). Benoy composes teams suitable for all project development and construction tasks. He is also involved in project planning and pipeline financial modeling. He has been part of all sides of the transaction and this allows him to provide unique perspectives and value. Benoy has extensive experience in financial engineering to make solar projects profitable. Before founding Reneu Energy, he was the Environmental Commodities Trader in the Project Finance Group for SolarCity which merged with Tesla in 2016.  He originated SREC trades with buyers and co-developed their SREC monetization and hedging strategy with the senior management of Tesla to move into the east coast markets.  Benoy was the Vice President at Vanguard Energy Partners which is a national solar installer where he focused on project finance solutions for commercial scale solar projects.  He also worked for Ridgewood Renewable Power, a private equity fund, where he analyzed potential investments in renewable energy projects and worked on maximizing the financial return of the projects in the portfolio.  Benoy also worked on the sale of all of the renewable energy projects in Ridgewood's portfolio.   He was in the Energy Structured Finance practice for Deloitte & Touche and in Financial Advisory Services practice at Ernst & Young.  Benoy received his first experience in Finance as an intern at D.E. Shaw & Co., which is a global investment firm with 37 billion dollars in investment capital. He has a MBA in Finance from Rutgers University and a BS in Finance and Economics from the Stern School of Business at New York University.  Benoy was an Alumni Scholar at the Stern School of Business.     David Magid David Magid is the founder and managing member at YSG Solar which is a solar plus storage developer primarily based in New York City. In 2018, Forbes recognized David's leadership and listed him on the “30 under 30” list in the energy sector.   YSG has executed power purchase agreements with clients such as the New York Military Academy, the New York Botanical Garden, The City of New York and many other local municipalities ,counties and towns. David's interviews on the Solar Maverick Podcast https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/smp-09-how-david-started-his-solar-company-with-david/id1441876259?i=1000426815949 Episode 114 https://solarmaverick.podbean.com/e/smp-114-solar-developer-provides-insights-on-what-us-states-are-good-markets-to-develop-solar/   Stay connected: Benoy Thanjan Website: www.reneuenergy.com Email: info@reneuenergy.com LinkedIn: Benoy Thanjan Facebook: Reneu Energy   David Magid Website: https://www.ysgsolar.com Linkedin:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidmagid/ Subscribe to our podcast + download each episode on iTunes, Podbean, YouTube, and most of the major podcast platforms.   This episode was produced and managed by Podcast Laundry.  

proving workplace culture can sound like an impossible task, but today's guest, Bonnie Low-Kramen, has had more than 1,500 unfiltered conversations with executives, HR professionals, recruiters, executives, assistants, and leadership experts to identify the people focused solutions that really work to create the ultimate workplace. What You'll Discover About Improving Workplace Culture:* What people are saying behind closed doors about improving workplace culture.* The critical importance of respect in the workplace, and how it”s often trampled.* The powerful links between respect, belonging and improving workplace culture.* The surprising thing one CEO did during Covid to maintain his organization's culture.* How improving workplace cultures requires identifying and fixing broken systems.* And MUCH more.Guest: Bonnie Low-KramenITEDx international speaker and trainer Bonnie Low-Kramen worked as the Personal Assistant to Oscar-winning actress Olympia Dukakis for 25 years. Since 2010, Bonnie has been traveling the world teaching and speaking – in 13 countries and 38 states to date.She is now a CEO herself, employs an assistant, and is globally recognized as one of the most respected leaders in the administrative profession and an expert on workplace issues. Bonnieis sought after to speak about building ultimate partnerships between executives and assistants.In 2022, Bonnie made her TEDx debut with “The Real Reasons People Quit.” Her writing has appeared in Harvard Business Review and her work was featured as the Forbes cover story in May 2019. Corporate clients include the Wharton School of Business, Starbucks, Amazon, Rutgers University Business School, University of Chicago Business School, Campbell Soup, and British Parliament. Bonnie holds a BA from Rutgers University in New Jersey.She is a co-founder of NYCA – New York Celebrity Assistants – a professional networking organization which began in 1996. A New Jersey native, Bonnie's highly interactive, informative, and inspiring work seeks to bridge the gaps between staff towards building an ultimate workplace – or as close as they can get.Related Resources:m If you liked this interview, you might also enjoy our other Corporate Governance and Culture episodes.Contact Bonnie and connect with her on LinkedIn, Facebook, and “X” formerly known as Twitter.Check out her books: the bestselling

Godzilla emerged from the sea to devastate Tokyo in the now-classic 1954 film, produced by Tōhō Studios and directed by Ishirō Honda, creating a global sensation and launching one of the world's most successful movie and media franchises. Awakened and transformed by nuclear weapons testing, Godzilla serves as a terrifying metaphor for humanity's shortsighted destructiveness: this was the intent of Shigeru Kayama, the science fiction writer who drafted the 1954 original film and its first sequel and, in 1955, published these novellas. Although the Godzilla films have been analyzed in detail by cultural historians, film scholars, and generations of fans, Kayama's two Godzilla novellas—both classics of Japanese young-adult science fiction—have never been available in English. Godzilla and Godzilla Raids Again: The Original Novellas by Shigeru Kayama (U Michigan Press, 2023) finally provides English-speaking fans and critics the original texts with these first-ever English-language translations of Godzilla and Godzilla Raids Again. The novellas reveal valuable insights into Kayama's vision for the Godzilla story, feature plots that differ from the films, and clearly display the author's strong antinuclear, proenvironmental convictions. Kayama's fiction depicts Godzilla as engaging in guerrilla-style warfare against humanity, which has allowed the destruction of the natural world through its irresponsible, immoral perversion of science. As human activity continues to cause mass extinctions and rapid climatic change, Godzilla provides a fable for the Anthropocene, powerfully reminding us that nature will fight back against humanity's onslaught in unpredictable and devastating ways. Shigeru Kayama (1904–1975) was a science fiction writer and scenarist whose early stories about monsters and mutated sea creatures attracted the attention of Tōhō Studios, which asked him to draft the first two Godzilla films. Jeffrey Angles is professor of Japanese at Western Michigan University. He is the author of Writing the Love of Boys: Origins of Bishonen Culture in Modernist Japanese Literature (Minnesota, 2011) and the award-winning translator of Orikuchi Shinobu's The Book of the Dead (Minnesota, 2017) and Hiromi Ito's The Thorn Puller. Daniel Moran earned his B.A. and M.A. in English from Rutgers University and his Ph.D. in History from Drew University. The author of Creating Flannery O'Connor: Her Critics, Her Publishers, Her Readers and articles on G. K. Chesterton and John Ford, he teaches research and writing at Rutgers and co-hosts the podcast Fifteen-Minute Film Fanatics, found here on the New Books Network and on X.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/literary-studies

Godzilla emerged from the sea to devastate Tokyo in the now-classic 1954 film, produced by Tōhō Studios and directed by Ishirō Honda, creating a global sensation and launching one of the world's most successful movie and media franchises. Awakened and transformed by nuclear weapons testing, Godzilla serves as a terrifying metaphor for humanity's shortsighted destructiveness: this was the intent of Shigeru Kayama, the science fiction writer who drafted the 1954 original film and its first sequel and, in 1955, published these novellas. Although the Godzilla films have been analyzed in detail by cultural historians, film scholars, and generations of fans, Kayama's two Godzilla novellas—both classics of Japanese young-adult science fiction—have never been available in English. Godzilla and Godzilla Raids Again: The Original Novellas by Shigeru Kayama (U Michigan Press, 2023) finally provides English-speaking fans and critics the original texts with these first-ever English-language translations of Godzilla and Godzilla Raids Again. The novellas reveal valuable insights into Kayama's vision for the Godzilla story, feature plots that differ from the films, and clearly display the author's strong antinuclear, proenvironmental convictions. Kayama's fiction depicts Godzilla as engaging in guerrilla-style warfare against humanity, which has allowed the destruction of the natural world through its irresponsible, immoral perversion of science. As human activity continues to cause mass extinctions and rapid climatic change, Godzilla provides a fable for the Anthropocene, powerfully reminding us that nature will fight back against humanity's onslaught in unpredictable and devastating ways. Shigeru Kayama (1904–1975) was a science fiction writer and scenarist whose early stories about monsters and mutated sea creatures attracted the attention of Tōhō Studios, which asked him to draft the first two Godzilla films. Jeffrey Angles is professor of Japanese at Western Michigan University. He is the author of Writing the Love of Boys: Origins of Bishonen Culture in Modernist Japanese Literature (Minnesota, 2011) and the award-winning translator of Orikuchi Shinobu's The Book of the Dead (Minnesota, 2017) and Hiromi Ito's The Thorn Puller. Daniel Moran earned his B.A. and M.A. in English from Rutgers University and his Ph.D. in History from Drew University. The author of Creating Flannery O'Connor: Her Critics, Her Publishers, Her Readers and articles on G. K. Chesterton and John Ford, he teaches research and writing at Rutgers and co-hosts the podcast Fifteen-Minute Film Fanatics, found here on the New Books Network and on X.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/environmental-studies

Godzilla emerged from the sea to devastate Tokyo in the now-classic 1954 film, produced by Tōhō Studios and directed by Ishirō Honda, creating a global sensation and launching one of the world's most successful movie and media franchises. Awakened and transformed by nuclear weapons testing, Godzilla serves as a terrifying metaphor for humanity's shortsighted destructiveness: this was the intent of Shigeru Kayama, the science fiction writer who drafted the 1954 original film and its first sequel and, in 1955, published these novellas. Although the Godzilla films have been analyzed in detail by cultural historians, film scholars, and generations of fans, Kayama's two Godzilla novellas—both classics of Japanese young-adult science fiction—have never been available in English. Godzilla and Godzilla Raids Again: The Original Novellas by Shigeru Kayama (U Michigan Press, 2023) finally provides English-speaking fans and critics the original texts with these first-ever English-language translations of Godzilla and Godzilla Raids Again. The novellas reveal valuable insights into Kayama's vision for the Godzilla story, feature plots that differ from the films, and clearly display the author's strong antinuclear, proenvironmental convictions. Kayama's fiction depicts Godzilla as engaging in guerrilla-style warfare against humanity, which has allowed the destruction of the natural world through its irresponsible, immoral perversion of science. As human activity continues to cause mass extinctions and rapid climatic change, Godzilla provides a fable for the Anthropocene, powerfully reminding us that nature will fight back against humanity's onslaught in unpredictable and devastating ways. Shigeru Kayama (1904–1975) was a science fiction writer and scenarist whose early stories about monsters and mutated sea creatures attracted the attention of Tōhō Studios, which asked him to draft the first two Godzilla films. Jeffrey Angles is professor of Japanese at Western Michigan University. He is the author of Writing the Love of Boys: Origins of Bishonen Culture in Modernist Japanese Literature (Minnesota, 2011) and the award-winning translator of Orikuchi Shinobu's The Book of the Dead (Minnesota, 2017) and Hiromi Ito's The Thorn Puller. Daniel Moran earned his B.A. and M.A. in English from Rutgers University and his Ph.D. in History from Drew University. The author of Creating Flannery O'Connor: Her Critics, Her Publishers, Her Readers and articles on G. K. Chesterton and John Ford, he teaches research and writing at Rutgers and co-hosts the podcast Fifteen-Minute Film Fanatics, found here on the New Books Network and on X.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/film

Godzilla emerged from the sea to devastate Tokyo in the now-classic 1954 film, produced by Tōhō Studios and directed by Ishirō Honda, creating a global sensation and launching one of the world's most successful movie and media franchises. Awakened and transformed by nuclear weapons testing, Godzilla serves as a terrifying metaphor for humanity's shortsighted destructiveness: this was the intent of Shigeru Kayama, the science fiction writer who drafted the 1954 original film and its first sequel and, in 1955, published these novellas. Although the Godzilla films have been analyzed in detail by cultural historians, film scholars, and generations of fans, Kayama's two Godzilla novellas—both classics of Japanese young-adult science fiction—have never been available in English. Godzilla and Godzilla Raids Again: The Original Novellas by Shigeru Kayama (U Michigan Press, 2023) finally provides English-speaking fans and critics the original texts with these first-ever English-language translations of Godzilla and Godzilla Raids Again. The novellas reveal valuable insights into Kayama's vision for the Godzilla story, feature plots that differ from the films, and clearly display the author's strong antinuclear, proenvironmental convictions. Kayama's fiction depicts Godzilla as engaging in guerrilla-style warfare against humanity, which has allowed the destruction of the natural world through its irresponsible, immoral perversion of science. As human activity continues to cause mass extinctions and rapid climatic change, Godzilla provides a fable for the Anthropocene, powerfully reminding us that nature will fight back against humanity's onslaught in unpredictable and devastating ways. Shigeru Kayama (1904–1975) was a science fiction writer and scenarist whose early stories about monsters and mutated sea creatures attracted the attention of Tōhō Studios, which asked him to draft the first two Godzilla films. Jeffrey Angles is professor of Japanese at Western Michigan University. He is the author of Writing the Love of Boys: Origins of Bishonen Culture in Modernist Japanese Literature (Minnesota, 2011) and the award-winning translator of Orikuchi Shinobu's The Book of the Dead (Minnesota, 2017) and Hiromi Ito's The Thorn Puller. Daniel Moran earned his B.A. and M.A. in English from Rutgers University and his Ph.D. in History from Drew University. The author of Creating Flannery O'Connor: Her Critics, Her Publishers, Her Readers and articles on G. K. Chesterton and John Ford, he teaches research and writing at Rutgers and co-hosts the podcast Fifteen-Minute Film Fanatics, found here on the New Books Network and on X.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/history

Godzilla emerged from the sea to devastate Tokyo in the now-classic 1954 film, produced by Tōhō Studios and directed by Ishirō Honda, creating a global sensation and launching one of the world's most successful movie and media franchises. Awakened and transformed by nuclear weapons testing, Godzilla serves as a terrifying metaphor for humanity's shortsighted destructiveness: this was the intent of Shigeru Kayama, the science fiction writer who drafted the 1954 original film and its first sequel and, in 1955, published these novellas. Although the Godzilla films have been analyzed in detail by cultural historians, film scholars, and generations of fans, Kayama's two Godzilla novellas—both classics of Japanese young-adult science fiction—have never been available in English. Godzilla and Godzilla Raids Again: The Original Novellas by Shigeru Kayama (U Michigan Press, 2023) finally provides English-speaking fans and critics the original texts with these first-ever English-language translations of Godzilla and Godzilla Raids Again. The novellas reveal valuable insights into Kayama's vision for the Godzilla story, feature plots that differ from the films, and clearly display the author's strong antinuclear, proenvironmental convictions. Kayama's fiction depicts Godzilla as engaging in guerrilla-style warfare against humanity, which has allowed the destruction of the natural world through its irresponsible, immoral perversion of science. As human activity continues to cause mass extinctions and rapid climatic change, Godzilla provides a fable for the Anthropocene, powerfully reminding us that nature will fight back against humanity's onslaught in unpredictable and devastating ways. Shigeru Kayama (1904–1975) was a science fiction writer and scenarist whose early stories about monsters and mutated sea creatures attracted the attention of Tōhō Studios, which asked him to draft the first two Godzilla films. Jeffrey Angles is professor of Japanese at Western Michigan University. He is the author of Writing the Love of Boys: Origins of Bishonen Culture in Modernist Japanese Literature (Minnesota, 2011) and the award-winning translator of Orikuchi Shinobu's The Book of the Dead (Minnesota, 2017) and Hiromi Ito's The Thorn Puller. Daniel Moran earned his B.A. and M.A. in English from Rutgers University and his Ph.D. in History from Drew University. The author of Creating Flannery O'Connor: Her Critics, Her Publishers, Her Readers and articles on G. K. Chesterton and John Ford, he teaches research and writing at Rutgers and co-hosts the podcast Fifteen-Minute Film Fanatics, found here on the New Books Network and on X.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/east-asian-studies

Godzilla emerged from the sea to devastate Tokyo in the now-classic 1954 film, produced by Tōhō Studios and directed by Ishirō Honda, creating a global sensation and launching one of the world's most successful movie and media franchises. Awakened and transformed by nuclear weapons testing, Godzilla serves as a terrifying metaphor for humanity's shortsighted destructiveness: this was the intent of Shigeru Kayama, the science fiction writer who drafted the 1954 original film and its first sequel and, in 1955, published these novellas. Although the Godzilla films have been analyzed in detail by cultural historians, film scholars, and generations of fans, Kayama's two Godzilla novellas—both classics of Japanese young-adult science fiction—have never been available in English. Godzilla and Godzilla Raids Again: The Original Novellas by Shigeru Kayama (U Michigan Press, 2023) finally provides English-speaking fans and critics the original texts with these first-ever English-language translations of Godzilla and Godzilla Raids Again. The novellas reveal valuable insights into Kayama's vision for the Godzilla story, feature plots that differ from the films, and clearly display the author's strong antinuclear, proenvironmental convictions. Kayama's fiction depicts Godzilla as engaging in guerrilla-style warfare against humanity, which has allowed the destruction of the natural world through its irresponsible, immoral perversion of science. As human activity continues to cause mass extinctions and rapid climatic change, Godzilla provides a fable for the Anthropocene, powerfully reminding us that nature will fight back against humanity's onslaught in unpredictable and devastating ways. Shigeru Kayama (1904–1975) was a science fiction writer and scenarist whose early stories about monsters and mutated sea creatures attracted the attention of Tōhō Studios, which asked him to draft the first two Godzilla films. Jeffrey Angles is professor of Japanese at Western Michigan University. He is the author of Writing the Love of Boys: Origins of Bishonen Culture in Modernist Japanese Literature (Minnesota, 2011) and the award-winning translator of Orikuchi Shinobu's The Book of the Dead (Minnesota, 2017) and Hiromi Ito's The Thorn Puller. Daniel Moran earned his B.A. and M.A. in English from Rutgers University and his Ph.D. in History from Drew University. The author of Creating Flannery O'Connor: Her Critics, Her Publishers, Her Readers and articles on G. K. Chesterton and John Ford, he teaches research and writing at Rutgers and co-hosts the podcast Fifteen-Minute Film Fanatics, found here on the New Books Network and on X.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/biography

Godzilla emerged from the sea to devastate Tokyo in the now-classic 1954 film, produced by Tōhō Studios and directed by Ishirō Honda, creating a global sensation and launching one of the world's most successful movie and media franchises. Awakened and transformed by nuclear weapons testing, Godzilla serves as a terrifying metaphor for humanity's shortsighted destructiveness: this was the intent of Shigeru Kayama, the science fiction writer who drafted the 1954 original film and its first sequel and, in 1955, published these novellas. Although the Godzilla films have been analyzed in detail by cultural historians, film scholars, and generations of fans, Kayama's two Godzilla novellas—both classics of Japanese young-adult science fiction—have never been available in English. Godzilla and Godzilla Raids Again: The Original Novellas by Shigeru Kayama (U Michigan Press, 2023) finally provides English-speaking fans and critics the original texts with these first-ever English-language translations of Godzilla and Godzilla Raids Again. The novellas reveal valuable insights into Kayama's vision for the Godzilla story, feature plots that differ from the films, and clearly display the author's strong antinuclear, proenvironmental convictions. Kayama's fiction depicts Godzilla as engaging in guerrilla-style warfare against humanity, which has allowed the destruction of the natural world through its irresponsible, immoral perversion of science. As human activity continues to cause mass extinctions and rapid climatic change, Godzilla provides a fable for the Anthropocene, powerfully reminding us that nature will fight back against humanity's onslaught in unpredictable and devastating ways. Shigeru Kayama (1904–1975) was a science fiction writer and scenarist whose early stories about monsters and mutated sea creatures attracted the attention of Tōhō Studios, which asked him to draft the first two Godzilla films. Jeffrey Angles is professor of Japanese at Western Michigan University. He is the author of Writing the Love of Boys: Origins of Bishonen Culture in Modernist Japanese Literature (Minnesota, 2011) and the award-winning translator of Orikuchi Shinobu's The Book of the Dead (Minnesota, 2017) and Hiromi Ito's The Thorn Puller. Daniel Moran earned his B.A. and M.A. in English from Rutgers University and his Ph.D. in History from Drew University. The author of Creating Flannery O'Connor: Her Critics, Her Publishers, Her Readers and articles on G. K. Chesterton and John Ford, he teaches research and writing at Rutgers and co-hosts the podcast Fifteen-Minute Film Fanatics, found here on the New Books Network and on X.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

I am always fascinated to meet and talk with people on Unstoppable Mindset who thought they knew what they wanted to do in life only to discover that their path went in an alternative direction. Meet Eric Dates who is just such a person. Eric grew up in the Los Angeles area. He was active in sports and also he was a musician. He went to Ohio State where he played volleyball on the 2011 championship team. After college Eric thought he wanted to go into the hospitality industry as he loved, as he put it “the diversity of people and the diversity of possibilities”. As he tells us, his idea of work lasted four months. After that, he realized his knowledge of marketing was better suited elsewhere. Our conversation is far-ranging, but we do talk a lot about marketing and sales. Marketing discussions go far outside dealing with products, however. I think you will be intrigued by what Eric has to say especially about life and how we should progress going forward. About the Guest: Eric Dates, a proud resident in Spring Hill, TN, is a multifaceted professional with a storied history of achievement and leadership. A former Division I volleyball player at Ohio State, Eric was part of the national championship team in 2011, marking a significant milestone early in his life. His competitive spirit and teamwork were not confined to the volleyball court, though, and they have since become defining attributes in his professional career. Eric's journey took a melodious turn as he embarked on a successful yet short career as a touring musician. This unique experience endowed him with a new perspective, a creative mindset, and an appreciation for the harmonious blend of rhythm and discipline. As his career evolved, Eric discovered his true calling: fostering growth in early to mid-stage startups. With his inherent problem-solving skills and penchant for teamwork, he has contributed to the flourishing of several startups, paving their paths toward achieving their full growth potential. Currently, Eric serves as the Sr. Director of Revenue Marketing at Justt, a forward-thinking fintech company dedicated to helping merchants recapture revenue lost to chargebacks. His love for problem-solving thrives in this challenging environment, and he relishes living in the trenches with his team, building, improving, and innovating. Startups resonate with Eric's professional ethos as they offer him a space to think holistically and make a tangible impact. It's here that his passion, intellect, and entrepreneurial spirit come to the fore. Outside of his professional endeavors, Eric cherishes his role as a husband and father. Alongside his wife, Laura, he is raising two wonderful children, Bella (8) and Harlan (1), and navigates the beautiful labyrinth that is life. Ways to connect with Eric: Linkedin URL: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ecdates/ Company Website: Justt.ai About the Host: Michael Hingson is a New York Times best-selling author, international lecturer, and Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe. Michael, blind since birth, survived the 9/11 attacks with the help of his guide dog Roselle. This story is the subject of his best-selling book, Thunder Dog. Michael gives over 100 presentations around the world each year speaking to influential groups such as Exxon Mobile, AT&T, Federal Express, Scripps College, Rutgers University, Children's Hospital, and the American Red Cross just to name a few. He is Ambassador for the National Braille Literacy Campaign for the National Federation of the Blind and also serves as Ambassador for the American Humane Association's 2012 Hero Dog Awards. https://michaelhingson.com https://www.facebook.com/michael.hingson.author.speaker/ https://twitter.com/mhingson https://www.youtube.com/user/mhingson https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelhingson/ accessiBe Links https://accessibe.com/ https://www.youtube.com/c/accessiBe https://www.linkedin.com/company/accessibe/mycompany/ https://www.facebook.com/accessibe/ Thanks for listening! Thanks so much for listening to our podcast! If you enjoyed this episode and think that others could benefit from listening, please share it using the social media buttons on this page. Do you have some feedback or questions about this episode? Leave a comment in the section below! Subscribe to the podcast If you would like to get automatic updates of new podcast episodes, you can subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts or Stitcher. You can also subscribe in your favorite podcast app. Leave us an Apple Podcasts review Ratings and reviews from our listeners are extremely valuable to us and greatly appreciated. They help our podcast rank higher on Apple Podcasts, which exposes our show to more awesome listeners like you. If you have a minute, please leave an honest review on Apple Podcasts. Transcription Notes Michael Hingson ** 00:00 Access Cast and accessiBe Initiative presents Unstoppable Mindset. The podcast where inclusion, diversity and the unexpected meet. Hi, I'm Michael Hingson, Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe and the author of the number one New York Times bestselling book, Thunder dog, the story of a blind man, his guide dog and the triumph of trust. Thanks for joining me on my podcast as we explore our own blinding fears of inclusion unacceptance and our resistance to change. We will discover the idea that no matter the situation, or the people we encounter, our own fears, and prejudices often are our strongest barriers to moving forward. The unstoppable mindset podcast is sponsored by accessiBe, that's a c c e s s i  capital B e. Visit www.accessibe.com to learn how you can make your website accessible for persons with disabilities. And to help make the internet fully inclusive by the year 2025. Glad you dropped by we're happy to meet you and to have you here with us.     Michael Hingson ** 01:20 Well, hi, and here we are once again with unstoppable mindset. Glad you're here. And hope you enjoy our presentation and discussions today. We get to speak with Eric Dates. And Eric has an interesting life. I think so he was a division one volleyball player on a championship team for Ohio State. I bet Michigan didn't like that. But you know, that's another that's another story. But he's been involved in leadership marketing and, and has a lot to talk about least, it seems so from the things I've read. So Eric, welcome to unstoppable mindset. And we're really glad you're here.   Eric Dates ** 01:57 Michael, thank you so much for having me. I appreciate it. It's always an honor to chat with you. So looking forward to it.   Michael Hingson ** 02:03 Well, why don't we start, as I love to do and tell us a little bit about kind of the early Eric growing up and all that stuff?   Eric Dates ** 02:11 Sure. So I stem from the left coast, the west coast in the Heart of LA, born and raised there. Yeah, had awesome, awesome family life. I was super blessed. I got to get to participate in a lot of sports and a lot of other fun things. I did music as well, out there growing up and we're in LA. Right on the west side of LA, I guess the biggest subsidy of that massive place would be Culver City area for me. And yeah, it was great. You know, it's, it was, I'm really glad I grew up where I grew up in in the way that I grew up. Because it gave me a great perspective of diversity, I think in a lot of ways that people want to experience it. Every school I went to was, you know, had people from all walks of life across the board. And to me, that was just the status quo. So I think it shaped me to become the person I am today, which is, you know, someone who expects that out of society in general. And it's been really, I've been really fortunate to continue to experience tons of diversity, whether it's people diversity or activity, diversity, you know, all the different types of diversity, you can experience. I've been lucky enough to be a part of a bunch of it. So it's been it's been a great road so far from that, you know, kind of looking back now. The way I grew up, I, I couldn't imagine it happening any other way at this point. And I wouldn't wish it to be so because I just feel like it. It taught me a lot of lessons both hard and easy to learn in a great way that I don't think I would have got anywhere else.   Michael Hingson ** 03:51 So you went through high school out in LA   Eric Dates ** 03:54 that I did. I went to Alexander Hamilton High School, the birthplace of many random things, and actually stay in high school is a couple celebrity folks that you probably recognize. And it was great, super fun experience. It was a half of a Music Academy, half humanities Academy and it was a phenomenal school. Public school too in the Heart of LA. Wow.   Michael Hingson ** 04:17 What did you play for an instrument?   Eric Dates ** 04:20 So my main instrument was guitar growing up, like guitar, and I did everything from in high school. I was a mariachi, which was really fun. Great experience getting to around Los Angeles and playing for just the most incredible people I've ever met and eating the most incredible food I've ever eaten. And I toured as a musician here in Nashville as well with guitar for a little bit so it carried me on throughout my earlier life quite a bit.   Michael Hingson ** 04:48 Well, so you went through high school and then I gather you went to Ohio State that I did. What what prompted that because that's a long way from Southern California.   Eric Dates ** 05:01 It definitely was. And I'd be lying to you if I said it was easy to do. But at the beginning, it was very much, you know, especially when you're fortunate enough to be playing a sport like that, that does have a collegiate level. I got to fly and experience Ohio State, I experienced a couple other schools in Southern California. And I was just blown away by the the pride and culture that the entire campus had, I just wanted to go be a part of it. But that thought it was a two in my eyes, it was a huge risk, you know, coming from the epicenter of volleyball going into the Midwest, which turns out has a phenomenal volleyball program across the board. And yeah, it was the the good Ohio State Buckeyes that got me out of California.   Michael Hingson ** 05:46 Well, so, you're right, it's sort of the epicenter out here in a lot of ways, but volleyball has turned out to be a lot more universal than maybe we thought and the Olympics is certainly brought volleyball to the visibility of of a lot of people, which is, which is kind of cool. What did you major in in college,   Eric Dates ** 06:09 I was that person who didn't figure out what I wanted to major. And until the last second, I had to pick and I picked English, which turned into marketing, which then turned into Hospitality Management, then Consumer Science is where I landed.   Michael Hingson ** 06:26 Wow. That's a kind of, again, a diverse range of topics to to deal with. And you did all that and move from one of those fields to the other in college.   Eric Dates ** 06:40 Yeah, so I eventually found my place at the time in Hospitality Management, because of the phenomenal focus on customer experience. And I'm so thankful for that time I spent there as it applies in so much these days. So I was really fortunate to learn early on after graduating, that I did not want to work in hotels.   Michael Hingson ** 07:04 But you value the customer service and customer experience concept.   Eric Dates ** 07:09 More than anything, it's why is that? You know, it's, it's been interesting, because the hospitality world, they've understood from the beginning, that you're buying the experience, right, you're you're purchasing the brand, in a sense, when you go stay at a property, it's the only tangible thing is, you know, the bed and the room itself, but that exists anywhere. So why pick them. And it all came down to the core differentiator, which was the way that they treated their guests. And now, you know, flash forward 12 ish years in the future. That's how all these marketing departments and all these companies across the board are approaching their customers, you know, so it's been, it's been really beneficial for me to have that foundation, because I could start to apply what I already learned versus having to learn something like a new concept is customer first.   Michael Hingson ** 07:56 So how do you think customer experience and so on has changed or developed during the pandemic? Because certainly, it has a lot. And in hotels, for example, a lot of things have changed rooms aren't necessarily cleaned every day. Sometimes there are other kinds of services that are more limited. Airlines are certainly not providing as much of what they used to provide. If I'm reading it, right, what do you think about all of that? And how does all that really blend into the whole customer experience concept?   Eric Dates ** 08:28 It's definitely shifted significantly, you know, I think the start of it all was the iPhone coming out and these touchscreens and now half the experience was heavily digital in their hand. And with the pandemic kind of changing that in almost mandating that that's the new experience for the most part, as well as customer behavior kind of changing. I think it's, it's opened up a lot of challenges, you know, in the hospitality space. And in general, in a service based industry, you have this whole concept of a service recovery plan, right? If something goes wrong with this, what are we supposed to do? And now it all transitioned from the humanistic element over into the digital elements. So all these properties, especially hotels, airlines, all these folks who weren't necessarily digital first thinkers, they had to rapidly pivot and start accommodating, but also had to learn the hard way kind of building the ship as you're sailing.   Michael Hingson ** 09:22 Yeah. Well, and I read a lot of complaints taking airlines, like, we want to push as many people into an airplane as possible. So now, the space in seats is six inches less than it used to be. And now we're starting to hear people say, Has it gotten too confined and too crowded? And is all of the air rage that we hear about and read about, in part because of that and customer service? Is is it really as good as it used to be?   Eric Dates ** 09:56 I think that is a very phenomenal question because I don't think there's a clear answer, I think some have done better. And some have dropped the ball. And it's gonna be an interesting time looking into the future, especially as this technology in general starts to compound at the rate that it is, who's going to remain versus what new players are, we're going to see and who's gonna fall off. So it's gonna be an interesting, you know, couple of years, in my opinion, as we look forward to see kind of who's still going to be here versus Are there going to be new names? I've never heard of the forefront.   Michael Hingson ** 10:29 Yeah. And that's going to be the exciting thing. Are we going to see new players who come in with new ideas that for whatever reason people haven't thought of? And probably the naysayers will say, Well, that'll never work. Well, that certainly was true with Southwest Airlines, because they rejected the whole idea of a hub model for slang. And they're still around.   Eric Dates ** 10:53 That's very true. That's very true, they did get the good to get a little bit of a saving grace once the economy tanked a bit. But yeah, I agree, they did a good job at at pivoting accordingly. And kind of changing their brand, in a way that their expectation was very clear of when you engage with Southwest, here's what your experience is going to be like, that's what's really saved them.   Michael Hingson ** 11:15 And while it's true that you just get on an airplane, there are no assigned seats and, and other things like that. Mostly, I don't hear nearly the level of complaints about them as I do some of the other airlines because you've also got the flight attendants, who have been encouraged to make the flying experience more pleasurable, and they're not necessarily as stiff as and as formal, at least in my experience.   Eric Dates ** 11:46 I want to agree, you know, you hit on a really interesting point, that it used to be looking for elements of digital to drop into the human experience. And now it's the opposite way of, if we drop human experience into a digital, you know, journey, it's almost like it becomes significantly more noticed. And I love how Southwest has empowered those folks to have fun and enjoy what they're doing. And, you know, the consumers always tell you, you know, whether they're sharing stuff out social or hits the news, whatever, but they will let you know what they liked what they do. And it seems like people have really caught on to that one element of the brand.   Michael Hingson ** 12:23 Yeah. And it's, it's going to be interesting just to see how it all goes. As we go forward, and whether consumers will demand enough that they don't like, perhaps the way some things are going well, we'll see. And the other part of it is that I know different countries have different levels of airlines, passenger rights or other kinds of industry rights. Legislation. So it'll be interesting to see how it all shakes out. It's going to be an exciting time. No, no question about it.   Eric Dates ** 12:59 Absolutely, we'll probably see things happen the fastest they've ever happened before. And it will continue to be as such.   Michael Hingson ** 13:06 Yeah. And, and that's okay. That's what makes it kind of fun. Well, so what did you do right out of college? So you were in hospitality? Where did you go to work? What did you do that got you off of hotels.   Eric Dates ** 13:21 I was working at two properties in Columbus, actually, Columbus, Ohio. And it was fun. And I just wanted in full transparency. I probably was way too ambitious for my own good. I was looking to learn to things in hotel so I could start my own and, you know, build the version of Atlantis that we all want to build in our minds and make it real. And I quickly realized that I probably needed to get some more experience and knowledge around what I thought I knew. So let me do the business world.   Michael Hingson ** 13:54 What did you So how long did you do hotel stuff?   Eric Dates ** 13:58 I had been working in hotels since probably five years like during college and then after college than after you know that that last portion kind of before I moved to Nashville? Yeah, I was in those two. So prob about five years of hotel work here and there. I would wouldn't say his full time just because of the sports commitments and other things. But as much as I could. I was I was working on property and getting that experience in.   Michael Hingson ** 14:26 Was it full time after college?   Eric Dates ** 14:29 It was it was full time.   Michael Hingson ** 14:31 And how long do that? How long was that after college?   Eric Dates ** 14:36 Prep? Probably right when I went full time full time and I hated it to be fully transparent. It was a shock for me to go full time on on your feet all day. So is the short three or four months of full time before this really hit me of like this is not it's not Eric,   Michael Hingson ** 14:52 you made a decision pretty quickly. So what did you what what did you then go and do   Eric Dates ** 15:00 So that's kind of when I picked everything up and said, You know, I'm going to try to move to Nashville. I had some friends here had some had some connections here and wanted had always been doing music, like I said, so I was gonna go see if I could dive into some songwriting get into the performing aspect, while chasing a business career. And that's when I found my first, I guess, real marketing job was with a co working space here in Nashville. And that was what jump started my career in marketing.   Michael Hingson ** 15:30 But you also worked as a musician for a while, right?   Eric Dates ** 15:33 I did. I was touring around and touring with the back that I was with is basically fancy weekends is the way that pitch it, you know, some Thursday nights, but mostly Fridays, and Saturdays, you're out. I'd love to say a bus. But most of the times it was in a van. And we were, you know, putting in the grind and going out. So every other Thursday, just about, you know, we were an opening act. So we'd go chase down where the big open or the big maniac was, to our 45 minute set. And right back to Nashville.   Michael Hingson ** 16:07 Anybody who was a maniac that we would know.   Eric Dates ** 16:11 I absolutely, I think, you know, one of the one of the main acts that we were opening up for most when I was with this artists and artists was playing for a name was Tara Thompson, or still is, her name is Tara Thompson. And the main act that we opened for most was Drake. White was his name. So he had some really popular songs out. I think like 2017. And some other various artists, I had the fortunate opportunity of opening for, you know, everything from The Chainsmokers to mark chestnut, you know, the the country gentleman who had some pretty big songs, and quite a few other artists that were it was just really cool to go experience that. But there was also a reason why I did not stay.   Michael Hingson ** 16:51 That wasn't what you really wanted to do full time.   Eric Dates ** 16:56 Correct. It was a it was that classic inflection point, the fork in the road of if I keep going this way. I have to go 100%. Yeah.   Michael Hingson ** 17:06 And you weren't really ready to do that. Concerning music. And it doesn't sound like you wanted to do that. But you still had a lot of fun with music. So it helped. Absolutely. But you But you went into marketing, and you started working for a company, what did you do?   Eric Dates ** 17:24 So it was right at the boom of we work kind of getting on the map. So I was a part of a younger company startup out of Nashville that had two locations, the company name is E spaces, they're still here, they're doing a great job. They've gotten I think, like nine or 10 locations now, some in Florida as well. So with that job, when I first got there, it was very much we need marketing help. We don't have big budget because we're young, but we're leaning me and we're ready to go. So we need someone to help build the front desk, the front desk experience because they loved my hospitality background. So I was able to apply those learnings pretty quickly and help encourage these folks who were renting the front desk, or what we coined as the concierge to heighten the experience. And then with that kind of put together some digital marketing the b2b side to try and attract customers. So it's very much localized marketing. And it was great for me to learn because it was pretty hands off for my boss. He all he knew is what he wanted at the end. And oftentimes, for folks like myself, that's really appealing because I get to go test my theories learn the hard way. And get us there by any means necessary.   Michael Hingson ** 18:42 Well, you, you got into marketing and tell me a little bit more about what you mean, when you say you you were in marketing and what marketing is.   Eric Dates ** 18:52 That's a phenomenal question. I view marketing exclusively as conversation and mindshare, right? How can I rent space in the mind of the right person at the right time. And often that's accomplished these days through digital conversation, but yet to meet to me marketing is all around fostering the right message to the right person at the right time.   Michael Hingson ** 19:20 How does that differ differ from sales? And I know you make a little bit of a distinction between the two. So what's the difference?   Eric Dates ** 19:30 So the main difference to me and this is a topic that you don't really see as much as you think. But with with sales, to me, it's the goal is to get them to purchase. And in my opinion marketing is to encourage the right decision when the decision is to purchase. That's one, whether the decision is to follow along and consume content. That's a secondary, you know, there's a bunch of different goals that I think marketing helps accomplish, but it's more so sales. is really figuring out what do you individual? What do you need here? And how can what I offer meet that for you. So it's kind of a little bit different than I'm anticipating that conversation and trying to stimulate it to when the person in the market shows up to that conversation and hits that conclusion of, hey, I want this. The conversation is easier from the sales side. So it's kind of marketing, in my opinion, if done right, it handles all the objections that you would have in a normal sales process.   Michael Hingson ** 20:33 So I, I know from my experience, I've been in sales most of my adult life. And I, my view of sales is somewhat similar to yours. I think that good salespeople are teachers. And the reality is that the best salespeople also are capable of recognizing when what we're offering won't necessarily do what the customer needs, or it would be more of a disservice to try to push them into something than to say to them, This is what really works. My best employee that I ever hired, was a guy who, when he came for his interview, and we sat down, and I said, Tell me what you're going to be selling for us. He said, Actually, all I can really sell is my word, and my trust, and people need to decide to trust me, and I need you to back me up. Because the products and so on is all stuff. And a number of people have products and really the only thing I can really sell this myself and my word. And that was the answer I always look for and rarely ever got. Because the reality is that good salespeople, first of all, do understand marketing. Oh, yeah, but they but they also understand that their job is to do their best to help a customer make the right decision. And the reality is if the decision is my product won't do what they need, then the other aspect of it is what will work for them. And if I help a customer decide that and it isn't the product that I have, what does that get me? Well, the reality is I've seen on more than one occasion, when it gets me is so much trust that the customer understands what we have, and when an opportunity comes along to purchase a product. And in fact, we have I've seen on more than one occasion where the the customer says, I'm not putting it out for bid, you just tell us what the cost is. And we're gonna buy it from you because we trust you. That's great. And you just don't see much of that.   Eric Dates ** 22:49 That's true. Yeah, go ahead. Okay. I just think you hit on a really great point that a lot of folks almost lose these days. And I'm thinking kind of from a biased perspective of b2b exclusively software, as a service. And right now, the volume game, in my opinion, has become a tunnel or blinders for people because they're so focused on activity, right, everything now becomes a I have to hit this amount of activity today, I have to, you know, send as many emails as candidates, people call as many people, etc, etc. And they lose almost that forward thinking. So I think, when I hear you say that, it's that that's experienced, that's knowledge being shared, versus when you see sales folks out these days, and I'm just speaking the masses, I think there's a core group of very experienced sales folks who know exactly what they're doing. But from what I experienced in my inbox, and especially when my phone rings, it's, it's, it's almost a victim of process because they're like, I have to call you, I have to push this on you. Because I need to sell you this so I can have a job that fit. There's so much pressure put on these folks these days from a process side versus that longer term thinking of trust building and credibility boosting like you're mentioning.   Michael Hingson ** 24:06 Yeah. And the reality is that the people who really understand what selling is all about can take a step back and try to stave off more of that pressure because they know what they're doing and they know what they can do. I remember after September 11, people would call me and say you got to start selling again. We need to make goal this quarter. And this is now late in September of 2001. And it didn't matter to them that our customers were attending five, six and seven funerals a day and we're not buying the people who were calling we're so far removed, that they just could not understand why people weren't right back in and buying and they interpreted is that really we weren't off and selling, which was totally Not true at all. In reality, we ended up making gold that quarter. But still, the bottom line is that people have just such interesting ideas sometimes about how to sell rather than really allowing people to build the level of trust that we need to have.   Eric Dates ** 25:20 That's a great, great definition. It's, you know, it's it's rather than learning selling, it's understanding buying. I think those are really interesting perspective to look at it from.   Michael Hingson ** 25:31 It is, well, so clearly, we're talking philosophy here, we're talking about selling the philosophy of marketing, how do you feel that that marketing and you know, your overall philosophy intertwined with each other, or sales for that matter?   Eric Dates ** 25:47 Right, and it's, I, I am, of the mindset of simplification, it, simplify everything in its in its most simple form, get down to the essence, right, so I can really understand what it is. So as I approach a lot of my marketing, and teams that you know, who've worked with me, even my current team, they know this happens all the time is that, you know, I asked him well, what's like, like, in one sentence, like what just tell me like, if I'm your 10 year old cousin, tell me exactly what you're trying to accomplish? Like, we're at a family dinner. And I'm asking you, hey, what do you do at work, like, tell me what you're trying to accomplish? And then they say it, and it's okay. That's how you need to write to the market, because you just told me the clearest and simplest way for me to understand something. So often, what I end up doing in my moments of thinking are just simplifying and breaking things down as much as I can to get a better understanding of how I can leverage these, you know, tactics and tools that we all have, and probably take for granted on a daily basis.   Michael Hingson ** 26:49 Yeah, we often do really take it for granted way too much. And we don't think about it. And, like with so many things, we tend to react more than thinking about it, and then reacting and becoming better at thinking about it and drawing good sound conclusions before we do something or say something.   Eric Dates ** 27:09 Completely agree the the scheduling an hour for yourself, I think, is something often understated, in terms of importance, because it can do so much for people who have a very busy plate, just getting that hour of unplug everything, put the phone away and just think, you know, shut the computer down and just just think about something, you know, challenge yourself a little bit, it's still a muscle,   Michael Hingson ** 27:35 it is still a muscle Do you tend to do much of that? Do you do sort of introspective thinking at the end of the day, or at some point every day to step back from everything that's going on?   Eric Dates ** 27:48 Absolutely, I try to do it twice a day, you know, kind of a lunchtime work right after I finished lunch. Rather than diving right back in, it's kind of the you know, don't swim for 20 minutes after you eat. I tried to not work for 20 minutes after I just think and use that time. The other time is, of course, at the end of the day where I reflect on everything that went on. And oftentimes I'll chew on a specific aspect of the day for for quite a bit and just see what I can do with it. Zero goals other than just think   Michael Hingson ** 28:17 you beat yourself up when you're thinking that you screwed up in something or something didn't go the way you wanted? Or how do you handle those kinds of adverse situations?   Eric Dates ** 28:28 Absolutely. And yeah, the younger Eric, the fresh out of college, Eric would have. Absolutely and definitely did beat himself up and, and learning from what happens when you do that. So it's been very helpful for me, like I said, I do like to learn the hard way, unfortunately. But it helps me out with where I'm at now. Because I'm very purposeful about not reacting to my own emotions. And those you know, scenarios where you're frustrated because something was missed. I need to focus on getting back to the right mentality. So I can make a sound decision versus reacting from a state of anger or frustration. So it's been that's probably the strongest thing I've learned in my life has been that right there of when to react based on emotion versus not to any scenario, and I'm definitely not perfect, but I'm more cognizant of it.   Michael Hingson ** 29:20 Yeah, the issue is that we are, as I love to say, our own best teachers. I don't like any more to use the term. I'm my own worst critic. I used to do that. When I would listen to speeches that I've given and listen to the recordings of them. I would tell people I'm doing it because I'm my own worst critic. And if I can learn from it, that's great. And I realized that that was the wrong thing to say that in reality, I'm my own best teacher because no matter what is going on, the only person who can really teach me is me. Teachers and others can provide information and they can give me things to think about, but I'm still the one that has to deal with them. So I've learned that I'm actually my own best teacher. And I'm with you, I try not to react in adverse or negative ways, and beat myself up even when something just really doesn't go. Well. The real issue at that point isn't, what a scroungy lousy guy you are, but what do I learn from that? How can I improve it? Or can I improve it, it may very well be that there was absolutely nothing that can be done to improve the situation, because it was something that was totally out of my control   Eric Dates ** 30:34 completely. But that's, it's, it's funny how, in practice, it becomes so simple. But, you know, looking at it from the outside, in, it's very much one of the most difficult things you can do.   Michael Hingson ** 30:49 Again, it gets back down to a philosophy of life, and we're still the only people who can excite ourselves, or adopt philosophy that we think about. And we if we do it, right, we do it because we, in some ways, feel sympathetic or attracted to a particular attitude or philosophy. And that's kind of the way it really ought to be. But it is about developing a life philosophy 100%. So, clearly, you do philosophical thinking, who's your favorite philosopher?   Eric Dates ** 31:31 I've got a few. I'd say probably Peter Drucker is at the forefront of what I love to read. I just love the way his mind works. Phenomenal stuff. And another gentleman who actually is the person who introduced me to Peter Drucker, his name is Flint McLaughlin. He, in my opinion, is just one of the most intelligent and intellectual marketing philosophers ever exist, and should go down in history as such, because he has, he brings such an interesting perspective on every concept of what we do and, you know, associated with the cognitive aspect of how the human beings make decisions. And just I just love the way that guy talks. So I can't listen to him enough. So those are probably my two.   Michael Hingson ** 32:16 Yeah, I I've not met either. Course Now, Peter Drucker, not anyway. But what was it like meeting Peter Drucker? What kind of a person was he?   Eric Dates ** 32:27 Well, I didn't get to meet him. Unfortunately. I wish i You   Michael Hingson ** 32:29 were you were just introduced to him? Yeah. I was wondering, yeah, introduced sorry, to his to his works to his words. One of my favorite people is a guy named Patrick Lencioni. Are you familiar with him? Absolutely. And I like him, because I like the way he approaches teams. And one of the things that I say on a regular basis to people is that having now used eight guide dogs, I've learned so much more about team building and teamwork, from working with a guide dogs, and I've ever learned from Patrick Lencioni, Ken Blanchard, and all of the major experts on management, consulting and so on, because first of all, it is it is real, you you have to go right down into the weeds, if you will, you really have to put everything into practice. And when you're working with a dog, what you see is what you get, and that's the the thing that we lose with humans, because we're always just wondering, well, what's this person's real agenda, and can I trust them. And so we have taught ourselves to not be open to trust nearly as much as we can be. And dogs while they love unconditionally, as I've learned, I think over the years, just in observing them and thought about it, a lot, dogs do not trust unconditionally. But the difference between dogs and people is that dogs unless there is some real traumatic experience they've had to undergo, dogs, at least are open to trust. And that ought to be a great lesson, we all could learn   Eric Dates ** 34:06 100% It's almost like with the amount of just from a macro level, the amount of untruthfulness that exists out there, and the amount of you know, false information tossed our way all the time from any which way we we're so cynical anymore, and I feel like consumers and just people in general have become so cynical and closed off as a as a reaction to that. So I to your point, I think having the humility there you because when you when you were saying that around the dogs, I just hear, you know, humility and humbleness to do so. And yeah, it's to get to that level would be it changed the world.   Michael Hingson ** 34:48 The other thing about dogs is that they all do have just like people, different personalities. I had one guide dog that only worked 18 months and as I described her to people, she had sort of a type A personality and could not leave work at the office. So at home, she followed me around, she wouldn't play with the other dogs, she would actually curl her lip at the other dogs in our house if they wanted to play. And it got to the point where she was so much on all the time, that she became fearful and became actually afraid to guide, she just couldn't take the stress that she really imposed on herself. And there's a great lesson there for so many of us who are people that we ought to learn that we can control stress and fear a lot more than we do.   Eric Dates ** 35:35 Absolutely. It's very interesting that, to see that I imagined in person, especially with with with an animal like that, you know, that's, that's going to be incredible. And with human beings. I think the the ability to clearly decipher between perception, and reality is what is at the root of that, because so many folks create this perception that they start to live it. And it compounds quickly, as you know, you know, talking about things like stress or whatnot, it's, it's almost addicted to itself. So yeah, having that ability to be humble, and inwardly reflect, but also know, I shouldn't react this way. Or I should actually be open to trusting this person, or whatever it may be. The simple decisions. Help starts with acknowledging the reality of the matter.   Michael Hingson ** 36:28 Yeah, being a marketing guy, why do you think we're sort of progressing that way, as opposed to learning more humility and being a little bit more humble about what we do?   Eric Dates ** 36:39 I think it's this subliminal mentality that stems from the screens, and in our hands every day that people are, everyone has a voice, and everyone is almost forced to listen to it. At this point, I feel like just based on habits, so as everyone welcomes all this information it wants into their mind. So unnatural, you know, in general, so it's, it creates a stressful environment on the human mind. And I think that aside, in the market, as a consumer, it's even more crazy, you know, people are giving you 85 different versions of a product to solve your problem. And they're all fantastic. What are you supposed to choose? Who are you supposed to believe? cetera, et cetera. And you know, that that stressful atmosphere that that atmosphere of cynicism and disbelief, of so many people are saying this, therefore, it must be wrong. It is now the status quo. And it's created just a very, very, very interesting shift in human behavior and consumer behavior across the board. And it's a little look a little nervous, to be honest, I think there's, there's that example of just because you can doesn't mean you should with certain aspects, tech and things like that to really engulf the human and almost make the reality irrelevant, and everything becomes digital. So I'm a little nervous about that. But we'd love to know your thoughts on where you think we're headed. Well,   Michael Hingson ** 38:09 I think you're, you're right. And I think that, unfortunately, people who ought to know better and who can help, perhaps deal with some of it won't. One of my favorite examples lately has been observing, news reporting, and I'm going to deal with specifically whether prognostication hearing California. Yeah. Okay, I can tell you, it's probably see where I'm going. We, we hear all the time now, because we've had marine layers and a lot of clouds, the May gray in the June gloom. And one of these days, we'll get sun again. But it's horrible because we don't get the sunshine. And then when we do get the sun for any period of time, then they talk about how hot it is, and the fire potential goes up and so on. There's no pleasing them. And because there's no pleasing them, we aren't pleased and the reality is, the so called may gray and the June Gloom are, in part what has thus far although it's early in the season, of course, but thus far, kept us from having more wildfires. They've kept it cooler, there's been some rice stir, and there's there's no perspective we've lost our ability to, to have any kind of perspective. And now we've got, you know, with our politicians and talking about all the things that are going on in the political arena, everything has become so political, that there's no room to step back or we don't get the opportunity or we won't take I should say the opportunity to step back and go wait a minute. What are these people really saying what of this really makes a lot of sense, as opposed to what what is actually coming out? On the news, you know, we've been hearing about politicians being indicted and so on. But all that's political. And it doesn't matter what the evidence shows. And of course, we don't know all the evidence in some of the cases. And like, in everything that we do, we have just created such incredible shifts. One of the things I think about is Bill Cosby. So now he's got nine women who have accused him of rape and other things like that. And maybe it's all true. But you know, what the other side of Bill Cosby is, he was a very funny guy for many years. And now a lot of people would say, well, we just can't have anything of his around anymore, because look at the guy he's become, or Woodrow Wilson was a racist. And I participated in a program for a few years called the Woodrow Wilson Fellowship Program, which was something that was created by an organization dealing with independent colleges. And they decided they had to drop the name Woodrow Wilson fellowship, because people started saying, Well, he was a racist. And maybe he was, but what about the rest of what he did? Or I collect old radio shows as a hobby. And I've seen a number of instances now where people are saying, well, Amos, and Andy should be completely thrown out because they're black. And they and the people who portrayed them were white and are totally misrepresenting black people. Really. We, we want to rewrite history, and not recognize the value that history brings. The The fact is with Amos and Andy, for example, in the 30s, and into the 40s. People would go on Saturday afternoons to the movie theaters for matinees. And when Amos and Andy came on, the show stopped, and everyone listened to Amos and Andy, the show was well loved. And the fact is that, was it really intentionally racist? Or was it entertainment that everyone laughed at and loved? It changed, of course, when Amos and he went to TV, and I didn't know that for a while, I didn't even know they were black. I didn't even think about it, you know, when the characters were, but it went to TV. And of course, then it was to people who who were black. And so that that caused a route. But the reality is that we don't put anything in perspective anymore, and look at all sides of things that we don't get to learn to do that. Because a lot of marketing, whether it's from the politicians or elsewhere, is all based on fear. And all they want to do is create fear reactions within us.   Eric Dates ** 42:38 Yep. No, I completely agree. And, you know, it's funny, that you're mentioning that you feel like, if anyone tries hard enough, you can find frustration in anything, you can find the bad in anything. I mean, I'm wearing a baseball hat right now. So you look at a hat of all the history of a hat and the original purpose of hats, you know, you could probably associate some sort of negative historical context with a hat. Therefore, if you wear a hat these days, you're misrepresenting someone who used to exist. So I think it almost goes back to this accepted level of ignorance, in my opinion, in this in society, because it's, it's, I only know what I know. But what I think you should think, whether we know the same amount of information or whatever, I've learned the full spectrum, or whatever it is, they've convinced themselves that what they think is fact. And we all know what, you know, people say about opinions. I think that's where people should let things lay, you know, is is the opinion is just that and you are 100% allowed to have it. But the second you start finding, I'm not sure if I've mentioned this in the past, but I'm a huge student of it a psychologist out there right now who has concepts around herd mentality in the herd. So these days with digital communities, and you basically have entire access to the world in your hands. You can go find a herd just about anywhere for just about anything. Which is that a false perspective of what I think is correct. It has to be because here's this finite group of people, whether it's 100, or even 100,000, you know, in global terms, that's a miniscule number, but it's enough for them to validate their own idea to themselves. So then they start standing on this hill that they apparently want to die on saying, You must hear me from my position I have X amount of people behind me that also believe this therefore, everyone else must think the way that we think and when you when you apply this to marketing, you know, I love the Bill Cosby reference because you know, how many people did he make laugh? Right? How many times did he make people laugh? And then how quickly are people to once they learn about behind the curtain? Completely, just count everything that they've ever enjoyed. But I see so much of a hypocritical nature there. Because if you were someone who laughed, and then later or someone who's upset, I don't, to me, the logic doesn't add up. So in marketing, to me, this is a masterclass on branding is the second that the expectation that this person set is not actually met, your brand starts to take. So with the Bill Cosby thing, he was making people laugh, he was doing things he had his own persona, his own brand. But the second he deviated from that, and they found something negative, that differ from the expectation in their brain. They hate the guy can't stand him and everything he's ever touched is terrible.   Michael Hingson ** 45:42 Rather than recognizing that what we really have are two things, what he was, and now what he is, which are two different things.   Eric Dates ** 45:52 Correct. And people need to realize that they are two completely separate things.   Michael Hingson ** 45:58 But you know, we've had people and over the last six years with with politics and so on during the Trump era, when reporters would say, but this is a fact. And then we hear, but there are alternative facts. They're there. They're challenging the definition of a fact. And that doesn't work that way. But unfortunately, once again, as you said, with the herd mentality, they've got enough of a herd that buys into it, that suddenly Well, there really are facts and alternative facts, rather than something that is factual. And what is an opinion.   Eric Dates ** 46:37 It all goes back. And I completely agree, it goes back to the search for confirmation, versus the search for truth. And I feel like people constantly become a victim, especially in a world of the internet, where you can honestly go find the answer to anything you want to hear in the way that you want to hear it. Right. So it's like people are constantly in search of confirmation of please tell me that what I'm thinking is correct versus what is correct. And that is the that's the mentality shift that I'm a little cynical on is this where the broader group of consumers are headed, just based on behavior, which as you look at digital marketing, and SEO, and all these other things, it's a dangerous road, because you could start to preach something that's not necessarily true. But you could convince people that it is and boom, you're left with a fire festival in the marketing realm where everyone's super excited to come see these artists that no one's actually playing. Yeah, thanks for your money.   Michael Hingson ** 47:34 Isn't it amazing? Well, and you know, last year, with all the stuff with Ticketmaster, and Taylor Swift and all that, a great performer. And still, it's a performance, it's entertainment. Yet people took it so personally, and of course, Ticketmaster, may very well have done some things that they shouldn't have done. But my gosh, the Dubrow over it was was incredible. There's, again, no, no medium, no midway, or no way to just try to put it in perspective and say, Okay, let's hold Ticketmaster responsible, but don't take it personally. Yes.   Eric Dates ** 48:15 I feel like that's the, the the unfortunate reality that we all live in now, because of all types of media, whether it's social, whether it's on television, whether its political, whether it's not, it's PayPal, and finally understood, it's so much easier to get people riled up about something than it is to get them to come together and fix something right. They'd love to point fingers, they'd love to throw stones. But when it comes to kind of building what they need to build, in order to never have to throw a stone again. That's, that's someone else's job. It's not someone   Michael Hingson ** 48:49 else's job. Whatever happened to Gandhi and be the change you want to see in the world?   Eric Dates ** 48:54 That's true. I feel like some folks have been taking that a little differently these days.   Michael Hingson ** 48:58 Yeah. Yeah, it's, it's amazing. Well, how are we going to change that? Do you have any thoughts or notions?   Eric Dates ** 49:07 I really think it's, it's by doing what you just mentioned, you know, you know, studying God is truth there is once you become what you need. You don't need it anymore. Right? You've you've become it and you now are the solution. So if you want to be the change that you want to see, leading by example, is the only way to do that. And I think it's often scary because back to the herd mentality, if you deviate from the herd enough, you know, fight or flight instinct kicks in and all sudden you're out in the open. Everyone's looking at you and you're terrified to make decisions. And that's where courage and I think that's something that's really lacking in a lot of individuals these days, whether it's from fear, whether it's from uncertainty, whatever it might stem from, it's who has the courage to step up and just start doing the right thing, not not tweeting about it, not putting it under Social mean idea, you're actually doing it right not playing the game, throw the game away and change the game and say this is my domain. Now here's how I'm going to approach this, people will eventually follow suit, I just think we need it on a larger scale with the right people to do so in a way that it's not captured by me to say that this is cheesy, or this is something you poke fun at, because now you have a lot of a lot of enemies who have a lot of real estate in the mind, that you're going to have to kind of overcome. But I think those who stay true, you know, through your courage to the sticking place, if you will, you won't, you won't fail, and we won't fail, and everything will get to a much better spot, I just think we need to unlock and empower those leaders who are all out there that are trying to do this, I think we'll just be stronger as a group, versus kind of the single twig that can snap, you know, you bunch them all together, and boom, it's it's a log.   Michael Hingson ** 50:58 Yeah. What kind of mindset do marketers need to establish within themselves to truly become successful and, and help bring that change about? And how do we make that happen?   Eric Dates ** 51:13 That's it that is a tough one it but it's a fantastic question. Because it's something that a lot of people should ask themselves quite often. And it's always a fine line between you're hired to do a job, right? You're You're tasked with a business goal, if you have to grow us from X to Y, or from Y to Z, whatever may be in you know, ABC amount of time. Knowing that that's a task. I think it's just having the humility and courage to not cross into the gray area, where it becomes manipulation of, hey, I can, I can almost persuade you to go do something because you understand these powerful tools that you can unlock in the in the brain. So I think it's, it's really just be a amplifier of truth. Constantly, whether it whether the product is good or not. tell the true story. And set the right expectation of something that you can deliver on don't sell the vision. Right, that that's not your job. As a marketer, your job is to sell reality to that person, so they can make the right decision going back to your point in sales. And I think more people need to stay true to the craft of over deliver information, provide context, establish an expectation for what you can do, and what you will do. And let the people choose accordingly. Because that That, to me is the beauty of a free market. It's the beauty of when people can make decisions based on supply and demand because they put the demand in there, you know, in a world full of supply.   Michael Hingson ** 52:54 Yeah, interesting concept of over deliver information. But it is relevant and true. And of course, it's also delivering the right information, which goes back to truth. And I don't personally think that there are really different kinds of truth. I think that it goes back to facts and alternative facts, there is truth. And what it really comes down to is we need to ask the right questions. And consumers need to learn to ask the right questions and maybe marketing and other people who are involved in setting the trends need to teach us how to ask and what to ask for the right questions.   Eric Dates ** 53:38 Absolutely, it goes back to, to ethics and leading with that for if you truly want the customer to be first, I think to simplify it. do just that.   Michael Hingson ** 53:55 Do you distinguish between? and I'm I'm thinking about this? Because I thought about the whole discussion that we had about sales and selling products and being truthful about that. How do you define or what do you think about the differences between personal success and professional success? Because that's an interesting thing. You're professionally successful if you're for your sales guy, for example, if you're selling lots of stuff and people are buying from you, but that doesn't necessarily lead to personal success and what's the difference? And what are they   Eric Dates ** 54:27 another phenomenal question I think with with today's social atmosphere, and how we're constantly you know, being influenced if you will, which I think is a really really funny term. But these influencers out there who are you know, these people trust for a variety of reasons are created by created by the consumer themselves because again, it goes back to that search for confirmation of like, I think I want this but I need someone to tell me that this is the right thing to get So that's a really good, good question.   Michael Hingson ** 55:05 Yeah, because in reality, rather than saying, I need somebody to tell me, it's the right thing, it would seem to me that what we should do is to say, I need to get the information from sources to decide whether it's the right thing or not. And if I'm not confident, then maybe there's something else I need to learn. And there's something there's nothing wrong with experts. There's nothing wrong with people who really no one has ever said. But by the same token, it still comes down to you should check all sides of it, whatever it happens to be, and then decide what the right thing is. Because the fact is that the right thing for you may not be the right thing for me. And that doesn't make the decision for either of us wrong.   Eric Dates ** 55:52 Absolutely. And I think as we look at defining the personal side of success, I think becoming more aware of these things that exist in marketing, and in business alone, I mean, just just being a smarter consumer, in my opinion, today will help people gain that success, whatever that looks like. Because if you can't fall victim to marketing, manipulation, or you know, persuasion out in the market to go make decisions that you didn't necessarily want to make or wasn't the right one, because you were tricked, whatever it may be. I think that that realization of being cognizant of what's going on what those triggers are, so you don't fall victim to it, start to open up the right way to more clearly define what success looks like for that individual. Because now your mind is free. And to me, that's the precursor to personal success is how do you unlock your own mind, from a place of being controlled professionally, I think it's it to me, it's no different than sports in the way I believe this, it's, it's professionally is whatever your goals are for yourself in this role, whether you want to achieve the CEO or whatever you want to achieve. And you go get it like celebrate that win, because it's something you want it to go do for you to understand why totally different discussion. But if you if you, you know wholeheartedly believe that that's what you want to go do as a professional, you want to, you know, win a championship, win a Super Bowl, you want to have an exit with a, an acquisition, or m&a activity, whatever it may be. That's okay. That's a great goal professionally, but I think separating the two is where people start to win. Because they know that there are two difference. Because you know, professions only exist because of money. Right? If you really look at it, it's you're getting paid to do something, therefore you are professional. That's it. But as your personal stuff should be a little bit separate, in my opinion. But that's that's just my my thought on that matter.   Michael Hingson ** 57:50 Well, I would agree and goals, by the way can evolve. So you may start out wanting to be a champion or acquire a company or become a CEO. And it may very well be that as you work towards something, you'll decide that well maybe that's really not what was best for me and you should be open to looking doesn't mean you have doubt, but you should be open to evaluating what you do regularly. You did. And you you migrated. And that seemed to work pretty well. You know, we call this unstoppable mindset what? What would you suggest to people in terms of how they can develop an unstoppable mindset, mindset.   Eric Dates ** 58:31 Love that, to me is the word that stares me in the face is mind, right? Just the root of all of that comes to understanding your own mind. Not everyone else is just focused on your own right understand what makes you tick, understand what makes you frustrated, you know, put in the time of thinking every day and just challenge yourself understand things seek truth in yourself. Don't think validation or seek validation and other people's thoughts and opinions? Or or god forbid the internet. You know, really just be cognizant of who you actually are. And I think once you understand that there's your starting point, to start figuring out, how do I stay this person? Is it first of all, is this the person you want to stay? As? That's a great question to ask. But once you figure out that this is me, and this is who I want to be. That to me is is the unstoppable mindset part because now you're concrete in your conclusion that this is me, and I accepted and proud of who I am. And now everything else out there is just how do I go? Get it done? Because you already done the hard part of figuring out yourself   Michael Hingson ** 59:47 and it is all about you understanding you and I totally agree with you. And that's a great way to bring this conversation to a close because I think it will give all of us a lot to think about out. And I do want to thank you for being here with us. How do people reach out to you maybe learn more about you and learn what you do and how they can maybe interact with you?   1:00:10 Absolutely. The one social platform that I am on is LinkedIn. And I'm completely accessible, happy to chat with anyone, anytime. How do they find it and just search for Eric Dates, I believe I'm one of the few. And I'm happy to share out the LinkedIn URL that we can toss in the bottom of this at some point. But yeah, never hesitate to reach out if there's something you'd like to talk about any subject, not just marketing, or philosophy or, or consumers or anything like that. Anything. I just welcomed the community.   Michael Hingson ** 1:00:41 We'll make sure it's in the in the notes, by all means. Well, I want to thank you again for being here with us. I do have one last question. What do you do when you're not working?   Eric Dates ** 1:00:53 I've got two beautiful kids who I love playing with all the time. I love putting on my kid hat because for me, that is who I am. I'm just a grown up kid. And I love playing with them. You know, I love the family life. And they got an incredible mom who we play with all the time. And yeah, I love playing with my family. So that's, that's what I tried to do the most. Because for me, as we looked at, in really in the mind, that's, that's what's very important to me. So I want to make sure I get a part of that, or as much of that as I can on a daily basis.   Michael Hingson ** 1:01:24 And that is cool. And that's the way it really should be. Well, thanks again for being here. And I want to thank you for listening. If you would please give us a five star review at read five star review. If I could talk I'd be in lovely shape. Give us a five star review. Wherever you're listening to us, we would appreciate it. Always love your comments. I always love your thoughts. So please feel free to pass them on. You can reach me Michaelhi I M i c h a e l h i at accessibe A C C E S S I B E.com. Or go to Michael hingson H i n g s o n.com/podcast. Love to hear from you. And Eric, for you and all of you listening if you have any thoughts of people who we ought to have as a guest, please let me know. We are always looking to meet more people and have more great conversations and really, hopefully help make the world a little bit better place by everything that we do. So please don't hesitate to reach out and Eric once more. Thank you very much for being here with us and spending the last hour with us today.   Eric Dates ** 1:02:27 Absolutely. Michael, thank you so much. It was an absolute pleasure. I hope it gets to do it again.   **Michael Hingson ** 1:02:36 You have been listening to the Unstoppable Mindset podcast. Thanks for dropping by. I hope that you'll join us again next week, and in future weeks for upcoming episodes. To subscribe to our podcast and to learn about upcoming episodes, please visit www dot Michael hingson.com slash podcast. Michael Hingson is spelled m i c h a e l h i n g s o n. While you're on the site., please use the form there to recommend people who we ought to interview in upcoming editions of the show. And also, we ask you and urge you to invite your friends to join us in the future. If you know of any one or any organization needing a speaker for an event, please email me at speaker at Michael hingson.com. I appreciate it very much. T

In this episode, you'll discover:Build It to Sell It Can Start on Day 1Rick shares a reproducible framework for business successYour business will be a manifestation of of your Core ValuesThe best way to sell your business (practice) is to make it attractive to buyers Episode Highlights03:10 - Chiropractors are in the throes of a tragic exit process with about 10,000 practices trying to transition in the next five to ten years. 05:50 - The easiest way to sell a business is to have one that is attractive to buyers. 09:00 - The values that Rick's team utilizes in making decisions for the company, adding consciousness to the decision making process. 12:41 - There is a unique perspective on decision making and permanence in a throwaway society and with our companies, we need to see the importance of permanent decision making. 17:40 - Every big business started as a small business, and you will never become a big business if you are not doing the unsexy foundational groundwork.25:32 - Focus on defining long-term objectives, even if the company is eventually sold.29:03 - Five ways to incentivize employees for longevity in a tough job market.34:52 - It's important to spend money upfront to avoid costly mistakes in hiring and losing valuable employees.39:07 - Addressing the limiting beliefs surrounding pricing.  44:26 -  Dr. Pete sits down with Success Partner, Dr. Richard Sawyer, CEO of Spinalogic, to discuss how he identified and solved a common problem in chiropractic practices. Driven by a desire to optimize his team's time spent with patients, Dr. Sawyer implemented a data-driven experiment that revealed a startling imbalance in administrative tasks versus patient care. Through the development of Spinalogic, Dr. Sawyer revolutionized his practice by automating administrative tasks, allowing his team to focus on higher-level patient care. Tune in to learn how Dr. Sawyer's journey can help CEOs in all industries improve their businesses. About our Guest:Rick Sapio is a life-long entrepreneur who started his first company when he was 13 years old, after his father's untimely death. Since then, he has founded more than 20 companies. Since 1994, Rick has been the Founder and CEO of an investment holding company, Mutual Capital Alliance, Inc., which has made more than 120 investments. He is also the founder of “The Exit Concierge Service,” a white-glove program to assist private companies through the often-tumultuous exit process by using fixed fees; and tightly controlling all the moving parts. Using this process and its connected IP, they sell private companies in less time and for more money. Since 2003, Rick has been a co-founder and general partner of Mutual Capital Partners, a PE firm with three venture funds. In 2004, he founded USA Mutuals Advisors, Inc, a firm that manages publicly-traded funds. In addition, Rick co-authored the International best-selling book, Who's in Your Room: The Secret to Creating Your Best Life, and founded www.BusinessFinishingSchool.com, a virtual learning program that helps business owners to grow, scale, and exit. He is the co-founder of The 100 Year Real Estate Investor, which helps bring long-term legacy investing to the real estate industry, and he is the Founding and 7-time Chair of the Gathering of Titans Program, an annual event held at MIT in Boston. Rick graduated from Rutgers University with a BS in Industrial Engineering.https://mutualcapitalalliance.com/ Resources MentionedTo learn more about the REM CEO Program, please visit:  http://www.theremarkablepractice.com/rem-ceoFor more information about the Attraction Immersion, please visit: https://theremarkablepractice.com/2023-attraction-immersion/Build your dream team with Chiro Match Makers. Learn more at https://chiromatchmakers.com/For more information about Spinalogic, please visit: https://spinalogic.org/Schedule a Brainstorming call with Dr. PeteDr. Stephen's LinkedInDr. Peter's LinkedInThe Remarkable CEO WebsiteDr. Stephen's Book – The Remarkable Practice: The Definitive Guide to Build a Thriving Chiropractic Business

Rabbi Benyamin Bresinger grew up in Montreal, where he completed his university degree at Concordia. After graduation, he continued his life education by traveling extensively, visiting over twenty-five countries worldwide.After he graduated from the Rabbinical College of America Kollel in 1991, he and his wife Karen were appointed by the Lubavitcher Rebbe to represent Chabad in Metro West New Jersey, where he became a Pastoral Counsellor for Jewish addicts in recovery.During this time, he authored a course on Addiction and Spirituality, which he presented in numerous cities throughout the U.S.In 2007, Rabbi Bresinger and Karen, who holds a Master's in Social Work from Rutgers University, returned to Montreal to become the Director and Clinical Director, respectively, of Chabad Lifeline, a nonprofit, non-sectarian addiction counselling centre.Under their leadership, the centre has grown significantly, with a staff of 20 working tirelessly to treat everyone touched by the pain of addiction, regardless of their background, religion, or financial situation. LINKS:- Our organization's website: https://www.chabadlifeline.com/- A short film about Lifeline: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dR9BSn8p0fI&t=2s- Our Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chabadlifeline/

Rose Sisters Chips is an up-and-coming snack that has been beating the odds and growing at a quick pace.   This week Ari talks to Jonathan Marcus, President of Rose Sisters Brands and discovers the origin of their family's chip recipe, the story of getting started, and how they moved from co-packing to self-manufacturing.   Starting at zero, Rose Sisters Brands began with no knowledge of food manufacturing, but took a crash course, first at Rutgers University and then through life experience with the own co-packer.   They quickly learned what they needed and felt they could do It more efficiently themselves. Now they are working through automating their processes - one step at a time.   A fun and lively discussion that also touches on automation, marketing, distribution, and customer feedback.   Jonathan Marcus, Rose Sisters Brands Website: https://www.rosesisterschips.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rosesisterschips/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rosesisterschips/ Jonathan's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathan-c-marcus-487113/   Ari Santiago, CEO, CompassMSP Company Website: https://compassmsp.com/ Company LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/compass-msp/ Podcast Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MadeinAmericaPodcast Podcast LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/made-in-america-podcast-with-ari Podcast YouTube:  https://youtube.com/c/MadeinAmericaPodcastwithAri Ari's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/asantiago104/   Podcast produced by Miceli Productions: https://miceliproductions.com/ Podcast executive production by Gael Communications: https://www.gaelcommunications.com/   Jonathan and Ari discuss: Co-packing Food manufacturing Automation Customer feedback Marketing Distribution

Guitarist/Songwriter Corey Loog Brennan was one of the founding members of Bullet LaVolta and later joined The Lemonheads and played on two of their most loved albums, "Lick" and the bands major label debut "Lovey. He's also been involved in Academics and in fact played in those bands while getting his PHD at Harvard and is currently a Professor of Classics at Rutgers University. We have a great in depth talk about how Bullet LaVolta was formed, his key roll in The Lemonheads, and more..Listen and enjoy! Music The Charms "So Pretty"(theme song) Bullet LaVolta "Baggage" Lemonheads "The Door"(Peel Sessions) Contact: Steev Riccardo twistedrico@gmail.com Support the Podcast: patreon.com/twistedrico #BulletLaVolta #Lemonheads

Depending on who you speak to, AI is either going to plunge us into the abyss or improve every aspect of our lives immeasurably. The hype around AI can be disorientating, so let the RTBC team steer you away from the grim end-of-humanity inevitability, as we explore a more nuanced version of the AI story. Our guests Mustafa Suleyman, Dr Mhairi Aitken and Lauren M. E. Goodlad discuss whether the benefits of AI will ever outweigh the risks, why AI hype can serve as a distraction from some very pressing issues, and whether Geoff can ever replace Ed as a more obedient podcast host.Plus: Despite the technological advances of AI, why are Ed and Geoff still hung up on Ceefax?GuestsMustafa Suleyman, Co-founder of Inflection AI and author of The Coming Wave: Technology, Power, and the Twenty-first Century's Greatest Dilemma (@mustafasuleyman)Dr Mhairi Aitken, Ethics Fellow, Alan Turing Institute (@mhairi_aitken / @turinginst)Lauren M. E. Goodlad, Professor of English and Comparative Literature and Chair of the Critical AI Initiative at Rutgers University (@CriticalAI)More informationBuy a copy of Mustafa's book hereLearn more about Inflection AI hereLearn more about the Alan Turing Institute and the work Mhairi is doing on children's rights and AILearn more about Rutgers University's Critical AI Initiative with the journal's inaugural issue to follow in October 2023 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In 1983, Karen Osmun was found murdered in her apartment. The case went cold until an attack on another woman, Mary Ellen Renard, years later. Did the same man commit both crimes? Make sure to subscribe, like, and leave a review. We can be found on:Instagram at  https://www.instagram.com/married2murderpodcastTwitter at  https://twitter.com/Married2_Murder  Facebook at  https://www.facebook.com/Married-2-Murder-Podcast-107933798398670 Email any case suggestions our comments to Married2murderpodcast@gmail.com. Discord group https://discord.gg/XbsvJmYZmKCheck out our website at https://married2murderpodcast.buzzsprout.comDisclaimer: Any verbal opinion by the hosts of any person's involvement with a crime who has not been found guilty by a jury of their peers is pure speculation and should not be considered as fact. Sources:I'll Be Watching You by M. William Phelpshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rutgers_University%E2%80%93New_Brunswickhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Rutgers_University_people

Welcome to Episode 555 of the Yeukai Business Show. In this episode, Yeukai Kajidori and Chad Bareither talk about the importance of having proper processes in place and how to implement them for business success. So, if you want to know more about The Power of Streamlined Processes, tune in now! In this episode, you'll discover:  The importance of processes in business transformationThe Power of Proper ProcessesSteps to Establish Effective ProcessesOvercoming Common Challenges About Chad Bareither Chad has years of experience as a change agent for larger organizations, including several Fortune 500 companies, Chad takes the operational excellence mindset beyond the “shop floor”. The owner and principal consultant of Bareither Group Consulting, and he enables organizations for sustainable continuous improvement. Chad partners with his clients to clarify and deploy their strategy, make process improvements to achieve those goals, and establish a system for daily management of operations. Chad is a certified Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt and holds a bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering from Michigan Technological University as well as master's degrees in both Industrial and Systems Engineering and Applied Statistics from Rutgers University. More Information  Learn more about The Power of Streamlined Processes at https://www.bareithergroup.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chad-bareither-32712222/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BareitherGroup Thanks for Tuning In! Thanks so much for being with us this week. Have some feedback you'd like to share? Please leave a note in the comments section below! If you enjoyed this episode on How to Expand Your Business, please share it with your friends by using the social media buttons you see at the bottom of the post. Don't forget to subscribe to the show on iTunes to get automatic episode updates for our "Yeukai Business Show !" And, finally, please take a minute to leave us an honest review and rating on iTunes. They really help us out when it comes to the ranking of the show and I make it a point to read every single one of the reviews we get. Please leave a review right now

So you may be asking “What is a multipreneur”? Just listen to our guest, Anquida Adams, and find out. Anquida is an extremely multifaceted company that helps other companies and organizations grow, develop leaders and internal communities as well and create a sustainable model for the future.   Anquida does all this and, as she will tell us, she has a neurodivergent brain. She has both dyslexia and dysgraphia. Not only does she have challenges in absorbing written material in the same way as we, but she also has challenges in communicating through her own writing.   All the above aside, Anquida has built a successful company and as we learned today she is scaling and expanding it. Talk about unstoppable, that is by any standard Anquida Adams.     About the Guest:   Social Relations Coach, and Multipreneur, Anquida Adams is the Founder/ CEO of the A.L.A. Brand & Being Anquida Brand. She is a self-advocate and disability community advocate for creating a space of emotional and financial fulfillment to live a completely interdependent lifestyle.     As a seasoned expert in her field with several years in education and personal hands experience behind her. She knows what truly drives self-awareness, confidence, trust, and communication intelligence that will promote outcome returns of more productive teams, better managers, confident direct reports towards management, a balanced workplace, interpersonal skill, growth in leadership, strategic strategy, analytical skills, and individual inner growth. Her passion for personal & professional empowerment ignited her current career path as the CEO and Founder of A.L.A. Brand and Being Anquida Brand. The A.L.A. Brand is an enterprise that consists of three companies, A.L.A. Consulting Firm, A.L.A. Event Planning & Management, & A.L.A. World Foundation. All divisions & subdivisions play a key role in building foundations & sustainable aligned systems w/in the human & organizational structure of the workspace culture and the bottom line of the lifecycle of businesses. Our services range from coaching, consulting, development, & implementing transformation for Leadership/Teams, Equity/Inclusion/Diversity+ SJ Development, Disability/Inclusion, Entrepreneurship/ Startup, and The Individual aspect as Personal/ Professional/Family Development, to the Hiring, Development, & Retaining of employees through our signature career fair or private career we host.   About our main brand A.L.A. Consulting Firm: Is a Global Boutique Firm with expertise in Social Relations with a holistic human-center approach to seeing, developing, and implementing systems such as human & or organizational systems.   We have an organized transitional flow w/in and between systems, which creates a learning environment for Organizations' Socio-Emtional/Psychological Development(corporations/ government/ non-profits), Equity, Inclusion, & Diversity (EID), Entrepreneurship/Startups, & Individuals (personal, professional, & the family.) to explore a Holistic/Human-Centered approach to developing skills of creating a higher awareness of Identity intelligence™️, Human Energetic Systems™️ , Human Emotional-Setpoint System™️ & other internal/external environmental stimuli to address next-generation personal and business challenges.   Simply put, we help navigate our clients through times of personal & professional unpredictable circumstances by focusing on our core foundation of Mental self-investigation, Emotional Intelligence, Conversational Intelligence, and Physical/Mental/ Spiritual wellness! To learn more about our A.L.A. Consulting Firm Specific Sevices go over to our page to learn about our other services. Our Being Anquida Brand leading strategic boutique coaching and development practice in relationship systems. Our passion is empowering our clients to achieve a mindset of striving, thinking, and relating to how to navigate human relationships/experiences through transitions of success and failure across an individual's lifespan.     Ways to connect with Anquida:   A.L.A. Consulting Firm-https://linktr.ee/a.l.a.consultingfirm     A.L.A. Entrepreneurship and Startup -https://linktr.ee/a.l.a.startup   A.L.A. Event Planning and Management-https://linktr.ee/alaeventplanningandmanagement      A.L.A. Disabilities Talent Recruiting/Consultancy Solutions-https://linktr.ee/aladisbilitiesrecruiting   A.L.A. World Foundation-https://linktr.ee/a.l.a.worldfoundation ** Savvy Successful Black Business Women-https://linktr.ee/ssbbw   Being Anquida Brand: Being Anquida -https://linktr.ee/beinganquida     About the Host: Michael Hingson is a New York Times best-selling author, international lecturer, and Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe. Michael, blind since birth, survived the 9/11 attacks with the help of his guide dog Roselle. This story is the subject of his best-selling book, Thunder Dog.   Michael gives over 100 presentations around the world each year speaking to influential groups such as Exxon Mobile, AT&T, Federal Express, Scripps College, Rutgers University, Children's Hospital, and the American Red Cross just to name a few. He is Ambassador for the National Braille Literacy Campaign for the National Federation of the Blind and also serves as Ambassador for the American Humane Association's 2012 Hero Dog Awards.   https://michaelhingson.com https://www.facebook.com/michael.hingson.author.speaker/ https://twitter.com/mhingson https://www.youtube.com/user/mhingson https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelhingson/   accessiBe Links https://accessibe.com/ https://www.youtube.com/c/accessiBe https://www.linkedin.com/company/accessibe/mycompany/ https://www.facebook.com/accessibe/       Thanks for listening! Thanks so much for listening to our podcast! If you enjoyed this episode and think that others could benefit from listening, please share it using the social media buttons on this page. Do you have some feedback or questions about this episode? Leave a comment in the section below!   Subscribe to the podcast If you would like to get automatic updates of new podcast episodes, you can subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts or Stitcher. You can also subscribe in your favorite podcast app.   Leave us an Apple Podcasts review Ratings and reviews from our listeners are extremely valuable to us and greatly appreciated. They help our podcast rank higher on Apple Podcasts, which exposes our show to more awesome listeners like you. If you have a minute, please leave an honest review on Apple Podcasts.     Transcription Notes    Michael Hingson ** 00:00 Access Cast and accessiBe Initiative presents Unstoppable Mindset. The podcast where inclusion, diversity and the unexpected meet. Hi, I'm Michael Hingson, Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe and the author of the number one New York Times bestselling book, Thunder dog, the story of a blind man, his guide dog and the triumph of trust. Thanks for joining me on my podcast as we explore our own blinding fears of inclusion unacceptance and our resistance to change. We will discover the idea that no matter the situation, or the people we encounter, our own fears, and prejudices often are our strongest barriers to moving forward. The unstoppable mindset podcast is sponsored by accessiBe, that's a c c e s s i  capital B e. Visit www.accessibe.com to learn how you can make your website accessible for persons with disabilities. And to help make the internet fully inclusive by the year 2025. Glad you dropped by we're happy to meet you and to have you here with us.   Michael Hingson ** 01:21 Well, readings once again and welcome to another edition of unstoppable mindset today, we get to visit with Anquida Adams and quita among other things, describes herself as a multi printer. I want to get more information on that it is amazing how we always create these new terms, but I think it probably makes sense. She has the ALA brand and under that are a lot of different things. And she's going to tell us about that. So I'm not going to spoil any of her fun. Please not yet. We may try later, just for grins but for right now. Anquida seriously, welcome to unstoppable mindset. We're really glad you're here.   Anquida Adams ** 02:01 Thank you so much. Thank you for having me, Michael. I am super excited about this actual interview today. I know that we've been talking for a little bit and I love your excitement. And I love what you're doing and what you're continuing to do for people with disabilities within our space. So I'm really excited to be here and I thank you for having me. And I guess going to the question that you had given me around like molto printer printer.   Michael Hingson ** 02:30 Yeah, well, first, first, first of all, what is your disability?   Anquida Adams ** 02:35 Okay, so yeah, so I am neurodivergent have a I'm dyslexic. And then I've, I have dysgraphia. So for me, it's more of like, how do I navigate the big role of like having a business and then having being dyslexic and having dysgraphia is kind of sorta like, that's a big thing to have, which owning all the businesses that only on the things that I do so it's kind of   Michael Hingson ** 03:07 Yeah, discrepancy is what this graph   Anquida Adams ** 03:09 yet it's more of writing. So like for me, with my dysgraphia, I really leave that articles when I'm writing. So yeah. That's how, so it's pretty much. So dyslexia is around reading, and then this graph is around writing.   Michael Hingson ** 03:30 Uh huh. So you, you deal with writing challenges, and you deal with input challenges from reading with dyslexia?   Anquida Adams ** 03:38 Yeah, so like, it's not like I cannot read, but it's like, my brain can go within spaces of different levels of it. So if I read something for me, okay, it can go several different ways that for my dyslexia, I don't know about everybody else. I think everybody else, everybody's different. So for me, like, it can go in many different ways for me, like, oh, they may be talking about this right here. Is that that or just depending on like, if everything I always have to how I put it, I always have to, like clarify. Like, hey, let me clarify the meaning of what this mean. What did you mean by XYZ?   Michael Hingson ** 04:17 Uh huh. Well, so when did you learn that you had dyslexia and dysgraphia?   Anquida Adams ** 04:24 Um, so I guess my story starts out with my mom and I and my brother, my younger brother, we moved to California, Oakland when I was younger, kindergarten pretty much and I did okay in school because I still have my report cards from when I was little. I got from my mom a long time ago, but I moved we moved back to California like our my second or third grade year, and moving from California to Mississippi. I'm the The learning styles are so totally different. Where I was, it was kind of hard for me to actually navigate it. So my teacher put me in special needs classes. And when I got into special needs classes, my, my new teacher said, you're not supposed to be in here. It's just you need help in other areas of teaching you how to actually navigate, I think, because I stayed in those. She didn't, she told me she was going to help me get out. And so I stayed in for a year and a half. And then I got out like, like, maybe two years. And so they usually put you a year a year behind. So I got finished with school, um, and was in regular classes, but until I got into college, that's how I learned that I had dysgraphia. dyslexia and dysgraphia. So yeah.   Michael Hingson ** 05:50 Did you suspect there was something different ahead of time? I mean, so they put you in special needs classes, and they said, You didn't really belong there. But yeah, nobody was really diagnosing or figuring out what was going on with you or what   Anquida Adams ** 06:04 I will, because I was a child, and that's why we'll talk about that later. That's why I want to advocate for parents, and making sure that kids understand the journey, because I think where I was because my mom, my mom used to surprise my mom all the time, she'd say, I was like a kid in an adult's body. And so it was kind of weird, because, but she did not explain, they didn't explain to me all the processes, some adults did, some of those didn't. But I think if along the way of if I would have been told the process, I could have taught them how to navigate me from that time. And I think that if I would have gotten a lot more help, I could have like an n plus Mississippi. I'm not not not to be funny, but like, their I guess, the way that we're taught, especially in public schools, because I went to a public school, I went to a private school in my college years. And public schools there. It's kind of sort of, I don't know, like most schools in United States, they prep you for to take the tests, and is always about testing. And so it wasn't really about like, how do you learn, but we were always prepped in my mind, remembering we're always prepped for the test.   Michael Hingson ** 07:22 Yeah, and the result is that you really didn't get the education that you needed as such. Yeah. And no one diagnosed what was going on. And that happens. So often, I've talked to a number of people here on unstoppable mindset who said they were, for example, on the Autism Autism spectrum. And they didn't know it, or even people who said that they discovered they were dyslexic, or neurodivergent, in some other way. And they didn't discover it until their 30s and 40s. And some of them figured it out themselves.   Anquida Adams ** 07:59 Yeah, yeah. So I mean, it takes a while. Because, again, when you're in a mode of like, exploring of who you are, it takes the time for you to like, kind of figure it out, like, Okay, well, you know, most of us, especially most people who are undiagnosed or just navigating through dyslexia, or whatever type of disabilities, most of the time, like, you're, you're working with it, and you're like, okay, you don't even think that it's a disability, because you're just pushing through. And so when you do get tested, you're like, Oh, I didn't know that. You know, I was I just thought it was a good thing that everyone else has. And I'm just learning how to, like, navigate through that, that that, that that thing that everyone I'm thinking in my head, my story that everyone else had?   Michael Hingson ** 08:47 Yeah. And it really wasn't that way at all. But it took you a long time to discover that. Yes. But you at least you eventually did. That had to be some sort of a relief, or give you some satisfaction to figure out what was really going on that, in reality made you different.   Anquida Adams ** 09:05 Yeah. So even even in college, what it was, it was more of like, how do I help you? How do we help you with navigating this space, so there was a lot of like, teaching me how to like, read it in a way where it's like, so my brain is how my brain work and reading. So I would have to go through because my brain works so fast. I had to go through with my hands once and then the next time highlight everything except the articles and then take an actual piece of paper and with like four and a half and then go go up my brain was scan the words really fast throughout the actual book or paper, whatever. And that's how I literally am able to retain some stuff. So that's how I began to learn how to read like to make sure that I comprehend or I got everything down because it was too much. It's like reading it. So I had to play Deus. It takes a long time. But it helps me out. And I can, you know, I can I get it there.   Michael Hingson ** 10:09 Yeah. But as I said it had to certainly be a relief. And did you? Did you feel like once you figured all this out, you started to make a whole lot more progress in terms of being able to do things and moving forward with your life?   Anquida Adams ** 10:24 Well, I mean, so I didn't. So in high school, I learned how to like, especially in our writing class, I had one teacher, I remember her she was like, if you don't know how to spell a word, and I think that's her, well, that's big to words worse. She's like, if you're not Asheville word, create a sentence that describe the word. And I think that's pretty much I've had teachers along the way, too. And that's to give kids like that, or other tips to kind of help out with, you know, writing or with, you know, our reading or whatever. So I think that we, people who have dyslexia, we've given we've given all these tips, but it does not help us when we're until we learn how to navigate ourselves. It doesn't help us until we're actually in the situation. And those tips, some sometimes don't work, because again, you have to learn how to navigate it. At that particular time. I think I had a conversation with a person a year ago, and I was trying to ask him to help me with a project that I'm doing. And he was like, Well, my child, I paid a lot for my child to go to a school. And they teach him a lot of how to like, learn through, you know, his disabilities. And I looked at my said, I'm a product of that. I was like, they can give us tricks and trades and stuff like that. But if, if the, if the spaces that I'm supposed to be in a workforce are not equipped to work with me, those tricks in whatever tricks and trades don't work. So I think that there's a deeper conversation when it comes to disabilities, and then also disability and inclusion within the workforce.   Michael Hingson ** 12:07 It sounds like just the way you're describing it, that they sort of suspected that you happen to be a person with dyslexia, but they weren't talking to you about it, or really addressing the issue.   Anquida Adams ** 12:19 Yes, all the help that I've gotten, they weren't addressing the issue, they were just given me things to get around it, or to just survive.   Michael Hingson ** 12:30 So they kind of knew it was there, but they weren't telling you or helping you with it.   Anquida Adams ** 12:36 They didn't give me the tools and resources that will that's particularly a mentors router problem. They just tried to like do the surface level, put a bandaid on it? And like, Okay, this is the best way I can teach you to survive in the world go out there to do your best.   Michael Hingson ** 12:57 Do you think they actually figured out that you had that you were a person with dyslexia, though?   Anquida Adams ** 13:04 I mean, again, I because I was a kid. And because I didn't, I knew certain parts, and I didn't know every part of it, I just I advocate Now, sure, it's abilities that parents make sure that their child has a pardon to it, even if they don't know the language, because the language is more more bigger. It's like a big vocabulary for them. At least they know like what it is. And then also like, unless they know a definition of like, what it is, and then they're able to make it applicable in their lives to like, be able to, like, you know, navigate it, like who say, difference if I have this word dyslexia, and I don't, and then and I know, that's what I am. So let me help me to figure out what type of other community people that um, that I can be a part of this like me, that can help me out. And then when you do have tests, you want to tell me everything about the test, let me know at my capacity of where I'm at as a child, where I'm at and then also where you guys are wanting to take me because I think I think they I think like the education institution and also the teachers and also the parents do not allow that child to have I don't want to executive like however this they don't allow the child to have like some type of executive like   Michael Hingson ** 14:34 they don't want you to be your your own advocate or Yeah, but again, and I don't want to put words in your mouth, but am I interpreting it right though that they probably really knew that you had dyslexia but they weren't okay. And and that's so unfortunate. You know, and I know and so many people with disabilities who get in involved in advocacy when we're talking about The end device Individualized Education Plan, the IEP and so on. Yeah, they don't want the kids to be involved in that. And the kids are the first ones who should be involved. Because if we don't learn to advocate for ourselves, then how are we going to truly learn and understand? And also recognize that we're okay. Yes.   Anquida Adams ** 15:21 And that is why I do the work that I do and lead first with self advocacy in whatever manner that I'm connecting with. Because I want to make sure that most people, like understand like, hey, once you understand yourself and navigate yourself, it's easy to navigate yourself in the world around you. And that's why I am like this is it's very important for the parents to allow the kids to be a part of the process. I think with you, I know, like you, you, you have lived with your body and I have moved my body this whole time. So we kind of know what's going on. Oh, we probably don't know how to overpower didn't know how to articulate at that time, but at least we could, like, if we got hints to explain, we will probably be able to actually tell our parents like this is what I need it? Well,   Michael Hingson ** 16:09 I think I was fortunate because my parents were very open and honest about me being blind.   Anquida Adams ** 16:17 That's another story. That's another type of disability. Yeah,   Michael Hingson ** 16:19 it's a different issue. And I appreciate that. But I think they were very upfront. And they were perfectly willing for me to explore and, and sometimes take risks, and they took risk by letting me do that. But that is a different story than what you were having to address and deal with. And no one was really helping you and being upfront and so unfortunate that they didn't do that. But yeah, that happened.   Anquida Adams ** 16:50 Yes, I got I got a chance to have other risk in my life where my parents allowed me to, because so I was dyslexic, or I had a decision, I have a disability. But at the same time, I was wise, you know, I told you earlier, my mom said that I was an adult in a kid's body. So they weren't helpful. It wasn't that much help on that side. But I was really wise. And I, I had I was I had wisdom, and then street smarts, both of you, if you would, like, put it together. So it kind of helped me out a lot.   Michael Hingson ** 17:29 But it also sounds like your parents probably didn't know what to do. And they weren't getting help either. Which is so unfortunate. But I'm, I'm glad you turned out the way you did and that you really appreciate your parents, which is of course part of the whole process. Yes. So you moved by you were in California, then you move back to MIT or to Mississippi. And where did you go to college?   Anquida Adams ** 17:55 So I actually went, this is this is this is that dyslexia and that mindset of like trying to find who I am or whatever. So my first year and a half I went to I went to Oakwood University, and that was a historically black school. And that's why I knew I had enough I had a space where they took their time and they helped me out with, you know, understanding enough for me to get it so I can actually move with my actual dyslexia. They gave me tools, similar to my my dyslexia, but that was a school where literally, I learned like all types of leadership skills there. While I was there, I was part of several choirs. I was a part of an ensemble, I was a a chaplains assistant, or we had to like during Chaplain time, do the whole program. And then also the different buildings were assigned to for like chapel for the different residents, presidential individuals that are on campus. So I got a chance to do a lot. I was a part of the actual president, Ambassador space where we were the first when emotional intelligence came out first came out our president for our ambassador space, like I made sure that we had, like, classes with I mean, we did classes on emotional intelligence. So I'm saying like that because it helped that later on some of the stuff that I do. So I learned a lot at that first school that I went to and then I stayed there for two years. It got really expensive. And so I went to you ah, for a semester because I was trying to figure out what I wanted to do, which is University of Huntsville, Alabama. Okay, so the school Oakwood University is in Huntsville, Alabama. So historical black school for seventh Adventist. Got it? Yes. And so I went to UNH first semester ah, Um, I was trying to figure out what I wanted to do. And at that time, my, my major was, um, physical therapy because my high school year of college, I mean, high school, you have my high school, my senior year of high school, I worked at a PT clinic, and I was a PTA and then I was also a, that's what I told you. I was doing a lot of amazing stuff, and I didn't know it. So I was a PTA and I was a administrative assistant at the at the actual clinic. And then so I was like, Okay, well, I've liked this, let me go into to my school. So at my school, I was on the track of doing a year, a year and a half, two year no two years at Oakwood, and then finish off my PhD at Andrews University. And that's another school that was 78 minute school. And that was a mix School of everyone. So it also in Alabama. No, that was in Michigan. So you moved around. No, I didn't go there. But that was the plan. But I didn't go there. So it got too expensive for me. So I went to u h, and four semesters, kind of figure out what I was going to do. And then after you, ah, I kind of went to Chicago, and stayed there for six months, came back home, went to Michigan State six months, tech came back home. And then last time I came back home to Mississippi. And that's where I'm originally from. I graduated from a community college with honors and with 23 hours, and what I went there for, and I changed my major to psychology and elementary education. And so that summer, I went to Delta State University, and I was getting started with my elementary education degree. And that's when I found out during the summer school, that bush two that was president, then he was talking about inclusion, I was like, I can't do that, because I was like, it's too much, it will be too much for me. And so I left there, I finished off my semester there that summer, and I left Delta State that was in Delta Mississippi, and I went to Mississippi State. And that's where I finished up my degree and sociology, gender studies and leadership skills. So I found my niche. And when I went to, when I went to Mississippi State, I, I'm really good at understanding like society, like I can sit back and kind of figure out, like, what's going on. And so, for me, I've done it all my life, until I got into the classes of sociology, gender studies and leadership skills that took some psychology classes, and also behavior science classes while I was there, but I it felt like it felt like home. And so that's how I got into the work that I do now, because of the sociology, me pairing sociology and psychology together for socio psychology, for me to figure out how do I help help the world. And so for, for me, learning throughout the years, I'm about disabilities and what I did not know, until like a year or two ago, about the eight modalities of intelligence, and switch schools do not teach. And for me, within the eight modalities of intelligence, I possess two of the A modells of intelligence, intra and inter personal intelligence. So I'm good at going into spaces, understanding the culture, and then learning how to create create a better space within that space. So like, again, organizational development. So these are things that they don't teach in schools, and these are the things where, you know, with my understanding, even without disabilities, when I do our organizational development work, I make sure that when I'm doing leadership development, I ask the leader, like, what type of intelligence that they have, and I do an assessment to kind of figure it out. And then I helped to understand their actual client, the mean, not their client, but the employees, but direct reports, because you sometimes even in work, there's several different ways that people learn. And there's definitely different ways that they actually interact, but they don't teach us that in school, about the eight modalities of intelligence. So I'm doing it in a workplace and I'm trying to also do it within the actual school systems of teaching them like how to actually help the students learn through that throughout their, through their eight modalities, and hopefully the school systems that will catch on to it because if I would have known that even with my dyslexia, I would have done a whole lot better instead of going into physical therapy. You know that That's pretty much a part of my gift. But the main two areas, I'm really great at, like, seeing and developing systems. And if we got a modalities, everyone has a different modality that they can go into that that that they can figure out a field that is best for them per their modality.   Michael Hingson ** 25:21 Tell me a little bit more about the modality. You said they're eight modalities. Can you can you talk a little bit about more? What that is?   Anquida Adams ** 25:28 Yeah, sure, I can do that for you. Let me let me pull it up. So I know as inter and Trump are intelligent, those two different modalities, intra and inter, personal, intra and intra and inter intelligence, then there's Kunis kinesiology, then there's looking for, so it's eight of them, but I know my see.   Michael Hingson ** 25:54 Well, and while you're doing that, so when did you actually graduate from college?   Anquida Adams ** 26:03 So I graduated in 2010. Okay,   Michael Hingson ** 26:06 and so you have a bachelor's? Did you go and get an advanced degree at all.   Anquida Adams ** 26:11 So I, I literally, um, so like, um, for me, I. So after that, I left Mississippi State. And then I went to Chattanooga, Tennessee, where I started my clinical mental health counseling degree. And I was gonna, I thought I wanted to be a counselor. But now it's like, I told you, I find finance systems really quick to figure out what I want to do. If I don't want to do it, I don't want to do it. And what I found within the No disrespect for Counselors, and Therapists, it just wasn't for me. Like, it was a weird trick. It was a, how they set everything up. Like it's all about not being sued. And the second part is, it was all about, you know, not allowing the person to navigate their own situation like, like with the therapist, you're there. And you're asking all these questions, but it's just, it's a robust or like, robotic way of doing it. And so I rather I thought, if I did go into it, and like I'm doing right now I'm doing coaching. So I get to, like, do things that I want to do. And then within the space, so like, say, for instance, I have a client, like one person I did coaching with I, she, she dealt with a lot of internal things. And of like, I don't know if I can say it on here, but like, she don't realize her a lot of internal things. And so, for her, we went walking, and for me, I'm very intuitive, and with walking, and allow that person to like, walk and talk. As they're walking and talking, what most people don't connect with the different types of techniques that you can use, especially how I connect my techniques with them to have the way that I think and also connect with that person. I'm with her, we were doing three things. One, she had never out of all the therapist, she told me I have to offer our session. So out of all the therapists issue seen that they have never gotten out of her what I've gotten out of her at that moment, too. While we're walking, I think most people don't understand perception, and also how you connect. So our I call it the human, emotional, human, emotional, sorry, human emotional standpoints. We're walking. She was literally not being triggered, but being triggered a good way of bringing back those memories of what she was saying. But then, also she was metaphorically saying what she was expressing how she was expressing the actual thing or the trauma that she was going through. But then she was still it was like she was whatever burden she had, she was up on lifting and leaving it there as she walked every step she took. So it was like a lot of things going on at the same time. And so that and so as we were talking in m plus how I connect with the my client, I was able to like hold a container for her as we're walking as we're talking so allow her to like, elaborate on some of the things that that happened to her or to happen with her throughout her lifetime. And so she was like, you know, she wants to do more Do more sessions with me because there was a lot of things that were happening at the same time where she was able to release, and forgive. And also think of ways that she could, you know, be better because of the things that have happened. So I say all that to say like, so, going through the program, I realized that it wasn't for me, because I wasn't able to actually, um, go outside of the, the parameters of what psychiatrists, psychologists or therapists do. And so I did a whole year within that program. And I picked what I need to take, because I use again, both psychology and sociology within my therapeutic session. So after there, after Chattanooga, I left there and went to Texas stayed there for four years. And I thought, I want to go back into sociology, and I was gonna start my master's in sociology. And then I figured I was like, No, I don't want to do that again. So I stayed there for four years, going to one semester for that fruit to notice that I didn't want to do it. And within being there, I was like, Okay, well, I don't think this is places for me. So I moved again to Seattle, I've been here for going on 10 years now, this year. And as I got here, I got into corporate and I knew when I got into corporate, some of the things that are happening, when it came to leadership, when it came to culture, I was like, this is where I want to plant my seed. And like doing the work of making sure that we do better with our as leaders, we do better with our employees. And so I actually started my master's degree. And it was organizational psychological development. And as I went through that program, I don't want to be rude to them. But like, I knew that I wanted to do the work. But at the same time, there was a lot of things that were going on at work. And that was going on within that actual organization, or within the program that I could, I wasn't able to deal with the pasty of it. And so I finished that, but I started my I was only one out of the group that actually started my consulting firm. And with and with all the stuff that I've learned within that first year, I was able to kind of hone in to what part of organizational development that I want to go into. And they didn't help me with creating my business, I did everything on my own levels. But by being in that program, it allowed me to understand the different again, I tell you, I can just go into a space and learn a lot of stuff and learn a foundation of things because I see, I can see systems. And so like, as I as I went into that space, I kind of understood and I went out and created my own system, um, by seeing what they did. And so it kind of helped me out with building out my business. A long journey. So yeah,   Michael Hingson ** 33:30 so you did get your master's degree. By the time it was all said and done.   Anquida Adams ** 33:33 I did I did not finish. Finish it. Okay, good. But every time I went into a space, I guess, for me,   Michael Hingson ** 33:43 school wasn't the right thing.   Anquida Adams ** 33:45 Well, I mean, it's not it wasn't the right thing. It was the right thing for the moment that I got the foundation. Right, what I needed, I actually left, right, that makes sense.   Michael Hingson ** 33:57 Yeah, it does with all the other stuff that was going on. So when did you actually start? Well, let me go back. You said you went into corporate? Did you go to work for a company? Or did you just start your business?   Anquida Adams ** 34:08 I worked for several companies. And as well, I'll just be transparent. Like, within this space here, and the Pacific Pacific, or Pacific Northwest. When I first got here, there was less talk around diversity and inclusion. And this is pretty much white culture space. And me being here and me, I'm not getting a memo of like, hey, like, you know, just shrink yourself. And if I didn't get the memo, I didn't care about the memo. So like I learned very first, just first off and being in a corporate spaces that I if I did not take care of take up for myself or to have self advocacy around myself, that I would allow other people to actually bully me or actually be in a space where I felt so I could not breathe. And when I say when I cannot breathe, it's like, you know, me not being able to actually display my talents and my gifts, not in a shirt that show off the way. But like, for me, my my mindset is, um, I have what I need to do what I need to do, I will do it. And I know, I don't need micromanaging. And if you want to micromanage me, maybe you need to do the job yourself. And so that's not to be ugly about it. But it's like, if you hired me, and you know that I can do the job, like I, you know, please don't micromanage me. And so I had like those people who will try to micromanage me, or if they didn't try to micromanage me, they would, one person told me, I can make a foreign company, but not on her watch, he did a lot of stuff that was I told you, there was a lot of things that was happening. So I had to deal with that kind of sort of, in my program to where there was a young lady that in that program who did the same thing to me also where it's like she was bullying me. But at the same time, that's when I started to wake up and start to my, my self advocacy began much more after after those two situations, because I knew that, yes, I speak up for myself, but most people within my demographic group, they don't say anything, because they just want to get along play along so they can kind of like move along. But I knew if I didn't say anything, that's the next person that was younger than me, came in that position, or came in that organization, they will face the same situation that I faced, and I would not be able to, I don't want to cry, I would not be able to look at myself in the mirror, if I wouldn't have said nothing. Or if I wouldn't have said if I wouldn't have you know, did something about it. And most of the adults that were older that because i i When I came into those positions, I was in my early 30s I was 30 and I was just a baby kind of sorta. And so being in those positions, and having someone older than me that looked like me that was brown. You know, tell me don't rock the boat or enquete uh, you know, don't say anything about it, because you're gonna make it hard on everybody else. Like that, to me was that that wasn't that didn't tell what mean. And so for I got in trouble a lot because I spoke up and I spoke out because I was like, I could not leave I for my My motto is if you go into the place, make sure you leave it better than where you found it. Yeah.   Michael Hingson ** 37:46 So when did you actually start your business? Well, I started my business in 16 2016. Okay. And so tell tell us a little bit about the business. You've got several brands and segments under it. That's pretty fascinating, which is, of course, why you describe yourself as a multi printer. So tell us about that. Right. Okay, cool.   38:10 So, um, within, like I told you before, like the origins of this of like, is making sure that organizations Well, let me back up. So ALA brand consists of three areas, ALA consultant, firm, ala event planning and management and aLa foundation. aLa World Foundation, sorry. So I'll go back to ALA consortium or ALA Consulting Firm is a boutique, a global boutique firm with expertise in social relations with a human centered approach to staying developing operating systems on a human side, also the organizational side. So what does that mean? So what that means is you might have a problem in three areas, the human, or the organization and the process are both right. So pretty much we make sure that within that space, we're helping you out with a culture that's the seeing, seeing, seeing the systems, helping out with the systems of your culture, developing that system within your culture, and then implementing what what is there, so like, that's what we do within those spaces, so and unpacking that. So for different divisions, organizational socio emotional psychological development and their services underneath there. Then this the second division is equity inclusion, diversity with the social justice lens. And then the third, division is entrepreneurship and startup coaching and development and the last division is the individual personal professional family Christian development. So all four areas, enter. Have an intersectionality together because of the person you as a pro Sin creates the subculture of the beggar culture, whether it's within any afford those areas.   Michael Hingson ** 40:06 So what exactly do you do? How does it work?   Anquida Adams ** 40:10 So, up underneath the organizational development sector, so there's four. So there's several services, but it's four main services. So there's our so they're a succession planning, always keep that first session planning. And underneath succession planning, there's millennial, multi millennial attention as a strategist, we go in and kind of figure out, you know, the next generation of who's gonna be in charge, that's millennials, right? So making sure that we know who was in your organization, who are the millennials, and then understanding like, okay, um, the second part of that is millennial leadership, development. So like, with that, when we figure out who's the millennials in the space, we're looking at the, the, the, the life, the life, the lifespan of the company. So when you think about the lifespan of the company, need to make sure within those millennials, how are you how you doing leadership development with them, and then also tracking them. So then, when you're able to bring them in the actual positions when the boomers leave, that you have people that are on a succession plan to actually fill those positions. And not only you have the tools to fill fulfill those positions, you have organization that will continue as life is as lifeforce because again, if you're not leading or developing your leaders on all levels, it's going to be hard for you to maintain a great company. So that's two of the actual first two, I secession planning for millennials. And then the second area of it is our ecosystem, Matic structure, leadership coaching and development. And that's for all generations, not just for millennials or generation. And then the second part of that is desk paired with that is ecosystem, Matic team, structure team coaching and development. So what happens is, is that most of the time the leadership get developed, what the team don't, and it's by different people. So we created a actual, a program to where you're, you're, you're doing both development, because if you develop the leader in a manner where they're understanding themselves, and then also understanding how do they lead as a leader, what leadership does they have, or understanding their actual direct reports, and then also understand themselves, because most of the time, most leaders don't have a full unfolding for understanding of how they impact it and print their actual direct reports. And that can lead to a lot of what was the retention, where, you know, people there, you know, lack of retention, because like, pretty much there, people are leaving as a rotating door in and out. So when, when a leader is like, have their actual space in the world and their space within that company, where they're, they're learning of what they do, because most leaders don't get leadership training, they literally are just pushed into a space because they're great at an actual subject, or they're great at actual department or whatever a trait, and they're not able to actually, you know, lead because of that. And I think most of the time, that's why you have people in spaces where they're great at what they do, but they don't know how to lead. And so that's why we help within that space. Now, when it comes to the teams, you have to feel like you're in a safe space to collaborate and to actually you have camaraderie with your peers. So with that of being in a safe space that you know that your leader is leading you and and in a way where they're helping growing the talent and the talent, feel safe, you're going to have a great department and a great culture within your whole organization. So that's the four main areas of coaching and consulting within that space of organizational social, emotional, psychological development.   Michael Hingson ** 44:32 So how do you do how do you do leadership training? How does that work?   Anquida Adams ** 44:37 So again, it's a lot of deep diving. First, creating awareness with them, of their I call it my cornea professional patterns are professional professional origins. It's kind of like our family of origins but is professional origins that I created, most individuals who are and a leadership position, they pretty much mimic the leaders that was before them. And sometimes they picked up good habits, and that's why they could pick up bad habits. And so when they're not developed, they tend to either lane with the patterns that they picked up from their parents, and then in the past, they picked up from the professions of, of, of who they worked for. And so when you think about that, that's a lot of think a lot of things to unpack, and mostly just don't unpack that. And that's why you have a lot of ineffective leaders. And so we work on that inner work of the person first. And then we then work on styles, helping them out with the different types of styles that they can they that they can use per their department of the people that are within our department, because you we teach them how to figure out the actual, the, their employees styles, because a style, you know, each person has a different style. So at least adapted three styles and, and doing a mixture of of one of those three styles to help out with the actual direct reports. Then, after that, we start going into other things that they need to learn that that could be helpful to them that that they have not learned, but then they want to learn around, um, leadership skills. And so especially when it comes to conversational intelligence, that's like embedded in our, our space of like, I'm doing leadership development. So conversational intelligence skills group, it helps the leader to understand how to articulate their thoughts and their feelings. And to be clear, and have clarity when they're actually giving their direct reports. A clear understanding of what they're asked to do as a task. Not only that, but it helps out with conflict, because most of the time, you're dealing with different personalities and different cultures and different ways of living. And so with that, it kind of help out with mediation, because there are cameras or the mediation, they're mediating between, of their self advocacy of how they lead and also between the actual person like of how they is accepting the actual tasks that they're given. Because most of the time, again, we all learn in different ways, and teaching them how to actually work with their their actual direct report around how they learn how they are wanting to be led, and in what styles that actually helped them into motivating them to do well, within the workspace. So all   Michael Hingson ** 48:03 of this that we're talking about comes under the umbrella of ALA consulting. Yes. Okay. Now, do you have a number of people that work with you? Is it just you or how does that work?   Anquida Adams ** 48:17 So, and this is what I have to explain to people, I'm, I'm in big, I'm in this in the space of scaling. So how I created my businesses. Each so by being an entrepreneur, you can have different types of services. Most people tell you to keep keep it at one space. But what happens is when you do one space, within different quarters, different organizations can now only bring you in, but if I have four divisions, and I have services underneath each one, it's easier for me to kind of get an actual get picked to like go into any organization, different in different cores, depending on what services they need, or if there's going to be someone doing it individually. So it helps me out to figure out like how did that work? So because I'm scaling right now I'm able to I'll be able to, like, bring in some more people to do the work with me and or I have some people that I have on the side, if they need to come in to help me out with it, they can help me out with it. Other than that, I'm the person until I began to scale and then so I'm starting to do so yeah,   Michael Hingson ** 49:29 it's cool. Well, you know, the whole issue, of course, is that it's ala consulting, and there's nothing wrong with having more than one consultant or people that work with you. So that that makes sense. But what about I   Anquida Adams ** 49:41 knew I wanted to create a bigger organization and so   Michael Hingson ** 49:47 it makes sense to do that if you can do it in and as they would say with franchises, although this is not but you want to make sure you keep the same flavor and you keep the same process throughout Whoever you work with, needless to say, yes. So a la event planning minute and management.   Anquida Adams ** 50:06 Yeah, so la event planning and management goes hand in hand with La consulting firm because it is event planning and management for organizations. So, we hire, retain, and then develop talent. And so we have four different layers for different divisions to that one too. So there's the career fair. So we have our signature career fair that we're going to start in 2020, but COVID hit, so we had were having to like, throw, you know, like, put it out, and we're gonna try and do it this year. Um, so but what we have been doing for since 2013, is that because we leave on the Astra peripher space, system 13, because we were the only woman event planning and management career management firm here in Seattle, we did over 48 career fairs for career choice, that was the company that chose us to work within their career fairs here in Seattle. And that's how we got started. So, um, by hearing from them, of the, the vendors that want more, more areas, that's when I was like, Okay, well, maybe I need to, to create our signature career fairs. And that's what happened when 2020 hit and I wasn't able to do it, but I started doing it now. And then the second layer of it is organizational events, pretty much we do, um, fun, employee fun day. And then if you don't do any work, just have fun to create commodity. And then camaraderie. And then the second area of that space is team building. And the third area within that space is retreats. And then so the next level of this and so screen of Metellus, showing up the org chart, but the next level, the third level, this is like events. So if you want a one day event to the event or a week event, we can we can help out with a small to medium events. And the last level is our disabilities and inclusion level where we where we do our ala disabilities, transition, transitioning resource summit and Expo. And then this year will be our first year doing it. And then we have our ala team, no ala L A disabilities is Community Connect. And it's like where we get to have people to come together. So whatever, what, whatever quarter it is, by his quarter after the actual Summit is put in place so that the organizations who are wanting to create a disability and inclusion affinity group, they're able to meet with other organizations around the city to work together to actually help out with their affinity groups. And then we coupled that with hiring and people who have disabilities to work with those companies so that we can kind of create jobs for people with disabilities. And then the third piece of that part because there's three initiatives within disabilities. It's our ala disabilities, talent recruiting and consultancy agency, where we do time recruiting and consultancy. So so that this for the wraparound summit there's two other things that will help out. So it's not just you just going to a summit and getting all this things and you're like, Oh, yay, we're happy. But no, we have two other things that will help out. So then you can actually stay on track, but haven't been being intentional about having a space of, you know, a disability and inclusion workspace. So if that makes sense. That's pretty much all of that.   Michael Hingson ** 54:10 So what is ala World Foundation?   Anquida Adams ** 54:14 Okay, so ALAFondation comes into play, where we're able to the foundation part is to work with other organizations, and spotlight nem of saying, Hey, we see you're doing good work. I feel like within the workspace, or within the workforce, we have a lot of people that is quick to say, this is what bad this company is doing. And there's no shining a light on the company that's doing well. And so a big part of our foundation is to partner with other companies to make sure that they other nonprofits, to make sure that they're seen within the actual workspace of doing whatever they need, will that they're doing what they're doing with The individuals that they're working with within the communities that we're working with, and then that's part of the foundation, and then another part of the foundation. And so it's two projects, a project for making sure that organization is being seen. And the other project is to human, the human project and this around homelessness, and we're bringing it bringing awareness around homelessness, um, and several different ways. So it's five phases of that. And this homeless, a lot of, I'm not gonna go into it,   Michael Hingson ** 55:30 that's okay. Up. So what is being Anquida?   Anquida Adams ** 55:34 Oh, that's, so that's like opposite. So I explained in the ss, so ala Brand, it creates foundations, and it helps out society with creative foundations, and getting started on the right feet on, you know, whatever, whatever, whatever area that you're working with, with us, it's just creating that foundation. So being Anquida, is actually a space of creating healthy relationships. So you have the foundations, but now you need to learn how to like, have an ongoing way of learning how to have those healthy relationships to continue the actual foundation that you have created. So that's what being enquete is about. So being Anquida is a small boutique firm, with expertise in relationships. And so within that space of learning about relationship, it starts with you first, not only does it start with you, it's about understanding, that's where the identity intelligence starts out with. So like, we created this formula for all of our work throughout our identity  intelligence. And that's where identity intelligence for our consultant for our elite consulting firm came from. The root of it came from the actual being queasy to being quita is a space where you're able to, first have a relationship with yourself, first, understand who you are, and how to navigate yourself in the world around you. And having identity intelligence create a place where you can actually understand your shadow side and your light, or your fragmented shadow side in front of you in light. And what we're all that, all that is means is, is that we have different duality parts of us. And then if we suppress the parts that we think that, you know, if someone knew about us would make them run away, then we intentionally or unintentionally do things that will make people not like us, and we don't even know it, because we're we ignore the fact that this is part of our shadow side. Does that make sense? That is a lot of it's a lot of unpacking?   Michael Hingson ** 57:53 It does make sense. I think I understand exactly what you're saying. And it does make sense. And you certainly pull a lot of things together, no doubt about it. And clearly you're you happen in person that getting a lot of things accomplished. And you're you're trying to bring a lot of things into the world. And and I hope that you are going to be very successful at scaling. Well, let me ask you, if people want to learn more about you, or reach out to you and maybe engage you or or in somehow become involved with you, how do they do that,   Anquida Adams ** 58:29 um, they can go through our link tree, link to yours. You can say WWW link, and then t  r dot  e e and then slash a dot L dot a consulting firm. And it's unnecessary. I know it's a lot. But if you can look there, or like, the best way is LinkedIn, LinkedIn, you can get get in touch with me really quickly. And then all of what we do is underneath experiences, you can kind of go visit or go visits from LinkedIn from there. And I think that will be the best way. LinkedIn is a whole   Michael Hingson ** 59:04 lot better. What's your LinkedIn handle?   Anquida Adams ** 59:08 So it is Anquida, Adam. So that's pretty much it.   Michael Hingson ** 59:12 A n q u i d a d a m s. Okay. Well, I hope people will reach out, I hope that we've been able to do some good and getting people more acquainted with you and what you do. You are fascinating, you are doing a lot. And that's cool.   Anquida Adams ** 59:29 I write all the things I've done in my lifetime, like, oh, like I know, I talked about a lot but like there's a whole lot of things that I didn't talk about being a part of the Commission for people with disabilities, and then being the co chair of that and then being within that, that space for four years, being a part of the disabilities and inclusion. Well, the Kane county disabilities Developmental Disabilities board, so there's, I've done too, so there's a lot.   Michael Hingson ** 59:58 Well, I think people will definitely Learn about that as they go seek you out and investigate you. And I hope they'll do that. And I want to thank you for giving us the opportunity to learn some about what you do. And for you who are listening out there, I really appreciate you listening. Please give us a five star rating wherever you find unstoppable mindset, we are grateful for it. I know Anquida will be grateful for it. And also, if you'd like to reach out to me, please do so you can reach me at Michaelhi m i c h a e l h i at accessibe A C C E S S I B E .com. Or you can go to our podcast page which is www dot Michael hingson.com/podcast. And Michael hingson is m i c h a e l h i n g s o n. So Michael hingson.com/podcasts Love it. If you go there and in listen to some more podcasts and rate us there as well. We really appreciate it. But most of all, I hope that she'll reach out to Anquida I think that she has offered us a lot of interesting and useful information and a lot of insights and we should definitely feel free to engage her and use her talents and her skills. And clearly there's a lot of it there. So Anquida, one last time, I want to thank you for being with us today and coming on unstoppable mindset and telling us so much more. Thank   Anquida Adams ** 1:01:19 you for having me. And I'm just grateful to be a part of this space. So thank you again, Michael.   Michael Hingson ** 1:01:31 You have been listening to the Unstoppable Mindset podcast. Thanks for dropping by. I hope that you'll join us again next week, and in future weeks for upcoming episodes. To subscribe to our podcast and to learn about upcoming episodes, please visit www dot Michael hingson.com slash podcast. Michael Hingson is spelled m i c h a e l h i n g s o n. While you're on the site., please use the form there to recommend people who we ought to interview in upcoming editions of the show. And also, we ask you and urge you to invite your friends to join us in the future. If you know of any one or any organization needing a speaker for an event, please email me at speaker at Michael hingson.com. I appreciate it very much. To learn more about the concept of blinded by fear, please visit www dot Michael hingson.com forward slash blinded by fear and while you're there, feel free to pick up a copy of my free eBook entitled blinded by fear. The unstoppable mindset podcast is provided by access cast an initiative of accessiBe and is sponsored by accessiBe. Please visit www.accessibe.com. accessiBe is spelled a c c e s s i b e. There you can learn all about how you can make your website inclusive for all persons with disabilities and how you can help make the internet fully inclusive by 2025. Thanks again for listening. Please come back and visit us again next week.

Have the crabs been lying to us? There are true crabs, false crabs, and even shame-faced crabs which implies that some of them, at least, are guilty. Featuring: Dr Rachael King, SA Museum.  Professor Judith Weis, Rutgers University, Newark.  Dr Annabel Dorrenstein, University of Western Sydney. Production: Ann Jones, Presenter / Producer. Petria Ladgrove, Producer. Additional mastering:  Hamish Camilleri. This episode of What the Duck?! was produced on the land of the Wadawarrung and Kaurna people.

Jason Grabosky, Professor in Urban Forestry at Rutgers University, speaks how climate change is impacting when the leaves change color on Newsline with Brigitte Quinn.

Have you ever heard of Ren'ee Rentmeester? Well, possibly especially if you lived in Florida in the early 2000s or if you searched around YouTube. Ren'ee is the producer and creator of a program called “Cooking Without Looking”. Ren'ee always wanted to have a career in journalism and began by getting her college degree in the subject.   She worked for television stations in Florida until she decided to start her own advertising agency. While interested in journalism Renee also has a strong entrepreneurial streak which was enhanced as she worked on a number of nonprofit boards.   In 2001 she decided to create this unique show called “Cooking Without Looking”. Ren'ee is not blind but felt having a program that would feature blind cooks and chefs was worth exploring. The program aired on a public tv station for a time in Miami. Now you can find it on YouTube and there is also a Cooking Without Looking podcast. Renee is seeking ways to bring the program back to a major streaming service. Don't be surprised if this happens as Renee is clearly unstoppable.     About the Guest:   For the past 22 years, I have advocated for people who are Blind/Visually impaired through the TV show called, “Cooking Without Looking,” the ONLY TV show which features people who are Blind/Visually Impaired. We aired on PBS in South Florida.   Blind people prepare their favorite recipes and speak frankly (including humor) about their lives as People living with Blindness. It's not sad. The feeling is like, “This is my life, and oh, by the way, I'm blind.”   Mr. Fred Schroeder, President of the World Blind Union, says this about our show: “Your work fits well with our belief that blind people need encouragement to live normal lives and the sighted public needs the opportunity to learn that blindness does not render people helpless nor grant them with superhuman gifts. Your show shows blind people doing normal things, and that is a powerful message for the sighted public and for blind people themselves.”   Over the years, I have spoken to thousands of Blind people in various organizations such as the National Federation of the Blind (NFB); the American Council of the Blind(ACB); and the American Federation of the Blind(AFB).   Before that time, I worked at CBS as a Press and Public Relations Manager/Spokesperson; Associate News Producer; and Assignment Editor. I've been nominated for two Emmys...one for a series of Black History Month PSAs about the Miami people who fought in the Civil Rights movement. The other was for the writing of a special on youth gangs, “Youth Violence: Walking The Line.” I've written/published two books of poetry available on Amazon…”Visions From a Dream Called, ‘Life': The Poetry of Meadowville”; and “Visions II: The Poetry of Life.”     Ways to connect with Ren'ee:   www.cookingwithoutlookingtv.wordpress.com   Twitter:   @cookwithoutlook   Facebook:   The Cooking Without Looking TV Show   YouTube channel:   Cooking Without Looking TV Show   Cooking Without Looking Podcast:   Anywhere you get your podcast, and is available on Alexa-enabled devices     About the Host: Michael Hingson is a New York Times best-selling author, international lecturer, and Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe. Michael, blind since birth, survived the 9/11 attacks with the help of his guide dog Roselle. This story is the subject of his best-selling book, Thunder Dog.   Michael gives over 100 presentations around the world each year speaking to influential groups such as Exxon Mobile, AT&T, Federal Express, Scripps College, Rutgers University, Children's Hospital, and the American Red Cross just to name a few. He is Ambassador for the National Braille Literacy Campaign for the National Federation of the Blind and also serves as Ambassador for the American Humane Association's 2012 Hero Dog Awards.   https://michaelhingson.com https://www.facebook.com/michael.hingson.author.speaker/ https://twitter.com/mhingson https://www.youtube.com/user/mhingson https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelhingson/   accessiBe Links https://accessibe.com/ https://www.youtube.com/c/accessiBe https://www.linkedin.com/company/accessibe/mycompany/ https://www.facebook.com/accessibe/       Thanks for listening! Thanks so much for listening to our podcast! If you enjoyed this episode and think that others could benefit from listening, please share it using the social media buttons on this page. Do you have some feedback or questions about this episode? Leave a comment in the section below!   Subscribe to the podcast If you would like to get automatic updates of new podcast episodes, you can subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts or Stitcher. You can also subscribe in your favorite podcast app.   Leave us an Apple Podcasts review Ratings and reviews from our listeners are extremely valuable to us and greatly appreciated. They help our podcast rank higher on Apple Podcasts, which exposes our show to more awesome listeners like you. If you have a minute, please leave an honest review on Apple Podcasts.     Transcription Notes   Michael Hingson ** 00:00 Access Cast and accessiBe Initiative presents Unstoppable Mindset. The podcast where inclusion, diversity and the unexpected meet. Hi, I'm Michael Hingson, Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe and the author of the number one New York Times bestselling book, Thunder dog, the story of a blind man, his guide dog and the triumph of trust. Thanks for joining me on my podcast as we explore our own blinding fears of inclusion unacceptance and our resistance to change. We will discover the idea that no matter the situation, or the people we encounter, our own fears, and prejudices often are our strongest barriers to moving forward. The unstoppable mindset podcast is sponsored by accessiBe, that's a c c e s s i  capital B e. Visit www.accessibe.com to learn how you can make your website accessible for persons with disabilities. And to help make the internet fully inclusive by the year 2025. Glad you dropped by we're happy to meet you and to have you here with us.   Michael Hingson ** 01:21 Well, Hi, and welcome to another exciting episode of unstoppable mindset. They're all exciting, actually. So I don't know why I said that. But they are and it's fun to talk about whatever comes along. today. Our guest is Ren'ee Rentmeester Ren'ee has an actually a very interesting story to tell, in terms of what she's doing now, what she has done, and so on. And I think it is a fascinating thing that hopefully will fascinate all of you as well. So we are really glad that you're here to listen to it. And Ren'ee, welcome to unstoppable mindset. Good morning or afternoon to you.   Ren'ee Rentmeester ** 01:58 Well, thank you so much, Michael. And thank you for the honor, I'm truly humbled by you honoring me with the interview. So thank you so much.   Michael Hingson ** 02:08 Well, my pleasure. And you know, as usual, this is really more of a conversation than just a plain old interview. So feel free to treat it that way. It's it's both of us talking to each other. Well, let's start with a little bit about the early Ren'ee you know, before you did what you've been doing lately and so on, so tell us about you growing up and all that and how you got where you are is it were?   Ren'ee Rentmeester ** 02:31 Well, usually my airplanes perfect.   Michael Hingson ** 02:35 Come fly with me.   Ren'ee Rentmeester ** 02:38 I was a born and raised in Green Bay, Wisconsin was a daughter My father is Anthony rent Meester. My mom, Margaret and dad was a worker in a factory, paper factory Procter and Gamble. And so you know, I'm just just was born and raised there. And I always wanted to go into TV. And my family were, you know, farmers and factory workers. So that seemed like, sort of a crazy idea to them. Like, what are you talking about get real and such. But I did it anyway. And I worked myself through college, working about six jobs. The favorite I could tell about is working in a pickle factory working six days a week, 12 hours a day putting pickles in jars or one at a time. I don't know if you remember the I Love Lucy episode where they were working in a factory. It was pretty much like   Michael Hingson ** 03:42 Yeah, well, one at a time. So why one at a time.   Ren'ee Rentmeester ** 03:48 Because they were spears, the pickle spears and and you had to put them in there because you had to get them standing nicely. next to one another. And in the middle, there would be a half a pickle half a half a cucumber that would go in and then at the end of the whole thing. The machine would cut that middle pickle into more spheres. So it was it was quite a learning experience. And I knew that I wanted to continue with college so I wasn't working in a pickle factory the rest of my life.   Michael Hingson ** 04:26 You didn't want to be in that much of a pickle. Oh, I had to say   Ren'ee Rentmeester ** 04:30 it was a doozy of an opportunity.   Michael Hingson ** 04:32 I get it. Yeah, well we've been so it's pretty unique that that that kind of a job. How did all the pickle juice get into the jars? Did they also put pickle juice in or did the pickles just leak   Ren'ee Rentmeester ** 04:50 in cotton pickles was a in the machine. I'm trying to visualize it now because honestly I don't remember but I know There was a part of the machine that just poured the pickle juice into it. Yeah.   Michael Hingson ** 05:04 And then when you filled a jar, what did you do with the jar?   Ren'ee Rentmeester ** 05:09 Well, it was on a moving line. So you know I'm a conveyor belt would just take it and then someone was at the end of the line, and those people will have to put them in put the jars that are already covered into a box.   Michael Hingson ** 05:28 So did you put pickles in while the jars were moving? Or? Oh, yeah. So you had to work at a at a decent speed and they didn't let you slow down.   Ren'ee Rentmeester ** 05:40 And they didn't let me talk, which earned me rubber gloves over the head several times from little Katie, the four person   Michael Hingson ** 05:51 which is for talking.   Ren'ee Rentmeester ** 05:52 That's right for talking, you know, so um, yeah, it was a problem. My head I talked too much.   Michael Hingson ** 05:59 Well, so that was one of your unique jobs in college. What were you majoring in?   Ren'ee Rentmeester ** 06:05 Journalism? I have a degree in broadcast journalism from the University of Wisconsin in Eau Claire.   Michael Hingson ** 06:12 So you did pickles among other things? Yes. You go ahead. Oh, no, no,   Ren'ee Rentmeester ** 06:20 and and worked in a disco bar? I thought I just throw that out there. So pretty much you can you can tell I was also a bouncer at that disco bar.   Michael Hingson ** 06:31 Wow. And did you throw pickles at people? Or why you? No, no, I hear you that that you had a variety of different kinds of jobs. You just were pretty flexible in that regard? Huh? Yes. Well, you know   Ren'ee Rentmeester ** 06:45 what, I had the goal, I had the goal of working myself through college. And that was the only way I was gonna get through. And actually the I was bartending at the bar. But then they found that I could be useful as a as a bouncer as well, because guys didn't want to look nasty when I walked up to them on was really nice and said, Okay, you have to go now, you know, they couldn't get into a barber all with me and look bad in front of the girlfriend. So   Michael Hingson ** 07:20 that's pretty cool. What did your parents think of all these jobs?   Ren'ee Rentmeester ** 07:24 Well, a mom would after I got home from the pickle factory. Mom would make me take my most of my clothes off in the garage, and she gave me a set of clothes because I smelled so bad. Imagine vinegar times 1000. That's what I smell like. And then sometimes I would I had a marketing job in, in a mall, and I also worked at a TV station as a nighttime receptionist.   Michael Hingson ** 07:58 Okay. Well, so you again, you did a lot of different things. And that's pretty unique. But it certainly had to broaden your horizons and a lot of different ways that I can appreciate that. But you graduated then and had your degree in journalism, and what did you do?   Ren'ee Rentmeester ** 08:17 Um, hey, I moved to move to Tampa first. And I just looked for any kind of job I could get to keep myself going. And one of them was a receptionist at an employment agency. And so as people would come in to the employment agency, I would ask them if they knew anyone in TV because it's, it's, you know, it's always who you know, and all that sort of thing. And I talked to this one gentleman, and he told me all his sister worked at a TV station, which was amazing. And I'm so sure he gave me someone to contact by this time. I was in Miami. I was only in Tampa for a year. I sold magazines in Tampa, and then I moved to Miami. And that's when I became the receptionist. And they he led me to assist her who led me to a job at an independent station in Miami. I wrote on the back of a motorcycle I didn't have a car or in the back of a motorcycle to get there and it rained it poured. It was my summer. It's   Michael Hingson ** 09:35 Miami. Yeah. What made you move to Florida from Wisconsin?   Ren'ee Rentmeester ** 09:40 My boyfriend boy who I eventually married. Oh, good. Okay. Now here are the usual the usual suspect.   Michael Hingson ** 09:50 Well, so you moved down there and so you got a job. Then through your sister and her contact   Ren'ee Rentmeester ** 10:00 The gentleman's sister Yeah, I don't have a system to gentleman sister. Yeah, through her and I got to know who she was. And she had been in Miami for a long time. And my boss was, was pretty amazing. And I was a writer there as a writer at the station.   Michael Hingson ** 10:20 So what kinds of things did you write for? What did you write?   Ren'ee Rentmeester ** 10:24 Um, I started out just writing voiceovers, you know, little voiceovers I used to have between shows, I   Michael Hingson ** 10:30 don't know shows. Yeah. Well, not commercials, not the commercials, but just   Ren'ee Rentmeester ** 10:35 the little voiceovers, like telling you like you had an acute C and about the show that was coming up. Like Benson falls down the stairs. You know, whatever. And and so it was the little things like that.   Michael Hingson ** 10:52 And then again, the game say something like, can you believe that that Benson guy fell down those stairs? Like Benson we liked Benson. That was a fun show.   Ren'ee Rentmeester ** 11:03 BENSON Yeah. I don't know how I just started that. It just popped into my head.   Michael Hingson ** 11:08 Well, so you wrote, and then what   Ren'ee Rentmeester ** 11:15 we see there, your independent station. I was there for 13 years, and it turned into CBS. And I just said one place. And so I became that an associate producer and news and an assignment editor and news. And that was pretty cool. Because as associate producer, you write the news stories, I was just gonna ask. Yeah, you write the news stories. And I remember one of my most memorable news stories that I wrote was about a little boy, he was three years old, and he needed a liver. And in Florida, there's a rule against giving livers to certain people of certain ages, like, if you're under certain age, and over a certain age, while I was on the news desk that day, and the mayor or the governor was doing one of those wonderful luncheons that they do. And I called the father of this little boy. And I said, Listen, I'm going to send my photographer over to you get over there. And my photographer is going to shoot you and the governor asking to get your son a liver. And it happened. I could have lost my job, but it happened.   Michael Hingson ** 12:36 So you created the news.   Ren'ee Rentmeester ** 12:39 Yes. Well, it helped because three days later, the little boy had a liver. So the Governor made it happen.   Michael Hingson ** 12:51 Well, that's cool. And then you took the the time and the interest in doing that. Because that certainly had to be, as you said, a little bit of a challenge and you could have lost your job over it.   Ren'ee Rentmeester ** 13:03 Right. But as your title is unstoppable mindset. I don't ever let any of that train stop me like, what's more important my job or little boy's life?   Michael Hingson ** 13:15 Yeah. So did anybody chastise you for it? Or because of that or not? Okay. They Oh,   Ren'ee Rentmeester ** 13:23 yeah. Yeah. turned out great. I don't even know if a lot of people knew that my cameraman and I did that. I mean, that we set it up, sort of, because, you know, no one ever said anything about it afterwards. So, but it worked for a while. And then the little boy died a couple months later, because his buddy Jack did it. But at least he has a chance.   Michael Hingson ** 13:48 Yeah. What year was that?   Ren'ee Rentmeester ** 13:51 Ah, let's see. It was probably late 80s, early 90s.   Michael Hingson ** 14:00 Okay. So how long did you work at writing the news and being an associate producer and so on.   Ren'ee Rentmeester ** 14:09 I was I was there for that in a news department for one year. And then they created a job for me. I was a press and public relations manager. And that went upstairs because the news was downstairs and I went upstairs. And so I was I suppose, spokesperson for the station. And I also produced the PSAs. So that was pretty cool. And in the meantime, I started on a whole bunch of boards because I dealt with a lot of nonprofits. So that's, that's what I did there. And eventually, you know, 13 years later and you're like, Well, what else can I do? And I started my own advertising and PR company. I left the station started my own advertising PR company. And then I thought of something because then with so many different so many different nonprofits, like six of them at once I was on the board. I wanted something for myself, and I wanted something that was a legacy for my family. So I wanted to make a purpose have a purpose.   Michael Hingson ** 15:23 Before we get there, I'm just curious. So you were there until after the World Trade Center terrorist attacks, because you were there? 13 years is that right?   Ren'ee Rentmeester ** 15:33 Was I? Um, no. Okay. Because we're already to that. Yeah,   Michael Hingson ** 15:41 you're gone by then. Because I was going to ask what, what you did or what was it like at the station and so on? Around September 11. But you were gone by then.   Ren'ee Rentmeester ** 15:51 Yeah, I was gone by then. I I remember that day, I remember where I was, I remember. I had a friend in New York, and I called her to see if she was okay. And I just watched her the coverage and and I kept my daughter home that day, my daughter was nine. And I kept her home from school. Because, you know, you didn't know what was gonna happen?   Michael Hingson ** 16:19 Yeah. Yeah, there was no way to know. No. Well, you eventually started as you're saying something that became very personal to you a project that you've been doing for quite a while, and in of itself is an interesting story. So why don't you tell us a little bit about that?   Ren'ee Rentmeester ** 16:39 Okay, um, I created cooking without looking at the first TV show that features people who are blind and visually impaired,   Michael Hingson ** 16:47 which we really call low vision today and appropriately. So. Because when you talk about visually impaired, where we should be compared to people who have eyesight, just like, if you said hearing impaired to a person who was partially deaf, they probably Dec you because hearing impaired is as they recognize a way of comparing to people who can hear rather than saying deaf and hard of hearing, right. So it's learning continuum. And so the whole concept of visually impaired is really unfortunate, for two reasons. One, visually, we don't look different, just because we're blind or partially, why do we deal with it in terms of impaired saying, well, you're impaired if you can't see fully? And so we're learning to say, as deaf people already have blind or low vision, but anyway. Alrighty. So you want it you started this this show?   Ren'ee Rentmeester ** 17:47 Right? Right. Because TV was what I did, that was my tool. And if you want to change the way people look at people who are blind or, or, you know, low vision, you will have to show people, you know, and it's also a way to bridge between the sighted community, the low vision community, the blind community, just just to show what is done because we still have an old mindset. So I did my research, and I went on some blind listservs. And learned about blindness from a lot of people. I did not know a blind person, I do not have a relative who was a blind person. It was just something I saw that needed to be done.   Michael Hingson ** 18:42 And you of course, are not blind. No, I am not. So you did a lot of research, which is always a great thing to do, and a great way to start. So this When did all this start?   Ren'ee Rentmeester ** 18:57 This started in 2001. Ironically, I'm talking to you and 2001. I was in my first meeting about the show, as the twin towers are being hit. That's what happened. And we actually took a break from the meeting and saw as the towers were being hit. Yeah. So your your story is much more compelling. But But I remember like, How can this happen? How, you know, like, we become desensitized to things like this, and it almost seemed like we were watching a movie. It didn't make any sense.   Michael Hingson ** 19:46 Yeah, it was very surreal to people because who would have thought somebody would fly our planes deliberately fly airplanes into the World Trade Center yet? That's the end of the Pentagon. And of course Shanksville, Pennsylvania, but that's what happened.   Ren'ee Rentmeester ** 20:04 Yep, exactly. So.   Michael Hingson ** 20:06 So what was the first meeting about? Was it trying to sell it to a station or plan or program? What was the meeting? Like? What was it?   Ren'ee Rentmeester ** 20:14 It was at Florida International University, the School of Hospitality, because that's where I met a man who was a blind chef. And I met him. And then he was a professor there. And he introduced me to all the people he worked with. And we were looking for anything like how can we work together? Sponsorships, whatever. Um, and that's, that's what we did. That's what we did it first. So So,   Michael Hingson ** 20:48 so when did the show actually start airing or when did you start producing it,   Ren'ee Rentmeester ** 20:56 we started producing an airing it. We started producing it in September of 2005. And after that, it went on in September. And we had a live studio audience at PBS station in West Palm Beach. And we were on like a couple of seasons. And then after that, we hit the recession at 2009.   Michael Hingson ** 21:31 How's my typical like three and a half years to actually bring the show to fruition? Since you had your first meeting in 2001. And it took until 2005, for the show to actually come on,   Ren'ee Rentmeester ** 21:44 there are so many moving parts. First, I found a man who I thought we should use as a host right. And then I had to start going out and selling the program. Because even my I was on the Board of Governors for the National Academy, TV Arts and Sciences. And even they couldn't understand having a show with blind people, because they thought blind people only only are taught, and that a lot of times I still find that out, but they couldn't understand it. So it was a lot of selling them apart just to sell the idea. Then I went to talk to the TV station. And then we had to find a sponsor, because we actually had to pay to get it produced on there. And so I produced it. And it was just a lot of explaining to people and making people understand and once they understood, you know, everybody really loved it and moved on from there.   Michael Hingson ** 22:58 So you obviously had a lot to go through at the same time you had your own advertising agency, you said right,   Ren'ee Rentmeester ** 23:07 right, exactly. So a lot of times whatever costs, I had to pick it up from my advertising company. And because I was you know, like, there were like three of us there. And PR, I do did a lot of PR for people. And I always tried to look at the positive side of it, trying to help people with my PR, you can have negative PR or positive PR. And I always I always used it for the positive and as a matter of fact, even just helping people with it.   Michael Hingson ** 23:42 Do you believe the in the comment, there's no such thing really as bad PR that even bad PR is really good PR?   Ren'ee Rentmeester ** 23:53 Well, I to a point, I won't say bad and good. Effective PR, which means that people at least know about you. And in some ways, because a lot of times they've done studies that people don't realize how they know about you or how they heard your name, but they just know you know, they know your name. And so So yeah, I just I believe that. Just getting your name out there. Sometimes people don't know how but they know of you.   Michael Hingson ** 24:36 And so there's no qualitative factor there. They just know who you are.   Ren'ee Rentmeester ** 24:42 Right. Exactly. Exactly. So then we continually went to many food festivals and people were just amazed we were at Macy's. We went to the Boca Raton wine and food festival. We do presentations with our hosts, one of which was time Although a blind on one was he has, he isn't nearly blind, nearly total and the other man who, who was not all the way blind at all, but we just we just had a lot of fun going together driving down the road hitting these festivals and showing people what it was like.   Michael Hingson ** 25:27 So was this before the show actually started airing or while the show   Ren'ee Rentmeester ** 25:32 afterwards because when we hit 2009, we, most people didn't have any money to sponsor anymore because of the recession. So we just we had to find other ways to get the word out. And so that's what we did, we went on the road or went to the festivals and showed people, we pretty much closed down Macy's because the whole store when they announced that we were going to be there, everyone wanted to see people who were blind, you know, cook and give tips. And, and that's the cool part about our show because it actually is a bridge between, you know, the sighted and non sighted communities. And and so we can understand one another, we don't deal in stereotypes or, you know, something from the 1950s. We know what we can do, and we can do anything we want because we have an unstoppable mindset.   Michael Hingson ** 26:32 So is the show still airing at that time? Or were you just doing the festivals?   Ren'ee Rentmeester ** 26:37 No, the shows weren't airing but I had to keep, I had to keep it going. There was no way I was going to stop it. Because I had a purpose. And I felt like I had a commitment because so many people were backing it at least you know, supportive, even least just in their words. I had to keep it going. So I did we kept it going through. I started a podcast in 2018. Where we talk to people, our motto is changing the way we see blindness everyone there is either blind or low vision. And we also during the pandemic, we started doing it on zoom as a TV show, which we still do now. And we reached 61 countries.   Michael Hingson ** 27:33 Tell me if you want a little bit about maybe some of the unique recipes or some of the interesting experiences on the show. Love to hear some stories.   Ren'ee Rentmeester ** 27:44 Okay. Well, you know, um, we had South African, it was a, it was a sort of organization like the lighthouse. And its Cape Town society for the blind, and we had them on there and they made South African food, which was like pretty cool. And then we had one gentleman when we were in Palm Beach, it was funny. We had a live studio audience and he was an elderly gentleman and he was he was nice man a little crusty. And he was showing us how to make it was like a poor it was called poor man's I forgot what it was. Anyway, he was put here to test the noodles, he actually put his hand in the boiling water. And this was the way he did it. Obviously I cut it out for the TV crowd. But when I was there, the people were yelling at me stick his hands on the floor. It's like he's 80 years old, you know, he knows this is how he does it but I won't put it in I'll you know I'll edit it out because I don't want little kids watching that. But um, let's see what other types of stories we we've had just like a lot of fun. We went to a school in Minnesota and we taught blind kids how to cook and we did our own little cooking without looking with them. And that was a lot of fun. We had a special script for them you know, it was just it's just every everything is full of stories. We also have podcasts where we speak to individuals who are blind visually impaired, we they talk about their life as a person who's blind or low vision sorry, caught myself and and and then at The end they present a recipe and all of our recipes that we present is the cooking without looking recipes of the day are submitted to us by blind or low vision people, and they've actually made them themselves. So we know that you know that they're good recipes. We don't have any sighted people present them. We just, you know, we just have a lot of fun together, we went to a bar, a year and a half ago, we went to an NFB convention, the Florida NFB and was a net, Alan and I in that now in our, our hosts, and we just had a great time. It's like we're family, we've been together now the 22 years, a full 22 years. So we just get a lot of laughs that way too, because we each have our own personality. Oh,   Michael Hingson ** 30:59 well, and that's, that's, that's what really makes a long running operation work when you have a family and people are able to work together and so on. So what happened at the NFB of Florida convention? What did you guys do?   Ren'ee Rentmeester ** 31:16 Well, what we did was we put people on Facebook Live, and we had them tell their story. And then we took pictures with them, it's sort of like we were like, famous, quote, unquote. And we just, we just had a good time, we had people talk about themselves, and what they were doing at the NFB convention. And out of that, we got a sponsorship out of the Florida Division of Blind Services, and they appeared on one of our shows. So that was, that was a good time. It's nice to learn. I mean, every single person has a story that we can learn from, it doesn't matter who you are, where you are, where you are. Everyone has a story that we can all learn from. And that's it. That's what makes us unstoppable. You know, you know, my computer went down and and it was like, Okay, well, what's going on here? You know, what, what's happening with the universe, and my computer went down, because I couldn't do any of the shows or the podcasts. And those are really my fun. That's, that's the fun in my life. I don't bend to Disney World plenty of times.   Michael Hingson ** 32:37 There's a lot of that, then on cruises,   Ren'ee Rentmeester ** 32:38 Ben to other countries. But this is my fun, because I feel like I'm doing something that matters.   Michael Hingson ** 32:47 So you, I remember in looking at your biography, you mentioned Fred Schroeder, who is the past president of the World Blind Union, tell me about meeting him and a little about that.   Ren'ee Rentmeester ** 32:59 Well, that was wonderful. I actually met him when he was president of the NFB. And we spoke there. And when I met him, I was I was just, you know, he seemed like a really great person. But when he said all the nice things about us, you know, how he loved the show, I was honored, because here's a man who has been all over the place and who is blind, and told me that, you know, what we were doing helped. And honestly, when when you start something that has never existed, you're sort of sitting there all by yourself, going, you know, what, what am I doing? Why am I doing this? And, and he made me feel like, we were doing something that mattered?   Michael Hingson ** 33:59 Well, today, is the show airing on any TV stations or is it?   Ren'ee Rentmeester ** 34:07 Well, that's what we're working on. We wanted to get the TV stations, we want to stream it. So been working on getting it either Netflix or the Food Network or, you know, something like that. I've been in contact with Rachael rays, PR people. And Stevie Wonder is PR person. She's very nice. So you know what, we're starting the rebirth. Round two, but we keep it going on Zoom. And with Zoom, we can reach people around the world, which is what we've been going.   Michael Hingson ** 34:47 Yeah. Which absolutely makes sense. Well, how are you being received by Rachael Ray is people Stevie Wonder and so on, and kind of what have you had to do to keep them interested and so on.   Ren'ee Rentmeester ** 35:02 Well, you know, it's really just keeping on reminding people that we're there. Stevie Wonder's person, her PR, the PR person, you know, is Shelley. And she was very, very nice. And so I just keep up, you know, reminding her, Rachael Ray now has left her show, but she's starting something new. So I emailed them, which is very recent, and they're probably on vacation right now. And and people, you know, are actually very receptive. Well, we'll see what happens. But just like before, you just have to keep on knocking on the doors chiseling something out, you know, just keeping on trying. That's, that's all you can do.   Michael Hingson ** 35:47 Have you looked at any of the other Food Network people in the the other celebrity types and gotten any, anywhere with any of them? Or have you tried?   Ren'ee Rentmeester ** 35:56 No, I really haven't. Because I'm, I like the philosophy of Rachael Ray, which is similar to what we do. It's you don't have to be a fancy chef or whatever. It's the home cooking. We've all learned from our parents, grandparents or whatever, how to cook, and survive and have a good time. And, and I liked the way she does it. So our philosophies are similar. In the past, the first, the first host that we had did reach out to one of the people, I don't like the idea of, of, you know, racing or doing things fast and cooking in the kitchen or having a contest and you know, getting angry at one another. I don't like that. I you know, I like just showing people as they are. Because I think that's how we see ourselves. We're not all we're not all celebrities, we're just people who are trying to get by and do the best we can.   Michael Hingson ** 37:07 I would say I think there are places for some kinds of competitions, but I hear what you're saying. I think a lot of the angry, sharp edge things are really a problem. And they don't, they don't really serve a useful purpose. And I've enjoyed a lot of the Food Network. But I like things that are really more fun than yeah, getting angry.   Ren'ee Rentmeester ** 37:35 Right, right. And I and you can have so much fun in the kitchen. Think of it like, a lot of times, that's the way we get to know our grandparents are our parents is cooking with them in the kitchen. You know, like, I cooked with my daughter, my daughter cooked with me from the time she was little. And honestly, I think she's a better cook than me. She's more of a detail person where I'm like, You know what, this is my art. I'm just gonna throw this in. This sounds like it's gonna be good. Try this. Try that. So I'm a little more experimental. But that's the way you get to know your family, in a lot of instances. So I like that part.   Michael Hingson ** 38:16 Oh, I still think it would be fun to somehow involve Bobby Flay because he's such a fun guy. And yeah, he's an incredibly fun guy. He's an incredibly sophisticated guy. He's got an incredible grasp on food preparation, but I bet he would be a fun guy to somehow be involved with   Ren'ee Rentmeester ** 38:37 that, well, you know what, firm your lips to God's ears. I'll give that a try. And you know, I'm living in a place of Ray Charles birthplace I live in Albany, Georgia. And, and so I was thinking about reaching out to their foundation to see how we could work together to get something done as well. There's a beautiful monument to Ray Charles is in the Ray Charles Plaza on the river in Albany. And it turns around, it's blueish. And it turns around, and it plays all of his songs in his voice. And is is is just really beautiful and inspiring, and, and a lot of funny things, a lot of the songs my mom used to sing.   Michael Hingson ** 39:28 Well, yeah, I think any place like that where you can get some funding would certainly be a valuable thing. But I, I think that an innovative visionary kind of guy, like a Bobby Flay might really take an interest in something like this, because it's unique and it's because it's different. And since that's just a thought, you know?   Ren'ee Rentmeester ** 39:54 That's good. It's a seed I'll work on seeing how I can reach Bobby flaying. No problem.   Michael Hingson ** 40:02 So, how has the show changed over the years? Like, from the pandemic, to now and so on? Is it really still basically the same format? How has it evolved overall?   Ren'ee Rentmeester ** 40:16 Well, um, it really evolved from the way we were doing it before. You know, during the pandemic, we started off with people from the United States, and it evolved into going to like seven countries, and having people from all around the world actually watch us. And so, as I wrote in the letter to, I contacted the CEO, both CEOs on ones left now of Netflix, like, Okay, we've planted the seeds all over the world for you. And, and there's an audience all over the world. And Netflix is, is one of the most watched shows by people who are blind, most watched streaming services of people who are blind, and all over the world. So they were, I had heard that that particular CEO was a very nice man. And I've always found a lot of people in TV are really nice, not, not the way we look at them. And TV shows they're actually like, real human.   Michael Hingson ** 41:28 So have you had a response from Netflix yet? What was that? Have you had a response from Netflix yet?   Ren'ee Rentmeester ** 41:36 Um, no, no, we haven't. His name was Ted Saran dose, and he's the CEO over there. And so that's where I sent it. You know, we'll do Bobby Flay. But we're, it's just, you know, an ongoing process of planting seeds, planting seeds. To get it this far, has been pretty amazing. Because, you know, I'm sort of like the Wright brothers with the first airplane, no one can really visualize that, like, What the heck are you doing? And, and, and now we've gotten to a point where we can launch it in a bigger platform.   Michael Hingson ** 42:20 Have you had guests on the show from other countries? Or just the Yeah,   Ren'ee Rentmeester ** 42:25 yeah. We have we've we've had seven countries. They're all blind people from other countries. It was, like I said, South Africa, Guyana.   Ren'ee Rentmeester ** 42:43 Barbados, Barbadoes. Let's see where else where else where else trying to think of the ones off the top of my head. But those are just some of them. But   Ren'ee Rentmeester ** 42:57 everyone can go see them. They're all on our cooking without looking YouTube channel right now. And that's what we're focusing on just getting the things done and and showing people but yeah, we've had lots of different Oh, Jamaica, we had to make it too. So that was pretty cool. So yeah, we've had all these countries, that's really the biggest change that we've had is, is going and highlighting people from other countries, other people who are blind, cooking their native recipes in other countries.   Michael Hingson ** 43:35 How many shows have you produced so far?   Ren'ee Rentmeester ** 43:40 Wow. That's a good one. I think we were up to like 90 something. I'm not a numbers person. You know, I'm a writer. So um, but I'm pretty close to around 90 And then the podcasts as well. We just, you know, I've got another podcast to do tomorrow with a lady. So she's making peanut butter cookies. Yeah, only three ingredients. Peanut butter cookie. So she's going to talk about her life, and Tara coin. So that's what we do. So if you ever want to see or go to them, and enjoy them cooking without looking TV show on YouTube.   Michael Hingson ** 44:37 So how often do you produce a new show?   Ren'ee Rentmeester ** 44:42 Um, once a once a month, and we're going to start up again since my computer and then the podcasts are like, several times a month like whoever comes out and wants to do a podcast. We produce their podcast several times. The month.   Michael Hingson ** 45:02 So, you've, you've had a number of interesting people on needless to say, What's your favorite show so far?   Ren'ee Rentmeester ** 45:10 Oh my, well, that's hard. That's like asking her mother, a mother what her favorite child is, which one is your favorite child? It all depends on who was on there. We had a cute one. For Valentine's Day once, we had two blind couples on there. And we had a lot of fun with that. Um, that was, that was a cute one. And then I really liked the one from South Africa. That was, I was cool. Maybe it's like a little selfish because I love food from other countries. You can always see the similarities of of your own of the countries of your own. One of my favorite podcasts, we had a couple who was blind, and I actually they came to Miami and I walked him around Miami and the beaches and everything. And Mike Gravatt and his wife, Gianna, they're there just a hoot to talk to. Let's see what else they those are probably my favorites, that I can pop off the top of my head. But it's, it's nice to see that people get along and just enjoy themselves. And the blindness is really just a secondary factor. It's it's living and having fun and enjoying your life.   Michael Hingson ** 46:40 So when you do the shows, like on Zoom, and so on, you people are actually cooking during the shows. Oh, yeah,   Ren'ee Rentmeester ** 46:47 yeah, we have a script, everything.   Michael Hingson ** 46:50 So how does all that work in terms of the fact that typically, if you've got to have a camera and everything so people can see it? How, how easy is it to set all that up? I mean, from your side, it's great. But if the other end where the people are actually doing the, the cooking and so on, how does that work? Oh,   Ren'ee Rentmeester ** 47:08 it actually works really great. Um, I've only had edit like one or two of them just a tiny bit, that people put their cameras up either the cameras or their computers, and they are able to cook and we practice first, we have a rehearsal a couple of days before. And we look to see where their cameras set up a lot of times, we you know, they have a family member or something who sets the camera for them in a certain area. It's, and it goes really, really well because we we just do it ahead of time we show them you know, we take a look at see how their camera is set up or whether they're using their computer, and whatever works for them. But we've had lots of success that way. Not a big deal. People are always excited to be on the show the tips. We had one young man mica, he made like he has it down the perfect chicken breast because that's one of those things that can be really really difficult. And sort of dry, you can wear him as a shoe. And he he had a doubt and that became like, pretty popular. And he's a young man and he just took us through it. He was like, Okay, you do this, you do this, you do this. I'm very, very attentive, lots of attention to detail.   Michael Hingson ** 48:43 When people are cooking, there's, there's, there's the actual cooking part. And there's the preparation part. So do people move their cameras around? Or do you just have them in one spot? How does all that work?   Ren'ee Rentmeester ** 48:56 No, um, it depends. It really depends on the recipe. We have one lady who has a special syrup, and she was making some food, very special syrup. Oftentimes, if there's like a lot of cutting or preparation or whatever, we have them prep their food ahead of time. And then maybe just for example, if you need a cup of carrots, chopped carrots, they chop their carrots ahead of time, just like any other TV show, they chop their carrots ahead of time, and then show us just one. But there's there's not a lot of moving around. Most of them don't move around, we haven't worked out so like depending on the recipe, we tell them how to position your camera, how to position your computer, and, you know, look this way to your right to your love, you know. So, um, it actually hasn't been harder. This is probably the first time I'm thinking about it when you ask me this, Michael.   Michael Hingson ** 49:57 The reason I ask is I'm just thinking Have me. One of my favorite recipes is a recipe that I will do on the grill outside. But the preparation is inside. It's a chicken recipe. It's called Chicken Diavolo. It's actually a recipe my wife got from food and wine. And it's really our favorite recipe uses chicken thighs. And the marinate that you put the chicken thighs in is wonderful.   Ren'ee Rentmeester ** 50:26 Sounds good. And it's just, Michael.   Michael Hingson ** 50:29 And it's, it's, it's got a, it's, it's, well, it uses a fair amount of oil, but they're not really oily by the time you're done. But it's a wonderful recipe to do. But just the preparation or doing it and then putting it on the grill is in two different locations. And that's what really prompted me to ask the question, when I'm sure that we could figure out it would be fun to to do it. It's been a while since I've done chicken D. But   Ren'ee Rentmeester ** 50:55 I would love to have you on that one that will be great. Because we don't have anything like that, I would have to see you do part of it, like part of it would be done ahead of time. Because that's really like a lot of TV shows the cooking, a lot of things are done partially ahead of time. And then do you have like some sort of a table alongside of you or?   Michael Hingson ** 51:22 Well, when I do the grilling, everything else is done. And then I take it out and there's there's a table on the grill. But it wouldn't be fun to to think about doing it. The preparation is really creating the marinade. Because then the chicken thighs go into the marinate and then they go on to the grill. So it would be it would be something to explore. And yeah, we'd love the idea would the idea would be that you create marinate, put the chicken in it, then let them marinate a while. And so that could be done inside and then just move the camera and everything outside. It might be fun to think about.   Ren'ee Rentmeester ** 52:00 Well, you could you could just you could have, are there like lots of ingredients for the marinade.   Michael Hingson ** 52:08 Not too many.   Ren'ee Rentmeester ** 52:10 But take those ingredients outside. You can have the chicken in the marinade already done, right?   Michael Hingson ** 52:16 Yeah, you can just take the ingredients outside that would go into the marinate and, and create a little bit of it. Yeah, that's another way to do it. Which also means when you do that, you get a second batch, which is also good. So that's fine.   Ren'ee Rentmeester ** 52:29 Right? You can never have too much grilled chicken. That's fine. No.   Michael Hingson ** 52:33 And and if unlike anything else, if done, right? They come out pretty moist. You don't want to overcook them. It is chicken thighs so that the marinate does get absorbed a lot better into the thighs than it would into like chicken breasts and so on, which is why thighs are used. But it's a it's a great recipe.   Ren'ee Rentmeester ** 52:52 Oh, that sounds good. Well, what's in it?   Michael Hingson ** 52:55 There's rosemary, there is oil. I'm trying to remember some of the the other spices are. Well, there's peppermint   Ren'ee Rentmeester ** 53:02 rosemary.   Michael Hingson ** 53:03 Yeah, there's pepper. And I have to go back and find the recipe. It's been a while. My wife was ill last year and passed away in November. So frankly, I haven't made it for a while. So I'm going to have to do that. I've been lazy, but that's okay.   Ren'ee Rentmeester ** 53:19 Well give you a reason to make it. I'm sorry to hear about your wife, Michael.   Michael Hingson ** 53:23 Well, it's okay. We, we we continue to move forward. And and she's around watching. So it's okay. So I will do it right. Otherwise, I'll be in trouble. So it's no problem. Well, so what are your future plans for the show? You are? I know you said you're restarting it and so on. So kind of what are the plans? What do you expect to see happen?   Ren'ee Rentmeester ** 53:46 Well, I would like to get some sponsors. I would like to go to more events, the season in California, I'd like to go there, you know, br