Podcasts about Smile Train

Nonprofits, your “10 blue links” era is over. In this episode, Avinash Kaushik (Human-Made Machine; Occam's Razor) breaks down Answer Engine Optimization—why LLMs now decide who gets seen, why third-party chatter outweighs your own site, and what to do about it. We get tactical: build AI-resistant content (genuine novelty + depth), go multimodal (text, video, audio), and stamp everything with real attribution so bots can't regurgitate you into sludge. We also cover measurement that isn't delusional—group your AEO referrals, expect fewer visits but higher intent, and stop worshiping last-click and vanity metrics. Avinash updates the 10/90 rule for the AI age (invest in people, plus “synthetic interns”), and torpedoes linear funnels in favor of See-Think-Do-Care anchored in intent. If you want a blunt, practical playbook for staying visible—and actually converting—when answers beat searches, this is it. About Avinash Avinash Kaushik is a leading voice in marketing analytics—the author of Web Analytics: An Hour a Day and Web Analytics 2.0, publisher of the Marketing Analytics Intersect newsletter, and longtime writer of the Occam's Razor blog. He leads strategy at Human Made Machine, advises Tapestry on brand strategy/marketing transformation, and previously served as Google's Digital Marketing Evangelist. Uniquely, he donates 100% of his book royalties and paid newsletter revenue to charity (civil rights, early childhood education, UN OCHA; previously Smile Train and Doctors Without Borders). He also co-founded Market Motive. Resource Links Avinash Kaushik — Occam's Razor (site/home) Occam's Razor by Avinash Kaushik Marketing Analytics Intersect (newsletter sign-up) Occam's Razor by Avinash Kaushik AEO series starter: “AI Age Marketing: Bye SEO, Hello AEO!” Occam's Razor by Avinash Kaushik See-Think-Do-Care (framework explainer) Occam's Razor by Avinash Kaushik Books: Web Analytics: An Hour a Day | Web Analytics 2.0 (author pages) Occam's Razor by Avinash Kaushik+1 Human Made Machine (creative pre-testing) — Home | About | Products humanmademachine.com+2humanmademachine.com+2 Tapestry (Coach, Kate Spade) (company site) Tapestry Tools mentioned (AEO measurement): Trakkr (AI visibility / prompts / sentiment) Trakkr Evertune (AI Brand Index & monitoring) evertune.ai GA4 how-tos (for your AEO channel + attribution): Custom Channel Groups (create an “AEO” channel) Google Help Attribution Paths report (multi-touch view) Google Help Nonprofit vetting (Avinash's donation diligence): Charity Navigator (ratings) Charity Navigator Google for Nonprofits — Gemini & NotebookLM (AI access) Announcement / overview | Workspace AI for nonprofits blog.googleGoogle Help Example NGO Avinash supports: EMERGENCY (Italy) EMERGENCY Transcript Avinash Kaushik: [00:00:00] So traffic's gonna go down. So if you're a business, you're a nonprofit, how. Do you deal with the fact that you're gonna lose a lot of traffic that you get from a search engine? Today, when all of humanity moves to the answer Engine W world, only about two or 3% of the people are doing it. It's growing very rapidly. Um, and so the art of answer engine optimization is making sure that we are building for these LMS and not getting stuck with only solving for Google with the old SEO techniques. Some of them still work, but you need to learn a lot of new stuff because on average, organic traffic will drop between 16 to 64% negative and paid search traffic will drop between five to 30% negative. And that is a huge challenge. And the reason you should start with AEO now ​ George Weiner: [00:01:00] This week's guest, Avinash Kaushik is an absolute hero of mine because of his amazing, uh, work in the field of web analytics. And also, more importantly, I'd say education. Avinash Kaushik, , digital marketing evangelist at Google for Google Analytics. He spent 16 years there. He basically is. In the room where it happened, when the underlying ability to understand what's going on on our websites was was created. More importantly, I think for me, you know, he joined us on episode 45 back in 2016, and he still is, I believe, on the cutting edge of what's about to happen with AEO and the death of SEO. I wanna unpack that 'cause we kind of fly through terms [00:02:00] before we get into this podcast interview AEO. Answer engine optimization. It's this world of saying, alright, how do we create content that can't just be, , regurgitated by bots, , wholesale taken. And it's a big shift from SEO search engine optimization. This classic work of creating content for Google to give us 10 blue links for people to click on that behavior is changing. And when. We go through a period of change. I always wanna look at primary sources. The people that, , are likely to know the most and do the most. And he operates in the for-profit world. But make no mistake, he cares deeply about nonprofits. His expertise, , has frankly been tested, proven and reproven. So I pay attention when he says things like, SEO is going away, and AEO is here to stay. So I give you Avan Kashic. I'm beyond excited that he has come back. He was on our 45th episode and now we are well over our 450th episode. So, , who knows what'll happen next time we talk to him. [00:03:00] This week on the podcast, we have Avinash Kaushik. He is currently the chief strategy officer at Human Made Machine, but actually returning guest after many, many years, and I know him because he basically introduced me to Google Analytics, wrote the literal book on it, and also helped, by the way. No big deal. Literally birth Google Analytics for everyone. During his time at Google, I could spend the entire podcast talking about, uh, the amazing amounts that you have contributed to, uh, marketing and analytics. But I'd rather just real quick, uh, how are you doing and how would you describe your, uh, your role right now? Avinash Kaushik: Oh, thank you. So it's very excited to be back. Um, look forward to the discussion today. I do, I do several things concurrently, of course. I, I, I am an author and I write this weekly newsletter on marketing and analytics. Um, I am the Chief Strategy Officer at Human Made Machine, a company [00:04:00] that obsesses about helping brands win before they spend by doing creative pretesting. And then I also do, uh, uh, consulting at Tapestry, which owns Coach and Kate Spades. And my work focuses on brand strategy and marketing transformation globally. George Weiner: , Amazing. And of course, Occam's Razor. The, the, yes, the blog, which is incredible. I happen to be a, uh, a subscriber. You know, I often think of you in the nonprofit landscape, even though you operate, um, across many different brands, because personally, you also actually donate all of your proceeds from your books, from your blog, from your subscription. You are donating all of that, um, because that's just who you are and what you do. So I also look at you as like team nonprofit, though. Avinash Kaushik: You're very kind. No, no, I, I, yeah. All the proceeds from both of my books and now my newsletter, premium newsletter. It's about $200,000 a year, uh, donated to nonprofits, and a hundred [00:05:00] percent of the revenue is donated nonprofit, uh, nonprofits. And, and for me, it, it's been ai. Then I have to figure out. Which ones, and so I research nonprofits and I look up their cha charity navigators, and I follow up with the people and I check in on the works while, while don't work at a nonprofit, but as a customer of nonprofits, if you will. I, I keep sort of very close tabs on the amazing work that these charities do around the world. So feel very close to the people that you work with very closely. George Weiner: So recently I got an all caps subject line from you. Well, not from you talking about this new acronym that was coming to destroy the world, I think is what you, no, AEO. Can you help us understand what answer engine optimization is? Avinash Kaushik: Yes, of course. Of course. We all are very excited about ai. Obviously you, you, you would've to live in. Some backwaters not to be excited about it. And we know [00:06:00] that, um, at the very edge, lots of people are using large language models, chat, GPT, Claude, Gemini, et cetera, et cetera, in the world. And, and increasingly over the last year, what you have begun to notice is that instead of using a traditional search engine like Google or using the old Google interface with the 10 blue links, et cetera. People are beginning to use these lms. They just go to chat, GPT to get the answer that they want. And the one big difference in this, this behavior is I actually have on September 8th, I have a keynote here in New York and I have to be in Shanghai the next day. That is physically impossible because it, it just, the time it takes to travel. But that's my thing. So today, if I wanted to figure out what is the fastest way. On September 8th, I can leave New York and get to Shanghai. I would go to Google flights. I would put in the destinations. It will come back with a crap load of data. Then I poke and prod and sort and filter, and I have to figure out which flight is right for that. For this need I have. [00:07:00] So that is the old search engine world. I'm doing all the work, hunting and pecking, drilling down, visiting websites, et cetera, et cetera. Instead, actually what I did is I went to charge GBT 'cause I, I have a plus I, I'm a paying member of charge GBT and I said to charge GBTI have to do a keynote between four and five o'clock on September 8th in New York and I have to be in Shanghai as fast as I possibly can be After my keynote, can you find me the best flight? And I just typed in those two sentences. He came back and said, this Korean airline website flight is the best one for you. You will not get to your destination on time until, unless you take a private jet flight for $300,000. There is your best option. They're gonna get to Shanghai on, uh, September 10th at 10 o'clock in the morning if you follow these steps. And so what happened there? I didn't have to hunt and pack and dig and go to 15 websites to find the answer I wanted. The engine found the [00:08:00] answer I wanted at the end and did all the work for me that you are seeing from searching, clicking, clicking, clicking, clicking, clicking to just having somebody get you. The final answer is what I call the, the, the underlying change in consumer behavior that makes answer engine so exciting. Obviously, it creates a challenge for us because what happened between those two things, George is. I didn't have to visit many websites. So traffic is going down, obviously, and these interfaces at the moment don't have paid search links for now. They will come, they will come, but they don't at the moment. So traffic's gonna go down. So if you're a business, you're a nonprofit, how. Do you deal with the fact that you're gonna lose a lot of traffic that you get from a search engine? Today, when all of humanity moves to the answer Engine W world, only about two or 3% of the people are doing it. It's growing very rapidly. Um, and so the art of answer engine optimization [00:09:00] is making sure that we are building for these LMS and not getting stuck with only solving for Google with the old SEO techniques. Some of them still work, but you need to learn a lot of new stuff because on average, organic traffic will drop between 16 to 64% negative and paid search traffic will drop between five to 30% negative. And that is a huge challenge. And the reason you should start with AEO now George Weiner: that you know. Is a window large enough to drive a metaphorical data bus through? And I think talk to your data doctor results may vary. You are absolutely right. We have been seeing this with our nonprofit clients, with our own traffic that yes, basically staying even is the new growth. Yeah. But I want to sort of talk about the secondary implications of an AI that has ripped and gripped [00:10:00] my website's content. Then added whatever, whatever other flavors of my brand and information out there, and is then advising somebody or talking about my brand. Can you maybe unwrap that a little bit more? What are the secondary impacts of frankly, uh, an AI answering what is the best international aid organization I should donate to? Yes. As you just said, you do Avinash Kaushik: exactly. No, no, no. This such a, such a wonderful question. It gets to the crux. What used to influence Google, by the way, Google also has an answer engine called Gemini. So I just, when I say Google, I'm referring to the current Google that most people use with four paid links and 10 SEO links. So when I say Google, I'm referring to that one. But Google also has an answer engine. I, I don't want anybody saying Google does is not getting into the answer engine business. It is. So Google is very much influenced by content George that you create. I call it one P content, [00:11:00] first party content. Your website, your mobile app, your YouTube channel, your Facebook page, your, your, your, your, and it sprinkles on some amount of third party content. Some websites might have reviews about you like Yelp, some websites might have PR releases about you light some third party content. Between search engine and engines. Answer Engines seem to overvalue third party content. My for one p content, my website, my mobile app, my YouTube channel. My, my, my, everything actually is going down in influence while on Google it's pretty high. So as here you do SEO, you're, you're good, good ranking traffic. But these LLMs are using many, many, many, literally tens of thousands more sources. To understand who you are, who you are as a nonprofit, and it's [00:12:00] using everybody's videos, everybody's Reddit posts, everybody's Facebook things, and tens of thousands of more people who write blogs and all kinds of stuff in order to understand who you are as a nonprofit, what services you offer, how good you are, where you're falling short, all those negative reviews or positive reviews, it's all creepy influence. Has gone through the roof, P has come down, which is why it has become very, very important for us to build a new content strategy to figure out how we can influence these LMS about who we are. Because the scary thing is at this early stage in answer engines, someone else is telling the LLMs who you are instead of you. A more, and that's, it feels a little scary. It feels as scary as a as as a brand. It feels very scary as I'm a chief strategy officer, human made machine. It feels scary for HMM. It feels scary for coach. [00:13:00] It's scary for everybody, uh, which is why you really urgently need to get a handle on your content strategy. George Weiner: Yeah, I mean, what you just described, if it doesn't give you like anxiety, just stop right now. Just replay what we just did. And that is the second order effects. And you know, one of my concerns, you mentioned it early on, is that sort of traditional SEO, we've been playing the 10 Blue Link game for so long, and I'm worried that. Because of the changes right now, roughly what 20% of a, uh, search is AI overview, that number's not gonna go down. You're mentioning third party stuff. All of Instagram back to 2020, just quietly got tossed into the soup of your AI brand footprint, as we call it. Talk to me about. There's a nonprofit listening to this right now, and then probably if they're smart, other organizations, what is coming in the next year? They're sitting down to write the same style of, you know, [00:14:00] ai, SEO, optimized content, right? They have their content calendar. If you could have like that, I'm sitting, you're sitting in the room with them. What are you telling that classic content strategy team right now that's about to embark on 2026? Avinash Kaushik: Yes. So actually I, I published this newsletter just last night, and this is like the, the fourth in my AEO series, uh, newsletter, talks about how to create your content portfolio strategy. Because in the past we were like, we've got a product pages, you know, the equivalent of our, our product pages. We've got some, some, uh, charitable stories on our website and uh, so on and so forth. And that's good. That's basic. You need to do the basics. The interesting thing is you need to do so much more both on first party. So for example, one of the first things to appreciate is LMS or answer engines are far more influenced by multimodal content. So what does that mean? Text plus [00:15:00] video plus audio. Video and audio were also helpful in Google. And remember when I say Google, I'm referring to the old linky linking Google, not Gemini. But now video has ton more influence. So if you're creating a content strategy for next year, you should say many. Actually, lemme do one at a time. Text. You have to figure out more types of things. Authoritative Q and as. Very educational deep content around your charity's efforts. Lots of text. Third. Any seasonality, trends and patterns that happen in your charity that make a difference? I support a school in, in Nepal and, and during the winter they have very different kind of needs than they do during the summer. And so I bumped into this because I was searching about something seasonality related. This particular school for Tibetan children popped up in Nepal, and it's that content they wrote around winter and winter struggles and coats and all this stuff. I'm like. [00:16:00] It popped up in the answer engine and I'm like, okay. I research a bit more. They have good stories about it, and I'm supporting them q and a. Very, very important. Testimonials. Very, very important interviews. Very, very important. Super, super duper important with both the givers and the recipients, supporters of your nonprofit, but also the recipient recipients of very few nonprofits actually interview the people who support them. George Weiner: Like, why not like donors or be like, Hey, why did you support us? What was the, were the two things that moved you from Aware to care? Avinash Kaushik: Like for, for the i I Support Emergency, which is a Italian nonprofit like Ms. Frontiers and I would go on their website and speak a fiercely about why I absolutely love the work they do. Content, yeah. So first is text, then video. You gotta figure out how to use video a lot more. And most nonprofits are not agile in being able to use video. And the third [00:17:00] thing that I think will be a little bit of a struggle is to figure out how to use audio. 'cause audio also plays a very influential role. So for as you are planning your uh, uh, content calendar for the next year. Have the word multimodal. I'm sorry, it's profoundly unsexy, but put multimodal at the top, underneath it, say text, then say video, then audio, and start to fill those holes in. And if those people need ideas and example of how to use audio, they should just call you George. You are the king of podcasting and you can absolutely give them better advice than I could around how nonprofits could use audio. But the one big thing you have to think about is multimodality for next year George Weiner: that you know, is incredibly powerful. Underlying that, there's this nuance that I really want to make sure that we understand, which is the fact that the type of content is uniquely different. It's not like there's a hunger organization listening right now. It's not 10 facts about hunger during the winter. [00:18:00] Uh, days of being able to be an information resource that would then bring people in and then bring them down your, you know, your path. It's game over. If not now, soon. Absolutely. So how you are creating things that AI can't create and that's why you, according to whom, is what I like to think about. Like, you're gonna say something, you're gonna write something according to whom? Is it the CEO? Is it the stakeholder? Is it the donor? And if you can put a attribution there, suddenly the AI can't just lift and shift it. It has to take that as a block and be like, no, it was attributed here. This is the organization. Is that about right? Or like first, first party data, right? Avinash Kaushik: I'll, I'll add one more, one more. Uh, I'll give a proper definition. So, the fir i I made 11 recommendations last night in the newsletter. The very first one is focus on creating AI resistant content. So what, what does that mean? AI resistant means, uh, any one of us from nonprofits could [00:19:00] open chat, GPT type in a few queries and chat. GD PT can write our next nonprofit newsletter. It could write the next page for our donation. It could create the damn page for our donation, right? Remember, AI can create way more content than you can, but if you can use AI to create content, 67 million other nonprofits are doing the same thing. So what you have to do is figure out how to build AI resistant content, and my definition is very simple. George, what is AI resistance? It's content of genuine novelty. So to tie back to your recommendation, your CEO of a nonprofit that you just recommended, the attribution to George. Your CEO has a unique voice, a unique experience. The AI hasn't learned what makes your CEO your frontline staff solving problems. You are a person who went and gave a speech at the United Nations on behalf of your nonprofit. Whatever you are [00:20:00] doing is very special, and what you have to figure out is how to get out of the AI slop. You have to get out of all the things that AI can automatically type. Figure out if your content meets this very simple, standard, genuine novelty and depth 'cause it's the one thing AI isn't good at. That's how you rank higher. And not only will will it, will it rank you, but to make another point you made, George, it's gonna just lift, blanc it out there and attribute credit to you. Boom. But if you're not genuine, novelty and depth. Thousand other nonprofits are using AI to generate text and video. Could George Weiner: you just, could you just quit whatever you're doing and start a school instead? I seriously can't say it enough that your point about AI slop is terrifying me because I see it. We've built an AI tool and the subtle lesson here is that think about how quickly this AI was able to output that newsletter. Generic old school blog post and if this tool can do it, which [00:21:00] by the way is built on your local data set, we have the rag, which doesn't pause for a second and realize if this AI can make it, some other AI is going to be able to reproduce it. So how are you bringing the human back into this? And it's a style of writing and a style of strategic thinking that please just start a school and like help every single college kid leaving that just GPT their way through a degree. Didn't freaking get, Avinash Kaushik: so it's very, very important to make sure. Content is of genuine novelty and depth because it cannot be replicated by the ai. And by the way, this, by the way, George, it sounds really high, but honestly to, to use your point, if you're a CEO of a nonprofit, you are in it for something that speaks to you. You're in it. Because ai, I mean nonprofit is not your path to becoming the next Bill Gates, you're doing it because you just have this hair. Whoa, spoiler alert. No, I'm sorry. [00:22:00] Maybe, maybe that is. I, I didn't, I didn't mean any negative emotion there, but No, I love it. It's all, it's like a, it's like a sense of passion you are bringing. There's something that speaks to you. Just put that on paper, put that on video, put that on audio, because that is what makes you unique. And the collection of those stories of genuine depth and novelty will make your nonprofit unique and stand out when people are looking for answers. George Weiner: So I have to point to the next elephant in the room here, which is measurement. Yes. Yes. Right now, somebody is talking about human made machine. Someone's talking about whole whale. Someone's talking about your nonprofit having a discussion in an answer engine somewhere. Yes. And I have no idea. How do I go about understanding measurement in this new game? Avinash Kaushik: I have. I have two recommendations. For nonprofits, I would recommend a tool called Tracker ai, TRA, KKR [00:23:00] ai, and it has a free version, that's why I'm recommending it. Some of the many of these tools are paid tools, but with Tracker, do ai. It allows you to identify your website, URL, et cetera, et cetera, and it'll give you some really wonderful and fantastic, helpful report It. Tracker helps you understand prompt tracking, which is what are other people writing about you when they're seeking? You? Think of this, George, as your old webmaster tools. What keywords are people using to search? Except you can get the prompts that people are using to get a more robust understanding. It also monitors your brand's visibility. How often are you showing up and how often is your competitor showing up, et cetera, et cetera. And then he does that across multiple search engines. So you can say, oh, I'm actually pretty strong in OpenAI for some reason, and I'm not that strong in Gemini. Or, you know what, I have like the highest rating in cloud, but I don't have it in OpenAI. And this begins to help you understand where your current content strategy is working and where it is not [00:24:00] working. So that's your brand visibility. And the third thing that you get from Tracker is active sentiment tracking. This is the scary part because remember, you and I were both worried about what other people saying about us. So this, this are very helpful that we can go out and see what it is. What is the sentiment around our nonprofit that is coming across in, um, in these lms? So Tracker ai, it have a free and a paid version. So I would, I would recommend using it for these three purposes. If, if you have funding to invest in a tool. Then there's a tool called Ever Tool, E-V-E-R-T-U-N-E Ever. Tune is a paid tool. It's extremely sophisticated and robust, and they do brand monitoring, site audit, content strategy, consumer preference report, ai, brand index, just the. Step and breadth of metrics that they provide is quite extensive, but, but it is a paid tool. It does cost money. It's not actually crazy expensive, but uh, I know I have worked with them before, so full disclosure [00:25:00] and having evaluated lots of different tools, I have sort of settled on those two. If it's a enterprise type client I'm working with, then I'll use Evert Tune if I am working with a nonprofit or some of my personal stuff. I'll use Tracker AI because it's good enough for a person that is, uh, smaller in size and revenue, et cetera. So those two tools, so we have new metrics coming, uh, from these tools. They help us understand the kind of things we use webmaster tools for in the past. Then your other thing you will want to track very, very closely is using Google Analytics or some other tool on your website. You are able to currently track your, uh, organic traffic and if you're taking advantage of paid ads, uh, through a grant program on Google, which, uh, provides free paid search credits to nonprofits. Then you're tracking your page search traffic to continue to track that track trends, patterns over time. But now you will begin to see in your referrals report, in your referrals report, you're gonna begin to seeing open [00:26:00] ai. You're gonna begin to see these new answer engines. And while you don't know the keywords that are sending this traffic and so on and so forth, it is important to keep track of the traffic because of two important reasons. One, one, you want to know how to highly prioritize. AEO. That's one reason. But the other reason I found George is syn is so freaking hard to rank in an answer engine. When people do come to my websites from Answer engine, the businesses I work with that is very high intent person, they tend to be very, very valuable because they gave the answer engine a very complex question to answer the answers. Engine said you. The right answer for it. So when I show up, I'm ready to buy, I'm ready to donate. I'm ready to do the action that I was looking for. So the percent of people who are coming from answer engines to your nonprofit carry significantly higher intention, and coming from Google, who also carry [00:27:00] intent. But this man, you stood out in an answer engine, you're a gift from God. Person coming thinks you're very important and is likely to engage in some sort of business with you. So I, even if it's like a hundred people, I care a lot about those a hundred people, even if it's not 10,000 at the moment. Does that make sense George? George Weiner: It does, and I think, I'm glad you pointed to, you know, the, the good old Google Analytics. I'm like, it has to be a way, and I, I think. I gave maximum effort to this problem inside of Google Analytics, and I'm still frustrated that search console is not showing me, and it's just blending it all together into one big soup. But. I want you to poke a hole in this thinking or say yes or no. You can create an AI channel, an AEO channel cluster together, and we have a guide on that cluster together. All of those types of referral traffic, as you mentioned, right from there. I actually know thanks to CloudFlare, the ratios of the amount of scrapes versus the actual clicks sent [00:28:00] for roughly 20, 30% of. Traffic globally. So is it fair to say I could assume like a 2% clickthrough or a 1% clickthrough, or even worse in some cases based on that referral and then reverse engineer, basically divide those clicks by the clickthrough rate and essentially get a rough share of voice metric on that platform? Yeah. Avinash Kaushik: So, so for, um, kind of, kind of at the moment, the problem is that unlike Google giving us some decent amount of data through webmaster tools. None of these LLMs are giving us any data. As a business owner, none of them are giving us any data. So we're relying on third parties like Tracker. We're relying on third parties like Evert Tune. You understand? How often are we showing up so we could get a damn click through, right? Right. We don't quite have that for now. So the AI Brand Index in Evert Tune comes the closest. Giving you some information we could use in the, so your thinking is absolutely right. Your recommendation is ly, right? Even if you can just get the number of clicks, even if you're tracking them very [00:29:00] carefully, it's very important. Please do exactly what you said. Make the channel, it's really important. But don't, don't read too much into the click-through rate bits, because we're missing the. We're missing a very important piece of information. Now remember when Google first came out, we didn't have tons of data. Um, and that's okay. These LLMs Pro probably will realize over time if they get into the advertising business that it's nice to give data out to other people, and so we might get more data. Until then, we are relying on these third parties that are hacking these tools to find us some data. So we can use it to understand, uh, some of the things we readily understand about keywords and things today related to Google. So we, we sadly don't have as much visibility today as we would like to have. George Weiner: Yeah. We really don't. Alright. I have, have a segment that I just invented. Just for you called Avanade's War Corner. And in Avanade's War Corner, I noticed that you go to war on various concepts, which I love because it brings energy and attention to [00:30:00] frankly data and finding answers in there. So if you'll humor me in our war corner, I wanna to go through some, some classic, classic avan. Um, all right, so can you talk to me a little bit about vanity metrics, because I think they are in play. Every day. Avinash Kaushik: Absolutely. No, no, no. Across the board, I think in whatever we do. So, so actually I'll, I'll, I'll do three. You know, so there's vanity metrics, activity metrics and outcome metrics. So basically everything goes into these three buckets essentially. So vanity metrics are, are the ones that are very easy to find, but them moving up and down has nothing to do with the number of donations you're gonna get as a nonprofit. They're just there to ease our ego. So, for example. Let's say we are a nonprofit and we run some display ads, so measure the number of impressions that were delivered for our display ad. That's a vanity metric. It doesn't tell you anything. You could have billions of impressions. You could have 10 impressions, doesn't matter, but it is easily [00:31:00] available. The count is easily available, so we report it. Now, what matters? What matters are, did anybody engage with the ad? What were the percent of people who hovered on the ad? What were the number of people who clicked on the ad activity metrics? Activity metrics are a little more useful than vanity metrics, but what does it matter for you as a non nonprofit? The number of donations you received in the last 24 hours. That's an outcome metric. Vanity activity outcome. Focus on activity to diagnose how well our campaigns or efforts are doing in marketing. Focus on outcomes to understand if we're gonna stay in business or not. Sorry, dramatic. The vanity metrics. Chasing is just like good for ego. Number of likes is a very famous one. The number of followers on a social paia, a very famous one. Number of emails sent is another favorite one. There's like a whole host of vanity metrics that are very easy to get. I cannot emphasize this enough, but when you unpack and or do meta-analysis of [00:32:00] relationship between vanity metrics and outcomes, there's a relationship between them. So we always advise people that. Start by looking at activity metrics to help you understand the user's behavior, and then move to understanding outcome metrics because they are the reason you'll thrive. You will get more donations or you will figure out what are the things that drive more donations. Otherwise, what you end up doing is saying. If I post provocative stuff on Facebook, I get more likes. Is that what you really wanna be doing? But if your nonprofit says, get me more likes, pretty soon, there's like a naked person on Facebook that gets a lot of likes, but it's corrupting. Yeah. So I would go with cute George Weiner: cat, I would say, you know, you, you get the generic cute cat. But yeah, same idea. The Internet's built on cats Avinash Kaushik: and yes, so, so that's why I, I actively recommend people stay away from vanity metrics. George Weiner: Yeah. Next up in War Corner, the last click [00:33:00] fallacy, right? The overweighting of this last moment of purchase, or as you'd maybe say in the do column of the See, think, do care. Avinash Kaushik: Yes. George Weiner: Yes. Avinash Kaushik: So when the, when the, when we all started to get Google Analytics, we got Adobe Analytics web trends, remember them, we all wanted to know like what drove the conversion. Mm-hmm. I got this donation for a hundred dollars. I got a donation for a hundred thousand dollars. What drove the conversion. And so what lo logically people would just say is, oh, where did this person come from? And I say, oh, the person came from Google. Google drove this conversion. Yeah, his last click analysis just before the conversion. Where did the person come from? Let's give them credit. But the reality is it turns out that if you look at consumer behavior, you look at days to donation, visits to donation. Those are two metrics available in Google. It turns out that people visit multiple times before [00:34:00] they make a donation. They may have come through email, their interest might have been triggered through your email. Then they suddenly remembered, oh yeah, yeah, I wanted to go to the nonprofit and donate something. This is Google, you. And then Google helps them find you and they come through. Now, who do you give credit Email or the Google, right? And what if you came 5, 7, 8, 10 times? So the last click fallacy is that it doesn't allow you to see the full consumer journey. It gives credit to whoever was the last person who sent you this, who introduced this person to your website. And so very soon we move to looking at what we call MTI, Multi-Touch Attribution, which is a free solution built into Google. So you just go to your multichannel funnel reports and it will help you understand that. One, uh, 150 people came from email. Then they came from Google. Then there was a gap of nine days, and they came back from Facebook and then they [00:35:00] converted. And what is happening is you're beginning to understand the consumer journey. If you understand the consumer journey better, we can come with better marketing. Otherwise, you would've said, oh, close shop. We don't need as many marketing people. We'll just buy ads on Google. We'll just do SEO. We're done. Oh, now you realize there's a more complex behavior happening in the consumer. They need to solve for email. You solve for Google, you need to solve Facebook. In my hypothetical example, so I, I'm very actively recommend people look at the built-in free MTA reports inside the Google nalytics. Understand the path flow that is happening to drive donations and then undertake activities that are showing up more often in the path, and do fewer of those things that are showing up less in the path. George Weiner: Bring these up because they have been waiting on my mind in the land of AEO. And by the way, we're not done with war. The war corner segment. There's more war there's, but there's more, more than time. But with both of these metrics where AEO, if I'm putting these glasses back on, comes [00:36:00] into play, is. Look, we're saying goodbye to frankly, what was probably somewhat of a vanity metric with regard to organic traffic coming in on that 10 facts about cube cats. You know, like, was that really how we were like hanging our hat at night, being like. Job done. I think there's very much that in play. And then I'm a little concerned that we just told everyone to go create an AEO channel on their Google Analytics and they're gonna come in here. Avinash told me that those people are buyers. They're immediately gonna come and buy, and why aren't they converting? What is going on here? Can you actually maybe couch that last click with the AI channel inbound? Like should I expect that to be like 10 x the amount of conversions? Avinash Kaushik: All we can say is it's, it's going to be people with high intention. And so with the businesses that I'm working with, what we are finding is that the conversion rates are higher. Mm. This game is too early to establish any kind of sense of if anybody has standards for AEO, they're smoking crack. Like the [00:37:00] game is simply too early. So what we I'm noticing is that in some cases, if the average conversion rate is two point half percent, the AEO traffic is converting at three, three point half. In two or three cases, it's converting at six, seven and a half. But there is not enough stability in the data. All of this is new. There's not enough stability in the data to say, Hey, definitely you can expect it to be double or 10% more or 50% more. We, we have no idea this early stage of the game, but, but George, if we were doing this again in a year, year and a half, I think we'll have a lot more data and we'll be able to come up with some kind of standards for, for now, what's important to understand is, first thing is you're not gonna rank in an answer engine. You just won't. If you do rank in an answer engine, you fought really hard for it. The person decided, oh my God, I really like this. Just just think of the user behavior and say, this person is really high intent because somehow [00:38:00] you showed up and somehow they found you and came to you. Chances are they're caring. Very high intent. George Weiner: Yeah. They just left a conversation with a super intelligent like entity to come to your freaking 2001 website, HTML CSS rendered silliness. Avinash Kaushik: Whatever it is, it could be the iffiest thing in the world, but they, they found me and they came to you and they decided that in the answer engine, they like you as the answer the most. And, and it took that to get there. And so all, all, all is I'm finding in the data is that they carry higher intent and that that higher intent converts into higher conversion rates, higher donations, as to is it gonna be five 10 x higher? It's unclear at the moment, but remember, the other reason you should care about it is. Every single day. As more people move away from Google search engines to answer engines, you're losing a ton of traffic. If somebody new showing up, treat them with, respect them with love. Treat them with [00:39:00] care because they're very precious. Just lost a hundred. Check the landing George Weiner: pages. 'cause you may be surprised where your front door is when complexity is bringing them to you, and it's not where you spent all of your design effort on the homepage. Spoiler. That's exactly Avinash Kaushik: right. No. Exactly. In fact, uh, the doping deeper into your websites is becoming even more prevalent with answer engines. Mm-hmm. Um, uh, than it used to be with search engines. The search always tried to get you the, the top things. There's still a lot of diversity. Your homepage likely is still only 30% of your traffic. Everybody else is landing on other homepage or as you call them, landing pages. So it's really, really important to look beyond your homepage. I mean, it was true yesterday. It's even truer today. George Weiner: Yeah, my hunch and what I'm starting to see in our data is that it is also much higher on the assisted conversion like it is. Yes. Yes, it is. Like if you have come to us from there, we are going to be seeing you again. That's right. That's right. More likely than others. It over indexes consistently for us there. Avinash Kaushik: [00:40:00] Yes. Again, it ties back to the person has higher intent, so if they didn't convert in that lab first session, their higher intent is gonna bring them back to you. So you are absolutely right about the data that you're seeing. George Weiner: Um, alright. War corner, the 10 90 rule. Can you unpack this and then maybe apply it to somebody who thinks that their like AI strategy is done? 'cause they spend $20 or $200 a month on some tool and then like, call it a day. 'cause they did ai. Avinash Kaushik: Yes, yes. No, it's, it's good. I, I developed it in context of analytics. When I was at my, uh, job at Intuit, I used to, I was at Intuit, senior director for research and analytics. And one of the things I found is people would consistently spend lots of money on tools in that time, web analytics tools, research tools, et cetera. And, uh, so they're spending a contract of a few hundred thousand dollars or hundreds of thousands of dollars, and then they give it to a fresh graduate to find insights. [00:41:00] I was like, wait, wait, wait. So you took this $300,000 thing and gave it to somebody. You're paying $45,000 a year. Who is young in their career, young in their career, and expecting them to make you tons of money using this tool? It's not the tool, it's the human. And so that's why I developed the the 10 90 rule, which is that if you have a, if you have a hundred dollars to invest in making smarter decisions, invest $10 in the tool, $90 in the human. We all have access to so much data, so much complexity. The world is changing so fast that it is the human that is going to figure out how to make sense of these insights rather than the tool magically spewing and understanding your business enough to tell you exactly what to do. So that, that's sort of where the 10 90 rule came from. Now, sort of we are in this, in this, um, this is very good for nonprofits by the way. So we're in this era. Where On the 90 side? No. So the 10, look, don't spend insane money on tools that is just silly. So don't do that. Now the 90, let's talk about the [00:42:00] 90. Up until two years ago, I had to spell all of the 90 on what I now call organic humans. You George Weiner: glasses wearing humans, huh? Avinash Kaushik: The development of LLM means that every single nonprofit in the world has access to roughly a third year bachelor's degree student. Like a really smart intern. For free. For free. In fact, in some instances, for some nonprofits, let's say I I just reading about this nonprofit that is cleaning up plastics in the ocean for this particular nonprofit, they have access to a p HT level environmentalist using the latest Chad GP PT 4.5, like PhD level. So the little caveat I'm beginning to put in the 10 90 rule is on the 90. You give the 90 to the human and for free. Get the human, a very smart Bachelor's student by using LLMs in some instances. Get [00:43:00] for free a very smart TH using the LLMs. So the LLMs have now to be incorporated into your research, into your analysis, into building a next dashboard, into building a next website, into building your next mobile game into whatever the hell you're doing for free. You can get that so you have your organic human. Less the synthetic human for free. Both of those are in the 90 and, and for nonprofit, so, so in my work at at Coach and Kate Spade. I have access now to a couple of interns who do free work for me, well for 20 minor $20 a month because I have to pay for the plus version of G bt. So the intern costs $20 a month, but I have access to this syn synthetic human who can do a whole lot of work for me for $20 a month in my case, but it could also do it for free for you. Don't forget synthetic humans. You no longer have to rely only on the organic humans to do the 90 part. You would be stunned. Upload [00:44:00] your latest, actually take last year's worth of donations, where they came from and all this data from you. Have a spreadsheet lying around. Dump it into chat. GPT, I'll ask it to analyze it. Help you find where most donations came from, and visualize trends to present to board of directors. It will blow your mind how good it is at do it with Gemini. I'm not biased, I'm just seeing chat. GPD 'cause everybody knows it so much Better try it with mistrial a, a small LLM from France. So I, I wanna emphasize that what has changed over the last year is the ability for us to compliment our organic humans with these synthetic entities. Sometimes I say synthetic humans, but you get the point. George Weiner: Yeah. I think, you know, definitely dump that spreadsheet in. Pull out the PII real quick, just, you know, make me feel better as, you know, the, the person who's gonna be promoting this to everybody, but also, you know, sort of. With that. I want to make it clear too, that like actually inside of Gemini, like Google for nonprofits has opened up access to Gemini for free is not a per user, per whatever. You have that [00:45:00] you have notebook, LLM, and these. Are sitting in their backyards for free every day and it's like a user to lose it. 'cause you have a certain amount of intelligence tokens a day. Can you, I just like wanna climb like the tallest tree out here and just start yelling from a high building about this. Make the case of why a nonprofit should be leveraging this free like PhD student that is sitting with their hands underneath their butts, doing nothing for them right now. Avinash Kaushik: No, it is such a shame. By the way, I cannot add to your recommendation in using your Gemini Pro account if it's free, on top of, uh, all the benefits you can get. Gemini Pro also comes with restrictions around their ability to use your data. They won't, uh, their ability to put your data anywhere. Gemini free versus Gemini Pro is a very protected environment. Enterprise version. So more, more security, more privacy, et cetera. That's a great benefit. And by the way, as you said, George, they can get it for free. So, um, the, the, the, the posture you should adopt is what big companies are doing, [00:46:00] which is anytime there is a job to be done, the first question you, you should ask is, can I make the, can an AI do the job? You don't say, oh, let me send it to George. Let me email Simon, let me email Sarah. No, no, no. The first thing that should hit your head is. I do the job because most of the time for, again, remember, third year bachelor's degree, student type, type experience and intelligence, um, AI can do it better than any human. So your instincts to be, let me outsource that kind of work so I can free up George's cycles for the harder problems that the AI cannot solve. And by the way, you can do many things. For example, you got a grant and now Meta allows you to run X number of ads for free. Your first thing, single it. What kind of ad should I create? Go type in your nonprofit, tell it the kind of things you're doing. Tell it. Tell it the donations you want, tell it the size, donation, want. Let it create the first 10 ads for you for free. And then you pick the one you like. And even if you have an internal [00:47:00] designer who makes ads, they'll start with ideas rather than from scratch. It's just one small example. Or you wanna figure out. You know, my email program is stuck. I'm not getting yield rates for donations. The thing I want click the button that called that is called deep research or thinking in the LL. Click one of those two buttons and then say, I'm really struggling. I'm at wits end. I've tried all these things. Write all the detail. Write all the detail about what you've tried and now working. Can you please give me three new ideas that have worked for nonprofits who are working in water conservation? Hmm. This would've taken a human like a few days to do. You'll have an answer in under 90 seconds. I just give two simple use cases where we can use these synthetic entities to send us, do the work for us. So the default posture in nonprofits should be, look, we're resource scrapped anyway. Why not use a free bachelor's degree student, or in some case a free PhD student to do the job, or at least get us started on a job. So just spending 10 [00:48:00] hours on it. We only spend the last two hours. The entity entity does the first date, and that is super attractive. I use it every single day in, in one of my browsers. I have three traps open permanently. I've got Claude, I've got Mistrial, I've got Charge GPT. They are doing jobs for me all day long. Like all day long. They're working for me. $20 each. George Weiner: Yeah, it's an, it, it, it's truly, it's an embarrassment of riches, but also getting back to the, uh, the 10 90 is, it's still sitting there. If you haven't brought that capacity building to the person on how to prompt how to play that game of linguistic tennis with these tools, right. They're still just a hammer on a. Avinash Kaushik: That's exactly right. That's exactly right. Or, or in your case, you, you have access to Gemini for nonprofits. It's a fantastic tool. It's like a really nice card that could take you different places you insist on cycling everywhere. It's, it's okay cycle once in a while for health reasons. Otherwise, just take the car, it's free. George Weiner: Ha, you've [00:49:00] been so generous with your time. Uh, I do have one more quick war. If you, if you have, have a minute, uh, your war on funnels, and maybe this is not. Fully fair. And I am like, I hear you yelling at me every time I'm showing our marketing funnel. And I'm like, yeah, but I also have have a circle over here. Can you, can you unpack your war on funnels and maybe bring us through, see, think, do, care and in the land of ai? Avinash Kaushik: Yeah. Okay. So the marketing funnel is very old. It's been around for a very long time, and once I, I sort of started working at Google, access to lots more consumer research, lots more consumer behavior. Like 20 years ago, I began to understand that there's no such thing as funnel. So what does the funnel say? The funnel says there's a group of people running around the world, they're not aware of your brand. Find them, scream at them, spray and pray advertising at them, make them aware, and then somehow magically find the exact same people again and shut them down the fricking funnel and make them consider your product.[00:50:00] And now that they're considering, find them again, exactly the same people, and then shove them one more time. Move their purchase index and then drag them to your website. The thing is this linearity that there's no evidence in the universe that this linearity exists. For example, uh, I'm going on a, I like long bike rides, um, and I just got thirsty. I picked up the first brand. I could see a water. No awareness, no consideration, no purchase in debt. I just need water. A lot of people will buy your brand because you happen to be the cheapest. I don't give a crap about anything else, right? So, um, uh, uh, the other thing to understand is, uh, one of the brands I adore and have lots of is the brand. Patagonia. I love Patagonia. I, I don't use the word love for I think any other brand. I love Patagonia, right? For Patagonia. I'm always in the awareness stage because I always want these incredible stories that brand ambassadors tell about how they're helping the environment. [00:51:00] I have more Patagonia products than I should have. I'm already customer. I'm always open to new considerations of Patagonia products, new innovations they're bringing, and then once in a while, I'm always in need to buy a Patagonia product. I'm evaluating them. So this idea that the human is in one of these stages and your job is to shove them down, the funnel is just fatally flawed, no evidence for it. Instead, what you want to do is what is Ash's intent at the moment? He would like environmental stories about how we're improving planet earth. Patagonia will say, I wanna make him aware of my environmental stories, but if they only thought of marketing and selling, they wouldn't put me in the awareness because I'm already a customer who buys lots of stuff from already, right? Or sometimes I'm like, oh, I'm, I'm heading over to London next week. Um, I need a thing, jacket. So yeah, consideration show up even though I'm your customer. So this seating do care is a framework that [00:52:00] says, rather than shoving people down things that don't exist and wasting your money, your marketing should be able to discern any human's intent and then be able to respond with a piece of content. Sometimes that piece of content in an is an ad. Sometimes it's a webpage, sometimes it's an email. Sometimes it's a video. Sometimes it's a podcast. This idea of understanding intent is the bedrock on which seat do care is built about, and it creates fully customer-centric marketing. It is harder to do because intent is harder to infer, but if you wanna build a competitive advantage for yourself. Intent is the magic. George Weiner: Well, I think that's a, a great point to, to end on. And again, so generous with, uh, you know, all the work you do and also supporting nonprofits in the many ways that you do. And I'm, uh, always, always watching and seeing what I'm missing when, um, when a new, uh, AKA's Razor and Newsletter come out. So any final sign off [00:53:00] here on how do people find you? How do people help you? Let's hear it. Avinash Kaushik: You can just Google or answer Engine Me. It's, I'm not hard. I hard to find, but if you're a nonprofit, you can sign up for my newsletter, TMAI marketing analytics newsletter. Um, there's a free one and a paid one, so you can just sign up for the free one. It's a newsletter that comes out every five weeks. It's completely free, no strings or anything. And that way I'll be happy to share my stories around better marketing and analytics using the free newsletter for you so you can sign up for that. George Weiner: Brilliant. Well, thank you so much, Avan. And maybe, maybe we'll have to take you up on that offer to talk sometime next year and see, uh, if maybe we're, we're all just sort of, uh, hanging out with synthetic humans nonstop. Thank you so much. It was fun, George. [00:54:00]

On this week's episode of You Are What You Read, we are joined by an All-American icon: supermodel, actress and artist, Christie Brinkley, with her new memoir, UPTOWN GIRL. In 1974, a twenty-year-old Christie Brinkley was “discovered” outside a Paris phone booth, which set off an extraordinary 50-year modeling career. Christie has been photographed on six continents, in more than thirty countries and has appeared on more than five hundred magazine covers worldwide. Now, for the first time, Christie shares what life has been like, both in front of and behind the cameras. Christie is a Smile Train ambassador, activist in children's environmental health and wellness, creator and owner of Bellissima wines and prosecco and the clothing line TWRHLL (TOWER HILL), and proud mom of three amazing kids.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this heartfelt episode of Our Forever Smiles, host Laura Arroyo sits down with fellow cleft mama Brittnie Hampson @britthampson to share their deeply personal experiences of discovering their daughters' cleft palates at birth—both born at UNC. They reflect on the shock of an unexpected diagnosis, the overwhelming emotions that followed, and the immediate challenges they faced—especially with feeding. Laura and Brittnie open up about the lack of nurse education they encountered in the hospital and how unprepared many staff were to support a cleft palate diagnosis. Together, they talk about what it means to advocate for your child when you feel lost, and how connection and shared stories can bring clarity, comfort, and strength. Links and Resources: Patreon Subscription Tiers for Exclusive Content Our Forever Smiles Merch Store NC Cleft Mom FB Group Our Forever Smiles FB Group _________________________________________________________________________ Today's sponsor is sienna dawn media Integrated Marketing Agency  sienna dawn media is more than just a marketing agency—they are your partners in progress. Their mission is simple — to alleviate marketing bandwidth, allowing creative business owners to focus on what they set out to do: create. sienna dawn media empowers creatives to thrive without the burden of managing their own social media and marketing campaigns. So, if you're ready to set sail toward new horizons, let sienna dawn media chart the course and steer your business toward success. Visit siennadawnmedia.com.

In this inspiring episode of Our Forever Smiles, host Laura Arroyo sits down with Tessa De Goede, the founder of Tess Unlimited, a nonprofit organization providing comprehensive cleft care to children in Guatemala. Tessa shares her incredible journey of how she got into this work, the deep connection she has with the Guatemalan people, and the passion that drives her to serve cleft-affected families. She opens up about the challenges and triumphs of running an organization dedicated to life-changing surgeries and holistic cleft care, as well as the support system that keeps her mission going. From the first moments that led her to cleft advocacy to the countless lives she's impacted, Tessa's dedication shines through in every aspect of her work. Tune in for an uplifting conversation about service, resilience, and the power of making a difference in the cleft community.

In this powerful episode of Our Forever Smiles, host Laura Arroyo welcomes Teresa Peyton Bridges and returning guest Corinne Altrichter to share their deeply personal journeys through countless surgeries and the struggles of navigating insurance. Both Teresa and Corinne have faced overwhelming challenges in securing the care they or their children need, highlighting the urgent need for change in the healthcare system.   Together, they break down why the Ensuring Lasting Smiles Act (ELSA) is so critical for individuals with congenital anomalies and how its passage would protect families from the financial and emotional toll of insurance denials.   Tune in for an honest, eye-opening conversation about advocacy, resilience, and the fight for fair coverage — because no family should have to battle for medically necessary care. Links and Resources: NFED Resources ELSA Resources Patreon Subscription Tiers for Exclusive Content Our Forever Smiles Merch Store Today's sponsor is sienna dawn media Integrated Marketing Agency  sienna dawn media is more than just a marketing agency—they are your partners in progress. Their mission is simple — to alleviate marketing bandwidth, allowing creative business owners to focus on what they set out to do: create. sienna dawn media empowers creatives to thrive without the burden of managing their own social media and marketing campaigns. So, if you're ready to set sail toward new horizons, let sienna dawn media chart the course and steer your business toward success. Visit siennadawnmedia.com.

In this heartfelt episode of Our Forever Smiles, host Laura Arroyo sits down with Summer Kormushoff to reflect on her son's recent cleft lip surgery. Summer shares her personal experience navigating the emotional and logistical aspects of the procedure, offering an honest and moving look into the challenges and triumphs of her family's journey. Following the conversation, Laura and Summer dive into a Cleft Lip Repair Surgery 101, breaking down the procedure, recovery, and what parents and caregivers can expect. Whether you're currently navigating cleft lip surgery or simply want to learn more, this episode provides both an emotional connection and expert insight into this life-changing procedure. Tune in for a blend of real-life experience and expert guidance — offering hope, clarity, and a deeper understanding of the cleft lip surgery process. Links and Resources: Patreon Subscription Tiers for Exclusive Content Cleft Lip Repair Surgery 101 Blog Our Forever Smiles Merch Store Today's sponsor is sienna dawn media Integrated Marketing Agency  sienna dawn media is more than just a marketing agency—they are your partners in progress. Their mission is simple — to alleviate marketing bandwidth, allowing creative business owners to focus on what they set out to do: create. sienna dawn media empowers creatives to thrive without the burden of managing their own social media and marketing campaigns. So, if you're ready to set sail toward new horizons, let sienna dawn media chart the course and steer your business toward success. Visit siennadawnmedia.com.

Brandon Lawson is a nonprofit communications specialist based in New York City and currently serves as the Director of Content Strategy at Smile Train, the world's largest cleft charity. With over 20 years of experience, Brandon has dedicated his career to helping organizations craft compelling narratives, engage audiences, and achieve their financial goals. Check out his team's multiple Shorty award winning blog and Oscar-qualified documentary film, Every Day After, streaming now on the Documentary Channel. Nicole Bell is Smile Train's Vice President of Public Relations, bringing over 20 years of experience in journalism, media strategy, and communications. She has led award-winning campaigns and continuously secures coverage in top media outlets like NBC Nightly News, The Associated Press, CNN, Good Morning America and Fox News. Nicole has experience as a college professor, teaching graduate-level public relations courses. Previously, Nicole spent over a decade as a TV journalist, reporting for network affiliates across the country. She holds a Master's in Broadcast Journalism from Boston University and a Bachelor's in Speech Communications from East Stroudsburg University.

  Susannah Schaefer is the President and CEO of Smile Train, a global nonprofit that empowers local medical professionals to provide free cleft repair surgery and comprehensive cleft care in their communities. Under her leadership, Smile Train has grown into the world's largest cleft-focused organization, celebrating over two million cleft surgeries and making life-changing impacts in more than 90 countries.  Susannah joins me on the show to share her incredible journey to Smile Train, her passion for sustainable healthcare solutions, and the story of the organization's visionary founder, Charles B. Wang. We discuss the importance of building capacity through training local surgeons, the transformational power of cleft surgery, and how Smile Train fosters health system strengthening in underserved regions. Susannah also reflects on the global partnerships that have driven Smile Train's remarkable success and the culture of generosity that fuels its mission.  "We go farther together." - Susannah Schaefer   "Generosity isn't just financial—it's about time, care, and connection."  - Susannah Schaefer   "Be confident, be present, and be adaptable." - Susannah Schaefer    This Week on The Wow Factor:  How Smile Train's sustainable model trains local surgeons to treat cleft lip and palate, ensuring long-term impact.  The origin story of Smile Train and its founder Charles B. Wang's vision to replace mission-based care with a sustainable approach.  Why cleft is the most common facial birth difference worldwide, affecting one in 700 births.  The life-changing impact of early cleft surgery and comprehensive cleft care.  How Smile Train has performed over two million surgeries in 25 years and continues to address the backlog of untreated clefts.  The role of partnerships, like Smile Train's collaboration with Kids Operating Room (Kids OR), in strengthening healthcare systems across Africa.  How generosity, in all its forms, drives Smile Train's mission and inspires supporters worldwide.  Why nonprofits must remain relevant and advocate for their causes in an ever-changing, competitive environment.    Susannah Schaefer's Words of Wisdom: Be confident, be present, be a good listener, and be adaptable. As leaders, we have the ability to make a meaningful impact, but that requires learning and staying relevant in a rapidly changing world.  Connect with Susannah Schaefer and Smile Train:  Smile Train Website  Smile Train on Facebook  Smile Train on Instagram  Smile Train on X (formerly Twitter)  Susannah Schaefer's Bio  Susannah Schaefer's LinkedIn  Connect with The Wow Factor:  Brad's Website  Email Brad Formsma  LinkedIn  Instagram  Facebook  X   

In this special episode, we introduce you to Isaac Ballou and Michael Barbour, Iva and Ashley's brothers. They share their personal stories, offering a look into what it's like to grow up alongside a cleft-affected sibling. From early childhood memories to their roles in their sisters' lives today, these men's insightful stories of the strength and love that can define this journey are a must-listen for all members of the cleft community, including allies.

Hosts Ashley Barbour and Iva Ballou sit down with Dr. Leanne Magee, a pediatric psychologist from Children's Hospital of Philadelphia who specializes in working with children with appearance differences, for a thoughtful discussion on the critical intersection of mental health and cleft care. We explore Dr. Magee's unique role on the cleft care team, strategies for addressing bullying, and the importance of building confidence in children and adults alike. Our conversation also touches on the challenges of accessing mental health care within the cleft community, insurance barriers, and the often-misunderstood aspects of psychosocial care. Mentioned:Dr. Leanne Magee at Children's Hospital of Pennsylvania Cleft Con 2020 Session Cleft Con 2021 Session Cleft Con 2022 Session Cleft Con NYC Session American Cleft Palate Craniofacial Association Patients & Families ResourcesSmile Train Community ProgramsIf you like the show, be sure to subscribe, leave a review, follow us on social, and tell all your friends to listen. Questions or episode ideas? Email us at lovemeetsjoy@smiletrain.org. We can't wait to hear from you.Transcripts are available at smiletrain.org/lovemeetsjoy Follow Ashley on IG at CleftLoveIG and Facebook at CleftLove Follow Iva on IG at RealSophisticatedJoy and Facebook at RealSophisticatedJoy Love Meets Joy is produced by Smile Train, the world's largest cleft-focused organization, with a sustainable and local model of supporting surgery and other forms of essential care. Over the last 25+ years, Smile Train has supported safe and quality cleft care for 2+ million children and will continue to do so until every child in need with a cleft has access to the care they deserve. Learn more here.

In this episode, we bring you the inspiring stories of painter Monica Bachue and TikTok star and RN Jackson Wright, two cleft-affected individuals who are channeling their personal experiences into art that makes a difference. Mentioned: Leporinos Foundation Follow Monica and Leporinos on IG at @monicabachue and @leporinos Follow Jackson at @printfairy and @dakotawright If you like the show, be sure to subscribe, leave a review, follow us on social, and tell all your friends to listen. Questions or episode ideas? Email us at lovemeetsjoy@smiletrain.org. We can't wait to hear from you.Transcripts are available at smiletrain.org/lovemeetsjoy Follow Ashley on IG at CleftLoveIG and Facebook at CleftLove Follow Iva on IG at RealSophisticatedJoy and Facebook at RealSophisticatedJoy Love Meets Joy is produced by Smile Train, the world's largest cleft-focused organization, with a sustainable and local model of supporting surgery and other forms of essential care. Over the last 25+ years, Smile Train has supported safe and quality cleft care for 2+ million children and will continue to do so until every child in need with a cleft has access to the care they deserve. Learn more here.

Iva and Ashley sit down with Canadian actor, writer, and producer Allisha Pelletier for a heartfelt conversation celebrating resilience, creativity, and the joy of embracing your own unique journey. Allisha shares what it was like to grow up with a bilateral cleft lip and palate, discover her passion for acting, and navigate the challenges of being in a beauty-focused industry. We also dive into her new project, "The H-Word," a show that blends comedy with real-life experiences and explores the healing power of storytelling and the importance of community. Mentioned:Follow Allisha and H Word on IG at @allisha.pelletier and @thehwordseries If you like the show, be sure to subscribe, leave a review, follow us on social, and tell all your friends to listen. Questions or episode ideas? Email us at lovemeetsjoy@smiletrain.org. We can't wait to hear from you.Transcripts are available at smiletrain.org/lovemeetsjoy Follow Ashley on IG at CleftLoveIG and Facebook at CleftLove Follow Iva on IG at RealSophisticatedJoy and Facebook at RealSophisticatedJoy Love Meets Joy is produced by Smile Train, the world's largest cleft-focused organization, with a sustainable and local model of supporting surgery and other forms of essential care. Over the last 25+ years, Smile Train has supported safe and quality cleft care for 2+ million children and will continue to do so until every child in need with a cleft has access to the care they deserve. Learn more here.

Iva and Ashley welcome Luci Capo-Rome, a retired nurse practitioner, author, and advocate for older adults with craniofacial differences for an insightful, powerful discussion on overcoming challenges, finding strength in community, and advocating for lasting change. Luci shares her journey to accepting her bilateral cleft lip and palate, her career as both a patient and a healthcare provider, and the inspiration behind her book, Lucia's Story: My Imperfect Beauty. Our conversation explores why community is so important for cleft-affected individuals, the impact of self-esteem on relationships, and Luci's advocacy work, including her efforts spearheading Smile Train's support for the Ensuring Lasting Smiles Act (ELSA).

In this highlight, Ashley and Iva introduce listeners to a completely different perspective of their cleft journeys – their mothers'.

In this highlight, Ashley and Iva introduce listeners to a completely different perspective of their cleft journeys – their mothers'.

In this highlight, Ashley and Iva discuss their experiences with bullying and share advice for others who may be dealing with it.

In this heartfelt episode, we sit down with former journalist and author Gloria Madera to explore her journey from sharing impactful stories to finding her voice as a mother of a child with a cleft lip and palate. Gloria opens up about the challenges she faced as a first-time mom navigating the world of cleft care, and how she transformed her experiences into a powerful tool for other parents. Gloria discusses her inspiring mission to educate and empower children with cleft conditions through her children's books. Get ready to be inspired by Gloria's strength, resilience, and unwavering love for her son, Archie. Amazon Book: Archie the Cleftie Want to share your story? Email us at ourforeversmiles@gmail.com. Want to be a show sponsor? Email us at ourforeversmiles@gmail.com Follow us @ourforeversmiles on social platforms We know you will have questions! Join our FB Community to discuss the weekly episode and speak directly to our guests.  _______________________________________________________________________________ This podcast is completely free for you, but if you'd ever consider supporting the show, we truly appreciate it. One way you can do that is by using our affiliate links. These are links to products we've mentioned on the show, and if you make a purchase through one of them, we might earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. It's a great way to show your love for the podcast and help us keep creating content that educates, empowers, and strengthens the cleft lip and palate community! First Bottle to Purchase After Palate Repair - Post Palate Repair Straw Trainer Juselle's Cleft Palate Bottle - Pigeon Bottle Specialty Feeder Sippy Cup for Pre Palate Repair Prep - Munchkin 360 Weigh your Baby at Home - Weighted Feeds Scale Squeezable Straw Training Bottle - Honey Bear Straw Cup Free Flow Cup for Pre palate Repair Prep - Reflo Smart Cup Pacifiers that have Worked for Cleft Lip and Palate Babies - Itzy Ritzy Pacifiers that have Worked for Cleft Lip and Palate Babies - MAM Pacifiers that have Worked for Cleft Lip and Palate Babies - Itzy Ritzy Scar Cream Recommended by Alexis Garcia, Cleft Lip Mom - bioCorneum - Pricey**

Having a facial difference can complicate how individuals relate to conventional beauty standards. For cleft-affected women, it can be an especially fraught topic. In this highlight, Ashley and Iva discuss their own, ever-evolving journeys around makeup, scars and body image.

As members of the cleft community know firsthand, having a facial difference can introduce a completely new dimension to dating. In this highlight, Ashley and Iva discuss how their clefts have affected their romantic relationships, their approach to online dating, and the universal theme of searching for love.

While all members of the cleft lip and palate community have some shared experiences, everyone's journey is unique. In this highlight, Ashley and Iva dive into their personal cleft experiences. Among other topics, they discuss their surgeries, cleft teams and cleft-related eating challenges.

Pamela is a mom of three boys and a military spouse. Born and raised in Moncton, Canada, Pamela is an entrepreneur, nonprofit founder, skincare developer, magazine and event creator, podcaster, cleft lip warrior, and athlete. Pamela is an ambassador for Smile Train. Transitioning and pivoting is no feat for Pamela, before marrying her US Air Force pilot, she resided in Kuwait for a decade. As one of the few Canadians who remained in Kuwait after the evacuation amidst operation Iraqi Freedom, Pamela built shelter in home where she would seek refuge with her then one-year-old baby. Pamela has the ability to handle tough situations and uses her strength to empower women. Pamela began her quest for empowering women in 2018.  It has since branched into a global effort to shine a bright light on the extraordinary women of the world! 

In this episode of Our Forever Smiles, host Laura Arroyo shares an unforgettable experience from Smile Train's Cleft Con 2024. Laura immersed herself in heartwarming stories as she connected with inspiring individuals from the cleft lip and palate community. She also discovered the power of human connection and the incredible impact of organizations like Smile Train. Get ready to be uplifted and inspired as Laura Arroyo brings you behind the scenes of this life-changing event. Connect with fellow cleft advocates on Instagram: @thecelebratingmama, @Stepheintz, @cleftmom83, @cleftloveig, @jimenaaxoxo, @elliemades, @_beautybytoni_ , @collette_cutiewithacleft, @karalynholden, @gloriamaderatv @realsophisticatedjoy Support the Ensuring Lasting Smiles Act: https://nfed.org/get-involved/advocate/ways-to-advocate/#/ Love Meets Joy Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/love-meets-joy/id1632265631?i=1000577990940 Want to share your story? Email us at ourforeversmiles@gmail.com. Want to be a show sponsor? Email us at ourforeversmiles@gmail.com Follow us @ourforeversmiles on social platforms We know you will have questions! Join our FB Community to discuss the weekly episode and speak directly to our guests. https://www.facebook.com/groups/1081522212884073/ ____________________________________________________________________________ Here are some key highlights from the event:   Inspiring keynote speeches by Lisa Olivarez. Engaging sessions on various aspects of cleft care. Opportunities to network with fellow attendees and friends. Special sessions on emotional support, insurance how-to, and personal stories. We also want to share the following links and updates with you as well:   Smile Train's two millionth cleft surgery: Alim and Rajib Attached here is the ELSA one-pager, and this is the link to the NFED advocacy page: https://nfed.org/get-involved/advocate/ways-to-advocate/#/ 5th Annual Global Cleft Con: Our Annual Virtual Cleft Con will be held on November 2nd. Learn more at www.smiletrain.org/cleftcon.   Join the Cleft Community Advisory Council (CCAC): Informed by their own experiences with clefts, our members help advance the organization's communications strategies and, through an array of engagement activities, help strengthen the US cleft community. Applications open in December. Learn more at www.smiletrain.org/ccac Join Smile Train's Young Leadership Circle (YLC): The YLC is a group of graduate students and young professionals that holds fundraising events and educational programs throughout the year. Applications are now open and close onAugust 23rd. Learn more at www.smiletrain.org/ylc Become a Smile Train Student Ambassador: Made up of students from across the U.S., this group encourages students to expand their networks, learn about the global nonprofit sector, and support Smile Train's programs. Applications are now open and close on August 23rd. Learn more at www.smiletrain.org/student-ambassador   Join Team EMPOWER: By joining Team EMPOWER, participants can take part in exclusive endurance events, such as marathons and walks, and in turn fundraise for Smile Train. Team EMPOWER is particularly prominent in the marathon space, with spots in four of the six major marathons. https://www.smiletrain.org/get-involved/team-empower

Promo for season 2

Have you ever thought about what it's like to perform complex oral surgeries in some of the most remote parts of Africa? Today, we sit down with Dr. Timothy Bartholomew, a leading oral and maxillofacial surgeon at North Coast Oral Surgery, to discuss his transformative work in Africa. With a deep commitment to patient care and a reputation for excellence, Dr. Bartholomew specializes in advanced surgical techniques that transform smiles and improve lives. In our conversation, we delve into Tim's time working in Africa and the challenges and triumphs of working in resource-limited settings. We discuss how his practice setup allows him to continue his work abroad, the different fellowships he participated in, and how working in Africa added to his expertise. Hear about how he got started, how he funded his initial humanitarian work, why he needed to learn French, and his experience working in a mission hospital. Explore what he learned about making his resources last longer, improvising with what you have safely, why follow-ups are his biggest challenge, and the personable aspect of working in Africa. Gain insights into the upcoming trips he has planned, how he balances his work abroad with family life, what he learned about poverty, and vital considerations for anyone thinking of committing to humanitarian work. Join us and discover the ins and outs of working beyond borders with Dr. Tim Bartholomew. Tune in now!Key Points From This Episode:Tim's training background, his current practice setup, and what he focuses on.What experience and qualities are needed to pursue humanitarian work.Hear about the hurdles he had to overcome and the lessons he learned.The type of compromises it takes to work in a mission hospital in Africa.How his wife's passion for being a mission doctor plays into his work.Find out what he finds so rewarding about working in Africa.Differences in working as a dentist in Africa compared to America.Discover how oral surgeons can help support those working abroad.Future trips he has planned and why he continues his work abroad.Advice and resources for oral surgeons considering humanitarian work.Favorite books, how he unwinds, his ultimate forceps, and more!Links Mentioned in Today's Episode:Dr. Tim Bartholomew — https://www.northcoastoralsurgery.com/timothy-bartholomew-dds-facsDr. Tim Bartholomew Email — lefortone@hotmail.comNorth Coast Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery — https://www.northcoastoralsurgery.com/Smile Train — https://www.smiletrain.org/When Helping Hurts — https://www.amazon.com/When-Helping-Hurts-Alleviate-Yourself/dp/0802409989/A History of the English-Speaking Peoples — https://www.amazon.com/History-English-Speaking-Peoples-Bloomsbury-Revelations/dp/1474216315McHale's Navy — https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0055689/MedSend — https://medsend.orgEveryday Oral Surgery Website — https://www.everydayoralsurgery.com/ Dr. Grant Stucki Email — grantstucki@gmail.comDr. Grant Stucki Phone — 720-441-6059

In case you missed Pardcast-A-Thon 2024 on Saturday, here are four of the 25 guest segments from the show featuring Sarah Silverman, Patton Oswalt, Oliver Pardo and Alyssa Sabo! To watch the full nine-plus hour show, head over to pardcastathon.com and purchase the #PCAT24 Download Package, available now! Proceeds benefit Smile Train.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In this episode, we speak with Ryan Zapolski, one of four individuals honored with the Outstanding Young Professional Award by the Association of Fundraising Professionals in 2024. Ryan serves as Senior Manager of Development at Smile Train, a nonprofit dedicated to comprehensive cleft care now celebrating its 25th anniversary. There, he oversees the mid-level giving and stewardship team and his expertise in donor research has led to numerous major gifts, including a million-dollar donation. We caught up with Ryan in Toronto at AFP ICON, the fundraising association's annual international gathering. 

The mail is here, and with it comes the ABCs of NNF! Then, Andy explains how he lost on Jeopardy!To hear the full episode, head over to nevernotfunny.com and sign up for a Platinum subscription. Plans start at $6/month and include a second full episode every week, video of every episode, plus a monthly bonus episode. More perks, like access to our full back catalog, an exclusive T-shirt, a guest photo book and more are also available. Sign up today!Also, don't forget to tune into PARDCAST-A-THON 2024 on May 25th from 3pm-Midnight PDT at pardcastathon.com! 25 hilarious guests in 9 hours -- music, laughs, games, auctions, all in support of Smile Train.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In this episode, host Laura Arroyo welcomes Gina Kocher, the inspiring voice behind the Instagram account @TheCelebratingMama, on a conversation about navigating the unique journey of raising a child with a cleft lip and palate. Gina candidly shares her experiences and challenges, but also offers a powerful message of hope and resilience. She'll discuss: Finding gratitude amidst medical uncertainties and complexities. Shifting perspective to celebrate the extraordinary in the everyday. Building a supportive community and fostering self-advocacy for your child. Maintaining mental and emotional well-being as a parent facing unique challenges. Whether you're a parent facing similar circumstances, an individual impacted by cleft conditions, or simply seeking inspiration, this episode will leave you feeling empowered and hopeful. Join Laura and Gina as they explore the power of gratitude in navigating difficult journeys and the beauty of finding joy in the unexpected. Want to share your story? Email us at ourforeversmiles@gmail.com. Want to be a show sponsor? Email us at ourforeversmiles@gmail.com Follow us @ourforeversmiles on social platforms We know you will have questions! Join our FB Community to discuss the weekly episode and speak directly to our guests. https://www.facebook.com/groups/1081522212884073/ Check out the #1 Celebrate Gratitude Journal: https://a.co/d/ixbKaV1  This podcast is completely free for you, but if you'd ever consider supporting the show, we truly appreciate it. One way you can do that is by using our affiliate links. These are links to products we've mentioned on the show, and if you make a purchase through one of them, we might earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. It's a great way to show your love for the podcast and help us keep creating content that educates, empowers, and strengthens the cleft lip and palate community! First Bottle to Purchase After Palate Repair - Post Palate Repair Straw Trainer Juselle's Cleft Palate Bottle - Pigeon Bottle Specialty Feeder Sippy Cup for Pre Palate Repair Prep - Munchkin 360 Weigh your Baby at Home - Weighted Feeds Scale Squeezable Straw Training Bottle - Honey Bear Straw Cup Free Flow Cup for Pre palate Repair Prep - Reflo Smart Cup Pacifiers that have Worked for Cleft Lip and Palate Babies - Itzy Ritzy Pacifiers that have Worked for Cleft Lip and Palate Babies - MAM Pacifiers that have Worked for Cleft Lip and Palate Babies - Itzy Ritzy Scar Cream Recommended by Alexis Garcia, Cleft Lip Mom - bioCorneum - Pricey**

Nisha Benny-Varghese is a humanitarian, storyteller and describes herself as “an aspiring Good Human Being” who tries to make a difference and inspire others to do the same. In this episode, Nisha discusses volunteering at Breath of Life, a children's home in East London, South Africa, that cares for abandoned and orphaned babies until they find a suitable home for them or until they are reunited with their families… her liberating experience ziplining in 2016 to raise funds for Smile Train to repair 42 cleft palates… how having cerebral palsy and needing help every day has inspired her philanthropy and volunteerism… the importance of not “labeling” people… getting great joy from the small things in life… practicing gratitude every morning and every night by mentioning to herself a list of things for which she is grateful… reminding us to use past pain to help someone else in the present… and this inspiring advice for us all, “Don't let anyone tell you that your voice doesn't matter.” (South Africa)

Suzanne Le Mignot serves as CBS2 Chicago's weekend news morning anchor and weekday reporter. Le Mignot joined the station in 1995 as a freelance reporter and became a full-time reporter in 1999. She has covered a wide variety of stories, with a particular concentration on community related events, including serving as a news correspondent for CBS2′s Southside neighborhood newsroom from 1999-2000. Prior to joining CBS2, Le Mignot was a news anchor and reporter for WBBM-AM Newsradio 780 (1994-99). She was a news anchor and reporter at WGN-AM (1996) and at WTMJ-AM in Milwaukee (1995-96), before returning to WBBM-AM in 1996. In 2007, LeMignot was honored by The Associated Press in the hard news feature category for her investigative report entitled "Tracking Your Security." Her investigation uncovered that bomb-sniffing dogs at Chicago's Metra train stations could not detect the passing scent of explosives. As a result of that story, Illinois passed a law that requires dog handlers to undergo 180 hours of rigorous training and to pass a new state exam. The report also earned LeMignot a Peter Lisagor Award in the in-depth reporting or series category and a Herman Kogan Award from the Chicago Bar Association. Le Mignot has won several other industry awards: a local and national Emmy for her breaking news reports on the Blue Line derailment (2008); a local and national Emmy Award for her breaking news reports about the death of Pope John Paul II (2005); the Illinois Broadcasters Association Silver Dome Award (1997); two Peter Lisagor Awards (1994 and 1996) and the National Association of Black Journalists Leadership Award, while a student (1993). She is a member of the National Association of Black Journalists and a Board Member of the National Association of Black Journalists Chicago Chapter. Le Mignot has served as a mentor and volunteer at Bunche Elementary School in Chicago's Englewood community. She regularly held workshops and planned field trips centered on building self-esteem for young girls. She has served on the Board of Directors of the Girl Scouts of Greater Chicago & Northwest Indiana. Additionally, she is on the Board of Directors of PAWS Chicago, the largest no-kill animal shelter in the Midwest. Le Mignot helped set up the first humane education program with PAWS in 2003. PAWS visits Chicago area schools, using the program to teach elementary school children about the importance of nurturing animals. The program is also used by the Girl Scouts of Greater Chicago. Le Mignot has served on the Board of Directors of the Better Boys Foundation. The organization provides educational assistance to boys and girls in the North Lawndale community on Chicago's west side. Le Mignot is the recipient of the National Civil Rights Library 2016 Lifetime Achievement Award for her work in journalism. In 2017, she was inducted into the National Civil Rights Hall of Fame. In 2017, Le Mignot also received the "We Dream in Color" Michelle Obama Humanitarian Award for her reports that led to positive change in the lives of those who have endured challenging times. In 2019, Le Mignot won first place in the Chicago Journalists Association Sarah Brown Boyden Award Competition in the Public Service category for her "Misidentified Man" series of reports. The day before Le Mignot received the award, Senate Bill SB2309 was introduced on November 14, 2019. The bill would make fingerprinting and DNA testing mandatory in John and Jane Doe cases in Illinois. In 2021 she received The Shantieya Smith "We Fight for Her Award" by MOVE and YOVE (Mothers Opposed to Violence Everywhere and Youth Opposed to Violence Everywhere) for her reports bringing attention to missing and murdered black girls and women in Chicago. She was also chosen by Better Magazine in 2021 as one of the top 10 Black Women of Impact in Chicago and chosen by the America Nation Multicultural World Foundation as the 2021 Multicultural Woman of the Year. She has served as a Trustee of Ray Graham Association for People with Disabilities, an organization that supports children and adults with developmental disabilities in DuPage and Cook counties. Le Mignot is also on the Board of Trustees of Lifeline Humanitarian Organization. The group provides medical supplies and aid for war orphans throughout former Yugoslavia. She's on the Advisory Council for Smile Train, an organization that provides life-saving cleft-palate surgery for children in need around the world.

Christine had her first surgery when she was only a couple of months old. Now, well into adulthood, Christine has had over twenty surgeries for the bilateral cleft lip and palate that she was born with.The physical difficulties were one thing, but the emotional and social fallout have caused the biggest scars. Christine spent many years feeling othered, and outcast. People refused to give her a chance, even when she was determined to prove herself.But where others may have given up, Christine fought. She fought for herself and her position. She accomplished lifelong goals and worked to become the person she wanted to be.These days, Christine is an advocate for the cleft lip and palate community, working with the nonprofit organization Smile Train to provide education and resources for all about cleft lip and palate.Visit Christine's Facebook & Instagram_______________________Follow The Human Experience on InstagramVisit The Human Experience websiteSend me an email at TheHXPod@gmail.com

Sebastian Siegel is a British-American polymath—a director, producer, screenwriter, actor, and author—known for his versatile storytelling across film, literature, and psychology. His notable works include directing "GRACE AND GRIT," based on Ken Wilber's book, and creating films like "AWAKENING WORLD." Raised between Hawaii and Texas, he draws from a lineage of influential figures, crafting narratives that explore transcendence, consciousness, and joy. Beyond his entertainment career, he's been an advocate for causes, a mentor, and a supporter of charities like The Smile Train and Greenpeace. In Los Angeles, he practices privately, weaving themes of transcendence into his diverse creative endeavors. Connect With Sebastian Siegel! instagram.com/sebastiansiegel1 twitter.com/sebastiansiegel CHAPTERS: 0:00 - Introduction 0:54 - Meet Sebastian Siegel 04:10 - How Does the Movie Industry Work? 06:15 - Sebastian on Creating Evergreen Movies 07:50 - Sebastian Siegel on Handling the "Grace and Grit" Movie 13:01 - How Does Sebastian Stay Calm During Tapings? 15:15 - Sebastian Siegel on Reading Ken Wilber's Books 19:55 - How Does Sebastian Learn About Ken Wilber? 25:35 - Learning about Your Consciousness 28:46 - The Meaning of the "Grace and Grit" Movie 35:51 - Sebastian's Perspective on Life 40:13 - Sebastian's Thoughts on AI 47:33 - Sebastian on Setting Goals and Focus 51:42 - Sebastian's Thoughts on Death 57:52 - Purpose of Relationships, Settling in Relationships 01:02:33 - Sebastian on His First Interaction with Ken Wilber 01:04:16 - Sebastian's Similarities with Ken Wilber Regarding Having Kids 01:07:25 - Andy's Dreaming, Parallel Universe 01:14:23 - Sebastian's First Interaction with Joseph Campbell 01:16:02 - Andy on Being Tired of Being Reborn 01:22:32 - Connect with Sebastian Siegel 01:22:56 - Outro

Lynette and Stefanie welcome comedian and podcaster Jimmy Pardo to the show for this week's guest episode. The ladies talk to Jimmy about: Getting his start in comedy in Chicago, moving to Los Angeles in the mid 90s, being sober almost 25 years, bombing on The Tonight Show, his long running charity show to benefit Smile Train, starting his podcast in 2006, and meeting his wife Danielle who even once worked with Stefanie. For more on Jimmy visit his website: JimmyPardo.comHis podcast Never Not Funny is available wherever you listen to podcasts And connect with our show on all social media channels @FCOLpodcastThis show is part of the Spreaker Prime Network, if you are interested in advertising on this podcast, contact us at https://www.spreaker.com/show/5749525/advertisement

Introduction Welcome to the Bold Goal Crusher Podcast, where we empower you to crush your bold goals without working double time. Host: Sara Mayer Guest Introduction Guest: Christine Errico Background: Born with a bilateral cleft lip and palate, Christine has overcome more than 20 surgeries and severe bullying. She is now a TEDx speaker, a certified confidence and transformation coach, holds a PhD in business, and advocates for the cleft lip and palate community through her work with Smile Train. Interview Begins Christine's childhood experiences with bullying, name-calling, and exclusion due to her facial difference. The emotional toll it took on her and the impact on her self-esteem and self-identity. Sara shares her own experience with childhood bullying. How Christine coped with the bullying by denying and ignoring it. The importance of recognizing and addressing emotional challenges. Christine's journey towards professional help and self-acceptance in her 40s. The role of adversity in building strength, resilience, and compassion. The misconception that physical appearance defines one's identity. The power of positive affirmations and self-belief. The significance of focusing on what's working in our lives. Sara's story about offering compliments to others and the positive impact it can have. Building Confidence and Overcoming Social Anxiety Christine's role as a certified confidence coach. The three pillars of confidence: self-awareness, emotional management, and social skills. Learning how to speak up for what you want. Practicing asking for help in a safe environment. Setting boundaries and the importance of self-respect. Sara's experience with learning to set boundaries. The achievement and acceptance highs that drive people to overcommit. The history of women being expected to be caregivers and pleasers. The shift towards prioritizing self-care and self-compassion. The significance of authenticity and knowing one's values. How authenticity leads to trust and connection in relationships. Connecting with Christine Errico Christine's website: ChristineErrico.com Free ebook: "How to Be Comfortable in Your Own Skin" Schedule a free consultation with Christine through her website. Christine's expertise in building self-acceptance, self-esteem, self-worth, and setting boundaries. Closing Remarks Sara thanks Christine for the insightful conversation and the valuable information shared. Encouragement for listeners to crush their goals and take action towards self-improvement. Outro Thank you for tuning into the Bold Goal Crusher Podcast. Sara looks forward to supporting the community in achieving their goals. Connect with Christine: Facebook Christine Errico - Confidence and Transformation Coach Instagram @christine_errico ChristineErrico.com Connect with Sara Mayer: Instagram @saramayerconsulting Facebook @saracmayerconsulting LinkedIn @saramayerconsulting

On this episode of Grilling JR, we are headed back to the studio for another look back at some of good ol' JR's WSB studio sessions with the superstars of yesterday. On this edition, Jim welcomes "Mr. Perfect" Curt Henning, "The Enforcer" Arn Anderson and takes calls from listeners! HENSON SHAVING - It's time to say no to subscriptions and yes to a razor that'll last you a lifetime. Visit HENSONSHAVING.com/JR to pick the razor for you and use code JR and you'll get two years' worth of blades free with your razor ROCKET MONEY - Cancel your unwanted subscriptions – and manage your money the easy way – by going to RocketMoney.com/jr AG 1 - Try AG1 and get a FREE 1-year supply of Vitamin D AND 5 free AG1 Travel Packs with your first purchase. Go to drinkAG1.com/JR. That's drinkAG1.com/JR. SMILE TRAIN - Podcast Heat is teaming up with14x women's world champion Charlotte Flair to help raise money for Smile Train and you have the chance to participate and win a personalized autographed photo and a15 minute private video chat with the Queen herself by being the highest donor. With your donation, Smile Train can provide life-saving surgeries and other essential cleft care to children in need, 100% free. A donation of $21 - less than your weekly Starbucks - can provide one cleft repair surgery.  Donate today at SmileTrain.org/Charlotte and remember, the highest donor will receive a personalized autographed photo and a 15-minute private video chat with Charlotte. Together we can change the world, one smile at a time. SAVE WITH CONRAD - Stop throwing your money on rent! Get into a house with NO MONEY DOWN and roughly the same monthly payment at SaveWithConrad.com ADVERTISE WITH GRILLING JR - If your business targets 25-54 year old men, there's no better place to advertise than right here with us on Grilling JR. You've heard us do ads for some of the same companies for years...why? Because it works! And with our super targeted audience, there's very little waste. Go to AdvertiseWithJR.com now and find out more about advertising with Grilling JR. Get all of your Grilling JR merchandise at www.GrillingJRTees.com On AdFreeShows.com, you get early, ad-free access to more than a dozen of your favorite wrestling podcasts, starting at just $9! And now, you can enjoy the first week...completely FREE! Sign up for a free trial - and get a taste of what Ad Free Shows is all about. Start your free trial today at AdFreeShows.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On this episode of Grilling JR, we are headed back to the studio for another look back at some of good ol' JR's WSB studio sessions with the superstars of yesterday. On this edition, Jim welcomes "Mr. Perfect" Curt Henning, "The Enforcer" Arn Anderson and takes calls from listeners! HENSON SHAVING - It's time to say no to subscriptions and yes to a razor that'll last you a lifetime. Visit HENSONSHAVING.com/JR to pick the razor for you and use code JR and you'll get two years' worth of blades free with your razor ROCKET MONEY - Cancel your unwanted subscriptions – and manage your money the easy way – by going to RocketMoney.com/jr AG 1 - Try AG1 and get a FREE 1-year supply of Vitamin D AND 5 free AG1 Travel Packs with your first purchase. Go to drinkAG1.com/JR. That's drinkAG1.com/JR. SMILE TRAIN - Podcast Heat is teaming up with14x women's world champion Charlotte Flair to help raise money for Smile Train and you have the chance to participate and win a personalized autographed photo and a15 minute private video chat with the Queen herself by being the highest donor. With your donation, Smile Train can provide life-saving surgeries and other essential cleft care to children in need, 100% free. A donation of $21 - less than your weekly Starbucks - can provide one cleft repair surgery.  Donate today at SmileTrain.org/Charlotte and remember, the highest donor will receive a personalized autographed photo and a 15-minute private video chat with Charlotte. Together we can change the world, one smile at a time. SAVE WITH CONRAD - Stop throwing your money on rent! Get into a house with NO MONEY DOWN and roughly the same monthly payment at SaveWithConrad.com ADVERTISE WITH GRILLING JR - If your business targets 25-54 year old men, there's no better place to advertise than right here with us on Grilling JR. You've heard us do ads for some of the same companies for years...why? Because it works! And with our super targeted audience, there's very little waste. Go to AdvertiseWithJR.com now and find out more about advertising with Grilling JR. Get all of your Grilling JR merchandise at www.GrillingJRTees.com On AdFreeShows.com, you get early, ad-free access to more than a dozen of your favorite wrestling podcasts, starting at just $9! And now, you can enjoy the first week...completely FREE! Sign up for a free trial - and get a taste of what Ad Free Shows is all about. Start your free trial today at AdFreeShows.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On this episode of My World, Jeff and Conrad look back five years to NWA's 70th Anniversary Show from Nashville, TN! The guys discuss Jeff's relationship with Billy Corgan, the success of the original All In, the rematch between Cody vs. Aldis. Plus, an important TRAP THAT THING update! Special thanks to this week's sponsors! Factor- Head to FACTORMEALS.com/MYWORLD50 and use code MYWORLD50 to get 50% off your first box Gametime- Take the guesswork out of buying tickets with Gametime. Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code MYWORLD for $20 off your first purchase (terms apply). Lowest Price. Guaranteed. AG1- Try AG1 and get a FREE 1-year supply of Vitamin D AND 5 free AG1 Travel Packs with your first purchase. Go to drinkAG1.com/MYWORLD. BlueChew- Try BlueChew FREE when you use our promo code MYWORLD at checkout--just pay $5 shipping. bluechew.com Smile Train- Support a great cause and earn a chance for a personal experience with Charlotte Flair! Donate now at SmileTrain.org/Charlotte FOLLOW ALL OF OUR SOCIAL MEDIA at MyWorldPod.com Stop throwing your money on rent! Get into a house with NO MONEY DOWN and roughly the same monthly payment at SaveWithConrad.com On AdFreeShows.com, you get early, ad-free access to more than a dozen of your favorite wrestling podcasts, starting at just $9! And now, you can enjoy the first week...completely FREE! Sign up for a free trial - and get a taste of what Ad Free Shows is all about. Start your free trial today at AdFreeShows.com If your business targets 25-54 year old men, there's no better place to advertise than right here with us on My World with Jeff Jarrett. You've heard us do ads for some of the same companies for years...why? Because it works! And with our super targeted audience, there's very little waste. Go to AdvertiseWithJarrett.com now and find out more about advertising with My World with Jeff Jarrett. Get all of your My World with Jeff Jarrett merchandise at https://boxofgimmicks.com/collections/my-world-with-jeff-jarrett Logos and album art by Dominic DeAngelo Videos edited and uploaded by Marcus DeAngelo Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On this episode of My World, Jeff and Conrad look back five years to NWA's 70th Anniversary Show from Nashville, TN! The guys discuss Jeff's relationship with Billy Corgan, the success of the original All In, the rematch between Cody vs. Aldis. Plus, an important TRAP THAT THING update! Special thanks to this week's sponsors! Factor- Head to FACTORMEALS.com/MYWORLD50 and use code MYWORLD50 to get 50% off your first box Gametime- Take the guesswork out of buying tickets with Gametime. Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code MYWORLD for $20 off your first purchase (terms apply). Lowest Price. Guaranteed. AG1- Try AG1 and get a FREE 1-year supply of Vitamin D AND 5 free AG1 Travel Packs with your first purchase. Go to drinkAG1.com/MYWORLD. BlueChew- Try BlueChew FREE when you use our promo code MYWORLD at checkout--just pay $5 shipping. bluechew.com Smile Train- Support a great cause and earn a chance for a personal experience with Charlotte Flair! Donate now at SmileTrain.org/Charlotte FOLLOW ALL OF OUR SOCIAL MEDIA at MyWorldPod.com Stop throwing your money on rent! Get into a house with NO MONEY DOWN and roughly the same monthly payment at SaveWithConrad.com On AdFreeShows.com, you get early, ad-free access to more than a dozen of your favorite wrestling podcasts, starting at just $9! And now, you can enjoy the first week...completely FREE! Sign up for a free trial - and get a taste of what Ad Free Shows is all about. Start your free trial today at AdFreeShows.com If your business targets 25-54 year old men, there's no better place to advertise than right here with us on My World with Jeff Jarrett. You've heard us do ads for some of the same companies for years...why? Because it works! And with our super targeted audience, there's very little waste. Go to AdvertiseWithJarrett.com now and find out more about advertising with My World with Jeff Jarrett. Get all of your My World with Jeff Jarrett merchandise at https://boxofgimmicks.com/collections/my-world-with-jeff-jarrett Logos and album art by Dominic DeAngelo Videos edited and uploaded by Marcus DeAngelo Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On this episode of What Happened When, Tony and Conrad take us back to 1983 and Tony's big television debut! We also get the premiere of our new show open, plus some more hilarious Marty Jannetty social media posts. All that and so much more on this BRAND NEW edition of What Happened When. HENSON SHAVING - It's time to say no to subscriptions and yes to a razor that'll last you a lifetime. Visit HENSONSHAVING.com/WHW to pick the razor for you and use code WHW and you'll get two years' worth of blades free with your razor–just make sure to add them to your cart. ROCKET MONEY - Stop throwing your money away. Cancel unwanted subscriptions – and manage your expenses theeasy way – by going to RocketMoney.com/whw. AG1 - Try AG1 and get a FREE 1-year supply of Vitamin D AND 5 free AG1 Travel Packs with your first purchase. Go to drinkAG1.com/WHW. That's drinkAG1.com/WHW. SMILE TRAIN - Podcast Heat is teaming up with14x women's world champion Charlotte Flair to help raise money for Smile Train and you have the chance to participate and win a personalized autographed photo and a15 minute private video chat with the Queen herself by being the highest donor. With your donation, Smile Train can provide life-saving surgeries and other essential cleft care to children in need, 100% free. A donation of $21 - less than your weekly Starbucks - can provide one cleft repair surgery.  Donate today at SmileTrain.org/Charlotte and remember, the highest donor will receive a personalized autographed photo and a 15-minute private video chat with Charlotte. Together we can change the world, one smile at a time. SAVE WITH CONRAD - Stop throwing your money on rent! Get into a house with NO MONEY DOWN and roughly the same monthly payment at SaveWithConrad.com ADVERTISE WITH WHW - If your business targets 25-54 year old men, there's no better place to advertise than right here with us on What Happened When. You've heard us do ads for some of the same companies for years...why? Because it works! And with our super targeted audience, there's very little waste. Go to AdvertiseWithWHW.com now and find out more about advertising with WHW. Get all of your WHW merchandise at www.LoisRules.com FOLLOW ALL OF OUR SOCIAL MEDIA at https://whwlinks.com/ On AdFreeShows.com, you get early, ad-free access to more than a dozen of your favorite wrestling podcasts, starting at just $9! And now, you can enjoy the first week...completely FREE! Sign up for a free trial - and get a taste of what Ad Free Shows is all about. Start your free trial today at AdFreeShows.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On this episode of What Happened When, Tony and Conrad take us back to 1983 and Tony's big television debut! We also get the premiere of our new show open, plus some more hilarious Marty Jannetty social media posts. All that and so much more on this BRAND NEW edition of What Happened When. HENSON SHAVING - It's time to say no to subscriptions and yes to a razor that'll last you a lifetime. Visit HENSONSHAVING.com/WHW to pick the razor for you and use code WHW and you'll get two years' worth of blades free with your razor–just make sure to add them to your cart. ROCKET MONEY - Stop throwing your money away. Cancel unwanted subscriptions – and manage your expenses theeasy way – by going to RocketMoney.com/whw. AG1 - Try AG1 and get a FREE 1-year supply of Vitamin D AND 5 free AG1 Travel Packs with your first purchase. Go to drinkAG1.com/WHW. That's drinkAG1.com/WHW. SMILE TRAIN - Podcast Heat is teaming up with14x women's world champion Charlotte Flair to help raise money for Smile Train and you have the chance to participate and win a personalized autographed photo and a15 minute private video chat with the Queen herself by being the highest donor. With your donation, Smile Train can provide life-saving surgeries and other essential cleft care to children in need, 100% free. A donation of $21 - less than your weekly Starbucks - can provide one cleft repair surgery.  Donate today at SmileTrain.org/Charlotte and remember, the highest donor will receive a personalized autographed photo and a 15-minute private video chat with Charlotte. Together we can change the world, one smile at a time. SAVE WITH CONRAD - Stop throwing your money on rent! Get into a house with NO MONEY DOWN and roughly the same monthly payment at SaveWithConrad.com ADVERTISE WITH WHW - If your business targets 25-54 year old men, there's no better place to advertise than right here with us on What Happened When. You've heard us do ads for some of the same companies for years...why? Because it works! And with our super targeted audience, there's very little waste. Go to AdvertiseWithWHW.com now and find out more about advertising with WHW. Get all of your WHW merchandise at www.LoisRules.com FOLLOW ALL OF OUR SOCIAL MEDIA at https://whwlinks.com/ On AdFreeShows.com, you get early, ad-free access to more than a dozen of your favorite wrestling podcasts, starting at just $9! And now, you can enjoy the first week...completely FREE! Sign up for a free trial - and get a taste of what Ad Free Shows is all about. Start your free trial today at AdFreeShows.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On this episode of 83 Weeks, Eric and Conrad take a step back and look at all the craziness happening in the professional wrestling world. From the build up to the Tuesday Night War, to the social media posts from Tony Khan, Logan Paul calling out Rey Mysterio, Nick Aldis named the new GM of Smackdown and so much more. The guys cover it all in this over two hour edition of 83 Weeks with Eric Bischoff. ROCKET MONEY - Cancel your unwanted subscriptions – and manage your money the easy way – by going to RocketMoney.com/83WEEKS ZBIOTICS- Your first drink of the night for a better tomorrow - visit zbiotics.com/83WEEKS to get 15% off your first order of generically engineered probiotics when you use 83WEEKS at checkout. MANSCAPED - Get 20% Off and Free Shipping with the code 83WEEKS at Manscaped.com.  AG1 - Try AG1 and get a FREE 1-year supply of Vitamin D AND 5 free AG1 Travel Packs with your first purchase. Go to drinkAG1.com/83WEEKS. That's drinkAG1.com/83WEEKS. BLUECHEW - Try BlueChew FREE when you use our promo code 83WEEKS at checkout--just pay $5 shipping. That's BlueChew.com, promo code 83WEEKS to receive your first month FREE SMILE TRAIN - Podcast Heat is teaming up with14x women's world champion Charlotte Flair to help raise money for Smile Train and you have the chance to participate and win a personalized autographed photo and a15 minute private video chat with the Queen herself by being the highest donor. With your donation, Smile Train can provide life-saving surgeries and other essential cleft care to children in need, 100% free. A donation of $21 - less than your weekly Starbucks - can provide one cleft repair surgery.  Donate today at SmileTrain.org/Charlotte and remember, the highest donor will receive a personalized autographed photo and a 15-minute private video chat with Charlotte. Together we can change the world, one smile at a time. SAVE WITH CONRAD - Stop throwing your money on rent! Get into a house with NO MONEY DOWN and roughly the same monthly payment at SaveWithConrad.com ADVERTISE WITH ERIC - If your business targets 25-54 year old men, there's no better place to advertise than right here with us on 83 Weeks. You've heard us do ads for some of the same companies for years...why? Because it works! And with our super targeted audience, there's very little waste. Go to AdvertiseWithEric.com now and find out more about advertising with 83 Weeks. Get all of your 83 Weeks merchandise at https://boxofgimmicks.com/collections/83-weeks FOLLOW ALL OF OUR SOCIAL MEDIA at https://83weekslinks.com/ On AdFreeShows.com, you get early, ad-free access to more than a dozen of your favorite wrestling podcasts, starting at just $9! And now, you can enjoy the first week...completely FREE! Sign up for a free trial - and get a taste of what Ad Free Shows is all about. Start your free trial today at AdFreeShows.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On this episode of 83 Weeks, Eric and Conrad take a step back and look at all the craziness happening in the professional wrestling world. From the build up to the Tuesday Night War, to the social media posts from Tony Khan, Logan Paul calling out Rey Mysterio, Nick Aldis named the new GM of Smackdown and so much more. The guys cover it all in this over two hour edition of 83 Weeks with Eric Bischoff. ROCKET MONEY - Cancel your unwanted subscriptions – and manage your money the easy way – by going to RocketMoney.com/83WEEKS ZBIOTICS- Your first drink of the night for a better tomorrow - visit zbiotics.com/83WEEKS to get 15% off your first order of generically engineered probiotics when you use 83WEEKS at checkout. MANSCAPED - Get 20% Off and Free Shipping with the code 83WEEKS at Manscaped.com.  AG1 - Try AG1 and get a FREE 1-year supply of Vitamin D AND 5 free AG1 Travel Packs with your first purchase. Go to drinkAG1.com/83WEEKS. That's drinkAG1.com/83WEEKS. BLUECHEW - Try BlueChew FREE when you use our promo code 83WEEKS at checkout--just pay $5 shipping. That's BlueChew.com, promo code 83WEEKS to receive your first month FREE SMILE TRAIN - Podcast Heat is teaming up with14x women's world champion Charlotte Flair to help raise money for Smile Train and you have the chance to participate and win a personalized autographed photo and a15 minute private video chat with the Queen herself by being the highest donor. With your donation, Smile Train can provide life-saving surgeries and other essential cleft care to children in need, 100% free. A donation of $21 - less than your weekly Starbucks - can provide one cleft repair surgery.  Donate today at SmileTrain.org/Charlotte and remember, the highest donor will receive a personalized autographed photo and a 15-minute private video chat with Charlotte. Together we can change the world, one smile at a time. SAVE WITH CONRAD - Stop throwing your money on rent! Get into a house with NO MONEY DOWN and roughly the same monthly payment at SaveWithConrad.com ADVERTISE WITH ERIC - If your business targets 25-54 year old men, there's no better place to advertise than right here with us on 83 Weeks. You've heard us do ads for some of the same companies for years...why? Because it works! And with our super targeted audience, there's very little waste. Go to AdvertiseWithEric.com now and find out more about advertising with 83 Weeks. Get all of your 83 Weeks merchandise at https://boxofgimmicks.com/collections/83-weeks FOLLOW ALL OF OUR SOCIAL MEDIA at https://83weekslinks.com/ On AdFreeShows.com, you get early, ad-free access to more than a dozen of your favorite wrestling podcasts, starting at just $9! And now, you can enjoy the first week...completely FREE! Sign up for a free trial - and get a taste of what Ad Free Shows is all about. Start your free trial today at AdFreeShows.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On this episode of Something To Wrestle, Bruce and Conrad dive back into the infamous Box Of Gimmicks for another look at some of the good and bad gimmicks in the WWE. Bruce explains gimmicks like Saba Samba, Golga, Deuce and Domino, Joe Average and so many more. Plus, there's internet glitches that causes a Brother Love revival and an impromptu theme off that quickly becomes one of the silliness bits we've ever done on the show. PRIZE PICK - Go to PrizePicks.com/WRESTLE and use code WRESTLE for a first deposit match up to $100! FUM - Join Füm in accelerating humanity's breakup from destructive habits - Visit TryFum.com and use code WRESTLE to save 10% off when you get the Journey pack today.  MANSCAPED - Get 20% Off and Free Shipping with the code STW at Manscaped.com.  SMILE TRAIN - Podcast Heat is teaming up with14x women's world champion Charlotte Flair to help raise money for Smile Train and you have the chance to participate and win a personalized autographed photo and a15 minute private video chat with the Queen herself by being the highest donor. With your donation, Smile Train can provide life-saving surgeries and other essential cleft care to children in need, 100% free. A donation of $21 - less than your weekly Starbucks - can provide one cleft repair surgery.  Donate today at SmileTrain.org/Charlotte and remember, the highest donor will receive a personalized autographed photo and a 15-minute private video chat with Charlotte. Together we can change the world, one smile at a time. SAVE WITH CONRAD - Stop throwing your money on rent! Get into a house with NO MONEY DOWN and roughly the same monthly payment at SaveWithConrad.com ADVERTISE WITH BRUCE - If your business targets 25-54 year old men, there's no better place to advertise than right here with us on Something to Wrestle You've heard us do ads for some of the same companies for years...why? Because it works! And with our super targeted audience, there's very little waste. Go to AdvertiseWithBruce.com now and find out more about advertising with Something to Wrestle. FOLLOW ALL OF OUR SOCIAL MEDIA at https://stwlinks.com/ On AdFreeShows.com, you get early, ad-free access to more than a dozen of your favorite wrestling podcasts, starting at just $9! And now, you can enjoy the first week...completely FREE! Sign up for a free trial - and get a taste of what Ad Free Shows is all about. Start your free trial today at AdFreeShows.com. Get all of your Something to Wrestle merchandise at https://boxofgimmicks.com/collections/stw Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On this episode of Something To Wrestle, Bruce and Conrad dive back into the infamous Box Of Gimmicks for another look at some of the good and bad gimmicks in the WWE. Bruce explains gimmicks like Saba Samba, Golga, Deuce and Domino, Joe Average and so many more. Plus, there's internet glitches that causes a Brother Love revival and an impromptu theme off that quickly becomes one of the silliness bits we've ever done on the show. PRIZE PICK - Go to PrizePicks.com/WRESTLE and use code WRESTLE for a first deposit match up to $100! FUM - Join Füm in accelerating humanity's breakup from destructive habits - Visit TryFum.com and use code WRESTLE to save 10% off when you get the Journey pack today.  MANSCAPED - Get 20% Off and Free Shipping with the code STW at Manscaped.com.  SMILE TRAIN - Podcast Heat is teaming up with14x women's world champion Charlotte Flair to help raise money for Smile Train and you have the chance to participate and win a personalized autographed photo and a15 minute private video chat with the Queen herself by being the highest donor. With your donation, Smile Train can provide life-saving surgeries and other essential cleft care to children in need, 100% free. A donation of $21 - less than your weekly Starbucks - can provide one cleft repair surgery.  Donate today at SmileTrain.org/Charlotte and remember, the highest donor will receive a personalized autographed photo and a 15-minute private video chat with Charlotte. Together we can change the world, one smile at a time. SAVE WITH CONRAD - Stop throwing your money on rent! Get into a house with NO MONEY DOWN and roughly the same monthly payment at SaveWithConrad.com ADVERTISE WITH BRUCE - If your business targets 25-54 year old men, there's no better place to advertise than right here with us on Something to Wrestle You've heard us do ads for some of the same companies for years...why? Because it works! And with our super targeted audience, there's very little waste. Go to AdvertiseWithBruce.com now and find out more about advertising with Something to Wrestle. FOLLOW ALL OF OUR SOCIAL MEDIA at https://stwlinks.com/ On AdFreeShows.com, you get early, ad-free access to more than a dozen of your favorite wrestling podcasts, starting at just $9! And now, you can enjoy the first week...completely FREE! Sign up for a free trial - and get a taste of what Ad Free Shows is all about. Start your free trial today at AdFreeShows.com. Get all of your Something to Wrestle merchandise at https://boxofgimmicks.com/collections/stw Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On this episode of Foley Is Pod, we are hearing from a laundry list of hall of famers sharing stories of working with our hardcore legend. ZBIOTICS - Your first drink of the night for a better tomorrow - visit zbiotics.com/FOLEY to get 15% off your first order when you use FOLEY at checkout. SMILE TRAIN - Podcast Heat is teaming up with14x women's world champion Charlotte Flair to help raise money for Smile Train and you have the chance to participate and win a personalized autographed photo and a15 minute private video chat with the Queen herself by being the highest donor. With your donation, Smile Train can provide life-saving surgeries and other essential cleft care to children in need, 100% free. A donation of $21 - less than your weekly Starbucks - can provide one cleft repair surgery.  Donate today at SmileTrain.org/Charlotte and remember, the highest donor will receive a personalized autographed photo and a 15-minute private video chat with Charlotte. Together we can change the world, one smile at a time. SAVE WITH CONRAD - Stop throwing your money on rent! Get into a house with NO MONEY DOWN and roughly the same monthly payment at SaveWithConrad.com ADVERTISE WITH FOLEY - If your business targets 25-54 year old men, there's no better place to advertise than right here with us on Foley is Pod. You've heard us do ads for some of the same companies for years...why? Because it works! And with our super targeted audience, there's very little waste. Go to AdvertiseWithFoley.com now and find out more about advertising with Foley is Pod. FOLLOW AND SUBSCRIBE TO ALL THINGS MICK at https://linktr.ee/foleyispod Get all of your Foley is POD merchandise at https://boxofgimmicks.com/collections/foley-is-pod On AdFreeShows.com, you get early, ad-free access to more than a dozen of your favorite wrestling podcasts, starting at just $9! And now, you can enjoy the first week...completely FREE! Sign up for a free trial - and get a taste of what Ad Free Shows is all about. Start your free trial today at AdFreeShows.com.` Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On this episode of Grilling JR, the voice of wrestling Jim Ross and host Conrad Thompson deep dive into the legendary career of the Rated R Superstar Adam Copeland aka EDGE. From winning a wrestling essay contest as a teen, to being one of the founding fathers of the TLC match the guys cover it all. Join JR and Conrad as they cover everything about the hall of famer and what's next for the man we think we know. MANSCAPED - Get 20% Off and Free Shipping with the code JIMROSS at Manscaped.com.  BLUECHEW - Try BlueChew FREE when you use our promo code JR at checkout--just pay $5 shipping. That's BlueChew.com, promo code JR to receive your first month FREE. SMILE TRAIN - Podcast Heat is teaming up with14x women's world champion Charlotte Flair to help raise money for Smile Train and you have the chance to participate and win a personalized autographed photo and a15 minute private video chat with the Queen herself by being the highest donor. With your donation, Smile Train can provide life-saving surgeries and other essential cleft care to children in need, 100% free. A donation of $21 - less than your weekly Starbucks - can provide one cleft repair surgery.  Donate today at SmileTrain.org/Charlotte and remember, the highest donor will receive a personalized autographed photo and a 15-minute private video chat with Charlotte. Together we can change the world, one smile at a time. SAVE WITH CONRAD - Stop throwing your money on rent! Get into a house with NO MONEY DOWN and roughly the same monthly payment at SaveWithConrad.com ADVERTISE WITH JR - If your business targets 25-54 year old men, there's no better place to advertise than right here with us on Grilling JR. You've heard us do ads for some of the same companies for years...why? Because it works! And with our super targeted audience, there's very little waste. Go to AdvertiseWithJR.com now and find out more about advertising with Grilling JR. On AdFreeShows.com, you get early, ad-free access to more than a dozen of your favorite wrestling podcasts, starting at just $9! And now, you can enjoy the first week...completely FREE! Sign up for a free trial - and get a taste of what Ad Free Shows is all about. Start your free trial today at AdFreeShows.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On this episode of Grilling JR, the voice of wrestling Jim Ross and host Conrad Thompson deep dive into the legendary career of the Rated R Superstar Adam Copeland aka EDGE. From winning a wrestling essay contest as a teen, to being one of the founding fathers of the TLC match the guys cover it all. Join JR and Conrad as they cover everything about the hall of famer and what's next for the man we think we know. MANSCAPED - Get 20% Off and Free Shipping with the code JIMROSS at Manscaped.com.  BLUECHEW - Try BlueChew FREE when you use our promo code JR at checkout--just pay $5 shipping. That's BlueChew.com, promo code JR to receive your first month FREE. SMILE TRAIN - Podcast Heat is teaming up with14x women's world champion Charlotte Flair to help raise money for Smile Train and you have the chance to participate and win a personalized autographed photo and a15 minute private video chat with the Queen herself by being the highest donor. With your donation, Smile Train can provide life-saving surgeries and other essential cleft care to children in need, 100% free. A donation of $21 - less than your weekly Starbucks - can provide one cleft repair surgery.  Donate today at SmileTrain.org/Charlotte and remember, the highest donor will receive a personalized autographed photo and a 15-minute private video chat with Charlotte. Together we can change the world, one smile at a time. SAVE WITH CONRAD - Stop throwing your money on rent! Get into a house with NO MONEY DOWN and roughly the same monthly payment at SaveWithConrad.com ADVERTISE WITH JR - If your business targets 25-54 year old men, there's no better place to advertise than right here with us on Grilling JR. You've heard us do ads for some of the same companies for years...why? Because it works! And with our super targeted audience, there's very little waste. Go to AdvertiseWithJR.com now and find out more about advertising with Grilling JR. On AdFreeShows.com, you get early, ad-free access to more than a dozen of your favorite wrestling podcasts, starting at just $9! And now, you can enjoy the first week...completely FREE! Sign up for a free trial - and get a taste of what Ad Free Shows is all about. Start your free trial today at AdFreeShows.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Jennifer Jacobs is the founder and creator of J METHOD, which embodies Jennifer's strong belief that health and wellness is a lifestyle and mindset around creating habits, training consistently, efficiently and effectively.Jennifer's focus is on making health and wellness a lifestyle for everyone at all levels.  Her extremely successful strength training program called “Job 1” on Beachbody, continues to allow her to reach thousands to change their mindset and make their health and wellness a #1 priority.Also a former Peloton Senior Instructor, Jennifer is a mother of two, a global ambassador for the charity organization SmileTrain, and most recently expanded her reach into fashionwear through the launch of “HER”.  A collaboration with Heroine Sport which is designed to make every woman feel Heroic, Empowered and Radiant!In this episode, Michael, and Jennifer discuss how to reach your goals by training with purpose, keys to gaining back time in your life, and actionable tips for building confidence.

Phil and David follow their special Oscar Week episode with Jimmy Kimmel with this never not funny "Lunch" with another hilarious Jimmy -- their friend Jimmy Pardo who has hosted both of them on his own popular and long standing podcast called "Never Not Funny." Phil and David discuss how they each first came to know Jimmy, then seek some advice about keeping a podcast alive and well. Jimmy tells a great horror story about his worst moment as a stand up comedian, working for a record company and nearly opening for Elton John, and his Pardcast-A-Thon charity event to benefit Smile Train. Jimmy also shares the less than wild story about getting cut out of the movie "Dreamgirls," while David tells his own tale about getting cut out of the movie "Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping," while producer Will Sterling explains what it felt like to get edited out of an episode of "This Is Us." Phil then offers his power producer perspective and tries to make everyone feel better. All this and tasty salads and sandwiches from Oui Melrose. To learn more about building community through food and "Somebody Feed the People," visit the Philanthropy page at philrosenthalworld.com.