Podcasts about so james

Scripture For Today: John 18:1“When he had finished praying, Jesus left with his disciples and crossed the Kidron Valley. On the other side there was a garden, and he and his disciples went into it.” What James Had to Say About Prayer pt 7We have been studying what the Apostle James had to say about prayer. We have been studying the verses from James 5:13-18: “Is any among you afflicted? Let him pray. Is any Merry? Let him sing psalms. Is any sick among you? Let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the Name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he has committed sins, they shall be forgiven him.  Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that you may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.  Elijah was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain, and it did not rain on the earth by the space of three years and six months! And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain and the earth brought forth her fruit.” Yesterday, we left off the importance of making yourself available to pray for those who are incapable of praying for themselves. Be it sickness, on their death bed or perhaps addicts of some kind that request prayer. If they are able to ask, then they are able to receive. Not just receive healing but able to receive Jesus! Amen! And that is the whole purpose of praying, interceding for others, etc. The purpose to get them to the point where they are able to say, “JESUS SAVE ME!”  Amen! Jesus doesn't need you here for any other reason than that. Period! You can't save anyone. You can't recreate the earth. You can't handle wars and rumors of wars. You cannot do ANYTHING for Jesus EXCEPT represent Him to others and pray for them. That takes me to the next part of the verse, in verse 16: “Confess your faults to one another, and pray one for another, that you may be healed…” Do not take verse 16 out of context! Many people think it is referring to public confessions sin. But you don't go to church to have a confession meeting! You can't find that anywhere in scripture!  I know there is religion that has made it – they made it – a religious duty of some sort. But it is UNSCRIPTURAL in nature. What James is talking about here is if a sick person sends for the elders of the church to come and pray for him, if he has sinned, he will have to confess it TO THE LORD. The sick person cannot just pick and choose which parts of this verse they want and what parts they don't. He or she must obey the part about confessing their sins TO GOD!  Amen! If a person is asking for prayer for healing, but has unconfessed sin their life, they will not receive their healing just because somebody, the elders of the church, came and anointed them with oil and prayed for them.  When you combine this with the prior verses, you can see it, plain as day:  “And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he has committed sins, they shall be forgiven him. Confess your faults one to another, and pray on for another, that you may be healed...” So James is saying, go ahead and call for the elders of the church to come and pray for you – but confess your sins and get rid of them, and then, when they pray for you, you WILL BE HEALED and God shall raise you up from that sick bed! Amen! The opposite of that is also true. If you do not confess your sins to God, then He is under no obligation to answer the elder's prayer and heal you. You will remain sick because YOU did not do what YOU were supposed to do. Oh, praise God. I'm out of time for today… We will take it up here again tomorrow. Let's Pray! Please subscribe to this podcast, leave us a quick 5 star review on Apple Podcasts to help us grow and be sure to visit our website for...

Tune in now and don't forget to sign up for www.solciety.co!Speaker 1 (00:01):Hey, Solarpreneurs. What's up. Taylor here just wanted to give you a quick intro to this episode. It's going to be James Swidersky on, and he's doing a little series on how we're implementing trainings for companies that would like to uplevel their sales trainings. As many of you may know, we launched our new Solciety training app were already getting great results with it. So James is going to talk about a few things that we're able to implement within the app and ways we're getting great results, whether you're on Solciety or not. You can go and implement these things today, but you can also go and book a demo at Solciety.co. So hope you enjoy the episode and we'll see you on the inside.Speaker 2 (00:45):Welcome to the Solarpreneur podcast, where we teach you to take your solar business to the next level. My name is Taylor Armstrong and I went from $50 in my bank account and struggling for groceries to closing 150 deals in a year and cracking the code on why sales reps fail. I teach you to avoid the mistakes I made and bringing the top solar dogs, the industry to let you in on the secrets of generating more leads, falling up like a pro and closing more deals. What is a Solarpreneur you might ask a Solarpreneur is a new breed of solar pro that is willing to do whatever it takes to achieve mastery and you are about to become one.Speaker 3 (01:25):Solarpreneurs. What is going on? My name is James Swidersky. And for those of you guys who don't know me, go back a few episodes for the intro. I don't want to bore you guys to death. I just want to dive right into the content today here. And I want to talk about how to hold your reps accountable. Now this is going to be primarily forward business owners, VPs directors, managers, on how to hold your reps accountable, get them motivated, and specifically my four step formula on how to do this. Just an absolutely killer formula on how to cut through the BS. Cut through excuses of, oh, I'm working 60 hours a week. I don't know. What's not working. Uh, oh, I swear. I'm putting a numbers. I'm working really hard. It's going to cut through all of that crap and just get straight transparency on the performance of each rep.Speaker 3 (02:10):So you can make critical training and hiring decisions on a regular basis to scale your company. Have you enjoyed that type of content? You know exactly what to do. So let's go ahead and dive right into it. What is the formula to hold reps accountable? First thing I like to do is identify my activities. That reps are supposed to be performing on a daily basis. You'd be very surprised how many companies don't have this clearly communicated within their organization. The best way I used to do this and currently do this with my team at epic as well. Although not solar, it's the same thing. And I learned how to do this in solar is I actually have flat screen monitors up in the office where we are projecting everybody's metrics. It is just a naked organization with metrics and metrics. I see every single as it's scrolling through how many appointments they've set, leads, calls, call time presentations, their close rate, everything transparent.Speaker 3 (03:08):The entire company can see what's going on. The entire company could see what kind of numbers we're doing as an organization. What's our revenue look like, right? What's our deal, uh, install rate. They see everything. Transparency is absolutely key here. Now that's just kind of a bonus, but we want to identify the activities that reps perform. So it's probably going to be a nine times out of 10 door knocking appointment setting, right? Presentations, okay. Follow up activities. And usually some type of referral activity, right? These are going to be customized for your business, map out your entire process, what activities they should do on a regular basis. We're going to play out an example, an amendment a minute. So you'll get some ideas from that step. Number two in this formula, identify how long it actually takes to do the activity. Okay. Again, this is, this is where it starts getting real spicy.Speaker 3 (04:03):Cause nobody does this and knows how long it takes. Go ask your reps individually. How long does it take to do an appointment? You're going to hear 40 minutes. You're going to hear two hours. You're going to hear it. Hour and half, right? You need to come to a conclusion what that average time is. All right. So you're going to ask all of your reps, do a survey, do whatever you got to do. Get the numbers, average amount, how long it actually takes to do what they do. Right? Sending out a proposal, adjusting a bid, right? How long does it take to adjust in a bid? 20 minutes, 30 minutes. How long does it take to send out a follow-up email? You got to get every activity on the board, mapped out. Okay. Step number two, three, take your results from last month for each rep.Speaker 3 (04:49):So you're going to actually go through this process with your reps on a one-on-one meeting. And you're going to take the results from their previous month, not like the previous week or days, cause that's not enough and more than a month too much. One month is going to give you a real good grasp of a rep's performance. This is also going to cut out all of those guys who were top producers a year ago and they haven't sold anything in three or four months. This is going to shine the light on that. Here's the deal. If you're a guys and you're hanging on and paying out payroll or uh, whatever, some kind of base salary or something rewarding guys and incentivizing guys who are not producing, you gotta cut that out ASAP. Okay? Only incentivize guys who produce results. Period. Cut the base commissions, cut the salaries, cut all that crap fire the lot, get rid of the old veterans who have been in the industry and who are just riding comfortable for 10 years.Speaker 3 (05:48):They are ruining your culture. They are bad apples in the barrel. Cut them out, get some fresh new young blood boom, rock and roll. Right. Again. I don't expect many of you guys to apply that because again, you've got to be willing to take a few steps back to go forward over the next several years. There's very few companies who are willing to do that. I know I'm sounding aggressive with this straight forward. I just really sick of seeing it. It's a super common thing in the industry. Any industry for that matter, you have to be willing to make some temporary sacrifices. If you want to grow okay. If you don't want to grow, I respect it. Right? Don't complain about your situation. If that's the case. All right. I'm off my soap box now. So take your results from last month for each rep.Speaker 3 (06:32):Hey Taylor, you close 10 deals. Last month you did 20 appointments. You did 500 doors knocked, whatever it is, right. Make sure they agree with their results when you're talking to them. Okay. And then next and the last part here is simply calculate how long they actually worked. All right. So let's play out an example. Let's say that a rep closed 10 accounts last month. And for math purposes, I know this is a small commission, math purposes. He made a thousand dollars per deal. He made 10 grand in commissions, right? Awesome. 10 grand. What activities made up those 10 accounts? Well, he had to go prospect and knock doors. It takes him about 30 minutes of knocking doors to get an appointment. We know how long it takes. Cool. 30 minutes equal and appointment. All right. Let's say he has a 50% close rate. He's just like on the ball.Speaker 3 (07:25):Okay. And it takes him 90 minutes driving to the appointment, having the appointment, following up at the appointment, it takes them 90 minutes to do a presentation. Okay. And he closes 50% of his presentations. And then let's say it takes him about half an hour to send out a proposal on a bid. All right. It takes 30 minutes to do a proposal, a bid. Um, that's not just the deals he closed the followup deals. And then let's say he takes about 40 minutes per account, total to close a deal. So 40 minutes of following up with calls, emails, texts, that is about what it takes to close one deal. All right. So after you map out each activity, how long it takes all of that jazz, right? You're going to come to the conclusion of the monthly results. You're going to find evicts example. Now he spent 30 hours running appointments for the month.Speaker 3 (08:17):He spent 10 hours setting appointments in the month, right? 10 hours sending proposals for the month and 6.6 hours following up for a grand total of 56.6 hours of work for the month. All right. Monthly, not weekly. And what you're going to find is most of your guys who say they're working their tail off, they're working like 15, 20 hours a month. When you do this math, I just did math for a guy who closes 10 deals a month. How many of your reps close 10? Right. Super rare. Right? You're doing pretty well. If you have a lot of 10 rep 10 deal reps, right? Most of your guys are going to be working like 15, 20 deals. I'm at 20 hours a month. Right. And what happens is for the first time with these guys, they're going to realize that they're full of.Speaker 3 (09:09):Pardon? My French. Right? They're just full of it. Right? They've been lying to themselves and you're going to find, your guys are just like, oh crap, you can't argue this. You can not argue this. And the way you make sure your reps are on page with this is you just make sure they agree with every number. So if they say it takes 90 minutes, do the math with them in front of them. For the 90 minutes. If they say they take 30 minutes to close an appointment or a 60 hours or whatever, it doesn't matter. The close rate is a hundred percent. Do the math with them on their level. Trust me. It doesn't matter how you do the math. It's always going to highlight and expose how little they actually work. And you can have a Frank conversation at this point. Now that the numbers are out in thin air, it could say, John, you wonder why you're making seven grand a month.Speaker 3 (09:59):Closing two deals a month. You're working 15 hours a month, right? What are we going to do about that? What can I help you with as your manager, your VP, or director, your CEO, whoever, what can I help you with to increase those numbers, right? What do you need help with? Do we need to hold these kinds of meetings on a weekly basis? What do we need? And have those conversations and make real decisions. The problem is it's difficult to make hiring recruiting or firing decisions or training decisions or whatever. If you don't have proper data. Okay? I preach a lot about data. The last couple of episodes, data's king, it's everything tracking is everything. That's the only reason I had two failed solar companies before starting my first successful one was purely because of tracking. All right? I had to learn the hard way.Speaker 3 (10:49):Do not do the same mistake that I did. And many others do start tracking. These things. Use this formula with each one of your reps, use this formula with yourself, with your activities, your daily pipeline, right? Whatever you're doing, this is the magic formula. So guys, that is it. That's how hold your reps accountable. It's a no BS straightforward way. It's how to hold yourself accountable. And I hope it serves you guys. Well, if you like that type of content, keep tuning in to, uh, this series I'm doing, I'm going to be dropping to fire for company owners. I know I'm calling my own stuff, my, my own stuff, fire, but I don't see anybody talking about it. So I gotta, I gotta call what it is. Right? All right. Well, it's been real guys. My name's James Swidersky and I'll see you in the next video.Speaker 4 (11:38):Hey Solarpreneurs. Quick question. What if you could surround yourself with the industry's top performing sales pros, marketers, and CEOs, and learn from their experience and wisdom in less than 20 minutes a day. For the last three years, I've been placed in the fortunate position to interview dozens of elite solar professionals and learn exactly what they do behind closed doors to build their solar careers to an all-star level. That's why I want to make a truly special announcement about the new solar learning community, exclusively for solar professionals to learn, compete, and win with the top performers in the industry. And it's called Solciety. This learning community was designed from the ground up to level the playing field and give solar pros access to proven mentors who want to give back to this community and to help you or your team to be held accountable by the industry's brightest minds. For, are you ready for it? Less than $3 and 45 cents a day currently Solciety's closed the public and membership is by invitation only, but Solarpreneurs can go to solciety.co to learn more and have the option to join a wait list. When a membership becomes available in your area. Again, this is exclusively for Solarpreneur listeners. So be sure to go to www.solciety.co to join the waitlist and learn more now. Thanks again for listening. We'll catch you again in the next episode. 

Ahead of the release of his fifth album Grapefruit Season in September, James Vincent McMorrow joins the show to talk about a new project he's been working on called Co-Living Culture with David Anthony Curley (Otherkin - RIP) and Cody Lee. Recorded at David's studio The Clinic, their first song 'Renegador' is an ode to the venues in Dublin, many of which are now gone, where you might hear a record like this. They say: "This song is meant as a love letter to that idea. It's a love letter to the pure unbridled joy that only music can bring, to dance culture, to 90's house music, to flicking through stations in the car as a kid until an absolute banger comes on, and then turning it all the way up so everyone on the street could hear what you were playing, could hear what the music said about you." So James discusses these ideas, how the song was conceived around the same time as it was announced that Jigsaw was to close, the resilience of musicians, hopes/fears for the city centre, and what might be next for the Co-Living Culture project. We also chat about his pilot gig at Iveagh Gardens recently, his forthcoming album, and the NBA Finals. Outro music: Co-Living Culture - 'Renegador'

Tune in now and don't forget to sign up for www.solciety.co!Speaker 1 (00:03):Welcome to the Solarpreneur podcast, where we teach you to take your solar business to the next level. My name is Taylor Armstrong and went from $50 in my bank account and struggling for groceries to closing 150 deals in a year and cracking the code on why sales reps fail. online teach you to avoid the mistakes I made and bringing the top solar dogs, the industry to let you in on the secrets of generating more leads, falling up like a pro and closing more deals. What is a Solarpreneur you might ask a Solarpreneur is a new breed of solar pro that is willing to do whatever it takes to achieve mastery and you are about to become one.Speaker 2 (00:41):What's going on top in the morning to all our Solarpreneurs out there. We are back with another exciting episode and we've got a familiar face on, he's been on a couple episodes previously, and we're going to be starting up sort of a new, um, kind of interview series we're doing so familiar faces James Swiderski. What's up, James. Thanks for comingSpeaker 3 (01:02):By Taylor. Thank you, Matt. Thank you.Speaker 2 (01:05):My pleasure. My pleasure. And so James we're, we're talking off camera just about this new kind of calm set concept of training we're doing, which is sorta like on the company level issues we see. So you were on kind of introduced this, um, I dunno, series we were talking about kind of what the thinking was behind it.Speaker 3 (01:29):Yeah, for sure. So the new series we want to do is called train to win. And more specifically, we want to give company owners and I guess more ambitious reps that are looking to really scale their sales, some tools and strategies on how to actually develop out their sales skills. Um, this is not just specific to solar, as far as, um, people struggling with training in general, it's a epidemic in multiple industries. And, um, for those of you who are not familiar, I am the founder and CEO of a trained in global training company called epic. And what we do is we help multi seven figure companies scale past eight figures with their teams, hire reps, develop systems and processes around that. So what I'm going to do is pop on once in a while, do a solo episode about some of my experience with having trips and over a thousand reps with my company as well. So that'll be for you business owners out there, um, train to win tune in, listen to that for some specific tactics on how to train and scale your sales team. So yeah,Speaker 2 (02:38):It's a stuff that we should all be talking more about for sure. A hundred percent. And the reason I thought it was a good idea is just because there's such a disconnect in the training, in the industry, on the company and the rep level. Um, I remember starting out, I struggled with it a ton of just getting good, getting and finding good training and then actually implementing it because how companies do you know, James? I'm sure you've seen it, where they bought the card on use. They bought these trading platforms and what do they do? They didn't even hop on it. So that's a huge problem. I mean, I don't come me as a boss, thousands and thousands. Um, I mean my, my previous company I was with, we spent, I know a ton of money to get the card on you and yeah. And on it, and then it didn't increase ourselves.Speaker 3 (03:22):So solar either. That's the thing. Uh, um, I would say solar is even a little behind the eight ball on it, but the, the statistic on that actually there's over $1.5 billion a year spent on enterprise training for sales teams. Okay. And this is crazy. This stat was done by ed tech, um, their conference in 2017 and they found that 87% of sales training that was purchased for their sales team was forgotten within 30 days. So if that's not the equivalent of lighting cash on fire as a CEO, I don't know what it is. Right. Um, so yeah, that's what my company solves. I want to kind of talk about why that's the case and more specifically what you guys can do about it. Um, solar specifically.Speaker 2 (04:09):Yeah. Well, let's jump into it. And so for our listeners, our Solarpreneurs that don't know James helped us through his, um, epic platform. He helped us build out society, which we've been talking about here and there on the, on the, uh, episodes, which is the new training platform that we just released. And we're already seeing people get results with it and training it's. Um, we think it's going to revolutionize the, uh, solar training game just because it combines, you know, the learning with games you can take with a separate accountability. So we're going to talk kind of the specific things that's, um, James is doing to help, you know, just sells training in general with that system. Yeah. Dwelt within epic. But yeah, I guess, um, why did you decide to start, you know, this whole epic thing? And I, I thought it was E-box so, um, just, just for the record, it's spelled EPO, C H. So James gets sick, sick of correcting people. It's not E pockets epic. Right,Speaker 3 (05:07):Right, right. Whatever you want to call it. E poche the CA all right. I mean, the biggest thing I've tried to, if any of you guys know my background, right. So I got into sales consulting and training, like after I left my first solar company job, a startup I worked with and I found out, um, scaling this company up from a couple of million, upwards of eight figures. Here's what their sales team, that sales training was just fundamentally broken altogether. Um, the most common training mistakes we see actually, and I even have a few of the listed here that I discovered through training my own reps was they didn't have a predictable system to do it. Right. That's very common. And that's why guys will go by like Cardone university, Jordan Belfort, straight line persuasion, stuff like that, all great programs, the way I've taken all of these programs.Speaker 3 (05:59):I spent over a half, a million dollars in my own money on sales training programs. That's how I got good at sales. And I recommend people do that. Right. The problem was this most companies in solar and my company in particular, um, we did not have a way to measure training success. Okay. We were spending all this cash on training, but we didn't know if it was actually producing a real ROI. Right. So that was the first problem companies have. So they don't measure training outcomes and how to actually get an ROI. Um, if you are generating leads, buying Facebook ads, anything like that, right. For your business, you need to measure the effectiveness of your campaigns, what's happening on the calls. And if you don't measure these things, um, we can't improve them. What gets measured gets improved. Right? So that's the biggest thing. If you own a company right now, and you're looking for a better way to train your apps, or you're a rep, um, looking to improve your skillset, the first thing you should do is establish a baseline with your skills and where you're currently at by tracking everything, um, from activities to what skills you're working on, um, your current sales pipeline, you need to make sure you're tracking. So that's, I'd say that's the first mistake I've seen, um, working with, I'd say probably a little over 45, 50 different solar companies at this point in my career.Speaker 2 (07:24):Yeah. No, that's good. Yeah. Tracking is huge. And like, my question is, how do you know? Um, I don't know, what are some specific things you track? I know you talked about it a little bit. It just barely, but like when I've gotten coaching and training, sometimes it's tough to tell what the reps it's like, oh, are they just more motivated to work? Or they like putting in a few more hours or is this like actual information helping them? So what are things that I don't know, is there anything specific you're saying, it's like, you check this thing and that's how, you know, if the training's actually working or how accurate are you seeing?Speaker 3 (07:58):Yeah. Yeah. So the biggest, um, before we get to that, I want to kind of give the big idea of this. So the big idea is to adopt what I call conscious skill development. So most reps kind of use the spray and pray method with training and companies. And that method is the most familiar with anybody. And it's proven, right? You will learn that method is to just go out there, do the craft, repeat, put in the work and you'll learn as a by-product through experience. Right. And that is effective to a degree, but you're wasting a lot of time in there is what I've found, working with teams and myself. Um, we're able to really cut the learning time by a drastic amount. And I can't give you an exact percentage or anything, but, um, I've been able to learn everything from marketing to sales, to recruiting, to basically every skill within business. Um, it's kind a running joke. Taylor and I have with things, um, I just have like a ridiculous set of skills, whether it's from producing sales videos, promo videos, marketing, email, whatever it is. Right. It's because I use this process. Um, what was your question again? MineSpeaker 2 (09:12):Was just like, are there specific things? Yeah. Are there specific things that you're like, I dunno, companies that you've been working with, it's like, okay, that's how you're going to know if it actually had an ROA or ROI or pay it off. Um, cause yeah, I know that's a big problem is like, guys can't see that it's they don't necessarily know if they improved from this training or maybe your reps were working more hours. So yeah. What are the things you're telling them? WeSpeaker 3 (09:35):Measure. Yep. So five key things specifically for solar one, it's going to be most of you guys, that's going to be knocking doors, right? A second. We have appointment setting for skillsets. We have presenting for number three, closings number four, and then five is emotional intelligence. ETQ right. There's a kind of like the five core skillsets that you need to master to really successfully sell solar. Um, how you measure these is you define a clear outcome for each activity. In other words, like what do we want to produce when we're prospecting for most guys it's we want to get a new lead, right. A new opportunity. So we define what we want to accomplish with each skill. So for prospecting, maybe it's a new lead. Okay. For some door knocking companies, it may be time spent on doors is the most valuable, uh, metric. So these metrics will be different company to company.Speaker 3 (10:35):And the way you determine what is the most valuable metric to measure is the one that produces the majority or do you have the outcomes? And you can only do this if you track. Right. That's the thing, that's why nobody does. This is because their tracking is not in place to begin with. Um, you need to be tracking, not just like leads and appointments set it's actual activities. So how much time are you spending per rep on the doors? Right? How many doors are you knocking to get a conversation? Right? These are things that you need to track if you want to have a successful training system. So go through each activity within your sales process, if you're a rapper, a company owner, and define what you want to accomplish with each particular skillset. So yeah,Speaker 2 (11:22):Yeah, yeah. That's better. Yeah. And I think a big thing that companies struggle with is just the actual tracking. Um, because I've seen, you know, I've worked for multiple companies now where it's like, they're tracking is just, um, you know, whatever's posted in like the group, me, the group chat, it's like, oh, I got a lead. We're going to put that up count as a lead. But it's like, they don't know was that leads was that qualified was actually booked with a homeowner. Uh, were they using enough energy to even count as a solar lead? Like all these things and they don't, they don't even know how to figure this out. Em, chock it. Yeah. Start majoring it. Good. So what's really cool about, um, what we've been able to do within society too, is we're helping companies set up just systems for actually tracking this because the truth is most people know how to know how to set up good systems to track and measure and report all these different KPIs. It's like, they're just arbitrary numbers thrown up on a scoreboard on a group chat and they may or may not be true. I mean, I've worked for all us companies where reps are just throwing up. I got six leads today where, you know, four of them were booked with people that didn't even own the home and the other two, they just put just to make them make themselves look good. So it's like, come on. You're not going to be able to know, happens all the timeSpeaker 3 (12:38):So much. Yeah. Yeah. So it's yeah, suicide. It, would've done it. It's done for you tracking. So, oh, I'm going to be secret sauce right now. I kind of had to do this as a rep or a company owner, but basically the first thing we accomplished with our enterprise setup is like, we literally will track your reps on over 45 different skillset points that we found in the industry, whether it's from door knocking specifically tailored to your business. And then we generate reports for your entire team on a weekly basis down to the rep. So you'll know exactly what's going on, um, what insights you need to make good decisions. So again, that's a, that's what we do there, but let's, let's keep moving and give them kind of the, uh, get back on track, give them the process on how to actually train and develop your skills. Um, let's do cool.Speaker 2 (13:28):Yeah. Um, so like, yeah, like we're talking about, I mean, you know, you set up a lot of these processes so you can get into the specifics, but I think the cool thing for me was just seeing the, um, interactive stuff that quizzes, um, I don't know about you, but I've gone through tons of video, you know, courses, trainings, things like that, just online courses where it's just a random video and then you're expected to remember all this to implement it. And half the time you don't even remember what you just watched. Um, so I think a big key in any training course is just actually getting tested on the material, getting quizzed and remembering it. So that's a big key that I thought was super impressive about what we've been able to develop within society. But yeah. What are some other things, James? Um, do you want to talk about that? And just other specific, I guess, training processes that were set up within that. Yeah.Speaker 3 (14:18):Yep. So, um, back to the conscious training thing, the way you combat this and really just accelerate your learning time, ridiculously is set a time, a minimum, I would say one hour is what I recommend with clients have each rep, or if you're listening as a rep set aside one hour where you dedicate all of your time, focusing attention to developing a skill, right? Um, best skill can be anything door-knocking presenting, whatever it is. Now, there are a couple of rules with skill development time I have for myself and our clients. We do this one. This needs to be private time. Okay. Zero distractions, nothing getting in your way. Like if you want to be really hyper effective here, it's gotta be all in. Laser-focus turn off the Facebook, turn off the notifications all in skill development, time. Second, this is not sales activities. Okay.Speaker 3 (15:09):So knocking doors doesn't count as your skill development time, right? Going on, presentations does not count. This is not actually talking to customers. That's where I don't see a lot of guys do this where they don't actually dedicate time to think about this way. If you're talking to a homeowner, right. Stuff's changing constantly, right? Something shows up, you've got to build rapport here. You're dynamically shifting you can't work on your skill set. In that case, you need to have a fixed variable. So sales activities don't count. And then third binge-watching courses and videos is not training time. This is what throws a lot of people off. Um, it's basically just entertainment, right? Just watching a bunch of videos back to back. And that's why we do things very differently with society to where it's just like 20 minute bite sized videos. It's not designed for you to binge watch all the videos in a weekend.Speaker 3 (16:06):It's to just choose one skill-based video, watch that implement it. Right. So that's what you want to do to set yourself up for success. Um, there's another tool with this. I like to use what I call a practice log. Okay. So this could be a digital version. This could be a paper version, whatever you want to do. I've been using this long before solar. It happens to work fantastic in sales. I actually learned this process, um, as a musician growing up as well. Um, so what you do is you document what you're training your specific outcomes, what you're working on specifically within each skillset on a daily basis during this hour. So you're productive. Um, the way I like to do it is simply just define my skill goal. So let's do it. You tailor, what's a skill that you'd like to work on and further develop right now with your sales.Speaker 2 (17:01):Um, I would say increasing my closing percentage. Yeah. Getting it up probably at about 40% right now. I want to get it up to more like 60 something.Speaker 3 (17:14):Okay, cool. So we want to set the clear outcome. We want to increase your close rate by 20%, right? Yeah. Perfect. So how do we know if we increase Taylor's close rate by 20%, we need to define that metric. So let's say that you go on 10 appointments. Right? We know that you're going to close four of them about right now on average. Right. So we know he needs to close two extra appointments. Right. Per what month week we define what we want to set. Right. If it's month, we say month, right? So you want to write these down, you got to get really granular, like how we do actually know the inquiry based it, make sure you're tracking those numbers right now to the training specifically. Right. What makes up a close, because closing is kind of a broad skill, right? I don't actually think closing is a skillset closing is handling rebuttals, handling objections and smoke screens. It's how your presentation works. Right. Right. So we need to identify like, what is the root cause that's causing Taylor's close rate to be 40% and not 60%. So let me ask you that Taylor, do you know or have a suspicion of what that root cause would be?Speaker 2 (18:37):Yeah. Um, I mean, I would say just based off of what I knew without tracking is super good. It's just getting in front of more qualified people because right now, I mean, I'll go to closes sometimes where it's like, there's a good chance. They're not even going to qualify. Um, so I guess stuff like that. And also if, um, you know, if the spouse isn't there, um, so I don't know. It just getting in front of more qualified people because my closing ratio can't increase. I'm not getting in front of, you know, like obviously my closing ratio is going to be less. If it's just talking to one spouse, it's not going to people that are lower credits. Um, if it's talking to people that have energy bills that are super low, those are all things that decrease it. So I don't know. I think for me, it's like also tracking most things like how many of these appointments are actually super qualified to even close. Um, yeah. That's just one thing I would think of that.Speaker 3 (19:39):Yeah, exactly. You answered it perfectly. So what's interesting here is Taylor thought he had a closed, a closing problem. He doesn't have a closing skill problem. This is where reps would make the mistake with this. And they go start working on like fancy closing lines and stuff like that. He doesn't have a problem with those lines. Right. He has an appointment setting skill issue at this point. So now we know, all right, the root causes appointment setting. That's what we need to spend our time on. Right. See how that works. Yeah. It's interesting. Cool. So we want to work backwards at this point. Okay. Go ahead.Speaker 2 (20:16):I was just going to say, that's probably a lot of, um, a lot of companies once they start actually tracking and getting deep into this data, it's probably like, what they'll realize is companies think they have one problem, but really it's another problem. Every day, prospecting, maybe it's getting more qualified leads. So that is interesting.Speaker 3 (20:34):Like, uh, so I used to own a marketing agency, right? Um, all the time we here in solar, I have lead problems. Right? I need more leads. I could tell you like seven to eight out of 10. It's not a lead issue. It's a offer issue. It's a branding issue. It's a training issue with their reps. They're not training the reps, how to self-generate even when they get the leads, they don't actually use them effectively. They waste 90 out of a hundred leads. Right? Um, boiling things down to its first principles is like a fundamental skill here. So how do we actually practice your appointment setting? That's what I want to talk about here. So we've got our practice log. We've set aside an hour to practice. Here's what we're going to do. We're going to divide our 60 minutes skill session into three more main parts.Speaker 3 (21:27):Okay. The first 20 minutes, we're going to work on what we call fundamental techniques, right? What are the like basic technical mechanics of setting an appointment? So in this case, this would be like how long the call should be when you're sending appointment, how long you should take on the door to set an appointment. Right. Um, what you're saying, the script itself, that's technical, that's fundamental the objections and FAQ's, that's technical and fundamental. So in this first 20 minutes, we're going to practice really just going through all of those processes. So like knowing your FAQ's just right off the bat, right? Somebody says, what if the solar panels get dirty? Boom, you can handle it without even thinking. Right? So in this 20 minute period, I'm going to go through my weak points. My FAQ's my, whatever it is, my scripts. And I'm just going to practice them. I'm going to say them out loud. I'm going to turn myself on camera right now. I'm going to practicing it that way. I'm going to record myself. I'm going to get my tonality. Right. I'm going to break down specifically what parts in there I'm missing. Whether it's tone, whether it's script, whether it's FAQ's right. We're getting very nitty gritty details for 20 minutes and just repeating that process. Right.Speaker 2 (22:43):That's you. Yeah. And this is another huge thing. I think companies, miss is just the recording aspect. Actually seeing what their reps are saying. Um, I just had another Laney, gray. I didn't, uh, he was on the episode. I think, I dunno, two episodes ago, he wrote the two door to door millionaire books. Um, but they add something. He talks about a lot in his trainings. You just actually having your reps record what they're saying on their doors, record their objection, handling and send it into their managers, sending it into the company owner, send it into the VP of sales and all that, because then they can actually diagnose and fix the problem. So that's something that I think is super powerful. What we're doing within societies. We're helping also companies set up that these systems bands, you know, get recordings from their reps, have them actually train effectively because how many people think they're out there, um, fall on the script, fall on how they were taught to handle the objections. And then you get out there, you listen. [inaudible] you saying? That's accountability.Speaker 3 (23:42):Accountability is a big problem with that, for sure. Yeah. So after we've, uh, worked on our fundamental techniques, right? The technical skills, that's only got to get us so far. Right next. We want to do modeling and reviewing. Okay. So the next 20 minutes, this is where your rep should be watching what your managers are doing. Hopping on a quick call with them, listening to recordings of themselves or managers or other people in S looks like specifically for the skill they're working on. This is where you review the game tape too. Right? They'll listen to their recordings. Hey, I don't like how I did this, the next practice session. They're going to work on that specific skill that identified, right. Um, the last 20 minutes is role play in implementation. So we want to make sure that we're practicing the new skills that we just learned in modeling.Speaker 3 (24:38):Right? And we're role-playing with somebody and accountability partner, right? So managers, other reps, people online and groups, whoever it is, you gotta be role-playing on a daily basis. Like this is another, just fundamental. Everybody misses, right? Sales is a predictability game, a consistency game, right? For every one day, two days, you miss selling, right? It's going to take you three to four days to make that skill up. If you go a year now, sell, watch what happens. Right. I've done the same thing too, where I go like six months, 12 months without like hopping on closing calls regularly, that skillset is almost shot, man. Like it goes down considerably and I have to get back in the ring. Right. Role playing actually going out there in the field more to get that skill place up. So that's kind of my skill session divided up into 60 minutes. Tech technique, 20 minutes modeling 20 minutes. Role-play 20 minutes.Speaker 2 (25:41):Yeah. That's awesome. It's funny how much it, yeah. I mean, James and I were both F from the music world, so I know your trumpet and stuff, but yeah, it just reminds me, it's so funny. You know, that's how practice sessions were divided up. It's like 20 minutes of technique. 20 minutes of, I dunno, improv, whatever 20 minutes of, um, whatever repertory you're working on. Yeah. It's the same stuff. And people forget about all these things in solar, but I think this is what separates truly the best from the people that are just staying where they're at is they're always working on these things. And you mentioned like, um, you know, even guys that are experienced, getting out and doing, taking cells calls, still doing role-plays. That reminds me of a story where I had my previous company. I had one of like, he was a VP of sales.Speaker 2 (26:26):He came out with me to a deal and I'm thinking, okay, this guy is going to close him. Like, no problem, 20 minutes we'll be in and out of the house, close them. And he hadn't gone to a close for probably, I don't know, maybe at least a couple months at that time. And he came to this close and he just, I mean, it was, it was okay, but he forgot a couple of crucial things. Number one, the husband was in the other room. He forgot to even invite the husband into the presentation. And, and then he, and then at the close you could tell he's just super uncomfortable. So I'm like, man, I thought this was going to be a 20 minute close. And what, at the time I was a newer rep. So I'm like, okay, he's probably doing this for a reason.Speaker 2 (27:05):He probably just knows. He's so good at closing that he didn't have to invite the spouse into the room. He's that good? So he didn't even need to invite them to get to the end. Like, no, I need to talk to my spouse. You get all the same objections. And I'm like, well, okay. That's what happens. Even guys that are, you know, at the top of their game, if they're not doing these things, they're going to be, there's no staying neutral. You're either getting better. You're getting worse. So that's, what's going to happen. Perfectly said. Yep. So yeah, I think that's a big thing we're trying to solve, but yeah. James, anything else that we're doing? I don't know, in the epic processes in society, uh, what, w what else are we missing? Anything else we're implementing to help, um, companies and reps improve their craft?Speaker 3 (27:48):So, I mean, I'll, I'll talk about a lot more on the specific company stuff, but the biggest benefit, um, in our program we've put together and what my company provides for Taylor as well as a content partner is the tracking, as I talked about accountability is second piece that most companies miss, you need to be holding your reps accountable for training, not on a monthly basis or a weekly, a daily basis. Okay? If you need, if we're asking and showing you right now, that training 60 minutes a day, right? You can plainly see on here, whether you take anything, what we're saying for real, or with a grain of salt, it doesn't matter. You can admit that if your reps were to train specifically on their weak points and their skills for 60 minutes a day, following this process, do you think they would get better at selling?Speaker 3 (28:38):That's an obvious answer. Yes. Right? The problem is most company owners don't believe their reps will actually put in the work with this and they don't want to babysit their reps with that. So that's where we actually come into play in our partnership. Me and Taylor here is we actually hold your reps accountable through what we call a pod check system, where they're actually holding each other accountable with quick five minute check-ins with each member of their team on a daily, consistent basis to make sure they're training and they're reaching their goals. Uh, the other part of this is just incentives at the end of the day, what are you actually rewarding and incentivizing as a business owner? And the biggest mistake, again, that not anybody, right? I'm not just picking on solar here, but it's for sure. And solar that's where I've learned this process.Speaker 3 (29:29):We're incentivizing only one outcome. Most of the time and that's sales, right? Most companies say, Hey, Taylor, go sell 10 deals. We'll buy you a Rolex or whatever. Well, Brent, you a Tesla for a year. The problem is that only incentivizes who like your top producers that know they're going to be able to do the action. The rest of your team is just like, screw it. Taylor's a rock star. I'm not going to even try. Right. This happens like every freaking time a sales contest. Um, and when I was a VP of sales, right? Um, a few years back, I was just like, dude, no matter how awesome the prizes cash, we did like a 25 grand in cash for like a month competition. One time, guess what? It's the same crap. Three reps out of the lot are actually motivated by it. Right? And what I realized is it's because we're incentivizing only results and results are so overwhelming and big to go and accomplish.Speaker 3 (30:31):Right? Our rep sees, he's got to go close 10, 15 deals to go on the company retreat. He's like, dude, I haven't even closed more than three deals. I'm not even going to have a freak. Am I going to make this happen? Right? This is why your numbers are so key, because guess what happens when you know your numbers? You can track activities and incentivize activities, not results. If you know, for a fact that going on 10 appointments as a rep is going to yield three, four closes, right? You can now place rewards right on appointment set. And not those deals where companies get scared with this is because they don't know their metrics. They don't have any trust in the system that an appointment is not just going to get fudged to get a quick reward. If you have accountability with your reps and you know, they can't be asked you all right, you can incentivize whatever you want to do, right. Make the barrier super low. So that's the final piece. We do the same thing. Um, with society, we help you craft really unique and specific incentives to your team that will actually motivate them and use action motivations and incentives rather than just results. So yeah,Speaker 2 (31:42):So powerful guys. So this is key whether you get on society or not, it's something that every company needs to be thinking about is just how can we better develop these systems? How can we better, better develop our reps to get the maximum efficiency out of them? Because if you're not doing these things, that's a big reason. You're losing reps. Companies are losing reps. It's like pouring water into a basket. You have 10 holes in the basket. If you don't have these processes and systems set up, set up, the water's just leaking out the ends of it. I mean, right now, or a matter of fact, our company's doing this exact thing. We have a, uh, Conor McGregor tickets set up for the weekend. Um, but you have to close six deals. So that's great. And yet it's going to motivate the top guys. But how about the guys that have never closed more than two deals in a week, or that have only closed one deal a week?Speaker 2 (32:28):It's like, you need to have these top incentives, but you also need to be rewarding. These little things, these mini habits as guys like Michael Donald stuff, like he's come on and talked about these things. But what are these little actions that you can reward that are going to lead to the big actions? Because not everyone's going to go out and hit six deals in their first, first week. So how can you also give them incentives? How can you motivate them? And then how can you track and set all the systems in place? Because most companies that I've seen just, I mean, they don't even know how to check their incentives. And it happens there at every company I've been with. It's like, you could talk to any rep there they've been, oh yeah, I won this incentive, but I didn't get paid out on it. Um, no keeping JackSpeaker 3 (33:09):I've personally owed a lot of prizes from back when I was selling full time.Speaker 2 (33:17):No, and I know perhaps that's the worst thing you want to do is have to go, you know, beg gear, your manager, credibilitySpeaker 3 (33:21):As a sales leader, just tanks, man. Culture just goes down. Like, why would you even want to participate in the next contest? I know. And it's not that they don'tSpeaker 2 (33:31):Want to, but it's just, they don't. Yeah, they don't, they probably don't need to know who won it. They don't have a system set in a place to track that. And then they just forget. So it's important to have someone in charge of this. And then if not, I mean, yeah. I consider her and getting on society. That's what we're trying to help companies do is really set up these systems and then track up for them. So you don't have to worry about all this. You don't have to remember it. And then we're going to help you put these systems in place and actually get reps rewarded for these little actions that they're taking. So super powerful stuff. Um, go set it up, figure out a way to do it. And James, I think we've covered quite a bit. Are there any, anything else that, um, I don't know you wanted to cover that I didn't think of. No.Speaker 3 (34:12):Well, I think, uh, I'm looking forward to putting out some solo episodes, um, to really dive deep on some of these concepts. So. Awesome.Speaker 2 (34:20):Yeah. So we're looking for it. Let us know what you thought of this guys, especially for, uh, you know, company owners. Um, let us know if there's things that you struggle with. Cause that's what James is going to be doing. Um, you know, specific episodes on is things that companies struggle with and things that we can help them improve as far as systems and processes. So at James, thanks for coming on. Um, guys, we'll be hearing more of you and we had a few, uh, sorry. We had some wifi issues. So apologize if there was some, a blitz blips in the audio, but we will get that figured out for next time. Um, so set that up and James, any final words you wanted to share before we talk next time? Okay. I guys, well, we will see you on the next show. Thanks for tuning in. And then if you are a rep, that's listening to this, make sure to send it to your company owners so they can also work on these things. Cause I know that's another problem is company owners. Aren't listening to this podcast, I'll send it to your company. Owners, send it to the guys that do need help setting up these systems. And that's it guys. So James, can we talk some more and we'll see you guys on the next one.Speaker 1 (35:24):Hey Solarpreneurs. Quick question. What if you could surround yourself with the industry's top performing sales pros, marketers, and CEOs, and learn from their experience and wisdom in less than 20 minutes a day. For the last three years, I've been placed in the fortunate position to interview dozens of elite solar professionals and learn exactly what they do behind closed doors to build their solar careers to an all-star level. That's why I want to make a truly special announcement about the new solar learning community, exclusively for solar professionals to learn, compete, and win with the top performers in the industry. And it's called Solciety. This learning community was designed from the ground up to level the playing field and give solar pros access to proven mentors who want to give back to this community and to help you or your team to be held accountable by the industry's brightest minds. For, are you ready for it? Less than $3 and 45 cents a day currently society's closed the public and membership is by invitation only, but Solarpreneurs can go to society.co to learn more and have the option to join a wait list. When a membership becomes available in your area. Again, this is exclusively for Solarpreneur listeners. So be sure to go to www.solciety.co to join the waitlist and learn more now. Thanks again for listening. We'll catch you again in the next episode. 

So James tells that we must "have faith in God" when dealing with a trail. But how do we practically do this? In this next episode, James explains the "necessary qualities" for overcoming trials. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/chapel-hill-baptist/support

WANNABE 25!!! Excitement is brewing in the Spice Girls camp with the official announcement of #WANNABE25. What do we have so far? A new vinyl, cassette and an unreleased song from the vault 'Feed Your Love'. So James and John get together to discuss their thoughts on the breaking news and speculate what else might be coming! Are these vinyls enough for the die hard fans? Also, Victoria Beckham and her Pride tee creates a little heat, they need answers - why isn't she posting about the anniversary? Hmm. Thankfully, Emma, Mel B and Mel C are all active with projects - Baby has her new book 'Mama You Got This', Mel B released her short film to support domestic violence and Mel C appears on celebrity gogglebox! So lots to catch up on. Oh and the boys share some details on James' epic Spice Girl themed 40th birthday! #IAmASpiceGirl.

Tune in now and don't forget to sign up for www.solciety.co!Speaker 1 (00:03):Welcome to the Solarpreneur podcast, where we teach you to take your solar business to the next level. My name is Taylor Armstrong and went from $50 in my bank account and struggling for groceries to closing 150 deals in a year and cracking the code on why sales reps fail. I teach you to avoid the mistakes I made and bringing the top solar dogs, the industry to let you in on the secrets of generating more leads, falling up like a pro and closing more deals. What is a Solarpreneur you might ask a Solarpreneur is a new breed of solar pro that is willing to do whatever it takes to achieve mastery. And you are about to become one what is going on onSpeaker 2 (00:42):Solarpreneurs. We are back with another show. We're doing something a little bit different, and we have a familiar face on the show. And for those of you watching, we're going to be start doing some video too. So we've got us both in our home studios, but we have today back on the studio, uh, James Swiderski what's up, James? Thanks for coming back on the show. Yeah, man, it feels like home feels like, yeah, you're good house. Thank you. Appreciate it. And so for our solarpreneurs, some of you are probably wondering what the heck is James doing back here? Um, we had him on probably a couple months back. Just kind of told your story, why you ultimately left the podcast and started doing some different things though. Um, for those that are wondering why James is back, I'll just tell you why. Um, so we have been working together.Speaker 2 (01:30):I actually hired James, um, around the time that we had him back on to tell his story of kind of what went down, why he left the podcast. I actually hired James after that. Cause now he is working, um, primarily with coaches, consultants, helping them build their brands and helping them launch courses, things like that. So I thought, well, James he's he's, he knows the solar stuff and he's good at helping coaches and everything. So why don't we figure out a way we can work together? So since then we've been working together, have some excited things, exciting things coming out. Um, he helped me kind of put together the Solciety, which we'll be talking about more it's in a beta testing right now. So for those that are on the wait list, go join the wait list. If you haven't already solciety.co.Speaker 2 (02:15):But after that, I invited him to actually be an instructor in on the course. And obviously you have a ton of insight to have done solar online Legion. So I'm had some valuable stuff to share. So that's why he's back on. We're going to be doing just a little bit content here and there. And I think there's still a lot of value he can add. So yeah. So happy to be here. Yeah. So James, today we're jamming on, um, just, you know, the lead gen, we're talking about a whole lot just over the past couple of days, just online versus offline. And so can you give us like your background? You did the online lead gen. You basically had an agency with for years. So I don't know. You want to give your background in that role. So yeah, I've done. Um, I've done it all for lead gen.Speaker 2 (03:07):So started out as a sales rep, a solar rep, like everybody and did not do online leads. Uh, a lot of people think I just came out of the gate in my solar career, started doing social media, all that good stuff, but, uh, it's completely the other way around for the first three years of my career, I never generated a single lead online. It was all in person, uh, strategies, which we'll talk about, um, whether it's door knocking. I did a little bit of that, but mostly it was like kiosks movie theaters, things like that, that my company had set up. Um, so my background is actually very similar to Taylor and most guys in the industry, it's just jamming on the traditional lead gen strategies, but I really started getting into kind of the internet marketing side of things from an early, um, exactly early, but it was somewhat early perspective on my career.Speaker 2 (03:57):And that's when I just kind of hit that bug. I got that social media, uh, internet marketing type of bug, uh, entrepreneur bug, and started looking for ways to generate leads besides just being at the movie theater or the kiosk or any of that stuff. Um, and it's not that they were in effective. Um, I easily closed probably a hundred deals just from like kiosks, for example, at a mall or a movie theater on a weekend. So like it was very, very effective. Um, but I just didn't enjoy it and it just didn't capture my attention the same way, like online lead stuff. So, uh, that's kinda like how I got started. I just want to go into this before we kind of go into this debate. Like I have done all of the offline stuff. I'm not just coming in and saying like, ad sucks, don't do it.Speaker 2 (04:45):Like there's a specific type of person. I think that should. Um, and then what you just said about the lead gen side. So after I, uh, briefly kind of put my solar rep career on hold, they went out and started a consulting and advertising agency for solar professionals. Um, maybe some of you have worked with me. I know we have some past clients that have worked with us. Um, and we just did lead gen Facebook ads, Google ads, all of that stuff for, um, different companies. And we've worked with companies like Sunrun, vivid, uh, some of the big players within the industry. And I've made a lot of people, a lot of money. So I've got a lot of thoughts, a lot of opinions. Um, my general opinion is I'm more on the pro online lead gen strategy for solar. Then Taylor is, and kind of our purpose of this step is to kind of go head to head, provide some perspective to see what you should be doing.Speaker 2 (05:37):Yeah. So before this, we were thinking of bringing in like a town hall debate, moderator give us like the full experience here. Like Trump buy it in. Let's get it on. Um, who's who's, who's Biden. Who's Trump on the trout man. That's a bunch of crap, man. Lead gen. Great. Again. I'm going to get out, make it great again. Yeah. All right. Um, but so we didn't get that this time. Maybe we'll bring someone on for the next one. So for our listeners, let us know. You didn't tell him what it actually was. It was iron man versus captain America. Oh, that's what it was. Yeah. And we all know who's iron man here. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. You can be an Ironman like captain America, like whatever, unless it's the new captain America, did you watch the new Falcon winter soldier show yet? That was a show.Speaker 2 (06:28):Okay. You need to watch that. But the new iron sucks for sorry. The new captain America sucks basically replace captain America. Spoiler alert. Yikes. They're never going to do that with iron man that you can't, you can't, you can't replace. Dude. If anybody came in and replaced, uh, RJ dude toast, they put a sign. I was reading, they they're making a campaign. They have a billboard in LA sing and bring a Tony stark back. So good happen. Who knows? We'll see. But yeah. Anyways, so I'm captain America, your iron man. All right. So Taylor, bottom line. Why door knocking bro? What's your background? Well, yeah, so my background is just, I think online leads are just such a distraction for people. And this is what I've been telling. You guys spend all this money, um, from what I've seen, just leading teams, time after time, reps just want to go to do these online leads basically because they're lazy.Speaker 2 (07:30):They don't want, they want to work less. And what do you mean by online leads? So that's a, that's a broad topic. What do you mean? Yeah. Well, I mean, just like mostly like paying someone to generate your leads because yeah. These people don't put in the time. A lot of times they just want to get off the doors and then it's tough for like leading a team. Cause I'll give you an example. We had a dude that worked with us. Um, and then he, he closed like, I don't know, six deals in a week. And a lot of them were just from kind of like networking online leads. So he stepped into a manager role, but then he didn't want to like actually go out and knock. So then our whole team that was, we were trying to train to knock. They just wanted to be like this dude.Speaker 2 (08:16):And after that, he, he saw like intermittent success. He closed a ton in a week and then he would have to go network a ton and try and sift through all these online leads. And then it was just like up and down, like crazy where we're just like, dude, get out and like lead, go out and just knock some doors and get some consistent leads go out there. So that's always been kind of my take on it. It's just like you're trying to lead door to door teams. There's so many people that are just, I don't know, want to do it to take the easy way out. Don't want to knock doors ins. Yeah. They're just lazy, man. So I don't know. I guess I kind of have a, a bad taste in my mouth just after seeing all these lazy on the doors. So interesting perspective having, so you've, you've never done online leads before successfully.Speaker 2 (09:03):Well, I have, in fact, in fact I have a guy. Yeah, I have. So I think it's like, if you're not lazy, if you're going to knock doors, do both. But like my argument is, I don't know. I don't think people should go out and try to do online leads unless until they have success in door knocking, then you can go to all my maids and doom combination. Yeah. So that's my take on it, but I don't know. What did you see when you were in your company? Did you have like lazy dudes, your, where was your company even pushing door knocking or what was your here's what, here's what, here's what I think. Uh, no, we did not push door knocking. So the, the original company I worked with, they were called FLR solar. They've actually been out of business for a few years now, but you could still look them up and check them out.Speaker 2 (09:47):This is back in Utah, but, um, they were actually strongly against door knocking. We actually almost had a policy against door knocking in this company and you can see why I'm not like super pro for it. It's because we'd like to keep our brand a certain way. We were going for a very kind of pristine apple valley type of customer centric brand where we cared about the experience. We didn't want to look like pesky sales guys, like the rest of the people out there. Um, which is why we hit so hard on kiosk and movie theaters. Um, if you guys have never tried those, you haven't tried those right tailor, like movie theater kiosk. How about like a trade show? Um, I've tried that maybe once, once or twice and it didn't go that great. So super good. And there was those three, right? There were like 90% of our leads at this company.Speaker 2 (10:41):And this was on multi eight figure company too. Like this is a big solar company. Um, so like those of you who do have companies out there to look into those strategies and give them a shot because at first glance, um, I will tell you that it's not like a plugin play. Like let's just go book a kiosk at the local mall here and see if it works. There's a lot more to it. I would say it took probably a solid year for this company to get the momentum going and these offline strategies. But I will agree with Taylor on this point. I think that you're going to find the lazy reps on both sides of the coin. In other words, if you're too lazy to generate leads, knocking doors, or you're too lazy to generate leads, uh, generating on social media or online strategies, right?Speaker 2 (11:33):I think they're one in the same. I think the guys who are really good at door knocking, they could also be good at lead gen. I think the guys who are not good at door knocking or not good at online leads, they're going to suck around the board. So I don't think it's an and or, or necessarily I think if you're lazy, you're lazy, right. Could be, could be, well, my question is this like in Utah, um, I don't think there were, I mean, a ton of solar companies at the time you tell me, but I don't think it was super saturated. San Diego. No, no. Yeah. So like the trade shows we've tried to do, um, my feeling was that they didn't work just cause like everyone's heard about solar, it's super saturated. They've had their door knock 20 times. The last thing they want to do is go talk to someone, you know, at a trade show when they're already in like the home depots, the Lowe's stuff like that.Speaker 2 (12:24):So did you see that that works or with people you work with, did you hear that? That stuff works even in like saturated markets, like counseling, there's a, there's a, uh, work, smarter work, harder strategy when it comes to trade shows and this type of in-person stuff. What worked for us was not stand behind the booth. Let me just paint a picture. Okay. You've seen it before. So you're at a mall, you're at a kiosk or something. What do you see? Usually you're going to see two types of salespeople. You're going to see one that is behind the booth on their phone, doing nothing, right? Cause they get paid by the hour that did not work. It did not work for us. And our company is still hired hourly appointment set or reps. I told them so many times, and this is one of the reason I left out on my own is because I'm like, dude, these reps literally never set a single appointment.Speaker 2 (13:13):They're just sitting there burning cash, right. It was the commission sales reps that thought a little bit smarter, got a little bit more out of the box with their thinking they were more effective. So when you're doing like this offline stuff, what really worked well was going to in our trade show example was actually going to the other trade show booth, uh, founders and company owners and representatives and networking with those people. That's where the real money was because when you go and you talk to them, Hey, we're at our booth. It's not going super great. What do you do? Boom, you got instant rapport going with those people. So it was like that combined with actually getting out there and working the floor, not just sitting behind the desk. So I mean, there's a right and a wrong way to do everything, but, uh, I'll a hundred percent agree with you.Speaker 2 (14:01):I would say 90% of reps, uh, at our company did not generate with these strategies at all, but the 10% made up for it. Hmm. Gotcha. So basically you're you wanted these people to be like the sales guys in Mexico. This is fresh on my mind. I just got back from Mexico and you know, I know you've never been there. I don't think. But like if you're in the streets, people hound you for everything. People hound, you buy other jewelry, you can't walk to one place to another without something. Yeah, dude. Okay. Makes more sense. I think it's the same spread man. 90% of people are not going to produce the results, but that 10%, isn't it the same in door knocking, right? Yeah. That's fair to say, like those top 10% they make up for all of it. Yeah. 80, 20 rule, 20% of the you, what are those top 10% guys have that the other guys don't the 90%?Speaker 2 (14:57):Um, well I think just the combination of the work, they're working more. Number one and then the knowledge, I mean they know all this stuff. They know how to overcome the objections. Um, so it really comes down to that. I think these guys know how to work hard and they know how to like resolve the objections. Then they're going to have success because what I see in door knocking guys will work hard for like a week. But since they don't have the knowledge, yet since they suck at knocking doors, suck at overcoming objections, they're not getting the results. Um, so then they stop working hard and then they get less results. Even though their knowledge is increasing by a little bit, they're not working hard. They don't have the work ethic anymore. So it just like kills them. And that's why people, so many people quit because they don't put in that consistent work.Speaker 2 (15:44):If they did it for like a couple months, I think they would get past that learning curve. But it's like few people are willing to put in the hard work and then have the knowledge, like get to the point where, you know, you don't have to work as hard. That's I think, but let me ask you this. What, what is the once the last time you talked to like a guy on your team or something that was considering online, lead strategies, buying leads, something like that. Like what's that? Tell me about the experience last time you're talking to a guy like this and what did you find? Is it just, they're trying to not put in the hard work and they think that this is a better alternative or like what do you think about that? Um, yeah. I mean, that's, that's my opinion. Like I was saying in the beginning.Speaker 2 (16:28):Yeah. There's a few guys, you know, that I work with currently. They think sometimes have that mindset. They want to work less hours. So they go out and, you know, do leads and yeah. I mean I've, I do all my needs currently right now, too. So I pay someone, get some online leads. So like I was saying, I don't think it's a bad thing, but especially for newer guys, they're trying to jump into it too early then. I don't think that's a good combination. We had a guy that was out here, came from Texas, sold with us for like a couple of weeks. And he was already trained to jump into online leads. He may be generated like, I don't know, maybe what did he do though? Well, he was knocking doors, but he'd only generated like three or four appointments from knocking doors that don't want to be like a jerk to him.Speaker 2 (17:16):But I'm like, bro, you can't, you've only gotten like four appointments from knocking in like two, three weeks now. Like why don't you focus on that rather than already chained to dump money into online leads. Cause I think you would agree that if people are good at knocking, well, yeah, I think you already said it. If they're good at knocking, then they're going to be able to set better appointments with online needs. Cause this is, you got to overcome the objections. You're still calling these leads. You still got to have to set that appointment so that you can do it on the doors, then it's way easier to do it on the phone. Would you agree? Yeah. So what if you were to summarize your case on door knocking, you think that if you're new to the industry door knocking is for you, are you saying just door knocking or what do you think about other offline strategies?Speaker 2 (18:01):Like networking events, stuff like that? No, I think just door knocking, man. All door knocking. I think if you can do that, like do it hard for two to three, I would say minimum three months. Even if you hate it, just cause like, yeah. See, I know you're talking about, if it's not your favorite thing to do, there's other ways to January leads by the end day, there's going to be a lot of things that people hate that we're not hanging around. So like, why not go knock doors hard for three months? Even if you hate it, just grind through it, get good at it. And then you can start to work on these other strategies. Then you can start doing them more long-term things. Cause it's going to get you past that learning curve and it's only going to help you and all the other lead gen strategies you need, it's going to help you with the communication and networking.Speaker 2 (18:48):It's going to help you with the overcoming objections. It's going to help you with the persistence. Not taking no for an answer, but I think, but yeah. Let me ask you this James, you coming from not knocking doors much. How do you feel like, um, I don't know. How do you feel like you developed those things to actually be successful in your kiosks and everything? Do you think it was like a slower learning curve with you not knocking as many doors or? Yeah. So this is where I got my experience. This is where I had a bit of an advantage that I used to not talk about enough on the previous podcast, because I mean, frankly like when I would tell people I'd like LinkedIn was one of my most profitable lead sources like LinkedIn, right? Nobody talks about LinkedIn in this industry, but I can tell you the skill set to do that is ridiculous.Speaker 2 (19:35):It makes it looking like knocking doors, like a piece of cake. Like you got to learn how to knock doors. You have to learn how to write hook a copy that hooks right? In one, two sentences, you gotta be able to hop on the phone, add value to the person and exchange, right? You have to be able to network with them, get along with them. Then you have to set an appointment with them and overcome objections, just like door knocking. Right. And if you've got to do that over and over and over again, so the skill set to do online lead gen is a lot more significant. And um, where I think I really set my foundation, my roots, correct, was actually on a church service mission, similar to what Taylor did as well. We both went on one of these, not same place, not at the same time, but on these missions.Speaker 2 (20:19):Right. And I'm sure a lot of you guys have heard like Mormon church, church missions, right? We all know who these guys are. Right. You're going around door knocking for two years. Right? Pitching people on why they need to like change their lifestyle, quit addictions, quit drinking, coffee, quit drinking, alcohol, quit all this stuff, right. Pitching them. Jesus. Right. Closing a deal with Jesus. That's way harder to sell than solar. I can tell you, is that a million times harder? Right. Um, and this is where I kind of got my first taste of door knocking, absolute and I first tasted door knocking. So like the first, I would say year of this mission, it was all door knocking, all grinding 10, 12 hours a day. Right. You could relate with this tailor. And that's just where I developed the skills. One to handle rejection, two to communicate and develop rapport with a complete stranger communication skills, discipline.Speaker 2 (21:14):All of this stuff was developed at this point. That's why I really had a leg up because honestly my first day at the solar company that I joined, when I, I did join a couple of years after that mission, um, I came in and was instantly the top lead setter in the entire company. Like I said, 10 appointments my first day, like in a couple of hours, people are like, what the freak? What? It's the stuff at the mission. So I vibe a tailor on that. The skillset, uh, I had, I had an advantage for sure. So yeah. Good point. Well, yeah. What about like, um, because another one of my arguments is all these networking strategies, the kiosks, like you were saying, they take quite a bit of time to have success with and like set up and be consistent money. That's the thing with kiosks and boosts.Speaker 2 (22:01):It's a lot of money we spent. I'm trying to remember. I think we spent 20 grand a month to be at one of our kiosks. Yeah. Yeah. So expense plus, plus we had to have people at the kiosk. I didn't even say this when you're doing a mall kiosk, you have to have a man at the kiosk at all times. So you've got to pay for an hourly appointment set or to be there if your closers aren't there too. So it's, it's closer to realistically with payroll, like 40 grand a month for something like that. Yeah. So it was, it was always profitable. Yeah. Yeah. But not for a long time. Not for a long time. And as for some of the stuff I'm talking about too, like if you're ever doing a kiosk thing to maybe I shouldn't even talk about it in society trainings as well.Speaker 2 (22:47):Like there's a lot to learn there that when we started blowing up, we actually hired a guy, a VP of sales from a solar city. At the time he was an ex guy from solar city, any help, solar city develop all their kiosks around the country. And at the time these guys were cranking probably 60 to 75 deals a month average per kiosk. And they had multiple dozens of kiosk locations across the country, just from kiosks. So, uh, don't knock on them. I mean, and they are really offline strategies to begin with. It's kind of like door knocking, but they come to you versus the other way around. Yeah. Well, yeah, you gotta hand it to these guys. Like the sun runs and all that, that have booths and Costco and the home depots they work. Yeah. Those things are working for sure. I don't know how they set that up. I wish I had that set up because what makes me mad is people think some run and all that people think they're Costco that I go, I got my solar panels from Costco and like Costco. They don't even sell solar panels.Speaker 2 (23:48):Not yet. Not yet. They don't Amazon, Amazon. Who's going to be everybody's lunch. I'm putting my money on. Eventually Amazon's getting into solar game and it's game it's lights. Yeah. Baby could be. Yeah. Or Tesla with these rock bottom prices. These guys are killing us man. Oh. And Bezos is the king of rock bottom, bottom prices. He will slash Teslas if he does solar, which I think he will, he will slash what Tesla's lower prices. He will take a loss on his panels. Like it does this with everything that the Kindle, by the way, every time you buy a Kindle on Amazon, Amazon loses money upfront. This has bayzos strategy. He will go underwater. And because he has such big reserve tanks, he can just suffocate everybody. So anyway, not to get to business strategy, but bayzos, McDonald's sell McDouble for a dollar don't they lose money on that and they have to make it back on the drinks and the yep.Speaker 2 (24:52):Yup. That's why it's not a big tie back to lead gen a little strategy for companies doing online leads. The more you can afford to pay for a customer, the better you're going to do. Long-term so some of our clients that did really well, they, instead of asking, what's the cheapest cost I can afford to pay, to buy a customer, right? Because for those of you guys would like leads, right. If I want to go and generate some Facebook ads, I've got, what's called a cost per acquisition, a CPA, right? What's it cost? What do I have to spend to go and get a new solar customer? Right. Um, and the average right now, CPA, somewhere around a thousand to 1500 for most solar companies cost them about a thousand bucks. Whether it's an ad, whether it's in hiring an appointment setter, an hourly appointment guy, right.Speaker 2 (25:41):Um, to, to get a new customer, uh, the long-term strategy companies who really think long game three, five years, this is why Sunrun and vivid. These guys destroy is because they don't focus on being profitable today. They don't focus on making five, six, seven, $10,000 a deal. And they say, can I go get a customer at break even? And if you can break even and get customers, um, for the same price you're spending, you might be saying, dude, you didn't make any money on the customer, but the lifetime value of that customer, their referrals, the reputation, getting more, installs, more reviews. That's when you can crush the competition. And this is also another key point. Why I think online lead strategy is so much more powerful is because I can literally wave a wand, right? With some skill. It's not like total magic. We'll get into that.Speaker 2 (26:32):But let's say figuratively, I can wave a magic wand and get customers for free worst case scenario. Right? Worst case scenario. I get new customers. I didn't make any on them. I am now getting more customers with this strategy because I'm not involving human power and I can leverage referrals and things like that. Call them up later on and you can grow exponentially. This is why those big guys are big companies invest so much money in online leads because you just cannot compete with it from a long-term perspective. Hmm. Interesting. It's like Dan Kennedy says, whoever can spend the most to acquire the customer wins. Right. People don't think like that it's solar is such a weird industry because guys, I, I, I do stuff in like every industry now. Right. And this is like one of the only industries I see where everybody's like, dude, I gotta make freaking $10,000 on a deal or 6,000 bucks on it.Speaker 2 (27:25):I'm like, you're missing the point. And then they won't get those deals because they're afraid to spend $2,000 to acquire a customer and make four grand. Oh God forbid I make four grand instead of six. That's terrible. We're just going to do door knocking because it's, it's traditional. Like it, it works. It's cheap. Right. Um, I just think, I just think companies that focus all their, they put all their eggs in door knocking alone. They're just not thinking long-term. Yeah. Yeah, no, I agree with that. I think you got to diversify at the end of the day, but here's my other question. Like my argument is at the point I'm at, I can go out and knock for four hours and usually get two to three leads. Um, so like for people, for sales reps that are listening to this, that's like, haven't done any of these things.Speaker 2 (28:16):What's your argument? Like why would we go out and try these offline strategies? Like it's probably going to take us more than online or yet online. I'm like, why would we spend the time to set this up? Or why would we go set up like a kiosk for example, or I don't know, set up ads or something. It's probably going to take us more than, you know, four hours. No, not, you're not going to knock on your argument here. Absolutely. If we pin new guy day one never sold solar in his life and we take new guy day one, never sold solar. And we say, you knocked doors. You go. And uh, we're not going to do the kiosk because I actually am going to put my money on the kiosk guy. If there's an established kiosk at the company, that's the, if we're going to say you go generate leads on Facebook.Speaker 2 (29:03):Okay? New guy knocked doors, new guy in Facebook. Every time I'm going to say the guy knocking doors is going to beat the guy doing Facebook instantly. Right now he is. But over time, the guy on Facebook, I'm betting my money on that guy. If he's willing to develop the skillset, he's willing to really commit himself to this. There's a lot of other variables, but the other big one is what's your priority and goal with solar. If you're just coming in for a summer. And I don't even know is the summer thing, like is still a, still a big thing with solar Taylor. Is that kind of old guys come in for like four months? Yeah. I think it's still big, especially with bigger, like the vivid solar's Sunrun. I think there's a lot of guys that still do the summer program. I bet. I feel like that culture of that is dying a little bit, especially with COVID but yeah, with we're definitely not as big if that's your jam and solar's not like your career, like you're in it to win this thing over the next three, five, 10 years plus right then.Speaker 2 (30:02):Yeah. I would say probably stick with door knocking and unless you've got the skillset and the chops like I'm talking about. Yeah. Well, I remember you even called me at one point a while back because you were considering starting up your door knocking team. Yeah. So even a guy like you, you know, recognized it and everything. I'm like, wow. James has called me for door knocking tips. Never thought I'd hear it a day. And here's why different reps have different strengths. Think of them like a, like, uh, a Pokemon card or something. Right. It's got, you've got your, your strengths and your weaknesses. Okay. So different reps, you in particular, I'm going to place if I'm like, like I'm placed in my Pokemon here right now, I'm playing a game. I'm not a big Pokemon guy, by the way. I'm just trying to, I wasn't as a kid, but I was definitely a Pokemon Yu-Gi-Oh guy. Oh yeah. I just got some Pokemon cards in my box of lucky terms. Yeah. I'm waiting for those records. I'm waiting for those Pokemon NFTs to draw. Oh yeah. Oh original. [inaudible]Speaker 2 (31:09):swiping those up. So anyway, if I'm there and I'm placing all my people where like chess, for example, I'm placing my pieces. I'm going to place a guy like Taylor as a door knocking guy and not like a LinkedIn networking JV type of thing. Because knowing Taylor, I know that he's better at consistent efforts. He doesn't mind grinding on the doors necessarily. Like, yeah, nobody loves it, but he'll do it right at the end of the day. And then he's motivated too. He's clear on his goals and he just wants a simple solution to do his thing. He just wants to straight line boom. Here's what I'm looking for. Here's what I'm going to do. So I would place him there. On the other hand, if you've got a guy like me, right. Who's very entrepreneurial. Even at the first company I was working with, I was, uh, what you call an intrepreneur right at this company.Speaker 2 (32:03):I was constantly having, I was showing up to the marketing meetings and the sales meetings, every meeting I could trying to find out ways how we could grow the company. I was the guy who was leading out the kiosks. Uh, I remember we'd booked an event at a Dave Ramsey event. Like Dave Ramsey showed up for a speaking event and we were like one of the partners there. Um, like I organize these things. Right. And uh, that type of person, they will absolutely go nuts if they're forced to be in a situation that is just, Hey, knock doors and get out. I could guarantee that guy is not going to stay. He's going to go and start his own. Company's probably going to end up beating you at some point as well. So you got to know your people, advice to advice to company owners, a VP of sales marketing is like, you got to know your reps where they're at.Speaker 2 (32:54):Yeah. Well, how would you, my question is how do you even recognize that though? Cause there's not that many guys like you that are, you know, super entrepreneurial and want to go start all this stuff that I see. Um, so like your own companies and stuff like w Unisphere reps or how you seen, are you just saying, Hey, this guy is lazy for knocking doors. Let's go put them on the different track. See if he does get along. Yeah. Because there's value in being consistent as a, when you're running a company. Right. You can't just have, there, there is a, we should talk about this too. Kind of the free for all self lead gen versus more organized models as well. But, um, I do think there's a, w what's your question? Repeat your question. I'm just saying like, how would you recognize that? Because when you were starting your teams, got it.Speaker 2 (33:40):How are you going to see, oh, this guy he's, he doesn't want to knock doors. He's not going to do good with that. Let's go set them on some kiosks, have him do some online lead gen, whatever. How do you recommend that? So as the company owner, I had to recognize that I needed to do all of the heavy lifting as I possibly could. So if you're a sales rep, I do not recommend an individual rep go and learn how to do Facebook ads for themselves, if you're talented enough and have the skill set enough to, and really just the ambition to drive through and learn how to do something like that, which it is difficult, then you've already got it figured out to begin with. I'm not worried about that guy, that guy's probably not even listening to this podcast, honestly. Um, but as a business owner, you have to set up a structure and lead systems in place.Speaker 2 (34:27):So it's not confusing. And you have somewhere that the reps could come in and actually play. So rather than, oh, okay, go do one of five strategies. No, no, no, no. I choose the strategies from my reps. Absolutely. And we were starting a door knocking team as well because door knocking works like, okay, I'm not, I'm not a hundred percent against it. I just don't think it's the best, all your eggs into that basket strategy. Um, for online leads, the company should be doing all the funnels and the ads and all of that stuff. The reps should never be doing that crap. I've never seen that work out well, it's so time consuming. It's like around the clock, we would have guys doing, especially as an agency owner too, we would do like, we literally have to monitor face Facebook ads, 24 hours a day.Speaker 2 (35:15):Right. Literally hiring people overseas to look at it two in the morning in case some negative comments come up like to do about solar and nipping them in the bud immediately. Like our rep can't do that. Like if you're on four or five presentations in a row and you're out for an afternoon and you're managing your ads, your ads are going to tank like not a shot, not a shot. So recognizing that is very obvious to answer your question, you know, when somebody got it and when they don't, for example, and the biggest sign is if your rep in your organization or your manager is acting like the position acting as if they have the position they want tomorrow, today, that's the person. For example, I became the VP of sales at that company. I acted like the VP of sales on day one instantly.Speaker 2 (36:08):I'm like mentoring guys on the first day. So, you know, when you have that person, that's my point there. Gotcha. Yeah, no, that's yeah. I mean all these and that's, I think a big thing that all these companies you'll see, especially down here in Southern California, a lot of these dealers companies that start up they're guys that just came from alarms have only had the door-knocking background. And their thing is like, if a guy isn't doing good at door knocking, then yeah. Just like firearm, go hire the new one. Um, so I think that is an issue. Guys can't recognize value and maybe someone that could help out in another role. Um, yeah. I may ask you to stay there. Why do you think people struggle with online lead gen, like doing it themselves or like hiring people in general? Uh, so you could do reps since you're most familiar with that.Speaker 2 (36:59):Not necessarily a company. Why would a rep have a hard time with doing online lead gen? Do you think? Why do people fail? Like if they're, if they did it themselves set up the Facebook ads and funnels and stuff. Yeah. Well, I can tell you my personal experience since that's perfect for it. That's just, I know the patients for it. It goes back to the same thing I was telling you before. Like, why am I going to set this up? If I can go generate a lead, if I can go out and knock four hours, usually booked two or three appointments, then at the end of the day, I'm like, why should I spend all this time setting this up? So when I first learned that, because I've set up my own Facebook ads, I've set up my funnels and stuff like that. So I think I have more Nolan's happen.Speaker 2 (37:45):Tell us about what's happened in that process. Um, yeah. So what happened is I set it up. I took my course, you know, figured out how to do my online lead gen. And I thought I was going to be set for life leads were just going to be pouring in. But, and that's how it was for probably like two weeks. I was getting pretty consistent leads, but then they just tanked after that. And I'm like, what the heck is going on? I'm not getting leads, nothing's happening. And then I go back through this course. I talk with the guy who helped me set all this up. I'm like, man, what's happening. He's like, no, you need to adjust it. You need to switch out the copy. You need to switch out the image. Um, you go look at what other people are doing. You need to do some testing, do split tests from the AB split tests to see which one is getting the best results.Speaker 2 (38:30):I'm like, holy tale. I thought this was just set to go. You're telling me after run split tests, I have like adjust the copy and I have to like brainstorm. What's gonna work best and everything. So that's when I started realizing I'm like, man, this is more work than I thought. Um, yeah, it's going to take me probably six hours at least to like adjust all this stuff and then maybe get it back up and running. And at that point, who knows if it's getting good results again, I'm not, I have to adjust them the next day. So that's when I kind of realized, I'm like, man, I could adjust all this. Um, but I'm just going to go out and knock some more doors, then I'll get consistent leads. Um, so ever since then, I, I mean, I still like know the basic stuff of it, but my preference is just have someone that knows either helped me with most of the process or just like I've hired to you at birds.Speaker 2 (39:20):Um, Joseph, Joseph Fu. Yeah. Yeah. Taylor used to work with our, uh, my, my old company. Yeah. Yeah. So yeah, for me it was just like a time thing. And it's going back to like being an entrepreneur, like you said, it's like, you're not going to master all the skills. So you go do what you're best at and then have other hire out. Other people get help to do the things you're not good at. That's kinda the approach I took. Um, what do you think about longterm? What's a better move. Longterm online leads are. And let's talk about the future of solar. I mean, that's where we're company perspective, because like, look, the company perspective matters to the rep, right? We not be, we might not be saying, Hey, reps need to go learn how to do Facebook ads. Some of them should, some of them shouldn't right.Speaker 2 (40:06):But the reality is our world's radically different than it was even five years when I first got in the industry. So the future of lead gen, where is the best time investment resource investment to be my thing is it's still just, I think invest most of your time in the door knocking still. And I know we were talking about this off the camera before we started things can change in the future. Maybe it gets to the point where everyone has gates up. You can't even knock on their door. Um, like I live down in Columbia for my church mission thing in a lot of these doors, we couldn't even knock on cause you have gates up and they're afraid of people breaking in the house. So who knows, maybe it's going to get to that point where, um, you can't even get to people's doors.Speaker 2 (40:54):So my thought is just like milk it while you can, um, go out and knock the doors, generate the leads, get good at that and then transition when you need to. So that's why I think it's good. Yeah. Get a basic knowledge, like, um, go out and learn some of these concepts. Um, but then if it gets the point where maybe people are having more success with the online things, then you can transition at that point. That's what I think. And that's what I'm going to be. Cause Ben ain't broke, broke, don't fix it. I'm having success on the doors. I know all the most of the top guys in the industry are knocking the doors. Right? You look at the Mike O'Donnell's, you will buzz well as you look at, I mean, I had a guy that was in a coaching group with close 25 deals in a week.Speaker 2 (41:40):All of them came from knocking doors, at least. So I think all the top guys are knocking doors. They're hitting it hard. Um, but yeah, I know to your point and you'll probably talk about this. I think in the future, it might head more towards online thing, but, but I think I have a, I have a belief that if I can master the doors and I can master the online deal and do that one, it's going, but yeah, you start, you have to start at some point. So yeah, the skillset bottom line, you will never be good at online leads. If you are not capable of sending an appointment in person facts, truth a hundred percent. I see guys try to do lead gen all the time. I've consulted lots of lead companies in solar and the reason these lead agencies suck and why like 80% of them sucked too.Speaker 2 (42:28):Uh, for those of you guys who have hired them before, because they've never sold solar before hundred. Think about that. Your advertising is a higher form of sales. Okay. So say we got multiple levels here. Sales is at the bottom level. Being able to talk to somebody one-on-one in real time, handle objections, pivot, adjust your approach. Right. And that's valuable because I can read Taylor. Like if I'm talking to, I'm trying to sell them solar, I could see what's going on and change it advertising on the other hand. Not so simple because it's not interactive. Right? It's not interactive. I can't see what the person's reaction is on the other side of the ad. Okay. So with that being said, you have to know your customer better. You have to have better approaches, better creativity, right. To be able to do that because you're selling to many people at once, right?Speaker 2 (43:20):It takes a certain level of skill. It's just, it's common sense to sell. One person takes a certain level of skill to sell thousands of people at the same time takes more skill. It's more people, right? So if you can't generate a lead in person, like good freaking luck with lead gen, that's my, that's my 2 cents on that. So I am a hundred percent of the Taylor there. I think the future of Legion does not involve knocking doors. I think knocking doors will be completely gone. I think it's almost dead right now besides California I'll even go that far. I think, I think California is basically the only place that's really, is it happening? This K close 25 deals in Texas, Texas, Texas is your other place. Right. But like, uh, Nevada now VAT is out. That metering is out Florida. It's mostly online leads. Like the majority of our clients are in Florida. It's mostly online leads. Um, but as time progresses and other five, 10 years, man, like I don't think we're even going to connection. Yeah. Can you hear me?Speaker 2 (45:01):Yeah. I'm here. Can you hear me? Hello? Hello? I can see you. Can you hear me? Test, test, test this thing on. Yeah. Can you hear me? Hello? Hello? Hello? Can you hear me? Oh, you back? Yeah. Okay. We're back. Somebody died. Yeah, but that's why online leads not going to work then where do we cut off? Where did we cut off? Uh, last I heard. I think you're just saying in Florida, they're not working. Um, jeez. You're just saying why the doors are dead or why do you think door knocking? Did you hear me? My comment about sales reps being dead. No, I didn't even hear that. Okay. So that cut out. That was the best part, man.Speaker 2 (46:06):There's two guys in this industry. They're the guys who just want to ride it out and they think it's going to be gone. Okay. You hear the companies. And you know, when you're in one of those companies, they think that this industry is going to be taken over tax credits are going to go away. So under the world, right, nobody's going to be able to sell solar, done the, writing it out to the tax credits here. That's type one. I'm not on that boat at all. When it comes to solar type two, those guys and they're out there by the way, they're the companies that like the company I originally worked with was that type of company where they're like, yo, we're in here for the next 20, 30 years. This is how we're going to take out vivid, Sunrun, Tesla. They have strategies to take out the big guys, right?Speaker 2 (46:47):Those are the guys who understand that sales reps are not a permanent position. I do not think the commission sales rep in solar is going to be around 10 years from now. I do not think it's going to be there. And I think a lot of sales positions in traditional jobs like that manual person jobs, I don't think they're going to be around in 10 years from now. I don't think it's going to be here in five years. Right? Um, all I'm saying is if you're that person, you owe it to yourself. If you're viewing this as a long-term career, like I think you should to start getting educated on different strategies because once you develop the skillset, which can take years, I'll be Frank. It could take years to develop the skill set, to set an online lead, to set with somebody on LinkedIn, to go to a networking event, to do a dinner seminar.Speaker 2 (47:37):We haven't even talked about kiosks. All that stuff could take years and years of time. Right. But you owe it to yourself to become a multi-faceted sales rep so that you're protected in the future. For example, my solar company, I, and we'll talk about this on another episode, but I was starting a solar company called the solar shopping network about, I'd say about a year ago, right? And our strategy was actually to completely eliminate the sales rep. We actually didn't hire traditional commission sales reps. Our guys who closed the deals were just hourly employees for like 15 bucks an hour. And they would close deals. We would use strategies like instant quotes. So where we actually send a virtual quote to somebody, the customer, and we don't talk to the customer. It's just an interactive quote. We send it out there. They could view it on their own time.Speaker 2 (48:26):It takes 10 minutes. Boom we're onto the next one. And we were able to generate enough leads to where we could just dish these babies out and the volume would work. Right. Um, that's where I think the future of this is look to guys like SunPower. SunPower is doing that. Sunrun's doing that where you could literally go get a quote, a virtual quote in real time with an artificial artificial intelligence, um, quoting machine chatbot type of thing, right. That's website. Yep. So those guys too SunPower's is pretty sweet. Um, that's our thing it's going. So I'm just a preacher of keep in mind the future of things, you know, who you are, you know, what type of rep you are. But if you're looking at this as a real longterm career, develop your skill, set out a little bit, start with the off offline stuff, develop your sales chops, then expand.Speaker 2 (49:18):Yeah. Okay. Yeah. I can see that. Um, yeah. I mean, we're still, I don't think we're going to see a hundred percent on the whole door knocking thing. Obviously you're more about the offline stuff. Um, so by I agree with that to an extent I think guys need to at least have their knowledge in it. So at least go get competent and all this stuff. Cause probably we'll head that way. I mean, Tesla's already screwing us over. I can't tell you how many times even it's happened recently where I'm going into homes and I'm going through our pricing, everything and people have literally gotten on the Tesla website, gotten an instant quote and they're like, well, why is this? Why is Tesla like six grand cheaper than yours? And I'm like, oh my gosh. Now I have to say what's up. Especially with these, uh, yeah.Speaker 2 (50:04):I've talked about this in some previous episodes, but all these Indian referrals, I've been working a lot with the Indians and if anyone's stolen Indians, um, you know, they're all about like bartering getting the best prices, like shopping your house. So yeah. Tesla has, uh, made it extremely difficult with these bartering cultures because they go look this up and it's just, yeah, you try to build value. But it is an uphill battle after that. The, I think it's important. So you gotta know you gotta be competent in this stuff and you gotta develop, um, you gotta be ready for when this stuff does adjust. Cause yeah, I think I agree. There's a lot of people just say it all stay in solar until the tax credit ends. And then after that, I'm just going to bell. Um, which I've thought to myself, what's your opinion on that?Speaker 2 (50:52):If tax credit goes away, what are you doing? It goes away next year. Biden's like add, forget it. Nevermind. That was supposed to be the good, the one good thing by them was helping us with the tax credits. He's like, ah, just kidding. So what happens? I think commissions are going to get cut personally. There's too much fluff in the industry, dude. This is the only industry I see. That's got like, there's so much extra margin that should not be there. Okay. You might have to judge what the heck man. You're taking take away my massive commissions. Like cool. I'm down with making a lot of money, right? A hundred percent for it. But more than that, I want to expand an industry like solar forward. Right. I want to actually make it more affordable for the end consumer to get sort of easier for the end consumer to get solar.Speaker 2 (51:42):Okay. And that's, that's where I think your very top level guys are thinking. They're not, I don't know, correct me if I'm wrong. Taylor, do you know any guys that are cranking 25 deals a week that are like planning on leaving solar? Do you think those guys are gonna leave solar when the, the, the tax credit goes away? I haven't heard that. I mean, first of all, there's not that many guys can, can 25 deals a week. It's less than 1%. Yeah. Consistently. I don't actually, I don't know of anyone that's doing that many, but yeah, those guys out, I doubt they're going to leave it because I think anybody who performs that level of thinks longer than two, three years out. Yeah. That's all I'm saying. Even if you're only making a grand itself, you're doing 25 deals a week. That's pretty good money you're making right there.Speaker 2 (52:30):If you want to be in solar the next 10 years, 20 years, I think you can, but you got to start expanding your strategy. You've got to start learning. Yeah. A hundred percent. Well, James, we've got to wrap up here, got to run a meeting here, but, um, guys if you like this, give it a thumbs up. Um, and then let us know. Um, James and I, we're going to be doing more type of this stuff. Um, you know, try to do a little bit debate style. We don't agree on everything. So let us know who you think. Um, who, whose ideas, whose opinion, Julian Torah. What are we talking about next time? Let's let's tease them with what we're talking about next time. Good idea. I think we're doing the work-life balance stuff, right? The myth is balanced. A myth 20 hours a week, a hundred hours a week. Who's right. Who's wrong? What does it take to be successful in solar? That's what we'll. Okay, so guys subscribe. If you haven't, you don't want to miss out the next one, let us know what you thought. Thumbs up. See you on the next show. Thanks for coming on James. You got a man.Speaker 1 (53:32):Hey Solarpreneurs. Quick question. What if you could surround yourself with the industry's top performing sales pros, marketers, and CEOs, and learn from their experience and wisdom in less than 20 minutes a day. For the last three years, I've been placed in the fortunate position to interview dozens of elite solar professionals and learn exactly what they do behind closed doors to build their solar careers to an all-star level. That's why I want to make a truly special announcement about the new solar learning community, exclusively for solar professionals to learn, compete, and win with the top performers in the industry. And it's called Solciety. This learning community was designed from the ground up to level the playing field and give solar pros access to proven mentors who want to give back to this community and to help you or your team to be held accountable by the industry's brightest minds. For, are you ready for it? Less than $3 and 45 cents a day currently society's closed the public and membership is by invitation only, but Solarpreneurs can go to society.co to learn more and have the option to join a wait list. When a membership becomes available in your area. Again, this is exclusively for Solarpreneur listeners. So be sure to go to www.solciety.co to join the waitlist and learn more now. Thanks again for listening. We'll catch you again in the next episode. 

Skip the Queue is brought to you by Rubber Cheese, a digital agency that builds remarkable systems and websites for attractions that helps them increase their visitor numbers. Your host is  Kelly Molson, MD of Rubber Cheese.Download our free ebook The Ultimate Guide to Doubling Your Visitor NumbersIf you like what you hear, you can subscribe on iTunes, Spotify, and all the usual channels by searching Skip the Queue or visit our website rubbercheese.com/podcastIf you've enjoyed this podcast, please leave us a five star review, it really helps others find us. And remember to follow us on Twitter for your chance to win the books that have been mentioned in this episode.Competition ends August  27th 2021. The winner will be contacted via Twitter.Show references:www.linkedin.com/in/jamesrpenfoldwww.itv.com/imacelebrityjunglechallengewww.itv.com/coronationstreettourhttps://village.emmerdalestudioexperience.co.uk James PenfoldJames is the Controller of Partnerships over at ITV and the name behind some of the prolific IP attraction, tour experiences and event ventures – including Coronation Street The Tour, Emmerdale Village Tour and the brand new (for 2021) I’m A Celebrity… Jungle Challenge. James has garnered an indisputable reputation during his 20+ year career at the forefront of leading British media and entertainment branded content formats. An instrumental and respected figure within the industry, James has directly influenced some of the most pioneering live events, UK visitor attractions and big-brand agency collaborations of recent times. His strategic vision, creative energy and unequivocal commercial drive has captured the essence of Intellectual Property (IP) immersive content as he continues to push the boundaries with trailblazing concepts for the biggest players within the media landscape today. With business development disciplines stretching across mergers and acquisitions, brand licencing, IP visitor attractions and participation services, cross platform content distribution, media strategy and commercial partnerships, James has carved out an illustrious career when it comes to brand experiential.Now, a distinguished and well-networked figurehead for immersive experiences and visitor attractions, James’ name is associated with new-format arena tours, big-brand visitor experiences, digital cinema trials, TV channel launches and live entertainment events.  Transcription:Kelly Molson: Welcome to Skip the Queue, a podcast for people working in or working with visitor attractions. I'm your host, Kelly Molson. Each episode, I speak with industry experts from the attractions world. In today's episode, I speak with James Penfold, Controller of Partnerships at ITV, the name behind prolific tour experiences including Coronation Street The Tour, and Emmerdale Village Tour. We discuss translating big brand IPs into commercial ventures, what the most successful formats are, and the brand new I'm A Celebrity Jungle Challenge, opening later this year.If you like what you hear, you can subscribe on iTunes, Spotify and all the usual channels by searching Skip the Queue.Kelly Molson: Thank you so much for coming on the podcast today. It's such a pleasure to see you again.James Penfold: Thank you. It's great to see you today.Kelly Molson: Well, I mean, you say that now, you might not say that after the questions that I'm about to ask you.James Penfold: No, no. Listen, I'm a regular listener and I don't know what's going to be thrown at me, so yeah, I've taken my Xanax and I'm ready.Kelly Molson: I had a lot of fun putting these together. I've gone for a theme. You might notice what the theme is. Okay, let's begin. Would you rather eat a fish eye or drink blended fermented duck eggs?James Penfold: The duck eggs, definitely.Kelly Molson: Oh, really? You'd go for the duck eggs? But the smell though?James Penfold: Yeah. But that's the eye thing, and I always say, the eyeballs or anything, it's that kind of crunch moment, I suppose. Mind you, a fish eye is quite small, isn't it? I was kind of thinking ... Yeah, no, I'll have to stick with my answer, sadly.Kelly Molson: All right. Blended duck eggs, okay. I was not expecting that. Right, who's funnier; Ant or Dec?James Penfold: Oh my god. Well, listen, I love them both, but it's got to be Dec.Kelly Molson: I agree, but then I had a bit of a crush on Dec when I was younger, so he's always been my fave.James Penfold: Yeah, I'm not going to say who my crush is with, but they're both lovely.Kelly Molson: Maybe we'll find out later when you've relaxed a little bit. If you could be any Coronation Street character, who would you be?James Penfold: William Roach. Ken Barlow. Because who doesn't want to work for 40, 50 years in the industry and get so many great storylines?Kelly Molson: He's been a bit of rogue as well though, hasn't he?James Penfold: Absolutely.Kelly Molson: He's been a hit with the ladies.James Penfold: Completely. And a returning hit with the ladies. And he gets great one-liners, he's been involved in amazingly iconic plots. So whenever I ask colleagues within the industry, if any actor can have anything, it's longevity within the industry, isn't it? So yeah, I'll go that road.Kelly Molson: Great. Thank you for answering those. Right, tell me what your unpopular opinion is?James Penfold: My unpopular opinion? Well, let's just say that this is formed off the back of a big reunion. It was controversial, certainly then at the time, certainly on the trips, it was simply that the live recording of any single is 99% of the time not as good as the single recorded in the studio. And obviously, I used to say things like, "Well it's not as good as in the studio," and yeah, it didn't go down that well.Kelly Molson: I think you're probably right though, aren't you?James Penfold: Yeah. I mean Adam Rickitt took it personally, but I think we'd all have to agree. I Breath Again, sitting in the fish tank, needs to be done in the studio.Kelly Molson: I cannot wait to talk to you about this. So James and I had a kind of pre-interview chat a few weeks ago, and I did share my huge love ... I mean, who doesn't love Ant and Dec really? I mean, maybe that will come up as someone's unpopular opinion some day, that they detest them. But I've been such a massive fan, I kind of grew up with them over the years as well, and when they came back a few years ago and brought out Ready to Rumble again, I lost my shit watching that episode. I can remember my friends texting me, it was like, "What is happening? This is amazing." And then for that to kind of expand into the whole big reunion thing was just phenomenal. But we will come to that.Kelly Molson: James, at the moment, you're Controller of Partnerships at ITV, which sounds like a very grand title. What about your background? How did you get to where you are today, and what big highlights have you had in your career?James Penfold: So, like anyone, I think career is all about a bit of a zigzag. Not many people go straight to the end role they hope to achieve. So, left school not knowing at all what I wanted to do, always absolutely loved television. I mean, was an avid fan of Multi-Coloured Swap Shop every Saturday morning. But how did I, therefore, end up in a BT technical apprenticeship at the age of 16, having just done the first year of GCSEs? So we were kind of guinea pigs on that front. Ageing myself here. But BT ran an amazing classic apprenticeship scheme. Three years, going across, two months at a time, every facet in the business. So you could be on estates one week, you'd be on customer residential services and installations, you'd be on externals, so working in the man-holes and those sorts of things and learning about that aspect, marketing, sales, customer service in the sense of operator services. It was a great induction, and all the while being able to go on block release, again, doesn't happen very often, paid for by the company during the day, three months at a time, to colleges and that to get a technical qualification. And then I was very grateful when they offered me, "Did I want to go to university and do a degree?"James Penfold: So I do those three years later than most, probably, at 21 rather than 18. But that meant that I was absolutely ready for it, I knew what I wanted to do, I loved commerce and commercial and the marketing sales. And so I went to Birmingham University, studied B-Comm there, Bachelor of Commerce. Again, coming back into BT in the summer holidays. The internet was just kicking off and so I was fortunate enough to have the choice of, "Which division do you want to go back to in those holidays?" And I went into a division that was just a startup division called the Internet and Multimedia Services. That was actually the precursor days of BT becoming an internet service provider, it was all about the narrow band, but we quickly learned, or the company quickly learned, like everyone, that whether you're an AOL operator or anybody else, that once the people had logged on, what were they going to go to? Because it was the early days of search engines. There wasn't a great lot of content.James Penfold: So I just opted to be a content development manager, which was basically business classic, business development. So looking to acquire content fees. So, in the day, you'd go to BT's various partners and obviously think to what you personally liked, whether it was Top of the Pops, the music, Bloomberg for financial services, and you'd pick off these various brands and go and do deals to acquire that. That moved into broadband services, then worked on a number of trials that were pioneering, I suppose, towards all the things we use now. Multimedia payphones. So they were a whole trial of payphones across Cardiff and Central London for people coming when not many people had email, and certainly, not many people had laptops at home and computers at home, but they did want to be able to send email messages or check their messages when they were between stations or travelling between offices.James Penfold: And then the early precursor to BT TV, which was an ADSL trial, so again using copper wire to send TV signals down it. Well, again, where's the content there. So I was lucky enough to ... again, all hands to the pump really when you're launching these trials, so I opted to talk to the music companies. So EMI, Sony BMG, [inaudible 00:07:33], to provide a variety of content to prove. And then we were really just looking to the customer to say what they wanted. These were only closed user group trials, two or three thousand people in Ipswich and those sorts of things.James Penfold: My boss then got snapped up by Sky. Sky was really taking off as a digital satellite broadcaster, and that inherently launched something called Interactive Services, or the Red Button services, which many of us might have used. He stayed very briefly at Sky, I should say, because he didn't get famously on with James Murdoch, but quickly learned that there was a real desire with multi-choice TV. The reason we had those 200, 300 channels, it's obviously refined itself now as technology has moved on, there are other ways of accessing content. But we settled on a company called the Interactive TV Group. I'm fortunate for Adam Faith, the singer, he'd set up a financial TV group based out of Wapping. Sadly, three weeks into operating that, he passed away. But the facility was available, and my then boss at the time, John [inaudible 00:08:37], picked it up at an absolute song, and we went in. And he'd reformed a team from people he'd worked with at BT and Sky to become an Interactive TV Group, so launching TV channels for other parties here in the UK, and some further afield.James Penfold: I was a business development manager at first, looking after studio facilities and winning clients to use those. And then also looking then into interactive services, which is, again, taking back, I suppose, the internet skillsets, some red buttons. We used to provide those red button services. If Sky didn't develop them for you and do all the coding and the content, then probably the Interactive TV Group did at the time. So BBC, all the Children In Need apps, the multi-screen sports, the Glastonbury multi-screen sports. Not all of it was just developed in-house at the BBC.James Penfold: That took me then to a company called Interaction TV because brands and branded content was becoming very much niche, but certainly a fad at the time, and obviously it's come back in many facets now. I was a commercial director at that company for about four years, which took me to 10, 11 years ago when a colleague, and now my boss, William Van Rest who had joined ITV, picked up the phone and said, "Do you want to come in for a conversation?" And I was lucky enough to literally join ITV.James Penfold: So, probably 20 years after starting my career, always having wanted to work in television, never thinking, "What's my route to being that?" Sadly I'm never going to be in front of a camera, not while Ant and Dec are around and other greats on like that. And there the role, it wasn't defined, which is always, again, a great opportunity where I thrive from. It was about classic business development or sales, looking at what the opportunities are, "Where aren't we making use of the assets that ITV might have?" ITV was absolutely just coming off the back of a transformation where the regions, all the various regions, Granada, HTV, Meridian, London Carbon, LWT, were all combining in to become under one brand for once.James Penfold: And so that journey began. And the team at first was called Brand Extension, which I think was really simple, did what it said on the tin, which was literally, if there's a brand that would have intellectual property that ITV has, owns or makes, what could we be doing with it that isn't the core show itself? And that took me into actually working with all the producers who make all of our shows, whether they're in-house or in the ITV Studios group or third parties, to see where there are opportunities. And often there aren't, but every now and again you strike lucky and there is.Kelly Molson: That's such a crazy path to get to where you really wanted to get to. I love hearing how people have got there. And that must be such an exciting thing to do, to have that opportunity to say, "We have this amazing brand that people love; what more do we do with it? How do we make that even more immersive for people? How do we build this into an experience?" What a fantastic role.James Penfold: Yeah, no, I mean I'm one of a great team, and it's been and is an incredible train set to play with. And you don't take any opportunity for granted, and the show must come first, and absolutely respect the IP in that sense. But sometimes it's not always necessarily the show itself, but there's something that happens off the back of that show. Or you feel, "Right, okay, a tour is warranted off the back of this." Whether that's a theatrical tour, whether it's an arena tour, whether there's obviously a set tour opportunity as we change buildings that we own and opportunities present themselves. Or, increasingly now, again with colleagues, the whole app generation, and games and gaming, and the natural brand extension that you might have to the very successful quiz shows that we produce.Kelly Molson: Well, this is one of my first questions really, because essentially, breaking down what you do is you translate big brand IPs into commercial ventures. So it's taking something and making it more than just a TV show.James Penfold: Yeah.Kelly Molson: What qualities does a brand need to have for it to succeed beyond the telly? What are you looking for?James Penfold: Let's see. It helps if it's got a super fan base. I mean, there is always one ... not one rule, something that we certainly began to find over the years. Again, because ITV's been around for 65 years, and it's a commercial broadcaster, but really this notion of brand extension beyond just simple merchandising is something that's only probably looked at in the last 10, 12 years. A super fan base is great. A show that's certainly finding its feet, so second, the third series, so you don't jump at the opportunity too quickly. That's not always the rule, and I'll come back to the big reunion. Broad appeal, longevity, again, that helps because you've got the fan base and it's really aligned itself with that fan base, viewer engagement. Repeatability is obviously a great commercial opportunity because one-offs tend to be expensive, and that's again a very good learning point. And sometimes we do things that are more celebratory about a show, and they're commercial, but ultimately they've not got the rerun factor or the repeat factor.James Penfold: And then a decent amount of context. I think that's another important thing. So with context, that could be timing in the sense of an anniversary. A talent anniversary, a show anniversary, or related events, so a season in the year where it's just summer festivals, or even just like the exhibitions field where certain things happen in spring and Easter and you think, "Do you know, God, that really resonates with what we do as a show?" And that was a really good example when we took This Morning to the NEC for three years running because as a show it lends itself, it is live, it lends itself to an audience. And you think of nature as a news and consumer affairs show, if you think of what the subject matter is, the broad base of it all, then God, you don't even need to think what the floor plan of the exhibition is, and you don't even really need to change from what people already do for exhibitions. You're just layering our IP onto it. So that's an easy one.Kelly Molson: Some of the things we're talking about today are what you're involved in terms of TV shows and real-life visitor experience. So we've got Coronation Street The Tour, we've got the Emmerdale Village Tour, and again, we'll mention the Big Reunion, there's been various tours and live experiences that have spun out of existing TV shows as well. But then you've also got something brand new that's launching this year, which I'm not going to mention just yet, we're going to keep the suspense, we'll talk about that a little bit later. What are the most successful formats that you find translate from the telly to real-life experiences?James Penfold: So I suppose the obvious ones, and this isn't unique to ITV, but certainly, it's about Mass Market big entertainment, stuff that appeals to the broadest audience; so with Syco and Fremantle, X Factor was an obvious tour in its day, at the height of unknown people becoming music talents, celebrities, recording artists, and then going on tour. You have it with the BBC, and they still do it with Strictly. With ourselves again, BGT, Britain's Got Talent, absolutely lends itself to scalability, and scalability leads to commercial success, and it leads itself to repetition. But everything has a life cycle.James Penfold: For ourselves, purely on your own, Saturday Night Takeaway. I've talked about anniversaries; Ant and Dec. What are we? Five or six years ago now it was their 20th anniversary in the industry, they wanted to do something, we'd actually spotted the opportunity; why are Ant and Dec not on tour? Well, there are many reasons. They're very busy and not everybody wants to be on tour the whole time. But the Saturday Night Takeaway show, it's just mass-market entertainment, and it's a show that's so professionally produced that when it airs as a live TV show if you arrived as an audience member, you don't have to arrive hours and hours and hours beforehand. You're slotted into your seats. There might be a few hits done to record some interim piece, some inter-show pieces that play out in the ads or links to that, but then you're straight onto the show. And the 90 minutes you see in the TV audience is the 90 minutes you get at home. God, if you're in that audience, there's a live buzz to it. So, taking that to an arena tour, 30 dates, matinees and evenings, 15, 16 days with the boys on tour around the country, absolutely lent itself. And hats off to colleagues in my team who helped to deliver that. The production company, ITV Entertainment and ITV Studios Entertainment, and of course working with Live Nation as a promoter. So there’s a great marry of partnerships.James Penfold: Big Reunion, again, that's the one, I would say, where it didn't need to be into its 10th series, it didn't need to be coming back like Saturday Night Takeaway was doing after a bit of a hiatus. That was, "Okay, it's been certainly 10 years since we've seen a lot of these acts in arenas or in larger-scale theatres. What have they gone on to do?" Michael Kelpie and Potato, one of the ITV labels, had had success with bringing back Steps for Sky, and they've made that format. I've looked at that format and there was an obvious journey there. And then it was, "Okay, how does ITV do that?" Well, we do it on the scale, so why bring back just one band? Why not let's bring back five every series? And we did two series because basically, there were about 15 real acts that when we thought about it and looked at chart successes and also their back story, what they've gone on to do and where they all are now, we didn't even have to air the first episode. And Twitter was really a thing by then and it was like, "Well, obviously there's going to be a tour." I can assure you there wasn't going to be a tour.Kelly Molson: Oh, so the public requested that? It wasn't the plan to start with?James Penfold: Well, there was a kind of concept. When you work with that many artists and that much talent and its confusing schedules, you think, "Okay, this could lend itself to be but let's be ready, waiting in the wings," but consumer demand, instant feedback. And then, by picking the right partnerships, you've got to be able to move quickly on those sorts of opportunities. And they don't often come along in that way.Kelly Molson: Yeah, it's fabulous. I mean, that show, for me, was really like reliving my childhood, because I'm of a certain age.James Penfold: Much younger than me.Kelly Molson: Thank you. I doubt that very much though. But I was into a lot of those bands at the time, on some level, and it just brilliant watching what they'd gone on and done, and then trying to get them back into shape to do the routines and stuff. It was so funny and so interesting.James Penfold: Kelly, I'm in the exact same situation as you. Don't think I'm not. As somebody in an 18-year-old apprenticeship, or working in and around Soho as I did, because that was where my apprenticeship was based, it was based in the West End of London, love pop music; if you'd ever said you'd then be working with those individuals, sitting on a couch, sometimes on short journeys, sometimes on long journeys, and sometimes in the craziest situations. Well, the show was playing itself out, and of course, the stories were, and then we were getting to take them on tour at the time. So yeah, no, you don't get many opportunities like that, and I'm ever so grateful.Kelly Molson: Fantastic experience for you. So, with the TV, what's interesting is you've obviously got a captive audience with the TV, and it was really interesting to hear how that audience demand kind of spurred ... there was obviously a little idea about the tour, but it really spurred it. How do you strike that balance between developing products to reach new audiences? How do you get that right?James Penfold: So I think, importantly for us, and this is done by trial by error, is you've got to, I suppose, look at does it feel right? Is it a natural extension for us, ITV, to be taking? Because we're not a theme park operator, we don't do reparatory theatre, those sorts of things, and there are other parties out there. And one of the principal roles, I suppose what my role's evolved into now, is looking at the licensing side, where there are many entities who might choose to look at something from a slightly less obvious position and take the thought.James Penfold: But from our perspective, it's really looking at ratings, it's looking at social media and how that talent engages with their audience. Do they engage with their audience? Don't they? Are there natural wins? Because of course, people can always involve them and move their careers forward. A really good example is Gino D'Acampo. So I think we did three tours with him. So Gino, incredible talent, was iconic from his season when he was on I'm a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here, he was obviously becoming a prominent TV chef, he was on This Morning pretty much every week or every other week. And then he starts getting his own show, and that's the test for the commissioners. They're almost like a litmus test; they spot these opportunities and take some of the pain out of it for us. And it was Gino ... I think was Italian Escapes, and that was where he'd go to a different part of Italy.James Penfold: And then we were talking again to a promoter, I think it was clean and Gyro, could he live, who also looked at Ed Sheeran, so talk about different ends of the spectrum for them. And they were talking about theatre shows and the successes they have, and they'd said, "Would Gino be interested?" And there was a quick conversation to be had, "If the talents are interested, then great." Of course, he was. And for him, it suits his purpose, because there he is, having done I'm a Celebrity, having done some TV chef shows, having done This Morning, and now with his own Italian Escapes, but what does he actually stand for? And he wants to evolve his career and put himself differently. So I'd like to think three sellout tours in theatres, 1500, 2000 seats a night, which we were told we were doing well at because we're doing 14 nights a run. And it wasn't just Gino who goes on stage and cooks, because that would have been obvious. It's Gino who goes on stage and does what he does best, which is to engage with the audience. The cooking almost becomes auxiliary to the evening.James Penfold: And then, quickly really, we learned that the audience ... it becomes almost a 50/50 divide. 50% of them were there because they wanted some cooking advice or to hear his anecdotes about Italian Escapes and what it's like to be on the road and cooking the food of his homeland, and 50%, of course, enjoy him because he was suddenly an overnight success in Celebrity Juice. And that audience wanted quite a different thing. And of course, Gino being Gino, he would play to the Celebrity Juice audience, and it made for an unpredictable but incredibly entertaining show. The first tour, it was fairly locked down in what they produced and what it would be and what the format would be. Number two and three, "You go for it. You know what you want to do. As long as you pitch it correctly to the audience as to what they're going to be getting," so Live and Unplugged was tour number two, "Then you've got success."James Penfold: Another good example is, I suppose, This Morning Live. So there we'd been approached by Media 10, the guys who deliver Grand Designs and the Ideal Home Show for a number of years. In fact, for probably nearly about eight or nine years. And they hit us when it was right to have a conversation, because I'd thought, "This is madness?" I'd be challenged; "Why aren't we doing festivals? Why isn't ITV more involved with festivals?" Because you had the Good Food Program for the BBC, you had The Clothes Show historically being such a success.Kelly Molson: Yeah, it is.James Penfold: And in truth, we have always been very successful in the daytime, and I think with This Morning, it was really ... well, we looked at all the shows, so Good Morning Britain, Lorraine, This Morning, and Loose Women, and could you take them all on the road, and would there be an exhibition? And then you start getting into the realities of cost, of logistics, of actually the quite disparate audiences that do come across those four different shows and what they want to engage with. And we quickly settled on This Morning, and then just simply This Morning Live, in that it has cooking in it, it has health issues, it does fashion, it does entertainment. And ultimately, at the heart of it are Phil and Holly, or Eamonn and Ruth at the time. And we learned very quickly that we were taking the show on the road whilst we had a replacement presenter team in London. So you'd have Phil and Holly in Birmingham and Eamonn and Ruth in the studio, or vice versa. They'd hand to each other. Great segments of the show were able to be done from the NEC.James Penfold: Yes, there were costs involved, but to us, that was more of a marketing vehicle. It worked really well for Media 10, because they absolutely know how to deliver a live exhibition. And from a Stand's perspective, and from all those consumer brands that want to sell to our audiences who would normally take advertising slots in those shows anyway, it was a no brainer for them to want to attend. And it was on for four days a week every year, 40 to 50,000 people attending over those four days.James Penfold: And then you get into the great hurdles of, "Oh my God, it's almost too successful in terms of capacities." And fans being more than just, I suppose, the typical ticket buyer and visitor. Everyone wants to meet the talent. And so meet and greets, I think that became a whole performance item in itself.Kelly Molson: So, a huge success. You can see that the formats work, you've got huge engagement from people, and then a global pandemic comes along and kind of smashes us all in the face. I mean, it's affected obviously your plans and things that you've got in fruition quite extensively; how has it affected you and how have you tried to overcome some of those challenges this year?James Penfold: Yeah. So if we look back to this time this year, or actually go back a further two, three weeks, when the UK government was still slightly in denial of the nature of this pandemic-Kelly Molson: I think we all were, weren't we? Because I think we were watching the news going, "Oh, it's all happening in Italy, isn't it? Oh yeah, that looks bad."James Penfold: Yes, the broad public were, but don't forget, ITV is a stakeholder in ITN, so we produce Channel Four News, Channel Five News and ITN News, the three variants, different editorial flavours. So I don't think you could avoid it from that point of view. And I'm based in Gray's Inn Road. Well, I was based in Gray's Inn Road, which is where the news studios are, so I think there was a real feeling there, most importantly about just hand sanitisers introducing themselves.James Penfold: But the thing came to was three weeks out of not even lockdown, us beginning to talk about it, so probably we're talking the back end of February. I was approached by my then division director to say, "At a board level, we think we need to curtail or stop set tours." So the set tours of Coronation Street and the Emmerdale Village Tour. Both were external sets, although there were some interiors to be seen, as in interior sets on the Coronation Street set. And that is principal because, first and foremost, we're a broadcaster and a producer of content, a producer of successful TV shows. These serial dramas have been going last year, 60 years for Corrie, and this year we're celebrating 45 years for Emmerdale.James Penfold: And so hearts and minds, which is a phrase that's very well known now within the business, is looking after staff wellbeing. And staff wellbeing is, therefore, the actors, the talent, all the production staff, all those many people that come on board. So, quickly the sets began to lockdown, and a wrapper was put around the productions to enable them to come on production for as long as they could. That wasn't feasible from the moment the national lockdown happened, and we had to then wait and work with health and safety committees and other people, and with the government, to work out what the safe way through production was.James Penfold: So from my perspective, it was, "Please turn off tours." And we were just starting the season. And we had loads of pre-bookings across Emmerdale, and we had loads of booking across Coronation Street. And of course, we'd just recruited our seasonal workers in the sense of our tour guides for that year, many who come back each year and have other roles when the tours aren't operated at weekends. So I think it was straight away onto the phones with Emmerdale, our partner, Continuum Group, Continuum Attractions, who will work with on many tours and attractions. And obviously, from their perspective, there was a quite rightful debate, "Are we jumping the gun and doing this too soon?" Because they weren't seeing that advice in the tourism market for their attractions. But ours was, "No, this is what we need to do." And we didn't want to let consumers down at the last minute, because with Corrie certainly, people travel quite a distance across the country to come to those weekends. They book hotels in advance, they book transport in advance, and so then it really is about you're just going into a situation of customer management.James Penfold: So there it was a case of, "Listen, sorry, we need to cancel down tours. Obviously, refunds were immediately available if you wanted them, or you can basically move to hold a voucher and we'll contact you as soon as." So that's a complete curtailment of that business, and it became then a reality that even with unlock-down, lockdown, over the backend of summer, that again the situation was even just worse. Think of where we are now in winter. So autumn and the end of summer last year, everyone was feeling great in the UK, and around most of the world. Some had fitted in summer holidays or done stay-cations and things like this. So again, from a consumer point of view, it's all about proactively managing the comms to them.James Penfold: But at the same time, for us, because we don't have a lot to say on this because we're not a true classic digital attraction, just enough communication where you're engaging, giving the consumers what they need to know. Of course, at all opportunities, offering refunds. When we began to realise, "Do you know what? We aren't going to be opening these in autumn, because if anything the pandemic's getting worse," and this was even before new variants, it was, "Okay, well we hope to be able to bring this back in in 2021." That's a realisation now that probably that isn't even a reality. And of course, it's incredibly disappointing to the team. Thank God in the early days, when the furlough opportunity was there, we absolutely used it. From a customer point of view, social media, thank God we've got decent outlets to be able to contact customers. And from being a broadcaster with viewer services, we were able to really talk about it's a business for them to help us to get in contact with as many consumers as possible.James Penfold: And even now it's a difficult one because we look to the advice from ALVA, we keep across Blooloop, we listen to your podcast, we talk to experts, we're talking with Continuum every day, and we have health and safety advisers from the tourist market as well. But from a set tours point of view, it just isn't realistic. There is nobody in any of our offices, we all work remotely. All the editing of the shows is pretty much done remotely, incredibly. In the early days of the pandemic, every show was produced remotely. The galleries all became laptops, so editors and directors were sitting at home. And the two teams that make the soaps have done an incredible job of creating cohorts where nobody overlaps, you're in your cohort group, and you move through, based on your plotline, through those cohorts so that you always stay safe. And then you have the people who go on sets, their costumes are already hung out for them, and their makeup they do themselves.James Penfold: And so I suppose the thought on the ITV Studios drama and production side, the thought of even entertaining us being able to welcome the members of the public onto those sets currently is still untenable. So the good news is very exciting plans for next year. What this has given, I suppose, the pandemic, let me come to the positives, is it's given us a time to reflect. We were very lucky six years ago when the old set became available, Coronation Street. The Granada building was sold quite quickly after 55 years of ownership by ITV. It would have just been quickly demolished, but I was like, "No, that can't happen. Let's think about this."Kelly Molson: Sacrilege.James Penfold: Yeah. Well, and also, to the developer who bought it, "When do you need the building by? You've got planning to do, you've got plans to put into council; when do you need it by?" "We need it probably in about 24 months time." So for 18 months, we were able to open that set, and 900,000 people came through that set tour in that period of time. And that's a success. And that felt completely natural.James Penfold: But now when we're working in a different environment, we're part of a living breathing production, a production community, so we're looking at it from a filming perspective and from that visitor perspective. The exciting thing is we are able to look at now how do we make the tours more accessible? Is there technology that can almost enhance them? We've worked with groups like Antenna. We've long resisted audio guides because we love the interpersonal nature of the tour guide, but actually, if you think of the amount of content and archive and things like that, it can actually bring sets to life, and everybody's got a different character they like on those shows, and different memory of the storylines. Some people like the '60s, the '70s, the '80s. Some people remember Emmerdale, and I'm going to say ITV sacrilege when it was called Emmerdale Farm. And so there are those angles to it. And it's given us time to reflect.James Penfold: Completely exclusive to you, where we're building a new building next to Coronation Street in Manchester. The pilings underway. The intention is to have it open by next Easter. What's it going to serve? It's multifaceted because it addresses multiple problems. The scriptwriters and there are about 200 in Corrie, normally meet in hotels and go to conference centres to marry all the plot lines together and to do the timelines. Again, with the cast, with all the principal production team, they'll now be able to haggle on the top floor of this almost event space building. The middle floor will have an exhibition space, which will be used by us from a Coronation Street perspective. And the ground floor will have a 70 seat theatre for those, like me, who believe that people will come back in some form to a similar environment. And we'll have a café and we'll have a retail outlet.James Penfold: So I'm going to call it a visitor reception area, as opposed to them just meeting somewhere in Media City and then we walk them over to the set and take them on the set there. That will allow us to be seven days a week from an experience point of view as people engage with the brand. It really plays for Peel, the landowner of Media City, because there's a brand new tramline that opened ... it was pretty much all whilst we've been in lockdown, that serves the Trafford side of Manchester and is a much faster link into Manchester. There's a stop right by ourselves and the Imperial War Museum, so there'll be that stop. There'll be a café there that which I say will provide to. So that's playing to an opportunity, that if we'd not had the pandemic, would have taken quite a lot longer because we've been able to do stuff when the set's been closed, when the filming hasn't happened, and it's a great positive.James Penfold: Something similar is happening with the village for Emmerdale for hopefully the backend of 2022 so that we can get more people into the village and really celebrate the sets and do Q and As and audience with cast and things like that. So yeah, so positives.Kelly Molson: Oh, I love that you've come on and dropped a few little exclusives for us, James. Thank you for sharing that. I mean, many of our listeners are in the attractions world, and they will be completely sympathising with the situation you've been in terms of having to shut down the sets, but it's such a different challenge that you have. I mean, the attractions now, they're planning for their reopening in May time, and are incredibly excited about that and what that looks like, that roadmap. But your roadmap is so much longer because of the logistics of filming, and I hadn't really taken that into consideration at all, how difficult that would be because obviously, you can't have the general public on the sets when you've got to protect the people that are on the sets recording each day. It's a huge challenge.James Penfold: I mean, they're such substantial principle revenue streams, and the most important audience drivers for ITV. The soaps still regularly get between six and eight million, depending on where we are in the storylines, five days a week. And that's incredible in the streaming platform and non-linear broadcast era that we all live within.James Penfold: That said, colleagues within my team who look after our Ninja Warrior brand, in lockdown we started last year with eight licensees and eight sites. By the time we get to the backend of summer, there will be 15 sites, because people are proactively taking and opening sites because they've seen properties becoming available. Previous guests of yours have talked about the nature of retail and leisure finally beginning to merge, which we haven't seen in the UK. It's been prevalent in Asia, very strong in the USA, and to some extent mainland Europe. But that's created a real opportunity. And so there's a real opportunity in that, and obviously those, they're nothing to do with show production, and so they can open, as you're talking about, with these May time scales, and I hope they go on to have really successful years. And whatever sort of restrictions we have in 2021, let's hope 2022 then gives them a full run.Kelly Molson: Yeah. And there's going to be a huge resurgence in people wanting to do things. We're all desperate to get back out and have new experiences because we've been stuck between our four walls for so long. But this brings me to something very exciting, which is the I'm A Celebrity Jungle Challenge. Is it opening this year? Maybe this year? Who knows at the moment? Tell us a little bit about it.James Penfold: I can tell you that based on current government guidelines and what we know of the roadmap, we're absolutely opening this summer. I mean, for me it's very exciting. It's the fruition of a three-year project in a sense, from talking with Peel Holdings, the landowner, to then working with various design companies and settling with Scruffy Dog Productions, and then the exciting part, which we started right back at the start of this podcast, working with the producers of the show. And Richard Cowles, Tom Gould and that ITV entertainment team are genius. I'm A Celebrity is his format, Saturday Night Takeaway is his co-format, Love Island is his format. That team know how to do live programming. And being able to look under the bonnet of what is the essence of I'm A Celebrity if we were going to make it an attraction, has been really exciting.James Penfold: So yeah, Media City, or Quayside Media City I should say, what was the Lowry Outlet, will be opening this summer.Kelly Molson: Oh, I'm so excited. You know, the team, we've already started planning that we'll come and do it as one of our Christmas do adventures because our Christmas do is always a thing. We go and have an experience somewhere. We went and did the Crystal Maze challenge, and then we'll go for dinner and drinks and stuff. And as soon as I mentioned this, they were like, "That's it. That's the Christmas do."James Penfold: I know, Kelly, I need you there soon. We need those guinea pigs for early summer, so I'll be calling you up.Kelly Molson: All right, we'll bring our Christmas to do forward. That's right, we missed out on one last year, so we'll be there.James Penfold: There are no restrictions on tinsel, so you're welcome.Kelly Molson: Fabulous, because I do love a bit of tinsel. Has COVID changed how you will deliver that visitor experience for that attraction, though? Because I think one of the things that we've been talking about quite a lot with attractions are actually some of the positives, of the visitor experience is better when the capacity has been reduced. So, for example, you want to go and visit the Mona Lisa. Well, on a normal day, if you go and visit the Mona Lisa, there are thousands of people that are doing it with you at the same time, and so that experience is just not what you might have hoped for. But actually, if you did it ... well, not now, but when they're open and you've got that reduced capacity, it's a nicer experience. It's more engaging for you. Maybe people will pay a slightly higher price for that as well. So how has that changed how you open and your strategy?James Penfold: So, obviously, when you design any of these attractions, and again, we work with good partners, and we're not experts. We hold people to flame as to how we want it to look and we want it to be delivered 100% to be true to the format, but you've designed it for this sort of flow, for this capacity, and people use it in this manner. And of course, only when we start getting to the customer testing, which we're pretty much just approaching now, will we see how that happens. Now we layer on the COVID factor, and the COVID factor is exactly what you've said. Probably a little more time in that attraction, yes, reviewing the price for that, but the capacity is being reduced, but then the experience is so much better. I think also all leisure attractions are getting price-sensitive, but I do think, and I hope when you see it ... the layering over the IP of the Jungle Challenge, and whether it's the thematic, and even a safety video from Ant and Dec, through to the gameplay we've put on what would traditionally be a rope and swinging course and a bit of Ninja Warrior in the middle, really does bring value to it. So I think we've got to, and we are, reviewing what that customer experience is.James Penfold: Similarly, on the tours side of things, it's absolutely about capacity. Less people maybe in tour groups, certainly fast-tracking this notion of pre-flow that colleagues have had, which is, "Okay, tour guides are wonderful and they give the as scripted and in the tone of a show version of events," but we know, especially as we look to the younger audiences, that it absolutely is all about the selfie moment, the racing to the bit of the set that you know most. Again, I mentioned characters earlier, so we've got to look at that. And then that looks at, "Okay, well how do we then convey some of the knowledge and depth and years of plot lines, characters, and why things look the way they do? Why the houses aren't as big as real houses would be and all those sorts of things." Then we're looking at the audio guide, or certainly the interactive guide, and how smartphones, that again really have got pretty much mass market penetration now across all age brackets, how we can use those.James Penfold: I think last week somebody raised a really ... so the podcast that aired last week, and I can't recall the chap's name, but oh my God, never did I think we'd be looking back at QR codes. And-Kelly Molson: QR codes; 2020 was the year of the resurgence for them. Who knew that was going to happen?James Penfold: Absolutely. It's like the spectrum of tourism, it's suddenly back.Kelly Molson: I was going to say Atari, but that would super age me.James Penfold: Yeah, no, that was 10 years before me.Kelly Molson: So we're coming to the end of the podcast, but one more question to ask you. But can you let us know what kind of things that we might find in this new attraction? Are there going to be any disgusting eating challenges? Because I feel like that is up there with what people really want to do.James Penfold: Listen, I'm A Celebrity just had its 20th season, even in an amazing cast in Wales, did record audiences, and I know we've got pandemic viewers and that people can't go out, and there are many facets to the show. And so I think this is the first iteration of what you're going to see and what we'd like to do with the I'm A Celebrity brand, working with not just property partners, but also with operator partners that we're currently engaged with. This one is all about the Jungle Challenge and getting stars because, at the heart of the show, you get those stars, and it is for the more physical aspects of it. So you've got to climb 15-meter rock-faces, you've got to zip line across the venue, you've got to do a treetop trail that doesn't have much to support you other than the harness you're clipped to, and so that'll test your heights. There's a spy ride, if you so wish, that you can strap yourself into and travel 20 miles an hour around the rooftop. There's Escape the Jungle, which is our variant on Ninja Warrior. So we've packed a lot into this. And if you want to test, again, your test of heights, there's Leap of Faith, where you go and you jump, you hang onto a cushion for as long as you can before you drop to the ground.James Penfold: Yeah, but don't worry, you're in a safe be like.Kelly Molson: Oh, it's going to be great. I feel super excited about it already, and I'm pretty sure that a lot of our listeners will be booking up tickets as soon as they can. Thank you so much for coming on and sharing that, James.James Penfold: Pleasure.Kelly Molson: We always ask our guests for a book that they would recommend to us, and it can be anything really. I used to always ask ... it was a book that had shaped someone's career, but I think actually just a book that you really love, or one that you would just like to share with our audience would be great.James Penfold: Okey-dokey. Well, I've changed my choice as of this morning, and it's courtesy, because of course, working from home, or even when I work in the office, I've always got ITV on, playing in the background. And a book that I found absolutely charming, and not a lifesaver, but just really resonated with me in this lockdown, being single, working on my own, working on a project quite distanced with a team that's quite disparate around the country, has been The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and the Horse. Charlie Mackesy.Kelly Molson: Oh gosh.James Penfold: And it comes into mind today because I saw him over my shoulder just because we came on the call because he was on This Morning and it's being made into a movie, which is incredible. An animated movie using his beautiful artwork. And as I understand it, it's going to extend the characters and give some background to those four wonderful subjects. And I just feel, with all that's going on, whether it's headlines in the news this week on any level, whether it regards ITV or not, that you put a bit of love out there and we'll all be good, and we'll get through this storm, as he likes to put it.Kelly Molson: Oh, do you know what? That book has given me so much comfort over the years, and I'm so glad that somebody ... nobody has recommended that book yet, I'm so glad that you chose that one today because it really does sum up what we all need right now. And like I said, for me, it's been a huge comfort on many different levels, and I think it has been a huge comfort for a lot of people through the lockdown as well.James Penfold: Absolutely. And yeah, you can turn to any page of it and there's a quote or a phrase that you can draw something from it. And I think there have been many books prior to that, and I'm not going to bankrupt you as others do, so that's my book.Kelly Molson: Thank you, just the one book. Just remember, I ask for one book, people.James Penfold: Yeah guys, just listen, one book, please. That's all Kelly wants.Kelly Molson: Costs me so much money. Oh, thank you so much, that's a great recommendation. As ever, if you want to win a copy of that book, if you head over to our Twitter account and you retweet this episode announcement with the words, "I want James's book," then you will be in with a chance of winning a copy. And you should do that because it is a really lovely book. I'm so glad that there's going to be a film as well, that's really nice.James Penfold: Yeah.Kelly Molson: James, thank you.James Penfold: Can I say thank you, by the way? Because I listen to your podcast every week; fascinating insights helps all of us, and yeah, so I'm really pleased that I was invited on. Thank you.Kelly Molson: Aw, that's very kind. All of our guests have said very lovely things about the podcast and I feel super humbled by it. I actually felt really humbled that you put us in the bracket of ALVA and Blooloop there, who are phenomenal organisations that have been doing brilliant things for attractions throughout this. Thank you, James, it's been an absolute pleasure to have you today. It's been wonderful, so thank you so much for your time.James Penfold: You're very welcome, you take care.Kelly Molson: Thanks for listening to Skip the Queue. If you've enjoyed this podcast, please leave us a five-star review. It really helps others find us. And remember to follow us on Twitter for your chance to win the books that have been mentioned. Skip the Queue is brought to you by Rubber Cheese, a digital agency that builds remarkable systems and websites for attractions that helps them increase their visitor numbers. You can find show notes and transcriptions from this episode and more over on our website, rubbercheese.com/podcast. 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/james-leong-c-foo-2a04b75/ (James Leong) is the founder ofhttps://www.visions1.com.sg/ ( Visions One Consulting), a training consultancy that teaches finance to non-finance people. Using his unique Financial Storytelling approach, James can simplify a complex and dry topic to make learning joyful and fun. James has helped thousands of university students and non-financially trained people grasp finance and accounting easily, empowering them to make better decisions. The Singapore Business Review has featured James as one of ten influential professional speakers in Singapore. James is also a CSP (Certified Speaking Professional), a recognition earned by the top 12% of professional speakers worldwide.   “Go and seek your passion. I think that is what gives us joy and happiness in life, which is ultimately the most important thing.” James Leong   Worst investment everJames got into investing when he was a freshman. Having some knowledge in finance and accounting, he believed he understood numbers. There was this particular young startup listed on the stock exchange. It was a newly IPO company with a lot of hype and tremendous growth prospects. Not a week could go by before an analyst said something great about this company. And, of course, the share price would keep going up. This attracted James’ attention, and he invested a substantial amount in the company. Making huge returns before trouble startsEverything leading up to the IPO was perfect. The growth curve, sales, revenue, everything was going up. IPO year was the best year. The shares made huge returns. After the first year, things started getting rocky for the company. The numbers began dipping. Unfortunately, at the time, it was hard to find financial reports. Investors had to rely on what analysts were saying. While the numbers showed that the company was doing poorly, analysts kept saying that it would turn around. So James ignored the numbers and held onto his shares. Unfortunately, the numbers never went back up, and after three years of making nothing, James finally sold his shares though he did not make much from them. Lessons learnedKnow your numbers and trust themKnow your numbers because numbers speak the truth. Get financial reports that go as back as 10 years and look at the numbers. These numbers will save you from making your worst investment ever. Do not let the story override the numbers, always pick up the story with numbers. Know how much risk you can afford to takeFind out your psychological makeup, what can be absorbed, and how much volatility you can take within your portfolio. This will always help you manage your risks. Andrew’s takeawaysKeep your market exposureThe best way to keep yourhttps://myworstinvestmentever.com/ep250-stephen-kalayjian-the-key-to-success-in-trading-is-to-have-discipline/ ( market exposure) for the long-term is to buy an ETF or an index fund. Own 10 stocks, not more, not lessFrom his own research and what he has learned over the years, Andrew’s advice is if you are going to buy stocks in the stock market, own 10. Not more and not less than 10. If you buy less than 10, you will not be fully diversifying, and buy if you buy more than 10, you might as well buy an index fund. So if you want to be a stock picker, build a portfolio of 10 stocks. Actionable adviceTake a course on how to read financial statements and reports so that you at least understand the basics. No. 1 goal for the next 12 monthsJames’ number one goal for the next 12 months is to complete his book that will allow anyone with no financial background to learn and grasp finance and accounting easily. Parting words  “Keep learning. Learning never stops.” James Leong   [spp-transcript]   Connect with James Leonghttps://www.linkedin.com/in/james-leong-c-foo-2a04b75/ (LinkedIn) https://twitter.com/JamesLeongCFoo (Twitter) https://www.visions1.com.sg/ (Website) Andrew’s...

So you’re building a website and want to not only attract but increase all the right customers to your site? This podcast uncovers two of the best ways to increase traffic to your website: Design and Performance. Depending on your goals as a business, your website’s needs will vary completely. This is something we’ve learnt working with many of our diverse clients. Each website we develop is custom-designed and encapsulates the brand's essence to appeal to customers.  Most people think you have to sacrifice one to get the other. In some aspects this is true, but not always. This tug-of-war debate will help to guide your online strategy and make your website easily stand out from the competition.  James: Hello everyone, and welcome to another episode of the Web3 Marketing Debate Show. We've got another firecracker of an episode today. What's better?  Is it having a nice, really awesome, beautiful, pretty website that is the benchmark of design?  Or is it better to have more of a stripped-down, not as well designed website, but it performs like a bat out of hell? So I'll be taking the website design side of this debate. Joseph: I'll be taking the website performance side. So let's get stuck into it. James: Awesome. All right, let's get started. So, all right, Joseph, performance. Why do you want to have a high-performing site as opposed to one that looks like it's the Mona Lisa of websites? Joseph: It's funny you say that because you can actually have a nice website and it can be good at performance. There are times we've seen nice websites, but are absolutely trash when it comes to performance.  You need a high-performing website that loads quickly converts customers, and is a true asset to your business. It's super important to have a high-performing website. Now, performance doesn't come out of the box. You do need to tune your website to be performing. Take our website, for example. I would say our website looks quite spectacular, but it's been tuned and built for performance.  The results show when you have a high performing website, the ROI and results you get from the website are night and day. Whereas, if you just have a nice-looking website, chances are you're losing a lot of traffic and performance that your business deserves. So James, tell me why design's better than performance. James: Well, I'm a videographer and have some fantastic 4k high-resolution films that I want to show. I want to have people when they land on my website, to see my video and the high-resolution, detailed work. I don't want to have them click through to some embedded YouTube play. I want them to see it as soon as they load.  It might take a bit of a performance hit, but it allows me to immediately engage my audience with the work in which I do.  Why can't I have that, Joseph? You're a developer. You know that it's a trade-off.  Performance means sacrificing one or the other at some stage. Why can't I be able to achieve the design that I want? Why do I have to make sacrifices when it doesn't make sense for my business to do so, or my audience? Joseph: Well, the thing is, you don't need to make a huge sacrifice in instances like that. There are techniques that you need to use for video to make sure that your website performs how it should.  You can have videos and a pretty website. But out of the box, (particularly on a lot of WordPress themes that buy from marketplaces) are trash when it comes to performance but look nice.  At the end of the day, your website is an asset and needs the best performance it can for the best ROI for your business.  James: Well, you could load a straight HTML document with a couple of words on it and call it your website. But it's all black and white. If your audience lands on a website like that, they're going to have a pretty poor impression of your business.   It will look like you've half-assed it.  It could be the fastest loading site in the world. But if there is no design, there's no professionalism in the brand presence. It doesn't matter how well-performing it is.  You're going to lose your audience. You're going to lose the purpose of why this thing exists.  Your purpose is to engage your audience and inform them about what you do. This will encourage them to take a positive action towards achieving the objectives of your business online. So what do you have to say to that, Joe? Joseph: A good example of performance over design is Amazon. They've got some design, but it isn't the core of what they do. Their core is making money and growing their business, focusing heavily on performance.  They did a study (I can't remember the exact numbers), where they lost tens of millions of dollars because the speed was off by a millisecond. This was a hugely critical aspect of their business.  So if you've got a website, and by the way, it doesn't need to be just text on the page in black and white. You can have a nice design and performs well. But performance has to actually be part of the plan of the website.  It can't be something that you think of afterwards.  Otherwise, you then have to re-engineer certain parts to make sure that it is performing. Website performance is incredibly valuable and you can have both. It comes down to how much you want to sacrifice. James: That was well said. This underlines the importance of what a  professional web design agency should do for you. Because it's actually not a debate of design versus performance.  Do you want to have a nice design or do you want to have a site that loads fast?  No, you can actually have a beautiful, well-designed website that performs and loads quickly if you know what you're doing. And this isn't something that is done once the website has been built or while it's being built.  This goes down to the fundamental planning aspects.  That's the website strategy for you to be able to create a website that's visually appealing to your audience. But also performs and produces a result for your business. This is something that is a skill. This takes experience. This takes know-how in how to do this well. A lot of websites that have been DIY'd, or businesses that come to us with sites that look good but perform terribly is because of what they haven't considered. They've looked at it purely from a design-only angle. They haven't considered the performance angle.  Or you get very fast loading websites that look terrible because they typically have good development capability, but terrible design capability, which also then misses the mark.  You can have both, and this is what we do at Web3. We have both design and development talent in-house. This allows us to bring both worlds together and create something that works the best in both worlds for our clients and our customers. So that's another episode of the Web3 Marketing Debate Show. As always, I hope you learned something new and we'll be back soon with another debate around creativity versus data.  I can't wait to announce this one and yes, rumble in the ring with you, Joseph. Joseph: Can't wait. Bring it on, James. James: Awesome. All right. That's a wrap. We'll see you again real soon.

Today’s guest on the Millionaire Secrets podcast is Dr. James Neilson Watt. James is a former healthcare practitioner who ran his own wildly successful clinic. When he no longer enjoyed the grind of day-to-day clinic life and began wanting more freedom, he started to explore methods for making money online. But it wasn’t until his wife fell pregnant with their first child that he really started to get serious about an online business and breaking away from clinic life! In fact, he credits the birth of his first child as giving him the strong enough WHY that he needed for finding success and, ultimately, becoming a millionaire. Like any good father, James was desperate to provide well for his child and his wife. Not only this, but he also wanted to be at home and to spend as much time as possible with his young family. So James had his WHY. From there, he became ruthless with his time management and this created an incredible level of productivity. He realized just how much time he'd been wasting before. Now he had a burning desire to succeed, and this naturally created an impactful time management philosophy. It's not just about time = money. It's so much more than that. It's about realizing that we all have a bank account of time. Some of us are spending that time wastefully. Others are not. I loved this chat with James as I think it really digs into something that we haven't covered in so much detail before on the podcast - time management philosophy. So James makes his millions selling services to practitioners and clinic owners in the health niche. As stated before, James built his own wildly successful health clinic. He did this thanks to a rather natural understanding of the need for good marketing that would grow an audience and create engagement. Other practice owners lacked this talent. And so, this was his superpower. And it was something he didn't realize he had until other clinic owners started coming to him for help. His online business born. It didn't take long for James to see the true value he was offering people and upped his prices accordingly. Within a few short months, he was making $100k per month, and not long after that, he made his first million. Listen to the Podcast below to enjoy the full interview with Dr. James Neilson Watt: Check Out More of James’s Content Here

Episode 6: News Your Own Adventure Freehand Media presents Geek Economy. Today, more than ever new sources are more divided than ever. Liberal media, trump media, conservative news, QAnon.... its just crazy. Are things worse than it has ever been? Should we be worried? Turns out its not that bad, we have always had sources this disparate, just never been ignited with the internet and social media before. So James and Dave talk about this and journey through a bit of history about the most exciting topic ever the news. Peak Money Intro Music is Phase 2 by Xylo-Ziko. Interstitial Music Blippy Trance by Kevin MacLeod. Other Music: bensound.com and PodingtonBear at the FreeMusic Archive This Peak Money episode was Edited and Produced by Dave Donars Creators: James Li and Dave Donars --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/peakmoney/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/peakmoney/support

Fresh off the release of his new film Beast Mode with C Thomas Howell, James Duval joins us this week as our celebrity guest judge to determine who takes this "week" experience! James has been in some great movies over the years like Independence Day, Gone in Sixty Seconds, May, SLC Punk, The Doom Generation; the list goes on and on. Nicest guy in the world and he shows up with the huge creepy bunny head from his character Frank in Donnie Darko to help make sure there is no malfeasance with his selections! What a strategy! The first contestant this week, Joe Findlay is back and he brought along the best first week he could find in December 1986 for the journey. Marc James travels back in time to two years before he was born to research the merits of December 1976. And finally, Mancrush is trying to get his game back on track after a few crushing defeats, but will the hand he is dealt from December 1996 be enough? So much fun conversation with James this week! After the show ended, the conversation didn't! So James might be back sooner than later. But in this particular episode, you may hear something about ninja fetish, Amy Brenneman defeats electricity, Tommy Lee Jones thinks he's Erik Estrada, the magic of movies, Sinbad wasn't a genie, Captain Steven Hiller perishes and brings a franchise down with him, a movie that sounds like it's about prostitutes, James dad brought him to strange flicks as a child, Mancrush's Dad needs to check his email, Sleestak is for the children, AAAAAY sit on it, a competitor emerges but did anyone buy it, Mancrush dials up an expert for his take, an odorous music selection leaves a bad taste in your mouth, the ultimate reason to fight, boring politics, a landmark ruling, flying swine, life feels like a sci-fi movie, Beast Mode's connection to Bernie Lomax, break out the paddles and slap some balls, Jimmy's new projects, and just what is it like to work with Randy Quaid?? Do you agree with James' rulings? Play at home and judge for yourself! While you're at it, send your rulings to our Facebook and pick up 20 points on the Dueling Decades Leaderboard! Please don't forget to subscribe and review! Want to share some of your own 1980s & 1990s memories? Join the other thousands of people in our Facebook group and get more original nostalgic content every day! If you're into the 1960s & 1970s, join our new group! Links below: https://www.duelingdecades.com https://www.facebook.com/duelingdecades https://www.twitter.com/duelingdecades https://www.instagram.com/duelingdecades https://www.facebook.com/groups/duelingdecades/ https://www.facebook.com/groups/duelingdecades60s70s/

Can you imagine finding out your father is the infamous Heisenberg? Only this isn’t a fictional scripted show on AMC, but real life? That’s the situation James Lubbock found himself in when his father went from meek law-abiding suburban family man to Britain’s most wanted crystal meth dealer. So James did the only thing anyone in the same situation would do. He wrote a book. A pretty good one actually. It’s called….Breaking Dad. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

According to James 1:2–4, 12, there are two reasons why Christians should rejoice when they face trials of various kinds. Other reasons are articulated elsewhere, but these two are remarkably comprehensive.First, we should rejoice because we know that when our faith is tested, the result is perseverance (James 1:2–3). As an athlete endures in order to build up endurance, so a Christian perseveres under trial in order to build up perseverance. Perseverance contributes something important to our character. It “must finish its work so that [we] may be mature and complete, not lacking anything” (James 1:4). The alternative is a personality that may love the Lord when things are going well, a character that is bold and happy on bright days in the Spring, but knows little of steadfastness under duress, of contentment when physical comforts are withdrawn, of quiet confidence in the living God when faced with persecution, of stability in the midst of a frenetic pace or a massive disappointment. In other words, in a fallen world perseverance contributes maturity and stability to our character—and trials build perseverance. So James is very bold: we should, he says, “consider it pure joy” whenever we face trials of various kinds. This is not a perverse form of Christian masochism, but an entirely appropriate response if we remember the Christian’s goals. If our highest goals are creature comforts, this passage is incomprehensible; if our highest goals include growth in Christian character, James’s evaluation makes eminent sense.Second, the Christian who perseveres under trial is blessed “because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him” (James 1:12). In other words, perseverance is a necessary ingredient to genuine Christianity. A real Christian, on the long haul, sticks: he or she perseveres. There may be ups and downs, there may be special victories or temporary defeats, but precisely because the One who has begun a good work in us completes it (Phil. 1:6), real Christians stick (cf. Heb. 3:14). They continue to be “those who love him.” Thus Christians facing a trial must perceive not only the threat or the unpleasantness or the disappointment, but also the challenge for which God’s grace equips us: to press on—always to press on—knowing full well that the ultimate reward, meted out by grace, is “the crown of life”—the crown that is life, life in its consummated splendor, the life of the new heaven and the new earth, the heritage of all Christians. Thus, once again James is entirely realistic to perceive that the person who perseveres under trial is “blessed.” It is an easy calculation, provided we remember the Christian’s goals. This podcast is designed to be used alongside TGC's Read The Bible initiative (TGC.org/readthebible). The podcast features devotional commentaries from D.A. Carson’s book For the Love of God (vol. 1) that follow the M’Cheyne Bible reading plan.

The 107th Tour de France has just finished and proved to be one of the most dramatic editions in modern history.21-year-old Tadej Pogačar shocked the cycling world on the penultimate day's time trial on La Planche des Belle Filles by overturning a 57-second deficit to Slovenian compatriot Primož Roglič, eventually winning Le Tour by 59 seconds. It truly was one for the ages!But while Slovenian Pogrog battled it out for the Maillot Jaune, there was a 24-year-old Yorkshireman by the name of Connor Swift riding his way around France on Grand Tour debut.As recent as 2019, Swift was racing for the now-defunct British Continental team Madison Genesis at the Tour Series in Redditch. Last Sunday, he finished cycling's biggest race.So James and Joe got on the phone and had a chat with Swift to see what it was like to make his Grand Tour debut, talk being Nairo Quintana's personal bodyguard, whether he made any enemies in the peloton and what it was like to get in a Champs-Élysées breakaway.James also takes us through his recent trip to Italy which included plenty of beautiful mountains and sadness at the demise of the breakfast buffet while Joe gives us a sneak preview into what to expect on the next episode!For more on the Cyclist Magazine Podcast - https://www.cyclist.co.uk/cyclistmagazinepodcastSubscribe to Cyclist Magazine now - https://cyclistmag.co.uk/cyclistmagazinepodcast

. There's a great deal to learn from the deep connections between regenerative agriculture and the farming traditions of First Nations people. My guest today is James Skeet, a member of the Navajo Nation and the founder of Spirit Farm in New Mexico, a demonstration farm that draws both Native Americans and others to learn more about issues like composting and regenerative farming techniques. So James, welcome. I'm really happy to have you with us today. I'm very happy to be here with you. How would you say that farming and conservation and preservation are a part of your cultural heritage? As I look back historically and through our traditional perspectives, who we are as a people, indigenous worldview is something that is very important to the earth and to the relationship to the environment, especially here in the Southwest. The climate, it can be harsh as well as very sustainable. A very delicate process. It's not something that can be done quickly. You have to look at seasons rather than what you're producing. James, as people think about the term regenerative agriculture, one might conclude that it's new on the scene? But you're making the point that it's not new on the scene at all, that there are hundreds of generations of people who have been working on doing just this. Indigenous people have always had this organic mindset that all things are sacred. Nature is to be respected and copied. Time is not linear but secular. There's always been sort of a bartering regenerative economy there, dealing with our relationship with different tribes. And then, food is considered as medicine. Because the plants were here first, they're our grandfathers and grandmothers. So they're teaching us things about that relationship with the environment. And it goes into some deep religious activities, ceremonies to have that relationship. It's really biology based. We were looking at minimal disturbance, especially when the Navajos went into a sheep economy, which was after the introduction of Churro sheep from the Spaniards. We had some of the tallest grasses in the so-called New World because they were using herding techniques that went from summer camps to winter camps. That relationship with the sheep and the biology and the soil, the grasses, to maximize productivity in the grasses. My guess is that many people would look at the landscape where you do your farming and think that it just wouldn't be possible to grow enough food to survive there. How would you respond to that? I would totally agree with that. The way we've understood farming has been based on annual crops, monocropping, productivity. But indigenous people have looked outside of that box to where hunters and gatherers were a type of farming that was taking place with the relationship with their herding animals, as well picking plants as they go along. And what we're trying to do is really a subtle edge, and that's where the complexity of our religions come from. Delicate relationships with Mother Earth and Father Sky. A lot of these ruins dictate to us, now looking back, their dependency on annual crops, corn, beans, squash. A lot of indigenous people all understood the relationship between plants that were outside of that category, the annual crops. They would focus on what we call weeds today. If you study the nutrient density of those plants, their medicinal nutrient values are very high. My mom was an herbalist. That understanding of our environment has really been misunderstood or overlooked. I really feel like what would we call food deserts aren't really food deserts. It's in our minds that we think that it's a desert, but in reality what nature, like I said before, grandfathers and grandmothers, are reaching out today and saying, I can heal you if you reestablish that relationship. And that cosmology is really another way of interpreting the goodness of Mother Nature. The idea of sustainability. Could you tell us a bit more about Spirit Farm, and what inspired you to do this work? And, how do you do things differently than what conventional farmers might do? Yeah, it really has to do with epistemology, how we view the world, view nature. Do we look at reductionists rather than systems? My wife and I, we were working for a managed care organization for a number of years. But in the back of our minds we felt like, why are indigenous people getting sicker? Why are they unhealthy? And the more we looked into that, we realized that it was the relationship they had with the kinds of foods. They had plenty of food, but it wasn't the right kind of nutrient dense foods. So, we had to really look at what can we do instead of complaining about the colonization, how we've been overtaken by the European Western world view, what can we do? We decided to just farm, to get back to nature, step off this corporate machinery. And we had some land there that my folks had that my grandfather in the past had plowed the heck out of it. And now, 50, 60 years later, the soil is so bad. Most of the top soil is blown off. We have invasive species that take up a lot of the water underneath the soil. You couldn't really grow anything. Right at that time we ran across Elaine Ingham, a soil scientist. And then also up here in Gallup, Ann Malloy. They were the ones that tracked us on the biological amendment, doing the thermal compost, putting organic material back into the soil, that the soil is alive. So when I started doing that study of that relationship with, what I call [inaudible 00:06:09], the unseen bugs, we started sharing a lot of the information with our elders. I remember one grandmother said, "They finally figured us out." And I was asking her, what do you mean by that? And she said, "They finally figured out what we used to do in our planting and what those dances mean, what the clans mean, what their purpose is, what their relationship was." We found this whole perspective of re-indigenizing, meaning that there were some things that were local, ideas, knowledge, seeds, information on plants, information on relationships. We just stumbled into a whole new arena. And so what happened to our farm was we just decided to provide for ourselves, see if we can grow things for ourselves. But what we came across was conventional farming had taken root, the use of the tractor, the deep plowing, which further messed up the system. And in looking at the microbial activity, what I realized was we were talking about kinship and relationship. So what we tried to do was give sacredness to the soil and to the bugs that were in the soil that do the job for regenerative farming. And when we did that, we began to hear things, not just from people, not just from our indigenous worldview, but from other farmers and even the plants themselves were communicating things to us. We coined the term indigenous regenerative intelligence as our mission. What sort of things do you grow on the farm? We've been able to grow just about everything. We don't have a well here on our farm. Everything is captured. And that's our first principle, is looking at water as sacred. We've been able to grow, of course the three sisters, corns, beans and squash, and we found as we studied that, that relationship was symbiotic. The corn was the windbreaker. The squash was the cover crop that lowered the temperature, and the beans was the nitrogen fixer to the corn because it took a lot of nitrogen out of the soil. But there's one grandma that still grows corn down from us a couple of miles, but they do a lot of dry farming. So she went and plowed the field and grew the corn. Whereas we heavily mulch and we amended it with compost, and we put a lot of the aeration back into the soil. We did a lot of cover crops so that the roots itself can release exudates that draws the microbes in there. So I said, you take 10 seeds, I'll take 10 seeds. Put mine in, and she put hers in. And at the end of the season she came by and she said, How's your corn? Where did you plant it? What did you do?" She was asking me a lot of questions. She said her corn reached up to about three to four feet, and she was standing in front of the corn that I grew and it was eight feet tall. We've been able to grow lots of different kinds of tomatoes. Broccoli did very well. We've got a whole herb bed of perennials that come up. I don't even have to mess with that. Some of the soil is getting to the point where we really don't have to amend it. It's deep and lush and it smells really good. We've been able to grow sunn hemp for biomass. We've been able to grow 18 different species of cover crops for our sheep to come in and feed on, and do the disturbance teas, a lot of different types of berries. Saskatoon seems to do very well. So, in looking at all the [inaudible 00:09:32], the unseen bugs, through the microscope and also looking at indigenous cosmology, because to them that's sort of their microscope, we've been able to grow just about everything and anything. I love hearing your thoughts on these things and what's so impressive are the personal stories, like with the grandmother and your comparison of the corn planted on her land and yours. And then, just your discussion of how you go about the farming. The practice of the farming is really instructive. But I think what comes through so loud and clear, and you discussing this, is the spiritual meaning of all this, and how everything is there for a reason, and how it can be nurtured and cared for in a way that protects the land and protects the creatures that are in it. These things are messages that just not enough people get to hear. Now, I know you go all over and speak about these things. Are audiences receptive, do you think? I definitely think that what is happening, just to put it simply, is Mother Nature is mad. The reason why it's mad and angry is because the way we've used science and reductionist thinking, industrial conventional farming mindset. It's based on a currency based economy. Food as a commodity. The use of synthetic fertilizers rather than the biology base. It's very production heavy. Monocropping, you have to have big tractors. It's a very dense disturbance rather than looking at the minimal disturbance. So, that's spirituality. If we think about it, that's created the fragmentation. That type of thinking has created the systemic racism, ethnic disturbance in countries where people are fighting over state, nation lines without really considering tribal people groups. Science disembodies itself from the spirit and the soul. That's what's happening to this country and all around the world, is that the haves and have not, winners take all, is taking place. There's a mindset that's shifting into more the organic indigenous perspective, and those are people that are being drawn to the idea of Spirit Farm. Having concrete, very practical examples of that relationship with what we grow, the biology, the biome that's in our gut as well as the biology that's in the soil, what we feed our animals, all that is a cycle of the use of compost. It's creating a closed system. I've done a lot of work internationally and one of the things that we've looked at is transformative adaptation. Indigenous people has adapted to European style of urbanization. But now I think what's happening because of all the climate change and the pandemics, we have to look at a transformative adaptation. Transformative challenges the systems of resilience and sustainability. It looks at incremental steps away from why we've gotten to this place is that we have a marginal perspective that we're outside of that system. The reductionist mechanical mindset cannot interpret change unless it looks from outside, and because of these marginal perspectives, feminists, Native Americans, tribal people groups, people of color, have been looking at this dominant systems. That has to change. We have to look at a different model through a different lens. In indigenous people, our philosophy is rooted into a story about a coyote, our relationship with the land and the earth. It's not about just spending abstract ideas up in the air. As my wonderful professor used to say, Alphonse Ortiz, all we're saying is that at least get the pendulum moving towards this organic indigenous mindset. You have to become attached to the land. I think you've partly answered the question I'm about to ask, but so are you optimistic? Do you believe that people are listening to these messages more? Are practices beginning to change? Are you hopeful? A lot of these regenerative farmers are swimming up against the current? The mine has to shift into more a secular pattern rather than a linear pattern to realize that it's about the people. Transformative adaptation is really positive because you're not only adapting to the changes, but you're actually transforming the system. We're going to come out in a whole new world from the things that are happening in the environment, and the system is not going to be the same, and that we will have to be willing to change. And it's positive because it gives us challenges. And to tell you the truth, I'm really sick and tired of trying to sustain stuff that doesn't work. The industrial conventional mindset of farming has really caused some major scars. We plowed up the microbial activity that's under the soil. So yeah, I think it's very positive. We can change, and we've always changed. As indigenous people we've always adapted. There's an area that didn't provide a lot of buffalo, or an area that didn't quite provide a lot of fish, or the climate was changed. We moved on. What's positive is it's rooting people back to the earth. It's rooting people back to these marginal perspectives. People are really struggling and they're looking at regenerative intelligence as the way to move. I've been telling all my farmers, keep doing what you're doing. Keep growing things. Keep that relationship because that's what's going to help transition you, and you'll be able to adapt these changes. Well, thank you so much James. Boy, there's an awful lot to think about in what you've just said, and so much wisdom. And I admire the work you're doing, and I really appreciate you joining us today. So thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you. And I am very positive about what's going to happen. So our guest today has been Navajo farmer, James Skeet, founder of Spirit Farm in New Mexico. And thank you for listening. If you'd like to subscribe to the Leading Voices in Food podcast series, you can do so through Apple Podcast, Google Play, or your favorite podcast app. The podcasts and transcripts are also available on our website at the Duke World Food Policy Center. This is Kelly Brownell.  

How To Get Video Testimonials From Clients and Audience Members James Taylor interviews Jill Schiefelbein and they talk about exactly How To Get Video Testimonials From Clients and Audience Members. In today's episode Jill Schiefelbein talks about Exactly How To Get Video Testimonials From Clients and Audience Members. What we cover: Why you should join a Speakers Association How to ask for video testimonials Keynote speakers vs breakout speakers Please SUBSCRIBE ►http://bit.ly/JTme-ytsub ♥️ Your Support Appreciated! If you enjoyed the show, please rate it on YouTube, iTunes or Stitcher and write a brief review. That would really help get the word out and raise the visibility of the Creative Life show. SUBSCRIBE TO THE SHOW Apple: http://bit.ly/TSL-apple Libsyn: http://bit.ly/TSL-libsyn Spotify: http://bit.ly/TSL-spotify Android: http://bit.ly/TSL-android Stitcher: http://bit.ly/TSL-stitcher CTA link: https://speakersu.com/the-speakers-life/ FOLLOW ME: Website: https://speakersu.com LinkedIn: http://bit.ly/JTme-linkedin Instagram: http://bit.ly/JTme-ig Twitter: http://bit.ly/JTme-twitter Facebook Group: http://bit.ly/IS-fbgroup Read full transcript at https://speakersu.com/sl068-public-speaking-career-tip-how-to-get-video-testimonials-from-clients-and-audience-members/ James Taylor   Hi, it's James Taylor, founder of SpeakersU. Today's episode was first aired as part of International Speakers Summit the world's largest online event for professional speakers. And if you'd like to access the full video version, as well as in depth sessions with over 150 top speakers, then I've got a very special offer for you. Just go to InternationalSpeakersSummit.com, where you'll be able to register for a free pass for the summit. Yep, that's right 150 of the world's top speakers sharing their insights, strategies and tactics on how to launch grow and build a successful speaking business. So just go to InternationalSpeakersSummit.com but not before you listen to today's episode.   Hey there, it's James Taylor, and I'm delighted today to be joined by Jill Schiefelbein. Jill is an award winning entrepreneur, dynamic keynote speaker best selling author and recovering academic before venturing into entrepreneurship. She taught Business Communication at Arizona State University for 11 years. Today, her business the dynamic communicator helps organization's navigate the digital communication space to track customers, increase sales and retain clients. Her latest book is called dynamic communication 27 strategies to grow, lead and manage your business. And she was also the co chair of the next influence conference which the National Speakers associations premiere event for professional speakers. my great pleasure to have Jayla join us today. So welcome, Jill.   Jill Schiefelbein   Thank you so much for having James. I'm excited to share.   James Taylor   Fantastic. So tell us what's what's going on in your world just now.   Jill Schiefelbein  There's a lot going on in my world, but a lot of what's been going on lately has actually been doing with virtual training, different virtual offerings, different, you know, annual programs, but they're dealing with, you know, a quarterly training program that now supplements things that I'm doing in person at conferences, so speaking not just on the stage, but to the screen as well. So how   James Taylor   does that that's quite a different medium in terms of being able to speak you know, you're so used to be on the stage of the biggest stage or your body movements that can be quite different as well, when you're in this little box, how do you have to change your communication style?   Jill Schiefelbein  You know, you do a lot. And what happens is most of the time, I find that speakers who are amazing onstage if they assume that they're just going to meet amazing in an online environment they tank, and it's because navigating the virtual communication space is very different than presenting on a stage. And it's not just about the eloquence in the execution, right? Yes, of course, those things are important. But one of the biggest problems that a lot of speakers have when going into the virtual space is that they're not eyeballs looking back at them. There's not body language that they can read, there's not energy that they can feed off of. And in essence, you have to manufacture all of that for yourself or find ways in the virtual environment to actually create that level of interaction and feedback that you seek in the face to face environments.   James Taylor   So what was if someone may the speakers out there that who primarily their their speaking and and or training To live audiences, if they want to get their toe in the water of learning how to use the media and also having to create their own online courses or online training, but just want to start getting getting used to what that medium could be and how they have to maybe present in a slightly different way, what's a good way for them to start   Jill Schiefelbein  the very first way is do your presentation alone in a room looking at a computer screen and record it via audio, just audio, and listen back to it. And if you're bored in certain parts, then you can expect your audience to be doubly bored in those parts. And it's really important not just to have you know, your energy coming through the enthusiasm, the para language, the ups and the downs of your voice. All of those things are important. But just understanding how people are listening through technology, by listening to yourself in those recordings is important because when you're listening to yourself, listen from the learner perspective that you're trying to actually learn information. So that's number one. Number two is test the platforms if you're doing doing it for a client, if you're doing in a corporation or an organization, and you're not the one choosing the software, you need to actually take time to practice in it and learn what tools you have available, for whatever reason, and it's infuriating to me on one hand, and on the other hand, it's great because I get way more business because the average webinar is kind of, at best. Yeah. And the average webinar is I'm going to speak and there's maybe going to be some PowerPoint slides, and we're going to have some q&a. And that's the norm. Well, if that's the norm, then what I do is way above that, so it's really easy to impress, but why would you as a speaker, why is anyone for that matter? Why would you want to settle for the norm? Figure out what tools are at your disposal and what tools for engagement and interactivity within the webinar or within the Virtual Training are open to you to use and then practice with those tools, get a test audience and practice   James Taylor   now. How did you get mentioned to you, you came from the world of academia and first at Arizona State University but where did The speaking the keynote speaking professional speaking site Have you begin? How did you all get started?   Jill Schiefelbein   Very funny story. It actually began when I was young when I was in high school in a small town in Kansas. My parents had told me at an early age, if I ever wanted to leave Kansas, I had to get what was called a full ride scholarship. And the nerd that I was I went and looked up what that meant in the library. And then everything I did from that day on was geared towards getting a full ride scholarship somewhere, which is how I ended up at Arizona State. And in doing so, I had the great fortune to be elected to some pretty visible leadership positions for community service and for like Student Government type leadership, and I traveled not only around the state of Kansas, but actually around the country, speaking to other students, and then adult organizations, about community service and about leadership and about engagement and I didn't realize it then. But that's when I fell in love with the power of words because, I mean, you're imagining this as a teenager, I'm standing here, I'm talking and then people are doing things. That's power. And I didn't know what it meant at the time. But when I went to college, my goal was to be and I still laugh and this is no joke. 18 year old Jill, I'm going to be a motivational speaker and Leadership Conference facilitator in Spanish speaking third world countries for you.   James Taylor   Well, you you had it done you were you there. That was I think, I think what I think when I was 18, I was just thinking about what nightclubs to go to so, so you were like, way ahead of way ahead of me.   Jill Schiefelbein  It was that focus that I went to ASU and they actually had very good communication department. So that's what I started to study. But as it turns out, two things happen. Number one, four years of high school Spanish that I got a pluses in you know, or A's and a pluses in Kansas does not even equal one real world year of Spanish in Arizona. So okay, so I wasn't as good at that is I thought I was and then number two, I took an organizational theory course. fell in love with the business side of communication. So when I went to grad school, that's what I focused in. That's what I taught. And then really turned it into Oh, so I can teach this. That's great. I fell in love with teaching, but I can also teach it through a corporate environment, which is quite impactful. And that's really where the business idea came about.   James Taylor   Now, there's lots of, obviously academics that try and make the move from lecture leaner than a traditional lecturing academic style, moving on to being more of keynote speakers on the stage. And some of them are successful at it, but a lot of them aren't quite as good because it's a definite different style going on there as well. I'm wondering for you, when you were making that transition, whether any mentors that you had around you that you could, you could get feedback on your speaking and you could get feedback on your keynote, your presentations, you know,   Jill Schiefelbein   I really didn't seek any of that. And maybe that's because I thought I was good enough to go as it was, for whatever reason my ego carried me through or it was just because I was so focused on like the business In the side and understanding all the business aspects that I didn't focus on the other, and I think that's really more of the truth. So I joined. Immediately I joined the Chamber of Commerce and I went into small business like group coaching programs. And I went in and just saw out any information that was available to me along business ownership around growing a business and went that way. So it was really through a collective effort of being active in my local Chamber of Commerce, which was at Gilbert, Arizona at the time, that I learned a lot and made many mistakes along the way. But that was my first step. My second step then once I decided that speaking, was going to be a big part of the business, not just coaching and training was I joined the National Speakers Association, which you mentioned earlier. I'm the volunteer co chair of their biggest event this coming summer. And that community really just it changed everything the community as a whole and then meeting certain people who then not really intentionally took me under their wing, but I could come to with questions question It was   James Taylor   a really powerful organization, have it have a good fortune we met recently in the winter conference. And my understanding is that, that that, that sharing that openness and wanting to share with with your, your tribe with your, your, your peers that kind of came about from the, from the founder from calvet, you know, the founder of the NSA and he was very strong, ready to start saying, you know, we, it's about growing a bigger pie. It's about giving back to your community. Once you once you're kind of on there, and you're starting to learn and you're starting to develop in your speaking career. You have to share and you have to help the people are coming up coming behind you as well. And I'm wondering as you were kind of going in that because one of the things I noticed was this really cool subgroups of of NSA, which I knew nothing about. So, my friend, mutual friend, Erin, Gargan, you know, she said Oh, he This is really cool group. It's called the the, the power woman of NSA and which I'd never heard. She was talking took me about this. And then I spoke to another friend of mine, Denise Jacobs. And she said, Well, actually there's even a sub sub group. There's the, the tall woman of NSA, which I think was at the influence influence conference as well. So, I mean, it's a big organization. So I'm imagining for you kind of just coming into how do you feel as a newbie member just kind of coming into the NSA, when there's obviously some very, very experienced speakers in that group.   Jill Schiefelbein  You know, it's really interesting. There's some very experienced speakers, but there's also a lot of very experienced speakers who have done maybe, let's say, keynoting for their business the entire time and are looking to learn the Virtual Training who are looking to learn these other skills. And so what's fascinating to me is when I hired someone, actually one this person at an auction who's one of the most arguably successful business consultants in the world, and we're sitting there during the day I hired him for and I needed a break and he said, but you know, do you mind if I ask you a question? And I was just like, Whoa, this person who I think is a mentor, who is I hired to work with me who whatever, asked me a question about some digital communication expertise that I have that he doesn't. And it was just a very clear moment for me that no matter where you're at, you will have something to learn, and you will have something to give. And it's just biding your time and waiting until it's the right time to input on either one of those things. And for me, it's been I've learned so much from so many different people, the spirit of Cabot, the spirit of giving, like, Listen, we don't need to compete with each other for gigs, there's a huge market out there. So let's all just be better together, which increases our fees, which increases our value, which is increases the credibility. It's just a win win win situation. And that mentality has really gotten me to devote a lot of a lot of time to serve the organization, but it's finding whatever communities within a bigger organization really fit you in it and like Aaron mentioned, you know, there's other communities to and I'm a part of a couple of other communities within NSA and it's finding your big tribe like the people that get it right like yes, they get what it's like to be in the green room and have the stress with the AV before you're going on or not know if you did well enough or you're traveling and you're a road warrior, not all people can empathize with that so it's nice to have that community and then it's nicer to even dig down deeper and find that circle of people that you just really connect with.   James Taylor   So I noticed that one of the things that you've talked and talked about before which is an area that regardless of where you are, as a speaker is pretty powerful to learn about which is idea of using video, especially when it comes to the testimonials so we've already probably all got you know those kind of written testimonials you get from clients or people that attend your events. But I know a lot of speakers myself included, I do a lot of video. I'm kind of a little bit rather than like okay, getting video at the end of my talk, someone comes up to me and says I really enjoyed this thing and and and I always think Good to myself, I should got video I should have, you know, but I'm never quite sure the best way of doing it. So what advice would you give to someone to ensuring that they getting video from those people that are coming up and having conversations with them maybe at the end or during the break? Or maybe after they've actually given their talk?   Jill Schiefelbein  Yeah, video, I mean, videos just keep we if you've been around marketing for the past, you know, month to year to five years, you know, that video is where it's at. and it converts better than almost anything else right now. But it's video done well. And so when it comes to asking for testimonials, number one, it's pretty awkward to do it yourself. This is where having a staff member and assistant would volunteer or maybe a meeting planner, you know, maybe an intern that they have, they're asking them and of course arranging it in advance that say, Hey, I would really like to capture footage so you make it a partnership effort, right? Especially if you don't have your own staff. Is there someone they can spare make it a partnership so that you give them three different questions that say can you describe the presentation that you just heard by James What's one thing that sticks out most in your mind? See, notice that you're not asking for Did you like James, what would you write this presentation or anything that quite frankly, doesn't matter? What matters is whether they liked you or not that they were actually able to learn something from what you said. Now, our egos want the five star reviews. But what really matters to me when I talk, I don't care if people write me a one star or a five star if they learned something that they can make their life better with. And so when you take your ego out of that equation, and really just focus on what what did you learn, and ask questions around that it's a little different. So you can ask for example, what did you learn from this presentation? What's your favorite takeaway? What's one thing that you can really imagine putting into action right away? And then I love the one words, can you describe James's presentation in one word, because what's great for that is imagine putting 20 of those together, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, times 20. Right, and you have a great, great piece of video that you can use as Mark You can put it at the beginning of your demo reel. And then if you really want to make meaning cleaner, happy, add one or two questions in there about the event as a whole. And then give that to them as a gift in your post editing. You want to make an impression on a meeting planner, give them that gift afterwards.   James Taylor   Those are Grameen those are really fantastic and actionable things. That I mean, anyone that's watching this just now can kind of go into that. I'm wondering, I know a lot in some of the written testimonials, like one of the best testimonials you can get is when a client is able to say, we put into practice what Jill said and it increased our revenues by x or improved retention by y. How can you use video to get those because often you won't necessarily have that, that feedback until a little bit later on. Or maybe they'll write to you or you'll reach out to them say, Hey, how are you getting on with that? And they'll they'll email back Oh, getting with a sales rep by this amount. How can you then ask that potential client or that previous client to give you something in return? Video form.   Jill Schiefelbein  You know what's really interesting about that is if you got video of them initially right, and then you were following up with them after the fact, then you just add that as a text layer annotation on top of the video, right? So it's still coming from the person, you have the right to say it. You can, of course, ask them if they're willing to record a video interview testimonial, but that's hard. Like that's really, really difficult. But what you can do is if you can mutually come with them and do an interview, much like we're doing now, right, where you actually interview them about how your stuff is working in their context. Of course, that's not how you frame it. Right? Like, so let's say your topic is leadership. Right? So James, I would like to, you know, interview you about strategies for high impact leaders. Right, and then you ask them questions that you know, they learned from you, and you're getting that stuff back in the interview, and then it serves two purposes, right. It's a testimony to your work, but it's also great value that you can add to your community.   James Taylor   That's great. That's a really useful thing. I think people are really Pay attention to that, because that's something you can start using straightaway as well. So let's kind of switch a little bit more to you. I mean, you're built up this this career as a speaker. I'm wondering when it comes to let's talk about the craft part first. And whether when you were starting to develop was there was a particular lightbulb moment for you as a speaker where you can thought, Okay, this is what this is how I need to be thinking about the crafting of my keynotes, or is this something you maybe heard from another speaker and you went, Oh, okay, I understand now I need to really implement this in in how I design my keynotes and present my keynotes.   Jill Schiefelbein So when I think of myself as a speaker, I do I would say more breakouts than keynotes what may be different about me than others and some people are following this models. I don't care what type of speak speech I'm doing. It's the same price like I have a half day right and I have a full day rate you get me there and I will rock anything out of the park. Whether you want me to do a keynote and a breakout, or a keynote and three breakouts. I don't really care if it's 100 They are full day. It's one rate on there and I deliver that value. I end up doing a lot more breakouts and keynotes and I'm okay with that. Because I do not feel that my strength is in the huge, eloquent storytelling.   James Taylor   There's differences. Someone who hasn't made me this was new to speaking. And they've heard keynote, they haven't really heard that breakout. What's the difference between those two types of ways of speaking,   Jill Schiefelbein  a keynote is typically mainstage. You're in front of being higher conference and your keynote delivers one key note, right, like one key idea, one key experience for the attendees, whereas a breakout, maybe the workshops, right that people go into, they break out into different rooms afterward. And depending on the conference, I mean, I've had breakouts that have been 1000 people which are bigger than a lot of conferences, keynotes are right, it just depends at the conference. But you typically in a breakout or a workshop, you expect a lot more content and you expect a little more entertainment out of a keynote. And that's that's general now this is evolving. There are no hard and fast rules. And when people ask me to do a keynote, I am very clear like, I am a content. Heavy speaker. I think I add humor. I think I add stories. But I am not going to entertain and your audience isn't going to be rolling, laughing. They won't walk away, like inspire necessarily either. But they will walk away with things that they can put into action immediately that will make tangible results in their business. And if that's what you're looking for, I'm very clear on the value that I bring. And I have those conversations with people. That's not everyone's style, right? But that's where I know I can shine. The other thing is for me, once I embraced that I didn't have to follow any certain keynote format that I could create my own and it worked for me. It was so much better, because you try to model after what people have done that successful right? But I am never going to be a comedian. As much as I like to think my humor is great. It's kind of sarcastic and dry and not ever One always gets it. So I just need to own what I'm good at. So if I go up, and I set the audience's expectation, and that's the second thing I've learned is not to fall into anyone else's mold be my own. But then to set the audience expectations, expectations for listening, that the beginning of a keynote, I say, you know, today, I am here to make sure that you walk away with a single idea that is going to change how you fundamentally communicate with your customers in a way that will get them to refer you more business, or in a way that will have them using your product more frequently, or whatever the end goal may be that the meeting planner, and I agree on, if I am crystal clear with that at the beginning, and I'll accept back and say, well, in fact, I hope I leave you with many more than one. But all I'm asking you for is this. If you sit with me for the next 30 minutes and you walk away with one thing that you promised to implement, I can guarantee you that this will be an incredibly valuable use of your time, right. So you set the stage for what you want them to do. Because if they're just sitting there trying to scratch down notes, they're not going to implement anything. But the whole time that they can listen to me and know one thing that they're going to take away, then that's going to be more valuable for them in the end. And what's great as a speaker is, then once they implement that, and it's successful, they're going to realize, Wow, we need to follow up with her, maybe bring her in to talk about some of those other things because that one we focused on really wrong. And   James Taylor   I think it's an interesting thing about you know, because we talk about these different types, keynotes breakout, what I've seen is the keynote ones bringing many more the elements of what you would think of as a breakout. I think what I'm good friend of mine is a great speaker on similar topic, I speak on creativity and she speaks on creativity as well. And she is an amazing she comes from the world of training. So initially, she you know, you would have thought that she would the natural place vertigo would be a bit more of a breakout speaker but she said Actually, no, because I because I have big ideas but the same time the way I'm going to deliver them is very actionable thing. I want to be very interactive with the audience. And if you're like that The good news is that's the way that events are going. Because, you know, I think, vast majority that even the keynotes I do now I when I'm asking like what kind of blend you want between entertainment, you know, and the kind of content heavy and all we want lots of interaction, we want to and that was never traditionally the way for for keynote. And so I think if you are that person that you really like to do more of the kind of almost a little bit more of the training the you think about more than the kind of breakout style. That's not assuming that that's not going to work for keynotes because it seems to be that's where the that's where the direction of movement is kind of going for a lot of keynotes, obviously, you still get the celebrity stars and, and all those kind of people and you still get those incredibly inspiring people that you just come away with that one idea and it's a really powerful idea. But maybe that's not necessarily the the majority I would say well what's now being asked to as a keynote speaker now   Jill Schiefelbein  Yeah, I think the beauty of it is is now that we are expected So many different types of speakers and speeches and outcomes. meeting planners are looking for diversity in their attendees experiences, right? I mean, if you had motivational speaker after motivational speaker after motivational speaker, it's like, I'm motivated already Now give me something to do with it. I, I can only sit there and be like, Yay for so long and, and I'm not making fun of those speakers or speeches whatsoever because they all serve a purpose that I am not capable of serving in an audience like we all blend together. But I think the real thing is, is if I had advice to anyone, whether you want to be the traditional keynote, the motivational, inspirational, the content, heavy, whatever it is, really, really get clear on your area of expertise and obsess over it. I know too many people starting out and I did this starting out. Hey, Gil, we trust you with this. Can you also speak on leadership? No, I'm not a leadership expert. Now. Am I an expert in how leaders can communicate for this type of result? Yes. But instead I would say sure I can speak on leadership and then try to spend all this time crap. To talk around something where, you know what I can't quote studies, statistics research, I can't quote a lot of things. You know, and I can't say it from my personal experience. So really focus in on that area and just own it as much as you can and know when it's best to say, you know what, no, I can't speak on that. Here's what I could speak on in that realm. Or I can refer you to someone who can.   James Taylor   And that last bit the referring I mean, that seems to be the largest part of a lot of people speakers have their business comes into them as being referred either by someone that attended the event or by buying other speakers. Well, so I guess that then gives you an opportunity if I mean, I get asked to speak a lot about innovation. I'm not really an innovation speaker. I speak about creativity, but I know amazing innovation speakers, I usually can say if you want more of an innovation, this is the person here to to kind of go with as well. And I'm guessing then by having that, I mean quite defined as to what you speak about and putting out to your fellow speakers what you speak about as well. There's there's more options for for kind of reform. referrals as well, which kind of brings me to the, the business side. So you've, you've built up this business. I mean, there's so much opportunity out there especially you mentioned the, you know that they kind of break out say every conference you go to, they'll have maybe they'll have opening and closing keynote, maybe the keynote by the CEO. And then you'll have 20 plus maybe breakout sessions. There's lots of opportunity. How do you decide what to pursue? How do you kind of like put some way of if you're just getting into that world of speaking, you say, I want to be that kind of speaker to speak and the more they can a breakout session? How do you start to narrow down the target clients? Do you want to speak focuses? It's gonna sofa whelming?   Jill Schiefelbein  It is. I mean, the question is, who can you serve? Best? Right, who can you serve best? One of the things that I rallied against when I started my business, because I came from the academic space, because I didn't want to work in that space, because I left it right. But in reality, because I was in it. My unique perspectives of being in it were very different than anyone who would come in from it not having experienced it like, Well, yeah, that may work, but they don't understand what it's like here. Well, no, I actually do understand what it's like, there I lived it. And so a lot of times we escape one job or profession and run away from it, when in essence, that could actually be the best audience that we serve. So don't count that out immediately. Don't make the mistake I did I actually do more, not more now than I used to that because that's an obvious statement. But I do, I would say maybe 15 to 20% of my business every year comes from higher ed in some way, shape, or form. Wow. And that's, to me, that's really interesting. And it's now it's manifested in different ways. Because once you get I was online education and helping faculty be more innovative, and then it turned into talking to administrators about how to retain people like me who have left and it became fascinating now it's not like I have this huge market in this. I don't advertise it. That's All word of mouth but it was a case in point that that's where my network was built up already. So why did I not first look in my existing network? And it's because I was trying to run away from it so unless you really hate the space that you're in before you start don't make the same mistake I did you know look internally first your existing connections   James Taylor   that's great advice. What about in your you're heading out to your next speaking engagement what is in your speaker bag? What is in that bag of things you never leave the office or home without to take with you to your next speaking engagement? Well,   Jill Schiefelbein  you know, my laptop the adapters for projectors, power cords, all of that stuff. And for me, it's two different things. And I actually have show and tell because show and tell is fun. I love live streaming on the live stream hosts for Entrepreneur Magazine, in the US and globally. And I you know, that's one of the fun things I get to do in my random world of events, but I always look for opportunity for video. If I'm going to look for opportunities for video, I don't want to have acid, I want it to actually be decent quality. It doesn't mean the production value has to be high. But there are two things and video aside from the content, obviously, that are important. People will forgive poor lighting, they will not forgive poor audio. Yeah. And so you really need to focus on the audio, then make sure the lighting is good. And then of course, rock the content, right. But if your content is amazing, and your audio is crap, people are not going to listen. So you really need to focus on it. So I travel with two things. This handheld mic. It's an iRig HD, and it's actually for iPhone, it goes straight into the lightning port out of there. It's amazing. So if I'm going to do interviews, that's my favorite one because it transitions back and forth really nicely. I mean, I've done interviews with this on top of Time Square where the giant ball is right before New Year's when it's really windy. And this worked beautifully, no audio issues whatsoever. The other one that I do if I'm doing either just one person interviews or I want to do commentary This is the best investment I ever made. And at first you're like $200 for a mic, why would you spend that sit best? The sun Sennheiser and it's a clip on lavalier mic again for iPhone, it goes right to the lightning port. If anyone wants to see my whole list of tools, if you go to bi t.ly forward slash my video tools, you can actually see a whole list with pictures and links and a video of me describing each and every tool that I bring. And then I also bring a mini tripod with me everywhere because there is no excuse for holding up and doing video like this. And unless it's one of those split second I have to do this now and capture at moments or it will never exist again. If you have 30 seconds to spare. You have time to set up a tripod and make it stable and I'm talking a mini one that fits in your pocket.   James Taylor   I'm just lost Mike you've got where that can be really powerful for is. I've made a mistake in early videoing of me on stage and then you can put a fixed camera at the back you know little camcorder or something and the video looks absolutely Fine, but it's using the audio from that camera, which is the opposite end of the room and I'm like, oh, how can I How can I get the audio for where I'm actually that and I started going to take my iPhone and and stick it close the front of the stage and all these kind of things and that wasn't very good. So that's then you can just put that on, on your, on your lapel, whatever. And just put that into your into your pocket it can be recording that really good audio which you can sync up with the with the video   Jill Schiefelbein  it could and if you are a person who just heard all that and it's like, well that's a lot of work and I don't have the money to hire someone because I'm early on in this game. What you can do is invest in this. I'm just full of cool tools is called the Hey Mike. It is the world's first Bluetooth mic. And you open it up and it's this little clip on thing right here and you can also make it with a magnet. It's really cool. And it clips on and I think it has a range of like 50 feets you could actually have your phone back. It has an app so you have to record through the app. But then you have the audio and video synced in one So you have no editing to do afterwards. And this is also on the link I gave him bi t.ly slash my videos.   James Taylor   Very cool. And I actually think on this summit we're going to have Julie Holmes is one of our speakers who is the founders event. She is a speaker. And I think she would you know, scratch your own itch sometimes when you create a product and and she was one of the CO creators of that product, I believe as well. And I haven't got it myself. I've heard amazing things from those speakers about it.   Jill Schiefelbein   Yeah, for me, and I mean, unbridled review here, if I'm just going to be in an enclosed environment or in a place where I can reach with my lavalier mic, the quality will be so much superior with the lavalier mic, and even though there's a cord attached, but if you're in a place where you need audio from a distance, there is no better alternative out there.   James Taylor   And what about other online resources or mobile apps or tools? Are there any that you find very useful for yourself as a speaker   Jill Schiefelbein Oh, for for quick video editing. If I want to do some very quick video editing in a form that could be used for Instagram or social media I use in shot it's ap IN sH o t, I really like it. It's simple. It's easy to use, it's very cheap. And it just makes editing things simple because sometimes you may be in a place or I may be in an event where I shoot a video, or maybe I uploaded, uploaded, Facebook Live, then I take that video and I can parse out whatever chunk I want and then put it into Instagram, do it all on my phone. And it makes it incredibly easy. It's good for when you're at the airports or on the shuttles or anything like that.   James Taylor   I've seen a lot of those Instagram videos, they show videos, I was wondering what people were using to be able to because they're really really good. I like that look as well. What about a book if you do recommend one book, it could be on speaking or it could be on on communication more broadly as well. What would that book be?   Jill Schiefelbein  In all seriousness, one of the best books I've read that helped change the game for me was by Alan Weiss, and it's called million dollar proposals. And he also has a book million dollar consulting if you want to get in this space, but million dollar proposals was so huge for me because I would no longer quote just as keynote, or just, you know, a one byte tip, I will always give a proposal that has multiple options, unless they are very clear, like, Hey, this is all we need you for it, right? So that will be it. But it really taught me how to frame proposals, how to look at them, and how to get way more money out of a single engagement. And it's worked. It's it's really worked. So if you're serious about doing this, and you want to find ways to extend your expertise from beyond the stage, you gotta get it.   James Taylor   That's a great recommendation. I think. I think I've read his consulting his consulting Bible, which is a fantastic book, and I know that he's be the guest speaker as well. So a final question for you. Let's imagine you had to start again, you woke up tomorrow morning, you've suddenly lost you don't have any context. No one knows you as a speaker, you know, no one, you have to restart. What would you do? How would you restart things?   Jill Schiefelbein  Number one, I would not stress about my brand at all, because a lot of people when they start like oh, I need a good business name and a slogan and all that No, no. You need a good product, and you need to hit the ground and get it out there. So free speech is free speech is free speech, whatever it is, but targeted right? Be smart about the audience's that you pick. Don't focus so much about the country more, if you will, of what's going on around your business, focus on your craft and your expertise. The rest of it, you can figure out or you can hire someone, once you figure it out the expertise, get clear on that. Number two is really get focused in on who you want to serve. And don't waste time doing social media blasts and random posts and everything if you're not clear on who you want to serve. Doing that makes us feel like we're doing something but it's really not strategic at all. It's really not. And if you get focused in on who you want to serve, you're going to be better off targeting and spending time calling them writing them reaching out to them on social now there's a way to use it right? Not just standard posts, but get really clear on that early on. And then number three is really know that there's not one right way to do this business. I guess there are legal things you have to do. But they're like, oh, you're a speaker and you don't have a book? Well, I know seven figure speakers who don't have a book, don't care to have a book. And that's never part of their game plan. I also know speakers who can't get booked who have 20 books. So it's really not about that it's really about what's going to work for you. But if you start with your expertise first and your craft, the rest will follow. Wonderful. I'm   James Taylor   interested to how does it feel we were together the the winter conference was a great conference, and Sylvie did used to and Ben will put that together. But I could see at the end, the sheer exhaustion or their faces are at the end. So I'm wondering for someone that has to being a speaker, so you used to speak on them, but then when going from the other side and actually putting on a big event and it's the biggest event probably in the speaker calendar, the professional speakers calendar. How is it How are you approaching it, how you feeling about It   Jill Schiefelbein  it's overwhelming. I mean, the sheer amount of work and volunteer hours that go into it, it's insane. But I know that for me in 2013, when I attended my first one of these events is influence. as cliche as it sounds, it's 100% true, it literally changed my life, I would not be in the position I'm in, I want to be living in New York City, having my own studio in midtown Manhattan, like, this would not be my life, if it weren't for the people I've met along the way, and what I've learned at that organization, so if you're just getting into this, come, it is worth the investment. You'll spend about $3,000, after travel hotel and the registration, but if you if you're a person who actually follows through and takes action on things, which I hope you are, if you are that person, you will make that back within your first month after attending influence. I mean, and if you don't make it back in the year, at least 10 to 20 fold, then you're I mean, in my opinion, you're not implementing enough because it's it's it's just so overwhelmingly amazing and then you meet cool people And what   James Taylor   if someone is listening to this just now watching this and there may be a speaker and the they're getting asked Oh, we're looking for the speakers I think Joshi be a great speaker, what's the best way for them to connect with you find out more about the kind of programs that you offer.   Jill Schiefelbein Oh, well, thanks for that. I'm everyone on social at dynamic Jill My last name is a pain in the butt. So just dynamic Jill to keep it simple, but you can also visit my website at the dynamic communicator.com and I'm Jill at the dynamic communicator.com and I'd be happy to answer any questions.   James Taylor   Well Joe, thank you so much for coming on today. I'm I'm definitely gonna be filming my testimonial videos totally definitely. Now after speaking to us thank you for for sharing that and I wish you all the best in creating influence is going to be an amazing event. I know so many of my friends are going to go so. So I wish you all the best for that event.   Jill Schiefelbein  Thank you so much for having me, James. I'm happy to be a part of your event here.   James Taylor  Today's episode was sponsored by speakers you the online community for speakers and if you're serious about your speaking career then you can join us because you membership program. I'll speak as you members receive private one on one coaching with me hundreds of hours of training content access to a global community to help them launch and build a profitable business around their speaking message and expertise. So just head over to SpeakersU.com to learn more. Website: The Dynamic Communicator More of Jill Schiefelbein Learn More About SpeakersU

James teaches us at least three points in this text. 1. Be Patient (v. 7- 8) - Patience carries the idea long-suffering, and having a tranquil spirit while waiting. A lack of patience often leads to a situation worse or it strains the relationship that you are in. So James gives us a clear command: “Be patient and wait on the LORD.” 2. Complain Less and Love More (v. 9) - Don’t become Dr. Complains-a-lot. Instead, be like Paul and find contentment in Christ through every life situation. 3. Be The Change (v. 10) - Be the example of contentment by not complaining. Follow the example of Jesus Christ.

James said that when our hearts long for the things of this world, then our actions explode into quarreling and fighting. Our heart’s desires manifest themselves in what we do. So James calls us to humble ourselves by drawing near to God with repentant hearts and repentant hands.

Chad ColeySeries in James / Faith That WorksSaving FaithJames 2:20-2614 June 2020James makes the point that faith without works doesn't work. Mere profession of faith is not indicative of possession of saving faith. So James’ first exhortation is to recognise useless belief.

James:  Hey, audience, and listeners this is James Kandasamy with Achieve Wealth Through Value Add Real Estate Investing podcast. Today I have an awesome guest and we're going to be flying very high with this guest. His name is Lane Beene; Lane is an F16 pilot who has been doing multifamily syndication and recently has been doing development. He owns almost 700 units in DFW area and also there's another, like out of that, another 200 plus units in the Longview, Texas which is a tertiary market. So we're going to go a bit more detailed into that as well. He has been recently working on a hot development project near Austin almost 300 units with a $15 million equity raise and a total valuation of the project of almost $52 million. Hey Lane, welcome to the show. Lane: Thank you so much, James, for having me on the show this afternoon, I'm excited to share with your audience and share with other up and coming real estate investors on what I've learned so that they can become a better millionaire and they can get to their financial goals safer and more quickly than I was able to do. James: Yeah. Yeah. We always want to share. I mean, real estate investors are really interesting people. This is one profession where people like to share how they come up in their business. I'm not sure why or maybe we are just within the circle of people who like to share. Maybe there are a lot of people who don't share but in general, I've seen like a lot of my friends in my circle we like to share, and we have all these podcasts, which gives all that information. So it's very, very, very interesting just investment asset class. So tell me about; you are doing, I mean F16 is for me from I can see from the ground, it flies very fast. It's super sophisticated. Do you know the rough estimate of a cost of a F16? Lane: It's a lot; we'll see syndication for sure. James: Does it go to billions or still in the millions? Lane: Me and you and our whole network of investors would probably have to get a good debt, we would have to get a good financing to make it right. I think James, I think that the basic model is right around $40 million and then the the luxury apartment F16 is probably $45 million or more so that's for one and you've got to have about 24 units of that. So 24, times 30 is a pretty big tax liability. So that's kind of what it is. James: So to fly a plane, I presume to fly a plane, I wouldn't say simple. I mean, it's already complicated; to apply an F16 must be more complicated and so like in general, how many knobs do you have to turn to make it fly? How many controls do you have? Lane: Tough question there to answer James... James: Or is it all automatic? Lane: But I'd say it's like this, imagine you're doing brain surgery while you're juggling four bowling pins. That's sometimes what it's like and then other times it's like, imagine watching your kid play the violin at a recital, it's so boring and you're just trying to keep yourself awake. Then other times it's almost impossible brain surgery while juggling bowling pins. So between those two extremes, the number of buttons and the number of switches and the number of displays you have to watch varies greatly. James: You are still flying right now. I mean, you're not a retired person, you're still flying. I mean, is it because you enjoy it flying? Lane: James, I've got the best job ever. And flying is like riding, and some of your audience I know is going to love this and some will probably will hate it, but it's like riding a roller coaster with no rails. I grew up in Fort worth in North Texas, and there's a big amusement park here in the area where I live and it's called six flags and I know a lot of people have probably been to six flags before, but I remember as a kid, when I was in the seventh or eighth grade there was a roller coaster that we would ride and it took four or five minutes to ride and then they'd let you off. On certain times of the summer, when it was like a day week there was no line. So you could sprint from the exit back around through the line and then get back in line and it would take you about two minutes to race from the exit of the roller coaster back to the end and I think I rode it 42 times without not stopping. It's so much fun. James: That's very interesting analogy. Lane: So now flying an F16 is like an adult roller coaster, but there are no rails and there is no line.  James: And it can fly because no one is up there. I mean, you probably have some, you say it's a wide sky and open sky and you can fly, it's very interesting. Throughout your career, I mean, throughout your life, you became an F16 pilot, at what point did this aha moment of the real estate come in at what point from real estate to multifamily came in? Lane: James, that's a great question. Here is a short story or a short answer to a very long story. I was in the air force and I was in our squadron lounge drinking coffee on September 11th and somebody said, well, is an accident. And we went in to watch television and there was; that was when the first aircraft hit the world trade centers and then not too long after that, the second aircraft hit the world trade centers. I remember thinking what was going on here? No one really knew at the time and one of the senior pilots that was a pilot for American Airlines was right beside me and he said, that's it and I looked at him and I said, what do you mean that's it? And he said, the economy, the airlines, the travel industry is over. James: I mean, even after the first plane hit? Lane: Almost immediately and I think it was 10:30 here and about 11 o'clock he said, that's it. And I said, well, what do you mean that's it? That's not it because maybe you don't understand, but Lane Bean is going to become a commercial airline pilot and make a half million dollars in work one time a year. So you can't just stop that. That was my goal. And he's like, no, that's it and sure enough, that was, the economy changed forever. So I went into a period of what I was trying to do was totally gone. I was going to be, my career was going to transition from the air force pilot to commercial aviation, to be an American Airlines, Delta pilot, or United pilot that didn't work out because for the next 10 years, those companies stopped hiring pilots. So I went into a tailspin thinking, what am I going to do now? So what I did was I was always very interested in making repairs. I liked doing house, I liked doing carpentry work, working with wood, working with my projects on my own house and improving them. So in my neighborhood, and this is right around 2000, so 20 years ago; and so in my neighborhood, there was a vacant house that had been vacant for six or eight months and I thought, well, if I can improve my own house and make it better, why don't I try to buy this one and rent it out and make it better? And so I did.  After learning that process, I thought, well, this isn't that hard, bought another one, bought another one, bought another one, bought another one, bought another one and eventually I had 10 single family properties buy, rent, renovate, improve it and then hold it. But then 2008 came where you could no longer continually advantageously finance these houses because I had too many. and they said, well, now you have to either one, put a very large, you can't get favorable financing on single families at this rate, or you have to go to commercial and so that's when I went and transitioned to commercial, which is for your audience. I know they know, but that is multifamily, five plus units and that's what started my career in multifamily.  James: Very interesting because I did the same, I went up like 10 properties and I bought one more 11 and I was thinking, I have to go to commercial loan because they didn't want to do it and that's where I have to jump the multifamily. Because he just very hard to do a single families in terms of scaling up and all that. So cool. I mean, and how did you build up this 700 units in DFW and Longview? Can you quickly tell us what's your timeline in terms of moving from 10 single families, what was your first purchase in multifamily and going to 700? Lane: Some really great lessons here to share with your audience if they are in the process of maybe operating or syndicating their own deals. I had this mentality and I was pretty good at single family, I had 10 of them and they were all doing really well and I didn't need to sell them or anything, but I had the attitude of DIY because as a single family operator, you have to DIY, do it yourself. That's what you have to do because there's just not that much revenue to hire professionals; you can, but it's more difficult. I took this attitude of DIY, I'm going to find it, find a multifamily property. I'm going to finance it myself, or very little of partners. I'm going to acquire it. I'm going to manage it myself. And let me tell you for everybody listening, listen very carefully to what I'm about to say, DIY doesn't work in multifamily. You have to partner with a good team.  Now, the question you asked me was not DIY, the question you asked me was how did I get started on my timeline? I'm mentioning that I had a do it yourself mentality and I took that mentality into multifamily syndication or operations for two straight years. It was a complete discouragement because I had no results or progress whatsoever because I wasn't reaching out to other professionals and utilizing their skill sets. I was trying to develop my own skillset. And so for two years, I made no progress whatsoever. Then I finally learned that in the multifamily community, because the projects are bigger, you have to develop a team. Once I developed that team, I was able to accelerate and get properties and acquire assets and manage them correctly and safe and securely much more quickly and much more efficiently and productive. So that's the timeline. Two years of complete strikeout, and then starting at month 24, when I changed and stopped trying to do it myself and started trying to partner with other professionals and experts in the field, my results sky rocketed. James: What was the first person that you think was the team member that you wanted and who the other person that you think is the most crucial team member? Lane: Somebody just like James or somebody, that's has Achieved Investment coaching. Somebody that can hold your hand or can just be there to help you. I tell this to everybody, I say, when you hire someone smarter than you, you show that you're smarter than them. And so my advice is not to egotistically brag, is to surround yourself with very smart people and the very first person you need is a coach or a mentor or an advisor that's already successfully walked that path. They don't have to be a hundred years of experience, but they need to have some experience where they can say, hey, Lane, James, hey, don't do that. I would recommend you direct your efforts here. Let me connect you with my friend who is a broker, let me connect you with my friend who's a commercial insurance specialist. And then that's how you start building these networks. That's how you build your team. But the answer to your question clearly is find an advisor or coach or mentor or partner that has experience. That's who I would put on my team first.  James: It's very surprising, not say surprising, it's sometimes when you are coming from a different world, like you came from the airline industry and I'm sure it's a very complicated world. I came from being an engineer and it's complicated world, but we are all within our own world. Sometimes we think this is the world. This is how everybody should be reacting. This is the best that everyone can do. But suddenly when you go out of your network and meet another person, which come from completely different circle and you start talking to them and they tell you things that you have never heard before, then you realize, okay, your circle is too small. So, I think that's very important for you to go and listen to other people who are, as you say, that was smarter, who has done it is very important because people who have more than thousand units for them buying 50 units is not a big deal. They already done it, they can tell you all the shortcuts and commercial is no joke. It's not like single family. You can make mistake and get away with it, commercial is multi-million dollar deals. If you're syndicating it's worst because now you have a lot of passive investors money in it too. You don't want to make mistakes.  So you're absolutely right, just find people who are willing to share as we start in this podcast in the beginning, real estate is an area of investment where people are willing to share. If you go to biggerpockets.com, you open a free account and you ask one question, that's like a hundred people answering you. So can you do that in stocks? I mean, first of all, stocks is very hard to do because you don't have control itself. No one knows what's happening in the management. If Elon Musk smokes weed then the share goes down. You can't ask question, will the price go down if Elon Musk smokes weed. No one knows. . But in real estate you can be more predictable. Same thing with bonds. I mean, it's an investment asset class, but not many people knows about it. For me, it's very highly  secretive investment method. It sounds very simple, but it's a much bigger than that, bonds is huge. I mean, even same thing with Bitcoin and crypto, all that is you buy by chance. You do not know what's happening behind it. They say there's some server running behind it and all that, but real estate is like, you can make sense out of it. I say, there's a lot of people who are willing to share for free. Go to Facebook groups, go to meet ups.  The problem I see is people really do not want to take action to do it. So that's good. It's very interesting on how did you find out and how did you move towards that stage and you have 700 units right now and you're going to tell them, but before we go into development and the details of that. So you own three or 500 units, maybe four to 500 units in DFW area, which is a major core city, it a business hub, it's a city by itself and you have like 242 units in Longview, Texas. So that's more of a tertiary market. Can you describe, why did you invest in a tertiary market compared to currently focusing on DFW and what are the differences you see between this primary market and the tertiary market, or I mean the city market and the tertiary market? Lane: Well, for your audience, James, I know they're looking probably in different States and areas and regions and you have a national representation and so market selection, I have a four pillar funnel and I call these the four principles of real estate investing. This funnel real quickly is the very first one is strategy; so you have to have a clearly defined strategy. The second is a team; you have to have a professional team. The third of funnel and this is sequential, is market selection. Then the fourth is property identification or criteria. A lot of people revert or invert that funnel and they begin to immediately look at property and then they maybe jumped to strategy and then they jump around and I believe that's wrong way. I believe you have to start in the order and the sequence that I talked about. So before I ever looked at any property, whether it's a good or bad property, or how big or small it is, you want to make sure you evaluate the market. So what you asked me was, you said, why would you want to go to a secondary or tertiary market or non-primary market? Why is that better or worse or advantageous or disadvantageous?  The reason is because in the area where I invest and I'm familiar with the primary markets were getting overheated, and what do I mean by that? They were being priced to perfection. In other words, they were being priced so highly, there was no margin for error, or there was no attraction in the return because the markets and the amount of money that was going into these was driving the competition to the point where it had to literally be perfect. And the pricing was priced to perfection is what I turned to termed it. There was really very little return to be had in this market with any level of risk mitigation. In other words, if the rents didn't just accelerate like a rocket ship, you weren't going to be able to make the return that you expected; or if expenses didn't flat line like you want them to, or taxes or insurance went up, which it did substantially then your perfect pricing model was in jeopardy. That is exactly what you are seeing now in the primary markets, because expenses have continued to rise, but because of COVID the revenues and the revenue increase has flat lined. So a lot of these assets that are in primary markets that has suffered from perfect pricing, they're going to be in trouble because they will not make their rent growth projections. So the answer to your question, let me summarize in ten seconds is this, the secondary markets and the tertiary markets have not suffered as greatly from what I coin perfect pricing as the primary markets have in Texas. James: Oh, okay. That's interesting because I didn't talk to anyone recently about tertiary market and secondary market and how is it? What you're seeing is that market seems to be performing better compared to the primary market, because primary market is basically everybody overpaid, I guess, because it's just so much competition and the brokers are more advanced and there are so many betas and best and final, and you end up paying the highest price end of the day and you're right, you're basically depending on around growth and usually the County are more aggressive as well in terms of a tax appraisals. So, okay, very interesting. Very interesting. So let's go; I can't hear you Lane. Lane: I would add to that. So you do have to understand though, there are differences in the secondary market and there are differences in the tertiary market and that's why I said first strategy, because you may not be able to execute the same strategy in the Austin downtown area that you would execute in the outer lying areas of Austin, even though it's the same market, the sub-market may be different. So it's just important that you understand and remember I said that funnel, or the four pillars have a strategy,  have a team that can execute the strategy and then identify what market would be the best or sub-market and then at the very end of that notice, that's when I said project specific. This is a 1985, 200 units, garden style but I've already answered the top three questions and that's given me an 80% green light, yellow light or red light. If it's red, don't even worry about looking there for projects and if it's yellow, that's where you may have a little bit of consulting with your coach or consulting with your advisor, mentor. Should I pursue this, is the opportunity right? And in the East Texas market, the one that you're describing, we found a yellow light with a good project, and we were able to execute correctly. James: So is turning around a multifamily investment deal more complicated than F16? The more complicated part of the F16 or...? Lane: The real estate part is easy but the personal part is harder. James: Okay. Okay. Got it. Got it. Got it. So let's go to your development. So why did you start, I mean, after you have this 700 units you started working on this 300 units development in Austin, mainly Austin. So why did you take that decision and can you walk or the rational?  Lane: Sure. And so James, your audience is listening today for one primary reason, as we span back and ask, what value can I add to your audience? What value can you add? Why are they really listening? I believe that most of them would say we're listening because we want to use the vehicle of multifamily real estate to reach our financial goals. And so the underlying question is I want to become, I want to reach my financial goals, that's pretty much what people want to do. They want to do that and then they feel like multifamily investing or working with James and his group is going to be the best, safest way. So I believe that's what everybody is trying to do. I feel the same way. So the very first thing is, like I already mentioned strategy and as we were looking in 2018 and mispricing to execute our strategy became so thin that we realized, I don't think I can really do this strategy anymore because I can't find a good acquisition price that gives me enough margin for error and at the same time an attractive investment that I can execute a value add strategy, which was what I was trying to do. We looked at at about that same time, the tax incentive job tax bill of 2017 came out and it really advantaged redeployment or recapitalization of capital gains and that was the opportunity. It created opportunity zones.  So if you were to reinvest capital gains into an opportunity zone project, it was extremely tax advantaged. And so we looked and we thought, boy, this is a great idea. It's kind of like a super 1031 exchange for your investors or your audience that don't know about that and I can explain that more detail if you'd like, but I said, let's look at all the opportunities zones and how can we pair opportunities on investment projects with what we do multifamily investing real estate and put those two things together because the two principles of key worth of building net worth are this one efficiently place your capital in a cash producing asset. So I'll say that again, because this is important to hear, efficiently place capital in a cash producing asset. Number two principle is execute that transaction in a tax advantaged event, if possible. So how could we do those together, development project with an opportunity zone? It's a one, two punch for success. James: So opportunity zone is crazy. I mean, I did cover opportunity zone with Scott Hendricks maybe three to four months ago, which is fascinating on how much a tax advantage that they would get. Did you get people trying to do a 10, I mean, not 1031, trying to move the capital gain from real estate only, or was it from stocks as well? Lane: Most of the people were already associated with real estate investing. And so it was an easy transition for them. However, that is not necessarily a requirement of opportunity zone. When you 1031 exchange, which I know your audience is familiar with, that's a like kind exchange. So real estate for real estate, business equipment for business equipment, you cannot sell your tractor at the farm and invest in real estate. You can't sell your art collection with a capital gain and invest that money into real estate. However, opportunities zones not required, it's a capital gain. So you can still Google stock at a capital gain, reinvest that capital gain into an opportunity zone and have tremendous tax advantages. James: Yeah, it's very interesting. So let's talk about how did you select this 300 unit development place. I mean, can you walk us through what was the process? So you decided I wanted to development, I want to do opportunity zone development. So how did you choose this side or did you look at nationwide and how did you come to this particular 300 unit site development? Lane: Yeah. So, James, again, what you're asking me is how do you select market? What adds value to a real estate market? And that's number three. I mean, that's one of the very first things you want to be able to identify. So there are three things, in my opinion, that establish consistent value in a real estate market. Number one, is demographic changes; are more people moving into that area or are more people moving out? An example, California, as you've read and you may be familiar with more than I am, a lot of people are exiting California because of taxes and other things, job loss and other areas. There are other parts of the country where they're experiencing an out migration of population. So that's a long established trend that doesn't happen overnight. It doesn't happen by this afternoon. That's a trend that is established over a long period of time. Some markets are having an inflow of people moving to the area. So we can get into all detailed analysis and data. But let me tell you this one example that anybody can understand, and this example last year had 21 million data points, 21 million. So that's a pretty big number. It's the number one way U-haul rentals. What city in the United States has the number one, is the top choice of one way rentals to this city, Houston, Texas and that area around that. So more people are moving to Houston, Texas, or that area around Texas, wherever than any other place in the country, according to U-haul truck rentals.  So the number one thing is demographics. Where are people moving? That's going to create a demand for housing, number two, job growth. Where are the jobs being developed? A lot of jobs are being lost in areas and in cities and in governments that are not favorable for government or job growth. California's one of them, high taxes, a lot of government regulation in Texas, low taxes and very favorable job regulations. So number two, job growth. Then number three is the supply and demand of housing in any one market or sub market. So those three things are the way I chose the market. I looked at the entire map of opportunity zone areas and they are identified by census tracks and then I said of all of these areas, which one has the most favorable of those three conditions and it's the Texas triangle, it's North, Texas, South westbound San Antonio and then eastbound to Houston and then back to North. So that triangle, or what I refer to as a Texas triangle, that area contains 85% of the Texas population and it contains the majority of jobs and anything invested in that area as all those three things that I've mentioned. James: Yeah. I mean, for the audience, if you guys want to know about what Lane is talking about, just Google, Texaplex there is a documentary which shows the Texas triangle and how much growth is happening in this triangle. I mean, if you look at when Texas had 50% of the job growth from 2009 to 2000 at that time I was 15,19, 18 by now. So job growth after the last crash happened in Texas. I think Texas is going to continue to grow, even though now we're in Covid and it's just so favorable. If you look at everywhere that Covid has affected, nothing is wrong with where it is being affected, it's just there is are some vulnerability to that market and Texas is one of the first state to open up. So we open up, we open for business.  So yeah, I mean that Texaplex area is really, really powerful. But how many sites did you see before choosing this one particular site in Austin? Lane: We looked at a lot, James and a lot of the opportunities zones, the federal government gave the authority to governors to say, here's the criteria you identify, whatever it is you want and a lot of those governors across the whole 50 States delegated that responsibility to state mayors or regional governor officials and some of them did a really good job of identifying areas that needed to redevelop and then some of them, I think, turn their homework in the last hour and they didn't do a very good job. So a lot of the opportunities zones that have been developed they don't have any financial or investment fundamentals that would make anybody want to invest there. So they're very challenged. A lot of the other ones were more creative in what they were trying to do, realizing that as you stimulate this one part of the city, the other parts of the city may benefit from that even though they may not be the most in need at this time and so we looked at a lot and we concluded that almost 80% were areas that had zero financial incentive or investment incentives. You just have to recognize that and then just move on. So we found ones that we had those three qualifying characteristics. James: So let's talk about the loan that you get in this development deal because I believe it's a hard loan. So tell us what the loan that you get in this double meaning, what are the advantages that you're seeing, or even a disadvantages that you've seen in this hard loan compared to your normal buying already built apartment complexes. Lane: So a development project has a lot more risk than just buying an existing project because if you buy an existing project and a management, the property management messes up, well, maybe you can fire them six months later and you can just rehire them in within a matter of month or two, they may be able to correct what was a problem and get you back on track. But if you hire a development where it is just dirt and they mess the foundation up, or they mess up something, they blow the budget. Six months later, you may have spent a whole lot of money and you have nothing to show for it. There is no income because there's nothing to rent. So it's a lot riskier and there's a lot more risk involved. Therefore the funding and the development costs, you're incurring a greater risk. Well, obviously the government recognizes the fact that we have to develop new housing for our growing population and we have to replace existing stock. The government through the HOD program, Housing Over Development has created some very financial terms and financing conditions to encourage guys like you, James, your audience members, and myself, to develop this new property, to meet the future needs of our country. The program that that we're under is called HUD221-D4. It's the development of new multifamily housing and it's the gold standard. It's the Cadillac of financing. We just closed our loan and it's a 40 year fully amortized loan fixed permanent and we got a 3.35% interest rate fixed for 40 years and it's permanent. So I'd never have to worry about it. So that's the advantage, the terms are almost impossible to beat.  James: What about the prepayment penalty?  Lane: So it's a 10 year prepayment penalty and this escalated down. So at 10 years it can be paid off, it's fully assumable and the the difficult part is it's just very difficult to get. There are a lot of qualifications for the sponsorship team, for the market, for the strategy for the project itself. There's a tremendous amount of oversight. And so it's very rigorous in that regard, but it has very, very advantageous benefits if it meets your strategy team, market and property and business model. James: So having, I think you're still in the early stage of development right? I don't think they even break ground yet, but would you do this again? Development compared to buying a deal that is reasonably priced, that's already building? Lane: Yes. And the reason that I would say yes to that, even though we're going to have two years of development, that is not cash flowing. The reason is because when you pair the right development opportunity with the tax advantages of an opportunity zone is what I call boom shakalaka. It's the one, two punch. So let me kind of give you some general ideas of the cost. Our project 320 units, we're building it at about the same price we can buy an existing class A project. So we're building and the price to purchase existing is roughly the same. Now in some markets that doesn't work because the cost to build is a lot more than the cost to buy. So you have to understand your financial model. Then now when I put that in, combine that with the opportunity zone tax benefits, we're expecting a three, or we're actually expecting a four X equity multiple. That means that for every dollar you give me at the end of this project, I'm going to give you back $4. So if you were to do that with an existing project that was not opportunities zone, you would pay a 20% capital gain on those $4 or whatever your tax bracket was. But for simplicity sake, let's say you were to pay 20%, this opportunity zone, if I give you back $4, you're cash is taxed $0. So immediately, without any appreciation or any change, the benefits of that appreciation have a 20% tax benefit because it's an opportunity zone. The opportunity zone does have requirements. You have to hold it 10 years and so the hold period is a little bit longer, but couple that with the right financing, which was a HOD221-D4, which is a 10 year hold, is the perfect match for our business model and it's the perfect financing structure for development project, with opportunity zone tax advantages. James: Also the loan, as you're talking before the show is like, you had it from beginning, from now until the end, until you own it for 40 years, there's no refinancing in between, you don't have a change loans at all? So very interesting.  Lane: That's correct and so the same that developers get, let's say you're a fantastic developer, and you're the best there is. And you develop a project and you say, hey, this project is going to take me three years to build and so I need a construction loan and you get a three year construction loan and you nail it, at the end of 24 months, you've perfected, you've been under budget. It's the perfect model. COVID happens, now the value of your construction and your development, you nailed it. But the market took a 20 or 30% decrease. Well, guess what? Your loan doesn't care. You have to pay this loan off in nine or seven or eight months. You just finished construction. Nobody's renting because of COVID-19, it's stay at home or that. And so that's how it developers go bankrupt. It's not that they necessarily blew their project. It's just the financing lined up with a horrible market condition that they may, I mean, who could have predicted that? No one, but there's going to be developers that are fantastic developers that unfortunately got wrapped up in a very unfavorable market condition. Our loan, we have 40 years to pay it off. So right now it's 2020. This loan does not come due until 2060. So we're going to be able to ride a couple of cycles out even if it does turn back cold.  James: Yeah, that's very interesting, because usually construction, that's the biggest risk once you're doing the beginning and you just start construction and suddenly the construction guy said, okay, everything frozen up, we are not giving you money. Or your LTV goes down. Now you bring more money. But in this case, your loan is different and couple that with the opportunities zone tax advantage. So did you have any normal investors who didn't want to take advantage of the opportunity zone tax advantage? Was there anyone who just invested in this who brought in cash rather than a capital gain or 1031 money into this? Lane: Absolutely. So James, I think, and again, this is so important to emphasize, the keys to building your net worth are number one, invest your money efficiently in a cash producing asset. Number two, if you can, make that transaction tax advantage event, there were investors who recognize the value of Austin, Texas, recognized the value of what we were doing. And they said, this is a good deal with or without the tax advantages. Real estate in general is very tax advantage and so there were plenty. In fact, probably half of our investors did not use the right type of capital that would benefit from opportunity zones. The other half did, and both halves, both sides are equally pleased with the project. The ones that didn't use the right capital they're still going to get a great return. They're just going to have to utilize the taxes in a slightly less advantageous way. James: Yeah, very interesting. So let's talk about yourself. I know the loan is 40 years from now, but I'm not, I don't know what's your plan with that, but where do you see you going from now? From F16 pilot, you're still flying and you're doing all this multifamily syndication, and now you're doing development, where do see you moving forward from here? Lane: Well, James, that's another great question. So you're asking a lot about my goals and I love real estate. I love to help other people and the reason that I love to do that is because this is my purpose and that's to help you, James, help James' audience to become a better millionaire. That's what really gets me charged up and why do I say that? Because you have a passion in your life, maybe it's real estate, maybe it's a hobby. Maybe it's your community. Maybe it's your church, whatever it is, your family, travel, whatever. That's great. But sometimes we're so engaged with our nine to five vocation that we can't spend our talents and our passions where we really desire. So the vehicle of real estate allows passive investment and it allows you the financial wherewithal so that you can hopefully break away from that employment and you can get more free time. So now you can spend your talents your times and your treasures, where you really get the most satisfaction. I hope that you use those for the altruistic good of mankind. Maybe it's the boy Scouts of America. Maybe it's your community. Maybe it's your church organization. Maybe it's your travel or other things.  But if you're working 50 to 60 to 70 hours a week, which a lot of us are out there doing, it's very difficult for you to have extra time, money or resources to really leave the impact or the influence that your life passion could. So you asked me a question and I wanted to back it up with that color, the ask, what gives me a kick? It gives me a kick when I can help James become a better millionaire or I can help James' audience become a better millionaire. The vehicle I'm going to drive us there, is multifamily investing and I'm driving the bus, get on the bus, let's become better millionaires and then when we get there, you get off the bus and you say, I'm going to do this. And I'm going to make the world better through my community involvement or through my, whatever your passion in life is.  James: So that's awesome. One question I have for you is, was there any moment in your life where you think that I was really proud of what I did in your real estate business? That moment you can never forget it until the end. Can you describe that moment? Lane: Well, there are certainly moments like that all the time. I'm very, I get a big charge out of real estate. I love to talk about it and I would say the, to answer your question, most clearly was one of my properties. The very first property I bought. I didn't know very much, and I didn't have a lot of the experience that I have now. And I was swinging, like I said, I had been doing real estate, single family for 10 years and then I transitioned to multifamily and I did, I was just killing myself with effort and I made no progress, zero results. And then finally somebody gave me some good advice. I went underneath the council of good counsel and I was able to acquire property, it was in my hometown here in Fort worth and it was a value add reposition of an actual vintage asset and we basically did a really nice job. I teamed with smart people, we executed a plan and that property, the very first property, this was a 25 unit property in Fort worth and it competed for property of the year for the apartment associate Tarrant County and won. This is a 25 unit property competing against all assets, less than built prior to 2000. And so that was 1500 properties in Taron County and it was number one and so I'm really proud of that fact. As much of it as this is lager or whatever you want to say [48:08inaudible]. James: No, no, no. I would never say it's a luck. I mean, when I won the property of the year for San Antonio, it was very surprising itself because I'm sure you went to this gala, the dinner gala, that apartment association have, where they have two, three tables of 10 people each from each company. Capstone, Greystone, all kinds of stone there and every time their people won the award they get a big clap and the whole room becomes very loud. I'm not sure what they do that in Fort worth, but in San Antonio, they did that. And when I won, it was surprising because I was the only one standing and going because it was a snowy day and no one else came and I'm not a big management company. But when we won, I was going alone. Did you have that same experience where you're walking alone where everybody's wondering, who is this guy? Lane: Well, like I said, the properties that were in competition, they were run by professionals and a long established, I mean, it was pretty much like a high school team beating the Dallas Cowboys. They were not expecting a 22 year old, 1965 property to win. And it was like I was Rudy from Notre Dame and so everybody gave me the golf clap and I'm sure that under their voice, they were like, who's this guy? James: Yeah. I know I had that. I had like a very quiet, everybody was quiet because they didn't know who's this guy, which company he is, which stone is this guy. But they clapped at the end, but it was like just some of proud moments that we have in our life. Where we able to beat all these big guys out there. This is not the IRO of the year award. This is property of the year. IRO of the year you compete within the IROs. It's not many IROs anyway, but property of the year you compete with all the big guns out there. All the class A's, all the top notch property management company, it just complete different. So awesome, Lane. So tell audience how to get hold of you. Lane: Yeah, I'd love to. And like I said, my goal and I get a charge out of helping other people invest and get better. I want you to get there faster and safer than I did. And if there's anything I can do to help you, James, or your audience, I love to help out. I love talking about this. It helps me when I talk about it with you and understand what your goals needs and desires are to sharpen my own skill and sharpen my own skull. I try to educate people and try to train people and I have basically, I link all of my videos and education series onto my Facebook and LinkedIn page. So you can find me on LinkedIn at Lane Beene, you can find me on Facebook, two places. One is pilot legacy private equity group and that's where we post all of our training and video education or you can also find me on my website page, which is pilot-legacy.com, or you can email me directly and talk to me about anything, like I said, I'd love to talk to and help you, James, or your audience or any market studies or anything I can do, certainly do that or you can email me the lane.beene@pilot-legacy.com. James: Awesome. All right. Thank you very much for coming on, I'm sure all of us obtained lot of value out of your knowledge and the discussion itself. Thank you. Lane: Thank you, James. And your audience. Good luck to you.

James 1:1-5 - Speaker: Steve Pettit - Isolation is a time of testing and temptation. We discover that we are more sinful than we thought and that we are not as spiritual as we thought. It’s a time of self-discovery! But we’re not the first Christians to experience social isolation. When James wrote his letter, he wrote to Christians in the dispersion, or spread out throughout the Roman empire. They too were isolated. So James opens his letter with some wisdom and instruction for all Christians in times of testing. May God give us hearts of wisdom during these times of testing.

James 1:1-5 - Speaker: Steve Pettit - Isolation is a time of testing and temptation. We discover that we are more sinful than we thought and that we are not as spiritual as we thought. It’s a time of self-discovery! But we’re not the first Christians to experience social isolation. When James wrote his letter, he wrote to Christians in the dispersion, or spread out throughout the Roman empire. They too were isolated. So James opens his letter with some wisdom and instruction for all Christians in times of testing. May God give us hearts of wisdom during these times of testing.

Guess who's back, back again ... James is back, so listen in! So James is officially back after a bit of a hiatus from the podcast, and on this episode him and Rafal sit down over a fun interview with Matt Lewis Research Director for the UK with NCC Group. Matt is the primary author on a report on "Smart Cities", and it's definitely something you should read. We talk about the report, discuss the true nature of a smart city and what it means to live in one. Pay particular attention to how difficult it was not to jump right into Die Hard 4 references... although we eventually broke down and did it anyway. Links Check out the NCC Group report on smart cities, right here: http://www.mynewsdesk.com/nccgroup/documents/ncc-group-a-blueprint-for-secure-smart-cities-whitepaper-95577  Guest Bio Matt Lewis is Research Director for the UK with NCC Group (https://www.nccgroup.trust/us/) – a security consultancy that has over 35 global offices, 2,000 employees and 15,000 clients. He’s worked in Cyber Security for over 18 years since his Computer Science academic studies, which focused on formal methods for system specification and design. Since then Matt has worked in various roles across Defence, Intelligence, Commercial and Big 4. He specializes in security consultancy, scenario-based penetration testing, vulnerability research and development of security testing tools and methodologies. His consultancy, testing and research experience spans multiple technologies across all sectors and many FTSE 100 and Forbes 2000 companies. He has vast experience in facilitating security assurance within the Government sector. Matt is a public speaker with global recognition of his knowledge and expertise in biometric security. He regularly presents at international conferences and seminars on all manner of cybersecurity-related topics.

Money is not something most pastors like to talk about. However, James is addressing something that is very practical in the lives of believers. Money is something we all desire, but it can also be so dangerous. So James gives some very strong warnings about the dangers. In this sermon, Pastor Kyle examines these dangers and then shows what we should do instead. You cannot serve both God and money, so you must choose which one will take priority. Sermon The post James 5:1-6 – The Danger of Wealth appeared first on Island Pond Baptist Church.

On Episode 58 of the "Law & Business" Podcast, Anthony sits down with James Kwon, the CEO and Executive Strategy Chef of Figmints, a digital marketing agency in Providence, Rhode Island. Figmints has cracked the code on creating, developing, and delivering the scalable, repeatable marketing, and sales models that create results, drive revenue, and keep its clients smiling. The conversation is about the Three Items Marketers Need to Know Now - right now, with the COVID pandemic hitting. Earlier, the podcast discussed why now is a perfect time for companies to continue to advertise - here are some thoughts on the strategy of how to advertise and market. A lightly-edited transcript follows: Anthony Verna: (00:02)All right, everyone. Welcome to the Law and Business podcast. With me is James Kwon from Figments. How are you doing James? James Kwon:I'm doing as well as I can be. Thanks, Anthony. Anthony Verna:You're feeling a little cabin fever lately? James Kwon:There's certainly the Groundhog Day scenario of repetition. I just had a great morning check-in huddle with the team and just reminding them to break the repetition and to stay sane. And that was my tip for this week. Anthony Verna:I think that's a very good, good tip for this week and I have to check in with my team as well. Our team is split between the East coast and the West coast. So I generally don't have like a one team phone call. James Kwon:That makes sense. Anthony Verna:Yeah. So James, tell us a little bit about yourself and a little about Figments as an agency. James Kwon: (00:58)Yeah, happy to. So, I run a digital marketing firm, full service digital firm called figments fig M I N T s.com. And, we do storytelling that actually proves revenue results. So start with brand storytelling, logo design, website design development, because of course we have to, but this last part where we're actually proving results for clients by setting up digital automation, content creation, thought leadership so we can drive traffic and see real results happen, and we actually do some of those calls on behalf of the client. So we're really trying to take as much of that funnel responsibility as possible. And I've been running an agency now for, it's our eighth year. We're about 20 full time employees. Since Figments I've started about nine companies so I'm a little bit of a serial entrepreneur. Have a little, some startups and some software companies and some subsidiaries.I just got invited to speak at Inbound. I’m not sure if you're familiar with it. Anthony Verna:I am certainly familiar. I'm certainly familiar with it. I mean, everybody listening is, sure. James Kwon:So Inbound, it's the largest marketing conference in the world. It's run by the software tool, HubSpot's, which is very fast growing. It's a hot stock to keep your eye on and just got invited to speak which is flattering. Anthony Verna:One particular question you certainly said that your agency helps with thought leadership, which is a buzzword, but I'm gonna have you break it down. What does thought leadership exactly mean? James Kwon:Yeah, great question. So this day… Anthony Verna:I only try to ask the great ones, man. I try not to ask stupid ones. James Kwon:Great job so far. So the thought leadership is a principle behind content marketing where today buyers are more informed than ever because they can go online, they can research blogs, they just go to Google and start searching. Well, what do I need to know if I'm going to hire a great patent attorney? Or what do I need to know if I'm going to hire a great agency? And you can find a lot of information. The person who can author that great content becomes the authority in that world. And so, this is the category we call thought leadership. If you can start to author a lot of great content, all of a sudden your name gets attached to all these great SEO content, all these great keywords when people are search...

Dr Carolyn Lam: Welcome to Circulation On The Run, your weekly podcast summary and backstage pass to the journal and its editors. I'm Dr Carolyn Lam, Associate Editor from the National Heart Center and Duke National University of Singapore. Dr Greg Hundley: And I'm Greg Hundley, Director of the Pauley Heart Center at VCU Health in Richmond, Virginia. But I am running to hide today, because I am going to get quizzed by the master in the feature discussion. And listeners, it's really interesting. It involves quantitative myocardial perfusion using magnetic resonance imaging, but also adding the twist that artificial intelligence computer algorithms are being used to read the stress test images without any physician interference. Oh, my goodness. I don't know what she's going to quiz me about. Dr Carolyn Lam: Absolutely about all the AI algorithms and exactly how you derive them. But why don't you tell us what you want to describe first and the rest of the issue. Dr Greg Hundley: Carolyn, I'm going to start with a paper on peroxynitrite and as you know, that's a very short-lived free radical produced in cells, part of the both oxidative and nitrosative stress pathways. And this article comes from Dr Swapnil Sonkusare from the University of Virginia School of Medicine. Well, Carolyn, this study is involving mouse models, and the investigators evaluated the relationship between peroxynitrite, that powerful oxidative nitrosative stress molecule, and obesity and hypertension. Dr Carolyn Lam: Nice. And before you ask me anything more about peroxynitrite, because I think you just summarize everything I know. What did the authors find, Greg? Dr Greg Hundley: What that found is that obesity induced impairment of endothelial AKAP150-TRPV4 channel signaling contributes to the loss of endothelial function and elevated blood pressure. And lowering the levels of this oxidant molecule of peroxynitrite reduces endothelial AKAP150-TRPV4 channel signaling, vasodilation and blood pressure and obesity. Dr Carolyn Lam: And what are the implications? Dr Greg Hundley: Well, endothelial TRPV4 channels are essential regulators of resting blood pressure and impairment of endothelial TRPV4 channel activity contributes to obesity induced hypertension. And therefore, therapeutic strategies, perhaps in the future, that lower peroxynitrite levels can be used to rescue endothelial TRPV4 channel activity, endothelial function and blood pressure in obese individuals. Dr Carolyn Lam: Nice, Greg. Well, I want to tell you a little bit more about plain old hypertension. Now, we know that blood pressure is regulated by the function of the kidney vasculature and sympathetic nervous system, but do immune cells play a role? Well, Dr Guzik from University Medical College, Krakow, Poland, and University of Glasgow and his colleagues, studied the relationship between major white blood cell types and blood pressure in the UK Biobank population and employed a Mendelian randomization analysis to examine which leukocyte populations maybe causally linked to blood pressure. Dr Greg Hundley: So we've got another blood pressure article. What did they find? Dr Carolyn Lam: They found potentially causal positive effects of total blood lymphocyte count with blood pressure. Among the mechanisms that might mediate this relationship, they found evidence that blood lymphocyte count might influence albuminuria. The study may additionally support a reverse, potentially causal positive effect of blood pressure indices on blood neutrophil monocyte and you sit a full count. So fairly interesting. Dr Greg Hundley: Very nice. So I'm going to switch over and talk a little bit about lifestyle interventions. I know you're a big fitness buff. So this paper is about fitness, body mass index and the risk of heart failure in overweight, obese individuals with type two diabetes mellitus. It's an analysis from The Look AHEAD Trial. The corresponding author is Dr Ambarish Pandey from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. And a little bit of background Carolyn. Type two diabetes is associated with a higher risk of heart failure and the impact of a lifestyle intervention and changes in cardiorespiratory fitness and body mass index on the risk of heart failure in this population is not well established. So what are the authors do? They had 5,109 participants from The Look AHEAD or The Action for Health in Diabetes Trial, without prevalent heart failure at the time of their inclusion. They implemented time to event analysis to compare the risk of incident heart failure between an intensive lifestyle intervention versus a diabetes support and education group. The association of baseline measures of cardiorespiratory fitness estimated from a maximal treadmill test. The participants, BMI and longitudinal changes in these parameters with the risk of heart failure were evaluated using multi variable models. Dr Carolyn Lam: Wow. What did they find? Dr Greg Hundley: Carolyn, very surprising. Among participants with type two diabetes mellitus. In The Look AHEAD Trial, the intensive lifestyle intervention did not, did not appear to modify the risk of heart failure. What they also found is that higher baseline cardiorespiratory fitness and sustained improvements in cardiorespiratory fitness and weight loss were associated with a lower risk of heart failure. So even that education group where patients started doing things more, had more cardiorespiratory fitness and baseline and sustain that with weight loss, those were the ones that had lower risk of heart failure. Dr Carolyn Lam: Nice summary. Well let's go through what else is in today's issue. There's a research letter by Dr Eitel on the impact of morphine treatment within without metoclopramide co-administration on ticagrelor-inducted platelet inhibition in AMI and that's the randomized MonAMI trial. There's also an in-depth paper by Dr Eijsvogels on exercise and coronary atherosclerosis. So, this interesting review describes the effects of physical activity and exercise training on coronary atherosclerosis in middle aged and older athletes and really aims to contribute to the understanding of the potential adverse effects of the highest doses of exercise training on the coronary arteries. Very interesting. Dr Greg Hundley: And Carolyn, I've got a perspective piece and it comes from Dr Robert Stravitz, as well as Dr George Vetrovec from VCU, and it evaluates the risk of invasive cardiac procedures in patients that have liver cirrhosis. Then finally there's a very nice ECG challenge. It's the anterior STEMI without S T elevation in lead one and it comes from Dr Yun-Tao Zhao from the Peking University Aerospace School of Clinical Medicine. Oh no. Oh, I've got to run. Dr Carolyn Lam: Now, we're going straight into the prolonged Dr Hundley quiz. Dr Greg Hundley: Very good. Dr Carolyn Lam: Oh boy. Today's feature paper is really a biggie. It talks about AI and its approach in quantitative myocardial perfusion by cardiac magnetic resonance imaging. Now, I know we've been building up to this discussion already right from the start because I've got my beloved cohost, Greg Hundley talking about this, but wearing the hat as the editor who managed this paper and also so pleased to have with us the corresponding author, Dr James Moon from University College, London and Barts Heart Centre in UK, as well as from across the other side of the world. We have Dr Peter Kellman from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute of NIH. So welcome gentlemen, what a great paper. I think in Greg's words he said earlier just really landmark. I'm almost paradigm shifting in this area. So let's dive straight into it. And so maybe James, could you start by telling us how does CMR quantitative myocardial perfusion usually work in today's world without the AI and perhaps you know what the study showed that it can do. What can AI help us do? Dr James Moon: If we want to understand where chest pain comes from, we can sometimes use cardiac CT, or we can use a functional test and a different function test. But a particular test with bandages is chronic MRI. And what we do is we give a dye into a vein and track that through the heart. And the upslope can tell us about a fusion. And if you do that during vasodilators stress, you can see regional differences visually. Now, the interesting thing is that if you take those signals and using a team such as Peter Kamina, NIH, you can make that constative and, in fact, do that inline on the scanner, so you get color maps where the pixels of valid in mils per gram per minute. So you can see exactly how much facilitation there is. And what we share in here is that if you quantify that, literally, automatically on the scanner using artificial intelligence approaches from the NIH, those values are incrementally prognostic predicting outcomes for patients. Dr Carolyn Lam: Wow. Okay. So give us a little bit more here, James. What do you mean by incrementally prognostic? Did you compare it with the best human readers and perhaps have a subset and I think you did, of course, who the human readers can see something, and AI did, right? Could you tell us a little bit more about that? Dr James Moon: We've been doing a lot of the sort of technical development papers after the common initiatives from the NIH. So we've been doing the correlations across a number of sensors with, for example, pets and animal models. And really what we did here was we overlaid our clinical service with the AI and in more than a thousand patients actually at two sites, we were able to follow up patients and a number of those of course, and sadly underwent an event, death, or mace. And what we are able to see is that the stress flow and the ratio stress to rest flow, were independently associated by death and base and mace. So for each mil decrease in stress flow that has a great share went up. And that was as you say, something that you just can't do viscerally because you can't get that global background change. Dr Carolyn Lam: Oh this is scary. So AI beating out humans, I suppose is what you're saying, not quite maybe. Or is it right? Dr Greg Hundley: You know, we have to do a number of things in health care and we're often drawing circles, drawing consoles, identifying regions of interest and these are quite mundane tasks and if you can train your AI correctly, then that can do that for you, leaving you and freeing you up to higher executive functions, like discussing the results with patients. And I wouldn't be scared of the AI here because the way PISA implemented this, the contours are all drawn, so it's completely explicable. Dr Carolyn Lam: I really liked that explanation. And so what most people fear when AI comes about is, they fear this black box approach that they cannot understand. And what you're saying here is it something understandable and it will facilitate efficiency, which is beautifully done, and what you've shown as well. So Peter, it sounds to me that it took a long time to develop this. Could you describe what it takes to get an algorithm and AI algorithms like this? Dr Peter Kellman: This is quantitative perfusion and perfusion in general using cardiac mechanisms has been in development by a lot of labs around the world over the past 20 years. And the specific objectives we had were to get it out of the laboratory into the hands of the clinicians and do that, we chose to implement everything fully, automatically and integrated onto a clinical scanner so that the clinicians would get the answers on the fly. That is to say they would perform a scan and it would be transparent. They'd run the scan the way they normally do today, and the results of the myocardial blood flow would appear on the scanner within a minute. So, we probably worked on this, myself and Dr Wie Wzei at NIH, for the past five years. Gradually building this up to the state where it is now at sites like The Barts Heart Centre can use it. Dr Carolyn Lam: Just really hats off. This is amazing because you've summarized it in a few sentences, but you know I kind of personally know what it takes. Just getting an algorithm is one thing but making it clinically usable and then James demonstrating it clinically are all huge achievements. So congratulations. I don't think anyone can say it better than Greg. Greg, tell us why is this paper so important? And see that was an easy question. Dr Greg Hundley: This is really dramatic in the field of cardiovascular magnetic resonance, but also for stress testing related to patients with cardiovascular disease. As many of our listeners know today, the majority of studies are interpreted visually and while the spatial and temporal resolution is just beautiful like high definition television of the inside of our bodies, the artifacts that sometimes occur and then some of the interobserver variability remains problematic. What I love about this, is this is now a quantitative. It's not a visual interpretation of signal intensity. What both Dr's. Kellman and Moon have developed is something that measures the blood flow in mls per minute, per gram of tissue regionally throughout the heart and then color codes that so that all of us can interpret it readily. I think another big piece of this is that they have created the artificial intelligence that helps interpret that for us and just think now we'll be able standardize readings across medical centers. That's an enormous advance for this field and combining this information and putting it into, both national as well as international registries, could be very important for identifying abnormalities that would forecast prognosis. And these gentlemen have laid the framework for that because they have a large number of subjects, two centers, and they had comprehensive follow up that looked at heart events and this technology was able to forecast that on the backdrop of all the other parameters, demographic variables, risk factors, etc., that we find in patients that present to us with cardiovascular disease and are symptomatic with chest pain syndromes. So boy, what an outstanding imaging paper and feel so fortunate to actually have this in circulation. Dr Carolyn Lam: Greg, no one can say it better than you. I would like to emphasize that this just doesn't hold the implications for MR imaging. I think it holds implications for many forms of cardiac imaging if we have AI to assist us. So James, how do you see this helping the patients? These are prospectively performed cardiac MR scans, but you know, what about surveillance of MR databases? What are the implications for perhaps detecting microvascular abnormalities? Another pet topic on my own. If you don't mind, you know, tell us, what do you think are the clinical implications? Dr James Moon: Quite a lot of clinical implications. We're really starting a journey here. So, one of the things I'm interested in is that we have been in an era of thinking about the epicardial cone use only. We were seeing significance between patient differences in peak hyperemia related to, for example, age and presence of diabetes, but must be reflecting the microvasculature and of course, that may be a key biomarker for the future and understanding what happens to patients. So naturally, of course, when we're assessing the epicardial arteries, we're going to have to understand that those assessments, especially if it's measuring wall flow, will be influenced by the microvasculature because it's a circulation. So, this may just bring that microvasculature into the mainstream as potentially therapeutic target. If you think about this AI and observe a variation. So what we do is measure things clinically and that sounds like boring old science, but metrology and accuracy and precision translate into something that cascades down. So that key dots the patient relationship where we're making the decisions on what therapies together might influence outcome. And if you can rely on those results and if the results that scanner one in one place and another scan at another place always read the same, then your healthcare system just gets a boost because everything is more reliable. Dr Carolyn Lam: That's beautifully put. And Peter, thank you to you and your group for developing such AI and James for demonstrating this. Now if I may, this is an amazing collaboration. I understand the British Heart Foundation had a role in supporting this. How did you get together to decide to work across regions and so on, on this? Could you just give us a little bit about that? Dr Peter Kellman: Our working together was an outgrowth of prior collaborations in areas such as T one map and for tissue characterization and Barts Heart Centre represents the largest cardiac MR site in the world, in terms of volume. And when you have a quantitative method, it was the perfect place to evaluate this kind of ischemic heart disease. And furthermore, when you talk about AI, you need to train the algorithms and develop the models. You need a large volume of data. So, right now we're probably doing on the order of 150 stress tests a week. And so, after a year we had a large volume of data to train the algorithms for segmenting the myocardium. So the collaboration has been ongoing for about five years. Dr Carolyn Lam: That's great. Greg, you know what, because I adore you, I'm going to ask you to give us the final words. Tell us your thoughts on where this is all heading. Dr Greg Hundley: I think Peter astutely identified that Barts Heart Centre and you're seeing really in the United Kingdom the primary use of magnetic resonance imaging for cardiovascular stress testing with its accuracy. And now, adding to this these quantitative assessments that can reflect, not only epicardial disease, but as we've heard, have the potential to identify micro circulatory disease. I see this growing and extending worldwide. And I think the next studies will involve the use of this type of technology and multiple different manufacturers of scanners and across different field strengths, 1.5 and three T, and multi-center initiatives using this technology to try to forecast cardiovascular prognosis in patients that present with chest pain syndromes as well as other disease processes that involve both epicardial coronary arteries and micro circulation. Dr Carolyn Lam: Wow. And we're so pleased and proud to be publishing then this paper here in circulation this week. Thank you so much, gentleman. It's been awesome discussing this with you.  And thank you, audience for joining us this week. You've been listening to Circulation on the Run. Don't forget to tune in again next week. Dr Greg Hundley: This program is copyright, The American Heart Association 2020.  

With the COVID-19 pandemic and restrictions forcing the Pack Pride Podcast to shoot remotely, we haven't recorded from Amedeo's in more than a month. So James and Cory joined our "regulars" on a Zoom video to discuss life in quarantine. There's also some NC State discussion focusing on Josh Hall's decision to go through the NBA Draft process and the latest on NC State's NCAA case, but this week was about checking in on Wolfpack Nation. Listen to the full podcast below and subscribe on iTunes, the Google Play Store or find us on Spotify by searching for "Pack Pride Podcast" under the podcasts section.

Since we’re all stuck at home, here's some cooking advice to help you through. Chef Mark Allison has three boys.. one of whom was diagnosed with type 1 as a baby. He has tips and tricks for us.. starting with: just get started. Mark teaches healthy cooking but isn’t above eating smores with his three sons. Check out Stacey's new book: The World's Worst Diabetes Mom! Mark currently works with the Cabarrus County Health Alliance teaching needed home cooking skills. He’s been the Director of Culinary Nutrition for the Dole Nutrition Institute and he spent many years teaching classical chefs at the Dean of Culinary Arts Education at Johnson & Wales University in Charlotte. Join the Diabetes Connections Facebook Group! Mark has a new book out Let's Be Smart About Diabetes: A cookbook to help control blood sugar while getting the family back around the kitchen table In Tell Me Something Good – a lot of mac and cheese and a lot of help for someone who has always been giving it. Talk about paying it forward… and back. Sign up for our newsletter here ----- Use this link to get one free download and one free month of Audible, available to Diabetes Connections listeners! ----- Get the App and listen to Diabetes Connections wherever you go! Click here for iPhone      Click here for Android Episode Transcript (Rough transcription, has not been edited) Stacey Simms  0:00 Diabetes Connections is brought to you by one drop created for people with diabetes by people who have diabetes by real good foods, real food you feel good about eating and by dexcom take control of your diabetes and live life to the fullest with dexcom.   Unknown Speaker  0:20 This is diabetes connections with Stacey Sims.   Stacey Simms  0:26 This week, how are you eating these days? Some kitchen and cooking advice to help us through Chef Mark Allison knows his way around the kitchen with a family he has three boys one of whom was diagnosed with type one as a baby. As a professional chef teacher. He says just get started   Chef Mark Allison  0:45 getting in that kitchen and making something over the next 30 or 40 minutes and then sitting down eating the food but actually having a conversation instead of everybody upstairs playing Xbox or some kind of games. You're actually in one room. Communicate it and you make them so think that hopefully everybody's going to enjoy.   Stacey Simms  1:03 You'll hear Mark's unique story. He and his wife moved to Alaska for an international program back in 1999. And their 14 month old son was diagnosed shortly after that in Tell me something good. A little bit of help for someone who's been giving a lot of it, talk about paying it forward and back, and a lot of mac and cheese. This podcast is not intended as medical advice. If you have those kinds of questions, please contact your health care provider. Welcome to another week of diabetes connections we aim to educate and inspire by sharing stories of connection and in this time, it is so important to stay connected. On this week's show. We are not going to be talking specifically about the corona virus. Rather, this is a show that will maybe inspire you or help you to get in the kitchen at this time when we are all first in our house and I don't know about you, but I've been Looking more than ever, but maybe to look at things a little bit differently, get your kids involved, try something new. I was so excited to talk to Mark Ellis. And we've known each other for a long time. And I've been trying to get him on the show. And it's just one of those. You know, the beauty is in the timing sometimes, because maybe this episode will kind of give you a fun day and some fun ideas to try at a time when boy, we do need a little bit of fun, and a little bit of inspiration. So there will be more information about Mark's cookbook. Let's be smart about diabetes a little bit later on. And I would urge you if you're not already in the Facebook group to please join that it is diabetes connections, the group because I'm going to be putting some of the recipes and notes that he gave me into the Facebook group, I cannot put them in the show notes. It's just a format thing. So I apologize for that. They will not be on the episode homepage, but they will be in posts in the Facebook group. So head on over there to that. And just another quick note before we get started. Thank you to everybody who continues to buy my book, the world's First diabetes mom, if you need a laugh in these times, maybe it's there for you. I've heard from people who are really enjoying it right now who have the audio book to who maybe didn't have time to listen before, although I mostly listen to audiobooks in my car. So my audio book and podcasts consumption, frankly, is way down right now. Because I'm at home, I'm not commuting. I'm not driving anywhere. But I do listen when I clean and do laundry and stuff like that. So maybe that's it. But thanks again, the world's worst diabetes mom is available at Amazon. It is in paperback, Kindle and audiobook. You could also buy it over at diabetes, connections calm but frankly, Amazon's probably the easiest right now. And I was so happy to be involved in the children with diabetes virtual conference that happened recently. I bet you can still find that online. I was able to take my world's worst diabetes mom presentation for them. Of course, as you know, like many of you, I was planning to go to lots of diabetes conferences in the last month and this spring and it's all on hold right now. So a little bit of online goodness. For you, I will also link up the children with diabetes conference which had tons of presentations in it. I think it's going to be a real resource going forward for a lot of people so I'm thrilled that they did that. All right Mark Ellison coming up in just a moment but first diabetes Connections is brought to you by real good foods. We got a sample of the real good foods ice cream. They sent it to us a Benny and I did a Facebook Live. I think it's almost three weeks ago now. Wow. About what we thought our reactions and I gotta tell you, I have been enjoying the real good ice cream since then. It is so delicious. It is a lower sugar ice cream that tastes like ice cream. You have probably had ice creams that are lower carb that tastes kind of chunky and chalky. And there isn't none of that I sat down. I shouldn't say this. I ate almost the entire pint of the mint chocolate chip. I stopped myself but it was going there. So check them out. You can find out more at really good foods calm. They ship. Yes, they're the grocery store for you. Right now I know a lot of you and us included group looking at home delivery, and you can find all of their stuff online. They'll deliver it for you some great shipping deals as well. Just go to diabetes, connections comm and click on the real good foods logo.   My guest this week is a terrific chef, who as you know here teaches healthy cooking, but isn't above eating s'mores with his three sons. Mark Allison works with the cabarrus County Health Alliance, a local county to me here in North Carolina teaching needed home cooking skills. He has been the director of culinary nutrition for the dole nutrition Institute, and he spent many years teaching classical chefs as the Dean of culinary arts education at Johnson and Wales University here in Charlotte. Yes, Johnson Wales does have a campus here in Charlotte. One of Mark's sons was diagnosed with type one as a baby and his wife was diagnosed with stage four cancer in 2008. Now she did pass away But as you'll hear it His wife was able to live longer than anybody expected her to, which he says really made him a believer in the power of a plant based diet to fight disease and prolong life. Mark has a new book out called Let's be smart about diabetes, a cookbook to help control blood sugar while getting the family back around the kitchen table. We are putting recipes in the Facebook group, as I said, and of course links in the show notes. Here's my talk with Chef Mark. Allison. Mark, thank you so much for making some time for me. I know you've got all your boys home. And while we're not, I guess we're not doing much these days. It still seems like the time is filling up. But thanks for being here. I appreciate it.   Chef Mark Allison  6:40 They see You're very welcome. And it's a pleasure to be on your show. Thank you very much.   Stacey Simms  6:43 I'm excited to talk to you. We've known each other for a long time. I was thinking I think we met possibly the Johnson and Wales cooking competition of some kind where I was an extremely unqualified judge.   Chef Mark Allison  6:59 The good old days here In the good old days, Yes, I remember you there and you were totally qualified for the position to be church exceptionally well because I enjoy eating.   Stacey Simms  7:11 So there you go   Chef Mark Allison  7:12 to nature, you know, in my opinion chef is fitted very nicely into my lifestyle, because I love to eat. I love it.   Stacey Simms  7:19 Well, you know, I want to pick your brain as long as we have you to talk about how to try to eat well, as long as you know, we're all stuck at home. But let's talk about let's talk about diabetes. First, let's get your story out because I know everyone already hearing you knows that you are your native to North Carolina. That's a beautiful Southern accent that you   Chef Mark Allison  7:37 see I was born in Charleston, South Carolina. People get that mixed up all the time. I'm actually from a little town called at Newcastle upon Tyne which is in the northeast of England. And I grew up there and the place where the usually state calls from Newcastle on Newcastle brown ale on Newcastle soccer club whether the three things that people read knowing you're comfortable, but that's where I was born. I moved to South Wales and lived in South Wales for 10 years, traveled all over Europe and in 2004 landed in Charleston, South Carolina, lived there for yet then moved up to Charlotte and I've been in Charlotte now 15 years and absolutely love living in Charles. That's great.   Stacey Simms  8:20 All right, so but your your diabetes story your son's really starts in Alaska. Can you tell us that   Chef Mark Allison  8:26 I was one of 30 people fit by the Fulbright teachers Experience Program, which is a program that started after world war two to get the world together through education. And teachers apply and they are asked to go to different countries around the world. And I was asked to go to America and I thought Yes, this is going to be fabulous. being brought up in the 70s in the 80s. On Starsky and Hutch and streets of San Francisco. I naturally thought I was going to California, but I would have 500 teachers that apply to come to Europe, there was only one chef and he did not live in California. He actually lived in Anchorage, Alaska. And we actually turned down the position first because my wife said we are not taking a two year old and an eight month to Alaska. So we turned it down. And then Glen, the teacher rang me over to him and said, Look, can you do me a favor? This is the fourth year I have applied. And my daughter has won a four year scholarship at Oxford University and this is her last year. Can you please take the position so we can be with her for the last year that is in the UK. So we decided to move over that and we actually had an absolute fabulous year. But while we were living there, Matthew, my youngest son at the time, who was it month when we arrived, when you go to the age of 14 months, he became ill, and we took him to the doctors and the doctor said he just had a bad case of the flu, he'd be okay. And about a week later, he had lost a tremendous amount of weight. He was drinking a lot of fluids and just happened to be Tom My brother on the forum that weekend who is a type one diabetic and has been since the age of 15 years old. And he said, I think he may be a type one take him back to the doctor's. So we took Matthew back. And we had a young doctor, she was lovely lady. But she said, there's no way as a type one diabetic it normally it's going to be about seven or eight years old. He's only 14 months. And she just said, No, I'm not testing as blood. So of course, my wife who was there, like any mother has said, well, we're not leaving your office until you actually test his blood. So there was a bit of a standoff for about 30 minutes. And then she tested this blood and within 30 minutes, Matthew is in intensive care and he was there for the next seven years. And his blood sugar's were so far through the roof that we were told that we had left her office and went to him more than likely would have been in a coma that night. So we were exceptionally lucky. And the doctor from that stage could not do enough for us as he was at his bedside every day. And as you know, Life changes. So we decided to look at food as sort of medicine and changed all our eating habits for Matthew. So from the age of 14 month, Matthew has been on a really healthy diet, you know, just turned 22 in December, and he's in great shape, but he's at college at the minute, and he's doing exceptionally well. But that's where it all started back in 1999.   Stacey Simms  11:24 And I think it's worth repeating for people who are you who have children who are newer diagnosed or maybe have been newer diagnosed themselves. There really was this thinking because the same thing happened to us, Ben, he wasn't yet two years old. And they said, Yeah, under the age of two, it's Yeah, it'd be type one. There was this thinking and I don't know if it's just that they're getting better at it or there are more cases and infants and babies, but it has changed a lot thanks to people like you push an educated Oh my goodness.   Chef Mark Allison  11:51 You know, it is frightening. Because you've got your doctor and you just think they've got all the answers. And but something like Type One Diabetes is you know, in Now it's becoming more and more people become more and more aware. I remember when my brother was diagnosed that he was in hospital for six months because they were unsure of actually what it was. And the unfortunate thing for my brother, he was 15 at the time, so he was nearly an adult in England. And he was actually on a cancer Ward for six months, and was frightening with him was he was watching people that were dying around him. And unfortunately, that marked him for life. He is now nearly 60 and he's in good shape and he's healthy. But he still remembers them times where people were actually dying around them because they thought he didn't have diabetes for 30 years cancer at the time, but times have changed and I think it's a lot more easy to diagnose now. And we've got great doctors, people like that more fonder. Well, it's just amazing. I think now we can rely on the medical professionals to diagnose a lot quicker than what was said 20 years ago.   Stacey Simms  12:58 And when you're Your son and your brother must have had some interesting conversations about not only the difference of diagnosis, but the difference of treatments. I mean, I'm so your brother is doing well, because I can't imagine.   Chef Mark Allison  13:11 Well, my I can remember my mother have sterilized his syringe and needles every night. Because the other days, whether we're like the one inch long needles, and you could reuse them, and the syringe was reused, and he was getting injected twice a day, now he's on the pen. So you've worked a lot better for him, but I can remember those days and the previous thing, and testing was blurred and then cleaning the syringe and countless cops. It was a difficult time for my mother. I know that.   Stacey Simms  13:44 I feel you never want to say we're lucky with diabetes because it still stinks. Yeah, but also to make me grateful for insulin pumps and pens. My good.   Chef Mark Allison  13:54 Yeah, my back muscles just changed over to a new pump. The Omni pod and you know, he He's been on the pump for at least the last 12 years and what a difference others made. You know, we as parents, I'm sure you have the same feel a lot easier that he's on something that basically regulates everything. And as long as he tests his blood, he knows when he's either going to go low, go high. And these instruments these days are just amazing.   Stacey Simms  14:21 It really is. I feel really grateful. Yeah, let's jump in and let's talk about food. Because not only are you a renowned chef and a you know, an educator of other chefs, but now you work to educate the public which I just think is absolutely amazing because we need all the help we can get mark, as you well know. First of all, let me let you explain what it is that you do you work for the Harris County Health Alliance, which is a nearby you know, county to mine here in the Charlotte, North Carolina area. What do you do right now in terms of teaching the public   right back to mark answering Question, but first getting diabetes supplies is a pain. Not only the ordering and the picking up but also the arguing with insurance over what they say you need and what you really need. Make it easy with one drop. They offer personalized tester plants. Plus you get a Bluetooth glucose meter test strips lancets and your very own certified diabetes coach. Subscribe today to get test strips for less than $20 a month delivered right to your door. No prescriptions or co pays required. One less thing to worry about. not that surprising when you learn that the founder of one drop lubes with type one, they get it one drop, gorgeous gear supplies delivered to your door 24 seven access to your certified diabetes coach learn more go to diabetes connections comm and click on the one drop logo. Now back to mark and he is answering my question about teaching people the very basics.   Chef Mark Allison  15:55 I have a wonderful job and it's funny how I started the shop at 16 and I printed with French cuisine, and lots of thoughts, sugar and salt, and nobody counted calories or anything. And now I've went closer to being a healthy chef. And I tried to teach people how to improve their diets. So I work for the cabarrus Health Alliance, which is based in kannapolis. And my job is a fascinating job. And the fact that I go out to the general public, I go to schools and hospitals and churches, and I also do cooking classes at the cabarrus Health Alliance, and I try to teach people how to cook because if you think about it, Stacy, cooking is a life skill, but nobody knows how to cook these days. What I noticed just last week, when the food stores were out of canned goods and frozen goods, actually the produce section was still full. And my advice to anybody, especially at this time with the corona virus is eat healthy by eating as many fruits and vegetables as you possibly can because they're just packed full of vitamins, minerals and phytochemicals. So my job at the Cabal ourselves Lyons is basically trying to teach people how to cook and choose better food choices, and not so much processed food, not so much food that is packed with fat, sugar, salt, and try to get a healthy balance. You know, it doesn't all have to be healthy. But if you do choose healthy options, you'll feel better. Your health will improve and it'll fight off viruses.   Stacey Simms  17:23 So when we're all stuck at home and we have this mentality, which is this is very unique, obviously. Yeah, I mean unprecedented. But now that we're stuck at home, what would your advice be? Because I did the same thing I'll be honest with you when I went to the grocery store a couple of days ago, I picked up you know, some apples some oranges, but I wasn't I was thinking hunker down. Yeah, I bypassed a lot of the fresh fruits and vegetables now that it seems and again we're as we're recording this, it seems like the grocery stores are gonna be fine. There's no problem with supply. What What would you suggest we do next time we go to the store,   Chef Mark Allison  17:54 I would look at the air fresh produce and you know, start by Picking the fruits and vegetables that you like to eat. And then why not try something different? Something that you've seen before. But though you know what, I wonder what that tastes like, give it a try. You'll be amazed, I normally teach this in class where we'll have like a surprise ingredient. And part of the classes, everybody's going to try everything I make. And I might have a fresh fruit or vegetable and I chop it up and I pass it around. And it's amazing that nine times out of 10 everybody likes it. We've got these preconceived notions that we'll look at something think No, I don't think I like that for actually when you put it in your mouth and try it more than likely you're going to try something new and it's going to be interesting, then you're going to enjoy the test. So I would go around the fresh produce section and try something new, try something different. And I found the best way so especially with having three boys, if I wouldn't try something new with them. I normally just make a smoothie or soup because you can easily add something new and disguise it and they don't even know that they're in and then we told them that believe in something new. See, you know what, that wasn't too bad. Let's try it again. So I think it's all about experiment. And we've got the ideal time that you've just said, There. See, we're all cooped up at home. Why not get in the kitchen with the boys or girls, or family members and make something delicious to eat tonight? I've got to be honest, people tell me when they asked what I do for a living, I say, well, I've never worked a day in my life because I love what I do, which is I love food, and I love to cook. But our sound, it's the best way to make new friends. It's the best way to keep the family together, getting in that kitchen and making something over the next 30 or 40 minutes and then sitting down eating the food but actually having a conversation. Instead of everybody upstairs playing Xbox or some kind of games. You actually in one room communicate and you're making something that hopefully everybody's going to enjoy.   Stacey Simms  19:50 Alright, a lot of people listening are gonna say, Well, sure that sounds great. But I never learned to cook. I'm afraid to cook. My Stuff always comes out. Terrible. How can you start adults who really did not learn the skill?   Chef Mark Allison  20:05 You know what I was very lucky because when all my friends chose to do woodwork and metalwork, I was doing home economics. And as you can imagine, back in the 70s and 80s, that didn't go down too well with a lot of the guys, but you know what my thinking was, they see one instead of being locked up in a room with 19, sweaty guys, I was in an air conditioned room with 19 girls. And it worked out pretty good, because I found out very quickly two things. Everybody likes people who can cook and it's the best way to make friends. So I understand that a lot of people don't know how to cook. But actually, you can go online now and on YouTube, and you can learn practically any technique that you need. And I'll tell people all you really need to start with is a chopping board and a knife, and then find a recipe that you've always wanted to try. And you can easily download any recipe now from online or watch a YouTube video and cooking There's one of the simplest things you can ever learn. It's all about temperature control. It's either gonna be hot or cold. And if you can control the temperature you can make and eat anything you like. Wow.   Stacey Simms  21:11 Do you remember I'll put you on the spot here. Do you remember what you first taught your boys to make when they were little I pictured them standing on stools in the kitchen, you know, learning from dad,   Chef Mark Allison  21:21 and properly. And this isn't exactly healthy. And actually, we did this last night, we were sitting in the backyard having a fire pit and we all had smalls. So I'm guessing probably smalls are probably one of the very first recipes. I taught my boys. But I also taught them something very important. It's all about moderation. Whatever you make, have it in moderation. But my three boys all know how to cook, obviously, because they've been brought up by a chef. I tell people when I'm at work, I'll text my boys and be the dishwasher, prepare the vegetables, set the kitchen table, and then when I get home, all that's done, and then we get in the kitchen together and we cook dinner That night, but if I forget the text one day, believe it or not today, see, I get home and nothing has been done because boys are boys.   Stacey Simms  22:08 Oh, yeah, I've been there with both of my kids boys and girls. Yeah. Oh yeah, but you didn't send the text that's funny but I'm you know, it's good to know you're human. I think it's always more fun to know with the s'mores, right that you know, yeah. And food and it's fun to learn. And then you can use those skills. I don't know what quite what skills are making but you have to control the temperature.   Chef Mark Allison  22:33 Don't right. Yeah, that was our main skill. I think   Stacey Simms  22:36 that's an important one in the kitchen.   Chef Mark Allison  22:38 people. People ask me all the time, how do you make a healthy dessert mock and I'll say there's no such thing as a healthy dessert. So just enjoy whatever you're going to eat but have a smaller portion.   Stacey Simms  22:50 You're not free and substitutes and things like that.   Chef Mark Allison  22:53 I don't use any sugar free ingredients if I'm going to make something and add sugar and the sugar because normally Even if you make an a cake and asks for half a cup of sugar, when you consider that cake is going to divide a divided into eight or 10 portions, that half cup of sugar comes down to practically nothing. So I'd rather use the ingredients that are meant to be in a certain food items, then start trying to guess, well, if I put sugar free, I mean, it's going to work out the same because I'd rather just enjoy it the way it's meant to be, then try to mess around with it. That's the same with all these gluten free products and low in sugar products. You know, you're taking out one thing, but you're adding something else processed. And to me, you're far better off eating ingredients that you know, are ingredients that are more healthy than something that is a preservative or an additive or colorant.   Unknown Speaker  23:49 So tell us about your cookbook that you have out right   Chef Mark Allison  23:52 now. I brought out let's be smart about diabetes a few months ago and that actually started 2008 but that was the same year my wife was diagnosed with stage four cancer. So the book was shelved. And then when my wife passed away in 2015, I was approached by the American diabetic association to publish the book. And so they, they bought the rights to the book, but then they held on to it for two years. And then unfortunately, they laid off most of their editorial stuff, and said they were only going to publish well known authors, which I was not one of them. So they give me the full rights back. And so I just published that about six months ago. And it's all family recipes that we've used over the last 20 years with Matthew, all the recipes, believe makes a car very easy to use. You know, most of them take between 10 and 20 minutes, and the all healthiest there's nothing outrageous. I'm not asking anybody to buy superfoods. I don't believe in superfoods. I believe in it, eat an apple, that's probably the best food you can eat or a banana or if you had broccoli or cabbage. They don't have to be super foods. They're just packed Anyway with healthy vitamins and minerals and phytochemicals. So it's all based on practicality and what you can actually buy in your local store. And so this is packed full of soups and breakfast ideas, snacks, lunches, and meals for the kids and sort of healthy desserts.   Stacey Simms  25:17 I'd love to ask you and I, we didn't discuss this in advance, but would it be possible to grab a recipe or two from the book that you think might help people who are you know, stuck at home right now? Maybe dollar level or something that would keep and we could post that for the podcast audience?   Chef Mark Allison  25:32 Yeah, please do. Just choose whatever recipe you think is suitable. There's over 150 recipes in the book to choose from, and like I said, very easy to put together. And this could be the ideal time to grab a cookbook and try some of the recipes.   Stacey Simms  25:45 No doubt. All right. How do you stand on we've talked about you know, going to the produce section trying to buy fresh whenever possible. Where do you stand on canned and frozen ingredients?   Chef Mark Allison  25:55 Yeah, I'm a firm believer in fresh wood. If if you've got no option, then throw would be my next choice and then can't but if you're going to buy canned fruits or vegetables, make sure that they haven't got any added sugar.   Unknown Speaker  26:07 Yeah, you know what I saw in the supermarket recently forget added sugar. They were packed in Splenda, their sugar substitute in the quote for juice.   Chef Mark Allison  26:16 Yeah. Well, you know what people have got to make their own minds up on if they're going to use artificial sweeteners or not. I personally don't so you know, it's a choice you've got to make. But to tell the truth, if I've got the opportunity I always buy fresh because fresh normally isn't seasonal. So if you can buy seasonal fruits and vegetables, then they've got the best nutrient dense properties within them. They haven't been touched. Make sure that you wash your fruits and vegetables when you get them home and either eat them raw or add them to some kind of soup or lunch or dinner item. And to me that's the best way to keep yourself healthy. I'm a firm believer and my boys follow this practice as well. If you have half your plate, fruits and veggies But then you know, it's going to go too far wrong from being healthy and the idea with that's great advice.   Stacey Simms  27:05 Yeah, back to the the canned fruit though I gotta be honest with you and you don't have to you don't have to take a stand. But I was appalled to see canned fruit with Splenda added because the big packaging was like, you know, low in sugar, and I thought, Oh, good. Water or something. And I turned it over to look at the label. I was like Splenda, how much processing you have to go through to add that and I was like, uh, so I put that back. But in these, I know, people are worried right now, and many people may have purchased more canned and frozen goods than you ever really do. Looking at me. So we're all looking to try to do the best we can.   Chef Mark Allison  27:38 Yeah. And it's baby steps. It's baby steps. You know, you can kind of just turn your diet upside down because it's not gonna work. And I tell most people start with breakfast and just eat something healthier at breakfast and that's the ideal time to have a smoothie, you know, and you can Pocket full of vegetables, you know, cut back on the fruit so much, but ask or kale to smoothie out blueberries, but look at your your breakfast first and just change your breakfast for about a month, and then work on your lunch. And then finally work on your dinner. So, you know, if you just start slow, then your body becomes adjusted to it and you'll feel a lot more healthier.   Stacey Simms  28:17 What's your favorite movie?   Chef Mark Allison  28:18 Actually, when I used to be the director of culinary nutrition for the dog food company, I came up with a smoothie that obviously included bananas. It had almond milk, bananas and coffee. And that was a coffee fix up and the number of people that complimented that smoothie was unbelievable. But my favorite smoothies as always got blueberries and because blueberries are one of the best fruits you can eat for your memory as you get older and talk about with blueberries and spinach I use gave a banana and I use almond milk and a handful of almonds. And that saves me all the way through to lunch.   Stacey Simms  28:55 I liked spinach, mango and Domino.   Chef Mark Allison  28:58 That's Like mangoes my favorite fruit. Ah,   Stacey Simms  29:02 I'll tell you what, I use the frozen mango because it keeps it cold and gives it that exactly feel. But I was a big I was very reluctant to put anything green in a smoothie. I thought it was disgusting. I really did. I really did. And finally my husband convinced me and it's delicious. I'm shocked shocked. Yeah,   Chef Mark Allison  29:25 you can get your best and fishy and all that as spinach has got more protein than the average piece of meat weird for weird. So if you put four ounces of spinach in your smoothie, then that's got actually more protein than four ounces of beef. So probably I hit it right yeah. Spinach and spinach is one of the best foods in the world you can eat that as well as kale.   Stacey Simms  29:47 Yeah I'm still I'm not around to kale but maybe I'll try it all if I could. Finish I can try to   Chef Mark Allison  29:55 kill you can get away with in smoothie and solid j the like it are you doing   Stacey Simms  30:00 Exactly. All right, well, that's a great idea. Um, and then I know you said start with breakfast, move on to, and then ultimately do your dinners. But I have to ask for people who are listening who have younger kids, easy suggestions for dinners that the kids can help with? Is there anything that comes to mind that you did with your boys,   Chef Mark Allison  30:17 you know, you can always make your own chicken nuggets, that easy to make. In fact, there's a recipe in the book for that. But start with things that they actually like. And then just all the some of the ingredients to more healthy ingredients. Because most of the things you can buy in fast food outlets, or and most restaurants, you can replicate at home and make them a lot more healthier. It's just like anything. If you want to learn something, you'll take the time to learn. And to me, the good thing about coupon is it's a social event that actually gets people together. And it's a great way when my wife passed away five years ago, that was one of the things I insisted with my boys that every night we went in the kitchen now five years on We do exactly the same thing they were, they can't wait to get in the kitchen, see what we're going to eat that night. And usually they choose one of the evening meals during the week. And then we'll all muck in together all your sleeves up, we'll all cook together. And then again, I said, we actually sit down at the kitchen table and spend the next 30 to 90 minutes just having a conversation, which is fabulous. It's the highlight of my day.   Stacey Simms  31:22 I'll tell you what, it really is an amazing thing when you can get everybody away from their electronics sitting at the table. You know, we set we did that too. We set the table every night. Yeah. Even if we're bringing in, we do bring in occasionally, you know, it goes on the table, it comes out of the takeout.   Chef Mark Allison  31:39 What is social experience food is this food is one of the one things that will bring people together. And even if it doesn't turn out great. You can all have a laugh about it. And just try it again the next day. You know, nobody's gonna have a fight over a burnt pancake. You know, they you're just gonna laugh about it and say, You know what, I'm gonna cry better tomorrow.   Stacey Simms  31:58 You know, I'm glad to hear you say that because I I've been there many times. Before I let you go, you know, your life has been so interesting to be touched by type one diabetes in your family. And then of course, you've had that unbelievable experience with cancer and losing your wife and I'm so sorry, Mark, but now working with people who are honestly dependent on you to teach them better ways to manage health, whether it is diabetes, or trying to avoid complications from other illnesses. And I'm curious, you know, when you do meet with these people having, as you said, you started with, you know, French cuisine, fancy restaurants fancy chefs, now you're meeting with people who may not even understand how to fry an egg. You What was   Chef Mark Allison  32:39 that been like? Interesting.   Before, before I took this job, I was a culinary instructor for 20 years, so I could have dealt with a lot of people and different learning needs. And it all always comes back to the basics. If you can pick up the basics of anything that You'll be successful. So when you consider, I'm now working for the health department and I didn't realize these stocks until I actually started working for the health department. But 85% of all chronic diseases such as heart disease, type two diabetes, obviously not type one, and cancer are food related. And we live in an epidemic at the minute with the rise of type two diabetes, and the continuing rise of heart disease and cancer. And if people just realize that food is so important to prevent heart disease and cancer and type two diabetes, but also it's so important once you've got one of these diseases, to actually improve your immune system by eating healthy food, and the healthiest foods on the planet are fruits and vegetables, nuts, seeds, beans, seeds, and lean proteins and lean dairies. You've got to look at your food supply, try not to eat so much processed food because that's where all the additives are. That's where they put in the colorings the preservatives. You can't buy a loaf of bread that was moldy in a day. And now, you know that loaf of bread will stand there without gathering more for a week to two weeks. Now that isn't good. You know, actually, I just had fresh bread last night. I couldn't get any bread at the store yesterday. So I decided to get the flour out and I had some dry yeast. And making bread is so easy, it took less than five minutes. But just look at the food that you generally eat. And just try to you know, when you consider the rising costs of health insurance, every year, it goes up and up. And you will know because I know with Matthew's insulin and equipment for his pump, it just gets more and more expensive for free and, but if you're healthy, then look at that as being a lifesaver for you, as far as money is concerned, because if you can stay healthy and off prescription medication, you're gonna literally save thousands of dollars every year, and your life is gonna live longer, and you're going to enjoy life more. So A lot of it's all about prevention. But if you do have an illness, then really look at your diet, because the food, it's food is not medicine, but it can help in a way that will make you feel good about yourself and make you lose weight. And it'll keep you alive a lot longer if you pick the right food choices. And the right food choices are eat more fruits and vegetable.   Stacey Simms  35:22 Well, I really appreciate you spending some time with us. It's just always wonderful to talk with you. I'm glad your boys are doing well. Everybody's home now.   Chef Mark Allison  35:29 Everybody, so yeah, everybody. So James got led over school for the next two weeks, possibly more, who knows? Matthews at college, but he's at home at the minute and he's just doing everything online. And then unfortunately, my son who works in a restaurant, he just got laid off yesterday. But you know what, things could be a lot worse. We've just got to knuckle down and stay healthy and hopefully this virus hopefully will be gone in two or three weeks in the golf fleet. The nation can get back to normal. Yes, I hope so, too.   Stacey Simms  35:59 Mark, thank you so much for joining me, we will link up all the information about the book, we'll see how I can go about posting a recipe or two. And I'm just wishing you and your boys All the best. Thank you so much for talking with me.   Chef Mark Allison  36:10 Thank you for having me on the show and you and your family stay safe and stay healthy. And hopefully we'll catch you up with another diabetic conference.   Stacey Simms  36:19 Yeah, hopefully down the road and everything is rescheduled. I think the best thing is gonna be it's gonna be a very busy fall, I think.   Chef Mark Allison  36:25 I think   Unknown Speaker  36:32 you're listening to diabetes connections with Stacey Sims.   Stacey Simms  36:38 Lots more information at the episode homepage. And of course, as I mentioned, we'll put some of the recipes and other information Mark was very generous and giving me an excerpt from the book. I will put that in the Facebook group, diabetes connections, the group, I don't care what he says I am not trying to kill smoothie. I've been there done that. But for somebody like me, having a green smoothie is a big step. I do eat a lot of vegetables. But I never thought I'd like smoothie. But like I said, the spinach smoothie was great. So he just like he said, one new thing, one new thing. Try it, see if you like it. You know, I've tried to teach my kids, although my husband is a really good cook, and he's done a much better job of teaching the kids actual cooking skills, but I try to teach them that mistakes are okay, which is coming out of my mouth. I just realized that just sounds like everything else I say with diabetes. But I mean, it's my philosophy of cooking too, because I make a ton of mistakes and everything somehow tastes good. I mean, sure, I've burned things. The first book I wrote was, I can't cook but I know someone who can. Actually Mark has a recipe. That book is a wonderful recipe. The conceit of that book is that I can't cook so I went and asked all of my restaurant and Chef friends for recipes. And it was a big book for charity for jdrf. And it was a lot of fun, but I did write a whole bunch of kitchen disaster stories into that book. Yeah, I think my life philosophy is make all the mistakes. Hey, it's working out so far. Up next, tell me something good. But first diabetes Connections is brought to you by dexcom. We have been Using the dexcom g six since it came out almost two years ago is that possible? It is just amazing. The dexcom g six is FDA permitted for no finger sticks for calibration and diabetes treatment decisions. You do that to our warm up and then the number just pops up if you like us have used x come for a long time before that. It's really wild to see the number just kind of self populate. You just have to do a lot more finger sticks for calibration. We've been using the dexcom for a long time. It was six years this past December and it just keeps getting better. The G six has longer sensor were 10 days and the new sensor applicator is so much easier to use. And of course the alerts and alarms we can set them how we want if your glucose alerts and readings from the G six do not match symptoms or expectations. Use a blood glucose meter to make diabetes treatment decisions. To learn more, go to diabetes connections comm and click on that dexcom logo   and tell me something good this week. If you saw this post on social media you might have thought Stacy, you're telling me something good backgrounds are usually blue. Why was this one orange? Well, that's because my friends It featured mac and cheese. So let me tell you about Ty Gibbs. Ty is a swimmer at Henderson State University in Arkansas. He was diagnosed in 2017. It was actually very serious. He was being rushed to the hospital at the time. He was in intensive care. He spent time in the ICU, but his mom Cheryl says as he was rushed into the ICU, he was just starving. And he kept asking for mac and cheese over and over again every year since we celebrate with a ton of mac and cheese. So this tells me something good on social media the photo if you saw it was his teammates and friends celebrating his diversity with seven pounds of mac and cheese and a cake. You want to talk about a carb explosion? No, of course the celebration took place weeks ago. I believe this has And very early in March or maybe it was even in late February when they actually celebrated it before the social distancing was taking effect. But I really appreciate Cheryl sharing this story. I love the idea of celebrating with a mac and cheese. That would be something for my daughter more so than my son. When the kids are left to lane. They were asked to empty their dorm rooms of food. They weren't ordered to it was a food drive for people in New Orleans. And a lot of these kids like my daughter, most kids into lane are from far away. So a lot of them were jumping on planes or getting out of there and going long distances and didn't want to pack up everything in their dorm room. So the school organized a big food drive. And I tell you all this because my daughter donated her mac and cheese. I know she had other junk in her room that she didn't share with me but oh my gosh, she's definitely the mac and cheese lover in the family. So thanks, Ty and congratulations on your dire versary hopefully next year we can celebrate again we'll send you some mac and cheese to our other Tell me something good comes from Laura Bilodeau. A familiar name to many of you. She is the powerhouse, behind the friends for life conferences and so much more with children with diabetes. But recently, Laura found herself in the unusual situation of asking for help. She has connected thousands of people over the years. It's no exaggeration, the friends for life conference is 20 years old. And the children with diabetes organization is older than that. And I'm telling you, they have connected so many people to each other, for help for education for inspiration for friendships, including me, I've made so many friends there. But her son actually needed to help her adult son doesn't live with them, but with everything that was going on, came back home to Michigan a couple of weeks ago, and they were having trouble with diabetes supplies. They had been I'm not going to go through all the details. But like many of us, you know, they had insurance issues, somebody wasn't following through. The supply wasn't coming when it was supposed to come. And so they turn to the diabetes community for help. And as we always do, People reached out and so she posted a great picture about two weeks ago now almost that Mike Hoskins who's also been on the show is a great writer over a diabetes mine and his wife Susie. They met for coffee although they met you can see the picture. They're six feet apart each Zingerman's coffee roastery which was still open for takeout and this picture looks great. I bet that's a terrific coffee place. I'd love to check it out if I'm ever in town there but of course the big deal was that Michael was able to help her with the supplies that she needed. Is your community doing that we're having a lot of that here in the Charlotte area where people are just reaching out I already no surprise gave insulin to a friend of mine who's got an adult son who does not have insurance and is really struggling right now. So we were able to donate to them. I've got friends who had you know my Omni pod PDM knocked out and you know, they're going to get us a new one but does anybody have one in the meantime? Anybody spare sensor, little things like that goes such a long way. You know, I mean, they say little things. They They're really not when you come to rely on this stuff day to day could we go without except for the insulin? Of course, we would do finger pokes, we would use shots. But you know, you don't want to be without this technology once you have it. So way to go. Mike Hoskins way to go Laura Bilodeau, because it's tough to ask for help, especially when you've always been in the position of providing it. I'm so glad everybody got what they needed. All right, tell me something good. It's the best segment of the show each week. Tell me what you got. You can send it in Stacy at diabetes connections calm posted in the Facebook group. Or if I see it like I did, Laura, I'll just get your permission to share your story. But I really love when you send them in. So keep them coming and tell me something good.   Not too much to say here before I let you go. I do apologize for sort of the weirdness of the schedule. I always pride myself on every week the consistency of getting the show out there on Tuesdays and then those mini episodes I was doing on Thursdays foot, gosh, I feel I bet you feel the same. It's almost like time has been Meaning right now. Right? what day of the week? Is it? am I eating breakfast? Am I having cocktails? You know, it's just a crazy time right now. So I am giving myself the grace to put out episodes when they make sense. I am listening to podcasts right now when I am listening, that are entertaining and distract me. I'm listening to a lot of my Game of Thrones podcasts, a lot of my history podcasts, a lot of podcasts that make me laugh. So I'm not that concerned about getting my news up to date from podcasts. I hope an episode like this, you know, gave you 40 minutes or 50 minutes. I honestly don't know where that's going to come out to yet of distraction entertainment, something good to think about and a feeling that you're not alone. As we go forward in these weeks, I'm not sure just like everything else. I'm not sure what the podcast production schedule is gonna look like. Of course, I have my sponsors and I will do what is responsible and we'll get those episodes out. But I really liked connecting on zoom calls, Facebook Live, other things like that. So as with everything else after this is over We'll see what the podcast landscape looks like, right? I mean, who knows? I hope to keep doing this, but we shall see. We'll see where you all are. It's gonna be a long, long time before things go back to quote normal. And I don't know what that's going to look like. I do hope and expect that we will be in it together as we have been as the diabetes community always is. So please let me hear from you. Tell me what's on your mind. And I really appreciate you tuning in. As always, thank you to my editor john Pugh kennis of audio editing solutions. JOHN, I hope you're staying safe in Philadelphia and doing well and that your kids are alright as well. And thank you, as always for listening. Stay safe. I'll see you soon and more now than ever before. Be kind to yourself.   Unknown Speaker  45:50 Diabetes Connections is a production of Stacey Sims media. All rights reserved. All rounds avenged.   Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Jayson: Welcome to this episode of The Ankylosing Spondylitis Podcast. This is going to be really a neat episode because I've got James Allen on the line. James is a fellow ankylosing spondylitis person. And James has developed a really cool app called Chronic Insights. And James, how are you doing today? James: Hi, Jayson. I'm not too bad today. Yeah, you know, the usual ups and downs, aches and pains, as we all know, but yeah, today, I guess is about, I'd say, three or four out of 10 on the pain scale, so not too bad. How are you? Jayson: Oh, I'm doing great. Today was my Cosentyx day. So that means we're gonna have a good day. I've learned something new. As people that are listening to the show. I learned a new word and I want to share it and it's called Kip, and I have no idea that that's a British word for taking a nap. James: Yeah, sometimes if you're feeling really tired, you just need to go have a Kip for 10 minutes. Jayson: There we go. What a cool word man. That is awesome. So James, why we are talking is not only just because you have Ankylosing Spondylitis, but I first want to talk about Chronic Insights for a few minutes. Tell the listeners, what is it, what can they do with this app? Because it's really cool, but I'd rather have you tell them. James: So Chronic Insights is essentially, it's a symptom diary. It's an app that I've been working on for about a year now. You can it's available on the Google Play Store, and also on testflight, which is Apple's version of beta testing. So not officially released yet. It's really version 1.0. It's a bit rough around the edges and I'm looking to get people to try it out for me and give me some feedback. And what it does is quite simple really allows you to record your symptoms throughout the day, whether that's pain or fatigue, stiffness, anxiety, mobility issues, any symptom that you want to track. So it's mainly for people with chronic pain or chronic fatigue, people like us with Ankylosing Spondylitis, or other potentially other conditions as well like Fibromyalgia or other forms of arthritis, Endometriosis. I mean, the list is endless the number of conditions which involved chronic pain and fatigue. So you can record say, right now, I mentioned before, I'm probably about three out four out of 10. I can just record that in the app, it's captured. I don't have to remember that. I can also record where on the body the pain is. So at the moment, it's kind of my middle of my back right now, but throughout the day, it shifts and changes maybe it'll be my shoulders layer, or my hips, and so buying, tracking and recording throughout the day, you can then look back on your symptoms and see, what are the trends or the patterns? What are the things that I've trained that have potentially impacted my symptoms? And and what does that look like when you look at the, the graphs and the charts that are available? And what does it look like visually on the body, as are there particular areas of the body, they're affected more or less over, you know, on average. So that's, that's essentially what it does in an in a nutshell. Jayson: As you said, you can record the different items through the day, but you can record them the way the graphs are set up in there. If I'm having pain in my spine, I can actually pull up the copy of a skeleton and circle the spine. If I'm having muscle pain, I can pull up a full body image, not me but just have a representation and circle the part of the body that is hurting so maybe it's your rib cage and it's hurting one day, but it's your Left leg the next day. You can you can adjust and it's not just some, you know, static figure you're able to bounce back and forth between skeletal and muscular pain. James: Yes. I mean, that was one of the main goals of creating the app because there are other symptom diaries out there on the app stores. And I tried quite a few of them myself when I decided I wanted to start managing... Support this podcast

This Q and A topic is all about communication in marriage. Which we mention often in almost every episode because it is such a vital component of marriage. You have to talk to each other! We answer several questions that were submitted by our listeners. Please enjoy. Read Transcript[Aaron] Hey, we're Aaron and Jennifer Smith with Marriage After God. [Jennifer] Helping you cultivate an extraordinary marriage. [Aaron] And today we're gonna answer your questions about communication in marriage. Welcome to the Marriage After God podcast, where we believe that marriage was meant for more than just happily ever after. [Jennifer] I'm Jennifer, also known as Unveiled Wife. [Aaron] And I'm Aaron, also known as Husband Revolution. [Jennifer] We have been married for over a decade. [Aaron] And so far we have four young children. [Jennifer] We have been doing marriage ministry online for over seven years through blogging and social media. [Aaron] With the desire to inspire couples to keep God at the center of their marriage, encouraging them to walk in faith every day. [Jennifer] We believe the Christian marriage should be an extraordinary one, full of life. [Aaron] Love. [Jennifer] And power. [Aaron] That can only be found by chasing after God. [Jennifer] Together. [Aaron] Thank you for joining us in this journey as we chase boldly after God's will for our life together. [Jennifer] This is Marriage After God. [Aaron] Hey everyone, welcome back to another episode of Marriage After God. It's actually the last episode of season three. So if you've been following along, we're gonna be taking a break, we're about to have a baby. If you've been listening to the last few episodes, you know that. And so, we're gonna have a little break. And then we're gonna come back in another season, in season four. We don't have a date for that yet, which is fine. [Jennifer] We'll let you guys know on social media. [Aaron] Yeah. And then, we'll do some new episodes. And so, just as a side note, if you have topic ideas for the new season, go ahead and shoot those in a message to us on Instagram at @marriageaftergod. But, today we're gonna be answering some questions from the audience, but before we get to the questions we like to talk about some things in life, but really, this first thing I wanna talk about is, I wanna encourage everyone listening today, because I know that there's a lot of fears, there's a lot of anxiety going around with the coronavirus, with things that are happening in the world, and I think some of them are legitimate things to be thinking about and considering. We wanna be wise people, that's what the Bible talks about. We don't wanna just pretend that none of this stuff's gonna affect us. But, my encouragement is to remind everyone listening that our trust is not in this world. Our trust is not in the vaccine that they might come out with. Our trust is not in the government. Our trust is not in the healthcare system. Our trust is not even our bodies. [Jennifer] Or money. [Aaron] Or money. The Bible is very clear where are trust lies, and that when we trust in anything other than God, other than His son Jesus, that trust is faulty, that hope is false, and we're actually insecure in those hopes. So I just wanted to point our hearts and our minds back to the Giver of Life. To the One that we look forward to, the One where our hope should lie, which is in Jesus Christ. Guys, one day we're gonna be with Him forever, and we're gonna have new bodies, we're gonna be healthy, He's gonna make the world right. All these things that are in the world, the destruction, the death, the injustices, the sickness, the pestilence, all those things are going to be made right. And so, once this thing passes, and whatever the damage is going to be, we don't know. But there's always gonna be something else. That's why our eyes need to be on Christ. And so I just hope that if you're having anxieties about this, the Bible tells us how to deal with our anxieties, it's to lift up our request to the Lord with thanksgiving, and to pray to Him. And He says He'll give us a peace that surpasses all understanding. And what I love about that is that our peace in God is completely standalone from everything in our life. That it doesn't matter what's going on in the world, it doesn't matter what's going on in our life, it doesn't matter about our circumstances. You could be like Paul, in prison and be praising God. You can be like Peter in prison, writing letters to the church. You could be in the midst of whatever it is that this world and that the enemy, or whatever it is, wants to throw at you, and you can have complete and perfect peace in Jesus. And so, I just wanted to quickly encourage everyone with that. [Jennifer] No, it was really good. I think that there is just a lot of attention specifically on the coronavirus. What I would say is, it is important to pay attention to what's going on in the world, current events and things like that, but-- [Aaron] Wisdom is good. [Jennifer] When we get those thoughts of fear, or anxiety, or frustration even, we need to remember that even in those times we need to submit those feelings to the Lord, and ask Him to guide us, to lead us, to give us wisdom on how to approach the situation and deal with it. And then remember that our bodies are gonna fail us. Our bodies are gonna get sick. There's gonna be, if it's not this thing, it's another thing, and so we just need to be able to trust the Lord that He knows what's gonna happen to us. He knows everything. [Aaron] He's knows all, He's omniscient. [Jennifer] So we can trust that. [Aaron] We can totally trust Him. And again, this isn't to say do not be wise, like we be wise, if we can make that take measures we do, but we have to remember that we could take every perfect measure, we could take every precaution, we can totally stock up what on whatever, just imagine it, whatever you think you could do to prepare, and your trust in that would still be faulty. Because none of that is actually secure. So, our trust is only good when it's in Christ. So, be prepared to the level that you can, and let the Lord have your fears and rest in Him. That's our encouragement. [Jennifer] Another thing that we wanted to share with you guys is just how incredibly blessed we feel for our relationship with Hobby Lobby. And, I don't know if you guys all know but they carry our books. [Aaron] Which was a total God thing, because there was no way that we were connected with them. I wasn't reaching out. We didn't reach out to them. They actually reached out to us and asked if they could carry our books, and I think it's so awesome. It's one of the cheapest places you can get our books. [Aaron] The cheapest place. [Jennifer] And, who doesn't love Hobby Lobby? I mean, just to be able to go there and peruse, and look at everything. [Aaron] People who've never been to one. [Jennifer] Well, if you haven't been to one, you should go check one out. I'm sure there's one near you. If you're near one, yeah. [Jennifer] But I just wanted to first give a shout out to Hobby Lobby and say thank you. Thank you for being someone who advocates for books like ours, and resources that point people back to God. And I also just wanna thank everyone who has been picking them up and buying them from Hobby Lobby, 'cause that keeps our relationship with them good. [Aaron] That reminds me, I love when people go into Hobby Lobby and they take a picture. And they #hobbylobbyfinds. So if you ever do that, we love to re-share those. So if you are in a Hobby Lobby and you pick up a copy of our books, please take a picture of it, and we'll probably re-share it on our Instagram. [Jennifer] Just make sure you tag us @marriageaftergod so that we see it. [Aaron] Exactly, 'cause if you don't tag us, we don't know. But yeah, so that's just a couple of things, just encouragement on the chaos in the world that had our peace. And then just, we're incredibly blessed and honored by Hobby Lobby and their partnership with us. That, to be honest, I don't think we deserve. I don't think we've, it's a God thing, that He set this up and we just wanna give Him the glory for that. [Jennifer] And if you're like me and you have been wanting to order our books, and you want it today, you can go pick one up today. You don't have to order it online and then wait for it. They have them in stock. And they're in every Hobby Lobby, which is amazing. So, it doesn't matter which one, unless they're out of stock. But they carry them everywhere. [Jennifer] Once I know what I want, it's so hard to wait when I do online shopping and stuff. I just wanna go get everything. [Aaron] But now Amazon has one day shipping, which is crazy. [Jennifer] I don't know how they do it. [Aaron] I don't either. But it gets here. Okay, so, one last thing, we have a another prayer challenge. I don't know if you've taken the marriage prayer challenge yet. Over 50,000 people have taken the marriage prayer challenge, which is incredible. So, we have this new challenge called the parenting prayer challenge, and it's a prayer challenge for you to pray for your son or your daughter, or both. Or all of them. Or all of them. Depending on how many kids you have. Yeah, all your kids. And it's completely free. Just got to parentingprayerchallenge.com and fill out the form and choose who you wanna pray for, and we'll start sending emails every day. [Jennifer] You guys might be wondering how it's set up because, obviously, they're not individualized prayers for you and your child, but they're prompts. So, it'll suggest pray for this specific thing, and then, as you're praying, you're making it personal because you know your family best. [Aaron] And it's a scheduled daily reminder. So you get this email, it says hey, you're gonna pray for your son right now, and here's what you should pray for. And it's not to replace your prayer life, it's to encourage it, inspire it, and give you a new outlook on your prayer life, and maybe expand upon it. One more time, it's parentingprayerchallenge.com to go sign up for the parenting prayer challenge. [Jennifer] All right so, this last episode of the season is a Q&A. We polled the community, the Marriage After God community, and Unveiled Wife and Husband Revolution, and we asked you guys to submit your questions, specifically about communication in marriage. And so, first of all, we just wanna thank everyone who sent us your questions. It's been cool to be able to poll the questions from the audience from Instagram, from you guys, and to answer them here. It makes me feel more connected and I love it. [Aaron] They often ask things that I'm not even thinking about. I'm like oh, that's a good question. So, it's really fun that we ask you guys. It also makes us feel like we're connected with you on another level. So, if you follow us on Instagram, that's usually where we poll our audience. You could follow @marriageaftergod, or @unveiledwife, or @husbandrevolution. We're gonna be doing Q&A's often, so if you see us pop a question and ask you to give us your questions, just submit them there, and we store them and we pick from them, and we try and answer them on here. [Jennifer] Yeah, and just let you guys know because of timing, we don't always get through every question, and so if you're listening and you're like, "I know I submitted a question "for communication in marriage," and we didn't answer it, please reach back out to us and just let us know, and maybe we can just answer it on Instagram for you. [Aaron] Or on the next time. [Jennifer] Or on the next Q&A. [Aaron] Cool. So, before we jump into the questions, why don't we just talk about some of the scriptures that, when I think about communication, these scriptures aren't just, they're not necessarily communication between a spouse. But it's-- [Jennifer] With each other. [Aaron] Yeah, it's with [Both] people. With one anothers in the church. [Jennifer] Very applicable to marriage. [Aaron] So I'm just gonna read through a handful of scriptures. [Jennifer] I'll read the first one 'cause it's shorter. You read the second one. [Aaron] All right. [Jennifer] Psalm 141:3 says, "Set a guard, O Lord, over my mouth; "keep watch over the door of my lips." [Aaron] Yeah, and I pulled some of these scriptures to just show what a biblical perspective over our mouth is. And the things that we say. In Matthew 12:33 Jesus is talking to the Pharisees, and He says this, "Either make a tree good and its fruit good, "or make a tree bad and its fruit bad. For the tree is known by its fruit." [Jennifer] Like we know a peach tree is a peach tree because it has peaches. [Aaron] Or it's one of those fruit salad trees. [Jennifer] Well, that would be confusing. [Aaron] Which totally ruins the analogy. But anyways, "You brood of Vipers, "how can you speak good when you are evil? "For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. "The good person out of his good treasure "brings forth good, and the evil person of the evil treasure "brings forth evil. "I tell you, on the day of judgment, "people will give account "for every careless word they speak. "For by your words you will be justified, "and by your words you will be condemned." [Jennifer] So what you're saying is words are powerful? [Aaron] They matter, yeah. We need to know that, we can't, like this specifically, and we just talked about this, actually, the other day, we say something and then we say I'm just venting, or I'm just kidding. But in reality if, it's coming from somewhere, those words that we just conjured up out of our mouth. They came from somewhere, and so we need to be careful and aware, like wait, so I said this thing and I wanted to make it sound like it wasn't that bog of a deal, but why did I say that? Why did I say that about so and so? [Jennifer] If someone has self control of their tongue, and they think, they're about to say something, but they decide not to, which is good, I would say they still need to evaluate their heart and question why was that even on the tip of my tongue? [Aaron] Why did it come out so quickly? And often, I would imagine this is about people in our life, and then if we say something so quickly, even if it's to someone in confidence, and we think, wait, am I actually angry at this person, or am I actually annoyed by this person, or bothered, or judgmental or whatever? And we have to think about that 'cause sometimes that comes out of our mouth and it's not from a pure heart. [Jennifer] And I'll say this, words cut deep, and when, especially in marriage, you see that person, you just see their face and you're reminded of what they've said, either recently or years ago. And you can hear them saying it in your mind, over and over again. And so, I think we just need to be reminded that we have a huge responsibility with our words. [Aaron] The next verse is from James, but there's another verse in James that we didn't write down here, that talks about having control of your tongue, and how the tongue is a, it's a small member of a body, but it's actually like a flame that can start a fire. And you're in the members of your body. It's also talked about as a rudder, something that, you have a large ship that is controlled by such a little thing. The things we say actually matter to a point of it directing our lives. But it starts off with saying, if someone has complete control over their tongue, they're a perfect man. So, we all know that we don't have complete control over our tongue 'cause we're not Jesus. Jesus was perfect. And everything He said was controlled. [Jennifer] So, when we're not perfect, and we're not controlled, what's our response should be? [Aaron] Repentance. At least recognizing it and saying, whoa, what I said was off. [Jennifer] Apology, reconciliation. [Aaron] I know I can't put those words back. It's like toothpaste, it comes out, you can't put the toothpaste back in the tube. So James 1:19-20 says, "Know this my beloved brothers, "let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, "slow to anger, for the anger of man does not produce "the righteousness of God." So this is more a practical tip of, hey, to save yourself from saying something you don't mean, [Jennifer] Be slow. [Aaron] Be slower to say it, probably stop yourself. [Jennifer] I just wanna say, it also says be quick to hear. And I think, sometimes we wanna justify the things that we say. [Aaron] What? [Jennifer] We're not actually listening to how our words are affecting the other person, and so I think, I know you said this is practical, a really practical tip is just questioning, evaluating, making sure that you're being a good listener in your marriage. [Aaron] Listening to yourself, and listening to the person talking to you. [Jennifer] And to the Holy Spirit. [Aaron] Yeah, and to the Holy Spirit. [Jennifer] Okay, next one Proverbs 12:18, "There is one whose rash words are like sword thrusts, "but the tongue of the wise brings healing." [Aaron] Again, showing the power of our words towards others. [Jennifer] Such vivid imagery there. [Aaron] Here's one, Proverbs 18:2, "A fool takes no pleasure in understanding, "but only expresses his own opinion." So, we have to be careful about this, this is something I've struggled with in the past, my foolishness of just only interested in sharing my opinion. Like, oh, well let me tell you what I think, let me tell you what I think, rather than listening, rather than being thoughtful, rather than actually considering the other person. I've dealt with that for sure. [Jennifer] Another one is Proverbs 18:13, "If one gives an answer before He hears," again, going back to be a good listener. [Aaron] This ever happens to me, I don't do this. I do all the time. [Jennifer] "If one gives an answer before he hears, "it is his folly and shame." [Aaron] So, the next one, and the last one, which is by far not the last verse, 'cause there's tons of scripture that talks about how we communicate and the way we communicate. Proverbs 18:21, "Death and life "are in the power of the tongue, "and those who love it will eat its fruits." So, understanding that our tongues are powerful. If we love the power of our tongue, we're going to eat the fruits of it. Meaning, if we want to share our thoughts, and we're totally fine with just speaking things, we need to be able to be aware that those words are ours, and we have to own them. [Jennifer] All right, so that was just a little foundational prep for communication in marriage, just looking at a biblical way to communicate with your spouse. [Aaron] And get a perspective on how we use our words. [Jennifer] 'Cause honestly, no matter what question we answer, that was probably the most important that you hear today. [Aaron] Yeah, the scripture. Not our words, the Bible's words. Always. So, question one from the community says, how do you two come together and talk about your dreams as a couple and as a family? [Jennifer] Oh cool, I like that it's as a couple and as a family. Which we do talk about, dreaming together, in "Marriage After God", and I just love that chapter. Just because it's something that Aaron and I have found a lot of joy in. [Aaron] It's fun. [Jennifer] It's fun. And what we do is, we look at our life and we say, okay God, what do you wanna do with us? And we get to talk about it. [Aaron] How would you say, how have we been doing it over the last few years? [Jennifer] So, our biggest, probably dreaming session, as a couple happens at the end of the year, and we take time to go over what did that last year look like? What's still on our plate? And what things do we wanna try and accomplish in that next year? And it takes a good three hours or more to get through. [Aaron] But they're fun. [Jennifer] Just because it's a lot, but it's so fun, and we do it over dinner. And then we have checkups throughout the year, when things change, circumstances change, or goals change, or we accomplish things sooner than later. So, we just check in with each other throughout the year. [Aaron] Or we're in the middle of a goal, accomplishing a goal, and we evaluate, is this what we really want? Now that we're in the middle of this thing, which we've done. [Jennifer] I will say this, our dreams don't come from nowhere. Well, for one thing, there's seeds planted by God that we feel really strongly about that God gives us these desires that we have. But we also, what we call the tool belt, our marriage tool belt, we look at what we have, and we go from there. [Aaron] Yeah, and it's not like, we talk about this in the book a lot more, the practical side of it. We're not just throwing out, and casting a line out as far as possibly, and trying to see what we can grab. We look at what God is doing in our life, what we've already accomplished, in Christ, of course. [Jennifer] It's like we take that next step. [Aaron] And we say okay, if we have any money, we say okay, how do You want us to use this money? Our home, our cars, our business? And then we even talk about things that we would love to explore and pursue. And we hold all of it loosely, pretty much usually, right? [Jennifer] Yeah. 'Cause there's nothing we can guarantee. [Jennifer] Another fun way to do this is, on those smaller check ins or smaller dreaming sessions, when we like to talk about it, we like to go on a drive, let's say like a 40 minute drive. It's super fun. We're both buckled in. Can't leave the conversation. And we just talk about it there. But, I love doing this and I think that, over the years, Aaron, wouldn't you agree, that it's something that's been cultivated in our marriage because of our intentionality? It's not really something that is just gonna happen on its own, but it's also something that, I don't know, we put the time in to do it. [Aaron] Well, I'll say this, and this would be my one tip in this section, is yes, it needs to be scheduled. So, you and your spouse need to say, we are going to do this, and we're gonna do it on this date. So it's on the calendar. And then the other part is, setting actual goals, writing them down. So, for us, you may not be us, you're goals are gonna look different. Maybe they'll be the same, but, we'll say we want to have this book self published, or traditionally published next year or this year. Or, usually, the traditionally published is a little bit more out of our control. But, self publishing, we wanna have this book published by this date. And then that one goal gives us a whole list of tasks that need to be accomplished before, for that goal to happen. And so, setting that goal and giving it a realistic time frame, and writing it down on paper, and verbalizing it out loud. [Jennifer] The success rate is so much higher. [Aaron] Oh yeah. [Jennifer] Let's use finances. If we had a goal for finances and we just talked about it-- [Aaron] We wanna save $1000. [Jennifer] By next week, we would have forgotten what the plan was. So it's like, oh yeah, we talked about that, I think. So, when you go to write something down, I feel like it's super helpful. [Aaron] The finances is actually a good one. I would imagine almost everyone has some sort of financial goals. Maybe getting out of debt, or saving for a vacation, or pay for college, or who knows what it is? And so, setting the goal, a realistic goal, the thing that you know you can attain, and you can come up with those strategies of, we're going to save $10 a month, or $100 a month, or we're not going to buy this thing every week. When you do that, and you say it out loud, there's now accountability as well. So, something comes up and you could spend the money on it, and you both look at each other and be like, are we willing to cast out that goal we set four months ago? No? Then we have to say no to this. Even though it's difficult. And so now you both are on the same page. And man, that actually feels like victorious. You're like wow, we just said no to something that we really wanted, because there's this better thing down the road that we're saving for. So, I would say set those goals, put them on paper, say them out loud, put them on the refrigerator, put them on a chalkboard, make them visible. And it's true, your success rate exponentially grows. [Jennifer] Again, I really like the second part of this question 'cause they also wanna know how do you do it as a family? So, you have kids involved. I'd say, as our family, Aaron, you are really good about leading our kids through these things, and prompting their hearts, and preparing their hearts. [Aaron] Well, thank you. [Jennifer] And just asking them really good questions. Our children are still pretty young, so we don't download every dream or goal to them. We don't feel the need to explain everything, but as we talk about dreaming together, and as we set goals we do keep the impact it will have on our family in mind. [Aaron] Well, always, yeah. [Jennifer] And so, we share it with our kids, and we'll talk about it, and we'll invite them to participate in the ways that they can. [Aaron] And I would say, because we have this pattern of setting goals and dreaming together, we teach our kids how to do it. So, I'll tell my son, and he's drawing, and he might get to a point of not wanting to complete the thing he's creating. And then I'll tell him, I'll be like, hey, do you wanna be a really good artist one day? And he'll be like, "Yeah." I'll be like well, the way people become really good artists is a lot of practice. I said, so I know that it's difficult to finish this, or you wanna move on to the next thing, and I totally get that because you're excited but, there's a lot of value in you sitting and finishing this and coloring it, and you'll see a completed work. So, that's a little way of teaching my son on how to set a goal. [Jennifer] And that's really good, what I would call that is casting vision, 'cause you're showing him what the future would look like, but what it requires, and I think the same exact thing is important for marriage that both the husband and wife are reminding each other constantly. Because this whole episode is about communication, our words matter. We need to be encouraging each other. We need to be reminding each other, hey, remember we set this goal, hey, remember, this was our strategy, hey, this is what's gonna happen once we meet it, and encourage each other and stimulate each others hearts toward those those goals in that way. [Aaron] I totally agree. That's good. Let's move on to the second question, how do you gracefully bring up subjects that have been touchy in the past? You don't, you just skip over them, you just ignore it. I'm just kidding. No, this is a hard one 'cause sometimes you can't avoid the sensitivity of it, in some scenarios. [Jennifer] I think it's good to be sensitive to it. [Aaron] What I'm saying is not that we be just harsh, or cold about it. I'm just saying you could come, I would imagine that there's some conversations that you can come perfectly gentle, with the best intentions, with the best words, and it will still be a hard conversation. That your spouse still may take it very personally. So I would say you come cautiously, you come patiently. And I would say the number one thing is make sure your heart's right. Is your intention because you're just bothered and you want this thing to change and there they go again? Is that your heart, or is your heart that you actually care that they're growing, they're changing, they're following through with their own words, because of their integrity, 'cause you love them, and you wanna see the mature? So, if your heart is a selfish one, like, I'm gonna go deal with this because I'm offended, which doesn't mean you're not allowed to have offenses. We have to deal with our offenses. But, if it's a conversation from the past, we have a lot of these, about specific things in our life, and some things are little, and some things are big things. I would say, don't avoid them, but make sure that our hearts are right, and make sure that the intention is for actual growth and maturity in your spouse, or for healing. Do you have any tips on that? [Jennifer] Yeah, I was just gonna say that, when I go into conversations like this, I genuinely desire a good conversation about it. And, I think the most important thing that we could do, knowing that it's been touchy in the past, is pray for each other before we even get to the conversation. So, praying that I have the right heart, bringing it to the table, if I'm the one bringing it, and praying that I share in a respectful way, with the right words, words that will bring you understanding, but I also pray for your heart that, if there is sensitivity or anything like that, that you would be able to respond in an understanding way as well. That we're able to come together and have a good conversation about it. And I think that doing it with God at the center is the most important thing that we could do. [Aaron] The tip for the person having the topic brought up to is humbleness. And also, being aware of defensiveness. I do this. I get defensive, we just had a conversation and I was defensive. And you called me, and you're like, "Why are you being defensive about this?" Often, defensiveness is self preservation. It's selfish, often. And so, if we're defending ourselves, then we're not in unity, and we're also not being humble. [Jennifer] You're also not being quick to hear. [Aaron] And I'm also not being quick to hear. Thank you for reminding me of that. [Jennifer] I don't know if this helps practically but, when we go into conversations like this, I'll usually say something to Aaron like, hey, I really wanna share something with you, but, just so you know, my intention's not to upset you, or point the finger at you. It's just something that I've realized or recognized recently that I wanna talk about. Is that okay? Making sure that there's a place and a space for that conversation. You don't wanna just bring it up when you're at the dinner table, or you're walking into-- [Aaron] Right here on the podcast. Actually, I've been wanting to bring up to-- [Jennifer] No. [Aaron] Not on the podcast. [Jennifer] No. [Aaron] And then, one last note on this. I think we can get in a pattern sometimes. Some relationships are special in this way, but I think a lot of us can, in some way, have this pattern of bringing up everything. And not overlooking certain things. There's this one thing that we actually, it's not that big of a deal, but I just have to bring it up every single time 'cause I don't wanna have to deal with it ever again. And so I think, truly internally evaluating, is the thing I wanna bring up, is it a thing that needs to be brought up? Or is it something that I can actually just let go? The Bible tells us that love covers a multitude of sins. So not that we overlook sin and pretend sin doesn't exist, but if I said something one time, we're talking and I said something and you're like, "Well that was rude." But you know I didn't mean it, it doesn't need to be brought up, in that one scenario. Now, if it's a pattern, like I'm always rude, that's one thing, but if I said something, and you think, "He must've not meant that." Or, the way they are with something. Sometimes it just needs to be let go. [Jennifer] And I wanna speak to the other side, if your spouse is coming to you with something, I was gonna say something of importance, but, no matter when your spouse comes to you, how would you answer this question, does your spouse feel like they're walking on eggshells around you? Does it feel like you're here, there's a layer of eggshell around you, and they can't come that close to you? Does that make sense? [Aaron] Yeah. So I think it's important for both sides that people listening can evaluate, okay, am I being aware of what I'm bringing up, and is it necessary? And then, how are my responses towards my spouse? Am I someone who gets defensive? Am I being selfish? [Aaron] Am I being critical? Like I'm just over-critiquing my spouse. [Jennifer] Yeah, and so I think that's it's important to think about are we setting ourselves up for putting eggshells down to where no one wants to come close to us and ask us those hard things. [Aaron] And I think a good remedy for this, specifically, 'cause we're not tryna say, don't have conversations that need to happen. What we're talking about is evaluation and discernment. Is the thing that I want to bring up something that should be brought up? So my solution to that is, when you wanna bring something up, first evaluate in yourself if the thing that you're seeing or wanting to talk about in your spouse, is something that you deal with, but maybe in a different way. Because often, we're very keen to sin or issues in other people's lives that we ourselves deal with. Someone's always late to something for you and it bothers you. And then you realize that you're always late for something else. But you don't think about it. So, ask yourself, is this something that I deal with? And truly ask yourself, because if you care about it in them, you should care about it in yourself 'cause want to. So, just a little tip. [Jennifer] It's good. All right, question number three is, how do you talk to your spouse when they are distracted by their phone? Can we just skip this one? Just kidding. [Aaron] Again, I never do this. [Jennifer] Okay, repeat that for everyone to just take a minute and hear. [Aaron] How do you talk to your spouse when they are distracted by their phone? You can't. [Jennifer] We have struggled with this so much you guys. [Aaron] Before there was phones, there was TV. If you're ever sitting next to me and I'm looking at a TV, I'm not even watching what's on the TV, everything's shut off in my brain. Which is why we don't have a TV 'cause I would just sit there and I'd be gone for hours. [Jennifer] This is true, but, what I was gonna say is, before phones there was an iPod. And I remember when the first iPod came out and we were dating. [Aaron] And it only did one thing. [Jennifer] I know, one thing. And I'm sitting at a restaurant, next to you, and you've got the wire from the cord in your ear, both ears, and you're scrolling through music on your iPod. [Aaron] Now, to my defense, I had just got it. [Jennifer] You were so excited about it. [Aaron] Yeah, I was excited about it. [Jennifer] But here's the point, we do get distracted, and it's a real thing, and I think it's important to talk about. [Aaron] Yeah, I would say, and Jennifer, you've gotten good at this, Aaron, I'm tryna talk to you, can you put your phone down please? Because I didn't even know you were talking to me, and you've been talking to me. And I'm on my phone. Which we have whole episode on phones and boundaries, which is something we're constantly working on. But being free to say that, say hey, can you put your phone away? I wanna chat with you. And you've also gotten good at voicing to me how it makes you feel. You're talking to me and I-- [Jennifer] Mid-sentence you'll pull it out. [Aaron] And then I'm on my phone. Maybe it buzzed or something, and I'm on it. Or, we're talking about something, and it's something that I need to do, and so I go to do it while you're talking to me. [Jennifer] Yeah, oh gosh. [Aaron] You're like, can you-- [Jennifer] Can you wait 'til I'm done? [Aaron] Do that after we're done? I know that you're excited to do that. Yes, it's mostly on my side, sorry. I would say yeah, just get really good at voicing it, hey, can you put your phone away so we can have a chat? I know that's distracting. You're gonna get on it afterwards, but, so we're not distracted, let's put our phones away. But, be willing to receive it on both sides. 'Cause we're cellphone generation. [Jennifer] I was gonna say, I think it's important to have patience with each other because, yes, we are a part of a generation that uses technology on a daily basis. This is such a hard one because it's not just you, Aaron, it happens to both of us. But being aware and allowing your spouse to help you be aware, so not getting defensive when they say something about you being distracted on your phone. I don't know. [Aaron] A little side note about cellphones, something fun that we've done in our community for a long time, I don't know if I started it or someone else did, someone must've started it, but if see someone on their phone and they're spending time with you, just lean over and be like, hey, who you hanging out with? [Jennifer] It's kinda mean and sarcastic but. [Aaron] What's powerful about it is, oh, I'm hanging out with people on my phone, not the people that I'm actually hanging out with. But that's has nothing to do with someone distracted by their phone. If you're distracted, you just gotta ask, hey, this is an important conversation, or I wanna tell you something, can you put your phone away for just a second so we can chat? [Jennifer] I will say this, Aaron, you have been making it a point this last year to leave your phone in the car, especially-- [Aaron] On Sundays. [Jennifer] On Sundays, so that we are not distracted during fellowship time. You leave it out in the living room at bedtime, so you're not constantly scrolling in the bed. On date nights, you tend to leave it in the car. [Aaron] What I'm tryna to do is just, because I know how prone I am to just pick it up when it's near me, I'm tryna find ways of getting it away from me. Which I wish that I could do more. [Jennifer] We've also had some pretty deep encounters with our kids, where they recognize that we're on our phones in front of them, and I think we've shared this on the podcast before, but just realizing how it impacts our relationship with them as well. [Aaron] I think that's an adequate answer for now. [Jennifer] Which is, what is the solution here? [Aaron] Tell them. [Jennifer] Tell them. [Aaron] Can you please put it down so we can chat? [Jennifer] Hey, just so you know, it hurts my feelings when I'm talking to you and you're looking at your phone. Oh also, I gotta mention this, if you're in the middle of a really heavy conversation, and there's no resolve yet, but there's been silence for a while, don't just jump on the phone, that hurts so bad. Just-- [Aaron] Remain in the situation. [Jennifer] Remain in the situation, remain in the silence until it gets figured out. And if it doesn't get figured out, communicate that with each other say, hey, we're just gonna put this on pause until we can figure it out, and then move on. But don't do it without that communication. [Aaron] That's a very good point. [Jennifer] Okay, number four. [Aaron] As a wife, how do you teach yourself to respond, ask, speak respectfully to your husband? [Jennifer] So I guess I have to answer that? [Aaron] Well, it's not for me. [Jennifer] Okay, so first you have to know what respect is. I remember back when we were first going to a marriage ministry, probably in third, fourth year of our marriage, and there was a group of young wives that I was friends with, and we're hanging out one night, and I remember asking them how would you define respect? I don't remember really growing up understanding. I kinda knew it what respect was, and I could get by with a makeshift definition, but I didn't actually know what it looked like in marriage. And they didn't either. It was like they looked at me like why would you even ask that question? [Aaron] Why're you even bringing that word up in our midst? [Jennifer] And I'm just sharing that because I do think it's important to know what respect is. So Google says respect is a feeling of deep admiration for someone. So, if you want to teach yourself to respond respectfully, you should know why you respect your spouse, right? [Aaron] Right. [Jennifer] You should know why you deeply admire them. 'Cause that's what's gonna fuel you or propel you to respond that way. [Aaron] Do you think a wife can respond respectfully to husband who is not respectable. [Jennifer] That's a really hard question, and I don't feel comfortable answering it for every single person, 'cause I don't know every single situation, but I would say this as an encouragement, that there are some things that you can find to admire about a person. [Aaron] The thought I had, and I was thinking about, not a spouse, how should we respond to a stranger that we know nothing about? With honor, with respect, with kindness, right? So my point was, I think, that in pretty much most situations, on the individual level of a person who loves the Lord, we can find, even if it's not for the husband's sake, or the spouse's sake, out of my respect and love for the Lord, I'm going to speak to this person the way Christ speaks to me. [Jennifer] That's a better answer than I gave. [Aaron] I think you were being careful. I don't think your answer was bad. That's what I was thinking about is, regardless if they find something respectable, 'cause a lot of people might struggle with that, I don't respect my husband, therefore I'm gonna talk-- [Jennifer] I'm not gonna, and then that becomes a justification. [Aaron] And on both sides, I don't respect my wife because of this, this and this, therefore I'm going to, rather than treating them the way Christ wants you to treat them. [Jennifer] That's good. Well, I think that we can, just as you're talking about we can be respectful, and it's not contingent on other people. We can be respectful in our communication towards others, towards our spouse, and like you said, out of that love and admiration for the Lord. I love that. And that that will influence our relationship. My admiration for you has grown over the years. [Aaron] Totally, and vice versa. And I would say also, none of this subtracts from the kinds of things we get to say. If you need to tell someone, which you told me before about my sin in my life, what it was doing to God, what the reality of it was, but you said it so respectfully, so honoringly. And the Bible says to speak the truth in love. It doesn't say don't speak the truth because you want them to not feel bad. You can still say really difficult things to someone in a loving, respectful way. So that's just a thought I had. [Jennifer] Just to clarify too, the question was how do you teach yourself to respond, and ask, and speak respectfully? I would say the one word that comes to mind is practice. That's probably what I should have just started with. But practice. As you practice this, and as you walk in it, it will become more natural for you to respond respectfully. [Aaron] That's good. And remember who you're doing it for. It's not necessarily your spouse, it's for God, because you love the Lord. Yeah, that's good. And it goes for the husbands too. The answer is the same. Okay, so number five says, what do you do when one spouse gets tired of talking and stops listening, and refuses to respond, or to keep the conversation going? This is like that situation, we're having, it's a difficult conversation, maybe it's a frustrating conversation, maybe it's just another one of those conversations that we've had 20 times. Well, first of all, you can't control your spouse, just, I think, the quick answer is that you can't control me-- [Jennifer] You can't force them to give you an answer or or to-- [Aaron] You can lovingly say hey, it's really hurting me that you're refusing to finish this. Is there a better way we can finish it later maybe? Or can we finish it now? I would say also, being understanding in the situation of how the conversation's going. Often, these kinds of conversations are the ones that are, both spouses are at each other, both spouses are annoyed, both spouses are selfish. [Jennifer] Both probably need some humility. [Aaron] Yeah. I would say just, sometimes maybe you just need to step back and pray for your spouse and say hey, I get that you probably aren't interested right now, but we need to have this conversation. Can we do it another time? [Jennifer] I know some things that I like to do with you is, hey, I get that were not in agreement on this, can we just pray about it and close with prayer, and ask God to reveal things to you over the course of however many days, or until you talk about it again. [Aaron] And I would also say, for the one who's wanting to continue in the conversation, so one's checking out, and the one's like hey, we're not done. Maybe ask yourself, are you elongating because you haven't gotten retribution yet, or are you wanting this to keep going because you haven't convinced them yet of your side? Are you wanting to, discern and spiritually evaluate if you're wanting the right thing? Are you wanting reconciliation or you wanting to be right? Are you wanting unity or you waiting for them to yield? And this goes for the husband or the wife. And so, ask yourself, are they checking out because they're not getting to where I want them to be? And that's why I keep going. Rather than hey, are we gonna find a solution, a unifying solution? Are we gonna find reconciliation, are we gonna find a place that we're back in the right relationship with each other? Rather than I'm getting my way and they've come to my side? [Jennifer] That's good. I know I keep going back to prayer, but if your spouse is getting tired of the conversation and refusing to continue it, pray for their heart. Pray that the Lord would minister to them, and transform them, and bring resolve through them, because ultimately, it's the Holy Spirit, right, that does it. Mm hmm, amen. [Jennifer] Okay, moving on to number six. How do you overcome the fear of vulnerability? That's a really big question, but it can be simplified. [Aaron] I think it has to be. Well, first of all, most people are afraid of being vulnerable. [Jennifer] I would say everybody is. Vulnerability isn't something that's like, yeah, let's be vulnerable. It's hard. [Aaron] It's spiritual nakedness. It's showing what's on the inside, and often we don't like what's on the inside. And so I would say, you said earlier, practice. But really, asking the Spirit of God. Say God, transform me in this because, it was other people's vulnerability with us that freed us to be more vulnerable. [Jennifer] It gave us the courage. [Aaron] So yeah, if you're struggling with this, just pray and say Lord-First of all, regardless if you never reveal anything about yourself, we all know who we are. We are wretched. We are sinners who need a Savior, who need His righteousness, who need His power to transform us. And so, just recognizing that and say, okay Lord, humble me, and help me be open so that you can A, change me, the things that I'm afraid of, the things that I don't like, the ickiness, the grossness inside me, but also use that vulnerableness, use that transparency to free others, to heal others. Not because of me, but because of You, Lord. I don't know, that's my idea. [Jennifer] I think a big thing that I learned through being vulnerable in marriage, is having this resolve to understand that love requires risk in making yourself known. So, what I mean by that is, in order for me to know that my husband loves me, like actual me, not someone who's pretending over here is-- [Aaron] Not what you show me. [Jennifer] You have to know me, so I have to reveal it to you, and that requires risk. Because that means I'm gonna share something with you, and then you get to respond. So there's a risk involved, and that's what makes it hard. But I'd say, like you said, practice is really good, and then I was just gonna plug the Unveiled Wife here, because if you wanna get to know someone who wasn't vulnerable, and then was extremely vulnerable, not just with you, Aaron, but with the whole world by writing a book about it. [Aaron] It was a big deal for us. [Jennifer] The Unveiled Wife is my journey of learning vulnerability in marriage and with God. [Aaron] That was good. So, question number seven, we have been married over a decade and feel like we lost things to talk about. [Jennifer] Aah. So, I would say, Find things to talk about. [Jennifer] I would say start learning again. So, Aaron has this really great quality about him where, when he gets excited about something, he just starts learning about it, I don't know. [Aaron] I research. [Jennifer] Yeah, you have this research brain where you just, you get hooked on something. Even with the kids, like when it comes to Legos, it's like, oh Elliot, I figured out this new thing. You're even learning the Rubik's Cube, okay. You been researching. I have been. [Jennifer] Watching YouTube videos, and you been sharing it with me. So you'll sit down on the couch with me and be like, "Babe, look at this," what do you call it? Algorithm. Algorithm. And you do this twist thing and I'm not following, but I'm just smiling 'cause my husband loves to share this with me. [Aaron] And then you see it working and you're like, "How'd you do that?" [Jennifer] Yeah, it's pretty awesome. So start learning something again that you can share with them. It could be anything. And then talk about it with them. [Aaron] And to be honest, if you've lost things to talk about, I don't know this person. I don't know their life. But if you guys are in a place, if you're in a place that you have nothing to talk about, first of all, that's not true. There's never nothing to talk about. There's never nothing to explore with each other, and to walk with in each other. There's, at minimum, there's tons of challenges in life to have to navigate. [Jennifer] So you're saying they're choosing not to share things? [Aaron] Yeah, I would say, I don't think it's possible to have nothing to talk about. [Jennifer] Especially if you have children. If you have children, you have a lot to talk about. [Aaron] Well, and the other thing is, is if we're pursuing God together, if we're looking to what He's doing, He's going to reveal to you sin in your life, He's gonna give you jobs to do, like this idea of He's got work for us to do, good works that He's prepared for us since the foundations of the world, those things are remarkable, meaning that they are able to be remarked about. There's something to be talked about. And so, I think that if there's nothing to talk about, there's potentially, maybe your minds aren't on heavenly things. Maybe your minds are an earthly things, and worry, and things that you're not looking up. [Jennifer] Or maybe there's sin your guys's life that you've been avoiding confronting because-- [Aaron] Mm hmm, sin keeps us in darkness. So I would just challenge you, if you think there's nothing to talk about, I would start praying and say Lord, what's in my life, what's in our life that is keeping us from each other? Keeping us silent, keeping us in the darkness, keeping us from moving forward and being excited about life? Guys, if you're believers, we have the greatest hope, everyone in the world, the greatest hope is for the believer. That's remarkable. That's something to talk about, forever. We're going to do it in Heaven. We're gonna be worshiping the Lord, forever in Heaven. So, if we've lost that excitement now, we gotta ask ourselves why? What's taking it away? Where have we misplaced that? [Jennifer] Now simply, if you're just bored, and you've forgotten how to communicate with each other, and ask each other good questions, I have to let that we have a freebie for you called Date Night Conversation Starters, and you can take these out on your next date, or just hanging out in the house, and use one of those to prompt a question and get started talking. [Aaron] Start asking questions to each other. You can go to datenightconversations.com. Was that prompted, was that planned? [Jennifer] I just thought about it. [Aaron] These are some good things to think about. [Jennifer] Okay, we're gonna get through these next ones fairly quickly, just for times sake, but, how do you get an introvert to communicate? Here, let me change it, Aaron, how did you get me to communicate in marriage? 'Cause I'm an introvert. Keep asking you questions. Never give up. Do it gently with love. The goal is not to ever change someone, the goal's to engage, and the goal is to encourage, and exhort, and to lift up, and to love, and to strengthen. Remember, you're one, and God's given you unique characteristics for a reason. So, they're not things to be bothered by or hated, they might be things that need to be grown in. Just because, quote unquote, I'm an introvert, doesn't mean that quote unquote, you need to stay an introvert. [Jennifer] Don't label yourself that way. [Aaron] You can grow. You never know, what God wants to grow you into, and transform you into. So don't just say well, this is what I am, and therefore that's what I am. [Jennifer] I'll say this, over the years, Aaron, your affirmation and encouragement has really gone a long way in that, you ask me a question, and maybe I'll answer it very quickly or short, or maybe not at all. And you say, just so you know, I want to hear from you. That affirmation, hearing that over and over again, reminds my heart, my mind, he really does just wanna know. [Aaron] And then, one last little thing I would say, recognizing and cultivating the differences in your spouse will make them feel loved and makes your spouse more able to communicate in those times that they can't-So, if they're introverted, recognize that in your spouse in saying, hey, why don't you get some time alone, when you go be with the Lord, I'll take care of the family, I'll take care of the kids, or whatever. And that let's them know that you appreciate them, and their differences, their uniqueness, and you're excited about it. You're like, how can you use that in a good way, so that in those times that it's necessary, you're not allowed to just retreat into your title, into your whatever. They they know that you love them, and that you're saying hey, I know this is hard for you, but we do need to deal with this. [Jennifer] Yeah, that's really good. Okay, so the next one says, how do you stay in touch with your spouse when your husband works two jobs and you're a stay at home mom? I'm just gonna answer this one really quickly for what comes to my mind is get creative, text them, send love letters, make a journal where you guys can pass it back and forth, putting things on the schedule and protecting that time, even if you're super tired or there's other circumstances going on. I would say that those are some practical ways that I would answer that. And I'm sorry, that's such a hard question to try and answer, but the communication is still a priority. [Aaron] I would say if it's a priority, we'll do it. And we have a brother in our church that leaves real early in the morning, comes back real late, and he just he works a long job, and he records videos of him reading the Bible, and asking questions and sends them to his kids. So even though he can't be home, when he has the break, when he has the time, he make sure to, everyday, send them something to lead them and disciple them. So, father's who have these jobs, if you're listening to this, and maybe you're on the road right now, don't use your absence as an excuse to not disciple and lead your children and family. There's ways to do it, especially in this day and age, man, we have technology. You could FaceTime every day, there's ways to do it. So I just wanna encourage you that, get creative like my wife said, find ways of connecting with your spouse and your children regularly, to show them that you're there. Because even though you can't physically be there, you can spiritually. [Jennifer] Cool. Okay, we got two questions left. The next one is, how do you handle conflict when you are very irritated? Which happens to all of us, right? No one's immune to irritability or irritation. But the verse that I thought of was Psalm 4:4, it says, "Be angry and do not sin. "Ponder in your own hearts, on your beds and be silent." [Aaron] And that's a good point is, when you're frustrated, make sure that, again, you're coming with the right heart. So, you've dealt with your frustrations with the Lord first. Doesn't mean you don't say something about it, and you don't address it. [Jennifer] It's that being slow to speak. [Aaron] And then also, maybe wait. Wait for when you've cooled down. That's always a good posture to take. Right, so the last question we got for you guys is, what are important questions you need to ask your spouse every week? Aah. [Jennifer] Okay, so we don't ask each other the same questions every week, but, we do have a standard of questions that we lean on when we want to know each other more, Aaron. And it's stuff like hey, how's your heart? Or hey, what are you thinking about? Or hey, what's God been teaching you? What are you gonna be working on today? Or what do you need help? [Aaron] Or what are you reading in the Bible? These are interesting questions that help, if the other person maybe hasn't been, they say oh, well nothing. I'm gonna get into the Word, right? So they're encouraging. And if they are, you can start a conversation with them about what they're learning for the purpose of growth. And we have some friends, really good friends, Jeremy and Audrey Roloff, they actually have a resource called the Marriage Journal. And it's an awesome resource. They actually have, it's a weekly check up for your marriage. [Jennifer] There're actually specific questions that you ask every week. [Aaron] And they draw you closer to your spouse, they help you get to know each other. It also helps you stay on track with each other. So, if you're asking this question, if you're out there thinking yeah, what should we be asking ourselves? It's called the Marriage Journal by Jeremy and Audrey Roloff. You should go check that out, it's an awesome resource, we totally support them, we totally love them. And it can totally help you in growing in your marriage. So, we love you all, and we thank you for joining us on this last episode of the season. If you haven't checked out the other episodes from this season, please go do that while we're on this little break. And also, check out last episode because we have a giveaway going right now. And it goes only until April 10th, so go check out our last episode and find out how that giveaway is gonna work. But, as usual, we pray before we sign out. [Jennifer] Dear Lord, thank you for the gift of marriage. We pray we would be husbands and wives who are willing to communicate with each other in a respectful way. We pray we would have the courage to say the hard things in love. We pray we would be good listeners, and truly hear what our spouse is sharing with us. We pray to share our heart with one another, always. We pray that your Holy Spirit would infuse our speech and open our ears, so that we can hear. Help our minds to understand each other, and to extend grace to each other. We pray the posture of our hearts would be humble. We pray we would strive to make marriage a safe place to communicate, and not a scary one. Help us to work through our marriage issues, and the things that we're experiencing to gain knowledge of each other and of You. Help us to grow in how we walk, and may it be in a worthy manner as we navigate life together. In Jesus Name. [Aaron] Amen. We love you all. And we'll see you next season. Did you enjoy today's show? If you did, it would mean the world to us if you could leave us a review on iTunes. Also, if you're interested, you can find many more encouraging stories and resources at marriageaftergod.com, and let us help you cultivate an extraordinary marriage. 

James 1:5-8 James continues his address to his original audience (the 12 tribes dispersed Jam. 1:1) and speaks to them and us about wisdom. It is what we lack. We lack wisdom because we do not ask of God who gives to all generously and without reproach. True wisdom can only come from God. Therefore James asks us a very important question about wisdom: 1. Why Don't You Ask? When we seek wisdom for the difficult things in life we tend to search anywhere and everywhere but from above. James says we should ask of God who will give to us and with generosity. He will not chide us for asking. He goes on to remind us that when we do ask it must be in faith without doubting. Why would we ask God if we doubted He was able? So James asks us another important question. 2. Why Do You Doubt? When we doubt that God is able we are not fully embracing and acknowledging God as God. This causes problems in that we ask without faith and because we doubt we are tossed about like the waves of the sea. We have no stability nor are we firmly grounded in the knowledge of God that He is able. Furthermore, James tells us that if you doubt not only will you be tossed about like the waves of the sea but you also ought not to expect to receive anything from the Lord because you are double minded. The last question James asks us is: 3. Why Are You Double-minded? Being double-minded sounds a lot like this. "I love God ... but..., I will serve God ... but..., I will obey God ... but..." You cannot love God, serve God, and obey God when you are double-minded because to be double-minded is to be two-souled and in constant disagreement with yourself.

So James and Bill finally talk about Elasticsearch. This introduction on what Elastic is and how they use it is a great start for anyone who wants to start using Elastic for geo queries.

James: Hey, audience and listeners, this is James Kandasamy and you're listening to Achieve Wealth Podcast where we talk about value-add real estate investing and we interview a lot of commercial real estate operators where you can grab a pen and a paper and start learning.    So today we have Jake and Gino from Wheelbarrow Profits. And Jake and Gino own around 1500 units with 1000 of that units were done solely by them without any syndication. And they have another 400 units, which they started syndication and their primary focus is on Southeast market. Right now, the deals are in Tennessee and Kentucky. So, Hey guys, welcome to the show.   Gino: Hey, James. How you doing? Nice to be here.    Jake: Hey, thank you for having us.   James: Yeah. Did I miss out anything in terms of introducing you guys?   Gino: Well, I mean, for me, I've got six kids. I mean that's probably my biggest achievement to date. I live down in Florida. I relocated two years ago from New York to Florida. I'm a certified life coach. I think that's a really big accomplishment for me and I've got a fantastic partner on the other end. So that's what I guess made my success, having an amazing partner, having an amazing person pushing me and telling me, Hey Gino, we need to buy this deal. Hey Gino, you know, we need to write this book. And I'm like, come on, another thing? So having a great partner really will excel you in life. Did leave anything out, Jake?    Jake: We're economic deserters. We left the high tax Northeast for a better life of sunshine and rainbows and I'd [01:54unclear] friend. No, it's been a great ride. You know, Gino and I, back in 2011, started really looking hard at multifamily. We wanted yield. We wanted something that was going to pay us every month. We had very challenging jobs at the time. I was under threat of layoff all the time. Gino was in the back of the kitchen trying to make sure that he could get dishwashers in every night. And ultimately, we knew there was more to life than what we were experiencing and we sought out to make it happen for ourselves.    So we got into the first deal. It was a tough one. It was a 25 unit and we've never looked back. We've done multifaceted, multifamily ever since. We have four core businesses, we have property management, we have education, we have a mortgage brokerage, we have an investment business and over 20 holding companies to go along with that. So we really look at multifamily, you know, being the place to be because we know that it's a basic human need and we've grown our brands all within the multifamily space. And it's been, again, just a fantastic ride. We've focused a lot on culture scale, and growing the business day in and day out. We had an epiphany moment a few years ago that we were working too hard and we're running around doing everything.    We call it the, 'I'm a' mentality. I'm going to do this, I'm going to do that. I'm going to do everything. 'I'm a' could only go so far. So I'm ahead to bring some friends. So Jake and Gino, you know, brought some friends on and we started scaling up. And you know, we've got some really great people on the team and I think that's one of the things, I get so much of the enjoyment out of it. Cause I see these people coming on really with us and they just grow and they excel and then we've created a home for them.   Jake: And James, more importantly, that only started with a 25 unit property with $27,000 from Jake, myself and my brother, Mark. So that's the amazing thing. Talking about where to start. I'm too young, I'm too old, the market's too hot. I don't have enough money. Those are all myths that people want to tell themselves. What they're lacking is they're lacking innovation, they're lacking education, they're lacking creativity and they're lacking mastermind. Those are the things that I lacked when I used those excuses.    And if you want to use those excuses, that's fine. But we have so many Jake and Gino community members that are in their twenties and they're in their sixties and they've gone out and they're doing deals. So if you want to get into multifamily, you need to educate yourself first.   James: Yeah, very interesting. You guys are really, really vertically integrated. I mean, as you've mentioned, you guys own property management, asset management and also have a renovation team. And you also do some agency that representation right to the test lenders, I guess for the agency, which is really good. I mean I have the first three but not the last one. Question is, I mean, how did you guys do this 1000 units on your own? I can tell you there's not many people who have done like even like a what, 300 units on their own, right? Everybody syndicates, right? Including me; I syndicate, I used to own...I mean I still own some single-family, which I'm selling off right now, but all my deals are syndicated and a lot of people I talk to use syndication. But how did you guys go from that 25 units to 1000 units on your own?   Gino: We weren't that smart, first of all. We thought that's how you had to do it, to be completely honest with you. Because we said, Hey, we got to buy a deal. We'll buy the deal. We buy it, right? The three-step framework, if you see the wheelbarrow behind me, it's buy right, manage right and finance right. You need to do all three of those. We were buying them right and we're still buying the assets right.    It's truly important that you need to buy the asset right. So we buy these assets, we refinanced the assets and we wouldn't go and buy Ferrari's. We'd actually repurpose that money into the next deal. What really propelled us was we bought a 281 unit property. It was $11 million. It was owner finance. The owner basically said, here you go, here are the keys. We actually had about $120,000 come back to us at closing.   Now that doesn't happen every day, but that happens when you're ready and when you are integrated and you know the business model and you know, to take advantage of that. That really, really propelled us because we were able to refinance that property. So to date, we've refinanced over $9 million of our proceeds. We've rolled that right back into the business and we continued to grow that way. But James, to be honest with you, if we'd been syndicating through three years ago, we'd probably be at the 5,000 unit mark, which is maybe that's great, that's not great but that wasn't our path.    We started syndicating back in November because we saw we could create another multiple stream of revenue, create the asset management company, that syndication company, for syndication. And I had five or 600 investors on our platform because of the Jake and Gino brand. I just couldn't utilize them. We didn't have the space so we brought on another partner to start that business and that's been a fantastic business. We've done two syndications, we've got another deal in the contract right now and we're continuing to grow that. And James, as you know, they feed each other. It's just wonderful. You go to an event, you speak, you do podcasts, the education can sell education, sell books, and then you know what, you're positioning yourself as an authority leader. And on top of that, you're bringing investors on board and you're teaching people how to do it and you're getting the deal source. And it's just such a symbiotic, beautiful relationship.   James: Yeah, it's very interesting because I mean right now, like for example, I was told once, I mean you can do syndication, but your end goal is to own some of the units. But you guys are going the other way.   Jake: We started backward, James. I'm going to tell you something, and this is what I want your listeners to hear because it's the kind of thing where a lot of people are afraid of nonrecourse financing. And we'll tell you right now, non-recourse financing has made me rich and it's made Gino rich; fortune sides with him who dares. We took a chance on it. We couldn't even get into agency debt back when we first started. We were doing a lot of deals that would have been qualified for what is now known as Freddie Mac SBL. Okay. We took on the recourse debt. We had a lot of battles on the front end with the banks. I say a lot of times, it's just as hard negotiating the deal as negotiating the deal with the banks a lot of these times.    So we went in, we fought some good battles. As Gino said, we manage these assets, right? And then we were able to take the financing and sometimes we'd finance the deal once with a community bank and then sometimes you'll refinance it again and send it out to nonrecourse financing over time. So we just really did, we focused on buying these things, right. Adding a ton of value to them and then extracting the value, holding the assets longterm, not selling them, keeping the cost segregation going. And really my view of these is that we're going to buy them, we're going to manage them right. And the party is going to keep going because we're not going to sell them off if we're buying a deal in house. If we're buying a deal in house, we're gonna keep adding assets to it. Keep the cost SEG going and keep that party rolling.   James: But what's your end goal is syndication. I know syndication can grow very quickly in terms of unit counts, right? But your shared...   Jake: But it's not about just growing the unit counts for us, right? We want to have a tool in the toolbox that fits every deal. And we were talking before we got on the show today that we just bought a very hairy deal. It's 26 per unit. People were not being taken care of. It's 146 units. We have 40 vacancies right now. We didn't syndicate that. That was not a good deal necessarily for us to syndicate, but I know over time that deal's going to pay us back very handsomely. So was that a deal that we want to syndicate? Probably not. We're doing a deal right now. It's very clean. It's going to be a nice cash on cash return, right down the alley for syndication. We just want to, you know, any deal that comes our way, we want to, if it's going to cash flow, there's going to be an opportunity, we want to have a vehicle or tool to take that down. And syndication is just one of those tools. Find it in house is another one.   Gino: And I think the opportunity we have now, to piggyback off of that, as where we are in the market, in the market cycle right now, you just gotta be careful of what you're buying. You have to be buying assets in pretty good locations, with pretty good rent growth because when the economy slows down, you want to be able to continue to have your occupancy and run 94-95%. You don't want to see rents dropping. So you gotta be careful what you're buying. Would we've been buying these assets three and four years ago? No, the opportunity was more of those value-adds. Now there's less of an opportunity for our value adds because those prices are already built up. I mean, we went and bought an asset in November at 45 a door. Two years ago, it would have been 30 a door, but that's where we are in the market.    So with that value add, it's very difficult because you've got to put more loan to value. So you've got to put more money down on these deals and there's more risk, as going out 18 months or 24 months, if you're not able to make those preferred payments, you know, they're going to come knocking at you. And then the investor's going to say, well, why did we make the draw this and this quarter? Well, we were trying to reposition it for the long game. That's the thing with multifamily. Everybody out there, multifamily is a long game. It's number one, but debt and taxes, number two, it's about having a business. If you're not going to run the business, somebody has to run the business. And number three, it's a long game. You're not going to get paid today or tomorrow. You're going to be the farmer planting the seed, watering the seed, and waiting six months or 12 months for it to grow. That's why it's hard to get into multifamily because people love transactions. This is not so much transaction-based business unless you start getting into it and then a year, two years down the road, you can create some transactions by refing or by selling or by trading up. But when you start out, it's hard because it's that instant gratifying.   Jake: James, I want to say one thing that just piggyback on Gino here and what he's saying is many of you out there may be syndicating deals and we love syndicating. We love buying deals ourselves. Just keep in mind the syndicators that are the most successful are that they understand that the work starts after you bought the deal. Just because you're syndicating, you need to have that one on one connection, even if you're doing third party management. James, we were talking earlier that you know, he runs his own a property management group. That's when the real work starts folks. So you know, whether you're syndicating, whether you're buying in house, tee it up, make sure you're financing it right. Make sure you're buying it right. But then that managed piece, just because you know, you may not be running direct property management, you need to be having those weeklies with that property management, making sure you're nailing your KPIs.    James: Yeah. I also think that the managed portion makes the most money. Do you guys agree with that?   Gino: I totally agree with that 100% because that's where you're going to increase your NLI. You're either going to increase the income, decrease the expenses, create systems and be able to scale. But the problem that Jake and I had when we hit 650 units, we were still just telling somebody this the other day, we were still using rent posts and we fumbled upon that folio and that was the biggest aha moment. All of a sudden we said to ourselves, it doesn't matter how many units you add onto your portfolio, if you're not managing them efficiently and extracting as much value from them, that's going to be a big problem. So I think managing is the most important. It's ongoing.    Jake: There's more to it though, to James' point. Here's why. Once you buy the deal, there's no going back. You paid the money, you paid that price. That is fixed. That's why I always talk about the back leg of the wheelbarrow being fixed. If you finance the deal for 10 years, and I don't care if you have stepped down or you have your maintenance defeasance wherever you want to say, you're fixed, what are the levers do you have to pull? It's the management arm of it. That's the piece that you're going to be able to. Exactly. Right. That's a great point.   James: Yeah. Yeah, so that's why I always tell my friends and my followers in my Facebook group and all the people who come to me; the operations where you make the most money because before you buy the deal you are putting a proforma, right? You think it's going to be like that. You think it's going to be like that. You think it is going to be 3% operation. You think insurance is going to be this much. Right? So it's a lot of assumptions, but once you close on the deal, it's avail game, right? You are like, Hey, you know, now you have every tool in the box to really trap. That's where you really make the money and you, if you really work hard on the operation, you can make at least, you know,  2-3% more than if you give it to a third party management. Because third party management, they have a lot of other issues. It's not their baby.   Jake: You're not the only customer. Here, we're the only customer baby.   James: And they have a different profit center that they need to really make sure.   Jake: And we won't take on other clients. We only manage our stuff because it's ours and you're absolutely right. We're managing our baby, we're making sure our babies are doing well. There are little soldiers out there working for us. We want them to keep returning.   James: Yeah. Yeah. And also [13:28unclear] if you look at even your own operation, I can decide to, let's say my occupancy drop, I can reduce my staff today just by a phone call. Right. And reduce my expenses as well because my income is reduced. Right. So, but you can't do that on a third party. Right. You are like at the mercy of them. Right.   Gino: I agree with that. And you're also controlling; you're controlling. You can add on more employees. You can actually say to yourself, Hey listen, I want to implement this system. I want to raise my rents so you can have real-time. That's what's great about it.   Jake: Even think about the marketing piece. They may be using, you know, apartments or they may be using roof or whatever they're using and you tell them, well, I want you to stop using that. Well, that might be two or three emails or a week-long conversation to actually get that pulled out. And they may tell you, fly kite here, we just kill it.    James: Yeah, we just kill it. Yeah.    Jake: Move on. There's no question.     James: I have to give credit to my wife. She runs the property management side of it.    Jake: She must be a strong woman.    James: She's a very strong woman.   Jake: We should have her on the show.   James: She's at the property today. So I do the underwriting and investor relationship and acquisition and she does the construction and property management. And you need a lot of...   Jake: You're taking it easy, then man. Come on, you gotta get hurt...   James: My work is a lot on the front end. Right? But one it's closed, it's her work. And I do help out a lot too. Right? So, let's go back to a bit more details on syndication was owning, right? Because this is something that I've been thinking, right? Because Hey, you know, I was like you guys when in the beginning, I did a lot of short term loan, bridge loan and we make a lot of money for us. I syndicated, but my investor was so happy with it, he made so much money. But now with the market being at peak and there are not many deals out there, you know, we have to still get good cash flowing. We still do value-add deal, but no more deep value add deals. Right. So I presume that's what you guys are doing, right? Still, value-add deal but no more like a deep value add when you syndicate.   Jake: No, even the one we just did, we were talking about that; we did it in December, it was 26 a door and we're going in new decks, all new interiors and we have a ton of vacancies. I'm not afraid of it. The key is though, since we have our own management group, I don't want to take on five of these things at once because it's a resource issue at that point. We have resources to do one real heavy value add at the time so we're fine having one of those in the mix. But if you start stacking them, you know you really got to add team members and that's when it gets even more challenging. So for our size of scale right now, I'm very good with, you know, one at a time, getting it kind of rolled up. And we kind of we're just coming off the tail end of another one and then we ramped up into this one. So it's been working out for us.   Jake: So the problem with this deal, not the problem, the opportunity with this deal is we're using community financing. We've got an 85% LTV with loan to cost. So we've got 80% of the loan proceeds going into doing the cap-ex work. We're going to refi that property and bring it to the agency once it's all done. So there's the value there. And the only thing was when we bought it, we were able to have economies of scale. It's near a couple of our other assets are, we're able to use maintenance guys on that property. So that's another one of the reasons why we're able to do that cause just added to our portfolio. If this was something I was all by itself in, you know, down somewhere [16:30 unclear] assets, maybe you'd think twice. But there's always other reasons for doing the deal. And that was really one of the important factors that we saw.   James: And at what point did you start syndication? What was the timeframe? Was it like last year, two years ago?   Gino: So we started, we actually when we came off of our first event, I signed up like 30 people in our event back in November of 2017. I said to Jake, I've got all these investors floundering and that's the thing, when you're signing up investors, James, you have an important role. You need to reach out to those investors and you need to make substantive relationships. You need to start giving them value or else they're going to fall off. So I felt compelled to say to Jake, we need to start creating these relationships with these investors. We decided to hire somebody on and become a partner of that company. The beginning of 2018, February, March, April, we started ramping up, took us a few months to find our first deal. We find our first deal in August and that period timeframe for us, our first syndication, getting the PPM is soft commitments, emails.  It was pretty overwhelming and daunting but we did a small deal. It was only $6 million. It was 132 units. It was something where you can like consume and do your first deal for us. We raised $2.6 million in two days because we had all the framework, we were ready to go, we had the investors, they were prime, we had the podcast, we had the brand out there. But one thing with syndication that's a little different is things move really quickly, and it's a little nerve-wracking that you have to get everything in order. You have to get your emails out, you have to have your documents down, you have to have everything in order. You have to make sure that, you know, you get your webinars going and everything's spelled out clearly to your investors. And that's why it took us a little bit longer cause we had never taken money from the investors. So when it's your money and cash flows and come into the month, Jake says, Gino, septic fields scrapped out. We're not getting paid this month. I can deal with it.   Jake: Plus there was a demand thing we had people asking for it. And it was kind of like at some point where they're going to do, we flirted with the idea for so long as either we're going to do it or not. So we gave it a shot.   Gino:  And that's the thing we could have bought that deal without syndication. But I think it was just the ideal opportunity. It was a new market. It was small enough for us to say, you know what, we can handle this with the syndication. Let's try it. You just got to commit and then figure it out. And that's what we ended up doing. We committed to doing it. We worked with a great attorney, Kim Taylor. She walks through the process. We had great team members and then we just ended up pulling the trigger and we ended up closing in November of 2018 and we followed up with another purchase in April of 2019. About six weeks ago, we closed on a deal and at an additional 240 units in that market. So it's a great learning plus. Once you do one, you figure it out, you figure out the ramifications, the webinars, adding the investors on the documents. And then it's just 'rinse and repeat'.   James: Yeah. I think you guys are the example of why syndication exists, right? So syndication is not like a get rich scheme, right? Not everybody can do it. Not like somebody who was doing W2 can or can do, I'm not saying they must do syndication, right? So in my mind, syndication is like a mixture of an experienced operator, right? So you guys have proven that operator and there are some passive investors which want to place that money into this experienced operator, right? So if I'm getting some guy who was coming up from a boot camp or a  2-day course and trying to do syndication that he doesn't have the experience, I mean he might be coached by someone who's experienced, but I think that's where the syndication comes very powerful, right? When you marry people who really want to be passive with people who are really, really good at what they're doing that's where you get the beautiful marriage there. Right?   Gino: Also students who want to raise deals for others. So James, let's say you're coming short on a raise and you say, Hey, listen, I need to get some way, maybe you can get somebody to raise money for your deal. Obviously they have to be comfortable with you as the operator, as a sponsor. And Jake and Gina is a sponsor with a lot of students start that way by raising money for other people's deals, getting in the game, putting a little lower skin in the game and learning how the syndication process works. And then learning how much work there really is and saying, wow, this syndicator is not putting any money in this deal. But there's a lot of work and there's a reason why there's no money going on the GP side of the business. It's they're signing under debt and they're doing a lot of work for this and that's a great way for people to start getting in the business. Raise a little bit of money for another syndicator if they need that platform, then learn that process. And that's how you learn the process and then you can move on and succeed in getting your own deals.   James: Yeah, absolutely. What's the structure? Can you guys walk through the structure of your company, right? Because you have property management, asset management, you have renovation team, you do some kind of a mortgage brokering as well. On top of that you have an education platform, right? So how big is the whole team?   Jake: You know, probably and not including vendors and whatnot, it's probably just shy of 60 people,   James: 60 people. And how many people...I mean, property management would be the biggest, I guess.   Jake: Oh yeah. Property management is definitely the biggest. And you know, I'm really excited. You know, we do these weekly meetings. I'll meet with every property manager weekly. You know, we meet with the managers of the different divisions of our companies and we call them weekly L10s and we're just really looking forward to this year cause we're gonna really bring everyone together. I think one of the biggest things is when you start to scale and you start to grow, that culture piece is tremendous. Last year we did this big whitewater rafting trip. We brought everyone out. So we're looking for another event this year, but we're going to break down the barriers. We're going to get the core values going, get the tee shirts, bring everyone together for an event. And it's going to be interesting because what we're trying to do now is even get those synergies amongst the different companies jamming that much better together. Get everyone walking to the same beat and so I'm very excited about that.   James: And how many of the 60 people, like a property management. Do you have a number?   Jake: Well, we're going to be creeping up close to 46-47 on that soon. So, you know, we'll have a couple on the investment side of the business and then a handful on the continue education side.   James: Okay. Okay.   Jake: Okay. Property management and that's including our renovation team called the cap-ex crew. They are the elite Navy seal ninjas of property management and they go in when others can't, they get it done.   James: Yeah. So your renovation crew is supposed to be, I mean it's in house, but it's not really announced in terms of financial, right, because they're not supposed to be part of the P& L right? Is that correct?   Jake: Yeah. So that's basically going through the property management group.   James: Okay. Okay. Yeah. That's very interesting. And how did you guys...   Jake: He wants to see an income statement now, Gino.   James: Because...   Jake: I'm just messing with you man.    Gino: So James, I'll dive into the education a little bit more. We started the education about four years ago. October 2015 we launched the book with our profits behind me and it was just me basically quit my restaurant and said, Jake, I need to do something. I'm in New York. Let's start a podcast. And we didn't know why we started the podcast. We should have probably started it to get investors. But we just started because we wanted to learn. I mean, how many times can you speak to Ken McCroy or you know, Robert Kiyosaki for an hour, right? I mean, it's just amazing. So that's where we started. And then from that, we said, okay, how do we continue to build this? So we started selling, creating educational products. We wrote the book, we have trainings on Kajabi, we have mentorships, we have coaching.   And to grow and scale that business, I can't be doing one on one coaching all the time. So we hired a community director. We've got an operations manager in that business full time. We've got three part-time, we've got three full-time sales guys. We've got four coaches right now. We have two deal review coaches on top of our accountability coaches. So as you start growing, you commit, you figure it out, you start scaling up. But the real thing that you need to do is you need to get really qualified people. You need to get great people. Like Jake talks with the culture and our culture is basically a blue-collar work ethic. It's we don't want to hear 'it's not my job' because I'm still packing books. I'm still doing $5 an hour work when I have to. And Jake's doing the same thing. And I want that to convey those small startups with Jake and Gino and we're going to be able to expand this. We're gonna be doing weekend events to just start selling more products and we're going to start bringing on more sales guys. And as the community grows, I think that culture is going to be pervasive throughout all of the entire organization where it's like customers first, you know, students first. It's not me, it's we and whatever it takes gets done. I think that can permeate throughout all of the layers and all the multifaceted multifamily. And that's really important. So when we first thought about Jake and I, Jake will tell you, he thought culture was crap and it was working corporate because it didn't serve him. But I think as he sees it, it's everything right now. Because when they see Jake and I working hard and doing that, it just, you're the leader, you're supposed to be part. If you're going to put in a mission statement in words, and I got house rules over here, if you're not following your own house rules, how do you think your employees are going to follow the house rules.   Jake: James, nothing fires me up more than 'it's not my job'. You want to see the roof come off this house right now, smoke start coming out of my ears. That's the one thing that I can't handle.   James: My wife and I get upset when somebody said I do not know, I said, don't tell me 'I don't know'. Tell me, 'I'll figure it out'.   Jake: Or you know, let's ask and work on it. You know, it's like I can handle that a lot easier than 'it's not my job'. Cause that's like a moral and a work ethic issue and everyone else is working so hard and you're going to sit there and say something like that.   James: It's a clash between ownership mentality. I mean, especially with the property management, right, with the ownership mentality and employee mentality, right? Because a lot of times in property management, the people are working with employee mentality, but owners, we are more, we want to see the profit. We want to be really part of the profit center. Make sure everything runs as how we want for the investors. At the same time...   Jake: Gino knows about the blue-collar work ethic. We finished up a podcast with who was the guy that used to be in Bigger Pockets, who was the guy there? It was Brandon and Josh. And we got a video. We were out there one day. A tree fell across one of our assets that we just bought and was laying across the sidewalk. You know, we didn't have anybody at the time to do it. So Gino and I went down there, took out the chainsaw, chop that bad boy up, threw it in the back of the trailer and made a day of it. We got a video, I think it's still out there on YouTube, so it doesn't matter. I don't care what job it is, I'll do it all myself if we have to.   That's not how you scale, number one. That's 'I'mma' mentality. But if it comes down to it, if it needs to be done and there's no one else to do it, I'm going in and I'm going to do it. It's just period.    James: Awesome. Awesome. That's the work ethic, right? Sometimes you have to do it.    Jake: It's gotta get done. Somebody has got to do it. And the idea is to build a machine and put the systems in place to make sure it runs fluidly. You know, every day the best work that I can do is help working on the machine and building the machine. But it's not always going to be there. And sometimes, you know, a bolt falls off and if I gotta be the guy to screw it back on, I'm going to do it.   Gino: I think it's important to say that the machine isn't built from the very first day. From the very first day you're going to grow as a person. So four years ago, I wasn't doing the best work of what I had to do. I was just doing whatever work I needed to do. But now as you scale, and as you're able to do that, as you become financially free, you can start thinking about working on the business as apart as the working in the business. And the first three or four years, Jake and I were really working in the business. And we weren't able to create these multiple streams of revenue. We're just surviving and learning. And that's fine. That's what everyone's progression is. But once you get into it, when you start doing it, you can start transitioning out and start like what Jake said, start creating those systems. But if you don't start with a 25 unit property, you're never going to be able to do what you know, what actually transpires after.   James: Awesome. Let's go to some market selection questions. So how did you guys select this market?   Gino: Well, it's funny, Jake was going down in 2011 he moved down there and I had it on one of my other podcasts with my wife. He went to Knoxville, move there for six months without his wife, struggled. I mean, it's not an easy thing. He left New York, he abandoned New York and I'm up there at the restaurant. I had just met him and I'm like, Jake, these numbers work down here. Let's start looking at deals in Knoxville. His metrics for moving was; there were no state income tax, close to New York, decent weather, cost of living is great. So he moves to Knoxville. And ironically, enough, that's what makes it a pretty good market to invest in multifamily, right?    James: Population growth.    Gino: And we got lucky, we got lucky with that one. But we started investing, we started looking at deals. I think, you know, the Southeast is great. So like you said, we're vertically integrated within three hours of Knoxville. So that's what we're looking. I mean, throw a dart, there are so many great cities around there to invest in that market. We don't want to go up in the blue States, we want to stay. Texas is a little bit overbought. I mean, you know why. I mean, you have been an engine of economic growth there. People are flocking there because there are jobs there because there's infrastructure there and because people want to live there. So, that's what's happening. So I think, you know, as far as us, we just got lucky. We picked Knoxville and now we're able to go out into these other markets that mirror what Knoxville is.   Jake: And in addition to that too, we have a specific strategy that we're looking to be the best customer service property management company for C and B apartment complex. We own some A stuff but it's kind of because the deals worked and we bought it, but we see a discrepancy where C and B operators typically do not have that good of customer service. I love what Chick-fillet does with a $7 chicken sandwich. How are you doing today? It's a pleasure to serve you. How can I help you? It's that great customer service and I truly believe that is a blue ocean. That is our blue ocean strategy. It's going to separate ourselves and we rebrand all our properties, brand as our property management company so that when people pull up, they're going to know that these people care. We believe renting is personal and our residents are our number one priority. Okay, that's what we're about and that's the difference in how we run our properties and I think longterm it's not going to happen overnight. That's a longterm strategy is going to take years to fully implement, but that's the separator from us and the other guys.   James: So how do you guys standardize this? You know, the awesome operator experience for class B and C, how do you standardize it across the organization?   Gino: Yeah. Well, first thing you do is you start going on training platforms like Grace Hill, you start systematizing platforms and training. We're creating our own internal training right now for our maintenance techs. And then we're going to transitional to training our leasing techs. That's really important to have something standardized to train them. And I'm doing the same thing on education. So when we were onboard, as a coach, I created a training platform for our coaches to watch videos and show how to coach them. And it's the same way in anything. You want to be able to have something standardized where they're all playing from the same drum.   Jake:  So I'd like to elaborate on that a little bit as well because, so it starts with the basic stuff, like Gino mentioned Grace Hill. Now we also have a product called Kajabi where we've taken the Grace Hill training and we have, it's basically our elevated in house training that we're putting on the Kajabi platform where we're teaching our guys if they don't know how to do something, we're having level one, two, three and four for maintenance techs, for example. And then there's a YouTube page where they can go on and actually from their phone remotely check the video, Oh, this is how I need to change out this garbage disposal or thermostat, whatever the case may be. And so as we're going through, you're talking to us as we're in the middle of launching this entire customer service training program. In addition to that, it started with Grace Hill. We're moving to down to a Kajabi and we're working with Grace Hill on Kajabi at the same time. Once we're done with the maintenance end of it, and we should be done in the next couple of months with that end of it, it's then going to the full-service customer service piece. We have weekend trainings now. I don't want you to think that we're just starting this, but this is how we have the full-on slot of our strategy implementation. In addition to that, we've started working with Petra, they work with scaling up. I don't know if you're familiar with that.    James: No, not Petra.   Gino: Okay. It's Verne Harnish's book, Scaling Up.   Jake: And essentially, they look at people, strategy, execution, and cash. And you know, we've gone through top grading and making sure that we're getting players on the team. But the one piece of that is we fill our funnels up really full. We have all these ideas that we want to implement. So we have a good strategy, we have good people, we have good cash, but it's that execution piece that we need to get better at. So, you know, while we have an education company, we're open-minded and we know we can always grow and get better. So we're bringing in the best of the best. This is, you know, from everything I've seen, the best scale company in the country and they're working on our business as we work on our business to make us the best customer service property management group in the industry. So that's where we're going.    Gino: The cool thing about the whole education platform is we never would have done this training internally if we didn't have Jake and Gino. Because Kajabi is our online training platform for education. So it just bled over. And I've mentioned that, I said Jake, we need to do these videos to show the maintenance tech when he goes in, how to change a toilet, how to fix a hot water heater. This can all be documented by training videos. So if we didn't have the education platform, this never would have been even been a thought in our minds. And I think the other thing when you are going out as a business owner, keep your eyes open to what other businesses are doing.    My son had gotten a job down the street or at a restaurant and I was amazed at how many applications these people were taking in. They had an ADP platform and I said to Jake, this is another scaling up option where we can start onboarding our employees. And it's just a great tool. So, you know, a tip for everybody out there, if you're in multifamily real estate, see what other industries are doing because you can adapt and pull from other industries and use it to your advantage.   Jake: I want to talk about that a little bit though, Gino, because what we're basically getting with that is we've used ADP for years, but they have, I'm going to call ADP plus. It's their, whatever, you know, higher-end product. But they will give us for all our different brands, we will have a very corporate and professional landing page now. So we have something called the ran pride video. It's showcasing our folks, talking about our culture, which, you know, not have a history of the company video. All of these videos will go on these landing pages. So when potential employees want to look at us, Hey, that's what these guys are about. So we're selling ourselves; let's not kid ourselves, we are in the tightest job market in 60 years. So we need to be recruiting the best people in and we're not going to have a good organization.   So we're doing everything we can to make it a great work environment, get great people in the door and keep them. Because once they come in, we have a very low turnover. But you know, from ourselves, marketing ourselves to the outside world, we need to let them know what we're about. And then as they're coming through, they're putting their W2 information all into the ADP. It's all electronically saved in the cloud and that carries them through. It also has the HRS software so that our HR folks can manage that throughout the entire lifespan of their time with us. So we're really focusing, like I said, on scale culture and operations because, you know, the other things, the people, the strategy, the cash we've done very well with. So it's that execution and pulling it through I think is gonna propel us over the next 10 years.   Gino: And James, do you need it when you have 100 units? Maybe not, but if you're thinking of getting bigger, you're going to have to implement all these systems. Don't be overwhelmed with it now at 100 unit market, just think that you know, as you grow as a person, as you grow as a business person, you're going to be able to figure out those ideas and go...   Jake: Yeah, we're laying the framework to go from 50 to 500 employees.   James: Yeah, that's really good because I know Grace Hill, because I use it as well, we use ADP, but I've never heard about HRS and I mean I know about Kajabi, but I didn't know that you guys are using Kajabi as well.   Jake: So we blended the two together and then we're actually using a YouTube page for the videos so that they can get it right from the app on their phone. And it's coming together pretty nicely actually.    Gino: And there are so many app platforms out there. You can use Lightspeed, you can use Kajabi. We are one of the founders on there seven or eight years ago when they launched. So we've been using it for a while and we just got comfortable with it. There are so many different, you know, LMS systems that are out there.    Jake: The executives within our company, they love building this because they see the need for it. So they enjoy it and they're great. You know, there some of the ones out there filming, well not filming uncle Shawn's doing that, but actually, doing the tutorials on the maintenance or the customer service videos. So everyone's getting involved   Gino: And they're creating the assessments too, cause you want to actually have them watch a video and then do the assessments. So they're creating all that also, which is awesome.   James: So let's go into a deal, deal level detail or how do you, I mean, let's say today you get a deal today, right? From broker, off-market, right? So what are the things that you would look at, look at it quickly to either reject it up? Cause I presume a lot of deals, you guys don't even underwrite it, right?   Jake: We do a quick underwriting. So we're looking for cash flow from day one and the opportunity to force appreciation in the future. So what does that mean? You know, if it's a stabilized deal we want to be, I'd love a six and a half cap, you know, if we're a little bit lower than that and you know, six to six and a half cap, I think we can typically make it work if it's in a good location, if we're going to syndicate that deal and we're seeing, you know, 8% cash on cash, we like that. And you know that typically, we'll take it to the next level and start looking a little deeper.   James: Okay. Okay. Got it. Got it. And I presume deep value add, it really doesn't matter on the entry capital, on any of that.   Jake: Let's talk about that. So the deal we just bought, you know, if you're talking about actual is was a, you know, like probably like maybe like a...   James: 2%   Jake: And it was a beat to crap 1970s build. But you know, what are we talking about? Like do we really care what the cap rate is on that deal? No, because we know when it stabilizes the cap rates going to be more like a 12 so it's again keeping your mind open to each deal. What can I do and what's the opportunity with this deal? How do we want to take it down? Is it going to be an in house buy? Is it going to be, you know, a bridge financing, whatever the case may be as an agency? Or is it a syndicated deal? You know, all of these things weave together.  And that's the beauty of this game is that we have multiple things that we can do to extract value and create great things. And so, it gives us an opportunity to have fun with it.    Gino: And James, Jake's speaking up specifically, if we're in the 26,000 a unit, we need to add another four or 5,000. If you're into it for 31,000 a door, I know that that asset in right now is trading over 50 a dor. So I know that that right there is a whole month for us. So that's another way I like to look at the per-unit cost of what we're buying. And I like to look at the expenses. If I'm underwriting a deal, we know that the expense should be 4,200 and the operator is running it at 4,900, you know there's value in there. If there's other income that they're generating, that's only 2%, we know typically we can get 10 to 12% of other income. There's another income, there's another value add right there so we're looking for those.    And you know, you'll hear from brokers every day of the week that you can raise rents, you can raise rents. So I have to spend 10K a door to raise a $50 rent, or can I spend 3 K a door and get that same $70 rent bumps. So you have to really try to analyze the market. And I think the other thing you need to be careful is where you're buying. You know, marginal areas, you're not going to get as much elevation right now and it's a little bit riskier. So, you know, we're just buying an asset right now; if it's in a great location, we'd like it. And Jake likes to say he likes to be your Kroger's Wholefoods and Chick-fillet if you can buy in that location...   Jake: Starbucks, bring it on.   James: You guys do value add, right? So let's say your rehab budget got cut into half, right? 50% of what you have. First of all, let me ask you, what is the most...   Jake: Why did that happen and are we playing the what-if game.   James: You never know. Yeah, that's a good question because I want to, tune your mindset to the question that I want to ask. So what is the most valuable value add that you guys have seen? Jake: What is the most valuable value add? Like what is like did we get the most out of doing flooring? Did we get the most out of...?    James: Correct. Let's say you have a budget got cut. Now you have a small amount of budget.   Gino: That's a great question. It depends on what property you're looking at because some properties may, if you put a dog park and you fix up the clubhouse and you do a good job of the pool, you may not see incremental value on that. But all of a sudden you're keeping the tenants and in your act you have to compete with the property down the street. So on one of our properties, we put a dog park in, we've put a fitness center and we did a nice job in a clubhouse and we actually did a pool and the decking. That didn't translate...I'm thinking, it translate into increased value and increased rents, but it also made be able to compete with other people in the market space. I think landscaping, people don't understand; power washing, landscaping, and painting are three of the most important things.   On our property, when we took over November, we actually had rents at 525; they went to 675. And we saw them in the Google reviews. These tenants were saying, you know what, these people were raising rents, but they care; customer service. That's one of the biggest value adds, customer service. We put out exterior lighting so they feel safe at nighttime. We took care of the landscaping there. We put in a gazebo there. We stripped the parking lot and seal the parking lot. We put in a dog park there. Signage was really important. Not huge amounts of money, but anything to turn the look of the property, the feel of a property, you want to show your tenants and any of your customers that you're adding value and not just going there and raising the prices. At the end of the day, why are you raising the price on me if you're not giving me some type of value?   Jake: I'll dive into it a little bit more too. I mean, the basics that, you know, I feel like that you have to go with a lot of times are, I personally love sheet vinyl. I know a lot of people want to put in the plank and this thing. We have this amazing, it's called nature's trail. If anyone wants to go out and look at it, it's skinny, it's white. So it looks like the barn style flooring, it's beautiful, it's got great, great tones in it. Installed, we're $1.74 a square foot. I mean, that's phenomenal. And it goes in, it looks beautiful. It looks like there's hardware throughout. So if I had to really get down to bare bones and I'm turning a complex, I'm going in with my nature's trail, I'm going in with my proposed gray and I'm going white on the wood. So the woodworks, the trim, and the baseboard, I'm going a nice pure white Sherwin Williams and it gets like a 7004 or something like that.   Jake: And then, in addition to it, the property we did in December, we were like, okay, let's pull back a little bit because we're painting the cabinets. And we saw a little bit of a spike in our available units. So we went back in, we reassessed it, and we said, you know what? It looks too damn good not to, it's an extra 350 bucks. Let's just keep painting the cabinets and then we're back to zero available units. So it's always, I think, and this goes back to what you were saying earlier about being a hands-on operator; looking at these things, looking at your KPIs, saying, what the hell, why do we spike? Oh, it was my fault cause we're being cheap. So we went back in and now we're filling it back up like that.   Gino: At the same time, Jake also, you don't have to spend $170 on a ceiling fan. Maybe you see your supply spiking like they did a year and a half and saying, hold on, this unit doesn't need $170 ceiling fan.   Jake: It's a beautiful $75 ceiling fan. They're beautiful fan blades. You get the multicolor here. So yeah.   James: What do you guys think that, I don't know, this is my experience that I see. I mean a lot of times you can put in Capex and all that, but I think the management itself, just managing it correctly, people are just so happy paying you 50 to $75 more   Jake: But you're talking about customer service then.    James: Yeah, customer service. Yeah, correct. I'm not saying that's the most valuable value add, but I'm just saying in terms of...   Jake: I'll say it. Listen, if you come in and you say it's a pleasure to see you, it's a pleasure to serve you. How may I help you? What can we do to make your unit better? We have this unit today. We're gonna treat you like gold. I'll take that over the new paint.   Gino: Jake also, the other thing is when they call for a maintenance request, don't want to wait six days for hot water heater, you have to get to them.    Jake: You're not going back to the hot water heater on me again; are you? Comeon man.   Gino: I love the hot water heater in my house the other day. 44:20crosstalk] We took over the third property. I remember I was in the restaurant and Jake is sending emails, we're turning units. And we had a client come in and started crying cause we've fixed the stove. He didn't have his stove for how long Jake? It was just like the silliest thing in the world. I mean come on. So, I mean, the customer service is really, when you get a maintenance request, send out the maintenance tech and get it done. You know, that's simple.   James: Yeah. It's just amazing on you to just take care of the tenants or the residents and they are so happy to pay you so much money compared to, why didn't a new ceiling fan you? I mean that's all secondary for me. So it looks like we share the same concept as well. So, let's go back to a bit more personal stuff flow. Maybe, one by one, right? Why do you guys do what you're doing?   Jake: Yeah, I'll get into that. It literally is about control and freedom for me. I am responsible for myself and my family and I was not in a position of control or a position where my family's life was secure. It was in the hands of others and I did not feel good about that. I, ultimately at the end of the day, am responsible for everything that comes into my environment and I need to handle that. Multifamily gave me an opportunity to take control of my destiny. And you know, by adding value to others, I was able to in return receive value. And it's been a phenomenal thing for me because I don't want to be, you know, dependent on Wall Street. I don't want to be dependent on a CEOs decisions. I have a lot of faith and confidence in myself and Gino and I know if we do the right thing it'll come back to us. And again, it's something that I don't ever want to be in a position where my family is worried about, you know, where's their next meal gonna come from. Great thing about all this is we've created abundance in our lives.   And you know, we started something called Ran Carriers last year and we were able to actually feed 10,000 kids for Thanksgiving. And so, you know, we'll see if we can match that or do about 15 this year, Gino. And so it's when you bring abundance into your life, you can't help someone else if you don't have the means to do it. So by us driving the ship, we've been able to create abundance. We've been able to create good homes for folks and we've been able to give back. So it's been pretty special.   James: Awesome. What about you, Gino, why do you do what you do?    Gino: I wouldn't  know what to do if I didn't know what I wasdoing right now. I mean, honestly, I'm pretty much financially secure. If I didn't have Jake and Gino, I could just probably live off of the draws of the property. But that gets to be a little boring after a while. So I'm doing what I really like. I mean, the education, growing a business, I always wanted to grow a business from the ground up. I was wanting to help people out by buying properties and by coaching them in motivating and inspiring them. And if I can monetize on that, it's a home run for me. So I enjoy what I'm doing right now. I mean it took me a long time to figure out, and it's funny cause I feel sad for kids coming out of college. What do you want to do when you get older? If you're an adult and you figure it out by the time you're an adult, you're a little lucky. Most adults can't even figure that out.    So Jake talks about it, you know, don't follow your passion. I mean sometimes if you're passionate about opening a restaurant and that's what you want to do, but sometimes it turns into a job. So you just be careful. You know, if you're lucky enough to become financially free and then figure out what you want to do and do something that you love, I think that's like the most important thing in the world for me.   Jake: He's been humbled right now. The G dad is a giver. He likes helping people and you know, not for nothing. The education has allowed people to buy over 3000 apartment units. And I know that's what Gino gets excited about. You know, it's helping other people and, and it's that giving back piece because it's a tremendous community that we have. And the folks inside the community are all like-minded, hardworking individuals. And I think it's because of the, you know, the sort of persona that we give off and we tell people about the values and necessarily what we're about and people are connecting, they're converting and it's been amazing to watch. And they'll get inside the private Facebook group, Hey, we just knocked out a hundred units today and then everyone gets on and start congratulating, how'd you do it? Let's hear about the deal. And it's become great networking. We'd love to see the continued success.   Gino: The phone calls that you get and the 48:42unclear]  year-round. When a student says, I just left my job, or I'm leaving New York and I'm moving somewhere else. That's really worth a lot, man. Because when you get those emails saying, Hey, you know, you've changed my life. There's something that, you know, you can't replace that; that's something that you can't put a dollar amount on, cause you're helping others and you change somebody's life and you change someone's family's life. And that multiplies in effects of people that they know. So that's really cool. That's one of the cool things about education.   James: Yeah, that's one thing that you bring to your end days, right? So it's not about the money. I mean, you usually forget how much you've made, but the appreciation that people have shown you for you're helping them, it speaks. Second personal question. I mean, this is probably, each one of you can answer it. Maybe you can combine together. Is there a proud moment in your life that you think you will never forget, that that moment really impacted you then and you are really, really proud of that moment and you want to tell their stories to your grandkids?   Jake: Yeah, I got one. I got one coming up now. And it's not about myself. It has to do with Gino as well. We were at the event last year, we had a phenomenal event in Nashville, you know, and Gino calls them the 'do rules'. We had over 500 people there, whatever. And it was all about multifamily for two days and just great speakers. It's our annual event, multifamily mastery. And that it wasn't necessarily anything other than it created an opportunity for my daughter. And she went out there and Gino's kids were there and they were learning business and we had some fun shirts that said like Jake and Gino are multifamily masters or something. But my daughter at the time was three years old, she went out and started networking with people and she actually sold a shirt for like 15 or 20 bucks and then she came over and she was so proud. She hugged me and told me about it and I was able to announce it to the whole room and the whole room like erupted because it was just, you know, it's this little girl going out there and then she was making it happen. So I'll never forget that. And it just is, you know, because of the community that it created that moment for me. So that was very special to me.    Gino: So we'll leave it at that cause I've got so many stories, but that's one story.    James: Take one story.   Gino: I mean one of my proud moments March 1st, 2016 when I left the restaurant and it wasn't because I was leaving a bad situation. It was finally saying to myself that I achieved something that I had been working for forever. I finally was saying to myself, I don't have to do that anymore. I have been there doing it for 20 years, over 20 years, locked in the same job and if I can change after 20 years and having those limiting beliefs and being able to grow and do something different, I think I just wanted to inspire other people that do that. So that was really a proud moment in my life.   James: Awesome. Awesome. We're at the end of the show, why not you guys tell the audience and listeners about how to get in touch with you guys?   Gino: He's the sales guy, so I'll let him shoot.   Jake: Listen, if you can't find this, we're not doing our job very well, but it's really simple. Jakeandgino.com, ranpartnersllc.com if you're looking to invest or rancapllc.com if you're looking into the debt side of things   Gino: and please subscribe to the podcast. We have the number one multifamily podcast on iTunes called Wheelbarrow Profits. We have four shows now. I've actually launched the show with my wife called Multifamily Zone. We have the Movers and Shakers podcast, which highlights a student's success every week. And then we have the Rand Partners podcast on syndication. So we're doing shows, we like going out there as part of our fashion.   Jake: Hold on, Gino, there's more. We're going to give a teaser. So we had the best selling book, Wheelbarrow Profits on Amazon and we're phoning it up this year, right? We've got the honey bee coming out in October. We put a lot of work into this thing. It is a phenomenal book. And it tells a great story and this is not your traditional business book. Gino give a little bit more on that. What would you say about the honeybee?    Gino: It's a parable basically about a gentleman who's frustrated, is very similar to Jake's story. Going around, has a boss, hates his job, and then just stumbles upon an older man who's willing to mentor him and find out that, you know what, there's more to it. How do you have all this? The analogy of a river with little tributaries growing into a big Russian river and it's all about creating multiple streams of income, starting small and making the stakes, and then all of a sudden, five years later, you've created something really great. So we just wanted to translate our success and just have people open up to the idea of that you can start small but create those businesses and then from one little stream of revenue, you can end up having four and five like you do James. And like we do.    Jake: And I'll just leave with this because the one thing that I really picked up from Gino early on in our investing career was to get rid of limiting beliefs. I know it's like a big Tony Robbins thing as well, and people talk about this, but it's so impactful because you know, you'll sit there and say, Oh, I can't do that. Well, you're right, if that's the way you're going to think about it, you're right. I grew up in a super small town on a dirt road out in the middle of nowhere. And that's the truth. And you know, we've been able to grow this business to, you know, over a hundred million in assets and you know, created financial freedom and generational wealth for our families. So there was, you know, literally in the town that I grew up in, you could work at the school, there was a factory that made chairs and you know, my family was like, well, maybe you should be a cop... Gino:  Or a gym teacher.  Jake:  You know, I literally went to school to be a gym teacher because I played sports and that's all I knew. So don't limit yourself because look, multifamily is not rocket science. It really isn't. Get educated. I always say education times action equals results. It's possible for anyone out there to do it, especially a pizza guy and a job rep were able to do it.  James: Yeah, I always tell people, if you think there's no deal out there, you are right. If you think there are deals out there, you're absolutely right too.   Gino: I love that.  James: It's that mindset that you have to get away from. Jake: Listen, look at the deals for two or three weeks and then having them not pencil out, it can be very discouraging. Try two years. That's how long it took this guy and I to get into our first deal. So yeah, I always say, you know, the best thing we ever did, we were pesky. We hung in there. We kept driving.  James: Exactly. All right guys, thanks for joining this podcast. You guys added tons of value and we're happy to have you share.  Gino: Thanks James.  Jake: Thanks James. 

“… TREASURE IN THE LAST DAYS Dec. 10 What sort of treasure in the last days; any different from other days? As we complete reading the letter of James we find it is full of interesting and challenging thoughts, the reference to “treasure” is one of them. James is the leader of the believers in Jerusalem that we read about in Acts 15 v,13 when the Apostles met to make a decision about the Gentile converts and whether they in any way had to also keep the Law of Moses. The years have now moved on from that occasion, James is now writing as the chief elder for the believers in Jerusalem, it is now only a few years before the city would be encircled and then destroyed by the Roman armies in AD 67-70. James’s comments in his final chapter are initially directed at the situation that was then developing there and the awesome future the city faced, and which our world now faces. He is inspired to write - because these events would be replicated in human history climaxing in our last days.. So James is writing to warn them of their approaching last days and he says, “weep and howl for the miseries that are coming upon you, your riches have rotted … You have laid up treasure in the last days … you have lived on the earth in luxury and self-indulgence.” [5 v.1-3,5] This is so true today of Australia and many other parts of the world. Remember how we saw in 2 Tim. 3 the reference to conditions in the last days (v.1) and primarily this was about the condition among believers; that they would have only “a form of godliness”. But James continues, “Be patient (steadfast) therefore brothers until the coming of the Lord … establish your hearts … the judge is standing at the door” [v.7,8] These words apply so much to believers today in their failure to cope with this world. The end of the times of the Gentiles (i.e non-Jews) appears to be increasingly close. The total godlessness around us is as much a sign to us of the nearing “end” as is the mounting crisis in the Middle East surrounding God’s Holy Land. James then states, “Behold, we consider those blessed who remain steadfast. You have heard of the steadfastness of Job” [v.11]. So as we read Job for the rest of this month we should remember how James sees him as an example of enduring despite much perplexity of mind about his situation. He is an example of the perplexities believers are already facing in some parts of the world today – and this may spread everywhere very soon. Our thought should be to ensure we have the right kind of treasure - that which is described in the parable of Jesus that we read in Luke 12 v.13-21. Read and reflect on the points our Lord makes and become “rich toward God.”.

This weeks guest is Mireille Toulekima. Mireille is an Award-winning serial entrepreneur who has gained her experience working globally. She is the Managing director of the Perth Australia based oil, gas and energy consulting company MT Energy Resources Ltd. She founded the Mireille Toulekima Global Leadership Organization in 2017, an organization which empowers and expands individuals and organizations with a global mission to inspire them to become the best that they can be. Mireille has published three books in the last four years of which “Stepping Into Your Greatness: Twelve rules for building an outstanding life”. She developed an authentic leadership system called D.A.R.E (Decide – Act – Review – Expand) as signature program for the Mireille Toulekima Global Leadership Organization. Mireille seats in several international boards. She is also an executive coach, mentor and ambassador of various global organizations. As a true champion and advocate of women economic empowerment and STEM (Sciences Technology Engineering and Maths), she participates and has initiated social projects globally to reach out and support women economic empowerment. Mireille is part of the new wave of women who have embraced spiritual consciousness, mindfulness as well as globalization, innovation and digital disruption to navigate the ever changing and fast environment we live in and thrive in this fourth industrial revolution.Welcome back to the Fuel Your Legacy podcast. Each week, we expose the faulty foundational mindsets of the past and rebuild the newer, stronger foundation essential in creating your meaningful legacy. We've got a lot of work to do. So let's get started. As much as you like this podcast, I'm certain that you're going to love the book that I just released on Amazon, Fuel Your Legacy, The 9 Pillars to Build a Meaningful Legacy. I wrote this book to help you have the same experience that I had while identifying my identity.Today we have a guest from the land down under haven't made it there yet at my travels. I will one day it's just a daunting flight almost 16 hours on the west coast of the United States down to Australia, but haven't quite committed there yet.But our guest is known as the greatness engineer. She's written a book called The Great stepping into your greatness, the 12 rules of building an outstanding life. Pursue Important on how to do that she's rebranded something called dare now, you're from America dare is a drug program type thing, trying to get people not to do drugs. But she has her brand to dare. And I'm excited for her to share that with you and see how we might implement that into our lives. So I'm gonna pass it over to you Mireille, just go ahead and give us a little bit more, a little more of your backstory. What got you into stepping into your greatness?I'm excited to be on your show. As you said, my name is Mireille Toulekima born in Australia and I'm excited to share my story with you know, calling America and I hope it's going to be inspiring for them. I have a background in engineering formation. I am an engineer in the oil and gas industry. And there's a bit of story behind all of this because I studied in France. And you know, coming from a family of a very humble family, not a lot of money. So my parents paid a lot of money for me to go and study in France and my dad was the breadwinner at that time. But he passed away, he got sick, he passed away when I was just finishing my passion. And so all angles were not trained in my right so because of the death of my dad, I have to go back to Gabon, and I'm originally from Gabon, in West Africa. So I had to go back and stay with my mom and my sibling, but I didn't have any money. So I had to look for a job to Take your myself and also have my mom at that time. So I look for a job in a different industry. And at that time, one of the major companies in the oil and gas was looking for local talent in the oil and gas and distributors dealing guarantee she was picking up back then in Gabon, in West Africa where I was from. So I just, you know, took a chance and when to eat some an interview, and this interview was successful. So that's how I started my global journey because the company was a global player. I worked, you know, for some time in Gabon, and then it gives, you know, giving me a lot of opportunities to start to step up and become you know, a good A person, but in the oil and gas industry, so I had a very,very good and international career, worked in Africa, work in Europe, work in Australia and working on the issue, Asia as well. So it was really good, a good and excellent You know, I've been able to step up different roles, but I saw when something was missing and so Imean, it was not an easy road for me in this area becauseas you can imagine, the oil and gas industry back then was very male-dominated and very Caucasian dominated. So I had to find my way and it can with a lot of upset called bruises. And so I had to step up and find a way because it was not going to be I was not going to be able to make it following the traditional way, so I had to find a way to get to the top. And that's actually what I did. It was scary. I didn't know where to start, but I managed to sit down and think about a strategy and also talk to different people, especially men, in this case, you know how to navigate this industry and, and managed to go somewhere where I did because, at some point, I got stuck in, you know, middle corporate management and I couldn't actually,you know, evolve.What I did and that was after I went to an event Cool successes success event where there was this gentleman called Roman era is a Canadian, where he was telling his story, being an engineer in a nuclear engineer, and how to change his life and how to have a breakthrough. So I took, you know, I listen andafter the event, I went back to,to him, and asking him about how to, you know, to write a book and if he had some, you know, capacity to down and so, it started like that. So I finally decided to write a book but in this case of a book in the oil and gas industry now was So the book is called it's it's more developed countries, which was it's called local content and local content in emerging and developing countries. So this creates a platform for me. So I started to get invited to forums to conferences as an expert, which was quite you know, I was quite, you know, excited about it because I was so stuck in Melbourne cooperate, you know, that I didn't see that I was going to have a week. So that was grateful for me. So I started to evolve I started to, to get to those, you know, very important forums and in the industry, globally. And That's when I realized that I had something more to offer. I couldn't get stuck in corporate anymore because being incorporate was limiting myself. I was living somebody else values, I was reading somebody else's dream. So I decided to capitalize on this new platform that I've created for myself. And in 2016, and that was also a time where the industry beat, depress and things we become a ninja to start my engine. And that's, that's led to the first writing, stepping into your greatness and that's, that's the route that you mentioned before. So I would sit into your greatness 12 rules for building an outstanding life. And this book is I mean, it's a very slow condensedand in this will describe, you know, the,the different rules or different teams that I think I've found me through this process that I've just described, through my life, my professional life, my professional life, for my social life. And, and I wanted to share it with the world and tell them this is what I did. These are the tips that I've used. And, and that's that that was the foundation of what I've been able to accomplish so far. Since I've started wherever I started. So it's a book that I knowit'sBecause I've been writing, you know, technical book, it's a book that actually, you know, that I love. Because it helped me to reflect on everything that I've done because a lot of the things that I've done, I didn't realize that I was following your process. So I felt like it was really powerful for me to reflect on all of this and write it down for other people to be able to, to get this goal is to get this, you know, this process so that they don't have to start from scratch. Especially I mean, for a lot of people, especially minorities or minority environment. It's, it's so it's very, it's very difficult. So it's important for people like us managed to navigate some difficult experiences some shed so that we can help people. I mean, to thrive as well. And that's one of my mission when I started my new venture and became a greatness engineer was to spend, you know, to make sure that people become the best that it can be wherever they are, wherever they leave. I want them to realize that they're not limited. There might be obstacles, there might be a lot of you know, things that come against them, but they always have to realize that at the end of the day, you know, they have some greatness inside of them. And they need to realize that and they are able like everybody, like me like anybody to be able to build, you know, this outstanding life that they want. But it all starts with them, whatever is against them, it will start with them, they are greatness engineers. And they need to, you know, to, to be able to, to know that and to be able to share whatever greatness they have with the world. So it's been a very, very inspiring even myself. I mean, I didn't realize that I was going to be able to do all of this. So the book, you know, was published in 2016. And from the book I've created the rewrite to Mr. global leadership of the organization which mission is to make to make sure that people engineer greatness wherever they have and then they deliver they become the best they can be. So that's the mission of this organization that I created back, in 2017. One year after the book was published, and through this process, I developed as well, their system they're standing for, decide,act, review, and expense. So it's a cycle. It's starting with you deciding what you want to do, and being clear and intentional about what you want to do. And then obviously, and then you can have all those supplies and, and nice tool if you don't add them, nothing is happening. So the next step is really to take action. And we go through the process of, you know, putting some action plan that you need to you need to have, get to the point where you want to get, and when you're taking action of your car, you know, milestone that you have to, to, to to put you know, and and at each milestone with you where you are and you know your contract to, to to to what you want to do. And then you keep moving like that keep reviewing I just have seen and you expand it because, at the end of the day, you know through action you sometimes fail you it's not going according to your plan. So you learn you learn from those failures and it helps you to expand and Endian success. tension is also an image of going from your comfort zone to outside your comfort zone. So you expand constantly, recycle, never stop. And that's, that's what this system is all about is just to show that you are not limited there, there's a process to follow the process doesn't have any, you know, it doesn't end. So you have to keep going. You have to keep learning. You have to keep pushing your boundaries. And that's how you become you know, unlimited. That's how you and you step into your greatness. That's how you start to influence the world. And that's how you become, you leave a legacy that's going to, you know, to run on you, you turn your life. So that's, you know, that's in a nutshell what you know, stepping into your greatness is and how I came up to write this book and to you know, now use this the basis of the book, to create tools and processes for other people to start to, to, to, to capitalize also on my work on my story on my journey. And right now we, you know, expanding you know, the different programs as well, so that there is going to be the basis of a coaching program. And then there's going to be mastermind as well, where physically I'm gonna, you know, start to teach, you know, those rules and then use thesystem to do that. So it's been, it's been an incredible journey and again, this stepping into your greatness also Opens so many doors. I use it now, especially with a lot of women came up to me and wanted to know a little bit more about it. So I use it to mentor coach women. I know, I've been able to win two different platforms live and online as well talk about the program to talk about the group. And it opened, you know, a lot of global avenue for me and so my network is just much just exploded, following all of this. So it's, it's really for me, you know, the message for me is when I look at, you know, my humble beginnings because you know, I live in Australia never thought in my life that I was going to make it in Australia at all. I didn't even know Know what Australia was all about, through pushing myself pushing boundaries and, and, and learning and taking action. It led me to this beautiful country that I love now. And, and so the message is, you know, don't ever underestimate yourself. I mean, you might be in a corner, but you don't have to say in this corner in this box you always have that there's always a door for you. And you always have to push to find this door because sometimes, isn't it? I mean, and most of the time it's not coming. The door is not just opening by itself. You have to walk through the door and open it because otherwise, you know, nobody's gonna do it for you. And yes, you know, You're not going to do it alone. But it starts with you is start with your motivation, your determination, your vision, to be able to, you know, move forward. And, and, and, you know, maneuver and go through, you know, your journey. And this journey is not linear but at least when you're focused on your mission and you know, that you have the potential you have the greatness inside of you will always go forward. And that's, that's the message that I'm, you know, I'm pushing, I started a show as well. To bring you know, people will have a story so that I can they can inspire other people to, to step into their greatness and to you know, and to, to thrive, wherever they are, whatever the obstacle that  they have to go through so it's a whole process, and it starts with the mind. And that's, you know, through all those platforms that I have, is doing mindset work to two people that I interact with, to make sure that they know that they can become the best that they can be and don't have to look at what people are saying about them. Because whatever people are saying, It's none of their business, none of their business, they just have to be focused on what they want to accomplish the mission that they've set for themselves, be very clear about it, and have an action plan to move forwardand accomplish that goal. Yeah, I completely agree. I love that. So what I'm going to do now is I'm going to kind of dig into this story because I love them I've got lots of notes here. Kind of some of the key pivotal moments that I want to pull out so that I feel your legacy audience can start to apply these things in their life, these principles are applicable out if you are listening to this. Maybe you have to slow down so you get the what's the word? For accents pretty thick. I guess that's the best way, is it? accents pretty thick, slow it down, make sure you catch all the word because it is the things that she's sharing are spot on. I want to make sure that everybody can kind of pull these out. So one is her parents chose to sacrifice for her education. Now, sometimes that's going to be you as a parent sacrificing your kids' education. Sometimes that's your sacrificing for your education. But what are you willing to give to make sure that you get an education now, it doesn't always have to be higher education. college or bachelor's degree or anything like that. It can be anything. It can be working with a coach it can be working with Mary. I mean, it could be anything like what are you sacrificing to, to really put forth the effort and get and take, take the next step up and there's always going to be obstacles as she said, there's your just because life is hard, doesn't mean that it's not worth it. And being willing to face those obstacles is essential. And how she faced the obstacles is important. She said she worked in a man dominated the industry and Caucasian dominated industry. And rather than giving up and saying, well, this just isn't for me. She went asked the people who knew how to work the system, what to do. She went and got coach, she went to training, training seminars, things like that by people who knew how to succeed and by doing that, she was exposed to people who could help her succeed. So success has nothing to do with your, the color of your skin, gender, how tall you are, how short you are, how wide you are, how thin you are, doesn't matter. What matters is are you willing to focus as she mentioned, and stay focused on one goal and one outcome. And then also at that take all the opportunities that come your way.So she had to be willing to takeup, like take opportunities to travel internationally, take jobs that sent her internationally, are away from her family far away from her home. Because that's what she wanted to do and who she wanted to become. And so that's one important thing. Then the other thing is writing a book. If you have not considered writing a book about your life, do it. It's worth it. Even if not very few people read it. I'll be so you want people to read it. But if you're in your story can change one person's life that it was worth sharing. And, and that's one thing that I just wanted to pull out of this. And because she did her acronym, she decided that she was going to go to the top of her industry. So she decided she took action, she found the information she needed. Then she reflected on it. And during her reflection, she journaled about it, she wrote down what was going on and how she got to where she was. And then she chose to expand by sharing that book and what that did for my writing that book. She now got on public speaking, she got a lot more speaking opportunities and a lot more coaching opportunities because she was willing to take every opportunity that came, and she's constantly applying this acronym in her life. And so what would it do if you applied the acronym in your life so it's decided, take action, reflect and then expand On your reflection, what could What more could you do to accomplish your goals? And I love that. So I'm curious, Mary, during this process everybody who becomes successful at one point in their life has to deal with naysayers. How did you go about dealing with naysayers? And how did you What did you do to silence him in your mind? and say, Look, I'm focused on my goal. I'm not gonna let somebody distract me.And you're right. I mean, we're all the way and I mean, it started well at the beginning of my carrier, because when I joined this company, because I went to graduate back, and I started in the morning gas industry. And I was, I was working for an English speaking company. And, and at that time, I didn't see English so I was supposed to, you know, go to work, and, you know, and understand what was going on and I couldn't. And it stopped two people started to judge me because they for them because I couldn't speak English. I was up to the task. And a lot of my colleagues back then were coming from some of the most, you know, a prestigious university in, in the US in the UK, in Prague. And I was coming from a very small school and university in the western part of France because that's what my parents could afford.So it was,you know, I had a lot of doubts. I haven't had a lot of conflicts, and some of the projects were run and there was a lot associated because They felt that I couldn't have value. So I had to, you know, I was first very discouraged and wanted to, you know, to give her but I think because of the hardship because I needed to the money and I needed to succeed. I had to change my mindset. So I did I changed my mindset. I said, Okay, I have tofocus onsomething positive, because I need to thrive in this industry. So, you know, and I talked to myself this day, there's no coincidence. If you are here, you are here in this organization, you are among those people. It means that you have value. So you have to make sure that this value transpires and makes every single effort to move forward and to be able to be associated with those projects to be able to become somebody else value. So it's a mind You know, it's a mind game. I can say like that it's a minute, it's really about how you, you know, set up your mind. And once you focus on because when you know when I came in, I was focusing on my weakness, which was I couldn't speak English and so I was really in a negativepower as soon as I started to change and say, Okay,I'm here for a reason. So I should be very positive about it and start learning. And that's what I did. I started to learn I started to ask to get some English lessons to be able to improve. I was really speaking, improve my English and there was also So I reached out to another woman, an American woman who was in the industry for quite some time. And she accepted to mentor me. And it did the right you know, the right basis. And, and I, you know, I was able to start to grow in this industry. So two things when you have naysayers don't listen to them and try to focus on the opportunity because, in the worst situation, there's always an opportunity. So when you have those naysayers, don't listen to them andsit down and ask yourselfwhere is the opportunity in whatever I'm doing right now? And, and focus on reaching out to people who can help you, to grow this opportunity?Yeah, totally. I love that. So Many people focus on their weaknesses, and they have what's called imposter syndrome. And so many people struggle with that I've struggled with it in the past, I think it's a natural thing to struggle with it. But she flipped the script and said, instead of saying, Well, why am I here? And thinking that of all for weaknesses, she asked herself an important question that I think everybody listening to this should ask themselves. And that is, what do my employers see in me? Like, why? Why did they choose to hire me? If they're hiring me that obviously, they believe in me to a point they believe that I can add value here. So what is that value that I need to be adding? And, and that's a huge, huge question. I think just that question alone, if you're still working for the man, if you're still grinding it out, 595 whatever it is, working for somebody else. What could change in your life? If you started to think about why are they paying what they're paying you? Why did they choose to hire me what value Did they see in me that they wanted to be working for them? And once you can identify that, then you know exactly what you can market out the, on the international or national or international marketplace. And, and that is how she became the greatness expert. She recognized that there were things that she had talents and gifts that she had, that were employable, even when she didn't speak the language. Well, if that's the case, and she can use those all across the world, regardless of what language you speak, and that's a huge gift to be able to recognize that and ask yourself that question. What does my employer seeing me? So I'm curious, Mary, what do you what would you say if you had to focus on like one specific habit, mindset or behavior that you've adopted in your life to create your legacy? What would that be and how could we adopted in our livesthe mainfor me, it is to Look for positivity always. I mean, there's so much I mean, there's so much negativity that and it's been a survival tool for me to say, okay, where is the positive I want to be, you know, surrounded by positive people, people Dragnea. People can, you know, help me to grow as a person as a professional and intentionally, you know, get away from the negative people, the naysayer, people always complain. People always have, you know, something negative to say even when there's no problem. So that's been a very, very big one for me. And just to give you an example, as I said, I was working in a very male-dominated environment and occasion dominated environment. I could myself you know, I'm not going to make it so the way it was being you know a black woman actually have an advantage because whatever I'm going to do and especially if I deliver some very good results even if it's an average result but actually bring value and people are going to remember me because I mean they can miss me but your growth and then because they look like they can come in and nobody will actually remember them they will be confused and say okay, who was this guy again and we will end and it actually happened each time I was standing up and then you know, running a project or presenting something people will remember me maybe not by my name but by the Color My Skin and my agenda because it was so rare to have women At that time, and later on a retirement, so it was actually playing in for me in the sense. When I started to flip into this mindset, things started to become positive and good. So being a black woman in a male, the Caucasian male-dominated environment was an asset for me. And that's how I to I started to capitalize on that. And I could, you know, have, you know, men mentor coming to me and say, Oh, we want to work with you. And we want to help you to navigate the process because we realize it's not hard but to bring good value. So when you start to bring value, and when you start to, to temper, people recognize this value, and they don't look at anything else anymore. So that's a thing that's the thing. The second thing that I want to say, is always deliver more than you are asked for. And whatever happened because you bring value, people can't ignore them, they will always want to be around you, they will always want to work with you. And they will always want to help you when you reach out to them.Yeah, totally. That is probably one of the biggest things that I've learned over the last two, three years is stop thinking about what can I get out of a situation and start thinking about what can I add to the situation? What value can I bring to these mentors are these people around me? And if you start adding enough value, I don't care where you're from or what you're doing. If you are intentionally adding value to the people around you. They will eventually say, Man, this person's given a lot. How can I help them progress? How can I help them get a leg up? Everybody wants that. And so if you're struggling like man, I just don't know how to Get get into this industry, even if it's like, I had one, one client who she was a waitress, she worked in two or three jobs away. One of them was a waitress, and she was going to school. And she didn't know what she wanted to do. But there was a wealthy, wealthy person who kept coming in and he was doing real estate investing. And he's like, well, it's 10 grand for me to train, you shouldn't have 10 grand. But after a week of thinking about it, she said, Look, I don't, I can't pay you at all right? But can I just drive you around? And I do your lot. I thought whatever I will, I will be your, your assistant, just so I can be around you and learn the things you're learning right? add value. And that turned into a multimillion-dollar relationship for her because she was willing to start with right up just serving and adding as much value as she can. And so that's something that I mean, that's a huge, huge thing and then also what is unique to you That gives you a leg up. And what's an asset to you that maybe not everybody around you have maybe it's something that happened in your childhood, maybe it's the way you look, maybe it's the way you dress, maybe it's the way that you interact with people. Maybe it's a knowledge that maybe it's a skill set, maybe it's that you're a mom, or a dad or whatever it is, what gives you a leg up on the rest of the competition in your desired field. And that's, that's a huge question to be asking yourself. Always. So I'm curious if we wanted to get in touch with you about your, your greatness, like stepping into your greatness and have you come speak to us or even just online courses or whatever it is mastermind, how would we get in touch with you where's the best place to connect to you around the world?So the best place to connect with me is actually on social media. So I'm on Facebook under my right to live Kima on LinkedIn, so LinkedIn is one Hi, LinkedIn and Facebook are aware I spend a lot of time and share a lot of my knowledge and friends some of my programs. I'm also an Instagram Twitter. So which is you know, those are the platform that I use but not like LinkedIn and Facebook. I have two websites there's one website called the W dot more like kima.com and then the alpha website which is the book website stepping into your greatness and my blog as well. That's what the greatness engineer calm and for the different books. You can see on Amazon they are available on Amazon muscle and yeah, and you know I do a show as well I have a show the greatness engineering show. I have a YouTube channel on that. And you can also catch up on some of the episodes on Facebook as well because it's on Facebook live as well. So James extending myself and, and I do a lot of speaking around the world I've not been to the US for quite some time. It's been 10 years now, butwow, maybe it's time for you to come back then.Yeah, I think that's, that's what's happening because I've been reached out by a lot of people from the US so I have to make it happen again, aswell. That's awesome. Cool. Yeah, go connect with her. We're going to have some of those links in the show notes here and we'll make sure that you know how to spell our name correctly because I don't think that It looks like it's not spelled the way it sounds in my mind. So definitely, if you're listening to this and you want to search her, go-go for it and find out exactly how she spelling your name. And that'll be in the show notes and then go find her friends her on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, so you can stay up on this content and learn how you can step into your greatness. Okay, married today. Right now we're going to step into my second favorite part of this whole show, and that was called legacy on rapid-fire. Okay, so ladies, Have you listened to any of the episodes all the way through on my podcast?I listened to a few of them, but not until the end. So I'm going to discoverThere we go.Ya know, a lot of people are the same way. That's all. That's all good. I appreciate that. You listen to them. I do. And this is my favorite part. Right? So legacy on rapid-fire. There are five questions that I'm going to ask you. And I'm looking for one word to one sentence. answers and it's okay if it's if they're all a sentence but the one word one sentence answer so you ready for this? Fantastic Okay, so what do you believe is holding you back from reaching the next level of your legacytimetime getting very busy sometimes and I think I still improving in time management especially with this growing network that I have and you know, so time and focus will help me to go to the next step. Awesome. What do you believe the hardest thing you've ever accomplished has beenhow the how should that have accomplished was toto learn a new language, especially the first time and I kid but you look so Secure when you can't communicate, so learning the language learning to communicate with different people I've been asking very difficult.That's awesome. And what do you believe your greatest success to this point in your life has been?My greatest test isbecoming the best of me. That's my greatest success looking at becoming the best of me. And, you know, I'm still how to what I've been able to accomplish so far.Awesome. So keeping in perspective, who you are and where you've come from and what you've accomplished. I love it. What do you believe one of like, Let's add another secret on you believe contributes most to your success?My mind, my mindset, my positive mindsets.Awesome. And then what are a few books that you'd recommend to the fuel your legacy audienceso shoeboxes Think and Grow Rich is one of the key books that have us. Andthere'sso many of them.But Think and Grow Rich has been a big one for me. I read a lot of books from MaxMaxwell as well.Quite a few books. AndI will have a list actually, there's so many of themare both great Napoleon Hill anything by him and John C. Maxwell. Both of them are phenomenal. And I want to make sure that we give another shout out to your book, stepping into greatness, the 12 rules of building an outstanding life. Those are just books that are going to change your life and they're going to give you some nuggets and things that are actionable. the thing that's cool about these books that she's mentioned her book thinking grow rich and pretty much anything by john c maxwell. You can read it and reread it and reread it and reread it and you're always going to get something new out of it depending on where you're at and what you're working on so that they're kind of books that never get old. And that's a key thing. What books are you reading every, every year twice a year that never getting old and thinking grow rich? JOHN C. Maxwell. At the top of those. So thank you for that. Here's the very last question that I asked people. And, and it's my favorite question at 100%. My favorite question is why I do this whole episode. And it sounds like it's going to be a surprise for you, which is exciting. So the quiet we got to pretend that you're dead though. Are you okay with that, Mary?Okay. Again, I couldn't getit. We're going to pretend that you've died.Okay. Okay.And we're gonna pretend that you've died and that you've got the opportunity to come back six generations from now. So that's your great-great, great, great, great-grandchildren come back and you're watching them or sitting in on a conversation that they're having around the dinner table. Okay, what do you want your great great great great great grandchildren six generations from now? What do you want them to be saying about your legacy?Okay, that's, that's it.I'm in my mind, I want them to you know, I want to leave a positive negative legacy which means that our them to, you know, be able to integrate and leave my philosophy this philosophy is to always, you know, strive to be the best that they can be. And one of my mottoes is don't leave anything on the table of life. So that's the way I want them to understand that they shouldn't leave anything on the table of life, they are equipped with unity everywhere, even in the most desperate situation. So they want to tell them that they need to be positive, they need to always look for opportunities, even in darkness, and we're how to get to the light, if that's required, require something impossible. They have to find what how they're going to get out of it, and how they're going to capitalize and how they're going to shine at the end of you know, get to the light and shine at the end of the tunnel. So that's I think that's powerful, you know, the legacy that I want to leave is that There's no desperate situation. It's about, you know, setting your mindset, you know? Right and, and looking for the positive into everything.Yeah, I love that. I love it. So don't leave anything on the table of life. I think that's one of the most quotable legacies that I've heard when I asked this question. I love that. So thank you so much. And this, this podcast is designed to help people level up their game recognize when and where they have that initial dream, to go off on their own and become entrepreneurs and step into their greatness. And so that's why I had an area today is to help people understand that it doesn't matter where you're at, there's always a way to step into further greatness. It doesn't matter how high up on the rung or where you're at, and in success. There's always a way to level up and that's what I love about Mary's message. So thank you so much, Mary, for taking the time. Because from the future, it's Friday where she's not. And it's Thursday where I'm at. always exciting.Thank you for having me. It's been tremendous. I love it.Awesome. Well, hey, thank you so much. And we will catch you guys next time on fuel your legacy.Thanks for joining us. What you heard today resonates with you please like comment and share on social media tag me and if you do, give me a shout out I'll give you a shout out on the next episode. Thanks to all those who've left a review. It helps spread the message of what it takes to build a legacy that lasts and we'll catch you next time on fuel your legacy.Connect more with your host Samuel Knickerbocker at:https://www.facebook.com/ssknickerbocker/?ref=profile_intro_cardhttps://www.instagram.com/ssknickerbocker/https://howmoneyworks.com/samuelknickerbockerIf this resonates with you and you would like to learn more please LIKE, COMMENT, & SHAREClick The Link Bellow To Join My Legacy Builders Mastermindhttps://www.facebook.com/groups/254031831967014/Click here to check out my webinar as well!Want to regain your financial confidence and begin building your legacy?In this ebook you will learn:- The 9 Pillars To Build A Legacy- Clarify you “why”- Create Daily Action Steps To Launch ForwardWant Sam’s FREE E-BOOK?Claim your access here! >>> Fuel Your Legacy: The 9 Pillars To Build A Legacy 

Welcome to the Join Up Dots Podcast looking at Young Entrepreneurs Subscribe to the podcast. If you like the show, we would be so grateful if would consider leaving the show a review in iTunes as well as Stitcher Radio.   A couple minutes of your time can help the show immensely!   Thank YOU! Introducing Some Young Entrepreneurs In today's episode of Join Up Dots we highlight some young entrepreneurs who are really rocking and rolling in their fledgling bushiness's. Why are we bringing to the air such young folk, you maybe asking? Well, we find time and time again that the world is full of people who quite simply say "We haven't got enough experience to start anything!" This is of course a complete crock, and experience will only come after the action is taken. You might have heard of a global dominating podcast called Join Up Dots? Well before we launched this to the world we didn't have any experience of running a global hit podcast. We barely knew how to turn on a microphone and speak live to the world. You start, you make mistakes, you learn and you gain experience. So what about these young guys and gals, who are still in childhood and  The following information has be collected from the CNBC website, and you can find the original article here The Youngest Of The Young Entrepreneurs - Sebastian Martinez Sebastian Martinez, CEO, Are You Kidding? Source: Are You Kidding? He's only 7, but he's already CEO of his own company and a philanthropist. Sebastian Martinez's passion for collecting bright and zany socks turned into a business when his mother suggested he design his own. The result was a company called Are You Kidding which Sebastian started at age 5. In 2014, Sebastian made $15,000 selling his specialty socks with the help of his director of sales and big brother Brandon Martinez. Since January revenue has continued to grow. “We have been able to already reach the $15,000 that we made last year and are on track to double and hopefully triple our sales this year,” Rachel Martinez, the president of the company and Sebastian's mother, told CNBC. Are You Kidding teamed up with organizations like the American Cancer Society and the Live Like Bella Foundation last year to raise more than $3,000 for cancer awareness. In April, the company partnered with The Hue Studio and donated 25 percent of all proceeds from its “Eye See You” sock sales to Discovery Arts, a charitable organization that brings art programs to children with serious illnesses. EvanTube Source: YouTube What is it like to be a millionaire before you even hit puberty? Just ask 9-year-old Evan from EvanTubeHD. The face of the highly successful YouTube channel, Evan has been reviewing toys and building Lego sets online since he was 5, and it's a staggeringly big business. This pint-sized entrepreneur has three channels on the video platform and more than 2.8 million subscribers. He has amassed more than 1.9 billion views on the platform and is estimated to make $1.3 million a year. “We've already maxed out certain accounts, so I think the college education is pretty much taken care of thank goodness,” Jared, Evan's father, told NBC News in December. The father has not disclosed their family name. Alina Morse Alina Morse, CEO, Zollipops Michael Bezjian | WireImage | Getty Images Nine-year-old entrepreneur Alina Morse had a pretty sweet idea in 2014: create a sugar-free lollipop that tastes good and is good for you. With a little help from her father and a lot of research, Zollipops was born. These clean teeth pops are made with sweeteners xylitol, erythritol, stevia and other natural ingredients and help to neutralize acidity in the mouth, so the bacteria that causes tooth decay cannot grow. Last year, Alina racked up $70,000 in sales and was featured on the kids' edition of “Shark Tank.” She's now working to get Zollipops into dentist offices and schools across America. Moziah Bridges Moziah Bridges CNBC At 13, Moziah Bridges is well on his way to becoming a fashion mogul. This dapper CEO launched his bow-tie business, Mo's Bows at age 9 and catapulted into the spotlight after becoming the youngest entrepreneur to appear on “Shark Tank.” His company made $350,000 in sales since 2011 and is expected to earn $250,000 in revenue for 2015, mother-manager Tramica Bridges told CNBC via email. Bridge's collection is sold in shops and boutiques in six states and in his online store. So What Do These Young Entrepreneurs Have In Common? Amazing stuff from these young entrepreneurs. So what do they all have in common? Well for a start they weren't frightened of failure. Being so young they had nothing to lose as they started their own businesses. They weren't scared of looking stupid like so many of us who try entrepreneurship at a later age. These young entrepreneurs had a dream and made it happen. Return To The Top Of Young Entrepreneurs If you enjoyed this episode with some young entrepreneurs, why not check out other inspirational chat with Clayton Morris, Dorie Clark, and the amazing Niall Doherty You can also check our extensive podcast archive by clicking here– enjoy Audio Transcription Of Young Entrepreneurs Podcast David Ralph 0:01 Once upon a time, there was a guy with a dream a dream, which is Jobs himself online and have a kick ass life working when he wanted him where he wanted across the world. Little did he know that dream would lead him into a world of struggle, burnout and debt. Until he found the magic ingredient and knows drunk was became a thing of the past, of course, was bad person. And now My dream is to make things happen. BU Welcome to Join Up Dots. Intro 0:31 When we're young, we have an amazing positive outlook about how great life is going to be but somewhere along the line we forget to dream and end up settling. Join Up Dots features amazing people who refuse to give up and chose to go after their dreams. This is your blueprint for greatness. So here's your host live from the back of his garden in the UK. David Ralph. David Ralph 0:57 Yes, hello there. Good morning to you. Good morning to you. Good morning to you. Welcome to Join Up Dots. Join Up Dots. I want to start off with saying hello to a lovely lady called Kalia in Australia. Yes. Kalia Kalia. She comes from Australia. It's good to see you just stand naturally Australia, Australia, Kalia. And she dropped me an email the other day to ask me to help her with her homework. Basically, she signed up for leadership package. And she said, I recently found your podcast and have been bingeing them during my daily commute. I don't know if I ever get through them all. At the rate, you produce them. You are a sexy powerhouse, you say, get those in and you get to the top of their charts and I will respond to you. Actually, I respond to everyone I do. I try my best to respond to everyone. And so Kalia Kalia Kalia, she's from Australia. That there you go. You get your name check, you get your name check. Now what I wanted to do today. I realised recently, actually I've been a bit slack about saying thank you to people who have left ratings and reviews on Join Up Dots. And I listened to some other podcasts host and they they give name checks and I say thank you and stuff. Now it's it's a little bit boring for everybody else, but it's great for the person who's left the review. Okay? So I'm just going to do a few of these every now and again. And the first one I want to do because it's a special word is a guy called James McKay. Now, James McKay, if you're out there listening, I really want you to listen to this, okay? And I want everybody else to listen. It says given me the competence to start my own business listening to this podcast week in week out, has given me the competence to take the plunge and set up my own business. My only regret. I wish I had done it sooner. The guidance is tips and advice offered by David. It's been invaluable and I can only attribute the success I've had with my business to the valuable wisdom provided in these podcasts. So Mr. James McKay Big Big salute to you and a big round of applause and drop me a line at Join Up dots@gmail.com because I would love to have you as a guest on the show so that we can inspire even more people to take that leap and do things the right way. So James if you'd like to be a guest on Join Up Dots, oh, if other people know who James McKay CFP from United Kingdom is poking poking with a hot stick until he agrees to become a guest on Join Up Dots and I'd love to speak to you sir. But well done given me the competence start my own business know that competence is all in you. It really is. Okay, I just do one more. This is for mad and tired from United States. This show has amazing content from some powerful folks. Great Listen, definitely recommend it. Well, when I turned on the podcast this morning, my big powerful microphone. My throat Being a microphone in front of me. I thought to myself what you're talking about today? Because, yeah, we have a lot of content to fill, and it's not easy is not easy people. So I started looking at young entrepreneurs. And I thought I'd, I'd read them out for you, and you can go and you can google them. Because most of us go, you know, I haven't got enough experience, or I have can't do this, or I can't do that, or I'm too old. But there's guys out there and as these kids, and they're doing very, very well for them. Now, some of them I agree. Some of them have got their mums and dads behind them, okay. But they're still part of the business. They're still understanding entrepreneurial venture. And so I thought I'd bring them to you. I think I bring up to you, not hundreds, but just a few. Now, this is a great idea. Sebastian Martinez. why he's only seven years old, but he's already the CEO of his own company and a philanthropist Now you might say seven, seven. What's he doing? Well, Sebastian's passion for collecting bright and zany socks turned into a business when his mother suggested he designed his own. And the result was a company called, are you kidding? Which you can of course jump over and have a look at which Sebastian started at the age of five. Now, I do say that there's certain parts of this kids that, you know, he gets he kind of dumb, he kind of dumb but he's part of the process, okay, and he will grow into it. And the earlier you can get your kids to think about how to make their own money, the better. You know, it's not just about mowing lawns. Nowadays, it's about becoming YouTube stars and becoming Instagram famous and and whatever. But your young kids can do it. They're probably a lot better at doing things quickly on these devices, by the way are now in 2014. Sebastian made 15 grain setting his speciality songs with the help of his director. And big brother, Brandon Martinez and there's a picture of two of them. Brandon actually looks younger than him. I might be giving him doing them a disservice. But anyhow, he's the big director of sales. And since January revenue has continued to grow, we've been able to already reach the 15 grand that we made last year. And on track to double and hopefully triple our sales this year, the president of the company and Sebastian's mother told CNBC. Now are you kidding teamed up with organisations like the American Cancer Society, and liberal like Bella foundation last year to raise more than three grand for Cancer Awareness EC. He's putting things back people it's not all about, you know, bringing it into your life is putting it back, which hopefully comes across in Join Up Dots. Now in April, the company partnered with the huge studio and donated 25% of all proceeds from its ICU suck sales, to discovery arts, a charitable organisation that brings up programmes to help Children with serious illness. So funky socks. So if you're out there and you're good at drawing and you can find somebody to produce these things, then why not? What about funky underpants? Yeah, with pictures and stuff. I used to have a very special pair of white silky ones. These were classy. These were classy, white silky worms with from memory, I think they would kiss marks on them. But they might be love hearts. The old memory is fading. But they had superpowers. They had superpowers. And if I was wearing them, somebody else was going to see them. Somebody else was going to see them by the end of the night. I think you know, I think you know what I mean. And they but but I met my wife and they then magically disappeared and she says you don't need them anymore. Well bloody do if you've been married for 30 years like I have. You need I need an extra pair. That's what I need. What? Second one now this guy is quite funny. He's called Evan tube. Okay, that's not his surname, but he is actually a millionaire before you even hit puberty. Now, that's not bad. nine year old Evan from Evan to HD and he's the face of a highly successful YouTube channel. And he's been reviewing toys and building LEGO sets online since he was five, and it's a staggeringly big business. Now, this pint sized entrepreneur has three channels on the video platform and more than 2.8 million subscribers just watching him review toys. And he's amassed more than 1.9 billion views on the platform and is estimated to make 1.3 million a year. We've already maxed out certain accounts so I think the college education is pretty much taken care of. Thank goodness his father says, and the father has not disclosed their family name. Gonna be quite easy to find him if he's on YouTube, I would have bought by any anyhow. Okay, so Opening box is big business nowadays, I never understand that you go to YouTube and you see somebody make an amazing documentary and they get five views and somebody opens a box and talks about it. And you know, it's 40,000 in three minutes, don't really understand it. But once again, it's something that you can do. The minimum expense is only Time, time and effort. Get your own YouTube channel just like Evan and start. Start making it happen for yourselves. Okay, I've been with the two more, do two more. Okay. And these are all new to me. I haven't read these. So there's a gal called Elena moss, and she looks like from the picture she's got something to do with lollipops. Now nine year old entrepreneur, Alina moss had a pretty sweet idea in 2014, creating a sugar free lollipop that tastes so good. And it's also good for you. With a little help from her father and a lot of research Zoe pops was born and these colours Teeth pops a major sweeteners lately very good with stevia and other natural ingredients. There's some words that are can't pronounce and help to neutralise the acidity in the mouth so the bacteria that causes tooth decay cannot grow. Last year, Alina racked up 70,000 in sales and was featured on the kids edition of shark tank. She's now working to get Zani pops into dentist offices and schools across America. How about that 70 grand just by doing lucky top pubs. Now, the storey about all these three so far is persistence. They've got to get it going. They've got to bring something slightly unique to market and they've got to enjoy it as well and put it all together like a Lena. She's obviously creating value because kids like to eat sweets and candy and so parents will be happy to buy those for them if I think they're doing good stuff. If you can put something into somebody's head But actually makes their life better, when it's even better is even bigger when you know you can really find a home and make things happen because it does take a time to start by James McKay, you will know. Should we do one more? Should we do one more? Let's find this one. Okay, let's go with this. You know, I've skipped one. I'm going to keep it in order. Moza bridges at 13. Messiah bridges is well on his way to becoming a fashion mogul. Now this kid, to be honest, looks a bit of a freak. He's He's nine years old and he's wearing a suit and a bow tie. What nine year old kid who doesn't want to get beaten up at school is going to walk around like that, but Messiah if that's your thing? you're rocking it right now. This dapper CEO launched his bow tie business. Mo's Bows at age nine. Okay. Oh, I hadn't read that bit. That's why he's wearing a bow tie. And he kept catapulted into the spotlight after becoming the youngest entrepreneur to appear on Shark Tank. He's company made 350 grand in sales since 2011. and is expected to earn 250,000 in revenue just for 2015. And doubling each year from then on. He's collection is sold in shops and boutiques in six states, and in his own online store. Brilliant. I love this. I love always I could just keep going. But, of course, you don't want to hear more about these people. You want to get out there and you want to start doing yourself. You want to start building success. And success is reasonably easy to do. As I say, I'm going to give it to you once again. You've got to look around and you've got to find value that people want and provide that value and do it the easiest way possible. So you get a life and you can scale and you can just walk away from it. And it really isn't that hard. You know, I've created what we created with six businesses. This week, no more than that knowing businesses this week with different people yet they're not to the full stage. But they've already now got their ideas and they're starting to work on it and F planning and they're finding their ideal customers. And there are billions and billions of business ideas. And when people say, I can't think of anything, I always say to them, it's because you're not thinking the right thing. Okay? Look around you and look at, you know, I'm sitting here at my desk, there's a pen, that's the business, there's an F, Russia, business, there's a mark business, everything you look at, you would have bought, so that is business, you've got clothes on your back, that's business. Every single thing can be pivoted slightly so that you become a niche expert. And in the niche, you become rich. So don't sit out there go I can't think of anything is only because you're not getting your brain working like these kids have to Find value, look at something and look at a mug and we drink coffee out a mug something, okay? If I take that mug and do something different to that mug, how can I make it more appealing to people just start getting those ideas and jot them down. And you could be the next guest on the next episode of Join Up Dots. Until next time, thank you so much for listening to us. Thank you for everybody else. I'm going to give another name check for somebody who should we have? We're gonna have fantastic energy in as inspiration from Chester 454 or 5333 from the United States, slightly different week after week, but always inspiring energy and an upbeat Listen, until next time, Look after yourselves and I will be here waiting for you. Cheers guys. See ya. Bye bye. If you're inspired to live a life on your own terms, working when you want where you want yc it sit back and make the decision of how much you want to earn today. Man, it's all totally doable and nowadays easier than ever, head over to the startup business school at Join Up dots.com and check out the video testimonials from just a few of the students that are now building their dream businesses after going through our coaching sessions and if that excites them book a time to speak to me one to one to make sure you have what it takes to become the next success of our conveyor belt that started business school at Join Up dots.com

In today's episode of The Speakers Life I talk with Sha Nacino, author and speaker on gratitude. United Nations Global Entrepreneur Council Looking for the one thing APSS Creating online summits Why to create a virtual summit HR Summits Doing 10 interviews in one day Overseas Filipino Summit Global Authors Summit Building Trust Speaking in India Jonathan Low Global Success Summit Jack Canfield Success Principles World Gratitude Summit Email marketing https://www.shanacino.com/   Artificial Intelligence Generated Transcript Below is a machine-generated transcript and therefore the transcript may contain errors. Hey, there is James Taylor and I'm delighted today to welcome onto the show Sha Nacino. You know, Sha is a trusted global speaker on gratitude, happiness and productivity. A Jack Canfield, certified trainer on success principles and a prolific author of 12 books. She was recognized as a distinguished Toastmaster, the highest award given by Toastmasters International to its members worldwide. A student of some of the world's best teachers Bo Sanchez, Brian Tracy, Jack Canfield, and Tony Robbins. She loves to write books and teach people how to write books through her 90 day book writing challenge. Today's show has addressed thousands of audiences from more than 26 countries globally. She is also the founder of HR summit, global global author, site and world gratitude summit. And this year, we were actually both recipients of an award and she at the same event, and she received female entrepreneur of the year award by the United Nations global entrepreneur Council. So great, great wall to get in show. Welcome to the show. Happy to be here, James, thank you for inviting me. So I was just saying that you you just pick up that amazing award for United Nations global entrepreneur cancel. What was the event like that? I believe it was in China and India, right. It was a beautiful event. And I didn't know that it was such a prestigious event. I learned I learned. Well, I learned this and officially that there were about 3700 applications and nominations, and only about 50 were awarded. So it was beautiful. And I met a lot of people from more than 15 countries who are also aware of this. Well, congratulations. Because it's interesting. through doing speakers, you and obviously your speakers, you student as well. And that there are the speakers you committee is fantastic. But whenever it was it to me, like who who's doing, who's doing really interesting stuff in the community just now. And I also mentioned your name, because one of the things I think you're so good at is actually taking action. You know, a lot of people talk about things, but you you will learn something, learn a concept, learn a strategy, learn a technique. And not only do you take action on it, but usually by the next week, you've said, Hey, James, I tried that thing I did this, and I even tried this little extra thing is about what do you think of this? So where do you get your mean? Where did you learn the ability to really be action oriented, because not all people like that, and and we don't go to those lengths. So my background was I was an employee for nine years. And you know, as an employee, if you have ideas, you can adjust, incorporate them right away, because there has to be approvals from the higher bosses. And when they become an entrepreneur, I really love the flexibility to be able to execute your abs. And I think one of the things that I really learned early on was not to be afraid to make mistakes. So I like whenever I had a seminar or a gathering or, or an event. I just looked one thing. One key takeaway, I don't have to look for so many things, one key takeaway. And from that one key takeaway, what action can I do right away. And I just love taking action ever small team. So we're pretty dynamic. And when I when I have an idea, I communicate with my team, and sometimes within a few hours execute, or sometimes a few days or a few weeks to execute. Now one of those ideas that you've executed very well is you I think you heard me speak at a conference. I've talked about online summits and virtual summits. And I remember you coming up to me saying I love I like I wanted I want to do this, I want to do this. And then very quickly, you actually started your very first summit, and we were going to work together on that. And then from there, you've gone on to build other summits, where you're also co hosting with other speakers, for example. So take take me through that. What is it about online summits? Do you enjoy? Because you've you've done more than one now? And what what have you found have been the benefits of doing online or virtual summits? And where do you see them going terms of how you, you bring into all the other things that you're doing in your career and in your professional life just now. Right? So prior to meeting you at the Asia professional speakers convention in 2018, I've seen some of your online summits. And I really, really wanted to meet you. Because I wanted to ask for your permission, James, can I also do the same? And so when I met you in Singapore, I asked him James, can you do the same? And then you said, Of course you can. And I'll be happy to help you. You don't even have to ask for my permission. So anyway, we did I met in me the the talk on on online summits. And we launched our first ever each our summit global in August. And I really had fun doing it. My main reason for doing the online summit was because as a speaker, I get invited by HR professionals to speak to their companies. So before my speaking engagements, I would talk to these HR professionals, and I see their problems. I know their concerns, when employees have problems have concerns, they go to HR, but what NHRF concerns or problems, their backs are against the wall because they need to learn how to motivate themselves. So I wanted to be the go to person of HR professionals, when they need some motivation. It's like my way of giving back to them, because they're the ones giving me business. So when you when you hit that online summit event in a mean, lecture, or a thought in the Asia professional speakers convention, I thought that the first summit they will do is for the HR professionals, it's really to give value to the HR professionals. And I was also very happy because you and all the other global speakers agreed to speak at the summit and give value to the HR professionals. So I wanted the the online summits to be communities where people can learn can be inspired. And the speakers can also give value. It's a platform for them for your messages to be heard. So you did that the very first one and I was so impressed. And you mentioned it. Obviously we met in May. And then you launched it in August with three, three months or so getting up and running. What What were the what were the key? I mean, the good thing that you identified very early on, was we spoke a lot about your customer avatar, and you had a really good sense of your customer avatar that HR professional is struggling is needing motivated meeting there's idea. So so that was great, you really identified that very early on, what were the key challenges that you find in creating your your first online or virtual summit? key challenge at that time was the internet connection in the Philippines. So at that time, the internet connection in the Philippines is in our office was very slow. So what I did was I had to rent a private room in a co working space. And of course, the rent is not that cheap. And so I had to maximize doing interviews on a daily basis. So sometimes I would do nine to 10 interviews in a given day. And I realized, wow, this can be so tiring mentally and also, physically, as you guys my voice. So I think that was one of the biggest challenges that we had. But we had a lot of fun as well, my team and I had a lot of fun. And also since it was the first time that we did the online summit, we had to really, you know, I had to review your slides during the the WBN in Singapore, and had the philosophy What's next? What's next, what's next. So that really helped me your thought really helped me and your slides really helped me. So you have that first one. And I always say when creating any type of online or virtual summit, the first was always the most difficult because you haven't you're having to deal with the technological side, you're thinking about that you're thinking about the content and everything, but the marketing and all and how to get out into the world, the next summit that you decided to do, what was the next one after that? Okay, the next one was the overseas Filipino summit. So the reason why we did that is because I send out inspirational emails every Monday. And I will usually receive lengthy emails from all races Filipinos really resist Filipino workers, and they they share with me their problems, their concerns, etc. And some of the emails were so lengthy, they really divulge their concerns, and sometimes I would be able to answer all of them, but sometimes because I receive hundreds of emails, we don't get to answer to each and every one. But But I read everything that the they've written me. And so I have a good idea, good sense on what their problems were. And it just sparked that in my mind, okay, somebody, I'd like to do something for you. And so when the idea of online summits came to mind, through your talk, I decided that the next set of people would like to serve it overseas Filipinos, because, you know, as Filipinos, they have a lot of concerns, one of them is really missing their families a lot. And I also know a lot of speakers, starting speakers in the fitness space in the Philippines, who also wants who also want to have a platform where they can share the message. So it's like a melting pot of speakers wanting to be heard. And these people who want some guidance and inspiration as well. So you don't really know you knew the kind of the technology side of running a virtual summit by this point. You said you knew how the kind of formats and things what what were the key learnings from that summit that you took away? I think the key learnings there is to have to have fun. I try to because because in the beginning, in my first summit, of course, there were you know, I was trying to really follow the procedure etc. In the offices Filipino assignment, I really tried to have fun, because now I know I know how to do it. And also because the language that we used was, you know, mixed of our our first language and also English. So it was it was more cash flow, it was more relaxed. It was more of family family oriented. Yeah. So So I think the key learning very, I was intentional that, okay, I want to have fun when I do the overseas Filipino summit. And I want the audience as well to feel the fun that even if they're abroad, or they're, they're far from their families, they have a community online community, who can who they can share fun or happiness with. But once again, you've identified identified your avatar, you knew who your avatar was, what the other key challenges were, so you could provide some of that content. And then what was one of the did after that was that the authors some of the moved into next? Yes, we so we have the global authors summit. But this is a lives live in person event. So the reason why we did that was because I have this 90 day book writing challenge. And after the challenge, there is a book launch. And we've always had the introduction to book writing, plus book launch, 1.0, and 2.0 3.0, etc. In 2018, I noticed that so many authors are going to launch their books, so many graduates of the online course, we're going to launch their books, and they couldn't fit in one event. And so I decided, Okay, and since some of these authors would fly in from so many other countries, although most of them are Filipinos, I decided, why not elevate this to another level. So instead of the International book launch that we're having, which which we usually have about 100 150 people during the book launch. So how about creating a global event for authors? And so we launched the global authors summit. And I think we had around 350 to 400 people who attended the event, and we had about 22 authors who launched their books. Okay, so you see, you kind of took a slightly different direction with that one as well. And a question I'm sometimes asked is about virtual summits, online summits is, well, what is the that are Why? What's the return on that time that money it costs, you know, to put these together? So what was the ROI was similar things that you were looking to get from each summit or was a slightly different, you will, you're measuring success in slightly different ways with a different summit. So I think the ROI for the two online summits that I did was, number one is trust, you're building trust and relationship with your audience. And I know that trust the basis of any business, any business transaction is trust. So if you if you build trust with the with the audience, I was hoping that you can get also speaking engagements from there. But But the main, the main reason really, for me doing the HR summit global was number one to give value. Number two, I wanted to build relationship with all the other speakers and varied from them as well. And for them to have a platform the share their message. And number three, this is the this is the effect now. So these are the causes, why why I put up the online summit, the effect that I want, the effect would be if I get speaking engagements from from from that summit, then that will be a big bonus. And I think it's it's being because I have an invitation to speak in mail deems next know, two months from now, next month in August. And yeah, and I know that we were speaking on stage together in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia recently. I see you've been in Paris, I think you in the other day, and then California, I think as well. So you're certainly certainly helping also build your brand, internationally. Right, right. Yes, definitely. So it builds your brand internationally, you're right leaves, I forget about that. So James, and I shared the stage in India. And then I also spoke in Malaysia with James. And then I was the host for the post convention in Singapore in May as well. And I also had a speaking engagement in New York, this March 2018 2019. Wonderful. So you're, you're you're spreading your wings, you're going you're going global now as well. And this this new summit that you're working on at the moment, you decided to something which I which I always actually encouraged a lot of speakers to do because I often think a lot of speakers we're we can, we can get very in our own thing. And we can get very, it's sometimes course a lot of speakers, lone Wolf's there, they just focus on their own thing, don't think, you know, the bigger the more the community side of it. And and I don't think there's a lot of speakers, if you're doing a summit, whether your first or subsequent summits, to co host one, because it can add a lot of fun. And it takes some of the pressure off as well. And you can go into areas that maybe you're even not as you're not known as the expert in at the moment, but allows you to move sideways a little bit as well. Tell us about this, this new one you've got going on with you, you're actually doing them with another speakers, you remember, right, I'm doing this with the Jonathan low also speakers, Hugh member, he was the former president of the global speakers Federation as well. And he actually invited me shot, can we do a project together an online summit together. And so we decided to put up the global success summit. And so both of us are members of speakers, you have James Taylor. And also, both of us are jack Canfield, certified trainers on success principles. So that's where the word success came from. And then we decided to focus on five pillars. So sales, service, leadership, communication, and digital marketing. So obviously, my expertise there is only on communication, one pillar. And this is good, cuz, cuz Jonathan Lau is really known for sales and service. And so he gets to interview a lot of people from from those feelers and I get to interview some people from communication, and we both get to interview some people from the leadership and in the digital digital marketing sphere. And in terms of how, how you're dividing up the workload, so are you doing kind of 5050 interviews? Or is he gonna do more than two years, then you're going to, you know, you've got a team that work for you, as well, you is your team going to help on doing all the infrastructure in the launch and in the marketing? To solo john will do most of the interviews, because he knew more of the people who will be who will be guessing in the summit. And they'll do more of the back end. So editing of the videos, setting up the systems, etc. And also the marketing plan. Now, I first heard of it heard of your work more through your writing than I did anything else more for the speaking side. So you're known as a, as an author and author coach in a writing coach as well? And how have these online summits, how they they worked alongside your writing and your author coaching? Because I would imagine, as we have other speakers, you remember, like Shelley Taylor, for example, who have used a lot of their content from their summit in order to put them into book because that's something that you've done, or do you see them as quite separate types of products? It's a bit separate, but I think the way to to marry the two was that now I'm a speaker on gratitude. And one of the one of the questions I asked during the HR summit global, one of the ultra questions I asked was, how important is gratitude in, in life and in business, and that is something that I can also incorporate, because I'm writing a book on gratitude. And so now I can say that I have, I have done some interviews with more than 3040 people, global speakers to also share their inputs on what gratitude is. So yeah, so they can available to us some inputs from the interview. I look, I'm writing, was there any in doing all? I mean, you have you worked out how many interviews you've done. Now, you must have been a lot of interviews as part of all these virtual sites. Right. So I'm guessing that I'm getting I'm guessing you up into the hundreds now? Okay, maybe, maybe around 7080? Yeah, almost almost 100? And were there any any interviews that you did, as part of that? where someone, a guest said something or did something? It really can it made you maybe rethink what you're doing in your own business and in your own life? Yes. In fact, one of them is your dreams, because I can see how how strategic you were, especially in using automation and technology. And that is something that my team and I still have to work on, because some of the process that will be redoing, are very manual. And so I'm still saying how can I, how can I put more automation in what we're doing? Fantastic. So it's been it's great. I mean, I think you've done such a good job on doing these virtual summits. The when it comes when you start really moving into the marketing automation is gonna be a piece of cake for you and your team. I know you'll be you'll be very good at executing on that as well. So where do we go and and where do you go now? What's your next? What is it the rest of this year look like for you? Okay, so the rest of the year, we'll do more online summits, we will relaunch the HI summit, global, Filipino summit. And we're cooking up to two new online summits. One is the global success summit with Jonathan Lau. And the other one is the world gratitude summit. So the road gadget summit is a bit different from the other assignments I've done, because it's a noble movement. We want to encourage people to adopt the attitude of gratitude. And we're planning to launch this on September 21, during the world that it should be. And also, one of the things that we're really looking at is, is to have more speaking engagements, globally, overseas. So this, this August, I was invited to speak in Melbourne. And then a speaker's bureau invited me to speak in Dubai. Fantastic you so you're definitely expanding globally now. Which which is amazing. And what so you know, you you're going on to these gigs in Maldives, and Dubai, and New York as well. What is in your speaker bag, what you would you carry with you to all these various speaking engagements and do the keys, I have my laptop, and then I have my clicker and some extra batteries. And then I have a USB as well. So I think those are just my speakers. But I also have this small my tiny Mike that I use, because I love the villain on the road. And I just use my iPhone, and then a little modified. Yeah, gimbal but haven't been using it. And I know I've seen you do a lot of things in terms of social media, which is really all about building your brand overall and brought into the sense of gratitude. What was working for you when it comes to social media at the moment? Okay, I think for social media, it's just a way to build awareness and to square conversations. But what really is what's really working for me right now is email marketing. So in terms of converting customers, email marketing really works. But I would say that social media is also very effective because I remember I asked the organizers of the United Nations global entrepreneurs Council, I asked them how did they How did you get to know me because I didn't apply for the award. And they said Oh, we've been following you on social media for the past six months. So in a way that was also actually building my brand and I'm very grateful for that. So you're going to be hitting the road next you've got all these summits are going to be coming up as well if if people want to learn a bit more about you and everything you're doing and following you online where's the best place to go that central point them to go and find out more about you? Alright, so you mean go to my website shut Missy know that calm? Or if you would like some some of my you know, fun side? You mean go to my Instagram account at SHOT underscore casino. And for anyone that's been moved to be hearing by speakers, you we talked about speakers you at the start? What have you found to be the benefit. So being speakers, you remember, the key. So number one is the community. Number two is the one on one coaching with James Taylor, and nothing surprised, and James is praising the speakers you very, very low, because that includes already the one in one coaching. And number three, I really like all the contents in all the training videos. You know, James, when I attend conventions, or learning events, it's not really for the learning. I mean, the live events, it's not really for the learning. It's more of you know, to meet people and observe how speakers do their job. Because I know that the information I need when it comes to building my career as a global speaker, is all inside the speakers you Yes, funny that is that I mean, I think that's been a big, big change in recent years about events, not just speakers, events, but events more generally, I was an event the other day attending, I wasn't speaking at it. And I left it thinking, I could have watched all of that as videos that were YouTube videos, because some of the speakers already had YouTube videos, I didn't really physically go there. And unfortunately, the event wasn't didn't do a particularly good job in, in organizing the community and the connecting piece. And I just what a huge waste. Because the people that yourself, you're putting out so much great in terms online summits for the content, side. So when you come together for a live event, the contents out there already, what you want for those live events is a community that you were talking about. And we just sometimes it was little conversation. I know you and I think in India, we have breakfast One morning, and we're just sharing ideas and sharing strategies on how to build our speaking businesses. So I absolutely agree with you. I think that's where we, that's where live events can really do to do well as the focus on that community piece. Right, exactly. So thank you so much for coming on today. show it's always a pleasure speaking to you. I'm always deeply impressed by how quickly you're able to execute on your ideas. And if people haven't checked that shall go and check out showers work. She's really doing a phenomenal job of building her brand internationally using virtual summits. But also combine that with her speaking and obviously with the with the writing side that she's known for primarily. So thank you so much for coming on today's show all about your speakers life and I look forward to us sharing a stage together very soon. My pleasure, James and yes, I look forward to to bonding with you again and Allison and sharing ideas as well. How would you like to get paid to travel the world to share your message and expertise? How did it feel to get paid 5000 10,000 $25,000 to travel first class and stay in five star hotels in exotic locations. What I've just described is the lifestyle of international keynote speakers. And you can join me and over 100 of the world's best keynote speakers, and speaker trainers as they reveal their secrets to becoming a better speaker and getting booked to travel the world as a professional keynote speaker and Bestival. As it's an online summit You don't even have to leave home plus it's not going to cost you a single dollar euro pound ruble peso or yen. If you sign up for the free pass at International Speakers Summit calm you're going to receive access to never seen before video interviews over 40 of the world's best keynote speakers. In addition to this, you'll get access to archived interviews from some of last year's summit guests. So in total, you'll be able to watch in depth interviews with over 100 incredible speakers and speaker trainers. You'll have to find a theme for your keynote presentation how to craft your talk how to get booked as a speaker, how much to charge and ways to get paid to speak on stages all over the world. So what are you waiting for? Head over to internationalspeakerssummit.com now.

We've covered Large Format in bits and pieces across our five seasons, but never sat down and done a back-to-basics. So James and Alex sit down and cover (almost) everything you need to know about Large Format from the camera types, lenses, equipment, movements, and developing. This is a primer, your 101 course.

James Cutting has been involved with football coaching since the age of 19. First going to the USA to coach and then working for Cambridge United for 9 years. James speaks to us about his life story and how he came to starting his own coaching business. He is now training up young kids with life skills such as discipline, good attitude and mental awareness as he does the many coaching sessions throughout the week in the East of England. In this episode we want to help you by giving you the inspiration you might need to go out and do the things that you love doing, whether that be a hobby, or a sport, or even turning your hobby or sport into a business. Whatever it is that drives you, whatever your passion and your love, don't neglect it and let it lie dormant. If you are a good artist, then draw, paint, make music, dance. But don't let that talent go to waste. Reward does come to those who take risks, the risk does not always have to be high. You should not put your families lives at risk to the point where you could become homeless, but if you have calculated it properly and you have the right plan in place and you are sure there is a market for what you want to get into then what are you waiting for? Just try as Coach James Cutting says https://www.thefootballfunfactory.co.uk   Transcription:  Introduction: Hello everyone. Welcome to LifeShot. Have you ever wanted to break out, leave the job you're doing now or perhaps try something new? Maybe it's a new hobby or something. And you feel not quite confident enough to do it. I spoke to James Cutting this week and this is his journey, he used to do football coaching for Cambridge United, which he loved. And then he moved on to a job that he didn't like as much and then decided to get back into doing what he loved. And perhaps you're in a similar situation where you might be doing a job that is okay. Maybe you used to do a job that you really loved and now you're finding out the job is not the best. How do you get the confidence within to go further to say, "All right, that's it, I'm taking the next step. I'm going to break out. I'm going to get free of these things that limit me, these fears that I seem to have put on myself. Let's get out there and try something new"? So today's about James talking to us about do what you love doing. And even if it's something on the side, like what I'm doing now, I'm doing podcasting and interviews on the side, I've got my day job. And it's just about making a difference where you can, if spreading a message is your passion like mine, do this. If helping young kids is a passion, like what James does, then do that. So it's about pushing you, challenging you guys, go and do what you love doing. Welcome to this week and I hope you enjoy James Cutting, football coach from the Football Fun Factory. Interviewer: James Cutting, welcome to the LifeShot podcast.  Interviewee: Thanks very much. Great to be here.  Interviewer: Yeah, good to have you. And for the listeners, James Cutting is a football coach here in the UK, in Cambridge. I'll let you do your own introduction actually, James, because you've got quite a history within football and coaching. Do you want to give us a background as to your time with Cambridge United? [00:03:55] Interviewee: I'll try and keep it brief. I'll try to skip further in the different stages. I started football coaching at a really young age, stopped playing football at about 16. I realized that I wasn't going to play football to the level I wanted to. I haven't got a sub story like lots of people, a bad knee, dodgy ankle, those kinds of things. Just wasn't good enough. Interviewer: Did you come to terms with that? Interviewee: Yeah, came to terms with that quite early. And then it was like "What's the next best thing you can do if you can't play?" So, coach. So I turned to coaching at 16, did some volunteer coaching, knew I wanted to be a football coach or be involved in football at some level. So then I went off to America to gain some more coaching experience. I was in Chicago, in New York, worked for a company out there that trains British coaches. Interviewer: It's quite like a coaching culture there, in America, they train a lot of coaches, don't they? [00:04:49] Interviewee: They do and they like British coaches. You're a bit of a hero if you go over there. They think we're really good for some reason. You go over there and you coach and work for a company, they send out loads of British coaches. You stay with host families and do coaching camps throughout the summer.  Interviewer: And that was in your younger years?  Interviewee: Yeah, so I was 19 and did that only for about six months. It's was a temporary position really, but gave me opportunity to coach every day. To then gain loads of experience, came back, and then began work at Cambridge United Football Club. So, I tried to force my foot in the door a little bit.  Interviewer: What, did you just knock on the door and say "Hey guys, is there a new job?" Interviewee: Well, while I was in America, I sent a few emails, contacted all the local professional clubs. I was living in Kingsland in Norfolk at the time. Contacted Cambridge, Norwich, Peterborough, I think they all got back to me actually. And had the meeting with Cambridge and then didn't go to the other meetings because I was sold on the place and the people at the time. They basically said "If you want...", so, I had no commitments. I came back, I was 19, I was living at home, no real commitments. And it was just like "Throw yourself into it". So there were some paid coaching hours. But a lot of it was just like "Go and volunteer your services, go and get involved as you can". And I was in a brilliant position to do that.  Interviewer: Were you were living with your parents at home or did you have to move away from home? [00:06:11] Interviewee: No, I was traveling from Kingsland to Cambridge every single day up and down the 810, which is the worst road in the world. Interviewer: Oh, you didn't take the train? Interviewee: No, because I needed equipment in my car and all those kinds of things. In fact, the first ever coaching session I got was in Baldock, in Hertfordshire. So it was an hour and 40 minutes from my house. I got paid about 15 quid for the hour and probably spent 40 quid to get there and back. Interviewer: The sacrifices we take, right? Interviewee: Exactly. I wasn't doing it for money, I wanted to do it for the experience and for the opportunities.  Interviewer: Not everyone's privileged enough to be able to just to do that. Because actually, today's episode, we're going to call it 'Do what you love doing'. And it's not necessarily that we want to put guilt on people to say, "Hey, why aren't you doing what you love doing as a job?" But it's doing what you love doing, even if it's not your job. You're doing something else outside of the things you love doing. Interviewee: Absolutely.  Interviewer: So even if you were working at some other normal job, you did football just because you love it. I think this is the message we want to get across today, just do what you love doing. If doing what you love doing pushes you outside of your comfort zone to try a different job, then so be it. I think you're going to give us a message today about how you did that, how you started your own business and that journey from there. Before we get onto that though, I've noticed and I've seen you coach, I don't know if you know it or not, but you've got some very good skills with young people. Interviewee: Thank you. Interviewer: And my wife's a teacher and so she can pick these things up and say "James is a really good coach and he controls the kids well". So did you learn this by osmosis, through the years or was it something that was particular in your training in there?  [00:07:55] Interviewee: Both, really. I think as a football coach, really the root to become qualified is to go on FA courses. So you do your FA level one, FA level two. I did my FA level three, which is the UEFA for B-coaching license, which basically qualifies you to coach a youth level for any club in the country basically. So at Cambridge, I had to work within the academy, but then running a number of different programs as well there. But the qualifications are great, being around other people and FA mentors and all that kind of stuff. That's all great. But actually, what really matters is on the ground experience, throwing yourself into it, watching other people, putting hours in where you go and just watch someone else coach, ask them questions, "Why did you do it like that? Why didn't you think about doing it this way?" Interviewer: Did you analyse yourself as well afterwards? [00:08:44] Interviewee: Oh, massively. Massively. And that is part of the FA qualifications as well. They say you have to assess all of your coaches and be assessed. So all of your coaching sessions and be assessed as well. But really just doing that every single day, every session that you deliver, you question everything that you do. And you just learn from success and failures. You try something and it just doesn't work and then that's your best coaching session because the next time you'll do something differently and you think, "Right, I'm not going to do that again" and you find a way to make it successful, it might be a small tweak that you make.  Interviewer: If you think about professional sports, you think about golfers, for example. The difference between them is so small, in that who's going to win the game. Because they're all professionals, they all play very well. And in coaching, I think it might be similar, what differentiates you from being one of the top coaches. Because they are teaching you all these things, right? Like how do you assess yourself and be assessed? How do you think you're going to take yourself to that next level, if you want to get there? [00:09:57] Interviewee: Yeah, it depends what the next level is. Most football coaches aspire to work in an academy, probably with a younger age group, gain the experience, then work with an older age group, maybe with a youth team, maybe work with a first team. That's never really been my aspiration. I don't particularly - sounds like a funny thing to say - I don't particularly like adult senior football. I don't particularly like the culture and environment that surrounds it. Obviously, there are some brilliant cultures, I'm sure there are some football teams that do things brilliantly well. But that's never really been my progress route. That's not really what I'm interested in. So my passion has always been around participation, enjoyment. And that leads on to obviously the organization that I've created. Interviewer: Because it's Football Fun... Interviewee: Football Fun Factory, yeah. Three F's. Football Fun Factory. So we explain that to kids who say, "Okay, what's football?" Kick a ball on the go. "What's fun?" Run around with a smile on your face. "What's a factory?" It makes things. So Football Fun Factory makes football fun. That's the idea. That's the sort of ethos of the organization.  Interviewer: Speak about your aspirations for you, particularly for Football Fun Factory.  [00:11:09] Interviewee: I'll give a brief summary of where I have got to, and then I can talk about where it's going and where it's heading now. It's a really good time to ask that question, because there are a few things bubbling away. So, where I've got to, often working full time on this for 12 months, that's it. Interviewer: Just dedicated to it, fully focused. Interviewee: Yeah. So I left the job, last June, started running my own business full time before that. I had a year, but only really six months out of the year where I have taken it seriously, building up the business, walls and employment. And in that year, what we've managed to do, is start a number of different football programs for children aged two years old, all the way through to 12 years old, boys and girls, all abilities. A number of different programs, evening coaching sessions, Saturday morning coaching sessions, school holiday courses, all of those things outside of school hours. So nothing during the day.  Interviewer: You're focused on children. [00:12:11] Interviewee: Yeah, so we can't do anything during the day unless we go into schools. And that's not an avenue we want to pursue. So, within that, it's been building up those programs. I live in Red Lodge, in Newmarket, we've got a whole host of programs that we run there. But we've also built up other communities, Football Fun Factory communities - as I like to call them - in St Ives, Cambourne, Waterbeach, all of these areas are surrounding Cambridge, basically, without being in Cambridge itself, actually. So the idea is that I run my area, my Football Fun Factory community. I've created a bit of a blueprint and business model for that. And then the idea is that we'll replicate that. So we're at the moment creating a franchise model in that we'll have other head coaches, I sort of turned myself the head coach for the Football Fun Factory community of the Suffolk area, really. And we want to create that working from Cambridgeshire outwards. So Cambridgeshire, Suffolk, Norfolk, Hertfordshire, Essex, all of those areas. Eventually, we could have one of those in all counties of the country. So that's the aim. And the reason for that aim is simple, as I know the benefits that the programs that I deliver bring to a few hundred children. But actually, if we could do that for hundreds of thousands of children, then that's a game changer. So that's what we're looking to do.  Interviewer: What are the benefits and why?  [00:13:53] Interviewee: Football's an interesting game, because you've got football participation for children and then you've got football participation for the children's parents. [laughs] And it's a really interesting one, we could easily do a podcast on parenting and football, which would be really interesting. Less than half a percent of children that participate in football then go on to become a professional footballer. Less than half a percent.  Interviewer: Especially in this country, because it gets taken over by the other internationals. [00:14:42] Interviewee: Yeah, that's it. And there's challenges around that. And again, that's another topic of conversation. So, loads of kids have the aspiration to play football and they see their idols on TV and they watch Tottenham play or whoever, and they're inspired by that. And that's great. That's brilliant. And they aspire to become a professional footballer, perhaps. But the opportunity is actually minuscule. It's tiny. Even the most talented might not necessarily make it. So my thought is that every single one of those children can have fun. Every single one of those children can develop social skills. Every one of those children can enjoy themselves, make their parents proud, learn how to become part of a team, how to be respectful to others and to their coaches. So it's life skills. It's just through football. You could almost strip away the fact that it's football. Football is almost for us the vehicle of child development, rather than football development. And the reason it's football is because there's such a huge passion for it. So it's a combination. It's almost like child development through football and there's all of those life benefits and life skills that it brings. Interviewer: My son goes to one of your classes and I'm just thinking of an obvious development, I can see he's improving in the game itself. But I suppose it's hard to measure when they're that young. Is it more measurable as they get older? [00:16:20] Interviewee: So what's really interesting is, I've been involved in football academies in England, started in the under nine age groups. That's eight-year-old children playing football, that play for a local professional club. The worst player in the under nines team, by the time they're 18 - old enough to sign a professional contract - could be the best player. They might have had a really early growth spurt. They might hit 12 and be tall and gangling and uncoordinated, but they might end up being the best players as they grow into their body when they're 16, 18. 20 maybe, even. And there's players that released by professional clubs, dropped down the leagues, play non-league football and rise back up at 25 years old. Interviewer: There's no set way that it happens. [00:17:07] Interviewee: No, and it's so immeasurable. It's a skill to know talent levels and spot progress. I would say the best way of measuring a child's successful development within football would actually be their progress rate, rather than their level of talent. So if for example, they could hardly kick a ball six months ago, but now they've got good levels of technique, they might still be - horrible term - the worst player within the group of children. Interviewer: But still, he's or she's a lot better than what they were. Interviewee: But because of the progress right there that's going on, they might end up being the best player in 10 years' time. And that's the thing, it's such a long game. If you do want to become professional footballer, and if that's the outcome, it's a really long game. It's a long journey from six years old to 20-something years old. Interviewer: So behavioural changes, I'm sure there must be many topics and discussions about this, how it actually helps kids who might be struggling in school. Maybe they're not so good at academics, and then they find some kind of meaning or purpose in football and what it does for their person, for themselves.  [00:18:22] Interviewee: I think it's the structure that it brings. Your son comes along on a Saturday morning, and the session that he is within is three, four-year-old children. And at the start of the session, they have a free play, 10 minutes at the start, where they come in, enjoy themselves, kick a few balls around. That's to settle them into the environment. At that point you'll notice that we always bring them in and sit them down. That's not because we want to show that we are the coaches, we are in charge, we're the boss, you've got to listen to us and all that kind of thing. We do that every single week religiously, because those children then get used to structure. They get used to the fact that they have to show respect and they have to listen. And if another child is talking and answering a question, they need their eyes on that child because they might have something valuable to say. So it's those kinds of social skills, life skills that come out of it and those kinds of benefits that it brings with it. Interviewer: That's good. James, I looked at a little bit of history of your past and you worked with Cambridge United Football and you were into youth development. And from what I gather, you really enjoyed that piece. And then you've got a different job within the same company and you didn't really enjoy that, because it was taking you away from what you loved, right? Interviewee: Yeah. Interviewer: So tell us about that little journey between changing jobs and then saying, "Hey, screw this".  [00:19:43] Interviewee: Okay. So, the process for me was from the job that I loved, Cambridge United, to where I am today, literally went in probably four steps when the job that I love and got loads of passion for and get up for every day and am really motivated for, a promotion into a senior role that was glitzy, glamorous... Interviewer: And you thought it was good at the time, right? Interviewee: Yeah. And was sold to me as, "Wow. What an amazing thing to do". And it was, it was. It was a brilliant thing to do, for someone that's got a passion to then have a job in management and business and all those kinds of things. Interviewer: But that taught you something then, didn't it? Interviewee: Oh, massively, don't get me wrong. I never have any regrets in anything that I do in life, because it will have taken me on a journey that made me realize that's actually who I am and what's important to me and what my passions are. So I took that job, did that for a year and a bit and worked across business development across the whole football club, hospitality, retail, ticketing, loads of different things, loads of different sectors and markets that I have not been involved in and learned a lot of lessons along the way. Probably realized that actually I couldn't have as big an impact in those areas as I could within what I could have in my area, which is giving amazing football experiences to kids. So did that, realized that actually I probably made a career defining mistake in taking that job. Because I then realized that I had lost my passion.  Interviewer: How soon did you realize that?  [00:21:17] Interviewee: Pretty soon. And then probably spent nine months, twelve months to come to terms with it. Interviewer: Thinking "What should I do?”, struggling with yourself?  Interviewee: Yeah, a little bit. From that point then, I left. I've been there nine and a half years, so I'd literally had one organization that I've worked for, apart from six months in America. Interviewer: You were part of the furniture there, weren't you? Interviewee: Yeah, absolutely. I'd literally grown in the football club, from a non-league club to getting promoted, to play Manchester United in the FA cup, I have had quite a really good period of history for the club. When I went on a journey of growth at the same time the football club did, and that was really good for me, took a job completely outside of football. And actually, what I was seeking at that time was the next stage, which was to be somewhere different and to be around a different organization, different structure. That taught me so many things because football is incredibly fast paced, 60, 70 hours a week, it borders on ridiculous on your lifestyle. Interviewer: But in all aspects of the club, no matter which part of the club you're working for, it's pretty much. [00:22:30] Interviewee: It's nuts, I can't even begin to explain what the football industry is like. This is nuts, a professional football club. Brilliant and the best learning curve I could ever have hoped for. But that's all I knew, from age 19 to 29, that's all I knew. So to take a step outside of that, to work for an [00:22:48] organization, I actually worked for the National Trust. A charity that looks after special places across the United Kingdom protects the heritage of the country. I was a consultant for them. And the reason why, probably my CV was how I got that job, I have no idea. Interviewer: Yeah, because it's football National Trust. Interviewee: Yeah, random, seemingly random. But the reason why they gave me that job was because they could see that I have passion for a cause. So I could speak passionately about the cause that I had within football and I could transfer that across to the passion of the cause of protecting the country's heritage. So, I worked for them, was there for a year, realized that I missed football and I missed giving opportunities to kids and create a big impact. Interviewer: So you moved away almost totally from working with kids, because at National Trust, we work with families, but you're probably speaking to adults most of the time. [00:23:44] Interviewee: Yeah, absolutely. And it's an internal job. So I was only dealing with people within, I was an internal consultant. So people within the company. So I then had a couple of years at Cambridge, not coaching, another year in that job, not coaching. And then I started a one-hour coaching session on a Friday night at Red Lodge Sports Pavilion. Interviewer: Where you just thought, "I'm gonna get back into this"? Interviewee: I thought "Do you know what? I live in a village. It's got an AstroTurf. I'm a qualified football coach".  Interviewer: [laughs] What am I doing? Interviewee: "Let's put on a session". So I put on a session, and then that turned into the Football Fun Factory.  Interviewer: Oh, we've got to hear more about that. So do what you love doing. This is what we're talking about today. Let's go back to that. So you're in this job, but again, we're not telling everyone, "Listen, quit your job and do what you love doing". It's not easy, some people, they might want to go parachuting. And how you gonna make a living from that, right? Interviewee: Absolutely. You can. Interviewer: You probably could, I think people do need to try to chase. It doesn't have to happen tomorrow. It doesn't have to happen next year. For me, I've always been into media and then I stopped doing media. And now I want to get back into it. And that's why I'm doing this. And you know, I've got aspirations of where I wanted to go, but I just got to enjoy every moment, you know? Interviewee: Absolutely.  Interviewer: We're enjoying this moment right now, enjoying the moment when it goes out and just not thinking about the "Oh, when it gets there, then I want to be happy" type of thing. So for you and your coaching, how did you follow that path? I want to get into your head about the decision you made, about saying, "Hey, this is it now, I want to do the Football Fun Factory".  [00:25:32] Interviewee: Well, there's an awful lot of good fortune that sat beside that. So the journey that went up from there is start one hour coaching session, in a village with 2000 people in it. I put on the session and it was full. Interviewer: Really? Like what, 10, 15 kids? Interviewee: There were 15 kids. So one hour coaching session, it was full. It was actually a session. I just thought, "You know what, let's just open the age range five to twelve and we will foster a coaching session. We had a five-year-old girl who'd never played football before, who really struggled, to be honest. And we had a 12-year-old boy who was really talented. Somehow we made it work and obviously that's the skill of coaching then, how can you create a session where you can do something where each individual can gain something from it? So I put on that session, that worked. I'm putting another hour in place, that became full.  Interviewer: How did you market it?  [00:26:34] Interviewee: Facebook groups. Interviewer: You said "Hey, I am putting a thing on"? Interviewee: Yeah.  Interviewer: The village groups are pretty powerful, aren't they? Because people are always looking at those village groups. Interviewee: And if people see something that they're not interested in, they'll tell someone that will be interested in it and they'll tag and call people and all those kinds of things. So, I started that. We now have 150 children in Red Lodge alone that train and participate with the Football Fun Factory.  Interviewer: So that's a tenfold increase.  Interviewee: Yeah. So that's happening over the course of a year and obviously, there's a finite number of children, that's not going to keep growing. I'm not going to have a thousand, because there's not that many people. [laughs] Although that is developing, every time they build more houses, I'm like, "Yeah, great". So, that's what happened there. I was then really, really fortunate that I was in a job where I had a good relationship with my boss and good relationships with the people in the organization. Interviewer: Doing the National Trust work? [00:27:36] Interviewee: Yeah, at the National Trust. So they offered unbelievable personal development opportunities, it blew me away. There are training courses, CPD programs, all sorts of things, all the time. I was like, "Wow, I've got more training next week. Brilliant". And I've never been in that environment. I'd gone from a job where I had none of that in 10 years to that thrown at me every couple of weeks. Interviewer: So during your Cambridge United football, you had to develop yourself? Interviewee: Yeah, it was too fast paced to even stop and think about your own development, because you're thinking about the development of the company. So yeah, it was too fast paced, and to be fair, the club had been on such an upward trajectory itself that there was no time to stop and think. It was like a start-up business, which was handy.  Interviewer: I was going to ask you about that, but I suppose we've gone off topic. Interviewee: We could easily, yeah. [laughs]  Interviewer: Okay, so the National Trust gave you this personal development thing, which is awesome. And then that helps you.  [00:28:39] Interviewee: So National Trust gave me loads of opportunities to develop myself. I was also in a job where I was massively out of my comfort zone because I was in an industry and organisation that I knew nothing about. It's the most complex organization in the world, I think. It's just nuts. It was brilliant for my development. Just missed that football fix and that child development fix that I needed. I could have easily stayed there and had a 10-year career there, easily. And been very happy doing that. But the bit of good fortune I was talking about was that I had an honest and open conversation with them and they said, "Well, if that's your passion, we want to keep you here as long as we can, but we want to support you and your aspirations". So they allowed me to set some stuff up outside of my working hours. They even tailored my working hours slightly so that I could then get to the sessions on time. They allowed me to book holiday to run school holiday courses. And then it built itself up to a point where we were just keeping constant dialogue and they just said, "Okay, we want to keep you for as long as possible, would it help if you went part time?" And obviously, when you're talking about someone having a passion and then doing that for a living, the biggest jump from there to there is that I've got to pay myself. I need a salary, I have to pay my mortgage. I was in the fortunate position where I was building up a business at the same time as I then became part time in another, in my job. So basically, they helped me transition from full time employment into full time running our company.  Interviewer: So as you're saying this, I'm thinking there might be a chance for people who are listening to do something similar. Interviewee: Absolutely.  Interviewer: Because I think most of my listeners would probably either have a job or be self-employed. So yeah, that's a fortunate position that you were in and it all worked out. I'm just thinking some people could do that. If you follow your passions and even if it's just a hobby and you want to turn it into a business, then just transition slowly, you think? [00:30:46] Interviewee: I wouldn't necessarily say slowly, but certainly transition at the rate which you need to. So that could be quite a quick transition. It might take five years to do it. The biggest thing I would say is, it then comes down to hard work. Because I was doing a full-time job. Interviewer: But a sacrifice somewhere. A social sacrifice? Interviewee: Yeah, absolutely. Because I was doing my 40 hours a week, which felt like a part time job to me, having been at Cambridge for ten years. I was like, "Okay, I've got all this spare time". So in the evenings and weekends I was then setting up my sessions and running my programs and taking holiday, but then working it, running my business.  Interviewer: Were you married at this time?  Interviewee: Yeah! Interviewer: Your wife was like "When am I going to see him?" Interviewee: So, there's two big things here, right? Two things. People think, "I'd love to be able to follow my dream and just start up that business". And they think they have to jump from full time employment to running a business. And they can't make that jump because how can I make enough money to pay my mortgage next month? When I went on that journey from employed to self-employed, effectively, I did that at a time where I had not long ago bought a house for the first time, just got married and spent a lot of money for the wedding. And we were about to have a baby at the time. So we've got a six month old now. So if you can do it in those circumstances, then it's possible to do and you don't have to jump from A to B. You just have to put the graft in and you just have to work really, really hard and do things in your own time. Interviewer: People need to know that what they're going to do, they're not going to give up on. So, for example, you might have an idea to do something that you love doing, but you think, "Well, I love doing a lot of different things. Which one should I choose?" But for you, fortunately, football coaching was your thing, right? So I think people just need to assess in their minds, "What do I really love doing? What could I turn into a business?" And then just go with that. And stay dedicated to that path. Once you decided, maybe stick on that? Do you think? Because you can't just throw yourself everywhere, can you? [00:33:05] Interviewee: No, no, no. And I think I'm unfortunate that I've had one real passion. And sometimes people, they're passionate about a number of different things and think they would like to run a business in, "Oh, I could run a business in this, this and this". I'm fortunate I've had one burning passion and that's me. That's just me. That's what I wanted to do. I think that the first question you have to ask yourself is, is it a viable business? I knew that it was, because I'd pretty much already done what I do now in a job for a number of years.  Interviewer: There's definitely a market for it. There are people wanting football training. Their parents want to send their kids.  Interviewee: If you take each program, school holiday courses, to some - we don't really market it as this and we don't really want it to be this - but to some it's childcare in the school holidays. I hate to think that, but it is. Interviewer: Do you do an all-day-course? Interviewee: Yeah, 9:00 until 3:30 and it's like a school day and effectively for some working parents that makes it a bit of a God-send, it's a solution. Luckily the children come along and have a great time and they want to come back. So even better for the parents, but it's more than just a childcare service. And we don't really like to think of it as that, but to some it is. That's never going away. In fact, there's going to be more demand for that than ever before, because people are busier and busier in their lives. Football is just the national game. People love it and people have got a real passion for it. And kids love playing football. When people inquire about the [00:34:41] program that we run on the Saturday morning, the first thing they say is, "Hey, she loves kicking a ball around in the garden", therefore they want to bring them to the session, because they just find that that's their child's passion at that time. And it's up to us to then just harness that passion. So the markets that we operate in, football coaching and an aspect of childcare, are not going anywhere. There's nothing that's going to happen, there's no recession. There's no Brexit. It will be here in 50 years, 100 years, 200 years' time. And if anything, I think that every aspect of business is becoming more experienced-led, in my view. So what do people want to do for an evening out with their friends? Are they wanting to go to escape rooms, are they wanting to have an experience rather than going out for dinner? Maybe. And people are going very more towards experiences than they are just the norm. And I think that the way that we do our sessions, it leads itself more to the experience market, because it's football with a twist. It's not just a football coaching session. It's a session in an inflatable pitch with a giant football and inflatable goal and a football dartboard and all of these kinds of things that nobody else really does. And that's the USP of the organization. So all of those things are never going away. So I knew it was a viable business. So because I'd had that absolute confidence, my mind was made up that I can do this. Which is a fortunate position to be in.  Interviewer: You spoke about, this is a good time for people to take the plans, really. I don't want to go along the lines saying everyone should start their own business, but even if it's just a side business, and you're happy to do your other job, the tech that's available to us nowadays is just so good. Although it does take a bit of money to start up, because I'm building my own website now, because I've got big plans for it, it's costing a bit more money. But tell us about these little tech tips that you can give entrepreneurs starting. Because you've just started a year ago.  [00:37:07] Interviewee: The biggest thing I would say is that you can run a business from a smartphone. Depending on the business, you don't necessarily need a laptop. And that sounds like a crazy thing to say. How can you run a business without a computer? But I do a fair amount of my work on my phone. And that's the way that entrepreneur-ism is going. You can capture, edit and upload your social media content from your phone. You can answer your emails from your phone, you can use free apps, you can capture five videos throughout the day, put them into an app and it creates a video for you. We use loads and loads of free apps or we use apps that we pay 99p a month for, and they do brilliant, brilliant things. My advice would be just to do your research, download loads of apps and try them all out and see which ones work best for you. I've got a photo editing app, where we put text over photos. iPhones now capture brilliant content, in terms of the quality, photos and videos. You can have blurred backgrounds and all sorts on the new iPhone and stuff like that. There's a fantastic app, where we literally select the photos and videos from the day, when we have a school holiday course, we capture loads of content throughout the day on a phone, we put it into an app and it makes a one-minute video that looks like it's professionally made. Interviewer: There's AI, just right there, in operation.  Interviewee: Absolutely brilliant. So my advice would be, obviously I talked about I started a business at a time where there are so many reasons not to and that's the biggest thing about entrepreneurism as well, there's so many reasons we just go, "But I can't because...", and for me it was that I just got married, just bought a house, about to have a baby, I can't do it. It's crazy. What if I can't pay the mortgage next month, what am I going to do? So if someone's 19 years old, if they were me, just before I went to America, living at home and no commitments, no mortgage, the phone bill might be the only thing that you have to pay or whatever it might be. Then my advice would be just do it. Just do it. Just try.  Interviewer: I wonder if it's the confidence in being able to say, "Well, I might not be the best coach". I suppose confidence comes over time, but you may find some younger people who are more confident than others. Because for like me, if I want to become the expert in my field and I'm thinking of what field I am an expert in, you know? I know what I'm good at. I'm good at fitness, I'm good at strength training. I know a lot about nutrition and I know about meditation and all those kinds of things. I'm thinking, "Well, am I really a professional in this field?" And I suppose it's just about finding that confidence within yourself as a young person saying, "You know what, I can do this". Maybe they lack mentors, maybe they lack people like yourself, who would be able to say, "Hey, you can do this".  [00:40:29] Interviewee: And to be honest with you, that goes on at different levels. I'm someone sitting here in my first year of business. So absolutely, if there was a young aspiring entrepreneur, I could sit down with them having a chat and sort of mentor them. But also, that's something that I've identified for me that I need to find a mentor and I need to find a coach and people did develop me. I think that's something that people are opening their eyes to a lot more now. Those people are really, really valuable, because the biggest thing about doing what I do now, the most exciting thing at the moment, is that when we begin to franchise and expand across the country, I'll be doing that with a business partner. And I'm really, really looking forward to doing that because it will be the first time where I can actually collaborate with someone other than my head. [laughs]  Interviewer: Have you found someone like a venture capitalist or something?  Interviewee: Not even that. It's just someone that basically I've known really well for a while. They're going to come on board, they're going to help me run the whole thing. And they're better at some stuff that I do well than I am. And that's what it's all about, surrounding yourself with really good people. And when people talk about a coach or a mentor, it doesn't necessarily have to be someone you pay loads of money to be able to do that for you. It could just be someone that you respect or someone that your dad works with that's got experience in doing what you do or starting their own business or something like that.  Interviewer: So I think, one thing I've learned is that if you want to find a mentor, look for somebody and serve them and ask what you can do for them. So instead of, "Hey, I'm looking for a mentor, can you help me?" Let's say I'm a young 19-year-old and here's James, "James, how can I help you? Can I help you coach?" So for young people listening, or people who are looking for a coach, it's go and serve, go and help those people that you aspire to.  [00:42:31] Interviewee: Yeah. And that's all experience, isn't it? It's not me talking about when I first began at Cambridge United, a young 19-year-old coach. I went and watched as many coaching sessions as I could, because all the coaches, they were better than I was. So what I had to do was go and watch them. So on that trip to Baldock, that I was talking about, that cost me more money to do than actually earn. On the way home, I'd then take a detour and stop and watch the academy train for three hours and then get home. So my nine hours working day, it cost me money, it was actually my personal development. It was my opportunity to go and see, you wait for qualified coaches at work and that's what I needed at that time. It's a compliment if someone said to you now, "I know you've got a podcast lined up with James later on in the week, I'd love to sit in and watch it and just see how it works".  Interviewer: Yeah, that would be a compliment.  Interviewee: Yeah, it'd be a compliment to you and I'm sure you'd say to someone, "Absolutely. Why not?" Interviewer: Yeah sure, push the buttons on the camera. Interviewee: Yeah, absolutely [laughs] Interviewer: If you can help us out, that'd be great.  [00:43:40] Interviewee: So all those kinds of things. If someone is thinking about, "I'd love to run a business. I know what my passion is, that's what I want to do, but I don't think I'm ready yet and I need to get an experience". Just ask people. Ask people, because people will take it as a compliment. If someone said to me, "I'd love an hour of your time once a month to talk about what you've done in the last 12 months, because I'm just about to go on that journey myself", I'd give him an hour. Absolutely. As long as they were respectful in the way that they position that.  Interviewer: Because you want to give back, don't you? Interviewee: Exactly, yeah. Absolutely. Because I wish someone would've done that for me.  Interviewer: Yeah, exactly. That's true. Because you're like, "I'll just do it for this guy". So James, just to end off today, thanks for being with us. Before you go, I just want to know, what does your day look like? Do you have a routine in the morning that you do or maybe it's not a routine, but how do you invest in yourself personally, at this point? Besides football and business? Do you invest in yourself in other ways?  [00:44:41] Interviewee: Yeah. One of the most important things out there is get up and go to the gym. And you might say, "What's that got to do with running a business?" It gets you into a mindset, it gives you head-space. So I drive to the gym, it takes me 10 minutes to get there. I've got that time in the car. I'm in the gym for 45 minutes, an hour. It gives me time to think. And actually, it's the one place where you can get the results and rewards as an outcome of your work, guaranteed.  Interviewer: You can see the physical rewards.  Interviewee: Yeah, so you go to the gym, you work hard, you get fitter. It's a really simple process. You can't really break them at all. Now in business it's been more difficult, in that you work really hard and you might not get results. But in the gym, you can. So I find that a really good way to get into a positive mindset for the day. I don't do that every day. I wish I had time to do that every day, but at least three times a week, so I'll go and do that. I'm fortunate that I work from home. I think that's a nice environment to be in, where you feel more relaxed. It's not so formal. I don't have to get up and have to iron a shirt to put on. I can get up at 7:00 o'clock and I can be working at 7:02.  Interviewer: You don't have to drive anywhere, you just walk to the office. [00:46:06] Interviewee: Down the stairs, yeah. So investing in myself is something I probably need to do more of and you need to find time to do that. Reading books I think it's really important. Again for me, something I'd love more time to do. Interviewer: And books on different things, not just business books. Books on spirituality, whatever it is. Interviewee: Absolutely, yeah. Books about passion and what your goals might be and all those kinds of things. So I think that everything you do in life can apply to business, actually. I think it's the one thing, or spending time with your family. So I give myself a Thursday off every single week. What does that do for me? The reason why I want to be successful in business now for me, I'm at a new stage in my life, I've got a six-month-old, a wife that I married a couple of years ago. And for me, I'm doing it for them. That's my inspiration. On a Thursday we go to swimming lessons, take my daughter to swimming lessons and it just reminds me all the time, when it's getting really hard on a Wednesday night and I'm on that AstroTurf and it's freezing cold and it's raining, I know why I'm doing this. Interviewer: That's so cool and while you were saying that, I'm just thinking there's always a question why. Simon Sinek said it, "Why, why, why?" And the 'why' you've answered earlier, you said you want to help kids have fun playing football and it's for their development. And at the same time, the 'why' is also for you personally, for your family, spending more time together. So there's more than just one 'why', isn't it? [00:47:41] Interviewee: Absolutely, yeah. There's five according to Simon Sinek. Interviewer: Oh, five, is it? Interviewee: The five why's. He said five why's and he goes into all that. I think it was him, it might be someone else. But yeah, it's the why, but then also having the discipline of when it gets tough, when things don't go as well as they could. One thing you need is resilience. And I think that's so important, because when you are, paint the worst possible picture. So I'm running a football coaching business and football is my passion, but we haven't got the numbers on the courses that I needed to get to run my business effectively. I'm standing there on an AstroTurf, the kids don't want to listen tonight. They're not interested. It's freezing cold, it's raining. And at the end of the session, I've got to pack all of this stuff away by myself. Put all the goals away, get into my van and drive home. Doesn't sound as glamorous, does it? I've sat here with you for half an hour to talk about what sounds like a really glamorous, brilliant way of life. And it isn't. It will be for me, but none of that is possible without resilience and hard work.  Interviewer: You have to go through the slur sometimes.  [00:48:48] Interviewee: Yeah, absolutely. And you go through that slur literally every single day. And there are so many ways where you could go. Somebody offered me a job, "Just take that nine to five and get holidays and whatever else". But if you've got real passion for it, I think you'll stick at it. And that's the key.  Interviewer: Chris Ducker says that being an entrepreneur can be a lonely business.  Interviewee: Oh, so lonely. And as I said earlier, when I've got someone on board to come and work with me on it, I can't wait. Someone I can have a conversation with. It's very lonely, very, very lonely. And again, that takes resilience to say... Interviewer: It's not always going to be like that.  Interviewee: Yeah. You'll get there in the end.  Interviewer: Yeah. James Cutting, it's been great having you.  Interviewee: Pleasure! Interviewer: Football Fun Factory, I wish you all the best in the future. Interviewee: Thank you very much. Interviewer: Thanks for being on the show.  Interviewee: Cheers, pleasure.

It's CMA Fest in Nashville this weekend (June 8th) and as the town grinds to a halt, James considers what the CMA (Country Music Association) could do to aid and develop the growth of Country music across Europe and the wider world.The past 6-7 years has seen a tremendous growth and interest in Country music in territories like the UK, Australia and Scandanavia but are we heading towards the ceiling and what can be done to avoid a plateauing or tailing off of interest in the genre? Who better than the CMA to step in with a guiding hand to make sure interest in Country music continues to expand?So James puts forward a number of ideas and suggestions of how the CMA could get involved more with the artists, the fans and the profile of Country music outside of the Nashville bubble in order to sustain and grow the profile and ultimately make money out of this crazy genre that we love!

An overview of the book of James Rapp Report Daily 0296 James is written by the half brother of Jesus, obviously, because they share the same mother Mary, but Jesus didn't have a human father. So James became the pastor in the church in Jerusalem. Believers spread throughout and scattered around and James says he's writing to the twelve tribes scattered abroad. And as he's writing with a pastor's heart. He's concerned for them. And because of that he's writing several things to encourage them to help them. And so this book is really a test of genuine faith. There's many tests that you're gonna see of how to evaluate whether you have genuine faith, 1) the test of perseverance in suffering, 2) the test of temptation, 3) the test of responding to the word of God, 4) the test of impartiality the test of having, 5) the test of  works, 6) the test of the use of your tongue, 7) the test of humility 8) worldly indulgences 9) dependence upon God patient, 10) endurance, 11) truthfulness 12) prayer, and 13) faith. Basically what you see in the book of James is a series of tests that you can evaluate yourself. There's actually thirteen of them that you can look at to say is the faith that I have genuine which is very important. If you want to know the difference, we had true and false convert. This podcast is a ministry of Striving for Eternity and all our resources strivingforeternity.org Listen to other podcasts on the Christian Podcast Community: ChristianPodcastCommunity.org Support Striving for Eternity at http://StrivingForEternity.org/donate Please review us on iTunes http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/rapp-report/id1353293537 Give us your feedback, email us info@StrivingForEternity.org Like us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/StrivingForEternity Join the conversation in our Facebook group at http://www.facebook.com/groups/326999827369497 Watch subscribe to us on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/user/StrivingForEternity Get the book What Do They Believe at http://WhatDoTheyBelieve.com Get the book What Do We Believe at http://WhatDoWeBelieveBook.com

We're doing things a little different on this episode! Corwyn was heading off to Baltimore for a week so we had to record a shorter episode. So James brought to the table three episodes of Steven Universe, the most LGBTQ/relationship one's he could remember out of the seasons he's seen, and presented them to Corwyn! We watched "We Need to Talk", "The Answer", and "Mr. Greg"! Join us as we chat mostly about those! Find out about all of our sister podcasts (that James also co-hosts) on www.mlmpod.com! Follow us on Twitter @ThisMoviesGay! Give us recommendations for movies! Learn more about Saltbox Theatre, the theater company Corwyn works with, at SaltboxTheatre.org & follow them @SaltboxTheatre! Listen to James' other podcast Mostly Speakin' Sentai with his co-host/best friend/life partner Nicole! They are an irreverent look at the Super Sentai series, which is the Japanese source material for Power Rangers. Follow the podcast @MSSPod on Twitter & Facebook as well as Instagram @MSSPodcast. You can listen on the app you're listening to This Movie's Gay on! James co-hosts the podcast I'll Get There with his buds Courtney & Monse! Also check out "What The Hellmouth?!" with James, TC, & Anissa to hear them talk about anything but Buffy the Vampire Slayer on a Buffy podcast. These podcasts can be found on what ever podcast app you're listening to This Movie's Gay on! Check out James' rap music! Find Marsh Land Monster on YouTube, SoundCloud, & Facebook!

The world is on its Christmas Vacation. So James and Christy explore two cards that have strong holiday traditions and are slightly insane. We go to Dallas in 1985 for the Christmas Star Wars show at Reunion Arena and Korukean Hall for the DDT/K Dojo/BJW New Year's Rumble from 2009/10. It happened in both years. That's the kinda crazy we are talking.

The price just keeps on dropping and people want to know "where is the bottom!?" So James has a chat with SA Crypto's Financial Analyst and asks him about what to do from here, and where could the bottom possibly be? Don't forget to subscribe to our newsletter on the sidebar of our website: www.sacrypto.co.za Follow us on Twitter: www.twitter.com/sacrypto_

Change is scary, and yes price trends do matter in the online marketplace, particularly if you are in the market for buying or selling a business. Today we're discussing the frightening possibility of tighter margins, particularly for Amazon businesses, as a result of the most recent US government tariffs on Chinese products. Here at Quiet Light, we get a lot of questions from buyers regarding what we can expect from the Amazon marketplace now and in the future. The reality is that entrepreneurs need to learn to see these changes as par for the course as well as opportunities for growth. The internet today is so much different than it was 11 years ago when we started Quiet Light Brokerage. In fact, we started the same year the first Iphone came out  – to give some perspective on just how much things can change! When it comes to the geopolitical nature of e-commerce, specifically as it relates to the US, who better to bring in than a Canadian? Today's guest, James Thomson, is a Partner for BuyBox Experts, a managed services agency specializing in marketplace management for brands, manufacturers, and resellers. He was formerly head of Amazon Services, the division of Amazon responsible for recruiting tens of thousands of sellers annually to the Amazon marketplace. He's crazy knowledgeable about everything Amazon. We're talking all about the tariffs and their potential impact on the e-commerce marketplace. Episode Highlights: What tariffs are coming out and what tariff trends are going to affect business? Impact on first party sellers. Ways to work with and around these tariffs. How the manufacturers in China will see that they can suffer too. The length and scope of the tariffs' impact will have a lasting effect over time. Parallel imports may happen eventually, creating retail arbitrage. The foreseen impact for third party sellers. How the tariffs are creating more incentive for Chinese manufacturers to become sellers and sell products directly to customers in the United States. We discuss the consequences for Amazon sellers holding inventory. How Amazon monitors expected sell through rates to deflect inventory increases. Things sellers should keep in mind in order to keep their buy box percentages up. Indicators that there may be opportunities for competitors like Target to swoop in in certain spaces as early as the end of this quarter. If the tariffs prevail, one year from now will be the time when the retail increases will  show. What countries might be viable alternatives to China as suppliers and when to start investigating those avenues. The people who end up capitalizing and doing well in situations like these are the ones that look at these problems as opportunities. Transcription: Joe: So Mark I just launched a listing a couple of weeks ago. It's under contract already, multiple offers, it went very quickly. Actually, it's a re-launch because when we launched last year it didn't sell because of flat trends on the top side, slightly down on the bottom side and we pulled it. And the owner of the business implemented all the growth opportunities that he wrote about and now business is up 27% so it went under contract very quickly. So for those people that are listening that don't think that trends matter they definitely do because eight months ago no one wanted to buy this. Eight months later it's under contract in what was literally like four days. And I can't say the price of course but the thing that I wanted to touch about in regards to that is that he's importing products from China and the potential tariffs have changed since we last listed the business. And so we addressed that in the client interview. We're trying to stay current with it and he has a person through his manufacturer that helped him with the proper coding of the brands. And there was a slight increase in terms of the landed cost of goods sold but it was so minute it really had no impact on the discretionary earnings or profit. And I think that this is a topic that we need to address more and focus on in our client interviews and make sure that the sort of scary possibility of tighter margins is really looked into because not everything is going to have an increase and those that do it may be so small that is a very tiny percentage of that landed cost of goods sold. Now you just had an expert on to talk about it, our old friend James Thomson, right? Mark: Yeah absolutely when it comes to US issues and the geo political nature of e-commerce specifically as [inaudible 00:02:27.4] the US who better bring in than a Canadian? So, James Thomson, he is the first account manager within Amazon's marketplace. He's the co-founder of Prosper Show. He's a principal owner over at Buy Box Experts. The guy … I mean he's crazy knowledgeable about everything Amazon. And so we've been getting a lot of questions from buyers both on deals that are under offer right now and also from people just kind of trying to understand the landscape, what are we looking at here with Amazon in the future. So I thought let's go ahead and bring somebody on. Let's talk about it. Let's kind of dissect this. And he said a couple of things which are really really important about this and I'm not going to give all of it away because I need to tease of course so that people can actually listen to the entire interview but a couple of things. One, the nature of business is always changing. I mean the Internet today is way different than what it was when we started Quiet Light Brokerage. I'm actually just … I'm putting together a presentation right now for Ungagged coming up here soon early November and I'm taking a look back to when I started Quiet Light Brokerage. We started Quiet Light Brokerage the same year that the iPhone first came out so … I mean that's how much things have changed in just 11 years. Joe: Wow. Mark: I know right. So I say that this Quiet Light Brokerage was the biggest event of 2007 followed shortly after by the iPhone of course. Anyway let's get into the point here, James and I talk a lot about why are the tariffs in place, what is going on with these tariffs, what is the future of it look like, how is it going to impact e-commerce business owners, what's the hope of the US government with these tariffs. And I'll cut to the chase there the hope is that people start buying from other countries and most importantly what should you be doing about it. And on one thing that I'm just going to say here, I reiterate this at the end of this discussion with James. These sort of changes need to be looked at as opportunities among people who own businesses, among entrepreneurs. I've been an entrepreneur for 20 plus years now and the nature of the internet is constantly changing. Those who are looking at these changes and saying there is opportunity here, I have a great opportunity here to be able to adjust to the changes, find a new problem and solve that problem they do really really well. They're the ones that are absolutely killing it. Those who take a look at stuff like this and get all scared they end up leaving and not continuing onto the world of the Internet, their entrepreneurial career. So this is an interesting topic, very relevant to our time right now. Definitely, take a listen to it and then James also offered an email address if you have any questions for him to be able to speak about it. He's got a couple of really practical solutions that you can implement right away to be able to absorb some of these costs both in working with the factories and manufacturers in China but also just some very simple things that you can do on your side with your product launches and your products coming out to be able to pass this cost on. I'll say one more thing and I know I've talked a ton here; I'm kind of all around the place here. And I think it's really important to understand that everybody is facing these problems. When your costs go up 10% it's not just you, it's all of your competitors are seeing the exact same things. So it's a matter of how do you absorb those costs, how do you plan to be able to compete with that, how do you address your Amazon account so that you're not getting … losing your buy box share so on and so forth. Pretty simple stuff but you do need to have a plan. Joe: Yeah and I think you and I have been around long enough that we know it's not the end of the world, it's just another hurdle that an entrepreneur needs to get over. Get over the hurdle. And knowledge is power. If you learn about it, focus on it, and if and when you decide to sell your business you'll have that knowledge and you'll be able to address and tell people how you addressed it. And for buyers, same thing learn about it. Not every category is going to have an increase in tariffs and increase in cost of goods sold. So James is very bright, one of the smartest guys in most of the rooms he's in so I am looking forward to listening to this myself. Mark: James welcome back to the Quiet Light Podcast. James: Thanks for having me, Mark. Mark: All right so let's start off with just a quick introduction as to who you are. You have been on the podcast once before. I'm going to let you introduce yourself as far as your background … especially your background with Amazon and Prosper Show and Buy Box Experts. James: Right. Well, I'm James Thomson. People may know me as one of the co-founders of Prosper Show which is an educational event for large sophisticated third party sellers on Amazon. I am also the partner for Buy Box Experts which is an advisory and account management company at sports brands on Amazon. And I spent almost six years at Amazon doing a number of third party related responsibilities including running Amazon services and being Amazon's first FBA account manager many many many years ago. So thanks for having me back on again. I'm looking forward to talking about the ever increasing challenges of being a successful seller on Amazon. Mark: Well, I'm going to admit this is a show that I have been sort of dreading to do. James: Yeah. Mark: But it's really necessary and I know we've been starting to see more and more questions on the whole issue of tariffs. Before we jump into it real quick I am just going to give a shout out to Prosper Show. We go to a lot of shows at Quiet Light, Prosper show is awesome. If you're selling on Amazon and you're looking for a show where you can actually learn things and make good connections check it out, Prosper Show, what we're going to be there next March probably with all the booth and all that so. James: Thanks Mark, thanks. Mark: The thing is I'll make it for you because it's worth making. And also I don't want to talk about tariffs but let's talk about tariffs. And as everybody knows we've had one round of tariffs slapped on a lot of products coming from China, 10%. There is a threat of more tariffs coming out in January. And I'm going to fess up publicly to everybody to say I've really been kind of putting my fingers in my ears and saying I don't want to know about this, please make it go away. Let's get everybody up to speed on this as far as the tariffs that are coming out and what the general political landscape is that we need to be aware of in moving forward. James: So just to be clear I'm Canadian. I don't vote in the United States. I don't get to decide who does or doesn't make decisions around the tariffs that are going to be charged. But for folks that haven't been paying attention Mr. Trump is dealing … or has decided to enter into a tariff war with the Chinese around basically what dozens and now hundreds of products that are manufactured in China will be slapped with rather significant tariffs when they're imported into the United States. As many the people listening in today will know these private label sellers gosh we have a lot of stuff made in China that ends up being consumed and sold here in the US. So I work a lot with private label sellers who are saying gosh I thought I had the opportunity to make some decent margin being a private label seller but now that my products that are coming in from China with this extra 10%, 15%, and possibly 25% tariff depending on what specific type of product you happen to make, gosh that's an awful lot of money and I can't really absorb that long term without it destroying my financial situation. So what do I do? I think to tackle this problem we should split it into two parts. There are going to be those companies that wholesale products to Amazon. We'll call that the vendor central relationship and then there's all of the companies that are using seller central to sell those products themselves; two very different situations. Let's start with the … either one is really very easy but let's start with the vendor central situation. If you are a brand and you are bringing products in from China and you're turning around your wholesaling to Amazon … not surprisingly Amazon doesn't buy price increases and they don't really care about your profitability. That's your problem and so if you're now faced with an extra 10 to 25% COGS … 10 to 25% of higher COGS, absorbing that amount unless you're making insane margins most of us can't absorb that kind of money. And so the question then becomes A. can you get your manufacturer receipts absorbed? Some of that in cost reductions and we've definitely seen some situations where some of the overseas manufacturers are willing to make certain price concessions, especially if the North American sellers are buying the inventory in time to be able to avoid some of that initial tariff. So if you're prepared to load up on some of your inventories, if you load up on your inventory now then next year are the first lot of x-tiles and units your Chinese manufacturer may absorb some of that extra cost. Because the reality is the Chinese manufacturers they're also going to suffer through this. It's not just the American brands, it's Chinese manufacturers that also recognize that there isn't going to be as much demand unless they absorb some of this cost. Mark: Yeah and let me just make a point here real quick. I mean the goal of this and the Trump administration has been pretty clear, the goal of this is to get China to change some of their policies towards the US. And so they're literally trying to disincentivize business owners importing from China you know a lot of these 1P and 3P as you put it, the vendor central and the other people selling through Amazon to buy from other countries. And so they're going to make … through these tariffs they're just making business more expensive for everybody. And ideally, there is going to be this internal pressure from the Chinese manufacturers on their government to be able to change some of the policies of the US. That's kind of big picture. James: The problem is … and I speak anecdotal experience, I live close to the harbor in Seattle and I see all the used tanker ships come in and more than half of them come in from China. So if I think of all this product that comes in that we consume here in the United States is being manufactured overseas if more than half of that's being created in China the reality is our overall cost of buying stuff, whatever it is … plastic stuff, apparel, whatever … it's coming from China. And so unless some of these other countries can very very quickly not only ramp up production but more importantly identify themselves to companies here in the United States that otherwise buy from China, unless they can do that and find a way to say hey come and make your products over here instead of in China, the reality is this is going to take a while and some of this pain around higher costs is going to affect both the manufacturers in China, companies here in the United States, and of course consumers in the United States if in fact some of those costs overruns or pass through as higher resale prices. Mark: Right and just to be clear I'm not a geopolitical expert by any means but China has been pouring money in subsidizing their manufacturers for a really long time to be able to ramp up production levels that can provide basically manufacturing services to the entire world. That's why their economy has really been juiced up to where it is today. So for people to look elsewhere to other countries it's going to be darn near impossible for somebody to find prices that can be matched in other countries that may be seeing this as an opportunity. And even if a country does pop up for a particular industry it's going to take years for the capacity to be able to grow up to the level where we really need it to grow up to. James: Yes. Mark: So this is a problem. Let me ask you a question on this real quick and I want to get into specifically how Amazon is treating this as well. You started to get into it. I think it's going to be an interesting conversation but isn't this going to affect everybody the same way? And at the end of the day I mean it's the consumers that you would think are going to be left on in vague. If there's a 10% tariff on Blue Widgets, all the Blue Widget sellers have to pay that 10% tariff. James: Yes. Mark: So eventually their cost is up so they're going to have to raise the prices as well. Is this really going to impact the businesses themselves in that way since they could in theory pass that cost on? James: So there are a couple of things here, and different people go to market on Amazon with very different distribution approaches. So if you are buying product overseas, bringing it in into the United States and turning around and trying to wholesale it to Amazon through a vendor central account, Amazon has made it clear they do not accept price increases. This is your problem Mr. Brand; you need to figure out how to absorb this. So what I see happening is some brands will say gosh this is inconvenient right before Q4 our biggest time of the year. Some of these brands will say you know what, as much as we hate to do this we will suck it up and we will absorb this cost. And so many of these manufacturers will end up with much much smaller margins while Amazon continues to have the product at the same price that it had and some consumers won't see a price increase on those items. Unfortunately … and that's fine short term but long term these manufacturers are going to say unless I can find cheaper sources of manufacturing elsewhere I'm no longer going to carry these products or I'm no longer going to sell them to Amazon 1P or I'm actually no longer going to sell them anywhere on Amazon; that's one option. There is another type of distribution model that's very common on Amazon which is the product diverter, and I'm not passing judgment on the product diverter, the reality is there's a lot of product diverters on Amazon; companies that gray market source products. And so the opportunity for companies to go and proactively can parallel import and bring in products from let's say Europe that came in from China nut they're now coming in from Europe … I see an, potentially in some categories there will be a significant increase in parallel imports because somebody can buy that product in another country and to the extent, they're not necessarily answering all the questions correctly about where these products are manufactured there will be more opportunity and more incentive for companies to do parallel imports. Again so as to be able to bring products in at a cheaper price than what they would otherwise be paying if they bought directly from China. Mark: Is that illegal or do you literally have to be lying on your forms in order to be doing this parallel importing? James: Oh please deter, I'm not suggesting that anybody does this. I'm just saying I fully anticipate this is going to happen. Mark: Sure. James: And so if the other thing is if the tax … if you can ensure the tax has already been paid at least once there may be opportunity for you to capitalize on nonetheless being able to re-import it back in and be able to source it. Brands don't like product diversion and so knowing in there will be an issue there for brands long term having their products … basically, people capitalizing on retail arbitrage across borders and getting cheaper prices in one place so as to capitalize on that. What is more likely is if there is a price discrepancy in another country and you can buy the same item in Europe for 10% less than you can here in the US, some folks may decide to … depending on the math, it may decide to start buying stuff indirectly just because they can capitalize on price discrepancies in order to make things work. The logistics are more complicated but in the end, they still need to make some money and they're prepared to take on these extra logistic steps just so they can make some money. All of this is short term because in the long run if a brand wants to continue to wholesale on Amazon they have to make money. That's what … it's why we're all here. And so what I anticipate happening is some brands are going to stop supplying certain products and they're either going to go and find production in other countries or they're going to find completely different products that don't involve China at all. And so that will mean that some products that we as consumers rely on … and I think for example all the Q4 toys that get sold in this country, the vast majority of them are made overseas and a huge proportion of those are made in China. And so it will be interesting to see specifically in the toy category what happens because with Toys R Us going out of business this year, there's been a lot of discussions that some of the other brick and mortar retailers are going to be very aggressively going after Amazon. If Amazon for some reason in most of the toys that Amazon gets come from 1P, if those manufacturers for some reason say you know what we can't make any money selling you these products we're not going to sell it to you because you're not prepared to take a price increase, we may have a situation where Amazon actually runs out of stock on an awful lot of top selling toys. Which is bad, bad, bad for Amazon. So I think the toy category of all categories is the one that may push Amazon short term to accept the fact that it is going to have to absorb some higher costs in order to have inventory on absolutely critical selection in Q4. Mark: Interesting, so let's move over to the 3P and I have also some questions maybe about competition to Amazon which hopefully we can get to but let's move over to the 3P. What's the impact that you see and I know we're all crystal ball in here but what's the impact that you see for 3P sellers? And 3P for anyone that doesn't know this would be FBA merchant fulfilled, anybody that is not selling vendor central but still selling through [inaudible 00:18:43.2]. James: I'm going to separate 3P into two groups there's the resellers and there are the private label sellers. If I'm a private label seller and buying stuff from China I make the decisions myself on what pricing should look like. So if I have to raise my prices 10% to maintain my margins I can choose to absorb some of that for competitive purposes. But I always have the flexibility of saying I'm going to raise my prices. An important … a very tactical issue, let's say that you're selling your product for $25 today on Amazon and you added list price information into the Amazon catalog, you can't just raise your price from $25 to $30 to cover your extra price. You need to also increase your list price because otherwise, Amazon's going to flag you in selling products significantly above the list price and also press your Buy Box. So you've got to make both of those adjustments at once. As it relates to resellers the question becomes if you're buying from a distributor or a brand here in the United States that you're then turning around and reselling who's splitting the cost increases there? And that's going to differ widely on brand by brand. Some brands may already have a lot of inventory here in the US and they say well we're just going to ride this out and hope this tariffs disappear sometime in Q1 or Q2 in which case they're willing to … you know if they're using some kind of a lifo … I'm sorry a phyto model of inventory there may not be any price increases at all for wholesale pricing. And so the retailer can turn around and continue to sell the product at the same price. The problem is all you need is one competitor in the same space on Amazon the whole price is tight and not move prices up and if they've got lower prices and they're still doing the right thing with organic search and driving traffic they may end up with a higher proportion of total traffic on their products. Granted it's very low margined traffic but it is nonetheless higher traffic. And so the question is how long is any particular reseller prepared to take lower margins for the benefit of higher traffic which isn't necessarily high quality business. Mark: I mean in defense here we see this happen anyways where we have people come in and try to break into a market and will purposely go low margin just to be able to break into that market. But this is kind of who could hold off the longest with the higher prices. James: So there's been a very important development this week with Mr. Trump getting out of the postal shipping rate agreement with China. There was a significant subsidy that the United States was paying for overseas companies to ship products one order at a time into the United States. A lot of these individual orders today don't clear customs with any customs payments. And so if you got a 25% tax for example on those products, if they're brought in bulk but there's no tax on the individual orders, you don't also want to create a situation where there's that much more incentive for example for Chinese sellers to send products one at a time in the United States by removing some of these price subsidies on the shipping costs that will help to balance things a little bit. But you still have a situation where a Chinese seller can send an individual order into the United States and realistically most of those orders are going to get through without customs being applied on those on off envelopes and boxes. So in many ways, the tariff only creates more incentive for Chinese manufacturers to become sellers and to sell products one at a time in the United States. And so that continues to be a challenge. Mark: Let me ask you about a tactic that I've seen sellers employ here in trying to get ahead of potentially … I know there's threats of an additional tariff being imposed here coming January so possibly increasing the tariffs even more. And I've seen some sellers bulking up on inventory because of that; trying to get ahead of that. It has kind of a cascading effect though from what I understand if you're a 3P and especially using Amazon's fulfillment services. Does Amazon look closely at the amount of inventory that you're keeping with them and are there consequences for maybe having inventory sit on their shelves longer? James: No it was early this year Amazon evolved the way that they designed how much FBA capacity every seller has. And it has to do with the sell through rate of each individual skew that they choose to put into FBA. If you're selling a product that sells a thousand units a day, Amazon will let you put as much of that in as you want. If you're selling a product that sells one unit a month you can't load up five years of inventory. Amazon actually won't let you put that in the FBA all at once. And so as much as a seller wants to ramp up their level of interest they hold in FBA, Amazon will cap it based on their expected sell through rates. So if you happen to sell products that sell fast enough you're not going to be putting more than six months of product into FBA, great you may load up a little bit more. But if you start bringing in pallets and pallets more than you'll ever sell in the next six months, Amazon's going to put the kybosh on that. And you're going to have to figure out where to hold that inventory. So I think it's a system that basically corrects itself. I think it's worth a seller today if they're planning on doing this in the next four to five weeks they should create an FBA shipment right now to see if Amazon even allows them to put whatever level of incremental inventory into FBA. They may well say sorry we don't have that space because your expected sell through rate doesn't by any means justify the load of inventory. Mark: And I know a lot of sellers are using even a 3PL of sorts just to store Amazon inventory that they are eventually going to ship off to Amazon and that's … if you're not doing that and you store inventory for anywhere longer than a few months I think because of the storage rates you can get much better storage rates elsewhere but that's something to look at. James: So to that point if you do have to bring in an awful lot more inventory and hold the inventory so as to bypass the expected additional duties that come likely in January, one thing we may see is an increase in the number of sellers that decide to start using seller for full prime. And that's a mixed bag in terms of whether it's a good thing for sellers, in some situations they may be able to use the higher shipping costs that come with seller for full prime that may be adequately smaller to offset the expected cost of having to pay another 15% in a tax on imports. But you know we may see some … in certain categories we may see more sellers deciding to use seller for full prime in part because Amazon says you can't send that much stuff into FBA but you know we'll have to have to see what happens. My view is I don't see this tax staying in place indefinitely. I see this is a game of chicken between two countries. And quite frankly I think the United States has more to lose than the Chinese do because the Chinese low cost production capabilities in China will continue to be there even if those costs are a little bit higher now that there's tax added to it. And so reality is we Americans, we like cheap stuff and so if you go to the source of cheap stuff … and so I suspect at some point that there will be some counterbalancing that happens and it's a matter of how long can people hold on without going out of business. Mark: Yeah. Let's talk about the Buy Box a little bit. You touched on this earlier about things that you may want to watch out for if … when your changing prices on your site. What are some things people should keep in mind if they do decide to pass on some of those costs to the eventual customers at the end of the day? What are the things that they should watch out for so they don't lose their Buy Box percentages? James: Well the first one is you still … when you offer your product you want to make sure that it's at or below the list price. So if you're having to increase your price over whatever the current list price is today then you want to make sure that you can update the list price information. If you are a reseller of someone else's products and they haven't updated the list price then you're going to be in trouble because you can't sell that $30 item for $35 when the list price is 30. And if the manufacturer controls the list price or you as the reseller don't have brand registry ability to go in and update the list price you're going to be in a situation where you don't have the buy box because you've had to sell the product in a price above the list price. So start that conversation now if you don't have the ability to change the list price on a product you resell have that conversation now because you need to get that information updated. Otherwise, the brand is going to lose out to any other brand that has the ability to update their list prices. So even if the brand you're reselling doesn't want to do this you need to explain to them listen if you don't do this everybody that sells your product is going to be in a situation where they can't win the buy box which means the consideration of your brand or other brands is going to be significantly hampered. Mark: That's good advice. Let's move on to Amazon and their adjustments that they might be making on their side and also possible competitors. And I'm thinking Wal-Mart here who has been pretty aggressive in trying to eat in Amazon's market share. I don't know how successful they've been with their two day shipping on anything, no membership fees everything else. You've already described how Amazon is right now at least probably pretty unforgiving as far as price increases on them [inaudible 00:27:44.9] side. James: Yeah. Mark: Do you see any opportunity here for some of these competitors and even if it's not one competitor maybe that fragmentation of Home Depot taking care of their pit space and actually increasing their presence target doing the same, Wal-Mart doing the same, and have you seen any indication of this yet? James: Well what I have seen … I go back to the toy example, what I've seen is that both Target and Walmart are aggressively looking for ways that they can win in the toy space this Q4. And it only takes one or two of the big toy companies to tell Amazon 1P that they're not prepared to send any shipments unless there is some modification to the pricing. Unless that happens … oh, I'm sorry if that does happen then I think it could be a very painful Q4 for Amazon in a category that they actually absolutely need to win. But the problem with Amazon is they usually win anyways. The reality is if they can't get it directly from the distributor or the manufacturer they find a secondary source. They go and find a distributor that will unload a product at low margin, Or they will do parallel imports. So I think if these duties remain in to place for 12 months it's going to be next November or December that the pain is really felt by brands. Because right now a lot of them already have inventory, they already brought in to the United States. While they may have paid 10% extra duty it's not 25% duty but at the time you have long term 25% duty that absolutely is going to impact what their retail prices look like. So as bad as it may be coming out of this December if that tax remains in place for another 12 months that's when companies are going to have to say okay we're going to have to discontinue certain skews. We're going to have to launch new versions of the existing skews under different UPCs so that we can have new list prices on these items. I've seen situations already with some companies where they're already loading the 2019 version of an item with very slightly modified packaging but that's the product that's going to replenish the 2018 version that they're very soon going to run out of and have no plans on ever replenishing as long as the tax is in place; i.e 2019 version cost 25% more retail because everybody has to continue to make money doing this. Mark: Okay one of the things that we've been trying to educate people on especially in this e-commerce space there's a lot of people out there that want to find a couple of evergreen products that are just constantly bringing in cash. And then there's always the question of well how do you handle competition? When we brought it up time and time again now on this podcast where look good product based companies come out with new products on a regular basis and so that's actually … it's something I haven't heard before. That's a great way to be able to address this is come up with a 2019 version or a slightly different model version which your cost can absorb that new price and be able to work it out to the price that self. Last thing I want to talk about, let's assume that this does last for a while, you know a year or more. The intended effect is for US importers and retailers to move and look for other countries. So what are some of the countries maybe that people can start looking into. And I know it's going to vary industry by industry but what countries might be viable alternatives to China if people want to start looking at and look for manufacturers in different places that could possibly replace their current supply? James: I don't know how much I knew I can add to this. I mean a lot of the companies I know they look in Thailand and Vietnam today. Some of them look in Laos. I know the Southeast Asian countries, a lot of them have low cost production but they're not necessarily known for the sophistication of bringing together manufacturers the way, for example, Canton Fair does. And so I see an opportunity here for … let's say I'm the business development government organization in Thailand or Vietnam to the extent of they can put together a major event that will attract thousands of manufacturers and thousands of overseas buyers, I mean I see that as being rather significant. If you can spin up a Canton Fair like event or even a very small verison of that in one of these other Southeast Asian countries. Part of the challenge here is visibility. There already is an Alibaba that helps people find every Chinese manufacturer. Is there a similar concept in Vietnam and Thailand? To this point, it's nowhere near as visible and so it becomes something that basically has to be centrally organized either by large associations of manufacturers in country or potentially the government. And so if one of those countries is able to step up and do something like this and create visibility that will help. But let's be honest even if I said to you your product can be made in another country basically the same way starting today you're still looking at six months of testing and small minimum order quantities to verify and make sure that you have got the right payment structures in place. And so I would challenge everybody who's listening today if we're looking at a 12 month or a long term situation with this tax being in place you've got to start these conversations in January figuring out where is my alternative source going to come from. Because it's going to take time to work through and figure out am I really getting the same quality? Am I really getting the same delivery promises and so on from my overseas manufacturers that are now coming out of a different country? Mark: Yeah. So I've been an entrepreneur now for going on 20 years and the way … I would just like to close out here because some people might be hearing this and saying oh my gosh this is so incredibly scary. And what I want to say is this, these things happen. These things happen in business. The conditions change all the time and the people who end up capitalizing and doing really well are the ones who look at these problems as the opportunities that they are and figure out the way to make it work. There will be people who drop out. There will be people who do not pay enough attention to this and don't make the right moves. And so when we see these things rather than getting all scared and actually ironically enough this episode is probably going to air right around Halloween. I think we're going to publish it the day before Halloween and do our email newsletter advisory the day after … so you know a good timing for that. But to understand that there is definitely opportunity here. I think there's a couple of really good tactics. I think James you brought up just one simple one was just bringing up a new version of products that have and make them a 2019 version. That's a really simple type that we can have to see what's going to happen. And then also just have your ear to the ground as to where you can also find other products. So this has been really really enlightening. James, thank you so much for coming on. Where can people reach you if they have questions about this or honestly your work for consulting with Amazon sellers is unparalleled so if they have other questions even unrelated to this where can they reach you? James: I can be reached at info@buyboxexperts.com. All those emails go directly to me. And I appreciate your time today Mark. Mark: Yeah, absolutely. Thank you so much for coming on. Again James is one of the best in the business by far. Prosper Show check it out and then if you have questions feel free to reach out to me and I can do an intro or [inaudible 00:34:40.8] James. Thanks again for coming on. James: Thank you, Mark.   Links and Resources: Email James BuyBox Website Prospershow James's LinkedIn James's Book on Amazon

The ancient prophets of Israel preached messages that are entirely relevant to our day. Amos warned Israel, the northern kingdom, of impending doom as the hand of God's judgment would fall if they did not repent of their idolatry, oppression and immorality - their forsaking of Yahweh for pagan gods. In 722B.C. the Assyrian armies destroyed Israel and carried off her people. Yet God would preserve a remnant in order to fulfill his covenants with Abraham and David to bless the nations by bringing them to the knowledge of Yahweh. So James at the Jerusalem council in Acts 15-15-17 interpreted Amos 9-13-15 as prophesying the future ingathering of the people of the earth as they came to embrace the Messiah, the seed of Abraham and Son of David, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amos was predicting the formation of the church, made up of Jew and Gentiles in one body.

James Castrission has paddled from Australia to New Zealand and walked to the South Pole. Off the back of that, he is now a small business owner himself, starting and running My Adventure Group. The life and business lessons he's learnt from these two insane adventures are immense … and today he shares them with us so we too can build our beautiful businesses into the empires they deserve to be.   “We're capable of a lot more than we give ourselves credit for. We're like a hardcore 4WD just driving around the city streets not using anywhere near what it's capable of!” -James Castrission   There's loads more tips and insights just like this that will help you build that beautiful business of yours into the empire it deserves to be. Hit the PLAY button above to listen now, or subscribe free to hear the full interview.   James also tackles: Why he's embarked on two life-endangering adventures How to take calculated risks How to work effectively with someone in close quarters Why planning is critical What to do when all hope is lost How to raise money through sponsorship How to manage sponsors And so much more ...   A little more about today's guest,  James Castrission : It's impossible to talk about James without mentioning his sidekick Jonesy. So … James is half the Cas and Jonesy duo who are two Aussie explorers constantly pushing the boundaries of human endurance. On the 26th January 2012, they made history by completing the longest unsupported polar expedition of all time. In 100 years of polar exploration, no-one had EVER walked from the edge of Antarctica to the South Pole and back without assistance. Many had tried, none had succeeded. After 89 grueling days, they made it back to the coast after having skied 2,275km with everything they needed to survive in the harshest environment on Earth. Four years earlier they Crossed the Ditch – paddling 3,318km without assistance across the Tasman Sea for another world first. They braved 10 metre swells, howling winds, endured severe food and sleep deprivation and adverse winds and currents. They became the first kayakers to cross the Tasman Sea as well as becoming the longest transoceanic double kayak expedition. Staggering upon the shores of New Zealand, the adventurers were sunburnt, bearded, underweight, and physically and mentally wasted…but most of all happy to be alive. The boys are highly regarded as two of Australia's premier public speakers and have written & produced four award-winning books and documentaries about their expeditions. Cas is an avid rock climber, trail runner and when not on a big expedition can be found galavanting around the Blue Mountains where he resides. He is massively passionate about getting individuals outside and has guided trips all over the planet.   Here's what caught my attention from my chat with James Castrission: Preparation is everything. Find people who love what you do. We're all capable of more (loved James's 4WD analogy).     Resources mentioned: My Adventure Group - James's new adventure business Interview with Glenn Azar (another crazy adventurer ;0)   Please support American Express who make this show possible: American Express Business Explorer Credit Card Let your business expenses reward you. Every year.   And join me at the Idea Exchange in Melbourne (October 17, 2018) and Sydney (November 22, 2018).   If something in this episode of Australia's favourite marketing podcast peaked your interest, then let me know by leaving a comment below. May your marketing be the best marketing. For more interviews with successful business owners visit Small Business Big Marketing See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

James Ikeda is a high school History teacher, DIY musician, and an all-around brilliant human being. James is the type of person to have a lot of projects and ideas and energy to do cool creative work outside of the classroom. He also does some great work in the classroom - but through a much different approach. That’s the thing about James - he’s able to do both; the bit of being an authentic professional teacher, and the bit of being an authentic punk musician. And as you’ll learn in this conversation, everything is a bit.So James came over to Craig and Katy’s place to sit down and chat for a couple of hours - it’s a lively, fun, and highly informative conversation that has many twists, turns, laughs, and inside jokes that develop over the course of the chat. We hope you enjoy this one - and know that there is A LOT more! So stay tuned because in a few days, we will share an extra episode that demonstrates what happens when Craig and James left the microphone on.MUSIC NOTE: - This week we shared tunes from James’ new LP as The Michael Character called, "That’s Why I Call Him Zachy," which comes out TOMORROW - Sept 27! - The Michael Character is a brilliant folk punk educator who will play your living room, basement, or laundry room - we played the song, “Go For Broke,” which is off of his previous album, “Fame Swoll,” as well as the song, “28,” which is the single from the new album. - Also, all of his music already available FOR FREE DOWNLOAD on his bandcamp site, so you have no reason to not download this album right now!As always, you can CHECK OUT THE NEW SPOTIFY PLAYLIST!ADVERTISING NOTES: - Table-Turned is a DIY record-of-the-month club. Subscribers select from two genre options and receive a record each month for that genre, including some “classics” as well as albums they may have missed. - The current genre selections are Garage Rock and Ska-Punk, and for the next month, you can start your monthly vinyl subscription for $160, which gives you a FREE MONTH, after that it becomes $175 for the year. - Table-Turned was recently featured in Paste magazine AND in The Hype Magazine! - To learn more and/or to start your subscription, visit Table-Turned.com!And you can now join our Facebook community by CLICKING HERE!FOLLOW, RATE, REVIEW, SUBSCRIBE, AND SHARE! - Any love on the iTunes app helps! CLICK HERE TO VISIT THE ITUNES STORE! - Don't forget, Android users - we are now on the Google Play Store!! - We're also FINALLY on Stitcher, so head over there if that's your preferred platform! - Follow along on Instagram and Twitter @eduPUNXpod!Thanks so much for tuning in and we will be back soon with a special extra episode!

So James and I have had an amazing holiday and we're trying to bring our chilled and relaxed holiday vibes home with us. I've been thinking about what exactly it is about being on holiday that makes me feel so relaxed and happy, and therefore how I can recreate that feeling when I get home. Here's what I've come up with :D

What motivates you most? What motivates you least? Money, recognition, relationship, control, helping others? Our very special guest on this episode of Sales Chalk Talk, James Sale, is a world-renowned expert on the subject of motivation. It’s quite likely that you don’t even realize what motivates YOU, let alone your family, your employees and your friends. So James has invented an incredible tool called a Motivational Map to discover what a person’s main motivators are, and what least motivates a person. James literally has written the book on Mapping Motivation, and has entered into an agreement with a major publisher to write 6 more books about motivation. What you’ll hear on this show: • What a Motivational Map is • How James got a major 7-book publishing deal with Routledge • The pluses and minuses of co-authoring a book • How you can receive a 30% discount on the first Mapping Motivation book and a FREE Motivational Map • And MUCH more! Join my fabulous co-host, Murphy Alafoginis and me as we learn more about motivation, discover some of the ins and outs of getting a publishing deal and have a few laughs with the great James Sale as well! James’ website is http://motivationalmaps.com

Taylor is gone, forever... So James meets with Imtiaz who tells his worldwide story involving his birth in Pakistan, immigration to the USA pre 9/11, and being discrimnated upon before being exported to Canada and living an educational life filled with growth and wisdom.

This week began rough. We had Tyler, but sadly the internet was uncooperative in Mexico for him and we lost him due to technically difficulties. Adam was late, but joined in after we all got shut down with Skype issues. So James, Adam and I did the bulk of the show this week. Week 14Continue reading "NFL Pick ‘Em Season 4 Week 15 – Internet Fails"

Behind the scenes of what I got from my consult day with James Friel so far… In this episode Russell talks about hiring James Friel to help him and his team manage their projects better using Trello. He explains why it’s important when you are running a business to be organized and make everybody accountable for things. Here are some of the awesome things you will hear in this episode: Why it took Russell listening to James talk about Trello several times before he actually is getting around to implementing it in his own company. Why entrepreneurs are more likely to need management software like Trello. And why you should give James Friel money to help your business. So listen below to find out how and why Russell and his team are finally getting organized on Trello. ---Transcript--- This is the end of the year right now, its getting close to Christmas and normally people do all their planning and stuff in January for how I’m going to take over the world next year. But I kind of want to be prepared so when January 1st hits we can be off on the….out running and sprinting. So because of that, this week became a planning week, which is hard for me to do. I don’t normally plan things. Usually I have a whole bunch of ideas in my head and we start running and everyone kind of learns about all the ideas as we are moving forward, which is a horrible way to manage people, by the way. I think it drives everybody crazy. In fact, Todd, I think you guys all know Todd by now, hopefully. If not, he’s the dude who built Clickfunnels. He told me today that the only way he knows what’s happening in the business is by listening to the podcast. You guys are hearing things as everybody else is. So I’m trying to get better at that. It’s fun, one of the guys who joined our inner circle last year, his name is James Friel, super cool guy. He came in and one of his nicknames is the contract CEO, where people will hire him to be the CEO and go in their company and fix things and make it all work right. And we were trying to figure out how to make a sexy thing for him to sell and it was kind of hard at first, his first headline is something like, “How to become more predictable and sustainable.” Or something like that and I was like, no one’s going to give you money for that, that’s horrible. We gotta make this sexy. So we worked with him last year, turning what he does into this sexy, exciting thing. So to do it initially he was showing me all the cool things he does, there’s a lot of stuff, he’s crazy talented. But one of them was, his project management system and how he does it with Trello and Slack and Gann Charts and this whole thing. I was like, “I use Trello, I got it figured out, I don’t need help.” And he was like, “Dude, I think you need my help more than anyone.” And in fact, this is funny, I’ll tell you the rest of the story but I’ll give you the punch line right now, but he’s been at our office for two days working on this and he told me last night at dinner, out of all the companies he’s ever worked with, mine was the most messed up. He’s like, “It’s amazing you guys have done as well as you have.” I was like, “yes, good selling can make up for a lot of bad systems.” Anyway, so stepping back. So this is in January of last year he’s like, “I’m coming to inner circle meetings, let me come in a day early and I’ll take you guys through the process that I would normally charge people 20 or 30 thousand to do.” I was like, “Alright, cool.” So he came in and showed me his whole Trello system and blew my mind. I was like holy crap, no wonder I never got anything done ever. I need to change everything. So we changed it all around and I implemented I’d say probably 75% of what he said, because the rest I was too smart to listen to. So 75%, which is basically I started using Trello for myself, my own systems, personally. I tried to get everyone on my team on it, but it lasted like 8 seconds, and nobody did it again. But I was doing it myself and things became better  because at least I had my thoughts out in a way. It’s not just like…..if you’ve used Trello before, it’s free. You can’t even give them money if you want. They’re the worst marketing company of all time, but their software is awesome. The problem is their software is so awesome you can do pretty much anything you want with it and because of that people like me just screw it up. So James built this system that makes it very simple, very easy. It pulls out the human error and pulls out all these issues, and it’s awesome. So I started using it and changed dramatically transformed my productivity and my ability to get things done, which is probably why we had a lot of success this year. In fact, this is crazy. Last year was awesome, and this year we’re trying to 3x what we did last year and we’re within a few hundred thousand dollars of hitting. So we’re on our march through the end of the year to hit this certain number. If we hit that number then we’ll  have tripled what we did last year, which is crazy. Then our goal is to triple it again next year. If we do that, they’re going to have to write a book about it. I’m not writing it because I’m tired of writing books. But someone’s gotta write about it because it’s amazing. Anyway, stepping back. So it was awesome, but I only implemented about 75% because I couldn’t get my team on board and it was hard. Then fast forward, at the next inner circle meeting in the summer he came and everyone basically in the inner circle I found out, was kind of like me. We’re really talented entrepreneurs who are really good at selling stuff and we no idea how to manage ourselves or our processes or anything else. Sound familiar? If that sounds like you, you’re probably an entrepreneur. Welcome to the cool kids club. Anyway, I had him stay and give a presentation to the inner circle group on how it is in the Trello system and I saw it again and I was like “Oh! There’s the other 25% I’m not doing. Why am I not doing? I should just do it.” Then I got all excited to do and then embarrassingly to myself and everybody else, I didn’t. Then I had him train our whole inner circle as a whole and everybody got excited again, I got excited again and didn’t do it. Finally at the end of this year I was like, you know what, we’re not doing it. So James what would it cost to fly to Boise for 2 days and sit here and make us do it?” and that’s what he did. Yesterday he was here all day, even as much as I’m using Trello over the last year, we still cleaned it up, simplified it, made it way better. And then we got everyone on the team doing it and now there’s this one key piece that I was fighting doing because it requires a person to be in charge of the whole system and now we got Michelle McPherson running that piece of the system, she’s amazing. And now the whole 100% is going to work. Day one was getting it all implemented. Day two we’re focusing on moving it forward and getting everyone using it, which is cool. And then basically, James every week for the next 8 weeks is going to be doing company meetings. We don’t even do company meetings. We do meetings in different departments, like the programming team meets, and the support team meets, but the marketing side, that I’m kind of in charge of, we don’t….we do meet but it’s like we get online and talk about the cool stuff we’re doing. There’s no point or focus with anything we’re doing. What’s cool about this new system is that there’s meetings built in that are all tied around Trello and the goals and the dates and everything inside of that, which is cool. He’s going to be teaching us how to do the meetings the right way and then moving forward for the next 8 weeks, once a week he’ll be jumping on our meetings with us and getting us all in this group. So by January we can hit and scale things a lot more rapidly. They always say, “what got you here probably won’t get you there”. And I feel like there’s different levels of skill set. There’s a skill set that gets you from 0 to a million dollars, a different skill set that get’s you from one million to 3, at least these were my barriers. There’s a different skill set form 3 to 10.  A different skill set from 10 to 30 and I feel like  the skill set from 30 to 100 is different and it’s not necessarily my strengths, my ninja skills. It’s something different as this piece. It’s the organization, structure and systems. We were building systems out in Trello, we were like what’s all the things you do every single month consistently, the exact same thing? So we made these systems for it. I was like, holy crap this just made my life so much easier. Funnel University is a good example. There’s like…..we do the exact same thing every single month. And every month we’re like, “What do we do next? What’s the next thing? Oh yeah.” And we re-think it through every single time. And now it’s like, there’s a system. Just a Trello card. We just copy it every January, it’s a recurring thing. Or every first of the month It pops in. Automatically recurring, it just pops into the thing, we know what we gotta do it, and we do it and it’s amazing. And now we know we gotta do it too because someone’s in charge of running it. Everyone’s got due dates. Everyone has things and they’re held accountable to somebody, which is awesome. Including me, I’m held accountable. “Hey Russell, why didn’t you get that crap done?” “Uh, I don’t know. I need to get it done.” I’m held accountable too, which is awesome and everyone’s held accountable. And there’s somebody who knows what’s happening. Right now, I kind of know what’s happening at least on the marketing side of all the projects. But I’m the worst person….me as an entrepreneur is the worst person to know everything because then everyone has to come to me for every single thing and nothing ever gets done. So now the way that the systems built out, I’m not tied into it.  Michelle will be that person that knows everything and then I’ll just have to know my pieces of the thing, which is so cool. So anywho, so that’s what’s happening. It’s been awesome. We hung out at dinner with him last night and talked about over the last year. A year ago is when I kind of….I was the one telling James, “This is awesome. You should be selling this.” And so he’s been doing this for a bunch of companies, where people hire him and they come in and he actually becomes the CEO of their company to implement this system and spent three or four or five months with them in this last year. He’s also worked with twenty or thirty entrepreneurs where he does the whole thing remote and get’s the team on for half a day and builds the whole thing out remote. Works a lot less expensive than having him fly out to your office like we did. But regardless, if you are an entrepreneur or someone who wants to become an entrepreneur, but especially the entrepreneurs that are out there listening, and you guys are like me at all and because you’re good at selling and marketing and because you kind of figured things out you are able to do a lot of things that……..good marketing makes up for a lot of things. Dan Kennedy used to say, “There’s nothing that the good sales letter can’t solve.” And I kind of believe that. But  I think there’s a limit. I think good selling can get you so far, but it’s the systems and the organization and structure and all that nerdy stuff that they probably teach in business schools, I don’t know I didn’t go. But I’m assuming that’s what they teach in business schools that we’re not good at. So if you guys want to be able to expand and grow I highly recommend figuring that piece out. And there’s two ways to figure things out. There’s the school of hard knocks and do what I did, spend ten years trying to figure it out and realize one day that you’re an entrepreneur and that’s not your skill set. And the second way is to give James money and he’ll do it for you. That’s what I did. This is someone who I had him out doing it once in my office, then I sat through it twice more and then I still paid him to come out because it’s that important to our growth.  So for any of you guys who that’s the piece where you feel like you’re juggling too many things. Or you know I should be systemizing things and I don’t know how to. Or your team is always confused.…. Or I think it’s more for you the entrepreneur, because if you’re confused, “How do you guys not know what we’re doing? I know exactly what’s happening, how can you not read my mind?” If you’ve ever felt that way before, which I think most of us do, then you should definitely give James money. You should just write him a check and not ask any questions. Write it blank and then have him fill it in for whatever it’s worth because it will be worth it. Anyway, if you want to work with James, this is not a pitch. Yeah it is. This is a pitch, this is a blatant pitch. I paid him money; you should pay him money too. The link, if you go to cheatsheet.jamespfriel.com and I think there’s an opt-in where you get a cheat sheet with some cool stuff and the next page there’s a video with me talking about my story. That was my story from a year ago. So imagine what my story would be like even now. It’s even that much better. But if it’s something better that you guys need, than I need, then I would definitely message him and see if there’s a way he can do this for you. Like I said, you don’t have to go as intense as I did and hire him and his team fly out and help you guys set it all up. You can do it remote. He did it for a dozen plus people over the last year remote as well and it works. You can get your whole team on board. It’s one of those things that… I read the e-myth, I went through the e-myth course, I understand the value of what this piece is and I thought I was kind of doing it, but then when you have it right , you’re like oh wow. I don’t think we even had a system technically. It was funny, I was listening to this Dan Kennedy thing from back in the….probably 15 years ago. And in there he’s talking about, “Everyone’s trying to figure out how to put a system into their business, the reality is you’ve already got a system, everybody’s got a system, but your system kind of sucks right now.” So you can take the crappy system you’re using or you can try to strategically plug in the right system, because the wrong system is going to hurt you more than no system. It’s impossible to have no system, if you’ve got no system it means you’ve just got a really bad one. Because something’s happening, it’s just happening really poorly. I don’t know if that made any sense, but it sounded cool, right? Just kidding. Alright, I’m at the office, I got day two with James and the crew. We’re going to be in Trello and slacking everything, getting things built out. That’s what I’m doing today and that way I take one little step backwards, to plan to focus, system so I can go a thousand feet forward and take over the world a little bit more next year. So that’s the game plan guys. Appreciate you all, have a great time. Go visit James, tell him hi. Give him some money, write him a check. I get nothing for this endorsement other than James is awesome and helping me and he should help you too. Thanks guys, talk to you soon. Bye.

Neil Strauss and James never had met before this interview but you'd think they've been best friends forever. And that's why Neil has been so successful writing about the undercover world of pickup artists. He's a really nice guy. They dive right into some of the techniques that Neil talks about in his best-seller, The Game: Penetrating the Secret Society of Pickup Artists, and he asks James to let his listeners "know him." So James becomes the patient today and Neil does a quick analysis. A lot of what Neil talks about is how you can get out of you comfort zone. Too often people fake it… but to honestly get out, you may need a friend to push you way out of your comfort zone. James asks Neil what's next and Neil tells him... Don't be trapped in what you've done before. "All people know of what you've done from what you've done before. They don't know what you're going to do next." Go do you. Regards, David Newman Senior Producer of Stansberry Radio P.S. NOT SURE WHAT TO DO WITH THE REST OF YOUR LIFE? Great new resource shows clever way to start a business, get a new job, find a retirement career, publish a book, make extra money in your spare time, and more. -------------------Additional Resources----------------------- Neil Strauss "Picks Up" on Jessica Alba- Jimmy Kimmel show The Game by Neil Strauss Robert Greene – How to Become a Master of What You Love Satan is Real by The Louvin Brothers See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

[Roundtable] If the Mayans have their way, this will be our last chance to get some gaming in. So James, Neil, Gary and the New Boy discuss which upcoming titles they are looking forward to the most in 2012. (Warning: Features Slightly Excessive Mass Effect Discussion)

Twenty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time. James calls us to "show no partiality," to treat the garbage collector as we would treat the mayor. But who among us would that task be easy for? So James and Father Dave reminds us to strive to treat everyone equally, regardless of our biases and conceptions. (Preached on Sunday, September 6th, 2009, 12:15pm, St. Malachy’s Church, Broadway and 49th, Times Square, New York City.)