Podcasts about so matt

The housing bubble… more like the housing mylar balloon… instead of it suddenly bursting without warning, it just sort of slooooowly deflates… ever notice how mylar balloons hang around for WAY longer than you think. Well, it's a good analogy anyway. At least, I think it is.Matt Boyce is here with us today… He is Vice President and Managing Partner of Garden State Home Loans located in Cherry Hill, New Jersey. For those of you who may not already know Matt, and let's be honest, who among us who live in this area and practice real estate DOESN'T know Matt? He's basically the Guardian of the Garden State, well, at least as it pertains to Home Loans. Matt partnered with Garden State Home Loans in 2011 right in the heart of Cherry Hill, NJ and has since expanded the company's footprint over the years and is now currently licensed in SIX states. Amazing and awesome. So allow me to welcome my co-host and guest today, Matt Boyce! Welcome Matt!So we're talking about the housing market today…. First, let's get you a plug before we launch into some of the listeners' most common questions about this topic.Tell me, Matt, HOW… perhaps more importantly WHY did you get into this business and what would you say ignited your passion for home loans?So Matt, I'm sure you get asked this all the time… I know I do…. What do you think, are we in a housing bubble?Let's talk about inventory… You always hear about 2008 and people tend to compare the two markets. What's your take on it?Now what about equity? People are making out like bandits right now.How about credit score? And financing? Are things more strict? Are your buyers having success competing on bids with traditional financing?Hey Big Red, my name is Nancy and I have a question for you about the state of the current market. I can't believe what houses are going for these days in my neighborhood! I have begun seriously thinking about selling so I can take advantage of cashing out while things are still hot. The only challenge I see is how few homes are actually available for sale. I keep asking myself, “Where will I even go? There's nothing for sale and I'll only end up overpaying…” So I find myself staying put even though I'd love to make the kind of money that's out there for the taking. Do you have any advice for people like me, who are on the fence?And now it's time for our Market Analysis segment of the show… According to an article here on CNN Business written by Mark Zandi - chief economist at Moody's Analytics. Home sales, homebuilding and especially house prices have surged.Despite being overvalued, there is no sign the housing market is in a bubble. (A bubble develops when there is speculation, or when buyers purchase homes with the sole intent of selling quickly for a profit, which isn't happening today.) But stress lines are beginning to appear, and the housing market is set to cool off.Surging pricesThe increase in home prices is stunning. Nationwide, house prices are up double digits over the past year, and this comes after a decade of solid price gains since the housing market bottomed in the aftermath of the financial crisis. Indeed, the median existing home price is closing in on $350,000, almost double what it was a decade ago.Think about the return you would have earned if you had the gumption to buy the median-priced home at the bottom of the market after the financial crisis, say with a typical 20% down payment. It comes to an approximately 560% return.There simply aren't enough new homes right now to meet demand, and the vacancy rate for homes for sale has never been lower. Home builders have been slow to put up more homes, especially at lower price points, given more restrictive zoning since the financial crisis, and much higher labor and material costs recently.The house price gains are powered by the collapse of fixed mortgage rates to record lows during the pandemic. They have risen a bit in recent months, but they are still below 3%, making them extraordinarily attractive. Since most homebuyers purchase as much home as their mortgage payment will allow, lower mortgage rates quickly juice up demand and house prices, particularly when there is a shortage of homes.Further superchargin g house prices has been the pandemic-fueled work-from-anywhere phenomenon. This has driven apartment-dwelling households in the nation's biggest cities to move to homes in the suburbs, exurbs, and smaller towns and cities. New Yorkers and Californians, who are used to outsize house prices, viewed much lower prices in smaller communities as bargains, even though they paid much more than any previous buyer had.The federal government's yeoman efforts to shore up the single-family mortgage market during the pandemic also bolstered the housing market and home prices. The foreclosure moratorium and the forbearance on government-backed mortgage and student loan payments have forestalled distressed homes sales, which typically are sold at big price discounts, and thus weigh on house prices.Stress lines beginning to showBut stress lines are beginning to show in the housing market. Home prices have risen so far, so fast, that they have become overvalued. Nationwide, house prices appear overvalued by approximately 10% to 15% when comparing price-to-income or price-to-rent ratios with their long-run historical averages, according to my analysis. Some markets, mostly in the South and West, are seriously overvalued — by more than 20%.Overvalued housing markets are vulnerable to a meaningful price correction as mortgage rates eventually rise. And they will. The Federal Reserve thinks the economy is set to quickly return to full health and is signaling that it will thus soon begin to normalize interest rates. Moreover, work from anywhere, while likely a fundamental change in the way we live and work, is also sure to partially unwind as companies ask their employees to come back into the office. And the foreclosure moratorium and mortgage and student loan forbearances are set to expire in coming weeks.Housing demand will thus weaken. House prices will adjust. Not that there will be broad-based house price declines; that still seems a small threat. That would require a significant increase in mortgage defaults and distressed sales, which is unlikely given the improving job market and generally tight mortgage underwriting standards since the financial crisis.Moreover, the housing market isn't in a bubble. Unlike the housing bubble we saw prior to the financial crisis, house flips, defined as an arms-length sale within one year of the previous sale, remain low, according to my analysis. And much of the flipping that is happening is by investors purchasing older homes, particularly in older Northeast and Midwestern cities, renovating them, and then quickly selling.But house price gains are sure to cool off, a lot. There may even be some modest price declines in the most hyped-up high-end parts of the housing market, in second- and vacation-home locations, and in smaller and midsize cities that have seen the biggest influx of work-from-anywhere households. And while being a homeowner is generally better financially than being a renter, homeowners shouldn't count on the outsize returns they enjoyed in the past decade to come anywhere close to repeating in the coming one.If you want more information about home loans or to get in touch with Matt:Matthew BoyceExecutive Vice President, EVPGarden State Home Loans, Inc.NMLS# 218534O: 856.353.3116 C: 609.790.1722 F: 856.353.31162091 Springdale Rd. Suite 16, Cherry Hill, NJ 08003On Instagram: @matt_boyce and @gardenstateloansOn Facebook: @YeahBoyce and @GardenStateLoans Links mentioned on this episode:https://www.cnn.com/2021/06/29/perspectives/housing-market-pandemic-economy/index.html

Matt and Brian challenge each other to watch a show they haven't seen. So Matt reviews Cheers' episode "Bar Wars" while Brian takes a watch of "Jesus Loves the Little Children." See what they think!

The COVID-19 pandemic changed our lives and led to mandated business and school closures, families and communities all around the country experienced record levels of unemployment and record levels of food insecurity. This led to unprecedented policy innovation designed to increase access to nutritious food through the supplemental nutrition assistance program, known as SNAP. The program that was formerly known as Food Stamps. In today's podcast, we'll talk with the authors of a new report entitled, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Waivers and Adaptations During the COVID-19 Pandemic, A Survey of State Agency Perspectives in 2020.   Interview Summary   Our guests today are two of the authors of the report, health policy expert, Alyssa Moran of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and Matt Lyons, the Director of Policy and Research with the American Public Human Services Association.   So your report addressed how states responded to the increase in need for SNAP during the pandemic. Matt let's begin with you, can you tell us more about the report and why it was important to document the state experiences?   When the pandemic first hit last year, the sharpest spike and need for basic help was in SNAP. And this isn't a typical and economic downturn SNAP has always been one of the most effective tools to help meet people's basic needs and to stimulate local economies. This time around though, we had to weather an economic crisis that was layered on top of a public health crisis, and that dynamic raised all kinds of new questions about how state agencies were going to get help to millions of families in a world that literally shifted to virtual overnight. In those first weeks of the pandemic, we as the membership association supporting those state agencies, we were literally convening state agency leaders on Zoom calls daily just to figure out basic questions of how are you going to keep the lights on so that staff could keep processing applications when they're working from home? Or how are you going to navigate through federal requirements that frankly were developed at a time when SNAP was assumed to be a program people applied for in person? And as difficult as that was for our agencies to make sense of, we could only imagine how infinitely harder that was for all of the people that were trying to apply for help. So as federal policies and guidance started to catch up in the coming weeks and months, and states really settled in for the long-term COVID response, states had to plan for how they're going to adapt their services so that people could keep accessing the benefits through the duration of the pandemic. And as we worked through all of these monumental changes to how the program is being administered, it really just became self evident that it was crucial. We had to take the time to rigorously document this experience and just draw on all the insights and lessons learned so that we can improve access to SNAP in the long-term and strengthen its impact on peoples and communities based off of this experience.   Well, some of the problems, the challenges you mentioned make perfect sense now that you've brought them up, but they're not the kind of thing most people would think about, and you could imagine how hard it must've been to keep things going that even a modest level, much less been ramped up. So Alyssa, I'd like to hear your thoughts on this.   I'll preface this by saying that I'm a public health researcher. So I think about SNAP through that lens, and from a public health perspective, SNAP is a tremendously important program. It reaches about one in eight Americans and nearly half of those participants are kids. And it's a critical program for reducing poverty and improving food security, which are really important social determinants of health affecting everything from dental caries to diabetes, to depression. But the design and the delivery of SNAP also really better for health. For example, there are obvious ways that design choices in SNAP affect health equity, things like eligibility criteria, which prevent certain people from accessing the program or decisions about the benefit amount, which affects the types of foods that are available to participants. But there are also more subtle ways that program delivery can impact health, something as simple as how the state communicates with you about your benefits. So did they send you a text message right to your phone, or do you have to call a call center and wait on the line for two hours for information? Can you submit all of your application information online or do you have to come into the office for an in-person interview? So all of these requirements to enroll and stay enrolled in SNAP can affect health by limiting or expanding access to benefits and can also cause significant stress, increased anxiety and cause people to worry about whether they're even going to actually receive their benefits each month. And as Matt described, the pandemic acutely changed how states deliver SNAP and how participants interact with the program. And I was really interested in learning what we can take away from this experience to strengthen the public health impact of SNAP moving forward, not just by breaking down barriers to access, but also by improving the client experience through these structural changes.   It's nice to hear of the interest among public health researchers in helping improve the delivery of these programs, because as you said, they reach so many people. Matt, you mentioned that there were program changes that needed to be made in SNAP during the pandemic, how successful do you think these changes really were in helping states serve their clients?   Well, in those first few months of the pandemic, you had more than 6 million people newly enrolled in SNAP and participation has remained well above pre pandemic levels as a nation have continued to grapple with all of the disparities in the COVID response and recovery. So I think from this perspective alone, it's important to consider the SNAP pandemic response a success. Fundamentally more people needed help affording food during the pandemic and the program was responsive. We've all heard the stories of it taking weeks, if not months for unemployment insurance systems to respond to the spike in demand and to be able to issue new benefits. And that just wasn't the case for SNAP. State and local agencies really did step up to the table to meet the challenge, but I will say SNAP's ultimate success, it certainly didn't come without its fair share of bumps in the road. And I think that probably starts with the fact that SNAP rules, they're just not well suited to work in a virtual world. When you think of things like interview requirements and procedures for recertifying for benefits and even things like a signature requirement, they all lean heavily on in-person interaction. And that's particularly true for underserved communities that already face access barriers.   For our clients, if you mess up and following those rules, you're back to square one, you got to start all over in the application process and even beyond just the benefit itself, there's other components of SNAP that are there to help people receiving a help learn more about healthy food or engage in employment and training services. And those services are similarly modeled towards in-person activities. So to say that the program had to make changes would be an understatement, I really think everything had to change about SNAP. And I will say to their credit, the federal government approved a broad range of temporary flexibilities to mitigate a lot of these issues.   But really, the devil is in the detail of whether these flexibilities can be successfully implemented. Early in the pandemic in particular, states would often not get approval for waivers that were really critical to help families keep their benefits until days before or even after an action was due in a client's case. The reality is that states needed to know weeks in advance. They could be updating their eligibility systems and sending out notifications to people receiving SNAP of what was expected of them. And these issues unquestionably led to unnecessary confusion and problems in the pandemic response. I will say fortunately, the federal government did learn from a lot of its early mistakes, in late September Congress passed new legislation that allowed for a lot more flexibility in states being able to select waivers, they could deploy over a longer time horizon and customized to their specific needs and implementation approaches. And that approach, it worked a lot better for states to be able to proactively plan how they could use these waivers and transition over time to a new normal. In the months after that even both Congress and the administration made a number of additional changes to help states provide more equitable benefits access. So I would say even in just the short period of this pandemic response, we've already come a long ways.   Alyssa, I'd appreciate your reflections on this issue as well.   The pandemic really forced states to think differently about how they interact with and provide services to clients. Some of those changes were successful and others existing deficits in technology, staffing models or community partnerships that were really difficult or sometimes even impossible to adapt during the national crisis. So one example of a change that worked well was the expansion of telephonic case processing. So this allows caseworkers to support client applications over the phone instead of in-person or online. And federal policy really facilitated that by allowing clients to give verbal signatures over the phone instead of a written signature. Before the pandemic, states had some options to do this, but they were required to collect and store an audio recording of the signature and purchasing that technology to be able to do that was a major barrier. So only some states were doing it and it wasn't always fully available statewide. So this flexibility that allowed for verbal signatures was seen as a really successful low-cost option facilitating remote services.   Another change I'd consider successful was the expansion of the online purchasing pilot. So before the pandemic, only two states allowed SNAP participants to use their benefits for online groceries, and now almost all 50 states offer that service. And we know that there are still a number of barriers to access, so things like few participating retailers, high delivery and service fees, lack of delivery particularly in rural areas, but it does represent a big shift towards modernizing SNAP, which was long overdue. On the flip side states also experienced some challenges moving SNAP online, particularly in communicating these frequent program changes to clients, shifting supportive services like nutrition, education, and workforce training to a virtual setting and engaging people who might lack reliable access to internet or digital devices. Very few states were able to provide mobile friendly services to clients, most relied on mass communication through their websites or social media or call centers. And even though most states were able to transition their supportive services online, somewhat, they tended to have difficulty engaging clients in this new setting.   So you both painted a picture of things that may be helpful to know in the future if there's some crisis like the COVID-19 pandemic, but also there's a lot to be learned about the way SNAP might be changed going forward overall no matter what's happening in the background. So Matt, let me ask, what are you taking away from this experience about making SNAP stronger and more resilient?   Well, I think that's the million dollar question. So the first thing I think that sticks out to me, we really desperately need a playbook ready to go should we ever face a crisis like this again. The time it took to get legislative authority from Congress so we could get SNAP rules adjusted and then the process of developing and refining USDA Guidance has a real insignificant cost on the people in the communities that need help. Being able to come into a crisis where we've codified automatic triggers that are most essential for SNAP to be responsive during a time of crisis that would really ensure that state and local agencies can hit the ground running with a plan and knowledge of what flexibilities they can use and how to best deploy them. This is needed around a lot of different issues.   I'd say most glaringly, we need to be talking about SNAP benefit increases and looking at suspending work requirements during a crisis, but we also need to look at those administrative rules that make a really big impact on how people access and participate in services. So things like interview requirements, the way that people can recertify for benefits, the use of telephonic signatures, quality control procedures, and then things for particular populations that have specific needs, looking at student eligibility rules, purchasing of hot and prepared foods. These all come to mind to me as things that we really need to come prepared day one of whatever that next crisis is to be ready to respond, to be nimble and adaptive.   The second thing that sticks out to me is we have learned a tremendous amount about what works and what doesn't work in SNAP this past year, and we should use it to strengthen the program. Many states have found that the amount of meetings and paperwork that we're required to put people through, it really does little to preserve program integrity. What it does do is it places a lot of significant administrative burden on families. So less rigid interviews and change reporting requirements can help us cater the program to better support people that are participating. And I think federal pilots demonstrations that could test alternative strategy that could help states build the evidence for what best practices work and what contexts, that's really needed right now and the time is critical that we be thinking about that as we transition out of the pandemic.   Thanks, Matt. And Alyssa, what are your thoughts on this?   Testing ways to minimize participant burden is really critical. And what we've learned during the pandemic is that a big part of that is investing in technology to expand the ways that people can interact with SNAP. So one example that I think is helpful is thinking about what it's like to do your taxes now versus what that looked like even 10 years ago. So if you recall, you used to have to go to your accountant to file your paperwork in person, if they needed more information they had to call you, or you had to come back into the office. If you got a refund, you'd have to wait for weeks for your check to arrive in the mail. And now I can easily submit everything online. I can chat with an accountant on demand. There's a streamlined process to file state and federal taxes all at once. And I can easily track my refund on my phone and even have it delivered to my virtual wallet. So if we can use this best available technology to do our taxes, why can't we expect the same services for SNAP? And I think these kinds of changes that make it easier to get and keep benefits, not only have potential to break down barriers to participation and reduce participants stress and anxiety, but will also make SNAP much more adaptable and responsive in future crises.   We found that states were largely constrained by the technology they had available before the pandemic. Very few were able add or expand modes of interacting with clients while they were in crisis mode. And understanding best practices and providing these virtual services is key. So there's a real need for investment in technical assistance and research to help states better understand how clients interact with these remote services. What are some of their strengths and limitations and what are some of the access barriers for certain groups?   And then one last point I wanted to lift up is the importance of making SNAP more client centered. One thing I personally learned through this work is that state performance is evaluated using metrics like payment errors and application processing time, and this can come at the expense of customer and staff satisfaction. So in thinking about modernizing SNAP, it's really important to center the client voice and to really value the lived experiences of participants to improve customer service and to ensure that we're prioritizing equitable program access. Something that one state said that really resonated with me is we need to put the human back in human services.   So the report is co-branded and coauthored by Johns Hopkins and the American Public Human Services Association. So Alyssa, how did your two organizations come together to do this work and why do you think this relationship between the organizations is so important?   Alyssa - Working with APHSA on this was like a dream partnership. They have such deep working knowledge of SNAP policy which we try to understand as best we can as researchers, but can't possibly keep up with all of the intricacies of implementing these program changes on the ground. And the team at APHSA provided that policy context and made sure we were asking really relevant and meaningful questions. And they also offered a direct line to the people we really wanted to get our findings in front of. So often when you submit a policy research grant application, they ask about your plans to disseminate findings to key stakeholders. And depending on the research, it can be really challenging to figure out who to contact and how to communicate your message in a meaningful way. But for APHSA that's their bread and butter. So they already have these great relationships with Congressional and USDA staff, and they know exactly how to communicate the research in a way that will resonate with them. So that made getting the word out to policymakers really easy.   Matt - Recently, we had a chance to preview the final report with our state SNAP directors. And one of the comments that just really stuck out to me was hearing how this report is just a gift to have this kind of information readily available at your fingertips to be able to drive and inform future changes that are needed to make SNAP programs more equitable and resilient.   Bios:   Alyssa Moran has more than a decade of experience working with individuals, community organizations, and government agencies on food and nutrition programs and policies. Currently, she is an Assistant Professor of Health Policy at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, where she is Core Faculty within the Institute for Health and Social Policy and Impact Specialist in Obesity and the Food System. Her research, teaching, and practice focus on the role of food and social policies in improving diet quality, reducing food insecurity, and eliminating health inequalities. She is a registered dietitian, earned her MPH in public health nutrition from NYU in 2011, and earned her ScD in nutrition from the Harvard Chan School of Public Health in 2018.   Matt Lyons is the Director of Policy and Research with the American Public Human Services Association (APHSA). In his role, Matt is responsible for developing and executing strategies for policy advocacy and influence in areas impacting health and human services programs. Prior to joining APHSA, Matt served in a variety of roles in state and local government, including administering economic support programs for Maryland's human services agency, managing disaster recovery programs for the State of New Jersey in response to Superstorm Sandy, and coordinating the delivery of housing and healthy homes programs for the Baltimore City Department of Housing & Community Development. Matt also has worked for a non-profit research institute where he provided technical assistance, data analysis, and information system design and implementation for low-income energy efficiency and community services programs across the country. Matt has an undergraduate degree in Government and Politics and a Master of Public Policy from the University of Maryland.    

Matt Gouge has spent 5 years in direct lending before making a switch to Independent Mortgage Broker in 2018. As an Independent Mortgage broker he takes private advising to the wide variety of clients with diverse needs. Matt`s background Entering the Mortgage business Matt's first investment Business Overview during the 08-09 recession How to grow a real estate business Interest rates and inflation Where Matt is looking for deals Building a team Real estate marketing Investment outlook Mentorship, Resources and Lessons Learned Useful links: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCq2XM1Q4PXs-msULABdk2Yw https://mattthemortgageguy.com Transcriptions: Jesse (0s): Welcome to the working capital real estate podcast. My name is Jesse Fragale. And on this show, we discuss all things real estate with investors and experts in a variety of industries that impact real estate. Whether you're looking at your first investment or raising your first fund, join me and let's build that portfolio one square foot at a time. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to working capital the real estate podcast. My name is Jesper galley and my special guest today is Matt. Matt has spent five years in direct lending before making the switch to independent mortgage broker in 2018 as an independent mortgage broker.  He takes pride in advising a wide variety of clients with diverse needs as to which lender and loan product is right for them. So today we're going to be talking about all things, investing, all things, mortgages, Matt, how's it going? Oh, it's going great. How are you doing Jesse? I'm doing great, man. The sun is out. It's a beautiful day down here. How's it up in Sacramento, same, same thing.  Matt (56s): And I get this when I record something on YouTube or court's on anywhere. They're like you're in California where it's hot and you're wearing a jacket inside my office freezing cold. So it's, it's 66 in my office, but outside it's, it's probably mid eighties. That'll get to see out that often with as busy as mortgage has been these last few years, but I assure you it's, it's sunny in California still.  Jesse (1m 16s): Yeah, well, it's a pretty topical to be talking mortgages right now. I think over the last few podcasts and just in general, you know, everything has been spotlight on where interest rates are at inflation, you know, the impact of this stimulus. And I'm sure you're seeing a ton of volume right now just given the fact that there's so much capital out there,  Matt (1m 35s): Right? Yeah. There's so much capital and there's so much demand for real estate. That's what people don't realize is like sure. We have a supply problem where, you know, the supply demand imbalance causes this run-up in real estate. You know, you've got viewers that are in Canada, they're seeing similar stuff, but in the United States, we've got price appreciation of 15, 17% sure that, that we need more supply and not enough was built in last 10 years, but nobody's really talking about the fact that like we're on pace to have 7 million sales in 2021, which is like a 20% uptick from previous years when the average year sees about five and a half million sales.  So plenty of demand, I'm surely not lacking in, in business or incoming, you know, loan applications.  Jesse (2m 15s): Yeah, absolutely. Well, I can't remember which guests we had on and put said, there's always that conundrum or that thing in real estate when there's a lot of capital out there, it's just seems, seems like deals are harder and harder to find. And when there isn't, it seems like there's a value deal everywhere. So I think we're definitely in the former right now, trying to find good deals is becoming harder and harder to do. But, you know, from your vantage point, maybe we could take a step back and, you know, how did you get into real estate, the mortgage business? Give us a little bit of a, of the background.    Matt (2m 42s): Sure. I mean, a quick snapshot of, of where, where I've been and what I've done is is I graduated college in 2005 with international business and finance degree. And so I've had a finance background, always been a numbers nerd. Since I was a kid, I used to, you know, tally the groceries as they came into the cart. And if I got it wrong, adding tax, I would cry. And that's the famous story my mom told. So since, since I've been a kid, I've been a numbers, nerd got a finance degree, actually went and ran a small business from graduating till about 2013 and then a small stint in 2013, working for the state of California, doing more finance stuff.    But it just wasn't my cup of tea had friends and mortgage that said, Matt, you know, you've got the numbers, you've got the work ethic, you've got the, the networking and all the stuff that would make a good mortgage professional. You should come do mortgage. And I did. And the rest is history. And, and so into, you know, my foray into mortgage, like other professions you get to see inside of what other people are doing. You know, you get to see inside finances and you sort of learn a little bit about finance. You get to see inside, wow, this guy has got 14 rental properties. That seems kind of cool.    This guy's live in a pretty cool life. And so that I think is what turned me on to, it was just seeing through my mortgage business, what, what investors were doing. And so like so many people, I'm sure you, you, you click onto a bigger pockets podcast, you read a book or two, and you're just like, wow, this is really, really cool. The, the crazy part is, is when I'm talking to investors now in 2021, I'm trying to get them to avoid what I did is literally like, listen, talk about, get excited about everything, but take action. Right? And it's because it was like 2017 before I actually started buying property.    And, and so when I did start buying property and I, and I, and I put together a couple of deals, bought a few fourplexes, a few single families, then it was not just like an idea like, oh, you could get cashflow and you can look at your net worth statement and see the principal pay down and see how things appreciate over time and all the benefits of real estate that, you know, on paper, on a book, in a book, on a podcast, sound great. Then you experienced it in real life for yourself. That I feel like I talk about it different.    Now, when I talk to clients about the power of real estate and all the benefits of real estate, I can use myself as, as a case study or the hundreds of people that I've now worked with that have built wealth one way or another through, through real estate and real estate investing    Jesse (5m 13s): Right on. That's pretty cool. And you know, it's not as a similar story we hear from, and I'm sure you've heard from accountants lawyers where they're like they see a portfolio or a client list where they're like, there's a lot of these wealthy people owning real estate or investing in real estate. So Matt, what was the, you mentioned fourplex, single family. What was the first investment that in 2017 that you made? Well, the first    Matt (5m 33s): One was actually an out-of-state rental and I I've got a video on my YouTube. My YouTube is just Matt, the mortgage guy where    Jesse (5m 41s): Checking that out. I've got a lot of traffic up there. Thanks.    Matt (5m 45s): Yeah, it's, it's, it's been picking up some steam and it's been over the years, just, I get commonly asked questions and I, I basically make videos answering questions. And, and if, if five or six clients asked me the same question a month, my guess is that, you know, nationwide or worldwide, other people have those same questions. And so I made a video, please try to avoid my mistakes when investing at a state. And so like other stories I've heard my first investing experience, wasn't that good. I bought something out of state because in my mind, and being a numbers guy, I thought to myself, you know, this low price point, this, you know, rent per month, this thing's going to be 22% return, 23% return.    What could go wrong? Well, when you're buying stuff, that's in a war zone, you're going to have bad tenants. You're going to have repairs. You're going to have all the nasty stuff, which I've, I've learned. I don't want to deal with not saying that out-of-state real estate real estate doesn't work. Cause I know tons of people that have done it successfully. They've just done it differently than me. If they've done their due diligence, which was mistake. Number one on my part, they've got boots on the ground and professionals that they like and trust in the area they're investing in.    A lot of times they're doing it at scale. So it's not just one property. They've got eight or 10. And so that was 2017. And then my, my other single family rental from 2017 was another common story. I see. And really how I kind of advise my clients to get into real estate investing. I moved out of my primary and bought a new one and kept my old one. And so my old primary became an investment property, not a home run, but it's cool to be able to show people, not just, you know, random figures and say, you know, here's how real estate investing works, but here's me.    I moved out of this thing. If you thought about it, it's going to rent for 2200. Here's the mortgage. It doesn't sound that attractive. But if I show him a 10 year, 15, 20 year horizon and they're working for the state, they're grinding away for, what's going to be, you know, their retirement 30 years from now, I show them like, look at how cool this is. I'm going to get paid a couple hundred dollars a month on this investment. That's an increase in value. You know, even if we only see 3% appreciation on average, which is really conservative for California, you know, this, thing's going to add a half, a million, three quarters of a million to my net worth and then be cashflow positive $2,000 a month.    Once it's paid off. And I'm just doing tax and insurance, like that's cool stuff to show somebody who doesn't know anything about real estate. And it's an easy way to say, could you save up 5% to buy a new primary and have this old one, be your first investment property and then get that, you know, where different parts of the country are different than if I talked about, you know, a half, a million or 700.    Speaker 2 (8m 31s): Yeah. That was in and in equity. People are just like, not here in, in Ohio where I'm at, but    Matt (8m 38s): You know, it's, it's, it's going to be different, different places, but that stuff, it's not rocket science. I don't feel like it's something that's, you know, a super complicated formula other people can follow. And that was my first one. Yeah. And for a lot of people, if you did nothing else, but that, and then maybe buy another or two every Wednesday, I'm on a one rental at a time, a buddy of mine who, who his book that he wrote. And his whole thing is like, try to get to four rentals and four rentals will change your life.    And so a lot of people I talked to that's, that's at least a start, right? Not everybody wants to own 150 units. Not everybody wants to build this humongous empire, but you know, if you, if you have a few rental properties, imagine the folks that just grind their life away for 40 years and then get 36, 24 a month for the rest of their life. You know?    Jesse (9m 33s): Yeah. I think ultimately, you know, even at one or two rental properties, like you said, not everybody wants to own hundreds or thousands of units passive, you know, you're in this game long enough, passive income is not so passive there. There's still, you know, you, you make a decision at a certain point, are you going to start a real estate business? Or are you going to try to make it as hands-off as possible? But one or two properties for a lot of people would rival their 401ks, their retirement savings plans, whatever they have there. Because like you said, you're, you know, you have that appreciation and then you can get into the forced depreciation, depending if you're going commercial, residential.    And on that note, so you got oh five to 2017 and 20 2005 is when you graduated. Did you get into the business? Were you in, were you in the business during 8 0 9 and not like during the recession and deal with, with hap what was happening during that time? Well, I had bought    Matt (10m 24s): My primary in oh six and the small business I was running was a poker room. And so I got to do a ton of great networking right through the poker room. And I had plenty of buddies who, you know, like me were in their mid twenties, starting off, everybody's doing something different. I had plenty of clients, plenty of friends, plenty of family that were all into mortgage and just having a finance background, you know, it interests me. And so I had talked to them. I wasn't actively involved with writing mortgage or anything like that, but I definitely saw a lot of it.    A funny story that I don't tell that often is when I came back, I went and studied abroad in Mexico in oh three and oh four. When I came back, I interviewed at a mortgage company and this was, you know, subprime and AmeriQuest and just injuries. Yeah. Crazy stuff going on. And this company, I went there and I'm like super excited. I'm 24 years old. I'm about to graduate from college. I feel like I've got a good handle on business and, and marketing. And, you know, I've always had good work ethic.    They asked me if I would be willing to like forge documents or they asked me if I'd be like, would I be willing to do, to, to make a deal close? And basically none of it, I said, you know, I'm bilingual. And I live in California, I work hard and I've got some, some business sense. I think that without cheating, I would do fine. And they basically told me I wasn't for them. Right. So no surprise a company like that went out of business, but looking, I think it's cool because I never was involved in writing any of these mortgages that people, you know, look back on and talk about like how terrible of a product, some of these, you know, two 20 eights and interest only arms and whatnot were.    And, and so, you know, having not wrote a alone until 2013, I've only wrote the vast majority 30 year fixed no prepayment penalties and, and really clean loans. Like we've seen since all of a sudden destruction    Jesse (12m 26s): Since the recession. Yeah. So I mean, crazy time, obviously, you know, they've made movies about it. They've people have gone gotten sued, gone to jail now after this time. So why don't we go on to that 30 year fixed, but Canadians will be like, w what the hell is this? This is not a product we have five years is our max for residential in terms of actually fixing rates. But why don't we talk about, we break it up into residential and commercial. So you're looking for single family property.    Why don't we start with that? People that are listening and maybe they have one, a rental property, maybe they're buying their first rental property. It, it is on the single-family side. What do they do once they, you know, they spot a pro property that they like and they're underwriting it. Sure.    Matt (13m 15s): I mean, for most people to, like you said, if, if they're buying their first rental property, they'll reach out to me and say, how do I qualify for rental property? Is it different? It's fairly similar to how you qualify for your primary residence. It's going to be a debt to income ratio thing. So it's, so it's all math on the income side, you vet your income and then debt side, you've got your current mortgage, you've got the new mortgage, you've got whatever car payments, student loans on that. And you just have to have the debt to income ratio work where your income versus all the debts, you know, 45% is probably a good, you know, rough figure.    Some programs go a little higher. Some might even be a little bit stricter depending on your credit score. You may or may not get approved higher or lower, but, but that's the basics of it is that, you know, you're going to have to have verifiable income, unfortunately, through COVID folks that are self-employed are having a little bit harder time. A lot of them that I've seen, you know, business declined in 2020. And that's, that's something that I would love to have a better mortgage products available for self-employed borrowers.    Unfortunately in the, you know, Fannie Freddie, conventional world, there's just not, and it's, and it's something that lenders look at as, you know, variable or uncertain. And so you really have to have a track record as, as a, as a self-employed borrower, because the lenders don't know any other way to look at, like, what, what do I think your future income is going to be? Well, what you made in 19 and 20, and then your year to date P and L and 21. That's the only thing we go off we'll those 30 months and divide them by 30. And that's what we think you're going to make in the future.    And    Jesse (14m 56s): I think, you know, to that point, and like you said, it's, if you're in a different area, different banks, you know, we call it the, the total debt service or the, the, you know, the gross debt service, your TDS and GDS racials. But like you said, 45%. I know in my area, 35%, we're pretty conservative up here is, is fairly standard. May be pushed to 40. But yeah, I think on the self-employed side, it's so funny, you mentioned that because I was just talking to a colleague in the industry, it does commercial mortgages. And he was saying that basically, they're almost creating a product or adjusting, basically making an adjustment for 2020 income.    You know, especially if you're self-employed for a long enough time, they see, you know, a steady increase or, or, you know, stasis, and then 2020, you know, came back and then 2020 started picking up again. So it's like, well, if we lose, if we use your last two, it's not really a good picture of what, of what you're, you're really making out there. Exactly.    Matt (15m 50s): Yeah. And I've been telling self-employed borrowers that like stay tuned because mortgage guidelines change. Unfortunately they don't change fast enough sometimes for you, but in, you know, in an ideal world, it would be, make sense where, like you said, I could look back at the track record, you had a blip and you were out of work for three months, maybe your state shut down or whatever it was. And now you're back, you know, full bore. But you know, the guidelines that are in place right now are, are to be completely honest, fairly restrictive for self-employed borrowers. You can just got to have a business that has weather the storm and can show that on paper.    Right. Because that's, that's another part about being self-employed is that you could have a business that has a $2 million top line. If your bottom line is 24 grand, you're not going to be able to buy a half a million dollar house. Yeah,    Jesse (16m 39s): Absolutely. So, okay. On the residential side, what are you seeing in terms of, you know, the average client, you have percentage payment that they're able to achieve and what, at what point can you not stay within the residential, you know, mortgage product and you have to go into commercial, I assume that'd be a unit count. Right?    Matt (16m 60s): Exactly. And so that's, my, my lane is one to four unit residential stuff. Once you get to five units and above it's going to be commercial. And so literally all the business I write is going to be a single family, a duplex or triplex or a fourplex. And, you know, even if it looks really similar to a fourplex down the street, if you've got a five unit building, I just can't finance it. And, and so you gotta look for commercial financing and, and the main difference, you've probably talked about this in the past, being in commercial is that, you know, when you're looking at a commercial asset, they're looking at the building and they're looking at it's producing this much income.    If you're buying a four unit property, if it rents for a zillion dollars and your mortgage payment is 3000 a month, that isn't necessarily what the lender is looking at. They're looking at your ability to repay. And so somebody who's got $200,000 a year in W2, income is going to qualify no matter what, you know, the building could be a net loser. And so that's, that's something important to think about for people that are looking for residential properties. And another reason when I'm coaching investors or I'm talking to investors about qualifying for mortgages, and the fact that you can only do 10 conventional loans, is that if you've got a great W2 income and your plan is to, you know, leave that job, but build a rental portfolio, as long as you want to get this cream of the crop financing, where you're getting, you know, 3% on single family and sub 4% on the multi-family on a 30 year fixed rate term, keep that W2 jobs, you can qualify for those because once you quit that job, it's, it's highly unlikely that you're going to have enough net rental income on your tax return to qualify for those same sweet, sweet, conventional Fannie Freddie loans.    Jesse (18m 49s): I'm curious the, the 10 property limit. I, you know, I've heard that thrown around a bunch of times. Do you know what the actual, first of all, what the logic of that is, or the history is, is it just something that has always been done?    Matt (19m 3s): You know what, that's, that's an awesome question, dude. Like, I've never, I've never thought about the history or the logic behind that. Besides like, I know that some lenders have implemented stuff in the past where they don't let you know, some, some lenders aren't huge. And so they're smaller. And they'll say, I don't want more than four loans from one individual, even though they could do, you know, that person's ninth and 10th, if they already had eight finance properties. And so maybe it's something where, you know, a smaller lender or even a bigger lender, doesn't want to have 77 finance properties from one person.    If that person goes belly up, you know, it's, it's spread the risk for that one. That, that would be my only thought because, you know, if somebody qualifies. Yeah. And I guess in general, it's probably a higher risk if somebody has 47 finance properties. And so that, that, that could be the only thing is that yeah, that ship crashes, then, then it's, you know, $14 million worth of mortgages. Versus if they've only got a handful, then it's, it's less risk to the lender, but that's, that's a good one, dude.    I'm going to even take a note and see if I can find some history of like, when that started. And    Jesse (20m 15s): Yeah, I've always been curious because I've heard that before. And then usually I guess it, perhaps one of the reasons it doesn't get answers by the time you get to approaching 10, a lot of people are switching to commercial product. So it's almost like, you know, unless single family is literally your bread and butter. So in your lane, one to four units, are your clients, are you able to still have them put the properties into a corporation or LLC, or do being a residential mortgage?    I assume there's, it still comes with a personal that, you know, you're, you're personally still on the hook for the right,    Matt (20m 51s): Right. Yeah. Yeah. And that's the thing too, is a lot of people want to, you know, not like be personally liable for the debt and lenders just aren't going to lend to you. And, you know, you can, you can slap it into an LLC for liability protection and for a slip and fall at your property. But as far as like closing alone, most all traditional lenders are going to make you close in your personal name. You're personally liable. You know, they're pulling your credit, they're qualifying you as a person. And then I see investor slap at Nelsey just, just for the liability protection.    There are some like non QM lenders, which has a broker. You know, we broke her out, plenty of that, where we're doing non-traditional type loans, debt, service, coverage, ratio, loans, bank statement, loans, and those lenders can work outside of, you know, the, the regulations that are put on conventional loans where sometimes they'll allow you to, to actually fund the loan in, in an LLC. But it's really not that common. And I get the question quite a bit and I haven't dove in deep enough to find lenders that, that do that, do that very often.    Jesse (21m 59s): Yeah. I think on the commercial side, even, even on our side at the beginning, when you're getting into it, you're, you're personally indemnifying until you really build up, you know, actual assets within, within the company in terms of where we're at today. I mean, like we talked about a little bit the last year and a half has been kind of crazy. There's a lot of volume in terms of mortgages, what you're seeing. If we focus kind of macro economically interest rates, how are you advising clients? How is that impacting if at all, the way you're doing business in, in 2021,    Matt (22m 33s): As far as far as like where interest rates are headed or what I think about the housing market    Jesse (22m 37s): Or, well, number one we're interest rates are headed in. And do you have a strong view about that? I know, like you can have people on completely opposite sides of this, of this conversation that are both really intelligent and informed that have very different views of where they think interest rates are going. But yeah, I would just like to get your perspective on that and obviously, you know, that has a material impact impact on the, on the products that you offer, right?    Matt (23m 2s): Yeah. I mean, I think like when people ask me, cause that's a million dollar question for a mortgage broker, like what's your rate is the question number one, and what are rates doing? Where are they headed as question number two? And I mean, we've seen some volatility last week was, was the, the, the fed meeting where, where the fed talked about, you know, the, the future thought of, of moving the fed funds rate. And so people don't know, like in the U S the fed fund rate, it doesn't necessarily track the 30 year mortgages in the short term, but over the longterm, it certainly does.    And so just them talking about talking about the future of moving the fed funds rate saw a tick up in 30 year rates, probably like a quarter percent in, like, I think it, what was last Wednesday was the 16th, 16th, 17th, 18th were all red days for mortgage mortgage bonds. So it was like a quarter worse on those three days. And so I think that anybody who follows mortgage and mortgage rates knows that the fed who's buying over a hundred billion dollars a month in mortgage backed securities.    They're like keeping mortgage rates low in the U S once they start taking their foot off of that gas, or, you know, rates have nowhere to go, but up, I don't think that they're going to increase fast. So I wouldn't tell anybody like, you know, get it now hot. You've got to, you know, refinance today are going to miss out. But Morgan now that are really close to 3% on a 30 year fixed for the most well-qualified clients, if those are three and a half or 3.75, by the end of the year, I wouldn't be surprised if they're still at the same levels they're at today.    I would be surprised cause cause they they're going to gradually increase is kind of my thought. And like, if, if you look across like national association of realtors, mortgage, professional association, anybody who's got surveys on where they see mortgage rates by the end of 2021, it's higher. It's not a ton higher, but it's a little bit higher. And so what I'm seeing a ton of on this subject is people that have a bunch of equity because we've seen, you know, 30 plus percent appreciation over the last 24 months for a lot of people in a lot of places in the U S is people are grabbing that equity and they want that long-term 30 year fixed money.    A lot of people think that, you know, inflation isn't necessarily transitory and some of it is here to stay. So they want to hedge against inflation. They want to pull some of that equity out of their home. And the crazy part for me as an investor and dealing with so many investors is there's all this money and nowhere to put it, like, there's just, they're, they're looking for you, especially I think in, in residential real estate, because I'm not going to pretend like it's easy to find cash flowing deals or great deals out there.    You know, I'm looking, I'm submitting offers, I've got dozens of clients that are submitting offers and you know, even the ones that are playing the long-term don't need humongous returns are, you know, they're searching for six and 8% before they wouldn't even look, they wouldn't even think about that deal. And they can't even find that in some of the markets they're looking in. And so that'll be the interesting thing going forward is where are people going to find a place to park all this money? Because I know with absolute certainty, there's just so much capital looking for a place to park it, you know, in my little micro world of me and my mortgage clients, I've got people in the bay area that had paid off homes that just said, I'm going to pull out the 820 2003 75, park it on the sidelines.    I mean, clients that have seven 50 already sit in the bank, they're just doubling up because if something happens, if, if there's a deal to be had, I want to be ready.    Jesse (26m 45s): Yeah. Yeah. I think it's a, I think that's everywhere. I think people are any appreciation that they've built up, you know, and the products where you have, you know, different banks call them different things where you have a line of credit attached to the mortgage and you can actually utilize that when you see an opportunity, speaking of your markets. So you're in California, you're an investor. Number one. How do you do that? And where are you looking right now for deals    Matt (27m 12s): I'm looking, you know, with, with, with the experience I had at a state I've, you know, it's, it's good to be self-aware and you know, your strengths and weaknesses, the people that I see do it out of state have, you know, a tie to the city that they're investing in either. It's, you know, I've got family that lives there. I've got a real estate buddy who lives there and he helps me find the real estate. He knows the great property managers. He knows the great construction folks. I think my weakness for investing out of state is I just don't have the boots on the ground that I would want to have to make it a successful operation.    And so my general investing, I guess, philosophy is I want to be able to drive to it. And there's some markets that are three hours away, three and a half hours away in California. Some people think that I'm crazy because it's so tenant friendly in California, but there's, there's something about being able to drive, you know, meet a contractor, meet the property manager, look at the building, talk about the building. And so the neighborhoods that I'm looking at, I, I created a video that could send out to real estate agents who are working in the markets where I'm looking and, you know, I don't want stuff in eight neighborhoods because it's just, it's expensive.    It's just too expensive. And so, you know, the, the B minus C plus, if I could duplicate what I did in 2019 with the two fourplexes that we bought, I would do it 10 times over because those are, you know, appreciating their cash flowing. And I think when I looked at it last, it was like 16 or 18% cash on cash return after all expenses. And now after 24 months, I feel like I even have like a worst case scenario because obviously there was some tenants that were struggling and in these type of markets, these type of units I have that are mostly one ones, some, two ones and some three twos between those eight units in those two fourplexes, I would imagine expenses and vacancies would only improve in the future and not get worse.    But even with all that stuff considered, you know, a 14, 15% cash on cash return, now it's more expensive. And so I've adjusted accordingly and, and I've looked in other markets like Fresno, California, which is more central. And, you know, similarly it's, it's, it's a C plus B minus and you know, the homes are 50 years old, but I just, as, as a person, who's going to be continually bullish on real estate. People are always going to need a place to live.    And as crazy as people think that I'm home, like price appreciation for purchase has gone crazy. You should see some of the numbers for rentals around rental increase is, is gone crazy as well. And, you know, I don't think I'm ever going to have a thousand units. So if I have, you know, 50 spread across a couple of different California markets with really good property managers in place, I'm not worried about the tenant laws so much because in my experience at least, and it's maybe it's only been three to five years.    I haven't experienced the worst of the worst. You deal with tenants like they're human beings and you work with them and you're kind, I, I just, anything can be worked out. You know, I had some terrible tenants where we just had to say, I don't want an eviction to go on your record to where, you know, it's gonna affect you for the next seven years. If you can be out by next Friday, we'll forgive all the back rent and you won't have an eviction and then they're out. And then we clean it up and we move on. And, and that type of stuff I think is just to be expected.    And you just write it into when you're thinking about how something's going to perform. So I guess long-winded way of saying, I'm just looking for cash flowing stuff that, you know, appreciation would be kind of gravy, but thinking about 10, 15, 20 years from now, let's call it 50 units that are paid off. And when they're paid off, they're $500 per door or something like that, then    Jesse (31m 25s): What kind of mortgage broker says that    Matt (31m 28s): I know, well, that's the thing too is, is, is, you know, I'm human like everybody else. And I feel like when I talk to somebody, I try dig into like, what's where are you at in life? What are you trying to do? Certainly right now, I'm not trying to pay anything off. Yeah. And it's funny because I made a video talking about like fast ways to pay off your mortgage. And people are just like, okay, you're an idiot. It's a 3% mortgage. Why would you ever do that? I'm like, listen, I've literally like stopped any additional principal payments on all the stuff I own because I, I see what you see Mr.    YouTube.    Speaker 2 (32m 3s): Yeah.    Matt (32m 4s): Not trying to like throw that money at, at this long-term 3% debt, but, but things change. Right. And I think if I talk to a client who's 57 and you know, they've worked their behind off, and they're like, I'd love to have this stuff paid off at 62. It feels different for me and, and whatnot. Then I'm not going to tell them, don't do that because you know, the money versus, or the rate versus inflation, it's getting that money for free. Don't do that, sir. Like, you know, every everybody's different, so I'm not, I'm not tied to one belief. And I, and I honestly try to keep an open mind to not just like how I view things, but people in different stages of their life can view things.    Jesse (32m 42s): Yeah. I think it goes back to what you said before, even before the show, when you're talking about not everybody wants to have a, a thousand units and in the same breath, not everybody, you know, wants to maximize and be, you know, most efficient with every single dollar. They have, they, some people just rather the peace of mind that that's paid off, I feel better. You know, even, even if I know I can get a better technically return on equity or, you know, whatever it is. So in terms of, in terms of the actual market that you're looking at, these micro markets, you know, three hour drive, four hour drive, are you, do you have a team that, where you're going to look for these properties, because if it's anything like our market, you know, if you go on the MLS, you can pretty much forget it.    You're in there with 10 other people bidding on stuff. Are you seeing the same thing? And if so, how are you finding the deals? And what's, what's the marketing like?    Matt (33m 32s): Yeah. I mean, I don't have a huge marketing budget or team, right? Because truth be told I'm 95% focused on the mortgage business, serving clients and in a stage where my business is growing, you know, bonkers, but for the areas where I am looking, I tried to duplicate what I did in Sacramento and surrounding where it's just all network. And as a mortgage broker, I probably know 500 real estate agents.    And of those 500 real estate agents, 20 are active investors. Try to let them know I'm looking for stuff as well. I, I know through conversation with them, stuff that they're looking for, some of them are doing just flips. They don't care about a buy and hold. Something might come across, you know, them, that makes sense to me. And they would never even think about buying it. So getting clear with them about, Hey, here's what I'm looking for. If you find it, let me know. I probably have between two or three different markets and 40 to 50 different agents, eight or 10 deals coming across every week.    You know? And if I was trying to build those, trying to get huge, I could probably find a way to 10 X that and get a hundred deals to look at every single week. But I    Jesse (34m 44s): It's just not your full-time job. Right.    Matt (34m 46s): Right. Yeah. And so, so focused on the business and growing that, and then with those deals that I'm seeing, you know, writing one or two offers, but other investors I've talked to have had similar story as me where I've probably wrote a couple dozen offers with zero getting accepted. It's like, sure. I'm in the market to buy it. If a deal comes across my desk, I'm, I'm willing, able, and ready and I've fired. I just haven't hit anything yet.    Jesse (35m 15s): Yeah. And so it's almost sorry. Sorry to interrupt you there. Go ahead. No, go ahead. Go ahead. Yeah, no, I was going to say it's almost a, it can be a feature, not a bug where I know friends of mine that are putting offers literally this year on a hundred different properties, not getting many of them, but they have capital that they need to put to work. Whereas you can kind of do your full-time job, put a few offers in, you know, if the right comes along, you'll jump on it. But that makes you actually a bit more conservative in your underwriting because you don't have to, there's no pressure for you to do deals.    Matt (35m 46s): Right, right. Yeah. There's no money that needs to be deployed. You know, it's, it's, it's more just me itching, right?    Speaker 2 (35m 52s): It's like, gosh, somebody has got to get to work. I    Matt (35m 56s): Can't have it in a, in a one half of 1% yield savings or whatever that gets in for too long. Because then I feel like as I look at gas prices, as I look at everything going up in price, this, this, this money is withering away.    Jesse (36m 12s): Yeah. Right on. Well, before we get to a, we ask every guest like a final four question, bunch of softballs. I just want to get your take on the next few years investing. It sounds like single families, the space you're going to play in. Is there any interest in branching out to other areas, whether that's, you know, multi-family retail office, industrial, what what's on the horizon for you?    Matt (36m 36s): You know, I've looked at some office space and I've, I've, I've gone through like learning how to underwrite deals, which started as I'm going to buy an office in Sacramento. And if I'm gonna buy an office in Sacramento to do mortgage out of, I might as well buy something where I can lease out space to others. And you know, not just my mortgage business, leasing out space, but, but others in there, you know, paying myself.    And so, so that's something that, that I'd be interested in. Cause it was cool. I got into some underwriting and talks to people that know a lot more than I do. And it's cool to think about, oh, you can buy this $900,000 building, you know, put about a hundred thousand in upgrades, get it fully occupied. Now it's worth 1.5. Like that value add which to be, to be completely honest, as I looked at it, I thought to myself, like everyone I talk to is working from home. Why isn't commercial real estate on sale more than it is. Right.    And so that, that might be something, but, but I really, you know, have a strong tie to residential real estate and probably more of an in right where I just know so many people that I can be presented deals and, and be picky and choosy and add good stuff to the portfolio. So that's, that's more likely area where I'll play at. I looked at some apartment deals over the last couple of years and I guess I, I, I put in a few offers on, on a few different, like smaller, like 12 to 15 unit apartments, but nothing stuck.    So I think I'm open. I think that, you know, the entrepreneur entrepreneurial spirit, you know, lives, whether it's a commercial building and, and it's all with the same goal, really, it's just like freedom, like thinking about being able to take a month and, you know, take the kids and the wife to Europe and have cashflow coming in. I mean, over the last eight years, as I've grown this mortgage business, I've worked hard. And so, so thinking about, even if it's fairly passive, you know, like the Marysville stuff is one hour per month talking to the property manager, it's, it's, it's as passive as it gets.    And so adding more of that, you know, passive fairly passive income is pretty attractive when I think about it.    Jesse (38m 55s): Yeah, sure. I can definitely agree with you there. And echo just because office is, is my world on the broker agenda and yeah. Prices are sticky. You know, they don't like to lower their rents long-term leases. You think half of it would be on sale, but we'll see in the next year or two, see how things go. Obviously retail has taken, taken it on the chin to a certain extent. All right. So four questions we typically ask every guest, I'll lay them up if you're ready. Yes, sir. Let's do it.    All right, Matt, what's something, you know, now in your career that you wish you knew when you got started. Oh man.    Matt (39m 34s): Something I know now that I wish I knew when I got started, I wish I wish I knew what a great deal. What, what, how many great deals were around me? Right. It took me so long to pull the trigger. I wish somebody would have been like, Matt, just take action. Because this is what I tell investors do is I tell them, like, once you take action on the first property, you're gonna look back and go that wasn't that hard and you can do it again and again, and again and again. So if I could rewind to 2013 and be like that first couple times, that that, that idea got into your head where you saw a client that had investment real estate and you thought it was a good idea.    If you would have taken action then, and started that a little bit sooner, w there, we might be a, you know, three X where we are today, as far as real estate holdings.    Jesse (40m 17s): Yeah, absolutely. Zero to one. All right. Number two. Mentorship for the, for the younger people out there, or just your, your view of mentorship, has it, has it been a, a large part of your journey?    Matt (40m 29s): Oh, it's been so, so important. I think it was funny. I was talking to a guy who works for a bay area startup, where they basically do, you know, mentoring and coaching and all kinds of stuff in that space to C level executives. And I talked to him about, you know, personal coaching around real estate, around my mortgage business, around even life and family and whatnot. It's super vital. And my trick, when I talk to people about mortgage, like how did you go from zero to do on 125 million a year and 300 plus transactions?    I literally started and I did 27 deals. And I looked around and said, who's doing deals a year. I want to talk to them. I talked to them, how do you do it? What's your, you know, what are some best practices that you have? And I implemented some of that. And then when I got to 70 or 80 deals a year, I looked around and said, who's doing 150 deals a year. And you know, you'd be surprised at how many people who are rungs above you on whatever ladder it is. You're trying to climb that are happy to share, you know, their story, their structure, how they do things. And I continue to do it.    Now, I'm trying to find mortgage teams that do a $500 million a year and how the heck they structure that, how they manage their time, their team, their systems, all of that stuff like that, to me is the secret sauce. And so anybody who starting out in mortgage who's like looking for mentorship or really anything investing or whatever it is, you know, you look to people who are either where you want to be or headed and closer to where you want to be. And you do as much as you can to soak up some of that, get some of those best practices.    I've tried to do that for people who are newer in mortgage, my Monday Q and a on YouTube, I started doing 6:00 PM Pacific standard time, two hour question and answer. And at first I thought I was just speaking directly to consumers who were looking for a good mortgage advice. And we could just do a Q and a, rather than post a comment and wait two days to get a response. Let's do it live. I found out there was a ton of brand new loan officers. They were like, this is super informational. This is cool. I, I I'm learning so much. And so now I'm starting to invite new loan officers because that's, that's how you learn.    Just talk to somebody who's been doing it and is a little bit farther along the path that you're trying to walk down.    Jesse (42m 46s): Yeah, absolutely. Couldn't agree more with that. Or what is a, either in the past or now a resource that, that you find vital, you'd like listeners to know about resource that could be podcasts, YouTube channel book.    Matt (42m 59s): I mean, I think that I love books and I love audible. And so, you know, there might be some listeners that want to do commercial real estate. There might be some listeners that want to do residential real estate. There might be some that, you know, are hanging out and listening to this, but they want to lose 40 pounds, whatever your, your, your passion or your goal is. If, if you're spending your time listening to information, that's going to help you with that. It's so powerful. And I think that over the last few years, like my personal growth, I can attribute to the fact that, you know, I'm letting a lot of the good stuff get in.    I'm not spending my time. I couldn't tell you about all the cool Netflix series and stuff, but I can tell you about, you know, what's the guy's name that wrote winning Tim Grover, the guy who coached Jordan and Toby, you know, all, all the cool books that are out. I can tell you a lot more about those. And then the Netflix series that are out. And I think that, you know, that's, that's something that, you know, it, we live in a great time. In 2021, you could literally go on YouTube and learn anything you want. You could find a podcast on anything you're interested in.    You could find an audible book on somebody who's wrote on a subject that you want to learn more about. Plug yourself into that stuff and watch yourself grow by a half an inch every day in a few years, you'll be, you know, it's, it's crazy how far you can come. Awesome,    Jesse (44m 24s): Man. I like it. All right. Last one. As listeners know my personal favorite, first car make and model.    Matt (44m 31s): Oh man. So 1996, my parents gave me their 1989 Oldsmobile Cutlass,    Speaker 3 (44m 42s): Kalai. Hatless elegant. I don't know how    Speaker 2 (44m 47s): It just, it seems so much    Matt (44m 49s): Older than it was, but the best part about it is, is I think I ended up buying myself a new car after that. But fast forward to 2003, I was going to go down to Mexico and study. And my parents were like, oh, if you want to take that old Cutlass Kelly, you can. So I drove myself from Northern California down to Southern California, across to Texas and down into like the middle of Mexico. Good at the row. It was like a 55 hour drive. And I had that old Cutlass that the top, the roof, like the stuff was falling down the car, must've been worth 500 bucks tops.    But I cruise that thing all over Mexico for 18 months. It was it's amazing.    Jesse (45m 26s): I feel like down there, it just be car now because the Cutlass is, they used to just put up that became such a hydraulic, just dubs on it, man. I remember that car he's at my uncle had one of those. Just, just like a, just a steel rectangle going down the street, but awesome. Sweet dude for listeners out there, aside from a Google search of your name, we'll put show links below. Where is the best place to, to go out, to reach to    Matt (45m 53s): You? Yeah. I mean, I think that I've hopefully done a pretty good job. A lot of people don't even know my last name is because I just brand myself as Matt, the mortgage guy. So if you go to Google and type in Matt in the mortgage guy, you're going to find tons of different stuff. Matt, the mortgage guy.com I'm on Instagram as math and mortgage guy CA which is California, not Canada. Sorry. I I'd love to have people check out math, the mortgage guy on YouTube. Cause I think that 450 plus videos, my main it's crazy.    My main thing has always been education. So, so ideally somebody who's looking for mortgage information, you can type in how to escrow accounts, work math, the mortgage guy. Why I get a supplemental tax, bill, math and mortgage guy, all the things that my clients have asked me, you might have a similar question and you type in that question, the math, the mortgage guy, check out the YouTube channel. If there's something that you don't see and you think it's a question that other people might be asking, go ahead and fire off a comment. I'm still it's getting to that point. I think man, with a hundred thousand views a month or something where I'm having trouble keeping up with answering every comment.    But I was, I was bragging like two months ago. Every single comment I respond to and every single comment is me personally responding to it. I got to spend like an hour and a half the other    Speaker 2 (47m 5s): Night. I'm like they just keep coming. That's crazy.    Jesse (47m 10s): My guest today has been Matt, the mortgage guy, Matt, thanks for being part of working capital. That was awesome. Thank you so much for listening to working capital the real estate podcast. I'm your host, Jesse for galley. If you liked the episode, head on to iTunes and leave us a five star review and share on social media, it really helps us out. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to me on Instagram, Jesse F R a G a L E, have a good one. Take care. 

Today we talk with Matt Crawford with the Montgomery Company in South Carolina about what is happening in the Columbia Market. We cover everything from the way he works, economic and employment trends, taxes, the current level of competition, and other things that make Columbia an investor's market.  --- Transcript Michael: Hey, everybody, welcome to another episode of The Remote Real Estate Investor. I'm Michael Albaum and today I'm joined by my co hosts, Tom Schneider and Mark Woodling. And we have a very special guest with us today, Matt Crawford is an agent out of Columbia, South Carolina. And today Matt's gonna be giving us a market overview and talk about some of the things that he and his team are able to assist buyers and sellers in doing in that market. So let's get into it.     Awesome. So Matt Crawford, thank you so much for taking the time to join us today. Really appreciate you being on the show.   Matt: Excellent. Thank you, Mike. Glad to be here.   Michael: And so you're out in Columbia, South Carolina. Is that right?   Matt: Yeah, Sunny Columbia mass about 85 degrees, you know, beautiful state born and raised about an hour north of here. So fantastic market, man, it's a good place to be.   Michael: Awesome. And I'm curious, Matt, who are you an agent with.   Matt: So right now, my agency is hung under the Montgomery company, which is a pretty interesting story. And just to quickly unpack that, Matt Montgomery, he's a great friend of mine. He runs a massive construction business here in the southeast. And just for the conveniency of our partnership, I ended up creating a brokerage with him. And I'm really sort of the head of the firm, sole proprietor of that brokerage, which I moved my company under, which is technically not a capital in southern capital brothers, which is our investment brokerage underneath this umbrella.   Tom: That's a perfect segue, Matt, and, you know, before jumping into Columbia, South Carolina, I'd love to learn a little bit more about yourself and your background and how you got to where you're at today.   Matt: Yeah, 100% time, you know, it's a, it's been a journey, you know, as we all are inclined to take. And so, you know, I'm going to probably take this back five years, you know, I'm in Denver, Colorado, man, loving life, sort of so in the proverbial oats of a new broker. And I started really getting into cahoots with a lot of the investors out in Colorado, a lot of these guys were doing huge land acquisitions, building massive multifamily complexes, as well as doing something that I'd never heard of, which was institutional capital investing.   So they were piecing together these massive SFR, BTR portfolios, renting them out, stabilize them, and then doing the disposition strategy. And I was like, what a awesome niche within the real estate arena to start cutting my teeth on. And so we got licensed in Colorado started working with these guys, the barrier to entry there for a new young agent in his 20s was so massive, and like, man, it'd be great if I had $600,000 for my first rental, not the case.   So I look back to my roots back here in Columbia, South Carolina, where I can get that first rental for about 50,000. And so jumped over here about four years ago, and started building some institutional funds with a previous venture, we built that went to about 2200 homes deployed around 220 million over 24 months. I don't think I slept much. I probably lost a little bit of weight. But I learned a lot, you know, and, and from there, you know, there was a talk about destiny, talk about fate, you know, the pandemic arose, a created a little bit of space, to sort of see where I wanted to navigate. And, you know, I decided with a few of my other founders, Jordan, and Alex Fisher, to start our own company. And that's sort of how we got here today,   Tom: I had a boss who had a pretty funny joke. I was like, working a lot of hours. And he's like, Hey, good news. Tom, you're getting credit for two years of work, which is one year by working, you know, every day, 100 hour weeks, you know, yes.   Matt: It is a journey man is like, you know, you know, first and last out, but we had the, the gusto of, you know, being passionate and, and finding, you know, a purpose within the the jumble of real estate, not at one point, I thought it was so binary, you know, it's just traditional transactions between buyers and sellers, and then start unpacking that man, I'm like, oh, man, if you can sell one home, you could sell a portfolio of 1000 homes. And so that's what brought us here.   Tom: Let's, let's learn a little bit more about the practice today. Your guyses brokerage today.   Matt: Yep, yep. So, you know, we really have pivoted to fly a new banner. That banner is called Southern capital. It's a company that we've had for many years. And what that really does is it pieces together investment clients, like you guys have it Roofstock with really high profile properties here in the southeast. And if we can drill down even more granular, you know, Colombia has been our top market. And it's just so funny how it happened. You know, when I, when I ended here, I wasn't thinking, Oh, Colombia is going to be the most fantastic rental market ever. But it is just really happen that way, the average property value in ratio to the average rent rate is just so incredibly strong, that it's created a lot of attraction.   So at Southern capital, I have Jordan shots, he's just like our tech, no, not man, this guy is building these fantastic databases. He's bifurcating all these beautiful codes on the back end, that parallels the software that you guys have, you know, shout out to Andy, and Danielle, for Roofstock. And it's just played so well in our court. And then Alex Fisher, the guys basically like a pseudo General of the military. And he's just running fantastic operations, and allowing me to sort of be on the forefront, gaining knowledge, making really strategic connections, and providing the utmost service to the clientele.   And so Southern capital sort of walks that fine line of servicing large institutional clients. But I've really, really enjoyed the opportunity that mark and Matt and you all at rusak have provided us, which is working really intimately with people from all around the world. I mean, we've had, we've closed deals in India now, like doing five day meltaways. And I'm like, this is awesome, man. Because with the with the large institutional space, you know, with any kind of maybe corporate structure, you almost become a data point. You know, they're they're really looking hard at performance underwriting sheets, which I'm fine with. And I love the scalability of numbers. But there's something beautiful about that connection of getting on the phone with someone who's buying their first rental or their 10th rental, looking at looking at their projected rent rates. And that's sort of what we're doing in a nutshell, on the day to day here.   Mark: Let me kind of unpack it, as Matt Crawford would say, in a sense of connecting why Matt's here with us today, because, you know, Matt's one of our prized certified agents that Roofstock has partnered with, he's the one that's actually handpicking properties to bring over to Roofstock select. So we don't just treat Matt like he's a partner, but he is sitting in the same arena with us, he is there rolling up his sleeves every single day, and really bringing properties a Roofstock. So we want to give Matt a shout out bring him on the podcast because a he's an expert in Columbia, South Carolina, we want people to understand it, but he's the guy that's handpicking the properties for the Select program.   So if anybody likes what you're doing, they're going to see your work. It's almost like artwork that's going up on Roofstock. So great job, thanks for all your participation. And again, I would love to love to get into the market when when we do really unpack it for for the crowd, because there's a lot of things happening in South Carolina, but specifically your market.   Matt: I love it. I love it. Mark within let's uh, let me let me switch some gears real quick. Now you guys have started getting the creative juices flowing. So let's talk about the masterpiece, the artwork, and that breaks down to the underwriting that goes into these problems. So all that history that we just covered, taught us one thing, and that's how to underwrite really well to be the best underwriters, right? In South Carolina, you know, putting that out there into the universe. And so it is an art form. You know, we're looking at a ton of different data points. We're looking at so many different comps, whether it's purchase comps, rent comps, we're looking at outlier data that we're pulling off Airbnb, err, DNA that we're trying to figure out how many data points can I put on this one property to make it a sure bet for an investor.   And that really is what's given us the success with the Roofstock program, you know, as Mark mentioned, you know, we're looking at these properties every single day, manually underwriting them, you know, which is a huge, huge help from Jordan, my partner, you know, really appreciate you, Jordan when you see this, but we're getting on there, and everything is converting, because we've already done that heavy lifting upfront, you know, and I think that's sort of the secret sauce here, as well as being so intimate with the market here. And that's just the beauty of painting this piece for you guys.     Michael: Matt. So if we can peel back another layer of this proverbial onion here, what are you seeing? Are you able to get a finger on what makes great investment properties in Colombia?   Matt: 100%, like, you know, it's, it's gonna come down like the easiest way is my hot zones. You know, there's a, there's zip codes, no 29209, 29206, you know, 29203 I want to stay away from except if I'm on this one side of the street. And so just being able to speak on the micro locality. I think that's such an important word here is a huge service to these investors. And then, you know, like any, you know, skilled tradesmen of his craft, you get to a point where you can Almost looking at property, as long as sort of meets the actual locale checkbox, in my mind, I can tell you, this is going to be a great rental. And I can also tell you if the area is going to have a specific tenant demographic that's going to play in to the longevity of your asset. And that simply just comes from experience from data, you know, those probably now 25 different homes that we've managed to underwrite, put in a pipeline, put a tenant in there and have it stabilized. And so that really has allowed us to speak really clearly to the Rootstock clientele.   Michael: that's such a good point. Because like we've sent out other episodes, you know, the, the what the one thing you can never change about a property's location. So getting that right off the bat is so critical.   Matt: Oh, man. And and and, you know, I'm not gonna lie. It's sort of fun. Because you go across the bridge here in Colombia, you have you have greater Colombia, then you have West Columbia, which is a whole different municipality, and it's split by a huge river called the Congo. Five years ago, there was no one saying, hey, let's head across the river, it was almost like that was a less developed obtuse area. Well, now, these veterans just came in, they put $4 million dollars into a brand new brewery right on the river. And so I'm doing reconnaissance, hitting up the brewery, checking out all the properties around there and then actually sourcing data, you know, so it's, it's a lot of give and take, but you know, it's how creative can you get with your market? Know, your market in my eyes is a product, you know, how can you literally turn these widgets polish this product to make it presentable and digestible from somebody who's investing all the way from California? And that's what we do.   Tom: Would love to hear about some of the broader kind of like macro tailwind. So Colombia is the capital of the state. What other you know, how else would you describe this sort of, you know, general kind of tailwinds. Beyond, behind the Columbia, South Carolina market, like what are the major employers all that good stuff?     Matt: Yeah. Awesome, awesome question time. And it's, it's so just, to me, it's a beautiful thing, what's happening here, so an hour north of here you have Charlotte, North Carolina 2018, ranked the number one city for millennial retention in the US. You know, two and a half, two and a half hours east of here yet Charleston, South Carolina, ranked the number one best small town in the US of this several years in a row. If you go an hour and a half Northwest, you're in Greenville, South Carolina, which is also have gone through this huge development curve.   And then you have Little Columbia right in the smack middle of the state that has been like overseen for the last seven years as each one of these towns develops. And we're now starting to see this huge shift of people being priced out of assets and Charlotte green go in Charleston. And so all that wealth is coming right to the center of the state now, and this is super evident. And probably the last three to four years, like you know, call it serendipity or what may have you but right when I moved here, it was the first time institutional capital really got into this market.   And now it is just turning in two parallel that the big players are now coming to town, these huge multinational conglomerates, just to rattle a few law, we have Prisma health Prisma health basically aggregates massive hospital systems, puts them under the Prisma banner sort of puts a new culture and spin on the health care that has exploded here. They bone up everything and Columbia and Lexington and irmo. With that medical Lance now on Columbia, Nephron pharmaceuticals, one of the largest pharmaceutical manufacturers in the country, actually opened up their HQ here in Lexington. I think it brought around like 12,000 jobs to town. I mean, you cannot go out and meet somebody Now, that doesn't have a gig at nephron.   So those two players really showed that Columbia can get out of sort of the Capitol education scene, and now we're having huge entities pick up. So outside of the medical field, of course, you're gonna have education, you have the University of South Carolina, for all you awesome investors out there. This is a cash grab of amazing students as fantastic business program and a law program that sort of as you can sort of insinuate is going to feed into the rentals, especially if we're going to be plotting these five to 10 miles outside of downtown Columbia.   And I would say probably the third is going to be your, your political and your military industry. We have Fort Jackson right here. It's the largest trainee base in all of the US, I believe, for new recruits. So what we've done as well is we pivoted to the industry. So on my personal portfolios, we're actually doing a majority of short term rentals Airbnb models, which is something that you know if you guys are ever interested in I'd love to also unpack that to sort of look at the underwriting scales between a 12 month long term lease versus if we put this into a another tier of short term leases. But all those things just play perfectly together with the assets that are available in Colombia.   Mark: So Matt, I always like to play around with the Economic Development Council websites and like, really dig into what's happening, like, how are these? How is the local city trying to draw in outside business? Right. And so they're always putting a ton of numbers up there. So I see that there's a ton of renters, there's a young population. But tell me, one thing I didn't see on there is tech, what's happening in the tech scene out there? What kind of jobs do you think are being developed? And maybe are there a ton of startups moving in or Yeah, go into a little detail about that.   Matt: 100%. And I think that's also the beauty of a lot of people, especially in the startup world, you know, being a entrepreneur myself, you know, might not have that $50,000 liquid to plop down on a $220,000 starter home. Or, in fact, they might have used that liquid to actually inject into their business or building. And we're seeing an explosion of that community here. Maybe it's because FCRA is a huge grantee here in Columbia, South Carolina, they're getting everything from 20,000, up to $200,000 startup grants.   So people are just flooding this town, seeking those grants, you know, there's low, low barrier to entry. This is not Charlotte, this is not Atlanta. So you really can get great visibility into the market without having all the noise of similar competitors. Everything from five bubble five bubble was a fantastic tech startup here. Shout out to those guys. We meet with them all the time. And then even more so mark, to your point, because of that community, because of that influx that's now happening and putting this polish on this town, there's a massive tech, what would you call this, like a, like, tech village, man, it's probably like, I don't know, a million square feet total. But it's going to be housing. Tons and tons of startups that come in and basically have office space for   Mark: Basically like an incubator where everybody can come together, exchange ideas, and magic happens in those kinds of environments.   Matt: It's massive. And I think I can add one more layer to that as well is that at the key here, you know, Tom and Mike to fill you guys in this is a true tertiary market, right? You know, this is tertiary being that we have moderately low purchase prices, and comparative to the historical rent rates. And so in any kind of investors mind, you really want to be searching for that true tertiary market, but not only got a tertiary market, but a evolving tertiary market that's about to flip over into the secondary category, secondary, secondary, meaning you have a little bit more modernize commercial entities, we have a lot more retention of your population that is grown there, then you have just a average household income starting to rise and a gradual slope.   That literally is happening right now. And that's what's helping retain startups retain the young millennials that are getting out of their MBAs or college. And we're bout to flip into a true secondary market, whereas Charlotte, Charleston, Atlanta, I would say a primary, you know, they have massive, massive inventory, but also high purchase prices, we're bouncing the ball, which that secondary market, which I think is the perfect time to start planting some seeds and dollars here, because in three to five years, this, this city is going to have a total different culture, a different field. And as you guys would, you know, understand a totally different marketplace. And that's what makes it so healthy right now to invest in.     Michael: So Matt, let's let's unpack that a little bit further and talk about some specifics. So if somebody is just a first time investor looking at different markets, which is a question we get all the time, and the Roofstock Academy is, hey, what market should I be looking at? Can you give us an idea of what that entry purchase price looks like? And what someone could expect for rent, and maybe give us an idea of some different neighborhoods to look at at a different price point and rental amounts.   Matt: Oh, let's rock and roll. Michael, you know, for everyone out there watching, you know, my two senses. Let's get started. Right? Come on. Like, we will literally show you the ins and outs of this marketplace. But it's easy to have analysis paralysis, you know, especially or building a portfolio or investing, you know, hard earned capital or anything. I understand that there's this level of nervousness. How do I choose between San Antonio or do I look in California? I've never even heard of Columbia, South Carolina.   But I can tell you if you guys just give us the opportunity to show you the ins and outs. You'll see exactly why this is the number one market The Roofstock buyer program right now. And that's because you can come in, you can buy a house for $80,000. For 80k, if we have it in the bank account, collectively, I'm going to put this over in West Columbia, I'm going to literally draw you a circle that is probably around five minutes from the actual river front. And so the fact that we can get that close to a beautiful amenity, you're about to be 10 minutes from downtown for $80,000, it's going to run out conservatively probably 1200 to 1250. Now if we come in there, we slap granite, stainless steel appliances, maybe put some LVT on the flooring, that $80,000 property, literally now could probably fetch $1500 for a modest three bed two bath, and I am hard pressed to find a another market that can support such high rent rates with such low barrier to entry and the purchase price without maybe going to specific places in Birmingham, Alabama, or what have you. But that's the beauty of Columbia right now.   Tom: As we're talking I'm like looking over Zillow in the area. And man, I love how I love how self serving this podcast is. It was will definitely be talking after math like, I don't know, I'm gonna love the thesis on like this.   Matt: It's a beautiful thing.   Mark Well, what I love about it's a state capitol, right, and you have a major college there. I live in Dallas, near Austin, Texas. And it's like the two things I see with Austin are the same exact thing that you would see in Columbia, it's just it may be years behind. So people move to affordable areas and where they can stay young, right? You get out of college, you find a good job, you can stay hanging around your friends if you really wanted to. So there could be some really cool things I see in Colombia happening.   Matt: Massive and Mark, I can even add some two cents there. And that can parallel it to with your point, Mike about, you know, what are some micro neighborhoods to start really searching in and so if anybody's taking notes, Rosewood, you know, rosewood is where you want to be it's literally maybe what happened to Austin five years ago before Austin became keep Austin weird. Like, that's what's happening in Rosewood right now. We have world renowned graffiti artists, you know, tagging massive walls, like the coolest stuff that you know, really did not reflect in Colombia, even two years ago, even like pre pandemic like there was no, no justified culture.   There certainly wasn't an art area. You know, I think back to Denver, Colorado when the river North District, which is now this huge art conglomerate, that literally is happening here. So if you're ever searching for properties, massive, massive student population, it's going to be in the Rosewood neighborhood area. And it really is following that path like Austin is of creating its own personality, its own culture, and its own distinctive.   Tom: Where is rosewood? I'm looking at my map right now. And this is probably for helpful people pulling up their map where is rosewood relative to the center of Colombia, maybe like near a freeway or where is Yeah.   Matt: But I'm looking at the center of Columbia, like, literally pinpoint the very center actually is the state capitol. It is three miles to the right. So literally, if you just look to the right, I'm pretty sure the zip code is 29204. Nope, internet 206. But there is a main bang, there it is. It's literally called…   Tom: Inside of 77, just south of 378. Is that right? Cool.   Matt: Yep, that is 100%. Right. And it's just like, it's the coolest spot man. There's like a 19 hundred's airstrip that's been this like massive hangout spot on they actually converted the hangar into a state of the art brewery. And so using those like outlier data points, like, especially with something as commodity commoditized, as a brewery, I've been seeing values on these properties jumped up 10 to 13%, year after year, just because it was getting to attain more and more populations. And it's becoming hit, you know, for whatever arbitrary.   Tom: Looking at the great school ratings, I'm seeing an elementary school and an eight, which is incredibly high and middle school to five in Dre, her high school at a seven those are those are fantastic school scores. And that's one of my big criteria that I look at. So we might need to you know, hide this part of the podcast because     Mark: Or let's do the opposite. So after this, you have you have full control, go ahead and post some properties on a roof stock in the rosewood neighborhood. And let's let's see it through the roof stock lens. So I think we're onto something here.   Matt: Absolutely. And then, you know, Tom, now that you're sort of looking into the map, you know, I'm going to sort of drive us down. I 26. This head west probably about 13 minutes. I'm getting off at exit 103 B and I'm in Lexington, South Carolina. You know, so a lot of people, a lot of people will come in and say that tell me about Colombia. So the big four that you want to really start investing in, that's going to be Colombia proper. West Colombia, KC, which is right parallel to West Colombia, and Lexington man, Lexington is like Hotlanta, baby, but a lot smaller. And it's just fantastic. It's created its own culture. It's right beside Lake Murray, which for this area, you know, is literally as I'm sweating in my back, I'm glad you can always see my front right now is a beautiful thing to have. And these, you know, you're gonna have a little bit more competition, but anywhere in Lexington, especially centralized and looking East fantastic inventory.   Michael: So Matt, this is this is really great. And I love that delta between the purchase price and the rental amount. I mean, that sounds like it's really, really strong. Something that our investors see is either able to make or break these deals as an investment is often Pentagon property taxes. Can you talk to us a little bit about how property taxes work in the Columbia market?   Matt: Yes, 100%. And it may or Benjamin, you're watching this, please answer my emails, because the taxes are tough man, you know, it really is, it's the double edged sword. You know, with such a fantastic market such beautiful rent rates and purchase prices, of course, there has to be some catch. And that is going to be the non owner occupied property taxes, you know, and these are going to really come in roughly around 3% of your gross purchase price.   So, you know, on a four bed two and a half bath, beautiful new bill, that's, you know, 210,000, man, you're gonna get slapped with, like $5700 tax bill. So I mean, if your cash flowing, you know, a couple 100 bucks a month, that means you're probably only gonna net maybe four to five to 6k annually. It eats up a lot of the margin. So Mayor Benjamin, please, can we change that law and attract more beautiful investors in estate. But what we're doing to offset that is looking for those lower purchase price assets. Right.   So a lot of people they want the new builds, you know, they sound sexy on paper. But, you know, to win to win in this market, need to combat, that 3%, non owner occupied property tax, you know, let's play in the 120 to $150,000 range. So now your taxes are three grand, and we're going to get that thing rented at 1500 to 1800. That's how we can combat such a tax problem.   Michael: And just as a kind of a point of reference. So folks understand why people might be continuing to move to Colombia. What is the tax rate for an owner occupant? Matt: Oh, man, it's less than half man. It's like, you're not really paying much. You know, and there's a ton of grants out here as well, to incentivize people to move to Colombia. You know, and I can even go into a little bit of deeper history of why that is. So, you know, the 1980s, the sort of the war on drugs really hit Columbia hard, because this is this is historically a new labor force town, you know, we have a massive flour mill in the heart of downtown that now it's become sort of a legacy item, no, people have weddings on top of it now.   So that demographic really was affected by the 1980s pandemic itself. And a lot of the assets in the single family units sort of were deteriorated, especially in some zip codes, nobody would move there and develop them. And so now the state is giving tons of grants for people to come in and give more life to this city, as we're sort of pulling out of that prior, that prior culture that really stuck around really, until today, there's still pockets and 29203 that are, you know, less than desirable, because the demographic there has sort of been inundated with the ancestral baggage that came from a few years ago.   Tom: This is awesome. Michael, do you have any more questions or mark, anything else you want to touch on? I'm, this has been? Yeah, I'm, I'm a fan. I don't know. I've been looking at market for a while. And this kind of conversation really is drawing me in a little bit. A little bit closer for sure.   Michael: Yeah, I guess my only other question that would be kind of on that on the example you gave previously. Were you getting in for 80k? Putting in that granite countertops and stainless steel now that thing could rent is renting at 1500? Is there any type of reassessment that the county is going to do in any kind of regular frequency? Or is your property tax truly tied to the purchase price at acquisition?   Matt: Boom! So everybody, Let's get some house hacking skills ready? Because it's tied to that gross acquisition price. And so that's how you get to beat the market here is you can get by a distressed property for 60k You know, that's so 20 $25,000 into it, you know, Sue Paint windows flooring kitchen. And that thing's now gonna appreciate and appraise probably at 120 125k ran out for 1500. But now we're only tied to that $60,000 original purchase price, we're going to let it season we're going to refi our money, and we're going to keep it rolling.   And that's exactly what we did in tranches of 100 properties, every 100, we do that exact strategy, pull that cash out, recycle that it's your, your, your gilded, BRRRR strategy, and it works perfectly for this market. And so, actually, Mark is very well aware of this, that there are a few individuals that have come to this, this market space through you guys. And we're actually doing that right now. So, you know, Southern capital, we are a acquisition renovation management company. And so we have what I literally would crowned the best crew, because we have cycled through the last years of who guys can keep up with the scalability, that consistency and the sourcing of these renovations.   And that's where Matt Montgomery, who we mentioned at the very start of this cast, that company now supports all of our innovations. And so, guys, if you're interested in the Columbia market, you want to find a way to get around the property taxes, you know, my resources are your resources, I'm more than happy to have a scope built for you completely itemized with timelines. General rule of thumb is for every $1,000 renovation, it's about one day. So a $30,000 job should take us about a solid month to do. But that is one really great way to start cash flow and quickly here in Colombia.   Michael: That's great. And let's just kind of highlight that again, Matt. So if I'm an investor, I'm interested in doing some kind of value, add renovation, and then putting a long term tenant in place, I can do that all with you and southern capital, you'll take care of the acquisitions, you'll assist in the renovations, and then you'll manage the property once I've got it completed.   Matt: 100%. So that was the whole idea of creating a holistic turnkey investment centric brokerage. That is a mouthful, but basically, we're here to be your best friend. And not only that, but we have the opportunity and the blessings of working with people like Mark, yourself, Michael, yourself, Tom, the whole team at Rootstock. So their back office, our front office and operations literally have made such matrimony moving forward that we're here to help.   Michael: I love it. Tom, like you said, I got to make a couple phone calls over the over to Matt's office here after we hop off. Yeah.   Matt: Come on the ship is sailing, baby.   Mark: Got one last question. Now that I think about one last question for you, Matt. So buyers can really understand what you know, what the competition level is there? Are you seeing multiple offer situations on every property? Or is it less frequent, like we see in like Birmingham right now where almost every property has multiple offers?   Matt: Awesome, awesome. Question mark. And so Phil, you know, everybody tuning in, you know, it's, you know, we're almost 50% maybe the last that I checked, 48% less inventory, then last April of 2020. So every offer is almost I would say 95% a multiple offer situation. But this is what we're going to do. You know, we're going to get your offer, we're going to expedite it being built out signed by you. I literally pick up my call and just being a player here in Colombia. I know a lot of the brokers say Hey, man, this is one of my investment clients, you know, you know, I know you love your your buyers and sellers, but I really value these people and their trust, can you please put me at the top of the pile.   And so that's, that's me. I'm kissing babies and shaking hands. And so I really push it as far as I can. But if you guys are coming in, we really have, I would say one shot to get it right. But that's not the case. Because if I know that we're not the highest and best, I'm gonna allow us that window, you know, and a lot of times they say, hey, Matt, we're sorry, the sellers didn't even you know, want a call for highest and best but I'm pressing these people I'm following up. I'm texting them say Hey, man, before you accept, you got to give me some feedback.   So that's number one. So guys, if you come in know that we're going to be right at ask, you know, if not five to 7% over ask. But that's not the end of the story. There's a beautiful part. And this is really what I think makes us dangerous is our off market channel. So for the last several years, I've amassed this massive contacts through asset managers to different real estate lawyers from local investors portfolios, trust funds, and say, Hey, guys, like funnel your inventory through me and I can bring a really, really healthy productive investment base to buy these acquisitions. And so I think that's what makes Columbia stand out from the rest is that we're uploading exclusive off market properties every single day that are not publicly facing and not on Zillow. They're not on the MLS stay get the sort of forsee that wave of multiple offer situations and avoid it completely. And that's something that we've done tons of transactions With the Roofstock clientele as well.   Mark: And just to fill in on that, so you're doing that through our BYOB program, right the bring your own property, so you can send our private link, because otherwise we can't post those because they're not on the MLS. And we don't have the listing, which would be the ones that go on our exclusive marketplace. But there's still a way for buyers to get access to that inventory through you. So if they want to reach out, you can show them some of those properties, but still use the roof stock lens, so they can get the roof stock guarantees if if the properties are in the right condition.   Matt: 100% Mark, and you know, you know, Fred Haines, I hope you're watching this podcast, he just picked up four off markets from us here in Colombia. The guy is a champion, Fred, thank you so much pleasure to work with you. And we're going to get those things closed here in the month of May.   Michael: Oh, that's so exciting. So Matt, if folks do want to reach out to you or southern capital or have questions about you know, reaching out, purchasing properties, getting rehab or management services, what's the best way for folks to get in touch with you?   Matt: Man, I love the email. So MCrawford@roofstock.com shoot me an email, I'll shoot you a calendly link we'll get a phone call. I absolutely love that discovery phase, to sort of hear what your investment footprint is. What you are looking from this market that's gonna help me perform for you guys.   Michael: Alrighty, everybody that was our episode a big big big thank you to Matt for coming on the show a lot of fun. Kudos to you for crushing it out there with the roofstock select program as a certified agent. We definitely look forward to having you on again. If you'd like the episode, feel free to leave us a rating or review wherever it is your podcasts. And as always, we'd love to hear new episode ideas, topics feedback in the comment section. If you want to hear about a particular episode. Again, thank you all for watching. We look forward to seeing on the next one. Happy investing

We've had an interesting question here today from Matt about whether to sign off your rent to rent letters to landlords as a woman.Here's Matt's question..."It has been mentioned in this group that according to market research, you are more likely to receive calls from landlords if you use a female name on your letters. "For those who do this, what do you say to the landlords who call you and ask to speak to the person on their letter? "Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't this strategy a little deceitful? Just to clarify, I'm not having a dig at those who use this strategy - just keen to know how you deal with this scenario!"I love this question!Firstly, let me explain the letters we're talking about here.We're talking about the letters you can write to HMO landlords to see if they'd like you to manage their properties. If you'd like to know more about it, listen to episode 19 The Secret to HMO rent to rent letters that work.For now though, let's talk about whether it's better to sign off your letters as a woman. There is apparently research which shows that letters from women get higher response rates. We don't know whether that is true or not. If you're part of a team and one of you is a woman you can test it out. If you're a man on your own or part of an all-male team, I wouldn't worry about it. Write great letters and you'll get deals. As I said in episode 19 of the podcast we cover lots of other rent to rent letter myths and how to get consistent results from your letters.So Matt, in summary, write great letters. Whether they're signed off by a man or a woman won't stop you getting results.If you're in Rent 2 Rent Kickstarter Programme you find details and templates on exactly what to write in your letters in M4.3 and all the tips and tricks of how to send your letters for best results in M4.4.Ask your question!If you'd like to have your question answered go to rent2rentsuccess.com/ask and record your question from me to answer for you.Visit the episode page and ask your question!✅ https://rent2rentsuccess.com/ata6 ✅Or if you'd like the Free Rent 2 Rent Success Guide & Masterclass✅ https://rent2rentsuccess.com/guide ✅ Support the show (https://rent2rentsuccess.com/podcast)

Star Wars: The Bad Batch. Star Wars: The Bad Batch has been released, and is all the talk of fandom. So Matt and John sit down to discuss the first two episodes of this series, giving their reactions to character, plot, artistry, and just about anything else that comes to mind. What did they think? You’ll just have to listen to find out.HostJohn Mills and Matthew RushingSend us your feedback!Twitter: @TheJediMasters Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheNerdParty/ Email: http://www.thenerdparty.com/contactSubscribe in Apple Podcasts

Star Wars: The Bad Batch. Star Wars: The Bad Batch has been released, and is all the talk of fandom. So Matt and John sit down to discuss the first two episodes of this series, giving their reactions to character, plot, artistry, and just about anything else that comes to mind. What did they think? You'll just have to listen to find out. Host John Mills and Matthew Rushing Send us your feedback! Twitter: @TheJediMasters Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheNerdParty/ Email: http://www.thenerdparty.com/contact Subscribe in Apple Podcasts

On this episode we dive into morning routines - why they are important, what our goals are with having them, and the actual routines we go through every morning. There's some very actionable stuff in here and we both have different reasons as to why we do them. Check out our YouTube channel for these episodes in video form and additional content. We would love any feedback or topic ideas if you are liking this so far. Connect with Brian on Twitter @bknorthpark and Matt on Instagram @mattty__jHere is a run down of the episode:Why do we do we need a morning routine? - (first 10 minutes)For Matt, he noticed he wasn't feeling completely on all day. We both have full time jobs and everyone knows the feeling when you just feel drained during the day. So Matt's big reason as to why he does this morning routine is to keep energy throughout the long day. For Brian, it helps lower anxiety and increase focus throughout the day. We are both in sales and talk to people all day so just the need to be focused and attentive helps at work. We also dive into how these help in our personal lives as well. Matt and Brian's Morning Routine - (9:50 - 44:38)Some topics discussed:- 75 Hard Challenge- What our morning workouts consist of- The 5 Minute Journal - https://www.intelligentchange.com/products/the-five-minute-journal- Meditation - Cold Showers

Best Old Time Radio Podcast with Bob Bro Thursday, February 18, 2021 - OTR Westerns Gunsmoke - "Dooley Surrenders" Poor, pathetic Emmett Dooley is a mouse of a human being. And now he is absolutely convinced that he has killed a man. What is he to do? Of course -- he should turn himself into the law and accept his punishment. And so he approaches Marshall Dillon to make his confession. After questioning Dooley, however, Matt is convinced something isn't quite right. Dooley's story just doesn't make sense. So Matt ventures out to find out the real story... Pretty good character study about survival of the fittest in the old west. Featuring: William Conrad, Parley Baer, Howard McNear, Georgia Ellis, James Nusser, Vic Perrin, Harry Bartell. Original Air Date: September 13, 1954 on CBS

One of my best friends in this world is one of the most fun people to talk about anything. So doing a podcast with him was easy. Brandon Freibur joins the show today for an amusing conversation. Brandon and I talked about a lot of fun things such as casinos, doing sports, hilarious restaurant stories, Atlantic City. We also reflect on President Joe Biden’s inauguration and the excitement of seeing those changes, the funny things we did in college, and some more insightful things. Also, did you know that Brandon is a hero? He literally saved a cat’s life that was left for dead on the street, and he tells us a heroic story on how he was able to save her that may get you in your feels. We talk about that and a lot more great things on this edition of The Productive Conversation podcast. (5:48) - Lets talk adult beverages, Matt and Freibur talk about the best and worst Alcohol drinks out there. We also talk about our favorite drinks. (6:35) - On the day of the recording, Joe Biden was sworn in as the 46 President of the United States. So Matt and Brandon reflect on this historic day and what we hope to see in the future of the country now that Biden is in office. (13:29) - Brandon is getting ready for the summer and started to take fitness very seriously. So he walks Matt through his new workout routine, eating right, and his workout partner. (18:11) - PANCAKES, We talking about PANCAKES, as well as funny restaurant stories. (27:05) - We get into one of America’s favorite cities, Atlantic City! We talk about AC life and this then leads to a conversation about casino gambling and sports gambling. (39:56) - Lets talk more sports! Brandon and Matt discuss baseball, specifically going to games and its issues with staying popular. We also talk about playing pick up basketball. (49:23) - Then we get into some football discussions. These discussions include, Super Bowl predictions, is Eli Manning a HOFer?, is Tom Brady the Goat?, why does Brandon hate Aaron Rodgers and Matt loves him? (1:00:53) - Brandon is a legit hero. He once saved a cat’s life who was suffering in the middle of the street on a hot summer day. So he shares this moving story. (1:09:24) - Its time to go down memory lane once again. Matt and Brandon share funny stories from college. This includes one of the funniest spring fling stories and trying to sneak back on campus during the after hours. (1:16:04) - Brandon then answers, The Proust Questionnaire (1:29:11)

In this episode, Matt Thomas, Roofstock's retail broker manager covers the details of the Roofstock Select and BYOP programs.  --- Transcript   Michael: Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of The Remote Real Estate Investor. I'm Michael Albaum and today I'm joined by Matt Thomas, who's Roofstock's retail broker manager. And so today Matt is going to be talking to us about Rootstock's BYOP, and Roofstock Select programs. So these programs are kind of ever evolving and ever changing. So by the time you listen to this episode, there might be some minor changes to the program. So just keep that in mind as you are looking online and check out roofstock.com for the most up to date information about those programs. So let's get into it.   Matt, thank you so much for taking the time out of your busy schedule for joining us today. I really appreciate it.   Matt: Yeah, happy to be here. Thanks for having me.   Michael: Awesome. Our pleasure. And you're down in Atlanta, right?   Matt: I am just outside of Atlanta, kind of in between Atlanta and Athens, where the University of Georgia is, it's about an hour gap in between the two and I sit sort of in between,   Michael: Okay, good deal. And is it starting to get cold out there at this time of year,   Matt: Um, colder for us, it's all relative?   Michael: It's all relative?   Matt: It's, yeah, we're in our 50s range, which is starting to get cooler. But I talked to the guys on the west coast and hear them. They're covered with blankets at 65. Yeah, cooler for us.   Michael: Okay, good deal. Well, what I wanted to chat with you about today is the Roofstock BYOP, bring your own property and the Rootstock Select programs, because I think that there's a lot of folks that would love to take advantage of both or one of those programs that maybe either don't know about it or don't know how to utilize it. So maybe we can start with the BYOP and then segue into the Select program.   Matt: Okay, sounds great.   Michael: So so that the Y o p, it's bring your own property program, can you talk to us at a high level? What is the program? How does it work? Why was it developed in the first place? And then we can kind of just talk through it a little bit more as we go.   Matt: Yeah. So at a really high level, I think the goal of both of these programs was to bring more inventory to the marketplace for our buyers, in addition to the exclusive properties, which are just what they sound like, it's not sellers that bring their inventory to us to list directly. So both BYOP and select give us the opportunity to bring other properties to buyers, that may not be exclusive properties of Rootstock. So the BYOP rootstock has the infrastructure in place from a technology standpoint to underwrite any property in the United States. So we're making that technology available to our buyers, and that they can bring any address to us. And we will underwrite it for you and give an opinion on your investment. We can underwrite financials, we can give you neighborhood score, school scores, all of these things we can provide on any property that you bring to us.   Michael: And all that's needed is an address, right? That's it. If you've got an account on roof stock, there's a site or a page where you could submit a property address and almost all scenarios it's going to be there, there are a few that might be missing something's brand new construction condo community that has the same address and 30 different unit numbers can sometimes be confusing for the system. But in almost all scenarios, a single family residential property, we will be able to pull up underwrite.   Michael: Fantastic. And so for everybody who's listening, the place to find where to do that is if you go to the Learn tab, which is up in the upper right hand corner, near where it says Welcome back, and then your name, once you have an account, click on that learn drop down. And I think the 2,4,6, seventh drop down is the bring your own property page and you'll see a page highlighting some of the benefits there as well as a radio button to submit your own property and that right now it's only in a handful of markets, right? It's it's in Athens, Atlanta, Birmingham, Columbus, Greenville, Houston, Indianapolis, Jackson, Jacksonville, Memphis, Orlando, San Antonio, and Tampa. Do you know is that planning to expand anytime in the near future?   Matt: Yeah, we are anticipating a really aggressive growth model, which I'm leading with few others within the company to expand into new markets with new agents to bring your own property program. If you submit a listing to us, we can technically underwrite it anywhere. It's just the guarantees that Roofstock offers will only be available in the markets where we have the infrastructure that property managers and attorneys and such already vetted. So yeah, if you bring anything anywhere, we should be able to give you a response with some sort of analysis on it just depends on whether or not we will be able to guarantee or certify it based on whether or not we're in that market already.   Michael: Okay, and what are the guarantees rather?   Matt: Yeah, so the roof guarantees, you'll see these advertised on the website as well. And I think there's a specific page dedicated to a very detailed analysis of it, but there's a lease up guarantee for any vacant property. So if you are looking at acquiring a property that does not have a tenant in place, we're stuck places I guarantee that it will lease up within a certain amount of time or they will start contributing towards the rental income that you would have received otherwise, at at least there's also a Buy back guarantee. So if you are unhappy with your investment within a period of 30 days, after closing, we're stuck. We'll buy it back from you and I have seen that actually happen a time or two so I can vouch for the validity of that guarantee.   Michael: And that's a guarantee, I remember when I first started working through stocks that I was blown away by because that doesn't exist in the world that I'm aware of.   Matt: Yeah, I've never seen it in 20 years of doing real estate. And I had some questions, frankly, when I joined about, you know, was that going to be laced with a lot of fine print and right, haven't seen it exercise often, just because buyers are typically happy with what they buy through our site. But when they have not been, for whatever reason, I have seen us buy properties back.   Michael: That's so great. And what a nice kind of assurance that Roofstock is putting their money where their mouth is, so to speak, that, hey, this is a property we're going to stand behind. And if you don't like it, we'll buy it back from you.   Matt: That's right. Yeah, we're really confident in what we put up on the side and back that with these guarantees.   Michael: Fantastic, and how cool that's able to be applied to stuff that isn't getting put on the site, right? This is just individuals finding properties on their own submitting them to the site now Roofstock, doing the underwriting in the background checking, and still being confident enough to participate in that guarantee   Matt: That's right. Yeah. So again, going back to what our very first that this is just a way to get our investors access to as many properties as possible that are good investments. The exclusive inventory we have on the site is great, but it's limited in the number that I've signed up and published with us. So we're opening up new IP and the Select program, which we'll talk about later, which brings in some of the listed property underwritten through our technology, which kind of brings the best ones to the surface, and we publish those as well.   Michael: Okay, awesome. And so with BYOP, just kind of the mechanics inner workings of it. So if I wanted to buy a property, does it need to be listed on the MLS? Can it be my mom's property that she wants to sell to me? What properties are eligible? Kind of, you know, outside of the ones that are listed in those markets? How do I find a property? How do I submit a property?   Matt: Yeah, so it's, it's interesting, if these are conversations we're having, as the program evolves, we're having literally had one earlier got one tomorrow, but the BYOP program, it works best if the property is listed, because it's as simple as plugging in an MLS number, and letting our technology do the work to underwrite the property. If it's off market, that's not quite as easy because we have to gather tons of information, bedrooms, bathrooms, square footage, tenant occupied or vacant all these different things that go into a decision about whether or not we recommend it as an investment property are not publicly available to us, we still suggest that you send them in if you have something that you would like to buy, we've got representatives in all these markets. And it may be that we can still represent you provide you with a lot of valuable tools to make a decision yourself. Maybe we won't guarantee it, but we can still assist you with going through with the purchase if it's something that you really want to buy.   Michael: Ah, fantastic. So okay, so if I'm a user and I want to submit a property, and I submit it to rootstock, let's say it's on the MLS rootstocks gonna come back with initial underwriting, and then they're going to tell me, Hey, we can either certify this and give you our guarantees, or we cannot, but you're still able to utilize us as your buyer broker.   Matt: Correct. If it's on MLS, it's a really seamless process, you submit the address, and within, typically within 24 to 48 hours, sometimes faster, you'll get a response back from us that says, you know, here's, here's the information we found, and we will certify or not certify, and we'll copy in the local buyer broker in that market to assist you with preparing an offer. If you choose, the response will actually include a link to make a profit offer if you decide to do so we connect you with the agent to assist you.   Michael: Perfect and and all that information that comes back from the BYOB program. What does that look like? Am I getting a report? Am I getting a type of listing?   Matt: Yeah, if you've looked at a page on our website, a buyer or a property card from the site, so you do a search, you click on a property, it's going to open up a page with tons of information, all the financial analytics scores, neighborhood scores, you will get a link for that property you submitted that looks just like one of the property pages on our site.   Michael: Awesome. And it will have all the calculators and slider bars just as it would if it was an exclusive property. Michael: It does. Yep, it will assume list price when it makes the financial calculations. But you can move that around if you intend to offer less. But yeah, you'll get the same info you want on one of our properties on the website.   Michael: Perfect. Now what a cool program this is. I was really excited to learn about it.   Matt: It's fantastic. We're still a young company in the grand scheme of things, and we are evolving and we're making our products better. This is a fantastic program and sky's the limit with this one. We're just getting started.   Michael: So just to recap, if I go to any of these markets that are highlighted on the BYOB page, and I find a property, I can submit it to the VIP program Roofstocks going to tell me whether or not they can certify it, but I can transact on it regardless and purchase a property potentially get all of the benefits of roofstock the guarantees the lease up guarantee the buyback guarantee. And I found it myself and I just brought it to the site and I get those guarantees.   Matt: That's right.   Michael: Awesome.   Matt: That's it. It's as simple as that.   Michael: I love it. All right. So let's shift gears here a little bit because I know that there's a second type of property that is on the marketplace. We have the exclusive which you touched on earlier which is the seller coming to Roofstock saying please sell my property. And then we also have the Select Properties. Talk to us a little bit about what the Select are, why are they different? And how does that program work?   Matt: Yeah, sure, happy to. So this is the program I work on day to day. So I can speak with some level of confidence about often how we got here, what we do every day in there. So select. Again, this is the third time I've said it, I feel like repeating myself, but it's another way that Roofstock bringing investment properties to our marketplace. Outside of our exclusive program, we are vetting as many properties as possible and putting them out there for our investors to see and transact on using our underwriting tool in our guarantees, or guarantees behind it. So select is basically where we partner up with local investment professionals in these particular markets to identify the best investment properties that are on the market in their local area. These are MLS properties. So this is where Roofstock brings the cream of the crop, I guess of MLS properties to the surface and publishes them on our site. And the way it works in the background is our local agents and figuring out who the players are in the investment space. When we choose a market, which also is not done haphazardly. We pick markets based on Wednesday, we felt like the investment potential is there, once we identify a market, we go in and set up the infrastructure. So we partner up and vet agents and partner up with specific agents, their property managers, title companies, inspectors, things of that nature.   So we get the infrastructure in place. And we do all of that for two reasons. One, because we want the buyer to have the best experience but also so that we're comfortable issuing a guarantee on it, we need to know that we have all these people in place to kind of check our analysis of properties and things of that nature. So yeah, so what happens kind of the beginning of it as a local broker that we've partnered with will make a suggestion to us have a good at what they consider a good investment property option in their local market. And we will underwrite it much the same as we would underwrite a BYOP property, we're going to do full analytics on everything from property age condition, floods on not floods on financial returns, expected, you know capex expense up out the gate, but then the property, full analysis of the property. If we agree with the agent, and it does meet our criteria, we can publish that to our site. It has a property guard and a make offer button just like our exclusive to and comes with the same guarantees Roofstock will guarantee these just as they will their exclusives.   Michael: Fantastic. So as you were talking a question kind of came to mind. And you mentioned that the select properties are really the cream of the crop of what listed on the MLS. So if somebody wants to submit a BYOP property in the same market that a select property operates in, are they inclined to think well, the cream of the crop is already listed as a select, why would I possibly think I could find a better one with BYOB? Is that a fair question?   Matt: It is a fair question certainly deserves an answer. And I would say this, you're assuming in our model, we are trusting our local agents to submit the properties that they identify. So a couple of things, one, these agents like everyone, they have a limited bandwidth of time, they are submitting things quickly, we're getting them on the site quickly. But they can only do so much. So if they've got a day full of appointments, they may not publish listings that day. So if you see something, it's not on the site, that does not mean it's not a good investment property, all likelihood means the agent just hasn't seen it yet. So do not hesitate to send those in. And then the other thing is, you know, I've always been intrigued by the idea of a quote unquote, good investment property. The perception of what's a good investment property, and be completely different. Yep, the local agent may be running things that he perceives as an eight cap, but you may be okay with a five if it's in a five star neighborhood. So that's another reason his filter may be set up a little bit different than what yours is personally. So again, don't hesitate to send those in. If it's not on the site.   Michael: I think that's such a great point you make of time being such a limiting factor for folks. It's funny because personally, my primary residence that I bought, I found it and sent it to my agent and said, hey, let's check this out. And it actually happened to be listed in the same complex as the property that he showed me a different property. And so I found numerous properties online that I sent to agents that hey, you know, this is something looks interesting. I know you didn't find it. Let's go take a look at it. And they're like, Oh, yeah, great, fine.     Matt: yeah, it's no different than owner occupied real estate agents. I know, in the multiple moves I've made in the last 15 or 20 years, I think I found all of our houses myself, to the agent asked for an appointment. So yeah, same way you may be up at midnight looking for properties, and the agents not going to look until three or four o'clock the next day. It's just a timing issue, in most cases doesn't mean what you found is not a good property.   Michael: That's great. That's great. All right. And so just to confirm, Matt so the Select property can be treated almost the same as an exclusive property if I'm seeing both on the site from in terms of transacting and making an offer, is that pretty safe. Are there differences I should be aware of?   Matt: Yeah, very similar. The major difference, I think, between the two is one, in the rootstock exclusive properties, we have the agreement with the seller, and you would be treated, you know, not certainly, with full disclosure and all material facts would be disclosed nothing, the agency thing, it's not something I would worry about, but on the Select property, you would be assigned a broker in that local market as your representative to represent you in the negotiation.   Michael: Okay.   Matt: So instead of communicating directly with the seller, like on select, he would be working through a broker in a more traditional fashion and making the offers of negotiating, and then also with inspections and getting in for appraisals, and all the things that happen after a contract, you've got a representative and are never in touch with the seller or seller's agent. So there's some comfort, I think, in knowing you've got your own representative there.   Michael: Sure. Okay. And the Select Properties, I'm not mistaken, don't have any of the diligence documents that the exclusive properties have, right?   Matt: That's correct. Yeah, so in the exclusive properties, those are underwritten, and inspected prior to going live. So you will see a diligence vault on those that has a little more info than you'll see on select. However, the Select Properties when we make a contract, we negotiate a diligence due diligence timeline or inspection period contingency in your offer. So you will get a copy of an inspection back prior to any of your earnest money being non refundable. And that inspection is paid for by Roofstock. So that's another something else you do not see in other programs, or I've never seen it where the company you're going through is paying for your inspection. So you will be able to get property under contract, receive the inspection back and review it and attempt to negotiate repairs or concessions if needed. All before you have any earnest money at risk. Even though you're not seeing it pre offer, you still are seeing it before you have anything at risk.   Michael: I was doing a presentation the other day, and we're talking about the restock exclusive properties. And only 15% of the ones that are submitted ever make it on to the website. And so there's this kind of culling process of getting rid of the not cream of the crop ones I guess we could say. And so on the exclusive properties after they get inspected, there are a number of things that can prevent them from becoming listings or becoming from prevent them from being certified rather, oftentimes they have repairs that need to get done very specific repairs that disqualify them, or the dollar amount can disqualify them. So could that happen with a select property to where after we get the inspection done turns out actually this property doesn't qualify for some of the guarantees?   Matt: It can. I spend a large amount of my time training brokers on how to identify properties and which ones to select and submit, I suppose it's a better term there to the portal. So we're trying to eliminate the inventory that wouldn't select as much as possible prior to posting it. Now, when you're using a listing agents, photos and comments. It can be a little deceiving to when the actual inspection comes back. Occasionally, we'll see one with issues that were not evident from the listing. And that is the case, we will issue a notice that we have chosen not to certify, it's rare. It's usually something hidden, that we wouldn't have known otherwise, if there's a foundation problem if the roof's 35 years old, and there's leaks that were not present in photos. Those are things that would keep us from certifying it, we can always try to negotiate that with the seller. And as long as they will make repairs, we'll go back and issue the certification. But yeah, that is true, we would not issue certification if there are major structural damages on the property.   Michael: Okay. And then as the buyer though, do, I still have the opportunity to purchase the property, even if rootstock is not going to issue a certification on it.   Matt: Again, as long as you know, the certification is not in place, you can move forward at your own risk. It's no problem at all. And that's very clearly specified when the inspection comes back, you will receive not only the inspection but have a really clear notice of whether or not the guarantee applies. I can tell you in most cases they do. It's fairly rare. It has to be something major foundation, roof, electrical, one of the major components for us to not issue a certification. I don't want buyers to get the impression we're looking for reasons not to we do issue it and in most cases.   Michael: Okay, great. And then so just to reiterate what you said previously, after that inspection comes back, let's say the certification is not issued is the buyer side. Yeah, I'm only interested in pursuing a property that is certified, I can then walk away from the deal at no cost to me.   Matt: Correct? Yeah. During that period, you can walk away. If you received the inspection back, you can walk away for any number of reasons based on the inspection, not just our guarantee not apply. But yes, if you once you've got a period there to get that inspection back and review and make a decision before any purchase money's at risk.   Michael: Matt. So do you talk to us a little bit about where this program is in place currently and where it's hopefully going to be opening in the near future.   Matt: We've got a number of markets where we are full speed and those are Atlanta, Georgia, Birmingham, Alabama, Jackson, Mississippi, Columbia, South Carolina. Indianapolis. So you can see a real southeastern trend there. And that's primarily because of population and demographic trends. But also because you can see some really great returns on investment there. And we have a lot of cash flow seeking buyers. But we do have into a number of markets that we're really close to going live with a couple of markets in Florida, a couple in Texas, Tucson, Rochester, Detroit, Tulsa, and Waco are all in the pipeline right now. And then we've got it next phase, just sitting waiting after it. So we're going to try in 2021, I anticipate a really aggressive geographic footprint expansion, or are these programs to the tune of hopefully 10 plus markets per month, I think we'll see a really aggressive growth program that we're rolling out as we speak.   Michael: That's awesome.   Matt: Yeah, really exciting.   Michael: And so that we did a podcast with Mark woodling, where we talked about the new markets that we're opening, and half what that process look like. And so he was talking to us about the opening new markets. And so can you just give a high level overview of how do we decide which markets to go into and what new markets open?   Matt: Yeah, so I think the markets that are identified to move into are chosen by a number of factors, both people in the company that are way smarter than I am. But with the assistance of technology that's way smarter than both of us. So they're looking at things like population trends, economic drivers jobs available, the diversity of the economy there. And then also, we are going to be looking at available inventory and the price points and rent rates in any particular market. So is there inventory available that will be attractive to the investors, we could pop up in every major city based on population and not have any inventory potentially, or we could bounce around in some of these other secondary and tertiary markets, where there are great trends available as far as local economies and demographics and such where there's tons of inventory available? So we're, it's a combination of the two factors.   Michael: Yeah, that makes sense. And so is it safe to assume then that for all these new markets that we're opening to the Select program, those will also become available for VIP? Or is that program tend to lag a little bit behind the Select?   Matt: Yeah, that's right. If we've got it, select open, that means we've got a partnership in place with an agent who is experienced and qualified for investment property, we've got a local property manager, at least one, usually three or more that we have vetted, and we are comfortable managing property for us or our customers. And we've got other contacts for things like title inspections, and things of that nature. So if we have that infrastructure in place to open up select, then we can underwrite pages as well.   Michael: Awesome. Okay. And so that's Episode 18. How rootstock identifies strong rental markets and sources, power sellers, with Mark Woodling.   Matt: And Mark and I are working together to Michael, that's just evolved over the past few weeks where Mark and I are working side by side talking on multiple times a day basis right now in the expansion of this program. It has, we were closely aligned initially when he was doing land expand, and I was doing select that we've kind of brought the two together and are working side by side in our efforts there. So Roofstock's about a uniform strategy across the board.   Michael: Fantastic. Yeah, it sounds like it makes total sense. You know, the two of you move in lockstep in that regard to open up new markets and open up these new programs. I think that makes total sense.   Matt: Yeah. Really exciting.   Michael: Awesome. So everybody, it sounds like keep your eyes peeled for some new markets. Do we publish that in advance of the new markets that are assumed to be up in live? Or do our folks here just getting a sneak peek, because we're lucky to have you on the show?   Matt: Yeah, this is a sneak peek. Although what we will do when we start getting a select agent identified and in place, once we've reached terms and know we have the infrastructure, we will put them out on you know, some of the things that you guys do podcasts webinars, which is often a sneak peek before listings will go live on the site. And these agents love hearing from our customers and working with our customers, you you will in the Select program. Sometimes you can go all the way through the offer process before you meet the agent if you'd like. But if you would like to get their input from a local perspective prior to they are available to you, and we'd be happy to go over local market details if you'd like. So, you'll get to meet these people probably before any properties go online. If you continue listening to Michael and Tom's webinars and podcasts.   Michael: Awesome. You literally just took the words out of my mouth. I was gonna ask how can folks get in touch with our local agents on the ground? Whatever market they're interested in? Is there a list is their contact information?   Matt: Yeah, so buyers are typically working with an account executive prior to making an offer, helping them form their buy box and identify markets they'd like to be in and they have contact info for all of our our select brokers. So if you'd like to speak to someone prior to the account executive should be able to provide that directly for you.   Michael: Perfect, perfect. That's great,   Matt: Or they can reach out to me anytime directly as well. I can obviously get the director and be happy to put you in touch.   Michael: Fantastic. All right. So Matt, shifting gears here just a little bit. I am curious, because I was playing a hypothetical buyer previously, is there any kind of tips or tricks you can share with our listeners for things they can do to be really successful when it comes to buying select properties?   Matt: Yes, for sure. So actually, most of the transactions that come through, I'm copied in a lot of the transactions, I look at reports daily, see our offers and our success rates and kind of follow the trends along those lines. And there are a couple of things that are really obvious, I would suggest it in today's market. And this may change if we do a podcast a year from now, I tell you the exact opposite thing. Right now, the market is so hot, that things are going really, really quickly. And really close to or above what sellers are asking if it's the good inventory. So what I would advise buyers to do is understand going in, Roofstock has done the hard work for you of identifying the better properties. These are not properties that are going to sell at 80 or 90% of the price. These are the ones that are most of the time going to have competitive bid situations. And they're going to come in really quickly. So in the properties, I see buyers losing out on deals trying to get a 1% discount just because they want to feel like they won the negotiation.   Treat it as are deciding whether or not you want on a deal. Look at it as you know what the property is worth to you, and not what the listing prices. In my experience, I've seen people pay 50% of the list price and hate themselves a year later, I've seen people pay 120% of list price and feel like they stole it. So don't get caught up in the negotiation game and feeling like you have to win and need $1,000 off and miss the deal completely. That's one tip. The other one would be when you make an offer, be ready to move quickly, your agent is going to reach out quickly with the offer to sign. And that's getting in quick is a key to getting a high acceptance rate in the Select game.   Once it goes live on our site, they're going to get the best ones get multiple offers, sometimes from Roofstock alone. And when we talk to the agents that have been listed, they've already got two or three in hand. So just the one who really puts in a strong offer and responds quickly is the most likely to have a positive outcome in my experience.   Michael: Yeah, those are really great, great points and tips. It's something I talk a lot about in the academy is when it comes to negotiation and stuff. Ego is such a big driver in this everybody likes to win, nobody likes to feel like they lost. And so if it's you know, they say 2000, I'll counter out 1000. And it's like, at the end of the day, that's 200 bucks at a pocket if you're leveraging 80% loan to value. So your mortgage payments going to be an extra $3 because you're borrowing an extra 100 bucks over 30 years. Like Come on.   Matt: That's right. That's right. Yeah. And there are situations where it makes sense if you've got cash available, you know, cash offers, win over financed offers, if the dollar amounts the same or close, if you've got cash available, come in as aggressive as you can on these really attractive deals, refinance it after the fact if it's something you've just got to have go in aggressively on the front. It's just must be right now in the current climate we're in.   Michael: That's really great insight. And you're seeing that nationwide across all this lock markets, all of the markets we've chosen, yes, I'm hearing it, I have not talked to many people in markets where it's slow right now, within select or otherwise. But within select these guys are extremely busy and involved in multi offer situations. Many times in the Properties you're in a hot market, and the hottest properties are being chosen. So they're not going to sit around for long.   Michael: So Matt, for those people who are looking to purchase properties at that kind of maybe discounted rate at 90%, whatever or get a little bit of a discount on the value. I mean, do we have a place for them on restock, or should they be looking to transact us exclusively off the marketplace?   Matt: We do. So like I said earlier, buyers will put their will set in their mind that value is being the primary guide rather than the listing price. We do have a tool on the search page. If you're on this site looking at properties under the more filters section at the bottom there is a discount to list rating which will allow you to sort properties by which ones are priced at the greatest discount to perceived value rather than list price we do not typically allow offer prices at substantial discount to list but there is a way to search here by discount value, which is the way it should be so feel free to use that anytime.   Michael: Perfect. And then yeah, folks click on the Analysis tab. on that property listing. You'll see the valuation report or the anticipated property value in addition to the Property Valuation Report so you can see what comps have sold in the area for that property evaluation to come to that conclusion. So really great way to buy under market value. properties.   Matt: Yeah. And Michael, I'll lower on that, I'll plug that more tab on the property search, there are a number of options underneath that, that I don't think get seen or used very often that are super helpful, including under bottom left corner is the listing source, that's where you can sort by just select or just exclusive properties. So if you are interested, if you've seen what's there on the exclusive range, and just want to pull up the Select along, that's where you would do that. You can also sort by a variety of other rates and returns using that tab itself and bypass by buy or something.   Michael: And then after you set some of those filters, you can also click on Save after you've named it. And then anytime a property comes into that criteria, or a new property is listed, you'll get an email notification. So I think it's a super helpful way to stay on top of properties. Because I know in the academy, I'll have someone send me a message Hey, can we evaluate this property this afternoon, and by the time we get around to our call that property has already been snatched up under contract. So yep, being quick on the draw is important these days.   Matt: Most active buyers on Roofstock have the safe searches because I see when a good property goes up. And offers are soon to follow. So it's not. It's not the guy that's checking in once every two days. It's the one who's getting pinged and ready to act.   Michael: Ready to make moves. Yeah, it makes total sense makes total sense. Well, Matt, this has been super awesome. Anything else folks should know about the BYOP or the Select program Before I let you out of here?   Matt: No, I don't think so. We're always making attempts to bring more inventory to the market for you guys big expansion plans for next year, as we talked about earlier, and don't discount the BYOD program. It's we are working out some inefficiencies there that we're going to make better in near term that is a powerful, powerful tool that can get you some really sweet guarantees on properties that you find on your own for bringing it through Roofstock tons of valuable data and information that we can provide that the guarantees are alone are worth bringing it through to us. So don't discount the value there.     Michael: Awesome. And so Matt, what's the best way for folks that have additional questions to get ahold of you?   Matt: Yeah, like I said earlier, you can talk to your account executive got my info or any local brokers. But if you want to reach out to me directly, it's mthomas@roofstock.com.   Michael: Awesome. Well, Matt, thanks so much for hanging out talking us through these new programs. Really appreciate your time. And I'm sure we'll have you on again soon.   Matt: Yeah, great. enjoyed it. Have a great day.   Michael: Thanks. You too.   That was our episode. Thanks so much for listening. A big big, big thank you to Matt Thomas. Super  fun, really, really insightful. Really interesting to learn how buyers can be successful and then also learning about the programs as a whole. If you liked this episode, feel free to leave us a rating or review wherever it is you listen to your podcasts, and we look forward to seeing you on the next one. Happy investing.

Colin is on the clock working the coffee shop, but has very little todo. So Matt comes back in and they punt some jo around as few customers come and go. Customers may chime in as well!also...Try Recess!Recess creates products and experiences designed to help people feel balanced, centered and inspired so they can be their most productive and creative selves — despite an increasingly stressful world.What is it- It is sparkling beverage with a uniquecombination of hemp extract andAdaptogens. What is hemp?Hemp is in the Cannabis plant family, and is a cousinof marijuana, but does not get you “high”. Recess usesbroad-spectrum extract, which includes naturallyoccurring compounds from the entire hemp plant.What are adaptogens?Non-toxic herbs and plants that help thebody handle stress, supports immunehealth, and promote balance and mentalclarity.They Agreed to give us a promo code to give to you!Get 15% off each purchase when you use the code LETGO at checkoutTakearecess.com 15% Drinks, apparel, subscriptionsTry Recess! Code LETGO for 15% off Recess sparkling water combines hemp extract and adaptogens to promote a calm state of mind.Support the show (https://www.buymeacoffee.com/colinpaul00)

If you’re wondering how to become a successful investor in stocks mindset is key, and the #1 thing to remember is that you are investing for the long term. Over the course of doing this show Matt has seen some crazy times in the market, but him and his subscribers have found ways to be financially successful by investing in stocks for the long term and not being swayed by the day to day turmoil.Today Matt would like to thank his followers for helping him to reach nearly 10,000 followers on twitter and almost 10,000 subscribers on youtube. Many of you have been asking how you can get signed up for Matt’s exclusive members only research and Portfolios. So Matt has created a deal that will give you 50% off of his investment opportunities service as well as a $49 credit. And if you are already a subscriber you can get credit toward your account also! If your not interested, you can keep consuming all matts free content, but if you want to take your knowledge as an investor up to a whole new level, this is a deal you won’t want to miss. Investing in yourself through education is one of the best ways to Become A Successful Investor In Stocks.On this episode of Moneyline Matt shares the mindset that has helped him to become a successful investor in stocks. Matt explains how to stay focused on the fundamentals and ignore the headlines as you invest your money for the long term. Matt also takes a look at several SPACs and explains wether they could be the next workhorse or just another Nikola. Investing in SPACs are a great way to see huge profits especially if you get into the right ones early so you'll want to pay attention to this segment.Matt also covers 2 Major IPO's Door-dash and Air BnB. Many of you have been wondering if you should get invest in those stock right away so Matt shares his thoughts. One of the key's to becoming a successful investor id looking where others aren’t so instead of just covering the 2 big IPO's Matt also covers a company that just IPO'd that is using AI for drug discovery as well as an AI company run by a legend in the technology world with a great track record. Matt also talks about a company using AI for advertising as well as $SEER, all these are thing you could look at instead of looking at the same stocks as everyone else. Matt also shares 5 international stocks that are going on his watchlist completely free of charge in this video just to say thanks! We appreciate your support and make sure you share this with your friends and family to help us get to 10,000, this is only the beginning! 

Episode 10 featured Mark bringing a beautiful bottle of Glenmorangie Grand Vintage 25 year from 1990, AKA Glenmo 25. Matt brought a Sweat Wheat from 1792 and Kevin had us try a beer from Scratchton Brewing called "Wake up the Echos". We tried something new this time. We wanted to pick a "bottom shelf" whiskey that is easy on the wallet but still a great drinker. So Matt and Mark picked "Bucks" which is apparently approved by Ranch Hands... --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/librarypubcast/message

Ep 85 – Battle of the Belts The recording got lost! So Matt re-recorded this all by himself, trying to remember what Michael and Shane had said 0:22- Welcome 4:00 - Battle of the Belts Opening 5:00 - Chris Evans vs “Surfer” Ray Odyssey for the WWA Jr Heavyweight Championship 7:03 – Lords of Darkness (Agony/Pain) (w/ Tricky Nicky) vs The Super Destroyers (#1/#2) (w/ Hunter Q Robbins III) in a unification tag match for the WWA and ECW Tag Team Championships 10:19 - “Wildman” Sal Bellomo (w/ the Cosmic Commander vs ??? (w/ Woman) 13:09 - Johnny Hotbody (w/ Devious Don E Allen) vs Tony Stetson in a Brass Knuckles Bullrope Cowbell Match 14:13 - The Masked Superstar vs Davey Boy Smith 15:34 - The Spider vs the Sandman (w/ Peaches) in a unification match for the WWA and ECW Heavyweight Championships 21:04 - Terry Funk vs “Hot Stuff” Eddie Gilbert in a Texas Death “I Quit” match 27:25 - Overall Thoughts 28:21 - Smarking It Up 30:34 - Making Their Way to the Ring 33:01 - Goodbyes Music from this week’s show is “Sad but True” by Metallica and “Fanfare for the Common Man” by Emerson, Lake and Palmer Rate and review us on iTunes, Stitcher, GooglePlay, or wherever you find your podcasts Email – WrestlingHistoryX@gmail.com Twitter – WrestlingHistoX

I recently watched a documentary on Netflix called Minimalism by Matt D'Avella in which a quote by AJ Leon really struck a cord with me. To paraphrase AJ said he was offered the promotion he had always dreamed of but he feared that if he took the offer, he'd never escape and be able to live the life he truly wanted. From there I went down a rabbit hole of thought which I go into more detail in my blog post at http://expeditiontotry.com/ and that's what we discuss in this episode. We discuss how interesting it is that all of us humans are put on this Earth and feel this need to find meaning and purpose in life, but we all choose to do so in such vastly different ways. Some people turn towards religion, others towards philosophy, some to their own personal way, and any of the thousands of others out there. I personally think that is fascinating how one person can find their happiness in viewing the world one way while another person could do the same with a completely different method. So Matt and I discuss our own views of life and how we cope with the world as well as our thoughts on how other people form their own views. Check out Matt's music at https://open.spotify.com/artist/5adWO7OZMUO1YtHvvMT8Zl?si=r5lJ3tPfSm2vqDH7R2yDhQ We hope you enjoy this week's episode! If you did, let me know and be sure to share it with your friends and family. I'd really appreciate it! You can find me on on social media sites: Twitter: https://twitter.com/ExpeditionTry Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/expeditiontotry/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/expeditiontotry/ Blog: http://expeditiontotry.com/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7pn8SRaud4Jd7kHcE_BX-Q --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

My guest this week has a career spanning over 30 years in the Australian food industry - dozens of awards, TV shows like MasterChef and My Restaurant Rules and best-selling cookbooks to his name, and owns some of Australia's most celebrated restaurants and bars. Yep, it's safe to say that Matt Moran is an Aussie food icon. Like all hospitality venues, Matt's restaurants were hit hard by the restrictions around Covid19. So Matt quickly adapted to sell home-delivered boxes of fruit and veg, taking customers through the preparation and cooking process of his recipes via livestream, and capitalising on people's time at home in the kitchen. I ask Matt how growing up on a farm taught him the discipline he needed to start his own business and what hard work and success mean to him. Join the Facebook Group. Follow Mark Bouris on Instagram, LinkedIn & YouTube. Want to grow your business and stay ahead of the pack? Access Mark Bouris' Masterclasses. Got a question or comment for Mark? Send an email.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this brotherly-love-filled episode of Pop Culture Unboxing, Ryan and Zach are missing! So Matt and JP will be your guides. From Spider-Man 3 casting rumors, the Obi-Wan show, and even details on George Miller’s Mad Max spinoff Furiosa, we’ve got it all! Check out our show notes! https://docs.google.com/document/d/15DzNiWIBoxgg-KbqipmceE2X2aUb3W14Uua29pmbjIM/edit?usp=sharing

For those of you watching this week’s Off Camera episode, do not adjust your sets…that is me sitting across from Matt, humiliatingly dressed head to toe in a Red Sox uniform, having lost a bet to Matt when my beloved Dodgers lost in the world series for the second year in a row. And for those of you listening or reading, well, just imagine my shame. For as long as Matt Damon can remember, he wanted to be an actor. So much so that he started his college essay with those very words. But before all the accolades and success, Matt was just a kid from Cambridge, MA who loved playing sports and watching movies. His chances of becoming a pro athlete came up short (both literally and figuratively), but he was determined to make a career out of acting after the seed was planted by an influential theater teacher and nurtured by his best friend and fellow cinephile Ben Affleck. They had no road map for success, but Matt and Ben had an advantage over their teenage peers—they just wanted it more. They took the train from Boston to New York regularly for auditions, using money drawn from their communal acting bank account to cover expenses. Eventually, one of those auditions turned into a small part in the 1988 Julia Roberts feature Mystic Pizza, but Matt’s “big break” proved to be elusive. He auditioned for the eventual Academy Award winner Dead Poets Society but was rejected in favor of Ethan Hawke, and the cruel reality of the industry smacked him in the face when he was working at the local movie theater the following summer: “I went from the possibility of being in this great film to the guy tearing the movie ticket and watching people come out crying because they’re so moved. That’s the range in this business.” So Matt and Ben decided to take fate into their own hands and write a great film that they could both star in. That was how Good Will Hunting and the acclaimed acting careers of Matt and Ben came into being. It’s been 20 years, and Matt’s career is still going strong. As our first two-time guest, Matt joins Off Camera to talk about his acting mid-life crisis, the gamble that almost cost Matt and Ben Good Will Hunting, the invaluable wisdom he’s gained from directors, and why the Boston Red Sox and specifically Fenway Park carry so much significance for him.

Yeager: This is the Friday, October 2, 2020 version of the Market Plus segment. Joining us now Naomi Blohm, Elaine Kub, Matthew Bennett and Ted Seifried. Panel time, everybody. Thank you so very much. You are all such good sports for doing this. We always appreciate that. The Zoom technology doesn't always allow for the best interaction but thank you for doing what you can. So we got some question from Facebook and Twitter, I'm going to try to plow through these. But, like normal, we might get off the rails. So Matt and Ted, you two were fighting on Twitter over this one.

I love podcasts. I mean, after nearly 200 episodes of my own, you know that there has to be something amazing about podcasts! I firmly believe that podcasts are an amazing way to connect with my audience, and build a stronger network. Through nearly 200 episodes, I’ve had to change to interview nearly 100 different agents, and share my tips with my listeners! That why when I started listening to Matt McGee’s podcast, I know that I had to have him on the show! As a fellow podcast creator, it’s always a delight to talk to someone else who is doing similar work! After binge-listening to Matt’s work on the HomeLight podcast, I knew that I wanted to have him on the show to share his experiences with you! We’re talking about creating content, interviewing guests, and keeping focused. Matt McGee is a content creator with Homelight, and has been the main person working on the HomeLight podcast! I’ve listened to him for hours, and can’t wait for you to hear from him! Ready to hear Matt McGee’s insights on creating content? If you’re thinking about ever creating a podcast, you won’t want to miss this week’s episode of the Selling the Dream podcast! Before we dive in: join an amazing network of the best second home agents. Make sure that you create your free profile on the Second Home Agents website? Go over and get started: it’s FREE to join. Click here to register, fill out your profile and get listed today. Highlights of this episode: Tom introduces Matt, and his career path. Tom and Matt discuss their podcasts, and how they come up with content. One of the fun things about a podcast is that you create a plan, but you really never know how an interview is going to go until you’re recording! Matt shares how they find focus for each episode, and help get the best out of each guest on the show. As the podcast picked up, and more people listened, Matt started getting lots of questions from listeners, and what they wanted to hear! You learn as you go: your style will change as you gain experience, and you will become a better interviewer! Matt shares his process. He starts with a pre-planning call with the guest so he can set expectations and learn more about their unique value. Tom and Matt share how they find quality guests to appear on the show. Learn how to really listen to people while you interview: don’t be so focused on your next question that you miss any gems or major takeaways they have given! Matt shares about his favorite episode of his podcast. Catch part 2 next week! Don’t forget to subscribe to the Selling the Dream podcast so you don’t miss any new episodes! Leave a review: you never know when it will be read on the show! Hey everybody, thank you so much for spending time with us today: would you do me a giant favor and share this podcast with fellow realtors, and leave a review. Your reviews help this podcast get shared with more people. Sign up for a trial with Bomb Bomb and get a free eBook from me! Just let me know you’ve signed up, and I’ll send a free copy of Ethan Beute’s book! Connect with Matt: LinkedIn Connect with me (Tom): 2nd Home Agents website Facebook Instagram YouTube EXCLUSIVE Resort & 2nd Home Real Estate Agents Facebook Group Subscribe to the Show Don’t miss a single episode of the podcast. You can search for “Selling the Dream” on any of your favorite listening platforms, or follow the links below: iTunes Spotify Stitcher YouTube Have you made your free profile on the Second Home Agents website? Go over and get started: it’s FREE. Click here to register, make your profile and get listed today. As always, thanks for listening. Don’t forget, you’re not selling a home: you’re selling the dream. See you next time!   TRANSCRIPT: [00:00:01] Everybody today, Tom Tezak with Matt McGee and sharing, how do you get out of a bunny hole when you're recording a podcast? [00:00:09] Welcome to Selling the Dream, a podcast created four and five second whole and resorbed realtor Bontemps teaser. Each week. My goal is to bring you a quick real estate tip, along with an info past interview with an industry rock star. [00:00:22] My mission is to bring this cutting edge marketing finding true self. And information about the latest technology. Thanks for tuning in. And remember, we're not telling her what she was telling the truth. [00:00:37] Good morning, everybody. Good afternoon or good evening, wherever you're at, whatever time it is, and you're listening to the show. Welcome to Selling the Dream. [00:00:44] And today, I say this every week, but I'm always excited to have guests. But today I have been listened to our guest for hours on his podcast, and he's just started doing a podcast. Not too long ago. I was guest on a show and I just really connected with with him. Matt McGhee from our home light. And he does the walkthrough. And Matt said, Don't. You don't need to be an advertiser. For me, it's like, well, it's not, but you're just so much fun. [00:01:11] You're a great, great guy to listen to. And you bring so many great guests in the big so far in your show, which is twenty two shows, long or thereabouts. Matt, welcome to Selling the Dream. [00:01:21] Tom, thank you so much for having me on. It's great to I loved having you on our show a couple months ago and it's it's a pleasure to return the favor and be on your show. [00:01:30] Cool. Thank you so much. And you know, I you know, usually we go into these shows with like an idea and a plan. And Matt and I were talking yesterday. It's like, you know, I just want to have a conversation that because you've been doing now 20 some shows and I've been on this will be probably at my two hundred and first two hundred and third episode. And I just wanted to chat with you in so we can share with our audience who are out there listening to podcasts. Obviously, if they're listening, they're podcast fans and their agents. So they're thinking about creating content. And so many of them are saying, oh, I should do a podcast. And, you know, I think I just wanna have a conversation with you about should they? And then also, what have you learned in the first, you know, 20 or so episodes and sort of have that conversation? So what did you share, what your thoughts are with all of that? And welcome to the show. [00:02:21] Thanks again. Thanks for having me on. And it's a pleasure. And I love having you on our show. And yeah, I think it's I do see. I wonder if if you would agree, I, I sense and I you know, I see a lot of the headlines related to podcasts, and it seems to me that there has been an increase in listenership just over the last couple of years. And I would assume 200 are. You're your weekly. So we're talking a couple of years. Couple, three, four years for you. [00:02:46] So now we're we're we're twice a week. So I do a show. Yeah, I do one on Tuesday, which is a very short, like, inspiration, a tip. What pissed me off this week kind of thing. And don't do it or and then on a Friday show is like this is more of an interview style where I bring in a typically it's a real tour, but it's an industry rock star like, you know, a variety of different people coming. Well, last week's show probably was Lawrence Yun from the National Association of Realtors, which was like I was thinking, oh, this is going to really be a tough show to listen to. He was amazing. So because he's a statistician and, you know. They're different than realtors. [00:03:28] So that's what I mean. That's one of the fun things, though, about doing the show. Right, is that we get ideas in our head on, what it's gonna be like and what direction it's gonna go down. And then it's wonderful when it goes down an entirely different direction. And, you know, you explore something together and it just turns into something that you know much better than you ever thought it would be. [00:03:45] So, yeah, I agree. And, you know, and the the shows that I remember most are the shows that I thought. Before I did the show, that was gonna be, oh, this is gonna be a yawn. And it's like, oh my gosh, this was like the best guest ever. I never really knew who he was. And and there's one guy who's become an incredibly good friend out of this process. And Matt Farnam out of Las Vegas, just he's just one of those people. He's in the real estate industry his sophomore year. And, you know, you go back and I think he was in the 50s or 60s in my shows and just, wow, what a great guy. But I would imagine you had shows like that in your 20 some shows that were you were sort of like, OK, what's this going to be like and what's your experience been with that? We'll talk about doing a podcast, but I want to hear what your thoughts are on. [00:04:36] Yeah, it's I mean, you sort of have expectations built in with with what each guest is going to bring to the table and what the topic is gonna be like and where it's going to go. And, you know, sometimes for me, like one of my big concerns with each episode, like we try to we try to keep our episodes to be somewhere between 30 and forty five minutes. And so, like, sometimes there's topics where you're like, how can we cover all this in thirty to forty five minutes. Right. Like it's like we're gonna be doing one soon on Facebook ads for real estate. Like wow that's a really heavy topic. Right. That you could do like four or five distinct episodes on that. And so that's one of the challenges that that that I find with putting our show together is just having this situation where you've got this limited time and there's so many different directions where you could go somebody different things you could ask and talk about. And how do you sort of condense it and boil it down, though? Episodes that we are recording right now was supposed to be just one episode. Tom was going to be about online lead conversion. And we had Jackie Soto and Elmer Mirrorless, who are agents in Southern California, and they're part of the homelike elite program, which is that's what we that's what we call the top one percent of agents on our pilot and also best of the best of Zillow. [00:05:55] Right. So they know what they're doing with online leads. And so I was planning to have them on four thirty five, thirty to forty five minutes. We did the first interview and it went so well and we talked for like the full hour and I was like, I can't edit any of this. I just can't cut this out. It's right. And like if I cut this out then we were missing, like then we're leaving a lot of good stuff on the table. So we did. So we turned it into two episodes. And then as soon as the two episodes went out, people started emailing me. Hey, can you ask them this? They start leaving voice mails. Can you ask you know, I'm an agent in New York City and I have a question about this. And so we just did this week. We just recorded part three of the series just just based on listener, you know, on listener questions and feedback. You've had Tom Faery on your show. I had Tom Fair on my like Tom Ferry did not even get three episodes, so we broke Tom into two. And so, like like you said, sometimes you just you never know where things are going to go. And I think, like, I, I think that's one of the joys and one of the really fun things about doing this kind of show. [00:07:01] And I think you need to you know, it's an art and it's the interview style. And I listen back to my first, second, fifth, tenth show and it's like, wow, did I suck? Right. Yeah. Well, same with me. And and, you know, it evolves. Your process, your style evolves. And I know that you've been doing more editing inbound or Encho editing, which I'm like I sort of like that because you take out some of the ums and Ozz, where our show is sort of as raw as it gets. We don't edit stuff out because we want to be conversational, but then that takes time. So I love listening to it. And I told Kenny, I said I don't know if he ever did. Kenny's my producer said, Kenny, you need to listen to this show a couple of times because Matt is doing some fun stuff with the way he's editing. And I would just listen to one. [00:07:47] I don't even know who it was the other day, but you just stop the show and you started talking in-between. It's like, hey, I just wanted to stop the show right now. Did you guys hear what he just said? And it was like, hey, that's pretty cool. I like the way you're really sort of going back in. [00:08:08] And it's almost like you're in a book club and you're doing this and then you're going in and you're, you know, pinpointing some of the stuff. So I found that really helpful. But it's a lot of work. I mean, that's where I wanted to share with with our agents and our audience. If you're thinking about doing a podcast, we know Kenny and I did a podcast about the dynamics and what books to read. But I want to sort of bring you in and say the the art of this, because it's it's one thing to learn how to. To do the podcast and recorded and upload it and figure out your format, but there's so much of a skill in that interview process and keeping your client engaged. I mean, start keeping your guests engaged and keeping them going down the road to a degree that you want, but at the same time keeping your audience engaged. And I think you're doing a great job with that. And I just you know, and I every time I listen to other podcasts, sorry, I'm rambling. Every time I listen to other podcasts, I get stuff. It's like, oh, I want to start doing that. Hey, Kenny. Yeah, me too. And so being a fan and a student of other podcasts I think is so helpful. So that's why I wanted you on. And so how did you get your your path? How did you come up with your ideas or how was it evolving and what do you do to to do that? [00:09:24] Well, I'll, I'll tell you who I've been really influenced by is a guy named Jay, a Kenzo, and he's fairly well-known in digital marketing content marketing circles. I would encourage anybody that wants to learn about podcasting, be a better podcast, or he has a show called Three Clips and I'm writing it down on my board. So. So, yeah. So. So I should give a little bit about about his background first. So he he runs a company called Marketing Show Runners. And this company that him and I believe a few other people, they help primarily big brands, from what I understand, create shows, primarily podcasts. But it might be video shows or something like that. So, you know, and there's a there's a growing number of big brands that have shows like RCI does podcasts. They've been doing podcasts for years. Trader Joe's. Right. A lot of Red Bull, that sort of stuff. There's a lot there's an old growth, growing trend towards big companies, big brands sort of saying, hey, you know, we're gonna have a show and create content for our audience and hit. So his company exists to sort of serve and enable and improve that content. And so he started this. This podcast is called Three Clips. And it's a really clever idea because what he does is he breaks down a podcast by a brand or a person, whatever might be by just pulling out three interesting clips from one of their episodes. They play the clips and then he talks about this is, you know, listen for this and listen to this other part over here and listen to how, you know, they did this. [00:11:01] And that's been super educational for me, Tom. So, so. So I need to give credit first and foremost to that, because I discovered that I think back in December, November, December, which is right when he started that podcast. And that's right when at home, like we were diving knee deep into let's launch our own podcast. So, like, the timing just couldn't have been perfect. And his thing. I mean, there's his thing. I mean, he's got to like a lot of things that I've learned, but like the main thing that I've learned is the idea of doing a podcast is. You want to get the listener to the end of the show, right? Right. It's a podcast is so unlike everything else. Right. If you're if if, you know, an agent is reading an article that Tom Tesuque wrote. They can scan ahead. They can see certain words are bold. Know you might have some sections or some bullet points. It becomes easier to digest that way with TV or video shows. There's visual cues like, you know, somebody watch now sees that I am talking with my hands or whatever might be. But there's other vision, a podcast. There's nothing. It's just me or you. And the listeners ears. Right. It's your mouth. And it's it's incredibly intimate. Most people are listening in their car at the gym. Out on a walk. Something like that. So they have other things going on. So you have. How do you keep their attention? Right. And like, that's that's sort of been the whole thing, the whole kind of focus that I've learned to concentrate on with our show. [00:12:40] And you've been doing a great job, and that's what I was gonna interject the name. I get all excited. But I listened to you for, like I said, two hours when I was out on my walk. I walk the golf course in my neighborhood and I just like E-Trade picking up golf balls. So I'm listen to the math and I'm doing that. So you're right. People are doing other things when they're listening to their podcast that they can be engaged in. So I think keeping them part of the conversation is important. And it is it's intimate and that's a great word. So you create that space. How do you. Know where you're going in the conversation. This is something that people said to me and I said, well, you just you just drive the train sort of seamless. So how do you find your way doing that? [00:13:27] Are there you know, how would you feel if I ask you this? How would you feel if I ask you what is your you know, I want to get an idea. It's almost like the same questions that we're going to ask. But I want to know from the guest where their responses are going to be so that I can start to say yes. I think that's a good avenue that we should explore in the final version or now that's kind of a dead end. Let's not even worry about that in the actual currency. So that's really important. Is. For me, at least, is doing sort of a preplanning call and figuring out exactly what we're going to talk about. I put together a rundown of questions and topics, do a lot of research on every guest just to sort of figure out. I remember before we did before you came on, I listened to several of your shows, and I remember that one. You did this the short version. You had one where you talked about being the lighthouse. Do you remember that? I do. And I loved that so much from listening to your show. And I remember asking you about that at the end of when you were on ours. And it made for a great moment because it was such a great message at that time. Like that was that was like I think you were like show number nine. And that was like right in the middle of all the chaos of the piano. [00:14:42] I knew it happened. And it may you know, as a as a guest, it made me feel like, wow, I felt so special that you had one listen to my stuff and to ask me about something that I was passionate about. [00:14:53] So it really does it does make a difference. [00:14:56] The other thing that, you know, for man, I just want to just share with you something about your show that I really like it. You know, when there's somebody out there looking for more podcasts because I know I burn out. I mean, I it's like, OK, listen to Matt for three shows I listened to that had been for five shows. And it's like, OK, I'm done listening to that voice. I need something else, but I binge please in. [00:15:21] I lost. I was going mad. That's what happened. It's it's it's your show. [00:15:29] I know there is. Your show. What I like about your show is I would say it's a brand show. It's a home light, which is a lead service company. But you what I love about it is you're not talking about home light on your show, even though you touch on it every once in a while. You have a strong home light person. But it's not about that. It's about. You were bringing so much value to the audience. And that's what I'm what I'm enamored with on your show, which I really love. [00:15:59] So I would change gears now because gave you a little bit. Attaboy there. [00:16:02] But thank you. I appreciate that. How do you find your guests? Oh, that's a you know, that's a good one. And it's a lot of for me, it's a lot of reading, a lot of watching videos, attending conferences. More recently, virtual conferences. Right. Because we're all sort of locked into a degree. A lot of time on Facebook. Real estate agents, a lot of real estate agents are on Facebook. So I'm in, you know, all the big Facebook groups, the lab coat in men, et cetera. And so it becomes a matter of just keeping your eyes open, I think, and seeing who's saying what and who has an interesting opinion that you think can be expanded upon to, you know, an interesting 30 minute show or something like that. I think that's a big that's probably Tom for me. When I when we started this show, that's probably the part of it that I didn't appreciate the most, how much time it would take us to start to sort of figure out who should be on and where those people are. Been your experience as well? Because you I mean, you've been doing 200 episodes, so you had one hundred guests there abouts in the show. [00:17:16] And it's it's interesting and it's scary. We're were touched on this earlier as you invite a guest on. And for me, I'm inviting predominately realtors. And I've had some realtors that have been on the show that it's like I need more than a yes answer. And there is so and once you're in it for for me as a as a host, I don't want to not air a show. [00:17:40] But then the challenges, what do I do with the show that I don't think was as quality as it could have been. And I don't want to tell my guests that they saw it. Yeah. You know, because it's because they took a bunch of their time. And so it's really having. I would recommend to anybody who's listening if you're going to do a show and it's going to be a show for a local community, which I think that's what a lot of people, a lot of agents. There's a great opportunity. There is before you invite somebody on your show, have a conversation with them. Right. Follow what they're saying. And I love what you said. Do they have an opinion that you can work with? Because if they don't, you want to rethink that. But there's you know, your local politicians will love to get on your shows. [00:18:26] Yeah, I think that I think the opinion point there is important, too, because because, you know, I look for opinions and stories, because facts and figures, people can Google that. Right. Right. I want our show to have stuff that you can't get just on. It's simple Google search or by reading some listicle article on, you know, who whoever's Web site. So I think that's really important. And you're right, sometimes sometimes it doesn't go well. And and. Yeah. I mean, I've I've had that I had that same exact experience with with one of our with one of our shows. But I had sort of a built in excuse because we shifted into our sort of our coded mode. And by the time we got out of that, if I recall correctly, by the time we were ready to sort of get back to, quote, normal, like a lot of the information in the podcast was out of date. And we're like, all right, let's just try and connect again at a later date. It wasn't the best. It wasn't the best show anyway. [00:19:25] So then, you know, what I will do is as we try, we go the same thing, 30 minutes ish, 20 to 40 minutes. I'll tell clients and I build in time. And if I have a show that I'm struggling with and I share this again, not to throw anybody under the bus. But for those people out, there's agents out there that are thinking about doing a show. Use your editing. You know, there is a way to clean them up and create dissension points and and and do that. The other thing I wanted to go back to, you said something about the questions and what you talk to people. It's important to know what you're going to talk about, but it's even more important to know the questions you don't ask, because when you ask some questions, you either lose control or you get an answer that makes everybody look like, didn't you have an idea about this? Right. So so laying out the groundwork for those questions of how you. How you go about that path and keeping them and the other thing like I like to ramble sometimes, is Soto clients, I guess being able to gracefully grab them, put a big hug around them and pull them back on topic. Yeah. Yeah. How's your. What do you do to try to wrangle, so to speak, clients? [00:20:38] I think probably the thing that I do most often and that situation is just I think of ways, you know, because you can hear the guests and they're kind of going off down this other path and you're like, oh, that's not where I thought you were gonna go. And this is where we should go for our listeners. Right. And so I, I probably start to to think, all right. I need to reword that same question in a different way to make them understand what I was hoping they would say. That's generally what I do. I think to one thing that we should talk about, Tom, and I'll go first. As a host, it's incredibly important, right, to listen to what they say and pay attention and sort of when they're on point. Let that guide the conversation and I'll give you an example that like the thing that you mentioned about five minutes ago, about the moment where I jumped in and cut the person off and said, did you hear that? That's actually example. Like, I had to do that because I screwed up. Right. That that was that, if I recall correctly, that was an episode where it was Brian Boléro who works at Thousand Watt, which is right. [00:21:43] Thousands there, the Portland based agency that they work with, real estate teams and brokerages and big brands. And he I don't remember the exact quote, but he's a I mean, he's a quote machine. He's really good. He's a great guest. And he made a quote that if I had been paying enough attention during the actual conversation, I would have said, hey, Brian, stop. Can you repeat that for our listeners? That's a really important point they should hear. I don't know what I was doing, Tom. I must a bit in like off. You were thinking about the next question I was thinking about. Right. Yeah, I was thinking about the next question, and I totally missed it. And then when I was listening back to the interview was like, oh, my gosh, that is gold right there. So I thought, I need to. I just need to interrupt at this point in the show. And that's so we record I recorded that that video, that soundbite of me saying, all right, stop. I need to interrupt. So it right. And you have I'm right. You know, you appreciate the value of actually listening to people. [00:22:41] So I want to cut in right here and just say so you guys are all probably dying to know what that quote is. And I can remember it, but I'm not going to tell you. You're going gonna have to go listen to Matt McGees show, walk through and listen to Brian Boiro from 1000. What, because it was gold. So sorry, everybody. [00:22:59] But, you know, we've got to give Madelin most of your your your mean. Yeah, I know. I like to be mean every once in a while. [00:23:08] So you were saying you're going to start something about and then we got those funny holes. That's the other thing. We get into bunny holes as a as a podcast. How is she. Just like it's like oh give me out or get them out. So I think you're right, it's redirecting the question read and hearing where it's going to happen for a podcast that I'd love to listen to. They are not scripted. They eat. They evolve based on where the conversation takes you. And that's what you were saying. So and as as you guys are listening, just know that it's it's an art. And I don't think I'm very good yet at podcast hosting, but know that you've just got to go in and start doing it. And as you do it, you'll figure it out. You'll learn. And if if you don't, then you stop doing it. [00:23:56] And I mean I mean, it sounds I mean, I can tell just from listening to you, like your. Like I I'm self-critical, like I listen back and I say, how can I get better? And I'm sure you do the same thing, right? Absolutely. [00:24:09] Yeah, and that's what you gotta do, because it's like, oh, all right, they're very often like, oh, what an idiot talking about myself all the time. [00:24:17] And you know, but we just love talking about me, not you. Bye. I'm agreeing with you that I call myself that all the time. [00:24:24] Like that. Tom, he's dumb. So we didn't really prep on this, but I want to change it up a little bit. Like, I always use my term as well. But it change gears because I when I want to. [00:24:33] When I want to. When I said, OK, we beat that horse enough. Let's start talking about something else. And having those segue ways. And sometimes you don't get a Segway, you just gonna make it up. [00:24:42] And so in your show, you're twenty two shows. What's your favorite show that you've done so far? If you're willing to share. [00:24:51] Oh wow. That's a great question. I would say I mean, I would I would say probably there's I would say to two different ones for two different reasons. Number one is the most recent one that we did that I already mentioned with the online lead conversion with Jackie and Elmer. And that's a favorite because. They look like they have a really great system, time for online leads, and they were. Like there was nothing off limits, like there was no point in the conversation where they said, no, we're not willing to share this. No, we're not willing to give this information away. And that just makes for just golden information. Right. Because sometimes. And I totally respect like someone just like I you know, I'd rather not, you know, give away this tip or secret. OK. I can respect that. But they they were just like an open book. Like, here's our scripts. Here's exactly what happens when a leak comes in. The automation clicks in the personal call like so they were super, super detailed. And so that I thought was really, really great. And then I think probably the other one was the Brian Gweru episode. That was a fair one, because I agree, like, they have a very definitive viewpoint on marketing and and branding and agent messaging. And I agree with a lot of the way that they that they approach things like how agents need to separate themselves from the crowd and stand out and be different and be unique. So that was that was a favorite because I really identified with the message that that that he was one of the things I heard. [00:26:28] There are several things in that show. But one of the things I will share about that show that I was like, yes, because I respect Brian. He's I mean, their company is they're great. But when he's when you are talking about branding facemasks and I me, that is just the most asinine thing anybody could ever do. [00:26:46] And I know there is a lot of realtors out there doing that. And he said, why would you want to put your name on something that everybody hates to wear? [00:26:54] And I thought. A man. [00:26:57] And it's dense and it's a sensitive subject, too, right? It's like that's a lot less like a life. That's like a piece of lifesaving. It's not like writing your name on somebody is cast when they break their arm or whatever that's, you know, like. But yeah, that's. Yeah, that was. [00:27:12] So, yeah, I'm with you on that. So now what were the what have you. What are your takeaways. I don't. Let me let me give some context because we didn't say that. So Matt, you are a podcast or you are the homelike part of the marketing team. [00:27:25] But and your wife is a realtor in Wisconsin, Ohio and Oregon. Washington, Washington. See that? Anyway, you're I I a real turn in eastern Washington, correct? Yes. And so you sort of come into this area by first helping her with her marketing and her content creation and then got into home light. So just giving context for everybody where you come from. So my question for you. That it's been very hard to get out so far is. What's what were your takeaways from your shows? Those little nuggets that because there's always a bunch. [00:28:07] Yeah, I think so. So one of the one of the early shows that at all, I'll mention that because we actually put it into play with Kerry's business, because I still do help her in my spare time, I think was episode number four. We had Karen Carr on and she's and it was all about YouTube and YouTube, SVO. And she if you do a search for just go on Google and search moving to Savannah, she pretty much owns that search result page. Chances are you're going to see a big YouTube thumbnail with her video. And it's, you know, this this. I think it's it's not a super long video or anything. I think it's like five or six minutes maybe. And she just talks about, you know, ten things that you need to know if you're moving to Savannah, Georgia. She's got a blog post that's underage. She's got some other like she just owns that search word. And she told the story of, like that one video has led to in the three years that's been online has led her to, I think she said, over one hundred thousand dollars in GCI. Right. Like when one video. [00:29:11] That's that's incredible. So she told the story of how she came up with the idea and what she did and how she optimized it. And so so that that I thought was really interesting and something that anyone should be able to learn from. I know, you know, as somebody that deals with a lot of second home and relocation, you know, your audience may be of particular interest to that. So we created a video for Carrie. She did a video about moving to the tri cities. And it's just starting to get, you know, some of that, you know, that kind of thing doesn't happen overnight. Right. But it's so it's just starting. Yes. So she's had, I think, one or two people say, hey, I saw your video. You know, can you I have questions about moving to the tri cities. And so, like, I thought that was really cool that like we had this person on the show and then we tried it ourselves and it started to work like, that's pretty crazy. So that was one of my. That's like one of my favorite ones that I would say I love it. [00:30:05] Yeah. So it is it is it is great for me as an as a host. [00:30:10] I have people on and I'm taking stuff away from this show. All right. [00:30:13] The time, because I'm interviewing agents from all over the country and resort communities and it's just being willing to listen. Sometimes we just got to shut up and listen and learn what's out there. And sometimes it's like, oh, that won't work in my market. And I want my guests and say. Ask yourself that question again. [00:30:32] Are you sure it won't work? Because sometimes we have to reinvent it or redevelop it. [00:30:36] But there's some great concepts out there that we're presenting to the audience that, you know, they're working for people. Sometimes people say, oh, that's old school. It's like, well, well, old school still works. [00:30:49] Yeah, yeah. And let me just add to to to give you credit, because one of my other favorite nuggets from the shows was from your episode when you talked about that idea, I think you called it the hidden referral. Is that right? Where is it? Which is exactly sort of like the opposite of what I just described, because you said it's not about advertising to buyers and sellers in your feeder markets, but it's about connecting with other agents. Right? [00:31:15] Right. Absolutely. Because they I mean, if I can't connect, there's one or two buyers and sellers in the market that I can possibly reach. [00:31:22] But if I can hit, you know, 50 agents and they ask their client or if I had two agents and they ask their client, they've got a you know, between them five hundred or a thousand clients, it exponentially expands the opportunity. [00:31:36] And so referrals have become a huge amount of my business. [00:31:39] Right before I jumped on this call, I got a referral through one of the online portals and it was like, boom, it's there and it's a seven hundred thousand dollar referral. So nice just being connected and being being engaged, doing stuff like this I think is so important. [00:31:53] That's the other thing that I think with. [00:31:58] Hey, everybody. I'm so happy that you're with us today. And I just want to encourage you to please there's nothing that makes me happier than when I get reviews and subscriptions from all of you out there. Whatever platform you listen on, please go in and leave us to review. Give us a rate us give us whatever many stars that you think are appropriate. Send me an email. I love getting e-mails from from you with any questions you might have that I can address or feel free to comment. I'm so available anyway to Aido to 055 and the other things I'd love for you to do is join our network group in Facebook Resort and second home agents. It's only for real estate agents or industry influencers. And I would. We've got a great group going on, lots of activity. And lastly, go to second home agents dot com. Become a member. Join up on that site. [00:32:52] We put all of our information on that site, and we're creating a network for agents to share and help other agents out, as well as do referrals. [00:33:02] So for selling the dream, please help us out. Be part of the party and join with us.

In this vinegar-y episode of Pop Culture Unboxing, Ryan is still MIA. So Matt and Zach are joined once again by Don, along with a new guest, Cole! Together, they discuss the trailer for Seth Rogen’s new film An American Pickle, coming to HBO Max soon. They’ll also discuss how they reacted to and were affected by the first handful of movies in the MCU. Even some discussion of the politics of the Marvel universe!   Check out our show notes! https://docs.google.com/document/d/1VudvbJKoWvobzKNmxcB7k2FRqx1htu4DITc-aFvtxwo/edit?usp=sharing

In this arid episode of Pop Culture Unboxing, Ryan is MIA. So Matt and Zach are joined by Don, as well as Matt’s brother, JP! They’re here to discuss a top very near and dear to all of our hearts; Denis Villeneuve’s Dune film! It’s a long one, but the discussions are great, and we mention spice, which, as everyone knows, must flow.   Check out our show notes! https://docs.google.com/document/d/1CeKTTpoi2Ibr3m7WfmkKEw6DXmgq4WJmhyNkxProu_4/edit?usp=sharing

Welcome back listeners to the Whole View, episode 410. (0:27) Stacy is going to be honest that we have had a quarantine update show on the dockets for a few weeks. However, Stacy has been having some feels and the topic kept getting pushed back. But this week Stacy and Sarah will be sharing their updates, and will also share updates on what is happening in the world and with science. Stacy wanted to first say thank you to all the people who have been so supportive and have participated and supported this community. Sarah wanted to take a moment to share a few emails that we have received. The messages from these fans left Sarah feeling so grateful and she just wanted to take a moment to share them. Thank you to everyone who has taken the time to write to Stacy and Sarah over the last few weeks.   Protesting vs. Covid Stacy wanted to take a moment to share something she is feeling frustrated by. (6:30) Over the last few weeks, there has been a lot. One of the things that Stacy has read about is the idea of why do we need to wear masks and social distance if people are just going to march. And if people are marching, then we don't need to do all this other stuff. Why is it that this is an exception, but this other thing doesn't exist? Stacy wants to share her thoughts on this. When a community of people is being oppressed and are vulnerable from a number of societal abuses and discriminations, and they want to use their voice and their rights as Americans to peacefully protest, and then we turn it around and complain. And most of them are in fact wearing masks to do this. Why do we have a say in this first of all? If you genuinely felt like your life was at risk, that the life of your loved ones was at risk, then the risk of potentially getting covid doesn't really quantify. And it isn't really our job or right to say how someone goes about trying to get equal rights. What Stacy has learned over the last couple of months is that she needs to stop talking and thinking. She hasn't lived that life and she hasn't had that experience and she can't put her thoughts on someone else. So first, this is not your choice. Second, most of these people are wearing masks. And third of all, there are people out there exploiting this. Stacy mentioned this article. This is a hard one for Stacy to understand the thought process behind. If you don't like it, just don't participate. You don't have to be there, you don't have to worry about covid exposure. If you want to support this movement but are afraid to go to a march, you can do things in other ways to show your support. If there wasn't a pandemic, Sarah would be marching in solidarity. However, she is trying to find as many other tangible ways to support the Black Lives Matter movement and this advocacy for equality in the absence of feeling safe going to marches.   What the Science Shows Us Sarah feels it is important to emphasize the importance of mask use. (13:20) One of the things that have been ubiquitous across all the Black Lives Matter protests is that you see a lot of mask use in these marches. A lot of them where they can be practicing social distancing, are putting those measures into place. Of course, these are all done outdoors as well. Sarah's blog post on face masks. Even with regular cloth-fabric masks, it can have a filtration efficiency almost as high as surgical masks. So when everyone is wearing them, if you have two people having a conversation and the person who is sick is wearing a mask, only 10% of the viral particles are able to escape. The other 90% are being trapped. And if you have that second person, the healthy person also wearing a mask, that healthy person is still filtering 90%. So that is now taking 90% of the 10% that went through, so now only 1% is getting through. Add in a little bit of distance and some airflow, you are now talking about a situation where the likelihood of infection is way lower. So when you are in these situations where everyone is wearing masks, that is a huge protecting factor. The other part that is helping to protect the protestors is the fact that they are outdoors. There was a study just published this month that showed that with just sun exposure, 11 to 34 minutes in the midday sun in most US cities was sufficient to deactivate 90% of the virus. And that is because it is quite sensitive to UV. The combination of most protestors wearing masks and these being held outdoors has been what is protecting them.   Number Spikes There are plenty of spikes in covid that are related to indoor gatherings across the country. (16:13) The indoor environments are still very challenging. And a lot of these spikes are also related to indoor gatherings without mask use. Protesting has so far not caused a spike in cases. There were four community testing sites set up in Minneapolis for people who attended protests showed, which showed a 1.4% positive rate. This is basically the same positivity rate that you would expect for community spread for any community in this country right now. Our full positive rate is climbing up towards 10% again in this country. This is obviously different than these community testing sites that were designed to monitor whether or not coronavirus is being spread through the protests. However, at the same time, this is data showing that at least for now, and probably largely attributed to mask use, we are not seeing that the protests are causing spikes.   A Quarantine Update from Stacy Stacy is in a desperate state to get out of her house. (18:40) It has been since February, and she has three boys, and Matt works all of the time. He had off while they were home recovering from covid, but once he went back he has essentially been on demanding work schedules. Virginia is now in phase two of their re-open. Masks are required if you go anywhere in public. Their numbers are going down. Virginia doesn't get to progress to the next level in their reopening phase until they reach certain benchmarks that show improvements. Matt and Stacy have decided to take a glamping trip. They have rented a rustic cabin, so they will bring all of their own linens and pretty much everything. It will be a week outside in the wilderness on a lake where the boys can enjoy water activities and be outside and be active. Their neighborhood hasn't been social distancing as much as Stacy would like. The kids have not been able to leave the yard, and they are over it. They are all over it. So Matt got days off finally. It will be a vacation with the same social distancing plan. Stacy will let listeners know how it goes.   A Quarantine Update from Sarah There was a similar conversation in Sarah's household about going on a camping trip this summer, but they decided not to go. (22:44) They typically go to a state park up in the mountains when they go camping, and while they are in a tent, they use shared bathrooms at the camping sites. Sarah is experiencing a lot of stress around how her state is opening up. In part, this is because of mask use. If you look at a poll of what people think of masks, everyone has positive things to say. Eighty to ninety percent of people are pro-mask. Around 1/3 of Americans are wearing masks at all times outside of their homes. One-third of Americans are sometimes wearing masks outside of their homes. And 1/3 of Americans are not wearing masks at all. Last time when Sarah went grocery shopping, she only saw 1/4 of people wearing masks. Sarah is definitely concerned about the possibility of having a more severe course of covid if she gets it. So to be in a grocery store when 1/4 of the people were wearing masks and social distancing, and the other 3/4 of the people not wearing masks were not being respectful of boundaries. Sarah feels like it is selfish to behave like this, and has since been having her groceries delivered instead. She has not had an anxiety attack as she did after that experience in years. It was such an awful experience to be put into that position. The thing that stresses Sarah out is watching decisions being made that aren't supported by the data.   Stress Around Opening Back Up In Georgia, they have seen this plateau of cases, but the plateau is at a very high level. (27:12) There is no place that is exempt. It feels harder for Sarah to protect herself when it is not a community action to protect each other anymore.  This is not to say that everyone is disregarding the recommendations being made, but there are just enough people disregarding it to make Sarah feel like it is not safe to go out. That has been the hardest part for Sarah. They haven't announced how they are going to handle school in the fall. Sarah's husband's work is still trying to figure out all of their logistics for what they will do. So they are still waiting on information there before making decisions on how they will respond. Sarah feels much safer at home and in her own yard and her own neighborhood. It has been really challenging for Sarah psychologically. There are ways that we can be opening up the economy that is safer than what she is observing around her.   Antibody Testing One of the questions that Stacy has gotten many times is, does she have antibodies. (29:39) Stacy does not have antibodies. Matt and Stacy took a test early that they knew had a high false-negative rate, so she attributed it to that and she wasn't worried. Then they special ordered a more accurate test and Stacy took that last week and was crushed to find out that she does not have antibodies. This news overwhelmed Stacy because she had chickenpox twice, and there is some research to suggest that there are different types of immune responses to getting different kinds of illnesses. The body could then have a worse case the second time. Sarah also did antibody testing two weeks ago, which also came back negative. There are three different pieces to talk about this. One, how good the antibody tests are, and the answer for most of them is not that. Our immune systems are not fully developed until we are about one. It is fairly well-known that if you get one of these childhood diseases, like chickenpox, before you are one, there is a higher likelihood of not developing immunological memory. Immunological memory is the ways that our immune system remembers a specific pathogen so that the next time you are exposed to that pathogen it can mount a response before it replicates enough time to have symptoms. This is why the vast majority of people only get chickenpox once. For some people who are immune-compromised, this can definitely impact immunological memory. There have been hundreds of antibody tests that have gotten this emergency use authorization, and they are not all good. In fact, a small percentage of them are good. It is really important to know three different things about that test before selecting which one to use. The false-negative rate, the false positive rate, and if the test looks for both IgG and IgM.  Stacy and Sarah both used Access Labs. For more on tests, see here and here.   More on Testing We still don't know with covid what level of antibodies is enough to say you are protected. (38:54) This is where things get really complicated. There was a study published in Nature Medicine two weeks ago that actually looked at antibody production and compared severe cases versus mild. All of these antibody tests have sensitivity and specificity rates that are measured by confirming their test against samples from patients who were hospitalized with covid. So all of these antibody tests are confirmed against severe cases. What this Nature paper showed is that 40% of the people who were asymptomatic had no antibodies by the time their infection was over. So they actually showed that these people who were asymptomatic were shedding virus for an average of nineteen days. By the end of those three weeks, they had no measurable antibodies. 12.9% of their symptomatic group also has no antibodies by the time their symptoms were over. So if you are not going to measure antibodies in that perfect window there is a really high percentage chance that you are missing antibodies. If you have a mild case you don't even know necessarily know when that window is. We can deduce just from what we know about how the immune system works that a mild case would be much more similar to an asymptomatic case in terms of antibody production, then to a severe case. So antibodies might not be a really great test for measuring immunity.   Immune System Detection What is fascinating about the SARS-CoV-2 virus is that it evades detection by our immune systems. (41:17) Which is one of the reasons why it is a long illness. It gets a much longer time than normal to ramp up its viral replication before our immune system recognizes an invader. The virus itself can evade detection from our immune system by two different mechanisms. One is by interfering with the production of a class of pro-inflammatory cytokines. Long-term immunity may be via T cells and not antibodies, and Sarah explained this in greater detail. We have all of these studies showing now that the immune response to covid is type 1 driven. And that actually there is no change in B cell activation compared to a healthy person. So our immune response is not actually antibody driven. What is happening is that our immune system is going around and killing infected cells, not going around and making antibodies that neutralize the virus directly. There is a little bit of that, but not a ton. This is why we are not seeing the type of antibody formation that would help us measure immunity, which is not how our immune system is responding to this virus at all. So there are a lot of different ways that our immune system can remember a pathogen. We can have immunological memory through T cells. So we actually know from studies of SARS-CoV-1, which caused the SARS epidemic in 2002 and 2003, that that virus was also the response was also Th1 driven and not Th2.  We know that memory T cells can persist in patients for at least four years after infection. However, we don't know yet what happens to those memory T cells if it is long-term immunity or just a few years. Either way, at least for the near future, we can deduce that if you have had it you are still immune, but it is through this thing that we don't really have the testing capacity for. Research labs can test for memory T cells via a blood sample, but there is no test that has been developed to measure immunity in this way for anything else. It is not a normal test, it is not a normal thing, it is a technique used in research, but not phlebotomy. What a negative antibody test means for someone like Sarah is that she probably hasn't been exposed. For Stacy, it shows that she had a mild enough case that she didn't develop antibodies. However, her immune system is remembering it through T cells. For more information on the research surrounding T cells see here, here, here, and here.   Closing Thoughts The answer is the same answer that brings us back to the top of the show. (47:46) Stacy doesn't wear a mask for her, she wears a mask for somebody else. This is a topic that she wants to reiterate one more time. Had Stacy not have been wearing a mask and protecting others, who knows what could have happened to someone else. You never know if you have something and you are asymptomatic and could be passing it along to someone who is higher risk. No matter how healthy and fit you are, you are not safe from a severe course.  We don't want this for anyone. It is our job to keep people protected and wear masks. If someone is going out and not wearing a mask, you are impeding your decision on somebody else in a way that could harm them.  It is our job to be mindful of and take care of others. Stacy understands that wearing masks is new and different, but that is ok - that is what change is. We are implementing these changes to protect not just ourselves but other people. Sarah appreciates Stacy for raising these points. She has been shocked to see people's vehemence against masks that she has seen online. Sarah can fully appreciate the feeling of being over it and just wanting things to return to normal. The problem is that wanting things to be normal is not enough for things to actually be normal. We risk the lives of the most vulnerable in our community by pretending that it is done and over. We are at 2.2 million confirmed cases in the US, granted this also includes the people who have recovered. But we are seeing in roughly half of the states, cases are spiking again. This is in large part because of the reliance on opening things back up because we all are eager for things to get back to life as normal. However, normal can only be achieved if we each take responsibility to not just protect ourselves, but to also protect others, which includes social distancing, wearing a mask, and hand washing.  It is the thing that we do to take ourselves out of the pool of people spreading, which is how we get the reproductive number below 1 so that this can be a virus that fizzles out. Sarah feels the frustration and the longing for normalcy, but at the same time, this pandemic is still here. Until we have effective treatments or preventatives, this is what we've got - social distancing and mask-wearing.  If we can't figure out masks we are going to end up shut down and stuck in our homes again. One of the reasons why we have a plateau in so many states or cases decreasing is more related to the weather than it is related to mask-wearing and social distancing. When things get going in the fall, if we can't figure this out by then, the consequences are going to be more cases and more people dying. Sarah will not contribute to that and will wear a mask and social distance for as long as it takes us to get through this pandemic. Thank you listeners for tuning in. Stacy hopes that you are doing well, she knows this is a difficult time. Please remember that we are trying to help others as well as help ourselves. The things that are shown to reduce risk to continue to be done even if it is not required. We hope that you stay safe! And we will be back again next week! (58:53)

There’s uncertainty coming in the real estate world, and Matt Theriault and I want you to be prepared for it. If you’ve been following real estate “gurus” who’ve been doing wholesaling for less than ten years, then they’ve only been in a great market. You’re going to want advice from guys who have experienced some failure, and are ready to capitalize on that experience. The absolute best way to get ready for the shift in the market? You’re going to want to know more about creative financing. So Matt and I got together to teach you everything we know. And because we don’t want to overwhelm you with a thousand new things at once, we’ve broken this teaching up into three sections. Starting Tuesday, June 30th, we’ll get together in a webinar, and we’re going to be giving you all of our best stuff. Then we’ll give you two days to implement what you’ve learned, and we’ll come back together on Thursday for a coaching call. And then, we’ll give you a few more days to implement more ideas, and we’ll get back together the following Tuesday so that you can report back to us. This is huge because we are here to support you. We’re going to help you and maybe even partner with some of you guys on your deals. That’s what I’m most excited about. We will walk you through listings, and coach you on how to go back to sellers with a creative offer that they can’t refuse. —Find the buyers —Find the sellers —Do the marketing —Raise private money —Negotiate deals —Structure the deals —Do the paperwork It’s time to start calling yourself a real estate investor and stretch your deal-making repertoire. When the class starts on June 30th, the doors will close. Sign up at CreativeFinancingLab.com today! What’s Inside: —What if you could triple your deal flow by giving the seller a couple more options? —What kind of debt I should’ve avoided during the last housing crash. —Open up new markets where there’s low or no competition with these financing deals. —If you want to be successful in 2021, 2022, and 2023, you need to know how to make more than a cash offer. —Being a deal finder is the most valuable piece you bring to the transaction.

With so many choices at the bottleshop, it's sometimes easy to overlook old standbys. So Matt and Jeff recall and recommend some of what they consider the most underrated and underappreciated beers and breweries out there.

The Premier League has announced that teams can now name nine substitutes on the bench and bring five players on during matches – and that could be good news for Liverpool. The Liverpool ECHO’s LFC correspondent Paul Gorst joins Matt Addison to explain why – with the likes of Curtis Jones, Harvey Elliott and Neco Williams among those set to benefit the most. Another player who could get more minutes because of the rule change is veteran midfielder James Milner, who signed for the Reds exactly five years ago today from rivals Manchester City. So Matt and Paul discuss what must go down as Liverpool’s best-ever free transfer. Sorry Gary McAllister!The Liverpool Echo sends a twice-daily Liverpool FC bulletin out via email with the all latest news, views and analysis from Anfield. Sign up for this service here: https://communicatoremail.com/F/QvfUCndgGDRHFbKqw0Z7Ip/Join our Blood Red podcast group on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1656599847979758/ Watch and subscribe to our Blood Red videos on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-TbqyJWlhRPedk-if0rKtw?view_as=subscriber Visit the Liverpool ECHO website: https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/all-about/liverpool-fcDownload our Liverpool FC app for free: Apple – https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/lfc-echo/id1255495425 Android – https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.mirror.liverpoolfc

Matt's new boss Tyson Cornell is this week's guest on Life In The Stocks. Tyson is the head of Rare Bird, an LA-based publishing company that's releasing Matt's first book, LIFE IN THE STOCKS: Veracious Conversations with Musicians & Creatives, in September. So Matt wanted to take this opportunity to invite Tyson on to the show to talk to him about his personal and professional journey, from hardcore basement shows and DIY punk tours to his time working at the legendary LA bookstore Book Soup, the formation of Rare Bird, and the array of amazing writers and artists Tyson has worked with over the years.Don't forget, you can also pre-order the LIFE IN THE STOCKS book NOW via the link below. And if you type in the PROMO CODE "rbdevotee2020" you'll get 20% off all purchases between now and June 16.https://rarebirdlit.com/life-in-the-stocks-veracious-conversations-with-musicians-creatives/Follow Matt Stocks on Facebook / Twitter / Instagram: @mattstocksdjCheck out the Life In The Stocks Patreon page here: www.patreon.com/lifeinthestocks Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/lifeinthestocks. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Steve Hall, Matt Reiffer and Katharine Mottley from ACEC's Advocacy team joined Engineering Influence for our very first video podcast to give a government relations update on their Rescue, Recover, Rebuild grassroots advocacy campaign and the current status of the PPP program.Transcript:Host:Welcome to another edition of Engineering Influence, a podcast by American Council of Engineering Companies. Today we are bringing a new kind of twist to our podcast. We're in the world of Zoom and COVID-19. We're going to try to do something visual this time and have a government affairs update with our own Steve Hall who has been practically on Zoom since the day started to um bring us up to date on what's going on with the Paycheck Protection Program. I want to give you guys a little bit of an idea of where things stand here as far as the association goes and with our industry on the PPP program. In our latest member survey on May 8th, we found that 88% of respondents reported applying for the program. And 94% of those said that they'd been approved for the PPP program and another 4% are awaiting approval.Host:So it was very popular with the industry and 94% let's see here. And just under two thirds, 64% of those firms plan to use all of the loan funding while 22% plan to use some of it and return to rest only 2% right now or are considering returning all of the funds. So it's a program is being accessed by our industry, many other industries. It is a monumental effort by the SBA. This is not an agency that's actually designed to do something like this to take this amount of volume of applications and this kind of money and try to get it out to the economy. It's been going well but there've been issues with guidance. Treasury and SBA have been slow to get some certainty out there with certain aspects of their FAQ. And things have changed over the past couple of days. And Steve, if you want to kind of bring us up to date on, on where the program stands and, and what Treasury and SBA have done and what really, you know, it was going on with the program right now.Steve Hall:Yeah, thanks Jeff. Now we're seeing some encouraging developments really over the past week and a lot of anxiety up until now, and it's lingering a bit, but over two issues really. The issue of, of certifying good faith in terms of economic uncertainty, in other words, is, is the firm worthy to, to receive this loan. And I think what we saw released last week was encouraging basically loan holders at $2 million and below are essentially defacto certified by virtue of the size of the loan. And then the guidance goes on to say that for borrowers above that $2 million SBA is going to work with them through a process to help them to to figure out if they can meet that certification threshold, but a much more encouraging tone, a much more deferential tone than perhaps we had seen in, in previous weeks.Steve Hall:Where there was a great deal of concern generated about you know, what SBA and the federal government take a very punitive approach to borrowers really outside of what we thought was within the intent of Congress. I think Congress really wanted to be very deferential to to borrowers and try to structure the program as such. So that was a good step on that question of certification and and I expect that we hope we'll be seeing some additional information come out on that. The next issue was loan forgiveness. You know, the core of the program and we did see some information come out earlier this week. You know, the, the application for forgiveness and the kind of data and criteria that SBA is looking for, which gives us a sense of what it was, what it's going to take to get some, most, all of your loan forgiven and some guidance with that.Steve Hall:I think we are expecting to see additional guidance, more comprehensive guidance forthcoming. But again, this has been helpful to our firms, to our CPAs, to, to get at least an initial sense of what the agency is looking for to satisfy that question. So, you know, good news over the last week, not a complete catalog of information that we need and where you're hoping to see that relatively soon. And as if history is any judge, you know, it may be that con or SBA and treasury continue to put out guidance in small traunches and then refine that guidance responding to questions from organizations like ACEC. And then at some point we may actually have to go back to Congress if there are structural problems or challenges that are really beyond SBAs per view to to fix where we have to amend the law. We'll do that. But we'll work hand in glove with our members before we do that and work with our CPAs. We've got a lot of very smart people working with us to you know, go through this information and to come up with recommendations that we need to deliver both to the agency and to Congress.Host:Because it is a popular program. And I think that the universal call or answer from, from the private sector is that they want it to be a success. So that there's a lot of, you know, it's not a adversarial relationship with, with, but the SBA and Treasury, it's more just informing them of what we need, what we need to actually make this program work as it's intended. So it's good to see that that guidance come out. And again, you know, as we get this information, of course we're putting it out anywhere we can. So we have our Coronavirus Resource page of course, which is on acec.org. It's right on the homepage when you see that. And, and we're making sure to put all this information into our normal communications to members. There's going to be a weekly message coming out from our CEO, Linda Darr. It's going to be focusing on a lot of what Steve just mentioned here and everything's been linked and it's all available for you.Steve Hall:And Jeff, just to add to that you know, the education side of ACEC is teed up and ready. We've got a panel of CPAs that will take part in a free webinar. Once that additional guidance comes out, we expect that we'll be well attended and we will redo it as often as we need to and as often as new guidance comes out but you know, but the organization really geared itself around getting that information in the hands of our members as soon as possible so they can make good business decisions. And and we're certainly going to continue with that.Steve Hall:And I know that you've been, like I said earlier, you know, you've been busy all day on Zoom meeting after Zoom meeting. We are right in the midst of a larger advocacy push under the Rescue, Rebuild and Recover kind of theme and it's been a virtual grassroots effort. Letters, emails, meetings, Zoom meetings with members of Congress. How many meetings do you think you've been on right now with, with members of the House and Senate with ACEC members across the country?Steve Hall:Gosh, I think we're North of total North of 70 meetings so far. And and these are happening. I've been on a few today and I know my colleagues Matt Reiffer, Katharine Mottley have been participating in these as well. And really the message has been coming back has been very encouraging, you know, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle. They get it. I mean, they want, they very much want to support a recovery agenda built around infrastructure and you know, there's lingering questions as there always is about how to pay for it. But a great deal of interest in doing this. I think you know, as you've heard me say before, I think Congress is still in emergency response mode and still thinking near term needs. I think what, what may be emerging as the next package of assistance may actually be built around assisting state and local government agencies, DOD, transit agencies things of that nature.Steve Hall:Obviously that's something we're very supportive of, you know, anything that will prevent, you know, current projects from being interrupted or shutting down. We want to be supportive of and there does seem to be an inkling of bipartisan support emerging from this approach. So that may be the catalyst for the next package. You know, as, as Katharine indicated, there's sort of hopeful expectation. We might see something in June on that package and and then hopefully, you know, Congress then switches gears and thanks a bit longer term, you know, in a multiyear recovery agenda, you know, built around what Congress has to do this year. They've got to do a surface transportation bill to replace the fast fact by September 30, and they've got to do a big water package. And the Senate stepping out, they, they have reported all of those bills out of committee unanimously. Which is great to see. And and that gives you know, the congressional leaders in the Senate the option to package all of them together into one big package or to move them separately if they wish, but actually to get something done this year, but they got us, they got to move quickly because the clock is ticking.Host:Yeah, it's not in their favor. And you mentioned, you mentioned Matt and Katharine and I think they have joined us, so I'm going to switch over to a view and bring them in. And thank you both for joining in. So we have really the the, the feet on the, the, the boots on the ground here for the PPP and surface transportation effort. So Matt and Katherine, thanks for joining the interview here. Steve was going over, a lot of the PPP work has been done. A lot of the guidance coming out and of course the webinars and the meetings with members of Congress, part of our advocacy program. I mean, I know you've been on some of the meetings as well. How do you think they've gone, this is new, it's virtual instead of going actually into somebody's office and talking to somebody, you have a screen like this where you know, you have maybe 10 people or less and a member of Congress. How, how has it compared to what, you know, the traditional shoe leather lobbying that you guys do?Katharine Mottely:You know, Jeff, I think that's a really interesting question. I mean it is a different kind of connection. On the one hand you don't get that face to face. You, you can't really read the body language and get and get sort of that better sense of the story behind what they're telling you. On the other hand, I think it has sort of opened up these meetings to a larger swath of our members. The meetings that I've been on have had, you know, 25 members from the state with their senators and for some of them some of those folks may not have been able travel to DC on a normal basis anyway. So, you know, I think that sort of greater access for both, for our members and for the legislators can be a good thing.Matt Reiffer:I would agree with that. In the, in the few that I've been on what's nice is you get the Congressmen or the Senator's undivided attention for a block of time. When you're meeting in DC, almost inevitably you get interrupted by votes or committee meetings or markups or important briefings or something. But particularly for the house members who have largely been back in their districts you know, they're not, they're not getting pulled away into those sorts of things. So you get, you know, 20 to 30 minutes of their undivided attention, which is really tremendous. And there, you know, they are so eager to hear about what's going on with their constituents, where their local businesses. So it was valuable for them to hear not just here's our advocacy priorities, but you know, here's what we're working on. Here's what we're experiencing, here's what we're concerned about, you know here are plans for, you know, reopening our offices or keeping our employees safe. Here's the, you know, here's what we're doing, worksite protocols and safety, you know, just a range of things that they care about. And then, yeah, how are the aid packages that we've already approved working for you? Are they helpful? What do we need to change? Cause they want to know. So this has been really valuable input for them.Steve Hall:You know, Jeff, Matt made a really good point there with respect to, you know, how certainly our members reviewed on these calls. You know, because there are great conversations with lawmakers and the lawmakers and seeing each one of those faces on the screen and they're often zoom calls like this. Each one of those faces represents a firm that employs many people. So that, that, that ACC member talking is not really talking just for himself or herself. But for all of the folks that work in the firm and and that reality is not lost on lawmakers and the staff that participates on these calls these, these, these contacts resonate and really do have meaning.Host:And it's just not, the meetings are fantastic. So I think it provides a, it's a new way of reaching out and talking to your member of Congress in person, virtually in person. Like I said, Katharine, if you have 25 people on a call, it's hard, you're hard pressed to find, you know, 25 people don't get them into an office. Even, even a, even a ranking where a senior Member, you know, their offices aren't big enough to fit 25 people in normally. So being able to get people on a screen, you know, you get more, more bang for your buck there. But then we're also doing the traditional, you know, letter writing. We're doing, you know, emails to Members of Congress and of course, social media activity. Matt, I mean we, we've, we've topped a significant number of compared to, I think the last major push was on tax reform and I think we've kind of eclipsed the number of, of emails and messages sent. What's the last you have the last tally available? I know, I don't, don't want to spring it on you, but I know thatMatt Reiffer:I don't, but I can click over and check and get them.Host:Yeah, no, that would be great 'cause I know that the number is significant.Matt Reiffer:Get you real time information. Hang on just a sec.Host:Yeah. that would be awesome because again, you know, on the, on the acc.org website you know, you'll see it right there. When you land on the page, you'll see advocacy and that takes you to the R3 - Rescue, Recover, Rebuild advocacy site where you can click to tweet. It has issue sheets. It has social media resources for, for grassroots activism. And it's really a one stop shop for everything that you need to take part in this.Steve Hall:You know, Jeff during tax reform. And Katharine knows this. I mean, we generated something on the order of 6,000 contacts with lawmakers and which was far and away bigger than we've ever done. And I think when, when Matt last checked this, we were rapidly closing in on that amount. So this campaign is going to go into the summer and I have no doubt that we're going to Go well beyond what we did previously.Katharine Mottely:And you know, Steve, just to add to that, I've heard comments from a couple of our members who remember that advocacy effort during tax reform and part of what they've communicated back is that we didn't realize that we could have such an effect. We didn't realize that our engagement through ACC and contacting our members of Congress could result in such a good outcome. And so a lot of them would have remembered that and taken it forward to this time. And they see that what they do and say and the emails they send can make a difference.Matt Reiffer:I just checked - we've got 2,060 member firm advocates who have taken action and delivered just about 6,400 messages to the Hill.Steve Hall:That may be a new record right there.Matt Reiffer:Tremendous outcome.Host:And again, yeah, this is, this is, this is in its early stages. It's going to evolve as the situation evolves. You know, we're calling for of course a focus on an infrastructure based recovery agenda. Of course that's going to be focused again and Steve, like you mentioned, FAST Act reauthorization and WRDA - two pieces of legislation that are must do's must pass bills and they're already teed up. Each chamber is working on its own respect of tracks and as you noted in the Senate, they've been marked out unanimously. There's no real bipartisan schism when it comes to WRDA and surface - they are a lot closer than people think. So the, the continued push by our grassroots to get this through is going to be significant.Steve Hall:It's going to be critical. Jeff, not to interrupt cause we've, we're, we're hoping to see how spills emerge in the month of June. And so you know, it'd be great if we could double those numbers in the month of June and and give some additional push behind house lawmakers to, to at least get this out of committee in the month of June and get them ready for floor consideration.Host:Absolutely. Well we covered PPP, we covered kind of the advocacy campaign and the, and the work you guys are doing on, on, on the individual member meetings, but then also the webinars and everything else that's going on. I mean it's, it seems like every day there's, there's, there's another webinar or three webinars that we're running to, to make sure we're covered. Anything else to think of as we enter kind of an odd Memorial day weekend?Steve Hall:Ah, you know, just, just the, the issues we've talked about and then side issues, you know, we're working to make sure that issues relative to from overhead are addressed and protected. You know, there is a, you know, regulatory action on the part of the department of defense that would require firms that receive forgiven loans to provide their federal clients with a credit to offset those loans. We don't think that really was the intent of Congress. We've pushed back and we actually have developed a letter that a number of organizations are signing on to, to help us push back. So that's an ongoing priority and something that Matt has been working with the rest of the team on. And as well as similar efforts in issues and potential concerns on the transportation side with respect to state DOTs and the Federal Highway Administration. You know, in addition to the big issues in Congress, there's a lot of granular issues that we're working on with respect to those issues and you know, tax issues and the tax deductability questions that are outstanding relative to firms that receive PPP loans and something that Katharine has been working on.Matt Reiffer:Yeah, I was going to say Katharine and I were a little late coming onto this call because we were just coming off a small firm roundtable with about 40, 45 participants, a really great forum for information sharing and helpful for us to listen to and hear what firms are experiencing. And yeah, there are a lot of interest in both of those issues. A lot of those firms took PPP loans, are interested in forgiveness, interested in the tax component of that as well as the potential impact on their overhead rates in terms of loan forgiveness and how that may be treated for federal state contractors. So yeah, very timely and yeah, very interesting.Host:Yeah, it's nonstop with government affairs right now. So I know it's we're coming on to about half an hour. I know you guys have a busy packed schedule, so I really appreciate you all taking the time to to appear on a kind of an oddly I guess just figure we live on Zoom now. Might as well tried to do a video interview instead of just the the, the good old audio podcast that we do. So thank you for being on. And again, this is Engineering Influence brought to you by the American Council of Engineering Companies. Katharine, Matt, Steve have a great Memorial Day weekend. Stay safe, stay healthy and and stay engaged with us 'cause we are off to the races. Just go to acec.org click on advocacy. It's right there on the homepage. It'll take you right there to the R3 advocacy page, all the resources that you need to take advantage of the grassroots campaign we're running. It's all there for you and just take advantage of it. So thank you all for being on. 

So Matt and I didn't have much to discuss before the episode started. Then we ran into some theories and wow......We might have missed a thing or two --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/am-podcastbasically-one-piece/support

Most dentists in the US were forced to cease the vast majority of operations last week. Our crisis necessitates emergency changes to our normal content. So Matt introduces his wife--and professional certified life coach--Ellen Broen. She takes us through taking time to purposely vent anger, surviving as a dentist today after never having worked at home, and solid book recommendations--quarantine or not! Plus, Ellen lends a special invitation to our listeners. eebroen@gmail.com

Now this is a story all about how the history of Hollywood got flip turned upside down! So Matt and Ryan would like to take a minute, just sit right there, because it will actually take closer to 61 minutes thank you enjoy. #rapping

Welcome to a viral episode of Pop Culture Unboxing! Unfortunately, the only news is that everything is canceled. So Matt, Ryan, and Zach just discuss coronavirus and all related tangents! Check us out all over the internet!   www.popcultureunboxing.com www.facebook.com/popcultureunboxing www.instagram.com/pop_culture_unboxing www.twitter.com/PopCultureUnbox   Matt: www.twitter.com/mattrossvo www.youtube.com/channel/UCwXWi0uyu9d6b6qYH4iNHlQ www.twitch.tv/jan_jinkle Ryan: www.twitter.com/redsteakryan www.youtube.com/channel/UCoRhGNxkSO_mK0dDbosjG5g   Zach: www.twitter.com/little_lief

How to profit from a bear market? Find out from Investing expert Matt Mcall.  We headed into this Bear Market fast in fact we hit one of our worst days since black monday 1987, and the $vix is showing us that fear and panic selling is at an all time high. But fear isn't the answer what you need to know is how to make money in a bear market. So Matt gives you his top 5 tips for How to profit from in bear market In this episode Matt has you covered on everything, he talks about past pull backs and recessions, The coronna virus and it's role in the stock market emergency, Advice for millenial investors, tell you why Robinhood sucks, Possible growth opportunities for long term investors in the stock market, the FED, Bitcoin, and so much more! Get the right investing mindset and profit even in a bear market!

Friends, we're all a little on edge. No one is sure whether or not to stay in or go out. To quarantine or not to quarantine.  A lot of us are staying home, trying our best to stay healthy.  So Matt and I decided that this week it would be fun to watch an episode of Hart of Dixie together! Let's get together (virtually) and watch "Lovesick Blues" (S2E13) AKA: The One Where Zoe Quarantines Bluebell because of the flu! Press play when we do, and listen to our commentary. Matt's a big fan of Lavon's wardrobe. Christine tries not to get too political. And why the heck do all of Annabeth's dresses look like different La Croix cans?  Watch along with us! (And don't worry - "Sparks Fly" with Tamar Barbash is coming next week! And there WILL be a full episode for "Lovesick Blues" when it comes up in real time!) Don't forget to join the conversation on Twitter @HartOfDixiePod, on Instagram at longlivethehartpod, or e-mail the show longlivethehartpod@gmail.com! Link to our Hart of Dixie "Rammer Jams" Spotify Playlist: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4Xebgdnbwl37yeOK4b1xJH

Summary: Today's podcast is an oldie but goodie.  A podcast we first released in May 2019 was so popular we decided to share it again! In this episode, we take you on a journey of how self-service has woven its way into so many of our daily activities from paying for gas to checking in for a flight and really what are the consumer expectations for these types of offerings.  Resources: Chart your Path for Retail Growth - Connect with our Retail Experts here Blog: Retail Self-Service: Today, it's WAY more than self-checkout  Transcription: Amy Lombardo:                Hello again, this is Amy Lombardo, your host for this episode of Commerce Now. In today's episode we're joined by Matt Redwood who is the head of self service checkout for Diebold Nixdorf's retail division. And today we'll discuss how self- service has woven its way into so many of our daily activities from paying for gas to checking into a flight and really what are the consumer expectations for these types of offerings. So hi, Matt and welcome to COMMERCE NOW. Matt Redwood:                Thank you for having me. Amy Lombardo:                Always a pleasure to talk to our friends in the retail division. So Matt, let's talk a little bit about your background first. Can you tell the listeners a little bit about yourself? Matt Redwood:                Absolutely. So as you said, my title is head of self service for Diebold Nixdorf. Been in the company about 15 months now. It was brand new position within the company and DN saw the need to put more focus on the self-service checkout. So look after the self-service checkout business for Europe, Middle East and Africa. I've been in and around self-service my whole career. I've been in retail for a nearly 10 years.  So, I've worked with multiple different retailers all across the globe on their self-service strategy. But also that self-service implementations to make sure they're deploying the right solution into the right place. Amy Lombardo:                Very good. So Matt, what I wanted to do was start at a very high level and talk about some macro trends that are shaping the retail industry because you can't get away with reading any headline of any major industry publication these days without seeing something about self-service in there. So can you talk a little bit about some of those macro trends that are shaping the retail industry today? Matt Redwood:                Sure. So self-service in the form that we see at most grocery stores has been around for 15 years, which you know in the retail landscape is a long time. But it's taken a long time I think for retailers really to understand self-service checkout to get to a position that deploying it in the right way and of course for the consumers to adopt it in the right way. I think we're really at a tipping point now where from a consumer perspective is, there's self-service in every part of our life. Whether you go to the gas station, whether you go to the train station on the app or you go to the grocery, there is a self-service option and what we see in our data is that consumers really now see it as point of convenience for them. They see the benefits of self-service checkout and they've moved past the point of not only wanting it but they actually now dictate it to retain it. Matt Redwood:                So we have a lot of retail customers that come and want to work with us purely because that's [00:02:30] amazing that stores are actually demanding it. I think when self-service initially came on the scene and a lot of retailers saw it as a great way to strip costs out of that store. And so a lot of retailers, particularly in grocery, really went for very very high density self-service checkout deployment. They stripped a lot of stuff out of their stores but what they came to realize that actually they saw a bit of a drop in the consumer experience within their stores and I think the assumption was that they put self-service checkout and they remove staff, customers will use it and everything will be fine. But actually what happened is that had a detrimental effect on the consumer experience in the store because there weren't staff to help where consumers really valued the experience within the store. Matt Redwood:                So what other retailers now do is actually, it's not about a reduction in staff, it's about a redistribution in staff. Amy Lombardo:                Right. Matt Redwood:                If you take tasks that were normally done by the system and you give it to the customer to do, that frees up that member of staff to then be in other areas of the store to make sure that customers can find products, or the shelves are well stocked, they're well priced. So actually getting the experience right or getting the efficiency right at the self-service checkout as a knock on effect on the customer experience all the way right back through the store. Amy Lombardo:                Right. So Matt, can you explain how consumer's knowledge and their comfort level is shifting in terms of how consumers are engaging with the self-service technology today versus maybe what they did when retailers first started introducing it many years ago? Matt Redwood:                Sure. So I think there's really a perception shift with self-service checkout that's happened over recent years. I think when self-service was first introduced to stores, there was a bit of negativity and a bit of push back from consumers because they saw it as a replacement of the members of staff within the store, especially very loyal consumers that went to the same store every single week to do their shopping. They built a reputation with the member of staff. The thought of that member of staff being taken away and replaced by a machine was hit with a lot of negativity from consumers. The shift that's really happened over the last couple of years is consumers value the choice, the choice to check out or to interact with a brand, a retailer in the way that they want. Matt Redwood:                So now what we see a lot of retailers doing is focusing on giving consumers as many channels to shop within their stores or checkout within their stores as possible. So the role of the assistant has changed completely from just a member of staff and the checkout to really kind of a customer experience manager within the store. So the tasks that would normally be done by an assistant at a point of sale system will now be done by the consumer either on a mobile device or self-service checkout or a kiosk. Matt Redwood:                And that frees up that member of staff to actually deliver the right level of customer experience within that store. So I think the perceptional shift has been away from that machine is taking a member of staff's job to actually that machine is an option for me to check out of the store and it's freed up the member of staff to deliver a better customer experience somewhere else in the store where I wouldn't normally get it. Amy Lombardo:                So Matt, I wanted to comment on what you just said because I think about how when I go to my local grocery store and I use self-checkout all the time, maybe because I'm a control freak and I like to see what I'm actually scanning and paying for. I let my kids do it sometimes, but then I hear time and time again, you'll see certain generations that come up and they say, I don't want to use this, this takes longer. And there's always a problem with it. And I'm just wondering is that a perception issue? Is it a training issue? You know, can you comment on that a little bit in terms of maybe just generational preferences and using self-service? Matt Redwood:                Sure. I always say to retailers, deploying self-service checkout is not as simple as deploying a point of sale solution because innately it's a change in so many processes in your store. So we really refer to self-service checkout as a business change solution because it enables retailers A. To make their stores more efficient and but also B. Delivering a much, much better customer experience to their consumers. But the byproduct of that is because of the interaction is so different between the brand and the consumer, that retailer has to change so many processes in their stores for self-service to really be efficient and work well. Matt Redwood:                So things like cash management, how they staff their stores, how the staff interact with the customers, how their customers interact with them as a brand, all changes. So there's a huge amount of operational shift that has to happen. So I'd say a big part of getting self-service right is how you operationalize it. Ultimately it puts a lot more onus on the staff to deliver a better customer experience because you're taking away so much human interaction within the store. But when [00:07:30] staff do interact with consumers, it's that much more important that they deliver a much, much better service. So I think it's probably a combination of not just the technology but how you staff the stores, how you operationalize your stores. It all comes together to really deliver the right customer experience. Amy Lombardo:                Got It. And so in self-checkout or really varying ways to shop, it goes beyond just self-checkout. So there's smart phones, there's handheld scanning devices in the stores, [00:08:00] all of these different types of self service options. How have these changed the way consumers engage with brands? Matt Redwood:                Well, I think it's giving consumers a lot more choice in terms of how they do interact with the brand. If you think about a customer journey of a grocery shopper five years ago, they'd make the decision that they want to go shopping and that may be influenced by family or what they're going to eat tonight, what they have in the fridge. [00:08:30] They'd make the choice to go to the store. They'd shop that store, they'd pick their products, they'd go to the checkout, they'd check out and they'd leave. Matt Redwood:                Now what we're seeing is the customer journey is actually a lot more cyclical and yeah, retailers really have to focus on the digital journey. So how do I influence that consumer when they're away from my store, when they're away from my brand? So yeah, while they're watching type TV, how do I influence them to actually shop at my store, rather go to a competitor store and then how do I drive that consumer into that store [00:09:00] and enrich that customer journey when they get there? Matt Redwood:                So give them the choice to shop your brand in the way that they want. Once they get to your store, enable them to shop the store in the way that they want, but put the right technology in there to enrich that consumer experience. Apply the right level of staffing to the store as well to supplement that technology journey. Allow them to check out in the way that they want. I think now more than ever we're seeing retailers really put the most amount of choice in that technology [00:09:30] that consumers can use to interact with a brand than ever before. Matt Redwood:                But then it doesn't stop when they leave the store. Once they left the store, how do I influence that consumer to come back my store and actually driving the consumer into the store and actually making sure they come back is as a bigger part of the customer journey as the in store piece. So just giving the consumer a good in store experience isn't enough anymore. You've really got to enrich the consumer experience all the way around the circle. Amy Lombardo:                [00:10:00] Do we see custom retail apps tied into self service options? So I think of Target for example, and I have their cartwheel app and I always get special discounts given to me just through the app. And then a lot of times then it's for the ease of self service. So do we see that customized apps maybe have any type of leverage on how self-service is used? Matt Redwood:                Yeah, absolutely. So [00:10:30] when you think about a mobile app, and more than ever, every single consumer has a mobile, a piece of technology that allows them to effectively never go to a store again. But what retailers can do with that app is they can actually influence that consumer come to that particular brand or that particular store. And as you said that may be through personalized adverts, it could be through promotions or through a loyalty system. But ultimately that's an amazing tool for retailers to, I wouldn't say target [00:11:00] specific consumers, but definitely engage with consumers when they're away from that store or make sure they come into their store. And then really the use case flips because if you take the online second screening type of example of, I want to buy a TV. I might go into a store and look at TVs, but there I'll be using my mobile phone to second screen. And actually I'm researching prices all the time. Matt Redwood:                So I'm now a professional shopper because I'm price matching as I'm going through the consumer journey. So it's really important that [00:11:30] retailers don't shy away from mobile. They actually embrace it because consumers don't like to be forced down a particular path. They want choice and they want clarity as well. Clarity of what they're buying. Clarity of pricing. So really retailers have to accept that every consumer has that mobile device and really put a lot of focus on using that to enrich the in store experience. Matt Redwood:                Of course., as well, consumers could apply the application to allow them to actually shop the store. So scanning products and [00:12:00] actually use it as the checkout. So yeah, self-service checkout then becomes a supplement to a mobile application because it allows them to finalize the journey within the store, potentially pay cash or pay card or get help from an assistant or coupons or loyalty. So really the self-service checkout on the mobile device shouldn't be seen as competing technologies. They really supplement each other. Amy Lombardo:                That's an interesting way of looking at it. So when a retailer is ready to make the shift to self-service or they need to modify their existing plan, something's not working right, maybe they are ready to add on some new functionality. What's your advice on how that retailer begins? And I ask you this because I go back to one of your initial comments here was the over simplification of self-service solution. So you can't just set it and forget it. So you know, talk to us a little bit about some of those advice pieces. Matt Redwood:                [00:13:00] Absolutely. So really important, as I said previously, not to consider self-service checkout as another point of sale solution. And as you said, which I'm going to use actually set and forget. We don't want any sets and forgets because it's not a guarantee that our consumer is going to use that device. So if anyone wants any help with that process, we have some great advisory services where we work with retailers specifically on identifying the right solution to put into their stores A. For what they're trying to achieve as a [00:13:30] business but B. For their consumers. So staff from a data point of view work out what the trading profiles of your store are. Work out what you're trying to achieve by putting self-service checkout at the store. Is it efficiency, is it customer experience or is it just because everyone else is doing it or your biggest competitor is doing it? Matt Redwood:                That's quite an important [inaudible 00:13:51] to start from. And then I think really focused on the customer journey. So why do your shoppers shop at your store and what kind of customer experience are they [00:14:00] expecting? If you can nail those three points, then you can really identify what type of self-service checkout to put into your store. But then more importantly, how you operationalize it within your store. Matt Redwood:                So the landscape that we see now with retailers, particularly with retailers that are quite far advanced down the self-service checkout journey, they're not just putting one type of self-service checkout in to a store, they're putting three, four, five different types of self-service into a store and really focusing that particular solution [00:14:30] at a particular customer demographic. A. It delivers them the best operational efficiencies but it also delivers the best customer experience for their consumer, because it gives them the choice. So I would say focus on the operations and focus on getting the right solution for your stores and for your customers and then operationalize it in the right way. Amy Lombardo:                That was a good way of listing it out here for our listeners. So you talked about some of these new industries or just [00:15:00] the fact that retailers want to get on board if they're not there with self-service. Can you talk a little bit about maybe some of the unexpected types of industries that you're seeing? Because we all know of the grocery model or the C-store that it's pretty easy to grab something quickly, pay and go. But what are some of those like unexpected industries? Matt Redwood:                Sure. Self-service has been around for almost 15 years in the grocery industry, but for the first time I think retailers outside of grocery are starting [00:15:30] to sit up and notice self-service checkout as a way of enabling them to deliver the right in-store experience. So we're talking to fashion retailers, the petrol retailers, the GM retailers, the DIY retailers. Ultimately there should be no bounds to self-service checkout. The same person that shops in a grocery store is going to be the same person that goes to the DIY store on a Saturday because they're renovating the house or goes to the petrol convenience store because they want to buy petrol for their car [00:16:00] or takes their family shopping and goes through a fashion retailer. It's the same consumer. So I think we as a supplier to the industry really need to realize that actually every consumer is the same whatever shopping type their shopping in. And so if a consumer is demanding self-service in a grocery environment, why wouldn't they expect it in any other shopping environment? Amy Lombardo:                I think it makes our lives much easier and it gives you that piece of empowerment and control your shopping experience a little bit. If you're making the list [00:16:30] and you're checking your coupons, why shouldn't you just be able to finish the transaction as well? But maybe that's just me. Matt Redwood:                I completely agree. Amy Lombardo:                So Matt, I think this is a good place to wrap up our discussion today and I thank you for joining us here and sharing your insights. And to our listeners out there, if you're interested in more information on self service and retail, go to dieboltnixdorf.com/retailgrowth or click on the link in the podcast show notes. Until next time, please keep checking back on iTunes or however [00:17:00] you listen to podcasts for new topics on COMMERCE NOW.  

Kevin Callahan on Engineering Culture by InfoQ, Matt Wallaert on The Product Science Podcast, Mirco Hering on Troubleshooting Agile, Ryan Ripley on Agile FM, and Adam Tornhill on Maintainable. I’d love for you to email me with any comments about the show or any suggestions for podcasts I might want to feature. Email podcast@thekguy.com. And, if you haven’t done it already, don’t forget to hit the subscribe button, and if you like the show, please tell a friend or co-worker who might be interested. This episode covers the five podcast episodes I found most interesting and wanted to share links to during the two week period starting February 3, 2020. These podcast episodes may have been released much earlier, but this was the fortnight when I started sharing links to them to my social network followers. KEVIN CALLAHAN ON ENGINEERING CULTURE BY INFOQ The Engineering Culture by InfoQ podcast featured Kevin Callahan with host Shane Hastie. Kevin helps people solve complex problems together. Sometimes that looks like Scrum, Kanban, and technical practices, and sometimes that looks like organizational development and strategy. Shane asked about positive organizational development. Kevin says that positive organizational development is an interconnected body of work with the core idea that true sustained change doesn’t happen when we simply try to fix things that are weak or broken. Positive change suggests that you go to the places that are already good and you amplify them and the places that weren’t working so well cease to be relevant. Shane asked what this looks like in practice. Kevin says that, because he is actively inviting people into the room and looking to see what the group already knows together, he finds it energizing and refreshing and people lean into it and feel like they belong there. Shane asked how someone in a position of influence who wanted to create some kind of change in their organization would approach the organization and their people. Kevin likes to start with open questions that get the people to imagine everything was right in the company and ask what people are  doing differently, what customers are saying, what quality is like, and what stories people are telling each other when they don’t think anyone is listening. These positive questions get people to imagine what could be and starts in motion the change effort that makes it possible to achieve the change. You may get answers like “I only want to work four hours a day,” or, “I want six months of paid vacation,” but eventually you may get answers like, “I really wish I had the opportunity to learn more things.” Shane connected Kevin’s ideas to Dave Snowden’s notion of sense-making and asked how you make sense from non-viable statements like, “I want to work four hours a day,” so that you arrive at more viable questions like, “How do I stay at home more?” Kevin says that instead of reacting to non-viable requests by blowing them off, ask follow up questions to build a bigger narrative. You could ask clean language questions like, “What kind of four hour workday? What would come before your four-hour workday? What would come after?” This builds a bigger narrative that helps you respect something that is valuable to this person while still respecting the organization’s collective needs. Apple Podcasts link: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/kevin-callahan-on-positive-organisational-design-complex/id1161431874?i=1000462364585 Website link: https://soundcloud.com/infoq-engineering-culture/kevin-callahan-on-positive-organisational-design-and-complex-systems MATT WALLAERT ON THE PRODUCT SCIENCE PODCAST The Product Science Podcast featured Matt Wallaert with host Holly Hester-Reilly. Trained as a behavioral scientist, Matt is Chief Behavioral Officer at Clover. He says he is always fascinated by outliers, those customers that are using his products in unconventional ways. He says that having conversations with these users can sometimes push you in startling directions to build new things or think in different ways.  The behavioral science team is given behavioral outcomes that the company needs to accomplish such as, “everybody needs to get a flu shot,” and figure out what needs to be done to make it happen. They look at two groups of outliers: people who consistently did it and suddenly stopped and those that consistently did not do it and suddenly started. They found that people who get the flu shot for the first time often do so because of the birth of grandchild. This led them to start a flu shot campaign that was personalized to your personal health goal. Instead of saying, “You should get the flu shot for you,” it often said, “You should get it so you don’t get your wife sick, so you don’t get your grandchild sick, or so you don’t get your church congregation sick.” He contrasted this collectivist form of motivation with products like Spotify that are all about benefitting the user directly. Expanding the set of motivations we examine to include people’s willingness to do things on behalf of another person, on behalf of a culture, or on behalf of an identity, he says, is undeveloped in modern product management. If there is a number one product hobgoblin of early founders, it is their belief that the pros outweigh the cons. They massively overweight the pros and massively underweight the cons. But lately, there have been a whole host of startups that are not about providing additional value but simply about minimizing costs, and not just economic costs but also mental attention costs. Finance companies think about their products as “share of wallet”. For, say, American Express, of the financial transactions that a customer performs, they want to know how much of that is going on an American Express card. Their job is to maximize this share of wallet. Similarly, Facebook attempts to maximize share of attention. This is an impoverished view of product-building. Companies like this are leaving off the “I” in ROI. One of the problems of the “share of attention” view of the world, is that it means everyone is in competition with everyone else. Even products that seem far apart, such as a product in the exercise space and one the video game space, are competing for share of attention. Matt thinks people are going to get smarter about where they spend their attention. A whole new product class will come out around automating the things we don’t care about. The rise and fall of Blue Apron, he says, was a dramatic characterization of the misunderstanding of automation. Blue Apron sold the world on automated food. That is not what Blue Apron is. They went on to talk about the desire for statistical significance in every experiment and how the context of the experiment drastically affects how much certainty is really needed. He talked about how most quantitative analysts who see an intervention that is measured to work 80% of the time in the sample of the population measured would say, “I got nothing,” and end the experiment. So Matt says, “Let me tell you about this intervention: It is a tiny pill, dissolves in your mouth, has no side effects of any kind, costs a penny to produce, tastes like unicorns and rainbows, and instantly cures all forms of cancer forever. Maybe we should further investigate this intervention.” He compared his book Start At The End to Thaler and Sunstein’s Nudge. His book is more about how to create a process, a team, and an organization around behavioral science approaches. Instead of running his team as a research organization, he runs it like a factory. This makes it easier for an executive to understand how it all works. He says his book is more a handbook. Half the book is how you go about building the intervention design process and the other half is more advanced topics. He is seeing it being taught in college courses in disparate programs, including business administration, marketing, and implementation science. Apple Podcasts link: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/matt-wallaert-hypothesis-great-product-teams-use-behavioral/id1451623431?i=1000462456956 Website link: https://anchor.fm/product-science-podcast/episodes/The-Matt-Wallaert-Hypothesis-Great-Product-Teams-Use-Behavioral-Science-to-Build-Products-That-Create-Change-ea3s54 MIRCO HERING ON TROUBLESHOOTING AGILE The Troubleshooting Agile podcast featured Mirco Hering with hosts Douglas Squirrel and Jeffrey Fredrick. Mirco is the author of DevOps for the Modern Enterprise. They talked about dogmatism. Marco says that he sees Agile and DevOps as a toolbelt to solve problems in organizations but not everyone he works with thinks this way. One of the Agile coaches he once worked with said on his first day, “You shouldn’t call these user stories. They are PBIs (product backlog items).” Mirco asked, “What value would that provide? Nobody was confused about the term user story. If anything, you are now adding confusion.” He sees this kind of dogmatism in many organizations. He says that, for him, being pragmatically agile always comes down to identifying the next experiment and having rigorous continuous improvement. Squirrel asked Mirco how one can help companies that aren’t familiar with agile ideas to avoid the dogmatism and make the pragmatic choices that improve their process. Mirco believes it starts with value stream mapping. This gives you a good visual of the overall process and you can identify bottlenecks, quality holes, and things that take too long. Jeffrey brought up the book Crossing The Chasm and how the early majority change because they don’t want to be left behind and the late majority change because the new behavior is the standard. He asks how, when this is their motivation, do you help the business to get from “we need to be Agile to be Agile” to “having a purpose.” Mirco says that, very early on, you need to ask, “How will we know we’ve been successful?” Mirco sees companies at conferences describe a world where they can do forty deployments a day and have all employees singing and dancing everyday. They are not anywhere close to this ideal. They need to figure out how to see in two months time that they are making progress. They should be able to ask, “What does the business want to do that it can’t do now.”  As a consultant, the very first thing you do is listen. Often they start to tell you some stories. Then you start trying a couple of ideas. You could do a bit of decoupling on the architecture or a bit of Agile coaching on a failing Agile project. You have a large tool belt of tools to choose from. Apple Podcasts link: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/devops-for-the-modern-enterprise/id1327456890?i=1000462577701 Website link: https://soundcloud.com/troubleshootingagile/devops-for-the-modern-enterprise RYAN RIPLEY ON AGILE FM The Agile FM podcast featured Ryan Ripley with host Joe Krebs. Ryan was on to talk about the book he co-authored with Todd Miller called, “Fixing Your Scrum.” He says that the book came out of a conversation he had with Todd two years ago about the Scrum anti-patterns that they were seeing in the wild over the past twenty years and how the two of them, as consultants, solve them. Most Scrum books are very theoretical. Ryan and Todd, by contrast, spent only one page on the Scrum framework and jumped right into advanced topics. Joe brought up that Scrum tends to turn into something robotic and oriented around checklists. Joe considers this form of Scrum to be lifeless and low in energy. He finds that nobody leaves the events with a smile on their face and he wonders how the book would help such people. Ryan says that such mechanical Scrum is very common and it is because the principles and values are lacking. It becomes rote and legalistic. He says that he and Todd don’t care that much about Scrum. Instead, they care about empiricism and want to bring forward transparency, inspection, and adaptation, and use the Scrum values of focus, openness, courage, commitment, and respect to make adaptations to products as needed to deliver the right thing at the right time to the right customer. Without having the values in place, empiricism can’t work. Companies have gone to the mechanical version of Scrum to avoid empiricism. Empiricism is table stakes now. Twenty years ago, empiricism was a cute idea that people could dismiss because the blue chip companies were fat, happy, and dumb. Their problem was success. Today, no matter what industry you’re in, banking, taxi cabs, or real estate, there is a startup looking to destroy your market. He asks, “Who would have ever thought the taxi cab industry would be upended by Uber and Lyft? Who would have ever thought that the largest real estate company in the world would own zero real estate and be Airbnb?” Joe asked about the sentence, “The Scrum Master’s work is never done.” Ryan says that the statement comes from the rapid rate of change today. He and Todd believe that the majority of times a Scrum team fails, it is because a Scrum Master is settling. The Scrum Master is tolerating organizational or team impediments.  The reason a Scrum Master’s job is never done is that those impediments morph and change and emerge constantly. Ryan has yet to see a company where nobody leaves, markets don’t shift, and budgets don’t become constrained. As Scrum Masters, our role is to help organizations make sense of the complexity through the use of the Scrum framework and to help teams refocus and reshape what they could and should be doing to serve a customer. Ryan says nothing about the Scrum Master role is about the Scrum Master. When Ryan transitioned from a project manager to a Scrum Master, this part was difficult for him. Back when Ryan was a project manager, everything was about him: he was the one making the decisions, driving people to a date, or getting in front of boards of directors and making a speech. As a Scrum Master, we are in the back of the room watching the dev teams show off their software. None of this is about the Scrum Master. The job is to serve others. Apple Podcasts link: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/ryan-ripley-agile-fm/id1263932838?i=1000462512766 Website link: https://agile.fm/agilefm/ryan-ripely ADAM TORNHILL ON MAINTAINABLE The Maintainable podcast featured Adam Tornhill with host Robby Russell. Robby started out by asking Adam about the common traits of a maintainable solution. Adam first likes to see the solution optimized for understanding. Second, he wants to see alignment between the architecture, the team boundaries, and the way the system evolves. Last, he wants the capability to deliver anytime with known quality. In terms of team boundaries, Adam wants to avoid having multiple teams working in the same parts of the code for different reasons because that has a high correlation to quality issues and makes it hard for individuals to maintain mental models of the system. He says you want clear operational boundaries between teams but then you also want each team’s knowledge boundary to be slightly wider so that you are familiar with other parts of the system and know other teams’ members as people. Robby asked what about a separation between a team working on new features and another fixing bugs. Adam is not a fan of that form of separation because it cuts out an important feedback loop. Robby asked what other developers get wrong when discussing technical debt. Adam says that many developers call any code that’s bad technical debt, but to Adam, it is not technical debt unless you have to pay interest on it. With a high degree of technical debt, you tend to see lots of effects on the product roadmap, you get longer and longer lead times, and your end users experience defects that take a long time to fix. Robby asked about Adam’s book on behavioral code analysis, Software Design X-Rays. In behavioral code analysis, the emphasis is placed more on the organization and the developers building the code than on the code itself. You analyze using measurements from version control data and project management data and it is used to prioritize technical debt or reason about social factors of software development projects. Some examples are detecting knowledge gaps in the code, code written by developers no longer present, or uncontrolled coordination needs between different developers in the code. Robby asked what motivated Adam to write the book. Adam says that Software Design X-Rays follows in the tracks of his first book, Your Code As A Crime Scene, which was written to share techniques Adam had been using in his consulting work. The theme for both books is, “How can you make it easier and cheaper to maintain your software?” There are several patterns he uses often. One is the concept of hot spots, which help identify complicated code that we work with often. The data shows that any application can have its hot spots narrowed down to two or three percent of the codebase. This is a positive message that tells us we don’t need to rewrite whole programs but can make big improvements by changing only a small percentage of the product. Robby asked how to prioritize work on technical debt reduction. Adam says to prioritize the most complex modules using hot spot analysis. With slightly more advanced analysis, you can get hot spots down to the function level and get quick wins within days. For your initial refactorings, you should use techniques like mob refactoring to help spread knowledge of how to attack these kinds of problems and get everyone to align on the approach. Apple Podcasts link: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/adam-tornhill-prioritizing-technical-debt-behavioral/id1459893010?i=1000463144606 Website link: https://maintainable.fm/episodes/adam-tornhill-prioritizing-technical-debt-with-behavioral-code-analysis-yigwD2Ga LINKS Ask questions, make comments, and let your voice be heard by emailing podcast@thekguy.com. Twitter: https://twitter.com/thekguy LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/keithmmcdonald/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thekguypage Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/the_k_guy/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/TheKGuy Website:

Dear Listeners, since our hosts never got the chance to share their reviews of 9.5 years' worth of film, Andrew and Matt get the opportunity to now. Movies have a dear part of our lives since even earlier than 2010. But time is kind to many a movie. So Matt and Andrew count down the ten most special, most influential, and most impactful movies to them from 2010-2019. STEP AND REPEAT has only been around since the fall of 2019, but we're glad we can share it with you. And we want to hear your takes! What are your favorite films from the past 10 years? Thanks for tuning in and we can't wait to hear more from you all in 2020. -Andrew & Matt 00:01 :: Welcome and Intro 05:30 :: Number 10s 14:10 :: Number 9s 23:11 :: Number 8s 30:40 :: Number 7s 39:41 :: Number 6s 45:19 :: Number 5s 57:21 :: Number 4s 1:06:35 :: Number 3s 1:19:24 :: Number 2s 1:31:20 :: Honorable Mentions 1:34:52 :: Number 1s STEP AND REPEAT is a weekly movie and awards season podcast where your co-hosts Andrew and Matt cover the big news in the movie world and share their reviews of new releases. FACEBOOK - https://www.facebook.com/stepandrepeatpod/ || TWITTER - https://twitter.com/RepeatStepPod/ || GMAIL - stepandrepeatpod@gmail.com Matt's Letterboxd: https://letterboxd.com/mgrant1219/ || Andrew's Letterboxd: https://letterboxd.com/ashine/

Join Becky and Matthew as they turn their attention to musicals - both the broadway kind and the movie musical kind.  One is from the golden age of Broadway.  The other is from a little know movie opera from 2008.  Both deserve to be skewered.   What the Lyrics? Musicals [Start 00:00:00]   Becky: Hey, guys, just a quick note. When we went to record this, I left my headphones at home so I couldn't hear the funky noises that were happening when I was banging on the table during this discussion because I was so excited and heated about this discussion of musical songs. I apologize for that. Hopefully doesn't interfere with you loving the episode and liking us a million times and telling your friends about how awesome we are. With that said, I hope you enjoy it, and next time I will remember my headphones.   Music playing [00:00:38-00:00:45]   Becky: Welcome to What the Lyric? The podcast that confirms, yeah, that actually made it to radio. Welcome to Episode 3 of What the Lyric? Today we are talking musicals. How are you doing Matt?   Matthew: I am doing pretty well considering how much research I had to do into bad musicals, of which there are many.   Becky: There are a lot and a lot have made money, which is the part that I don't quite get. I am not sure how they made money because they were so bad.   Matthew: Agreed, and I took a broad stance on the definition of musicals. So thinking more along the lines of not just Broadway musicals, but off Broadway and basically movie musicals.   Becky: It was the movie ones that I was kind of like, do I go Disney? Because Disney has some crap lyrics, or I could go to all the stuff, we did when I was in high school. What did we do? We did Grease, but we had to change the lyrics on some of the stuff because it was too racy.   Matthew: Such as?     Becky: In one of the songs about him meeting. It was some weird slang for condom, but we could use it. Matthew: Was it rubber?   Becky: It was not using. I don't think it was. I would have to look it up but I think it was rubber. I feel like it was something like balloon or something. But you knew what it was when he was thinking about it. So we had to kind of do like the radio edit and go [sound 00:2:30] or something in it so that you filled in the blank.   Matthew: Which teenager does not know about condoms?   Becky: Oh my god. It was in the 1990s.   Matthew: Oh, they really did not know about condom.     Becky: 1991, so we should have. I mean it was all coming up then so we should have left it in there but no.   Matthew: I mean our high school did Wizard of Oz. That is very wholesome to an extent considering the fans, I don’t know, destruction.   Becky: Yeah. The Wizard of Oz. What else do we do? Of course, there is always music Man Fiddler on the Roof.   Matthew: South Pacific.   Becky: You guys had some serious production.   Matthew: I did not say it was good.   Becky: High school musicals are very rarely good. I mean, let us be realistic on that one. I went back to my high school musical roots for mine.   Matthew: I think that is a perfect segue way into me asking   Becky: Okay.   Matthew: Where did you go?   Becky: All right.   Matthew: Take us back.   Becky: We are going back to and in the movie sung by Buddy Hackett, who I remember from when I was younger and he was an older man who I have this vague recollection of him being like a dirty old man kind of guy.   Matthew: I mean he was way. Wait, when was this made?   Becky: 60-65, let us say. I want to say 65. No, Sorry. Well, the musical was 57; 62 was the movie.   Matthew: That was a generation of dirty old men.   Becky: Yeah, yeah. Also covered by the Family Guy and several other outlets. I am just in a dive right into it. You ready?   Matthew: I don't believe so, but I'm willing to listen.   Becky: I think this first group, set it up nicely. Well, a woman who will kiss you on the very first date is usually a hussy and a woman who will kiss you on the second time out is anything but fussy. But a woman who will wait till the third time around. Head in the cloud, feet on the ground. She is your girl. You are glad you found. She is your shipoopi, shipoopi, shipoopi. The girl who is hard to get shipoopi, shipoopi. shipoopi, but you can winner yet. Mm hmm. That is shipoopi from the Music Man.   Matthew: Wow.   Becky: The whole thing is yet again a me-too movement in song form.   Matthew: Do we have any historical context for, is shipoopi slang for anything. Do we..   Becky: I don't think so. When I was doing the research for this. I just typed in worst song in a musical ever, and it brought up like some sort of forum for Broadway musicals. And everybody was writing these dissertations and one person just wrote shipoopi. And that's really all you need because shipoopi, I mean you can't say without giggling either, before, after, during and it shipoopi. What is that?   Matthew: And they don't explain it? That is why I love that. He does not need to explain it. He is just like.   Becky: No.   Matthew: So she is playing hard to get or presumably saying no. But it was like men who are super into...   Becky: My guess is she probably hates this guy. Thinks he is a total dill hole, but yet he just keeps breaking her down by saying shipoopi in front of her. Like a playground thing. He just keeps calling her shipoopi. And eventually she breaks out and goes, okay, I guess that's the guy.   Matthew: That is the guy from me. You know, I was not going to have sex with him the first day. Then he said shipoopi about 17 more times.   Becky: You know when I met your father.   Matthew: [Laughing] he had cutest name for me.   Becky: All he said was shipoopi. He did not say anything. He just said shipoopi over and over and over again. And we thought he had been dropped on his head, but apparently not. And that's when I fell in love.   Matthew: I knew he was the one.   Becky: By the third day of shipoopi. That is when I knew.   Matthew: Wait. What is the bumper sticker slogan that is like? Sorry, like not having to say sorry.   Becky: Oh, I cannot. Yeah, I know the one you are talking about.   Matthew: I think it is from a movie. Something means not having to say you are sorry.   Becky: Yeah, shipoopi mean.   Becky and Matthew: Not having to say that you are sorry.   Becky: I'm going to just start filling in shipoopi when I can't remember the words, which is a lot of times now that we've found out we have Alzheimer's and dementia in the family. So now, all of us are forgetting everything. So we are just going to be like, you know, that time shipoopi, you know? Right. shipoopi and see, who knows. But yeah, I mean and it continues on in the kind of abusive way with squeezer once when she isn't looking.   Matthew: Who!   Becky: Who does that?   Matthew: Apparently Buddy Hackett.   Becky: I like if you get a squeeze back that is fancy cooking. I don't know anyone, any woman who would get squeezed and be like oh, oh well hello. Then squeeze back and mean it.   Matthew: It brings up a very viable point. Of where on the spectrum of being touched does being slapped follow like is it technically a squeeze?   Becky: It could be. Or she might have just grabbed him by his junk and was like, never do that again, if you want to keep this and then he said once more for a pepper upper, she'll never get sore on her way to supper. So all this is happening, I presumably on the first date?   Matthew: No, because then she will be a hussy. So would it be…?   Becky: Well, no. If you kissed her on the first date, is she is usually a hussy.   Matthew: I see.   Becky: The second date it is your borderline because a woman who you kiss the second time out is anything but fussy. She is, you know, almost out to pasture. Then the third time around, that is the gal.   Matthew: Okay, got you.   Becky: If on the third day you squeeze her and she squeezes you back, home run.   Matthew: Fancy cooking.   Becky: Yeah, It is fancy cooking and a home run. Then once more up for a pepper upper. If you do it again and she is game, then you have just won the World Series, I guess.   Matthew: Marry this woman.   Becky: Yeah. Yeah. I cannot even.   Matthew: I feel like this song is a good example of like, is it bad lyrics? Because in the 50s and 60s, you had no way of just saying like, oh, we are banging on the bathroom floor.   Becky: Yeah. I mean.   Matthew: There is a lot of euphemisms for sex here. Fancy Cook and Pepper upper.   Becky: Well, pepper upper. I think drugs. I think we are looking for like an upper. Like maybe, a little ecstasy or I don't know, special k. Do kids still do that? Is that even a drugs?   Matthew: I think I am sure. I am a square, you are talking to the wrong person. I am impressed. I am assuming that most of these are euphemisms for sex.   Becky: I don't know. I should have asked my mother and father and be like, hey, when you guys were kids and talking about slang for sex. Did you ever go shipoopi or fancy cooking or pepper upper?   Matthew: Actually, there is still time. So like the follow up to this episode will be the [Inaudible 00:10:37]   Becky: I will call my parents after this.   Matthew: We will record it.   Becky: Quick question. It would not be any worse than, some of the questions my mom woken me up with her asking to, tell her what some slang means because somebody's at work, young kids that work mentioned and she didn't want to seem like she was not cool.   Matthew: Uncool.   Becky: Yeah. Tea bagging was one of them.   Matthew: Perfect. Never forget where you were. The moment your mom asks you.   Becky: No, I was not. I will not. I just gotten to work. And my mom called and she said, hey, look, I got a question for you, can you. What is tea bagging? I just walked in the door. Can I call you back after I call my therapist and get some coffee? And apparently it was during the whole like…   Matthew: Tea Party moment?   Becky: Tea Party stuff. And mom, they were joking. It said something about Tea Bagging and I had to explain tea bagging. It went downhill from there. Years of therapy for that one.   Matthew: That is fancy cooking.   Becky: And a pepper upper in the morning if you have to answer that question, yeah.   Matthew: To say the least.   Becky: [Laughing] you have no idea. I was like I'm sorry, what now? did you just ask me. I got to go. I need to call my therapist. And I’m actually my therapist right now, and the siren. Oh, Seattle full moon weekend. You are the best.   Matthew: I should have curse a lot more. Just so, we can edit it out.   Becky: I know, oh well. All right. So Matt, what did you go with?   Matthew: Since we will be releasing the other music episode, we did.   Becky: Yes.   Matthew: This is actually a redo by my request. Upon reflection, realized that I feel like I had not done my due diligence. Right. Because the purpose of this podcast is to find bad lyrics and call them out as they happen, even in songs that we love. Upon reflection, I realize that rent, the reason why I called out rent the way I did is because I fucking hate that musical.   Becky: The musicals is awful.   Matthew: The lyrics were not necessarily the problem. The content of the entire musical is what really bothered me.   Becky: Yeah. That is a whole other episode. Like we could take down the entire musical in one episode. Maybe that would be a probably a two-parter.   Matthew: Yes just for me.   Becky: There is an intermission in that play.   Matthew: Forty-five minutes of me bitching about this movie because of how much, I fucking hate rent.   Becky: Yeah.   Matthew: But I was like, you know the lyrics were not necessarily bad. I just hated the content. So then, I dug deep and ended up watching a movie musical from 2008.   Becky: 2008.   Matthew: The two biggest names would have been Paris Hilton, and Sarah Brightman.   Becky: what?   Matthew: Who famously.   Becky: Was married. To Andrew Lloyd Webber.   Matthew: The best play write of a generation.   Becky: I dislike that guy and all, he's written so much. I cannot. I just cannot. I cannot.   Matthew: Surprisingly, though, he did not write. It feels like this would have been something he wrote.   Becky: Paris Hilton and Sarah Brightman.   Matthew: I think they were the two biggest names. Also, the guy who played well, he was on Buffy. I think he was British.   Becky: Oh, yeah. Who then married…   Matthew: Giles.   Becky: Yeah. Who then married one of the other characters in that.   Matthew: Did not realize that.   Becky: Yeah.   Matthew: But he is in this movie as well. I ended up watching.   Becky: 2008.   Matthew: Eleven years ago.   Becky: God. Okay, 2008. I don't even know what happened in 2008.   Matthew: Financial crisis.   Becky: Okay.   Matthew: Well actually, that could play into this story.   Becky: Please tell me, they did a musical, The Wolf of Wall Street.   Matthew: I think that on is still in the works.   Becky: probably. What the hell?   Matthew: I don't really have any hints, but I will say that it is. Repo, the genetic opera, which if you have heard of or have not heard of, rather, is a movie musical from 2008. The overall plot of which is that everyone is getting cancer. Everyone is dying in this dystopian land. As they are dying, there is this one capitalistic company that says, oh, well, we have organs essentially for rent. We will give you these organs to keep you alive. But if you miss any payments, the repo man will come take the organ and you will die.   Becky: This feel like that Tom Cruise movie. What was that one? Similar? I don't know if it was similar. It is probably not, I just see Tom Cruise and then I go to my happy place because I cannot stand him either. Oh, well that is gone now. I have to look at.   Matthew: I feel like…   Becky: It is shipoopi. It is shipoopi.   Mathew: Tom Cruise in shipoopi.   Becky: I would see that. Actually, that would be something I would see.   Matthew: His voice undoubtedly is terrible.   Becky: That laugh, I needed that laugh.   Matthew: That is the overall plot of it. There are a lot of twists and turns in it. It is a real weird movie musical. I am not sure if I recommend it, but I do recommend watching it just so that you get context for how bad the song is. One of the main characters is a girl who is told that she has this terrible condition. She basically can't go outside.   Becky: Oh, my God. Like bubble boy?   Matthew: Exactly. Spoiler alert. Full spoiler alert. It is not real. Her dad was just like I told you that so you wouldn't leave an entry this like dystopian land, whatever. But the entire movie is incredibly angst. The main character, this little girl named Shiloh is 16. Then she celebrates her 17th birthday and she has a song about turning 17. That, is the song that I have picked. It is called 17 and I chose it. Not only because of how terrible the lyrics are, but also it is precisely a Goth version of 16 going on 17…   Becky: Thank you.                                                                                                           Matthew: From sound of music.   Becky: I was going to ask is it? Please tell me that it has something to do with, I am 16, going on 17. Minority Report was the movie I was thinking.   Matthew: Yeah, okay. I could see that.   Becky: Yeah, sorry.   Matthew: Sound of music. Right. It is super cute. She is falling in love with the Nazi.   Becky: Sad note, I have never seen it.   Matthew: Oh. Spoiler alert. She fall in love with the Nazi.   Becky: Yeah. I have never seen it, but I know it. I know all the lyrics, to that frickin musical as well.   Matthew: She is 16   Matthew and Becky: Going on 17.   Matthew: It gets repeated a lot. It is very cute. I think she is like very excited about that.   Becky: She dating a Nazi, wait.   Matthew: Yes.   Becky: Okay. Yep, there we go.   Matthew: She is dancing on a gazebo with him and she is very happy to turns 17. Shiloh in this movie, however, is very displeased to be 17. And what I will pause it here. Is that Repo the genetic opera for all of the bad lyrics, in fact, actually nails were being 17 is like. Let's take a look at the lyrics.   Becky: The title of the movie makes me think a repo man like an opera of the Repo Man, which would be kind of awesome. I don't know if you can still get Emilio Estevez.   Matthew: Probably not, but this is like a much dumber version of it. I still recommend watching it. Only if you are inebriated in some way, but don’t do drugs kids.   Becky: Yeah, that will be later on today.   Matthew: Yes. Alcohol or weed. That is as strong as my recommendation get.   Becky: That will be today.   Matthew: It is very angst. She cries out 17. Momma drama has to go dad. 17, nothing is going to bring her back. Oh, her mom is dead. Also spoiled alert. Her mom's dad. Hence mama dramas.   Becky: I thought maybe he had a couple of ladies on the side and he didn't know which one was the actual mother of this kid.   Matthew: Oh, no, he is not dating. But the daughter is distraught. Her mom's dead, so 17. Nothing is going to bring her back. 17, experiment with something living. 17, cause I am sweeter than 16.                              Becky: That sounds like dad is hooking up with his daughter.   Matthew: The movie leaves that open. I mean, not really, but there are some weird things happening there.   Becky: Please tell me that this, character's played by Paris Hilton.   Matthew: No, sadly.   Becky: Damn it.   Matthew: But Paris Hilton's character is very on brand…. I will does not spoil that.   Becky: Does she sing?   Matthew:  Not well.   Becky: That is right. She did have an album out.   Matthew: She did. We all know she did not get many after or any Grammys.   Becky: Did she really mean to? She is loaded,   Matthew: Right. That ends up being the chorus. So I will stop yelling 17 at you, but just know that throughout this she got 17. Other choice lyrics, I would say. Again, I feel like this captures my experience being a 17 year old. I have always longed for true affection is one lyric. I am like, okay. Like, that is not a bad lyric.   Becky: No.   Matthew: But the next line after it is. But you compare me to a corpse.   Becky: What?   Matthew: And then the third lyric is Stay with the dead. I'm joining the living cause I'm freer than 16.   Becky: Huh? Okay.   Matthew: Right. It is teenage angst.   Becky: Yeah.   Matthew: Specifically served up in teenage incomprehension.   Becky: Yep.   Matthew: Which I do appreciate. I don't know why 16 is the thing holding her back. Why she needs to be freer than 16. Also, I don't know why she got compared to a corpse.   Becky: Yeah, and I got to say, being 46 now. 16 looks awesome because nobody else is paying my goddamn bills.   Matthew: Doesn't it feel great?   Becky: And like my laundry was getting done? Like, yeah. Food was…   Matthew: Served.   Becky: Yeah.   Matthew: You did not have to cook. You did not have to clean.   Becky: No.   Matthew: Pay bills.   Becky: Nope.   Matthew: did not have to work.   Becky: I just had to be angst, and sit in my room and listen to music.   Matthew: Exactly.   Becky: Yeah.   Matthew: Music like 17 from repo the genetic opera.   Becky: Just like that.   Matthew: So it goes on because there are two more things that I really appreciate about this. Number one; there is a Joan Jett solo in this.   Becky: As in like the real Joan Jett?   Matthew: Yes. She makes an appearance in the movie.   Becky: Wow.   Matthew: Bless you Joan Jett. But you did not need that.   Becky: No, no, no, no, no, no.   Matthew: Joan Jett makes a very strange appearance. But the final lines, I just love because they're terrible. She goes something is changing. I can feel it building suspense. I am 17 now. Why can't you see it? 17 and you cannot stop me. 17 and you won't boss me. You cannot control me, father. Daddy's girl is a fucking monster and that is the end of the song. It is one of these that I am like, I know that they're bad lyrics, but deep down the very small angst part of me as a twenty nine year old is like, yeah, fuck em, fuck parents. Boom make money.   Becky: She is a monster. What? Please tell me. She turns into like some sort of weird. I don't know. I just picture like the Toxic Avenger. But a 16 oh 17 year old girl.   Matthew: Yeah. She is freer. She is sweeter and freer than 16.   Becky: Yeah.   Matthew: She did not turned into a monster. She ends up actually being. Actually, I think it is a very good metaphor for puberty because she is saying all these things in song form.   Becky: Yeah.   Matthew: First of all, you took the time to create a song to convey your angst. That is a very teenage trait.   Becky: Oh, God, yes. Yeah.   Matthew: She does all of this. Then at the end of the movie, it turns out she is a big softie who like as her spoiler alert, dad dies. She is like, I love you, dad. I am sorry I was kind of an asshole. And I forgive you for lying to me about a debilitating condition that led you to lock me up for 16 years.   Becky: Okay, I have never been in that situation before, but clearly, the last time we heard about this, the girl killed her mother, just saying.   Matthew: That is true.   Becky: Yeah. Serving in time.   Matthew: Now, she is locked up in a different way.   Becky: Yeah. You are no longer free. So probably should have just left the house. Yeah. Okay, that is bad. Now I kind of want to see this at the same time.   Matthew: I do recommend it, but not because it is good.   Becky: Where did you see this? How did you see this?   Matthew: If anyone is interested in watching Amazon Prime, it is available. Just watch it.   Becky: Okay. Well, now I know what I am doing this week.   Matthew: Imagine if you really, really overfunded my chemical romance music video,   Becky: Oh God.   Matthew: So that is your aesthetic. Repo the genetic opera is absolutely the movie for you.   Becky: Oh, that is…   Matthew: Paris Hilton. Her best performance, arguably.   Becky: That is just awful. I cannot even like I bought this backpack. Then I realized, oh, my God, I am 46-year-old version of a vsco girl, unintentionally. Now I am, oh I kind of want to return.   Matthew: Wait, a what girl?   Becky: Vsco girl. Apparently, all these Instagram girls, it is a weird of crunchy, granola hippy kind of thing with really expensive accessories. Vsco is like a filter. You can run the photos through. Of course, all these girls do that.  It is like the backpack, like scrunches. Why? Anyone, want to bring that.   Matthew: [Inaudible 00:26:11]   Becky: I cannot even begin crocs in like Birkenstocks. It’s like, can we go in now on both of those? Sorry. No, no, no. No. Can do skis. What was the other thing? Oh, like a puka shell.   Matthew: Oh yeah.   Becky: Necklace kind of thing. I did not buy the $80 backpack. I went for the Chinese knockoff, but it is like that. Eighty-dollar Swedish backpack, which, by the way, somebody told me they got for their daughter. And she's like, and I looked inside. It is made in Vietnam. I was like, way to go, Sweden. Then I thought, well, had I known about that 6 years ago, I would have bought one when I was there. But no, no, no. I was like, oh, I am now this…   Mathew: Vsco girl.   Becky: Forty six year old vsco girl. I will put my hair up in a scrunches. Then there was some other accessories that I was like, Oh, sweet Jesus. There is one clothing company. That only makes one size. And it's like a size Barbie doll. I don't know. It is like a small. Then their clothes are like. It is like some Italian clothing company, Quartz.   Matthew: Yikes.   Becky: Which is funny because all the Italian ladies in my family were not Barbie size. But whatever, probably not their target market, but yeah, so.   Matthew: Wow. I mean, I, for one, am just grateful that I'm neither a vsco girl nor am 17 anymore.   Becky: Oh, thank God. Yeah, I don't even remember what… Oh, I do remember it as doing and it was not good. Properly better, pass that.   Matthew: You could have put all of your angst into a song and you would have felt properly much better.   Becky: I would properly come up with shipoopi though, as opposed to that.   Matthew: I think we both are on par.   Becky: Yeah, we got it.   Matthew: We nailed what being 17 was like in two different decades.   Becky: Shipoopi. Oh, shipoopi. Yeah. All right. Well, I think that probably rounds out the old musicals. Thank God. So coming up next week, or next episode next week, episode, whatever. It all runs together right now.   Matthew: We will release it when we want.   Becky: When we feel like it. No pressure, please. So next time around, we are doing hip-hop.   Matthew: I am excited.   Becky: I had to kind of figure out what the definition really was, because for me, it was just straight up rap. But it's not cause I looked and Drake's in there and post Malone. I don't get that one at all. Beyoncé was in there, and like that's more like R&B stuff to me.   Matthew: Interesting.   Becky: R&B pop.   Matthew: I will be very curious to know what you choose.   Becky: Now, full disclosure, I do love me some Old-School Hip-Hop and by Old School, I mean like 80s. Cause I remember Fab 5 Freddy on MTV, which you have no idea who that is.   Matthew: I sure don’t.   Becky: Yeah, he was in Blondie video and she even mentioned him in it. Old school. I can't remember, I think he was a rapper and M.C. but I can't remember it. Oh my god. My brain is fried and all of my friends who know are yelling right now. But yeah, I remember Fab 5, Freddy and then Yo!, MTV Raps and then it became the two Ed lover and Dr. Dre, but not the Dr. Dre we all know and love today. Yeah, so.   Matthew: This will be good because we are going to be getting that [Inaudible 00:30:14] and then I will be serving my purpose as the millennial on the podcast by bringing us back to 2008.   Becky: Oh, minus.     Matthew: Wow. I just realized I am a 2008 freak.   Becky: Sticking with the year. I don’t even know when mine came out. I want to say it was late 80s, early 90s. So Yeah. All right. Well, that is something to look forward to, and I guess that is the end of this episode. And we will see you next time. When we ask What the Lyric?   [End 00:30:45]  

This week Lisa interviews one of her athletes from our Running Hot Coaching Tribe, Matt Scrafton. Matt joined Running Hot with the goal to run a 100km trail race at Taupo in New Zealand.  Previously he had successfully run a couple of 50km events and really wanted to push himself but as a Dad, husband and having a full on career he wanted to do this challenge without breaking himself.   Matt shares his triumphs and struggles on his road to 100km glory in this no holds barred honest and raw account of what it takes to run 100km when you have a full on life and you don't have the luxury of being a full time athlete or having all the talent of a Scott Jurek or Dean Karnazes. Many will relate and find inspiration in this story.  Matt describes himself as “An incurable dreamer. An unapologetic introvert. A Husband and father. Just a guy who loves life and running long distances. Since moving to New Zealand 14 years ago, Matt has swapped the rugby boots for endurance sport. He’s completed Coast to Coast, cycling round Taupo and and a few ultra races.”   You can follow Matt on instagram at https://www.instagram.com/mattscrafton/   We would like to thank our sponsors Running Hot - By Lisa Tamati & Neil Wagstaff If you want to run faster, longer and be stronger without burnout and injuries then check out and TRY our Running Club for FREE on a 7 day FREE TRIAL Complete holistic running programmes for distances from 5km to ultramarathon and for beginners to advanced runners.   All include Run training sessions, mobility workouts daily, strength workouts specific for runners, nutrition guidance and mindset help Plus injury prevention series, foundational plans, running drill series and a huge library of videos, articles, podcasts, clean eating recipes and more.   www.runninghotcoaching.com/info and don't forget to subscribe to our youtube channel at Lisa's Youtube channel  www.yotube.com/user/lisatamat and come visit us on our facebook group   www.facebook.com/groups/lisatamati Epigenetics Testing Program by Lisa Tamati & Neil Wagstaff. Wouldn’t it be great if your body came with a user manual? Which foods should you eat, and which ones should you avoid? When, and how often should you be eating? What type of exercise does your body respond best to, and when is it best to exercise? These are just some of the questions you’ll uncover the answers to in the Epigenetics Testing Program along with many others. There’s a good reason why epigenetics is being hailed as the “future of personalised health”, as it unlocks the user manual you’ll wish you’d been born with! No more guess work. The program, developed by an international team of independent doctors, researchers, and technology programmers for over 15 years, uses a powerful epigenetics analysis platform informed by 100% evidenced-based medical research. The platform uses over 500 algorithms and 10,000 data points per user, to analyse body measurement and lifestyle stress data, that can all be captured from the comfort of your own home Find out more about our  Epigenetics Program and how it can change your life and help you reach optimal health, happiness and potential at: https://runninghotcoaching.com/epigenetics You can find all our programs, courses, live seminars and more at www.lisatamati.com    Transcript of interview: Speaker 1: (00:01) Welcome to pushing the limits, the show that helps you reach your full potential with your host, Lisa Tamati brought to you by LisaTamati.com. Speaker 2: (00:14) Well, hi everybody. Lisa Tamati here at pushing the limits. Fantastic to have you back again. I really appreciate your naughty checking in on the show every week. Today. We've got a little something special for you. I've got actually one of our athletes it running hot coaching has agreed to come on and share his story. So it's a little bit of a debrief, a little bit of a coaching call. Hopefully you guys will pick up some gems of wisdom. We're gonna, she's gonna. She has insights and the journey that he went all to get to a hundred K, which was his ultimate race recently. So welcome to the show Matt Scrafton how are you? Morning, I'm good. How are you? Very, very good. So I met his sitting in Wellington. You got to sunny day down there. Speaker 3: (00:56) Yeah, it's beautiful and it's, there's no wind for once. So yeah, really nice. Speaker 2: (01:01) That's unusual. So I met let's step back at the beginning. So tell us a little bit about yourself, where you come from and then we'll get into the running side of it. Speaker 3: (01:13) Alrighty, Um so I'm British. And I've be, I moved to New Zealand in 2005 where I met my now wife. So I grew up in, in the UK and political Brighton by the sea. And we live in the mighty Waikato in Cambridge and we've been all over the place. You know, Alton, Wellington, Melbourne, but Cambridge is home and some my wife and I have a baby girl, Darcy's four, and we have a crazy eight months old poodle, Daisy. So life is pretty full. But yeah, no, I've been, I'm, I found running probably about six or seven years ago. I've been doing endurance sports or Madi sports, probably longer. But as time went on, it got harder to balance all three disciplines. And then I decided that I really wanted to do something that had an endurance element to it and trail running or running was the easiest, you know, put on your shoes, get out the door and go. Speaker 3: (02:07) So yeah, so I got into sort of trail running proper about six or seven years ago and set myself the goal as I kind of do with, with life of, of running a 50. And and we were living in Melbourne at the time and the North face 50 was a, an annual event in may of each year around the blue mountains. It's just outside of Sydney. Gorgeous rice. Yeah. And so I spent probably about a year building up for that with a few feeder events. But the big goal of running the 50 yeah. And did that eight hours, 39. And that was really tough. It was quite a hard race. But yeah, I was surprised that what I now understand to be that mental state that you there are so important to an athlete. That went, that race went really well mentally for me. Speaker 3: (03:02) So I thought, yep, this is definitely not a one off. So a couple of months later, Darcy arrived and, and life changed. So took a while. Yeah. Yeah. It took a while to find that, that rhythm. We moved back to New Zealand and I then locked in the terror wearer this year, actually, 2019 and so spent it about, you know, another year building up for that. But I was kind of, yeah, so doing the, I'm doing the 50, I did have aspirations to run further, but my wife said, no, no, get another 50 under your belt before you, before you go further. You know, that it definitely wasn't a one off. So yeah, spent about a year building up for the 50 and did that in I think it's February of this year. So came home in about seven hours and yeah, it was just a really hot day. Speaker 3: (03:55) And I thought there's no way I'm running and as our ultra in the middle of summer, it's just crazy times. Which probably discounts the marathon disabler but there we go. But the it was, it was pretty cool race fantastic atmosphere and some really great support crew and aid station folk that rock up and make it a really memorable day. And then I woke up, I got home, woke up the next day and I had this, this kind of overwhelming feeling that it wasn't, you know, it wasn't a sense of mission accomplished. I had done that, but there was more. And I didn't quite know what it looked like. So before everyone else got up, I was looking online for big events or things to do, you know, huge running goals to chase and telco was on in October, so it was always, Speaker 2: (04:45) Let's back up a little bit. So you ran 50 Ks, paid him some seven hours or something and the tank wasn't in thi the next day. Like most people get to the finish line on any race and go, never again. Well that's it. Unless a very experienced one or something, they know that that's, that's going to be temporary. But you in the very next day started looking online. Usually it takes at least five days. Speaker 3: (05:11) Yeah, no, I think I'm really like goal-orientated I I think I, you know, you, we do what we do during the hours of nine to five to make ends meet and pay the bills, et cetera. But running is I've come to learn that it's a, my thing, it gives me that time and space. And it's, you have a, there's a fantastic mental feeling that goes with running. And if you marry that for me with huge, big, hairy audacious goals it gives me that balance. And if I don't have that big hairy audacious goal on the horizon or near, then I start, I start to struggle. Yeah. And my life is a bit out of balance. So I think it was physically I was, I was a bit poked, you know, my legs hurt and you know, I had a few tight muscle groups. Speaker 3: (06:09) But there was definitely a sense of there's more in the tank. And for me it was a case of you've got this base, you've legs, you've come through, okay, yeah, they're gonna hurt, but whose legs wouldn't after running 50 a day and let's use that base as a launching pad for the next big hairy audacious goal. And the counsel or guidance from my, from my wife was find a 70 or 80 K wise woman. This lady, she is, yeah, very, very wise. She's my CEO, my CFO and everything else. But to ignore that, no, she's a lovely lady. See no, I, I did ignore it and as I tend to do with some guidance and I thought, no, let's go a hundred now. Let's lock it in because there was nothing else on the horizon that was closer and telcos on our doorstep and yeah, it was on. Yeah. Speaker 2: (07:05) Well, so Topo 100 K for people who, let's see, from overseas. So taco is universal part of the country in the North Island of New Zealand, and I have a hundred K of the year, which is, can be a muddy, muddy, and hilly fee. So you signed up for that already straight after, straight out of the gate after Tyler WEDA. And what happened then? Speaker 3: (07:28) Literally I text my brother in law and said, what are you doing on the 12th of October? I have a deal for you. And I, then you came back and said, yep, nothing. What have you got in mind? I said, Oh, would you like to be my support crew for 'em a hundred K? It's like, are you sure? It's crazy idea, but let's do it. When Shelly and Darcy woke up, I kinda very casually dropped in conversation and yeah, it, you know, I gave myself a good few weeks to recover. Possibly from what I've learned from Neil subsequent after the a hundred possibly digging it myself long enough to recover which then is how I, I met you Lisa. So yeah, so I started training and, and literally followed the same sort of process and build up that I'd been doing for the 50, but obviously slightly longer distances for the a hundred. And I think it was around may or June of this year that I started to realize that what had got me through the 50 wasn't necessarily gonna get me through the a hundred. And that's when I, yeah, that's when the world changed. Speaker 2: (08:35) And that's when you found us. Speaker 3: (08:37) Yeah. So I was looking for not only coaching but a community that I could connect with. Cause I think when we run, we do a lot of this stuff in isolation. And I think I was looking for more than just a frequent, frequent contact the coach. I wanted to understand how everyone else was doing the trials and tribulations irrespective of distance and just share that knowledge. And yeah, I did my research and I think you and I had a phone call and yeah, gave it a go and yeah. Jumped on board Speaker 2: (09:11) And yeah, so we were, we were start the heavy onboard and we've now got this 100 K goal. And you said, I think it's what's important is a lot of people stand out on their own and they, they, they do fine for a little while. And then you start to either run into injuries or you go weeks bigger or you start to have troubles in some way, shape or form. I begin a bit burned out, maybe lose your motivation. And that is some people often come to us and say, Oh, I need a bit of structure. And it's an, it's not like probably 90% of people who join us have hit the wall in some way or hit a big, big, big scary goal that they know they need to take a little bit more seriously. So it's one or the other. Or they're just starting out that that's another thing and they want some really good guidance and structure. So what was the main difference like when you came to running hot coaching and jumped into our planes, what was the major difference that you found campaign to say and screeching off the internet? Speaker 3: (10:17) Yeah. So I think the catalyst for looking beyond our training in isolation on my own was I wanted a more rounded approach to the a hundred. I realized that I wasn't spending enough time on core strength for example. And I also knew that my own knowledge and experience wasn't enough and that there were people out there who had years of experience and I'd be daft not to tap into that. So recognizing that I had my own limitations. So from a knowledge perspective and actually I, the biggest thing for me is that I was starting to get a sense that I wasn't approaching my long runs fresh. Yup. So I was going into the weekend quite fatigued and I wanted a more, I wanted to know if there was a way to balance training for a hundred so that you didn't feel you know, shot all the time and fatigued. Speaker 3: (11:11) So that was the catalyst. And and then the conversation with yourself and then actually working with Neil, it's on pick the a hundred K plan. I was like, wow, the longest run in the week, mid week is actually shorter than my current longest midweek run. So automatically the, I'm going to start feeling a little bit fresher. Yeah. And then I started getting actually the first core strength session I did, I probably couldn't walk proper for about a day or two. I remember doing the lunges and I was like, Oh wow, I'm going to, yeah, this is, there's a reason why I'm doing this. Speaker 2: (11:46) Oh, that's fine. So, and like [inaudible] that is a key thing. Like you don't know what, you don't sometimes how weak you've gotten to, like when you run, it's a catabolic exercise. So it starts at eight, you eat away at your muscles. And so if you're not counteracting that with strength training, with a, also with your mobility and for, for different reasons then over time you're going to get weaker and more flacid than the, in the, in the core for example, you'll have strong leaks, but that's what, you know, run isn't going to have strong links obviously, but the rest of you will, will suffer from. And that's when things can come unstuck as well, especially if you're not 20 anymore, you know, you need to start thinking about muscle max loss, which is, which we sort of lose around 200 grams a year after the age of 40 on average. So let's say they say so we want to be counteracting that as well as the fact that you are in a catabolic sport that is actually eating away at you and you want to be able to maintain. So, okay. You started into the strength program is think, well this is, this is different. Yeah. And how, how, how was it for you when the mileage, like a lot of people think, okay, I've gone from 50 to a hundred, I have to double the mileage. Doesn't work, does it? Speaker 3: (13:00) Absolutely not. No. So the a hundred, the leap from 50 to a hundred was for me, surprisingly manageable. I'm working in within the a hundred K plan that you guys gave me. So midweek run automatically shorter. So there's some gains there. And actually the, the longest run was actually comparable to my 50 K. Yeah. And I think we added maybe another hour onto it just because I was questioning, well, if I'm going to take 15 or 14 hours, then you know, do I need to run a little bit longer than what I've been doing? 50. And then it was like, you know, if you want to run a little bit longer, that's okay. But there isn't a one size fits all. You've got to just make it work for you. Speaker 2: (13:42) Yeah. Yup. And this is a, the thing that's like, I've said to people sometimes when they think, how the hell am I going to double that? And, and I'm not actually doubling the distance and I say to them like, when I'm running or set of 200 K race or two 50K race, I don't double it again, because you can't double it. You can't keep doubling that. You're training distance to suit your and with, we've come from, you know, most people have come from maybe a marathon,udistance training. We are, you know, from half marathon, two marathon, you steeping up your mileage a lot more and your long run does get a lot bigger and you're doing sort of three quarters, you know, 32, 33 K run as your longer time before Marisol. So people extrapolate that and think that that's what happens when you're doing a 200. Okay. And it isn't, you can't, you cannot physically recover from training intents on this. You kept choking or somewhat [inaudible]. Speaker 2: (14:39) But generally you can't recover. And that's where the wheels start to come off. People if they start to try to do this high mileage, so we're not high mileage coaches. And we get a lot of people coming to us who've come from high mileage coaches and that approach would work at the beginning and it will work when you're younger. When you've got kids in careers and you're getting a little bit older, they had approached that to unravel. If you're a lady, you can often start getting hormone problems as well. And so both sixes adrenal exhaustion is on the horizon too. So those are things that we always very aware of and you're trying to keep you from tipping over there. It's a very fine line to walk sometimes. Okay. So walk us through the next part of the process. Speaker 3: (15:23) So I think we're just on that around the longest run. So I training was going really well. You know, mobilization work, strength work, and then I got through what I turned my apex weekend, the longest run weekend. Yep. And I run it as per the schedule where I may be through one half an hour for mental confidence and yeah, it's about 43 K I think in total. Five and a half hours in the Hills. Yeah. And then that the following week is when it all came crashing down, fell off. The wheels did come off big time. Yeah. Yeah. I, I'm Speaker 2: (16:03) You run into an injury problem. Speaker 3: (16:05) I did. I had basically an absolute awful pain sensation in my left ankle tendonitis. They turned out and that, yeah, that happened literally on the Wednesday after my long run. I could feel it. You know, in the sort of the Tuesday morning and then I went for another run on the Wednesday, which I shouldn't have done. And it was hurting like never, like no other pain I'd had before. So I knew something wasn't quite right. And managed to get to see my awesome physio in Cambridge and and she said, yeah, you've got some, some tendonitis. And we basically worked up a plan where I would, and I, I think at that point, if I don't take it back a step, there was a day, I think it was a Thursday where I was sitting in my office in Cambridge and I was literally in tears because I thought, how am I, how am I going to get to the start line, let alone the finish line and put all this effort in. And you know, I spoke about the balance or the need to have balance in professional life and personal life. Suddenly I could see the Seesaw completely, you know, mounted as broken for overseas friends. And I I was just learning bits because I thought, I can't run. How the, what am I going to do? I can't walk this thing. So I think I flipped you guys a note and said, how do I typo? Speaker 2: (17:35) You were in immediately black spice and you, you reached out and I could tell from the, you know, you asking about specifically about the, the injury I think, which was part of the same, but the what, what, where I jumped in was more the, the meaningful side of it because you were, you were taking the deep dive. So when you've put your heart and soul into something massive and then it starts to unravel and then you're thinking you're fearing not being, because it's not along to the race now that you're not going to get there. And every decision that you're missing in this is very, you know, normal things that though it still starts crashing down around your ears. So how did they, so I, I jumped on a call with you and we started to work through some of the, the mental stuff. How did that help you? Speaker 3: (18:18) Yeah, it was, it was really interesting cause I, I went straight to the physical side. So how do I taper? How do I still do these sessions? You know, I've got an internal session tomorrow. How do I run that with an ankle that I can't run them? And you're like, no, no, no, no, no. Take a step back here. This is you, you, I think you actually said you've got this your legs have got all the miles they need to do to do the a hundred is now about the upstairs. How do you mentally stay, stay in the fight to get yourself to the start line and through the race. And I was, I was actually quite taken aback about that because I thought, well, I'm missing all these sessions or I'm going to be missing all these sessions. Speaker 3: (18:59) And I'm generally fairly confident person, but I guess susceptible to blows from life as, as anyone is. Yeah. And I couldn't, I wasn't listening to you, I think at first. And then you followed up in an email and it, I actually, it took me three or four attempts to reread what you'd written. And then we communicated over the next 48 hours. And you said over the weekend, I want you to read a book if you can. And the book is the biology of belief. Yeah. Bruce Lipton. Yeah. And it was a little too it took me way beyond my, my scoring. Yeah. School level science around biology, but it was the last section that really knitted it all together, which is about how your perception and beliefs influence your physiology or can influence your physiology. And I think that's when the penny dropped for me that this is all about the mind going into these next three and a half weeks. Speaker 2: (20:06) Yup. And that's the key point because the situations happen, the injuries happen. Speaker 3: (20:12) Yup. Speaker 2: (20:13) What we've got, we can, we can, the, the, the, the thing that you're going to do wrong is to keep training over that injury and to try and fight through it when you've got a rise at the other rains. So the panic is that I'm not going to be fit enough when the reality is if you, if you get through 70, 80% of your total training malls, you're going to be fine. And I, and as a coach, you don't, you, you trying to get your people, I'm a bit more than that, but if something happens, you, you will get there. The best race I've ever had in my life, one of the most amazing races put that way, let have, was that one that I did in the Himalaya's, which I shared with you, that 222 K rice. So of the two highest mountain passes and in the world mudroom bubble passes and I ripped the ligaments off my league team weeks out from the rice. Speaker 2: (21:01) I couldn't run for seven weeks and I had a hypoxic brain concussion from doing altitude training. So I didn't have enough oxygen in my body. So of course all these evictions and so on. Some of the listeners would have heard this story, but eh, when I, and I was either I'm going to pull out or I'm going to carry on. And I decided I'm carrying on because I'm put in so much. If it as you know, the effort that goes into training for something like this, we need alone the sponsorship, the foam, the documentary that, you know, the whole works just made that I couldn't just pull out. And so I had to try and face it with only a couple of weeks training at the end of that seven week. So not being able to train on my foot. So I did cross train, I didn't want to cook with my body and I spent the rest of that time on my mindset. Speaker 2: (21:44) And when I got to the stat line, my body was actually in better shape than if I'd smashed it right till the end because I'd actually given my, my body hadn't had a recipe years putting it, you know, mildly. And so this actually was the best thing that could've happened and it was fit. And I did the 222K race mind do like a really hard, tough, long at altitude, extremely dangerous race and, and killed it, you know, was, was briefly had, I've got documentary if anyone was walked,uI'm slightly simplifying it, but the point was you didn't need to do every one of those training sessions that you think you need to do. And when you don't have the choice, it's either you change your mindset to the whole thing and you stay on board with it and you better, or you give up and you pull out or you keep trying and you and yourself even more, and then you might be out for six months, you know? Speaker 3: (22:37) Yeah. And I think the, the biggest thing as human beings, we often always easy to do, is to, is to not learn from the mistakes as we go through life. You know, to the definition of madness is to repeat the same action and keep expecting the same or different outcome. Okay. And, yeah. So, so I think you know, when I spoke to you in that scenario that you described around that, that race, you said to me, the one thing you did do was you asked your support crew and those around you on that day or leading up to the event and through it to be 100% positive that you didn't want any negativity around you. So when I was going through this over that weekend I said to my wife, you know, do I pull out? She said, well, you can't because you, there's no point. Speaker 3: (23:20) You missed the withdrawal date. Yup. No, you might as well just take each day as it comes, see where you are. We're going to go down, everyone's booked in to come down and stay, et cetera. So that's just do it and just see what happens. My wife is a Kiwi. She's her world view is inherently positive. I'm, I'm British and naturally cynical about most things in life. So glass half full glass half, we kind of marry each other out. But yeah, so, so I I got through that weekend and I jumped in the pool and on the bike and I was having physio, physio sessions and I wasn't running and it was a really weird sensation. Weight in the sense I felt like I was getting behind. So that's when I, little things like, you know, I did that accountability mirror exercise where I took post-its and wrote down in a motivational statements or words on a mirror and I took a wee picture and I know it's a silly thing I did just to hold myself accountable going through the next three and a half weeks to do towel pose. Speaker 2: (24:28) And that is not silly. That is really, really good. Anything, any positivity that you can surround yourself with is, is the mental game, is everything in ultra? Speaker 3: (24:37) Oh, it is totally. And this is the biggest, you know, you do these events in life and I've, the one thing I've learnt this time round is that it is all mental. It is a hundred. I mean you're also, you're palsy, you know, needs to be conditioned. [inaudible] Speaker 2: (24:52) Healthy and you need my foot. But the rest is in your head. And Oh man, I'll say next weights, you know, finish races that they shouldn't have been running cause they went far enough to do it, but mentally they were strong enough to get through it. We don't recommend doing that because you're going to scroll your body in the long run, but it is about this up here. How much, how much pain can you suffer, how much can you overcome, how much, what's your why and how big is that? Why and how strong is that? Why you really, really want this? And then you find ways around obstacles. And, and I think having seen what I've seen in other athletes, I've seen people with incredibly bad injuries survive races. I've seen you know, people who are blind run across the Sahara. And I've seen this before. People with, with one leg run across your belly. And a whole bunch of people who carry kids who had cerebral palsy is to give them a cross them a mouth on the Saturdays, you know incredible stories. People who really believed in saving the rhinoceroses and addresses the rhinoceros the entire time across the Sahara. You know, absolutely crazy things that physically shouldn't be now able to do. But they did. Speaker 3: (26:05) But because of their why and their purpose, they did. Yeah, absolutely. Speaker 2: (26:08) In a very, very strong why. And there has to be the, the ultimate. OK. So you, you started to tune your mindset around, so this positivity and surrounding yourself with positive people and your wife's telling you, you could, you know, you got this, we started, we just starting and that is the thing. Get to the stat line, start, see what happens. Speaker 3: (26:24) Yeah. And I think the biggest thing they have along the way, I was training with a guy it lives in Oakland and we've done a few training runs together and I sent him a text set, ah, you know, with start together, but we'll be finishing separately. I don't know if I'm going to finish in my current state. And he phoned me and he, he's a really happy go lucky guy, positive outlook. He said, no, no, we will walk this out together if we have to. And I thought, wow, okay. That's, that's pretty cool. So yeah. Speaker 2: (26:58) Oh yeah. This guy gives us his name. Give them a shout out. Speaker 3: (27:01) Johnny. Johnny, Denise. Yeah. Nice. Good guy. So yeah, so Johnny and I were, we ended up training separately of those last couple of weeks. And I was trying not to look at Strava and you know, get envy about long runs that he was putting in. And I was in the poll in my Emma Speedos. It wasn't good. But anyway yeah, no, so sorry, go on. Yeah, it worked. It worked. Yeah. So we got through that through those last few weeks. I'm in the pool and on the bike and having some fun on the mountain bike. And actually it was really nice just to get out in the Hills and just turn around. And then I remembered actually coming down one single track in, in Cambridge that I was actually doing a race the following weekend, so I should probably take it easy and not go too fast in case it came off. But yeah, no. So I, I started just to test the run walk literally the Monday before the race on the Saturday and that was the first time I'd got back on my feet and it was a really tentative run walk. And then I did another one the next day. And then the final one I think was on the Wednesday and no reactions from the ankle. So I thought, well, yeah, big, big mental hurdle cleared. You know, we're locked in to do this and we're going to do it. And yeah. Speaker 2: (28:18) And that's pretty like, it's pretty ballsy to be fair. You know, like it is hard when you're facing a hundred K and you haven't been able to try and fill the last few weeks and you're in the last phone a week, people before the race and you're like, can I even walk, run, walk, run in a couple of days you can change it. We'll be trying this out. And you're standing on the start line and said, and the morning it a hundred K, you know, it takes a lot of mental strength. So well done. Thank you Chuck it all in. Speaker 3: (28:44) No, definitely not. And I think at that point even I think my physio had said to me you are doing this, you can do this. And that you will break, you will not break anything in your ankle if you do this. And it hurts. It's just, it's not just ligaments, tendons, just tendons and they will recover. And I think that hearing that actually, I was like, okay, so if my body hurts, it's going to have to live with it and my mind is going to tell it. And that was the process I was going through. I think I spoke to you in the buildup and you said to me that this could be the body's way of trying to tell your mind that this isn't a great thing to do. Let's just sit back and watch some Netflix on the Saturday. Speaker 2: (29:20) Yes. Let's dive into that for a sec. The, in my experience in nearly every big race that I've done and the week before or two weeks before, something goes wrong on my body. Like I get sick, I'll get a cold, I get the flu, I get something, some, some single play out. And I, and I S I think it's the subconscious we aiming already actually body because it knows that you've got this big race coming up and it's trying to stop you. We'll throw everything at you. Just stop you. Speaker 3: (29:50) Yep. And that book I mentioned earlier yeah, a lot of it was about using your conscious mind, so not drifting off into unconscious thinking, focusing on the now using your conscious mind. And there's a lot more power in, in, in potential, in the using your conscious mind rather than the subconscious mind. So if you play it forward, then my subconscious was trying to tell me not to do the race because it's going to be tough. It's going to hurt. But my conscious mind was going, no, you've got this, you can do this. It's going to hurt, but it's gonna be fine. Yeah, yeah. We are doing this. Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. So we got through that last week and you're headed off to Topo and it was just a really interesting segue the night before Johnny and I, we've got a big house in our families came down and my, my mother and father who I love them to bits and my father in law was chatting away with Johnny who was really laid back and Johnny was having a, just the odd beer, one beer before the race. Speaker 3: (30:55) And I'm quite serious about my prep. I was not talking to anyone. I was going through my mental checklist and all that stuff. And my father in law said to me, man, why aren't you more like Johnny lay back and relax? I was just like, nah, we're all different. You know, everyone's got a little different around different ways of preparing. So yeah. So there's nothing wrong. Speaker 2: (31:17) And by the way, cause I mean, I talked to me the night before you know, I'm in the zone, you're in the zone and, but there are people who are just totally chilled out and whatever happens happens when that, the different personality types, unless I wasn't really be confused because everyone has their own way of preparing for such a battle because it is going into Epic bed already. Speaker 3: (31:37) Yeah. I think physically I'd appreciated the difference prior to this race around ultras and running and athletes, you know, we all come from different shapes and walks of life, but mentally as well, I was seeing some really interesting sides of people and athletes. So yeah. So yeah, John and I were up the next day about I think four o'clock got to the start line half five. It was absolutely freezing and telco. And I actually, I've never done this before, but I fell asleep again in the car on the way to the style line is about a 40 minute journey. But for me it was a sign of just how relaxed I was and whatever was going to want to fold was going to one fold, but it was going to do so in a way that was going to have a positive outcome. I was, I was quite relaxed about it. Which was really bizarre. So Speaker 2: (32:27) Thanks. Turn around to the T is three weeks before and the Speaker 3: (32:31) Oh, chalk and cheese. Yeah. Chalk and cheese. Yeah. I yeah, so there's, so we got going and Johnny had forgotten his headlight as usual, so I let us out and I said to John, look, we're going to run, run what I call fifteens, which is you run 10 minutes and maybe walk for five minutes. And I think I said to Johnny that it's going to be the pattern for me throughout the race. And he was like, yep, sweet. I'll run with you would walk this together. You just set the pace you, you'd be mr timekeeper. And we go so we we started off and are we running really comfortably? I think we ran the first 20 miles you know, I don't know, roundabout, just under four hours or something. Yeah. and at one point we were, Johnny was leading in and we were running up the Hill, then we were running down a Hill and he said, Oh, I probably ran that a bit hard. Speaker 3: (33:21) How's that? Yep. So but we were trying not to get too excited and carried away with ourselves. So to got to that first checkpoint, all good. And then I think it, it started to hit home around the, you know, you get into the race and we were running this sort of 15 thing where you run 10 and walk five. And I had this little checklist in my head where I'd come up with four things to think about on a rotation deliberately so that I could focus on the now using my conscious mind. Does that make sense? Yup. Yup. Yeah. So I, I'd ran through this little cycle where I'd go you know, what's my effort? Am I running comfortably? Am I running too fast or too slow check. My nutrition you know, have I eaten in the last half an hour? Have I taken some water in fuel? Speaker 2: (34:11) It's called association. I call that association where you're associating, you're actually checking in with your body. Yeah. And then another strategy, which is just association, when you're in pain that you're actually go off and do your heavy place and might be visualizing, may swimming with whales or something like that, that I'm in somewhere else or I'm renovating my house or I'm doing something like that and I'm taking my mind somewhere else. So these two strategies are really, really good to open to your practice. Speaker 3: (34:37) So now I know that I was doing the disassociation thing around the ADK Mark, but the yeah, so I was, and the other thing I deliberately, I was checking, you know, am I in touch with my environment? Can I feel with my feet and in whatever, my body, the physical environment, just to make sure that I was using my conscious mind. And I would go through this little checklist again, every 20 minutes or so. And so we got through the first 20 miles, it felt quite, quite quickly. And we hit the farm lands, which is a really monotonous physical environment, more walking or hiking than it is running. And it's not fun. It's not inspiring. But we got through that, hit the first major aid station, I think it was around the 50 K Mark. And I said to Johnny I'm now running into territory unknown territory from a distance perspective, even though I've technically run longer time on feet, this is going to be your ground. Yeah. so they'll talk about the different approaches. Johnny and I Johnny got to that big ice station and he had a white bike fritter. And I was like, no, I cannot stand that stuff. Speaker 3: (35:53) So yeah, so I, as, as we left the ice station, my wife said, how you feeling? And I said, honey, I'm really suffering. She said, well, you're halfway. This is all upstairs now. I see the neck see you at 75 K or whatever it was. I was like, Holy moly. So here we go. I'm sorry. It literally felt like I was stepping off an area called comfort and known into the unknown and uncomfortable, and this is going to hurt. It's gonna hurt. And this is where growth happens. Yeah. Yeah. So and we were running together, but we were always about, I don't know, three or four meters apart just because that's how you find yourself. And I think I got to about 65 K in Kinlock or something like that. And I said, I was crying behind my glasses, my sunglasses, because I was going through this dark patch where I was like, if I stop, I'm going to stop and I'm going to let all these people down and I will have this sense of underachievement pressure, yeah. Speaker 3: (36:59) For hanging around my neck. And as we approached, or one of the mini stations, I said to Johnny, Oh, you run on now, I'm I'm close to DNS thing. I'm gonna work through this. He said, no, no, no. We are, we're going to walk. We start if we have to together. Wow. He's doing. Yeah, he is. He's a really good dude. So so then our run at that point became a shuffle and you know, you're tired, you're physically tired. You can't run at that same pace. So we're still running, but it was just a, a shuffle and yeah, Johnny dragged us into the into the Kinlock aid station where we picked up our pacer. And my wife's friend who's training for coast Hannah, so she she signed up to be a pacer and yeah, my my wife took a video. Speaker 3: (37:48) She she asked me a question and she was videoing the response at the, at the 74 K line and a station, sorry. And she said, how do you feel? And I said explicative tired. And she said, Oh do you want to do a another hundred or on 160 after this? And there were a few more expletives that followed. And she she's kept the video and I've, it's a nice reminder, but so then we, yeah, we Johnny had another white bite fritter and I was just like, my God, he's going to suffer in a minute. And yeah, so we hit the Hill behind Kinloch and off we went. And that's, I think when the disassociation came in for me, cause my, my body was really hurt and my feet were really broken, like listers, toenails, just feet were sliding all over the place in my shoes. And it got through Kinlock with a reduced shuffle. And then I think we popped out around the 90 K Mark and into the, off the Hill. And I think that's when I th I finally felt that I was going to do this or sort of finish it. Yeah. Speaker 2: (38:58) That's a good feeling when you think, yeah, I've got this now. Like, Speaker 3: (39:01) Yeah. I mean I think we are our pacer was really good. She, you know, was checking in and if you're pacing someone that you've, you, you know, haven't done that sort of distance with, it's you've got to find your rhythm. And when we got to that last day station, I think, you know, eight K to go or whatever it was that's when we all thought, yeah, this is this, we're on the home stretch here. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. And across the finish line and yeah, happy days Speaker 2: (39:30) Come back to like be like you've been in the, in the hurt locker for a good city. K so 25 Ks or something, which is an awful long time by the way. And I always say to people, the rice doesn't really step from Sydney. [inaudible] Usually that's when you know, when you pace yourself, right, with you hydrated, right. Whether your nutrition was right up until that point. And there's always going to be a time in those big long races and that can laugh for hours when you're absolutely miserable and you just want to die every second and give out. And if you can get through that, sometimes what happens is very often as you come into another space where suddenly it's all good again, you don't know how or why, but you, Bonnie sort of comes back. Did you experience that? Speaker 3: (40:09) Yeah, I think so. I took the, I spoke about in that 60 K Mark, you know, where I was close to DNF thing and you know, when Johnny said to me no, we're going to walk this out if we have to. So let's just keep going. I think what I now understand a little bit more about, I was going through a battle with my body and mind and what my body was going. Now let's just stop, you know, there's an aid station, there should, it can come pick you up. We'd go home and my mind was like, no, no, you were going to do this. And it was, it was like there's a little war going on between the two. Totally. Yeah. And Speaker 2: (40:39) Welcome to the, I enjoy the devil, the lion and the snake. Yeah. Louder. And it gets more and more frantic up there. Right. Speaker 3: (40:46) And I, I'd, I'd heard about it from, from you and others around in that war, your, your mind is telling your body, no, we're going to do this. So just shut up and just live with the pain. And that pain that I was experiencing physically actually reached a point and it didn't go any further. It just settled, it dissipated. And and then I got into a happy, happy place where I thought, yeah, I've got a shuffle going on. I'm not gonna run this full bore, full bore. I can't, but I'm moving forward and I'm getting closer to the next stage station and we're going to pick up HANA, you know, 74K and then we're going to do the same from there, up and over. Kinlock. Uand even with my, you know, like going through that,uI found a way to keep moving. Speaker 3: (41:39) It was almost as if the blisters, they were just blisters, they were going to go away. Toddlers grow back. And that's how I kind of quickly processed it. But it was just keep, even if you have to walk up the Hill, walk up the Hill, yeah, it's fine. Cool. so yeah, we got to, you know, from the 63 to Kinlock, which is a 74 and I think I mentally was getting into happy site. You know, like I, my body had quiet and down. The pain had kind of reached a point but hadn't got worse. And mentally I was I was over, you know, picking up the pace of 74 was a significant milestone. And we were, I think I could see the end you know, it was, we were close and it was just a case of getting through it. Yeah. And I was, I was still trying to bring myself back to the now going through my little checklist I mentioned earlier. And it was a way of just kind of putting into a little box the different pains or feelings I was experiencing. Discomfort around my feet, discomfort around my legs, you know, it got worse or sorry I've got bad, but it wasn't gonna get any worse. Speaker 2: (42:58) It's quite funny on that point. That yeah, when the body starts to scream at you, it's a bit like when it does pre-race, you know, when it throws it, you know, a sickness that you at the cold or some something that or try and stop you doing it and also does it arise. We are getting to the point where you like, the pain is so bad. You're thinking, how the hell am I going to carry on? And then when you do persevere, once again, the brain seems to go, Oh well she's not stopping. We've got to keep going. So I better stop putting those signals out. I don't know how it works. And I'd be interesting to see if other athletes have experienced the same thing, but it doesn't actually get any worse than bad. It's already bad, but keep getting worse. Speaker 3: (43:40) Yeah. And you know, it's, I don't know whether it was a combination of you know, mental fortitude or whatever word you wanna use or we'd reached a significant milestone. So getting up and over Kinlock Hill was huge cause it in 90 K there's two little eight stations and hitting the eight, the ice station at 90 K, as soon as you turn the corner off the ice station, it was like a wall of noise from the finish area had made its way up to up. You could hear it. And it was like, wow, we are so close. So any, it was like another wave just picked you up and was going to carry you down this, this fricking mountain. And you know, you could just, where that point, we were kind of walking shuffling and it was in the dark and it was quite wet. Speaker 3: (44:30) So you'd probably didn't have any other choice to be honest. And it was just, you know, you could feel the end. So we just made our way down the mountain. And we were joking amongst the three of us, you know, pace from Johnny about, you know, what we're going to have to, we was our favorite post race mill, just really silly crabs that was just getting us through the finish to the finish. And yeah, so yeah, we, we, we hit that last cause like a sty that you've got to climb over and it's like a physical barrier where you're leaving the trials to a four wheel drive tack that literally throws you out at the finish line and climbed over that STI. And it was just, we've done it. We know we're almost there. Speaker 2: (45:20) And you can see, you know, you can see that you can hear the people and you can feel that you're getting near and you can light at the end of the tunnel after a very dark long tunnel. Speaker 3: (45:29) Yeah. And it was, it was funny. It's like, wow. You know, you crossed the line, we crossed the line together. I had a big of a bit of a hug and you know, like we've, I think it was a realization for me that, wow, we'd, we'd just done this. There's a huge achievement personally, yeah, Speaker 2: (45:48) It is a huge achievement. What did you feel at the finish line? Because some, sometimes in sunrises I felt like, you know, I've just broken down in tears, absolutely with relief and I can actually stop because you dream about being able to stop and other times it's just no emotion because you just like numb. You sort of wanted that beyond anything. What was your reaction? Speaker 3: (46:10) So what I didn't mentioned is on that way up and over Kinlock Hill towards the 80 and 90 K stations, I, I was going through a real roller coaster of emotion, you know, just trying to get to that final eight station. When I'd, I was on the home stretch, I was, I'm really struggling to hold back the tears. And Johnny was in front of me. My pace was behind me, so they had no idea what my facial expression was. But so, so I thought, and I actually Johnny Johnny and I said, look, there's going to be some tears at the finish line, Hannah pacer be prepared across the finish line. And my overall overwhelming feeling was done it job done. And yeah, it was just satisfaction. I think it was w with no tears at the finish line because I think that emotion had passed and I think it was just sheer bloody relief. Yeah. Keep going. And I think it was excitement of now being able to eat real food like chips or dip or pizza or just something other than you know, a gel or you know, the equivalent paleo equivalent. Yeah, Speaker 2: (47:27) Yeah, yeah, yeah. All the horrible stuff. You're sick to death of what in and you thought EEG and it starts really, really interesting. The emotions that you go through. I did a a hundred K rice with Neil, you know, my, my offsider running hot coaching and it was his face on hundred and I mentioned this before, but he got, you know, he's a, he's a strong, tough med, but it's 70 Ks. He was in tears. He was in so much pain and he couldn't see his way to the finish line. You know, when you get into that deep dark space of absolute despair. And it also, and I cried pretty much every race, you know there's this, I don't think there's ever been an ultra where I haven't balled my eyes out somewhere. It's just part of the thing. And what happens is that when you get, when you have given everything at your body, you are so raw and you're so emotional, like everything is like any little thing can sit you off. Speaker 2: (48:27) Hello D and I was like 180 Kazan or something into death Valley, 270 K the same thing guys. And I was in such a world of pain and there was a 60 kilometer strike road that was just blowing my mind. And Neo was running behind me and he exited. We hit my ankle when he was running, just, just a couple of steps behind. And he hit my ankle and he tripped me up. And the adrenaline rush of being tripped and falling just opened the floodgates of the emotions. Like, cause I was holding it together desperately. And when I fell on the drill and came out, I was just bawling for the next hour, still running up, polling my eyes out and just could not control myself, you know. And he was like mortified. I swapped people who are, who are cruising for me. And it wasn't, it wasn't about him. Just that shock of falling just released everything that you are holding on so tightly toe. It's a ultra marathon and doing something like this huge achievement that you've just done is really it's life squeezed into a 50 an hour or 50 narrow or whatever it was, timeframe. Speaker 3: (49:46) It's, yeah, every emotion that you can possibly feel you in a, in a human lifetime, you can, you know, you just go through a roller coaster of emotions. And I think for me that, you know, from 60 K through two sort of 80, 85 when we crossed that last day station that was probably mentally quite tough, you know, just to keep moving one step after another. And then you, it was just sheer, utter relief. Yeah. Job done. Yeah. Speaker 2: (50:21) Yeah. So now you've done your Europe year in the hundred K club, you're an ultra marathon now done, you've done a few FFTs already in this, your first hundred. How are you feeling? You're three weeks out, have you, what w what often happens with runners, and I won't free that with you, but how did you go through a bit of a elation stage and then a ho down the other side stage and a bit of a depression before you started coming out the other end? Are you still in that roller coaster of a post race situation? How are you keeping now? Oh, we lost you there for a sec. [inaudible] Yup, yup, yup. We know on the pool was sorry about that people. So yeah. Did you F what are you going through now? Emotionally? Speaker 3: (51:16) So I I think I, I probably relaxed too quickly post race. I, I'm is my wife's 40th birthday, a couple of days after. So you know, that new, that normal discipline around diet and hydration probably relaxed a bit too quickly. And I suffered that first week not only with like aching niggles and blistered feet, but I had a, a really heavy, bad, nasty cold. So my immune system was absolutely smashed from the race I think. And just my body going, I think know, thank God that's over. But I, I started walking you know, daily on the Monday. So I had Sunday off, started walking and then walk, running again by Wednesday just to keep the body moving. And I got through the cold and I'm back running. But I've, I've seen some advice in the group around from Neal around, you know, try and keep that long, run to no more than an hour. Speaker 3: (52:14) First month I had a chat with Neil actually around you know, what is my recovery looking like? And I wanted to I, I S I swore during the race I would never do this, but I've started to look at what next and I actually, I'm getting itchy feet around. Myla so 160 K so but it's not for, it's not for cause North burn really appeals to me from a sheer physical challenge. I don't think I wanna go back to Tara [inaudible] and do the a hundred or the 160, because the environments are similar to telco. Yeah. So I'm drawn to really challenging races, physically challenging, like really gnarly mountainous, hilly, tight races. So North really appeals to me. Yeah. So that's a 20, 21 goal, I think. I want to, somebody said to me the other day, take some time to smell the roses. And I'm just going to enjoy running and just mountain biking. You're having fun, but my body's coming. Right. yeah, I I'm just gonna still run absolutely by just, I just wanna run for the enjoyment Speaker 2: (53:26) Of it at the moment for my, for my 2 cents as, as when, when after a race, you often do have an immune system because you have knocked the hell out of your immune system. Really. You've, you've used that point every, a lot of your hormones, like your endorphins and serotonin. So you can go into it at depression about usually 10 days out seeming to teen dies yet is when you usually have a bit of a mental job. You can be on a high for a couple of days straight after the race because you're, you saw you're tired, but just so stuck with yourself and you're on this adrenaline. Your body's been in a fight or flight state during that race. And so it's still in that fight or flight state often for a good couple of days. And then you start to come down from it and that's when you can start to get sick. Speaker 2: (54:10) And you also usually ravenously hungry at this time. So you just pigging out like no tomorrow. And your body is actually goes into a repair state after, you know, a couple of days and you come down and often that can be quite a Rocky road for people. Not always, but it is number one, you've lost the big goal that you had that is now achieved and done and there's a bit of an empty space in your life and then you're, you're also, you've had a bit of a trauma, you've gone through some trauma, so there's some post-traumatic sort of stuff going on. Some you're still working through. What the hell was that that I just experienced, especially when you do overseas races and you are out of your actual cultural environment on top of it all. And then after team dies, you might start to come out of it. Speaker 2: (55:01) That sort of adept, which often happens and then is when your mind starts to go, what next? Because you've got a big hole and you sort of need something to be aiming towards again. Yeah. Thing is, and this phase is, it's great to have and I'm glad you say 2021 because that means that you're being like sensible in, in, you're going to let your body get over this experience and then build yourself up again. And you have some other races, no doubt along the way that will build you to Wallington northbound 2021 and North burners approach little tasks a hundred mater. Like if you, if, if you wanted an easy a hundred water, that ain't it, you know, I bet any easy a hundred motto cause a hundred most soccer balls. But that one is a particularly tough, tough, tough one. But super exciting and an amazing, have been really lovely family. Speaker 2: (55:54) I was cofounder of that race and loved it and I sold it last year to the guys teary and Tom and, and they, they've done a fantastic job with it. And it's really a special special event and it's a small family event as opposed to the big Tyler widow. I'll post that. It's a lot more this corporate feel. It's a lot more intimate. And I also think for me that I wanna quite life is so precious. I want to, I want to spend time being as well and not just getting lost, chasing massive goals all the time. Oh, you're so wise. Honestly, like honestly the, a lot of people go into this phase because I've seen it like, you know, after having trained so many people and gone through this process with so many people, you get to camps, you get the ones who say on never even want to do that to myself again. Speaker 2: (56:44) And then they gone out of, out of it. Hopefully if you've prepared people well, like don't actually fall off completely, but often they need a really decent break or you get other ones who go, that's totally lost without the next huge thing. And I, and I fell into that camp for many, many years on this hamster wheel of having to do events because I didn't know what the hell else to do with myself if I wasn't completely, this was my identity and it was very tied up with who I was and my self esteem and my confidence. And so when, like three years ago, and I actually retired from the long staff because my mom but it was overdue, it was overdue to have a break, you know, at least a break if not, you know feminine. Like, because I was just in this hamster wheel of, of trying to outdo myself all the time. Speaker 2: (57:39) And you can't, you know, there comes a point where you can't do more than you did. You know, you can't keep topping it and keep trying and you just blowing yourself out completely and you're not allowing yourself that recovery time in between. And I can even see it in some of the top, top elite, you know, famous super crazy ultra runners out there that I'm friends with who are still doing it as they're getting older and older and older and this like the fifties and sixties, but that, that they, they the obsessive, you know, and then not as healthy as I could be if they actually took a step back now and I'm going to take some time out for a year or two and just reassessed where my body's at. And it's really hard to do that to step away for a while because you know that to get back to that level, why are we're out now and do a hundred K or something. Speaker 2: (58:36) I couldn't go and just do it because I haven't been trained to get back there would be in your mind, the hard part is when you've done so many is that you expect yourself still to be there even when you are not there. And it really hard one for people coming back from injuries for older runners, people who have retired and then we'll come back out or then I they did to get I've got a lady at the moment who's been struggling with a really bad illness and was comparing herself to how she was two or three years ago as to how she is now and rebuilding and keeping and being very disappointed in herself because she still thinks she's back there instead of going, starting from scratch again in moving forward in what was, is gone and not comparing yourself to who you used to be. Speaker 3: (59:27) Yeah, I think, yeah. And I think you know, when I did coast 10 years ago, coast to coast I started and stopped very abruptly, the whole endurance small sport journey and it took a few years to reconnect with running. I don't want to stop running, but I, there's no way I could do why I probably could, but I, I would just, I wouldn't be best prepared. Do you know what I mean? Speaker 2: (59:53) Wouldn't be the best husband and you wouldn't be the best father, the best person you are at work. You know, so it these things and this is what I try to get across to people is that when you take on these message goals, you are sacrificing some other part of your life and it's, it's and that's fine if that's what you've decided you're going to do, but to understand the impact that it's going to have on your husband and wife and your children, what impact, you know, for positive infinitive it can, but if you are doing it back to back to back to back, it can actually have a negative effect on your family and your friends on it. So what's weighing all that sort of stuff up and understanding where we are as my focus going now? It's something I battle with constantly because part of me wants to go back and do all that crazy stuff right now when I have other priorities, it's just life. Sometimes it's very hard to, to knock it down on yourself and to feel guilty cause you're not doing everything. Speaker 3: (01:00:54) Yes. Yeah. And, and life's important, you've gotta enjoy it as you go through it. And if, yeah, I dunno. That's so I, I, yeah, I finished and I'm happy, but I'm actually at peace now with the fact that next year is some smaller races. But the big one is me potentially in 2021. Speaker 2: (01:01:12) Yeah. And you've done this one and what your friends said celebrate and smell the roses. That is a fantastic principal to take away. And it's something that someone told me at the end of a big race when I just went, Oh, what, you know, I wasn't as fast as so-and-so and I didn't, you know, I bet it's a bit a longer race and they went for goodness sake, you know, after I'd just run a mess. Okay. Right. They just said, you know, cannot, can you not just congratulate yourself, celebrate your wins, integrated into your psyche and who you are before you go chasing the next goal. Yeah. Actually type this hundred K telco run and put it in your hat and go, I fricking did that in our religion for doing that. And I'm gonna, I'm gonna suck this, I'm gonna suck this one dry before I go and chase the next. Speaker 3: (01:02:04) Oh, totally. Yeah. So I think I think with the the English get into the rugby world cup final thing, I'm going to have a little beer or two this weekend. Speaker 2: (01:02:14) Yes. I was saved and then I apply. Well they were, they were absolutely amazing. And, and hits off their guys too. You know, you, you can always be no. So, Hey man, thank you very much for sharing your story. I hope this is empowered and lots of other people listening to this. I hope it's made you think maybe I can do it if Matt can do it. And to understand the journey that you go through and then it isn't or you know, roses, it is difficult along the way, but that you can overcome any final words that you'd want to. If you were talking to you two years ago, what sort of advice would you give Mitt Speaker 3: (01:02:57) If you believe in yourself and believe in others around you? And Oh yeah, just if you want something, go after it and, and no, no distance, no goal is too big, if you know what I mean. Life is, you get one lap in life and you've got to make the most of it Speaker 2: (01:03:17) I made to that one. Speaker 3: (01:03:19) Yeah. So thank you Lisa. I really appreciate the opportunity. Speaker 2: (01:03:22) No, it's been absolutely fantastic. It's wonderful to have you in a running hot coaching tribe in. If anyone else wants to join us, of course we'd love to have you come and join us and check us out. I'm sure Matt will agree it's been a a good journey with, with having a bit of structure to your training and having some goals and someone to, to ask questions to and to make sure that you're doing things right. So Matt, congratulations once again on your huge success and your mess of victory. And we'll talk to you again so no doubt. Awesome. Thanks Lisa. Speaker 4: (01:03:55) [Inaudible] Speaker 1: (01:03:55) That's it this week for pushing the limits. We showed her write, review, and share with your friends and head over and visit Lisa and her team, at least at www.lisatamati.com.

Good morning everybody! I was on with Matt and Eric Lusk who was subbing for Ken. We talked about browsers and privacy.  Firefox is taking the stance that privacy is where they need to concentrate their advanced efforts and updates.  That is great news for everyone.  We also hit Passwords and Password Managers and why you should use one and 5G and the internet of things.  I am out in Phoenix at a big conference and will have some big announcements after I return that will help every one of you to cyber secure your life. These and more tech tips, news, and updates visit - CraigPeterson.com --- Related Articles: Who is tracking your web movements? Use Firefox if you want to know  Security 101 - Passwords and Password Management  --- Automated Machine Generated Transcript: Good morning, everybody. Craig Peterson here. I was on this morning over on WGAN in Maine on their am FM stations and talked a little bit with Eric, who was in for Ken this morning, Eric and Matt, about browsers what you should be looking for. Firefox has a new claim that we talked about this morning, I gave some advice on the thing, you need to download the one plugin that you must put on all of your browsers, and where to get that. And Eric asked a little bit about 5g and how it's going to change his life. So, of course, we got into that as well. So here we go with Eric and Matt. Well, ladies, gentlemen, it is that time of the day and that time of the week again, because 738 on a Wednesday, and that means that it's time to talk to Mr. Peterson. Craig Peterson, our tech guru joins us now Craig, How are you this morning? Hey, I am enjoying the conversations this morning between you two. This is quite a time we live in. It is quite a time ladies and gentlemen that we live in certainly the day after the election in Portland which made Matt a happy man. is a great day. Yes, indeed. So, let's start off in the world of technology, sir, by telling me something that has been beguiling me for some time. Firefox, so so there's privacy protections that make website trackers visible here and I and I used to be a Firefox guy, I guess is where I'm asking this question. And I switched off what like the rest of America to Chrome ages and ages and ages ago and I never switched back. But I've heard good things sort of in recent times about Firefox sort of being worth it again. What do you what? Generally speaking your take on all this? Okay, well, I did a pop-up training about different browsers. And in this day and age, something worth talking about. Microsoft, of course, had their internet explorer, aka Internet Explorer, bum, bum bum, a really poorly designed and implemented browser that didn't work on many websites out there. And what really kind of got Microsoft to pull up his socks was what you were just talking about, which is the Chrome browser out of Google. So Microsoft realized Internet Explorer was not worth it's salt. So they went ahead and they replaced it with another browser that they had created. Internet Explorer was actually created by Paul de and, and TSA. And they took the code so I won't go into all the details. But now Microsoft's newest web browser is actually Google Chrome. And it's rebadged. It's using something called chromium, which is the basis for Google Chrome. So Microsoft has switched over to Google Chrome many people So Matt, you're not left alone. I'm sure Eric uses Chrome as well. I use it from time to time I use Google Chrome if I try to use the Microsoft Internet Explorer, the 8 gigabytes of ram just grinds to close. Right? It explodes. Hence the name Internet exploder. Your question about Firefox is really quite opportune because there are two worlds there are three browsers out there that really keep privacy in mind. Now, you might have noticed over the last two, there are a lot of plugins designed to block ads, etc. Google removed the ability to block at an in certain cases, they removed it from Chrome now, because of course, they make their money through advertising can't blame on the guys over at Firefox have decided they're going to make privacy there. No Bro one thing for Firefox, and their latest version, which is verse 70, settles, the Firefox browser has a lot of privacy protection built-in. So I like it. I like it a lot. And I'm going to give you guys a little plugin you can put into your browser that's going to help no matter what browser use. The other two privacy browsers out there are opera. And there are rumors that opera has now got some Chinese connections, I have not been able to verify that. But opera by far, very, very privacy-related much more so than then Chrome is. And then the most private browser is called epic epi C. And the epic browser is also based on Chrome and chromium. So it has a lot of that same functionality, but it blocks pretty much everything and cookies. Now here's what I want everybody to write down. If you're using Chrome or Firefox or anything, something called Privacy Badger. And its Privacy Badger BADGR. Just like that nasty little road and to cleanse around from the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Privacy Badger is available as a plugin for almost any browser out there. And it watches where you're going. And it looks for trackers on the website. And it automatically learns which trackers it thinks should be blocked. And it is the least intrusive that I have ever seen for keeping your privacy. Privacy Badger. Epic might not work with some websites, Firefox and Opera work pretty much with all websites, but you can add Privacy Badger to both of those. So what do I recommend? If you really want the ultimate and private use? Epic. There is something even more private called the Tor Browser but then it gets complex. But use epic. If you want good privacy use Firefox, I would say I use opera a lot. And in any case, even if you're using Chrome, get the Privacy Badger. It's free. It's easy to download and install it on your browser. All right, we're talking to Craig Peterson, our tech guru. He joins us every once in a while, Wednesdays at 738. By, by and large, to talk about what is happening in the world of technology. Craig, tell me a little bit about one password. What is it and why is it changing things for some enterprises? Well, one password is what I use it because allows me and my teams to be able to share certain information, one password to keep passwords and logins for, generate passwords. But it also allows you to apply it and so as a family, Husband, and wife can share bank account information with it in business enterprises. Because now with allows them to have team so you might have a team of people to work or even just a few people that are working on the website, for instance, so they can all formation and then if someone leaves a team, you can instantly remove their access to the passwords and have someone go through and change all the passwords. So one password businesses what we're talking about here, they've got advanced protection mode, as well as all kinds of monitoring tools that let you know if a website is being compromised, and it helps take care of the biggest threat to security for most organizations, and that the people with absolute phenomenal employees all kinds of factual information in their hands and sometimes it gets lost. So one password has some holes and some key levels. recommend to anyone in the business. And both guys, Matt and Eric, you should be using one password, because it really helps you keep all of your accounts all of your logins safe. And remember, I told you that you should lie to your bank. When it comes to rolling password recovery questions. One password keeps up straight for you. Because you should be making up the answers to which high school did you attend? was your first date you know those questions? Make up the answers use one password to store them securely so that if you do need to use the password recovery stuff, you've got the right information, which is the wrong information, right? Because you're just totally made it up out of thin air for the eventuality that the websites going to be compromised and to stop the bad guys from getting the answers to your password caliber security questions. Craig, and see if I can get in one quick question. How is 5g going to change my life compared to 4g technology? Did you just say that? That was a quick question? I got two minutes here. Here's the bottom line, Eric 5g is going to change everybody's life. Because first of all, Data Access is going to be way faster than it is right now ultimately when it rolls out, but it's going to be cheaper. And 5g is designed to handle billions of simultaneous connections. What that means is everything that can have activity is going to happen. Now, for instance, your Tesla, two parts in the garage connects via the internet, the Tesla, of course, I plug it in every night. Yeah, exactly. And when you plug it in, and it connects to the home Wi-Fi network, it updates that software automatically. It's 5g. Eric, what's going to happen is everything's going to be internet-connected, your glasses are going to be internet-connected. Because it's so inexpensive, so easy. And it's designed to have so many devices connected, which opens up, of course, a number of worms when you're talking about the things because it will make the internet of things I'm talking about. Anchor, you're going to keep track of how far you walk that morning and everything is going to be online, Greg. If I could just find my five-year-old sneakers every morning. I would be happy if I could just find them. Yeah, there's probably going to be an app for that. Yeah, exactly. There will. Alright, well, Craig Peterson, our tech guru joins us on Wednesdays at this time to go over what's happening in the world of technology. thank you as always, always a pleasure and we will talk again next week. By the way 1 pm on Saturday. By the way, 1 pm on Saturday, every Saturday, Craig has a show right here on WGAN. And thanks a lot, Craig. Appreciate it. And good luck with the show this weekend. Thanks. All right, so why don't we take a quick moment here and toss it back over the news. Hi, guys, hey, I'm out at a conference. And I'm going to be here for well about another week, actually. And I just want you to keep your head up. Because if you aren't on my mailing list, you are going to find out about some very cool stuff that we're going to be doing later here in the month of November and December, and after the first of the year, too. So if you're not on my mailing list, if you don't get my weekly emails that come out every Saturday morning, make sure you subscribe right now are you going to miss some amazing stuff? You might have already missed some of these pop-up training that I've been doing that have each gun a couple of hours apiece sometimes a little bit more. So go to Craig peterson.com slash Subscribe, and right there, you'll see a little form. I won't spam you. I do let you know when I have two training courses when I have the pop-ups when I have all of this stuff, but this is not one of those heavy sell marketing type things. And you're going to want to know about what we're doing coming up here to help you out. All right, have a great day and we'll be back with the show this weekend. Bye-bye. Transcription by otter.ai --- More stories and tech updates at: www.craigpeterson.com Don't miss an episode from Craig. Subscribe and give us a rating: www.craigpeterson.com/itunes Follow me on Twitter for the latest in tech at: www.twitter.com/craigpeterson For questions, call or text: 855-385-5553

Matt Perrault is very sick. So Matt and Patrick were late getting the podcast recorded but it's out and ready to be listened to.  Topics include:  -Bettors wins big at William Hill -Books cleaned up on Sunday  -LSU vs. Alabama handle -College basketball opener  -College basketball futures  Subscribe to our podcast where you get your podcasts! 

We asked toy industry expert Matt Nuccio of Design Edge to come back on inventRightTV to explain what happened after his interview about how he helps toy inventors went live on our channel last month. (Watch Stephen's first interview with Mat Nuccio here: https://youtu.be/UjGCUiTnY0o) Matt explains that he received literally thousands of ideas! So many ideas, in fact, that they became overwhelming — and difficult to keep track of. He received paragraphs of information in emails and people who called him up to say, 'Hey I had this idea this morning....' So Matt made the difficult decision that he needed to begin charging for product reviews. This is not something he has done in 30 years! To be fair, he also received a lot of great submissions. Take Matt's words to heart: Explaining what your product is and does in a lengthy way is not an effective strategy. When it comes to evaluating, it's not only about your product; it's about you — if you're being respectful of others' time, if you're acting like a professional, if you're serious about becoming a toy inventor. Otherwise you get put in the amateur camp! Relationships are everything in this business. They're the key to success. He understands that inventors are passionate and dying to get their ideas out there. But that doesn't mean you should get upset and make demands. Respect the courting process! Matt explains what he is looking for. Licensing expert Stephen Key is on a mission to help inventors become more professional. Matt Nuccio is a very successful toy inventor who has attended New York City's Toy Fair for more than 30 consecutive years! His company Design Edge is the back-end to a lot of toy companies; for example it does their design, development, engineering, and even sourcing. Through those contacts, he has been able to license dozens and dozens of toy ideas. He began attending Toy Fair as a 14-year-old because his parents were in the industry. Talk about an industry insider! Licensing expert and toy inventor himself Stephen Key interviews Matt about the toy business and inventors. Get to know Matt: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mattnuccio/ Get to know Design Edge: https://www.designedge.net/ About Design Edge: Design Edge is your one-stop shop for bringing toys and games to market. For over 30 years, Design Edge has been a leading toy, game, and collectable development, marketing, manufacturing and consulting agency. Design Edge is the backend support to dozens of toy companies both big and small. Design Edge is well-equipped to help get any company to the next level. As your design house, consultants and manufacturers, we can design quality products and packaging, advise retail price points, provide quality goods at targeted retail price points, create marketing and development strategies, manage safety testing, quality control and shipping logistics, and advise on the pursuit of opportunities in licensing, sales, and distributions. Our end goal is to grow your brand and create additional revenue streams through quality product, sales and distribution. Bringing an invention to market? Let inventRight, the world's leading experts on product licensing, show you how. Co-founded by Stephen Key and Andrew Krauss in 1999, inventRight has since helped people from more than 60 countries license their ideas. Visit http://www.inventright.com for more information and to become their student. Call #1-800-701-7993 to set up an appointment with Andrew or another member of the inventRight team to discuss how we can help you license your ideas. New to licensing? Read inventRight cofounder Stephen Key's bestselling book “One Simple Idea: Turn Your Dreams Into a Licensing Goldmine While Letting Others Do the Work.” Find it here: http://amzn.to/1LGotjB. Want to learn how to license your product ideas without a patent? Stephen's book “Sell Your Ideas With or Without a Patent” explains exactly how. Find it here: http://amzn.to/1T1dOU2. inventRight, LLC. is not a law firm and does not provide legal, patent, trademark, or copyright advice. Please exercise caution when evaluating any information, including but not limited to business opportunities; links to news stories; links to services, products, or other websites. No endorsements are issued by inventRight, LLC., expressed or implied. Depiction of any trademarks/logos does not represent endorsement of inventRight, LLC, its services, or products by the trademark owner. All trademarks are registered trademarks of their respective companies.

Hey, Good Morning, everybody, I had a conversation with Ken and map this morning. They are on WGAN, the morning drive show there in Maine. How do you explain quantum computing? And I thought I could probably explain them pretty well. And Matt wanted to do a follow up on this whole quantum supremacy thing. And so I took a stab at it, explained it, and I have heard some half decent explanations before but unless you really get into the physics of it, it can be hard to explain. Anyhow, let me know what you think about what I did here. Again, me at Craig Peterson dot com to send me a note. And here we go with Ken and Matt. These and more tech tips, news, and updates visit - CraigPeterson.com --- Related Articles: Real or Fake — Can You Tell Perfect “Deep Fakes” in the Next Year Paper Leaks Showing A Quantum Computer Doing Something A Supercomputer Can’t --- Automated Machine Generated Transcript: Craig 0:00 Hey, good morning, everybody, Greg Peterson here. I had a conversation with Ken and map this morning. They are on WGAN, the morning drive show there in Maine, and had an interesting time I problem i don't i don't know what you want to call it. How do you explain quantum computing? And I thought I could probably explain them pretty well. And Matt wanted to do a follow up on this whole quantum supremacy thing. And so I took a stab at it, explained it, and I have heard some half decent explanations before but unless you really get into the physics of it, it can be hard to explain. Anyhow, let me know what you think about what I did here. Again, me at Craig Peterson, calm to send me a note. And here we go with Ken and Matt. Ken 0:55 We'er back ladies gentlemen, at 738 Matt 0:59 seriously means that Craig Peterson joins us as he always does on Wednesdays to go over what's happening in the world of technology. Craig Peterson, ladies and gentlemen. How are you, sir? Craig 1:08 Hey, good morning doing well. Just had a comment when I called in about some of the listeners to my show on Saturday. And it's kind of exciting. I love getting little emails, people asking questions. Quite a few small business people, you know, SOHO type stuff, small office, Home Office. And those are the types of people that I think really need help as well as the home users and people who are afraid of shot. Ken 1:36 So, there you go. Tune in to Craig Peterson this Saturday on WG and at one o'clock. And while we have you here today, Mr. Peterson. So what is this deep fake? And what's going to happen? When's it going to arrive? And what should I do about it Matt 1:52 Oh, it's already arrived, sir. Ken 1:55 Tell me about I don't even know what a deep fake is. Craig 1:58 No, I was talking about it. Yeah, yesterday. And I think mad man united that this is going to be an interesting discussion. Because the whole idea behind deep fakes is to be able to make something that looks exactly like something else. So in this case, what we're talking about is that you remember the days you could take Photoshop and and they manipulate right? And they put somebody's face on somebody else's body. And it just looks terrible. And most of the time they didn't do a very good job of it used to be hard but now it's easy. I mentioned in fact before that, the whole movie concept if you think about Toy Story that out right now Toy Story for I guess it's coming to DVD near you. And then Toy Story movie, compared to the original one. So Matt 2:51 God zero difference. Yeah, I know. It's I remember, I was watching that movie with my kids, like, a couple months ago or whatever. And it was awesome. Craig 3:03 Yeah, it's it's absolutely amazing what they're able to do. And that technology that was used 20 years ago, was something that costs hundreds of millions of dollars to develop, and the movie The cost 10s of millions of dollars to just have that animation done. And today, he just anybody with an iPhone, or an Android phone, can sit there and make animations that are much better than the Toy Story 20 years ago. So what's happening with deep fakes is, we are now able to do all of this kind of the photoshopping stuff we mentioned, we're able to do that using special animation techniques. And we're able to make it so that if we have enough video of somebody, we can make a video, and we can stick someone else's head face into that video, even now, we can take their picture, how they walk, etc, uploaded into the video, as well. And we're seeing criminals using it today, where they are taking a person's voice, all they have to do is for instance, the annual stockholders meeting this, this just happened a couple of months back. And it was a German firm that owned this, I think it was a British company. And the course was CEO of the German parent company, had his annual meeting and he spoke. So they have lots of voice samples. And they were able to just feed this into some software that you can already get for your desktop PC, and make it so that they can make a recording that sounded just like this German CEO. And the bad guys use this recording now to call up the subsidiary company and have the German CEO order this company need to send a check for millions of dollars to the bad guys are actually transfer money, millions of dollars to the bad guys. Now, it's still fairly complicated. But we've got this guy, he's a deep fake pioneers name is Holly. And he told CNBC on Friday, that he thinks within six months, we're going to have deep fakes, where it's video, the audio, everything all together. And we're going to have it as a point where you cannot tell readily that it's a fake. Now, this is where Matt, I think this comes in with you a lot. Craig 5:36 Think about October surprises, right? Does everybody know what October surprise? Matt, why don't you tell us? What an October surprise? Well, I would say that Ken's legal partner knows what an October surprise is given the 2000 election and drunk driving. Mr. Bush and whatnot. It's a unexpected event that happens in the very late stages of a campaign which throw a gigantic monkey wrench into the whole campaign. Craig 5:58 So let's get happened in the year 2020, when deep fakes can be done by any kid with a computer. And all of a sudden there is a video released showing, well, maybe President Trump talking to maybe a foreign leader, okay. Ken 6:15 Maybe he made a phone call to someone in the Ukraine. Craig 6:18 Ukraine, just pretend that okay. And it wasn't real, or whoever, you know, Elizabeth Warren, whoever the candidate ends up being for the democrats saying something doing something, that we're already seeing this in the porn industry, and porn, of course, leads the tech world in so many ways. We're already seeing it there, man, what's going to happen? Matt 6:42 The song Come on. Craig 6:47 What's gonna happen next year when it's October, and Bill Weld is running against President Trump and all of a sudden there's a Bill Weld video or President Trump video or whoever it is? This is world changing. Matt 7:05 is really, really great. For porn, is that what you're referring to? Just checking. Craig 7:13 You know, again, not to belabor the the issue, because I think we can move on from it. But it's also, you know, if you are a celebrity or whatnot like that, one of the things that's terrible about the deep fake thing is that like people are now essentially mapping like Taylor Swift's face on to, you know, stuff. And it's not you know, that that's horrendous to do to people, but it's happening with increasing frequency. And I'm sure that this technology, as it gets better, will make those things more believable and more believable as time goes by. So that's something that obviously has to be looked at, obviously, going in the future. Matt 7:47 But anyway, moving on to a different topic. Mr. Peterson I've read things over the years about quantum computing. And I understand the concept a little bit, I find it quite interesting. You have a little topic here that you'd like to talk about that relates to quantum computing, certainly has capabilities that regular computing does not Is that true? Craig 8:04 Yeah, absolutely. And, man, this is kind of interesting, because there are a lot of companies right now who are busy with the whole quantum computing thing. And the idea is that our normal computers, a digital computer, it's ones and zeros. And each bit in that computers represented by either binary one or zero. And if the computer has to do things in certain order orders, you have to make it work, right. And you have to figure it all out with quantum computing. The easiest way to talk about Matt 8:42 I'm very much looking forward to hearing you explain this, because it is really hard to explain Craig 8:48 The quantum computing is basically the computer is using quantum physics in order to do computing. So each bit in the quantum world is called a cube bed. So in the regular world, it's got a zero or one sort of has two states. Right now, the quantum computers, each bit has five different states. And the way this all works is it's all kind of mess together, man. This is going to be tough. And and there is a milestone a quantum computing milestone called quantum supremacy. And Google claims it has met that milestone. Now what quantum it supremacy is, and this is, this is simple to explain, I'm not going to try and get more into quantum itself. But what read the Wikipedia article, if you're that interested in the details, it really is fascinating. You know what I mean? It is it is crazy, interesting. supremacy is okay, we now have a quantum computer that has solved a problem that a regular computer either could not solve or, in some cases, it can solve a computer in the matter of a problem in a matter of minutes that could take a regular computer as much as 100,000 years to do. It is absolutely amazing. What's happening. So let's talk quantum supremacy. And, you know, thank you to our robot overlords who are in charge, and we just so appreciate, because this is a major step towards AI. Because basically a quantum computer acts differently, if you will, it thinks differently, it can solve problems differently. And the Chinese have been working heavily on this, and they may have beat us to the punch, but they're not going to tell us. But the bottom line is with quantum computing, pretty much every type of encryption we use today, including military grade encryption to keep our secret safe, can be broken by quantum computer in a matter of just minutes. And some of these computers now or up to what are called 10 cubits. And it's it's absolutely amazing. And some people, by the way, are discounting what Google has claimed they're not they're saying Google really hasn't broken quantum supremacy. But we're going to be there very soon. And it is going to absolutely change things. And particularly in the military side and encryption side of things. So this is a fascinating topic. If you love this sort of stuff. I've got the article up at Craig Peterson calm, and you can just do a Google search on quantum computing and your mind will be blown as what these guys are doing. Ken 11:40 Craig Peterson, you know, you hear him every Saturday, well, first here, wherever you hear me here. Every Friday, Saturday, at one o'clock and WGAN. And you hear Craig Peterson cot com And he's there as well. Thank you, Mr. Peterson. I will talk to you next week. But we'll listen to you on Saturday today. Craig 12:00 Alright, thanks, guys, Matt 12:02 Craig. So it's about that time that we go to a break. Craig 12:05 Hey, everybody, thanks for being with us this morning. I think this was fun. I'll be back on Saturday. And we are starting a whole new series of probably video podcasts, I think is what we're going to do. So keep an eye out for those if you are a business person. That's who they're aimed at. What do you need to do for your business to keep it safe? Those are the people that can really be hurt. You're talking about all of your retirement? Of course, anybody can and much of this applies to regular home users and retirees as well. If you have an idea of what you think maybe we should call this podcast, let me know I would love to hear from you. Again, it's about security. It's about business, small business, medium business, maybe up to 20 $25 million size business but really aimed at the under 10 million dollar businesses out there. What should I call this thing? Anyways? Let me know I you know, I don't like the Tech Talk name. I don't know if I mentioned that before, but I I kind of got stuck with it because I took the advice of someone that had been in radio for like 20 years and OO Tech Talk. And there's like a ton of shows called Tech Talk. There's even a guy out west whose name Craig Peterson, or Peterson, I guess. Or San I'm not sure anyways, and he had a show he called tech talk. I don't know. Very confusing to me. Let me know what should I call the security for business show? Maybe Maybe that's the name to call it me at Craig Peterson dot com everybody. Have a great day. Bye-bye. Transcribed by https://otter.ai --- More stories and tech updates at: www.craigpeterson.com Don't miss an episode from Craig. Subscribe and give us a rating: www.craigpeterson.com/itunes Follow me on Twitter for the latest in tech at: www.twitter.com/craigpeterson For questions, call or text: 855-385-5553

Hunting for rare bourbon is hard these days so many people have gravitated to single barrel selections as a way to combat it in the hopes of getting a stellar bourbon that is less expensive and more appealing. On this episode, we blind taste our way through a series of five comparisons where we try to see if a single barrel store pick can compete with past limited editions. We see if Weller CYPB, Booker’s Rye, 2016 Four Roses Single Barrel, and Elijah Craig 18 are worth the price. We also talk about flavors we prefer over others and how to create your own small batch limited edition bourbon as well. If you’ve done something like this before, drop us a comment with your results. Show Partners: The University of Louisville now has an online Distilled Spirits Business Certificate that focuses on the business side of the spirits industry. Learn more at uofl.me/pursuespirits. Barrell Craft Spirits is always trying to push the envelope of blending whiskey in America. Learn more at BarrellBourbon.com. The 2019 Kentucky’s Edge Bourbon Conference & Festival pairs all things Kentucky with bourbon. It takes place October 4th & 5th at venues throughout Covington and Newport, Kentucky. Find out more at KentuckysEdge.com. Receive $25 off your first order at RackHouse Whiskey Club with code "Pursuit". Visit RackhouseWhiskeyClub.com. Show Notes: This week’s Above the Char with Fred Minnick talks about the return of bourbon. Is it worth waiting in line or camping out for bourbon? Tasting store picks vs. limited releases. Weller CYPB vs Weller 107 pick by Cork N Bottle Booker’s Rye vs Knob Creek Rye by Westport Whiskey and Wine 2016 Four Roses Limited Edition Single Barrel OESK vs North Atlanta Bourbon Society OESK Elijah Craig 18yr vs Elijah Craig Loch n Key Wild Turkey 17yr Decades vs Russell's Reserve by Cork N Bottle How many barrel picks have you been on? Is there something on the flavor wheel that you don't like to get out of a bourbon? Have you tried to create your own small batch before? 0:00 Hey everybody. If you have a bachelor's degree and live anywhere in the United States, there's now a way for you to take your bourbon education to the next level. The distilled spirits business certificate from the University of Louisville is an online program that can be completed in as little as 15 weeks and will prepare you for the business side of the spirits industry. It's offered by the AA CSP accredited college of business. And this certificate was developed in partnership with industry experts to be one of a kind and it's going to prepare you for your next adventure. Learn more about this online program at U of l.me. Slash pursue spirits 0:37 dry oak or the sweet Oh, I'm more of a circuit. Oh yeah, yeah, I mean, that's what that's my nickname. So they call me Coleman sweet. Oh 0:56 what's up everybody? It is Episode 219 of 1:00 bourbon pursuit. I'm one of your host Kenny, and we don't have a whole lot of news but it's festival season. And for bourbon pursuit, we are fortunate that we are going to be at some of the most prestigious ones around. We had a blast last weekend at hometown rising and now we are headed into bourbon and beyond weekend, the whole bourbon pursuit team is going to be there. And we have different sessions throughout the entire weekend. So make sure you go and check out the schedule so you can be there. bourbon and beyond.com. Of course Fred's gonna be there and he's scattered everywhere. But Ryan kicks things off on Friday at 1230 with beer drinkers bourbon, and I have the final session on Friday at six o'clock pm called what is a master distiller. On Saturday, I kick off at 1225 with barrel finished versus traditional bourbon. And we're going to be joined on stage by all the personalities that you've heard on the podcast before. So we would love to see you all there and please come say hi to us. There's always going to be bourbon pursuit t shirts. 2:00 Hats available at the Fred MC merchant so make sure you take a second and stop by their last week mark 65 years as Jimmy Russell being an active master distiller and now he is considered the longest tenured master distiller around Happy Anniversary Jimmy from the whole bourbon pursuit team. Maker's Mark is unveiling its first ever limited release bourbon that won't require a special trip to Loreto Maker's Mark wood finishing series 2019 new release, RC six will be available nationwide this fall. It marks the first of many upcoming whiskeys in the wood finishing series. As Maker's Mark plans to release a new one for a limited time nationwide each year. You probably already know about maker's 46 and the private barrel selection program that utilizes flavoring staves. This release was finished and secondary barrels containing 10 wouldn't staves dubbed RC six the staves made from Virgin America. 3:00 Or season for a year and a half and then baked in a convection oven. Before being introduced to the cast drink bourbon, Maker's Mark made 255 barrels, it's bottled at 108.2 proof. And you'll be able to find it nationwide in October with an MSRP of around $60. Not only is it festival season, but it's also release season. And release season means all the crazies come out. And for today's podcast, we look at really what that means because they're going to be bourbon lotteries that happen around the nation folks are camping out in parking lots. And there's a lot of hate around flippers and liquor store owners that are trying to get the most money out of these secondary values for these allocated Bourbons. So our goal in this episode was to see if we can help folks out there not feel the fo mo or the fear of missing out. We did our best to blindly set up samples of past limited edition Bourbons and compare them to single barrel private pics. The results are interesting, but the best part about this is that you can do this 3:59 At home, find a group of friends and get together and have a blind taste off and use some limited edition Bourbons versus some single barrels out there. Heck, if your taste buds prefer stag Junior over Big Boy George t stag, you're going to save yourself a lot of headache and money in the process. But you can do this as well for things like ego or 17 versus just standard single Eagle rare store pics. And there's a lot of them that spread the whole gamut of a lot of the big distilleries are out there. And if you ever get around to doing something like this, we would love to hear your results. Drop us a line on our Facebook page or mentioned us in your Instagram or your Twitter posts. All right, it's time to dive into the good stuff. Let's hear from Joe over a barrel bourbon. And then you've got Fred Minnick with above the char. Hi, Joe from barrell bourbon here. We're always trying to push the envelope of blending whiskey in America. Find out more at barrell bourbon.com. 4:53 I'm Fred Minnick, and this is above the char want to take you back in time, a time and bourbon will 5:00 wasn't cool when bourbon wasn't selling when Julian Van Winkle had to trade bottles of 23 year old Pappy, just to get a magazine advertisement. I'm talking about the 1990s. In the 1990s there was a very important event that happened that would shape the bourbon economy for the next 20 or 30 years. And that is the Japanese market crashed. You see up until that point the Japanese market was the number one thing kind of keeping bourbon alive. You had brands being specifically developed for the Japanese such as Blanton's Booker's know as mill the entire small batch collection essentially anything that was a an ultra premium of that time was being sent to Japan because the Japanese absolutely loved and continue to love bourbon. When the market crashed. You saw how the company's decided to deal with it. You had some 6:00 Who decided to put their efforts on domestic sales. So heaven Hill basically shifted their efforts to focus on the southeast and throughout the United States. Jim Beam really tried to double down and like places like New York and Chicago and San Francisco, they had really concentrated programs there and united distillers, now the CEO decided to sell. Up until that moment, they had actually been making more of their weeded bourbon to sell to Japan under the Rebel Yell label to compete with jack daniels. They had this excess of weeded bourbon and they decided to sell it and they also decided to sell their brands. They sold Rebel Yell eventually to the company that is now Lux go. They sold it old Fitzgerald to heaven Hill, and they sold Weller the Weller brand and the stocks and the archives to SAS racks. 7:00 Those are three companies who really wanted the bourbon and they really wanted to promote it. And as we all know, that particular whiskey was quite good and made an impression on anybody who ever tasted it. And I often wonder what would have happened if united distillers decided not to sell their whiskey and their labels to three companies who really did care about promoting bourbon? I've thought about that a lot. And I've come to the conclusion that I don't think bourbon would have ever has been as hot as it is today. The reason why united distillers has always been a scotch centric company and they've never put much effort into American whiskey. The exception being bullet and you know, George decal is kind of like barely, barely gets any budget, you know, at least they're now they're, they're paying attention to it, but that particular company has never really put a whole lot of focus on 8:00 American whiskey. So I look back on that time today as we celebrate bourbon Heritage Month. And we enjoy this incredible growth and all the fandom that we have in bourbon. I look back to the 1990s as the people who truly made the right decisions that got us to where we are today. 8:22 And that's this week's above the char. Hey, if you want to learn more about the history of bourbon, check out my book bourbon, the rise fall and rebirth of an American whiskey. Until next week. Cheers 8:37 Welcome back to the episode of bourbon pursuit the official podcast of bourbon, Kenny and Ryan here in our secondary recording studios in my basement if you're watching the video you you may notice the background it looks familiar. And we have a new guest on today and I'm sure usually when people come here they're always like, I can't wait to see Kenny's basement through all his bottles, bottles, bottles. I like upstairs studio better. We got more room. 9:00 On the dining room table, you were a little tight down here, but we'll make it work. So you can see the bottles. Yeah, so when I was planning the basement I never really planned this to be like a recording space. But it kind of turned out that well now you have lights and the whole shebang. You know, it's like, real deal. We'll make it work. We'll make it work in the cramped space. It'll, that's how to happen. But, you know, today, today's topic really came as it was a good suggestion by our guests. Because when we think about the significance and what it really takes to go in chase after unicorns and limited edition releases, it's becoming almost it's been it's difficult. Yeah, it's very, very difficult. It's either your, I don't even do it. I just gave up on it. Like two or three years ago. It's like no, not camping. Yeah, you're either camping or you're paying secondary prices, or, you know, CP and other people are kind of like, Oh, yeah, well, I've got a great relationship with the store manager. I buy everything there. And and that's great. But sometimes you also need to take a step back and think like, Okay, well, I 10:00 If I just keep buying a bottle of bourbon every two weeks, and I keep buying a 12 pack of beer odds are I'm probably spending almost two months as well and I could just bought off a secondary and in my case my store relationship it caused me a probably about five to $600 in tickets to like concerts and football games and all that stuff per year so I need to add that tax on to my math whenever I'm like I'm getting these a cost Yeah, maybe not. Yeah, I was like that big man. We've a lot be actually cost you more than the second Yeah. No doubt. That's definitely how it happens. But So with that, let's go and introduce our guest today. So today we have Mikey Conrad Mikey, welcome to the show. Welcome. Glad to be here. Yes. beautiful, magnificent basement. Yeah. See, we like to hear that it's all about the ambience. Right. That's the town. So Mikey, you know, first off, thank you for coming up with this idea because this is this is great because we get to kind of look at more of the bourbon culture side of things here. We get to look at really what does it take to look at a 11:00 Very good store, pick somebody that is from a Baroque barrel selection group, or whether they're stores that are very well known for it, versus chasing after those limited releases, which sometimes they're pretty much the same exact thing as those barrel selections just either aged longer or selected by the master distiller for various reasons, something like that. So kind of what was your your reasoning behind bringing an idea like this? Yeah, I mean that the main reason is kind of already been hinted at, like, it just got really almost ridiculous to camp to spend time, energy effort, money into chasing things that you weren't always sure if they were going to pan out to be what you think they're going to be because of everyone else telling you that you got to get this bottle. It looks pretty, you know, whatever it may be. And so you know, you start to take store pics or single barrel pics from clubs or stores or bars and you're like man says really 12:00 Good, this tastes better than you know the special release that came out. And so it really is just come to a simple like reality that time is something you don't get back. And so for a guy who's married, you know has three daughters. I'm like, Man Am I am I just spend too much time trying to always chasing bourbon. Yeah, man. I mean, come on. So Miss three genetics and glasses of the past. 12:25 I mean, that's where some of the really practical I mean, thought came into play as like, really, like, how much time should I be spending and it's like, man, there's access to so many great stores in this area alone, Kentucky, Indiana, like man, there's gotta be some a better way. So yeah, that's what and Ryan always talks about opportunity costs. Being when you say yes to something you're saying no to something else. Yeah, you definitely always gotta think of the opportunity costs. It's that and then it's also you know, in the value of your time, you know, Ryan being an entrepreneur and owning a few businesses. He he has this sort of level. 13:00 Thinking, because I go back and I think of like my 2014 days of camping in front of liquor barn and being like one of the first three people there and coming away with a 23 at the end of the day. Yeah, sure. It was fun. They were good times. And now if I think about it, like what I ever do that again, like, is my time more valuable than actually waiting in line? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you gotta look at like your salary or what your earning potential is like as someone and and you're like, all right, I just invested nine hours to get this bottle. And it's, you know, 1300 1500 bucks, you're like, wait a minute, I could have just done my regular job and you know, done a lot better. But you know, but it's also fun to you got it. You can't discount that there's something in about going to the store going out for the hunt, hanging out with people to you know, get those bottles so that you can't totally just make it a numbers thing, but it's a Yeah, yeah. And nine hours is probably on the short end of the stick. Yeah, exactly. So it's even lower cut, you know, or even bigger opportunity costs. So, so I'm going to talk you know, we're going to talk a little more about these topics as we go but one of the 14:00 things that we're doing today is we are going to be kind of going into a double blind here. And this is going to be store pics versus limited releases. And these are store pics that I've had access to that I've purchased as well as limited editions that I purchased. And honestly, I told my wife I said, Let's set these up. We don't want to know if this is an Elijah Craig pairing. If this is a four roses pairing, I don't really know what it is. She really want to expose us. Oh, I mean, this is gonna make us look real bad. Yeah, okay. So so we're going to not not only know what the brand name, the mash bill, whatever it is, but then inside of that we don't know which one either one or two is the limited edition or is the store pick? Yeah, so we're going to go through and we're going to start off with our first one here. We were going through so we always know number one is on our left and number two is on our right. So we've got a lined up. So let's go ahead and kind of start 15:00 The process of nosing through these and figuring out I know what it is. Oh yeah, just by that. You're so fast, huh? Think it's a well or one of seven. You think you're going straight with the leader off the bat, huh? So I actually I have no idea I can I that was the first thing in my peripheral vision. 15:22 So I'll give you some ideas of what we have up line today. So we've got on the store pick side we've got a Russell's reserve from cork and bottle. We've got a knob Creek pick that was done to knob Creek right pick that was done by Westport whiskey and wine. We've got a nine year nine month OESK that was done by the North Atlanta bourbon society, which I chose that one because we're pairing that against a Brent face bottle which was the 20 1614 year old SK in addition to that, you know, we already said we got a well or 107 which is also cork and bottle pick versus a Weller 16:00 After perfect bourbon, which was a sample sent by Matt q six So Matt thank you so much for sending that along and hopefully we don't disappoint you here or hopefully hopefully we can yeah yeah 16:12 I really enjoyed the nose on this one I wasn't in love with the taste or finish or anything about it Mona maybe it's just cuz my first one 16:22 I'm kind of with you on that one. The nose is there but what taste might be a little weird Yeah, I mean we all profile on any of those on so they're trying to register in my head so this is also kind of the the issue with some store pics too is that a lot of people and a lot of stores? They will they always go and they want to find something unique. Yep. And so they try to find that that off profile one and so that could be the one here that is that is the off profile side of things about you Mikey need to have a guests on me and my guess is going to be way off. That's okay. It's got my brain. Ivan land I totally just glanced over. 17:01 But there is a big drop off on the back end of this thing. Yeah. The only thing I noticed up front when I first knows it was like some cherries and always get cherry out of like Weller's. But 17:13 that's the only reason why I said that. 17:16 I don't know. Wow, this is actually pretty hard if I just tasted the second one. 17:22 The taste is a lot better than the SEC. Oh, yeah. The second one's the first one. I'm going to go back to it because it was a little, like musty gonna, like funky? I don't know. Yeah, a little bit. I mean, it kind of had that weird finish to it, but I'm like some like I said, that's that's one of those things where you know, you go into a store and that's what they try to do they try to differentiate it by having some unique pick like that. They taste totally different, which is crazy, like did Laurin do these right? I hope 17:52 I can't be 100% on that one. But I hope so. 17:57 Mikey, how many barrel pics Have you been on? I know you came with 18:00 On one. Yeah, I think, right around five, and maybe, maybe one or two more, but at least five. Yeah. Have you found to find those like off profile ones? Have you found them before, I have felt small profile ones. And my brains always go in toward the masses. Unless there happens to be a large group of folks that just wants something really off profile. But if that's off profile can be off putting to someone that has an expectation of something that they want to, they want to sip or drink that's, that's within their, you know, their taste, right? And so we even at a place like New riff, like we, we got down to our two, we did them blind, and one was just significantly different. And my thinking was, man, guys, if we pick this one, people are going to think we're crazy. Yeah, they're not going to want to ever again, right, but the other one was just it was great, had a great nose, super sweet on the front, and this long lasting kind of sweet oak. And so we chose that one. So 19:00 But usually when that barrel picks I'm pretty simple like I have this very like Check. Check. Yes, yeah. Minus or check plus and yeah, if the nose on something is really weak I have a hard time putting it into the the check plus category but 19:15 I do like the nose on a second one a lot better than the first there's Yeah, like everything about the second one better. So I'm not entirely sure what it is. Yeah, I'm gonna put my vote for two on this one. I agree as well. But I mean, we've had so Ryan lands he's been on the show before he sent us a sample. A blind sample once Brian if you remember that. Yep. And we were we were dumbfounded by it. We were going through because we were like, is this a ride? Like it's got this minty flavor. It's like, totally, that means we couldn't pin it down. And then he was like, No, just a nine year Buffalo Trace. 19:50 Like, yeah, we're like, I didn't expect that when we were thinking I was like, some will have families day, like eight years or something from MTV, you know? But it was 20:00 Buffalo Trace Oh yeah, it was a crazy one. So I think I got my vote in number two Yankee what's your vote in? Yeah number two hands down all right all right so i think you won't do the reveal I'm already on the guess oh how about just trade them off you guys can you guys can both do reveals about that so you're real all right Mikey go ahead all right I'll reveal all right so here we go here we go number a number a number 20:27 oh boy sorry guys a one number one is Weller craft your perfect bourbon OC at least now I new 20:39 stuff right 20:41 the craft your own bourbon you whoever crafted it did not 20:46 you screwed up 20:49 yeah, that's I mean that kind of goes to show you right i mean we're out of the gate we already just said that doesn't work yeah, I mean and go me wrong like store pick one oh sevens like they trade upwards of 21:00 Like $100 now, but the crappy perfect bourbon i think is somewhere around 300 400. So you know, yeah, I mean, it was a limited release. It came in a fancy white label, but I'm just like, thrilled. I got it right on the nose. I was like, you should just leave now. Yeah, I'm done. See? 21:19 My drop word done? Well, let's uh, let's go ahead and refresh or reset here and he does dump dump bug it Here we go. Here's a here's a dump glass that you can use. Just go ahead and do that. All right. Have you done a 107 pic? I have not me either. 21:35 on the list though, I had the opportunity to do it. Which you know the Yeah, I mean, the honest weird thing about doing Yeah, we're going to have a just a big ol Weller mix mix, right here. So we'll just do that. We'll save that one for later. Is it pretty similar to like doing a Buffalo Trace where you know, you get it's 46 barrels and it's very similar. I don't need that here. So one 22:00 So when you do the when you do the well everyone oh seven pick. I mean, it's there's literally no difference than what you were doing with a Buffalo Trace or anything like that. 22:09 Except you have you have this high anticipation going into it. Yeah. Right because you're like, we did it like we're here like we're getting the Mecca. Yeah. I mean, you think like, it's going to be like crazy and like off the wall. Like you're super excited for it like you get it takes more than a little Yeah. You got barely a taste there. 22:30 And then so and so we're going to use it. So like I said, you go in like super, super amped for it. However, 22:38 when we did ours, I was actually sitting there with a few of the guys and I'm kind of like, it might be like one of the few times in my life where you're like, like so crazy going into it. That you say 22:53 can we get some new barrels? Because life's all about expectation? Nothing. No, yeah, nothing was like you 23:00 We're over the moon about any of them. I mean, so it was just kind of like Well, I guess we'll just choose one of these. Yeah, I mean, they were also kind of doing us a favor of giving this group that I'm in a 107 pick at the story behind it was this is all part of the the bourbon cartel as we've had on the show before doing a 1792 foolproof pick. And we are the team that was there chose the barrel and come to find out that barrel was already pre sold. And everybody had already left like guys came in from California for this all this other kind of stuff. And they were like, Oh, I'm so sorry. What can we do? What can we make it up for you? I don't know exactly how you want no seven pick and they're like, okay, let's make it happen. Yeah. And I guess when that happens, you might get the the last barrels all the rejects right into the year. Yeah, it's like when Eddie Russell was that the Russell's pig and they're like, well, operations is on air. Nevermind. 23:59 So we got 24:00 UV here. So with BO buddy. Oh, here we go again. So I feel like this is filling 24:10 or something logic correct maybe 24:13 behind you might be, you might have he's got this he's got his senses dialed in every night. Every night he goes home and just practice I actually do now ever since we've done pursuit series like I've kind of like trying to not take it seriously but really 24:30 put some effort into it. I can train my nose and palate. I don't know. I mean, it's I don't know I enjoy it and you know, so I've really, I'll probably with on this one so I don't hide me up too much. 24:44 But I just know it's like an alleged occurred to me up the gate. All right. I can tell you after the taste. I don't think it's Elijah Craig. Oh. 24:52 I think it's a rye. Oh, yeah. Because I had one Rive blind set in here. Maybe it's like a 25:00 bourbon and then you get four roses and some of the different recipes you get some of like a minty profile to it as well so yeah there's this earthy 25:10 earth you bite at the end 25:13 yeah it's definitely like you said get the ride and it's really standing out 25:20 we are more like a kind of peanut II nutty kind of, well, one of the things that threw in here I said there was a ride blind so there's a problem is the rods that you did are like gateway rods. Yeah, well, I know I don't know if their gateway rise because of the ride that I did. I did. I did a knob Creek Westport whiskey and what it was for what sports really known for a lot of good store pics. Chris has been on the show before from there. But I said what's a good limited edition to pair this up with and there's not I ok. I tried to be a smart consumer so I didn't go out and buy like the knob Creek hundred and 30th or whatever it was. I came in the box. That was like 26:00 150 bucks, but I had these. These had a bottle of knob or a Booker's rye sitting around. And so I said, well mean it's still Jim Beam at the end of the day. 26:12 Both of them like art super dry, heavy on the taste. So let's see if we can see if we can figure it out and blind. Hmm. I'm worried. Yeah, she's like, 26:25 I'll tell you a story because Booker's right, I bought a few bottles of them. When I told myself I said, You know what, like, I have a lot of money sunk into these things because they came out at 303 50 retail. And I said, I said maybe when it hits 1000 What's the perfect boogers raw? Is it cash flow? Its cash. Yeah, I mean, I think it's like around 100 and hundred and 10 hundred and 20. Some most most of the Booker's around 120 proof. So yeah, you could probably expect that now. I'm also it just seems like there's a huge difference in the 27:00 First and second one. I don't know. Maybe it's just me. Yeah, you might be right. I'm getting more ethanol knows on this first one. 27:08 But which one do you enjoy more? And the first one that I'll call like really 27:13 overpowers kind of everything for me there obviously, now that you said there's a lot more ethanol on the nose, 27:20 like on the nose and the palate and just really just takes over well and you know, also I can't be 100% of these are rise or not So, but the second one is so light, 27:34 and gullible. Is that word gullible? Not even close now, or do you think this could be I don't love either one of them, but I like the second one better than the first like now that I'm tasting it. I don't know if it is awry. I don't think it's a wrong at this. This might be the difference in the four roses. Yeah, because it could be the Brent face 14 year OESK versus the 27:57 the nine and a half year or nine nine 28:00 nine year nine months, North Atlanta Bourbons pick and I I chose both of those. I chose the North Atlanta one because the Brett face bottle was all OESK and this was one of the last store pics that I had that was also only OESK. Alright, so if you had to choose one where do you going with 28:25 I know hopefully their listeners I'm bored. Well 28:28 the comments going rolling around like I said, I don't love both of them. I think if I had to pick I'll pick two just cuz 28:37 like one just so I just get so much alcohol that I can't really taste much else whereas to I can kind of get some 28:46 basic bourbon notes you know a little bit better. They're both pretty underwhelming for me. Not underwhelming, but just very average number one has a bit more of a punch to me. Yeah. Which a lot of people think that 29:00 is hot or its heat. Yeah. I don't typically mind it as much. However, number two definitely has a little more subdued. Little more oak. Yep. And I like my tannins. So I know he does. Like, yeah, he's cheap for tenants. 29:19 Dry oak or the sweet. Oh, I'm more of a shadow. Yeah, I mean, that's what that's my nickname. So they called me come to sweet. Oh. 29:27 Alright, you want to reveal this one? Kenny. All right, I'll reveal this one. So I'm on number two. Ryan. I'm number two as well, man it is it's a close tie. But the ethanol knows on one. I yeah, I got I gotta go with to, to just got much more sweeter kind of reveal. All right, well, we kind of nailed that one. So this was the four rows. Okay. 29:49 Number two was the bread face bottle. It was the 14 year OESK barrel strength Limited Edition. And then the first one was the nine year nine months. 30:00 SK gotcha so in this particular instance the limit earliest when the limited release me yes so how about it? Alright, so let's go ahead and dump them out and get ready for them the first one was a store pick right the Yes The first one was the store pick that's correct grab another glass over there Ron if you can and will create our glass or dump glass over here. Mikey are the ones you've been on where the most memorable barrel pics or any stories from those two mean hopefully the one you went on with us but yeah you know no pressure 30:33 I mean Buffalo Trace is always on someone's just picking a barrel there and doesn't matter really what whiskey it is the set to get into a pickle Buffalo Trace it's on everyone's list right? So that one was great. I really as far as like tours go and overall barrel picking experience, man I mean castle and key. They they even though they don't have anything on the market yet, like the ability to taste arrived or weeded and then lay it back. 31:00 down. I mean, the experience overall was really great there. So I feel like Yeah, it was. That was overall my best so far. And you know, Buffalo Trace was great as well. But out of the out of the few that I've done, castle and key was, was hands down my favorite. And usually I'll try to point people toward a tour there for coming in from out of town, the castle and key I was kind of blown away with like, I'd seen it before the renovation and went, I knows time sensitive information. But last week, you know, last weekend did a pin hook pic with the breaking bourbon guys and man, that place is awesome. Like it is like the gardens are beautiful. Like all the architecture inside like it's a great blend of like modern architecture with old architecture like I just 31:47 I mean, it comes with a steep price tag. I think they said their tours are like 30 bucks. Yeah, for an hour. But I mean, but I know that I mean it's totally different. Like you could literally spend Well, we did spend six hours 32:00 If you wanted to you could spend all day there. I mean, it's it's a great beautiful location. Yeah. If you're a history nerd like I am. So there is that kind of on beyond that adds to the experience. Yeah. I mean new riff they're new, but man, they take care of you really well, there as well. So some of it is just, it's just different. So that's, that's the reality of some of these pics. Like, some might not be better than the other but who's our least favorite? Should we not say that we bought and again, bye bye. Yeah. My bad. No, don't do that. 32:32 There's really not some that are, like terrible, right? None are actually terrible. 32:38 I mean, the only ones that are terrible. 32:41 Maybe my opinion is terrible is that you don't even actually go in the barrel pick. You just have the sample ship tonight. Yeah, like that's just Yeah, I don't know. I mean, obviously, geographic geography kind of plays a role in that. But yeah, it's it's not as exciting. Well, it's just part of what it is though. There's probably very few people that go on a barrel pick and walk away, saying 33:00 I wish I would have done that barrel pick. 33:03 Yeah, that's that's probably very true. So I just so we're here at letter C Now I keep wanting to say the number c so letter C, and often knows like the nose right away like I'm like pulling number two, like way ahead of the pack here. Yeah. 33:21 They're both the both noses are far better than the ones from the last rounds. Like on the these two. So we're tasting right now trying to figure out exactly I know where we are. Right? We are. We are easily and Eliza Craig land. Yeah, this is totally worked on. I gave that spiel about how I'm taking seriously, I'm failing pursuit series. That's okay. But I mean, this is a work in progress. So, you know, the life of Craig brain in itself, like I'm a huge fan of it. Oh, yeah, they're, they're doing it. They're doing a lot of good things in regards of not only putting out what people have been asking for for years, which was a very 34:00 Proof release, you know, they brought out should I say reintroduce the 18 and 23 year expressions A few years ago, the only thing that you can't find anymore is the 21 year expression. But you know, honestly out of those older expressions and by the way i can tell you OA you can totally tell right just first said what each one is. Yeah, so I can tell you exactly the comparison here what we're looking at and ones and Elijah Craig 18 year another is an Elijah Craig store pick that was done by the lock and key society so lock Oh, I thought you were saying the first class logic Craig. I'm like, No, it's not. A second one is why I don't know. I don't know. Yeah, but I'm just saying. I'm just saying the lineup and so anybody that's unfamiliar lock and key is based out of Julio up a New England. They're a pretty big player in that that store pic world. They've been doing it for years and years and years. I've actually got an old store pick. I'm down. I think my last job 35:00 of one of the the last ever Bernheim we store pics that were ever available. Heaven Hill what opened up to doing your own Evan Williams your own Bernheim, your own header mechanic all that sort of stuff then they kind of put the handcuffs on you to is definitely got to be the 18 and one is the 35:21 it's that eight to 12 year like Elijah Craig got the nutty toffee candy bar notes like stuff I enjoy so I'm definitely like one year program pick to the Hollywood pick two. But you know when I was when I was talking to Mikey about this and we were talking about store pics versus limited releases I actually thought I didn't do it but I thought about doing it because it's not actually technically a store pick or store release. But I said what if we did an Elijah Craig barrel proof versus like a nine year like will it family estate? Oh, yeah, I was like that one actually might be that would be pretty comparable. Well, obviously it is comparable. 35:59 It's the same exact 36:00 Liquid but both of these are really good Actually, I prefer one just because it's kind of got some of the sweeter not your candy bar kind of notes that I like. But that's just preference and I think number one, it's pretty easy to see that the 94 proof plan Oh yeah. And that's I think that's also evolving on both of them. They're both very light. Well, I mean, Mikey, like, tell me about this like, what would what in the market would change if heaven Hill opened up a logic Craig program and they just said, Yeah, put it a barrel proof. Yeah, I mean, you're going to get a wider range. I think of a first off people wanting Elijah Craig. Because it is it is very 36:44 I don't want this I don't want us to use the word delicate but I will use the word LB feels very delicate. When you put it next to the the UCLA team. There's a lot more depth to it. I think there could be a lot more depth to a single barrel pic of alleged credible 37:00 Proof if they would just open that up I guess it just depends on your consumer so like if you're you know the the first one like for what I think it's going to appeal to more of a almost a common but i mean you know like you know it's just because it's it's not the it's not the enthusiast in mind here it's very approachable very enjoyable but like get to you're definitely gonna get like you said more complexity depth 37:28 to might be more off putting to like a common consumer I'd say common but like, you know, or new consumer but I don't know depends on your consumer but I want the barrel proof because it's logical. Operators are always home runs like I've never had a bad one. Can't say I've ever had one. Well, I mean, there's the mean. So you know, Mike Sahni personally so you know that there's a lot that actually goes into making sure that an electric guard barrel proof isn't just a mistake, either right? Like Like they, they choose barrels specifically that go in 38:00 into it 38:02 which is a little bit different you know we've we've talked to the people that haven't Hill and when you talk about Elijah Craig 23 or when you try to find 23 year old barrels, it's actually very very hard. Yeah, and end up dumping a lot of them into like, just Edwin's Black Label because it's so it's so it's undrinkable. Yes. It's the oak is just overpowered. There's a bank on that point, right? There's, there's Law of Diminishing Returns without like, you know, can and somebody went the good thing I learned to catch lucky with the Pinot guy, because I was like, so how do you? You know, you have a really good barrel it say like 12 to 14 years. Like do you bottle dinner? Do you let it age? Do you know to keep will I keep improving? And he's like, No, he's like, Do you want something that's going to age you need something that's really soft, elegant, sweet at that age, because the folks really at 15 1617 is really going to start to overpower it. If it's already ready, you know, does that make sense? Oh, no, it makes sense. And so that that was kind of an 39:00 Lighting because we talked about, you know, US buying some 14 year and sitting on it for three to four years. But we were like, how do you This one's really great. Should we just because it's so great we hang on to it or should we look for something that's will do better with age? And that was kind of good advice. Yeah. And it's always a it's always a costly mistake if it never works. 39:21 Well, we'll just bottle it anyway. 39:24 No, okay, so let's go ahead let's reveal this one because I think I think this one yeah, is as bad as it sounds like I knew the bottles I chose them going into it. However, I let my wife figure out exactly what we should do. However, I thought we had Yeah, it's it's I mean, we want to live correct tangent for 39:44 a bit funny. It feels like not Brussels. 39:48 It would have been funny, but yeah, this one's too easy. The locking key and see Tuesday 18 years. Oh, yeah. Alright, so good work. So I mean, but the thing is, is like I don't mind 40:00 lock and key one like you're right like it's totally like a good drinkable bourbon. Yeah, for an average consumer that just wants to get into it. However, 40:10 I don't know if a lot of the electric barrel pics are speaking to the the enthusiastic market yeah maybe they'll keep going it's still fun it's still fun to go you know you talk to people from like bourbon Crusaders and they come out with a lot of good pics too. And the thing is, is though it's just kind of like I just wish they didn't take it down in 94 proof you know there's there's something about when you cross under that hundred threshold that I don't know Mikey, have you found anything underneath 100 that you're like, Hey, you know, like I can do this every single day like there's one there's one bottle and Brandon I do and I did this in the blind. So that's how I know. But maybe I don't know the proof. Exactly. But George Remus. I tend to like I like that bottle. 40:59 Not a fan of 41:00 why they chose George Remus of all people But anyways, you're part of the ground 41:07 and stuff is not necessary someone to model your life after. But But Remus Yeah, I love I love that bottle. I love the bourbon in it. I think it might be 90 proof. Yeah, typically under 100 proof like, like, you have to get into some dusty. He's like, okay, dads, and I mean, and we're like, 41:27 you know, like Victor's 20s or something, you know, because they're 94 proof or they actually might be right I don't know I've got one back there but I don't feel like getting up and looking at it. And so we're handing everything to Ryan do not mix see one and see two together like because 41:44 ECA teams just too good. I like it like it. Yeah. For me, for me. I love Elijah Craig a team when I am I'm sitting in the basement, and it's late at night. And like, I can't do like a barrel proof. Like it's just it's just like 42:00 I'm not able to go to sleep at night if I if I got that back in the bottle well who knows I've got it's a long day ahead of us still so yeah, you know I liked 18 I mean it for me the tags really sit and kind of dry and just like on the in which it kind of sits there and lingers for a bit and I'm like hi go away please 42:20 see not me I mean I'm Mike What about you like Do you like tannins? Because I like I said I like a lot of rich oak complexity complexity that what those really bring into it. I mean, that's it for me when you when you get a lot of oak that means that the barrel is doing something like tremendous and that's that's really what I get out of it. Yeah, I I'm a fan of the sweet oak if you can give me a finish with a sweet oak and like a dried cherry name that just last four days. Yeah, I mean, sign me up. Sign me up. Not a fan of the dry. Oh because much. I feel like it's got my get your lip smacking back and forth. 43:00 And just makes you thirsty. Not a big fan of the drive but the sweet Oh yeah, it doesn't make you feel like oh man you can you can almost taste the process. Yeah a little bit so I'm with you on that one and that's what I mean I'm a fan of just open general because it definitely is more of an overpowering flavor like up. I'll put it to you guys is like is there is there something on the flavor wheel right i mean we've all seen before that that you don't like to get out of a bourbon. 43:33 The 2019 Kentucky's edge bourbon conference and festival pairs all things Kentucky with bourbon. It takes place October 4 and fifth at venues throughout Covington in Newport Kentucky, Kentucky's edge features of bourbon conference music tastings pairings tours and in artists and market Kentucky's edge 2019 is where bourbon begins. Tickets and information can be found online at Kentucky's edge calm 43:58 as the saying goes 44:00 Portland is weird. Perhaps it's something in the water. It turns out that there might be some truth to that. The Oregon capitals primary water source is supplied by the Bull Run watershed. It's also the key ingredient in one of the city's most popular watering holes, Bull Run distillery. The boulder and watershed is a very unique water source. 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Use code pursuit for $25 off 45:00 Your first box 45:04 I'll put it to you guys is like is there is there something on the flavor wheel right i mean we've all seen before that that you don't like to get out of a bourbon. I mean for me definitely like some people some people are like oh I don't like like orange zest or orange peel or whatever No, I mean honestly I like freer freer whiskies I really like 45:25 like I'm with you know we're talking the barrel guys I really like when you get those like great notes and just too much because very off putting for me, like like he said, he gets dry and you're smacking your lips and like trying to get some moisture back into your 45:42 region, you know, but 45:45 other than that, I mean, I obviously I hate young stuff like where you just get green forward, you know, grassy or like, where it's like hey are you know, we I won't name any names, but we've had, we've had 46:00 You know, that's just very off putting for me. I agree. I agree. It's the last thing you want to do is sit there and expect something and then all of a sudden, it's like, Did I just mow my grass a second video? And that's in my mouth? Yep. Yeah, for sure. Alright, so now we're on letter D. So, you all won that one. Right? Well, I mean, I should say you all, like I said, I'm a nice person. Yeah, I think like I said, I'm just a fan of of what they do there. However, you know, that's the limited release, you know, so limited releases up to two one. Well, that's a hard one, though, because it's because it wasn't the same proof. It wasn't, you know, yeah. You can get in the gift shop almost every day. Right. Exactly. So no, not this isn't limited to Maryland, Maryland. Okay, that's a hard one. Yeah. And, and, you know, there's it To be honest, like there's a lot of things that we thought about that we couldn't do today. So, we looked at the the potential of doing an old forester single barrel versus an old forester birthday. 47:00 But I would have been a good one. Yeah, problem is, we haven't been on old forester. 47:05 And I guess we need to probably line that up. But the other thing it was like, just weren't thinking ahead of time enough to be able I sounds like a little like, let's go ahead and get it. And then the other one was looking at 47:20 Oh, gosh, I'm like looking at the bar thinking, Oh, yeah, we're looking at doing like a and this is not even a store pic versus limited release. But this is like a Sazerac rye versus a Thomas h handy. Yeah, it's like the proof 47:33 is me too crazy. Like you go you'll be able to pick it out like well that's and that's the problem is that like to do any of these with the the antique collection actually be pretty difficult to do. Because you could do a stag where's the stag Jr. Maybe? That was about as close as you could probably get. But you know, when you look at Eagle rare 17 versus regular Eagle rare, I think you're gonna hit the same exact problem that you saw at the Elijah Craig. It's just gonna be 48:00 Rich of depth of the oak. The same thing was Sazerac, 18 and Sasha cry, it's just going to be the richness and depth, I mean, you're going to hit that same problem no matter where you go. 48:12 So there is there is a reason why they make limited releases. It's just trying to find some of those limited releases that matched sort of the either the same proof or profile or age that I think that you really need to try to find and get out of this. 48:27 I love the nose on both of these. Actually. 48:31 That's pretty common with Russell's, which I think this is I don't think so. The other thing is the Russell's, or anything. It's raw, I guess, right? I mean, I haven't tasted it yet. But it's only because I know. 48:43 Because, you know, right now see, I need to stop it. Okay. 48:50 So far? Yeah, we've been pretty good. So Mike, you all kind of point this question over to you because I know that there's a lot of people out there. Travis Hill. He's been Oh yeah, for totally rock and 49:00 Yeah, there you go. And there's a lot of people out there that try to make their own four roses. Limited Edition small batch. I mean have you have you looked at creating your own kind of like small batch out of like different store pics or anything like that before I've not done it with great strategic content to create a certain brand or for the lease I have done the you know, the classic blend bottle or simple call infinity bottle. It was infinity until I tasted it and liked it. Then I stopped and then they became my blend because I stopped putting things in it. Yeah, so people would people tasted like this is great. And I give it out. And you had a record of it out like Exactly, yeah, regret it. Yeah, I do keep your record but I yeah, I lost it. But yeah, I would give it my dog always doing like bottle shares and things like that. Get people assemble, get everything done what it was, and they were like, this is really good. What is it like? It's actually just a blend of like 17 different two outs for else and things that were time, but I've never done it intentionally. I haven't 50:00 guys that's tried you know the the poor man's Pappy and have tried to recreate the the Al young with the blends that they think will work but sometimes it's 50:09 in there 50:11 there is something to it. You know, there was there was a blind taste in that Blake from bourbon or hosted years ago that I was a part of as well as a few other people. And oddly enough, like he sent six samples and we had to rank each sample kind of like flavors and everything notes and everything that we're getting out of it. 50:31 And, and it was it was it was so climatic at the very end because it was all happening. You know, he sent the samples we submitted him. And then at the very end, you know, we all got on YouTube or Google Hangouts and promoted on YouTube and we all got on there and come to find out the variant. The number one bourbon we all love was a exactly what you said a poor man's Pappy that was mixed in a ninja blender. 51:01 Me and I don't know if it has something to say about aeration. I don't have the something to say about anything else but it's this like, Yeah, he literally threw in a ninja blender. Yeah. And that's what one out of like, six different Bourbons. So it's crazy it kind of goes to show that you can 51:18 can always just think that the most limited things are going to be the best things. Yeah, I'll probably be adding a ninja blender to my Amazon wish list here Yo, I have they are fantastic. My quick smoothies and movies and bourbon What else? What else you want to mix just don't mix the smoothies with the barber. Alright, so for me I already know like what this is I can smell it. I can taste it. So two is going to be it for me. tues definitely, I mean, I'm torn one would be a great everyday drinker. It's got a lot of complex like great it's a great poor but to is like, to me is like really like something special. Like 52:00 That I would want out of a limited release or like a store pick, you know, something special. Like, that's I really like to so I they're both really good I already I mean, I can just buy the nose and it tastes like already know what they are. So my camera on a push over to you is to worth like $950 more right now. 52:20 That's a great question. 52:23 What is that? Because that's that's ultimately I mean, I'll tell you what if if it's reversed in the reveal, I will I'll just go ahead and wrap it up. I'll put my card like listen bourbon pursuit over my case the was 15 point proof difference, you know, between the wanting to 52:42 which kind of gives you a hint, but yeah, it'd be funny though if they are reversed. Hey, is the 52:49 question, but I think it has an easy answer. And there's no price difference wise, there's no way 52:56 if you want something that's simple, and there's there's nothing 53:00 off putting about this, right? To me, there's nothing like putting at all. But this one does have the number two has a lot more depth character. And the proof differences, definitely evident. 53:15 Especially on the back end it just stick in there to your tongue in a good way. I mean, at this point, there's, there's a lesson to be learned here. Right? I mean, we're, we're four or five deep. And I think we've already noticed that when it comes to special releases that the age the age is the important part. You know, the age adds a level of complexity and characteristic to it that you necessarily won't get anywhere else. Yeah. So far, we were dumbfounded by one, right. Yeah, having a 53:45 Weller 107 pick that actually beat out the Weller craft your own perfect bourbon. From then on. It's been really a difference in age. Yep. From there, I mean, it's Yeah, it's hard to replicate well, and that's why I mean, 54:00 With like NGP you know people go crazy with like the 1012 for it. It's more has to do with age like the age age whiskey is great like these Tennessee age whiskeys are fantastic. Like Kentucky age stuff it has to do with age like it's not necessarily the magic pill, the Jews, whatever, it's when you get to that 10 to 14 year range it there's magical, you know happens right there and it's it is it is what it is. Alright, so I'm going to go ahead and do the reveal. Because I can't wait anymore. Yeah, that's exactly what we thought it was. So D one was the knob Creek from Westport whiskey and wine in D two was the but they didn't try. They did a great job on do you want I mean, that's a sore pic for me. Yes. And that's what I mean. That's, that's the thing that we talked about the whole entire time is that you can get that for what 60 bucks versus 950. You know, it's I mean, even if you were if you were even on top of it, even when it was 450 55:00 Yeah to even get your hands on it so and this was years ago so it was definitely a tough way to to make it happen so again this is one we're not going to mix yeah do not do not mix these guys after the show is over y'all we are going to be probably just celebrating with the rest of the stuff we like to drink covers. Yeah the leftovers right. So the best of the all infinity bottles if you will. So Mikey, ending on a lot says elimination we have Russell's we 55:33 can i can tell you right now because I was a part of it. We're pouring out letter E. And we do with letter E like I already know what it is versus the brand. However, these guys don't know what it what it is. So I'm going to go ahead and just kind of reserve my comments for absolutely everything and just let them figure it out. So you know as we as we start going down this path though. What do you 56:00 You found like the most interesting well so far I mean the three three limited releases have one versus the store pics wishes Do you think it's a Do you think it's an oversight on our part that maybe we didn't choose the best comparisons because as I mentioned earlier like it's it's age versus a lot of stuff some I don't know though because I mean it store pictures still getting really good pores I mean, but think about it like think about other brands like I mean look at the shelf like is there anything else that like we missed going into this like think of like, like I said, we already talked about old for certain for suburbia urban bag would be the bag and stag it's Junior would probably be a good one as well. Like I said you could do like you could do a 7092 full proof versus like a Kentucky alpha later. Oh, cuz cuz you you think that's where it comes from? I think so. So that's your that's your excuse guess? Yeah, I think so. But I was way off on Sunday. 57:00 These guys have them. So, but yeah, I mean, other than that, I mean, because you got some MGP stuff, but like, they're all there. There's such a wide range like from person. It's hard and it's not often there's not like a ton of everyday offerings with MGP. Well, we had talked about this beforehand. I've tried to figure out like, Is there a single and that's that's an I guess that's the problem when you get when you get to what we can do this but it might kick us in the teeth like a pursuit series versus 57:31 decal, you know. 57:34 We're not well, just kidding. Well, 57:37 it doesn't exist. Yeah. So that's the other thing. Yeah. But the other the other part of it was ready barrel, I guess. Barrel versus procedure. They do a lot of blending. Yeah. So that's not a true comparison. So I mean, it's it's an Indiana country, I think the will it will it versus Elijah Craig barrel proof would be a good one because just to get it out there. 58:00 Yep, I mean, who knows, but I mean, when I look at it like I, it would have been good to do like a regular Booker's versus I mean, Booker's I didn't want to open up a book or 25th for this I was sorry just be honest with you, I'm not going to achieve f4 but I mean, that versus Booker's 30th or something like that like Booker's vs Booker's because at the same exact, you know, the end of the day, like each one of those is very good in its own right. However, like the the proof points are can be a whole lot of difference. Yeah. When you get to that high improved and you're in the hundred and 25 230 130 proof. Yeah. Who knows if your your your your taste buds in your flavor profile can actually discern a lot of stuff that's actually happening at that level. Yeah, right. Actually. Oh my gosh, like I'm tasting these I'm knows the side by side. I don't think I can tell the difference now. So now we're doing a wild turkey comparison. Russell's reserve versus the 17 year decades for 59:00 Nice. And I mean on first on first knows, like, there's no difference. There's no discernible difference whatsoever. The first one? 59:12 I don't know, they're pretty close. I was like, the first one may have a little more alcohol, but I don't know. That's they're pretty similar. You mean and this is and this also goes back into each conversation right? I mean like when we talk about age like 17 years you expect to have a lot more depth on the complexity a lot more more of this sort of stuff. However, we've we've seen the praises of Russell's reserve for years. It's one of the best single barrel pics that you can get out there today. You know, me and the best I can I'm one of the not been altered and pick yet I'm turkey pick y'all man, but you're the one actually brought today's pic. I didn't know. So I'm getting I mean, maybe it's because I do get a little more ethanol on the first one. And then I go straight to the second one. The smells a little sweeter. Yep, I'm totally getting a little sweeter on the second one. 1:00:00 But they are very very close. I love both of them. I knew that was was like I mean Russell's are one of those things you can just knows all day. Both these are fantastic. I mean it, it's actually very good number one is really good. 1:00:15 It's actually very hard to find a discernible difference. I mean, there's a little bit of difference in the taste, but it's not so much that you're like, Okay, this is this is a difference of $100 right here like it's it's it's very, very different. tues got I don't know I like the mouth feel have to like it's got and it's got more like a little more sugary brown sugary, kind of syrupy kind of texture to it. One is very good, but two is kind of more I don't know just real rich and sugary to me like syrupy like they're they're pretty damn close are very close. I mean for something that's almost like a mean it's not it's not a decade's worth of difference, but I mean, you're looking at at least six to nine years. Right of what you see between 1:01:00 Some of the older reserved pics from Russell's versus the decades releases so I'm going to go with two but not that much. They're they're pretty close tues oily on the panel I don't know you kind of want to yeah two is got a longer lasting finish the nose is sweeter 1:01:20 sounds like for you it's a landslide one this is a yeah for me it's a landslide too so too Alright, so Ryan there go ahead and reveal the last one we have today. 1:01:30 haha what do you think? 1:01:34 Well it sounds like it sounds like you're gonna toss balls with sounds like well so two is actually the CFPB pick Oh 1:01:44 decades There we go. So yet another chance where we get the final store pick Yes, you do single barrels making a comeback. I mean, when we look at the results from today, I mean it's three to two but it's not it's not a it just said a landslide victory. I mean, it's it's something that is it's a 1:02:00 It's almost comparable, if you can find that, that one little place that does really good things, versus somebody that just, I don't know just accepts it or finds the barrels at the store and does whatever. There's there's actually validity to the, to the that. By the way, this was all for science. Yeah. So make sure that everybody knows is all today, but it's all subjective and we don't matter. Yes, that's also very true. And you cannot buy any of these anywhere. So it's it's it's all it's all gone. So yeah, I mean, the first two I mean, we're really like, you know, with the 1:02:40 the CYLB. I mean, I was amazed at how bad that was. Like, I just did not like it at all. Well, not bad. Not a bad for the money. Ryan we get a lot of stuff. Yeah, yeah, it's not bad. We know what bad whiskey I guess I was just after revealing it. I was like, pretty disappointed. And if anything, 1:03:00 I feel like what it does is helps people see to not fall into the trap of fo mo to fall in trap of hype because the fact that CYPB is for 500 bucks and you can get a single barrel pick a low WA for 150 or if you're lucky enough good at retail 60 bucks it's like man chase chasing one that tastes better yeah and so and it should bring some validity to those who are still into those who are blending because Ed lie is a blender and he picked this barrel at turkey so there is some validity even to like hey they they're getting paid lots of money every year to do this professionally. So let's end even if you go to a liquor bar party source or cork and bottle they have tasting bars Yeah, so you can taste these things before you get into all the gotta have it because there's a line well maybe you don't even like the bottle that you're standing line for. Yeah, it's hate tastings before you before you buy them but I mean there's there's some psychology there to the line thing. Oh for sure. I mean every everybody thinks that like 1:04:00 We've all been there. We've been in the morning, and then all of a sudden, there's somebody that walks up be like, online for. I know, like 1:04:10 there's, there's, there's a there's a group mentality to it, right? Yeah, for sure. It's not fun, but it's reality and what it is, it's animal spirits, you know, we're all we all just follow the herd, you know, so. 1:04:23 But I mean, for today, I'm actually very pleased to kind of see the results because coming away with at least two out of the five that weren't limited releases, give some justification. Yeah, well, and we're thinking today into what I mean, when you're doing store pics. It's really based on who's going who's picking what they like and whatnot so like, you know, find a store or find someone that kind of meets your what you like, and you know, that's, you can find stuff that's just as good as the big price tag Islam releases. It's not even that I mean, we had we had some unfair 1:05:00 competition to. Right mean, if you think about it, like the logic reg. Yeah. 18 year versus like a nine to a 12 year? Yep. It's not it's not a fair competition. So when we think of which I preferred the nine to two, I know 1:05:17 a lot of people f

Are you looking to increase eBay sales but don’t know where to start? Would your business benefit from building systems and processes? eBay is still a thriving platform that has a potential upside for making a profit. If you’re interested in growing your sales—listen to this episode of Maximizing Ecommerce with Matt Leavell, CEO of BuyLow Warehouse. You’ll hear Matt’s love for processes and procedures, hiring tips, and sales strategies to boost your business! Outline of This Episode [2:40] How Matt got started in the business [10:00] Finding a process for everything [13:40] What does buying truckloads of a product look like? [17:00] How Matt sources remote team members [22:25] Hiring virtual assistants - how do you find a good candidate? [34:35] How to increase sales on eBay [46:45] Use a product image that captures attention [49:15] advice he wished he would’ve known Developing systems and procedures will greatly benefit your business When Matt started buying products by the truckload they come with a manifest. It would supposedly list everything that was included—but he’d often find the products didn’t match up with the manifest. They were accurate about 85% of the time. So Matt developed his own procedure for sorting the information and structuring it for bulk upload to eBay. He’s learned that you can develop a process for just about everything.  To be efficient, he writes procedures for everything. His goal is to only run the process himself 3 times. The first time he’ll write instructions as he’s carrying out the process. Then he takes what he typed and follows it word-for-word, editing as he goes. Lastly, he gives it to an employee to test and report back to him. Keep listening as Matt shares how the system works for him and why it’s so important.  How to hire the right virtual assistant All of Matt’s employees are remote. Why pay for office space when everything can be carried out remotely, from anywhere in the world? He’s sourced team members from Upwork, OnlineJobs.ph, Kuhustle, and more. The 1st person he hired was from Pakistan—and he paid him $0.50 a listing he posted. At first, he felt guilty about such a low pay rate. But the conversion of money from the US to Pakistan quickly assuaged his guilt.  In Pakistan, he was making three times as much money as a lawyer. But how did Matt find the right person for the job? If you’re hiring someone in a different country, how do you assess their skill-set? Ask them questions that weren’t pulled from a template. If you’re assessing customer service ability, give them questions you’re asked often and analyze their answers. One of his favorite strategies to utilize is to pay his candidates $5 to carry out a task. Whoever delivers the best result is who he hires. For more tactics for hiring the right people, keep listening! Increase eBay sales with these simple strategies Matt states you need to view eBay as one big search engine. Your item description needs to be specific and descriptive for it to show up in search results. When a customer is searching they choose from different categories—if you haven’t chosen that category for your item it will be excluded from the results.  So how do you get your product ranking? One technique you can utilize is eBay’s promoted listings. For a percentage of the final sale, they bump you up in the results. If you do this for a certain length of time and—purchases are made—you can drop the promotion. The increase in sales will then help boost your product. Matt covers sale tactics, learning your maximum discount, inventory tips and MUCH MORE in the next section. Product photos can make or break your listing It’s not something we would typically think about, but having the right image associated with your listing makes a world of difference. Matt experimented with a product and the results were amazing: The first product image was a crisp view of the front of the box, well-let, with a white background.  In the second image they shifted the box and shot the photo from a lower camera angle (same background, same lighting). The second product image showed an increase in clicks—seven times higher than the original photo. Perception is everything. So make sure you test what works the best for your products and adjust your listings accordingly. Listen to the rest of the episode for some advice Matt wished he had been given when he first launched his business. Resources & People Mentioned Upwork OnlineJobs Kuhustle BuyLow Warehouse Connect with Matt Leavell Matt on Facebook Matt’s LinkedIn MLeavell(at)BuyLowWarehouse.com BuyLow Warehouse LinkedIn Connect With Kevin Sanderson www.YouTube.com/maximizingecommerce www.Facebook.com/maximizingecommerce www.Twitter.com/maxecom Subscribe to Maximizing Ecommerce onApple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, PlayerFM

Matt Prehm and Erik Skopil of DuckTerritory.com are back for another Autzen Audibles podcast, and this time Matt and Erik are going into some predictions for Oregon vs Auburn.    Week 1 of the 2019 season opens up with a huge football game between No. 11 Oregon and No. 16 Auburn. So Matt and Erik make some interesting points about these two teams, discuss why Oregon's offense and defense could make some big plays, and lastly they go over a few predictions that could help shape the narrative of the Ducks and Tigers' outcome on Saturday from Arlington, Texas. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Location: New YorkDate: Friday, 26th JulyProject: Tales from the Crypt & Rabbit Hole Recap Role: Co-hostsThere are a handful of Bitcoiners who bleed orange, those with so much conviction it is hard to listen to them talk about Bitcoin and dismiss its importance. Matt Odell is one of those, and I have a little secret for you, Matt was the trigger for taking What Bitcoin Did full Bitcoin. Having wrestled with this for a while, I heard Matt on Stephan Livera’s show discussing podcasts where he said he liked some of what I was doing. “Some”. So Matt and I had a long chat about this, and it was a trigger for me to realise there is enough with Bitcoin to focus on.Matt previously came on the show with Neil Woodfine to discuss what we would like to see for Bitcoin in 2019. I have though been keen to have him back on for a while, so when I was in NY recently I hit him up, and he agreed to come on.Bonus: Matt’s co-host and the founder of Tales from the Crypt, Marty Bent joined us for the first half of the show. Since starting in October 2017, Marty has interviewed some of the most exciting people in the space, including Matt Corallo, Caitlin Long, Dan Held and even Jack Dorsey and have built their reputation as one of the premier Bitcoin podcasts. It is also my go-to podcast on a long drive.We sat down over a glass or two of whiskey to discuss the podcasting industry and our favourite guests. We also look back at the community split during S2X and consider whether issuance and inflation could be the catalyst for a future contentious hard fork.-----If you enjoy The What Bitcoin Did Podcast you can help support the show my doing the following:Become a Patron and get access to shows early or help contributeMake a tip:Bitcoin: 3FiC6w7eb3dkcaNHMAnj39ANTAkv8Ufi2SQR Codes: Bitcoin | Ethereum | Litecoin | Monero | ZCash | RipplecoinIf you do send a tip then please email me so that I can say thank youSubscribe on iTunes | Spotify | Stitcher | SoundCloud | YouTube | TuneIn | RSS FeedLeave a review on iTunesShare the show and episodes with your friends and familySubscribe to the newsletter on my websiteFollow me on Twitter Personal | Twitter Podcast | Instagram | Medium | YouTubeIf you are interested in sponsoring the show, you can read more about that here or please feel free to drop me an email to discuss options.

ACEC's Chair-Elect of the Coalition Leaders Steering Committee discusses the importance of coalitions through ACEC membership. Transcript:Host: (00:03)And welcome to another edition of Engineering influence with ACEC. Very happy to have a repeat guest to the podcast. Matt Morello is the Chair-Elect of the Coalition Leaders Steering Committee. Matt Murello: (00:50)Thanks for having me, Jeff. Host: (00:51)Yes, thank you for coming in. I know you're a busy man. You have a lot of hats that you wear. Not only being president of your firm Lewis Goodfriend and Associates out of New Jersey. And Mayor as well. And then also of course Chair-Elect of the coalitions and then also taking on the tax and regulatory committee. So there's a lot going on. But today really focusing in on coalitions. You were just a couple of minutes ago in our large conference room talking to the staff together about the importance of coalitions. Um, take a moment and kind of describe what the coalitions at ACEC do, why are they important? And really what are you trying to get across coming in as the chairman of the coalitions committee. Matt Murello: (01:40)Thanks. Um, so the coalitions for people that aren't aware, are groups within ACEC, many of which are practice centered, uh, whether it's land development or professional surveyors, mechanical electrical engineers or structural engineers, that provide additional information and resources to those practice centered firms. The other of those two are based upon the, the size of the firms who have small firms in the DPC, the larger firms, the small firms counsel that I got involved with as chair in 2012. And the value of the coalitions is, as we were just explaining to staff of ACEC is to provide a pool of information and resources, whether it's peer to peer, I have a question about something I want to do or, or tried to do, or it's just the ability to have access to documents. Matt Murello: (02:35)Right now, the number of documents that any coalition member would have access to if they were to purchase them all would be over $5,000. And that's a, that's a significant investment to affirm. If a firm is starting or growing or merging or adding onto the ability to go and tap into those resources of, um, just the documents or being able to talk, um, in a peer to peer environment and say, look, I want to open a new business or I want to open a new office or I want to develop my next generation of leaders, or how valuable is my firm? Um, at some point somebody's already done it. And within the coalitions you're gonna find that person, probably one that's done it right and one that hasn't. The ability to tap into the information is going to make your firm better off in the end because you have the ability to say, okay, does this, is this method of growing my next generation of leaders? Matt Murello: (03:36)Is it going to work for me or is it not? When we all started to get together in 2011 and 2012 where the different chairs got together and said, okay, each one of our groups, instead of trying to be all things to all members concentrated on what did we do best? And at the Small Firm Council, we decided we were gonna try to be the best at helping you run your business. How can we make you more profitable, grow or maintain your client base, diverse your client your client base while the other coalitions we're making you better surveyors or better land development or better structural engineers or better mechanical electrical engineers, engineering firms. And when we did that, when we got together and said, okay, let's each one of us coalitions do the best we can at what we want to provide our members, that's when the membership of the coalitions in general started to grow rapidly. Matt Murello: (04:33)I've always believed that if we can get anybody who automatically joins ACEC for whatever reasons they do, if you want to be engaged and you want to get the most you can out of ACEC, the advocacy side and the coalition side, although they are completely opposite in terms of what you need to put into them, um, they're going to make your firm stronger, make you a better leader and help you grow your business and develop those next generation of leaders. Host: (05:00)And it's really a little barrier to entry. Matt Murello: (05:02)It really is. I mean, uh, obviously there's a, a significant monetary expense to join ACEC, but to join a coalition is only $250. And if you're a member of the insurance trust they reimburse you part of that. And then if you're a member of a coalition, you want to join another coalition, it's even less expensive. So the cost to join a coalition versus what you get out of it, if nothing else, just the documents themselves is an order of magnitude over what you pay. Host: (05:34)But like you said, it's that information sharing. It's that best practices. Having a center for excellence for firms to learn how best to, I guess grow or change their management structure or whatever they want to do to be more successful in their industry. Not so much professionally, but in their specialization. Even though there's information about that available it's more how can you grow your firm, get it ready to go into M&A if you want to do that or if it's going to be just, you know, a training the next generation coming up, that's really where you can learn. Matt Murello: (06:07)Yeah, you're right. And to be honest with you, Jeff I've been going to the Small Firm Counsel round tables for almost 20 years now. Um, and one of the questions I got asked by staff was, you know, what are the typical topics you discuss on at these approximately two and a half hours of sitting in a room. Um, and what you had mentioned with, uh, with mergers and acquisitions and growing leadership development and from valuation and benchmark performance metrics. Um, we talk about over and over and over again and we're always finding new ways to try to come up with what works best for my firm. I have a very small firm in New Jersey, in the New York City area. Uh, we've, uh, been between five people and 12 people in the 17 years I've owned the business. But the coalitions have always helped me when I want to figure out whether I'm doing well or not doing well. Matt Murello: (06:59)Is this a good time to open a new office? How do I quantify whether it's a good time and whether it's performing well or not. All of that information is readily accessible because people have done it. Um, and there's nothing easier than asking somebody who's done it and not done well at it. Okay. What do, what pitfalls do I avoid so that I can concentrate on being the best acoustical engineer I can offer in this area? Um, and at the same time, because I'm a small firm, I don't have a CFO and HR director. How do I get around or how do I deal with those topics? In my business, which will come up. Um, and what's the best way to deal with it. And I think that that pool of information, that pool of resources is something that's invaluable. Host: (07:40)And something else that was mentioned during your, during your talk was the fact that at the conferences that ACEC holds, it's an open door policy that if you're an ACEC member and you want to just test out a coalition or see if it's something that you're interested in, you can come in and sit in see if it's right for you. Matt Murello: (07:57)Right. The, the, the round tables that exist on the Sunday of the national meetings are where we get, um, it's an open door. Uh, people come in. And I've always found that if someone joins a one of the round tables and find some value in innovation if it's one topic we discussed that it makes their lives easier, um, that's a perspective member that we more often than not can get to join a coalition. Host: (08:21)So Matt, really, what's your elevator pitch for membership coming in and you have some, you know, you're talking to a bunch of new ACEC members and they don't know about coalitions, you know, what's, what's your, what's your pitch to them? Matt Murello: (08:34)I think any firm that decides to be involved with ACEC has already made the decision for the expense of joining and they've determined whatever their need is. If that firm really wants to be actively involved in the industry, have a say, or at least be in the know and to what's changing in our industry from a tax and regulatory standpoint, infrastructure, what bills are coming or not coming, ACEC is the place to be. If you're gonna make that jump into, be actively involved with the organization, losing out on the opportunity for a very small investment in a coalitions of $250 to be involved and get access to that pool of information to grow your business, to manage your business effectively, to grow the next generation of leaders and to become a better engineering firm and a principal is really something that you need to take. And taken into consideration. Otherwise it's an opportunity lost. Um, we all spend most of our time of being responsive as business owners. And if you have an opportunity to tap into information to make you a better leader, to make your firm stronger, more resilient in downturn times as you are in growth. I think it's a resource that everyone should take advantage of. Coalitions is the place to get that. Host: (09:50)Well, that's fantastic. And Matt, thank you for coming down to Washington. Thank you for speaking to our group and I know you have a busy schedule, so I'm not going to hold you up, but thank you so much again, check out our coalitions on www.acec.org Um, and uh, thanks again for coming on.Matt Murello: (10:06)Thanks Jeff. As always.

Today, Matt and Kia discuss work life balance, specifically with a family/children. When Kia first started work as a photographer, she worked 60 hours a week and that didn’t stop when she had her first two children. You don’t want to miss Kia’s story after a life changing event occured. Kia says you’ll never be perfectly balanced or perfectly comfortable. Shoot for work life integration, versus balance. It doesn’t have to be 50/50. Matt talks about how parkinson’s law affects our lives. You don’t want to miss this all the great advice in this podcast!   (#) [00:00] Welcome to from nothing to profit, a photographer’s podcast with Matt and Kayak where each week they talk to photographers about what is working in their business now so you can swipe those ideas and grow your business faster. [00:17] All right, welcome everybody to the podcast today. Matt and I have a very interesting conversation topic that we’re going to be discussing and one that is super close to my heart. So Matt, you had a question the other day. What was your question? [00:31] Well, so a lot of people send me messages all the time because I do some coaching and stuff and they talk a lot about worth like more. I can’t even speak now, work life balance. And so I feel like I can help them. But there’s been a few that I couldn’t help lately and it’s because it’s based around like family. And so I just thought you could answer this better because you got children and what work life life balance work looks like for somebody that is raising kids and has kids and soccer and stuff like that. [01:00] Yeah, yeah. Oh you mentioned soccer. Absolutely. So work life balance is something that I have definitely struggled with over the years and had, I’ve, I’ve made a lot of different decisions, tried things, a lot of different ways to figure out how I can be in a comfortable position. And so, uh, just to go back a little bit, I started as a photographer right out of college. So I was married and 22 and uh, working in a family business and I was working 60, 70 hours a week. And then I had my first daughter when I was 25. And so I continued to work 60 or 70 hours a week and just brought her to work with me and then my second daughter was born and continue to work that much and they both would come to work with a nanny and then they were both in a car wreck and they were winning. [01:52] Yes. My girls and the nanny were in a car wreck. She, uh, she took them to the city. We, uh, lived in a city in a small town about 20 minutes outside of the big city, and she took them to the city to get lunch for everyone and was late coming back. Uh, and some of my, someone had said to me, well, she’s late getting back. And I was like, yes, with my children, I don’t care about lunch, I’m worried about my children. And then we got a phone call and, uh, what had happened is she, her car had, um, my car actually had a hit, a, a piece of metal that had been dropped off the road right in front of her, so other cars and had had swerved and she wasn’t able to. And so it had rolled and it was just crazy. [02:38] Like it was the grace of God truly, truly the grace of the car. The car rolled, the car rolled multiple times. Yes. Okay. Yeah. And so you don’t know the story, Matt. That’s great. Obviously don’t, so yeah. So the paramedics came up on the scene, saw all of the, she had actually also gone to the store and bought some like children’s toys. Um, this photo session. So there were all these children’s toys strewn out all across the road. The car was hanging upside down air, the other car was upside down and they pulled up and they were just sure that they were going to come across a horrific scene. And, uh, they, my five month old daughter and my two and a half year old daughter and the nanny were in the car, they were all perfectly fine except... Support this podcast

Craig is in the WGAN Morning News with Ken and Matt. This morning,  we touched on a whole bunch of topics in the news. We discussed whether we should trust Google.  We talked about Autonomous vehicles and the societal implications and I talked about two-factor authentication and how you can protect yourself from sim-jacking. These and more tech tips, news, and updates visit - CraigPeterson.com --- Related Articles: You Need Two-Factor Authentication Even If Google Screwed It Up?   Autonomous Cars — Are they ready for Prime Time? Why Are We Still Trusting Google?    --- Transcript: Below is a rush transcript of this segment, it might contain errors. Airing date: 06/12/2019 Can You Trust Google?, Security Summer, Autonomous Cars, Two-Factor Authentication --- Craig Good morning, everybody. Craig Peterson here. I heard "Big Papi" took his first steps in the hospital today. So, that's good. It brings back thoughts of everyone that has family and friends in the hospital that aren't celebrities and people that are injured. My thoughts and prayers go out to everybody every day. It's just a reminder of how fragile things can be in this life. This morning I was on with our friends Ken and Matt up at WGAN. And as usual, we spoke about a few different things. We had quite a little conversation about trusting Google, should you trust them? Can you trust them? There was a surprising revelation that came out, in fact, just last week about them, and what they've been doing, during the previous 14 years, a significant security problem. We had a chat about two-factor authentication, and I gave them workaround, a way to make it safe, even if you have to use text messages SMS for two-factor authentication because that's not secure. But there is a reliable way to do it. We talked about a little bit more of course about autonomous cars which are all in the news again, and what's the safety factor there? How far away are we? I took a couple of different angles than I made with Jim Polito on that discussion today, as well. So here we go. Also, don't forget, we've got our security summer, starting up in July, I will start sending out some emails next week, things have been crazy around here. As you can imagine, with all of the companies now getting hacked, and the losing money coming to me, and you know, everyone in the security business, which, of course, is way understaffed. And shout out to those of you who are trying to get into security, I got another email this last week from someone that was starting into a security career, and he's in his 50s. So there's something to be learned there, I want to encourage everybody. Remember the adage, "You can teach an old dog new tricks." It's a terrible saying. But you can learn a lot of this stuff, you really can. And there's a lot of people out there who have been trying to convince you that you can't do that, really all you need is their little bit of anti-virus software, or whatever it is, you know, they're selling that to you. Because that's all, they have. That's all they know. Well, they're not doing you any favors. They are trying to mess with you. You can learn this stuff. That's what the security summer going to be about this year, and I'm going to be teaching this some free classes. You know, I get paid for doing this too. And if you want more in depth, then you're probably going to want to sign up for one of my courses. But I want to get this information to everybody. Because if you know me well enough, you know, I got hacked. That was 30 years ago, about now, a long time ago. And it scared the daylights out of me. And I started to learn about this and trying to figure it out. It's taken me years, decades, to get to the point where I'm at now. And I am excited to share a lot of this with you. Just watch for my security summer. If you want to find out more, email me at Craig Peterson dot com, ask any questions that you might have. And I'll make sure you know, when I'm starting this whole little program up, because I want you to be aware of all of the major points here, right, I'm not trying to turn into security experts, that takes quite a bit of work. However, I do want you to be familiar with all of the problems. All the talk about hacks that have happened, how it happened, what should have been done by those companies give you an idea, but as well as what you can do to protect yourself a few tips on how to protect yourself, it's going to be kind of a busy summer. And if you sign up, and you'll be able to get a notification as to when these little courses are going to happen. And I'm going to leave them up for about a week or so you know because it does get stale. And I do need to revisit them. I don't want want to put them up blankly for the world to see forever. So keep an eye out. Email me at Craig Peterson dot com, and now we'll go to Ken and Matt. I want to encourage you guys, and you can learn this. There are the people that just been messing with you. You know the bottom line. Ken Craig Peterson, our tech guru joins us at 738 every Wednesday, and this is 738 on a Wednesday, which means you're talking to Craig Peterson. Craig. Welcome to the program, sir. Craig Hey, good morning. It is a Wednesday but is it every Wednesday? Today? Ken That's a good point. And you know what it is a lie in and of itself because I believe we did not talk to you last Wednesday. So it's most Wednesdays. Craig That's true. Yeah, I took a bit of vacation. I'm a motorcycle guy. And I have a motorcycle that is 32 years old. It's a 1987 BMW with 143,000 miles on it now. The only thing I had to do is replace the rear wheel on that bike. It's just been a phenomenal bike. So, I went up to like George in New York, and we rode around with some buddies for a week. And it was just fantastic. Ken Well, good. But that doesn't mean tech news stops. I hopped on your website, Craig Peterson dot com. To see what kind of top stories you had there and you have one topic here. Why are we still trusting Google? Can you answer that? Matt Great question. Well, they did say early in Google's history that they that their whole operating philosophy was Don't be evil, right. Are they evil? Now? Did you notice they took that off of their website? Right? Craig Yeah, exactly. I don't know why we're still trusting some of these different companies out there. They are selling all kinds of information about us. And, you know, that's not necessarily a bad thing when you get right down to it. Because, frankly, do you want to see car commercials all the time? Or would you rather see a car commercial when you are looking to buy a car, right? And, again, goes back, Matt, to what you've said many times, and that is if you're not paying for something, you might want to consider that you're the product and not the customer. And they have been doing all kinds of things. We're selling our data. But the other big problem that came out very recently, within the last couple of weeks is that in fact, Google has been storing our usernames and passwords for people that were using, basically their G Suite services. But it's been out there for 14 years in the clear. They're pretty good about security, although Android itself isn't the best out there. But now their G Suite customers are a little upset because of what's been out there. I was talking just yesterday with an employee who had been working at a company that was collecting personal information. They were collecting home addresses, phone numbers, and they were taking donations and were selling them. It was a great little company doing just all kinds of super things to raise funds for some good charitable organizations. It turns out they were using Google Forms to collect all this personal information about donors. You know, come on, guys, we cannot trust Google, we're using more and more of these online websites, software as a service. Think about Google Sheets, for instance, as well as Google Forms. And we're putting data in there that may end up getting exposed. We should not be doing that. Think twice about it. In our profession, we refer to this as shadow IT or shadow information technology. Historically, we had these big rooms, these big glass rooms with all of the computers in them. And we had true professionals that were running them, and making sure data was being kept safe, and information was not being stolen and leaked out. Now we've got the marketing department going out and creating contracts with companies that have online services, we have the same thing happening with sales and manufacturing and distribution and our purchasing managers are our data is not safe, and it's never been less secure. So be careful what you're putting out there, what you're given to Google what you're given to these other companies because frankly, it's a real problem. Matt Craig Peterson, our tech guru, joins us, most Wednesdays at this time to talk about the world of technology. And today is one of those days, Craig, while you're talking, I'm looking at a story on CBS This Morning about Uber's secret self-driving test facility for their self-driving autonomous cars. I know you had a story also about whether or not autonomous vehicles are ready for prime time. And I think it does beg the question, how prepared for prime time are these things? I know, it's a conversation I've had several times, and it seems like the older the person I'm talking to the more it freaks them out that there's no driver behind the wheel. I think it freaks everybody out. It just freaks out, you know, people in their 50s, 60s, and 70s a lot more than it does everybody else. But statistics, you know, are being what they are, you know, often they can be safer, then human behind the wheel. So what do you think? I mean, are they close to ready to take over the roads? Craig Well, I really like I mentioned this yesterday. I liked this story that came out in the Wall Street Journal a couple of weeks ago. And it said that autonomous vehicles, these self-driving cars are 90% ready and all we have left is 90% to go. In other words, yeah, there's a lot of things that look like we're ready to go and it might be just a few more years, and we'll have autonomous vehicles. In reality, it's probably going to be quite a while yet. And you talk about you know, older guys like Ken and myself who are over 30. And we're looking at some of these things. And we're concerned because we've seen failures before. Do you remember Cadillac v 864? Matt Back then, I wasn't much of a car person. Ken I did have a Mustang in 1960. Matt Do you remember the Corvair? Unsafe at any speed? Craig I do, and you know, Ralph Nader thing, we still have Nader dots on our tires. But that was an example back in the early 80s of Cadillac trying to make cars more efficient, the engines more efficient, and they had a V-8 engine. And what would happen is if you got onto the highway and you started driving, of course, at highway speeds, you're going down the road, you don't need as much horsepower to keep a vehicle going at a pace as you need to get the car starting at that speed. So they said okay, well, we're going to have the system that automatically shut down cylinders. So you'd be a V-8, and you'd be just roaring up and you getting on the highway and you're often running. Then it would cut back to six cylinders, even four cylinders. The concept was wonderful. But what ended up happening is that engine would say, as you're at a stop sign, oh my I need more horsepower, counteract the braking. Of course, They were not thinking about the brakes very well at the time. And then the car would lunge into the intersection so that you could get t-boned. Fast forward not very many years, and we had the Toyota with a sudden acceleration problem. That turned out to be a software error, where much the same thing was happening. A car would jump into the intersection. We're not going to get into all of the details behind it all. But I think with age comes from experience. And we've had some horrible experiences over the years with vehicles and some of this newer technology. So Matt, to answer your question, a lot is going on the autonomous vehicle space. In some cases, the cars are much, much safer, you look at millions of miles driven, compare human drivers to these autonomous vehicles, and the autonomous vehicles almost always win. But we also now have prejudices against the self-driving cars, social warriors are, you know, get on your horses here. Because there are people who when there's an autonomous vehicle on the road, or they think it's a ton of mess, they behave differently. Now they've been tested have been run, I don't know if you've seen any of these pictures with autonomous vehicles, where they took the driver's seat, and they made it quite a bit deeper, think of thicker padding on that seat. And they hid a driver inside the driver's position. You could not see them unless you looked exceptionally close. You could not see that there was a driver in the vehicle. Then the driver just drove around, caught down and of course, the cameras everywhere so they could see what the people's reactions were. People were going out of their way to mess with the car. They pedestrians were jumping in front of it. Vehicles were cutting it off, slamming on their brakes, doing everything they could to make it so that autonomous vehicle would get involved in an accident. I don't know. Maybe they're just trying to see what it would do. Of course, it wasn't an autonomous vehicle. There's a human driver in there. We, as a society, as people, are not ready for these yet. And frankly, I think the Wall Street Journal's right - We're 90% of the way there. And honestly, we have 90% of the way to go. Because there are so many things, we haven't even considered yet. Ken When he joins us, most Wednesdays at 738, to fill us in on tech news. We at the radio station. I don't want to be critical of our radio station. However, they started this two-factor authentication. So every time I get some on my email, they have to send me a text message with a code. I think this is a royal pain in the butt. I want you to tell me they shouldn't do that. Craig Okay, can they not do that. Ken Thanks so much. Thank you for joining us today. Craig I will leave it at that. Yeah, here's what's going to, first of all, there's a big problem with the way they're doing it. That is that there is something called SIMjacking or hijacking of your SIM card. So if they're sending you a text, that is very dangerous. What's been happening is that if you are a target, now they're not doing this in a broad fishing attempt. If you can are a target, and the criminals know they want to go after you, they can now take over your cell phone, and they will get the text. So it doesn't do a whole lot of good from that aspect. We use something called DUO. D-U-O, which is fantastic. For two factor authentication, we use something called Yubi keys, which are very good as well. If your company's requiring you to us a text message for authentication, there is a relatively safe way of doing it. And that is you can use something like Google Voice, assuming your Google account has not been hacked, right. But Google Voice, where there is no SIM card, there is no cell phone that SIM card to hijack. If you use this and it is what I do for places that have to have a text message sent for two-factor authentication. So if they have to send you a text message, it goes to Google Voice. I have my own little phone company, and I use that as well. That way the text message will come in via an app to your phone, you can check the app, and now you're reasonably safe. But yeah, in this day and age, you know two-factor authentication is something that that does make sense. We do have to draw a line, and that one does it make the most sense. I'd like it to authenticate you at most every four hours or once a day, particularly for emails, if you have to do it every time. It gets a little bit old, pretty darn fast. But you know it's the reality of today's world. Matt Craig Peterson, our tech guru, he joins us at this time every Wednesday to find out exactly what's happening in the world of technology. Craig, we only have a couple of minutes left. So lastly, I will ask you whether or not you judge everyone on social media? Are you part of the mob that rules everyone? Craig Oh man. I am not. I don't jump on anybody's back. I just had that happen to me with a significant hacking group. As you know, I run the national webinars for the FBI Infragard program. I'm pretty visible out there in the security world, right. I do lots of radio interviews and TV and stuff. I posted an article on my website and got jumped on by a small mob out there. We've got to be careful remember it's so easy to say something negative online. Our kids are getting bullied every day. Bullying seems to be quite a habit nowadays. I don't know what happened to free speech. We have these militant people out there these fascist like the Antifas. Total fascist don't want to hear what you have to say. And these internet mobs have become a real thing and a very negative thing. From my viewpoint. Anyways. Ken Good news as our tech guru joins us most Wednesdays at 738. Thank you, Mr. Peterson. We will talk to you next Wednesday. Craig Take care. Matt All right. Thanks a lot, Craig. We appreciate it.   --- More stories and tech updates at: www.craigpeterson.com Don't miss an episode from Craig. Subscribe and give us a rating: www.craigpeterson.com/itunes Follow me on Twitter for the latest in tech at: www.twitter.com/craigpeterson For questions, call or text: 855-385-5553  

So Matt's never heard of The Wiggles and Derek describes the perfect diet of inedible stuff. Also there's some stuff about losing their virginity so you guys can go ahead and enjoy that.

Matt interviews Jessica Robertson while at SYNC 2019. Her first career was a high school teacher, which is something Matt and Jessica have in common. They both loved working with that age group and still do. And they both love teaching (and learning), which is why they love to share what they know with the industry. Storytelling and collaborating with clients is what is working for Jessica. Listen in to find out more about how she does that. And don’t miss what she’s excited about in the industry now. You’ll also want to hear how Jessica overcame her fears when she first started… and how she stays in business now. Jessica’s advice on what to spend money on is based on where you are in your career, which is great. The best advice she ever received she uses on a daily basis and you’ll want to too. Book: Rachel Martin: What to Say Online Resources: (http://www.jessicarobertson.com/) (http://www.jessicarobertson.com/for-photographers) (https://www.facebook.com/groups/630336874012039/) – Shoot it Straight with Jessica Roberton   (#) Transcription was done by Temi.com which means it’s an AI generated transcript. The transcript may contain spelling, grammar and other errors, and is not a substitute for watching the video.   [00:01] Hi, this is Jessica Robertson and you’re listening to from nothing to profit. [00:05] Welcome to from nothing to profit a photographer’s podcast with Matt and Kaia where each week they talk to photographers about what is working in their business now so you can swipe those ideas and grow your business faster. [00:21] Hey everybody. So Matt here and I’m going to, I’m recording another podcast from sync without Kaia. Maybe next year we can all convince Kaia to come back here. She comes every year, which didn’t come this year. And so go ahead and just send her an email and let her know she has to come next year. Anyways, I’m, my guest today is Jessica Robinson, so I don’t know much about you because we don’t run in the same, I know we don’t, we don’t, we don’t, we don’t run in those same circles. We should. We should. We will. We will from now. But I just saw Jessica speak at sink and I was blown away by what you guys are doing. So I don’t want to steal your flame cause you already liked did your speech and so you can just tell everybody those slides again if you want. But I’m going to do it from start to beginning. Sure. Um, so tell, tell us real quick about your studio, what you guys are doing and all that stuff. [01:09] Sure. So our studio was in Ashland, Virginia, just outside of Richmond. We photograph about 200 seniors a year in addition to some families and babies and some corporate work that we do. I started out of my home originally or I started on location really and then to my home. And then we opened our retail space in 2005. Um, our first studio was about 1500 square feet and we lived across the street because the street that you want to be on in our small town. And um, now we have a 3000 square foot studio and that’s been since 2011. I have a fabulous team that works with me. I’m very fortunate to have, um, Karen and Robin support me and help me so that I’m able to really do the thing that I love, which is photography. Yeah. [01:46] Yeah. And then they’re here this week at sync with you as well. They’re really awesome people. So you are, let me just tell you, you are lucky. [01:52] Oh, I’m so fortunate. I’m so incredibly wishing. Just have this whole podcast and just talk about them as what we should really, really, I mean it’s not really mean, let’s be honest. I just do what I’m told. I, I say that all the time and it’s DDN again, so you can you tell me this, I’m like, ah, I don’t really know. Ask Karen and Robin. I just do what I’m told to Support this podcast

Are we living in a virtual world? Is Amazon spying on us? Is your car watching you? Find out more as Craig discusses these topics with Ken and Matt on the WGAN Morning News this Wednesday morning. These and more tech tips, news, and updates visit - CraigPeterson.com --- Related Articles: Amazon Workers Are Listening To What You Tell Alexa Are We Living In A Simulation? This Mit Scientist Says It’s More Likely Than Not Your Car Is Watching You. Who Owns The Data? --- Transcript: Below is a rush transcript of this segment, it might contain errors. Airing date: 04/17/2019 Our Virtual world - Data Cars Are Collecting - The Truth About Amazon Alexa Monitoring Craig Peterson  0:00  Good morning, everybody. I expect I'll be doing a couple of It's a Security Thing podcasts this week. So make sure you check back. Today I was on with Ken and Matt. And we reviewed of course the articles in the news this week we talked about the cars and the amount of data they are collecting on us right now. We spent a little bit of time talking about this whole what's happening with virtual reality thing and, you know, a couple of other topics came up as well. So here we go with Ken and Matt. Matt Gagnon 0:34 Alright, here we go. It is 7:38 on the WGAN Morning News on Wednesday morning. And Craig Peterson joins us as he typically does on this day to go over what's happening in the world of technology Craig Peterson. Welcome to the program, sir. Craig 0:46 Hey, he does you know, I remember back in the, must have been 74, 75 driving down the Decarie expressway in Montreal and having the axle in our car come out the side rear axle. And it was hanging out about two and a half three feet almost ready to completely come out. So we didn't just almost lose a tire or lose a tire. We almost lost the whole wheel and the actual want to happen to be actual came out of our car. That would, let me tell you that was quite a quite an event because the Decarie expressway was was a very busy back then in the mid 70s. Ken Altshuler 1:28 How did the wheel on the other side stay on if your axle came out that far? Craig 1:34 What is the differential in the rear right, rear wheel drive car. So there's really two axles and so the one on the left side somehow the bearing went and became detached from the differential and slid it out. Man, that'll wake you up. Ken 1:51 Yes, it will. Speaking of waking up, Craig Peterson. I thought that Alexa, can't listen to what's going on in your house? Craig 2:02 Yeah, you know, there's been a lot of bad reporting on this. And you know, other than us right here, I think most stations tend to report things incorrectly. Knee jerk. Let me put it that way. Matt 2:15   Are you calling people a fake news? Craig 2:16  Fake news? Yeah, exactly. It's been all over the place just last week. So I'm not surprised you kind of caught up top this one Ken. But here's what they're saying. They're saying they're complaining that the Alexa is listening to you. And worse than than Amazon's people are listening to you. Here's the bottom line on this. And here's what's really happening. If you develop some software, you have to test it. And one of the things I never worked on was voice recognition software. I worked on signature recognition analysis, but never voice. Always a very difficult thing to do. And frankly, I am shocked and amazed how good voice recognition has become. Well, it's become really good. Not because somehow computers have gotten smarter or faster, that has nothing really to do with it. voice recognition has gotten really good because people are analyzing what the computers are doing. So you, you know, breaks down the speech and tries to understand you. And you have to have a human come in afterwards, make sure that computer did it correctly. Maybe you flag something that you want people to listen to, because the person just kept asking basically the same thing and the computer couldn't recognize it. So what's going on here right now is Amazon has a team, a worldwide team, a global team. And they examine a small portion of the recordings that the Alexa has made of your commands. So Matt, for instance, how would you tell an Amazon device to tune in to the radio station this morning? Matt 4:02 Alexa, tune in to WGAN. Craig 4:07  Exactly. And so now Alexa is going to tune in and you have a great radio announcer voice. Ken 4:14  He does. Matt 4:14 Thank you, I appreciate that. Ken 4:15 Nobody says that to me clearly. Craig 4:18 So it would pick it up and it would handle it pretty darn well. But a lot of us kind of mumble and you know, our accents are there from other languages we might speak and things. So the Amazon Alexa, the workers are not sitting there listening to all of your conversations. What's happening is a very small percentage of commands just like Matt gave, are analyzed by humans to make sure it's doing the right things. And then they use that to tune up the Alexa to be able to appropriately answer questions or obey commands. Google does it with their Google Home systems, Siri does it. Apple does it with their systems, and the workers don't have your name, your email address. They don't know who you are. They have nothing personally identifiable about you. All they're trying to do is make the speech recognition better. And they also if they hear something that might be considered suspicious, they do nothing with it, because they have no context. So people have been worried about that, too. And I can tell you, and you know, as an emergency medical professional for 10 years, I was a mandated reporter. And we had to report things that we thought were suspicious. Well, different people have different levels of suspicion. And we saw that in Blue Bloods, I love Blue Bloods on TV here this last week, where you have a woman who is there in a park and doesn't like the way another mother is talking to her and teasing her about this other mother's baby and stuff. So she reports it to the police and everything. So there's different levels of suspicion. And all you're hearing, when you're examining this, when this team is listening to the audio, is a 10 second snippet, a maximum of 30 seconds that you can't really tell what's going on. So don't worry about it. Yeah, they have it. Yeah, they're keeping it Yeah, they're analyzing it. But it bottom line, the best of my knowledge, even though it's been called up as evidence in some court cases, it's never actually been particularly valuable, other than in divorce cases. Matt 6:32 All right, we're talking to Craig Peterson. He is our tech guru. He joins us on Wednesdays at this time to go over what's happening in the world of technology. And Craig, I rewatched The Matrix the other day. And I remember 1999, when that came out, which is now 20 years ago, my god in heaven, that it sparked a number of conversations between college philosophy majors about whether or not it was something that would show us that we actually did already live inside a simulation and whether or not The Matrix was real, and the movie was kind of showing us that reality, and so on and so forth. But this conversation is rearing its ugly head yet again, because there's an argument being made right now that we are, in fact, living in a simulation. So Craig, I guess my question to you is, am I currently plugged into a computer somewhere living my life as a simulation? Craig 7:17 Yeah, it's a real interesting question. Oh, my gosh, I got into this in some detail on my podcast, too, because this is something that's fascinated me for at least 25 years before it came out, The Matrix came out. Do you remember the same time? Do you remember two more movies that came out in 98, 99? The 13th Floor and Dark City? Matt 7:38   I remember both of those movies. Craig 7:40 Yeah. All kind of the same thing. Well, here's the bottom line on all this. I'll make this pretty quick. We could go on for hours. But the basic thinking is, we have virtual reality right now. I'm sure Ken uses it every day as he's playing his video games, right. And it's getting better and better as we go forward. At some point, this is going to be better than, well, it's much better than today. But it's going to be as good as the real world you won't be able to distinguish the real world from not it was even in the fifth, The 5th Day, right? Or The 6th Day. What was that Schwarzenegger movie? Matt 8:22 I think it was the 6th Day wasn't it? Craig 8:24  6th Day. Matt 8:26  And I remember when we're talking about. Yeah. Not a lot of people remember that Arnold Schwarzenegger movie, Craig 8:28 Well, the guy had a virtual girlfriend. Matt 8:30  Correct. Craig 8:30  So it gets to that point. And our computers are fast enough to be able to simulate people just like they did in these movies, then what's to say that some history major doesn't create a program that spins up a society from 500, a thousand years ago, and lets the program run. Lets things happen within the program, to try and see how people might have acted a thousand years ago, or changing things just a little bit here or there. What would happen? Well, if any of that is possible, and it is all possible, there's no question and then it'll be extremely possible in another, certainly within 50 years, some people are saying 20 or 30 years, then what are the odds that what we are experiencing is real? And in other words, if there was one society that went all the way past where we're at to indistinguishable virtual reality, to be able to create virtual reality, civilizations, what are the odds that we are that initial civilization, and not one of millions of likely virtual civilizations in the future? And so this is from an MIT science as he just came out with a book called The simulation hypothesis. There are quite a few books out about the same topic, but I love that, that title. And he is a computer scientist, Video game developer. He leads the Playlabs at MIT. And I'm assuming it's a he. Yeah, it is a he. Rizwan Virk. R-I-Z-W-A-N Virk. So if he's right, what does it mean to us? Does it matter? You know, does it all of a sudden change our lives in any way? They the answer's no. It's very interesting to think about that though, I agree with you Matt. Ken 10:28 We are talking to our tech guru, Craig Peterson, who joins us every week at this time. 7:30 every Wednesdays. And you can go to http://CraigPeterson.com and get all this news all the time. Before we let you go, are you telling me now that my cars watching what I'm doing? I mean, I have no privacy in my car? Craig 10:47   None whatsoever. Matt 10:49 You don't have any privacy anywhere Ken.  Unknown 10:51 I guess so. Matt 10:52 This is America in 2019. Craig 10:54 Well, you know, when you're really good looking Matt, everyone's watching. Ken 10:54 Exactly, really? Craig 10:55  Yeah. Yeah, I've heard that anyways. Well, I didn't realize this statistic. But cars now are capable, because really, it's just a computer on wheels. In fact, that's not even true. It is 20 to 30, at least computers on wheels in your car. And it can generate about 25 gigabytes of data every hour. Four terabytes a day. And they're saying that in another 10 years, that data from our cars is going to be worth almost a trillion dollars. So the big question out there right now is who owns that data from our cars and and how private is it going to be? Because when we take our cars, and even now, they are plugged into a network and able for instance, with Mercedes, they have engineers in Germany, that examine the data in your car to try and figure out if there's any issues, things you might not be aware of. Acura is doing some of those same things, many high end car brands are doing it and even lower end car brand are set up right now to plug your car into their computers, collect data and do some analysis. So who owns it? How private should it be? Could it be at this point in Europe, they have some laws that that aren't specifically about this, but the GDPR does kind of cover it. California has a lot that goes into effect next year. And that law is going to try and keep this private information private. But as much as 10 years ago, I know speaking of Decarie expressway in Montreal, I know in Montreal on Sherbrooke, they pulled a car over because people had reported it as speeding. The police didn't see it speed, but they pulled it over. They plugged a reader into that port in your car. And it reported that the car had within the last 10 minutes been doing 70 miles an hour on a city street and they issued a  ticket. So things to think about and maybe look forward to hear guys. Matt 13:06  All right. Craig Peterson, our tech guru joins us at this time every Wednesday. Appreciate it Craig as always. And we will talk to you again next week, sir. Craig 13:15 Take care, guys. Bye Bye. Ken 13:16 Thanks, Craig. Craig 13:24 And I'll be back tomorrow. Take care guys. Bye bye. --- More stories and tech updates at: www.craigpeterson.com Don't miss an episode from Craig. Subscribe and give us a rating: www.craigpeterson.com/itunes Follow me on Twitter for the latest in tech at: www.twitter.com/craigpeterson For questions, call or text: 855-385-5553

Today I'm really excited to welcome my friend Matt Clark, the Chief Rainmaker At The Virtual Edge on to the show! Matt is a sought after international speaker, with a wealth of knowledge on all aspects relating to sales and marketing. Matt started his first company at 23 selling telephone switchboard systems and copiers door to door. He grew the business 300% per year and racked up almost £7 million in sales in just 4 years. So Matt knows a thing or two about how to structure sales systems and processes to generate cash quickly! One of the ways he does this today is by consistently generating high quality leads and clients from LinkedIn without spending a cent (or penny) on advertising. Which is why I know he's going to drop a tonne of value for you here today! Now just to warn you, Matt is from South Africa, and he talks fast so you're going to want to pay attention… He's got a boat load of energy and enthusiasm and I'm delighted to welcome him on the podcast today! On this episode: The psychology of sales, and why it's not what you think How Matt helped a client go from a 3% to a 35% sales conversion rate… from half the amount of leads. The simple LinkedIn strategy that will open the doors to multiple warm conversations with your perfect clients. The one line to use in your sales conversations that will save your hours chasing the wrong prospects. And much more! Connect with Matt on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/mattclarksa/  Watch Matt's free LinkedIn training - https://thevirtualedge.com/  You can see how to build your own Client Catching Ecosystem by watching my free, on demand Masterclass Training… “Less Selling. More Clients” It's where I share the roadmap to systemising and scaling your firm that will increase your influence, consistently get you in front of ideal prospects, automatically follow up with your leads, while growing your network and pipeline so you add 4 to 12 of the right clients each month. All without spending a penny on advertising or adding more hours to your week! Watch the Masterclass here - www.thinklikeafish.co/pc-less-selling Find out more about Adam & Think Like a Fish - www.thinklikeafish.co.uk  Happy Fishing!

- So Matt shares story about a situation he dealt with that included someone's weave.  - Tom discusses people in the work place who enjoy creating drama. - Disney bans smoking in all of there theme parks. - NBA Playoffs about to kick off. - Matt finally watched Creed 2 and gives us his 2 cents on the Film.

In this podcast, Stan and Mike talk with Gary Eastridge, Critical Response Coordinator and Affiliate manager for CCW Safe.   Gary is a retired law enforcement officer. He started with the Oklahoma City Police Department in February 1979 retiring in 2000 as an Inspector in the Homicide Unit. Gary also served as a department firearms instructor after receiving his CLEET certification in 1986. After retirement he worked as a police officer with the International Police Task Force (IPTF) in support of the United Nations Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK). Gary worked homicides with counterparts from 53 nations as well as mentoring local Police officers. Gary was named Chief Investigator for the Oklahoma County District Attorney’s office in January of 2007 where he served until his retirement in April of 2017 to accept his position with CCW Safe. He reviewed all officer involved shootings occurring in Oklahoma County as well as in custody deaths and other significant and high profile investigations / prosecutions. Gary is helping head up our new HR218 plans, along with Mike and Stan.  Full transcription: Speaker 1: 00:01 Welcome to the inside. CCWSAFE podcast with founders, Stan Campbell and Mike Darter. If you're forced to fight the battle for your life, CCWCSAFE will fight the battle for your future. Mike Darter: 00:22 Welcome to the inside CCWSAFE podcast, I'm Mike Darter in Oklahoma City. Stan Campbell: 00:27 I'm Stan Campbell in California right now. Mike Darter: 00:31 And we got Gary. Gary: 00:33 Hey guys. Mike Darter: 00:34 Gary's also in Oklahoma City. Stan Campbell: 00:37 That's right. Mike Darter: 00:38 So we normally do a weather report. I want to hear this, Stan? Is it nice out there? Stan Campbell: 00:42 It really is kind of nice today. Mike Darter: 00:45 You suck. Stan Campbell: 00:46 It's like, it's like 68 degrees. It's kind of beautiful. Mike Darter: 00:49 It's such a ... It's not bad here. Stan Campbell: 00:52 Yeah. You know how it is though, but you know. Mike Darter: 00:55 Yeah, yeah. Stan Campbell: 00:56 Yeah. Mike Darter: 00:59 What's been going on with you two, anything new on the CCWSAFE front, you guys? Stan Campbell: 01:06 Well, we are, I mean, we're just all over the place. You know, we've been dealing with our awesome new clients over there in New York. Gary and I had been helping the NYPD retire guys in joining and welcoming them to the family. So we're real happy about that. And we have ladies day is coming up, right Gary? Ladies days coming up this next month. And that's in Orlando- Gary: 01:37 A little over two weeks. Stan Campbell: 01:39 That's right in Orlando, so if you guys are in Orlando area, make sure you stop by and see me at Gary because we'll be there with the ladies. We always sponsored that event, it's an awesome event there. And so I think something about 500 women show up. Mike Darter: 01:53 Wow. Stan Campbell: 01:54 You know, for safety and concealed carry classes, a little bit of everything, right Gary? Gary: 01:59 Yeah. Mike Darter: 02:00 Now, where is that at? Gary: 02:03 It's at the Central Florida Rifle Pistol Club in Orlando. Just outside of Orlando, Florida. Good group. This is what, the fourth year I've think you've, we've been going down there. Stan Campbell: 02:14 Yeah. We're pretty much their main sponsors and we understand the importance of supporting women in the industry. You know, female carriers, the numbers are going up and we welcome them with open arms so we make sure we get down there and support all of our affiliates down there. Mike Darter: 02:36 That's cool. Then we also have the police week coming up as well in May. Stan Campbell: 02:42 Yeah, police week. Yep. Mike Darter: 02:44 What date is that? Stan Campbell: 02:45 What's the dates, Gary? Gary: 02:46 May 12th through May 16th. I just worked out my calendar up there on the white board, which is now full. The next about six weeks we're going to be really busy. Stan Campbell: 03:00 That's right. Mike Darter: 03:02 All right. So if you're going to be out in a police would come by and see us. We're going to have some pretty, some kind of cool stuff to give out there. Stan Campbell: 03:09 That's correct. And then also myself, you, and Gary, we're going to be in California supporting Unite Inland Empire 2019 Conservative Conference. So we'll be out there. There's about thousand in attendance out there. It's being sponsored by AM590, The Answer. Those guys, they, we really help them out. They help us out. You know, we partner a lot. You got Phil with Firing Line radio show. I've been on there several times myself, Mike, our entire crew, I've had the opportunity to cohost, I have the opportunity to stand in as a host there on the radio show, and I mean they really take care of us. It's just, they're part of our family. So we're going out to support them with the United Inland Empire Conservative Conference 2019, so we'll be there also. That it's April 28th, so if you guys are in that area, believe it or not California is our number two state in reference to a membership base. So if you there in that area come through and see is there as well. Mike Darter: 04:14 Yeah, it's going to be good time, man. I forgot about that. Stan Campbell: 04:16 That's right. Mike Darter: 04:17 That's coming up pretty quick too. Stan Campbell: 04:18 Yeah, a lot going on. Mike Darter: 04:20 So what are we talking about today? Stan Campbell: 04:22 Well today we brought on Gary, because we want to kind of talk about, we've been going a lot of calls from retired policemen mostly, not truly having a good grasp on HR 218, the rules that apply, any changes that are being made there. So I wanted to bring Gary on to kind of talk about HR 218 and kind of break it down for folks, some myths, some problems, some things to watch out for. So it's really important that all three of us carry under that realm as well and it's important to know the do's and don'ts. So I wanted to bring Gary on for that reason. Mike Darter: 05:08 Cool. So Gary, so what, do you have any specific questions we could like start out with that you've got, or do you just want to start going over what it is? Gary: 05:20 Well, I think the important thing for everybody ... I think most officers have a general understanding of what's commonly referred to as HR 218 it's actually the law enforcement officers safety act. It was signed into law in 2004 by President Bush. It's been amended a couple of times over the last what, 15 years that it's been in existence. But it's really a pretty simple law. The HR 218 was the house resolution ... (silence) ... forces that I use myself of the NRA ... (silence) ... They're not fully on board with LEOSA because they don't have a whole lot of input with it. And that was, that's actually by design that ... (silence) ... offices they let her stay ... (silence) ... know the extended coverage for a corrections officers and ... (silence) ... to be able to carry a gun anywhere in the US ... (silence). Mike Darter: 19:32 ... often. Thank God I got a couple of family members that are policemen there. But ... (silence). Gary: 21:03 ... it multiplies your force. But I'm thinking, so what happens is if you have a jurisdiction that may not be pro gun, that wants more gun control, they see this as an extension of that. And this is one way they want to limit LEOSAs. Stan Campbell: 21:29 Got You. Now and I'm just asking your opinion now, Gary, but what's your thoughts on, if it's not too big of a deal to back up with a concealed carry in a specific state that you visited a lot. Like you go to Virginia a lot, you and I go to Orlando, we all go to Vegas, you know, so Nevada and stuff like that. What's your thoughts on that? Gary: 21:53 I have an Oklahoma permit. I don't see a downside to having the state permit. In reality it should not be necessary with LEOSA. If this bill passes, I'm not sure I will re-up my state permit, but I don't see a downside to having multiple permits. Stan Campbell: 22:15 Yeah. Yeah. I wanted to get your opinion because I'm an advocate of getting the multiple permits as a backup. I mean it doesn't take much to do so. And if you do run into that green officer, somebody who's brand new and has no idea what LEOSA is, they, normally they know what concealed carry permit is. So that way you do have some type of backup as well. You have to think about how you engage, because no matter what, when we retire, it's a culture. So when you retire, I mean once a policeman, usually always a policeman, it's just in you. And you see something that goes wrong, you feel like you need to just jump in. So, you really have to be careful, and remember that hey I'm retired now. One of the things I might need to do before I just jump on into somebody's domestic or whatever the case may be, or try to make a citizen's arrest, because that's what's going to end up being, you might want to make sure you call 911 first too as an officer. Because we kind of move and think that we can handle something and then at times we'll get in over our heads as well. It doesn't take much. Gary: 23:26 Yeah, absolutely. And then when the cops do show up, they're not going to know you from anybody. Mike Darter: 23:33 No, that's right. Gary: 23:34 I'm a firm believer as someone who carries under LEOSA and under a state permit, that before I'm going to intervene in a situation, someone has to be being hurt physically. I'm not going to try to stop a theft, I'm not going to try to stop an argument. I may watch it, call 911, tell them, hey this is getting ready to, this has potential to become violent. But I'm not gonna interject unless it becomes a, it's a matter of significant injury to somebody. Stan Campbell: 24:15 Yeah, absolutely. And you know, I mean I think of it the same way, you know, any more because of politics and because of the gray areas, you have got to absolutely think about taking care of yourselves out there. Take a extra moment. You know, if it's not a Isis, al Qaeda situation, you're not talking about somebody gunning down people in the church, of course you have to just react to that. But if it is like something simple arguments, the domestics, you know it's not some serious violence going on, somebody steals a bag of Skittles, don't think that you have to be the hero on that. So yeah. So that's kind of where we are there. But anything else on that Gary, on any LEOSA issues? Gary: 25:09 Well, I'm not being specific. I think it's incumbent on any officer who is eligible for LEOSA to carry under LEOSA, to research and know the law. Because you remember how it was when we were on the streets, Stan. We had a thumbnail idea of a lot of laws. We had a not a real good understanding of maybe other than the handful that we routinely enforce. As an officer, I think it's incumbent on you to learn LEOSA, plan ahead on how to respond to an officer who may not understand LEOSA. Research. When I started writing an article late last year only I was amazed at how much information is available on the Internet. And really even though it's not as simple as it seems, it's a pretty simple law. Stan Campbell: 26:14 Yeah. Yeah. I mean- Mike Darter: 26:19 One of the things I was going to say was one of the things we're creating for this, for our members that are going to be HR 218 is a membership card that will have information on that card for law enforcement should you have to display it. And it's going to be a card that states, the person carrying this card meets the requirements by LEOSA. You'll have to carry it with ... Gary, kind of talk about just right quick, the requirements, the things you have to have with that card. Gary: 27:06 Yeah. The law requires you to have two things. It requires you to have a photo ID from the agency that you are or were a police officer at, excuse me, and proof of qualification within the last 12 months. So what I carry is my retired card and on the back of it I put on my qualification card. And every year, as long as it's, here in Oklahoma, it's CLEET, as long as a CLEET authorized instructor signs off and qualifies me, I update my card. That's the only two things that are required by the law for an officer to carry. Now if I were in a situation like with you, I would probably take a snapshot of that letter showing my 10 years plus service to just to confirm my eligibility under LEOSA. Mike Darter: 28:11 Right. Yeah. So that's- Gary: 28:14 Nowadays with smart phones it's so easy to carry all that with you that you can produce that and for that matter you can show them the actual law for those that don't understand. Mike Darter: 28:27 Right. So that's what I carry now is I have another card that I have that I carry with my card that you signed on my qualification that's dated. And then I do have my police ID, or a copy of my police ID and I have a copy of that letter. So, and I'm actually looking forward to these cards cause they look awesome. Justin's done them. Gary: 28:58 I was gonna say, our content guy is pretty good at that kind of thing. Mike Darter: 29:01 Oh yeah, yeah. He's been killing it so. So I'm excited about this new plan coming out. I think it's going to be one thing with, generally with law enforcement officers, retired and former officers, we all know the possibilities of what can happen and it's going to be a good deal. The everything wrapped into it with the civil liability coverage and the extended bail and all that. So yeah, I'm excited to get it out. Gary: 29:39 It's going to be a good product. Mike Darter: 29:42 I've got, I've found one email that I'd like to, while I've got you guys on here, from Matt [Bell, 00:29:53] he sent in a copy of his umbrella plan document from his, and he said, "I listen to your podcast, episode number 26 I checked my umbrella policy, which I hoped would cover us in a self-defense situation. It appears that it does, but I would appreciate if you would confirm this. I," and he attached a document of his plan. And you know this is one thing that has kind of come up recently more and more and it's one thing that really for us to confirm it, we're not the ones that need to confirm it. Your insurance company is the one that's going to have to confirm this and here's what my take is on it for Mark and whoever else, or Matt and whoever else has this question, because it comes up a lot. Mike Darter: 30:51 You have to remember that your insurance company, first of all, have you guys, I know you three have dealt with insurance in the past, correct? Stan Campbell: 30:59 Mm-hmm (affirmative). Gary: 30:59 Yes. Mike Darter: 31:01 And when you're making a claim, they, whether it be a car or roof or whatever, they send adjusters out, they send people to come out and especially if it's a use of force situation, there will be attorneys involved for that insurance company. And here's my fear with anything that goes through an insurance company. I don't know about you guys, but my experience with insurance companies has not been, I mean it's been okay, I guess. I mean, I've been covered on things, but it's always not what you think you're gonna get back. There's always some, well, it was this, so that gets deducted, it isn't. Gary: 31:58 And those attorneys are working with the interest of the insurance company, not the insured. Mike Darter: 32:04 Right, and this is one thing when we created our service, when we first started this back in 2012 we said, we don't want to be grouped or seen as an insurance company because most states, if not all states, it's illegal to cover an intentional act or an illegal act with an insurance policy or coverage. So any attorney working on the behalf of an insurance company, I think it easily argue, even if your homeowner guy says, "Oh yeah, we're going to cover you," well, he's not the one that's going to be going to bat for you when that time comes, if you have to try to make a claim. The person who is going to be going to bat is going to be going to bat for the insurance company trying to deny that claim. Gary: 33:08 Mike have, I've had several members asked that exact question and I told each of them to call their broker and get them to put it in writing. Of the ones that responded, 100% have told me that their agents said they would not cover a self-defense situation. Mike Darter: 33:27 Yeah. So I just, I saw that come in and I just wanted to address that because I know we have that topic discussed a lot with you guys, especially with David, but you guys who are answering the calls and and all that. So- Gary: 33:48 I think it gets down to that issue. Just like in New York and Washington state. Insuring for intentional acts. Mike Darter: 33:56 Yup. Yup. So Matt, I would definitely say to check, Like Gary said, like Gary tells everybody, get it in writing. Call your insurance agent, get it in writing. I don't think they're going to put that in writing. So I didn't see any others. I thought I had some others that I had set aside on the, in reference to the podcast, but I can't find them now. Stan Campbell: 34:25 So well, what would we do Mike, is being that we're not interviewing anybody on the next one. If we do one by ourselves, we'll make sure we'll have a list and we'll go through them as well. Mike Darter: 34:36 Okay? Cool. All right guys. Well, Gary, thanks for your time, man. Gary: 34:42 Enjoyed it. Stan Campbell: 34:42 Thanks Gary. Mike Darter: 34:42 Stan, good to see you again. Stan Campbell: 34:46 I'll see you soon. Mike Darter: 34:47 All right, man. Take care, bye-bye. Stan Campbell: 34:47 All right, bye.

GUEST BIO: My guest on today’s show is Matt Harrison.  Matt is an instructor on Python and Data Science material.  He has been co-chair of the Utah Python user group and has presented at conferences including PyCon, OSCon and OpenWest.  Matt is also an author of a number of books about Python, including the Treading on Python Series.   EPISODE DESCRIPTION: Matt Harrison is Phil’s guest on today’s show. He is a Python and Data Science Consultant who offers customized training to corporations and startups as well as consulting services through his company MetaSnake. Over the years, he has worked with a range of languages and platforms, including Pandas, Pylons, Django, CherryPy, Postgres, AWS, SQLAlchemy, SciKit Learn, and Matplotlib. Matt was the co-chair of the Utah Python user group as well as an author and public speaker. In 2012, he published his first Python book Treading on Python Volume 1: Foundations of Python. Since then, he has published several other books and is currently busy writing more. KEY TAKEAWAYS: (1.02) – So Matt, can I ask you to expand on that brief intro and tell us a little bit more about yourself? Matt explains that he runs a small consulting and training company called MetaSnake. He works with businesses big and small and spends half his time speaking to very technical people teaching them Python and data science. Right now, he is working on three more books. (2.09) – Python is quite a theme, in your career, what made you choose that, in particular? The first language Matt learned was Perl. He used it for his first summer job, so became very comfortable with it.   Matt was lucky enough to work with a really smart guy. At the time, he was building on a model to pull out relevant terms for their corpus of text. The guy he was working with wanted to use Tcl to get the task done and Matt thought Perl would do a better job. So, they agreed to meet in the middle and use Python instead. At that time, it was a relatively new language. Within 3 days they had the proof of concept working. Python just gelled with him, unlike, Perl, C and Java, which he had mostly been using up to that point. (3.42) – Phil asks Matt to tell the audience more about his books, which Phil understands are mainly about Python. Matt explains that his book “Illustrated guide to Python 3” is for beginners. He has also written an intermediate book, one that covers the Pandas library and a few others. All of which are available on Amazon. (4.14) – Can you please share a unique career tip with the I.T. career audience? Matt says his advice is to – get comfortable with being uncomfortable. When he was just starting out, his local Python meetup took place a couple of miles away from where he lived. But, he didn’t attend partly because it would take him outside of his comfort zone. A decision he regrets to this day. At the time, it was a very tight-knit group. Not attending meant that he ended up missing out on a lot of important interactions. Plus, he eventually ended up meeting everyone anyway. At the time he did not understand the power of interacting with others. If you want to further your career, you need to get away from your computer sometimes and mix with other people. (6.00) – Can you tell us about your worst career moment? And what you learned from that experience. For Matt that was when he started his small vertical niche software company. A lot of firms let them liked the software. But very few of them decided to buy. In a surprising number of cases, this was because using the software would mean they would have to fire someone. A lot of the firms were small and employed family members, so they really did not want a piece of software to replace them. When Matt heard this he just said OK and moved on instead of trying another sales tactic. He knew he had a good product, but his lack of sales skills meant he could not close the deal. (8.20) – What was your best career moment? For Matt, that was when he wrote his first book in 2010. He wanted to reach more people with his training and realized he could do that as an author. His self-published book was a great success and opened a lot of doors for him. (10.00) – Phil asks if the process of writing books gets easier. Matt says yes, to a certain extent it does. Things do move faster once you have created a process that works for you. He now finds it easier to start typing and get in the flow. (10.59) – Can you tell us what excites you about the future of the IT industry and careers? The fact that a lot of companies are now waking up to the power of their data is exciting. There is a lot of low hanging fruit. As a result, you can make a huge difference and do so very quickly. (12.14) – What first attracted you to a career in IT? Matt always enjoyed creating things. When he was younger, he attended a lot of art classes and thought he might end up being an artist. But, a family member encouraged him to take a programming course. Once he did, he realized that there is a lot of creativity involved in most areas of technology, including in the data science field. (13.23) – What is the best career advice you have ever received? Matt says that he actually ignored the best piece of career advice he got. In 2004, he was advised to get a job at Google, but he didn’t. Fortunately, he did follow another great piece of advice, when he was told you need to network, he started doing exactly that. It is hard for a lot of programmers to network, because, by nature, many of them are introverts. In the IT world, you usually get good jobs, not because you interviewed well, but, because someone in the company knows you. So, learning to network is something everyone has to do. (14.33) – Phil points out that effective networking does not always have to happen face to face. There are plenty of online tools you can also use. Matt says that personally, he prefers face to face networking. However, he has seen people using Twitter and LinkedIn for job hunting. In fact, he tried it once and was contacted by about 40 people, so it can work. (15.43) – If you were to begin your IT career again, right now, what would you do? Matt is intrigued by the idea of taking the full-time, online immersive Computer Science courses offered by the Lambda School. They do not charge for their courses, at least not at first. Instead, you pay for your tuition once you get a job. Although, he goes on to say that he enjoyed his college experience. So, if he were to start again, he would probably still opt to attend Stanford and get a degree. His advice to someone who is just starting out would be to go and get a job at Google or somewhere similar. Work for a big company for a few years. Build up your connections and involve yourself in the community. Having a firm like Google on your resume is still something of a golden ticket. (18.40) – What are you currently focusing on in your career? For this year, Matt’s focus is growing MetaSnake. He really enjoys spending three or four days with a group of people who are motivated and excited to learn, so wants more clients. (19.53) – What is the number one non-technical skill that has helped you the most in your IT career? Matt likes to think of himself as creative. Fortunately, when it comes to machine learning and data exploration creativity is a great skill to have. (20.31) – Phil asks Matt to share a final piece of career advice with the I.T. Career Energizer audience. Matt’s advice is to look at where you are now. Then think about where you want to be a year and five years down the line. Ask yourself what you want to achieve. It could be publishing a book, speaking at conferences, or something else. Matt has found that desire and motivation have helped him to move his career forward. BEST MOMENTS: (4.30) MATT – "Get comfortable with being uncomfortable." (5.16) MATT – "The more I network and connect with people the more value I can bring to them and the more value they can bring to me." (11.46) MATT – "There is a lot of low hanging fruit that companies can take advantage of.” (13.51) MATT – "The best career advice I have seen is to network" (20.42) MATT – "Look hard at where you are and know where you want to be." CONTACT MATT: Twitter: https://twitter.com/__mharrison__ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/panela/ Website: https://www.metasnake.com/

GUEST BIO: Matt Raible is a Developer Advocate at Okta and a Web Architect for Raible Designs, striving to find the best solutions for developing web applications.  He also writes a lot of technical blog posts on the Okta Developer Blog as well as articles for InfoQ.  Matt is a fan and developer of the JHipster project and he develops and maintains the JHipster Mini-Book and the Ionic JHipster Module. EPISODE DESCRIPTION: Phil’s guest on today’s show is Matt Raible. He is a skilled web developer who has been working in the industry since the early 90s. Matt is also the man behind the open source AppFuse project and the Okta Developer Blog. Currently, he is working as a Developer Advocate for Okta. He is also a well known public speaker and is deeply involved in the JHipster project. Matt maintains and develops the JHipster Mini-Book and the Ionic JHipster Module. KEY TAKEAWAYS: (1.02) – So Matt, can you expand on that brief introduction and tell us a little bit more about yourself? Matt explains that he has been working as a web developer since the early 90s. He had not planned to have a career in IT. In the early 2000s, he got into Java. By 2004 he was also involved in public speaking.  (1.44) – So, you obviously enjoy the web aspects of development. Is that something you deliberately pursued as the internet sort of exploded and expanded? Matt says yes, it was. In the early 2000s, he realized that it was best to be the guy who wrote the UI. Simply because that is what people see and are most aware of. He enjoyed doing the demos and getting the accolades, so he ended up focusing on UI development. (2.25) – Can you please share a unique career tip with the I.T. career audience? Matt’s advice is to create a six-week plan of the things you want to accomplish. He has found following this advice to be very helpful, especially for his work as a developer advocate at Okta. Putting together a six-week plan keeps you on track and enables you to achieve a lot more. It is far more efficient than simply working week to week. He also finds it useful to do this for his personal life too.  (3.52) – Is it a rolling six-week plan? Matt revisits his plan on a weekly basis. He and his team also summarise what they have actually done each week. This information is published in an internal newsletter. (4.35) – Can you tell us about your worst career moment? Matt says that he has two he wants to share with the audience. Luckily, they are both turned into silver lining moments. In 2007, he was working for LinkedIn as a contractor. Helping them to select and set up an open source, Java web framework. Things went well and they asked him to create his own team. So, Matt asked some of his friends and former colleagues to join him. Two months after they started working together they were persuaded to go full-time. Yet, 6 months later they were all laid off.  That was in 2008, just as the downturn started. That time, the silver lining was that nobody was really enjoying the work they were doing because they had been switched from the front end to non-developer roles. Luckily, within a week, they were picked up by another organization where they became front end developers again. The 2nd moment occurred 5 years ago. For 19 years, Matt had been working as a consultant. During all that time, he never had any trouble in finding full-time work, filling a 40 hour week. Suddenly, he could only find a part-time gig. He found this hard. That is until he realized what a glorious thing having 20 spare hours a week was. At that point, he started doing more with his personal life and, as a result, became a happier person. (6.47) – What did you learn from those experiences? Matt says that the LinkedIn experience taught him not to be afraid to change jobs when he finds himself in a role where he is not using his skills. He really did not enjoy his last few months at LinkedIn because his new boss had moved him away from UI development into a nonproduction position. So, when LinkedIn let him go he was actually relieved.  (7.49) – What was your best career moment? Matt is lucky to have had quite a few career highlights. He particularly enjoyed seeing his open source project AppFuse take off. For about 2 years, he was spending about 30 hours a week interacting with users, learning and seeing hundreds benefit from this project. Unfortunately, there was a downside, his family life suffered as a result. (9.25) – Can you tell us what excites you about the future of the IT industry and careers? Matt is excited by the fact that it is possible to take a relatively small amount of knowledge and do a lot with it. Being able to take something that you have taught yourself and turn it into a good career is fantastic. With IT, you can still do that, even these days. (10.22) – What drew you to a career in IT? Matt had studied Russian and International Business. But, when he spent the summer working in Russia he realized it was not for him. So, he decided to complete a 5th year and take a finance degree. Unfortunately, again, when it was time to find a job he struggled. There was work, but the pay was not very good. Around the same time, his friend who was doing a computer science degree was getting amazing offers. Three times what he was could land. So, Matt switched his focus to IT. (11.37) – Do you think that is still true, today? Matt says things are changing. When it comes to the finance industry, if you excel, you can actually get paid a lot more than you would working in the tech industry. The cool thing is that if you are curious, you can carry on learning and add to your skills. In time, you will end up earning even more and staying gainfully employed becomes very easy.  (12.18) – What is the best career advice you have ever received? Around 2005, Matt was working as a consultant for a startup that was shutting down. While discussing what Matt was going to do next the CEO advised him to double his rate. That is exactly what he did, that year. Each year after that, he added 20% to it. (13.04) - Phil asked Matt if he was saying that you should make sure that you get paid what you are worth. Matt replies that you should always ask for more, because often you will discover that people are actually prepared to pay a much higher rate. (13.09) – If you were to begin your IT career again, right now, what would you do? Matt says that he would not change a thing. His career has enabled him to fulfill his dream of restoring his old Volkswagen bus, which has taken nearly 10 years. He has big plans for that bus.  (14.26) – What are you currently focusing on in your career? Right now, Matt is where he wants to be with his career. But, he is working at getting better at drawing, so he can add more hand drawings to his blog. He is also planning to do more videos, screencasts and to get into recording meetups. (15.02) – What is the number one non-technical skill that has helped you the most in your IT career? For Matt, the ability to speak publically has proved invaluable. (15.10) – How did you get into that? In 2004, a friend suggested he speak at ApacheCon. He decided to give it a go. Surprisingly, within 15-minutes of being on stage, his nerves evaporated and he felt at home. Even today, he gets very nervous before each talk, but once he gets started he feels comfortable, fairly quickly. The other non-technical thing that helps Matt is being an outdoorsman. Most days, he takes a walk or rides his bike. During these activities, he finds that he automatically settles a lot of things in his mind. Phil agrees that being outdoors is quite therapeutic. (16.32) – Phil asks Matt to share a final piece of career advice with the audience. Matt says – “If you really want to get something done close off your email, you slack. Turn on some music and write some code.” Once you have eliminated distractions, you will be far more productive. BEST MOMENTS: (1.29) MATT – "I started developing web pages in HTML before Netscape even existed" (2.48) MATT – “Create a six-week plan of the things that you want to accomplish" (7.44) MATT – "If I'm not utilizing my skills, then maybe it's time finding another job." (12.10) MATT – "If you're curious, you can keep learning and keep improving yourself and keep gainfully employed." (13.15) MATT – “I wouldn't change a thing.”   (16.34) MATT – "Close your email, close your Slack, turn on some music and write some code." CONTACT MATT : Twitter: https://twitter.com/mraible @mraible LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mraible/ Website: https://raibledesigns.com

HubSpot has experienced incredible growth since its founding in 2005, but in the last year, the company's marketing team has broken the company's website traffic growth records with a new strategy.  This week onThe Inbound Success Podcast, I spoke with HubSpot VP of Marketing Kieran Flanagan about the company's "hearts and minds strategy," and how it has driven 80% year over year traffic growth (and a commensurate increase in new leads).  The results that Kieran and his team have gotten are so strong that they have inspired a change in the way the company's editorial team is structured, and a new approach to how they carry out keyword research, develop editorial calendars, and measure their results. Some highlights from my conversation with Kieran include: HubSpot is targeting marketers and business leaders and its new strategy does this by appealing to their hearts and minds. All of the company's editorial content is segmented into those two categories - hearts and minds. Content for the mind is more tactical in nature and targeted at attracting existing search volume for a particular keyword. Content for the heart is more emotional and meant to tap into a pain point that their audience is experiencing and wants to solve for. Because there is not necessarily existing search volume for the "hearts" content (as there is with the "minds" content), HubSpot has an aggressive content promotion strategy for the hearts content. They started by rolling this strategy out on the company's english language web properties, and it has been so successful that they are now expanding it onto their non-english language sites. For the minds content, because it is targeted at existing search volume, HubSpot is using a pillar content and topic cluster strategy to establish authority for its target keywords with search engines. It is relatively straightforward to identify topics for the "minds" content using tools such as Google Adwords, Ahrefs, etc. For the "hearts" content, HubSpot relies upon customer research and interviews to understand the questions they are asking and the pain points they are experiencing. Kieran believes that when it comes to hearts content, brands must choose a side and be prepared to attract some audiences, and repel others.  Even in a B2B sale, you are selling to individual people, so it's important to appeal to things that matter to the individual, and be problem-focused before you are solution-focused, with your content. When it comes to content promotion, it is very important for any company (large or small) to have a strategy for getting back links. There are a variety of ways to do this and Kieran talks specifically about the "surround sound" strategy and the broken link strategy. If you are doing marketing for a smaller company with a lower domain authority, it is more important to produce less content that you heavily promote than to create more content that you don't promote at all. For the minds content, you should focus on keywords that have a high "search click volume" as opposed to simply high search volume. Kieran's hearts and minds strategy has resulted in 80% year over year website traffic growth for HubSpot. Resources from this episode: Save 10% off the price of tickets to IMPACT Live with promo code "SUCCESS" Visit Kieran's website Connect with Keiran on LinkedIn Follow Kieran on Twitter Listen to The Growth TL;DR podcast with Kieran Flanagan and Scott Tousley Listen to the podcast to learn how Kieran's "hearts and minds" strategy for content creation has broken all of HubSpot's traffic records. Transcript Kathleen Booth (Host):Welcome back to the Inbound Success Podcast. I'm your host Kathleen Booth, and this week my guest is Kieran Flanagan, who is the VP of Marketing at HubSpot, and the host of The Growth TL;DR podcast. Welcome, Kieran. Kieran Flanagan (Guest): Thanks for having me, Kathleen. I appreciate you having me on. Kieran and Kathleen recording this episode Kathleen: Yeah. I'm interested to pick your brain. I always love talking to people from HubSpot because, obviously, you guys are at the forefront of the inbound marketing movement, and so rarely do most people get the opportunity to get a peek inside the kimono and find out what's really happening with the company. I'm excited to do that here today, but before we jump in, if you could tell my audience a little bit more about yourself and just a little bit about what you do at HubSpot. That would be great. About Kieran Flanagan and HubSpot Kieran: Yeah. Absolutely. I've really had three roles during my time at HubSpot. Pre-HubSpot, I worked for other SaaS companies. Then, I was lucky enough to join HubSpot when we opened up our first office outside of Cambridge, way back when I think the company was maybe 300 people. There was a small group of us who were tasked with growing out the international business. I did that for two and a half years. That business grew quite quickly. Then, I joined another small group of people that were in HubSpot that had the mission of growing a Freemium business - so like a go to market, where you could try our software for free, then you could upgrade as you needed to get more functionality. That went really well, and I did that for, I think, another two and a half years. Then, HubSpot really just adopted Freemium across the entire go to market. Today what I do in HubSpot is manage all of the different teams that are responsible for our global demand, and that demand is a mix of leads. We generate leads, turn them into marketing qualified leads, and send them across to sales people, turn into opportunities and customers. Then, we generate users who use our products for free, then can upgrade through either reaching out and talking to a sales person or actually upgrading themselves and buying the products themselves. Kathleen: You are based in Ireland, correct? Kieran: Yes. That's another interesting thing about my work in that I'm based in Ireland. I have a team of about 50 people. Four of them are based in Dublin with me, and everyone else is based in the States. I have gotten very used to remote working and appearing as a box on Zoom to everyone else. Kathleen: I always tell people that I live my life on Zoom and that soon my headphones are going to grow and become a permanent part of my body, because it's the same for me. I work out of my house, and I'm on Zoom basically 24/7. Kieran: Right. I usually check every single moment of every single day, and I've still got my AirPods in. I'm never sure if I've taken them out or not. Kathleen: Yeah, I feel like Zoom needs to sponsor my podcasts because we talk about it so much on here, about how we live our lives on video. It's great. It's the greatest thing. I honestly couldn't do my job without it. I imagine it's similar for you with people scattered all over. Kieran: Yeah, I'm very passionate about remote work. I believe that it's good for, not only companies, but just good for the world. It's a really great way to redistribute wealth across the different cities, not just all within a small group of cities that just become overly expensive. Kathleen: Yeah, it also - to me, I used to own an agency. I transitioned halfway through my tenure as an agency owner from hiring everyone locally to hiring folks remotely. For me, the greatest impetus behind that was really just to find the best person for the role no matter where they happened to be. Boy, what a difference that made to my company. It all of a sudden opened up this world of possibilities that was pretty amazing. Kieran: Yeah, it's actually the exact same for me. Obviously remote worked, it was just a good thing for me because I took a role that would generally be based in Boston, to take over a bunch of U.S.-based teams. I was allowed to do it because HubSpot allowed me to do it remotely, which was really good of them. They've done a lot to make remote work within HubSpot. The other benefit was because I was remote, I really didn't mind where I hired people. It's definitely been one of the best levers to both hire and retain talent into my teams, and having that flexibility and allowing people to work where they want to work within reason. We do have some guardrails, but generally we've gotten pretty good at it over the last couple of years. Kathleen: That's great. You said you manage all the teams that are responsible for this growth. I think you mentioned there are 50 people, is that right, that you manage? Kieran: Yeah, it's about 50 people spread across different offices that are regularly charged with growing the global demand of HubSpot. Kathleen: Wow, that is a lot to wrap one's head around. How Kieran's Blogging Strategy Broke HubSpot's Traffic Records Kathleen: One of the reasons I was excited to talk to you is that I was reading that in the last eight months you guys have broken HubSpot's traffic records, which is really impressive because for anyone who's familiar with HubSpot, this is a company that has had astronomical growth, both as a company in terms of its user base, but also in terms of its traffic. I often think - you intuitively think - that gets harder as time goes on because you've already made those big early gains. You've identified all the low hanging fruit. I'm very interested to hear how at this stage in HubSpot's evolution you guys are still able to break those kinds of records. What is it that lies behind that success? Kieran: You are definitely right in that it's definitely harder because you're generally doing everything so there's not this un-hidden channel that you have not tapped into. You're tasked with "How do I get better at the things that I'm already doing? How do I get better within these existing channels?" Or, "How do I layer on new channels for growth?" We do that. We're in a fortunate position where we can have teams who are focused on long term bets. We have a couple of those in the works at the moment. Really the thing that's been very successful for us over the last year is not only that the teams do get better - and they do get better just by the fact that they're super smart - but they also hire other smart people into the teams who bring you fresh ideas. We've got to grips for our content in terms of segmenting it into what our CMO, Kipp, calls the hearts and minds of individuals. How do you win the hearts and minds of business leaders? That approach to content marketing means you think about "How do I create tactical content?" If you think about when you start a blog, or a company starts a blog, they generally think how do I make this blog really appealing to people? How can I get this blog known by a wider audience? One of the things you can challenge yourself on is, does that actually matter? Does that really matter if you are trying to win the minds of business leaders through this tactical content? Content that does that is really created with promotion in mind, and generally through search. What we do is we have our content team segmented into a team that are trying to win the minds of business leaders. We're thinking through "How do I create a huge editorial calendar based upon all the things we could create across the things that our audiences are actually searching for?" We're not just creating content in the hopes that we can drive traffic demand to HubSpot. We actually think promotion first. There's actually existing demand for this content, and we create that content with that demand in mind. Then, there's also obviously how do you win the hearts of your audience? That's still super important, but that content is more focused on how do you facilitate emotion within people or how do you cause emotion with people? How do you make people feel something about your brand? How do you get people to connect with your mission? It's harder to directly measure the success of that content through the traditional things, like has it drove the lead, has it drove the user, has it drove our sale? Generally that's worked really, really well for us over the last year. We've seen a lot of success in doing that. We're just in the middle of replicating that strategy in all of our non-English territories. Kathleen: Oh, that's so interesting. I have so many questions. In my head I want to separate this conversation into minds and hearts- Kieran: Yes. Kathleen: ... Because it sounds like those are two different approaches, or two different prongs within the one approach. Kieran: Yes. Kathleen: Let's start with minds because if I'm understanding you correctly, it sounds like what you have done is said "Instead of trying to focus on bigger think pieces, or esoteric topics, let's get really granular and figure out what the audience is already searching for and let's scratch that itch, and tap into that pain." Is that correct? Kieran: Yeah, exactly. We do both of those things again, because we are very fortunate that we have the resources to have teams for both those things. I think there are companies of certain sizes that probably need to consider which one of those is the most important one for them to invest in. Yet, the minds team is really focused on "How do we create a whole editorial calendar?" We have this huge editorial calendar broken into all kinds of scientific metrics and ways to figure out the things you create content on. But, it's really focused on content that attracts traffic through search engines. Not trying to figure out how does this cause someone to feel a certain way that they want to share on social. How do you read this post and then you remember the blog. We're less concerned about that. It's more of a "Hey, I come in, I want this thing, I found this thing," then there's further information if you want to download that, or there're other ways you can explore more of the HubSpot ecosystem. It's really tactical content created with promotion in mind, and we create it with search in mind. For other companies it may be a different platform that they create that content in mind for that's applicable to however they promote their company. Kathleen: I feel like this sounds to me like the "Field of Dreams" approach. "If you build it, they will come." Kieran: Yeah, it's definitely "If you build it, and you have a really great promotion planned." Again, there're different phases of how this would work for a company. HubSpot is a company that has a lot of domain authority, so generally when we created content about something we do a little bit of promotion on that content, it ranks quite quickly. If I'm in a more early stage company, what I probably want to do is have a plan where I create, within the minds of whoever my audience is, content and I spend a lot more time on promotion than we would probably need to because I'm trying to build up the domain authority of my website. That promotion could be acquiring the links for it, and all these different ways that you can attract attention to it. Kathleen: Let's break this down even further. You mentioned that you guys have this big editorial calendar. You're really trying to map out what are the topics that these business leaders you're targeting are already searching for, and what's going to be really useful for them. Can you speak to that process and any kind of either strategies or tools that you use to surface those topics? Kieran: One of the things we use is the cluster and topic strategy. We think about what is the topic that this business leader is interested in learning more information about, because they're actively searching for it. Let's take the example of content marketing. Content marketing is a topic, it's an all encompassing topic that has many sub-topics. We will look at content marketing and break that down into the many sub-topics that people are searching for. Maybe people are searching for how do I build a content market and process, how do I create a winning content marketing strategy, how do I measure content marketing, how do I turn content marketing into customers? There's all of these different sub-topics that are related to that topic. We take one topic and break it down into all the things we could create content around. At the centerpiece we would create a piece of content on that core topic. Maybe it's the definitive guide on content marketing. Then, we would create all of this other micro content that's applicable to all of the different things that people are searching for given the examples that I've just gone through. We would interlink all that content. Basically, think about it as a hub and spoke strategy where you have the central piece at the heart of that, and you have all the many pieces around, and they are all interlinked. Generally if you do that, what you're helping Google to do is understand that you are an authority on this topic. You've not just got one or two pieces of content - you have deeply covered that topic. You have many different pieces of content that are relevant and helpful to the user. We do that by looking for those topics, looking for all the different keywords that are related to that topic, aggregating those up, deciding on the content we can create, listing out page titles, meta descriptions - all of the information that you actually need - and then prioritizing based upon the available search traffic for each topic. We also look at things like how relevant is it to our business. We have guardrails in place that it needs to drive traffic, plus it needs to drive the user or lead because again, remember, this is a topic that's tactical within the minds you should expect a conversion. Kathleen: Got it, okay. It has to be relevant to the business. It has to have a sufficient volume of search traffic. Kieran: Yes. Kathleen: I assume that the volume of search traffic, there's not one magic number that every company needs to look for? Is it relative to your company and the slice of market you're going after? Is there a magic number? Kieran: No, it's definitely relevant to the company. A topic that has 5,000 total visits available search traffic when you aggregate all this up, may be a lot for a company in a niche market. If you're a company in a broad market, maybe that's not that much at all. It's definitely specific to whatever company you are, and the product you have, and the amount of all the search traffic you can acquire. The number for HubSpot is probably very different from other companies. Kathleen: Got it. You have these really tactical, practical topics. Then, you have the ones that are meant to appeal more to the heart. This is the one that I think is so interesting to me because I feel like a lot of marketers who listen to this podcast, for a lot of them, the concept of finding these topic clusters, going for things of high traffic, being really practical, that's going to feel very familiar. It's much of what we're taught. That's the whole Marcus Sheridan, "They ask, you answer" paradigm. But, I find, funny enough, many marketers, especially content marketers are really bad at the heart side of things. I'm interested to hear how your team is approaching that. Kieran: The heart is slightly more difficult to actually pinpoint the content that's going to strike or resonate with your audience because the research piece is harder. The minds can be more mechanical because you can physically see that there's people interested in this, whereas the hearts are "How do I create things that help people feel some way about my company?" We actually have a similar setup in terms of how the mind and heart are set up in that we have an editorial team that creates a calendar based upon content that they want to connect to our mission, our products. The thing that differs is actually their research process. The research process has a lot more talking to people, talking to customers, talking to prospects, talking to other teams within HubSpot, figuring out what actually resonates with those people. Then, the way that you figure out what's going to work is actually trial and error. You create content, you see that it resonates with people, and you tweak it over time. The way they differentiate it is the mind has more tools that you can pull in relevant information from. I'm sure your audience knows, search traffic, all these different things. Whereas, the heart, you're spending a lot more time actually talking to people, doing what you would do if you were building a product, a lot of customer research, a lot of insights from other teams within the company. Kathleen: Is is fair to say that the heart strategy is more about pain that the customer is feeling? Kieran: Yeah, exactly. It's more about the emotion you want that person to have about your company. A good example of this, back in the day for HubSpot, what actually drew me to HubSpot before I worked there was Brian did a piece that was really a call to arms for marketers about why outbound marketing was not the best way to spend your time, why there's this better way of doing marketing. That's the piece that's more your heart. There's not people searching for inbound marketing back there and there wasn't people searching why they shouldn't do outbound marketing. That creates a tribe of people who feel that way about outbound marketing and then feel they need to actually make a change and do something else. Kathleen: Is it about taking a position or taking a stance? Is that part of the heart strategy? Kieran: Yeah, I think one of the most important things to do as a brand is choose a side. I think you should always have a clear enemy in terms of - a clear enemy is really what problem your product sells. "One of the most important things to do as a brand is choose a side" ~ Kieran Flanagan (@searchbrat) Click to tweet this quote Be very clear about that and know that means that you're going to have both people who are attracted to your company and people who are detractors from the company. That is way better than actually being vanilla and just having people who don't care much about your company. Kathleen: Interesting. For somebody who's listening, if they're thinking about this in the context of their own company, particularly with the heart strategy, any tips on how to get started on this and how to begin to identify those topics that you might want to cover? Kieran: On the heart side? Kathleen: Yeah. Kieran: Yeah, I think the most important thing marketers can do that they probably don't do enough of is talk to their customers. I've worked a lot with product and engineering because previous to the role I've done at HubSpot, I was in what we call a growth role. A growth role is basically a collection of marketers, product and engineers who are tasked with creating onboarding and all these different things to help people better use a product, and to upgrade to paid versions of your product. The thing I took away from working with product is they are so focused on the problem, so focused on stating the problem clearly before they ever jump to a solution. They are really obsessed about "Do we truly understand the problem?" The way they get there is through a lot of really great research and talking to customers. That's the thing, I don't know if for yourself, but definitely the way I used to work is I would always think about the solution. I would think a little bit about the problem and then I would think about ten solutions because marketers are generally creative. They're always on, looking to try to sell things. I think on the heart content, I would be super focused on the problem and being able to articulate the problem, and then trying to figure out what would resonate. What are the points within that problem that really resonate with a customer? They're, “Oh, yeah, I feel that way about this. I feel that way about that.” Then, you can better understand how to create content that shows them that you have solutions to this thing and that you have a certain position on this thing that you believe in. Kathleen: It's really interesting that you put it that way. I've now done close to 80 different interviews through this podcast. I've been trying to think about some of the themes that have emerged. People that are having a lot of success with inbound, what do they have in common? One of the common themes I've noticed is that they are more persona ... I don't even want to use the word persona. They are more problem-focused than they are solution-focused. What I mean by that is that the marketers who build campaigns and messaging around their products and services don't tend to do as well as the marketers who deeply tap into the person that they are trying to sell to. Sometimes it means creating content that actually has nothing to do with their products and services. What I've noticed is that particularly at the top of the funnel, in non-marketing speak, the best way to open the conversation is not always to talk about what you have to sell. It's to talk about something that that person is feeling that they want to solve for, that may have nothing to do with what you do, but you've opened the conversation. I'm interested to know with the hearts content that you're creating for HubSpot, does it always have some link back to the product, or is it really just purely problem-focused? Does that make sense as a question? Kieran: No, it definitely makes sense because people are not looking for products and services. They're looking for solutions to problems that make their life better. They're looking for a certain job that they want done and when they visualize themselves doing that thing, it makes their life better in some way. I think there's a balance because we've always tried to figure out this balance. There was a time when you talked to a lot of people about what HubSpot was and not many people knew we actually sold software. They didn't know we sold software because we were doing exactly what you just said, which is we were creating content around problems and helping people solve those problems before we ever mention our tools. I think that's a great way to draw people in, but I don't think you need to be overtly secretive about what you do. I think if you have a clear viewpoint on something you can clearly state a problem. It's fine to say, “Hey, these are ways that you can sell them. By the way, we also have this thing that can help you do that thing.” We have it tied back to our products because if you're consuming this content, you're generally on one of our web properties, so it's impossible to miss the fact that we are a software company. We've worked on that. We're not, in any way, in your face. We're not, “Buy, buy, buy this thing.” I think there's a thing in content marketing that most people struggle to measure the totality of their content marketing efforts because a lot of the content marketing is the law of serendipity when, if you give value through content, you know good things are happening, but it's not always easy to put a direct metric on it. That speaks to heart content. Kathleen: How important is it when you're talking about tapping into the problems? The other confusion I see marketers experience is that there are the problems of the individual and there are the problems of the company, because we're talking about a B2B sale here, for you. Kieran: Right. Kathleen: How important is it with the hearts content to tap into the problems of the individual versus the problems of the company? Kieran: That's actually a good question. I think they're one in the same in some respects. Let me try to give the example of one of our personas and see if this is true or not. I don't know if I've thought through that. We have a persona called Marketing Mary, and when you think about HubSpot ... I'm not trying to just do a sell of HubSpot software to your audience. But I'm just trying to- Kathleen: It is your day job, so... Kieran: Yeah, yeah. We have a persona Marketing Mary. That's a person, in a certain company size, who we think is ideal for HubSpot. The way that we think about how it helps her is that it makes her more efficient at her job, which is good for the individual, good for the company. It actually helps Marketing Mary figure out how she can be more successful to get a promotion because that's something she cares about. Again, it's good for the individual, good for the company. I think most of the things within B2B, most of your personas what's good for the individual is generally good for the company. You do want to make it individual-based, because even in B2B, it's the people making decisions, it's not the all-encompassing company making the decision. You want to try to make sure that person understands how their life is going to be made better using your product, because they're ultimately your customer. Kathleen: Yeah, that's really what I've observed, too. Going back to looking at all these interviews I've done, again I think a mistake that a lot of marketers make is, in the B2B area, we tend to focus on what does the company need? Yes, that's important. Kieran: Right. Kathleen: But, at the end of the day, I don't think you can tap into somebody's heart unless you make it about what they, as an individual, need. Kieran: Exactly. Kathleen: It has to somehow tie back to me. As you said, often it is either "I want a promotion", or "I want to look good in front of my boss." It tends to be things like that or, "It saves me time, and it makes my life easier." Kieran: Yeah, great B2B companies still sell to people. It just happens that those people are in companies and the tool is making their life easier, or helping them to do something within that company. Generally if you nail that value proposition what you'll see is your product within that company also spreads because that person is a champion of your tool. They start championing that tool within the company itself. The Role of Content Promotion in HubSpot's Traffic Strategy Kathleen: Yeah, now going back for a second to the minds content. You talked about how you come up with the topics and one of the things that you mentioned was that promotion is a really important part of this. Acknowledging that promotion, as you said, is a bit easier for HubSpot because you have such a high domain authority, talk me through just a little bit, for the average person listening, what should that promotion look like, or what does it need to include? Kieran: The hard facts about this is a promotion plan to getting better search traffic. The reality is that acquiring links still matters. I think that it seems old fashioned because you hear all these new things that marketers talk about, but it's still super important for acquiring search traffic. What you would probably want to have is an overall plan on how to acquire links to your site. That can be a lot of different things. There're tons of different tactics. There's something called broken link tactics where you can go and find these sites that your competitors have links from. You can go find broken links that they have, that are relevant to content you have, suggest they link to you instead because the link they already have is broken. There're just tons and tons of tactics you can go from. You should really have an overall domain link building plan that acquires links to your overall domain because that's going to help all content on your domain rank better. You can have very individualistic link plans for certain blog posts. You're probably not going to do that for every single blog post. You're not going to try to acquire links to every single blog post because that's a lot of time commitment depending upon how much content you create. If you're only creating one piece of content a week ... Again, if you're doing mind content, you may only do that because you don't create content unless there's actually available search traffic. What happens is your quantity actually goes down because you actually don't try to just plaster the internet with things and hope traffic comes in. You're actually way more strategic, so you create less content, but you put a lot more time onto promotion. One of the teams that I have, they have this thing called "surround sound strategy." Surround sound strategy is trying to make sure that anywhere there's content related to the thing you've created content for, like listicles and "best of" posts, and all of these different things, that your content is also listed within those posts. That is basically just building relationships with different publishers and things like that. Also, creating content that is better than what's currently available on Google. So if you go and search something, whatever the top page is, can you create a page that has better quality than what's already ranking at number one in Google? If you can, then generally you are in a pretty good position to get people to link out to your content. Kathleen: I feel like isn't that Brian Dean's skyscraper technique? Kieran: Yes, Brian Dean is the person to keep up to date on if you want really solid link building strategies, so his skyscraper technique. Finding dead back links and reaching out to people to get them to include your content is a really old tactic. I was doing SEO ten years ago and we used that, but you generally find the things that work in SEO still work today if you can do them to a high enough level, if you can do them better than other people. Kathleen: I think this is the challenge that many marketers feel, especially marketers in small and medium sized businesses, when they hear about back linking. I've had this conversation so many times over the years. It's, “How am I going to do this in a way that's efficient? I have a small marketing team.” Or, "It's just me, how could I possibly create the content and try to get links for it?" Many marketers, in my experience, just fall back on "I'm just going to push it out to my Facebook, and my Twitter, and my LinkedIn, and spray and pray." How does a small marketing team or a one-person marketing team do this? Kieran: Again, I think if you are being more strategic about the content you create, and only creating content that you think can drive a certain amount of volume. There's an important part in that is one of the things to think about, in terms of volume, is historically we would think about key word volume. How much key word volume is available for this key phrase? More and more you should probably think about the available search clicks. The difference there is that with featured snippets becoming way more popular on Google, the amount of search volume available for key word is a lot less than you think. Featured snippets cannibalized the amount of actual clicks different key words get. So, you would look at search click volume, only create content for keywords that have a higher threshold, whatever your search click volume is. Then, create a promotion plan. Know that the time spent promoting that content is probably better spent than you creating additional content if you are not able to promote it at all. If you're not able to promote it at all, you could create 10, 20 pieces of content within a month, and generate less traffic than creating two or three pieces of content that you actually have a real promotion plan for. The balance of creating content to promoting content shifts from when you're a start-up to when you're a bigger company. It shifts really with domain authority. You'll see that shift happen by just how quickly you start to rank for things when you have a bigger domain authority. Kathleen: Yeah, you said something I want to clarify because this is really important. You talked about the difference between keyword volume and search click volume. I think many marketers are familiar with how to find keyword volume. You can go into Google Adwords, or other programs like that. Where should they look to find search click volume? Kieran: I'll give you one tool, but there's probably many tools. Ahrefs is a tool that has click stream data. That means that you can go into Ahrefs and actually look at the search click volume of a keyword because it has enough data to show you what the effect of images or featured snippets or videos they're going to have on the amount of volume that that keyword gets. I think it's an interesting way to start to categorize volume of keywords in the world we live in today, where Google is cannibalizing a lot the traffic we get by showing users these different things. Kathleen: Yeah, it's really interesting. We experienced this this past year. Last March our traffic really took a bit of a nose dive. We couldn't figure out what was causing it. I had a couple people looking at it. We were digging deep. It was funny, I actually wound up sitting with someone from HubSpot's SEO team when I was in Boston for partner day, and he helped me figure it out. I think it was a guy named Victor who works for Matthew Barby. He's amazing. Victor is a magician. Kieran: They're both on my team. Kathleen: Yeah, he narrowed it down and helped me figure out that essentially we were losing traffic to featured snippets. As soon as we started optimizing for snippets, and started getting some of the snippets, it just came right back up again. Very interesting what's happening with that, but thank you. I didn't even know he was on your team, so thank you for giving me an hour of Victor's time. Kieran: I guess one of the things we did really well is, aside from all the different tactics, because actually the most important thing ... There are three things a successful company does is hire and retain talent, which is priority number one. Set people up for success in team structures. Team structures become a lot more complex when you grow. There's something you have to continually optimize, which is the second thing to get right. The third thing is actually the tactics. The tactics are not successful if you can't do the first two. One of the things we invested in a lot in over the past 18 months is building out a really great SEO team. Two of the people you've talked to, so Matt, he's on my team, runs a whole group that acquires all Freemium users, including our search team. Victor sits on the search team. Kathleen: I've never actually spoken to Matt, but I've always wanted to. So Matt, if you're listening, you could be my next guest. I've listened to his entire Skill Up SEO podcast series. He's just so smart, and I love the content that he creates. I consider him one of the people I need to follow to understand best practices for SEO. Kieran: Yep. Kathleen: You have a good team. Kieran: They're super smart on that team. Kathleen: Okay, we talked about understanding promotion. I loved your point about, to me it's the 80/20 rule, you're going to get 80 percent of the results out of 20 percent of the things you do. The 20 percent, in this case, sounds like it's create less content and focus more on promotion, especially if your domain authority isn't really high. The Results of HubSpot's Hearts and Minds Strategy Kathleen: Talk now about results. I would love it if you could give me a sense of ... I know broad-brush that you guys have broken traffic records, but can you speak specifically to what kind of traffic growth have you experienced over what time period and how are you measuring the success of your hearts and minds strategy? Kieran: This is where I'm always not very good on in terms of exact numbers because we're a public company. I think the best thing to do is even if you go to Ahrefs, you can use it for free. You can look at our domain. You can look at organic search traffic. I think it's something in the region of 80 percent year over year growth. I don't know. Kathleen: Wow. Kieran: I would need to go back and re-look the numbers. I could be under or over that because I haven't looked at that number in a while. Kathleen: If it's anywhere near close to that, that's amazing. Kieran: Yeah, it's large, but I think that is probably broken out into ... We look at it broken into many different things because we have a core site, we have blog, we have academy, then we have all of the non-English sites. Any one of those could be that number, or any of them may not. I could be wrong. It's quite substantial. The cool thing actually we noticed was our demand grew by a similar amount. Not exactly, so it's never going to be if you grow by 60 percent, you get 60 percent more demand. It's always going to be, I think, less. But, it was still correlated pretty well. The other cool thing was we saw, if you go into this tool called Similar Web, where you can break out your traffic by brand and non-brand. I was doing a lot of investigation, using that tool on our site and other sites. The growth in brand traffic, people searching for HubSpot, grew in line with our non-brand of traffic, which does show there was a correlation between this law of serendipity, which are people coming into the content that doesn't overtly mention your brand and its informational key words. Then, discovering your company and coming back at some point on a branded key word. We've seen really good growth over the last 12 months. Kathleen: That's amazing. You mentioned earlier it's somewhere easy to measure traffic growth, and specifically that's an out growth of your mind strategy. You talked about how it's a little bit harder to measure the success of the heart strategy. Are there any other metrics you're looking at to measure the degree to which you're tapping in on the emotional side? Kieran: There's a whole series, a whole document, that that team has put together under Meghan Anderson, who is VP of HubSpot, extremely smart, and manages and looks after all things brand. A couple of things, I'll give you a couple because this is quite large, but you can look at things like direct traffic. It's a good signal that your brand is growing. You can look at branded traffic, again a pretty great indicator that people are searching and care about your brand. You can look at number of mentions of your brand, which I'm sure people are all aware of, either on social or you can look at placements, the number of people who are mentioning you across the web. You can look at placements, and those placements can be put into different categories of publications, like Tier 1, Tier 2, Tier 3. I think there are some ways you can do it. I'll give you another example not from HubSpot. I had a really great conversation on this hearts and minds with the content marketing director called Jimmy Daly. He works at an agency called Animalz. We were talking about this. His metric for hearts was does our content create one conversation within a potential client. They figure that out by asking them on the phone, "Have you heard about us?" That speaks to a smaller company who thinks about content, and through that hearts lens, and their metric is not so easy to measure. It's something actually that you have to ask people about. Kathleen: It's interesting because we're struggling with this. Struggling is not the right word. We're grappling with what is the best way to measure that because as a company we've moved more from an agency to really leading as a publisher. Instead of measuring, for example, subscribers, we're measuring engaging subscribers, like number of subscribers that have really clicked on an email in the last month. Looking beyond sessions on our website to not only unique users as an aggregate measure of the audience size, but pages per session, and dwell time on the site, things like that. This is something I'm so interested in because I feel like nobody has really cracked this one yet. There's an opportunity here. Kieran: I don't think there's ever going to be definitive metrics because it's just so difficult to put your finger on one thing. You can also look at, what you're doing, health of subscribers, in the same way you could look at users of a Freemium product. What is the net new users you add? What is the attention of those users over time? How many of those users actually churn  and stop coming back? I think that's a good gauge. I think most companies would be better served to choose the things that they think are the best indicators, and be happy with those things, and know that they're still not going to be 100 percent of what they need. Kathleen: That makes sense. It's not a perfect science at this point. Well, so interesting to hear about all these strategies that HubSpot is pursuing. Now I'm going to pay much closer attention to your blog to see if I can determine which articles are more about the mind or about the heart. Kieran: We should put a little icon of a heart icon. Kathleen's Two Questions Kathleen: Switching gears for a minute. There's two questions that I always ask everyone that comes on the podcast. In your case I'm very interested to hear what you have to say. I was looking at your LinkedIn profile, and before you were at HubSpot you've been at Marketo, you've been at Salesforce, you have a very interesting perspective on this industry. Company or individual, right now, who out there do you think is doing inbound marketing really well? Who should my listeners go to and look at to see a great example? Kieran: That's a good one. You can tell me if this is not a good answer and to come back with a better answer. I've been more focused on what we call the flywheel force and friction than  inbound recently. I'm sure you've probably heard of it because you're aware of HubSpot. Just for your listeners the flywheel is basically ... in cap stage you're inbound in a loop, which basically is a tracking gauge to light. Each one of those stages you have force and friction. Force helps spin that loop and friction stops that loop from spinning. The examples I have are actually specific to some of the customers on the force and friction because they are the ones at most top of mind because that's what we've been looking at. Kathleen: Oh, yeah. I'd love to hear more about that. Kieran: Let me give you a couple of examples because they're quite different from giving you companies who are doing really well at creating content. These are actually slightly different. There's a customer called WashCard who has payment stations for car wash operators. If you think about one of the things that drives friction in the engaged stage is not showing your pricing, which seems pretty simplistic. If I add my price in, I create better force, because customers generally like experience and transparency. They're an example of a company that did not even just show their pricing, the simple task of being more transparent around their pricing, actually turned that page into their third biggest source of leads within two weeks. It's a very small example of how focusing on this idea across your entire flywheel can benefit you. There's another company called ChargeBacks911 who allows you to integrate their software into e-commerce and handles charge backs right when their customers want to give back their products. They had some friction again within the light stage where they had an onboarding process that allowed you to set up, that they had some friction within. There was missed expectations, so sales people were setting expectations that they were not fulfilling on. They didn't have the right documentation. What they did was took the difficult decision to put a sales rep in every onboarding with a new customer. That sales rep could then fill in the gaps. That sales rep could provide that additional context, but also the sales reps understood the friction they were creating by setting the wrong expectations. I can't share their public numbers, but just by doing that they vastly decreased their amount of churn they were having. They are not the traditional, "here's a company that's crushing inbound," but I think that the force and friction across your flywheel is definitely something that can give you a lot of actionable things to work on. Kathleen: I love those examples. It's always interesting when I ask this question, because it's a bit of a Rorschach test. It depends on when people hear "inbound marketing" what they think I'm talking about. Kieran: Right. Kathleen: That obviously has changed so much over the years, and over time. Even right now if you took a snapshot and asked ten people what it was, you'd probably get ten different answers. I love that answer. It's very different, and I love how specific you got. I'll be curious to go look at both of those companies' websites to see more of what they're doing. Kieran: Cool. Kathleen: Second question is, the world of digital marketing is obviously changing at a lightning fast pace. How do you personally stay up-to-date with all of the new developments? Kieran: There are three ways. I'm lucky that we have a Slack channel within our company that is called "What's Next." I get everything sent to me on the Slack channel, as does everyone else who's part of that Slack channel. I generally get content pushed at me outside of HubSpot through my network, which I find really interesting. I no longer actually go looking for content or subscribe content that much. I just wait until it comes to me. I probably miss out on content, but it suits me because I'm kind of busy. Then, the other thing I've gravitated towards is I'm an introvert, I started a podcast to be more extrovert and talk to people. Talking to other smart people has been the number one way I've learned above all else. It's the best investment I've made in terms of my own time, and just learning and becoming better at what I do. Kathleen: Amen. I talk about that a lot on this podcast. I, too, am an introvert although I fake it really well. Kieran: Same as me. Kathleen: I started this podcast out of purely selfish reasons because it's a good reason to talk to people I otherwise would not have a reason to talk to. Kieran: The two of us are on the podcast faking being an extrovert, on the podcast. Kathleen: Exactly. It's great. It's the perfect tool for that. Kieran: Right. How To Connect With Kieran Kathleen: Kieran, thank you so much. I really enjoyed hearing all of this. It's fascinating to get an understanding for how you, and your team at HubSpot internally are thinking about growth and the approach that you are taking. If somebody is listening, and they want to learn more about HubSpot, or if they wanted to reach out and ask a question of you, what's the best way for them to connect online? Kieran: HubSpot, you can reach at HubSpot.com. There's so many different ways if you go there that you can connect with us. Me, you can connect with me on LinkedIn or Twitter. I'm randomly called @searchbrat on Twitter, which is one of the worst handles. I've had it for too long. I need to change it. You can just find me on LinkedIn at Kieran Flanagan. Kathleen: I love it. I will put those links in the show notes. At the end I always tell people to tweet me if they know someone doing really great inbound marketing work. You will laugh because my Twitter handle is @workmommywork, because when I first started on Twitter that described my life. I guess we now have a club of introverts with really strange Twitter handles. Kieran: Yeah, really strange Twitter handles. Yeah, that's us. Kathleen: Yeah, so if you're listening, and you found this useful, please consider leaving a review on Apple Podcasts or the platform of your choice. As I mentioned, if you know someone doing kick ass inbound marketing work, tweet me at @workmommywork, because I would love to interview them. That's it for this week. Thank you so much Kieran. Kieran: Thanks for having me. I appreciate it.

On this episode, Kia and Matt talk about social media strategies, specifically Instagram. Businesses are more accepted on Instagram than on other platforms. They talk about finding the best platform to connect with your clients. Kia did an experiment comparing results from a print catalog versus an Instagram ad. 59% of internet users use Instagram and 80% of those follow businesses. The aesthetic of your profile is important, making sure your pictures are cohesive. Consistent editing style can give you cohesiveness. Kia’s aesthetic is bright, colorful, fun and playful. Kia suggests if you want to add something new into your aesthetic, make it a part of every shoot so you have a bunch of new, different images to sprinkle into your social media. Kia explains top 9, you’ll want to listen to this! Kia doesn’t think IGTV is going to catch on. While snapchat isn’t a natural fit for Kia’s business, Matt is interested in the ad side of snapchat. Kia’s images do the advertising for her. The fun you see is authentic and something you want to be a part of. Downloads Kiabondurant.com (https://www.kiabondurant.com/) – download for top 5 things to know about instagram (#) Transcription was done by Temi.com which means it’s an AI generated transcript. The transcript may contain spelling, grammar and other errors, and is not a substitute for watching the video. Kia: [00:01] Hi there, this is Kiah bonderant and you are listening to from nothing to profit with Matt and Kaya, Speaker 2: [00:08] welcome to from nothing to profit, a photographer’s podcast with Matt and Kayak where each week they talk to photographers about what is working in their business now so you can swipe those ideas and grow your business faster. Hey guys, Kia: [00:24] excited today. Matt asked me to talk about some social media and instagram strategies and we were having a side conversation and we wanted to bring it to you guys to share it with you. So Matt, tell everyone what you were thinking. Matt: [00:40] Yeah. So where were you? Just where the conversation we’re just having that was so interesting is you were talking about how like businesses are accepted on, on instagram and people follow businesses naturally on instagram versus like you don’t follow a lot of businesses on facebook and stuff like that. Well people in general don’t. And then you were showing me some stats where it was like the amount of likes that a business. If a business posts on instagram, the amount of likes they get versus if they were to post that on, on, on facebook. So I don’t remember the stats. Like I remember one of them being like Victoria secrets or something like that that you’re showing me. And it was like, you know, they post something on facebook and they get like 2000 likes, but then they post them on instagram and they’ve got like 200,000 likes. Yeah, Kia: [01:25] you’re a, you’re a math person, Matt. That’s exactly right. It’s from a, I found on the Internet it was a news whip is the name of it. And uh, yeah. So I think the thing is when you think about social media, and I kind of put all of this together when I was speaking to a group of photographers and I wanted it to be really start really simple because I think when photographers are looking at what they do for social media, they just get confused. Like, where do I go? What do I do? Am I on Pinterest? Am I on facebook? Am I on Linkedin? Google plus? Like, where do I spend my time, what do I grow? And so I was just looking at what works for me and also, you know, doing some research online and the biggest thing I found was that instagram is a place where businesses are more accepted than anywhere else where people follow businesses, they want to see what businesses say and they reward businesses with likes. And so like, just like you were saying, that stat is you’re going to get, I don’t know... Support this podcast

Twinning, breaking and snuggling, and diving deep into New Year's Resolutions. One of Matt's 2019 goals? Be more positive! So Matt and Bari get earnest in the deep dive, but it doesn't last all that long. They still manage to complain about some of the worst New Year's behavior. And then actor, playwright, and The Good Place heart throb William Jackson Harper (Chidi) joins the pod for an interview and game!

Karen Malanga: Hi! This is Karen Malanga welcoming you to this week’s House Talk. Today, I’m so excited to have Matt Silver, the owner of Mountain Mortgage here in Bend. And what an appropriate name for Bend, Oregon especially with the snow hitting Mt. Bachelor lately. So Matt, welcome to the program. Matt Silver: Thank […] The post What is a 203k Rehabilitation Loan? What are the pros and cons? appeared first on NestBend Real Estate.

In this podcast, Kia interviews Matt about goal setting. He compares goal setting to creating a road map so you know what opportunities to take throughout the year. He recommends brainstorming everything you want to accomplish for 5 minutes, dreaming huge and small. Think about where you want to be 3 months, 3 years, and a lifetime from now to give you short term and long term goals. Listen in to learn more about SMART goals. Matt also has specific questions he uses to reflect on the past to help shape the future; you’ll want to take notes! Then Matt explains how he turns his goals into action plans so he can accomplish them. Resources – Questions Matt uses to reflect What was the best part of 2018? What was the lesson learned from that? What was the most challenging part of 2018? What was the lesson learned from that? Who & How did you positively influence someone in 2018? Who made you laugh most in 2018? Who or what were you most grateful for in 2018? What still feels incomplete to you? What will you do to handle it? What would you change about how you managed your stress in 2018? What do you wish you would have done differently this year? What are you most proud of in regards to your finances in 2018? Where did you find the most peace and calm in 2018? What advice would you give yourself at the beginning of 2018? What will you do less of in 2019? What important relationship do you want to improve the most next year? What do I most want to be thankful for 1 year from now? What do I want to become an expert in the next year? What are you most excited about for the next year?   (#) Transcription was done by Temi.com which means it’s an AI generated transcript. The transcript may contain spelling, grammar and other errors, and is not a substitute for watching the video. Speaker 1: [00:01] Welcome to from nothing to profit, a photographer’s podcast with Matt and Kia where each week they talk to photographers about what is working in their business now so you can swipe those ideas and grow your business faster. Hello everyone. Kia: [00:18] Welcome to from nothing to profit. Today is our goal setting show and I’m Kia bonderant and I am going to be interviewing Matt Hoagland about how he sets the goals throughout the year and I’m super excited because I have some ways that I do goal setting, but it’s not my main thing that I do where we have our new year’s show. We talked about word of the year and that’s really my way of starting the year. So Matt, I’m super excited to hear what you have to say about goal setting. Matt: [00:50] Yeah, it’s really fun. This is something I felt like I kind of thrive in. I would love to know what my wife and employees think, whether I thrive in it or not, but it definitely helps me a lot and I feel like it moves our business forward in a major way. So yeah, I’m excited to share what I have to offer. Kia: [01:06] Okay. So tell us about like what you do when you set goals. Matt: [01:10] Yeah, so I think it’s important to set goals every year because it’s kind of like, for me it’s like a roadmap, you know, it’s really hard to know where you’re going unless you have a map to kind of tell you where to go. So it, it goal setting starts as the start of the process of figuring out what the roadmap is for the year. But, and part of the reason that happens in the roadmap happens is because you’re establishing priorities as soon as you say these are my goals and there’s actually I think a bigger part than goals which is called, which I call an action plan, but we’ll get to that in a second. But it establishes your priorities so that you can start looking at the world, your business, whatever it is, through a certain lens and decide like, okay, all this stuff coming at me. Like what actually, what do I... Support this podcast

According to recent studies, Apple Watch can add two years to your life. Find out more as Craig is on with Ken and Matt on the WGAN Morning News. These and more tech tips, news, and updates visit - CraigPeterson.com --- Related Articles: Apple Watch Could Add Two Years To Your Life, Research Suggests Dna-Testing Company 23andme Has Signed A $300 Million Deal With A Drug Giant. Here’s How To Delete Your Data If That Freaks You Out. --- Transcript: Below is a rush transcript of this segment, it might contain errors. Airing date: 12/12/2018 Apple Watch Adds Two Years To Your Life - DNA Testing The Why And How Craig Peterson: 0:00 Alright, good afternoon. Good evening. Good night. Good morning this is Craig Peterson I had some comments come into me@CraigPeterson.com about the the Good morning thing from yesterday, but I think I'm going to stick with good morning anyways. All right. But hey, I got the bases covered for everybody. This morning. I was on with Ken and Matt. We talked about the Apple Watch. Why are they saying that it can add two years to your life just because of one of its features, which is really kind of cool. also talked a little bit about the Salvation Army this morning and what they're doing with their new big drive. Did you know you can now donate just using your smartphone and DNA testing. It's hit the news again. So we talked a little bit about that 23 me and ancestry kind of a busy morning a little less eclectic, though the neutral with getting mad. So here we go. Unknown 0:57 Graffiti sounds with us because he dialed the phone to Unknown 1:00 Craig. Hey, good morning. It's a great time with here. I like that sort of thing. You know, the toy drives helping out and Salvation Army you know, they've got a new campaign going on now to with QR codes for those people that just don't carry carry cash anymore as well with the red kettles. Unknown 1:21 Wow. That would be me. I never, ever, ever, ever carry Ken. you make cash when I didn't have cash? Unknown 1:26 And that's like the one I didn't I think I said at the time. It was like the one time in the last year I've had cash on Yeah, Unknown 1:31 so Unknown 1:33 go ahead. People volunteer, they help out and they definitely need to help this year and their donations. You know, people just again, they don't even think about it so many times. I just don't have cash and they walk on by so having the opportunity now to call in and make donations because a really great thing to just a reminder that time of year have you have the money, it's well worth helping out with people. Unknown 1:59 I agree with you now on to come to tech stuff. So I of course, I was going to get the I watch for Christmas. And my wife delayed buying it. So I decided to just buy it for myself. Unknown 2:11 You realize Christmas hasn't occurred yet, right? You could have waited. You don't know what she's gonna do. Unknown 2:15 She she would not commit to it. And I was not gonna Unknown 2:18 there hasn't been some holiday there. And right, Ken? Unknown 2:21 Ken day, 10 days day, we celebrate every day. And so. So do I understand that by getting this watch, I'm going to live longer. Unknown 2:30 Yeah, all you need to do is buy the watch can and you're guaranteed two more years of life. Wow, that is great news. It's really that simple. Yeah, the Apple Watch is kind of cool. Because we've talked before about the new technology that's going into these watches going into these devices. And one of the things that it is doing is helping us be a little more conscious about our fitness. And and it's not just exclusively the Apple Watch. In this case, we're we're talking about some research that was done on about a half a million adults. And they found that people that had fitness trackers, which of course, are built into Apple watches, but also into many other devices that these fitness trackers that have these reward schemes, so activity levels increased by more than a third. And they did all of the math behind it, then they found of these half a million adults that they would probably add about two more years to their expected lifespan. And it brings up something else interest in, which is the whole idea behind some of these reward type programs. It's called gamification. And the idea is you can take most things and turn it into a bit of a game and you get a lot more participation. So we're not just talking about game like, can I run faster than can or match, which Unknown 3:55 you almost certainly could, Unknown 3:58 we're talking about, about games where you're kind of competing against yourself a little bit, and if they try and make it fun. So the more fun it can be, the more interactive it is, the better the odd. So when we're talking about the Apple Watch just the technology behind the gamification and getting you to exercise a little bit more is a huge win way about just the standard fitness trackers. And then that he can, you've got the heart monitor now that's built into the new Apple Watch. Yes, and that's already apparently saved some lives because it's watching that season arrhythmia and informs you about it. And one of the most common arrhythmias that you have in this day and age atrial fibrillation, and you'll see more and more of that as a population continues to age but it detects that and going to help you as well manage various types of irregular heartbeat so you made a good investment on can Unknown 4:57 see this was this is what I'm saying this was an investment not just a toy, this was Unknown 5:03 you're saving your own life is what you're doing. Exactly. Yes. You're giving the gift of time Unknown 5:07 the list of time with cultural every the listener two years. I mean, can you have another hat? Sitting it up? You know, a glass case? No, freaks me out that that's there Unknown 5:15 was Unknown 5:16 another time. Yeah, Unknown 5:18 maybe. Well, correct me, dishonor tech guru joins us telling us about all the things that Apple can do for you. Unknown 5:26 I would have put it that way. Unknown 5:28 So interestingly, I believe it was last Christmas, my wife got me a pretty cool present, which was the 23andMe genetic testing thing, which I actually really enjoy it. I thought that was really cool. Unknown 5:41 They have apparently signed a big deal with a drug company. And I assume some of that genetic material and some of that information, maybe what handed over to them, maybe how's this going to work? And if I'm freaked out about that, what do I do? Unknown 5:55 Yeah, this is really cool. I did the same thing I signed up for 23AndMe and my kids did it. And my dad did it. My mom's going to do it. In fact, I bought her one of these tips to test her DNA that I'm bringing with us at Christmas time it because right now, you can get these kits for half price, which is pretty cool. And of course, the whole idea here is you spit into a little vial that they that they give you it's part of the package and you close it up the a shake it and you put it in the envelope, and you send it back. Now we're all very well old enough to remember when DNA sequencing cost millions of dollars and took a couple of years to do just for one person. Right? Right. You remember those days, I do Unknown 6:45 like the good old days, Unknown 6:48 I remember. Well, now with 23AndMe, and there's some others out there ancestor is doing some kind of similar things, a big difference with ancestry. And 23AndMe is 23 needs, looks at your DNA to look for some and abnormalities as well. So when it has a whole health thing associated with it, and what what's happening here now is that the price has gotten lower the cost of doing it. And the timeframe for doing it is not in the lower it's a few weeks now, instead of a few years. And the show is a few million dollars, we're talking about a 50 to $100, depending on what you want. And as I said, right now, there's even price breaks. But you know, bottom line is it really does actually cost more than they're charging. And the way they're doing this, this this this is reminiscent of Facebook here, Matt, but the way they're doing it is they're selling your data. And in this case, they're selling your data to the major pharmaceutical companies. Now, it's not that they're selling it, and the pharmaceutical companies are going to come back to you. And you know, we give advertising or other things like Facebook or do but in this case, what's happening is they're using it because of the future of our medications and our medical treatments, we are changing everything. This is already true. In some cases, it's going to be true across the board, within 10 years they are going to make medication specifically for Ken Altshuler to fix a very specific problem like his addictions, new Apple watches. And the whole idea is they need a lot of DNA samples to be able to examine and they need you to answer the questions. So Matt, did you get like hundreds of questions that 23 me wanted you to answer? Did you answer any? I did. Unknown 8:49 Yeah. No, I did. I actually have I have long since given up caring about my privacy whatsoever. So I'm happy to assist the genetic research that they do. So I answered probably one of them. I mean, there was a lot of them. Unknown 9:02 Yeah, there are a lot of them. I think, last count, there were some 800 questions kind of depended on on what information they wanted. So we've got Glaxo Smith Klein, for instance, who put $300 million out and bought a stake in 23AndMe, 23AndMe has been selling this data. And it's a very, very big deal. Now you can get your information that you might have already given to 23 meter DNA stuff, you can't get that sharing restricted. And you can do that by going on to your 23AndMe account online and you can look for the bio banking consent, and you can withdraw your consent. But I agree with you, Matt, I, you know, I'm at the point where, you know, we've got 500 million records stolen, or people's, it should say, information stolen from Marriott, and everybody else. And it looks like it was the Chinese by the way, and look, the NSA knows everything about me anyway. Unknown 10:03 I mean, at this point, I don't, you know, besides from what I understand about this, too, I mean, it's not as though 23AndMe and companies like this are handing over a list of names, addresses and phone numbers with your genetic material. It's basically the data, right? I mean, it's they're trying to send over the information that would be of use with I mean, identifying material really doesn't even do anybody any good in the in the kinds of agreements that these are really Unknown 10:28 Yeah, it really doesn't yet. And, but that's where the concern comes in, because of this data, even though it's somewhat anonymized. In other words, they can't figure out that it was mad about DNA that they're looking at Unknown 10:43 right Yeah, exactly. They they you can back door your way into it and that's where people start getting concerned we're still a ways away from that but you know any hi I got a quick thing a Christmas present for everybody who's listening your data is helpful here we know it okay. As you just mentioned, if it's not out there it will be shortly it's just because of all of the staffs and three fifths of Americans have never even checked their credit report so here's what I've been working on the last week and a half with my team this we're absolutely free you know I'm not some big marketer This is trying to sell yourself or get your DNA of I'm putting together something that goes through exactly what you need to do to check your credit report understand your credit report be able to read that credit report and how to use the new laws that the federal government just put in place to freeze all of your credit for free and stop the bad guys from opening new accounts in your name and causing you know when the grief so if you send me an email just me@CraigPeterson.com Once this is finished, I will send it out to you I've scheduled interviews with Equifax and you know the three big credit companies out there so I'm going to be talking with them are going to include those interviews are going to have background information, I'm going to have screenshots I really want to help you out. And that's my Christmas present belated Hanukkah, Kwanzaa you name it. That's my present to everybody who wants to just send an email to me@CraigPeterson.com when we're done, I'll send that out to you. Because as Matt said, we're our information's out there, or it's about to be out there. And this is something you can do and you can do for free. And it's going to really it's going to help you out because so many Americans have already been affected by having their data stolen. Unknown 12:48 Joining us. Our tech guru joins us every Wednesday. Thanks, Craig. We will talk to you next week. Unknown 12:55 Take care, gentlemen. Thanks. Bye bye. --- More stories and tech updates at: www.craigpeterson.com Don't miss an episode from Craig. Subscribe and give us a rating: www.craigpeterson.com/itunes Follow me on Twitter for the latest in tech at: www.twitter.com/craigpeterson For questions, call or text: 855-385-5553

On the show today Matt got to chat with Buddhist Monk Rom who is from the suan dok temple chiang mai Thailand. Matt and Rom spoke about the benefits meditation, calming the monkey mind and the philosophy of Buddhism. While touring Matt got to visit 3 temples, suan dok temple, Palad Temple and doi suthep temple and spend the day with Hom who spent ten years as a monk. So Matt was able to share with us his fun filled adventures while currently traveling around Thailand. It was an honor to have Rom on the show to share with us the life of a Buddhist Monk. Thank you for listening and we hope you enjoy the show. Special Thanks to; Niall Reilly - www.rooneymedia.com Carolyn Harvey- ISA Nutrition Magic Minds Podcast Team Matt Burke- Host Aaron Keogh - Social Media & Promotion Kevin Doyle- Sound editing & Production --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/magic-minds/message

In this Town Mile Podcast, Matt and I do an album review: you might think Born To Run? Exile On Main Street? ...And Out Come The Wolves? Ten? Nevermind? Well, none of those. It's not what you'd think. We discuss Astroworld by a guy named Travis Scott. Apparently the kids love Travis Scott. So Matt had Joe listen to it and share his thoughts. It gets heavy from there! Then we discuss the unbelievable Creed 2 trailer that dropped last week. Have a great weekend! --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

Sometimes I wonder if two half-breeds with poor work habits can actually save this gaseous spinning orb. Then I remember that's the precise winning character formula of every space opera ever. So Matt and I persist. Not because we must, but because we long ago forgot where the door is.On this week's Last Men on Earth Podcast, we wade hip deep into the latest bit of Sacha Baron Cohen shtick exposing how stupid old white people are pretty much stupid, old, and white, consider the fact that gay conversion camp films like Boy Erased are made for Oscar consideration, not narrative quality, wonder why a Chinese-American director decided only he can tell the Thai cave boy story, laugh even more at Terry Crews for MeTooing himself onto the Asia Argento support letter fo the Times, and consider the mathematics behind transgender activists insistent than only transgender actors can portray transgender characters in movies and TV. I think we talk for like four beers.Also, bonus content for our Patreon fans, Panties in a Bunch, wherein we talk about the slippery slope danger of felony hate crimes being attached to all these drunk old topless racist curmudgeons in the park. For whom the bell tolls, and all that line of thinking. Be sure to listen. This will be on the quiz.If you like us, or hate us, but so much so that it circles back to like, subscribe and write us a quick review on iTunes. It's what Babe Ruth would be doing if he were alive today. After whoring. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

It’s time to give Central Coast Syrah its due. Not only does it produce age worthy wines, but you’ll find a wide variety of styles and regions to explore. Wine discussed:  5:48 Stolpman 2017 Syrah So Hot Syrah (Ballard Canyon) 13:52 Samuel Louis Smith 2016 Sandstone Terrace Syrah (Santa Cruz Mountains) 17:25 Joyce 2016 Tondre Grapefield Syrah (Santa Lucia Highlands) Transcript Jameson Fink:  Welcome to Wine Enthusiast's What We're Tasting Podcast. I'm your host, Jameson Fink. Join we as we discuss three fantastic wines, and why each one belongs in your glass. This episode I'm exploring Syrah, from California's Central Coast with contributing editor Matt Kettman, who covers and reviews wines from the region. What We're Tasting is sponsored by Vivino. Vivino is the world's largest online wine marketplace, powered by a community of 30 million wine drinkers who use The Vino app to engage with 2 million wines (including Central Coast Syrah from California) every single day.  So when it comes to the top grape, the top dog in California, especially with red wine, everyone wants to talk about Cabernet. It's the wine people collect, it's the one that can age, it's the one that gets the most love, and press, and it's well-loved for a reason. It's a famous, famous grape. But I think we're giving short shrift to Syrah. it's underrated, it's versatile, and it also belongs in your cellar. So Matt, you have recently made the case for Central Coast Syrah, the area that you cover, as being age worthy. Can you talk about sort of your awakening with Syrah as a grape that is age worthy? Matt Kettman: Yeah, of course. I've loved Syrah since I started liking wine. I've always found it to be kind of one of the more interesting wines out there. And it was actually one of the first wines where I was in a tasting room, I read a note that said "cracked pepper", and I actually smelled cracked pepper. So I was like, "Wow, this isn't all completely made up. There's some truth to these tasting notes." Jameson Fink: Of course, they're completely objective. Matt Kettman:Of course, yes. So that really kind of turned my head not just for Syrah, but for wine in general. This is obviously a dozen or so years ago at this point. So that really kinda made me interested in Syrah. And then over the years I've been lucky enough to try some older vintages from people like Bob Lindquist at Qupe, he's been making single variety Syrah since the 1980s, and doing it really well. And then more recently, a couple things happened. One, I did a long vintage flight with Joey Tensley of Tensley Wines, and we tried every vintage he'd ever made from Colson Vineyard, which is this really remote spot in Northern Santa Barbara County. And they were all phenomenal, and not in ways that you would necessarily expect. Some of the older vintages tasted younger than some of the more recent ones, so it was really kind of eye-opening in that regard. And it also showed how Syrah can really speak of a specific place, and do so while also referring to that year's, the vintage's characteristics as well. And then a little while ago, couple months ago, I had been up at Hospice du Rhône and and tried zillions of different Syrahs and other Rhône varieties from around the world and the region. And I came home, and was hanging out with a buddy in my garage, which is kind of a defacto tasting den of sorts. And we popped open this bottle, this was pretty late at night, but we popped open this bottle of 1987 Qupe from Bien Nacido Vineyard, and we tasted it and we were both like, "This is maybe the best wine we've ever had in our lives." And I actually posted that to Instagram. And people were very not so much surprised, but they were surprised that I would say something like that I guess so publicly. Jameson Fink: Yeah. Matt Kettman: But also that somehow Syrah was up there. And I wasn't really surprised at all, because I had been tasting older Syrahs for a while. And I try to seek out old stuff as much as possible. But it was really just this phenomenal wine that you kept coming back to. And it really had developed beyond secondary and tertiary notes. There were just a lot of kind of crazy flavors and textures going on that were really memorable. Jameson Fink: Yes, I went back and stalked your Instagram, and I saw that post. Your quote is, "Very possibly the best wine I've ever had." And then two of the responses are, "That is quite a statement." "Bold statement." Matt Kettman: Right. No, and I wasn't, I stand by that statement. It was a phenomenal wine. And you know, it was obviously properly cellared and all of that, so it was kept well. You know, I don't know it was kind of mind blowing, which is funny. A lot of people have that happen with crazy old Burgundy, or some Chateau Margaux from 1954 or whatever. But for me it was just a simple 1987 Syrah from Bien Nacido Vineyard, and it was awesome. I taste a lot of great Pinot Noir, so when people ask me what my favorite grape is I usually have to say, "Well, I taste a lot of great Pinot Noir from this region." 'Cause we have that. But Syrah is still kind of my, you know that's the one that ... My heart goes out to Syrah I guess. It's had a lot of struggles over the years. It's been a little bit too widely planted, probably in regions where it doesn't do as well. But I love, especially cool climate Syrah. Stuff that comes from really coastal regions, I think it brings out a lot of the kind of inherent uniqueness to the grape where you start to get these really kind of gamey, meaty flavors. But you also get a lot of the pretty purple flower aromatics too. So I don't know, there's just a lot in Syrah that's there to love. And those flavors and aromas really develop over time as it sits in your cellar. Jameson Fink: Yeah, when you say there's a lot of Syrah, that first one I wanted to talk about was pretty much just for that reason. It's the Stolpman 2017 Syrah So Hot Syrah from Ballard Canyon, 92 points. And it's a wine made without sulfur, a natural wine. And you talk about chilling it down. I'm just wondering, are you tasting a lot more wines like that with no sulfur added, or minimal sulfur and the kind of light weight Syrah that you do wanna put a chill on and enjoy in an ice bucket? Matt Kettman: I'm starting to see more, I guess you'd call them kind of sessionable reds. Lighter reds. They're not all Syrah by any means. Some are Syrah. Ones that you would wanna put a chill on. They do tend to be Rhône varieties, or Cab Franc can kind of show up that way as well. But I've had some Cinsaults recently that were really light, and sessionable I guess. So I am starting to see that. As far as the natural wine movement goes, you know, there's a lot of people, especially in Santa Barbara County, but in other parts of the Central Coast that have always used kind of minimally effective sulfur. So they've never been big on adding too much. I don't see, I know there are a few brands that do it. I don't see a lot of all natural wine branding here, or brands here. There are some, but for the most part people are, I don't know, I guess professional about making their wines here. And they'll put a little sulfur in there to make sure it lasts. What's great about this Stolpman wine was that they tried to do it a different way. So they actually fermented it carbonically for the most part, which is to stay in a closed container without oxygen and without crushing the berries. So their Syrahs tend to be pretty rich and sumptuous, and thick. And that's because they get pretty warm days in Ballard Canyon and it makes the skins thicker, so that will lead to kind of a thicker wine during the fermentation. So for this one, they wanted to make something fresher. So if you ferment it carbonically the juice starts to ferment inside the berries, so you get less skin tan and extraction. So you can make this kind of lighter, fresher wine. And that's what they did. And to keep that freshness, they decided not to add sulfur. I think it was partially kind of an experiment to see how it would go. But it makes this really light, lovely, fresh wine, that really I think does deserve a bit of a chill to properly experience it. It's funny, I was trying to remember where we were, but now I do. We were at the World of Pinot Noir this past March. And the guys from the Stolpman team were walking around with a chilled bottle of this Syrah as kind of an antidote to some of the Pinot. So if you think about it in that way, using Syrah as a refresher for a bunch of Pinot, it kind of goes to show how light and refreshing this particular bottling is. Jameson Fink: Yeah, I was impressed, I was reading your review, and you actually called the aromas joyous. "It's a joyous wine." Matt Kettman: Yeah, I use that when it's, it almost means kind of juicy, or I'll also use the word playful from time to time. It just kind of means it smells like a fun wine. Smells like a wine that you wanna hang out with for the afternoon. And I think it's reflective of sunshine, and kind of that warmth during the growing season leads to some riper flavors. And especially, you know, when a wine's released that young, they bottled that in January. So for a red wine, that's pretty crazy to have it on the market at all at this point. But to have it on the market as early as March and February, right after harvest, it's gonna be just by design extremely lively, and really primary on the palate. It's not the most complex wine in the world, and I think my note kind of eludes to that. It's pretty ... I don't wanna say simple, 'cause that makes it seem kind of demeaning. But it's a light, fresh, fruity wine. And I think as much, for many decades, people have been trying to make these really rich, and layered, and deep wines. And they still do. But it's nice to have another choice in your arsenal there for something that maybe you have with lunch. You can have red wine with lunch and it's not too much. And you can enjoy that and go back to work, and not have to worry about it. 'Cause it's a lighter wine. Jameson Fink: I like the life you live, your lunch life. Matt Kettman: That's right, yeah. Jameson Fink: But I like also you say, "Get it cold and chill out." That's literally the last sentence in the review. I think that's actually, well chilling out is good advice for everyone when appropriate. But get it cold, I think not even just with a wine like this, but I come across wines at restaurants and things like that, the red wines are just way too warm. Matt Kettman: Yeah, and that's kind of the mantra I've heard for the typical American serving practice is that our whites are typically a little too cold in a restaurant, and then the reds are typically too warm. I think that's changing a lot in the last few years, especially as wine has become such a major part of our culture, and Sommeliers are in every single restaurant you go to. So I think there's a little bit more knowledge on that front. But yeah, that is something that I think people tend to forget even when serving at home is that those red wines should be served kind of at cellar temperature, which is not room temperature. It's a little bit more cold. And really you can just throw it in the fridge for 10 minutes and pull it out and you're gonna be probably at a more optimal space than if you just serve it too warm. Jameson Fink: Yeah, I've kinda talked about this concept earlier, but if you can just buy two bottles of any red wine, the same red wine, and put one in the fridge for 20 minutes and serve the other one at room temperature, it's pretty astonishing the differences in the wine, and what flavors poke out. Alcohol dominates for things like that. It's a pretty simple exercise that anyone can do with just two $10 bottles of red wine. You can have it be a little parlor game, and serve it to your friends and say, "Which wine do you like better?" And then be like, "Aha, it's the same wine." Matt Kettman: Right. Yeah. And sometimes chilling it, it'll hide certain flavors, but it's not like it's hiding the bad flavors. It's just allowing other flavors to stand out a little bit more. And in the case of this Stolpman, it allows those crisper fresh fruit flavors to stand out away from maybe some of the warmer, riper aspects. So it's I don't know, I wouldn't chill all, I wouldn't put a big chill on big Cabs, or anything like that. Because you do kind of want, when they're these kind of lush wines, you do wanna experience those full waves of lush-ness. But you know, for a wine like this, it's just great to have a red wine option that you can drink on a sunny day. Sunshine and red wine are not necessarily the best of friends. But chill it down, and they can be buddies. Jameson Fink: That's right. Summer, it's not just for white wine and rosé . I want to shift gears from this really unique Syrah in Ballard Canyon to move onto the Santa Cruz Mountains. And that's a region that's always been kind of, I've never been there, but kind of magical to me, just because some of my favorite wine drinking experiences have been drinking the wines of Mount Eden there. The Cabernet, the Chardonnay, and the Pinot Noir. But I actually hadn't heard of Syrah from the Santa Cruz Mountains, so that's why I wanted to talk about the second wine that Samuel Lewis Smith 2016 Sandstone Terrace Syrah from the Santa Cruz Mountains, 94 points, Editor's Choice. What's your experience with Syrah in the Santa Cruz Mountains? Matt Kettman: Sam Smith, the winemaker there, he started actually down in Santa Barbara County, he worked for Margerum Wine Company down here, which makes a lot of great Rhône wines, now they also make some Pinot and Chardonnay. But he started down here, worked here for a few years, and now he's the winemaker at Morgan Winery, which is actually one of the more famous wineries in the Santa Lucia Highlands, and throughout Monterey. So that's his primary job. And then this is his side label, or his personal label is this Samuel Lewis Smith. So he's really focused on making really I think fairly small batches of really hands-on wine every vintage. So I think in last year's release was really only this Syrah, and then one Pinot Noir that he made from Albatross Ridge which is this other crazy vineyard above Carmel Valley. By anyways, so he's really kind of adept at finding these sites that have not yet been used. So he was able to find some Syrah from there. And it's an excellent wine. Like you thought, there's not a lot of it out there. Another great example of Syrah from Santa Cruz Mountains would be Big Basin, which is a fairly well-known brand. It's not a big brand, but it's fairly well-known. And they're at the top of the Santa Cruz Mountains. And that's where the proprietor there, Bradley Brown grows, he grows a lot of Syrah. Really at the top of the Santa Cruz Mountains, surrounded by redwood trees. Santa Cruz Mountains is mostly dominated on the coastal side by Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, and then on the more inland side by Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, and some of the Bordeaux varieties like Cab. Just like what Mount Eden does. They kinda nail the three main ones. Jameson Fink: Yeah, and do you see this wine, the Samuel Lewis Smith as one you wanna hold for a few years, or more than a few years in your cellar? Or crack it open now? Or works both ways? Matt Kettman: You know, I think like you suggested buying two bottles of any wine and doing the cool trick. You should also buy two or three bottles of every wine and drink one now, and drink one in five years, and drink one in ten years. Then you're really gonna get to taste the life of the wine. I do recall that wine having a really solid amount of structure, whereas the Stolpman was much more of, like I said, joyous fun wine to really chill down and drink right now. I believe the Samuel Lewis Smith wines will hold for quite a long time. You know, it's just a really well-made wine. And it has the acidity to keep it alive, and then some tannins to kind of hold it up too. So I think that one's gonna last quite awhile. But it is quite delicious now. So I would be remiss in not advising you to drink at least one of the bottles as soon as you get it. Jameson Fink: We gotta open up a retail wine shop where I'm like, "Buy two bottles," and you're saying, "Oh, buy at least three." Everyone's gonna be walking out of there with at least a case. And then of course you'd get a case discount too. Matt Kettman: That's right. Yeah. Yeah, we'd be good at that. Jameson Fink: We'll have to talk about that offline. Matt Kettman: Yeah. Jameson Fink: And I did hear you mention the Santa Lucia Highlands, so for the third wine, for a third Central Coast Syrah, I chose the Joyce 2016, hopefully I'm saying this right Joyce 2016 Tondre Grapefield Syrah, 91 points, editor's choice. What can you tell me about this Syrah as far as where it fits in with the Samuel Lewis Smith, or is it more of its own unique expression? Matt Kettman: You know, the way it fits in with Samuel Lewis Smith is that like the Santa Cruz Mountains not having that much Syrah, the Santa Lucia Highlands do not have that much Syrah either. You get so much more money for Pinot Noir from regions that are known for Pinot Noir than you do for Syrah. Most places that had Syrah have ripped it out and replanted Pinot. But there are still a few Syrah plantings left. And there's actually some I think smart vineyards that are actually putting in a little bit more Syrah in the Santa Lucia Highlands right now. But overall it's declined quite a bit over the years. I was looking it up earlier today, I couldn't actually find anyone else that made a Syrah from Tondre Grapefield. So I get the sense that Russell Joyce, who's the winemaker for his family winery, Joyce Cellars, I get the sense that he might take it all and make it all. And he must get a fair price for it, because I think that bottle's only like $25 or so. Which for a wine, any wine from the Santa Lucia Highlands, that's a pretty good price. And that wine is also kinda actually fits a little bit in between the Stolpman and the Sam Smith wines, in the sense that it is really ... I remember it being very fresh and vibrant, but also it had a little more structure than maybe the Stolpman did. So I think it's a nice kinda fit in between there. Joyce Cellars is kinda one of the, there's this kind of new guard of Monterey County wine makers, and Russell Joyce, who's I think only in his mid-30s, younger guy. But he's taking the label that I believe his father founded, and he's really kinda upping the quality level, putting more of a younger, hipper vibe to the labels, a little more colorful, a little less old school. And then he's really ambitious about betting on, especially the Carmel Valley. So he and his wife took over this property right in the middle of Carmel Valley. And developed their new tasting room, they put another tasting room in there. Chesta Rosa Winery is also in this spot. And then they built something, I believe it's called the Wine House, something like that. And it's essentially a, I believe it's a wine bar/retail shop/small restaurant. And outside of it are bocce ball courts, and lounge chairs, and all this kind of outdoor fun. And it's right in the middle of Carmel Valley. So the Joyce family really paid for all that, and are kind of betting on that region. So they make wines, they make a lot of Santa Lucia Highland wines, but they also make some Carmel Valley wines. And they're keeping it kind of fun. So this Syrah really fits right into that program.  They're also doing, they do a Gamay wine, which is really cool. And they do a Rose of Gamay I believe. So they're exploring varieties that are really kind of more or less brand new to Monterey County at this point. Or maybe they were there many, many decades ago, and now they're back again like Gamay. Jameson Fink: Yeah, and I'd also be remiss if I didn't mention you wrote up a nice little exploration of the Santa Lucia Highlands if you're a wine tourist, where to go, where to taste, all kinds of things. That's Exploring California's Santa Lucia Highlands, that's on winemag.com. I haven't been to that area, so I don't know what, you obviously just gave us a nice little slice of what's available there. But is it a region that's exciting for wine tourism, or has a lot of possibilities? What is your take? Matt Kettman: Santa Lucia Highlands is a little bit funny, because Monterey County, the government is very I guess aggressive in protecting the historic farming philosophies, and the farming traditions of Monterey County. So they've made it, and I think that's a good thing. But they've made it very difficult for wineries to open tasting rooms in the region, they've made it very difficult for any kind of real hospitality to emerge in that area. So Santa Lucia Highlands sits above the floor of the Salinas Valley. So there's all these little kind of quaint, but fairly poor farm towns. Like Gonzales, and Greenfield, and places like that, that don't have a lot of hospitality infrastructure. At least not the level of hospitality infrastructure that the modern California wine tourists would expect. So there are a handful of places in the Santa Lucia Highlands that do have tasting rooms, and it's beautiful to visit. You can see almost all the way to Monterey Bay on a clear day. And all the way across the Valley to the Pinnacles National Park. So it's really beautiful. But not a lot of people go there, because there's just not a lot of tourist infrastructure. So that article you mentioned, I spent a little bit of time just kind of explaining what I just explained. But then I also say, "If you really wanna taste a lot of these wines, you really have to go into Carmel by the Sea, or Carmel Valley," where most of the tasting rooms are.  So I think in Carmel by the Sea, there's something like 20 or two dozen tasting rooms. And then the same is true in Carmel Valley, there's like two dozen tasting rooms in a mile stretch of road. So that's if you wanna bang out Santa Lucia Highlands tastings, you're gonna be better off trying to do it in the Carmel Valley or Carmel by the Sea. That said, it's certainly worth a day trip to drive through and check it out. And there's rumors of a potential kind of glamping option that might go in along the Arroyo Seco river. Although, like I said, it's a struggle getting any of those things approved. So that'll take probably a number of years to even get close to construction.  But hopefully I think in the future there'll be some places that come online. I think it'd be a smart place to build something if you could. Maybe the cities around there would be more hospitable to that sort of thing. But right now, your best bet is gonna be staying at a chain hotel or motel in Salinas, or one of those little farm towns around there. Jameson Fink: And finally Matt, we've taken a quick little tour of Syrah around the Central Coast, and just kind of to bring it back full circle, you've recently championed Syrah as age worthy from the Central Coast. We've talked about three totally pretty different, unique wines that different styles, different regions. Syrah in the Central Coast, where do you see it going from here? Do you see it growing, or just more of a thing where there's gonna be producers who just love working with it, it's maybe not their bread and butter, but it's certainly something that they're passionate about? Matt Kettman: You know, I think it depends on which part of the Central Coast. If you look at Stolpman, they're in Ballard Canyon, which is really a small appellation, and it's basically an appellation that was made for Syrah. Syrah is always gonna be really strong there. In other regions I think it's gonna probably play second fiddle for a long time, for the years to come. The one thing I will say, though, is that Syrah, and especially cool climate Syrah is kind of a favorite wine for many winemakers, for many sommeliers, for many wine professionals. People can't get enough of it. So as the American wine customer gets more and more educated over the years, I wouldn't be surprised if you see them shift in that direction too. If you see people who used to like Cab and maybe Pinot Noir shifting to liking this cool climate Syrah. Because it frankly is one of the most interesting wines out there. And once you've gotten used to other varieties of more noble varieties, or these standard varieties that our chocolate, vanilla, strawberry world likes, I think Syrah offers this really nice portal into a whole different wine experience. And when you're talking about throwing some age on those bottles too, it becomes even more interesting. So I don't know. I have high hopes for Syrah. But people have been singing its praises for decades now. So I don't know what's gonna happen. Maybe this'll be the third or fourth rebirth of Syrah in the years to come. But you know, I guess it's like a phoenix. The phoenix of the California wine world. Jameson Fink: Rising from the ashes. Matt Kettman: Keeps rising from its own death. Its own demise. So maybe, I don't know maybe we'll enter a new era of Syrah popularity. I hope so, because I think it's good stuff. Jameson Fink: I agree. You're preaching to the choir here. Well thanks Matt, for joining me and talking about Central Coast Syrah. It's a great journey, great education. And I hope someday to hang out with you in the garage, drinking '87 Qupe. Matt Kettman: Yeah. We'll do it. I'll go track down some more bottles. Jameson Fink: You got a folding chair waiting for me? Matt Kettman: I actually have a vinyl covered couch in my garage now. Jameson Fink: Oh wow, okay. I'm gonna look at flights right after this. Matt Kettman: Yeah, all right. Jameson Fink: Thanks again, Matt. Matt Kettman: Okay, thank you. Jameson Fink: And thank you for listening to the What We're Tasting Podcast. What We're Tasting is sponsored by Vivino, buy the right wine. The wines we talked about this episode were the Stolpman 2017 Syrah So Hot, the Samuel Lewis Smith 2016 Sandstone Terrace, and the Joyce 2016 Tondre Grapefield. Find What We're Tasting on iTunes, Google Play, or wherever you find podcasts. And if you liked today's episode, please give us a five-star rating on iTunes, leave a comment, and tell your friends. What We're Tasting is a Wine Enthusiast Podcast. Check out Wine Enthusiast online at winemag.com.

Matt and Scott discuss their experience dieting under the tutelage of Robert Santana, a SSC and the head nutrition coach at SSOC. Santana's basic approach is to coach his lifters to eat to support their strength, while maintaining high protein levels (which, of course, are necessary to support muscle growth). Generally, this means prescribing moderate carbs and low fat. While low-carb diets may be popular with those just trying to "lose weight," carbs are an important source of fuel for workouts. So dietary fat often needs to be cut to provide the caloric restriction necessary for bodyfat loss.   Macro discussion is great, but day to day eating habits are where the rubber meets the road. So Matt and Scott share their daily eating habits and the strategies they use to comply with their prescribed macros each day while maintaining flavor and the things they love to eat. Matt also talks about the struggles of hitting macros and eating healthy while traveling.   It's also important to realize that calorie restriction is a stressful event - essentially a "starvation" event for us human organisms. Anxiety, depression, and general stress goes up during calorie restriction, so it's important to play the long game. Santana will often program maintenance periods during which his lifters get increased macros and can relieve the stress of having to comply with calorie restricted diet. As Scott mentions, the process of "recomping" or losing bodyfat take a long time - months, not weeks, maybe even years - so patience and commitment to the process is important.   Connect With Matt Matt on Instagram Starting Strength Online Coaching — Matt’s website Matt on Facebook Matt on Twitter Connect With Scott Scott on Instagram Silver Strength – Scott’s website Scott on Facebook Scott on Twitter Connect With the Show Barbell Logic on Twitter Barbell Logic on Instagram The Website Barbell Logic on Facebook barbelllogicpodcast@gmail.com

On this special episode of Technicolor Jesus, Matt and Adam talk with Tim Hughes Williams, pastor of Light Street Presbyterian Church in Baltimore, Maryland, about the live television performance of Jesus Christ Superstar. With mounting acclaim, the live performance of Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Weber’s Jesus Christ Superstar, starring John Legend, Sara Bareilles, and Brandon Victor Dixon has become a favorite topic of internet conversation. So Matt and Adam jumped on the line with friend of the show Tim Hughes Williams to talk about the musical, this performance, and the live TV musical phenomenon. Tim was also kind enough to stick around and join in the postlude fun.

This week the guys are a a little short handed this week after a long trip across the country. So Matt and Adrian tease the trip a little, but we will have the full crew to recap the trip next week! Follow us! BAM Podcast: https://twitter.com/thebampod BAM Bag Question Submission: http://bit.ly/2nSSNqV ---------------------------------------------- Adrian Twitter: http://bit.ly/2ivbz5d Instagram: http://bit.ly/2gEAiDI ---------------------------------------------- Matt Twitter: http://bit.ly/2gFqFEG Instagram: http://bit.ly/2yKgYLD ---------------------------------------------- Logo Art: Amanda Koffskey: http://bit.ly/2zWYOY4Description

So Matt still has no job, but that's ok.  It's all his own fault.This time Adam has a list of things that kids can do when in restaurants to stop themselves getting bored and keep them involved.Matt tells a story about when he was a kid, in particular when he was 12.  It's not a happy one, but still.

So Matt still has no job, but that's ok.  It's all his own fault.This time Adam has a list of things that kids can do when in restaurants to stop themselves getting bored and keep them involved.Matt tells a story about when he was a kid, in particular when he was 12.  It's not a happy one, but still.

So Matt still has no job, but that's ok.  It's all his own fault.This time Adam has a list of things that kids can do when in restaurants to stop themselves getting bored and keep them involved.Matt tells a story about when he was a kid, in particular when he was 12.  It's not a happy one, but still.

Is Matt Levine a modern-day Horace? Like Matt, Horace has a preoccupation with wealth and the law. There’s a playful humor as he segues from topic to topic. An ability to read Latin. And many of Horace’s letters are about the length of a Bloomberg View column. QED, says Tyler. So Matt, the Latin teacher turned lawyer turned investment banker turned finance writer, recently joined Tyler for a conversation on Horace and more, including cryptocurrencies, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Nabakov, New York, Uber, financial regulation, market volatility, M&A, whether finance is nerdy, and why panic is central to the Matt Levine production function. Transcript and links Follow Matt on Twitter Follow Tyler on Twitter More CWT goodness: Facebook Twitter Instagram Email  

Once upon a time, Matt tried and tried and tried to get Addison to record an episode this week. It never happened. So Matt got frustrated and made himself and our listeners a unique edition of Give That Some Thought: A Christmas Special. So light the yule log, pour yourself some egg nog, and listen to this with family and friends, and enjoy. Follow Matt (@Suburban_Wizard) and Addison (@AddisonTodd) on Twitter. Follow the show on Twitter: @GiveThoughtShow… The post GTST Special Edition: Annual Christmas Special first appeared on Tripod Broadcasting.

Once upon a time, Matt tried and tried and tried to get Addison to record an episode this week. It never happened. So Matt got frustrated and made himself and our listeners a unique edition of Give That Some Thought: A Christmas Special. So light the yule log, pour yourself some egg nog, and listen to this with family and friends, and enjoy. Follow Matt (@Suburban_Wizard) and Addison (@AddisonTodd) on Twitter. Follow the show on Twitter: @GiveThoughtShow…

The Jedi Council is back! They know you've been waiting for it. So Matt, Jake and David begin where they left off, joined by very special guest Eric 'The Cock Block' Marable as they delve deeper into Episode One The Phantom Menace. A few interesting theories come up that were mentioned in PCL a few weeks ago and the Council goes ham on them. Please enjoy and May the Force be with You. ARMY STRONG.

Welcome to the Creative Studio, the podcast where we conduct experiments in podcasting. Most podcasters stick with the “normal” podcasting practices, but you - you’re different. You like to try different things.   “You do it like this, and then you break the mold.”   This fifth season of the Creative Studio is a production of Podcast Guy Media, LLC. We will be talking with people that are doing something unique with their podcast. Maybe it’s their format, their philosophy, their niche. Whatever it is, we’ll find out what makes it tick. We’ll see what works...and what doesn’t. We’ll see what we can learn and apply to our own podcasts.   Visit our website at PodcastingExperiments.com.   We will be talking with Matt Medeiros today from the Matt Report Podcast. We’re going to hear about the way he experimented with publishing Netflix style, the power of video, and his approach to sponsorship.   Matt’s podcasting journey   Matt first began podcasting about 4 or 5 years ago. It began a few years before that, when he’d first started running his WordPress agency and went to an event and saw the potential for people to be talking with each other in the WordPress space. He was starting his agency and had other colleagues doing the same, growing fast and putting a lot of stock into their relationships in the space. At the time there were maybe 2 other WordPress podcasts, whereas now there are at least 15. It all started with the idea of getting connected in the community and growing his business, which for Matt, it has.   Matt’s podcast is the Matt Report. It’s an interview podcast that is basically a breakdown of what’s happening in the WordPress space. The interviews are with people in the space—developers and agency owners, as well as general tech and business owners—to help his audience learn from a variety of differnet perspectives. His audience ranges from people running small software startups doing anywhere from a few hundred dollars per month to $5000-$50,000 per month in sales of digital products.   The changing way Matt has published the last season   Like everybody else, Matt started doing his show every week. He did that for nearly 100 episodes, but without a hard schedule or plan on how he approached it. After a while that becomes a lot of work, and becomes a little stale, for the host but possibly even for the listeners. So Matt decided to change things up a little bit. He decided to release a whole season onto the website and Soundcloud ‘Netflix style’. However, they’re still released through iTunes once per week. That way, superfans can listen to them all at once on the side, but the normal cadence still happens every week.   This has been a benefit for a couple of reasons. Firstly, it allowed Matt to really focus and spend a month or so preparing the season. It also allowed him to dedicate an entire landing page to his season’s sponsors. It’s great for Matt because it’s easier to pitch sponsors that way, it’s great for the sponsors because they have more focused attention for a whole season and it’s great for listeners who aren’t getting hit with new sponsors every week.   More podcasting experiments   In Season 5, Matt also introduced 2 new co-hosts of the show, so he only hosted half the season. The other half was co-hosted by 2 other gentlemen who took the lead talking about software as a service. That was an experiment to get some new voices and a new perspective.   In Season 6, which is due in August, the podcast will go audio and video and feature an educational component. Everybody who was on the show was interviewed for 15 minutes and then presented some form of topic for 15 minutes. There will also be slides people can download so it will be a more value-based season for the audience.   The power of video   When Matt first started the show, 4-5 years ago, he did it on YouTube as well as audio. However, it was a lot more work back then. Now, the software is getting better, live streaming is more accessible and editing software is much more powerful so it’s easier to produce video and audio on the post-production side.   Matt has three YouTube channels and he knows there’s a huge connection for audiences with video. It’s the personal effect and that’s what makes some people tune in. There’s a stronger audience on the audio side because it’s so much more portable than video. However, video is very powerful for growing audience retention so he recommends it.   How Matt is approaching sponsorship   WordPress is an interesting space because although there are a lot of products and services, the everyday consumer doesn’t know about them and isn’t going to sign up. It has a lot to do with trust and referrals. Those pockets of companies that have something to sell—products, themes, hosting—do recognize authority in the space is valuable, so Matt is able to position his show quite well, even with numbers of listeners that are nowhere near like a mainstream podcast, or a tech podcasts and YouTube channels. For those mainstream channels, it’s a big ocean to swim in so they have to get big numbers to make it work. WordPress isn’t a big ocean but you can get big numbers when you have the trust and authority both of companies willing to sponsor you and of your listenership.   Matt is a trusted voice in the community, which means he can command a little bit more in sponsorship dollars. He has one of the most popular and certainly the highest rated WordPress podcast, so he is that authority. There’s no magic to his strategy: he simply goes to popular companies that he knows have advertising money to spend and pitches them to sponsor the show. He also limits the sponsorships to two per season so they don’t get drowned out, and that also makes it more attractive to sponsors.   The next steps for Matt and his advice to other podcasters   Season 6 is going to be a continuation of the experiment theme in terms of structure. Matt is also considering going outside the WordPress pocket, and expanding the show topic a little. He also plans to be more consistent with live shows. His advice to people questioning whether or not to start a podcast is to just start, but don’t worry about going the full monty right away. You can just dip your toe in the water with some consistent kind of audio or video content. It could be on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube or even Twitter. Find the platform you are most comfortable with right now and just start with getting your message out. Don’t worry about subscribers or microphones going into Skype going into a recorder. Just dip your toe in the water and start.   Where to find more from Matt   Check out the podcast at https://mattreport.com/   Matt’s fulltime job is representing Pagely at https://pagely.com/ which is Enterprise WordPress hosting. The agency he cofounded helps a lot of higer end and larger implementation of WordPress for startups that are using it in different ways, not just as a website.   He also has a YouTube channel that covers tutorials for WordPress: www.YouTube.com/plugintut   Or to have Matt review your website at a very affordable price, go to www.UserFeedbackVideos.com  

Josh couldn’t record this week, because he’s in dress rehearsals for Anxiety! The Musical. So Matt & Megan pick up the slack reviewing horror game Until Dawn. The post HSHD Special Edition – Until Dawn appeared first on Horror Show Hot Dog.

In this episode, Phil's on his honeymoon! So Matt and his lovely girlfriend Ashley dish out the topics like it's no tomorrow. They cover old vs. new cell phones and their games, share stories about good game retailers, and talk about flea market finds! Get a grasp on life and tune in! Thanks! *Note* Since Phil's away, we used a different audio setup, so quality is not up to our usual standards. It will be this way in the next episode as well. Bear with us until Phil returns! CONTACT US! Gmail: nglbpodcast@gmail.com Twitter: @nglbpodcast Facebook: http://facebook.com/nglbpodcast

  How you can end up licking stamps for Scientologists, pumpkin heads (I kid you not), and why you might want to feed pumpkin to the men in your life What you will learn how you can change your feelings about a scary event in your past why you might want to feed pumpkin to the men in your life At the end of this episode I'll share with you three things that you probably don't know about pumpkin, including why you might want to feed some to the men in your life. Oh - and the story also features a brief appearance of three pumpkin heads... On with the story Living in Paris, France This story takes place in Paris, France, where I discovered in my twenties that there are all kinds of weird and wonderful (sometimes not so wonderful) ways to make money. If you've listened to my previous episodes, you'll know that for a while I was living with a kind of crazy French guy (whom I call Dave) who used hypnosis to teach people English (more about that in Episode 1). Unfortunately for us both, Dave wound up getting totally sucked into the world of Scientologists. This is how one day I found myself licking stamps for them and getting more than a glimpse into their inner world, which had some good things about it but also some pretty creepy things. It's also how I came to see the pumpkin heads, which turned out to be a very good thing. But first I need to start by telling you how Dave and I got involved with the Scientologists in the first place. My first encounter with Scientologists Dave and I were walking along the Paris streets at night - as you do because it's just so beautiful - and we saw this poster outside a beautiful building that advertised a talk given by the Scientologists on past lives. The talk was happening in like 10 minutes, so we thought, "Great! Perfect timing!" Plus it was a free talk, so we figured we had nothing to lose. In our defence, we didn't know anything about Scientologists at that time. Dave wound up losing his apartment which he'd bought himself as well as his health, but that's another story. We attended the talk, and while the content was pretty interesting, it basically turned out to be a big pitch to sign up for one of their courses. The courses were pretty expensive, but they said that you could attend the courses for free in exchange for volunteering. So Dave and I were curious and we thought, "Why not?" How to get free food You also could get free food if you helped them with some extra stuff, which is where the licking stamps comes in. I was desperate for an income at that time, and I figured that if licking stamps for Scientologists for a couple of hours was what it took to at least get food, I'd do that. It was pretty easy work. I was basically in a basement office with this other girl, and she stuffed envelopes while I licked stamps. Then they'd feed me and I'd go back home. That part was easy. As for the pumpkin heads, well that part's coming up now. Getting 'clear' So in exchange for our volunteering, we not only got some free courses, but we also got a free auditing session with a trainer. An auditing session at that time was a one-on-one session, so a bit like a therapy session, where the goal is to help you achieve a state of mind that the Scientologists call 'clear'. They told us that being 'clear' means that you're free from irrational fears, phobias, insecurities and that kind of thing. Sounds good, right? Who wouldn't want to be free of those things? I was totally willing to give it a go because I thought it would be really interesting. And I was right. It was extremely interesting. While a lot of Scientology is just plain scary - and I'll share why in the next episode - some of their principles are actually useful. The key word here though is 'some'. Not all. Definitely not. My auditing session For my auditing session, I went into a small room with what looked like a long dentist's chair with squishy cushions. The auditor - I have no idea what his name was, so I'll call him Matt - told me to lay back, relax and close my eyes. He then asked me to think of a time when something happened to me that I found either scary, stressful or otherwise unpleasant. And that was easy because this all took place just a few weeks after my run-in with three teenage gangsters on a train (which I talk about in Episode 6). Tell me a story... Next Matt asked me to tell him the story of what happened, so I did. I told him everything, starting from when they got on the train, then everything that happened with the gun (which I won't go through again here as that's in my previous episode), and finishing with them leaving the train. Once I'd told the story, I was expecting Matt to ask me questions, or make a comment or something. What I didn't expect was him to say rather blankly, "Tell me again". I was like "The whole thing? Again?" He was like "Yes, again". So I did. I told the whole story again...and again...and again. I must have told that story about ten times, and after each time I was thinking 'surely this is enough, he must be getting bored by now' but he would just keep saying "Again". Part of me was thinking "Damn, I could be doing this at home with a couple of girlfriends or something, not much therapy or change going on here". But I complied and repeated the story from the exact same place and ending at the exact same point. From 'fear gear' to 'neutral' Suddenly on the 11th telling or so, I just burst out laughing. What I saw was just so funny, I couldn't stop laughing. So Matt asks, "What's so funny?" And I told him that the three guys came into the train and each of them had a huge pumpkin for a head. I mean, you had to be there to find that funny I think, but for me it was hilarious. And in that moment I understood the power of this particular technique: the negativity around the experience was completely gone. It really did feel cleared out. Even when I talk about it now, it's like it doesn't have any emotional impact on me, it feels neutral. Neither positive nor negative. It's very weird. How useful is it to feel neutral, really? Now before you think I'm going to start singing the praises of Scientology, let me just say that for this particular experience, feeling neutral about it I think is a good thing. But I wouldn't want to feel neutral about everything difficult that ever happened to me. I don't know what you think and I'd quite like to know so feel free to pop your thoughts in the comments. For my part, I'd rather feel healed or integrated than neutral. This was at the very beginning of my experience with the Scientologists, but a few short weeks later I was running out of there totally freaked out. I couldn't wait to put lots of distance between me and them - and I'll share why in the next episode. On to the pumpkin goodies For now though, I'd like to share with you three things that you may not know about pumpkin, including why it could be an important food for men. Benefits of pumpkin First, did you know that you don't have to cook pumpkin? You can actually eat it raw, and I'll say more about that in a moment. Second, pumpkin is one of the best sources of beta-carotene, which gives it its orange color and converts into Vitamin A once we eat it. This is important because foods rich in beta-carotene are thought to help delay aging, fight cancer and prevent degenerative damage to the eyes which occurs as we get older. So pretty powerful stuff. I'll link to an article that goes into all of these benefits in more detail. It also has links to in-depth scientific studies, just so you can see that I'm not making this up. By the way, the article that I'll link to mentions that pumpkin and other beta-carotene-rich foods can be particularly effective against prostate cancer. So ladies, make sure the men in your life are getting some pumpkin in their diet, OK? And third, pumpkin is actually a great food if you're trying to slim down or not overeat. It has a lot of fiber for very little calories compared to other foods. You can make it into bread, cookies, crumbles and all kinds of delicious food. Some ideas for eating pumpkin Now, how do you eat pumpkin? Well, as I said, you can eat it raw. But whether you decide to cook it or not, you definitely have to peel it. The easiest way is to cut round the top of the pumpkin as if you were going to carve it, take the top out, and then scrape out the seeds and the fleshy fibrous bits. By the way, don't throw away the seeds. You can wash them and then dry them out and eat them. Some people toss them in oil and salt and bake them, but I just pop mine in a dehydrator and dry them out that way. As for your pumpkin, once you've removed the seeds and the stringy bits, you cut it in half and then into quarters, and peel each quarter with a strong knife. You'll be left with the flesh, which you can roughly chop and put right into your food processor or blender to make a smoothie or puree or whatever. I've got a recipe for Pumpkin Mousse on my blog which I'll link to in the show notes if you'd like to give it a try. It takes 5 minutes and is delicious. So if you run into anyone with a pumpkin, whether it's on their head or in their shopping cart, at least you'll know what to do with it. And if you'd like other recipe ideas for all kinds of fruit and veg, I've got lots in my 5-Minute recipe ebooks that I'll link to as well. Have YOU got a story to share? If you've got a crazy, true story to share, I'd love to hear from you! Got a question, or a comment? Got a question, or a comment? Pop a note below, that would be awesome. You can also subscribe to the podcast to listen 'on the go' in iTunes, Tunein and Stitcher. I hope you have an amazing day. Thank you so much for being here with me to share in my Clean Food, Dirty Stories. Bye for now! RESOURCES Pumpkin Mousse recipe: https://rockingrawchef.com/pumpkin-mousse-recipe Article on benefits of pumpkin with links to scientific studies: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/279610.php 5-Minute recipe ebooks: https://rockingrawchef.com/5-minute-recipes/

Please translate this for me@CaseyBrewing Co hosts : Good ol Boy Andzrej, Good ol Boy Matt, Good ol Boy Chuck, and Good ol Boy Mike SUDS Episode – A regular tasting group gets together on the radio to discuss beer from Casey Brewing and Blending. This is a brewery takeover covering a broad range of beers from the product lineup. Our discussion gets lost in Polish translation exercises. We cover a good lineup of products that you can find widely available: The Cut – Balaton Cherry SUDS-3 East Bank – Honey Ale SUDS-3 Fruit Stand – Montmorency Cherry SUDS-3 Oak Theory SUDS-3 Oak Theory – Dry Hopped Amarillo and Motueka – SUDS-3 Brett Loves Mosaic – SUDS-4 Casey Family Preserves – Montmorency Cherry SUDS -4 OK, so there is a bit of an inside joke running during this episode. We had this long discussion of not being able to say the 7 FCC dirty words. So Matt in his usual witty manner suggested we just say “pizza” instead of one of those words, and well the suggestion stuck. It did make the editing much easier  Please excuse the 23 times Good ol Boy Mike coughs up a lung during this episode. He did make a full recovery from walking pneumonia about 4 weeks later. Sips, Suds, & Smokes info@sipssudsandsmokes.com @sipssudssmoke Sips, Suds, & Smokes is produced by One Tan Hand Productions using the power of beer, whiskey, and golf. Hosted online at Spreaker and available on iTunes, Google Play, PRX, TuneIn, Stitcher, Soundcloud, and YouTube. Enjoying that cool new Outro Music, it’s from Woods & Whitehead – Back Roads Download your copy here: http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/woodswhitehead2 You can now download our Android app to enjoy the show anytime on your Android device.

Death Warmed Over, Pizza @MIAbeerco @SycamoreBrewing @Omnipollo Co hosts : Good ol Boy Andzrej, Good ol Boy Matt, Good ol Boy Chuck, and Good ol Boy Mike SUDS Episode – A regular tasting group finally gets together on the radio to discuss beer. After tasting 1000’s of beers together we decided to finally capture the lamest moments of these rich conversations. This is a show and tell episode where each host brought a beer to discuss We cover a good lineup of products that you can find widely available: Mega Mixx – MIA Beer Co. SUDS -4 Altbairisch Dunkel Ayinger SUDS-4 Abrahadabra Omnipollo SUDS-3 Bury the Hatchett Sycamore Brewing Co. SUDS-3 OK, so there is a bit of an inside joke running during this episode. We had this long discussion of not being able to say the 7 FCC dirty words. So Matt in his usual witty manner suggested we just say “pizza” instead of one of those words, and well the suggestion stuck. It did make the editing much easier  Please excuse the 27 times Good ol Boy Mike coughs up a lung during this episode. He did make a full recovery from walking pneumonia about 4 weeks later. Sips, Suds, & Smokes info@sipssudsandsmokes.com @sipssudssmoke Sips, Suds, & Smokes is produced by One Tan Hand Productions using the power of beer, whiskey, and golf. Hosted online at Spreaker and available on iTunes, Google Play, PRX, TuneIn, Stitcher, Soundcloud, and YouTube. Enjoying that cool new Outro Music, it’s from Woods & Whitehead – Back Roads Download your copy here: http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/woodswhitehead2

#AskNorth40 - Episode 35 We got a question from Connie, from Tonasket, WA, asking, "What are the proper items to put in a backpack for a long hike?" So Matt and Jake set out to hike the Rocky Mountain Front outside of Great Falls. Then we got some advise from Patrick, at Mountain Hardwear, about what he recommends. Subscribe to the #AskNorth40 show email here: http://bit.ly/28QyShT BLOG - http://bit.ly/1P3eyvb SHOP - http://bit.ly/1P3eqf6 SUBSCRIBE - https://goo.gl/4EMwE9 FACEBOOK - https://www.facebook.com/north40outfitters/?fref=ts INSTAGRAM - https://www.instagram.com/north40outfitters/ SNAPCHAT - north40life

Host Lisa Kiefer interviews John Kuhry from Economic Development & Financing Corp. on how to connect money and ideas with entrepreneurs to create sustainable prosperity by providing gap financing and acting as lender-of-last-resort for small businesses.TRANSCRIPTSpeaker 1:Method to the madness is next. Speaker 2:We're listening to method to the madness of biweekly public affairs show fun, k a l x Berkeley Celebrating Bay area innovators. I'm your host, Lisa Keifer. And today we're talking with John Kuri, the executive director of the economic development and financing corporation, [00:00:30] also known as e d f c Speaker 3:[inaudible]. Speaker 4:Welcome to the program, John. Hi, you're the executive director of economic development and financing corporation. What is that and what is the problem you're trying to solve? Okay, so we are a nonprofit five oh one c three economic development corporation. And we are also [00:01:00] certified as a community development financial institution. And what we do is we provide financing to people that can't get money, act as a lender of last resort, primarily to businesses. And we do economic development, which is basically diversifying the economy. And where are you located? Oh, we're located in Mendocino county. We do business in [inaudible], Mendocino Lake counties. We focused on rural economic development. How did this get started? Uh, in 1994 partners in the, in our community of Mendocino, um, the four city and the county [00:01:30] itself looked at how can we better utilize our resources to try and diversify our economy. Speaker 4:So they formed this organization and we were supported by the county and each of the four incorporated cities. And from there we went out and were able to get funding and uh, apply for loans from the USDA. And what we are is an intermediary re lending partner, which is, we borrowed the money from the USDA and then we lend it out to two projects that have economic development. The biggest issue, especially in rural communities [00:02:00] is the lack of population density and just the lack of economic activity really, there needs to be support for businesses that are trying to bring income into the economy. And so this was noted in the 90s when things were kind of going well, right? Our economy supposedly, and one of the big projects that came out was the city of Ukiah. It was looking to do a infrastructure development of a bridge. Speaker 4:And we're tapped out in the terms of resources. So ESC is a nonprofit, was able to work with the economic development administration to [00:02:30] bring in funds through our nonprofit status to help build a bridge that was important for development in the community. From there, you know, we were pretty much just doing financing because redevelopment agencies existed and then about six or seven years ago, redevelopment dissolve. And so all the communities in California are looking at ways to address the funding issue. So what's going on with funding and where are the banks right now? The big thing that's happening, at least in lake and Mendocino counties, is we're forming an economic development district for communities to receive [00:03:00] funding, especially from the economic development industry. [inaudible] they need comprehensive economic development strategies put together and if counties or our communities can come together and do it, an economic development district, the uh, matching requirements, cause usually grant funding is required to match one for one. Speaker 4:A, it reduces significantly when there's, when there's an economic development district. So this is one way that the economic development administration is trying to address the issue. Um, we, we try to approach something a little bit differently. Up where we're at. We worked with cutting edge capital to do a direct public offering [00:03:30] to address a problem for nonprofits like ourselves who are eligible for grant funding but have difficulty coming up with matching funds. We received a grant from the EDA to study small scale meat processing and our award was cut down because we didn't have the matching funds. The other undercurrent that we were addressing was that the desire for local investors to move their money off of Wall Street into their community. So we work with cutting edge capital to create a direct public offering. I believe the first of its kind, which is a economic development [00:04:00] corporation allowing non-accredited investors to invest in their community. Speaker 4:How does this work? What is the process? You know, first thing we would say is we work in conjunction with our banking partners because banking will offer a overall low lower interest rates. But in the case of where you aren't eligible for financing or you don't get enough financing, that interest rate will be higher or you may not even get it at all. So you come to us. But there are instances where we found that there was a community benefit. We were looking at small scale meat processing. That project which we received grants funding for culminated with a peace ability [00:04:30] study and a business plan. And the next step is to build out. But there were three pieces missing. One was finding an operator, second was finding a piece of land and third was financing. So we, we think we've found the operator and found the land. Speaker 4:And so we looked at a direct public offering but the project was not ready to move forward. So we decided to, to address, um, this community benefit need by creating a social benefit revolving loan fund, which local investors can invest in. And Luckily a project came forward, which was a wool mill and that wool mill had social benefit enough [00:05:00] to where we said, okay, we what gave it social benefit. Oh, that had been there a long time ago. The wool mill was a startup and it was a young family. That principal, Matt Gilbert was a sheep shear and he actually is a forester by trade but been sheep shearing. It really got uh, impassioned with wool mill and there's a burgeoning local fiber movement in the bay area. That's amazing. If I ever shut up Marin created a locally sourced jeans can be a CSA Jean blue jeans. Speaker 4:Yeah, cotton cotton that was grown in the KP valley indigo that was got done in the KP valley. Unfortunately the milling, it had to be done [00:05:30] out in the east coast and there's a, again, a local, you know, wool movement in this happening and there's no fine spun fiber. So Matt came up with a business plan, but given the startup nature of it, the tech intensive capital needs and just his lack of capital was not turned. It was turned down by a bank. And we've, we thought this is a great resource. Wool was an important industry in Mendocino back in the day, but subsequently died out. A lot of people have animals on their property to comply with William Snack, which has tax status. And so they're shearing the sheep [00:06:00] and it's a cost center for them. Whereas Makin to aggregate this stuff that's normally taken to the dump or sold off for pennies on the dollar and turn into a value added product. Speaker 4:By definition, what we do is we do social benefit, we create jobs and jobs, create wealth in our community. Our mission statement is connecting money and ideas with entrepreneurs to create sustainable prosperity in lake and Mendocino counties. So by definition we have a mission, but we've expanded that mission to incorporate the social benefit, which in Matt's case would be adding value to a resource, which unfortunately in our community, a lot of our resources are extracted [00:06:30] and then the value that is added elsewhere. And so the people who were producing those resources aren't able to get to have a sustainable lifestyle. What other kinds of things besides like will extraction that you are looking at? Um, you know, again, we were, we're an agricultural community, um, and you've look go north of San Francisco. A lot of prime agricultural real estate has been turned over to grape growing, but Mendocino county and parts of northern Sonoma County, we built San Francisco with our redwood product. Speaker 4:Unfortunately, the redwood market has changed and and the need [00:07:00] for redwood and just the, the extractive nature of that business. We don't like to say extraction our community more because that means that we're not renewing. But with the wool you already renewing projects that we'd like to see come back would be, you know, how do we create more sustainable fisheries? Farming is is important and we up in where our area consider farming a social entrepreneurship type of endeavor because Mincey has a very large county, but when you actually look at how much row crops are being grown, there's probably less than a hundred acres that have grown crops that are being grown commercially. [00:07:30] And that's just a function of the other competitive resources which are being grown, which are grapes, timber, and of course our illegal economy. Cannabis. How much money do you want to ultimately be in this fund? Speaker 4:Or have you already reached that goal? We, yeah, we reached that goal. I mean really this was a kind of a Beta test. You know, we chose a local impact investing because we were, we wanted to try and be as conservative as possible and when we batch or in the community social benefits, it would mean that we could offset that with a lower financial return, which would then [00:08:00] build in some sustainability of the project. We had a minimum raise of $250,000 we needed to reach and we were had a maximum of a million. And that idea was maybe we would have the meat processing plant come online and we didn't have a project designated for this. In the process of doing this direct public offering to say to someone, would you invest in economic development? It's a little esoteric, but do you want to invest in a wool mill? Speaker 4:Was a much more tangible kind of ask. So we, the board of directors approved [00:08:30] the wool mill for a loan and so we were then we were able to use the [inaudible] mill as our flagship project to be a fundraise for. So we reached out to our minimum of 250,000 in January and in February we raised 350,000 which was the exact amount that's needed upon the wool mill. Isn't the goal to have a lot of money, so it's not just one, uh, you know, we'll mail, but many different companies could come to you and say, many local entrepreneurs could come and say, oh, I want to start this restaurant or I want to, isn't [00:09:00] that the goal of it or is it project by project? The intention of course is to have a larger fund, but given the time constraints and limited capacity that we had and also the brand recognition of the wasn't there. Speaker 4:A lot of people said, I want this to go to the wool mill. Given the time frame of when we had to fundraise, the wool mill was the only project. But now we've got credibility and if we're able to, you know, successfully pay back all the investors, then we can go back to a larger question of how do we fund projects to revitalize, you know, uh, manufacturing [00:09:30] and in Mendocino county, how do we revitalize the know your harbor? Okay, well how do we fund social entrepreneurs which need a lower interest rate and need more patient capital? So we created a fund to deploy it. But one of the things, as a community development financial institution, we are able to access grants and portfolio insurance programs. So if you were to go invest the wool mill, you're, you're, you're risking your investment and you're basing it on the intrinsic value of the project. Speaker 4:By us taking in that investment, we are then able to insure that loan and be able to service that loan or an intermediary. Exactly, [00:10:00] exactly. And we're nonprofit intermediaries, so a lot of intermediaries, when you look in the financial world, take a a return based on, you know, paying CEOs and things like that. What is EDF? See what EDF sees fulfilling its mission. I've got, you know, we're a nonprofit. For us, what we're doing is we're building sustainability to our mission. We're also fulfilling our mission in creating new markets for our community to be able to, to bring entrepreneurs in. So we look at it as a multi-tiered facet. So you're, if you're an existing business that needs, or a startup business that needs capital, there's a loan fund, but [00:10:30] there are projects such as the meat processing facility, which doesn't have an entrepreneur yet. Speaker 4:We're able to leverage grant funding because of our nonprofit status to be able to then develop those markets. And how will you do that? We also do direct public offerings or what is your plan for that? Well, the meat processing, ideally, you know, EFC does not want to be in the business of running other businesses. But what we are willing to do is kind of shepherd them and incubate them to the next level. So when we explored the meat processing facility, we wanted it to be owned by producers. But the producers that exist right now, the, [00:11:00] the mainstream producers are pretty satisfied with their existing contracts. And it'd be hard for them to move away. And so it's also a very controversial subject in our community. We had a lot of people who were back to landers. We have a Buddhist monastery and Buddhist school up there, so it's been tough to figure out whether this project can move forward. Speaker 4:But that being said, the producers that haven't been really wanting to take on this project, even though I've had talked to several prominent wine producers who have this problem breaking the Napa cache [00:11:30] like we made, we produced some of the best wines and grape juice in Mendocino county and a lot of it goes into Napa valley wines, but there's a good understanding that we could become the Napa Valley of grass fed organic beef and some of the proofs that we have are making that kind of impact. So the idea of value added processing is important. That being said, nobody really wants to take the risk. This is a risky endeavor. The returns don't justify venture capital. So in that question of how do finance this ETFs, he said, well, let's create a direct public offering model to lipper local investment. Then what we [00:12:00] would do is maybe start it, there's a, there's an economic development corporation, Taos who operates a meat processing facility. Speaker 4:And we would do it to start it off and then spin it off as a worker owned cooperative. But because we don't want to be in the business of running business or cu it sounds like, yeah, you're helping businesses stay in the community. And our other big project we're doing is we're doing a coworking facility and that's really brought up from a project we took on, which was broadband. You know, when we talk about rural communities, we are, you know, we're very behind the um, in the, in terms [00:12:30] of creating 21st century infrastructure for these information based economy. I feel like that in Berkeley, when I lived in Berkeley, I was really happy with my internet. I ran a brewery up in Mendocino on a satellite internet and that was really tough. So we came together with the community foundation and started talking about it and created the broadband alliance for Mendocino County. Speaker 4:And through that process we become really vocal and, and have gone to the congress and talked about the issues of the incumbents taking away copper and the importance for nine one one emergency services. [00:13:00] So we've become this very much a, a figurehead for this, this rural community. Cause when you look at the northern California rural communities where less than 5% of the population of California, so that's the margin of error for a lot of companies. Unless you make a lot of noise, they're not gonna be interested. Now that Mendocino is partnered with Sonoma and Marin, we've, we've created so much noise now that ATNT starting to take, take voice, but you really a region, right? You know, it's unreasonable if you're living up in a rural community that you have of highway up to your house. I also think that it's unreasonable that you're going to have fiber out in the middle of [00:13:30] nowhere. Speaker 4:But that being said, the real issue is how do you address our urban cores or our incorporated cities? How do you get the faster Internet and how do you address really the socioeconomic, digital divide of a cheaper access to people there? So those are some issues that we want to bring up. And this coworking facility that we're developing, we have a very, very large land area with a very large small population and we have some very, very creative people, you know, from battery pipe, which is a manufacturer of OEM exhaust systems for, you know, [00:14:00] motorcycles and ATVs and things like that. Operating on a, on a, on a global competitive scale in Mendocino county that started out from a local boy, two um, little startup c corporations. There's one up there, Peter Pucker, which is the main equipment for mixing ceramics and the primary equipment for Plato. Speaker 4:These types of entrepreneurs are scattered around and sort of bring people together, which into a hub, to a hub and be able to network will help create a, a culture of entrepreneurship because we, and then you can also [00:14:30] get economies of scale on when it is they need, whether it's accounting, back office, deffer Internet, right? Yeah. And you know, the, the, the coworking movement has been phenomenal in the bay area and we are, you know, it takes someone like UTFC, which is a nonprofit and has access to partnerships and things like that to offset the costs. But we really believe that the next major employer industry in our community going to be homegrown. It's not going to be attracting a, you know, Mason [inaudible], which was, uh, the biggest industry when the biggest companies in Ukiah for a long time moved away [00:15:00] for environmental and cost issues. Speaker 4:But we're not gonna attract another company like that or another Nike. And really what we are, what we're looking for is lifestyle businesses. I was in the bay area for 10 years and I'm up there for a much quieter lifestyle and it's artists and all things are, are very popular everywhere. Do you see this kind of thing happening elsewhere in the u s oh yeah. I mean, there are other EDF c type organizations, especially in rural communities. I mean, it's funny when you look at funding, um, criteria for grant [00:15:30] funding, there's two top of the list. One would be low income and the other one would be rural. So there are organizations that operate in, in Los Angeles, county of San Francisco County that are acts have access to funds and the rural communities are habit, but we don't have the population base. And so the impact is a little bit different. Speaker 4:But that being said, economic development corporations are all around the state, all around the country. And then the community development financial institutions really CDFIs are really unique. They're a designation by the Department of Treasury and banking and insurance [00:16:00] companies have to comply with community reinvestment act dollars. And so they fund the CDFI Fund, which then gives out money. But we, I could go to a bank right now and get money and be able to deploy it into a low income and rural projects. As a matter of fact, that direct public offering we did, it was probably the hardest money that I could've gotten to $350,000 well, you know, we raised for the direct public offering. Why is that a, because he had to go out, I mean, I was on a road asking, your average investment was $4,000 the number of people we had [00:16:30] was 80 when I could have gone to a bank and said, okay, I'll offer you the same terms, but the value back to the community, it binds the community. Speaker 4:Right, right. And also it was, it was important to to, I mean I think when we look at, you know, wealth inequality, it's really based on people having ownership of assets. And so this is a way that non-accredited investors can not only have ownership of assets but have it locally. And the conversation we have is, Berkeley's a good place for this. Where you talk about localization by local, where 45 cents of every dollar spent locally stays locally, whereas 15 cents of [00:17:00] a non local business stays locally. Well, if you look at that in a bigger scale, a scheme, if you go out and you buy apple stock, you're getting your dividend and apple. But if you put that same amount of money in, you know, Berkeley Bowl, you're not only getting that dollar back in div terms of dividends, but you're also getting that community benefit of those dollars circulating in the community. Speaker 4:So as you make it a little lower percentage, right. In this case, in this case we did, but you get a, an intangible return in the community because if you like a business, you want to stay. Yeah. The [00:17:30] other thing is that this is a prototype. So when we look at rolling out a, a more general economic development fund, we'll be able to offer a risk adjusted return. What does that mean? The reason why the Mendocino Wall project couldn't get funded was that it was a startup. The lack of experience from the, um, from Matt. He's young. Yeah. He's young. You know, he was for sure by trade. So the risk was there at that, you know, if you talk about venture capitalists, they, they, one of the reasons why they justify a high stake, either equity or rate of return is that [00:18:00] these things are inherently risky. Speaker 4:So when you look at the 2% return we asked for investors isn't quite risk adjusted. Then again, we are a nonprofit. And so because because of that and because we're a CFI, we're able to ensure this. So we mitigate a lot of that risk. But that being said, if it did, people would have been much more apt to invest that they were being offered a five, six, 7% rate of return, which would be more reflective of the risks that they're taking. So did you feel, um, is it something that you would recommend to others after going through this process of getting all of these investors locally? It was [00:18:30] CR. It was a great experience. I think that you're actually meeting face to face and with your invest. It was meme and sometimes I had to meet with them three times, you know? Well that's what the big, um, you know, IPO is they have to go around and do their dog and pony show too, right? Speaker 4:Eh, you know, but when they're getting checks of 10 million, $100 million, I mean, relatively speaking, you still have to do that face to face. But that's, you know, if you look at the way our world is moving, we're moving from a way, we're moving to more of a transactional experience and people are missing [00:19:00] the relationship. And so one of the things I've been working on with, you know, on the side is with some high net worth investors talking about how do we create direct relationship driven investment. And this, this what we're, what I was doing was directly, I mean, I shook hands with everybody. Everyone talked to Matt. You know, the, one of the things that investors really wanted to have was this feeling of community. So we're having these investor meetings where we're having one coming up at a, a very nice retreat place up in Ukiah. Speaker 4:I mean, this is a very unique, unique thing for you bring in the wool makers and [00:19:30] they give a presentation and went to the product. Yeah. So, you know, I think as our world gets more and more online and it goes from warm faster, it's that relationship that people are craving. And especially when you're talking about $1,000, I mean, you know, Michael Shuman talks about moving 1% of your income and what the impact that would make in our local communities. For some people $1,000 was what they would write a check for a philanthropic endeavor. But here they're going to build some sustainability into it. And this whole world of social, a social impact investing is [00:20:00] just growing leaps and bounds. Having learned about it five or six years ago, the market is just exploding and people wanting it. It is interesting. I feel like it's this whole other parallel universe going on outside of this crazy other financial market. Speaker 4:Yeah. And in some ways it's more tangible. Even if you have your money in a large commercial mega bank, you know, you think is FDI seeing insured? And it is. But that bank's exposure to derivative instruments and things like that. Or even if you have it in a, in a, your money, in a, in a stock somewhere. But if you have your, your money at Joe's, [00:20:30] you know, fish market, you can go by there every day and you'll see whether he's got people coming in or he doesn't. Or if you are, you get to taste this product and you know, whether you know he's going to fail or not. Yeah. Cause you know, if you know this person, you have a different responsibility. What, what was really unique is not, you know, the money was definitely the focus. But what came out of this was some of the captains of industry in our community came together and said, we want to mentor this guy. Speaker 4:Oh that's, so you're talking about another added [00:21:00] effect of like, wow, this guy, you know, this guy really, you know, we believe in him and we're gonna, we're going to take time out of our busy schedules running our multimillion dollar corporations to give him some mindshare. Yeah. So it's really, it was really community, you know, community focused. I was talking to a bank of America guy who specialized in CDFIs and he explained to me that, uh, he'd been working in the CDI Department at Bank of America for 25, 30 years and that he loved it and still financing. And if he wasn't doing that, he'd be working in a CDFI because CDFIs are [00:21:30] the most innovative and creative places where community capitalism is being deployed. And I think this place where CFIs like us are coming in and being able to take on that risk intermediary is really interesting because when we went out to the community and you know, in the bigger conversation of, in the wake of 2008 people were moving their money out of big banks and their communities like Willis economic localization, which was a group of people who came together and said, how do we invest locally? Speaker 4:And when I went to those meetings, it was great cause you hear these people going, I wanted [00:22:00] us locally, but I don't want to take any risk. I don't want to find the deals. I don't want to vet the deals. I don't want to service the deals. And so that EFC as a [inaudible] is a economic development corporation. The CFI, we have the skill set, we have the tools, and then we had the risk mitigation things. So this, this is a technique now that there are a lot of CDFIs are looking at what we're doing. Yes, it's a great alternative to this donation based crowdfunding. I don't want a tee shirt. I want to invest in your company. Well until recently, you know, and that's not been able to be possible. The SCC rules have just [00:22:30] finally come down. I'll tell you what, I spent more money on Kickstarter. Speaker 4:But that idea of having a relationship with an investment where you can go and you can meet and see and that it's in your community. I think I've done both too. And I just, I liked the connection that's made in the community. And there's also a bigger conversation that I'm having with people like in Berkeley or in San Francisco, is that places like Mendocino are your source of food, energy and water. And there has to be mechanisms that allow wealth building in those communities [00:23:00] so that families can continue to supply food, energy, water in an equitable way. And this is a great mechanism. You can people here investing. So these projects like meaning not Mendocino but you know, Berkeley, San Francisco and they did, they actually did. So because of the mechanism of the direct public offering is as a state exemption, as long as you register within the state, but it's open to all everyone in California. Speaker 4:So we did our road show in Mendocino, but 30% of our investment came from the bay area. Well it makes sense like you say, I mean [00:23:30] that's where we get our right and dude. And the other side of it is that, you know, a $50,000 investment from someone in San Francisco is a lot different than a $50,000 investment in someone in Willets. And um, so that was one of our largest investments was a $50,000 investment. Do you find that, you know, getting a couple of those big ones makes the rest easier? No, I don't think the big investment was really it and it's a matter of fact, I, I would've preferred to get it all through small investors. But that being said, I'm not going to turn away money and it made things easier. But um, we were late. We had a year [00:24:00] to, to be able to fundraise and we were authorized in February of last year and so the state gives you one year. Speaker 4:Okay. And then you can file an extension. But W we decided not to. We really didn't kick off our marketing effort until late, like six months later. And part of it was I was able to get grants from our local bank savings bank of Mendocino mental, a credit union, PGE gave us a grant, community foundation gave us a grant to be able to create a marketing campaign and a video or video was phenomenal. Really well done. I highly recommend you go to see it. It's think still, how would listeners go see [00:24:30] this video and you know your website? Yeah. Go to go to ww. Dot. E D F C. Dot. Org and state video about it. It's just the wool mill. It's really well done and just the local investment opportunity. But that really kind of kicked off the initial investment. And then once we started getting momentum and people saw this was for real, we'd brought Michael Shuman up to the community twice and everybody loved what he had to say, but nobody really believed that anyone was going to make this happen. Speaker 4:And when they finally saw money [00:25:00] coming in and the amounts of money that was coming in, it created a snowball and it was just, it was amazing. Shit. Bode well for the future. What are some other things that you foresee or you're hoping to get done in the future? Well, you know, one of the things that you know, we look at is there's such a beautiful harbor and the [inaudible] harbor up in Mendocino county and there's other issues other than just financing. But you know, creating a, a community, revitalizing that fishing community and that timber community in Fort Bragg is so important. It's so isolated and it's so beautiful and such a great lifestyle. I also think that [00:25:30] if you look at what happened, as a lot of people went to back to land, they went up to those areas, Mendocino and Humboldt counties, and they bought land from timber companies that have been just raped and pillaged. Speaker 4:These things were devastated and they were able to eke out a living and now they're looking at, hey, maybe I want to become a commercial cannabis grower and become legitimate and compliant, but they've got issues with erosion and road control, which can cast them, you know, anywhere from tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars and how do you get, how can they fund these things? So there needs to be a way, a mechanism to fund compliance [00:26:00] in this world. I'm not saying that we're ready to do that, but there is going to be a need to fund compliance in the future. In California, especially in rural areas, you couldn't probably get federal sources, but community capital could be raised to do that. And there's talk about trying, there's a bunch of people in the cannabis community we're talking about doing a direct public offering to create cooperative processing. Again, it's the issue of the people that make grow things don't make as much money as the people who distribute things. Speaker 4:And so you have to, in order to build equity in our community is to add value to it. All these regional [00:26:30] hubs are going to become more and more important. It's a redundant system. Yeah. And if you look at ancient Greece, right? Ancient Greece was not countries, they were nation, they're city states. And it's that aggregation, that economic activity that allowed them to weather the d vacation events that happened when I ran the Inner Sun Valley Brewing Company, which was a regional brewery when in a time it was in the top 50 craft breweries. Um, in terms of size and probably in the top two or three in terms of quality, but our core markets were San Francisco, Santa Rosa and Sacramento. [00:27:00] And even though we distributed out to Paris, China and Brazil and Sweden, if we lost market share in those areas, it was very concerning because those are your core markets. Speaker 4:And there is an intrinsic relationship between, especially Mendocino, Lake County, Sonoma county as to the bay area, being tied in acres, the bay area in building those relationships was really important. I want to talk a little bit about you. You've said that you grew up in Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz. You were in that brewery industry. What drew you to this CDFC work? I would say I [00:27:30] grew up in Santa Cruz. I actually was born in Vietnam and spent some time in Saudi Arabia. My Dad was a civil engineer, but for the most part, most of my child who was grown, you know from high school on our junior high on was in Santa Cruz. So I never thought I'd leave, but then realized going back to Vietnam, I had an opportunity to get an education, so I got into school, got out really quickly with a master's in economics and finance and realized I didn't really want to be in a bank. Speaker 4:Got Involved in Thai tech and so on and so forth and started some companies and then this opportunity to run the Anderson Valley [00:28:00] brewing company came up. When you go to a party, running a brewery was always, you know, popular. Yeah. You know, but I, I didn't, there were things in terms of things I didn't like about the business. One thing is I don't really drink that much. I don't enjoy drinking that much. And so that led to a clash. But at that time, being a very large employer in a very small area, I was asked to be on a lot of boards. And so being coming onto the economic development, financial risk and board of directors, which is 21 board members, uh, which includes two county supervisors, a city counselor from each of the four cities and then major employers [00:28:30] and things like that. I really liked the work. Speaker 4:We funded a brewery up in Lake County and my brewing experience came into that. And, or going into the wool mill or going to talk to another restaurant tour, the community really opened up. And so I love the myriad of things I get to do and the questions, it's just you're really connected in a network and I really love what I do. And just the, the community impact of it. If somebody wants to get ahold of you and ask questions, yeah, they can either email me, uh, John j o h n at EDF C. Dot Org Echo David, [00:29:00] frank, Charlie, um, they can call me, um, (707) 684-4084. You know, and I'm actually presenting, I'm going up to Comcast up in, uh, in poor ladies, Comcast, it's community capital conference about people creating ways to fund, uh, socially beneficial organizations or small businesses. One of the speakers and, uh, Amy Pearl up there has done some amazing things in community capital legislation to allow crowdfunding of community benefit organizations. Speaker 4:Yeah, I, I just loved the idea. I mean [00:29:30] I'm maybe growing up in Santa Cruz, but having that kind of social responsibility and I think that income inequality is solved through people taking ownership of assets and instead of redistribution, it's just basically able to be onerous of cooperatives or businesses. And being able to leverage that money. My next big passion is to create a mechanism for non-accredited people to put tax deferred investment away. Ultimately, like the litmus test for my job is healthy, happy kids. If families can live in [00:30:00] my community and are able to keep their kids here to have happy kids under themselves, then I've done my job. John, that's a nice way to end it. Thanks for being on the program. Oh, thank you very much. It's been pleasure. That was John Curry, the executive director of Ed FC Economic Development and financing corporation. This has been method to the madness. We'll be back again in two weeks. Speaker 3:Him. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In this fantastic episode, I interview Matt Inglot about one of my favorite topics; lifestyle design. Far too many entrepreneurs get trapped by their businesses and sacrifice their health, family and happiness in order to "make it". I don't believe this is necessary. In this episode, we'll dig deep into building a lifestyle YOU want to live and making your business fit what you want, rather than simply hoping for the best.   Resources Mentioned * Tiltedpixel.com * FreelanceTransformation.com * http://www.freelancetransformation.com/salesfunnelmastery Can I Help Grow Your Business? Visit http://www.JeremyReeves.com or email me at support@JeremyReeves.com and let's chat. Enjoy! Transcript Jeremy Reeves: Hey everyone, this is Jeremy Reeves, welcome back to another episode of the sales funnel mastery podcast, and today I have someone special on the line, his name is Matt Inglot, and I figure you are gonna find this pretty entertaining and pretty informative if you want to work less and enjoy your life more. I know I’m kind of in a stage right now where I am going a little bit nuts because I’m about to take some time off, but in general, you want to work a little bit less, enjoy your life more, have more of a lifestyle, you know rather than just kind of being stuck in the business all day long and I think you are gonna really enjoy this episode. Matt is the owner and founder of Tiltedpixel.com which is a web agency that primarily helps [inaudible 00:05:16] companies to basically convert visitors into customers and he will talk more about that in a sec. He is also the owner of FreelanceTransformation.com and basically they are really good resource for freelancers service professionals to build amazing lifestyles around their business versus you know just being kind of stuck in your business and you are just, you know, doing the daily grind every day. So Matt, how are you? Matt Inglot: I am doing well Jeremy and it’s great to be on your show. Jeremy Reeves: Yeah, thanks for coming on. Matt Inglot: Absolutely. Jeremy Reeves: So before we get into everything that we are gonna talk about today, take a second to expand on your 2 websites just so people have a good understanding whether or not you can help them, you know, kind of [inaudible 00:06:01] a little bit. Matt Inglot: Sure, well I think [inaudible 00:06:03] but FreelanceTransformation.com kind of hits the nail on the head of what I’m all about. So I have a web agency called tiltedpixel and that’s something that I have build over the past 10 years. In fact, we just hit the 10-year mark back in September and that is a very long journey where originally I had an office, I had employees and I basically had this weird and all too common perception of business which is that you are successful if you have a big company. So the more people that work for you, the more offices that you have, the more wheels are turning, the more successful you are and I originally built my company off of that model, but the end result was that I was working 80-hour work weeks, I was frankly miserable. I found that I was paying out most of our money to overhead versus actually getting to keep some at the end of the day and I had basically created this monster that I had to keep feeding instead of building a business that actually allowed me to live the life that I want to live and eventually I had a breaking point and said, okay, enough is enough. So, back in 2011 I got rid of the office, I gradually converted everybody to contract and now it’s a very overhead-light business were both of our expenses are directly correlated to our projects. I work a heck of lot less than the 80 hours. I work less than 40 hours in fact and that has given me a lot of time to create freelancetransformation which is basically helping other people dig themselves out of that all too common hole of basically owning a freelancing business that booms your life and try to get into something that actually gives you kind of a spectacular lifestyle that [inaudible 00:07:54] that’s probably why you started in the first place. Jeremy Reeves: Yeah, I think most entrepreneurs regardless if you are in -- like kind of service industry or you sell products, I mean, whatever it is you sell. I think most of us do it because -- I mean, first all, I think every entrepreneur loves like the challenge of it, there is all that, but it’s also to -- I think most people wanna do it because they want more freedom and more income and all those kind of things and then you start building it like you commonly hear, you know, people have like a 1000 employees and they work all day, they are stress all day and that kind of thing and it kind of just transforms into that. So it’s kind of cool that you were there and you got out of that. I think most people get trapped in that kind of vortex and never or able to actually get out of it. So it’s kind of cool to hear somebody that was there and then got out and you kind of get back to what you wanna do which is pretty cool. Matt Inglot: Yeah, thank goodness because a lot of people do not get out of it, get out of that and it’s very telling if you talk to somebody who is just starting out on their own especially if they wanna become a freelancer or even if like another type of entrepreneur [inaudible 00:09:04] that you will always hear is I wanna be my own boss, I wanna have the freedom to do things I wanna do [inaudible 00:09:10] less of dreams and then you talk to them 2 years later and they’re basically stuck exactly where I found myself or they -- you know, they have none of those things, they just have an 80-hour work week. Jeremy Reeves: Yeah, yeah, exactly. So there is a lot of different things that we can talk about. I guess, let’s start with how do you like kind of -- how do you make that switch actually, that’s a good place to start. How do you go from like, say you are in a point now where it’s you and you have a bunch of employees and they are kind of like running your life and your clients and customers are running your life and it’s really -- you are not even in control of your own life. How do you start to kind of transition out of that, is it by improving your workflow, is it improving, you know, maybe doing like an 80/20 on your customers and clients and only working with those that you are spending the least time with making the most income or -- is there any like kind of good place to start that transition? Matt Inglot: Yeah, definitely. So it’s very easy and very difficult all at the same time. So I started for a place of breakdown basically. Sometimes, you know that is kind of what has to happen, kind of wake you up. So at that point, I mean my business wasn’t doing that great financially because, again, the high overhead, the feast or famine cycle and I wasn’t that great mentally which was the bigger problem. Again, I was overworked. I was burned out. If you never suffered burned out, I mean it’s one of the worst things because you will wake up and you know you got a day ahead of you and then you will work for half an hour and then suddenly you are exhausted, that can be the end of your day, which is obviously a problem when you are trying to run a business and that is something all entrepreneurs have to watch out for. Ideally, you don’t start -- you don’t wait until you have a break down like that, but certainly maybe the motivator for a lot of entrepreneurs to finally change things. So in my case, the easy part was the mechanics. The hard part was making the decision because I mean it was freaking scary right, you have this office and I had invested 20 grand just a year and a half before that [inaudible 00:11:25] walking away from that office [inaudible 00:11:30]walking away from that 20 grand it also meant getting someone else to take over when I leave possibly taking on loss on that. What would I tell to my clients, what would I tell to my employees, all of these like fears and doubts in my head, but when I actually did make that tough decision, it was actually turned out to be very easy. So I did -- I did do an 80/20 analysis basically what you described and I basically decided to rebuild my entire business model and do that hard thinking that I have been putting off for so long. So I looked at the projects that we were doing and I realized that sure enough 80/20 rule, typical, 80% of our profits [inaudible 00:12:10] were coming from 20% of our clients and those clients had [inaudible 00:12:15] characteristics that the other 80% did not. So at that point I realized that I was investing a ton of money into a ton of overhead to start with 80% of clients that were basically breakeven at best. They help pay for the overhead, but the overhead was necessary in order to have them in the first place so it’s kind of why are we spinning the wheels. So the 80/20 was the key, honestly was the key, I talked to my landlord, I let him know what’s up. I found someone else to take over to lead, luckily, I had a great network of [inaudible 00:12:50] so I reached out to a number of people and someone knew someone that was looking for an office and we basically just change the name of the lease and it was done. I told my clients that we are gonna changing our business model. I was worried everybody would leave but in fact nobody left, nobody was really ticked off. A couple of people were a little worried [inaudible 00:13:10] being like you are going under or something but I reassured them and in the end like several months later life was completely different, and I could have done the exact same thing a year and a half ago, I could have done it 3 years ago, I just did because I thought that I had to operate my business this way and unfortunately it did take a bit of a break down to change that but it turns out making these changes are actually very easy once you actually commit to doing it. Jeremy Reeves: Okay, what do you think -- because there is -- I mean there is a million things that everybody does like -- on daily basis that kind of thing, I mean -- did you in terms of what you looked at because I’m sure at some point you had to look at your workflow like you get up and it’s like okay what am I doing today, what am I doing tomorrow, this week, or this month. What was some of the things that just didn’t -- that you were able to get rid of once you really simplified things -- I mean that is basically what you did. You just simplified the business. So what were some of the things that you just -- were able to just -- kind of not have to do once you got your employees from, you know, employees to contracts and you started working with less clients with better clients and that kind of thing you know -- where they certain -- I am trying to think of a good name for them, but you know, everybody has those tasks that they have to get done, you know, the entrepreneur, [inaudible 00:14:34] should not be doing them that’s more things that should be outsourced to people like assistance and project managers and other employees but most entrepreneurs that are not quite there yet. They are doing all these different things that they should not be doing, but they kind of have to do because they do not have the revenue whatever to pay for somebody to do it. How did you kind of go from doing all that stuff to just getting rid of it or outsourcing it and being able to focus on [inaudible 00:15:04] did the highest leverage activities? Matt Inglot: Absolutely, so I think the key in everything you just said is getting rid of it and I’m burrowing this from Tim Ferriss from the fourhourworkweek because he has got the same model of -- or maybe getting things done or maybe both of them -- [inaudible 00:15:21] great books, it’s Eliminate, Automate or [inaudible 00:15:28] in that order and that is critical and I think that is fourhourworkweek where you should be trying to think about your business in terms of what tasks I can delegate, that the last step, that if you can’t get rid of it. What can you get rid of altogether in the first place for automate. In my case, focusing on the profitable clients and getting rid of the rest was absolute key because that eliminated a lot of things. It eliminated a ton of low return on investment sales conversations. Originally, we are selling an amount of $5,000 websites [inaudible 00:16:04] company size selling $5,000 websites is not the answer for that unless it’s fully automated. So we were doing a lot of those and the problem is I get into these discussions because somewhere in my head I had the idea that I was the storekeeper so a customer comes up to you they want help, therefore, you have to help them, and I mean that’s kind of true if you run a retail business but if you are doing any sort of consulting you have to be a lot of [inaudible 00:16:34] than that. So now when people approaches, I screened them very carefully and I always start with -- I always start with what are the reasons to not take this first and on, and after, you know -- I haven’t been able to come up with any notes that is when I started thinking okay, how can we work together, how can we run this first and over. So by default is to refer someone elsewhere not to try to win them as a client and that is just dramatically changed to how I spend my time because I was not spending time trying to sell people that I should have be taken on as clients and consequently that also cut down a ton of my project management workload because I was not trying to manage projects that had marginal profitability and the more clients you have to manage, the [inaudible 00:17:23] more of your time. So it was really a process of elimination and as soon as I did that a lot of my problems frankly went away. Jeremy Reeves: Nice, and I love that. I completely forgot -- I remember reading that now, in one of the books because I have read both of those books too about the automated delegate and I have completely forgot about that because I’m kind of in that phase now where I am kind of -- elimination phase and even the same thing raising my minimum fees and all that kind of stuff. Even this year I think I went -- I think my minimum, I changed it to my $5,000 I think it was [inaudible 00:18:00] but I have been considering going up to $10,000. It is so much -- I mean it’s just -- it does not make sense to -- one of the things you are talking about that really struck me and I hope everybody really heard was that, the more projects you take on, the more projects you have to manage it exponentially gets worse because -- what happens of that -- that is almost like a productivity tip. It’s the whole thing of -- I forgot who [inaudible 00:18:32] was done but like how it takes like 20 minutes to switch tasks, you know what I mean and that is why even some of my writers and my employees and stuff I am always training them that don’t start writing emails and write for an hour and then go to a sales page and then go back to an upsell and then go back to this other project. It’s like, you know, the whole day should be focused on one thing. If you finish that then take a break don’t like go right for the next thing because you are not going to anywhere. You might as well just take a break go get some tea, whatever you wanna do and then come back and then start on a next thing but it’s -- I mean it’s so crazy how applicable that is. When you set up your week it’s so important to know exactly what’s in your week and exactly what’s in each day of your week. I can tell you right now exactly what I’m doing every single day of this week almost of the hour. This week is a little bit different because I’m like a little bit insane this week, it’s very abnormal for me. Normally I’m not this crazy but it’s only because I’m taking the next 2 weeks off and I’m also in the process of hiring 2 new people and I’m overbooked on client work. So it’s kind of like one of those perfect storms, you know. This week is a little bit different but if everybody didn’t really -- if that didn’t sink in, I really hoped that it does because you should really -- it really just comes back to 80/20. That concept is so powerful and again it doesn’t even matter if you’re running a service business, product business I mean there are things that you are doing that number 1 you shouldn’t be doing and you shouldn’t be switching task to task, I love that, I love that. It’s brilliant. Matt Inglot: Definitely [inaudible 00:20:24] $20,000 website project is probably gonna take me a 3rd of my time to do everything I need to want it including sales and project management versus $4,000 or $5,000 projects. So think about that 3 or 4 times the time commitment to generate the same amount of revenue, it is absolutely crazy. Jeremy Reeves: Yeah and even, you know, with projects, let’s just say 5 versus 20, even if you are not the one doing it which really, you know, I’m really starting to [inaudible 00:20:56] you shouldn’t be the one doing it like if you sell websites, you shouldn’t be actually building the websites. You should be building the vision, you should be building the systems to actually build the website and like all those kind of things, the vision from the company and like all that. A lot of people including myself like I put a lot of time when I first started -- this is the part that I’m personally good at. I am really good at starting projects, strategizing them, getting to move off the ground but then once they’re in motion, I have learned to kind of let it go and then just come in little by little, you know, not do the whole thing, not do the [inaudible 00:21:37] horrible at the end. That is why I have people on the team that help me get that part done because I might -- most entrepreneurs you are really good at starting things, you innovators, you like to change things and the whole shiny object things. So you have to -- kind of embrace that and build for me, build a team around that but if you are putting -- let’s just say that it takes you 5 hours total of your time and then your team handles the rest of it. If you are spending 5 hours doing a $5,000 project that’s a $1,000 an hour for like each hour that you put in, but if you put in 5 hours that same time which typically, it’s really not that much more for bigger projects. You might strategize a little bit more whatever but it’s not four times the amount more, it might be like 25% more, whatever it is then you are making $4,000 an hour for that and I think that is a really valuable lesson that the people should learn is when you are really focused on your best clients, your [inaudible 00:22:42] way up so either, you can work more or work the same and make a lot more money or you can cut your time in half and so you will make the same amount of money. Matt Inglot: Absolutely and definitely [inaudible 00:22:57] on the ladder. I long ago realized after all of my problems and everything and all the stress I caused myself trying to be one of the most entrepreneurs that you know so called hustle and working themselves to death. I realized that, I really have a breaking point around like [inaudible 00:23:17] around 6 to 8 hours in a day and that’s really all I could comfortably do on a healthy long-term basis. So for me, it’s rarely about how can I make more money versus how can I make more -- how can I get enough dollars per hour so I can then go do other stuff versus okay I’m making X hundred dollars an hour you know, let’s try to fill up 80 hours a week so that I can get rich. Jeremy Reeves: Yeah, you know, I think a lot of people are like that. I have always look at my business kind of the same way like okay let’s just -- you have your goal, let’s just say whatever it is, just say a quarter million dollars that you wanna make personal right, and it’s like, instead of saying okay, I’m just kind of keep working until I hit that, you will say, okay, the end goal is $250 grand, how do I do that within the hours of whatever, for me it’s 6 to 3 that is like my hours every day. For other people, it might be 9 to 5, for other people it might be 2 in the afternoon until 10 at night, whatever it is, it might be 9 o’clock in the morning until 11 o’clock in the morning, then you will say okay, how do I only work for 2 hours but still make $250 grand and then you tried to figure that out but I think it’s so important to do that and I kind of love that way of thinking rather than just how do I make X dollars period. It’s how do I make that in a specific amount of time so you are not killing yourself and you are not killing your creativity especially because a lot of like the people you help are creative. How did you -- when you started dwindling your hours down and you went from 80 down to, you know, you got it down to 70 and 60 and 40 and now you are under 40. How did that affect your -- just like your own role, the way that you think, you know your mental processes and your creative process and your clarity and that kind of thing. Did you see a big shift in the amount and the quantity and quality of your ideas and how you relate it and react it with your clients and that kind of thing. Matt Inglot: Hugely. Absolutely hugely and you know, just a disclaimer it wasn’t a nice, easy, straight road where [inaudible 00:25:39] from 80 to 70 to 60. After I got rid of the office, things improved greatly then I made a couple other mistakes along the way but the net result is for the past few years, few things have happened what I went from just getting sick at the [inaudible 00:26:00] to really loving my job because I get to work with the absolute best clients. It is very difficult to work with me in terms of actually getting accepted with your project. You have to meet various specific criteria which for me means I get to help the kind of people that I wanna help and that allow me to use my best ideas because of not constantly overwhelmed I have a ton of freedom in how I run my business and how I run my personal life. So for example, [inaudible 00:26:35] put on a conference and he announced it relatively last minute and so I looked at the calendar [inaudible 00:26:43] it was actually another conference that was put on even sooner. So that was one example where I looked at my calendar and was able to say, Okay, I think I will do this conference even though it’s only a few months notice and then there was another one kind of our retreat that I knew about 3 weeks in advance and I just looked at my calendar wiped out a few things and I was able to go to this retreat. You know, how many people can book a trip on 3 weeks’ notice for -- many people it’s like okay, I got to get the time off work and we can go to Mexico 6 months or 12 months from now. Whereas for me, I could be very spontaneous or just if I don’t feel like working today I don’t feel that great I can go do something else. So it’s not just amount of hours work in a day it’s the amount of time flexibility that you have, what you haven’t filled up your calendar like crazy and yeah that absolutely creates the time of freedom. Jeremy Reeves: Yeah, did it take you a while when you started getting to the point where you could, you have the flexibility in your schedule, did it take you awhile to allow yourself to take that time? Matt Inglot: Oh, hugely. I mean it’s still an ongoing issue today. It’s very difficult to not feel guilty when it’s like 1 p.m. in the afternoon and you already accomplished the one big task you wanted to do that day and that is where, I mean I have other things that keeps me busy now like freelancetransformation [inaudible 00:28:20] probably gonna make some money but right now it’s a free podcast, free resources. I have invested a ton of money into it, I mean, you know that is something that is generating an immediate return on investment, but I’m able to do it because of the time freedom or I have other hobbies like woodworking. I spend a lot of time in the wood shop. So it’s not just about having the free time, but I think having clear purpose of what to replace it with because otherwise you’re like [inaudible 00:28:53] okay, what now? Jeremy Reeves: Yeah, and you are always trying to look to like fill that point. Matt Inglot: [inaudible 00:29:01] track your emails if [inaudible 00:29:03] or you will give yourself a task that frankly don’t need to be done just to fill the time. Jeremy Reeves: Yeah, just stand up and get the hell off the computer. It’s funny I actually, I kind of get lucky -- kind of bad way but last summer, my dad past away last November, last summer -- aggressive cancer so we kind of knew that last summer, the summer of 2014 was gonna be our last summer to play golf together because that was one of the things of me and him always did, we play golf together and that kind of thing. So I kind of fell into that, you know what I mean, like -- I have always struggled too, you know finished a project and it’s -- like you said 1 o’clock and you know that there is nothing else like on your to do list but you kind of just try to fill that void and so I actually, was almost forced into taking days off without feeling guilty like -- If that happened to me I just call my dad and say, let’s do golfing. Thankfully, it stuck with me, since then I am able to do that, I will be done by -- and not that your -- I mean my to-do-list is always huge but sometimes I do a to-do-list for every week and I have everything list on just say there is 10 things. If I finished it, you know Friday morning or something, I will take Friday off and the weekend off because you know it’s done and you don’t have to do that everybody [inaudible 00:30:47] such a rush versus just, you know enjoying that you have a really productive week and you probably did a lot more than everybody else and that’s the reason I feel like you should kind of reward yourself for that instead of feeling guilty about it. Take a day off it’s not gonna -- it’s gonna do nothing but help. Matt Inglot: Absolutely, and the thing is you touch on something very [inaudible 00:31:09] unfortunately sometimes life just gives us a kick in the ass and forces us to rethink our priorities so I’m very sorry that your dad passed away and obviously that kind of forced you to rethink your priorities and make time for those golfing sessions but obviously, we don’t wanna wait for the bad stuff to happen in order to force us to change our ways. So one thing that worked really well for me as part of this process of transitioning away from workaholic to someone with a life was to take a longer trip. So I went to Poland then Ukraine for 2 months and that really forced me to reevaluate my entire business because I actually took that time off. I check email once every 2 weeks. I put my brother in charge basically forced everything to become a process, forced myself to not be involved in everything and that was absolutely transformational, one because you know, I haven’t had 2 months off since I was a little kid in summer vacation and two it really forced me to reevaluate how my entire business [inaudible 00:32:20] and I think there is something special about travel there because if you decide to take kind of so called staycation, you’re there, you’re available online it’s very easy to get fall back into work. When you’re travelling especially with a giant time zone difference where internet connection is not always even an option to you, it actually forces you to do things right rather than half-assed. Jeremy Reeves: Yeah, yeah. It’s very, very true. Do you have any kids or wife or anything like that? Matt Inglot: I have a wife. No kids yet but we do have 2 cats that we basically [inaudible 00:32:56] yes in fact like right before we started recording this interview I had to turn out Netflix for my cat because he likes [inaudible 00:33:05] and stuff. That’s what keeps him from like bugging me during the podcaster. Jeremy Reeves: That’s so funny. That’s funny. I do a lot of like this, you know, the staycations and all that and I have gotten good at that because that’s -- I also have a wife and a 2 and a 4-year-old so that’s like it’s a lot of times it’s just -- it’s less stressful, you know, than actually going on vacation. We went to Martha’s Vineyard, I forgot if it was this past summer or [inaudible 00:33:35] I think it was in 2014. It was like halfway through and like, “Oh my God, I can’t wait to go home” because it’s like -- it’s just you know -- bundling them off and you take them to the beach or whatever, you come back and they are all sandy and they are screaming and -- so I’m in that like of kind of bad zone right now or just, doing more of the staycations. So, I like -- at least, it’s hard when you are on here and most of the stuff -- the way our office is set up or my office is -- you go up in the first floor and then, there is all the typical stuff in the first floor and then our bedrooms are all in the second floor and our basement is all redone, we finished all that and my office is down here and next to my office is the kids play room and then next to my office on the other side, it’s kind of a big square. On the other side is an entertainment room, so I have a treadmill in there. I have a playstation, a tv, a couch, all that kind of stuff and so a lot of times, if I watch movies I’m in there, if I go and play playstation I’m in there, if I read a lot of times I come down because there is an awesome recliner chair that I love down here, so I kind of just sit down here and read. It’s hard like when you’re doing those staycations. I have to come through this room to get to the entertainment room where I’m gonna relax and it’s like -- you kind of like, you walk in, you see the computer and you [inaudible 00:35:03] pause and like stare at it and then you’ll have to force yourself to keep going but it’s hard to really get away, you know what I mean, like you’re still kind of tethered to it. Even if you are not checking email and stuff you see the laptop on the counter, you see the desktop in the office and you kind of just like -- forms out like that quick little connection and then you started thinking about business again and all that kind of stuff. I’m in the process now of learning doing more day trips and that kind of thing and just learning to travel with kids. It’s just something I’m not good at. I have a lot of friends, I have buddy who he has a little girl like, I mean they travel all over and they fly, they go to Mexico like all these different things and I’m like how do you do that, I haven’t been able to figure it out yet. Matt Inglot: And some people are great at that, not being a parent I can’t really speak to them. One suggestion would be as an alternative to staycation at home, I mean travel does not have to be travel, travel it could be a renting a cottage for a week or two or a month. Jeremy Reeves: That’s true, yeah just local. Matt Inglot: I lived in Croatia, so [inaudible 00:36:13] this is kind of a bigger trip but I lived in Croatia for a month and we stay in one place and we just rock climb every morning. It was awesome. So you don’t have to go all the way to Europe to do that. You can just, you know like I said, rent a cottage, move the family there for a month and just forcing yourself out of that regular environment is very, very life changing. Jeremy Reeves: I might have to try that, that might go in one of my goals for next year, is to do like a month away from the house, that’s interesting, I like that idea. Matt Inglot: [inaudible 00:36:46] I recommend it. Jeremy Reeves: Nice. So going back to off the ramp. Is there anything like -- how do you -- what would you recommend with structuring your time, is there a certain kind of time structure or work, you know workflow or work structure that kind of thing that you do like is there you know certain routine to have everyday or certain like set of things that have to get done every week, month or day or whatever or any kind of systems that you have to keep you from kind of straying back to where you were before and keep you on track? Matt Inglot: Yes, there is a few things that are sacred to me when we kind of [inaudible 00:37:27] earlier which is the idea of having one thing to do per day so just like you told your team to focus on either the upsell page or either the sales page but not like trying to deal everything at once. So I normally have one thing that I am gonna do today that’s gonna move me forward and that takes top priority. So obviously, there is email, so there is gonna be fires that come up that you have to put out, meeting and stuff like that but none of those things count. You also make a time for doing exactly one thing has actually [inaudible 00:38:01] when we started making those to-do-list we all know it’s gonna get done just the one thing and make sure everyday has the time [inaudible 00:38:12] to actually accomplish it so part of it is taking control of your time. For me the way I deal with is making sure that all my meetings get booked through a scheduling service so I used [inaudible 00:38:22] there is a bunch of good programs out there but basically the idea is that someone wants to meet with you, you send them a calendar link and they have to pick for one of the available times and it’s magic because when they see your calendar, they are not gonna come back and say, can you do it at this time when clearly you’re booked that time but the [inaudible 00:38:44] lets you set what time to make yourself available, how many meetings you have per day, all of that good stuff. So you can very quickly boxed up your calendar to make sure that for example you don’t get tripped into a 9 a.m. meeting. I do not like those -- I don’t like having 5 meetings in a day and this way it’s all automated [inaudible 00:39:07] so I never like let go of my willpower and let people walk because you know, like your clients says you know mornings work best for me so you try to be a people pleaser so you’re like locate your morning and be like okay I can do 9 a.m. or as you know, as soon as I am off that [inaudible 00:39:23] deeply regret it. Now it’s all automated that’s off the table. So that way I have lots of time in my day that I know we are not gonna get filled up with meetings and other stuff and I know I am gonna have time for that one thing. Jeremy Reeves: Yeah, yeah and I do the same thing. I have scheduled once and I think that [inaudible 00:39:43] really similar but you can do -- I do 11, 11:30 and then from 1 to 3, that is like my daily kind of thing and then Fridays I don’t do anything after -- I think 11 is the last one, because Friday is typically the day that if I’m gonna just take it off and not work that’s typically the day. So I actually, I like to just keep it open, I mean, usually the average [inaudible 00:40:08] but if I just don’t feel like it you know, sometimes I just don’t. Matt Inglot: [inaudible 00:40:16] tremendous freedom to that especially because the big secret is after around 11 a.m. no emails that [inaudible 00:40:23] inbox matter. Like they can wait until Monday because, you know, people don’t necessarily expect the response after that time [inaudible 00:40:31] but it’s, you know very understandable if you don’t respond until Monday. Jeremy Reeves: Yeah, that is why I like that. I’m gonna have to kind of investigate that a little bit because just thinking about it it’s very true I never really had that insight before but I can kind of rearrange a couple of things just based on that. I’m gonna sit here and be thinking about it while we are talking. I really like that. I’m gonna have to look into that and kind of look and see when people are emailing but that is a big one for me actually. So how do you do -- is there anything -- do you do certain things on certain days, like do you -- for example like Mondays are dedicated to building systems and Tuesdays are dedicated to marketing or like, do you have anything like that, like how do you -- how do you make your schedule? When you sit down, whatever day that you do schedule for the week, do you have any kind of like actual like structure of doing that, any kind of process or is it kind of just come up based on what’s going on in the business. Matt Inglot: For me it’s very fluid and there is probably things I can improve there but one thing I do try to do is make an either a Tiltedpixel day or a freelancetransformation day. It is the same thing of our contact switching. So for example with my podcast I have several Tuesdays and Thursdays available for recording podcast interviews and if you want to be a guest on my podcast I send you the appropriate scheduling link and those are the only times you will see and that way when I’m doing podcasting I am batching that, I am doing 3 episodes in a day let’s say and then I have my [inaudible 00:42:13] episodes versus letting people schedule episodes whenever because I don’t wanna be like halfway through writing a proposal for a client and suddenly I have to podcast, I mean it’s a completely different mindset for those things, so it goes back to batching to being clear about the type of task that you are working on each day and not trying to contact switch between them. I probably should do something like [inaudible 00:42:41] 80/20 review, it’s something I haven’t been diligent enough on, but you know, you just got me thinking about that, so [inaudible 00:42:49]. Jeremy Reeves: Nice, yeah and just to give you a little context on how I do it. I usually do -- have you ever heard of strategic coach? Matt Inglot: Yes. Jeremy Reeves: Yeah, so I’m in that program and you know you have the free days in there like the days off essentially and then you have basically your other 2 days are buffer days and focus days so buffer days are the things like delegating and building systems and checking email, like dealing with clients and that kind of thing and then focus days are essentially anything that like brings -- is gonna bring money into the company. So you can be doing marketing and doing sales calls or following up with existing clients and that kind of thing. So essentially something that’s going to, you know, like I said bring actual revenue in the short term like in the next 30 days into the business. So with me, I typically do it sometimes it changes, it kind of depends. I’m still in the process, there is always testing and tweaking, but typically, a typical week for me is I do Monday, Wednesday, Friday are buffer days and then Tuesday and Thursday are focus days. I have noticed that splitting it up like that -- it’s a whole, what was the word that you -- the contact switching? I like that. I like that phrase. It’s that whole thing, so like Monday is, if I know that I have 3 new projects that we just started I will take, instead of doing like a little bit each day or you know if you started in the morning and then do another one later in the afternoon or whatever it’s -- I batched it like that. So it’s like okay project 1, here is everything, here is -- we are setting up the whole thing get on calls with the employees, explain what it is, explain what we are going to do, you know that kind of thing and then batch it and that is all done and then Tuesday comes and then it’s like a whole new -- you know [inaudible 00:44:45] marketing or maybe it’s getting [inaudible 00:44:46] strategizing the project, you know whatever it is, but it’s totally different and then Wednesday comes and you know, so I like to switch back and forth like that but it’s just a good way, it keeps you -- since I have been doing that my productivity has just, I mean it’s gone through the absolute roof just because of that, you know the batching like that. Matt Inglot: I think that’s huge and I wanna add something because I think that’s a very good system and I think what’s gonna happen is a lot of people especially [inaudible 00:45:13] running a service-based businesses are gonna listen to what you just said or what I just said and they’re gonna say, well that can’t possibly applied to me because I’m always running around and dealing with client issues basically on an hourly basis on a single day, and so to get to that point of being able to do something like what you just described is you also have to change your project management approach to be way more proactive because I felt, and this again from my own experience but also talking to a lot of people that [inaudible 00:45:45] agencies or freelancers of some kind and the problem is they always take this reactive project management approach where a client, a piece of client feedback will come back or a design will come back or there is something wrong with the client’s website and suddenly it dropped everything and you work [inaudible 00:46:03]. Jeremy Reeves: I have never done that. Matt Inglot: Yeah, so you were always like -- you’re the one playing catch up constantly whereas one of the big switches I trained myself to be and working with less clients help make that change is now I’m very proactive. I know [inaudible 00:46:21] single project is at and I already know when I expect stuff and I already know what I can expect to revisit that project. I do not like randomly dive into each project everyday to try [inaudible 00:46:34] project management, it makes no sense unless there is like a genuine emergency. Genuine emergencies are few [inaudible 00:46:39]. Jeremy Reeves: Yeah, they really are. You know what, a lot of it comes down to fear, you know. Fear that the client is gonna get mad, fear that this things gonna happen, that thing is gonna happen, and it really 99% of the “reasons” that we do things are not actual reasons, you know it kind of like that -- I forgot what it is like 95% of everything that you fear in your life has never even happens and then there is like whatever 3% that it happens but it’s less than you know less than you thought it was gonna be and then like 2% that it actually happens, I boxed it but whatever that phrase is or that quote. Yeah, I mean it’s the same thing with clients you know, I started the thing with my client on boarding process when clients come in, I’m starting to build more systems and really explain how it works with clients and they [inaudible 00:47:38] it makes you sound so much more professional. When you say like okay Mondays we do this, Wednesdays we do this, I check email this time and this time, you know if we have to get on a phone, we schedule it this way or whatever. Clients do not care about that it’s like wow this person actually is legit you know they actually running it like a real business, not just like, you know, they are not like some fat slob sitting in their underwear and their parents basement, you know what I mean. Matt Inglot: That is so huge [inaudible 00:48:09] because that’s what it comes down to -- when you have a client that feels [inaudible 00:48:13] to you like they’re calling you all the time, they’re emailing you all the time. I mean very few people are actually genuinely bad or evil. The problem is usually with you, and the problem is you haven’t give in your client any direction on how you work, how they can expect the project to progress and therefore you know, they feel like they kind of have to take the [inaudible 00:48:36] if you haven’t done that whereas compared that to like a really good service provider [inaudible 00:48:41] like going to the dentist. A great dentist will explain everything that is about to happen and then you kind of relax and know what is going on whereas a bad one just gonna start doing stuff to your teeth. You know which one you want to [inaudible 00:48:57]. If you are the one that is proactive and make the client feel like you are in charge and that they can just relax and go with the flow they are not gonna become the horror client. Jeremy Reeves: Yep, yep. This is actually -- I actually just had a client call may be an hour and a half before we got on the phone today and we went through, we are about mid project right now and I am taking -- like I’m working the rest of this week and then like kind of the next 2 weeks I won’t really be here. You know, last week I said, hey let’s [inaudible 00:49:29] real quick let me just give you an update on everything what to expect, what’s done, how we are doing with everything, you know what to expect from the rest and we just went through the project and it took [inaudible 00:49:42] but we are doing a bunch of strategy for the rest of the project, but normally it wouldn’t take that long but it was just -- at the end of the call, it was -- basically, there are 3 people on their team and at the end of the call, like everybody was so relieved, there is no more anxiety because for a client it’s very, you know you are paying people a lot of money. For these, I won’t say the number but it’s in the 5 figure so it’s like, it’s not a small amount of money and when you’re just handing it to somebody, you know it’s like, you send it and you’re like, Oh God -- you know what’s gonna happen now. So a lot of -- from what I know, like a lot of freelancers don’t really think about that it’s just like, oh I’m getting the money so I’m happy, but they don’t really think about well how does my client feel that they just [inaudible 00:50:27] you know, are they -- why are they nervous, what are they anxious about, what are they waiting on, if I’m not telling them this it’s gonna make them nervous or anxious or whatever it is and just doing that, just having that like kind of either beginning, mid or end or all 3 of them, you know, things like that like a quick phone call, it just -- it relieves so much anxiety and make everything so much more smooth and that is something I just learned recently but it is amazing. Matt Inglot: A 100% it’s not cool that they just kind of -- you know get the contract and then disappear for a month, you could be working on the project diligently, client has no idea. So [inaudible 00:51:10] client followup strategy if you are just looking for a quick takeaway on how to implement this and everything you said is like 110% I agree with. One thing you can do is make sure that if you have an email of that client that [inaudible 00:51:25] email them. [inaudible 00:51:27] progress report, it’s gonna take you 5 to 10 minutes to type up and it’s gonna do wonders for your relationship and every time you send a deliverable to a client always tell them what the next steps are like I’ve always like -- if were in step 3 and I have just sent them the deliverables for step 3, I reiterate what steps 4, 5 and 6 are for them. So they have always kind of know where they are on the project road map because you can’t expect the client to know or remember the stuff. Jeremy Reeves: Yeah, you know, if you’re a client listening to this and I have several clients listening to this, you will be seeing that coming out because I love that idea. That’s brilliant, yeah. For any freelancers out there by the way, you don’t rely on your memory. I actually have a thing when [inaudible 00:52:11] if you don’t talk them during the week, send like a weekly update. I actually have a recurring thing in my iCalendar that sends me an email every Friday at 2 o’clock and [inaudible 00:52:22] clients updates and then -- you know, don’t rely on your own memory because we are all you know we are all kind of [inaudible 00:52:30] we are entrepreneurs, we have a lot of things going on and even if you don’t like it, I mean your human, you know were not AI robots. Make sure you remind yourself and that’s one of the things I implement a couple months ago like kind of a weekly reminders like that and that’s you know, clients appreciate it, they really do. Matt Inglot: And I did the same thing by the way like the calendar reminder key and again if you are thinking well, I don’t have time for that, that sounds nice, well yes you do have time for that because what’s gonna happen within the month and I promise you this, is you actually gonna find yourself on less phone calls with the client especially less and prompted phone calls, you’re gonna be fielding less questions from them because you’re gonna have taken bang the [inaudible 00:53:13] control in that relationship and that means the client is not gonna feel like they’re gonna contact you every day for an update. Jeremy Reeves: Yeah, yeah and even -- we have been talking about all the benefits from the freelancer, but well I mean, I guess this is too, but think about the experience that you are putting them through, and think about you know if anybody has ever hired somebody for any it doesn’t really matter it is. You know, 95% of the time that you hire a service provider it’s that thing, it’s like you send the money and then the next time you hear from them the project is done. It’s not very -- it’s not a good experience. Imagine, you know, you being that client and you’re getting updates, you’re getting told exactly what’s happening, exactly what’s going to happen and they’re just making you feel like, you know, number 1 you know that they’re actually thinking about you which is a big thing itself but [inaudible 00:54:06] you go through the process, everything comes out as expected and you know, this is all assuming that you actually do a good work which is, I mean, [inaudible 00:54:12] be assumed. The whole process from the moment that they send you money the first time until the end of the project, they are like, wow I can’t, you know this is like -- this is great, I don’t have to worry about this guy because he is gonna tell me what’s going on. He is gonna ask me questions that I would have, you know been having to ask him. He is gonna like kind of [inaudible 00:54:32] and then it gets to the end of the project and guess what’s gonna happen, you know number 1 guess -- a lot of service providers they -- or a lot of people hiring service providers they kind of like they both -- they will test 3, 4, or 5 different service providers for whatever it is like -- they get you to design their project or their website this time, the next time they get somebody else, next time they get somebody else. They are looking for somebody to stick with. So guess what’s gonna happen, they’re gonna stick with you because they know they pay you money and everything else is taken care of. You know, everything, the whole process, you’re gonna make it beautiful for them, they are not gonna have to worry about you and when the project is done everything is gonna be, you know, exactly as expected because you’re staying in touch with them, you’re making sure that if you are sending like kind of a partial deliverables or whatever like, they’re getting look at it’s like it’s agreed upon, keep continuing or whatever the case is and then guess what’s gonna happen? They’re gonna tell their friends because they are so, you know, they love working with you so much. So I mean there’re so many benefits to you know to this that is just -- it’s amazing. Matt Inglot: And you said it so well but I just wanna add to that. So a lot of people that especially when they start of freelancing or just kind of never transitioned to a higher level of thinking they’re very technically oriented and the crazy [inaudible 00:56:00] is you can do everything technically correct and so you do all the design stuff right or you do all the programming stuff right, you can be a complete wiz, you could knock out the project, give it to your client 2 months later and even though everything is technically correct, they could be pissed off as hell at you. That’s because they haven’t heard anything so even though their project is technically done and correct it was a nerve-racking risky experience to work with you and if you are that type of person they aren’t gonna work with you again and they’re definitely not gonna refer you to anyone else because getting the right project that’s [inaudible 00:56:38] I love that term. Doing right [inaudible 00:56:42] it’s everything else surrounding how you work with the client, that’s actually what’s gonna make you stand out. Jeremy Reeves: Yeah, yeah. I love that. And another thing to think about is I don’t know Matt if you are in a stocks at all but if you -- say you buy, you buy a stock at $10 it only takes like you know in terms of like energy, it only has to drop 50% to go down to $5. So it’s easy to drop like that but then you have to go to get back to just neutral, you have to double it so [inaudible 00:57:12] to go up 100% and it’s the same thing with clients. If you have that negative experience and they come down you have to essentially get double the momentum to get just back up to neutral, you know what I mean versus if you are doing all this stuff and they never go into that like kind of neutral zone, then it just whatever positivity -- or whatever I’m sure [inaudible 00:57:34] better phrase than that, you know what I mean. That like it just keeps increasing and so having all this from the beginning makes that happen you know, if you pissed your client of one time it’s so hard coming back from that and I have got to do that a couple of times not even because of the copy. In fact, this just actually happened fairly recently because I messed up on one of the stages and it took a lot of effort just to get back to neutral, now were back to everything and it took you know really good look at the copy that she look and she was like -- when she saw that she was just blown away by and that kind of got it back but if it wasn’t like to the point where it was so good that it didn’t [inaudible 00:58:16] it’s hard and you’re not gonna get referral, you’re not gonna get you know repeat projects and stuff like that. I mean this stuff is so important and really is like -- this is a big learning lesson for me this year really even in the second half of this year. This is one of the big things that I’ve been changing in my business because even at the beginning of this year I was making most of the mistakes that we have been talking a lot it was mostly just you know okay you get hired for a project, you deliver the project and I’ve always pretty good at like keeping in touch but not doing a lot of stuff that we have been talking about with like you know, you were saying like I was being reactive versus what was the -- how do you put that, reactive versus proactive, yeah. I have note a huge, huge, huge difference just in the overall kind of satisfaction with clients so it’s a big deal. Matt Inglot: Yeah, and probably revenue as well [inaudible 00:59:16] for everybody and by the way, most people will not tell you if they’re angry, they’re just gonna leave. So your story was actually an example of a good outcome usually what happens is they never say a word and they just leave. So to contrast the 2 approaches I have a lot of clients where we did the [inaudible 00:59:35] especially early on where everything was technically correct but those clients never grew they never asked us for more services, we never did anything more together and they just kind of eventually fell off the face of the earth and you know once their website updated they went with someone else, they did not ask us to redesign it. Whereas I have clients and again this is [inaudible 00:59:55] for you where they started look like a $10 to $20,000 website and over their lifetime they have spent more than $100,000 with us in some cases more than $150,000 with us. So try to wrap your mind around that how many $10,000 projects do you have to sell? How many clients do you have to manage to make up for screwing up one relationship that could have grown to $100,000. Jeremy Reeves: Yeah, it’s kind of funny because -- a lot of times you never know which clients are gonna be clients like that, you know, I can’t even tell you how many clients where it’s like, oh, yeah you know were getting like a small funnel done and then, you know, everything goes well and then they’re like, okay, we are doing another one but it’s gonna be five times the size, you know what I mean and you never really know. A lot of times you can guess, but I have a lot of surprises in my life or even I’ve had people where I did one good project for them and they all of the sudden it’s like, oh here is the referral, here is another one, here’s three more, and it’s like it’s just, I mean you never really, you know, you never know so you have to have this system in place that put everybody through the same process, it can’t be just like a random thing based on what client you like the best. Matt Inglot: Absolutely, but hopefully you pick the clients that you like the best to begin or probably [inaudible 01:01:15] relationship 100% but you shouldn’t feel that just because someone wants to work with you that you should work [inaudible 01:01:24]. Jeremy Reeves: Yeah, absolutely. Yes, we have gone through all kinds of different stuff today and they were a lot of takeaways even that I personally have missed. So before we wrap up is there anything that you know if we got off the phone today and you went away and would there be anything that you were thinking in your head like, I wish I said that, you know, is there any kind of parting wisdom something that we didn’t cover or just even if we did cover, just one really big takeaway that is gonna transform somebody’s business. Matt Inglot: Definitely. So if we want to put a bow on everything that we talked about whether it’s how to take time away from your business and kind of regain control of your calendar or whether were talking about regaining control of your clients or building these clients up for from $15k to $150k, behind all that and behind growing your business to the next level, the biggest changes for me have always been mindset. So it hasn’t been oh now [inaudible 01:02:33] and now more productive or I use this you know one crazy trick that I learned [inaudible 01:02:40]that never happened. Jeremy Reeves: You mean the crazy tricks don’t work? I’m shocked. Matt Inglot: Yeah, but what really does work is mindset changes. So being open to changing the way you think about things. So for me, one of the big mindset changes was thinking about how I take on clients where I used to see myself as [inaudible 01:03:03]someone comes into the store, I got to try my hard to sell them something. Whereas now I look at every project tiltedpixel takes on as a business deal. So I consider you know what is my potential profit off this thing? What are my risks? Am I gonna like working with this person? And that’s gonna inform whether I open up the table to actually may be striking a deal together. So instead of me begging the customer to buy something it’s much more of an equal relationship. The customer, you know, they are not subservient to me, they are not superior to me we are just 2 business people that are considering a business relationship together and we both have to feel that it’s the right fit and that’s entirely a mindset thing. There is no tools, there is no tricks, there is no proposal format that will change you. It is a mindset shift. Jeremy Reeves: Yeah, I love that. That’s really good advice you know, I think a lot of people have the wrong mindset when it comes to the -- the whole like client relationship. It’s not, like you said, you’re not superior, they’re not superior it’s just 2 people that need each other to move forward in their own businesses, that’s really all it is and you’re kind of there show them that you’re the best chance that they have on doing that. So, I love that. Thank you for your time today, you know, for talking about everything and helping everybody even if they have -- I mean there has been a lot of things that we’ve talked about especially with like structuring time and all that kind of stuff, even if you don’t have a service business, I have kind of both -- all kinds of business owners listen to this, you know they’re freelancers, they are more of like agency owners, they are people that own physical products and information products and ecommerce source and all kind of stuff. So a lot of stuff is applicable for anybody but thanks for coming on and sharing your wisdom. If there is anybody specifically freelancers or somebody who wants a website design, tell us about your 2 businesses and what type of person you are looking for to kind of interact with each of them. Matt Inglot: Sure, absolutely. So freelancetransformation is again where freelancers can go if they want to learn how to level up their business and build an amazing lifestyle around. It’s a lot of what we’ve just been talking about today actually and what I could do for your [inaudible 01:05:29] is I will go ahead and make a bonus page just give me a few days to do this. It will be -- let’s make it www.freelancetransformation.com/salesfunnelmastery and what I’m gonna do there is I’m gonna do a few things, I’m gonna link you to some articles [inaudible 01:05:46] that basically just go more in depth into what we just talked about, and I’m gonna go ahead and I will go one further, I will make a little checklist because we touched on something which is how can you predict whether a client is gonna be good client and you brought up a good point that there is no such thing as a 100% guarantee, but that said, I do have a checklist of exactly what it is that I do look for in a client when considering whether this is someone I even want to consider writing a proposal for and if you implement that checklist it’s gonna make a big difference in the types of clients that you take on. So just visit www.freelancetransformation.com/salesfunnelmastery and all of that will be up by the time this episode comes out and the other thing is my agency, tiltedpixel and if you do want to check it out feel free, we specialized in converting visitors into customers particularly if you sell higher type of things like stuff that’s over $5000 per customer then there is a very good chance that we can help to level up your business there. Jeremy Reeves: Nice. I love it yeah, and I would highly recommend everybody to go to one of those respective websites based on what you are doing. I can tell you that I’m actually gonna start following more of what you’re doing because I have learned a lot on this and if you are a client listening to this you should be happy that I’m gonna be starting to implement a lot of the stuff that we went over which benefits you. So that’s how it [inaudible 01:07:13]. And if you are listening and you are gonna be a future client then you’ll also know the same thing, but anyway, thanks for coming on, I really appreciate it and I will talk to you soon. Matt Inglot: Jeremy, it has been a lot of fun. Jeremy Reeves: Yeah, it has. Thanks.

While cowards review challenging films in vague terms, we here at whatever this podcast is called take you through the things we did or didn't understand about this film, because that's what you deserve! Hand me that thing. This film is very long and gross and the plot is not conveyed to you for reasons. So Matt explains what actually happened in the movie while everybody makes noises like they're surprised that anything happened in the movie. Put that down. I think Matt's obsessed with it. We tell you whether or not we recommend listening to this episode, and Editor TJ cuts in at one point. Has anybody seen the redheaded butcher? Get out. Is Indecipherable December going to be a thing now? I sure hope not. The port is closed.

Matt Bell is the guest. His new novel, Scrapper, is now available from Soho Press. It is the official October selection of The Nervous Breakdown Book Club. This is Matt's second time on the show. Last we spoke, he was living up in northern Michigan, in Marquette. Since then he's moved to Tempe, Arizona. A big change in all sorts of ways. We start off talking about that, and then we get into Detroit, the setting of Scrapper, and try to wrap our heads around what's happened there and why and what might happen in the future. Detroit, like post-Katrina New Orleans, is something that from a distance can be hard to believe. Not until you're on the ground and looking at it with your own eyes does the scale of it even begin to come into focus. So Matt, with his good brain, has done us all a service by writing this book and imagining this world in such richness and depth. Seems hard to believe, as I've known (or "internet known") him for a long time, but this was the first time Matt and I have ever met in person (our previous interview was conducted over the phone). He was passing through Los Angeles on book tour and was kind enough to stop by to do the show. In today's monologue I talk about going out to dinner and my failure to do the kinds of cultural things that I should probably be doing. And I talk about Starbucks.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As Chris boldly predicted last week... he is away. So Matt and Mark decide to have a wonderful Nintendo chat! But they also dive into the perfect Metal Gear Solid V scores, Until Dawn as a sleeper hit, and thoughts on the recent Black Ops 3 beta. Don't miss it! Follow us on Twitter! @StillUntitledUK @HeyThereImMatt @MegaMalixir @MarkInPixels Subscribe on iTunes! https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/still-untitled/id1000379943?mt=2 Subscribe on YouTube! http://www.youtube.com/HeyThereImMatt Follow Mark and Josh on YouTube! http://www.youtube.com/MarkInPixels A huge thank you to everyone who listens to the podcast! Believe us, it is massively appreciated :)

Storytelling with Matt Skallerud of Pink Banana Media New York City, New York Links mentioned in the show - Travel Gay Canada  California Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce  National Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce International Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce  Out & Equal Workplace Advocates Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation International Gay & Lesbian Travel Association  GayWired.com SheWired.com The New Rules of Marketing & PR: How to Use Social Media, Online Video, Mobile Applications, Blogs, News Releases, and Viral Marketing to Reach Buyers Directly You can get in touch with Matt here - Pink Banana Media  Facebook.com/PinkBananaMedia LinkedIn Would you prefer to read the transcript than listen to the episode? No problem! Read the transcript below! AUDIO TITLE: 30 Days, 30 Voices: Matt Skallerud Welcome to 30 Days, 30 Voices: Stories from America's LGBT Business Leaders You are listening to a special edition of the Gay Business and Marketing Made Easy Podcast. Tune in for the next thirty days as we interview one business leader per day each day in June to celebrate LGBT Pride Month. That's lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender pride month. You'll learn insights around business and marketing from those who know it best. And now, your host. She's an entrepreneur, a marketing maven, and an advocate for the LGBT business community - Jenn, with two N's, T. Grace. Hello and welcome! Hello and welcome. Thank you for tuning in to this special Pride Month episode of the Gay Business and Marketing Made Easy Podcast. Information about today's guest and links mentioned in the show will be available on the website at www.JennTGrace.com/30days-30voices. If you like what you hear in this interview, please be sure to tell a friend. And now, without further ado, let's dive into the interview. Jenn T. Grace: I am pleased to be talking with Matt Skallerud today, who is the president of Pink Banana Media. Matt began his online career in May of 1995 with the launch of the website www.GayWired.com. This website became one of the top three LGBT websites worldwide. He has been helping clients reach the LGBT community for more than eighteen years, and in addition to this he is a current board member for Travel Gay Canada and the interim Executive Director of the California Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce. Also he is actively involved with many key national LGBT organizations, which include the International Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce, the National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce, the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation and Out & Equal Workplace Advocates just to name a few. So Matt, I've given the listeners a brief overview of who you are, but why don't you tell us a little bit more about yourself and what your path looked like that led you to where you are today. Matt Skallerud:  Yeah! I always try to simplify things. I've just been very lucky. I went to school, I got my degree in engineering, got really bored with it in about three years and thought to myself, 'I got a degree for this? I don't know if I want to do this for the rest of my life.' And- but I actually went into sales, I was in this kind of high-tech R&D world of lasers and then I went into sales of lasers and the reason I bring all that up is because it was that combination of kind of just being comfortable with technology, and it was a perfect time. It was when computers were just really starting to come out. I used to have a Commodore 64, and then I had some of the first Compaq 286 and all these fun computers but I had the opportunity to really utilize them first for more on the engineering side, but then as things developed more on the sales, and then also very much marketing of products I used to work on in the lab. I basically took all those skills,

This week, Tiny misses out on an extended potpourri episode due to food poisoning. So Matt and Mike have a chat about a bevy of topics. Mike talks about his rekindled appreciation for Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers. While Matt breaks down what all he's watched lately on Amazon Prime, Hulu Plus and Netflix. Find back episodes of the podcast at http://ovpodcast.com and let us know what you think of the movie by tweeting us: @ObsessiveViewer, @ObsessiveTiny, @IAmMikeWhite.   Runtime: 1:09:35   Direct Download Link: http://traffic.libsyn.com/obsessiveviewer/OV98-ExtPotpourri6.mp3   Timestamps   Show Start - 00:30 Extended Potpourri - 01:37 RIP Harris Wittels - 02:04 RIP Leonard Nimoy - 04:26   Mike on Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers - 07:03 Power/Rangers Short Film - 20:54 Matt on Cord Cutting - 21:53 Matt on NYPD Blue and Coherence (Amazon Prime) - 22:40 Matt's Feelings about Amazon Prime - 27:13 Mike on The Lazarus Effect - 28:04 Trailer Culture and Spider-Man - 30:21 Rant on Star Wars Hype - 36:00 Matt on Agents of SHIELD (Hulu Plus) - 40:00 Matt on American Crime (Hulu Plus) - 45:00 Mike on Modern Family's “Connection Lost” - 51:45 Mike on Black-ish - 55:42 Matt on Fantastic Voyage (Netflix) - 57:00 Matt on House of Cards Season 3 (Netflix) - 1:00:30 Matt on Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt (Netflix) - 1:02:14   Episode Tag - 1:07:30 Pre-Recorded Outro - 1:08:00   Show Notes   Power/Rangers Short Film - Here's the Power/Rangers short film. It's back on YouTube after a short Saban-sanction hiatus. /Filmcast Episode with Power/Rangers Director Joseph Kahn - Here's a link to the /Filmcast's interview with Joseph Kahn. If you watched Power/Rangers, you'll find this very interesting.   Obsessive Viewer - Check out plenty of reviews of movies, TV shows and industry commentary at the blog that started it all. Obsessive Book Nerd - Our “sister site” where you can find book reviews and commentary on the evolving world of reading. The Secular Perspective - Check out Tiny's side project podcast that explores the concepts of faith, religion and existence from the perspective of secular hosts. Mike's Band: As Good As It Gets - Check out Mike's band and download the “Something New E.P.” for free! Loudlike Facebook Page - Like the band that gave us our theme song on Facebook! Loudlike “Mistakes We Must Make” EP on iTunes - Our theme song is “An Eclipse of Events.” Grab Loudlike's EP and hear the full version of our theme. TurboRooDesigns.com - My brother has a business where he and his girlfriend sell carts to disabled dogs.   Let us know what you think!   Like us on Facebook: The Obsessive Viewer Tweet us: @ObsessiveViewer, @ObsessiveTiny, @IAmMikeWhite Email us: Matt, Tiny or Mike at ObsessiveViewer.com Check out the blog: http://ObsessiveViewer.com Find past episodes of the podcast: http://OVPodcast.com RSS Feed: http://obsessiveviewer.libsyn.com/rss Subscribe to us on iTunes and leave us a review. 

​ If you follow Ryan McDowell on Twitter ( https://twitter.com/RyanMc23 ) , then you know there might not be anyone keeping closer track of rookie-draft values and player dynasty trends in general. So Matt invited him onto the pod for a temperature check on this year's incoming class of prospects. We also talked about dynasty mistakes, what dynasty owners might do better than NFL decision makers, why Tim Couch still hurts and more. Here's the rundown: Rookie and startup mock draft trends ... 2:00 Rise of superflex and the rookie QBs ... 7:56 Ranking Kyle Pitts and the rest of the class ... 12:01 What dynasty players do better than the NFL ... 20:41 Drafting mistakes ... 21:56 Sleepers ... 24:21 Non-rookies to buy or sell ... 26:46 ​Check out our entire series of Dynasty Prospect Scouting Reports ( https://www.draftsharks.com/article/full-list-of-2021-dynasty-prospect-scouting-reports ) and our up-to-date dynasty rankings ( https://www.draftsharks.com/keeper/ ).

A highly successful entrepreneur, Matt DeCoursey launched his first company in a spare bedroom in 2009. Using nothing but an AmEx card with an $8000 limit. Since then he has built companies that have generated millions of dollars in revenue. Currently, Matt is the founder and CEO of GigaBook, a cloud-based appointment-booking platform. So Matt, tell the Chainers a bit about yourself. 0:51 father of two children and a husband living in Kansas City, Kansas Hobby- making money and I haven’t worked a day since   So you have just had your second book published. Congrats! Let’s talk about “Million Dollar Bedroom: Scrappy lessons of success, setback and other surprises not taught in Business School” available in paperback at Amazon.com What was the motivation for this book? 1:56 My story Entrepreneurial journey   How long did it take you to complete “Million Dollar Bedroom?” 6:26 Less than 6 months   What was your favorite part of your book? 7:55 Finishing it   So Matt, what was your biggest disaster in starting a business? 9:11 No disaster, learn a principle Path the revenue     What advice would you give to someone just starting out but has no money? Are there any free or cheap resources that they could use? 12:35 Be specific for what you’re going to be good at   Speaking of starting a business, you also are the founder of GigaBook, a cloud- based company that helps small businesses increase their service bookings. Tell us a bit more about Gigabook. 15:23 It turns your website into a booking platform Makes the business more efficient   Where did the idea come from? 16:26 Dropping off dogs Nobody is answering phone   What’s the hardest part about starting a cloud-based business? 18:44 If your cloud program doesn’t do what your user wants, you aren’t going to have a user.   Value Link- Can we expect another book from you in the future? 20:43 Two books Will come out in 2018   What is your advice to Indie Authors? On writing? Marketing? 21:37 Start writing   Why do you think that people fail at achieving their dreams? 22:09 By never even starting   What is your favorite quote? 23:01 Success demands payment in advance   Are there any other books that you recommend? 23:18 Balance Me by Matt DeCoursey. Million Dollar Bedroom by Matt DeCoursey.   Where can we find you online? 24:05 mattdec.com   Any last parting advice for our listeners? 24:25 Yeah- try  Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/chain-of-wealth-debt-investing-entrepreneurship-wealth-and-more/donationsWant to advertise on this podcast? Go to https://redcircle.com/brands and sign up.