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Welcome to the Thinking Big Podcast. You are in for such a treat today with my special guest Sandra Haseley. Sandra is one of the founders of Generation Impact, a group that exists to help you refine, develop, launch, scale, and MASTER your business to create the impact and life you desire. Sandra is one of the select few keynote speakers for Tony Robbins and Dean Graziosi in their Knowledge Broker Blueprint program, and she is currently helping to build and head train their workshops for new entrepreneurs launching their businesses. One of my key takeaways from this episode is that every single one of us has a gift that we can build a business around, she even said I could use fluency in sarcasm as a platform… who would have known.  Today we are thinking big into your passions and your Impact on the world. Generation Impact: Generationimpactgroup.com   Connect With Sandra Haseley on Social Media Facebook Profile: https://www.facebook.com/SandraHaseleyCO Facebook Business Page: https://www.facebook.com/SANDRAHASELEYANDCO Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thesandrahaseleyco/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sandrahaseley/ Email: heyboss@sandrahaseley.com Website: https://www.sandrahaseley.com   Leaders are Readers, here are some free books for you to get. Free copy of Think and Grow Rich http://bit.ly/free-think-and-grow-rich-ebook   The 14-day Think and Grow Rich Challenge https://bit.ly/tagrchallenge   Free Audibles book http://bit.ly/thinkingbigaudible   Connect with Sean Osborn at Thinking Big Coaching http://www.thinkingbigcoaching.com https://www.instagram.com/thinkingbigcoaching/ https://www.facebook.com/thinkingbigcoaching/   Until next week, remember to always think big Thanks for listening! It means a lot to me and to the guests. If you enjoyed listening then please do take a second to rate the show on iTunes.  Every podcaster will tell you that iTunes reviews drive listeners to our shows so please let me know what you thought and make sure you subscribe using your favorite player using the links below.   Episode Transcription SUMMARY KEYWORDS people, online, big, business, life, paid, clients, helping, steps, years, build, live, sarcasm, impact, Sandra Haseley, world, gift, degree   I want to welcome Sandra to the to the podcast. And if people are listening to this right now, and they're driving, I'm just fair warning, I'm just telling you, you better pull over keep your seatbelt on, because   01:39 it's Sandra is fast and furious. And you better be paying attention when she's talking because I normally can't even write that fast. I try but but I can't do it.   01:51 So keep your seatbelts on keep your hands in the car, but pull over because you're about ready to go on a ride should tell you, I'm just being honest here. I'm still I am still catching up on notes from our last stuff that you did. So I'm still trying to get my notes down. So welcome. Welcome to the show. Tell people a little bit that your story is absolutely fascinating where you've been and how you've gone. And that's, I really like to focus in on some of that. Because I think today, I mean, you've seen that kind of the gig economy, the side economy, these people starting their own, you know, their own businesses last couple years. But I think with what's happening with COVID   02:32 it's not just on the verge anymore. I mean, it is people are having to go and kind of do their own thing. And we just don't know how we don't know, we don't know how and you and that's what you've done. I mean, you've done this your whole your whole career. So tell us a little bit about you and kind of what the mindset are kind of what drove you to to where you are now.   02:52 Sure, yeah. I mean, I I went through the traditional model, like, like a lot of people did through, you know, I got a, I got a scholarship to play division one softball, and so I went that route. And I studied engineering, finance marketing, I graduated with a finance degree and, and I went into commercial real estate into commercial mortgage brokerage, and, and then continued on into to work for a commercial real estate developer. And in that space, I was because I was the director of sales for this company, it was important to make sure that the tenants were doing well, so that they could, you know, continue to pay rent and grow into additional properties or whatever. So I from very, very early on in my career, I was not only analyzing the back end and their financials, and looking at the way that they did their business to make sure that these loans would get approved. But I'm also nurturing them as tenants on you know, through the years making sure that I could help them in any way that I could. And I became somewhat of a tenant coach for all of these different tenant clients. And there are so many different industries. I mean, like every industry that you can think of the between the mom and pop retail stuff to the International, like international freight to e commerce attack, like everything. And so it was, you know, that that aside, I had carried that on throughout my entire, you know, corporate career. And it wasn't until I actually got fired from my job, where I just I just closed a $14.6 million deal got fired, didn't get the bonus that I was supposed to get got walking papers instead where I was like, What now? Now what? And then, you know, from that point that was like, that was my career rock bottom for sure. I didn't think that was possible because I was the highest performer in the company. And I had such a great reputation in the community. And my resume was just stellar. So how did that happen? This wasn't like, I didn't want to be an entrepreneur. It did not want that. Right. That sounds so scary to me, because I consider myself very risk averse.   04:57 And the safety net that I had been told   05:00 Throughout the traditional education model, get a job on retirement 401k savings pension if you can, and then you know, and then you live in your golden years. And that's that. So do your best work and all that. And that was a lie. So now I'm sitting here in this space where it's like, all right, your best shot at this point, when unemployment Wait, rates were very high, and they didn't have an employment, long run employment available any longer. It was like sink or swim. So I didn't want it. But I had to do it. If you look back at that, do you think that was probably the biggest blessing that you had?   05:35 Oh, for sure. Yeah, for two years. It was a it was depression. And it wasn't until I, you know, climbed out of that, that I look back. And I like when I drive by that, that former employer, every single time I'm in my car going, Thank You, Jesus, that you close that door for me, I would never have left on my own. And I know that it wouldn't, because you're scared. And I didn't think that it would have been a good life for me. Do you ever want to get a softball and just throw it at him? Get one, nice.   06:05 For a long time I did. I was a pitcher   06:09 or disappear. But I did for a while and my kids are my older two. I have four kids, my older two can remember when that happened. And and they're 13 and 15. Now, and we'll sometimes we'll drive by there and they'll say like, Hey, Mom, like you still mad? I'm like, no more, but they remember when I would drive my son.   06:30 So yeah, but yeah, no, you're right. It's it was the biggest blessing ever. And, and it was I was pushed off the ledge like a baby bird and learn to fly. And because of that, I was like, Wait a second. This is so much fun. Not only is this fun, but like this is nothing I went to school for I went to school finance, marketing, engineering, nothing I learned in university and I loved my school, not a single thing can I apply to my entrepreneurial journey here. So I'm looking at all of this differently. Right after that happened after like my first year in business on my own, and brick and mortar opening a wellness clinic, my husband's a chiropractor. So opening this wellness clinic, and everyone's saying three to five years take three to five years to get in the black. And it took me 18 months to turn six figures. So I did that without loans, without partnerships without affiliates, without any client base at all. So when I did that, I thought, Wait a second, like how if everybody in this space is telling us, this isn't possible for three to five years? What did we do, right? That I can help other people do right? So that they can save time. And like I know what it's like to be, you know, mother of four, trying to figure out what to do brand new and entrepreneurial journey and and if I got it right, I need to help other people because three to five years sounds like torture to me to get to where we needed to be right. So that's where it all started. And, and after that after the clinic opened, and we started doing really well we paint became the highest rated weight loss provider in the buffalo market. And I was like, This wasn't my dream. I did this out of necessity, my husband was happy. But what about me, um, and I went back to my roots, like I loved I loved being a consultant, I loved being a strategist for other businesses, I helped them that was meaningful, like that made their lives better that that helped them advance in their career, or it helped them earn more money for their families like that was meaningful to me. And I've had so much fun doing it ever since. Yeah. And again, I think with what's happened with the, you know, with the economy with the, you know, COVID with all the stuff that is going to be the way of the future, I really think it is I mean, it's going to be how we do things, and we have to learn these tools. I mean, we have to know what we're doing. And as you said, when we find someone that has been there when we find someone that's done that, why not go that route and learn from learn from them. I mean, that's the only way. Absolutely. And just curious, like when you were doing your your corporate stuff. It sounds like you were still using, I hate to say entrepreneur stuff, but you were to me, you were still thinking outside the box to help them outside of what your normal job was. So Oh, yes, yeah, you're right. Yeah, I never looked at it that way. But I yeah, you're right. And, um, it wasn't a It wasn't until like later on, like, maybe recently even that I thought, um, I wasn't taught that. But it was why was I doing it that way, when I know other people in my business weren't doing it that way for their clients and their tenants. It's, it's actually because I cared about them so much. And so I'm looking at them and it wasn't like, Um, let's see how we can get more money out of these clients. Let's squeeze them It looks like you know, it was more like, you have a relationship with them as they become your client. And you get to know them and you like them. And then they tell you about their goals and you are emotionally invested in their goals and you're thinking of ways that you can help them and   10:00 doesn't cost me anything to give them a good idea. And so when something sparks for me, and I give them a good idea, they apply it and they win. I'm going, ooh, what else can I give up? You know, and so that's kind of where that began. And then that led to further success for me, um, you know, through my clients in business, but, but it was like, it was like, an itch I needed to scratch like, I have to help people if I can, I have to. So um, but you're right, those those those things that I was applying weren't taught to me. But um, but I think that we all have, we all have these, like, these baked in skill sets that we can offer other people. And we never really tap into them unless the environment is like nurturing it, right? So like, unless you step into that space, and then all of a sudden, you're like, Oh, I'm good at this, or Oh, I've got something to offer. And then that, like, that's your thing. And like you touched on, you talked about how this is COVID. And this COVID here this whole year, has pushed people out of necessity into what are you going to do now? Like I was, but you know, different circumstances, like, what am I going to do now? And they have to learn? It's like, this is the scary thing for people like what Seriously? What do we do now? I have no idea. And I don't want to own a business and don't know how I'm so when it comes to that. It sounds It almost sounds childish for me to even advise, hey, what's your thing? What are you good at that little thing that you do, or that thing that lights you up doesn't even feel like work? I'm telling you to lean into that, like go into that space, there are a million ways you can apply your your your God given gifts into the business space and serve people at a high level and get paid for it. Most people don't believe that they can because they never have. I think and and i'm saying time to drop that nonsense. It's not even true. Whoever gave you that belief get over it. Like it's not true. It's bullshit. I mean, it truly is. bs, or it's your Bs, it's your belief system. And it's a it's a bad, it's about. And on top of that. People don't necessarily think that their gifts that they have, they don't see the value in him. I think that's the biggest thing that I see when I'm talking with people is they're good at something. But they do not see the value in it themselves. And that's one of the hardest things I have and talking with people is no, that is an absolute value. That is people want to know that people want to people will pay you for that knowledge. And so so, you know, first step is letting them letting them see, you know, what's the big How do you let people see what their, what their gift is? I mean, what are ways that people can say, Oh, this is my truly, you know, this is my gift. This is what I can give. Yeah, first of all, I gotta hit that, again, what you just said, most people don't believe that their gift is valuable. Oh my God, that's, that's probably the biggest message that needs to come out of this episode is that people don't actually attach the value that they deserve to their gift. It's, it's unbelievable. Because when even if it's this one thing, like even if it's, I'm going to use knitting as an example. Because it's like people have come up with all these different hobbies during COVID. Right, so so let's say this, this 60 year old woman who is a bang and crochet artist and can do the world's best booties, and little baby sweaters and everything. And she's just been doing it since forever. And this young mother who's 34, and has been trying to get pregnant for 10 years. And it's been her dream to knit something for her own baby. And she's never been able to do it. She doesn't know how. And this woman who's just like diddling around with like knitting needles, and she's been doing that for decades, doesn't think it's special, because all of her friends can knit. This woman comes to offer her like, I will give you $1,000 if you can teach me how to crochet in six weeks before this baby is born. So I can knit my baby booties and a sweater. I will, of course people are doing that people are doing that all over the world right now paying people 1000 2000 $3,000 to learn how to crochet or knit in about six to eight weeks, it's happening all over the place for a past time that used to be so normal, it was taught in school. And I think that just people if you if they have a value, if they have a skill set, I think that they need to   14:02 do the research on what people are actually paying for it. And then double it and start there. So when you say how do you know how do you know what your value is? Or what your what your gift is? Like what your skill set really is. The first place I like to go is the compliments you get from people What do people say you're good at? Like what do people thank you for? What do people always say? What are people referring your name out for in and that can be in, you know, in your personal life too. That doesn't have to be in business but like anything, so if they're complimenting you on something that you do well, it's probably something you enjoy, you know, it's it's not like oh my gosh, she's really good at balancing the books at the end of the year. She doesn't cuz she has to she doesn't love it. But like what do people say all year long that you're good at is an organization like oh, my gosh, she this woman is so good at organizing. It's like she can always find a way to clean things up for me or to like manage my stuff or to fix my kids schedule during you know, quarantine when it's been a mess. Or you know, what is the organization   15:00 Woman is the best like interior design or this man is the best if troubleshooting pieces that you have around the house and being able to fix them up in this way, there's so many different things that people do on the regular that they get credit for that they're like, Oh, yeah, that's just something I do, though. No, that's something you need to get paid for, if you're willing. So what you're saying is, I can actually get paid for being sarcastic. People compliment my sarcasm all the time.   15:27 So there's an avenue I need to go.   15:32 You can do and you could do a core point using sarcasm to leverage yourself in business, for using sarcasm to build relationships, in your business in your personal life in like mergers and acquisitions. There are negotiation strategies being taught through sarcasm right now in the world. Yes, that's, that's actually my first language. English is my second language. Sarcasm, number one, truly. And   15:59 so from a tool standpoint, or from a, I know, a method standpoint, where do you see things so you you bring these people in you, you show them? You know, here is what you're good at? Here's what you're passionate about? Here's the value you can add to other human beings? And what are the what are the biggest challenges you're seeing on people? When they do find this? How do they have they monetize it? How do they? How do they turn their gift and their passion into a into a business? Yes, good question. Perfect question. Because that's what matters in the end. So when you when you when you find your thing, and you're like, Oh my gosh, that's it. That is it. I love that I could really make money doing that. Yes. Okay. So once you get on board with the Yes, I can, then it's a matter of, Okay, well, where were you when you started doing this? Where were you? Where did you start? Okay, and where did you finish your finish there? Okay, what were the steps in between that took you from I'm just starting out to Hey, I'm really good at this. This is amazing. Because there's always a pattern, there's always steps. There's always like evidence or breadcrumbs, a trail that you leave behind that can show other people how to get there, too. And it's just a matter of actually taking a moment. And sometimes it's like taking a couple hours and falling back into your memory bank and saying, Where did I? Where did I start? Okay, then what did I do? Okay, I did that for a while, maybe that took me this long. And then what happened? What was the outcome after that, then I learned this, okay, then I took that, and I applied it to this, and just stack those steps to get to the end result. And that is your signature offer framework. That is what you can deliver to other people package that up. And when I say package that up, I mean, define those steps. And then within the steps, there should be, you know, instructions on how to get to the next step. Right. So that's just packaging your signature program, so that you can show other people how to get to where you went. And, and this can be done. Another thing, Shawn, is that people often say that, like they, they they even stop mentally, they block themselves by saying, I couldn't I couldn't actually do that, though, because I'm not a professional or I couldn't do that. Because like, I don't have a website, or I can't do that, because I don't have any acronyms at the end of my name. like nobody cares about your acronyms. You know how many people have asked me about my degree? since I graduated? None? Yep. Nobody asked me. They asked me Oh, how do you like work at Disney World? Oh, you got to you got to congressional nominations for the Naval Academy. Oh, you've lived in Canada, all you, they don't care about my degree, nobody cares. They, like I'm showing up for the job. They assume I have the degree that's it's like next day, so. And when you're online, nobody cares about any of that. They're like, prove it to me, prove it to me, by way of showing me online, that you can help me prove it to me by by giving me trainings for free to let me know that I can trust you prove it. So you don't have to show them a degree because it's garbage. And I mean, like people who have a license for their degree, that's different lawyers, doctors that that's different. But I really, I really want a surgeon to have a degree when they're working on me. But um, but I would rather have the surgeon that mentored with someone for 10 years over the degree.   19:02 The degree is, I don't know, I better have the experience. That's true.   19:08 That's true. I want I want an army surgeon who's been in triage locations all over the world first. You're right. So, but if they like, you know, if you show up and you serve people online with that thing, you know, you show them that you can get them from point A to point whatever, you only have to be one step ahead of them. That's it. That's it. And then they're there. People are often hanging on to this idea that they have to be the expert. There's no the expert in anything. I don't care how high up you go. Because somebody is coming right underneath to take that spot all the time. It's always shifting all the time. There's nobody that's the best ever. So let's get over it. And let's just say can you help them two steps behind you or one step behind you? Yeah, there are millions of people that could apply to so if you if you can just outline the framework of your signature offer by indicating which steps it takes to get there for that.   20:01 And then marketing that I can help you get from here to here, here are the steps it takes. That's all it is. Here's what it looks like for me. Now, here are the things that I struggled with. And here's how it's going now that I don't struggle anymore, here's the compelling future that I have. But here's how bad it sucked before I got here. If that sounds like, Whoa, come along. So it's just a matter of like marketing it that way, packaging up marketing that way. Because if you're clear on what you can do for people, and you let them know that, if you're clear, then they're clear, then they can decide for themselves. Yeah, that is something I want, I want that transformation to this person has a step by step outline for me, like, I can just go to them to help me get there perfect. So it's, it's just a matter of that. And then it's a matter of, you know, something, you talk about value, right? Like people don't don't necessarily value themselves, right. I tend to jump people up very quickly in their service pricing, however, I believe in being aligned with the offer that you have, because if you're not, at first, you won't sell it, you won't sell it right. It'll be weird, it'll come off creepy, it'll be like, do they not believe in it or what's going on, it's usually the money. So it's usually don't believe they should ask for this month, because much because they feel bad because they've done it for free in the past. Okay, so we need to also get over that. Now. You're certainly now you're serving people at a high level online, and you need to get paid for it. So once they can do that, it's like, Alright, if you can't energetically or emotionally or spiritually get behind, you know, a four figure number for a program, that's it's good that you've been doing that you take people through on 16 weeks or whatever, especially if it's a live training, that's worth that's worth more, if you can't really get behind it, there's nothing wrong with offering a lower a lower price. But you have to let them know, this is the only time we're going to do that. The only reason I have is a 1499 program, the only time I'm ever going to do this is now it is 397 This will be the last bunch. But in exchange for that extreme discount, I am going to require testimonials, possibly testimonial so that you can build that authority and that credibility and that social proof. And then what's beautiful about this is that then you do get paid, you get paid the money. And that proves to you that you can do it. And then you do the work. And you're like, oh, we're not we're not doing this for 397. Again, oh no, this is worth more, you find out it's hard, right? It's a little hard. Even if you love it, you gotta you gotta help people. So that I feel like that process, everybody kind of goes through that they create the structure, they start talking about it, they start helping people with it, they come up with a price, a lower price that they feel a little better about a little bit more aligned with at first and then they're like, Oh, no, and then they like triple, or quadruple and they're like, okay, I feel good about this for now. And then you get better. And as you get better, and the demand gets higher, you can increase it as you go. But that's that's where people need to start. Yeah. And I think you at that exact point when they sell their first stuff is lower than what they want. But I think right then is where I see the biggest mindset change. And people, once they once you, I mean success builds upon success. And once they get that first batch out of the way, the first money coming in, when they first sell it, that's when I see the biggest change in people's mindset of what they're capable of, and what they can do. And you'd mentioned something, I think it was probably one of my biggest setbacks is when I first started, you know, years ago, I thought I had to have all the technology in place. I thought I had to have the whole program done. I thought I had to. And that's not how people do it. I mean, you look at some of the great people, and they're literally building programs on the fly, based on the needs of the people. And you know, if you try building an entire, you know, 10 week program, and you haven't tested it, and you haven't developed it with people, I've done that, it I've gone through the biggest   23:48 I, you if you build it, they will come. No they won't.   23:53 You've got got a whip   23:57 I've tried, doesn't work that way. But I did   24:03 work. If you waste a ton of time doing it that way. And you think you know, as good as you are as good as anyone is you think you know, and you have no idea. You always assume people are further along with you. They're not right, you got to back you got to back it up. And you also have to fill all these holes. Think about so I'm with you like I I believe in. I believe in live training. The first batch I don't believe in course creation above other things. But there is a place for course creation for sure. But I believe in the live interaction. There's so much more value there. It's better for everybody. You're in the moment they have the your clients have the ability to do q&a with you. It's just better. And then what's beautiful about that is that you know shine like you extract, you extract what they need in that moment and say, say you did a six week course like a live training course and they showed up every Monday for two hours for six weeks. And that first week you gave them this stuff that you had for the first week.   25:00 And then at the end of the program at the end of that two hours, we're like, Hey, guys, how did you do? How did you like, what did you not? Are we clear on this? And then you're thinking, Okay, I'm ready for week two, and then they answer you, and you're like, Oh, you guys are not ready for week two, I'm gonna have to come up with something else. But because you're the expert, you know what we'll need based on their reaction? And then you just shift and adjust for that. But you would otherwise you would have wasted how many hours? How many hours creating this course that you can't even use after week two? Yeah. And what do you what do you think about me? Even for me, sometimes the biggest thing about going live is the fear people have.   25:37 People would rather die than go live. I mean, it's like, that is the biggest fear people have. And it's like, man, how do we get over that? Because, as you said, you can build stuff and build stuff, and no one's gonna, unless you have that energy from the I'm the same way. I love doing live because, to me, it forces me to think more into what the people need, you see them, you're getting feedback. And it's almost like a mastermind, you you can't think about that without those people, those people for me, the it drives better, better content and drives better ideas and drives better things. But that point of going live, hitting that live button or doing things with with people, it scares the crap out. Even people who were doing it live in the past, in person, you get in front of a camera and people change. They do I think, what are some of them? Yeah, what are some things that you do with your clients that help them with the you know, to me, it's all fear. It's all bullshit. And it's all in your head, but it's there. Okay, so I, I was there to, like, you know, I'm a, I'm a trained keynote speaker, I can get on stages and do this, I can get on virtual stages and do this. But that was not always the case. And I didn't even get on social media until 2019. So, um, I went when somebody and it wasn't until somebody said to me, um, you need to be going live like you're not translating any of your personality or any of your help online. And I'm like, Yeah, I hate social media. So I'm not doing it. And I you know, this this though, to me, all it was is a bunch of like, comparison Bs, like, just just brag fast. I just, I hated the idea of this toxic online space. I hated it. So I I just, I just blackballed it. And then somebody challenged me to say, okay, you do one live, and you help people in the way that I know you do in your clinic and in real life and in with your clients and everything. You go live and do it online. If you don't help anybody, and nobody wants to hear it. I'll never ask you to do it again. But if you do you do another one. And I was like, Oh, you're on. You're on. I'm about to, like, break friends. And this is gonna be so I went live. And before I did, I had so I have anxiety and panic disorder. Anyway, so I was I when I say that I was shaking, like I had cold sweats. And I was shaking. And I was like, doing deep breathing exercises. Because I was being I was being like, there she was in the corner, I was being forced. So I had to press the button. I went live, I go back and go back and look at that live. And I'm like, oh, gosh, you were so nervous. Why? Why reason nervous. And I blocked a bunch of people on my live like, you can block people on your friends list from seeing that live, which was felt safer. I'm like, Okay, I'll just keep those sarcastic people out of the way. Sean's not watching so well.   28:30 But I just didn't want any like, I didn't want it feel any jokes or anything else. Because like, everybody knew I don't go online. So all of a sudden, Sandra's gonna show up online? Who does she think she is a hypocrite? You betcha. So after that, I got such good feedback from people. And I was like, I have to help them. No, I have to like not because somebody said, but because these people are hurting. And they were so grateful. Now I have to. And so for me, when I teach other people how to how to get over the fear of going online, you often have to challenge them to do it in a way that's meaningful for them. Like, here's the outcome if you if you do this challenge. And when I do that, there's ways to do this, where like, you're looking at the camera. And on the other side of the camera, for me, is my dream client, my ideal client that I know that I can help and maybe it's a best friend of mine that's been sitting on my couch in tears before because she can't figure out how to get to the next step. And I'm saying, You are so good at this, it's on the other side, you have to do this. Here's why. Here's what this looks like. If you could just get over the fear part. Just block that for a second. Here's what's available for you all of this. And so when you look through the lens and know that there's a breathing heartbeat soul on the other end of that lens, that it's not this big, like chasm of judging people, it's a soul that needs your help on the other end of that camera lens. Does that change your mind? Does that make you feel differently? Because I'm I can tell you now as fearful as I was for so long and sometimes still am when I go up to speak and I don't know if you ever get that too, but like I still get nervous before. Right? And, and so if there was I've decided that if there was an audience   30:00 5000 people, and they were all like making fun of me rolling their eyes on their cell phones ignoring me. But there was one person in the back of the room in tears, because they were so grateful for what I was saying, I would keep going, despite anybody else in their opinion of me, because that person is in pain. That's, I think that's how most humans are built. So if you can, if you can just imagine that there's somebody that needs your help on the other end of that, like you've established that you're good at something, you know that your thing has value, you're going to price for it, now you're going to talk about it, talk about it, because somebody needs your help, not because you're worried, like, don't worry about the friends and family that might be like, Oh, he's going online. Now. That's interesting. How about block then if you don't like it? How about hide their hide their eyes from your life? Or how about ignore the fact that they're judging you at all? Because they might be cheering you on quietly? And the other thing is, if they're not? are they paying your bills? Do they help you financially? Do they have a say in what you do with your life, like all of these things, and you know, to shine like all of these things are limiting beliefs that keep you from greatness. And I feel like, if we could all have a snapshot view of what our life could look like, if we were to say no to all those fears all along the years, if we would have said no to all those things, what would we have right now? I feel like we would all be heartbroken if we could do that. So if we can now say, all right, COVID is forcing us to pivot things or pressure, like things or pressure us all around me, I want to I want to do something with this. But I don't know how can you just decide that fear doesn't get to say anything this time? And just try it and see, because the the worst thing that will happen is that you'll learn something great out of it. And most probably you'll do well, most probably Yeah. And I think especially with you know, with what's going on, we can't meet in person like we had in the past.   31:48 I mean, this is and this is great. And when we see each other on here, we're you know, we're communicating online, it's still not the same from a personal standpoint, but it's better than than not, it's better than to me just posting stuff, it's like, you're still we still have a connection, I'm still looking looking at you in your eyes, we're still having a connection, we're still doing that. And it's to me that video is so, so important. And it's where we accept, but it's where we're going, we have to, we have to be able to do that, in order to be successful. I think in any business that's online, now you have to be able to have, because without that live, without that interaction, you're not going to build the connections. And to me, that's what it is. It's it's not making a sale, it's not selling someone it is absolutely making a connection with someone. And you can't do it without. Without video, you really can't. I mean, not in the same way, you're right.   32:42 Not in the same way at all. And there are two things, two beautiful things that have happened out of COVID. For this reason, first of all, people are disconnected from brands, from big brand names from big box retailers from global brands, they're disconnected. Nobody has a relationship with Coca Cola, you might have nostalgia with Coca Cola and emotions tied to the brand, but you don't have a relationship with them, because they're not a person. But they you can have relationships with individuals who are serving you, and spending their time and their heart and their energy and their bandwidth, trying to help you you have a relationship with those people. And you do that by way of video connecting with them to like because you need you need the proof that they're like living, breathing moving, right, right. Anybody could cat fish with online, you need proof that this person is a person. And so the second thing, so that's one beautiful thing is that the individual brands like the self branded, like the US, the me's, the people out here that are doing their thing online. People build relationships with us, and they trust us and they love us, and we love them back and trust them back. And this is how we do business because it's not transaction, its relationship, right. And then the second thing that's beautiful is that now no one has an excuse to not get online. The physicians that I used to work with my clientele my patient basis, you know, 66 years older, they'll never get online there. Oh, these guys are younger, they don't have time to get online. They don't check emails anymore. Not anymore. Now the entire globe is forced to create zoom meetings interact online. This is it's it's a force feed and telemedicine has come I don't know, like five years in the last three months. It's amazing now, and everybody sat on their hands because they didn't feel like it because they got other things to do. And now that we're all being forced, everybody knows how to do business with you. There's no excuse anymore, and people are comfortable with it today.   34:30 It's almost like we got fired from our job of normal living we got fired from our normal way of doing things and now this is we're forced to do this this is you know, sink or swim you're gonna do it or you're or you're not. And so one of the things so you are doing your generation impact stuff, which is to me that that is such a great name for for what you're doing. What What is generation impact. What What are you guys doing over there? First of all, thank you we ruminated over that name for a long time because because of our intentions for people   35:00 generational impact was born out of the idea that we, we, me and my partners, Shane Thrall and David Walden, we decided that, you know, the people that we're meeting in the online space, like you said, didn't believe in themselves enough, they didn't realize where their value was lying. They didn't understand that they they're like walking treasures to the world. And we're saying, if you could tap into that, and give it to other people, do you understand what kind of impact you can make? So we're saying this whole generation of people that is willing to step out and say, like, what's my gift, how helped me serve, you can make the biggest impact, you have no idea, generationally making impact on other people's generations, depending on what you do wealth. generational wealth is available, like health, like relationships, it's all available to people. And we're saying, alright, as generation impact, what can we do to be the first domino that knocks down all these other dominoes that makes the impact across the world. And so what we do is we have to, we have basically two legs of the company where the one we are teaching, we have an academy that teaches entrepreneurs online, how to grow and scale their business, how to be efficient, how to how to create those sales, how to market themselves properly, how to build a team, how to deploy this brand for themselves. And then secondarily, we have a consulting side, where we consult with corporations, and we build training materials for them workshop trainings, we help their their team learn new mechanisms for sales and marketing online in this space, and shifting and growing and, you know, basically all the strategy that you need as you change in a company, and companies are kind of notorious for doing things an old way, until something is pretty painful, and they're forced to shift. Well, if we can help them avoid that pain and grow bigger without as much cost, then we're going to do that, too. So, so we're basically helping b2c and b2b at the same time in different ways. Right. And I, you know, I think that is so important that you have these, you have these tools, in the end companies like yours available, because you can truly compress with with what you do, you can help someone compress something that might take them a few years to learn and develop in a extremely short amount of time. And, and I think one of the one of the best things that I'm seeing out of out of COVID is, you know, the people that you're helping, you're helping them generate their their passion, their love into businesses, I have been out in it, absolutely fascinated with some of the great imagination, and the great things that people are starting to produce, and put out there to the world. I think that is one of the greatest things that has happened with with COVID is people are now seeing that and I'm starting to see these companies or these people develop their their companies and some of the stuff is just amazing of what they're doing the ideas that they're coming up with. It's it's absolutely amazing to to watch these people finally, open up and develop what they were, what to me what they were really meant to do. What the the I don't know that the they're so industrious, like humans are. So they surprised me every day. And every time I see not only the names they've been really giving me life this year. But but the but the inventions and the ideas and the and the way that people are willing to say, let's see, let me let me try. Let me shift it and try it this way. And you're going yeah, like you can do it. I feel like I'm just on the other side of the screen, like cheering people on all the time. Because every new idea, and there's so many when we're forced to figure stuff out and get creative. It's amazing what we can come up with. But like you said, I feel like like we birthed a new way of life in this COVID like time and the time of COVID. And it's almost like those, like those cartoon reels where you see all the men in suits and hats, and what they're walking in black and white, and they're all like, you know, a mob of men just walking to work with briefcases. And then there's somebody over here in color, like bouncing around doing things differently. I feel like that's where we're going now, where this was the way that of the of the past. And this is the way now it's more fun. It's more free, there's more opportunity, because people are willing to see things a little differently. Yeah, and with what's available now with the technology that's available, and where people's mindsets are, anybody can be a company, anybody can be an author, anybody can be a speaker, anybody, you you have everything you need to be as big as anybody else. There's nothing now there is nothing holding people back you have the same assets available to you as a entrepreneur as a solopreneur then big companies had in the past you can now that that's the biggest thing is from literally from your phone, you can create content you can create you can create amazing things but just the simplest stuff that you have now and it's all available to everybody if they know if they have the mindset so you know that's where you come in as you help them with the mindset that they can do it and here's how you do it. But no longer is to me no longer as technology or no longer as all these big, you know brick and mortar assets that people had. That's not a that's not a   40:00 They stop or anymore that the absolutely no stop or anybody upgrade anything. And that's the biggest thing I see is anybody can create anything that they want now. It's amazing. Isn't it like that? That sounds like if you said that in the 80s, you'd be like, okay, big finger settle down. Yeah. But now it's like there's nothing more true. I mean, you don't need a website, you don't need a website to get started. You don't need it. You don't even need that. So you don't even have to pay to host what you have. You have free access to any social platform online. And if you market yourself that way, with your cell phone, sure you have to pay for internet and like a cell phone bill. But that is it. That's it. So the opportunities really are available to everybody, kids, teenagers, young teenagers, kids younger than that are making money online right now doing whatever they're good at. It's unbelievable. It's It's wild. It's like the new Gold Rush. It is Oh, absolutely.   40:54 Yeah. And and people are, you know, they're creating this, this sense of freedom for them. Like there's nothing better. There's nothing but there are some things but there's nothing better for me, when I'm when an entrepreneur finally gets to the point where they're like, Okay, fine. No, no, no, you're right, I'm gonna get out of my head. I'm just gonna do the things. We do those things and launch myself. I'm gonna put myself out there. And I'm like, Yes, yes, let's do it. And then they get paid, and say they have like a 5000, or a 10,000, or like, a 27,000 launch. Or, or they have that that conversation with a new client, and they sign a $45,000 contract like this. And I'm going, how did that change your life? Talk to me about the things you can do. Now, talk to me about how you can grow your business. Now talk to me about how now you have a team. Now you have more time because your team is doing some of the work. And now you can actually I don't know, take your first vacation ever with your children in 10 years. What does that like? Like? Those kind of wins are exponential, because I know they're helping their clients. Let's talk about that. Like, how did your life change? It's an It's amazing. They're saying, with my camera phone, and my computer, that's all it took? Yeah. Love belief in yourself, too. That's awesome. Yeah. And it's funny, it's when it's a bad moment. And I'm sure you see this a lot. It's that that moment you actually see it in their eyes, you actually see it in their stature. When that light goes off. You can you can physically see that light going off in their in their head and like, wow, yeah, this is this is it? We can do this? Yeah, that to me, that's the funnest thing. Yeah. And so you But see, you've done that your entire seat. And that's the thing you want to be one of your gifts is yes, you care about your you know, all your clients, you care, you care that they are successful, you care that they get what they want. But you've done that your entire career. So you even when you were doing your real estate stuff, you were that's part of your DNA, that's part of who you are of helping people and you and everything you do you actually, you know, I see that in you on all this. I've seen you on stage. I've seen you, you know, on doing your stuff. And that always comes out that you absolutely care about the outcome of the person. And that it did does it absolutely shows if I could I don't process data that passed. Again, I'm going back to you are so good and so fast to what you do. It's like I can't process it that fast. It's so much so much great data. I'm like, bouncing around in my head. So let me ask you this on a percentage, if we had a percentage a 50%? Or could you strike me out with a softball still?   43:31 Yeah. How was that?   43:34 You didn't have to think about that. And then you say you're from Canada?   43:39 Oh, go ahead. Yes.   43:42 I was gonna say because two things. Um, because muscle memory is a little ridiculous. When you play a sport for so long. It's not hard to pick it back up pretty quickly. But also because most people can't hit a hit and underhand fast pitch, especially men who are used to playing baseball, and they're looking for the overhand release. So that's usually even even my baseball player buddies like D one, like I would pitch to them, we'd mess around and I pitch to him. And it wasn't that hard to strike them out. There D one baseball players like but would piss him off.   44:13 I better pass them off to I bet it would piss them off. Oh, yeah.   44:18 And then also, ya   44:22 know, so being from Canada. Do you know what a Looney tune is?   44:27 Of course, see now, transactional currency, but no one actually use it. So we went to me and my wife, we went up to I think Quebec City a couple years ago. And I convinced her to always talk like she was gonna pay and loonies and toonies. People there thought she was a nut. But I convinced her that she had to call them loonies and toonies.   44:48 She's never lived that down. And   44:51 but finally someone said, Hey,   44:54 what are you type? We don't call them loonies and toonies. We're just in the background.   45:00 You're you went to Quebec City? Yes. And that they're very French. So they're not going to call them that probably great. And so anywhere else in the southern part of Canada, if you say alluded to, and for listeners that don't know, I'm sure some people are googling it like what is that? But, but a loony is just $1 coin and today is a $2 point. And so, um, Canadians don't use pennies anymore. They're no longer part of the circulation. So everything rounds up to an even number. But, or like a five or zero but, but if you go if you you're safe shot if you go and you bring your wife to Southern Ontario, and you said Looney intuitive they'd be like, Yeah, no, I got it. But um, it came back city, like Montreal, like all the chemical I will um, they'll prefer it if you speak French period. Yes, carry it. And I don't do it well, so they don't like it   45:52 at all, but it was a man. We loved it up there. It was absolutely. Absolutely beautiful.   45:57 Isn't it? Yes. It was cold. There was brand new years. So we went New Year's Eve, we did some big rave, outdoor rave. New Year's Eve. It was wild. But yeah, it was it was cold. I'm from Texas. Yeah, well, I'm from Colorado, but oh, I've acclimated to Texas, and it's damn cold.   46:21 It's your blood wasn't ready. was not ready at all. But I've had an absolute fantastic, fantastic time. Thank you for coming on the podcast. And everybody go to you know, we're gonna put the you know, those listening, go to the show notes because we're gonna have all the ways that you can contact xandra and also going to generation impact group Comm. I'm telling you, this is the way this is the way the future and everybody, here's the thing. I think every household in the next year or two is going to have a business. Every household is going to have a side gig side business from doing what they love to some being forced, like you, you know, they're they've lost their jobs, they've lost their way of income, some just because they have the desire to do it, but everybody is going to every household is going to have a side business. And I just love the stuff that you guys do. So thanks so much for being on being on the podcast and adding so much value.

Longtime podcaster, full-cast audio pioneer and independent filmmaker, and author of 30 books, J. Daniel Sawyer hosts the daily writers podcast The Every Day Novelist dedicated to creativity, process, writerly discipline, and cultivating a fertile mental life.TRANSCRIPT AVAILABLESHOW LINKS:Subscribe to my YouTube Channel: youtube.com/c/KevinTumlinsonWordslinger Podcast on YouTube: youtube.com/c/wordslingerpodcastAuthor.Email: author.emailIndie Author Blueprint: indieauthorblueprint.comGUEST LINKS:Website:: http://www.jdsawyer.netAmazon Author Page:: https://www.amazon.com/J-Daniel-Sawyer/e/B003L9JM92Twitter:: @dsawyerFacebook:: https://www.facebook.com/jdaniel.sawyerHow can people join your mailing list?: http://jdsawyer.net/about/mailing-list-signup/SPONSORS:DRAFT2DIGITAL: Convert, publish, and distribute your book worldwide, with support the whole way. https://draft2digital.com/wordslingerACORNS: Start an Acorns account today and get FREE MONEY! kevintumlinson.com/acornsAUDIBLE.COM: Get a FREE 30-day trial of Audible and listen to any audiobook in their vast library, when you go to http://audibletrial.com/wordslingerTRANSCRIPT:SUMMARY KEYWORDSbook, people, podcast, nanowrimo, pandemic, years, worldview, everyday, talking, novelist, life, interesting, grew, read, thought, recorded, held, listen, writing, questionsSPEAKERSKevin Tumlinson, J Daniel SawyerKevin Tumlinson 00:01Hey everybody, thank you for tuning in for sticking through the intro. I'm not even sure what I said in the intro, but I promise I will, I can guarantee at least I was interested in it. So thanks for tuning in and playing along. So today we're talking to Jay Daniel Sawyer. Now I'm going to read his bio here because it's it's got some great details for you but longtime podcaster full cast, audio pioneer, and independent filmmaker and author of 30 books. Jay saw your hosts the daily writers podcast, the everyday novelist, dedicated credit to creativity, process, and writerly discipline, and cultivating a fertile mental life. That's the part I wanted to get to in your bio. I like the idea of a fertile mental life. How's that? How's that shake out? And welcome to the show.J Daniel Sawyer 00:52Hi, Doug diggin Kevin. Yeah, you were on everyday novelist. What about it? But two years ago, I thinkKevin Tumlinson 00:58Yeah, a little bit. Doesn't seem like that long.J Daniel Sawyer 01:01I guys been crazy packed two years and like, every sense. Yeah,Kevin Tumlinson 01:06yeah. I feel like I've done a billion podcasts and webinars and live stream since then. And that's just this week. Oh, no. Yes. And I, you know, and I told you this before we started and I'm, I'm going to apologize to the rest of the world. Because if I sounded all frazzled, or off my game, it's because we've had so there's that on top of a pandemic, and I don't know when you're listening to this, it's probably a little bit in the future for sure. Maybe things turned out all right. And if so, thank you world for playing along. But uh, you know, things have been a little crazy. In terms of stuff we're doing with DDD, we got these spotlights, we're doing like every day, and then my buddy here pops in and I for some reason, I thought it was one of my author consults. So So I'm off base. I'm off kilter man. We're gonna get back on trackJ Daniel Sawyer 02:04so I think we'll do fine.Kevin Tumlinson 02:06How is everything in the James J Daniel Sawyer world man Tell me a little bit about what you're doing right now.J Daniel Sawyer 02:12Oh well right now I'm stuck up in the backwoods I moved up to the backwoods of New England for a week in order to help my parents relocate a year ago It turned out that their their retirement house needed some renovations. So Oh, got stuck here. And just as we were getting ready to leave the quarantine comes down. So I might be stuck here another year. So there's a lot of interesting refactoring going on.Kevin Tumlinson 02:36But that seems to be the way that works out. I mean, we we were we moved out of our apartment and moved into our in laws place for a few days, quote, unquote, and then 14 hit and we're like, well, they're gonna hunker down anyway. Go ahead.J Daniel Sawyer 02:54Yeah. But yeah, it's it's good. It's, you know, we're on we've got 50 acres to play with. So there's a Lots of good time for outside notice and using the opportunity to resurrect my fiction podcast and get some work ahead done on the homestead we're building on the other side of the country. Right? So it's, it's gonna work outKevin Tumlinson 03:15what kind of work ahead can you do if it's on the other side of the country?J Daniel Sawyer 03:18There's a lot of design stuff. Yeah design, designing and costing sourcing stuff for the first buildings figuring out order of operations for at what stage we do the well when we do the catchment, what's the priority of how much electrical build out because where we are, it's a quarter mile beyond the last electrical pole. So it's 20 odd thousand just to bring power in. It's actually a lot cheaper. Even though we're in an iffy climate zone. It's actually a lot cheaper to go solar. So, right. Yes, that's a whole new set of things I've been learning about andKevin Tumlinson 03:53Oh, man. Yeah, you're talking to the right guy. Cool. This is I have to so you know, You know that we're getting into an RV full time again? Yeah. So the the two biggest problems, the three big problems. One, the two are bigger than the third. But internet is the biggest challenge. You know, power isn't such a big challenge unless it's going to be hot. And then we have Eric. Right. So, yeah, so solar power and generators and alternative energy are all in my mind. I'm thinking about installing something on the wheels of the camper that as we rolling in generates power.J Daniel Sawyer 04:36I've been studying doing that kind of stuff. It should be pretty, pretty simple.Kevin Tumlinson 04:40Yeah, man. Yeah. by simple, you know, that's a relative term.J Daniel Sawyer 04:44Well, it's a relative term. But the question is, would it be more efficient than just putting a bigger alternator in the truck? Yeah. And then, and then routing it to the chargeback.Kevin Tumlinson 04:55That's something else I I've considered. Well, yeah, whatever. This has been alternate energy talk everyone.J Daniel Sawyer 05:03So, well, you know, we were talking about a fertile mental life. Yeah, exactly. I mean, one of the one of the things about creativity is it's nonlinear, you can't reason your way into what you have to do is you have to create a broad, a broad base of knowledge and experience and interests to pull from. And so, you know, one of the ways that I keep myself Spry is by picking interesting stuff that's not related to anything else I'm doing and finding a way to get interested in it because I always get story ideas out of it.Kevin Tumlinson 05:35Yeah. Yeah. That's, that's interesting. And that and so that's what you mean by by fertile mental life?J Daniel Sawyer 05:42Well, partly, I've just finished a book called The autodidact Bible, which should be coming out. I think we've set the publication date for early July. Yeah. Which is a basically a comprehensive toolkit for teaching yourself how to self educate, eat, whether you're self educated. With philosophy or with carpentry, and everything in between,Kevin Tumlinson 06:04man, I gotta tell you, though, hmm, you should call it a fertile mental life. The other didactics Bible. Thank you.J Daniel Sawyer 06:11I've been looking for a good title for it because the working title is a bit wonky. Yeah, so I'll write that down.Kevin Tumlinson 06:20I think that's gonna work. I would buy that book. All right, I wouldn't buy the first one.J Daniel Sawyer 06:25right because it sounds really technical. ItKevin Tumlinson 06:27sounds like it's gonna Yeah, like, I'm gonna have to read this with like one of those clear rulers. Oh,06:35I lost I lost your lightingKevin Tumlinson 06:36just went away. Yeah, well, good thing nobody everyone listening is doesn't know that.J Daniel Sawyer 06:41Yeah, speaking of off grid power,Kevin Tumlinson 06:44no joke. Now, I'm not really sure why that happened. So I'm gonna, I'm gonna let that charge up while I'm on with you. Okay,J Daniel Sawyer 06:52both backlit, so it's sort of fair. Exactly.Kevin Tumlinson 06:57Things things like this are always happening to me lately. I don't What's going on? Um, so yeah, we'll get off that see this one talking about some I get off track justJ Daniel Sawyer 07:09because I'll just chase whatever and that's okay. you stumble ontoKevin Tumlinson 07:12you know, I studied improv and you know, you roll with whatever is gonna come at you. Yeah,J Daniel Sawyer 07:17yes, yeah, yes and or no but but never Yeah.Kevin Tumlinson 07:20So, uh, I, let's talk a little bit about your well wouldn't talk about your book. Do you want to talk a little about your book? I was gonna get off on your podcastsJ Daniel Sawyer 07:32there. Let's get off on the podcast. They're related. They'reKevin Tumlinson 07:35related, okay, who partly out of the other. So tell me. How did the show get started? Like what made you decide to do itJ Daniel Sawyer 07:41back in? I think it was 2006 Yeah, 2005 or 2006. I went to a write in for NaNoWriMo at Central Park in Berkeley. And Chris, whatever his name is the guy that started NaNoWriMo was there and so I got to talk to you too. Like, why'd you know why did he do this? I'd never done it before. It always seemed kind of silly to me. And he said, Well, I wanted to be a writer and I couldn't motivate myself. So I decided to pick the most difficult month in the year and intentionally write a book there to prove to myself I could do it. Yeah, I thought that was kind of a cool idea. So I wanted to trying to do NaNoWriMo that year and I completely failed. But the the lit the minor features of the conversation like going in the direction of greatest difficulty in order to build up your writing chops, really sunk in made a big difference to me as a writer to my productivity and to my general approach to all things writerly. So, I had in mind always want especially once I started podcasting, I always thought it would be fun to do sort of a walkthrough of NaNoWriMo for the newbie who'd never written a book before. Okay, and about 2016 I had the free time. So I sat and did it. And I got to the end of this 30 day walkthrough, which has since evolved into my book becoming an everyday novelist. And I started getting emails from people saying, Please don't end it here. We've become dependent on it. And so I, I went on pod and I read a couple of these. And I said, Okay, so look, here's the problem. It took me, God, you know, God knows how many untold hours to work out the program for this 30 day walkthrough to put things in the right place to write the copy that whole bit. So if you want me to keep this going, you've got to make it easy for me send me questions or something. Yeah. And I thought that was gonna be the end of it. But they sent questions. And they kept sending questions, and they kept sending questions, and it's now four plus years on and we're just creeping up on 1000 episodes now, and they're still sending questions. Occasionally, a question will spin off and I'll do a special series or or I'll have a guest on every once in a while. Then about about two and a half years ago, I wrote a I cracked the formula for hemlines juvenile books. And so I wrote a Heinlein juvenile and did a walkthrough of how to write a headline juvenile interesting and you know, some other stuff like that. But as the years have gone on, the questions have gotten more and more interesting. We get into history in psychology and philosophy in general auto didacticism and mental health management and physical health management. And the reading list that I refer people to keeps growing and growing and growing.Kevin Tumlinson 10:41Yeah, was what puts you though, on that specific course like you are? Well, I guess more the more important question is like how are you answering those questions like where are the answers come from?J Daniel Sawyer 10:55Well, I read the questions when they come in and then about one second Good enough to do a block I record 15 to 30 episodes in a day. Yeah. And do it all off the top of my head. Okay, I'm, I'm Constance I grew up in I literally grew up in academia, both grandfathers are cattle ranchers and then my father is a theology professor. So I grew up idolizing my blue collar grandparents and hanging out in the college where my father taught. So I was like, auditing classes when I was six, seven years old. Just Yeah, I thought it was cool. Not realizing I was picking up useful stuff. Right. And I've just always loved learning and hated school. So I've become the I quit. I dropped out of school at 15. I started working full time and going to college on the sly. And just read, read, read, experiment, learn, do a bunch of different stuff. I've, I've run a courier company. I've run a couple of publishing companies. I've been in the tech world. I've run a music company. or not, that was music services company like MC live sound mixing and doing videos, that sort of thing. And over the years, I've built up this toolkit for how to navigate any situation and come out of it. Come out of it, learning a lot about it. That's crazy and how to cross apply those things to other areas so that you can bootstrap on multiple fronts at once. Yeah. So when someone comes in and asks a question, and I'm really I'm always really careful to separate my opinion from the state of the art in a given field and what the state of my knowledge is, and then, if it's something that's, you know, socially controversial, or that's fraught in the field, I refer to sources that contra counterbalance each other and when it's when it's something more historical, I just didn't refer to a couple of good books that are they give more depth on this. subject that I'm able to give. We've done deep dives on the history and background of the writing of certain influential books, you know, that kind of stuff.Kevin Tumlinson 13:09Yeah. And you're cataloging all this somewhere so that people can can access Yeah,J Daniel Sawyer 13:14yeah, there's a there's a on the website at everyday novelist calm there's a reading list of basically every book we've ever recommended on the cast. Do you album,Kevin Tumlinson 13:25are you monetizing that somehow? Are you you know, people got paid?J Daniel Sawyer 13:30Yes. No, no, well, it's, it's free. Listen, I've got Patreon subscribe star and the gumroad subscription feed all currently doesn't bring in very much but yes, for me, it's kind of a pay it forward thing I need to figure out how to monetize it a little better, because that's taken ungodly amount of time.Kevin Tumlinson 13:46That's always a challenge too. Because, you know, you like me. I mean, I I've lost track of how much I've put out there. that's meant to help the community but you know, at some point you do have to make a living. Luckily, my books make money. Living. So that's great. But he put in all this time and energy, you feel like there should be some sort of monetary reward.J Daniel Sawyer 14:09Well, people who listen to this, if you come over and listen to the cast kick $1 in here and there or buy the books through the Yeah, the site that really helps out a lot. One of the lovely things and you'll know, that's one of the lovely things about being sort of off the beaten track, whether you're in an RV or going or we were in an RV for a couple years or going off to the middle of the woods, is you have the freedom to live on quite a lot less than everybody else does. Right? So it doesn't take a whole lot to meet your monthly bills. So you know, we don't make a lot it really does help with the budget, but genuinely, every dollar helps us both nice and a little bit of a downer.Kevin Tumlinson 14:49Yeah, well, but I guess if you really think about it, that's just gonna be true no matter what I mean, you. Yeah, I mean for most people, for like, we'll say 90% of people. That's probably going to be the truth.J Daniel Sawyer 15:01It's got interesting. Yeah, it's gonna be interesting watching what kind of long term effects this whole. This whole endemic pandemic adventure has on people's determination to work from home and other things over the long term that could seriously change the shape of the way things work.Kevin Tumlinson 15:18I predict that I honestly think we're, we've just we just witnessed, like a leap forward in the evolution of a civilization. As you know, everything we understood has come to an end. And we're now going to reinvent ourselves.J Daniel Sawyer 15:35That's a lot more true than you might realize. Because it's not just the social changes that this is forcing. But there is another set of social changes that was waiting in the wings for coming to three years from now when the boomers hit mass retirement that this has accelerated. Yeah. And that is that because of the global demography, the demand driven economic expansion that started With the Black Death just ended, right just ended. Right? That's 500 years of political, social, and economic and ethical systems all premised on the notion that things would continue to grow at a moderate rate forever. They don't work anymore. Right? I'm planning on editing an anthology later this year dealing with potential new ways to do things where growth is not an embedded obligation of the system. Figure science fiction needs to get back to hardcore speculation. SoKevin Tumlinson 16:32I think we also just witnessed the opening of a whole new door when it comes to intellectual property and the way culture reacts with it.J Daniel Sawyer 16:42Yeah. Very interesting.Kevin Tumlinson 16:44Yeah. I'm real curious to see what happens. Because you know, you think about everything we've seen of late like all the little sessions where people do like, you know, oh, sorry about that. No problem. You got to clean anything up. You Good.J Daniel Sawyer 17:00No, no, I just wasn't my reflector wasn't backed by a strong enough, strong enough Wait,Kevin Tumlinson 17:05all right. You know those all those videos and everything that have popped up like nurses and doctors singing or high school kids singing something and performing something, you know, all that stuff is out there, it's getting a lot of attention. And some of it is easily even sort of inadvertently monetized. And but nobody is having to secure the rights to that stuff right now. SoJ Daniel Sawyer 17:30I'm curious to see what happened has to be some there's gonna have to be a new new compulsory licensing scheme, like happened in the 20th is when radio came in?Kevin Tumlinson 17:39Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Well, you know that there's a whole thing going on with this has been in discussion for years really, because this is why the Creative Commons first kind of came on the scene, but, you know, can you really truly own an idea and is it beneficial to society for you to own the idea Yeah, and we need to make a living as content creators. But do we, you know, how far does that extend in terms of ownership? So, you know, I'm, I kind of am on in that boat of, you know, ideas want to be free, like the guy who created Yep. Was it Oracle? No, it was a Linux, creator of Linux. Yes. But at the same time I make my living from my ideas. So.J Daniel Sawyer 18:30Oh, no, it was, it was it was it was a bill, what's his name from Sun Microsystems said that.Kevin Tumlinson 18:34Okay. Yeah, I think you're right. Yeah. No, no, probably. Yeah. No, IJ Daniel Sawyer 18:39yeah. No, I'm the same way. I've quite a lot of my stuff is creative commons license. And I you know, I've interviewed Cory Doctorow years ago and yeah, and, and the greatest The greatest enemy of any new artist is obscurity and not piracy, all that sort of stuff. Yep. totally on board with that. And on the other hand, the yeah The rationale for copyright law is that the for the civilization to benefit from the culture, people have to be incentivized to make it. And when everything was expensive to publish, that was very easy to that was a very easy line to draw, but it's not anymore and we've delayed rethinking that seriously. years and nobody has put Yeah, I think you're right, that dam just broke.Kevin Tumlinson 19:27Yeah, I absolutely think it has. And, you know, of course, one of the things that's that's been happening since since the pandemic started almost hesitate to talk about the pandemic at all honestly, because by the time this episode airs we should hopefully be out ofJ Daniel Sawyer 19:45don't bet on it. I'm expecting that I'm expecting that there'll be a sawtooth quarantine forKevin Tumlinson 19:50we'll see we'll see if you're right if this good when this goes live, we'll see if that things change. I don't know what but whateverJ Daniel Sawyer 19:57I'll on record. So if my prediction everyone laughKevin Tumlinson 20:00at me gonna be a transcript and everything, man. Absolutely. So I think, you know, right now I know from, from my experience with drafter digital and in my own personal experience that ebooks, ebook sales have been just going through the roof. You know? And I mean, we've we've seen, like a 45% increase across retailers, but like 175% increase with libraries. So people are out there. IJ Daniel Sawyer 20:27got my book library sales have also gone way up. Yeah. Yeah. It's, so I seem to have the greatest penetration in libraries with my audiobooks. SoKevin Tumlinson 20:37that's interesting, though. That's interesting. Because most of the time when I think about audio books, I'm thinking like people are getting them to listen to while they drive into work or something. I would think so too, butJ Daniel Sawyer 20:49that maybe, you know, while there would be out everybody taking walks or Yeah, or cleaning the house, and if you're living in the house, you have to clean a lot more often.Kevin Tumlinson 20:59So how are you Balancing the podcasting and everything else you're doing with the writing, like how you keep on track.J Daniel Sawyer 21:08I tend to batch a lot, current. So like right now, it is called the everyday novelist because I usually write everyday but the last few months, because things have been so weird, it's been a little bit different. So I've currently got four books that I'm redlining. And the podcast is actually as much time as it takes sexual easy because I can batch it. So I'll just say okay, at the end of the recorded buffer is coming up, like when we're recording this, I've got another recording session tonight, because my buffer just ran out. I say at the end of the recorded buffers coming up, take one night to record them all. Then take a day to edit them all and post them and then that's that and but I do a lot of stuff with batch work. So I let you know enough of a pile pile up that I can do it as a project because With the exception of getting in a groove and writing every day, almost everything else I either get bored of or get. It starts to grind on me if it's a chronic thing, but if I have projects I can get through, then that Jazz's me up. SoKevin Tumlinson 22:16yeah, so that's it, you know, are you how much production goes into each of your podcast episodes?J Daniel Sawyer 22:25For the everyday novelist it's about a it's about a two and a half to one timewise. As you can tell, as we're talking here, I have a bit of a scatter shot. I tend to circle a topic before before angling in on it and sometimes there's a lot of stumbling associated with that right right. I like what I'm doing the everyday novelist because it's all improv I like to to narrow the stumbling down as much as possible. So right, it takes about twice as long to cut every episode as the final Listening length winds up being. Okay. So overall, I met including the recording time at about two or three to one production ratio.Kevin Tumlinson 23:10Alright, well alright, that's that makes sense. That's about what it what it takes for me so that I feel a little more comfortable. I am actually because I've been doing some other stuff recently live I'm actually considering shifting the model of this show to being a live format, essentially producing it on the fly. Yeah, it can be fun. It's a little tougher to get certain guests on. But you get the benefit of you know, the production is is done that day.J Daniel Sawyer 23:42Yeah, absolutely dead set out. And I really, I dig doing interview shows that way. When I'm, when I'm doing monologues. I like to massage the timing a lot because that that really helps with the delivery. Yeah, when you've got a conversation going on. The timing emerges from the interaction so you can avoid the editing if you want to.Kevin Tumlinson 24:03Yeah, that's exactly yeah, I like that part where everything is done for me automatically.J Daniel Sawyer 24:10Oh yeah.Kevin Tumlinson 24:12I started my I started this thing called the Kevin show. I don't know if you've seen any of those and they're ridiculous I haven't seen that yet. They're not right.J Daniel Sawyer 24:20They were your YouTube channel. Yeah, yeah. So I started I've got a tab open, but I haven't watched any of them yet.Kevin Tumlinson 24:26Yeah, well, I'm just gonna warn you in advance don't go there hoping for writing wisdom.J Daniel Sawyer 24:34But I figured it's us so it's probably gonna be like RV weird DIY stuff. And strange. There's gonna be all kinds of stuff.Kevin Tumlinson 24:41Yeah. So it started literally that show. So yeah, okay, I'm gonna bring us back around to what we're discussing here. But that show started as me and Nick factor. I said to Nick, you know, when I was so stressed out from the moving from the pandemic from, you know, just being inundated with things So you know, what I would love to do is just do something stupid fun, no agenda, no plan and call it I could call it the Kevin show, because that's ridiculous. And just put it out there live and have fun for 30 minutes, distract people. And he, he said I'd go on that. And so within an hour, I had designed that entire show, from the graphics to music to a video intro to booking my first guest. And the next day it went live. And I've done one every week since so that's dad said, to bring it back to the important thing of this interview, which is you that shows I think that process of the fertile mind, you know, the the fertile mental life that you are, that you are focused on, or would you would you disagree with that? kind of put you on the spot?J Daniel Sawyer 25:56No, no, I think that's a great example to the brain. branching out. It's Oh, I'm trying to think of something pithy to come back to that. But yeah, I think you've got it exactly.Kevin Tumlinson 26:07That's something.J Daniel Sawyer 26:09Life is chaotic, interesting and complicated. And it doesn't easily fit into any of the categories that anybody likes to impose on it. Yeah. And I can't remember who I ran into from it might have been, it might have been something out of one of two labs books. But I came across this idea of it's better to have strong opinions loosely held. Yeah, then then weak, then weak opinions strongly held. Most people have weak opinions strongly held. They have ideas that they like, they can't really support them in in the face of a monumental challenge, but they'll hold on to them for dear life because they're identified with them.Kevin Tumlinson 26:50Exactly. Sort of. Yeah,J Daniel Sawyer 26:52I like that core way. I prefer to be able to articulate what I'm thinking in a very useful strong way, right and be comfortable enough with my own level of ignorance that I can change my opinion when something challenges it and it doesn't, in my opinion doesn't stand up in the teeth of whatever I'm engaging with. As a result of course, I've had multiple interesting worldview shifts over my life. I've been all over the political spectrum. I've had three different religions. And but, but it's but the reason is that, that I'm more interested in figuring out what's actually going on and engaging with life in a in a deep way. And if that's my priority, then what's expendable has to be my determination to cling on to the things that might otherwise make me feel secure.Kevin Tumlinson 27:54Yeah, okay. That is I Exactly. I love the way you have Put that if that is an actual quote, I need to go find it about strong or strong opinions. Loosely held. Yeah, yeah, that's I feel like that's me. And I think I think the danger is people hear strong opinions and then decide. That's where you stand. And so the idea that you might change your mind from a strong opinion, and pivot to a new worldview is is completely foreign to some folks. But I think that's that's the right way to be personally, I like that.J Daniel Sawyer 28:30Yeah. And I do and I mean, one of the things you're, you're like me, you're, you're a little bit north of 30, at least. And one of the things by the time you hit your mid 30s, you realize that whether you want it to or not your worldviews gonna change. Yeah. Because the cumulative experience you build up, gradually goes out of sync with your ideology, whatever ideology that is, because ideologies are models that we build to deal with the world. They're not the world itself and any model is going to have holes in it. Yeah, and the. So when you're in your 20s, it's really easy to righteously hold on to everything because you are fighting for the good. But the older you get, the more that instead of that makes you look, instead of making you impassioned, and a person of great conviction, makes you look kind of stupid. Yeah, because you're not you look vapid and hollow? Well, yeah, because what's happening is while your practical worldview is changing, and you can always tell by the evidence of someone's behavior, rather than what they say, what you believe is reflected in what you do not in what you say. And as you get older, if you're holding on to those, to those early convictions that tightly, the gap between your behavior and your speech will grow. And if you look in the mirror, and all of us eventually do or at least most of us eventually do. You notice that disconnect and that's when you have the existential crisis, who,Kevin Tumlinson 30:02yeah, if you've ever read Carol Dwight's book about my called mindset, it talks about exactly you should tell you, that will probably end up on your list of recommended books, because it talks about that very idea. And it's the closed mindset versus the open mindset, you know, and we tend to look for things that become part of our identity when, especially when we're young, especially when we're vulnerable. Like we're, you know, the bullied high school kid, you know, can say, Well, people pick on me, but at least I'm really good at math. And so if you identify with that, and then you fail a math test,30:40you're crushed, suddenly, yep.Kevin Tumlinson 30:42Your whole identity was just taken for you were murdered, you know, in your, in your own mind. And so you start to think if I don't have that, what am I? Who am I? So anyway, um, so, unfortunately, we are we're closing in on our timeJ Daniel Sawyer 30:58on the end,Kevin Tumlinson 30:59which was is really unfortunate man I always I dig talking to you we know when am I coming back on your show man? I knowJ Daniel Sawyer 31:13whenever it's good for you let me know I would love to have you back on especially now you're working with Jeff to digital. I'd like to Yeah,Kevin Tumlinson 31:19cuz i don't think i was last time wasJ Daniel Sawyer 31:21last time you were last time you wereKevin Tumlinson 31:25completely independent.J Daniel Sawyer 31:26You You were just leaving your first stint at draft to digital I think it wasKevin Tumlinson 31:31no it would have been because I was still Oh yeah, so I was working for DDD, but IJ Daniel Sawyer 31:36stayed with a different position. Oh yeah, I was.Kevin Tumlinson 31:39I was getting on the road though. That's the only guy that would have been. So okay, yeah, so I still fresh it D to D Really? Because that happened like right after. Okay, there we go. That's the you haveJ Daniel Sawyer 31:50this. this. Yeah, the stuff you guys are doing over there, especially now that marks on the team and whatnot has gotten a lot more interesting. I keep signing up for the meetings and then not making them because Everything else in the world that's there recorded I really want.Kevin Tumlinson 32:04I'm gonna have to look back through from my recorded pop into your YouTube channel. Okay, which is officially youtube.com slash c slash draft to digital everyone. And while you're there, look for Kevin Tumlinson and you can tune into the Kevin show xo into plugs but tell everybody the more important URL is where can people find you online?J Daniel Sawyer 32:30You can find me at everyday novelist calm that's for the daily podcast. You can find a whole bunch of my other stuff audio books, full cast audio fiction podcasts, my rather scattered and sometimes very dark musings on the universe on my blog, and a complete list of the books that are available for purchase at the moment as well as my autodidacts reading list at WWW dot JDC. All your.net and I just want a very, very dark take on some of the stuff we were talking about earlier about the changeover and ages. Check out my blog post. The Abyss stares back.Kevin Tumlinson 33:12Yes. Excellent. All right. Well, you heard him everybody. Make sure you check that stuff out, buy his books, go see his stuff. Listen to his podcast. There's a lot you can do to keep him going throw a buck or two his way on Patreon. Let's let's make sure we're taking care of our own here, man. So Jay Daniel Sawyer, sir, thank you so much for being a part of the word slinger podcast.J Daniel Sawyer 33:34Thanks for having me on. It is a delight.Kevin Tumlinson 33:37Everybody else right now. Right now you're probably hearing the groovy bridge music. You may dance in place it will and if you stick around, I am sure to say something profound on the other side, and if I don't make fun of me, see you next time.

Hey this is Angie Monroe of the warrior divas show broadcasting live each Tuesday 11 am Central from globe life park in Arlington, Texas login to hear real talk with real women that will empower and equip you to make a more powerful impact in the world each Tuesday 11 am Central on fishbowl Radio Network Hello, and welcome to warrior divas real talk for real women. I am your host Angie Leigh Monroe, our show is specifically that was right I said specifically, incorrectly because I too can mess up from time to time. It is specifically designed for our divas;  divas is an acronym for Destin inspired victorious accountable sisters. And we will be bringing guests on our show who will help in our mission to equip and empower a global community of women change agents as we make a positive impact in the world we live in. When we started divas impact four years ago, we quip that we wanted to change the way women think and speak about themselves and others. As we've progressed, so has our thinking and out of our intentions, we want to talk about things that are impacting women. So this means we talk about faith, family, fitness, finance, food and a lot of other words that don't begin with f. So today we welcome Laurie Vaughn speaks of lbs consulting loriann speaks is an expert in the area of speaker and author support. She amplifies the visibility of authors, speakers and messengers. While they do what they love. Speak. laurieann has helped spearhead multiple best selling book campaigns, editing proofing, through to launch and social media marketing to help authors create buzz and momentum throughout social media platforms and increase their Message worldwide loriann and her team have made it their mission to empower speakers to deliver their message by handling the rest of the details. Prior to starting their own company loriann had over 15 years of professional experience supporting a top 100 thought leader as she built her businesses. Welcome to the show. loriann Thanks so much, Angie. It's a pleasure to be here. Well, I personally know what a busy busy lady you are. And you've had some major projects you're working on for some of my friends, and you've done some work for me as well. But before we get into all that, what I want to visit with you about who you are and how you got here today, is that all right. Yeah, totally cool. Yeah. I love that. So if you can just kind of give us a backstory. You. You said you work for a thought leader for 15 years. I'm sure there's things you did before that. I know you're a mom. So you're one What are some of the things that kind of led you to where you are today? Well, great, yeah. Yes, I am no spring chicken. I've probably had four different careers in my lifetime. I started off in my teens and 20s being so politically involved and got my degrees in political science and economics and wanted to be in politics. Thank goodness and thank God up above that he had other plans for me, and I am not there now. So I did that. And then I became a recruiter. And when the when 911 happened, my recruiting business went to hell in a handbasket. So, I started working for this thought leader, and I was hurt for all intents purposes, girl Friday. office manager, you know, gatekeeper. And I spent 15 years learning the business of speakers and authors. And so, but really, once I had children my focus, you know, I, like I said, I started off wanting to be, like President of the United States, you know, the first woman president of the United States. Then I had children. And I realized, Oh, this is, this is what I'm good at. This is what I love. And so, when you talk about where was I, and how have I gotten here, once I had children, the business kind of went as a means to an end instead of being you know, the end all and beall and being a mom was the number one thing in my life. And, and so, you know, I did I I worked at A regular job so I could be mom and Girl Scout leader and room mom and, and be able to do all the things that I wanted to do as a mom. I love that. Sorry. I said I love that. Yeah, you know, and I and I wouldn't have traded it for the world. You know. I'm kind of glad that I never really got into the whole corporate america thing. But what got me now to owning my own company, though, is that back in December of 2017, I was laid off, my boss decided to sell our company, and I knew it was coming. But But I decided I was just going to stay until the end because she needed me. And and, and so and I knew there wasn't going to be much difference between hitting the the, you know, employment market at 59 or at 60. I was pretty bad. You know, they're not going to be doing well and I and I just sat there and went, Okay, let's just see this through to the end. And once I was laid off, it became very clear to me that once again, corporate america wasn't going to be my, you know, my journey. I must have sent out 100 different resumes and never got a call, never got a call. And so I knew if I was going to continue to work, I better start my own company. And I did and I'm so glad I did. So glad I did. Well, I love the part that you said, you know, you saw the writing on the wall you saw she was retiring, stepping away and and but you stayed until the end. I think there's so much that's lost in that finishing well, moment. You know, you you worked with this woman side by side, you served her. You served her well over the 15 years, but you also finished Well, we With her and and that's got to be a sense of accomplishment that many people miss out on today. A lot of people see the writing on the wall and they're like I'm getting out while the getting out good button right. But it's finishing well that that right there is a good wealth of information for people to grab ahold of because we've been in a couple of situations when we've been with a church that was closing its doors or a company that's closing its doors, in that finishing Well, it feels like kind of like you put your kid to bed at night, you know, you kind of you kind of made sure that from the time they rose till the time they went to bed, everything was taken care of and they were they were handled in the best way possible. And it's the closing of a chapter in in celebration of that chapter as well. Exactly in and you know, it's a karma thing as well. And it was important to support her through this process because it wasn't necessarily something she was all that jazz to do, but knew that she needed to just get out from under the actual company aspect. And just go back to being Bev and you know, and enjoying her life with her husband of 44 years. So. So I was supportive. And that's kind of the way I am with my clients now. And it is a common thing because Beth has probably introduced me and referred me to at least 1520 of our friends. Wow, over the last two and a half years, so it's it. I think you get what you get. Right? I think that's really the way life boils down. Is yet you get what you give. So I agree wholeheartedly. Good. Yeah. Well, one of the things that We've talked about whenever you and I have been on the phone before, was that you kind of not use that nurturing that you use with your children with with your thought leader that you support it with all the with all the companies you've been with, you've used that nurturing aspect of yourself. It's not a part of your DNA, it is your whole DNA. That's, that's the part that I love about you is you, you see the potential and the possibilities in in people. And you want to call that out and you want to help support that and, and push push them and challenge them. But you do it in a way that is very impactful. And I want to commend you for that while I have you on the air because you don't get to tell people that very often where they actually slow down and listen to it, say it. Well, thank you. Thank you. I have really You know, when I started the company, I wouldn't say that I was passionate about what I was doing, until I really realized how much mentoring was involved because I was now working with a lot of what I call newbies. Right? And I love mentoring. That's, that's what I'm all about. And once I embraced that, and realized, this is what I can be doing for so many people, that's when I got passionate about what I was doing. Well, I think one of the other remarks that comes to mind is something that Michael Hyatt has said before, you know, people go out and I'm gonna have you share a little more specifically about the business you started here in a minute, but Michael Hyatt commented one time and I've kind of hung my hat on it is don't go out and look for people to help you get where you're going that haven't been there you go and you look for people. To help you get where you're going that have already been there, whether it's an assistant, a coach, a mentor, whatever it is, a lot of times people go okay well I can't afford a virtual assistant a high paying virtual assistant so I'm just going to get some little girl off the street help her have her help her out, help me out, you know it's a helping each other out type of Jerry Maguire moment helped me show you the money type thing. But they're not equipped. They they haven't been where you're wanting to go and Michael Hyatt says if you want to be a fortune 500 company you need a coach that has been a leader in the fortune 500 into industry if you want to, or you need an administrative assistant that has served as a role in a fortune 500 company, you need a a support system that has been where you want to go and and i think that's beautiful because you said you work with speakers and authors and and messengers and, and those are the people that you've already served and served in a high capacity. And so you can serve your clients so much better because you've already been there done that saying that you know what to expect even before they expect it, you know how to talk them off the roof. All of that. So, so yeah, tell us tell us a little bit more about the company you started what you do, and, and what type of company it is. Well, we are a virtual assistance company, but we literally specialize in speakers, authors and podcasters. So those are our clients. Although many of the the things that I talk about and have like a, a white paper on how to increase your speaking business, if you've got a small business that you need to raise your visibility. A lot of the things that are on that list can be used for small businesses as well. But what we do is we help the speakers and authors raise their presence in social media, help them write that book and get it to bestseller status. help them find more stages. And, and, and for those that are very much established, and they've gotten to the point where they're on the stages, but they just don't have the time to deal with all the, you know, logistics and administrative stuff. Right? I was gonna say a dirty word. You know, to deal with all that we take that off their plate, and we'll handle the the business side of it, and make sure that all the T's are crossed and the i's are dotted, so that they can go out on the road, do their speeches and know everything's being taken care of. Well, I think it's, you know, one of those things that when people say Alright, I've spoken at all these places, I want to have my own event. I don't think they understand fully what all that entails. But you've put those on for people before. So, you know, having somebody like you quote unquote, in their back pocket is is a huge benefit, I'm sure. Well, yeah, there is a lot involved. And, and just knowing how to negotiate with the the venue is important, because and finding the right venue for you and your budget. So, yeah, I've been involved in in all that. But yes, there's a lot of little pieces. And I find that the creatives, which is the community that I serve, have some amazing, great ideas, but they don't know how to bring that to fruition. And that's why I come in, I'm sort of their Yin to their Yang. You know, I will reverse engineer their idea to figure out how to get there. I used an analogy explaining what to do the other day to somebody I said, when you have that picture, perfect image of what you want. She's the puzzle maker out of it. She comes in, she takes the pieces apart, and puts it in a way that you can pick your pieces together as you need, whether you're an inside to the outside or an outside to the inside person, she helps put that picture together for you. So she takes your full picture, she breaks it down into bite sized pieces, so you can put it together the way you need to put it together. And they're like, oh, okay, you know, they're like, because I can't see how to get where I'm going from looking at the big picture. I'm like, that's why you need someone with a strategy mindset, which is what you have you and it comes so natural to you. You don't get ruffled whenever one thing's not going right because you're already expecting it to not go Hopefully I've planned it out properly and nothing does go wrong. But you know, life happens and and things do go wrong. And as I tell my client, no one in the audience knows that something's wrong. Exactly like when you get married, and you know, something will go wrong, but nobody will really even notice it. You know, just go with the flow. Have a great day, do your message. And we'll make sure that everything runs smoothly. So, you know, that's and I'm pretty even keeled. I don't I don't have extreme highs or lows. So, so I can keep it together and, and make sure everything works. You know, well, even in a in a kind of, you know, emergency situation. What is that old commercial? Never let them see you sweat. Yeah, those are the people you want in your corner is the ones that never let you see like Let them see you sweat. So I know, yesterday I got a notification, I have a large organization that I'm a part of. And we have two annual or two meetings a year that we do training for new new people that have joined our organization. And we have people come from all around the world. And they ended up after some major thought in listening to research and listening to the guests and everything. They decided to postpone this one and just resume in August. And, you know, there's there's definitely some some challenges when you have a big event. I mean, we're expecting 3000 people coming. And we're now postponing this event that's supposed to happen in two weeks. And now And so, one of the things that I realized and A lot of people don't is how many how this affects a trickle effect across so many parts, like I heard today, you know, on the news they were talking about, well the event will be fine because the event has insurance and that's true the event has an entrance has an insurance policy most events have insurance policies and if you're doing an event without an insurance policy, shame on you. But um, most events have insurance policy, but the the hotel that it was being held at the servers that were there, the transportation to him from the airport, the airport, so you know, we're dealing right now, in this time and age with this thing called the corona virus. And I've got a friend that's in Italy that owns a bed and breakfast who's totally impacted by this because she's in the we're all the study abroad students are at. So although all of them have been sent home, and so the parents aren't coming to visit the kids, the kids aren't there. There's a lot that's going on. And if I were an event organizer, even though I knew I had insurance, I think I'd be freaking out right now. Do you have anybody that you're hearing that about? Well, I mean, Justin there in Texas, I know that South by Southwest was canceled, yo. And I mean, and that's millions and millions of dollars to the local, you know, economy, right. lost. So yes, this is this is definitely causing some major troubles. The, you know, the things that the conferences that I know of right now that are in our industry are still happening, because they tend to be us centric, right. So those are still going on. But yeah, I'm also a member of the meeting planners International, so I know it Hitting big time to a lot of people. And Damn, I wish I had zoom. Zoom is doing magnificently over these last couple of weeks, right? Because companies are just making them now virtual meetings. And so you know, things can we can, we can flip things around. And and as I said, you know if something goes wrong, we'll fix it. You know, if something like this happens, and we can't have a live event, so let's have a virtual event, we can do it. Well, and that's part of what we've been talking about here lately is bringing in some people in doing virtual summit with people because we can get their messages out, we can band together stronger. You know, part of what we do is dig services help promote and empower other women and doing a virtual summit and in people like well, I want to be in a room with a bunch of girlfriends. I'm like right now, you know, Or, or invite your closest friends over to your house to watch the summit together. You know, there's a lot of different ways that we can think through this and do this a little bit better. But I know I sprung that question on you and it wasn't one that we had talked about discussing, but I figured it was right there in the middle of what we're doing right now. And you know, it needed to be addressed. I heard somebody the other day telling me that they were doing an event and they had like 1000 tickets sold. It was an outdoor event in April here in Texas. And I was like, okay, so you know, what's your what what insurance agent did you use for your event planning because I know a few that are in that industry. He goes, I don't have event insurance. I'm like you What? You're talking tornado season. You're talking rainy season. You're talking you just you chose the month in Texas that you just don't do that without an insurance policy. He was like, What? I had no idea so had him on the phone with an insurance agent ASAP you know? Oh, Lord better be glad you were there. Yeah, I'm coming. I'm coming in for dummies event in April as well. Yeah, I'll be I'll be there in Texas. Yeah. In in April, in that semi neighboring town, so I will be there as well. So excited about that. So now, you said that you worked with it was Bev right. The thought leader you worked with Yeah, Beverly, Kay, she, she Beverly Kay. She's amazing in the area of career development, employee engagement and retention, and her books, which Okay, so I don't know if you know this statistics, but most business books, the average sales are like 6000 over the period of their lifespan. Bev's love lose them has sold over a million copies? Well, yeah. And what we do did is that from her books, there were workshops created that were then sold to fortune 1000 companies. So we only worked with companies of 10,000 or more employees. Wow. But yeah, yeah. So it was a, it was a nice, nice, you know, but as you know, anytime you have a company and people that you are now responsible for, it's a headache. And at 75, she said, Okay, I'm kind of done with that whole aspect. She still speaks, but there was just no need for a full time in person and so, so and I totally understood that and I kept telling her because she was, she was feeling very upset that, you know, she was gonna let me go and I said, Beth, you do not owe me a job. You know, it's okay. It's over. Kay, right. And I'm so glad that it was so positive because, as I said, she has referred me to a number of different people that I work with now. And, and I'm having much more fun because instead of one author that I knew inside and out and all her, you know, her, her her speak, so to speak, and write, you know, so it did get kind of boring. You know, work can get can be boring if you're not totally engaged. Well, now I get to work with so many different authors that I've learned from each one. And it's something different each day. So I am enjoying this fourth chapter in my life. So, you know, I mean, how many women at 62 can say, Hey, I am enjoying the heck out of working? Well, I think it's great, you know, how you speak above and how she she you know, Caring for you. It's evident that she inspired you, as well. Who were some of the other women that have been in your life that have inspired you? Well, you know, in my actual life, I mean, my mom was amazing and just really stoic. So I think I get my even keel from her. Every client I have. And I'd say probably 90% of my clients are women. Every client I have really does, you know, inspire me because I love each of their messages, and they're important. And so they inspire me to want to get them, you know, more and more visibility, because what they're talking about is important. If we're talking about you know, like, someone that's famous, my my role model, and don't laugh at me, okay? My role model is actually Dolly Parton. Oh, wow, that woman. Not only is she self deprecating, I mean, she's not full of herself, right? She's self deprecating. She is one of the most brilliant businesswoman. She has. She has a music book have over three 4000 songs that other people have sung. So, I mean, she's rolling in it, but she is also giving back. Like, like no other. Do you realize that Dolly Parton is like the number one book distributor in the world? Because she makes sure that every child that that writes to her will get a book every month from date of birth to the age of five when they enter school. Wow. I had just recently heard about her love for books and what she was doing, but I did not know that little tidbit. I believe, I believe the statistics are that she has given away over a billion books. Wow. Yeah. I mean, I hear those stories. And you know, I am small potatoes. But I hear those stories and I just think, oh, wow, Lord, can I just win the lottery and just have fun giving it away? Because that would just to me, that would make me happy. Right would make me happy. Right. So I just I just totally love Dolly Parton. I'm in love with Dolly Parton. Well, you and my husband so my husband has said that his one concert he wants to go to he wants to see he is super in love with Dolly Parton. You know, and we're, you know, we're still in our 40s and he's like, I don't know what it is. She's just she's so so engaging and so real. And doesn't take herself too seriously. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. And so giving and I have never heard word one that's negative about Dolly Parton from anybody. And damn if I could look like that and still wear those heels that 80 I think she's close to 80 you know, and if it's gonna go Holy moly, really look great. Right. And you know, we've been watching we watched that heartstrings that she had on Netflix not too long ago and have watched a couple of specials that she's had on. And, and I guess the part that I appreciate is in a world where we're faced with so many fake people are people faking it till they make it? She is just real and genuine and authentic and makes you feel even through the TV like you're her best friend right there in the room whether, yeah, exactly. And she'll tell you a lot of her his fate. Yeah, she'll say a lot of you a lot of mistake, but my heart isn't. Yeah. Yeah. So, I know, I know I'm one of the people that you've inspired. So tell me about some of the people that you hope to inspire and you know what what would you like your legacy to be? You know, years from now whenever people think of you, you know, a year 510 however many years from now when they think of you what is what are some things you want them to, to say are you hope that they have felt from you? Well, on a personal basis, you know, that I was a great mom and Grammy and, and a good and a great friend, you know. I hope that people see me as you know, being giving and, and and there to help whenever is necessary. But on a business level, I would love people to realize it's never too late to go out and start your own company. You know, when they when they started saying, you know, retire at 60 or 65, we were only living till 67 or 68. Right? Well, my mom is 91 years old. Wow, I had no intention of sitting on my tush for the next 30 years. You know, I mean, the thought is just repulsive. I need to be out and about doing stuff. So I'd really love to inspire people to say, you know what, I have this amazing idea and I'm going to start a company because you don't have to go into hundreds of thousands of dollars of debt. I went into no debt, no debt. I literally started my company in my home office with a laptop and my telephone. That's it, right? I didn't even have a printer when I started. Do now but you know, it's like you can start with with being something really small with this gig economy the way that it is, you can you can do a project by project type basis, do a good job, get a referral, right? And just build it that way. Right now, I would say 95% of my business comes from referrals. So, you know, I don't have to go into hundreds of thousands of dollars of marketing and all that fun stuff. Seeing as though it's really not my thing to be in front of the camera, but I i will say I do love doing the podcasts and radio shows. I always have a face for radio, but but, you know, I like to just let people know, don't just because you're over 60 does not mean we need to, you know, crawl into a ball and say we're done. We still have another good chapter or two in our, in our book. Well, and we, it's whether you start a business, whether you start a nonprofit, whether you just start a group of friends that are hanging out together, get out and do stuff with people, engage with people, pay it forward, go to the schools and read the little kids. You know, there's so much that we could be doing. My husband's been working in the plumbing industry for 30 years, his body's starting to give out so he's starting to think about what are some ways he can reinvent himself? Cool. So let's, um, let's ask you this, out of the people that you're working with now, how have they inspired you to grow your business or shift your business? We talked a little bit about the niche market of what bad ad, you know, right? I know being a verb, you can say I'm a virtual assistant and everybody wants to go Okay, here's billing. Here's this. Here's that and yeah, but you said very specifically who you work with did Beth, help you do that or the clients that you started drawing in because of your personality and and what you were good at? Well, I knew that my niece was the speaking, you know, author industry because that's where my superpowers lie. And that's what I know. So I knew that that was my niche. I didn't know really that much about podcasting, but realized that that is the media of the future, and is growing leaps and bounds. And so I embraced that whole, you know, community and what an amazing community in the podcasting world is. But my, my offerings have changed. When I first started, I thought it was going to be the administrative, you know, all administrative kind of work. And I found that that's not necessary. What especially new authors were looking for. Now, I'm not a booking agent, I don't go and find, you know, paid speaking gigs as, as the only thing that I do, and if that's all that they want, I am now referring people to a couple of booking agents that I like, right? But, but my offerings have kind of changed. And what I've realized is that there are a great number of people who have been in corporate America for 20 or 25 years, who have a story and or a method of doing something that they want to now go into consulting and be a speaker and write their own book. And so I found that my mentoring in that area is really where I'm moving towards I have other women. And that's actually another aspect of what's important to me is I hire other women who have been marginalized, such as myself, who at 60 have amazing skill sets still to offer my clients. And yet, I also have a number of young moms who don't necessarily want to work a 40 hour week, because they want to be stay at home moms, but especially here in Los Angeles, you need that extra income to make ends meet. So that I have a number of young moms that helped me with the research and data entry and things along that line that honestly, I don't want to do anymore, right. But it gives them an income to help their family out. So that's like my back end mission within the company or who I hire and why I like I really try to take on those people that quote unquote, aren't hireable because they're not willing to put in the hours of corporate, you know, work that's necessary, that kind of thing. So, so that kind of what I'm about. Well, and I think it goes hand in hand with a lot of what I'm seeing in the women's marketplace for working nowadays. There's the our riveter, that makes the purses, it's the military spouses that make the purses and they know that military spouses get transported all the time. They get MCs to move, and it's hard to find a job and then because your spouse may be deployed, you've got to have a job that will be flexible with you being mom and dad to your kids while while your spouse is deployed. So they have a business model that they have components of their purses are put together and made by these male spouses and then they come back to the warehouse to be put together. And so and there's an virtual, another virtual assistant company out there that that engages male spouses to, to work for them as well. And then you've got more and more Abby, even, even our government here, then partly because of the corona virus has been testing out more and more people working from home doing it remotely. And, and so we got to stop thinking about, you know, butts and seats in the office and start thinking about how we can still be productive and make an impact for what we need to do. There are jobs out there. There are a lot of scam jobs out there big market of right now. But there are jobs, there's ways to serve people and there's a way to serve your own bottom line. If you're just willing to look forward, I know when we started my company several years ago, I started doing social media for companies and I worked with nonprofits and businesses and everything. But then whenever I got tired of doing the social media stuff, I'd say, you kind of evolved, you start working on what you what you really love, and you, you kind of evolve and you start realizing that that part while you It was fun, and it brought in money. It's not where you want to hang your hat now, because you've grown, you've evolved. And so I brought in another mom that had just had a baby. She kind of wanted to stay home with him for a while, got her trained up, and then she kept getting more and more training, and she rolled out into her own business, and great and even from there, she's now her child's in school, and she's gone on to work for a corporate company and this is what she's doing. It wasn't something that she went to school for. She took four years of college for did all this she had real hands on OJT to learn this skill test it be able to show what all she was able to accomplish on her own. And she never worked in an office she was home for her kids she worked everything around her kids schedule you know there were a few times she'd be on a conference call video call whatever and in the background her son's you know, coloring the wall with a marker or pouring cereal places that happens. Yes, she was there. I think you need to be realistic about whether you're capable of being a virtual person, right? Um, some aren't that great at and staying on task. If if you're the kind of you know, squirrel kind of person, that might not be the way to go. Believe it or not, I was actual a Virtual Employee back in 1991. Wow. Before there was such a thing, because I had been a recruiter and got married, had my kids and decided I wanted to stay at home. And, and my boss tracked me down after, like 10 years, and tracked me down and said, I just started this new company, I really want you to come on board. And I said, Well, okay, as long as I can do it from home, and he knew what I was capable of and said, okay, right. And I owe him so much because I was able to help support my family, and yet still could be the room mom, the Girl Scout leader and everything else like that. So it, you know, through the years, I understand and I know that I have the capability to stay totally focused and on task and, you know, not go down and turn on the TV or anything along that lines. It's like I am at work. And then I'm not right. Although I'm not as good as the and not Oh, I I literally last night, I got up and I did some, some tweets and stuff for a client at like 930 at night so that I could get it all loaded up. And, you know, make her happy. So, you know, it's like, I'm not that great at not staying at work, but but I'm working on that. Yeah, I totally get it my husband, you know, owning a plumbing business. It's a 24 seven on call for commercial emergencies. He works a lot. So when works, I try and work. And in that way when he's not working, we can actually go to dinner or we can go and do some of these other things. So I have set working hours during the day that take phone calls and do appointments. But if he's working outside of those normal working hours, I'll work so that maybe I don't have to have those. You know, if I've got free time with him, I can go to breakfast or I can go to lunch or dinner or we can go shopping for the kids. So my schedule looks a little hinky yet because it's not the norm of what everybody else sees. But, you know, it's it's also something that works for us. And it's, it's this is when we're, we're connected with people. This is when we're working with people. I had somebody messaged me last week. Hey, can we get on a call today? I'm like, Nope. Not today. You know, as I say, not today, Satan. But you know, yes, we can get on it. Call it just won't be today, it may be next week into next week before I can get on a call with you. And that's because I'm trying to be diligent of my time and not just block out the time for appointments and calls with people, but also block up the time to work on the projects can work on the tasks. And I think that's part of the discipline you're talking about of having the right mindset to do the job, you know, exactly. I know, I'm being pushed and challenged on writing, and I've blocked out my writing time for my books and, and I'm working on that and it's set up as an appointment. It's an appointment with myself in my laptop, and that's where I will be there. Yes. So no, no temptations. So we're about to take a break here in a couple of minutes. And when we do, it'll just be a quick short break. But when we come back, we're going to talk about some of the victories you've had. We've had, we may have touched on some of them, but we now There's women that are challenged with what life's facing them or what they're facing in life right now, or maybe they faced it years ago and they just haven't been able to get past something that keeps holding them back. And we like to hear those stories of victory from women that have kind of weathered the storms and come out on the other side. Just as a way to shine a spotlight into those dark splay spaces and let them know that we see them there. And you know, I may not be able to reach out to somebody and help them out of the dark space they're in but maybe you have the key that can unlock that dark space. So we're going to talk about that when we come back from this break. All right, we are back with Laurie and speak says we are talking more about her starting a business at the age of 60. We'll throw that out there. I hate telling women's age on the air but I love the story behind it. So That's That in itself, you know, people start talking about wanting to wind their business down at the age of 40 or 50 or 60 in your revenue up so, to me that sounds like a huge victory, but what are some other victories you've had in your life personally, professionally? You know, what are some of the I don't I don't want to assume that you just arrived and everything was perfect. Oh, gosh, no. Well, you know, it's interesting because Andrew, you know, I'm a big girl. And and so you know, life life in Los Angeles where everyone is a thinks they need to be a Barbie. I never really quite fit in. But and so hold on a second. I'm losing you. Are you Is everything okay? Can you hear me? Yes. Okay. It filter dummy. I so apologize, but Maybe it was God saying quit talking about being fat Laureen but you know, I mean, that was a hard road and I have some some major situations of being picked on. And I'll be honest with you, it took me until I was 50 to embrace the fact that this is the size that I am, this is the size that I am going to be. And I'm not going to change for anyone else. And I if I could teach the girls out there to love themselves. You know, so that they don't go through all the trials and tribulations of not thinking you're good enough. Because you're big is so, so important to me to get that message out. Love yourself the way that you are and and you'll find out that people will gravitate towards you because you become much more sure of yourself. unconfident and unfortunately, like I said, it took me to my 50s before I said, I'm done with this, you know, this is me Get over it. So, you know, that was that was part of my growing up and and maturing and you know, I guess another victory over the stuff when when bad things happen you know I went through a divorce and and and I still have yet to to remarry i mean you know there have been a couple of really nice men in my life but I I realized and here's something that I could do it myself that I didn't need a man to give me my worth, or to take care of me financially. I was capable doing it myself. Now, that doesn't mean that I wouldn't love to have a partner in life. But I realized I didn't need it. So I wasn't going to settle. Right? For someone that wasn't right for me. And I think too many of us women, you know, think that we have to have that man in our life. And and I say no at bros, embrace your powers yourself. Especially if it's a it's not a healthy relationship. So I guess those are really, I kind of have had a great life with you. I mean, I've been very lucky. So, you know, so and I'm the type of person that I have always looked at the glass half full, and I focus on the positives. And so that's what's really important when I went through the divorce My reaction was, okay. I don't want someone that doesn't want to be with me. Go Go. It's okay. But I have friends that to this day still can't stand my assessment. I let it go ages ago right ages ago. Let it go. If I can fix something, I fix it. I kind of tease sometimes I say I'm a guy with boobs. Because I am that type of person that if I, I want to fix it for you. I'm not one that just wants to listen and go all. Okay, I hear ya. Now I want to fix it. Right? I'm so much more like a guy in that way. But if I can't fix it, I let it go. And I won't. I won't sit there and and, you know, let it fester in my life. If there's nothing I can do about it. I don't have control. I let it go and I put it in God's hands. That's all good. Well, I think I think you touched on something there you know your your divorce, there may be people that are more devastated for you than you were actually devastated in the divorce. And a few years ago, I was doing a training down in San Antonio and we were having people do a life map. And on this life map, we had them put everything that was positive in their life above a line, write it on this big poster board, everything that they had encountered negatively in their life, they wrote below the line. And there were two women at the same table. And they both had divorce on there's one handed above the line, one headed below the line. The one that headed above the line said she had been set free from a very toxic relationship. The one the below the line was just totally devastated that her marriage had ended and basically her life had stalled out from that point in her life. And she just wasn't living and so It was beautiful watching that one that the divorce was freeing for her to be able to speak life and freedom into this other woman. And you know it their their experiences in the moment were very different. But the the ability to help that one that was stuck in the darkness come out of it was so beautiful to watch. And they spent weeks and months talking with each other and encouraging each other and empowering each other. Through that it was more one sided for a while. But then after that, while they they became really good friends and started doing some workshops for women that were going through divorce, and it said it in their work. Their theme was it doesn't matter how you're viewing your divorce, this workshop is for women to help you move on to the next chapter, you know, and it was it was a great thing that they did and and i don't know that they do those workshops. anymore but it was it was two polar opposite views of how one in one thing can impact a person. And exactly, you know, I know I've had this conversation with another friend of mine when I had my sexual assault, she had a sexual assault as well. Well, our reactions were two totally different reactions to it, you know, and, and, but it doesn't mean that we can't help somebody I can help somebody that had the opposite reaction I had she can help somebody that had the opposite reaction she had as we talk about it and open it up and peel back the layers of of what it all is but it goes back to more of what you you shared about loving yourself. You know, you have to do that first. Well, you know, there's this great gal Allison Donaghy, who is a podcaster. Her with Dominic No thinking, and she is all about taking yourself out of a victim state and into a freedom state. And part of that is just, you know, letting it go and understanding what your part in the situation was. You know, I mean, when I went through the divorce, and he cheated to get out, you know, but, you know, it was his fault, right? But no, there there, you know, there were things that after 15 years of marriage, you know, life got you know, we were all wrapped up and I was wrapped up in the kids with kids, kids. And and so, you know, I didn't probably give him the attention that he wanted. I will own that part. Right. Not that it was not this is doing right. But I will own that part, that maybe I was being the best wife either. And so, so I loved her framing of being able to get out of the victim state and into the freedom state because of the fact you can see where you own it, and then let it go. Right, right. And that's what we need to do is you need to just let it go. Let it go and move on. And I know that it's easier said than done. But, you know, and depending, especially depending on the situation, you know, an assault is is completely different than a divorce. Although it is and it isn't, if you think about it, right, because you can still be a victim either way, right? But, but it's like, move, you gotta let it go and move on. Because otherwise they're still having that control over you. Well, you know, I we when I left working at the church I was at before I started my business. We had this I worked in the business office, we had this thing that used to happen where there was stuff that was bought for our offices and they were bought specifically for our style or our look or or whatever the decor person that came in that decorated our offices decorated it towards our style. So when we left we had we normally had the option to ask to purchase or you know, because they would be redecorating it for the next person. So I went nice specifically asked for the chair that I had. It's kind of like the chair I'm sitting in today kind of an area on type chair. And it was very ergonomically correct. And I'd had the chair for five years it was kind of it had some issues with it, but it was molded to my but you know, to be honest, I liked that. I liked that chair. And my boss. I went to him and st if I could have the chair and he goes well as long as so and so approves that I have no problem with it. So it's getting close to the day that I'm leaving the company and everything and he comes back to me. He goes, if you're gonna get that chair I need, you know, we're getting your final paycheck and all that stuff lined out. I need to know what price you were told on it from, you know, whatever the facilities department was, and that asset I was told no. And the look on my boss's face because it was his boss that told me no, the look of my boss's face was just pure shock. Because in the five years I'd been there, nobody had told me no before. And he just looked at me and started and he goes, No, seriously, I'm like, I'm, I'm serious. Todd told me no, he's like, No, he didn't tell it's never told, you know. And, and for me, it was kind of like, Alright, now I have a right to be offended because I Even even Josh thinks it's wrong that I'm offended that that Todd told me now that he said no. And, you know, it wasn't a big offense. I'm using this kind of tongue in cheek because it's a funny story. I mean, Todd even came to me one day, I'm training my replacement, and I've got her staying there. And Todd comes running down the hall with this phone and he's got the old Groucho Marx song. It doesn't matter what you say how you phrase it, anyway, I'm against it. And he's playing that and I'm like, Pastor Todd, please meet my replacement. You know, I'm introducing Rosie's trash talking me it was a great moment. But this this business of mystery was kind of taking up an offense for me. I'm like, I don't know what the deal is. I'm not offended. It just shocked me and, and then that moment I went from dealing with my own shock to now I'm dealing with his feelings about this and you A lot of times when we tell somebody we're getting a divorce, or we've been fired, or, you know, we've been assaulted or whatever the tragic moment that comes up, we don't even get a chance to deal with our own emotions first and foremost, because we're constantly dealing with other people's emotions about what happened to us. So what I what I like is you keep saying, Let it go move on, you've got friends that were offended, but you're not letting them impact how you feel, or how your own you're feeling about yourself. Because you're like, it's done. It's over with I've moved on we say girl with long hair, because that's what we were called when we were in the military. I mean guy with long hair. That's what we were when we were in the military. We're just dudes with long hair. So you know, the not letting other people's thoughts come in and keep you stuck. Is it Something that I picked up in what you said you know those people can be offended and be mad at your ex and never want to speak to him again or, and that's fine. That's their feelings and their emotions. But you know, it doesn't disqualify you who you are what you were called to be how great you are and, and you know, it doesn't define anything else about you. It doesn't allow you to I tell people it's okay to park your boat there for a little bit but don't build a mansion around it. Oh, I like that. I like that. So I love that analogy. Yeah, if you need to go go to the gym, punch a couple of punching bags, do some kickboxing whatever, get it out of your system, and then move on. And in. Too often we're hearing that these people are parking their boats and building a mansion and and they've now got land attached to this. This thing that is become a problem in their life and You know, they'll never break the boundaries of that land because they're just, they're too hung up and what has happened to them that they can't see the rest of the world out there that's there for them at the moment and look at you, you're touching so many lives through the people that you serve. You know, every time one of those speakers you work with goes out and speaks or does a podcast or does whatever it is that they're doing. That's one of your touch points. Every time they're writing a book and putting a book out. That's one of your touch points. It may not be your voice, it may not be your thing, but you've touched it, and it's a an extension of what you've done and and all because you didn't sit back and go, Oh, well. He said I wasn't worth it. Or, you know, yeah, you're you're doing it or, you know, you say the face for radio jokingly and all that self deprecating thing, but you've got a voice that needs to be heard and needs to be shared and It doesn't matter what means it gets out there. It doesn't matter what you look like it needs to be heard. And you're not letting any of it stop you. So right, good job. Right. Thanks. Yeah, no, I think we need to embrace our own superpowers and embrace your worst. And, and unfortunately, it does take some of us longer than others. And I would love to see, you know, women, younger women having that confidence from the get go. And I think that's actually one of the things I'm probably most proud of is my daughter, who, up until about a year and a half ago was bigger than I still had the most self assured, amazing personality. You know, that just nothing stopped her. Right and Yet, you know, she was bigger than I. And I swear people are just getting mean more mean and more mean or meaner and meaner. I don't know, which is the correct way. But over the last year and a half though, she has lost 140 pounds. Wow. So wait, yeah. Oh, yeah. I mean, you know, because she is so determined and so sure of herself, that when she finally made the decision, because she had had a couple kids and want to be there for them. Right, right. She made that decision and stuck to it. But, but it wasn't based on just the her luck. It was based on her health. So you know, just just having your own power is important. And you need to embrace that. Sounds like she's got some tenacity for my mama. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I think so. I think We are we are very, we are very similar people. You know, we don't take a lot of stuff from people, right. I edited there too. But yeah, you know, we are, I have raised some real self assured women. And I have an amazing son, who also has a very self assured wife, who he supports and they support each other. I think, you know, as you say, what are some of the victories the victories are that all three of my kids are amazing adults who are happily married, and their spouses are amazing. And what more can I ask? They're happy, you know, and they, and they're giving me grandbabies. in Erie, we're done. I'm so upset. I'm not gonna have any more babies. Yeah, well, my, my two grandkids just turned six this week. So this weekend, so yeah, and I'm not called Grameen diva is my grandma name. So Oh, I love it. I love it. I love it. I love though. They, they definitely call me Davis. So I love that. But, um, so, in the middle of that, you know, what I love? What I kind of heard between the lines is, you know, your daughter with that transition and her outer appearance. You know, a lot of times people look at, you know, people that are overweight like myself, and they think that they're not strong that they're not self assured. Now we can walk in the room and prove them wrong, but first glance there, they're not gonna think that right off the bat. And so, one of the things that I've realized even through my my transformation of Losing weight, and still not near my goal weight yet, but in my transformation of losing weight is people do start looking at you differently. They do start thinking about you differently. And the thing is, is it's hard to explain that I never thought differently about myself. You just did. Right. Right. Exactly. Exactly. And yet, it's, it's also important to as long as you're healthy, right, right. To to accept yourself. Right. And so, so that's, that, to me is very important. You know, one of the things that always irritated me is that fat slob seemed to go together, right? Well, you will never, ever see me out in public. not totally put together. Every You know, there is no And, you know, dressed appropriately. And, you know, it's just so I have that in and of myself is just like, you may call me fat. But you will never call me a slob. Right? Right? Because that's, that's fine. I'm a big girl, too bad. Get over it. This is me. At this point. If I lost weight, it'd just be hanging skin. So I don't really care. It's like, no way. It's like, I'm healthy. You know, I'm not on any meds. I'm all good. So. So it's like, move on. Let's get on to the business. And I think I come across with a level of confidence that most people don't really, you know, stop and think, well, I don't want to work with her. She's sad. Right? Right. Well, it has. What's important is our brain. Exactly in it and it's one of those. One of those comments somebody made the comment what was it about it? A year ago, there was an event A friend of mine was on and they had only seen her headshots and if you look at her headshots, you think she's fairly skinny. You know very always put together. All of that right? Well then they invited her because they listened to her on a podcast how great she was an invited or to speak at an event and then they were it was a health and wellness event that she was speaking at. And she's got these amazing clients all over the West Coast and she's ran several multi million dollar businesses and and all in the skincare business and Health and Wellness Business, but she's not the model size. She's not skinny. She's not what everybody puts in when she showed up at the event. They were offended because of her size. Nice started being ugly to her. And oh my gosh. And she was like, wait a minute you listen to my podcasts, you heard the wealth of information I have. And they're like, Yeah, but the way you're you talked about on your podcast and what you're dealing with, don't seem to match up and she goes, show me where and they couldn't show her where what she was saying didn't match up with what she had promoted. It just they had a instant flip in their head as to what they had envisioned and what they had hoped to see. And of course, every other person up there look like canon Barbie, you know? And yeah, I'm like, but this is real life. This is gonna get the people that you want to help to get to Ken and Barbie status or whatever you want to call it. Yeah, but well, and and I mean, she's being real. Oh, yeah, exactly. at that. Yeah. That's just ridiculous. really ridiculous. And, and, and hopefully she stuck to her, you know, her principal, and she told him she wouldn't. She told him she would not worry about speaking from their stage. So that day, she really didn't need to speak from their stage, she would just take her check and go home. Oh, good for her. And they're like, well, if you're not speaking, we don't want to, we're not gonna pay you and she goes, No, we have a contract. You can just pay me and I will leave that way. You don't have to be disgusted by my appearance, and they're like, we never used the word disgusted and she's like, but she did in a not so kind way, you know, she, she was very firm. She's a businesswoman. So she is very good and strong and confident because they weren't seeing her the way she saw herself. Mm hmm. And I think I think that's, that's something that we have to be mindful of. We may think That we're, you know, strong and powerful and mighty. But we also realize that maybe not everybody sees us the way we see ourselves. And sometimes we just have to remove ourselves from their presence because it'll never be realized. And sadly, but the other side can also be true. You could see a beautiful girl who you think has it all together? And she does not think at all highly of herself. Exactly. So, you know, it's like, so love thyself, right, right. Know thyself. Well, I think we're all in whether you're gorgeous or not gorgeous or fat or skinny, or purple or brown or whatever. You're all beautiful, because God made you that way. So well, the way I look at it, and I do Do you know, it's one of those things that you you look at it and you go, Okay, I have been at the place where I believe the things people said negatively about me more moreso than then I should have, but then I evolved and then I started realizing that as long as I keep harping on those negative things, I will never see the positive things. So then I started shifting my thought process and and there will still be days. I'll go in Angie Lee Monroe, what were you thinking in? And I give myself that talk or, you know, come on, girl, get it together. Yeah. My husband I were talking I've had a couple of low memory things here lately that I'm just like, Okay, what in the world is going on with me? And, you know, it may it starts to make you think, Okay, well, I'm just not got it together. I'm just not this. I'm just not that. But really what it is, is you're not taking time to put margin and to allow room to breathe. It's what it is. And so in doing that, I had To be hold myself a little more accountable to how much I was putting on my plate, how much I was expecting of others how much I was expecting of myself. And I'm just gonna lead into our next little segment because what I know about you is when it comes to helping people reach their professional goals, your great accountability partner, I mean, you are the way you phrase things as you phrase things to set people up for success. So you were working on a project for me last summer and you're like, Okay, I'm going to get this to you by such and such time. How much time do you need to review it so we could set up a call? It was so there wasn't just a deadline on you. There was a deadline on me as well. And, and many people seem to blur the line between politeness and accountability. So, you know, I've told the story before my friend that never really wanted to hold me accountable for working out The gym because she didn't want to be held accountable for working out in the gym. But when we were in the office space together, she was phenomenal at it. I've had people I've given permission to, to speak into my life and say, you know, hold me accountable for doing things on certain dates and times and be consistent. But then they don't because they know that I'm a strong individual person. And I know that I know I should be doing it. But just because I know I should go to the gym and eat healthy every day doesn't mean that I necessarily do. And I've given permission to somebody to speak into my life to hold me accountable in those areas. And they don't, because they're afraid it's not polite to speak into that. Then we have a problem. So yeah, well with Yeah, with my clients. It really is. That's what they've asked me to do. And I'm not only holding them accountable, but I'm making the business accountable. As I told you earlier, you know, mentoring has really been my passion. And I think my clients all know that if I call them on something, or if I tell them, you know, you really should think about this, you know, going forward, they know it comes from a place of love, and a place of trying to make them better. So, you know, I don't think I've ever really gotten, you know, negative negative with anyone. But, you know, I will, I will say, Wait, stop you, we need to look at this. Right. And I think they know that, that when I push back or when I hold them accountable, it's only for their own good. Yeah. And and, and that's one of the things that people don't realize is if you're asking somebody to hold you accountable, or you're holding somebody accountable, you've been given a treasure in that moment. You've been given insight you've been given authority you've been given You know, I get tickled at people going, Well, I just want to be an authority figure, I just want to have a voice into this area. And so, you know, I'll test out with people. I'm like, Okay, well, I'm gonna give you permission to challenge me in this area. And then they don't brilliant. And then they don't. And, I mean, the ones that do are awesome at it at all times, you know, and then I'll go, I'll kind of push back with them on in a joking way of, well, this was a test it was only a test. Like, no, not by, you know, I'll have some they'll go Nope, not buying it. If you you wouldn't have come up with that thought if you really didn't want to do it or, you know, so they'll, they'll push back and then there's the ones that, you know, you tell them to challenge you in an area and they just never hear from them again. Yeah, well, yeah. So you just say you sit there and you go, Okay, got it. Move on. right on to another accountability partner. I think we've all kind of been in now. masterminds and and, and what not nice still, to this day have a number of masterminds that I'm involved in, in an effort to learn more, and have myself grow as well as helping my other mastermind attendees. So, yeah, going forward. It's not only just the accountability function, but that have you thought about type function rail to give you another aspect that you may never have even looked at? And so I'm a big believer in the whole mastermind system. Well, whenever you're looking at your accountability partners, whether you're being the accountability partner, you're you're looking for somebody to be an accountability partner. And, you know, what are some of the boundaries that you look for? With accountability partners, do you set up phone calls? Do you set up appointments with them? What does having an accountability partner in your life look like? Yeah, well I have mentors which are those that are ahead of me in the business game that I tend to think that you know that we're such a virtual world. My meetings with them are usually zoom meetings. So that I get that one on one I can see what's landing and what's not. And or, you know, we can have a real you know, face to face. This is what's happening. What do I do now kind of thing? Because I will I'll be the first to admit, I don't know everything about everything. Amen. No, I am, I am. I am not perfect by any stretch of the imagination. So I believe in listening to everyone and although there are times when I can be a bit of an intellectual snob and I really am trying to work on that I have learned in my life that I can learn from anybody. And we need to take people's feedback and live in it for a sec. And either Okay, I see where she's coming from, you know, and and go with it or not. Yeah. And just as I tell my clients, well, here's what I think you should do, but it is still your voice, your message, your social media, whatever, it's still up to you. So here's what I think. But, you know, it is still you that is out there. And it's your presence so well, I think Yeah, I'm in a number of masterminds. I think I have the I think I know the answer you're gonna give to this but I'm gonna ask it anyway because I think the question needs to be asked and answered in a more in your face way, but when you have people that come to you. And we'll just use me as an example, say I come to you. And I'm wanting you to hold me accountable in these areas. And I'm just not pulling my weight in that relationship. And but you can see so much more potential for me that I'm really giving towards the effort that I'm asking you to hold me accountable for. So my question to you is this. Do you keep pushing them and challenging them? Or do you find a way to basically tell them or tell yourself to let it go until they're ready to come to that realization? Oh, yeah, I'll have all sort of have a come to Jesus with them. But if they still aren't getting it, I'll say, you know what, I'm here whenever you're ready to level up or to scale your business or whatever it may be. I'm here when you're when you're ready, but I cannot Be the one that cares the most about getting you to the next level, right? it you have to have that burning desire, you know, to actually make it come to fruition, if you are not passionate and have that burning desire, it's not gonna work anyway. Right? Even if I have the burning desire, right, right, you have to have it. So, I usually, you know, I do let it go in a way that I let them know why. Because you don't seem to be ready. Now I just had something pop in my head, you know, and it's, it's a wondering question. So I'm just gonna put it out there for those that are listening and those that are listening either live or to the, to the recording. You know, I want to ask myself this question and then also, as the audience are those that let me figure out how we're going phrase that those that are asking for you to hold them accountable and are not giving back the full weight of what she is so so you so let's just say I expect more from Susie q out here than she's actually

Everything is coming together in this week's episode of Star Trek Picard "Broken Pieces". We delve deeply into Rios's character, seeing the broken pieces of his life symbolised in his holograms. We also get a much greater understanding of the mythology of the show. And it's exciting me. We're getting the big-scale science fiction coming into view, and we finally add a little more depth to the villains of the show. Let's dive in and geek out over this episode together. ----more---- Transcript Welcome to Nerd Heaven I’m Adam David Collings, the author of Jewel of the stars And I am a nerd.   This is episode 18 of the podcast. Today, we’re talking about the 8th episode of Star Trek Picard. Broken Pieces.   The description on Memory alpha reads When devastating truths behind the Mars attack are revealed, Picard realizes just how far many will go to preserve secrets stretching back generations, all while the La Sirena crew grapples with secrets and revelations of their own. Narissa directs her guards to capture Elnor, setting off an unexpected chain of events on the Borg cube.   The episode was written by Michael Chabon It was directed by Maja Vrvilo And it first aired on the 12th of March 2020.   Make it so. This episode is really starting to fill in the new mythology of the show now. That’s seen straight away with this week’s flashback, in which we learn about the origins of the Zhat Vash. The episode begins with some beautiful scenes of a nebula. Just like the first episode. But we don’t see the Enterprise D. Instead, we zoom past 8 suns onto a planet. The on screen label calls this Aia, the great world. It seems a group of Romulans, all female, sent out to study this strange phenomenon. A system of 8 stars, which seemed scientifically unfeasible. There they found, on a planet, the remnants of an ancient civilisation, and a storehouse of memories that explained how their civilisation died. Yes. This is the kind of cool mythology I’ve been wanting from Star Trek. We don’t even know the name of this ancient race, but they were clearly very advanced. I wonder if they knew the Iconians. They also operated in what is now Romulan space in the distant past. The Romulans call this warning message “the admonition.” The first time they heard it, they formed the Zhat Vash. This was hundreds of years ago, so pre-Kirk. And interestingly, Commodore Oh appears to be their leader. So, we’re left wondering again, is she biologically a Romulan or a Vulcan? We’ll come back to this later. We don’t get to see the full extent of the message, but as Oh says, it drives many of them mad. In fact, after seeing it, most of them immediately commit suicide, some of them in quite unpleasent ways. This is super dark. I actually found it pretty disturbing. It seems we’re getting a lot of suicide in this show. Now, I’m really fortunate that I’ve never been touched by suicide in my life, or my family, but even I am fiding this quite disturbing. We’ll talk more about what this message means later, when Picard and crew figure it all out, but for now, let’s just say that the show has fleshed out more about the Zhat Vash, and why they hate synthetic lifeforms. Which is good.Our villains are finally getting some depth to them. And, we learn that Rizzo really is a cold-hearted monster. While the others tear out their hair and do other horrific things to themselves, she stands there, clearly struggling with the images a little, but holding it all together. If she were a Vulcan, I’d call this emotional control. But I think that Rizzo just doesn’t have a heart. She’s an evil…..we’ll...let’s just say I don’t like her. There are two kinds of Villains in fiction. There are some that you love to hate. These are the ones that you want to see more of. You get excited when they appear in an episode. Weyoun, Bester, Morden, Scorpius. And then there are others that you just kinda hope they die soon because you just don’t want to see them. Rizzo is firmly in the second camp for me. I find myself wanting her to die for all she’s done. Man, I promise I’m not so vindictive against real people. Just fictional ones. We get confirmation now that it was the Zhat Vash who organised the synth attack on Mars. So they sabotaged the rescue efforts to help their own people. I’m kind of in a place where I can buy that now. They’re worried about what they consider to be a significantly greater threat than the supernova. And having read the novel, The Last Best Hope, it seems that due to their arrogance and price, half the Romulan leadership didn’t want Starfleet’s help to begin with. We recognise another of these first Vhat Vash. Ramdha, the Romulan who was assimilated and then went crazy, calling Soji the destroyer. She doesn’t handle the admonition as well as Rizzo, but she does survive. This is making sense of a lot of what we’ve seen. It seems to have been the admonition itself that drove the borg cube to shut down after they assimilated Ramdha. Really interesting stuff. Oh and Ramdha is Rizzo’s aunt. She raised Rizzo and Narak. Rizzo says that when Ramdha lost her mind, she did it with panache. I feel like panache is not the kind of word you’d expect to hear from a Romulan.  I know they’re reallying speaking Romulan, and we’re just hearing a translation into english. But panache is a french word, included in our language for historical reasons. I dunno, it just didn’t feel right somehow to me. There’s a nice bit of subtle foreshadowing when Rizzo says “I’d have made a much better borg than you. Resistance is futile.” And let me just say, while I keep going on about hating Rizzo, I found Peyton List’s acting in this episode pretty darn good. I think she’s a lot better when she’s not so busy trying to seduce her brother or being Miss-Super-Evil-Face. Once again, the romulans are choosing to fight Elnor hand to hand instead of shooting him with a disruptor. If they’d shot while he was stunned by that grenade, he’d be dead. This whole tradition of Zhat Vash fighting Qowat Milat by hand seems a plot convenience that exists purely so they can have a kick-butt sword wielding elf on the show. Don’t get me wrong, I love Elnor. He’s awesome. But a fighter who uses a sword just doesn’t work in a sci-fi setting like Star Trek. Anyway, Seven saves him at the last minute and asks “Where is Hugh?” Then there’s a very nice touching moment as Elnor breaks down and Seven has to, rather uncomfortably, console him. She does a good job seeing as though it’s pretty clear this is outside her comfort zone. So apparently Seven knew Hugh off-screen, we just never got to see them together. My guess is that Seven gave Hugh the Fenris Ranger contact card. Elnor was actually in Hugh’s office when he found it. So that kinda makes sense now. I’m still not thrilled about Hugh’s death. It feels like they’ve totally wasted the potential of his character. They made such a fuss about bringing him back, but barely did anything with him. And his death wasn’t satisfying. He didn’t die saving the day. He kinda failed. Yes, there’s a realism to that, because we don’t always die in some big grand moment. That’s kind of why I have somewhat defended Tasha Yar’s death. I dunno. I’m torn between my appreciation for gritty realism, and my desire for Hugh to have been treated with more respect. It’s very clear that something weird is going on with Rios the minute he sees Soji.  There’s a lot going on in this scene. Picard wants to go to Deep Space 12 to get reinforcements from Starfleet. Makes sense. They can’t fight off a whole fleet of Romulan ships by themselves. This understandable makes Soji nervous. She thought they would be heading straight for her homeworld. And then Raffi is suddenly very suspicious of Soji, given the revelations about Agnes. First of all, I like that the crew have figured out that Agnus killed Bruce Maddox. They’re not gonna drag that out and have our characters unnaturally stupid. Good. I can understand Raffi is distrustful because Picard knows nothing about Soji. He’s putting all his faith in that single Neuron. But, this was the mission. Rescuing Soji is the whole reason they came out here. Picard is kinda kidding himself a bit, trying desperately to make up excuses for Agnes, because he doesn’t want her to be a Romulan spy, and a murderer. But he does accept reason, even though he doesn’t want to. There was a nice little scene between Picard and Clancy. And I feel it redeems her as a character a little. She is starting to regain her respect for Picard, now that he’s proven to be right. She even calls him Admiral Picard. I love it when Picard says, “I’m sorry but if you say this is not a job for Starfleet then you are a waste of space.” Anyway, she agrees. She’s sending a squadron to meet Picard at DS12. He’s to wait there for them to arrive. I like how Raffi is getting all giddy with excitement about the whole conspiracy theory, even while knowing she shouldn’t because the whole thing is horrible. She does like her conspiracy theories. It makes no sense that it takes Raffi so long to realise that the Rios she’s talking to is a hologram. I mean, his Irish accent is hard to miss. She must be really preoccupied. The fact that the ENH recognises Soji and calls her Jana is very interesting information. It confirms that Rios has seen a soji-type android before. Which explains his reaction to her. I’m not really a fan of the glowing eyes while thinking thing the holograms do in this episode. First of all, there’s no reason for them to do that. The Doctor never did that on Voyager. Second of all, why take so long to access such a simple piece of data. Computers today could gather that same information, from the internet, in a fraction of the time the hologram’s eyes glow. And this is 24th century computer technology. The whole thing is like programming an artificial progress bar when none is needed. You can maybe explain that they’re downloading this information from memory alpha, in which case, that’s pretty high bandwidth for subspace. But this is information I’d expect them to have locally. But I like that the ENH actually proves useful, when Raffi realises she does have an astrogation question. The Romulans were depicting an octanary system all over the borg cube. A system of 8 stars. Enoch says that septenary systems are extremely rare. The only known account of an octanary is an apocryphal ancient Romulan star chart. Now Raffi begins to realise the conclave of 8 refers to the place where the bad guys met, not 8 people. Now they’re getting somewhere. I like that they at least acknowledge here that the gravitational mechanics would be incredibly complex. Which, of course, is true. Having read the book, The Three Body Problem, I have an inkling of just how complex a trinary system would be. For a planet to actually exist in an octanary system seems pretty unrealistic. But again, we’ll come back to that. I love Elnor’s childlike innocence. That combined with his kick-butt skills as a warrior make him quite an interesting character. Seven’s plan, originally Hugh’s plan, is to regenerate the cube. Re-activate the borg drones. I love the shot of the drone rebuilding the ship. At first, I thought they were nano probes. But then when you realise the scale, they’re a lot bigger. Let’s call them macro probes. It seems a logical aspect of borg technology. She’s playing a bit of a dangerous game. There are huge moral questions about what she’s doing, essentially re-assimilating the XBs, putting them into a localised micro-collective. Controlling their thoughts like a pseudo Borg queen. It’s chilling when she says “I might not want to release them.” There’s a very nice character scene between Picard and Soji and the dinner table. It doesn’t really push the plot forward at all, but it deepens both of their characters, and I really like it. The choice of a scottish accent for the engineering hologram is quite on the nose, as a tribute to Scotty. Especially since Lorca already did that in Discovery. But it doesn’t really bother me. He’s quite different to Scotty. I actually quite like him. The idea that this octanary system was artificially created is very interesting. My sense-of-wonder metre is going off. It’s showing you the power of this ancient race, whoever they were. Showing off isn’t a bad guess at their motivation, but clearly raffi has the better theory. Such an extreme act would call attention to a message you really want people to hear. I’m enjoying Raffi’s little detective work in this episode. I think maybe she’s jumping to the truth more easily than she realistically should, but it’s still enjoyable. There’s some good quiet scenes with Rios in his quarters in this episode. Nice to see his old Starlfleet uniform. Looks like Rios’s old ship, the ibn Majid might have been a sovereign class, like the Enterprise E, which is pretty awesome. I don’t think it’s stated outright, but I get the impression Rios was first officer of the ship. His captain’s name was Alonzo Vandermeer. Not a name we’ve heard before, I believe. The scene with all the Rios holograms together is absurdly fun. I’m quite enjoying the engineer’s overuse of scottish slang. But that tactical hologram. How useless is he? The bloke just wants to sleep and laze around. It seems the holograms don’t just have Rios’s appearance, and aspects of his personality, but his memories as well. But Rios has removed something from their memories. And it’s all about his time on the ibn Majid. We learn that captain Vandermeer killed himself. Yet another suicide in this show. So then we get Picard’s reunion with Agnes. There’s no more self-deception. Picards tells her straight. You will turn yourself over to the authorities for the murder of Bruce Maddox. Agnes said Oh put her hands on her face and poured in poison. Why doesn’t she know that’s called a mind meld? Put her hands on my face seems a very awkward phrasing when she should just say “she mind melded with me.” Weird. So Agnes gushes all over Soji’s human-like attributes. Just like Bashir and Kestra. But Agnes says now that she’s met Soji, she’d never kill her. I’m finding that hard to buy. The admonition Oh showed her was so traumatic it caused her to kill her lover and mentor. But now, having met Soji, she’s a changed woman? I’m afraid I don’t trust Agnes at all at this point. Soji says she’d never give agnes the opportunity to kill her, but she’s giving her an opportunity right now.Why on Earth did Picard leave those two in a room together. That’s crazy. Agnes should be in the brig until they reach DS12. she certainly shouldn’t be roaming the ship and joining them at their makeshift conference table. “I’m done murdering people now, so that’s a good thing.”  “Oh, well in that case Agnes, it’s all good. Take a seat, Mate.” I mean, come on. Raffi refers to Rios’s record player as a walkman. Reminds me of an early Christopher Ecclestone Doctor Who Episode, where they refer to a jukebox as an ipod. Somehow it was funnier in Doctor Who. Rizzo is going around murdering all the xbs. So Seven does what she doesn’t want to do. She takes control of the queen’s systems and re-assimilates the drones. I got a thrill when the drones woke up, and we hear the voice of the collective say “We are borg.” But was kinda disappointed when Rizzo immediately had all of them, every single one, ejected into space. So here’s a rundown of what we know. There was once some kind of sisterhood of Romulans. Not the Qowat Milat. Some other group. They found this planet in the octanary system, with a warning left behind by a long dead race. The impression I get is that once a species reaches a certain threshold of developing synthetic life, a threshold Starfleet is on the verge of, some outside force comes in and destroys that civilisation, rather than just the synthetics themselves taking over. This outside force theory seems much more compelling and creepy to me. So I kinda hope they are leaning that way. Those who survived the horror of this admonition formed the Zhat Vash, dedicated to preventing the return of this outside force, by preventing all synthetic life from being created. In their minds, they’re saving the universe, which to be fair, they might just be. One of them was Oh, a half Vulcan half Romulan. I’m not sure how such a person would come about. Romulans and Vulcans are completely disunited. Until recently, they weren’t even allowed in each other’s space. So how do two of them end up mating and producing a child? I know there’s a non-canon theory that Saviik was also half Romulan / Half Vulcan. I guess Nimbus III, the planet of intergalactic peace, may have been one place where vulcans and Romulans could have mixed. Oh’s mixed heritage explains a lot of things. Her lack of inner eyelids, but her ability to perform a mind meld. Anyway, when Data is created, the Zhat Vash are concerned. So Oh infiltrates Starfleet and works her way up to chief of starfleet security. All with the hopes of preventing the Federation from developing true synthetic life. She engineers the attack on mars, to turn the Federation against synths, and ban their research. It works. Bruce Maddox flees to a distant world and continues his research. Then the ibn Majid encounters a ship from that world, containing two of Maddox’s creations. One of them looks identical to Soji and Dahj. Starfleet treats this like any other first contact situation, but Oh gives orders to captain Vandermeer to kill the synth ambassadors. If he disobeys, the ibn Majid and its crew will all be killed. He’s got to know at this point that Oh is not above board. Does he consider going to someone else in Starfleet, I wonder? I guess he decides the only way to protect his crew is to carry out the order. So he does. Rios goes at him hard for this. Telling him this was the wrong thing to do. Overcome with guilt, Vandermeer kills himself. And now Rios has to live with the guilt that his judgement pushed his captain over the edge. Rios is a broken person, symbolised by the 5 holograms, each a broken piece of him. He covers up the whole thing, so as to protect the ibn Majid. But he goes through post-traumatic stress from the whole experience and is booted out of starfleet. Maddox sends two of his creations, Dahj and Soji, out into the universe, to find out the truth behind the synth ban. One to earth, the other to the Borg Cube. We can see how the borg cube is connected. They assimilated Ramdha, and the knowledge of the admonition caused the borg to all shut down. But how does Maddox know this connection? How does he know to send Soji there? But it backfires. Her presence on the cube allows Narak and Rizzo to find the location of Maddox’s world, and now they’re sending a fleet to destroy it. It’s all coming together, and I’m really liking it. The value of a mystery is all based on the payoff. So far, the mysteries on this show are paying off much better than the Red angle did on Discovery season 2. That, in my opinion, was the biggest weakness of that season. I loved the setup, and I loved the character stuff with Pike. Pike was awesome. But the payoff fell flatter than I’d hoped. This episode only makes my excitement about Star Trek Picard grow. I feel like we’re in the middle of something very important. Something big.  Now that she realises that she has put her people in danger, Soji isn’t willing to wait for Clancy’s squadron.  There’s no time to lose. They have to get home to protect the world from the Zhat Vash. So she takes over the ship. But I love Rios’s lullaby that gives him back control of the ship. Smart. At this point, Picard is willing to let Soji take them straight to her home. “She’s done it Maddox’s way, she done it my way. Let’s let her try her way.” I’m kinda torn on this. The Zhat Vash ships are on their way. We’ll see more of them leave the sub shortly. If we don’t get there before they do, it’s all over. On the other hand, what can one little ship do against that Romulan fleet? Clancy told Picard to wait at DS12 for the squadron. How’s she gonna feel about him now that he’s disobeying that order. Just as they were starting to be able to work together again. But they can at least get there in time to warn the synths of the coming danger. Maybe the synths have some defenses. It’s understandable, and mildly amusing, that Picard doesn’t know how to operate the new holographic controls on this ship. So they head off for a Borg transwarp conduit, which should get them there quicker. While the un-reclaimed drones have all been flushed into space, there are still xbs on board, which Seven appears to be controlling. They swam Rizo. And yes! Finally, She dies! Woohoo. Ah. I’m a terrible terrible person. I’d say it’s more likely they’re assimilating her, rather than tearing her apart, so maybe she’s not fully dead. But assimilation seems a fitting punishment for her crimes. For her hate. I don’t have a problem with her trying to save the universe from this big evil threat, but it’s the way she goes about it. Instead of warning everybody of the threat, she works in secret, because that’s the romulan way, and she doesn’t care who she hurts or kills in the process. That’s what upsets me about her. Actually, on rewatch, what I thought was her assimilation, I think, was her beaming out to safety. Darn it! So Seven achieved nothing. She regained control of the cube, but the Romulans are all gone anyway. We learn that as an ensign, Picard served on a ship called the Reliant. Not the same Relient from the wrath of khan, of course. That one was destroyed. This was probably the Relient A, or maybe the Relient B. There’s a nice little conversation between Picard and Rios. Picard pointed out that the Zhat Vash set the trap, with the attack on Mars, but Starfleet could have side-stepped it. Instead, they gave in to fear. I feel like this theme of fear is even timlier that the writers intended, given the whole covid-19 thing going on right now. There’s certainly a lot of feat in the world right now. Risk points out that there is still a very real danger. Picard believes fear is the great destroyer, not the synthetics, or some outside force from 200,000 years ago. I think they both have interesting points. Picard is right about fear, but I think he’s not giving enough credence to the threat this outside force could represent. Of course, what we need is more information. The truth can sometimes dissipate fear. Of course, the truth can also confirm our fears. It’s all very interesting stuff. It’s all very Star Trek. As the La Sierrena enters the borg conduit, we see that Narak has found them again. Logical. He knows where they’re heading. He follows them in. I really enjoyed this episode, and I’m hungry for more. Bring it on. With my ongoing walk to Mordor, I’ve been captured by Baron Wright. My next milestone is Bree. I’ve been recording my thoughts about Fellowship of the Ring, both the book and movie. After we’re finished with Star Trek Picard, I’ll be sharing my very first Lord of The Rings Read, Watch and Walk episodes. But until next week, I’m Adam David Collings. Live long and prosper. Make it so.

Download MP3 先月に引き続き、MomoとHiroが、リノ近郊にある観光地・バージニアシティを訪れている場面です。人口が急激に減り、今やゴーストタウンとして知られるこの街。荒涼とした建物や町並みを逆手に取り、現在ではアメリカの「心霊スポット」として観光客に人気があるようです。 「アメリカ★は愉快だ」は、英語は上達したいけど少し苦手…という方々を対象にしたシリーズです。シャドウイングの練習もありますので、しっかり聞いて、しっかり声に出して練習してみましょう。 　 16: Virginia City: Part 2 (Hiro and Momo) W: Oh man, Hiro, I don’t know about that… Exploring a bunch of old buildings by ourselves doesn’t exactly sound safe… M: Don’t be a wimp, Momo! What’s the most haunted building here in Virginia City? W: According to the Internet, that would be… the Washoe Club. In 1873, 12 people died in an explosion. And it’s said that in the 90s, an old man committed suicide- and locals say he’s the most evil spirit! M: Oh, I’m not afraid of an old man! Except my dad when my grades are bad… W: Ha ha. Then, there’s the back room of the Washoe Club, called “The Crypt.” In the wintertime here, it gets so cold that the ground freezes. Meaning that when people died in the wintertime… M: They couldn’t be buried in the ground? So… Oh no, don’t tell me… W: Yep, “The Crypt”, the room, was used to store the dead bodies. Kind of like… Like that dead body BEHIND YOU! M: AH! WHERE? W: Haha, gotcha! (Written by Jazmin Boulton)

Download MP3 先月に引き続き、MomoとHiroが、リノ近郊にある観光地・バージニアシティを訪れている場面です。人口が急激に減り、今やゴーストタウンとして知られるこの街。荒涼とした建物や町並みを逆手に取り、現在ではアメリカの「心霊スポット」として観光客に人気があるようです。 「アメリカ★は愉快だ」は、英語は上達したいけど少し苦手…という方々を対象にしたシリーズです。シャドウイングの練習もありますので、しっかり聞いて、しっかり声に出して練習してみましょう。 　 16: Virginia City: Part 2 (Hiro and Momo) W: Oh man, Hiro, I don’t know about that… Exploring a bunch of old buildings by ourselves doesn’t exactly sound safe… M: Don’t be a wimp, Momo! What’s the most haunted building here in Virginia City? W: According to the Internet, that would be… the Washoe Club. In 1873, 12 people died in an explosion. And it’s said that in the 90s, an old man committed suicide- and locals say he’s the most evil spirit! M: Oh, I’m not afraid of an old man! Except my dad when my grades are bad… W: Ha ha. Then, there’s the back room of the Washoe Club, called “The Crypt.” In the wintertime here, it gets so cold that the ground freezes. Meaning that when people died in the wintertime… M: They couldn’t be buried in the ground? So… Oh no, don’t tell me… W: Yep, “The Crypt”, the room, was used to store the dead bodies. Kind of like… Like that dead body BEHIND YOU! M: AH! WHERE? W: Haha, gotcha! (Written by Jazmin Boulton)

World-leading Brain Injury Physician Dr. Kabran Chapek, author of the new book "Concussion Rescue" shares his insights, experience and comprehensive guide to reclaiming your brain function after a brain injury.   But this is also an episode on brain health in general and everyone alive on this planet needs to think about the future of their brain health, from traumatic brain injury to Alzheimer's to dementia, you will have the privilege of learning from on the best physicians out there.   Dr. Chapek has been a staff physician at Amen Clinics since 2013. As a graduate of Bastyr University in the Seattle area, he is an expert in the use of functional and integrative treatments and collaborates extensively with many of the Amen Clinics physicians. He has a special interest in the assessment and treatment of Alzheimer's and dementia, traumatic brain injuries, PTSD, and anxiety disorders. Dr. Chapek is the founding president of the Psychiatric Association of Naturopathic Physicians, an affiliate group of the American Association of Naturopathic Physicians. You can find Dr. Chapeks book "Concussion Rescue" on amazon  https://www.amazon.com/Concussion-Rescue-Comprehensive-Program-Traumatic/dp/0806540230   You can do the brain health assessment at www.brainhealthassessment.com  and follow Dr Kabran Chapek on  instagram at @drkabran_chapek You can reach out to Dr Amen at  www.amenclinics.com      We would like to thank our sponsors for this show:   www.vielight.com   Makers of Photobiomodulation devices that stimulate the brains mitocondria, the power houses of your brains energy, through infrared light to optimise your brain function.  To get 10% off your order use the code: TAMATI at www.vielight.com     For more information on Lisa Tamati's programs, books and documentaries please visit www.lisatamati.com    For Lisa's online run training coaching go to https://www.lisatamati.com/page/runningpage/ Join hundreds of athletes from all over the world and all levels smashing their running goals while staying healthy in mind and body.   Lisa's Epigenetics Testing Program https://www.lisatamati.com/page/epigenetics/ Get The User Manual For Your Specific Genes 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? Discover the social interactions that will energize you and uncover your natural gifts and talents. These are just some of the questions you'll uncover the answers to in the Lisa Tamati Epigenetics Testing Program along with many others. There's a good reason why epigenetics is being hailed as the "future of personalized health", as it unlocks the user manual you'll wish you'd been born with!  No more guesswork. 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 analyze body measurement and lifestyle stress data, that can all be captured from the comfort of your own home   For Lisa's Mental Toughness online course visit:  https://www.lisatamati.com/page/mindsetuniversity/ Develop mental strength, emotional resilience, leadership skills and a never quit mentality - Helping you to reach your full potential and break free of those limiting beliefs.    For Lisa's free weekly Podcast "Pushing the Limits" subscribe on iTunes or your favorite podcast app or visit the website  https://www.lisatamati.com/page/podcast/     Transcript of the Podcast:    Speaker 1: (00:00) 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: (00:12) [Inaudible] Speaker 3: (00:13) If your brain is not functioning at its best then checkout what the team at vielight.com do now being like producers, photo biomodulation devices, your brain function, the pain's largely on the health of the energy sources of the brain cells. In other words, the mitochondria and research has shown that stimulating your brain with near infrared light revitalizes mitochondria. And I use these devices daily for both my own optimal brain function and also for other age-related decline issues and also for my mom's brain rehabilitation after her aneurism and stroke. So check out what the team do at vielight.com. That's V I E L I G H T . Com and use the code TAMATI at checkout to get 10% of any of their devices. Speaker 2: (01:05) [Inaudible] Speaker 3: (01:05) Oh my gosh, you guys are in for the biggest, most amazing interview ever. I have Dr. Kabran Chapek to guest in a moment now. He is a staff physician at the amen clinics in America, in Seattle. And this interview is about his book, a concussion rescue, which just came out in January. Absolutely fascinating man with amazing information. If you have any problem with your brain, if you've ever had a traumatic brain injury, a concussion, if any one of your loved ones have, if you're worried about dementia, if you're worried about Alzheimer's or the future of your brain health and who shouldn't be, everybody should be interested in that. Then you must, must listen to this amazing interview. I got so much out of this and it ratified a lot of the things that I'd been doing with my mum and her journey and gave me some new ideas too. So really excited for this interview. I hope you enjoy it now over to dr Chapek. Speaker 3: (02:09) Well, hello everyone. Lisa Tamati here at pushing the limits. It's fantastic to have you all, Back again, I really appreciate your loyalty. And this week I have a very special guest all the way from Seattle and America adopted Cameron chopping up the chocolate. Welcome to the show. It's an honor to be here with you. Lisa. It's fantastic. When one of the one of your assistants reached out to me to see if you had come on my show. And so I was just so excited when I read the outline of your new book concussion rescue, which we're going to dive into today because it was like, Oh, finally, finally someone's put this together, put this all together in a book that the light person can understand. So dr Chapek, can you tell us a little bit about who you are and where you and this amazing new book concussion risks. Speaker 4: (03:02) Okay, so I'm a naturopathic physician and which if, if your listeners are not sure what that is, it's looking at treating the whole person, looking at treating the cause versus symptoms. It's, that's the philosophy of naturopathic medicine and the training. In some ways it's similar, some ways different do conventional MDs are medical doctors where we have the basic sciences, but then we have the ologies oncology, gastroenterology, nutrition, exercise, all of that. So that's kind of my background in training. I work at amen clinics, which is based on dr Hayman's work. And he's a psychiatrist. Been doing this for 30 years and 30 years ago he said, instead of just talking to people, I need to look at their brains. This is what, who they are. And so he started imaging people's brains with the type of scan called SPECT, S, P, E, C, T, single photon emission computed tomography. Speaker 4: (03:58) It's kind of like a CT scan, but it's looking at functional aspects. So how is the brain working? And so we have this huge database of scans, 150,000 scans. When patients come in, we can compare their scans to the database, we can do research. And so part of our evaluation is looking at the brain versus just talking. And I love doing labs. I love doing a really comprehensive workup and then individualizing people's treatment plans. That's what gets me excited every day coming to work. And I work in Seattle, as you mentioned live here with my wife and three kids. And I love running and being outdoors and, and and then doing this work. And I, and I wrote the book concussion rescue because Lisa, there's a silent epidemic. And you know, I say that because there are 3 million people, at least in the U S would go to the ER every single year who have had a brain injury concussion, which is a form of mild traumatic brain injury. And they, there's not a lot of solutions and options for them. And so in, in my 12 years working in mental health, I'd say that brain injury is a major cause of mental illness. Yeah, no one's talking about it. It's minimized. And this sort of, we think that there's nothing you can do. Speaker 3: (05:29) Absolutely. So Assad an epidemic. So what I find interesting is that if you talk to a lot of people, and you asked me now, have you had a brain injury? They come, you know I get to talk to a lot of people because of my background with the story with mum. And a lot of people will go, no, no, no, I haven't, I haven't had a brain injury. And then you go, are you sure you haven't hit a brain? Most of us have had something along the way and it could be a long back, even in their childhood when we, you know, got knocked out on the jungle gyms or we, you know, took the hits he had in some, some way shape or form and most people have had some sort of brain injury that has left a lasting effect and people aren't aware of the solid generalists. Speaker 4: (06:16) No, it's, it's a myth that you know, you have to lose consciousness to have had a brain injury or that you have to have gone to the ER to have a brain injury or because I had my helmet on, I couldn't have had a brain injury. Helmet just protects the skull, you know even whiplash not hitting your head can cause a brain injury. And so a brain injury or concussion is defined as like a, a hit to the head or an acceleration. Deceleration meaning like a really fast jolt to the head, like with flash is enough to shake the brain inside the skull and cause injury. If you have any change in mental status, like feeling seen stars, that's enough to damage the brain. The brain is soft like butter and the skull is hard, like a rock with many bony ridges and it's easy for the brain to be damaged because of that. Speaker 4: (07:17) It's like we're not designed to hit our heads at all. Yeah, we do. And it's cumulative. So we try and ask people who come to the clinics at least 10 times, like you said, it's perfect. It's like, are you sure you ever fallen out of a tree? You ever dove into a shallow pool? ahm Have you ever had a car accident? Have ever played context sports? You had a patient, we can call him Jeremy who when he was 21, he came to see me and he had been suicidally depressed since he was 14. Wow. And he was a scrawny kid. He was a jazz drummer. Really neat kid. But he was smoking pot every day too. Feel better. He had a girlfriend who was very, very poor relationships. She was mean to him. He needed to and the relationship just couldn't do it, didn't feel strong. Speaker 4: (08:08) And when he came to see us, we scanned his brain and it was clear he had had an injury. Yeah. On his history, his intake, there was no evidence of brain injury. He had never said that he had had a brain injury. And so I asked him, have you ever fallen out of a tree? Have you ever dove into a shallow pool, fallen off a horse, off a bike? No, no, no. I said, have you ever play contact sports? And his mother who was with him said, Oh yeah, you did start playing football when you were age 13 ish. And he was matched against the coach's son who is six feet tall. And he was like this funny little kid. He just kept getting hit really hard and had headaches. And he and that's when his depression and suicidal started. He was also diagnosed with add and he had tried every class of medication and tried to all kinds of therapy, hypnosis, EMDR, CBT, all these really great therapies and been referred by a great therapist that I knew And so when we put them on a program to heal his brain after a couple of months, his symptoms of depression lifted. Speaker 3: (09:17) Yup. Speaker 4: (09:18) And two, two years later, now fast forward, he's, this spring he's going to be graduating from the Berkeley school of music for jazz, drumming, stop smoking pot. So he's doing it. So some people have concussions and brain injuries. It's clear they're not healing. Then there's people who have some other issue in the, if you think back it may be actually due to a brain injury you didn't realize. Speaker 3: (09:40) Yeah, it is. You know I just had a question that popped up in my head when you're telling that story is even things like having low blood pressure or adrenal fatigue, you know, where you stand up too quickly and you in the, you get stars in your eyes for a few seconds or you know, is, is even vet doing any damage to our heads, to our brains. Speaker 4: (10:04) It can do a little bit. You mean like that, that low blood pressure thing? Cause you can, Speaker 3: (10:08) No, you've seen it where you have a bit of a dream of a taste. It doesn't come up when you stand up. Yeah. Sorry. Speaker 4: (10:17) Z that transient decrease in blood flow to the brain can be damaging. I mean you'll even pass out eventually we'll do because it's so, it's such a shock to the brain. But it's transient. So hopefully, you know, you put your head down, you S you get blood flow again, it's short enough that it's not going to do anything permanent. But repeat low blood pressure is a problem. You know, the brain needs blood flow. Speaker 3: (10:47) Well, I'm asking selfishly. Yeah, yeah. Very low blood pressure and have that problem. Often when I stand up, especially in the evenings and we have been a bit stressed out and tired, I noticed that I get up and I'm like, well you know, I wondered if that, you know, that temporary lack of blood flow could be damaging as well. Speaker 4: (11:09) Yeah. I don't think it's good, but I don't think it's causing permanent damage. As long as you address it, put your head down, sit down, relax, lay down. Speaker 3: (11:18) Yeah. Now dr Kabran, I wanted to actually dive into the book a little bit and actually couple of the things now with the modernist is nine. My story with my mum. Well hopefully they do. Most of them would know and I've got a book coming out too. Next months are a meatless, you know, what's really exciting when I looked through your book, a lot of the things that you've written in this book I've done to my beloved and being in New Zealand and I didn't have access to things like spics games in, in, in a lot of the fancy stuff. But I'd do what I could. One of the biggest pieces of the puzzle for me was hyperbaric oxygen therapy. And I've had a couple of experts on the show, Dr. Scott Cher was one of those on hyperbaric and how powerful this can be for people with brain injuries. So let's start with hyperbaric. What is, Speaker 4: (12:20) If I had one magic bullet, I can only do one thing to heal someone's brain. It would be hyperbaric. Okay, Speaker 3: (12:26) Wow. Yup. Totally agree. Yeah. Speaker 4: (12:30) It's a, and your listeners probably know, but it's hyperbaric oxygen is a chamber well under pressure and it pushes oxygen to the deeper structures that haven't been able to heal. And just like a diver has the bins, they go up too fast. They go in this chamber at higher pressures. This is low pressure, low pressure over time. So like 40 hours, 80 hours, 120 hours. And I actually was able to participate in a quick study a pilot study with Zachary light stead and he's, he was a high school athlete who had second impact syndrome. So he was put in, was about 14 or so. He was playing football. Got hit, went out, went back in and said, I'm fine. Coach put me back in, got hit again. Massive brain bleed afterwards in a coma for months, unable to walk and talk. And he had to relearn that. And so his parents were huge advocates of that. And that's why we have the Zachary lifestyle law or some version of it in every state in the U S where if someone, if an athlete is suspected of having a concussion, they have to be taken out and assessed by a medical professional before they can be put back in. Again, not every state has a seat belt law yet, surprisingly. Speaker 4: (13:48) So I was able to do a high prepare costs and study with this motivated kid who is recovered a lot but not fully. And we did 40 sessions of hyperbaric before and after. And of course, it's not a 180 degree with just that, but it improved his, you could see improvements in blood flow in his frontal lobe and it's parietal lobe, even five years after this massive, massive Speaker 3: (14:13) Wow, that's important 0.5 years after because a lot of people ask me, well, do I have to have had it in the past few months? And then I say, no, no. Who know, you can, it came to even Speaker 4: (14:24) Not too late. And there's another evidence of that. We did a study with 30 retired NFL football players. So now fast forward, these guys are in their fifties and sixties, and it's been like 10 20 years since they played football, but terrible looking brains. I mean, really severe damage. And they're starting to have depression. They're starting to have memory problems. They're headed towards dementia. And what we did for them was we gave them supplements, we gave them a healthier diet treated HYP treated sleep apnea if needed. And then hyperbaric oxygen for some of them as well. And after six months we were able to rescan their brains, significant improvement. Their quality of life was better, less depression, less anxiety, less depression or less anger. That's anger and better processing speed. So it's not, it's not too late. Speaker 3: (15:20) Awesome. This is really exciting. I've got a brother who was a professional rugby player and he had a number of brain injuries and I've been trying to get him in the hyperbaric cause I have a chamber podcast because he wants me to know, you know what, what really frustrates me is this is a very simple, so you know, there, there, there's a, the medical grade hyperbaric facilities, which you have a lot of in America and then there are mild hyperbaric chamber and you know, and you feel that it's very hard to get access to the medical grade ones. We hit them in Oakland ring, cross street hospital, but they won't, they do not believe they are off benefit for brain injury, which is just absolute training. Same here. Speaker 3: (16:14) So studies. And there was one clinic here in the South on end of New Zealand, adopted Tim UA, who has had a a proper chamber, you know, a medical brake chamber and he's just shut his doors after 15 years because he's sick of all of the regulations and the problems associated with secondhand. And this is the most powerful. Like if I had not had this from mom, I do not think I would have got him back 250 sessions with him and I ended up opening a mild hyperbaric clinic here. So you get to, you know, get local people access to it. And I'm a really big advocate for it. I've, I've since sold the clinic, but it's now available for other people. It's awesome, but it's not, it's using mod hyperbaric. So which, which are Brian and Brie, you know, at 1.5 atmospheres is, is, you know according to Dr. Hart who you probably know sees his ideal, obviously for, for other injuries, a little bit high pressure would be, would be better. But it's so, it's so important to share this message that this is a very powerful X is to it. Then you're like, when you're meeting up just the brain injury. Is it that his brother? Speaker 4: (17:39) No, no, it's especially for strokes. I'm so glad you did that and I'm kind of curious when she noticed, started noticing improvement along that 250 sessions, if it was early and it continued to prove or later on Speaker 3: (17:52) We had the first 33 sessions at a commercial dive company. Con allowed me to use the facility. Also I had to sign legal waivers and so on. I, I as soon as I got around to the hospital that day, I got her out of the hospital and she was like, you know, 24, seven key issue was completely bombed. Fill down to the factory, put her on a forklift in the middle of the spectrum and stuff or in the chamber. Much thought I was nuts. Right? There's nobody you can with walls. We did three treatments at that place. And in the month following the, the chamber thing got taken off overseas at a contract and I lost the access to it. And so for a month I had no chamber while I was ordering one from the S from China. And in that month is where I saw a huge gains, is her body caught up and she said yes, you started to have more speech wanting to move her and trying to communicate. And it wasn't like up and up and walking or, or anything like that. But she was starting to have a little bit of intention to what she wanted and was trying to communicate and so on. Let's see that this awesome. And then she came back. They, I had more to work with other things and unfortunately I didn't have a spec scans. I wish, I wish I could have Headspace scans all the way through this too to prove, you know, this was what, what was happening. Yeah, so Speaker 4: (19:39) The hyperbarics, you know, mostly we have the same problem in the U S as far as access. So there are a lot of clinics with the mild hyperbaric and I think it works great and I recommend people we can, they can rent chambers for a couple of months and try and get in those 40 to 80 hours in the chamber. And I see it work all the time. I, I would, I tend to layer it in as kind of a clinical Pearl is like if you have the finances and resources and it have access to it, there's no reason not to do it anywhere along the process. But because it is time intensive and costly at least make sure you have the other elements in first. Nutrition, supplements, physical alignment, sleep, start to rehabilitate with brain exercises and, and add in hyperbaric if there's any plateauing along the way. And maybe after a couple of months after starting that nutrients. That's what I reckon. Speaker 3: (20:38) Yeah. Let's go into this, the methodology here a little bit and dig deeper into we don't always do my research. I tried to get her on, you know, the good fats, MCT oil on special oils, that sort of thing. At the beginning, she could have the eight, 10, she couldn't sugar. So most of her nutrition was green smoothies, whatever I could get down here. And so your nutrition wise, what are some of the supplements that we can, because whatever you do before you go into hyperbaric will be intensified. Run it like of you know, things like vitamin C infusions or anything like that. Is that a good, is that a, for example, a good thing to be doing? And you know, Speaker 4: (21:29) Prior to hyperbaric and MCT, prior to hyperbaric and essentially a ketogenic diet with hyperbaric is I think enhances the whole a, they're synergistic. They both have antioxidant and antiinflammatory effects and they both increase healing of the mitochondria turning on genes. So the whole reason I think that ketogenic diet is worth looking at, it's not right for everyone and you just want to check with your doctor before starting it. But it's, it's not just for weight loss. It's kind of a fad right now. And us, is it in New Zealand across the world? Pretty much. And it's a, it's a low fat or it's a low carbohydrate diet, less than 30 grams of carbs a day, which isn't much until that forces the body to burn fats for fuel. Your brain is very hungry using 20 to 30% of calories in your diet, which is like a quarter of your plate. Speaker 4: (22:27) Think about it, 2% of your body weight brain using 20 to 30% of calories in your diet, so hungry, but yet when there's injury or there's some neurological problem, typically there's a metabolic deficit. The brain is not able to use as much fuel. As mitochondria are damaged, the brain is damaged and so the ketone bodies which are produced from Makita, genic diet don't take as many steps to get into the brain to be used as fuel. Whereas some of the times the glucose transporters are damaged. I can dementia and brain injury. There's a lot of correlates between the two. There's difficulty in utilizing and accessing glucose for this hungry Oregon. You know, right after brain injury, there's this metabolic deficit, this drop in glucose metabolism after about 10 to 30 minutes, which continues to stay low for weeks. And so this hungry organ, nowK doesn't have enough glucose. That's part of the problem. It's Speaker 3: (23:24) The bites, the whole problem. I mean that is part of what causes to meet. Sure. Isn't it? When you if we don't have into like insulin resistance cause you know, by bad diet for many years leading to or contributing to Alzheimer's and dementia did this as a, as a similar effect happening with a brain. But that a bit quicker. Yeah, exactly. So we can get the glucose in. So it's really, really crucial. If you are not on a keto diet and you just add an exogenous ketones, is that enough? Is that going to benefit? Speaker 4: (24:04) That's a great question. I think it's worth trying. The research doesn't, it's unclear in my mind because they've tried giving. So there's a study because they had patients in comas and they gave them, because they know about this metabolic deficit they gave them IVA glucose thinking, Oh, let's just give them glucose. And what happened was it suppressed their little bit of ketone production. They had like 16% ketones, which were fueling the brain a little bit. And that totally squashed that. And so a little bit, so it's not the answer we need to shift towards burning fats for fuel, burning ketones for fuel. So adding exogenous ketones, there's various studies where they've I think added lactate and different sort of fuel sources and so far haven't been that successful. I think was probably the best. I mean, if I had a brain injury myself for my loved ones, my family members, I'm giving them exhaustion, ketones right away, you know, keto OOS or some sort of product. And, and just in the hopes that they're getting some more fuel for their brain with all of the nutrients that they should be receiving. But it's, if you're on a ketogenic diet, MCTs and anxieties, ketones absolutely enhance the process. If you're eating a crap diet, lots of sugar processed foods, I don't think it's going to help much Speaker 3: (25:33) Standard hospital fear and you know, things like that. We hit those door and I'm like, you know, I didn't find that out unfortunately during the initial, but what I did do is at least I brought in my own smoothies and made my own options while she was awesome. They allowed you to do that. Yeah. Yeah. Well I didn't always ask permission. Don't you have to do the H DHA and you know, and official oils and things like that. I'm awesome as well. And I I wish I'd known more earlier. Some of these things, you know, I did later on as I, as I, as I got more and more research. But I think so if you can't get the patient to, to do a ketogenic diet at least try with the exhausted, those would be the minimum. Speaker 4: (26:27) Right. And do a lower carb diet. No sugar, just, you know, it can be in a stepwise process. First cut out all extra sugar, no cookies, cakes, candy, sweets, especially right after an injury or at any point. Then second step would be protein at each meal, meat, eggs, grass fed, beef, chicken, whatever. Then adding more vegetables and then more healthy fats, avocados, coconut oil. And so even doing that, like is there studies showing that if someone, excuse me, these are actually animals who are on a high sugar diet compared to those who are on a normal rat chow diet and then given a brain injury, those on a high sugar diet, those rats had a lot more concussive symptoms and took longer to recover. Speaker 3: (27:16) And this is, I think, you know, I'm translating a little bit into dementia and Alzheimer's. So a huge epidemic. And the thing that we can see this coming 10 years down the track, you know, this is also a very important point for, and you know, I have the broken brain series by dr Hyman and a lot of the experts in that area the mature in Alzheimer's is known as the top three diabetes in understanding the influence of sugar and insulin resistance and not giving enough glucose as we mentioned before. It's something that people can do to protect the brain health. Now, you know, years out from actually developing the disease, which is really, you know, late in the pace people especially, you know, trying to keep your brain function going. If you're noticing memory changes and this sort of thing, at least cut the sugar out. Even a tie we can obviously it didn't so much, you know, and this is the insidious problem and, and a lot of with them, older people know they've eaten meat and three veggies and the white breathe in the ligament. It's not sugar. You know, Speaker 4: (28:39) I had a patient who I think she was about 75 when she came in. Her son brought her in and she had moved to the area from I think Indiana or Chicago, somewhere in the Midwest. And she had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's and was prescribed Aricept medications or get your things in order and see you later. I was kind of, it, it's very sad that current approach to dementia and understanding me, the doctors may not have a lot of options that they've got their meds, but we do have more options actually. And so she came in, we assessed her. Yep. You've got mild cognitive impairment, may be early stages of Alzheimer's. She was living in a retirement home and just near a little downtown. Couldn't remember how to get down a few blocks to the downtown to do her shopping. And she had to draw maps and she couldn't remember her list even if she was just like three things, had to write lists and cause I have a lot of difficulties. So when she came in, we put her on this program, great programs, supplements, nutrition, exercise and let's see back in a month. So Oh and cut out your sugar because she, she wasn't overweight, so she thought, ah, I'm, I can, I deserve to have my retirement home, my treats. You know, she had a frappuccino at breakfast. She's having ice cream and cookies because it's free. It's just like at the retirement home. Speaker 3: (30:08) Oh yes. Speaker 4: (30:09) Serve ice cream. I said, you got to cut off the shirt. Just cut out the sugar. Let's do that first. Try and eat more protein and less carbs, which is like you mentioned, take the bun off the burger just even if it's not like the best quality meat, just that's fine. Just cut out the carbs first. And so she came back a month later and she was now able to, even just a month, she's able to find her way downtown. Wow. And she could remember that at least three things on her list. She couldn't remember everything, but three things she could remember. And I said, I'm patting myself on the back. Oh my God, you, you did everything. My pro, my protocol is like perfect. And she's like, I didn't take any of the supplements that you recommended. Oh boy. And I didn't do the exercise. But I did cut out the sugar. Speaker 3: (31:01) It just cut it just in one in one month you saw a change. Did she subsequently do the wrist? Speaker 4: (31:10) So then she was willing to do more and so each thing she added, like we added curcumin, we added a brain supplement. It had Gingko and Huperzine each thing she added, she got a little bit more improvement over the subsequent months. And that's what I found folks, you know, they may be a little mistrustful and so they want to try just one thing at a time. And luckily that was the thing that was really slowing her progress down. Speaker 3: (31:36) Oh man. It's so exciting. You know, like to see, you know, and you get people that have been on drugs and they've tried things and they have just, and these are not dangerous things to come out sugar and take a few supplements. You know, like we're not asking these mob America, but the side effect is better health overall and that is always going to benefit your brain anytime that you are. You mentioned Kirkman, which is your tumeric, which is another thing that I still hadn't come on and I'm on. What are some of the other sub supplements that could, is there a list of supplements that you give at as a standard or do you tailor them to each particular patient? Who, one, that's everyone's tailored, but there are some that I keep coming back to because they will compose. So the app, you know, I listens to them eat them now. Speaker 4: (32:32) Yes. Well NAC is probably available. There is a supplement. Inositol cystine. Yup. Precursor to glutathione, anti-inflammatory and just a little piece of information too. They did this double blind placebo controlled trial in 2013 where they had active service members who had a concussion like in the field. So they had an IED blast or something and then were carried or taken to the medic and they gave them NAC. Was this a double blind trial? So NAC or placebo and they were given a lot of it. And I'll tell you the dose in a second, after a week, 86% of them imp like recovered from their and concussive symptoms, whereas 42% recovered, you weren't given any. Wow. And so they were given four grams immediately days one through four. And they were given two grams twice a day. And there's five through seven. They were given 1.5 grams twice a day. So that's like an acute protocol. But NAC is important even after the fact, because many of, even though the research is mostly on acute brain injury, we know the mechanisms, many of them are exactly the same and chronic brain injury and concussion and so they apply. So NAC applies. Curcumin definitely. Speaker 3: (33:59) C is inositol a sustain for anybody who doesn't know what that means? Okay. And Q command, which is your, in your tumeric, what sorts of vitamins for that one? Speaker 4: (34:11) I would do about a thousand milligrams a day of a high quality one. And it needs to be, you can use that acutely. And also chronically, it helps to open up aquaporins. So these are water channels in the brain and you can do decrease swelling, which is especially important acutely for brain injury. Like there's this pastor who was in a car accident. I always remember. And two weeks later he thought he was fine. We went to the ER, checked out, you're fine, no brain bleed. Good. Then he went home. He was, seemed to be okay, but two weeks later he couldn't write a sermon. And I think what happened is the swelling was very gradual and slow. Not enough to be life threatening, but eventually it pushed on some of the brain regions that temporal lobes, frontal lobes, and he started having cognitive problems. So it can be this delayed. Speaker 3: (35:04) It's a light smoke, which is logical. When you cut yourself, you don't see the swelling straight away, you see it as it goes into the healing process. Speaker 4: (35:14) Exactly. Vitamin vitamin D is important. So as a fat soluble vitamin, almost more like a hormone, it turns on many different genes and helps modulate inflammation in the brain. Vitamin C I used 5,000. I use vitamin D. Vitamin C is as a buffered antioxidant water-soluble, the brain actually does well with more vitamin C, even though it's just a simple thing, everyone knows about it. It really does help decrease inflammation, that oxidative stress in the brain thousand milligrams at least a day. And they get three fatty acids. And I like using ones that are higher, a little higher EPA to DHA, which most are EPA for inflammation D to help rebuild the neuron and the cell membrane. And we try to use three grams a day of EPA DHA total. And that's what we use in that football player studying MCT oil of course you mentioned and other things, Speaker 3: (36:27) Especially oil, it's, it's important that you look for a very good quality one. W what do you type on the opposite side of problem, you know, with, with the some of the lower price fish oils [inaudible] a lot of oxidation going on. That is a problem. Speaker 4: (36:45) Oh, absolutely. Yeah. And quality is really key, especially for fish oil, like vitamin D, vitamin a, some of these nutrients, there's only a few manufacturers. Like in the, in the U S there's only three places that actually make vitamin E and every other supplement company just packages it up and charges different amounts. Vitamin E and they get three is not like that. It's really individualized per company and you need to check quality and there can be heavy metals in the fish. It can be oxidized like you said, if it's not processed properly. So that's when I wouldn't go for the cheap stuff. Speaker 3: (37:23) Okay. Very, very, very good. I'm talking on healing middle toxicity. Sorry, going a little bit off of track and we'll come back. I've done here tissue mineral analysis with mum. She's got like a moot Cori. What would be your humane mandation for getting rid of, you know, chelating these high pinning middles out of, out, out of your body. Is there anything new we want to supplement level for that type of thing? Speaker 4: (37:55) Well, yes. So one I'll just, there's a lot there. First making sure your organs of elimination are working, you know, which are organs of elimination are sweating. So the skin breathing out, toxins pooping out toxins. Having good bowel movements and not being constipated, and then urinating them out, st hydrated and peeing them out. So once all of those are open, then you can start sort of facilitating removal of metals or all toxins. And the fact that she has mercury, she probably has other things too. So solvents, mold should be always assessed for. And so I do love saunas and sweating because dr Jenny is from Canada did a really interesting study where he looked at, so what is Sana do? Like, what is it actually eliminating? And they measured in the sweat of people doing sauna. It eliminates mold metals and just chemicals, solvents. Speaker 4: (39:00) So it does all three. Wow. So that's why I love Sana because it's gonna remove all of them. And it's also been shown study out of Finland. If you're doing sauna more frequently, lower chances of dementia, in fact, that was it 2000 Finnish men or 20,000? There was a lot of them in any case. And after they followed them over many years and they found that the more saunas that they did, like five to seven days a week, they had 30% less risk of Alzheimer's versus those that just did it one day a week. So it's multiple reasons to do saunas and sweating and actually in the same study through exercise, sweat, also cleansing and detoxifying. So the fact that you're a runner and running all that gets you have been is cleansing. Speaker 3: (39:49) Yeah. As you know, is a, is a, is a huge piece of this puzzle for brain injury. As well as the most detoxifying and, and I totally eh, and someone who's sweeped every single day pretty much of their life. And I, I even even compete just to my, my siblings I can see lots of things happening in the body, so that isn't happening in mind yet. And I believe a lot of it is the, the daily sweeping, the daily mudflow, the oxygenation of the tissues. Hugely important for and also for, you know, cognitive stuff as well. Like mum, I have her doing at least two hours of aerobic activity. Very low level. We're talking on a stationary bicycle and morphing. That's all she can manage. Obviously it's CBAs but you know, two hours a day and awesome. Yeah. You know, sometimes she doesn't want to crack the whip differently. The drug Sajan that oxygen, that movement then is very, very, very important. I believe in airing her, her brain Speaker 4: (41:10) exercise is so important. Increasing blood flow, it increases especially intense aerobic exercise increases BDNF, brain derived neurotrophic factor, which is like miracle growth for the neurons and the more intense the more you produce. And there's supplements that increase BDNF a little bit, medications a little bit, but exercise trumps them all Speaker 3: (41:33) Does. Yep. Speaker 4: (41:34) Absolutely. Much more. What about new for fact or is it also influenced by nerve growth factor? Yeah. Yes. Also same influenced by exercise interval training will increase nerve growth factor. And like you said, increasing blood flow in general is, is needed and this is a real big exercise versus anaerobic or strength training. And then, you know, just going to say about this cleansing or effective exercise and endurance athlete, like you probably does sweat, you know, for 45 minutes or so, but folks like your average person like myself, I may go for it. 15 minute run, I'm not going to sweat as much as I would in a sauna. So just keep that in mind. So people listening just cause you're doing a little bit of sweating, it's probably not enough. If you really have a problem with toxicity, you'd want to actually do some sauna and sweat for really good sweat for 20 to 40 minutes several times a week. Speaker 3: (42:39) Yeah. And that's something, a problem I have with mum. Like I couldn't put her in a sauna. I don't know why, but she has temperature regulation problems that are brain steam, hypothalamus, brainstem bleed damaged thermostat. Yeah. Well she seems to have no tolerance to heat. She's good as soon as the hate. Like we're in the middle of summer here and it's a struggle that your cognitive abilities do decline and she over hates. Is there anything you can do for them? Speaker 4: (43:16) I'm not sure. How does she do with cold? Speaker 3: (43:19) She's much better with cold cuts, very well with cold. But Hey, you know, like her ability to walk inside of this is, is impaired. Speaker 4: (43:31) Yeah. I would say may just may not be able to do this sweating. But it's interesting that she does well with cold and maybe even pushing that further and considering cold therapy Speaker 3: (43:42) you cry, cry. Yup. You know, ice man training love that is really interesting. So, and I think these extremes and change is, is a key factor here too. It's, yeah. And, and because if you think about it, we, we came from, you know, an F caveman days. We were exposed to the elements. We were exposed to coal, we weren't comfortable all day in a company. And I think having exposure to what was natural is often a benefit and being convenient. Stress, yup. Speaker 4: (44:23) Helps us to be, become more resilient and stronger. I totally couldn't agree more. Exercise cold and hot. I'm challenging the brain brain training. You know, all of these are really important. Speaker 3: (44:37) Absolutely. So, going back to the supplement regime, is there anything that we, because we sort of waned on agent, was there anything else that you'd say, Hey, you've got a brain injury. Speaker 4: (44:51) So alpha GPC really important for acetylcholine. And after stroke 1200 milligrams got to do that. So I don't know if she's taking off of GPC, but that's worth a try. Speaker 3: (45:04) Heavier on acetylcholine is that different? Alpha GPC phosphatidylcholine. Now as Seadrill calling, Speaker 4: (45:13) I see the coin. So the casino coin is that actual neurotransmitter that you're trying to make. So I see the little carnitine. Speaker 3: (45:21) Yes, I have in the past header on there. Is it good? Speaker 4: (45:25) Yeah, that is also good. Helps the mitochondria. Yeah. Alpha GPC will help you her make more acetylcholine and also help the neuron. Phosphatidyl searing is another really good one for memory. There's not as much research on that for brain injury, but I, I still think it's really helpful for memory and cognition because 10% of your brain is made out of this fossa title steering. It's in the cell membranes and Speaker 3: (45:57) Okay. Speaker 4: (45:58) Counter as a supplement. It's very, I'd give it to kids. I mean it's so safe this stuff, but it really is helpful. Alpha GPC potentially. So Gingko 120 milligrams to 240 of Gingko biloba extract. Really good for blood flow. Who present a Chinese club. Moss is a natural acetylcholine esterase inhibitor, so it's sort of increases your body's own CDOT. Coleen I wouldn't give that for acute brain injury, but chronic brain injury, dementia, any other, Speaker 3: (46:32) How do you spell that one? Lou Lou cuisine Speaker 4: (46:35) Prison. H. U. P. E. R. Z. I. N. E. a. It's M Chinese club Moss. It's from Chinese club Moss. And it's, it's a [inaudible] Speaker 3: (46:47) But you have to go out and actually buy concussion rescued because this is all that's sort of level of information in one single seating sitting is, is there's a lot, I mean I spent months and months researching to come up with the bits and pieces that I came up with. And you've written a book that actually gives people a first aid kit for Brian and a protocol to follow and in this is just so exciting. You know I'd love to, if you were down the road, I'd love to go on a speaking tour with you and give like that Rachel side of it and then the side of it, wouldn't it be just Speaker 4: (47:31) Let's do it. I'll come down to New Zealand. I've been wanting to need an excuse so, Speaker 3: (47:36) Well I use that word a lot. They're all come to America and because, because we, we talking millions of people being affected by brain injury every year in, in most people are not given anything except you know, the, well not even the diet recommendations like it's, it's frustrating said and there are just so many people suffering in silence and, and it's an insidious thing because with Brian injuries as with dementia, you don't see on the outside the stuff going on. So a lot of the people that come through our hyperbaric clinic would be so in tears that people don't, when I understood the pain that I was going through because people could not see an injury, that's a young man and he looks healthy and he can't stay in the light and he can't stand the noise. And he counts, he's fatigued all the time and people are just thinking, you're being a woman, you're not. Speaker 4: (48:40) And he starts to wonder, what's wrong with me? Maybe I am a wimp. Maybe I'm, I don't know what's going on. Speaker 3: (48:47) It's more sad. And then things like depression and personality changes where we think someone's just become a horrible person. Dealing with really cognitive problems. So having an, having understanding for people who have Dimitrio who have personality changes, we have like going on that it may be not be fault, you know? Speaker 4: (49:15) Yeah. I have to say that's one benefit of having the ability to do imaging or at least some kind of cognitive tool or test. The imaging is just so powerful because when you show someone their brain and it showed their family members their brain, that's when the tears come because it's like, Oh my God, it's not only diagnostic, but it's therapeutic. They understand. It's just, it is, there is, there is a, there's an injury, Speaker 3: (49:41) Yes. And injury and I can see it and I feel, Oh my gosh, it's not all my fault and I'm not being a neurotic or, or you know, being old. There's nothing wrong with you. You know, I'm with them and they know that there's something wrong but nobody's believing them. And that is very, very painful. And I wish we hit spec scans. He, we don't have access to them. And I wish that had been through the journey to be able to Speaker 4: (50:12) I'm just thinking what else is available? You know, there's cognitive testing that can be done just to document difficulty in memory and focus and things. Speaker 3: (50:22) Can you just ask a, you know, a clinician or do you, Speaker 4: (50:25) Yeah. You can do on our website, brain health assessment.com. I can't remember if there's a fee or it's not, it doesn't cost very much to do. And you can measure where you're at as far as, you know, focus memory in different aspects. In the clinic we use something called web neuro and that's a web-based cognitive tests that people do is computerize and manage the tension memory. Also emotion. And this brain health assessment is the exact same test. So it's, it's, it's high quality. And there's pencil, paper tests and there's also labs that can be done to measure if there's damage to the pituitary gland. It's a whole other issue cause 25 to 50% of people with a history of brain injury have damage to the pituitary glands, your master hormone gland. Oh, and maybe a little more accessible. Speaker 3: (51:19) Let's dive into this. So hormone just came from. So all of the labs that you could do this with, you have, and how do you doctor into doing them? Speaker 4: (51:30) That's half the battle, isn't it? I would, I would just say, you know, bring in the research, there's plenty of studies showing that, you know this is very, some studies say 25, some say 50%, some say even more. If there's, you know, I've had a brain injury, this is what happens. And you can document that by measuring pituitary function and you know, it's, you can actually measure in a bloodwork pituitary hormones like for testosterone, the precursor or the stimulus is LH. And FSH. This is on the book too. It's in all the labs and stuff. For thyroid instead of having what normally is a high TSH and a low T three T four is actually low TSH and low T three T four, which means that the pituitary is not sending the signal to the thyroid gland. Speaker 3: (52:23) Oh wow. Is that, so is that causing the in the like more reverse T three and I'm not talking on the receptor or is it, Oh, you're very sophisticated knowledge. That's great. I'm impressed. I'm work out forward because this is part of month's problem and reverse T three. Yes. I've, I've been arguing with a doctor and, and again, I want a full panel and I cannot get a full panel three free T for me that's too bad. Do antibodies and TSH and T four and that's all I can get out of the law at the moment. So, Speaker 4: (53:01) Right. So if, if you do, if you just do a TSH, which is the standard for screening, that's not going to tell us really what's going on because you know, if it's low TSH they may say, Oh, you're fine. It's not too, you know, it's the kind of kiss is reverse where if it's low, you're hyperthyroid. If it's high, you're hyperthyroid typically. But if you're low plus your T three and T four low, it's pituitary issue actually. So that's important to know. Any case looking at act H and cortisol is for adrenal. And then of course testosterone for men, estrogen, pedestrian for women and LH, FSH. Those would probably be the main ones. And just say, Hey doctor, please, please test these labs. You may have to cut a pocket or whatever. I don't know if you have labs where you can just, Speaker 3: (53:56) We, yeah, we do have bicycle labs, but if you want anything, you know, it's things like cortisol I do regularly and that you have to pay for. So someone like, like mom was obviously got adrenal issues. So like things like estrogen, LH, GC, if it, if it's age in an older female, that would be, it's going to be high. You know, it's, it's different than, than I would I read. That's a very deep clinical question. Speaker 4: (54:29) I guess if it's low, then, then there's pituitary issues. It should be high in menopause after you're going to have high altitude. What happens is the S that the ovaries stop producing estrogen, but the brain thinks it's still, they still should be. So the brain sends a lot of LH and FSH down to the ovaries. And so it, that's how you know you're in menopause if you have high LH and FSH. So then if you measured those after menopause and it's really low, that would be very unusual. It would be, Oh, the pituitary is not working. Speaker 3: (55:07) And, and if it's the pituitary, it's not working. Is there anything you can do about that? Speaker 4: (55:13) Oh, great question. All of these things should help peel the pituitary. I'm actually balancing the hormones. So adding an estrogen, progesterone, testosterone looking at growth hormone. That's the other one I forgot to mention. If growth hormone is low, that's very common in pituitary damage. And can really, if you can increase growth hormone that helps with healing of the whole brain in the body. Best done through exercise again. And so, and then taking the supplements, putting the brain in a healing environment will help the pituitary to also heal. So that's the supplements diet, exercise, hyperbaric. So the hyperbaric is very helpful for pituitary damage as well. Speaker 3: (56:01) It's really good growth hormone. I'm actually taking a supplement. Is it, is there any danger with that in regards to cancer? Speaker 4: (56:09) I always talk with people about that. Like if you had a tumor and you have lots of growth hormone, you might potentially growth of the tumor. So that's like balancing the two. It's like, do we want lots of growth factors or do we want to keep, like there's this whole thing about low calorie diet and low IGF one, which is a marker for growth hormone. There's this field or you know, so it's really a balance of the two. It's not one or the other. I don't actually recommend people do growth hormone because you can become dependent on it and it's expensive. It's like over a thousand dollars a month, something like that. But you can again, exercise, there's supplements or nothing are Janine this product called tri amino. There's various companies that make it and there's three amino acids that are helpful in making growth hormone, taking it bedtime. Speaker 3: (57:04) Yup. [inaudible] Voicing that type of thing or, Speaker 4: (57:07) Yeah. I think it's arginine ornithine and there's one other, but it's three amino acids in particular without other amino acids. You just want those three and on an empty stomach. And if you're really going for it and talk about this in the book, but prior to exercise or empty stomach at night, cause you grow, produce most of your growth hormone at night when you're in deep sleep. That's why deep sleep is so, it's one of the reasons why it's so important. Speaker 3: (57:35) Wow. This is how people are listening. So I've just done a couple of podcasts, episodes on sleep and the importance of sleep and when you won't have enough sleep and growth hormone is one of those things. And your hormone regulation in general. I was going to go, Oh, sleep apnea. You mentioned the briefly or sleep disruption. Sleep apnea wasn't one of the big key mumps I worked at when I was in hospital when she, she's still in hospital. She'd been on oxygen Wellington and when they transplant her to new Plymouth, she was taking off the supplemental oxygen and I noticed a decline in who w what was already terrible but was even worse. And I tried to get him to put this up and legal bank box option back on and they wouldn't. And Avi headed with altitudes ricing and altitude. Speaker 3: (58:35) And I'd been in a hot code hypoxic tent at night with the oxygen. And I had like giving myself a hypoxic brain concussion a few years ago. Growing up too high too fast because I was impatient. I slept in a half thousand meters every night, all night, knocked off. A lot of brain cells have hypoxic rag pressure. And during that time when I did this, I had a whole lot of infections because the bacteria in the body oxygen deficit. And so I was recognizing some of these when she was in the hospital, still my brain went tick, tick, tick apnea, sleep apnea. Cause she was sleeping of course, 20, 21 hours a day. And the doc said, no, she don't, you don't need the sleep apnea test. And I went and got an outside consultant for him and I got in big trouble. I didn't really care resolving. He'd done a taste and it came, make some via sleep apnea. And, and from my research and the thesis there are a lot of people who are suffering from sleep apnea who are not aware that are suffering sleep apnea. Do you think this is a massive contributor to brain injury? Speaker 4: (59:49) Oh, absolutely. Brain problems in general. I think luckily people are recognizing it more and screening more and needs to be done. If your sleep, if you're sleeping a lot like your mom was, or not feeling rested or waking up at night a lot. In fact, my father who has had chronic sleep problems, I've tried to give him every supplement under the sun, can't seem to get his sleep under control. He just did a sleep study. It turns out he has mild sleep apnea and that was causing him to wake up frequently throughout the night. Speaker 3: (01:00:20) Wow, that's interesting, isn't it? And things like even like adrenal exhaustion, you know, your cortisol levels going up in the middle of the night, like that type of thing. I mean we w I'm very much into, you know, breathing exercises and front of the peat, the parasympathetic nervous system, blue blocking at night or what are those things that contribute to good health? And very important again, a tangent. We in our company we do epigenetic testing. And this looks like a genetics and how they're experiencing lightened. Well and one of the key things there is to understand what time of the day [inaudible] biology is very very important. So if your hormones are icing between five and six in the morning and you're getting up at 5:00 AM to do a CrossFit workout, that can be very detrimental to your health and smell. Look, dr [inaudible], I know that you've got to go shortly. I just want to wait. Can people reach out to you and I definitely want to talk to you further because this is isolating conversation. I think I've ever head in so exciting. I can't wait for the book to arrive in the post. We can people reach you. We can they get the book. And what are the next steps for people who are suffering from brain injury? Speaker 4: (01:01:53) Well, great. I've really enjoyed talking with you too. I can feel your passion and excitement to help others and that's where my heart's about to because your brain is like, that's everything. It's who we are. It's our personality. That's why I do this work is to help people recover and optimize their brain function. Because I want you to be able to share your gifts with the world and just be yourself and it's never too late like end with that. It's never too late to at least try and help heal your brain for brain injury. You and your mother are proof of that. I'm so excited to read your book as it comes out next month. Congratulations. You can find my book concussion rescue. It's out. Just released a January 28th on Amazon. There's an audible version for people and a listen to it. We recorded a a video series. It's available beginning of February on the book at Ayman university. It's available there. And I'm at amen clinics Northwest and Seattle. You can just Google that. Amen. Clinics, Northwest and Seattle location. There's clinics all around the country and Speaker 3: (01:03:00) Well I personally as well with people who have my own website. Yeah, I don't, I tried to and I'm not that tech savvy, so. Okay. You must, you must get you your age. I'm on Instagram and Facebook too. Excellent. So people can reach you. Doctor, dr Kabran Chapek, Chapek sorry. Concussion rescue. I will put, I'll get all those links from you, Dr. Cameron 16 with the audience. If I can help with any way, shape or form with getting this book out there. We've got to make this a best seller right around the world because this is, this is absolute crucial work that you're doing and I'm really, really, really sorry that I paid you all this. Thank you so much for your time today, dr Kevin. My pleasure. Great to be with you. Speaker 3: (01:03:55) You really enjoyed that interview with dr Chapek, make sure you go and get their book concussion rescue a must read for anyone with a brain really. And I also wanted to remind you my book relentless is coming out on the 11th of March and is available now for preorder. If you want to grab it, you're also going to get at the moment for the next couple of weeks excess to my mental toughness and mindset Academy if you buy the book and the next couple of weeks. So that's a value of $275 that course. So please go and check that out at least at lisatamati.com and hit on the shop button if you want to help with your health. With epigenetics, we have an eerie genetics testing program, which I mentioned briefly in the show. If you want to find out what that is all about, please head over to our programs page. We've got three flagship programs, we've got the mindset, you've got the epigenetics, and we've got the run training Academy, so please chicken all that out, head over to Lisatamati.com And don't forget to give them a show, a rating and review and share it with your friends. Thanks guys. Speaker 1: (01:05:01) That's it this week for pushing the limits. Be sure to write, review, and share with your friends and head over and visit Lisa and her team at lisatamati.com.

Welcome Back! We are discussing cryptocurrencies in general as well as the pros and cons of Facebook's Libra. Listen in to find out why some of their payment company partnerships got cold feet.  For more tech tips, news, and updates visit - CraigPeterson.com --- Related Articles: Facebook’s Libra cryptocurrency loses all but one payment company --- Automated Machine-Generated Transcript: Craig   Hello, everybody, Craig Peterson here. We're going to talk a little bit about cryptocurrency right now, Facebook was trying to get into the market, and basically, everybody's bailed on them. So we're going to talk about that and a little bit about Bitcoin and what are the real advantages? What are these guys and gals that are trying to bring the cryptocurrencies to market? What's really behind them and motivating them? I know a number of people who have these crypto currencies that they're trying to sell, and they're just in it for the money, frankly, you know, oh, yeah, it's great. And there are all of these initial coin offerings. You might have seen them these Icos that are out there, that are where people are saying, Yeah, we're the one to go with buying ours and of course, Bitcoin and looking back at the history of Bitcoin, how it came to be And it was a total farce. They were just nasty. They were driving up the value of Bitcoin on purpose they were, they were buying thousands of them and then selling them and buying them back and forth and losing money to try and drive up the value of this cryptocurrency now a crypto currency. It's kind of like a US dollar bill, for instance, remember it used to be we're on the gold standard and the dollar bill, in fact, all of our currency said that it was redeemable in gold and then they said redeemable in silver. And now they don't claim pie here. They just say that. While it's good for all debts, public and private. Well, people accepted the currency back in the day because they could take it and go to the Treasury and get gold or silver. But then it became just so common, that everybody basically accepted it, you know, and it's fine. It's great. Let's use it and off they go. What's it worth today? What wants $1 bill worth? Well obviously there's been inflation but it's only worth what people will accept it for isn't is not the bottom line it's not worth that piece of paper probably isn't even worth a penny it's made out of scrap cotton is what it's made out of. So it's really not worth very much money. So how then do we value something like the dollar well be we value it because we all agree what it's worth and that that six of those dollars a buy a couple of expense, a couple of moderately expensive coffee, I guess there's coffee that's like 200 bucks a cup But anyways, that's why it's worth what it's worth. So how about a cryptocurrency? All a cryptocurrency is is a number basically. And that number has been quote mind unquote and the way it was mind is it Just had a computer looking for the special type of a number, and it's using massive prime numbers and things already compute them. So it's worth what people say it's worth. And it has been worth as much as I think it hit $20,000 per Bitcoin now, there are many other types of cryptocurrencies but Bitcoin is what you're most likely to know and understand. But there are other types of currencies that are out there right now that are these crypto currencies. And I think Bitcoin last I checked was worth what about $8,000 7000 per Bitcoin? What has driven up the value of Bitcoin dramatically is actually ransomware because that's what people have been using to pay the ransoms and that's part of the beauty of cryptocurrency. This is why I was actually excited about Facebook's Libra currency. Now you know, I don't like Facebook. I don't like Zuckerberg, I don't like all of the allegations surrounding how he cheated the twins out of their money, and then the investments and the things he's done, where he's been lying to Congress and lying to users. And, you know, I don't like the man, bottom line. However, this type of currency could change the world. If we had a crypto currency that was commonly accepted by governments, and that was backed by large financial institutions. Well, then we really got something. Here's what happened. Facebook announced this Libra cryptocurrency that they were going to come out with, and that was supposedly sometime 2020. And you had PayPal, jump on board, MasterCard, Visa, e Bay, stripe. Mercado, they were all on board. So the idea was, they would set a par value for this Libra cryptocurrency and they would probably offer kind of like an IPO, people would buy this currency, that currency would then be available for people to generally use and, and Facebook would kind of be the Clearinghouse, the bank if you will for these transactions and then the transactions would go through on the back end to these companies I mentioned. So you could go on to eBay, and you could buy things on eBay using your Libra cryptocurrency. Now all of these cryptocurrencies, ultimately our trackable you the secret service has tracked down people. That's how they arrested the guy that was running the whole Silk Road on the dark web using Tor that we talked about last time, right. So cryptocurrencies are not entirely private. In fact, if they wanted them to be they could be entirely tracked. So Oh, What Why was I so excited was excited because now, I could sell something to someone in Timbuktu in Northern Africa. And I wouldn't have to worry about the currency exchange, I wouldn't have to worry about any of that stuff. I could sell things to people in Europe. I wouldn't have to worry about GMI taking a pound sterling versus a euro versus what? Right? The Russian ruble, what, you know, the Chinese currencies, whatever in the world, I'm just saying, Yeah, it's to Libra. And now those people in those countries that don't have access to a banking system as we do, where I could take a Philippine peso or Mexican peso, or whatever currency I want to I can do that because I have good banks here in the US. But people overseas people in Africa, people in these smaller nations don't have access to it. But if they had access to something like the Libra that was accepted worldwide, that the value of which was well known and well established, then then we could really do something. That's why I was so excited. So this last week, PayPal came out and said, No, we're second fun. No Libra for us, MasterCard then came on said we're not going to be involved with the Libra visa came out after MasterCard and said No way. We have eBay coming out stripe came out. Mercado, all of them came out and said, No, we are not going to accept a Libra. So it's a shame, but that's kind of where it stands right now. On this last Monday, there was a bunch of very non-optimistic news about all of this. A good idea good article on this by the way over naked security. So it doesn't look like it's going to happen. Well, the reason that is not going to happen apparently, is that there's a lot of pushback by a lot of governments because they're worried about regulations being able to track the flow of money, just like in the US where you can have $10,000 or more cash transactions, etc, etc, right? global stable coins and it's absolutely crazy. France has also rejected Libra. The g7 draft report said no, we're not going to do it. The FSB said the same thing over in Russia, the BBC set was reporting the same thing. So now, there is only one firm left that says that they would work with the Libra into Dutch firms called pay you and apparently, the BBC tried Reach out to them. And they hadn't responded as of the time this article was written. So it's a shame. But it looks like Libra is dead. And it's mostly due to governments who were upset that they wouldn't be able to track transactions and way they wanted to that they couldn't tax them. Now we know in the US and some other countries, the tax man is coming after all kinds of virtual stuff. If you own virtual properties in some of these online communities that aren't real, you have to pay taxes on that as well. So no surprise, I guess. Goodbye Libra. We hardly knew the next up. We're going to talk about iOS, jailbreaking and some problems people been running into serious problems. You're listening to Craig Peterson on WGAN. And online at Craig Peterson dot com 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

Lane Kawaoka – Owner of over 2600 rental units, Leader of the Hui Deal Pipeline Club, which has acquired over $155 million of real estate by syndicating over $15 million of private equity since 2016, and Host the Simple Passive Cash Flow podcast, talks to Neil Henderson and Brittany Henderson, the hosts of The Road to Family Freedom podcast. Lane discusses working with turn-key operators, investing in mobile homes, and diversifying with syndications. Read Full Transcript (#) Neil Henderson [0:06] Greetings, friends and families. I’m Neil. And I’m Brittany, you’re listening to the road to family freedom podcast. Our guest this week owns over 2600 rental units and as the leader of the deal pipeline Club, which has acquired over 150 $5 million of real estate by syndicating over $15 million of private equity since 2016. He’s also the host of and he’s also the host of the simple passive cash flow podcast, land Co. Coco, welcome to the road to family freedom. Hey, thanks for having me. Absolutely. So you, you began your investing career in Seattle? Correct when you had a full time job as an engineer? Right. Right. And you were sort of an accidental landlord. You bought your first property as just as your primary residence? Correct. Lane Kawaoka [0:58] Right. So I did not have to take that leap of faith that a lot of people do getting started. Yeah, fell into Neil Henderson [1:03] it. And then you and then you got into buying turnkey properties, correct? Lane Kawaoka [1:09] That’s correct. Okay, started. It started with a couple primary residence or more primary marketplaces and then 1031 for a bunch of turkeys. Gotcha. Brittany Henderson [1:20] Um, can you tell us a little bit about that first property that you bought? Lane Kawaoka [1:25] Yeah, so it’s a my primary residence, it was a class rental in a great area just north of Seattle $350,000 purchase price, which was a lot back then in 2009. It rented for 2200 a month. More p It was 1600. Neil Henderson [1:44] So that was definitely not the definitely not the 1% rule. Lane Kawaoka [1:48] Right. But, I mean, I thought it cash flow, you know? Yeah, a little bit. I know back then. Neil Henderson [1:53] Yeah. And you did you live in that you lived in it first. Lane Kawaoka [2:00] I lived in in for about a year, and then caught up an old landlord and said, Hey, I want to rent this out. Because I just, you know, I think I don’t know how old I was, like, early 20 something year old and kind of living the single life and I was like, let’s crank this out. Let’s make some money. Yeah. Neil Henderson [2:19] What, um, where did you? Did you come in with a 20%? down payment? Or are we able to do like a since you were owner occupied? Did you do like a 3%? down? Lane Kawaoka [2:31] Yeah, I came in with a 20% down payment. So you know, at the time, I was making, like, 80 grand at a college? Yeah. Probably saving a big chunk of that 30 grand starting out every year. But then when I started to read it out. That was really my secret sauce. Right? Just being able to see a lot of money. Putting it all through investments 20% down payments along the way. Neil Henderson [2:53] Gotcha. And where did you live? Once you started reading it out? Where did you live? What was your primary residence then? Lane Kawaoka [3:00] I lived on the company dime. They, it was 100% travel job. So Oh, wow. Just move around from hotel to hotel, on the job. And on the weekends when I wasn’t working, I would kind of work. I mean, there was always work to be done. So just kind of stay in hotels, or no few. I would say like probably five or six times they probably had to get a hotel for myself. Because there was no work to be done. You know? Yeah, yeah. But yeah, and you know, with all the money saved, it was it was kind of worth it. Brittany Henderson [3:37] Yeah. What kinds of lessons did you learn from...

There’s a new chapter in the history books for Kentucky Peerless Distilling Company. A thriving distillery that had been lost during prohibition is now reemerging right in the heart of downtown Louisville. Corky Taylor, CEO of Peerless, joins the show to share his story. After being bored with retirement, Corky decided to risk it on building a distillery and fighting with a team of lawyers to reclaim their original DSP-50 designation. We talk more about their rye, the recent bourbon release, and some stories from when he was roommates with the Allman brothers. 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. At Barrell Craft Spirits, they explore whiskey in an entirely new way. The team selects and blends barrels of whiskey into something greater than the sum of its parts. Find out 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. Central Kentucky Tours offers public and private bourbon tours for groups from 2 to 55. Learn more at CentralKentuckyTours.com. Receive $25 off your first order at RackHouse Whiskey Club with code "Pursuit". Visit RackhouseWhiskeyClub.com. Show Notes: Denny's Bourbon Menu: https://vinepair.com/booze-news/dennys-bourbon-menu-pancakes/ Sweet spot for aging bourbon: https://www.winemag.com/2019/08/12/ultra-aged-spirits-ripping-you-off/ Can liquor go bad?: https://www.bustle.com/articles/99585-does-alcohol-go-bad-yep-so-heres-how-long-you-have-to-finish-off-your-favorite This week’s Above the Char with Fred Minnick talks about marketing to children. Tell us about growing up in Hawaii. Where does the name Corky come from? What is the history of Peerless? What happened during prohibition? What made you decide to bring the brand back? Why Louisville? Tell us about getting your original DSP number back. Was it hard to make such a big investment? Why was it important to wait to release your own product vs. sourcing? What differentiates you from other brands? What systems are you investing in? If you were younger, would you have focused as much on quality as you are now? Tell us about the bottle and the price point. Why does rye age quicker than bourbon? Is the price of the rye going to go up when it is older? Tell us about the small batch and single barrel. What is your definition of small batch? Were your recipes trial and error? What other ryes do you like? Who are you teaming up with for barrels? How did you chose your Master Distiller? What's your connection to General Patton? What about the Allman Brothers? 0:00 Hey everybody. Are you interested in looking at the distilling process and pairing that with key business knowledge such as finance, marketing and operations, then you should check out the online distilled spirits business certificate from the University of Louisville. It's an online program. It can be completed in as little as 15 weeks. It's taught by both of you have all business faculty and corporate fellows. So you're getting real experience from real experts at the most renowned distilleries, companies and startups in the distilling industry. And all that's required is a bachelor's degree. Go to business.louisville.edu/onlinespirits. You know, 0:35 you play League baseball or be three core keys on two teams, you know, so to be so everybody's name. 0:43 It was the new john back then. Yeah, they will. Everybody says, everybody looks. 1:00 Welcome back. It's Episode 216. of bourbon pursuit. I'm Kenny, and we've got some news to run through. And we've got some exciting news that's coming from old forester there. 1910 old fine whiskey we talked about on the show with Jackie's I can before and it exceeded the expectations that old forester ever would have known about. It was their fourth and final expression of the old foresters, whiskey row series, and it's sold out across the nation, but it's now being announced that'll be back on shelves at the end of the month. You know, the idea of pairing bourbon and food and even infusing bourbon and food is nothing new, but some might wonder, have we gone too far? Well, the commercialization of bourbon continues as a Denny's. You know that place with moons over my hammy is announcing a new bourbon themed menu for fall. It's called Big bourbon flavors. The menu features a range of bourbon inspired dishes to enjoy throughout the day. So for breakfast, you've got the apple bourbon pancake breakfast that has two flaxseed multigrain pancakes with a caramel apple walnut bourbon sauce. And for lunch and dinner. You've got two classic bourbon dishes, the bourbon bacon burger, which is topped with a bourbon sauce. And then you've got the bourbon chicken sizzling skillet, which sees a grilled chicken breast coated in a bourbon glaze. And as with any rare bourbon release, this is a limited time offer and you can read more about this with a link to vine pair calm in our show notes. What's the sweet spot for Bourbons age? You know if you follow along with the podcast you would know after hearing all kinds of master distillers and master blenders that ages and everything and heck, we know that when we go on barrel pics, and we have this notion that higher age is better but there's a reason why you're gonna end up seeing barrels of stuff that has been rejected for last year Craig 23 that just gets dumped into standard Evan Williams tanks. And there's a new article by wine mag calm that interviewed four roses master distiller Brent Elliot, about that sweet spots, and bread said that the majority of barrels speak and around the fire 10 year range. And in this range is when all the immature character of the white dog is gone. And there's a light and bright and delicate balance of the flavors from the grains and the fermentation that had developed in the barrel. And with the barrel to create that perfect balance. And beyond the 12 year ranges, we're going to start seeing fewer and fewer of those actually, quote unquote improving each year. You can read more about bourbon rum, scotch and army sweet spots, which surprisingly, Armagnac was at 50 years old, with the article from wine mag in our show notes. Do you have an old dusty bottles still sitting on the shelf? And more importantly, have you opened it? Well, I guess this kind of goes for any bottle of bourbon that you have open. And you're now wondering, how long do I have to drink this before it goes bad or maybe just changes completely. According to researchers at Bacardi they presented their findings at the annual Tales of the cocktail convention in New Orleans, and everyday factors such as temperature fluctuations, light exposure, and oxidation can lead to rapid fire beard aggregation. And this can really severely alter both of the color and the flavor of alcohol stored in glass bottles. Bacardi flavor, scientists conducted a series of experiments on the effects of temperature fluctuations on its rum and found that temperature changes can degrade an organic molecule called Turpin. And this alters the flavor of the alcohol to by exposing various glass bottles stored to UV radiation. It actually intended to try to simulate the effects of sunlight. And researchers found that over a period of 10 days of exposure, bourbon lost 10% of its color while scotch lost 40%. But color is never just color when it comes to alcohol color changes are indicative of flavor changes to and researchers concluded that whiskey has an almost indefinite shelf life if you leave it unopened and stored in a cool space. However, once you open it, the rules of the game start changing in order to best protect the flavor profile from oxidation. If you have a bottle that is less than half, you should drink it within a year. And if you have less than a quarter of a bottle left, you have about three to four months before it starts to get questionable. You can read the entire article from bustled calm in our show notes. Are you a Patreon supporter of ours. But we had recently launched a new Discord server where everybody can come and chat daily in real time. There's a lot of talk going on about the podcast on a daily basis. And for me seriously, it's almost hourly because I'm giving updates of what's coming in through email and other kind of news that we necessarily don't always talk about on the podcast, but there's just loads of bourbon talk. So come connect your discord account to your Patreon account, and you can join in the fun with us. Now for today's podcast, you know we look back and peerless has just been a fun distillery to watch when they first launched their two year ride at $100 or more across the country. It's a major push back from whiskey geeks know until they tried it, it gets better and better every single year. This whiskey is just one aspect of the story because Corky talks a lot about how they rebuilt this brand. It's just a fantastic story here. It's always appealing to hear kind of how someone fights hard to restore history by fighting to get their original DSP. And no expense was spared when it's actually coming to the bottling and really what the end result of their whiskey is. So this is going to be a fun distillery to watch as they grow. And if you didn't know they just released their first bourbon to the world at four years old. All right, now here we go. Let's get in a quick word from Joe over a barrel bourbon. And then you've got Fred Minnick with above the char. 6:38 Hi, Joe from barrell bourbon. Here, we explore whiskey in an entirely new way. My team at barrel craft spirits, selects and blends barrels of whiskey into something greater than the sum of their parts. Find out more at barrellbourbon.com. I'm Fred Minnick, and this is above the char. I'm going to say this now and repeat it a lot. In this episode, do not market to children if you're an alcohol brand. Now with that said, we live in this beautiful bourbon lifestyle and sometimes friends by friends, baby gifts that have bourbon logos on it. Let me give you an example. A few weeks ago, a good friend brought me a baby bib with a distillery logo on it. It was for my than seven month old son and it was quite cute. And I really appreciate it. It was It was lovely. My wife laughed about it. Even my son thought it was cute. But I didn't really think anything of it from a marketing perspective because my friend actually made it this was not created by the distillery. My friend made this special embroidered baby bed. And then I started reviewing some cigarette testimony from the 1990s. You know, that's what I do. I like reading old transcripts and lawsuits to find nuggets of history and factual information. Well, this was a time when the anti smoker leagues were really dissecting the tobacco industry for having built in their schools and creating cartoon characters as the mascots for tobacco. Now the alcohol industry has always done a very good job of avoiding this, you know, marketing to children and they've really enforced that heavily within the trade. But in recent years, whiskey fans have actually gifted one another bourbon related things to celebrate newborns and even make you know, children t shirts with whiskey logos. For the most part, these are innocent homemade gifts from one friend to another. When a friend has a kid the natural instinct is to buy that friend a gift. And if your friend is a bourbon fan, you might be inclined to buy or create a bourbon one z. We may like it and think it's cute, but the rest of the world could see it as marketing bourbon to a child, which is very bad. You see, we are in this weird place in our society with how we perceive alcohol. Many of us look at bourbon as the great bourbon lifestyle and our children see our bottles all the time. And here is talking about master distillers. So for this audience, you and I, getting a bourbon baby bib is one of the greatest, most thoughtful gifts you could possibly imagine. But this is potentially a very slippery slope. If the wrong person sees my son wearing that bib, they may think it's from a brand and report it to the federal authorities. It could lead to an investigation and severe consequences and social media circles which are already cracking down on alcohol and tobacco related posts after all advocacy groups will go to the ends of the earth to protect children and they absolutely should, again, do not market to children at all, especially if you are a bourbon related brand. And nobody wants to market to children in this industry. Nobody. So as we give to our friends and celebration of their children just be cognizant of what it might look like to an outsider. And while bourbon is a long way from Joe camel, we don't want to portray our lifestyle and the wrong light. And that's this week's above the char Hey, did you know I have a second edition of my book bourbon curious coming out soon. You can find it on Amazon and Barnes and Noble search bourbon curious again that's bourbon curious until next week. Cheers 10:20 welcome back into a another episode of bourbon pursuit and here we are the second time at down one bourbon bar doing our live streaming podcast. So Happy Monday to everybody that's out there. You know hopefully we're starting to shake things up to start the beginning of the week because a lot of news kind of happens on Monday so 10:38 yeah, especially after spring break, you know, the wall everybody's having a case of the Mondays today. 10:45 I don't want to do anything 10:46 but every every comes back looking super tan though. Oh no. Yeah, 10:49 not me. I still got white farmers tan. You don't Tandy Corgi I do 10:55 if I'm in the sun. Yeah. I hear either more. Yeah, 10:59 well, yeah, this is our room now you know the Kenny and Ryan. This is our studio 11:03 so it's slowly turned it into that we got the the phones are going off the hook if anybody can hear me Yes. Good. I've got a telephone going. Yeah. So 11:12 all in for your sport. We have one a day bourbon will take your questions live. Actually, that's not a real number. Please don't call. Yeah. But you know, today is going to be a pretty fun and interesting episode because we are sitting here with Corky Taylor Corky is the chairperson, CEO as well of, of peerless distilling company. You know, this is something that you know, honestly for us it had taken a while for peerless to kind of get on the map for us even though it's kind of in our backyard. We all the time we have people that say oh, we want to go on the podcast, we're going to podcast but they don't really hit a national awareness and I think it's time now that peerless is started to break that ground and they are starting to kind of venture out and away and make themselves a nationally recognized brand at this point. 11:57 Yeah. And internationally as well. I was just talking to Cordell my good friend corps de before the show and he was telling us and tell me that how port peerless is now in 45 states and it just one like I think the British craft Producer of the Year and, and globally so I mean, that's pretty big stuff you know, coming out of you know, peerless. So I'm I'm super excited being Kenny actually Corky pride. I remember we came there last year for my birthday. We had a group of 10 and you gave a great tour. It was actually a pursuit undercover Volume One Yeah, yeah. Exactly. We were we're behind the scenes, I brought my own whiskey thief. And you know, and I was it was a lot of fun. It's a very cool place if no one's been to but excited to revisit the story and share with our audience you know, Corky background and the whole peerless brand and what they're doing to make their name in the whiskey game. 12:50 Absolutely. So I guess we should we should probably introduce our guest so today we do have Corky he is the chairman and the CEO of peerless to ceiling company so Corky aloha haha. Right. Yeah, that was one thing that I learned from you at the last Legends Series is that you grew up in Hawaii. I did. My father was in the military. So we spent I spent the first 13:13 eight and a half, nine years growing up in Hawaii. My dad was stationed over there. So actually, at one time live right on Waikiki Beach. So surfed on Waikiki Beach. And then we moved to Schofield and chapter so and then when I was older, I served 13:31 was that a huge lie down? It was 13:34 why I went 13:35 straight from Hawaii to military school now lived in Tennessee. Oh, that was a major lead. And you know, I used to serve the North Shore, Sunset Beach where the big I wouldn't serve from the 25 foot waves. But I still surfing the 10 foot waves. So but now, our family moved back to my dad's hometown, Henderson, Kentucky. 13:57 Well, what what can give us a time frame of that like the when you were growing up in Hawaii? Like what age? What age range was this? 14:03 I was about five years old. When we moved to why my brother was actually born in Hawaii on Maui. Then we moved back when I was 13 years old Henderson so 1314 right in there. 14:16 Was he given when your brother was born? Was he given like a an official like Hawaiian name that you didn't get because 14:23 he was actually named after my great grandfather? He's 14:25 not Hawaiian. 14:28 Polynesian name. Yeah. 14:29 Yeah, no, no, he was named after actually my great grandfather that started peerless. So he was he was Henry, they call it we call the man but he was Henry named after my great grandfather. So 14:42 we'll kind of talk about your name a little bit too so Corky Taylor, and this the name Corky, because it is a little bit different, right? So kind of how did this name of offer what does it come from? And I'm going to just guess it's not your actual given name, or no, it's not 14:53 okay. No, I'm, I'm Roy M. Taylor. The third course my grandfather was you know, always Roy My dad was Roy to until and then general Pat named my father a so he went by aces, you know, the whole time and I was with him. And then since they that they didn't really want to call me Roy. So I, I got the name Corky day one. So the only time I was ever named Roy was first day of school. So they'd say Roy Taylor, and I'd kind of raise my hand up, you know, no, it's Corky. So that was I could go into the year by Corky so it's I've always gone by Corky. 15:31 That's a great it's not too bad. 15:32 It was a military name. I mean, there was a lot of visit. He's something about it. I don't I don't know. But I had I had played darn it 15:39 the neighbor. 15:40 No, not really. So it was you know, you play Little League baseball and or be three core keys on two teams, you know, so it'd be so everybody's name. 15:51 It was the new john back then. 15:53 Yeah, they will. Everybody says Korea everybody looks 15:58 good. So I kind of want to kick it off and start talking a little bit about the story in the history of peerless. So before we talk about the whiskey and the bourbon that you're producing now kind of give the story of your family and how this really evolved. 16:13 Okay, how it had evolved, was obviously through my great grandfather. He was he was born in Poland. He was a Polish Jew. He moved to New York City to Manhattan. When he was five years old. He was selling papers on the corner when he was seven 810 12 years old. And when he was he saved up some money when when he was 19. He said I'm going to get on a riverboat. When I run out of money, that's where I'm going to get off. Why didn't get off in Louisville, Kentucky. I have no idea he got off in Henderson, which was a good thing. Walk up top of the hill head zero money. And he asked the bar up there called buckets. Can I sweep the floor and can I live in the attic until I get myself squared away. And about two years later, he ended up buying the bar. But what he really wanted to be was a banker, and that's what he was. He went from Henderson to St. Louis, for a short period of time because there was a lot of Jewish people from St. Louis. So they kind of took him under his wing. He became a banker and st move back to Henderson open First National Bank and an 1818. And he bought a small distillery from the worship family Mr. worship and passed away he bought a distillery. They were making about eight barrels of bourbon a day. And within two years, he was he had some weeks he was making 200 barrels a week. So he took it to a pretty good at one time, he was probably two or 222 stories in the state of Kentucky. He was probably in the top five or 10. during that era. 17:43 He looked as it purely investment or was it like something I enjoyed? 17:48 Now I think he looked at it as an investment. Yeah, I think he was pretty money driven. He built one of the largest breweries outside of the Mississippi, the Henderson Brewing Company, and a way to distributor just beer during that era was all by river boat. So your head his own river boats and went to Cincinnati to local down to St. Louis and he built that into a pretty good says brewery. But his love was Chicago. That's where all his buddies were. He couldn't do this today. But back then he said on the board of five different banks up in Chicago, but he owned the Palmer house up in Chicago is probably one of the most famous some people never heard of it. But it's the longest running Hotel in the United States first hotel to have a light bulb. Telephone elevator dishwasher. and air conditioning. 18:33 No iPhone, not the first off 18:36 iPhone. No, I think it's but but they invented the brownie. So that's what they were famous. Okay. I like brownies. Yeah, yeah. 18:44 So I guess kinda helped me through the the timetable here now was your great, great, great or great, great, great grandfather. Okay, so was this last during Prohibition or like it was okay. So you want to talk about like, how that that sort of 19:00 had it. He headed up to prohibition and he had about 63,000 barrels of bourbon he had to get rid of. He was having if you had 50,000 oh man owns borough, because they had huge warehouses or some big distilleries and, and owns burn, they had big fences with Abby on him. So he was able to had a lot of barrels. And it took him about three years to get licenses to distribute alcohol during Prohibition. So 19:26 so nobody was coming there. Day one trying to bring cameras. Yeah. And Whoa, I 19:30 think they probably were, I mean, all he is, the distillery and Henderson was pretty wide open. And that's reason why he would sneak at night over on 17. train cars don't want to keep barrels over and keep them hidden. So the government, you're right would have gone in there with access, crack them open, pour them out. So he thought he could get a license eventually. And it took him about three years to do so. So then he got a license of sable to distribute, where he distributed a lot of his alcohol and we found sad, Rocky words up in, in Chicago. It's worth distributing. That's breakthrough. But they were that it was a I guess he knew about my great grandfather. And before I got up there, he told us that my great grandfather sold the Walgreen or buys from a with Walgreens got one on every corner, right. But he sold them a little less than 40,000 barrels of bourbon during Prohibition, which was a big deal back then. So they partied pretty hard in the Palmer house. For years, not his quitting one of these two week parties. This went on for like 10 or 12 years term, prohibition but he was able to get rid of all his and he shut the distillery down. He shut it down before that. 20:44 So it was more like a like a liquidation sort of thing is what he was trying to get out of. 20:48 Yeah, he was he'd already sold his skills and 1917 probation came along in 1919. So he must have known something was coming on. So in 1917, he sold his still united distillery up in Vancouver, British Columbia. And what he did, he hired Mr. Sherman here in town that owns Vendome. They're the largest still building in the United States, probably the world hired Mr. Sherman brought his family, the Henderson his wife and four kids stayed there eight months broken down, went up to Vancouver, about a month on the train, set them up, spent eight months up there came back here. And that's where they got some of the money to continue and to build Vendome with. So I went in there and 98 years later, and they told me was your great grandfather that helped put our great grandfather and business. 21:38 So they were like, well, you need to still so we're gonna go ahead and just bump you up near towards the front of the line. This is this is your repayment 21:43 dad wouldn't really it. 21:47 So talk about the the idea now, you know, the family legacy of distilling, and having your own whiskey had been lost for a few generations. And and now you were at the point of just saying like, screw it. Like, let's let's start making whiskey again, like what was the what was that real determining factor that wanted you to start pushing towards that as 22:09 he had a legitimate story? Yeah. People are like my great grandparents. You're like, You're not even related. 22:16 It's not even clay. 22:17 Yeah, exactly. I'll tell you what, I had a big company and I had a financial services company. I sold it group at a New York fifth floor Rockefeller Center. I walked on a beach in Sarasota, Florida for a year and a half most depressed I've ever been in my life. I said, I've got to go back to work. So I came back. I had a home here in Lowell. And my youngest son Carson was a builder. And so let's let's do something I don't care what we do. Let's do something. So we had a lot of history with my great grandfather and my grandfather, running a distillery. So he said, Let's build a distillery, we went down to Vendome and walk through the door. And so we want to order a still and started looking for buildings here in town. And Carson was a builder. So we found this building, down on 10th Street did kind of lend itself to do what we wanted to do and or distills. And he started the building took us almost two years to the day to build the building or to convert the building to a distillery and 23:15 YG to that building, and that location. 23:18 Well, I just felt like that if I kept the building, and maybe when our bourbon came out in six to seven years part a little bit would be heading that direction. It was pretty pretty much gone news greatness, but there's not many places left and that into town. So I thought in 678 years, local would be heading that direction. So it was in a kind of a rough area and then it's starting to get better as we go along. And I'm going to get the park built in on river to be better yet, but I just thought it would it would work out and it had a loading dock he was about to write says we wanted so it's worked out. I think it's worked out very well for us. 24:00 Why not up? Sorry. 24:01 No, no, I was about to say I mean, do you see that as more of like, like levels having a Renaissance period because you had a choice you could have you could have gone to Bardstown you could have gone back to your hometown. 24:12 Why not be the ones bro because you know, those the dollars making a great name for themselves? Sure they are there? 24:18 Yeah. Well, Henderson, Henderson, my hometown. I mean, that's, you know, I feel like it's where everything started in Henderson. But I felt like that I like global I knew local was coming along with the bourbon Renaissance with bourbon ism and what was going on, and that was be even being talked about four or five years ago. So I felt like, you know, with brown form and being here and, you know, just a lot of things going on at downtown local, I just felt like that, I'd go ahead and take the chance. And in 567 years, it would kind of hit our direction. I'm not too far off. I mean, a lot of it has to do with luck, you know, you have to have a lot of luck doing it. But as luck would have it, I think that we're in the right place at the right time. And we made a decision that we're making our own product, I don't source anything at all. So I knew our Bourbons not even out it won't be out till June 22. So we're actually, you know, waiting a little bit over four years for it to come out. I'm holding off, I can bring it out today if I wanted to, but I'm bringing it out on my dad's birthday. That's the only generation we skipped. We skipped the third generation on the fourth, obviously Carson's a fifth. So an honor my father, I'm bringing it out on his birthday. Very cool. 25:41 So I mean, back to the global thing. I'm assuming that you are as I mean, you're going to pay a little bit more money up front to actually sit here and have your home base and being headquartered in Louisville, then then trying to go and you know, be in Owens borough or be in Bardstown or something like that, you know, did you look at this and saying, you know, this is the this is where the population is going to grow. This is where the tourism is going to expand more argument. We don't have to convince people to come like we're already just like, another.on, the map of the Louisville bourbon kind of experience, if you will. 26:11 Absolutely. I mean, with the convention center, right here, I mean, you know, you know, what's going on here with, you know, the farm machinery shows the big shows are here in local, the convention center. At that time, I didn't know it was going to be torn down and start all over. But that's okay. We got through though that two years, so did everybody else. But during that era, they were building like an unbelievable amount of hotels in this town. I think when I started, they were building like 10 hotels, and then it come with another couple years and there's 20 new hotels. So those people are going to do something they're going to go places and I wanted to be in local so people could come in and take a tour of our distillery and know the family the history because I really believe we have about as much history in the bourbon industry is any distillery in the whole state of Kentucky and it might be a might be saying a mouthful, but when you go back Red 27:09 Nose gonna have a sponsor that when you 27:11 said, 27:13 Right, right, no or any names. Well, okay, well, 27:16 Jim Beam is known as DSP number 230. We're number 50. So Oh, 27:23 I want you to I want you to also tell that story too. Because I know that you were you also thought to have your original DSP back as well 27:31 fought fought it in the word for I spent, I spent a year and a half. Getting that number back. I mean, we started from my great grandfather. I can't tell you how many attorneys in this town I went through and, and what we had to do to get that but I was bound and determined that we had DSP number 50. It took us a year and a half to get almost to the day, a year and a half to get that number. First time in history. The government's ever gone back to give a DSP number back a family. So we were able to get it and finally I called the fella when it when we got an asset. Okay, what would my number have been if I could just fill the paperwork out the way you want me to? 20,232? I said, 50 looks better up on 28:18 the building. It's hard to market out there like I have all this history. But we're DSP to 1000. Like, yeah, right. 28:25 Yeah. So the new numbers in the 20 2000s. Yeah, you know, and there's a number of them in this town that are 22,000. So, but no, I mean, when you mentioned Jim Beam there to 30 were 50. When you mentioned buffalo there 113. wild turkeys, 139. makers is for 44. I know them all. So number 50 is a big deal. It doesn't it's not such a big deal sometimes in the United States, and we do tour center. Okay, we're number 50. But you bring somebody in here from Japan, you bring them in from Scotland, from Ireland, and they see number 50. There are like, Oh, my gosh, you have got to have a lot of history with your family to have DSP number 50. 29:07 When you're going through that process at a point where you just like this is this is too much. Yes, we've we've dealt with TTP, we've dealt with the laws we've we've gone through and I don't even know, they know all the laws and all the restrictions. So at some point, did you ever think like, let's just give it up, it's going to be it's going to take way too long to get this 50 back? 29:26 You know, I did, but you have to keep in mind, we were going through the construction era, that time we were we started and it took exactly two years to go through it. So I started that process. Even before we started, when we first bought the building, and we had to get some thing we had to get permits, you know, it takes time to do. So I was I was working on 50 from day one. So yeah, I I just felt like that I'd finally get it. So and we are severe. Yeah, yeah. So we never really, you know, 30:03 I just thought I'd get 30:04 you're a financial guy. So like, when you're looking at a bird, you know, starting a distillery in in the investment it takes and the return on investment and like, like, were you like, this is this is like, what was your mindset going into this? Like, I know, you want to bring your family's history back and like that. But talk about pulling those triggers like even though your brains probably like this doesn't make much sense. Like 30:29 now I did. You know, when I first we weren't going to be and we're not we're not that big. Today, we're we're a small distillery. But when when Carson and I got into that we were thinking along the lines of a smaller about half the size we are, but then I guess my financial background kicked in, and I started figuring, you know, I've got to do X amount to make this many barrels to make this many bottles to be in so many states, this is what we need to be. And then we wanted to make it where we had complete control of what we were doing. So my mindset was, we've got to make it a certain size, we have to make it this way. And I think we had it down to a pretty good sense. People asked me Well, were you aware of the construction costs? Well, Carson having a financial background or a business background on on building, I pretty much knew what it was going to cost us to build. And you know, putting barrels away, you know, where we waited, and we waited for a rye whiskey to come out and a little over two years. And now we're waiting over four years for our bourbon. So people don't do that, you know, they go and they source it, they put it in a bottle. This is my product, you know, same old game everybody plays, but I just couldn't do it. I just, I had to, I had to do what I wanted to do and keep it and make it keep it and hold it and put it out when it's ready to go. 31:56 Why was that so important to me. 31:59 Because I'm building a distillery to stay. I'm not I'm not building this distillery to sell. We're building it. As a family. We're building it for people who work with us. And we call them family. So you know, I'm the fourth generation Carson's a fifth, he's got boys, it'll be the six. I don't do that anymore. You all know all the distilleries in the state of Kentucky, you know, so there's only one or two owned by the family. Everybody else is owned by this one. That one, we can go all over the world and talk about that. But I think in order to have respect from the big distilleries, a big what I call the big seven and to be have the respect from other distilleries around the United States, I had to do it my way. And that's make my own product. When it's ready. It's ready. And as luck would have it, that's kind of what's happening to us. 32:54 So So talk about how to say you say what you want to do it your way and your own product. How did you define that or come up with like, this is my set of these are my standards these are? This is my ethos. And don't give us some like, Oh, we source all our corn from you know, 50 miles away 33:10 else's story. You know, I think there's there's gotta be a what 33:13 is what makes when you look at a bottle of peerless What do what, what do you tell people to see in that bottle like What's in it? Well, not just whiskey. 33:24 Whiskey, we, we understand, everybody makes it the same run through the same stills I put it in a barrel, they still at 160, they put it in a barrel at 125 they watered down they put it in a bottle at 92 proof that wouldn't we we wanted to have complete control over everything that we did. And in order to do that, we had to have the right computer systems, which we did our it all our own software, we had to have a right drain opera, we had to find out what would make it the best product, it was a 1964 change from from going into barrel at 110. Proof 225 proof. So they did that for cost. But going into barrel, and 110 proof actually makes a better product. So I put it in a barrel at 107 proof because it might creep up a little bit. And then I take it straight from the barrel right to the bottle, we don't add one drop of water to it. When you take it from the barrel once its age to the bottle. So the bottles that you see right here are probably 100 and 808. Point 108.2. We wanted to give it the best flavor profiles we could possibly give it. The other. The other main reason why I think that we're making as good a product as we are is we're sweet mash. everybody's familiar with sour mash, you hold the mash back, you pull it forward, you know, that didn't away we're a military family. I want it I want this place clean up. The joke is I want a battleship clean. I want that place spotless when we when we make a product, we steam clean, we clean everything, you won't see a hose on the ground, you won't see a pressure gauge spewing, you won't see any of that everything we have is control we could cook Exactly. It was a certain temperature we ferment exactly at a certain temperature, everything is controlled. And I think that's reason why we've received accolades that we have, since we started and we're going to continue, we're not going to be cocky enough to think that we're doing it exactly right. We're doing it better every day, everything we do, we're going to we're going to get better equipment better systems to make sure that we're on top. 35:44 What kind of those better systems are you investing in? Today? Well, 35:47 we're we're, we have a continuous still. But there's you know, there's just so many ways to make that still run better run hotter, run faster. So basically pumps and gauges and things like that, that we have just exactly. complete control over so you know, we're we don't make a lot of product, we only make 1012 barrels a day, that's probably all we'll ever going to make. I don't have any aspirations of building a distillery that's going to be line up to Jim Beam or Maker's Mark and making 1000 barrels a day we're going to make, you know, we might make 1215 1618 barrels a day someday, but not today. So we just want to have control. If you can have control if you're the size distillery we are today, when you get way up there. You just you're just making product. Yeah, and don't miss it. And all bourbon coming out of Kentucky is a good product. We just want to have the best. 36:52 Do you think, you know, the decision to you know, like you said stay small, like really focused on quality? Do you think you would have made it that same decision younger in your life if you were like, start the distillery like younger and like oh, we gotta you know, make this as big as big as best, big, fast and best as possible and turn over like, like whereas this is more like a passion project. I'm sure it's giving you returns but it seems like more like you know, this is really 37:18 you know if how to stay down in Henderson. We're all my buddies are and where the some of the big buildings are. And maybe I would had aspirations of building a bigger distillery and coming out of my great grandfather's buildings or done something. But, you know, coming into Louisville, Kentucky and wanting to do it in in the city where I could I could benefit from from people taking tours and visiting us. I think and then in the timing on bourbon bourbon, it's only been hot for the last probably 810 years. I mean, you go back 20 years. I mean, everything was vodka. You know, Jen was way before that. So vodka was so hot, how the flavored vodkas, bourbon really hasn't been that strong for the last I'd say 10 years. 38:09 Now, no one cared about it. 38:12 Now they know that they care about Yeah, but they make great stuff in Bardstown. Yeah, 38:17 so I think that you know, I talked to the all the big guys and they say that the bourbon industry will be good for the next 14 to 20 years. So that's good to hear because every business has a cycle. My father was in the head of Ford dealership and every five years you know is going to go down is going to come back. So at least bourbon industry I think will be good for the next 1520 38:40 Why do they think that? 38:45 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 tour and an artisan market. Kentucky's edge 2019 is where bourbon begins. Tickets and information can be found online at Kentucky'sedge.com. 39:10 If you're making plans to visit the bourbon trail, the one thing you're thinking about is how do I get around to all these distilleries? 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Use code pursuit for $25 off your first box. 40:39 So at least bourbon industry I think will be good for the next 1520 Why 40:43 do they think that? 40:45 Well, I think it's a lot of reasons i think i think they feel like that it is because it's getting to be a war worldwide drink. I mean, the Japanese love it. They even they even in the UK, they like it Australia likes it can it is drinking our product. So but the main reason is, I think women like the flavor of bourbon. They they like it. They're getting away from vodka. And I think and then I think you've got a mixologist and all the big cities are getting back to mixing the drinks. The Manhattans, you know are made with. They were made originally with rye whiskey. Now they're coming back and making with Rasul that helps us in the big cities of New York, Chicago, San Francisco, LA. So I think there's a lot of reasons but I'd say number one would be that women like bourbon, they liked it, they liked the flavor of it. And it'll hopefully it'll be a good thing. It's number one drink in the world today. 41:44 Let's keep it number one. 41:45 Yeah, it will if it's, you know, obviously we do we do our part. 41:50 Yeah, keep writing keep keep keep keep it going. Great. So the other kind of question I want to kind of talk about is is the bottling and as well as the price point, right? Because this is something that most consumers out there if they've never heard of it, they might see it on the shelf and they're gonna be like well what's that's really up there for for two three year old products are kind of talk about the cost of the bottle that goes into it because I know that you put a concern amount of effort that goes into the shape the topper and everything like that, and how that kind of falls into the ending retail price as well. 42:21 Yeah, so probably the craziest thing I've ever done, but I'll explain. We're here for what we what we, Carson and Chris Edwards and are they designed the bottle we wanted to have what we thought was one of the best bottles made in the United States and again, I wanted this bottle to be made in the United States we found a company down in right outside of Atlanta, they only make perfume bottles, they make our bottle when you pick it upside down and says Made in USA. So we wanted to have the right bottle the cap actually cost more than the bottle. So it's we wanted to have the heaviest cap, the heaviest bottle. One it has a design on it. And then the label we actually won. On December 5 repeal day in New York City, they have a contest who has the best bottle who has the best label and who has the best cap in the United States. And last year we won all three It's never happened before. So we feel like we have the right and then to put the pot product in or to put a two year old product in there. And and and retail it out for 119 or hundred and $20 was a push. But we don't make much product. We felt like it was a good product. Evidently whiskey advocate thought it was a pretty good product too, because we're ranked the 15th best whiskey in the world with a two year old product, but the number one rye whiskey in the world. On April the 18th of 18 we're ranked the number one rye whiskey in the world jack daniels Rakim and second whistle pig came in third. So it was a big gamble on our part. We have won the accolades, accolades January the 30th check and I went to New York City and whisky magazine gave us the award for the number one craft distillery in the United States out of 900 Caleb Kilburn our distiller master distiller just got back from London March he went to our March 28 we got that we want to have the number one craft distillery in the world so we must be doing something right we are getting but now we do have different price points so a lot of our rye will be more in the $89 our bourbon will come out about 1600 dollar it's still a high end but we don't make much 44:38 well oddly enough I don't know if people know that that rye whiskey actually is more expensive to to mash and to create than it is to actually make a bourbon whiskey. So 44:47 kind of talk about comes up the tanks Glen all that fun. Yeah, 44:50 it does anyway in rotten rice, you know, it's 1313 $14 a bushel and corns $3 and 68 cents so, you know, it just costs a lot more money to make Yeah, 45:02 but why is it that that rice seems to age a lot quicker and have a better approachable taste to it at a younger age and say a bourbon does what really think it counts for that. 45:13 You know, I that's probably a question more for Caleb than it is for me. I don't know why it why it ages that much faster, but it's twice as fast. I mean, so to have our now we're going to have we have a three year old out. We're going to have a four year old out probably in the next three or four months. So on a go forward basis. We won't be a two year old raw. All of our Robbie for four to seven years old and then we'll come out with a Henry Craver eight year old so it'll be hitting on a four year old here probably in the next three or four months. So we'll be strictly over for four to five year old right. 45:53 What's this Henry Craver thing you just brought up that that kind of piqued my interest that you're talking about that? 45:57 Well, we're going to honor my great grandfather we're holding about 20% of what we make for Henry Craver bourbon. So we'll have a deer will always have the peerless product out. But we're going to have a Henry Craver eight year old product and probably an eight year old rye whiskey as well hold a little bit for him for an eight year old. So we're it's more an honor my great grandma. It's all about our family, our heritage, what we're trying to accomplish here as a family. But I think our eight year old bourbon should do well for us. 46:36 Yeah, that was always one of the things that I remember. I remember when this when the two year old ry first came out and yeah, it came out with $100 price tag and I know people were talking to like, oh man, like how can they do $100 on a two year rye whiskey? And I think one of the big things that was the question that was came up was well, when the rise three years and that's four years and as five years so on and so on, like, is the price going to keep going up? Is he gonna go down as gonna say the same? Like what's what's your the long term game there? 47:04 Well, I'll tell you what the short term game was for a long time. Okay, let's go the short term, the short term, if I had to ask $39 and 95 cents a bottle, I would have just been everybody else. I'd have been Jim Beam Maker's Mark, you know what we'd have just been? We've gotten lost in the shuffle. So in order to get everybody's attention, which I think we did, we were getting $129, which everybody went Holy cow, I've got to try that. Yeah, I got I mean, $129 for two year old bottle. Let's try it. And it just so happened to taste good. So was it a gamble? You damn right? It was God. But, you know, as it turns out, the way there's come down the pike, we do realize we've got to get to a four year old, then you don't have put an age statement on the bottle once it's four years old. So it'll be five, six years old. And I think it'll get it'll get better every year, our three year old is better than the two year old. But it's, it's hard to say. I mean, if you're number one in the world at a two year old, what the hell? 48:09 Where do you go from there? 48:10 Where do you know where do you you know, 48:12 what, how much close up shop. Let's start off. 48:16 But now we know. We want to make things better all the time. We want to do a better job. We want to be proud of the product we put out. Can we want to be more cost effective? It was it was a big deal to come out over $100 with a two year old but it got people's attention. We would have never, ever gotten the accolades we got if we hadn't asked $129. Right. 48:39 Who was who was the biggest like, advocate and then like the person that was against it, like with inside of the family or inside of the company that was like this, the price point we're going with, and then somebody was like, I don't know about that. Or you just kind of like headstrong with it saying we got to do this. 48:55 You know, I don't I think everybody pretty much agreed. I mean it. We don't make much product, where I'll make it real simple. We go where the money is. The money's in New York City. The money's in Chicago, the money's in San Francisco, la Houston, Dallas, Atlanta, Miami. So, London. So if you only make 1012 barrels of bourbon a day, 49:23 you don't need to Henderson 49:24 you don't think 49:26 we got it in Henderson but only bet three places exact, you know, you don't we're not going to go down to Bardstown and put it in the bar down in Bardstown. You know, 49:34 they'll bitch like, they can't even pay for a $40 bottle. Yeah. 49:38 So So I mean, you know, if you if you if you have the history that we have, and we go to the places where the money is it and they like it, they have to like it, then we're taking a gamble, but not going with its it's going to work? 49:57 No, absolutely. And I think it seemed to work. So the doors are open, the money's still coming in, you get product and would you say 48 for how many states have 45 states the five states across the country. 50:08 And so that was kind of like the one of the big reasons we kind of want to talk to us because yeah, you're starting to get this this national presence around you. And I kind of want to also talk about like so what are the difference in the two bottles we have in front of us today? You have the two years small batch and we have a three year single barrels that would exactly and it's it's a three year single barrel and we we've, I don't course all the distilleries have a reputation of selling single barrels but for the size that we are I think it's kind of hit pretty good for us to where we are selling quite a few single barrels. I mean, last year we I think we sold over 50 which was big for us and this year we anticipating selling well over 100 and for a small distillery that's that's a good thing and that's how it helps marketing when you're 50:54 it's almost like it's almost like a month worth of inventory at this point. Yeah. 50:59 Yeah, you know, so you get in some of the big bars and you get in some of the big liquor stores in the country and they've got 30 cases your product in the center out you know, they see it and so it's kind of help us with that as well. 51:13 What's the Nashville on this this route these rye whiskey? 51:16 we don't we don't I can't tell you. 51:19 That's that's so good. 51:21 So everybody Asad now, you know it just we just we don't want to do that. Because everybody else to school disclose their we're not going to disclose our How do you like it? 51:32 I love it. 51:34 It's it's great for two years, or 32 or three? That's the two years. 51:39 That was about three. Okay, cool. This is 51:43 nice weather. 51:44 No, I mean, both great. I mean, to me taste. It tastes like a Kentucky right, like more of a lower. Rob. Like a closer to 51%. Rob, but I'm not going to prod you to give us that. 52:00 Drink the rest of it. I'll get you some of this three. 52:02 No, but I will say you know a little bit about what you said about the mash bill. No matter where we go in the country. They basically call it a bourbon drinkers rye whiskey. Yeah. So we do have enough corn in there to gives it a little bit sweeter, sweeter taste, and I don't think you quite get that burn that you would within different raw. And then we have the three different profiles. We only blend six barrels. 52:29 Three. What's 52:31 your definition 52:33 six barrel? Yeah. So we take try to take three different flavor profiles, fruits and florals, Carmine vanilla. And in the obviously the oak and pepper is the original rice with we blend those and we do it, you know, we pick our barrel. So if we can continue doing that, it's not ready, it's not ready, we put it back for another three months, six months or whatever. So we want to make sure that the barrels we put out again being small, we can do that. Obviously, we're not going to blend 500 like the big ones stood. And the other thing it's really important to to try to stay. What we feel like will be a quality product is all of our Rick houses are just going to be one floor five. So the temperature from the top to the bottom is that four degrees, you go in these big warehouses could be 40 degrees temperature from the top floor to the bottom floor. So we like the idea one floor, more control better product. So the things that we do on a continuous basis, we hope will be a better product for us. 53:45 Where did you so when you're developing, you know, Corky thing your own way whose whose recipes? Are these are like was it just trial and error? Like we're waiting on someone else to like figure it out? Or? 53:58 You got it? trial and error? Yeah, we you know, a year 54:04 trial. That's the fun part. Right. 54:06 Yeah, you know, sorry, we knew, you know, kind of what we wanted to do with flavor profiles. We had a pretty good idea what some other products close to what, you know what their mash bill. So we just came up with a magic pill that had enough corn in it that people would still think it's a good quality bourbon. And a lot of people that drink this still think it's bourbon. 54:29 It I mean, it could I mean, you can taste the right of it. It's very close. Like you said, it's a bourbon drinker bourbon, it's like you're not a barbarian bourbon bourbon drinkers. Right? We'll get there. Yeah. So talk about like, what, what are some of your favorite products that kind of like, made you determine that this is what I like, you know, some similar similar products out there that were like, this is kind of a whistle, whistle pig. 54:55 And when when we, when we looked at it, we knew who who our competition was going to be. And it seems like since we came out, whistle pig, no matter where he goes, God is going to be our competition. So, you know, but but there there's is 810 1214 years, right? So and, you know, so we we had pretty good idea that that's, that's our competition, but we wanted to make it our flavor, flavor profiles. So we couldn't sit around and wait 14 years. So we had to figure out what what we could do. And Caleb Kilburn is a is our master distiller he's been with us since day one, and he does a great job for us. But we got Chris and Tommy and Aaron Carson. So we're, we're kind of all on it trying to figure out, you know, what we can do to make it better. And obviously, going from the two year to three years better than when it come out with a four year it's going to be better and five year and then kind of hold it about two. I don't think Brad needs to be with some pig does a great job. They've got a great product, but we're not going to be up at 1214 years. Yeah, we're just not 56:10 well, who knows? That 20% you're holding back save another 2%? And then you know, you'll you'll find out later on. 56:16 I am afraid here. Yeah. 56:18 Yeah, that's me tough sell, sell, sell, 56:21 sell the other about the the flavoring aspect or not flavoring. But you know, how you how you embody and invoke the flavor of the whiskey is all done a lot through the barrel itself? It is and are who are you teaming up with to get your barrels? Or is this another? I'm not going to tell you? 56:37 No, no, no, you know, we we strictly do business with Calvin Cooper each. We like the quality of their barrels that they make. Personally, we like them. They're there, they become good friends of ours. They, you know, when we got in this business barrels were hard to come by there was a barrel shortage. So we went to some of the big barrel places and they'd say, Well, you know, we can help you with four or 500 barrels, we can give you 1200 a week, you know, we can do this or, you know, and we went to Kelvin and, and talk to them. And they said, we'll take care of you. And I'll be with Calvin Cooper each. As long as there have to always be with them. I'm not gonna I won't, I won't leave. I won't 57:20 leave. It's amazing how rich these barrels are. I mean, for three year old property, it's crazy. I mean, talk about how did you get hooked up with Caleb and why did you choose him to be your master distiller? 57:34 Well, there's, there's flavor man, the epicenter has a school, that that only lasts about six days, but it helps you gives you an idea how to become a distiller or to build a distillery. Caleb went through the school, my son Carson went through the first class. Caleb was in a second said, Mike. So we've had a number of them go through the school. And then they said, somebody said, you got to take a look at this young man, he's still a junior in college. So he came over and talk to me said, you know, I'd like to, you know, work with you. And this is even before we laid out to the story, and I said, Sure, you know, once you start shoveling gravel over there, and oh, by the way, I got a bunch of nails in his would pull nails. And he did that for the first summary was their second summer. I think he he shoveled gravel, and helped us pour concrete so and then he was able to lay out the distillery the way he wanted it laid out the kid, I say he's a kid. He's not a kid. But he's, he's literally a genius. I think he's he's very, very smart. He understands the mechanical. He understands the whole system all the way around. He's gone into big distilleries. He's followed him around, he went to the school. He's sharp, and he does a great job for us. He's helped work with Tommy and, and Nick, Chloe, and help them along. So we we have three people that can really do what we want to enter. But Caleb is the he's the lead lead pony there. So 59:07 is he like another son to you? 59:08 party? Emily, he really is. Yeah, no, he is. And you know, and I feel like a lot of men are there. You know, we're basically a big family. We don't we only have about 20 employees. Maybe we got a few part time that are you know, working in the retail part of it. But you know, we're most will have is 22 employees in there. So we're always going to be that's us distillery. 59:30 So before we kind of wrap things up, I know that I kind of want to touch back on the the history of you and your military background, because I know there was you have a title to General Patton as well. 59:42 Is that correct? My my father was General patents chief aide. So if you saw the movie Pat and the man at work was right with General Patton in real life was my father. I've got general patents gun and he carried all through the war. You saw the movie Pat, and he said pearls were for women and average for men have got to go the average handle 45 that was his shoulder harness. So my father owned it for 30 years. He passed away young and have a heart attack. I've owned this gun for 43 years. My sons alone and my grandsons, they'll own it. So the gun that General Patton carried all through the war will never leave the Taylor family. 1:00:19 And then and then so you also have like I mentioned that that military tie. When military officers or personnel come through the distillery I think you've had a few of those kind of moments as well with with some of those individuals, have you not? 1:00:33 Oh, yeah, they do. Because if you go down to the patent Museum, down in Fort Knox, there's, there's a picture about a 10 foot tall picture general Pat, and that's my father standing right next time. So all the army generals, McCaffrey just just retired two star General, he wanted to have his retirement dinner darkness story. He brought eight of the top army generals and United States Army we're in our distillery that night. So he wants us to bring the gun in so people can see the generals in the army. And the Colonel's. If there's a general or a colonel down at Fort Knox, or somebody visiting from Leavenworth or from other places, they come see me and they want to know the history about my father. And which is, which is a pretty interesting history. I mean, the story that everybody likes to hear is when I when my father sent me to military school down in castle heights, and my two roommates were the Allman Brothers. So Greg, and my roommate started that in military school. And it was a wild damn time. I'll tell you that. So we every time I've listened all in, but brother, yes. Wild. So we, we, and that's to back up just a little bit. You mentioned Freddie now. Yeah, well, Freddie. Freddie and I spoke at the convention center one time and Freddie's father Booker sent him to Castle heights. kind of straighten your career and dad, my dad said me to Castle, I straighten my rear. I work for Fred. It didn't work for me. So, so Freddie for all these years, he said, you know, the Allman Brothers went to Castle heights. So I'm 70 years old. Freddie's probably 62. So he'd been telling these people that the Allman Brothers went to Castle i. So we're speaking here to Convention Center. So Friday, you didn't know this, but I went to Castle IT can imagine what he said. Yes. No muffler. Yeah. So as I said, And oh, by the way, the Allman Brothers were my roommates. Well, he busted a good on that when he said my goddess, but Freddie, you never saw the Allman Brothers. I'm 70 year like 62 they weren't a said no, they weren't here about God. But I knew they were there. I said, I know they were to they were my roommate. So we laughed about that. And so when he does see me, so I know you're the only brothers roommate. 1:02:53 That's pretty awesome. They didn't initially I try to get you to pick up another guitar. You start playing with them or anything. 1:02:59 You know, that was that was when they were 1415 years old. They were they were Yeah, they had a guitar in the room. But they never know. I mean, they might on Sunday afternoon they play the guitar you'd sing but I mean, I didn't know what the hell's going on. You know, they weren't writing Jessica 1:03:13 they know they know they weren't they weren't a ramble man. 1:03:17 We we got a little trouble we we found out the first day we were there The girls were to Dairy Queen on Sunday night so we come busting out of there for the Dairy Queen Sunday night come back at one captain's always standing there raising like we care we want to get kicked out Yeah, exactly. 1:0

The guys open the show with a discussion of the Netflix original Unicorn Store. Jeff reviews Bad to the Bone by Nicki Bennett. Will reviews LaQuette’s Under His Protection. Jeff & Will interview LaQuette about Under His Protection. They find out about the story’s inspiration and how it ties into LaQuette’s other series. LaQuette also shares details on her upcoming Harlem Heat series, what got her started writing romance and details about what she does as the president for New York City’s Romance Writers of America chapter. Complete shownotes for episode 184 are at BigGayFictionPodcast.com. Book Reviews from this week: Bad to the Bone by Nicki Bennett. Reviewed by Jeff Bad to the Bone turned out to be one of those perfect Dreamspun Desires for me. I’m a sucker for second chance romance combined with friends to lovers and this one adds in a bit from the redeemed bad boy trope as well. It all combined to give me exactly the read that I needed. The story kicks off on the eve of a high school reunion taking place in a small Oklahoma town. Alex Morrison has been back in town for several years, taking over his family’s hardware store when his parents needed him to. One afternoon, while working with his sister at the store, they witness a motorcyclist pulled over and it’s soon revealed that the man is Alex’s high school bestie, Ricky Lee Jennings. Alex hasn’t heard from Ricky Lee since he was expelled and sent away to reform school. Alex regretted he didn’t defend Ricky Lee and prevent the expulsion, but he was scared he’d lose his football scholarship if he did. Sparks fly at the reunion when Ricky Lee shows up without a ticket and Alex gets him in as his guest. What unfolds over the coming weeks is the rekindling of far more than a friendship. Nicki does so much with this rather simple set up. Both characters complexity made me love this book so much. Alex is someone I wanted to wrap up in a comforting hug. He does so much for the community that he lives in between serving on the library board, working for Habitat for Humanity, helping out with the high school reunion committee, and anything else he can do to help his fellow citizens. Yet, all he can see in himself is failure from a lost college football career because of an injury, a failed marriage, and even coming back to manage his family business is something he considers a fail because he gave up his dreams of being an environmental lobbyist. Of course, what he’s done is made the decisions that are right in the moment but he can’t see that. Ricky Lee, on the other hand, subverts every stereotype the town has for him. It’s awesome to watch as people who believe they know exactly who he is after ten years begin to see who he has become. He’s far from the young man who was abused by his alcoholic father and just wanted to survive high school. As both relive their high school times and share what they are doing now, Ricky Lee and Alex are drawn back together. Alex, however, is sure this can’t be more than a fling. He’s scared of revealing himself as bisexual to the town and there’s no way Ricky Lee will move back to Oklahoma since he’s got a life in Portland. The wooing that Ricky Lee does with Alex is outstanding. I love a good date and their weekend trip to Oklahoma City is all that. They stay at a boutique hotel, go to art museums and the botanical gardens and eat delicious food. The sizzling sex made the date all the hotter. It showed Alex in vivid detail what life could be like in if he decides to make a go of it with Ricky Lee. The other depth that Nikki weaves into this book is the town Alex lives in. In particular, I liked the local pastor, who is nothing like what you might expect a southern pastor to be. He turns out to be one of Alex’s biggest supporters in being true to himself. We also see Alex’s work with the library, which is a central subplot for the story since Alex and Ricky Lee’s high school nemesis, Odell, who wants to expand his car dealership by buying the land the library sits on. The goings-on with Odell took some wonderful turns that I couldn’t have predicted and I might’ve cheered just a little when everything was revealed and [spoiler alert] Odell gets his. It’s a great ending for a high school bully. There’s a tremendous cast of supporting characters too. Alex’s sister Alana and his best friend, local police officer Samantha, a.k.a. Sam, both nudge Alex in the right direction. Ricky Lee comes to town with Crae, who he introduces as his friend and assistant although many initially think they are in a relationship. I actually wish Crae had had more screen time in the book as they were a fascinating character. Crae and Sam develop a friendship that might be more and I’d love to see a book that explores that. There are also some townsfolk who have interesting reveals to Alex along the way that were incredibly sweet. And if audio is your thing, certainly pick this one up. Colin Darcy is a new-to-me-narrator and boy did he make me swoon with his voice for Ricky Lee–deep, rumbly sexiness. If you’re looking for a great category romance with some very tropey goodness, I highly recommend Nicki Bennett’s Bad to the Bone. Under His Protection by LaQuette. Reviewed by Will. This book literally starts with a bang when one of our main characters, assistant DA Camden, is nearly blown up by a car bomb. In order to keep him safe, he’s put in protective police custody. Unfortunately, the man watching over him is the memorable one night stand he walked away from five years ago, a guy named Elisha. Sequestered away in Elisha’s Westchester house, our two heroes must come to grips with the attraction that still, after all this time, is still there. As things start to become more romantic, the situation becomes even more complicated when Elisha’s family shows up for a weekend visit. They assume that the two of them are a couple and Cam and Elijah play along since it’s too dangerous to explain why Cam is hiding out at Elijah’s house. Over the course of the weekend Cam can’t help but fall for Elisha and his wonderfully crazy family. You might think things get a little too close for comfort with are two heroes and the family all in one house. Elisha actually has a very small apartment in his attached garage. They escape there every once in a while, for some truly superduper scorching sex. The chemistry between these characters is very real and very palatable. As the weekend winds down, there’s an unfortunate kidnapping attempt by this crazy religious group and Cam sacrifices himself in order to save Elisha’s mom. Camden ends up in hospital and, unfortunately, his father arrives on the scene. Camden’s life has essentially been controlled by his father, who’s had his son’s life planned out from my birth to death. It’s essentially how Cam has lived his entire life. The expectations of his father are actually part of the reason why he walked away from Elisha five years ago. Having a sexy one night fling and living a life with an average guy like Elisha just wasn’t in the plan. After experiencing the possibility of loving a man like Elisha and realizing the wonderful possibilities of a fun and fulfilling family life, he tries to stand up to his father. Cam’s father puts a stop to everything, setting up some genuinely insurmountable roadblocks to our hero’s happiness. But Cam and Elisha are not only charismatic and sexy, but also really super smart. With the help of Elisha’s police chief friend, Cam concocts a way to outwit his father and get out from under his thumb, so he Elisha can live happily ever after. I don’t know if I can adequately find the correct words, or enough adjectives to tell you how much I loved Cam and Elisha’s story. It’s just really damn good. One of my favorites of 2019 so far!   I hope it’s obvious that I really enjoyed Under His Protection by LaQuette and I highly recommend that everyone give it a read. Interview Transcript - LaQuetteWill: We are so pleased to welcome LaQuette to the show. Welcome. LaQuette: Thank you. Will: So I just spent several minutes praising and telling the entire world how much I loved "Under His Protection." Now, you've been writing for a while now, and I freely admit this is the very first book of yours that I have read, and I went absolutely bonkers for it. I love it to pieces. LaQuette: Oh, thank you. Will: Can you give us sort of an idea of where the concept for "Under His Protection" came from? LaQuette: Well, I was encouraged by Kate McMurray to submit a "Dreamspun Desires" concept. And I kind of read the submission guideline, and I really didn't think that the category section was for me, because I'm long-winded in my writing and there's this, you know, 50,000-word count, and I didn't know that I could meet that and make the story make sense. But I just felt like, you know, there's a lot of angst in my writing and a lot of heavy topics sometimes. And I didn't... You know, category can be light and, you know, it doesn't have so much angst to it, so I wasn't sure if it was actually the right fit for me. But she encouraged me to do it anyway. So I thought, "Well, if I'm gonna do it, it has to be, like, LaQuette style. It can't be, you know, the traditional map of a category. I've gotta throw, you know, everything but the kitchen sink in it." And I had this sort of, like, this Prince and Pauper sort of situation in my head, but in Brooklyn. And it worked out really well in my head anyway. I really enjoy the idea of Camden coming from this really, really posh existence, and then clashing with Elijah and his very loud and boisterous family. And, I think, putting those two people together and those two, you know, with their backgrounds and differences in their backgrounds and the differences in their, you know, perspectives in life, it really...it just made for a richer experience for me, as a writer. Will: I utterly fell in love with Camden and Elijah. I think they're two incredibly...they are exceptional heroes, and they're part of what makes this book really sing. But as I mentioned in my review just a few minutes ago, part of what, I think, what makes the story compelling and even more enjoyable is the sort of supporting cast that helps them along in their journey towards saying, "I love you." Elijah's family is amazing, every single one of them. But I was particularly struck by one of Elijah's co-workers, the police chief, who is his best friend, along with, you know, being a colleague. And what I was struck by is that at the beginning of the book, the character seemed, you know, pretty, you know, straightforward, it was a secondary character, and she was there to kind of like, you know, get the story moving along. But as we read further and get to know Camden and Elijah more and more, she becomes a much more integral part of the story. And in fact, she's pretty vital to the solution that Cam comes up towards the end. And I was really surprised to read in an interviewer just, I think, this last week it appeared online. I learned that one of the reasons that this secondary character is so well-drawn is because she's actually already had her own book. LaQuette: She's had three books, actually. Will: Can you tell us real quickly, for our listeners, can you tell us about the origin of this particular character and why you thought she would be such a good fit for Camden and Elijah's story? LaQuette: Captain Heart Searlington is a character from my "Queens of Kings" series, which is all heroine-centered. And she is this...you know, her name is Heart for a reason, because she has a huge heart, even though she really carries it under this gruff exterior. She's a badass, she's all about getting work done. And if you ever get the chance to read her books, you know, she's really out there hands-on in the street. And I felt like Elijah would need someone like that, professionally and personally, to kind of...to get him to the place where he could admit his flaws. Someone that's not... You know, he's a very...he's a large man, he's aggressive, you know, he carries a gun, so he could be a little bit intimidating for the average person. But for her, she's not afraid to tell him like it is to his face. And, you know, when you have that kind of a personality where people might not tell your truth because they find you imposing, having someone who will speak the truth to you, regardless of whatever the situation is, can be vital to you, you know, making the right choices in life. And I felt like having her there would give him that balance, because he needed some really cold truths told to him, for him to get his head together and do what he needed to do. Jeff: Was it always your intention to have the character crossover or did that just kind of manifest itself? LaQuette: Well, the precinct that they work at is sort of anytime I have a police situation, those cops show up in a book somewhere. So one, because, you know, the world is already created, so it's kind of easy for me to draw from that precinct, but it's also because my readers absolutely adore this woman. And so they're always asking for her, and this was an opportunity for her to show up and say, "Hi." And not in a way that overshadows, you know, the main story, which is Camden and Elijah, but just enough to make readers go, "Oh, my God. She's here." Jeff: It's always good to get those universe crossovers and little Easter eggs like that, for sure. LaQuette: It's true. It's very true. Will: Yeah. Now, "Under His Protection" is not your first M/M romance. LaQuette: No, it is not. Will: There's also "Love's Changes," which I believe came out in 2016? LaQuette: Yes. Will: And I wanted to ask you, what drew you to writing in this specific subgenre? I mean, along with all of your other books that are more traditional male/female romances? LaQuette: Well, one, I wholeheartedly believe that everyone deserves a happy ending. And when I wrote the "Queens of King" series, I always knew that Heart's cousin, because the characters, the protagonists in "Love's Changes" are Bryan, who is one of Heart's lieutenants, you met him, actually, in "Under His Protection," and her cousin, Justice. And so they get to have their own story. You get to see them a little bit in the "Queens of King" series, but they're more background. We know that they were having a hard time and they were broken up for some reason, but we don't know why. So they get, you know, readers... Which really surprised me because I didn't really believe that there was a lot of crossover between male-female readers and male-male readers. But people really asked me for a story for those two. Like, "When are we gonna get Justice and Bryan's story? We wanna know what happens to them and how they get back together." And so I that story was actually born out of the fact that readers requested it, and so I gave it to them. Jeff: That's very cool. You know, it's always nice to see as the M/F readers catch the male-male pairing to then want to know more. LaQuette: Yes, it was really a trip for me. I did not believe that they would want it at all. But it was very touching to write their story. I was very happy with how the story turned out. I was very happy with the fact that they get their happily ever after. And it's not...it's connected to the "Queens of Kings" series, but it's not really part of it. So the story kind of takes place outside of everything that's going on in that particular story. Jeff: Do you envision more, I guess, "Dreamspun Desires" books that happened in the universe you've created with everything that's going on so far? LaQuette: I really didn't, but I've been getting a lot of mail recently about this book. And, you know, people wanting to know what happens after this. They wanna see how Camden's family kind of blends with Elijah's family and how that's going to work. I'm like, "Dude, I'm not there. Like, I have so many other projects. I can't right now. But we'll come back to that maybe." Jeff: Just based on your review, I don't see how those families mesh. Will: Two different worlds. Most definitely, yeah. LaQuette: They really are. Jeff: Now, one of the things that I'm super excited about, having recently read about, is your new contract with Dreamspinner for "Harlem Heat." LaQuette: Yes, "Harlem Heat," so when stuff makes me mad, it also makes me really productive. So I was really kind of getting tired of hearing the "not historically accurate moniker" criticism given to African-American romance, especially historical African-American romance. And it just bothered me because it's not that those happily-ever-afters weren't possible. It's just people aren't really aware of the completed history. So a lot of thing...you know, a lot of people who think they know about African-American history, the only thing they know is slavery and Jim Crow, and that's it. And, you know, black people have been downtrodden since we were brought to this country. But that's not exactly the truth because even in all of the horror, there were still moments of triumph. And we didn't just, you know, survive, we thrived. We're still here, the proof that we're still here, you know, the proof that we had happiness at some point is that we're still here. So I decided I wanted to write about a time that was where to be black and to be gay wasn't something that you had to hide from the world. It wasn't something you had to...you had your own pocket of community. There was a celebration of it. And I wanted to speak to that. I wanted people to know that these two intersections of life existed with happy endings. Jeff: And this series, in particular, is gonna go to such an interesting time period in the U.S. when all of the Harlem Renaissance was happening. LaQuette: Yeah, so it's based on three actual people who lived during the Harlem Renaissance. So it's based on Bumpy Johnson, who was the godfather of Harlem for 30 years. It's based on Langston Hughes, who was a great contributor to the Harlem Renaissance as a poet and writer. And it's also based on Cab Calloway, who was sort of one of the most notable faces in jazz and jazz music and jazz performance at the Cotton Club. So we're gonna see... we won't be using their names, but those characters will be based off of those actual people. Will: Yeah, because it was...I think it was like mere moments after I finished reading "Under His Protection." I read about this Harlem Renaissance series that you were doing, and I like lost my mind. I was like, totally doing a happy dance. This is going to be so amazing. I know this is still far in the future. But when do you think we can expect this series? LaQuette: I don't know. And that's the God's honest truth. I'm actually currently writing, finishing up the series for Sourcebooks. And so "Harlem Heat" doesn't...I don't think I'm projected to start it until like the end of the year. So I don't know exactly when it's going to be ready. But I mean, you know, ready for the world anyway. But I think I can talk to someone about getting you a beta read...a copy for beta reading if you'd like. Jeff: Please do. Yes. Will: That would be amazing. Jeff: I imagine the research for that got to be a lot of fun to look at that period in history and figure out what parts you wanna take and use. LaQuette: It is. I mean, I was very fortunate when I was in college. When I did my undergrad in creative writing. I was very fortunate to have a professor who thought outside of the box, and he taught a class on Harlem Renaissance. That was amazing. I mean, it was so rich and filled with culture. And you know, not just the usual things that we see in mainstream history but, you know, getting really down to the nitty-gritty of it. And you know, showing you to...I'm sure that when you when you guys, as gay men, look at the history of the LGBT community, and you get to see it unfold, there's such a moment of connection there. And it's the same thing for black people when we're getting to experience our history because we don't often get to see it through mainstream lens. And so to see it and to see the information dispensed in a way that's positive and celebratory and uplifting, it changes your whole perception of yourself, of who you are and where you came from. And so I'm delighted to be able to dig back into that. I have Piper Huguley, who is a history professor at Spelman College. I believe it's Spelman. And she's also a romance writer, and she's brilliant. So she helps me with a great deal with telling me what books I need to read for this period, and where I need to look for information. But it's so much fun. It really is so much fun. Jeff: That's amazing. Let's talk origin story for a minute. How did you get started writing romance? What led you down this path? LaQuette: I didn't see me on the page. I started reading romance when I was about 16 years old. Way too young to be reading some of the stuff I was reading, but you know, hey. And by the time I was about 18, I probably went through every "Harlequin Presents" that my local library had. And every romance novel I read, it was never about a girl that looked like me, never about places where I lived. So it kind of pulled me out of the romance reading for a while because it was nice to read about those stories, but there was just something missing for me after a while. And I probably, at the time, didn't recognize that I was internalizing that these stories were basically saying, "Romance isn't for you. You don't look like this. You don't fit this mold, so romance isn't for you." And I kind of just pulled away from it. And I think after I finished my undergrad, I just wanted to relax and have some fun and I kind of got back into it. And at the time, I discovered black romance was a thing. And I discovered people like Rochelle Alers, and Brenda Jackson, and Zane. And I'm like, "Wow." Like, it became exciting again. It was refreshing. It was new and yet still very familiar because I could see myself in all of the antics that were going in these stories. I could see myself in those characters. And so I decided I wanted to do that. I wanted to create those spaces, create more stories like that so people could have those connections in reality, you know, reactions when they opened up a book and saw themselves. Jeff: Now that you are writing, what do you think the trademarks of your books are? LaQuette: I do sex and snark really well. Like, I do sarcasm really well because that's my language. It really is my language, and sex, yeah, that's so if you're gonna pick up a LaQuette book, you're going to get lots of sex and lots of sarcasm. Jeff: Did she meet those two in your book? Will: Oh, yeah. Just before we started this interview, we were talking about the possibilities of an audiobook for "Under His Protection." And whatever narrator lands this job is going to, number one, have the time of their life, because Camden and Elijah are very...the banter is very smart and very witty. But also, as you say, the sex scenes are...I'm not even sure what the correct adjective is. It's smoking hot. Yeah, you're gonna need a nice cool beverage after you listen to those scenes, for sure. LaQuette: I don't know that I could listen to that. I don't know that I could. It would be so weird for me. I don't know. I mean, I know I wrote the words, but to hear them aloud, I don't know that I could do that. Will: Exactly. Yeah. Jeff: Yeah, I know, you know, many authors can't listen to their own audio books. LaQuette: Especially those parts. Like I said, I do sex. Amy Lane told me, she was like, "You write sex in such a beautiful concrete way. Like, I just wanna have all the facts when I read your books." I'm like, "Amy, that is the sweetest and weirdest thing that anyone has ever said to me, and I love you for it." Jeff: That almost should be a blurb on the book cover or something. Will: Yeah. Yeah, definitely. Jeff: Is there anything you're reading right now that you wanna shout out to people as like a book to grab? LaQuette: Oh, I'm reading a few books. So I just finished Adriana Herrera's...the third book in this "Dreamer" series, and I can't remember the title because it's not actually out yet. I beta read for her, and it is fantastic. I mean, book one is great and I love it. It was so real to me that literally, I had to drive like two to three miles from my house just to go get Dominican food, because I was so hungry after reading book one. Will: Exactly. Yes. Yeah. LaQuette: And book three does the same thing. There's lots of cultural food. And it's part of the tapestry of how these two people connect and share their backgrounds, their experiences, their worldviews. And not to mention, she's so good at writing books that are socially conscious without making you feel like you're being talked down to or preached at, and I love her for that, for being... I don't know that I could do that the way she does it. She's so talented. And I'm also reading...I'm halfway through...I stumble with her name because I know her as Blue Sapphire, but she's now writing as Royal Blue for Dreamspinner, "Kyle's Reveal." Will: Yeah, I've heard of this book, yeah. LaQuette: And I'm halfway through it. And, you know, she's fire, like, she writes hot books. So I'm really excited. I can't wait to get to the end of this book. Will: What was the name of that book again? LaQuette: "Kyle's Reveal." Will: Okay. And that's the...please remind me, is the basketball book, is that correct? LaQuette: Yes. Will: Okay, yes. LaQuette: I mean, it's kind of dark because the protagonists have like a really dark traumatic history. But it's definitely deep and I'm loving it. So I'm really, really, really interested in getting to the end to see if I could just get a minute to stop writing and finish it, I'd be great. Will: Awesome. Jeff: It's such a hard thing balancing. LaQuette: It is. Jeff: "I wanna to finish this book." Then it's like, "I don't wanna read it too fast." LaQuette: Exactly. Jeff: Finding that balance. LaQuette: It's true. Jeff: Are there tropes or genres that you wanna tackle that you just haven't yet in your own writing? LaQuette: I don't know that there are any tropes, because I kind of...I throw a lot of different tropes in my books. Like, "Under His Protection" has second chance romance, it also has proximity, it also has sort of kind of enemies to lovers the way Elijah and Camden started out in the book. And it could sort of kind of be considered like a workplace romance being that they're both involved in different sides of law enforcement. But I don't know. I mean, I've done secret baby before and I love that. That was really fun. And I've done...the only thing I haven't done is like May-December romances. So I think maybe that might be something I'd might want to try. Jeff: Cool. I would read that. I love a good May-December. Absolutely. So beyond the writing, which obviously takes up a lot of time, you also are the president of RWANYC. So the New York City chapter of Romance Writers of America. Tell folks what that entails and what actually led you to running for office. LaQuette: I didn't wanna run. I had no intention of running because I have a lot of stuff to do. And it takes time away from the things that I'm contracted to do. But one of the things that's very important in romance that's happening right now is the fact that romance can be a very whitewashed world, meaning the protagonists that we see, the authors that get the most opportunities are white authors and white characters. And so if you're not white... and straight characters. If you're not writing that, it's difficult to get into the door, it's difficult to find the same resources, the same backing. It's almost impossible to get contracts. And so I ran for president of RWANYC because I wanted, in some way, to help change that landscape, to do some of the work necessary with publishers to try to change that. And it's a heavy task, it's a heavy burden, especially when we get, you know, over the last couple of weeks, we are still reeling from the RITA Awards, which is basically like the Grammys for romance. And every year, it's the same thing. It's a very, very white landscape, and very few authors of color are made finalist. No black woman has ever won a RITA in the 30 years that this award has been established. And people do a lot of mental acrobatics to justify why that is. So "Oh, maybe the writing is just not that good. Maybe that's why we've never had a black RITA award winner. Maybe black authors are not entering." You know, these are also questions that are ridiculous, because statistically, it's just impossible that no black woman would ever have won in 30 years. It's just impossible. And the reason it is, is because the judging pool, there's a bias there in terms of black women and black characters, not just black authors, but black characters. Because you cannot know who the author is, but you cannot...well, I don't write characters who are racially ambiguous. I'm proud of my blackness and my characters are as well. And so I don't try to hide that or trick people into reading my books, or make it so difficult for people to recognize who a person is or what their background is because I feel like that is an important thing. In real life, we don't really get to not know who people are by looking at them. So I don't do it in my books. And because of that, it's very difficult when you know, going into this, "I'm gonna submit this book, and it's not going to final," not because it's a poorly written book, not because I didn't do everything I could to make this book as good as it could be, but simply because my characters, especially my heroines are black. And that is just something that the judging pool cannot handle as of yet. So my work as president is a lot of, you know, being the champion for this cause and taking on this battle because it's not just about me succeeding, it's about any black author who was writing black characters having the ability to write and be supported by the industry. And if I can make any sort of headway in that and if I can help anyone along the way, I'll feel like I've done something positive with my life. Will: With books like yours, and with Adriana Herrera, who you mentioned not too long ago, do you think it's really just a matter of representation that can help build awareness for diversity in romance or is there something else that readers, specifically, should be doing or asking for? LaQuette: Well, specifically, yeah. I mean, readers have a lot of power. So if you're asking publishers, you know, "Why don't we have more diverse romance? Why don't we have romance where...you know, that shows basically the colors of the rainbow and all those brilliant facets of intersectionality in life, like, why don't we have that?" Because your buying dollars is what demands, what makes the demand. Because publishers will say, "We don't sell that. We don't contract black books because they don't sell." One of the things we discussed at Dreamspinner was the cover. That was an intentional choice. I was very clear with them when we sat down and talked about this project that Elijah needed to be on the cover. I would not subscribe to the ideology that a black man on the cover can't sell. And there are...I mean, we've seen in our writing community that some publishing houses have actually made this statement. I don't subscribe to that. So we talked about it. And then we talked about the fact that readership sometimes can have a bias. And sometimes they won't engage with the book if they feel like the person is the wrong color or wrong background. And I said, "I understand that, but we're still gonna work...you know, to work with me, this is how we're gonna work." And they were in agreement. I didn't have to convince them. I went in prepared to battle. And it was like, "Listen, I really need this guy to be black and I really need him to look like this." And they were like, "We agree. We agree." So we need more of that in the industry. And it starts with readers. It also starts with the gatekeepers. People reaching out and specifically looking for these things. It also, people who are gatekeepers also need to check themselves. So when you're reading a book and you're saying, "I can't connect to it. I didn't relate to it." Why aren't you relating to it? Is it that it's a poorly written book? I've gotten rejection letters that literally said, "This is a really well-written book, but I didn't relate to the character, so I'm not gonna buy it." That doesn't really make a lot of sense, right? So what was it that you didn't relate to? If you could see that it was a really well-written book, I mean, if it's that good, why not work with me in terms of editing to kind of get things right, you know, to where it would be something that you feel is that you could sell. But a lot of publishing houses out there don't have that mentality. And it's this sort of...it's insidious. It's not something, you know, you can actually like, look and see. Some people don't even notice it. They just think, "Oh, I don't read those kinds of books because I don't like them." And it's not that they don't like them, it's that they've not actually giving them the opportunity to be great. Jeff: So that is, obviously, great words for the readers. Kind of spinning it back to your RWA role, you're in such a diverse chapter there because you're in NYC. LaQuette: Yeah. Jeff: How are the authors in that particular region banding together to like help RWA move past the issues? LaQuette: Oh, well, a lot of my recent successes, because, you know, allies, colleagues like Kate McMurray and Tere Michaels, are like, "Listen, you're fabulous, and we want you to meet people who will also think you're fabulous. So come here." And that's part of the beauty of RWA, and that's why I fight so hard for diversity and inclusion within RWA, because my success, as I said, my recent success has all been attached to people pushing me in different directions to say, "This is where you need to be. This is the person you need to meet." And if you're not a part of the organization, you can't make those connections. And networking connections will get you further than anything you know, right? So when we cut off authors of color from that source, from the resources, from the networking connections, and the opportunities that are presented to people who are part of the organization, what we're doing is we're disconnecting them from publishing. And we're forcing them to be indie. And this is not an indie versus trad conversation. This is... some people cannot be anything other than indie, because trad will not give them the opportunity. They've been completely marginalized. And so that should not be. People should be able to publish however they choose to, whether they up to be an indie author or whether they decide that the trad route is for them, because, you know, different strokes for different folks. It is different, you know, depending on what your lifestyle is like. I have crazy children and I have to juggle being a mom, a writer, and everything else and try to keep sane. Being an indie author is a lot of work. It's a lot of effort on your end to make a book successful. I don't have that kind of time in my life, or that kind of energy, honestly. So being a trad author is a much better avenue for me and my situation. And if that is the only way that I can publish, but publishing will not give me the opportunities, then it's, you know, I'm losing out. And that's the purpose of RWA to sort of bridge those gaps. But I don't think we're exactly where we need to be yet. So we're still working on it. Will: Yeah, definitely. Jeff: We very much appreciate your efforts towards that, for sure. Will: Now, the Romance Writers of America National Conference is going to be in NYC this summer. LaQuette: Absolutely. Will: And I expect you're going to be there. LaQuette: Oh, yeah. I wouldn't miss it for the world. Will: Yeah, we're actually making a trip for the first time this year as well. LaQuette: Yay. Will: So hopefully we will... I know it's gonna be crazy busy. But hopefully, we're gonna get a chance to say hi in person. LaQuette: It is. Absolutely. Jeff: For sure. Now, we talked about "Harlem Heat." You mentioned a couple other things. What is on your docket for the rest of this year for releases? LaQuette: I don't think I have any other releases this year because I'm writing. So I've been very blessed in that I have landed these two major contracts with Sourcebooks and with Dreamspinner, both for series. So I'm halfway through Source's books. And I need to start on Dreamspinner's toward the end of the year. So there won't be any more releases from me. I mean, if I get a moment where I'm, you know, feeling really creative, I might try to get a novella together. But I'm not making any promises. Jeff: All right, so we'll look for a lot more in 2020, for sure. LaQuette: Yeah, 2020 is definitely...the first book for Source comes out in 2020. I don't have a release date yet. I have delivery dates for Dreamspinner, but I don't have release dates yet. So I'm thinking probably sometime toward the end of 2020, possibly, or maybe the beginning of 2021. Jeff: All right. Well, when "Harlem Heat" comes out, you definitely have an invitation to come back and talk, for sure. LaQuette: Oh, yay. Thank you. Jeff: Now what's the best way for everybody to keep up with you online? LaQuette: Oh, so you can find me on Facebook at, you know, my Facebook page, LaQuettetheAuthor. You can find me on Twitter @LaQuetteWrites, or you can find me on Instagram at la_quette, or you can email me at laquette@laquette.com, or you can go to my website laquette.com. Will: Fantastic. Jeff: She's well branded, and everything is the same. Will: Most definitely. Well, LaQuette, it was a genuine honor to have you on the show today. LaQuette: Oh, thank you. Will: We're so glad that you could take some time out of your extremely busy schedule that you can come talk to us. LaQuette: Thank you for having me. I mean, I was so excited and a little bit nervous also, to come on and talk to you guys because I've seen the show before. And I'm like, "Yay, I get to go hang out with them. I feel special." Will: Well, it is a genuine pleasure. We're so glad that you came. LaQuette: Thank you so very much for having me.