Podcasts about sows

Woody Klemetson scaled sales from 100 people at Divi to 350 at Bill.com post-acquisition, then walked away to build something harder: infrastructure for hybrid AI-human revenue teams. At AskElephant, he's tackling the problem that every revenue leader faces but few can articulate—how to actually implement AI in revenue operations when your systems weren't built for it. With zero marketing spend, AskElephant hit 400% growth through pure referral motion and converts 85% of pilots to production (versus single digits industry-wide). Woody breaks down why most "AI-ready" companies aren't, how to structure pilots that actually ship, and what it takes to hire sellers who orchestrate agents instead of relying on armies of support staff. Topics Discussed: Post-acquisition culture collision: the cost of moving too fast versus too slow Why "AI readiness" is usually one person at a company, not the organization  The 27-agent CRM system that delivers 5% forecast accuracy without human input  Revenue outcome systems as category evolution: solving for predictability across disconnected tools  Pilot-first GTM that converts at 85% by starting with one-minute-per-day wins  Partner-led distribution through consultants evolving from slideware to implementation  Hiring ops-minded sellers who code: over half of non-engineers using Cursor daily  The PLG expansion coming in 2025 and why traditional demand gen is getting tested alongside door-to-door GTM Lessons For B2B Founders: Culture integration requires explicit deceleration early: Woody's team assumed Bill.com wanted their aggressive startup velocity immediately post-acquisition. They didn't slow down to map cultural differences, causing "whiplash" across 350 people. The specific mistake: not creating space to understand Bill's processes before challenging them. Even when acquired for your approach, the first 90 days should be listening and mapping, not executing. Only after understanding their system can you effectively challenge and merge cultures. This applies whether you're acquiring or being acquired—the cultural work is non-negotiable and front-loaded. Diagnose AI readiness by system documentation, not enthusiasm: Most companies think they're AI-ready because leadership wants AI. Reality check: if your teams haven't documented their systems and processes, AI has nothing to learn from. AskElephant starts some customers with basic dictation—not because it's revolutionary, but because it's the prerequisite to anything meaningful. The diagnostic question: "Walk us through your current customer journey." If the answer is "we have sales stages," you're not ready for automation. You need documented systems before AI can execute them. Start by having AI observe and document before it acts. Build agents incrementally to compound context: AskElephant runs 27 different CRM agents that collectively deliver 5% forecast accuracy. This wasn't built in one sprint—it took 40 hours of training and context-building. Each agent handles a specific job: contact creation, data enrichment, ICP scoring, churn monitoring, stage updates. The misconception founders have: AI should work perfectly from the first prompt. The reality: you build agents brick by brick, each one learning from the previous context layer. This is why their forecasting works—because 27 agents watching different signals together create accuracy that one "smart" agent can't. Pilot conversion at scale requires deliberately small scope: Single-digit pilot-to-production rates happen because teams scope too big. AskElephant's 85% conversion comes from "dream big, implement small." First pilot: automated CRM notes. Then: notes humans wish they'd written. Then: automated field updates. Each step saves minutes, builds trust, proves value. Woody's framework: if you're not saving one minute per person per day in your first pilot, you've scoped wrong. The goal isn't to wow with ambition—it's to ship something that works perfectly, then expand from proven trust. Their customers average 27 hours saved per week per person, but none started there. Revenue outcome systems emerge from tool sprawl failure: Every revenue leader uses 15-20 disconnected tools trying to make revenue predictable. The category insight isn't "operating systems"—it's that companies care about outcomes, not operations. AskElephant's positioning: we focus on the outcome (predictable revenue), not just the operating infrastructure. This distinction matters because it shifts the conversation from technical plumbing to business results. When creating categories, find the frame that makes the buyer's problem visceral and your solution inevitable, even if you're solving similar problems as others in the space. Partner-led GTM turns consultants into distribution: AskElephant's entire growth came through partners: Salesforce/HubSpot consultants becoming AI strategists, sales coaches extending from training to implementation. The unlock: these partners needed a way to deliver lasting value beyond slideware. Previously, a coach would train your team and leave. Now they implement AI systems that hold teams accountable to the training, creating longer engagements and better outcomes. For founders: identify services providers whose business model gets dramatically better by incorporating your product. They become your sales force because you make them more valuable to their clients. Hire for orchestration capability, not pure sales skill: Over half of AskElephant's non-engineering team uses Cursor daily. Woody hires "ops-minded" and "tech-minded" sellers who can manage AI agents alongside human work. The old model: silver-tongued seller + solutions engineer + 27 support people. The new model: one seller orchestrating 27 AI agents. These reps don't build lists, don't create SOWs, don't write product scopes, don't need SEs for demos. But they still need human connection skills—listening, curiosity, presence. The hiring filter: can this person think in systems and implement technical solutions while maintaining high-touch relationships? If they can't code enough to orchestrate agents, they can't scale in this environment. // Sponsors: Front Lines — We help B2B tech companies launch, manage, and grow podcasts that drive demand, awareness, and thought leadership. www.FrontLines.io The Global Talent Co. — We help tech startups find, vet, hire, pay, and retain amazing marketing talent that costs 50-70% less than the US & Europe. www.GlobalTalent.co // Don't Miss: New Podcast Series — How I Hire Senior GTM leaders share the tactical hiring frameworks they use to build winning revenue teams. Hosted by Andy Mowat, who scaled 4 unicorns from $10M to $100M+ ARR and launched Whispered to help executives find their next role. Subscribe here: https://open.spotify.com/show/53yCHlPfLSMFimtv0riPyM

On this hour of All Sides, we're discussing why all farmers are not on board, and why more food companies, from McDonald's to Costco, are adopting ethical animals.

On this hour of All Sides, we're discussing why all farmers are not on board, and why more food companies, from McDonald's to Costco, are adopting ethical animals.

Gov. Janet Mills of Maine discusses ICE's new operations in her state; MS NOW's David Noriega reports on Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty's lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security in response to the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti; and why deploying armed and poorly trained paramilitary forces into America's cities is a recipe for chaos. To listen to this show and other MS podcasts without ads, sign up for MS NOW Premium on Apple Podcasts. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

professorjrod@gmail.comIn this episode of Technology Tap: CompTIA Study Guide, we dive deep into the concept of cybersecurity risk and why it's a critical factor in your IT skills development. Forget common myths and technical jargon — this episode breaks down risk into understandable elements: threat, vulnerability, likelihood, and impact. Perfect for CompTIA exam candidates, we provide practical IT certification tips that turn abstract fears into concrete strategies to protect your digital assets. Whether you're prepping for your CompTIA exam or interested in technology education, this discussion equips you with essential knowledge for effective tech exam prep.We walk through inherited risk (your baseline exposure) and residual risk (what remains after controls), and explain why zero risk is a dangerous fantasy. From there, we unpack the four response strategies—avoidance, mitigation, transfer, and acceptance—using clear examples you can bring to your Sec+, Net+, or A+ studies and your day job. You'll learn when quantitative numbers help, when qualitative scales are more honest, and how heat maps can mislead when assumptions go unchallenged.Because modern exposure doesn't end at your perimeter, we dive into vendor risk management: evaluating partners before you sign, setting expectations with NDAs, MSAs, SLAs, SOWs, and rules of engagement, and keeping continuous oversight to match changing realities. We also connect the dots to business impact analysis, translating risk into recovery targets with MTD, RTO, RPO, and WRT so you prioritize mission essential functions instead of treating every system the same. Finally, we clarify the role of internal and external assessments and demystify penetration testing as a snapshot that challenges assumptions rather than a guarantee of safety.If you want security that aligns with real-world priorities, this conversation gives you the mental model and vocabulary to make better decisions under uncertainty. Subscribe, share with a teammate, and leave a review with one insight you're taking back to your org. What risk will you accept—and why?Support the showArt By Sarah/DesmondMusic by Joakim KarudLittle chacha ProductionsJuan Rodriguez can be reached atTikTok @ProfessorJrodProfessorJRod@gmail.com@Prof_JRodInstagram ProfessorJRod

Send us a textDee and Carol talk about crocuses, hot peppers (Capsicum), a new book: The Continuous Vegetable Garden, and celery vases.For more info, check out their weekly newsletter.To watch this episode on YouTube, click here.Insect of the Week:Never Home Alone: From Microbes to Millipedes, Camel Crickets, and Honeybees, the Natural History of Where We Live by Rob Dunn (Amazon link)Flowers:2026 is the Year of the Crocus per the National Garden Bureau.Great places to order bulbs from include Van Engelen for large orders and our friends Brent and Becky's Bulbs.Vegetables:The National Garden Bureau has proclaimed 2026 is the year of the hot pepper! Capsicum sp.On the Bookshelf:The Continuous Vegetable Garden: Create a Perpetual Food Garden that Sows and Grows Itself by Charlie Nardozzi (Amazon link)Dirt:Celery vases are making a big comeback!  Article in House Beautiful. Question for listeners… Do you have a celery vase?Rabbit Holes:  A new Lost Lady of Garden Writing, Peggie Schulz. Elizabeth Coatsworth's children's book, The Cat Who Went to Heaven (Amazon link)Check out our affiliate links here. Support the showOn Instagram: Carol: Indygardener, Dee: RedDirtRamblings, Our podcast: TheGardenangelists.On Facebook: The Gardenangelists' Garden Club.On YouTube.

HARVEST| One Soweth, Another Reapest|  John 4:37–38 | Hebrews 1:1 | Isaiah 9:6| CHIMDI OHAHUNA In this revelatory teaching, we explore the divine principle of spiritual division of labor, a truth embedded in the words of Jesus in John 4:37, “One soweth, and another reapeth.” Just as Apostle Paul declared, “Paul planted, Apollos watered…”, this episode focuses on the second dimension of kingdom labor: reaping what others have sown. Key Themes Covered: - The twofold nature of sowing and reaping:    1. When you sow and reap personally    2. When you reap what another has sown - How Jesus reaped the prophetic seeds sown by generations past, fulfilling the words of Isaiah and the voices of the prophets (Hebrews 1:1) - The Samaritan woman as Christ's first harvest, one whose heart had long been seeded with the promise of the Messiah, yet remained unfulfilled until she encountered the seventh man: Jesus - The prophetic insight that Christ is now at the well, not the mountain (John 4), waiting for laborers to gather the harvest of souls already prepared - The gospel as the sickle, the tool for harvesting the seeds of Christ planted in human hearts - A sobering truth: when prophecy does not sow Christ, a lying spirit is at work - A call to action from Obadiah 1:21, to be saviors on Mount Zion, reaping not for personal gain, but for the expansion of God's Kingdom This episode is a clarion call to every believer: the fields are white already to harvest. Many “Samaritan women” are searching for the Christ they've heard about. Will you be the one waiting at the well? Also, stay updated on future episodes of this enriching series!. Any questions arising from this study can be submitted to chimdiohahunaministry@gmail.com. Check our bio to know how to give your love offerings to the ministry. Jesus is Lord.

2025 may go down as the year Canada's relationship with the United States was forever changed. Nearly 11 months into U.S. President Donald Trump's trade war, the economic damage is clear. The remedies are not. Washington correspondent Katie Simpson and senior business correspondent Peter Armstrong look at the prospects for a new free trade deal.And: Also in 2025, Trump broke the mold and re-cast the U.S. presidency in his own image. He claimed vast new powers, setting aside existing laws and norms. Washington correspondent Paul Hunter on what Trump's presidency looks like now, and how it may continue into the new year.Also: Officially, there is a ceasefire in Gaza, but for many Gazans, and for Palestinians in the West Bank, the suffering, the hunger and the violence continue. We'll look at the state of the peace plan with Israel and what obstacles lie ahead.Plus: “The weather outside is frightful!” It's not just a line from a classic holiday song. It's how climate experts are interpreting the weather data from 2025. “Extreme” was the word of the year: more hot days, more flooding, more drought, and more fires.

All of us want to be part of a healthy family. No matter your life stage—married, single, parent, grandparent, or empty nester—you want to be surrounded by a tribe of people who love and support you. In this series, The Gospel at Home, Dr. Chappell shares what the Bible says about building a healthy, Gospel-centered family. In a world where parents are stressed, and kids are often confused by the mixed messages they receive from culture, you will discover how to grow a family that lives according to God's purpose.

Points of Interest00:00 – 01:38 – Introduction: Marcel welcomes agency legal specialist Sharon Toerek, highlighting her long track record in the industry and setting the stage with a discussion about how quickly the agency world is changing.01:38 – 02:45 – Framing the AI Legal Conversation for Agencies: They position the core topic of the episode as the legal implications of AI adoption inside agencies, especially when serving enterprise clients with sensitive data and heightened risk concerns.02:45 – 05:03 – The Two Biggest AI Risk Buckets: IP and Data Privacy: Sharon identifies intellectual property and data privacy as the top two legal risk areas agencies must consider when using generative AI in strategy, creation, and data manipulation.05:03 – 08:11 – IP Infringement, Ownership, and Contract Clarity: She explains how generative AI can inadvertently infringe on others' IP, complicate ownership of deliverables, and increase the need for explicit AI usage and ownership language in MSAs and SOWs.08:11 – 10:23 – Agency-Created IP and Contractor Use of AI: Sharon explores the risks of building agency-owned IP with AI when ownership is uncertain, and stresses the importance of knowing how contractors use AI so their work aligns with promises made to clients.10:23 – 15:11 – The State of Case Law and Fair Use Signals: They discuss how little case law exists around AI, what early decisions suggest about training data and fair use, and why we still do not know how much human contribution is needed to secure protectable IP.15:11 – 18:26 – Blurring Lines Between Human and Machine-Created Work: Marcel and Sharon reflect on how modern creative tools embed AI in everyday workflows, making it harder to distinguish human-made from machine-generated content for legal and practical purposes.18:26 – 22:40 – A Practical Playbook for Reducing AI Legal Risk: Sharon outlines concrete steps agencies can take now: have AI conversations with clients, update contracts, understand tool terms, set internal and external AI policies, and right-size risk based on audience scale.22:40 – 26:05 – Where Insurance Fits in the AI Risk Equation: They examine how general liability, E&O, and cyber policies currently treat AI-related issues, and why insurers are likely to carve out or slowly add AI-specific coverage as risks and profits emerge.26:05 – 30:31 – Market Volatility, AI Shock, and Rising Agency M&A: Sharon connects AI disruption, economic uncertainty, and geopolitical tension to a surge in small and mid-size agency deals, noting many founders are simply tired of reinventing their businesses again.30:31 – 35:40 – IP as a Lever in Exits and Next Career Moves: She makes the case that agencies who develop and package their own IP create more options in M&A, whether selling IP separately, splitting the business, or using it to launch the next chapter of their careers.Show NotesInnovative Agency PodcastWebsite: legalandcreative.comLinkedIn - Sharon ToerekM&A Webinar Replay with SharonLove the PodcastLeave us a review here. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Dr. Fred started his career at Oak Ridge with the Atomic Commission study the radiation effects on placenta transfer. Today is still working with human health systems as well as livestock diets.

In the tenth episode of "The Mystery of Seeds," Duane Sheriff reveals the biblical truth about the dual nature of reaping, which can be either a blessing or a hardship. While we often reap what we sow, there are also instances where we reap where we did not sow.This dual reality, rooted in John 4:35-38, shows that when the Israelites entered the Promised Land, they reaped cities they had not built and vineyards they had not planted. This parallel helps us to recognize the unearned blessings in our lives, while also understanding our responsibility to sow good seeds.This mystery reveals why some believers struggle with self-condemnation when facing challenges, not realizing they're experiencing casualties of living in a fallen world. Understanding this principle offers incredible freedom—no longer questioning, "what did I do wrong?" Instead, focus on sowing good seeds by faith through God's grace.The Mystery of Seeds - Duane Sheriff Ministries

About the Guest Ton Kramer holds both master's and doctorate degrees in Animal Science focused on Swine Locomotion and Health from Federal University of Paraná in Brazil. He has MBAs in Business Management and Project Management from Fundação Getúlio Vargas and a postgraduate degree in Marketing from Escola Superior de Propaganda e Marketing. Ton has […]

About the Guest Brian Martin is a 5th generation farmer from Northwest Indiana, a husband and father of 3. He has 40 years of experience in Pork industry around the US, and he is Co-Owner and Manager of a 14,000 sow pork production operation. What can you expect to learn from this episode of Popular […]

This week we are continuing through "Precious Remedies Against Satan's Devices" by Thomas Brooks, looking at Satan's 11th "Device" and its "Remedies." This season is a sort of a sequel series, following up from our first season of "top ten sins men and women struggle with" with "fighting sin and temptation." Joining us for this season is our special guest Bruce Stallings, the executive director of First Presbyterian Church. For our First Pres followers, "Precious Remedies" is available in our Bridge Bookstore and other book-selling locations around campus, while supplies last. We will also be doing giveaways for the book and other merch as the weeks continue, so keep an eye out on our Instagram, @oneanotherpodcast.For those not local, look for "Precious Remedies" at your favorite online or physical bookstore, or find a free PDF online! Be sure to come back every Tuesday for new episodes and Thursday for bonus content, and find us on the following platforms as well: Find us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/oneanotherpodcast?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet&igsh=ZDNlZDc0MzIxNw== Find us on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/@OneAnotherPodcast Find us on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/one-another/id1797190030

P.M. Edition for Oct. 29. The Fed cut interest rates by a quarter percentage point today, as was widely expected. But comments from Fed Chair Jerome Powell cast doubt on another cut in December. WSJ chief economics commentator Greg Ip joins to discuss. Plus, a trio of big tech companies report quarterly earnings that exceed analyst expectations… mostly. And a Senate proposal to raise the limit on insured deposits is creating surprising political alliances—and, as WSJ reporter Dylan Tokar explains, would be a nightmare scenario for the nation's biggest banks. Alex Ossola hosts. Sign up for the WSJ's free What's News newsletter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Send us a textHow can we change our eating habits in ways that improve our health, the health of the planet, and promote equity in the food system?If you're interested in supporting a healthier food system listen to my guest this week Nancy Matsumoto, an award-winning freelance writer and editor who specializes in the areas of regenerative agriculture, food, sake, arts and culture. Her latest book Reaping What She Sows offers a blueprint for what eating enjoyably, regeneratively, and ethically looks like today. Essential for those who are concerned about climate change, their own health, and the lack of choice and transparency in the global food supply chain. Nancy introduces readers to the women changemakers who are building local and regional supply chains, from the maverick farmers, millers, and bakers bringing back local grain economies; the brewers, distillers, and winemakers who are regenerating land and ecosystems; indigenous and diasporic seed savers, and many more changemakers.Nancy shares about these incredible women who are rebuilding our broken food system, working tirelessly to bring us an alternative to Big Agriculture, for good wholesome, sustainably produced food that's better for us and for the planet.She shows us how what we choose to put on our plate impacts our bodies, the land and the world around us.You can find out more about Nancy's work on https://www.nancymatsumoto.com/Buy her book at all good book sellersAnd follow her on Linkedin  @NancyMatsumotoYou can follow Host Lou Hamilton on Instagram @brave_newgirl and on Linkedin @LouHamiltoncreatelabPS. Lou helps you transform your health & wellbeing: LOU'S LIFE LAB SERVICES HEREFor Lou's creative wellbeing and art practice go to CREATELAB or LOUHAMILTONARTJoin our Brave New Girls retreats to reset and reconnect with what really matters to you.Music licensed from Melody Loops.Support the showBrave New Girls podcast champions women rebel raisers moving mountains for people & the planet. The podcast ranks in top 2.5% globally, and currently No 12 in the top "45 Best UK Women's Podcasts to Listen to", with Host Lou Hamilton, artist, author & wellbeing coach. https://podcast.feedspot.com/uk_women_podcasts/ Thank you for listening and please subscribe to keep up to date on new episodes as they're released.Lou is the founder of Brave New Girl Media- bringing you inspiration, support and growth.Sign up to our emails for inspiration, support & growth and LOU'S LIFE LAB free downloadable guide https://bravenewgirlmedia.comInsta @brave_newgirlBooks: Dare to Share- bestselling guide to podcast guesting FEAR LESS- coaching guide to living more bravely Brave New Girl- How to be Fearless Paintings & Public Art www.LouHamiltonArt.comInsta @LouHamiltonArt

Remember a few months ago when virtually all of Canada's political leaders voiced support for big infrastructure projects in the face of U.S. trade threats? Space, the final frontier… of powering your scrolling.

In this episode, Chip and Gini discuss how to handle situations when the problems affecting an agency’s client relationship stem from external contacts like procurement, IT, or the sales team. They emphasize treating client contacts as allies and not enemies, and provide strategies to navigate bureaucratic hurdles and internal politics. The discussion covers creative problem-solving techniques such as using MSAs, having biweekly calls with VPs of Sales, and understanding cultural differences. The importance of having a collaborative approach and pre-building relationships to effectively manage challenges is also highlighted. Key takeaways Chip Griffin: “Treat your client contact as an ally, not the enemy.” Gini Dietrich: “We have several clients who have procurement done in another country, and English is not their first language. And so we find that some of the barriers to success are not because of the things that we assume.” Chip Griffin: “When you run up against an obstacle, try to figure out is there a creative way that we can get from here to there?” Gini Dietrich: “We always ask what the threshold is for financial amounts because there’s usually an amount of money that your client contact can approve without it going to procurement or to their boss or whatever happens to be.” Related How agencies should handle procurement and legal How to onboard new agency clients Getting agency-client contracts done right View Transcript The following is a computer-generated transcript. Please listen to the audio to confirm accuracy. Chip Griffin: Hello and welcome to another episode of the Agency Leadership Podcast. I’m Chip Griffin. Gini Dietrich: And I’m Gini Dietrich. Chip Griffin: And Gini, I’ve got this, this invisible guy over here, and he’s telling me what we need to do for this show today. And, and we have to follow it to the letter if we wanna record. Gini Dietrich: Oh, who is it? Chip Griffin: I dunno, but if someone, someone is telling me that we need to, to record an episode about what to do when your problem isn’t the client contact for your agency, but it’s someone else, someone off screen who’s telling them what they have to do and it’s causing problems for your relationship. Gini Dietrich: Oh, someone like procurement or IT? Chip Griffin: Someone like procurement. Mm-hmm. IT, the sales team. Gini Dietrich: Mm-hmm. Chip Griffin: The CEO. Gini Dietrich: Mm-hmm. Chip Griffin: All sorts of people who may not be involved in any of the day-to-day work that our client contacts are doing, but they are just involved enough that they can cause trouble. Gini Dietrich: Mm-hmm. Kind of like me having to tell a client’s VP of sales the other day that we’re not their local Kinkos. Chip Griffin: Yes. Gini Dietrich: Yeah. I actually used those words. Chip Griffin: I mean, to be fair, FedEx Kinko’s now, so you’re, you’re dating yourself, but Gini Dietrich: I, fair, yes, you’re right. But also it got the point across. Chip Griffin: Yes, it got the point across, but, but did it resolve the situation or did they just say Gini Dietrich: It did resolve the situation. Okay, good. Good. I think it made him mad, but he understood that we’re not here to just print the brochures for him. Chip Griffin: Yeah. No, that is, that is not the role of an agency. But no, a lot of times we do have these, these pressures or our, or really it’s our client contacts who feel the immediate pressure, right? They get, they get told by procurement that they have to, to find a way to cut the budget with their agency. They get told by IT that, you know, you can’t do this with email or that with your website or those kinds of things, or there are all these extra hoops to jump through and there’s no budget to pay for all those extra hoops or, I mean, just any number of different things that, that we see as agencies that we have to find some way to deal with. And it’s tough because when it’s our client contact, we can at least have a direct conversation. But when it’s someone who is, who is literally off screen, for most of us, since we’re doing these conversations typically by Zoom these days. Someone offscreen meddling is a lot harder to deal with. So, so what is your advice to an agency owner who says, look, I’ve, I’ve got these challenges and, and my client contact agrees with me, but, but how can I help them to get this across the goal line the way we need to? Gini Dietrich: Yeah, it depends on what it is for sure. I mean, we’ve had the situation where procurement, of course, has wanted us to reduce fees. So then it’s a conversation with the client contact to say, Hey, listen, this is what they’re asking us for. That means we’re gonna have to take this, this, and this out of this scope of work. Typically the client contact can influence that and go down and talk to procurement or send an email or do a support ticket or whatever it happens to be, to be able to influence that. And sometimes they can even elevate it or escalate it above to their supervisor or their supervisor’s supervisor. It just depends. But that’s usually where, usually where we start is saying If we do this, this is what it, this is how it will affect the work that we’re going to do together. And this is what you can expect. And typically they’ll, they’ll go to bat for you. So I would start there for sure. Chip Griffin: Right. I mean, I think that that fundamentally what you’re describing is, is treating your client contact as an ally, not the enemy. Gini Dietrich: Yep. Chip Griffin: And, and it is tough because sometimes when we, when we hear these things, it’s, it’s often, you know, we often put ourselves in the position of wanting to shoot the messenger because that’s who we’re, we’re talking to our client contact on a daily basis. And when they tell us, you know, these are the rules or these are the things we need to do, you know, we, we can get frustrated with them, but we need to remember. Most of the time or many of the times, it’s not them. They, they have the same view we do. And so we need to try to figure out how we can work together to overcome their internal obstacle. And it, and it does mean that, you know, we may need to make some compromises ourself. We may need to, to invest a little bit more time and energy into helping things done. And some of that may be uncompensated time. If needed in order to, to try to, to clear these hurdles. But they are necessary hurdles to clear. Otherwise we may not be able to achieve the results or we may have to, to eliminate some of our profit margin or any number of different problems that we may run into if we’re not willing to invest in the short term in overcoming those difficulties. Gini Dietrich: Yeah. And I would say most of the time people are pretty reasonable. You can, you can say, and usually your client contact is gonna be like, Ugh, this is so frustrating. I can’t have you reduce the scope, right? Because we need to do these things and I’m held accountable to those results. And so, you know, so it, so the…It, it rolls downhill for sure. So usually they will go to bat for you and we’ve had a couple of examples where they’ve had to go to their supervisor and say, Hey, I need you to help me push this through. But for the most part, I think you’re right. If you can use your client contact as the ally, you can usually get things done the way you need it to, to be done. Chip Griffin: And I think the other thing we need to do is, is remind ourselves that, that these unseen actors are by and large, not bad people either. They’re just, they’re, they’re doing their job in the way that they think is best. So, so even procurement, and we all love to dump on procurement. Fairly in my view, because a lot of them are looking just at the numbers and not really, Gini Dietrich: it’s a little challenging. Yeah, yeah. Chip Griffin: So, but, but we need to remember that, that they are people. And so, you know, our first instinct as, as we usually advise on this show, is to treat other people like humans. And, and if you can, try to relate to them. If you can try to, I mean, one of the things I always advise is try to get them in the conversation. Don’t, don’t play a game of telephone because a game of telephone is hard to win. You, you can’t because you know, now you’re just trying to coach up your client contact on, on what they need to say. But you’re not part of the conversation. You’re not, you’re not sure if, if something is getting lost in translation in either direction, frankly. Right, right. And so you really want to try to get to a place where you can get in the same room with whoever, whatever that external force is that’s causing difficulty for your relationship. Gini Dietrich: Yeah, for sure. And I, I think that’s really good advice. I think it’s sometimes I have the tendency to wanna go directly to the source, and you also have to be careful that, that may, from a political standpoint, may not be the right thing. So again, start with your client contact. Say, Hey, I’m happy to help you with this. Or, you know, wanna schedule a Teams call for all three of us, whatever happens to be, but… I’ve also gotten in trouble for going straight directly to the source to say, Hey, like how can we do this? So I would say, bring your client contact in as much as you can until they say, I’m happy for you to take this on, or let me schedule a call, or whatever happens to be. Chip Griffin: Right. Or, or, I mean, I would say just the, the flip side to that is if you get all of you in a room, and I agree, that’s where you should start. If you read that room and there’s some friction between your internal contact and whoever you’re really trying to deal with, then I would try to extract your client contact sooner rather than later. Yes, absolutely. Yes, because sometimes there’s internal politics going on or just personality differences or whatever, and so sometimes you can actually accomplish more if you, if you politely move on from having your client contact in those. It, you really have to, it’s a case by case situation. Sometimes it’s better to have them there so they can see what’s happening and they can either intervene or translate or at least you know, know what’s going on so that they can’t say, well, I don’t understand why you’re not doing this well, ’cause, you know, so and so in procurement told us we couldn’t, or so and so in sales is pushing in this direction. You know, you, you want to try to, to figure out what works in that particular situation. But certainly sometimes taking someone out the room who is part of the, the challenge can be helpful. Gini Dietrich: Yeah. And you said the word translation. I think it, we have several clients who, procurement is done in another country, and so English is not their first language, and so we find that some of the, the barriers to success are because of that and not because of the other things that we assume it is. So we always try to bring in somebody who can translate between us and them. Even if they speak English, you know, English not being their first language, and certainly not the u US culture that we have. You, it’s always good to have somebody in the room or on the, on the teams call that can help kind of finagle those things for you, especially if you don’t speak, you know, the language. And many of, many of the languages aren’t, that we face are not even like Spanish, French. They’re like Arabic, right. Or Chinese. And really, I dunno. Chip Griffin: Well, and, and sometimes it’s not just the language, it’s the culture as well. That Right. That can impact. Right, because there are, yep. There are certain cultures where it, it may be that, that, you know, they will always demand more than what they actually expect. ’cause they’re expecting to, to have pushback and negotiation. There are others where people will just say this, this is what we need. Let’s figure out how to get there. And, and having someone internally who can help you to understand, you know, what are they really asking for? What, what, you know, is this, is this a take it or leave it kind of thing? Or is there room to negotiate, either on, on price or activity or whatever to, to get to a, a happy place. And, and without that knowledge, that can be shared oftentimes by your client contact, it’s not just that you know, that you’re literally speaking different languages. It might be that, that there’s a lot in the, the culture that is different as well, that you need to, to grasp in order to get success. Gini Dietrich: You raised such a good point because there are some cultures who expect negotiation, like that’s just part of their culture. So having that understanding I think is really smart. Because that will help you too, because if they’re expecting you to negotiate, don’t be scared of that. Like go into it to negotiate. It’s kind of fun. Chip Griffin: Right, right. And, and there are, I mean, there are, there are opportunities to negotiate. There are, you know, knowing the motivations of the people. Sometimes you’re dealing with a department that are, you know, absolute rule followers, right. You know, if you, if you, if you talk with most IT professionals for example, they’re like, well, our policy says this and, and there’s no real easy wiggle room there. But sometimes you can have a rational conversation with them if you try to find alternatives. And instead of saying, well, we have to do that. Well, well, what if we tried this instead? Is there some other… Is there some other path that that might get us? Mm-hmm. To the same result? Mm-hmm. Or try to help them to understand why this really isn’t the risk that you think it is. I mean, I’ve, I’ve done in the past a lot of negotiations with defense contractors and those sorts of things, and they often have a whole litany of security procedures that you need to, to follow and that kind of stuff, and, and then, you know, you sometimes sit with them and say, well, look here, we’re not dealing with any sensitive information here. Right. This is all. This is all public media information. There’s nothing here that, that needs that level of protection. So is there, perhaps, you know, can we perhaps reach some accommodation? Or sometimes procurement will say, you need to carry an insurance policy for, you know, vehicular accidents. And I’m like, well, why? Like, I’m, I’m never gonna be driving for this contract. So that doesn’t really make any sense. And, and oftentimes that’s like construction firms, right? Where, you know, most of their vendors have some sort of a, a physical presence or something like that. And so you need to, to be able to have those rational conversations and say, okay, I understand this is your policy, but, but let’s talk through how might this actually apply to us and our situation. Gini Dietrich: Yeah, I think that’s really smart. And one of the things that we’ve started doing is, especially with the, the big, big companies is becoming part of their network. So anything that we do, any information that we share goes through their network. We all have email addresses that are our client, that have our, that end in our client’s, URL. We have access to their teams environment, you know, so we, we, for all intents and purposes, are part of their organization just for distributing information and nothing can come to our side, because they’re worried about IT and security. Right? And another thing is, is that we’ve, we always ask what the threshold is for financial amounts because there’s usually an amount of money that your client contact can approve without it going to procurement or to their boss or whatever happens to be. So we always find out what that is and see if we can work within those constraints. And sometimes we split up scope of work so that it falls underneath that threshold so that our client contact is the one who gets to approve it and it doesn’t have to go through all these other hoops and and hurdles. Chip Griffin: Right. And a lot of time it is also yet another argument for what we generally advocate for here, which is having a master services agreement plus individual statements of work. Yep, yep. So a lot of these things get dealt with just once when you do that master services agreement. That’s right. And now you’ve got a lot more potential wiggle room to deal with issues later on. Because you’re not having to, to introduce as many people for renewals and all of that kind of stuff. And, and it’s, it’s why I’m such a big supporter of the evergreen MSA with, and just hang off individual SOWs as needed. Gini Dietrich: Yes. Yes. I totally agree with that. We have one master of services agreement and we alphabetize our SOWs and I think we’re on AO right now for the year. So yeah, that, you know, that just tells you like how we’re able to do that without having to go through that whole rigamarole every single time. I mean, if we had to do that for all of those… I wouldn’t be able to get my day job done. Chip Griffin: Right. Well, and and your your point about, you know, understanding, you know, what are some of the thresholds internally for things, it’s really helpful for you to, to do some of that creative problem solving with your client contact. And when you run up against an obstacle, or something like that, you know, trying to figure out is there a creative way that we can get from here to there? Yep. Yep. And that might be by becoming part of their email system. It might be by have coming under a financial threshold. It might be by doing something through some affiliated organization. You know, maybe, maybe you become a subcontractor to someone else who’s already dealt with a lot of that kind of stuff. And you know, there’s a lot of different options that that can help you. To solve these issues. It won’t solve every one of them. Sometimes you have to deal with them head on, but if you can find ways to creatively get around those obstacles, that can be really helpful. Gini Dietrich: Yeah, I know that a lot of the big companies have usually an agency of record and will the, the AOR can bring in smaller agencies under their umbrella so that you don’t have to deal with those kinds of things. So if that, you know, I would ask that question. Does it make more sense for us to come under the AOR? And in most cases, the agency of record is set up to, to handle that so that. You know, it makes, it makes it easier for the client to hire the teams that they want without the teams having to do all the insurance and all of the vehicular accident insurance and things that you really don’t need, but it prevents you from having to do that kind of stuff. So that’s another question you could ask is, is there an AOR that we could umbrella underneath. Chip Griffin: Right. So we, we’ve talked mostly about policy driven or financially driven obstacles from outside, but there are other, there are more strategic obstacles that can arise as well, or even tactical ones. And that typically comes from other business units. Particularly sales teams or senior executives who are not necessarily directly involved in your day-to-day work. And, and those can be sometimes a little bit trickier to deal with because you’re not dealing, I mean, there, there’s some benefit to dealing with black and white policy, right? Because now you can figure out, okay, how do we, how do we deal with these? Mm-hmm. When you’ve got a sales team saying, well, you’re not, this is not accomplishing enough, or this is not generating the right kinds of leads, or whatever it may be. That can sometimes be a little bit more challenging argument because it does, it often becomes a little bit more subjective. It often becomes a little bit more, you know, based on opinion as to, to what the best path forward is. And so that can be a challenging one to deal with because, you know, now you’re, you’re dealing with things that are not as, as clear cut and you can just reach a simple resolution. Gini Dietrich: Yeah, I mean, I am a big believer in the account lead, having a relationship with the sales lead. In some cases that might be the agency owner. You know, I have a really good relationship with at least three VP of sales for our clients, and I have biweekly calls with those guys to make sure that we’re on the same page, we’re doing the right things. I also have a relationship with one where I can tell ’em we’re not their Kinkos and we’re not here to print brochures. But I, I’m a strong believer in that. And I know we also talked last week about my process of doing quarterly assessments, and I think both of those things help in those kinds of relationships because now you have that ongoing relationship with sales. Who can, who you can say, let’s test this, or let’s test that. Or you know, you were in our quarterly assessment and we agreed to these things. Do you wanna keep going or do you wanna move to focus on that? And I will say that in some cases, especially, you know, if you’re working with a mid-sized company, the sales leader is constantly being, you know pressured to do more sales. And sometimes they’ll come and say, I just got my sales number increased by 20% and I need your help to do that. And I understand that it wasn’t part of our quarterly assessment. What can you do to help? So, you know, having those relationships and those on ongoing conversations I think helps a ton. Chip Griffin: And I, I think a lot of the same advice that we offered earlier in this conversation applies. Treat them as human. Don’t view them as the enemy, and instead say, okay, you know, I, I understand your challenge. How do we get there? And too often I see in organizations it’s, I think it’s fairly common for marketing to blame sales. Sales to blame marketing and sales and marketing both blame product or client service or whomever. Sure. May be in that particular organization and, and none of that is helpful because you are all on the same team ultimately. And so you need to try to find ways to work together and figure out, okay, how can we get the best possible outcome? Yes. And if it’s simply marketing saying, well, sales isn’t doing a good job of closing. Or sales saying, you’re not giving me enough good quality leads, that’s not helpful. Have a conversation, figure out, you know, why is it not achieving the results that, that you want or that executives want? Are, are those results even possible? If so, how do we get there? Is it changing our ideal client profile? Is it changing some of our tactics? Is it investing differently? There’s a lot of ways that you can get there, but it needs to be done collaboratively. And so in those cases, I strongly encourage you to work with your client contact to bring those other parties into the room and have a candid conversation. Yeah, yeah. And talk through what’s possible and honestly what isn’t. I mean, sometimes there are unrealistic views of what can be done. You know? Oh, let’s, you know, let’s double our leads next month. Okay. Well. How are we gonna do that? Mm-hmm. You know, you don’t just wave a magic wand say, okay, we’re gonna Gini Dietrich: Right. Woo, double your leads. Woo. Chip Griffin: We’re gonna, we’re gonna send you twice as many SQLs next month as last month. Or all of a sudden we’re gonna get, you know three times the earned media coverage. So sometimes it is just you really have to educate. This is not possible to do this on this timescale and instead talk about what is possible on that short timescale and what it would take to get to some of those more ambitious numbers. But you can only do that if you are having a real conversation in the room or if you’re talking with your client contact and saying, what do you need from us? How can we help you to have this conversation? Because sometimes they, they can’t or won’t bring the agency directly into the conversation. That’s your ideal. But you may just need to try to coach up, educate and provide resources to your client contact so that they can carry the water forward. Gini Dietrich: Yeah. You know what, last week we talked about. Not doing proposals for free and not giving away all your ideas and, and creating a sort of discovery phase in your process so that you’re getting paid for your ideas. And I think that’s part of this is part of that, which is as you’re doing your discovery and having conversations. It’s not just with the CEO and the CFO and the CO, like bring in the sales team, bring in the IT team, bring in members from those other customer service, the other teams that are gonna help you do your job. And not only that, but understand the culture and the organization better. Start to build those relationships in the beginning so that when these things happen, and they inevitably do happen, that you have those relationships already built and can have those really have really good, robust collaborative conversations. Chip Griffin: Right. I mean, that, that’s a, that’s a great point is to, to make sure that those relationships are not the kind of thing that you only think about when you’ve got these challenges arising. Yeah. They, they need to be pre stocked, if you will. I, I will say that, that I had a mild moment of panic when you said last week we talked about, and I’m like… I can’t remember what we talked about last week. Thank you. So thank you for elaborating on that. So I was not Gini Dietrich: So you may remember. You’re welcome. Chip Griffin: And I, and I realized that last week in our universe for this is only like four days ago, Gini Dietrich: Two days ago. Yes. Chip Griffin: Because of some scheduling anomalies. But yeah, my, my elderly brain was not able to remember that. Gini Dietrich: I think it’s ’cause you’re overly tired. Chip Griffin: Uh, that’s possible. It happens. Yeah. Plus I’m old, so there’s that too. On that note, I think, before I forget what we’re actually talking about here today, we’ll just draw this episode to a close. I think we’ve offered some useful tips that hopefully will help you to navigate some of these difficult challenges. And, and meanwhile, I’m gonna go talk to the invisible man and see if I did a good enough job that, that we can continue this show moving forward. Gini Dietrich: Maybe we’ll get a raise. Ask for a raise too, please. Chip Griffin: I mean, I just, I just, I don’t, I don’t want him to cancel the show, that’s all because I, I do enjoy recording this, even if I can’t remember what we talked about. So on that note, I’m Chip Griffin. Gini Dietrich: I’m Gini Dietrich, Chip Griffin: and it depends.

Wrestlemonthia has really put us in a submission hold all month long with some difficult watches. This week was no different as we were put in the Walls of Jericho with a double feature starring wrestling legend and terrible metal singer, Chris Jericho. We talk the low budget horror that is Albino Farm, and the film made with Wrestlemonthia in mind, Dark Match. After his epic failure in last week's wrestling trivia, Josh has called in his tag partner Kelly to try and avenge his defeat. Join us as we discuss everything from inbred Jesus cults to wrestling fan Satan cults. If somehow that doesn't make you want to listen well... YOU JUST MADE THE LIST!Most importantly we find out if Albino Farm and Dark Match are bloody good films...We encourage everyone to watch along while you listen and make sure to comment and let us know what you think. If you haven't already please follow us on Facebook, TikTok, "X" and Instagram @bloodygoodfilmpodcast and remember...Keep it bloody buddies!!!https://linktr.ee/BloodyGoodFilmPodcast...#wrestling #hulkhogan #wrestlemania #wrestlemonthia #WWE #action #horror #newepisode #summerslam #podcast #AEW #Jericho #ChrisJericho #Fozzy #DarkMatch #Shudder 

Oral methadone versus sublingual buprenorphine for the treatment of acute opioid withdrawal: A triple-blind, double-dummy, randomized control trial  Drug and Alcohol Dependence Researchers compared oral methadone to sublingual buprenorphine for the management of acute opioid withdrawal. Patients at an inpatient drug treatment center in India were randomly assigned to receive either methadone or buprenorphine titrated over days 1-3 to control opioid withdrawal symptoms. Over days 4-10 medications were tapered and stopped by day 11. Completion of treatment was similar in both groups (83% methadone, 82% buprenorphine). Both subjective (SOWS) and objective (COWS) withdrawal symptoms decreased during the treatment, however the buprenorphine group had significantly greater withdrawal symptoms than the methadone group (p=0.009) at the end of treatment (day 10). Opioid craving also decreased in both groups with no significant difference between groups. Authors conclude that methadone is a safe and effective alternative to buprenorphine for management of opioid withdrawal.   Read this issue of the ASAM Weekly Subscribe to the ASAM Weekly Visit ASAM  

The new NIH policy calls for greater incorporation of new approach methodologies in all future Notices of Funding Opportunities related to animal model systems.

In Part 2 of our summer feeding series, host Brie Quick (PIC Technical Services Manager) returns with Dr. Lori Kociemba (PIC Technical Services Manager) and Jordi Camp (European Nutritionist Manager) to dive deeper into strategies for keeping sows productive and comfortable during the heat of the season. This episode focuses on real-world adjustments that can help drive feed intake, support litter performance, and maintain sow body condition through lactation. 

Send us a textGROW  Greatness Reached over Oppression through Wisdom A Ball of Confusion, that's what the World is Today, hey!I miss my Husband ✨

As temperatures rise, so do the challenges of keeping lactating sows eating, healthy, and productive. In this episode of The Squeal, our nutrition and production experts dive into practical summer feeding strategies to combat heat stress and maintain sow performance. Our host, Brie Quick (PIC Technical Services Manager) leads the conversation with Dr. Lori Kociemba (PIC Technical Services Manager) and Jordi Camp (PIC European Nutritionist Manager-Technical Services). From feed formulations and cooling systems to feeding schedules and hydration tips, you'll get actionable insights to keep your lactation herd thriving—even when the heat is on.

On today's follow-up episode of The Squeal, we continue the conversation on parity 1 development and its lasting impact on sow longevity and herd profitability. Our host, Brie Quick (PIC Technical Services Manager) returns with Kendall Weger (PIC Technical Services Manager) and Nathan Schleman (Director of Sow Production, Belstra Milling Group) to take a deeper dive into common pitfalls in gilt development and how to avoid them and fine-tuning reproductive management strategies in parity 1. Building on Part 1, this epsidoe delivers practical tips, lessons learned from the field, and next-level management strategies to help you maximize the potential of your young females. Don't miss this opportunity to sharpen your approach and strengthen your sow herd for the future. 

On Culture Friday, John Stonestreet talks about intentional confusion; Arsenio Orteza reviews two surprising musical turns; and on Word Play, George Grant illustrates the difficulty of learning English. Plus, the Friday morning newsSupport The World and Everything in It today at wng.org/donateAdditional support comes from I Witness, an immersive audio drama exploring stories of faith and transformation. On podcast apps or at iwitnesspod.comFrom The Joshua Program at St. Dunstan's Academy in Virginia ... a gap year shaping young men ... through trades, farming, prayer ... stdunstansacademy.orgAnd from Asbury University, where summer for teens can be an epic adventure. asbury.edu/camps

On today's episode of The Squeal, we dive into the critical role of parity 1 development in building better, longer-lasting sows. Our host, Brie Quick (PIC Technical Services Manager) is joined by Kendall Weger (PIC Technical Servcies Manager) and Nathan Schleman (Director of Sow Production, Belstra Milling Group) to discuss the keys to setting young females up for success — from gilt selection and management, environment, and early reproductive performance. Tune in for actionable insights and research-backed strategies that can help you improve sow longevity, lifetime productivity, and overall herd profitability.

In today's Gospel Jesus saves the woman caught in adultery from a terrible fate.  We can imagine her joy, relief, and love after Jesus's intervention.  As sinners saved by Jesus, we are all in the same position.  Deep sorrow for sin precedes the great joy of forgiveness in Christ. https://comeawaybyyourselves.com

Rufus Gifford, former U.S. ambassador to Denmark, talks with Rachel Maddow about the animosity and mistrust Donald Trump is sowing among even allied nations, and the shock of betrayal people around the world are feeling about Americans they'd previously held in high regard but who they do not see pushing back against Trump and standing up for long-term international friendships.

Seven years ago, Brandi warned Seattle that its anti-business taxes would devastate the economy. Former Sheriff Dave Reichert on Timothy Pauley case. Democrats say it should bring you ‘joy' to pay taxes! Would Attorney General Nick Brown really sue over THAT?? Congress debates defunding NPR. 

Tuesday was a big day in foreign policy news. Israel launched a barrage of airstrikes on Gaza Monday night, its first attack since a ceasefire with Hamas took hold in January. Officials in Gaza say more than 400 people were killed. And President Donald Trump held a 90-minute phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin about the war in Ukraine. Putin ostensibly agreed to a 30-day limited ceasefire on energy and infrastructure targets — far short of the unconditional ceasefire proposal Ukraine and the U.S. negotiated earlier this month. Oh, and Trump threatened ‘dire consequences' for Iran over attacks from Houthi rebels in Yemen. Crooked's own Tommy Vietor, co-host of ‘Pod Save the World,' breaks down all the big international headlines and what they say about Trump's approach to foreign policy.And in headlines: Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts rebuked Trump over his calls to impeach federal judges, the Pentagon continued its purge of website pages honoring minority groups, and two stranded U.S. astronauts returned to Earth.Show Notes:Subscribe to the What A Day Newsletter – https://tinyurl.com/3kk4nyz8Support victims of the fire – votesaveamerica.com/reliefWhat A Day – YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/@whatadaypodcastFollow us on Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/crookedmedia/For a transcript of this episode, please visit crooked.com/whataday

Aaron Burnett, founder and CEO of Wheelhouse Digital Marketing Group, delves into the unique marketing challenges faced by the MedTech industry. He discusses the critical importance of continuous messaging and creative iteration in data-constrained environments, highlighting how accurate first-party and zero-party data strategies can drive performance in highly regulated markets like healthcare. He emphasizes the need for proprietary data solutions to stay compliant and effective amidst evolving privacy regulations. Reflecting on his personal and professional journey, Aaron shares practical insights on optimizing marketing strategies for better business outcomes while maintaining a culture of generosity and helpfulness. Guest links: www.wheelhousedmg.com | www.linkedin.com/in/aaronburnett | Aaron@wheelhousedmg.com | https://youtube.com/@wheelhousedmg Charity supported: https://www.feedingamerica.org/  Interested in being a guest on the show or have feedback to share? Email us at theleadingdifference@velentium.com.  PRODUCTION CREDITS Host: Lindsey Dinneen Editing: Marketing Wise Producer: Velentium   EPISODE TRANSCRIPT Episode 050 - Aaron Burnett [00:00:00] Lindsey Dinneen: Hi, I'm Lindsey and I'm talking with MedTech industry leaders on how they change lives for a better world. [00:00:09] Diane Bouis: The inventions and technologies are fascinating and so are the people who work with them. [00:00:15] Frank Jaskulke: There was a period of time where I realized, fundamentally, my job was to go hang out with really smart people that are saving lives and then do work that would help them save more lives. [00:00:28] Diane Bouis: I got into the business to save lives and it is incredibly motivating to work with people who are in that same business, saving or improving lives. [00:00:38] Duane Mancini: What better industry than where I get to wake up every day and just save people's lives. [00:00:42] Lindsey Dinneen: These are extraordinary people doing extraordinary work, and this is The Leading Difference. Hello and welcome back to another episode of The Leading Difference podcast. I'm your host, Lindsey, and today I'm delighted to introduce to you my guest, Aaron Burnett. Aaron is CEO and founder of Wheelhouse Digital Marketing Group, a sought after digital marketing agency based in Seattle, Washington, that helps brands thrive by solving their toughest digital challenges. Every point of Aaron's career has been marked by his ability to leverage technology and his own creativity to drive growth. He has propelled Wheelhouse into working with some of the world's most innovative healthcare and medical device brands for more than a decade, consistently delivering exceptional business value through a combination of deep healthcare marketing expertise, purpose built technology, and creative capabilities. Most notably, Aaron and his team have developed technology and services that guide digital strategy for clients such as Providence, Fred Hutch, Delta Dental, and NASA. Well, welcome, Aaron. Thank you so much for being here today. I'm really excited to talk with you. [00:01:47] Aaron Burnett: Yeah, I'm excited to talk with you as well. Thanks for having me. [00:01:50] Lindsey Dinneen: Of course. Well, if you wouldn't mind starting off by sharing a little bit about yourself, your background, and what led you to MedTech. [00:01:59] Aaron Burnett: So I'm CEO of an agency called Wheelhouse Digital Marketing Group. It's a 14 year old agency. We provide performance marketing for privacy first industries. We have a particular concentration in medtech and healthcare, and have had that concentration for the last dozen or so years. We work with very large health systems like Providence, we work with some of the largest health insurance systems in the U. S. as well as large to mid size medical device manufacturers, and interestingly, we've also worked with NASA for the last six years, which is in neither of those markets but is interesting and complex and is NASA, and we get to do things on a scale that you don't get to do anywhere else. We're probably a little bit different from most other agencies, first in that everything that we do is attuned to privacy first industries. So we are, because of our long standing relationship with healthcare in particular, accustomed to working in environments that are highly regulated. So being attuned with HIPAA compliance and implications on third party tracking, working with much less data than you would work with in a typical e commerce or B2B lead generation sort of a situation. And so we have folks who are deeply expert at working in those markets, know them well, have an orientation toward performance marketing, which is what all of our clients want. They are diverse, but they're unified in that they want us to achieve an outcome with business value. It's important. It's lead generation. It's a transaction. It's something that has tangible value that can satisfy a chief financial officer. So deep expertise. We also have developed our own proprietary technologies and methodologies that help us to deliver performance marketing in these markets. So you know, in a highly regulated industry, you can't just use platform data for audience targeting. You don't get a lot of that data. You can't use platform data for optimization. You have to be very careful about what you collect and what you share and how you evaluate and commingle and analyze that data. So we've created our own HIPAA compliant data warehouse and a BI practice on top of that allows us to bring in not only platform and analytics data, but also CRM information so we can integrate it in an API level with CRM systems and first party data. So we get a lot of insight. We can see the entire user journey, customer journey, prospect journey in the context of our analysis in this platform and not share data with anyone else. So we never fall afoul of any regulations. And then our analysts can identify insights and then activate those insights in advertising platforms in sort of an air gap situation. We never have to share data. We also provide creative, but it's creative in the service of conversion rate optimization. So it's performance creative. We're not going to develop a new advertising campaign or a new branding strategy, but we are highly adept at figuring out how to get creative to perform, which is increasingly foundational to driving exceptional marketing outcomes. Now, because so much advertising is algorithmically driven and because in the absence of audience targeting, it turns out that creative variation and a really broad set of creative variation is kind of the new way to target an audience. So if you have 15 variations on a particular creative and they're attuned to different audiences and different messages, you can in some contexts rely on the platform algorithms to find your audience for you through that creative. So we're attuned to delivering that way. In terms of my own background, I started as a marketing exec. So I was a VP of Sales and Marketing with AT& T Wireless, worked for some other telecom and software companies, and started consulting and helping other folks with marketing, and found that I was good at and loved digital marketing, starting with SEO and then moving into the other disciplines. And the thing that I loved about that and that I continue to love about it is that it combines creativity, the art of marketing, with a definitive outcome which you don't get in traditional marketing. So it's there in the data, whether you did it or you didn't. And that's quite satisfying and also create security when you're working with clients. We can, at the end of a quarter say, "Listen, you're up 85%. And here's how we did it." And that creates certainty around the value of the relationship. It creates longevity in the relationship. We strive very hard to develop long term client relationships. I think our average tenure is about six and a half years now. And we find that just continuing to deliver and continuing to clearly explain what we've delivered puts us in good stead and makes for a nice, stable, and growing business. [00:06:37] Lindsey Dinneen: Nice. Well, first of all, congratulations on that business that you've successfully launched and is going strong. That's awesome. I know that's no small feat. I know a lot of our listeners can relate to that too, of being that CEO and taking on that incredible new job opportunity, and how many things you learn and the day to day ups and downs of entrepreneur. [00:06:57] Aaron Burnett: That's right. You get an opportunity to make a new mistake every day. [00:07:02] Lindsey Dinneen: Indeed. Indeed. Indeed. But that's a good thing. So that's fantastic. Thank you for sharing a little bit about that. So going a little bit back into some of your personal background, and then I'm delighted to delve into the company as well and what you do. But in the growing up, did you have an inkling that marketing would be the thing for you, or did this sort of grow out of schoolwork, or what was that thing that said, "Oh, I think I know where I want to be?" [00:07:30] Aaron Burnett: I figured out where I wanted to be by figuring out where I didn't want to be first. [00:07:34] Lindsey Dinneen: Oh. [00:07:35] Aaron Burnett: So no, the thing that I wanted to be, from the time I was seven until I was in the middle of college, was an attorney. Then the notion that I had of being an attorney was you would fight for truth and justice and fairness and all of those virtues, sort of a cinematic version of being an attorney. And what changed my mind was that I paid my way through college by working in restaurants, and in a particular restaurant in which I worked-- it was a fine dining restaurant-- there were a lot of attorneys who came in with clients or came in after work. There were also a considerable number of law school students during the summer who were taking a breather and recovering before they went back again. And I got really consistent insight and advice, which was sort of distilled. The law school students said, "Yeah, we used to think that's what this was for too. And that was beaten out of us by the second year of law school. That's not what this is for." The attorneys who were successful, particularly financially successful, they were focused on transactions and they were very conventionally successful and very apparently miserable. Then the other thing was that I came to believe that being an attorney would draw out the very worst in me. I'm a little bit competitive and I really enjoy arguing. I couldn't see how that was going to be good for me, a marriage, or being a good father, or any of those sorts of things. So, I figured out what I didn't want to do first. And then when I graduated from college, I had studied communications and then I also had studied political science and eastern philosophy and religion. And after college, I was aware that I wasn't ready to get a job, because I had no idea what that job would be. So, I went backpacking in Southeast Asia. I bought a one way ticket to Bangkok. And the plan was that I would travel for three years, and I would see in person some of the things that I studied. I would learn more and think more and get more clarity as to who I was and who I wanted to be. But that plan changed when five months into that trip, I met a woman on an island off the coast of Malaysia at a beach party during Ramadan when everything else shuts down at sundown and the only thing to do is to hang out with other backpackers. And we met and stayed up until three in the morning talking and both of us knew, like, right away, "Oh, you're the person." So we spent most of the next seven days together. Got engaged at the end of those seven days. Got married three months later in New Zealand. She's a New Zealander who was headed to Europe. And then came back to the U. S. so that she could be in the U. S. for the two years that required to establish permanent residency. And I started working for a telecom company in a temporary role. I worked there for three weeks as a temp. I was hired as an employee into the marketing department and discovered that marketing was an aptitude and something that I really enjoyed. I was also in a really fast growing company. It was a cellular company, part of Macaw Cellular at the time. And kind of the ethos there was, "Doesn't matter if you have done it, because nobody's done this stuff before. If you can do it, and you show aptitude, we're going to give you a shot." And so I got to do all sorts of things that I had no business doing, but that I succeeded at. I built a call center. I built a marketing organization of 75 employees and ran that for about three years. And I ended up becoming VP of Sales and Marketing, about seven years into that stint and just discovered that I love marketing and I particularly love marketing the intersection of marketing and technology. I love the tech part. I love developing new technology. One of the things that I did there was to develop a call completion platform for the network that we worked on that had a significant impact on revenue and a decrease in cost. So I loved identifying technical solutions and then activating them from a marketing perspective. What I also discovered, though, when that company was acquired by AT& T was that I didn't like really big companies, where you got to be VP of something very deep but very narrow, which is how that was going to turn out. And so I went from there to a series of smaller and smaller companies. And the closer I got to entrepreneurship, the happier I became, and the more at ease I became until in the year that my first daughter was born, in a job that was going super well-- I joined two years prior, the company had increased its customer base by about tenfold, things were going super well, it was five minutes from my house. It was easy, I wasn't stressed, but it was also super bored. I quit and started a company, and from there went into, I made all of the first time entrepreneur mistakes in that company. I left that company. Actually, that company left. That company didn't succeed. [00:12:32] Lindsey Dinneen: Oh, no. I'm sorry. [00:12:34] Aaron Burnett: It was great. I learned a lot. I also learned that I loved that and then started to consult and learned that. No, I actually love technology and marketing, but I love more helping people. That feels really good to me. And so sort of fast forward a few years. I created Wheelhouse for a couple of important reasons. One is I wanted to create the agency that I always wished I could hire when I worked for other companies. And what I wanted out of an agency partner was that it was partnership. It was somebody who really did have my best interests at heart that didn't deploy an account manager on me who is constantly looking for opportunities to monetize the relationship, who was playing this sort of kabuki theater where we pretend we're friends, but really it's about the change order, which felt bad on a soul level to me. And I also wanted to create this sort of place I always wanted to work. [00:13:29] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. [00:13:30] Aaron Burnett: I worked in larger and larger companies-- and actually this was true in venture backed companies as well-- in most instances, what I discovered is that people were asked to be someone different at work than they were at home. We have a set of values that we all agree to societally. We believe in being helpful and generous and kind. We would help anyone on the street if they asked us. If a friend called, and asked for help, you wouldn't figure out how you were going to get paid for that help. You wouldn't be playing the angles. If you were doing something with a friend, if you were coming to an agreement, if you were writing letters to an exchange of letters to agree on plans, you wouldn't be crafting the language, looking for the way that they might transgress, and you could take advantage of them. And yet, I found lots of instances where that was true in business, and that didn't make any sense to me. So I wanted to create a place that I wanted to work where the same values that you uphold that you believe in that are healthy in your personal life are the values that you adhere to in your professional life as well. And so the core values that have informed and continue to inform the way that we behave here are in part traditional. Integrity and stewardship are there, but so too is helpfulness and generosity and joyfulness. We say to every prospective client, every current client, everybody who works here, "We exist to be helpful." That helpfulness is not constrained by a piece of paper. If a client asks us for help, we will help first. We'll be generous with our time and our expertise and our resources. We'll almost certainly do work that we're not being paid for explicitly. We'll look out for our client's best interests, but we'll look out, we'll ask them to look out for our best interests as well. And we say that explicitly. And my experience is that in almost every instance, if you remind people of who they are at the beginning and that, "Hey, this is a personal relationship here. I know there's a contract and it's a business contract but as a person with my business I'm helping you as a person to achieve your aims as well. And anything we do that's detrimental has a personal impact and anything we do that's additive has a personal impact. And I'm going to try to make this the best experience for you and I'll rely on you to do the same with me." You know it creates a much healthier relationship, and that's part of the reason we have such a long client tenure. Our clients very quickly know, "Oh, you're on my side. You're going to help me. I don't have to walk around with one hand holding my wallet. I don't have to worry every time I call and ask for help. I don't have to review my SOW." [00:16:06] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. [00:16:06] Aaron Burnett: Pretty quickly get to a place where neither of us remember what's in an SOW. And we're only going to go back and look at it if something really gets to the size that, "Oh no, that definitely wasn't a part of this initially. We should talk about this being a separate thing." And quite often, it's the client doing that, saying, " Doing this thing, we should pay you more for that." And I love that. I see that as an indication of health. We do other things that are unconventional as well. We do have an account team. They focus on hospitality, not monetization. And one of the metrics that we track internally is laughter. So if we're in all of our client meetings, we're listening for laughter. We're not scoring it. We're not trying to make it happen X number of times, but I see the presence of laughter as an indication of ease and trust and health, and we really care about that, and so we invest in it. [00:17:02] Lindsey Dinneen: I love that. Oh my goodness. I love all of the culture that you have so meticulously crafted, and it's so interesting because as you were talking about it, I was thinking how you had mentioned early on career wise you were saying, "Well, I, I learned by discovering what I didn't appreciate." And I'm wondering then if part of the culture that you have so carefully developed and cultivated over time is also partly, "Oh, I see what hasn't worked very well in the past. So now I'm really focusing in on something that is aligned" to who you are, obviously because you're the CEO, this is your business, but also just, "this is what works well for our client relationships and everyone who works with us." [00:17:45] Aaron Burnett: Yeah, that's true on a number of levels. It's true in that, at times we see the way that other agencies or even writ large, other service organizations behave. Sometimes we bump up-- actually frequently we bump up against other agencies, particularly in large client situations. And we're really explicit in saying we're never going to try to poach business from another agency because we just don't think that's very nice. You have to behave in a very mercenary way to make that happen. You have to undercut someone. And so instead, we talk about creating the conditions that make people want to work with us. So we'll work hard to create the conditions that show us to be expert and clearly demonstrate the value that we can deliver, but we're not going to say, in contrast to those people over there. [00:18:32] Lindsey Dinneen: Yes. [00:18:32] Aaron Burnett: And there's a difference. And so, we come back to our values on that. We also, you're right in that the impetus for the culture came from me, but I also have a strong belief that everyone who comes here should add something to the culture and they are free to express the culture in their own way. Some of those ways might not be comfortable to me the ways that I would think you might go about doing this, but they're great for other people, right? And there are things in the company rights that are kind of like that where I know a majority people love this thing. It's important culturally. It doesn't do anything for me, but that's okay. And then we also have learned-- I joke that you get to make a new mistake every day and that's a joke. It's also pretty true. I make lots of mistakes. I have made cultural mistakes over the years that were very well intentioned and have been costly, either financially or culturally. I think that, you know, there are byproducts of a culture like ours that are behavioral. If you're going to be helpful and generous and pursue joy in your daily work, then the byproducts should be that you also are, you know, kind and gentle, and that you extend grace to people when they mess up. And those are great things, but taken to extreme, they also can be damaging things. And there have been times when I've taken them to extreme, when I thought with a, let's say an employee who wasn't performing well, but I had a great deal of empathy for. I would want to give them many chances and think, "Well, surely, okay, if I explained it one more time but different, or if someone else gave them clearer direction, or we did something else, we're going to get there from here." thinking, "Well, this is very kind to them. I'm giving them more runway. And it's good culturally as well. This is the right, sort of the moral decision to make." And in retrospect, that was totally wrong. It wasn't actually kind to them because we also communicate frequently. They knew where they stood. They knew they weren't performing. And this just extended the non performance in a lot of instances. It was also not kind to their team members because they had to fix the work or do the extra work. It was frustrating to them to see that their merit wasn't held in higher esteem, treated differently, that they were getting less attention than a person who was underperforming. And it took a long time for me to learn that. Other people told me I was doing that wrong for years. And in fact, there's a great book that we have used, that you're probably familiar with, called "Radical Candor" that really speaks to the importance of being quite direct, but in a kind way. And there is, there are four quadrants described in that book for different sorts of styles. And there's one just for me, I think, called Ruinous Empathy. And that's where I lived for a while. Super nice, very empathetic. But sometimes a bad result. [00:21:34] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. It's a great book. Highly recommend it for anyone eager to improve communication and how to give feedback and whatnot. [00:21:42] Aaron Burnett: Right, yeah. We call it telling the kind truth. You can say a hard thing, but in a nice way. [00:21:49] Lindsey Dinneen: Indeed. Indeed. And we all need that. We need that personally. We need to be able to give that. So that's incredible. So, now, specifically with medtech companies-- which I know you've chosen to really spotlight in addition to your healthcare organizations that you work with-- what major challenges or common challenges do you see medtech companies have when they're starting to think about-- well, maybe they haven't even gotten to a really good marketing plan yet because, you know, at first maybe they're just building, building and they haven't even thought, "Oh, I'm not quite sure how we're going to communicate about this." But just in general, what are some of the major challenges or common challenges that you see MedTech companies having with their marketing and how can you help? How can we help? [00:22:30] Aaron Burnett: Yeah. Huh. There are a couple of key challenges. One is figuring out messaging that resonates and drives performance. And a mistake that we often see is that messaging is viewed as static rather than iterative. It has always been the case that constant testing has real value, outsized value, particularly in digital advertising. It is exponentially true today that constant iteration and tweaking and tuning in messaging and in creative is absolutely essential to driving performance. And what also is true is that messaging and creative increasingly help you find your audience. So, if you're in a company that is highly regulated, that is governed by privacy regulations, that is perhaps governed by HIPAA regulations, you're significantly constrained in the data you have access to, the things that you can track. In the main, you can't really use third party tracking. It seems every week there is some sort of new announcement that further restricts the data to which you have access. The latest announcement is Meta declaring that they are targeting sensitive industries and categories. And that in targeting those industries and categories, they're going to block certain types of data, and the data that they're blocking in the main is conversion data. And so, you're blind with regard to whether anybody actually did the thing you needed them to do. Did they sign up for a trial? Did they complete a lead form? Did they ask for follow up? If you're using a conventional approach to those sorts of things, if you're using certainly their tracking, which I hope nobody is doing anymore, then that data just goes away on some date. But as you lose fidelity of the data and as you take into account sort of the more meta issue, not Meta the platform, but the global issue of cookie deprecation and privacy settings in browsers and the fact that already about 40 percent of the third party data that you would have gotten through browser signals is gone. You've lost fidelity. So the way that you find an audience now, particularly in a data constrained environment, is through what you put into market. It's messaging variation, and it's through really significant creative variation, not one ad, two ads, three ads, like old school conversion rate optimization, but 15 ads. 15 different creative concepts with variation of messaging that look very different. And as you do that systematically over time, you allow the algorithm to both optimize performance, and those algorithms work very well now, but increasingly-- and this is particularly true again on Meta which we find to be really powerful when done well for medical device clients-- you find that you don't just optimize the creative. In that optimization, the creative finds your audience for you. You're able to tune your creative to the audience that performs for you and continue to iterate in terms of both audience targeting and creative. So first there's, there is a need to test into all of this. And there is intensive testing at the beginning of the process, but there's continuous testing, perhaps at a lower velocity or intensity, even as you go along. It doesn't stop. You don't get to a point where, "Oh good, we're on cruise control. We've got the ad that works. We've got the PPC that works. Everything is working well." It's just constant iteration because it is algorithmically driven and because in the algorithms, you know you can think of this in terms of social media. In social media, I think people are familiar with algorithmic fatigue. If your algorithm in a personal feed on a social platform didn't change, didn't refresh fairly frequently, you get really bored with what you're seeing. The same is true in the platforms. And so we find creative fatigue, even with creative that performs super well, happens fast-- like a week, ten days, something like that. And the fall off isn't subtle. It's you're going along and you do that. It's a big drop. So it's constant iteration. The second thing that we find is a lack of, I was going to say a lack of sophistication with regard to data strategy. It's actually more often the absence of data strategy. I think for a long time data strategy didn't need to be foundational to marketing, even to digital marketing. If you think of digital advertising or even organic forms of digital marketing, the platforms did the work for us. You targeted audiences in the various advertising and social platforms. You got all your data through analytics. You could see what was happening in search through search console. Perhaps you use some third party platforms as well. But what is true now in a data constrained environment is that the most important signal, the signal that delivers greatest value, isn't the signal that's in the platform. It's the signal that's probably in your CRM. It's the one that tells you that a lead converted, someone actually went into trying a device, or they actually became revenue generating. So you need a strategy at a system, at a platform level, to bring all of that data together and to normalize it in a manner that enables it to be evaluated and analyzed as a corpus of data that enables you to see the entire user journey. You need a strategy around naming conventions in advertising that allows you to bring that in a way that can be integrated with CRM data and other analytics data or other platform data. You need a first party data strategy, because in a data constrained environment, in a tracking constrained environment where you can't rely on third party data in the same way, audience targeting and even optimization now rely substantially on first party data. It's the data you own that you have permission to use, or on zero party data. Well, you can't put that in a public database. That has to go in a purpose built data warehouse that has been developed for privacy sensitive industries. And so, in our case, we created a HIPAA compliant data warehouse and a BI practice on top of that that gives our analysts the ability to view the customer journey in entirety, to see people as they move through sort of the prospect funnel, and to optimize for the conversion step that isn't in the platform but delivers business value. And then to use the insights that they glean there to optimize in a platform without sharing data, which is the key. You're able to know, and this is something for people to remember, despite all the increased privacy regulations and constraints, as a website owner, as long as you have the right data environment, meaning the data you collect is in a HIPAA compliant environment, if you're governed by HIPAA, certainly in a privacy sensitive environment, even if you're not, you can collect full fidelity data regarding what people are doing on your site. You can't share it with a third party platform, you can't send it to Meta, you can't send it to Google, but you're able to know everything that you knew before, so long as you collect it in the right way, and evaluate it in the right way. And our experience is, the privacy regulations, despite being uncomfortable and alarming and forcing a lot of intense activity up front to create a new systemic approach, new infrastructure connections and new data strategies, actually yield a much better business outcome. We can drive better performance with first party data. We drive more business value with first party data than we did when we were doing it the easy way and using platforms for targeting and optimization. [00:30:27] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. Okay. Yeah. So, so your company really helps to bridge the gap between what maybe, if you're not into the nitty gritty details, say we're speaking with somebody who's developed a device what they may have learned as, as far as like Marketing 101, but it is so different when you have, like you said, very specifically protected industries and they have a lot of regulation and we have to be really careful with how we talk about things. So your company is really helping bridge that gap between what we may have all been taught and kind of know in the back of our head versus here's the actual reality of the situation today. And you're keeping on top of all of those regulations. [00:31:08] Aaron Burnett: True. And then, you know, because we concentrate on the medical device industry, we also are highly attuned to what language we can and cannot use. And we know, alright, we need creative variation, but we also understand that we can't just test anything. That we need to be very careful with language, we have to use language that's approved, it needs to come from certain sources and not from others. If it's new it has to go through a certain approval process. So, we end up creating a lot of efficiency by simply knowing how it all works and having a lot of experience with needing to create new ad variations that win easy approval and can very quickly be put into market. [00:31:50] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah, of course. Now, you know, in working with MedTech and you've chosen again, some very specific niches, which I love. Have you had any moments that really stand out as, "I'm working with this client and I am in this industry and I am realizing, 'Wow, I am really in my element.' I am here for a reason." It just sort of stands out at this moment that matters. [00:32:15] Aaron Burnett: Yeah. One of the clients we've worked with for a very long time has an insulin monitoring and delivery device. We worked with them when they were sort of mid sized, but also kind of looking for market fit in their digital marketing was dormant. Almost dormant. I'd put it on the verge of dormant. It wasn't doing well. So, we started on a series of projects with them, and they started quite small, and very quickly were able to deliver a lot of performance for them. So, the first year, we increased lead generation by just under 500 percent for them, which was super meaningful and exciting, and enabled us to start this very long term relationship that is broad and multifaceted now. What I've loved about working with them, and we were talking about this when we first got online, is that the people who work there really care about the people they serve. And as a matter of fact, there is almost a universality in that the people who work there either have close friends or family members who deal with diabetes. And so it's not a commercial endeavor. I mean, it is, but it's also a very personal endeavor and they're aware and convinced-- and I think they're right-- because I also have a close family member who uses their device, that their device makes such a difference to the quality of life for the people involved. The difference that I've seen in this family member is that she went, I think, from being aware, moment to moment, "I'm diabetic and I need to keep track of this, and there are some things I need to do at certain points throughout the day," to "That's not really a main thing I have to think about. I mean, I have to be kind of aware of it, and, you know, I've got an app on my phone, and I do have this device, but this is not something that is at the forefront of my brain. I can think about other things, and this is very much in the background." And that's a really big deal. And we feel the same. I know I have been to public events. I went to a high school play and one of the performers was very clearly wearing this device and not hiding it. It was super visible just a part of her life, not anything she felt embarrassed about. And I felt proud of that, even though I have, I play such a small part in that. But, just felt proud that she felt comfortable, and she was a lead in a school play, and it was a good play, and a big deal, and there were hundreds of people in the audience. And so, to see the impact of something like that, and to have confidence that the work that we do actually makes a positive difference in the world, is soul satisfying. [00:35:00] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. Thank you for sharing that story. That's, that is really special and impactful. And I always think, you know, we don't always get those moments of realizing the impact of our work. I agree with you, even in the small, like, "Oh my gosh, I had a tiny little piece to play in it." But it just makes you think, "Oh my goodness, what I do really does matter. It does make a difference." And so to get that opportunity to have seen it in action and in such a positive light is incredible. So yeah, I appreciate you sharing that. [00:35:29] Aaron Burnett: It's comfortable. It feels so good to market for clients when you're sure that what you're putting in the marketplace is really good for them. And what you're trying to do is just make sure they're aware of this good thing. That's so different than marketing for a client where you're sure they want to make more money and you're not sure that anybody who buys this thing-- does it matter? Does it not matter? Does anyone really need this thing? You know, that's a very different feeling than being confident that the thing you're promoting will make a positive difference in their lives. So, yeah. [00:36:09] Lindsey Dinneen: Amen to that. And that's a really interesting thing about marketing that can be divisive a little bit among people who aren't as familiar with the industry or as comfortable. And so it's really nice to know, you know, marketing can, and is very often, used in a very positive way to highlight the important things 'cause you know, as I try to remind my lovely engineer friends is you can make the most wonderful thing in the world, but if nobody knows about it, that's that. You know, that you're just, you're stuck. So, so it is important to have marketing and to have that bridge that gap and make it known. But to just know, like you said, that it's going to make a positive impact is just wonderful. So yeah, I love that. So pivoting the conversation a little bit, just for fun, imagine that you were to be offered a million dollars to teach a masterclass on anything you want. It can be within your industry, it can be totally separate. What would you choose to teach? [00:37:07] Aaron Burnett: Oh, the power of culture. [00:37:09] Lindsey Dinneen: Ooh. [00:37:10] Aaron Burnett: And if I had to focus more specifically on the power of generosity in business. My experience, our experience throughout the history of this company, is that helpfulness and generosity are our BD strategy. We're not trying to convince anybody of anything. We're trying to give as much away as we can be as generous as we can. And we find that if you help people, if you are generous and if you do it without expectation-- and I can't fully explain why this is true. I have some guesses. If you help people without expectation, you just help them because you're helpful, and that's the right thing to do, and you do that for a person, that good things happen out of that. I think I can explain it. I can understand it more mechanically. I might bump into you. We may or may not know one another, but we get chatting, and you tell me you've got a problem, and I know the answer to that problem. It's also a service that I offer. And I could certainly play the angles and try to get an engagement to get you to pay me for that service. I could just help you. And you may or may not ever become a client, but I've helped you. And my experience with that is that we've gotten referrals from people who have never been clients. And sometimes those referrals occur years later, like long enough that we only vaguely remember who that person was and what we did for them. But I think that being generous, you can't tell someone to trust you. But you can behave in a trustworthy way. You can't tell someone in a way that inspires confidence, "Look, I'm gonna look out for your best interests. I'm not gonna try and pick your pocket." But you can behave that way. And you can communicate it with your actions. So, I think it's interesting to consider what business and society would be like if the orientation was toward generosity rather than the orientation being toward protection. When we write SOWs, for the longest time we wrote the most naive SOWs. And we did it intentionally. A, because, practically, we're a small agency working with big clients. And if somebody wants to take advantage of us, they probably can because I have a limited attorney budget, and I don't really want to spend my budget on that anyway. But the other reason is that I that seems to have integrity with what we say. We're going to be helpful and generous. We're going to do work you're probably not going to pay us for. We'll look out for you. You look out for us. We're not going to get you with business terms. We're not going to squeeze you with scope of work, that sort of thing. So, let's not kid each other. Let's not now create this document that's super conventional and has five pages of terms and conditions and that sort of thing. It's honestly only as we've worked with larger and larger organizations where their legal teams won't let them sign an SOW that's as goofy as ours were. You have to have certain terms and conditions, and if we don't provide them, they send us theirs. We don't like theirs as much as we like ours, so. Yeah. Yeah. So I think generosity is a tremendous engine for very healthy business growth and very healthy personal relationships. [00:40:30] Lindsey Dinneen: Absolutely agreed. And how do you wish to be remembered after you leave this world? [00:40:36] Aaron Burnett: As kind. [00:40:37] Lindsey Dinneen: The world needs a lot more of that, so I'll take that answer any day. And then final question, what is one thing that makes you smile every time you see or think about it? [00:40:50] Aaron Burnett: Oh, I have two daughters. Yeah. [00:40:54] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah, excellent. Oh, that's wonderful. Family is important and special. That's wonderful. Well, thank you so much, first of all, for your incredible insights today, for your generosity, to your generosity of your time with us and diving into some really specific areas that, that med tech companies can think about, can be aware of as they're even seeking somebody to help them with their marketing. I really appreciate you being open and willing to talk about some of those those nuances. So thank you very much for that. We are so honored to be making a donation on your behalf today to Feeding America, which works to end hunger in the United States by partnering with food banks, food pantries, and local food programs to bring food to people facing hunger and also they advocate for policies that create long term solutions to hunger. So thank you so much for choosing that charity to support. And gosh, I just wish you the most continued success as you work to change lives for a better world. [00:41:55] Aaron Burnett: Thank you. I really appreciate it. You too. It was a great conversation. I really enjoyed it. [00:41:59] Lindsey Dinneen: Good. Absolutely. Well, and thank you also to our listeners for tuning in. And if you're feeling as inspired as I am right now, I'd love it if you'd share this episode with a colleague or two, and we will catch you next time. [00:42:14] Ben Trombold: The Leading Difference is brought to you by Velentium. Velentium is a full-service CDMO with 100% in-house capability to design, develop, and manufacture medical devices from class two wearables to class three active implantable medical devices. Velentium specializes in active implantables, leads, programmers, and accessories across a wide range of indications, such as neuromodulation, deep brain stimulation, cardiac management, and diabetes management. Velentium's core competencies include electrical, firmware, and mechanical design, mobile apps, embedded cybersecurity, human factors and usability, automated test systems, systems engineering, and contract manufacturing. Velentium works with clients worldwide, from startups seeking funding to established Fortune 100 companies. Visit velentium.com to explore your next step in medical device development.

Everyone on the face of the earth is represented as soil by this farming story found in Mark 4:3-20. Isn't it interesting that Genesis 2:7 says, "God created man from the dust of the ground." Jesus scatters His good WORD all over earth and it is received either by hard, rocky, thorny, or good soil.  Jesus is the sower and we, by extension, have been given a mandate of sharing the gospel seed. It is important in physical and spiritual agriculture to understand what soil is like in order that we may be effective at sowing. 

Everyone on the face of the earth is represented as soil by this farming story found in Mark 4:3-20. Isn't it interesting that Genesis 2:7 says, "God created man from the dust of the ground." Jesus scatters His good WORD all over earth and it is received either by hard, rocky, thorny, or good soil.  Jesus is the sower and we, by extension, have been given a mandate of sharing the gospel seed. It is important in physical and spiritual agriculture to understand what soil is like in order that we may be effective at sowing. 

On today’s show: The Hill reports on how Elon Musk’s weekend email asking federal employees to describe their accomplishments led a number of agencies to push back. Soldiers are arriving at the border — but hardly any migrants are crossing. The Washington Post’s Arelis Hernández reports from the town of Del Rio. The conservative Christian Democratic Union won elections in Germany on Sunday, likely making its leader, Friedrich Merz, the next chancellor. Reuters reports on how the far-right Alternative for Germany party also saw big gains. Plus, Israel says it will delay the release of more than 600 Palestinian prisoners, how one man found out his partner was on the American Airlines flight that collided with an army helicopter, and American skier Mikaela Shiffrin wins her 100th World Cup title with a women-led team guiding her.

Pigs appear in folklore in somewhat unusual ways. Sometimes, they choose the location where a church should be built. Or they appear as phantoms, haunting misty moorland. Sailors or fishermen considered pigs unlucky, and wouldn't even say 'pig' at sea. If they met a pig on their way to the boat, they would postpone sailing. Some of them went so far as to ban pork products on board. While this superstition seems inexplicable on the surface, Jacqueline Simpson suggests it comes from the biblical association between pigs and uncleanliness. Some believed pigs can't swim (they can, they're very good at it), and that they can see the wind. So what other strange things have people thought about pigs and collected into folklore? Let's find out in this week's episode of Fabulous Folklore! Find the images and references on the blog post: https://www.icysedgwick.com/pigs-folklore/ Get your free guide to home protection the folklore way here: https://www.icysedgwick.com/fab-folklore/ Become a member of the Fabulous Folklore Family for bonus episodes and articles at https://patreon.com/bePatron?u=2380595 Buy Icy a coffee or sign up for bonus episodes at: https://ko-fi.com/icysedgwick Fabulous Folklore Bookshop: https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/fabulous_folklore Pre-recorded illustrated talks: https://ko-fi.com/icysedgwick/shop Request an episode: https://forms.gle/gqG7xQNLfbMg1mDv7 Get extra snippets of folklore on Instagram at https://instagram.com/icysedgwick Find Icy on BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/icysedgwick.bsky.social 'Like' Fabulous Folklore on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fabulousfolklore/

P.M. Edition for Jan. 29. As President Trump's immigration directives clear the path to step up deportations, his PR campaign may be just as effective. WSJ reporter Michelle Hackman talks about the impact that's already having on immigrants. Plus, Trump announces a plan to hold tens of thousands of deported migrants in Guantanamo Bay. And the Federal Reserve holds interest rates steady for now. WSJ global editor for Heard on the Street Spencer Jakab joins to discuss the Fed's new wait-and-see approach. Alex Ossola hosts. Sign up for the WSJ's free What's News newsletter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A federal judge temporarily blocked President Trump's order to freeze federal grants and loans on Tuesday, as Medicaid and other programs experienced interruptions causing chaos and confusion. The Trump administration's directive could halt trillions of dollars in federal funds while agencies are directed to ensure financial assistance doesn't conflict with administration ideology. California's Attorney General and 22 other states have sued to stop the freeze, saying it is an unconstitutional violation of the separation of powers. We'll talk about what could be affected by the funding order, which is halted until at least Monday, the legality of Trump's action, and the efforts to fight it. Guests: Samuel R. Bagenstos, professor of law, University of Michigan Law School; former general counsel, White House Office of Management and Budget Mark Joseph Stern, senior writer, Slate magazine Marisa Lagos, politics correspondent, KQED, co-host of KQED's Political Breakdown

From the Gospel acclamation: "The seed is the word of God, Christ is the sower;all who come to him will live for ever." A reading from the holy Gospel according to Mark (Mark 4:1-20) Jesus said to them, “Do you not understand this parable? Then how will you understand any of the parables? The sower sows the word. These are the ones on the path where the word is sown." Using a parable about a sower, Jesus describes conditions in life that we all face at one time or another. Jesus explains to the crowd gathered around him by the sea that the seed represents the word of God and that different types of ground symbolize the various responses to his word. Whether through persecution or distraction or anxiety or succumbing to the evil one, we sometimes fail to see God's word take root. "But those sown on rich soil," Jesus says, "are the ones who hear the word and accept it and bear fruit thirty and sixty and a hundredfold.” What kind of soil will the sower of the word find in us as he comes to sow his word? God, help me prepare my heart to receive your word so that it takes root and bears fruit "thirty and sixty and a hundredfold.” The seed that you come to plant will grow throughout my life and continue to grow even into eternal life through the single sacrifice of Jesus Christ your Son. You are the sower who promises and delivers, as Jeremiah prophesied, through the New Covenant to put your laws into our hearts and write them upon our minds. Give me the grace, Lord, to make of myself a good seedbed of rich soil, ready to receive your word. In fruitfulness, let it grow abundantly in this life and continue to grow under the eternal light of your presence. Let me hear and accept your word. Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

Bryan discusses an important truth in fundraising: you may be sowing seeds you never reap. In any profession, it can be discouraging to act but not see immediate fruit. How do you persevere when success doesn't seem to follow your hard efforts?

Tommy Dreamer talks about what he saw in Damian Priest after his In-Ring Face Off with World Heavyweight Champion GUNTHER. Plus, he shares his thoughts on the OTC and The Bloodline beginning their search for their 5th member for War Games. Want even more? Subscribe to SiriusXM Podcasts+ on our Apple Podcasts show page to unlock exclusive bonus content, early access, and ad-free listening to new episodes.

As the election approaches, conspiracy theories have flooded social media. On this week's On the Media, hear why journalists are struggling to keep up with disinformation, on and offline. Plus, what does The Washington Post's non-endorsement really mean? And, a look at the media coverage of the Uncommitted movement.[01:00] Host Micah Loewinger speaks with Brandy Zadrozny, senior reporter at NBC, about the growing swirl of disinformation around the election—and the toll it's taking. [14:26] Host Brooke Gladstone takes a close look at the implications of The Washington Post's decision to skip a presidential endorsement, and what it means to “obey in advance.”[24:07] Host Micah Loewinger interviews democratic strategist Waleed Shahid, a co-founder of the Uncommitted Movement, about how the press has covered Arab and Muslim voters.[37:34] Host Brooke Gladstone talks with historian Ira Chinoy, author of Predicting the Winner: The Untold Story of Election Night 1952 and the Dawn of Computer Forecasting, about how newspapers in the 1800s, radio stations in the 1920s, and television in the 1950s helped to make election night the spectacle it is today. Further reading:“Extremists inspired by conspiracy theories pose major threat to 2024 elections, U.S. intelligence warns,” by Brandy Zadrozny"On anticipatory obedience and the media," by Ian Bassin and Maximillian PotterPredicting the Winner: The Untold Story of Election Night 1952 and the Dawn of Computer Forecasting, by Ira Chinoy On the Media is supported by listeners like you. Support OTM by donating today (https://pledge.wnyc.org/support/otm). Follow our show on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook @onthemedia, and share your thoughts with us by emailing onthemedia@wnyc.org.

God's word is to produce fruit and it is this fruit that the Lord will gather us to Himself at the end of the age. The post The Sower Sows the Word appeared first on Jubilee Church.

Bradley Wolter is a relative newcomer to the beef business, but has certainly been a student of the industry since his move from a successful career in the swine industry.In this episode, we talk about his tenure with Maschhoffs, one of the largest family-owned pork producers in the United States. We talk about data collection, management strategy, operational efficiency and the major differences between pork and beef production systems and cultures.Bradley and his family now own and operate Windy Hill Meadows, an Angus seedstock and consumer-focused beef business in Aviston, IL.

Today on Truth in Politics and Culture, a recently retired border patrol agent from San Diego tells the House Homeland Security Committee the Biden Administration covered up the number of illegal immigrants who are on the terrorist watchlist. The Harris Campaign and some legacy media outlets distort the facts of a Georgia abortion case to sow fear among women about restrictive abortion laws. Israel sows fear among Hezbollah fighters with exploding pagers and walkie-talkies.

A confidant of Mayor Brandon Johnson sparked concern among corporate donors by soliciting significant contributions to a political nonprofit planning to throw a week's worth of DNC events. Crain's politics reporter Justin Laurence discusses with host Amy Guth.Plus: J.B. Pritzker's turn as DNC host vaults him to national stage, Cboe looks to return $500 million to investors, new entertainment concept planned at former Lawry's space and activist investor takes stake in Portillo's.

#Markets:  "The Great Unwind"  Liz Peek The Hill. Fox News and Fox Business https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-08-05/-6-4-trillion-wipeout-sows-fear-great-unwind-is-just-starting?srnd=homepage-americas&sref=5g4GmFHo 1910 NYC