Podcasts about Special K

Someone has a potty mouth while gaming but Special K has a fix. Website

Send us a textWe've had some crazy storms lately at The Mulvay Suburban  Hang Suite so what a better topic to dive into than some of the best songs about the weather.  Join Rabel, Special K, Cousin Nicki, and S Mulvay as we dig in...   

Special K is getting on another telemarketers nerves by repeating the phrase "I Heard Dat". Website

This week on 2 Pros and a Cup of Joe, NFL Schedule Release videos steal the show and the league tells you which teams they care least about. The Old P, Petros Papadakis jumps on to talk about Michael Jordan behind the mic, Belichick drama, surfing and Special K. Plus, Ohio State fans being mad at Big Noon Kickoff is misplaced and overblown.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Special K need your help moving....his taxidermied animals. Website

Wednesday on 2 Pros and a Cup of Joe, the Pacers close out the Cavs and the Thunder take the lead on the Nuggets. Bengals DE Trey Hendrickson continues to air out Bengals ownership. And The Old P, Petros Papadakis jumps on to talk about Michael Jordan behind the mic, Belichick drama, surfing and Special K.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Special K is back with a new phrase "God Bless Texas" and things get a little heated. Website

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We were excited to see this new Special K Zero Strawberry Creme, especially since it is in puff form...but it certainly does not deliver. Then some Cosmic Marshmallow Cereal from Harris Teeter, and yummy Honey Cashew Granola from Cascadian Farm.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/cereal-killers--4294848/support.

Special K and Sam were reality TV stars for a day. Website

Special K suggest some bad songs for a little league team. Website

Llega al videoclub, una banda sonora muy ochentera, llena de breakdance, hip hop, rap, grafiti, y la cultura por las batallas de break. Toca bailar al ritmo de los míticos personajes de Special K, Ozone y Turbo. Edición Ismael Rubio. Síguenos, Comparte, Comenta y dale al LIKE, ¡¡Gracias!! ➡️ Únete gratis a nuestro grupo de Telegram https://t.me/tiemposdevideoclub ➡️ Camisetas, Tazas y Merchandising https://latostadora.com/shop/TDV ➡️ Invitándonos a un café en https://ko-fi.com/tiemposdevideoclub ➡️ Visita nuestras RRSS https://allmylinks.com/tdvideoclub ➡️ Contáctanos en tiemposdevideoclub@hotmail.com

The episode kicks off with breaking economic news: while Canada's overall inflation slowed to 2.3% in March, food inflation surged to a staggering 3.2%—a monthly jump not seen since 1983. Sylvain attributes the spike to Ottawa's counter-tariffs, rising ingredient costs, and shifting sourcing strategies as Canadian grocers de-Americanize their supply chains. This backdrop leads into a discussion on recent Caddle research indicating that 61% of Canadians are willing to pay more for local products—an unprecedented level of national loyalty that presents both opportunity and urgency for domestic producers.Listeners also get a sneak peek at the upcoming release of the Canadian Food Sentiment Index, sponsored by MNP, which shows growing trust in Canada's food industry. Michael and Sylvain then pivot to the controversial topic of GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic, raising critical questions about childhood obesity, pharmaceutical influence, and the implications for food industry giants like Nestlé and Mondelez.The second half of the episode features Elysabeth Alfano, CEO of VegTech Invest and host of two sustainability-focused podcasts. Elysabeth unpacks how her ETF invests in publicly traded companies that are accelerating food systems transformation—emphasizing impact, liquidity, and innovation over startup hype. She shares candid takes on the realities of lab-grown meat, the risks of insect protein, and why countries like Singapore and Israel are leading the charge in food security and innovation.Elysabeth also weighs in on the role of policy, pointing to rising geopolitical instability and trade tensions—especially in the U.S.—as a catalyst for investment in food innovation. From precision fermentation to biosecurity risks, she outlines why now is the time for bold moves in food tech and ESG investing.With both news and expert insights, this episode offers a comprehensive look at the forces reshaping what we grow, invest in, and consume.About Elysabeth Elysabeth Alfano is the CEO of  VegTech™ Invest , the Advisor to a publicly traded Food Innovation ETF.  Run by sector experts, VegTech™ Invest drives capital to those companies innovating for a resilient, sustainable and less damaging food supply system through its educational tools and financial product. It, thus, positively impacts Climate Change and biodiversity loss.Elysabeth is an expert in investing in food systems transformation and speaks internationally on the intersection of investing, sustainability, and our global food supply system. She has spoken at the U.N. Global Leaders Compact Summit, the United Nations Climate Change Summit, SXSW, COP27 and COP28, Yale University and Northwestern University, several Bloomberg Intelligence events and has done a myriad of TV interviews including Bloomberg TV and Ameritrade TV. Elysabeth began her career with Kellogg Company working on Special K and Frosted Mini-Wheats before acting as Chief Investment Officer for a small family office. A graduate of Northwestern University and the Thunderbird School of Global Management, Elysabeth consults and advises C-Suite Executives on the sustainable food industry landscape, direction and whitespaces.  Lastly, Elysabeth hosts the  Plantbased Business Hour , a podcast which features the CEOs and business leaders in the industry.  The Plantbased Business Hour is considered “The Gold Standard” for those who want to understand, participate in, and capitalize on the growing Plant-based Innovation sector. She is the voice of sustainability in the invment community hosting the Upside & Impact: Investing for Change on Advisorpedia.Elysabeth contributes to ESG Clarity, WGN Radio, Vegconomist Magazine, CAIA, ETFCentral.com Advisorpedia and FinTechTV on a regular basis. The Food Professor #podcast is presented by Caddle. About UsDr. Sylvain Charlebois is a Professor in food distribution and policy in the Faculties of Management and Agriculture at Dalhousie University in Halifax. He is also the Senior Director of the Agri-food Analytics Lab, also located at Dalhousie University. Before joining Dalhousie, he was affiliated with the University of Guelph's Arrell Food Institute, which he co-founded. Known as “The Food Professor”, his current research interest lies in the broad area of food distribution, security and safety. Google Scholar ranks him as one of the world's most cited scholars in food supply chain management, food value chains and traceability.He has authored five books on global food systems, his most recent one published in 2017 by Wiley-Blackwell entitled “Food Safety, Risk Intelligence and Benchmarking”. He has also published over 500 peer-reviewed journal articles in several academic publications. Furthermore, his research has been featured in several newspapers and media groups, including The Lancet, The Economist, the New York Times, the Boston Globe, the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, BBC, NBC, ABC, Fox News, Foreign Affairs, the Globe & Mail, the National Post and the Toronto Star.Dr. Charlebois sits on a few company boards, and supports many organizations as a special advisor, including some publicly traded companies. Charlebois is also a member of the Scientific Council of the Business Scientific Institute, based in Luxemburg. Dr. Charlebois is a member of the Global Food Traceability Centre's Advisory Board based in Washington DC, and a member of the National Scientific Committee of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) in Ottawa. Michael LeBlanc is the president and founder of M.E. LeBlanc & Company Inc, a senior retail advisor, keynote speaker and now, media entrepreneur. He has been on the front lines of retail industry change for his entire career. Michael has delivered keynotes, hosted fire-side discussions and participated worldwide in thought leadership panels, most recently on the main stage in Toronto at Retail Council of Canada's Retail Marketing conference with leaders from Walmart & Google. He brings 25+ years of brand/retail/marketing & eCommerce leadership experience with Levi's, Black & Decker, Hudson's Bay, CanWest Media, Pandora Jewellery, The Shopping Channel and Retail Council of Canada to his advisory, speaking and media practice.Michael produces and hosts a network of leading retail trade podcasts, including the award-winning No.1 independent retail industry podcast in America, Remarkable Retail with his partner, Dallas-based best-selling author Steve Dennis; Canada's top retail industry podcast The Voice of Retail and Canada's top food industry and one of the top Canadian-produced management independent podcasts in the country, The Food Professor with Dr. Sylvain Charlebois from Dalhousie University in Halifax.Rethink Retail has recognized Michael as one of the top global retail experts for the fourth year in a row, Thinkers 360 has named him on of the Top 50 global thought leaders in retail, RTIH has named him a top 100 global though leader in retail technology and Coresight Research has named Michael a Retail AI Influencer. If you are a BBQ fan, you can tune into Michael's cooking show, Last Request BBQ, on YouTube, Instagram, X and yes, TikTok.Michael is available for keynote presentations helping retailers, brands and retail industry insiders explaining the current state and future of the retail industry in North America and around the world.

John Legend’s flirty Today Show banter with George Bush’s daughter has the internet speculating, but was it really that deep? Savannah James shows up for the kids of the I Promise School with a prom prep event, and Special K brings the chaos with “What The Hell News,” featuring a Florida Man who destroyed a store—with urine. Plus, we finally find out why Black Tony didn’t come to work... again.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Could Stephen A. Smith actually run for president? The Rickey Smiley Morning Show dives into the internet frenzy around his unexpected political potential and his reaction to the buzz. Trump is hyped about a new 104% tariff on Chinese imports, while Easter gets weird with folks swapping egg painting for potatoes. LeBron James makes history as the first male athlete turned Ken Doll, and things get spicy as people question whether John Legend low-key embarrassed George Bush’s daughter on national TV. Savannah James hosts a heartfelt prom prep event for I Promise students, but Special K shifts gears with a “What The Hell News” story about a Florida Man who caused $1,000 in damage—with urine. Shannon Sharpe and Chad Ochocinco open up about their love for grown women with stretch marks and foupas, sparking a real conversation about dating maturity. A live doctor joins to give health advice, Rick Ross announces wheelchairs at his next car show (yes, for real), and Jamie Foxx teases a long-awaited new album. This episode is unpredictable from start to finish.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Special k and Ahmad team up for an epic prank call involving a Jamaican wedding that is no longer going to happen, then special k shares news of cottage cheese's popularity now, and roula explains why Selenas killer will not be paroledSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Send us a textIt's Women's History Month, so we celebrate with songs from the Ladies over the years.  We also invited a special guest, Cousin Nicki, to join Rabel, Special K, and S Mulvay for the discussion.  Join us to find out who Special K considers the "Scorpions of Female Rock", who is considered the "Ivory Queen of Soul" and whether or not Rabel likes any of the songs/artists.  

I have been looking forward to talking with our guest, Louise Baxter, for several months. I met Louise through one of our regular podcast guest finders, accessiBe's own Sheldon Lewis. Louise has always lived in Sydney Australia although she has done her share of traveling around the world. She attended some college at night although she never did complete a college degree. Don't let that prejudice you, however. Her life experiences and knowledge rival anyone whether they have a college degree or not.   While attending college Louise worked in clerical positions with some marketing firms. Over time she attained higher positions and began working as a brand or product manager for a number of large well-known companies.   At some point she decided that she wanted to bring a more human-service orientation to her work and left the commercial world to work in not for profit organizations. Part of her work was with the Starlight Foundation in Australia, but she didn't feel she was challenged as much as she wanted to be. So, in 2007 she left Starlight, but in 2009 the Starlight board convinced her to come back as the CEO of the organization.   Louise has brought an extremely positive thinking kind of management style to her work. Starlight in general has to be quite positive as it works to ease the burden of sick children in hospitals and at home. You will get to hear all about Captain Starlight and all the many ways the foundation Louise directs has such a positive impact on sick children around Australia. The life lessons Louise discusses are relevant in any kind of work. I am certain you will come away from this episode more inspired and hopefully more positive about your own life and job.       About the Guest:   LOUISE BAXTER is Chief Executive Officer, Starlight Children's Foundation. Louise has significant experience in senior roles in the commercial and NFP sectors and is described as an “inspiring and authentic leader”. In 2009 Louise returned to the NFP sector as Starlight's Chief Executive Officer and Executive Director. Louise's focus on exceptional experiences and relationships has seen improved metrics across all areas of Starlight. Louise is regularly asked to speak on topics such a positivity, organisational resilience, diversity, and innovation. She is passionate about the creation of organisational purpose and believes this is key to delivering maximum impact through people. She practices positive leadership and has been successful in developing high performing teams within a culture where change is embraced, and innovation is embedded.   Always thinking like a marketer…. Louise's personal journey and reasons behind the shift from corporate to the For Purpose sector. After more than 20 years in marketing and advertising in roles at ARNOTTS, Accor & Johnson & Johnson & in agencies such as Leo Burnett working on brands from Mortein to Coco pops, Louise's journey and the insights she brings as CEO are unique. The very first time Louise became aware of Starlight was actually doing a promotion for one of her clients (when she was in sales/marketing) who was partnering with Starlight. Just seeing the work of Starlight, made her feel so pleased that there was now something that changed and reframed the hospitalization and treatment experience for families like a family she knew as a child with a child suffering from leukemia.    The business acumen needed to thrive and succeed in the For Purpose sector. Often the perception is NFP is a step into the slow lane. Far from it. Louise refers to leading Starlight as if it is in ‘eternal start up mode' and bringing business acumen, finding ways to be efficient and driving growth.     Our business… is the business of brightening lives…. The business growth and success of Starlight since she began from 65 people & 120,000 positive experiences delivered to children, to a team of more than 300 delivering over 1million++ positive Starlight experiences to seriously ill children including more than 13,000 children's Starlight wishes granted.   Louise has lead Starlight through some of the most challenging times. Her positive impact has seen Starlight grow from strength to strength. Starlight enjoys a tremendously creative and innovative culture. Including ‘Most Innovative Company' accolade - an achievement which was achieved under Louise's Leadership.   Starlight Programs growth will be stronger over the next 3 years than it would have been without Covid as programs which Transform and Connect rebuild and programs which Entertain grow. As does fundraising as we layer our face-to-face events back over our digital innovations which have taken off.  We have our creative/innovative culture to thank for this. Stories of personal connections made with Starlight children & families who began their journey more than 20 years ago and flourished thanks to the work of Starlight, including now adults Nathan Cavaleri and Dylan Allcott OAM.   Over the years Louise has been personally involved in many of Starlight's fundraising campaigns, once literally putting her body on the line as she flew over the handlebars and was carried away from the cycling course injured on Great Adventure Challenge.     Storytelling is at the heart of Starlight's success, growth & behind the organisations' ability to connect its stakeholders to its purpose. Louise's has largely led this approach to drive advocacy, differentiation & brand recognition – now one of Australia's most recognised children's charities Passionate about DEI: One of the first things Louise did as CEO was to deliberately approach diversity at Starlight and this continues today. To effectively support the people & families we support, our team members need to reflect this. DEI is addressed at every level.. Inc Board & Exec split to Captains in SER.    Louise considers herself very lucky – her birthday is actually on International Women's Day: IWD, 8 March. She is an active member of Chief Executive Women, an advocate for female empowerment & equity and in incredible role model.   Ways to connect with Louise:   Starlight Children's Foundation Australia Website: www.starlight.org.au Louise Baxter's LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/louisebaxter   About the Host:   Michael Hingson is a New York Times best-selling author, international lecturer, and Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe. Michael, blind since birth, survived the 9/11 attacks with the help of his guide dog Roselle. This story is the subject of his best-selling book, Thunder Dog.   Michael gives over 100 presentations around the world each year speaking to influential groups such as Exxon Mobile, AT&T, Federal Express, Scripps College, Rutgers University, Children's Hospital, and the American Red Cross just to name a few. He is Ambassador for the National Braille Literacy Campaign for the National Federation of the Blind and also serves as Ambassador for the American Humane Association's 2012 Hero Dog Awards.   https://michaelhingson.com https://www.facebook.com/michael.hingson.author.speaker/ https://twitter.com/mhingson https://www.youtube.com/user/mhingson https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelhingson/   accessiBe Links https://accessibe.com/ https://www.youtube.com/c/accessiBe https://www.linkedin.com/company/accessibe/mycompany/   https://www.facebook.com/accessibe/       Thanks for listening!   Thanks so much for listening to our podcast! If you enjoyed this episode and think that others could benefit from listening, please share it using the social media buttons on this page. Do you have some feedback or questions about this episode? Leave a comment in the section below!   Subscribe to the podcast   If you would like to get automatic updates of new podcast episodes, you can subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts or Stitcher. You can subscribe in your favorite podcast app. You can also support our podcast through our tip jar https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/unstoppable-mindset .   Leave us an Apple Podcasts review   Ratings and reviews from our listeners are extremely valuable to us and greatly appreciated. They help our podcast rank higher on Apple Podcasts, which exposes our show to more awesome listeners like you. If you have a minute, please leave an honest review on Apple Podcasts.       Transcription Notes:   Michael Hingson ** 00:00 Access Cast and accessiBe Initiative presents Unstoppable Mindset. The podcast where inclusion, diversity and the unexpected meet. Hi, I'm Michael Hingson, Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe and the author of the number one New York Times bestselling book, Thunder dog, the story of a blind man, his guide dog and the triumph of trust. Thanks for joining me on my podcast as we explore our own blinding fears of inclusion unacceptance and our resistance to change. We will discover the idea that no matter the situation, or the people we encounter, our own fears, and prejudices often are our strongest barriers to moving forward. The unstoppable mindset podcast is sponsored by accessiBe, that's a c c e s s i capital B e. Visit www.accessibe.com to learn how you can make your website accessible for persons with disabilities. And to help make the internet fully inclusive by the year 2025. Glad you dropped by we're happy to meet you and to have you here with us.   Michael Hingson ** 01:20 Well, hi everyone. Welcome once again to unstoppable mindset where inclusion, diversity and the unexpected meet. It's a fun thing to say I am your host. Mike Hingson, our guest today is the CEO of the starlight foundation in Australia, Louise Baxter, we met Louise through Sheldon Lewis and accessibe, which is always fun. Sheldon is a good supplier of folks, and we can't complain a bit about that. It's a good thing. And so today we're going to learn about Starlight Foundation, and we're going to learn about Louise, and we'll see what else we learned. That's why it's often called the unexpected. Meet anyway, Louise, welcome to unstoppable mindset. We're really glad you're here.   Louise Baxter ** 02:04 Thank you, Michael, it's lovely to be here.   Michael Hingson ** 02:08 Well, why don't we start the way I love to start. Why don't you tell us kind of about the early Louise growing up and some of those sorts of things and adventures you got into, or anything that you want to divulge? Okay,   Louise Baxter ** 02:20 alright. Well, I live in Sydney, Australia, and have done my whole life I've traveled a lot, but I've remained here in Sydney. And so life in Sydney was just blissful. And I think what I remember most is just having fun with my friends. It was back in the day where, as a child, you'd leave home on your bike early in the morning, and nobody expected you back till later, often in the afternoon, before dinner, and we had Bush nearby. I can remember catching tadpoles I sailed from the age of eight. My father was a skiff sailor here in Australia and and I had my first time in a Sabo at age eight, we went to the beach a lot, so there was surfing and fun in the sun. I played a lot of sports. So I'm a netball player, which is kind of similar to basketball, but a bit different. I played squash, so a lot of things happening, a very busy life, and I grew up. And I think this is the important thing with parents who were not well off themselves, but were, I mean, we were. We had a lovely life, but they were always raising funds, and our house was a center for raising funds for people who were less fortunate, or that helping out with the local netball club and things like that. So, so I grew up with parents who were very committed to working hard but always giving back, even though they weren't, you know, high net worth people themselves. So I think that's, you know, a great basis for for who I am today.   Michael Hingson ** 04:18 So you went to school and and all those sorts of things like everybody else did. How did your attitude about dealing with people who were probably less fortunate than many and so on really affect what you did in school? Or did you really sort of hone that found that that that spirit later? No,   Louise Baxter ** 04:42 no, I was always involved at school and raising funds. And even, you know, it took us a couple of busses to get to the beach back in the day. So I was in a local youth group, and we made a decision to raise the funds so that we could have one of the fathers, so that we could. Buy a bus, have one of the fathers drive the bus and get us to the beach on Saturday in quick time. So always looking for ways to never taking no or that's hard for an answer, I suppose, always being able to be part of the solution and get things done. So that was happening while I was at school as well.   Michael Hingson ** 05:21 That's kind of cool. So you bought a bus so that everybody could get to the beach. How many people were there that had to get there and use the bus? We   Louise Baxter ** 05:28 had about 40 or 50 people. And during the school holidays, we convinced one of the, a couple of the parents to take us on a trip through far west into, I'm supposing, what into our outback. So we went into kind of desert type lands, and we camped and a shearing a sheep station let us sleep in the shearing sheds overnight. So that was quite an adventure as well. And we did that for one school holidays on that bus.   Michael Hingson ** 06:02 So was the the bus? Well, who owned the bus was it? Was it a school bus, or who owned it   Louise Baxter ** 06:09 the youth group that we, the group did fundraising? Yeah,   Michael Hingson ** 06:13 cool, yeah. That's pretty unique.   Louise Baxter ** 06:17 I have great memories of that with, you know, green tree frogs in the toilets. Whenever you went to use a bathroom, they were always there looking at you and all of those kind of funny things that you remember, you know, watching and learning farm life and seeing some of the animals sitting on the fence while they were being branded and castrated and all kinds of things, but from as a city kid that was that was really valuable,   Michael Hingson ** 06:47 pretty and unique, but certainly the experience was well worth it, as long as you embraced   Speaker 1 ** 06:53 it. Yes, exactly, yeah. So   Michael Hingson ** 06:57 does that bus still exist today? Or does the youth group still exists now with new youth, that's a very long time ago. Michael, well, I didn't know whether it might have continued with new youth,   Louise Baxter ** 07:07 no. And I, you know, moved locations in Sydney, so I'm not quite sure what's happening there. Now, it'd   Michael Hingson ** 07:14 be exciting if new youth came along and took it over, but yeah, things happen and things evolve.   Louise Baxter ** 07:22 I'm just gonna say their parents probably drive them everywhere now. Yeah, it's   Michael Hingson ** 07:26 gonna say probably the adventure isn't quite the same as it used to be. No   Louise Baxter ** 07:30 exactly,   Michael Hingson ** 07:31 and, and that has its pluses, I suppose, and its minuses, but there, there are also more scary things in one sense in the world now than there used to be. Don't you think,   Louise Baxter ** 07:43 yeah, there are, well, there could be, or maybe, maybe we know more about it now because of our media and communications. So you know, all the kind of predators that impact you as children were around then, I suppose the accidents in cars are up because use of cars has increased. So, yeah, there are. There are different things that impact people nowadays. But us human beings, we're pretty resilient and and we always work out a way through, yeah, well, there's also, there's also a story from my childhood that I think is very relevant for what I do at Starlight, and that story is that you know how you have those family friends, who you grow up with, and you go on holidays with, etc. Well, that family for us, their eldest son was diagnosed with cancer, and back then, survival rates for cancer were very different to what they are today, and much lower. And he died when I was about 12, but as a child, I observed him suffering the pain of the treatment, and there was nothing like Starlight back then. And I saw also the impact that his illness had on his family. And I often think back to him, to those moments now that I'm at Starlight, because Starlight would have changed that situation and made it very different and far more positive for that boy and his family, and I think about about him and what they went through kind of regularly. So it's one of those things that's a childhood. It's a lived experience from my childhood, which, you know still kind of resonates with me today.   Michael Hingson ** 09:44 Well, yeah, and you know, we're, we're constantly evolving. So you can, you can think about that, and you can think about what might have been, but at the same time, the the real issue is, what have you learned? And. How can you now take it forward? And I think, as I said, that's all about embracing the adventure,   Louise Baxter ** 10:04 absolutely, absolutely and so absolutely take that forward,   Michael Hingson ** 10:09 yeah, which is really what you have to do. So you went to college, I assume, yeah.   Louise Baxter ** 10:15 And I actually went part time at night, so I actually went straight into a work environment. And for an organization, and was in the marketing team, just doing basic clerical work, and then I studied part time at night, so did a bit differently.   Michael Hingson ** 10:33 Yeah, well, did you end up eventually getting a degree? No,   Louise Baxter ** 10:37 I have no degree. Which is, which is something that's not, is very unusual in the United States. I know, oh, I don't know   Michael Hingson ** 10:49 that it's that unusual. But the the other side of it is that what you learn and how you put it to use and how you evolve is pretty significant. And that's, of course, part of the issue. Not everyone has a college degree, and sometimes the people with college degrees aren't necessarily the the brightest spots in the constellation either. Absolutely, it's,   Louise Baxter ** 11:13 yeah, there's a lot through lived experience, but I have, yeah, I've studied at various times, and most recently, I was awarded a scholarship. And I've had the experience of doing two short courses at Stanford University in the States, and I'm now on the board of the Stanford Australia Foundation, and so that's been a wonderful experience as a mature age student.   Michael Hingson ** 11:42 That's fair. Yeah, I just recently was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa, which formed the chapter at my university the year I was leaving, so I was able to go to the organizing meeting, but that was it, because then I got my master's degree and left and through circumstances, it was learned that all that happened. So last year, I was called and asked if I wanted to become an alumni member. So I got to be so I finally got to be a member of fraternity. Well, there you go. Congratulations. Well, it's a lot of fun, yeah, and I, and I treasure it and honor it a great deal, and spent a day down at my old university. I haven't really spent a lot of time there since graduating, well, back in 1976 with my master's degree in some business courses. So it's been 48 years. So there you go. Time flies. Well, so what did you do? So you you were working in the marketing world, in a clerical sort of thing, and what did you do from there? I   Louise Baxter ** 12:55 then became an assistant brand manager, a brand manager or product manager, whatever you want to call it, and I worked at Reckitt and Coleman. I worked at Johnson and Johnson and at Arnot snack foods. And Arnot snack foods was interesting because it was a joint venture with Pepsi foods from the US, because they were interested in the biscuit technology from Arnott's, and Arnot was interest interested in their snack food technology. And so what we had was a situation where we were sharing our expertise, and as a result, I was on the team, and we launched Cheetos, Fritos, Doritos into Australia, so they didn't exist here prior to that. Obviously Johnson and Johnson also, you know, big multinational, as is reckoned and Coleman. And then, after a number of years working on client side, I decided I wanted to move to the agency world. And I moved to Leo Burnett advertising agency, where I stayed for a decade. I was on the board there. I managed accounts like the Proctor and Gamble and kill on businesses as well as local businesses like tourism businesses and and wine so hospitality businesses here in Australia, very big wine company and and also the United distillers business back then. So had a lot of experience from both the client and agency side of working on big brands and growing big brands, which I absolutely loved, and we had a lot of fun, you know, along the way, in those days at all of the organizations where I worked, I made a lot of friends, and it's always important to have great friends from those experiences. And then I considered I actually left after i. Left Leah Burnett, I started an agency with two other people that's called Brave New World, which still exists to this day. I haven't been part of that for a long time, and then I had this moment of considering that I could potentially do something more worthwhile with my skills than than selling the products I'd been selling for all those years, and that's when I first made the decision to move to the what I referred to as the profit for purpose sector, and moved to Starlight in a role, and at that time, that was just a six month maternity position role. And I did that because I had great experience of brands from the client and agency side and promotions, so above and below the line. Promotions. I had worked on promotion supporting charity so cause related marketing campaigns. And I felt that the one thing I was missing if I wanted to go back into a corporate, into a corporate social responsibility role. Was that experience of working in a charity, and so I thought at that stage that my, my of journey was going to be back to a corporate because at that time, if you think this is over 20 years ago, triple bottom line was, and the third sector was really becoming important to organizations and to corporates. And so I thought I'd take my skills and go back to a corporate what I did instead was I went to starlight, as I said. It was a six month contract, but after three months, then CEO came out and said, What would it take to keep you here? I loved what I was doing, and I stayed at Starlight. I did stay for six, seven years. I then left and went back to corporate world, and I came back to starlight. So I left at the end of, what am I of? I left at the end of 2007 I came back in 2009 so I had that experience of back in the corporate world, and I came back as a CEO. It's   Michael Hingson ** 17:20 interesting. You started out in, as you said, in clerical work, but you started out in marketing, which, which you liked, what, what caused you to do that? Why marketing? Why marketing and sales, if you will?   Louise Baxter ** 17:33 Well, I love, I love marketing. I love brands, and I love the fact that, you know, brand is a living and breathing thing, and you can grow and change a brand. And I love, I love all the learnings around consumer insights. That was my specialty within marketing. So actually understanding that consumer behavior, and what I say about marketing is it's, it's hardly rocket science, because if you look at a young child, they recognize that they speak differently and use different language and words, etc, when they're speaking to their friends, when they're speaking to their grandparents, when they're speaking to their teachers, when they're speaking to their siblings, and so already, the concept of I have a different consumer in front of me, and I need to change my language and what I'm saying and my communication skills. Need to tweak. A child understands that from a very early age. So when I think about marketing, that's what you're doing the whole time. You're changing what you're the what you're saying and the way you say it, so that you engage more strongly with your consumer, and that's what I love about it, because communication is just so powerful, and you can take people on a journey. I'm also you know you can change behavior before you change the attitude, but ultimately you can move people and kind of change their thinking and their their their habits.   Michael Hingson ** 19:11 What's a really good example that you participated in of that I love a marketing story, loving sales and marketing as I do, I'd love to hear a good marketing story. Um,   Louise Baxter ** 19:22 well, there's, there's, there's quite a few. And I'll, I'll give you one. There was, I used to work on all the roads and traffic authority business, and at that stage, we were responsible for handling all the campaigns, from speeding to seat belts to drink driving, etc. And what was really powerful about those was your results were that every day you came into work and the road toll was there, and the road toll was, you know, up or down. And to work on campaigns which, over years, reduced the road toll because of the messages that you would keep. Communicate to people about speeding, etc. So whether people believed that they should be going, if you know, 10 kilometers slower in that particular zone or not, the messages of you know of penalties being caught, whatever the messaging you used to slow them down in that moment worked, and that saved lives. So, you know, that's, that's an example. I also worked on brands such as Special K, you know, and and for me, seeing, we created a fantastic campaign here that ran for about 20 years, and it was based on the the traditional Special K ads where women would wear clothes that they had years ago. And this one was about a mini skirt, but it was done in such a way that the woman was Stuart was the strength in the TV commercial. She was the lead. And that grew the business, and grew Special K at that time, at like, three times the market average for any, you know, product growth. So to see those things, and what I love is the results. And you you get it very strongly in those moments and and it's exciting.   Michael Hingson ** 21:17 You mentioned having been involved with working with Fritos and so on, which strikes a nerve when I lived in New Jersey, somewhere along the way, ranch flavored Fritos came into existence, but they didn't last very long, and I miss ranch flavored Fritos   Louise Baxter ** 21:34 we used to do when I worked on those snack food brands. We did so much testing and to to create tastes that are suitable, because tastes do change significantly, you know, region to region, and so ensuring that we had exactly the right flavors that would resonate and and sell here was really important to us. But along the way, we had some shockers, and we did have a lot of the specialist from FRITO lay in the states out working with us to craft those flavors. So we eventually got ones that worked here and for this region.   Michael Hingson ** 22:13 Yeah, and I'm sure that that must be what what happened that ranch flavored Fritos just didn't sell enough. In   Louise Baxter ** 22:20 cell Michael, you didn't have enough friends,   Michael Hingson ** 22:23 I guess not. Well, we didn't know enough people in New Jersey. What can I say? But, but we contributed as much as we could. My wife and I both loved them, and we we bought ranch flavored Fritos every chance we got. But unfortunately, that really probably wasn't enough to keep it going. So we, we mourn the loss of ranch flavored Fritos. But you, you did that, and it's interesting, because if I were to bake this observation, in a sense, although part of your job has changed, part of your job hasn't changed, because it's still all about marketing and educating people. Of course, now you're on the not for profit side, but that's okay, but what you're doing is teaching and educating, and now you're doing it for more of a social cause than a profit cause.   Louise Baxter ** 23:21 You're exactly right what we're doing every day because is, we're marketing our organization, and it's all about communication, and that communication might be very different with, you know, high net donors to community groups who support us in terms of how they connect with us. The impact stories are the same, although you also learn that certain individuals might prefer programs that support children, or might support prefer programs supporting older people, older children, or might support programs that support our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children. And so you learn that through all your discussions. So it's all about hearing, because marketing is about really listening and and so I am still, you know, everything we do is about really listening and really hearing from the kids and the young people we support. You know, we need to listen to their situation and what, from our program's perspective, is working for them. So I feel it's very, very similar to what I did, because I was a product manager, so I was always listening to our customers to create more relevant products, and then communicating to people so that they we could sell those products. And the difference here is, back then they were the same people, so you would listen to your customers, then you'd be selling to them. And now what happens is our customers are the children and young people who are seriously ill and hospitalized, and our customers, the people where we're getting the funding from, are the donors who. Support those programs. So you break it into different groups, and we have far more stakeholder groups that you're managing in the profit for purpose sector than you do in the for profit sector. But that keeps it   Michael Hingson ** 25:14 interesting Well, so what is in in what you're doing today? And I'd be interested to to hear a contrast. But what does what does success mean to you today, and what did success mean to you when you were in the marketing world?   Louise Baxter ** 25:30 I think that that's always, you know, being the best you can be, and achieving the the metrics you need to achieve. So that's not changed, and always having really positive relationships with, you know, and partnerships. So for me, none of that's really changed. And I think that, you know, authenticity is very, very important. And so I constantly say, you know, with me, what you see, what you get, I'm the same person, no matter if you're a friend, a colleague at work, whatever, and I think that makes life much easier than if you were different people in different spaces. So I think there's a there's something that's very consistent about that. And I, I am that kind of person who doesn't take no for an answer. It's just okay. That's that's a bit trickier, but how can we get that done? So I'm always, always been solution focused, and I think that's been that's really important. And I think, you know, Obama has made comments about the type of people he wants to employ, people who get stuff done, and that's that's exactly me, and who I look to work with. So none of that has changed, but for me, it's now incredibly important. We're changing lives every day, and I think that what Starlight does in this country is we believe that that happiness in childhood matters, because happiness in your childhood is the strongest determinant of how you perform in your education, your employment, and with long term healthy life behaviors, children who are seriously ill have their ability to be happy significantly impacted. And so what we do is we sort support them with a whole range of programs. And I can talk about our theory of impact, but it builds their well being and resilience. And I know that that that you talk a lot about, you know about fear, and I think resilience is that thing that that gives you the strength to move through those things that may be frightening to you at some stage, and kids who are seriously ill are going through so much that is unfamiliar and frightening to them and painful. And so Starlight has been creating programs which are all about positive psychology and built on the tenants, if we can build, if we can distract a child by something that's positive help them to look forward to something positive. On the other side of treatment, it changes their engagement with their health care, and it changes their health outcomes for a positive and so that's incredibly important, and we were using this a decade before Martin Seligman even coined the phrase positive psychology and and now as as clinicians recognize, and they've recognized this for a long time, but are increasingly recognized the ways this this can be used to create improved health outcomes. And let's face it, you know, healthcare is one of the most innovative, fast moving sectors you can possibly work in, and clinicians have changed and improved health outcomes for every illness and disease you can possibly think of, and that's amazing. And so Starlight has been part of that improvement in healthcare, but the recognition that your mental health and well being is completely connected to your physical health and well being. And so while the doctors and nurses the clinicians look after the physical Starlight is engaging with the child within the illness and helping to lift their spirits, support their well being, resilience, giving back that joy of childhood. Because, you know, a clinician once said to me, Louise, in treating their illness, we steal their childhood. And so what we're about at Starlight is giving those kids back their chance to simply be a child and have that fun of childhood, which is where we started this conversation. You know, childhood should be about fun and having no inhibitions and not worrying, not a care in the world. And children who are seriously ill live in a very kind of adult world where they're dealing with concepts such as life and death. And that's not where any child should really be.   Michael Hingson ** 30:05 So when you're when you're dealing with a child, what, what? What do you do to bring the child back to the child, if you will, as opposed to all the the challenges that they're going through? Because certainly, when you're dealing with a disease like a cancer or whatever, it is, a very tough thing. So how do you bring that child back to being able to be a child at least for part of the time?   Louise Baxter ** 30:32 And that's, that's, you're absolutely right. It's about moments, because, and we talk about moments which matter. You can't do it for 100% of the time, but if you can lift that child and distract them and take them away from that, even if just for a moment, it changes everything. And I, I we have a whole range of programs that cater for this, in hospital and also in community. And last year, we created nearly 2 million so it was 1.9 million positive Starlight experiences for children. And that's the way we talk about it, because they're all so different. But we work in three general areas, and that is, we transform, we work in partnership with the clinicians to transform the healthcare experience, and we even build physical spaces in the hospitals, all the children's hospitals in Australia, which are manned by a character called Captain starlight. So we employ nearly 200 Captain starlights, who are all professional performers, and they work with the children, and they engage. They don't perform, but they use performance skills to engage with the child and the child's imagination, because a couple of things about children is that they are in they have incredible imaginations, and they are also easily distracted. And one of the things about most parents is they they try to work out how they keep their child focused? Well, we use the fact that children can be intensely distracted for good. So, you know, for example. So talking about that transforming the healthcare experience, some of our captain starlets will actually work in a treatment space with the clinicians, and they know how the treatment is going to unfold. Not so they could ever perform the treatment, but be so they know when to distract the child, when to keep the child very calm, etc, throughout that procedure. But let's say it's a burns dressing change that to a child. The pain of having a burns dressing change is like having your skin removed every time the dressing has changed, and what we do is we have our captain starlights there, and children don't have the psychology of pain in their mind. They will be intensely distracted, and their pain threshold then increases by up to 75% by simply distracting them, which means then they don't need to have an anesthetic for their treatment, which means that that child may not have to stay in hospital overnight because of that anesthetic and etc. So by using the power of a child's mind engaging with them, we can change that scenario. They won't feel the pain. Now, for an adult, that sounds weird, because if we were having that burn stressing changed on an arm, even if someone was distracting him, we'd be waiting for the pain, whereas a child just gets absorbed in the distraction and is not waiting for the pain. And so that's the difference. So we transform the healthcare experience, we provide opportunities for children to connect, because social isolation is one of the key issues associated with serious illness and treatment. They're pulled away immediately from their local friends and family, often into, you know, a hospital that's in the city, and that's the way our healthcare system works. The big children's hospitals are in the cities. The kids come out of regional areas and into that so they're away from everything, all their friends that their bedroom, everything that's familiar, and so that social connection is really important. That's part of what we do in our Starlight Express rooms, which are in every Children's Hospital. They also are TV stations within those hospitals and broadcast to the bedside of the child. So if the child's too sick to come into the Starlight Express room, they can be part of that and have that social connection from their bedside. So quizzes, for example, are really important for us, and we run a quiz every day, and sick children have lost that ability to compete in so many ways and have fun and have that little banter that you have with people when you are competing. Yet a quiz brings that all together. And we often have, we always have prizes, but it means a child in their bed who can't physically come into another space with another child for issues in terms of their illness and and. Um and infections and cross infections, etc, they can still be involved, and they can win the quiz, and, you know, be on television and chat with the other kids. So those things are very important. And we also promote entertainment, because entertainment is a great way of of distracting children. And so we talk about what we do. We transform the healthcare experience. We provide social connection that's so missing, and moments of entertainment. And our program sometimes deliver all three, but they're created for one specific reason, and so we're all about having fun. And for me, when I see a child come into a Starlight Express room, especially a child who's recently been diagnosed, you can see they're often in a wheelchair. They're holding an IV drip. They have their head down, their shoulders down, they have the weight of the world on their shoulders. They're looking like no child should ever look and you see this child come into our space and start to lift because a Starline Express room is a haven away from the clinical nature of the ward. They start to lift. They see the space. They see the captain starlights, and for me to observe that same child, 510, 15 minutes later, roaring with laughter, completely forgetting where they are and why. That's the power of starlight, and that's what we do through all our programs every day. And that moment lifts that child and gives them, builds their resilience and gives them the ability to go back into that next round of treatment, surgery, etc. So it is in that moment, and it changes everything.   Michael Hingson ** 36:40 How does the starlight experience differ in America and our healthcare model here as opposed to in Australia? Do you have any idea?   Louise Baxter ** 36:52 Yeah, well, we have, we man all of the spaces in our hospitals. So the hospital, when a new hospital is being built, they they they allocate a section that is the Starlight Express room space. We then build the Starlight Express room, and these are quite large spaces, and then we man it with our own paid team members and volunteers that would never happen in your healthcare system, just with legal issues and liability, etc, you'd never see that happening in in America. So that's, I think, the key, the key difference from things that we do in Australia, we also are a wish granting organization, and we are the largest wish branding organization in Australia, and we have programs called we have a program called Live Wire, which supports young people, so teenagers and up to the age of 20, and that is in hospital. So we then don't have Captain starlights. We have live wire facilitators, and then we have live wire online. We also have a virtual Star LED Express room, which we created and trial during COVID. Because obviously everything around the world and definitely in Australia, was in lockdown, and our programs were an essential service in the children's hospital, but we were restricted, and so we'd been toying with the concept of a virtual Starlight Express room for a long time, and so we used COVID as that opportunity to trial that, and we trialed it. It was very successful, and we're now rolling planet Starlight into every hospital across Australia. All people need there is a QR code. And so we put up beautiful posters, which are also games that kids can play that has a QR code, and they can go directly to Planet starlight. And planet Starlight is set up has live shows of Captain starlights during the day, but also games kids can play directions, how to do art. So if a child's seriously ill, but at home or in another hospital, they can do all of this stuff. And it's it's not that you need a full tank kit. We do it and understanding that children will be able to work with what they have that's near to them. We even have things like I spy for an emergency room space so that kids can stay distracted, no matter what part of a hospital they're in. We also now support families who are in at home palliative care, because 70% of children in this country who are in palliative care are at home. That's not necessarily end of life palliative care, but palliative care can go on for a number of years, and those families are incredibly alone and isolated, and so our Starlight moments program delivers things to uplift that family and have them know that someone's thinking of them during this time. And. Again, it is those moments which really, truly matter.   Michael Hingson ** 40:05 So, um, how did what? What do you know about how it works here, or what actually happens in America? Do you have any real notion about that? I mean, I understand all the legalities and all that, but how does it differ what? What do they do here to be able to foster that same kind of climate. Yeah,   Louise Baxter ** 40:22 they're still about happiness matters, right? Which is fantastic, and they do that with, I'm trying to think of the name now Fun, fun boxes that they have delivered into hospitals with toys, etc, for kids. In some hospitals, they are able to do a refresh of a playroom to make it a starlight space. But it's then not like ours are manned every day with team members. They have little carts that help kids transport round the hospital. So yeah. So they have a whole range of things that they can do within the limitations of the different health system. It   Michael Hingson ** 41:06 must be a real challenge to keep up the spirits of all the people who work for starlight. How do you keep a positive work environment and keep everyone moving forward and hopefully reasonably happy in what they're doing, because they they have to see a lot of challenges. Obviously, yeah,   Louise Baxter ** 41:26 we we're authentic with our commitment to positive psychology. And so getting close to 15 years ago, we started working with a group here in Australia called the positivity Institute, and we started training all of our team members. So every team member who joined Starline is trained in the tools of positive psychology, because you're absolutely right. And I use the airplane analogy, you know, if the plane's going down, you're always told that you put your you have to put your oxygen mask on yourself, because if you don't put it on yourself, you're of no use to anyone else, and POS, psychs like that, you have to care for yourself. And self care is so important, because if you are not caring for yourself, and if you are not topping topping up your own cup, then you're of no use to support and coach and help other people, and so we have positive psychology is the one authentic thing that, just you know, moves right through our organization. It's at the heart of everything we do for the children and young people. And importantly, every question we ask ourselves about every business decision is, will this improve the way we support the seriously ill children and young people, yes or no, and then what we do is we carry that through, because for us to be able to provide the support we do, and you're absolutely right, working often in very challenging situations, we need to know how we can look After ourselves. So POS site flows through the whole organization, and we are an organization that is a great place to work in Australia, there's actually, you know, a survey that's done annually, and corporates and other organizations are ranked, and we're always in the top group of performers there. So it's, it's also very critical to maintain a high performing team, because we need to be sure of able to have our team bring their best self to Starlight every day. And that's what post psych does for us. How does   Michael Hingson ** 43:37 that work? What? What do you do? I mean, you, you obviously have people who go into situations and they get hit with so many sad sorts of things, but obviously you're able to bring them out of that. How do you do that? Well,   Louise Baxter ** 43:52 as I said, Everybody's trained up front and recognizes the tools or has the toolkit for prossite, but we don't just leave it there. So the people who are working in hospitals have daily debriefs. They have a support crew from an employee assistance organizations who work with them. That's the same person who works with those teams. So they then have weekly debriefs, monthly, quarterly. So we're onto it. It's, it's, it's a, May, it's a, it's a, it's very strategic in the way we support them, and it's very considered. And so that support is there for people on a daily basis. So   Michael Hingson ** 44:35 you, you, I'm just thinking of a question I'm going to ask, you're doing a lot with children and all that, which I think is really great. Is there any chance that this kind of approach could also work for older people, adults and so on?   Louise Baxter ** 44:57 Absolutely, and it. It would also work. I mean, we're working with seriously ill, right, and hospitalized children, but it would also work with group, other groups of vulnerable children. So, you know, happiness and positive psychology is something that works for everyone, quite frankly. And so one of the things that's a side benefit of starlight being in a hospital is it lifts the morale of the whole hospital team. So the hospital, the hospital team, is happier. Because if you think of working in a children's hospital, if Starlight was not there, it can be a pretty dour place, and the challenges are every day, but with starlight, they're lifting the spirits, having fun, being silly. It changes everything for the clinicians I know, I've been at the door of a lift, an elevator, as you would say, and and before the lift, the doors open. A doctor who's been waiting there, notices that two captains walk up to hop in the elevator and and the doctor will say, I'm taking the stairs. I never know what those guys make me do between floors, but laughing. So you know, our captain starlights are about that fun. And the thing about Captain Starlight is they come from Planet starlight. So there's a mythology around them, and they fly to planet earth every day in an invisible rocket ship that lands on the roof of the Children's Hospital. And the great thing about this is that the children are then in the gun seat in because they understand everything about Planet Earth, and the captains don't. So the planet the captains will do silly things like pick up a pen and use it like a telephone and go, Hello, you know. And the children will go, No, not that. So it's that merge of slapstick and kind of vaudeville and the child engaging with the child. But they will, can they? Our captain? Starlets will do that silliness with doctors and nurses too, which is also hilarious. And that's the comment from the captain from the doctor. So Right? It keeps the morale of the entire hospital, because, you know, it changes from having children who are crying and distressed and frightened to children who are roaring with laughter, um, despite the fact that they're seriously ill, that's great.   Michael Hingson ** 47:25 How can we bring that to adult patients?   Louise Baxter ** 47:29 Well, do you know what I've been working or I've been walking with our captain starlights as they've had to move through an adult part. You know, some of our hospitals are adults and children's and then the youth are on the other side. As we've walked through, an elderly person stopped and said, Hey, captain, could you sing me a song? And so they had their ukulele there, and they launched into, you are my son. I think he might have requested, You are my sunshine. And you can see immediately the change in the person. So it, it is something that definitely works, but at the moment, we don't have the funding to meet all of the need that we have for children and young people. So while it's, you know, potentially a great concept, it's, it's not something that we can move into in the the immediate future. Yeah,   Michael Hingson ** 48:24 and you can only do what you can do, but it would certainly, it would seem to me be exciting if people would bring more of those programs to adults too, because adults could could use it. And I'm sure you know that I'm not saying anything magical at all, but I would think there are ways to bring a lot of this to adults that would help lift their spirits. I know when my wife was in the hospital, it was very boring for her. Now she was in a wheelchair, so she was in a chair her whole life. So she had other challenges being in the hospital when she needed to use a restroom or have help with a bedpan, sometimes it took a while and so on. So just a lot of things that could have been better for her, that I think would have made her experience better. And I realized that she was probably, in a sense, a harder case than some, but still, it would just be so nice if we could do more to help all of the different kinds of patients in hospitals and make it a better experience for them.   Louise Baxter ** 49:23 Yeah, that's that's what we're doing about, about changing that healthcare experience,   Michael Hingson ** 49:29 yeah. What about the whole concept of diversity, equity and inclusion and so on? How do you deal with a diverse population? So for example, in all the things that you're talking about, what if you discover that one of the children that you're dealing with is blind in the hospital? How do you adapt so that they get as included as other people in the things that you're doing? Yep,   Louise Baxter ** 49:53 we have. All of our team are trained in dealing with. Children who are blind, who are deaf. We actually recently had training, and we had our captain starlights. They were all blindfolded, and they were going through sensory experiments to teach them how they can better use sound and other things to work with children. So So our team is trained across all of those different areas, because you're right every day, we do deal with children who are deaf, who are blind, who are in wheelchairs, who are non verbal, who are on the autism spectrum, but all of those things. So we have to have teams trained. Our team is trained to understand how they can deliver an exceptional experience to those children, as well as children who don't have those differences. So   Michael Hingson ** 50:56 clearly you have a we got to get it done. Got a really positive attitude to get things done. Where did you learn that attitude? Because that's a very positive thing that I think more companies and more people in general ought to learn. The whole concept of, we're going to get it done no matter what it you know, I don't want to say no matter what it takes, but we're going to get it done, and we're very positive about that. Yeah,   Louise Baxter ** 51:25 I'm not sure that I learned it, but I think that there are people in life who you see that way. I always, I always jokingly call it waiters with their heads up, because, you know, you see when you're in a restaurant often, there's those people who walk past your table and don't pick up the dirty plates, who aren't looking for things to do. And then there are those other ones who you can see are going from table to table, doing stuff everywhere. And I always say they're the people I want to employ, the waiters with their heads up. So I think it's an attitude you have in life. And you can either kind of say, well, that's a challenge, and that's difficult, but how can I get that done? Or you can say, well, that's difficult. I just won't do that anymore. And and, you know, we need people who want to get stuff done and who always have a pot and having a positive attitude just makes you feel so much better than dwelling in the negative. And you know, I hate people who are always who those negative Nellies or nets or whoever they are, and they bring you down. So positivity is something that I think helps all of us every day. And why wouldn't you choose to be positive? Yeah,   Michael Hingson ** 52:37 and it is a choice. And the reality is that no matter what goes on, I think we can choose to be positive. One of the things that I've been saying for many years, that I learned because of the World Trade Center, basically, is don't worry about what you can control. Focus on what you can let the rest take care of itself. We're so worried about every little old thing in the world that we don't tend to be positive about anything, and that doesn't help any of us. No,   Louise Baxter ** 53:07 I think that being positive is so incredibly important. It makes you feel better and happier, makes everybody around you feel better and happier. So why wouldn't you do it? And I actually use this at Starlight too, because sometimes team members like you reach a point in your in your work life, and I did. I left Starlight because I needed a new challenge, and Starlight didn't have that challenge for me. So why hang around and become that disgruntled person in the corner who's just trying to pull everybody else into their negative little corner and finds fault with everything the organization does. Why would you stay? You know, and if you leave in that instance, you go to somewhere where you can contribute, and you feel great. You're doing a great job. The organization gets someone into your role who really wants to be there, and all that negativity stops. So in positive psychology, the end game is flourishing. And so I jokingly say at my team all the time, if you don't want to be here anymore, if you're not feeling challenged, please go flourish somewhere else. Don't stay here and become that negative person who tries to bring everyone into their negative corner. It's just not good for you or anybody else. So, yeah. So, so the Go flourish somewhere else is a bit of a joke that people say they're going to have printed on my coffee mug at some stage.   Michael Hingson ** 54:30 Well, you went away, but you also came back. That's   Louise Baxter ** 54:34 right, that's right. And so I went away because I needed a new challenge at that stage. And that challenge, potentially, was the CEO role that it wasn't available then. So I went and I did something else that I loved. And then, you know, the board came back to me some time later and said, Would you come back as CEO now? And I said, Yes. So there you go. And then I'd had a different experience, which actually helped. Me to be a better CEO. So as you say, if you're always moving forward, if you don't get hung up about things, and if you choose positivity, that really can set you up for a much better life. What   Michael Hingson ** 55:13 are some of the challenges that Starlight is facing in Australia today?   Louise Baxter ** 55:19 I think that for us it's a nice challenge, because as clinicians recognize the power of positive psychology and the power of the mind in improving health outcomes, they're very creative, and they're coming up with more and more ideas as to how star lack could be used, but we can only deliver if we increase our funding. And obviously, I think globally, communities are under pressure financially, and so those things kind of don't work together. And that's that's a challenge for us. I think we live in a world of increasing complexity and compliance and and we need to within that, ensure we meet the requirements and the criteria, but we do it in the simplest possible way, because simplicity is better for your mental health. It's more effective and efficient. And so sometimes within the the complexity of compliance, people are on making things even more bureaucratic than they need to. So really keeping things simple, I think, is is important against the backdrop of what's happening. And the exciting thing is we work in the sector of health care. And health care is always changing, always improving and and that's a great thing to be part of. What   Michael Hingson ** 56:48 do you think are well, what would you tell somebody from, let's say, one of your former jobs in marketing and so on, what kind of advice would you give them based on what you now know as being the CEO of starlight, for, my gosh, what? For 15 years, 14 almost? Well, 15 years, yes, almost 16 years. Yeah,   Louise Baxter ** 57:10 I think that. I think people have to be true to themselves. You know, you have to be authentic. Choose positivity is something that I would always give advice around, because, as you said, it is a choice, and I fail to understand why everyone, anyone would choose the negative, yeah, side of that equation and really focus on getting stuff done. So never sit back and be lazy. Always be working to be that, that person who thinks about themselves others and cares and gets it done,   Michael Hingson ** 57:55 yeah, we we spend way too much time, because I think we're taught so much to be negative when we don't get taught nearly as much about being as positive as we can be. I know that my parents were always encouraging to me and my brother. I'm not sure my brother always got it quite as much as I did in terms of understanding it, but we were, we were taught that positivity was a choice. We were taught that being innovative and moving forward was a choice. And we also were encouraged to make that the choice that we made too, which is part of the issue, yeah,   Louise Baxter ** 58:37 excellent. And the other thing is, I would say, Do not be a perfectionist. I'm an anti perfectionist. Yeah, I agree. It gets you nowhere. Doesn't exist. And you know, especially in this day, where we can move, and we're very agile, kind of, I say 70% out, because if you say 70% and out, it means people will probably go to 80 or 90% but those people who, if anyone in a in an interview, proudly tells me they're perfectionist, they're gone because all they do is drive themselves and everyone around them crazy. So I don't want to have them in the organization. It   Michael Hingson ** 59:17 seems to me that the thing to say is that I will always do the best that I can do, and I will always give at least 100%   Louise Baxter ** 59:25 Absolutely.   Michael Hingson ** 59:28 Yeah, perfection is something I don't think most of us understand anyway, but if we give it our best, probably we'll achieve perfection, in a sense,   Louise Baxter ** 59:37 yeah, and get it done and get it out, get it happening, right? Because the thing is, if it's not, if it's, you know, if it's not, if it's not perfect, you get it out and you get to use it, and you learn so much more. So you got actually a better shot at getting it towards it. You can tweak it after,   Michael Hingson ** 59:55 yeah, well, well, market, well. And what you do. Do is you do the best that you can do, but you're if you're wise and good leaders. Know this. You also work with a team, and sometimes somebody else on the team can take the lead and enhance what you're doing, which is always a good thing.   Louise Baxter ** 1:00:15 Absolutely, you've got to have way smarter people all around you? Yeah,   Michael Hingson ** 1:00:22 I don't think there's anything wrong with having smarter people around you. Your your smarts is in bringing the team together.   Louise Baxter ** 1:00:29 Yes, that's right. So   Michael Hingson ** 1:00:33 what can you think other regions and countries learn from the challenges that you're facing?   Louise Baxter ** 1:00:40 I think we have, I think the world is so consistent in this day and age more than it's kind of ever been. You know, when you travel, you know, you seek out those places where we're different. Of course, we're different, but there's a lot more that's the same in this day and age than there ever has been and, and, you know, in some instances, I think that's quite sad, yeah, but there's much more consistency. So I think that there's, and there's always something that we can learn from each other, always. And that's what I look for. I'm excited by up learning things and you know, and and something that doesn't go according to plan is fabulous, because you learn so much more from that than something that just smoothly goes along and does everything you thought it would do.   Michael Hingson ** 1:01:35 Nothing wrong with learning from things that don't go well. I don't like the term failure and even mistakes, I'm not a great fan of but I think that what happens is that things don't always go as we plan. And the real question is, what do we learn from it? Absolutely which is, which is so cool? Well, Louise, this has been absolutely fun to be able to spend all this time with you. Now it's 10 in the morning where you are, so we should let you go do other things and get something done today. But I want to thank you for being here, and I want to thank all of you who are listening for being a part of our podcast today. I'd love to hear your thoughts about what Louise had to say, and I hope that you will communicate with her. And that's a good point. Louise, how can people reach out to you if they'd like to talk with you and maybe learn more from you, and what you have to say, I'm   Louise Baxter ** 1:02:27 on LinkedIn. So if, if those listening are on LinkedIn, you can find me. Louise Baxter, Starlight, Children's Foundation, Australia and or you can go to starlight.org.au, we if you're looking for us, our website, and you'll find me through that as well. Cool.   Michael Hingson ** 1:02:47 Well, I hope people will reach out. And if you'd like to reach out to me, and I hope you will, you may email me at Michael, H, I m, I C, H, A, E, L, H, I at accessibe, A, C, C, E, S, S, I, B, e.com, and you can also, of course, go to our podcast page, w, w, w, dot Michael hingson.com/podcast, and Michael hingson is spelled M, I, C, H, A, E, L, H, I N, G, s, o, n.com/podcast, you can listen to all of our podcasts there. You can reach out to me. There lots of things you can do on the web. It's an amazing thing to be able to do things on the web. I also would really appreciate it if when you are thinking about us, if you'll give us a five star rating wherever you're listening to us or watching us, we really appreciate your ratings and your comments. So please do that. If you know of anyone who you think might be a good guest, and Louise, you as well. If you can think of anybody else who we ought to have on unstoppable mindset, would definitely appreciate you introducing us. We're always looking to have more people to come on and tell their stories and talk about what they do. That's the best way to learn, is learning by listening to other people and them telling their stories. So hopefully you'll all do that and again, Louise, I want to thank you for being here.

En este episodio hablamos a fondo de la ketamina, tan de moda y tan interesante por su uso en terapia psicológica, psicodélica y anestésico, por sus efectos en el cerebro y por sus posibles riesgos. Obvio hablamos de todo eso aquí y recordamos a Matthew Perry de Friends QEPD porque sobredosis. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

VYS0049 | Machines of Loving Vayse - Vayse to Face with Sequoyah Kennedy v2.0 - Show Notes Imagine, if you will, a world burning as society crumbles (is this stretching you?), in the perpetual, scorched twighlight of a dying planet, the determined foot of a tall figure crushes a skull on a landscape forged of human bones - that foot belongs to Sequoyah Kennedy and the human bones are the vestiges of the common myths and misunderstandings about artificial intelligence... apparently AI's are better than humans at devising effective metaphors in order to convey useful information - and we'll have to hope for their sake that's true. In this episode Hine and Buckley invite back to Vayse one of the most intelligent and articulate humans in the material world, Sequoyah Kennedy. Since the Nonsense Bazaar ended SK has gone deep down the rabbit hole of large language models and has returned to help Hine and Buckley get their heads round what artificial intelligence actually means in 2025 and dismisses some of the ubiquitous confusion which surrounds the topic: is the best use of AI as personal assistant and unpaid artists? Are there demons haunting cyberspace? Do androids dream of electric sheep? and he touches on one of the big questions of our time - are we all in very real danger from this soulless, characterless mockery of human ingenuity with no empathy, no conscience and no soul... or will Elon Musk just finally piss off so that we can live in glorious harmony with our wonderful, wise robot buddies? (recorded 11 March) Thanks to Sequoyah for his patenience in explaining these ocmplex ideas to two middle-aged luddites and thanks, as always to Special K - the man who makes sense of our ramblings, Keith who once again did a sterling job of the show notes. You can give him a follow on Blue Sky here: @peakflow.bsky.social Sequoyah Kennedy online Sequoyah's Patreon (https://www.patreon.com/sequoyahkennedy) - Find the links to SK's custom chatbots and other great content here Empyrean Dream Machines substack (https://empyreandreammachines.substack.com/) Sequoyah on Twitter/X (https://x.com/sequoyahkennedy) Sequoyah on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/birdbrains33/) The Nonsense Bazaar podcast - Podtail (https://podtail.com/podcast/the-nonsense-bazaar/) Hine's (?) Intro AI Voice Cloning: Is It the Future or a Cybersecurity Nightmare? - Neil Sahota (https://www.neilsahota.com/ai-voice-cloning-is-it-the-future-or-a-cybersecurity-nightmare/) Vayse to Face with Sequoyah Kennedy What is Late-Stage Capitalism? - The Balance (https://www.thebalancemoney.com/late-stage-capitalism-definition-why-it-s-trending-4172369) ArtificiaI Intelligence - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artificial_intelligence) Battlestar Galactica | The Cylons Arrive on New Caprica - YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Dzy_FiLd64) AI with personality — Prompting ChatGPT using Big Five Personality Model values - Medium (https://medium.com/@damsa.andrei/ai-with-personality-prompting-chatgpt-using-big-five-values-def7f050462a) Ong's Hat Compleat - JosephMatheny.com (https://josephmatheny.com/ongs-hat-compleat/) Ong's Hat: COMPLEAT, by Joseph Matheny, Sequoyah Kennedy - Goodreads (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/223112896-ong-s-hat?) The Nonsense Bazaar 62 - Written By Artificial Intelligence - Podtail (https://podtail.com/podcast/the-nonsense-bazaar/62-written-by-artificial-intelligence/) Recommender system - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recommender_system) Relational database - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Relational_database) Facial recognition system - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facial_recognition_system) Large language model - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Large_language_model) Are LLMs Just Fancy Autocomplete? Here's Why It Might Look That Way - Medium (https://generativeai.pub/ai-bites-are-llms-just-fancy-autocomplete-heres-why-it-might-look-that-way-17b952ae569e) Andrej Karpathy - Intro to Large Language Models - YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zjkBMFhNj_g) Attention mechanism - Geeks for Geeks (https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/ml-attention-mechanism/) Vector space - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vector_space) Generative pre-trained transformer (GPT) - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generative_pre-trained_transformer) Claude (language model) - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claude_(language_model)) ChatGPT - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ChatGPT) Llama website (open-source AI models) (https://www.llama.com/) Python (comp lang) (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Python_(programming_language)) Why Can't AI Count the Number of "R"s in the Word "Strawberry"? - HackerNoon (https://hackernoon.com/why-cant-ai-count-the-number-of-rs-in-the-word-strawberry) Gods in the machine? The rise of artificial intelligence may result in new religions - The Conversation (https://theconversation.com/gods-in-the-machine-the-rise-of-artificial-intelligence-may-result-in-new-religions-201068) Robert Anton Wilson - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Anton_Wilson) Hunter S. Thompson - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hunter_S._Thompson) From pixels to realism: the evolution of video game graphics - Mainleaf (https://mainleaf.com/the-evolution-of-video-game-graphics/) The Green Dilemma: Can AI Fulfil Its Potential Without Harming the Environment? - Earth.org (https://earth.org/the-green-dilemma-can-ai-fulfil-its-potential-without-harming-the-environment/) The Uneven Distribution of AI's Environmental Impacts - HBR.org (https://hbr.org/2024/07/the-uneven-distribution-of-ais-environmental-impacts) Almond Milk vs. Cow's Milk: Which Is More Environmentally Friendly? - Treehugger (https://www.treehugger.com/almond-milk-vs-cow-milk-5215833) Elon Musk warns AI could cause ‘civilization destruction' even as he invests in it - CNN Business (https://edition.cnn.com/2023/04/17/tech/elon-musk-ai-warning-tucker-carlson/index.html) Grok-3 website (https://x.ai/news/grok-3) Elon Musk's AI assistant Grok roasts its creator - Mashable (https://mashable.com/article/grok-x-ai-assistant-roasts-elon-musk) Claude AI website (https://claude.ai/) Anthropic (company) - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthropic) Amanda Askell's website (https://askell.io/) Genie from Aladdin (Robin Williams) - YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WFh2Aab-MVM) Pareidolia - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pareidolia) Artificial consciousness - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artificial_consciousness) Frankenstein's Monster, AI, and the Perils of Innovation - Medium (https://medium.com/the-procurement-paradox/frankensteins-monster-ai-and-the-perils-of-innovation-918064ab4638) David Lynch - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Lynch) Kundalini - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kundalini) William S. Burroughs: "Language is a virus from outer space" - FixQuotes (https://fixquotes.com/quotes/language-is-a-virus-from-outer-space-2449.htm) David Grusch UFO whistleblower claims - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Grusch_UFO_whistleblower_claims) Diana Walsh Pasulka - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diana_Walsh_Pasulka) DARPA - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DARPA) UFO Twitter (https://twitter.com/hashtag/UFOTwitter) Psilocybin & OCD: Can psychedelics treat obsessive compulsive disorder? - New Atlas (https://newatlas.com/science/psilocybin-ocd-psychedelic-therapy-obsessive-compulsive-disorder/) Kabbalah - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kabbalah) Taoism (Daoism) - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taoism) AI in 2024: Reaching the Point of Super-Persuasion - YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lSEzeHRwYGE) Cambridge Analytica - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cambridge_Analytica) Quantum mysticism - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_mysticism) Google Gemini website (https://gemini.google.com/?hl=en-GB) VYS0047 | The Weird Review Of The Year 2024 (https://www.vayse.co.uk/vys0047) Don't be evil (Google motto) - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don%27t_be_evil) Rhode Island - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhode_Island) UAP recovery video shows ‘egg-shaped' object - YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=009qMHiqsVs) Tarot - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarot) I Ching - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Ching) Artificial Intelligence Could Finally Let Us Talk with Animals - Scientific American (https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/artificial-intelligence-could-finally-let-us-talk-with-animals/) Anthropic's Claude AI is playing Pokémon on Twitch…slowly - TechCrunch (https://techcrunch.com/2025/02/25/anthropics-claude-ai-is-playing-pokemon-on-twitch-slowly/) Reality tunnel - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reality_tunnel) AI through the lens of neurodiversity - Medium (https://medium.com/digital-architecture-lab/ai-through-the-lens-of-neurodiversity-3134c7ec11a7) Neural network (machine learning) - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neural_network_(machine_learning)) Skynet (Terminator) - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skynet_(Terminator)) Data (Star Trek) - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_(Star_Trek)) The Shamanic Journey - Shaman Links (https://www.shamanlinks.net/shaman-info/about-shamanism/the-shamanic-journey/) Aidan Wachter's website (https://www.aidanwachter.com/) VYS0042 | Grinding Out Some Low-End - Vayse to Face with Aidan Wachter (https://www.vayse.co.uk/vys0042) The Eagle River Incident (Joe Simonton and the Space Pancakes) (https://www.ufoinsight.com/aliens/encounters/eagle-river-incident) Co-Creation of Reality, Consciousness Evolution, and the Hierarchy of Consciousness in the Cosmic Synthesis Theory (CST) Model - Medium (https://medium.com/@nathandmiller1980/co-creation-of-reality-consciousness-evolution-and-the-hierarchy-of-consciousness-in-the-cosmic-c261a82491dd) Information space - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Information_space) The Imaginal Realm - Imaginal Journeying (https://imaginaljourneying.com/the-imaginal-realm/) The Secret Commonwealth: An Essay of the Nature and Actions of the Subterranean (and, for the Most Part) Invisible People, Heretofore Going under the Name of Elves, Fauns, and Fairies, by Robert Kirk - Goodreads (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/572121.The_Secret_Commonwealth) Meme - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meme) The Power of Language: How Words Shape Our Reality - Medium (https://medium.com/@sergeianikin/the-power-of-language-how-words-shape-our-reality-59d8c7ac0f3b) AIs are becoming more self-aware. Here's why that matters - AI digest (https://theaidigest.org/self-awareness) Jinn - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jinn) Live action role-playing game (LARP) - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Live_action_role-playing_game) TechGnosis: Myth, Magic, and Mysticism in the Age of Information, by Erik Davis - Goodreads (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1527805) Hermetic Qabalah - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermetic_Qabalah) Four Worlds (spiritual realms) - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Worlds) The Chicken Qabalah of Rabbi Lamed Ben Clifford: Dilettante's Guide to What You Do and Do Not Need to Know to Become a Qabalist, by Lon Milo DuQuette - Goodreads (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/420549.The_Chicken_Qabalah_of_Rabbi_Lamed_Ben_Clifford) Twin Peaks - Red Room Full Scene HD - YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kDTxN4dbN3E) Morphine - Like a Mirror - YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ft_bhOzU1g) A hilarious new Harry Potter chapter was written by a predictive keyboard, and it's perfect - Mashable (https://mashable.com/article/harry-potter-predictive-chapter) Great Filter - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Filter) This Wild, Believable Theory Suggests AI Is Blocking Us From Alien Contact - Inverse (https://www.inverse.com/science/this-wild-believable-theory-suggest-ai-is-blocking-us-from-alien-contact) VYS0048 | Chinese Sex Balloons - Vayse to Face with Edwina Quatermass-Palmer (https://www.vayse.co.uk/vys0048) Adama's 'So Say We All' Speech - Battlestar Galactica - YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bX3orumzB_8) Sequoyah's recommendations (and other stuff) ChatGPT website (https://chatgpt.com/) Sequoyah's Patreon (https://www.patreon.com/sequoyahkennedy) - You can find the links to SK's custom chatbots here Wind of Change podcast (https://podtail.com/podcast/wind-of-change/) Under the Silver Lake - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Under_the_Silver_Lake) Under the Silver Lake | Official Trailer HD - YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mwgUesU1pz4) Robert Monroe (The Munroe Institute) - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Monroe) Songs in the Key of Vayse compilation - Bandcamp (https://vayse.bandcamp.com/album/songs-in-the-key-of-vayse) Buckley's closing question Data - Best Moments - YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-v31fL_H14) The Best of Bender - YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ln4rfYh7ng0) Short Circuit 1 and 2 - Best of Johnny 5 - YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wdLoz6UZcCo) Vayse online Website (https://www.vayse.co.uk/) Twitter (https://twitter.com/vayseesyav) Bluesky (https://bsky.app/profile/vayseesyav.bsky.social) Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/vayseesyav/) Bandcamp (Music From Vayse) (https://vayse.bandcamp.com/) Ko-Fi (https://ko-fi.com/vayse) Email: vayseinfo@gmail.com Special Guest: Sequoyah Kennedy.

Ever wondered what ketamine actually feels like? In this video, I break down the effects, the highs, the lows and everything in between. From its dissociative, dreamlike state to its therapeutic potential and risks, this is the ultimate guide to understanding ketamine.

Lesley Logan and Brad Crowell break down key insights from Lesley's conversation with Sam Mandel, CEO and co-founder of Ketamine Clinics Los Angeles, one of the first ketamine clinics in the country. They explore how ketamine therapy can help reframe trauma, unlock new mental pathways, and provide clarity for lasting change. In this recap episode, they discuss the power of perspective shifts, breaking free from limiting beliefs, and why taking action—despite fear or perfectionism—is the key to growth. If you've ever felt stuck in your past, this conversation will give you a fresh way to move forward.If you have any questions about this episode or want to get some of the resources we mentioned, head over to LesleyLogan.co/podcast. If you have any comments or questions about the Be It pod shoot us a message at beit@lesleylogan.co. And as always, if you're enjoying the show please share it with someone who you think would enjoy it as well. It is your continued support that will help us continue to help others. Thank you so much! Never miss another show by subscribing at LesleyLogan.co/subscribe.In this episode you will learn about:How ketamine therapy helps reframe past experiences and shift perspectives on trauma.The role of ketamine in rewiring the brain and breaking old thought patterns.Why a structured clinical environment ensures the best results with ketamine therapy.The importance of normalizing alternative mental health treatments and breaking the stigma.How perfectionism holds you back and why taking “messy action” leads to real growth.Episode References/Links:Cambodia October 2025 Waitlist - https://crowsnestretreats.com Spring Pilates Training - https://opc.me/eventsPilates Studio Growth Accelerator - https://prfit.biz/acceleratorAccessories Flashcards Waitlist - https://opc.me/flashcardwaitlistKetamine Clinics LA Website: https://Ketamineclinics.com Sam Mandel's Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/thesammandel If you enjoyed this episode, make sure and give us a five star rating and leave us a review on iTunes, Podcast Addict, Podchaser or Castbox.DEALS! DEALS! DEALS! DEALS!Check out all our Preferred Vendors & Special Deals from Clair Sparrow, Sensate, Lyfefuel BeeKeeper's Naturals, Sauna Space, HigherDose, AG1 and ToeSoxBe in the know with all the workshops at OPCBe It Till You See It Podcast SurveyBe a part of Lesley's Pilates MentorshipFREE Ditching Busy Webinar Resources:Watch the Be It Till You See It podcast on YouTube!Lesley Logan websiteBe It Till You See It PodcastOnline Pilates Classes by Lesley LoganOnline Pilates Classes by Lesley Logan on YouTubeProfitable Pilates Follow Us on Social Media:InstagramThe Be It Till You See It Podcast YouTube channelFacebookLinkedInThe OPC YouTube Channel Episode Transcript:Brad Crowell 0:00  The past is the past, but our story about it can change at any given moment. So the event still happened, but the story we tell ourselves about that event that is something that we can change. And he said the ketamine really helps you dig in, because, well, first off, he said the most challenging aspect of trauma is that we feel like it can define us, and ketamine helps you see the traumatic events with a new perspective, detaching from the overwhelming emotions and allowing for more objective processing. Lesley Logan 0:31  Welcome to the Be It Till You See It podcast where we talk about taking messy action, knowing that perfect is boring. I'm Lesley Logan, Pilates instructor and fitness business coach. I've trained thousands of people around the world and the number one thing I see stopping people from achieving anything is self-doubt. My friends, action brings clarity and it's the antidote to fear. Each week, my guest will bring bold, executable, intrinsic and targeted steps that you can use to put yourself first and Be It Till You See It. It's a practice, not a perfect. Let's get started.Lesley Logan 1:10  Welcome back to the Be It Till You See It interview recap where my co-host in life, Brad, and I are going to dig into the eye-opening convo I had with Sam Mandel in our last episode. If you haven't yet listened to that interview, feel free to pause this now go back and listen to that one or you can listen to this one and then listen to that one. You can listen, too, in whatever order you want. I found it to be really fascinating.Brad Crowell 1:35  Yeah, actually, I always find it funny that people tell us we've clearly said this almost 300 times now, or 250 times now saying you could pick if you want to watch one, listen to one first or the other, or watch and. Lesley Logan 1:48  People need permission. Brad Crowell 1:49  But then when people meet us, they say, oh, I'm really enjoying your recap. So I listen to them first and then go back. Or other people are like, I don't know. I have to listen to this first versus the I can't listen (inaudible).Lesley Logan 1:59  They want to guess. They want to know if their takeaway is what we're going to talk about, which I think is really fascinating. I think it's also what a great personality test.Brad Crowell 2:08  Yeah. I don't know what conclusions we're drawing from it but yes. Lesley Logan 2:11  Here's what I would say. I listen to a couple true crime shows, and I cannot listen to the talking about the show until I've listened to the show, because I like the anticipation of, like, did he do it? What's going on? Like, I like that. And then I like listening to. Brad Crowell 2:26  What are you talking about you skip to the end? Lesley Logan 2:30  Well, when we watched The Crown, yes, I Google. I Google, like, if it is true. Well, sometimes the anxiety makes me want to know.Brad Crowell 2:37  This is the Lesley thing. We start a thing, there's some kind of stress, which is, in every TV show, it's on purpose. And then she pulls out her phone, Google's the resolution for the entire show. And then I'm always like, don't tell me. I don't want to know. I literally don't want to know. I want to enjoy the show the way they made it. Lesley Logan 2:54  I am not your friend to support you not finding out if you're having a boy or girl, even though I completely support whether or not they identify as that, I like to know. Brad Crowell 3:06  You're not going to do the Moira Rose, I don't know if you trust me with that secret. Lesley Logan 3:13  No, I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't want to be I don't want to hold a secret. No, that's not true. I can't hold a secret. Brad Crowell 3:20  Hilarious. All right. Well, today is March 13th 2025 and it's a day for two specials things here. Lesley Logan 3:26  Oh, okay. So here we go. First up, it's International Every Girl Wins Day. This holiday helps bring attention to women's rights worldwide, especially to young girls. The celebrations involve talks, lectures and conferences on women's empowerment in every country, the goal is to achieve long-term systemic change that addresses women's rights to equity. The day also inspires young girls to take pride in their most essential assets. They're encouraged to support each other and be ambassador of the female empowerment movement, not just beneficiaries of it. The Ever Girl Wins Institute introduced this holiday. That's so cool. Brad Crowell 3:59  Yeah, pretty cool. Lesley Logan 4:00  What a fun day. Okay, well, that's so fun, we have to figure out how to celebrate that more. Let's participate next year. I don't know. Lex, if you're listening, let's talk about it.Brad Crowell 4:08  Yeah. Second up, it's National Open An Umbrella Indoors Day. Lesley Logan 4:13  What? Brad Crowell 4:13  Right? I was like, okay, I need to include this. So it's a day to test the popular superstition that opening an umbrella inside will bring bad luck. So I didn't know that was a thing. I didn't realize it. I've heard of walking under a ladder, something about black cats. I don't actually know. Lesley Logan 4:29  I have always heard that opening the umbrella inside is bad luck, but I've never participated in it, because where else are you supposed to open the umbrella, outside in the rain? Not everythin has a.Brad Crowell 4:39  You always open it indoor first, and then go outside with it.Lesley Logan 4:42  Oh, I kind of want to, if I can push the door open, I want to open the umbrella as I'm going outside, because. Brad Crowell 4:48  Yeah, as you're going outside.Lesley Logan 4:49  If there's not a, most buildings don't have a porch, like a, what do you call it? It's not a porch. It's not what you're staying on, it's, it's overhang. Most of them don't have the overhang. And I just think it's annoying, because then you're wet under your umbrella.Brad Crowell 4:49  Yes, yes.Lesley Logan 4:55  Okay, well, tell us more about this day. Brad Crowell 5:03  Apparently, superstitions are baseless beliefs held by people that influence their behavior. So, shame on you, apparently. There are irrational beliefs that performing or not performing particular acts will lead to either bad luck or good luck. National Open An Umbrella Day, Indoors Day, allows you to try your luck and see how your day goes. So if you're willing to risk it. Lesley Logan 5:27  I just think that this person is kind of an ass. It's baseless. Your superstitions are baseless beliefs. There are so much studies on where you have attention, that's where things go, and that's why manifesting works. So I would just say, focus on the good things. You don't bring in the bad. I wouldn't go wrong going, oh my God, this happened because I opened an umbrella inside, but maybe you do. And so this day is for you. Lesley Logan 5:47  Okay, so we are at P.O.T. Denver. It actually starts Friday, but we are on our way. And so if you're there, make sure you come and say hi. If you're an OPC agency or eLevate member, we are having a little happy hour, so make sure you come over and find us. We want to talk about it. We want to hug you. Then get this, guess what, guys, March 18th to the 24th the Accessories Deck is on presale.Brad Crowell 6:09  So that's less than one week, y'all. Lesley Logan 6:11  Yes, so if you go to opc.me/flashcardwaitlist, this is your last chance, because next week's podcast, we won't even be talking about it, because if you're not on the waitlist, you can't get the discount. So you must go to opc.me/flashcardwaitlist to get that 30% off. Brad Crowell 6:27  I think we'll still talk about it this week. Lesley Logan 6:29  No, no. Urgency, people. Get on it.Brad Crowell 6:30  Get on it right now, opc.me/flashcardwaitlist. Lesley Logan 6:34  Hey, look, in case our things fuck up, and even though you get on the waitlist, you don't hear about it. Brad Crowell 6:38  It's possible. Lesley Logan 6:38  Also, because this is the last flashcard deck. Is there a waitlist anymore? Brad Crowell 6:43  Yeah, what are we going to do with this waitlist? We're going to have to email y'all and be like, hey, this waitlist is now closed. Do you want to go over to other waitlists and we'll, we'll let you know what we got.Lesley Logan 6:52  Yeah, we'll have to, someone, whoever was on the team listening, please assign me that task. Okay.Brad Crowell 6:56  Okay. Lesley Logan 6:57  April. Brad Crowell 6:58  Coming up hard. Coming up fast. Lesley Logan 7:00  April is coming up fast, and Spring Training is going to be April 27th through May 3rd, and those who are on the waitlist are going to get the early bird special. And this is a different waitlist than the flashcard waitlist. Brad Crowell 7:12  True. They're not the same waitlist. Lesley Logan 7:13  No, they're not. And so if you go to opc.me/events you are going to be entered.Brad Crowell 7:19  That is plural, opc.me/eventsLesley Logan 7:21  Plural. That's where you go to make sure you get the early bird opportunity, because we will open up the early bird sign-ups a few days before regular sign-ups, and only those on the waitlist are going to get the discounted rate. Up next, Brad, what do you got for them? Brad Crowell 7:35  Okay, we've got the Profitable Pilates Accelerator free webinar, if you are taking any clients on your own anywhere, whether that is at your house or in the park or your friend is, I don't know, buying you lunch. Technically, you are getting paid to teach, and that means you have your own business. And I'm sure you're aware, Lesley and I have been working with business owners just like you, just like us, where we were and where we are, coaching them through all the hard questions. How do you get new clients? How do I make this a living? Whatever the question might be, but I have a free webinar for you, specifically on increasing your income. Okay. So, come join me. Go to prfit.biz/accelerator that is profit without the O dot B-I-Z slash accelerator and join me for this free webinar. I can't wait to dig into the three biggest secrets that Lesley and I have learned after coaching more than 2500 small business owners just like you. And then finally, we've got October of this year. Lesley Logan 8:40  Cambodia.Brad Crowell 8:41  Cambodia. We literally just got back. Lesley Logan 8:43  We just got back and it was kind of a quick trip for us. We were only there. Brad Crowell 8:47  Two and a half weeks. Yeah, we were traveling for two and a half weeks. Lesley Logan 8:50  Yeah, we had a couple of days in Singapore, so not really two full weeks in Cambodia, but we loved it, and we're jonesing to go back already. And we have some epic people who already signed up. I'm really excited. Some of these people have been on the next time I'm gonna go next time for years, and now they're coming. Brad Crowell 8:50  It's true. Lesley Logan 8:55  And we have some repeat offenders. Brad Crowell 9:09  We have someone else signing up this weekend. It's definitely starting to get full. October is a very popular time for our community. The weather is lovely. It's quite beautiful. If that's something of interest to you, make sure you reach out to us as soon as possible, and we'll get you all the information that you need to make the decision. But it's going to be October 12th through the 18th, 2025 so, come hang out in our favorite place in the world. Lesley Logan 9:33  Yes. Brad Crowell 9:33  Where do you go? Crownestretreats.com crowsnestretreats.com okay.Lesley Logan 9:39  Okay, so we're gonna get into the amazing Sam Mandel, and we're gonna learn all about ketamine and talk about it. Before we do that, we have a question from the audience. Brad Crowell 9:48  We sure do. Okay. Eva de Brune from Instagram, states and asks, I know you enjoy lifting weights. Is the reformer, like the Contrology reformer and mat and Wunda chair, etc., is that enough? Or do you recommend adding weights to the workout routine? I get asked a lot, is mat enough? Yoga, you are using your body weight. What is your take on this? So a couple of things. So I think the way that this is written, I'm not sure if she's asking if she should go to the gym and be lifting weights, or if she's asking if she'd be adding weights to your Pilates practice. Lesley Logan 10:21  I think it's go, I think it's the first, which is going to the gym and lifting weights in addition to your Pilates and your yoga. So here's the deal. Unfortunately, many of the studies that have been done on Pilates implies resistance has been done with Pilates isn't how I teach. Scientific studies cost a fuck ton of money. I actually, I've postponed a particular call with a group that does these studies multiple times, because it's tens of thousands of dollars. And the reality is, it's not even the best way of testing, because the more Pilates you do, the more muscles you bring in. So then who should we be testing? You know, there's just a lot of things. So what I can tell you is, my Contrology equipment has the heavy springs, obviously, that is resistance. That is absolutely resistance. Is it the same resistance training as heavy weights? I don't think we can say that it is. And so what I'm going to say is, I know you're very busy. I know you've got a lot going on. I would love to be able to say Pilates is all you need. I don't think it's true. Brad Crowell 10:21  It's all you need. Lesley Logan 10:21  I don't think it's true, but here's what I would say, pick a couple of days to do some heavy kettlebells. Pick a couple of days to do some barbell training. You don't have to hit. I'm not actually a big fan of hit for women over a certain age, it's can be really cortisol-inducing, but I would do some or do some heavy weightlifting. I would, also, because it's cool, because it's really cool to see what you can lift. It's really fun. The mat alone is epic and amazing for mobility and strength training. But even Joe realized that people needed more, and that's why he brought the springs in. And it's not that they need more because the mat isn't enough. It's because they need support to teach the body parts that don't have the access yet. So I actually use my weight training as information on where I have work to do, like my Pilates practice could support my weight training. I recognize like I have a balance issue when I do my single leg dead lifts. And so I use my Pilates Cadillac and my reformer to help train the things that I need so I can weight-train better. So to me, Pilates is actually so I can do my life. I'm sure there's a yogi out there who's gonna get pissed if I say yoga is not an not enough, but I'm gonna be really honest, depending on what your bone density is doing, body weight exercises alone are not necessarily enough, because you need to stress the muscles. So that is where I do think heavy springs can be compared to lifting weights, but they're just different things. Brad Crowell 12:40  Stress the bones. Lesley Logan 12:41  Stress the bones, yeah, you stress the muscles, which pull in the bones, which creates good stress on the bones, which creates good bone density. So, the other thing I would just say is your body is you got one, and the longer we wait to challenge it, the harder it is to support it. And so if you went in my routine, I do Pilates five to six days a week. I lift three to four days a week. I do yoga twice a week. I walk every day. And I do these things because I actually want to be 100 years old and still be able to travel and hike and be independent. So it's just like, what do you want in your future? And then how does your fitness regimen actually support what you want? Where are you at in your age group? Notice I didn't mention any cardio in there, because my Pilates practice has bouts of cardio in it. When I'm doing some of my yoga stuff, my heart rate goes up. When I do some of my lifting stuff, my heart rate goes up. So I'm challenging my heart in multiple ways. I don't need to spend time doing that, but I would, I would lift some weights, babe. And yes, your mat practice is essential. It's amazing. It's great for mobility and longevity. But I do not have a study in front of me that says it's enough.Brad Crowell 13:46  Right. Well, great question, Eva, thanks for asking. Lesley Logan 13:49  Yeah. You know, here's the deal. If someone wants me to do a study, I would love to do it. You have no idea how much money you actually need to do it, and you need people who know the method. I would want to have people who are beginners, people who are advanced. I want to have women, men, but then, you need to know the women's cycle and where they're at. There's so much information. And I think that until we have that, you got to do it all. Brad Crowell 14:10  You got to do it all. All right, well, stick around we'll be right back, because we're about to dig in to a really interesting conversation with a doctor, Dr. Sam Mandel. We're going to talk about. Lesley Logan 14:20  Ketamine. Brad Crowell 14:21  Ketamine. Special K, all the drug paraphernalia names. It's all the same stuff, y'all, it's just actually how you use it. And he went way deep on that, so I thought it was really interesting. We'll be right back. Brad Crowell 14:33  Okay, welcome back. Let's talk about Sam Mandel. Sam Mandel is the co-founder and CEO of Ketamine Clinics Los Angeles, Sam and his father, who's also a doctor, opened KCLA in 2014 making it one of the first ketamine clinics in the entire country. Sam's passion for this innovative treatment stems from the profound and lasting positive impacts it has on people's lives. He believes ketamine therapy offers individuals the oportunity to rewrite their stories, overcome deeply ingrained mental patterns and step into a life filled with hope, resilience and joy.Lesley Logan 15:09  Okay, so when I got to talk to Sam, I was like, okay, I'm very interested, because we've had Dr. Kelly Bender on. Brad Crowell 15:15  Yes. Lesley Logan 15:15  She's a dear friend of mine, and I know that she does ketamine therapy and treatment, and we have a personal friend who we know has done ketamine treatments. She tried to do them on her own and. Brad Crowell 15:26  Yes, I mean, she was prescribed it, but she did them at home alone, which I thought, I didn't realize that was an option.Lesley Logan 15:32  And also, we have another friend where his wife has gone to the clinic like Sam's, and then he did on his own. And so anyways, so I just was very interested, because also, I think there's a lot of misinformation out there, and then when you have a death of someone who is abusing it with other things, then people get scared of something. And so I was really intrigued, because I think a lot of ways that people are affected of being it till they see it is they have past traumas or things going on in their brain that keep them from having the ability to be it till they see it. They have all the ideas. They've been listening this podcast. They have all this support, but then they have this stuff that's keeping them in their way. And so I really want to have Sam on because if ketamine can help them, then they need it to be it till they see it, right? So here's one thing I learned, ketamine is actually a psychedelic. I guess I didn't know that. I don't know what I thought ketamine was, so I thought that was really interesting. And it's really the only legally available psychedelic in the United States. It has the ability to dissolve these barriers that get in our way and help people get out of their own way. And so obviously, traditional talk therapy is really great. It can be helpful, but it says limitations. It's because our conscious mind gets in the way and makes it difficult to confront those deep seated issues. But ketamine acts in a different part of the brain than antidepressants can, and it allows these breakthroughs that aren't necessarily possible with other methods. And I think that's really cool, because we've heard of great stories of how ketamine can help people, like vets and different things, and like. Brad Crowell 16:57  PTSD.Lesley Logan 16:58  Oh yes, and it also like just kind of helps you take a different look at what the thing is. And I think in our own brains, we can judge ourselves for our actions we took or we didn't take in that situation, because it can be difficult to kind of forgive yourself about how you participated in an event that's affecting you, or how long it's, you just get in your head about it. And the way that ketamine can actually, when prescribed correctly and when done at a I think it's so cool that there's a clinic that you can go so, you know, you're safe, you know, I mean, first of all, it is safe. Brad Crowell 17:30  It's a controlled environment. Oh, yeah. Lesley Logan 17:31  It's a controlled environment, yes.Brad Crowell 17:32  I think that's half the reason why I stayed away from drugs was I didn't know what was going to happen, and if I knew something was going to happen to me and I was going to be impaired. Am I in a place where I'm going to be safe, right? So.Lesley Logan 17:45  Right. When I finally tried doing a little like micro dosing of mushrooms, it has to be at the house. There can be nothing going on. Brad Crowell 17:53  I can't have any obligations, no expectations from anybody else.Lesley Logan 17:59  Yeah, all these things we didn't even need to do that we could have just gone to Sam's clinic, and it's all set up in his clinic. Brad Crowell 18:05  Sam's clinic. Lesley Logan 18:05  Sam's clinic. It's called, not Sam's clinic. It's called, Ketamine Clinics Los Angeles, KCLA. So anyways, I just think that it's important for me to bring to everyone's attention here, that this is something that exists, and there are places that you can do it in a controlled way to actually get the true benefits from it. And because I've had so many people tell me that they have good benefits, I just didn't want negative stuff to keep people from doing it in the right way. Brad Crowell 18:32  Well, let's talk about why you might want to participate. Why would you be signing up to do a psychedelic? What I really enjoyed about Sam was him breaking it down from the perspective of a doctor, of what it actually is doing, how it's affected his patients. They've been around since 2014 so they're 10 years. So, they've done like, 30,000 treatments or something, you know, amazing. So he said ketamine helps people to craft the story around the trauma that they have. He said what happened is fixed, meaning the past. Whatever traumatic event happened, it's fixed, and it can never be changed. The past is the past, but our story about it can change at any given moment. So the event still happened, but the story we tell ourselves about that event that is something that we can change. And he said that ketamine really helps you dig in, because, well, first off, he said the most challenging aspect of trauma is that we feel like it can define us, and ketamine helps you see the traumatic events with a new perspective, detaching from the overwhelming emotions and allowing for more objective processing. The potential for ketamine to promote neuroplasticity, meaning your brain is creating new pathways, right? So, you know the expression, old dog can't be taught new tricks, right? Well, the whole idea there is that you're in a rut. You're in a groove, and it's really hard to jump out of that groove and create a new way of thinking, because we just default to what is easiest, and what is easiest is what we already know. So if we've defined for ourselves years ago that this thing equals pain, this thing equals fear, this equals whatever the thing is the story we tell ourselves, it is actually really hard to rewrite that story, and ketamine can help allow your brain to create those new storylines, those new pathways, so it helps bump out of that rut, which I thought was pretty cool. He said ketamine provides this kind of objective clarity. It can be extremely healing and transformational for people. Lesley Logan 18:51  Yeah, it kind of makes you go, should we all just go and do a ketamine treatment? Like, can it just be, like, the jump start you need? I don't know. It feels, I just, I feel like maybe it would help me get the all the journaling in the world that I've been doing, I might be able to speed up the process if I just did a treatment around the thing that keeps coming up.Brad Crowell 20:55  I think that's the idea. And I think also, even just the concept of that, it still feels taboo. It still feels like this scary thing that, great we've put it in a controlled environment, but I actually think it would benefit society if we normalized it. Lesley Logan 21:12  Yeah, well, we have to, first of all, we got to normalize mental health and that we all have different ways.Brad Crowell 21:17  Yes, same exact stigma as any kind of therapy, or any of that. This is a different form of therapy than talk therapy, than. Lesley Logan 21:25  I don't know. Maybe this is because we actually did do 14, 15 years in LA, and I knew people who were doing these things and doing controlled micro dosing of other things. And because my friend studies it, I know the benefits. And so to me, it doesn't feel taboo. Also, maybe we all could use a little bit of like, when you lived in LA, everyone had a therapist, and it was not unheard of for people to go, yeah, I'm gonna go get some ketamine therapy. We need to normalize all that for the rest of the country. Therapy is real. Do it. And also, if you can't get to, LA, do your research. But I would definitely use Sam's website for what you're looking at, as far as what the standard should be.Brad Crowell 22:07  Like the standard, which organization's the gold standard, you know, go look up Ketamine Clinics Los Angeles, and then compare that to a local clinic. Lesley Logan 22:14  Or and or go to LA. Brad Crowell 22:16  Yeah, or reach out to them and talk to them and ask them, you know, what they recommend. Lesley Logan 22:19  Yeah, they had some great stuff. So anyways, I think it's great. I think I could see where this could be really useful. And obviously it's not what you go do every Thursday. But if you've got -ish holding you back, what are you waiting for? Brad Crowell 22:33  Yeah, let's splash that -ish.Lesley Logan 22:35  I don't think that's what Sam wants.Brad Crowell 22:42  All right, stick around. We'll be right back with those Be It Action Items from Dr. Sam Mandel. Brad Crowell 22:47  All right. So finally, let's talk about those Be It Action Items. What bold, executable, intrinsic or targeted action items can we take away from your convo with Sam Mandel? Borrowing Nike slogan, he said take action. Just do it. Honestly, planning and strategizing is important, thinking things through, figuring out who you are, what you want, and putting together a plan that actually matters. So, the just do it part could start with the planning, but I think it's so easy for us to have analysis paralysis. I was just having this conversation with someone over the weekend of yeah, I started to do the thing, and then I ran into a speed bump, and I had to make a choice. But to make the choice, I had to learn a whole lot of stuff, and to learn a whole lot of stuff, it was going to take me a lot of time. And then what did I do? Nothing, right? So sometimes maybe we can phone a friend and shortcut that maybe we can, I don't know, join a coaching group and shortcut that maybe we can call a doctor and shortcut that when it comes to the planning and whatever, but I think just getting out there and taking messy action, we talk about that all the time. Lesley Logan 23:43  And also, if you haven't yet listened to the interview, go listen to it, because you actually hear about how he and his father started the clinic, which was like just doing it. It was like a freaking closet with a tiny desk and everything. But I think as we plan different things, there's part of me that loves how I do things. I just go for it. And then sometimes you and the team have too many questions, and I'm like, I don't have the answer for that. I think we're gonna figure it out when we get there. And it doesn't always work that way. So I would say, if you are someone who has to know every single thing before you get started this Be It Action Item is for you.Brad Crowell 24:14  Yeah, there's just too many unknowns. So planning can stop you in your track. Lesley Logan 24:18  We've coached so many people who have made sure they have all their plans to a tee, and then something out of everyone's control comes in and fucks it all up. I've had friends who've literally planned exactly what they want their business do, and then literally, two months later, after they did everything to a tee, perfectly, exactly how they wanted, they spend the budget the right way, everything, then COVID happened, fucked it all up. Didn't matter. So, you know, I think there's a healthy balance. Brad Crowell 24:44  Yep. What about you? Lesley Logan 24:45  Okay, he talked about it's too easy to let perfection keep us from taking the steps that we need to take to get done who we want to be, so. Brad Crowell 24:51  Wait, say that one more time. Lesley Logan 24:53  It's too easy to let perfectionist keep, perfectionism keep us from taking the steps we need to take to get done who we want to be. So like. Brad Crowell 24:53  I think it would be better to say to become who we want to be. Lesley Logan 25:03  To become who we want to be, probably. So I couldn't agree more. And he said you're going to make mistakes, and it's really the only way you actually succeed in life. And he said, if you're dealing with mental health condition, he encourages you to call and so a lot of times perfectionism shows up as a sign of imposter syndrome that you're dealing with, but it could also be a way of you controlling things, which can be part of a mental health situation. And so.Brad Crowell 25:26  I mean, it's the same exact, here's a perfect example. If he's the gold standard and you don't live in Los Angeles, then you won't take any action, because you can't get to the best one, right? That is perfectionism. What you could do is take messy action, give them a call and say hey, I don't live there, but.Lesley Logan 25:44  What are my options? Brad Crowell 25:45  What am I, what should, what should we be talking about here and just see if there is a path or some kind of alternate option for you, wherever it is that you live. So. Lesley Logan 25:52  Yeah, I mean, we talk about perfectionism here a lot, and I would just say, don't get mad at the perfectionist tendencies that you have. Use them as a highlighter of where you have work to do, whether that is doing a controlled ketamine treatment to get over this perfectionist issue that you have, or it's how can I get a friend over here who I just envy that they just go for things to help me take a look at this thing that I want to do, because I can borrow a little bit of their imperfection and go-getterness and help you. You know what I mean? Brad Crowell 26:23  It's like a barrier. Perfectionism is a barrier that we throw up to keep ourselves from failure. Lesley Logan 26:33  It is a great excuse for not getting shit done. You are correct, sir. Like, I know a lot of people who will say, oh, it's because I'm perfectionist. That's why I haven't done it. And it's a really good excuse that people will just go, oh, well, that's true.Brad Crowell 26:45  For me, I think it's the other extreme of the concept of, oh, I don't set any goals, because then I can't be let down. If you heard someone say that, you would go, well, that's not how I want to live. Well, the irony is that perfectionism is just the flip side of that coin. We are inadvertently putting roadblocks in the way. We've got to make sure everything's good, because if we don't, then it's going to fail, right? Then I'm going to be let down. Lesley Logan 27:09  I really enjoyed him sharing his stories of how he built everything, because they had to be (inaudible). Even if everything they did around how they controlled the environment for ketamine was exactly to a tee, the way they had to open the business, grow the business, put things together, you know, they had to do it, trying to figure it out, because it didn't exist before. And so a lot of you who are listening have ideas. Brad Crowell 27:30  He said he went to a Radio Shack and bought a burner phone so that they could make sure they had some kind of a (inaudible).Lesley Logan 27:36  I think it was the Radio Shack that, like, is on Santa Monica Boulevard. Brad Crowell 27:36  No it's the other one. That one, you brought up, though. Lesley Logan 27:42  Yeah. I was like, but even if you just listen to this episode to learn from Sam, just getting started with what you have access to that helps you get going, we have to stop allowing ourselves to be like, well, I don't have enough information. I don't have enough of this. I don't have enough this to start, it's affecting your gifts from being enjoyed by the people who it's for. Imagine if Sam and his dad hadn't started in an office because it's not sexy enough, right? So anyways, just do it. That's what he said.Brad Crowell 28:09  Just do it.Lesley Logan 28:10  Yeah, I'm Lesley Logan. Brad Crowell 28:11  And I'm Brad Crowell. Lesley Logan 28:12  Thank you so much for listening to our episode today. How are you going to use these tips in your life? Are you going to go to KCLA? Please let us know. Tag Sam Mandel. Tag the Be It Pod. And until next time, Be It Till You See It. Brad Crowell 28:23  Bye for now. Lesley Logan 28:25  That's all I got for this episode of the Be It Till You See It Podcast. One thing that would help both myself and future listeners is for you to rate the show and leave a review and follow or subscribe for free wherever you listen to your podcast. Also, make sure to introduce yourself over at the Be It Pod on Instagram. I would love to know more about you. Share this episode with whoever you think needs to hear it. Help us and others Be It Till You See It. Have an awesome day. Be It Till You See It is a production of The Bloom Podcast Network. If you want to leave us a message or a question that we might read on another episode, you can text us at +1-310-905-5534 or send a DM on Instagram @BeItPod.Brad Crowell 29:07  It's written, filmed, and recorded by your host, Lesley Logan, and me, Brad Crowell.Lesley Logan 29:12  It is transcribed, produced and edited by the epic team at Disenyo.co.Brad Crowell 29:17  Our theme music is by Ali at Apex Production Music and our branding by designer and artist, Gianfranco Cioffi.Lesley Logan 29:24  Special thanks to Melissa Solomon for creating our visuals.Brad Crowell 29:27  Also to Angelina Herico for adding all of our content to our website. And finally to Meridith Root for keeping us all on point and on time.Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/be-it-till-you-see-it/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Lesley Logan sits down with Sam Mandel, co-founder of Ketamine Clinics Los Angeles, to discuss the transformative potential of ketamine therapy for mental health. They debunk common misconceptions, explore its impact on PTSD, anxiety, and depression, and highlight how it empowers individuals to reshape their personal narratives.If you have any questions about this episode or want to get some of the resources we mentioned, head over to LesleyLogan.co/podcast. If you have any comments or questions about the Be It pod shoot us a message at beit@lesleylogan.co. And as always, if you're enjoying the show please share it with someone who you think would enjoy it as well. It is your continued support that will help us continue to help others. Thank you so much! Never miss another show by subscribing at LesleyLogan.co/subscribe.In this episode you will learn about:What ketamine therapy is and how it differs from traditional treatments.How ketamine enhances neuroplasticity and helps reframe traumaThe science behind ketamine's impact on depression, anxiety, and PTSD.The difference between medical ketamine use and recreational misuse.What to expect during a ketamine therapy session.How ketamine therapy can help individuals reconnect with themselves and regain motivation.Episode References/Links:Ketamine Clinics LA Website - https://Ketamineclinics.comInstagram - https://www.instagram.com/ketamineclinicslaFacebook - https://www.facebook.com/KetamineClinicsLASam Mandel Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/thesammandelGuest Bio:Co-founder & CEO of Ketamine Clinics Los Angeles (KCLA), Sam Mandel, is a tour-de-force of compassion and innovation in mental health care. From volunteering at a teen-to-teen suicide prevention hotline at twelve to pioneering one of the world's foremost Ketamine Infusion Therapy clinics in 2014 alongside his father, Dr. Steven L. Mandel, Sam has channeled his lifelong passion for healthcare advocacy into transforming lives for the better. Sam was featured in Entrepreneur's list of Top 10 Inspiring Healthcare Entrepreneurs to Watch in 2023 and acknowledged by MSN as an Entrepreneur Leading the Business Frontier in 2024. Numerous media outlets have interviewed Sam for his expertise in Ketamine Infusion Therapy, and he is a frequent speaker at medical conferences and events. Under his leadership, KCLA has provided over 30,000 infusions to over 6,000 patients with an 83% treatment success rate, establishing the field's gold standard treatment protocols and patient satisfaction. If you enjoyed this episode, make sure and give us a five star rating and leave us a review on iTunes, Podcast Addict, Podchaser or Castbox.DEALS! DEALS! DEALS! DEALS!Check out all our Preferred Vendors & Special Deals from Clair Sparrow, Sensate, Lyfefuel BeeKeeper's Naturals, Sauna Space, HigherDose, AG1 and ToeSoxBe in the know with all the workshops at OPCBe It Till You See It Podcast SurveyBe a part of Lesley's Pilates MentorshipFREE Ditching Busy Webinar Resources:Watch the Be It Till You See It podcast on YouTube!Lesley Logan websiteBe It Till You See It PodcastOnline Pilates Classes by Lesley LoganOnline Pilates Classes by Lesley Logan on YouTubeProfitable Pilates Follow Us on Social Media:InstagramThe Be It Till You See It Podcast YouTube channelFacebookLinkedInThe OPC YouTube Channel Episode Transcript:Sam Mandel 0:00  When you look at trauma, for example, ketamine is extremely helpful for depression and anxiety, but also for PTSD and a lot of people have some trauma that is at the root of one of those issues, and ketamine helps people to recraft the story around that trauma. Lesley Logan 0:16  Welcome to the Be It Till You See It podcast where we talk about taking messy action, knowing that perfect is boring. I'm Lesley Logan, Pilates instructor and fitness business coach. I've trained thousands of people around the world and the number one thing I see stopping people from achieving anything is self-doubt. My friends, action brings clarity and it's the antidote to fear. Each week, my guest will bring bold, executable, intrinsic and targeted steps that you can use to put yourself first and Be It Till You See It. It's a practice, not a perfect. Let's get started.Lesley Logan 0:59  Okay, Be It babe. This is going to be a different kind of episode, but in the best way. I have Sam Mandel, who is a founder of Ketamine Clinics in LA and I was really intrigued by what I know about ketamine from my friends' holistic doctors. And when he came up as someone I could interview, I was like, oh, we need to do this, because there is a lot of misinformation about ketamine and what ketamine can be used for, and I'm on a mission to help you be it till you see it. And I really want you to understand all the different ways that you can have support in feeling more like yourself and not letting things get in your way. And so that is why we're going to talk about ketamine today. And if you think you know what it is, I strongly encourage you to just stay and listen, because I thought I knew and I learned so much. And then on top of all of that, I really enjoy Sam's story of how he started these clinics and what he and his dad did. And so there's just a lot of beautiful information in this episode, and I can't wait for you to hear it. So here is Sam Mandel. Lesley Logan 2:00  All right, Be It babe. I am really excited. I can tell you for a fact, we've never talked about this on the Be It Pod. And only is it quite timely, I think it's actually extremely imperative that we have this discussion so we have Sam Mandel here on the show. We're gonna talk about ketamine and all things about it, ketamine therapy. Sam, can you tell everyone who you are and probably why you rock at ketamine therapy?Sam Mandel 2:25  Yes, yeah. Thank you so much for having me, Lesley. So, I am Sam Mandel. I'm the co-founder and CEO of Ketamine Clinics Los Angeles. We're one of the first ketamine clinics in the country, established in 2014 and we specialize in IV infusions of ketamine for mental health, but we also offer several other innovative therapeutics for mental health. Lesley Logan 2:45  I love that mental health is something more people are talking about, and there's like more awareness around it, but also that there can be clinics that are working on different ways of helping, supporting mental health, including these infusions. For people who have heard about ketamine, and maybe not the positive ways, can we kind of, can we just dive in and ease their nerves about what we're talking about here?Sam Mandel 3:07  Let's do it. Some of your listeners are definitely like, ketamine what? And there's five different people saying that it's five different things, and all of them are correct. So that's one of the interesting things about ketamine. It is, first and foremost, an FDA-approved anesthetic for humans. It was FDA-approved in 1970. This is an old medicine. It's also commonly used in veterinary medicine. So a lot of people know of it as a horse tranquilizer or a cat tranquilizer. In some circles, it's more commonly known as that than as a drug for humans. But there's a lot of medications that we use for humans, that we also use in veterinary medicine. And it's also a drug of abuse, or something that people use recreationally or self-medicate with, depending on how you want to look at it, known as Special K. Same drug. It's used as an analgesic, as a pain reliever, in emergency room departments and crisis situations, trauma situations, when someone's in a terrible accident, they're in pain, they need sedation, or someone goes in and they need their shoulder reset, they commonly will use ketamine for conscious sedation. So it is a ubiquitous drug. It has a lot of different uses and applications, and one of its most recent, or probably its most recent, addition to that list of its identities, if you will, is as a mental health treatment. And in the last 25 years, there's been a growing body of clinical research proving ketamine to really be among the fastest, if not the fastest-acting, safest, most effective depression treatments available today.Lesley Logan 4:36  I mean, it's kind of amazing that it can be all these different things, also not, right? Like there's so many things, I feel like there's a lot of untapped medicines out there that we're already using, and we don't realize it could be done for other things. Can we talk about how it helps? Because I'll say my family's understanding of mental health treatment is when you sit on a couch and you talk to a therapist and you go weekly if you're depressed, you can take a pill that will kind of help with some hormonal imbalances. But that's not what this is. Sam Mandel 5:01  Yes, that is not what this is. And by the way, talk therapy is great. I go to therapy every week, you know, even when I'm in a good place and I don't necessarily feel like I have a lot to talk about, it's like going to the gym. I just go. I show up every week no matter what. And I think that's really good and healthy, especially if you have a therapist who you think cares about you and is invested in you, and you can just talk about, you know, life. And I'll tell you, sometimes when I go and I don't have anything bothering me or an agenda is when I do the most important work in those sessions, sometimes, so you just never know. But talk therapy is great, but it can only go so far. The conscious mind really gets in the way. Finding someone who cares is difficult the right credentialed person is expensive. A lot of the best people typically don't take insurance. It's not true for all of them. There's wonderful people out there who do, but a lot of the really good ones don't, and so it's a tough thing, but it has its limitations, like with anything. Ketamine and other psychedelic medicines, because ketamine, for all intended purposes, really is a psychedelic, and it's really the only legally available psychedelic in the United States, has the ability to really dissolve these barriers that get in our way. It helps people to get out of their own way and with exponential growth in ways that really are not possible and haven't been seen in any other treatment or modality. And the way it does that is really two primary mechanisms of action. The first is the neuro chemical effects and what's going on in the brain and how ketamine is impacting the brain and our neurochemistry in ways that really nothing else does. And the other is the experiential component, psychologically, what is going on during the experience or the trip that people have when they're receiving this medicine. And both of those are profound and really create lasting impact. On the neuro-chemical level, there's a neurotransmitter called glutamate. It's the most abundant neurotransmitter in the brain. It's present in 85% of the brain. All the other neurotransmitters combined comprise only 15% but for some reason, we've been disproportionately focused on them with mental health treatment. Those are the common ones you know of. Serotonin, dopamine, norepinephrine, you know, the most common class of antidepressant medications are SSRIs. Those are selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, and those are targeting serotonin. They're a tool. They help some people. They really don't help a lot of people, too, and the people they do help, they really cause a lot of negative side effects and weight gain, sexual dysfunction, dried mouth, blurred vision, even increased suicidality, and the list goes on and on, really terrible side effects that are really debilitating for a lot of people. Even when those side effects are not as debilitating, the quality of relief is typically not very good. So people will say, oh, well, I definitely am not as depressed, but I don't feel happy either. I'm just kind of existing. They have the spectrum of life and of the human experience narrowed, so the lows are not as low, but they're not really thriving either. Not a nice place to be. Is it better than being in bed all day? Absolutely. But that's not the goal. That's not my goal for my life. That's not my goal for other people's lives and for the patients who come to our clinic. We want people to really thrive. Ketamine has the ability to help people to truly thrive. It restores compassion for self and others. It is enhanced energy and motivation for most people. It's a genuine reconnection of self. One of the things that happens with this, with the glutamatergic system and other processes that are occurring in the brain with IV infusions of ketamine, is it causes and promotes neurogenesis, enhanced neuroplasticity, actual new pathways, new connections forming in the brain. This helps people to form new habits, new patterns, new ways of thinking and being that can be very, very positive by disrupting a lot of the automatic responses and reactions we have in our day to day life that get so deeply enmeshed in us that they become a part of our personality, and ketamine can kind of push the reset button on that so that we have the opportunity to consciously choose who we want to be and how we want to be, and helps us call into question the things that we've accepted as just that's the way that I am, or that's the way that it is, and that's not the case most of the time. You look at trauma, for example, ketamine is extremely helpful for depression and anxiety, but also for PTSD, and a lot of people have some trauma that is at the root of one of those issues, and ketamine helps people to recraft the story around that trauma. So what happened is fixed and can never change. The past is the past, but our stories about it can change at any given moment, who we are and who we were and the other people and our role in it, and their role in it, and what happened and what didn't happen, and ketamine provides this kind of objective clarity on that that can be extremely healing and transformational for people.Lesley Logan 9:50  Yeah, this is fascinating. What I've known about ketamine, and I have friends who, I have a holistic doctor friend who offers it as a treatment, and I've heard of these amazing effects that can happen, but I never understood on the brain level, like what's going on and why it's different than the antidepressants that people are on, and how it could, so if someone comes in, first of all, what are some of the reasons why they're coming in for treatment, and then what is the, what are the expectations? Are they coming in one time for an IV infusion? Is this a weekly thing? And how long can the effects last? Can it be forever? Do they have to keep coming back? Can I get the lowdown on that? Sam Mandel 10:25  Yeah, you're asking all the right questions. So what treatment looks like is typically a series of six infusions over two to three weeks after that process I just explained where people are cleared for treatment. They come in, we have them fill out some paperwork, do a brief physical exam, and they come back to a private room. We help them to become comfortable in a recliner with noise canceling headphones, a sleep mask, unlimited selection of relaxing music, pillows, blankets, and we start an IV, and then we infuse the ketamine for 50 to 55 minutes. And it's a slow, gradual, steady state of infusion. People are conscious and awake the entire time. There's a level of dissociation where we don't want them to go so far that they don't know what's happening, but we want them to go into it far enough that they can kind of have a little bit of that quieting of the noise and chatter in their minds, and get a little bit of that clarity that I was describing earlier, and this separation really from themselves in a healthy way to take a look at things that can be really therapeutic, and doing that inner work. We monitor them the whole time. We use hospital-grade monitoring equipment. So that's like pulse, oxygen, EKG, blood pressure, continuous monitoring. I mean, it's a very safe medicine when it's used responsibly in a clinical setting like Ketamine Clinics Los Angeles. We still do all the proper monitoring just to make sure that people are comfortable and safe. And yeah, it's, that's pretty much the, you know, summary of the experience.Lesley Logan 11:53  Yeah, no. Thank you for sharing that, because I think, I don't think anyone's ever explained that, and I'm trying to think about people listening. It's like, well, what does it look like, you know, because let's just talk about what, we have heard about ketamine in the news lately, and it will continue to be in the news as people are going on trial, like when we hear Matthew Perry pass away from not the best use of ketamine, I think people are like, well, then how do you, what does it look like? Am I doing this myself? And I love that you have a wonderful protocol that allows people to be safe and use it in the best way that gets them the best results. But can we talk about the dark sides of ketamine, and what are some signs that people might not be in the safest situations using ketamine?Sam Mandel 12:30  Yeah, well, I'll definitely answer that with your reference to Matthew Perry, which is obviously a really sad situation. He was taken advantage of by people he trusted. He was a addict. He had a really, he's really struggled with addiction. He was very public about that, and not with ketamine specifically, but with really any substance that he could get his hands on. And was in a lot of pain, obviously, and it's a terrible situation. I think it's really important that people understand, though, that that has nothing to do with ketamine therapy. And the media created a lot of confusion for people saying that he had had ketamine therapy a few weeks ago and but that wasn't really a part, a factor in his death. But by the way, he had that and, you know, saying that he died from the acute effects of ketamine, that's just it was really, really distorted. He took more than 10 times the dose of ketamine that we give in the clinic by himself, in combination with buprenorphine, which is essentially an opioid, and Lorazepam, a benzodiazepine, which is another sedative. So he's combined three powerful sedatives, one of them in really absurd doses, by himself in a hot tub. And of course, what happens? He becomes incapacitated and he drowns. This is not, this is such a departure from what we do when we use ketamine in a therapeutic context. There's no correlation, but the way that it's been reported on, and what the average person hears is, oh, ketamine is a bad, dangerous drug, and that's it. That's the takeaway, and that's really a sad thing for people to to get from it. What they should get is that addiction is a serious illness. What they should get is taking lots of sedatives in combination is dangerous. Taking drugs unsupervised, alone in a hot tub is dangerous. These are the takeaways. There was even medical doctors involved in supplying it to him, but they were part of an illicit, underground, illegal drug ring. You know, this is not like mental health care, you know?Lesley Logan 14:25  I know. It's so sad because, well, first of all, the whole situation is sad. It's sad that someone was taken advantage of. It's sad that someone died from combining too many things, but also because they had doctors doing it, like all of that is sad, and, but, really, what I find, and one of the reasons I wanted to talk with you is, so this podcast is called Be It Till You See It, and one of the things that I am always on a search for is like, what can keep us from being it until we see it, what's holding us back in our life, or what can help us more? And the facts of what ketamine therapy that you do that is supervised, and you have pre-screened people to make sure that this is the right therapy for them, the benefits can actually change people's lives, like you said at the beginning, to choose what they want, and that allows them to step into the person that they want to be, like to me, this can be an amazing option for people who they know what they want, but they are just stuck, and they've got other things going on that with their mental health that the talk therapy hasn't helped with, or antidepressants haven't helped with. And so I really wanted to, like, clear the air and go, this can be an option for the right person.Sam Mandel 15:30  Absolutely and I'm really grateful for the opportunity to speak with you and for you creating a platform to have conversations like this, because people deserve to know the truth. And you know, you talk about talk therapy. I mean, a number of patients have literally said that was like 20 years of therapy in an hour. I mean, it really is that exponentially transformational. And it's not instead of therapy, but in addition to, right? When you can do a treatment like this and then work through the material and the learnings that come up for you with someone who understands mental health, who you trust, that's where a lot of even more growth can happen, and you can implement those learnings into your day to day life in the weeks to come. That process is usually referred to as integration, and it can look a lot of different ways, but then you have your experience. How do you integrate it into your life and actually make lasting change? Ketamine really does produce transformation for most people. In the almost 11 years that we've been doing this, we have done over 30,000 infusions. We have an 83% success rate, and we're typically not seeing people who are just wanting to have growth because they're stuck. We're seeing people who have treatment resistant depression, complex PTSD, severe anxiety, suicidality. I mean, there are definitely more moderate cases, but we see a lot of people have really just they've tried a lot, and some of them tried everything, and they haven't benefited. And this really works for them, because it works on under a completely different mechanism of action than the conventional treatments like antidepressant pills or even ECT or talk therapy, or really anything else out there. Lesley Logan 17:04  Yeah, when I think about PTSD, we obviously a lot of things about vets. People have been in the military, but there are people with PTSD who have had other traumas. It doesn't have to be that you've been to war. You could have been in a bad car accident, you could have been assaulted. Can you kind of explain and maybe it's redundant, but just how does ketamine help with PTSD, and then what does someone's life look like? What with one, do you have a case that a person who you can talk about, like, who had PTSD and like, what their life was like after the ketamine treatment? Sam Mandel 17:29  I'm glad you bring that up, because while a lot of us do think of military and war, there's actually many more cases of PTSD among the civilian population in the examples that you mentioned with violence, assault, accidents, etc. So it's super common, unfortunately. I believe there's around 16 million Americans suffering from PTSD who are at least diagnosed. There's many more, I'm sure, who are undiagnosed. And ketamine really does help with the neurochemistry in the brain and helping to rewire the brain, and it also really helps with the perception that we have of ourselves, of the event. People who have trauma are able to go back and revisit the trauma without being as emotionally triggered by it. And so sometimes, when I've talked about this with you know, friends, they say, yeah, you can revisit your trauma and work through it, and it's so great. And they're like, whoa, whoa, whoa. Why would I want to revisit my trauma? What are you talking about? I'm going to go and spend time and money to go there? No, thank you. I spent time and money avoiding my trauma, not going to visit it. But it isn't like that. You know? There's this ability to work through it without having the kind of pain of going there that is so often keeping people from addressing it head on in talk therapy and in life. We avoid, naturally, what's painful, but it isn't painful for most people in this context, they're able to have this detachment that is healthy in this way, to revisit it and to understand who we are, who we were, what our role was, what It was and etc, and to get clarity on that. And it can be really healing. It can really provide closure for a lot of people. And just with the whole cascade of different chemicals going on in the brain, it gives people generally a better mood and more positive outlook and demeanor, and enhanced feelings of compassion towards oneself and towards others and energy and motivation and just all around wellness, it's an elevator in that way which can just be really motivating for people to be able to do the things that most of us know we need to do and just struggle with in terms of our lifestyle, like fitness and eating healthy and sleeping well and talk therapy and having healthy relationships with people, getting outdoors and getting some sun and some fresh air, doing things we enjoy, all that stuff is absolutely critical for longevity, and for someone who's really severely depressed or anxious or dealing with real trauma, they can also feel like it's almost impossible to do a lot of those things. Lesley Logan 20:00  Yeah, yeah. You know, it's really interesting. If you're not someone who has PTSD, or you haven't had, like, severe depression, it can be hard to understand that it becomes all encompassing, you know? But if you think about it, like, when you've had an injury, you've been sick for a few days and you can't leave the bed, that's the the domino effect of what happens to your strength, and then what happens to your ability to, like, feel like you can reach out and that you can connect with people because you've been sick for a week. It's an easy way to see like, oh, if that's my life all the time, you know, it's not easy to go outside, and it doesn't feel easy to connect with people. And so it becomes part of their whole life. And so it's really cool to hear that with ketamine treatments over a couple of weeks that they could have a new lease on life and enjoy it. And I love that you brought up longevity, because I think we forget that how we treat our bodies now is what dictates how long will you get to have them? Hopefully, there won't be anything that stops us from living the life that we're supposed to but if you don't see like a lease on life there, what longevity do you have, you know, so it must be really amazing to get to do what you do every day. You really help so many people.Sam Mandel 21:01  I love it. It's the most gratifying thing ever, you know. When I tell people a lot of my job, the reality of what I do on a day to day basis, I have to do a lot of things I don't like to do, I don't want to do. I'm the CEO of my company. I get the worst, toughest problems that no one else can deal with. I get the fires to put out, the problems, the issues that got escalated to me, and all the weight and pressure and responsibility of it, and there's a lot of stuff, this is not fun, frankly, but I do it because of the, for the patients and for my team, and the work that we're doing, the impact that we're having. It's hugely motivating and gratifying. And when I see patient who I pass in the hallway in the clinic, and they just, can I just give you a hug, or I just want to say thank you so much, or we get a new Yelp review, and someone goes through and lists, you know, half my team by name and how amazing each one of them is, and how life-changing this has been for them. That's what gets me up in the morning, and that's what helps me to keep going every day. I just love it. The transformations are very abundant. And, you know, like I said, 83% it's not magic. It doesn't work for every person every time. It's not perfect, but it is a really incredible treatment.Lesley Logan 22:04  Yeah, yeah, I do understand that. I mean, my husband and I run our own businesses, and sometimes you can forget what you do while you're doing it, because you're doing all the fires, yeah? But then you do get stopped by someone who's been helped by it, or their life has changed, and you're like, oh, that's why I do this. Obviously, you know, it's been a journey to get to do this. Can you take us back how you figured out how to create a space where people could have ketamine therapy? You know, you are the first in the country. So, like, there wasn't really a model to go off of. So I feel like there's a be it till you see it story in there.Sam Mandel 22:36  Oh yeah. Started with me building the website with GoDaddy website builder, drag and drop modules, not knowing a lick of code, never built a website or anything of the sort, not even the most tech savvy guy, and literally just dragging and dropping and, you know, doing research on articles and clinical research, and conferring with my father, who I co-founded the practice with. He's a physician, and I'm talking about, what do you think about this? I'm just trying to make sense of it all in a way that I could understand it well enough to then be able to put it into layman's terms and explain it to other people. What is this? How does it work? And just putting it together, and then going to Radio Shack and getting a motorLesley Logan 23:17  That's how long ago this is because I don't even think they're around anymore.Sam Mandel 23:20  They're not, They went bankrupt. Lesley Logan 23:22  Was it the Radio Shack on Santa Monica Boulevard underneath the yoga place? Because that was my favorite. Sam Mandel 23:27  It was the Radio Shack in Marina Del Rey by the CVS and little strip mall off of Max Stella or something. Anyways, I got a Motorola flip phone prepaid, and I said to my father, you ready to launch the site? We're going to make it live. And made it live, and started taking calls on this cell phone. We were renting space in another doctor's office that was literally this closet. No kidding, they used it as a utility closet before we rented it, and once we moved out and got our own space. They went back to just keeping boxes in there. That's how tiny this room was, no kidding, and it was just really a trip. We had a operating room, recovery area, recovery room for an OR right outside of that little closet that we were in, which, by the way, we were sitting at literally just two folding chairs, a folding table with two laptops, and that was it, no kidding. And we use this recovery area to see patients. And we saw our first few patients, and their transformations were so incredible. We went, this is just too special. We have to do whatever it takes to do more of this. And my father was working as an anesthesiologist. He also has a master's degree in psychology. He was chief of anesthesia in this plastic surgery suite where we were. And so it started out with, well, he's already there, doing anesthesia for the surgery. Maybe we see a couple patients here or there, see how it goes. And next thing we knew, we just started getting busier and busier. The word got out. This was such a radical thing that a lot of people were very incredulous, very suspicious. A lot of people were very critical, but we were like, it doesn't matter. I mean, this is just too special. And it got to the point where my father had to choose between doing our cases or doing ketamine infusions for patients. And I, I remember that quite vividly, where I said, it's really gotta pick. We can't continue to do both. And it was a big risk, you know, it was a really big risk. So I have a lot of respect, you know, for him, for that and that we both just said, let's be all in on this. And, you know, we bootstrapped it. We put everything on credit cards. We had no investors, no financing, no loans, nothing. It's just a little bit of cash, credit cards. And really, just brick by brick, built it up, and now we have 15 employees, 5000 square feet, a really beautiful purpose-built office. I still have, well after the falling table, I had a custom desk built because of maximizing every inch of that space. So I had, there was a little nook between two pillars in that room, under a window, where they made this skinny little desk that was probably literally eight inches wide by three and a half feet long or something. Just stick it in this little nook so I could sit at a proper desk, and I still have that here in our suite now, and so that's kind of fun, but, yeah, it's just truly been an incredible journey.Lesley Logan 26:12  I thank you for taking this back, because we do have a lot of people who are entrepreneurs, and I think that they need to hear that like even a ketamine clinic, the first of its kind, starts in a utility closet. You know, people don't realize, because if you, one, you have to know if people want the thing. You knew it was great. You knew it could be amazing. But you have to get people to buy in, and especially on something that long ago, where people might not know all the amazing things that it can do. And even today, now, even with a beautiful space that can attract people in and make them feel super safe, doing something that changes lives, but also going up against where misconceptions, misinterpretations, and also the people who are misusing it can affect the majority getting the help that they need. I love hearing the stories of how things come to be. And also that is pretty amazing that your dad was like, yeah, I'm gonna quit my safe job. There's always gonna be surgeries, you know. So that's so, so, so cool, and it's really amazing. Is there anything about ketamine therapy that I haven't asked you, that you want to make sure people know? Is there anything else that we can help people understand why this would be something they might need to use, or might use so that they can have the life they want to have?Sam Mandel 27:19  Yeah, I do want to mention, you know, I was talking about how, you know, Matthew Perry was misusing it, and how different that situation is from what we do. And ketamine is still something that people do use recreationally or abuse or misuse. It's not as common, I think, as sometimes it's portrayed, but it definitely can happen, but it's also not in the same category as most other substances, because ketamine is not addictive in the way that most others are. And what I mean by that is you don't develop a physical dependence on it if, for example, like nicotine or opioids or alcohol or benzodiazepines, all you can get to the point where you actually need it to not feel sick. I mean, you have physical symptoms of feeling like nausea, headaches, wanting to throw up. Even with benzos, you can actually, if you abruptly stop taking high doses, you can literally have seizures and die. And you know, you can have symptoms from abrupt cessation of alcohol if you're a heavy alcoholic. That doesn't happen with ketamine. So some people can use it in the way that they're using it as a means to escape, but that's not really that different as far as the psychological dependence in the way that someone can use ice cream or chocolate or, you know, sour candies or sex or any of these other video games as a means of escape or avoiding or to self-soothe. So I think it's important that people understand that. It also has a very, very high therapeutic index. There's actually no known lethal dose of ketamine, so you can obviously be in a bad, unsafe environment, where, if you take a bunch and get into a car, that's not a not such a great outcome for you, or in a jacuzzi, but the medicine itself is unlikely to hurt you on its own. Most of the issues are people in bad situations, or they're combining it with other drugs. Virtually, almost all of the fatalities that are related to ketamine were one of those two, either in combination with other drugs and or in a situation like behind the wheel of a car. So I just want people to know that it's not to say that there aren't people who have an issue with misusing ketamine, because there are, but it really is distinct from most other substances that people are misusing or abusing.Lesley Logan 29:20  Thank you for saying that, because I do think, as a child of the night, you know, I grew up in the 80s, so it's, like, always just say no to drugs. Sam Mandel 29:25  The cocaine epidemic. Lesley Logan 29:28  Yeah, so I know they really that didn't really help them, did it? But, like, they thought it would. But I, like, grew up, so it's really funny when I have friends who, like, talk about doing some sort, some psychedelics, or do I have this innate like, I don't, I don't know, I don't know if I could do that. I'm afraid to try. I'm like, I'll be addicted on the first dose. Sam Mandel 29:45  Right, right, right. Lesley Logan 29:47  This is my fear, which is why I drink, right? That's what people do. And so they said no to drugs, but then they drink. But I really appreciate because it's nice to know that if I were to do a ketamine therapy, I'm not going to be dependent on coming to ketamine therapy every single week or I'll be using it at home, like, it's nice to know that it's a non-addictive thing that people can use to get the benefits. And I think that can make a lot of people feel more comfortable, you know. Sam Mandel 30:08  Yeah, because people are afraid of that, they think, God, well, if I go and do this, even if it's in a therapeutic way, am I going to become a ketamine addict? You know? I'm going to go and then be looking to score some on the street the next day. It's really a sad perception that some people might have due to the media or for whatever reason or they know somebody who misuse ketamine or the DARE program, like you said, or the 80s. A lot of baloney. Lesley Logan 30:28  Oh, and by the way, the DARE program was a lot of baloney. I just heard a whole podcast about it, and I was like, ah. So, but it, but it does put in people's minds, and also good for good reason. Like, I don't want people going out there doing other drugs we do know our addictive and like, hoping that they are fine out there the first time, but I am on this mission of helping people figure out how to get out of their own way and live their best life, and sometimes our own way are things that are really outside of our control, the PTSD, the depressions, the mental health, the suicide like I think it's important that people have access to forms of therapy out there that they may not know about or they may have misconceptions. Because we do know that the media does like to click bait things into headlines that get people to look at them, but don't actually give all the information. So I'm just so grateful that you were here to just really explain all this and the benefits of it.Sam Mandel 31:22  Absolutely, yeah, no, I appreciate the opportunity. Yeah, there are drugs that you can do once or twice and develop a real serious problem with pretty fast, methamphetamine, probably not one that you need to ever try. You know, if you're curious about trying drugs, I'd say take that one off the list. Heroin, probably not a good idea. Pretty easy to die, pretty easy to get addicted to that one, right? Opioids, crack, cocaine. These are some that maybe you don't need to, you don't need to check out, but maybe there's some others that if you really want to with the right mindset in the right context, if you're going to be safe or responsible, maybe you'd be okay with. And by the way, I'm not advocating for you to go do illicit drugs illegally either. But there are some that you can have, even in a controlled environment, such as ours, where you don't need to be afraid of them. I'll tell you what are the most dangerous, though, is the prescription legitimate drugs. As a matter of fact, prescriptions are more commonly abused than any of the other illicit drugs. You look at your stimulants like Adderall, your benzodiazepines, like Xanax, opioids, I mean, these are drugs that are a lot of people are really hooked on and that are killing a lot of people, especially the opioids, but because they're from big pharma, they're not all that bad. I mean, people are finally starting to scrutinize the opioids, but the others are still kind of under the radar, and they're really widely abused, but the focus is on the big, bad, illegal ones. Lesley Logan 32:39  I know of a client who's a social worker, and she used to work in a hospital, and we're talking about pain meds, and she's like Lesley, I watched a 14 year old kid come in super healthy, just had a broken arm. They had to have surgery, but within the three days they were there, they were extra tapping the pain meds. And she's like, we create addicts with these pharmaceutical drugs quickly, but we don't think of it like that, because they had a prescription written. And so it's important for us to educate ourselves, to be informed and to be able to advocate for ourselves or advocate for others when we have this information we can. So, thank you so much. I'm not gonna let you go. We actually are gonna take a brief break, and then we're gonna find out Be It Action Items from you. Lesley Logan 33:19  All right, Sam, where can people find you, follow you, connect with you. If they want to know more about ketamine therapies, if they want to come to your clinics, how can they connect with you best?Sam Mandel 33:28  Yeah, so ketamineclinics.com. That's K-E-T-A-M-I-N-E-C-L-I-N-I-C-S dot com. Lots of great information on there. People are more than welcome to call us, 310-270-0625. Consultations are free. We're always happy to chat see how we can help you. We do offer other treatments we really didn't talk about today, TMS, General Psychiatry, medication management, we take 12 of the biggest insurance networks in California, including Medicare, so there's a lot more that we can cover with you. Whether or not ketamine is the right fit if you are dealing with a mental health condition, I would encourage you to call and see if there's anything we can do to help. And we're on social it's ketamineclinicsLA on all socials and my personal is theSamMandel on all socials. And just really happy to connect with people and hear their stories, answer questions and help in any way that we can. Lesley Logan 34:23  I love it. Thank you. And that's also so cool, because we mentioned, like, it can be really hard to find a therapist these days because they don't always take insurance. So to hear that you do. It's really nice. Okay, we always ask people bold, executable, intrinsic or targeted steps they can take to be it till they see it. What do you have for us?Sam Mandel 34:41  Oh, I wasn't ready for that one. I would say action. Take action. Just do it. Take Nike slogan. I mean, honestly, planning and strategizing is important, and thinking things through and figuring out who you are. What you want, what you like, what you don't like, putting together a plan matters. But I think most of us, or almost all of us, spend too much time on that, and there's just too many unknowns and too many things that you really can't solve for until you're in it and doing it, and it's too easy to let perfectionism keep us from taking the steps that we need to take to get done what we want, become, who we want to be, and who what our potential is. And I personally struggle with this too. So I say that from, you know, my own experience, and I really strive, and I want to encourage other people to really strive, to just get out there and do it, and you're going to make mistakes, and that's okay, but it's really the only way to succeed in life. You have to be on the fields, on the court, in it, and behind the scenes, thinking, planning, strategizing is only going to get you so far.Lesley Logan 35:58  Yeah, yeah. Oh, thank you for that. And also, I can tell you, practice what you just preached, because it's true. You started with a utility closet and some folding chairs and a Motorola phone, I mean. But also, you're correct. People do spend too much time in the planning, or they're waiting for it to be perfect, or they're waiting for the perfect decoration, and then they have the perfect branding and all the things. And if you guys had done that, you wouldn't have been able to help the thousands of people that you have today. So thank you so much, Sam for being here, for educating us, for informing us. Lesley Logan 36:29  And, you guys, how are you gonna use these tips in your life? Please share this episode with a friend as you hear conversations come up about the misuse of ketamine, and now you know you could share this with them to educate them, and also, if you have friends and family or yourself who needs this, please contact Sam and his team, because there's help out there for you. Until next time, Be It Till You See It.Lesley Logan 36:50  That's all I got for this episode of the Be It Till You See It Podcast. One thing that would help both myself and future listeners is for you to rate the show and leave a review and follow or subscribe for free wherever you listen to your podcast. Also, make sure to introduce yourself over at the Be It Pod on Instagram. I would love to know more about you. Share this episode with whoever you think needs to hear it. Help us and others Be It Till You See It. Have an awesome day. Be It Till You See It is a production of The Bloom Podcast Network. If you want to leave us a message or a question that we might read on another episode, you can text us at +1-310-905-5534 or send a DM on Instagram @BeItPod.Brad Crowell 37:33  It's written, filmed, and recorded by your host, Lesley Logan, and me, Brad Crowell.Lesley Logan 37:38  It is transcribed, produced and edited by the epic team at Disenyo.co.Brad Crowell 37:42  Our theme music is by Ali at Apex Production Music and our branding by designer and artist, Gianfranco Cioffi.Lesley Logan 37:49  Special thanks to Melissa Solomon for creating our visuals. Brad Crowell 37:53  Also to Angelina Herico for adding all of our content to our website. And finally to Meridith Root for keeping us all on point and on time.Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/be-it-till-you-see-it/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

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Special K wants a cut of the toll road fees. Website

Special K recaps his vacation in Puerto Vallarta. Website

Prank call boss is always going to Lake Charles to gamble but Special K needs his money back, do you live a double life or found out a family member does and Girl Scout Brownies from Spring Branch joins us!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The drama unfolds as Gary With The Tea spills on Clarissa’s public declarations of love for Papoose amid rumors of a split from Remy Ma. Special K drops a Black History lesson, while Offset demands a paternity test. Gary’s got his word of the week ready, and you’ll hear why Blk Tony just can’t seem to make it to work.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Bishop Walker opens the show with an inspiring message on hearing God’s voice, while the team discusses the rising flu cases and the Kansas City Chiefs’ shocking Super Bowl loss—did they violate 'man law' with questionable phone screen choices? The gossip heats up as Gary With The Tea reveals Clarissa’s public love for Papoose amidst breakup rumors with Remy Ma, and Special K delivers a Black History lesson. Offset’s paternity test demands and Blk Tony’s latest work excuse add to the chaos. Wendy Williams’ son’s eviction drama unfolds as he faces losing his Miami home for the third time. Rickey and the crew debate Kendrick Lamar’s Super Bowl performance—was it lackluster or misunderstood? Jini Thorton shares financial advice just in time for Valentine’s Day, and the team dives into headlines about the flu outbreak, Trump’s federal buyout option, and the Boy Scouts’ rebranding to Scouts of America. Tune in for laughs, lessons, and the latest buzz!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

She is waiting on a door to be delivered but Special K calls to tell her its actually a doggy door. Website

Special K has a funny way of saying water and Eric has a pick for the super bowl. Website

About Sofia Rovirosa, Co-FounderSofia Rovirosa is the co-founder of Wanderlands. She grew up in New Mexico on her family's 4th generation pecan estate with a strong sense of connection to both food and land. This curiosity and love of the outdoors took her across the high deserts of Arizona and New Mexico closely followed by the US Virgin Islands, southeast Alaska, and eventually, Napa, where she immersed herself in viticulture as a cellar master at a winery in Napa, California. This hands-on experience working closely with the land inspired in her a love and respect for the concept of terroir — the idea that something could capture the essence of a place and season. Her passions led to her desire to replicate this with her family's pecans, creating Wanderlands to share this sense of “somewhereness” with others.About Jane Ko, Co-Founder and Head of Brand & MarketingJane Ko is the co-founder of Wanderlands. The head of brand and marketing, Jane Ko's experience spans 20 years across multiple industries at Kellogg (leading global brand strategy for brands Pringles and Special K), eos, L'Oreal, Nars Cosmetics & Multiple CPG/Beauty Startups. Jane earned her PhD in Neuroscience at Harvard University and champions the application of neuroscience and neurosensory techniques to develop stronger and more memorable brand products and experiences in CPG. IG visitwanderlands | wanderlands.com Find Me: IG + TikTok citrusdiaries.studio citrusdiaries.com | hello@citrusdiaries.com Create your ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠podcast⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ today! ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠#madeonzencastr

Send us a textWell, 2025 has begun and we start up our second season.  While Rabel has been working, Special K and SMulvay have just gone back to work after a Holiday break which begs the question...  What are some of the best songs about work?  Start your year and work off right with some Sound Interrogations.  

Send us a textWoHos!Mom's pick for K-Horror this time is EXHUMA, the wildly successful film from last year.From IMDb: The process of excavating an ominous grave unleashes dreadful consequences buried underneath.Mom & Mac Chat:Rounding down, rounding up, how pets measure the importance of things, Mac's noisy body, finding the activities that feel good, having things explained in a way we can hear, Mac's words of wisdom.Coming up on the main show: Mac's next J-Horror pick: KURONEKO.To finish our series, we are planning to look at: KWAIDAN, HORROR STORIES, CURE, and THE MIMIC.Next up on the Quinnisode: THE HERETIC & THE FIRST OMEN.Thanks for listening, WoHos! And if you know anything about the liver in relation to EXHUMA, please get in touch! Remember, we love you and DON'T go into the basement!! Gerry Entriken: WoHo Outro ThemeSupport the showOpening Theme "Bucket" by Gerry EntrikenClosing Theme "Mop" by Gerry Entriken Interstitial Musicalso by Gerry Entriken. We love you, Gerry!Subscribe to the Podcast for a Special shout-out!World of Horror's InstagramMom's InstagramMac's InstagramDonate to Translifeline

Don't you hate when you have to answer work calls and the person is asking the weirdest questions that is what Special K is doing during his prank call, RR Show help Jerry find out why Madison ghosted him and Roula's Relationship Roulette question of 2025.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

NLR 100 LIVE WITH SPECIAL K! LIVE FROM CALGARY, AB https://soundcloud.com/kirstinmendoza

This guy keeps running up toll fees so Special K calls to tell him they are inserting spike on the road. Website

This guy kinda went overboard on the backyard construction but Special K's gonna handl;e it. Website

Special K is calling a guy to tell him he needs to get rid of his SHE SHED and he is not happy. Website

Eric, Sam, and Special K open 2025 live with a recap of where the heck everyone went, then we cover some fun and inappropriate tv commercials, ending the hour with stories of your nutty exSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We give listeners a chance to tell us what they are so sick of! Website

Are there any hobbies what are red flags to you? Website

Special K is back with another prank and this one involves someone thieving! Website

Special K is back with another prank call and this time he wants to be a nanny. Website

Telemarketer turnaround with Special K. Website

Special K is back with another thanksigiving prank call! Website

Has someone ever counted you out? We gave our listeners the chance to tell their glow up stories with look at me now. Website

Special K has some "better" food options for the FEAST charity that serves the homeless. Website

Special K is back at the market NOT tailgating. Website

Special K is checking in with lovely ladies at the Nutcracker Market. Website