Podcast appearances and mentions of Steve Grogan

I have never had the pleasure of having a guest quite like Michele Blood. While still living in Australia Michele was an extremely successful rock singer. One day she was involved in a serious accident while being driven to a gig. Her body was, as she says, quite battered and damaged. What is fascinating about Michele's story is how she discovered the value of positive affirmations that she used to heal everything. As she will tell us, it is not just saying affirmations, but rather it is truly believing what you affirm. Her music became an integral of what healed her.   Since her recovery Michele has traveled the world singing and speaking on stage with many well-known motivational and thought leaders. I leave it to her to tell the story.   During our episode Michele will sing one of her affirmation songs. I hope you are as moved by the song in specific and by Michele's attitude and mindset in general. She teaches us a lot that can have nothing but positives effects on your life.   I look forward to hearing what you have to say about my time with Michele. Don't forget to get her free gifts available only to listeners of the Unstoppable Mindset podcast. Is that cool or what?       About the Guest:   Michele Blood is a successful, multi-talented lady. Michele was a successful songwriter and rock singer in Australia and after a near-fatal car accident, while in the hospital with many serious injuries, she created positive Affirmation Songs which not only healed her body but also took her to worldwide success. These Affirmation songs affect the left and right hemispheres of the brain. Lyrics, the left hemisphere, and melody and music, the right hemisphere so the new, positive messages go straight to the subconscious mind. This is why millions of people worldwide have downloaded her Affirmation Power songs. These songs cover healing, success, money, joy, confidence and they uplift the person immediately.   In addition to creating Magnet To Success™ products and seminars worldwide, her public Mystical Success Events have been held in over 26 countries. Michele has co-written and created over 80 books, music CDs, audio programs, TV shows, and videos on positive thought, mind transformation, and meditation.   Michele has appeared in many hundreds of podcasts, radio/tv shows, and magazines globally. After many years of meditation, Michele's Kundalini awakened and transformed her consciousness. Michele now teaches others how to live a Successful Life and experience Divine Oneness. Her Mystical Experience webinars and live streams have assisted people globally to transform their lives to the positive. Through her Teachings and Light Transmissions, people awaken and experience what they say is the impossible. They awaken to their true purpose and begin their path to Enlightenment. She has shared the stage and worked with Bob Proctor, Dr. Deepak Chopra, Dr. Wayne Dyer, Jack Canfield, and many other transformational Authors and Teachers. Her latest book is The Magic Of Affirmation Power and her latest album is Create Miracles: Positive Affirmation Songs To Harmonize your Mind and Life. And her new Magnet To Money App will uplift millions worldwide.   Ways to connect with Michele:   https://www.MicheleBlood.com and https://www.YouTube.com/MicheleBlood   Michele would also love to gift your viewers and listeners her audiobook, "The Magic Of Affirmation Power" Your audience can download this free gift by going to: https://www.MicheleBlood.com/UnstoppableMindset   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 ** 01:21 Hi everyone, and welcome to another episode of unstoppable mindset where inclusion, diversity and the unexpected, which is really the most fun part, meet today. We are getting close to winter, and I was just telling our guest Michele Blood that here in Victorville, we had a temperature this morning of 28 degrees. Ah, lovely weather, and all the weather people complain about now it's getting cold in the summer, they complained it was getting hot. You know, you can't please them. I don't know what to say. But anyway, one of these days they'll, they'll decide that whatever happens is is not a bad thing, and they'll stop complaining, I guess. But any Yeah. But anyway, Michele, I want to welcome you to unstoppable mindset. We're really glad you're here. Thank you.   Michele Blood ** 02:06 Michael, I've been so looking forward to this. After reading thunder dog, I'm going to be reading the second book, which is live like a guide dog. I'm going to be reading that after that, I absolutely adore this book, which I'm showing right now, Thunder dog. It's the most inspirational you can't put down. I mean, the lot not just getting down 78 floors of the Twin Towers, 78 stairs. I mean, oh my gosh. But then everything that you've done in between working with you know Ray Kurzweil, who's done a lot of things in the music industry as well. I mean, I mean, I recognized his name straight away. I'm like, all the all the things you've done. I'm just so impressed by and by your life and how inspiring you are. And I just wanted to say that to everybody, he's just, you gotta get his thunder dog book if you haven't yet, and his new book, live like a guide dog, for sure.   Michael Hingson ** 03:02 I I don't know. I haven't totally kept up, but I haven't heard that anybody has yet come out with a music synthesizer that is better than the Kurzweil synthesizer. Now, a lot has happened, and maybe technology has advanced, but I hadn't heard about anything that still beats it.   Michele Blood ** 03:20 Yeah. Yeah. I mean, the fair light was pretty amazing when that first came out, but the Kurzweil, I mean, all any rock musician knows about, yeah, when, when that was first put out, we were just like, oh my gosh, that's amazing, you know, because you could sample sounds and, you know, it was just   Michael Hingson ** 03:39 incredible, and it had a choir built into it. Yeah? Daylight though   Michele Blood ** 03:43 that was, I don't know, think back back in the day, it was like 100 grand, so that's probably why it wasn't as popular. Yeah,   03:51 a little more   Michael Hingson ** 03:52 expensive than the Kurzweil one. Yeah, yeah, our organist at our church where my wife and I went in Irvine and where we got married, our organist had a Kurzweil synthesizer and used it a lot, which was, which was kind of fun, and it was, it was very and it is very impressive all the way around, yeah, but   Michele Blood ** 04:13 just the innovative things that have been done, and you're helping ray with all of the things for the blind as well. Working with Stevie Wonder. I mean, it's just, you're very impressive. You're an inspiration. You are, you are absolutely amazing.   Michael Hingson ** 04:28 Well, thank you. But now let's talk about you a little bit. And you know, you can, you can.   04:35 I didn't show them the cover yet. You can   Michael Hingson ** 04:38 spread any rusty live like a guide dog. Live   04:42 like a guide dog. Needs to cover everybody   Michael Hingson ** 04:45 well, I hope people will get it. I'm we're excited about it. It's been out now a few months. It seems to be selling. We're excited. So hopefully people will read it, and it inspires people a little bit, because it's all about. Are trying to get people to learn to control fear and not let it overwhelm or, as I put it, blind you. But anyway, tell us a little bit about you. Why don't you start with the the early Michele, growing up, and some of those kinds of things, just kind of introduce us to you a little bit.   Michele Blood ** 05:16 Well, I'm an Aussie G'day, everyone. G'day, and, in Australia, I started in the entertainment industry at the age of five, on TV. What   Michael Hingson ** 05:27 did you do? Singing? Oh, okay,   Michele Blood ** 05:31 you know. And then eventually got my, you know, had lots and lots of rock bands I sang in, until eventually I got my own rock band that became very successful. I was the lead singer, one of the main songwriters and the manager of the band. We got a great record label. We had 1000s of people coming to our gigs, and it took years to get there, but I loved it so much, even though it's very, very tough at one stage, we toured for seven years, non stop. I mean, no Christmases, no New Year's eves, because when you're in a rock band, you get paid triple on New Year's Eves and Christmases and stuff like that. Yeah, and you can't really say no until you're really huge. You can't really say no to any gig, because you need the money road crew and sound equipment trucks and all the rest of it so but I feel that my life went on a whole new trajectory after a near fatal truck accident, actually, where I was a passenger with the truck, with all the equipment, and my body was so badly broken, I was In the hospital for months and months and months and and that was the best thing that ever happened to me. I know that sounds crazy everybody, but truly, when you have something so terrible happen to you, and it gets turned around by the Divine, whatever you choose to call God, it gets your life gets turned around and it makes all the difference in the world. So that's the first quarter.   Michael Hingson ** 07:08 Well, you know, I'm really curious. You said something that just strikes a question. I know that a lot of people try to go into entertainment, and most probably aren't overly successful. But why do you think that you were so successful? What what made the rock group and and what you did so successful? Do you have a notion? Well,   Michele Blood ** 07:30 I loved what I did. I was very, very good at it. And not everyone that's good at it's probably other singers in the world that are better than me. But the reason, I think because, I mean, I had some backing vocals on some records, and these female singers were incredible. And one of them said, I know you've got a good voice, Michelle, but I don't know why it's you and not me. And I said, I think it's just that I never gave up, and I was really disciplined. And I, you know, I wasn't on the road of sex, drugs and rock and roll. I was on the road of discipline, making sure that all my band members were disciplined. We worked really, really hard. We rehearsed a lot. We never blew out a gig, not once. So you get a good reputation. And so I started as a cover band, and we would sound just like the records at the time of the 80s. You know, people said that was a band. It sounded like a record. And so then we, we eventually started putting all our originals in and, I mean, I did crazy things, Michael, I went into Time Warner to the A and R people, because I wasn't getting any feedback. It's really hard. You can't just send them a tape to get you know for them to listen to your demos. So I went in as a tap dancing singing telegram. And so the secretary let me go straight into the office, and it was a board meeting, and because she thought, you know, their family had so I was there with flowers and a cake and my ghetto blaster, and I said, Then I did a tap dance, and I made up this song about, you know, this is, this is the band called clapping hands. You're going to sign them, you're going to want them. And this is a singing telegram saying, Listen to this. And that's how I got my first record deal.   Michael Hingson ** 09:24 Creativity counts for something. It   Michele Blood ** 09:25 sure does. You've gotta have guts. And I mean, I by the time I walked out of that office, though I was sweating, I was shaking, but you have to do something to be noticed. And and I think because I love people so much, and because I'd been singing professionally since I was five, which means I was singing for family members and everyone since I was two, apparently getting being put on the kitchen table. And I loved people being happy, and I love loved entertaining. I just loved it. So I think, you know, it's in the stars as. Well, I know that, but I think discipline, hard work eventually never giving up. Yeah, what can I say? Never giving up.   Michael Hingson ** 10:08 Did you so you were a cover band for for a while, which meant you were the the opening band for other groups,   Michele Blood ** 10:17 not as a cover band, well, with the opening act for the pretenders and in excess and a few other bands, when we were an original band and when we had a record label, right, when we had videos on TV, but before that, now we do five to 645, minute sets a night, and we would stay at one big venue, because in back in the day in Australia, the venues were huge for cover bands. You know, four to 6000 people could come in, and we got, we got very, very popular as a cover band, and then we went original. But it took a few years to do that, for sure, but   Michael Hingson ** 10:55 I remember, I remember bands back in the 50s and 60s, like the platters, who actually were the opening band, or they were the band that were the background for other singers. And then somebody discovered these guys really are better than that, and then they became their own group, right?   Michele Blood ** 11:14 Yeah, yeah. It's interesting how, how it all works out. But in Australia, it's, it's a tough way to tour when you're a female singer, because the Aussies are pretty tough. If they don't like you, you can get B canes thrown at you.   Michael Hingson ** 11:32 Yeah, well, those kinds of things do happen. Yes, they did in Boston for for sports teams. I've heard of fans really being very brutal to like the the Patriots. I think when Steve Grogan was the quarterback, they actually booed him off the field once. It was pretty amazing. I don't know. You know that's people take some of these things way too seriously. They   Michele Blood ** 12:00 certainly do. I like what Oscar Wilde said, Life is too serious to be taken seriously. Yeah,   Michael Hingson ** 12:09 yeah, absolutely, and, but people still do it way too much. Which is, which is, which is a problem. Yes, you know, we need people to take life more like Mark Twain and Will Rogers, by all means, but I can co so you, you had a serious car accident, and as you said, It really broke your body. Tell us what you'd like to about that and and then how you dealt with it, because that, that was quite a, I won't say miraculous. That was quite a marvel. You. You certainly took a leap along the way with that.   Michele Blood ** 12:50 Yeah, it's such a unique story. Um, after you know the truck driver we've been driving for 12 hours from Brisbane to Sydney, from gig to keep and he fell asleep at the wheel just as we reached Sydney, which happened to be right across the road from the best orthopedic specialist hospital in Sydney. So thank you, God, you know. Yeah, there's no coincidences. There's no accidents. So they got me over there really fast, and they had me straight into the operating theater straight away. So, I mean, I had tons of different operations, but what happened was, when you're in physics, that much physical agony, you pass out every few minutes. Mm, hmm, and, but I had people and fans and family putting on audio programs of things I'd never heard of before, Affirmations, Visualization, positive stuff, audio books by motivational speakers, inspirational speakers who I'd never heard of, but one of them got to me, and that was a book by a man called Napoleon Hill who wrote a book called Think and Grow Rich. Grow Rich, right? And I didn't care about hearing about all the millionaires in the 1920s in America, male men. Why would a female, young Australian rock singer care about that? But one chapter in there, he talks about how his infant son was born deaf, and he would go into his infant son's room every single night and do affirmations, auto suggestion, you hear perfectly. You are so loved, and you are so loving, etc, etc. And by the time a little boy was nearly four, he had 30% of his hearing. And you know when you hear something, I've never heard of this before, Michael, but you know when you hear something for the first time and you can feel it that it's true. You've just heard something that you know in the marrow of your bones that that what you've just heard is true. So I said, Okay, I can, I can run. Relate to that, because I know that I've used my willpower and my positive thinking, My I've never said I can't do something, I can't have that drama that I want. I've never said that. I've always said it's all possible. Everything is possible. You just go for it. Michelle, and I'd always just go for it. And I was brought up a Catholic, and I wasn't brought up. I wasn't one of those people that hated the church. I loved it. So I always had a belief in God, because I used to go to mass as a little girl every morning with the nuns, because I was in love with Jesus, and I just felt so I had that spirituality in me, and I think that is what is the backbone. You know, in the Bible, it says you do not need to be strong, because Christ is my strength. Christ is your strength. And so now I know that there is so much more to spirituality than just Jesus, but it was a great start for my faith in my life, and it gave me happiness. And so I just had faith that this would work, so I started doing affirmations, but they didn't work. Michael, do you want to know why? Sure, yeah, we've got nothing else to do today, right? May as well. Hear about it well, because neuroscience has proven now that affirmations do work and they do positive thinking actually does make a difference in the brain, in the neural pathways. It does make a difference. It ignites something in different parts of the brain. But back then, in the 80s, there was no way to prove that, you know, let alone Napoleon Hill in the 1920s but the thing that he said was most important is, you have to believe it. You have to emotionalize it. But I couldn't, Michael, I couldn't emotionalize it because I would. I started an affirmation, I am healed. I know I am. I love myself. I am my friend. Now, none of those things were true, so I thought, but I did want them to be true, so I thought, great, I've got the perfect affirmation. But when you are feeling like you're feeling and the world around you is presenting the opposite of what you're saying. Your doubting mind spits it out and does not believe it. So about two, three weeks after stopping the affirmations, because I realized that didn't work, I literally had a spiritual epiphany, and it was, you know, as a songwriter, Michelle, you can't get a song out of your head, even if it's songs you don't like or jingles from advertising agencies. So sing your affirmations. Because I got my brother to look around for affirmation songs, and he said, there isn't any such thing. And so I started singing,   Speaker 1 ** 17:58 I am healed. I know I am I love myself. I am my friend. And   Michele Blood ** 18:05 I recorded it onto a cassette player, just a cappella over and over again. And that was the beginning. As I listened to that all day, every day I would I started feeling better. I started getting back to my attitude, that I can, I can heal it just I realized. And when I was working with Bob Proctor, he said, you know why that works so well? He said, It's because the left side of the brain is where the lyrics are, the affirmation, the right side the melody. And this is even before I started recording it with music, and so you have a whole brain experience. And the song, the doubting mind doesn't have a chance to reject it. It goes straight into your subconscious mind. So that's how my positive affirmation pop music began. I didn't stop doing my other music, but I did have what they said, even the doctors, even though they're not supposed to say it, they said my healing was miraculous, and I ended up on TV shows and in the press and everything about what I'd been through for inspiration. And that's how it all began.   Michael Hingson ** 19:16 It. It really is all about believing it. It's it is so easy just to say something, but without truly accepting it, without truly making it a part of your psyche. However you do that it, it doesn't mean a thing. Don't   Michele Blood ** 19:32 mean a thing if it ain't something. Yeah, you do have to laugh. Do up, do up, do   Michele Blood ** 19:43 Yeah, music makes the world go around. It does,   Michael Hingson ** 19:48 and it's so important to take it seriously enough that you truly do believe it, and that's what's so important. And clearly. What you did? So what happened you you got healed completely, I would assume from all that had happened,   Michele Blood ** 20:10 yeah, I mean, it's still it still took quite a while, but I was determined. I put my high shoes back on, even though they said, don't wear high shoes. And I never intended for the affirmation music to go out to the public. My one of the band members that I work with and wrote songs with John Beatty, Hi John. He he's in person now in Australia with millions of kids, but anyway, we won't help me. Listens, yeah, we went into the recording studio and we, we just started recording. I was writing a lot of songs, and we started recording tons of different affirmation songs in all different styles of you know, from R and B to just rock to ballads to depending on what the song was about, whether it was about, you know, divine love, more of a ballad, more of a some of them just more rock and roll about being successful. And when the press found out that I was actually doing that, then promoters that were bringing out American very, very big, best selling authors asked me to come and do my singing affirmations in between these people. And I said, No, I don't want to do that. I'm not doing it for the public. Was just for me, my band, to have these positive thoughts. And they said, No, we love it. We love it. We want you to do it. And so my very first gig, I'm in Adelaide, Australia, and there's three and a half 1000 people on a Wednesday that came to this gig that paid over $300 each for a ticket, which I thought was absolutely insane. I didn't know what was going on. And I sang, and got all the people up on stage singing the affirmation songs with me made it into like a mini rock concert. And then Deepak Chopra, this, who I'd never heard of, never met before. Wayne Dyer, who I'd never heard of, never met before. Tony Alessandra, Stuart, wild, they were the speakers, and they couldn't believe it when we went out to dinner that night that I've never heard of any of them. And I said, I'm in rock and roll. I'm not in the motivational world. You know, I've, I've never heard of you, because I've not in that world. And so they were interested in how it all began, and they all said, You've got to tour this around the world. You've got to you've got to release these that we love. What you're doing. The audience is so different. Bob Proctor, though he was the one, when I ended up working with him, the promoters said, you know, we've got this female Australian singer, and you're going to be touring with her? And he said, No, I don't want a female singer. I'm Bob Proctor. I don't need that anyway. The first gig I did with him in Sydney, he came out after, and he said, I didn't want to work with a singer. And I said, good to meet you too, mate. I Yes, how are you? And he said, but no, all kidding aside. He said, My wife and I, Linda, we loved it so much, and I want you to work with me all over the world, doing events. So eventually I end up working with Bob for seven years straight. We wrote books together. We wrote music together. We put on huge events. I took over his business, looked after it, and from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, where I lived, and then, and it was just very, very interesting. I've worked in over 26 countries, huge, huge audiences. The biggest one I had was 50,000 people. So to say it was successful is an understatement, but I didn't plan it. I didn't visualize it, but I had always planned on being very well known singer, but it but not to be a positive affirmation or singer. I'd never thought of that, but eventually I went off the grid and started really getting into deep meditation practice and getting off the that whole circuit, because I wanted to find God within me. So that was what happened. And it was fascinating, because it's like working with all these, you know, rock musicians, male rock musicians, and then working with all these male best selling authors. I'm like, I'm always surrounded by the boys.   Michael Hingson ** 24:46 Hey, whatever works, it's, it's interesting though, that that you, you did so much of this, I gather that the audience is reacted very positively, though. Um. Have you heard from anyone that it really changed their life to have encountered you and heard you when you performed? Oh,   Michele Blood ** 25:10 yeah, we've had millions. I mean, we've got a lot of our video video testimonials and testimonials from not just best selling authors that I've worked with, but also from people from all over the world. I work with people in over 32 countries now, and some of them don't even speak English, but they still feel the vibration. And a lot of different people have started singing my songs in different languages, which I allow anyone to do. They don't have to pay me a royalty. They can just do it whatever brings positivity to the world and change within someone, so that they can get out of that rabbit hole. Because you're, you know, your whole podcast about unstoppable mindset. Well, this is such a a great new beginning is to just have to listen to a song. Yeah? And, you know, there's so I've got hundreds of songs to choose from, so it's a good it's a good way to start, because music, you know, like I always say to people, if you have the blues, even though I like blues and I think it's brilliant, but if you have the blues, probably best not to listen to the blues. Yeah,   Michael Hingson ** 26:21 definitely, definitely true. Well, of course, one has to ask if, if you have one, not necessarily long, but that you want to sing for us all.   Michele Blood ** 26:38 Yeah, I can. I didn't have anything set up. But if you'd like to chat for a minute, I'll just get something set up for you. Well,   Michael Hingson ** 26:45 okay, we can, we can do that. I do. I do agree with you that if you've got the blues, you don't want to listen to the blues. I I personally like happy stuff. I like musicals, especially when they're they're happy musicals. I've always enjoyed that. I do listen and read science fiction and sometimes read some some pretty horrific things. But I've noticed later in my life I'm doing less of that because I, although I like mysteries, I don't like nowadays really graphical or very graphic murder mysteries and things like that, and so people call the kinds of things that I probably typically like cozy mysteries. I wouldn't say that Rex Stout books about neural wolf the private detective are necessarily cozy, but by the same token, they're not the most graphic things, and I've always enjoyed them because they're puzzles. And I love mysteries that are really puzzles that I can become engaged in and try to solve, and musicals I like just because they're fun and and they're they're very happy for the most part. And so again, they're, they're very relevant to to want to listen to. So I, I tend to do that. So it's a lot of fun to keep in the the spirit of reasonably happy and stay away from the blues. Okay,   Michele Blood ** 28:17 I've got something set up now, alright, saying low battery, but oh, sorry. What happened there? There it is. There it is. This song is called synergy. I wrote it with Bob Proctor. Can you hear the music?   Michael Hingson ** 28:35 It's a little low, but yes, go ahead. Better. Yep,   Speaker 1 ** 28:40 there's a way to get it moving, to make it happen, to get high. Can barely flooded in the clouds, join thoughts and let them fly. When your mind joins in with others and all your thoughts to one a US. Energy begins to sizzle and it's energy positive energy synergy. It's energy, hot energy, positive energy turn into synergy. Together, creative power will start to flow. Things begin to happen. You're a church with Synergy. Red Hot energy, positive energy grows into synergy. It's energy, hot energy, positive energy grows into synergy.   Michele Blood ** 29:55 You shine and become magnetic, you'll draw the good. People out the world will be a better place, and everyone will start to shout, face to face, building   Speaker 2 ** 30:12 energy. Taste. The taste is this energy, thoughts, launching into one, a new boss have become this is synergy.   Speaker 1 ** 30:23 It's synergy, red hot energy, positive energy, delta, synergy, it's synergy.   Michael Hingson ** 30:34 There you go. Now   30:36 that's Bob Proctor. Wrote the lyrics for that.   Michael Hingson ** 30:41 But, um, who was the male voice near the end? Oh, the   Michele Blood ** 30:44 male voice was a American guy in who was singing covers in Kuala Lumpur when I lived there, Ah, okay, and I just hired him to come and and do that in the studio in Kuala Lumpur, yeah. But the other affirmation songs are more simple, but they're still got, you know, like a good dance beat, some of them are ballads greeting the day with love in your heart. It just depends on where you want to take your mind that day. Do you want to open your heart? Do you want to be like listen to the persistent song. Do you want to feel more successful? You listen to the success song, which is like 50s, rock and roll. So they're all different. They're all different product, production. So it was a lot of fun changing the different styles for each song depending on the lyrics.   Michael Hingson ** 31:34 Well, if people want to get those affirmation songs and so on, are they available for people to get? Yeah,   Michele Blood ** 31:41 all my albums are sold all over the world, and iTunes, of course, Amazon. My own website is magnet to success. Com. My YouTube channel is Michelle blood.com forward slash YouTube. But I've got lovely giveaways for your for your audience, if you'd like me to share that. Well, we will   Michael Hingson ** 32:03 do that a little bit, okay, but I really appreciate you seeing synergy. I will be, I will be saying that to myself the rest of the day, which is fine, but you know, you mentioned the blues and so on. So here's a question, if somebody is really down and really frustrated, how can they change their life to the positive?   Michele Blood ** 32:31 Well, first of all, even if they are really down, you've got to know, no matter what is going on in your life, that everything is possible for you, and that you can get out of that rabbit hole, and that you are you might feel alone, but you're never alone. Whether you believe in God or you don't believe in God, there is a God and you are looked after. You can pray without begging just giving. One of the most wonderful things you can do is just to start to write down what you're thankful for immediately. If you can say thank you divine, or just thank you for my beautiful life, and if then you can begin to write down what a beautiful life would look like for you, just start writing it down, even though it's not true yet. Like, let's start thinking about what can be done. What do you what sort of friends do you want? What sort of lifestyle do you want? You know, start thinking of others as well. Whenever we can do something, if we can do something every single day that makes somebody else happy, whether it's feeding the homeless or sending funny kitten videos to your friends. You if you can do something every day that brings happiness to somebody else or takes them out of suffering, well, then it'll take you out of yourself. Because if, if it's something emotional that you're going through, that means that you're going to sometimes we do need to go through the emotion, particularly if we're mourning the loss of something or someone that's important and healthy. But it is also important to stop thinking about ourselves so much and look at what can be done for the world. I love I love Saint Vincent de Paul. I love the Salvation Army so much, so you can tithe to them anonymously. If you want to do something you don't know what to do, even if it's just a buck, five bucks, it's really good to tithe to charities that are doing good in the world. And I'm sure there's a charity that you could recommend to us, Michael, that will help with the blind. If you got one, you can recommend?   Michael Hingson ** 34:43 Well, I think there, there really are a number of of places to donate. One of my favorites is the National Federation of the Blind, nfb.org, because it's, it's a consumer organization that fights for the rights of. Of blind people around the United States and actually around the world. And it's the NFB is the largest consumer organization of blind people in this country and, in fact, in the world. But it has made such a difference in the lives of blind people. For example, through the National Federation of blind we completely changed the life insurance industry that refused to provide life insurance for any blind person up until the mid 1980s and when it was finally discovered that they were denying us, not because they had any evidence and actual mathematical models that proved that we were a risk, which is what they're supposed to do. They were doing it strictly out of prejudice. And so now every state in the union, because of the Federation, has actually passed legislation that says you can't discriminate unless you've got real evidence. Well, it's been 40 years, and nobody's come up with evidence that we're a higher risk simply because we're blind or other persons with disabilities, their disabilities directly make them a higher risk. So, you know, that's that's definitely one of my favorite organizations to support. And   Michele Blood ** 36:13 nfb.org everybody. Nfb.org I've written it down for me to start tithing there as well. And,   Michael Hingson ** 36:20 you know, and there, there are so many others. Another organization that I tend to like, it's a very small organization, is advocates for service animal partners asap.org, and and it fights for the rights of people with a variety of disabilities who use service animals, service dogs, to be able to take their dogs with them, where wherever they go, because we're denied. So awesome. So I like asap.org as well.   Michele Blood ** 36:51 I love what you did. I think it was you and Ray and his wife. You were going to a particular restaurant and a a suity maitre d snotty, snooty, wouldn't let you in with your blind dog, with your with your guide dog, right? And and she was really upset the wife. And so you end up gathering quite a few of your friends that are blind, that have guide dogs, and you went in, and he had to oblige and let you all in. And everyone was very nice to you. So that was really good, because that it, it's, it's illegal for them to say you can't come in with your guide dog. It is   Michael Hingson ** 37:28 illegal, and it has been illegal for a long time. One of my favorite stories, which really wasn't a bad story at all, there used to be a restaurant in Boston in Quincy Market called Durgan Park. And Durgan Park was was basically family style, although around the outside of the room they had tables for four but you couldn't sit at one of those tables unless you had four people. Well, we came in one night and there were only three of us and my dog, Holland, and the the host has said, You know what, I'm going to make an exception and let you sit at this table for four so Holland was under the table, and there were three of us, and the waitress came up, and the waitresses at Durgan Park are known as snots. I mean, they're, they're, they're, they're supposed to be really rough and all that. It's just part of the schtick. But she came up and she said, What are you people doing sitting here? And he said, well, the host has put us here. No, she didn't. You're just sitting here. No, she did. It's because of the dog under the table. No, there's no dog under the table. You're not going to make me fall for that. And she walks away, and then she comes back and she said, you're not supposed to be sitting here and all that. I said, Look, there's a dog under the table. Take a look. And it took a while, but I finally got her to look, and there's Holland staring at her with these big brown eyes when she lifts up the the tablecloth, and the next thing I know, she comes back with a big plate. Jurgen Park has very good sized portions of frying rib and says, Can I give this to the dog, oh, and, and normally, I would never do that, but in the for to promote goodwill, I said, Okay, which Hall of love? And, you know, I knew the food there was good, but, you know, it was, it was just one of those great stories. But, yeah, all too often that isn't the way it goes. We see so many challenges with Uber, for example, so many drivers refuse to take blind people or other people with disabilities who have service dogs. It's against the rules, and they say, but it's our car. No, you signed a contract that said that you are going to transport the public, so it is illegal for you to deny us. But they do, and that's one of the things that ASAP, for example, is really working on to address, to get Uber, to recognize that it has to enforce the law like everyone else. But it's a challenge. People come from all sorts of different points of view. You know, with   Michele Blood ** 39:59 the name like. Uber. How could they do that? They're not being very Uber.   40:04 Well, there you go.   Michele Blood ** 40:07 Wow. That's interesting in this day and age. Absolutely, it continues all too often. So many people have slipped into something more comfortable, like a coma. Yeah.   Michael Hingson ** 40:18 Now you and your team have created an app. I think it's called what magnet to money. Tell us about that. Yeah,   Michele Blood ** 40:24 it was interesting. Thanks, Michael. I wanted to do because sometimes people like you were talking earlier, how do they get out of their you know, their depression, or whatever they're going through that they're feeling, how do they get out of that rabbit hole? So if you're feeling that way, and your mindset is in a negative state of mind, and you're emotionally not feeling well, well, then it's very, very challenging for you to want to put on some positive, you know, affirmation music. Because I know when I was in the hospital, if people came in and they were too chirpy. I would couldn't wait for them to go because I wasn't oscillating at that frequency. Yeah, you know. So they're all Oh, hi. And so I thought, wouldn't it be great if we had an app and it would just play? As you know, they can choose the notifications how often it will play. And so Polly fella, Trevor Rogers and Johnny and Dara and myself, we worked really hard, especially Holly fella, to develop this app. And it took about two and a half years to develop it. And it's got morning meditations. It's got tons of affirmations with music underneath. It's got a sleep program to help. As they're sleeping, people are sleeping, I'm very softly saying affirmations and positive you know, feed, feed to their minds. And it's also got notifications, so the magnet to money song will play whatever they want to, so they don't have to even remember to and eventually, like someone the other day, said she was in a bank and she had the magnet to Money App, and she had it as her ringtone as well. And she's in this big bank that was hardly anybody in there, but it was quite chamber ish, Echo ish, and she said, and her phone was on pretty loud. It started, I'm a magnet to money came on really loud, and everyone started laughing. They're like, well, that's sort of, I guess, you know, a good thing to play in a bank. Yeah, works. So, yeah, the magnet to Money App is fantastic. App. It's got so much on it, and it's got an audio book you get for free from myself and Bob Proctor called magnet to money through the sea of unlimited consciousness, one one of our books that we did as an audio book, and we thought we've also got a free app, because that magnet to Money App is only about, I think it's $4 or something A month, but the affirmation power app is free, and on that tons of affirmations, plus my affirmation music videos is on there as well. So that's free, if anybody wants that.   Michael Hingson ** 43:13 So yeah, so is that available with Android and Apple and iPhone? No,   Michele Blood ** 43:17 just, just apple at the moment, because to develop for an Android is much more complicated because there are so many different companies, yeah, yes, whereas Apple, it's just the iPhone, but we do intend to, but it's, you know, we've got the manifestation video app as well, and we've got a New App coming out, which is all my audio books. And I'm doing a new audio book every month, not just my books on audio, but other people's books on audio as well. And then the next step after that, is a prayer app, talking about prayer, how to pray, and for me, teaching people the power of prayer. So it's really lovely to be able to do apps that have got positive, you know, the very, very, you know, if they were to buy all those individual products from me to cost hundreds dollars, and this way it's just a few dollars a month all free for them to get all my positive songs and books and all that sort of thing.   Michael Hingson ** 44:17 How do people search for these apps that in the in the app store. I think   Michele Blood ** 44:22 that if they just go under, look under Michelle blood, okay, under my name, yeah, okay, they'll just come up. I   Michael Hingson ** 44:29 will, I will be doing that this afternoon. I think that's that's pretty cool. You know, in in our world today, we become so materialistic in so many ways, but at the same time, a lot of people have really become students of your affirmations and so on. How did they really become students? And I think even more important, one of the questions that I would ask is. How does it really transform, or did it really transform people's consciousness and set them on a road toward a more spiritual path? Because I think in so many ways, we don't see people doing that, and at the same time, I know there are a lot of people who do, but by the same token, there's so many people who go, oh, this is just all pokem. It doesn't really mean anything, but that's just not true.   Michele Blood ** 45:24 Well, I think it's, it's an interesting question to answer, because there are so many different types of people in the world, and we can't expect to change people. They have to, you know, I don't want anyone to suffer. Michael, first of all, so I think having positive thoughts in their head is going to actually make them think less of themselves, believe it or not, these the way the lyrics are done, and more of joy and sharing and caring about other people, because it is so important to to do that, because people, if they get too much into themselves, Like I say to people, don't buy anything if you're buying it. For someone else to be to compliment you, that's a really good way of deciding what you're going to purchase in your life. If you're doing it to you know, to say, Oh, I've got this really nice car. Look how great I am. But get it if you want a good car. Get it because you want a nice, safe car that's good for the environment, but don't get it so that you will impress other people. Unless you're a real estate agent, they do need good cars, apparently, to drive people around, yeah, I guess so. Drive people around,   Michael Hingson ** 46:35 but, or drive people crazy, yeah,   Michele Blood ** 46:37 but. But I also think it's important that that if you want to, you can't tell someone to be more spiritual. They have to get into a positive frame of mindset first. Because when you're in a positive frame of mindset, you start feeling more of a heart blow, more love. And even if you don't believe in God, you believe in love everybody, I know you do, so whether it's your animal that you love, because every animal is an angel, whether it's nature, smelling the remembering to stop and smell the flowers, remembering to not let yourself complain. Complaining will take you down a rabbit hole of absolute negativity and please. People remember, the only reason you're complaining is because you're feeling fear about losing something or not getting something that you want. And so if you can stop complaining for 28 days straight, you will change your life. And I know that sounds impossible, but many people can do it, because I've seen my students do it. So if you can stop complaining and stop half if you're halfway through a complaint about something or someone or politics or Trump or whatever in the hell it is, stop yourself halfway through and just say, Why am I complaining? And people are complaining because they're in fear. If you can stop and be mindful enough to say, I'm complaining because I'm afraid of something, and I don't want to face it and find out what you're afraid of, the thing that you're afraid of will dissipate. Yeah, it really will. So I think that's a really good place to start listening to the positive songs, for sure, going to every single unstoppable mindset podcast you possibly can go to reading Michael's books, and also, just knowing that you can get out of that rabbit hole, it is totally possible, and I've seen it in people from all different cultures and religious backgrounds all over the world. I've traveled to so many different countries, and have so many different audiences, and everybody wants to be loved and be loved in return. And everybody wants to see other people happy at their core. They really do. We don't want to make people unhappy, do you? So stop complaining.   Michael Hingson ** 49:07 You know, it's, it's interesting that you, you talk about all this, one of the things that we talk a lot about, and you'll see it and live like the guide dog, is that we need to become more introspective. Because if we do and we really look at ourselves daily, and, for example, look at what worked today, what didn't work. Why didn't it work? You eventually get to what was I really afraid of? And if you really stop to think about that and go, I didn't need to be afraid of that, your life will change, which is really, as you're pointing out, what it's all about.   Michele Blood ** 49:44 Excellent, excellent. I'm looking forward to reading that as well, and then I've already told everyone to get thunder dog on all my lists. But now I'll be, after I read the next one, I'll be telling them to read that as well, because we're on the same page. Michael.   Michael Hingson ** 49:59 Tell me a little bit about something I've read in your bio, how you went from affirmations to a full kundalini awakening.   Michele Blood ** 50:09 Well, when I was working with Bob Proctor in Asia, I was saying to him one day, I feel this heart blow like I feel like my heart is out of my chest, and I feel such deep love. And it's not for any person, place or thing. It's for everything, actually, but it's beyond that. It's divine. And he said, you're looking for an enlightened teacher. That's what you need. And I said, Well, where do you find an enlightened teacher, and what exactly is that? And he got me to read Autobiography of a Yogi by Hara mahansa Yogananda. And I'd read it before, but I didn't really get it like I did this time when I read it, and I realized that enlightenment wasn't just one person. People can actually meditate and go into higher states of consciousness, but I wasn't thinking of how is an enlightened being around in this modern world? That can't be right? Because I it must be like unless it's Asia maybe. He said, I don't know. He said, I did have a Canadian man who was enlightened, who taught me for three years before he died, left the body. And he said, you just have to pray for it and know that the teacher and the student will find each other. It took me 14 years of searching all over the world, and eventually I found an enlightened teacher in all places America, and I decided to go off the grid, and I really had to to study with her as a student, because she didn't like us to be on Facebook or social media. She said, you don't want attention on yourself when you're studying with me, because you want to be able to go in deeply. Yeah. So I went off. I studied with her for 12 years, but after the first few years, I went into a full awakening myself, never expecting that. Didn't expect it to happen to me. I thought, how could a rock singer in Australia, have a kundalini awakening, but I did, and now I love to teach mysticism and spirituality and meditation practice to students from all over the world. And I love to do it. I think there's so many tools in the toolbox of life, whatever sort of personality you have, whether you're extremely religious or you just want to have more positive outcome. You want to become healthier. I think meditation practice is good for everybody. You do not have to be religious or think of spirituality to enjoy a quiet mind. It'll slow down your blood pressure. It will give you pump your blood, it'll stop your mind from going down a million rabbit holes where your senses take you. I just think meditation practice is a miraculous, privileged thing to do.   Michael Hingson ** 52:53 I agree. And you know, one of the things that it's a little bit off topic for what you just said, but we were talking earlier about people praying and looking for so many things. I'm amazed at how many people pray to God, telling God what they want and what they think they need. And I'm sitting there whenever I hear about that today, especially, I think, Wait a minute, God already knows that what you need to do is to listen to get the response, and thank God for the response, but people just don't do that. I'm just so amazed at at that. But it's it is so true that we spend too much time not doing the thing that we really need to do, which is listening and talking with God, not talking to God.   Michele Blood ** 53:46 Yeah, that's why I I'm loving recording the new prayer app, because I explain to people what prayer actually is. It's not If you do this for me, God, I'll start, stop eating pizza, yeah? Or maybe trade off. So I teach people what prayer actually is, and it's, it's really the most sacred thing and beautiful thing, and it will uplift you, even if you just, I've got a section where they I'm praying for others, so they can just listen to any different topic of what type of prayer, but the main thing for me was explaining, doing the introduction of what prayer is and how to pray, because so many people have no idea what prayer really is, that communion with your higher self, and once you get to understand what that is, then you can hear that still, small voice you can literally hear through. Ah, your intuition becomes stronger you can and intuition is you being in tune with your higher self. And your higher self is omniscient wisdom. It created everything so it knows what. To tell you to do, and it will bring into your experience everything when you accept, when you can be open and receptive to receive and to give, just sort of let yourself go, just surrender to that divine Higher Self, when you can learn how to do that. That's another thing that I do on this prayer app is teach you what surrender really means and how you can do it. It's not taking your willpower away from you, because everyone that's a gift that we've been given. So we can make good choices in life, sometimes bad choices, but we can use our willpower to get ourselves out of that rabbit hole. So thank you for asking that. Michael, it's   Michael Hingson ** 55:41 extremely important to be able to do that. Well, you mentioned earlier that you had gifts for people listening to this podcast. Love it if you tell us about that,   Michele Blood ** 55:52 yes, yummy gifts. If you go to Michelle. Blood com, it's spelled M, I, C, H, E, L, E, B, L, O, O, O, d.com, forward slash unstoppable mindset. We've called that. We've made that link especially for Michael's podcast. Just for your people, they will get the audio version of one of my favorite books I've written called the magic of affirmation power audio book. They will get that for free, but in that audio book has tons of affirmations you can repeat after me, links to some of my music for free. You'll also get a six week mysticism course, and there are other things as well. I can't remember what they are right now, but they're all on that link.   Michael Hingson ** 56:37 But Michelle blood com slash unstoppable mindset. I thank you for the otter. Appreciate that. Well now if people want to come hear you, I know you do live events and you do zoom events and so on. How can we learn about that? How can people do that?   Michele Blood ** 56:57 Well, they can go to request Divine light.com to find out what is my next event, because I have free events, a lot a lot of free zoom events people can come to, and you'll just get to meet so many happy, lovely people from so many different countries. And we just have a blast together. And you'll be very, very uplifted after everyone, because everyone that comes on are just, we seem to be attracting, over the years, just people that are really, sincerely wanting a better life and to do it, to do good in the world. And I just love them all so much. So if they go to request Divine Light com, they can see where my next free event will be. I mean, it's on Zoom, but I mean when it will be   Michael Hingson ** 57:46 right? Request, divine light. Com, cool. Well, I really appreciate you coming on. And obviously people can go to Michelle blood, com, and there's a lot there, I would assume as well. So hopefully people will go, go check out everything that's there, and we'll take this seriously, because I think there is so much that you have offered. We've had a number of people on unstoppable mindset who talk about everything from reg a to Eastern medicine, meditation and and so many things. They all can't be totally wrong. So from my perspective, they are not wrong. But by the same token, it's fun to be able to get a chance to to have you on. We'll have to do this again, and I'm going to certainly go download the apps and put them on my nice little iPhone and start taking advantage of them. But I really appreciate you coming on and and being with us for an hour today. Well,   Michele Blood ** 58:51 Michael, thank you for the books that you've written and everything that you've done in the world. I just think you're just an inspiration and just a lovely, lovely man. So thank you. It's, it's lovely getting to know you. And I'm just going to tell everyone about these books, because they're amazing, well written as well. Just really, really good.   Michael Hingson ** 59:13 Well, thank you. So, when are you going to do a podcast? I'm going   Michele Blood ** 59:17 to do a podcast with a man called just I just had a brain fart. Thomas Miller, uh, at the moment, his podcast is called subconscious mind mastery, and he's interviewed me quite a few times. We met in person, and I love his outlook on life, about really not saying no to anything that's mystical. And so we're going to start one next year together. He's already got his own, but this will be a different one where we'll go a little deeper, a deeper dive into mysticism. I think we're going to call it well,   Michael Hingson ** 59:55 if he needs a guess for his existing podcast, if he has guests or. You guys have your podcast together. If you ever want a guest, I volunteer. So I'll just, Oh,   Michele Blood ** 1:00:05 I'll tell him today. Goodness, yes,   Michael Hingson ** 1:00:10 I'm, I'm always, I'm always open for that. Oh,   Michele Blood ** 1:00:13 I'll tell him today. Yeah, because you, I love you.   Michael Hingson ** 1:00:18 Well, I want to thank you for being here, and I want to thank all of you for listening. I hope you enjoyed this at least half as much as I did, hopefully as much as I did. This has been a lot of fun and educational, I think, in so many ways, to help us deal with our outlooks on life. I'd love to hear your thoughts about it. Please feel free to email me. Michael h i at accessibe, A, C, C, E, S, S, I b, e.com, or go to our podcast website, w, w, w, dot Michael hingson.com/podcast, and that's m, I, C, H, A, E, L, H, I N, G, s, o, n. So Michael hingson.com/podcast, and wherever you're listening, please give us a five star review. We really value your reviews. But of course, love the five star ones, so if we can, we would really appreciate it if you give us a five star review and and say, say good things about us and and go off and definitely visit Michelle's pages. And, of course, being very prejudiced, go to Michelle blood com slash unstoppable mindset and get some free gifts from her. And if you know of anyone who you think would be a good guest, and Michelle you as well. I'm always looking for podcast guests, so okay, don't hesitate to to refer people to us. We appreciate that a whole lot. So once again, I want to thank you for being here. Michelle, this has been a lot of fun. Thank   Michele Blood ** 1:01:45 you. Michael, God bless you. More love everyone. More Love   Michael Hingson ** 1:01:54   You have been listening to the Unstoppable Mindset podcast. Thanks for dropping by. I hope that you'll join us again next week, and in future weeks for upcoming episodes. To subscribe to our podcast and to learn about upcoming episodes, please visit www dot Michael hingson.com slash podcast. Michael Hingson is spelled m i c h a e l h i n g s o n. While you're on the site., please use the form there to recommend people who we ought to interview in upcoming editions of the show. And also, we ask you and urge you to invite your friends to join us in the future. If you know of any one or any organization needing a speaker for an event, please email me at speaker at Michael hingson.com. I appreciate it very much. To learn more about the concept of blinded by fear, please visit www dot Michael hingson.com forward slash blinded by fear and while you're there, feel free to pick up a copy of my free eBook entitled blinded by fear. The unstoppable mindset podcast is provided by access cast an initiative of accessiBe and is sponsored by accessiBe. Please visit www.accessibe.com . AccessiBe is spelled a c c e s s i b e. There you can learn all about how you can make your website inclusive for all persons with disabilities and how you can help make the internet fully inclusive by 2025. Thanks again for Listening. Please come back and visit us again next week.

Braves woes, Merrifield's gruesome injury, Nacho, possible trade, Skenes 1st loss, Nisei soldiers & MLB, Olbermann's insane & inane tweet, players back Trump on the field, Mike Trout injury, David Pollack trolls Vols? Rose Bowl stuck in past, Bryce Young is Charlie Brown, whence Randy Gregory? Tiger's leg & son, Canada vs New Zealand gets ugly, Snoop Dogg carries a torch, Cocaine Shark coming to a beach near you, 2 million dollar bet, esports in Olympics, don't say popsicle, Bob Lilly, Walt Bellamy, Steve Grogan, Kevin Butler, a cricket game to die for, Lou Gehrig steals home! Dizzy Dean held up by bandits, Branch Rickey praises a young Willie Mays, Hank Greenberg, Jewish hockey players, the spitting image of Ted Williams, Casey Stengel at Toots Shor's, Hoyt Wilhelm passes Cy Young, Roberto Clemente, Billy Martin fired by Steinbrenner again, Tom Seaver number retired by Mets, Vince Coleman injures kids with M-80, tooth brushing records, singing the National Anthem whilst getting a prostate exam (Moon River!), Varitek vs Arod, Matt Olson grand slam, Buck O'Neil inducted in Cooperstown, Pete's Tweets, This Day in Sports History, Ripley's Believe It or Not!, plus quotes from Vida Blue, Roger Kahn, Robert Benchley, Humphrey Bogart, and Thomas Boswell 

“There's a yank on the phone. He wants me to go over [to the States] and kick that God darn ball.”- John Smith to his girlfriend (now wife)You've heard him talk about the Snowplow Game. Now, we speak with John Smith about his life & career.How did a promising, young soccer player in England become a Pro Bowl, American football player for the Patriots?He answers all of the following and more: What was his initial interaction with Coach Fairbanks like? What did Howard Cosell say about his first kickoff? How did John get around his rookie “hazing”? Later in his career, he became forever linked with Cosell over what tragedy? What are John's thoughts on ‘Ted Lasso'? What's it like kicking a game winning field goal? What are his fondest thoughts of regarding his time with the Patriots? What did he absolutely love to do after retirement from football?And you're going to love his stories about his first field goal and his great friend, Steve Grogan. 

Do you want to see sustainability results while working out?   If so, listen to Steve Grogan shared how you can get results in just two 30-minute workouts. Science-based fitness is similar to HIIT without all the interval and high intensity. Steve's method is geared towards low impact, repetition, and form. Various GEMS were shared to get you moving.       WHO IS STEVE GROGAN? Steve is a Personal Trainer who teaches you how to get fit with just two 30-minute workouts per week. This is the only method he has used since 2020, and it helped him go from 241 pounds to 175. What makes this more impressive is that he did this in his forties, which is when most people claim your metabolism runs slower and will not allow you to lose fat.       STEVE'S CALL TO ACTION To book a FREE 30-minute session reach out via email or text. stevegrogan@stevegrogansbf.com (518) 275-2267       GENESIS'S CALL TO ACTION Subscribe / Follow GEMS with Genesis Amaris Kemp podcast & YouTube channel, Hit the notifications bell so you don't miss any content, and share with family/friends.   GENESIS'S INFO https://genesisamariskemp.net/genesisamariskemp     If you would like to be a SPONSOR or have any of your merchandise mentioned please reach out via email --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/genesis-amaris-kemp/message Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/genesis-amaris-kemp/support

Just in time for the start of the season, Patriots Hall of Fame legend, Steve Grogan, joins Bob Lobel and Mike Lynch on UnAnchored Boston! The Patriots quarterback talks all about his experience over 16 years as a player, including the '76 season highlights, his throw to Darryl Stingley, and much more! Www.UnAnchoredBoston.com #UnAnchoredBoston #SteveGrogan #BobLobel #MikeLynch #NewEnglandPatriots #Patriots

Kim is as unstoppable as it gets. Born and raised in the Boston area she became very interested in entertainment. After a bit, someone convinced her to go into sales which she did and has been involved with ever since. For the past 20 years she has been a professional financial advisor.   Nine years ago she decided to invoke both sides of her brain by starting her own production company, Miles In Heels productions. She is an event strategist which she will explain.   Of course, since Kim was in sales we talk a lot this time about sales, what makes great sales people and how sales professionals can and should do more to relate to their customers. I'm not going to give everything away. I hope very much you enjoy and are inspired by our episode with Kim. About the Guest: Kim Miles (TEDx Speaker, Executive Producer & Event Strategist, Serial Connector & Shoe Collector) What do you call a successful businesswoman with a vibrant financial advisory practice, more than 30 years of sales experience, a background in performing, and a serious shoe habit? Kim Miles! Through her company, Miles in Heels Productions (milesinheels.com), Kim is a highly sought-after TEDx speaker, emcee, creative collaborator and event strategist who partners with her clients to deliver critical messaging to their key audiences in fresh, unexpected and entertaining ways. No matter the format, live or virtual, from ideation to execution, Miles in Heels Productions is the answer. When you need to think outside of the box and laugh while you're learning, look no further: if Oprah and Ellen had a love child, it would be Kim Miles. Kim creates mic-drop moments for her clients by using both the left and right sides of her brain, simultaneously. She brings her business acumen AND her creative lens to every problem-solving scenario. From securing A-list talent to comprehensive content creation by way of video production and copywriting, Kim's goal is to make sure each client is attracting its perfect audience. Kim has worked with the likes of comedians Fran Drescher, Judy Gold, and Jackie Fabulous to Broadway actors like Miguel Cervantes (Hamilton), to celebrity chefs such as Karen Akunowicz (Top Chef/James Beard Winner) to bring star power to her clients' events. Major clients include The Massachusetts Conference for Women, Babson College, Ropes & Gray, Worcester Women's Leadership Conference, Wellesley College, Winchester Hospital/Lahey Health, Women's Bar Association and Foundation of Massachusetts, Yankee Dental Congress, Foundation for Business Equity, League of Women Voters of Massachusetts, Goulston & Storrs Counsellors at Law, College of The Holy Cross, MassChallenge, Women in Technology International, Colwen Hotels, Regis College, Bryant University Women's Summit, MetroWest Conference for Women and many more. She's a member of The WIN Lab Coaching Circle at Babson College, the Innovation Women Speakers Bureau, and the GDA Speakers Bureau. Kim is widely known as a powerhouse problem solver, kick-a** content creator, and a hilarious humorist. When she's not working, Kim has been known to take off her signature heels only to hit the slopes or the golf course…that is when she's not singing with her band! Ways to connect with Kim: WEBSITE: www.milesinheels.com TEDx Talk: https://www.ted.com/talks/kim_miles_surviving_the_big_c_conformity LINKEDIN: Kim Miles/Miles in Heels Productions: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kim-miles-00342294/ INSTAGRAM: @Kimmilesinheels: https://www.instagram.com/kimmilesinheels/ FB: Miles in Heels Productions/Kim Miles: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Miles-In-Heels-Productions/752242571474563 TWITTER: @KimMilesinHeels: https://twitter.com/kimmilesinheels YOUTUBE: Miles in Heels Productions: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTD-99e7kYl1byWqSMzQVkw?view_as=subscriber 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 also subscribe in your favorite podcast app. 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 ** 01:21 Well, hi once again. And yes. And well. Hi there, too. You too. And hi to everyone listening. Welcome to unstoppable mindset. We're glad you're here. Today, we get to visit with Kim Miles. And Kim has a company with a very clever name. And I'm gonna let her tell you because I don't want to spoil it. And she has a lot of interesting stories to tell. She's a very creative individual by any standard. And I really am glad that you're going to spend some time with us today. So welcome aboard, Kim. **Kim Miles ** 01:52 No, I feel honored. Thank you. It was really so great to get to know you on our initial call. And it's just been fun learning about you and and accessiBe ever since. So I'm happy to be here. Thanks for having me. **Michael Hingson ** 02:05 Yeah, one of the things that we do for those who may not really have caught on over the last number of episodes is before we do a podcast, I love to get a chance to meet virtually in person, whoever is going to come on the podcast because it's great to get to know them and for them to get to know me and make sure we're all comfortable with the podcast, which is as you all know, a conversation. And so Kim and I connected and here we are. So I'm very glad you're here. And I expect that we will have fun today. I agree. I agree. And you are in Boston, and what's the temperature back there? **Kim Miles ** 02:41 We cannot seem to get out of our own way. We have literally we had the most glorious Memorial Day weekend, which we don't typically have. So that was a surprise. It was absolute perfection. And then ever since then we've really been it's been cold here. Everybody's been joking around that they put away their winter coats far too early. And so we are really hovering in the 50s and 60s here where we're trying desperately to warm up. So we were praying for warmer weather, but it'll come it'll come and then we'll be complaining. It's too hot. We're now trying England. We're never happy in New England. **Michael Hingson ** 03:13 You know, it's not just New England. I am fascinated when I listen to weather prognosticators like out here. When it's really hot, of course, we have greater chances of fires wildfires, right used to be called forest fires. But now Smokey Bear calls them wildfires, anyway, whatever. But the the issue is that when it's really hot, the whole Southern California area is much more susceptible to fires. And so now, we have also primarily had much cooler weather, it's going to get up to 72. Today, they say it's 67 outside right now and it's about 1135 in the morning. But the thing is that what people have been complaining about the weather people is the May gray in the June gloom. You know, they're complaining about that every single weather forecast I always hear about the May gray or the June Gloom is still with us. The Marine layers there, we're not getting the sun. But you are absolutely right. What's going to happen is once it starts to really heat up, then they're going to complain about it being too hot and the chance of fires. There's no pleasing them and they teach us all that which is unfortunate. **Kim Miles ** 04:29 Well, I don't know if you know the saying but if you live in New England and you don't like the weather, just wait a minute, it'll change. **Michael Hingson ** 04:36 I lived in with her for three years and spent a lot of time in the Boston area. So I understand, ya know, how **Kim Miles ** 04:42 do we know exactly. **Michael Hingson ** 04:44 New Englanders are very opinionated. I remember a couple of times. At the beginning of baseball season the Red Sox lost the first game of the season. And the immediate thing I started hearing from everyone is wait till next year. **Kim Miles ** 04:57 Well, here's what the old adage says As though the seasons are not one in April, but they are last in April. So if you don't have a strong start in April, you're likely doomed. Of course, crazier things have happened. But that is the old adage. And yeah, we were very spoiled here in Boston, I have to say I have a conversation with a friend of mine who lives out out west and, and he's always saying, Do you know do you know lucky you guys aren't you know, spoiled you guys are that you have a team in every sport to look forward to. And I realize we're spoiled. I understand that completely. But it's, you know, when you're a born and bred New Englander, you get used to it. And you know, we have high standards for sports teams, I suppose. **Michael Hingson ** 05:40 Or at least, or maybe lower high standards for fans. It's hard to say **Kim Miles ** 05:47 to Shay, **Michael Hingson ** 05:49 I remember when Steve Grogan was the quarterback for the Patriots. And people didn't like him. And they actually booed him off the field one game, which was, I thought a little bit amazing. I heard of that concept before, but never actually saw it. But of course, I also was back in Boston living there. When Michael Rooney ruzi. Oni and the Olympic team in 1981. Hockey against the Russians. **Kim Miles ** 06:15 Yes, that was yeah, that's if you've ever seen the movie. That movie is such an amazing, you know, a such an amazing movie. The story of it is it's one of the greats, it's one of the one of the sports greats. **Michael Hingson ** 06:27 Yeah, well, and by any standard it is, by any standard, any standard. That is it was great. And it was wonderful. And that was the year I think they also introduced first night in Boston. And he and I think some of the team made an appearance at a couple of the subway stations. So it was kind of fun. **Kim Miles ** 06:48 That's back in the day. That's what in the **Michael Hingson ** 06:51 day, right? Yeah, back in the day. Well, tell us a little bit about you, maybe the the younger kid growing up and all that. And let's see how we get to where we are now. **Kim Miles ** 07:01 Absolutely. Well, I think that that's always the question, right? How is it that you did get to where you are now it's always or you hope that it's an interesting story? I think in my case that it is **Michael Hingson ** 07:10 much, much, much less how not only how you get there, but where are you? No, that's okay, go ahead. **Kim Miles ** 07:15 Exactly. Well, you know, for me, I've always been a very, very creative kid, I was always a very creative person, I was always the one who gravitated toward theater and music, I've been singing my whole life. And I definitely, you know, have a huge appreciation for the arts, and sports, but definitely for the arts. And, you know, all through high school I sang with, you know, state choirs, and I was on stage with all my performances. And when I went and lived in Manhattan after I graduated, I joined a very large chorus there, which was a very renowned chorus in New York, it was a Greek Orthodox choir. And that was a beautiful, beautiful thing. And every step of my, I would say, of my life, there's always been something creative going on. So much so that I went to school specifically for television, radio and film production. That is, I went to Syracuse University at the Newhouse School of Communications. And I graduated with a television, radio and film production degree. And so for me, you know, my my final exams or putting together and producing television shows and writing scripts and producing CDs, I'm sure that there are a lot of younger people will be listening to this and not remembering what CDs are, but gotten deeper, the hot technology, you know, so those were my final exams. And when I, when I graduated, I drove straight to New York City from Syracuse, the same week, I graduated. And I was trying desperately to get a job in what for me felt was my goal, which was my ideal job. I because I loved sports and grew up so much with sports, I really wanted to do what, what I call sports package production. So if you ever watch any of the, you know, any of the championship games, or if you watch the Olympics, they always do human interest stories on the athletes, there's always a story behind the athlete. And so or story behind the team, right, or how the team got to where they are. So those packages that we call them, somebody has to produce those, somebody has to write the scripts and edit the footage and pick the music. And that was the stuff that I love to do. It's kind of funny now, if you think now, everybody has access to that on their iPhone, right? So in their own hand, they can edit a story, they can edit a reel on Instagram, they can make their own little movie on their phone, but back in the day, you know, that was something a bit more a bit more specific to the industry. And so that's what I really wanted to do. And that was back in in the 90s and And I, I had interviews at the NBA, I wanted to work at the NBA. And even back in the 90s, they didn't really hire a lot of women so. So I was a professional waitress for a while, until I got my big break. And I finally got a job with a couple of different commercial production companies. And some of their clients were Burger King, and Lancome. And so I watched these people make these commercials that you would see on TV. And then I got a job working for a management company, who was a manager for a lot of very famous comedians. And those comedians were very unhappy people, it was a very interesting job, because it was a very sort of, it kind of gave me an introduction to like the dark underbelly of the business. And I realized very quickly that that was not really for me. So a friend of mine, actually acknowledged something in me that I didn't see in myself. But she said, you know, Kim, you're such a people person. And you're great with people and people really respond to you, you really should try your hand at sales. And so I actually pivoted to a very, very long and lucrative career in technology sales in Manhattan. And I was doing that up until 911, which is something of course, you and I have in common. We've talked a lot about that. And, of course, your story is profound, and everybody has their story. And I work down there as well. And we've shared those stories. But it was time for me to go home after 911. And so I came back to Boston. And when I came back to Boston, I actually was trying to figure out what I wanted to do when I grew up. And so I was meeting with different people and having different cups of coffee. And my father came to me one day, and he said, you know, Kim, I think you should meet this gentleman that I just met, he was an accountant. And he now is a financial advisor, and he works for this life insurance company, I think you should have a cup of coffee with him. And I looked at my father and I said, Dad, I'm your only daughter due to me. I don't I don't know how it is that you want me to go sell life insurance. But here I am 20 years later, and I've been a very successful financial advisor for 20 years for the same company. And I love what I do. But that creative side of me, has always been with me and has always been the kind of thing where I, you know, wanted it to be a part of my life. And so nine years ago, I launched my production company, miles in hills productions. And that was really born out of something very specific, which was I was volunteering my time and my efforts for my local Chamber of Commerce. And I was doing all sorts of event production for them and raising them all sorts of money. And after doing that, for them on a volunteer basis for 10 years, I realized that I could put my own moniker on my talents and offer my talents and my services to lots of different organizations and companies. And so nine years ago, miles in heels was born. And so I run my two businesses side by side, which makes me a bit of a unicorn, using my right brain and my left brain on, on off on all facets. And so that's where, you know, the creative side, me gets to come in, and I get to play and do what I like to do through miles and hills productions. Cool. **Michael Hingson ** 13:27 Well, a question that I have, going back to what you talked about earlier regarding the whole concept of producing the information for athletes and so on. Do you produce those into they oftentimes just sit in the can waiting for someone to come along? Who needs them? Or usually just produce them when they're needed? **Kim Miles ** 13:55 Are you talking about me specifically what I produce for my clients? Are you talking about the people who work in the industry for the athletes? I'm thinking **Michael Hingson ** 14:01 in general does does a lot of that stuff get produced in advance? And then it sits until it's needed? Or do you? You anyone? **Kim Miles ** 14:09 No, I think that those are very specific asks, right, there's usually a very specific initiative that they're producing those four, I certainly know that in the case with my clients where we're producing a package for something very specific, we're trying to promote an an event or there's some sort of a milestone that they're trying to promote. But in the case of athletes, those are very much. Those are very timely, right, those things that are going on right in the moment. Right. So case in point right now we're in the NBA Finals, and you know, there are a lot of really wonderful human interest stories about how those two teams got there. As far as you know, Miami right now, those were they were the eighth seed, so they weren't really expected to do as well as they've done in the NBA Finals. They beat the Celtics. So, you know, number two seed, we weren't happy about that. The point is, is that they're they're definitely going out and they're producing packages that are timely and germane. to what's going on right now, for sure. Now, I **Michael Hingson ** 15:02 know in the case of obituaries, and so on, it's a little different animal, and I'm sure they do a lot of preparation. And if someone happens to pass, it's amazing how fast that gets up, they must have a lot of that already done and stored away and ready to **Kim Miles ** 15:15 technology today, what's amazing is how accessible footage is. Right? So think about the statisticians who are commenting during the game. So these commentators who are calling the game or you know, you're, you're listening to these people, they've got people feeding those stats, right? You're right. You know, it's amazing what technology can do, you can bring up that information and those stats at the drop of a hat. So be able to get that footage, it's just that those people who are in production, like myself, it's poring over that footage. And you know, that's the really sort of, that's the cumbersome part of it. It's like it's a labor of love, but you have to pour over that sort of information and that, that, that footage to get the right footage, and then string it all **Michael Hingson ** 15:59 together. And it's so much easier today, to do that and to edit it and to produce something that is we're seeing because our whole world of technology has made that a lot easier. I know, when I worked in radio, back in college, which goes back to the 70s when you wanted to edit something you cut and spliced tape, and I was never a great splicer. But now of course, with digital audio editors, it's amazing. **Kim Miles ** 16:30 Well, just again, back to my original point, which is I'm floored by what you can accomplish on your iPhone. I mean, it you know, you can master some significant editing on your iPhone, and they're always changing the technology up. So yeah, I mean, it's, it's, it's, it's definitely a lot easier to do. And the technology has come so so far. So but you know, creating those stories, I think that really, the editing has tons to do with it. The music that is chosen the vibe, the scripting, but it's the storytelling. Everybody loves to hear stories, that's what they relate to, and you more than anybody with your amazing book and your amazing story, you know, people gravitate towards storytelling, and that's what ends up resonating with them. And that's that that stories become long lasting for them. And it's the same in sports, it's same in the arts, it's the same anywhere. So **Michael Hingson ** 17:22 it is the same anywhere. And you know, any really good salesperson is all about telling stories. **Kim Miles ** 17:30 They're, they're about telling stories, and they're also about, you know, being really relatable. You know, for me, the reason why I have had such a wonderful career, both in technology sales and in the financial services industry, is not necessarily because I'm the smartest person in the room. It's because I know about relationship building, and relationship cementing and about relationship selling. And think about yourself as a consumer, right? If you are having an experience that you're not enjoying, how many times have you gone on to maybe work with somebody else, whether it's door or on the phone, or whatever. I mean, that's just sort of a fact of life. And I feel that when the relationship is cemented first, and that trust is built, and of course, you have to be smart. But I think that that's the foundation first. And then the the sort of the acumen comes almost second in a way. **Michael Hingson ** 18:24 And you also have to be honest and straightforward. And not mislead, especially when you're in sales, which all too often happens. The the best again, the best salespeople are people who are honest about what they have, what they do and what they can do, and not new for a particular customer. Well, it only **Kim Miles ** 18:43 takes one bad experience for somebody to be soured on something, right. So a lot of times people are so in my financial services practice, somebody will come to me and they'll say, you know, I haven't had the best experience with financial advisors in the past. And my job is to change that for them. I want them to have a good experience. I want them to feel good about the planning that they're doing for themselves, their businesses, their families. But it's the same thing. When I work with my clients with miles and hills productions. Let's say that they had a terrible experience running an event once and now they're hiring me to come in and help them run an event. I want that experience to change them. I want them to have a different experience altogether. And I want them to have a completely positive taste in their mouth. I don't want them to have a negative taste in their mouth. That's part of my job. You know, so I agree it only takes one bad apple to spoil the bunch. And fortunately, **Michael Hingson ** 19:30 it does and in and it only takes one mistake on the part of a salesperson to lose that relationship because we're so geared toward not necessarily trusting that it tends to be a challenge to **Kim Miles ** 19:46 Yeah, I mean, this is a tough time to live in. I mean, let's talk about the fact that there's a lot of mistrust that's being sort of spread and perpetuated. And while social media can be bought The blessing and a curse. Unfortunately, sometimes technology can work against us where, you know, sometimes misinformation is what is being put forth. And so it's getting harder and harder, especially with AI to discern what is accurate and truthful and real. And those can be some scary things. So, you know, in terms of something that I hold to the highest esteem is, is integrity, right, and honesty, and and, you know, I only have this one reputation. And so it means everything to me to make sure that I'm protecting it. And to make sure that, as my mother always said, if you if you always do the right thing, you never have to wonder if you did the right thing. I live by that so **Michael Hingson ** 20:46 well. And that makes perfect sense. If you always do the right thing, you never have to worry about doing the right thing, which makes a lot of sense. How did you come up with the name miles in heels productions? **Kim Miles ** 21:00 Well, you know, after having done so much work, like I said, on a volunteer basis for one particular organization. And when I wanted to put forth my own company and put my own stamp on things and really go out to other organizations, I needed something that was going to really encapsulate for me, what I'm all about what I'm known for, and really what I stand for. And so for me, I have a complete, as you can see right here, and those watching my little magic red shoe, I mean, I have a complete shoe obsession, I'm known for my shoes, they are my favorite accessory in the whole world. And so I really became synonymous with my shoe collection. And so the fact that my last name is Miles, thanks to my husband. You know, walking a mile in heels, is a great metaphor for life, and for women who are doing things outstanding every day, and sometimes having to try a little bit harder as a female. And so for me, miles in heels was it was actually the first name, I thought that it wasn't even hard, it was something that just kind of really came to me and putting my talents and skills in my offerings under the umbrella of a production company just made sense, because I do wear a lot of different hats for my clients when it comes to miles and hills productions. And so having that global umbrella of a production company just made sense for me, but miles in heels was just an obvious choice. And it was it came to me quickly, and it stuck. So **Michael Hingson ** 22:29 and it makes perfect sense. Especially the way you explain it. So what's the company logo? **Kim Miles ** 22:36 Well, the company logo is actually two high heeled shoes facing each other forming the shape of an M. So it's, it's trademarked. And it was one of the first things I did because I was not willing to part with that my genius brand strategists who's a dear dear friend of mine, she and I worked on the brand from day one. And she's the person who you know, has helped me bring my brand to life. And so yeah, my logo is very, very, very representative wholeheartedly and comprehensively of who I am and what my company is. **Michael Hingson ** 23:11 So you are still doing financial advising well, also operating miles in heels productions. **Kim Miles ** 23:18 Yeah, I have to tell you. So you know, my 20 years of being a financial advisor has given me incredible business acumen in order to be able to run my businesses. And you know, when you are a financial advisor, you really are running your own business. And so it was, I don't want to say it was easy to launch a second business, but I certainly knew what I was doing. And I've been very fortunate in the respect that I am somebody who's highly motivated, highly, highly organized, and definitely can, you know, wear both hats simultaneously, they complement each other really beautifully. And I feel very blessed that I'm able to fashion my day and my week and my month and my year, the way I need to to be able to accommodate both my businesses, and it's just been for the past nine years. It's been such a beautiful experience. And both of them, both of the businesses help each other. And I'm really proud to have been able to sustain my business for 20 years and launch new business at the same time. **Michael Hingson ** 24:16 When you're running the business, especially miles and hills productions. What are some of the most fun projects and the most fun things that you've done? And why are they kind of more fun to do than other things? **Kim Miles ** 24:30 That's a great question. I mean, for me, I get incredibly jazzed about first of all, I love I love connecting people, right? So my Twitter handle is serial connector and shoe collector. I really love bringing people together in a convivial atmosphere. I love connecting people I love mentoring people, lifting people up, helping people and collaborating with people. So one of my favorite things to do And it's certainly what I'm probably the most known for, is when organizations or companies are coming to me in two different elements, the first element they'll come to me with is, Can we've been running this event, this fundraiser, this gala, this banquet, this business conference, we've been running this for the past, you know, 1015 20 years. And it's been great. But we recognize that we need to evolve, we need to really add a little bit of life to, to this and have a new spin on it, we'd like you to come in and really resurrect this event. So I'd love to get in there, get my hands dirty, and everything from ideation to execution, in terms of concept, branding, a list talent, how we're going to market the event, how we're going to raise money for the event, all of that strategy I love. The second way a client will come to me is that they'll say that they have an idea for an event, but they don't know how to go about bringing it to fruition. And so again, getting in on that ground floor and bringing all my areas of expertise. I just really love when the end result is you got you know, 200 500,000 people in a room, and they're all coming together for a common purpose for a common gathering. And they leave better than when they came, right. That's my biggest reward. They come to that event. They say things like, that was the most special fundraiser I've been to that was the most fun, I met the best people. I felt great when I left I you know, moving people, and it's like storytelling, right? Having them leave and feel differently than when they came in or started. Is my goal as an event strategist. **Michael Hingson ** 26:39 Now you call yourself an event strategist? How is that different than event planning? as it were? **Kim Miles ** 26:45 Yeah, that's a great question. And it's one that I'm constantly explaining, because it's so critical. So I do call my cellphone event strategist and an executive producer. And the reason why that's different than an event planner, is because I actually have to hire event planners for my event. So event planners really usually focus on things like catering and lighting and linens and, you know, bartending services and things of that nature. For me. I'm really the event strategist and the executive producer event, I'm really talking about what is the messaging of this event? What is our goal with this event? Are we fundraising? How do we structure our sponsorship opportunities? How do what do you what do you want the messaging to be to your attendees? What kind of speakers are we going to get? What kind of ageless talent do we have to get? How do we get people to sign up for this event, and again, leave them feeling better than when they came. So I'm really digging in at a completely different level than an event planner. And as I said, at the top of the hour, you know, I'm a bit of a unicorn in this space, because people hire me for both my business acumen and my creative side, because both sides of my brain are working at the same time, all the time. And so I'm not just a creative, I'm paying attention to margins, I'm paying attention to strategy. I'm paying attention to branding and content creation for my clients. So there's a lot more that goes into it than, you know, simply making the room look pretty event planners are necessary and critical. I'm not at all dismissing or diminishing what they do, I need them. I need fantastic event planners to come into my event and help me create an amazing environment. So I hire event planners to come in as part of my event strategy to create the vibe that I need for my clients. **Michael Hingson ** 28:28 At the same time, you're as you said, or as Emeril Lagasse would say, kicking it up a notch. And you are, you are enhancing the event. And I'm sure that one of the most gratifying things for you is when someone comes up to you after an event and says we've never had an event like this here. Before. **Kim Miles ** 28:50 That we'll QUESTION I mean, unequivocally, you know, and I'm proud to say that at all of my events, somebody has always come up to me after factory scouting after the fact. And they've said, I saw you, you know, on stage, you were emceeing this event, or I noticed that you produce this event and I had such a good time at that event. We want to work with you for this event for the same kind of magic or when it comes to fundraising. I think one of the things I'm most proud of is that I can unequivocally say that for all the clients who hire me, even if they're paying me my fee, when it comes to fundraising, I am instilling practices and strategies for them where they are absolutely knocking their fundraising goals out of the park. And for a lot of my fundraising clients that I work with, we have consistently over the past nine years, raised more money each year from working with me than the year prior. And that's something I'm incredibly proud of, because the the causes that I work with are incredibly worthy. And fundraising means everything to them. It's how they keep their lights on. It's how they tell they help their clients. So for me, that's one of the biggest compliments. So Are **Michael Hingson ** 29:52 most of the events that you do with more not for profits doing fundraising do you do events for or work with corporations on internal meetings and so on that they might produce **Kim Miles ** 30:04 all of the above. It's not, it's not limited, it really isn't limited. You know, I love to come in when it's a business kickoff meeting. And, you know, case in point, I came into a law firm, sort of when we were just coming out of COVID, you know, just really coming out of COVID. And they really needed to get people excited about coming back into the office. And so we did an onsite for them. And it really got people more comfortable and more excited about coming back. But, you know, nonprofits and fundraising is an arena, that's very dear to my heart. For me, I have to be, I have to be excited, or the cause has to align with me as a person. You know, there have been clients who have approached me in the past and have wanted to hire me, but I knew in my gut that maybe it just wasn't the right fit or great fit. And so, you know, you politely decline. But for the most part, I just really enjoy being able to work on things that get me excited, or that I'm excited about the cause. Yeah. **Michael Hingson ** 31:06 How about doing virtual events? Have you done many of those? Or is that a, I assume it's somewhat of a different animal, because you're not necessarily doing the same kind of contact when everyone is in the room? But do you? Do you do many? Or have you done many virtual events? And how do those work out? **Kim Miles ** 31:22 I love this question, I have to say that when COVID hit and it was 2020, and we all pivoted to the world of virtual, I had one of my most banner years in 2020, because I had to scramble to learn about virtual production, like everybody else. But everybody else needed to hire somebody at the helm, to be able to continue to do their fundraising to continue to do their events, because the world didn't stop as we saw. And so we needed to move forward. And so I was hired by all sorts of organizations to pivot to help them with virtual events. And it was a skill that I took up very, very quickly. And I aligned myself with the right technology partners, which I'm, you know, I still work to, to this day. So I always say that, you know, my company specializes in event strategy and an executive production for live virtual and hybrid events, because still to this day, there are people who are still putting on hybrid components to their to their events. **Michael Hingson ** 32:19 Do you think that will continue? Or do you think if COVID doesn't come back, we're going to kind of forget about the whole concept of hybrid **Kim Miles ** 32:25 COVID is coming back, it's already back in China, it's on its way, there's no question about another wave. So I think COVID is something we're always going to live with. What I think has changed profoundly in the marketplace is that I think people are adjusting to the levels of productivity, of being able to do things in a hybrid fashion, and that companies are excited about the fact that they have a broader reach now that they have a virtual component that they can rely on so that they can reach more people to offer a hybrid offering. I don't think it's going away. I think that it sort of depends on what the mission and the goal is for that particular event or organization. So I think that it's not going away, will it be as prominent, perhaps not. But I think it's hard where we've gone, where the pendulum has swung that way. And you've given that offering, it's a little bit harder to go back the other way and to leave that offering off the table. Especially if you've expanded your audience, you don't want to alienate those people that you've you know, that you've opened your your world up to. **Michael Hingson ** 33:29 Yeah, I know, for me, as a speaker, I have a challenge with doing virtual events, although I love doing them. It certainly is convenient. But the challenge is that as I am speaking, I don't get some of the same input that I get when I'm in a room with a live audience. If I say something, and I've worked on speeches, so I know what typically to expect from an audience when I make a particular statement or lead them down a particular path to get to a particular place. And when I can hear those reactions, it helps and I don't get that information. When I do a virtual presentation. And I'm sure there are equivalents for people who can see the screens as well, you're not going to see the same stuff. But having done so many presentations live, I can pretty much tell by working with the people who are coordinating the event, I can get a pretty good idea of what the audience is going to be like. So doing a virtual event doesn't scare me or bother me at all. **Kim Miles ** 34:38 Well, it does a very interesting point. There is nothing that's ever going to replace the energy that you can feed off of being on stage and being in front of a live audience. And myself being a speaker like yourself and also being an at premiere emcee. There's nothing that's going to to replace that Right, I will tell you that one of my one of my favorite stories, and it was really, it was one of the most fun challenges and adventures. in the thick of COVID, one of my biggest clients, we had an alias comedian, who was the the guest of honor. And we were fundraising and I ran a live auction, over zoom, what wasn't zoom, it was another platform, but I was running a live auction to raise money. And there was a lag time between the time that the bids are coming in and between the time that I was seeing that, and so that challenge, like you're saying about that direct feedback, and that direct impact, it's a very real thing. For me when I'm emceeing an event, or if I'm speaking like yourself, the energy is a huge component. So the biggest thing for me that happened in COVID was, I was selected to do a TEDx talk, right when COVID hit, and so they pushed us off for a year. But as it turns out, I did my TEDx talk. However, unlike most TEDx talks, which are in front of a live audience, my TEDx talk was recorded in a studio. So I had a very unique and different TEDx experience. I wouldn't trade it for the world. But it was a very different experience, because I did not have the live audience feed and feel and energy like you're talking about, and it makes a difference. There's no question. **Michael Hingson ** 36:27 Well, it does make a difference. But it isn't necessarily a bad thing. **Kim Miles ** 36:30 No, no, I think it's, you have to learn how to adapt. If you're a business owner, you always have to learn how to adapt. And so in 2020, I learned how to adapt. And that's what I did. And now I'm proud to be able to say that I can offer people live virtual or hybrid events, and there's nothing we can't do for them. I've got the right technology partners, and I'm not fearful, you know, you have to learn how to adapt. And that's what you did. Yeah, **Michael Hingson ** 36:56 you know, for me not seeing the audience is not even relevant, because as we just discussed, if I'm doing a live presentation, I get to hear a lot and probably even, perhaps hear some things that someone looking at the audience might not see in the same way. But by the same token, like you, it's all about feeling the energy. And so when you're doing it, virtually, you don't feel the same kind of energy. But if you've done enough talks, you ought to be able to figure out how to do a speech and make it meaningful and just as relevant. And I think I've been pretty successful at that. And it's a lot of fun to do. **Kim Miles ** 37:40 You feel that your senses are heightened in terms of feeling that energy, because obviously, you know, you don't you don't see the audience, but you do feel that there's a there's like an even higher level of vibration of energy for you, especially, **Michael Hingson ** 37:54 only if I learned to, to look for it and and receive it, it isn't necessarily because of being blind, because that doesn't, in of itself, change senses. But as a speaker, you know, you know very well, what you do is you use all the skills that you have. And so for me, learning to pick up that energy, whatever it is, is very important. And I think that I probably pick up some different cues than you might, but we we both end up at the same place. Pretty much. **Kim Miles ** 38:31 Yeah. Which is what a great storyteller does, which is **Michael Hingson ** 38:35 exactly what a great storyteller does, I have had in my life. Two speeches that I thought didn't go very well. And both of them, as it turns out, although I didn't have enough information in advance about the audiences. And both of them were too small service clubs in my local area. So we didn't even get money for it. But that's okay. It was a it was a service. But as it turns out, in one case, most of the people couldn't even hear very well. They weren't Deaf people, they were seniors, but they seem not to be able to pick up on what was being said. And the other one was somewhat similar. It wasn't necessarily seniors, but I never did quite figure out what their priorities were. They wanted me to come in and talk about a couple of specific subjects, and I did, but they seem to be off in another world somewhere. But basically, that doesn't happen very often, which is of course, very helpful. **Kim Miles ** 39:37 I think your job or our job as speakers are and highly sought out speakers. And the reason why people hire us to speak is because we do have a good command on the audience. We're taking them on a journey and you know, if they've if they've seen you speak before or if somebody is recommending you that they've heard you speak before they walked away having felt something so that's why they're there. Going back to you is because they, they know you can kind of portray that energy. So, you know, it's just because people are great practitioners does not make them great speakers, you know, oh, yeah, yeah, I mean, you know, with my clients that the, they'll say, Okay, we want to have this person speak. And I'll say, Listen, we need to know that these people can capture the audience, it's very important just because they're brilliant. And they're the leader in their field does not necessarily make them either an entertaining or a great speaker. And that's a huge thing. That's something that's really important, especially when you're trying to put together a killer conference or killer business meeting. You got to you got to make sure that these people can get up there and hold the audience. **Michael Hingson ** 40:42 And the more you speak, the more you get to learn about different kinds of audiences. And so, in theory, if you really practice analyzing what you do, the better you will be at holding audiences even in new and unexpected ways and unexpected places. Indeed, yes, I remember, well, my late the last speech I gave, actually, technically, the second to the last speech, they were two days apart, was at the convention of Headstart, you know, for children, the National Head Start Association convention, and I was invited to come by somebody who would have become speak at a school district in Michigan when she was there. And then her husband invited me to come and speak, actually at Freddie Mac, as well. But then this, this came along, and she convinced people that I could probably hold the audience reasonably well, to be polite about it. I think she was much stronger in her words than that. But anyway, so we did the speech. There were 3000 people there. Wow. And some people would say, Aren't you scared of 3000? People? No, my largest speech was a bout a six minute presentation to a church service for 6000 people just after September 11. So 3000 didn't bother me. But anyway, what was really a great honor and pleasure for me was, we got a standing ovation at the end. Wow. Which was was a lot of fun. **Kim Miles ** 42:15 I think what you're saying is super important, right? There's different ways that people let you know, as a speaker, that you've that what you've said, has resonated with them. And, you know, I'm always moved, when I hear from somebody that I don't know at all that will find me that will reach out to me on my social channels, or they'll email me or I've had people even call me before and they say you don't know me, I caught your podcast, I was in the audience, I read your, you know, your post, whatever it is. And if I, you know, connect on that kind of a level that moves somebody that much for them to reach out to me, then you know, you've done your job, right. And it's the same thing when you're live and with the audience. So, listen, there's never going to be a substitute for live and in person. But I'm glad that we've got tools so that there are substitutes for being live and in person because we need them. **Michael Hingson ** 43:06 Yeah, well, it's like, there's nothing like going to see a Broadway musical or a Broadway play on Broadway. Exactly. There's nothing like that at all. The energy is so different. It's all live. It's not like a movie or anything like that. And it's so wonderful to have had the opportunity to experience a bunch of those just like seeing a live concert. There's nothing like it. It's not the same when you're watching it on TV. It's different. Agreed. Well, how many TEDx talks have you given just the one or two? **Kim Miles ** 43:42 I've given I've given the one. It was incredible experience. It was a very profound. It was a profound time in my life. And it was also a very profound, cathartic moment. For me. I think, writing that TED X Talk was something that was one of the scarier things I've ever done, because it's actually a great story. I was I was working, I was working with one of my clients. Babson College here in Boston, which is the number one entrepreneurial school, and I do a lot of work with Babson. And I was I was speaking in front of a group of women. And I was telling my story. And this woman in the audience raised her hand and she said, Have you ever thought about giving a TED talk? And I laughed sort of out loud? And I said, Oh, gosh, no, I would be I would be terrible at that. I said, I don't think that that's really my, my jam. And she said, Oh, that's too bad. She said, Because I run the I run the TEDx Babson program, and I think you'd be really amazing at it. And so I laughed and I immediately said, Well, what I meant to say was, I would love to talk to duck. And as it turns out, I'm so glad that I did something that scared the most scared me the most, you know, they always say try something every day or every year that scares you the most. And that scared me the most because I, I am a much more unscripted person, I am a much more off the cuff type of person. I've done stand up comedy before. As I mentioned, I'm a performer, I'm a singer. So for me, things that are a little bit more unscripted feels slightly more natural for me. So the fact that this was pretty rigid and very scripted, and you have to follow a process, etc. It kind of terrified me. But it was one of the most profound experiences of my life. And I loved it so much that I then started to work with the TEDx team at Babson and I wrote their speaker handbook for them. And I just like to give back to them because it was just a truly truly profound experience. For me, **Michael Hingson ** 45:47 I find my strong suit is when a talk isn't necessarily scripted, mainly, because when I go to different places, I like to get there before my talk, and maybe hear people before me and get to meet more of the audience. And the advantage of that is, I work stuff into the talk right up until, and even during the time that I speak, something will come into my brain that says this needs to be said, much less with the event planners have already in requested be included if there are any messaging things, and so on. But it's so much fun, because that's what the audience really is going to relate to. If you're just up there reading a speech, dude, I can relate. Yeah, no, **Kim Miles ** 46:33 listen, I am anti PowerPoint, I am anti cue cards, I am anti anything, I love to just be able to be off the cuff. And obviously I know enough of my stuff to be able to get there confidently and the talk but but the TEDx thing was something that was very unique. And like I said, I wasn't in front of a live audience where most people are for their talks, I would like to do it again, because I would like the experience of doing it in front of a live audience. So I would, I want to apply again to another TEDx talk. And I would like to have the full the full package experience. Next time, **Michael Hingson ** 47:08 I had a speech that I was scheduled to do, it was set up by a speaker's bureau. And they told me what the audience was, what the organization was, and all sorts of stuff, I got there only to find out that the speaker, Bureau representative had no clue. And it was totally different than what I had come expecting to do. Unfortunately, what this organization was about was also something else that I had experience with. So I had 15 minutes to change on the fly. And that's why I love to have the ability to be a lot more flexible, and it makes for a much better speech. **Kim Miles ** 47:41 Absolutely. **Michael Hingson ** 47:42 I agree. I agree. So it makes it a lot of fun. What's for you, what would you say, is one of the most unique factors that people encounter when they work with you. **Kim Miles ** 47:56 I mean, for me, you know it again, I'm definitely a unicorn in my industry because of my ability to use both sides of my brain simultaneously. My business acumen and my creative side, most people who are creatives are exactly that they're creatives, they're not great at the business acumen side, and vice versa. And for me, I'm incredibly strong in both areas. And I know that and that is what makes me special. So I know that that's a very unique factor when people work for me. But I think that the other thing that unequivocally goes along with working with me is my sense of humor and keeping things really fun and keeping things really enjoyable. The process is enjoyable, I mean, having a sense of humor and infusing my humor in things appropriately. Of course, the way that I work with my clients, you know, when they're having a good time, we all are having a good time, and there's success across the board. So it's definitely a combination of my business acumen and my creative, my creativity, and also just bringing my sense of humor, whether it be to the stage or to the content that I'm helping them create, or, you know, just making them feel more at ease about the process. **Michael Hingson ** 49:08 Yeah, having a sense of humor is really important. I've heard people say, as a professional speaker, you should start off with a joke. And, you know, I certainly find that there are times when having humor upfront actually helps break through to the audience, but there are ways to do it. **Kim Miles ** 49:30 There well you have to do it appropriately. I mean, you know, I I have a history in performance I have a background and performance I have I'm no stranger to a stranger does stranger to a sage doesn't bother me or scare me. I've done stand up comedy when I lived in New York and you know, I write the way that I sort of speak and talk and so but you have to do it. You have to do it appropriately. I mean there there are appropriate times for it. And then there are appropriate times for when you need to be He, you know, you're gonna read the room. That's what I say, gotta read, how to read the **Michael Hingson ** 50:04 bottom read the room. Absolutely. One of the favorite things that I like to start with, especially if there is any kind of a disabilities component, but even not necessarily with that I love to start by saying, want to do a little bit of market surveying. And I'll ask a few questions like, Do you know any blind people? And you know, any number of questions like that three or four questions. And one of three things happens, people, when I asked questions raised their hands, some people applauded, or most people applauded. And I have the person who introduced me stay up on the stage, so I can get that sense of it. But the last question, especially when I know that some people are raising their hands, the last question is, so do you really think it's a bright idea that when a blind speaker asks you a question that you respond by raising your hand, and it that has so often just drawn people in it's so much fun, because they know they're dealing with **Kim Miles ** 51:03 a person? Yeah, you break the ice that way that that's brilliant. I love that. **Michael Hingson ** 51:07 Yeah. And it's, it's a lot of fun to do. And again, my belief is I don't talk to an audience, I talk with an audience. **Kim Miles ** 51:18 One of my early taglines in my business was, it's a conversation, not a presentation. And I feel really strongly about that. I mean, everything that I do is, as I said, I really enjoyed trying to create convivial atmosphere is for my clients, and for myself and putting other people at ease. And, you know, it's, it's about the conversation, and it's about listening. It's about really, you know, engaging, and I agree with you, you're not talking at the audience, you're talking with them. I agree with you wholeheartedly. **Michael Hingson ** 51:49 And I love it, when there is a chance at the end of his speech doesn't always happen. But at the end of the speech, where we can have q&a. And of course, if there is time for q&a, is getting people to ask questions, because people tend to be so shy, and getting people to actually open up and ask questions. And even though I'll say there is absolutely no question in the world that's off limits. It still takes a while. And actually, I've got a favorite story about that, which is that I spoke talking about keeping an audience's attention. I spoke at a school in elementary school in San Francisco, K through six. And the teacher said, now you can only talk for about 10 or 15 minutes, you're not going to hold these kids attentions. And I said, okay, and 45 minutes later, I opened it up for questions. How are you not gonna want to listen to somebody who's standing up there talking to you with a dog? Right, man? So anyway, open it up for questions. And a young man, third grade, a guy, of course, gets up. And his question was, and this is why I tell the story, because I say no questions off limits. How do blind people have sex? **Kim Miles ** 53:03 In the third grade? Yep. God bless. **Michael Hingson ** 53:07 I know. And you know, so I said, Look, no CIA interrogator is going to be able to ask a tougher question than that. But my response immediately was, it just popped into my head the same way everyone else does. And if you want to know more, go ask your parents. I'm not done. **Kim Miles ** 53:22 That's a very good answer. Well played, well played. **Michael Hingson ** 53:28 Yeah. It's a lot of fun. And, you know, when I start to tell that kind of a story, people will start to open up and ask questions. And so it's, it's a lot of fun and interacting with an audience is always fun. Of course, after speaking, oftentimes, we'll go out into the lobby and sell thunder dog. And I've got my best sales rep with me, the dog, Alamo who's a black lab. So I'll take his harness off, tie him to one of the legs on the table where we're selling books. And he is out in front visiting with everybody. And of course, if they come to visit with him, then they have to buy a book anyway. And so he's a he's a great crowd drawer and a crowd pleaser by any standard. Everybody loves a dog, everybody, and you know what? He is discovered the law of maximum pet ability space. So he will lay down and stretch out every appendage as far as he can, in every direction to get as much interaction from people as possible, especially when it's kids. Smart boy. Oh, yeah. Most all of the guide dogs I've ever had have been very smart about doing that. But but they love it. And, you know, it makes him feel good that he gets to be a part of it and he gets a chance to relax and not be in the harness all the time. It's a level of trust, but it's really a lot of fun. Well, what's one thing you stand for in your life? **Kim Miles ** 54:53 I'd like to think that I stand for kindness. I think that I'm I'm sort of always amazed at how often kindness is forgotten or put last or ignored. And I think that in today's world, I think, personally, a lot of things could be dictated and solved, or heard a little bit more. Kindness was put toward the forefront of things. Yeah, I grew up in a very loving and kind home. And I care very deeply about family and friends. And I give back to my communities of people in organizations, I think, with kindness and integrity. And I don't know, I just, I think we've forgotten a little bit of kindness along the way. And I think that that's never lost on me. So I would, I would like to hope that I stand for kindness, I would like to help, **Michael Hingson ** 55:56 I would like to see us regain the art of conversation and listening and respecting other people's views. And of course, that's part of kindness also. But yeah, we just seem to forget all of that. **Kim Miles ** 56:12 I think we're just going through a weird shift, I think that there's there's a, there's sort of a perfect storm of things going on in our world between technology and, and, and the world itself, and, and economics and, you know, just sort of humanity itself. But here's where I get hopeful. As I mentioned before, I think that sometimes it can get a little scary, where social media can be so great and so harmful at the same time, every time I sort of kind of lose a little bit of hope, then I'll see something really promising on social media or on the news. And it just takes that one story about an act of a small act of kindness. Yeah, to kind of restore my faith, I've been the recipient of so many small acts of kindness that I really like to think that I, I love to put forth small acts of kindness, because you can really, you can change the trajectory of somebody's entire being with a small act of kindness. So I don't know, that's just always been really important to me. But it's always it's been taught to me by my by my family, my parents. So **Michael Hingson ** 57:28 I think we're best when we when we recognize that we're, we're here to serve others first. It isn't about me, it's about all of us. Well, I **Kim Miles ** 57:38 think it goes back to what my mother always said, if you do the right thing, you never have to wonder if you did the right thing. **Michael Hingson ** 57:43 So Right. We do have a moral compass, if we would only pay attention to it. **Kim Miles ** 57:48 Most of us do. I agree. I would say most of us do. Yes. What would **Michael Hingson ** 57:52 you advise for an entrepreneur starting out? Or what kind of advice do you have, that you would offer for, for people in business? Or just people in general? **Kim Miles ** 58:04 Well, without question, I mean, my biggest message to entrepreneurs, especially, but just people in general, your network is your net worth. I mean, I myself have built two very successful businesses, you know, absolutely on the merit and the cultivation, and the care that I've given to my network, and I, it's like a garden, right, I feed it, I tend it, I pay attention to it. And I listened to it. And, you know, when you give back to your network, you get a lot from your network. And so people have to really understand the power of their network and, and how to utilize their network the right way. I teach a curriculum on best practices in networking. And it's something that's a very popular curriculum that I get hired for, because I think that most people are inherently not great networkers. Back to one of your earlier points, I always talk about the fact that effective networking is, you know, 90% listening and 10% talking and I think people think it's the other way around. Yeah, and I'm not even talking about, like going to a networking event and sitting in a room and networking, I'm talking about how to look at your centers of influence in your internal network and using it for good for better to make a difference to make a change to propel yourself, to help yourself and to help others. So that for me would be my biggest message and to learn how to do that successfully, is I think the ticket to success. **Michael Hingson ** 59:37 So when you're not financially advising or producing what do you do to relax and have fun? **Kim Miles ** 59:44 Well, I sing with my band which is one of the most fun things that I do. I love my band. We have a blast we perform and and it's just one of my favorite outlets. I spend time with my nieces, which is a great joy for me. I don't have children. I have six nieces, and I golf, and I play pickleball. I am a huge pickleball fan. So I try to play pickleball anytime I can. **Michael Hingson ** 1:00:10 My nephew, since he is retired, has gotten into pickleball and plays several times a week. He's in a league, where he lives and is just always playing pickleball. And it's something I never even heard of two years ago. **Kim Miles ** 1:00:25 It's there's a reason it's the fastest growing sport in the world. It's it's so much fun. It's so easy. And it's super social. And so I have become a bit by the pickleball bug in between that and golf. I keep myself very busy in the summertime. **Michael Hingson **

First broadcast on November 06, 1974. Mr Bugliosi and Mr. Gentry discuss, "Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders,". Bugliosi was the prosecutor in the case against the Manson "family" for the murders of Sharon Tate and others. The interview opens with "Home is where you are happy" performed by Charles Manson and an excerpt of Catherine Shur Manson's sister talking about her brother. They speak in depth on the Manson "family" and the key players in the murders; Susan Atkins, Steve Grogan, Linda Kasabian, Patricia Krenwinkel, Leslie Van Houten and Charles Watson. Studs brings the interview to a close by reading an excerpt from the book, a quote of Charles Manson's speech after being convicted.

An appropriate trip to the archives on NFL draft weekend in KC. Chiefs top pick K-State's Felix Anudike-Uzoma would love a lengthy pro career the likes of the Ottawa, Kansas native, who's toughness and dedication makes for an inspiring story.

Bradley Akubuiro's parents raised him to have a deep and strong work ethic. His father came to the United States from Nigeria at the age of 17 and worked to put himself through school. As Bradley describes, both about his father as well as about many people in extremely impoverished parts of the world, such individuals develop a strong resilience and wonderful spirit.   Bradley has led media relations and/or public affairs for Fortune 50 companies including Boeing as it returned the grounded 737 MAX to service and United Technologies through a series of mergers that resulted in the creation of Raytheon Technologies. He also served as an advisor to Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr. and to the Republic of Liberia post-civil war. Today Bradley is a partner at Bully Pulpit Interactive, an advisory firm founded by leaders of the Obama-Biden campaign.   As you will see, Bradley is a wonderful and engaging storyteller. He weaves into his stories for us lessons about leadership and good corporate communications. His spirit is refreshing in our world today where we see so much controversy and unnecessary bickering.   I look forward to your comments on this episode.   About the Guest: Bradley is a partner at Bully Pulpit Interactive, an advisory firm founded by leaders of the Obama-Biden campaign. He focuses on corporate reputation, executive communications, and high visibility crisis management and media relations efforts, as well as equity, diversity, and inclusion matters for clients. Bradley has led media relations and/or public affairs for Fortune 50 companies including Boeing as it returned the grounded 737 MAX to service and United Technologies through a series of mergers that resulted in the creation of Raytheon Technologies and has also served as an advisor to Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr. and to the Republic of Liberia post-civil war. A nationally recognized expert in his field, Bradley has been quoted by outlets such as The Wall Street Journal, CNBC, and The Washington Post, and his columns have been featured in Business Insider, Forbes, and Inc. Magazine, where he is a regular contributor. Bradley is a graduate of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University, where he currently sits on the Board of Advisers and serves as an adjunct member of the faculty.   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 also subscribe in your favorite podcast app.   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  01:21 Well, hi, everybody. Thank you for joining us on unstoppable mindset today, we have Bradley Akubuiro with us. Bradley is a partner in bully pulpit International. He'll tell us about that. But he's been involved in a variety of things dealing with corporate communications, and has had a lot of adventures. He deals with diversity, equity and inclusion. But most of all, before we started this, he had one question for me. And that is, how much fun are we going to have on this podcast? Well, that really is up to Bradley. So Bradley has some fun.   Bradley Akubuiro  01:56 Michael, thank you so much for having me is is going to be a ton of fun. I'm really excited. Thanks for having me   Michael Hingson  02:01 on. Well, you're you're absolutely welcome. And we're glad that you're here had a chance to learn about you. And we've had a chance to chat some. So why don't we start as often and Lewis Carroll would say at the beginning, and maybe tell me about you growing up and those kinds of things.   Bradley Akubuiro  02:18 Yeah, I'd be happy to do that. And, you know, I think it would be remiss if I didn't start off talking about my parents a little bit before I talked about myself. My dad grew up in the Biafran war in Nigeria, Civil War, Nigeria. And you know, while he was going through school, they were bombing schools, and it wasn't safe for adults to be out. And so, you know, he was the guy in his family at six years old, who was taking crops from their plantation. They grew up maybe about six hours outside of Lagos, Nigeria, and was moving, you know, some of these crops two miles away, to sell in the marketplace. And you know, at a very early age was learning responsibility, not just for himself, but for the family.   Michael Hingson  03:02 Wow. Which is something that more people should do. So what what all did he do? Or how did all that work out?   Bradley Akubuiro  03:09 Yeah. Well, you know, this was a really interesting time in Nigeria's History, where you had a lot of folks who were in this circumstance, and my dad was a really hard worker, his parents were hard workers before him, his father was a pastor. And so he had a certain level of discipline and support in his household. But, you know, he knew that he had this kind of onus on him. So grew up at a time then where not only do you have this responsibility, but a big family, brothers and sisters to take care of. He was the guy who was chosen later, you know, flash forward a few years, to come to the United States, to be able to find an opportunity here in this country, and to be able to always hopefully, give back to his family.   Michael Hingson  03:59 So he came, and How old was he? When he came here?   Bradley Akubuiro  04:03 When he got to the States, he was about 17. So came to New York City, not a lot going on there. And, you know, he had to put himself through   Michael Hingson  04:15 school. Did he know anyone? Or Was anyone sponsoring him? Or how did all that work? He had a little   Bradley Akubuiro  04:20 bit of family here, but he had to find his own way, get a full time job at a gas station, and work to figure out what this country was all about, but also how to be successful here.   Michael Hingson  04:32 Where did he stay when he got here then   Bradley Akubuiro  04:36 got a little apartment up on the kind of Washington Heights Harlem area of New York, little hole in the wall and, you know, continue to work to pay that off while he was trying to pay off school. So not easy, but at the same time, you know, a really, really great opportunity for him to kind of start fresh and create some opportunity for himself and family.   Michael Hingson  04:58 So did he tell him at least With a little bit of money, how did all that work? It's funny, he   Bradley Akubuiro  05:04 asked that question. He did come with some, but it wasn't a lot. Let's start off there. But you know, what's interesting about that is, you know, he put himself through undergrad, put himself through a master's program, you know, and was doing a PhD program over at University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. And at Penn, he blew through his entire life savings and one semester. And so, you know, was on a great path. You studying engineering, and, you know, a semester and he's like, Oh, what am I going to do ended up going across the street to Drexel, where they were able to bring him in and give him a scholarship, as long as he was one a TA, which he really enjoyed doing. And he was able to put himself through the PhD.   Michael Hingson  05:50 Wow. So he started there as a freshman then   Bradley Akubuiro  05:55 started, so he went to several different schools started in New York. Yep, sorry, started in New York at Hunter College, did a master's program at Clark Atlanta University in Atlanta, and then came up to do his PhD at Penn. And then went to Drexel, and went to Drexel.   Michael Hingson  06:12 He moved around how, how come? What, what took him to Atlanta, for example? Do you know?   Bradley Akubuiro  06:18 Yeah, well, it was the opportunity. You know, one of the things that he had learned and had been instilled in him growing up, which he's passed on to me is, you follow the opportunity where it's and as long as you're not afraid to take that risk and take a chance on yourself and your future that will ultimately more often than not pay off in the end. And so he followed scholarship dollars, he followed the programs that would have an opportunity for him. And he went exactly where it took,   Michael Hingson  06:45 and what were his degrees in.   Bradley Akubuiro  06:47 So his master's degree was in chemistry, his PhD was chemical engineering. Wow. Yeah. What did he What did he do with that? So well, you know, the world was his oyster, I suppose, in some ways, but you know, he ended up you know, going into a couple of different companies started with Calgon, carbon and Pittsburgh, and spent a number of years there and on later on to Lucent Technologies, and fiber optics. And so, you know, he's moved on to a number of different companies, engineering roles, eventually got his MBA and has been, you know, employed a number of different places and continued over his career to work in a number of different geographies as well, whether it's like going to Pittsburgh, New Jersey, Atlanta, Massachusetts. They're now living in Rochester, New York, which I've never lived in. But it's a very charming place. It's, yeah.   Michael Hingson  07:44 It is. It is a nice place. I've been there many times. Yeah. And for customers and so on, it's a fun place to go. Well, he obviously learned in a lot of ways, some might say the hard way, but he learned to value what was going on with him, because it was the only way he was going to be successful. So nothing was handed to him at all, was   Bradley Akubuiro  08:10 it? That's right. He had a very strong family foundation. And he definitely learned a lot from his parents and from his family, and they were very close. So I think that he would say that's what was handed to him, but he certainly didn't give any get any leg up.   Michael Hingson  08:26 Right. Well, that's a good thing to have handed to you, I guess. Well, how did he meet somebody from Gary, Indiana, which is a whole different culture.   Bradley Akubuiro  08:36 Well, this becomes a love story pretty quickly. That's an article.   Michael Hingson  08:42 You can embellish how you want.   Bradley Akubuiro  08:46 Oh, my parents actually met somewhat serendipitously. They were at two different schools. My mom was going to school in Alabama, Alabama a&m. My dad was going to school at the time and Clark, Atlanta and Atlanta. So about four hours apart, Huntsville, Atlanta. My mom's roommate was dating my dad's roommate. And so my mom agreed to come with her roommate to go and visit her boyfriend at the time. She happened to meet this strapping young Nigerian man in Atlanta, and they ended up hitting it off and as fate would have it, the other two their respective movements didn't make the distance but they had a budding romance that ended up lasting now at this point several decades.   Michael Hingson  09:37 Wow. So they're, they're still with us.   Bradley Akubuiro  09:41 They're both still with us   Michael Hingson  09:42 both going strong. That is, that is really cool. So what do you think you learn from them?   Bradley Akubuiro  09:48 I learned a number of things. You know, I learned first of all, and you heard my father's story, resilience. He has learned to take whatever is thrown at been thrown at him. Be able to not only take it in stride, which I think is good, but more importantly, to turn it around and channel it and to use it to his advantage, no matter what that might be. And he's instilled that in me and my two sisters, two sisters, ones, older ones younger. And that's, that's really been important. You know, when it comes to my two parents, the things that they value a ton are education, family. And when you think about the world around you, how are you leaving it in a better place than you found it. And if you can really focus on those handful of things, then you are going to have a very fulfilling and successful life. And that's how he measured success. I've taken that away from them.   Michael Hingson  10:41 He doesn't get better than that. And if you can, if you can say that I want to make a difference. And that I hope I've made at least a little difference. It doesn't get better than that does it?   Bradley Akubuiro  10:53 That's exactly right. So then   Michael Hingson  10:55 you came along. And we won't we won't put any value judgment on that.   Bradley Akubuiro  11:02 Thank you for that we   Michael Hingson  11:03 could have for Yeah, exactly. But actually, before I go to that, have they been back to visit Nigeria at all?   Bradley Akubuiro  11:11 Yeah, absolutely. And unfortunately, the most recent time that my parents took a trip back was the passing of my grandmother, a handful of years ago. And so that brought them back. But, you know, one of the things that I'm hoping to do, and I haven't done it yet, is just spend some real time out there. I've got plenty of family that's still there. So go in and spend a little time in Nigeria that's longer than a quick in and out trip. I spent some time and we've talked about this before Michael, but in West Africa, generally in Liberia. And that was a great experience. But there's not quite like going back to where it all began with your family.   Michael Hingson  11:49 No, it's still not home. Right. Well, so you you came along. And so what was it like growing up in that household and going to high school and all that?   Bradley Akubuiro  12:03 Well, there's a couple ways to answer that. Go ahead. Well, let's put it this way, I we have a very close family bond. And so you know, when you think about the folks who have finished your senses, who laugh at your jokes, because they think it's funny, and if you hadn't told that joke, first, they probably would have told that joke, the kind of family we have. It's a great, great dynamic. And so I was very fortunate to have grown up in that household with parents who truly, truly embraced that that side. You know, it was also a tough household. You know, my parents were very strict, my father, especially coming from this immigrant mindset, and this Nigerian culture, I mentioned the value of education. What I didn't mention quite, but might have been a little bit implied, and I'll say it more explicitly is anything less than an A was entirely unacceptable. There were a number of times where I found myself on the wrong side of that. And, you know, we grew up in different times, as my parents were trying to provide the best life they could for us, and a number of different urban settings. And, you know, one, one period of life for me was particularly studying in high school, where, you know, the school district of Springfield, Massachusetts at a time graduated about 54% of the students that went through that system. And so you're thinking about one in two kids who don't make it out of high school, much less make it the college, much less have a successful and fulfilling career in life. And my father, especially, but of course, both my parents want us to do absolutely everything in their power to ensure that those would not be our statistics that we would be my sisters, and I would be able to have every tool at our disposal to be successful. And they work hard at that, despite the circumstances.   Michael Hingson  14:08 So how were they when I'm sure it happened? It was discovered that maybe you had some gifts, but there were some things that you weren't necessarily as strong as other things. How did that work out for you?   Bradley Akubuiro  14:21 I want to be very clear, the list of things that I wasn't quite as good at, especially in those days, was long enough to stun you. So you know, it we we work through it together, right? I think one of the things that I admire most about my parents now that I maybe didn't appreciate enough growing up was just the amount that they leaned in, and we're willing to be hands on and helping with our education. And so my father would give us times tables when we were in elementary school and make sure that we worked through them. And if we didn't get them quite right, we would do them again, and we do them again, and we do them again. And And I remember a time when I was in the fifth grade where my father had me up until 1am, doing math problems. And, you know, I was thinking to myself, I cannot imagine doing this with my kids, when I was at that age, and then I swore at that time that I never would, I'll tell you what my blood now I swear that I definitely will maybe not till 1am, I think there's probably a more reasonable time. But to be able to invest that level of effort into making sure that your kid has everything they need to be successful. I just have I admire the heck out of it.   Michael Hingson  15:36 I remember a couple of times, I think one when I was oh seven or eight, when we were living in California, and going back to visit relatives in Chicago, or driving somewhere. And my dad said to me, and my brother who was two years older, you guys have to learn the times tables. And we spent time driving, just going through the times tables. And it took me a little while. And a couple of times, I tried a shortcut that messed me up. But eventually I got it all figured out. And he said, when you say the times tables correctly, we'll give you 50 cents. And they did when I got the time two times tables, right? They did. And also, I was learning algebra from him. My dad was an electronics engineer. And so he really worked because I didn't have books in braille early on until I was in the fourth grade, I had to study with them to a large degree. So he taught me a lot more than the schools were teaching little kids as it were. So I learned algebra early, and I learned to do it in my head, and still do. And in high school, it got me in trouble in my freshman year, because my math teacher said, Now whenever you're doing things, you have to show your work. Well, you know, I kept trying to tell her that, for me, showing my work in Braille isn't going to do you any good. I can tell you what I do and how I do it. And she wouldn't accept that and she was going to fail me literally fail me in math. Until one day I wrote out, I think one of the problems and I think just in case she took it and went somewhere where she could find somebody to read Braille. I wrote it out correctly. But I got to see an algebra one because of that one thing. By the way, after that, I never got below an A in math. She was insistent that you had to show your work, and wasn't flexible enough to recognize that there are a lot of ways to show your work. Oh,   Bradley Akubuiro  17:35 yeah. Well, that's part of the challenge, and not to make this an entire commentary on our education system. But there are so many different ways to your point to get to the right answer. And I don't think there's nearly enough flexibility in our system in many cases, except for those who really, truly tried to find it and create that environment for their students. But at a at a you know, broader look, there isn't nearly enough flexibility to appreciate that we're going to have many different ways to get these answers.   Michael Hingson  18:04 I think that really good teachers, and there are a lot of good teachers. But I think the really good teachers make that leap and allow for flexibility in what they do. Because they recognize everyone learns differently. But the big issue is, can you learn and can you demonstrate that you learned?   Bradley Akubuiro  18:24 Yeah, well, that's what we're all striving for.   Michael Hingson  18:27 It is I was pretty blessed going through school, especially in high school, a lot of the times, I would stay after school and extra period to study in the library because again, not everything was available so that we actually had people who would read material to me or give me information that was written on boards that I didn't get any other way. And usually, the teachers would come in, we would set up days and they would come in and give me tests. And what was fun about that was we would go through the tests fairly quickly and spend most of the hour chatting and I got to know a number of my teachers that way and that was so valuable for me. One of them especially Dick herbal Shimer, I still know and you know, he's going to be what 85 I think it is this year, and he will be at five I think August 28. We still keep in touch, he came to our wedding. And he tells me that I'm getting to be closer in age to him and I point out that I'll never be as old as he is. And he tries to convince me that mathematically I'm getting closer and I say 13 years is still 13 years.   Bradley Akubuiro  19:35 Hmm, yeah, don't let them don't let them try to get you. That's   Michael Hingson  19:39 right. It's not gonna work.   Bradley Akubuiro  19:42 was gonna ask you if you had a favorite teacher because I feel like teachers, if you put together this for many years have such an incredible impact on you and how you see yourself.   Michael Hingson  19:52 I remember a lot of things from a number of my teachers and I can tell you the names of most all of my teachers. I remember in my freshman year English, our teacher was a Mr. Wilson has actually Woodrow Wilson was his name was an older gentleman. And one day we were sitting in class and he was just talking about philosophy. And he's talking about people's ethics. And he said, and I remember it that, you know, a good example is, if you need to borrow a quarter from somebody, be sure you pay that quarterback, where does that come in English? But nevertheless, those are the kinds of things that he said, and other teachers said various things, and they stick with you.   Bradley Akubuiro  20:36 Yeah, no, it's so true. I mean, for me, my favorite teacher was Darlene Kaffee. She was my fourth grade teacher, taught all kinds of, I mean, touch everything you learned in fourth grade. But the most important thing for me was, she gave me confidence in my writing ability. You know, I had always enjoyed writing, but I never really thought of myself as someone who could potentially be a writer. And she was the first person who sat me down and said, Hey, look, you submitted this assignment. And it's really good. You could be a writer one day, and you know, she had me write poems, you had me write a number of different things that weren't class assignments. But there were things that she was like, Hey, if you want to do this, then you got to practice it. And I learned so much from her. But the most important thing I took away was that confidence in my ability to do these things.   Michael Hingson  21:27 Yeah, yeah. And that's one of the most important things that good teachers can bring to us and not tear you down, because you don't necessarily do something exactly the way they do or want. But if you can demonstrate you learn that is so cool.   Bradley Akubuiro  21:42 Yeah, it is. Yeah, it is. So,   Michael Hingson  21:47 as I said, I keep in touch with declarable Shimer won his 80th birthday, I flew to Nebraska where they live and surprise him for his birthday, which was nice. That's awesome. Yeah, it was a lot of fun. And hopefully, we'll get back there one of these days soon. Meanwhile, I'll just give him a hard time on the phone.   Bradley Akubuiro  22:08 Cathy's out here listening when I'm not going to surprise you don't listen to Michael. But if I show up, then I'll have a cake or something.   Michael Hingson  22:17 Yeah, exactly. Well, so. So what was high school like for you? I think you said there were some things that happened in high school.   Bradley Akubuiro  22:26 Yeah, high school was a I mean, when you think about formative man, this was a formative experience for me. So it was between my sophomore and junior year of high school, when one of my very best friends a guy who I consider to be like an older brother to me, was shot and killed in the drive by shooting. It was devastating. You know, I had a period over a few months, where not only was he killed, and I found out about it, 45 minutes after I'd left town to take my older sister, with my family to college and 22 hours away. So this wasn't something he did every night. And I likely had been with him had we not been on that trip. But you know, he unfortunately passed that night with a 45 caliber bullet hole in his heart. You know, my experience with school with with life that I mean, it really took a turn at that point. Because not only had I lost somebody who was very close to me, but the police didn't catch the guy who did it. In fact, they caught a guy who was a friend of ours that had absolutely nothing to do with it, and put him through absolute hell, only to find out that he wasn't responsible for this, any of us could have told you that right up front. You know, that was a terrible time. You know, a couple of months later, Michael, we had another one of our close friends who was shot and killed. And the girl who was with her at the time was shot in the leg trying to get away. And you know, and another month and a half after that another one of our good friends was you know, shot in his own driveway trying to get into his car and head to the grocery store. And it wasn't safe for us. And it was a really, really challenging time, just to exist, much less to try to focus on school and to focus on other things that are going on. How could you do that? When you didn't know if when you left in the morning, you were going to be able to make it home at night?   Michael Hingson  24:32 Why was there so much crime? Well, that's   Bradley Akubuiro  24:36 a million dollar question. You know, there's so many factors that go into it. And since then, I've spent a lot of time thinking more about the kind of, you know, macro factors, but it's a very specific on the ground situation at that time was there was a gang war between two rival gangs, street gangs in the city. And my engineer who I just referred to lived right in the heart of Eastern Avenue, which is the home of the app and Springfield became there. And across State Street was Sycamore and a number of different folks and rivalries had kind of established then. And so, you know, this was not that there's ever, you know, really sensical reasons that, you know, these things happen. But this was as nonsensical as it could be, you know, people who are killing each other and dying for reasons that if you were to ask those who survived now, why they would ever pull a trigger and situation like this, they probably couldn't really tell you or maybe even remember.   Michael Hingson  25:38 So it wasn't race or anything like that. It was just the whole gang environment, mostly.   Bradley Akubuiro  25:45 Yeah, that's right. And at the time, you know, you think about the economic factors that go into this. And I talked about this in the context of Chicago all the time, because that's where I live now. And the situation is just as salient here. But if you were to be on the west side of Chicago, Northwestern most neighborhood within the city limits of Austin, you would be in one of the poorest and one of the most dangerous zip codes in the industrialized world. If you were to go two miles over to Oak Park, one of the suburbs just outside of the city. It's one of the wealthiest in the region, and it is an amazing neighborhood, and the infrastructure across the board when it comes to the education system, and the amount of money per pupil. If you were to look at the crime statistics, if you were to look at the policing, if you were to look at any measure of quality of life, it is night and day different, but it's separated by a couple of streets. And that to me is unfathomable.   Michael Hingson  26:52 It is crazy. Chris, you also have some really serious gangs back in Chicago. You know, the notorious was the cubs in the Sox, for example.   Bradley Akubuiro  27:03 That's right. And you know what the competition? beaters? You don't get in the middle of those two sets of fans?   Michael Hingson  27:09 Ah, no way. and never the twain shall meet, period. That's right. That's very many people who will say they're fans of both.   Bradley Akubuiro  27:20 I don't think that's legal, actually. Ah,   Michael Hingson  27:23 that would explain it. I'll tell you sports fans are really tough. I remember when I lived in Winthrop, mass right outside of Boston. And every year, I would on opening day, I'd be somewhere in Boston. And if the Red Sox lost immediately, basically everybody on the news and everyone else just said wait till next year. Yeah, they were done. It was no faith at all. It was amazing. And and I remember living back there when Steve Grogan was booed off out of the Patriots game one year and just I'll tell you, they're, they're amazing.   Bradley Akubuiro  28:04 Well look at the dynasties they've gotten now. Unbelievable. Although, you know, I live with a die hard. Tom Brady fan. My fiance has been a Patriots fan since the beginning. And it's been a complete complete nightmare trying to figure out are we watching the Patriots? Are we are we watching the Buccaneers? And are we Tom Brady fans are Patriots fans? You know, it's a little bit of everything in that house. But I can't ever say that I'm not happy. I am a fully dedicated supporter of all things. Somebody in SNAP, otherwise, I'm in a   Michael Hingson  28:39 lot of trouble. It is safer that way. Well, I have gained a lot of respect for Tom Brady, especially after he left the Patriots. And not because I disliked the Patriots, but because of all the scandals and the deflated footballs and all that sort of stuff. But he came back and he proved Hey, you know, it's not what you think at all. I really am good. And he continues to be good.   Bradley Akubuiro  29:03 Yeah, it's 100%. Right. Well, and that to make this, you know, given a broader topic about Tom Brady, he gets plenty of press. But you know, the fact that he was able to say, All right, you have decided that I'm done in this sport. You've decided I'm too old to play this sport, but I have not run to the end of my capability. And in fact, I've got a lot more to offer this game. And he went and he took it with someone who would respect that and the Buccaneers and he won another championship. I mean, you can't you can't make this up.   Michael Hingson  29:38 No, absolutely. You can't. And so we'll see what the Rams do this year. I liked the Rams. I grew up with the Rams, Chris, I'm really prejudiced when it comes to sports and probably a number of things because we've been blessed out here in California with great sports announcers. I mean, of course, Vin Scully, the best of all time in baseball, and I will argue that with anyone But then Dick Enberg did a lot of football and he did the rams and he did the angels. And of course we had Chick Hearn who did the Lakers, their descriptions and the way they did it, especially Vinnie just drew you in. And I've listened and listened to announcers all over the country and never got the kinds of pictures and announced me announcing and announcements that I got by listening to people in California, so I'm a little prejudiced that way.   Bradley Akubuiro  30:31 Well, and you shouldn't be you absolutely should be. And I will say this, the power of storytelling that these folks that you just described are able to wield is phenomenal. And it's a skill that I actually wish more folks had and more different industries. Because if you can tell a strong compelling story, you can make it visual, you can bring people and like that the power it has to bring people together, and to motivate them to act is just unbelievable.   Michael Hingson  31:01 Johnny most was a was a good announcer a pretty great announcer in basketball, but not really so much into the storytelling, but he had a personality that drew you in as well. Well, that counts for a lot. It does. I remember living back there when the Celts were playing the rockets for the championship. And the Celtics lost the first two games. And Johnny most was having a field day picking on the rockets and so on. But Moses Malone, Malone was criticizing the Celtics and said, You know, I can go get for high school people. And we could beat these guys. Wrong thing to say, because then the Celts came back and won the next for Johnny most really had a field day with that. That's what happens. Yeah, you don't open your mouth. Alright, so you went to Northwestern, that's a whole different environment.   Bradley Akubuiro  31:59 Totally different environment. And, you know, I gotta tell you, I owe a ton to Northwestern. The exposure, it gave me two more global mindsets, people come to that university from all over the world, all kinds of different socioeconomic backgrounds, and looking to do so many different things, the academic rigor of the institution, and the resources that were at our disposal, were so incredible that it completely changed my experience. And frankly, the outlook I had for my own self and career. How so? Well, I'll put his way I went to school, for example, at the same time, as you know, students who had some similar backgrounds to the one I did, to being in school at the same time, as you know, Howard Buffett is the grandson of Warren Buffett, and you know, Bill polti, you know, whose grandson of, you know, the polti, you know, the namesake of Pulte Homes, and you know, literally billionaire families. And so you start to realize, if you can sit in a classroom with folks like this, and with all of the opportunities that they've had, the education, they've had private schools, things along those lines, and these are good friends, by the way, you know, when you can do that, and then realize, hey, you know what, I can keep up, I can do this. And then you know, you are receiving, you know, grades professors who support you opportunities, in terms of internships, all of these things, and realms that you never even considered possible even just a year or two earlier. It truly broadens your horizons in ways that I don't even think I could have appreciated before I was into it.   Michael Hingson  33:44 Wow. And that makes a lot of sense, though. We're all we're all people. And we all have our own gifts. And the fact that you could compete is probably not necessarily the best word because it implies that there are things that we don't need to have, but you are all able to work together and that you can all succeed. That's as good as it gets.   Bradley Akubuiro  34:05 That's exactly right. And I do find compared to a lot of places, Northwestern have a very collaborative culture. I found that, you know, from faculty, the staff to students, everybody was very interested in seeing everybody succeed. And you know, we believed truthfully, that all of us could there's enough room on the boat for all of us.   Michael Hingson  34:29 What was your major journalism? No surprise being Northwestern?   Bradley Akubuiro  34:36 Yeah, I was I was a big, big, big proponent of the journalism school and actually still remain affiliated. I'm on the faculty over there and sit on the board of the journalism school and have loved every second of my time, wearing the purple t shirt.   Michael Hingson  34:52 There you go. Is my recollection. Correct? Wasn't Charlton Heston, a graduate of Northwestern?   Bradley Akubuiro  34:57 You know, I don't know the answer to that but I will wouldn't be surprised if it really seems,   Michael Hingson  35:02 it seems to me, I heard that he was doing something where he was he was doing something for Northwestern, as I recall. But that just strikes my memory.   Bradley Akubuiro  35:12 Yeah, there's some very remarkable graduates from that organization.   Michael Hingson  35:16 So you were involved, as I recall, in our conversations about and about such things in dealing with minority enrollment, and so on, and you met some pretty interesting people during your time there. Tell me about that, if you would?   Bradley Akubuiro  35:32 Yeah, no, absolutely. So my freshman year, we will actually, this was my sophomore year, we actually only brought in 81 black freshmen. And that was the lowest number in terms of black enrollment in a given year at Northwestern since the 1960s. And so, you know, the university was looking around and trying to figure out what what is it that we're doing? And where are we missing the mark? And how do we not only attract black applicants, because we were able to get folks to apply? The challenge was to actually get them to choose to matriculate. And where are we losing folks in the process. And so, you know, I had been really, really interested in participating in some of the work around minority recruitment enrollment, from the time that Northwestern had recruited me, because I recognized my background wasn't necessarily what you would consider to be orthodox for the folks that got into schools like this. But they took a real hard look at me and said, We think this guy can be successful here. And I wanted to encourage others who might not necessarily think of Northwestern as an option that was attainable to them, and I don't even know about it, to really start to understand the opportunities that could be available to them. And so I was, you know, flying to different schools, not only in the Chicago area, but back in places that looked a lot like where I grew up, and telling, you know, folks, Northwestern wants you, and you should really give it a shot. And so that was a fascinating time for me, and my own development, that space.   Michael Hingson  37:11 So what did you do for the school and dealing with the whole issue of minorities in that time?   Bradley Akubuiro  37:19 Yeah, there were a handful of things. You know, there's there's one was how do you create programs that channel some of the frustration that a lot of students who look like me had, and so a number of folks, actually, this is the spirit of college students, gotten together, you know, put up signs and decided to kind of protest. And so instead of going through, and just kind of registering our anger, what I did was work with the admissions office. And I did actually formally work as a work study student and worked on some of the stuff, it wasn't just volunteer, but take this energy that the students had, and create programs like a pen pal program, like a fly in programs, some volunteer initiatives that we can have, that would allow students who are upset about the outcomes, to help change those outcomes by direct engagement with those who might come to Northwestern, and really improve our metrics for the following year. And we were able to do that, both in the African American and Latino communities. What did   Michael Hingson  38:23 you discover? Or what did the university discover about why people might apply, but then didn't matriculate. And then how did you turn that around?   Bradley Akubuiro  38:32 Yeah, there were a couple of things. So one was, for students who are getting into places like Northwestern, very commonly, we saw that they were getting into places like University of Pennsylvania, Stanford, Harvard, a number of other universities at the same time, particularly if you were to think about the minority students who are applying and getting in, and what those schools had, that Northwestern didn't quite have, was full need blind admissions processes, which Northwestern did adopt. But the short version of this is, if you got into one of those schools, you are probably going to be able to get if this if your circumstances required a full ride. And so, you know, the economic opportunity was really significant. And you were at a disadvantage. If you were a student who was interested in going to Northwestern, or any of these other schools that was really good, but couldn't you couldn't afford to go and you're gonna go to the place that you could afford to go and maybe that's your local school, or maybe that's one of these other schools, but we had to really do something to create the funding to ensure that these folks could go to the school and do it at a at a rate that wasn't going to break the bag.   Michael Hingson  39:49 And you found ways to do that. Well, I   Bradley Akubuiro  39:52 certainly didn't do it alone, but the university   39:55 there see University found ways to do that. Yes, that's right.   40:00 We started up a commission. So a number of students, myself included, foreign petition at the time, Marty Shapiro, who was the President of University took this issue very seriously as a economic scholar, and genuinely his background is in the economics of higher education. And he started at the school as president, while I was in again, my sophomore year, as a lot of these things were kind of taking shape and taking hold. And as one of the most successful leaders that I've met, invited us in students, the leaders in the university who are focused on this, and we had asked for a taskforce to focus on this. And he set one up, and he chaired it. And it was focused on how do we create opportunities for access, particularly for this community that had need, but wanted to be here. And, you know, one of the things that he did pretty early on in his tenure, was to establish a fund that was going to be dedicated to programs to financial need to a number of different things that would directly address this community. And we built on it from there.   41:14 Wow, that's, it's great that you had a strong champion who was willing to be farsighted enough to help with that, isn't it?   Bradley Akubuiro  41:22 Absolutely. It would not have been possible without that.   Michael Hingson  41:25 So you met as I recall you saying Jesse Jackson, somewhere along the way? in that arena, especially since you're in the Chicago area? That makes a lot of sense.   Bradley Akubuiro  41:35 Yeah, you know what I'm starting to put together thanks to you hear that this was a pretty big year for me.   Michael Hingson  41:41 To see, I'm getting impressed. So I did about yourself.   Bradley Akubuiro  41:50 You know, it's funny. But yeah, there was a convergence of things. And so in this particular year, I did meet Reverend Jesse Jackson. And this started a relationship that's been incredible and life changing that remains to this day. But the way that it happened, Michael, is that there was a woman Roxana Saberi, who had been taken political prisoner by Iran, and she worked for the BBC. She had been a former Northwestern middle student. So a number of us who are part of the journalism program, Adele had decided that we were going to get together and as college students are wanting to do, we decided to protest and hopes that we would, on our campus in Evanston, get the State Department to pay more attention to this particular issue. And hopefully, it takes negotiating for her really seriously. And while I have no idea whether, at the time Secretary Clinton saw anything we were doing, my guess, is probably not Reverend Jackson, who to your point was just on the other side of Chicago did. And the connection there is Roxanne's buried, did her first interview with the BBC as a professional reporter with Reverend Jesse Jackson. And he was committed to advocating for her release. And so he actually reached out to us, via the university asked a few of us to come down and join a press conference with him, where he intended to go and negotiate for her release on humanitarian grounds. And I participated in that with another student. And it was absolutely phenomenal and led to so many doors being opened for me.   Michael Hingson  43:35 Wow, what your were you in school at the time?   Bradley Akubuiro  43:38 So this was my sophomore year. Great, great. Again, still part of the great sophomore year. Yeah, and I continue to work with Reverend Jackson, throughout the remainder of my time in college and for some period after college. But there were a number of things, but it all tied back together, because the issue that Reverend Jackson was advocating for at the time that spoke most deeply to me, was this issue of college affordability and access, and you have this program called reduce the rate, which was all about reducing the interest rate on student education loans, because we had bailed out banks. And you know, the autos and so many others, rates of zero to 1% and said, Hey, you're in trouble pass back when you're ready. We'll make it cheap and affordable for you to do that. But we never granted that level of grace to students who are supposed to be our future. And instead, we were breaking their backs was, you know, interest rates of six to in some cases, as high as 18%. Without any, you know, kind of recourse you get stuck with these things for life.   Michael Hingson  44:47 And people wonder why we keep talking about eliminating the loans today or lowering the interest rate and the reality is, as you said, students are our future and we should be doing all we can to say point that that's absolutely   Bradley Akubuiro  45:01 right. I still firmly believe that and, you know, our loan system, and frankly, the cost of education is just crippling. It's, it's, it's crazy. And this is for multiple generations. And I'm sad for what the future will look like if we can't figure this situation out.   Michael Hingson  45:23 Yeah, we've got to do something different than we're doing. And it's just kind of crazy the way it is. It's extremely unfortunate. Well, so you got a bachelor's? Did you go get any advanced degree or?   Bradley Akubuiro  45:36 Well, I did actually attend Northwestern. For a good portion, I masters that integrated the integrated marketing communications program over there. And that dovetails really well into where my career ultimately went and where it currently resides. But you know, Northwestern was the educator of choice for me.   Michael Hingson  45:57 So, career wise, so what did you then go off and do? Since you opened the door? Yeah.   Bradley Akubuiro  46:03 So you know, it's been a number of different things. And this will sound disparate, but it all comes together. I went, after working with Reverend Jackson to Liberia, and I spent time in Liberia working for the president of Liberia on postwar kind of reestablishment of a democracy, which was a big thing. And frankly, way above my paygrade, I got an opportunity to work on it, because I had spent time working with Reverend Jesse Jackson, and that will come back in a second. But there was a student who was doing his PhD program at Northwestern, who had been who is I should say, the grandson of a former president of Liberia, who had been killed in a coup in October. And I had been friends with him, I knew that I wanted to get to West Africa to do some work, particularly around education and social programs. And he connected me with his mother who had been deputy minister of education. And I had been fortunate enough to create an arrangement that I was really excited about to go to Monrovia, and Liberia, the capital city, and to spend some time working on programs out there. And when she found out that I worked with Reverend Jesse Jackson, she called the president and said, This could be a great opportunity. And they cooked up a program where I would actually champion and work on establishing a program and policy around leadership development, and capacity building for the country post Civil War, which was, again, an absolutely amazing and life changing experience, really hard.   Michael Hingson  47:45 What was the world like over there? And what was it like for you being from a completely different culture as it were than over in Liberia?   Bradley Akubuiro  47:53 Well, the first thing I'll say is, if you live in the United States, and you believe, you know, poverty, you ain't seen nothing yet. Because, you know, one of the things that you will find in countries like Liberia, and some of the places and post war, Eastern Europe and the 90s, and different kinds of places is, there is a level of resilience and a level of spirit that is built into society that comes almost entirely from experience with incredible hardship, just absolutely incredible hardship. And Liberia at the time that I was over there was amongst the, you know, five poorest countries in the world, after what had been 14 years of concrete civil war and 30 years of civil unrest. But the people that I met could not have been better spirited, and just nicer, more optimistic and incredible people.   Michael Hingson  48:52 So how long were you over there?   48:54 I was over there for less than a year and spent some time doing consulting, even after I came back to DC, but was on the ground for less than a year.   49:03 And when you came back from Liberia, what did you go off and do?   49:07 When I came back from Liberia and I want to, you know, couch this and my rationale, I had worked for Reverend Jesse Jackson on these big kind of global programs that that presidents and heads of state and you know, business leaders and all these different folks went over to Liberia and got this chance to work on, you know, kind of reinstituting a democracy and meaningful ways with the president who later on became a Nobel Prize, Peace Prize Laureate. And you know, what I came to realize, Michael, was that my opportunities were quickly outpacing my experience. And so what I said is, let's now try to find a place where I can get some of the fundamentals some of the framework for a lot of the work that I had the opportunity to do. And the place that I chose to go is Booz Allen Hamilton is a management consulting firm and you One of the largest public sector practices in the world. And so I went in with the intention of really being able to shore up my skills. And what happened? Well, hopefully they'll tell you that I was successful.   Michael Hingson  50:11 Okay, good.   Bradley Akubuiro  50:16 It was a really fascinating time to be there. You know, Booz Allen, had a lot of significant contracts. This was the time of the Affordable Care Act's passage. And so, you know, at the time that I went over, I got to work almost exclusively on ACA, and a lot is talked about in terms of the legislative kind of process to get that accomplished. But what is talked a lot less about is the actual opera operationalization of it, and what that looks like to stand up state health exchanges, and different states to actually entice somebody coming from, you know, a psychiatry program at top medical school, that choose to put on a uniform and go to a base at, you know, an Air Force base or an army base, and provide clinical care for those who are returning from war in Iraq and Afghanistan. And all of these were provisions of the bill. But actually implementing those things, was a very tall order. And so I got an opportunity to really kind of roll up my sleeves and work on a lot of that work. And that was incredibly formative work.   Michael Hingson  51:22 So it was a real challenge, of course, to get the Affordable Care Act passed. I remember in 2009, I was speaking at a an event for a companies whose hospital boards and leaders of the staffs of the hospitals in the network, were getting together and I went to, to speak, and talk about some of my experiences and talk about disabilities and so on. The person right before me, was a medical expert. He was, it was a person who talked about the whole concept of how we needed to change our whole idea and environment of medical care, and what we really needed to do as a country and so on. And he had been involved in every president's investigation of how to change the medical synth system. Ever since I think he went this was 2009, I think he went back to Nixon, Oh, wow. He, he said it all came down to the same thing. And he said The best example is, he was doing this as part of the team for Bill Clinton. And they talked about what needed to be done, how to change the medical system, and everybody bought into it, and so on, until it got down to specifics of saying what it was going to cost. And that they needed to deal with some of the provisions that eventually went into the Affordable Care Act. And he said, As soon as the politicians got a hold of it, and said, This is a horrible thing, you're gonna cause too much controversy, the President's would all run. And that's why no one ever got anything accomplished. And he also said that Obama was probably going to get something passed. And he actually predicted almost to a tee, if you will, what was going to pass. And that's exactly what passed and what didn't pass. And he said, later, we'll actually start to worry about the cost of, of medical coverage in this country, but they're not really willing to face that issue yet. And he predicted we would be able to do something by 2015. Well, that hasn't really happened yet, either. And now we're maybe making a little bit of a dent. But it was very fascinating to listen to him predict, based on so many years of expertise, what was going to happen.   Bradley Akubuiro  53:46 Yeah, I mean, that's incredible. And I will say, a lot of times the policy takes a backseat to the politics on these things. And it takes so much, you know, Will and kind of moral fortitude to get in there and drive these things, particularly when there's interests on the other side of it. But you know, I'm with you. We're not quite where I think you predicted we'd be in 2015. But driving towards it now. And hopefully we'll make more progress.   Michael Hingson  54:16 Yeah, we're slowly getting there. So what did you do after Booz Allen Hamilton?   Bradley Akubuiro  54:21 Yeah, so the things that I really love the most about that work during that time that the the change in a lot of that kind of management strategy was the change communications aspects of it. And so I knew that I wanted to get more fully into communications. And so the next few jobs for me, were discretely corporate communications, if you will. And so I got an opportunity to follow a mentor to a company called Pratt and Whitney jet engine company, you know, builds jet engines from from fighter jets to, you know, the big commercial airplanes that we fly in, and love that experience. It's moved to kind of the corporate side of that company to United Technologies in time and worked on a number of different mergers and acquisitions, including the spin offs of Otis, the big Elevator Company to carry air conditioning both of these which spun off into fortune 200 publicly traded companies their own, to ultimately what became you know, the merger with Raytheon. Raytheon? Yeah. Yeah, exactly. It most recently produced Raytheon technologies. And so a really, really fascinating set of experiences for me there. And then   Michael Hingson  55:35 you along the way, also, I guess, we're part of the formation of bully pulpit international with the Obama Biden administration.   Bradley Akubuiro  55:44 You know, I wasn't part of the founding, this all kind of happened in parallel with folks who I have a ton of respect for who I now work with bully pulpit, interact was formed in 2009, with a number of folks who came out of that Obama campaign, and then White House. And it started in the kind of digital marketing, digital persuasion space, and all of the kind of, you know, really amazing tactics and strategies that they learned on that campaign, particularly, as social media was starting to become more popularized and more mass adopted, they said, how do we start to apply some of that stuff, as you think about not only other campaigns, but to foundations and advocacy groups into corporations? And you know, you flash forward 1213 years now, and this is a fully operational 250 person agency, where we're focused on, you know, how do you help organizations of all types, you know, really express their values and find their voices on these really key important issues. But also, how do leaders make really tough decisions on things like, you know, Roe v. Wade, and what that means for their employee base, and what they're going to do policy wise, and how they're going to communicate around that afterwards? On through gun reform, and what folks do if you know, you are operating, and buffalo or in Texas, when you know, some of the massacres that happened earlier this year happen. And this has been, you know, really fascinating. And I came over here after being chief spokesperson for Boeing. And it's been really fun to reunite with some old friends and folks who have been doing this kind of work for a really long time now.   Michael Hingson  57:37 So Boeing, so when did you leave Boeing   Bradley Akubuiro  57:41 left Boeing, a year, just shy of a year and a half go   Michael Hingson  57:45 around during the whole 737 Max thing?   Bradley Akubuiro  57:49 Well, you know, interestingly, you bring this up, I was brought over to Boeing, in response to the 737. Max, you know, I was asked to come over and to really think about what does a world class Media Relations organization look like? That is going to be transparent, accountable, and 24/7? Around the globe? And more than anything, after you've had, you know, two accidents on the scale that they had, you know, how do we really become more human and how we interact with all of our stakeholders, internal and external on a lot of this stuff? And that was a really, really, really challenging, but rewarding process to be part of and to help lead?   Michael Hingson  58:33 How do you advise people? Or what do you advise people in those kinds of situations, you had a major crisis? And clearly, there's an issue? What do you what do you tell corporate executives to do? And how hard was it to get them to do it?   Bradley Akubuiro  58:49 Yeah. So on the first part of that question, it really comes down to being human, you got to put yourself in the shoes of the people that you're trying to communicate with, and to, if you are a person who lost a loved one, on a plane that went down outside of, you know, Addis Ababa, and Ethiopia, if you if you were, you know, one of the people who lost your, your spouse or your kid, you know, the last thing you want to hear from a company is, you know, we did things right, from an engineering standpoint, what you want to hear from that company, is, we are so sorry that this happened. And we're going to do absolutely everything in our power to ensure it can never happen again. And here are the steps we're taking and here's what we're going to do to try to make things right and you can never completely make things right. In that circumstance. You can at least be understanding.   Michael Hingson  59:48 I remember 1982 When we had the Tylenol cyanide incident, you know about that. Yeah. And if For us, and what was the most impressive thing about that was within two days, the president of company was out in front of it. And as you said, being human, that's a corporate lesson that more people really should learn.   Bradley Akubuiro  1:00:18 Yeah, it's a difficult thing to do. Because I think, and this isn't just lawyers, but it's easy to blame it on lawyers, the natural reaction is to immediately think, well, what's my liability going to be? What are people going to think if they think that I actually did make this mistake? And how do I cover it up? And how do I try to diffuse responsibility? And that is exactly the opposite of what you should do. And this isn't just good communications. This is good leadership.   Michael Hingson  1:00:44 Good leadership. Yeah,   Bradley Akubuiro  1:00:45 that's right. And we need more people to really understand that to your point.   Michael Hingson  1:00:50 Well, and with with Boeing, it sounds like if I recall, all of the stuff that least that we saw on the news, which may or may not have been totally accurate, there were some issues. And it took a while to deal with some of that to get people to, to face what occurred that necessarily things weren't going exactly the way they really should have in terms of what people were communicating and what people knew and didn't know.   Bradley Akubuiro  1:01:15 Yeah, well, then you ask the question, how difficult was it to get the senior executives to get on board with the new approach. And what I would say is, and this goes back to some of we were talking about earlier, the top down kind of approach to this, and what's happening and the most senior role matters the most. And the CEO who came in this was after the former CEO was was like, you know, the chief legal officer, the head of that business, and a number of different executives, you keep going on, had exited the company, the new CEO, who came in they've Calhoun, currently is still the CEO, they're brought in this new wave, this refreshing new approach and culture, and was all about how do we ensure that we are being accountable, and that we're being transparent, because that is what matters in this circumstance. And so with that license to operate, it was a lot easier to come in and convince folks Well, this is how we should approach this from a media perspective, from a communications staff perspective, and across the board, with our customers with regulators, cetera, et cetera, et cetera. Because everybody was on board that this is what we needed to do. And frankly, it's the only way to not only repair our reputation, because this is 100 year old company has been at the first of so many different things historically, from an aviation standpoint, and helped truly invent modern flight. So how do you create a reputation that people expect coming out of that, but also to respect again, those who trusted the company, because when you step on a fly, you know, you know, as Michael, when you stop on a flight, you don't want to think about whether it's gonna make it to the other side or not. You want to trust that it's gonna make it to the other side and focus on what you got to do when you get there and everything else in your life. And people had for a brief period of time lost that faith. And that is what we were really trying to restore.   Michael Hingson  1:03:15 Do you think you were pretty successful at getting faith and confidence restored,   Bradley Akubuiro  1:03:20 I think we've made a good start at bone still remains a client. And I would say that the work that is ongoing is going to take time, because it takes five seconds to lose your reputation. It takes a long time to rebuild it and to regain trust. And I think the company is committed to what it needs to do to do that. But it is a journey.   Michael Hingson  1:03:44 What do you advise people today you do a lot of consulting, and you're in

Yesterday's Sports is part of the https://sportshistorynetwork.com/ (Sports History Network - The Headquarters For Sports Yesteryear). NETWORK SPONSORS https://sportshistorynetwork.com/row1/ (Row One) - the vintage shop for sports history fans! https://www.thrivefantasy.com/?promo=SHN (THRIVE FANTASY) - a daily fantasy sports app for player props. Use promo code SHN or this link when you sign up today and you will receive a 100% instant first deposit match up to $100! EPISODE SUMMARY #6 December 23, 1972, Dallas Cowboys 30, SF 49ers 28, Candlestick Park: Dallas fell behind quickly when Vic Washington ran the opening kickoff 97 yards to put the 49ers up 7–0. The Cowboys cut the lead to 7–3 with a 37-yard field goal, and after the teams exchanged turnovers, the 49ers scored another touchdown to go up 14–3. A second Dallas turnover led to another 49ers touchdown. But the Cowboys came back with a field goal and a touchdown to narrow the gap to 21–13. Dallas continued to have problems holding onto the ball in the third quarter. A fumble led to another 49ers touchdown, which increased their lead to 28–13. Towards the end of the third quarter, Cowboys Coach Tom Landry replaced quarterback Craig Morton with Roger Staubach, who had missed most of the season due to injury.   Staubach promptly fumbled on his opening drive, setting the 49ers up for a 32-yard field goal. But kicker Bruce Gosslet missed the attempt, and later running back Calvin Hill broke off a 48- yard run to set up a Toni Fritsch field goal. After the Doomsday Defense forced a 49ers punt, Staubach led the offense to a touchdown with just under two minutes to play. After Dallas recovered an onside kick, Staubach scrambled for 21 yards. Two-pass completions followed the scramble that put Dallas ahead 30–28 with just 52 seconds left. The 49ers came close to field goal range, but an interception by safety Charlie Waters ended the game. The Cowboys outgained the 49ers in total yards 402–255 and first downs 22–13. But they also committed five turnovers and allowed five sacks. 49ers' defensive end Cedrick Hardman was responsible for 3.5 of those sacks.   #7 December 18, 1976, Oakland Raiders 24, NE Patriots 21, Oakland Alameda County Coliseum: New England defeated Oakland 48–17 in Week 4 of the season, handing the Raiders their only loss of the year. And after the opening drive of the playoff game, it looked like New England would win again. The Patriots marched 86 yards in 10 plays to take a 7–0 lead. But the Raiders narrowed the gap to four points on Errol Mann's 40-yard field  goal and took the lead, 10–7, in the second quarter on a Ken Stabler-to-Fred Biletnikoff 31-yard touchdown pass. But the Patriots grabbed the lead back on their opening drive of the third quarter. NE went 80 yards in nine plays, scoring a touchdown on a 26-yard touchdown pass from Steve Grogan to tight end Russ Francis. The Patriots expanded the lead to 21–10 on a 10-play, 55-yard drive, but Oakland fought back with a 70-yard drive in eight plays to close the gap to four. The teams exchanged punts before New England misfired on a 50-yard field goal attempt. Oakland took possession with good field position and 4:12 left on the clock. They drove to the Patriots' 28-yard line before stalling.   An incomplete pass made it 4th and 18, but a roughing the passer penalty on nose tackle Ray “Sugar Bear” Hamilton gave Oakland a first down on the 13-yard line with 57 seconds on the clock. (Patriots coach Chuck Fairbanks questioned the penalty, saying, “It looked to me like Ray hit the ball first. If he did deflect the ball, then it was an incorrect call.”) With that penalty assist, Oakland moved the ball to the four-yard line and faced a 3rd and 1 when another penalty–this time a personal foul on safety Prentice McCray–gave the Raiders a first down on the 1-yard-line. That's when Stabler faked a handoff and dove into the end for the winning score with 14...

A Happy New Year to you from KC Profiles, the home for personal looks at interesting people and stories. The year included Denny Matthews, Bob Walkenhorst, Roger Bennett of Men in Blazers, Steve Grogan, Bob Davis, engaging offbeat stories and much more.

Hay Kweenz, it's a Christmas prep edition of RGF. The reason your skin is crawling may be because you're shedding it. How to keep old friends in your new life. Meet and Greets could be the solution you never thought of, just ask Kelsey. That one tiny, life victory could be the first step on the road to your superbowl, just ask Steve Grogan. This new way to do 'drive-through' could change someone's life, '29th Street' and 'Fat Man' could be the most underrated Christmas movies and the RGF Forgiveness Tour could be coming to a city near you in '22, just ask Kev. Better yet just savor everyday till Christmas and that remember Christmas Eve 'Eve' IS a holiday (just ask Jeff Graham) and right around the corner! Bye Betches!!!! --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/better-together-w-maria/support

Mr. Steve Grogan is a Martial Arts practitioner and instructor at the Geek Wing Chun Inc. Martial Arts as a whole don't have an end game. It's not like you can say “Oh well, I'm good enough” and then you stop training. So, that is an ever-expanding infinite ocean of possibility. Mr. Steve Grogan - Episode 622 Mr. Steve Grogan has a unique relationship with Martial Arts. He has a deep affinity for teaching Martial Arts which started when he started learning Martial Arts. Presently, Mr. Grogan runs a YouTube channel where people who want to learn martial arts for free. Mr. Grogan also runs a company called Geek Wing Chun Inc. where he provides home-based training courses for those who want to get mack training in Wing Chun, especially in the Pandemic. Listen as Mr. Steve Grogan tells the “why” on his passion for Martial Arts. Show Notes You can find out more about Mr. Steve Grogan's online Wing Chun course on their website at www.geekwingchuninc.com/

(0:00) Zolak and Bertrand discuss the latest news surrounding Deshaun Watson and his pending lawsuits. (9:55) We take a look at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame's list of inductees for 2021, and go back and forth on whether they're letting in artists that just don't make sense. (22:40) Calls come in on Steve Grogan being the best QB of all-time, the Celtics being soft, and the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. (34:20) Today's Takeaways. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On this episode of Hallowed Ground: The Sports Museum Podcast, host Andrew Stockmann interviews Bryan Morry, Executive Director of the Patriots Hall of Fame in Foxborough, MA. Then, Andrew shares additional fun facts about Steve Grogan, former Pats QB in the pod's Overtime segment!  Check out the Patriots Hall of Fame online!  @TheHall on Twitter Patriots Hall on Instagram Patriots Hall of Fame on Facebook   Follow Hallowed Ground on social media!  Twitter: @HGPod Instagram: hallowedgroundpod Music by Timmoor from Pixabay

Running, throwing, and shrugging off adversity all the way, Steve Grogan surprised even himself in carving out a long and productive NFL career including playing in a Super Bowl.

Steve Grogan has been practicing Wing Chun Kung Fu since 1995.  Unfortunately, martial arts don't exist in a bubble for any of us. Other things in life prevented him from attending class as much as he wanted, a fact that he mentions up front. You can't call him 'Sifu,' but you CAN call him a problem solver. The purpose of THE LONE WARRIOR book and app is to show people how they can come up with a home-based training routine when they can't make it to class on a consistent basis. When he wrote it, Steve was referring to the fact that sometimes you don't have the time or money to go, but in a world where COVID has run rampant, the book is even MORE relevant. Steve joins Taekwondo Life Magazine to talk about this and other books and a Wing Chun mobile Training App that he has written and created.To find out more about Steve Grogan:Geek Wing ChunSupport the show (https://squareup.com/store/tae-kwon-do-life-magazine/item/podcast-support-donation)

Welcome to Ottawa, Kansas! Located on the banks of the Marias des Cygnes River, the town is named after the Ottawa Tribe. In 1864 the Ottawa Tribe donated a large tract of land as part of a treaty to construct Ottawa University to educate Native Americans and other residents. The tribe sold their remaining land in 1867 and moved to Indian Territory in Oklahoma. The town was home to German and Italian POWs during WWII to help solve the labor shortage in the US. Ottawa was home to branch camp that was connected to Fort Riley. Ottawa has been called home by such notables as New England Patriots QB, Steve Grogan, former Presidential candidate, Gary Hart, and astronaut, Steve Hawley. Grab a glass of Tang and join us for a trip to Ottawa.

Before Tom Brady, and before Drew Bledsoe, the New England Patriots were a hard luck franchise personified by a tough, sometimes overachieving quarterback, whose tenacity and competitiveness endeared him to a beleaguered, but loyal fan base. Join Bernie in welcoming Patriots Hall of Famer, Steve Grogan, to the program to discuss his coming of age in a multi-sport environment in Ottawa, KS, the growing pains he experienced as a two-year starter at Kansas State and the circumstances that led to him grabbing the starting quarterback job as a rookie with the Patriots. You'll hear Steve present the New England side of the controversial 1976 divisional round playoff loss in Oakland* as well as his memories of the team's magical run to Super Bowl XX. Plus: the great John Hannah; underrated Stanley Morgan; the Snow Plow Game, and who Steve picks as the greatest quarterback of all-time. Finally, Steve reflects on the recent success of the Patriots and how it has trickled down to former players and the seemingly endless list of injuries he dealt with during his 16-year career. *for the Oakland side, listen to Phil Villapiano in Episode 22 of GPP

HOUR 3: Steve Grogan was this week’s mystery guest. Mookie Betts thinks this year’s Dodgers team has more talent than any of the Red Sox teams he played on. 10-8-20 See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

OMF - Patriots Hall of Fame QB Steve Grogan was this week's mystery guest 10-8-20 See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Charles MansonManson was born to a 15 or 16 year old (depending on the source) girl in Cincinnati Oh. on Nov 12,1934. His Mother, Kathleen Maddox, did not even bother to give him a real name on his birth certificate. On it he is listed as No Name Maddox. There is not 100% surety who his father is, but most likely it is a man named Colonel Scott Sr. When Kathleen told him she was pregnant he told her he'd been called away on army business, which he lied to her about being in, and after several months she realized he was not returning.  It is assumed this is the father as Kathleen brought a paternity suit against Scott and this lead to an agreed judgement in 1937, which is basically a settlement between the two without Scott having to admit to being the father. Within the first few weeks Kathleen decided on the name Charles Milles after her father. Kathleen, then had a short lived marriage to a man named William Eugene Manson. The marriage lasted around three years, during which time Kathleen often went on drinking benders with her brother Luther. She would leave Charles with different babysitters all the time. This obviously caused issues with William and he filed for divorce citing “gross neglect of duty” on the part of Kathleen. Charles would retain the last name of Manson after the divorce as he was born after the two married. During one of her drinking sprees she had taken Charles with her to a cafe. The waitress commented about how cute Charles was and that she wanted kids of her own. Kathleen said to the waitress “ pitcher of beer and he’s yours.” The waitress obviously presumed she was kidding but brought her an extra pitcher of beer anyway to be nice. Well, true to her word, Kathleen finished her pitcher and left, leaving the boy there. Days later Manson's uncle would track him down and bring him home. What. The. Fuck!         When he was 5 years old, his mother and her brother Luther were arrested for robbing a man. Mother of the year, folks! Reportedly, Luther pressed a ketchup bottle filled with salt into The man's back, pretending it was a gun. He then smashed the bottle over The man’s head, and the siblings stole $27 before fleeing. Police caught up to the pair shortly after and arrested the two. Kathkleen received 5 years in prison and Luther 10. Charles was sent to live with his aunt and uncle in west virginia. Biographer Jeff Guinn related a story about Manson's childhood. When Manson was 5 years old and living with his family in West Virginia, his uncle reportedly forced him to wear his cousin Jo Ann's dress to school as punishment for crying in front of his first-grade class. In the biography, Guinn shares his perspective:  “It didn't matter what some teacher had done to make him cry; what was important was to do something drastic that would convince Charlie never to act like a sissy again.”   In first grade, Manson persuaded girls to beat up the boys he didn't like. When the principal questioned him, Manson offered the same defense he would later use after influencing his Family to commit the Tate-LaBianca murders:  “It wasn't me; they were doing what they wanted.” In 1942, the prison released Manson’s mother, Kathleen, on parole after she served three years. When she returned home, she gave Manson a hug. He later described this as his only happy memory from childhood. A few weeks after this homecoming, the family would move to Charleston WV. Here Manson would constantly be truant from school and his mother continued her hard drinking ways. His mother was again arrested for theft but was not convicted. After this the family would move again, this time to Indianapolis. While in Indianapolis his mother met an alcoholic with the last name Lewis while attending AA meetings. The two would marry in 1943. That same year Manson claims to have set his school on fire at the age of 9.  *christmas present story*       At the age of 13 Manson was placed into the Gibault School for Boys in Terre Haute Indiana. The school was for delinquent boys and run by strict catholic priests. There were severe punishments for even minor infractions, obviously. These included beating with a wooden paddle or lashes from a leather strap. Manson escaped the school and slept in the woods, under bridges and pretty much anywhere he could find shelter. He made his way back home and spent Christmas of 1947 with his aunt and uncle back in WV. After this his mother sent him back to the school where he would escape, yet again ten  months later and headed back to Indy. There, in 1948 he would commit his first known crime. He would rob a grocery store looking for something to eat, but came across a box containing around 100 dollars. He would take this and get a hotel room in a shitty part of town and buy food as well.        After this robbery he tried to get on the straight and narrow by getting a job delivering messages for Western Union. The straight path he was on would not last long though, as he started to supplement his income with petty theft. He was caught and in 1949 a judge sent him to Boys Town, a juvenile facility in Omaha, Nebraska. After spending a whopping 4 days at Boys Town, Manson and a fellow student named Blackie Nielson obtained a gun and stole a car. The boys decided to head to Nielson’s uncle's house in Peoria IL. Along the way they would commit two armed robberies. When they got to the uncle’s, who was a professional thief, they were recruited as apprentices in thievery. Manson was arrested a couple weeks  later as part of a raid and during the subsequent investigation was linked to the two earlier armed robberies. He was then sent to the Indiana School For Boys, another very strict reform school.       At the reform school Manson alleged to have been raped by other students at the urging of a staff member. He was also beaten very often and ran away from the school 18..count em...18 times! Manson developed what he called “the insane game” as a form of self defense while at the school.  When he was physically unable to defend himself, he would start screaming and screeching, making faces and grimacing, and waving his arms all over the place in an attempt to make his attackers think he was insane! After all of his failed attempts at running away and escaping, he finally succeeded in escaping with two other boys in february of 1951. The three boys decided to head to california, stealing cars and robbing gas stations along the way. They ended up getting arrested in Utah and Manson was sent to the National Training Center for Boys in  washington dc for the federal crime of driving a stolen car across state lines. When he got to the center he was given a test that determined he was illiterate even though he showed a slightly above average IQ of 109. Average in the US is around 98-100. Hise caseworker also deemed him “aggressively antisocial” When Charlie was being considered for a transfer to Natural Bridge Honor Camp, a minimum security institution, a psychiatric evaluation was required.On October 24 1951, Charlie was transferred to the Natural Bridge Honor Camp in Petersburg, Virginia. His parole hearing was scheduled for February 1952. On October 24, 1951, when his Aunt Joanne visited, she promised Charlie and the authorities that when he was released, she and his Uncle Bill would look after him, provide him with a place to live, and a job.Psychiatrist Dr. Block, explained in a prison and probation report that his life of abuse, rejection, instability, and emotional pain had turned him into a slick but extremely sensitive boy:        "[Manson] Tries to give the impression of trying hard although actually not putting forth any effort ... marked degree of rejection, instability and psychic trauma ... constantly striving for status ... a fairly slick institutionalized youth who has not given up in terms of securing some kind of love and affection from the world ... dangerous ... should not be trusted across the street ... homosexual and assaultative [sic] tendencies ... safe only under supervision ... unpredictable ... in spite of his age he is criminally sophisticated and grossly unsuited for retention in an open reformatory type institution.”In January 1952, less than a month before his parole date, Charlie sodomized a boy with a razor to his throat. He was reclassified him as dangerous and transferred to a tougher, higher security, lock up facility; the Federal Reformatory at Petersburg, Virginia,.By August 1952, he had eight major violations including three sexual assaults. He was classified as a dangerous offender and characterized as "defiantly homosexual, dangerous, and safe only under supervision" and as having "assaultive tendencies."September 22 1952, Charlie was transferred to the Federal Reformatory in Chillicothe, Ohio, a higher security institution. He was a "model prisoner." There was a major improvement in his attitude. He learned to read and understand math. On January 1, 1954, he was honored with a Meritorious Service Award for his scholastic accomplishments and his work in the Transportation Unit for maintenance and repair of institution vehicles.While incarcerated at Chillicothe, Charlie met the notorious American Syndicate gangster, Frank Costello, aka "Prime Minister of the Underworld," a close associate of the powerful underworld boss, Lucky Luciano.In the book, Manson: In His Own Words (1986), by Nuel Emmons, Manson, obviously impressed by with Costello's professional crime background states:"When I walked down the halls with him [Costello] or sat at the same table for meals, I probably experienced the same sensation an honest kid would get out of being with Joe DiMaggio or Mickey Mantel: admiration bordering on worship. To me, if Costello did something, right or wrong, that was the way it was supposed to be... Yeah, I admired Frank Costello, and I listened to and believed everything he said."Charlie's parole on May 8, 1954, stipulated that he live with Aunt Joanne and Uncle Bill in McMechen, West Virginia. Now at nineteen years-old, for the first time since his mother gave him up when he was 12, Charlie was legally free .Soon after Manson gained his freedom, his mother was released from prison. She moved to nearby Wheeling, West Virginia and soon Charlie moved in with her.In January 1955, Manson married a hospital waitress named Rosalie Jean Willis. Around October, about three months after he and his pregnant wife arrived in Los Angeles in a car he had stolen in Ohio, Manson was again charged with a federal crime for taking the vehicle across state lines. After a psychiatric evaluation, he was given five years' probation. Manson's failure to appear at a Los Angeles hearing on an identical charge filed in Florida resulted in his March 1956 arrest in Indianapolis. His probation was revoked; he was sentenced to three years' imprisonment at Terminal Island, San Pedro, California.While Manson was in prison, Rosalie gave birth to their son Charles Manson Jr. During his first year at Terminal Island, Manson received visits from Rosalie and his mother, who were now living together in Los Angeles. In March 1957, when the visits from his wife ceased, his mother informed him Rosalie was living with another man. Less than two weeks before a scheduled parole hearing, Manson tried to escape by stealing a car. He was given five years' probation and his parole was denied.Manson received five years' parole in September 1958, the same year in which Rosalie received a decree of divorce. By November, he was pimping a 16-year-old girl and was receiving additional support from a girl with wealthy parents. In September 1959, he pleaded guilty to a charge of attempting to cash a forged U.S. Treasury check, which he claimed to have stolen from a mailbox; the latter charge was later dropped. He received a 10-year suspended sentence and probation after a young woman named Leona, who had an arrest record for prostitution, made a "tearful plea" before the court that she and Manson were "deeply in love ... and would marry if Charlie were freed".  Before the year's end, the woman did marry Manson, possibly so she would not be required to testify against him.Manson took Leona and another woman to New Mexico for purposes of prostitution, resulting in him being held and questioned for violating the Mann Act. Though he was released, Manson correctly suspected that the investigation had not ended. When he disappeared in violation of his probation, a bench warrant was issued. An indictment for violation of the Mann Act followed in April 1960. Following the arrest of one of the women for prostitution, Manson was arrested in June in Laredo, Texas, and was returned to Los Angeles. For violating his probation on the check-cashing charge, he was ordered to serve his ten-year sentence.Manson spent a year trying unsuccessfully to appeal the revocation of his probation. In July 1961, he was transferred from the Los Angeles County Jail to the United States Penitentiary at McNeil Island, Washington. There, he took guitar lessons from Barker–Karpis gang leader Alvin "Creepy" Karpis, and obtained from another inmate a contact name of someone at Universal Studios in Hollywood, Phil Kaufman.  According to Jeff Guinn's 2013 biography of Manson, his mother moved to Washington State to be closer to him during his McNeil Island incarceration, working nearby as a waitress.Although the Mann Act charge had been dropped, the attempt to cash the Treasury check was still a federal offense. Manson's September 1961 annual review noted he had a "tremendous drive to call attention to himself", an observation echoed in September 1964.  In 1963, Leona was granted a divorce. During the process she alleged that she and Manson had a son, Charles Luther. According to a popular urban legend, Manson auditioned unsuccessfully for the Monkees in late 1965; this is refuted by the fact that Manson was still incarcerated at McNeil Island at that time.In June 1966, Manson was sent for the second time to Terminal Island in preparation for early release. By the time of his release day on March 21, 1967, he had spent more than half of his 32 years in prisons and other institutions. This was mainly because he had broken federal laws. Federal sentences were, and remain, much more severe than state sentences for many of the same offenses. Telling the authorities that prison had become his home, he requested permission to stay. In 1967, 32-year-old Charles Manson was released from prison once again (this time, from a correctional facility in the state of Washington). He then made his way to San Francisco and quickly found a home in the counter-culture movement there.Manson created a cult around himself called the "Family" that he hoped to use to bring about Armageddon through a race war. He named this scenario "Helter Skelter," after the 1968 Beatles song of the same name.Living mostly by begging, Manson soon became acquainted with Mary Brunner, a 23-year-old graduate of the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Brunner was working as a library assistant at the University of California, Berkeley, and Manson moved in with her. According to a second-hand account, he overcame her resistance to his bringing other women in to live with them. Before long, they were sharing Brunner's residence with eighteen other women.Manson established himself as a guru in San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury district, which during 1967's "Summer of Love" was emerging as the signature hippie locale. Manson appeared to have borrowed his philosophy from the Process Church of the Final Judgment, whose members believed Satan would become reconciled to Christ and they would come together at the end of the world to judge humanity. Manson soon had the first of his groups of followers, which have been called the "Manson Family", most of them female. Manson taught his followers that they were the reincarnation of the original Christians, and that the Romans were the establishment. He strongly implied that he was Christ; he often told a story envisioning himself on the cross with the nails in his feet and hands. Sometime around 1967, he began using the alias "Charles Willis Manson." He often said it very slowly ("Charles's Will Is Man's Son")—implying that his will was the same as that of the Son of Man.Before the end of the summer, Manson and eight or nine of his enthusiasts piled into an old school bus they had re-wrought in hippie style, with colored rugs and pillows in place of the many seats they had removed. They roamed as far north as Washington state, then southward through Los Angeles, Mexico, and the American Southwest. Returning to the Los Angeles area, they lived in Topanga Canyon, Malibu, and Venice—western parts of the city and county.Having learned how to play guitar in prison he did his best to wow artists like Neil Young and The Mamas and Papas, his idiosyncratic folk music failed to generate enthusiasm until he was introduced to Dennis Wilson of the Beach Boys, who saw talent in Manson's playing.  Wilson allowed Manson and several of "his girls" — who had by now begun coalescing around him because they believed he was a  guru with prophetic powers — to stay with him at his mansion in June 1968. Wilson eventually kicked them out after they began causing trouble, but Manson later accused the Beach Boys of reworking one of his songs and including it on their 1969 album "20/20" without crediting him. In 1967, Brunner became pregnant by Manson and, on April 15, 1968, gave birth to a son she named Valentine Michael (nicknamed "Pooh Bear") in a condemned house in Topanga Canyon, assisted during the birth by several of the young women from the Family. Brunner (like most members of the group) acquired a number of aliases and nicknames, including: "Marioche", "Och", "Mother Mary", "Mary Manson", "Linda Dee Manson" and "Christine Marie Euchts". Manson established a base for the Family at the Spahn Ranch in August 1968 after Wilson's landlord evicted them. It had been a television and movie set for Westerns, but the buildings had deteriorated by the late 1960s and the ranch's revenue was primarily derived from selling horseback rides. Female Family members did chores around the ranch and, occasionally, had sex on Manson's orders with the nearly blind 80 year-old owner George Spahn. The women also acted as seeing-eye guides for him. In exchange, Spahn allowed Manson and his group to live at the ranch for free.  Lynette Fromme acquired the nickname "Squeaky" because she often squeaked when Spahn pinched her thigh.Charles Watson, a small-town Texan who had quit college and moved to California, soon joined the group at the ranch. He met Manson at Wilson's house; Watson had given Wilson a ride while Wilson was hitchhiking after his car was wrecked. Spahn nicknamed him "Tex" because of his pronounced Texas drawl. Manson follower Dianne Lake (just 14 when she met Manson) detailed long nights of lectures, in which Manson instructed others at the ranch to take LSD and listen to him preach about the past, present and future of humanity.  With his “family” coming together, manson began his work with Helter Skelter. The following excerpt about Helter Skelter is taken from wikipedia, Sources were double check for accuracy and we just figured this would be a quick review. We have added a few things to fill it out...so don't @ us bros ;) In the first days of November 1968, Manson established the Family at alternative headquarters in Death Valley's environs, where they occupied two unused or little-used ranches, Myers and Barker.[20][25] The former, to which the group had initially headed, was owned by the grandmother of a new woman (Catherine Gillies) in the Family. The latter was owned by an elderly local woman (Arlene Barker) to whom Manson presented himself and a male Family member as musicians in need of a place congenial to their work. When the woman agreed to let them stay if they'd fix things up, Manson honored her with one of the Beach Boys' gold records,[25] several of which he had been given by Wilson.[26]While back at Spahn Ranch, no later than December, Manson and Watson visited a Topanga Canyon acquaintance who played them the Beatles' recently released double album, The Beatles (also known as the "White Album").[20][27][28] Manson became obsessed with the group.[29] At McNeil Island prison, Manson had told fellow inmates, including Karpis, that he could surpass the group in fame;[7]:200–202, 265[30] to the Family, he spoke of the group as "the soul" and "part of the hole in the infinite".[28]For some time, Manson had been saying that racial tensions between blacks and whites were about to erupt, predicting that blacks would rise up in rebellion in America's cities.[31][32] On a bitterly cold New Year's Eve at Myers Ranch, as the Family gathered outside around a large fire, Manson explained that the social turmoil he had been predicting had also been predicted by the Beatles.[28] The White Album songs, he declared, foretold it all in code. In fact, he maintained (or would soon maintain), the album was directed at the Family, an elect group that was being instructed to preserve the worthy from the impending disaster.[31][32]In early January 1969, the Family left the desert's cold and moved to a canary-yellow home in Canoga Park, not far from the Spahn Ranch.[7]:244–247[28][33] Because this locale would allow the group to remain "submerged beneath the awareness of the outside world",[7]:244–247[34] Manson called it the Yellow Submarine, another Beatles reference. There, Family members prepared for the impending apocalypse, which around the campfire Manson had termed "Helter Skelter", after the song of that name.By February, Manson's vision was complete. The Family would create an album whose songs, as subtle as those of the Beatles, would trigger the predicted chaos. Ghastly murders of whites by blacks would be met with retaliation, and a split between racist and non-racist whites would yield whites' self-annihilation. The blacks' triumph, as it were, would merely precede their being ruled by the Family, which would ride out the conflict in "the bottomless pit", a secret city beneath Death Valley. At the Canoga Park house, while Family members worked on vehicles and pored over maps to prepare for their desert escape, they also worked on songs for their world-changing album. When they were told Melcher was to come to the house to hear the material, the women prepared a meal and cleaned the place. However, Melcher never arrived.  Crimes of the Family On May 18, 1969, Terry Melcher visited Spahn Ranch to hear Manson and the women sing. Melcher arranged a subsequent visit, not long thereafter, during which he brought a friend who possessed a mobile recording unit, but Melcher did not record the group.By June, Manson was telling the Family they might have to show blacks how to start "Helter Skelter". When Manson tasked Watson with obtaining money, supposedly intended to help the Family prepare for the conflict, Watson defrauded a black drug dealer named Bernard "Lotsapoppa" Crowe. Crowe responded with a threat to wipe out everyone at Spahn Ranch. The family countered on July 1, 1969, by shooting Crowe at Manson's Hollywood apartment.Manson's belief that he had killed Crowe was seemingly confirmed by a news report of the discovery of the dumped body of a Black Panther in Los Angeles. Although Crowe was not a member of the Black Panthers, Manson concluded he had been and expected retaliation from the Panthers. He turned Spahn Ranch into a defensive camp, with night patrols of armed guards.] "If we'd needed any more proof that Helter Skelter was coming down very soon, this was it," Tex Watson would later write. "Blackie was trying to get at the chosen ones." Gary Allen Hinman The murder of Gary Hinman committed by Bobby Beausoleil forever changed the course of the now-infamous cult; at one time sold to followers as the embodiment of free love, the incident set Manson’s cult on a path for the unparalleled brutality and violence that continues to captivate the world nearly 50 years after the fact.New murder minutiaeBeausoleil provided new details about the murder that started it all as part of a two-hour Fox special “Inside the Manson Cult: The Lost Tapes" that aired in 2018. As part of the jailhouse interview, Beausoleil detailed Hinman's relationship to the Family, the circumstances around the 34-year-old musician's death, and why Beausoleil felt he "had no way out" other than going forward with his brutal act."Fear is not a rational emotion and when it sets in. Things get out of control—as they certainly did with Charlie and me," he said during the special.Hinman, a talented piano player who once played at Carnegie Hall, was described by his cousin as a "lost artistic soul,” according to People magazine—one who would wind up falling in with the wrong crowd and befriending the Manson Family. "Gary was a friend. He didn't do anything to deserve what happened to him and I am responsible for that," Beausoleil said from the California Medical Facility, a male prison, where he's serving a life sentence.According to Dianne Lake, who also participated in the TV special to discuss her time as a Manson devotee, Family members had been to Hinman's house several times before his murder. Beausoleil had purchased drugs from Hinman during the summer of 1969. He sold them to another person, who then complained about their quality, causing Beausoleil to need his money back. "Bobby was driven over there to make it right with two girls that knew Gary very well. In fact, I think he had slept with both of them: Susan Atkins and Mary Brunner," former follower Catherine "Gypsy" Share said during the special. But Hinman didn't have the money. After Beausoleil, an aspiring actor and musician, roughed Gary up a bit, they called Manson, who decided to come to the house with a samurai sword. When he arrived, Manson took the sword and made a swipe across Hinman's face from his ear down his cheek. "It was bleeding a lot," John Douglas, a retired FBI agent who later interviewed Manson, said in the special. Beausoleil asked Manson why he had cut the man's face. "He said, 'To show you how to be a man.' His exact words," Beausoleil said. "I will never forget that."According to Beausoleil, who at one time was given the nickname "Cupid" for his good looks, he tried to patch the wound up and "make things right." Hinman, however, insisted on receiving medical attention—which is when things took a fatal turn."I knew if I took him, I'd end up going to prison. Gary would tell on me, for sure, and he would tell on Charlie and everyone else," Beausoleil said in the interview "It was at that point I realized I had no way out."According to the San Diego Union Tribune, Hinman was tortured over three days before he was killed. Beausoleil, for  his part, admitted to stabbing Hinman twice in the chest. The family reportedly used Hinman’s blood to scribble the words “Political Piggy” on the wall after the murder, according to CBS News, and also included a panther paw to try and pin the slaying on the Black Panthers (Manson was known for his desire to incite a race war).Beausoleil, along with Bruce Davis, was later arrested for  the murder.The murder catapulted the Manson family into a new level of violence. Although they had been training and preparing for a supposed race war for some time at Spahn Ranch, they had now become the aggressors and instigators of violence."This is when things start getting really dire, I mean really murderous," Lake said during the Fox program. Several weeks later, Manson Family followers would go on to murder Tate, writer Wojciech Frykowski, coffee heiress Abigail Folger, celebrity hair stylist Jay Sebring, and Steven Parent, who had come to  visit the gardener on Polanski’s property. The next night, the group would break into the home of Leno and Rosemary LaBianca and kill the couple. Beausoleil was sentenced to death for his role in Hinman’s murder, but the sentence was later commuted to life in prison. In January of 2019, he was recommended for parole during his 19th appearance before a parole board, according to CNN. His attorney Jason Campbell argued that he should be released from prison because he hasn't been a danger to society in decades. "He has spent the last 50 years gradually growing and improving himself and in particular, over the last few decades, he's been pretty much a model inmate," he said.However, California Gov. Gavin Newsom later overruled the recommendation, keeping Beusoleil behind bars, the Associated Press reports.As he sat in his cell and reflected on his past crime, Beausoleil told the team behind the Fox special that he is filled with regret over the death of his one-time friend."What I've wished a thousand times is that I had faced the music,” he said. “Instead, I killed him.”Tate- Labianca murdersOn the night of August 8, 1969, Charles "Tex" Watson, Susan Atkins, Patricia Krenwinkel, and Linda Kasabian were sent by Charlie to the old home of Terry Melcher at 10050 Cielo Drive. Their instructions were to kill everyone at the house and make it appear like Hinman's murder, with words and symbols written in blood on the walls. As Charlie Manson had said earlier in the day after choosing the group, "Now is the time for Helter Skelter."What the group did not know was that Terry Melcher was no longer residing in the home and that it was being rented by film director Roman Polanski and his wife, actress Sharon Tate. Tate was two weeks away from giving birth and Polanski was delayed in London while working on his film, The Day of the Dolphin. Because Sharon was so close to giving birth, the couple arranged for friends to stay with her until Polanski could get home.After dining together at the El Coyote restaurant, Sharon Tate, celebrity hairstylist Jay Sebring, Folger coffee heiress Abigail Folger and her lover Wojciech Frykowski, returned to the Polanski's home on Cleo Drive at around 10:30 p.m. Wojciech fell asleep on the living room couch, Abigail Folger went to her bedroom to read, and Sharon Tate and Sebring were in Sharon's bedroom talking.Steve ParentJust after midnight, Watson, Atkins, Krenwinkel, and Kasabian arrived at the house. Watson climbed a telephone pole and cut the phone line going to the Polanski's house. Just as the group entered the estate grounds, they saw a car approaching. Inside the car was 18-year-old Steve Parent who had been visiting the property's caretaker, William Garreston.As Parent approached the driveway's electronic gate, he rolled down the window to reach out and push the gate's button, and Watson descended on him, yelling at him to halt. Seeing that Watson was armed with a revolver and knife, Parent began to plead for his life. Unfazed, Watson slashed at Parent, then shot him four times, killing him instantly.The Rampage InsideAfter murdering Parent, the group headed for the house. Watson told Kasabian to be on the lookout by the front gate. The other three family members entered the Polanski home. Charles "Tex" Watson went to the living room and confronted Frykowski who was asleep. Not fully awake, Frykowski asked what time it was and Watson kicked him in the head. When Frykowski asked who he was, Watson answered, "I'm the devil and I'm here to do the devil's business."Susan Atkins went to Sharon Tate's bedroom with a buck knife and ordered Tate and Sebring to go into the living room. She then went and got Abigail Folger. The four victims were told to sit on the floor. Watson tied a rope around Sebring's neck, flung it over a ceiling beam, then tied the other side around Sharon's neck. Watson then ordered them to lie on their stomachs. When Sebring voiced his concerns that Sharon was too pregnant to lay on her stomach, Watson shot him and then kicked him while he died.Knowing now that the intent of the intruders was murder, the three remaining victims began to struggle for survival. Patricia Krenwinkel attacked Abigail Folger and after being stabbed multiple times, Folger broke free and attempted to run from the house. Krenwinkel followed close behind and managed to tackle Folger out on the lawn and stabbed her repeatedly.Inside, Frykowski struggled with Susan Atkins when she attempted to tie his hands. Atkins stabbed him four times in the leg, then Watson came over and beat Frykowski over the head with his revolver. Frykowski somehow managed to escape out onto the lawn and began screaming for help.While the microbe scene was going on inside the house, all Kasabian could hear was screaming. She ran to the house just as Frykowski was escaping out the front door. According to Kasabian, she looked into the eyes of the mutilated man and horrified at what she saw, she told him that she was sorry. Minutes later, Frykowski was dead on the front lawn.Watson shot him twice, then stabbed him to death.Seeing that Krenwinkel was struggling with Folger, Watson went over and the two continued to stab Abigail mercilessly. According to killer's statements later given to the authorities, Abigail begged them to stop stabbing her saying, "I give up, you've got me", and "I'm already dead". The final victim at 10050 Cielo Drive was Sharon Tate. Knowing that her friends were likely dead, Sharon begged for the life of her baby. Unmoved, Atkins held Sharon Tate down while Watson stabbed her multiple times, killing her. Atkins then used Sharon's blood to write "Pig" on a wall. Atkins later said that Sharon Tate called out for her mother as she was being murdered and that she tasted her blood and found it "warm and sticky."According to the autopsy reports, 102 stab wounds were found on the four victims.The Labianca MurdersThe next day Manson, Tex Watson, Susan Atkins, Patricia Krenwinkel, Steve Grogan, Leslie Van Houten, and Linda Kasabian went to the home of Leno and Rosemary Labianca. Manson and Watson tied up the couple and Manson left. He told Van Houten and Krenwinkel to go in and kill the LaBiancas. The three separated the couple and murdered them, then had dinner and a shower and hitchhiked back to Spahn Ranch. Manson, Atkins, Grogan, and Kasabian drove around looking for other people to kill but failed.Manson and The Family ArrestedAt Spahn Ranch rumors of the group's involvement began to circulate. So did the police helicopters above the ranch, but because of an unrelated investigation. Parts of stolen cars were spotted in and around the ranch by police in the helicopters. On August 16, 1969, Manson and The Family were rounded up by police and taken in on suspicion of auto theft (not an unfamiliar charge for Manson). The search warrant ended up being invalid because of a date error and the group was released.Charlie blamed the arrests on Spahn's ranch hand Donald "Shorty" Shea for snitching on the family. It was no secret that Shorty wanted the family off the ranch. Manson decided it was time for the family to move to Barker Ranch near Death Valley, but before leaving, Manson, Bruce Davis, Tex Watson and Steve Grogan killed Shorty and buried his body behind the ranch.The Barker Ranch RaidThe Family moved onto the Barker Ranch and spent time turning stolen cars into dune buggies. On October 10, 1969, Barker Ranch was raided after investigators spotted stolen cars on the property and traced evidence of an arson back to Manson. Manson was not around during the first Family roundup, but returned on October 12 and was arrested with seven other family members. When police arrived Manson hid under a small bathroom cabinet but was quickly discovered.The Confession of Susan AtkinsOne of the biggest breaks in the case came when Susan Atkins boasted in detail about the murders to her prison cellmates. She gave specific details about Manson and the killings. She also told of other famous people the Family planned on killing. Her cellmate reported the information to the authorities and Atkins was offered a life sentence in return for her testimony. She refused the offer but repeated the prison cell story to the grand jury. Later Atkins recanted her grand jury testimony.Investigation and TrialOn September 1, 1969, a ten-year-old boy in Sherman Oaks discovered a .22 caliber Longhorn revolver under a bush near his home. His parents notified the LAPD, who picked up the gun, but failed to make any connection between it and the Tate murders.In October, Inyo County officers raided Barker Ranch, in a remote area south of Death Valley National Monument. Twenty-four members of the Manson Family were arrested, on charges of arson and grand theft. Cult leader Charles Manson (dressed entirely in buckskins) and Susan Atkins were among those arrested.After her arrest, Atkins was housed at Dormitory 8000 in Los Angeles. On November 6, she told another inmate, Virginia Graham, an almost unbelievable tale. She told of "a beautiful cat" named Charles Manson. She told of murder: of finding Sharon Tate, in bed with her bikini bra and underpants, of her victim's futile cries for help, of tasting Tate's blood. Atkins expressed no remorse at all over the killings. She even told Graham a list of celebrities that she and other Family members planned to kill in the future, including Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, Tom Jones, Steve McQueen, and Frank Sinatra. Through an inmate friend of Graham's, Ronnie Howard, word of Atkins's amazing story soon reached the LAPD.About the same time, detectives on the LaBianca case interviewed Al Springer, a member of the Straight Satan biker's group that Manson had tried to recruit into the Family. Word had leaked to police that the Straight Satans might have some knowledge about who was responsible for another recent murder with several similarities to the LaBianca killings. Springer told detectives that Manson had bragged to him in August at Spahn Ranch--after offering him his pick from among the eighteen or so "naked girls" scattered around the ranch--about "knocking off" five people. When Springer told detectives that Manson had said the Tate killers "wrote something on the...refrigerator in blood"--"something about pigs"--, the detectives knew they might be onto something. Still, it struck them as odd that anyone would confess to several murders to someone that they barely knew. It took another member of the Straight Satans, Danny DeCarlo, to move the focus of the investigation decisively to Charles Manson. DeCarlo told police he heard a Manson Family member brag, "We got five piggies," and that Manson had asked him what to use "to decompose a body."On November 18, 1969, the District Attorney and his staff selected Vincent Bugliosi to be the chief prosecutor in the Tate-LaBianca case. The choice was no doubt influenced by Bugliosi's impressive record of winning 103 convictions in 104 felony trials. The day after getting the Tate-LaBianca assignment, Bugliosi joined in a search of the Spahn Movie Ranch, where police gathered .22 caliber bullets and shell casings from a canyon used by Family members for target practice. The next day, the search party moved on to isolated Barker Ranch, the most recent home of the Family, on the edge of Death Valley. In the small house at Barker Ranch, Bugliosi saw the small cabinet under the sink where Manson was found hiding during the October raid. On an abandoned bus in a gully, investigators discovered magazines from World War II, all containing articles about Hitler.Based on Ronnie Howard's account of Susan Atkin's jailhouse confession and interviews conducted with various Manson Family members, the LAPD eventually identified the five persons who participated in the actual Tate and LaBianca murders. The suspects consisted of four women, all in their early twenties, and one man in his mid-twenties: Susan Atkins, Patricia Krenwinkel, Leslie Van Houten, Linda Kasabian, and Charles "Tex" Watson. Atkins remained in custody at Dormitory 8000. Van Houten was picked up for questioning in California. Watson was arrested by a local sheriff in Texas. Patricia Krenwinkel was apprehended in Mobile, Alabama. Kasabian voluntarily surrendered to local police in Concord, New Hampshire.Knowing that convictions of at least some defendant would require testimony from one of those persons present at the murders, the D. A.'s office first reached a deal with the attorney for Susan Atkins: a promise not to seek the death penalty in return for testimony before the Grand Jury, plus consideration of a further reduction in charges for her continued cooperation during the trial. Atkins appeared before the Grand Jury on December 5. She told the grand jury she was "in love with the reflection" of Charles Manson and that there was "no limit" to what she would do for him. In an emotionless voice, she described the horrific events in the early morning hours of August 9 at the Tate residence. She told of Tate pleading for her life: "Please let me go. All I want to do is have my baby." She described the actual murders, told of returning to the car and stopping along a side street to wash off bloody clothes with a garden house, and of Manson's reaction on their return to Spahn Ranch. Atkins said that on returning to Spahn Ranch she "felt dead." She added, "I feel dead now." After twenty minutes of deliberations, the grand jury returned murder indictments against Manson, Watson, Krenwinkel, Atkins, Kasabian, and Van Houten.THE TRIALProsecutor Vincent Bugliosi talks to the press during trialWhen efforts to extradite Tex Watson from became bogged down in local Texas politics, the District Attorney's Office decided to proceed against the four persons indicted for the Tate-LaBianca murders who were in custody in California. Jury selection began on June 15, 1970 in the eighth floor courtroom of Judge Charles Older in the Hall of Justice in Los Angeles. Manson's request to ask potential jurors "a few simple, childlike questions that are real to me in my reality" was denied. During the voir dire, Manson fixed his penetrating stare for hours, first on Judge Older and then one day on Prosecutor Bugliosi. After getting Manson's stare treatment, Bugliosi took advantage of a recess to slide his chair next to Manson and ask, "What are you trembling about Charlie? Are you afraid of me?" Manson responded, "Bugliosi, you think I'm bad and I'm not." He went on to tell Manson that Atkins was "just a stupid little bitch" who told a story "to get attention." After a month of voir dire, a jury of seven men and five women was selected. The jury knew it would be sequestered for a long time, but it didn't know how long. As it turned out, their sequestration would last 225 days, longer than any previous jury in history.Opening statements began on July 24. Manson entered the courtroom sporting a freshly cut, bloody "X" on his forehead--signifying, he said in a statement, that "I have X'd myself from your world."Bugliosi, in his opening statement for the prosecution, indicated that his "principal witness" would be Linda Kasabian, a Manson Family member who accompanied the killers to both the Tate and LaBianca residences. The prosecution turned to Kasabian, with a promise of prosecutorial immunity for her testimony, when Susan Atkins--probably in response to threats from Manson--announced that she would not testify at the trial. Bugliosi promised the jury that the evidence would show Manson had a motive for the murders that was "perhaps even more bizarre than the murders themselves."On July 27, Bugliosi announced, "The People call Linda Kasabian." Manson's attorney, fabled obstructionist Irving Kanarek, immediately sprung up with an objection, "Object, Your Honor, on the grounds this witness is not competent and is insane!" Calling Kanarek to the bench and telling him his conduct was "outrageous," Judge Older denied the objection and Kasabian was sworn as a witness. She would remain on the stand for an astounding eighteen days, including seven days of cross-examination by Kanarek.Linda KasabianKasabian told the jury that no Family member ever refused an order from Charles Manson: "We always wanted to do anything and everything for him." After describing what she saw of the Tate murders, Kasabian was asked by Bugliosi about the return to Spahn Ranch:"Was there anyone in the parking area at Spahn Ranch as you drove in the Spahn Ranch area?""Yes.""Who was there?""Charlie.""Was there anyone there other than Charlie?""Not that I know of""Where was Charlie when you arrived at the premises?""About the same spot he was in when he first drove away.""What happened after you pulled the car onto the parking area and parked the car?""Sadie said she saw a spot of blood on the outside of the car when we were at the gas station.""Who was present at that time when she said that?""The four of us and Charlie.""What is the next thing that happened?""Well, Charlie told us to go into the kitchen, get a sponge, wipe the blood off, and he also instructed Katie and I to go all through the car and wipe off the blood spots.""What is the next thing that happened after Mr. Manson told you and Katie to check out the car and remove the blood?""He told us to go into the bunk room and wait, which we did."Kasabian also offered her account of the night of the LaBianca murders. She testified that she didn't want to go, but went anyway "because Charlie asked me and I was afraid to say no."Kasabian proved a very credible witness, despite the best efforts during cross-examination of defense attorneys to make her appear a spaced-out hippie. After admitting that she took LSD about fifty times, Kasabian was asked by Kanarek, "Describe what happened on trip number 23." Other defense questions explored her beliefs in ESP and witchcraft or focused on the "vibrations" she claimed to receive from Manson.A major distraction from Kasabian's testimony came on August 3, when Manson stood before the jury and held up a copy of the Los Angeles Times with the headline, "MANSON GUILTY, NIXON DECLARES." The defense moved for a mistrial on the grounds that the headline prejudiced the jury against the defense, but Judge Older denied the motion after each juror stated under oath that he or she would not be influenced by the President's reported declaration of guilt.Testimony corroborating that of Kasabian came from several other prosecution witnesses, most notably the woman Atkins confided in at Dormitory 8000, Virginia Graham. Other witnesses described receiving threats from Manson, evidence of Manson's total control over the lives of Family members, or conversations in which Manson had told of the coming Helter Skelter.Nineteen-year-old Paul Watkins, Manson's foremost recruiter of young women, provided key testimony about the strange motive for the Tate-LaBianca murders--including its link to the Bible's Book of Revelation. Watkins testified that Manson discussed Helter Skelter "constantly." Bugliosi asked Watkins how Helter Skelter would start:"There would be some atrocious murders; that some of the spades from Watts would come up into the Bel-Air and Beverly Hills district and just really wipe some people out, just cut bodies up and smear blood and write things on the wall in blood, and cut little boys up and make parents watch. So, in retaliation-this would scare; in other words, all the other white people would be afraid that this would happen to them, so out of their fear they would go into the ghetto and just start shooting black people like crazy. But all they would shoot would be the garbage man and Uncle Toms, and all the ones that were with Whitey in the first place. And underneath it all, the Black Muslims would-he would know that it was coming down.""Helter Skelter was coming down?""Yes. So, after Whitey goes in the ghettoes and shoots all the Uncle Toms, then the Black Muslims come out and appeal to the people by saying, 'Look what you have done to my people.' And this would split Whitey down the middle, between all the hippies and the liberals and all the up-tight piggies. This would split them in the middle and a big civil war would start and really split them up in all these different factions, and they would just kill each other off in the meantime through their war. And after they killed each other off, then there would be a few of them left who supposedly won.""A few of who left?""A few white people left who supposedly won. Then the Black Muslims would come out of hiding and wipe them all out.""Wipe the white people out?""Yes. By sneaking around and slitting their throats.""Did Charlie say anything about where he and the Family would be during this Helter Skelter?""Yes. When we was [sic] in the desert the first time, Charlie used to walk around in the desert and say-you see, there are places where water would come up to the top of the ground and then it would go down and there wouldn't be no more water, and then it would come up again and go down again. He would look at that and say, 'There has got to be a hole somewhere, somewhere here, a big old lake.' And it just really got far out, that there was a hole underneath there somewhere where you could drive a speedboat across it, a big underground city. Then we started from the 'Revolution 9' song on the Beatles album which was interpreted by Charlie to mean the Revelation 9. So-""The last book of the New Testament?""Just the book of Revelation and the song would be 'Revelations 9: So, in this book it says, there is a part about, in Revelations 9, it talks of the bottomless pit. Then later on, I believe it is in 10.""Revelation 10?""Yes. It talks about there will be a city where there will be no sun and there will be no moon.""Manson spoke about this?""Yes, many times. That there would be a city of gold, but there would be no life, and there would be a tree there that bears twelve different kinds of fruit that changed every month. And this was interpreted to mean-this was the hole down under Death Valley.""Did he talk about the twelve tribes of Israel?""Yes. That was in there, too. It was supposed to get back to the 144,000 people. The Family was to grow to this number.""The twelve tribes of Israel being 144,000 people?""Yes.""And Manson said that the Family would eventually increase to 144,000 people?""Yes.""Did he say when this would take place?""Oh, yes. See, it was all happening simultaneously. In other words, as we are making the music and it is drawing all the young love to the desert, the Family increases in ranks, and at the same time this sets off Helter Skelter. So then the Family finds the hole in the meantime and gets down in the hole and lives there until the whole thing comes down.""Until Helter Skelter comes down?""Yes.""Did he say who would win this Helter Skelter?""The karma would have completely reversed, meaning that the black men would be on top and the white race would be wiped out; there would be none except for the Family.""Except for Manson and the Family?""Yes.""Did he say what the black man would do once he was all by himself?""Well, according to Charlie, he would clean up the mess, just like he always has done. He is supposed to be the servant, see. He will clean up the mess that he made, that the white man made, and build the world back up a little bit, build the cities back up, but then he wouldn't know what to do with it, he couldn't handle it.""Blackie couldn't handle it?""Yes, and this is when the Family would come out of the hole, and being that he would have completed the white man's karma, then he would no longer have this vicious want to kill.""When you say 'he,' you mean Blackie?""Blackie then would come to Charlie and say, you know, 'I did my thing, I killed them all and, you know, I am tired of killing now. It is all over.' And Charlie would scratch his fuzzy head and kick him in the butt and tell him to go pick the cotton and go be a good nigger, and he would live happily ever after."On November 16, 1970, after twenty-two weeks of testimony, the prosecution rested its case.Irving Kanarek, Manson's defense attorneyWhen the trial resumed three days later, the defense startled courtroom spectators and the prosecution by announcing, without calling a single witness, "The defense rests." Suddenly, the three female defendants began shouting that they wanted to testify. In chambers, attorneys for the women explained that although their clients wanted to testify, they were strongly opposed, believing that they would--still under the powerful influence of Manson--testify that they planned and committed the murders without Manson's help. Returning to the courtroom, Judge Older declared that the right to testify took precedence and said that the defendants could testify over the objections of their counsel. Atkins was then sworn as a witness, but her attorney, Daye Shinn, refused to question her. Returning to chambers, one defense attorney complained that questioning their clients on the stand would be like "aiding and abetting a suicide."The next day came another surprise. Charles Manson announced that he, too, wished to testify--before his co-defendants did. He testified first without the jury being present, so that potentially excludable testimony relating to evidence incriminating co-defendants might be identified before it prejudiced the jury. His over one-hour of testimony, full of digressions, fascinated observers:"I never went to school, so I never growed up to read and write too good, so I have stayed in jail and I have stayed stupid, and I have stayed a child while I have watched your world grow up, and then I look at the things that you do and I don't understand. . . ."You eat meat and you kill things that are better than you are, and then you say how bad, and even killers, your children are. You made your children what they are. . . ."These children that come at you with knives. they are your children. You taught them. I didn't teach them. I just tried to help them stand up. . ."Most of the people at the ranch that you call the Family were just people that you did not want, people that were alongside the road, that their parents had kicked out, that did not want to go to Juvenile Hall. So I did the best I could and I took them up on my garbage dump and I told them this: that in love there is no wrong. . . ."I told them that anything they do for their brothers and sisters is good if they do it with a good thought. . . ."I don't understand you, but I don't try. I don't try to judge nobody. I know that the only person I can judge is me . . . But I know this: that in your hearts and your own souls, you are as much responsible for the Vietnam war as I am for killing these people. . . ."I can't judge any of you. I have no malice against you and no ribbons for you. But I think that it is high time that you all start looking at yourselves, and judging the lie that you live in."I can't dislike you, but I will say this to you: you haven't got long before you are all going to kill yourselves, because you are all crazy. And you can project it back at me . . . but I am only what lives inside each and everyone of you."My father is the jailhouse. My father is your system. . . I am only what you made me. I am only a reflection of you."I have ate out of your garbage cans to stay out of jail. I have wore your second-hand clothes. . . I have done my best to get along in your world and now you want to kill me, and I look at you, and then I say to myself, You want to kill me? Ha! I'm already dead, have been all my life. I've spent twenty-three years in tombs that you built."Sometimes I think about giving it back to you; sometimes I think about just jumping on you and letting you shoot me . . . If I could, I would jerk this microphone off and beat your brains out with it, because that is what you deserve, that is what you deserve. . . ."These children [indicating the female defendants] were finding themselves. What they did, if they did whatever they did, is up to them. They will have to explain that to you. . . ."You expect to break me? Impossible! You broke me years ago. You killed me years ago. . . ."Mr. Bugliosi is a hard-driving prosecutor, polished education, a master of words, semantics. He is a genius. He has got everything that every lawyer would want to have except one thing: a case. He doesn't have a case. Were I allowed to defend myself, I could have proven this to you. . .The evidence in this case is a gun. There was a gun that laid around the ranch. It belonged to everybody. Anybody could have picked that gun up and done anything they wanted to do with it. I don't deny having that gun. That gun has been in my possession many times. Like the rope was there because you need rope on a ranch. . . .It is really convenient that Mr. Baggot found those clothes. I imagine he got a little taste of money for that. . . .They put the hideous bodies on [photographic] display and they imply: If he gets out, see what will happen to you. . . .[Helter Skelter] means confusion, literally. It doesn't mean any war with anyone. It doesn't mean that some people are going to kill other people. . . Helter Skelter is confusion. Confusion is coming down around you fast. If you can't see the confusion coming down around you fast, you can call it what you wish. . Is it a conspiracy that the music is telling the youth to rise up against the establishment because the establishment is rapidly destroying things? Is that a conspiracy? The music speaks to you every day, but you are too deaf, dumb, and blind to even listen to the music. . . It is not my conspiracy. It is not my music. I hear what it relates. It says "Rise," it says "Kill." Why blame it on me? I didn't write the music. . . ."I haven't got any guilt about anything because I have never been able to see any wrong. . . I have always said: Do what your love tells you, and I do what my love tells me . . . Is it my fault that your children do what you do? What about your children? You say there are just a few? There are many, many more, coming in the same direction. They are running in the streets-and they are coming right at you!"At the conclusion of Bugliosi's brief cross-examination of Manson, Older asked Manson if he now wished to testify before the jury. He replied, "I have already relieved all the pressure I had." Manson left the stand. As he walked by the counsel table, he told his three co-defendants, "You don't have to testify now."There remained one last frightening surprise of the Tate-LaBianca murder trial. When the trial resumed on November 30 following Manson's testimony, Ronald Hughes, defense attorney for Leslie Van Houten failed to show. A subsequent investigation revealed he had disappeared over the weekend while camping in the remote Sespe Hot Springs area northwest of Los Angeles. It is widely believed that Hughes was ordered murdered by Manson for his determination to pursue a defense strategy at odds with that favored by Manson. Hughes had made clear his hope to show that Van Houten was not acting independently--as Manson suggested--but was completely controlled in her actions by Manson.Manson's defense attorney, Irving Kanarek, argued to the jury that the female defendants committed the Tate and LaBianca murders out of a love of the crimes' true mastermind, the absent Tex Watson. Kanarek suggested that Manson was being persecuted because of his "life style." He argued that the prosecution's theory of a motive was fanciful. His argument lasted seven days, prompting Judge Older to call it "no longer an argument but a filibuster."Bugliosi's powerful summation described Charles Manson as "the Mephistophelean guru" who "sent out from the fires of hell at Spahn Ranch three heartless, bloodthirsty robots and--unfortunately for him--one human being, the little hippie girl Linda Kasabian." Bugliosi ended his summation with "a roll call of the dead": "Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, Sharon Tate...Abigail Folger...Voytek Frykowski...Jay Sebring...Steven Parent...Leno LaBianca...Rosemary LaBianca...are not here with us in this courtroom, but from their graves they cry out for justice."The jury deliberated a week before returning its verdict on January 25, 1971. The jury found all defendants guilty on each count of first-degree murder. After hearing additional evidence in the penalty phase of the trial, the jury completed its work by sentencing each of the four defendants to death on March 29. As the clerk read the verdict, Manson shouted, "You people have no authority over me." Patricia Krenwinkel declared, "You have judged yourselves." Susan Atkins said, "Better lock your doors and watch your own kids." Leslie Van Houten complained, "The whole system is a game." The trial was over. At over nine-months, it had been the longest and and most expensive in American history.TRIAL AFTERMATHManson at his 1992 parole hearingThe death sentences imposed by the Tate-LaBianca jury would never be imposed, thanks to a California Supreme Court ruling in 1972 declaring the state's death penalty law unconstitutional. The death sentences for the four convicted defendants, as well as for Tex Watson who had been convicted and sentenced to death in a separate trial in 1971, were commuted to life in prison. Patricia Krenwinkel, now 72, became California’s longest-serving female inmate. According to state prison officials, Krenwinkel is a model inmate involved in rehabilitative programs at the prison. She will be eligible to apply for parole again in 2022. Patricia Krenwinkel, now 70, is serving her life sentence at the California Institution for Women in Corona, prison officials say, and has been disciplinary-free her entire sentence. She is still considered to present an unreasonable threat to society. Charles “Tex” Watson, now 74, is housed at the RJ Donovan Correctional Facility in San Diego County near the Mexican border, where he walks the track “sharing my faith, relating to many men”, according to the ministry’s website. He has been denied parole 17 times. A state panel in 2016 once again found him unsuitable for release from prison for at least five more years. In prison, Watson married, divorced, fathered four children and became an ordained minister. Susan Atkins, dubbed “the scariest of all the girls” by a former prosecutor, died in prison in 2009 at age 61Charles Manson was incarcerated in a maximum security section of a state penitentiary in Concoran, California. He has been denied parole twelve times, most recently in 2012. His next parole hearing was scheduled for 2027. In prison, he had assaulted prison staff a half dozen times. A search of the prison chapel where Manson took a job in 1980 revealed his hidden cache including marijuana, one hundred feet of nylon rope, and a mail-order catalog for hot air balloons. In 1986, he published his story, Manson in His Own Words. In his book, Manson claims: "My eyes are cameras. My mind is tuned to more television channels than exist in your world. And it suffers no censorship. Through it, I have a world and the universe as my own."All three female defendants have expressed remorse for their crimes, been exemplary inmates, and offered their time for charity work. Yet none has been released by the California Parole Board, even though each of them was young and clearly under Manson's powerful influence at the time of their crimes. There is no question that but for their unfortunate connection with Charles Manson, none would have committed murder. It is sad, but undoubtedly true, that parole boards are political bodies that base decisions as much upon anticipated public reaction to their decisions as on a careful review of a parole applicant's prison record and statements.In November 2014, the California Department of Corrections announced that it had received a request for a marriage license from their famous eighty-year-old prisoner. Manson's bride-to-be was Afton Elaine Burton, nicknamed “Star” a twenty-six-year old woman who had worked for Manson's release. Turns out that the few short years before Manson’s death, “Star” Burton was actually planning to secure the legal rights to his corpse — in order to display it for curious observers in a glass crypt for profit. He never did marry her OR give his consent to display his remains.Instead of tying the knot and while stringing Star along, He was busy “making little dolls, but they were like voodoo dolls of people and he would stick needles in them, hoping to injure the live person the doll was fashioned after,” said former L.A. County prosecutor Stephen Kay who helped convict Manson in 1970. “He said his main activity was making those dolls.” The end came for Charles Manson on Sunday, November 19th, 2017 at 8:13pm, at the age of 83.  The official cause of death was “acute cardiac arrest,” “respiratory failure” and “metastatic colon cancer.” Upon his death newspapers across the country seemed to have cheered over Manson’s passing. For instance, the New York Daily News published a front cover spread that read, “BURN IN HELL, Bloodthirsty cult leader Manson dies at 83.” Others followed suit with brazen titles such as “EVIL DEAD. Make room, Satan, Charles Manson is finally going to hell” – New York Post.Four months after

Former Patriots quarterback, Steve Grogan, joins In The Huddle host Pete Brock to talk about life after football, the evolution of the game, and more. Grogan played 16 seasons with New England from 1975-1990, and was inducted into the Patriots Hall of Fame in 1995. The dual-threat quarterback was ahead of his time, leading the league in both passing and rushing statistics multiple times throughout his career. In 1976, he set the single season record for most rushing touchdowns by a quarterback with 12, a record that stood for 35 years until Cam Newton broke it in 2011. This episode of In The Huddle is proudly sponsored by John Costello, Sullivan Group, & Cross Insurance.

Frank Mills Show - Sports Podcast Frank Mills Show covers all sports and talking about the hottest topics and news. Frank has strong opinions and enjoys offering his take on the current sports news and tries hard to add a positive spin.Frank will rant and has no problem He enjoys telling it like it is using facts, statistics and will let you know what is really going on in the world of sports. If you are a REAL Sports Fan and have been looking for a show that targets a variety of topics and sports and a guy that is straight and to the point, then this is the Podcast you need to listen to starting today. Website - www.FrankMillsShow.com This show is available on iHeart Radio, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, YouTube, Spotify, FrankMillsShow.com and most popular podcast apps.

Steve Grogan spent sixteen seasons in NFL all of then as a quarterback for the New England Patriots. He was the prototype for todays agile, durable dual-threat quarterback even though he played in an era known for pocket passers, he led the league in both passing and quarterback rushing statistics several times in his career, and ran for a quarterback-record 12 touchdowns in 1976, a record that stood for 35 seasons. He ran for over 500 yards in 1978 and led the team to an NFL record 3,156 rushing yards, which stood until it was eclipsed by the 2019 Baltimore Ravens. When he retired in 1990, he held many of the team's passing and longevity records, He was inducted into the New England Patriots Hall of Fame in 1995. Tune in each week on 540 am in NY NJ CT and streaming on www.sportstalknylive.com at 7pm Sundays for the live broadcast.Please take a moment to like our fan page WLIE 540 AM SPORTSTALKNY and follow us on twitter @sportstalkny

Mike Pietila, Co-Founder of Promad, has a beer with Steve Grogan of Integrity Wealth Consultants and Monica Wallingford of Side Gig Hustler. The trio discuss small business ownership and entrepreneurship.

Ep. 64. John is joined by Steve Grogan of the We're All Yankovics podcast to discuss one of his favorite Post-Pinkerton songs, "I'm A Robot," from the unreleased song compilation Death to False Metal. John and Steve's conversation about the song takes them to some surprising places, like the Blue Album classic "Say It Ain't So" and Matt Sharp's proclivity for barking during some live performances. LISTEN: 1. "I'm A Robot" on Spotify | Apple Music | YouTube 2. "Skipper Dan" on Spotify | Apple Music | YouTube 3. "Say It Ain't So" on Spotify | Apple Music | YouTube 4. "Prodigy Lover" on YouTube 5. "The Good Life" (Live at Shorecrest High) on YouTube LYRICS: 1. "I'm A Robot" at Genius.com 2. "Say It Ain't So" at Genius.com MORE INFO: 1. "I'm A Robot" at Weezerpedia 2. "Say It Ain't So" at Weezerpedia 3. "Prodigy Lover" at Weezerpedia 4. "Weird Al" Yankovic at Wikipedia | Weezerpedia 5. "Skipper Dan" at Weird Al Wiki 6. We're All Yankovics podcast 7. Steve's "I'm A Robot" video 8. "Skipper Dan" episode of We're All Yankovics 9. Weezer acoustic concert at Shorecrest High School 10. Post-Pinkerton episode for "My Best Friend" 11. Leaked Make Believe tracklist 12. Death to False Metal at Weezerpedia 13. Fallen Soldiers at Weezerpedia 13. Weezer B-Sides YouTube Channel 14. Running With Scissors at Wikipedia 15. Mandatory Fun at Wikipedia 16. Matt Sharp at Wikipedia | Weezerpedia 17. "The Good Life" at Weezerpedia   Want a Post-Pinkerton sticker? Send your mailing address to postpinkertonpod@gmail.com for a free one!

Episode 380 with Jeff, Ezra, Thaleia and Josh Does Jeff hate the Superbowl Who in the world is Steve Grogan? […]

Episode 380 with Jeff, Ezra, Thaleia and Josh Does Jeff hate the Superbowl Who in the world is Steve Grogan? […]

Join dave Nassaney, (Caregiver Dave) as he co-hosts with Neil on the Neil Haley Show interviewing Steve Grogan, New England Patriots Hall of Fame Quarter Back

Steve Grogan may be one of the toughest players in Patriots history. He’s also second in NFL history in running touchdowns by a QB. And oh yea, he was a pretty damn good quarterback for 16 exclusive seasons with the Patriots who could throw the long ball and run the naked bootleg as well as anyone. Steve reflects on his Patriots days and how the franchise developed into the model operation it is today in an enlightening and nostalgic conversation on Bob Ryan’s Boston Podcast.

​A rare in-studio episode! Discussed: 2:05 -- Getting pre-furious over the trade of our favorite adult son Ricky Rubio 21:00 -- Brandon fails at defending his Patriots fandom 26:00 -- Wild: good or lucky? Plus a few more amazing hockey fixes 40:10 -- Mourning the Dozier non-trade 50:30 -- Lightning round: Gophers, Loons, Stu's new gig See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

This week on Thursday Night Tailgate our guests are: Prairie View A&M Head Coach Willie Simmons, former Patriots Pro Bowl RB Tony Collins, former Colts & Seahawks DB Nesby Glasgow, former Rams Pro Bowl QB Jim Everett and Houston Power QB Jennifer Kadlitz. Willie Simmons - We'll talk to Willie about their big open day win over rival Texas Southern, their experience playing against Texas A&M and look ahead their upcoming games again Alabama A&M, Mississippi Valley State and Grambling State. Tony Collins - We'll do our 5 Star Picks of the Week and talk a little Fantasy Football with Tony. Nesby Glasgow - We'll hear Nesby talk about being with the Colts when the Mayflower trucks showed up to move them to Indy. He'll tell us how he and his teammates found out about the move. We'll also hear his stories playing with Bert Jones and against guys like Richard Todd, Terry Bradshaw, Joe Ferguson and Steve Grogan. Jim Everett & Jennifer Kadlitz - Jim and Jennifer manage 2 teams in our Fantasy Football league and no one talks more trash then these 2. We'll hear why they both lost in week 1 plus their strategies for the remainder of the season.

The Total Tutor  and GJ Reynolds interview 2-time NFL Pro Bowl Safety Dashon Goldson. He will discuss his foundation and childhood. In addition, The Total Total interviews Basketball Wives and Anti Bullying Advocate Kesha Nichols. Last, The Total Tutor and Jarret will interview Insightful Player Steve Grogan and about his life and what it means to be an Insightful Player.