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This week we visit with Adam Arnal from Kananaskis AB. Adam is Jr Pro Staff with Chinook Wind Outfitters, he spends a lot of time chasing trout in the Canadian Rockies, works with Alberta Parks, ties some killer fly patterns, climbs and spends his time doing trail maintenance in the park. Thanks Adam for sharing your fly fishing journey with us!

Contact Arno Wakfer: https://www.linkedin.com/in/arnowakfer/Arno's Articles: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/make-everyday-value-creation-day-arno-wakfer-ca-fmva-/  https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/finding-your-value-creation-opportunity-gap-arno-wakfer-ca-fmva/  https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/why-finance-needs-ask-questions-getting-closer-arno-wakfer-ca-fmva-/  FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPTMitch: (00:00) Hey everyone. Welcome back to Count Me In, IMA's podcast about all things affecting the accounting and finance world. This is your host Mitch Roshong, and I'm here to bring you episode 122 of our series. Today's conversation features Arno Wakfer, a former CFO with over 15 years of commercial finance and general management experience. He is now a coach and trainer focused on upskilling managers and professionals through learning programs in Power BI and business finance literacy. In this episode, he talks with my co-host Adam about value creation and how finance and accounting professionals can get closer to the business through insight and storytelling. Keep listening as we head over to their conversation now. Adam: (00:51) So Arno, what are some of the value creation ideas that the finance and accounting team can use to set reminders and form habits? Arno: (00:59) Thanks Adam, thanks for the question. I think before I go into that, I'd just like to share my own view on what I think it means to drive value in a business. To simplify these, that I think whatever finance does will contribute towards increasing the value of a business for its stakeholders. Any business, any stakeholder business, wants an asset that increases in value and I think finance should be there to help increase the future value of an asset, which is the business. Alright, so looking at some ideas around finance creating value, some ideas around that. So the first thing I do is looking at financial analysis. So what they can do is they can perform business off assessments and troubleshooting risk areas. The second one is cashflow improvements, you know, working with businesses to improve strategies, to improve the cashflow. There's many strategies that you can use to accelerate in delayed cash flow coming in and out of a business. And we all know cash is King and it keeps the doors open so we need to protect our cash. The next one is cashflow forecasting. A lot of business is done with forecasts, when it comes to cashflow I think it's vital. You need to do at least 12 weeks of cashflow forecasting and try and at least have a safety of margin of at least three months of your fixed overheads, just to give you a little bit of buffer in the time that the business struggles. So that's another way that you can create value. Maximizing profits, monitoring all the key drivers in the business that generate profits and measure that in real time if you can. And then, any early warning signals when anything's off track is not on track that management can address. The next one would be, I think where we can also add as early is auditing spreadsheets. I think a lot of managers use their own spreadsheets to make decisions on, and we come across spreadsheets that can have errors in them and those errors lead to poor decisions. So I think finance can be more involved in analyzing and checking those spreadsheets for correctness. The other idea is to, for finance to get more involved in data analytics, you know, being able to use it’s auditing data into analysis and to be able to analyze underlying transactions or key activities that drive business. For example, if we want to analyze where we bleeding on profit margins on a specific customer, on a specific product, on a specific location, I think finance should be able to analyze and give that intel financial intelligence to key decision makers, which will assist the future planning and strategy. And the next one is data visualization, which is becoming a hot trend skill in finance and accounting is being able to turn data into storytelling. Most of us are visual learners. When we see a picture it explains a story to us and I think instead of just pushing out financial reports, we can spend more time on actually visualizing and storytelling the performance. And with that, you can use business intelligence like Power BI, which is the top-rated business intelligence platform in my opinion, by Microsoft. The next one is finance literacy training. I think finance can help educate non-finance people in business about the numbers so that they can just make better business decisions. Finance speaks a foreign language to most because we understand the numbers because we've been taught that and we work with it every day, but non-finance people don't. So we need to be able to remove all the technical jargon and try and simplify the numbers for different levels of management so they can just help make better decisions. The next one is business metrics and KPIs. I think we need to work with business units through finance business partnering, to be able to define what metrics they use to make decisions. Every person's got different inputs that they need to put the full cost and their budgets together and draw strategy. So work with the business units to develop the business critical KPIs and then have regular interaction with those people to monitor those KPIs. Then we can also do businesses systemization. So, I mean, that's processes systems, improving those to create efficiencies and automation in business. Businesses want more, they want to do more with this and I think finance can help create those efficiencies in business. Alright, so that's kind of like, the key value creation ideas after I liked it that I think would add value to business. Thanks Adam. Adam: (05:31) Yeah, so I think those are wonderful ideas and now that we've kind of covered those ideas, what are some of the challenges that can prevent those same professionals from delivering value creation? Arno: (05:43) Yeah great, great question. So, the obstacles I see finance have in terms of driving value creation. Cause it's easy to say let's drive value, let's do more, but it's, for me, it's a change of a mindset. And what one is to focus on first is the need to find ways to speed up the month-end reporting process. I think before finance looks again, they're spending time on reporting again, and then when they finished the next reporting cycle starts. And reporting is looking backwards, it's not looking forwards. So, I think we need to look to find ways to do more frequent recons, to be planning and eliminating bottlenecks in the month-end reporting process, so that's the first thing. The other thing is the obstacles you'll face is the company culture, its that people don't necessarily like change. And when they do happen, they're not supported by the right people. And then people are not very clear while they're being implemented and they don't really understand the benefit to them in the business. So typically what one would need to do is cost versus benefit and being able to negotiate and be persuasive as to why we need to make changes to drive value creation. Next one is not having the right finance team. You can put all these value creation activities in place, but if you're not driving, if the leader of the team is not driving the right behavior and getting a mission statement of the finance team that's aligned to the business mission statement, and if it's not alarmed, then you're not going to be, the team's not going to be productive. A busy finance team is not necessarily productive finance team and businesses want us to be more productive, to provide more insights rather than just financial information. Next one, you know, inability to influence decisions. I think that is what finance business partnering is all about is being able to take information, provide insights, and influence decision-making. But you're not going to do that behind a desk. You need to be out there building relationships, getting to know people, getting to know the decision makers and actually understand the pain points of the business and what info they need to make better decisions impacting the future of the business. The next point is lacking of systems to provide meaningful insights. You know, businesses want information real-time these days, they can't wait for information. They need to make faster decisions, to drive the business performance, that's the reality we facing. So you need to implement systems to create efficiencies and do things faster and smarter. And I would say the last thing is the of lack of business knowledge, not understanding the key value drivers. I think finance accountants may get too technical about the numbers and they don't really understand the business model, what's driving revenue and profit. It's cost structure, it's values proposition, the mission/vision statement, it’s purpose, all those things. It's key customers, key suppliers, those things. So those are what I would say is like the key challenges that you need to overcome, get your mindset right. And they all can be addressed. You just need to just prioritize where you focus or where you're placing your efforts. Adam: (08:53) I think that's a nice segue. I was going to ask, how do you assess if you're spending time in the right areas? Arno: (08:58) So that, it's so easy, it's all about time management. It's easy to say that you need to better manage your time, but the only way you can do this is to check actually where you're spending your time. So that's why I've come up with a concept called “value creation opportunity gap”, and it's very simple. You list all your day-to-day activities, your normal activities, and then you list all the value creation activities. The things that you should be doing that draws value creation. And there, so for example, you've got a 40 hour working week, and lets say you spending 80% of your time on day-to-day activities and you want to spend say 60% on value creation activities. Then you can already identify where you spending, where need to drop time to dedicate more time to value creation activities. Now day-to-day activities I typically see as reporting and post-performance, financial working capital net asset management, we've got risk management and governance, statutory audit and tax compliance, and then things like administration meetings and operational issues, so that things are not going to go away. They are part of business and we have to deal with them on daily basis, but now the value creation activities examples are things like driving strategy planning and direction of the business, delivering insights to the business, building relationship with key stakeholders, which takes time, continuous business health monitoring, helping to improve cashflow and profitability, spoke about analyzing data, spend some time on data visualization, we need to look at process improvements and automation, a very important problem solving in decision-making discussions. We need to be in those discussions to help make better decisions, spend time on financial modeling, focus in prediction. So that's the forward looking part, not the backward looking. And then important is the finance team development and coaching, that for me is important. So those are going on, so you can all see all the different daily creation activities, you need to be able to check where you're spending your time so you can close that gap. Adam: (10:59) Just to kind of wrap up our conversation. I wonder if you could talk a little bit about how the finance and accounting team can get closer to the business. You've kind of alluded to it a little bit, but I wonder if you could speak in more detail around that. Arno: (11:11) Thanks Adam. So I took a class of business, so for me it's about to create value you need to become influential in business as a finance team. If you don't have influence you won’t necessarily get people to listen to you and the recipe to become influential, is people need to get to know you, they need to like you, and then that bolstered trust. People are not going to, you're not going to become influential sitting behind a desk. And in order to do that, finance needs to be, so you need to be more visible, not hiding behind a desk, you need to be effective at relationships, you need to be great at communication, you know, being able to get your message across to the audience is vital. And then also the ability to present and story tell the numbers, that's how you create influence. So to do that, you need to eliminate some of the pain points that the finance function has in business. And these are just general pain points. So I spoke about this previously is about, we need to provide more info instead of insights. We need to be involved when problem solving, we need to improve our communication, we need to be more proactive in driving change, we need to understand the business, the business model, how it makes money and how it operates, we need to build relationship with key decision makers, and we all need to be more involved in strategy and future planning decisions. Then finance, the finance team can't work in silos anymore. It needs to be work with the business. So, there needs to be that connection and it needs to be less backward-looking and more forward-looking through scenario planning for cost predictions, all those things. We should, people should understand our language. It shouldn't be a foreign language. Understand what we talk about when we talk about the numbers. And I think we can probably be a bit more fun and engage more with people so they get to know us. The perception is that finance is boring and I don't believe that. I think we all, I think most of us are introverts, but I think we adapt to the situation and nothing, you know, a guy like me, I like engaging with people and it takes confidence, so the more you do it, the better you get at it. And, you get better doing it if you start doing presentations, you know, it's just conquer your fear and do that. So that's kind of like a, what I would say is the focus points to get close to business. And you know, if I can maybe just summarize, my thinking is that finance needs to find the ways to get closer to business. You know, being busy is not necessarily being productive, focus on building your relationship with decision-makers, emphasizes provide more insights than just financial information, improve your skills in communication, presentation, and negotiation. Understand the business first before you just start looking at making improvements, create a team that is customer focus, customers is internal/external customers. And, you know, embrace technology to create efficiencies and drive business performance. So that would be my key points for driving value creation. Adam: (14:30) Do you think that technology is going to help bring together finance and the rest of the business together? Arno: (14:37) Yes, I think it will because, you know, the benefits of technologies enables us to do faucet or sectional processing. It enables us to get information quicker to decision makers and it frees up time for us to focus on other value creation activities. And the one thing I think we can spend more time is building relationships because that takes time. You need to get to know people, so automation is not necessarily a bad thing, it helps us to do a better job and get more insights out to business so they can drive better decisions. And, you know, people can get to know us and we can be more influential because we've actually got, we've got the insights to help drive business performance and I think in the automation enables us to be co-pilots to businesses, to help steer the plane in the right direction because our strategy, our flight plan is our strategy, so where we want to head and finance can help co-pilot that. Adam: (15:33) Yeah, I've heard you say it a few times that the finance and accounting team needs to be storytellers, you know, as with the more data analytics and those things that are coming on that we've been talking about, how can they become better storytellers as they go along? Arno: (15:50) So, so obviously there's best practice when it comes to visualization, but for me it's also about, you know, getting the right message across. Don't get too much detailed cause people get lost in the detail. Go and find out from people what they want to see and then visualize what they want to see, they need to get the story in the first 10 seconds, otherwise you would have lost them. And I think finance can analyze financial and non-financial data. Its no longer just financial data. Non-financial data could be things like your headcount stats. How does that correlate to your revenue? You can look at your customer buying patterns, what are they buying? What are they not buying? It's all those things, and it's not just give an income statement, the P&L balance sheet and cashflow anymore, it's giving more than that. It's the underlying drivers that leads to that number that we can help analyze and I think whatever efforts we give will help with future planning. I think if you've got a strategy, if you need to strategize, and you've got all this intelligence now, it surely will change your mindset and possibly changing the way that you used to budget and draw strategy. Closing: (17:05) This has been Count Me In, IMA's podcast providing you with the latest perspectives of thought leaders from the accounting and finance profession. If you like what you heard and you'd like to be counted in for more relevant accounting and finance education, visit IMA's website at www.imanet.org.

Jeff Dailey: https://www.prometric.com/about-us/leadership/jeff-daileyFULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPTMitch: (00:05) Hey everyone, welcome back for episode 120 of Count Me In. I'm your host Mitch Roshong and this is IMA's podcast about all things affecting the accounting and finance world. Our featured speaker for today is Jeffrey Dailey. Jeff is Prometrics Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, and he joined my co-host Adam to talk about data and technology. During their conversation, Jeff addresses the challenges associated with mass amounts of data, how to make decisions based on data and how the CFO's role has changed because of data and technology. Keep listening as we head over to their conversation now.   Adam: (00:47) So Jeff, data is becoming more and more important each day whether it's your latest smartwatch, a smartphone, your internet, things on your refrigerator, or your washing machine. It's getting thrown at us from every direction and even more so in business and for you at Prometric, how are you facing that challenge with all the data that we have in business and how have you adapted as an organization to meet those challenges?   Jeff: (01:12) Thanks Adam. Yeah look, I think the role that I play in Prometric as the CFO is really going to be leading to driving data-driven decision-making. And in order to do that, we really leverage analytic capabilities, not just within the finance function, but across the business. Our business relies heavily on understanding volume and capacity, of our clients and global candidate base for those taking tests in our test centers, as well as new modalities around remote assessment. So we're constantly looking at opportunities to gather and understand data, but also to use that to be quicker and more agile in our decision-making, it really becomes sort of foundational to us driving, data-driven decisions across the organization, it helps enhance forecasting, it helps us understand how we're allocating resources across the operations, as well as our technology investments.   Adam: (02:11) So if you look at your technology roadmap that you're looking into the future, what does that look like for you?   Jeff: (02:18) Well, right now we're in a unique disruption coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic. And I say that it's created opportunity in some ways, given all the disruption to our clients and frankly to all of the candidates that we support. One of the areas from a global technologies we've gone from what was traditionally largely a brick and mortar business model, to enhancing our remote assessment capability, to offer assessments and opportunities for candidates to sit from any location has been key when you're going through national and regional restrictions around social distancing and access to traditionally facilities where we have tested candidates. So operationally or product, we have deep investments that we're making across the technology platform to enhance both functionality, as well as expand in those areas of key features. Within our finance organization, we've actually also taken this as an opportunity to really invest in more, I'll call it cloud native systems and financial reporting technologies that are going to enhance our ability to streamline our close that are helping us in terms of forecasting and helping drive, more data-driven insights across the business from the finance organization, so we've not only had product investment, but also investment in our core ERP platform during this time.   Adam: (03:45) So what were some of the drivers for the decision to enhance your ERP solution?   Jeff: (03:51) Yeah, so I think first off is we have for several years looked into opportunities to consolidate multiple platforms that we had that had evolved both over time in different regions as well as, you know, take advantage of what I think now is really, truly a much more secure, fundamentally sound and feature rich opportunity, in what you're seeing in the cloud native ERP platforms. We see this as an opportunity to not only attack technology as our focus for the investment, but also process improvement and there are a number of areas that are features that we're rolling out that will be further automating the closed process, automating the financial reporting and forecasting process, and also just really trying to drive process improvement in business intelligence deeper into the finance organization.   Adam: (04:48) How has it been trying to do an implementation while having, probably your workforce working from home?   Jeff: (04:55) Great question. I think we have certainly been working remote for the most part, since the onset of COVID-19 about a year ago, but that being said, I think we have a global team and we've always had deep resources in Asia, as well as here in the US. We're using new collaborative tools. Certainly we've done a lot with remote video conference, we've got consultants dialed in they were helping us with that implementation, but I think the key has been having really deep sense around understanding of our current operating model and really having developed sort of the objectives collectively, while we're working remote, but to see where we needed to have opportunity for better access, as well as enhance the security and performance overall of the system that we're investing into.   Adam: (05:53) Circling back to data across the business. Why is it important for the finance function? Cause usually the finance function looks at their data and all the numbers and make sure everything makes sense. Why does it make sense to have the data connect across the organization?   Jeff: (06:07) Sure, great question. I think for us it really starts with understanding our client programs and the candidates that we support on their behalf. Our business is relying on volume and managing capacity through a global network and I think as I mentioned, that includes both the brick and mortar global channels supporting our candidates in center testing, to anywhere else from pop-up events that we run short term and then ultimately, expansion of our remote assessment capability. When you're looking at managing that level of capacity and the different modalities that we serve, it really has become critical from an operational decision-making and performance management capability to have a deep understanding and a deep base around analytics for the business. We are, you know, obviously each day kind of managing into the changing capacity restraints for coming out of COVID. We have had analytics that have provided us more insight into candidate behavior in terms of return to test centers, in our case. We've had certainly a large increase in candidates who are opting to take large-scale global national certifications and licensure exams online through our remote assessment tool, and understanding what's driving those decisions for candidates is critical for us to both enhance the product and the modality for them to have access to our content. When I look from a pure finance perspective, it really has been about harnessing data to help us understand more quickly more accurately what the business is performing during what's been a really disruptive time. We have used this as an opportunity to enhance what we do on a week to week basis in terms of our flash reporting. We have invested heavily in terms of pivoting how we do forecasting for the business. We are deeply connected using data from across operations, IT and our technology and product teams to really help us understand and allocate resources appropriately so that we can manage what, at times or headwinds that vary by region coming out of the restrictions that we've been under through COVID. When I think of, you know again, it's really driving us to be a more data-driven organization around decision-making and I've sort of looked at that as the role of frankly myself and my organization of helping harness that data in a way that helps us make not only good decisions, but also has consistent information accessible for folks across the organization so that everybody's able to easily interpret both the financial as well as the operating metrics that we deliver to the business.  Adam: (8:34) Definitely, so you mentioned that you’ve had to adapt to different business models because of COVID, can we talk a little bit more about that?  Jeff: (09:03) Sure. You know, first as many companies that experienced we had a significant impact on our business from the outset about a year ago. We took steps to maintain and manage service levels for clients that were still able to have their candidates into our test centers to test. But through that, we experienced quite a bit of backlog in our business because we were anticipating a lot of those candidates coming back in once the restrictions eased in each jurisdiction that we operate. When I look at what also happened during that time period, as I think I mentioned, we also took it as really having to ramp up a key product that's now a key piece of our growth driver around remote assessments. The ability for us to provide not only access for candidates during COVID, but also now going forward when we're coming out and seeing more clients embrace remote assessment as a key modality for their candidate base, has been critical in our strategy around investing into a new technology to serve our existing and new clients as we grow forward. We have really tried to migrate from what has traditionally been a brick and mortar channel to ramp up this remote assessment capability. There's a lot of analysis that's gone behind in terms of which clients we anticipate, you know candidate basis to move over into that modality and overall, I think it's just allowed us to really help manage capacity on both fronts because we're also managing our tests, and our administrators, our remote proctors and frankly our overall labor model around candidate support, and customer help desk. When I look at all the data that's coming out of those different organizations, again I kind of come back to tying it all together around how it feeds into what we're forecasting and also how we're using that to make data-driven decisions around what's best in terms of our resources and capital allocation as we look ahead at the next month, the next quarter and upcoming in the next year.   Adam: (11:27) So as you make those data decisions, can we move a little bit into data visualization? How are you telling a story for the rest of the team to show what's happening?   Jeff: (11:40) Well, I think for us it really starts with simplifying the objectives across the organization. As many companies have surely experienced in COVID you've got to make sure that you've got a clear vision and set priorities so that folks remain laser focused during a time that has been so disruptive across the economy in so many different regions, for us in terms of visualizing, we start with how we're performing as a global business, but the visualization and the work that we've done to try to drill that down to a geography as well as a product level view has helped enhance not only the financial review of the business, but also from an operational perspective help really make sure that we've got the right metrics that we're measuring, we understand how we've set markers and leading indicators for each of the business units to monitor and manage, and then to help sort of show progress against those has been a real positive coming out of this frankly because we've had a much more engaged group around our weekly reporting or weekly flash and reviews like that, that are helping us understand what capacity and what scheduling habits are telling us about where we're headed in the next period. You know, I think that level of data and visualizing that for not just again across the finance function, but also across the organization is helping really sync up what operation staff and support are driving. We have a global network of test centers as well as a team of remote proctors that deliver services to our clients. But it's also around candidate support. And when we've had to connect it's been having to understand data supporting candidates coming back in to test post COVID, as those restrictions have been lifted we've had much quicker access to understand where we had to expand capacity and where we had to manage for additional resources to support that backlog. Data has been crucial to helping us clarify, not only the expectation for candidates coming back in, but also helping our clients to define where they have opportunities to expand their own capacity for some of the offerings throughout a calendar year.   Adam: (14:08) So Jeff, as we kind of wrap up this conversation, I've been listening to you talk about your role as CFO and it seems like that the role of the CFO is changing and we've seen papers written about it, we've heard people, other folks talk about it and I just wanted to get your perspective as a CFO, how do you see the role of the CFO changing and as we look forward to the other side of this pandemic, what is that going to look like for you?   Jeff: (14:37) Sure Adam thanks. I think if I look historically the key roles around core finance capabilities have traditionally been around financial reporting, accounting, the controllership function and treasury. I think as you look forward, those are obviously still important in terms of stewardship of the business and overall command of operations. I think where I'm finding myself increasingly involved are more strategic discussions around, anywhere from investments that we're going to make in the company, both in terms of internal product development as well as corporate development and M&A opportunities for the business to grow into new markets and ancillary products. But I think it also really kind of, it takes a turn when you're spending much more time with the commercial organization when you're spending more time with the operations team, to really make sure that as finance has a role, not only in reporting, the outcomes of the work of those groups, really helping be part of the decision-making and helping influence the outcome to a better result. That's been particularly important for us coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic, given not only this disruption to our business and our clients and candidates, but frankly across the team. We've had to find new ways of working remotely together and it's really been a time where we have really invested together as a leadership team with finance having a true seat at the table if you will, to influence the direction of the company. We have been involved in a number of our key client current portfolio, as well as new pursuits, helping align not only the financial plan that we expect to offer to the business to perform too, but also really helping understand the economics and how we can work better to support our clients during what's been a challenging time for their businesses as well. You know, I think adding to that, really trying to be a catalyst for change, when I think about areas that myself and my team have been involved in it's certainly been focused on business performance improvement. I think of that not just simply as cost initiatives and savings opportunities, but really how do we function better as an enterprise? We talked a little bit earlier around our opportunities that came during the pandemic around new product investment, as well as some of our financial systems and other technology investments we're making. Those are meant to really enhance what we can do as a finance organization to contribute to really overall enterprise performance. It helps us when we're getting better around using data analytics to drive pricing discussions with the commercial organization. It helps us when we're making investment allocation discussions or our investment allocation decisions with our technology and product organization and I think certainly looks at that finance has a seat at the table when we're talking about the evolution of our organization. As I mentioned, taking advantage of some of the disruption, but also really looking at where we can be much more of an innovator and really again, kind of coming back to finance having a seat at the table around being a catalyst for that change. I think this has been an opportunity for us to show the value of not just financial reporting, but also overall business performance. When we've gotten much deeper in terms of sharing with the organization how we're doing against not just plans that we set for the organization at the beginning of the year, but on a period to period basis where we're able to show where the investments are taking place, show where those are having the strongest return and make sure that we're allocating our capital and resources according to the best opportunities for us as a company.   Closing: (18:52) This has been Count Me In, IMA's podcast providing you with the latest perspectives of thought leaders from the accounting and finance profession. If you like what you heard and you'd like to be counted in for more relevant accounting and finance education, visit IMA's website at www.imanet.org.

*** So sorry but we wanted to get the audio right and thanks to Kiaza's husband, we got it right! Thanks Adam!*** Kate. Tommy, and Nelson sit down with Kiaza and Ava to talk about why Fall is hell for indigenous people facebook.com/dixieprole https://twitter.com/DixieProle?s=09 patreon.com/dixieprole https://lakotalaw.org/

It's the Amazing Spider-Man 76, and Spider-Man has one hell of an enemy to tackle as The Lizard rampages. Show notes by Adam Fixter! Thanks Adam. New audio has been uploaded to fix audio drift issues...

It's the Amazing Spider-Man 76, and Spider-Man has one hell of an enemy to tackle as The Lizard rampages. Show notes by Adam Fixter! Thanks Adam. New audio has been uploaded to fix audio drift issues...

This episode plays out like a clash of three titans: Swervedriver's Adam Franklin...vs. Moe and Curly Howard. We've never faced a challenger from Oxford, England (we've done Oxford, Mississippi), but suffice to say the corner man should have thrown in the towel for us before the intellectual knockout blows were landed. It was, however, our great pleasure to talk about The Stranglers with someone who appreciates their oddness and brilliance, and who probably knows the names of all the pieces on a chess board, and perhaps even how it's played. Thanks Adam. Support our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/join/TRGMH/

Episode 331 of the PetaPixel Photography Podcast. Download MP3 -  Subscribe via iTunes, Google Play, email or RSS! Featured: Photographer, Adam Lerner   In This Episode If you subscribe to the PetaPixel Photography Podcast in iTunes, please take a moment to rate and review us and help us move up in the rankings so others interested in photography may find us. Show Opener:Photographer, Adam Lerner.  Thanks Adam! Sponsors: - Build Your Legacy with Fujifilm - Get 20% off at BenroUSA.com with offer code PetaPixel20- Get 20% off at Tenba.com with offer code PetaPixel20- Get FreshBooks cloud accounting FREE for 30 DAYS by entering PetaPixel in the "How Did You Hear About Us?" section at FreshBooks.com/PetaPixel - More at LensShark.com/deals. Stories: LensRentals.com's list of top-rented gear of 2019. (#) Why you probably won't want to shoot here now. (#) Another Kodak idea bites the dust. (#) Nikon really wants you to buy the Z 50. (#) Canon's new 70-200 has focus issues...for now. (#) A Canon patent hints at the future of its stabilization. (#) Connect With Us Thank you for listening to the PetaPixel Photography Podcast! Connect with me, Sharky James on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook (all @LensShark) as we build this community. We’d love to answer your question on the show. Leave us an audio question through our voicemail widget, comment below or via social media. But audio questions are awesome! You can also cut a show opener for us to play on the show! As an example: “Hi, this is Matt Smith with Double Heart Photography in Chicago, Illinois, and you’re listening to the PetaPixel Photography Podcast with Sharky James!”

Up in this one we're talking about the Doppler effect, the doppelganger effect, and the guillotine effect. We talk with Bleeding Gums Murphy, explore another reality, and generate a few lackluster NPCs for FREE. This episode brought to you in part by our out-of-court settlement with Adam Ruins Everything. Thanks Adam!

On today's show, Hunter and Callum are joined by South of the Six host Adam Corsair to talk all things Blue Jays. The show is lead off with discussion about the Blue Jays most recent management decisions in trading Kevin Pillar and extending Randal Grichuk. Next, we ask Adam whether the Blue Jays hitting woes and impressive pitching have been a surprise at all and what to expect moving forward. Lastly, we give out our "award" for outstanding player of the week! Thanks Adam for joining this week! Visit our website and subscribe!

Episode 43 Law & Order BMLTL Blunt Mommy’s Left Titty & Liver Blunt Mommy the delicate little flower non-alcoholic who drinks a lot and has no soul is back!!! Go to http://www.manbrainpodcast.com for all the links, stinks, pinks & kinks. Thank ya Fuck ya for listening. How many Man Brain Extended Universe podcasters are in your spank bank? How many times do we mention Doug from Who’s Right Podcast in this episode? Why are we riding his dick so hard? We try to get to the bottom of who is responsible for the Blunt Mommy parody Twitter accounts: Blunt Mommy’s Left Tit & her Liver. The suspects are the super humble Jason, Jodie B, Tractor Larry, Doug, & Big Dick Ben. We interrogate three of the suspects and someone gets the old phone book massage. Feel free to troll these accounts and try and flush out their true identity: http://www.twitter.com/bluntliver http://www.twitter.com/blunttitty We all get a little tingle in our balls about some of the wonderful people from Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Georgia, Wyoming, South Carolina & the even more redneck Queensland Australia. We take a Debbie Does Dallas Detour. Send in your audition tapes for our planned reimagining of the classic pornographic film about cheerleader whoring with big bushes. We discuss the comedy roast of Jason Alme and the massive fallout including cool group mutinies and epic battles between some of the greatest keyboard warriors of all time. Blunt Mommy fervently denies ever doing Meth despite all the accusations. What do frog farts taste like? Link to uncut version of Roast on Youtube: https://youtu.be/9CS4u8e-o7A Edited version will be released on Shit Happens When You Party Naked podcast. We roast Adam Simmons because he said ‘sepia’ and ‘taupe’ in his recent comedy roast set. An over-reaction to be sure and he promised to help get a new version of the Man Brain theme tune recorded. Thanks Adam; you’re the best! We ban Hunter from The Plunge podcast from our show permanently and tell Riley from The Plunge to dump all his co-hosts and find some comedy equals. We announce Blunt Mommy’s Titty Talk, a new series on her channel, where Blunt will wear promotional stickers as nipple pasties, and we’ll talk titties. If you’d like to be a guest on the show, contact Blunt Mommy on her Twitter or email bluntmommypodcast@yahoo.com Send in your Ass sucking giving and/or receiving audio clips to realmanbrainpodcast@gmail.com As always send your dick pics to http://www.twitter.com/blunt_mommy Thanks to Zero Fucks Given podcast for having me on their show. Go check out Heather, Teri and Daisy having some of the most frank sexual discussions we’ve ever heard. Mentions: Block em Todd from Chewed Gum Podcast, Big Dick Ben from Small Town Mentality Podcast, Amanda the belt sander from Blunt Mommy Podcast, Butt Plug Doug & Unfuckable Anthony from Who’s Right Podcast, Wheelbarrow Full of Dicks Internet Radio Program, Jodie B the Humble C from Po Boys Podcast, Fucking on his Tractor Larry from Bearded Dad Podcast, Jason Alme why not take All of Me from Shit Happens When You Party Naked Podcast, Debbie Does Dallas, Undoubtebly Adam from Simmons & Moore Podcast, Riley the GOAT & Hunter the banned from The Plunge Podcast, Dandy Warhols suck, Bono from U2 who is still cool, Secret Project to be announced soon, Australian comedian Rodney Rude, Dirty Hank’s Monoball Podcast, Zero Fuck’s Given Podcast, Inner Circle Podcast Network, Inner City Poor Kids Network, Innie Cunt Juice Network, PJ from Bicker Bots podcast, Menmoirs Just the Tips Podcast, NSFW Podcast Network, Drama City Productions, The Hood Diner Project Podcast, Titty Tractors, Whistling Butt Plugs, Lydia’s feet, Drunk Irene’s dirty mouth, Hank’s penis thumb, Pandy’s asshole & Big Blue. As they say in Georgia: Gotta keep your fingers wet in multiple peach pie cobblers.

In this episode of the Pursuit of the Perfect Race, I talk with my friend and professional triathlete Adam Feigh. Adam and his loving wife recently had their first child together earlier this year. This adds to the complication of their life, work, training balance and we discuss how he does this with his family. Adam is being coached by Jesse Vondracek from Top Step Training. One of the trends we also talk about is how all athletes regardless of ability need to have a “Plan B” for their nutrition. When something happens that isn’t planned for, things will happen that can deteriorate your race. Even though there wasn’t a swim at this course, the course is still more than the 140.6 mile distance due to the additional four miles on the bike. Thanks Adam for coming on the show, I enjoyed talking with you and look forward to following you in the future!-Enjoy the show. To see pictures from their race, go to https://www.coachterrywilson.com/perfect-Weather that day: -Age Group: PROHeight: 6’0”Weight: 165Calories per hour: 450PSI for this course: ~100Depth of Wheels: Alto 86/disc CC311Swim – n/aT1 – n/aBike – 4:31:49T2 – 1:53Run – 3:11:37Total Race Time: 7:45:18-Gender Rank: 6Division Rank: 6Overall Rank: 6-Follow Adam,Instagram: @feighathlonFacebook: Adam FeighWebsite: www.feighathlon.com-Follow Coach Terry:Instagram: @PerfectRacePodcastFacebook: www.facebook.com/CoachTerryWilsonWebsite: www.CoachTerryWilson.com -Mentioned on this episode:Epix Gear: https://epixgear.com/Team Kattouf: http://teamkattouf.com/Top Step Training: http://www.topsteptraining.com/

In this episode of the Pursuit of the Perfect Race, I talk with my friend and professional triathlete Adam Feigh. Adam and his loving wife recently had their first child together earlier this year. This adds to the complication of their life, work, training balance and we discuss how he does this with his family. Adam is being coached by Jesse Vondracek from Top Step Training. One of the trends we also talk about is how all athletes regardless of ability need to have a “Plan B” for their nutrition. When something happens that isn’t planned for, things will happen that can deteriorate your race. Even though there wasn’t a swim at this course, the course is still more than the 140.6 mile distance due to the additional four miles on the bike. Thanks Adam for coming on the show, I enjoyed talking with you and look forward to following you in the future!-Enjoy the show. To see pictures from their race, go to https://www.coachterrywilson.com/perfect-Weather that day: -Age Group: PROHeight: 6’0”Weight: 165Calories per hour: 450PSI for this course: ~100Depth of Wheels: Alto 86/disc CC311Swim – n/aT1 – n/aBike – 4:31:49T2 – 1:53Run – 3:11:37Total Race Time: 7:45:18-Gender Rank: 6Division Rank: 6Overall Rank: 6-Follow Adam,Instagram: @feighathlonFacebook: Adam FeighWebsite: www.feighathlon.com-Follow Coach Terry:Instagram: @PerfectRacePodcastFacebook: www.facebook.com/CoachTerryWilsonWebsite: www.CoachTerryWilson.com -Mentioned on this episode:Epix Gear: https://epixgear.com/Team Kattouf: http://teamkattouf.com/Top Step Training: http://www.topsteptraining.com/

Episode 266 of the PetaPixel Photography Podcast. Download MP3 -  Subscribe via iTunes, Google Play, email or RSS! Featured: Photographer and filmmaker, Adam Karnacz In This Episode If you subscribe to the PetaPixel Photography Podcast in iTunes, please take a moment to rate and review us and help us move up in the rankings so others interested in photography may find us. Show Opener: Photographer and filmmaker, Adam Karnacz opens the show. Thanks Adam! Sponsors: - Get 20% off at XritePhoto.com with offer code PetaPixel20 - Get 10% off at TetherTools.com with offer code PetaPixel10 - More at LensShark.com/deals. Stories: A real estate photographer gets shot when he surprises a homeowner. (#) Lytro is shuttered. (#) An update in the photojournalist whose gear was mistaken for a gun. (#) Moment introduces an anamorphic lens and more. (#) The story behind that familiar shutter sound. (#) GoPro licenses its technology and introduces a budget HERO. (#) Outtakes My other podcast with Brian Matiash, the No Name Photo Show. Connect With Us Thank you for listening to the PetaPixel Photography Podcast! Connect with me, Sharky James on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook (all @LensShark) as we build this community. We’d love to answer your question on the show. Leave us an audio question through our voicemail widget, comment below or via social media. But audio questions are awesome! You can also cut a show opener for us to play on the show! As an example: “Hi, this is Matt Smith with Double Heart Photography in Chicago, Illinois, and you’re listening to the PetaPixel Photography Podcast with Sharky James!”

We’re back in less than a month! Now part of the Trinity Force Network, we talk about games like Monster Hunter World and Metal Gear Survive. Thanks Adam for letting us be a part of your crazy journey. How does one, League of Legends?  

Episode 247 of the PetaPixel Photography Podcast. Download MP3 -  Subscribe via iTunes, Google Play, email or RSS! Featured: Commercial portrait and fashion photographer, Adam Lerner In This Episode If you subscribe to the PetaPixel Photography Podcast in iTunes, please take a moment to rate and review us and help us move up in the rankings so others interested in photography may find us. Show Opener: Commercial portrait and fashion photographer, Adam Lerner opens the show. Thanks Adam! Sponsors: - Get 1 month of Format's Pro level online portfolio platform for FREE at Format.com/petapixel - Get FreshBooks cloud accounting FREE for 30 DAYS by entering PetaPixel in the "How Did You Hear About Us?" section at FreshBooks.com/PetaPixel - More at LensShark.com/deals. Stories: Rumors abound of Nikon's upcoming mirrorless system with new Z-mount. (#) Zion National Park in Utah expands its ban. (#) CVS makes a bold move which may change the face of beauty imagery. (#) Leica introduces two new SL lenses. (#) Yet another photographer is accused of abuse and pays the price. (#) Two years and counting and Kodak still wants it's Super 8 film camera to happen. (#) Outtakes My other podcast with Brian Matiash, the No Name Photo Show. Connect With Us Thank you for listening to the PetaPixel Photography Podcast! Connect with me, Sharky James on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook (all @LensShark) as we build this community. We’d love to answer your question on the show. Leave us an audio question through our voicemail widget, comment below or via social media. But audio questions are awesome! You can also cut a show opener for us to play on the show! As an example: “Hi, this is Matt Smith with Double Heart Photography in Chicago, Illinois, and you’re listening to the PetaPixel Photography Podcast with Sharky James!”

Episode Transcript: ADAM MCGOWAN:: Welcome to episode seven of Ventures in Tech, brought to you by Firefield. This is Adam McGowan and on today’s show we’re going to discuss the concept of the minimum viable product or MVP and the risks of mistaking assumption testing for product development. I’m again being joined by my colleague from Firefield, Henry Reohr, who will be guiding today’s chat. And with that, I’ll let Henry take it away. HENRY REOHR: [00:34]: Adam, in the startup environment, the term minimum viable product gets thrown around a lot. It also seems to have a number of definitions. Can multiple meanings of MVP all be correct? ADAM MCGOWAN: [00:47]: Well, if you like to be a bit of a purist, which I think of myself as when it comes to this, I would argue that you go back to the source. And in his book, The Lean Startup, Eric Ries created what’s probably known as popularized version or at least what was initially the most popularized version of the definition of this MVP. And he said that a minimum viable product is that version of a new product which allows a team to collect the maximum amount of validated learning about customers with the least amount of effort. Now, that left a ton of room for interpretation and I would argue that the industry has really taken a bunch of liberties with it and I think I do as well. HENRY REOHR: [01:30]: Like what? What kind of liberties? ADAM MCGOWAN: [01:33]: Well, my first one is the question whether or not the MVP is really a product. So if you dig into it, it seems more like a learning loop; this idea that you build, you measure, you learn something and then you iterate on that. I actually do some mentorship and do some teaching on The Lean Startup approach and on the idea of MVP creation, and this is what I talk about when I do that; this idea of this iterative loop. And, you know, I think it’s something that’s sometimes gets a little bit confused given that product is actually right in the name of the MVP. HENRY REOHR: [02:10]: I also hear a handful of other names thrown around when people talk about early stage products. There’s clickable prototypes, proofs of concept, alphas, betas and several others. Some even see an abuse interchangeably with MVP. How do they all relate to each other? ADAM MCGOWAN: [02:29]: This is a place where I’d say I get a little bit frustrated and I do that or I feel that way because I feel that there’s really a necessity to separate out the concept of creating a product from actually testing your assumptions and I think the descriptions and the names you just share tend to commingle those two concepts, some cases, in pretty material ways. So if I think about the stages of product development, I’d argue that the proof of concept happens at the earliest of stages and this tries to help you determine if something can even be done. You then kind of move into what would be more of a prototyping phase which describes and helps to illustrate how it would actually be done. And then, what you end up with is various versions of completeness and then you can all evolve those over time. And I think that you ask ten different people about the definition of one particular term that you shared, they might give you ten different answers. When I think about this idea of product testing, one example of that is what I would consider the alpha test or the alpha version of a product. This typically means the product is not fully functional, there’s likely bugs in the product, but really what’s happening is that the owners of that product are looking for some feedback. That evolves into another phase which is much more commonly used that’s called the beta, the beta test or the beta release. This is typically a highly functional version of a product but it is not yet fully tested and it requires more feedback. But something to think about here is that all these, both alpha and beta, are still beyond proof of concept and they’re beyond prototyping. You are actually just dealing with what’s the level of completeness of your actual product and you’re not testing your assumptions here. You’re testing whether the product works. You’re testing whether or not there’s bugs. It’s a different thing but sometimes they get lumped together. With the MVP, I think they’re very different things. Separate and apart from that is this notion of assumption testing. So again, as I said, those above stages, they’re about building, and about testing the actual product once it’s past this proof type stage, and at that point you’re not really having any requirements left to need to test the product’s underlying assumptions. Some things that we can attempt to do, two things, which is to both go about building products and then also go about testing assumptions. And I think that’s what the MVP tries to accomplish. But most early versions of product, you know, at best can serve one of these two things, either assumption testing or product development. There’s even a few cases where I think it attempts to conserve neither of those purposes. HENRY REOHR: [05:09]: Neither? How can something that a founder’s going to share with a user be neither a product nor an assumption test? ADAM MCGOWAN: [05:21]: I think it usually happens when something attempts to be a test. It’s attempting to go by testing an assumption. So this means it was never intended yet to be a product, it’s not fully functional, it’s not too ready for market, but the problem is that the actual mechanism they used to test isn’t very good. Not very scientific, they don’t control for a bunch of variables or even worse, it does attempt to make a pretty scientific test, it just goes about testing assumptions that are the wrong things to test. HENRY REOHR: [05:53]: What do you mean by that? How do you know whether or not you are testing the right thing? How could there a wrong test? ADAM MCGOWAN: [06:01]: Well for a startup, money often time seems or in reality is their most scarce resource. But the reality is, in the vast majority of cases, it’s not money that’s the most scarce resource, it’s time. And so if you go back to Eric Ries, you’re trying to “maximize learning over the shortest period of time.” And so let’s say you had a hypothesis you’re trying to test and it was, “Can I get ten customers to commit to purchase over the next two week period?” And let’s say that you actually go about achieving that, you do get those customers over that period time. What if in reality finding small numbers of paying customers is extremely easy but then those customers represent a market that’s way too small to actually sustain your venture? So what you’ve done is you’ve created test, you’ve controlled for it, you’ve got a result, you’ve proved it to be true, the problem is it’s not meaningful at all. It was too easy to achieve. It doesn’t address the bigger issues you’re trying to accomplish. And so what could have been the right test would have been trying to determine how well this product could attract customers outside of this initial market, outside of this sort of easy picking, if you will, when it comes to customers. Those subsequent markets might be necessary to make the product a success but yet you’ve just fulfilled a positive result to a test that could lead you down an inconclusive or in some cases problematic path. HENRY REOHR: [07:29]: So how do you first identify and then conduct the right test? ADAM MCGOWAN: [07:36]: Well, I have thought about this quite a bit and I think that it’s a pretty complicated lengthy answer. But then, I actually found a piece of content somewhere recently that I think articulates the concept really really well. I saw it earlier last year, it was in a post on Hacker Noon written by someone named Rik Higham, and he proposed something he calls a RAT. HENRY REOHR: [07:59]: RAT? R-A-T like the rodent? ADAM MCGOWAN: [08:03]: Yes, R-A-T, but it stands for Riskiest Assumption Test,, and these are assumptions that if they’re not proven true have the most sizeable negative impact on a venture. So let’s take that past example we had, getting customers to commit. Assuming the entrepreneur asked herself a question, “Is the idea that I can find ten customers the riskiest of all my assumptions?” So that’s a modification of the prior question which was, “Can I get ten customers in two weeks?” Now it’s, can the act of getting those customers be easy or hard, right? How risky is that assumption? I think that assessing whether or not getting ten customers is the riskiest possible assumption you could have, it’s pretty clear the answer is no. That is not the riskiest assumption that you should be testing. And so what it does is it forces the founder to then iterate and then break these problems and questions and concerns down into smaller and more explicit components, often addressing issues that they haven’t looked at in depth yet. HENRY REOHR: [09:12]: So now that we’ve added another acronym to the mix, what’s the biggest takeaway you want to share with founders who have products that are at a very early stage. ADAM MCGOWAN: [09:24]: Well, I think the first thing I want to do is to suggest that people try to forget about buzzwords. One, they are by their very nature very much a fad, they can come and go. Two, they’re open for interpretation, you ask ten people you get ten different answers, and I just don’t think they get to the core of what you’re trying to deal with. So I think that what’s most important is for founders to really focus on moving their ventures forward as efficiently as possible. Almost in sort of a fanatical way, be consistently asking yourself, “Is this the most efficient use of my unbelievably limited time and potentially extremely limited money and capital?” And if the answer is no, iterate. Figure out what it is that you’re supposed to be doing that’s more efficient. I think another point that’s very very key is to really think hard about the distinguishing this idea of assumption testing from product launching. Again, the MVP kind of tries to do both but they’re pretty distinct things with pretty distinct objectives. For no two companies will they be the same but they are pretty distinct for almost every company that I’ve seen. I’d argue that the priority here should be mostly on the assumptions first and then product second. And so if the most important tests that you need to address first, if they don’t translate into an MVP, then don’t build the MVP yet. This is another major misstep I see all the time which is, ideas that are not fully baked, they are not fully validated, they don’t necessarily… they aren’t necessarily even a product yet, they’re just still a concept, people will come to us and say, “I need you to build my MVP.” First of all, you don’t build an MVP, right? You iterate an MVP, you use it as an assumption test. But I think the term is thrown around in the wrong way and then the product gets put in front of the assumptions and I think that that’s backwards. So, with all I’ve said, I think there’s really a lot to this idea of the RAT even if the acronym isn’t particularly all that attractive. So what does it do? It helps you to uncover these riskiest assumptions, it helps you to validate them in the smallest and most iterative test that you possibly can and if the performance of such tests requires the creation of an early stage product then think about creating one. But if it does not, don’t. So I think this idea and this assumption that some form of product creation is always the early answer is a very sort of commonality in the startup environment and I roll back to this concept of test first, validate assumptions, come up with the notion that there’s a product that should be built and then go about doing it. And so I think that oftentimes the notion of the MVP, while in its purest form, when Ries talked about it, made great sense, it’s played a game of telephone over the course of the years and now I think it seems like an M, a V, and a capital P in that the product seems to get brought to the front and I think that that’s something that if the founders are more thoughtful about it, they’ll find themselves being able to validate earlier and probably find a little bit more success in their products. HENRY REOHR: [12:41]: Thanks Adam. That’s all we’ve got for today. I’m Henry Reohr from Firefield and you’ve been listening to another episode of Ventures in Tech.

Today’s topic is a fun one. Partially because it is something that I am sure that we can all agree on but mostly because for the first time in quite a while we have a guest hero! Guest heroes, actually. Vanessa and Adam Lambert from Bee The Wellness. We’ll here from them in just a bit but first, let’s talk about a thing known as Work Zones. And no, I am not ta lking about that section of the highway where you see a bunch of pylons and folks in brightly coloured outfits standing around with shovels in their hands while enormous machinery digs a new ditch No, I am talking about spaces around your home, your office or where ever you get your work done, where you can vary your stance, extend your gaze, vary your movement, and even other biomarkers like your body temperature, to keep from getting what Adam will refer to later as “cabin fever” while you are at work. Hello, my cubicle contrasters, open space sundry, corner office opposite, home den dissimilar, and coffee shop specialized. My name is Brock Armstrong, and after you listen to enough of these podcast episodes, I hope to replace the voice in your head - “put your phone down and get back to work - when was the last time you got up from your desk - shouldn’t you have left work by now - always take the stairs.” Is that creepy? Maybe a little… anyway…  Today’s topic is a fun one. Partially because it is something that I am sure that we can all agree on but mostly because for the first time in quite a while we have a guest hero! Guest heroes, actually. Vanessa and Adam Lambert from Bee The Wellness. We’ll here from them in just a bit but first, let’s talk about a thing known as Work Zones. And no, I am not ta  lking about that section of the highway where you see a bunch of pylons and folks in brightly coloured outfits standing around with shovels in their hands while enormous machinery digs a new ditch No, I am talking about spaces around your home, your office or where ever you get your work done, where you can vary your stance, extend your gaze, vary your movement, and even other biomarkers like your body temperature, to keep from getting what Adam will refer to later as “cabin fever” while you are at work.  Before I continue, let’s step into the email zone for a minute… heh. I would love it if you signed up for the Workplace Hero email newsletter over at workplacehero.me. The sign up form is on the righthand side of the page. Because I believe so strongly in the idea of Inbox Zero, I promise that you will only receive an email once per week, and it will be short, to the point and easy to delete. Plus, just for signing up, you will receive a coupon code for 10% off at the online health and fitness store, GreenfieldFitnessSystems.com. Over there they have a huge array of supplements, gear, plans, coaches and clothing that will help keep you healthy and fit. So sign up for the newsletter at workplacehero.me and get your discount code for GreenfieldFitnessSystems.com now.  Ok. Let’s meet our guest heroes.  AdamHi We are Adam and Vanessa Lambert owners of Bee The Wellness. We have been in the health and fitness business for nearly 20 years and as holistic wellness coaches we focus on the complete picture, including strength and conditioning, nutrition, mindfulness, and adventure. Since creating Bee The Wellness we have helped thousands of people adopt a healthier lifestyle as well create expanded lives through our remote coaching programs and retreats. They also have a great podcast that you can find on iTunes or wherever you listen to podcasts. Just search for Bee (that’s with two Es) The Wellness or go to beethewellness.com and give it a try. A good episode to start with would be the one where they interviewed me! Ha ha… as if you don’t get enough of me already. Anyway. When I asked Vanessa and Adam what issues they saw cropping up in their clients as a direct result of their workspaces, this is what they told me.  VanessaAs the majority of our work for Bee The Wellness takes place out of our house or on the road and includes a ton of computer time we have identified three issues that cause us the most grief and negatively impact our productivity.  1. Eye strain - Frequent laptop and mobile device sessions can have our gaze fixed at one distance for hours if we don’t take action.2. Lack of movement - When you get out of bed and then you are at work all day you miss out on several opportunities to move. Think walking to your car, walking up the stairs in your office, and running whatever errands you have to do. Adam3. Boredom/ fatigue - Similar to #2 being in the same space morning noon and night can seriously affect our ability to stay focused. It’s like having cabin fever and can sneak up pretty quickly if you don’t get a change of scenery. To combat these issues we create work zones and rotate between them throughout the day. These zones help us to stay productive and check a few items off of our daily fitness list.  I don’t think any of us can argue with any of those issues. In my experience they are all quite ubiquitous in our modern work life. I for one have been experiencing more and more annoying eye problems the older I get (and no I don’t wear reading glasses… not yet anyway. Sometimes I would rather work in a very loud and crowded coffee shop than spend another minute standing at my desk in my office. And I know that I am lucky that a large part of my job involves me getting a lot of movement in my day (remember, I am also the Get-Fit Guy over at QuickAndDirtyTips.com) but I have many clients who feel trapped behind their desk and are simply desperate to find more ways to add more movement to their every day life. So this is where the idea of Work Zones come into play. I will let Vanessa explain.  VanessaSo what are work zones? They are spaces you identify throughout your home, office, and common spaces like hotels, where you can set up shop and work. There really is no limit to how you set up your spaces but we like to make sure we at least cover these three bases: Adam1) Sit-to-stand: This is where your technical work gets done and the place to put any specialty gear you require. A podcast recording setup for example. 2) Outdoor: Like the name implies we want this space to be outdoor or as close to it as possible. Somewhere with distant views, fresh air, and outdoor light.3) Gym Space: This does not need to be fancy, just a spot with a few fitness tools and the freedom to move. Vanessa I am sure your mind is already scheming, already taking stock of the benefits you will glean, the energy you will reclaim and the focus you will gain but our guests have a few more benefits.  So what are the benefits? 1st there is the physical benefits from frequent movement: Changing your physical position, sit to stand, leaning back into a stool which allows the hip capsule to remain open, captain morgan. Any new position you can create for your body helps decrease the problems associated with not only repetitive motion but the rigidity that staying in one place creates. We know that lack of movement  is bad for circulation, mobility, and maintaining consistent energy and focus throughout the day. So creating new positions is important Adam 2nd we know staring at the computer all day can cause eye strain: A great practice is take to breaks and stare off in the distance to give the muscles in the eye a chance to work. By moving outside where we can actually focus on something in the distance we offer our eyes the opportunity to work in a way that strengthens the muscles and helps prevent fatigue.  Vanessa 3rd. As with any job one of the greatest challenges we face is a diminishing ability to focus or stay engaged: Changing our work zone serves as a way to break up the monotony of the  day and gives us a chance to feel refocused without losing productivity and time.  Those are all great points but let’s get some concrete examples of how this can work in the real world.  Adam With this in mind, we like to actually move around the house into different work zones. Going from our standing work stations, to sitting at the kitchen table, to working from the various counters in our house helps us to create different positions for our bodies to move through.  We include an outside work station where we can take breaks from  staring at the computer screen and get some fresh air, sunlight & vitamin d to help keep us invigorated as well as calm and focused.  We also have a simple gym set up where we can grab a couple sets of basics movements like squats, kb swings or pull-ups throughout the day. The gym space is a great stop over when we are working on something the requires creativity and abstract thought and strategy...getting a little movement in can help inspire new ideas or different ways of looking at old ones. If you are having trouble visualizing how this might work, I will embed a video of our Workplace Hero friend, Katy Bowman, over at workplacehero.me/workzones where she shows exactly how she moves from one work area to another in her house (she calls it a Dynamic Work Space), using different positions, levels, heights and all the stuff that Vanessa and Adam are talking to us about today. And don’t worry, she sped the video up so you don’t have to sit there for an entire hour just to see how she does this.  Ok! I think we have some great ideas here which means it is my favourite time of the podcast. Vanessa, can you give us some homework? Vanessa HomeworkSee if you can create three different work zones and move between your work zones every 90 minutes or so. Each one should:- Change the space you’re in can reinvigorate your focus = better productivity, - reduce eye strain by focuses off in the distance,- give you some fresh air, sunlight, vitamin d calm central nervous system, - break up the day up so that you are less bored. For me, it works like this:- I have my standing work station in my office with my main computer on it (with two huge monitors),- Laptop computer that I take upstairs to the kitchen or living room to place on the table (I try to avoid my lap) so I can sit down to really concentrate on my writing, - A high table outside on the balcony that faces the mountains in North Vancouver so I can make or return Skype calls while focussing my eyes on some snowy peaks that are really far away and getting some sun on my skin,- A yoga mat, a foam roller, some resistance bands and a set of Powerblock dumbbells in the corner of the living room that I can jump on any time I need to stretch out or raise my heart rate.  I think I have it nailed!  Vanessa We hope you will take a look at how you can create this various zones in your workplace. Whether you work from home, are in a traditional workspace or out on the road, creating work zones has been a tremendously helpful tool for us and we think it will be for you too. I couldn’t have said it better myself. Thanks Adam and Vanessa. It was great having you on the podcast. It’s been lonely being a solo workplace hero for the last few weeks.  And with that in mind, if you have a suggestion for a Guest Hero or even just a topic that I haven’t covered yet, shoot me an email at podcast@workplacehero.me. I am always happy to oblige! ** Workplace Hero is researched, written, narrated and recorded by me Brock Armstrong with editing help from Eleanor Cohen. Podcast logo by Ken Cunningham and original music by my band, The Irregular Heartbeats. For more information on today’s Guest Heroes, Vanessa and Adam Lambert, go to beethewellness.com (that’s with two Es) and while you are there make sure to check out their podcast.  Now go make this week a diverse one.

Welcome to CNI Radio's JimmyLee and Bambi show for the 10th of May 2014. Adam/@ross549 scrambled to do a live show since JimmyLee and Bambi's electricity went out due to severe storms before the show. Thanks Adam! Adam's special guests: Bambi and Mr. Anderson via Skype.

Welcome to CNI Radio's JimmyLee and Bambi show for the 22nd of June 2013 with Guest Hosts: Adam w/Mr. Anderson! Thanks Adam and Mr. A!

Musician and poet Kevin Gant talks with us at a good friend's house in east Austin. (Thanks Adam!) Gant's documentary Kevin, by Jay Duplass, is on Netflix and gives a glimpse into the life of the singer/songwriter. We talked about raising children, online networking, recording his new album, and he plays some of his songs!

CNI Radio's JimmyLee and Bambi show suffered Verizon Wireless bandwidth issues but Adam and Joshua did a live show to cover for us for the 10th of March 2012. Thanks Adam and Joshua!

It's the Amazing Spider-Man 76, and Spider-Man has one hell of an enemy to tackle as The Lizard rampages. - Show notes by Adam Fixter! Thanks Adam. - New audio has been uploaded to fix audio drift issues...