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Tom Rhoads (00:03): In our previous podcast, we interviewed human factors expert Christina Mendat. Christina worked with us in some of the software design for Spencer. I thought you would also enjoy hearing more about the development team at Spencer Health Solutions. So we invited our software product owner Mary Wrenn to join the podcast and tell us how she works with spencer and our engineering team. I'm Tom Rhodes, CEO of Spencer Health Solutions and I hope you enjoy this episode of "People Always, Patients Sometimes." Janet Kennedy (00:33): You're listening to "People Always, Patients Sometimes" podcast production of Spencer Health Solutions. I'm your host and my name is Janet Kennedy. I am really looking forward to learning something new during the conversation today I have Mary Wrenn who's our software product owner at Spencer Health Solutions with me. Welcome to "People Always, Patients Sometimes." Mary Wrenn (00:54): it is wonderful to be here. I am so excited to talk to you. Janet Kennedy (00:58): Thanks Mary. You know, this is one of the interesting things about a work environment where you see somebody every day, you talk to them every day, but sometimes the actual process of what they do is a mystery. So I'm really looking forward to having a conversation with you. Mary Wrenn (01:15): Absolutely. I think we know each other well from meeting in the kitchen, but I'm excited to chat a little bit more about what I do. Janet Kennedy (01:21): So you are officially titled a software product owner. Do we have more than one software? Mary Wrenn (01:28): Nope. There's just one software platform across the suite of products, the mobile app, the web portal, and the device itself. I am the product owner for all three of those. Janet Kennedy (01:40): So what does that mean? Are you the engineer on the train? Are you the conductor on the train? Are you the caboose on the train? What is your role and how do you keep things moving forward? Mary Wrenn (01:49): Yeah, so I would say I'm kind of like the conductor/cat herder. So I essentially help to keep things moving in the right direction. Sometimes I'll be picking the way the tracks go or sometimes we'll be talking about the best design for the train. So it's a little bit of everything. But for the most part it's executing and kind of getting into the tactical details of how we do what we do. Janet Kennedy (02:14): I imagine when you joined us you really felt like you've jumped off a cliff and now you're in the deep end of the pond as it were. Was it overwhelming or is there something about software product ownership that you can apply skills from your previous experience to here and settle in fairly quickly? Mary Wrenn (02:34): I actually came from another kind of software product owner, product manager role. I was originally at United Health Group working within Optum, so I consciously decided to go from a really large company to a smaller company. I was really enticed by the fact that I could wear a lot of different hats and I've definitely gotten to do that here. I really enjoy getting to do a lot of different across the product suite, whether that's design, technical implementation, or really just getting into the details of how things are going to work and how people are going to use them. Definitely felt like I was kind of going from walking to running a marathon, but I really enjoy it and I liked that the software product ownership really has a lot of different facets to it. Janet Kennedy (03:21): In a sense, we've gotten virtual. We've been able to see a sneak peek into everybody's homes and I was very impressed that you actually had in your home a giant whiteboard that was filled with all kinds of information. So you're a very organized person, Mary. Mary Wrenn (03:37): Thank you. Yeah, the whiteboard is a key. Pretty much anything from any conversation we have is going to get thrown up there. I'm trying to do color coding, but I think that was an ambitious idea that probably got thrown away after meeting number 10. Janet Kennedy (03:50): Well, I can relate to that. So I'm curious, you've been in healthcare then for a while. Is there anything unique or different about software product management in a healthcare realm versus a traditional B2B or B to C business? Mary Wrenn (04:07): Definitely. I think so. I feel like healthcare is really the most intimate industry of any of them. You touch people's lives and really personal places and you really get to see people at their most vulnerable. But that's really what enticed me to healthcare in general. I really liked that you can make an impact on people's lives, whether that's directly or indirectly. So I liked that you can use software as a tool to really help better people's lives, even if you're not directly with them, say like a nurse. So I think healthcare is really special. It comes with a lot of responsibility, but it's, it's really exciting how much change you can drive. Janet Kennedy (04:45): Well, let's talk about change a little bit. The one thing that I know about software is you're always working on something. It is never done and there's always more to do. So when you look at plans for Spencer, for instance, how far ahead are you looking? Is it just trying to get to Friday or is it three weeks, six weeks, six months, five years? How does the planning work for something like that? Mary Wrenn (05:11): It depends on which aspect of the product in general you'll be looking at. So there are some things that when we're designing product features, we're trying to look really far out five, 10 years in the future, even just to make sure that we're making a really flexible design. That's a lot of the architecture decisions, like how we're setting up things in terms of how we'll read bar codes or how we'll add different countries, things like that. Then there are other shorter term goals, like how are we going to wrap up this project to make sure we get this to the right patients at the right time. So our roadmaps, really a mix, we usually are organizing things kind of by release and customer need. So that'll prioritize it in the next few weeks, the next few months. But within that we're trying to make flexible decisions so that way anything we're doing now can be iterated on in the next few years. So our roadmap is weekly, quarterly, and yearly. Janet Kennedy (06:08): And when you're designing something, you need to look out to the future because when you get to two years from now and you want to add this significant element, but oops, if you didn't do something two years ago, does that mean it's impossible or you're just going to have to do all kinds of workarounds to make it happen? Mary Wrenn (06:28): So it really depends. Right now, for instance, we're in the process of really standing up a brand new product software wise. So when I came in we were really in the process of redesigning and rebuilding things from the ground up. So there were a lot of those decisions that were kind of baked in in terms of, well if we change it this way we'll have to go back and completely reconfigure things. Or if we do something this way now then it's going to be set that way, the future. So really we try to make the most flexible decisions we can, but try to align that with some of the goals or needs we know are coming. So for instance, previously we were very much aligned to care management and sort of this thought that every patient is going to have one caregiver and it's going to be a very linear relationship. Now we're trying to make that a flexible architecture where it won't work just for care management but for clinical trials also. And those are very different use cases. So what we're trying to circle back, we're trying to make sure that we don't have to go back and say, Oh well if we had just done this, you know, two months ago, this would be so much easier. We're really trying to make things so they're modular and can fit together. Janet Kennedy (07:37): Oh, that makes a lot of sense. Now you mentioned a cat herding and I do know what that's like because I'm on the marketing side and there's a certain amount of cat herding there as well. I'm curious about how people interact together. Is it a domino effect where if you're flipping the Domino's over and they're running forward, but then a domino is missing, everything comes to a stop or have you got parallel paths and somebody can catch up if they're a little behind but it doesn't stop the whole workflow? Mary Wrenn (08:09): Yeah, so we're currently trying to make the team as cross functional as possible so everyone can do a little bit of everything. Obviously within that there are people who are more embedded in their specialties. For instance, we have some people who are really good at the embedded software or we have some people who were really good with Bluetooth or others who are really good with the UI. So we try to make sure that we can have these parallel paths running, but there will always be some dependencies. So a lot of that comes into how our planning, so we'll use a basically an agile process to go and plan out our sprints. We'll do story points and within that we like to get the workload on people so we can ensure that not everything is just running towards one person and then it's bottleneck did and that person just feels of pressure. So we try to spread the dependencies as much as we can. Janet Kennedy (09:00): I had a great conversation earlier with Christina Mendez, who has a company called human factors MD. And her role is to come in and help put together the relationship between psychology and engineering. So understanding how people as people work, look at things, interact, and then how engineering designs the things to work best with people. So I'm curious, is this an ongoing thing? Do you use human factors in a lot of the decision making you're doing or is it literally just for the interface between the user and Spencer? Mary Wrenn (09:41): So it's really across a lot of the product in general. You know, granted most of that focus is on the interface itself, which is mostly the device, but it also comes into play on the web portal, Spencer care and on the mobile apps, but psoriasis. So we really try to look at the ways that people will use that and the different use cases fair. But even into things like our API is we have some customers who aren't going to be sending us information directly through the API. We want to make sure that those are easy to use as well. So there might not be a graphical interface there who we want to make sure that it's logical and it doesn't need pages of explanation just to use a simple function. Janet Kennedy (10:20): I tried to give Christina credit for the personality of Spencer and she said, Nope, no, that wasn't her. So who came up with and how do you manage the personality? Because I honestly feel like Spencer is a person. He has a fun way of speaking, he's very relaxed, he's very engaging, he's very easy to use. So is there something that you do that your team does that gives Spencer personality? Mary Wrenn (10:49): So we really made sure to work closely with marketing in general. Gail was a huge help in terms of really imparting that personality. I was really lucky when I first got here that I had a lot of time to sit with her and really go over all the wording on the screens and say, you know, how did these look? Even things as simple as error messages saying, does this really fit his personality? And I was really able to get a strong sense of who he is and how he talks to our patients. So we were able to really incorporate that into the design of the screens and all of the logic within that. So anything from the error screens to how he's telling you to take your medication? We really just sat down and went through it step by step on how we want him to communicate with patients. Janet Kennedy (11:33): Speaking of communicating, we're very excited that Spencer has headed across the pond to Europe and that the first country Spencer has been in that doesn't speak English, is the Netherlands and so Spencer's now Dutch speaking, what was it like to take our existing product and redo everything in the Dutch language and then now I guess we're going to be looking at French and German and Spanish, et cetera. What is that like translating a complete platform to another language Mary Wrenn (12:07): in a word difficult, but it was a really great challenge actually, I think for most of us on the team, this was the first time we had done something in another language, so there were a lot of decision points and things that you don't even think about that we really had to consider. So even things like the word, okay, is that going to fit on a button to the colors mean the same thing to the symbols mean the same thing and how do we make that really universal? So we really had to think about how we were architecting the platform and even how the text and the colors and the voice prompts would all interface with each other. There's some important things about the voice prompts as well. You want to make sure that he's actually telling people to take their medication and not to say, well, if you want to do, maybe go take it. Mary Wrenn (12:52): So it was a lot of things like that. The process itself actually I felt like went pretty well. It was a learning experience at first for sure. We realized for instance, that Dutch has a lot of really long words which don't necessarily fit on buttons and the current font size that we have. So we actually had to reconfigure the UI a little bit to accommodate that. We also had to adjust how we were displaying questions when we were trying those out with some French examples just to see how those would look. So it actually informed a lot of our design, the sizing, the display. There were a lot of things we had to account for that we didn't initially in English. Janet Kennedy (13:29): What do you consider some of the biggest challenges that you have to deal with in trying to make Spencer work in multiple types of business environments? Mary Wrenn (13:41): The overall architecture, because if you're taking care of your grandma, you would kind of need a different machine and you would look to it for different uses than you would if you were a clinical trial trying to give a drug to hundreds of patients. But fundamentally it's all the same platform that's going to be used. So you really have to design that very flexibly so that way you can accommodate all of those different things within the same platform. So it's really important to keep in mind the personas of who's going to be using what and making sure that everything will work to align with those use cases and work in their best interest. I think the most challenging piece is just making sure that you are staying flexible enough that the product is usable for all the different personas. Janet Kennedy (14:27): So as a marketer, I haven't been as involved as my boss. She's been very involved in getting Spencer launched over in Europe. But one of the things that I did get to participate in was selecting voices for the Spencer voice. So Spencer is sometimes female and sometimes male, which I think is interesting, but I love the reaction to the voice we chose for Dutch. And I wonder if you had heard the story and can tell everybody a little bit about what we found out once we pick the special voice. Mary Wrenn (15:02): Absolutely. That was definitely one of my favorite parts of the translation. So initially we got to just all sit around and listen to these lovely Dutch voices, read us things we could not understand. We finally landed on this really nice, soft sounding female voice and everybody was like, Oh, I really like her, chose that, didn't think much of it. And as she was reading out the video tutorials, we got a feedback from our Dutch partners that apparently this woman had narrated animated shows for kids in the Netherlands and it was really popular. And so one of our business partners would say, Oh, it's so soothing. You can feel like I'm watching cartoons. It reminds me of childhood. Janet Kennedy (15:41): That's awesome. We found the Mary Poppins of the Netherlands to be the voice of spencer. That's pretty serendipitous. I think Mary Wrenn (15:49): that was my favorite. I think she has a lovely voice. I love that she explains how to use Spencer in Dutch. You're like, I don't know what you're saying, but I love it. Janet Kennedy (15:57): Well, Mary, it sounds like you actually enjoy your job. Mary Wrenn (16:01): I do. I really like a challenge and this always keeps me on my toes. I love that. At a small company like this you can wear a ton of different hats and do a lot of different things, so I think it's been a great growth opportunity. Janet Kennedy (16:12): Well, I look forward to the time when we can all be face to face again in person as opposed to virtually, hopefully covert 19 will be resolving itself in the not too distant future so we can get back to working together a little more closely. Mary Wrenn (16:28): Absolutely. But in the meantime it has been wonderful to speak with you at least virtually. Janet Kennedy (16:34): Thanks, Mary and thank you for downloading this episode of "People Always, Patients Sometimes." if you enjoy the conversation, a review and a rating on iTunes will help us find more listeners. This podcast is a production of Spencer health solutions.  

Discernment is a gift. I am so grateful that I can get grounded and simply ask, whenever my brain wants to say “I don’t know”.The whisper inside our minds and hearts is a divine suggestion, that if followed will produce untold positive things. If not followed, it usually produces a gut feeling of “I wish I had…”There are many sources that we can turn to for things to be revealed. The scriptures, a sermon on Sunday, good books, mentors, even dreams. These sources can reveal perspectives we had been blind to.Light is the great revelator. A sunrise touching the landscape, a light bulb moment touching the mind in the dawn of understanding, and Christ, the source of all light touching our hearts.Thanks Mary, for your thought: (paraphrased) “As I move forward in faith, in the right direction, the next step is revealed.”And Michael, who suggested that we explore, not just with sight, but with all our senses. For all things to be revealed, it takes more than a superficial investigation.In Luke, an angel appeared to Mary and revealed to her, the prophecy that she would be the mother of the Son of God. Many had their eyes opened to the great and complete works of God.By comparison with these great revelations of the past, a single thought that comes during a meditative moment, may see small. But it is no less powerful to me in the guidance of my life, than the physical manifestation of a messenger from God.Today, I Give Myself Permission to Honor and Obey My Personal Revelation I am grateful for the inspired messages I receiveMy connection with God is precious to meI speak the language of the SpiritI invite the Holy Ghost into my life to give me comfort, guidance and confirmation of my inspired messagesI communicate clearlyI ask the questions that get the best and most clear answersI discern when more clarity is needed and I go to the source of all light and understandingI practice daily to develop my ability to speak and understand the language of the universeI always have access to all the information, I just have to askClick Here for more info on living a life of gratitude.Click Here to find out how to join the Gratitude Call live every weekday morning at 7 am Mountain Time.Click Here to join the “Breakthrough with Gratitude!” Facebook Group. To have a 15 minute conversation with Wylene Benson about a new perspective on an area of your life you desire to change, contact her directly at this link: askwylene.comSupport the show (https://wylenebenson.com)

Did you vote? The SN Boys are back to rock the vote! On todays balot are 3 supple candidates, make your choice now Beer of the Week! This weeks beer is brought to you buy one of our Patrons, Mary! Thanks Mary for the suggestion! We have Austin Brothers Woody Wheat, check it below! bit.ly/WoodyWheat Boner Podcast@SketchyNonsense.com www.SketchyNonsense.com Facebook.com/SketchyNonsense Twitter.com/SketchyNonsense Patreon.com/SketchyNonsense "Upbeat Forever, Motherlode, Americana, Darxieland " Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

This episode of Country Squire Radio is brought to you by Missouri Meerschaum and the Tin Society. We thank them for supporting this show, and we thank you for supporting them. Episode 238: The End of an Era Welcome & Housekeeping: Jon David laments on the busy-ness but celebrates the shop’s success with the IPSD sale over the past week. The Country Squire also had 2 pipe pilgrimages on the same day! The NOLA Pipe Club (members Mark Van Vrancken, Jared Purvis, and Ryan Smith) made a trip to Jackson, and two guys from the Austin Texas Pipe Club (Josh White and Zach Limburg) showed up to deliver Jon David his wedding cake toppers, which are two hand-painted MM Diplomat cobs made by Josh’s wife Liz! Be on the lookout for some pictures. They are stunning! Also welcome to new Pipe Club Squire Adam Larkin! Thanks for joining man! Topic: Jon David and Beau discuss some news, both breaking (regarding McClelland) and sad (the death of Lars Ivarsson) Instead of trying to copy verbatim what JD and Beau have said on this topic, I’ll highly encourage you to listen to this particular episode in full. It’s an emotion-filled eulogy in many ways and translating that into written word is a difficult task. So I offer two pieces of reflection. One, is a quote from Chuck Stanion’s article on Mike McNeil from the Winter 2000 edition of Pipes & Tobaccos Magazine. "If the quality of available leaf ever went down," says Mike, "to the point where we didn't like our own product, we would shut the doors. We would shut the doors immediately and end it all, because our name is on that can and I'd rather find something else to do than put out something that isn't right. I would rather go out of business. That way we could say, 'Well, at least we went out with a great name.' So McClelland will always be high quality. We'll never change." And today (2/26), that’s exactly what happened. As of this week, McClelland is shuttering their doors. I think I speak for many when I say we wish them the best and thanks for so many years of service and love to the tobacco industry. We celebrate their legacy. Thanks Mary and Mike! Second, is a link to Pipedia’s wiki on Lars Ivarsson who died on 2/11/2018 after a long battle with cancer. I encourage you to read the article about his life and craft. Truly, a legendary man, a huge influence on pipe carving, and he will be missed by so, so many. (https://pipedia.org/wiki/Ivarsson,_Lars) - Courtesy of Sykes Wilford of (www.smokingpipes.com) Pipe Question of the Week: Joey writes in and asks “As a new pipe smoker is it better to stick with one tobacco and pipe so that you can learn that pipe and get a good rhythm or is it better to try a lot of different tobaccos and pipes so that you can find your favorite?” Good question, especially for this time of the year. JD always recommends variety. What if you get a bad pipe on your first go? Two ways to approach that. You can practice so you get better, or could it be a pipe problem? You won’t figure that out until you have a little variety. But be careful not to overdo it. There’s so many different aspects of pipe smoking it can quickly get overwhelming! Pick a good pipe from Missouri Meerschaum, or even a nice house pipe from a local tobacconist, and learn the process! Get a variety of tobacco to try out like BCA or 1Q if you don’t have a tobacconist like the Squire to order from! Quick Fire with the Squire: From Loyal Club Member Fr. Andy Koufopoulos! #1 Key Lime Pie or Red Velvet Cake (JD and Beau) #2 Ranch or Comeback Dressing (JD and Beau) #3 New England Patriots or Philadelphia Eagles (JD and Beau (only because they have talons and also he loves hockey teams) Listener Feedback: From listener Corey “Hey Beau and JD, greetings from Afghanistan! I’m an Army Chaplain in the 82nd Airborne Division on my first deployment, and almost done! I found your podcast a week or two ago and have been binge listening ever since. I feel like I’ve found ‘my people’. Pipe smokers. Southerners. Conversationalists. And Christians to boot! The podcast feels like an hour with old friends, so thanks for great content and a warm atmosphere. By the way, I sent you a Facebook message with a picture of me smoking my custom Afghanistan pipe that I carved out here. I got the kit from Mancrates. Also, I have a suggestion for the podcast. I grew up in the south, mostly going to southern Baptist churches. While I find it somewhat ironic now, it seemed perfectly normal as a kid to have an annual revival scheduled at the church...remember those? Maybe they brought in a special preacher, usually from across town or a unique music director, and the we just did a church for 5 nights in a row. Notwithstanding the obvious irony of scheduling a revival…’okay Holy Spirit would you mind showing up from July 6th to July 11th’. I actually look back fondly on these times. So, here’s the idea. What if you did a pipe shop podcast revival in the summer? Plan 5 special shows the be aired every night. Maybe pair it with give-a-ways and deals at the shop! Maybe do a special incentive for club members new and old! Maybe do a prize for most referrals to the podcast? Maybe have an event or two at the shop to reward the pilgrims. Maybe even do a live audience event with questions and answers and a ‘Revival Blend’ to sample. Man...now I want to plan my pilgrimage! I think there could be something here, and I full recognize that it would take a lot of work. You guys are legends in the pipe world, so just ride that mystique. Sorry about the long email, kinda my style. I appreciate you guys and enjoy your work. Keep pressing.” iTunes review from Taylor - “Favorite Podcast! JD and Beau. I absolutely love this show guys. Still in the process of catching up on the backlog but I’m loving every minute of it. If you smoke a pipe or have ever considered it, this show is for you! Random starting note, I just had shrimp and grits for the first time per your request and it was delicious! I’m from New York, so this isn’t a common dish. I really appreciate the pointers and plethora of knowledge this podcast offers and I love that you guys don’t leave your faith in Christ in the shadows. Keep pumping it out guys. We’re loving it! Ba da da da daaaa.” @cdumo - “Jackson Original. Consider it gospel.” (https://www.southernliving.com/food/how-to/white-comeback-sauce-recipe) @hoctorthelovedr - “being from Vegas comeback dressing sounds like a lingerie store.” @rhixart - “My deep love for McClelland is well known and as sad as this news is I’m so very thankful for what Mike and Mary have given the pipe smoking community over the last 40 years. There was no finer leaf on the planet. I wish them all the best.” Ending & Wrap-up: Woo, that was a lot of typing! Anyway, please check out the show sponsor websites to learn more about them, and please consider joining the Country Squire Radio Pipe Club. I’ve provided a link to Patreon below as well as show credits, twitter handles, websites, emails, and times. If you have not done so, please consider writing an iTunes review. Great way to support these fantastic gentlemen! For more fun, check out the live show on YouTube! (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDS4VqBHj90) Episode Credits: Host: Jon David Cole (@JonDavidCole) Host: Beau York (@TheRealBeauYork) Producer: Mike Woodard (@TheMikeWoodard) Executive Producer: Beau York (@Podastery) Show Notes: Mark Van Vrancken (@mgvsquared) Country Squire Radio Website: www.countrysquireradio.com Country Squire Radio email: show@countrysquireradio.com Country Squire Radio Twitter: @squireradio Country Squire Radio Patreon: www.patreon.com/countrysquireradio The Country Squire Twitter: @_countrysquire The Country Squire Website: www.thecountrysquireonline.com Show Times: Live Monday nights 8:30pm CST, 6:30 Pacific, 9:30 EST Episode Sponsors: Missouri Meerschaum (www.corncobpipe.com) The Tin Society (https://tinsociety.com)

You’re Listening to the Street Smart Wealth Podcast, show 297, and today I am answering questions that many of you submitted when I recently sent out the question on my Profit in Your PJs report and asked - what do you want to hear about? We are covering procrastination, developing a daily action plan, setting habits and more in our show on Discipline, Distraction and Daily Habits in Direct Sales.  Need some coaching to move you forward? My one on one and inner circle programs are LIVE! Are you looking for coaching to be successful in your Network Marketing business? Want to also learn how to generate your own leads online? My Inner Circle Coaching Program may be just what you need. Or, maybe it's one on one coaching. Learn more about both at StreetSmartWealth.com/coach And, DirectSalesBootcamp.com is open! Have you checked out StreetSmartNetworker.com yet? What is the fastest way to create an endless source of leads and referrals for your business? Networking of course, and combining the best of online and offline for success! Check the podcast archives on the blog at JackieUlmer.com for previous episodes if you missed any or are new to the show.  Discipline, Distraction and Daily Habits in Direct Sales I love today’s topic because it brings up all of the issues that I personally have struggled with in my Direct Sales Career. So you won’t hear me say - oh, get over it! I haven’t forgotten what it feels like to be there! Wendy asks - I struggle with taking daily action and getting new habits set. Let’s start with WHY, and also what is it you are struggling with? Are you blocking time for those 2 income producing activities that we do in Network Marketing? Write down your action plan and those habits you must do! Mary asks - Fear of making phone calls!! I will put it off and avoid avoid avoid- even doing housework to avoid. I love your podcast, and feel inspired and ready to take off in my business when listening, but just like always, fear of the phone knocks the inspiration right out of me.  I love what I do and get told all of the time by clients and newcomers to parties that I am good at this,  but when I have to call for bookings, I convince myself I want to quit every time. I survive and get by as a part time business (full time SAHM of 5) on word of mouth, but I know if I could overcome this, I could do so well. Booking in the moment and recruiting in the moment haven't been successful because I seem to be surrounded by women who are as busy as I am and not looking for a career.  I would love to turn this love into a successful career now that kids are in school but this issue gives me a stomachache, keeps me up at night, and right now even- I break into a serious sweat! Yes, many do struggle with Discipline, Distraction and Daily Habits in Direct Sales! I sure did. Thanks Mary, for being so real and authentic. 3 pieces to this - Phone Fear, Success Language and Talking to the right people. Could you text or send a Facebook message to introduce your direct sales business, instead of using the phone to call? What are you saying that creates a win win to your potential party host? Why would she open her home, her refrigerator and her rolodex for you? Success Language is  everything. And, I get it on being surrounded by other busy moms who don’t want a side business. Get yourself out in front of business people. Introduce to everyone, but know that business oriented people usually get it faster. Helen says - My biggest obstacle with my home based business at the moment, I feel is the fact that I do not have enough discipline and I am easily distracted.  In addition to this, I also work as an English and Italian tutor (I do this right now to put food on the table, I am a single mom with NO support from my ex.), and I am having a difficult time deciding how to share my working time between the two businesses. (eventually I would like to stop working as a tutor and dedicate all my time into growing my business.) How strong is that why and what will you sacrifice to get there? How badly do you want to be full time in your business? Discipline, Distraction and Daily Habits in Direct Sales WorkWithJackie.com I LOVE and appreciate reviews! Go to JackieUlmer.com/itunes or JackieUlmer.com/stitcher to leave your review and be entered into a drawing for a free month of coaching. Show notes http://JackieUlmer.com/297 I really do want to hear from you. This world and business needs more connection! Do you have a question or comment for me? Feedback for the show? Tweet me - @jackieulmer let me know what's on your mind. I'll respond! and if you have a question for the show, add the hashtag #JackieUlmer or, ask them at JackieUlmer.com/question and include a link to your blog for a link back! Has this been helpful? I would REALLY appreciate it if you would rate the podcast on iTunes or Stitcher, or wherever you listen. Just go to http://JackieUlmer.com/iTunes - click to view in iTunes and you’ll see the link to reviews And, share the link with friends and team partners! On Stitcher - http://JackieUlmer.com/stitcher  Until next time - remember this - Hesitation Never Cashed a Check!

And we're off! In this first session I chat with Mary and Blake Larsen - Hosts of ParentCast, The Living Reminders, and OutlanderCast. Mary is also a musician and Blake also makes donuts. They are delightful people; maybe you want to reach out to them and say hello. Mary has an ear for details. Her previous experience as a TV show host gave her a deep insight into presentation, sound and listener experience. Now she uses those skills to craft great podcasts. Blake is the audio engineer in the relationship. He built a custom studio in their basement. Over time they have have upgraded their equipment little by little. They didn't start with great gear. These days they use Heil microphones and an 8-channel Alesis mixer. They record in Garage Band and edit using Adobe Audition. Blake uses an iPad for playing sound clips while recording episodes. They mainly use Skype for connecting with guests, and sometimes they use Skype to call their guests on the phone when they are only able to connect by phone. For mixing and mastering in Audition, Blake started with one of the factory presets on his compressor but then he tweaked it to suit their taste. Some challenges that Blake had were getting a good sound using EQ, and getting good mic levels while recording. A couple tips: When you're adjusting your sound settings to establish good presets, (as well as to train your ears), it pays to listen to your recordings in various places on different speakers. Listen on your studio monitors, listen on your headphones, earbuds, in your car, on a Bluetooth speaker, etc. You will then have a much better idea what your sound REALLY sounds like to other people. Record some dead air with all the mic's on but no one speaking. This can come in handy later while editing when you need to put a little blank space in between an edit so it doesn't sound like an edit. You just take a little dead air and insert it there and voila - it sounds natural. What an awesome session. Thanks Mary and Blake! Check out their shows: ParentCast, The Living Reminders, and OutlanderCast. DID YOU KNOW........We exist for the purpose of helping you, so please comment below with any questions or remarks. Thanks for listening! Want to Start a Business or Have a Career as a Podcast Producer/Engineer? Listen and Subscribe in iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, TuneIn Radio, Android, RSS

Here's a very popular jig.  Thanks Mary for reminding me of it.  I seem to be struggling a bit with it in places.  I think this might just be my blackwood flute getting jealous of its new sibling.