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Improving Your Business Process Flow with Pip Meecham Josh: Good day everyone out there in podcast land, I've got Pip here from ProjectBox. She is an absolute wiz-kid when it comes to any automation around your business and process flow, and making sure that your systems are working the way your systems are meant to be working. So Pip, tell me, how do you know when a system is broken and how do you know when to fix it, if you've always been using a broken system? Pip: That's a really good question. The way you know it's broken is customer complaints, frustrated staff. There could be a host of extra time issues, which then all comes back to frustrated staff as well, at the end of the day. Any kind of bottleneck, generally, you will notice things are starting to go wrong, but it can take some time to kind of pick up on that as well. Pip: Something could break and then six months later you'll finally pick up on it. It can take a lot of time without having someone come in and look at how you're actually doing things to pick up that things are any kind of different, if that makes sense. Josh: Yeah, that makes sense. For me, my big rule that I tell all of my staff is, "Have I asked you once?" Josh: They say, "Yes." Josh: I said "Have I asked you twice?" Josh: They go, "Yes." Josh: "Okay. Then I don't have to ask you a third time because you've already automated it." Josh: If you've had a problem come up more than once or you think that this situation is going to come up more than once, then template it out and automate it. You're saying, complimentary to that information, you would also make sure that the user experience, not just repetition more so the user experience isn't broken. Pip: Yep, and most people don't think like you. Most people don't have that trigger to go, "Hey, we've done this three times." Or, "Hey, this has gone wrong." Pip: Or anything like that, they just keep going with what they're doing, and there's nothing to really trigger that until something big happens, which could be a customer complaint or someone within the team saying something. It's a really tough one, if you're not systems tuned, most people don't pick up on it. Josh: It comes down to people continue doing what they think they're meant to be doing for an extended amount of time. Not knowing that what they're doing isn't what they should have been doing. Pip: It's rare to find people who have that kind of continuous improvement mentality to go and actively look for things. I actively try and break stuff all the time but that's my mentality. Josh: Yep. You're a hacker. That's exactly what a hacker does. Pip: I'm a breaker, not a hacker. I don't get in, I just break it. Josh: It can be both. You and I are very similar in that regard. We try our best to work out what is the best way to achieve something the fastest, most efficient way. Pip: Yeah. A to B. Josh: Yeah, and automation doesn't necessarily have to be a piece of code with loops and all sorts of other stuff that has an input and an output. It can be an input and output, but it can also be just a procedural document that allows for you to know when a staff is following something, very similar to how McDonald's work. Josh: They go through and they create an ice cream, a burger or whatever it is. And when you get it, whether it be in America, Canada, Australia, it's always the same crappy burger, but it's the same burger. And it's being made by a different 14 and nine month year old child or teenager, but it's the same burger, the same process. That's just come through repetition and the document that they've read, and knowing that this is the way that it works, this is the most efficient way. Pip: A lot of people don't think like that. Josh: No! Pip: There's so much decision fatigue in business where people wing it all the time, and they lose a lot of time because they're doing that. Whereas if you've got a straight out, set out processes. First do this, then do this, then do this. Automation kicks in to do some of that for you. It's so simple and it's so streamlined. Whereas other people are just weighed down because they're so overwhelmed on what to do next or how to do it. Josh: I'm going to talk on behalf of all the bloody Australians out there and say, this is the best time to be looking at your processes. Everyone's in lockdown. I'm sure everyone's working 120% of what they were before. That's why Bunnings is full of people, because no one's actually working. Pip: I can hear so many hammers and chainsaws around my neighbourhood. Josh: Me too. I'm like, "Yeah, everyone's really working hard guys. Are you all labourers at home?" Josh: Anyway, everyone's working at home and they're working on the house, which is great, but you should be working on yourself and on your business. This is the best time. When everyone goes, "I don't have enough time for that." Josh: Bang, this is enough time for that. You've got the time to do it now and this is the perfect time. They should be engaging in people like yourself and seeing what you can do to help them out. And as you said, there's always room for improvement and I'm not going to say what I do is right. But it's going to be better than not doing it at all. Pip: The problem is as well, is that people get so caught up in their own business that they can't see it, outside. What they're looking at- Josh: Can't see the forest for the trees. Pip: Yeah. They've got tunnel vision, like there's nothing else going on except what they, used to doing, what they know they need to do. Whereas I would come in and something that I kind of love doing and it's really wrong, but I love going in and pulling people's processes apart, and looking at the ripple effect that everything has on each other as well. Pip: Because everyone always talks about, a lot of people are changing technology at the moment because of everything that's going on, they're going, "Right. We're going to use this. We're going to implement new tools to do this. We're going to do this and blah, blah, blah." Pip: They look at that as a single element and they're not thinking about what's happening before and what's happening afterwards. So people are putting these new things in place and they think it's fantastic, but stuff is still falling over because they're not taking into account what's going on around it. The ripple effect. Josh: Yeah, exactly. The butterfly effect, ripple effect. It comes down to a big thing that people don't do enough. I started doing it 13 years ago, 14 years ago and then didn't realise how much of an impact it's had, but business plans. Why are you in business? Why do you exist here? What do you want to achieve? What are you going to achieve in one month, one year, five years, we've all heard it. Pip: Hate it. Josh: I started writing them. I'm like, "Uh, this is stupid." Josh: Then I wrote it and then thought, okay, let's see how this goes. Then I've looked back on some of them and I thought, wow, I've got so much more maturity, growth, direction. And some of the things that I thought were really important then, are no longer important and some of the things that are important now, I would never have thought I was even going to be doing. Josh: But being able to look back on what you've been able to achieve, lets you see the growth that you've done. That's the same, when you create these processes that sit there and can run autonomously or be running by someone else that's not you. You're able to have these processes running and then look at them from a distance to go "Hmm, how else can I tweak that?" Josh: While you're not sitting there being the driver. If you're always driving around, you're never going to be able to really see the sites out the window. Pip: It's being able to remove that connection. Josh: That's right. Pip: Cut the heartstrings. Josh: Absolutely, as long as that's what you want to do in business. I will say, straight away when I started my first business, I was the main driving cog and I was the person that did all the things in business, and I earned all the money and I earned all the debt. it was interesting, and good and bad. But overall, I didn't want to be the cog. I wanted to own the cogs. I wanted to have the systems, have the process to be able to step back. Josh: That's not for everyone, if you read any book on business or any masterclass, that's what everyone apparently wants, but there's businesses that we work with. One in particular, he's a cartoonist and he's big driving motivator is he just loves drawing. He said, "It's a lifestyle business." Now, to be fair, his wife's in a lovely position where she's earning enough money that he could have that decision. So, lucky boy. Pip: Yeah, but I get it. People always ask me what I want to do with ProjectBox. I don't ever want to stop actively getting into people's businesses and looking at their processes. I legitimately love that stuff, as geeky as it sounds, and people look at me like I am just stupid and crazy, and I'm off with the fairies, but I love it. I get this sense of, it's like a thrill with huge endorphin rush. When you go in and you help people piece this stuff together. I don't want to lose that, but I also want to be able to grow the company. Josh: Yeah. It's always about the balance. You need to make sure that you've got that interest. As I said, why did you get into business? Work at why you're in business, and this is, you brought this up earlier, probably not everyone's mentality, but when I first started Dorks Delivered in 2007, I thought, okay, I want to do this right. I've now got a trust and I've got a company, I've got all this stuff and all these structures. Josh: Let's make sure that I'm getting rid of any of the tasks that I don't like doing. And I thought, what do I like doing? Hate doing bookkeeping, hate doing invoicing, hate doing the car logbook. I thought, this sucks, so I created a process. I created an app back then, or was it a web based app. It worked on the Symbian mobile system for anyone that's out there that cares. Josh: It allowed for you to jump in there and see, as a technician, I had contractors working with me, they'd be able to enter where they're going and would work out their home address to where they're going, the amount of kilometres, how much to charge and how much to put on that invoice. Josh: They'd then get there and they'd type any prices and it'd automatically work everything out and then click submit or come up with a PayPal and they could get credit card details straight through their phone, right then and there, and this is 2007. Josh: So I built all that out and it was because I hated all the invoicing stuff. You could take photos and attach invoices and attach expense records, all sorts of things like that. You could do all that. I built this because I hated doing it. Now, not everyone's capable of building it and totally understand that, but that's why you bring in professionals that can help you out. Josh: The actual process of building it took me several hundred hours. Now, if I looked back and thought, would it have been more beneficial for me to have just learned how to do the invoicing and just done that and in a repetitious way? Possibly, but it wouldn't have been as fun, would it? Josh: And I've learned so many more skills and that's kind of what you're getting at. You get to learn. You're always growing, expanding and being in business is about being able to delegate. Whether that be in a digital sense through scripting and automation, or through staffing and process documentation, it's being able to delegate to grow your business. Josh: If you had to pick the top three things that a business owner should be considering with the way their business is set up and what they should change, what would you say they should be? And how can they achieve those for, let's say we're in lock down 'til September, yeah? Pip: Yeah. Josh: I think that that's probably likely. So what would you say, how can they do those between now and September? Pip: Yep. The biggest one is how information is flowing from one system to another. So no double data entry, too many people, literally they'll get it in one format and then be copying and pasting it into other programs. Stupidly time consuming and massive room for human error as well, because someone has to do that. That's a really big one. Josh: Yep. If you're using a pen, remove it. Stop using a pen. Stop having customers fill out forms with a pen. Pip: Definitely another one, try and go digital where possible. Josh: Absolutely. Pip: The number of people who are still doing it, there is a place for pen and paper. As much as I'm very much a digital person, when I am holding process mapping sessions or the brainstorming creative stuff, I have a roll of butcher's paper. It ends up running down my hallway and I'm literally dragging my computer down the hallway on my hands and knees filling out this paper because that's how I work there. It's really quick for me to draw arrows and then it gets turned into obviously digital [inaudible 00:00:12:31], the paper goes away. Sounds like a waste but I know that that is how I work best. Josh: I love that because I'm on computers for hours and hours, not because I have to, because I want to. I could spend 18 hours a day on a computer just working because I love doing it. You have people like Gary Vee say, "Work harder, work smarter." Josh: Well now what? I'm like, "Well, just do what you love doing." And I genuinely love doing it, but I also love the feeling of paper in my hands. And I've got a big whiteboard inside the house, like a four and a half metre by three by two metre whiteboard. I'll write up with my partner, Sarah, any of the new processes that we're going to be going through, any of the if-then statements we're going to be popping into any of the automations and make sure that we've written that out because it's easy to modify it and it changes your perspective. And get this everyone, it removes all those, how many times have you had a push notification from Facebook while you were dealing with butcher's paper? You don't have any of that. Pip: It's no distractions. Josh: No distractions. How good is that? It's great. Pip: Yeah. But it brings out the creativity as well. It's like going back to that cave person thing where we're drawing on walls. Obviously, there are some people that entirely a hundred percent digital is going to work for them. Most people, that's not the case. I know people who will still take their to do list and then send it to a VA to transcribe it into a project management tool because that's how they work. Pip: They just can't get on and do it, so they've delegated it to somebody. Yeah, get digital where possible. The next big one, and this sounds really stupid, but clean out your computer filing systems. I'm generalising here, but a lot of people it's like going to the supermarket where all the shelves have been knocked over and everything's been stirred together and trying to find fish in the fruit and veggie aisle. It is, looking for medicine and it's down in the freezer. Josh: And after a while the whole process stinks. Pip: Yeah. So it's taking time to sort out where everything is stored so that if a client rings, same with like your CRMs and project management tools, give everything like a cleaning over. It's a really good time to be doing that now, so that you should be able to find anything within about 10 seconds. No longer. Josh: Yep. I did a podcast a few months ago on defragging your filing cabinet and then your computer, or something like that. That's probably a cooler name than what I called it. But people do, we go into people's systems, I'm not going to say who it was, but I went into someone's system, they had two monitors and they had about 500 icons now. Pip: On their desktop? Josh: On the desktop. Anyone that has two monitors, if you've ever tried to put 500 icons on the desktops, you'll notice they don't fit on two desktops. So he had icons that he couldn't even see, they were on his two desktops. And you can't scroll up and down on a desktop, so they were just in the abyss. Pip: And for a lot of people, those computers die and all of that is gone. Josh: Gone, and they use these obscure systems where they go, "Okay, let's have this cloud of files that store on the right hand side of the desktop." Josh: Then you do a Windows update and then everything rearranges to automatic, and then you go, "Oh no! This is going to take me days to fix up my icons." Josh: Just fix it up now, you've got this great opportunity. That's great advice. That's a really good one actually. Pip: Yeah, nothing should be on the desktop. Josh: No. Well, you haven't seen my computers yet but I've got eight icons and it's the things that I use commonly, and use all the time. Pip: And there's shortcuts. So the original files have safety elsewhere. Josh: Somewhere else. Pip: Stored properly, with just shortcuts. And shortcuts is a great thing too, because most people will just copy the file, so there's two copies. So I update one and then they'll go to move it and not realise what's going on and go, "What file do I use now?" Pip: And end up with three, four, five, six or 10 different copies. So creating shortcuts, it's something that not a lot of people take advantage of. Josh: Shortcuts are great and I'm not going to get into heaps of detail on shortcuts, symbolic links and other bits and pieces of IT, but shortcuts are great. People should be using shortcuts. And in a filing cabinet, traditionally, you have things sectioned and it could be A to Z, but most of the time it's warranty information, ATO letters, bank statements, all that. Pip: Categories, yeah. Josh: Your computer systems, it doesn't have to be any more complicated than that. The way that I like to do it is, what would you share with your mum? What would you share with your partner? What would you share with your business partner? What would you share with your staff? What would you share with your nana and what would you share with the world? And then make sure your hierarchy has things in those categories and then from there then have projects inside those. Josh: For me, I've got family, personal, business, the three main ones. Then inside personal, it then stems off into different year categories for photos and things that used to go into your personal, it goes to photos. And then it has different years that these photos were taken inside each year, it then has different events for each of those years. And so if someone said, "Ah, do you have any photos from my 21st from way back when?" Josh: You'd be able to go, "Yeah, no worries." Josh: Click, click, bang, done. I had someone actually, and I've been a bit of a stickler for organisation for quite a while. I had someone say, "Oh, remember we did that school assignment on moths?" Josh: And I said, "Yeah." Josh: Said, "Oh man, if only I could see what my assignment looked like then." Josh: Anyone who knows me knows I'm a bit of a tricky dude. I happened to have acquired his assignment through the school systems back then, so I gave him a copy of his assignment. Pip: Wow. Josh: He's like, "What the hell? How'd you do that?" Josh: And I'm like, "Yeah, no, it's pretty weird, eh?" Josh: Having a hierarchy that works for you and the reason I say that those different categories to start off with, like the personal, and then the things you'd share with your nana or your mum and things like that is because if you are using different tools like Dropbox, you can then say, share this folder out to whoever, and it doesn't matter. And you know it's not going to have personal stuff. Pip: It gives people a great place to start because half the problem with this stuff is just getting started instead of looking at it going, "Oh my God, I've got like 10,000 files I need to sort out because they're all sitting in my downloads folder." Josh: Yep. The first five minutes is the hardest. Pip: Setting up that initial structure and then just, yep. Josh: Setting up the initial structure, and this is something I would've done on butcher's paper or would have done on the whiteboard. You just write it down and go, "Okay, that makes sense. Okay, that's sensible." Josh: And then you look at and go, "Okay, who's going to have access to what? If I give access to this folder, everyone has access to that." Josh: Obviously I'm talking a bit into the security stuff as well as just the organisation, but I just find if you start with security first and then organise around that, it'll make your life very easy and harder for people to break into your stuff. Pip: Definitely. Josh: As things become harder and harder. Pip: I guess my final one would be reviewing the tools and the software that you're using. Use the time to go in and look at all the individual platforms and work out if there's any overlap, because quite often we sign up to things or people recommend things and we don't really do a lot of research around it. So more often than not, the tools are capable of doing more than what you think and you can actually condense those down, or you can start to get them to talk which brings us back to first point. Josh: Yep. I would agree completely that and tools evolve even after you build them, they evolve over time and you look at some of the things and you go, "Man, that never did that before." Pip: It's really knowing and understanding exactly what that tool is capable of doing. Josh: It's going through it, having a look. Pip: Hey, you can't break stuff. Josh: Exactly. Just have a muck around then. That's great advice, especially as I said, while everyone's at home, hopefully with a beer in your hand, hypothetically we are having a beer, possibly, unless you listen to this at 7:30 in the morning, then we're definitely not. But it's a great time to be doing that and be jumping in and making sure that your systems are ready to go gangbusters. Pip: Exactly. So that as soon as things take back off again, you're ready to go. Holes have been plugged, you know what's what, you know what's happening by when, by who and how. Josh: Yep. And the cutovers, if there are programmes that you don't have to get rid of, you can't get rid of it because one thing does something really well and then another thing. We use ActiveCampaign internally. We're using another IT programme called ConnectWise, up until recently and ConnectWise did email marketing very poorly, but it did ticketing and invoicing really well, which ActiveCampaign didn't. Pip: That's like I said to you before, I use ClickUp for my sales dashboards because I couldn't get the data out of ActiveCampaign, But it's knowing that I could do that and understanding that. Josh: Yep. And that's where having a document on what the cutovers are, at least let you know where data is meant to be stored. The flow of data is very important. Knowing where your master, your primary, your truth data I guess, where you'd say this is where everything is pure. And then if people have entered dodgy records or transcribe things incorrectly somewhere else, then you can start to work out where the other stuff is. Pip: Go back. Josh: The last thing you want is if you've got five systems that you're running, as I've heard, or in a lot of American talks, "the silos of chaos." Josh: You have all these silos and you just can't control them and can't manage them and just everything gets out of sync, and then it gets out of whack. This is a great time to be bringing in people, especially like people from ProjectBox, that's able to look at your systems, integrate your systems and make sure that your data is staying the same between all of them, and you don't have any overlaps with your processes, and you're running an efficient shop because ultimately you don't know what you don't know until you know it. Pip: Yeah, exactly. The number of people that I've met or that I've done work with, who you ask the question, "How is this bit happening?" Pip: And they look at you and they're like "What do you mean? I know how that's happening." Pip: I'm like, "Cool. Lay it out for me. Tell me what's supposed to be happening at every step." Pip: And they either can't or we start talking, they're like, "Oh, well that should be happening." Or "I wish it could do this." Or, "Someone's supposed to do this." Pip: What they think is happening in their head is completely different to what is actually happening. Now a really good time to be looking at that stuff as well. And for the businesses who is super busy right now, this is the time where they will probably start to notice where those holes are. Josh: Yep, absolutely. It's interesting times, businesses are either crazy or quiet, or crazily quiet. I think there's a lot of good take-homes there. People need to be jumping in, making sure their systems are good. Their filing processes are good, and that you are engaging in people services. So if people did want to jump in and get a hand throughout South East Brisbane, or what is your reach with ProjectBox? Pip: So South East Queensland, Northern New South Wales, but because of what I do, I can do it remotely. So realistically, anywhere around Australia and New Zealand as well, I've got quite a few clients over there too. Josh: We're going to chuck a link down there to ProjectBox so you can check it out. Is there anything else you'd like to cover off, other questions that we haven't gone through? Pip: No, I'm pretty sure we got it. Josh: Yeah, cool. I've loved having you on the show and if anyone else has any feedback or bits and pieces, I'd like to say jump across to iTunes, leave us some love, give us some comments or a review and everyone out there stay healthy, stay well and start automating. Catch you later.  

On today's show in association with It's Orlando Time, Facebook Page,  I discuss whether it's a popular choice to buy a home in Orlando, especially if you're a frequent visitor to the sunshine state.  Many people have done so and not too many have regretted it!  Then I've got another exceptional holiday offer and our famous weather report!   www.hughhatrick.com for my guide!  Enjoy!

Ian McGrath joins us to discuss how coursebooks can be used, what affect they have on teacher autonomy and how teachers can make themselves the masters rather than servants. As Alan Cuningsworth says, “Coursebooks make good servants, but poor masters.” But who is usually the master in the language classroom? The teacher or the coursebook? Ross Thorburn: Hi Ian, and thanks for joining us. I wanted to start off by asking you about the effect that materials can have on teachers' teaching skills.You've got a section near the beginning of your book based around an argument from Jack Richards. I'll just quote to you from the bit from the book, "It's been argued that if teaching decisions are largely based on the textbook and the teacher's book, this has the effect of deskilling teachers." How much do you agree with that argument?Ian McGrath: Well, I suppose it's a theoretical possibility, but I think that rests on two assumptions. That, for example, the teacher has certain skills to begin with which can be lost, and secondly, he or she loses them because they're not required in order to teach with this particular book.I haven't seen any evidence to support this notion of skill loss, but I do think there's a real danger that teachers, let's say, who use the same book year in, year out do lose interest in the material. As a consequence, this loss of interest is communicated to the students.I've observed a lot of teachers. It's fairly obvious that enthusiastic teachers can energize and motivate students, whereas bored teachers are likely to bore their students. Once teachers have been teaching the materials for so long that they've lost interest in them, there is a danger that they start to become boring.Ross: I guess the thing that Jack Richards doesn't really mention there is teachers who maybe just never developed those skills in the first place.Ian: That's a very good point.Ross: Anyway, you've got another nice quote in the book from Cunningsworth, I think, which says, "Coursebooks make good servants but poor masters." In your experience, who usually is the master or the servant in the classroom, and why?Ian: This takes us to teacher autonomy. It depends on the mindset and the professionalism of the teacher. The teacher has to see the coursebook as a servant, although actually I prefer tool, resource, one of the resources that can be used to bring about successful learning.Ross: Going back to the Jack Richards' quote, "Coursebooks might deskill teachers or stop them from developing certain skills," can the coursebook also disempower teachers?Ian: Going back to the Cunningsworth quote, if you accept the book as your master, then you disempower yourself. As a teacher, we have to remember that we also have relevant knowledge and experience that we can pass on to students, and students, themselves, have knowledge that they can share.Why should we hand power over to the writer of a book who knows nothing about our students and their particular interests and needs?Ross: I completely agree. As a teacher, you know your students, whereas the writers probably never set foot in the school and possibly never even been to the country that you're teaching in.Does this also relate to the management of the school? I think, in some contexts, the power isn't given away by the teachers so much. It's maybe given away by the management, where managers maybe have placed a lot of faith -- probably too much faith -- in the writers of the coursebook. Have you seen that sort of thing before?Ian: Yes, I have seen that situation. That reduces the motivation of the teachers, because they aren't free to do what they feel they should be doing. If teachers feel free to be responsive and creative, then that makes every class different.Even if you're teaching the same 'teaching' -- I'm using this in inverted commas, as it were -- teaching the same material or, let's say, using the same material, you don't necessarily have to use it in exactly the same way with each class, because the class, itself, will be different.Ross: Sometimes, nowadays, we see coursebooks that just have a huge amount of detail in the teacher's notes. I can personally remember using a teacher's book that virtually told you to stand up, walk across the room, pick up a pen before writing something on the whiteboard.Do you think that going into a lot of detail in those teaching notes, is that useful help for novice teachers, or is it something that's more constricting for experienced teachers? How, as a coursebook writer, can you balance giving help to those different groups of teachers?Ian: I don't blame teachers' books or publishers for this. They're obviously try to sell as many books as they can. There's a commercial motive, but I think the writers of these books are also trying to be helpful.Teachers have very different levels of professional awareness. When you start out as a teacher, it's reassuring to be given a range of ready-made materials and suggestions for how to use them.I started teaching without having had any training. For me, one of the teacher's books that I used was, in a sense, my trainer. By following the suggestions in the book, I felt more secure about what I was doing. Over time, I felt free to vary what I was doing.It's a lot to do with experience. When you feel confident enough to select from what's being suggested, I think you will. I don't see the mass of detail procedures as an impediment to autonomy. For me, the suggestions are there to be used or not, depending on the teacher's own level of experience and confidence.Ross: It's almost like the opposite of deskilling the teachers like we mentioned at the beginning, where if it's a good coursebook, then hopefully, it can act as a good example and almost like a teacher trainer for novice teachers.That also means that, just as in teachers have to teach mixed ability classes and make the same materials work for both higher and lower-level students, the materials writers also have to write for mixed abilities of teachers.Ian: I think so. With coursebooks, I'm thinking of, this is the core material, and then there are these possible branches off from this that you may choose to follow according to the needs, interests, capabilities of the class you're teaching.It's clear to everyone what has to be done, in a sense, but not necessarily how it has to be done. Also, there are these branching possibilities which one may be able to follow, depending also on the amount of time available.Coursebooks are also written with a certain number of teaching hours in mind. There's often an expectation, on the part of learners, as well as management, that you will get through the book, so teachers inevitably have to make decisions about what they can include and what they can't include.Ross: Something else I wanted to ask you about was another nice quote about teachers finding that activities don't quite match their teaching style. You said in that situation, the teachers have a choice either to adapt the book or to adapt to the book. Do you want to tell us a bit about those options?Ian: I think it was Rod Bolitho and Tony Wright who, at one point, used the term "teaching against the grain." The metaphor here is to the difficulty of cutting wood against the grain.What they were trying to say is that, sometimes, we feel some discomfort with a particular coursebook text or an activity. That discomfort may be due to either the fact that we don't see ourselves teaching comfortably in that way, or in the case of a text, there are things in this text which don't suit culturally, let's say, the kind of group that we're working with.Basically, we have a choice to adapt the materials or to teach them as they are. You can probably guess what my advice would be.[laughter]Ian: It would be to adapt the materials, but, at the same time, try to ensure that we don't lose sight of the intended learning outcome. We're trying to achieve the same, let's say, linguistic objective if it is a linguistic objective, but doing so using other materials or other means.Ross: There is also a flip side to this though, where sometimes it's only by trying something that we think isn't going to work -- maybe from a coursebook, for example -- that we end up getting out of our routine, getting out of our comfort zone, and actually putting ourselves in a position to learn.Ian: There may be a time and place for this. [laughs] If you're on a teacher training course, you may feel more comfortable experimenting with something than in your own class, where you're a bit concerned, if something should go wrong, about the consequences of that.Again, going back to observation, it's good to encourage people to try out things in an observation that they haven't necessarily done before, because then, they have somebody present who can talk them through that experience and say, "Well, it was great. It was fantastic. You did it perfectly."Encouraging them to do it again, or if it didn't work that well, to analyze why that was and how they might modify the approach to make it more effective the next time around.Ross: Finally, as someone who's both a teacher, teacher trainer, coursebook writer, how do you go about using a coursebook?Ian: My starting point is not the materials, themselves, but what I think, how was the course planned? I've set, possibly in negotiation with the students, what I think would be appropriate learning outcomes within the time available. Then I've chosen a coursebook or a set of materials that I feel will help me to accomplish those objectives.Let's say I have just one coursebook. The first process is to select from those bits of the coursebook that will be directly helpful and useful, and to decide what I'm not going to use. Even where I have selected things, I might feel the need to adapt them in certain ways. One possibility, obviously, is to exploit the material to get more out of it.If one takes the example of a text in the book, the text may be accompanied by a series of questions -- usually the case -- but I don't think one has to rely on the questions in the book.One can get learners to talk about the topic of the text and their own experience in relation to it. If there are pictures, again, they can comment on those pictures, so that you're not necessarily using the material in the way that it's laid down. You are developing it in certain ways. You're exploiting it.Sometimes, one might need to replace material in a book with one's own material because one feels that that's more relevant to students' needs, or even get learners to bring in materials, themselves. One almost always has to supplement what's provided because, as we said earlier, no textbook is going to be perfect for the particular group you're teaching.You're likely to have to add certain things to it. It may be that more practice is needed of a particular point, or you feel the need to include more communicative activities in your course, and so on.

All right. Welcome back to mindset radio. This is your Thursday episode. If you caught Tuesdays, you know where we are. You know we're talking about planning for the new year. You know, we're talking about taking a look at ourselves and trying to figure out like what in the hell we want out of this year and how we're going to get it. And on Tuesday, you know, we talked a lot about discovery and you know, the real purpose there was to get more in touch with what's important to us because all of this is going to lead to a point here where we're going to begin to create some clear intentions for ourselves and what we want to operate like throughout the year, kind of in all aspects of our lives. And so, you know, that's why we kind of take a look at what, what do we want right now?What are we frustrated by? What are our deeper fears? Like what keeps us up at night and then what do we really aspire to be? And so that was Tuesday's episode. If you didn't catch that one, then I highly recommend you just kind of push pause real quick. Go back, listen to that one first and then come forward into this one because we're going to build on that episode and really start taking a look at how we take kind of what we learned in that exploration and in that place and start to put it into some clear action plans. So if you did the exercise with me on Tuesday or he kind of went back and listened and did it, awesome. If you didn't, I'm going to do a wrap up Friday, uh, as a Facebook live in the Facebook mindset radio groups. If you're not a part of that, go ahead and pop in.I will backtrack and add that back link into the show notes and stuff for you as well. But just the way that we've shaped up this week, I'm going to have to do on Friday. I'm on a plane tomorrow, so now bear with me a little bit. Well, we'll get that live up on Friday. We'll go through some of the, uh, uh, the actual forms and the downloadables that'll be available for ya. Uh, and so all that will be up and ready to go if you want to do that and kind of listen back through some of it or work through it with me. But even if you did the mental exercise on Tuesday, if you really got kinda down to where you are, right, what do you currently want current wants and frustrations, kind of the current right now situation, what is it I want, what's frustrating me?And then future look what are my biggest fears and then what do I really aspire to be? And so today what I really want to do is, uh, kind of begin to focus and break those down into kind of quadrants. And so if you did this exercise, more than likely what you found was my want and frustrations almost mirror each other. A lot of times, you know, if I want to be more physically fit, my frustration is I don't have time to be at the gym or it's tough to fit into my schedule or I feel, you know, overwhelmed by my day and I'm exhausted, et cetera. Right? So if you really look at it, you can often kind of find the want and then the frustration that's associated with it. And if you really want to go a little bit further, you can even take that one.It's like, okay, I want to be in shape. Great. Why? Like go a layer deeper. Why do I want to be in shape? Why is that important to me? What will that do for me? You know, I have a, I feel better physically in my body. I don't wake up with aches and pains. I don't walk around feeling lethargic. Most of the time I have more energy. Uh, I've got a little bit more vitality. I get a little bit better pep in my step. Maybe my physical appearance is better and I feel better about myself. It's gonna roll into the comfort and confidence I have to take on and deal with my life. Right. So that just kind of an example. That's, that's a good example for me. And I'm going to talk a little bit more about that on Friday, uh, related to my own stuff.And you fill it in if, uh, you know, you want to get promoted at work. Okay. Why, what does it actually do for you? Yeah, I'm sure there's some financial gain and it feels good to be promoted. But what's important about you being promoted? What's important about you making the next rank or being in a particular unit or making the grade somewhere or transitioning to a different role. Like why is that important to you? And if you go deeper and deeper and deeper, I think what you'll even find there is that actually begins to link into aspirations. And so this is why I kind of love this exercise and this is why it's going to take a little bit of time to like roll through this. It's not something you just kind of sit down and bam knock out. You kind of got to spend some time mulling this over, take a look at it and then come back to it and go a little bit deeper with it.So let's kind of back up just a little bit. Let's go into simplistic fashion of it cause I like you to kind of get somewhere with it, right? It just doesn't need to linger and you can do the deep dive a little bit later with it. But right now let's kind of take the face value of it. Let's take one of your wants or frustrations. So I either want to eliminate my frustrations or I want to fulfill on something it is I want, right? So let's kind of stay in the current PLA process. Here's what I want you to think about. What is life look like currently for you? If you take a want, if, if I want to be in shape, if that's a want of mine, what does life look like for me? What's the current right now? Truth that exists. The truth is I'm not going to the gym when I need to be going to the gym.I'm not giving the time and attention that I need to, to my body and my physicality and my working out and my, uh, my health in a lot of ways. You know, that may be very true. Uh, you know, I don't feel great day in and day out. Aches and pains. I wake up a little bit more lethargic. I wake up sore, I'm tired most days. I don't have the energy to really push through my days and be great the way I want to be. Great. Kind of all the way through my life. Like that's the current scenario. Then if I kind of really take a look at it, it's like, ah, I don't like that. Okay, cool. Let's set that aside for a minute. What's my desired state? Right? If I could snap my fingers right now and wake up and be physically fit or have different state of being, what would that look like?And so this is a good point to take a look at it and be like, okay, well, you know, I'd be going to the gym regularly and I would feel good about going into the gym. Like I would be propelled a call to the gym because there's success there because I have a tie in there because I want to do it and I want to do it because I feel better. I look better, I feel more confident in my body and who I am and how I look and you know, all these things. Then I've got more energy throughout the day. I feel stronger, you know, I feel more capable, whatever I'm, I feel more ready for whatever life may throw at me. Right? That's, that's that desired picture. So once we take a look at that, then we're going to start going down into the next step.And again, the forms will be available at the end of the week for you. But that desired result, like what's the outcome or what's the shift if I'm currently here, but I want to look like this or I want to be like this or I want to have this in my life, what is that? So let's take a look at that and let's start listening out. What's the desired result that we want to produce and list it out. Like, write it out, doesn't have to be long, doesn't have to be some long sentence or anything else. They can be bullet points, they can be a couple of different things and you can make the list as long as you want. So I'm going to list those out. Right? Desired result is I'm, you know, in great shape. Okay, cool. Now the question is what are the obstacles and objections that are in my way of being in great shape?Like what's the bullshit I run in myself? Or how do I create my day that doesn't support that if I want it, cool, well, you know, how does it feel to want rad, but what's in my way? What am I not doing? I'm not scheduling my day appropriately. I'm not responsible for myself in cutting out that time or segmenting that time. You know, and I'm using this as an example cause I think this is one that resonates with a lot of us along the way. Uh, and a lot of what we deal with and so, you know, this is the, this is the component piece to that.Now [inaudible]you know, so again, what are the obstacles? What are the objections? What am I saying to myself? Well, I'm too tired. Well, I don't have time. Well I need to be there or somebody needs my attention there. Or you know, I've had a long shift or we ran, you know, we're up all night running calls, running EOS calls where we had a storm and we were chasing fire alarms all night. Like whatever the objections is and the obstacles are, but just be and call them out. Like just be truthful with yourself and just list out what they are. Okay. I mean that's, that's really, that's all I'm asking you to do and it's all we really need to do in some ways, but I'm going to list those out and I'm just going to write the next column and just go, okay, here's my desired result and here's my objections and here's my obstacles in the way to having that result.And then now what I want to do is I want to explore the options. Like, this is my life. And you know, we don't have quote unquote, the perfect life that we want in a lot of ways, right? We don't have sometimes the freedom to do what we want to do or work out when we want to work out or eat the way we want to eat or be be who it is we want to be or whatever it is, whatever is there. So within the context of your life, what are the options? Can I get up earlier? Can I just segment a specific time? Can I create a flow pattern that I know I can commit to and be a part of each day? Right? Do I go to a, a group fitness class so I'm a little bit more motivated? Do I need to work out alone?Do I need a workout buddy? Do I need somebody to hold me accountable? Which I think is kind of crap, but you know, I mean, every once in a while it helps to have somebody kicking you in the ass. Um, you know, what is it? What are the options in front of me? I could hire a trainer or I could, you know, download an app. I could, you know, do whatever. Like there's a million options to achieve that outcome, right? But get real and get clear on some real options that are in front of you and list them out. Now from this point forward, what I want you to do is start to look at two or three actions you can take that will lead you down the path of achieving that result that you want. What are the action steps I'm going to commit to, you know, this program, bam, I'm going to hire this trainer, bam.I'm going to shift my diet to this, bam. Or you know, I'm going to do whatever it is I'm going to do. Just don't make a bunch. Don't write a bunch out. Don't write 10 or 15 things and don't make it. Don't make it unobtainable. Don't set yourself up for failure. Really call yourself out. That's one of the things that we really deal with in this hundred day challenge is identifying that more often than not, when we commit to something, we're actually setting ourselves up for failure. Because we haven't looked all the way through it. So do me a favor, just pick two or three specific actions and make them simple and achievable. Period. Every day. That's it. That's all I want you to do. And from that point then we're going to bring those action items into reality. And so what I want you to do is break your calendar out.Whatever you use, if you use something on the wall, if you use your phone, whatever it is, I want you to start putting that into your calendar and I want you to contextualize it like what does your hour at the gym give you, feed you, Hey, this is Jeff being stronger, capable, more confident, whatever the whatever, whatever that it is attached to, kind of that want that aspiration, that deeper level of stuff. That's how I'm going to create the context for what my time is and my time being spent is, and then you got to put it into a calendar. You got to create it and put it into existence so that it's there. And if you need to set reminders or you need to set yourself up or you need to communicate it out with the people around you and maybe your husband and wife or whatever, whoever it is, Hey, this is, this is the deal.This is what I'm doing. This is where it lives. This is my time. This is what I'm committed to. I need your support for that. I need X, Y, and Z. That's got to go into play because if it doesn't go into play, it will falter. Again, that's kind of a critical point of failure. We don't put things with good ideas. We have a desire, we kind of say we're going to do X, Y, and Z, but don't really put it into existence and we don't put it into existence. We're not accountable to ourselves around it, and so that's really this pattern. Okay, and you can blow this thing out and do this at multiple levels at any level you want in any way, shape or form you want, right? We talk about it. We talked about it earlier. You could do it directly related to work.You could do it directly related to relationship or family or whatever it might be. You could do it related to a promotion or an effort or operation you're going to run or whatever that is. You can kind of wrap this whole thing together and bring it together in a way that really works for you. And so today's episode pretty short, pretty straightforward too. It don't need to spend a lot of time on it. I really hope that you'll pop into the mindset radio, Facebook group that you'll join me from the model alive tomorrow or catch it on replay or catch it, you know, through the show notes and come back and watch. Um, cause I'm actually going to share the forms. I'm going to write them up. You're going to see how I'm going to kind of work through this stuff and we're going to talk through these pieces and parts with a little bit more extensively.And you know, again, don't hesitate, like reach out. I've got a fire already. Got some notes from a Tuesday's episode with a couple of questions from you guys out there and not a problem, right? Clarification. You're not quite sure. You need one a little bit deep dive. You need some support in there. It's just send me a note, ask. Um, that's an easy day. That's an easy answer. So guys, this is where, this is where I want you to really look at and this is how we're going to set ourselves up for this year and uh, on Friday and a few other episodes. And then moving forward we're going to start looking at how we operate with intention. And this is really the underpinning of all of this because in the research that I've done in the way that we looked at the operational life cycle and the way that we operate in our careers and in our jobs and in cycle, if we don't set ourselves up to step out of the door with intention, if we don't set ourselves to operate with a clear line of intention, with a clear purpose, we are vulnerable to the conditions.We are vulnerable to the things that will show up. And that's the biggest piece that we need to avoid. So you're going to hear me this season and you know, throwing on or through the beginning of the year. I'm going to do some teach backs online and I'm going to get geeky with you. I'm going to break down the science behind it. I'm going to lay it out for you. I'm going to teach you what it is and why this point of intention is so critical and you're going to begin to see, especially in our operating operating environments, especially with the way the conditions are constantly changing, things are constantly popping. We have to be on our game and the way that you're on the game where you get ahead of the situation, the way you're actually in command and control of it, the way you're going to bring calm, the chaos and all the things that we spent six months talking about this all going online and your ability to ground yourself, anchor in the present moment and operate with a clear line of intention or intentionality necessary to handle whatever it is that comes your way.So I hope you got something in front of the day. Check out the show notes and join me tomorrow or yeah, join me tomorrow Friday, uh, in the Facebook group. We'll kind of go through this thing to talk about a little bit more. Download the form. She can go to the website later to pick up the forms, work them through yourself. Ask me any questions that you got. I hope that it helps you set yourself up for an amazing until you read 2020. So again, listen, thanks for listening. I really appreciate it. We're going to close out today's show. We're only running probably, you know, 15, 20 minutes in today's, which is perfect. I don't need overrun yet. We don't once it's out, it's out. So, alright ladies and gentlemen, I appreciate you listening. Thanks so much. Next week I've got retired chief Gasaway on with me from essay matters.It's a great conversation whether you're in the military, the law enforcement community or in the fire service, and if you're in the fire service should probably know who he is. He's on next week. We have a great conversation about situational awareness, but a real deep dive into it. Really enjoyed it. I'm looking forward to getting that podcast out. Uh, because the rest of this month we're going to get into this mental acuity point. This is partly why this week was important, and understanding, kind of creating this intention in the background or this idea of creating intention in the background is critically important because I'm going to be talking about it through each episode or specially on the Thursday episodes where it's you and me talking and I'm trying to, you know, give some little, little teachbacks in there. We're going to really begin to explore how that unpacks and can impact us, uh, either in a great way or can really throw us off our game. So catch me on Friday. Send me any questions that you got. Tune in next Tuesday. Mental acuity chief Gasaway. It's a rad conversation. Listen, have a great weekend. Be safe out there. Happy 2020 and we'll talk to you soon. 

All right, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to 2020. Yes, it is a brand new year, which means a lot of new stuff going on for all of us. And you know, of course you're jam packed with what are you going to do in the new year and new year's resolutions and blah, blah, blah and whatever the end of the day. I think for most of us in this world, we kind of just look at it as another day. I don't know, correct me if I'm wrong, I don't know if it's like new beginnings, but I will say that even for myself, while I just kind of, I don't get all wrapped into, Hey, new year's resolutions and I should be doing this or I should be doing that, uh, cause nine times out of 10, well it just never works. Anyway, I like to look at what my intention is for the year.And so this first episode of 2020 and Thursday's episode is just going to be me and you. And we're going to spend a little bit of time working on a few things and talking about some stuff. And I want to give you some tools and really the same tools that I look at and I use kind of each at the beginning of each year. I started this a little while ago, which really helps to set me up and then helps me find kind of my core intention for the year. And you know, what I want, what I want to achieve, what I want out of it, uh, rather than just kind of average goals. And so I want to spend some time with you today, uh, kind of walking you through an exercise I like to do. I'm going to get a little bit more into this. Uh, I'm going to do a live in mindset radio and a group on mindset radio, Facebook group.Uh, so if you've got a chance pop over, check it out. I'll also probably edit it and post it on YouTube, put it into the show notes so it's available for you this week if you want to come back and visit. Cause you know, I'm not really sure where you listen in the source of the podcast. If you're busy during the day or maybe it's on your drive, maybe you don't have the chance to take notes. This is something you can come back to. You can check out the show notes, you can go over to mindset radio.com it'll be up there. If you're in the Facebook group on set radio, it'll be up there as well. And I'm going to put up some downloadable PDF files that if you don't want to kind of draw it out or whatever else, if you need a little bit of support with it, just download them, pick them up, do the work, uh, take a look at it.But really what I'd like to do is set us up for a really spectacular year. Now, many of you know and I talked about it towards the end of last year, we are launching our a hundred day challenge. Uh, the official launch date is actually going to be January 16th. Why? Because studies show and it is actually scientifically proven that January 16th is the day almost everyone's new year's resolution fails. It's like the day just, you know, I don't know. Shit goes to shit and you're done and you check out and you don't hold onto it. I mean 16 days into a resolution, it's pretty crazy. Uh, so you know, I don't know if it's right or not, but regardless, that's when we're going to kick this thing off. You're welcome to join any time after that. Uh, cause it'll just flow in the process and it'll be available. And I've had some questions for you guys that listen overseas that you're deployed or you're on about.Yeah, it'll be fully online, fully accessible. You don't need to be in person anywhere. It'll be up and available. So if you want to do that, make sure you check out mindset radio.com backslash op your line for, if you just go to mindset radio.com on the homepage, you'll see the banner ads for the a hundred day challenge. Click on that. Go through and come on in and join me. I'm looking forward to a good time with it. Now let's talk today. Let's talk about discovery. You know when you think about it, there's this place where we really want to get down to what's important to us, what matters to us, why we do what we do, what the purpose and intention is behind, and that's why I like this exercise. I think because if you really take it on and you look at it, it will begin to unpack for you the roadmap that you need to have in order to produce the results you want to produce or operating.Why you want to operate or have the life that you want to have. The thing I like about this exercise is you can do it for life, right? You can kind of do it in the big picture if you want to or you can shrink it down and kind of condense it down into your role or your job or your task, or you can separate out your job. You can just look at it from a home life aspect. It doesn't really matter. You can do multiples. You can do it all. Like you can really approach us saying as you want. Now the particular format for this cause, I love giving credit where credit is due, came from a guy by the name of talky Moore. Now you're not going to know talking more than likely unless you happen to be in the services and happen to be a coach somewhere.But this guy, you know, they call him the million dollar coach. He is a coach of coaches. I had an opportunity to do some work with him a few years ago, be involved in some of his programs. I really appreciate who he is as a human being, what he offers his people that he want to talk about getting like great content, great information and just really learning the guys got it down and you know this particular exercise he uses in a different format and I was able to take a look at the single and wait a minute, this is, there's some real value here outside of kind of the structured business side to it and it's a really neat opportunity for us to look at what we want. So if you're listening and you're driving or whatever else, don't worry about it. Just do it in a thought exercise with me, right?Just think it out. And then maybe go back and take some notes later if you have the opportunity to break out a sheet of paper and you want to kind of work work at as we talk through it. Brad, if you know you're listening later and you want to go back and do the show notes or watch the video, do that. But I think what I want you to do really is just kind of listened through what we're going to discuss and I'm going to share some of my stuff with you. Uh, and you know, hopefully you get something out of it. And my hope is that this will help guide in setting you up for success this year, right? Wherever you are. So let's get down to it. Here's the exercise. When you look at it, we're going to look at our Watson frustrations and then we're going to look at our aspirations and our fears, right?And fears and aspirations. We're going to look at kind of the current present moment, what's there for us, and then we're going to look a little into the future and I want to get too far. We may stretch a little bit, but it's always good to take a look forward and to see what's out there because that can begin to align and start to build a path of where it is we want to go. You know, sometimes we can just get lost where we're just feel like we're trudging through day after day after day. I know I do, you know, when I lose kind of sight of my Norstar whose side of my objective or I lose sight of really what I want out of life, you know, and I get bogged down in the day in and day out, grind in the crap going on and really kind of start to, I dunno, I hate to use this word, but almost like fall victim to the circumstances around me to whatever it is.It really starts to impede my progress, if you will. And so as we begin to look, right, I want to explore and kind of take some background, look at this stuff. And really at the end of the day it becomes about our intention. And, and you'll see later this year and then throughout this season, and we're going to talk heavy about it starting in about March or if you're in the program, you'll get it earlier. We're going to talk about how intention plays out in our operational capability and being intentional, being purposeful, uh, and, and that plays into our awareness and all kinds of stuff. And so we'll get into all that stuff later. But, but really for a minute, I want to help try to set you up for the year. And so if you've got a sheet of paper or you don't, or you're just kind of visualizing it and doing this as a thought work, uh, you know, just go ahead and draw me out kind of a quad, right?Four squares or you know, draw a big X on the paper. Just give me four sections out there and just think about that for a minute. And in the top left section. Let's look at what we want. Now, we don't often do this with ourselves. We don't really sit down to say, what is it I really want? Like what is it right now, right here, right now, look around. What do I want? You know, if I'm relating it just to my job, do I want to be promoted? Do I want to make SWAT or do I want a promotion or do I want to make detective, do I want to go to this location or you know, do I want to be a part of this unit? Like what is it you want? And don't be afraid to say it cause nobody else is around you, right?This is your time to reflect, to actually sit down and look at what it is you truly want. You know, if we look at the big scale of life, what do I want? I want to be fit. I want to be physically strong and capable. You know, for mine, my notes, I want to be physically fit. I want to be strong and capable. I want to be able to do 10 pull ups without question, like walking down the park and be like, Oh, there's a pull up bar. Let me hit it and knock out 10 you know, those are things I want. What do I want? I want to, you know, a stable income, right? Income for me, he's been up and down over the last couple of years. It hasn't been great. It's been stressful. So really what I'd like is this year's to stabilize that right then not to be much, just bring it into stability, bring it into where it works and provides me just the basic necessities of life for what I enjoy doing and how I enjoy living my life.Right? So, so I look at myself, one, uh, physicality, right? I want to be a more physically capable. I want to be stronger. I want to be faster. That's what I want. I want to generate a stable, stable source of income from a single point where I can trust and rely on that and I can kind of pick that stress block off of me. What else do I want? I want, you know, I want good, healthy friendships. I want friendships that add to me, not take away from me. I want people in my life and around me that really get me, that I can have great conversations with at depth, um, that I can share in their life. They can share in mind that we can go be adventurous and do stuff right. I mean, those are, those are some of my top wants for 20, 20, um, you know, of course I want my children to be healthy and happy.I want a better relationship with them, own, expand that relationship with them and want to meet them where they are. Uh, you know, I want to grow the relationship with my family and you know, for me, I want to, I want to feel more stable in my own life. You know what I mean? This has been a, is most of, you know, and you've listened through the podcast. This has been a journey. It has been a journey to kind of discover life newly in some ways. Uh, some of the challenges that have been, uh, shown to me over the last several years and doing this work and taking things on and taking a look at it and then sharing it out with you. You know, the other thing I want, I want more listeners, right? I want to expand the audience. I want to grow our community in a way that I know we're making a great impact.I mean, I know we already, the emails that you've sent in and the notes that you sent in, unbelievable. It's just unreal and it means so much to me, you know, but I want to expand that. I want to, I want this conversation to go forward. I want the, the operation mindset foundation to really become a major player on the stage for you all this year. I want it to be a resource that you can trust and rely on. I want to bring a different conversation forward. I want you to be engaged and I want to be engaged with you. Like those were my wants this year. And if I don't speak them or I don't share them or I don't really get in touch with what it is, I won't know where to go. And so that's really just the value of exploring that. And I think, I think we have an issue in our world that we just don't speak our own desires, right.Our own personal wants very often, you know, we worry about everyone else around us. We put everyone else around us in front of us and we don't just sit down to go, you know what about me for a minute? So this is your moment to be, it's okay to be selfish right now. It's okay to actually just think about you and what you want and whatever's there, just write it down right. And just be okay with it. It's just what it is. Now, once you've gone through your wants, you know, and it may be more money, it may be a business, maybe you know, better relationship may be a better relationship with your wife or your girlfriend or your husband or your boyfriend or maybe finding love. I don't know. You know, it could be anything truly and it's okay for whatever it is, but once you get through those wants, here's kind of the flip side to it, right?Then we're going to look at our frustrations. Like what are we frustrated by? You know, if I'm, I'm looking at my life, what am I frustrated by? Frustrated by, you know, a small budget for the foundation right this minute. I'm frustrated that, you know, we don't have the reach that we want or I don't have the, the extra budget to, you know, run Facebook ads and do the marketing campaign and push us out there as a major well known source for you all. Um, you know, I'm frustrated that I'm stuck doing the podcast backend work constantly. That's just takes a lot to do and a lot to produce and I would love to get that off my plate. But I'm frustrated by that. I'm frustrated by my time and schedule and I don't feel like I've done a very good job so far of, especially over the last six, eight months of giving myself to space and time to work out, to be healthy, to take it on, to meet that challenge, to eat the way I need to eat, right, to do those things.I'm frustrated by it. I feel constrained and kind of confined by the circumstances of life, if you will. Right? I'm frustrated by that. And so, you know, I want you to actually use you think through it. I want you to feel that for a minute. I want you to feel the frustrations and what that brings about for me, it brings about anxiety, right? Frustration leads to anger. Uh, I'm frustrated most days I'm upset at things. Uh, you know, and that kind of triggers into this not nice GF place. And so really when I look at it, the things that I want, I can almost draw a correlation to the frustration that's, that's really standing in the way of having what I want. I'm going to say that again. If I really look at when I'm frustrated, I'm frustrated by the things that are impeding me from having the things that I want.And really it's kind of all just circumstantial. I mean, I can do whatever I need to do, right? And that's where I've realigned myself this year to say, okay, well if I want to be in shape and I want to be working out, then I need to set the conditions for that. I need to put myself in a place for that. I need to designate my time for that. And then I need to protect that time. Like it's the most important thing in the world. If I want healthier friendships and healthier relationships, then I have to be willing to say no that the relationships that don't feed me right, that don't advance me, that don't give me what it is that I really want out of life and I've got to be able to segment that stuff. You know? If I want to be promoted at work, well then what is it?What's frustrating me that I'm not being promoted? What's the road? So when we look at it from a standpoint of wants and frustrations, we can actually begin to build a road map, right when we actually call out the frustration for what it is, and then we can take a step back from it and we can look at it to say, okay, what actions do I need to take to eliminate that frustration? Because if I eliminate that frustration, it will lead me down the path of what it is that I actually want. Right? So it allows me to see what gets in my way. And you know, unfortunately the reality is the kind of kick in the ass is nine times out of 10 it's me. That's in my own way of having what it is I want. So, you know, if I want to raise more money for the foundation, then I've got to work the phones right?Then I've got to be out on the streets more than I've gotta be out engaging more. That's the way it goes. That's just what I have to do. And so there's the roadmap, right? To alleviate the frustration and achieve what it is I want. Now, that's all kind of current present stuff. And I want you to go as far as deep as you can. I mean, you may have two or three pages of wants and frustrations. Really, if you never done this exercise, if you've never looked at anything this way, you may throw up for a couple of days around what did you want and what it is that's frustrating you. And I really encourage you to do that because getting it out will actually give you the power to create the new path and the new road map around it. Now here's the thing. So if we look in our, if we're looking at our Claude top left our wants, right?You just them out in their bottom left is our frustrations like what's there? So here's the interesting thing. When we flip over to the other side of the sheet and we begin to look at those other areas, we want to start actually looking at the future a little bit. Now you've heard me say on other podcasts on this one, you know, fear is nothing more than a projection in the future of something that may or may not happen. You know, fear doesn't exist right here in this moment. It is very much a projection into the future. And so when we start looking at aspirations and fears, right? Those are the next two blocks. What we aspire to and then what we fear. And you know, when you look at what you aspire to, it's like how do you see yourself in the future? Who do you see yourself to be?What is it you really want to be in the future? Who do you want to be in the future? How do you want to be viewed in the future? What do you want people to say about you when you're gone? What do you want written on your tombstone? What will the conversation be about Jeff Bandman when he's Jeff Bandman no longer exists. Will it be while the guy was an asshole and you know, always frustrated and always upset. It's stop. Or will it be, Hey, this guy gave everything he could do, the community he loved and cared about. I mean, that's really an aspiration of mine. You know, my, my aspiration is, you know, that every day I wake up worried about you that I care about you, that there's somebody out there that actually gives a shit. And you know, if you're not doing the work, I'm doing the work for you and then trying to bring it to you and give you some thoughts and insights and possibilities around some stuff.Right? That's my, that's my mission. That's my entire objective in life now. And so, you know, if that's who I aspire to be, I aspire to be a great dad. Right? A great man. I just, you know, I want to, I think we all in some way, shape or form want to be admired. I mean, I think that's a very human trait is just admired for what we do and why we do it. And when we're not that, you know, it beats us up quite a bit. And so, you know, just the willingness to speak that and say that it's like, yeah, I want to, I want to be admired. I want to be admired for my life and my effort and the things that I've done. I don't want to be discounted or shut down or told I'm not good enough. I mean, that just doesn't work right?And so I aspire to be someone you can rely on someone that is credible, someone that you know will speak the truth, someone will, that will say what others aren't willing to say or don't notice say so. You know, that's the big aspiration for me. Now what do I fear? Well, I fear being left out. I fear being unknown. I fear not fulfilling on what I believe is destiny. I fear not fulfilling on the skills and attributes and lessons I've learned and things that I feel like I was put on this earth to do. I fear a piano loser, right? I fear not being able to provide stability for my family or to raise my children into amazing human beings. I fear I fear being alone, right? If you're just kind of being isolated and you know, sometimes I fear myself, I fear being locked into a place of frustration and resentment and regret for the rest of my life.I mean that's, that's honestly where I kind of said, you know, I mean it's like what if, what if life didn't happen? What if you know, the podcast doesn't go any further. What if you know, things don't take off? Well what if, what if, what if, and I can play that all the way down to the end and there's actually kind of a healthy view at that at some point in time. And that's what I want to give you permission because so many people say, well, don't dwell on it. Don't look at it. Don't, yeah, take a look at it because that's the picture and what we don't want. That's the picture of where we don't want to be. Or B, that's the admission that those are the things that really keep me up at night. Those are the things that linger in the back of my brain and when I can identify them and when I can be honest about them and when I can speak into them, they will diminish.Because what I'm able to do is reality check life. I'm able to look back and go, you know what? If I wake up every day committed, if I'm consistent on the podcast, if I'm just consistent with you in the community, if I'm giving you everything I've got, I mean, I already feel like I've diminished that fear significantly just by the responses that I've gotten. You know? And we're not out, you know, we're not have 6.9 million subscribers. We're not spread out everywhere yet. But I know that at least in the shows that we've done and the actions that we've taken, I made an impact. I've made an impact on you and I appreciate you allowing me to make that impact on you. And so really the fear, is it really a fear now? It's not because it's, I've already conquered tat. I've already surpassed that.If I want to, you know, if I sit in the mode and say, what all of 100,000 emails back in, what does it matter? Right? So I've already resolved that in a lot of ways, but the fact is when it creeps back in, I can see it, call it out and identify it and then actually validate it, right? I can, I can begin to, to understand how to maneuver through that fear with a strength and a comfort and a confidence that I need to keep going each and every day to not let that fear be overwhelming, but I've identified it. I've put it down, I've written it down on a sheet of paper. That's a fear. Okay, cool. How do I resolve that? What actions can I take that would eliminate that? What can I do that I know and trust I can deliver that will eliminate that fear?I can have better conversations with my children. I can be more present with them. I can set work aside and actually be available to them when I want to. When I'm, when I'm with them, I don't have to be occupied by a lot of other things. Those are the actions that will foster and lead to an amazing relationship with them. When I can set myself up to be successful in those moments, right? What enables me to touch this community when I actually dedicate myself to the work that needs to go into place to deliver something to you. And so this is really, to me, one of the most valuable things you can do to set your year up, right? And we'll give you the roadmap for where you want to go. How do I want to be? How can I be more, you know, emotionally stable?How can I be more, uh, mentally strong or, you know, mental toughness or whatever verbiage I wanna use around that, right? How can I improve my mindset? How can I bring something new to the table? How can I shift my day, moment by moment by moment? How do I know when to transition and recover? And all of these things that we've talked about, how can I be more physically prepared? How can I take care of my body? What do I need to do to take care of my body? All of these things go into play and you know, so it's, it's kind of a constant move of identifying it, reality, checking it, and then laying out the actions that I want to take. So for instance, if I say I want, you know, one of my objectives, 5,000 subscribers to the podcast by the end of the first quarter.So I've got three months to do that, right? And we're doing really well. But what do I want? I want that. So what actions do I need to take to have it? What processes do I need to put in place to produce that result? If I'm frustrated by my lack of time, which then impacts maybe what I want, right? A healthier body, right? A stronger capability, whatever it may be, then what hacks can do I need to take to resolve that? How do I set myself up? Do I get up earlier? Do I stay up later? Do I just communicate with the people around me? It says for this hour I shut my phone down, I'm off, I'm offline, don't bother me, don't touch me cause I'm in the gym cause I'm doing something for myself, I'm taking care of myself. Right? And so those are the, those are the aspects that really, this is where things come into play.It's not just dwelling on what's there, it's not just having the conversation of like, Oh well this is what I want and this is what I'm frustrated by and you know, this is what I aspire to. But then this is what I fear. Cool, great. Let's get those out, let's get him identified. But then once we have an identified, what actions do I take to resolve those or achieve those? Right? What is the roadmap that I'll follow that will actually lead me to where it is I want to be in life because I think that's the biggest thing for all of us, right? We all want to be somewhere. We want to do great at our jobs. We want to be the best police officer, best firefighter or best service member. We want to get promoted. We want to go to certain units, we want to achieve certain things.Those are the ass absolute things. So when we go from once we can check that, do I have the ability to achieve that? And if I do or if I do or don't, right, why or why not? Right? So I take, once I take that list at once, I can convert that into reality checking against my abilities. You know, I want 5,000 subscribers. Rad. Do I have the ability to do that? Yes, actually I do. Okay. What's the roadmap? You know, I want to be in better shape. Do I have the ability to do that? Yes I do. You know, I want $1 million by next month. Do I have the ability to do that? Probably not. If I reality check it, you know, unless I won the lottery, right? That's, that's a little bit of a far stretch. And so we want to keep that, that place to it.And then again, when I look at my frustrations, what actions can I take to resolve that frustration? How can I set myself up? This is where personal responsibility really comes into play. When I look at my fears, reality checking, are they real or are they perceived right? How do I move a fear to a state of peace or peacefulness? What does it look like? What does the road look like that would bring that fear to fruition? You know, that's always an interesting exercise. If you look at, if you take one of your fears and you actually map it out, it's like what would you have to do for that fear to become reality? Who'd you have to be for that fear to become reality? And in doing that, man you, you'll sit back and be like, okay, that's not me. I'm not going to do any of that.So literally that fears bullshit. And so a good opportunity to do that. And then, you know, how do I bring in my aspirations into reality? What would I need to do or be to really achieve this aspiration to really be in that place? So that's the model that I want you to look at. Uh, here off. Today's episode, you know, is to really get in touch with all of that. Because I think what that does when you line out, like we talk about mentally, physically, and emotionally, so what you're able to do out of this exercise is extract all that goodness, extract all that information and be able to look at and say, okay, where do I want to be mentally? What's my intention for 2020 mentally? Well, that's my intention for 2020 physically, what's my intention for 2020 emotionally? Who do I want to be on December 31st of 2020 and then what's the road to get there?What work do I need to do to achieve that? And then I don't future cast that I don't look three months ahead. I go back to today. So did I go to the gym today? Yes or no. Period. Did I meditate today? Yes or no. Period. Did I study more or learn something new today, yes or no period. And those were the questions you ask yourself, right? And my intention guides me and guides me on the actions that I want to take. And the result, if you just stick in that mode, that result will produce itself basically, right? You'll be able to look at the end of this year and go, Holy shit. Right? You'll be able to flip back after you write this thing down, date it, sign it, do whatever, stick it somewhere, seal in an envelope, mail it to yourself, do something so that at the end of the year you can open that puppy up and you can see whether or not you even came close to it.And if you didn't achieve it, well then you know, you go through and you look at it and you look at why, but we'll be doing it in a whole different context. And so that's what I really, what I want you to encourage you to do out of today's podcast, you know, instead of bringing a guest on right now, instead of doing all this other stuff right this second, I wanted to share with you what I do, right? I wanted to give you kind of the core aspects of what I spend my time doing, how I try to set myself up and how I take a look at it. And so I hope you get something out of it. And again, you know, you'll be able to hit the Facebook group or the show notes or whatever else and I'll line it out for you.If you want to use the PDFs, great. Download them. No problem. They're there for you to take and use 100% and if you've got any questions, send something to me or if you're struggling with something, right? If you're struggling to figure out what it is, reach out, right? I'm available on messenger and Instagram and everywhere, email and everywhere else. Just take a minute, shoot me. You know, it'd be like, Hey Jeff, I'm really hung up on, you know, my fear, so I'm really hung up on my aspirations. I'm happy to feed something to you. I'm happy to give some to you or we'll just hop on a call and talk about it. I mean, that's just the way it goes, right? That's a part of life. That's what we're, what I'm here for. Right? That's why that's my whole world now. So don't be afraid to use that resource if you're getting stuck around it and go back and don't feel like it has to be done all in one sitting or all in one day.You know, take a week, take a month, don't take six months, don't take 12 months because then it will be next year, you know, aspect to it. But take some time with it. And if something new pops up, go back and add it. I mean that's, that's the way life goes. So listen, I want to say thanks for all the support last year and the love that came in and the messages that came in. I greatly appreciate it. I think we're set up for a pretty amazing year this year. We're structuring out the content. I'm going to try to bring better guests, more guests, not really better guests because we had phenomenal guests last year. Uh, but continue the same process with some really exceptional guests that contribute out to you that have something to offer. Um, I'm working on the backend stuff, so show notes are a little bit tighter so the transcripts are available.So some of the other stuff that you know, kind of supports you in, uh, doing research or looking through stuff. I'm doing my best to step that up and deliver more of that for you this year. Uh, now on Thursday's episode it's going to be me and you again and we're going to look at kind of how to put our lives in action a little bit deeper. I'm going to have a little bit more for you around that and we'll talk a little bit about that more in the Facebook group as well. So really my objective for this week is to give you some tools to help set you up for the new year, to really set you up to be successful this year and whatever it is you want to achieve and produce, right? So that'll be Thursday show now the rest of the month, what we're focused on is mental acuity.We've got some phenomenal cast coming up this month to really look at kind of the cognitive structure, how we think in process, how we improve our awareness, uh, how we connect and read the environment and then kind of maneuver through some things. So we're going to get right into action next week, but we're going to dive right into some mental acuity aspects for the remainder of the month. And then in February, uh, I'm really looking forward to February. I got an opportunity to really start talking with and getting to know a lot of the other companies that support our community, uh, that I think are really exceptional. And so February we're going to highlight a bunch of those. We've got some great conversations mapped out now, some really cool people coming to the table. And so in February we're going to do it but highlight and some deep dives so you can actually hear from some of the people that are out supporting you why right.And get their story. And, and I think some of it you may really be surprised and blown away by. I, I know I've already been that way. And then through March and probably into April, uh, we're going to dive into C3. We're going to dive deep into comfort, confidence, and creativity. And we're going to blow that out. We're going to extract that. We're going to look at the math behind mindset and we're really going to get in and bring in both great guests from the community, outside the community, some really forward thinkers around some stuff. And my objective is that through this podcast this year, we're going to elevate your game significantly personally and professionally. Write it because I believe in our world, they go hand in hand. And so that's what our focus is on for the remainder of this year. I'm going to do my best to give you everything that I got.Uh, don't forget if you're a new listener, uh, starting January 16th, again, we're starting to a 100 day challenge. It's going to be unique opportunity to really kind of uncover some stuff and learn some great valuable lessons along the way. You know, I've had questions around, uh, the physicality of that couple of people, you know, recovering from injuries or doing whatever. There's no standard for that. It's not a fitness challenge by any means, but we will look across all three primary areas, mental, physical and emotional. And in that a hundred day challenge in the first week, I'm going to guide you through a process of how to kind of unpack one core thing that you want to focus on for the a hundred days and kind of the shear behind that is right. The piece behind that, you know, there's a lot of stuff out there on what, how many days it takes to create a habit and whatever, whatever, I'm sorry, I can't buy into that.What I really want you to get out of that a hundred days and why the a hundred days exists, is we're going to rewire some of the biological systems. We're going to retrain the elephant to understand what it means to win and really embody that sense of achievement and winning over those hundred days. It will be tough. It will be simple and tough, I promise you. So that's available upon the site. It's run through the operational mindset foundation. So all the proceeds go to benefit the operation mindset foundation to help us get out. So that's a by choice donation, uh, to the program. Check it out mindsetradio.com/opyourlife/ or just go to the main page at mindsetradio.com. Click on the link and follow through to the a hundred day challenge. I really would love to have all you in there and you know, if you can't hop in on the 16th do you want to hop in a little bit later?Not a problem that the program will run kind of as it is for the remainder of the time. And we'll support it with the group and it won't matter where you are, cause you'll fold right in. You'll see what everybody's working on. A really neat chance to be a part of a cool community and I'll work and contribute together on some stuff. So that's going to wrap up today's episode. It is January 7th, 2020 wow. 2020 it's pretty crazy when you think about it, so I hope everybody had a great holiday season. Hope everybody had a safe and great new year, and I hope you're looking forward to this year. So you know, tune back in on Thursday, we're going to talk about what life in action looks like. We're in a dissect a few things. Give you four more tools. Again, thanks for sticking around. Thanks for listening, and we'll talk to you on Thursday. 

Good morning everybody! I was on with Ken and Matt. We talked about Google and the Partnership they have with Ascension the second-largest medical conglomerate in the US and what it means to our privacy.  Keep an eye out for my Facebook Lives - free information for you and your families. These and more tech tips, news, and updates visit - CraigPeterson.com --- Related Articles: Big Tech Has Your Private Medical Records -- Through Hospital Partnerships    --- Automated Machine Generated Transcript: Craig Peterson0:00 Hey, good morning, everybody. Craig Peterson here. I'm sorry if you're listening to the podcast and Craig's ranting again if you don't want to hear my rant about medical records, I'd take a different angle on this one today. After having ranted a couple of times about it this week. I think I've kind of refined my messaging, as they say in the biz. Anyhow, I had a good chat this morning with Ken and Matt and we spoke with the people of Maine a little bit about some of the technology and of course, what should we be doing? What are the ultimate outcomes of having Google, Amazon, Microsoft, and others examining our health records? I take a different angle today.  I have to mention too, by the way, wow, we're starting to get some good numbers, decent numbers over on the Facebook Live. So thanks, everybody. There's watching those you can get them. Just go to Craig Peterson dot com slash Facebook, it is so much easier for people to find me that way, then trying to search on Facebook, but you can search and you can find me there to my tech talk page over there. But anyway, thanks for everybody that's promoting it to their friends. We've even been sharing some of these little videos. I think yesterday, it was like four and a half minutes long. And I'm talking about some basic technical stuff, and primarily around security. And, you know, mostly kind of leaning towards mostly business. But home people if you listen, you will get information that's applicable to you as a home user or SOHO - Small Office/Home Office. Now here we go to Ken and Matt. Matt Gagnon 1:49 Here's the thing, great Wednesday, we're chock full of things chocked full of things that we need some filler and we need some exciting, interesting thing. Ken Altschuler 1:58 We're just trying to spread the word around but you know, Wednesdays, are we like once a week we would rather you have you on Wednesday? Then not have you at all? Craig Peterson2:06 Oh, there you go. Okay. Well, that's good to know. I'm not totally being abandoned here. No, no. Matt Gagnon 2:12 It has to do with us. It's I'm not just a pawn in your game of world domination. We'd like you to be part of it. We want to take you with us. Ken Altschuler 2:26 So, So, you know, Craig, I was looking over your website, and you know, everything's breaches. And I mean, Google has health records on us. I mean, so what? Should I just be really depressed about the tech news today? Is there anything good happening in the tech world? Matt Gagnon 2:43 Besides photocopiers, you mean, exactly Craig Peterson 2:46 I'm talking about Google first. Ken Altschuler 2:56 How does one job it's supposed to copy things and there's a PDF or something don't know I'm not asking to copy? I am I it has a function where you're supposed to literally be able to eat mail to yourself. I use it on my own copier, which is almost exactly like this one every day. And all you do is put in the email address, you hit the green button, and it says Do you want to send my email says I would like to send that and then it sends it. And yet it simply cannot accomplish this goal. So yeah. Anyway, Ken Altschuler 3:18 I apologize.  Craig Peterson 3:22 So good. Well, yeah, there's some good news in the tech world, Frankly, there's a lot of stuff going on. We've got some new technology coming out just in time for the holiday shopping season. And we're going to be talking in fact that next week, you guys are going to have a couple of things about how to stay safe online during the shopping season because there's a lot worse stuff happening now. But we haven't talked about these pale blue batteries, have we? This is a very cool technology. It's one of these GoFundMe things It was really well funded. And I actually have some sitting in front of them. As a powerful member of the media community, they sent me a few of these things. These are absolutely amazing. They're using yet another technology. It's the same types that you have in these little helicopters. Have you seen these things that like in the malls? Yes. Where they take like 30 seconds to charge and they fly around for like five minutes. Yes, it's the same basic technology but pale blue has these things in triple-A batteries and double-A batteries. And built right into the side of them is a micro USB charger. They have a light on them to tell you how charged they are. They charge up in like 20 minutes, just a regular micro USB cable and charger anybody right from your laptop or whatever you have. And they run your devices for just as long as pretty much any other battery. I have these pale blues right now. My Bluetooth keyboard and also in my Bluetooth mouse trackpad thing here. And I have been absolutely amazed. So this is some new technology. There's some other new battery technology that's coming out the guy that invented lithium-ion batteries. He, in fact, he just got a Nobel Prize this year. Finally, after inventing these all those years ago, he's come up with something that he's called lithium glass batteries. And these will let you charge them up like a car, fully charged in about 20 minutes. That'll take you probably instead of 300 miles about 500 miles. So this type of technology is coming down the road. I absolutely love it with this is what we need as we get more mobile as we have more 5g coming out. And I think that's good news can. Okay. Matt Gagnon 5:56 Oh, you're talking. Craig Peterson 5:58 You feel a little better. Thank you. A little better. Thank you Matt Gagnon 6:02  A little better. Thank you. You asked about Google and these health records. Again, Yes. Craig Peterson 5:58 This thing is to me concerning I don't know about you guys. But Google has this partnership that they entered into with Ascension. This is a country's second-largest health system, that it's part of the whole Catholic nonprofit health system and includes 34,000 providers who see patients at 2600 hospitals, doctors' offices, other facilities across 21 states. I'm not sure if we have Catholic hospitals here in Maine or not. I know you guys know. Okay. Well, apparently Ascension has quietly given all of the medical records, diagnoses, laboratory test results, hospitalization records, and other data including patient names and birthdays, this is all reported by the Wall Street Journal,  to Google. Google, of course, just bought Fitbit, which is giving them more health information as people are using it to monitor their sleep. They're using it to monitor their, you know, running, walking, exercise, climbing, heart rhythms, etc. So more, you know, it's this, the numbers get crazy. So what about 30 years ago? Because of HIPAA, they were able to give all of your medical records to Google without even notifying you. Ken Altschuler 7:40 Why don't they say no? Craig Peterson 7:44 HIPAA is mainly about portability, right? They were forcing doctors to move the records to computers, electronic medical records, and that's been a nightmare because all kinds of small doctors' offices and clinics and even Big healthcare organizations don't know how to keep our data safe, which drives me crazy, right? So it's been a nightmare from that standpoint. But what HIPAA did is, whereas before HIPAA went into place, they would have to ask your permission before sharing records. Now, they can share your medical records for all kinds of reasons. You know, I could be a multi-billionaire, walk up to a hospital say, Hey, I'm interested in buying you, I want to see the records of every patient, and I could get my hands on them without the patients being notified. In this case, what they've done is they said, Hey, listen, Google, here's what we want. We want you to look at all of this, analyze all of this so that we can have better outcomes so that we can save in costs and ultimately save lives. Now where I get concerned about this, because you know, those are all great goals. I love it. But I get very concerned that now our records are in the hands of Google and that means they are going to end up in the hands of our employers. potentially. They're already looking at some of these records. If you look at the socialist countries of the world, like Canada or the UK, their national health system in the United Kingdom has been using computers now artificial intelligence much the same as well, Google's using to predict when someone's going to die and predict whether or not it's worth spending any money on them at all. So they're saying, Hey, listen, you know, you're going to die in a matter of a few months. So we're not going to spend a dime on you. Because most of the money that's spent in health care when you boil it all down, is those last few months of life so why should we bother treating you? Then I've already seen my family in Canada, where they refuse to treat my grandmother for atrial fibrillation. They refuse to treat my grandfather for gout in he ended up having his foot cut off because they just plain old wouldn't treat it. My father in Toronto, three hours in the back of a hot of an ambulance driving around trying to get treatment. And he finally gets into a hospital finally accept him. And they take him they overnight they do the blood test. Yeah. You got a sloping t wave looking at his 12 lead. Yeah, he had a heart attack. take aspirin and call us if it happens again. versus what happens is my father in law happened to my father-in-law. Yeah, up in Washington state where they treated him they looked at him seriously. Did stress test I did nothing like that for my father. And you know, I spent 10 years in emergency medicine, right. So I know a little bit about this stuff. So when I see Project Nightingale, which is what Google's calling this partnership with the country's second-largest healthcare organization. I start to freak out. I hear, you know, you guys talk about Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, etc. I hear these politicians saying we need socialized medicine. And yet every country, every major country that has socialized medicine, and I do have family members in Canada, that does not have an absolute horror story about medical treatment, and we're not talking about people that can't afford it. We're not talking about people that couldn't have insurance, okay. But every one of these countries wants to get rid of it. And we've got Google, we've got Microsoft, we have a basic Amazon, every major player trying to get into this business. I am starting to freak out, gentlemen. Ken Altschuler 11:45 Well, I wouldn't want to freak you out anymore. So we're going to leave it there because we're out of time anyway. We're gonna stick a pin in this and maybe we'll talk to you next Wednesday, maybe next Monday. Matt Gagnon 11:59 When we will find out a little about holiday shopping. Craig Peterson 12:02 Thanks, guys. Matt Gagnon 12:02 Appreciate it. Craig, as always, we'll talk again soon. Thanks. Ken Altschuler 12:03 Thanks, Craig Transcribed by https://otter.ai --- More stories and tech updates at: www.craigpeterson.com Don't miss an episode from Craig. Subscribe and give us a rating: www.craigpeterson.com/itunes Follow me on Twitter for the latest in tech at: www.twitter.com/craigpeterson For questions, call or text: 855-385-5553

*increase team volume, secret mlm hacks, teach your downlines, the power of the internet   Listen to a recent Secret MLM Hacks course member, Nick Bradshaw, as he tells us how is team volume nearly 20X'd after using these modern MLM recruiting principles...   INSIDE SECRET MLM HACKS   This is an interview that I've done with one of my good, Nick Bradshaw. He's got his own show but he wouldn't tell me what it is. You should track him down and ask him.   We have about 500 people in the Secret MLM Hacks program. For the next few episodes, I'm actually going to share with you guys some of the interviews I've been doing with people who are in the program and share what's been happening.   Nick  has almost 20X-ed his team volume since using the Secret MLM Hacks methods, which is crazy. I didn't know it was that much! I thought it was just doubling, not 20X!   He's going to walk through and talk about how he's been using this stuff and teaching the same strategies to his downline, which is ultimately what's been my goal in creating this stuff.   It's not so that everybody has to join Steve Larsen. It's so that you can learn how to do this stuff on your own and then teach your downlines and explode stuff.   A lot of MLMs are refusing to be influenced from the top down on the strategies that I'm teaching. I'm just telling you… This is the landscape of the atmosphere that we're in around here.   A lot of big MLMs are not wanting to take on some of the strategies like the internet, which is ridiculous. It's because they don't know it themselves. They don't know how to train or teach on it.   The strategy I've been teaching is actually to go from the bottom up. It's for the little guy.   HOW TO TEACH YOUR DOWNLINES   Secret MLM Hacks has been focused on training from the ground up. I don't care what MLM in you're in. That's why I'm not here pitching you guys all the time. I'll drop every once in a while what I'm in if you guys are interested, but that's not the purpose of it.   The purpose of it is for me to go and influence MLM from the bottom up. To hand tools to people inside of MLMs from the bottom up who can go reteach it to their people and explode past their uplines.   That's been the point and it's been working. We've had a lot more MLMs reaching out, asking things like, "Would you come build funnels for us?" I'm like, "Where were you when I was talking about it earlier?" It's flipped the whole table on its head.   I have a very special guest today. Somebody I have been watching and seeing everything that has been going on... And I've been impressed.   There’s not many people in MLM who use the power of the internet. I've got a very special guest for you today. It's very easy to see who is in MLM online because there aren't that many. When I first saw other people doing it I was like, “Oh my gosh I'm not alone!” I was so excited about it.   I want to introduce you to and welcome Nick Bradshaw.   SECRET MLM HACKS INTERVIEW WITH NICK BRADSHAW   Steve: Hey man. Thank you so much for being on here.   Nick: Dude it's been absolutely my pleasure. It really really is.   Steve: It's gonna be awesome I'm pumped for it. Just so people understand more about what you do, tell me when you first got into MLM?   Nick: I've been in the MLM game myself about two and a half years. Funny enough, my wife is actually the one who started all of this and I jumped in halfway through. It's really skyrocketed and taken off from there.   My wife's been doing this for about five years. And during that time I was actually a car salesman. I was working 60 - 80 hour workweeks, every single week.   When I started in car sales I had one kid and then next thing I know, I had two kids. I blinked three times and next thing you know I'm sitting next to a six and four year old kid. I'm like, “Where did all the time go?”   I was burnt out on it. I had set all these goals and I had reached the goals. I had worked my way up the corporate ladder so I could provide for my family and let my wife be a stay at home wife.   I got to that roadblock that said, “Where do I draw the line of how much time I'm spending at work versus how much time I'm spending at home?”   From there it was like, “Alright, well what do I do? How do I remedy this, how do I fix it?”   Steve: Something's gotta change, right? We've gotta shake it up a bit.   WHAT IS INSIDE SECRET MLM HACKS?   Nick: How do I be a better father to my kids? How do I be the father that I want to be rather than just the provider and someone that my kids don't even know? I was literally leaving for work before they woke up and I was coming home two hours after they'd already been in bed.   That's where my journey started with MLM. My answer to all of that was, “I'm gonna jump on board and help my wife build this business”.   And so that's what I started doing. I've got all these sales skills. I've been doing this hardcore sales stuff for five years now. My wife was relatively well. She was a silver rank in her company which equated to $2,500 a month.   So I said, “Okay, if I'm gonna quit my job and I'm gonna do all of this, I’m gonna quit cold turkey”.   Steve: You just up and left?   Nick: Yeah, just up and left. I said, “I'm done”.   Here's the crazy part… We moved from Indianapolis to Austin, Texas two months afterwards. We completely restarted. Hit the reset button.     I've got all these sales skills and one of the things that I see really lacking inside of the MLM world was people knowing how to sell. So that was the problem that I said I can fix.   I jumped into our team trainings and I started doing all of these things. I started teaching them menu selling (which is a car world term) but it's just narrowing down the options.   Instead of giving them this huge, 16 page spreadsheet of all of these things that they can buy, you're gonna narrow it down and say, “Okay you have this option, this option or this option.”   HOW TO INCREASE TEAM VOLUME WITH SECRET MLM HACKS   I started doing that and in four months, our team volume jumped from $30,000 a month to $80,000 a month.   Steve: Wow, big jump.   Nick: Yeah big jump. Just within a couple of months of just getting people to understand how the sales process actually works and implementing those skills.   But then we really came to a plateau. You can only do so much to the customer base that you already have.   Steve: Right. You need some more people eventually.   Nick: Eventually you need more people. That was the brick wall that I ran into at that point. I was like “Okay, so how do I do this?”   Marketing, duh.   If sales pushes and marketing pulls, I need to pull more people into this business.   But I had no idea how to do it because I'm not a marketer. I've been doing sales my entire life. And honestly, that's when I found Steve Larsen. I started listening to Secret MLM Hacks and I signed up to ClickFunnels.   From there… I failed. Miserably. On my face.   Steve: Sure. We pretty much all do the first few rounds.   Nick: I jumped in and I'm like, “Oh this is gonna be awesome! I'm listening to you but I'm not really hearing you”, you know what I mean?   Steve: I always laugh when people are like, “I've heard this training before”, and I'm like, “No it takes a few rounds, go again.”   Nick: I jumped in and started building these funnels and I'm like, “This is going to be awesome” and then I hit launch...   And I launch that first funnel and nothing. It was just crickets and I'm like, “Alright, back to the drawing board”.   INCREASE TEAM VOLUME WITH CLICKFUNNELS   I paused my ClickFunnels account because I realized that I didn’t have the skills that I need to be successful doing what I'm doing.   Steve: Right.   Nick: That's when I really jumped into it and I remember the time specifically. I was at a leadership retreat which is an invite only retreat for a company. I had just gotten Expert Secrets and Dot Com Secrets. I bought the black book with the funnel hacker's cookbook and all of that. And I brought it with me.   I'm sitting in our hotel room and I started reading Expert Secrets and I didn't put it down. I went all through the night and the next morning. When it was time to get up and go to the retreat I was still sitting there with my book on page 240 or something like that.   All of these things just started hitting me and it was like the fire was lit. I started really consuming and I even started hacking Secret MLM Hacks.   Steve:  I noticed that's what you were doing. I watch a lot of people do that which is great and I think they should model it.   Nick: When I was hacking Secret MLM Hacks somehow, someway I ended up in the membership site and I hadn't paid for it. I messaged you and I'm like, “Dude, I have no idea how this happened but I'm here.”   Steve: We were in the middle of tweaking some stuff. Yeah, I remember that. It's not that way anymore.   Nick: It's not that way anymore. A whole new revamped course and everything. I got there and I started watching your videos, consuming and I implemented.   For my relaunch basically modeled exactly what you were doing. This was probably seven months ago, eight months ago?   HOW LONG DOES IT TAKE TO INCREASE TEAM VOLUME?   Steve: A while ago now, yeah.   Nick: Since then we went from$80,000 a month in volume to averaging about $150,000 a month in volume.   Steve: WHAT? I didn't know it was that big dude… Are you serious?   Nick: Yeah. In the past 12 months, we've done a little over $1.5 Million.   Steve: So you're saying it works?   Nick: I'm saying it works dude. That's probably about the time that you really started noticing me singing your praises. I'm sitting here inside of my own business and I'm watching these things grow and accumulate exponentially.   And I'm trying to teach this stuff to my team and get it through their heads… There's no other way!   Steve: I don't know another way either. I'm not making fun of you who are like, “I love talking to friends and family. I love going to home and hotel meetings”. Good on you. But you can only do that for so long.   It's so much better to have something automated.   Nick: Yeah, absolutely. I start learning more about marketing and it's a constant learning curve obviously.   But you know that? It’s so true that MLM is a personal growth opportunity with an income opportunity attached to it.   Steve: Right.   Nick: That's what it is. It's a great way to start for the traditional person who doesn't know anything about marketing or sales. You can start talking to family members and friends and doing all of that.   But the reason that 99% of us out there are failing is because we don't ever move past that portion of it.   The growth never happens and where we get into real marketing or real sales.   PERSONAL GROWTH WITH SECRET MLM HACKS   Steve: Reaching out to your network only gets you so far. After a while you have to learn how to attract more people, market to them, change beliefs, sell and close.   It's funny when people are like, “I'm just gonna treat this like a hobby.” You're not going anywhere then, sorry.   It's a business not a hobby.   Nick: That’s the way that I see this. We talked about this the other day. The way that I see MLM moving, the way that I see this momentum going... It's having a rebirth, almost.   If you've lived in our world, it's changing the way that it's happening. We're slowly moving out of those 1960's origins and moving to 2020.   You're seeing a lot more sales and marketing professionals get into the game. I'm trying to teach everybody that, I'm trying to show everybody that.   If you're not moving in the direction that things are going, you're going to become extinct.   You're going to have real professionals in this game, doing things, exploding and leaving everybody else in the dust.   Steve: There are social media platforms that were never around until 10 years ago. The distribution channels that exist now are massive and you can tap into them for near nothing.   Most MLMs are mad when you go do that kind of stuff. What is wrong with you? You could be selling so much more if you just use them! It doesn't mean you have to be on Facebook saying “MLM”.   What are you guys are doing right now that's working best for you? I'm just interested in that, because the course is big. Secret MLM Hacks is not a small course.   What is it in there that has been most helpful so far?   TEACH YOUR DOWNLINES WITH SECRET MLM HACKS STRATEGIES     Nick: The thing that I think that's been most helpful… It's just gotta be the confidence to go out and PUBLISH.   Steve: Oh yes.   Nick: The confidence to go out and publish and talk about what you're doing. It's one thing to sit there and learn it for yourself. It's another to go out and actually teach people what you're doing.   Steve: Sure.   Nick: Not only because, in my personal opinion, I think that you learn it better and but you learn how to communicate it better. The more that we've been publishing, the more that we've been putting it out there, the more that it attracts people.   Steve: Sure.   What's being published right now? Is it a podcast right now?   Nick: I've started a small little podcast at the moment.   Steve: What is it called? Feel free to shout it out.   Nick: I don't know if I want to at this point...   Steve: That's okay then, never mind.   Nick: I'm still trying to find my voice. My wife's Instagram account has been blowing up. She's got 42,000 followers right now.   Steve: That's big.   Nick: We do a lot of not direct marketing there. More like back page marketing.   Steve: Sure, that's one of my favorite kinds. Especially in MLM.   Nick: I modeled you and I set up my own little course. I started targeting people who want to make money online. The people who actually want to own a business. Not people who want to do a hobby.   Sending people through that mini-course has yielded great results.   THE POWER OF THE INTERNET AND MLM   Steve: That's awesome.   What does your funnel look like right now? I talk so much about funnels, and most of the MLM world is still very new to the funnel term and concept. But what is it that you guys are doing right now?   Nick: The big thing we're doing right now is the little mini course which basically teaches marketing for MLM.   Steve: Sure, that's awesome.   Nick: The big idea behind that is, if you want to recruit more people into MLM and you don't want to talk to your friends and family, then:     You have to target people who actually want to own a business but people who aren't necessarily getting the results that they want out of the current business that they're in.   Setting up this little mini course that teaches people how to market. People who actually want to learn how to market their MLM. Then we invite them to join the downline.   At the end of this course I affiliate for you and I say, “Hey, there's two ways that you can learn this…”   Steve: Which I see by the way, thank you.   Nick: “... You can either go join Steve's Secret MLM Hacks and learn it from the master. Or you can join my downline and I'm gonna teach you exactly what I'm doing to grow my downline to do $1.5 Million per year.”   You can say in your current business and learn from Steve or you can join me and learn from me.   Catching that low hanging fruit, I suppose. Taking advantage of the way that the current MLM system is.   You have so many people that are unsatisfied with the business that they have because they're not learning the things they need to run their business.   TAKE THE OPPORTUNITY TO INCREASE TEAM VOLUME   Steve: Which reeks of opportunity for the rest of us who actually know what the heck's up.   Nick: Exactly. That's exactly what it is. It's kind of like a smorgasbord of low hanging fruit.   Steve: It is, yeah.   Nick: As far as extra recruiting goes and getting new people, it's great when people actually want to use the product, they believe in the product, they love the product and all of those things.   That's an amplifier but it's not a requirement.   Steve: So you guys have a course, you're selling, you're driving traffic to the course and then on the back you’re saying, “Hey, if you want to come join, this is what we've got”.   Nick: Exactly.   Steve: That's awesome. I was filming some training for my own team three weeks ago now. And I just wrote RECRUITING.   That is what most MLMs teach you and the method for it is just walk around. Think about the power of what we're doing with this stuff.   We're taking the recruiting model and replacing something in front of it so that we're not actually promoting the MLM.   How long did it take you to create your course?   Nick: I created the course in about seven days.   Steve: RIGHT? It's not crazy, man. You create this course so then you're no longer promoting an MLM. So Facebook is okay with you suddenly.   You drive traffic to that and take the money to dump it right back into ads. It's amazing and it changes the whole model.   It's literally INFO PRODUCT + MLM. Mashing together two different industries.   Are you doing phones sales as well? Closing them on the phone?   TEACH YOUR DOWNLINES THE POWER OF THE INTERNET   Nick: To a degree yes. I will offer that to people and I have an application process (modeled after you).   Nine times out of 10 when someone goes through the application process, I set up my auto-responder. My email service will kickback a set of emails that walk them through the process of setting up their account.   Then I've done an automated overview. A business overview that teaches them about the company.   During this entire time, I never even mention my company's name.   Steve: This is the craziest part! Same thing!   Nick: I've literally modeled what you've done.   Steve: I LOVE IT!   Nick: For months my entire office was covered with print out after print out of exactly what you did.   Once I finally mapped it out in my head, it was more about the concepts at hand.   Another thing that I think a lot of people struggle with inside of the funnel world is that they think it's about pages.   Steve: Right yeah, it's not.   Nick: It about the framework. What is the state of mind that he's putting every single person in?   Once I finally understood the framework behind it, I knew that's why I failed the very first time that I tried ClickFunnels. Because I thought that it was just all about pages.   But once I understood the core framework and moving somebody through the funnel and how that's done, then all of a sudden it made sense.   Steve: Right.   INCREASE TEAM VOLUME WITH SELF-LIQUIDATING OFFERS   Nick: One of the coolest things that happened out of all of this and how I feed this recruiting machine is by putting self-liquidating offers throughout the course.   The course is dripped out over five days and on each day there's a small self-liquidating offer.   Whatever I talk about that day, I then give them an offer to say, “Hey, if you want to learn this more in depth right now, click this”. Then it goes to a new page with a little sales video for an offer for $7.   Right now it's $1.50 per opt in on the front end and on the back end it's churning out $38.   Steve: You're speaking louder than whole MLMs even know how to!   Nick: Exactly and it pays for itself 17 times over. I'm paying myself to recruit people.   Steve: Last week on Secret MLM Hacks we put $1400 in and we got $20,000 back out (not including how many people got recruited and then they get handed the same recruiting systems). I don't know how it fails.   The biggest issue is the education. Most MLMs don't know how to do this which is understandable. It's a newish thing.   What would you tell to somebody who is on the fence about trying this?   ON THE FENCE ABOUT SECRET MLM HACKS?   Nick: The biggest thing that I would tell people is fail and fail fast. Just do it.   When we over think it, nothing ever gets done. I'm a perfectionist myself which is why I listened to Secret MLM Hacks 18 months ago and I just started doing this six to eight months ago. It wasn't really until the last three months that it really took off.   I’m still constantly tweaking and doing things to it but the fact is that I just did it.   I finally put down the pen, I finally put down the book and I went out there and I did it. Then I hit publish and I wasn't scared to feed the machine up front and put a little bit of money into it.   Nothing is ever gonna get done if I just sit here and read books. The knowledge is great...   Steve: But nothing happens.   Nick: You just gotta do it. Be active in your pursuit of what you want.   Steve: Be clear about the fact that this is not a hobby.   We've treated this like an actual business. We've got phone closers, we're talking to people and training.   I hate when someone joins because they're trying to do you a favor. Then they're wondering why they don't go build.   You recruited the wrong who! We gotta change your who altogether!   Nick: Every bum on the side of the street needs an opportunity.   Steve: Right!   Nick: I live in Austin and if you walk down downtown Austin you're guaranteed to see about 10 every 100 yards.   They might NEED an opportunity, but they don't' want it. You gotta find those people that actually WANT to succeed in whatever it is that you're doing.   DO YOU WANT THE SECRET MLM HACKS OPPORTUNITY?   Steve: Dude I am so thankful that you got on here. Thank you so much for sharing. I did want to ask one last question.   How many people have you been recruiting since you turned it on six months ago?   Nick: I would say we're probably getting five to seven a month.   Steve: That's awesome! On autopilot?   Nick: Yeah, on autopilot.   Steve: And the quality of person is really high which is awesome.   Nick: Five to seven a month is what we're recruiting into our organization and we get paid for a lot of people that say no to us as well.   Steve: Yeah, they bought the thing up front which is the beauty of it.   Nick: And I say five to seven, that's five to seven that we ACCEPT.   Steve: We get three to four applicants a day but I immediately cut out at least half off them because I can just tell…   Nick: Once you get to a certain point, you have to be able to say no. You have to self-select and be able to weed out people because otherwise it just becomes too overwhelming.   Steve: Then you turn into a life coach rather than a “Here’s what we're doing in our company this week” coach.   Nick: Exactly.   Steve: With love, I'll say that as tenderly as I can.   Nick, thank you so much for being on here, I really appreciate it. This was awesome, man. Really means a lot that you jumped on.   HEAD OVER TO SECRET MLM HACKS NOW   I know it's tough to find people to pitch after your warm market dries up, right? That moment when you finally run out of family and friends to pitch. I don't see many up lines teaching legitimate lead strategies today.   After years of being a lead funnel builder online I got sick of the garbage strategies most MLMs have been teaching their recruits for decades. Whether you simply want more leads to pitch or an automated MLM funnel, head over to secretmlmhacks.com and join the next free training.   There you're gonna learn the hidden revenue model that only the top MLMers have been using to get paid regardless if you join them. Learn the 3-step system I use to auto recruit my downline of big producers without friends or family even knowing that I'm in MLM.   If you want to do the same for yourself, head over to secretmlmhacks.com. Again that’s secretmlmhacks.com.

Today's show starts with an observation about how we talk about the primary candidates and how we tell the history of 2016. Then I've got lots of voicemail! Topics include: Trump being a Russian mole, technology improving quality of life while taking jobs from us, a few on whether Kristi and I unfairly lumped Sam Harris in with Jordan Peterson and Dave Rubin in our episode on Louis CK, further insight into the IRB process, and finally how exactly do we define the term 'racism'? Lots of great stuff, thank you so much for the messages and keep them coming for next month!

Hi everyone! This is Connie Sokol, and you're listening to Balance Redefined Radio. I've spent over 20 years teaching people how to redefine what balance really is, meaning a more purposeful and joyful life.   They’ve paid off credit cards, lost weight, organize their homes, and created a meaningful life plan. They've managed their time, changed habits, and experience greater success both at work and at home.   So now I decided to take the plunge and help about 100,000 new people who want to redefine balance in their lives. People ask me all the time, “How do I go from an overwhelming and chaotic life to more purpose, organization, and joy?”   That's the reason why I'm doing this podcast, to give you trusted answers and create a space where you could find balance. My name is Connie Sokol and welcome to Balance Redefined Radio…   Welcome back!   So glad you're choosing to spend some more time together…   I've got some great things to share with you today about facing your fears because we all have them. This is always something we're going to have to deal with. Spoiler alert! In our lives, whenever we're trying to move forward in anything, this is going to come up…   So the beauty is that we get to learn how to embrace these fears, how to make them our friend and all the cliches that are out there. It's true. We really get to learn how we personally navigate dealing with our own fears.   Now, the fears I'm talking about today are not, “Oh wow. I’m at the top of a 500 foot cliff, and I'm afraid that this is a bad idea for me to sort of like free climb down.” Okay? That makes total sense why you would be afraid and very, very afraid...   I would really pay attention to that fear. Okay, so that's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about there's something good that you want to do.   Maybe it's something you've wanted to do forever. Maybe you're standing at that precipice, and you're going, “Oh, I'm actually now here ready to do it, but I'm scared. I'm afraid…”   I feel fear and excitement, and we know that those two are two peas in a pod, and I've talked about that before. Fear and excitement are two companions, and so you just want to keep emphasizing one more than the other so that you can keep moving forward.   Whichever one is more debilitating to you, you want to make sure you keep moving forward in the direction that you've wanted to go for the good thing that you want to accomplish.   So I know I talked to people all the time and they're like, “Yeah, that sounds really good, but how do I do it in real life?...”   So I'm going to give you a few little thoughts today-feudal tips. Try to choose one that you can actually put into play. So the best way that that can work is if right now you think in your mind, “What is something that I really want to move forward?”   Or it's something you're already doing that you love, but you're just at an uplevel place, or a place to move to that next station as it were...   You're in a shifting place, whatever that is for you -- either learning what it is that you would need to do (you know what it is, but you're scared to move forward) or you were doing it, and you're just upleveling to another place.   You decide how this applies to you, but the first and foremost thing to recognize about fear is that it feels irrational. Well, it feels real, but it's these irrational fears that we have about where things can go, what can go wrong, how I could do it poorly, how I can embarrass myself, how I'll fail.   My daughter is so cute. She's got that whole thing about, you know, “If I lose my pencil, then I'm going to end up living in a van down by the river…”   So it's not that kind of a trail that we want to go down. We want to stop that spiral before it starts.   We want to be able to acknowledge, “Wow, in our growth timeline, in our purpose timeline, this is right in step.” It's right on schedule. So we can anticipate it, and then we can move through it because we have some tools.   So the first thing I want to share about fear is taught by Kevin J. Worthen in his talk “Fear not,” and he talks about the acronym for fear of being: False Evidence Appearing Real.   Then I've mentioned that in another couple of podcasts because I like to come back to this because it is false evidence appearing real...   Some things look very real, and some things are very real, “Oh, well, I don't have enough money to move this forward.” But the thing that's false about it that we need to move beyond is standing still is not our only solution.   That's not our only way of working around that problem...   What we do is get afraid of the solution, or afraid that there isn't a good solution, or afraid that the solution we have obviously isn't going to work...   So therefore, that means, “This isn't going to work and we're going to live in a van down by the river…” So instead we need to step back, and we need to engage in partnership with the divine.   This is where this comes into huge play because the reality is if we think that we're doing this all on our own, then for sure we're going to be afraid. Absolutely...   We're going to recognize those limitations. I love this talk by Erin Holmes on waiting upon the Lord. The antidote to uncertainty and sharing when she was talking with this professor, Professor Clark (Gregory Clark), and he was grappling with is tension between fear and faith.   And he said, “What is the source of fear? And his answer was -- I think it's rooted in the assumption that I must solve all my problems and face all my challenges alone using my own resources.” That is frightening because deep in my heart I know how limited those resources are...   Knowing that I am not capable of changing myself or my circumstances for the better, I stand frozen in fear. Has that ever been something you felt? Does that resonate with you? Have you ever felt like, “I know my limitations and I stand frozen in fear?” I think we can all relate to that.   Where you get to a place and you just go, “It isn’t clear anymore, and I don't know where to go. I don't know what that looks like. I don't know how to get there,” and so fear is really saying, “There's only one way to do this, and I can't do it.”   “I don't have anyone to help me do it, and there's no other way or variety that those things are not true…”   That is the false evidence. So what we want to do is step back, partner with the divine and be able to say what I call the “third way.” There's a third way.   There's a different way to go about doing it that maybe we haven't seen before or don't know yet...   But it's there because if we feel in our soul that it's something we’re to do, then we will have the divine way open that we will be able to find it and know what it is.   So I encourage you to be looking for the “third way,” whatever that looks like…   I link it back to Moses in the Old Testament where he's standing before the Red Sea. He’s got chariots on one side. He's got a lot of water on the other side, and there's no real option to go back.   It only looks like two ways, but guess what? There's a third way, and that Red Sea opens…   So in our lives there's going to be those moments where we just see two ways, and we don't realize that there is a third way of that sea opening.   But it's just as real as the ones that are before us. Okay?...   So that's the whole third option. You can face your fears with realizing how you can look differently at the False Evidence Appearing Real...   So then the next thing we need to do is, you know, people say a lot of times, “Oh, we'll just have faith, you know, overcome that fear with faith.”   And it's like, “We’ve got to squeeze our hands and crack our knuckles…”   Let's really exercise faith here people!   Okay? This is not like that. I love this quote from Neil Anderson. He says, “Faith is not only a feeling, it is a decision.” It is a decision. We decide.   We say, “You know what? I can either be scared, or I can move forward. I can do something.” That is an act of faith. It's a decision and it's an action. I love that quote (you've heard me share this before) that says, “I want to. I get to. I choose to.” I love that quote...   I'm probably saying in the wrong order, but that's the order that I remember it. I like it...   So remember, “I want to. I get to. I choose to,” instead of being afraid of what's in front of you.   Now put a different lens on in front of that and be able to say, instead of, “I have to. I don't want to” -- you know, that kind of feeling of “I want to avoid that.”   Instead put that new lens on, “I want to. I get to. I choose to.” Feel the difference in that. It is game changing...   It's life changing for me when I put that lens on something, especially when it's something I actually really truly want to do, but I'm just afraid to move forward.   Okay, so face the False Evidence Appearing Real, and then decide to act in faith-meaning you're going to do an action.   You're going to actually move it forward...   For me, that's me being able to set a deadline. Me saying, “I'm going to speak at such and such a place,” and agreeing to it, then putting it off for six weeks until I'm a three days out.   The weekend before, I'm going, “Well, what I've actually been doing is seed-bedding…”   I've been reading. I've been studying. I've been talking to people, and I've been gathering all the stuff that I don't really realize I've gathered until I sit down and start to barf it out.   Sorry, a little bit indelicate, but I just start getting that tidal wave out, just sit, and then I can go back to sift and say, “What is it that really is going to resonate with this particular audience?”   And that's what I just had to do this week…   I'm speaking at one of the biggest women's conferences in the country. I'm wrapping up tomorrow. It's 20,000 women plus that come from all over the country and outside of it to come to all these classes. There are 300 plus classes in this.   These very things, these life questions, are for partnering with the divine as we go through it. And mine this week was on covenant women -- fearless, faithful in fulfilling our destiny.   And as I've been talking about these things, you know, it was a crazy week. It's been a crazy couple of months of starting, you know, launching this new program, launching the podcast, and launching all of these things that were huge, big, and dynamic.   I'm going to pick up my daughter from Europe because she's been nannying there in France, and all of these things are happening all at the same time. Throw in the start of school and, you know, it has just been crazy.   I literally have been up three, four, five in the morning and staying up late…   I still needed to do my talks. So guess what? I ended up having to do my talks this week. I had the outlines, but I hadn't done the PowerPoints. I hadn't done the actual talks. I was literally laying track as fast as the train was coming.   The night before, the morning of, and even last night, I knew my kids needed my cuddles. It was 9:30 when I finally got done with the day. Then I still needed to do my presentation for this morning on the PowerPoint. It was 9:30, and I looked at my kids. I just thought, “They need me. They need loves, my hello, my support, and my connection. I need to give that to them.”   I just gave over to that thought. As soon as I had that thought, I did not fear… At first I felt this anxiousness of, “Oh my gosh, what am I going to get this done? I'm going to have to stay up super late or get up super early.”   And I just had this clear, peaceful feeling, “It'll all work out...”   So I put first things first in my mind. My kids had their heads in their laps, and I'm scratching both of their backs at the same time, and they're going happily to sleep when the thought comes to me, “Oh, I don't have any calls in the morning…I can get up early, do this PowerPoint, and it'll be fine. I know in my soul what I want to say, I just have to actually put it down.”   That's what happened, and I got done actually a little bit early this morning.   So it was crazy awesome, but I had to take that step of faith. I had to look through that lens of, “Oh, I want to, I get to, I choose to not have to.”   “When am I going to get time to do that,” had to switch to that lense to make that decision.Then the feeling came. Then the goodness came…   Then, I was able to do what I needed to do.   So try that -- the “third thing.” I encourage you to follow what I thought was really genius.   This one writer, Anna Davies, was talking about a study that had been done about how people can deal with anxiety or these fears published by the American Psychological Association.   The study found that when people tell themselves to “Get excited,” they perform better than when they tell themselves to “Calm down.”   Have you done that before when you were getting really stressed out?   Maybe you've had to do this presentation, this job interviewed, something at the school with the kids. Maybe you've got to do this big project, this community event, whatever it is, and you're feeling this anxiety, and have you ever tried telling yourself, “Okay, calm down, calm down.”   I know I'd be at an event and tell myself, “I’ve got to be on the ball.” You try to calm down and you're like, “Where's that meditation?” Right?   Try flipping that and saying, “I'm so excited to do this job interview. I'm so excited to do this.”   Anna Davies finishes the quoting Alison Wood Brookes by saying, “When people feel anxious and try to calm down they are thinking of all the things that could go badly. When they're excited, they're thinking of all the things that could go well.”   So I just want to make this point that when we're looking at something that we do want to do, we're just sort of being paralyzed by fear.   Then the beautiful thing to do is put on a lens of excitement and put that at the beginning.   “I'm so excited to _____,” whatever that might be. And try this with your kids. I've done this with my kids for the first days of school and didn't even realize it at first.   I was trying to calm them down by like, “You're okay, you got this,” you know, as you're calling coping strategies. Right?   Inadvertently, I didn't realize that I was kind of doing the other thing because my little six year old was like, “Oh, I'm going to miss you.” Right?   Then I started talking about the teacher that we met, how awesome she was, and where his desk was. He has his buddy sitting right by him. His two best friends are in class. It's going to be such a blast.   They get to go to the big kid playground now, and they get two recesses...   I mean it rocks. Plus he's got his Pokemon lunch box, so all is well…   He was getting pretty excited. I did not realize that I was following this protocol until I just found this quote, and I was like, “Yeah, I saw that.”   That worked. He went to first grade, and he is having a great time...   So here are couple of things I hope that you'll consider when you're facing your fears.   When you're saying, “I really feel this way, and I know it's false evidence, but it sure feels real.”   Then be able to say, “Okay, here's the third way here. I know that I can fear not, I'm going to face it, and look for that false evidence because that's a third way.”   There's a third way, and we can figure it out, whatever that is.   The second thing is to decide...   Remember, faith is not only a feeling, but it's a decision. You have to make it. Remember that it can include, “I want to. I get to. I choose to.”   Lastly, try to see it through a lens of the excited. “I'm excited about this,” instead of being all nervous and fearful. Alright?   Give those a try today with whatever you got going on, and let me know what happens... #I'mexcited. #teamreplay or #teamlive.   Tell me what you've learned because as I said before, as you post below, other people will be inspired by your experiences and isn't that the best?   I am not the fount of all wisdom. I am not the fountain of all knowledge...   I am a guide to a spring of great, juicy, wonderful things, and they're beautiful things.   They're things that are going to help you in your life. That spring is made more abundant by everybody else adding in their cup of water there -- even two tablespoons.   So put something in that you've learned that's resonated with you from what I've shared, or put in something that you've tried and let me know how it goes. I would love, love, love it.   Whatever you do, choose one thing from this podcast today to try today, not next week, but today. Try it today and let me know how it goes. Okay, and remember, keep living your life Balance reDefined. You got it! Thanks for listening. Remember to rate and subscribe. If you are feeling the need for real balance in your life, get your free five step life plan, and get started today! Just go to conniesokol.com/download.

Job Insights #9, A Success Story: Meet Emily Zimmermann – One in a Million – Survivor, Advocate and Accessibility Tester Full Transcript Below. Welcome to the 9th episode of Job Insights with Serina Gilbert and Jeff Thompson. We focus on Employment, Careers, enhancing opportunities and bringing you  the latest innovations from across the Vocational  Rehabilitation field to ensure your choices lead you down the career pathway that you want and succeed in gainful employment. From getting started with services, to assessments, Individual Plan for Employment (IPE) to gaining the skills to succeed and tools for success, Job Insights will be giving you tips and tricks to help your journey to employment and break down the barriers along the way. On this 9th episode of Job Insights Serina and Jeff bring you a success Story from Emily Zimmermann. Emily survived 4 major surgeries to remove a Softball-size brain tumor which ultimately left her totally blind and having to face major changes in her young life. Emily took on the challenges and transitioned from high school to college and is now approaching her year mark of her internship. She never imagined herself working with accessibility, computer coding and making a difference in the world of accessibility. Emily has a passion of telling her story and that is how Serina hooked up with Emily. After listening to Emily speak at a conference, she contacted Emily and asked her to join us in the Job Insights Studios. From her childhood to her graduation from college and her work testing accessibility, Emily will take you on her journey and give us great advice first hand on what it was like and is like to day doing what she does. It is not what she dreamed of doing but it must be what was meant to be.   We hope you enjoy this Job Insights episode and you can send your feedback and suggestions to the Job Insights team by email Follow the Job Insights team on twitter @JobInsightsVIP Job Insights is part of the Blind Abilities network.   A big Thank You goes out to CheeChaufor his beautiful music! You can follow us on Twitter @BlindAbilities On the web at www.BlindAbilities.com Send us an email Get the Free Blind Abilities App on the App Store. Get the Free blind Abilities App on the Google Play Store   Full Transcript: Job Insights #9, A Success Story: Meet Emily Zimmermann – One in a Million – Survivor, Advocate and Accessibility Tester Emily Zimmermann: I got the call saying that the MRI showed that I had a brain tumor, and it was pushing on my optic nerve. At that point, it was the size of a softball. Jeff Thompson: Job Insights, podcast to help you carve out your career pathway and enhance the opportunities for gainful employment. Emily Zimmermann: It was a long time where it was very hard. You're angry and upset and you don't understand. Now, I can look back, but that's certainly a process. It's not something you can just be at that point, and I think that's how a lot of things in life are. Jeff Thompson: To help you navigate the employment world and give you job insights and enhance the opportunities to choose the career you want. Serena Gilbert: But in middle school, you're really not ... for me, I just wanted to be, quote, unquote, "Normal." Jeff Thompson: And you can find the Job Insights podcast on BlindAbilities.com, part of the Blind Abilities Network with hosts, Serena Gilbert and myself, Jeff Thompson, and you can contact us by email at jobinsights@blindabilities.com. Leave us some feedback or suggest some topics that we cover on Twitter @JobInsightsVIP, and check out the Job Insights support group on Facebook where you can learn, share, advise, and interact with the Job Insights community. Emily Zimmermann: Going back to your home but small city, and you having all that independence just taken away is very difficult. I mean I'm definitely not super, super tech savvy, so half the stuff that's out there, I don't even really know about, which is super sad. Serena Gilbert: Oh, just keep listening to the Blind Abilities Network. You'll learn all kinds of new stuff. Shameless plug there. Sorry. Emily Zimmermann: Then I've gotten to do some coding, some different JavaScript and HTML and BSF, just different things like that. So it's so cool because there's such a variety of different things. I love it all. It's been great. Jeff Thompson: Whoa. Whoa. Let's back up here, Emily. You were just saying that you're low tech- Serena Gilbert: Yeah, I'm confused. Jeff Thompson: ... low tech, and now she's coding and going into [crosstalk] Serena Gilbert: JavaScript. Jeff Thompson: Learn about resources for training, education, and employment opportunities. Emily Zimmermann: Just many difficult things to get through, but you work through each one, and yeah. Jeff Thompson: Now please welcome Serena Gilbert and Jeff Thompson with Job Insights. Jeff Thompson: How you doing, Serena? Serena Gilbert: I'm great, Jeff. I am really excited today. We have a special guest with us. Her name is Emily Zimmerman, and I met her at a conference that I attended her in Colorado, and she shared an amazing story of her journey from the first diagnosis that she received all the way through finishing college her at Metro State University, and I'd thought it'd be a great idea for us to hear from her and have her share her journey with our listeners. Jeff Thompson: Great. Serena Gilbert: So, welcome to the podcast, Emily. Emily Zimmermann: And thank you all so much for having me here tonight, and very excited to be a part and to be able to share some of my story. Serena Gilbert: Well, we are definitely excited to have you. Jeff Thompson: Yes, we are. Nice to meet you, Emily. Emily Zimmermann: Nice to meet you all. Serena Gilbert: So I guess the best place to start, and I was just fascinated by your story, Emily. You did such a fantastic job over at the conference, and you captivated me from the moment you started talking. I don't know if you realized this, but everyone, there was not anyone in the room that was playing on their phone or doing something else. They were all super into your story because I know that you have a different type of story than most individuals that are in our field in regards to when your vision impairment began to onset. Do you want to start [crosstalk] Emily Zimmermann: Right. So I had grown up living a very typical childhood, and then when I entered high school, I went to a small public high school, and I never had any vision problems or medical issues, but I started to have trouble seeing the board in my classes. So my dad and sister both had glasses, of course. We thought I just needed glasses of some kind. Emily Zimmermann: So I went to the eye doctor, and they did tons of tests, one of which I can distinctly remember because I was looking at those famous eye charts that we all know so well, and with one of my eyes, I couldn't read the big E on the eye chart, and after growing up always having perfect vision, it was quite a shock. But then the worst part was the eye doctor said there's nothing he could do to correct my vision with glasses. So then we go to an eye specialist, and beginning to get a little more concerned because I just thought I needed glasses, which didn't thrill me, and now I'm finding out they can't fix it with glasses. Emily Zimmermann: So several visits to the eye specialist, many, many tests, and he finally said, "I don't think we'll find anything, but we have to start ruling some things out." So he suggested getting an MRI done. At that point, I was 14, and an MRIs a huge machine, super, super loud, and it was so scary. We actually got one. It was the last one of the day. They were just getting ready to close, and on the way home that night, we got the call saying that the MRI showed that I had a brain tumor and it was pushing on my optic nerve, and it was a one-in-a-million tumor, and at that point, it was the size of a softball. So it was going to require several surgeries. Emily Zimmermann: So, again, it was a complete shock and a huge adjustment to go from thinking life's all normal and then all the sudden it's not. So the first two surgeries, I actually came out seeing better than I had going in. There were many side effects to deal with, but they were things we could deal with, we could handle. We were working through them. We were just getting through it. Then, over the summer between my freshman and sophomore year, the tumor grew back and the doctor believed after a second surgery that he had had it all. They're not sure if there was maybe a small piece left. They're not sure if it was a new tumor that grew. They don't know, and ultimately, it doesn't matter. Emily Zimmermann: But the third surgery, the possibility that was always there happened, and I came out of the operation unable to see. The doctors and surgeons talked to my parents, and even though it was incredibly risky, they asked about going in a fourth time, just two days later, to try to repair my vision. And they did go in a fourth time, but it was too late and the damage was permanent. Emily Zimmermann: Now, on top of having to recover from two back-to-back brain surgeries and having to start to relearn how to live life, I mean completely relearn how to live life. I mean I can very vaguely remember nurses and people coming into the hospital room and they showed me basics of how to eat and orient myself with the food on my plate, things that seem so elementary to us, but here I was at 16 years old and I needed to relearn all these things. Emily Zimmermann: And then going back to school was a whole new thing, and, again, I had to relearn how to read using Braille and I had to relearn how to get around with a cane and all of those things, which was incredibly difficult. And, yes, we can't change the situation we're in. We can't change the situation we're given, but it's wonderful having had been able to see colors and see things, but the transition was very, very hard. Serena Gilbert: Now, Emily, you mentioned that you went back to school. So did you go back to the same high school that you were at prior to the diagnosis? Emily Zimmermann: I did, yes. I grew up in a small city, so they didn't have a ton of options to begin with, and while I could have, I suppose, gone to ... they had a school for the blind in Columbia, which would have been an hour and a half away or something like that, at that point, we didn't really think about or consider me going away during the weeks and stuff like that. So we made it work. Jeff Thompson: Emily, with all this happening so suddenly and so tragically, where did you find the drive to move forward, and where did you get the information to find a pathway forward? Emily Zimmermann: Honestly, for me, a big part of it is I have a strong faith, so my faith is a big part of what helped me just get through, but, like you're saying, I had a huge support system. Even though it was a very small city, I found through my church a visually impaired lady who gave me information on the National Federation for the Blind and the chapter for the area and just the community gathering around me and a closer knit community, people like that, just was a huge, huge help besides, like I said, my faith was a tremendous help. Serena Gilbert: I have another question for you, Emily, before we move past your high school days. Emily Zimmermann: Yeah. Serena Gilbert: Did you find that your close friends treated you any differently, or were they pretty supportive? Because sometimes that transition can be difficult not only for the individual experiencing the sudden loss of vision but also those around that person. Emily Zimmermann: Yes. So I'm going to say it was difficult for them as well because they were not there. They just were not supportive at all, and every one of my quote, unquote, "friends" left, and that also made just the transition and everything about it very difficult. It was a long time where it was very hard and very ... you're angry and upset and you don't understand. Now, I can look back, and be like, "If that's how they are, I'm better off without them," but that's certainly a process. It's not something you can just be at that point, and I think that's how a lot of things in life are. Yeah, they were, unfortunately, not supportive. Jeff Thompson: Emily, was there a sense of loss? I'm not talking about just a loss of vision, but a loss of identity, who you were, and how you would define yourself at that time? Emily Zimmermann: Very, very much so, just because everything I knew was different, and, to some extent, I mean not because of anything I could but because that desire was gone. All of my dreams were gone because they just had all changed. So I think very much so there was that feeling and that loss at first. But you refind yourself and you refind yourself in different ways, and you have to believe that those different ways are just what's supposed to be. Jeff Thompson: Do you have any key turning points that you remember? Emily Zimmermann: Well, one key for sure, I lost my vision as a sophomore in high school, and that after high school, I knew I needed some training, and that's when I came out to Colorado from South Carolina to the Colorado Center for the Blind. And I was out there one year at the training program they have because I just had so much I needed to learn. I was learning things in school, but it was just a half hour each day or something. So being in the intense, intense training program was a huge help, and at the same time, it was obviously incredibly difficult. Yeah, I think that was just one of the huge points where extremely difficult but totally paid off in the end. Jeff Thompson: You mentioned that you had someone from your hometown that was visually impaired, and she gave you some information. What was it like when you went to the Colorado Center for the Blind and found so many other students, so many other people that had blindness as well? Emily Zimmermann: It was honestly very different. I mean it wasn't, obviously, bad or good or anything like that. It was just different for me because being in a small town, there was just so little of that and just so few of us. I mean I know when I went out I was stared at, and, obviously, probably still am to some extent today, but we were just a very, very, very minority there. I mean the two of us probably were two out of maybe 10 in the whole city limits, all that area, and that's a big stretch. Jeff Thompson: So when you got to Colorado, that must have been a big change when you had so many people. Emily Zimmermann: Exactly. So when I got to Colorado, and then, like you said, was surrounded by them at the Colorado Center for the Blind, it was just a huge change, and not good or bad. It was just a huge change. Jeff Thompson: Did you find any role models? Emily Zimmermann: Definitely, and different things in different people because some people were extremely just adventurous in their traveling whereas other people just amazing in their cooking. So I totally had role models just with different skills and abilities, which was great. I liked that a lot. Serena Gilbert: Emily, what was the hardest part about transitioning to the Colorado Center for the Blind? Emily Zimmermann: Ooh, the hardest part. I mean I'm trying to think of the best way to put this. I think the fact that, for your own good, they push you so hard, but then if you break, they're not necessarily going to be there to help wipe your tears. You know what I mean? The pushing had to happen, and I understand that, but I never felt necessarily ... I don't know. I don't know how else to put it, but it was just a very tough program, but I think the toughness of it is what helped build the character. Jeff Thompson: I can understand exactly where you're coming from. I taught at Blind Incorporated. I taught woodworking, and I was a student there at one time, and I think you start to identify with some of the instructors or some of the other people and you find your own comfort zone within the confines of the camp, the training center. Emily Zimmermann: Yeah. Jeff Thompson: Kind of after hours when everyone goes back to the apartments and stuff, you start finding your own little group or comfort zone. Emily Zimmermann: Yeah. Jeff Thompson: Serena, you haven't been to a training center, have you? Serena Gilbert: I have not, so, Emily, to give you a little bit of background on myself, I have retinitis pigmentosa, so I've had that I guess throughout my whole life, but I really didn't start receiving blindness-specific services until probably ... it was like middle school, I want to say. But in middle school, you're really not ... for me, I just wanted to be quote, unquote, "normal." I didn't want a special lock on my locker. I'd rather struggle and put the wrong code in three times before I do it myself. I didn't want to walk around with a cane. I did not want to feel different. Middle school's awkward enough without adding, "Oh, this girl has a white cane too," on top of everything. Serena Gilbert: I really didn't embrace truly using blindness-specific tools and learning screen readers and things like that until I was actually a sophomore in college and that was more- Emily Zimmermann: Oh, wow. Serena Gilbert: Yeah, well, because I still have some usable vision, and back then, I had enough where I could even read regular print. It just took me forever, but in college, that doesn't cut it. So I finally realized ... I got a sample of JAWS and taught myself how to use it and all the sudden it was like, "Holy cow. This is way faster than struggling for an hour to read one chapter." And that's when I really started embracing using the cane and using some more blindness-specific tools. Serena Gilbert: They did offer me the opportunity to do a residential type of program, but at the time, I had commitments with college and I had a part-time job, so I could not be gone for that long. Emily Zimmermann: Yeah, that makes sense. Jeff Thompson: Yeah, and I think that's a big difference between ... so many people, it depends on where they are in life when it comes to a training type of center, especially residential, especially where you're living. And you traveled all the way from, wow, South Carolina? Emily Zimmermann: Yeah. Jeff Thompson: To Colorado. Now, how was that process when you decided you wanted to leave South Carolina to go to there? You must have went through your voc rehab to get authorized. Emily Zimmermann: Yeah. [inaudible] very smoothly. They were a huge part of the transition. They were the ones who recommended coming out to the Colorado Center for the Blind, and then when I decided I wanted to stay, they were totally helpful in the transition process. So it was honestly a very good transition. Jeff Thompson: Oh, that's great, because some people really find it a real stickler to get them to override being sent to somewhere within their state or someplace close and stuff. So that's great that you had that opportunity and took advantage of it. Serena Gilbert: I am curious though, Emily. How was that transition for your mom? Emily Zimmermann: Well, she actually writes about some of it. She has a book that she titled, "She's One in a Million," because the brain tumor I had was a one-in-a-million brain tumor. So she writes about some of those transitions in the book, but I know it was very difficult. The transition just with me losing my sight, and then when I came out here, it was very difficult at first. So just many difficult things to get through, but you work through each one, and yeah. Jeff Thompson: So I have a question for you. While teaching for quite a few years at Blind Incorporated, I watched students come and go and come and go, and I always remember once they leave through that door and go down the sidewalk and they go off into the world again, they've been at the training center for six to nine months, there they go, you just wonder what it's like, especially if they're going to go return to a small town where they don't have the transit system, where they don't have the grid system or the public transportation available to them. What was that like for you when you left Colorado? Emily Zimmermann: It was very hard because you're used to having all those things available, and you feel this liberation and independence that you can have and feel you do have, and then going back to your home but a small city and you having all that independence just taken away is very difficult. I mean that's a big reason why I'm back out here now is because you miss it, and it's hard to go from having it to not having it all the sudden. Jeff Thompson: Just like losing your sight. Emily Zimmermann: Exactly. [inaudible] changes you can avoid, by all means, avoid it. Serena Gilbert: And Denver has an excellent public transit system with the light rail, the buses- Emily Zimmermann: Oh, yeah. Serena Gilbert: I'm jealous, because I'm down here in Colorado Springs, and ours isn't the best. Emily Zimmermann: Yeah. Yeah, it's amazing down here, up here, whatever. Jeff Thompson: Well, likewise in Minneapolis, we have two training centers, probably a mile apart. There's always 30, 35, 40 students out there exploring, traveling, and doing stuff. So even the people of the city get acclimated to seeing people who are blind around. Emily Zimmermann: Wow. Serena Gilbert: So, Emily, how soon after you completed the program at the Colorado Center for the Blind did you decide to come back out for college? Emily Zimmermann: So I completed the Center for the Blind in May. Then I went back home. I had already applied at a couple different schools, and I had been looking at Metro just as a possibility. Then I applied ... I want to say early June and [inaudible] it all then came together pretty quickly because then once I got the acceptance, I thought, "Okay, well, then it's meant to be." And then you call ... I mean I had been accepted and everything at Winthrop and already contacted them to put all my scholarships on hold for a year when I was at the Center for the Blind. It's like everything that's all set up there was on hold for the year that I was at the Center for the Blind, and I was basically just coming back. Emily Zimmermann: So it was just surreal because all the plans I'd made were, in a good way, no more, but it's like I had to call them and change it, but it was all great. And then I just organized things with the disability office at Metro, and Metro was a great experience, great experience. Serena Gilbert: And Jeff and I have talked a lot about ... gosh, Jeff, it feels like forever ago, on our very first episode you remember we talked about the difference between getting accommodations in high school versus in college? Jeff Thompson: Oh, yeah. It's quite a difference because you have a disability services office that you got to get connected with, and then all your individual professors, you don't have a TVI anymore or a district teacher. You're got to put this all into action yourself. Emily Zimmermann: Yep. Absolutely. I totally agree. That was a huge thing I noted, and it was following up with professors, following up with different people, that's all on you. So I totally get what you're saying. Jeff Thompson: What tools did you use to keep all that organized? You were pretty new with Braille, and probably were using JAWS, I imagine. Emily Zimmermann: Yes. Jeff Thompson: So what was your go-to tools when you first started college? Emily Zimmermann: Definitely, like you said, JAWS. Honestly, at first, I didn't use many tools at all just because I was so new to everything. I used a recorder. I used the pure note-taker option they have, and then I did use, as my Braille got a little better and a little faster, I used a Braille note-taker, the Braille Edge 40, and that has been great, especially since Braille has improved. But those are really the main things for college that have been helpful. Emily Zimmermann: So, I mean, I'm definitely not I mean I'm definitely not super, super tech savvy, so half the stuff that's out there, I don't even really know about, which is super sad, but probably just as well because I can't afford it anyway. Serena Gilbert: Oh, just keep listening to the Blind Abilities Network. You'll learn all kinds of new stuff. Shameless plug there. Sorry. Emily Zimmermann: I'm sure I will learn way too much. Serena Gilbert: So, college went overall pretty smooth for you, Emily? Emily Zimmermann: It did. It certainly did. I mean I'm sure I had some professors ... I know I did, who handled my blindness better than others, but overall, I certainly didn't have any major problems by any means, and, overall, it was a very good experience. So it was good. It was very good. Serena Gilbert: And tell us, what was your major? Emily Zimmermann: Communications. Serena Gilbert: So, Emily, I understand that you're working at an internship right now. Emily Zimmermann: Yes. I'm super excited about it. I've been loving it. I've done it ever since this past September, so coming up on a year. And what I like is because I'm an intern, I get all sorts of different work. I've had the opportunity to test some of their products for accessibility, and then I go through all the different usability tests that they have, and I tell them what does and doesn't work for me being blind. Then I've gotten to do some coding, some different JavaScript and HTML and BSF, just different things like that. So it's so cool because there's such a variety of different things. I love it all. It's been great. Jeff Thompson: Whoa. Whoa. Let's back up here, Emily. You were just saying that you're low tech- Serena Gilbert: Yeah, I'm confused. Jeff Thompson: ... low tech, and now she's coding and going into [crosstalk] Serena Gilbert: JavaScript. Jeff Thompson: That's impressive. Serena Gilbert: I think it's really cool you do accessibility testing because you can see an immediate impact with what you're doing. That's awesome. Emily Zimmermann: Yeah. Yeah. I love it. I love it. Jeff Thompson: It is a great sense of being employed, even having an internship and it's coming up on a year, but it's a good feeling to being rewarded for the work that you're doing. Emily Zimmermann: Yeah. I totally agree. It's cool. What I love is to be able to fix something and to see the result right then. I love that just immediate effect and just to be able to think, "This is helping so many people like me be able to access the internet better and easier and more effectively." I love thinking about that, like a firsthand experience, just like I obviously get how it helps people. And so it's just ... I don't know. It's so cool. Serena Gilbert: So, Emily, this is going to be a question that I start asking everyone that's in the position that you're in as far as maybe fresh out of college or that sort of thing, and it's a cheesy question so I apologize in advance, but, Emily, what is your dream job? Emily Zimmermann: So my dream job would be to be a motivational speaker, to go to different companies, schools, churches, sharing how I lost my vision, but, more importantly, how I got through the difficulty of losing my vision and just sharing hope and that there's hope in whatever we go through, and whether what I'm doing now, the coding, testing, that's a part of that for a full-time job and just doing a lot of speaking on the side, I don't know. That'd be fine if that's the case, but the passion is in the speaking. Jeff Thompson: Oh, that's great. That's great. Serena Gilbert: And you definitely have a talent for it. Emily Zimmermann: Oh, thank you so much. Serena Gilbert: So before we wrap up the interview, we have a question that we ask every single person that we've probably had on the podcast so far, because it's been so long. Jeff Thompson: It's not a math question. Serena Gilbert: No, we promise. Emily Zimmermann: Good. Serena Gilbert: There's no wrong answers. You don't even have to study for it, but a lot of our listeners are either young adults that are right exactly where you're at, maybe even coming out of high school or finishing up college- Jeff Thompson: And we also have listeners who are newly blind, like you were at one time. Serena Gilbert: Exactly, or that are looking at career changes because of the new blindness. The question that we have is, "What advice do you have for somebody transitioning either out of high school or into a new career?" Emily Zimmermann: My advice ... well, it's multi-fold. First of all, it'd be, "Don't limit yourself," because doing something like coding or testing a website, I never would have imagined myself doing. The only reason I'm doing it is because of the internships I was pushed into when I was college. I needed an internship just to get something on my resume, so I went to my advisor, and that was the only thing he could really think of that'd be easy to get to, on campus, and so I took it because I needed something and that's when I fell in love with that kind of thing. So I think that's the biggest thing, just being open to try something you maybe wouldn't have tried and maybe it doesn't go perfect with your degree or whatever, but that's the big thing. Emily Zimmerman: Then, kind of goes with that, is also being open to people around you, your boss, your coworkers, the people you encounter. I think that just so helps form your work experience and being able to view people in a more positive way just, I don't know, helps your work experience be more positive. Serena Gilbert: That is great advice. Jeff Thompson: Well, Emily, I just want to say the component of an internship, I think they work that into degrees, and it's kind of like volunteering. Sometimes you get to explore some areas that you're maybe interested or not or just wanting to do it to stay busy, but you might find an interest. It's a opportunity. It's a safety net type of situation, at first. Then you found a love for it, a passion for it, and you're making the best of it. So good for you. Emily Zimmermann: Yeah. Well, thank you very much. Serena Gilbert: So, Emily, if any of our listeners would like to learn more about you, where can they find you? Emily Zimmermann: Absolutely. They can go to my website at www.brokencrayonsejz.com. Serena Gilbert: Perfect. Well, you all have just been listening to us interview Emily Zimmerman. She doesn't know this yet, but she's probably going to make another appearance on your podcast in a few months so we can catch up with her and see where she's at because I think our listeners are going to fall in love with you, and I just love that you share your story and are so honest and upfront with us. Emily Zimmermann: Well, thank you so much for having me. It's been a true pleasure. Serena Gilbert: We really appreciate you, Emily, and thank you so much for sharing. Jeff Thompson: Thanks, Emily. Emily Zimmermann: Thank you. Jeff Thompson: Serena, that was a great guest. Emily was just awesome. Serena Gilbert: I can't wait to have her back. Jeff Thompson: Emily, that was a good find. That must have been a great convention. Serena Gilbert: Oh, it was fantastic. Like I said, when we were in the general session, you could have heard a pin drop. Everybody was just captivated by what Emily was sharing with us, and I cannot tell her again how much I appreciate how open she was on this interview. Jeff Thompson: I know you got to listening and you just started sinking in further and further into her story, and it's like you could really relate to it, and yet, you wouldn't wish it upon anybody, yourself, or anybody, one in a million. Serena Gilbert: Exactly. And I'd like to check that book out, because she did say her mom had a book called One in a Million, so I'm going to have to look that up. Jeff Thompson: A lot of the transitions from a mother's point of view. That must be interesting. Serena Gilbert: Exactly. Well, we hope you enjoyed this episode, and, again, Jeff, do you want to tell them where you can find us? Jeff Thompson: Yeah, so you can go to www.BlindAbilities.com, check out all the Job Insights podcasts and you can also find us on Twitter @JobInsightsVIP. Serena Gilbert: And on Facebook under Job Insights, and we also have a wonderful support group called Job Insights Support Group. Jeff Thompson: And you can also send us email, feedback at- Serena Gilbert: JobInsights@BlindAbilities.com. Jeff Thompson: Great. Thanks for listening. Serena Gilbert: We'll see you next time. Jeff Thompson: And thank you, Chee Chau, for the beautiful music. You can follow Chee Chau on Twitter @LCheeChau And, as always, we want to thank you for listening. We hope you enjoyed, and until next time, bye-bye.   [Music]  [Transition noise]   When we share, What we see, Through each other's eyes...   [Multiple voices overlapping, in unison, to form a single sentence]   ...We can then begin to bridge the gap between the limited expectations, and the realities of Blind Abilities. Jeff Thompson: For more podcasts with a blindness perspective check us out on the web at www.blindabilities.com. On Twitter @blindabilities. Download our app from the app store, Blind Abilities, that's two words. Or send us an email at info@blindabilities.com. Thanks for listening.        

After coding live at Lean+Agile DC 2018, Ben Scott of Ippon Technologies joins Bob Payne to talk code craftsmanship and getting proper feedback from the business side.  Ben explains a way to quickly build a quality demo from scratch – creating the first demonstrable piece of value.  Bob and Scott walk through their opinions on (shudder) best practices, living in ambiguity in agile methods, and bridging the gap between IT and business. Bob Payne: [00:00:03] Hi I'm your host Bob Payne. I'm here at Lean+Agile D.C.. I'm here with Ben Scott and we're listening to "Stand in the Place Where You are" by RBM played on the music fiddle version which is really disconcerting for me. It's like Fugazi. You know elevator music which is definitely elevator music. But country elevator music. So Ben we were talking earlier about lots and lots of things but you were talking about sort of your experience here trying to do live coding and talk. What was your what was the gist of your talk? What were you talking about with. Ben Scott: [00:00:56] So, let's start with the problem statement: Whenever you start a project from scratch mainly it's really hard to get good business demos and keep the business interactive with getting proper feedback. You'll see a lot of demos with terminals. Hey let's see what my code can do and you have to look at log statements or use post postman to demonstrate APIs. And then the business kind of glazes over it. And I think a lot of issues stem from developers trying to recreate everything internally. Someone has to provide a demo that even started a presentation with zero code I could provide a business level demo with a front end application backend with database usage deployed to the cloud. All within the same presentation within 45 minutes. So that was kind of the gist, some people really liked the felt it really demonstrated well what could be done now. They're probably unsure how to adopt down to their own organization but it's mostly a show that it is able to do that and you don't have to buy it. It's FREE.  Ben Scott: [00:02:14] It's opensource a tool that I use is called J Hipster and I think overall great.  Bob Payne: [00:02:23] Yeah I mean for those of us who've been familiar with play or Rails or any of the generative frameworks you know that it was not should not have been surprising but I realized how how painful it is for most organizations to get to that first demonstrable piece of value.  Ben Scott: [00:02:50] Yes.  Bob Payne: [00:02:51] It is a little a little insane.  Ben Scott: [00:02:53] It is. The key differences are with J hipster is it really tries to adopt the enterprise level technology. Bob Payne: [00:03:00] You see the full stack you've got full size containerized deployments.  Ben Scott: [00:03:05] You can you don't have to but it sure does generate Docker containers. I use the docker file to let you generate a Docker container from your code. It will generate your CD pipeline script. It supports multiple privacy circles C.I. Jenkins obviously and a few other really really kind of handhold you through the whole process of getting a code from scratch all the way to diploid and ready. It can't do anything about your business level code that's on you right. But all the bootstrapping and plumbing it generates according to best practices of the time with us.  Bob Payne: [00:03:45] I winced on the inside. I don't like the phrase best practices but best that I'm okay with. Ben Scott: [00:03:54] Yes well it's always a big debate. What is best practice. Like for depending on where you are which technology you're using and your opinion because it's a hotly debated topic Your Domain Driven Design or you don't. Some people really love it some people hate it. Yeah that type of thing.  Bob Payne: [00:04:12] Yeah I try to stay away because people always ask us for as consultants are always asking for the answer and there really only is know fee here given your situation. Here are a few options that we've seen people be successful. Yes you know and you know I always sort of try to steer people away from that. Like calling people resources. There's a few you like hot button words that I can't make can move resources around us our projects exactly rituals and scroll to find that I hate things that that pull it out of the somewhat grey world that we actually live in.  Ben Scott: [00:05:05] Yes I actually like to prefer I prefer to live in this ambiguity. I don't like to define what scrum is definitely. I don't like too dear to a Agile philosophy per se or implementation whenever somebody dresses. Hey what is ads out to you. To me it's you delivered a piece of software that was correct at the right time and how you got there might differ based on the people working in your company. Yes we might use Scrum or not. It depends if it's a good fit with that place and sometimes it's now or sometimes they just decide as long as we do what scrum says we are agile and we just get away from what they really mean.  Bob Payne: [00:05:50] Yeah. Defer to authority. There is a good strategy.  Ben Scott: [00:05:55] So I don't like to prescribe things.  Bob Payne:[00:05:57] Yeah.  Ben Scott: [00:05:58] When we hire Scrum Masters always ask me what's your process. What tool to use. You know you use Jira. I don't prescribe - you use what you like to use right.  Ben Scott: [00:06:07] Well your client will let you use yes whatever you is best for your situation which will change.  Bob Payne: [00:06:15] So how do you so I know you've been doing a lot of technical coaching coaching. What do you what do you find most rewarding. Because sometimes it's it's you know it's it's a tough slog sometimes and there are always those little nuggets that just say yeah you know that will keep me going for a few months banging my head against this team or this wall or whatever. Ben Scott: [00:06:43] So I really enjoy bringing upskilling developers on where they lack and I'm not a awesome developer. I'm a very niche developer who understand the agile practices so I can do their job testing frameworks Cucumber, or perform sensing as a Gatling I know how to do them and the basic forms right and the tools to know how to use them. Eventually it clicks at first like I don't want it. It is what QA is for but eventually it clicks and it's really fun to see a click. Likewise I work a lot with the business side on bridging the gap between developers and the business we actually start working together instead of the whole campus. This is the business that we need to take to go on like what we need is. Of course we do to this refactoring. We need to adopt this technology or just trying to bring them together so they actually work as a team and we'll stack clicks which is much harder than it was going developers. Bob Payne: [00:07:40] Yeah. Ben Scott: [00:07:41] That's that's really fun.  Bob Payne: [00:07:42] Yeah that is. Yeah. We like speed we have that sort of mission of making people's lives more valued fulfilling and productive. It's kind of our or our mission if we can do that on an individual basis or you know we health and organization so that it helps the folks. But it all fundamentally comes down to you know people people in interactions and you know hopefully making a you know a decent world for them to sort of grind away at the code code is an unforgiving.  Ben Scott: [00:08:21] Yes we'll spend days looking for that tiny little mistake.  Bob Payne: [00:08:27] Yeah yeah. So what's the other big dogmatic thing you're railing against. I don't know that you're actually railing against any big dogmatic things but you seem like the sort of person that might. Ben Scott: [00:08:41] There are some things I'm very strict on and it's is code craftsmanship to the detriment of sometimes I'm actually delivering value and I understand that. But there are times to be fast and dirty. You have a production bug.  Bob Payne: [00:08:55] Yep. Ben Scott: [00:08:56] There's a feature that needs to go to the market right away. OK we can do that fast and dirty. But if that's every time there's a problem.  Bob Payne: [00:09:06] Right.  Ben Scott: [00:09:06] And at that point I don't have any issues slowing everything down and I guess focus on craftsmanship. Let's focus on actually teaching what solid principles mean because over time you're going into being faster more maintainable code. The sustainable pace and that takes time to learn. It might take six months a year to really get there. It's a huge investment and it's the responsibility of the entire organization to to foster that. So just like we have the Center for agile excellence or you go to an agile coach organization talk about processes.  Ben Scott: [00:09:39] You should have a software craftsmanship as well a new way to mentor the developers. And that practice that's probably where I'm the most strict on.  Bob Payne: [00:09:51] OK yeah no that's ... Yeah. That's a good place to be strict I think. I often think of the three things that can make a great team. It's discipline, continuous improvement, and play the long game you know not the short term gain necessarily but product delivery is is not project right now. Ben Scott: [00:10:16] And I completely understand there's times we have to go really fast for whatever reason it is. Maybe there's a bug that's costing thousands of dollars. When it's in production.  Bob Payne: [00:10:23] Yeah. Ben Scott: [00:10:24] And yes. Quick and dirty fix but then think about it and fix it again the right way. Bob Payne: [00:10:30] Yeah. Well everybody. It's interesting because that the current understanding where the current sort of popular understanding of technical debt is that it is a bad thing and you know when they first started talking about it Ward Cunningham and and you know some of the folks on the first XP team actually used it in more the financial term debt. Sometimes you do take down. You know you go fast to be quick and you might incur some debt. You got to pay it down. Always cost a little bit more to pay it down. But sometimes that's the right decision. But when you're paying off the credit card with another credit card you're in drips.  Ben Scott: [00:11:20] That compounds quickly. Bob Payne: [00:11:21] Then You need to re platform the whole thing. Ben Scott: [00:11:26] And then it just never ends.  Bob Payne: [00:11:27] Yeah. Bob Payne: [00:11:28] And that's what the craftsmanship comes in play because if you instill those values when you build a new software and maybe you'll be a little bit better and last longer.  Bob Payne: [00:11:36] Yeah. So is IPPON primarily you know do you or most of the folks steeped in XP stream programming and.  Ben Scott: [00:11:47] So I would say most of us are what I would consider like Premier consultants as far as developers. Most of us are developers. So in that sense we're a bit different from most agile consulting companies. We focus a lot on the engineering aspect of agile versus the process and most of our developers don't always subscribe to Agile values. They like to get their stuff done and they're like good code and beautiful aspects that don't always adhere to delivering to agile way which is fine. But you couple that wish people would truly understand agile and you've just multiplied yet the actual value of it. It's like the cross-functional needed agile deep expertise to guide the ship but you still need a technical deep expertise on what good coding practices look like. Yeah and we also like to embed with our clients. We don't always like to take the whole project and then deliver at the end. We like to develop right and while we could develop we'll pair with them or we'll teach developed practices how to test and how to automate the whole thing and the whole the whole package. I think that's where our values will be different than other places. Bob Payne: [00:13:07] Yes. And we've you know at LitheSpeed we've been happy to be able to partner with the guys periodically because we focus primarily on the people in the process and you guys can focus on the technical chops.  Ben Scott: [00:13:25] Yes. Bob Payne: [00:13:25] Yeah. I'm primarily a PowerPoint engineer and there is no PPT unit.  Ben Scott: [00:13:34] No I'm really bad at PowerPoint.  Bob Payne: [00:13:39] I wouldn't say I'm good. But the reason I'm not very good is because there's no there's no unit test framework to how to get good. I was talking to somebody earlier because I I was when I was developing you know I got immediately test infected like TTD like real TDD not the ATDD or BDD. Not that those things are bad but that thinking and design process of TDD was an amazing force multiplier for me as not a terribly great developer. It allowed me to focus know where I was know that I hadn't broken something else because I couldn't keep every esoteric detail from the entire system. Ben Scott: [00:14:38] Yes.  Bob Payne: [00:14:39] In my head some people love that they loved the challenge of I've got every single detail in my head. But that doesn't scale. It does and test.  Ben Scott: [00:14:52] It's a good thing you brought TDD like I have my own opinions about it. And you're right. Some people love us some people hate it. And to me there's a lot of focus from the process scores to do TDD when developers aren't ready for it. Bob Payne: [00:15:06] Yeah yeah yeah.  Ben Scott: [00:15:07] Just like everything will be fine if you just do TDD.  Bob Payne: [00:15:11] Yeah I don't believe that to be true. Everything will be fine if you have engineers that are that are that really you know there I sort of look at the code and you can see the thought process of the developer in the code and that is much easier for me to read to read tested code than it is to to create an elegant you know you start throwing in some Lambda's there and we're we're we're parked. I mean because I struck part of my psychosis if you will. And I think it's reasonable to call it that around TDD as I started in Lisp and I don't know if you've ever tried to debug lisp or scala. It's probably easier now and in scala but there's just the interpreter. Back when I was doing this so you had a command line and you read in a file and something pops out and it is the most amazing black box in the world because it's just it's interpreted. It's a functional language and 42 is the answer, right? I forgot the question we asked in end. So unless you knew that those little pieces worked. Yes pull that out throw it into an interpreter and see if it give it some some values in and see if it makes sense because all it takes is a misplaced pen. It could be anywhere and it will usually evolve out to something that still works.  Ben Scott: [00:17:04] And I guess where I differ what it is like or I'm strict on tests in the same commit as the code.  Bob Payne: [00:17:11] Yeah.  Ben Scott: [00:17:12] I don't prescribe to. You must write a test first. Bob Payne: [00:17:15] Sure.  Ben Scott: [00:17:16] But it must be in the same commit. Yeah that's that's kind of where I differ. And some people are really good at writing tests first. Some are not. Bob Payne: [00:17:24] Yeah. Ben Scott: [00:17:24] But everybody should be able to write before or after, there's not. Never does ..That's Not allowed. Bob Payne: [00:17:31] Yeah I think it's a reasonable place to be strict. I think for me just I. Bob Payne: [00:17:39] I loved Arlo Belshee. I think it was our Arlo Belshee that coined the term test infected because some people either are or are not. And it's like you know that zombie strain virus. And I don't know which side is the zombie in which is the not here but I think the TTD folks are probably the zombies. But if you were when you find yourself on one side of that divide I think that the folks that actually like TTD and I know it is not universal. It's it's one of the more powerful and least used agile engineering practices.  Ben Scott: [00:18:15] Yes. Bob Payne: [00:18:16] I mean Pairing, people say they pair, but nobody pairs. I mean not like. Ben Scott: [00:18:21] Well not like extreme program where you must pair. Right. We like to pair for occasions like right. Here's a difficult piece of code. Let's work on it together or for mentoring. We'll pair for code reviews the type of thing we'll do some pairing for writing prose not so much right. How hard is it to write Pojos. You know it's so many people go down this rabbit hole to we test the setters and getters like I don't care. Like ok. Probably not. I'm OK. But really how long would it take you to actually do it if you said if everybody said we need to.  Ben Scott: [00:19:09] So. So interesting thing. So the debate by just writing a piece of code using reflection finds a perjures sets the value gets the value a certain done. So all my pages are tested automatically. Bob Payne: [00:19:25] Yeah. and now with generative frameworks it is it is relatively easy. I was cured of that debate because I'm not a great programmer. When I misformatted the way I created a Java date. And so when I made and I always know how to make your assertion not against the same constructor that you used. So I use distracted at this other date class add some other stuff in and misuse the constructor and when I assert it against the string format it value, i'm like "Well that's not right." And I don't know that I would have found that regular regular test or I would have I would have found like f'd up dates in the database or in the persistence layer or in the front end and I'm like I might not know. Then I've got a whole different problem but because I knew it I found out early that it didn't work like the debugging. For me it was just so much so much easier. Ben Scott: [00:20:36] And eventually you have to use common sense. You look at your POJO like well maybe I don't need to test every single one of them. But if you're serializing a date you should test that because for whatever reason it's so strict that the date format it will kill you application is different for might just use a whole AI behind it to be able to extract data and decide what date it is.  Bob Payne: [00:21:00] You guys likes you know you guys like screw up the order of the month and the day like what is this? Ben Scott: [00:21:05] It has Slashes no slashes. Bob Payne: [00:21:07] Dashes no dashes, dots..  Ben Scott: [00:21:10] Or you add milliseconds and you expect no milliseconds and it still won't truncate it'll just die right there. Bob Payne: [00:21:17] Yeah. Ben Scott: [00:21:17] So testing that. That's a good test. Typically also have a serialization test if it's data layer i'll serialize or deserialize back to the object, validate, but I might not validate.  Bob Payne: [00:21:30] You know that was that it was more important when he had to write her own serializer. Ben Scott: [00:21:37] Well I don't write my own serializer but I do write my own test for the annotations like for date format for example did you do the right format right. Does the precision matter or those type of things you have and I'm working on a project right now that for whatever reason the order matters. The order should not matter but whoever was sending it to they got that code where the order of your serialization matters and they can't just construct the object they actually validate it in its raw format first.  Bob Payne: [00:22:05] Okay. Ben Scott: [00:22:06] So then we have to validate that we send in the right Json format but in the right order each field. It shouldn't matter. At least in my opinion it should not matter.  Bob Payne: [00:22:15] No. But yeah well unless you want strong coupling in implementations which I'm shocked at how many are organizations really like strong coupling. Ben Scott: [00:22:33] I'm not sure they like it or just live with it. Bob Payne: [00:22:36] Yeah it's Like oh my god. It's like it's like the old Korbo or SOAP. Oh man. Ben Scott: [00:22:42] This is how we've always done it so we will continue. Bob Payne: [00:22:44] Yeah. Yep. So what else would do you. What's interesting to you in what hobbies do you have besides like? Ben Scott: [00:22:56] Kids.. Does that count as Hobbies? Bob Payne: [00:22:58] Yeah. Ben Scott: [00:22:59] It takes a lot of my time - it's fun time, it's really interesting and enjoyable to watch and grow. But I did find my most of my hobbies dropped away little by little. Bob Payne: [00:23:10] Yeah. Ben Scott: [00:23:13] When I did become a parent. Bob Payne: [00:23:16] I picked up new hobbies like I had never watched soccer before because I didn't like sports because those were the people that beat up the geeks. And now I'm doing like Magic the Gathering which I avoided in college like the plague. Ben Scott: [00:23:43] I never got into that. Bob Payne: [00:23:43] Because I was more of a punk than a D&D. There's a reasonable Venn diagram there. But but. Now I'm going to Friday Night Magic with my son. Ben Scott: [00:23:55] So that's a very fun but very expensive game. Bob Payne: [00:23:59] It is. Like you know a lot of people like do sports gambling. I think that's even worse. You know. Ben Scott: [00:24:06] Yes. Bob Payne: [00:24:07] Liaisons in a Russian hotel. Let it get very expensive very quickly depending on what you're doing. Ben Scott: [00:24:17] And I also do gaming video games typically do single player story type games. Bob Payne: [00:24:23] Oh really? given your military background. You've had enough First Person Shooter.. Ben Scott: [00:24:31] We'll it's more that to play online takes dedicated time whereas a single player. I can stop anytime. Pause and walk away. Bob Payne: [00:24:39] Yeah. Ben Scott: [00:24:40] I find that sometimes as a parent it's really hard to get an hour dedicated time. Bob Payne: [00:24:43] Oh yeah yeah. Ben Scott: [00:24:44] straight to play, it's like no I cannot help you to do anything because I'm in my game. If I'm doing single player I can quickly pause and do something else. That's how I mostly got into it. Ben Scott: [00:24:54] Before kids I was mostly into Dota. Bob Payne: [00:24:59] sorry? Ben Scott: [00:24:59] Dota Which is a different type of game. Bob Payne: [00:25:02] OK. Ben Scott: [00:25:03] League of Legends. Very similar as the birth of League of Legends. Was one of the first of those types of games.  Bob Payne: [00:25:11] Okay. But that's when I decided it would be hard for me to play because it requires 1 hour blocks.  Bob Payne: [00:25:19] Oh yeah. Yeah. Ben Scott: [00:25:22] Couldn't dedicate that anymore.  Bob Payne: [00:25:23] I know, yeah. So there's there's probably a game waiting for me this evening when I go home. So let's see. But. Ben Scott: [00:25:35] Let's see what else now spend time with family. Every Wednesday we have. Bob Payne: [00:25:42] Long walks on the beach and. Ben Scott: [00:25:43] Ah.. Not that, Just cook and eat and and drink and be merry. Revolves around food, and every Wednesday we have big family dinner.  Bob Payne: [00:25:55] Wednesday? Ben Scott:[00:25:55] Yeah Wednesday just because weekends are crazy. We also do on weekends. But we found that doing it in the middle of the week it kind of cuts the week and half. Bob Payne: [00:26:04] Yeah. You talk about work a little bit the stress and excuse to escape the daily grind of get up go to work. Come back do homework or other things. It's another event middle of the week that's a bit unusual but yeah it works for us. Bob Payne: [00:26:22] Yeah Wednesdays are not that exciting, it's dessert day. So. Ben Scott: [00:26:26] I like family Wednesdays. It's fun. Bob Payne: [00:26:29] Ok cool. We'll have to we'll have to do dessert/Dota/. Ben Scott: [00:26:37] Well I haven't played that game in so long i'd probably be terrible at it now. Bob Payne: [00:26:41] It's ok. You're better than I am  Ben Scott: [00:26:44] Probably. Bob Payne: [00:26:48] Thanks a lot, Ben Really appreciate it.  

Bree Moore has been writing fantasy since the fourth grade. She lives in Ogden, is wife to an amazing husband, and the mother of four children. She writes fantasy novels between doling out cheerios and folding laundry. Her most recent book is Woven. In real-life, Bree works as a birth doula, attending women in pregnancy and labor, which is huge inspiration for her writing. Bree loves shopping for groceries like other women like shopping for shoes (no, seriously), movies that make her cry, and Celtic music. She likes both her chocolate and her novels dark.  Do you have an ‘elevator pitch’ for Woven, to summarize it for our audience members who maybe haven’t read it before? It's a retelling of the Arthurian legend, and it's got a lot of really neat twists and a female cast. I focus heavily on a mostly female characters because they get a little neglected sometimes when we're talking about King Arthur and the Round Table. I don’t recognize the characters of Sir Gereck or Winna — did you make those up?  Winna is made up because Sir Gereck needed a wife. Gereck is technically listed as one of those as a knight of the Round Table. I based him off of like some other stories from other knights. In my Arthurian legends studies I covered very little of the Lady of the Lake, Nimue. I didn’t realize she took physical form and wasn’t always in the lake! What were your sources on that? When I was writing woven I was really intrigued by how many different characters seem to have so many different names. And I really wanted to find a way to kind of include that in woven. Just the fact that these are all like the same people, but they have different aspects of themselves. I watched the BBC show “Merlin” a bunch of times as one main source! Tell me a little about your journey writing “Woven.” Where did the idea come from?And do you have a long-standing Arthurian legend obsession, or were the legends just necessary to the idea? A little bit, yeah. I think the first book I read in Arthurian legend was probably the Merlin series by TS White. Then in college actually had the opportunity to go on study abroad to Great Britain and did a tour of former sites potentially associated with the legends. Then my mom and I used to take turns trying to inspire each other with Arthurian legends, and she challenged me to write something on The Lady of Shalott. Probably one of the biggest reasons Elaina takes such a huge role is because the story started with her and I was halfway through the book before I realized that Guinevere needed a stronger part in the book. You’re self-published, right? I am kind hybrid published in a way. I work with an indie publisher, and there's some things that I do like other self published authors do. So I hired my own editor, I hire my own cover artists, and then I send it off to my publisher and they work with Ingram to distribute my books. So my book is treated like a traditionally published book, but I have a lot of say in my deadlines and what everything looks like and a lot of control over the final product and I really love that. But I'm like any author that isn't huge: I do the bulk of the marketing. What advice might you have for other self-published authors out there: what’s the most effective marketing strategy you’ve used to date? (Or perhaps the top three?) Well the very first one, and I only say this because I am not actually there yet, but it's what everyone tells me: write the next book. I've tried focusing on promoting Woven by itself, with mixed results, and it's kind of discouraging to not have something for, for readers to go to next. So I think I'd rather build up a backlist a little bit. What are you working on now? I'm working on a ton of things right now. I am a super busy mom, but I refuse to let go of my writing. I'm working on the sequel to Woven, it's called Bound and it comes out September 1. And then I just had a short story accepted to an anthology. I have two other anthologies that I'm working on, and one comes out in December. Then I've started an urban fantasy trilogy that I hope will be released next year. Who are some of your favorite authors/books that you would consider to be your inspirations? Brandon Sanderson is one of my favorites. Anything I haven’t asked you that you want to make sure you communicate to our audience? Summer is the best time to read. So I think everyone should read in the summer and find a new book!  

Just Cook It!145 Built-To-Be-Easy Recipes That Are Totally DeliciousBy Justin Chapple Suzy Chase: Welcome to the Cookery by the Book Podcast, with me, Suzy Chase.Justin: My name is Justin Chapple, and my new cookbook is called, Just Cook It!Suzy Chase: You graduated from the French Culinary Institute, then you went on to become the Deputy Test Kitchen Editor at Food and Wine Magazine, in addition to being the host of Mad Genius Tips, your James Beard nominated video series. What does a Deputy Test Kitchen Editor do? That sounds so official.Justin: Believe it or not, it's actually a little more official because I was recently promoted to Culinary Director of Food and Wine.Suzy Chase: Oh, well look at that.Justin: Basically what it means is, I get to cook, and I get to eat all the time, but most importantly I get to develop recipes and food content for everyday people, which is really what I love about my job.Suzy Chase: Basically, the home cook, me?Justin: Yeah, exactly. Basically what I do is ... I've been at Food and Wine for over eight years, and in that time I've had various roles, but the thing that I like to say is my favorite part of my job is I basically translate difficult recipes for the home cook. I've spent so many years testing recipes from famous chefs, or even chefs that really nobody knows about yet, but who would like to run recipes in Food and Wine Magazine. Basically it's been my job for so long to look at the recipes and streamline them, maybe reduce the number of ingredients, simplify the technique so that it's something that is really approachable. Then, I basically redo the recipe, still keeping in mind the chef's vision, and just make it so much easier for the home cook.Justin: When I started writing this book, I thought to myself well, how can I do something that not only has my point of view, rather than so many of the great chefs that I work with, but that teaches people all of the things that I've learned along the way? That's what I've done in, Just Cook It.Suzy Chase: It struck me by how many different types of cuisines are in this cookbook, but it's not discombobulated. It all works together. Is this how you cook at home?Justin: Yeah, it really is how I cook at home. A lot of that is just because over the years I was cooking food from so many different people, I've learned so much about different cuisines. When I started writing down and figuring out what I wanted to put in the book, I thought, okay, well what type of cuisine should it be? Should it be American? Should it be Italian? Should it be French, which is what I'm trained in? But then I thought to myself, I should actually really put all the different types of recipes and cuisines that I cook at home, because I cook very globally. That said, none of the recipes are truly authentic. They're really inspired by a region, or a type of cuisine, or a recipe that I've had at some point. Then I've reinvented it with my own perspective. I think it worked out well.Suzy Chase: I do too. I live for nostalgia, just like you. I'm dying to hear about Grandma Barbara.Justin: Oh, Grandma Barbara, she was my savior, really. She's really the first person who introduced me to home cooking. Part of how she did that was she plopped me down on sofa next to her. She'd say, we're going to watch these shows. We'd watch Yan Can Cook, and we'd watch The Two Fat Ladies, Jacques Pepin, Julia Child. This was before food television was really what it is today. This is back when most of the time when you watched cooking shows, it was on PBS. I love it. I fell in love with it. I remember as a kid I used to say, I want to be a chef. Or at that time, I probably said cook. She encouraged me. She would teach me, started out simple, she would show me how to make tuna salad. One of the most advanced things that she taught me as a kid was how to poach eggs. Of course, I think my poached eggs have come very long way now, compared to the watery mess they were when I was a kid.Justin: She just taught me so much. What I think is so amazing when I look back is, how much she taught me that she doesn't realize, because we didn't grow up with a lot of money, and we didn't have a lot of resources. We didn't have a lot of fancy kitchen equipment. Still, every day she made incredible meals that were so inspiring. Throughout the book, I've taken some of the things that I learned from her and I've made them a little more modern, maybe changed a few ingredients here and there, but really tried to achieve what I remember having as a kid.Justin: A couple of examples are that are my bacon and egg ramen, because growing up she used to take little packaged ramen noodles and she'd put them in the microwave with an egg, some scallions, and maybe a little chicken broth. It ended up becoming something that was totally different than what you think of when you think of packaged ramen. I tried to recreate that in my book. I think I did pretty well. I think she'd be happy with it.Suzy Chase: In the cookbook you wrote, don't tell anyone, but I might have been a little bit dorky as a kid. Not that I've changed much. I was freckly and quirky with all sorts of big bizarre dreams. I would read cookbooks and food magazines, watch Two Fat Ladies, and Yan Can Cook, and fantasize about becoming a chef. What advice would adult chef Justin, tell young, quirky Justin?Justin: Actually, that's a really good question. I'm glad you asked, because I recently was able to speak to this high school culinary program. They had asked me to come. It was actually my high school which since I left they drew out this incredible culinary program for high school students. They asked me to come back and speak to the kids, and I did. One of the things I told them was, don't let anyone tell you that going to trade school or vocational school is a bad thing. Because when I was growing up, you were strongly encouraged to go off to a four year university. I went off to school, yet all I really wanted to do was cook. In our industry we call ourselves career changers, because I had established myself as an adult before I decided to go to culinary school. Then one day I said, you know what? I've always wanted to cook. I still want to cook. I'm going to cook. So I went to culinary school. That was almost 10 years ago.Suzy Chase: I've talked to quite a few cookbook authors who were unfulfilled by working in a professional kitchen because the personal link to the customer was missing. Talk about your connection between the food and the people you make food for.Justin: Well, that's exactly right. When I worked in restaurants, you cook all day. But I was in fine dining, and so you're really kept in the back. You're kept in the kitchen. You don't really get to see reactions. You don't get to see if people are enjoying it. You don't get to hear the feedback of whether or not they want something different. But since I've been at Food and Wine, and I've been creating recipes for the masses, for lack of a better way of describing it, especially nowadays with social media, I get so much feedback. I hear what people want. I hear the types of foods people want to eat, and the types of food people would like to prepare at home. I change what I do based on that. It's what I love about what I do now, is that I get to interact with the people who are actually cooking my food, or the people that I'm cooking for.Justin: When I developed the list of recipes that I was going to put in the book, I really considered all the things I've heard over the years, all the favorite dishes that people like to make at home, all of the types of foods that they'd like to learn more about, which is why, if you go through the pages of Just Cook It, you'll see a lot of vegetable recipes. Because more recently, people are just obsessed with vegetables. They're obsessed with side dishes. That's one of the things I really focused on when I wrote this book, was providing all the different types of vegetables. Some of them are more involved than others, but for the most part they're all super, super easy, really approachable, and they teach you to use ingredients in fun new ways.Suzy Chase: You have a must-have equipment section in the cookbook. One of your must-haves is a cast iron pan. As a New York City apartment dweller, I wish I could grill. How do you grill indoors?Justin: It's really hard, because I also live in New York City, and I have a small apartment, so it's really hard to grill indoors, but I like to use a grill pan. Rather than getting it as hot as possible, if you just reduce the temperature just a little bit, you are better off with the fear of setting off your smoke alarm.Suzy Chase: I've heard you say hacks are one thing, and shortcuts are another. What's the difference?Justin: I get asked that question a lot, because I do have the video series through Food and Wine, which is called, Mad Genius Tips. It's all about food hacks. It's all about finding really bizarre ways of creating a shortcut. Technically a hack is a shortcut, but nowadays the term hack has really become a term for shortcut when the shortcut is really outrageous. Whereas a shortcut is just a smart, often times professional way of making something easier. Throughout my book you will find a few hacks here and there, but for the most part I wanted to include just a ton of shortcuts so that people wouldn't be intimidated, so people weren't afraid to get in the kitchen, so that you can make all the things that you perhaps thought you could never make.Justin: Just for an example, I have my new school beef bourguignon, which is really inspired by a classic beef bourguignon, which if you're not aware of what it is, it's a beef stew made with red wine, probably made famous by Julia Child. In order to make it at home you'd normally dry all your meat and then you cook it in three or four batches in your big pot. Then you have to brown all your vegetables separately. Then you have to braise your meat separately. At the end you put it all together.Justin: But really, I've streamlined the process by first, rather than cooking the meat in so many different batches, I dry it all and I spread it on a baking sheet. Then I broil it so you brown it all at once. Then I put that into the pan, into the pot with the red wine, and your aromatics, and then you braise the meat that way. Then of course rather than browning all your vegetables in different skillets, I add them all in. It's definitely a shortcut, and the recipe is definitely still delicious. I really think it's reinventing how a very classic French dish can be made at home.Suzy Chase: Another shortcut that caught my eye in, Just Cook It, is preserved lemons that can be made in 10 minutes on the stove. Describe that.Justin: I haven't yet been asked about that recipe, so I'm so glad that you did because it's really a brilliant cheater version of preserved lemons. Preserved lemons are lemons that have been salted and basically cured for upwards of a month. They have an incredible, incredible, deep very floral flavor. You don't actually use the flesh of the fruit. Some people do. They like to spread it on toast, or they like to stir it into stews. But for the most part when we talk about using preserved lemon, we talk about just using the rind, because the rind gets really soft once it's been cured. It mellows out and you can actually just eat it, but it's still intense. But, it's used as a condiment, so you can put it into vinaigrette. You can put it into aioli’s. You can put it into a stew, or into a chicken braise, or something like that.Justin: You can buy them in the store. That's definitely something that you can find pretty much at most stores nowadays, but I developed this trick for doing it at home. It's a shortcut that I think is really phenomenal. When you want to use preserved lemons in a pinch, and really what you do is you scrub the lemons and cut them into wedges. Then you cook them in a saucepan with just water, and salt. What it does is it softens the rind, much like the month long curing process would, and with the amount of salt that I use ... Which I think I use three or four tablespoons in the recipe. It gives it that kind of flavor that you would get from the salt curing process.Justin: In my opinion, it's such a smart shortcut for something that could take upwards of a month. Now you can do it at home in really 10 minutes. The best part is once you make them, because they're technically salted still, they can be in the refrigerator for six months. You can do a double or triple batch. Cook them in 10 minutes. Put them into a jar or container, like a plastic container with a lid, put it in the back of the refrigerator, and they'll be there for six months. Every time you need a little, you just take it out, you chop it up, and it's ready to go.Suzy Chase: One thing I hate to do is cut up cucumber. I can never make perfectly diced cukes. Thank you for telling us to smash our cucumber. Talk about that.Justin: That is probably one of my favorite techniques in the whole entire book. Throughout the book you'll find little things like that, like little ideas that don't require more effort. They often times require less effort, but huge reward. That's what smashing the cucumbers is for me. Because what I do is I basically put the cucumbers onto a cutting board. I like to use Persian cucumbers, because I love their really, really, really crisp texture, and the fact that they have very little seeds. You can find them pretty much everywhere now. They're the perfect snackable cucumber.Justin: I basically put it flat on a work surface. I put my knife flat on top of that, with the blade facing away from me. Then I just use my palm, and I just smash them. Then I tear them into pieces. What's so great about that is because the crushed cucumber has all these nooks and crannies now, it absorbed the dressing so much better than if you just sliced them or chopped them, and it makes it more fun to eat.Suzy Chase: That is so smart. That's totally a game changer.Justin: It's 100% a game changer. The salad that goes with it, in my book, Just Cook It, is so simple. It's an Asian inspired salad with just a couple ingredients, and then some herbs which are optional. I just think it's the perfect recipe for now.Suzy Chase: The other evening I made your recipe for shumai stew on page 100, and your peel and eat shrimp on page 191. Now, that stew-Justin: Thank you.Suzy Chase: The stew was so different and delicious. How did that recipe come about?Justin: That recipe came about because I'm a little bit of an addict when it comes to buying frozen dumplings, and frozen raviolis, and stuff like that from the store, because living in New York City, I work until 06:00, and often times the only time I have people over, it'll be on a weeknight. I tend to like shortcuts like prepared raviolis and prepared pot stickers, in this case, shumai. I had bought some shumai from a corner store. Here in New York we call them bodegas. Because I was just craving some little dumplings. I think I remember the ones that I bought, they weren't that great. I ate them, but I had some leftover in the fridge, and I said to myself, how can I use theses up? So I made a stew out of them. It was such a weird, happy accident, because what I really did was just sauteed a little aromatics, like ginger and shallots and garlic, threw in some chicken broth, added the shumai, added some greens, and it became this really hardy Asian inspired dumpling stew that now I make it all the time.Suzy Chase: Oh my God. I've never seen anything like it.Justin: This too, in my opinion, is a game changer because it really shows you a new way of using something. You go to the supermarket. They always have that section of frozen pot stickers, and frozen dumplings. They even have often times the frozen udon noodles in the same area. Those ingredients, believe it or not, you don't have to use them in the traditional way. You can reinvent the way you cook at home very easily. That's what I really wanted to show in this book, was how with just a couple smart ideas, you can change the way you cook forever. That's why I like to say this shumai stew is a game changer as well, because it teaches you something simple like putting those frozen dumplings into a soup.Justin: It's something that you'll walk away from the book with and you'll do it. You might not follow the recipe next time. You might do something else. You might say, well okay, I don't have mustard greens, or I don't have shiitake mushrooms on hand, so what can I do? Maybe you take those shumai dumplings and you do an Italian inspired soup with tomato, and basil, and with your dumplings in there. Because you're using them as a condiment. You're using them as an ingredient as opposed to making them the focal point.Suzy Chase: Here's my problem with the Trader Joe's frozen shumai, is that when I steam them, they get crunchy around the edges. I've decided to never buy those again, but I used them for the shumai stew, and in the stew the shumai stays moist. It doesn't get that weird crunch on the edges.Justin: Right. That's true for a lot of frozen ingredients. Because they get a little frostbitten, and then they start to dry out. That's a really good point. Because they're in the stew, they're going to absorb all that delicious broth and just get really nice and tender and juicy.Suzy Chase: With the peel and eat shrimp, I never knew that if you cooked them in the shell, they stayed juicy and tender. The green chili butter on the shrimp was so luxurious.Justin: That green chili butter, which I sometimes I use jalapeno, other times I use the serranos. It's such a smart secret weapon. It really is, because what I do is sometimes when I make that recipe ... So, for those of you listening, basically my peel and eat shrimp has two really, really smart tips to it. The first one is to cook your shrimps in the shell, because they stay really moist and tender, and you don't overcook them. What I like to do is take little scissors and then I just cut down the back, which not only allows you to remove the vein, but it exposes the meat so that you can spread it with this chili butter. That's the first tip.Justin: The second tip in this recipe, which is a secret weapon in my opinion, is making this green chili butter. You just mash butter with chilies. Like I said, I use jalapeno, or I use serrano, some chives, some lemon zest, and then just salt and pepper. That's it. You blend it in a bowl with a fork, and then you spread it on the meat under the shell of the shrimp. Then you chill the shrimp, and then when you roast them in the oven, they get perfectly cooked and the chili butter is just the little kick that you want, because it doesn't overwhelm the shrimp. But, it makes them even more juicy and more tender.Justin: But the reason I say that green chili butter is a secret weapon is because sometimes I make a double or quadruple batch. And then I use some for the shrimp, and then save the other for anything I want. Sometimes I toss it just on boiled noodles. Sometimes I just put a little pat of it on top of the grilled steak. Sometimes I spread it on top of a grilled, or roasted piece of skinless chicken breast. It just adds this little bit of oomph that you're looking for something that's really simple at home.Suzy Chase: I used jalapenos and I was a little worried because I was feeding my 11 year old. I'm like, just eat the shrimp. I was standing back watching him. But it doesn't absorb the heat. It just had the flavor of the jalapeno.Justin: Right. That's because to make the butter, you first seed the chilies. You seed them and then you mince them, and so because you're removing the seeds and the ribs, that's where all the heat is in the chili. You're really just using the pepper itself. The pepper, sometimes they can be hot, but I have a really smart trick for knowing whether or not a chili is going to be really spicy. We've all been there where a recipe calls for one or two peppers, and you can choose. You never know how much to use because you're not sure how hot they are unless you taste one.Justin: But, I actually learned this trick from my friend Melissa Clark who works for the New York Times. She said, what you do is you cut the jalapeno or the chili in half, and then you smell it. If it smells like a bell pepper, then it's sweeter. But if it smells really spicy then you know it's going to be a really hot chili, and you should maybe start with less before you add more. She taught me that, and I was like, why have I not ever known that? It's such a brilliant trick.Suzy Chase: Right. Well, thank you Melissa Clark.Justin: Yes. So smart. Now I do this. I wish I had known that right before I did the book, because I would have put it on every recipe that has a hot pepper in it.Suzy Chase: Where can we find you on the web and social media?Justin: Well, you can find me all over social media and on the web at, Justin Chapple, just my full name. My last name is spelled C-H-A-P-P-L-E. I really do hope that people reach out, because I'm really responsive on social media and on the internet, just because I love talking with the people that are making my recipes and eating my food. It's one of my biggest pleasures in life.Suzy Chase: Well, I will echo what Valerie Bertinelli said, this is for all of us home cooks who want to up our game in the kitchen. Thanks Justin, for coming on Cookery by the Book Podcast.Justin: Thank you so much.Suzy Chase: Subscribe in Apple Podcasts and while you're there, please take a moment to rate and review, Cookery by the Book. You can also follow me on Instagram, @Cookerybythebook. Twitter is IamSuzyChase, and download your Kitchen Mix Tapes. music to cook by on Spotify at Cookery by the Book. Thanks for listening.

Hi. Okay. I'm figuring shit out. I'm figuring out my situation. I think I'm situated. Okay. I'm ... I'm in bed, that's what's up. Okay. What's happening with my internet, people? My internet ... I'm at home, the internet can't be going out. We're not in Bali anymore, but sometimes the internet in bedroom's dodgy because I'm up so high and I'm right next to the ocean. The ocean is like 50 yards away. Hello. Welcome to the Katrina Ruth Show where anything could happen and probably will. Hey Caitlin. Oh that made a difference didn't it? I have a special delivery coming in for me. Look at this, wine delivered to my bed. Can you please open the door for me - Yeah. - because I'm getting overheated already. Hello Melanie. Hello Amber. Hello [Luanna 00:01:20]. Hey Michelle, just manifested a live stream from me. Don't touch that. It's going to fall. Careful. Go downstairs with Phina. I'll be down soon. Can I stay with you? No, no, no. You've got to go downstairs with Phina. No. Come on. We'll do something fun. Lets go. No. Hey Angela. Hey Joe. Fine mommy. I love you. I hate you. Aw, that's not nice, is it? Okay. Hey Bobby. Come on. I'm coming. All right. How did I get the special emojis? Because I'm a ninja and because my team of ninjas ... He's left now. Not happy about it though. What he did before he left was pulled out my tripod balancing stand, which was a pirate book, so now we're going to have to resort to a Monster's University book to put under the tripod because otherwise the tripod's just balancing on the bed. I don't even know what I want to talk about. What did I say the title was? Oh that's right, because I know exactly what I want to talk about. Don't worry. All right, we have the Big Monsters on Campus, Monster's University tripod balancing stand is there. Welcome to the show. Oh do you know what, I just realised my team aren't online to share this live stream. I better share it over to my page. How'd ... That's all anyone what's to know is about the emojis. How? You be Katrina Ruth, that's how. Like a smart ass. You can do it in the Facebook Creator app. I didn't do it though. I'm going to share this live stream over to my personal page into the daily ass kickery and then we're going to get into the show and I just wanted to come on, have my wine delivered to me upstairs in bed. You found I'm cool. Damn that's a good wine. That's a new one. Seraphina went wine shopping for me. Smart ass. She's chosen an exceptional wine. Seraphina, who's arm you may have just seen appearing on camera bringing me the wine, is my amazing nanny/incredible at home personal assistant/she's a ninja in various aspects of my social media here at the Katrina Ruth Show. Okay, you know what, I just did this amazing, amazing audio for my Breaktheinternet.com members. Actually the programme hasn't even started. It doesn't start until tomorrow. Wait. That is such good wine. I'm definitely enjoying it. But it was pre-work. I did the audio as some pre-work, some additional pre-work. We already did pre-work two days ago and then long story short, I was driving along and I realised I wanted to create an audio and make some new pre-work for my members and I thought I'd talk about it a little bit here on this livestream, because it's such a powerful and important part of being as magnetic as fuck ... As magnetic as fuck ... Magnetic as fuck online, which has to do simply with being all that you already are and letting all that you are out. Who here has joined Break the Internet already and why will this live stream not share to my page? I'm going to ask Kelly too or I'll try and do it one more time. I'm trying to share it over to my personal page but it's just being a mother fucker and refusing to let me. Oh here we go. You know what, a lot of people ... Me, yes you have. A lot of people assume that I'm a natural extrovert, but if you get to know me I'm actually super introverted in real life and what I was teaching my members about ... If you're in Break the Internet, I don't think you've got this audio yet, it's still being converted and it's going to drop into the group in the next, however long. Very soon anyway. What I was teaching and explaining in that training was around how to let what's inside of you already out, because actually in order to show up fully online as a leader, as a powerful, revolutionary, bad ass leader, it's got nothing to do with already being a person who feels super charged with confidence or that you always know exactly what to say or anything like that at all. It's simply got to do with letting the real you out. That's kind of what I wanted to talk about today, but I'm getting kind of grumpy here because my internet's being super shitty and not letting me share my livestream over to my personal page. Can you ... And daily asskickery. All right, so I'll get Kelly to do it because otherwise it's just going to keep distracting me. Anyway, today I had my first day back in Australia. I haven't been here ... I've barely been here all year to be quite honest with you. I've been here for a total of two weeks for the entire fucking year I think, and today was my first day back again after being away again, again, in Bali, so it was a bit of a frazzle day just with the kids and running around and doing stuff and then tomorrow we're flying away again. Going away for a couple of days to my hometown in Melbourne for a six year old birthday party. Why would you not? Of course, for my nephew, and so it's kind of that slight feeling of never endingness is creeping up upon me. Where I get a little frazzled, I guess, when I think about it, but more so that I feel like it's going to impact my ability to show up and do what I want to do in my business or for example, I've been out all day and I've have an in and out of the car, driving around doing errands sort of day, and doing some bis stuff as well and doing some things for myself. I came home just now, 10 minutes ago, and I thought, well I can go live or I can go sit down and be a good mom and be with my children, who I haven't been with for two or three weeks. I have already spent quite a bit of time with them today actually, like early this morning before school and then during gymnastics for each of them and we did the park and we did a playground café and so definitely spent time with them. Now, coming onto live stream, I was like, well I could just sit down now, watch a movie with the kids and I'll definitely be online later tonight and do some more business stuff or I thought I could sneak up here into my bedroom and kind of like my plan was to sneak away so that they didn't notice, but obviously Nathan just came in and noticed, and just do a quick little live stream for you guys. Funnily enough or I don't know if this is funny or not, but for me that's what I kind of look at as my time. It's definitely not the only thing that I would look at as my time is to do a live stream, but it's definitely something where I was like, well if I go straight into that kind of evening witching hour with my children watching a movie and then cooking dinner and or playing Play Dough or whatever it is that we're going to do, there's that slight disconnect that I feel inside of me, where it's like I didn't fully honour my soul and then I feel a tiny bit shitty about it, right, I feel a little bit, not shitty at the kids or anything like that, I guess more so shitty with myself for not honouring myself and for not honouring what it is that I need to do. Also I haven't fully let out what's inside of me and so therefore there's this heightened energy. Have you ever noticed that? Maybe you've noticed this if you're a mom as well or a dad or could be to do with other things in your business. Maybe what you do is you go like, oh I really should go and do such and such admin shit in my business or I should go and finish off cleaning out my emails or answering people's inquiries and responses, but really what your soul needs and what would allow you to feel fulfilled and happy, would be to do some content for example and to show up and do a live stream or maybe write a blog post or share a story or essentially just unleash some form of messaging from inside of you. When we talk about showing up for all of you, a big of that, it's kind of what I said earlier, just letting that natural ... Oh my God. I don't know what I'm doing with my legs here. They're all tangled up in a pretzel. I'm going to give you a comment and then I'm going to keep talking. My page finally loaded over here. Okay, I just popped a comment in, which is about Break the Internet. It starts on Friday, US time on Friday, but we're right into pre-work now. We did an incredibly powerful pre-work exercise two days ago in the group. The group is out of control with bad assery. If you're in the group, how freaking good is it? Then I've just created a new pre-work training for today as well, which is essentially my favourite exercise that I've personally used for years now, in order to bring that extrovert, performer, entertainer side of me out, even as an actual introvert and even when I feel self conscious or I don't feel like showing up or I feel like I don't know how to really let that soul side of me out so that I'm speaking to people's souls and speaking to their hearts and getting the response, right. Break the Internet, it's called Breaktheinternet.com because it's just what I felt like calling it. Don't go the URL because it's not going to be my landing page for sure. I don't know what's at that website, I haven't even bothered to type it in. It's a day intensive smack down and it's ll about getting back to the real raw core of who you are and just unleashing the beast, so to speak, unleashing the soul beast. Letting people see and feel all of you and essentially in order to do that, as part of it, completely wiping off the table any sort of bullshit or drama you've got around feeling like not able to or self conscious or that you hold yourself back or you just don't share your full truth, you do some kind of half baked version of it. There's a lot of really deep powerful work that we're going to be doing this programme. You can read the pinned comment after we finish if you like and if it's speaking to you, you can just purchase straight from in there and jump straight into the group. It's on fire already and we haven't even started. This programme came straight out of my soul. If you read what's there, that's my entire sales copy is right there in a comment. There's nothing else, there's no sales page or anything like that and I wrote it in 10 to 15 minutes and it came from pure fury because I was shitty at myself and I wrote about this on Sunday last week when the programme came out of me. I was really shitty at myself. I was feeling like I haven't been letting all of me out. I've been in part, maybe not fully showing up and performing and doing what I'm meant to do because I've been travelling or whatever, bullshit, story, story, story, doing other things instead, but also that when I was showing up with my writing, with my speaking and being here or wherever I am, that I was holding something back, I wasn't letting my true soul out and I think that this just happens naturally. No matter how good you are, no matter how practised you are, and I'm pretty fucking practised at showing my soul on the internet, if we don't consciously set that intention that I'm going to give all of me, I'm going to let people see all of me, I'm gong to bare my naked soul to the world, I'm going to let my truth out, then we naturally just tend to let, I guess, some kind of a mask build up on us over time. It could be because maybe something triggered us or got to us or we had a moment of insecurity or it could just be that it freaking builds up, the same way that dustiness and dirt builds up on your skin. You got to shower every so often. For me it's like a soul shower. When I get into a good journaling session or a good [inaudible 00:12:26] work session, which is what I did on Sunday, where I kick my own ass and I really sat down and I was like, right, lets bring it bitches, I'm going to kick my own ass. In fact I'm going to share my journaling. Here's an unannounced bonus that I haven't even told anybody about, not even my members in Breaktheinternet.com, I'm going to share my exact journaling from Sunday, because what I did was, I did this empowered kind of rage and aggression filled journaling session. If I had my journal upstairs here I'd pull it out now and read a few bits, but it's downstairs and I don't want to risk getting the kids noticing that I'm not there again. They'll come running up here and then I won't be able to say anything. I did this kind of kick my own ass journaling session where I was really just like, this is bullshit and I'm sick of it and I just want to feel this and I want to let loose what's inside of me and I was empowered and I was passionate and I was angry, right, I was angry at myself. I started to get the idea for a programme and I knew that the first module will be, Get Angry. "Looking tan as fuck," says Karen. Thank you. I appreciate it, because like a normal freaking woman, the first thing I noticed was something I didn't like about myself when I jumped online. I should reframe that. Actually, lets reframe that a normal woman notices how fucking fabulous she looks, but the first thing that I noticed was that my hair was a little bit greasy and I started to get self conscious about it. All right, but I still continued on. I didn't jump off the live stream when I and noticed it. Anyway, I appreciate it Karen. Perfect time for a wine break. God damn that wine's good. I was getting angry and I knew that I was going to do a programme. I hadn't known that I was going to do a programme. I had no plan to launch something new when I sat down. I went down to the beach, the restaurant in front of the beach where I was at in Bali, Sunday afternoon, I was going to be going out for drinks at 5:00 PM and it was like 3:00 PM and I actually was just ... The reason I went down to journal was, I was like, I'm not going to enjoy my evening going out and we were planning a big night of going out and just being social and meeting new people and doing this kind of social connecting experiment that I've got going on at the moment, and so I knew that I wouldn't be fully in my flow zone with that. I just felt like I was shitty, right. I was shitty at myself because I knew that in my business I hadn't been fully expressing myself, I'd been hiding, holding back. Not in a ... I still show the fuck up, that's the reality, but it's about what we feel individually. I went and sat down to journal and the journaling got super fiery, it got super revved up and I just got into massive amounts of clarity and empowerment, but there was this aggressive energy to it and it was all coming from soul flow. What I was just saying, I'm going to share that exact journaling as an unannounced bonus into Breaktheinternet.com and that will be when we officially kick off tomorrow, so go to the pinned comment after this, read about Breaktheinternet.com, get your ass in there if you would like a 10 day intensive smack down from my soul to yours. The first module is going to be Get Angry, so it will be appropriate that I'll share my example of how I really reached into my soul and then when you read the overview for this programme you're going to see or you're going to feel that it came from a place inside of me. It didn't come from a thinking place of how do I come up with an offer or programme or something like that. It came from this place inside of me of aggressive energy, right. Sometimes when I download something from the soul it feels super, I guess, flowy and floaty and more of a so called light energy, whereas this feels a little darker and a little heavier, but in a completely beautiful way and you can just feel it when you read the copy. Well that sales copy took maybe 10 minutes to write, if that. I don't think it was even remotely 10 minutes and what happened was I would do my journaling like I said and then I wrote a blog post, which I very politely called You Snivelling Whiny Little Bitch, because I'm super friendly like that, and then somebody re posted it and talked about leaders online being violent in their languaging. I was Like holy shit, people who don't freaking read between the lines. Not my people, be on your way. Anyway, it was such a kick your ass blog post, but of course I'm writing it first and foremost for myself and it really just lit me up with love and power and rage and all those things definitely go together. I think that's obvious, right? For the right people they were like, holy fucking shit, I needed to hear that. After I wrote the blog then the programme just kind of flew out of me. I was not like, let me quickly whip up a programme offer before I go down to the beach club for sunset drinks and then going out into the evening. I was like, I need to unleash something inside of me or I'm not going to be a very good person to hang out with tonight and I'm going to be distracted and I'm not really going to be feeling in flow. I just was like, this is what I want to do for me before I go out. All right, so then I did that, programme just flew out of me. You can feel the energy of it in the post and it was that simple because it came from a place of showing all of me, right, which is the title of this live stream. It came from a place of, I didn't give a fuck, I wasn't thinking about what do I create to sell or what do I create to get people's attention, what do I create to be magnetic online. As soon as you start to think about, how should I be magnetic online? How should I be a powerful leader? How should I be anything? Well, you immediately, what you're doing actually is complete anti manifestation because you're saying that I'm not that thing, how should I be that thing? If I'm not magnetic, how do I be magnetic? That's stating that you're not magnetic, so that's what you're then creating and manifesting, right. It's like if somebody tries to be cool, it's like you're not cool dude. You're trying to be cool. You're a try hard, right, whereas if they completely themselves then they're cool as fuck in whatever way that is for them, right, and for us here's the thing, not everybody out there is magnetic and can be a leader and make a fuck load of money online and have an insane bad as following of people who just binge on their content like it's Netflix. That's reality, but if you're here ... Hey Matthew. Shout out. If you're here, then you know who you freaking are, right, but that doesn't mean you don't need to kick your own as snow and again. If you know that that's who you are and that's inside of you, then that's all you need to know. You don't need to ask how to do it, you just need to fucking be it. But how do you be it? Okay, you don't ask how to be it, you just be it. It feels confusing. I know, it's annoying. Lets have some wine and take a moment and then I'll explain. How? How? How did I unleash such a powerful programme that people are just like, holy fuck I've got to part of that, right, and when you read the comment about it you're like, even if it doesn't speak to you and you're like, no it's not for me, but you'll feel that it came from a real raw place. How? Because I didn't fucking sit down to ask myself how I can quickly make a few extra tens of thousands of dollars on the internet in a couple of days, which is what ultimately then happened and then some, because then it kind of triggered into a bunch of other stuff as well, not even relevant to this business, because it was like super flow had been activated. I didn't sit down to do that. I didn't even sit down to write about [inaudible 00:19:39] blog post. I didn't sit down to come up with a programme. I didn't sit down to actually do anything for you guys, sorry to tell you. I was not sitting down with you in mind. I was sitting down shitty at myself. I was sitting down because I wanted to kick my own ass. Natalia says, "I tuned into your live before I joined it." Perfect, we're on the collective energy wave length here. You just got the signal and then you're Like, oh yeah, I'll come and listen to the human version, but you're getting it anyway. I love it. That's the thing, right, I was giving myself what I needed. I was kicking my own ass. I was doing what I needed to do for me and as a product of doing that and as a product of reminding myself who I fucking am and kicking my ass to be who I am, something came forth from me, spewing like a fiery river into the night or actually it was the Bali sunset and it was very beautiful. Then I did that blog and that that was just to unleash my soul, because I freaking needed the release and I wanted the release and I desired the release and there will be no blanket till marshmallows. There is a blanket here and it's possible ... This is embarrassing for everybody, but predominantly for me. There might be a bowl of kind of stale chocolate licorice bullets in the drawer next to my bed. It could be an illusion. It might not actually exist or be real. We'll taste test. They look pretty old. I actually was like, I wonder if there's chocolate in that drawer, I know I used to put it in there sometimes. I think they're pretty old. I have no recollection. Lets test. They're fucking good though. I don't know what this round thing is. I don't trust it. Okay. I'm allergic to licorice. I'm just letting you guys know. Anything could happen now. That's probably why they're still in there, because I fucking love it. All right, lets manifest that I'm not ... Fuck I can feel it already. Don't worry I'm not going to pass out, but I can feel it already. I'm just a rebel. I just don't give a fuck. I'm just going to eat stuff that I react to. Okay, that was a reckless and kind of stupid move. I think the wine will help cleanse it through my body so that I don't have any more of a reaction than the one that I can already feel. I definitely have always been allergic to licorice, but you know, I'm reckless as fuck. As long as I drink plenty of water I can handle the allergic reaction. I sound like a moron, but I like chocolate licorice so much, but then I did kick my own ass about it later and people kept buying me licorice bullets because I think I talked about it and then I overdosed on them one night and I was fucked up for an entire three days. All right, so anyway, my soul's a little bit of an immature child at times I think and just likes to do stuff. I can feel the freaking flush coming. I'm making it up. I'm so full of bullshit. I'm just making the story in my head aren't I? I feel like I want to take my top off though because I'm getting a hot flash from it. All right, so anyway, we're talking about how to be all that you are on the internet. I didn't even use the word internet, just be all that you are in general real life. What's the name of this live stream? Let me check. Let me make sure I get it right because it's important and I might accidentally say the wrong thing, not that I've got any fucking clue what I'm saying anyway. Doing the damn work of being all of you. Well exactly right. Exactly right. I wasn't being all of me. I'd become the most boring person in the entire internet, if not the world, and then I did a live stream about that. Lets cleanse this licorice out. I only had two. Do you think it's appropriate that I just looked over at my books right then and I happened to, the first book that caught my eye is Russell Brand's book on getting past addiction? I think there's something to be said about that. It's a great book by the way. You know, I did the crazy ass livestream from the cab then on the way to going out, because I was so riled up and I talked about how I was the most boring person on the internet, but the point is that doing the damn work of being all of you, there's many things that could be said about that. I did an entire training for my members and it's not even part of the official content, it's just pre-work. I did that training today. It's dropping now or tonight sometime into the group and you can get that right away and then we start officially around about this time tomorrow, so Friday morning US time. What time is it even ... Nope. It will be even later than that. Whenever it is, we start on Friday. I don't even know when it is, all right, and I do the training on how to bring out the extrovert side of you that's in there even if you're a natural introvert and step into the performer, entertainer, leader and using the exact exercise that I've used for sometime now, where it's now automatic, I don't have to think about it, but how I kind of based it, what I based it on to step into my true entertainer, performer. That's just one side of it, because what I'm saying now, the other side of it that I'm saying now is, well what if you just always gave yourself the space and opportunity to be all that you are, right. What I did on Sunday, no I'm not going to go out socially until I've done what I need to do for me, because it's just what I felt to do and I was going into myself to deal with my own shit. I wasn't doing that to try and make a buck or an extra few bucks or whatever it was and that's just, you know, it's a trust thing isn't it, because I know that it seems like, well but if I never tried to make money or to build my following online or to get a sale, then how would I ever get there? I guess the question is, well do you trust that you're going to be the person who'll actually do the damn work, because for me it's just a natural flow and effect of being all that I am. When I be all that I am, I naturally am a powerful messenger and leader and I'm also a natural bad ass sales person. That's me being all that I am. I don't have to remind myself to do that. I've been selling since I was three years old, right. Nobody taught me. It was in my blood from day one. I just figured it the fuck out and I always had a side hustle and I did many things of somewhat disrepute and many things of grand repute I imagine and I was always making money. Sure, I learned some stuff about selling over the years. I learned some things about some things, but mostly I threw out everything I learned because all of the strategies that I use now and really what I'm teaching in Breaktheinternet.com is about getting back to who you are. All the strategies I use, how I show up now, this is the me who was there when I was three years old or five years old or ten years old. This is the me who was inside of me even when I was a really shy, awkward, super geeky, nerdy kid, that me was still there and would come out on the right occasion, right, and particularly when there was a hustle to be had or a creative endeavour to be dived into. Nobody needed to tell me, nobody needed to show me and I didn't need a rule book or to follow rules, it Just fucking happened the same way that it is now. You know, I jumped on this live and I was like, I'm not sure where this will go. I feel like it will be quite a quiet live and it's getting a little rowdy as it is. It doesn't really matter, but the point is, I did start to say this earlier and of course I lost it, I was saying why I jumped on this live was not, again, not to do a live stream, not to make a sale, not to even impart my glorious pearls of wisdom to you. It was because I was thinking about, am I going to spend the next two or three hours sitting down ... Is my cheek getting licorice puffy? Does my cheek look blown up like a squirrel's been in there with its nuts? That sounds bad. Is my cheek puffy as though I am a squirrel and I've been storing nuts in it or am I imagining it? That's how it looks to me. I jumped on the live because I was thinking about spending the next three hours doing, you know, being a mom and playing with the kids and I just knew that I'd feel a little like I hadn't let out what's inside of me if I did that and I thought I would do a quick 20 minute live stream and then I'm gong to feel good because I enjoy doing that and I like to let my message out and then I'm going to feel ready to relax and unwind and be with my children and go through all that and enjoy that time and space. Then, you know, as it happens, I found my flow, we're talking about some things. I'm sure it's impacting somebody in some way and maybe even someone's going to join Breaktheinternet.com, right, and that is a bonus and an outcome of me doing the damn work of being me. What does it mean for you to do the damn work of being you? Does it mean stepping up into different areas in your business in a practical sense or does it simply mean honouring what you need? I stood right there in my bathroom ... Visual to prove that there really is a bathroom there. There it is. It's real. It's got a huge bath. If it's daytime, if you're in that bath you can look out that window there and you'll see the entire fucking ocean, both of those windows there. There's all those books with Russell Brand's book over there. Best view ever when I wake up in the morning in my bedroom. I stood in the bathroom and my face was shiny, so then I was like, oh I'll put some powder on and do a live stream, but I was like, maybe I won't. I nearly went back downstairs. I'd already tod Fina I'm going to do a live stream. I was like, I don't need to, maybe I won't. I thought maybe I would just go chill with the kids and then I was like, no, because I can just feel that desire and that need to unleash something and that's who I am. When I'm being all of me, when I'm doing the damn work of being who I am, I'm letting out what's inside. You know, there's some many points through the day for each of us and I let many of them slip away because maybe I'm driving or I'm at the gym or whatever, but there's so many points for each of us through the day where you have a download, you have something pulling at you. I didn't even have really a download of being fired up about talking. I had a title, but I didn't have a fired up energy about all these things I wanted to say, but I had a pulling at me to share something, to say something, to just turn the camera on, to press go live and to just do my damn thing, right. There's many times for each of us through the day where you have an inspired idea or a little flicker of, oh this would be a post, and then you let it go. I think sometimes that's fine. You know, maybe you are fucking driving, you don't have to pull over every time you have an idea and do a live stream, but maybe sometimes you do, right. I swear to God, this cheek has gone puffy as fuck. All right, I'm trying not to get distracted by it. Maybe sometimes you do. Maybe sometimes now you could start to get more into a process of saying yes when you're being guided to take action from within. I could have said no to myself on Sunday. I could have said, it's already 3:00 PM, I'm supposed to be meeting my friend at 5:00. There's a fucking sunset that we're supposed to watch so you don't want to get there too long after 5:00, right. I was conscious of the time and I was grumpy and a bit tired. I could have said to myself, no look it's not a big deal, I'll journal in the morning, but something within me was like, sit your ass down and deal with what you're feeling shitty about inside of yourself right now and so I went and did it. Blog came out, fucking programme download came out. My entire energy state just shifted and changed in that moment. I'd been writing on a super flow wave, you know, like nothing else ever since and everybody's seen and felt it and jumped on board as well and that is what happens when you say yes to you. When you think about it, when I look back, all of these moments, so many moments in my business story, so many programmes, so many things that have made a serious fuck load of money, if I look back to where that came from, the things that have made the most money with the greatest ease and had the greatest impact into other people's lives, they 100% came from me saying yes to flow into my soul. In fact, I've never had an insanely successful programme that made me a lot of money, that came from a place of me sitting down and asking myself, what should I come up with to sell and make money? All right, so stop doing that shit. It's a waste of fucking time and it's draining. It all came from me responding to something inside of me, so you can see that in a very real sense, I wouldn't have this business and you wouldn't even be here, none of us would be here on this live stream or maybe in this world at all, right, because I created the world after all. The world I live in, I don't mean I'm God. This business wouldn't be here though if I hadn't of built a habit of saying yes to my soul. I thought that I was going to get on here and talk about doing the damn work of being all of you, relevant to, I guess, being more charged or fired up or magnetic or whatever online. I guess that is kind of what I've talked about, but it's come out in a different way, because here's the deal right, when you're saying yes to you, when you're doing what you need to do for you, the outcome will automatically be that the right soul mate people are magnetically attracted to that. If this is something that's speaking with you ... I'm going to read you my sales copy now because I like to read. It's time to get angry with yourself for being so restrained, so held back, so shockingly and appallingly and awfully careful. Don't you remember who you are? I should have scripted this so I remembered it. Didn't you come here to break the God damn internet and not with your ass, although if you aren't sure, why not. Don't you want to let what's inside of you out and aren't you sick of it eating you alive? That's how I feel when I'm not letting it out. I feel disgusted at myself. I think I'm going to re watch my own live stream from Sunday in order to just kick my own ass again, because I was just like, this is vile. It's a disgusting feeling when we are not being all of who we are. Okay, I'm just ad lipping on the sales ... Ad libbing, not ad lipping, on the sales copy. It's disgusting, it's nauseating and it's killing you, not so damn softly either. Well guess what? I see you. Yes I do. I've done the exact same thing. I already told that story. What you think I'm just being an asshole on the internet and yelling at everybody? Well, somebody did because then she re posted a bit of blog the next day and said I was a violent leader. All right, anyway, not one of our people. You know that my message is always first and foremost for me and today I came here to call to arms, all of us, to call to war, to call to fucking soul aligned bad assery, the women, the men, the you who was born for it and ready to fucking bring it. Breaktheinternet.com. No, there's no URL, I just like how it sounds. A 10 day smack down experience, you and me all the way in. Okay, all week long I've been saying that it's a 10 day intensive experience and I just read in my own copy that it's a smack down, so that sounds more aggressive than in intensive, so it's going to be even more brought than what we thought we were going to bring. Strictly limited to certified crazy critters who refuse to conform and know that they just can't refuse. I feel like something is missing. All right, no need to edit. For you if you strongly suspect that there is a way to do business and life which does not fucking involve doing what they tell you and that not so deep down you are quite certain that the way you're pussy footing around the internet, be honest biatch, and your life right now is never going to get you to the place you dream of. Not to mention it might kill you or somebody else with how freaking boring it is and then what sort of sabotage are you going to get into because you're so bored with your life. I haven't done anything this intensive and did, this is true, at this sort of price point for literally years. I'm ready to tear shit up and I've already started in the group. How bad ass is the Facebook group already for this programme? It's out of control with madness. I want the exact actual bad asses that are born of it here with me. All the ... Oh. Do you like how I just broke the fucking internet reading about Break the Internet. I think Mark Zuckerberg is messing with me. What was I up to? All right, I want the exact actual bad asses born for it here with me. Can't freaking pre prepare that shit. That was crazy. You'll be receiving daily deep dive content from me, in fact you're receiving it before you even start. You could wait like a crazy person til tomorrow to join up at the last minute and then you're going to be hustling your ass off to do the pre-work at the last minute when we're already starting the actual 10 day work. I mean, you're going to get it all to keep for life anyhow, but why would you do that? Why? Be a person who says yes to their soul fast. It's not just about saying yes to your soul, it's about learning to say yes to your soul fast. The faster you get used to saying yes to your soul fast ... Say fast more often. The more you do it without hesitation, the higher the results. That's a real thing, right. It's actually the same as what my mom used to teach me and what church used to teach me about getting into heaven, right. If you live in faith and commit your life, this is what I learned growing up, then you get in with pearls and gold and shit, but if you wait til the last minute before you accidentally die to ask for forgiveness, then you get in, as they call it, by the skin of their teeth. Well, however you might feel about that, that's the same thing with saying yes to your soul, for sure. If you drag it the fuck out and then say yes to your soul eventually ... Look at that bloody nail ... Then you're going to get some results but you missed out on a lot of the gold and glory and the flow zone things. That's true and if you get used to saying yes to your soul right away, that's where true abundance and receiving with ease ... Just broke again. What a MOFO. Okay, so anyway, don't wait to sign up, particularly because I might not be able to finish reading all of this and then you'll know nothing about anything except it is in the comments, so the link is in there to buy, to join me. Join me, join me, join me. Daily deep dive content, that's what I was up to. Insane shit going down. Daily ass kicking and alignment smack downs, of course. Precise instructions on how to reach into your soul and show us what is actually there. It could be scary. Okay, there's a lot I'm going to read here. As the result of this you will break the fucking internet with your true soul content. I'm going to read it fast. Are you ready for this? I could read it in an accent or I could read fast, you choose. Call in your soul tribe by demonstrating with fire and passion what you actually stand for and against. Polarise like a mother fucker and no doubt lose some people. Number four, probably lose weight and have insane sleep and sex because you'll be so in alignment and fired up. Warn the appropriate people for the latter, I'm not kidding. That's for the sex bit. Number five make new friends and met killer clients in this intensive and for collusion's of no doubt questionably epic levels. Number six, create and launch minimum one new offering, the kind that leaves people on the edges of their seat saying, "Fuck me please.' I don't think I thought about that when I wrote it. I've never re read this copy until right now. I didn't mean ... I didn't mean that they're going to be saying, "Fuck me please.' I meant that they're going to say, "Fuck me, please." Like, fuck me, that's amazing. Please give it to me, but when I read my own copy now it looks like I'm promoting that they're going to be saying to you, "Fuck me please." Like I said, I never re read the copy until now. It is what it is and that's all it is. Tear down a tonne of limiting beliefs, not to mention bullshit in your bis that you thought fucking mattered. I wonder why none of my team told me about that? They're just like whatever, that's probably something she should say. Learn how to leverage social media like a mother fucker. Where to post your shit and what to do with it. How to leverage, repurpose, get insane engagement and more. How I copyright with ease and flow. I'm still like, my mind is a little bit blown that nobody's commented on that to me all week. How I copyright with ease and flow, without re editing anything. It obviously still works. Oh my God, I'm cracking up at myself because now it says that I'm going to teach you how to do it with almost zero mistakes or edits required. Well almost is almost, okay. To make millions of dollars per year. Well that's a given. Including a paint by numbers formula which any monkey can follow and then promptly discard, of course. Why would you want to follow a paint by numbers monkey formula, but you can have it if you like and then you can toss it out the window like a cake. Promptly discard when your soul delivers the goods. I don't know if you noticed, but I just did an automatic bicep flex there. It's a little embarrassing so I'm going to draw attention to it in case you noticed and thought that I'm ... I don't know, whatever you thought, but now I've pointed it out so you can think whatever else you want to think. Okay, there's three more points. How to access your highest soul guidance on any situation and always know what to do. Of course. Exactly how I do my instant manifestation and mindset work each day. That might be my favourite bit, one of them. Every bit is my favourite, they're all my favourite bits. A fuck load more, which will no doubt come through me as we go. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Pre-work starts Tuesday. That already happened. Where are you? That's on. Pre-work's already on and the programme, Breaktheinternet.com starts Friday, May 25. Enough is enough. It's time to do what you God damn here to do. All the way in or all the way out and then there's an infusion self link. There's no sales page. I know you're going to need to write a letter. You're going to need to have a cup of tea. Maybe have some licorice bullets to soothe you. Have some wine. There's no sales page. You're going to deal with or not deal with it, whatever it is. Then get added to the closed Facebook group right away before we even start. If you sign up now I will add you. I will be online for many hours still. Linda Doktar is somewhere in my home. She may or may not be home right now, I don't know, but she's appearing and we will be up late. #Shenanigans. That to do with Linda but it's also right here in the sales copy. Normally there'd be a proper sales page and shit, but normally I don't go behind my team's back on a Sunday afternoon to randomly launch something. Normally, wait, we don't fucking do normal. I'll see you inside. Booyah. That the whole sales copy. Now I read it aloud for you and also found a few minor, could be errors, but clearly it's worked for me all week long, so I'll just leave it as it is. That might be all that I have to say about that. Thank you for coming and playing with me. Is there anything else that I want to tell you? Let me tune in. Let me consider. No. Nothing else is coming through me. I'm very excited to share the new pre-work into the group. I'm extra, extra, next level as fuck excited, level as fuck excited for what's coming over the next 10 days. This is a soul download. It's not a light, airy, breezy, beautiful, floaty, cover girl type energy. I don't know what that means, words Just come out of my mouth, and it's not that though. It's an intense energy, the work that we're doing here, as you can feel. It's an aggressive energy, it's a soul unleashing ... All right, I think obviously Facebook ended the live stream for me. That was all I had to say, except for, life is now, press fucking play. Read the pinned comment, get your ass in there. I'll see you there on the other side.

  In this episode, Mike Ganino joins Lisa to answer the question: How can team culture be shaped by strengths? Have You Downloaded Your Strengths Tools? One of the best ways leaders can build a strengths-based culture is to offer an appreciation of strengths in action. If you’ll notice what works, you’ll get more of what works because people can replicate what they’ve already done well. Get started by downloading this awesome tool that offers you 127 Easy Ways to Recognize Strengths on your team. How Can Team Culture Be Shaped By Strengths? 055-how-can-team-culture-be-shaped-by-strengths If It Is So Important For Managers To Build Culture, Why Can I Only Find Articles About Offering Stand Up Desks And Pinball Machines - Perks That Hr Offers? Ohhhhh, culture, we love to talk about it, write about it, read about it, and even watch the 2,000,000 videos on Youtube about it. We love to blame it, leverage it, and try to change it. We spend billions of dollars and a whole bunch of hours on employee engagement and culture improvement initiatives to try to improve it and yet we keep coming up empty. Is it really all about office fun slides, cold brew coffee on tap, and nap rooms? Do the rest of us have a chance at dipping into the power of culture without the budget of a tech giant who seems to print their own cash? If you're only managing a project, a team or a division in a bigger organization, do you have any chance of fixing things if the culture and the wider organization isn't promoting the kind of vibe you're looking for? Before I answer all of those questions, let's get clear on exactly what culture is and what it isn't. Does The Physical Environment Create Culture? So culture is not about the stated values written in the handbook or hanging on a wall somewhere. It's not about the mission that adorns the company website or the funky design of the open office floor plan. It's not even about how often you get together for happy hours. It isn't about making everyone happy all the time or being a pet-friendly workplace. Yeah, I get it. I love the idea of an office full of cuddly little Corgis as much as the next guy, but I know it won't help improve the business or the working conditions for the team. It's possible to have a great culture even when the perks are best in class. Yes, even when there aren't fancy modern Norwegian looking desks all around. Manufacturing plants and ships in the ocean and military bases can have great cultures. Sorry to break it to all those fun committees out there, but we don't need another group picnic to have a great culture. Now I'm not saying that all of those things aren't useful and aren't helpful. I mean, the point of them should be in getting people to connect with each other. So if you are one of these fun committee folks out there, don't despair — but I do want you to change your objectives a little bit. Instead of getting people to sign up to go have fun together outside of work, make sure that the events are helping people build relationships — helping them connect with people they don't normally talk to — because if we all go to happy hour and we all just talk to the normal people we talk to, it isn't improving your culture. So if you are doing fun stuff, make sure you're getting the best out of it by making sure that you're encouraging people to talk to people they don't normally interact with. Culture = The Existing Beliefs On The Team OK, back to the topic at hand. See, culture is actually the collection of beliefs on your team and don't worry, I'm not going to go all hippy dippy here and ask you to start meditating or saying namaste day to each other. But culture is still the beliefs that your team has about what it's like to work there. The beliefs they about leadership, about what matters. It's the beliefs about how they act, how they work, how they build relationships. Those shape the way we treat each other. If I were to meet you and I thought, hey, this is someone pretty awesome. If my belief about you was that you were a good person and I thought I wanted to get to know you, I would act a certain way. If my belief about you was that you were out to get me or that you were somebody who was ... you know, not so fun to be around, then I would treat you a different way. To Get More Practical, Think Of The Beliefs As Stories Or Examples That Get Passed Around I like to think of those beliefs as stories. The stories we tell at work, the stories we tell ourselves (and sometimes we tell each other at work) are our beliefs. They impact the way we choose to act, the way we choose to work and the relationships we commit to at work. The stories that we tell each other become the culture of the company. Every company has stories that are unspoken expectations about things like: The way things get done When it’s a good idea to speak up (or stay quiet) What kind of people and behaviors wins or lose (and how the game of work is played) That becomes your culture. The stories your employees tell is where your culture lives. Think of what they say. What is their story about their first day at work or their first week? What are their beliefs about performance reviews? What are their beliefs about speaking up in meetings and contributing their best ideas to projects? Do you know what they're telling each other? Do you know what you're telling your new hires or even what they’re telling themselves? Because all of those things are being played out. When it comes time to sit down in a meeting and contribute, when it comes to showing up for a performance conversation and saying, "I'm invested in this because this is about making me better." All of those stories are ultimately what shape and drive your culture. Now, I'm not saying that you need to just basically go and create a whole new world of storytelling at work. There are a lot of storytelling folks out there who focus on brand and marketing storytelling, which is really about controlling the narrative. No, no. Is It Effective To Try To Guide Or Control The Stories That Get Passed Around? I'm not telling you to control your culture or control your narrative. In fact, I don't think you can. What I'm saying is, as a leader, as a manager, as somebody who wants to make a difference, you have the power and the ability to fuel a different kind of story, and when you fuel that different kind of story, you create a different set of beliefs which creates a different set of actions from your team and those sorts of actions. You probably guessed it. Those create your culture. The way we decide how to show up every day is the culture and some of that is based on how we see leaders responding. A lot of it is based on what the expectations are every day. So what do you do if you're a leader and you say, "Hey, I want to start thinking about culture in a different way. But we can't get the insurance to do a slip and slide through the grass in the grassy area outside of the office.” Well, you don't need to do any of that and in fact I wouldn't recommend it. It sounds weird and creepy, but what you can do is start to source the stories that your team is telling. How often do you ask and listen to and document what's really going on with them outside of an annual employee engagement survey? How often do you look for the common variables and the stories they tell? Are you collecting long form survey data more than just a score on a piece of paper? Are you asking questions like, "What do you believe leadership cares about here? What do you think matters most? Or how do you think people get ahead in this organization?" Uncover The Stories That Highlight What You Already Do Well As A Team You can use the stories that you hear to start to uncover common trends in your culture. Then I've got a maybe not so surprising thing for you — you'll start to recognize the strengths from your team. You'll start to see what your culture is strong at. You'll start to see what your leaders are strong at and I'd imagine that those start to look like things that you would have found in a StrengthsFinder assessment. You'll start to see ideas and words resonating. If your team is all about taking action, you're going to notice that your team is all about moving forward and not stopping to consider lots of options. You're going to see that and you're going to recognize that as one of the strengths that people have. What's interesting is that you can also use those to start to develop a clearer story for your culture. Once you understand what the strengths of your team and the strengths of your culture are, then you can start to get specific about telling more stories like that. You can start to use that in the way that you interview people and the way that you talk to people. Leveraging your strengths gives you a really interesting opportunity to create a new kind of culture. So let's go back to culture for just a minute. If You Work For A Large Company, Create A Culture Pocket When you think about culture, a lot of times what happens is that we think of this big, big culture of the entire organization. That might be true if you're working for a small company where there's only 20 of you. Then yes, the culture of the team is probably the culture of the company and I would argue that the culture of a 20-employee team probably matches up pretty closely with how the leader believes and the stories the leader creates. As a company gets bigger and bigger and you start to go into national and global territory with the hundreds or thousands of employees. You start to see that cultures gets pocketed almost. There's a chapter in the book where I talk about cultural pockets and I show how even in a huge organization there are all of these little cultures that exist. You have the ability to create a culture pocket for the way that your team interacts. You don't have to worry about having perks and happy hours and food trucks outside of your office every day in order to get top talent and be known as a great place to work. You know, Lisa always says that differences are differentiators and I can't agree more when it comes to culture. Notice What Already Works - What Already Attracts People To Your Team If you start to use the stories and the strengths of your team, you'll start to see the differences on your team. You know, Apple is a very different place to work than Google. Both are interesting companies creating cool new products and services, but it feels very different to work there. They both have cool offices and perks and benefits, but it feels different to work there. The digital component of Disney feels very different than working at Netflix. Why? Because of culture. At the end of the day, the three weeks of vacation, the ping pong tables, the catered lunches — those don't necessarily drive the experience with each other. These perks don't change the relationships or the stories that we have about our coworkers, our manager, or the work we do. These perks are easy to copy and if all that it took to build a great culture was having the perks, then everyone could do it. By leveraging your strengths to tell new kinds of stories about your team and the way you work, you can start to find the thread of your culture and then you can leverage it, communicate it and double down on it so that you can get the kind of people on your team who can help it grow. Whether you're a team of 10 or you're a company of thousands, leveraging those parts of your strengths to create new stories will drive your culture. Don’t Worry - You Don’t Have To Create A Circus Of Entertainment At The Office Look, you don't have to treat people like preschoolers who need to be tickled, entertained, and fed every hour to have a great culture. It's about diving in, listening to the stories, promoting those stories, and creating new ones. As a leader, your job is to create the culture on your team that creates the kinds of stories based on the strengths of your team and the group. So go out there and start thinking about culture in a new way. You don't need 5 tips, 7 Hacks, 9 habits — you don't need any of that. What you need to do is start listening to the stories and changing the way your team works. Get More Culture Learning From Mike Watch the video training on how to uncover cultural stories that highlight your strengths Company Culture for Dummies - Book by Mike Ganino Chat with Mike on Twitter about his Corgi, living in LA, or … oh yeah, team culture. Enjoyed The Podcast? To subscribe and review, here are your links for listening in iTunes and Stitcher Radio. You can also stream any episode right from this website. Subscribing is a great way to never miss an episode. Let the app notify you each week when the latest episode gets published.

E ae!Welcome to Deep Space Podcast! Thanks for listening.Yes! Finally, the week250 is arrived! And it couldn't be otherwise: vinyl only, music handpicked from classics of the podcast to new tunes, recorded live precisely to celebrate together with my brothers in music Edu Monagatti and Daniel Corvello at their amazing party 'SuperminiClub' in the last Sunday, September 17th 2017, on the MAJOR Bar, located in Suzano, São Paulo, Brasil.We had great times together with another good friends, with Edu warming up that sunny afternoon. Then I've started this set that you'll listen today. And last but not least, Daniel has closed the party greatly with an excellent 2 hours mix.Many thanks to Monagatti and Daniel for inviting me and I hope you guys enjoy this show!And I'm looking forward for the next shows that gonna be a very special season of 2 hours episodes featuring excellent guestmixes in the 2nd hour!Enjoy the week250!--Playlist:Artist - Track Name - [Label]2 hours special show recorded live at SuperminiClub - 17/09/20171) Jerry Granelli - Shih - A Gathering Of The Energy (From Sun Tzu) - [Divorce]2) Nana Vasconcelos - O Berimbau - [ECM]3) Sad City - Steady Jam - [Meda Fury]4) Sonzeira Feat. Emanuelle Araújo - Southern Freeez (Dub) - [Brownswood]5) Gamayun - Outlands - [Udacha]6) Kuniyuki - A Night In SA - [Freerange]7) Dices presents Untitled Gear - Nothing Is Over - [Fields & Forests]8) DJ Nature - Why Not? - [Jazzy Sport]9) Quarion - IO - [Retreat]10) Andy Vaz - Bicycle Love (Damon Lamar's Lower Wacker Drive Mix) - [Yore]11) Hidden Spheres - IshOnSax - [Lobster Theremin]12) Chord Memory Band - Donostia - [Beats Of No Nation]13) DJ Central - Basil (Version Intégrale Club) - [Help]14) Booshank - Single Dutch - [Unthank]15) Roman Flügel - Cookie Dust - [Live At Robert Johnson]16) A Sagittariun - Carina - [Elastic Dreams]17) Chasindub - Still Here - [Phonogramme]18) Sven Weisemann - Interlace Jitter - [Mojuba]19) Nocow - Inache - [Gost Zvuk]20) Andre Lodemann - Flying - [Moods & Grooves]21) Dave DK - Will Be Gone - [Moodmusic]22) Gegenheimer & Jenius - IPS - [Moodmusic]23) Jordan - Meanwhile In Ridgewood - [Ornate Music]24) Juan Atkins & Moritz von Oswald present Borderland - Riod - [Tresor]25) Benedikt Frey & Jonas.San - Girl From Venus - [Batti Batti]26) NapiHedz - Jah Bless - [Prime Numbers]27) Dices + AEM Rhythm Cascade - Pacific - [12th Isle]28) Max D - A Billion Drops In Space - [Future Times]

Tyler Jorgenson: Ladies and gentlemen I want to welcome everybody out to BizNinja Radio. We have a really cool guest today. We have James Lawrence the Iron Cowboy. James Lawrence: What's up? Tyler Jorgenson: James, so a lot of people, some people have heard about you because you've got a big following and some people haven't. James Lawrence: Most have not. Tyler Jorgenson: Not enough, I'll tell you what not enough people have heard of you. As I've gotten to know you a little bit recently when I mentioned it I say have you heard of the Iron Cowboy, people kind of look up and think and I'm like he did like fifty Iron man triathlons, and then everyone starts nodding like oh yeah I've heard of the guy. But even before you did that, I'm gonna ask you more about that in a second, you set some world records. What were some of those first big things that you did that kinda of started getting you publicity. James Lawrence: Can we hang on let me tell them what I'm doing then and then we can edit this out. Tyler Jorgenson: Okay. All right so what was the first thing that you did that got you some notoriety? James Lawrence: I think the first think I did was I did a four mile fun run and my wife told me I was pathetic and so that got me some notoriety and some laughs at Thanksgiving. Reality is that kind of kick started my journey and put me on a path that I would have never expected. In 2010 I broke a world record for the most half iron mans done in a single year and that was twenty two events in thirty weeks. Which was just for me personally it was just training grounds for what I really wanted to accomplish was thirty full official iron mans in one calendar year, and I did thirty events through eleven countries. I learned a lot about the sport, I learned a lot about myself, I learned a lot about the tri community. The great news is I accomplished that and it was awesome but it left me with incredibly empty feeling of I can do more I wanna push myself, I wanna learn, I wanna grow, I wanna challenge myself. That ultimately led me to the fifty, the iron mans fifty days fifty states campaign and that happened in 2015. Tyler Jorgenson: Not necessarily a natural born you know freak of nature athlete your wife as you come out in a fun run and your second wind it didn't impress her. James Lawrence: To say the least. Tyler Jorgenson: Yeah, so in order to keep her impressed or get her happy again and impressed by James, you know what I'm gonna start doing triathlons. James Lawrence: It was interesting, what she did was she signed me up for a marathon and she said you know what your performance was so pathetic in the fur miler I'm gonna make you do a marathon, so she did that. It to was an awful experience but those are the experiences where we grow the most [crosstalk 00:02:58] and possibly look inward for answers and you know I like to say that I wasn't gonna allow that moment to define me or defeat me because it was humiliating at best and so I did I looked inward and I found the sport of triathlon. You could say I jumped in with two feet and just found it, a new passion that I never knew existed. Tyler Jorgenson: You start to, you go fun run, marathon and then when was your first triathlon? James Lawrence: It would have been in 2005. Tyler Jorgenson: Out of curiosity were you decent as a competitive triathlete or were you more, you know when you're doing fifty fifty fifty that was more not competitive speeds right you're going for more completing it at that point right? Did you get to where you're pretty decent in terms of finishing speed? James Lawrence: Yeah absolutely. I've been doing this sport for a decade, realized I had some natural talent when I came to cycling. I had to teach myself to swim and I got pretty good at running as well and you put the three together and it's triathlon. Tyler Jorgenson: Right. James Lawrence: I started to win races in my local area. I've gone to the half iron man world championships three times, I've completed in Kelona which is iron man world championships, I've won a few full iron distance triathlon events. I'm not the fasted on the block in every event but I love to mix it up I love to do that. Then I've kinda of, I enjoy the adventure now of it. I'm really really busy, I've got five kids and I do a lot of speaking and I do a lot of these adventure type races, so it just takes a certain sacrifice and commitment to be able to race at a high level for a really long time. I'm not willing to put in that work in order to do that, I'm more in the enjoyment phase of it. I did race for really competitively for a long time, it's just a different mental kind of grind, a different type of training, and I did that and I had a lot of success doing it and I really loved it. I loved the glory days of being fast, and I'm still fast, I'm still competitive in my age group and I still love to mix it up, I'm super competitive. But like we're gonna talk about it a little bit later I hope, but I'm doing some really fun adventures this year that I'm more excited about then ever, over trying to best the next guy in my age group. Tyler Jorgenson: I think what it sounds like you're saying is that it gets to a point where winning is fun and winning is great if that's your goal, but it sometimes, cliché in hand, the joy is in the journey right? James Lawrence: Absolutely. Tyler Jorgenson: I love that you are doing a lot of cool adventures and you include your family a lot in a lot of this which is really neat. James Lawrence: Yeah a lot of people hear what I do and they just assume that dude is rich and single. Tyler Jorgenson: Right. James Lawrence: And I'm not I've got five kids, you know we had five kids in six and a half years. Right now their ages eight to fourteen or eight to thirteen and it's just a crazy time, we're just busy but we do, we include them in a lot of that, we do, we encourage them to be active in whatever they like to do, I don't make them do triathlon. Tyler Jorgenson: Right. James Lawrence: My oldest daughter does volleyball and I was at the tournament all afternoon today. My second daughter does gymnastics, my third daughter does basketball and my son does gymnastics, and my other girl just likes to float around like a fairy and a unicorn. Tyler Jorgenson: But they'll all find their path and their thing. James Lawrence: Absolutely. Tyler Jorgenson: We're really similar with our four kids is whatever they want to do as long as their being active. James Lawrence: Right, yup. Tyler Jorgenson: Let's, I think we have to talk a little bit about the fifty fifty fifty because it's a ridiculous like feat. James Lawrence: Maybe we should tell people that possibly don't know what an iron man actually is. Tyler Jorgenson: That's a great way to do it and then we'll explain how you stack them together, so let's do that. James Lawrence: So an iron man distance triathlon any triathlon is swim bike run and an iron distance is the longest standard of the family. It's a two point four mile swim, followed by a hundred and twelve mile bike ride, and then once you get off your bike you run the standard marathon which is twenty six point two miles, so all of those put together it's a hundred and forty point six miles that you have to cover by yourself, your own grit and your own will. Tyler Jorgenson: How long does that typical take, maybe not the fasted guy but the competitive iron man athlete. James Lawrence: Yeah so your fasted guy does do it in about eight hours. That's your top tier professionals the peak of their career. Then you have a seventeen hour time limit. Your competitive men are gonna be coming anywhere in between nine and eleven hours, and then your competitive women anywhere between ten and twelve. The professional women are dipping into the low nine hours, which is awesome. As you evolve in the sport guys are like k I wanna finfish an iron man, okay I wanna break twelve hours, I wanna break eleven hours, I wanna break ten hours. Those are kinda your bench marks. Tyler Jorgenson: Some listeners maybe thinking, okay I did thirty minutes on the treadmill the other day. James Lawrence: Yup. Tyler Jorgenson: But their talking about moving consistently for eight to seventeen hours. James Lawrence: Yeah, exactly. Tyler Jorgenson: And so. James Lawrence: It's no joke it takes most athletes or individuals that have a desire to do a bucket list iron man, I mean it takes a good year possibly two years of prep. Tyler Jorgenson: They prep for it and then they go out and a lot of them like you said their first goal's just to finish that means close to fifteen, sixteen, seventeen hours of work. James Lawrence: Yeah, I think anybody's goal, like we run a coaching team and when I have an athlete that's doing an iron man for the first time I'm like dude let's make it to the start line healthy, that's always an accomplishment. Then, it's your first iron man and I tell all my athletes I say look you have one shot at your first iron man and your goal should not be to push an incredible pace, it shouldn't be to try set a land speed record, it's to go out there and be grateful that you get to do an iron man today and you should try to smile your way through the event and thank the volunteers and then have enough energy at the finish line to pump your fist and pound your chest and say that was a good amount of sacrifice and a lot of hard work and I just accomplished something really cool. Then once you do that then we break it down and we start breaking down the events and shooting for time goals and execution goals and things like that. Your first one should be an experience and like we alluded to earlier it truly is about the journey and getting to that start line and then enjoying that moment and that day. Tyler Jorgenson: Awesome. You start, you know, you struggle in the fun run, you start getting into a little bit, you do thirty events in a year, which is already amazing, but you said it left you empty and so you went for, let's first talk about why you felt empty after setting a world record that's recognized by the Guinness Book, and then you did, what is the fifty fifty fifty? James Lawrence: I've always said I wanna find my mental and physical limits and then I wanna know what I'm gonna do when I reach that limit. Whether I'm gonna push through that and accomplish more or if I'm gonna you know say hang my hat that's good I've found my limit. You know with all of these we do a charitable aspect to it, a fundraising campaign and in 2010 and 12 we were building dams for Africa. I didn't hit the fundraising mark that I wanted to do and so there was an empty feeling about the charitable donations, there was an empty feeling about my physical and mental limits. I just had the sinking feeling that there was more, that I wasn't, I haven't reached my potential in fundraising and pushing myself myself to my satisfaction. It's interesting 'cause it was right near the end of the campaign in 2012 I had completed twenty seven of the thirty and I just looked over at my wife and I'm like I just asked her a question I was like I don't think this is it do you think this is it. Her answer was not right now, so I kinda bided my time but I knew there was more and I conceptualized the fifty fifty fifty which was fifty consecutive iron mans, fifty states so that would take us fifty days. Fifty iron mans, fifty days, fifty states. Tyler Jorgenson: Just to kind of do some math 1) you're talking about traveling the entire country, so there's travel time. You're talking about the average iron man taking, you know someone whose done what they're doing probably twelve to fourteen hours, I'm curious how long were those taking you? James Lawrence: Yeah it's interesting, I ended up having to average twelve to fourteen hours every single day for fifty consecutive days in order to keep pace, in order to give us enough time to get to the next state. There's so many, If I can humbly say this is one of the greatest endurance feats that no body knows about yet, just because there was the massive logistic component to it, there was the physical component to it, there was the mental component to it, there was the fundraising component to it, there was the family aspect to it. There was just so many things and people, it's interesting 'cause we wrote a book that I'm incredibly excited about because people know the story because they, well people think they know the story because they know oh yeah the iron cowboy fifty iron mans, fifty days, fifty states, but that is just the headliner, you know, because there's so much that went that took for us to accomplish that and the blood, the sweat, the tears, the sacrifice, the emotions, the stories the people we met along the way. What's really interesting, I love the way that we wrote the book is it's some what of an autobiography and a journey because we flashed back to my past and my journey on how I got to this point. It's actually really really cool because not only does it kinda paint the whole picture of what we went through on the fifty but it gives people an opportunity to get to know me and my family a little bit better and what it took and what makes us tick to be able to even conceptualize this and think that it was possible to go beyond what everybody said was impossible. Tyler Jorgenson: Yeah, so, not only, so this is crazy right you achieved this thing that I think most people, I've watched your documentary, even a lot of your sponsors didn't think it was gonna happen. James Lawrence: Yeah. Tyler Jorgenson: You know, when it got started most of them were thinking hey this is great we like James we'll support him but really like is this, this isn't possible, is what I think they were down deep if they were honest with us all. There were some comments on that made. James Lawrence: You know, not even down deep they would think that, on the surface they told me that. They said dude we love you we've loved being involved in your whole journey, we're not gonna tell you how many we think you're gonna make but the number's not fifty, but we'll get behind what you're doing. It was really really cool for my journey to not only watch the sponsor but the forms and the message boards to watch that energy shift from you're a moron you can't do this, you're being reckless, to holy crap maybe he will, to becoming supporters and advocates for what I was doing. It just, it was a really humbling experience for me to go through that experience and be the center and watching that happen was a really neat experience. It was a really hard experience because we took a lot of shots for what we were doing and how we did it. I just have to realize that we made the best decisions that what we thought at that time and I stand by them a hundred percent 'cause the journey wouldn't be what it was without them. One of the biggest takeaways and things that I've learned is you can't, don't ever judge anybody 'cause we don't know their circumstances what it feels like to be them going through what they're going through in that moment. That was such an incredible lesson for me to be able to go through life and have experiences and look at people and go you know what I really don't know the full back story here, I don't know the emotion, I can't feel what he's feeling right now. So it's helped me not to be so quick to judge and criticize and to really appreciate and just have a better understanding of other people and what they're going through and what they're trying to accomplish. Tyler Jorgenson: Yeah, I think, I was actually gonna move right into that question, kind of like how do you handle, like the haters right? The more popular they get, and it's just the bottom line the more you are, the more awareness and the more reach that you have the more influence you have by very nature of how humans work people start picking sides and at every age people deal with it at a different way. Like I first learned it in high shool, like okay when you start like excelling in certain things in high school people pick sides. It probably goes all the way to preschool, but the bottom line is it happens no matter what point of human but the bigger you get the bigger of a you know you have in your reach and your influence the stronger that polarity gets, especially when you start doing unique and big things right. When you started you already split up the community with haters likers and [inaudible 00:17:17] you guys made some judgment calls that further polarized that audience. James Lawrence: Yeah, and you know I love the way you just put it and how back it starts and the division and what not. I heard it put really brilliantly the other day and I'm gonna butcher it and I'll do the best I can. Basically it said, the way that I look at it is for every one hater, negative person that I get I have ninety nine others that are advocate supporter and I'm having an impact on them and everything. What this individual said was you have a hater that's amazing go get ten more because that means now you have nine hundred and ninety people that you're influencing for good, and once you have ten haters go get ten more, get as many haters as you can because for me the balance of haters to people that I'm having a positive impact on is such a favored in the positive side that the more haters and what not that I get I love it and thrive on that because that means that's the bigger, the other part of the equation is bigger and more successful, and I'm having the impact that I want. Every time I get a message or a comment or something that is negative or is someone attacking me I sit down for a send and it sucks and it hurts but then I realize that person's coming from a position of hatred and jealousy and then that means I'm also having a positive impact on the other side. It stings and it hurts and I hate it because I'm human and I have feelings and emotions but then once  I actually dissect it and realize the magnitude of the opposite side of that coin and like I take a deep breath and I'm like okay dig deeper, grind let's go get some more haters. Tyler Jorgenson: Absolutely, and yeah you know we sometimes use the term polarity which would imply that it's an equal balance but I think you're right I think that usually you have the people that are the fans are usually, frankly not as vocal. Sometimes they're just enjoying the moment right? The negative people just enjoy being loud. I got a weird email the other day that was basically just like hey I was on one of your websites and there was a popup ad I didn't like that, no need to respond I just wanted to let you know. I'm like awesome, I love that you don't even need to tell me, you don't even need to respond back, I'm sorry you didn't like the website experience, my website, just don't come to it anymore. James Lawrence: That's similar experience, I'll have someone that'll just attack me in some way and I'm like dude let me direct you to the unfollow button. That is a complete choice, you're choosing to follow me, I'm not begging you to follow me. You're a click away from me disappearing from your life. Tyler Jorgenson: That's it. That's it. James Lawrence: It's that easy. I'm not begging you. Tyler Jorgenson: Yeah, stand up just walk away from the computer. James Lawrence: Yeah it's easy. Tyler Jorgenson: The internet is not, yeah exactly, it's not part of your soul it's so funny. James Lawrence: I love it. Tyler Jorgenson: You hit the fifty fifty fifty and you have this book coming out what made you want to turn that story and put it into a book? What made you want to tell the story behind the story? What is it that people are, that you think what is the big take away that you want people to get when they read your book? James Lawrence: I think what's interesting and because of what I've accomplished now, people don't know the backstory they just go dudes a genetic freak, he's disappointed to do this, I can't do that, he's completely unrelatable. As soon as I finished the fifty they're like you need to go get genetically tested you're a freak. I was like okay let's go get tested. The results came back and it was staggeringly overwhelming, I'm white, Canadian and normal, I may be less than normal I don't know, but I started didn't have any type of advantage of any kind. My story really comes from a very like I didn't know how to swim even, I struggled through a four mile fun run that I got up off the couch to do, but people they don't see that side of the story. What I did is I stopped listening to what everybody else was saying and I was like no this is what I'm capable of and this is what I can do and I just blocked all that out and I went on my own journey, I created my own lane. I started to do me and my passion and people don't know the backstory you know to the extent that it is but we lost everything, like half of the Americans did and we were a struggling family. I had an opportunity to hit the reset button and so what I want people to get out of this is really it's totally cliché but wee really can do anything we want to. I believe I proved that, I went above and beyond what anybody said was possible, not because I was genetically gifted but because I went out and I did the work and I didn't expect anything to be handed to me. I went out and I grind and I worked harder than anybody else did in order to accomplish what I did and I created my own future. I hope my story gives the guy that's sitting on the couch, or the mom that's struggling that everybody has their own version of hard and that we have our, everybody, every moment of everyday is making decision and this is something that my mom said many many times when I was growing up and something I'm a huge advocate of is ten percent of life is what happens to us, and ninety percent is the choices and the decisions that we get to make with those things. Ten percent is just it is what it is, it's the crap that life dealt you but you know what we have a choice and a decision with everything that we do. You have to decide nobody's gonna make those decisions for you and no one's gonna do that work for you. You have to and you can go out and create your own future. So I share my journey, my backstory and I hope it gets people moving and engaged. One of the biggest reasons we wrote this was 'cause I started to get emails people saying hey you don't know me but I watched your journey and I just wanted to thank you, this is what I've been able to accomplish because you set that example. Trust me I don't think I'm perfect and I grind and I have challenges, and I struggle, and I fail, but I get back up. I wanted to write this book because not a lot of people know about the story and to me the story has impact both with women and with men. I'm middle America, I've got five kids, I live in a community, I go to church, I am middle America, I had a corporate job. So, my goal with this book is to hopefully impact someone to make a decision to do something different and find their passions again and start living life and creating your own path, but it takes work, conviction, belief, effort, all of those things. I hope my journey helps people to see that realize it and go do it. Tyler Jorgenson: Awesome. I, that was one of the takeaways I really got from your documentary, from watching a lot of your interviews was that everyone has their own hard right. One of the stories that was really touching for me was how your last few races you had challenged your mom, how much of the last few races did she do with you? James Lawrence: Every single day we put on a five K asked the public to come out and join us and we donated all that money to charity to combat childhood obesity. So, I challenged my mom to come do the last five K of the last five races with me. Tyler Jorgenson: Now she, before that she was like super fit and could run marathons right? James Lawrence: No my mom has struggled with obesity her entire life and has never run further than a mile. It was incredibly challenging, in fact after every single five K she did she said that was the hardest thing that she'd ever done but then the following words that came out of her mouth always impressed me and she said can I do it again tomorrow. I think that's the attitude that I want people to have, I want you to go do something and I want you to challenge yourself, and then I want you to realize that you grew as an individual and you learned lessons and that you should desire to put yourself in challenging situations and embrace the struggle because that's how we learn and grow. When my mom said that was the hardest thing I've even done can I do it tomorrow I was like dude yes that's why I love you and that's where I got a lot of my grit and mental toughness from was because of that perspective and that drive. Tyler Jorgenson: That's awesome. You've got the book coming out we'll make sure when this gets posted on podcast we post the link, I believe it's ironcowboybook.com. James Lawrence: Yup. Tyler Jorgenson: Definitely checking that out and tell us about, I mean you're not stopping you're still doing even, you're doing amazing things. You talked about your seven big events this year, what's going on this year, and you're getting ready for one soon right? James Lawrence: Yeah, on Tuesday, yeah I'm super excited about this year and I didn't realize it when I started to plan it that it was gonna be turn out to be this kind of year, but it really has turned out to be an adventure year. On Tuesday, I'm hopping on a plane with my mountain bike and we're heading over to Africa, and we're gonna climb, we're gonna pedal the entire way from base camp to the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro at twenty thousand feet and be the first people to do a full assent peddling the whole way. Then a really cool, cool, awesome, fun dissent. That's gonna be in Africa, we leave in two days, we'll be on the mountain four six full days just an incredible fun time. We've got a film documentary crew coming with us. We've got, with some really cool stuff with our book launch that's happening is some of the bonus stuff we're gonna give, we're filming behind the scenes from all these adventures that we're doing this year and they're gonna be available when you pre order the book, so that's kinda cool. Then after I get home from Africa I've got about a month to prepare, I'm headed to Greece. I've been invited by the navy seals to run two hundred and thirty five miles, eight days stage race with some of the baddest A's on the planet. I'm most nervous about this race because I have no idea what the seals are gonna do with me but I'm all in. That's one of the things I talk about on stage, I talk about going all in and having an experience, so I'm excited to be challenged and to learn from the navy seals, two hundred and thirty five miles, eight days. Then I'm doing four of the hardest iron mans they're called extreme irons mans meaning extreme conditions. It's still the two point four swim, the one twelve bike and the twenty six point two run, but it's in freezing water fifty degrees or under and then it's through mountainous biking terrain and then the run is the equivalent of running from base camp to a high mountain peak, so twenty six miles of insane elevation gain. I'm doing four of them. One is in Scotland, one's in Switzerland, one's in Alaska and it finished with the famous Norsman in Norway. Tyler Jorgenson: Wow. James Lawrence: Those are kind of some of the really cool events and adventures that I get to do just my way of having fun and challenging myself on a different level. I'm really excited to go to these different countries, learn about the cultures, push myself physically, have a little bit of a different experience. There's gonna be some extreme elements involved. I have being cold and so it's a challenge for me to mentally jump into these cold water situations and then bike through these, I mean we're gonna be biking through the Swiss Alps during some crazy time. Like I said Greece is gonna nuts you have no idea what the navy seals are gonna do. Summiting twenty thousand feet I'm terrified there's gonna be no oxygen. So, just a wild, crazy, adventure year, I'm super pumped for it. Tyler Jorgenson: Yeah, so let's talk on that first one a little bit with Kilimanjaro. The locals there have a saying there when you're assenting which is polle polle which is slowly slowly, which usually doesn't mean jump on a mountain bike and start peddling. You're kinda shucking that old adage that they teach people as you're climbing. How did you have to, not only personally prep but logistically prep to get you know to get them to allow you to do that? James Lawrence: It's a special circumstance that they're allowing us to do it and I feel honored that we get to. I believe that I get to see more of the mountain than I usually get to or if I was going to hike it or climb it because I get to climb up and come down and climb up and come back down not to the top but hitting certain elevations because you do you have to go slowly. One of the biggest killers on Mount Kilimanjaro is altitude sickness, people die from this. We believe we've put together really safe and intelligent plan in order for us to summit safely because we're on bikes. Even though we can travel faster on hiking the pitch is still so extreme that we're only gonna be going two to four mile an hour as we're climbing, because our goal is to pedal the entire way and not push or carry our mountain bikes we may have to spend forty five minutes or an hour on a specific section and continue to challenge and break the section down so that we can physically pedal the entire section, yeah find the right route or just technique. I'm gonna have to learn new techniques on the mountains in order to navigate certain potions of this. I'm not delusional that the challenge is gonna be extraordinary and that I'm gonna have to work extremely hard but there's that real fine balancing thing I gotta work super hard but there's not oxygen so how, you can't work really hard there's gonna be, we've put a lot of prep into trying to be efficient and really our bring our heart rate down. A lot of mind power comes into this, that's part of why I love these new challenges, you know beginning part of the show you talked about racing for speed and being competitive, I moved on to a different type of challenge where I still have to be mentally tough and the training is different, it's just I'm looking for these type of really fun adventures. Tyler Jorgenson: Well that gives me a little bit more piece of mind that you're gonna be not just sprinting up because I think sometimes there is a false confidence that comes with becoming really fit or really capable right, where now we're thinking that we're superhuman. Now you are superhuman compared to a guy like me. James Lawrence: Remember I'm totally normal. Tyler Jorgenson: But you've gotta find your limits right. That doesn't mean find them on like in the ambulance it means. James Lawrence: No, I've got five kids, four beautiful daughters, I have no intention of dying. I want adventure with full intentions of retuning home every time. We're very methodical with our game plans, with safety being first and foremost. Nobody wants to die on the mountain, nobody wants to die in these cold waters, they're very calculated. That's part of the reason that I've been able to be successful in what I do is because I do a lot of little things over a long period of time and I do them with intent in order to become successful. It's a matter of doing the basics really well and paying attention to the details to make you successful in order to accomplish your goals.  When people ask me what's the one thing you do and I say well let me break down the hundred things I do in order to accomplish this. Tyler Jorgenson: I think that's kinda of the big takeaway I'm getting really from everything right is not only, you know, you want to set goals, you want to go after things that challenge you but that doesn't mean you go without a parachute or without a safety net. You're methodical and you plan I think that's kinda of what you're saying is that people see the tip of the iceberg but they forget that there's the entire planning and logistics and coordinations and adjustments that have to be made on the fly to [crosstalk 00:33:35] to continue to push yourself and challenge yourself. James Lawrence: Yeah. I'm so glad you brought that up because people contact me all the time and say Iron Cowboy I watched your journey and you inspired me and I have zero experience and I thought of this thing that I wanna do, I wanna do it in four months can you tell me some pointers on how to get ready for it? I'm like I will give you some pointers but I'm gonna be very blunt with you that it took me a decade to this point where I could try that and just the fifty was over two years in planning and preparation just for that fifty day event. I said I will help you get it and I want you, that's the reason I did it so people will set giant goals and think, but you've gotta have the appropriate time frame associated with that goal and you have to be able to be willing to sacrifice to do the work associated. A giant goal requires massive amounts of work, and dedication and sacrifice. So, yes set that big goal but dude it's not gonna happen four months from now. I appreciate that and I will go out of my way to help you achieve this goal that you want to do but let's get a five year game plan here. Tyler Jorgenson: Right, it's not Forrest Gump where you just run out one day and never stopped running right? James Lawrence: That's a movie for a reason and I get I look like Forrest Gump, but this beard, I didn't grow this in four months this has taken time. Tyler Jorgenson: That seems to be a lot of what your central message is, one you gotta push yourself, you gotta challenge yourself, you gotta find your limits but that doesn't mean you are without intent and are not doing it intelligently. You're mapping out your future but you're building your future with intent. James Lawrence: Absolutely. Tyler Jorgenson: I think that that is something that we really need right now as a people of the human race because I think so many of us are living reactionary lives where we just wake up because the alarm clock said to wake up and we start reacting the entire day, we have no intent to build anything 'cause all we do is react to this to the stimuli around us. I think if we can recognize that they can take action and that they can make a choice to set a big goal and change their life, and I think what you are doing is helping people to be inspired to do that and I think it's remarkable. Ironcowboybook.com is where they can learn a lot about that and then where are you at on Facebook and stuff like that? James Lawrence: Yeah, real quick to we also we can help you achieve your goals we run an entire coaching platform and that's at teamironcowboy.com [inaudible 00:36:24] check that out we can help you achieve a lot of your racing goals, if you're just getting started or want to qualify for the world championship. My social media on Instagram is /ironcowboyjames and on Facebook it's /ironcowboy Tyler Jorgenson: Awesome, well thank you for coming out on the show and massive wishing of success and have fun, Africa's an amazing place I promise you will not come back the same, that's the goal isn't it. James Lawrence: That is the goal and it's always an honor to talk with you Tyler you're a complete stud. Tyler Jorgenson: Thanks man.

Tyler Jorgenson: Ladies and gentlemen I want to welcome everybody out to BizNinja Radio. We have a really cool guest today. We have James Lawrence the Iron Cowboy. James Lawrence: What's up? Tyler Jorgenson: James, so a lot of people, some people have heard about you because you've got a big following and some people haven't. James Lawrence: Most have not. Tyler Jorgenson: Not enough, I'll tell you what not enough people have heard of you. As I've gotten to know you a little bit recently when I mentioned it I say have you heard of the Iron Cowboy, people kind of look up and think and I'm like he did like fifty Iron man triathlons, and then everyone starts nodding like oh yeah I've heard of the guy. But even before you did that, I'm gonna ask you more about that in a second, you set some world records. What were some of those first big things that you did that kinda of started getting you publicity. James Lawrence: Can we hang on let me tell them what I'm doing then and then we can edit this out. Tyler Jorgenson: Okay. All right so what was the first thing that you did that got you some notoriety? James Lawrence: I think the first think I did was I did a four mile fun run and my wife told me I was pathetic and so that got me some notoriety and some laughs at Thanksgiving. Reality is that kind of kick started my journey and put me on a path that I would have never expected. In 2010 I broke a world record for the most half iron mans done in a single year and that was twenty two events in thirty weeks. Which was just for me personally it was just training grounds for what I really wanted to accomplish was thirty full official iron mans in one calendar year, and I did thirty events through eleven countries. I learned a lot about the sport, I learned a lot about myself, I learned a lot about the tri community. The great news is I accomplished that and it was awesome but it left me with incredibly empty feeling of I can do more I wanna push myself, I wanna learn, I wanna grow, I wanna challenge myself. That ultimately led me to the fifty, the iron mans fifty days fifty states campaign and that happened in 2015. Tyler Jorgenson: Not necessarily a natural born you know freak of nature athlete your wife as you come out in a fun run and your second wind it didn't impress her. James Lawrence: To say the least. Tyler Jorgenson: Yeah, so in order to keep her impressed or get her happy again and impressed by James, you know what I'm gonna start doing triathlons. James Lawrence: It was interesting, what she did was she signed me up for a marathon and she said you know what your performance was so pathetic in the fur miler I'm gonna make you do a marathon, so she did that. It to was an awful experience but those are the experiences where we grow the most [crosstalk 00:02:58] and possibly look inward for answers and you know I like to say that I wasn't gonna allow that moment to define me or defeat me because it was humiliating at best and so I did I looked inward and I found the sport of triathlon. You could say I jumped in with two feet and just found it, a new passion that I never knew existed. Tyler Jorgenson: You start to, you go fun run, marathon and then when was your first triathlon? James Lawrence: It would have been in 2005. Tyler Jorgenson: Out of curiosity were you decent as a competitive triathlete or were you more, you know when you're doing fifty fifty fifty that was more not competitive speeds right you're going for more completing it at that point right? Did you get to where you're pretty decent in terms of finishing speed? James Lawrence: Yeah absolutely. I've been doing this sport for a decade, realized I had some natural talent when I came to cycling. I had to teach myself to swim and I got pretty good at running as well and you put the three together and it's triathlon. Tyler Jorgenson: Right. James Lawrence: I started to win races in my local area. I've gone to the half iron man world championships three times, I've completed in Kelona which is iron man world championships, I've won a few full iron distance triathlon events. I'm not the fasted on the block in every event but I love to mix it up I love to do that. Then I've kinda of, I enjoy the adventure now of it. I'm really really busy, I've got five kids and I do a lot of speaking and I do a lot of these adventure type races, so it just takes a certain sacrifice and commitment to be able to race at a high level for a really long time. I'm not willing to put in that work in order to do that, I'm more in the enjoyment phase of it. I did race for really competitively for a long time, it's just a different mental kind of grind, a different type of training, and I did that and I had a lot of success doing it and I really loved it. I loved the glory days of being fast, and I'm still fast, I'm still competitive in my age group and I still love to mix it up, I'm super competitive. But like we're gonna talk about it a little bit later I hope, but I'm doing some really fun adventures this year that I'm more excited about then ever, over trying to best the next guy in my age group. Tyler Jorgenson: I think what it sounds like you're saying is that it gets to a point where winning is fun and winning is great if that's your goal, but it sometimes, cliché in hand, the joy is in the journey right? James Lawrence: Absolutely. Tyler Jorgenson: I love that you are doing a lot of cool adventures and you include your family a lot in a lot of this which is really neat. James Lawrence: Yeah a lot of people hear what I do and they just assume that dude is rich and single. Tyler Jorgenson: Right. James Lawrence: And I'm not I've got five kids, you know we had five kids in six and a half years. Right now their ages eight to fourteen or eight to thirteen and it's just a crazy time, we're just busy but we do, we include them in a lot of that, we do, we encourage them to be active in whatever they like to do, I don't make them do triathlon. Tyler Jorgenson: Right. James Lawrence: My oldest daughter does volleyball and I was at the tournament all afternoon today. My second daughter does gymnastics, my third daughter does basketball and my son does gymnastics, and my other girl just likes to float around like a fairy and a unicorn. Tyler Jorgenson: But they'll all find their path and their thing. James Lawrence: Absolutely. Tyler Jorgenson: We're really similar with our four kids is whatever they want to do as long as their being active. James Lawrence: Right, yup. Tyler Jorgenson: Let's, I think we have to talk a little bit about the fifty fifty fifty because it's a ridiculous like feat. James Lawrence: Maybe we should tell people that possibly don't know what an iron man actually is. Tyler Jorgenson: That's a great way to do it and then we'll explain how you stack them together, so let's do that. James Lawrence: So an iron man distance triathlon any triathlon is swim bike run and an iron distance is the longest standard of the family. It's a two point four mile swim, followed by a hundred and twelve mile bike ride, and then once you get off your bike you run the standard marathon which is twenty six point two miles, so all of those put together it's a hundred and forty point six miles that you have to cover by yourself, your own grit and your own will. Tyler Jorgenson: How long does that typical take, maybe not the fasted guy but the competitive iron man athlete. James Lawrence: Yeah so your fasted guy does do it in about eight hours. That's your top tier professionals the peak of their career. Then you have a seventeen hour time limit. Your competitive men are gonna be coming anywhere in between nine and eleven hours, and then your competitive women anywhere between ten and twelve. The professional women are dipping into the low nine hours, which is awesome. As you evolve in the sport guys are like k I wanna finfish an iron man, okay I wanna break twelve hours, I wanna break eleven hours, I wanna break ten hours. Those are kinda your bench marks. Tyler Jorgenson: Some listeners maybe thinking, okay I did thirty minutes on the treadmill the other day. James Lawrence: Yup. Tyler Jorgenson: But their talking about moving consistently for eight to seventeen hours. James Lawrence: Yeah, exactly. Tyler Jorgenson: And so. James Lawrence: It's no joke it takes most athletes or individuals that have a desire to do a bucket list iron man, I mean it takes a good year possibly two years of prep. Tyler Jorgenson: They prep for it and then they go out and a lot of them like you said their first goal's just to finish that means close to fifteen, sixteen, seventeen hours of work. James Lawrence: Yeah, I think anybody's goal, like we run a coaching team and when I have an athlete that's doing an iron man for the first time I'm like dude let's make it to the start line healthy, that's always an accomplishment. Then, it's your first iron man and I tell all my athletes I say look you have one shot at your first iron man and your goal should not be to push an incredible pace, it shouldn't be to try set a land speed record, it's to go out there and be grateful that you get to do an iron man today and you should try to smile your way through the event and thank the volunteers and then have enough energy at the finish line to pump your fist and pound your chest and say that was a good amount of sacrifice and a lot of hard work and I just accomplished something really cool. Then once you do that then we break it down and we start breaking down the events and shooting for time goals and execution goals and things like that. Your first one should be an experience and like we alluded to earlier it truly is about the journey and getting to that start line and then enjoying that moment and that day. Tyler Jorgenson: Awesome. You start, you know, you struggle in the fun run, you start getting into a little bit, you do thirty events in a year, which is already amazing, but you said it left you empty and so you went for, let's first talk about why you felt empty after setting a world record that's recognized by the Guinness Book, and then you did, what is the fifty fifty fifty? James Lawrence: I've always said I wanna find my mental and physical limits and then I wanna know what I'm gonna do when I reach that limit. Whether I'm gonna push through that and accomplish more or if I'm gonna you know say hang my hat that's good I've found my limit. You know with all of these we do a charitable aspect to it, a fundraising campaign and in 2010 and 12 we were building dams for Africa. I didn't hit the fundraising mark that I wanted to do and so there was an empty feeling about the charitable donations, there was an empty feeling about my physical and mental limits. I just had the sinking feeling that there was more, that I wasn't, I haven't reached my potential in fundraising and pushing myself myself to my satisfaction. It's interesting 'cause it was right near the end of the campaign in 2012 I had completed twenty seven of the thirty and I just looked over at my wife and I'm like I just asked her a question I was like I don't think this is it do you think this is it. Her answer was not right now, so I kinda bided my time but I knew there was more and I conceptualized the fifty fifty fifty which was fifty consecutive iron mans, fifty states so that would take us fifty days. Fifty iron mans, fifty days, fifty states. Tyler Jorgenson: Just to kind of do some math 1) you're talking about traveling the entire country, so there's travel time. You're talking about the average iron man taking, you know someone whose done what they're doing probably twelve to fourteen hours, I'm curious how long were those taking you? James Lawrence: Yeah it's interesting, I ended up having to average twelve to fourteen hours every single day for fifty consecutive days in order to keep pace, in order to give us enough time to get to the next state. There's so many, If I can humbly say this is one of the greatest endurance feats that no body knows about yet, just because there was the massive logistic component to it, there was the physical component to it, there was the mental component to it, there was the fundraising component to it, there was the family aspect to it. There was just so many things and people, it's interesting 'cause we wrote a book that I'm incredibly excited about because people know the story because they, well people think they know the story because they know oh yeah the iron cowboy fifty iron mans, fifty days, fifty states, but that is just the headliner, you know, because there's so much that went that took for us to accomplish that and the blood, the sweat, the tears, the sacrifice, the emotions, the stories the people we met along the way. What's really interesting, I love the way that we wrote the book is it's some what of an autobiography and a journey because we flashed back to my past and my journey on how I got to this point. It's actually really really cool because not only does it kinda paint the whole picture of what we went through on the fifty but it gives people an opportunity to get to know me and my family a little bit better and what it took and what makes us tick to be able to even conceptualize this and think that it was possible to go beyond what everybody said was impossible. Tyler Jorgenson: Yeah, so, not only, so this is crazy right you achieved this thing that I think most people, I've watched your documentary, even a lot of your sponsors didn't think it was gonna happen. James Lawrence: Yeah. Tyler Jorgenson: You know, when it got started most of them were thinking hey this is great we like James we'll support him but really like is this, this isn't possible, is what I think they were down deep if they were honest with us all. There were some comments on that made. James Lawrence: You know, not even down deep they would think that, on the surface they told me that. They said dude we love you we've loved being involved in your whole journey, we're not gonna tell you how many we think you're gonna make but the number's not fifty, but we'll get behind what you're doing. It was really really cool for my journey to not only watch the sponsor but the forms and the message boards to watch that energy shift from you're a moron you can't do this, you're being reckless, to holy crap maybe he will, to becoming supporters and advocates for what I was doing. It just, it was a really humbling experience for me to go through that experience and be the center and watching that happen was a really neat experience. It was a really hard experience because we took a lot of shots for what we were doing and how we did it. I just have to realize that we made the best decisions that what we thought at that time and I stand by them a hundred percent 'cause the journey wouldn't be what it was without them. One of the biggest takeaways and things that I've learned is you can't, don't ever judge anybody 'cause we don't know their circumstances what it feels like to be them going through what they're going through in that moment. That was such an incredible lesson for me to be able to go through life and have experiences and look at people and go you know what I really don't know the full back story here, I don't know the emotion, I can't feel what he's feeling right now. So it's helped me not to be so quick to judge and criticize and to really appreciate and just have a better understanding of other people and what they're going through and what they're trying to accomplish. Tyler Jorgenson: Yeah, I think, I was actually gonna move right into that question, kind of like how do you handle, like the haters right? The more popular they get, and it's just the bottom line the more you are, the more awareness and the more reach that you have the more influence you have by very nature of how humans work people start picking sides and at every age people deal with it at a different way. Like I first learned it in high shool, like okay when you start like excelling in certain things in high school people pick sides. It probably goes all the way to preschool, but the bottom line is it happens no matter what point of human but the bigger you get the bigger of a you know you have in your reach and your influence the stronger that polarity gets, especially when you start doing unique and big things right. When you started you already split up the community with haters likers and [inaudible 00:17:17] you guys made some judgment calls that further polarized that audience. James Lawrence: Yeah, and you know I love the way you just put it and how back it starts and the division and what not. I heard it put really brilliantly the other day and I'm gonna butcher it and I'll do the best I can. Basically it said, the way that I look at it is for every one hater, negative person that I get I have ninety nine others that are advocate supporter and I'm having an impact on them and everything. What this individual said was you have a hater that's amazing go get ten more because that means now you have nine hundred and ninety people that you're influencing for good, and once you have ten haters go get ten more, get as many haters as you can because for me the balance of haters to people that I'm having a positive impact on is such a favored in the positive side that the more haters and what not that I get I love it and thrive on that because that means that's the bigger, the other part of the equation is bigger and more successful, and I'm having the impact that I want. Every time I get a message or a comment or something that is negative or is someone attacking me I sit down for a send and it sucks and it hurts but then I realize that person's coming from a position of hatred and jealousy and then that means I'm also having a positive impact on the other side. It stings and it hurts and I hate it because I'm human and I have feelings and emotions but then once  I actually dissect it and realize the magnitude of the opposite side of that coin and like I take a deep breath and I'm like okay dig deeper, grind let's go get some more haters. Tyler Jorgenson: Absolutely, and yeah you know we sometimes use the term polarity which would imply that it's an equal balance but I think you're right I think that usually you have the people that are the fans are usually, frankly not as vocal. Sometimes they're just enjoying the moment right? The negative people just enjoy being loud. I got a weird email the other day that was basically just like hey I was on one of your websites and there was a popup ad I didn't like that, no need to respond I just wanted to let you know. I'm like awesome, I love that you don't even need to tell me, you don't even need to respond back, I'm sorry you didn't like the website experience, my website, just don't come to it anymore. James Lawrence: That's similar experience, I'll have someone that'll just attack me in some way and I'm like dude let me direct you to the unfollow button. That is a complete choice, you're choosing to follow me, I'm not begging you to follow me. You're a click away from me disappearing from your life. Tyler Jorgenson: That's it. That's it. James Lawrence: It's that easy. I'm not begging you. Tyler Jorgenson: Yeah, stand up just walk away from the computer. James Lawrence: Yeah it's easy. Tyler Jorgenson: The internet is not, yeah exactly, it's not part of your soul it's so funny. James Lawrence: I love it. Tyler Jorgenson: You hit the fifty fifty fifty and you have this book coming out what made you want to turn that story and put it into a book? What made you want to tell the story behind the story? What is it that people are, that you think what is the big take away that you want people to get when they read your book? James Lawrence: I think what's interesting and because of what I've accomplished now, people don't know the backstory they just go dudes a genetic freak, he's disappointed to do this, I can't do that, he's completely unrelatable. As soon as I finished the fifty they're like you need to go get genetically tested you're a freak. I was like okay let's go get tested. The results came back and it was staggeringly overwhelming, I'm white, Canadian and normal, I may be less than normal I don't know, but I started didn't have any type of advantage of any kind. My story really comes from a very like I didn't know how to swim even, I struggled through a four mile fun run that I got up off the couch to do, but people they don't see that side of the story. What I did is I stopped listening to what everybody else was saying and I was like no this is what I'm capable of and this is what I can do and I just blocked all that out and I went on my own journey, I created my own lane. I started to do me and my passion and people don't know the backstory you know to the extent that it is but we lost everything, like half of the Americans did and we were a struggling family. I had an opportunity to hit the reset button and so what I want people to get out of this is really it's totally cliché but wee really can do anything we want to. I believe I proved that, I went above and beyond what anybody said was possible, not because I was genetically gifted but because I went out and I did the work and I didn't expect anything to be handed to me. I went out and I grind and I worked harder than anybody else did in order to accomplish what I did and I created my own future. I hope my story gives the guy that's sitting on the couch, or the mom that's struggling that everybody has their own version of hard and that we have our, everybody, every moment of everyday is making decision and this is something that my mom said many many times when I was growing up and something I'm a huge advocate of is ten percent of life is what happens to us, and ninety percent is the choices and the decisions that we get to make with those things. Ten percent is just it is what it is, it's the crap that life dealt you but you know what we have a choice and a decision with everything that we do. You have to decide nobody's gonna make those decisions for you and no one's gonna do that work for you. You have to and you can go out and create your own future. So I share my journey, my backstory and I hope it gets people moving and engaged. One of the biggest reasons we wrote this was 'cause I started to get emails people saying hey you don't know me but I watched your journey and I just wanted to thank you, this is what I've been able to accomplish because you set that example. Trust me I don't think I'm perfect and I grind and I have challenges, and I struggle, and I fail, but I get back up. I wanted to write this book because not a lot of people know about the story and to me the story has impact both with women and with men. I'm middle America, I've got five kids, I live in a community, I go to church, I am middle America, I had a corporate job. So, my goal with this book is to hopefully impact someone to make a decision to do something different and find their passions again and start living life and creating your own path, but it takes work, conviction, belief, effort, all of those things. I hope my journey helps people to see that realize it and go do it. Tyler Jorgenson: Awesome. I, that was one of the takeaways I really got from your documentary, from watching a lot of your interviews was that everyone has their own hard right. One of the stories that was really touching for me was how your last few races you had challenged your mom, how much of the last few races did she do with you? James Lawrence: Every single day we put on a five K asked the public to come out and join us and we donated all that money to charity to combat childhood obesity. So, I challenged my mom to come do the last five K of the last five races with me. Tyler Jorgenson: Now she, before that she was like super fit and could run marathons right? James Lawrence: No my mom has struggled with obesity her entire life and has never run further than a mile. It was incredibly challenging, in fact after every single five K she did she said that was the hardest thing that she'd ever done but then the following words that came out of her mouth always impressed me and she said can I do it again tomorrow. I think that's the attitude that I want people to have, I want you to go do something and I want you to challenge yourself, and then I want you to realize that you grew as an individual and you learned lessons and that you should desire to put yourself in challenging situations and embrace the struggle because that's how we learn and grow. When my mom said that was the hardest thing I've even done can I do it tomorrow I was like dude yes that's why I love you and that's where I got a lot of my grit and mental toughness from was because of that perspective and that drive. Tyler Jorgenson: That's awesome. You've got the book coming out we'll make sure when this gets posted on podcast we post the link, I believe it's ironcowboybook.com. James Lawrence: Yup. Tyler Jorgenson: Definitely checking that out and tell us about, I mean you're not stopping you're still doing even, you're doing amazing things. You talked about your seven big events this year, what's going on this year, and you're getting ready for one soon right? James Lawrence: Yeah, on Tuesday, yeah I'm super excited about this year and I didn't realize it when I started to plan it that it was gonna be turn out to be this kind of year, but it really has turned out to be an adventure year. On Tuesday, I'm hopping on a plane with my mountain bike and we're heading over to Africa, and we're gonna climb, we're gonna pedal the entire way from base camp to the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro at twenty thousand feet and be the first people to do a full assent peddling the whole way. Then a really cool, cool, awesome, fun dissent. That's gonna be in Africa, we leave in two days, we'll be on the mountain four six full days just an incredible fun time. We've got a film documentary crew coming with us. We've got, with some really cool stuff with our book launch that's happening is some of the bonus stuff we're gonna give, we're filming behind the scenes from all these adventures that we're doing this year and they're gonna be available when you pre order the book, so that's kinda cool. Then after I get home from Africa I've got about a month to prepare, I'm headed to Greece. I've been invited by the navy seals to run two hundred and thirty five miles, eight days stage race with some of the baddest A's on the planet. I'm most nervous about this race because I have no idea what the seals are gonna do with me but I'm all in. That's one of the things I talk about on stage, I talk about going all in and having an experience, so I'm excited to be challenged and to learn from the navy seals, two hundred and thirty five miles, eight days. Then I'm doing four of the hardest iron mans they're called extreme irons mans meaning extreme conditions. It's still the two point four swim, the one twelve bike and the twenty six point two run, but it's in freezing water fifty degrees or under and then it's through mountainous biking terrain and then the run is the equivalent of running from base camp to a high mountain peak, so twenty six miles of insane elevation gain. I'm doing four of them. One is in Scotland, one's in Switzerland, one's in Alaska and it finished with the famous Norsman in Norway. Tyler Jorgenson: Wow. James Lawrence: Those are kind of some of the really cool events and adventures that I get to do just my way of having fun and challenging myself on a different level. I'm really excited to go to these different countries, learn about the cultures, push myself physically, have a little bit of a different experience. There's gonna be some extreme elements involved. I have being cold and so it's a challenge for me to mentally jump into these cold water situations and then bike through these, I mean we're gonna be biking through the Swiss Alps during some crazy time. Like I said Greece is gonna nuts you have no idea what the navy seals are gonna do. Summiting twenty thousand feet I'm terrified there's gonna be no oxygen. So, just a wild, crazy, adventure year, I'm super pumped for it. Tyler Jorgenson: Yeah, so let's talk on that first one a little bit with Kilimanjaro. The locals there have a saying there when you're assenting which is polle polle which is slowly slowly, which usually doesn't mean jump on a mountain bike and start peddling. You're kinda shucking that old adage that they teach people as you're climbing. How did you have to, not only personally prep but logistically prep to get you know to get them to allow you to do that? James Lawrence: It's a special circumstance that they're allowing us to do it and I feel honored that we get to. I believe that I get to see more of the mountain than I usually get to or if I was going to hike it or climb it because I get to climb up and come down and climb up and come back down not to the top but hitting certain elevations because you do you have to go slowly. One of the biggest killers on Mount Kilimanjaro is altitude sickness, people die from this. We believe we've put together really safe and intelligent plan in order for us to summit safely because we're on bikes. Even though we can travel faster on hiking the pitch is still so extreme that we're only gonna be going two to four mile an hour as we're climbing, because our goal is to pedal the entire way and not push or carry our mountain bikes we may have to spend forty five minutes or an hour on a specific section and continue to challenge and break the section down so that we can physically pedal the entire section, yeah find the right route or just technique. I'm gonna have to learn new techniques on the mountains in order to navigate certain potions of this. I'm not delusional that the challenge is gonna be extraordinary and that I'm gonna have to work extremely hard but there's that real fine balancing thing I gotta work super hard but there's not oxygen so how, you can't work really hard there's gonna be, we've put a lot of prep into trying to be efficient and really our bring our heart rate down. A lot of mind power comes into this, that's part of why I love these new challenges, you know beginning part of the show you talked about racing for speed and being competitive, I moved on to a different type of challenge where I still have to be mentally tough and the training is different, it's just I'm looking for these type of really fun adventures. Tyler Jorgenson: Well that gives me a little bit more piece of mind that you're gonna be not just sprinting up because I think sometimes there is a false confidence that comes with becoming really fit or really capable right, where now we're thinking that we're superhuman. Now you are superhuman compared to a guy like me. James Lawrence: Remember I'm totally normal. Tyler Jorgenson: But you've gotta find your limits right. That doesn't mean find them on like in the ambulance it means. James Lawrence: No, I've got five kids, four beautiful daughters, I have no intention of dying. I want adventure with full intentions of retuning home every time. We're very methodical with our game plans, with safety being first and foremost. Nobody wants to die on the mountain, nobody wants to die in these cold waters, they're very calculated. That's part of the reason that I've been able to be successful in what I do is because I do a lot of little things over a long period of time and I do them with intent in order to become successful. It's a matter of doing the basics really well and paying attention to the details to make you successful in order to accomplish your goals.  When people ask me what's the one thing you do and I say well let me break down the hundred things I do in order to accomplish this. Tyler Jorgenson: I think that's kinda of the big takeaway I'm getting really from everything right is not only, you know, you want to set goals, you want to go after things that challenge you but that doesn't mean you go without a parachute or without a safety net. You're methodical and you plan I think that's kinda of what you're saying is that people see the tip of the iceberg but they forget that there's the entire planning and logistics and coordinations and adjustments that have to be made on the fly to [crosstalk 00:33:35] to continue to push yourself and challenge yourself. James Lawrence: Yeah. I'm so glad you brought that up because people contact me all the time and say Iron Cowboy I watched your journey and you inspired me and I have zero experience and I thought of this thing that I wanna do, I wanna do it in four months can you tell me some pointers on how to get ready for it? I'm like I will give you some pointers but I'm gonna be very blunt with you that it took me a decade to this point where I could try that and just the fifty was over two years in planning and preparation just for that fifty day event. I said I will help you get it and I want you, that's the reason I did it so people will set giant goals and think, but you've gotta have the appropriate time frame associated with that goal and you have to be able to be willing to sacrifice to do the work associated. A giant goal requires massive amounts of work, and dedication and sacrifice. So, yes set that big goal but dude it's not gonna happen four months from now. I appreciate that and I will go out of my way to help you achieve this goal that you want to do but let's get a five year game plan here. Tyler Jorgenson: Right, it's not Forrest Gump where you just run out one day and never stopped running right? James Lawrence: That's a movie for a reason and I get I look like Forrest Gump, but this beard, I didn't grow this in four months this has taken time. Tyler Jorgenson: That seems to be a lot of what your central message is, one you gotta push yourself, you gotta challenge yourself, you gotta find your limits but that doesn't mean you are without intent and are not doing it intelligently. You're mapping out your future but you're building your future with intent. James Lawrence: Absolutely. Tyler Jorgenson: I think that that is something that we really need right now as a people of the human race because I think so many of us are living reactionary lives where we just wake up because the alarm clock said to wake up and we start reacting the entire day, we have no intent to build anything 'cause all we do is react to this to the stimuli around us. I think if we can recognize that they can take action and that they can make a choice to set a big goal and change their life, and I think what you are doing is helping people to be inspired to do that and I think it's remarkable. Ironcowboybook.com is where they can learn a lot about that and then where are you at on Facebook and stuff like that? James Lawrence: Yeah, real quick to we also we can help you achieve your goals we run an entire coaching platform and that's at teamironcowboy.com [inaudible 00:36:24] check that out we can help you achieve a lot of your racing goals, if you're just getting started or want to qualify for the world championship. My social media on Instagram is /ironcowboyjames and on Facebook it's /ironcowboy Tyler Jorgenson: Awesome, well thank you for coming out on the show and massive wishing of success and have fun, Africa's an amazing place I promise you will not come back the same, that's the goal isn't it. James Lawrence: That is the goal and it's always an honor to talk with you Tyler you're a complete stud. Tyler Jorgenson: Thanks man.

Announcer:          Hi and welcome to the R and R Property Podcast with The Real Estate Girl, Denise Haynes. In our podcast we talk about all things real estate in rural New South Wales. We discuss a diverse range of topics to do with real estate, whether it is about making the tree change, doing a rental, or getting to know our awesome country community. If ever you're in the area please pop by and meet our team. R and R property are an amazing all-women real estate agency working within the Stroud, Gloucester, and Bulahdelah areas. Now for our podcast. Denise:  Hi everyone and welcome to podcast number six. I'm Denise Haynes from R and R property. Today I have invited a special guest into the R and R office to chat with us. You know at R and R Property we specialise in assisting our clients in making the move from city areas to the country, what we like to call a tree change. Our guest today is Karen Hutchinson, one of the busiest ladies I know. Firstly I'd like to welcome you Karen, and thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule to join us. Karen:    Thank you Denise. It's a pleasure to be here. Denise:  Karen is a local council representative from Mid-Coast Council. She also runs her own businesses and a thousand acre farm, is that correct? Karen:    Yeah. Denise:  She's a very busy lady. The reason I wanted to speak with you is because you have actually done the tree change yourself. As everyone knows I'm always advising our clients to chat with others that have already made the move just to get an experienced account of things. I know you packed up your family and moved to the country and we'd love to hear your story, Karen. Firstly, how long has it been since you made the move and where were you living before? Karen:    It's 19 years since we left the Northern Beaches in Sydney, which I thought was God's country. We've re-established that God's country is up here. Denise:  Very good. I agree with that. What were you worried about with moving to the country area? Karen:    I had my own business in Sydney and I'm a bit of a people person and I was only momentarily concerned about the move and I just thought, "Well, let's run with this." I suppose I had plan B in my mind that I could always run back to Sydney but never, never, never. Denise:  Very good. I'm very pleased to hear that, I must say. Karen is a very big advocate for Stroud, she's Stroud proud and we love her. People are often concerned about finding work in a country area. That's one of the major things that I hear all the time. Have you had trouble finding work? I know that's not true because as I said you are one of the busiest people I know, but maybe just let everyone know what it is that you do do and how you've come about that. Karen:    Okay. Eight years ago I broke my leg on our farm and while I was recuperating I designed a label to go on a jar. I didn't know what I was going to put in that jar but I thought I wasn't going to waste this nine months of being incapacitated and not come out with something positive out of it. We now run a very successful family-owned and run jam and condiment business and you'll find our products scattered between Sydney, Newcastle, America. We're very, very delighted about that.                   I think as far as employment is concerned, there's a lot of casual work up here if you're willing to have a go and I have seen so many home-based businesses evolve in this valley, is unbelievable. You would be surprised what's in a lot of people's homes with creative arts, men with mechanic businesses at home. It's just amazing. Denise:  That's true. There really is plenty of work there depending on what you want to do. The work is there to find if you want it. Just so everyone knows, too, Karen's business is called Stroud Valley Harvest and it's absolutely beautiful. We stock our settlement gift packs with Stroud Valley Harvest goodies and everyone always raves about them. She's a very busy lady and am I correct in saying you do all that out of your home kitchen? Karen:    Yes. We do. We run it, we cook it, we package it and we have fun. It's a family involvement because when you've got a few hundred jars of jam to label you call in the troops for help. Denise:  Even the grandkids get a helping hand, do they, or actually help you out, sorry? Karen:    Absolutely. Absolutely, and they help on the farm. We have an egg farm with birds that are free to range. We're now with Woolworths with our farm fresh eggs. The five grandchildren help on the farm, too. Denise:  That's great. I've seen them on Facebook digging veggie gardens and having a great time riding their motorbikes around. What are your eggs called? Karen:    Stroud Valley Harvest Eggs. Denise:  Excellent. I can recommend those, too. Another thing that people worry about is their friends and family. "Will they ever, ever come and visit us?" Maybe have a chat about friends and family. Do you still see them? Do you still go back to Sydney? Have you made friends here? Let us know what that's about. Karen:    I've got a huge friend base in this valley. I go back to Sydney for business only and I go down and I run straight back. Friends and family, we had a very big influx of visitors when we first moved up here and they were amazed that we actually had running water and electricity. The visits that we have now, are sort of spread far apart, because they thought my husband was taking me away from the city into the boondocks but they were flabbergasted when they saw the way we live up here. Denise:  That's good, that they come and visit you. Have any of the made the move themselves? Karen:    Yes, actually. We have some friends at Bulahdelah that were friends on the Northern Beaches and they've embraced the community in Bulahdelah, too. It's wonderful and you can be as busy or as relaxed as you like. It's all about choice. Denise:  That's it. It's all about quality of life isn't it? Yeah. That's great. How do you find our local community? Karen:    Our local community are just absolutely amazing. They've got the biggest hearts. If anybody's in strife there's always somebody that you can call on and it's an amazing community. Denise:  Yeah, that's true. Everyone pulls together when the time is needed, don't they? If there's any sort of drama or disaster or someone's struggling everyone pulls together and that's when you really find out what the community's like.                   Another thing that we do here quite often is about the commuting and I quite often say to people, "Look, yes you can commute to work but you are travelling along lovely country roads taking in the landscape, not stuck in gridlock." Have you actually found that to be the case as well, because I know you do a lot of travelling? You work from home but with the council you're also travelling a lot. Karen:    It's amazing. You don't realise until you look at your speedometer and go, "Wow, have I done that many kilometres?" It doesn't feel like you're doing that many. We actually live on the Bucketts Way and there is a peak hour and it starts about 5:00 a.m. in the morning and there is a stream of people that go down the Bucketts Way to commute to Newcastle. I know for a fact that there's even a few people that commute to Gosford for work. It's an easy drive. Denise:  I love to listen to podcasts just like this while I'm travelling around. It's a great time to think and reflect and to learn as well, isn't it? Okay, so how has your family adjusted to the move? Karen:    Our family, we brought our two girls up, well we brought one daughter up from Sydney and her daughter and one daughter went to uni at Bathurst the same year that we moved up here. She's finished uni and she's moved back home and we are all on the farm. We all have our own separate homes of course. Then I've had more grandchildren born into the area and they just love it. They go to the local schools and they play netball down in Raymond Terrace which is not far to go. All their sporting requirements are all fulfilled. Denise:  Yeah. That's it, they can do whatever they want really, can't they? Can be, again like us, as busy as they want to be. Karen:    Exactly. Exactly. Denise:  Okay. Do you have any tips for those considering moving to the country? Karen:    My biggest tip would be think positive, embrace it, and enjoy it. Denise:  Good advice. Karen, Dayanna your daughter is now studying again isn't she? Karen:    She's studying at Newcastle University and she's actually doing her master's now in work health and safety. Our granddaughter who is now 21, she's studying by distant education with UNE at Armidale. She's doing ag-business. Our oldest daughter who is actually running our farm now, she picks up every little biosecurity course, any course that's going through the Tocal College which is only 45-50 minutes away from here.                   Everything, as far as education is concerned, everything is at your fingertips. Denise:  Yeah. It's great. They certainly don't miss out on anything here, do they? Karen:    No, no. They don't and if your child's keen well then they will find these courses just like my children do. Denise:  Yeah, exactly. Just thinking about that we've also got an Olympian in our area as well, haven't we? Karen:    We do. Denise:  Certainly the children can do whatever they choose to do. Karen:    Yes, yeah. Look, and they can. Our oldest granddaughter is a State Age champion in rowing, in doubles. She used to train at Morpeth. She would leave the farm at 4:30 in the morning but that was her choice and she enjoyed that before going to school. Denise:  Yeah. Yeah. Just the dedication's there so they just take that opportunity. Karen:    Exactly. Denise:  Yeah. No, that's wonderful. I just wanted to check with you before we finish up. Do you have any regrets about moving to the country? Karen:    I have no regrets whatsoever. It's just been fantastic and when I see the news of the night I just think, "How lucky we are that our grandchildren are growing up in this area." They have everything at their fingertips and they just love being outside, they just love the atmosphere. They have their friends. Yeah, you've got to travel sometimes to drop little friends off and pick your grandchildren up but that's all part of country living. Denise:  Exactly. Like we said before, the commuting's very enjoyable as well isn't it? It's not a chore. Karen:    No, not at all. Not at all. Because I, just like yourself Denise, I do a lot of thinking, a lot of planning, in the car and I am fulfilling a lot of dreams I've always dreamt and that was to own my own patchwork shop which we've done. We've run retreats and patchwork lessons on the farm and hopefully in early 2017 we start the building of our café and farm gate shop on the farm. Denise:  I can't wait for that, I must say. That's going to be amazing and just another wonderful thing for our community. Thank you so much Karen for coming and chatting to us today. It's been a pleasure. Karen:    Thank you for having me, Denise. It's a pleasure to share our experience. Denise:  It is. Thank you.                   Thank you everyone. That is podcast number six. I hope you've got great value out of that and once again I'd like to thank Karen for coming in and joining us. It's been wonderful. Announcer:          If you would like to find out more about R and R Property and the Stroud, Gloucester, and Bulahdelah areas, whether buying or selling, contact us on (02) 4994 5766 or via our website at www.randrproperty.com.au. On behalf of Denise Haynes and the team, thank you for joining us and please remember to subscribe to our podcasts.

So for all listeners who want really advanced stuff. This a part of a phone conversation with me and my brother just talking about random shit. So there's a lot of stuff that is very hard to translate, but I did my best. First there's the transcript, then the translation, and then some notes. You probably won't get anything if you're not at a pretty high level, haha. I recommend first listening to the audio, then reading the text while listening to the audio, trying to understand as much as possible. And after that, translate everything, and listen while reading the swedish text, which you hopefully understand a lot of now. Lastly, just listen. --- TRANSCRIPT --- N: vad ska du göra idag då, ingenting? F: mmmh, jag har en liten lista, men jag tror jag skiter i att åka till ehm.. eh.. vad fan var det.. Biltema. Ah, det är lite grejer där som jag behöver ha men, (mummel) jag har i och för sig ingen tid kvar den här veckan, ska fan till Paris på Fredag, haha. N: ååh? nä, på fredag? F: ah N: meeeen F: vad då, det visste la du? eller? N: nu på fredag? F: ah, vad då då? N: fan vad du är borta. Det är ju utgång med CR. F: nä men jag sa, jag har ju sagt det att jag inte kan vara med på två veckor framöver. N: aha, okej, ah men, det är inte s.. ja.. ah.. F: men däremot tänkte jag skriva lite på forumet N: mh F: men vad har du gjort idag då? N: idag har jag.. F: säg inga hemlisar nu, hehe N: ..gått upp klockan sex. varit hjärndöd när jag ska äta frukost. åkt tåg, fick sitta i res.. resväskeplatsen för att.. ah, för att det inte fanns några platser på tåget. Sen har jag haft en lektion. Sen.. åkte vi och, jag fixade ju med telefonen. Och sen har vi käkat thaibuffé F: nähä? N: och inte bara thai utan det var, typ kinesiskt och vanlig sallad också. F: Vilka då, med dina klasskamrater? N: (det) var jag och Frans F: Var då någonstans? N: öhh, Amazing Thai på Valand. F: mh.. gött eller? vad kostar det? N: 85 F: för buffé? åh. var det bra eller? N: ah F: fy fan vad jag stör mig på.. N: just det, det fanns typ, det fanns sushi också F: ååh.. jag stör mig så.. jag kan ju inte åka in till stan och äta lunch. N: finns det inga goa ställen där ute då? F: nä men man hinner ju inte det, vi har 40 minuter. N: oh jävlar. vi har fan en och en halv timme. F: ah, as.. N: mh, fast vi åker ju aldrig in och käkar ändå. heh.. F: nä, orkar inte.. N: näh.. kostar ju på också. vi har ju en så jävla bra resturang på Chalmers så. Den är jävligt bra faktiskt. Sen eh.. Ah, det kostar ju typ 60 spänn, så får man såhär, riktig resturangmat. (mummel) F: gött N: så får man.. salladsbuffé och hur mycket dricka man vill också. --- TRANSLATION --- N: so(1) what are you doing today, nothing? F: mmmh, I have a little list, but I think I won't bother(2) going to ehm.. eh.. what the hell was it.. Biltema. Yeah, there's some stuff there I need, (mumbel) actually(3) I have no time left this week, fucking going to Paris on Friday, haha. N: ooh? no, on friday? F: yeah N: but whaat(4) F: what, you knew that? right? N: this(5) friday? F: yeah, so? N: you're away so much(6). We're going out(7) with CR. F: no but I told you, I have told you that, that I can't join for the next two weeks(8). N: mhm, okay, yeah but, it's not s.. ye.. mh.. F: on the other hand I was thinking about writing a bit on the forum N: mh F: well(9) so what have you done today? N: Today I have.. F: don't tell any secrets(10) now, hehe N: ..got up at six, been braindead when I'm going to eat breakfest. gone with the train, had to sit in suitc.. the suitcase place because there were no spots on the train. Then I've had one lesson. Then.. we went and, I was fixing with the phone. And then we had a thai buffé. F: really? N: and not only thai but there were, like chinese, and regular salad too. F: who, with your classmates? N: (it) was me and Frans F: Where?(11) N: euhh, Amazing Thai at Valand F: mh.. was it good? how much was it? N: 85 F: for a buffé? oh. was it good? N: yeah F: fuck it bothers me that.. N: oh that's right(12), there was like, there was sushi too F: ooh.. it really bothers me.. I can't go to the city and eat lunch N: aren't there any good places out there? F: nah, but you don't have time(13), we have 40 minutes. N: oh damn. we have fucking one hour and a half F: yeah, bastards. N: mhm, but we never go there(14) and eat anyway. heh.. F: no, couldn't be bothered.. N: nah.. costs too. we have such a damn good restaurant here at chalmers, so. It's fucking good actually. then eh.. Yeah, it's like 60 crowns(15), then you get like(16), real restaurant food. (mumbel) F: sweet N: then you get.. salad buffé and all you can drink too. --- NOTES --- 1. the "då" in the end makes the sentence less interrogative, like the "so" or "well" in the beginning. 2. "jag skiter i xxx" - "I don't care about xxx"/"I won't bother about xxx". Literally "I crap in xxx". 3. "i och för sig" means something like "actually" or "on the other hand". 4. "men" means "but", but here it doesn't work as a translation. You say it like this when you hear something you don't agree with, like someting you don't wanna do or that something you've planned didn't turn out like it should have. 5. "Nu på Fredag", literally "now on Friday", is translated as "this Friday". 6. "fan vad xx" is like "xxx so much". "Fan vad det är fint här" - "It's so fucking nice here". "Fan vad dyrt" - "Damn expensive". "Fan vad du kör fort" - "You drive so damn fast". 7. "En utgång" comes from the verb "gå ut" - "go out", like to nightclubs and such. "En utgång" - "one time going out", can't really be translated. Not actually a real word either I think. 8. "framöver" - "upcoming"/"forthcoming"/"onwards". "under en vecka framöver" - "during the upcoming week". "Det ser mörkt ut framöver" - "It looks dark ahead". 9. "men" means "but", here just used without real meaning. 10. "hemlis" is a childish style version of "hemlighet" - "secret". 11. "where" is translated as "var", but if you say this as the only word in a phrase you add "då". It's like it sounds better to say "where at?" than just "where?". "Någonstans" really means "somewhere", and it's common to add this word too. Otherwise it may sound like "vad då" - "what". 12. "just det" is said when you realize something. like if you've forgotten where to go, and then remember, you say "just det, det är hit jag ska" - "oh right, that's where I'm going". 13. "att hinna" is a verb that means "to have time". Like this: "jag måste hinna med tåget" - "I have to get the train (in time)", "jag hinner inte" - "I don't have time", "hinner du komma hit?" - "Do you have time to come here?", "Jag kommer aldrig hinna dit i tid" - "I will never get there in time". 14. "åka in till stan" - "go (in) to the city". we've already spoken about going to the city, so when he says "åka in" it means go there, to the city. 15. "spänn" is slang for "kronor" - "crowns", the swedish currency. 16. "såhär" means "like this", but is commonly used as an in-between-word, like "like", and it becomes then very short, like "såä". (17). The word "ju" doesn't have an english translation. It's hard to explain it. It's when you wanna stress that someting is obvious. "Det där funkar ju inte" - "That doesn't work, can't you see?". "Sitt inte inne, det är ju fint väder" - "Don't sit inside, it's nice weather". "Jag vet att det var han, jag såg honom ju" - "I know it was him, I saw him". I think you have to get a feel for it, can't really learn when to use it. You don't really have to, but it's a nice word ;)