Podcasts about though i'm

Our first Quarantine Series Video is now live! This series aims to continue discovering the wonderful people of our world. During these difficult times, its beneficial to keep ourselves engaged and open to the world around us and the people experiencing it in different ways than us. Our first guest is Rami Hajj Deeb and here are his own words on who he is... "This is me, Rami Hajj Deeb, in social media lingo, a Lebanese based in Madrid. Grew up in Beirut to a family of four, studied civil engineering at the American University of Beirut and before I knew it I was expatriated, like many of the Lebanese youth, to Doha. Though I'm grateful to what that city offered me, I never felt like I belonged there. I just knew…It was time to trust the magic of new beginnings. I pursued a Masters degree in Madrid with no intentions of staying but here I am 8 years later in the Spanish capital that I now call home. Our homes are not defined by one particular location, but by memories, events, people, and places that span the globe. I'm a strong believer that by going away you can see the place you came from with new eyes and extra colors. Coming back to where you started is not the same as never leaving. Travel early and travel often. Live abroad, if you can. Understand cultures other than your own. As your understanding of other cultures increases your understanding of yourself and your own culture."

Though I'm a 4 am-er (on my best days), even after several years of rising so early, it's often not easy for me to get out of bed. It's a cozy place. It's comfortable and familiar. And usually, that alarm is interrupting my time flying over the city of my mind during deep vivid dreaming. But alas, the real day must start so I can "get to the money". In this episode, I walk you through what it's really like to try and wake up when you least want to. The battles our minds and hearts go through. You just might discover some ways to overcome all that like I do. Occasionally. Thanks for tuning in! Dig this episode? Subscribe to this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Google Podcasts. Find more stuff like this at bulletproofhustle.com and tag @bulletproofhustle on Instagram & FB. Lastly, it means the world to me to know what my listeners think. Let your vote count by leaving this podcast an honest review. Your rating helps it get ranked (or tanked) and lets others know whether they should tune in too. Shine hard. Grind harder.

Episode 23 is our Michael Jordan Special...where we talk all about PoE...and no MJ. Though I'm listening to Michael Jackson as I type this. He was a sweet MJ too. I wonder if either of them play(ed) PoE. I wonder if Shock chance/damage confuses(d) them. Do you think that the #23 MJ saw the video with the GGG founders from ExileCon? I wonder how they pronounce(d) Chieftain. They probably play(ed) PoE on console if they did play...I bet they own(ed) a really good pair of shoes though.www.foreverexiled.comTwitter @ForeverExiled82Path of Exile WebsiteWrecker of Days Builds ListDiscord...

Yeeerr! Welcome to the Cheers Podcast hosted by Ṣeola the girl, your girl. Queen Rona the destructive struck again and she just won't stop! Though I'm sure Ronique has ruined something near and dear to your heart, at least she didn't cancel your wedding... Unless she did... in which case I'm so sorry. Caucasian Maya and I talked about how Rona has personally impacted her nuptials and teacher bae lifestyle. Tune tf in to hear our drunken lamentations. Cheers Heaux! Follow Maya on Instagram: @maya.lita Follow the Cheers Podcast on Instagram and Twitter: @cheersthepod Don't forget to send all ministry highlights, drunken inquiries and drunk tales to talktocheers@gmail.com Intro and Transition Music: Come Through and Chill (feat. J. Cole & Salaam Remi) - Miguel.mp3 **I DO NOT OWN THE RIGHTS TO THE AFOREMENTIONED SONGS USED IN THE PRODUCTION OF THIS PODCAST**

The novel coronavirus threatens life, business, and the economy. 11 years of U.S. economic expansion could end soon. (**The entire episode transcript is below. You can read along as you listen.) Closed businesses mean that supply chains are disrupted. This could make it difficult for flippers and value-add apartment projects. Travel, hospitality, and leisure business troubles mean that short-term rentals like AirBnB will have high vacancies.  Short-term rentals cater to business travelers and vacationers - both vulnerable in this downturn. Long-term rentals are better positioned. As long as people are alive, they need a home. Mortgage interest rates have hit their lowest rate EVER since they’ve been tracked in 1971. The Fed made a 0.5% emergency rate cut. Expect more cuts. This punishes savers and rewards borrowers. Stocks recently fell more than 20% from their recent high; that's the definition of a bear market. Coronavirus’ effects are fast-moving and no one really knows the future. This is uncharted territory. With this in mind, I’d expect real estate to fare better than other asset classes. Also expect: Stronger: dollar, bonds, gold.  Weaker: many stocks & businesses, short-term rentals, oil, silver.    The unemployment rate will likely rise; I discuss what this means for your tenants. Low mortgage interest rates can be locked in for 30 years, outlasting the coronavirus pandemic. Check out our two new property providers in Orlando and Des Moines: getricheducation.com/orlando and getricheducation.com/iowa __________________ Resources mentioned: Properties, with two new markets: www.GREturnkey.com Recommended Coronavirus resource: Peak Prosperity YouTube Channel Mortgage Loans: RidgeLendingGroup.com QRPs: text “QRP” in ALL CAPS to 72000 or: TotalControlFinancial.com By texting “QRP” to 72000 and opting in, you will receive periodic marketing messages from eQRP Co. Message & data rates may apply. Reply “STOP” to cancel. New Construction Turnkey Property: NewConstructionTurnkey.com Best Financial Education: GetRichEducation.com Follow us on Instagram: @getricheducation Keith’s personal Instagram: @keithweinhold   Complete episode transcript:   Welcome to Get Rich Education. I’m your host, Keith Weinhold. The coronavirus, COVID-nineteen, has infected humans and financial markets too.   This creates both problems and opportunities for you, the investor. Today, on Get Rich Education.   Welcome to GRE. From Uruguay to the Ukraine to the UAE to the USA and across 188 nations worldwide, this is Get Rich Education. I’m your host, Keith Weinhold.    Yeah, you’re back in that abundant place, where your QUALITY OF LIFE exceeds your cost of living.   The novel coronavirus (COVID-nineteen) that began in Wuhan, China in November of last year when it transferred from animal to human is poised to affect the economy of every world nation and every U.S. state.   It's not SARS or Zika.   This transmits easily and it is perhaps 20x more deadly than the common flu.   Some experts believe it's the worst outbreak in America since the Spanish flu of 1918.   That was the worst pandemic of the 20th century.   And you know what, it didn’t have to be this way ... with coronavirus.    As my chief informant on the matter, Dr. Chris Martenson says, it didn’t have to be this way.   Often placing the economy ahead of human life, health organizations and governments have often done a DEPLORABLE job of handling this, often understating the threat.   The World Health Organization was even reluctant to acknowledge that the coronavirus is a global pandemic … which it surely has been for a long time. Well, they only acknowledged that five days ago.   Well now that agencies weren’t preparing people sooner - coronavirus is poised to threaten even more people - which in turn, will make the economy even worse than if the threat had just been accurately represented in the first place.   I’m going to focus on coronavirus’ likely effects on real estate and the other financial markets shortly.   But let’s - you and I - outline this together first.   The virus causes only mild or moderate symptoms for most people, like a fever and cough …   … but it can progress to serious illness including pneumonia, especially in older adults and people with existing health problems.    The World Health Organization says mild cases last about two weeks, while most patients with serious illness recover in about three to six weeks. Based on what I said earlier, consider the source there.   My heart goes out to the victims of this - past, present, and future.   The most credible source that I follow thinks that the virus will reach its peak in the U.S. 1 to 3 months from now.   I've followed this story closely since January and if you receive our Get Rich Education newsletter, you’ve known for a while that my favorite source of TRUSTWORTHY coronavirus information was and still is: the Peak Prosperity YouTube Channel, which Chris Martenson hosts.   In fact, I’ve mentioned that resource in our GRE newsletter for you twice - the first time was back on February 6th.   So if you get the Get Rich Education Newsletter, you’ve had plenty of time to get in front of this.   You know, it’s interesting. I had Chris Martenson on the show here earlier this year and we talked about “The Fed” printing money. That was right before coronavirus literally went viral.   Before I tell you about the affects on your real estate - both good and bad - let’s establish a baseline here.   Coronavirus is threatening because it has a substantially higher R-naught value than the flu.    If the R-naught value is greater than 1, that means that one infected person will spread the virus to MORE THAN one person then the disease can spread.   The way a virus dies out is for it’s R-naught value to be less than 1. Then, one infected person, on average spreads it to fewer than one person.   Well, the common flu has an R-naught value of about 1.3.   Coronavirus (COVID-nineteen) is believed to have an R-naught value of more than 3 and maybe even more than 6. So it spreads easily.   It spreads asymptomatically - and that’s bad.    There’s no vaccine available - and most believe it’ll take a while to develop one.   And, you can find resources elsewhere on how to prevent the spread like social distancing, avoiding gatherings, and lots of handwashing.   But because this is an investing platform and I don't have a degree in pathology or epidemiology, and much of what I just told you there, I learned myself in the past month or two …   Let me now get into my lane: how do I think coronavirus will affect your money and your real estate?   Well, it probably already has.   Businesses are closing. Colleges have suspended classes. Many events are being cancelled or postponed.    SXSW in Austin, Texas was one of the first major EVENTS to be cancelled in the U.S. March Madness basketball won’t have any crowd there.   We’ve got an entire country - Italy - that’s essentially shut down.   When businesses close and more people work from home, this disrupts supply chains.    That COULD include less supply of sheet rock or faucet handles or whatever - and affect value-add properties because so much building material comes from China.   It could be a tougher time to be a flipper then if you’re about to start a rehab or if you’re in the middle of a rehab.   If you're upgrading an apartment building, that could slow things down. You need materials.    This may or may not create disruptions for turnkey property providers. We’ll see.    You’re in a better position if you’re a prospective turnkey buyer waiting on a rehab - maybe that’ll create a delay until your property is ready. Maybe it won’t.   China accounts for nearly 30% of world manufacturing.   But importantly, they also make component goods for finished products.   An American car can't be finished if it doesn't have the battery and exhaust system from China.   Virtually every major car company has a component made in China.    Now, I see conflicting reports of whether some previously closed Chinese businesses have really come back online or not. We need to learn more there.   Travel, hospitality, and leisure businesses are already hurting.    Now, where hospitality meets real estate, we’ve got hotel rooms, Bed & Breakfasts and short-term rental platforms like AirBnB and VRBO.   Like I’ve said before, and not too long ago on the show at all - is that these short-term rentals are not very recession-resistant.   That’s because short-term rentals cater to two main groups of people - business travelers and vacationers. That’s who occupies those properties.   Well, what are business travelers and vacationers doing right now? They are postponing travel or cancelling travel left-and-right due to coronavirus concerns.   How great would you feel about owning AirBnBs right now?   Short-term rentals like AirBnBs are not as recession-resistant as long-term rentals.   Just a couple, three months ago, it probably sounded different to you when I mentioned that short-term rentals aren’t very recession-resistant.    Because perhaps you were still feeling good about our 11-year-long economic expansion.   But those same words probably sound and feel different to you now that some think that a coronavirus-induced recession could even be imminent - though that remains to be seen.   Also, expect big hits to: chemicals, pharmaceuticals, and electronics.   Apple Corporation is so dependent on Chinese manufacturing for their iPhone. That’s the bad news.   Now, let’s talk about the good news.   Mortgage interest rates have hit all-time lows - yes, lower than their lows that they hit in 2012, shortly after coming off of the Great Recession.   All-time lows - as long as Freddie Mac has been tracking them - which is since 1971. They’ve never been lower than they are now.    Today, you can get a rate in the low 3s for primary residences, I’ve even heard of a few people closing 30-year fixed amortizing loans for less than 3%. Just astoundingly good.   And of course, investor loans are often about ¾% higher than those.   The Fed has been pumping tens of billions, even hundreds of billions into the system lately … for bank liquidity.   The Fed's emergency interest rate cut of 0.5% two weeks ago is first time we've seen such a move since 2008.    That 2008 cut was in the wake of The Great Recession - that was the Lehman Brothers emergency one-half-of-one-percent cut.   Just a quick economics primer if you’re a new listener - lower interest rates for loans stoke the economy because they make you more willing to borrow & spend.   Interest rate cuts help the investor class like you, and not poor people. That’s just the truth behind who cuts actually help. It’s you!   It helps the Get Rich Education listener - you again - even more because we’re such strong proponents of responsible and sensible borrowing here.   Now, note that lower rates don’t help contain the diseas. If your grandparent gets sick, Jerome Powell’s decisions aren’t going to help that.   Right, how low would rates have to be to get you to travel to China or Italy tomorrow?   By the way, after the rate cut, President Trump was not satisfied with the amount of easing and cutting.   “More easing and cutting!” is what he tweeted following the central bank’s announcement.   But realize, of course, that long-term mortgage rates don’t move on that Fed Funds rate. The Fed controls the short-term rate - though there’s generally still a correlation there.    Long-term mortgage rates - like the ones that you really care about for real estate - they move with bond yields.   Now, bonds are like the boring can of beans or soup in the finance world - they’re safe and they’re stable.   Vigorous bond-buying makes bond prices go up and makes bond yields go down.   So this strong bond-buying … this safe have ... has dropped the 10-Year Treasury Note yield below 1% for the first time ever … and it’s fallen substantially below 1% in just a fantastic fall off the table.   OK, so they’re below 1% - and that’s a rate that was unthinkable just a few months ago.    Do you know what the average spread is between this bond yield and the 30-year mortgage rate?   On average, mortgage interest rates hover 1.8% above this rate, so you can see how low we could be going.   I think that the historic spread will widen, but despite the fact that we now have record - I mean all-time record low mortgage rates, there’s a good chance that they’ll go a little lower yet.   This is great for your new real estate buys. Refinance activity is surging right now.   But back to short-term rates that the Fed influences - more cuts there seem imminent too.   The next one could happen at the Fed's regularly scheduled meeting, which happens tomorrow and the next day.   So you’ll hear an announcement from The Fed this Wednesday about their rate cut decision.   The Fed loaded up with dry powder in 2018 when they raised rates, so that they can lower them at a time like this.   Every time they cut the rate like this, it punishes savers and rewards borrowers.   No one knows if rates will go negative - and only a few places in the world have those right now: places like Japan, Denmark, and Switzerland. We’ve never had them in America.   U.S. stock market investors are getting killed with all this uncertainty. Indices are whipsawing with volatility.   Fear pushes stocks around, but not RE. The U.S. stock market dropped 3% in just minutes when a report came out that in CA, a large number of people were exposed to coronavirus, but weren’t.    Last week was the first time that major stock indices dipped into bear market territory. That’s defined as a 20% loss from a recent high.   There was one recent trading day - just one day - where the S&P dropped 7%, triggering a circuit breaker, which paused trading for everyone for 15 minutes.  Yeah, now we’re talking about all these automatic fail-safes. When the stock market loses so much, so soon, there’s a pause in trading. By the way, the way it works is that if the S&P had declined 13% in a day, trading would’ve paused another 15 minutes.  20% in a day, and everyone would have gone home for the day. That’s how it works. Yeah, they put those circuit breakers in place after 1987’s Black Monday, when the market fell between 22 and 23%.  Stock drops are always sickening,l and if you’re within 5 years of retirement, stock drops are really scary. I’ve told you before that I haven’t owned any stock, mutual fund, or ETF since 2014 and that’s still true today. Being in something stable like real estate has rarely felt as good as it has lately.   And you know something, “volatility” is a funny word.    It seems like “volatility” used to mean something that changes rapidly, and anymore, it’s morphed into something that only means a change for the worse.   Warren Buffett says, "The stock market is a device for transferring money from the impatient to the patient."    I believe that. I’d even say that - not just the stock market - but just that, “MARKETS OVERALL are devices for transferring money from the impatient to the patient.”    Real estate investors like us are more patient. There’s no flash-selling in real estate. It might take you 30, 60 days or more to sell a property … or to buy a property.   I’d expect to see a stronger U.S. dollar because the world views it as a safe haven asset.    I expect this to be a nice tailwind for real estate too, because the world views U.S. real estate as a safe haven asset in times of uncertainty.   Gold should be strong with coronavirus concerns. That’s easy to say, since gold is the classic safe haven asset.   But remember that gold might not APPEAR stronger to Americans if the dollar strengthens.    That’s how it works. Because if gold goes up 10% and the dollar also gets 10% stronger, well then it takes just as many dollars to buy the gold.   The dollar-denominated gold price would look the same then.   I’ve read that a number of experts predict silver prices to rise on coronavirus concerns, but then I don’t see any sound rationale for them thinking this.    I disagree. I would NOT expect silver to rise.   That’s because silver has more industrial use than gold and more industrial slowdown is expected.   Let's talk more about your income properties in this coronavirus environment.   Though I'm speculating now, what if your tenant is required to self-quarantine at home and they lose their income?   This is not far-fetched.   Washington state officials were really some of the first in the U.S. to recommend that workers stay at home when they suggested that Seattle-area residents work from home.   More & more people can work from home today than anytime in modern history.    But when we’re talking about your tenants, it's unlikely that all of your tenants will lose substantial income.   Now, there are some positions where people can’t work from home so well, like mechanics, janitors, chefs and wait staff, sure. Let’s consider that ...    The current unemployment rate is 3.5%.    I’m really speculating here, but if 1 in 10 of your tenants is both laid off & without income, that’s a 10% increase in unemployment. That would be huge.   That would be like the unemployment rate going from 3.5% all the way up to 13.5% - which seems unfathomable!   And yes, realize that if 1 in 10 people were laid off it wouldn’t exactly make the 3.5% unemployment rate shoot up to 13.5%. It doesn’t exactly work that way with how it’s calculated.    But, I think you get my point.   If 1 in 10 of your tenants were both laid off and without employment, that would be massive. So keep that in perspective. Even 1 in 10 would be a lot.   Last week, Trump floated the idea of a payroll tax cut, which I don’t think would do much of anything to help - and also, extending paid leave which seems more helpful.   Companies, especially those in the service sector, are under pressure to provide paid sick leave to workers who may not be in a financial position to take time off.    Wal-Mart and McDonald’s put in safeguards for their employees.   Congress might step in. A bill has been introduced that would require companies of all sizes to provide paid sick leave.   Could your overall rental income go down? Maybe, though you have to speculate quite a bit to even think that 1 in 10 would go without an income. So that’s a maybe.   But does your mortgage interest rate go down? Definitely. It already has.   What about you?   If you lose your job, you need multiple income streams ... from places like your rentals.   And if 9 out of 10 … or 10 out of 10 of your tenants still have jobs, you probably still have that income stream because you set up your life for multiple income streams if you’ve been listening to this show & acting.   What about you - what about your job? Well ...   The lower your financial freedom, the higher the risk.   The more income streams you’ve built, the better off you are.   What about your job? The lower your financial freedom, the higher the risk.   Another benefit of a paid sick leave movement gaining momentum, is that “When people gain access to paid sick leave, the spread of the flu decreases.”    Because they’re more likely to stay home then. So that makes paid sick leave seem like more of reality.   It’s important in this situation that when you have people who have symptoms and don’t feel well, that they do not go to work and spread diseases to slow the infection rate and buy time for public health officials to develop a vaccine.   Let’s look at oil prices - because that’s a substantial input to inflation and oil is a real proxy for what’s going on in the economy. Oil prices have crumbled faster than a Nature Valley Granola bar. And that’s even before a coronavirus-induced slowdown.  What’s happened, is that with President Trump in the White House and the Republican Party controlling the Senate, environmental activists have shifted their focus from pressuring the government to pressuring the private sector instead.  Since JPMorgan is such a big financier of the fossil fuel industry, activists have really turned up the heat on them and other big banks to stop financing oil projects. That’s significant - on top of a slowdown in the economy - if fewer goods need to be produced and shipped, it uses less energy and then there’s less demand for oil. Low oil prices are generally good for consumers but bad for producer countries.    In the U.S., low oil prices are not good for real estate in areas like west Texas, parts of Louisiana, and Alaska.   But, of course, there’s the flip side of all this. At some point, low stock and oil prices mean that bargain hunters come in to float the market again at some point.   In fact, billionaire investor Sam Zell recently made remarks that oil looks like a “buy low” opportunity. So let’s look at the bottom line - real estate is still quite well-positioned as long as you’re in residential, long-term rentals that you bought for cash flow. Elsewhere: Bonds win, gold wins, the US dollar wins, many business sectors - like the ones I mentioned - lose, stocks lose, oil loses, and silver loses.   Of course, let me qualify all that by telling you that that’s my outlook and that we don’t have any recent precedent for anything else like the coronavirus. No one REALLY knows. That’s my take. --------   If you happen to be a new listener to the show, you may not know much about me. I’ve authored many written articles for both Forbes and the Rich Dad Advisors.   Business Insider recently wrote two stories about me and Get Rich Education - and how I’ve helped everyday people create financial freedom through real estate investing.    That’s what I do here!   I’m a current member of the Forbes Real Estate Council.    But maybe the more important things I can tell you are that I’ve been the host of this show every week - and I mean EVERY week continuously since 2014 - you can count on me to keep showing up here.   I own three real estate trademarks. In 2017, I authored an international best-selling book on how real estate makes ordinary people wealthy.   And perhaps the most important thing I can tell you is that I invest right alongside you, from the exact same providers that we talk about here.   Though I travel pretty well, I’ve lived my entire life in the United States, dividing this life of mine between two states - Pennsylvania and Alaska.   I have spent the last 2-and-a-half weeks visiting four countries - the United Arab Emirates, Oman, India, and Sri Lanka. Though I’m a real estate guy, I have a degree in geography so I like to travel.   One of the coolest things I did is sandboarding on a sand dune in the Arabian Desert there in the United Arab Emirates.  I couldn't find another interested person, so I did that activity all by myself. Going high in the world's tallest building, the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, was a “must” while we were there. Muscat, Oman has some surprisingly beautiful sights, and buildings, and mosques that we toured. Really clean-looking there in the nation of Oman. Immersing myself in Indian culture is something that was really novel to me - the food, the way that - the women especially in some of these outlying provinces like Goa and Kerala, India - the way the women dress in such colorful outfits ... just if they’re walking to the market to buy some guava. Such an exotic feeling there. The coolest thing that I did is visiting the world's largest slum. It’s called Dharavi and it’s in Mumbai, India. It's just sooo different from my world.  There are actually bustling little businesses inside the slums there - from plastic recycling to pottery. And the Indian people were so welcoming - even in the slums - which was just amazing to me. As I like to say, seeing poverty enriched me.  :o) I’ve got more on coronavirus and your money straight ahead. A fair bit of what I’ve discussed here about coronavirus and your money and your real estate, is material that I sent in our wealth-building Get Rich Education newsletter about 12 days ago. The newsletter is a nice, written supplement to the podcast. Of course, you can unsubscribe at any time - but very few do. My wealth-building newsletter is something that you can subscribe to … for free … at GetRichEducation.com   You’ll be glad you did. You’re listening to Get Rich Education. _____________________________________   Welcome back to Get Rich Education. I’m your host, Keith Weinhold.   It’s unknown whether coronavirus will tilt the economy into a recession or not. It’s too soon to know. I’ll keep you updated on that here, of course.   For you, I think it helps to listen to a perspective that’s invested through a recession before.   I’ve been investing directly in real estate since 2002 - which was before the Great Recession.   I made a major income property purchase in 2007 - which was just within that recession (in fact, I mentioned that four-plex purchase last week on the show).   And I kept buying in 2010, as the recession wound down - and in 2012.   Well, what’s the common thread there? It’s that I continued to prosper because I bought for cash flow first.   It’s that I bought in multiple geographic markets for diversification - a recession-resilient strategy.   Residential rentals that were leased to long-term tenants.   People need a place to live. And as long as they're alive, a virus is not going to change that.   But see, a virus might mean people stop using vacation rentals and stop taking business trips and stop going to the mall and stop going to the office to work.   We’re talking about HOMES. Well, we could soon have more people working from … home.    Not office, not retail, not short-term rentals. They all look vulnerable now.   And by the way, that doesn’t mean I’m a permabear on those asset types. There’s always opportunity. But recession-resistence just isn’t one of their qualities.   I’m not saying short-term rentals never make an ounce of sense or anything like that.   Some companies are basically using the coronavirus as an experiment for that moment when “working remotely could broadly replace working in-person.”   Some people think that time is coming.   This can ACCELERATE THE - you’re seeing the acronym “WFM” around a lot more now -    the “work from home” movement. As people get more used to using workflow software and using platforms like Slack or Trello from home because they HAVE to, you know, when coronavirus passes - and it will - some might ask, now why return to an office all?   With each passing day, the camp of people believing that this is all fear-mongering loses troops.   We’ll see if the peak for coronavirus will be that 1-3 months from now like some experts predict. That’s the latest I’ve heard from credible sources. But again, we really don’t know.   That’s why I like to focus on things that we do know. So let’s focus on what we do know now:   The coronavirus threat will pass sometime. We just don’t know when. But it will pass.   A second thing we know is that people will continue to need a home - a place to live.   And thirdly, mortgage interest rates have hit their lowest level in American history.   So with those being the things that we DO know - this can be QUITE an opportunity to not only lock up investment property buys at historically low rates, but potentially, do that cash-out refinance of your existing home if you think that that’s in your best interest.   Procrastinators often aren’t rewarded. But, hey, maybe you are this time with rates being this low - or maybe you really weren’t because you had dead equity accumulated in one place for too long.   With borrowing rates underneath the basement, a lot of homeowners are racing to lock in cheaper loans.  I think we could see low to mid 3% rates on investment properties, and below 3% on primary residences. Mortgage refinancing applications have more than doubled in volume from the same time last year - that’s according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. And industry records are being shattered. Bloomberg reported that :  The country’s No. 1 mortgage lender, Quicken Loans, recently had its busiest day for mortgage applications in its 35-year history. United Wholesale Mortgage approved a single-day record of $2.5 billion in loans.  These stories are all over the place. The thing is, to process this flood of applications you’re going to need a lot of people. So the mortgage industry is on a hiring spree to take advantage of the gold rush. Our preferred mortgage provider is doing a lot of volume now as well - RidgeLendingGroup.com - that’s R-I-D-G-E. Just calculate your ROI just from principal reduction alone at these low rates. It’s pretty remarkable.  I think that the thing that you need to remember is … that long-term thinking. "Investing should not be about a MOMENT; it should be about a PROCESS OVER TIME.” Some of the classic problems with GETTING STARTED in real estate are ones that I’ve helped solve for you here.   I think that Problem 1 for people is that they feel like it costs a small fortune to GET started.    Problem 2 is FINDING the property. Often times, it’s because properties in your area don’t make sense with your 20% down payment and 80% loan.   I’ve really helped solve both of those problems.    By selecting investor-advantaged markets, with down payment & closing costs you can get started with as low as … about $18K - and they’re in areas where the numbers make sense … all at the website … GREturnkey.com   In fact, at the top of the page there, there’s that 8-step flowchart where I walk you through the process.   You start by getting pre-approved for a mortgage - I even suggest where - and then reading an investor due diligence report …   … all the way through to viewing properties, making an offer, getting your third-party inspection, appraisal, signing your Management Agreement, Closing on the Property … and then the really good part - years of owning and collecting the rent.    It’s rarely been easier - though the process still takes time & you need to supply your mortgage loan underwriter with plenty of documentation.   That’s all outlined at the same place where I buy my property: GREturnkey.com   What about some current highlights over there?   Well, it’s a great time to invest in Florida for a lot of reasons - you’ll find providers in Tampa, Orlando, and Jacksonville.   Our Orlando provider was recently added - they’re now - and they have NEW CONSTRUCTION - yes, newly-built, never-before occupied - single-family homes and duplexes … and they’re in locations from the Space Coast to The Villages, through Orlando, and nearly out to Tampa.    We’ve got another new provider on the page if you’re looking for more cash flow and less appreciation than what you’d typically get on new construction, and that is in … Iowa.   Yeah, I’m proud to introduce the Des Moines, Iowa market to you today.    It’s a model of midwestern stability and Des Moines has an MSA population of 600 to 700,000 people.   Des Moines has seen an average 3.6% appreciation over the last twenty years. I think of it as a cash flow market.   A lot of times, you might be buying for, say a 4 or 6 or 8 or 10% cash-on-cash return today.    If you have a little more patience and you want to potentially double your CCR, then, rather than the turnkey model - where you buy a property that’s already renovated - you might prefer the BRRRR model.   That stands for Buy – Renovate – Rent – Refinance – and Recycle Model - recycling your money to re-use right away.    That BRRRR model is suited to Baltimore, Maryland - within commuter distance to Washington, D.C. at just a fraction of the price.   All those markets - including the new turnkey markets with inventory TODAY in Orlando and Des Moines, plus the Baltimore BRRRR market, plus that 8-step flowchart that helps serve as a roadmap for you are all in one convenient place - all on one page - at GREturnkey.com   Market uncertainty is a short-term phenomena.   But when you lock up these lowest mortgage interest rates in American history - they can last you 30 years.   When the dust settles from any current news, you know what, you’ve still going to have your mortgage rate.   Stay safe. Enjoy these historically low mortgage interest rates … I sure am. Take action at GREturnkey.com   I’m Keith Weinhold and I’ll be back next week to help you build your wealth. Don’t quit your daydream!  

Welcome! In this episode we do some necessary introductions. My name is Jeff Wagg and I converted a 2014 Nissan NV200 SV into a stealth camper van. Though I'm not living in it full time, I've traveled coast to coast over the past year and have learned quite a lot through the process. My hope is that this podcast will be your companion as you work on your rig, travel, or just wish for a little bit of #vanlife while you're doing things outside of your van. TALES FROM THE ROAD: Sevier LakeI visited Sevier Dry Lake in West Central Utah and discovered some odd and unexpected (creepy) things. - Campsite: https://goo.gl/maps/1yxof3j239yWn5VK8- Boat location: https://goo.gl/maps/2sxFnyhEVV8chn3cA  TECH TALK: Backup BatteriesDo you have one? I do, and it's saved my butt a couple of times. Here are many to choose from- Affiliate Link: https://amzn.to/2S13Prs A PLACE TO VISIT: Lunar LakeWant to drive on a dry lake bed without fear of getting stuck or getting salt all over everything? This is the place. - Directions to Lunar Lake: https://goo.gl/maps/15MGGGLgRVrWpdVYA RESOURCE RECOMMENDATION: VansformationOnly 20 episodes long, this British podcast is full of interesting information and suggestions for your build. http://vansformation.com/category/podcast/

Been a crazy week you know, things have happened both serious and hilarious. But here the moist boys never shy away from the sensitive topics. Though I'm pretty sure after this podcast we will. So as usual sit back relax and listen in on a very moist take on the recent events that have been plaguing our nation. But i believe that the day will arrive when the inevitable will happen. Yes one day the unexpected will occur and for the first time it what feel like for ever Sam will finally have a topic. Today is not that day though.

Though I'm two weeks late, it's the one year anniversary of the podcast (don't worry, I don't treat my wedding anniversary the same way). So, to celebrate, ANOTHER Curtis Hill update. To get completely up to speed, please go back and listen to Episode 2A and Episode 7 (which I recommend 3 dozen times throughout this episode). Stay to the end for a couple of personal observations. And, as always, please rate and review the show. Please open the Open Submission policy, if you'd like to be on the show. @Ihavesomanypod (Twitter); Ihavequestionspodcast@gmail.com (e-mail); www.facebook.com/ihavesomanyquestionspodcast (Facebook). --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/i-have-questions/message

In episode 87 of Pastured Poultry Talk, I talked with Erin Angulo about her Delaware chicken breeding success and the formation of a new association designed to help breeders learn. I'm taking this opportunity to follow up with my own thoughts on Erin's interview. [caption id="attachment_1848" align="alignright" width="284"] SASSO Naked Neck meat birds growing on pasture at Badger's Millside Farm.[/caption] Erin mentioned the need to evaluate your needs in terms of selecting the right bird for your circumstances, and that's a really basic need for pastured poultry producers of any type. The chicken you choose dictates what type of pastured poultry farm you will be. If your intent is to scale up and be a production farm focused on reaching the maximum number of people as possible, the Cornish Cross is your primary choice. That's just the way it is. In episode 44 of The Fighting Farmer podcast, Spence talked about the choice between production capacity, market demand, and what that meant for heritage versus hybrid. He's all in on the Cornish cross, much like other scaled up, full-time pastured producers. However, that doesn't mean he hates standard breeds like the Delaware. Too often people go into heritage breeds without a full grasp on the reality of their situations. If you go the heritage chicken route, you have a different market, different experience, and a much small smaller scale. As I share in this episode, I think heritage poultry fills a specific need inside the pastured poultry community, but we need breeders like Erin to make improvements that give growers an advantage. That's why I wanted to showcase Erin's work. She's an example of a heritage meat chicken producer who is going in the right direction, and the question I always ask when I share her progress is, "are you willing to put forth that effort in your own breeding program?" For my part in the breed selection, I've largely left the Cornish Cross behind. I'm not opposed to them. I think most of the problems growers face with the CX could be solved with a mirror. But I've crossed over to a slower growing hybrid. I'm sweet on the SASSO Naked Neck from So Big Farms. Though I'm not sure how long those birds will be around. John needs demand to keep his breeding program current. It's not easy importing breeding stock from France. In episode 87,  Erin touched on the fickle demand. On one hand we need heritage poultry breeders to be able to supply some scale to their growers; on the other, we need growers to demand reliable supply from the breeders. Erin told me off interview that she's charging $10 per chick. That's nearly 7x the price of a hybrid chick. Price in chickens is always affected by scale, and it's clear we don't have enough demand to bring the per chick price down. As a grower, I find that initial investment tough to be competitive if all I want to do is raise chickens for a consumer market. That's where I think Heritage Poultry Breeders come in. This group is founded by people I personally trust, and I believe their commitment to help people become better breeders is an important step. By making breeding information more widely available, we can get more people improving their poultry lines in documented ways quicker.  Even though this association is separate from SPN, I don't want to lose sight of Jim Adkin's work. Two of the earliest and popular episodes on this podcast feature Jim. He's clear in his enthusiasm for his work, and I personally think he disrupted the heritage poultry space enough to refocus the heritage poultry community. I think HPB offers a great entry point for breeders in a way that other organizations don't. I'd like to see all these related associations ultimately unite their niches through friendly relationships and collaboration to create a broad and deep community to disrupt the current approach to chicken. There's room for hybrids, heritage, educators, advocates, mentors, missionaries, and pastured producers. Resources from the Episode The Fighting Farmer Episode Heritage Poultry Breeders SPN So Big Farms in Van, TX These Pastured Poultry Talk episodes were mentioned: https://pasturedpoultrytalk.com/2019/07/04/breeding-delaware-chickens/ https://pasturedpoultrytalk.com/2015/07/24/ppt013-not-a-backyard-chicken-club-jim-adkins-interview-part-1-2/ https://pasturedpoultrytalk.com/2015/07/31/ppt0014-coaching-time-with-jim-adkins-2/  

A bonus ep from our Patreon feed to make up for the gaps in our schedule recently. Who is Hirohiko Araki?Is he a man? A vampire? A Benjamin Button werewolf ghost?It's time to venture deep and learn about that eccentric, lovable genius we all want to meet. We've picked some of the finest interviews to glean insight into who and/or what Araki is.... Though I'm less sure than ever if this man is even real.

Full Transcript Below Show Summary: Blind Abilities Teen Correspondent Simon Bonenfant introduces us to Anthony Ferraro. Anthony shares his inspiring story of dealing with his blindness and a variety of life's challenges, yet finding his own special means of rising above them all. Join Simon and Anthony as they chronicle Anthony’s early education, following in the footsteps of his father and brother and discovering that wrestling offered him the precise outlet he needed to overcome his anger, the challenges of his disability, and his unique relationship with his family. Anthony rose to become a champion in high school wrestling, is now competing at a world-class level in international Judo competitions and is speaking to youth and parent groups about his journey. Anthony is also  a musician, performing publicly with his guitar and vocals, and of course, we include excerpts of Anthony’s music and speeches in this podcast. Also listen as Anthony describes his nonprofit organization whose goal is to influence transition-aged blind youth and their parents to set their goals high and achieve excellence. Please sit back and enjoy this fascinating, 30-minute chat with Anthony Ferraro. You can find out about Anthony, request that he speak to your group, follow his athletic achievements as he moves towards the 2020 Paralympics in Tokyo, and hear his music on his web site, and YouTubePage.: www.ASFVision.com   You can send an email to Anthony at: A@ASFVision.com * Here is a link to the Trailer for the film about Anthony’s high-school wrestling  ambitions, A Shot in the Dark: https://vimeo.com/ondemand/ashotinthedark * And here is a link to the video made by Anthony’s late brother Oliver about youth dealing with blindness, Find The Light, Shine The Light: https://vimeo.com/28091658 Contact: Thank you for listening! 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 Storeand Google Play Store. Check out the Blind Abilities Communityon Facebook, the Blind Abilities Page, the Job Insights Support Groupand the Assistive Technology Community for the Blind and Visually Impaired.   Full Transcript Meet Anthony Ferraro - Athlete, Motivational Speaker, Musician and Advocate for Disabled Youth   Pete Lane: Meet Anthony Ferraro. Anthony Ferraro: My mother and I lived in Chestnut Hill in a one-bedroom apartment. The rest of my family would be home taking care of themselves, so everyone was making a sacrifice. Pete Lane: Anthony is a motivational speaker. Anthony Ferraro: My name's Anthony Ferraro and I'm 23 years old. I wasn't treated any differently growing up, by my family at least. I was the youngest of five. Pete Lane: An athlete. Anthony Ferraro: My older brother and my dad, they both wrestled so I thought I'd try it out. When I started in seventh grade I was terrible. Speaker 3:  [inaudible]. That's two. That's two. That's two. Speaker 4: There's no more. I'm not losing [inaudible 00:00:33]. That's not the subject anymore. You are a great wrestler, man. Speaker 5: We've all got a lottery ticket. Anthony Ferraro: I won 122 matches in high school and I won districts twice. I took fourth in the region twice and all these things against sighted kids, not carrying the stigma of you shouldn't be doing this, I didn't listen to that. Anthony Ferraro: And he said, "Would you consider training for the 2020 Paralympics in Tokyo?" Speaker 6: Now on the mat we have Anthony Ferraro of the United States of America and he is facing Ishibashi Ganke of Japan. Pete Lane: A musician. Anthony Ferraro: Because I'm going where the water going to taste like wine. I'm going where the water going to taste like wine. Though I'm going where ... Pete Lane: And Anthony is an advocate for blind teenagers and their parents. Anthony Ferraro: I'm working on building a nonprofit organization, trying to influence transitional youth right now, while at the same time empowering parents to raise children with no limits. Pete Lane: In an interview conducted by our teen correspondent, Simon Bonenfant. Simon Bonenfant: It was great to see Oliver and his life and his vision, he truly had a vision. Pete Lane: Blind Abilities presents: A Chat with Anthony Ferraro. Simon Bonenfant: Hello Blind Abilities. This is Simon Bonenfant here and I'm here at Saint Lucy Day School for The Blind today and I'm here talking to Anthony Ferraro who is a blind motivational speaker, athlete and a musician. You're doing a lot of things. How are you doing, Anthony? Anthony Ferraro: I'm doing great, Simon. Thanks for having me. Simon Bonenfant: Oh, my pleasure. Anthony, why don't we start talking a little bit about yourself. What has your journey been like? Anthony Ferraro: I was born about a month and a half premature with Leber's congenital amaurosis, which is LCA for short. It's a degenerative eye condition attacking the retina. When this happened my parents were told one thing, not to treat me any differently than any other one of their five children. I'm the youngest of five and I grew up in Spring Lake, New Jersey, which is a small beach town. Anthony Ferraro: The first thing my parents needed to find was education. They did a lot of research and they found the best place in the country was Saint Lucy Day School for the Blind where you learn Braille and all the tools you need to learn to mainstream essentially into the sighted schools. The first step was reaching out, and it was two hours away from where I grew up. Simon Bonenfant: Wow. Anthony Ferraro: My mother and father, they wanted me to get transportation from Spring Lake all the way to Philly every day but the state would not provide it. There was a huge court case at the time and while this was going on my mother and I lived in Chestnut Hill in a one-bedroom apartment during the week. The rest of my family would be home taking care of themselves almost and my dad would get home late from work so everyone was making a sacrifice. Anthony Ferraro: Finally the court case came to a resolution where they provided transportation for me to go from Spring Lake to Philly every day. That's where I really started, coming to Saint Lucy's and learning the tools to be able to be successful in the real world. When seventh grade came around we thought it was time, after talking to Sister Meg, the principal, and teachers of mine and said I was ready to go into the mainstream school. Anthony Ferraro: At this time, in seventh grade, I went to H.W. Mountz in Spring Lake. I was the only blind kid in the school and it was a little weird at first. I tried faking not being blind, tried hiding my Braille books under my desk and on my lap to look more normal. It's pretty hard to hide your blindness when you're the only blind person. Then I started ... I needed to find an identity, something to fit in with the other kids and things like that. Anthony Ferraro: I always used to play soccer and stuff like that, just recreational, with teams and then I realized it wasn't very realistic. My older brother and my dad, they both wrestled. They were really good; my brother took fifth in the state of New Jersey for Christian Brothers Academy. Simon Bonenfant: Wow, that's great. Anthony Ferraro: I always looked up to him so I thought I'd try it out. When I started in seventh grade I was terrible, I went about 2 and 12. One of my wins was a forfeit where you just go out and they raise your hand. I remember leaving my last match of seventh grade saying to my dad after losing, "Dad, I've got to get good. I want to be good. I can't just be mediocre at this." He said, "All right, Anthony," just thinking it was me coming off a loss and just feeling sorry. Weeks later I said, "Dad, where's that club?" He's like, "All right, I've got to find it." Anthony Ferraro: He found a club. The club he found was Rhino Wrestling Club with this guy Mike Malinconico. He wrote an email to him saying, "My son, he's 160 pounds, he's a seventh grader, he's motivated, he wants to learn how to wrestle well. Oh, and one more thing, he's blind." The first thing Mike wrote back was, "That's awesome." He says to this day he doesn't know if that was the right thing to say but that's what he said. Simon Bonenfant: Yeah, there you go. Anthony Ferraro: He took the challenge. He wanted it, he wanted to teach me. He even says, he's like, "Training a blind wrestler is a lot easier than training an unmotivated wrestler." Because I was motivated. I used to go every day Monday through Thursday to the club at night from 7 to 9 and then I used to go to a tournament every weekend. The first tournaments I went to I would get so badly beaten I was getting discouraged, but I started telling myself, "You've got this. You've just got to set your goals a little ..." I had these high goals but start having other goals that are realistic at this point in time right now. Anthony Ferraro: I started telling myself, "Why don't you start trying to score a point. Start there, start little." And then when that started happening I started scoring more than one point and then I started beating kids. I started seeing hard work paying off, all my time and effort that I was putting in every day. I was wrestling sighted kids and they didn't care because I was a little blind kid that was getting tossed around all the time. Anthony Ferraro: Then I started winning and in eight grade I ended up going 24 and 1, winning the whole championship in middle school. In my championship match I was losing 14 to 3 with 30 seconds left. I was on my feet and I took the kid and threw him right to his back and pinned him. When I wrestle, you have to stay in contact with me at all times, when we break away I have no idea where you are so the referee will blow the whistle and bring you back into the center. No one ever complained about this until that day when the kid's dad came over to my dad and said, "You know, your son has an unfair advantage. He doesn't belong in this sport and he should go try the Special Olympics or just try a different sport, it's not fair to my son that he has to stay in contact." This was really discouraging because I just worked so hard and I'm beating these kids. Simon Bonenfant: And you won. Anthony Ferraro: Yeah, I won. Simon Bonenfant: Right, yeah. Anthony Ferraro: That's it. I didn't let it affect me too much. At this time my brothers both went to Christian Brothers academy. I had a handwritten letter of acceptance to go there and they were getting my books Brailled for high school. Simon Bonenfant: Okay, that was high school. Anthony Ferraro: Yeah. Simon Bonenfant: Okay, I wasn't clear about that. Anthony Ferraro: This was an eighth grade match but I'm about to transition into high school and I find out that the president who wrote that letter died over Christmas time in my eighth grade year and they then sent a letter saying, "Anthony is no longer accepted. He will not fit into the culture or the environment," things like this. It was once again really discouraging. The first time I was told I couldn't do something because of my visual impairment, couldn't go to a place I wanted to go to. Anthony Ferraro: As a 14-year-old kid it's really hard to hear. Life's not fair and it's one of your first real close encounters with that. I just kept wrestling and going to my club and training hard. One day I got a phone call from St. John Vianney and it's the wrestling coach. He said he heard about me and he would really love to get me to go to this school. He fought and fought and finally they were going to provide the accommodations and get my books Brailled. I ended up going to this school, St. John Vianney, in Holmdel, New Jersey. Anthony Ferraro: When I went there, once again the only blind kid, but this time I didn't know a single person. I really felt almost alone, but training and wrestling really gave me an identity. Simon Bonenfant: An outlet for you. Anthony Ferraro: Yes, an outlet to express myself and to just get some anger out too because I was a little angry as a kid just being blind and not understanding why or what's going on, why are these things happening to me. Wrestling really just ... Watching myself grow and get better, it was like the blindness didn't matter. I started going to St. John Vianney and making a name for myself. I think my freshman year I went 19 and 5 on varsity. My sophomore year they elected me as a captain, I was the first ever three-year captain on varsity there. I won the district championship as a sophomore, I won it again as a junior. When I won it as a junior, my brother Oliver went to film school actually. Simon Bonenfant: Yeah, we'll talk about him. Anthony Ferraro: Yeah. He took a short interview of me, about two minutes, just talking about what it was like to be a blind wrestler, a blind just teenager and dealing with some adversity in life. He had a vision, he posted this and said, "This is my little brother and I want to make a film about him. If you are a camera operator, a producer, anything, please contact me because I don't have all the resources to do this." Anthony Ferraro: After my junior year winning the districts it was posted and a guy who was a teammate of my high school wrestling coach in college reached out, who is a film producer, independent, and he said, "What are you doing with this? It's really amazing, this story." My brother told him, "Not doing anything. Don't have the resources, blah, blah, blah." They ended up having a meeting and sitting down, talking it over, and then deciding that they would do a full feature-length documentary about my senior year, following me around in high school, wrestling, things like that, and trying to become the first blind state champion in New Jersey. Anthony Ferraro: My senior year goes on, I do all these things. I worked very hard and sometimes you don't meet your high goal. At the end of the year when I looked back I took second in the district and fourth in the region so if I were to take third in the region I would have went to the states, but I just missed it in overtime. Anthony Ferraro: After I realized I won 122 matches in high school, I won districts twice, I took second in districts and I took fourth in the region twice. All these things against sighted things, not carrying the stigma of you shouldn't be doing this or you have an unfair advantage, I didn't listen to that. Anthony Ferraro: They filmed everything my senior year and after they kind of put it on the shelf. I did an article for ESPN my senior year and I got reached out by a blind guy named Erik Weihenmayer who read the article. He reached out to me saying he had a similar story, he wrestled, doing all these things. He asked me if I would consider going to hike in Peru up 16,000 feet on a trail called the Lares Trek. It would take four days and then you would go see Machu Picchu after that and work with orphanages and do all this community service. I took the challenge right away, I said this is an unbelievable experience opportunity, so I did that. Anthony Ferraro: I then went to college, I went to the College of New Jersey after that summer. I wrestled for about a year and a half, then my sophomore year of college I received a concussion in wrestling and I stopped wrestling. I stopped going to college because I wanted to figure out what it is I wanted to do. Anthony Ferraro: Then I moved to California for about a year and a half and I lived there with some friends. I was just working and trying to figure things out. In 2015 Chris Suchorsky, the film producer, he took the film off the shelf and he was like, "You know, there's a story here and I need to finish this because it's been hanging over my head." He put together the first 15 minutes of this film and he loved what he had. He thought there was going to be a great story and then he planned to meet with my brother, Oliver, to show him the first 15 minutes. Anthony Ferraro: The day before they were supposed to meet, Oliver passed away in his sleep at the age of 27 and he never got to see any of the film he created and filmed. But Chris, at Oliver's funeral, he vowed to my family that no matter what it took he would finish this film. Anthony Ferraro: I move home from California and it's Christmastime and I get home one night and I end up finding my mother at the bottom of the stairs in a coma. She had fallen down the stairs and cracked her head. I rushed her upstairs, I called the hospital, ambulance came and she was in a coma for about two months. The doctors told me it would take forever for her to get back to herself, it's going to be a huge transition. In about six months my mom was walking, she was talking, no problem. Simon Bonenfant: That's terrific. Anthony Ferraro: She was yelling at me when my room was dirty, all these things. She's now driving again, she goes to yoga every day. She had a miraculous recovery. Anthony Ferraro: Fast-forward a little, Chris puts the trailer for the film that he created on this website called Kickstarter. Speaker 5: Wrestling to me is the hardest sport. Honestly, it's the toughest thing I ever did in my life. Speaker 6: I think wrestlers are the marine corps of all high school and college sports. I think it's the greatest sport. Speaker 7: If a basketball game gets really, really heated they might push each other. That's where we start. Anthony Ferraro: Kickstarter, you have 30 days to raise the goal of the money that you put. We put $35,000 but we really needed about 70 to finish the film. But if you don't raise your goal then Kickstarter takes it all, so we put 35 and we raised that money in about four days and six hours. Simon Bonenfant: Wow, that's great. I remember when this happened. Anthony Ferraro: Yeah. Simon Bonenfant: [crosstalk] Anthony Ferraro: Yeah. It got about a million views, the trailer, on Facebook and all over social media. Speaker 8: No doubt in my mind he's got it in him. Speaker 9: Right to his back! Right to his back! Anthony Ferraro: I plan on being the first blind state champion. Speaker 10:         If all goes well, Anthony should accomplish that goal. I really don't see why he wouldn't. Speaker 11: Come on. Come on. Speaker 12: Go Anthony! 13 seconds! Add 13 seconds! Anthony Ferraro: We ended up raising $85,000 to finish the film and Chris finished it. While this was going on, the film was circulating, the trailer and all these views. One of the people that saw it was the United States Olympic Committee. One day I'm sitting at my house just hanging out and I get a phone call. I'm like, "Hello?" They're like, "Hi, this is so-and-so from the United States Olympic Committee." Right away in my head I'm thinking, you have the wrong number. "We saw your trailer and we see the talent you have in wrestling." Unfortunately, wrestling is no longer in the Paralympics, which is pretty insane because it was one of the original Olympic sports. He said, "Judo is the next best thing, it's a martial art. It's similar to wrestling with throws and then they incorporate chokes and armbars. Anthony Ferraro: He said, "Would you consider training for the 2020 Paralympics on Tokyo to try and quality to compete there?" He said, "You would go around the world competing in these tournaments." At the time I was kind of seeing all the stuff with the film, I was like, you know, I didn't do what I wanted to do. I didn't have my goal met. I just was feeling like I want to get after it again, I want something to chase, I want a big goal. For it to change from trying to be the best in the state to trying to be the best in the world, it's an unbelievable opportunity. Anthony Ferraro: The first person I called was Mike Malinconico and I said, "Mike, I got a call from the Paralympic Committee asking me if I would train Judo." He said, "Shut up and go do it." That's exactly what I did. I took his advice and I ran with it. Anthony Ferraro: Since then I've been training Judo for about two years. I've won nationals, a national champion and I'm on the Paralympic world team. I fought in my first world championship in Portugal in November and I have my next world championship coming up actually in about three weeks from now in Azerbaijan. Speaker 6: Now on the mat we have Anthony Ferraro of the United States of America and he is facing Ishibashi Genki of Japan. Beautiful movement of Ferraro here scoring a Wazaari score with a right seoi nage technique. He was making great use of the movement of Ishibashi. Ishibashi was going in for a right hip throw for uchi mata. Ferraro was making use of that movement by coning under and scoring a Wazaari ... Anthony Ferraro: This opportunity, it's really a great opportunity. Going around, having this platform where you can really influence people. You can go two ways with it, positive or negative. I'm choosing to be positive to help people achieve their goals and motivate people. Something I say is, the only disability is a bad attitude. It's true. I know people in wheelchairs climbing rock walls, going mountain climbing, all these things. And then I know people that have no visible disability, nothing wrong with them except they have a bad attitude and just sit around and make excuses and feel sorry for themselves. Anthony Ferraro: Right now something I'm working on while I go around doing motivational speaking ... Anthony Ferraro: I used to skateboard, I still do sometimes. I used to surf, just because people tell me I couldn't so I was like, "Oh, watch me." I used to ride bikes until I kept hitting parked cars. It's like, I just kept going, I wouldn't let the visual impairment, being blind, affect me. Anthony Ferraro: I'm a guitar player. I play in local bars and restaurants. Anthony Ferraro: Living in Brooklyn, New York right now. Simon Bonenfant: Great. Anthony Ferraro: Yeah, so it's really a lot of fun and it's a great opportunity. Teaching people that life can hit hard, but you have to keep going because there's a light on the other side. God has really put His hand in my life where He has just given me these blessings. You turn to God when things go wrong and you say, why are You taking from me? Why is this stuff happening to me, blah, blah, blah. But one day God just ... I'm asking him these things and I turn around and He's like, look at everything I'm giving you. Look at all this stuff. He's like, yeah Ollie was your brother but he's my son. I can't hold on to that anger or that resentment, I have to learn to love through it all. Anthony Ferraro: Right now I'm working on building a nonprofit organization actually. I'm trying to influence transitional youth right now to set goals high and push past life's obstacles while at the same time empowering parents and adult influencers to raise children with no limits. Labels are limiting. If you tell someone they can't do something, sometimes they're not going to do it just because you told them. I was the opposite. When someone told me something, you can't do that, blah, blah, blah, I'd go, "Watch me." Simon Bonenfant: You used that as a challenge to do it. Yeah, and do it the best. Anthony Ferraro: Exactly. Simon Bonenfant: To prove them wrong. Yep. There you go. Anthony Ferraro: To prove myself wrong too, to know that I can do it. I grew up with 60 cousins. Simon Bonenfant: Wow. Anthony Ferraro: My mom's the second oldest of 13. She never raised me any differently. I would be at the store as a kid and I'd say, "Mom, I want this toy or something." She'd be like, "All right. Here's five bucks. Go find the counter and pay for it." I'd be like, "Are you kidding me? I don't know where it is. I'm scared. Help me." Looking back, it empowered me to be able to advocate for myself, which is very important. Where I am now, it's been a long journey so far and I'm only 24 years old. Simon Bonenfant: Wow, that is amazing. Anthony Ferraro: I'm just so excited to see what's next and what's more to come. I'm just embracing life and enjoying every minute of it. It's not always easy either, but you have to acknowledge those hard times and feel it and get through it. Simon Bonenfant: I'd like to go back and just talk about your family a little bit to give listeners some context. I actually went to the same school as you, Saint Lucy School, that's where I went to for grade school as well as you. I know your mother and your brother Oliver very well. Your mother was the art teacher here at the school, so I've known her for a very long time. Just describing the way she raised you and the stuff that she instilled in you, when you were telling me that I was like, yep that's Mrs. Ferraro right there, that's who she is. She's just a very loving person but a pushing person to push through the challenge and giving support through it. She's a very good person and it sounds like a very inspirational person in your life as well. Anthony Ferraro: Absolutely. Simon Bonenfant: Your brother Oliver actually did a documentary with me and some of the other students at Saint Lucy School about eight or nine years ago called Find the Light and Shine the Light. Speaker 14: If I could see I would feel like ... You know what? I'm not meant to see. Something's telling me that I'm not meant to see. What I'm meant to be is to perform and to take people's breath away. That's what I'm meant to be. I'm not meant to be visual, I'm meant to cheer up people inside people's hearts. I'm not meant to be visual and light up their smile, I'm meant to be the smile in their heart. I'm meant to be their healing. I'm meant to be the happiness in people's hearts, that's what I'm meant to be, I feel like. Simon Bonenfant: I'll actually include a link into the show notes for the podcast of that as well as your film that just got released, I'll put links into there. That documentary that he did of me really captures a lot of what I say and your message as well. I've known Oliver, I had the pleasure of knowing him and he was an absolute inspiration, very inspirational. Anthony Ferraro: Thank you for saying that. That documentary, the Find a Light, Shine a Light, that one gives me chills every time I watch it. The way he was able to transcend that message through you guys and the way you guys spoke, it made things clear and it was just so beautiful to see. Simon Bonenfant: Oh yeah. Yeah, it was great. It was great to see Oliver and his life and his vision. He truly had a vision for his life and for you. He was able to create these films and do this very well. He always set his goals as high as well as you. I remember talking with him throughout the years and hearing the stuff that he was up to, and it was very good stuff. He was just a motivational guy as well. Anthony Ferraro: Oliver was a ... He was a hustler, you know? Simon Bonenfant: Oh yeah, he was. Anthony Ferraro: He worked so hard. He was self-made to say the least. I remember he bought a house at 25 years old in Spring Lake Heights, New Jersey. He was a funny guy. The things he would get, I remember it was almost like a status thing when he bought a Rolex, he was all pumped. He just worked hard for the things he had. He loved people. Simon Bonenfant: He did. Anthony Ferraro: He loved people so much and he was able to tell their story almost for them in such a beautiful way and he saw that. He would see the beauty in everything. He was even the guy who when people were talking bad about someone he would challenge them and be like, "Why do you really think that because I think this about that person." And really show their positivity and the good things about them. Simon Bonenfant: That's great. It sounds like that is in you too, that drive, that motivation, and you're a people person too, you like people. Anthony Ferraro: Absolutely. Simon Bonenfant: You're good with people. That's great. Anthony Ferraro: I feel when I lost him that I really, really embodied a lot of him. Simon Bonenfant: You did. Anthony Ferraro: He's there all the time. Simon Bonenfant: Oh yeah. Anthony Ferraro: I'm traveling all the time. I just got back from Germany two weeks ago from a tournament and I just feel him everywhere around the world. I've had the pleasure these past two years to go to Tokyo, to Brazil, to Germany, to Portugal, all these places and it's just such a blessing because it's from his vision and our vision that I'm able to fulfill this and do these things because he sort of paved this roadmap for me where he's like, "All right, well I started it for you, you've got to finish it and figure the rest out." Now I'm here like, "Oh, can you come back and help me with some of this stuff?" But it's really beautiful what I have in front of me. Simon Bonenfant: Oh yeah. It's great that you're keeping his legacy going and the man behind the film as well. Anthony Ferraro: You have to. Simon Bonenfant: That's great. Anthony Ferraro: Thank you. Simon Bonenfant: He's proud of you and all of the stuff you're doing. Simon Bonenfant: You've been able to accomplish a lot of amazing things. As we all have some fears and doubts, was there ever a time for you where in any of your accomplishments you've had any fears or doubts and how did you deal with that? How did you push past some of those obstacles in your own mind? Anthony Ferraro: Some of the things I dealt with, like I said too, was just the things people would say against me. It would make me question that, like am I good enough? Do I really have an unfair advantage? Am I really just lucky or these things. You have to dig deep in yourself and realize who you are. A lot of it was soul searching and really pushing past people's stigma of what they think should be. Simon Bonenfant: What do you talk about now in your motivational speaking? Are you going to tell your story? Anthony Ferraro: I talk about where we get given these obstacles or these challenges but what we do with them really defines us in the end, how we overcome. Some people will back down from a challenge when something comes up in life and that will keep happening, we create these habits. I learned things from wrestling that stick with me today, the things like I wasn't able to eat certain things, I wasn't able to eat for a whole day at times, always being on time, showing up, being a leader, leading by example, not always screaming but leading by your actions, things like that. Pushing past obstacles and how the only disability is a bad attitude. Anthony Ferraro: Because we all have a purpose and we all have a story. We're the author of our story, we have to write it, it's our job. How do we want to deal with adversity? Are we going to give up or are we going to push through it and break down the barriers and keep going? That really defines your person on the other side. Simon Bonenfant: That's great. Who would you say has been, or maybe still is, the most influential person who had supported you in all the decisions and keeps supporting you? Anthony Ferraro: My brother Oliver, 100%. Seeing his drive and how he loved people and how he just lived. He lived to the fullest. He died at 27 but it felt like he lived for a hundred years. I just want to honor that. I want to keep living, I don't want to give up ever and I want to keep pushing and I want to keep creating. I just want to love people and to be a good person every day of my life and be a better person every day. Anthony Ferraro: Another person who taught me that is my father, who obviously Ollie must have gotten it from. Those two have really just been so influential in my life. And then also my mother, just how she wouldn't take crap for anything. She made you go do it. She made you go out and advocate for yourself. She wasn't going to feel sorry for me. Blindness wasn't an excuse for anything. Those people really just resonate in my life. Simon Bonenfant: That's great. What advice would you give to someone who is blind or visually impaired and is coming up either in high school or college or transitioning into work. What general advice would you give to someone who is coming up in the next generation? Anthony Ferraro: Just to learn and just enjoy the journey. You have these goals and they're ahead of you, sometimes you just want to fast forward to the goal, you want to get there right now. I realize looking back in high school and things when I wouldn't be happy with my accomplishment because I didn't think it was good enough or whatever. Sometimes you miss the journey along with it and that's the best part. Right now I'm training and trying to be the best in the world, an Olympic champion. Anthony Ferraro: That's great and all, but I'm enjoying right now, I'm enjoying today, I'm enjoying being here with you, being at Saint Lucy's, it's my home. Just living in the moment and also working towards that goal, but definitely to enjoy the process because it's the most beautiful part and you might miss some things if you don't stay in the moment and the best things will happen when you're just there. Simon Bonenfant: Oh yeah, that's very good advice. I think that's great for all of us because staying in the moment is very key because we've got to think, we can't get this back. Every minute we've got to spend and we've got to enjoy it by living in the present. Anthony Ferraro: Absolutely. Simon Bonenfant: Live in the present. That's great. Where would someone find a link or is there a website where someone can find your film and purchase it, because it's now a full film, correct? Anthony Ferraro: Yeah. Actually I've created a website. My partner Kelly, who I'm building my nonprofit with, she helped me build the website. We document all the things that are going on social media as well. The website is asfvision.com and if you go there all the links are across the top of the website. They'll see a YouTube account, LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, SoundCloud for the music and the link to the film called A Shot in the Dark, which is right now on Vimeo and should be on iTunes very soon. Anthony Ferraro: If you go on the website, asfvision.com, that will have everything they need. That's also, ASF Vision, is the nonprofit that's in the process of building right now and that nonprofit is essentially going to be a big brother for anyone trying to do things and might not have the resources to do these things and having someone come in and give them almost a roadmap and helping them, saying, "You can do this." Providing what they need. Simon Bonenfant: That's great. Do you have an email address that you wouldn't mind sharing if anyone would like to contact you. Anthony Ferraro: Absolutely. My email address is just a@asfvision.com. Simon Bonenfant: All right. That's very good. Hey Anthony, I'd like to thank you for coming on and talking with me and I'm sure the Blind Abilities listeners will enjoy it a lot. You are truly an inspiration to all of us and I think you for taking the time. It's been fun. Anthony Ferraro: All right. Thank you, Simon, it's always a pleasure to be with you. Anthony Ferraro: Feeling so damn low, I ain't going to be treated this old way. Anthony Ferraro: Thank you. Pete Lane: For more podcasts with a blindness perspective, check us out on the web at www.blindabilities.com. We're on Twitter, we're on Facebook, and be sure to check out our free app in the Apple app store and the Google Play store. *** If you would like to know more about Transition Services from State Services contact Transition Coordinator Sheila Koenig by email or contact her via phone at 651-539-2361. To find your State Services in your State you can go to www.AFB.org and search the directory for your agency. Contact: Thank you for listening! 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 Storeand Google Play Store. Check out the Blind Abilities Communityon Facebook, the Blind Abilities Page, the Job Insights Support Groupand the Assistive Technology Community for the Blind and Visually Impaired.

Abortion is back in the news, and perhaps unwisely I've decided to give my two cents on the subject. I think most of the things that annoy people about the recent laws are tactics in the larger game of getting the Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade. Though I'm of the opinion that it won't happen regardless, unless Ginsburg dies, which would bring its own level of craziness. But most importantly I think there are genuine disagreements about the morality of abortion which are not going away, and that unless we figure out a way to "agree to disagree" things are going to get ugly.

My dear friend Bob Verstege (in his early 60’s) shares his remarkable life story joining the church at age 14, serving a mission in Chicago, breaking off an engagement to a women knowing he is gay, finding his husband Jay (also a RM and a world renowned cardiologist) and spending 25 years together. Bob also shared the tender story of Jay dying from Alzheimer’s, caring for him all those years, being at his bedside during his passing and their close relationship with Heavenly Father. It’s a beautiful love story. After Jay died, Bob continued to feel impressions from Heavenly Father including to return to the Church where he is a member in good standing and serves as the Ward Clerk in his ward. Bob wanted to add a few comments below that he had run out of time to say. "Strength lies in differences, not in similarities." Stephen R. Covey I want listeners to know this is my journey and path I took, it isn't a path or an example that people should emulate or feel that I'm dictating to others. I appreciate and respect everyone's journey. Though I'm a big advocate for the Church and the blessings that come along with it, I do realize there's paths that are joyful, satisfying and spiritual without being a member. I'm grateful for anyone that receives love, joy and peace through other avenues. Another point I would like to make is when you listen to the podcast, I would have you focus on the teachings of Christ, because that is who I tried to emulate and the others who were involved tried to emulate Christ's teachings as well - we tried to show empathy, charity and love for each other. One of my favorite scriptures is 2 Nephi 32:3. Lastly, I brief recognition for some others; my former bishop in Linwood, Bishop Darrin Bird, a great servant of the Lord. The wonderful brothers and sisters of Fountain Hills and Linwood wards, who support and love me. Then a special appreciation for two cherished friends, Brother Jorgensen and Brother Dean. They became my first friends as I return to the church. Each of them loved, supported and encouraged me. Even though they had no stewardship over me, and they personally don't understand my story, they allowed me to share with them without their judgement. I look at them as an example of faithful members of the church who inspire me to do better, much love to them both. "Love is the security for which children weep, the yearning of youth, the adhesive that binds marriage, and the lubricant that prevents devastating friction in the home; it is the peace of old age, the sunlight of hope shining through death...Love, like faith, is a gift of God. It is also the most enduring and most powerful virtue." Gordon B. Hinckley Thank you Bob for sharing your journey. It brings honor to your good husband Jay and helps us better understand a loving Heavenly Father.

Though I'm a fan of John Oliver, I was disappointed in his recent segment on Authoritarianism. He's didn't give the full picture of why Duterte is popular in the Philippines, and thus his audience, which is in the millions, may end up with a simplistic view of the situation here. This is neither helpful nor constructive if we want to solve the root problems plaguing Philippine society.

It's been a while since my last post but I'm back. Sorry for the wait. It's been a lot of frustration and mental breakdowns, and I'm still trying to work my way out of a hole. Though I'm far off target, the challenge is still on... --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/sirtradealot/support

Over the past week, I've enjoyed stalking Marcella's Instagram posts to live vicariously through her while she enjoyed a week beach vacation. Though I'm always happy for my friends and coworkers when I see their vacation posts, I can't help but feel that ping of jealousy knowing I have a week of work ahead of me when they have a week of lounging and relaxation. This got me thinking: how often am I comparing my life to others? Do I live too much in a negative state, diminishing my life moments when I see others sharing seemingly perfect moments? Comparing yourself to others (or even to the ideal version of yourself) is oftentimes rooted in insecurity and jealousy, but it also seems to happen on a daily basis. Is there a way to avoid or change this way of thinking? Is it possible to have a positive experience when comparing yourself to others? How do we overcome comparing ourselves to our colleagues? In this episode of Creator's Block, Marcella, and I navigate through these questions and more.

The Pilgrim Queen, was written in 1849 as a hymn for the Virgin Mary by Blessed John Henry Newman, after he had established the Oratory of St. Philip Neri in England. Newman's earlier poetry, before he converted to Catholicism, was written during the Oxford Movement, and is often complex and can be difficult to understand at first reading. The early poetry was written for a different purpose than his later poetry; these later poems he wrote expressly to be sung as hymns, with the intent that they be easy to understand, especially by children. These hymn poems are straightforward and exceedingly charming in their lyrical language. The Pilgrim Queen is a perfect example of Newman’s hymn poetry; the verses’ meanings need little explanation. The Pilgrim Queen can be sung to many hymn tunes since the syllable count in each line is regular. This Newman hymn is appropriate for the week in which we have just celebrated the Queenship of Mary.In the poem, we find Mary waiting, when Jesus is discovered missing from the tomb. Notice the striking imagery used throughout. For example, Christ’s tomb is both “planted deep” and “raised high.” This tomb is called a “palace of ice” for when Christ was gone for the hours until His resurrection, much like on Good Friday when the tabernacles are empty, and His palace (either the tomb or tabernacles) is without Him, who is all Light. When summer came (that is, His resurrection) the ice “melted” away. The Pilgrim Queen (A Song.)THERE sat a Lady              all on the ground,Rays of the morning              circled her round,Save thee, and hail to thee,              Gracious and Fair,In the chill twilight              what wouldst thou there? "Here I sit desolate,"              sweetly said she,"Though I'm a queen,              and my name is Marie:Robbers have rifled              my garden and store,Foes they have stolen              my heir from my bower.  "They said they could keep Him              far better tha

My friend Crystal is one who does extraordinary things often. Though I'm used to this behavior from her I was more in awe than usual when I learned she donated one of her kidneys to a complete stranger. Well, the recipient was a stranger at the time. Now the two share a beautiful friendship. One that almost didn't happen! This podcast interview with Crystal almost didn't happen, too. Listen to this episode to find out why! :) For more information about organ donation, contact your local hospital and they will connect you with the resources you need. Thanks for listening and until we meet again, Simply Make It Count.

The first time I saw a bag of purp.. If there were birds in my head Oh, how they would chirp For this bud, unique and well-bred This was before I used bud As a creative tool Back when my life could be summed By adding video games plus high school I was anything but cool Now those days are gone I use the THC as fuel Though I'm still quite withdrawn I keep to myself Create my art Take care of my health Every day's a new start Every strain has a place in my heart Each with its particular effect If you use the bud, be smart Treat it with proper respect ✌️ Subscribe if you wanna see this podcast thrive

Hope things have been going well for you guys. Hope you're progressing in your life and your side projects, especially if you're still tackling trading or real estate investing. Trading and investing is a great gig if you can make it work and I'm hoping you guys are doing well in these and every area you're working on. On my end, I just got back from a vacation to Disneyland with my family. It was the 2nd time my family has been there and a good time was had by all in Anaheim. We also visited Warner Brothers Studios and Hollywood on the Left Coast. I did like the weather in Southern California and it's always good to get out of the routine. I'm feeling refreshed, but I was a little late in getting this podcast out to everyone this week. This will be the last podcast I plan to release for awhile on the Trading Story. I don't want to say this is the final podcast, but it could be. As you may know now, my attentions have already shifted away from trading into real estate investing. I may launch another podcast in the future. So make sure you stay subscribed to this podcast because I will update everyone if that happens. For those who may be interested, I'm mulling over a Christian apologetics podcast. If you have any suggestions about it, feel free to email me. Launching A New Project: REINomad.com But for now, I wanted to share another side project I've been working on. It's not a podcast, but something a little more simple. In addition to helping with marketing clients and growing their businesses, I like to start projects where they seem to make sense. Since pausing my trading efforts, I've turned my attention to real estate investing. Though I'm just getting started and I only have one investment property working right now, I think real estate investing is the place for me for the long-term. And I wanted to let my listeners know a few reasons why I think real estate investing is a good thing for you as well - assuming you want financial and location independence. That's why I launched a new website called, REINomad.com. This resource and email list aims to be a help to anyone who is interested in real estate investing "as a nomad". In other words, if you want to invest an opportunist and find the best real estate opportunities in the next town or across the country, that's what REI Nomad is about. The goal is for you to take advantage of real estate markets that are up-and-coming - since all markets are local - and profit while you focus on what you do best. And to get you started, we put together a free resource for you called "The 10 Ways To Invest In Real Estate Like A Nomad" over at... REINomad.com/TenWays/ With this resource, you can be equipped to understand the best ways people invest in real estate when they don't live down the street. So check it out today. On Wrapping Up The Trading Story Podcast So as we wrap up this chapter of the Trading Story podcast, I wish you guys the best in every endeavor. If you like podcasting and have any questions, shoot me an email. I've enjoyed interacting with everyone. Shoot me an email for anything for that matter at brandon (at) tradingstory.com Do you know this podcast has been downloaded over 350,000 times! That means tens of thousands of listeners have found value in this information. And I'm glad to have connected with many of you. Appreciate all the support along the way and the encouragement. From where I sit now, I think this podcast has affected the course of my life and I hope it has been helpful to you too. But before I sign off again, don't forget to download our free infographic, "The 10 Ways To Invest In Real Estate Like A Nomad" at... REINomad.com/TenWays/ Until next time, all the best!

Though I'm sure it's already outdated by now - this is an episode of where I started when creating this podcast. I discuss the tech side and also some creation and branding aspects. Copyrights: My photos: © LifewithCatherine Podcast audio: © LifewithCatherine Theme: Trumpet (New Orleans Music), Artist: Royalty Free Music Club www.LifewithCatherine.com

I'm back! I'd said that my time off (the "sabbatical") was only temporary, and that I planned to return to the microphone to continue Boardgames To Go. And that's just what happened. During the year that I've been away from this podcast, I've still been playing plenty of games, which you can read about. I've been doing more wargaming, which you can hear about. And perhaps you've seen or heard me at BGGcon or on other podcasts & videocasts. Which means I was never really gone. Nonetheless, those things are different from producing my own boardgame podcast, and I'm happy to be doing that again. To kick off my return, I'm featuring a roundtable discussion with a bunch of friends after we played a full day of Star Wars-themed boardgames. You may recall that I once grumbled about boardgame themes that were for kids (including kids that never grew up), not grown-ups. I have to admit I still feel that way about most games involving goblins, zombies, or spaceships. BUT...you're all welcome to call me a hypocrite when it comes to Star Wars. Here is where I cave. I was in 5th grade when A New Hope was released, and it may not be an exaggeration to say it changed my life. I'd decided to be a "spacecraft architect" the year before, and that's sort of what really happened in my life, but Star Wars probably sealed the deal. I remember talking with a college classmate who had a similar experience, and she grew up in Singapore. What an influence! Back in 1977 I was everything Star Wars. My brother & I saw the film many times in the theater. I had the LED watch, the belt buckle (this was the 70s), the t-shirt, the action figures, the X-wing, the LP records... When the prequels came around my kids were the perfect age to enjoy them with me. Now that the new movies are upon us, I'm loving the fact that they're December releases, so even though they're away to college (& beyond), we can still enjoy them as a family over the holidays. Star Wars has always been an important part of my life. What about Star Wars games? Well, yes, kind of. It took a long while for some really good games about these favorite movies to arrive on the table. I had the vintage Escape from the Death Star game, but it's not good. We played some Star Wars RPG when it came out in the 1980s, and a couple of the associated wargames. (Star Warriors was tedious, but Assault on Hoth was good.) Though I'm only a casual computer and videogamer, in the 2000s I definitely had wonderful times playing Rebel Assault, Rogue Squadron, Battlefrontand others with my son. Anything we could play co-op was our favorite. More recent years have produced quite a few family strategy games with a Star Wars subject. Oddly enough, the prequels have some of the best games, probably because that's just when Craig Van Ness and Rob Daviau at Hasbro were doing incredible things with the production capability of that mainstream publisher. Other publishers, too, however. Now we're seeing a resurgence in Star Wars boardgames, like an awakening in the Force... I invited some friends over to play several of these titles for a Star Wars-themed game day, and then flipped on the recorder to have a roundtable discussion of them. Enjoy! -Mark P.S. AFTER the Star Wars game day we learned about the Black Series (aka deluxe) edition of the Risk game. It addresses most of our grumbling about the production shortcuts in the mass market edition we played...but not all of them. I'm not sure if it's worth the extra money. And I've already bought a couple MicroMachines to get figs for the Falcon and Executor in my game.    

Hey everyone. It seems like episodes come out monthly rather than bi-weekly, and honestly, that's not all that bad. I do want to try and be much quicker about getting episodes out, so hopefully we'll transition into a bi-weekly thing soon. Anyway, this episode we talked about chapters 308-311 and had our usual conversations sprout from there. I'm pretty sure I sound like a jerk in this episode when I complained about Rin but it's okay I guess. As the title shows, we talked about Bambina's balls a lot (how can we ignore that?), Kaka and the possibility of her wanting to lick/eat Komatsu's brains or pretty much anyone's brains. It's kind of wild how spot on we are about how suspicious Kaka is... Especially when you consider how tired and goofy we are in this episode. (Though I'm sure we're kind of goofy all the time.) We also read off our first hate mail/comment from last month I believe. So there's that to enjoy as well, if you're interested lol.

It's Black Friday...you just finished Thanksgiving and now you're all slaughtering yourselves at wal-mart or best buy for something cheap....well this podcast is better than cheap..it's free. Though I'm thinking of charging for any episode our favorite Aussie decides to geek out on! This man is more than my friend...he's the real deal! He's my secret weapon! Him and of course McBibbles, who has the night off. Overdose on Mydol. He'll be back tomorrow, chipper and gay. 1920's singing and dancing in the street, happy go lucky gay!  Thankful for them I am. They keep this show going! Thankful for the listeners and any and all supporters!  -Angry Ginger

I'm releasing the second to last episode of The FM Experiment today. Though I'm sorry that it took as long as it did, I wanted to save some time to build the next incarnation of DJ Joyride here in Portland. I have had one job in radio since I moved 11 months ago. It was short-lived at KZME, but it re-affirmed that I'm going to love doing radio for many years to come.I have been thinking lately about putting together a winter podcast series geared toward midwest listeners in North Dakota and Minnesota. What do you think of that idea? Let me know in a short message.If you were a fan of the show, you might be excited to visit DJJoyride.com, the new website I'm working on. I am attempting to outline the various types of projects that I was a part of in Fargo. I miss all of the people that knew me for my passions and called on me for event emceeing, computer fixing, dj'ing, racquetball, or a day on the motorcycles.Recursive art (VFP) with KNDS Underwriter, EMBIIMore: Video Feedback Photography (VFP)FM Experiment PODCAST [Airdate: October 21, 2011] (mp3 file - duration 2:00.00)view complete playlistHour 1 KRAAK & SMAAK - BUILT FOR LOVE * MAROON 5 - MOVE LIKE JAGGER (ROOFEEO & DJ A.N.S REMIX) * TEED - MOVE ON JUSTICE - AUDIO, VIDEO, DISCO * KISSY SELL OUT - BUBS & BIZZLE BJORK - MUTUAL CORE * MATES OF STATE - YOU ARE FREE (THE MAE SHI REMIX) * INFUSION - BETTER WORLD SKRILLEX - FIRST OF THE YEAR (RESTLESS REMIX) FREELAND - ROCK ON (SIRIUSMO REMIX) DRUMSOUND & BASSLINE SMITH - FREAK (DUBSTEP MIX) MAGNETIC MAN - THE BUGHour 2 RIHANNA - ONLY GIRL (MR. LARSSON'S THE ONE DUBSTEP REMIX) YOUNG MC - KNOW HOW (THEME) DJ C - SINCE YOU'VE BEEN IN THIS CLUB (CLARKSON VOCAL MIX) CHICAGO VS. CHEMICAL BROTHERS - SATURDAY SALMON (TEAM 9 MASHUP) SHOOTING HORSES - THIS WAY ARCENCIEL - JUS * HARD-FI - SUBURBAN KNIGHTS (ALEX METRIC REMIX) TV ROCK - BIMBO (TONITE ONLY CLUB DUB) BORIS DLUGOSCH - BANGKOK (REDLIGHT REMIX) DISCOBITCH - C'EST BEAU LA BOURGEOISIE KRAAK & SMAAK - DYNAMITE * LITTLE T & ONE TRACK MIKE - GUIDANCE COUNSELOR SQUAREPUSHER - THE COATHANGER

Dee Hock is one of my management heroes. Dee founded VISA years ago and had many insights on how to be an effective leader. If you've sat through one of our leadership workshops, you might be familiar with one of my favorite Dee Hock quotes. Dee says: "If you look to lead, invest at least 40% of your time managing yourself -- your ethics, character, principles, purpose, motivation, and conduct. Invest at least 30% managing those with authority over you, and 15% managing your peers. Use the remainder to induce those you 'work for' to understand and practice the theory. I use the terms 'work for' advisedly, for if you don't understand that you should be working for your mislabeled 'subordinates,' you haven't understood anything. Lead yourself, lead your superiors, lead your peers, and free your people to do the same. All else is trivia." There's a lot to chew on in that quote, isn't there? Too often we think managing is about managing down--our so-called subordinates. Dee puts much more focus on managing ourselves and those with authority over us. You and I could argue about whether his percentages are precise, but that's not the point. I take the point as managing ourselves and those in authority over us is a big deal. We need to be intentional about it, and that's why I spent time talking with John Baldoni about the subject. In this premium episode I want to take time to stress points from the interview with John to help you put the learning into action. First, do you recall John's distinction between managing up and leading up? To me, it's mostly semantics and I'm going to use the terms synonymously. That said, there's a good point to be made here. Some people interpret managing up as sucking up. It's as if we're kissing butt to just look good to the boss, often in a deceptive or at least selfish way--perhaps at the cost of others not looking as good. We don't manage or lead up just to look good. In fact, sometimes when I do this, I'm managing up precisely because I don't want us all to look bad! I'm concerned that the decision-making process needs additional perspectives or that it would be to our mutual benefit if the boss was influenced a certain way. Where it gets sleazy is when it's about me. Isn't that a good marker, in general? Whether it's regarding conflict or negotiation or influence or giving and receiving constructive feedback or goal setting or just about any area of life: when it becomes all about me, it's a problem. So, as John mentioned, leading up is ultimately about being committed to helping the organization grow and achieve. Second, a primary skill to develop is learning to read your boss. This is so critical. Some time back I interviewed Dave Po-Chedley about his book on stakeholder relationships. Dave said we need to learn the “buying habits" of our boss. I like that term. How does he or she make decisions? Do they like a lot of detail or not? Do they want a PowerPoint deck or does that make them suspicious--they just want it drawn up on the fly on a whiteboard. Are they an outgoing, gregarious person or more quiet and analytical? Pictures or numbers? Face-to-face or via e-mail. All of these and many more are considerations to take to heart when we're trying to influence up. Becoming a student of your boss is part of Dee Hock's 30% of your time. Pay attention and learn to adjust your style accordingly. Anticipate what they want to see and how they'll likely push back. Learn their buying habits. It will make your job of selling ideas much easier. Third, I want to remind you about John's three main requirements for you to be successful: competence, credibility, and confidence. Though I'm always surprised when someone occasionally wants to argue this point, competence is not fixed. It can be developed. A hunger to learn is one of the top traits I look for in aspiring leaders. Education and experience combined with a teachable spirit can significantly develop our competence--even helping us become a true expert given enough time. Applying that competence over time can increase our credibility. As I mentioned in the interview, credibility is currency. We have to execute--we can't just talk a good game. Consistently delivering with--as John said it--“shining colors" help us develop credibility that can be banked on. And then there's confidence. Nearly every year I spend time with one or more coaching clients whose issue isn't competence or credibility. Rather, they have a confidence problem. They sell themselves too short. Competence, Credibility, and Confidence are three C's that are worth writing down and being intentional about developing. Finally, I want to recall your attention to John's leadership advice to Be Seen, Be Heard, and Be There. How visible are you to your boss? I was with a leader last week who was challenged because her boss was in a different state. It's difficult for her to build credibility in his eyes because of the distance. And yet it's important for leaders to be seen, to be visible not only to our boss but to our team and others that we serve. Don't be chained to your desk. Find ways to get face time with your stakeholders. If your boss, team, or key stakeholders are in a different location than you, make sure you are seen. Be intentional about getting time with them. It's critical, as is being heard. Leaders don't necessarily have to be heard in the same way that a drill sergeant communicates. And yet we have to be vocal. Through a variety of communication channels and mediums, we need to take the initiative to have a voice. If speaking up is more difficult for you, remember that this doesn't mean it's only for extroverts. Yet you nonetheless need to have your voice heard--even if it's through e-mail at times. Finally, John says we need to Be There. He mentioned it's a metaphor for taking initiative, for doing everything we can to get things done. Leading by example is not just the name of one of John's book--it's a key part of Being There. In many ways, the lessons about leading up have applicability for leading out and down. It's not about me--it's about us. It's not about sitting back and waiting--it's about taking the initiative. It's not about having others adjust to me--it's about me adjusting to others. What's a challenge you're having in managing or leading up? Send me an e-mail at andy@i-leadonline.com. I love hearing from Premium Subscribers. Hey, the People and Projects Podcast is now on Facebook! I invite you to Like us at http://www.facebook.com/pages/People-and-Projects-Podcast/224005747630357 and join the discussion. Thank you for being a premium subscriber to The People and Projects Podcast! Please let me know what questions you have and if there's anything I can do to help you lead and deliver. Thank you for joining me for this premium episode of The People and Projects Podcast! Have a great week! Total Duration 7:27 Download the premium episode

Download the episode Hello! Thank you for joining me for this episode of The People and Projects Podcast.I'm over in Europe this week facilitating a project management workshop for a great international company. Though I'm thousands of miles from home in a culture and language that is notably different from my own, I find a couple things remain the same: if you want to deliver projects and lead teams anywhere in this world, you're going to have to deal with conflict and organizational politics.It's just a reality of working with people.When I think of politics with projects, I think of my colleague Brian Irwin, PMP. Brian is the author of Managing Politics and Conflict in Projects, published by Management Concepts and is a contributing author to the book The 77 Deadly Sins of Project Management (Management Concepts, 2009). I had the opportunity to talk with Brian recently and look forward to sharing that interview with you in this episode.How well prepared are you to handle the conflicts that are facing you today? I find that too few leaders have sufficiently developed their ability to navigate the inevitable conflict that comes with their role.Because of the popularity of our current promotion, I'm extending the discount on our conflict e-learning program. Just use a coupon code of OCT-ROCK-50OFF and you will get $50 off a license. Instead of $149, you can get your hands on this practical learning to help you manage conflict more effectively for only $99. This offer is valid through November 15, 2009. Have some left over training budget yet this year? Invest in your ability to navigate conflict. Contact me at podcast@i-leadonline.com to learn more.Make sure to pick up a copy of Brian Irwin's book, and don't miss Brian's articles on ProjectConnections.com.How about letting your friends and colleagues know about The People and Projects Podcast! Send them a link to our web page at www.i-leadonline.com/podcast, or have them look us up on iTunes! It would be a privilege for me to help develop their ability to lead and deliver as well.Thank you for joining me today! Have a great week! We'll see you next time on The People and Projects Podcast!

http://haulfen.com/tfa/tfanonymus_episode_35.mp3Yes I am back on the show again, but haulfen was gone. ENJOYShownotes Hasbro Toy Shop UK Has Ceased to Existhttp://www.allspark.com/content/view/4328/20/Hasbro: Fate of Animated To Be Revealed at Toy Fairhttp://tformers.com/transformers-hasbro-fa...10914/news.htmlROTF Teaser Game Trailer & Details from Activisiontrailer: http://tformers.com/transformers-revenge-o...10913/news.htmlActivision Details: http://tformers.com/transformers-activisio...10919/news.htmlNew ROTF Toy Leaks of The Fallen & Wheelie!!!!The Fallen: http://www.tf08.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=223Wheelie: http://www.seibertron.com/transformers/new...e-figure/15129/Listener Question: Paxin1:Awhile back during a Hasbro Q&A someone asked if they would ever do Leader class figures in Classics/Universe, and they said more or less that they'll think about it.Though I'm sure some of us hope they don't do that, for personal financial reasons, if they did end up doing some classics Leader figures, what characters would you like to see done?2:A lot of fans want to see a head-master done in the Classics line as well, if they were to do one, which head-master would you want it to be?

Though I'm too chicken to listen to it, anyone that wants to can go back into my archives to download BGTG #1. In that episode I tried to give an introduction to myself, describing my own likes & dislikes in games. It always helps to know those things about a game reviewer. You get to figure out how my opinions map to yours. Maybe you & I are on the same page, and the games I like are ones you'll