Podcasts about Uncle Sam

Stephanie talks about the bizarre antics surrounding Trump's Great American Fair, where a MAGA supporter dressed as Uncle Sam was caught engaging in lewd acts. They dissect the absurdity of the situation while also discussing the empty promises of the Trump presidency, like his so-called "budget presidency" and the gaudy decor that comes with it. The conversation takes a turn as they address the recent Supreme Court rulings, including one affirming Trump's status as a rapist while simultaneously granting him sweeping powers. Guests: Charlie Pierce and Jody Hamilton.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In this edition of The Iconograph, Jack and Miles are joined by journalist/podcaster/fictive 2nd Amendment Santa, Robert Evans to talk about everybody's favorite Unc: Uncle Sam! They'll explore his sexy creation, his tantalizing evolution, why he's so hot and everybody wants him and so much more!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In recent years, “Christian Nationalism” has become a ubiquitous term in American political discussion.It is said by many with fear and loathing, and by others with great excitement and conviction.Among the enthusiasts include Doug Wilson, who is the pastor of Pete Hegseth, the United States' Secretary of War. And it's not just Hegseth who has ties to the ideology, Mike Johnson, Speaker of the House of Representatives, has also been described as a Christian Nationalist. And many members of Trump's administration and the pro-Trump media have flirted with the idea that Christians and, maybe more accurately, the Bible, ought to be the guiding force behind the government's actions.Last month, Trump hosted Rededicate 250, an event which sought to, in the administration's own words, “rededicate America as One Nation under God.”But as much as Christian Nationalism has become an emotional buzz word, the belief system it describes has varied over time—and the current MAGA-adjacent evangelical iteration is only a small piece of the story of how Christianity and American society have pushed and pulled on each other for centuries.As we recognize the U.S.'s 250th birthday, the question of whether or not America is a Christian nation or whether or not it was intended to be one, continues to show its face in social media feeds, newspapers, podcasts, pulpits and schoolrooms. So, to sort through the complicated relationship between Jesus and Uncle Sam, Joseph Holmes sat down with three American Christian professors: Matthew Parks, Joseph Loconte and David Corbin. The group discusses whether or not the U.S. is a Christian country, whether that's even possible and to what extent Christian beliefs ought to influence political decisions.If you'd like to hear more from our guests today, you can listen to the Democracy in America Today podcast, which is hosted by David Corbin and Matt Parks. Joseph Loconte has written several books, but he is most well known for his writings on C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien, the most recent of which was 2025's “The War For Middle Earth.”

Topics:  Skydiving, Hansen 2042, Contentment, Remember, Breaking Animal News, Attractiveness, Searching BONUS CONTENT: Attractiveness Follow-up, Who's A Christian   Quotes: "I think children are welcome in the kingdom of God as they are." "God's grace is wider than ours." "Contentment. A lot of people don't like it when you're content, but it is the best way to live." "Remembering: putting together the big picture again." . . . Holy Ghost Mama Pre-Order! Want more of the Oddcast? Check out our website! Watch our YouTube videos here. Connect with us on Facebook!

Michael Smith—Managing Partner and Founder, Emerald Advisors Michael Smith shares how a client-first philosophy, niche specialization, and independence helped Emerald Advisors grow from $385mm to more than $1B in assets. In Summary What happens when an advisor builds a business around client service rather than operational efficiency? Jason Diamond speaks with Michael Smith, Founder and Managing Partner of Emerald Advisors, about the path from a successful Merrill practice to an independent RIA that has grown from approximately $385mm to more than $1B in assets. Along the way, Michael shares the story of being told he was “overservicing” clients, why that moment became a catalyst for independence, and how a highly specialized service model fueled the firm's growth. Drawing on lessons from a 24-year Navy career, Michael offers a perspective on leadership, specialization, client care, and what it takes to build a durable business in today's wealth management landscape. The Storyline Growth is often viewed as the result of marketing, referrals, acquisitions, or scale. Michael Smith sees it differently. After building a successful practice at Merrill, Michael found himself at odds with the constraints of the traditional wirehouse model. What ultimately stood out wasn't compensation, technology, or platform capabilities. It was a philosophical difference around client service. When he was told he was spending too much time helping clients navigate tax planning, equity compensation, and other financial decisions outside the traditional scope of investment management, he began to question whether the model aligned with the way he wanted to serve families. That realization eventually led him to launch Emerald Advisors in late 2019. The firm started with roughly 85 clients and approximately $385mm in assets. Today, Emerald serves more than 225 families and oversees more than $1B in assets. Throughout the conversation, Michael reflects on the lessons learned from building an independent firm, developing a niche around concentrated stock positions and executive compensation, navigating custodial and technology decisions, and creating a culture rooted in accountability and service. Underlying it all is a simple belief: when firms become highly intentional about who they serve and how they serve them, growth often becomes the outcome rather than the objective. Topics Covered Merrill breakaways and independence Client service as a growth driver Building an RIA RIA growth and scalability Organic growth strategies Concentrated stock positions and equity compensation planning Ideal client personas and niche specialization Schwab and Fidelity custody relationships Advisor succession and enterprise value Navy leadership principles in wealth management The rise of mega RIAs Advisor technology and infrastructure > Download a transcript of this episode… Listen and Learn Highlights for Advisors Why did being accused of “overservicing” clients become a turning point? (08:15)Michael explains how a conversation with management revealed a deeper misalignment between his client-service philosophy and the wirehouse model. What does client service look like beyond portfolio management? (11:30)The discussion explores how tax planning, equity compensation guidance, and proactive coordination can deepen client relationships. Why can specialization accelerate growth? (15:45)Michael shares why serving a defined niche often creates stronger referrals, greater expertise, and clearer positioning. How has the RIA landscape evolved since 2019? (20:30)Michael reflects on the rise of mega RIAs, changing technology capabilities, and why he believes independent firms still have significant advantages. What role do custodians really play in an independent business? (23:15)Michael discusses his experience working with Schwab and Fidelity and why he views custodians as strategic partners rather than competitors. Is the wirehouse model still the right fit for some advisors? (26:45)The conversation challenges the assumption that independence is the best path for everyone and explores the realities of running a business. Does reaching $1 billion in assets actually change anything? (32:45)Michael offers a practical perspective on growth, success, and why asset milestones can be misleading. What can advisors learn from the “steamboat” philosophy? (37:15)Drawing on his Navy experience, Michael shares a leadership framework that continues to shape how he approaches business building and decision-making. Key Takeaways Exceptional client service can become a meaningful competitive advantage when it extends beyond investment management. Independence gave Michael the flexibility to build a service model that aligned with his philosophy rather than adapting his philosophy to fit the platform. Developing a niche around executive compensation and concentrated stock positions helped accelerate Emerald's growth. The ability to make technology, custodial, and operational decisions quickly remains a significant advantage for independent firms. Not every advisor should be independent. Running a business requires a different set of skills and responsibilities than serving clients alone. Growth milestones are useful, but they do not define success. Michael believes success existed long before Emerald reached $1 billion in assets. High-performing teams with a clear client focus often find that growth becomes a natural byproduct of execution. https://youtu.be/RjzsMcC2DnY Quotable Moments “I literally had to go back and Google the word overservicing.” “Servicing the client is the most important thing that we can do today.” “If you serve a niche and you're very good at that niche, that word gets around.” “Growth becomes the outcome.” FAQs Can an advisor really “over-service” clients? The discussion explores the tension between efficiency and depth of service. While some business models prioritize scale and consistency, others are built around solving a broader range of client problems. The right answer often depends on the advisor's philosophy and business model. Does specialization still matter in a relationship business? Michael argues that developing expertise in a specific area can accelerate growth by making referrals easier and helping advisors become known for solving a particular set of problems. What actually changes when an advisor becomes independent? Beyond economics, independence often creates more flexibility around client service, technology, processes, and business decisions. At the same time, advisors assume responsibility for running the business itself. Is full independence the right path for every advisor? No. Michael acknowledges that many advisors benefit from the structure, support, and resources available within traditional firms. Independence offers flexibility, but it also introduces complexity and responsibility. How should advisors think about the $1 billion milestone? Michael views asset milestones as useful benchmarks but not measures of success. In his view, business quality, client outcomes, and sustainability matter more than any specific asset number. What role does an ideal client persona play in growth? Rather than trying to serve everyone, Emerald built its business around a clearly defined client profile. Michael believes that focus improves service, creates operational consistency, and supports organic growth. How can advisors balance growth with client service? One of the central themes of the episode is that growth and service are not necessarily competing objectives. In some cases, a differentiated service model becomes the reason a business grows. The discussion explores the tension between efficiency and depth of service. While some business models prioritize scale and consistency, others are built around solving a broader range of client problems. The right answer often depends on the advisor's philosophy and business model. Michael argues that developing expertise in a specific area can accelerate growth by making referrals easier and helping advisors become known for solving a particular set of problems. Beyond economics, independence often creates more flexibility around client service, technology, processes, and business decisions. At the same time, advisors assume responsibility for running the business itself. No. Michael acknowledges that many advisors benefit from the structure, support, and resources available within traditional firms. Independence offers flexibility, but it also introduces complexity and responsibility. Michael views asset milestones as useful benchmarks but not measures of success. In his view, business quality, client outcomes, and sustainability matter more than any specific asset number. Rather than trying to serve everyone, Emerald built its business around a clearly defined client profile. Michael believes that focus improves service, creates operational consistency, and supports organic growth. One of the central themes of the episode is that growth and service are not necessarily competing objectives. In some cases, a differentiated service model becomes the reason a business grows. Related Resources The Transitioning Advisor's Lament: Things I Wish I Knew Before Freedom vs. Familiarity: Is it Worth Disrupting Comfort for Something That Might Be Better? IBD vs. RIA Revisited: Two Independent Pathways for Advisors to Consider Advisor Transition Report 2026 Guest Bio Michael Smith, CPWA® is the Founder and Managing Partner of Emerald Advisors, an independent wealth management firm overseeing more than $1 billion in assets for affluent families, executives, and business owners with complex planning needs. Mike entered the wealth management industry in 2005 after a distinguished 24-year career in the United States Navy, where he served both as an enlisted sailor in the Submarine Force and later as a Limited Duty Officer aboard USS Abraham Lincoln and on major staffs around the world. He earned a Bachelor of Science in Management and an MBA with dual emphases in Finance & Accounting and International Business. Throughout his career, Mike has been known for his commitment to comprehensive planning, helping clients navigate complex issues involving concentrated stock positions, executive compensation, tax strategy, estate planning, philanthropy, and multi-generational wealth transfer. His client-first approach and passion for education have helped Emerald Advisors grow from a startup firm in 2019 to a nationally recognized RIA serving more than 225 families. Outside of the office, Mike is an avid ultrarunner, golfer, lifelong learner, and dedicated advocate for children’s health initiatives. He is a current member of the Legacy Council at Seattle Children’s Hospital and has served in leadership and board roles supporting the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, the Barbara Davis Center for Diabetes, the ALS Association, and the Alyssa Burnett Adult Life Center. He is also the proud father of Kat Smith. NOTE: The views and opinions expressed by the guests on this podcast are their own and do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of Diamond Consultants. Neither Diamond Consultants nor the guests on this podcast are compensated in any way for their participation. View the transcript of this episode… From “Overservicing” Clients to Building a $1B RIA: A Merrill Breakaway Story A conversation with Jason Diamond and Michael Smith, Managing Partner and Founder of Emerald Advisors.      Jason Diamond: Welcome to the latest episode of our podcast series for financial advisors. Today’s episode is From “Overservicing” Clients to Building a $1B RIA: A Merrill Breakaway Story. It’s a conversation with Michael Smith, managing partner and founder of Emerald Advisors. I’m Jason Diamond and this is the Diamond Podcast for financial advisors. Mindy Diamond: At Diamond Consultants, we help elite advisors identify the right environment for their businesses to thrive whether that’s at a wirehouse, boutique or independent firm. With nearly three decades of experience, we’ve guided thousands of advisors and represented more than a quarter of a trillion dollars in assets transitioned and, each year, one in four advisors managing a billion dollars or more who change firms are our clients. Our process is education driven and based on building relationships starting as your strategic partner well before you’re even thinking of a move. To schedule a confidential conversation, call us at (908) 879-1002. Wondering why advisors change firms and where they’re headed? Are transition deals going up or down? Those very questions and more inspired us to create our annual advisor transition report. It’s the award-winning, data-driven resource designed for advisors that connects the dots between the motivations around movement and the firm’s appetite for top talent. Arm yourself with the knowledge you need to make smart decisions. Download your copy at diamond-consultants.com/transitionreport. Jason Diamond: Growth is often viewed as the result of better marketing, stronger referrals, a larger team and even acquisition and that’s all true yet growth can be the byproduct of something else entirely. For example, Michael Smith built a successful practice at Merrill then, one day, he was told he was spending too much time with his clients, or his management put it over-servicing clients. For Michael, that wasn’t a warning sign about his approach, it was a signal that he might have outgrown the firm and the model. Today, Michael is the founder and managing partner of Emerald Advisors, the independent RIA he launched in late 2019 with roughly 385 million in assets and 85 client relationships. Less than seven years later, the firm has grown to more than a billion in assets while remaining deeply focused on a highly-specialized client base and an unusually hands-on service model. What makes this story particularly interesting isn’t just the growth, it’s the thinking behind it. Michael’s perspective was shaped long before he entered wealth management. After serving more than two decades in the Navy, he brought a leadership philosophy centered on accountability, discipline and what he calls steamboat people, those who keep moving forward regardless of conditions, that mindset continues to influence how he builds his team, serves clients and evaluates opportunities. In this episode, we discuss the decision to leave Merrill, the realities of launching a fully independent RIA, why specialization can accelerate growth, the evolving role of custodians and technology and why he believes exceptional client service remains one of the industry’s most durable competitive advantages. Because Michael’s experience suggests that growth isn’t always the result of finding more opportunities, sometimes it’s the result of creating the freedom to execute the vision you already had so let’s jump in. Michael, thank you so much for joining us today. For starters, can you walk us through your background and what brought you to the world of wealth management? Michael Smith: Jason, thank you so much for the opportunity to be here today, I do listen to the podcast a lot especially before I left Mother Merrill. But my background and how I got into financial services is really distinct because I was on the board of JDRF back in the day and the national sponsor for JDRF was UBS PaineWebber and they’re like, “Mike, why don’t you be a financial advisor?” And my master’s degree was actually a finance and accounting in portfolio management because I’ve managed my own portfolio for years and years and so, when I couldn’t get a job, I just fell into it because I couldn’t get a job and I needed a job. That was 21 years ago, Memorial Day so that’s how I got into this industry. Jason Diamond: It’s a unique background, it’s super interesting and I want to talk more about it. You mentioned Mother Merrill, we’ll certainly get there. Before we do, give us a little bit of context on the current business you operate, Emerald Advisors, any context you can share on size, number of staff, types of clients you serve would be great. Michael Smith: Sure. So, we launched Emerald in 2019, November 2019 with about 85 clients and you always talk about this on the podcast how scared it is to launch and go independent. And I would say we took over about 95% of our clients that we wanted to bring over and today we’re at about 230 clients, I think we have some onboarding right now, we have just over a billion of assets. So, we launched with the 85 clients and around 350, 385 million, now we’re over a billion. Jason Diamond: Good for you. Michael Smith: Thank you. And I launched with four employees and we’re now at 11. And I would give a shout-out to one of my key employees because, when I launched, I actually hired somebody that had no experience with us and that was really a good thing because that allowed that person to really focus on operations and back office stuff while my business partner Emily and I were able to focus on bringing on the clients and alleviating any issues that they may have or thought. Jason Diamond: So, meaning you hired somebody basically immediately upon launch to help you with the transition and with this next chapter? Michael Smith: Correct. I hired them before but they started the day we launched. Jason Diamond: Brilliant, I love it. Oh, let’s definitely talk more about that because I think that’s a great strategy for … You’re right, you said it in a joking manner now because you’re seven years past but it’s a very real fear that advisors have and I think it’s worth talking more about. I want to mention too you have, obviously, built this business and grown this business dramatically. I don’t want to make this episode about the pandemic but you moved the business at a, certainly, a unique time. Did it impact your growth at all? Did you feel like you hit a brick wall? Just curious about your thoughts. Michael Smith: No, Jason, that’s a great observation. I would venture to say that the pandemic was actually a good thing for us. Jason Diamond: Interesting. Michael Smith: And I say that because, all of a sudden, you could hit pause because everyone was relearning how to do business, how do we do client reviews, how do we communicate with clients in a environment. So, I think the pandemic allowed us to just really reset our expectations visiting with clients because I used to fly a lot because I have clients in 38 different states so this has actually been, not just good for me, but good for the industry because I think it’s reset our expectations that we don’t have to be every day with a client facing. Jason Diamond: I agree with that largely and it’s true of our business too, by the way, it’s certainly reshaped the way people expect to be communicated with. I think Zoom has become much more mainstream, phone calls and we’ve heard from many other advisors who say something similar. I was just curious because you moved so close to or if there was an impact but I get, honestly, I think you’re right, it allowed you to have this nice natural inflection point and almost like flipping a switch of a clean slate. Michael Smith: It allowed us to learn the processes too. So, we launched in November 1st, by March we were in lockdown and so it gave us the opportunity to take several months of just learning the processes of how to be an RIA, it was pretty good. Jason Diamond: Absolutely. So, one of the things you mentioned in that was the way in which you serve clients and I’d read something funny and I think it was around the time of your move. You were talking about that, Merrill, you had a manager who spoke about that you would overserve your clients, you serve clients too much, tell me about that. Michael Smith: That was such an interesting topic because I got called down to the ops officer’s office and they’re like, “Ugh, Mike.” And it brought my admin down with me and they’re like, “Mike, these reports that you’re taking care of your clients too much,” and I’m like, “What do you mean?” “Well, you’re overservicing them.” Jason, I literally had to go back and Google the word overservicing because I was like, “How do you overservice the client? I’m not making their bed.” It was just so funny to me that I got counsel for overservicing clients when we’re in a client-facing job and I think that was part of the catalyst. Jason Diamond: Tell me more about what they meant, you think. Michael Smith: Hindsight, I think they … I like to take care of people which means I’m very intuitive towards taxes, I understand how the tax code works, I understand how everything impacts their bottom line. So, when we’re doing deferred comp enrollments or 401(k) enrollments or I’m a big believer in Roth 401(k)s and backdoor Roths and I’ve been doing them for years, I think what Mother Merrill wanted at that time was us not to do that. And, again, nothing against Merrill, I get it but this is how they wanted us to act and I wasn’t in that mold, I was taking care of clients to a much deeper depth is how I would say it. Jason Diamond: And I think that speaks to you outgrew the model not necessarily the firm. I think Merrill does a lot of things really well, you would agree with that, I think given that you built 85 clients and 350 million in assets is nothing to sneeze at. But the model that it seems like you value client service and an integrated client service experience of that and the wirehouse model oftentimes doesn’t put a premium on that. Tell me about your ethos or your thoughts around client service today and what being independent enables you to do. Michael Smith: So, that’s an interesting observation because one of my clients actually just mentioned to me that the reason we’re growing so much is because of our service model and the fact that we deliver a tremendous amount of value over just portfolio management. I said my managers is in portfolio management, I don’t do that any longer, I have a staff that handles that for me but it’s really the servicing of the clients because they don’t know what we know and I think servicing the client is the most important thing that we can do today. Jason Diamond: Give me some examples of what you mean by servicing the client in a more holistic way. I agree with you, by the way, portfolio management, table stakes, financial planning, table stakes, tell me more about what you mean. Michael Smith: By that I mean we do a quarterly review on tax. So, a lot of people don’t understand how taxes work and how estimated taxes work. So, estimated taxes are January 1st to March 31st, January 1st to May 31st, January 1st to August 31st, that’s how you do your estimated tax payments, you figure out what that is. And for compensated employees where they have RSUs that come in at different times of the year or different grants or exercise their options at a different time, that can affect their estimated tax liability and I’m not big on giving Uncle Sam any more money than they have to have until they need it. And then everyone doesn’t understand how the penalties and interest works on the IRS. And I’m big on the tax payments because that’s where we can add a lot of value for not a lot of time and we integrate it with our portfolio so we know what we’re doing with our gains. And I happen to reside in Washington State which has a long-term capital gains tax rate once you surpass about 270,000 of long-term capital gains. So, it’s super important for us to be aware of this and that’s how we service them. We also help them with their rebalancing of their 401(k)s, things that wirehouses cannot supposed to do, we are not supposed to be helping them with some of their aspects of life. Jason Diamond: Yup. That’s what I was alluding to earlier, it’s limitations on the model, not because they’re bad models, it’s just a different way, a different ethos around client service. You mentioned RSUs and corporate employees, I know that’s a niche you have is around concentrated stock positions and equity comp plans. I guess let me ask you two different questions around this. First of all, why that niche? Interested. And then, second of all, do you think a team needs to have a specialization to be competitive these days or do you think it’s okay just to be like, “My job is to be the best advisor and I want to service assets wherever those assets may come from?” Michael Smith: Another great observation. I’m going to address the niche first and foremost. I think, and I talked to R.J. Shook’s staff just recently, and having a niche gives you a specialization and it also accelerates your growth factor. If you serve a niche and you’re very good at that niche, then that word gets around. If you’re a jack of all trades, you can do lots of things but I don’t think you’re focused and you’re not hitting the right numbers that I like to see. And I think that would be my theme is the niche allows you to focus on a very specific type of ideal client, that’s a Schwab thing where you have an ideal client persona and our firm has an ideal client persona. As far as having the equity comp, I absolutely was one of the teams at Merrill Lynch that was equity compensation designated, I managed a couple of plans. My exposure to that, Jason, I haven’t thought about this in a very long time, came from UBS where I had team members that were colleagues that were associated with the Nextel Sprint plan. And I always thought that you’re taking care of the top executives but, really, my background being in the military was how do we take care of the troops, the troops, I call them sailors, and how do we educate those sailors. And one of the things I’ve always said in my entire career in the military and I still say to this day is 50% of every bonus or a promotion or something like that should go to long-term savings. So, I use that same mentality with RSUs, with stock options, with bonuses. Set that aside, let that grow because you’re not used to spending it and you will learn to spend what you make. Jason Diamond: I think that’s a great reason, it’s super smart and I love your explanation, it was a very simplistic way. Honestly, even I hadn’t thought about that around your niche, I think, becomes almost like a force multiplier for your own growth because it’s much easier to become the guy in X, Y, Z vertical than to be the guy in every financial advisor of America, across America. Let me ask you a follow-up question, you mentioned the ideal client persona. I spend a lot of time at our firm thinking about this as well, what does your ideal client persona look like. How do you think about an opportunity though that differs from that persona? So, it’s great. Obviously, everybody, it’s easy, you get somebody who’s your perfect prospect, they walk in the front door, sign me up. But when you get something that’s not down the fairway for you, is it just I evaluate it on a one-off basis or are you super disciplined to that approach because it’s who your firm is? Michael Smith: I truly haven’t given that a whole lot of thought but I will tell you how I would handle that because I am handling it with some one-offs. I like the opportunity because you’re stretching your brain in that you’re thinking about how somebody else is reacting so you’d never know. So, I like it from a learning perspective but I also know it comes with a lot of other baggage, I’ll call it baggage, because, all of a sudden, they want to short the market, they want to go long-short strategies. So, all of a sudden, they’re not in our niche and, all of a sudden, they’re taking a lot of time, they’re draining our time so I think you got to be very careful about what you wish for. And there’s a lot of great advisors out there that will walk circles around these topics that I’m like, “Okay, I would rather refer somebody so they get the right experience than give them the wrong experience.” Jason Diamond: I absolutely love that answer. The bow you just put on it, I think, is the appropriate way in my mind to put a bow. At the end of the day, wouldn’t you rather service somebody more optimally even if you don’t believe it’s yourself, I agree with that. I want to ask you one more point on the client service piece. I was playing around on your website and, on your service model, you have health as a component of the client experience of your diagram. Why do you think health matters in a financial context? Michael Smith: I always believed in a healthy mind and a healthy body will bring so much joy to you and I think health is just part of your persona. If you don’t take care of yourself and your body and your mind, then it doesn’t matter what I do, I think you got to start with health. So, I’m very big on the executive physicals, I routinely require all of our staff to have an annual physical. And, again, they’re young people but you got to have these annual … I live and breathe going to see a doctor every year to do my annual physical, not because I think I’m pretty good health, I still run, I do a lot of things but I think your life starts with being healthy. Jason Diamond: Yeah, it’s refreshing to hear that, no doubt. It’s funny to think about but 2019 is a long time ago now and, in RIA world, I almost think of it like dog years. You’ve been around the block now for a little while so I’m curious how have you seen this space change since you launched in 2019? Michael Smith: In 2019, I didn’t know what I was doing, I could barely get out a wet paper bag but I do think it’s changed dramatically. I would say the biggest thing I’ve seen in just the six and a half, almost seven years is the rise of the mega RIAs and how they’re going to shape the industry. Everyone talked about fee compression at Merrill Lynch. When I was at Merrill, we talked about fee compression, then they talked about robo-advisors and now they’re talking about artificial intelligence replacing advisors, I don’t believe that and I don’t think that’s going to happen in the RIA space. What I see the RIA space maturing is into these very big mega firms as well as these independent RIAs like myself that serve a very niche market where we can walk in our lane. The ability to transact today is so much easier as an RIA than it was at a wirehouse as well because we have instant access to technology. My military background, my Navy background says make a decision right, wrong or different, if you don’t like it afterwards or you get new data, course change. So, in our industry, we can change on a notice. I hired a tech firm last year, I didn’t like the experience nine months into it, guess what, they’re not coming back. So, I can do that but you can’t do that at the bigger firms and even the bigger mega firms would have a hard time navigating a change just like that on a dime. Jason Diamond: You bring up an interesting point. To the extent you face competition, do you find yourself competing more against traditional wirehouse type firms or RIAs like yourself, mega caps RIAs? Are your clients attuned to any of this? Michael Smith: That’s an observation I haven’t thought of either there, Jason. I would say I don’t feel that I have a … I know there’s competition out there but we have a growth issue more than we have anything else so I don’t … I can’t take on the clients that want to become my clients so I’m not competing with people too much. Jason Diamond: A capacity issue, you mean? Michael Smith: Yeah, I have a capacity issue. Jason Diamond: I think you’re not alone in that. How can I even think about competition and the like when … A lot of advisors would probably say that. I want to talk more about the capacity situation but, before I do, let’s talk a little more about the RIA setup. Who do you custody with, remind us, and why or how did you arrive at that decision? Michael Smith: Yeah. So, when I launched, I went with Schwab, Schwab is a phenomenal partner, they helped me get a lot of stuff done, I couldn’t have done it without Schwab. During the pandemic, I realized that I should probably … So, remember, during the pandemic, we had a lot of issues with the banking industry, it was almost like a financial crisis but in a very compressed time. So, during the COVID, I decided to add Fidelity as another custodian so now I have two custodians and I opened accounts on both sides of the house but I like the custodians that are there to help you, they’re very good at what they do. I don’t even consider them a competitor and they aren’t competitors, they have their own branch so I don’t consider them competitors, I think they’re my partners and both Charles Schwab and Fidelity are good partners. Jason Diamond: Yeah, I think that’s the healthy way to look at the custody relationship. That’s a very common approach, I think, is launching with one custodian and then adding a secondary custodian or a tertiary custodian down the line for one reason or another so I appreciate you sharing that because we get those types of nuts and bolts questions a lot so I figured I’d ask you. One last question on the setup and then we’ll shift gears. Has anything been a negative? So, you talked about leaving Mother Merrill behind and, Mother Merrill, we use it facetiously but obviously it implies a degree of comfort and the homeland so I’m curious if you miss anything. Michael Smith: I miss the camaraderie of being with a bunch of other folks. I mentioned this when I first launched, I mentioned it year over year with my team, the one thing that we miss as an RIA and, again, Dynasty has their benefits as well and the mega RIAs have their benefits but, if you’re a true independent like myself, we get to go to conferences that we want to and that’s a timing issue, really, a time constraint. But one thing Merrill and Morgan, JPMorgan, and the other big wirehouses have as well as the megas, they have the ability to put conferences together for their advisors or their administrators and have this education. That’s the one thing that, I think, would evolve in the RIA industry in the future as well. They’re not my competitors, they’re my business colleagues. And if we think of them as competitors, and a lot of people do because I don’t want to share my client information or what I do with my competitor because they may steal them, if you’re that insecure, then you’re probably not the right advisor in the first place. Jason Diamond: I don’t disagree with that. It’s interesting too, I hear two common answers to that question, not about Merrill but just about somebody who’s broken away, what do you miss about the captive firm world. Either on this podcast or just in conversations with advisors, brand comes up a lot and then the point you just raised. I’ll even hear like, “Hey, forget the conferences and the trainings, just being able to have an office where I’ve got eight other advisors on a row for me, it’s a little bit of a different setup than in the independent space,” and I think that’s just a reality of you take the good with the bad. And for other advisors, by the way, one of the things I want to ask you about to this point is do you believe that there are advisors that are just better served in the W2 traditional firm world or do you think that every advisor should be looking at the RIA space? Michael Smith: I think that wirehouse serves a great purpose and- Jason Diamond: Okay, me too. Michael Smith: … there’s a lot of great people that are great advisors in that wirehouse, they need the structure. What I hadn’t alluded to is, and I mentioned this to a former manager from Merrill Lynch of mine just recently, actually, I was like, “I don’t think advisors realize what it takes to run a business.” I’m not trying to sugarcoat it, running an RIA is hard work, it takes a lot of your time day in and day out to run a business as well as taking care of and servicing your clients so I do think the wirehouse venue is the right way to go. And, Jason, I want to go back to one other thing about your identity. I launched as the Smith Group because that’s what I was known at Merrill Lynch. Within three or four months, I changed that name to a firm because I did not want to be associated with it. So, when you’re at one of the wirehouses, you’re known as your team name or something of that sort, I didn’t want to be known as that, I wanted to be known as Emerald Advisors not the Smith Group because, all of a sudden, you have a single point of failure. So, brand identity, it’s not so unique inside the wirehouse because it’s a team name versus Merrill or Morgan Stanley or something like that. Jason Diamond: It’s a good segue because I’ll tell you where my mind goes when you bring that up. My mind goes is you’re smart in a way that you might not even realize or maybe you do realize which is that, if and when it ever comes time to sell this business, it is probably more valuable without your name attached to it or maybe not. But in some way, shape or form, as an RIA, you have an obligation to be thinking about that or it’s probably on your radar, maybe not an obligation. Have you given an ounce of thought to M&A either acquiring businesses, growing in that way or, ultimately, when you succeed out of this business and what the RIA space enables you to do? Michael Smith: To answer that question, yes. Everyone’s thinking about merger and acquisition, I think about succession planning from day one. I actually thought about I’m a big team person, I come from the submarine force where everyone is a key player on a submarine, every single person has a job and responsibility on a nuclear submarine. So, inside the financial services industry, I know Merrill Lynch was very big on teaming, I understand Morgan Stanley is as well because teaming gives them a breadth of responsibility where the responsibilities are shared. So, mergers and acquisitions or selling my business, I think, if you’re not thinking about that … And I’m not thinking about selling my business because that’s a distraction to me. If I needed the money, then I would’ve went to a wirehouse and that’s okay, you monetize your life’s work. Today, I’m all about what’s right for the client, what’s right for my team and what’s right for where I want to be in the next 10 to 20 years. So, I am growing, I do want to grow, I’m looking at opening offices in probably three locations in the next 24 months or so. Jason Diamond: Well, that’s what I was going to say, plenty of advisors I think would say the same, I have a lot of runway. But what about the other side of this equation which is you’ve had tremendous organic growth, you’ve tripled your client base, you’ve more than tripled the asset base, have you thought about acquisition as a mean to jet fuel the inorganic growth side of things? Michael Smith: I have but not in the typical sense that you’re looking at as buying a book of business. I want to partner with like-minded advisors that share that common thread of taking care of clients where you can serve as their trusted counsel and sit in the meetings with their attorneys and sit in the meetings with the accountants and give them sage counsel that you can only do because you’ve been with the family for 20 years. You know this family and that, not always, but I think that’s missed a lot in other firms. Jason Diamond: Yeah, I think that’s fair. I just thought of something else that you brought up. You brought Dynasty so I’m going to ask … I’m going to pull on this thread. That implies to me that you’re at least loosely aware of the supportive independence models that are out there yet you chose a very independent, autonomous path, why? Michael Smith: Because I didn’t know what I was doing. Jason Diamond: Fair. Michael Smith: Let’s be honest, I like Dynasty, I talked with Dynasty when I left. I talked to them all, I talked to Rockefeller, I talked to Morgan, I talked to Dynasty and then, when push came to shove, I wanted to be Mike Smith and launch my own firm and learn. And I will tell you, you learn drinking through a fire hose and we did that, we learned, I know the mistakes. What I didn’t want to do is just go to someplace where this is the stuff you’re going to have to use. So, I think Dynasty is a great launching platform, I think there’s other ones out there that are similar to Dynasty or the Rockefellers or the Morgans, it’s truly what you’re trying to achieve in life. What do you want for you and your clients and I always put my clients before me because I’ve always had this lifelong thing of, you do the right thing, you’re going to get taken care of. Jason Diamond: Yeah. And that’s a very common analysis, by the way, and it’s very common too for big advisors like yourself to say I did my homework across all of those different categories. I looked at the traditional wirehouses and regional firms and boutique firms, I looked at the independent broker dealers, I looked at the support platforms and the aggregators and the roll-ups and here’s ultimately what I landed on and why. Did you always know that though or was that something that it took you a diligence process to figure out? There was plenty of advisors, by the way, who come to us and they’re like, “I knew for the last five years that I was sitting there I was launching an RIA someday.” Michael Smith: Yeah. I did not know that and, to be honest with you, hindsight, I think one of those partners probably could have made me a little bit better at first because then I could have focused on clients versus focusing on, hey, how to open a business, who’s your technology … We talked about custodians and some other things but we didn’t talk about technology, how do you go find that technology. Where’s your email address come from? Who’s your chief compliance officer? When it resides on you, you got to look in the mirror. So, I think those parties out there that provide that for brand-new advisors launching could be very beneficial. I had in my mind what I needed to do and I knew I’m very frugal so mine boiled down to how much money I wanted to spend, to be honest with you. Jason Diamond: I think it is a cost benefit analysis, it is. It’s absolutely … Because if you list the functions of a support platform on paper and you showed it to somebody who didn’t know the industry, they would say, “Why on earth wouldn’t you do this? They’re taking off your plate compliance and tech and custody and the like,” and the answer is because there’s a cost associated with it and plenty of advisors decide what you decide, I wanted … Or I just wanted a greater degree of autonomy and freedom, to your point, the name on the door piece, I wanted this to be mine. Michael Smith: And, Jason, I think it also goes to the uncertainty. I had never done anything since Navy, financial advising and then launching. So, for me, I was launching with four employees I had to take care of and here I was going to hire a third party that I was going to have to spend X amount on and I didn’t even know what my income was going to be. That’s different if you’re a multi-billion dollar FA coming out of a wirehouse, the monetary dynamics are different. Jason Diamond: Agreed. Okay, here’s a good one for you. We get this concept from advisors, from firms, from private equity that a billion dollars in assets is like this magic number in our industry. Do you feel like anything’s changed now that you’re at a billion and what’s the next chapter for Emerald Advisors? Is it just continuing on this steady trajectory and serving clients and trust that everything else comes with that? Michael Smith: I go back and forth on a billion, everyone thinks that’s the right number, the biggest number that you need but I think it’s just an arbitrary numbers because it didn’t define who I was. And a lot of people define success at a billion, they define success that you’re a successful firm at a billion. I think I was a successful firm at 300 million, I was a successful financial advisor with 20 clients in 2005. I would say a billion is a multiplier, what I would tell new advisors out there today is gather assets. The more assets you have, the more revenue you generate. The more revenue you generate, the more money you can put in your pocket which means the longer you can stay in the industry. The problem with the industry is an attrition problem, not anything else. So, assets just give us the ability to have revenue which gives us the ability to grow. Jason Diamond: And is that the plan? Keep adding assets, keep growing one client at a time with the focus though, obviously, on what makes you which is a very client-centric service model. Michael Smith: Correct. There’s a lot of things I want to do in the next couple of years and expanding our footprint is our biggest one with the right partners and then just keep adding. I have a business development officer that I’m probably offer a job to here pretty soon and things are going well. Jason Diamond: Yeah, that’s great. You mentioned the tech stack and the other components of the business and I hear you on the frugal cost-benefit analysis. But who did you turn to for some of those early decisions, was it Schwab primarily who helped hold your hand through that? Michael Smith: Schwab was very good at helping me identify the tech stack at first and the tech stack is actually the one consistent, there’s a lot of things I’ve been consistent on but tech is one that I’ve stayed with them. I launched with RightSize, now they’re Advisory, they’re very good, they do the right job for us and I’m big on cybersecurity. So, tech was helpful from Schwab, Schwab helped us with that. Jason Diamond: So, we spoke a little bit about your naval experience but, I’m curious, can you tell us how has your naval experience shaped your perception or your experience in wealth management? Michael Smith: My Navy path was a lot different than many officers. I served 12 years as an enlisted person before I got my direct commission as a Mustang officer, typically called limited duty officers or loud, dumb and obnoxious as I like to say. But that experience gave me a unique perspective because I was able to be the enlisted side and officer which are the workers and then the management side so I had both experiences which was unique. When I was commissioned, Admiral Jerry Ellis, a submarine admiral that commissioned me, heard this lesson to the podium, he was just talking about me in this point but he said, “There are three kinds of people in every organization. You have rowboat people who need to be pushed, you have sailboat people who move whenever the conditions are favorable and then there’s steamboat people, they move continuously through calm or storm.” And he said, “This is Ensign Michael Smith,” he said, “Make your course.” And that’s always stood with me because you do have those three types of people in life. You got people that are just … They’re robo people, they go until they get tired. You got sailboat people that go wherever the wind blows them and then you got steamboat people that chart their own course. I would say for advisors out there make your course or just be happy with what you’re doing. But for some of us hard chargers, I think that analogy has stayed with me my entire career. Jason Diamond: It’s fantastic. I love the analogy, great naval tie in also. Thanks for sharing that. We got time for one more question. You have a fascinating background, a fascinating path to the industry, obviously, an incredibly disciplined approach around client service, any parting thoughts, words of wisdom especially as it relates to growth? That’s what strikes me most about your story is the growth that your move unlocked and that’s what every advisor who listens to our show is looking for. Michael Smith: I’m going to give another plug to Schwab on this. We actually were fortunate and I got their consulting group to come in right afterwards and I’m a big believer in having offsite. So, I’ve had an offsite, two offsites a year for my team and it’s the entire team unlike the wirehouses where you don’t take your admins and stuff like that. I take my entire team to an offsite and we group up on what we’re trying to achieve and have goals and objectives for the year. Schwab allowed us to use their consultants and we came up with our ideal client persona. Teams or firms that have this model become high performing. When you become high performing, growth becomes the outcome. I couldn’t do anything but grow. Jason, I couldn’t not grow because I had this ideal client persona, I knew how I was going to do it, it was measurable. So, growth becomes the outcome and, if you hold people responsible, then we’re all going to grow together and it’s a fun outcome. Jason Diamond: Fantastic, it’s a great place to end. Thank you so much for sharing your expertise with us, I can’t wait to see what the next chapter holds for Emerald, this has been a lot of fun. Michael Smith: Jason, thank you so much. I appreciate everything you do for the industry as well. Mindy Diamond: As a financial advisor, you hold yourself to the highest standards of integrity, honesty and credibility. You are successful because you take your professional responsibility seriously and are dedicated to your clients. But are you living your best business life? Are your goals aligned with your firms or could a better option exist? Should I Stay or Should I Go? Is a book written with you in mind? It’s a self-guided journey that walks you through the key steps that we take with our advisor clients. This strategic thought process and roadmap to professional self-discovery is designed to help you ask the right questions and think critically and objectively whether you’re considering change or not. Learn how to get your copy at diamond-consultants.com/thebook. From “Overservicing” Clients to Building a $1B RIA: A Merrill Breakaway Story A conversation with Jason Diamond and Michael Smith, Managing Partner and Founder of Emerald Advisors.      Jason Diamond: Welcome to the latest episode of our podcast series for financial advisors. Today’s episode is From “Overservicing” Clients to Building a $1B RIA: A Merrill Breakaway Story. It’s a conversation with Michael Smith, managing partner and founder of Emerald Advisors. I’m Jason Diamond and this is the Diamond Podcast for financial advisors. Mindy Diamond: At Diamond Consultants, we help elite advisors identify the right environment for their businesses to thrive whether that’s at a wirehouse, boutique or independent firm. With nearly three decades of experience, we’ve guided thousands of advisors and represented more than a quarter of a trillion dollars in assets transitioned and, each year, one in four advisors managing a billion dollars or more who change firms are our clients. Our process is education driven and based on building relationships starting as your strategic partner well before you’re even thinking of a move. To schedule a confidential conversation, call us at (908) 879-1002. Wondering why advisors change firms and where they’re headed? Are transition deals going up or down? Those very questions and more inspired us to create our annual advisor transition report. It’s the award-winning, data-driven resource designed for advisors that connects the dots between the motivations around movement and the firm’s appetite for top talent. Arm yourself with the knowledge you need to make smart decisions. Download your copy at diamond-consultants.com/transitionreport. Jason Diamond: Growth is often viewed as the result of better marketing, stronger referrals, a larger team and even acquisition and that’s all true yet growth can be the byproduct of something else entirely. For example, Michael Smith built a successful practice at Merrill then, one day, he was told he was spending too much time with his clients, or his management put it over-servicing clients. For Michael, that wasn’t a warning sign about his approach, it was a signal that he might have outgrown the firm and the model. Today, Michael is the founder and managing partner of Emerald Advisors, the independent RIA he launched in late 2019 with roughly 385 million in assets and 85 client relationships. Less than seven years later, the firm has grown to more than a billion in assets while remaining deeply focused on a highly-specialized client base and an unusually hands-on service model. What makes this story particularly interesting isn’t just the growth, it’s the thinking behind it. Michael’s perspective was shaped long before he entered wealth management. After serving more than two decades in the Navy, he brought a leadership philosophy centered on accountability, discipline and what he calls steamboat people, those who keep moving forward regardless of conditions, that mindset continues to influence how he builds his team, serves clients and evaluates opportunities. In this episode, we discuss the decision to leave Merrill, the realities of launching a fully independent RIA, why specialization can accelerate growth, the evolving role of custodians and technology and why he believes exceptional client service remains one of the industry’s most durable competitive advantages. Because Michael’s experience suggests that growth isn’t always the result of finding more opportunities, sometimes it’s the result of creating the freedom to execute the vision you already had so let’s jump in. Michael, thank you so much for joining us today. For starters, can you walk us through your background and what brought you to the world of wealth management? Michael Smith: Jason, thank you so much for the opportunity to be here today, I do listen to the podcast a lot especially before I left Mother Merrill. But my background and how I got into financial services is really distinct because I was on the board of JDRF back in the day and the national sponsor for JDRF was UBS PaineWebber and they’re like, “Mike, why don’t you be a financial advisor?” And my master’s degree was actually a finance and accounting in portfolio management because I’ve managed my own portfolio for years and years and so, when I couldn’t get a job, I just fell into it because I couldn’t get a job and I needed a job. That was 21 years ago, Memorial Day so that’s how I got into this industry. Jason Diamond: It’s a unique background, it’s super interesting and I want to talk more about it. You mentioned Mother Merrill, we’ll certainly get there. Before we do, give us a little bit of context on the current business you operate, Emerald Advisors, any context you can share on size, number of staff, types of clients you serve would be great. Michael Smith: Sure. So, we launched Emerald in 2019, November 2019 with about 85 clients and you always talk about this on the podcast how scared it is to launch and go independent. And I would say we took over about 95% of our clients that we wanted to bring over and today we’re at about 230 clients, I think we have some onboarding right now, we have just over a billion of assets. So, we launched with the 85 clients and around 350, 385 million, now we’re over a billion. Jason Diamond: Good for you. Michael Smith: Thank you. And I launched with four employees and we’re now at 11. And I would give a shout-out to one of my key employees because, when I launched, I actually hired somebody that had no experience with us and that was really a good thing because that allowed that person to really focus on operations and back office stuff while my business partner Emily and I were able to focus on bringing on the clients and alleviating any issues that they may have or thought. Jason Diamond: So, meaning you hired somebody basically immediately upon launch to help you with the transition and with this next chapter? Michael Smith: Correct. I hired them before but they started the day we launched. Jason Diamond: Brilliant, I love it. Oh, let’s definitely talk more about that because I think that’s a great strategy for … You’re right, you said it in a joking manner now because you’re seven years past but it’s a very real fear that advisors have and I think it’s worth talking more about. I want to mention too you have, obviously, built this business and grown this business dramatically. I don’t want to make this episode about the pandemic but you moved the business at a, certainly, a unique time. Did it impact your growth at all? Did you feel like you hit a brick wall? Just curious about your thoughts. Michael Smith: No, Jason, that’s a great observation. I would venture to say that the pandemic was actually a good thing for us. Jason Diamond: Interesting. Michael Smith: And I say that because, all of a sudden, you could hit pause because everyone was relearning how to do business, how do we do client reviews, how do we communicate with clients in a environment. So, I think the pandemic allowed us to just really reset our expectations visiting with clients because I used to fly a lot because I have clients in 38 different states so this has actually been, not just good for me, but good for the industry because I think it’s reset our expectations that we don’t have to be every day with a client facing. Jason Diamond: I agree with that largely and it’s true of our business too, by the way, it’s certainly reshaped the way people expect to be communicated with. I think Zoom has become much more mainstream, phone calls and we’ve heard from many other advisors who say something similar. I was just curious because you moved so close to or if there was an impact but I get, honestly, I think you’re right, it allowed you to have this nice natural inflection point and almost like flipping a switch of a clean slate. Michael Smith: It allowed us to learn the processes too. So, we launched in November 1st, by March we were in lockdown and so it gave us the opportunity to take several months of just learning the processes of how to be an RIA, it was pretty good. Jason Diamond: Absolutely. So, one of the things you mentioned in that was the way in which you serve clients and I’d read something funny and I think it was around the time of your move. You were talking about that, Merrill, you had a manager who spoke about that you would overserve your clients, you serve clients too much, tell me about that. Michael Smith: That was such an interesting topic because I got called down to the ops officer’s office and they’re like, “Ugh, Mike.” And it brought my admin down with me and they’re like, “Mike, these reports that you’re taking care of your clients too much,” and I’m like, “What do you mean?” “Well, you’re overservicing them.” Jason, I literally had to go back and Google the word overservicing because I was like, “How do you overservice the client? I’m not making their bed.” It was just so funny to me that I got counsel for overservicing clients when we’re in a client-facing job and I think that was part of the catalyst. Jason Diamond: Tell me more about what they meant, you think. Michael Smith: Hindsight, I think they … I like to take care of people which means I’m very intuitive towards taxes, I understand how the tax code works, I understand how everything impacts their bottom line. So, when we’re doing deferred comp enrollments or 401(k) enrollments or I’m a big believer in Roth 401(k)s and backdoor Roths and I’ve been doing them for years, I think what Mother Merrill wanted at that time was us not to do that. And, again, nothing against Merrill, I get it but this is how they wanted us to act and I wasn’t in that mold, I was taking care of clients to a much deeper depth is how I would say it. Jason Diamond: And I think that speaks to you outgrew the model not necessarily the firm. I think Merrill does a lot of things really well, you would agree with that, I think given that you built 85 clients and 350 million in assets is nothing to sneeze at. But the model that it seems like you value client service and an integrated client service experience of that and the wirehouse model oftentimes doesn’t put a premium on that. Tell me about your ethos or your thoughts around client service today and what being independent enables you to do. Michael Smith: So, that’s an interesting observation because one of my clients actually just mentioned to me that the reason we’re growing so much is because of our service model and the fact that we deliver a tremendous amount of value over just portfolio management. I said my managers is in portfolio management, I don’t do that any longer, I have a staff that handles that for me but it’s really the servicing of the clients because they don’t know what we know and I think servicing the client is the most important thing that we can do today. Jason Diamond: Give me some examples of what you mean by servicing the client in a more holistic way. I agree with you, by the way, portfolio management, table stakes, financial planning, table stakes, tell me more about what you mean. Michael Smith: By that I mean we do a quarterly review on tax. So, a lot of people don’t understand how taxes work and how estimated taxes work. So, estimated taxes are January 1st to March 31st, January 1st to May 31st, January 1st to August 31st, that’s how you do your estimated tax payments, you figure out what that is. And for compensated employees where they have RSUs that come in at different times of the year or different grants or exercise their options at a different time, that can affect their estimated tax liability and I’m not big on giving Uncle Sam any more money than they have to have until they need it. And then everyone doesn’t understand how the penalties and interest works on the IRS. And I’m big on the tax payments because that’s where we can add a lot of value for not a lot of time and we integrate it with our portfolio so we know what we’re doing with our gains. And I happen to reside in Washington State which has a long-term capital gains tax rate once you surpass about 270,000 of long-term capital gains. So, it’s super important for us to be aware of this and that’s how we service them. We also help them with their rebalancing of their 401(k)s, things that wirehouses cannot supposed to do, we are not supposed to be helping them with some of their aspects of life. Jason Diamond: Yup. That’s what I was alluding to earlier, it’s limitations on the model, not because they’re bad models, it’s just a different way, a different ethos around client service. You mentioned RSUs and corporate employees, I know that’s a niche you have is around concentrated stock positions and equity comp plans. I guess let me ask you two different questions around this. First of all, why that niche? Interested. And then, second of all, do you think

Are we seeing a major policy shift when it comes to American cotton? ACSA President Buddy Allen drops in to discuss how federal policy pivots from only treating the symptoms to finally focusing on the cause.

National Go fishing day. Entertainment from 2005. War of 1812 began, Napolean defeated at Waterloo, Sally Ride 1st US woman in space. Todays birthdays - James Montgomery Flagg, George Mallory, Paul McCartney, Carol Kane, Isabella Rossellini, Nathan Morris, Blake Shelton. Clarence Clemons died.Intro - God did good - Dianna Corcoran  https://www.diannacorcoran.com/I wanna go fishing - Randy HeavinWe belong together - Mariah CareyMaking memories of us - Keith UrbanBirthdays - 50 Cent   http://50cent.com/She love you - The BeatlesEnd of the road - Boys II MenAustin - Blake SheltonExit - Whisikey & Tequila - Robinson Treacher  https://robinsontreacher.com/History & Factoids about today Playlist on SpotifyHistory & Factoids about today webpagecooolmedia.comcountryundergroundradio.comNational Days - May Puzzle BookGrace & Grit Christian Country Radio

This week, we kick things off with the successful Freedom 250 celebration at the White House. Patriotism, festivities, and enough red, white, and blue to make Uncle Sam ask everyone to tone it down a notch. Apparently, America knows how to throw a birthday party.Speaking of parties, Barack Obama casually revealed that there were some pretty wild gatherings during his White House years. Which naturally leaves us wondering: were these classy soirées, or was somebody playing beer pong in the Lincoln Bedroom? We discuss the comments and speculate on what exactly "wild" means when you're living at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.Then we head to the golf course, where Phil Mickelson reportedly found himself in the rough after allegedly behaving inappropriately with a woman and getting shown the clubhouse door. Apparently, "playing through" doesn't apply to personal conduct.Finally, across the pond, thousands of people in the United Kingdom took to the streets to voice concerns about immigration, national identity, and the future of their country. We break down the protests, the reactions, and why Europeans seem to have mastered the art of expressing frustration while standing in the rain.From White House celebrations to presidential party stories, golf course drama, and political unrest overseas, this episode has more twists than a British roundabout.So grab your favorite beverage, avoid getting kicked out of any country clubs, and remember: if someone says there were "wild parties" at the White House, everybody immediately starts wondering who was in charge of the playlist.

Episode Synopsis:Is the United States really the land of the free and home of the brave, or is all of that just clever propaganda disguising the true nature of the federalized empire of Uncle Sam?We talk about this and much more, including:How long did it take for the United States to violate the values espoused in its founding documents?Why was the Louisiana Purchase considered an illegal purchase?How does the United States justify denying lawful protection to its own citizens?Why was Sanford Dole, the founder of the Dole fruit company, the president of Hawaii?How does the United States operate the “Footprint of Freedom,” an illegal 15-mile-long military base off the coast of Africa?Original Air DateShow HostsJason Spears & Christopher DeanOur PatreonConsider joining our Patreon Squad and becoming a Tier Operator to help support the show and get access to exclusive content like:Links and ResourcesStudio NotesA monthly Zoom call with Jason and Christopher And More…ORP ApparelMerch StoreConnect With UsLetsTalk@ORPpodcast.comFacebookInstagram

Anthropic pulled the plug on its Mythos / Fable 5 model after the U.S. government raised concerns, and IREN has completed its acquisition of Nostrum for 490 MW of capacity in Spain. Welcome back to The Blockspace Podcast! Anthropic and Uncle Sam are trading blows again, with the frontier LLM company pulling its recently released Mythos / Fable 5 model after whistleblowers said the model's guardrails were bypassed. Lygos Finance's CEO Jay Patel joins us for his reaction to the news and the market rally with a reported, imminent peace deal coming for the Iran War this week. For other news, we cover IREN's closing its acquisition of Nostrum, which will give it a 490 MW foothold in Spain for AI data center development, and the EPA's stance that it won't regulate AI data centers. Check out Dimetrics, the AI industry's Bloomberg terminal. Track financial metrics and news for AI stocks, GPU rental prices, state-by-state data center pushback, and more with the compute industry's most powerful dashboard. Subscribe to our newsletter to receive updates for all of our shows and content.

Sacrilegious Sunday is back, and this one goes from Hollywood acting debates to full-blown current-events chaos.Chino, Homeboy, and the crew open with the eternal question: Denzel Washington vs. Will Smith, one-take greatness, Training Day, Malcolm X, Glory, After Earth, Mark Wahlberg, and why some actors have magic while others just memorize the damn script.Then the show swerves into the news: Charlie Kirk free-speech fallout, people getting fired or arrested over social media posts, First Amendment lawsuits, settlements, and why everyone suddenly remembers free speech when the consequences start costing real money.From there, the military-veteran segment kicks in hard: veteran mental health, DD-214 life, military trauma, civilian coworkers, social anxiety, sleep deprivation, CPAP survival, and the secret inner violence of trying to complete a grocery list without losing your soul.A brand-new blue fish gets discovered in Venezuela… and Chino & Homeboy immediately prove why the internet should not be allowed to name anything.This episode kicks off with the viral fish-naming chaos: Bonnie Blue, blue waffle jokes, “Finding Cleto,” Victoria's Secret, and a full David Attenborough-level breakdown of one of the most cursed marine biology conversations ever recorded. From there, the show goes completely off the rails into AI restrictions, Uncle Sam killing Chino's coding momentum, public car hookup laws, OnlyFans creator drama, police videos, military gym roasting, Filipino culture fights, earthquake stories, Jollibee damage, Deadpool, He-Man, World Cup immigration chaos, and more unfiltered podcast madness.If you like dark comedy, military humor, internet culture, AI rants, pop culture arguments, adult jokes, and two dudes turning every topic into a crime scene, this one is for you.In this episode:New blue fish discovery, viral fish name suggestions, AI model drama, government restrictions, car sex legality, OnlyFans entitlement, police misconduct, military fitness fails, Filipino food, Philippines earthquake, Jollibee collapse, Deadpool, He-Man, World Cup visas, immigration talk, soccer, and Chino & Homeboy being absolutely wrong for two hours.Like, subscribe, comment, and tell us what you would name the fish.#ChinoAndHomeboy #ComedyPodcast #FunnyPodcast #DarkHumor #PodcastClips #BlueFish #InternetCulture #AIPodcast #MilitaryHumor #FilipinoHumor #MexicanHumor #OnlyFansDrama #Deadpool #HeMan #WorldCup #UnfilteredComedyTimecodes00:00 Intro / Sacrilegious Sunday01:37 Uncle Sam, AI restrictions, and Chino's coding rage08:42 New blue fish discovered in Venezuela13:19 Fish sushi question sends everything downhill21:11 Pinot Grigio jail-smuggling story31:20 Historical medical devices and cursed internet research42:26 Trans dating debate46:18 Cop video and public hookup laws52:06 OnlyFans creator collab drama01:04:49 Secretary of War Crimes gym roast01:24:09 Body found in San Diego Bay01:31:11 Bonnie Blue pregnancy controversy01:38:03 Dean Cain, Supergirl, and Millie Alcock01:57:19 Philippines earthquake and Jollibee damage02:04:14 Deadpool02:10:17 He-Man / Masters of the Universe02:16:14 Bachelor party and soccer confusion02:18:50 USA vs Paraguay02:20:24 World Cup visas and immigration chaos02:23:13 Outro

Today on Bit Public Radio, Host Luke Bovard explores the strange and unpredictable world of misconception. Correspondent Angelina Washington reports from Troy, New York, where a Flag Day celebration honoring Uncle Sam escalates into civic confusion, alphabet panic, and unexpected papal involvement. Next, Mandy Keyes investigates food misconceptions at a farmer's market in Pashook, Iowa, where a simple question about tomatoes leads to nightshade conspiracies, unusual educational materials, and some deeply confusing ideas about reproduction. Finally, in her first-ever field report, Gail "Shut Up Gail" Shephard accidentally investigates immaculate conception instead of misconception, uncovering mysterious pregnancies, impossible football outcomes, secret societies, and gardening techniques that defy explanation. Misunderstandings were made. Conclusions were reached. Facts became optional. Apologies Residents of Troy, New York, Uncle Sam,   Karate schools, karate students, karate parents, people named Xavier, Xander, and Yolanda, Zachary; Sesame Street, literacy advocates, the Vatican, Pope Leo, RC Cola, Fanta, farmer's markets, tomato growers, eggplant farmers, nightshade researchers, conspiracy theorists, sex education teachers, bananas, tomatoes, condom manufacturers, PBS cooking programs, Las Vegas sportsbooks, giant communities, golden geese, secret student societies, ACE Award nominees, workplace birthday cards. Also... SHUT UP GAIL! Credits Director and Creator: Billy Merritt Producer, Editor & Graphics: Hill Kane Featuring: Billy Merritt - Himself  Luke Bovard - Himself  Angela Washko  - Angelina Washington Amanda Keyes - Lisa Steckman Gail Shephard - Hill Kane Amber Bellsdale, Brent Kohler, Don Slovin, Jim Tripp and Katya Vasilaky - various and sundry characters and oddball sound effects. Music: BPR Theme Song: Lyrics Hill Kane, musical composition created on SUNO AI Hosting: Libsyn "The BIT" and "The BIT Improv Comedy Network" are trademarks owned by Billy Merritt. © 2024–2026 Billy Merritt. All rights reserved. Inquiries: TheBitComedyNetwork@gmail.com Website: BITComedyNetwork.com  Production + Graphics: Hill Kane, Raising Kane Media + Marketing

Good morning, Daylight Burners. This is the Friggin' Farm & Ranch Report for Thursday, June 11, 2026. Live cattle are firming back up, feeders love the cheaper corn, hogs are soft, and the grain complex is still weak – but the real world is loading for bear. We've got: – A board that wants to drag cash cattle down while the barns keep paying mid‑4s on five‑weights and the five‑area cash fats hang in the mid‑250s. The board lies; the barn doesn't.– Screwworm risk still real but not “all screwworm all the time” – five confirmed U.S. cases, control zones and sterile flies in place, and the real job for producers is checking wounds, drying navels, and calling it in when you see something ugly.– A big update on the Cargill Fort Morgan situation: 1,700+ Teamsters locked out, unfair labor practice charges, and what it means when a 5,000–6,000 head‑per‑day plant goes dark in a market with the smallest cow herd since Truman.– BLM's new “modernizing” grazing rule – streamlined for them, more rangeland‑health hooks for your permits, plus a June 11 virtual meeting where they'll tell you it's all for your own good.– USDA's sudden “Farmer and Rancher Freedom Framework” and why I'm not calling it a win until we see actual regs, projects, or enforcement actions die because of it.– A heavy war reel: Apache down near Hormuz, U.S. “self‑defense” strikes into Iran, Iranian shots at our bases in Jordan, Kuwait, and Bahrain, Houthis threatening the Red Sea/Bab el‑Mandeb, and how all that war risk turns diesel, fertilizer, and freight into hostages again.– On This Day, June 10: National Milk Month kicks off as a chain‑store promo, and Farm Credit finally pays Uncle Sam back for the '80s bailout – two reminders that ag has been “managed” from the outside for a long damn time. If you run cows or ground and you're trying to make sense of the board, the bugs, the packers, the alphabet agencies, and two different Middle East chokepoints all at once, this one's for you. Full immersive transcript, charts, and link pack over on Substack: burnindaylight.substack.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hour 2 Segment 1 Tony starts the second hour of the show talking about Markwayne Mullin refusing to commit to following court orders to DHS. Hour 2 Segment 2 Tony talks about The Black Crowes lead singer shutting down USA chants after their mascot wore an Uncle Sam outfit at their show in Tampa. Hour 2 Segment 3 Tony gets into three more things: President Donald Trump signing an executive order to seek early access to powerful AI models before release, studies showing remote work isn’t helping college graduates in the workplace, and NPR changing headlines on anti-racism protests during the COVID-19 pandemic. Hour 2 Segment 4 Tony wraps up the second hour of the show talking about Scott Pelley getting fired from CBS News and 60 Minutes. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hour 1 Segment 1 Tony starts the first hour of the show talking about Spencer Pratt finishing second in the Los Angeles mayoral race. Tony also talks about Adam Hamawy winning the Democrat House primary in New Jersey. Hour 1 Segment 2 Tony talks about President Donald Trump going off on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the phone due to strikes in Lebanon. Hour 1 Segment 3 Tony is joined with podcast host and occasional fill-in guest host Kira Davis, to talk about the primary election results in California. Hour 1 Segment 4 Tony wraps up the first hour of the show talking about Marco Rubio testifying on foreign policy and The View speaking on experience of Pete Hegseth. Hour 2 Segment 1 Tony starts the second hour of the show talking about Markwayne Mullin refusing to commit to following court orders to DHS. Hour 2 Segment 2 Tony talks about The Black Crowes lead singer shutting down USA chants after their mascot wore an Uncle Sam outfit at their show in Tampa. Hour 2 Segment 3 Tony gets into three more things: President Donald Trump signing an executive order to seek early access to powerful AI models before release, studies showing remote work isn’t helping college graduates in the workplace, and NPR changing headlines on anti-racism protests during the COVID-19 pandemic. Hour 2 Segment 4 Tony wraps up the second hour of the show talking about Scott Pelley getting fired from CBS News and 60 Minutes. Hour 3 Segment 1 Tony starts the final hour of the show talking about Scott Bessent testifying on President Donald Trump’s 2027 budget. Hour 3 Segment 2 Tony talks more about Adam Hamawy winning the Democrat House primary in New Jersey. Hour 3 Segment 3 Tony talks Thom Tillis’s displeasure of Bill Pulte for him replacing Tulsi Gabbard. Hour 3 Segment 4 Tony wraps up another edition of the show talking more about warehouse items seized from fraudsters. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Discover all of the podcasts in our network, search for specific episodes, get the Optimal Living Daily workbook, and learn more at: OLDPodcast.com. Episode 3581: Dr. James Dahle explores the tradeoff between earning more and reclaiming your time, explaining how marginal utility, taxes, and fixed expenses influence the value of working additional hours. He highlights how financial obligations, lifestyle goals, and changing priorities throughout life shape the point where more income stops adding meaningful happiness and more free time becomes the greater reward. Read along with the original article(s) here: https://www.physicianonfire.com/diminishing-returns-work/ Quotes to ponder: “Both time and money are limited and fungible (exchangeable), and it is up to you spend them as will do the most good and bring you the most happiness.” “Once your house and student loans are paid for, you may find working 3 weekends a month isn't exactly what you want to do for the rest of your career.” “Lots of docs assume there is a point at which it isn't worth working because Uncle Sam gets everything extra you make. That is very rarely true.” Episode references: The White Coat Investor: https://www.whitecoatinvestor.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Discover all of the podcasts in our network, search for specific episodes, get the Optimal Living Daily workbook, and learn more at: OLDPodcast.com. Episode 3581: Dr. James Dahle explores the tradeoff between earning more and reclaiming your time, explaining how marginal utility, taxes, and fixed expenses influence the value of working additional hours. He highlights how financial obligations, lifestyle goals, and changing priorities throughout life shape the point where more income stops adding meaningful happiness and more free time becomes the greater reward. Read along with the original article(s) here: https://www.physicianonfire.com/diminishing-returns-work/ Quotes to ponder: “Both time and money are limited and fungible (exchangeable), and it is up to you spend them as will do the most good and bring you the most happiness.” “Once your house and student loans are paid for, you may find working 3 weekends a month isn't exactly what you want to do for the rest of your career.” “Lots of docs assume there is a point at which it isn't worth working because Uncle Sam gets everything extra you make. That is very rarely true.” Episode references: The White Coat Investor: https://www.whitecoatinvestor.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Discover all of the podcasts in our network, search for specific episodes, get the Optimal Living Daily workbook, and learn more at: OLDPodcast.com. Episode 3581: Dr. James Dahle explores the tradeoff between earning more and reclaiming your time, explaining how marginal utility, taxes, and fixed expenses influence the value of working additional hours. He highlights how financial obligations, lifestyle goals, and changing priorities throughout life shape the point where more income stops adding meaningful happiness and more free time becomes the greater reward. Read along with the original article(s) here: https://www.physicianonfire.com/diminishing-returns-work/ Quotes to ponder: “Both time and money are limited and fungible (exchangeable), and it is up to you spend them as will do the most good and bring you the most happiness.” “Once your house and student loans are paid for, you may find working 3 weekends a month isn't exactly what you want to do for the rest of your career.” “Lots of docs assume there is a point at which it isn't worth working because Uncle Sam gets everything extra you make. That is very rarely true.” Episode references: The White Coat Investor: https://www.whitecoatinvestor.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Rental properties can give you cash flow, appreciation, and loan paydown from tenants. But tax benefits are often the unsung hero of real estate investing. Today, we're sharing some of the best real estate tax strategies so you can keep more of your hard-earned money from Uncle Sam!   Welcome back to another Rookie Reply! Should you do a cost segregation study? Many investors use this tax strategy to accelerate depreciation and create massive paper losses, but what's the catch? Stay tuned as we break down the potential pitfalls and everything you need to know before getting started. What about a 1031 exchange? This strategy allows you to defer capital gains taxes when selling a rental property, but what if you're flipping houses?   Every landlord wants a great tenant in their rental property, but how do you find them? From credit scores and income requirements to employment verification and background checks, we show you how to dial in your tenant screening criteria so that you make the best possible decision! Looking to invest? Need answers? Ask your question here! In This Episode We Cover Real estate tax strategies that will help you keep more money from the IRS How to accelerate rental property depreciation with a cost segregation study Offsetting your active income with the short-term rental tax “loophole” The two ways to qualify for Real Estate Professional Status (REPS) How to select the best tenant for your rental property (fairly and legally) Whether you can do a 1031 exchange when flipping a house And So Much More! Check out more resources from this show on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠BiggerPockets.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠h⁠t⁠⁠tps://www.biggerpockets.com/blog/rookie-724⁠. Interested in learning more about today's sponsors or becoming a BiggerPockets partner yourself? Email ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠advertise@biggerpockets.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

DOWNLOAD THE DV RADIO APP ON ANDROID RIGHT NOW!!   The latest BARRACKS TALK podcast episode is waiting, press 'play' now!   In this week's episode of BARRACKS TALK from DV Radio: The DV Radio Crew reminisce about Middle Eastern sandstorms to navigating the "extreme" anxiety of Veteran healthcare screenings, this episode explores the gritty reality of aging with the broken parts Uncle Sam left behind. They tackle the therapeutic potential of psychedelics, the hazards of self-medication, and the looming dread of medical "probes" alongside reflections on the true weight of Memorial Day. It's a raw, humor-filled look at life after service where golf rants, tactical simulations, and mortality are always on the menu. #DVRadio #BARRACKSTALK #VeteranLife #MilitaryHumor #MemorialDay #PTSDAwareness #VetHealth #MilitaryHistory #AnxietySupport #MentalHealthMatters #GrittyVets #MilitaryTransition #TacticalSims #PsychedelicHealing #VetsHelpingVets #ZeroFucks #VeteranRealities - GOFUNDME CAMPAIGNS MENTIONED Ms Lynn:: https://www.gofundme.com/f/standing-with-lynn-through-her-cancer-battle - Grab Your DV Radio Merch! https://bit.ly/DVR-StreamLabs-Merch - Respawn Finance + Free Budgeting App https://respawnfinance.com/ - Star Spangled Brewing Co. [THE OFFICIAL BEER OF DV RADIO] https://www.starspangledbrewingco.com/ - Hard Of Hearing, Deaf, or Have Other Hearing Issues? READ THE TRANSCRIPT! https://dvradio.net/accessibility - Hope For 22 A Day [Pin-Ups For the 22 A Day] https://hopefor22aday.org/ - Liberty Risk Podcast [Brothers Like None Other] https://beacons.ai/libertyriskpodcast - INERT Mugs [OFFICIAL SPONSOR] www.inertmugs.com - Laugh It Off [The Comedy Wing of DV Radio] https://www.laughitoff.org/ - Want To Sponsor DV Radio? No pricing model beats DV Radio when it comes to sponsorship. https://bit.ly/SponsorDVRadio DV Radio on Rumble https://rumble.com/c/DVRadio DV Radio on twitch.tv https://www.twitch.tv/dvradio - [NOTE: Click these links!] ---------- DV Farm Septic System Fundraiser https://donorbox.org/dv-farm-septic-system ---------- Parental Control Apps https://bit.ly/ChildSafeInternet ---------- Backpacks For Life https://backpacksforlife.org/ ---------- Wah-Tie Woodturning https://wahtiewoodturning.com/ ---------- Backpacks For Life Fundraiser https://ko-fi.com/dvradio/goal?g=1 ---------- Edited by Munkee Bawlz Media https://www.munkeebawlzmedia.com/ ---------- Are you a Veteran Owned Business? Have unique, handmade items that we can buy and review on a show? Contact us, show us what you have, and we'll (at least Bo) will spend up to $50 per month and speak openly about your product(s)!! ---------- Find Out More About Betsy Ross At Her Website https://bit.ly/Fight-With-Betsy-Ross ---------- *Got an idea for BARRACKS TALK or any other show? Want to be a guest? Then please feel free to contact us by sending an email to info[at]dvradio.net or oink[at]dvradio.net.* ---------- **LINKS TO CHECK OUT** EVERYTHING DYSFUNCTIONAL VETERANS https://whereisdv.carrd.co  ---------- DV RADIO PARTNERS, SPONSORS, and AFFILIATES https://dvr-listen-support.carrd.co

Avec son haut-de-forme étoilé, sa barbe blanche et son doigt pointé vers le spectateur, l'Oncle Sam est devenu l'un des symboles les plus célèbres des États-Unis. Mais une question demeure : pourquoi ce personnage représente-t-il l'Amérique ?L'origine de l'Oncle Sam remonterait à la guerre anglo-américaine de 1812. À cette époque, un fournisseur de viande nommé Samuel Wilson travaille pour l'armée américaine dans l'État de New York. Les barils de viande qu'il envoie aux soldats portent les lettres « U.S. », pour « United States ».Mais les soldats plaisantent en disant que ces initiales signifient en réalité « Uncle Sam », car Samuel Wilson était surnommé « Uncle Sam » par ses proches. Peu à peu, l'expression commence à désigner le gouvernement américain lui-même.L'histoire pourrait sembler anodine, mais le surnom va progressivement se répandre dans tout le pays au XIXe siècle. L'Oncle Sam devient alors une personnification des États-Unis, un peu comme Marianne représente la République française.Au départ, cependant, son apparence n'est pas encore fixée. Les caricaturistes le dessinent de différentes façons. Ce n'est qu'au fil du temps qu'il prend son image actuelle : un homme âgé, mince, avec une barbe blanche, un costume bleu, rouge et blanc, et surtout un chapeau décoré d'étoiles américaines.Mais l'image la plus célèbre apparaît pendant la Première Guerre mondiale.En 1917, l'illustrateur James Montgomery Flagg crée une affiche devenue mythique. On y voit l'Oncle Sam pointer directement le doigt vers le spectateur avec cette phrase :« I Want YOU for U.S. Army »« Je vous veux pour l'armée américaine. »L'affiche connaît un succès immense. Des millions d'exemplaires sont imprimés. Elle devient l'une des images les plus célèbres de l'histoire américaine. Pendant la Seconde Guerre mondiale, elle sera encore réutilisée massivement.Pourquoi cette figure a-t-elle autant marqué les esprits ? Parce qu'elle donne un visage humain à l'État américain. L'Oncle Sam représente à la fois l'autorité, le patriotisme et l'idée d'une nation qui parle directement à ses citoyens.Aujourd'hui encore, l'Oncle Sam apparaît dans les caricatures politiques, les films ou les campagnes de propagande. Il symbolise parfois la puissance américaine, parfois l'interventionnisme des États-Unis dans le monde.Tout cela à cause d'une simple blague faite par des soldats sur des barils de viande marqués « U.S. ». Hébergé par Acast. Visitez acast.com/privacy pour plus d'informations.

Running out of money is a top fear in retirement, and it almost always traces back to one question: where will your monthly income actually come from? In this episode of Safer Retirement Radio, Brian Decker and Arrin Wray walk through how Decker Retirement Planning builds a diversified retirement income plan. The same math-based, fiduciary process they use with clients every day. What this episode covers: • The bucket strategy: structuring emergency cash, principal-guaranteed income accounts, and a separate growth "risk bucket" so every dollar in your portfolio has a job • Annuities, demystified: why Decker steers clear of income and variable annuities, and where fixed indexed annuities (FIAs) and MIGAs actually fit • Social Security timing: spousal benefits, the 8% delayed-retirement credit, and how to coordinate two spouses for the most lifetime income • Pension decisions: lump sum vs. income stream, the real break-even math, and counterparty risk • Tax-smart withdrawals: Roth conversions, account placement, and keeping more of your money out of Uncle Sam's hands If you're within 5–10 years of retirement and you want a clear, structured plan that balances safety and growth, this episode is for you. Schedule a no-cost retirement review: 833-707-3030 Free resources, including The Decker Approach book and a sample income plan: DeckerRetirementPlanning.com Serving families in Salt Lake City, Seattle/Bellevue, the Bay Area, and virtually nationwide. Investing involves risk, including the potential loss of principal. Decker Retirement Planning, Inc. is a registered investment advisor. This show is for informational purposes only and is not tax or legal advice.

Retirement isn’t as complex as the big banks want you to think, but transitioning from collecting a paycheck to generating your own requires a completely different strategy. Host Charisse Rivers breaks down the realities of the decumulation phase, exposing why traditional 60/40 portfolios fall short. Learn how to navigate the physical and mental phases of aging, optimize Social Security timing, and outsmart Uncle Sam’s lurking RMD tax traps. Whether you are a hands-on investor or a financial novice, it is time to turn the market noise into a structured, reliable income plan. Like this episode? Hit that Follow button and never miss an episode!

This week on Everybody's Got A Pod, we're dipping back into the Hacksaw Hour archives for a look back 35 years to WrestleMania 7 and Jim Duggan's experience at the big show! Topics include the 2026 WWE Hall of Fame inductees, The Main Event V, dressing as Uncle Sam at WrestleMania, and much more! Special thanks to our sponsors! BlueChew - Right now, when you buy two months of BlueChew Gold, you get the third for FREE with promo code EGAP. That's promo code EGAP. Visit http://BlueChew.com for more details and important safety information, and we thank BlueChew for sponsoring the podcast Morgan & Morgan - If you're ever injured, you can check out Morgan & Morgan. Their fee is FREE unless they win. For more information go to ForThePeople.Com/EGAP or dial #LAW (#529) from your cell phone Follow us on YouTube at http://YouTube.com/@GoldenEraNetwork for clips of the podcast AND a chance to win free signed merchandise from Ted DiBiase himself! Follow Ted on social media at MDMTedDiBiase and follow Marcus at MarcusPDeAngelo on X!

News On The Flipside WOW China 3 days lots to cover Iran war on standby ? more good news for the economy and some good news for gop on midterms.Plus some good news on poles for Trump Cuba descends into violent riots as it runs out of fuel - after rejecting $100million in US aid 30 vessels including Chinese ships transited the Strait of Hormuz with Iran's permission — while the US blockade redirected 70 others JetBlue announces first-ever route to Europe at a Spirit Airlines price point Scientists tried to contact alien life - then Stephen Hawking sounded the alarm Ukraine advances AI drone swarms and robotic ground units US destroyers just fought through the Hormuz trap Something weird and worrying is happening with rain, study finds What's at the center of a black hole? Scientists have a sobering answer Ukraine strikes Russian airbase and major oil refinery Underwater bomb discovered at base of dam holding entire city's drinking water supply Nuclear-Powered Trump Class Battleships Will Reverse One Of The Navy's “Largest Mistakes”: Navy Boss Democrats discover 'rigged' elections Prediction markets cut Democrats' House flip odds after court ruling The Milky Way ate a galaxy called Loki, and scientists think they found its bones Putin says another country 'requires special consideration' — Russia warns of war SpaceX finally named a date for flight 12 — and Starship will fly with deliberate damage "They would already be dead": NATO pauses drill 3 times as troops get crushed This is very rare': The US Navy ‘surfaced' an Ohio-class missile submarine as a warning to Russia and Iran As Britain and France try prying Hormuz open with their own crowbars, Uncle Sam forms new coalition Paranoid Putin makes first indication he will pull out of Ukraine after humiliation At 13,000 mph, DARPA's Falcon HTV-2 could fly from NYC to LA in under 12 minutes at Mach 20, nobody has built anything faster

On this episode: For years you wrote a check to Uncle Sam in April. Now that you’re retired, that should change… right? Maybe not. The formulas say you need 80% of your working-years income in retirement. Is that actually true? Like this episode? Hit that Follow button and never miss an episode!

CHEERS Season 9, episode 26: “Uncle Sam Wants You” Hosted by Ryan Daly with special guest John Trumbull from SNL Nerds Podcast. Let us know what you think! Leave a comment or send an email to: RDalyPodcast@gmail.com. Like the CHEERS CAST Facebook page at: https://www.facebook.com/cheerscast/ This podcast is a proud member of the FIRE AND WATER PODCAST NETWORK. Visit our WEBSITE: http://fireandwaterpodcast.com/ Follow us on TWITTER – https://twitter.com/FWPodcasts Like our FACEBOOK page – https://www.facebook.com/FWPodcastNetwork Use our HASHTAG online: #FWPodcasts Subscribe to CHEERS CAST on iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/cheers-cast/id1403495561?mt=2 Or subscribe via iTunes as part of the FIRE AND WATER PODCAST: http://itunes.apple.com/podcast/the-fire-and-water-podcast/id463855630 Support CHEERS CAST and the FIRE AND WATER PODCAST NETWORK on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/fwpodcasts Thanks for listening!

CHEERS Season 9, episode 26: “Uncle Sam Wants You” Hosted by Ryan Daly with special guest John Trumbull from SNL Nerds Podcast. Let us know what you think! Leave a comment or send an email to: RDalyPodcast@gmail.com. Like the CHEERS CAST Facebook page at: https://www.facebook.com/cheerscast/ This podcast is a proud member of the FIRE AND WATER PODCAST NETWORK. Visit our WEBSITE: http://fireandwaterpodcast.com/ Follow us on TWITTER – https://twitter.com/FWPodcasts Like our FACEBOOK page – https://www.facebook.com/FWPodcastNetwork Use our HASHTAG online: #FWPodcasts Subscribe to CHEERS CAST on iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/cheers-cast/id1403495561?mt=2 Or subscribe via iTunes as part of the FIRE AND WATER PODCAST: http://itunes.apple.com/podcast/the-fire-and-water-podcast/id463855630 Support CHEERS CAST and the FIRE AND WATER PODCAST NETWORK on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/fwpodcasts Thanks for listening!

Today on Word Balloon, we welcome writer Steve Darnall to talk about his new prose adaptation of Marvels, the landmark series created by Kurt Busiek and Alex Ross that redefined how readers looked at the Marvel Universe. The new novel with new cover and illustrations by Alex  is out in the next 2 weeks from Abrahms. Steve has a long history with Alex Ross, including their acclaimed collaboration on DC's Uncle Sam, and he also played an important role in the original Marvels project itself, co-writing the Marvels #0 story that explored the origin of Human Torch, the Golden Age android hero Jim Hammond. We talk about translating Ross's iconic painted imagery and Busiek's emotional storytelling into prose form, revisiting the history of the Marvel Universe through the eyes of ordinary people, and what it was like working alongside Ross during the formative years of some of his most celebrated projects. It's a great conversation about comics history, superhero mythology, and the lasting influence of Marvels.

In this episode Jeff and Brian discuss early retirement - why the danger begins after you quit working. Also the take that Uncle Sam rule of retirement, and scams targeting seniors. 

Congratulations, you survived another Tax Day. You can relax, breathe easier, and know that you won't have to think about Uncle Sam for another year, right? Not so fast. The reality is every day is Tax Day. Anytime you earn a paycheck. When your investment accounts earn income or harvest gains. When your bank account earns interest. All are adding to your tax bill. In this episode, we share some of our favorite tax reduction and elimination strategies that you can use to lower your tax bill.

Why can't politicians just tell the truth? Particularly Leftists?And I know for a fact they lie. Almost all the time. I'm replaying a clip from this woman who want Smith-Mundt back. And with good reason.[X] SB – Woman wants Smith-Mundt back…Passed in 1948, the law governed how the U.S. government could conduct public diplomacy abroad. Think Cold War messaging like Voice of America beaming into Eastern Europe.One key restriction: The government wasn't supposed to aim those materials at domestic audiences. The idea was to prevent Uncle Sam from running a propaganda loop on its own citizens.Lying has become second-nature for Leftist politicians and the media.They are philosophically tied to lying. I speak of Contrarians often and have recently, because I'm sick of them.I hate Trump!Why? Because of inflation. He didn't cause it.Why? Because of the deficit.He didn't cause it.Why? Because I just do and I've run out of excuses to rationalize being a LEMMING.People hate to be wrong. It causes physical and psychological pain with the latter being the worst.What does it say about a person unwilling to admit he or she is wrong? I know the answer, but will leave it for others to ponder.I know this, I hate being ignorant, which is why I detest the ignorant who won't admit it.I'm dumb in so many things. And I freely acknowledge it. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Connect with Rohit Punyani: https://ownersasset.com/resource-libraryBook a call: https://remnantfinance.com/calendar Out Print the Fed with a 1% target per week: https://remnantfinance.com/optionsEmail us at info@remnantfinance.com or visit https://remnantfinance.com for more informationFOLLOW REMNANT FINANCEYoutube: @RemnantFinance (https://www.youtube.com/@RemnantFinance)Facebook: @remnantfinance (https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61560694316588)Twitter: @remnantfinance (https://x.com/remnantfinance)TikTok: @RemnantFinanceDon't forget to hit LIKE and SUBSCRIBE_____________________________In this episode, Hans is joined by Rohit Punyani, co-founder of The Owner's Asset and a former Wall Street CIO who oversaw $4 billion at a multi-family office and community bank. After 20+ years in financial services starting as a large-cap stock picker, moving into wealth management at Wilmington Trust, and ultimately running money for hundred-millionaires and billionaires—Rohit fell in love with whole life insurance. Now he's built a firm dedicated to helping small business owners buy whole life with pre-tax dollars through cash balance plans.Chapters: 00:00 – Opening segment 01:50 – Rohit's background: from $2B mutual fund to multi-family office CIO 04:30 – How the wealthiest clients actually think (structure over IRR) 06:00 – Why affluent families pushed Rohit toward whole life 08:35 – The five pillars of wealth (and why investments rank third) 09:05 – Overcoming bias: how a Wall Street guy learned to love whole life 13:30 – Banking function: sourcing capital and the limits of margin loans 17:50 – Asset vs. liability: how to think about policy loan repayment 22:35 – Introducing cash balance plans: the 96% cousin of the 401(k) 25:25 – The four major differences between 401(k)s and cash balance plans 26:25 – Contribution limits: putting away up to $400K per year 28:45 – The three-to-five year commitment requirement 33:15 – Who's the ideal candidate (quarterly estimated tax payers) 38:00 – Why you can't use a PUA rider in a cash balance plan 42:25 – The "synthetic PUA": getting Uncle Sam to fund your policy 51:25 – The optionality argument: why this beats chasing rate of return 55:15 – Enhanced ERISA creditor protection inside the plan 58:55 – Building self-escrow systems for retirement 01:03:55 – Wholesale vs. retail pricing on whole life premium 01:06:25 – The distribution mechanics: pulling life insurance out of the plan 01:21:35 – Converting term insurance into a cash balance plan policy 01:24:35 – Asset allocation rules: the 40% life insurance cap 01:31:30 – The 5% corridor: why the IRS caps your returns 01:33:30 – The 50% excise tax on overfunded plans 01:39:55 – Whole life as the "high ground" in your portfolio 01:43:15 – Statement wealth vs. contractual wealth 01:53:55 – Pairing annuities with whole life inside the plan 02:00:00 – Rohit's personal retirement plan 02:06:35 – Designing your 401(k) as your pension (not "on steroids") 02:11:00 – Closing segment Key Takeaways:The wealthy don't worship at the altar of IRR. After running money for hundred-millionaires and billionaires, Rohit learned that affluent clients optimize for structure, behavior, and optionality before they optimize for return. TThe "synthetic PUA" reframes everything for IBC practitioners. You can't use a PUA rider inside a cash balance plan, which might make IBC enthusiasts dismiss it immediately. But think of the tax deduction itself as a synthetic PUA. .Wholesale pricing changes the math entirely. To pay $100,000 of premium with after-tax dollars, you have to earn roughly $140,000 to $150,000 depending on your state. The distribution arbitrage is the cherry on top. When you pull a $1 million policy out of the plan, you owe taxes just like an IRA distribution. But unlike an IRA, the custodian cannot withhold from the policy itself.

WWJ auto analyst John McElroy reports Uncle Sam is asking Detroit to ramp up the Arsenal of Democracy by having executives volunteer to help straighten out the procurement and supply chain mess in our military.

Why can't politicians just tell the truth? Particularly Leftists?And I know for a fact they lie. Almost all the time. I'm replaying a clip from this woman who want Smith-Mundt back. And with good reason.[X] SB – Woman wants Smith-Mundt back…Passed in 1948, the law governed how the U.S. government could conduct public diplomacy abroad. Think Cold War messaging like Voice of America beaming into Eastern Europe.One key restriction: The government wasn't supposed to aim those materials at domestic audiences. The idea was to prevent Uncle Sam from running a propaganda loop on its own citizens.Lying has become second-nature for Leftist politicians and the media.They are philosophically tied to lying. I speak of Contrarians often and have recently, because I'm sick of them."I hate Trump!"Why? "Because of inflation."He didn't cause it.Why? "Because of the deficit."He didn't cause it.Why? "Because I just do and I've run out of excuses to rationalize being a LEMMING."People hate to be wrong. It causes physical and psychological pain with the latter being the worst.What does it say about a person unwilling to admit he or she is wrong? I know the answer, but will leave it for others to ponder.I know this, I hate being ignorant, which is why I detest the ignorant who won't admit it.I'm dumb in so many things. And I freely acknowledge it. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Discover all of the podcasts in our network, search for specific episodes, get the Optimal Living Daily workbook, and learn more at: OLDPodcast.com. Episode 3545: Jeff Rose explains how rolling over a 401(k) into an IRA can expand your investment choices, streamline your finances, and give you more control over retirement income and tax strategy. His insights highlight how greater flexibility and consolidation can make managing long-term wealth far more efficient. It's a practical guide for making smarter decisions with old retirement accounts after a job change. Read along with the original article(s) here: https://www.goodfinancialcents.com/should-your-rollover-your-401k-into-an-ira/ Quotes to ponder: "First and foremost, you want more investment choices." "If you change jobs several times, why not consider consolidating and simplifying your life." "When it comes to retirement planning and income planning, the less that you have to pay upfront to Uncle Sam, the better." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Discover all of the podcasts in our network, search for specific episodes, get the Optimal Living Daily workbook, and learn more at: OLDPodcast.com. Episode 3545: Jeff Rose explains how rolling over a 401(k) into an IRA can expand your investment choices, streamline your finances, and give you more control over retirement income and tax strategy. His insights highlight how greater flexibility and consolidation can make managing long-term wealth far more efficient. It's a practical guide for making smarter decisions with old retirement accounts after a job change. Read along with the original article(s) here: https://www.goodfinancialcents.com/should-your-rollover-your-401k-into-an-ira/ Quotes to ponder: "First and foremost, you want more investment choices." "If you change jobs several times, why not consider consolidating and simplifying your life." "When it comes to retirement planning and income planning, the less that you have to pay upfront to Uncle Sam, the better." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this week's episode, I celebrate both the 300th episode and my 15th anniversary of indie publishing, and look back at 15 lessons learned during that time. You can get the ebook of WRITING LESSONS FROM THE PULP WRITER SHOW at my Payhip store until the end of May 2026. This coupon code will get you 50% off the audiobook of Dragonskull: Curse of the Orcs, Book #4 in the Dragonskull series, (as excellently narrated by Brad Wills) at my Payhip store: ORCS2026 The coupon code is valid through May 4, 2026. So if you need a new audiobook this spring, we've got you covered! TRANSCRIPT 00:00:00 Introduction and Writing Updates Hello, everyone. Welcome to Episode 300 (yes, that is 300!) of The Pulp Writer Show. My name is Jonathan Moeller. Today is April 24th, 2026 and today we're looking back at 15 lessons I've learned over my last 15 years of indie publishing. We'll also start off with Coupon of the Week and an update on my current writing, publishing, and audiobook projects. First up, let's have Coupon of the Week. This week's coupon code will get you 50% off the audiobook of Dragonskull: Curse of the Orcs, book number four in the Dragonskull series, (as excellent narrated by Brad Wills) at my Payhip store. And that coupon code is ORCS2026. And as always, the coupon code and links to my Payhip store will be available in the show notes for this episode. This coupon code will be valid through May the 4th, 2026. So if you need a new audiobook for this spring, we have got you covered. Now for an update on my current writing projects. As of this recording, I am about 62,000 words into Dragon-Mage, which will be the sixth book in the Rivah Half-Elven Thief series. If all goes well, I am hoping to have that out in May, though it might slip to June, depending on what I have to do in May. I'm also 4,500 words into Blade of Thieves, which will be the fifth book in the Blades of Ruin epic fantasy series. In audiobook news, a recording of Cloak of Illusion by Hollis McCarthy is approaching the end, one more proofread listen, and it should be there. And then hopefully the audiobook should be out in May. Brad Wills is also recording Blade of Wraiths right now. So hopefully we should have those audiobooks for you before too much longer. And that's where I'm at with my current writing, publishing, and audiobook projects. 00:01:46 Main Topic: 15 Years of Indie Publishing Now onto this week's main topic, 15 years of indie publishing because as of April 2026, I have now been indie publishing for 15 years, which is the longest continuous time I've ever actually done anything in my life. I've never had any other job or professional association that has lasted this long. I've done this for so long that when people are angry with me, they no longer preface their remarks on my feelings by saying, "Listen here, young man." I suppose that puts me in the upper tier of indie authors, not in terms of income or market footprint, but in sheer, bloody-minded longevity. There are still indie authors out there who have been doing this for longer and are still publishing regularly, but not all that many. Eventually, indie authors typically burn out and just stop publishing, or stop publishing due to real life reasons, such as illness, family illness, moving, changing jobs, et cetera, or get some kind of tradpub deal and stop indie publishing. It makes sense that indie authors burn out. Sometimes, or even frequently, both writing and the business side of writing can feel like a slog, but I've been blessed with a mind that loves the grind. I don't say that to gloat, but to instead express my immense and humble gratitude to God (as Abraham Lincoln said long ago, the "beneficent Creator and Ruler of the Universe" & the "Great Disposer of Events") and to all of you, the many people have read (and after 2017 when I started with audiobooks, listened to) one of my books. Thank you all very much. By good fortune, my 15th anniversary of indie publishing and the 300th episode of this podcast coincide. So for the 300th episode of this podcast, I thought it would take a look back at the last decade and a half and reflect on 15 lessons learned in 15 years of indie publishing. #1: Embrace the slog. I think if you want to be a writer, you have to actually like writing. There are a surprising number of writers for whom this is not true, like they enjoy having written or the rewards of the writing, but they don't actually enjoy the part Glenn Cook famously called "put your backside in the chair and do it. " I'm fortunate that I do enjoy that part, but a lot of writers don't. Writing is often a grind in the same way that things like diet, exercise, and home maintenance are. Like if you do them for one day, it's not enough. You have to do them consistently day after day to have results. I think writing is kind of the same way. Effort applied over time cannot do all things, but it can do a lot. This applies to writing as well. A little bit every day can really add up over enough time. #2: Finish the book. A lot of writers get like one third of the way through their book and then give up or start something else. There's often a good deal of perfectionism involved in this. Here is a rule of thumb: a finished, imperfect book is infinitely better than the perfect version that exists only in your imagination, but will never exist anywhere else because you will never write it. Steve Jobs famously said, "real artist ship." I think the corollary is that if you want to be a writer, you have to finish things and then move on to the next thing. If finishing a novel seems daunting, I would suggest first writing short stories or perhaps novellas and learning to finish those. No one runs a marathon without first learning to run a mile after all. #3: Back up your data. This is an important one. I've gone through a lot of computers in the last 15 years, but I've never lost a large chunk of work because I back up regularly. I would suggest a three part system. Use whatever automated local backup your OS provides onto an external hard drive. Do manual local backups onto a flash drive of appropriate capacity and then have some sort of cloud backup you can rely on, which means you'll probably have to pay for it. That way, even if your house or apartment blows up (God forbid!), you will still have a copy of your stuff somewhere. #4: Be willing to learn new skills as needed. It occurred to me that most of these software tools and programs I use on a day to day basis nowadays did not exist when I started in April of 2011, or they're things that I've had to learn in the years since. Like 15 years ago, I didn't know anything about online advertising, Photoshop, 3D rendering, graphic design, social media, paperback formatting, ebook formatting, audiobook production, podcasting, small business taxes, and a bunch of other stuff, but I've picked it up in the year since. I wouldn't say I'm an expert at any one of those things, but I've been able to combine them well. Life, as we know, is change. That means you're going to have to change whether you like it or not, but it's best to make sure you're changing to your advantage. That can mean having to learn new skills. Depending on the skill, it can either be onerous or fun, but it's still worth doing. #5: When possible, give away stuff for free. I know some writers get really worried or upset about giving away stuff for free. They'll price their first novel at $9.99 [all prices mentioned are in USD] or higher, and then say things like a latte at Starbucks costs five bucks, why shouldn't my book, which was so much more work, costs more? (Though these days, I think a Starbucks latte probably is more like $8.37.) Giving things away for free gives readers a chance to try your work in a risk-free environment. If someone picks, for example, Frostborn: The Gray Knight and they don't like it or give up on it by chapter four, they're not out anything but time. But if they enjoy it, they might pick up Frostborn: The Eightfold Knife for $0.99. If they like that, they might go on to the rest of the series where the books are $4.99. That really adds up over time. I've also written and given away via my newsletter a lot of short stories. I have to admit that while I enjoy short stories, I mostly do this to increase the click-through rate of my newsletter. It's best to think of giving away things for free as like planting seeds. If you're a farmer, you pay a lot of money for your crop seed, but then you have to sacrifice it in hope of getting a crop and potentially losing all the money you spent on the seed if it doesn't grow. Giving away ebooks for free is kind of like that. #6: Don't expect sales to go up every year or every quarter. There are pros and cons to the publicly held and traded corporation model, but I think one of the big cons is that the shareholders often demand that revenue goes up every quarter ("Number Go Up", to quote the Internet meme). The trouble is that this isn't sustainable in reality and leads to a lot of economic damage along the way. There's a good chance that when the AI companies tank in the next few years, they're going to take a good chunk of the economy with them because they push this growth at all cost mindset. Even on a smaller scale when a company has mass layoffs to make Number Go Up, it causes all kinds of havoc in people's lives. In writing and publishing, you definitely should not expect sales to go up every quarter or even every year. It just doesn't work that way. Overall, if you have more books, you can generally expect they'll sell more, but it doesn't always or even frequently work like that. Ebook sales, like everything else, tend to ebb and flow. Also, what we will politely call "macroeconomic events" tend to affect sales a good deal. After 15 years, I found that the book reading population tends to overlap a fair bit with the "news doomscrolling" population. So every time there's a significant news event, sales tend to drop. They always drop during a US presidential election year, which inevitably shocks any authors who started publishing after the last election. The 2024 [US Presidential] election had that happen a lot because as you no doubt remember, there were a lot of dramatic news events that summer. Sales also tend to drop around Christmas because of holiday bills, and again in August and September, since that's when a lot of people have significant back to school expenses. If you have a really good sales month or year, that's great, but definitely do not plan on it lasting forever or going up forever. And if you do have that kind of windfall, it's a good idea to do sensible financial things with it- pay down debt, save it in sensible investment or retirement accounts, that kind of thing. It is a terrible, terrible idea to take on additional debt, hire employees you don't need, or commit to other unsustainable financial commitments. Living well below your means is a principle that can help you avoid much pain. Also, if you do have a windfall month or year, be sure to save for the tax bill you will have the next time you file taxes because Uncle Sam (or your national equivalent of Uncle Sam) will very much want his cut. #7: Don't start a series unless you plan to finish it. This is less of a thing for romance or mystery novelists since their books tend to be more episodic. However, if you're writing fantasy or science fiction, it's a really good idea to make sure you finish your series because there's nothing science fiction/fantasy readers hate more than a series that never gets finished. There are a couple of reasons for this, but there have been a few very high profile examples of popular series remaining unfinished and that really soured readers on the idea of unfinished series, which is often detrimental to new writers who are just starting out. So if you're going to write in series, you need to commit to finishing them even if it's a lot of work. I've done that myself a couple times. For a while, I wasn't really sure if I wanted to finish Silent Order or Stealth & Spells Online, but I got them done. If you are a newer writer and you want to write in series, I would suggest starting with trilogies. They're less of a commitment than say something like Frostborn, which was 15 books. #8: Don't stress about bad reviews. Every writer has to learn to let bad reviews go. Obsessing over them isn't healthy and freaking out over them on social media is never good and can have bad consequences. It is a hard lesson to learn, but you just have to learn to ignore bad reviews. People can take reacting to bad reviews to insane extremes. There was a criminal case a while back where writer drove to someone's house and attacked a critic with a wine bottle because of a Goodreads review. Granted, that is an extreme case, but there have been numerous examples of writers going to war with critics over social media or even just complaining about bad reviews on social media only for the Internet to fall on their heads. You just have to learn to ignore bad reviews. It's not easy, but you can just follow these two rules about bad reviews. First, say nothing. Second, do nothing. "Never complain, never explain," to paraphrase Benjamin Disraeli. If it helps, the longer you do this and the more you write, bad reviews matter less because you can't remember everything. Like after you've written your first book, you can remember every single bit of it and every little decision and bit of thought process that went into the writing. But after 172 books, I honestly can't remember everything I've written unless I look it up. Like if someone complained about the griffin diarrhea joke in Malison: Dragon Fury, I would just kind of stare blankly because it would take me a while to remember it! #9: Social media is a potentially destructive time sink. This kind of relates to the previous lesson, but there are a lot of ways that social media can waste enormous amounts of your time. Arguing with strangers is one of them and the most obvious and potentially the most destructive, but passive consumption can be just as insidious. The phenomenon of doomscrolling, of endless scrolling through bad news is well known and is psychologically harmful. There's also "comparisonitis", which can be especially insidious for writers, since people generally put their curated selves on social media. Interestingly, sometimes people put the curated negative selves on social media. The way some people complain and present themselves in their posts, it's amazing they have the energy to type up posts complaining about their woes. No doubt that is done for engagement. There are also countless people who simply make up outrageous stories about hot button issues for clicks and clout. You also want to avoid arguing with strangers on social media because it will inevitably turn out that person in question is unemployed and therefore has infinite free time and also has poor reading comprehension and some sort of rage-based mood disorder. Overall, I would say that the best way to engage with social media while keeping your sanity is to remain positive. Share as few personal details as possible. Don't argue with strangers and only say things that are verifiably true. That will let you avoid a lot of potential trouble. #10: Pay people promptly and on time. Speaking of avoiding trouble, paying people on time will let you avoid a galaxy of woes. No one person can't possess all skills. So if you write long enough, you're going to need to subcontract out some stuff, whether it's editing, cover design, web design, accounting and taxes, audiobooks, and so forth. So if people do work for you and you are satisfied with this work, then you should pay them on time. This is a concept that a lot of people can't seem to grasp, and I've heard a lot of horror stories over the years about authors who try to weasel out of payment. So if you hire people to do things for you and they do them to your satisfaction, then pay them the agreed amount on time. This will also have the nice effect that if you pay people on time and build up track record of this, they'll be more willing to accommodate reasonable requests from you. #11: Don't worry about NFTs, Crypto, the Metaverse, LLMs, or whatever the latest doomsday tech trend is. The second half of the 2010s and the entirety of the 2020s have been filled with technologies that turned out to be useless, stupid, infested with scammers, and overall destructive, such as cryptocurrency, NFTs, the Metaverse, and of course, generative AI. (Apple CEO Tim Cook announced his retirement right before I started recording this episode. I think one of the chief positives of his legacy will be that he kept Apple mostly away from the generative AI mania.) I remember when cryptocurrency was inevitably going to replace fiat money, or when NFTs would be the future of art, or when all the very smart people said that the Metaverse would be the future of work and online communication. A lot of these technologies' boosters said you had to get on board with it right now, or you'll be left behind in the glorious technological revolution. You'll note that none of that actually happened. Crypto's main use case is facilitating cybercrime and NFTs are worthless. The Metaverse, like most of Facebook's bright ideas, wasted a lot of money and did nothing useful. Generative AI is on a similar course. None of its glorious promises of a better future have actually happened, and all it's really done is a lot of destruction and waste of money. The money is running out, public opinion is turning against it, and eventually LLM technology will dwindle to a sketchy corner of the internet much like crypto. Or to put it both more optimistically and snarkily, the best quote I heard about LMMs was that with strange people heralded the next generation of industrial automation technology as the beginning of the Singularity. It's like thinking that the computer that controls the fuel/airflow mixing your car is suddenly going to overthrow society and replace all human work. The one thing these technologies had in common, other than all being massive frauds, is that many writers worried it would be the end of writing, that crypto was going to replace government money or that all art would become NFTs, or that people would prefer AI slop novels over human written ones. However, none of this actually happened and people who predict the future are usually wrong. Various ancient and medieval societies made attempting to predict the future punishable by death. There's an element of religion to this, but I suspect some hard-headed jurists were less worried about offending the gods through false prophecy and had instead realized that many so- called prophets were just grifters attempting to scam money out of the credulous. This principle holds true today. I'm sure by 2030 there'll be some new technology called "groobelfarts" or whatever. Various grifters will swarm over social media saying "groobelfarts" are the future and if you don't get behind the "groobelfarts" (preferably by buying their course and signing up for their newsletter), then you're going to get left behind by the great and glorious "groobelfarts" revolution. But it will turn out to be 95% of scam and then by 2035, all the grifters will move on to the next tech. So I wouldn't worry about generative AI or whatever the next big technology is, which is probably "groobelfarts". #12 It's a really good idea to have your own website. If you're serious about indie publishing, you're essentially running a small business. These days, a small business really needs its own website. I know some writers rely entirely on their Amazon profile pages or social media profiles. This is a really bad idea, in my opinion, because the ebook stores and the social media platforms are changing things all the time and one of those changes might knock your visibility down to nothing. By contrast, with the website, you control it and you can set the content. It's also very useful to have a central location to direct readers. Ideally, your website will have links to all your books, so you can just send readers there. A lot of writers overthink this, but a standard WordPress or Wix template or something of that nature will work just fine for you. In fact, the fewer bells and whistles on your website, the better. It makes it easier to maintain and is that much harder to hack. #13: It's a really good idea to have your own email list. Related to the previous point, it's also an excellent idea to have your own email list to mail your readers. There are some legal requirements around this involving opt-in permission and physical addresses, and obviously it's best to follow them. But an email list, even after 15 years, is still my most powerful tool for reaching readers. As we mentioned above, the various ebook stores and social media platforms forever tinker with their algorithms and visibility. Having your own website is important, but getting people to visit it can be something of a challenge. That's where the email list comes in. With it, whenever you have a new release, you can email people and let them know. Whenever I publish a new book, the best sales day is always, without fail, the day I send out the newsletter. How do you get people to sign up for the newsletter? I found the best way is to consistently give away things for free. If you sign up for my newsletter (and if you haven't, you should do so right now), you get a bundle of free ebooks. Almost every time I publish a new book, I also give away a free short story. So giving away free stuff via the newsletter is a good way to build it and keep subscribers. #14: Don't cheat or be unethical. Like every other business, there are a million ways you can cheat or be unethical in indie publishing- plagiarism, stealing covers, paying for fake reviews, paying for bad reviews for someone you don't like, buying social media followers, manipulating Kindle Unlimited page reads, cranking out LLM slop books, and so forth. Some of it is technically legal, but unethical, and some of it is outright illegal. It can be very frustrating to see people you know are cheating get ahead. That said, it is always best to walk the straight and narrow road as best you can. There are many religious and ethical arguments for doing so, but if those don't appeal to you, the consequences might. If you cheat and do sketchy stuff, sooner or later it will catch up to you. It might take a long, long time. Bernie Madoff ran his scam for decades before he ended up dying in a prison hospital. Sometimes it catches up to you much more quickly. Sam Bankman-Fried only ran FTX for three years or so during the height of crypto mania before it all blew up in his face. People who work for the devil in the end always end up paying him rather than the other way around. So don't cheat or do unethical stuff. Your life will be happier and easier. And at the very least, you won't have to live with a constant low level fear that the consequences are about to catch up with you. #15: Tomorrow is another day. Perhaps today didn't go well. Maybe you're too busy getting your writing done or you got to your writing time and you're just too tired to concentrate. Maybe it was a bad sales day or you got a bad review or you got some bad family news or one of the other myriad ways that Real Life exacts its tolls arrived. Perhaps today was a bad day, but tomorrow is another day. It will be another shot at the ring. I suppose 15 years of self-publishing means I've been doing this for over 5,400 days. There have been some good days and bad days in the mix, but the thing to remember about bad days is that tomorrow is another day. If you miss your writing goal one day, you can try again tomorrow. And that little bit of daily effort adds up cumulatively over time. Conclusion. So those are 15 lessons I've learned in the last 15 years in indie publishing. As always, I would like to thank everyone who read and enjoyed my books and I hope to keep them coming. Meanwhile, we'll close out with a bonus. As I mentioned earlier in the show, by happy coincidence, my 15th anniversary of indie publishing overlaps the 300th episode of this podcast. So to mark the occasion, I'm giving away a free ebook, Writing Lessons from The Pulp Writers Show, which was written by me, Jonathan Moeller, and A.B. Bachmann (who is the researcher, editor, transcriptionist, and webmaster for this podcast and has been very helpful). You can get this ebook for free at my Payhip store until the end of May. So that is it for this week. Thank you for listening to The Pulp Writer Show and the past 300 episodes of The Pulp Writer Show. I hope you have found the show useful as we finish up 300 episodes and continue on to hopefully the next 300. A reminder that you can listen to all the back episodes at https://thepulpwritershow.com. If you enjoyed the podcast, please leave your view on your podcasting platform of choice. Stay safe and stay healthy and see you all next week.  

Here's a cool new YouTube feature called YouTube avatars. It's a tool right on your cell phone. You can do it on a desktop, but cell phone's easier. I'm gonna tell you all about that, and also in the show notes, you'll see examples of the two that I did right off the bat with not much training. Uncle Sam's Launch Team - https://youtube.com/shorts/w10OZaQFZL8?si=ZJksUv6sdq4IwTSt Fly Me To The Moon - https://youtube.com/shorts/VECcA-7ub-E?si=8a-KcVccWi0HC8q2 Launch Team - https://www.ScrewTheCommute.com/launchteam Please watch this short trailer to the end and leave a comment - https://www.facebook.com/AmericanEntrepreneurFilm/videos/558575401181955 AI Hacks - https://www.ScrewTheCommute.com/aihacks Screw The Commute Podcast Show Notes Episode 1108 How To Automate Your Business - https://screwthecommute.com/automatefree/ Internet Marketing Training Center - https://imtcva.org/ Higher Education Webinar – https://screwthecommute.com/webinars See Tom's Stuff – https://linktr.ee/antionandassociates 00:23 Tom's introduction to YouTube Avatars 01:26 YouTube and AI help make shorts up to 8 seconds 03:42 Two videos that Tom created 05:34 Great new feature to try out Entrepreneurial Resources Mentioned in This Podcast Higher Education Webinar - https://screwthecommute.com/webinars Screw The Commute - https://screwthecommute.com/ Screw The Commute Podcast App - https://screwthecommute.com/app/ Screw The Commute Podcast Producer - https://screwthecommute.com/larryguerrera/ College Ripoff Quiz - https://imtcva.org/quiz Know a young person for our Youth Episode Series? Send an email to Tom! - orders@antion.com Have a Roku box? Find Tom's Public Speaking Channel there! - https://channelstore.roku.com/details/267358/the-public-speaking-channel How To Automate Your Business - https://screwthecommute.com/automatefree/ Internet Marketing Retreat and Joint Venture Program - https://greatinternetmarketingtraining.com/ This is the shopping cart system Tom uses! Kartra - https://screwthecommute.com/kartra/ Copywriting901 - https://copywriting901.com/ Become a Great Podcast Guest - https://screwthecommute.com/greatpodcastguest Training - https://screwthecommute.com/training Disabilities Page - https://imtcva.org/disabilities/ Tom's Patreon Page - https://screwthecommute.com/patreon/ Tom on TikTok - https://tiktok.com/@digitalmultimillionaire/ Email Tom: Tom@ScrewTheCommute.com Internet Marketing Training Center - https://imtcva.org/ Related Episodes AI Agent Mode - https://screwthecommute.com/1107/ More Entrepreneurial Resources for Home Based Business, Lifestyle Business, Passive Income, Professional Speaking and Online Business I discovered a great new headline / subject line / subheading generator that will actually analyze which headlines and subject lines are best for your market. I negotiated a deal with the developer of this revolutionary and inexpensive software. Oh, and it's good on Mac and PC. Go here: http://jvz1.com/c/41743/183906 The Wordpress Ecourse. Learn how to Make World Class Websites for $20 or less. https://screwthecommute.com/wordpressecourse/

It's the tail-end of tax season in the United States, with the deadline to file having already passed. Jack shares for Zach and Becky a list of things Americans are most likely to spend their tax refund on. That's IF they receive a refund; Uncle Sam isn't making it easy this year! Also discussed in this episode of Hardly Focused: Zach shares his trip to California, and surprises Becky with a big life update. Becky is deep in the Pokemon card-collecting well. Singer d4vd is finally arrested on suspicion of murder. Ruby Rose versus Katy Perry, or the importance of not rubbing one's vagina in another's face unsolicited. FOLLOW and SUBSCRIBE! https://hardlyfocused.com/subscribe Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Building your nest egg is great, but remember that "Uncle Sam" is a silent partner in your retirement planning. The government collects taxes on individual retirement account funds through required minimum distributions (RMDs).This ensures that funds are taxed before your death, making proper tax planning and understanding taxes in retirement crucial for your financial future.

Do you experience a rude awakening every April when Tax Day approaches? If so, you're one of many creators who seem to be caught off-guard by this yearly reminder that your creator business is just that - a business. And the IRS does not take it easy on you just because you are not 'good at business.' In this episode, we're highlighting three critical money mistakes that could be devastating to your business - not just during tax season, but all year round - and we'll show you how fixing them can free you from  stress and anxiety. Not only that, these solutions will keep more money in your pocket and less going to Uncle Sam. Note: For our international listeners, please refer to your country's tax code and get professional help. For everyone - this is not financial advice or tax consultation - we advise all of our community of creators to seek help from a licensed financial professional. Send us Fan MailGet On The Waitlist for our Creator Business Deep Dive!Want more help fixing your faith-focused creator business? Join the waitlist and we'll let you know when we schedule this intensive and effective training for faith-centered creators!https://godandgigs.com/bizdeepdiveSupport the showWANT HELP WITH YOUR CREATOR BUSINESS? Sign up for the Creator Biz Deep Dive waitlist - godandgigs.com/bizdeepdivePODCAST MERCHGet God and Gigs themed gear, clothing and accessories HERE! FOLLOW US ON SOCIAL!  InstagramFacebook YouTubeWant to be a guest on The God and Gigs Show? Send us a message on PodMatch, here! © 2026 Paul Creative Solutions

In the tumultuous election cycle of 2019-2020, Alexandra Pelosi once again travelled the country to take Uncle Sam's temperature. So far, so typical. But the movie she emerged with, AMERICAN SELFIE: ONE NATION SHOOTS HERSELF (2020), ended up being her darkest, bleakest vision yet. PLUS: Luke sings the praises of James Joyce's Ulysses! PATREON-EXCLUSIVE EPISODE - https://www.patreon.com/posts/705-filling-with-155264651

This week on HR's most dangerous podcast, Chad and JT are cutting through the seasonal slush and corporate spin. The BLS Fairy Tale: The White House is hailing a "golden age" of job growth, but we're pulling back the curtain on a report filled with striking workers returning to payrolls and construction crews finally seeing the sun. The Agentic Takeover: Paylocity acquires Grayscale as the industry pivots from simple SMS pings to full-blown AI orchestration. Is this a high-value play or just an "aqua-hire" to survive the tech-debt race?. Uncle Sam's Playbook: Healthcare startup Clasp raises $20M by dusting off a 100-year-old military model to trade student loan debt for employee tenure. The Dorsey Doctrine: We dive into Jack Dorsey's "heady" vision of a remote-first world where AI maintains a company's "world model," effectively flattening the hierarchy and making middle management obsolete. Is the economy actually booming, or is it just a "two-week" soundbite on loop?. Grab a whiskey (preferably Blanton's) and find out.

0:00 - The Masters starts tomorrow which means...Vic, Moser, and Brett are going to be absolute luggage tomorrow. They won't participate in their own show at all. Get ready, folks.After that, the Nuggets are playing a G-League version of the Grizzlies. They're resting everyone. It's insanity. Tonight is a MUST WIN for the Nuggets. Period. What are the keys to a victory?14:52 - Vic did his Civic Duty today. Good for him! Somebody get him a gold star. Let's get a live update from the man himself. Is he still at the courthouse? Was he cut loose? Is he answering Uncle Sam's call? 32:12 - We have a whole slew of final thoughts, soundbites, you name it to get out of our system before the show wraps up. After that, let's get to a Fact Checker. How many minutes are in the 1st half of an NBA game?

Andy Freed has seen Bruce Springsteen perform 95 times. Somewhere along the way, he stopped just enjoying the shows and started studying them -- how Springsteen prepares a set list, reads an audience, paces energy across a four-hour performance, and makes every musician on stage feel like the most important person in the room. Episode page with links, video, and more  Andy is CEO of Virtual Inc. and author of Lead Like the Boss: The Bruce Springsteen Framework to Elevating Your Leadership. His favorite mistake goes back to 2006, when his team created an Uncle Sam-style "We Want You" marketing campaign for a global organization -- then got a call from their Japanese partner pointing out that American World War II propaganda doesn't exactly resonate in Tokyo. The campaign was already far along, forcing a sharp pivot and a lasting lesson about what happens when you view your audience through a single cultural lens. From there, we dig into the ideas at the heart of his book: why communication isn't just a leadership skill but is leadership itself, the "think, feel, do" framework for making sure your message actually lands, and why a well-intentioned company cafeteria policy once drove employees to quit. Andy also shares why Tom Peters was right that leadership is a performance, how self-awareness matters more than fixing every weakness, and what it means when Springsteen shakes every band member's hand at the end of every show.

The "Peach State" OpportunityGeorgia is a goldmine for note investors, consistently ranking as one of the fastest foreclosure states in the country, second only to Texas. However, many investors shy away from this robust market because of its "two-headed monster": complex licensing and strict regulatory oversight. On this episode of The Note Closers Show, we sit down with Roslind Ray, an investor with over six years of experience who has successfully navigated the grueling process of becoming a licensed lender in Georgia. Roslind shares her journey from starting in the "school of hard knocks" during the 2020 pandemic to building a compliant gateway that allows investors across the country to tap into the Georgia market without the legal headaches.Deep Dive: What You Need to Know About Buying Notes in GeorgiaHere are five key topics that we covered in this episode:The Regulatory "Two-Headed Monster" in Georgia: While Georgia is the second-fastest foreclosure state behind Texas, it presents unique challenges regarding licensing for those buying notes on a regular basis. Investors often try to use Delaware Statutory Trusts (DSTs) to avoid licensing, but Georgia regulators give serious pushback on this structure. Once an entity begins performing "lender acts"—such as loan workouts, modifications, or temporary payment plans—it triggers a formal licensing requirement.The Rigorous Path to Licensure: Obtaining a lender license in the "Peach State" is a complex, two-part process that includes high financial and personal hurdles. Requirements include a minimum net worth of $100,000, a $250,000 surety bond, and a $1,000 annual fee, alongside FBI background checks and fingerprinting for all control persons. Additionally, an individual must qualify as a Mortgage Loan Originator (MLO), which requires a 20-hour course and passing a proctored exam that has a 60% first-time pass rate.Triggers for State Investigations: Georgia authorities and defense attorneys actively look for unlicensed activity, especially during the foreclosure process. Common triggers for an investigation include a borrower filing a complaint during loss mitigation or a routine state examination, which occurs at least once every five years for licensed entities. If an investor is found to be habitually purchasing, selling, or servicing notes without a license, their deals can be ruled null and void.The "Natural Person" Exception: There is a narrow exception for a "natural person" buying notes for passive investment, typically limited to fewer than five notes . however, this does not apply to funds or LLCs, and even a natural person can lose this status if they are found to be "habitually" trading or communicating directly with borrowers. To stay safe, the state encourages using a licensed third-party servicer who understands the complex compliance landscape.A Compliant Gateway for Investors: To help out-of-state investors navigate these hurdles, Roslind Ray created a "compliant note investor gateway" through her entity, Creative Note Solutions. Under this model, her licensed entity takes assignment of the note while the investor retains control through a committee that approves assets, sets credit thresholds, and selects servicers. Take Action the Right WayDon't let the fear of "Uncle Sam" or state regulators keep you out of one of the most active real estate markets in the Southeast. By partnering with a licensed expert who has already blazed the trail, you can focus on finding deals while ensuring your portfolio is bulletproof. If you're ready to explore Georgia notes or want a "gap analysis" of your current portfolio, visit https://CreativeNoteSolutions.com to schedule a call with Roslind. As we always say: stop guessing, start investing, and we'll see you at the top.Watch the Original Video Here!Book a Call With Scott Here!

On Thursday's Mark Levin Show,  the FBI is actively investigating Joe Kent for allegedly leaking classified information, including allegedly sharing secret details with figures like Tucker Carlson and leaking from a government server to a media contact. Will Carlson publicly deny receiving classified information from Kent or texting with Iranian regime contacts? Later, Iran's pursuit of weapons-grade uranium, 22,000 pounds which is far beyond what's needed for heating homes, is clearly for nuclear weapons development. We should be celebrating that the enemy is losing, instead the Democrats complain and call it a war of choice. Also, Washington Free Beacon reporter Jon Levine calls in and discuss his story on NYC's Mayor Zohran Mamdani's wife, Ruma Duwaji. Levine reports that old social media posts from her Tumblr account around 2017, when she was about 20, show her sharing images and quotes from Palestinian terrorists, including plane hijacker Leila Khaled with her paraphrase of a quote about dying for the cause, as well as content honoring a bomb-maker killed while making explosives and celebrating Palestinian tourists on International Women's Day.  Afterward, who has contributed more to America's wealth and job creation—Bernie Sanders or Elon Musk? Musk has created over a hundred thousand jobs, providing paychecks, health care, and pensions. Musk's wealth does not take from anyone, unlike government taxes paid to Uncle Sam.  Finally, Sen Jim Banks calls in and praises Trump's handling of Operation Epic Fury, describing it as one of the most successful and sophisticated military operations in history. He also supports the Save America Act, which is a critical effort to secure elections and protect common-sense policies. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Today, we're talking about Civil Rights icon César Chávez's abuse allegations; the Iran war putting strain on Uncle Sam's energy budget; WNBA players getting a pay bump and March Madness updates; and other top news for Friday, March 20th. Stay informed while remaining focused on Christ with The Pour Over. Looking to support us? You can choose to pay ⁠⁠⁠⁠here⁠⁠⁠⁠ Check out our sponsors! We actually use and enjoy every single one. Cru Wild Alaskan HelloFresh Safe House Project QAVA CCCU Upside Mosh LMNT Bible Gateway Plus Life Application Study Bible Unto Compelled Podcast I Choose Love TPO Corrections Page

Air Date: 3/11/2026 Today is episode 1776, in the year of our nation's 250th birthday, and we thought the occasion called for something big. So, we're tracing the full arc — from the constitutional compromises that made this country possible to the authoritarian vanity project that those compromises eventually also made possible. We're talking about the history, the structures, and the insecure current-but-temporary president who thinks a $400 million ballroom and a coin with his face on both sides will make him a pharaoh. Be part of the show! Leave a voice message, message us on Signal at the handle bestoftheleft.01, or email Jay@BestOfTheLeft.com Full Show Notes Check out our new show, SOLVED! on YouTube! BestOfTheLeft.com/Support (Members Get Bonus Shows + No Ads!) Use our links to shop Bookshop.org and Libro.fm for a non-evil book and audiobook purchasing experience! Join our Discord community! TOP TAKES KP 1: The Fight for a True Democracy Part 1 - 1619 - Air Date 8-23-19 KP 2: THE BROKEN CONSTITUTION with Noah Feldman Part 1 - Political Philosophy Podcast - Air Date 11-30-21 KP 3: Black History Month Is Different This Year Part 1 - Radio Atlantic - Air Date 2-19-26 KP 4: Will Trump Turn Americas 250th Birthday Into a MAGA-fest Part 1 - The Bunker - Air Date 3-3-26 KP 5: Trumps Gilded White House Makeover Is All About Power Part 1 - Reveal - Air Date 12-10-26 KP 6: The U.S. Is Now Trumpistan Prof. Stanley on Trumps Cult of Personality Part 1 - Velshi - Air Date 2-15-26 KP 7: Cass Sunstein on Interpreting the US Constitution Part 1 - Democracy Paradox - Air Date 8-15-23 (00:55:00) NOTE FROM THE EDITOR On Why America's Coat Doesn't Fit and Why They're Erasing History to Hide It DEEPER DIVES (01:07:08) SECTION A: CONSTITUTION A1: Slavery in the Constitution Part 1 - Teaching Hard History - Air Date 11-4-25 A2: #699 - No Kings - Dogma Debate - Air Date 7-4-24 A3: Slavery in the Constitution Part 2 - Teaching Hard History - Air Date 11-4-25 A4: THE BROKEN CONSTITUTION with Noah Feldman Part 2 - Political Philosophy Podcast - Air Date 11-30-21 A5: The Fight for a True Democracy Part 2 - 1619 - Air Date 8-23-19 A6: Cass Sunstein on Interpreting the US Constitution Part 2 - Democracy Paradox - Air Date 8-15-23 (02:05:58) SECTION B: TRUMPLAND B1: The U.S. Is Now Trumpistan Prof. Stanley on Trumps Cult of Personality Part 2 - Velshi - Air Date 2-15-26 B2: Trump Reportedly Pushing for His Name on 2 More Landmarks - ABC News - Air Date 2-6-26 B3: WARNING Trumps Fascist Takeover Has Accelerated with. Ruth Ben-Ghiat Part 1 - Democracy Docket - Air Date 1-26-26 B4: Will Trump Turn Americas 250th Birthday Into a MAGA-fest Part 2 - The Bunker - Air Date 3-3-26 B5: Trump Builds Personality Cult as Democracy Crumbles - Mary Trump Media - Air Date 12-29-25 B6: Trumps Gilded White House Makeover Is All About Power Part 2 - Reveal - Air Date 12-10-26 (02:51:18) SECTION C: AUTHORITARIAN NOSTALGIA C1: Civil Rights Lawyer Bryan Stevenson Believes America Needs Truth Telling Now More Than Ever Part 1 - The Current - Air Date 10-22-25 C2: Black History Month Is Different This Year Part 2 - Radio Atlantic - Air Date 2-19-26 C3: WARNING Trumps Fascist Takeover Has Accelerated with. Ruth Ben-Ghiat Part 2 - Democracy Docket - Air Date 1-26-26 C4: Civil Rights Lawyer Bryan Stevenson Believes America Needs Truth Telling Now More Than Ever Part 2 - The Current - Air Date 10-22-25 C5: WARNING Trumps Fascist Takeover Has Accelerated with. Ruth Ben-Ghiat Part 3 - Democracy Docket - Air Date 1-26-26 SHOW IMAGE CREDITS Description: A chaotic composite image against a decomposing American flag background. The Arc de Triomphe (standing in for the proposed "arch d'Trump"), a gilded White House facade, and a rendering of Trump's proposed gilded ballroom all stand behind an image of Trump giving two thumbs up. He is smiling and wearing a tall Uncle Sam-style hat, unaware a bald eagle is about to attack. A gold ribbon with 250th in awkward gold letters floats above it all. Credit: Internal composite design. | Elements from Pixabay and Canva (paid Pro Content License)   Produced by Jay! Tomlinson Visit us at BestOfTheLeft.com Listen Anywhere! BestOfTheLeft.com/Listen Listen Anywhere! Follow BotL: Bluesky | Mastodon | Threads | X Like at Facebook.com/BestOfTheLeft Contact me directly at Jay@BestOfTheLeft.com