Podcasts about vba

SHOW NOTESGuest: Andrew AmannWebsite: ninetwothree.coLinkedIn: Andrew AmannX/Twitter: @andrewamannKey topics:Andrew's pivot from mechanical engineering to AI and software development Early experiments with digital transformation, including VBA-coded automations Founding 923 Studio and delivering 150+ innovative AI and ML products Ideal clients: established brands with innovation labs and funded startups How Andrew and his team win business through SEO, conferences, and LinkedIn outreach Stabilization and growth goals for 923 Studio in 2025 How AI can be implemented in enterprise businesses, starting with a knowledge base Balancing business growth with a holistic lifestyle for employees Andrew's best advice: become an apprentice, learn from both good and bad bosses The 923 Studio name: inspired by their early days working 9 PM to 3 AM Tips for building AI solutions that truly solve real-world problems Key Questions(01:19) Can you tell us a bit about how you ended up where you are today?(03:15) Who would be your ideal client these days?(04:03) How do you get in front of these people?(04:35) Do you have repeat customers?(05:55) What are some big goals that you'd like to achieve in the next year?(06:45) Do you use AI within your business?(08:07) So your goals that you have, how would that affect your business?(08:55) What do you feel is the number one roadblock from you guys getting there?.(09:20) Can you talk a little bit about successful AI transformation in enterprise companies?(11:33) Do you have any tips or anything about how to build AI solutions that will solve our real problems like you were talking about?(12:55) How about running a holistic agency that uses profit to enhance the lifestyle of all employees?(13:49) What is the best piece of advice that you've ever received?(15:13) How did you come up with the business name?(15:54) What's the best advice you have ever given?(17:54) Is there anything else that you would like to touch on?(18:02)  Where can we go to learn more about you and what you're doing?Andrew Amannwww.ninetwothree.coAndrew Amann | LinkedInx.com/andrewamannVirginia PurnellFunnel & Visibility SpecialistDistinct Digital Marketing(833) 762-5336virginia@distinctdigitalmarketing.comwww.distinctdigitalmarketing.comwww.distinctdigitalmarketing.co

Send us a textDen addresses the elephant in the room after posting an AI-generated episode that fooled most of his audience. He breaks down why AI will disrupt the video production industry but won't replace it entirely, using the analogy of synthesizers in music - powerful tools that still require expertise to master.Key insights covered:Why clients having AI tools doesn't threaten skilled videographersHow to get ahead of the curve instead of hiding from changeThe biggest opportunity: using AI to handle admin and marketing tasksWhy your feast-or-famine cycle exists (and how AI can fix it)The 3 Ds of business and the 7-hour, 11-touchpoint buyer journeyPractical ways AI can work as your 24/7 virtual assistantDen shares real examples from VBA clients who are already leveraging AI for content creation, lead generation, and business growth - without losing their human edge.Podcast DescriptionAI disruption is here. Are you ready?After posting an AI-generated episode that went largely undetected, Den dives deep into what this means for videographers and video business owners.In this episode, you'll discover: ✅ Why AI won't replace videographers (but will change everything) ✅ The fatal flaw in thinking "this will never affect my business" ✅ How to use AI as your 24/7 business development tool ✅ Why you're stuck in feast-or-famine (and the AI solution) ✅ Real strategies VBA clients are using to scale with AIDon't get left behind. The videographers who embrace AI strategically will dominate the next decade. Those who don't... well, they'll be competing on price forever.Ready to future-proof your video business? This episode shows you exactly how.Subscribe for weekly no-BS strategies to scale your video business and join 100+ videographers already implementing these systems in the VBA community.Learn more at www.videobusinessaccelerator.com Support the showConnect with Den on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/den_lennie www.thevideomentors.com

How I grew my membership from 33 to 133 members in just one year - without running ads, hosting webinars, or constantly selling!

Ready for a peek behind the curtain? In this episode, I spill the beans on how I'm rolling out Video Editing Made Easy, and why owning your revenue beats crossing your fingers for ad revenue all day every day.I break down the exact steps I'm taking (inspired by James Wedmore's Course Chronicles): Why digital products beat ad and affiliate income when you want predictable cash flow, How I juggle a membership and a brand-new course without losing my mind, and the truth about those wild swings in YouTube ad and affiliate payouts (and how to smooth them out).Thinking about launching your first course? Or leveling up your video marketing game? This is for YOU!Links (when possible, I use affiliate links and may earn a commission. see disclosure.)▶︎  James' Rise of the Digital CEO Free Series: https://videobrand.link/rise▶︎  James Course Chronicles Mini Series: https://videobrand.link/coursechronicles▶︎  Business By Design Waitlist: https://videobrand.link/bbd▶︎  My New Course: Video Editing Made Easy: https://videobrand.link/veme✨ Cringe or Binge: How does your channel rank? Download the VBA app to analyze your channel in 1 simple step. It's free! https://videobrand.link/app

Are you struggling to grow your YouTube channel, even with the "spider web" content strategy? In this video, I'll share my best tips for managing a small channel and generating revenue through digital products.Follow me on Threads! https://www.threads.com/@meredithmarsh.co✨ Cringe or Binge: How does your channel rank? Download the VBA app to analyze your channel in 1 simple step. It's free! https://videobrand.link/app

We chat with the founder of Home Assistant and then fire up Brent's Linux-powered rig.Sponsored By:Tailscale: Tailscale is a programmable networking software that is private and secure by default - get it free on up to 100 devices! 1Password Extended Access Management: 1Password Extended Access Management is a device trust solution for companies with Okta, and they ensure that if a device isn't trusted and secure, it can't log into your cloud apps. Support LINUX UnpluggedLinks:

Grow your YouTube channel fast! In this video, fertility coach Sophie Byfield shares the strategies she used to grow her channel from 600 to 1,000 subscribers after joining Video Brand Academy. Learn Sophie's "secret weapons" for consistent weekly video publishing, even as a busy entrepreneur and new mom. Discover how to build an effective video content strategy by focusing on your top-performing topics. Get tips for outsourcing video editing to save time and stay consistent. Plus, find out how to leverage your TikTok audience to drive more views and subscribers on YouTube. If you're struggling to grow your small YouTube channel, this video has the proven tactics you need to see fast results. Implement Sophie's methods and take your channel to 1,000 subscribers!✨ Cringe or Binge: How does your channel rank? Download the VBA app to analyze your channel in 1 simple step. It's free! https://videobrand.link/app

Each month, the VA Office of Inspector General publishes highlights of our investigative work, congressional testimony, and oversight reports. In March 2025, the VA OIG published 17 reports that included 101 recommendations. Report topics varied from a review of VHA and VBA fiscal year 2024 supplemental funding requests and mental healthcare services at a Massachusetts' VA medical center to a review of the veteran self-scheduling process for community care and supply and equipment management deficiencies at a Texas VA medical center. VA OIG investigations led to the sentencing of a pharmacy operator who conspired with various doctors to charge government agencies for medically unnecessary compound prescriptions, pain creams, scar gels, and multivitamins primarily to patients covered under the Office of Workers' Compensation Program. Elsewhere, a government subcontractor was sentenced to 12 months' probation and ordered to pay restitution of more than $493,000 after previously pleading guilty to bank fraud. The company fraudulently obtained a Small Business Administration-backed Paycheck Protection Program loan. The company's owner also agreed to pay more than $1.1 million as part of a civil settlement to resolve his own civil liability.  This latest podcast episode of Veteran Oversight Now highlights the VA OIG's oversight work from March 2025, including four healthcare facility inspections reports on facilities in Massachusetts, Georgia, Virginia, and Washington, DC.  Related Reports: The Causes and Conditions That Led to a $12 Billion Supplemental Funding Request Review of VA's $2.9 Billion Supplemental Funds Request for FY 2024 to Support Veterans' Benefits Payments Inadequate Governance Structure and Identification of Chief Mental Health Officers' Responsibilities  

Dlaczego tak źle się odżywiamy? Jakie najczęstsze błędy żywieniowe popełniają pracownicy biurowi? Czy małe przekąski mogą nam pomóc, czy raczej zaszkodzić?Jaki wpływ na zdrowie i produktywność ma nieregularne jedzenie?Jak najlepiej planować posiłki w pracy?-----Przeczytaj e-book "30 Inspirujących historii dla Managerów"https://szkola.lepszymanager.pl/30historiitwPrzeczytaj artykuł: Sztuka perswazjiJak wzmocnić asertywność?Model GROWBądźmy w kontakcie: Instagram: https://urlgeni.us/instagram/lepszy_managerFacebook: https://urlgeni.us/facebook/lepszymanagerGrupa Facebook: https://urlgeni.us/facebook/6GU7Prasówka Managera: https://lepszymanager.pl/prasowka/YouTube: https://urlgeni.us/youtube/channel/lepszymanagerDołącz do 30 000 managerów, którzy co tydzień dostaję Prasówkę Managera https://lepszymanager.pl/prasowka/Kursy online: AI w biurze i usługach: https://szkolamanagera.pl/aiwbiurzeProduktywny Manager: https://produktywnymanager.plPOWERR Feedback Masterclass: https://szkola.lepszymanager.pl/powerrfeedbackMakra i VBA krok po kroku: https://szkola.lepszymanager.pl/makra-i-vbaBlog:https://lepszymanager.pl

Send us a textIn this candid solo episode, I reflect on key lessons from dozens of conversations with videographers over the past 90 days. From the difference between those who are scaling successful video businesses and those who are stuck whining, to the transformative power of reframing client problems, this video is packed with hard-won wisdom.I break down how adopting a business mindset, asking deeper diagnostic questions, and moving away from transactional pricing can unlock long-term client relationships and serious revenue. Real stories from our VBA coaches, like Caleb turning a $5K inquiry into a $27K project, demonstrate the power of positioning video as a solution to business problems, not just a service.Whether you're freelancing, stuck in a feast-or-famine cycle, or looking to grow a serious video business, this episode will give you the insights (and wake-up call) you need.

This week, we are joined by Tom Hegel, Principal Threat Researcher from SentinelLabs research team, to discuss their work on "Ghostwriter | New Campaign Targets Ukrainian Government and Belarusian Opposition." The latest Ghostwriter campaign, linked to Belarusian government espionage, is actively targeting Ukrainian military and government entities as well as Belarusian opposition activists using weaponized Excel documents. SentinelLabs identified new malware variants and tactics, including obfuscated VBA macros that deploy malware via DLL files, with payload delivery seemingly controlled based on a target's location and system profile. The campaign, which began preparation in mid-2024 and became active by late 2024, appears to be an evolution of previous Ghostwriter operations, combining disinformation with cyberattacks to further political and military objectives. The research can be found here: Ghostwriter | New Campaign Targets Ukrainian Government and Belarusian Opposition Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week, we are joined by Tom Hegel, Principal Threat Researcher from SentinelLabs research team, to discuss their work on "Ghostwriter | New Campaign Targets Ukrainian Government and Belarusian Opposition." The latest Ghostwriter campaign, linked to Belarusian government espionage, is actively targeting Ukrainian military and government entities as well as Belarusian opposition activists using weaponized Excel documents. SentinelLabs identified new malware variants and tactics, including obfuscated VBA macros that deploy malware via DLL files, with payload delivery seemingly controlled based on a target's location and system profile. The campaign, which began preparation in mid-2024 and became active by late 2024, appears to be an evolution of previous Ghostwriter operations, combining disinformation with cyberattacks to further political and military objectives. The research can be found here: Ghostwriter | New Campaign Targets Ukrainian Government and Belarusian Opposition Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode of Future Finance, host Glenn Hopper talks about the intersection of AI, data analytics, and finance with guest Tom Hinkle. Tom is a Microsoft MVP and analytics expert who shares his unique knowledge about AI's impact on Excel, data science, and workforce analytics. He also discusses his Minesweeper project in Excel and the changing role of finance professionals in an AI-driven world.Tom Hinkle is a Microsoft MVP with 20+ years of experience in analytics, data science, and business intelligence. Based in Charlotte, North Carolina, Tom has worked with major financial institutions, including Bank of America, Wells Fargo, and TIAA. He is known for his problem-solving mindset, technical expertise, and ability to bridge the gap between business and technology.In this episode, you will discover:How AI is revolutionizing Excel and what that means for finance professionals.The role of AI in data cleansing and automation, making finance and analytics work more efficient.Why the best coders may not be the most valuable team members in the future of finance.Insights on Copilot in Microsoft 365 and how it's changing financial modeling and reporting.The story behind Tom's Excel Minesweeper project—how he built a game in VBA using AI.As AI continues to automate repetitive tasks, finance professionals must adapt, refine their analytical skills, and focus on storytelling to translate data into meaningful information. Tom's journey highlights how embracing new technologies like Microsoft Copilot can enhance productivity rather than replace human expertise.Follow Tom:LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/tomhinkleclt/Website - https://excel-cafe.teachable.com/Minesweeper Game - https://www.thefpandaguy.com/new-page-3Join hosts Glenn and Paul as they unravel the complexities of AI in finance:Follow Glenn:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gbhopperiiiFollow Paul:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thefpandaguyFollow QFlow.AI:Website - https://bit.ly/4i1EkjgFuture Finance is sponsored by QFlow.ai, the strategic finance platform solving the toughest part of planning and analysis: B2B revenue. Align sales, marketing, and finance, speed up decision-making, and lock in accountability with QFlow.ai. Stay tuned for a deeper understanding of how AI is shaping the future of finance and what it means for businesses and individuals alike.In Today's Episode:[01:46] - Introduction to the Episode[03:36] - Meet Tom Hinkle[06:07] - The Future of AI in Finance[11:53] - AI's Impact on Excel and Financial Modeling[15:31] - The Skills Professionals Need in an AI-Driven World[24:02] - Building Minesweeper in Excel with AI[29:51] - Exploring Microsoft Copilot & AI Coding Assistants[33:07] - The Importance of Storytelling in Data Analytics[36:54] - Fun Segment & Tom's Personal Quirk[40:53] - Closing Thoughts

China is estimated to have some 500 million basketball fans, more than 1 million basketball courts and 43 million NBA followers on the social media platform Weibo. But increasingly, grassroots basketball is gaining popularity in rural China. Amateur leagues from small towns have become viral sensations and have been dubbed the "VBA", the Village Basketball Association. Local authorities are eager to profit from the phenomenon and use it to promote rural revitalisation. FRANCE 24's Yena Lee, Yorben den Hartog and Jasmine Ling report from Fujian province.

William Barnette is a Senior Project Manager focused on Digital Manufacturing at Kraft Heinz. William is an Application Developer, Database Administrator, and Project Manager in a wide variety of business applications. He has created everything from full blown applications to thousands of scripts for end users. William is a Visual Basic, VBA and VB script specialist. William has worked at Kraft Heinz for over 34 years. The Industry 4.0 Podcast with Grantek delivers a look into the world of manufacturing, with a focus on stories and trends that lead to better solutions.   Our guests will share tips and outcomes that will help improve your productivity. You will hear from leading providers of Industrial Control System hardware and software, Grantek experts and leaders at best-in-class industry associations that serve Life Sciences and Food & Beverage manufactures.

Michelle Bounce, VP of Business Transformation, VBA Care navigation programs are incredibly valuable in delivering a great experience for patients and significantly lower costs for employers. But why aren't they the norm? Tune into this episode as our guest, Michelle Bounce, VP of Business Transformation, VBA, describes a life-changing personal encounter with our healthcare system, where she lost her child and faced the cold and impersonal healthcare system. And through this chilling experience, it has forever shaped and guided her desire to improve healthcare for all through an empathic care navigation model that treats the “human side of healthcare.” Michelle guides us through how TPAs can effectively turn care management on its head by simply “doing the right thing” and the cost savings follow suit. Find all of our network podcasts on your favorite podcast platforms and be sure to subscribe and like us. Learn more at www.healthcarenowradio.com/listen

工程師都宅宅的不太會講話？ 其實工程師的幹話多到你聽不下去！ ------ 加入粉絲團留言互動！ https://www.facebook.com/%E5%B7%A5%E7%A8%8B%E5%B8%AB%E8%81%8A%E4%BB%80%E9%BA%BC-109229084578194 ------ podcast@chillmonkey.com.tw -- Hosting provided by SoundOn

The gang is back together - and things get a little hairy before our guest arrives. THE INTERVIEW In his role as PACT Act Transitional Executive Director for the Department of Veterans Affairs, Army veteran Steven Miska serves as the senior advisor to the Secretary of Veterans Affairs – providing oversight on the development, adoption and implementation of the PACT Act. Miska talks about his military experience, the journey that led him to his role at VA, his work in the veteran non-profit space and his involvement with resettlment of interpreters from conflict zones. SCUTTLEBUTT New documentary by Army veteran highlights the struggles faced by homeless veterans in Los Angeles. Years into civilian jobs, vets struggle with networking, resume skills Navy SEAL astronaut doctor Jonny Kim will blast off into space next year Special Guest: Steven Miska.

The Verendrye Benovolent Association will host its 76th annual horse races Oct. 5 and 6, 2024, at the Stanley County Fairgrounds in Fort Pierre. VBA member and Track Manager Shane Kramme says it'll be another showcase of the horse racing talent that's raised in and around South Dakota. This (2024) will be the 76th year of horse races being held in Fort Pierre.

Czy warto robić sobie drzemkę w ciągu dnia? Jeśli tak, to jak długo powinna ona trwać, by nie obudzić się bardziej zmęczonym niż bez snu? Co mówi o tym nauka? -----Przeczytaj e-book "30 Inspirujących historii dla Managerów"https://szkola.lepszymanager.pl/30historiitwPrzeczytaj artykuł: Sztuka perswazjiJak wzmocnić asertywność?Model GROWBądźmy w kontakcie: Instagram: https://urlgeni.us/instagram/lepszy_managerFacebook: https://urlgeni.us/facebook/lepszymanagerGrupa Facebook: https://urlgeni.us/facebook/6GU7Prasówka Managera: https://lepszymanager.pl/prasowka/YouTube: https://urlgeni.us/youtube/channel/lepszymanagerDołącz do 30 000 managerów, którzy co tydzień dostaję Prasówkę Managera https://lepszymanager.pl/prasowka/Kursy online: Produktywny Manager: https://produktywnymanager.plPOWERR Feedback Masterclass: https://szkola.lepszymanager.pl/powerrfeedbackMakra i VBA krok po kroku: https://szkola.lepszymanager.pl/makra-i-vbaBlog:https://lepszymanager.pl

你的持續贊助，是我們不間斷更新的最大支持

Topics covered in this episode: Joining Strings in Python: A "Huh" Moment 10 hard-to-swallow truths they won't tell you about software engineer job My thoughts on Python in Excel Extra, extra, extra Extras Joke Watch on YouTube About the show Sponsored by ScoutAPM: pythonbytes.fm/scout Connect with the hosts Michael: @mkennedy@fosstodon.org Brian: @brianokken@fosstodon.org Show: @pythonbytes@fosstodon.org Join us on YouTube at pythonbytes.fm/live to be part of the audience. Usually Tuesdays at 10am PT. Older video versions available there too. Finally, if you want an artisanal, hand-crafted digest of every week of the show notes in email form? Add your name and email to our friends of the show list, we'll never share it. Brian #1: Joining Strings in Python: A "Huh" Moment Veronica Berglyd Olsen Standard solution to “read lines from a file, do some filtering, create a multiline string”: f = open("input_file.txt") filtered_text = "n".join(x for x in f if not x.startswith("#")) This uses a generator, file reading, and passes the generator to join. Another approach is to add brackets and pass that generator to a list comprehension: f = open("input_file.txt") filtered_text = "n".join([x for x in f if not x.startswith("#")]) At first glance, this seems to just be extra typing, but it's actually faster by 16% on CPython due to the implementation of .join() doing 2 passes on input if passed a generator. From Trey Hunner: “I do know that it's not possible to do 2 passes over a generator (since it'd be exhausted after the first pass) so from my understanding, the generator version requires an extra step of storing all the items in a list first.” Michael #2: 10 hard-to-swallow truths they won't tell you about software engineer job College will not prepare you for the job You will rarely get greenfield projects Nobody gives a BLANK about your clean code You will sometimes work with incompetent people Get used to being in meetings for hours They will ask you for estimates a lot of times Bugs will be your arch-enemy for life Uncertainty will be your toxic friend It will be almost impossible to disconnect from your job You will profit more from good soft skills than from good technical skills Brian #3: My thoughts on Python in Excel Felix Zumstein Interesting take on one person's experience with trying Python in Excel. “We wanted an alternative to VBA, but got an alternative to the Excel formula language” “Python runs in the cloud on Azure Container Instances and not inside Excel.” “DataFrames are great, but so are NumPy arrays and lists.” … lots of other interesting takaways. Michael #4: Extra, extra, extra Code in a castle - Michael's Python Zero to Hero course in Tuscany Polyfill.io JavaScript supply chain attack impacts over 100K sites Now required reading: Reasons to avoid Javascript CDNs Mac users served info-stealer malware through Google ads HTMX for the win! ssh to run remote commands > ssh user@server "command_to_run --arg1 --arg2" Extras Brian: A fun reaction to AI - I will not be showing the link on our live stream, due to colorful language. Michael: Coding in a Castle Developer Education Event Polyfill.io JavaScript supply chain attack impacts over 100K sites See Reasons to avoid Javascript CDNs Joke: HTML Hacker

In this episode, Den shares exciting updates about the VBA program, including new mentors, an enhanced curriculum, and an imminent price increase. Den discusses the importance of taking action to scale your video production business and introduces the Video Mentors, designed to provide advanced, real-world education for creatives.Here's a sneak peek of what you'll hear:Introduction and Announcement. Den Lennie hosts an Elite Mastermind retreat and announces upcoming changes to the VBA program.Tuition Fee Increase. Tuition fees will increase on July 1st due to added value from new resources and mentors.New Podcast Launch. New podcast series featuring successful VBA clients and mentors: Matt Smolen, Caleb Maxwell, Andy Johnston, and Bailey Cook.Video Mentors Project. Introduction of a new post-graduate film school approach with a seven-step process for business growth, focusing on niching, marketing systems, and sales conversion.Support and Community. Continuous support from mentors and an exclusive online coaching ecosystem for video business owners.Encouragement to Take Action. Urgency to join before the price increase with available financing options and success stories from VBA clients.Support the Show.Connect with Den on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/denlennie/Get more great resources over at https://www.denlennie.com/

Reactions to the Lok Sabha 2024 election results. I talk in particular of UP, Bihar, Bengal, Telangana mainly & the missed opportunities of INDIA in MP, Odisha, etc. I also talk of the future of BSP, VBA & Ambedkarite leaders like Azad in era of "savarna social justice politics" & potential future of Modi-Shah & BJP.

In the latest episode of Veteran Oversight Now, VA Inspector General Michael J. Missal discusses the VA OIG's latest Semiannual Report to Congress that covered our oversight work from October 1, 2023, to March 31, 2024. Specifically, he shares results of our most recent work related to VA's Electronic Health Record Modernization program. To date, the VA OIG has published 19 products addressing the program's implementation across VA facilities nationwide. In addition, IG Missal shares his thoughts on the VA OIG's work related to VA's personnel suitability program as well as recent crime and fraud alerts. A recent fraud alert encourages VBA staff to report when veterans share that they are being charged high fees from unaccredited individuals for assistance with completing disability benefits questionnaires (DBQs) or an initial claim filing. This podcast edition also includes highlights of the VA OIG's work from April 2024.       “It's wonderful to be able to talk about all the incredible work that our staff performs in the service of our nation's veterans. I could not be more proud of the progress our staff has made in achieving our mission to serve veterans and the public by conducting meaningful, fair, and evidence-driven oversight of VA.” – Inspector General Michael J. Missal.Related Report: 91st Semiannual Report to Congress

If you are a sports enthusiast, you are surely familiar with the name Saigon Heat - Vietnam's first professional basketball team, founded by MSE Group

This week, Newslaundry's Abhinandan Sekhri and Raman Kirpal are joined by journalists Girish Kuber, Sunita Aron, and Sudipto Mondal. On Prime Minister Narendra Modi's speech accusing the Congress of receiving money from industrialists Gautam Adani and Mukesh Ambani, Sudipto says this news is not headline material but rather “gossip material”. He adds that the talk on the ground is “nahi mila kya is baar”, suggesting that the corporate houses put their weight behind the Congress in this election.On the elections in Maharashtra, Girish says, “There is no state-wide agenda in these polls. There are 48 constituencies and 48 election agendas.” Sunita points out the BJP's big challenge in UP. “The BJP has set a target of 75 seats, but after Rahul and Akhilesh came together, there is better chemistry and coordination [in INDIA bloc].”The panel then discusses the BSP's prospects and the sacking of its leader and Mayawati's nephew, Akash Anand, from the post of national coordinator. Sudipto counters Abhinandan's argument of the BSP being the BJP's B-team, saying it “doesn't come with a sensitivity” that the party represents a politics “different from all other parties” and represents “the most oppressed sections”. He adds, “The pragmatism that other parties show is appreciated a lot more than the pragmatism these parties [including the AIMIM and VBA] show.”This and a whole lot more. Tune in!We have a page for subscribers to send letters to our shows. If you want to write to Hafta, click here. Check out the Newslaundry store and flaunt your love for independent media. Download the Newslaundry app.General elections are here and Newslaundry and The News Minute have ambitious plans. Click here to support us.Timecodes00:06:27 - Modi's Adani-Ambani speech00: 16:20 - Headlines00: 24:04 - Maharashtra elections 00:29:49 - UP elections00: 35:54 - Akash Anand's sacking01:11:06 - Letters 01:30:12 - RecommendationsHafta letters, recommendations, songs and referencesCheck out our previous Hafta recommendations.Produced and recorded by Aryan Mahtta & Priyali Dhingra, edited by Hassan Bilal and Umrav Singh. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In today's podcast we cover four crucial cyber and technology topics, including: 1.        Palo Alto releases fix for zero day impacting Global Protect 2.        SteganoArmor attack uses flaw from 2017 3.        Cisco says provider for MFA service breached 4.        Ukrainian hackers steal data from Russian drone maker  I'd love feedback, feel free to send your comments and feedback to  | cyberandtechwithmike@gmail.com

VBA offers numerous portals to payers and their clients (which include doctors, patients, brokers, and more)—"one-stop shopping" for a large range of services. To ease the user experience with these services, the company has started using generative AI for training on their platform through a tool called VBA Assist. President and CEO Mike Clayton cites their mission to "make the health care experience better for everyone" and explains some of their services: 24/7 self-service for patients, real-time chat, notifications for picking up meds or scheduling visits, risk modeling and more. Learn more about VBA: https://vbasoftware.com/ Health IT Community: https://www.healthcareittoday.com/

Everyone talks about digital transformation, but it seems like no one really explains what it means... until now. In today's episode, Rob and Justin dive deep to cut through the buzzwords and lay out the reality. They're tackling why digital transformation isn't about making huge, instant changes but rather about the smart, subtle tweaks in areas that usually get ignored but badly need a digital lift. They dive into how leveraging tools like the Power Platform can spark significant improvements, showing that it's the small changes that can really boost efficiency and smooth out your workflow. Ever found yourself wondering how to translate all the chatter about digital evolution into actionable steps? That's exactly what Rob and Justin are unpacking. They're guiding you through how minor, yet clever adjustments can transform your processes. It's all about enhancing the routine, one step at a time. And, as always, if you enjoyed the episode, be sure to leave us a review on your favorite podcast platform to help new listeners find us. EPISODE TRANSCRIPT: Rob Collie (00:00): Hello, friends. In today's episode, Justin and I demystify what is meant by the phrase digital transformation. Phrases like that are one of my least favorite things. Why do I say that? Well, these are phrases that get used a lot. They cast a big shadow. You encounter them almost anywhere you go. That's fine by itself. But in the case of digital transformation, that massive shadow is multiplied by no one understanding what it actually means.  (00:30): Now earlier in my career, I used to be really intimidated by things like this. Everyone seems to know what this means because they're using it all the time. I don't know what it means, so should I just pretend and play along like everyone else? But at some point, many years ago, I had this moment where I realized that the Emperor has no clothes. It almost never has clothes. Now when I encounter phrases like this, instead of being like paralyzed or intimidated, I instead start working in my own definition and this process takes time. I've been picking apart and stewing on the definition of digital transformation now for probably the better part of a year plus. Somewhere along the way in that process, I realized that we at P3 are doing quite a bit of digital transformation work, I just hadn't realized it yet because I didn't have a good enough definition.  (01:18): Lately, I've been noticing that my definition for digital transformation has reached a steady state. It's not changing over time anymore, which tends to be my signal that I've arrived at a definition that works. Now seemed like a good time to sit down and compare notes with Justin, who's been following his own parallel process of arriving at a definition. I'm very pleased with where we landed. A practical and specific definition that can be reduced to practice with an almost paint-by-numbers type of approach.  (01:47): If you asked someone for a definition of something like digital transformation, and by the time they're done giving you their definition, you can't practically boil that down to what it means for you, that's not a problem with you, that's a problem with the definition. A lot of times, people's definitions for terms like this are almost like deliberately vague, as a means of projecting power, as a means of actually controlling you. You'll get a lot of definitions that are engineered to sound smart, engineered to sound authoritative, but not engineered to provide anything resembling clarity. Because if you sound smart, and you sound authoritative but you leave your audience hungry, you create a feeling of dependency. Folks, I just think that's yucky. That's just gross.  (02:35): To show you what I mean, I just ran the Google search, "What does digital transformation mean?" The very top hit, enterprisersproject.com, defines digital transformation as "the integration of digital technology into all areas of a business resulting in fundamental changes to help businesses operate in how they deliver value to customers." Did that clear it up? Nope. Boiling that one down, it sounds a lot like you should use computers and use them to make changes. But it sounds smart, sounds authoritative.  (03:06): Here's the second result from our old favorite, McKinsey. McKinsey defines digital transformation as "the process of developing organizational and technology based capabilities that allow a company to continuously improve its customer experience and lower its unit costs, and over time sustain a competitive advantage." All right, so that one sounds like McKinsey is almost starting with that original definition and adding additional value to it. They're saying use computers to improve, and to make money, and to compete. If you have $1 million to spend, you can get advice like that.  (03:43): All right, with those two definitions, we don't even need an episode. We can just skip it? Because everyone knows exactly what they're talking about. These are the top two hits on Google, folks. Useless. Part of the reason these definitions are useless, again, is because they're designed to be useless. But I also think though, that a lot of times you hear definitions like this is because the people writing them actually cannot boil them down. By the time you come up with a truly useful definition, or a framework, or a guide for understanding a topic like this, it almost by its definition, it's not going to sound nearly as sexy, nearly as smart. It's going to sound relatively simple, mundane. But those are the valuable definitions, the ones that we can actually apply, that make a difference in how we actually view our own business. (04:29): That's what we set out to do in this episode. I think we succeeded, came up with a very practical, applicable definition that you'll never find on McKinsey's website. Let's get into it.  Speaker 2 (04:42): Ladies and gentlemen, may I have your attention please?  Speaker 4 (04:46): This is the Raw Data by P3 Adaptive Podcast, with your host, Rob Collie, and your cohost, Justin Mannhardt. Find out what the experts at P3 Adaptive can do for your business. Just go to p3adaptive.com. Raw Data by P3 Adaptive is data with the human element.  Rob Collie (05:12): Justin, one of the things that we really like to do, I really like to do, I think you do as well, is to take a phrase or topic, and demystify it. Especially phrases that you hear repeated over, and over, and over again, and everyone has to pretend that they understand what they mean. But even when they do, they often have very different pictures in their heads.  (05:33): One that I think is due for a treatment, and we've hinted at it once before on this podcast but not with any depth, is digital transformation. What does it mean?  Justin Mannhardt (05:45): What does it mean, what does it not mean, all parts in between.  Rob Collie (05:50): Starting with the places where I hear it. I often hear it in the context of this is something that's already done. The big talking head analysts at places like Gartner- Justin Mannhardt (06:00): Yeah.  Rob Collie (06:00): Will talk about it like it's in the rearview mirror. "The shift to digital, the pivot to digital has forced the following things," so has forced, it's a past tense thing. Which further underlines the idea that well, if it's already happened, clearly everyone knows what it means. They don't stop to define it, they're just tossing that aside as a means of getting to the next point. I find that to be one of the most troubling habits of the talking heads.  (06:28): The first few times I encountered this phrase, I didn't really know what it meant. I imagined that it meant switching to ecommerce from brick-and-mortar. Justin Mannhardt (06:37): Yeah.  Rob Collie (06:37): I didn't even realize that that was the impression I had, it was just this vague feeling in the back of my head.  Justin Mannhardt (06:42): The word digital, I'm just thinking about this now because a lot of times, you'll look at one of these diagrams, it's like, "Your digital transformation wheel includes all these things." You'll see something like, "Move to the cloud." I'm like, "Okay, were the servers with the software, was that software analog or something?"  Rob Collie (06:59): Yeah, we've been digital for a long time, right? Justin Mannhardt (07:01): Yeah.  Rob Collie (07:01): Most broadly defined, you could say that the digital transformation really got going with the adoption of the PC.  Justin Mannhardt (07:09): Right.  Rob Collie (07:10): That was when digital transformation started. In the sense that it started in the 1980s, maybe it is something worth talking about somewhat in the rearview mirror, but that's not what they mean. They don't mean the adoption of the PC. Justin Mannhardt (07:23): No. But it's interesting, when you think about the timeline of technology evolution. People say, "Oh, you described it as past tense." Digital transformation has occurred in en masse in market. Now today, it's like AI is here, en masse in market. But the pace at which new things are coming out, what's really happening is just the long tail is longer back to where companies were at in this journey. It's not like the entire industrial complex has been collectively moving to the modern current state across the board. There's companies that are still running SQL 2000, that's their production world still. This isn't something that's happened.  Rob Collie (08:09): I think that the big talking head analysts often tend to really only talk about the most elite sub-strata of even their own clients. When they talk about this as something that's completely done, even most of Gartner's paying clients, I would suspect, aren't anywhere close to done. But we still haven't really started talking about what it actually means.  (08:32): Let's say it is not the switch from paper and pencil systems to electronic line-of-business systems. Not only do we have the PC, and that's been long since mainstreamed, the notion of line-of-business software, server based software, whether cloud or otherwise, line-of-business software is also I think incredibly well entrenched. We're done with having key business systems running in a manual format. That's long since rearview. That also isn't what they mean by digital transformation. (09:07): Of course, both of those are digital and they were huge transformations, but that's not the digital transformation we're talking about. It's anything that's happened after that.  Justin Mannhardt (09:15): Yeah.  Rob Collie (09:16): It's a lot harder to pin down the things that happened after that.  Justin Mannhardt (09:20): In general, I agree with you because the big blocks, software, the availability of the cloud, not having intensive paper process in most companies, that's largely been accomplished. To different levels, of course. Then, what's left? What's the definition? What are we trying to do?  Rob Collie (09:41): Well, if you think of the line-of-business application and the PC, the PC interfaces with all the line-of-business apps. I would say that, and even this is not 100% true, but I would say that the conversion to digital systems is complete, or complete-ish. Justin Mannhardt (09:59): Okay.  Rob Collie (09:59): When you look at your business as individual silos. Justin Mannhardt (10:03): Say more. You've got a digital environment for finance, digital environment for sales, is that what you mean?  Rob Collie (10:09): Yeah. Core workflows have largely been digital for a while. All the workflows that take place between systems, or the workflows that take place adjacent to a system, those are the things that we're talking about when we talk about digital transformation, going after those workflows.  (10:30): Everything we've been doing in the world of business software since at least the 1980s has been digital transformation.  Justin Mannhardt (10:38): Yeah.  Rob Collie (10:39): But our digital transformation, we're really talking about at least the third chapter. It's not chapter one or two. It's like the next frontier, identifying and going after a new class of workflows that would benefit from essentially software support.  Justin Mannhardt (10:56): Right.  Rob Collie (10:56): Okay. Now because almost by definition, just by subtraction ... We're saying, "Look, we've got the PC, we've got the line-of-business systems that handle the core workflows within a silo. What's left?" Well, it's almost like a perfect mathematical proof. What's left is the stuff between and outside. (11:14): Given that everyone's mix of line-of-business systems is, I like to say, best of breed, meaning random. It's whatever we decided at the time. It seemed like a good idea at the time. Legacy.  Justin Mannhardt (11:25): Yeah.  Rob Collie (11:26): You're never going to have anything off-the-shelf that helps you solve the workflows. The middleware problem between your systems is always going to be a custom solution.  (11:38): We should give examples of these. When I said outside or adjacent to, there's even workflows that they're not really between systems, they're just the offline portion of working with the system. I'm thinking about a budgeting process, for instance. The world's first budgeting systems were mostly there to record your budget that you enter into it. As those budgeting systems have gotten better, they've included more and more of the human workflow that goes into creating, and evaluating, and kicking the tires before it's finalized. Those offline human workflows, getting more and more structured about them, can make a huge difference. Justin Mannhardt (12:19): Not just structured, Rob, more tightly integrated with the adjacent system itself. I like that adjacency, because if you have a financial system where your budget or your forecast lives, there's a martialing of activity, analysis, input. Then you say, "Okay, we need to get it look like this," and then we put it in the thing. What happens in that processes, you get all sorts of scattered iterations of ideas and it gets loose. But if you could have all that iteration tight, the final submission is already handled or much easier.  Rob Collie (12:51): Yeah. Sticking with the budgeting example for a moment, it still echoes one of the themes I mentioned for the between systems, the between silos case. Which is that one-size-fits-all systems, off-the-shelf systems, they really struggle to address all the nuances of your particular business. It's very, very difficult. The more, and more, and more you try to get the offline processes, the human processes brought into the digital workflow, the more an off-the-shelf software package is going to struggle. It's getting further and further away from the safety of the core of the task.  (13:28): This is why the Power Platform approach to budgeting and planning is often, in fact almost always, a more effective, in terms of cost-effective, time effective, results effective. The core libraries for doing all of the things that you need to do are basically already there and it's inherently designed to be customizable.  Justin Mannhardt (13:48): And very nimble. Even the big players in FP&A software, they're not that great, in our opinion, at the end of the day. But the price points just exclude anybody that's not a very sizeable, formidable company. You're not looking to spend that kind of money if you're even a few hundred million a year type operation. You're just not going to sign up to that agreement. You are left with a middleware type of a problem, that you're either solving with spreadsheets, pen and paper, or something else. Our platform can slide right in there.  Rob Collie (14:26): Of course, there is a huge advantage to performing a "digital transformation" on a process like that because the human, offline, pen and paper, sending random emails, getting answers, tracking them, it's incredibly tedious, it's incredibly error-prone. Just super, super slow. It's not like you can perform many iterations. You're not even really going to be able to pull off one iteration and you call it good. But you're just going to miss so much. The budget could have been so much better. If you've got a bad budget, of course you're going to pay for that later.  (14:58): That's the adjacent case. Let's talk about the between a little bit as well. What's an example of a workflow that would span across different line-of-business systems but require a human being essentially, or humans, to essentially carry the buckets of water between those different pipes?  Justin Mannhardt (15:18): We'll make up a company today, Rob, we'll start a new company and it's going to be called I Manufacture Things, Inc. Hey. At I Manufacture Things, Inc., I've got a sales team.  Rob Collie (15:28): Do we make things other than ink?  Justin Mannhardt (15:30): No, that's incorporated.  Rob Collie (15:32): Oh, okay.  Justin Mannhardt (15:32): We just make things.  Rob Collie (15:34): Can't help it. Can we be We Manufacture Things Ink, Inc.?  Justin Mannhardt (15:38): Sure.  Rob Collie (15:39): All right. But anyway, we manufacture things.  Justin Mannhardt (15:41): There you go. We've got a sales team and they're using a CRM system, such as Salesforce, or HubSpot, or whatever. They're out there, they're doing quotes, they're tracking opportunities, and eventually someone says, "Yeah, I'd love to buy a palette of ink," or whatever. Our company, we're not using the CRM to deal with the production and fulfillment of that order. Okay, so now there's this process where my order form, let's not use any paper in this example, it's still digital but it lands as a PDF form in someone's email inbox that says, "Hey, Customer Service Rep, here's an order." Oh, okay. Now I'm keying said order into our production system that says, "Go manufacture this thing." Now we need to ship the thing out somewhere, and now we're in our logistics system.  (16:33): There's all these little hops between systems. Which technology has become more open, and sure there's things like APIs and code based ways to integrate them, but that's not in range for a lot of companies. That's an example of where you could stitch in these little Power Platform type solutions to just, "Hey, let's map the relevant fields and information from the CRM into the order management system." If there's some blanks that need to get filled in, that's okay. Maybe I'm just starting from a queue of new orders right in the system, and I'm maybe adding three or four pieces to that puzzle instead of all of it. Rob Collie (17:12): Okay. I want to make a global note here. Note that we're talking about this broad topic, digital transformation. We're already way down into very detailed, specific use cases. In my opinion, that's what digital transformation is, it's a collection of all of these individual use cases where things can get faster, more efficient, more accurate. It is the sum of many small things. Each one of them might have tremendous impact. This is the way.  (17:46): In this particular example, I've been describing the Power Platform as the world's best middleware for a while now. Even Power BI is middleware. It's beautiful, beautiful, beautiful capability is that it can simultaneously ingest data from multiple different line-of-business silos that have never once talked to each other. The only place that they meet is in a Power BI semantic model.  Justin Mannhardt (18:10): Yeah.  Rob Collie (18:10): And they play a symphony together that Power BI makes them play. They still have never seen each other, but Power BI is what bridges the gap. Now, Power BI is read-only by itself, it doesn't make changes to any systems. (18:25): In this particular case, it sounds like Power App's and Power Automate's music. Let's just get really tangible here. I know that it's a very specific, but it's a fictional example. But lots of people have almost exactly this problem. Justin Mannhardt (18:39): Yeah.  Rob Collie (18:39): Just talk me through what a solution to that particular problem might look like if we implemented it in the Power Platform. How much work, how much elapsed time do you think it would take? Let's dig into this one a little bit.  Justin Mannhardt (18:51): If what I want to do is, when we receive an order or close a deal in our CRM, I want that to move some data to another system, let's just say that's assumed. Power Automate can solve this need. Obviously there's a lot of detail, you can look some things up online, or you can email robandjustin@p3adaptive.com and we can trade some ideas here. But there are tons of out-of-the-box connectors, and in those connectors they have what's called a trigger. I could say, "When this happens in Salesforce," for example, "I want to start building a flow." I can say, "Okay, I want these fields, and I want to write them from Salesforce to this destination." Maybe that destination's a database, maybe that destination is another system that Power Automate supports that you can write to.  (19:37): It could be just this simple mapping exercise. When this happens over here, grab this data, and create a new record over here in this system. Rob Collie (19:46): Okay. A trigger in this case would look something like, "When a record in Salesforce is marked as a win," we've signed a deal, someone wants to buy a palette of whatever. Then automatically, it wakes up, looks at the record in question that the data associated with the sales win in Salesforce, grabs certain fields out of the Salesforce record, certain pieces of information. Let's keep it simple for a moment, and just pushes them into a simple SQL database or something, that could be stood up in minutes. We don't have to spend a lot of time. Or maybe, we just drop it into OneLake.  Justin Mannhardt (20:23): Lots of options there. I think this is a nice little simple example, because when you talk about Power BI, that's a very tangible apparatus. These are the things you set up, and you never really go ... You monitor it of course, but you never really go engage with it. You put the glue in place, and it's magic and it's cool. That's a simple version. (20:44): But sometimes, the data coming from its source is incomplete relative to what it's destination requires to take the next action. In this type of scenario you could either say, "Well okay, once it gets over there, we're just in that system, maybe we're adding to it." But this is where you might insert a Power App into the process. Win a deal in Salesforce that triggers, grab these fields. Let's go ahead and write it over to Dataverse, this is a back end of a Power App, for example. Or a database, or SharePoint, who knows. It depends on what makes sense.  (21:18): Now we've got a Power App that maybe has a little work cue that says, "Hey, Rob, you've got new orders." You're either approving them, or you're annotating them with additional information. You're doing the human process, like you were describing before, maybe ensuring some hygiene, completeness, whatever. Then you do something in Power App that says, "Okay, go ahead and kick this down the line from here."  Rob Collie (21:40): Yeah. Here's an example. In the CRM system where the sale is being executed, there's probably an address for this customer that is associated with that account, especially if we've done business with them before. But this customer might have many different physical locations. A palette of stuff showing up at the wrong physical location would be a real problem. Justin Mannhardt (22:06): Yeah.  Rob Collie (22:08): Even just a sanity check Power App that hits the sales rep back, shows up in their inbox or something, shows up in Teams, somehow there's a cue for them to process these things, where they need to just glance at the order and validate that the shipping address is the right one.  Justin Mannhardt (22:28): Yeah. Rob Collie (22:28): Even if that's all it is, that's the only additional piece of information is yes, no, that's the right address. Justin Mannhardt (22:34): Yeah. Or sometimes there's a material that is sold is related to a bill of materials to produce. Maybe there's some choices that need to get made in the manufacturing process, such as what specific raw materials are we going to use for this order? Which machine are we going to produce it on this week? Maybe you're just adding the execution instructions.  Rob Collie (22:59): This is interesting because you could stop yourself at this moment and go, "Wait a second. Shouldn't those questions be encoded and implemented into the CRM?" The answer is of course, they could be. But your CRM might not be a nimble place to make those sorts of changes. Justin Mannhardt (23:20): That's right. Rob Collie (23:22): It's also a dangerous thing to be customizing. Justin Mannhardt (23:24): Yes. Rob Collie (23:25): There's a lot of validation and testing that's required. There's a reason why modifying and writing custom code into one's CRM doesn't happen all that frequently. Whereas this process you're describing is relatively safe, by comparison. It doesn't rock the boat. It's between. Forcing these sorts of modifications and customizations into the individual silo line-of-business applications, if that were so feasible, that would already be happening.  Justin Mannhardt (23:55): I've worked for companies like this, I've engaged with companies in my consulting career like this, where they have done that. They said, "We've got the talent in-house, so we're going to customize this thing." Then you get into a conversation of, "We'd like to upgrade to the newer version." They realized, "Oh, we can't."  Rob Collie (24:18): Yeah. "It'll break out customizations," yes.  Justin Mannhardt (24:20): Or sometimes, the programming language that the customizations are done in is not the same programming language in the newer version. While it's possible, if you have the resources, the time, and the money, it becomes a heavier lift. It begs the question, why?  Rob Collie (24:36): I was describing the heavy lift being that the original line-of-business system might be resistant to change, resistant to the customizations that you want to implement. You're describing it as also, even if you do perform those customizations, the next major software upgrade is going to be a problem. That rings true for me. I remember the object model in Office- Justin Mannhardt (24:59): Oh, yeah.  Rob Collie (25:00): All the VBA solutions that were out there, being incredibly paralyzing in terms of the things we could do with the product, because if you broke people's macros, they wouldn't upgrade to the new version of Office. Justin Mannhardt (25:09): Yeah, been there. Yeah.  Rob Collie (25:12): I promise you that, at Microsoft, we took that problem and approached it with a level of discipline that it was probably 10 times greater than the average line-of-business software vendor. Because most line-of-business software vendors see themselves as platform vendors. They want to be considered like that, but they don't want to pay the price of it. So that's good. (25:30): But then, the other thing is is if you built it into the line-of-business system, then inherently you're saying, "Okay, whatever that extra logic is, then it's up to that line-of-business system to then push those records across the wire." The new information has to go from the CRM to the other system. That kind of customization, both ends of the process are going to be very non-cooperative with this. This is another reason why doing this in a lightweight, nimble, intermediate layer provides a shock absorber to the system. Justin Mannhardt (26:08): I like that analogy.  Rob Collie (26:09): It's pretty easy for Power Automate, all it's doing is pushing a handful of doing to something and that other something is going to take care of all the validation, all of the retry. Validation with human beings, but also the logging in to the other system and all of that. Coding all of that into your CRM is almost a non-starter. This is why the between workflows have remained so non-digitized. Justin Mannhardt (26:42): Yeah. There's also a lot of tedium should be in play here, too. You have a written process, you look at your SOP documents and you say, "Oh, when this happens, Jan sends an email to Rob." Okay, well we could probably just get the Power Automate to send the email to Rob, if that what needs to happen.  (26:59): An example of this is something I built for myself at P3. When a potential new customer reaches out to us, and they want to meet with us and just chat, I wanted a process that reminded myself to go check out who that company is, understand who I'm going to talk. I just had a trigger that said, "When a meeting gets scheduled from this arena, just create a task for me to remember to do this before the meeting." Even little things like that, that are just personally useful, have been really beneficial as well. (27:33): It's much easier to say well yeah, dashboards, charts, graphs, cool. Or even fabric, even though that needs some demystifying still. This middleware, it's invisible, there's so many options. There's 100,000 little improvements you could make with it.  Rob Collie (27:48): The world has spent a long time coming around to why dashboards could be valuable.  Justin Mannhardt (27:55): They still are.  Rob Collie (27:56): Yes. When you say the word dashboards and you show that work product, even in the abstract to someone, the communication of what the value is benefiting from all of that history of the world waking up to the value of dashboards. Honestly, it wasn't that clear 15 years ago. It wasn't clear to people, most people anyway, why they needed them, why they were better than just running the reports out of each line-of-business system. But because it's such an inherently visible work product, it is a lot easier, I'm going to use the word, it's a lot easier to visualize what the impact will be, what it does for you. Whereas these other workflows, until you know that they're improvable, this is why digital transformation is so hard to understand because it is really talking about spaces where it's hard to visualize software helping because it's never been able to help.  (28:53): Let's go back to this example where the sale happens in the CRM system. Some information just automatically gets dropped in a data store, off to the side for the moment. There's potentially some Power App clarification. There are human inputs that are required here and you still want a human being to provide those. Justin Mannhardt (29:16): I want to point out here too, it's easy to get into a situation where that data store is simply being read by a report, even a Power BI report. But if the human's going to say, "Yes, no," or add to it, the Power App is just a way better piece to put there.  Rob Collie (29:32): Yeah. Let's have this example be like an example that we would look at and smile, be proud of. The Power App is involved. Then when the human interaction is done, they press okay or approve in the Power App. Take me to the next step.  Justin Mannhardt (29:49): Well ideally, we are pushing data and information into the next system or workflow.  Rob Collie (29:57): This is a two silo problem. We have the CRM system and then we have the manufacturing, work order and shipment system, the fulfillment system. Justin Mannhardt (30:06): The WMS.  Rob Collie (30:08): Is that what that is?  Justin Mannhardt (30:08): Yeah.  Rob Collie (30:09): Okay. We've already covered the first silo. We've gotten the human interaction. Now it's time to send it on to the second silo. How does that work?  Justin Mannhardt (30:20): This just comes down to what the point of integration is in the second silo. We could be inserting records into a SQL database, we could be making a post request to an API endpoint. In Power Automate, most of these things are WISIWIG in nature. There is an open code interface if you need to get to that and want to do that, need it. But usually, it's just mapping. You find your destination and it says, "Oh, here's the fields to map to." You say, "Okay," you just drag and drop. It just depends on what your destination system is, but you're just creating a target in your workflow, and the data goes.  Rob Collie (30:55): The way I like to look at this is that, even though each line-of-business silo system, they're never really built to talk to each other. Justin Mannhardt (31:04): Right, they need a translator.  Rob Collie (31:05): Yeah. The translator and the shock absorber. But at the same time, it's not hard to get the information you want out of one system, and it's not hard to write the information you need into another. But when you try to wire them directly through to each other- Justin Mannhardt (31:23): Yeah.  Rob Collie (31:23): That is actually really difficult. You need this referee in the middle, that's able to change gears, like the ambassador between the two systems. When you think about a translator system, an ambassador system, a shock absorber, whatever you want to call it, whatever metaphor you want, you can also imagine an incredibly expensive, elaborate piece of custom software that's being written to do that. That's not what we're talking about. Justin Mannhardt (31:47): No. Rob Collie (31:48): Let's recap. Trigger fires in CRM system, some data gets slurped out related to that sale, dropped in an intermediate location that then powers a Power App. Power App is able to read that information, it knows who to reach back to to get the clarification, the approval, et cetera. It might be multiple people that need to provide some input. Justin Mannhardt (32:09): It could be a whole workflow that lives right there. Rob Collie (32:12): But eventually at the end of that workflow, in this case we'll just assume it's one step, one human being, the sales rep just needs to sign off, then the Power App's job is done. That's the human interaction part. Now we're back to Power Automate, correct?  Justin Mannhardt (32:24): That's right.  Rob Collie (32:25): Power Automate will notice there's another trigger that the Power App is done with its part, the approval button was pressed. Justin Mannhardt (32:31): Clicked, yeah.  Rob Collie (32:33): Then it turns around, and it knows, because again we wire it up ... It sounds like we might be lucky, it's just drag and drop, one time development. But if it's not, it's probably not that much code, to go inject the new work order into the WMS system?  Justin Mannhardt (32:52): Yeah, it's the WMS, warehouse management system. Rob Collie (32:53): Let's call that the end of the story for this one integration. Let's say things go incredibly well in this project. We don't really encounter any hiccups. Best case scenario, how long on the calendar would it take for us to wire something like this up?  Justin Mannhardt (33:12): Yeah, best case scenario this is something that gets done inside of a week. Rob Collie (33:15): That's the difference.  Justin Mannhardt (33:16): Yeah.  Rob Collie (33:18): All right. Worst case scenario, both of these systems are more stubborn than usual, the connectors aren't built into the system, and they still have some relatively rudimentary ways of data access, but it's nothing WISIWIG off-the-shelf. We just get unlucky with these two stubborn line-of-business systems. How bad can that be?  Justin Mannhardt (33:37): Well, instead of being inside of a week, maybe it's weeks, like two or three. The only reason that gets extended would be okay, instead of pure WISIWIG drag and drop, maybe we are having to do some light handling of adjacent array. But there's tools for that. You can say, "Parse this into fields so I can now drag and drop it." Maybe instead of our Power Automate workflow having three, four steps, maybe there's 10. Some of those steps have a little bit more involvement. Maybe there's some time because we got to troubleshoot a little bit more and make sure we've got it all right. But I think the overall point here is these are relatively light touch on the calendar.  Rob Collie (34:18): I had a job in college that I've never brought up on this show. Justin Mannhardt (34:23): Ooh.  Rob Collie (34:23): I was obsessed about this workflow for nearly a whole decade afterwards. Where I was working for a construction company, and there's this thing in the construction industry that I'm sure is still a thing, and it's called the submittals process. Where it turns out, when you're going to build a building, there's an ingredients list for a building. You were talking about different material options for manufacturing. So we're going to make a brick exterior. Okay, what kind of brick? There are many different colors, kinds, textures, levels of quality. Literally, the owner of the building, the person paying to have the building built, that owner and their architect, and sometimes their structural engineers, are going to want to hold a physical brick in their hand. Justin Mannhardt (35:05): Right. Rob Collie (35:06): This is the brick that you are going to use. They want to inspect it with their eyes, whatever, they want to feel ... Maybe even run tests on it.  Justin Mannhardt (35:14): Smack it with a hammer. Rob Collie (35:16): Right. Then, when you build the building, you better use that brick because they're holding onto the brick, the sample, the reference brick. You think about the number of ingredients that goes into building a building, and the building in question that I was working on helping out with this process was the new chemistry building at Vanderbilt University. It was not just a regular building, it had all kinds of specialized hardware, and exhaust, and crazy stuff that wouldn't be in a normal building.  (35:44): There's this long list of materials that need to have submittals produced for them, samples. The requests all go to a million different vendors. You have to ask the subcontractor, the plumbing contractor, what pipe they plan to use. You find out what pipe they plan to use and then you say, "Okay, where do I get a sample of that pipe?" Sometimes you have to send the request for the sample to the pipe manufacturer, or something the subcontracting, the plumber, people will do it for you. Ah! It's awful. (36:14): I was brought in to just be the human shock absorber in this process. I was constantly taking information from one format, copying and pasting it, if I was lucky. Usually, re-hand entering into another one. I have to do this multiple times. I have to do this on the outgoing request, and then the incoming materials coming back. Ugh, and then the shipping labels and everything. It was just they brought me in because they had their assistant project manager for the construction company, the general contractor, on this site. All of this was having to go through him. It turns out, he had another job which was called build the building.  Justin Mannhardt (36:54): Just a minor, little job.  Rob Collie (36:56): Yeah. The job of push the samples around was a fine thing to subcontract to a college student. I swear, I did 40 hours a week on that for a whole summer, and then part-time for the next two years. That's all I did.  Justin Mannhardt (37:13): Make note, students. If you take an internship and you end up like Rob, learn how to do Power Automate stuff and use that for your internship.  Rob Collie (37:22): By the way, we already had Lotus Notes with a tremendous amount of customized Lotus Note template for this process.  Justin Mannhardt (37:30): Yeah.  Rob Collie (37:30): But all that really was was just another line-of-business system that didn't talk to anything. It spit out paper is what it did, it spit out printed slips that announced, "This is your brick."  Justin Mannhardt (37:42): Congratulations.  Rob Collie (37:44): That would be a really, really challenging digital transformation process today, because not only is it cross system, it's also cross companies. But I'm sure that, if we looked at that process today, we would find things that could be optimized.  Justin Mannhardt (37:56): Oh, yeah. Your example reminded me of a really important opportunity in the construction industry or lots of trades. You're talking about people that are out in the field, on job sites, on location, they're not sitting in offices at workstations. All of these things we're talking about, especially these Power App interfaces, can be optimized for mobile. Instead of, "Oh, I'm going to write this down so when I get back to my home office," I can put something on the smartphone. Even if you're not picking from a list of material SKUs or whatever, you can say, "Hey, Rob needs a brick."  (38:36): Now this goes back to your central office, and it's into a work queue, and another screen in the Power App, then they can go navigate the vendors and all that sort of stuff, too. That's a great example of where you can just put a little spice on it.  Rob Collie (38:50): I said that was the only thing I did in that job, that's not true. I had other jobs. One of them was the plumbing contractor was deemed to be running well behind schedule, they were not installing pipe fast enough, pipe and duct work. They assigned me, the construction company assigned me the job of going out there, walking through the building and seeing how much had been installed, linear feet of various materials, and writing it down. I was terrible at this. It's not a good fit for me at any age, but at age 20, I was just constantly under-reporting how much work they'd actually done and getting them in trouble.  Justin Mannhardt (39:32): This does not sound like a good use of Rob.  Rob Collie (39:34): Eventually, everyone bought me the little thing that wheels along on the ground and counts distance. What I would do is I'd be looking overhead at these copper pipes that were hanging from the ceiling, and I'd just stand beneath one end of them and walk across the building, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick. But then, what would I do? I would write it down. I'd write down a number. What floor am I on? What side of the building am I on? Which pipes am I looking at? "Oh yeah, 150 linear feet." By the way, have I already counted those pipes? Did I count those pipes last week? I don't know.  Justin Mannhardt (40:11): There's errors in the world that have Rob Collie's fingerprints on them. There's a building somewhere that's had some pretty serious issues over the years and it's Rob's fault.  Rob Collie (40:21): The plumbing contractor had a pretty good sense of humor about it. They knew I was a youngster. Anyway, really just another example of something that could be digitally transformed today and it doesn't have to be difficult.  (40:33): This is not something that's a global, let's go digitally transform the whole company all at once. You can pick and choose some high value examples. And decide if that's a sufficient win for you, you might be encouraged to do it elsewhere. There's no thou shalt do all of these things, there's nothing like that. You get to choose where your cost benefit curve lies. But just even knowing that this is possible I think and what it entails.  Demystifying ... The process we just walked through, with today's technology, is not difficult. We're talking, as you said, within a week to several weeks on the worst case end. You do realize a bunch of benefits from that.  Justin Mannhardt (41:16): Yeah. I love how well the Power Platform, and this idea of it being middleware, just leans right into an idea that's been around for a long time in companies, which is continuous improvement. You can look at a problem, like the ones we've been describing, and you can go down the path and you say, "Okay, is there a piece of software that would solve or improve this problem?" You could look into something like that. Or you could say, "Actually, we have these other tools that we've been learning how to use and integrate into our organization, and we'll just take a week, or three weeks and make it better." If you decide to replace a silo down the road, like, "Hey, we're going to do a CRM take out," you've not saddled yourself up with this huge level of tech debt. Rob Collie (42:05): Yeah, that's huge.  Justin Mannhardt (42:06): Because a lot of these decisions have so much pressure because you're like, "If we don't get this right, then we'll have all this." It's actually okay to be like, "Yeah, we're going to throw this away and build a different one." I think that's an important aspect of these things. You can empower a team of people who are just interested in making things better and it's not this huge sunk cost or investment that you're never going to get back. You're going to get value from it, even if you're only going to leverage it, say for a year. It's like, "Hey, that week was worth it because it eliminated this many errors," or lost time, or whatever. Then we did something else. Rob Collie (42:44): This really hearkens back to something that I struggled to explain to people in my time at Microsoft. I had an intuition, and a lot of people had the same intuition, we weren't doing a great job of explaining it. What I'm going to talk about is the XML revolution. (43:01): XML, and JSON, and all these sorts of things, are just taken for granted today. There's nothing magic about them, it's completely commoditized and that's the way it should be. But those of us who saw this XML thing coming as a real game changer, I think we're really just keying in on exactly this thing we're talking about. The world had been obsessed with APIs up until that point. Every system had an API on it that was capable of doing verby things. Read/write, make changes. These APIs tended to be very heavy. Anyone that's ever written any macro code against Excel will know that the Excel API is incredibly complicated. I'm talking about the desktop VBA comm automation. Go play around with the range object for a couple of days.  (43:49): The idea that two systems with good APIs could then talk to each other was still this myth that I think most of the software world believed. Our belief was stubbornly that we just hadn't gotten the APIs right yet. The next standard in API was going to get it done. What XML did, all it was really doing was saying, "Look, there's going to be a data transmission format that is completely separate from any API, and it's super, super readable, and it's super, super simple." It's the beginning of this shock absorber mentality. Since then, we've discovered that it doesn't have to be XML. Justin Mannhardt (44:30): Oh, yeah. Rob Collie (44:31): But the XML thing did eventually lead us down the road of Hadoop, and DataLakes, and all of that. But yeah, this notion that you get the necessary data from system one, and there's this temporary ah, breath that you can take, and you can disconnect the process of slurp from system one and inject new into the other system. You can ever so slightly disconnect those two so they're not talking directly to each other. When you do that, you gain just massive, massive, massive benefits. (45:03): Yeah, it's kind of neat to connect that now. Again, I used to talk to people all the time like, "No, XML is magic. It's going to blah, blah, blah." People would go, like my old boss did, again would be like, "I don't get it. Why is it magic?" I'd be like, "Well, it just is, man. You don't understand." He beat that out of me. It was one of the greatest that anyone's ever given me. By the time I was done with him, I could explain why XML was valuable but not at the beginning. I certainly didn't envision where we've landed here.  (45:27): Okay, so I think this was pretty straightforward, right? If you want to identify what digital transformation means for your organization ... This actually really parallels the talk I gave on AI the other night here in Indy.  Justin Mannhardt (45:39): Oh, right. Yeah.  Rob Collie (45:40): Don't talk about it from the tech point of view. Justin Mannhardt (45:43): Yeah.  Rob Collie (45:43): Think about it from the workflow point of view. Where are the workflows in your company? What's really beautiful about digital transformation is that we can provide this extra guidance that, what are the workflows that happen between systems or adjacent to systems?  Justin Mannhardt (46:00): Yeah.  Rob Collie (46:00): It helps you focus on what we're talking about. It's not often you get a cheat code like that, so you can really zero in on something.  (46:08): I suspect that once you have that algorithm for looking, you're going to find lots of things. The Power Platform makes it- Justin Mannhardt (46:18): Ah, it transforms them in digital ways. Rob Collie (46:20): It puts that completely within range, completely within budget in a way that you wouldn't necessarily even expect. It's just kind of magic. It's the same level of magic that you'd get from Power BI, but in a read/write workflow sense.  Justin Mannhardt (46:33): Between and adjacent to, that's magic. That's a magic algorithm because I bet a lot of people, when you say digital transformation, they are thinking on or within the system, not between it. Rob Collie (46:45): Yeah. It's another one of these marketing terms that's almost deliberately meant to be mystical. Everyone's supposed to pretend that they know what it means, but then it's left for all of us out here in the real world, close to where the rubber meets the road, to actually do something real with it. (46:59): I wonder what percentage of the time people use the phrase digital transformation, if you scratch the surface, you'd find that they were completely bluffing?  Justin Mannhardt (47:07): Yeah. There's a category of thinking digital transformation, or even data analytics, where there's just all these abstract, conceptual statements or diagrams that mean very little. Let's just zoom into an actual problem, even if it's a little one, and fix it. Then, we'll go to the next one and fix that. We don't need big, fancy frameworks, teams, and steering committees to do any of that.  Rob Collie (47:35): I've got another example. Justin Mannhardt (47:36): Oh, yeah?  Rob Collie (47:37): It's one that we've implemented here at P3. We have these Power BI dashboards that measure the effectiveness of our advertising. It turns out that advertising in particular on Google AdWords is not a global thing. It's the sum of many micro trends, your overall performance. It's highly, highly, highly variable based on which keywords you're matching against, what kinds of searches you're matching against, and what kind of messaging you're presenting to the user of Google. The only way to improve, most of the time, is to improve in the details.  (48:11): All right. For a while, we had this workflow where we'd identify an intersection of ads that we were running and what we were matching up with, in terms of people's searches. We'd identify a cluster of those that, I'll just keep it simple for the moment, where we'd say, "Look, right now we're providing the same message to a bunch of searches that aren't really the same search and we need to break this out, and provide a more custom, tailored message to each of these individual searches." We'd mark something for granularization.  (48:43): But originally, what we would do is we were looking at this report, we'd write down essentially this intersection and say, "Go split that out."  Justin Mannhardt (48:51): What did we do?  Rob Collie (48:52): Immediately, we'd lose all track of what did we even decide to do? Because then someone had to go over to totally Google AdWords system and enter new ads, and break this thing out. Even knowing whether that had happened, producing the work list of things that needed to happen, was very difficult because we were in the context of a Power BI dashboard that didn't do any communication elsewhere. We couldn't track what our to-do list was. Except again, completely offline. We built a Power App and embedded it into some of these reports. You'd click on the thing you'd want to break out, the Power App would pick up that context, and then we'd just use a little drop-down and say, "What do we want to do to this?" We're going to mark this for granularization.  (49:39): That did produce us a to-do list, that then could also be re-imported back into the report, so that we could se that we had marked that one to explode it out. We didn't have to look at it again, and we also in the reporting, could see whether that splitting up had been done because you'd come back to the Power App and say, "Done." Even better, you'd enter the IDs of the new groups, so that you can say, "Hey, this one is now superseded by these."  (50:07): Now we never got to the point of directly writing back to Google AdWords to make the changes. That still happened offline. We certainly could have imagined a world in which a Power App, a much more elaborate process was built that, then separately from the dashboard, would prompt you to write the new ad copy and things like that. You get to choose where the 80/20 is in your process. For us, the 80/20 was recording the list and tracking the lineage while we're in the context of the report. That was a big deal.  Justin Mannhardt (50:39): There are over 1000 pre-built and certified connectors available for the Power Platform. Rob Collie (50:46): That's it? Just kidding. Justin Mannhardt (50:48): They're adding things all the time. We live in a SaaS world. All these things, they're real. Rob Collie (50:53): Yeah. That's a really critical point about Microsoft, is that they have realized that they are the middleware company.  Justin Mannhardt (50:59): Satya is all about it.  Rob Collie (51:00): Yes. In the Bill and Steve era, this was not Microsoft's game. They wanted to own everything.  Justin Mannhardt (51:06): Yeah.  Rob Collie (51:07): In Satya era, it's more like, "No, we want to work with everything."  Justin Mannhardt (51:11): It's great, I love it.  Rob Collie (51:12): Just recently, as I've gone down this path myself, reverse engineering in my own little way what this term means and coming to the conclusions that we have, I've realized that we are a digital transformation company. It's not the only thing that we do. Is read only Power BI middleware, is that digital transformation? Well, probably. By the strictest definition, probably yes, but not by the spirit of the law. The spirit of the definition means a read/write workflow. I'd mentioned in this last example, Power BI can be part of a read/write workflow. There's no reason to sideline it. In the other episodes, where we talked about improvement and action is the goal, how a Power App can be added to a Power BI report to help you take action on what the report is telling you. But just the broader Power Platform, Power Apps and Power Automate in particular. We do have a handful of clients where, most of the work we're doing is digital transformation work. Justin Mannhardt (52:08): Right, this type of work.  Rob Collie (52:09): The adjacent in between that we're talking about. Even though we're mostly thought of as a Power BI company, as we're doing our next round of website rebuild, we've 100% put a digital transformation page on our sitemap. It'll probably use some of this language we're talking about here. Digital transformation, what does it mean? It is both not that special of a term, there's no rocket science to it, and at the same time, there's a lot of value to be realized from it.  Justin Mannhardt (52:36): Totally. Here's a fun little call back to our origin story as individuals and as a company. We spend a lot of our time helping, for example, like the Excel analyst move over to Power BI and we're trying to solve these middleware gaps. That's why I think, for us, it's just been quite natural to provide these types of services and capabilities to customers as we've grown because it's the same type of person that's spirited to solve these types of issues, and the technology, and the openness of it brought everything in range. It's fun to reflect back on how broad we can show up to a customer beyond just dashboards.  Rob Collie (53:22): Yeah. It's a miracle and a testament to what Microsoft has pulled off. You can certainly imagine a world in which they could enable that uptempo, highly efficient, what we call faucets first methodology for dashboards. Justin Mannhardt (53:22): Yeah.  Rob Collie (53:38): And stopping there. To extend it to something like workflow and applications, and have implementation of these solutions feel very, very, very similar. Justin Mannhardt (53:50): Yeah.  Rob Collie (53:50): It's completely compatible with our ethos. It's almost like I didn't even notice when we made that transition into doing both. It sneaked up on me. That's a good sign. I feel a little silly that it took me a while to digest it, but I love that it happened organically without us having to go- Justin Mannhardt (54:10): Right. Rob Collie (54:11): Pick up another toolset from another vendor, or change our hiring profile dramatically, or anything like that.  Justin Mannhardt (54:18): Yeah. Now, we've got some of these cool projects where you've got maybe someone that their expertise is more on the Power BI side, working right alongside someone whose expertise is more on the Power Apps, Power Automate side. They're just moving in lockstep with the same customer, closing these middleware gaps, building the reporting, and the action lives around it. It's that whole thing working together that makes it all really cool. Rob Collie (54:41): I'm also developing an intuition that AI, maybe not the only application of AI, but I think a lot of the surface area of where we will find AI to be useful, plugs into this digital transformation thing, the adjacent in between. In particular, in sub workflows within the overall workflow.  Justin Mannhardt (55:03): Yes.  Rob Collie (55:03): Did your reaction fit that?  Justin Mannhardt (55:06): Yes, totally. Totally, totally, totally. Yeah.  Rob Collie (55:09): Then, we're good. I think it's easy, with dashboards, with BI, to imagine the global. Going from a non-dashboard company to a dashboard company, it's very easy to imagine that as a global thing and it's probably the right thing. Any place where you're flying without the information you need in a convenient, easy to digest format, let's go and get that. Even there, with the transformation to a data oriented organization, a data driven culture, you still pick places to start.  Justin Mannhardt (55:39): You got to start somewhere.  Rob Collie (55:40): This other thing, digital transformation is a little harder to imagine is a global thing, and that's fine. I think AI's the same way. You should not be thinking about AI as a global transformation for your business. Just like digital transformation, it is a go find particular places where you can score these wins.  Speaker 4 (56:00): Thanks for listening to the Raw Data by P3 Adaptive Podcast. Let the experts at P3 Adaptive help your business. Just go to p3adaptive.com. Have a data day. 

This is the Catch Up on 3 Things for the Indian Express and I'm Flora Swain.It's the 26th of March and here are today's headlines.While the Aam Aadmi Party is protesting against the arrest of Kejriwal, in a counter-protest, the Bharatiya Janata Party sought to march towards the Delhi Secretariat to demand the CM's resignation. The police have said that permission has not been granted for protests and Section 144 has been imposed outside the Prime Minister's residence in view of  AAP's protest. The police have detained AAP workers, including Punjab minister Harjot Bains, Chandigarh mayor Kuldeep Kumar Tita and party leader Somnath Bharti.The National Commission for Women (NCW) Monday wrote to the Election Commission to take strict action against Congress and its leader Supriya Shrinate over her objectionable remarks against Kangana Ranaut, named BJP Lok Sabha candidate for Mandi in Himachal Pradesh. Speaking to reporters, NCW chief Rekha Sharma said that it is very unfortunate that a woman is using such derogatory language against another woman. Shrinate, however, has denied any involvement, claiming it was posted by somebody who had access to her accounts.A Delhi court today sent BRS legislator K Kavitha to 14 days of judicial custody until April 9. Earlier, she was in the Enforcement Directorate's custody for 10 days in connection with the Delhi liquor policy case. A member of the Telangana Legislative Council and daughter of former chief minister K Chandrashekar Rao, Kavitha is accused of allegedly paying Rs 100 crore to AAP leaders in return for liquor licences in Delhi. The ED took her into custody from Hyderabad on March 15.Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi chief Prakash Ambedkar today gave the Maha Vikas Aghadi alliance in Maharashtra one more day to decide on his demands for seats to contest in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections 2024. Ambedkar had severed ties with Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena and issued a March 26 ultimatum to the MVA to finish seat-sharing talks. Ambedkar has been miffed with Shiv Sena (UBT) for not pushing VBA's case during MVA meetings.A portion of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore collapsed after a large boat collided with it early this morning, and multiple vehicles fell into the water. According to a video posted on X, A large vessel crashed into the bridge, catching on fire before sinking and causing multiple vehicles to fall into the Patapsco River. As per reports, emergency responders were searching for at least seven people believed to be in the water.This was the Catch-Up on the 3 Things by The Indian Express.

On this episode of the Lessons Learned for Vets podcast, we welcome retired US Air Force Senior Master Sergeant, Clarissa Merced. Clarissa used the SkillBridge program to upskill and land a role with the Veterans Benefits Administration (VBA). During her 2.5 years at the VBA, Clarissa realized she needed a job that was more stimulating and rewarding. She got serious about her job search and learned how to translate her military skills and effectively market herself. Her hard work paid off, and she received an offer for a new role that exceeded her previous salary by more than $30K. Clarissa admits she did not utilize her transition period wisely. She relied on her 24 years of military service, education and SkillBridge to carry her into the next chapter. When she finished her SkillBridge internship with the VBA, she went straight into a full-time position working from home assigning disability ratings to veterans. After spending 24 years in the military and being on call all the time, Clarissa realized the demanding environment at the VBA was not a good fit. When Clarissa accepted a new position in the civilian sector, she noticed right away that the environment was better suited to her. She feels heard and valued in her new role and believes her compensation is fair given her experience, education and background. Clarissa is grateful for her role at the VBA and encourages veterans to explore working for the federal government if they are looking for an environment that is similar in nature to the military as far as promotions and paygrades.  As Clarissa reflects on her transition, she wished she would have taken time to decompress and detach herself from the military before starting her post-military career. She went straight from the military to SkillBridge to a full-time role. She would have taken the time to do career and personality type assessments and really put thought into the kind of work environment that she wanted to be in. If Clarissa had the opportunity to transition again, she would have put a greater emphasis on earning the certifications and degrees that would benefit her once she retired instead of prioritizing education that contributed to her success while she was serving.  Working from home has been an adjustment for Clarissa. Many people seek remote roles, especially in the post-pandemic world. While there are many positives to working from home, there can be challenges as well. If you are a people person, you must find ways to interact and connect with your team. Remote workers often need to remind their family members that they are at work and need to stay on task.Clarissa recommends people seek professional assistance if they need help writing a resume or prepping for an interview. Career coaching is a small investment when you consider the impact it can have on the rest of your career. Invest in yourself. Take advantage of free resources and then make an informed decision if you know you need more help marketing yourself. Subscribe to our YouTube channel at https://tinyurl.com/llforvets22Connect with Clarissa at https://www.linkedin.com/in/clarissa-merced/Download the AAFMAA transition timeline at https://aafmaa.com/ll4vAAFMA, the American Armed Forces Mutual Aid Association is the longest-standing nonprofit association offering life insurance, wealth management, mortgages, survivor assistance and more. AAFMA is dedicated to helping servicemembers be ready for life after the military. AAFMAA would like to offer you their free Transition Timeline, a guide to help you create a solid military transition plan. Let AAFMAA help you get ready for your next step by visiting www.aafmaa.com/ll4v.

We are following up on last week's informative episode on gestational diabetes with a gestational diabetes VBAC story! Samantha's first labor ended in a traumatic Cesarean with her first baby, but she didn't find out many details of what happened to her until she requested her operative report months later. Samantha found out that she had a lateral scar extension. Despite this and other odds that felt stacked against her (i.e. her gestational diabetes diagnosis!), Samantha was determined to do absolutely everything in her power to put her in the best position to achieve her VBAC. And she DID!Additional LinksLeslee Flannery's InstagramNeeded WebsiteHow to VBAC: The Ultimate Prep Course for ParentsFull Transcript under Episode Details Timestamp Topics2:18 Review of the Week6:32 Samantha's first birth story  9:37 Scheduled induction13:04 Complete dilation, pushing, and stalling15:49 C-section22:15 Official reason for C-section25:15 Recovery26:57 Second pregnancy42:46 Labor52:34 Feeling pushy55:42 “You're not going to need a C-section today.” 1:02:39 Finding supportive providers1:05:53 Prep tips for listenersMeagan: Hello, hello you guys. It is likely a cold winter morning or afternoon. At least here in Utah, it's February and I don't know. It's not something that was intentional, but it seems like this month we are talking about gestational diabetes. We talked about it last week and coincidentally enough, the story today that we are recording talks about gestational diabetes today. So I'm excited to dive more into that and talk a little bit more about that. We were talking about this just before we started recording. It's becoming more common but it's not talked about enough so it's probably fitting that we are doing two episodes this month on gestational diabetes. We have a really great story for you today. We have a C-section that was begun with an induction then she got a double-whammy with an asynclitic and a posterior baby. I'm really excited to hear what your diagnosis was on that, Samantha, because I always get so curious when we know we had fetal positioning if we get that CPD diagnosis and things like that. 2:18 Review of the Week But of course, we have a Review of the Week so I'm going to share this and then we will dive right into Samantha's story. This was by lindseybrynneohara. Shoot. I always butcher names. It says, “An invaluable resource. I found The VBAC Link shortly after my first daughter was born via Cesarean after a planned birth center birth. My second turned home-birth Cesarean as well. I have found a home in a CBAC (Cesarean Birth After Cesarean).” You guys, for everyone that doesn't know this, if you've had a Cesarean birth after a Cesarean, please know that we have a group for you too. We know that sometimes after not having a vaginal birth, it can be hard to be in a VBAC group, so we have created this Cesarean birth after Cesarean group and it's amazing. She says, “I've found a home in the CBAC group these ladies put together. It helped me through some dark days of postpartum and processing my unplanned repeat Cesarean. You can find VBAC groups all over the place now, but a group for those mamas who are grieving the loss of their VBAC, they can't find. Not so much. This is a very special group where I feel completely supported, heard, and respected for a birth I sometimes struggle to call mine and my baby's. I am now diving into all of the VBAC after two Cesarean and VBAC after multiple Cesarean content from over the years and I am finding so much comfort and hope in these brave women who have come before me. I just have this strong feeling I will get to be one of them.” Ooh, that just gave me the chills. “I hope to share my story with you when that day comes. I'm learning so much about birth and myself as a birthing woman. I thought I was informed for the first time, but there are so many layers of understanding past births and planning for future births especially when C-section is involved. Thank you for the well-researched evidence-based content and special stories.” Wow. That review literally gave me chills and made me emotional. You guys, when Julie and I– Samantha can see my eyes. No one else can, but really, they are tearing up. When Julie and I created this group and this podcast and this course, this is why we did it– to help people feel exactly how she was describing. To feel loved, to feel heard, to find a place of education, and to understand that you're not alone because sometimes it can feel so lonely. Just so lonely. So thank you for that review. I am literally crying. Thank you for that review from the bottom of my heart. As you can see and as you know, we love reviews. They truly make everything that we do. It warms our hearts. It helps people just like you find this podcast. It helps people find the course so they can find the information and it helps people find that Facebook group. You can leave it on Google. You can leave it on Apple Podcasts. You can leave it on social media. You can leave it on Facebook. Message us. Wherever. If you love The VBAC Link and you have something to share, please let us know because we absolutely from the bottom of our hearts love it. 6:32 Samantha's first birth story Meagan: Okay, Samantha. Now that I'm trying to soak back up the tears that wanted to flow, I mean, I don't know. Yeah. Sorry for being so vulnerable here. Samantha: No. Meagan: Wow. That just touched my heart. But now that I can see the screen again, I would just love to turn the time over to you. And also, thank you for being here with us. Samantha: Thank you so much for having me. I'm so excited. This is my second goal after getting a VBAC. I need to be on The VBAC Link's podcast. Meagan: Oh. Samantha: But same thing as the review was saying, it's an invaluable resource. I had no clue what I didn't know going into my first birth, 100%. My story starts in 2020, I guess. I found out I was pregnant in August on my birthday, actually, I found out. Meagan: Happy birthday to you!Samantha: That was so exciting. My pregnancy went super well. I had a bit of leg pain at some point, but I was seeing a pelvic floor physio. She fixed me up really well and everything was perfect. I had an anterior placenta so I learned a little bit about that, but it shouldn't have been a problem so it was fine. I was due May 7. That was the due date that they gave me. I don't think it was necessarily accurate. I think I was due a little bit later. I think the 11th or 12th. I was tracking ovulation and stuff like that. So at 39+5, I had my doctor's appointment. He sent me for a growth ultrasound. Had I known what I know now, I would have said, “Nope. No, thank you.” 8:19 Blurry vision and feeling offBut he was estimated at being 7 pounds, 10 ounces. Then the week after, Tuesday night, I had this weird episode I want to call it. I was sitting on the couch and all of a sudden, my vision got blurry. I ended up with a headache and I was waiting to see if I should go in or not. I felt off. In the end, I went into labor and delivery because it was the height of COVID. I didn't want to go to the emergency room and all of my symptoms had subsided by then. They thought it was an optical migraine. He said, “Look. We can't do anything for you. You're having some contractions. Nothing crazy.” I wasn't feeling anything, so they were like, “Look. You have your doctor's appointment tomorrow. Just talk with them.” Meagan: Talk to them there. Samantha: Yeah. So the next day I went in and he was like, “Oh, it was probably just an optical migraine. You're fine now, so whatever.” Meagan: I've actually never heard of that. Samantha: Right? Meagan: Optimal– Samantha: Optical, like in your eyes. Meagan: Optical. Interesting. Samantha: Strange. But it put me a little bit on edge so that's why I'm telling that part of the story. Meagan: Yeah, set the story. Samantha: He told me, “You're almost 41 weeks. It means you're overdue.” I'm like, “Okay.” He's like, ”The rate of stillbirth goes way up now.” I was like, “Oh, jeez.” Of course, that puts fear right into your heart.9:37 Scheduled inductionHe's like, “We're going to schedule the induction. It's going to go great. It's going to be amazing. You're going to have your baby in the next few days.” He's like, “Look. We're really booked next week so I'll set you for Thursday. Thursday, first thing in the morning, come in.” They call me. They were like, “We are ready for you.” I got there at 9:00 AM. The plan was to put a Foley bulb in, but the doctor who was on rotation at that time came in and said, “You're already 2 centimeters. It's not worth doing the Foley bulb at this point. We're just going to start you on some Pitocin if that's okay with you.” I was like, “Okay. Whatever you say. I trust you. You are a doctor.” Had I known. Anyway, we stayed in that room until 5:00 PM that night because they didn't have a room to start Pit yet. So from 9:00 AM until 5:00 PM, I was just sitting there having random contractions that I never felt and wishing. I had a gut feeling. I told my husband, “We shouldn't be here. I shouldn't be induced. This is not what I want to do.” Meagan: Oh really? Samantha: But I didn't know I could leave. I didn't know that it was a thing. Meagan: Women of Strength, it's a thing. It's a thing. You do not have to be there. Samantha: There was nothing abnormal about the baby's heartrate. There was nothing going on. They did a mini ultrasound just to check his position. He was head down. That's all I knew really. I was at a -2 station. I was 60% effaced, 2 centimeters. Everything was fine. My body was fine. He was fine. We started Pit at 5:00 PM, but they were ramping it up quite quickly. I wasn't feeling anything at this point. Meagan: They took forever and then ramped it up. Samantha: Yeah, they were like, “Hello, welcome.” Finally, they broke my waters the next morning at 6:00 AM. Meagan: Do you know what dilation or what station you were at that point? Samantha: I was around 3.5 centimeters at that point. Meagan: Okay.Samantha: Yeah. They were like, “You've progressed a little bit, but you are not moving fast enough for us.” Okay, cool.Meagan: Oh, so they broke the water real early. Samantha: Yeah, because they checked me at 1:00 AM and he said that baby was still too high to break the waters so he was like, “Okay, we will wait until the morning.” I was still the same dilation so he was like, “Okay, let's do this.” I was like, “Okay, whatever you say.” They did that, and then all of a sudden, the contractions got real. 100% real. So by 10:30, I decided to get the epidural because they were messing with the Pitocin like crazy. They kept upping it. My contractions were back-to-back. I had no break. It was insane. I was like, “What is this? I can't survive this.” Meagan: Yeah. Samantha: I was 5 centimeters at that point and I was like, “I still have halfway to go. That's a lot.” I got the epidural and my nurse was really fantastic actually. She got the peanut ball for me, put me in the bed, was rotating me every 30 minutes. She was actually my biggest happiness point. She was amazing.  Then my doctor, my actual OB wasn't on call that weekend and he had left a note in my file saying that if I gave birth while he was there he wanted to attend because he had seen me since I was 18. We had this really good relationship. So he came to see me and he was like, “I'm leaving for the weekend. Good luck. I'll try to come visit you after the baby's born.” I was like, “Okay, bye. I wish you had been there, but you know, Cest la vie.” 13:04 Complete dilation, pushing, and stallingMeagan: Yeah. Samantha: so then at 4:30 PM I was complete. It went pretty quickly from 10:30 to 4:30. I had done the rest of the remaining 10 centimeters, but they said the baby was still quite high, so they gave me two hours to labor down. Well, they said two hours. It ended up being about three. Then there was a change in staff and that's when things stopped going well, unfortunately. My nurse had to leave. She said her son's birthday was the next day. I was like, “No, don't leave.” She was like, “I was asked to do overtime, but I really have to go.” I was like, “I get it. Go ahead.” So then this new nurse comes in with a student doctor, a medical student of some sort. It's blurry because I was at 10 centimeters and ready to push, but things were really awkward between this nurse and the doctor. He wanted to get in there and help and she was like, “No, this is my job,” so he left and then he came back and he was like, “I was told I have to be here.” She was like, “Okay, fine,” so she came and sat next to my head and let him do whatever he had to do. You know, that type of thing. But it was super uncomfortable in the room. Meagan: Weird. Samantha: Yeah, it was so weird and I was so uncomfortable. Anyways, so then I started pushing and they told me his station was about +1 or +2, but he never moved in the hour that I was pushing. He stopped tolerating when I was on my right side near the end. Meagan: Didn't like that. Samantha: Yeah. I had horrible heartburn too. I felt like I was going to throw up fire. So fun. So finally, we pushed for an hour. The doctor on call came in, didn't even look at me almost, didn't really introduce herself, nothing and just said, “C-section.”Meagan: Whoa. Samantha: I was like, “Excuse me?” At that point, I had a bit of a fever. They gave me Tylenol. They said it could have just been from being in labor and from pushing. I was like, “Okay, whatever you say if that's normal.” They were like, “But we have to get you to a C-section now,” because he had a decel for 4 minutes at 70 beats per minute. They were nervous. At this point, the medical student had his fingers inside rubbing the baby's head to get him back. Meagan: Yeah, sometimes they do have to stimulate the baby. Samantha: Yeah. Between every push, he was doing that. Then this one was the final, I guess, they called it there. It was really strange. She's calling a C-section. She was like, “I'm going to call the doctor.” I'm not sure if she meant the OB or the surgeon. She goes off. The nurse is still getting me to push. I'm like, “How is this an emergency if I'm still pushing?” I was so confused. Meagan: Baby's heart rate returned at this point, I assume. Samantha: Yes, exactly. It was just very strange. 15:49 C-sectionSamantha: Anyways, so then they wheel me down to the OR. We had to go to the regular operating room because they only have certain hours during the day from 9:00 to 5:00 which I guess is when they do the special delivery OR. Meagan: Interesting. Samantha: Yeah and it was a Friday night, so we went to the regular OR. The nurse and the anesthesiologist were amazing. They took pictures and stuff like that before. They gave me the spinal, then my husband was allowed to come in while they were doing the test cut. I didn't feel anything so he was allowed in. Meagan: It worked, yeah. Samantha: Yeah. They didn't tell me much during the surgery at all. I don't even remember meeting the actual surgeon other than them saying, “This is so and so. He's going to do your surgery. He's great. Don't worry about it.” I was like, “Okay. Do what you've got to do.” I never heard from this man ever again. He didn't come to see me post-op. Meagan: Stop, really? Samantha: I don't know who this person was, really. The person who cut into my body never came to talk to me after. I had no clue what happened. Anyway, so it seemed to go pretty routinely. He was pulled out at 9:13 PM. He was 7 pounds, 10 ounces so what they told me he was a week prior was what he was that actual birth. His APGAR scores were 9 and 9 so he was not in distress. Meagan: He was doing okay, yeah. Samantha: Yeah. My husband cut the cord. Everything was fine. Then they brought me to the recovery room, but it was the general recovery room because L&D was closed for the night so I was left alone. My husband took the baby and went to postpartum. When we got there, the nurses said, “Oh no. Not another one.” Yeah. Meagan: Like another C-section baby or another person? Samantha: Any baby. Another person. Yeah, and he was like, “I feel great.” He has all of our bags. I had my boppy. I had his bag. He's carrying everything. He's got the baby in the pushing cart thing and nobody is helping him. They just shove him in a room in a corner and they say, “Do skin to skin. Here. Change his diaper. Done.” They left him there for four hours with a baby. Meagan: Four hours? Samantha: Four hours and didn't go check on him. Meagan: Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry and you were still in that recovery room for four hours? Samantha: My bloodwork and all of my vitals were all over the place because I had hemorrhaged which I didn't know at the time. I was shaking uncontrollably. I kept on falling in and out of sleep. I guess they had given me morphine. I was so itchy. The whole time, I'm just worried because you hear about the golden hour, the golden hour. I was freaking out the whole time because my plan was to breastfeed and I was freaking out. So then a nurse comes at one point and she's like, “Here. Call your husband and ask him what the baby weighed.” I was like, “Okay.” So I call him and he was like, “Yeah, he was 7 pounds and 10 ounces.” I was like, “Okay,” then the nurse was like, “Okay, give me my phone back.” I was like, “What's going on here?” I was so confused. It just didn't make any sense to me what was going on. So finally after four hours, they brought me back up because I guess the spinal had worn off and my vitals were stable enough that they could move me. I got there at 1:15 AM. I finally got to meet my baby for real. They had only brought him over for a picture. He was on my chest for 30 seconds and they were like, “Let's go.” That was that. I found a lot of things after the surgery. I found out I had hemorrhaged because I needed a blood transfusion the next day. I never found out about the extension on my scar until I got my reports when I got pregnant the second time. Meagan: Because no one came in and talked to you. Samantha: Nobody. The medical student came to talk to me about the transfusion. Meagan: And in a controlled– an extension for listeners, she now has a special scar. Samantha: I got it after and it was because of my pelvic floor physio that I had an inkling of it because I went to go see her and she said, “Your exterior scar is very long.” I was like, “Oh, well they told me he got stuck. He was pretty stuck.” They said they tried to push him up during the C-section. He didn't really move so they ended up using the forceps in my C-section which I found out from the pediatrician the next day. I had no clue. Meagan: Really? Samantha: Yeah. Meagan: Wait, so they used forceps externally pushing up or with you cut open?Samantha: Yeah, with me cut open I'm pretty sure because he had the marks on the sides of his head. Meagan: So that's where the special scar came from. Samantha: Yes. They cut me further to get him out and so he ended up with a huge hematoma on the side of his head because he was OP and asynclitic. They told me his chin had been extended as well. Meagan: Triple whammy. Samantha: I don't know what happened to this poor child. Meagan: The baby was high and we broke waters in a less than ideal position and he came down and said, “Whoa, the flood gates just opened,” and came down in a wonky position. Samantha: Exactly. It was great. Meagan: Then we had Pitocin cramming him down there. Samantha: Yes, exactly. So when he came out, he had that huge hematoma on his head that they told me would resolve on his own. He had a pretty intense torticollis looking back now. In all of his pictures, he's got his head completely to his shoulders, this poor child so he did chiro and everything for that. Meagan: Sideways, yeah. Samantha: And I burst all of the blood vessels in his eyes by trying to push him out so hard. So poor baby. Meagan: Oh my gosh. Samantha: Yeah, so my milk took a lot longer to come in because of all of the trauma. Meagan: And blood loss I'm sure. Samantha: Exactly. He was jaundiced. He lost more than 10% of his weight because they had pumped me so full of liquid that he probably lost all of the excess weight that wasn't true weight. Meagan: Yes. Samantha: But they didn't explain that to me so they were all panicked. Meagan: So in retrospect, he was probably smaller than 7lb,10oz. Samantha: Exactly. Yeah, and he also had a tongue tie that we ended up revising at 4.5 months after trying absolutely everything not to, but we did it and everything went well other than that. Our breastfeeding journey was a bit tough at the beginning. But, you know. 22:15 Official reason for CesareanMy official reason for Cesarean was the arrest of descent and fetal distress. Meagan: Okay. Samantha: Yeah. The worst part is in the report, they didn't mention the forceps in some of the reports. Some of them do have forceps in them. Honestly, I don't know what happened. It was on some reports, some not. It was very confusing, but it did have the extension on there. They said it was a 4cm extension on my uterus. That's where the hemorrhaging happened because they hit that nerve on the side apparently. Meagan: Oh. Samantha: Yeah. That's what the doctors at the new hospital where I gave birth to my second told me when they reviewed my chart. She was like, “Okay. This is what happened to you. It shouldn't be a huge red flag for your next birth. You didn't hemorrhage just because. There was a reason.” Meagan: Yeah. That probably actually was nice for you to find out and have that validation a little bit. Samantha: Exactly. On the report, it said my waters had been broken at 6:30 on the night of the 13th when they were broken at 6:30 AM on the 14th. They recorded it as being 12 hours longer than I had my waters broken. Meagan: Interesting. Samantha: So I was like, “Hmm. That's nice. That's nice to know.” They never mentioned my fever and they reported that I pushed for two hours, not one. Meagan: Wow. Crazy. Samantha: Yeah. I was very upset when I read these reports. Meagan: Did you have gestational diabetes with this baby? Samantha: Nope. My sugars were completely fine. Meagan: Crazy. Crazy. Samantha: In the moment, I didn't realize how traumatizing the birth was. I was like, “We've got to do what we've got to do.” Literally, I said, “Put my big girl pants on. Let's go.” But it's when I was going through it in my brain and talking about it that I realized how much it affected me. Meagan: Absolutely. Samantha: That was a huge part of my VBAC prep after. I read “How to Heal a Bad Birth”. I did all of that. Yeah. It was intense. And something they never tell you about C-sections– I had the worst gas pain in my shoulder. Meagan: Oh yeah. It gets stuck up there. Me too. With my second C-section, no one told me that either and I was like, “What? Is this my milk? What is this?” I didn't know. This was literally what I said, “I want to stab a knife in there to release it,” because it was so strong. Samantha: Right? I thought I pulled every muscle in my body from pushing and it was just gas. Meagan: Our body cavities get air after being cut open and sometimes it can get trapped and it travels up to that shoulder. Samantha: It was the worst so just for anybody thinking they are dying from something when they are just healing from a C-section. You know, it's fun. 25:15 RecoveryRecovery went pretty well. I was seeing a pelvic floor physio and did a ton of scar mobilization. We were always working on the scar especially because it was huge. It was so long. That was part of my prep even before I got pregnant. Then at my 8-week postpartum– it's supposed to be 6 weeks but it was just delayed and it was on the phone because of COVID so that was fun recovering from a C-section not knowing if your scar looks okay. They had put Steri strips to close the scar and said, “They should fall off within a week.” Four weeks later, they were still on. I wrote an email and I was like, “Do I take these off?” I started Googling and it says it can cause infection. I was like, “Oh, great.” So another thing they didn't really advise me on so that was fun. Meagan: They didn't give you good post-op care. Samantha: No and we were in a semi-private room. It was just uncomfortable. It was not a great experience. One of the nurses made me cry and it was hard to make me cry in those first few days. I was completely numb and done. I was a shell of a human, to be honest looking back on it, and she managed to make me cry. She came in and she was like, “You didn't do this. You didn't do that.” I was so overwhelmed. I had a brand new baby. Meagan: I'm so sorry. Samantha: It was not great. So at my 8-week postpartum appointment, I asked about VBAC. My OB was like, “Yeah, you'd be a great candidate. You got to 10 centimeters. You were pushing. Everything is great.” So I was like, “Excellent.” He was like, “Just make sure that your births have to be two years apart.” I said, “No problem. I have marked it on the calendar. We're good.” 26:57 Second pregnancySo then I did end up getting pregnant really easily again. My due dates were a week apart. Meagan: Oh no way. Samantha: Yeah, so this baby was due on the 22nd. Meagan: Okay. Samantha: Because my son was born on the 14th, but his due date was the 7th but they ended up being a week apart. I was like, “Well, I got my two years. There you go.” Meagan: So they are 24 months apart? Samantha: Yeah.Meagan: Oh, they are. Okay. Samantha: Exactly. I went to see my OB at 10 weeks. That's when he sees you. He sent me for an ultrasound early around 8 weeks just to make sure everything was good. I was pulled from work because of COVID and for violent children. I'm a teacher, so we just had to make sure that everything was viable and everything. We did that. I went to see him at 10 weeks. First, he tried to date me earlier than I was. I knew for a fact that I was not again. Again. I was like, “No. We're not playing this again.” Meagan: Good for you. Samantha: I had my appointment with him and he told me. He started saying, “I think your best option would be being induced at 39 weeks. But I can't make you do anything. But I need you to go into labor spontaneously before 40 weeks if you're going to have a VBAC.” I was like, “Hmm.” Meagan: Red flag. Samantha: Exactly. I had started listening to The VBAC Link at this point so I was like, “That's not good. Okay.” I spoke to my chiropractor who was working on my son who had helped him with his torticollis and everything and she said, “The secretary had a VBAC and with this doctor at a different hospital so I'll text her. I know her well. I'll text her. I'll get you in.” She got me in with this new doctor.I went to go see her and she was like, “Yeah. You're a great candidate for VBAC. I don't see a problem.” I brought her my operative notes because she had to wait for them to be transferred. She was like, “The extension worries me a little. I just want you to get checked with a specialist.” Meagan: I was going to ask you if she said anything about your special scar. Samantha: Yeah, she did. I made an appointment at the special, I guess it's maternal-fetal medicine. Meagan: MFM, yeah. Samantha: It's called [inaudible] in French. Everything is in French, so it is at-risk pregnancies. I had to go see a specialist there. I made my appointment. I waited and I was panicking. I was like, “I need to have this VBAC. I need this.” I show up to my appointment. I waited for five hours then we were told the specialist had to be called for a C-section. I was like “I get it. If I were that person and I needed extra hands, I get it.” But then she told me, “You haven't even had your ultrasound for 12-13 weeks.” She was like, “There's no point in me looking at your dossier” or whatever.” I was like, “But it's not about anything except for my extension.” She was like, “No, no. Just make another appointment after your ultrasound.” I left there in tears panicking still. I was like, “I don't know if I can even try for this VBAC. I may just have to sign up for another surgery. We don't know.” So I went back a few weeks later. It was about a month later. It was a long time I felt panic and nerves. So then I saw this other doctor and she was fantastic. I literally left that appointment telling her I loved her. She was so nice and evidence-based. She took out files and showed me statistics and everything. She explained my previous birth. Meagan: Wow. Samantha: She was fantastic. She was like, “You made it to 10 and you were pushing. The baby was just in the wrong position. You're a perfect candidate.” I was like, “Okay.” She was like, “And the extension is lateral so it was all in the same direction.” She said, “Same direction or low, we have no problem with. It's if it goes up that we start looking at things a little bit more seriously.” I felt super relieved after that. She told me the reason for my hemorrhage. It was her who told me. She asked me, “Did they try different positions?” I said, “No. They moved me from side to side but pushing, I was all on my back.” She was like, “We would have gotten you up on hands and knees. We would have done squatting. Did they try to manually turn him?” I said, “Absolutely not. Nothing happened. They literally left me on my own.” She was like, “We would have tried all of those things.” It really validated my whole experience. Meagan: Absolutely. Samantha: She is known for doing VBAC after two Cesareans as well. She is one of the only doctors at that hospital who will do it. She is amazing. So that relieved me a lot.In between that, I hired my doula from a company called Mother Wit. She was fantastic. Her name was Megan Tolbert so I felt like I had a little bit of VBAC Link having a Megan of my own. Meagan: I love that. Samantha: I was seeing a chiropractor every two weeks and near the end, once a week. I did pelvic floor physio once a month. I did acupuncture once every two weeks and near the end, I did three intensive types of get-me-into-labor sessions. I did massage therapy just to relax myself because I was pretty high-strung. I did the dates starting at 36 weeks but that was also with the GD diagnosis. It was rough. I did red raspberry leaf tea. I did pumping and hand-expressing colostrum. I had read how important that could be for a gestational diabetes baby. That was something that was really important to me because I had been separated from my first for four hours. I was like, “This poor child didn't eat.” I brought my colostrum with me to the hospital and it can help with their sugars. That was really important to me. I walked every day. I did curb walking. I did Spinning Babies Daily Essentials. I read How to Heal a Bad Birth. I read Birth After Cesarean: Your Journey to a Better Birth. There was one story on GD in that book. That's why I bought it. Meagan: Hey, listen. You've got to find the stories, right? Samantha: It was so hard to find gestational diabetes stories at the time. It was really rough. Meagan: Was there a lot of emphasis on your diagnosis of gestational diabetes? Was there a lot of, “Hey, you've got to do this? This has to happen,” Or anything like that? Samantha: They weren't as on top of things as I thought they would be because the doctor I was seeing was a family doctor. She was a GP so everything above a healthy, regular pregnancy, she would send me to the at-risk clinic. They were really the ones who dealt with that. She had sent me for just routine bloodwork. My fasting numbers came back borderline so she was like, “Look. Now you're going to have to do the 75-gram three-hour test, two-hour test, sorry, here.” I did that. I had a gut feeling my whole pregnancy that I had gestational diabetes for some reason. I had no proof. No proof, but it just kept on popping up. It was so weird. I had a feeling that morning and I got my test results that evening. It was really fast. I did them privately. It was 5.3 so here it is measured a bit differently than in the US, but I don't remember the conversion. But the cutoff was 5.2. So at 5.3, I was just over but because gestational diabetes usually gets worse before it gets better, they are very safe in diagnosing. But I never actually got an official diagnosis. I just had the prescription sent to the pharmacy for my monitor. Meagan: Insulin? Samantha: No, thank goodness. Meagan: I was like, what? Samantha: They were like, “You are booked for the information session in two weeks.” It was two weeks after and they sent you some documents to read over. So I was like, “Okay. This is not enough. I need to find more information.” I spoke to friends. I ended up on a Facebook group called gestational diabetes Canada which was amazing and I ended up following somebody on Instagram named Leslee Flannery. She was fantastic so if anybody needs her, look her up. She is amazing. Meagan: I'll have to look her up too. Samantha: She is @gestational.diabetes.nutrition on Instagram and she is just fantastic. She really normalizes it because there is so much stigma with gestational diabetes. You think that you caused it and she really debunks that. I really got in my head about that and I was really afraid for my VBAC chances because if you end up on insulin, they really want to induce you by 39 weeks so I was panicking which doesn't help your numbers by the way. Meagan: It doesn't. We talked about this in last week's episode. We talked about cortisol not helping, lack of sleep not helping, and yeah. It's crazy but cortisol raises things. Samantha: Exactly and for me, it was only my fasting numbers that were the problem. Those are the hardest to control because apparently, those are the ones that are influenced the most by hormones and by your placenta. So that was really rough. Meagan: Yeah. We talked about that as well. We talked about choline and certain foods and not cutting things that impact our hormones. It's this cycling thing. Samantha: Exactly. So a lot of people are told to cut carbs completely, but what I learned is that if you do that, then you end up spiking your numbers even further because your body takes over. Meagan: You have to find a balance. Samantha: It was really intense and all of my chances of my VBAC were going out the window. I was crying at every appointment. At his 20-week ultrasound, the big ultrasound, he was measured at the 96th percentile. I was like, “Oh my goodness.” I left there bawling my eyes out. I could not get a hold of myself for three days. Everything was just crazy. I redid my bloodwork three or four times and finally, there were no more antibodies so that was just let go. We don't know what happened. Meagan: Interesting. Samantha: Yeah. It was just another scary bump. I don't know. It was intense. The gestational diabetes diagnosis really sent me for a loop too. I found this pregnancy I was very stressed because I was so set on getting my VBAC. But thankfully, I had my doula so I could send her all of my crazy emails late at night when I was panicking and she always talked me down from that ledge of panic. I also listened to a podcast from a somatic therapist who said that stress in your pregnancy can be a contributor to things like gestational diabetes and things like that. I know that put a lot of pressure on me and reading about the facts of gestational diabetes really made me feel a little bit better about that. It could have been, but it's not something that you can stop. It was nice to know that but gestational diabetes diagnoses really are hard when you are trying for a VBAC, I would say. Meagan: It is. It is which is why we had Lily on last week because we get the question so often. We get the text, “I was diagnosed. Can I still VBAC?” Asking the question, “Can? Is this still possible?” The answer is yes. Samantha: Exactly. So apparently, there is a spike between 32 and 36 weeks most of the time. That's when your gestational diabetes will be at its worst because apparently, there is something to do with the baby's growth. They have a growth spurt at that time and then usually, it tapers out at the end. My numbers all of a sudden just got better. It was a relief near the end. I was like, “Okay. Let's wrap it up. We're doing all of the things.” I was doing my birth affirmations. One of them was, “I am a Woman of Strength,” let me tell you. Meagan: Yes you are. Samantha: My Hypnobirthing tracks– I did the ones by Bridget Teyler. She's amazing too. All of the things getting ready. So then that leads up to my appointment at 39 weeks and 2 days. Everything with the gestational diabetes was fine at that point. They told me, “Look. We're going to treat you like a regular pregnancy. We won't talk anything until 41 and 4.” My doctor was not a big fan of inductions for VBACs because of the increased risk, but she was like, “Look. If we have to, we will look at it then. Until then, let's get you to go into labor spontaneously.” Meagan: Let's just have a baby, yeah. Trust your body. Samantha: Yeah, but I did opt for a membrane sweep because I was getting not close. I wasn't close because I was only 39 weeks and 2 days but I was like, “Look. I want all of the chances on my side of going into labor spontaneously.” I had started losing my mucus plug so my body was doing what it had to do. I had never had any of that with my first son at all. I was like, “Something is going on.” I started having more intense Braxton Hicks a little bit more often. I was like, “Things are going to happen. We need to do this.” Meagan: You could feel it. Samantha: I had the membrane sweep. After, she checked him on the ultrasound. He was LOA. He was head down. Everything was good. So I was like, “Okay. He's in a good position. Let's do this. Okay.” 42:46 LaborThe next evening, I started getting my Braxton Hicks. Looking back, I was probably in super early labor but didn't realize it because they were starting to get uncomfortable. I'd have to sit there and breathe for a minute. Nothing crazy, but I was like, “Huh. I felt that. That's weird.” I was at my friend's house and I was like, “Okay. That felt weird. I'm just going to go to the bathroom and go pee.” I came back and was like, “There's a bit of blood. I'm going to head home just because I want to sleep.” I went to bed and then I woke up at 4:43 AM with a contraction. I was like, “Oh. That's uncomfortable.” I had listened to so many stories about prodromal labor that I was just convinced that this could be prodromal labor for three weeks. I was in complete denial. I kept on trying to sleep, but they were coming every 10-15 minutes. They would wake me up each time. I wasn't resting super well. They started picking up around 6:30. I texted my doula at around 7:30 and I said, “I don't know if I had a bit of a bloody show. There is a bit of darker blood.” She said, “Probably not considering it wasn't fresh blood,” and all of those things. “But rest. Drink water. Do all of the things. Move around when you need to,” and things like that. It was fine. I said, “Okay. We will continue and I'll let you know if things pick up or not.” So my husband got up at 7:45 with my first son and did all of the things. I stayed in bed because my body just kept telling me, “Lie down. Rest.” I could not fight it. I was like, “Okay.” I lay down in the bed. Fine. I didn't even time my contractions. I was really convinced I wasn't in labor. It was the weirdest thing. I didn't eat enough. Meagan: This happens. This happens where we're like, “No, I can't be.” We want it to be so bad, but we're like, “But it's not. It's not.” Samantha: Exactly. Meagan: We're in denial. From having zero contractions from the first that I felt and having just Pitocin contractions, I didn't know what to think of this. I was like, “They are uncomfortable. They hurt a little, but I'm sure they're just going to fizzle out and we're going to be fine.” So then my first son went down for his nap around 10:00 and my husband had to go to work to drop off his keys because he was changing positions so that was his last day. He went to go say goodbye and everything then he came back home and went downstairs to watch TV and kind of left me on my own. He figured it was better to just leave her alone. She's going to be fine. Meagan: Yeah. Just let her do her thing. Samantha: Yeah. So at 11:55, I texted my doula and I said, “My contractions are still far apart.” I feel like they never got much closer at that point. It was 10-15  minutes, but they were getting more intense. She said, “Okay. Do some hands and knees positioning. Maybe take a bath. Continue breathing. Relax,” and all of those things. So then at that point, I said to my husband, “Okay, call my sister.” She was coming to watch my first son. She was on her way to a hair appointment that I didn't know she had because she didn't tell me. She knew I'd freak out, so we called my mom instead. She came. She was like, “Sam, are you timing these contractions? Is your husband? What's going on?” I was like, “No. I haven't actually taken out my timer. I don't know.” She started following me around with a pen and paper. “Those were four minutes apart. You need to leave right now.” She was like, “You're not going to have this baby on the floor at your house. No. You need to go.” Meagan: Was it active like you were really working through them? Samantha: 100%. I was moaning. I was trying to do a low moan to try to get through them. She said I sounded like a wounded animal at the end of each one because they hurt. She was like “You need to leave right now.” I was like, “Well, I need to shower.” She was like, “No, you aren't showering right now.” I was like, “Yeah, I am.” I had my piece of toast that I took one bite out of. I was like, “Maybe I should eat some more before I go.” Meagan: Yeah. Samantha: I was in too much pain to eat at that point so I was like, “Okay, I'm going to shower. It's going to be fine.” I got in the shower and it was literally the best feeling of my entire life I think. I was like, “Why didn't I do this earlier?” But I was not in the mind space to do it earlier. Every time a contraction hit me, I had the instinct to get up and walk or sit on the toilet. I think  my body knew that those were the positions that helped the most and then in between, I would lay down because that's what my body told me to do. I was just listening. I was along for the ride. Meagan: Hey, that's good. Samantha: Yeah. So then I texted my doula at 12:45. I said, “I'm going to shower, then we are going to the hospital.” My husband, during this time when my mom got there, was packing his bag because he hadn't and was getting all of our last-minute things. I had a list like my birth affirmations. I wanted to bring them with me and things like that. I got in the shower and got out. We left for the hospital at 1:06. It took us about 40 minutes to get there so there was a bit of traffic. Meagan: There was a drive. Samantha: Yep, but I was so lucky. I only had about four contractions the whole time. They had spaced out. My body knew what to do, man. Meagan: I was going to say your body knew what was happening. Samantha: Yeah. So then we got there. My doula had gotten there about five minutes before us so I saw her at the entrance. This guy stopped to talk to me for two minutes while I was in active labor waiting to go to labor and delivery. He was talking to me about my day and asking me when my baby was due. I was like, “Today.” Meagan: You're like, “Right now.” Samantha: I don't think he realized, but then I met up with my doula and I had a contraction on the way while we were walking. A guy passed by like, “Uh-oh.” I think he realized and put two and two together. So then we got there and went to the front desk. He was doing his paperwork going all slow and whatever then I had another contraction and he said, “Oh.” He got up and he walked away real fast and so they got me to triage and the woman, the nurse who came to check me said, “Look. We're going to check you really quickly and see where you are at, but I think you are going to be going to a room right away.” My sister-in-law had given birth at the same hospital two weeks before me and she showed up at 3 centimeters in a lot of pain. I was like, “If I am at 3 centimeters right now, I don't know if I can do this.” But I got in my head. I was like, “I'm going to be super low dilation.” Meagan: Those numbers, they mess with us and they really don't mean anything, but man, they impact us quite a lot. Samantha: Yeah. I remember saying that to my doula. I was like, “If I'm at 3, I'm going to scream and then get the epidural. I can't continue like this.” The woman was checking me and I'm waiting and I was like, “So?” She was like, “You're an 8.” I said, “Oh my gosh.” I was like, “I can do this.” It gave me a new spunk. I was like, “I'm ready. Let's go.” So they put me right into a room and they apologized. They were like, “We have to get everything ready,” so they were bustling around. They turned down the lights. They got me a yoga ball and all of those things. They were like, “Look, we're really sorry to be in here. We're going this as fast as possible then we will leave you alone.” They never even saw my birth plan because we got there at 8 centimeters and there was no time, but they wanted to put in the IV and my doula said to them, “Look, does she need an IV?” They said, “We just want the port at the very least.” I guess just the saline lock. Meagan: The hep lock? Samantha: Yeah, the hep lock, sorry. They did that and they wanted to monitor the baby's heart rate. Those were the two conditions that they wanted to have. Because I was so far along, it didn't really bother me. I didn't want to fight that fight. It was not something that was worth it to me. I was like, “Cool.” I was laboring standing up next to the bed, then the doctor came in and said she wanted to do her own checks so that she had her own line of where things were I guess. So she checked me and by then, I was already 9 centimeters. I had already gone up another centimeter. But what's funny is I guess I went through transition at some point, but I don't know that it was. Everyone always says that transition is crazy. I didn't have that. Meagan: Maybe you went in the car with distractions and stuff. Samantha: Yeah. In between contractions in the car, I was falling asleep. I was so tired. I don't know. Transition was not that bad for me, so I was lucky for that. So then the doctor said, “Look. Your bag of water is bulging. We can either break it artificially or we can wait and see when it breaks by itself.” I said, “Okay, let me wait.” She left and I continued laboring and I was like, “You know what? We are at this point. I'm 9 centimeters. They couldn't tell me his position yet because my water was still in tact.” Meagan: It was probably so bulgy, yeah. Samantha: So I said, “Just call her back.” She was like, “Well, it's going to get more intense.” I said, “It's going to get more intense. Let's do this.” I'm like, “Okay, hold on. I have another contraction coming.” I was on the bed. I turned over and all of a sudden my water exploded. They even wrote it on my report that I saw after, “a copious amount of liquid”. There was so much. So I was like, “That's good that that didn't break in the car because that would have been a mess.” Meagan: Yep. 52:34 Feeling pushySamantha: So then they cleaned up. I was standing next to the bed again and then all of a sudden, I felt pushy. I was doing the pushing sounds and my doula said, “Look. You need to concentrate. Tell me if you cannot push.” So the next contraction, I was like, “No, no. I'm pushing.” They wanted to check me again because they didn't want me pushing before 10 centimeters so they did do a lot of checks, but I wasn't too worried considering how close I was to the finish line for infection and things like that because I wasn't a huge fan of cervical checks going in, but I was like, “We're near the end. Hopefully nothing bad will happen.” So they checked me. I was already 10 and he was at a 0 station at this point, but he was LOA. They checked him, so he was in the right position so that was great. I was worried because my contractions were wrapping around to my back at that point, but I assumed that that is probably pretty standard when you're that low, I guess and things are getting more intense. But I kept on saying to my doula, “If he's OP, if he's OP, if he's OP–” I was so scared that he was going to end up in the same position as my first son especially because I had another anterior placenta. I read somewhere that that could cause positioning issues. I was like, “No, not another one.” He was fine. That was a huge relief in that moment. Then I tried a few different positions. On my hands and knees, I thought I was going to love that but I hated it. I could not push like that. I ended up on my side. I pushed a lot like that, but I was pulling on the rung of the bed and I don't know if I was using too much energy like that, but the doctor looked at me at one point and she was like, “Look. I know you don't want to be on your back, but maybe just try. If it doesn't work, we'll try something else, but try it.” I really trusted my team at that point. They had really been very aware of everything I wanted. They gave me choices. They were really evidence-based, so I was like, “You know what? This is a good team. Let's try.” Meagan: Why not? Samantha: So I went on my back and all of a sudden, my contractions were being used. My pushing was a million times better so I guess that's what I needed in that moment as much as I really hated to be on my back. I was like, “Maybe this is what I needed.” He descended really well to a +3. I had the whole team there around me. I had my husband up here next to my head and then my doula was next to him, then I had the doctor at the foot of the bed, then I had two nurses on the side and they were so good together. Apparently, they are a team that works together a lot, so they bounce off of each other and it was so supportive. They were always there telling me, “You're doing it.”Pushing was so hard for me though. So many women say, “Pushing was really where I felt empowered and like I could do something with the contractions.” Pushing was the most painful thing I've ever experienced, so I don't think I went in there thinking about that. Meagan: Yeah. 55:42 “You're not going to need a C-section today.”Samantha: I was shocked by that, but she also, at one point, said, “You're not going to need a C-section today. We are past that point. This baby is coming out vaginally. No matter what happens from here on out, you're good.” My eyes just filled with tears. I was so happy at that point. Meagan: I bet. Samantha: They started getting stuff ready at the end of the bed and I was like, “This is a really good sign. This means that baby is coming.” Meagan: Yeah. Constant validation. Samantha: Yeah. They were so nice. They offered a mirror which I accepted. Some people say mirrors really helped them. They were like, “Oh, we see his head.” There was a nickel-sized piece. I was like, “No.” I have so much more to do. I found that not super helpful. The doctor– I don't know how I feel completely about this, but she did warm compresses and stretching of my perineum while I was pushing. I didn't end up tearing, so I don't know if that ended up helping for it or not and they poured a lot of– Meagan: Pelvic floor work before too. Samantha: Yeah, exactly. I did a lot of that. They poured a lot of mineral oil on his head to try to get him to slip out a little bit easier because I was having more trouble. I don't know if those things are evidence-based necessarily, but in my case, I didn't tear. They may have helped. They may not have helped. I'm not sure. Though they did tell me I wasn't using my contractions as effectively as I could have been. I guess they said I was starting to push too early in my contraction and then not pushing long enough. They were really trying to coach my pushing. Meagan: Waiting until it built a little bit more.Samantha: Yeah, exactly. I mean, at that point, he was having a few decels so I think they were getting a little bit more serious at that point. They told me every time I put my legs down between contractions that he was slipping back up a little bit. They had the nurse and my husband hold up my legs at some point. I was exhausted at this point. It was 12 hours. It wasn't super long, but I think because I hadn't eaten enough or drank enough water. But they did let me eat in labor even though I was already 8 centimeters. They were fantastic for all of those things so I didn't have to fight that. So yeah, then at one point, his head was crowning, so the doctor actually had to hold his head in position between my contractions because he kept on slipping back in. Meagan: Oh. Samantha: Yeah. It was really intense and the ring of fire when somebody is holding that ring of fire there is no joke. Meagan: Yeah. Samantha: It was rough. Yeah, then at one point, the mood just shifted in the room. She said, “Look, if you don't get him out in the next two contractions, I have to cut you.” I said, “Excuse me? You have to what?” I was like, “An episiotomy?” She was like, “Yes. He is getting serious now.” He had a few pretty major heart rate decels so she was like, “I'm giving you two more.” They got the numbing stuff, I guess lidocaine ready. They dropped the bed down at that point so it was completely flat. I guess she wanted to have a better view of how she was going to cut. I pushed harder than I've ever pushed anything or done anything in my whole entire life and all of a sudden, I felt his head come out. I was like, “Oh, you didn't have to cut me.” It was right down to the wire. I pushed him out by myself and it was just like, “Oh my gosh.” It was the best feeling in the whole wide world.” Then she said, “Okay, stop pushing,” to check, I guess, for shoulder dystocia because of the gestational diabetes for the cord and everything. She was like, “Okay, he's good. Go ahead and push him out.” They said, “Grab your baby.”I pulled my baby out onto my chest. Meagan: Best feeling. Samantha: It was the best feeling in the whole wide world. I cannot describe it. The best. I had my VBA and I just kept saying, “I did it! I did it! I did it!” Everyone was so happy in the room and I had a very, very minor tear in my labia and that was it. It was night and day for my C-section recovery. They put the baby on me. He didn't budge from my body for 2.5 hours. Meagan: Oh, such a difference. Samantha: Oh my gosh. It was fantastic. He laid on me and I talked with my doula and my husband for an hour and a half until my doula left and then they came in and weighed him and did all of the things afterwards and checked his sugars which they have to do for gestational diabetes. They check sugars four times. Everything was good. It was just fantastic. It was the best, the best feeling in the world. Meagan: Oh, I am so happy for you. So happy for you and so happy that you found the support and the team and everything. All of the things that you had done did add up to the experience that you had. Samantha: Yeah. I went into this birth saying, “I'm going to do all of the things so that if I do end up in a C-section again, I know I did everything possible.” I needed that for myself. Meagan: Yeah. That's something to point out too because really, sometimes you can do everything and it still doesn't end the way you want, right? That's kind of how I was. I was like, “I want to do everything so in the end, I don't have the question of what if I did this? What if I did that?” Sometimes that was hard because it meant spending more money on a chiropractor and spending more money on a doula. We had to work on that. Sometimes it's not possible for some people and that's okay. VBAC can be done doing those things, but that's how it was for me too. I mentally had to do all of these things to just have myself be like, “Okay, if it happened. I can't go back and question.” Samantha: That's it. You're at peace with everything you did. It's funny. The doctor that I switched from, so my original OB, my doula had three VBAC clients all at the same time. We were all due around the same time. Two of us switched from him. We all started under his care and two of us switched. I ended up with a VBAC. She ended up with a repeat C-section but dilated to complete so she was very happy. The third person stayed with him and he pulled the bait and switch on her at 36 weeks. Meagan: So she had an elective? Samantha: She ended up with an elective C-section. I was like, “Oh my goodness. Thank goodness I followed my gut and I switched right away.” Intense. Insane. 1:02:39 Finding supportive providersMeagan: Yeah. Support really does matter. Support is important and in our Facebook group, we have The VBAC Link Community on Facebook, if you go under “Files”, you can click our supportive provider as well and this provider will be added to that list. Do you want to share your provider's name? Samantha: Yeah. Her name was Dr. Choquet. She was fantastic. I think I already submitted her name to be added. Meagan: You did, yes. Samantha: I loved her and Dr. Lalande was the one I consulted with for my extension who was super and is known for doing VBACs after two C-sections as well. Meagan: Lalande? Samantha: Yeah. I also submitted her name as well. Both doctors practice at LaSalle Hospital. It was a further drive, but 100,000 times worth it. Meagan: Yes. Sometimes it's hard to go far or you get worried about it, but usually, something good comes out of it. Well, congratulations again, and thank you so much for taking the time today. 1:03:53 3-5 prep tips for listenersBefore we leave, what 5 or maybe 3-5 tips would you give to the listeners during their prep? What were your key things for prepping? What information would you give and suggest? Samantha: I would say that the mental prep is 100% the work that I did the most that I think benefited me in terms of Hypnobirthing tracks. We did the Parents Course by The VBAC Link which was very helpful, I found, for getting my husband on the same page. He can tell you everything about VBAC now because he took that course. Meagan: I love that. So it helped him feel more confident. Samantha: 100%. He was pretty on board from the beginning, but it just solidified everything in his brain. He was like, “These stats. Obviously, we're going to go for a VBAC.” He was super on board after that for sure. Meagan: Awesome. Samantha: Then it armed me with the stats. My parents were very nervous about me trying for a VBAC and things like that so it really helped me arm myself. And just mentally, knowing that my chances of rupture and things like that were so much lower than the chances of actually succeeding in a VBAC so really, the mental prep and knowing that doing everything, I was going in there as equipped as I could be with the most education having done all of the prep work and then you have to leave it up to your baby and your body. Really trusting that and I didn't think the mental game would be that intense. Meagan: Man. It is. Samantha: It is. Meagan: It is intense and really, it can be especially based on what trauma we've had or what experiences we've had. There can be so much that goes into it and we have to find the information in order to even process sometimes and work through that and then you mentioned all of the amazing things you did. You did pelvic floor. You did acupuncture. You did dates. Samantha: I wrote everything. Meagan: You did it all. Samantha: And for the dates, I did them with peanut butter and a nut on them to balance the protein and the sugars. Meagan: That's my favorite way. That's my favorite way that I eat dates as well. Samantha: I broke them into two in the afternoon and then two after supper because that's when my numbers were the best for my gestational diabetes and I always took a walk after supper so that really helped. Meagan: Oh, I love that. Samantha: Because a lot of people, I would hear say they couldn't do dates because of their gestational diabetes but as long as you can balance your numbers, it's still a possibility so that's helpful and just finding all of the information about gestational diabetes was tough to find, but really important for my mental game as well. Meagan: Yeah. Absolutely. Oh, I love those tips. Thank you so much again and congrats again. We will make sure that we get your docs added to and your doula and everybody added to the list so people can find them because support is a big deal. It's a really, really big deal. Samantha: And thanks to The VBAC Link. Honestly, the only sad part is that there is not much of Canada that is covered yet, so finding my alternatives that way, but everything else was covered by The VBAC Link 100%. I tell everybody about The VBAC Link. The other day, I went for my COVID shot and I told my nurse– her daughter had just given birth via C-section and she wanted to go for a VBAC. I was like, “Get her a doula through The VBAC Link.” Meagan: Oh, that's amazing. I love that. Thank you so much. Samantha: Thank you so much for everything you do. It was a game changer, 100%. Absolutely. ClosingWould you like to be a guest on the podcast? Tell us about your experience at thevbaclink.com/share. For more information on all things VBAC including online and in-person VBAC classes, The VBAC Link blog, and Meagan's bio, head over to thevbaclink.com. Congratulations on starting your journey of learning and discovery with The VBAC Link.Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/the-vbac-link/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

We're getting deep in the weeds of Lucha lore because this week we're discussing season 2, episode 11 of Lucha Underground entitled "Bird of War". PLUS we're joined by pro-wrestling referee, from L.U. and more, Dr. Justin Borden (@themainref123 on Twitch & Twitter)! Come along as we chat about Vamp's Night, Candice LeRae, counting with both arms, reffing live events, Juggalos, gathering sugar, Jeff Cobb, the VBA crew, being nice to people, Degrassi, community, Ben Schwartz, driver's training, getting Bane'd, math and music, Killshot, One Piece, Sexy Star theories, Rick Knox shirts, Lucha Underground being a hot ticket, SAW knowledge, turn buckles, the lick of death, Hit People Guy, & more! Want to hear more from your favorite Marsh Land Media hosts? Hear exclusive shows, podcasts, and content by heading to Patreon.com/MLMpod! Buy some Shuffling the Deck / MLMpod MERCH, including our "Natty With Otters" shirt, over at redbubble.com/shop/msspod! Follow James @MarshLandMedia on Twitter, @MLMpod on Instagram, and listen to his music under "Marsh Land Monster" wherever music is found! Follow Sean on Twitter @SeanMarciniak and on Twitch @GooseVK! Join our Discord! Have fan mail, fan art, projects you want us to review, or whatever you want to send us? You can ship directly to us using "James McCollum, PO Box 180036, 2011 W Montrose Ave, Chicago, IL 60618"! Send us a voice mail to be played on the show at (224) 900-7644! Find out more about James' other podcasts "Mostly Speakin' Sentai", "Hit It & Crit It", and "This Movie's Gay" on our website, www.MLMPod.com!!! Plus, download all Marsh Land Monster albums there, too!

In this episode, Den Lennie addresses the challenges of sales in the video business, emphasizing the need for a consistent mindset and habit formation. Key topics include the role of CRM tools in managing client relationships and tracking leads, strategies to combat sales slumps, and the power of community support. Insights from VBA members highlight practical approaches to maintaining a vibrant sales pipeline and the importance of peer advice in navigating business hurdles.Sales Mindset Challenges:  Discussing consistent sales approaches and habit formation.CRM Benefits:   Exploring various CRM tools for client tracking and lead management.Navigating Sales Downturns:  Tactics for overcoming inactive periods in business.Sales Pipeline Management: Techniques for nurturing and tracking sales opportunities.Community Insights: Member experiences and peer support for business challenges.Support the showConnect with Den on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/denlennie/Get more great resources over at https://www.denlennie.com/

Ever wondered how to accurately price your video projects? Dive into today's episode where we break down the magic behind the pricing calculator used in the VBA. This tool has been a game-changer for us, helping itemize and streamline our pricing process. From pre-production, production to post and expenses – we discuss it all.

The Fat Guy Gang is back (minus Ryan & Mimi, who were on a much-needed post-Fresh Fest day off.). In episode 80 we Fern, Joel & Mike sit down with Paul Hoogenboom of Holex Flower.  Holex Flower BV was founded in 1982 and is located at the VBA south-complex of the FloraHolland flower auction in Aalsmeer, The Netherlands. Holex is Holland's market leader when it comes to export of fresh-cut flowers to distant destinations serviced by air freight. The most important markets are the United States, Japan, Canada, and recently several countries in the Middle East. Additionally, Holex services selected clientele in several European countries via truck transportation.In 2005 Holex became a member of the Dutch Flower Group ( DFG ) the world's largest consortium of fresh floral companies. Holex supplies a wide segment of floral importers, including wholesalers, supermarkets and their procurement divisions, retail chain stores, and internet companies.  Learn more about Paul and Holex at https://shop.holex.com/

The Veterans Benefits Administration (VBA) needs talent in all sorts of areas. Needing to fill differing jobs requires differing recruitment practices. For how they're going about it, Federal News Network's Eric White spoke to the executive director of the VBA's Office of Human Capitol Services, Dr. Aaron Lee. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Veterans Benefits Administration (VBA) needs talent in all sorts of areas. Needing to fill differing jobs requires differing recruitment practices. For how they're going about it, Federal News Network's Eric White spoke to the executive director of the VBA's Office of Human Capitol Services, Dr. Aaron Lee. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoicesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Introducing thoughtbot's ongoing maintenance service. Need reliable support and maintenance for your software? Look no further. Our expert team handles upgrades, bug fixes, UI adjustments, and new feature development. And the best part? Our maintenance packages start at just 5k per month for companies of all sizes. From Ruby on Rails to Node, React, and, yes, even PHP, we've got you covered. Trust thoughtbot for top-notch support and optimized performance. To receive a custom quote, contact sales@thoughtbot.com. __ Simon Ritchie, the founder and CEO of Blox, discusses his background and journey leading up to starting the company. He began his career in finance but discovered his passion for technology and finance systems. He worked at Anaplan, a successful finance planning and analysis software company, but saw the limitations of rigid systems when COVID-19 hit. He realized there was a need for a more flexible and accessible financial modeling and planning tool, especially for small businesses and charities. Blox aims to fill this gap by providing a powerful yet easy-to-use modeling, calculation, and planning engine that sits between spreadsheets and complex enterprise software. The company is about a year old, has raised venture funding, and launched a free tier of its product. They prioritize building a compelling product, iterating quickly, and engaging with users to understand their needs. Simon acknowledges that building the product has been enjoyable, leveraging his background in product management. However, sales, marketing, and customer traction have proven challenging. Nonetheless, he remains optimistic about Blox's progress and is committed to providing a valuable solution to help businesses make informed decisions and achieve their financial goals. Blox (https://www.blox.so/) Follow Blox on Twitter (https://twitter.com/blox_is_awesome), Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/blox.for.planning), LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/company/blox-plan/), Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/bloxisawesome/), or TikTok (https://www.tiktok.com/@bravewithblox/) Follow Simon Ritchie on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/siritchie/). Follow thoughtbot on Twitter (https://twitter.com/thoughtbot) or LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/company/150727/). Become a Sponsor (https://thoughtbot.com/sponsorship) of Giant Robots! Transcript: VICTORIA: This is the Giant Robots Smashing Into Other Giant Robots Podcast, where we explore the design, development, and business of great products. I'm your host, Victoria Guido. WILL: And I'm your other host, Will Larry. And with me today is Simon Ritchie, Founder and CEO of Blox, which provides pre-built planning models to help business leaders escape the tyranny of complex, clunky, and error-prone spreadsheets, giving you visibility into and confidence in the reality of your business. Simon, thank you for joining us. How are you doing today? SIMON: Hey, guys. Yeah, I'm very good today. VICTORIA: So, Simon, where are you joining us from today? SIMON: So, I'm joining from the UK. I live in a city called Brighton on the South Coast of the UK, where it's a lovely day today. It's nice and sunny. VICTORIA: Oh, that's where our thoughtbot summit has been the last two years, in Brighton, actually. SIMON: Fantastic. Yeah, it's a wonderful place. VICTORIA: And a great place to be in the summer right now, right? Do you get out in the water very often? SIMON: Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Like many others, we have a paddle board. So, I go out with my family. I have four kids, so we go out and have fun at the beach. Brighton's got a stony beach. So we are, as Brightoners, we're very proud of the stones. You know, if you have sand, you get sand everywhere, stones are...it's much cleaner. [laughter] It does hurt your feet, though. There you go. [laughter] WILL: Yeah, that was the first time I've ever seen that, and I was like, that's very interesting. SIMON: Yeah. [laughs] WILL: I probably will like it because I don't like the sand getting everywhere, so... SIMON: Yeah, absolutely. WILL: So, yeah, I probably could trade that in. [laughs] SIMON: Yeah, yeah. You just have to wear shoes if you want to go run around. We're proud. We're proud of it. VICTORIA: I didn't think about that either. It makes a lot more sense. I don't really like the sand [laughter]. Rocks make more sense. But in California here, we're surfing, so having too many rocks on the beach would be a problem [laughs] for those of us who can't control ourselves. [laughter] SIMON: Yes. Yeah, Victoria, I thought you lived in Wales when I first looked at your profile -- VICTORIA: Oh, right. SIMON: On LinkedIn. And I thought, oh -- VICTORIA: That's...yeah. SIMON: A Welsh girl. That's -- VICTORIA: My family is actually Welsh on my mother's side. SIMON: Oh really? VICTORIA: Yeah. SIMON: Okay. VICTORIA: And Cardiff...California is named after Cardiff, Wales. SIMON: Okay, oh. VICTORIA: But yeah, so that's where it came from. So, I thought that was very cute, too. SIMON: [laughs] Very cool. VICTORIA: But, you know, Cardiff-by-the Sea is its own little beach town here. SIMON: It's not Wales. [laughs] VICTORIA: Not Wales. [laughs] Pretty different. But I do hear Wales is beautiful. SIMON: Oh, it is. Yeah, absolutely. VICTORIA: Awesome. Well, let's talk about Blox a little bit. So, why don't you tell us maybe a little bit about your background and how you came around to starting it? SIMON: Yeah, great. So, and just in terms of me and my background, so I started my career in finance, actually. I didn't really know what to go and study, so I thought, you know, studying numbers was probably a good thing. So, I did an accounting finance degree. And I got into the world of work in finance roles very quickly realized that finance wasn't for me. I just didn't really want to be a CFO. I just didn't feel the passion for it. But I was the techie guy always in the finance team. I was the guy people turned to and originally for, you know, Excel and spreadsheet modeling. And behind Excel, you've got VBA. So, you've got this little, you know, it was my first exposure to programming and some, you know, and what coding was. And so, I sort of just realized, actually, I love the technology side. And so, I followed my passion more into the finance systems arena. And my passion has always been...the focus of my career has been helping leaders understand what's going on in the business by getting hold of those numbers, the data that they have, and analyzing it, summarizing it, trying to draw insights from it so they can make decisions. And so, in the early days, it was lots of Excel spreadsheet modeling. And, in some businesses, there's still tons of spreadsheet modeling going on. And then the next phase of my career was actually working in...there are a number of software options that help you with planning, modeling, reporting, et cetera. So, I joined...well, I did some consulting for a while and then joined a company called Anaplan. And was an early employee, the company was still very early in their journey. They were just launching a European office, so I joined as one of the early European employees. And Anaplan went on, over the course of nearly eight years that I was there, to be [inaudible 04:31], absolute rocket ship, grew up to 2,000 people, and we floated on the New York Stock Exchange and then IPO in 2018. It was acquired last year for a very big number. So really fantastic time there. But to just talk about Blox, so I left Anaplan two years ago. The observations that I made that led to Blox ultimately were there were sort of three main aspects. Like, when COVID happened, the world changed radically. And what I saw...I was working in Anaplan. For anyone who doesn't know, Anaplan they focus on selling to large enterprise. So, you may not be familiar with the company if you're not a CFO or a finance person in a very large company. And they sell very expensive product. It's very, very powerful modeling, calculation, FP&A, finance planning, and analysis software. And so, companies...we were working with companies like Procter & Gamble, HP, Cisco, Google, and others. What I observed was when COVID kicked in, the FP&A system was too rigid. So, Anaplan, you know, these models that people had built up, spent a lot of time and energy building up, it was too rigid. The world changed so much that they couldn't really use their typical budgeting systems or these FP&A solutions. They couldn't use Anaplan. So, everybody just jumped back into a spreadsheet to figure out, you know, do I still have a business? How am I going to survive this if I just had to shut all my retail stores or if I had to send everybody home? You know, so everyone was using spreadsheets, basically. And so my observation there was that the tools that are available at that point are still way too hard to use. They're not flexible enough. You can't mold them quickly enough to really handle some of those scenarios that you want to throw at it as a leader. So, when you're trying to make big decisions about new revenue streams, new offices that you would want to launch, restructuring your team, investing in more people, those things they're really hard to model in the tools that are available. You need real specialist experience and expertise. That's very expensive, et cetera. So that was one part. And then the other thing that happened was I've worked most of my career in larger companies. And I'd worked in, yeah, in finance, in businesses. And also, I'm a chartered management accountant. It's all about helping with managing a business with your numbers. And I hadn't really worked with many very small companies. I ended up volunteering. When the lockdowns were happening, there were lots of people that were sheltering in place and they were staying at home. And so, a local charity had organized to put together food parcels, and then they found drivers to drive them around. And so I had volunteered through a friend of a friend, and somewhere my name got put in. So, I ended up driving these food deliveries around for the summer, and I loved it. Every Thursday, I'd take a couple of hours to just drive around and drop some food on people's doorsteps and then maybe have a quick conversation with them from a distance. I got connected with the charity. It is a local charity that runs on the South Coast in England here. And they found out I was an accountant, and I worked in software technology. They were like, [gasps], please, you can be our new best friend. We need some help. So, I ended up helping them a bit in their back office with some of the reporting that they do. And to cut a long story short, they're a charity. They live on grant funding that they get. So, they apply for grants, and then the grant providers want them to report back on the progress that they've made, the services that they've offered, the people they've helped. So, I went and helped them, and they needed these reports and some plans for grants that they were trying to get. What seemed really easy to me, like, they were showing me that they had to download this data from a system. And they needed to filter it and then count how many people they had been helping. And they basically were just, you know, with different needs and in different categories and cohorts. So, they would basically download the data, open it in a spreadsheet, put a filter on, select some filters, and then they would count the number of rows that had that criteria. And then, they would type the number into an email. And I just showed them some very simple things, like, when you do a filter or if you select the cells, you can see a countdown at the bottom-right in Excel, and I showed them that. And they almost fell off their chair because [laughs] they were like, "Oh, you know, why did we not see that sooner?" But I suppose through that, and, you know, through the various times that I helped them...and I just helped them with initially some spreadsheets and just some help with that. But it just showed me that there are a lot of businesses, a lot of charities in this case, but a lot of businesses where the leaders are not finance savvy, and they are not accountants. They're not MBAs, but they still need help running their business. They need to do reporting. They need to do planning, you know, manage their business, control the finances. So, I just thought, you know, just started thinking a lot more about what does a small business need? What does a leader in a business need to make great decisions, run the business? And how could we get them a tool or some software that doesn't cost hundreds of grand every year but is accessible, a nice, low price point, and really easy for them to use? And that's the problem that I thought about for a long time. And ultimately, that's what we're trying to work on with Blox. WILL: That's amazing. I used to work at a nonprofit. And I remember those days of, like, because I wasn't an MBA, like you said, MBA finance and just trying to figure out numbers. I don't even remember the software we used. SIMON: [laughs] WILL: But it was old and very hard to maneuver. [laughter] SIMON: Oh yeah. WILL: It was harder to maneuver than spreadsheets. And I was like, ahh, this is a nightmare. So, this is amazing that you're doing that. Can you tell us more about how Blox solves that issue? Because it sounds like it is a tween of big software that's for enterprise companies and spreadsheets. So, it's kind of in the middle; it sounds like. SIMON: So, spreadsheets are great. They're really easy. They're easy to start with. You'll often find that your spreadsheet will just kind of reach its natural end. It becomes too complex. And that normally happens when you've got, like, you're planning for lots of people, or lots of products, or lots of different projects. And so, you end up sort of having to figure out how to scale the model, you know, across lots of different columns or rows, or you start copying. And how you'll have three identical tabs or ten identical tabs. And, at that point, you've basically outgrown Excel, and trying to keep that spreadsheet running and working it becomes a real nightmare. And so, that's the point where Blox comes in. You could use Blox right from the very beginning. We've started with a focus on making really nice, simple models that you can just pick up and use. So, our earliest customers are startups doing a financial model for a brand-new idea. So, you can use Blox from the beginning, but you could probably use a spreadsheet, too. Where you would want to use Blox is where it becomes more complex, and you've got a lot more going on. You might have lots of different months, and you've got loads of time. You might want to connect it to your actual accounting system or a CRM system. And so, when you want to pull in actual data and do some reporting and maybe have different scenarios, different versions of a plan or of a report, that's where you've basically outgrown a spreadsheet, and it just becomes complex and unwieldy. And that's where you would want to move into a system. That's what we're building with Blox is basically a powerful modeling calculation planning engine that scales really easily. So, you can build up your dimensions, products, countries, time, et cetera, and you can build up those dimensions. You can build up your logic. You can add your own KPIs. You can add your own projection logic, et cetera. You can build out a model. We've got lots of template models that you can start with because you shouldn't have to start from scratch every time. You can get going. You can load up your own data very quickly at the beginning. For a lot of models, it's just assumptions. You're just trying to work out, okay, like, we've got some service businesses that use Blox. To get a basic model together, what you need to know is how many people do you have roughly? How much do you pay them? And then, how many people do you plan to hire at certain times? And how long does it take to ramp a new hire? Because, normally, there's some sort of ramp time. And if it's a service business and you're selling time, then you kind of have an average number of hours billable or often called utilization. So, with a few quick assumptions, you could throw them in. You could build out a multi-year plan for your business. And you could use that to think about, okay, how can I grow this business? I kind of talk about it as a financial roadmap that you could create. So, you know, often in the product world, we talk about product roadmaps. I like to talk about, you know, a business roadmap or financial roadmap. And that's really what we are working on; Blox and Blox will help you with this financial roadmap that you can build out. You know, I'd like to get my business to this point to, you know, 2 million in revenue, or 10 million in revenue, or maybe there are some financial or non-financial goals that you're trying to get to. And, with a model, you can help try and kind of work out what the assumptions and drivers and what those things need to look like. And then, as a manager of the business, you can start working on, okay, how do I increase my headcount? Or how do I decrease this particular cost per unit or various things like that? So yeah, that's a very high level on what we're doing with Blox. VICTORIA: Thank you for that. And I certainly can relate to that, having worked for several different consulting services companies and how difficult it can be to get software [laughs] to project that -- SIMON: [laughs] VICTORIA: Far into the future, like, to think about how you're going to hire, all the things that go into it. So, I'm curious about your own plan for Blox. Like, how would you describe where you are in your plan for the company? SIMON: We are a year old, actually just celebrated our one-year anniversary. In the last year, we've formed, hired an early team. We've fundraised successfully. So, we raised venture finance to fund the business. It's a complex product to build. We're trying to replace a spreadsheet, which has got tons and tons of features. They've been developing that for a long time. So, for someone to come across, it needs to be a relatively mature product. So, we raised venture funds from investors. We're busy investing that to build up the product and take that to market. It's been a fantastic year. And this is my first time as a founder. I've worked in leadership roles in technology businesses, in customer success, and in product as well. Yeah, I definitely would say working as a founder in a brand-new startup is very different to working in product, in a scale-up. You know, some of the lessons that I learned back there have been useful. You know, you learn how to juggle chaos, how to juggle...how to spin lots of plates. But yeah, I'm really delighted with our progress so far. We've fundraised. We ran a beta of our product last year with some early customers. We graduated from that. Our approach has always been to try and get the product out, so really embrace agile. It's kind of you don't see it so often in enterprise software. What you see is companies that like to just put "Book a demo" on the website. And they don't like to show their software until they've already kind of sold the value, and they've pitched, you know, positioned their pricing, and qualified their leads, et cetera. Our approach has always been let's build a fantastic product. Let's build something which is super compelling, super easy to use. Let's get people into the product as quickly as possible so they can experience it, see if it's going to be valuable for them. We launched a free tier of our product, the first sort of MVP, as a free tier, so not paid, not with some of the features that we plan to add to the product. And so, we've got that out there, and it's been fantastic. We've got users from all over the world using it in all sorts of different ways. And that's the other thing that is really great for us. Because it's such a flexible product, it can be used in lots of places. So, we've got all sorts of different applications being used by it. People jump in; they use it. They can try different templates that we've got. And then, if they need something different...every business is slightly different. So, if they need something slightly different, they can just chat to us in the product. We absolutely love chatting to people. And then, you know, we'll often spin up a custom template for them. And when we've done a few of those, then we'll build a standard template for a new industry. That's a little bit about where we're at. We're a small team based between here and India, where most of our developers are. It's good fun. Some of the learning...so I would say maybe it's just because of my background. So, I moved into product, and I was a product manager and then product leader for the last six years. So, for me, I've found building the product has been the easier part, probably because it's my background and that's where my passion is. So, I absolutely love anytime I get to spend in the product and spend with the team. The original founding team is myself as founder and CEO. And I don't get too much time on the product. I have a product manager and a designer. And so, that was the first...the early team, the founding team. And then we've added marketing and some other roles and software development. And so that's the team. I've found building the product has been really fun, and that's been a bit easier. Trying to work out how to do fundraising was a real challenge, so that took a lot of energy. We've been pretty successful so far in that. Still, always more to go, always more fundraising needed definitely. The really hard thing, especially in the market that we're in right now, it's hard, you know, getting early customer traction and selling. And that's really hard trying to get your name out there, build a brand, find early customers. That's really hard. So yeah, that's definitely an observation for me that the product has been really fun and a bit easier than I thought. But yeah, trying to do sales, marketing, figure that out...and probably as well because it's not my background or my kind of natural area of interest, so I've been learning. That's always tough, isn't it? Mid-Roll Ad: VICTORIA: Introducing thoughtbot's ongoing maintenance service. Need reliable support and maintenance for your software? Look no further. Our expert team handles upgrades, bug fixes, UI adjustments, and new feature development. And the best part? Our maintenance packages start at just 5K per month for companies of all sizes. From Ruby on Rails to Node, React, and, yes, even PHP, we've got you covered. Trust thoughtbot for top-notch support and optimized performance. To receive a custom quote, contact sales@thoughtbot.com. VICTORIA: And with me here, I have Richard Newman, who is the Development Director on our Boost Team, to talk to me a little bit more about what maintenance actually looks like once you've built your software application, right? RICHARD: Hi, Victoria. VICTORIA: Hi, Richard. You have experience building applications. I wonder if you could describe to a founder who's considering to build an application, like, what should they consider for their long-term maintenance? RICHARD: Well, like you said earlier, part of what you're going for with that long-term maintenance is making sure the health of your project, of your application, is always there. And you don't want to be surprised as you're continuing to work with your users and so forth. And so, a number of things that we pay attention to in maintenance are, we're paying attention to keeping the application secure, providing security updates. We want to make sure that the ecosystem, basically, all of the tools and third-party services that are tied to your application that, we're responding to those sorts of changes as we go along. And then part of it is, occasionally, you're going to find some smaller issues or bugs or so forth as your user group continues to grow or as needs continue to change. You want to be able to respond to those quickly as well. And so, a lot of what goes into maintenance is making sure that you're paying attention and you're ahead of those things before they surprise you. VICTORIA: Because what can happen? Like, what are the consequences if you don't do that ongoing maintenance? RICHARD: Well, the security updates those happen across gems and in the platform sort of tools that are there. And so, if you're not keeping those up to date, your exposure, your vulnerability to being hacked, or having a bad actor come into your application start growing on you if you're not doing the maintenance. The other ones that can come up is there's new interfaces that these third-party services...they may be updating their APIs. They may be updating how you're supposed to work with their tool. And so, those can occasionally break if you're not paying attention to what's going on or you're suddenly surprised by an upgrade that you have to make. And then, finally, there's this long-term sort of code change that just builds up over time if you're not keeping it refactored for the changes that are upcoming in a language or the gems that you work with. And then, suddenly, after a while, it suddenly gets to the point where you have a lot of work that you might have to do to rehabilitate the application to take on some of the newer features that are being released. And so, that makes it that much more difficult, that much more friction about being able to deliver updates for your users or to be able to respond to changes that are happening out there in your application. VICTORIA: Right. So, if you don't have that ongoing maintenance, you could run into a situation where, suddenly, you need to make a very large investment and fixing whatever is broken. RICHARD: Absolutely. It's going to be very tough to plan for if you weren't keeping up all the way along and, yes, absolutely ends up being much slower if you have to remediate it. VICTORIA: That makes sense. I wonder if you have any examples of a project you've walked into and said, "Wow, I wish we had been doing a little bit more maintenance." [laughs] And maybe you can share some details. RICHARD: Yeah. We had a fairly large application that involved a number of clinic services. So, we had an application that users were going in every day and counting on our fast response. And, over time, we've got surprised by a database upgrade that had to happen. Basically, the database was going to be changed by our third-party hosting service, and that hadn't been tested. There hadn't been procedures in place when we discovered this need. And there was a very hard date that that change had to be done or else the entire application was going to go down. And it came at a very inconvenient time, at the end of the year around Christmas, that we had to respond to all of that. And had we been in front of it and just updated it every quarter and staying current with it, it wouldn't have been nearly the lift that it turned out to be. We were facing a pretty hard deadline [laughs] there to keep things going. It was very, very stressful and disruptive for the team and potentially for the clinics. VICTORIA: Right. And it always happens around a big holiday or something like that, right? When it all comes to a head. So... [laughter] RICHARD: Absolutely. You want to be in control of the timeframe and not have the timeframe be in control of you. VICTORIA: Right. And if you have a team like thoughtbot supporting you, you can go on your vacation with a little bit more knowledge that if something breaks, there's someone there who can respond and fix things, and you don't have to interrupt your very valuable time off. So... RICHARD: [chuckles] Absolutely. VICTORIA: Yeah. Well, thank you so much, Richard, for joining me today. I appreciate you coming here to talk with us. And we'll talk to you again soon. RICHARD: Yeah, it was a pleasure. Thank you. WILL: You mentioned getting your product out there how challenging it can be. So, what has been some other wins and some challenges that you've had as a first-time founder? SIMON: So, my approach to things as a leader is I basically like to bring silliness and games to help motivate and energize the team. So, as a human, I have quite a lot of energy. I roll around with lots of energy. And I take loads of photos of what I'm doing, and I share those. So, we have a Friday wrap-up with the team, and so I'll often share a lot of the pictures of, you know, what I've been up to this week. So, yeah, there's been some really fantastic moments launching a product. We launched our MVP in three months. So, we basically set off...I actually funded the first season of the business, a couple of software developers, a couple of early employees. I funded the first season. We hadn't raised money. And I just spoke to my wife, and I said, "Look, now's the time. I really want to do this." You know, I've been saving up if you like, I had this, like, one day I'll do a startup fund. Some people would probably call that their long-term savings or like, you know, some...and I kind of called it my one day I'll do a startup fund. So, I'd been building up this fund because I knew that at some point, I'll probably go do this. The timing was way earlier than I thought. I thought I'd still do another four or five years in a career in a corporate role to try and get a few more notches in my belts to make fundraising easier, et cetera. The timing came. The team was perfect. And everything just felt right, so we went for it. But yeah, we basically set out. We didn't know where we were going to get funding from. The market was in a real state, so this was middle of 2022. The Ukraine war had kicked in; valuations had dropped by 90% for a lot of tech companies. The post-COVID bubble had burst. It was hard. So, we sat down, and we were like, okay, we could spend all of our runway trying to fundraise now, or we could crack on and try and build the first MVP. But we'd already done a lot of the market research, the user testing, early prototypes, et cetera. And that's a bit of a long story. But we had done that in the company that the founding team had worked at, and then we were actually a spin-out. So that happened. And we were sitting here thinking, okay, you know, we could spend all of our runway fundraising, or we could just crack on and build a product as quick as we can in the next three months. And so, we had this really hard conversation where we descoped so much stuff. And we just figured out what's the core piece that will really show the value of what we're trying to build, that we'd give to a user, that we could give to an early customer that they could use and get value from? And so, we came up with that scope. And we cracked on, and we built it. Within two and a half months, we had a working version. We played with it. Within three months, we kind of launched into this beta and got early users onto. So that was, you know, fantastic. So, we did that in the first three months, and then off the success of having an MVP, and just being able to show the product, and start getting some early user feedback, initial feedback was, you know, we took into account very quickly and improved. And just having that, you know, you basically start building momentum. Every step is still really hard, but you do build momentum. So, we got this product. We launched it. We went to a couple of events, and we talked about that, and then we did some fundraising. And we landed some funding, so that was fantastic. And then, you know, and then we've just gone sort of step by step from there. So, it's really fantastic what we've been able to achieve so far. The challenges there's been loads of them, especially when you're building a startup. It's really exciting. So, you can get people excited quite easily about the future potential. And you can kind of talk about what this can be. I've got a printed picture of a unicorn on my whiteboard in my office right here as a sort of a statement of, you know, where we're going. It's really hard as a founder or a leader trying to persuade people to leave a stable job, take a pay cut, and come and work with you and give them some equity, which you hope will be worth a ton, and you kind of paint the picture. But also, you don't know how long you can keep them because you're on runway. You're on runway. You haven't got infinite cash if it's not a profitable business. So, you know, there are some real challenges. And, as a founder, you go through ups and downs. Ben Horowitz talks about it in his great book, The Hard Things About Hard Things, as the struggle. I definitely understand that a lot more now because there is an up and down to this. You do build momentum, but you also...you're creating the momentum, you know, one hard push at a time. So that's that early customers come on. You kind of pitch the dream of what the product will do, and then it will fall over as soon as they touch it. But I absolutely love it. What I love is the chance to create and how quickly you can move in the early days of a startup or a new product, where you don't have masses of technical debt. You don't have hundreds of customers. You don't have all this, you know, you don't have a massive team where everyone's got their point of view on what you should do. So, you can move really fast, and that's fantastic [inaudible 30:14] creative season. So yeah, lots of ups and downs, but it's really fun. VICTORIA: That's so interesting and particularly interesting that you're trying to make something that's easier to use than Excel. So, I'm curious how you're testing to make sure that it's actually easy. And what might be...I'm sure there's some interesting feedback you got about that. SIMON: Yeah, so we're making Blox easier than Excel. But it's got to be powerful enough to be able to handle the data and the modeling that you need for a business. If you're doing projections for multiple years if you've got lots of products or teams, then it can be complex, so it needs to be powerful enough to handle that. It needs to be flexible enough because you can take a template, but every business has got its own unique quirks. So, it needs to be flexible enough that it can be tailored easy for a unique business. And then, crucially, and this is also important, it needs to be easy enough to use so that the person who understands the business can change the model to kind of suit their business. That's the bit that most of the other players, you know, the enterprise software that's available today, just that they haven't figured out how to make it easy enough so that a businessperson that, you know, doesn't have database experience, can't write SQL, not going to write Python, you know, doesn't do complex scripting or any of this stuff. It's got to be easy enough that they can, you know, tailor, reflect the way that their business works, the way that they make money, the way that their cost structure works, so they can figure out what drives the business. And so, if they're projecting revenue, they can work out the costs associated. So, one of our founding team is a UX designer, a really, really fantastic designer, very experienced. He's been in the game for 25 years since, way before it was called UX. And started doing graphic design, and then has done lots of branding and branding for some really fantastic, large companies, did lots of consulting. And then got into UX and how, you know, the art of wireframing and helping to make products easily usable. I call him my secret weapon. I've worked with some fantastic designers in the past, so, as a founder, I think I appreciate and understand the value of a really good design and a really good UX designer. So, Mike, our UX designer, has just been fantastic at that. He's very good at wireframing and very good at testing. And he's not a finance planning expert. That's why I call him my secret weapon because, you know, I understand planning really well, but sometimes I understand it too well. When I describe what a user is trying to do or, you know, what I expect a screen will look like, I'm just probably subconsciously replacing or recreating something that I've seen or used before, whereas he's coming at it brand new. He's not worked in planning or data modeling, or many of these things. He's worked in lots of different businesses. So, he comes at it with a mobile-first perspective. Normally, he's thinking about, okay, how could this be used by a busy leader on their phone and they're running around? And so, he's been really fantastic at helping to keep it simple and easy and to rethink and to create a product, which is just so different to what other tools in the space are doing. And that's some of the feedback we get. It looks so different. It works so different. But yeah, the hard thing is that spreadsheets are the most sticky tool, I think. They're just so useful for, you know, for everything where you need to get a list of things. You just start throwing it into a spreadsheet, and then you can, you know, organize it and improve structure over time. But yeah, it's a really sticky tool. And we train people how to use spreadsheets from early days from school. My 12-year-old daughter she already has been taught how to use a spreadsheet in school. So, what we're trying to do is create something which is easier. But there's also, you know, you want there to be some familiarity in there so that people will...to avoid some of the friction of the people who have it. No one really signs up to learn a new tool if they can avoid it. We're lazy. [laughs] VICTORIA: It makes sense that design would be a big priority for your product because that was your intention from the beginning, right? Is to make something that's easy to use, so you prioritize that as an investment. SIMON: That's right. That's absolutely right. Yeah. VICTORIA: What's on the horizon? What are you the most excited about for Blox in the coming months? SIMON: So, yeah, we've got some really exciting elements of our roadmap coming. So, yeah, really excited to see these things come to life. Like anyone working in building products, whether you're designing, doing product, sort of overseeing, or actually developing, it's so great to see these things come to life. You spend a long time thinking and chatting about them, imagining, ideating about how they could look. The thing that I'm just most excited about is—and that's probably why I love product—is, you know, you're building a product, and then you can...then you're talking to somebody about how they would use this. Or before that, you're talking about their day-to-day right now and what their problems are, and how you could help them save time, save money, et cetera. And so, you know, I absolutely love chatting to more and more different types of companies, leaders in different parts of the business. And, you know, especially in our space, it's mostly about, okay, how can I help? You know, how could we improve this planning process that we've got, whether it's, you know, planning for the cost of running a big project or trying to figure out how can I scale my business to reach my objectives? So, I just love chatting to lots of different leaders globally. So, I love going to events, chatting to people, fact-finding about how they run their business, how they think about finances, et cetera. In terms of the product roadmap, we're working on some exciting new scenario capabilities, so you can easily look at different scenarios around a decision. So, you might be trying to decide, you know, should I be aggressive with my investments and hiring, or should I be pessimistic? Or is there a middle ground? So, we're adding, like, scenario capabilities where you can build out different versions of that, and then easily compare and contrast, and then decide which one to do. We're working on some really...really enjoying working on some intelligent capabilities. So, again, in the search of making it really easy to use for a busy leader, for a busy businessperson, or a busy finance person, making it really easy to use. So, we've invested a lot in AI technology and been designing, developing POCs around how AI could help to onboard customers faster, how we could help to personalize models for businesses automagically. So, as soon as we understand the website of a user, what sort of industry they're in, we can automagically personalize the template for them, add their own KPIs, like, industry-specific KPIs, into the model, and throw in benchmark data and all these things. So, we've got some fantastic AI capabilities coming through the pipe and some data integrations. As we get out more and more, we're connecting to different data sources. So, yeah, exciting times ahead for the roadmap. And as we add more features, then we'll add different pricing tiers, you know, so we can try and offer a nice, affordable entry-level offering for Blox, but then we will, you know, as you get more and more different features, you'll pay at the appropriate level. So that's a little bit about what our future looks like. WILL: That's neat some of the things you have coming up. You mentioned AI and how you're kind of embracing that. Can you expound on that? Like, kind of I know you said some data models automagically is going to do it. But, like, where can you see the benefit for a customer to use that? Because I know AI can be scary and stuff like that. But, like, just kind of taking the fear out of it and talking about how beneficial it can be. SIMON: Yeah. So, there's lots of different places where AI can help. So, the typical model today for finance planning is you'd have a leader who's responsible for the business, and they're responsible for an advertising budget. You know, they just intuitively know, you know, where should I spend money, what's good return on my investment, what's, you know, what works. But when it comes to actually trying to model that, so how to put that into a financial model or some other model that you can understand the relationships between these things, put in the KPIs, have the formulas, calculating things in the right way at the right level, what you often find is that the leader is not the system's expert. So, you'll often have, especially in bigger businesses, you've got this expert data analyst or FP&A finance planning person that will do the modeling. So, we really believe that AI can be like a digital business coach to digitize that business advisory piece. So, the leader can be sitting down. They can be looking to try and improve some part of their business or understand some part of their spend and trying to work out, like, what would life look like if I increased my spend on this particular channel by X? And so, you know, we are looking at AI to help with lots of different areas around this. Initially, it's helping a new user to get onboarded with Blox. So, it's taking a template and helping to personalize it for their business. What we basically try and do is fetch as much data about a new user and a new company as possible. So, if their team is on their website, then we'll pull in their team. If their products are listed on their website, we'll pull in a list of their products and try and throw that into the model and take out a lot of the friction that you have. As a user in the new system, you have to type in everything normally. If you're trying to model a business, you used to type it all in or copy and paste it from a spreadsheet. So, we're looking at lots of options to help onboard new users. That has a good value add for us because we can increase the speed of adoption and help get users to value faster, which is great for us. And also, users are, you know, they're busy. They're impatient, and they want to understand what value they're going to get before they spend lots more of their time. So that's going to be useful for us and them. And yeah, helping to interpret the data. So, they'll connect us to their source systems. We'll be able to interpret what's going on, help them to understand different options and scenarios about how things might play out in the future. Basically, AI will help us to draw our insights that we can present to the user, will help explain what the user is looking at when they're looking at the model, so we can summarize some of the key insights so that they can use that. We're expecting to have all sorts of users, but we're really focusing on really busy leaders who may have a good understanding of spreadsheets and data, but they're just too busy, and so they don't have time. So, they want something which is quick and easy. Or leaders who don't have that expertise, so those are the ones that we really cater for. We try and keep it really simple and help guide them through the process, et cetera. So that's where AI is going to be, like, that digital business AI...We kind of kind of talk about this AI business coach concept. And, over time, we'll build up more and more elements to that coach capability. We call him Anton in our team when we talk. We'll add more and more capabilities to him. But we've built a number of different POCs. And we've launched a couple of those with some customers. We've been out to events and showing off these new capabilities to basically test them out, understand what's working, what's not. What more do we need to think about to productionize this proof of concept? So that's, yeah, it's a very exciting time to be working on those things. VICTORIA: I love hearing about that. That's super interesting to see where it's going to go. So, my last question for you today is, is there anything else that you would like to promote? SIMON: I think I would just say, yeah, if you're a leader running a business or maybe it's a service business, and you're trying to think about, you know, when hiring business planning, financial planning, anything like that, then I'd love for you to come over to Blox, and you can jump straight into the product from our website. You can sign up. I absolutely love chatting to people about their businesses and what they're trying to do with their finances. So, if you want to do that, you can sign up. You can chat to us. I actually take a lot of time to respond to people in there, so yeah, if you want to do that. Or, if you can, also find me on LinkedIn. You can search me there. Just strike up a conversation and say, "Hey, Simon, I'd love to chat about financial roadmapping or finance planning." Yeah, I absolutely just love to speak to different leaders that work right across the business in different roles and see how we can help them to build a business that really unlock the potential that they have in their business through a great understanding of finances. So, yeah, if I can be of help, I would love that. VICTORIA: Wonderful. And we'll have all those links in the show notes so our audience can go and take a look. WILL: You can subscribe to the show and find notes along with a complete transcript for this episode at giantrobots.fm. If you have questions or comments, email us at hosts@giantrobots.fm. You can find me on Twitter @will23larry. VICTORIA: And you can find me on Twitter @victori_ousg. This podcast is brought to you by thoughtbot and produced and edited by Mandy Moore. Thanks for listening. See you next time. ANNOUNCER: This podcast is brought to you by thoughtbot, your expert strategy, design, development, and product management partner. We bring digital products from idea to success and teach you how because we care. Learn more at thoughtbot.com. Special Guest: Simon Ritchie.

Ladies and gentlemen, let's get ready to modelll! Broadcast on ESPN, watched by tens of thousands of people around the world, and featured across CNN,BBC, ITV, and The Atlantic, the Financial Modeling World Cup (FMWC) is the hottest esport on the planet. If you ever wanted to apply for the Excel Modeling World Cup against top stars, feature on ESPN, or wonder if you have what it takes, this is the must-listen to episode of the year.  Chief Operating Officer of the FMWC, Maksims Sičs reveals the inside story of how the “Excel World Cup” was started and the success story ever since. Maksims Sičs is himself an expert in Corporate Finance advising customers on financial planning and analysis at companies including AG Capital, and PNB Banka. In this episode Maksims reveals: How the Financial Modeling World cup started The success of the sport in creating a global Excel community How a little help from Microsoft helped FMWC get broadcast on ESPN  The glory: the prize fund for winning and being an Excel world champion stands at $30,000 jackpot and a trip to Las Vegas  The pain: how one competitor tried to do the final stage in VBA and his Excel crashed five minutes before the final How to enter the tournament for only  $20 ticket  How good do you need to be to enter the competition?  How a competitor called the Excel Wizard Bo Rydobon managed to complete cases in 2 minutes through dynamic arrays  Helping SME business with finance  in his (second) day job  Why FP&A provides “light in the darkness” for a business  Enter the Financial Modeling World Cup YouTube video of the episode Follow Paul Barnhurst on LinkedIn  Follow Datarails on LinkedIn

For most veterans, starting a VA Disability claim or finding out the benefits you're eligible for is daunting. There are a lot of moving parts, information, and nuances in almost every aspect of the process. It's hard to know where to put your first step.  In this episode, Dr. Paul Lawrence is back to break down what you need to know about filing or refiling for disability benefits, how the VA and VSOs help in the process and the other benefits you should take advantage of.  Paul is a businessman, author, and passionate Veteran advocate. He has 35 years of experience solving management problems in large, complex organizations. As a private sector executive, he was a consulting Partner at two Big-Four accounting firms and a Vice President in two Fortune 500 companies.  For almost three years, Lawrence served as Under Secretary of Benefits at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, unanimously confirmed by the Senate on April 26, 2018. As Under Secretary, he was in charge of the Veteran's Benefits Administration (VBA) leading a team of 25,000 people with an operating budget of $4 billion, administering $120 billion in benefits annually. He implemented proven business practices, streamlined the bureaucracy, and created a public presence rebranding VBA as an organization successfully supporting Veterans. The show notes can be found here: https://laceylangford.com/podcast/Veteran-Disability-and-Other-Benefits

FULL SHOW NOTES:  https://podcast.nz365guy.com/460 Discussion about the separation of Dynamics 365 and the creation of Dataverse, enabling app and automation development at scale. Keith shares his perspective on the initial challenges and how the platform has evolved since then. Keith's own experience and journey on the Power Platform and gain insights into his current role in app development. Keith shares his experience working with CDS version one and the transition to the current Dataverse. The role of the COE in enabling these app makers and promoting excellence within the Power Platform.Keith highlights the significant overlap between Power Apps and Excel. He also points out about Excel's capabilities are available in Power Apps, with no support for macros. Keith discusses the challenges of configuring and deploying automated architectural pipelines for Power Apps, emphasizing the need for extensive meetings and discussions rather than the actual technical configuration. Keith compares his experience with VBA in Excel, where he could perform tasks like screen scraping, handling cookies, and implementing RPA-like automation. Discover how Excel, Access Databases, and Fox Pro systems emerged as makeshift solutions within organizations to meet specific needs when IT products were unavailable. Keith emphasized Power Apps' power to streamline processes, automate tasks, and unlock opportunities, but it requires careful configuration and deployment planning. Keith explains the benefits of building an ecosystem on top of a data platform like DataVerse. The importance of education and comparison when evaluating technology options. Talks about the challenge of adapting to changing roles and skill sets within IT organizations. AgileXRM AgileXRm - The integrated BPM for Microsoft Power PlatformSupport the showIf you want to get in touch with me, you can message me here on Linkedin.Thanks for listening

The Veterans Benefits Administration is looking to accelerate its use of automation tools this summer to keep pace with its workload and break new records on the number of claims it can process in a year.VBA officials told members of the House Veterans Affairs Committee that increased automation stands out as a key part of the agency's five-year modernization plan.Raymond Tellez, VA's acting assistant deputy under secretary for automated benefits delivery, told lawmakers on Wednesday that VBA, as part of its five-year modernization plan, is piloting automation technology to help decrease the time it takes to process claims. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoicesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

The Veterans Benefits Administration is looking to accelerate its use of automation tools this summer to keep pace with its workload and break new records on the number of claims it can process in a year. VBA officials told members of the House Veterans Affairs Committee that increased automation stands out as a key part of the agency's five-year modernization plan. Raymond Tellez, VA's acting assistant deputy under secretary for automated benefits delivery, told lawmakers on Wednesday that VBA, as part of its five-year modernization plan, is piloting automation technology to help decrease the time it takes to process claims. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We are nationwide VA-Accredited Disability Lawyers helping veterans get the rightful benefits they deserve. Tune in most Wednesdays (sometimes Thursdays) afternoon to get answers for your pressing disability questions LIVE. For a FREE Case Evaluation go here: https://www.hillandponton.com/free-ca... Visit our website at https://www.hillandponton.com/?utm_so... Like us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/HillandPonton For questions please email us at Info@hillandponton.com Speaker: Attorney Carol Ponton Agent Kerry Baker The content of this YouTube channel is provided for informational purposes only and is not intended to constitute legal advice. You should not rely upon any information contained on this YouTube channel for legal advice. Viewing this YouTube channel is not intended to and shall not create an attorney-client relationship between you and Hill and Ponton, PA. Messages or other forms of communication that you transmit to this YouTube channel will not create an attorney-client relationship and thus information contained in such communications may not be protected as privileged. Hill and Ponton, PA does not make any representation, warranty, or guarantee about the accuracy of the information contained in this YouTube channel or in links to other YouTube channels or websites. This YouTube channel is provided "as is," does not represent that any outcome or result from the viewing of this channel. Your use viewing of this YouTube channel is at your own risk. You enjoy this YouTube channel and its contents only for personal, non-commercial purposes. Neither Hill and Ponton, PA, nor anyone acting on their behalf, will be liable under any circumstances for damages of any kind. 00:00 - Intro 00:30 - The examiner changed the code of my S-C Mechanical back to Lumbo Strain. W ill that help with my DDD & Scoliosis get approved? 03:27 - Rating LTR has errors - Mild Radiculopathy (10%) instead of moderately severe. Take to an HLR to correct or not? 05:20 - 2nd error. I saw an issue of IU raised by VRO to CP but no reply or wrong answer to question? Is this a raised by the record issue? 06:41 - I went to a Burn Pit Examination and the examiner advised me to put in a claim for RLS due to Gulf War Illness. 09:14 - Submitted for Anxiety and major Depressive, SVC connected migraine 12:38 - If an appeal is remained back is that a good thing? Or is it best for the VBA to give a decision? 16:13 - What's the difference between an AMA claim and a Legacy claim? 28:55 - Their decision said it's P&T so they have not scheduled me for any more C&P's. If corrected would that be considered a medical sep/retirement? 52:47 - If C&P MD examiner confirms SC but the rater decided not to agree because of conflicting info in medical records. HLR in order? 53:40 - How does one get a copy of their Army Medical Records? From 1968/69. 54:19 - I have my 3 claims denied without going to C&P. The list of evidence listed on the Letter of Decision was different from what's uploaded to VA page. 56:19 - Buddy who served in Vietnam but his records were destroyed in the fire. His DD 214 only says he was deployed to Okinawa. 1:00:18 - Also can you explain what “duty to assist” means? 1:04:34 - Are you seeing cases of CKD, Neuropathy, and Afib related to JP5 in drinking water on carriers? 1:07:56 - Can a review result in an increase or decrease to an existing claim?

Overwhelmed by the process of filing a Fully Developed VA Claim? The VA Claim Process is complicated. We get it. Today, VA Claims Insider is going to share with you some secrets of the VA rating system, including the benefits of a Fully Developed VA Claim. Let's face it. Most Veterans have no idea how to claim the compensation they deserve after discharge from the Military. When they do apply for disability, there's the obstacle of just filing a simple claim. An FDC claim is determined appropriate for the following: – Service connection (SC) initial – Increased evaluation – A claim for Permanent and Total (P&T) rating The form accepted by the VA for an FDC claim is VBA-21-526ez. Checking the box “Fully Developed VA Claim” indicates what type of claim you are filing. Unfortunately, there is no “exact” timeline when it comes to FDC claims. However, we have seen these claims come back in a week. Stay the course, and remember the more pertinent information you can deliver the easier it makes the VA rater's life. Do You Need VA Claim Help? WE'RE THE EXPERTS! If you need some help with your VA disability claim, join VA Claims Insider Elite TODAY and get started on your VA disability claim for FREE: https://vaclaimsinsider.com/elite-membership/ ***Audio Timestamps*** ⏩ 00:00 VA Claims Insider Introduction  ⏩ 12:20 What is a Fully Developed Claim? ⏩ 14:48 Factors That Affect How Long The VA Takes to Process Your Claim ⏩ 24:32 Recap: What You Need For a FULLY Developed Claim ⏩ 28:22 FREE EBOOK: YOU DESERVE IT ⏩ 29:57 Questions Answered by VA Claim Experts ⏩ 59:19 Need VA Disability Claim Help?

VBA Maldoc and UTF7 (APT-C-35) https://isc.sans.edu/diary/VBA+Maldoc+%26+UTF7+%28APT-C-35%29/28946 Disrupting SEABORGIUM's Ongoing Phishing Operations https://www.microsoft.com/security/blog/2022/08/15/disrupting-seaborgiums-ongoing-phishing-operations/ UWB Real Time Location Systems: How Secure Radio Communcations May Fail in Practice.

VBA Maldoc and UTF7 (APT-C-35) https://isc.sans.edu/diary/VBA+Maldoc+%26+UTF7+%28APT-C-35%29/28946 Disrupting SEABORGIUM's Ongoing Phishing Operations https://www.microsoft.com/security/blog/2022/08/15/disrupting-seaborgiums-ongoing-phishing-operations/ UWB Real Time Location Systems: How Secure Radio Communcations May Fail in Practice.

Earnings Learnings 2022, Windows 11 22H2 review, Sound Schemes Microsoft earnings Microsoft reported that it earned a net income of $16.7 billion on revenues of $51.87 billion in the quarter ending June 30.  Microsoft discloses Teams usage numbers. This was the first time MSFT has missed on earnings since 2016 - and it adjusted its guidance in June too. Windows 11 Paul reviewed Windows 11 22H2 and found lots of little improvements... but also little in the way of addressing feedback.  Also, let's recap the new servicing and Windows 12 rumors. Windows 10 22H2 is also coming with no new features. Microsoft Edge adds disk caching compression with v102. Microsoft 365 Microsoft now blocks external VBA macros by default. Ignite is coming October 12-14. It's a hybrid event with a few in-person venues worldwide. Dev The next .NET Conf will focus on .NET MAUI Power Platform now has over 7 million MAUs  Xbox Microsoft speeds Xbox Series X|S boot time by 5 seconds. Tips and picks Tip of the week: Get to Sound schemes as quickly as possible App pick of the week: iA Writer Enterprise pick of the week: Windows 11 onboarding and deployment kits Enterprise pick No. 2 of the week: Office 2016 and 2019 users: Mark your calendars Beer Pick of the week: Hill Farmstead Charlie Hosts: Leo Laporte, Mary Jo Foley, and Paul Thurrott Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly Get episodes ad-free with Club TWiT at https://twit.tv/clubtwit Check out Paul's blog at thurrott.com Check out Mary Jo's blog at AllAboutMicrosoft.com The Windows Weekly theme music is courtesy of Carl Franklin. Sponsors: tanium.com/twit newrelic.com/windows itpro.tv/windows use code WW30