Podcasts about What Where

Altitude Sports Radio 92.5 presents Altitude After Dark! AAD brings you through all things Broncos, gives you the best reactions, and gets you set for what's to come in the Broncos near and distant future. You can catch Altitude After Dark every Thursday and Sunday at 8pm MT. Tonight, AAD talks about the "other stuff" that could help the Broncos maintain their momentum. Initial Reaction: DMac and Coach Sanford discuss what life is like through the lense of a win or loss vs the LA Chargers! Are the Broncos entering must win territory? The conversation carries on as they discuss Jim Harbaugh and Justin Herbert and how the Chargers were built to win a grind it out game! What/Where are the Broncos expectations right now?Can CU beat KSU? The guys breakdown what a win for CU could mean for their future and season! 

In this episode: courage from community, what to do next, overwhelm, finding community, and the evolution of FI. Live from the EconoMe Conference in Cincinati Ohio, Brad is joined by Jordan "Doc G" Grumet and a room full of passionate members of our community to discuss finding the courage to take action in your FI journey. While we understand money can be a north-star for many early in your venture towards FI, what happens once money is no longer the root of your goals? Where do you shift your focus to next? Well, sometimes finding answers to these questions is a little easier when you have help from some of your friends. Listen along as Jordan, Brad and our community speculate on their ideas for what their next steps are. Doc G: Website: earnandinvest.com Podcast: The Earn and Invest Podcast Timestamps: 0:41 - Introduction 1:41 - Courage From Community 7:40 - Roger and What To Do Next? 20:31 - Allison and Finding Community 30:15 - What/Where is the Overwhelm 34:49 - The Evolution of FI/Being The Change You Want To See 41:11 - Reconciling With Social Responsibilities 44:34 - Charitable Giving 47:21 - Interacting Outside of The Community 51:55 - Conclusion Resources Mentioned In Today's Episode: Retire Often FI Freedom Retreat Mr Money Mustache CampFI FinCon "Die With Zero: Getting All You Can from Your Money and Your Life" by Bill Perkins Josh Overmeyer EconoMe Alan Donegan Find Your Local ChooseFI Group Effective Giving for the FI Community | Rebecca Herbst & Jack Lewars | ChooseFI Ep 483 Subscribe to The FI Weekly! More Helpful Links and FI Resources: Top 10 Recommended Travel Rewards Credit Cards Empower: Free Dashboard to Track Your Finances CIT Bank Platinum Savings Account M1 Finance: Commission-Free Investing, 1-click rebalancing CashFreely: Maximize Your Cash Back Rewards Travel Freely: Track all your rewards cards and points Emergency Binder: For Your Family's Essential Info (code ‘CHOOSEFI' for 20% off) Student Loan Planner: Custom Consult (with $100 Discount) Get a cheaper phone plan with Mint Mobile

Wherein your host, Steve Sisson, marks the return of the podcast from a three year hiatus. This episode reintroduces the new reboot of the Running on Purpose with a Who, What Where, When & Why for this return. It's been a long time coin', but Sisson is BAAAA-AAACCCKKKK!

For the first time, we have a multi-guest appearance to deliver an organic, insight-driven discussion.Today's episode shakes up the format a bit, but I promise it'll be full of big ideas and even BIGGER takeaways you can use in your business.First, there's Patrice Kelly, Chief Creative Officer at Snappy Kraken.She's been the strategic driving force behind Snappy Kraken's branding and an award-winning designer behind their marketing campaigns.Also, welcome back, Andrew Davis. He's a best-selling author & keynote speaker who's built and sold a digital marketing agency, produced for NBC, and has even worked for The Muppets. Andrew and Patrice will share the spotlight in a conversation about the importance of design and creativity to get the RIGHT attention, how being true to yourself leads to greater success, and why design should be a part of your story from day one.We Explore: Why it's better to start with “One Big Idea” than to start small and build on it. How to celebrate being different without feeling uncomfortable in your industry. What “Where's Waldo” teaches financial advisors about how to stand out and get noticed. Understanding the subconscious behavior of “Twinning” and how you can avoid it. And the one strategy Patrice & Andrew want you to steal that will help you overcome the hesitancy of taking risks. Links to Check Out: Andrew's Website Patrice's Award-Winning Marketing Campaigns Ling's Cars Andrew's YouTube Channel

We are down to our last 3 episodes for this year and as promised, we will bring you topics that will be beneficial for you and will make you consider and excited about next year. So Today, I have with me no other than my co-host, Carlos Alvarez to help me dive into a topic that is dear for both of us as we are both embarking on this journey of sourcing in the US. Since the topic is sourcing and manufacturing in the US, this is not to encourage you to ditch your China manufacturing but to give you insights, options, and possibilities. And you're looking into it, we have some tips for you on where to start.  So, to get you started and heated, we share the pros and cons, the price difference, the lead time, inventory projections and inspection aspects for both the US and China. So, dive in with us or many cheers us on on our journey.  In This Episode: [00:25] Today's topic and why [02:19] The pros and cons of manufacturing in the US vs. in China. [12;29] How does the lead time look like in the US vs. China. [16:35] Top 3 mistakes of people transitioning from China manufacturing to the US. [19:05] Inspection in the US. [21:19] Inventory projections. [27:50] Price difference between China and US sourcing. [36:55] Types of products you can source in the US. [37:50] What/Where will be your starting spot?   Links and References: Wizards of Amazon: https://www.wizardsofecom.com/ Wizards of Amazon Courses: https://wizardsofamazon.mykajabi.com/a/27566/x6Kwkz6p Wizards of Amazon Meetup: https://www.meetup.com/South-Florida-FBA/ Wizards of Amazon on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/WizardsofAmazon/ Wizards of Amazon on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wizardsofecom/

Guest: Bill Deane, Investigative Journalist, speaker, and best selling author of "Smooth Criminal, a One Man American Crime Wave." Bill's best-selling book exposes the consequences of our government freeing prisoners to carry out dangerous assignments. His expertise includes criminal behaviors, law enforcement (CIA, FBI, police, Justice Department), and the consequences of extreme secrecy (innocent American citizens's lives ruined). Bill is a professional on-air broadcaster, capable of telling a vital story in an info-tainment manner. A former major market anchor, news director, and network news assignment editor, Bill is an excellent radio guest. He is currently speaking on broadcast news history. You are also invited to check Bill's blog: www.OurMissingNews.com for daily updates that go beyond the What/Where to get into the How/Why. Bill Deane, Investigative Reporter Expert Will discuss.......•The CIA and its relationship with other law enforcement agencies, such as the FBI, local police, and the Justice Department •The invisible government •Why we aren't getting the real news •Ten ways to identify a con artist •Ten ways to avoid theft and robbery. Bill Deane Credentials•Investigative journalist, IRE •30 years as a network news assignment editor •major market news anchor and news director •demographic researcher •public speaker, national narrations and voiceovers •top 40 DJ •speech teacher •radio and TV producer of 7-hour 600 slide, 40 movie presentation •writer, author of one of this year's best sellers, Smooth Criminal, a One Man American Crime Wave.

Guest: Bill Deane, Investigative Journalist, speaker, and best selling author of "Smooth Criminal, a One Man American Crime Wave." Bill's best-selling book exposes the consequences of our government freeing prisoners to carry out dangerous assignments. His expertise includes criminal behaviors, law enforcement (CIA, FBI, police, Justice Department), and the consequences of extreme secrecy (innocent American citizens's lives ruined). Bill is a professional on-air broadcaster, capable of telling a vital story in an info-tainment manner. A former major market anchor, news director, and network news assignment editor, Bill is an excellent radio guest. He is currently speaking on broadcast news history. You are also invited to check Bill's blog: www.OurMissingNews.com for daily updates that go beyond the What/Where to get into the How/Why. Bill Deane, Investigative Reporter Expert Will discuss....... •The CIA and its relationship with other law enforcement agencies, such as the FBI, local police, and the Justice Department •The invisible government •Why we aren't getting the real news •Ten ways to identify a con artist •Ten ways to avoid theft and robbery. Bill Deane Credentials •Investigative journalist, IRE •30 years as a network news assignment editor •major market news anchor and news director •demographic researcher •public speaker, national narrations and voiceovers •top 40 DJ •speech teacher •radio and TV producer of 7-hour 600 slide, 40 movie presentation •writer, author of one of this year's best sellers, Smooth Criminal, a One Man American Crime Wave.

Episode 202:  Kingdom: Ashin of the North (Discussion): Yari y KC  "Negro" discutieron  sobre Kingdom : Ashin of the North pelicula de Netflix prequela a la serie explicando como empezo todo: como , donde y por que se crearon los zombies en Joseon.  #kingdomashinofthenorth #netflix #zombies Episodio 202: Kingdom: Ashin of the North (Discucion): Yari & KC" Negro" discuss about Kingdom: Ashin of the North Netflix Film  which is a prequel to series explaining: the What Where and Why's   and how the zombies were created. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/comicsanimefilment/support

A mishnah with 3 cases of non-kosher sukkahs. And then the Gemara needs to figure out why all 3 cases are necessary. Also, some narrative about the sages having their discussions on the halakhot of sukkah, and the talk that happens around learning. Plus, What's What (Where's Where?) on the yeshivot of Sura, Nehardea, and more.

EPISODE 8:  Whodunnit?!  The moment of truth has finally arrived at Tabard Lake!  Chauncy wants to reveal Allyce's killer, but there are too many possibilities to choose just one. So you, dear listener, get to pick your poison!  Listen to one, two or all three endings before you decide whodunnit. And then . . . hold on to your hat for the final curtain, a Sin so Secret it has to be for your ears only.   8C    "Get A Clue!" Chauncy reveals exactly Who did What Where with the Body.  Hint: it's not Colonel Mustard! Support this podcast

Connect with Adam Walton on his website here: https://thementalmasteryalliance.com/ Brandon Handley 0:00 4321 Hey there Spiritual Dope, this is your host with the most the voice of a generation. Brandon Handley. And I'm on today with the Adam Walton. Adam. What are you running these days? Man? What Where should I? You know, even if I just say it, I think the I know you best is the mental mastery, but I believe you're the mental mastery Alliance now. Adam Walton 0:26 I've always been the mental mastery Alliance. Brandon Handley 0:30 So there you go. You know, I know Adam as he's one of my first coaches, Adams actually the person that gave me that line that I that I just threw out at the beginning, they're the the voice of a generation without Adam. You would not have the voice of a generation does know that. I think he did that. Right. Adam Walton 0:48 I did kind of know that. Yeah. But I mean, the reality is, they would have the voice of a generation because my friend, you still exist. And you were partially there, I just figured why not glorified. And that, that's, it's it's 100%. Sure, like you really have to envision what you want. And just like anyone that's getting started in anything that's new, it's really hard to believe in yourself. So when you start announcing yourself as the voice of a generation, you live up to your monitors, you really step into that power. So it's not like you have to, you know, slow it down or play small, you know, when you are the voice of a generation, which you currently are right now. You stepped right into it. Brandon Handley 1:30 I love it. I always like to say that. And I it's funny, every time I say this, I always expect somebody to send something to me. But nobody's ever said that I can't be the voice of a generation. Adam Walton 1:41 Right? You've also never specified which generation so all the haters can beat Brandon Handley 1:46 the hell out. So I usually like to start this with a phone one, right? The The idea is that the universe, God, whatever speaks through us, right? And somebody listening to this podcast right now is going to get a message that can only be delivered through source through Adam Walton to them, what does that message, do more. Adam Walton 2:12 Simply put, do more, no matter what you're doing right now do more. And that's that's the one piece of advice that will get you from where you are to where you need to be. If you there's there's a there's a statement, when you have a job, when you work for somebody, when somebody is hired you to complete their tasks. always deliver more than is expected. And when you do that, you change the way you operate. sequentially, you change the way you operate mentally, you change the way you operate physically and spiritually. If you're saying I am tasked to do this thing, then that is the limitation you put on yourself, that is what you will do. And you will do a basic job of it. When you do more than is expected. Unknown Speaker 3:00 You'll always amplify. Adam Walton 3:04 In other words, your tasks, you'll amplify your output. And when you amplify your output, you feel it internally. So without trying to seek praise from anyone or anything anywhere, other than how you feel about yourself, always do more. Brandon Handley 3:25 I mean, I think it's pretty, it's pretty powerful message. how, Adam Walton 3:28 you know, what's a good example of that? Because I think that I know that for myself. You know, historically, it's like do more as I do more of what, how right? What would you tell somebody do more looks like? Just like you said, do more of what and how if you're going to take up the moniker of doing more. And then you ask yourself, what more can I do? Well, now you've got an you know, you've got to give yourself an answer. And when you do you execute on doing more so simply by asking the question you have effectively done more. Also, when you're on that line of thought, you have the ability to to create more. And there are so many times and I'll tell you this just like the more you try to push in anything and the more you try to do something positive you're gonna get you're you know, you're gonna get a pushback, a naysayer, anything. Because if you're if you've decided at this moment in time that you're going to step into your purpose, for example, know that if you've not started this journey, you are starting from the beginning. But the beginning is a little bit into the race and into the race, you're still in the crowd. And that crowd is of people you joined a race with that wasn't your race to begin with. So the people that will say the negative things or the people that will get inside your mind are the people you associated with before you became I would say aware before you became self aware before you became spiritually aware before you started this journey at all. On this path, on this journey, you are going to unload these people one by one, so that you can make room for the new people that are in this journey on this path with Unknown Speaker 5:11 you. Adam Walton 5:12 It's not a good thing. It's not a bad thing. It is merely an experience. So embrace all of the negativity, embrace all of the uncertainty because it is those uncertain moments that is those negative moments that create the positive view. Five years from now, one year from now next week. Brandon Handley 5:31 Yes, sure. I mean, you can look at any event or an experience is coming into your life right now. As a negative right now, like, you know, you say, hey, this negative is COVID, right? You just had whichever you gallbladder taken out, whichever. Unknown Speaker 5:46 My gallbladder tried to kill me, right? Yes, Brandon Handley 5:50 yeah. And and I think, if you were telling me, you know, you we connected a couple weeks back, and he said that he just came out of hospital. And I think I asked you, I said, Well, you know, were you it was your back? You? Weren't you laid out for about a year or so with your back as well. Correct? Yeah. Adam Walton 6:06 So what what happened with me on that on that the back part was when I really stepped into my purpose, the world without my own desire, or anything slowed me down, basically put me in bed for a year. That gives you time to think. Brandon Handley 6:25 So does, you know, but talk to me a little bit about going through that. And before we even got fired up here, I think, you know, when you and I first connected, I wouldn't have put you, I think in the spiritual journey space. You may have been on your way, right. But somewhere along the way, you and I both kind of started sprinting or running towards this spirituality bit. Where did you get like this kind of fever, the bite Adam Walton 7:01 when you and I first met, I wasn't allowed to be myself based on contracts negotiated at the time I was a entity of another unit. So my spirituality started, my spirituality started when I was born. I never fit in, I was never part of the third dimension, I was never somebody who looked at something and agreed with the television agreed with the narrative agreed with getting a job, I questioned everything since birth. And it's been referred to as a fourth dimensional entity, I arrived here as a fourth dimensional entity. You don't know what that means, obviously, because when you live in the third dimension, you have to look at all this shit, that doesn't make any sense. But you have to look at it all. Now, when you and I crossed paths, I was living my best life. As a sales coach. And as somebody who had the ability to see into people's souls, I utilize both skills. Coaching was coming naturally, next, and the dark night of the soul is the main thing that pushes people into the next reality. I've gone through probably about four of them in the past three years, where I've been forced to deal with myself. So when you step into purpose, when you step into your ascension, your light your journey, your reason for being here, a lot of other bullshit disappears. A lot of stuff that that is not necessarily goes away. And what I find entertaining about that moment is everybody has this preconceived notion of what a spiritual person is. And I don't live up to any of those preconceived notions. I come from a very cruel background, I come from a ruthless background, to be honest. And it's been said that you need to be capable of evil, to be able to spread positivity to be able to be capable of pure positivity, because anyone can be nice. But to be capable, and understanding there must be a contrast. So anyone can be something but if you're truly capable of evil, and you choose against it, or you learn from it, and it creates a new, then that's an entirely different state than saying, I believe that we should all be a certain thing. That's a very controversial statement. If you want me to unpack it more I can. But for the most part, there's one meme that I absolutely adore. And it says, Don't let the spirituality confuse you. You know, there's gangsta under here, and a lot of people Brandon Handley 9:43 100% 100%. Right. Like, I mean, I don't know that. I think the contrast is necessary. Right? You know, I wouldn't say personally, I look from from my vantage point, I wouldn't say I'd have to know you have to know evil. To know good, right. You do, because at the same time, you have to know, you have to know. Adam Walton 10:05 And this is a really valid point, because you have to know light to understand darkness. So on that note, when I say you have to know evil, I'm not saying that everyone's evil, but I am saying that the most spiritually enlightened people I've ever met, have lived through some shit. Brandon Handley 10:22 Sure. Look, man. There's no doubt right. Like, I don't I don't think that I don't think that I'm bringing my personal take is I don't think that. Again, there's no preconceived notion, right? It comes from anywhere, you can get it anywhere you get it, like it can happen in any way. Right. And that's the beauty of it. So I definitely appreciate Adam Walton 10:43 up right on that one. Brandon Handley 10:44 Yeah, yeah. I appreciate your journey. Right. So I mean, you know, tell us a little bit about like, let's talk a little bit about like this, you know, as the Adam Walton that I met, right, the Adam Walton that I first met him as his coach life coach. You know, the story is, you know, you've had some success, you know, throughout your life, you built it all on your own. And then, you know, the atom, the atom Walton I first met, even though it was a kind of a package deal. To me, it seemed, you know, seemed genuine. Right. Seemed always, yeah, always genuine. Yeah, always genuine. But the atomwaffen that I feel like I know, now is just more expansive, shall we say? Right. And I think that that's a good phrase for it. Right? There's a different, you know, you said fourth dimension, no being and I think that there is there there multiple new dimensions about you. So let's talk about like that transition over the past, like three years and what's happened. Adam Walton 11:47 Berbick, the, you know, when I was when I was referring to earlier, it leads into this, you know, when you when you find, when you find when we were Okay, so, when I was talking about evil, you know, evil versus good. Again, the contrast, every single thing is contrast, you know, you don't know heat Unless, you know, cold, you don't know, light unless you know, dark, the Yin to the Yang, this idea of who you are at any given moment is only compared to who you were. And when you are somebody who, you know, has gone through certain experiences and has been talked to and dealt with a certain way, you have certain notions of who you are. And based on that, you have certain notions of where you think you can go. spirituality and how it compounds is, by taking those extremes, my journey, specifically not, you know, everybody's got a different path. But my journey specifically was taking those extremes and experiences and viewing them as teaching moments, rather than painful experiences that I wish I'd never lived. You know, if I go back through my life, and if I go back through my experiences, every last one of them formed who I am, and who I am is amazing right now. But nowhere near where I'm going to be in 10 years, and where I'm going to be attending. And that's not me to to my own horn, I'm not trying to impress anybody, I'm not trying to do anything, I am just simply on a journey for myself. And we're in before it was always nice to you know, do this, you know, be kind to others, and all that sort of stuff. And you think to yourself, it's a good idea to, you know, be kind to other people, for other people. And you're but you're being bombarded with it right now in the media, which is, you know, wear a mask for other people get vaccinated for other people, you know, nobody's really questioning the fact that all of this stuff needs to be done for you. And if you raise that point, then you're selfish. And it's interesting that the entirety of the world has decided that we need to think of other people as opposed to focusing in on who we are, and what we're capable of. Because first and foremost, with regards to the vaccines and the masks, if you're not wearing a mask, my mask doesn't work is such bullshit. If you're not going to wear a mask, and and people in old age Homes is going to die again, bullshit, right? Everything has its own purpose. If I were to walk into an old age home, I would mask up, right, but for me to not be able to have my friends over. And then and then and then be able to go to Costco, you know, two totally different things. And I'm speaking on this because this is the grand awakening. What we're seeing right now is the veil being pulled. What we're seeing right now is the holes in the story. So every single thing that's ever taken place in my life, is now being compared to what's happening in the sandbox is not being compared to what's happening in the ethos of the realm in which we're all inhabiting. So I am now able to compare my life story to what's being offered to me to the experience that we're all collectively having, collectively having a unique experience, which is a very interesting thing that a lot of people can't wrap their minds around. And that's because they're all tied into each other. The third dimension you're all tied into one another as opposed to experiencing individuality inside the culture. If you're a Star Trek fan, just picture Seven of Nine, or whew, if you want to go right back to the Star Trek, the next generation, phenomenal things, there's a lot of stuff in Star Trek, actually, they talked about the Dyson sphere as well, fantastic, completely different episodes. But when it comes down to your spirituality, you are experiencing this world in this realm. Unknown Speaker 15:21 With your background, Adam Walton 15:24 therefore, your background and my background are entirely different. I'm not better than you, you are not better than me, a man who is born into money, you know, to a poor man, seems like he's got it all. But he's got his own problems. A man who was born with nothing and no legs, or what have you, whatever it is, you know, he's got his experiences, and for you to be like, Oh, poor him, that's you, implying your experiences onto him. Therefore, you're forcing him to play inside your ethos. It's an interesting reality, to understand that we are here to experience individually, the collective, and you start off inside the collective as is your experience for comparison. The only way you can break out of the collective is to understand that exists, the only way you can understand it exists is for it to exist, which then brings back good and evil, if evil is being perpetrated to wake you out of the collective consciousness, and it's an agreed upon contract, ie soul contracts, something that people can walk into, is evil, actually evil? Or is the act of evil good, because its end result is for you. Now, that's a huge debate. Everybody can have their arguments and their and their competitive thing. Perfect, but it's a topic that nobody discusses. We look at evil and good as black and white. And it certainly is not. Brandon Handley 16:52 I mean, look, I like it, right? Do you gotta have any hero's journey, you gotta have the antagonist, right to something's, there's got to be some type of catalyst, there's got to be some type of obstacle to overcome, right? In order to flourish. Just like, you know, cheese goes, I listened to this morning. I forget what it was exactly I was listening to this morning. But you know, think of a walnut shell, right? I mean, that for that tree to express its life, it's got to do battle with that shell, right? It's got it's got to penetrate and get out of that shell, it's got to reach for the light. And then it's gotta, you know, then it's got to reach to the ground. And first of all, it's got to know what's inside of show. Look, I mean, it's just gotta it's already knows that's, that's the that's always the beauty. Right? You know, the rest of nature outside of human beings, right? A tree trees, a dog dogs, humans were like, What the fuck is going on? Right. So, you know, and I enjoy, I enjoy your perspective. So what I mean, just talk a little bit about what led you there again, so I mean, your your, your Adam, you know, the, you know, I wouldn't call it like pre spiritually, you know, the pre awakened, Adam, I guess we could have, right. You know, and how do you slip into this space? Adam Walton 18:09 It wasn't, it wasn't any one thing. Obviously, it was a collection of things. And like I said earlier, you know, being born fourth dimensional, it sounds Jujuy. But at the end of the day, I always viewed things differently. So when I was able to not think I was crazy for viewing things differently. And when I was able to see that the society was trying to give me ADHD, and this and anything, for me to understand why I was so good at sales. For me to understand why I understood what people needed, I had to dig deeper into myself. And to do so I encountered more answers to the questions I was asking the questions were changing, the answers were changing, and they were leading to more questions. The more questions that were being answered, the more questions I had. And then when you stop living, fourth dimensional, third dimensional and you start living fifth dimensional, it is a shift, you go back and forth. You can visit the world, fifth dimensionally, so you can see it but you can't live there because it doesn't make sense because this is where you're going. It's not where you've been. And it's not anything like where you where you've been. fifth dimensional living is understanding and when you can understand certain things, a lot of shit just goes away. And when that shit goes away, you have so much more room inside yourself to embrace new things. You stop worrying about am I going to live Am I going to die? What if I crash? What if I this What if I don't make any money? What if it doesn't work out? What if it does work out? What if I do this? What if I do that? When all of those noises leave your head? You can amplify everything that you're doing at the moment that you're doing it. Unknown Speaker 19:49 How did I get there? Adam Walton 19:52 Honestly, I would have to say the leaps all came from Dark Nights of the soul all came from going toe to toe with what I believe To be true, entering painful moments, the back putting me in bed. You know, when you when you're sleep deprived for over a month, and you are faced with chronic pain, you ask certain questions, you change the way you do things. And when you're when you come face to face with your inner demons, whether you want to or not, when you're in that much pain for that long physically, there are people that you meet inside your mind. Dark Nights of the soul also come from smaller experiences also come from putting yourself out also come from you allowing yourself to have that experience. And collectively right now the universe is going through a dark night of the soul. And you're seeing an awakening to the illusion. Some of us are some of us aren't, you know, and there's a lot of questions, I have a lot more questions about where we are now than I did. Before, you know, before you see what's what's what's, you know, the world the game that we're playing, because, because it's phenomenal. So my spiritual journey is is just beginning. I am growing exponentially, I have changed my focus, I no longer need or want what I used to want. Now I want to make a difference. Now I want to make a change. Now I want to have a voice. Now I want to share my message. Now I want to be a guest on your podcast show. I've always wanted to be a guest on this show. Come on. Have you seen the artwork for this, ladies and gentlemen? Brandon Handley 21:33 I'll tell you, James, James knocked out on that. The CIO sounds a little bit like you're talking about finding your purpose. Yeah. And what's that? You know? So what does that mean to you? Adam Walton 21:50 alignment, basically, my purpose isn't anything other than what I needed to be. And, and my alignment, you know, what's funny, is boredom. Boredom goes out the window, the minute you start aligning yourself properly, you start you start finding fascination, and all kinds of things. I mean, all kinds of things like boredom is just not challenging yourself. And and it's really interesting, how that plays out, you know, and just this growth, this this alignment, you know, how do I how do I not sound like every other person speaking in broad terms, I mean, it's almost impossible not to because every single person's journey is different. And every single person is allowed to have experiences. And the minute you stop asking, if you're having an experience, you understand that you are having an experience. So everyone out there that is experiencing something weird, they want answers. You give yourself those answers. And then when you start believing in yourself, you you move in leaps and bounds. Brandon Handley 22:53 What do you mean by you know, start believing in yourself? Adam Walton 22:57 Well, let me ask you this. Do you think that you can fail? No, no. Did you think that you could fail when I met you? Yes. No. How would you explain that difference? Because you actively right now know that you cannot fail? Brandon Handley 23:15 It was going through the process, right? We talked about that. It's uh, you know, there is it's funny. I actually I posted a meme. I think not too long ago, just my own meme. I said, What the fuck is the process? Right? Because people always say, trust the process. And you're like, what the fuck does that mean? Yeah. And and until you go through the process? Or a process? I guess. Right. It's, it's tough to discern. So that's how I got there was by trusting the process and going through with it. Adam Walton 23:50 That's right. And that's, you know, that's basically you know, the gist. So when somebody says, you know, when I say to you, I cannot fail. All I can do is have an experience and make a decision about it. Right, the world doesn't get that just yet. There are so many people that like explain that make that because of course you can fail. I think one of the funniest realizations I ever had was the Yoda saying, Do or do not there is no try. Sure. And I was like, when you're living in third dimension you're like of course there's a try there's try all over the place you do nothing but try until you do or do not. But the reality is that we live in Yeah, and results you live in and results you either do it or you don't do it. Brandon Handley 24:27 That's the the other one and the matrix, right. Stop trying to hit me and just hit me. Yeah, Adam Walton 24:33 great. Trying to hit me exactly Brandon Handley 24:36 right. Just hit me. It's real similar to that. So you know, the dark nights of the soul you kind of went through. And I think one of the things I like to always understand is, now that you've kind of got like this purpose to kind of share your message out. I believe you're still doing you're still coaching and you know, trying to get others to Understand what their messages right align with their purpose so that they can go through the process, right? How are you seeing? Are you seeing a leap in fulfillment in your life. And by living it this way, versus what it was before, and is there any way you can kind of compare, compare and contrast that for us Adam Walton 25:23 100%, there's, again, you know, the lack of boredom, you know, all that sort of stuff, you know, comes into it. My purpose in life is to wake up lions, is not to wake up sheep is not to, you know, dismiss them or anything like that. But my purpose in life is to push those that need to be pushed, to step into their light to step into the light of change. And it's not even that I'm doing it for them, I'm doing it because I need to do it. Once that person is awake, and once that person is off and running, they no longer have anything to do with me, my purpose was not to get praise from the lion that has now awoken, my purpose was to simply wake that lion up. My purpose was to allow them to understand their purpose a little bit better, and to show them that they're not crazy for having that identity. What was I doing? Well, being third dimensional, I was teaching people how to sell, I was teaching people how to close, no matter what realm I lived in, I was always teaching people. And when you live in that realm, you are always under the gun, you're always under attack. And it's really interesting, because you will find people say the craziest shit about you, when you're in the sales room when they don't even know who you are. But when you exude some sort of energy that they don't have, they want to bring you down. And interestingly enough, that isn't about, like you or them or anything, that is the experience, you have to get stronger by understanding that these things are happening so that you can face your own, you know, whatever growth patterns that you have to face. And they have to do it so that they can understand that it's not the right thing to do that you don't you don't chop somebody down, right? Yeah, the same debate goes with bullies, a lot of people will talk, you know how bullying is bad. But bullying teaches the bully a lot. And it teaches the one that's being bullied a lot, and everyone has these experiences. So you know, it's an interesting jump, how I went there, but it you know, it, when you find your purpose, you understand that you are contributing properly in your realm. If your purpose has to do with avenging the weak, maybe you were bullied, and maybe without being bullied, you'd never have lived into your purpose, if you were a bully, who turned his life around, because he saw how terrible it was for the other people being bullied. And that leads you into your life purpose, go for it. You know, the world in society is so quick to point the finger at so many people about so many things, without understanding that every usually for the most part 90% of everyone who has ever perpetrated a crime or, or whatever, is at some point a victim in their own lives, either repeating a pattern, or you know, built up anxious or being, you know, having, you know, trying to take their power back from being a victim, whatever it is, again, the Battle of good and evil, what contrasts for the sake of the other to contrast. So when you talk about stepping into your purpose, if you're a quote unquote bad person, once you understand that, that can't possibly be true, and that you have the ability to step and move forward, you realize that the third dimension has always tried to make you look at your past and make you compare yourself to who you used to be. As opposed to living in a fourth or fifth dimension, where you compare yourself today to who you want to be. I look at myself today and say I'm not this person yet, I need to work on that, that that I need to go through this, this and this to get there. They're in there. But since the entire world for the most part is coming from, I'm not this person, because I used to be that person. And that person is holding me back from becoming this next person. But that's how you're trained to think. Unknown Speaker 29:03 So Adam Walton 29:04 when the world decides it wants to wake up, like you keep trying to ask me about me, and I keep reflecting back to the world. Because I am not the person you're interviewing. Even though I sit in this chair, you're interviewing the experience, and I can share my experience or I can share a perspective of experiences. And you're getting both and I ramble a lot, but that's okay. People seem to like my voice. Brandon Handley 29:27 I see what I want. Unknown Speaker 29:29 You damn straight. Do Brandon Handley 29:31 idea is it's funny, you know, the experience, right? The the idea though, that we experience, time, or anything else, you know, and knowledge is that that is of course an illusion. Right? what we experienced right now is what we're always experiencing, which is, you know, an eternity right. We're experiencing eternity right now. just you know, how do you want to see it? Right? dia fulfillment piece, right is kind of still on getting that right. Do you feel more fulfillment in general? With this kind of wave waving? Adam Walton 30:20 Oh, yeah. Yeah, I have a question for you as well. Sir. The fulfillment man, honestly, how can I put this fulfillment when you stop doing what they tell you to do smoking cigarettes, drinking booze, being debaucherous being an asshole, all the stuff that you've ever been taught to do in life, you know that small consumption of alcohol, when you put it all aside, and you realize that you're so much more than what they told you to be? film, it's massive. It's absolutely massive suit. Like, I'm assuming that you haven't picked up a drink in years. But when you put it down, you put it down. You never you never went back to it. Brandon Handley 30:54 Yeah. happiest, happiest I've ever been. Yes. Childhood? I'd have to say right. Unknown Speaker 31:03 And a lot of that Adam Walton 31:04 a lot of that is tied into you. Aligning, not you quitting drinking, quitting drinking was a result of alignment. Look at our mutual friend, Brandon Handley 31:12 Jeremy. Yeah, no. But it goes back to what you were saying though. Adam, I called for the person I wanted to be, versus maintaining the image of who I was. I said, Hey, you know what this isn't? This isn't who I want to be going forward. That's right. It doesn't it doesn't this does not, you know, align to who I want to be going forward, who I want to be going forward, has all these capabilities. And one of the one of the capabilities is, is the strength to to say I don't want to drink and I don't want to hang out with everybody else and do the same things everybody else is doing. I want to be doing what I want to be doing on my own terms. Adam Walton 31:52 And you did it. Yeah. And that's pretty much how simple it is. It is. And there are so many people out there that will say oh, you know, addiction is this? How many times have I heard 1000 people say, quitting alcohol is one of the most painful and hard things to do. I was a seasoned drinker, and I stopped, right, right. And then you know what they say? Well, that's you. That's not everybody. And I say I can only speak from my experience, your experience. And anyone that says it's hard is typically somebody who hasn't gone through it. Or typically somebody who went through it the hard way and didn't decide to look at it the easy way. Equally, I don't look at it for themselves, they probably look at they did it for somebody else. They didn't do it for themselves. You're right, you're right. There's there's a book out there called the Alan Carr, the easy way. And that is how to quit smoking. And I was a smoker. When I met you, I was also a cigarette smoker. I smoked a pack a day for years. It was disgusting. But when I was a kid, it's just what you did, where I grew up, where I came from, you smoked cigarettes, the cool kids wore leather and smoke cigarettes, cigarettes, they're not ridiculous. And there's no more leather stores. And it's also full pod to where the skin of another animal. And when you think about that, should it it is a bit peculiar where, anyway, you know, I'm my alignment, my journey and all that sort of stuff is is bringing me to where I want to be. And that is, I'm fully able to defend my position. I also don't speak my position to the most part, I don't find it's necessary for me to communicate with anyone that may or may not understand me, I will talk to everybody on their level, I will answer any question that anybody has. And for the most part, I do my best to allow people to simply be, and you'll find in that sense, too, that people will interact with you a certain way. And they will like you or they won't like you no matter how enlightened or experienced you are. There is an energy working to you know, in, in in congruent with, you know everything where magnetically we're all aligned or attracted. You know, there are times where you can take a magnet and you can pick up other magnets and that same magnet will push off other magnets, if you just lay out a ton of scattered magnets. Some will pick up and some will drop off that humanity, right. And if you flip a magnet that picked up, it'll push off as well. So you're not necessarily aligned with everybody at all times. But for the time that you are aligned, go for it, have your fun, do your thing. You know, but to have any expectations much more than that is foolish. If you want to grow with somebody do it. If you want to grow through people do it. Don't hold anyone accountable to them living up to your expectations or fitting into your narrative and your reality. Grow and see who grows with you and see who you grow into and see who you meet on your growth journey. Because the alternative is to sit in front of the television when you're not at work. And that to me is in bullshit. Because there's so much more to everything than what they've allowed us to beat. The typical third dimensional person is somebody who is dating somebody, they don't want to date at a job. They do. Don't want to work at not making as much money as they want to make living in a house, they don't want to live in addicted to alcohol, and not even realizing it. That's your standard third dimensional individual or entity, anyone asking the question or trying to step out of that is, is, is drifting into fourth dimension. And anyone that's actuating, and visualizing, and making real, what the secret, the secret to try to make you know, money off, when you try to make that real when you when you live in visualization. And when you live in actualization, you've stepped right out of it. Because here's another thing too, when you're living in third dimension, you are experiencing everything you've put the effort into experience. Therefore, everything that you have is a result of your physical actions towards the manifestations that you've created. You are living in the result of the effort that you've put in at any stage of life, basically. Brandon Handley 35:53 Are you saying that the third dimension is a result of like physical activity? And the fourth and fifth are the result of other activities? No, they're Adam Walton 36:03 all mental. So the third dimension is not thinking for yourself. The fourth dimension is asking questions. The fifth dimension is believing. Brandon Handley 36:10 I like that the third dimension is not thinking to yourself, the fourth is Adam Walton 36:15 asking questions. Brandon Handley 36:16 And the fifth is believing in yourself believing believing in yourself. And you know, when you're saying, believe in yourself, you're not talking about the confidence to do something and like, you know, go climb a mountain, believe in yourself. I don't know, I would I yeah, Adam Walton 36:33 I don't let me pick up a car right now. Brandon Handley 36:35 I mean, the theory says Yes, right. The theory does say yes, Adam Walton 36:39 but what if I said to you, Brandon, I'm gonna give you one year, do whatever you have to do. But at the end of that one year, I want to see you on this exact day, next year, you're gonna pick up a car, you can do that. And if everything is happening all the same time, then by the time one year rolls around, you and I are going to be standing face to face on the side of a car. It'd be a look car, like a 1987. Look car, so it won't be too hard. You Unknown Speaker 36:59 know? No, look, Adam Walton 37:01 I'm not I'm not gonna push your buttons too hard. Or you go. And exactly, yeah, so you just pick that up, right? But you've hit the gym, you've done the training, you've you've understood, you've learned you've taken in the knowledge and you've picked up the car. But as it stands right now, Not a chance. Brandon Handley 37:13 What else? That's right. That's what that's for the thing. Is that right? So I mean, you know, Adam Walton 37:17 manifestation, that is 100% manifestation in the realm that we live in. It takes a minute to go from here. I'm pointing at my brain, ladies and gentlemen, I don't know if he's going to use the video for this. I'm pointing at my brain from here to here to tangible, right, that belt behind me on the wall. Before I had that belt, I wanted it. Right. And then what did I do? I earned some money. I called a guy, a shipping company picked it up. It came here, I manifested that belt and created it. Brandon Handley 37:45 Sure. Adam Walton 37:46 Anything that you want in this world, you create, right, I'm Unknown Speaker 37:49 created. Adam Walton 37:51 Now the thing is, we think we want things because we've seen them on TV. Imagine what you could create. If you could tap into source directly. like holy shit, I want that gergan slog right, you know what that is? But go ahead. Exactly. And then you just manifest it. And I was like, What the fuck is that? You're like, it's a gurganus log, you son of a bitch. You want it cuz you've never seen one before? Right? Right. But the minute your neighbor sees your gergan slug, he's gonna figure out what it is. And he's gonna get one make one do one? Sure. Sure. Yeah. So we grew up at a time to where, bro, you know, you and I probably didn't have the coolest car in the parking lot. But we had a car in the parking lot when we were in high school. We didn't have we didn't have parents money. But we had our we had our efforts, you know, we pushed what we had. And we believe where we were. So we actuated based on what we believed. Brandon Handley 38:41 Well, so so I want to I want to so I'm gonna jump in here, right? There's two things. One thing is like, Alright, well, when you when you said, you know, kilos up a car. And, you know, the working theory is that I could do it today, based on you know, kind of what we've seen before, just out of the idea of like, you know, Adam Walton 39:00 a mother strength Brandon Handley 39:01 is everything, right? I mean, of course, yeah, but but right. But because because I don't believe right now and myself enough to Adam Walton 39:10 do the thing. Tapping matrix 100%. Now, you're talking like fifth, you're talking like sixth and seventh dimension. Because there are people that have done feats of strength on a regular basis. Right, but and there are also myths and stories and these people just tap into source immediately tap into source. You know, if you're, if somebody is trapped under a car, I guarantee you can pick that car up. Sure. Because Because the physics go out the window, again, the matrix, Brandon Handley 39:38 don't bend the spoon that and then that I think that then there's the you know, there's the necessity that says, hey, you need to be able to do this. So source allows that to open for you. Right provides that for you. And then the other part now, this is this was a really eye opening moment. This was a conversation you and I had. Geez Adam, I think was a year ago. Driving around, and I was just leaving my real estate class. And I was talking to you about this teacher who was in there. Who was teaching motivational interviewing, which is something that I was really interested in. I was like, I mean, what are the odds that she's in there? Right? What did you say? to recall? Adam Walton 40:21 She was in there, because you needed her to be in there. Brandon Handley 40:23 But you said, I said, What are the odds? And he said, 100%, right, the odds are 100% I was like, motherfucker, you're right. Right. And, and, and, and then you said, something along the lines of she was in a, you know, because that's the only way that you believe that it could happen type of thing, right? So it's, you know, you create your life, and act upon it in a way that you believe you should be. And that's the only way that it'll happen. So until you change, what you believe in, and what you believe yourself to be capable of, you won't take any actions towards it right type of thing. He won't see it. Right. I think that's the other part too, like until you believe. Right, you won't be able to see it. Adam Walton 41:07 Yeah. I mean, when you also when we talk, if you're right about all that. And as I stutter, if we talk back to the car, right? The idea of you being able to pick a car right now, we agree that it could be done immediately. But we also agree that it's more likely that you'll be able to do it in a year, for sure. You know, Now, that being said, for you to be able to tap into source on a regular basis and pick up a car is not the purpose. For you to become the person that understands how to tap into source and to regularly pick up the car is the purpose of that we are not here to do the thing. We are here to become the person who can do the thing. So that's the cool part. You know, how many times to and maybe this is just me, but every single time I've ever acquired whatever it was I wanted, when I bought the thing I don't care about anymore? Yeah. You know, when I bought my first car, I was like, Brandon Handley 42:04 yeah, that's the journey. That's the journey. Adam Walton 42:07 That's life, life is all about that thing. And now again, the car also, when I bought my first expensive car, I was, you know, fully immersed in the idea of the third dimension. Now, what you have validates who you are, which is total bullshit total. Unknown Speaker 42:23 Self again, that's, Brandon Handley 42:24 you know, that's gonna be that's gonna be actually the same conversation this weekend with somebody we visited. You know, once you have a bunch of money, you realize you don't change. Right? I mean, it doesn't change who you are inherently, I mean, changes. I think it does change some things, right. It allows you the space to kind of fall into expansion, because you're not as worried about a survival mechanism, right? It's not necessary, though. That's what that's what that's one thing I always like to point out like, so once you have enough money, you stop worrying about that. And you can start exploring some of these other things like spirituality, right? Well, Adam Walton 43:07 here's, here's another thing, too, if you don't have enough money, right, you you get stuck in that rat race, right? You can also say to yourself, I need more time. So I'm going to totally downsize my house, I'm going to take up a job at McDonald's flipping burgers. And I'm going to make sure that my bills are paid and that there's food on the table. And I'm going to spend every waking moment after that focusing on my craft, focusing on my message focusing on my person, and creating. So you don't it's not that we don't have enough message or instant message. It's not that we don't have enough money. A lot of the time, it's that we don't know how to utilize our moment. Brandon Handley 43:42 I think you hit on something there too. Right? Creating, right spend time creating. And I think that most people would would would say when you say, you know, they've got to create, they've got to be an author, they've got to be an artist, they've got to be something else. What is when you're saying creator, what are you saying? Adam Walton 44:03 Create? Brandon Handley 44:04 Yeah, but I mean, you know, what's that look like? I mean, it's, Adam Walton 44:08 yeah, it's it's a heavy word. Creating isn't art. Like, a painter isn't creating paintings. a painter is creating himself herself, themselves itself, we self whatever junction people want to use these days. a painter is creating, and the result of their creation is art. So somebody who is completely stuck in a job that they hate without with a spouse that they don't care for, in a situation they don't want to be in can start creating that moment by saying, I don't want this anymore. They start creating, the more time you spend creating, the more, the more likelihood you're going to succeed. Just like the more time you spent playing darts, the likelihood is you're going to get better at darts. So, creating is becoming right and then if you want to Paint if painting is your creation, you start painting, you know, you start, you start with, with the materials that you have, you pick up a box of crayons, and you hammer it out and you work on your draw, you work on your lines, you work on your dimensions. And then from there, you, you know, you sell one of those things, you get really good, or you get noticed, or you upload it or you go on to Fiverr, you go wherever the world is completely open to anything that anybody wants to do, you can sell your painting, you can sell a class on how to paint, you can draw, you can do anything, you just have to find out how to get there, how to do it, whatever it is that anybody wants to do, they just have to do it. Brandon Handley 45:35 But that also goes back to again, what you're saying you got to believe in yourself, and you got to want to want to do it right. You have to believe in yourself, and then kind of take action towards it. Right? Just even if there's just tiny steps, right? Yeah, you know, sell something on Fiverr. Go to Fiverr. put yourself out there, right? To be found. Right, of course. And you believe that? Unknown Speaker 46:04 Why not you Adam Walton 46:06 a fun story about Fiverr. I'm on Fiverr. And I went on there and I do writing I just two short stories. I do blogs, I do, you know, content, written content for coaching pages. And from there, I charge peanuts, you know, but every now and again, like just the random stuff that is fun for me to do and takes no time at all. I, I have some, it's like 30 or 40 bucks a page, right for 500 words, which I've undercut everybody, but from there, it's blown people away, when they kind of understand when they kind of do some research on who I am. Like, why would I be on Fiverr? Why would this be a thing? Like why would because the perception of who I am, as you know, on the internet a lot bigger than who I am right now. I'm just a dude, that's all I am. But it's funny, because from Fiverr, I get paid to practice writing. Right? Right, because I can, here's the thing, I can write whatever I want. But you know, when you have an idea in your head, you don't believe in yourself or whatever it is, when you're just getting started on any one thing. It's hard for you to be like, I have some ideas and I want to craft but when somebody says hey, can you write this, this and this, these are the things I want to talk about, this is the thing I want to do. But and then you're you're on it, you're like, Alright, I got this figured out, then you go do it just like it's easier to help everybody else. And it is to help yourself. Brandon Handley 47:16 Now that's right, you know, and I love I love that you brought that up. You know, Adam Walton 47:20 I want to finish that thought though, too, though. God. So from from Fiverr. For anyone listening from anyone jumping out, the real reason I'm there is because it's free advertising, I have acquired five people specifically that have gone into my full program from a $5 ad they've dropped 25 K, right. So you can't judge anything, you can't judge anything on anything, you should just be wherever you need to be to fish wherever you want to fish to eat whatever you want to eat, and have fun with it experience and drop every single idea in your head that you think is a certain thing and just go and run and be free. Brandon Handley 47:58 All right now that's that's really cool. I love that. I love that you're doing that. And and, you know, the perspective there. Makes me think about again, like, you know, kind of podcasting right makes me think of the idea of you, when you if when you interview me on your podcast, it's easier sometimes. Right? Just you're just the one if you're the one asking me the questions, it's easier for me to come up with the answers. Because those are some things there's some questions I might not answer, or think of on my own as valuable content or anything else. But when somebody else asks you a question, it comes out so naturally, right? Just like when you're writing for somebody else asking you to write for them. It's, it's just coming right through. Mm hmm. Adam Walton 48:42 I think that's funny too. Because, you know, you've been on my show, and and it is it is it's different in, in, in in so many aspects because on this show, too. I you know, I love doing these shows, because it is always me that's, you know, steering the show or running this or asking the questions, but I have the opportunity on the show just simply to answer your questions. You know, and, and, and I love I love the creativity because it is it's identical again, you and I can have a conversation. Right, your show is your show, My show is my show both are a little bit different. My show is certainly a little bit more out there than your show. I like to talk about little green men. You know, I like to I like to be able I like to be able to expand on every single topic and tie it all back into source because there is a truth in everything. Sure. And that you know, that's a fun that's a fun conversation I have now like I said I don't have your fancy artwork but I do have you know I do have the joy the gift the gap. Another fun thing too is you don't have to be doing anything like nothing has to be sitting there like I was teaching you guys how to podcast long before I even had a podcast. And that was because I had the you know, I had to know how I had the knowledge but to me I was rammed with other things. I had different stories in my mind. You know things I wanted to accomplish things that I had set out in the in the initial states. I've always said, I've got to get this going. And it's very important that people have it. But how do you how are you to be taken seriously, if you're teaching something that you're not following through with, which was ends because of you guys that I said, I have to have this podcast. So I'm going to keep teaching people that this is the way to have the message out there. I need to have the message out there. And I was teaching off stat, therefore, I was saying, These are the things that I know not obviously through Sam, all that other stuff as well. But for me, you know, to launch into just do it. Like it's it's such a wonderful world to be on the other side of it. Once you you know, once you cross over that, that doesn't even matter. 1010 podcasts, 50 podcasts, 100 podcasts, every single podcast, you get better. I mean, the first podcast, ladies and gentlemen is funny because it is just you sitting in front of a mic in front of your computer going, Unknown Speaker 50:46 I don't know what I'm doing. Yeah. Unknown Speaker 50:49 100% Adam Walton 50:50 and then you're and then you're out and then you're rocking. And then you know, you and I know right now that there's an audience right now listening, they're sitting there, they're enjoying their night. And this is the entertainment that they've chosen over television, and I'm so grateful and thankful for that, to be the truth and to be the new reality in which you and I reside. I love that. Every single one of you listening right now, you are amazing. You're amazing. Brandon Handley 51:11 100% I mean, you know, listen, I think about I'm thinking about the Jim Rohn stat piece that just says, you know, focus on the few, right, I don't care. This one's not about going out and getting numbers. This one's about connection. You know, there's podcasts, this podcast is about connecting with people who are either on the brink of an awakening or just kind of somewhere along their spiritual journey, or just coming along. Right? for the ride. And and Adam Walton 51:49 where do you think you are? on your journey, right? Now, if you were to say, if I were to say, Are you enlightened? If I were to say to you, on a scale of one to 10? How far up? How far up? Do you think you are? Brandon Handley 52:01 Like a three? Yeah, because let's just like you said earlier, there's so much there's so much. And I'm just barely beginning to scratch the surface. Right? Where I'm just, I'm just starting to just starting to scratch the surface of my own potential reality, my inner self. Who or what I think the universe is all that all that stuff, man, how about you? It's good question. I like it. Adam Walton 52:30 Man, I say the same thing. You know, I'm a three, I'm a four. And that's an ignorant statement for me to make, because that's only being able to base things off where I have been. Right, right. Right, Unknown Speaker 52:41 for sure. Adam Walton 52:42 You know, and and, you know, I don't know, I don't know how far I can go, you know, you know, that's why I say low. You know, I say low because, you know, three or four fours high three would be decent. But I mean, we could be at point two, you know, for sure. Unknown Speaker 52:56 Right. Right. Adam Walton 52:56 Or, you know, we could be at 10. Like, this could be it. Here we are, you know, it'd be weird if it was because that drop off. But you know, I have so many more questions, and I have so many more things I want to experience and journeys that I want to go on. I wake up every morning excited. You know, Brandon Handley 53:14 you know, here's what I'll tell you. I am though I am not as much about the question so much as I am about enjoying the experience and just being Adam Walton 53:25 Yeah. And that's it. But that is the question. You're living in it. For sure. Your that's your question right now. That's what's cool. Brandon Handley 53:35 Yeah, it's a it's a look, it's it's a it's been great. It's been perpetual. And it's been it's been, there's been more joy, and there's been more fun in it. I think, then there's been a long time. I think you also mentioned a little bit earlier, not necessarily about societal pressures, but you know, doing the thing that everybody says you're supposed to be doing, versus letting go of all that shit. Right? And not having all that pressure. I think that that's huge, too. Adam Walton 54:08 I agree with that. I agree with that. Once you you know, once you instead of viewing peer pressure as a pain point, you get the opportunity to view it as a lesson. It's cool. If you say to yourself, why would I be concerned about I don't know. Anything. Really? Why would I be concerned about this? Like, Hey, man, have this drink? Well, you don't drink like fuck, you know? Why would it be like oh, I really should. What weakness inside me says I really need to do what Chad's doing. Right. I'm gonna pick up my hacky sack and just play because my name is Chad. Right? That's, you know, no offense to the Chad's listening. That's just running. Brandon Handley 54:46 Sorry, Chad. Yes, sir. Chad. Yeah, you Unknown Speaker 54:49 know who you are. Unknown Speaker 54:51 But that's Adam Walton 54:52 so funny. You can't say that name without it being funny. It is what it is man. It is what it is. You And and like you said, waking up and just being like, you get this opportunity to be like, I want to learn my lessons, I want to understand why I think the way I think I don't want to blindly accept that I think the way I think, because one of the coolest things about stepping into purpose and stepping into a higher dimension mentally and physically is that you understand that you're not having thoughts you're experiencing them. Much like the radio isn't creating music. It's tapping into a frequency and amplifying it. So, you know, all that self hate and self doubt you're receiving that from somewhere, step your frequency up and you'll start receiving different messages. Brandon Handley 55:37 Yeah, it's a shared a lot. I put the book on my reach, where is it power versus force sent you the link actually, to his like, subsequent, he's guys got a lot of books, David, David R. Hawkins. I sent you that book on surrender, which is super awesome. But in that book, he's got like a map of consciousness. Right. And that's kind of one of his big, big pieces that he's contributed, I think, to to kind of where we are, and what you call like the, you know, ripping of the veil or whatever, right, the thinning of the veil, whatever you want to call it. I feel like he's contributed quite a bit to that. Because there's a there's a, there's a map of consciousness, right, here's where you are. And if you kind of, if you can leverage that and see where you are, you can kind of know where the next step is. Yeah. Which I think is really great. And, yeah, you know, if you're feeling hate and anger and frustration with your with the world, chances are you're feeling that with yourself. Right? And how do you want to address that? Adam Walton 56:39 Yeah. And if the world is showing it to you, it's something you need to overcome, because it's all that's also your fault. Right, right. Now, I've also I've been on the hook so many times for victim shaming, is that the term I don't know what it is, were you like, you're like, like Dave Chappelle, He's, uh, he made the joke, Oh, she got, you know, assaulted. And he's like, wow, what was she wearing? You know, I don't, I don't, I don't put myself in that category. But I get I get the finger pointed a lot at me for that sort of stuff. Because again, you can misplace humor, you can do whatever you want, the world seems to want to live in its own narrative and drag everybody else in through theirs. Sure. And for me, it you know, it's it's, it's a certain it's a sensitive point, but it's a certain one, like, if I'm out drinking all the time, there's a there's a high likelihood that I'm gonna get punched in the face. It for history never happen. Or there's certainly a higher likelihood that I'm going to get punched in the face being out drinking, then if I'm in having intellectual conversations with individuals, for sure. If you love the idea of being out drinking, and if you want to get mad at me and said, Well, what you can't be drunk and have an intellectual conversation, man, you can do whatever you want, anywhere you want in life at any point, right. But what I will say is if you want more out of life, you're going to come into certain circumstances and situations that change the way you specifically do business. And once you get to the other side of how you've done that, you can look back and say, Man, I got punched in the face, because I was out drunk, running my mouth, you know? And that's it. Which means I'm the victim of assault. But it's because I was an idiot that it happened. Brandon Handley 58:13 You're the one who created the situation. Adam Walton 58:16 Yes. And that's not all of them. I'm going to put this in an Asterix Ladies and gentlemen, the world wants to you know, eat everybody alive right now. That's for sure. Every situation. It's not a blanket statement. That individual experience statement. Sure. No, no, no, I Brandon Handley 58:29 get it. Right. Listen, that disclaimer, right? Adam Walton 58:34 Exactly. I mean, there's millions of people listening this podcast right now. I know. Right? Brandon Handley 58:38 Listen to listen, they're huge. They're huge. And you know, I don't want them I don't want an avalanche on Adam's House because he's a dick. Adam Walton 58:46 I spiritual dick Brandon Handley 58:50 telling you that you got punched in the face and it was totally your fault. It is right you got you put yourself there and then look, man, there's definitely situations where like, you know, people like well, this happened in the world and you're saying that was their fault? Like, come on, man. The take it with a grain of salt. You are where you And hey, that could be your soul contract. Adam Walton 59:06 Right? Yeah, that could be your soul contract. Yeah, Brandon Handley 59:09 we don't know, man that nobody knows. So for you for anybody to come up and say Yay, or nay. But I mean, you know, at least in our current level of understanding and experience to date, Adam Walton 59:20 here's an extra step to that soul contract. It could be your soul contract to be murdered me making you the ultimate victim, right? And then but it's not. Your soul contract isn't for you or for the murderer. It's for the observers of everyone that witnessed you getting murdered. Right, and then you and the murderer, soul contracted into this to wake the world up. So the murderer has to commit a heinous crime of murdering and the victim has to create or has to be the victim of a murder. Both of them signed on to this so that you and me could witness this and change how we do life. That's how soul contracts can work as well. For sure, you know, there are some extensive quantity that go into every single experience. It's, it's mind bendingly beautiful, Brandon Handley 1:00:06 not 100%. Right? It's life. Right. It's it's life. And I think that that in itself is beautiful. Just like you, sir are beautiful. So where can we send people to go hang out with Adam? Adam Walton 1:00:21 There's a lot of changes going on. But you can you can check us out right now, at the mental mastery. alliance.com. All of our social links are there. Everything's there. We are just having fun with everything right now. Everything is tickety. Boo. So definitely come give us a check out if you like social media, if you don't like the computer, that's cool, too. We're everywhere. We have our own podcast, all of its linked back to the webpage. So in the liner notes of this episode of my webpage was there then everybody would get to see what we're all up to. And there's a ton of stuff going on. So we encourage you all to pop by. And if you don't want to do that, amen. Cool to Brandon Handley 1:00:58 Adam, thanks for stopping on today. I Unknown Speaker 1:01:00 always enjoy the conversation, brother. Absolutely my friend. Great time. Transcribed by https://otter.ai

With your host, Mary Anderson - Equine & Empowerment Alchemist. ➳ On today's podcast is a short intro into the What - Where and Why behind the Equine Collective. There is so much heart in this project that has not yet been explored however will be rolled out as the episodes progress. Looking forward to connecting with you and thank you for listening.

Detoxifying Enemas. What Where

Detoxifying Enemas. What Where The post Detoxifying Enemas. What Where first appeared on PodcastDetroit.com.

Detoxifying Enemas. What Where

*ugh I am just SO TIRED today* *gets to end of day and feels EXHAUSTED as you are flopping on to your bed* are you scattered brain trying to figure out WHAT/WHERE to be next? — I spy an ENERGY LEAK are you meeting your basic physical energy needs and giving your body what it needs? —I spy another ENERGY LEAK do you let your emotions overwhelm you? — I spy another ENERGY LEAK GUESS WHAT: a power plant doesn't just have energy, it is has to CREATE it and SO. DO. YOU. TIME TO FLIP THE SCRIPT & DO AN ENERGY AUDIT! Not only is it your job to CREATE your energy but it's also your job to PROTECT your energy. Who and what do you give your energy to? What kind of energy do you bring to this world? You are IN CONTROL of these 3 areas of your life that can help you fill up that energy cup so you can show up as the best version of you everyday.   Learn how to eliminate overwhelm and get focused with TIME BLOCKING Don't forget to subscribe to my super awesome weekly FREEBIE email list   

Well, I’m so excited to be back in the narrative this morning and to introduce the main point, I want to read the opening line from Tolstoy’s novel Anna Karenina. It begins this way:By that, Tolstoy meant that for a family to be happy, it had to succeed in several key aspects. And for that reason, every happy marriage looks similar. They communicate well, they work out conflict, and they are self-sacrificing. All good families share these traits. Bad families will be bad in a million different ways. There are endless ways to be selfish. Only creativity limits the way you can be hard-hearted.Now, we could adapt this observation theologically. We could say, “All salvation stories are alike. Every unsaved man is unsaved in his own way.” And by that, we would mean that every saved person goes through that exact same narrow gate where they abandon all their props, all their idols, all other means by which they hope to save themselves and turn to Jesus Christ. Because that gate is narrow we must first be stripped of all these attachments and barnacles so that we can fit. That stripping process is often very painful. God in some way brings us to that absolute end of ourselves. He takes us all the way down until we are at the rock bottom of our ability. We experience that salvation moment of bankruptcy where we abandon all the things we once loved that we thought would bring us happiness. This stripping of attachments is common to every saved person. Every salvation story is the same in this way. Now today we are going to see this salvation moment of bankruptcy illustrated in Jacob’s life and Joseph’s life in different ways.ReviewThis year our theme is “Change What You Love.” Jacob, like many of us, had a love problem. He loved the wrong things. Or, more accurately, he loved good things too much. He loved the right things in the wrong order. He needed to change what he loved.In Jacob’s case, he loved his son Joseph in a warped and unhealthy way. He made Joseph into a hub around which he ordered his life. And because God loved Jacob, he wouldn’t allow him to continue in that disordered love. So God began the stripping process. He takes away his precious. He takes away his favorite son Joseph. Joseph is sold to some Ishmaelite traders and when the brothers come home from their dirty deed of betrayal, they tell their dad that Joseph was destroyed by a wild animal and present to him the evidence in the form of a blood-stained coat.Now when Jacob hears the news, he gives us the undeniable evidence of a man whose been involuntarily stripped of his precious. He just weeps and writhes bitterly. He refuses to be comforted. He clenches his jaw, pities himself, and wallows in his misery. And that’s it. Jacob just kind of drops out of the scene for a couple of chapters.The story cuts to Joseph. Joseph rises to the most powerful post in the Ancient Near East second only to Pharaoh himself and he does this totally unbeknownst to his entire family. As far as his brothers know, he’s lubricating stones with his blood and sweat as a slave in Egypt. As far as his father knows, he’s dead.But in a matter of fact, he’s been providentially promoted beyond anyone’s wildest imagination to steward the resources of the land. The seven years of plenty predicted in Pharoah’s dream are realized. And under the careful and astute management of Joseph, the crop abundance created this incredible surplus which is squirreled away in anticipation of the coming drought.Now that drought comes. Like the sucking sound at the bottom of a great milkshake, those years of plenty come to an end. The famine that ravishes the land is severe. And it’s the famine that causes Jacob to surface in the narrative again. Our last mental picture of him pinned to the walls of our mind was him grieving because of the loss of his son, Joseph. Now we see Jacob again and he is getting very old and he’s starving to death.He says, “Sons, this famine is severe. Go buy us grain, lest we die.” And when we hear Jacob’s voice in the text we excitedly wonder, “How has the refinement process been going?” God stripped poor Jacob of his idol, his son Joseph, those 25 years ago. Did this painful stripping have the intended effect of refinement?And to our horror, we discover that Jacob has not surrendered his idolatry. He has simply replaced Joseph with Benjamin. Now Benjamin is the new center. Benjamin is the new favorite idol of the family. Jacob has not yet experienced that salvation moment of bankruptcy. God has more stripping work to do in the life of Jacob.So again we watch favoritism play out. Jacob sends everyone, except his youngest son Benjamin. So they set off on the 150-mile journey to buy grain. When Jacob’s sons return from Egypt with grain but without Simeon, his countenance turns stormy. You can imagine his face. “What? Where is Simeon?”“Well Dad, Simeon was imprisoned. And unfortunately - I really hate to say this - he is to remain imprisoned until Benjamin is presented to the man in charge.” Wince!!!Everyone knows that a nerve has just been hit. God is stripping away the idol. These unhealthy barnacle attachments must be stripped away. He’s being asked by God to go through that narrow gate. But he’s not going to go without a fight. Let’s pick up the narrative at the end of chapter 42. We are going to read the end of 42 and we’ll work all the way through chapter 43 today so settle to enjoy the text. Jacob gets the news that Simeon has been imprisoned as collateral for Benjamin.“How dare you suggest to take my son Benjamin down to Egypt? That’s not happening.” Jacob swore it. Jacob was:When we have idols in our hearts and those idols are threatened, we begin lashing out. We begin blaming. We swear oaths to threaten those around us and warn them to back off. One of the initial feelings that surfaces is blame. Jacob’s idol is being threatened. God is asking him to surrender. And instead of confessing that it’s a problem, he blames. “No. Absolutely not. My idol is not the problem. My sons are the problem.”From a rational point of view, his sons have nothing to do with this. They just went down to Egypt to buy grain and all this happened to them but that doesn’t stop the blame!When someone is in blame mode, they are locked down. They aren’t ready to surrender their idol. I’m not the problem, you are the problem. “You have bereaved me of my children.” How often it is, when our sin is confronted, we disregard the legitimacy and just go into blame mode. “You never put away your dishes. Well, if you wouldn’t let this place get so dirty then I’d have the incentive to keep it clean. Your diet is terrible. Well, if you would buy better food, maybe I wouldn’t eat so terribly. You are on your phone too much. Well, if you would pay attention to me instead of playing on your phone, maybe I wouldn’t have to bury myself in my device.”You see when the idol is threatened, the blame starts erupting out of the heart. It’s a self-defense mechanism, “I don’t have an idolatry problem. The problem is not me. The problem is you. The problem is her. The problem is him.”That’s what Jacob is doing here. You guys are such cruel sons to ask me to give up my precious. The answer is no. An emphatic no! My precious. That’s how chapter 42 ends.So some time has transpired between chapters 42 and 43. Maybe six months. Maybe a year. Maybe two years. It’s enough time for all the grain they had acquired on their previous journey to run out and now they are starving once again.At first, God asks Jacob to surrender his idol. What’s Jacob’s response? Over my dead body. Very well. It actually will be over your dead body. Either he dies of starvation or he sends Benjamin down. That moment of salvation bankruptcy is coming. Jacob is being forced through that narrow gate.Imagine growing your tomato plant and normally you get 50 tomatoes per plant. And this year 90 percent of your plants die and the ones that survive only yield 4-5 bug-infested tomatoes that you have to share with dozens of starving people. Oh, this is such a terrible feeling.So Jacob commands his sons to go down to Egypt, but notice that he conveniently ignores what he knows is the prerequisite for going down. “Why don’t you just go down and try to get food… and you know, just for kicks, let’s just have Benjamin stay with me.”Jacob is caged. God has given him two and only two options. Die or send Benjamin so that you can buy grain and live. Jacob is being forced into a refinement situation. At first, it was a question, “Jacob, will you give up your idol?” Now it’s not an option. God is prying it out of his grip. And the response is severe.Jacob is like a caged animal in a corner with wild darting eyes, hissing, claws extended. “Why did you treat me so badly and tell the man of Egypt that you had another brother?”It had to have been so obvious to the brothers at this point that dad was irrational. Dad was just white-knuckling his idol. He wouldn’t let go. He wouldn’t open his hand. It’s almost embarrassing. Of course, it all felt perfectly normal for Dad. But so painful to watch for the brothers. Dad’s twisted love is distorting his decision making. He’s sick in his thinking.Now it looks terrible, but something good is happening. God is stripping those attachments. Those barnacles that once looked so secure are beginning to show signs of losing their grip. That salvation moment of bankruptcy is near. And then finally it comes.And then he says the words they never thought they’d hear. He humbles himself and gives up the one thing he swore he would never give up. The barnacle breaks free. That attachment releases.What we finally see here is open-handed surrender to God. The white flag is run up.He had to surrender his idol. There was an abandonment of that thing that he demanded to be the center of his world. He had to finally give it up and trust the almighty. It’s impossible to know for sure, but when Jacob finally breaks here, it appears to be a change different from the other times he was bereaved. When Joseph was taken from him:You can hear in this verse the gross self-pity. When he was told that Simeon was taken from him and that Benjamin too was being required he said, “I can’t do it. If harm comes to him, my gray hair would be taken down to Sheol in sorrow.” You can hear in this the self-centered nature of his concern. Self-centered, self-pity.But when he finally breaks it appears the focus changes. “May God Almighty grant you mercy. If I am bereaved, I am bereaved.” It is up to God.He was stripped of his attachments, no food, weak, he’s lost two maybe three of his children and that beautiful, beautiful salvation moment of bankruptcy has come upon him. It’s through that narrow gate he squeezes. That beautiful salvation moment of bankruptcy where it felt like all was lost. That decision to give up his most precious will ultimately save his life. He had to lose his life to save it.JosephSo we looked at the process of surrender in Jacob’s life. In Jacob’s case, it was the surrender of a disordered love of his family.Joseph too is being asked to surrender. Joseph is being asked to forgive his brothers and in order to do that, he is going to have to surrender hate. He is going to have to release the grudge and the bitterness that he feels. But unlike his father, he’s not going to blame and fight. He’s going to engage and bless. But it’s still going to be a process.Joseph is being asked to forgive his enemies. And the opportunity presents itself. The brothers pack their camels.So they make the journey and ring the doorbell of the palace and present themselves to the king. Now apparently Joseph saw them coming while they were a way off and gives his palace attendant some instructions.So you can imagine the brothers saying, “Um, we are here to see Joseph.” “Ah yes, he’s been expecting you. He’d like to dine with you at lunch.” What? That’s about the last thing in the world you’d expect. Now remember, the last memory Joseph’s brothers had of Joseph was harsh words and false accusations. “Now he wants us over for lunch? That’s not good. He’s setting us up for something. It must be the money in the sacks. Well if we volunteer it, it will go better for us. Let’s just immediately confess everything.”Now, this is the first real act of grace they have received. This is the first reveal of Joseph’s intent toward them. You will recall that this is the resolution to a test that Joseph set up. He commanded that the put the money back in their sacks. Now why did he do this? Why this test? I think Joseph is doing something really significant here. He’s recreating at this moment the scenario of his betrayal. All the elements are present: his brother Simeon is in a pit, is in prison, and they have all been given money in their sacks. Will they return as honest men, give the money back, and try to free their brother from the pit? Or, will they leave Simeon in prison and take the money and run? Will they abandon their brother for a fist-full of cash? Will they, so-to-speak, sell off Simeon to some foreigners for 20 pieces of silver?Joseph is testing to see if they have experienced that salvation moment of bankruptcy. Have they gone through that very narrow gate where they abandoned all their props, all their idols, all other means by which they hope to save themselves and they cried out for God to save them? Now, the test has been run. They return with the money in the sacks! Do you see? They passed the test. Kind of. Because it’s been many, many months, perhaps even years. We know that they have been holding out as long as they possibly could.So Joseph legitimately asks, “Did they just return with the money because they were starving to death or because they were truly honest men as they claimed?” Joseph has been hurt and now he has to decide if he’s going to re-engage. There is some evidence that perhaps they’ve changed, but it’s not conclusive. What do you do in situations like this? This is not irregular. This is how forgiveness always works! I’m not sure they have changed. Do I want to open up and risk being hurt again?You see a lot of people, out of self-protection and fear of being re-wounded, won’t ever let someone change. They harbor that bitterness. They always see a bad motive no matter how long things continue in a positive direction. No matter how much a person has actually changed, suspicion just follows them around like a dark cloud. And that suspicion and hurt can eventually prevent the person from ever wanting to try. “No matter how hard I try I’m always viewed with suspicion so I’ll just stop trying.”Joseph tells the house servant how to respond. “If they have the money in the sacks, if they confess that it was there, give them the benefit of the doubt. And then I want you to go get Simeon.”And now he sees those bald spots again. The dream comes rushing back. Now Joseph is face to face with his tormentors. He’s again face to face with his abusers. You want to talk about being caged. This is being emotionally caged.But Joseph will not allow the pain of the past to dictate the future. He takes Simeon out of prison. He reunites the family. And then he begins to inquire again about their father.You see, he’s open-hearted here. That such a great picture of the posture of forgiveness. Open-hearted. “I open my heart to you. I’m willing to welcome you. I want to inquire about your welfare. I care about your life.” So he’s willing to engage. He’s ready to bless. And then in that process, he breaks.Here, the most feared man of the land, reduced to a puddle of tears. All those years of hurt and anguish. Benjamin would have been just a few years old last time he saw him. And the tears just rush out of him. He probably surprised himself that all that emotion was even in there. Where is all this emotion coming from?He’s giving them clues of his knowledge of them. He’s starting to leak clues. Can you imagine how eerie this would have been for the brothers to see everyone seating in their birth order? I calculated the odds of this happening at random and it’s about 1 chance in 40 million. It’s so unlikely.Your guest is signaling to you. This would be like showing up to a hotel in Hawaii and your hotel room has a complimentary laptop with your Facebook account open and waiting for you, your bank statement printed for you on your bed, and your last year’s tax returns on the TV screen. What’s going on here?The brothers are saying, “How could he possibly know this? It’s an impossible accident.” And why give Benjamin five times? That could not be more strange. He’s the youngest. Joseph is signaling. “I know you. I have a special connection to Benjamin.” Joseph is opening his heart wide. What we see here is the evidence of surrender. This work was done not over minutes, days, or months but years. God had been plowing the soil of Joseph’s heart to prepare him to weep tears of compassion and warmth.If Joseph had been stewing in his mind for all these years, “My brothers, man they took away my life. I’m so bitter toward them. What did I ever do to them? If I ever see them again, I’ll tear them limb from limb. I’ll show them what it’s like to rot in prison. I’ll show them what it’s like to not see the light of the sun for years.” If that is what Joseph had been doing in his mind for 25 years, then that’s exactly what he would have done. But he had been doing something very different. He turned it over to God. God had brought Joseph through that salvation moment of bankruptcy and he surrendered it to God. No God, I trust you. I will not be bitter. I will love them like you loved me.CommunionNow we are about to take communion here and there’s something significant to notice in the process of surrender. God brings every one of the characters in this narrative through pivotal salvation moments of bankruptcy. He did it to Joseph. He did it to Jacob. We are going to trace it in Judah next week. And guess what? He’s doing it to you and me right now. God loves us too much to leave us unrefined and loving idols. He loves us too much to see our affections unordered. He really does.We clutch and cling to our idols and we do not want to let them go. We have created centers around which our life must revolve and those centers. It could be your career. It could be your family. It could be church ministry. It could be money. It could be an unforgiving spirit. But it’s an idol. It has ahold of your affections. You aren’t free. And God loves you too much to keep it there. So he begins the stripping process. He wants us to confess.When that thing is threatened, at first we blame. Then when it’s forcibly taken from us, we fight. “The problem is not me it’s you.” We make excuses. “If it wasn’t for this situation, I wouldn’t have done it.” But God keeps working on us. And soon we break.And you know what that breaking is? It’s the moment we realize that our sin of attachments and idolatry is a sin against the God who saved us. When we break, it is that moment where we realize that our sin was not against other people. Our sin was against God himself.“Please forgive me for ever trusting anything other than you. That’s me laughing at you and throwing you in the pit. Forgive me for trusting in my money. That’s me selling you off as a slave to Egypt. Forgive me for trusting in my reputation. That’s me selling you for 30 pieces of silver.”Jesus is ready to forgive. Jesus as the greater Joseph, seats us in order at his table, revealing that he knows all about us. He knows our sin in advance of our confession. He’s just sitting there totally and completely ready to forgive. He’s already absorbed all the hurt. He’s already been taken down into the pit. He’s already suffered the rejection. He’s suffered the hurt of betrayal. His body has already been broken. His blood-stained coat is evidence of blood that has already been spilled. And he’s sitting you down at the table ready to bless. Do you see the spread of blessing before you? It’s so wonderful.And here we are wringing our hands. Does he know about us selling off our brother? Does he know about the 20 shekels? Does he know about the hidden treasure in the sacks? Does he know about the lies we told to father?And so in those moments of incredible insecurity, we try to project images of ourselves that we are worthy folks. We are honest men. We have never been spies. But do you not see? He knows everything. Our deeds are laid bare before him.And we are all worked up in our hearts thinking that our confession is going to disqualify us from the approval and love of the sovereign. Oh church, do you see how it is exactly the opposite? It is the act of confession that qualifies us to receive the grace and mercy already purchased for us! Jesus as the greater Joseph knows it all and is ready with open arms to forgive. Do you see that he is waiting and wanting to give that to you right now? Jesus is the ultimate Joseph who seats you at his table and is ready to bless.

Accepting 2nd Best Would you? Do You? If you wouldn't accept 2nd best why do you? What? Where do we, you and I, accept 2nd best, It'll be ok it's good enough or it's just about good enough - It'll do? From ourselves maybe. We don't like accepting 2nd best from others, do we? This is a bit of a forerunner to episodes to follow. They are going to include going into serious subjects such as loneliness, depression, OCD suicide, and trauma to name but a few and I want to ensure when we do we hit them being our best because when we do we'll get so much more for ourselves and others who need that help. Even without this being a forerunner this subject is so relevant to everything we do and I do mean everything! So even if you only pick up one golden nugget from this it will make your life immeasurably better. Please enjoy and have a paper and pencil available if you can as I go into how to deal with what happens if the how to's don't work - I don't know of many that go through this part and I've been thinking about that and felt that has to be addressed. Come on! Press play and come with me and continue this striving to be the best current version of ourselves. Please do share this  episode: https://personaldevelopmentunplugged.com/200-accepting-2nd-best/ You will never know how far the ripples of change will go when you do that. Shine brightly Paul Please remember you can leave a comment or email me with questions, requests and feedback. If you have enjoyed this or any other episode please share and subscribe. Just email me feedback@personaldevelopmentunplugged.com Go to paulclough.co.uk/subscribe to learn more Or simply click here to go straight to Apple Music / iTunes to subscribe OR leave a review If you want to access my FREE HYPNOSIS tracks go to paulcloughonline.com/podcast Follow and inter-react on twitter @pcloughie Why not look for me and the podcast on > SPOTIFY AND the app Castbox I'm also in iHeart radio YouTube - copy n paste UC3BlpN4voq8aAN7ePsIMt2Q into search bar The Libsyn podcast page http://personaldevelomentunplugged.libsyn.com Stitcher, tunein, learnoutloud, Google Play Music Here is your show on RadioPublic: Listen to Personal Development Unplugged on RadioPublic

Today we have in the house the one, the only Mr. Eric Chessen. Eric is on a mission helping kids with Autism he has extensive work with individuals with developmental disabilities with specific focus on young individuals (4-21) with autism spectrum disorder. Particular emphasis on program and curriculum instruction and implementation of adaptive fitness programs as well as staff training. Innovative problem-solving techniques. Strong abilities in group settings. *Episode Highlights* *Ari* [00:07:10] Well, very, very cool. I mean, you know, it's it's an unusual thing to choose to work with a population that a lot of people are kind of scared of. They think you are. Oh, yeah. The autism population is too delicate, maybe or fragile to work with. So I want to just for for everybody, like give me a story of an experience that you've been able to produce in one of your clients and just kind of like the love that they've been able to give back. Based on what you've been able to do for them. So any kind of kind of story about an experience, you know, that you've had. *Eric* [00:10:17] And it didn't mean he was performing the exercises perfectly and that and that everything was great. It just meant, you know, he was on task enough that he could learn and that he could he could progress so that for for myself and me as a coach and a practitioner, that that was a major victory. And, you know, for his family as well to to earn that trust and to understand that this is something really important in his life, to have me work with him for four, 12 years as well until I relocated and then to, you know, to have him work with another coach after that, who I trained. But on on a larger scale and looking from the perspective of what we're doing with autism, fitness, what I wasn't doing, I wasn't going in there and waving my magic wand and saying, well, now you're having fun and now you like exercise. What I was doing was taking that the concepts and principles and strategies that at the time I was I was learning and just starting to develop into a system and be able to integrate that and have a successful outcome, which is the same thing now in teaching the certification course and in educating other people and consulting. Having other people have those results is the real merit test for for validating that the curriculum itself. Because if it's just me doing it and it's just the Eric Chessen super autism fitness magic show, that's fine for the athletes that I work with. But what do we do on a larger scale? But if it's if we can replicate it and there are other coaches and practitioners who can use the work for their athletes, then then we are doing something that that really is world changing. *Eric* [00:14:38] What I mean by that is I think it's shifted and shifted for the better in terms of a lot more programming's being a lot more programing, being focused on quality of life now, which is good, especially for a program like mine, because we're dealing with quality of life in terms of physical health as well. So the conversation has shifted and I think the focus now is is a little better. What I think that one of the biggest issues is the difference between knowing something and doing something about it. You know, if if we asked a room of 200 people, how many of you think is physical activity is important for the best quality of life. Now, one hundred and ninety nine hands go up and no one not because they just want to argue. Right. Which is fine. But it's actually enacting those processes and those strategies, and that's the thing about what we do with autism fitness also is that I didn't have to invent anything in terms of the exercises. You know, we're using presses and squats and crawling patterns and hurdle steps and medicine ball throws. I don't have to invent anything. And I don't necessary hurdle or obstacle was not. We don't know what exercises are good. It's how do you implement these for this population? *Ari* [00:16:05] You know, it sounds like like there's a lot of cognitive benefit that may be a side benefit to the physical movement, especially if you're doing things like cross crawling, activating both sides of the brain with the movement, activating balance, that there's going to be a cognitive shift as well in in those that population. It sounds to me like you're having quite an effect on cognition as well as just knowing motor response. Or can you know Kinney's. *Eric* [00:19:28] Number one is prioritize. Someone can give as much lip service as they want to fitness or anything else. But if it's not made a priority, then, you know, when is it going to happen? So, again, it's you know, I can have 100 hands raised in a room. How many people think it's important? Right. But how many people are actually doing it? And you're going to see dwindling numbers of hands there. Number two is consistency. We in our program, we win with consistency, and that's across the board with consistency with the exercises can just consistency with the teaching methodology, consistency with the coaching and cueing and the language that we use. And three is you can only work with what you're observing. So we have a saying in our program. We have many things in our optimum fitness program. It's no what you're looking at, which which means from all three areas, physical, adaptive and cognitive. So know what you're looking at with respect to the movement pattern. Know what you're looking at in terms of level of motivation and what we need to do to support behavior and know what you're looking at in terms of the individual's ability to understand and act on the directions that we're giving them. *Resources and Links* * *https://autismfitness.com/* * *https://www.facebook.com/eric.chessen* * *https://CreateANewTomorrow.com* * *https://www.facebook.com/arigronich* *Full Transcription* *Ari&EricChessen1.mp3* *Ari* [00:00:00] Has it occurred to you that the systems we live by are not designed to get results. We pay for procedures instead of outcomes, focusing on emergencies rather than preventing disease and living a healthy lifestyle. For over 25 years, I've taken care of Olympians, Paralympians, A-list actors and Fortune 1000 companies. If I did not get results, they did not get results. I realized that while powerful people who controlled the system want to keep the status quo. If I were to educate the masses, you would demand change. So I'm taking the gloves off and going after the systems as they are. Join me on my mission to create a new tomorrow as a chat with industry experts. Elite athletes thought leaders and government officials about how we activate our vision for a better world. We may agree and we may disagree, but I'm not backing down. *Ari* [00:00:50] I'm Ari Gronich and this is. Create a new tomorrow podcast. *Ari* [00:01:01] Hey, everybody, this is Ari Gronich with the Create a New Tomorrow podcast. We're here with a good friend, Eric, who is an autism fitness expert. *Ari* [00:01:13] That is a really unusual thing for somebody to be an autism fitness expert. So I'm going to kind of give you a little bit about Eric Chessen. He is the founder of Autism Fitness. He's an exercise physiologist with an extensive background in applied behavior analysis. And Eric has been working with the ASTM population of all ages for nearly 20 years. So, Eric, what are you kind of give us a little bit of background as to who you are and why you chose this particular niche, which is your niche to choose. *Eric* [00:01:50] Thanks. All right. Sure. So I started out as many in the industry who went on to work with niche populations as a personal, young, very green personal trainer working with general population. And at the same time, I was doing graduate studies in behavior analysis. And in one of those, I believe it was a principles of human behavior class. I had a classmate who was the director of a program for teens on the autism spectrum in New York City. And she said, hey, I know your personal trainer. You're in this behavioral science class. Would you be interested in developing some fitness programs for our curriculum? We've never had a dedicated fitness program. We've tried some sports activities. It hasn't really gelled, hasn't really worked out. So over the course of our discussion, I decided to apply to become part of part of this small research program. And they liked what I had to say. I started working with the individuals in the program. And one thing that was really important about my early experience was that I was not working with individuals who would be considered high functioning or highly motivated or very on task. And it set the foundation for everything that I would develop later, which was you have to have a system that accounts for nearly any any possibility. So as I continued developing my my craft or my skill set in this program, an opportunity came along. I had a behavior analyst who contacted me. I forget how it must have been based on something that I wrote. And she said, I usually do early intervention, you know, three and four year olds. I just took on two new cases, these two twelve year old boys. I have no idea what to do with them. Do you think you could help out? So I said, yeah. I think I can. So those became my my first two athletes outside of the program that I was working at. And at the time, I found when I started performing any type of research and I put that in quotes of best practices for integrating fitness programs for the autism population. I found very little. What I found was vague and general. At best it was fitness programs are important for all populations, special needs, populations included, which not much to take action on there. So what I realized was there was this large gap in in practices or disciplines. So you have the the world of fitness and physical activity, strength and conditioning and and movement. And it's not. It's not visible to the autism world, meaning families and other practitioners, behavior therapists, speech pathologist, etc.. *Eric* [00:05:00] So I thought, well, I don't I don't I can't profess to say that I ever actually had this specific thought. But it occurred to me over time that there was something to having an interdisciplinary background where I can speak. When I talk about autism, fitness now, we can speak many different languages so we can talk about fitness with respect to how we can improve movement quality and strengthen stability. But we can also talk about behavioral challenges and how we can integrate positive behavior support, how how we can increase fluency of speech, how we can integrate speech targets. So we speak to all of these different professionals and caretakers, including parents, family members who are involved with or caring for or or serving the autism population. And we look at fitness as a gateway and a foundation for both short and long term optimal development. So from so I've been running programs for, I guess I guess around 15 years at that time. And then I met David Blumen, who is my business manager, and we launched our autism fitness certification level one in May 2017. And now worldwide, we have over how many is over 400? Thirty, I believe, autism, fitness certified pros. And we're just looking to create our mission is called the Movement for Movement. So the idea and the goal is to have fitness programs and adapted P.E. programs accessible to the whole of the autism population, regardless, again, of age or or ability level. So that's where we're at now. And then back in in early March, in fact, March 1st. My my wife and I relocated from New York, which was my home for over thirty nine years, to Charlotte, North Carolina, where I'm speaking to you from now. *Ari* [00:07:10] Well, very, very cool. I mean, you know, it's it's an unusual thing to choose to work with a population that a lot of people are kind of scared of. They think you are. Oh, yeah. The autism population is too delicate, maybe or fragile to work with. So I want to just for for everybody, like give me a story of an experience that you've been able to produce in one of your clients and just kind of like the love that they've been able to give back. Based on what you've been able to do for them. So any kind of kind of story about an experience, you know, that you've had. *Eric* [00:07:54] Sure. Well, one of my one of those two boys who I mentioned, who I was working with originally back in the first or second year that I started my business, our first few sessions wound up on the floor with me protecting him from banging his head into a hard tile kitchen floor. And so that was that was definitely the most shocking, one of the more challenging situations that you can be in, particularly with this population, because we're looking right there. We're looking at a one hundred percent. This is a safety intervention right now. And I had I had worked with him, you know, from from that point for 12 years after that also. And to have him eventually develop to the point where he began mastering some of the most challenging exercises that we have in our autism fitness curriculum is doing Schoop throws with a medicine ball. So learning hinge mechanics, his squat pattern is getting better also. And it's not just about the the exercises or the physical benefit or the development of the physical skills. It's definitely about that, because that's what we're that's where it worked to achieve. But going from a place where were we have to be very considerate of severe self injurious behavior to a point where an athlete is largely motivated to participate. Definitely shows that something good is happening and that something has changed. And the biggest success for me now out of that, the biggest success was the fact that Fidelity, after several sessions and some and a few interventions, and it's not to say that it was always 100 percent unicorns and rainbows in our session. But to go to that point, which was a real concern to a point where I would go over and you would understand the expectation and we would go through all the exercises that we needed to go through and everything was cool. *Eric* [00:10:17] And it didn't mean he was performing the exercises perfectly and that and that everything was great. It just meant, you know, he was on task enough that he could learn and that he could he could progress so that for for myself and me as a coach and a practitioner, that that was a major victory. And, you know, for his family as well to to earn that trust and to understand that this is something really important in his life, to have me work with him for four, 12 years as well until I relocated and then to, you know, to have him work with another coach after that, who I trained. But on on a larger scale and looking from the perspective of what we're doing with autism, fitness, what I wasn't doing, I wasn't going in there and waving my magic wand and saying, well, now you're having fun and now you like exercise. What I was doing was taking that the concepts and principles and strategies that at the time I was I was learning and just starting to develop into a system and be able to integrate that and have a successful outcome, which is the same thing now in teaching the certification course and in educating other people and consulting. Having other people have those results is the real merit test for for validating that the curriculum itself. Because if it's just me doing it and it's just the Eric Chessen super autism fitness magic show, that's fine for the athletes that I work with. But what do we do on a larger scale? But if it's if we can replicate it and there are other coaches and practitioners who can use the work for their athletes, then then we are doing something that that really is world changing. *Ari* [00:12:04] Absolutely. So it sounds like you're creating a movement which is part of. What create a new tomorrow is about, meets with people and their passions. You have over 400 people that you've trained in this system who are now getting the opportunity to have an effect on thousands and thousands and thousands of a population that were previously unserved, as you know. I'd like to pick fights, so I'm going to pick a fight with the system itself. What have you seen as one of the largest obstacles inside of the system as it is and the training of the system, both in fitness and in all the other forms of medical care that you're you're looking for other practitioners? Like if you had a behavior in a speech therapist and, you could refer to regular basis that are as qualified as you are in what you do for that population. What would what would you consider to be the biggest obstacle in that system? *Eric* [00:13:14] I think having a largely reactive model and we can talk about this in terms of certainly the Western medical system, and I think it's gotten it's gotten a lot better with preventative care. In my experience and of course, this is only my experience when I first started out the buy in for or the interest in fitness for this population. Was not there. Not very high. I don't think people had an understanding of what fitness really is and what physical act, the benefit, the benefits of physical activity. And there's is a conversation I've had numerous times with colleagues, the fact that programing for the autism population at two decades ago, definitely even even a decade ago, was largely focused in the the academic and also in the very. I suppose we could say almost vocational. So it was all you know, it was all skill development. It was all this kind of rote, if not rote, rote memory, but just read a lot of repetition with no real, I think, overarching goal as far as a fully developed human being. *Eric* [00:14:38] What I mean by that is I think it's shifted and shifted for the better in terms of a lot more programming's being a lot more programing, being focused on quality of life now, which is good, especially for a program like mine, because we're dealing with quality of life in terms of physical health as well. So the conversation has shifted and I think the focus now is is a little better. What I think that one of the biggest issues is the difference between knowing something and doing something about it. You know, if if we asked a room of 200 people, how many of you think is physical activity is important for the best quality of life. Now, one hundred and ninety nine hands go up and no one not because they just want to argue. Right. Which is fine. But it's actually enacting those processes and those strategies, and that's the thing about what we do with autism fitness also is that I didn't have to invent anything in terms of the exercises. You know, we're using presses and squats and crawling patterns and hurdle steps and medicine ball throws. I don't have to invent anything. And I don't necessary hurdle or obstacle was not. We don't know what exercises are good. It's how do you implement these for this population? *Ari* [00:16:05] You know, it sounds like like there's a lot of cognitive benefit that may be a side benefit to the physical movement, especially if you're doing things like cross crawling, activating both sides of the brain with the movement, activating balance, that there's going to be a cognitive shift as well in in those that population. It sounds to me like you're having quite an effect on cognition as well as just knowing motor response. Or can you know Kinney's. *Eric* [00:16:40] I'm I'm certain that we do in some respects. The tricky part is not overestimating or over qualifying something that that's happening. So I only speak to what the observable universe that we have in front of us because I don't know what that's going to look like for each athlete. And I talk about this in our Level one certification with respect to when we break everything down. The system that I created is called the PAC profile. So it's physical, adaptive and cognitive. And from a cognitive perspective, we can see an increase in cognitive functioning during the fitness session. We have to be really careful in discussing what we're talking about because it's not as though we're saying, OK, well, we're doing 10 medicine ball throws and then three cone touches and then they're going to raise their IQ, you know, four points. But what we're looking at is the individual's ability to start making some some associations and contingencies between a direction. So I say, OK, go do a 20 rope swings and they go over and they pick up the ropes because they know they they are able to match my language, in the words unamusing with the recall of what they're supposed to be doing. So the cognitive effect, though, I'm sure it there's some there's a beneficial outcome there. What I can't start going into is whether it's specific or whether it's general. Because, again, when you're dealing with individual, I don't know what that's gonna look like for every individual, especially when we're talking about our our non-verbal population. But there is there's I think there's enough good research in the neurotypical population demonstrating that exercise does have a positive effect on certain areas of neurological functioning, that we could take that information and say, you know what? It's probably true for the autism and other developmental disabilities as well. *Ari* [00:18:47] Absolutely. So we're we're going to wrap this up a little bit. I ask everybody on the show to give some actionable steps that people can take today. And, you know, in this case, we'll talk to the parents, the trainers, the therapists, the people who deal specifically in this population or to what is what are three actionable steps that they can do if they're passionate about working with or supporting this population. What can they do to be of of more support workers? *Eric* [00:19:28] Number one is prioritize. Someone can give as much lip service as they want to fitness or anything else. But if it's not made a priority, then, you know, when is it going to happen? So, again, it's you know, I can have 100 hands raised in a room. How many people think it's important? Right. But how many people are actually doing it? And you're going to see dwindling numbers of hands there. Number two is consistency. We in our program, we win with consistency, and that's across the board with consistency with the exercises can just consistency with the teaching methodology, consistency with the coaching and cueing and the language that we use. And three is you can only work with what you're observing. So we have a saying in our program. We have many things in our optimum fitness program. It's no what you're looking at, which which means from all three areas, physical, adaptive and cognitive. So know what you're looking at with respect to the movement pattern. Know what you're looking at in terms of level of motivation and what we need to do to support behavior and know what you're looking at in terms of the individual's ability to understand and act on the directions that we're giving them. *Ari* [00:20:37] Awesome. Thank you so much. What? Where can people get a hold of you? What are some of the ways that somebody who's listening to this can connect with you? *Eric* [00:20:46] Our main Web site is autismfitness.com. And across the board, Instagram, YouTube and Facebook. It's the autism fitness. And I do a lot of I have started on them again. I do a lot of live chats where I answer people's questions. We put a lot I have we have a lot of videos on our YouTube channel that not only demonstrate the exercises, but some of the insight as to why we're doing something or what we're looking for. And for those who want to dove in and become autism fitness certified level one, pros on autism, fitness dot com. You can look at the certification page. You can download our course syllabus. Our next course begins. I believe so. Timber 20th. *Ari* [00:21:38] Cool. Sounds good. *Ari* [00:21:41] I really hope that people will come and check you out just as an added benefit to those that if you specialize in any fitness or medical training. Your average income goes up by approximately 60 percent. So for anybody who's on the fence, who's thinking, I'd like to do a general fit as I like to just do the general work. You can actually earn approximately 60 percent more for doing the same work and you'll have the reward of working with a population of people that you can really, truly have a massive effect on. And so that to me is a great benefit. Thank you so much, Eric, for coming on the show. Thank you. I am going to sign off now. This is Ari Gronich. And this was another episode of Create a New Tomorrow. I look forward to hearing from you and seeing you next time. Thank you. *Ari* [00:22:46] Thank you for listening to this podcast. I appreciate all you do to create a new tomorrow for yourself and those around you. *Ari* [00:22:53] If you'd like to take this information further and are interested in joining a community of like minded people who are all passionate about activating their vision for a better world, go to the Web site, createanewtomorrow.com and find out how you can be part of making a bigger difference. I have a gift for you. Just for checking it out. *Ari* [00:23:11] And look forward to seeing you take the leap. And joining our private paid mastermind community. Until then, see you on the next episode.

Your data is constantly being stolen. By who? What? Where is it going? Why don't we talk about it on the news? Join Me to find out

Today we go back to environmentalist, Steve Savage's roots (pun intended) as we explore the windows that were opened for Steve to form Eco-Products and 1908 Brands. Steve grew up with a lifelong passion for the environment that sprouted when recycling at a young age with his dad. That passion truly blossomed on a life-changing 14er hike (mountain peak exceeding 14,000 feet) where Steve realized the wondrous beauty of nature and vowed to protect it.  Even so, Steve's path wasn't always as clear as you'd think. It was a winding road of competitive tennis, international finance, and a couple of trips to Russia that finally brought Steve back to helping his dad with Eco-Products, a company that sold all kinds of environmental products from building materials to janitorial supplies. Join us as we discover how both Eco-Products and 1908 Brands identified their windows of opportunity and entered them head-on to find success in the wake of the 2008 recession and a pandemic, respectively. And afterward, let's reflect. What does your window look like? In this episode, you'll learn: The story of 1908 Brands and its heritage of environmental responsibility, including Steve Savage's great-great-uncle, William Kent's donation of what was later known as the Muir Woods National Monument The environmental comparison of US homes to European homes and how 1908 Brands pledges to change that Steve's move from Chicago to Boulder when he was 12 years old and why he loved it How Steve's experience hiking the Chicago Basin 14ers at 14 years old transcended his appreciation for the outdoors and helped him realize his calling to become an environmentalist Steve's change of heart from playing tennis for the University of Kansas to studying Russian for a corporate future in international finance  There are three arrows in a recycling loop. In 1990, Steve and his dad sought to fulfill the third arrow with Eco-Products by taking remanufactured recycled products back into the market. The beginnings of Steve and his dad building Eco-products and its steady growth year by year through visits to schools, churches, and greek life Why a new resin on the market called polylactic acid in 2006 became a turning point for Eco-Products The proverbial rocketship path of how Eco-Products went from being “not-so-sexy” to financially booming during the 2008 recession Pactiv's vicious strategy to knock out Eco-Products as a competitor and how that led to selling the company to Waddington North America in 2012 Steve's drive to keep Boulder Clean alive by having his hands in “another cookie jar”, aka 1908 Brands The “window” of the pandemic allowing for 1908 Brands to flourish through their plant-based disinfectant, which is EPA registered effective against SARS-CoV-2 Resources 1908 Brands 1908 Brands Instagram 1908 Brands LinkedIn 1908 Brands Facebook Steve Savage's LinkedIn Steve Savage's Instagram Steve Savage's Facebook Boulder Clean Plant-Based Disinfectant Quotes [10:17] That is how I was brought up, is recycling. For me to put a can in a trash can is like, the strangest thing in the world. It just doesn't go there. [13:10] The sidewalk in the sky drops about 2000 feet on both sides, there's a cross breeze…And really, the power of that situation is really what kind of changed my life. Ever since then, I've been an environmentalist. [34:07] I was selling environmental products. I felt like I was making a difference. But from a personal and financial perspective, there was doubt, but I would have to say once that window opened, and we jumped through, I mean, it was crazy how that took off.  Podcast Transcript Steve Savage 0:02 We were a small not so sexy business for 16 years. I mean, there's a lot, you know, I wasn't paying myself a lot, you know, there's a lot of doubt and, you know, where's this going? And, you know, should I be doing this? Am I ever going to provide for my family like I want to? So yeah, I've been tell then there was a lot of doubt. And, you know, I liked what I was doing. I was selling environmental products. I was, you know, I felt like I was making a difference, but from a personal and financial perspective. Now, there was doubt, but I would have to say once that window open and we jumped through. I mean, it was crazy. How that took off. Marc Gutman 0:46 Podcasting from Boulder, Colorado. This is the baby got backstory podcast. we dive into the story behind the story of today's most inspiring storytellers, creators and entrepreneurs. I like big backstory. And I cannot lie. I am your host, Marc Gutman, Marc Gutman, today's episode of Baby Got Back story. How a kid from Chicago moved to Boulder, Colorado, and built an eco Empire built on the backbone of compostable disposable cups. All right. All right. Now if you like and enjoy the show, please take a minute or two to rate and review us over iTunes. iTunes uses these as part of the algorithm that determines ratings on the apple charts. And ratings help us to build an audience, which then helps us continue to produce this show. Today's episode, we're talking to Steve Savage, cool name, right? Well, Steve is the President and CEO of 1908 brands. And Steve is best known for his previous company eco products, which sees the window of opportunity when they saw that compostable cups made of corn resin You heard that right corner isn't going to be a thing. Odds are if you travel or buy just about anything in a plastic cup cold coffee smoothies draught beer soda. Your lips have touched Steve's cups. Well, that wasn't supposed to sound as weird as it just did. But you get what I mean. Today Steve savage is the founder and CEO of 1908 brands, a family of brands that develops natural and trusted products for healthier home and planet. 90 no eight brands currently consists of six brands, Boulder Clean, Schultz's Thrive Tribe, Three Bears, Pasta Jay's, and Bundle Organics. I'm sure you've seen some of these on your local store shelves nationwide. Steve is a committed conservationist and entrepreneur who is continually searching for new ways to offer effective innovative and affordable green products. in just a bit. We'll hear his pivotal story about how he came to devote his life to building businesses based on preserving the environment. So enough of me, let's get to it. This is his story. So Steve, thank you for joining us here on the baby got backstory podcast. You are currently the president and CEO of 1908 brands. What is 1908 brands? Steve Savage 3:29 Yeah, that's a great question Marc. 1908 brands is a story that comes from my great uncle. And in 1908, he lived in the Bay Area and came across 300 acres of redwood trees that were about to be harvested or replacement of the city of San Francisco that had a fire in 1907. And William can't my great great uncle didn't want those bread. trees to be harvested. So he bought that land out from the lumber companies. And to save it, there was a new Antiquities Act by the US government where you could donate land under that Antiquities Act and save it from being harvested. And so he worked with Teddy Roosevelt. There's some great letters on our website between Teddy Roosevelt and William Kent, on this donation, and that happened in early 1908. And that 300 acres of redwood trees is now called the John Muir national woods. And if you read the letters, it's just an amazing story about you know, Teddy Roosevelt wanting the name of the William Kent national woods and William Kent said no, I have five Husky boys all with the middle name can't if they can't keep the name alive. You know, so be it. Please name it after my good friend and environmental environmentalist John Muir. So yeah, that's how the John Muir national woods, still there today beautiful spot. I try to go there at least once a year. And we're over 110 years, that's just been a national treasure. And, you know, we felt like that story of environmental gifting. Environmental Stewardship was an amazing story to build a company and you know, our culture and principles around. Marc Gutman 5:31 Well, that's a pretty famous tract of land. I mean, you know, the John Muir Woods is well known, I had no idea that that started the 1908 brands. And so what does 1908 brands do as a business today? Steve Savage 5:43 So 1908 brands is the parent company to what is going to be eventually, you know, a dozen, maybe two dozen brands and we really want to change the products that are in people's homes can be you know, 1908 brands started with boulder clean, which is a lineup plant-based cleaners and detergents. We also created a product called the CompoKeeper, which is a fancy trash can for food storage that eliminates odor and fruit flies. That brand has sold to a company called rev-a-shelf. Then we have also gotten into food brands. So we have five food brands right now and they're all in, you know, natural food space. And, you know, we leverage our resources and our relationships to try to make these particular brands successful. So right now we have six brands, and they're everything from non food to food brands. Marc Gutman 6:42 When you say you want to change the products of people's homes, what's wrong with the products in people's homes? Why do they need changing? Steve Savage 6:49 Well, I'm, you know, in the US homes, you know, I like to compare to Europe, I mean, in Europe, products and the homes are just healthier. They're warm. environmentally sustainable. They've been built with sustainability in mind, you can reuse the containers, you can reuse the packaging. Now, these are a lot of concepts that 19 white brands wants to bring into the US homes right now. Us products are kind of throwaway items. Now the average us consumer goes through, I forget the status somewhere around 20 tons of trash per year. It's just a ridiculous number products that they eat. The indoor air quality in our homes are three times more toxic than European home. So I mean, it's just, there's so many changes provide good solutions to make. make that easier. Yeah. And Marc Gutman 7:44 you started off our conversation talking a bit about your uncle and his act to to preserve 300 acres of forest. You know, I know that you grew up in Boulder, Colorado, but what was young Steve like, you know, let's go back to back where were you? Like when you're eight, were you an environmentalist and into the protecting the environment at that time? Steve Savage 8:05 Right. So a little bit, and I mostly grew up in Boulder. I actually lived in Chicago till I was 12. My two older sisters went out to the University of Colorado. And as my dad would visit them in Boulder, Colorado, he fell in love with Boulder. So, when I was 12, we moved to Boulder. Marc Gutman 8:25 Well, wait a second. What was that? Like? Like, dad just comes home. And he's like, we're moving. I mean, what did you think at the time? Steve Savage 8:32 Yeah. I remember being excited about it. Colorado. No, when you're from Chicago, and you're 12 years old. I mean, you know, the stereotype of Chicago. Colorado is pretty exciting. So I was excited about it. You know, when I first got here, you know, it was kind of tough and I missed my friends, but rapidly got into, you know, as already playing competitive tennis. You know, my dad would flood our backyard in Chicago. So I grew up playing hockey. So I got into sports pretty quick. And I look back and you know, so excited he made that move. love Boulder. And now a lot of people from Chicago have moved to Boulder and Colorado. So it was a big move, especially for me and my sisters. I mean, our family uprooted their home, and you know all their friends back in Chicago and, you know, follow them to Boulder So, especially my sister, Lisa, I mean, she was a freshman when we moved. She's like, Hey, why are you following me? But anyways, it was a big move for the family. But my dad even in Chicago. I mean, he was a recycler Marc Gutman 9:39 well then what did that look like then? Because like no one was a recycler then you know so yeah Chicago a recycler Tell me a little bit about him. What Where did what is his? I mean, it does sound and I don't want to put words in your mouth that this. There's like a legacy of environmentalism in your family but like so how does he become a recycler at that time and certainly in Chicago, it isn't easy. I have to imagine Steve Savage 10:00 Yeah, I mean, that was rare. I mean, I didn't really know that as a kid. But looking back at it and knowing now, I mean, it was a rare thing. But we used to go to a place we lived in Hinsdale, Illinois, which is a suburb of Chicago. And we there is a recycling center. And that is how I was brought up is recycling. I mean, for me to put a, you know, a can in a trash can, is like, the strangest thing in the world. It just doesn't go there. And, you know, I've been brought up my entire life, thinking that way. And you know, when I really became an environmentalist, is a story when I was 14, so we had moved to Boulder, and he immediately got into climbing fourteeners. So my dad and I and others and some of his friends, some of his friends from Chicago would come out and we would knock off fourteeners Marc Gutman 10:53 really quickly you want to like describe what a 14 year is for those people that may be listening that don't know. Steve Savage 10:58 Okay, so um, fourteener there's 53 fourteeners in the United States, I think of the 5343 or 45 are in Colorado, the rest are in California, Oregon and Washington. So most of the fourteeners you know, we were knocking out in Colorado. He also went out, and I didn't go as right when I was 12. And I wasn't old enough to go and did Mount Rainier. I think that's technically in Washington. And, you know, he got me into climbing fourteeners there was one particular 14 or when I was 14, actually, it was a trip. We went to Durango, Colorado, and we took what's called the Silverton railroad that goes from Durango to Silverton it's one of the I think still is one of the original coal burning trains and halfway between Durango and Silverton a group have eight of us got off and stopped in the middle of nowhere. And we hiked eight miles up to what's called the ironically Chicago basin where the Twin Lakes are. And around. Twin Lakes are for fourteeners, Windham, sunlite, ulis and North ulis. And so we were knocking those off. its one of the most beautiful spots I've ever been in my life. And, you know, kind of going back I'm telling you this, the story that pretty much changed my life and I tell this story when I have won environmental award and so far because it really did change my life and how I see the outside world. But here we are at the Twin Lakes in knockout sunlight, your knockout wind. In our last day we're climbing ulis and we get to the top of ulis and between us and North ulis is there's a ridge and it's called sidewalk in the sky and going from ulis to North ulis across the sidewalk in the sky. I remember it's probably five feet wide, like a sidewalk. And if you walk down the sidewalk, obviously you aren't scared to death. But on sidewalk in the sky drops about 2000 feet on both sides, there's a cross breeze. So you're kind of down on all fours. And it's not really technical, but I mean, you got a maneuver up and down a few rocks. And really, that the power of that situation is really what kind of changed my life and ever since then, I mean, I've been an environmentalist. You know, my dad and I, you know, we started my first company go products, right when I was out of college. So I mean, really, from that time, I appreciated the outdoors. Right now I've climbed about 38 of the fourteeners continued climbing 14 years continue to get out into nature in any way I could. I've joined in a number of neat nature, nonprofits, protecting our natural resources. So that's kind of the story, my childhood and basically how I became a environmentalist. Yeah, let's Marc Gutman 14:07 go back to that trip. I mean, it's such an epic trip. I've known people to do it and ride the railroad, you hop off. And it's just one of these, like, quitessential adventures that, that that really is, you know, there's not a lot of those left and it's a really amazing trip. What was it about that? So you say you're at the side of the sky, you're looking down, you're on all fours, scurrying. Like, but But what about that made you say, like, hey, like, you know, because because a lot of us go out in the environment, myself included, we enjoy it. But we don't all come back saying, you know, what, we're going to devote our life to protecting the environment, we're going to devote our life to sustainability, we're going to devote, you know, put our money where our mouth is and feed our family based on these principles, which is about like the biggest commitment you can make. So granted at that time, you may or may not have known that that was that was your path, but what really was it about that experience? Made you say, hey, like like this is worth protecting? Steve Savage 15:03 Yeah, you know, it's really the days that led to being on the sidewalk in the sky. It was in June, the wild flowers were just unbelievable. There was some old mining caves that we could explore. It really was, you know, the whole trip was probably seven days was really probably my first trip where now a lot of these four teeners are day trips, right are one or two days. It was probably the first trip that I spent a full week up there at, you know, 12,000 feet, which was our base camp to hit those for 14 years. I mean, it really was giving away. Now obviously, we didn't have cell phones then but it was really getting away from the city. And everything that you knew, is probably what changed my life. You know why that particular trip, did it? But it was just the beauty of the place. The Chicago basin is just an Gorgeous area surrounded by these four fourteeners with the wild flowers. And yeah, I mean, I think all that is, you know, the sunsets eating, you know, your freeze dried food. It just it was just an amazing week. Marc Gutman 16:15 Yeah. And so you're 14 I think I think you said at the time, is that right? Or you're 12 or 14 at during that trip. Steve Savage 16:21 I moved to Colorado when I was 12. I was 14 on that trip. Marc Gutman 16:26 Cool. So you're growing up in Boulder, Colorado, which is, you know, undergone massive change in the last 2030 years. You know, I think, you know, most people at least when I was growing up my whole reference of Boulder Colorado was from Mork and Mindy sleepyhead college town. I mean, what was boulder like, at that time? When when you were going to high school and spending your formative teen Steve Savage 16:50 years? Yeah, I mean, it was much smaller. But and it was, you know, but it was always an outdoor athletic town. I mean, you had You know, the coors classic bicycle race, which was one of the biggest bicycle races. I mean, it was, you know, that was already happening the boulder boulder was already happening. So I mean, it was even back then known as kind of a mecca sports town. You know, even the 711 team, which included Eric Heiden, you know, stayed right down the street from us and my sisters got them to join us and join them and our hot tub, which was kind of entertaining but yeah, I mean, Boulder. It's always been an outdoor town still is, always brings the best athletes. So I mean, a lot has changed, but a lot of stayed the same as well. Marc Gutman 17:40 Yeah, and I imagine your dad at the very least had to be like, wow, like finally some people that like want to recycle and believe Yeah, same things I do. But like I you know, like, I know that you weren't out there being a crusader it at 14 like you were a teenager, you know, and you're growing up and you're doing your thing and you go off to college, you grow up in a college town. But where did you go to college? Did you stay in stay in town and go to Boulder? Steve Savage 18:04 I actually I went to the University of Kansas. I originally went there to play tennis I did in Chicago, I played pretty competitive tennis, actually played Andre Agassi in the Chicago open. When I was 11. He kicked my butt. But it was fun. I mean, I didn't. He wasn't Andre Agassi. At the time, he was just another player. Marc Gutman 18:28 He wasn't 11 with a full bleached mullet and tight shorts, Steve Savage 18:33 right. And I don't even really remember that closely. his haircut and so forth. I just know he was one of the best players in the country. But I do know that's always been something I've remembered was playing him But yeah, I went to University of Kansas to play tennis. I played for four months. I was not getting a scholarship and I was kind of tired of tennis and ended up loving the University of Kansas. Great kids. Great Midwest kids. Got my one into the business school got an economics degree, you know, was in and out in four years I ended up actually, hockey's my other love ended up playing club hockey there as well. Marc Gutman 19:12 Yeah. And so what was your plan? So you go to Kansas, you know, you think tennis might be a path for you and then realizing, you know, I think a lot of people have that. Certainly I did where you're like, Okay, you know, this is cool, but I want to go on to different things. I mean, you got a degree in Business and Economics and what would you think you were going to do with it at the time? Steve Savage 19:32 You know, I went on Semester at Sea, my second semester, junior year and I fell in love with some Russian Russian culture. I met some kids from Russia in 1989. So I graduated college in 1990. The Soviet Union was falling apart. I actually thought I was going to kind of study Russian got into into international finance, get a you know, a corporate job. Speaking In Russian and getting them as us businesses, I thought at the time we'd be moving into Russia. So I took Russia in my senior year. I still have these Russian friends actually meet up with them when we're in Europe the last couple years. But yeah, that's kind of why coming out of college I thought I was going to do got into Thunderbird, which is in Phoenix, which is kind of an international finance school. But it was really the June after college that my dad pitched this idea and have a business. Marc Gutman 20:37 Take Take me there. So like, like, do you remember that day? Steve Savage 20:40 Yeah. So he was following his environmental commitment. He was actually Chairman of the Board of eco cycle, which is our local recycling facility. And he had this business concept of starting a business is if you think of the recycle arrow There's three loops, right? There's three arrows, and they all kind of bend and they make a loop. And the first one is collection, which as we've talked about, you know, my family has always been doing forever. The second loop is manufacturing, but nobody was really doing the third loop, which is taking the remanufactured products and getting them back into the market. So my dad and I started this company called eco products in 1990. And basically, the company mission was, you know, to buy everything from recycled copy paper, and at that time, fax paper and legal pads and even you know, toilet paper made from recycled materials and paper towels and trash bags and so forth. And so we started distributing all these recycled materials and starting a business that again called eco products and now I would go to fraternities or sororities or preschools or Small businesses or the University of Colorado, say, Hey, I got some recycled goods Do you want to buy them? Marc Gutman 22:07 I'm not exciting at the time. Because it's, you know, like, I mean, when you were coming out of college and you think you're going to conquer the world and and I'd still love to hear like, I mean, does your dad sit you down? Is it like this like TV moment where you're fishing? And he's like, hey, son, you know, I've got this idea, like, like, how does that all go down? Steve Savage 22:22 We were on the back porch of our house. We're in a Hoa called Devil's thumb. So we, you know, we backed up to the mountains to the trails, and it was on our back porch. I mean, I remember it vividly. My cousin, David McIntyre was in conversation as well. He was getting his MBA as CEO. So it was really my dad and I and David MacIntyre that started eco products. And were you stoked to read is kind Marc Gutman 22:51 of like yeah, and my dad's got an idea, but not ready to really have a plan and maybe I'll maybe I'll sling some recycled trash can liners. Steve Savage 22:59 Yeah. I decided to put Thunderbird international finance degree on hold. I was actually going to went back to Russia that fall to travel with some of my friends and practice my Russian. I was still at the time probably thinking I was going to, you know, still be an international finance with a specialty in Russian. But I agreed. Yeah, I'll start this concept with you. Yeah, I mean, at the time, I wasn't thinking it would be that big of a company, but it was something to do. You know, it didn't pay me. But it was something to do. And so we started with it. And now we we have success. Marc Gutman 23:41 Like right away? I mean, like right away where people buying I have to imagine it was a hard, like, we all know startups are tough. Right. And I have to imagine it was a bit of a evangelical, kind of pushing the boulder uphill. Steve Savage 23:52 Yeah, situation. You know, I remember my first 10 case order. I mean, I would get I would get it for tourney or get a sorority or a church or preschool eventually I mean, they would call and we'd place orders at first we had chicken scratch them on, you know carbonless paper and you know computers were just kind of getting started then. But I mean, it kept me busy and it was a job and you know, out of college you're happy to have a job. You know, honestly for that summer was probably just buying time until I went back to Russia for two months. And then I was going to get my international finance but it grew and it kept us busy. I did go to Russia but I came back and decided I would stay with eco products and continue to grow it I mean, we went from a couple hundred thousand in revenue, the first year then 400,000 revenue then 600,000 revenue, it always grew. I felt good about the products I was selling the environmental characteristics of them and you know, I'm the company ended up after a few years You know, a couple million in revenue, we had about five trucks that drive around town. We had drivers and I was a boss. And I mean, it just grew slowly. And, you know, in about 2006, you know, when we were about a $5 million company, Marc Gutman 25:18 yeah, let me let me let me stop you there. And so as I understand it, so I mean, it was it was a long time, right. So yeah, I mean, if I'm, if I'm doing the math, you know, we don't have to, like get into specifics and how long but I mean, the company was a nice little business, but it I mean, and please, you know, if I'm, if I'm speaking out of turn, but it was nothing super sexy. It was like a nice business. It was doing its thing. Not super exciting, but then in 2006, and I think this is where you're going. You see an opportunity and what is that opportunity, Steve Savage 25:50 right? So by that point, we were doing all kinds of environmental products. We had environmental building materials and environmental office supplies environmental janitorial supplies, we Had cleaners made from non toxic chemicals trash bags made from recycled or were biodegradable. But in around 2005 2006, there is a new resin that was man factored by nature works, who is owned by Cargill. And it was a resonant you could make just compostable food service items. And it was called plla, otherwise known for poly lactic acid. And we were having, Marc Gutman 26:30 how is poly lactic acid created? Steve Savage 26:33 Yeah, yeah, we're having abnormal success in that part of our business. And the product was cool. As far as you know, you can make a plastic cup that you now see around the country, and you could brand it was made from plla, which was a derivative of corn. So it was from natural resources and also was compost So it would return to the earth and it took off we spent from oh six to 2008 working with various MIT us manufacturers you know, would you private label this for us because we weren't the first ones to do so Fabrica was always make already making a corn cup International Paper was already making a PL a line hot cup active was making the sugarcane plates and so forth. So we first went to these North American manufacturers and said, Hey, can you private label for us? One by one? They said no. Marc Gutman 27:35 And why do they say no? Steve Savage 27:37 Well, they had their own brand so fabric cow and their own brand. Names escaping me International Paper had their own brand called ego Taner pack. They've had their own brand called Earth choice and they just they didn't want to private label have some private label person competing against them in the market. Marc Gutman 27:59 This episode brought to you by wild story. Wait, isn't that your company? It is. And without the generous support of wild story, this show would not be possible. A brand isn't a logo or a tagline, or even your product. A brand is a person's gut feeling about a product service or company. It's what people say about you when you're not in the room. Wild story helps progressive founders and savvy marketers build purpose driven brands that connect their business goals with the customers they want to serve. So that both the business and the customer needs are met. This results in crazy, happy, loyal customers that purchase again and again. And this is great for business. If that sounds like something you and your team might want to learn more about, reach out @ www.wildstory.com and we'd be happy to tell you more. Now, back to our show. Let's take a step back real quickly though. So like you have other products and there's this kind of new crazy thing, this corn cup. And if I remember the early versions of them, it wasn't perfect that there was some downsides, right? Like if you left it in your car, it might melt. Right? The resume itself was often created by an actual insect if I remember, which would mutate and do weird things. So like it was, it wasn't like this, like, like slam dunk or layup in terms of like, business opportunity, like how did you make that decision to see the market and say, You know what, like, I really think there's something here. Steve Savage 29:41 Right? Well, I mean, just, you know, I was at Hilton resorts and they said to same price, I can brand it environmental. And the quality is the same. I mean, where can I start so I mean, really, customer by customer University. By the way University distributor by distributor I mean they all sort of wanted it. And so you know, we fix those bugs by actually going to Asia and having a made in Asia and having them made in Asia we improved the heat tolerance of it. So they were actually much better at converting this PL a resin to be more heat resistant. So the, the heat tolerance went from about 105 degrees to about 135 degrees. So we now could private label, our quality was better, and we could put everything under one brand. So Hilton resorts could buy their forks, they could buy their souffle container they could buy their to go container, they could buy their straws, they could buy their corn cup their hot cup from one manufacturer as opposed to piecemealing it to a bunch of manufacturers like we had done previously. They could buy it from one plus our quality was better and our pricing on average went down 20 5% from Asia. So now the price was better in around 2008. If you remember, the price of oil went up to about $155 a barrel. So our resin was actually now cheaper. And so that was that was our big year when the economy was falling apart in 2008 eco-products went from about five to 45 million in revenue. And, you know, that was great. That was that was a crazy year. Marc Gutman 31:26 Yeah. And was it that simple? I mean, were you you saw this opportunity to private label and then you just did just do it? Did you have to raise money? Like how did you actually make this bet and make it work? Because, you know, I, at least in my my thought like It Wasn't that simple. Steve Savage 31:42 Yeah, I mean, it was from like, cash perspective, it was very difficult. I did raise money through a private placement memorandum through friends and family in oh seven and oh eight. In 2008. We actually took our first private equity investment from Green Mountain Capital of 2 million. So that definitely helped. But still going from five to 45 million is tough. Plus the cash flow model is terrible because you got to wire money to Asia. And it's a very slow boat coming over. And then the product, you know, it didn't sit in our warehouse very long, because actually no way, we're on allocation of seven of our top 10 items. So I mean, they went out the minute they came in, but then it was another 30 days to get paid. So I mean, my cash flow model was, you know, about 80 days from when I first wired to Asia, when I got paid by the US distributors. And that was our strategy. We went to us foods, Cisco food service, so we didn't go the direction of a few other. You know, there were a few other companies that were sort of doing this as well. We were the first one to go into distributors. And that pretty much made us successful because that's how we got into 10s of thousands of coffee shops and restaurants. And how Hospitals and universities and stadiums was through the US foods and Cisco food service. Marc Gutman 33:06 Yeah. And to your point, I mean, you and I know each other well, and you know, during those kind of, I don't know, if they're their early years or sort of the mid years, my wife and I, we would travel, we'd be in Hawaii, we'd see your cups, we'd be at the ski resort, and we'd see your cups, you know, we'd be traveling, as you mentioned, at Hilton Hotels, and we take a picture and send it to you. And it was like, such an exciting time. But did you was there a moment ever when you thought, like, this might not work? Or was it always a rocket ship? Steve Savage 33:33 It was always a rocket ship. I mean, yes, before we identified that opportunity and that window opened, There was a lot of times where as like, and as you touched on, I mean, we were a small not so sexy business for 16 years. I mean, there's a lot of, you know, I wasn't paying myself a lot. You know, there's a lot of doubt and, you know, where's this going and, you know, should I be doing this, am I ever going to provide for my family like I want to. So yeah, I've been tell then there was a lot of doubt. And you know, I liked what I was doing. I was selling environmental products I was, you know, I felt like I was making a difference. But from a personal and financial perspective, now, there was doubt, but I would have to say once that window open, and we jumped through. I mean, it was crazy. How that took off. Well, that's super Yeah, Marc Gutman 34:25 it's super awesome. But like, how did you have the confidence in convince, especially that friends and family round? You know, I think the private equity, they saw the success you're like, well, private equity believes in me no big deal. But going to that, that friends and family round and saying trust me, and they're looking at your existing business and being like, well, it's okay. But you know, yeah, like, like, how did you kind of go in there and have the confidence and as well as just the self belief that you were going to do right by what I have to believe are the people that you cared about the most, you know, certainly cared about your private equity investors. I don't want to say that. Not to be the case. But when you go friends And family that's like your kind of your your name, right, your family name your word that's like the big, the biggest thing you can risk sometimes. Steve Savage 35:07 Yeah, I mean, the good thing about those 16 years, though, is we were always growing, and we're always profitable. So we were, we were building a good business. I mean, we weren't super profitable. I mean, it's not like I was making anywhere close to six digits and so forth. But I mean, it was enough to pay my mortgage. And, I mean, it was, it was a decent business. So I, I, you know, I raised money, knowing that I could always pay it back because we weren't losing money. So that's kind of what gave me the confidence was, I knew I could always return the money, because at the end of the day, it was environmental products. But it was still products, right? It was still a commodity item. It was either paper towels or coffee paper or fax paper at the time. If any of you remember what fax paper or fax machines were, but I mean, it was Always, it was always a solid business. You know, we always had a good balance sheet. So I wasn't that concerned when I had my palm out and no people were writing checks. I'll tell you those early investors. I mean, they made out like bandits too. I mean, $40,000 investors made 1.6 million. I mean, it was that ended up paying off. Marc Gutman 36:22 Yeah, I mean, you certainly did, right by all them, but like, at the time like to say, hey, if you give me 40, I'm gonna give you 1.6 Steve Savage 36:29 I don't know you would have seen that coming. No, I didn't see that coming, though. Marc Gutman 36:33 Ya know, and it's such a great success story, and really, really incredible. But I think sometimes we forget that and on the backside when everyone's happy, just how hard it is to get there. And so you're building this business? You go from five to 45 million a year, like what's going on with you just as a leader with your company, like what's happening at that time? Steve Savage 36:55 So, yeah, I mean, we had to grow Fortunately, my wife is Human Resource specialists and she was huge as far as helping me develop the team, you know, the processes from a human resource perspective as far as benefits and so forth. So, she was a huge help also hired, you know, and I think most of it was luck. But he had an amazing team Luke, Luke Vernon was our CEO, you know, super fortunate to have him on board at the time, you know, as some of the Boulderites know, he runs Luke circle. He's now with a private equity group. I mean, super smart guy. I mean, really, Luke and I and then another older kind of legend, Jim lamma kusa, who now owns kusa tea He was my VP of sales and marketing. So it's really Luke, Jim and I. So we had a great team, we had great chemistry, headed our sales, Luke spearheaded our operations and a lot of this manufacturing in Asia and I just pulse you know, I kind of ran the show inside the walls as far as building the infrastructure. And the good news is the infrastructure was sorted there when that window open. I mean, we were a $5 million company, we had 12 employees. Like I said, we were profitable. I mean, we we did have the infrastructure, which helped. It's not like we were two people when this opportunity happened. I mean, we had an MRP system, and we had a lot of our invoicing and accounting processes in place. Marc Gutman 38:30 Yeah, it was like almost like you were preparing for that moment. And just waiting and getting things ready and making sure that you're prepared as soon as, as soon as you saw your window, and so grew the company. And again, I think like people just forget, there's this moment where like the idea of a compostable cup and then silverware was kind of like, it's kind of silly, like, you know, like, it was like early adopter kind of stuff didn't always work. You were like, who like what's going on here? Is this even, like people were just really like, not One was super bullish on it. But then both the window of the product and just the trends of where people's heads were in terms of environmentalism, warning things were compostable, reducing your carbon and environmental impact, like all these things, were coming to the forefront and so you're having incredible success. And you grow the company, and you get an offer to sell the company. Tell me about that. Steve Savage 39:24 Yeah. So, you know, another kind of big thing. In, you know, the next year, you know, I mentioned packed IV, you know, we were distributing their sugarcane plates and bowls and clam shells. In 2009. They came in, in a big way. They knocked us off on our hot cups, really, by design with each one was a different color. I mean, they were very suspicious the right word. I mean, they started writing huge checks to US foods and Cisco food service to bring in their in line called earth choice. They, they're in a billion dollar company so our big competitor went after us in a big way in 2009 Were you scared? You know, a little bit because they were writing you know $300,000 checks to kick us out so we had to win we really had to fight where Oh a our fight was to get make enough product and get it from Asia fast enough. But in 2009 Pact of a billion dollar company writing big checks to get kick us out of the distributors knocking us off it was you know, we we had a number of board meetings should we sue them because I mean, it was so obvious they knocked us off but you can't trademark colors and you can't trademark the, you know, the earth map, which was on our hot cups, so we couldn't sue them. But anyways, yeah, we were scared in oh nine we still grew from 45 to 65. But we're forecasting about 85 90 million that year. So it came in a little sooner and a lot more vicious than we anticipated. But to answer your question, I mean, it was a fight against pact. And for a number of years, we did get an offer and 2012 or the business, we're about 85 million in revenue. It kind of became obvious to me that, you know, could we take this as far as we could, because we didn't own any equipment, we kind of get that last 15 20% Cost of Goods savings, to really compete against those North American manufacturers that actually did have the equipment. So did we take this as far as we could, and, you know, when someone offers you a big jack, and no, and you have to remember, at this point, this is 2012. I've been doing this for 22 years. And so we decided maybe we've taken this As far as we can, we need to be purchased by a strategic that has equipment that has machinery that can get us that last 15 20% that has the same environmental culture and mission that we do. So yeah, I mean, we're we ran a small process, but we ended up selling to Waddington North America, otherwise known as w na in 2012. Marc Gutman 42:26 And was that was that hard? I mean, I have to imagine that you, you know, and we see this all the time. I've built businesses, I've talked to a lot of people who've built businesses, it's a little bit like your child, it's a baby, maybe even, you know, it's like something you built from from nothing into something. I mean, was it hard to sell? Steve Savage 42:43 Yeah, I mean, it was, it was hard. I mean, it's everything I ever knew for 22 years. So yeah, it was tough. But, you know, by then 19 toy brands had already started so when eco products started getting rid of a lot of the stuff like the environmental building materials, the non toxic cleaners and so forth. I didn't want boulder clean, which was the non toxic cleaners and detergents to die. So I had actually started 19 oil brands in 2010. And it absorbed the cleaners. So I already kind of had my hands in another cookie jar when ego products sold. So unfortunately, I didn't get much of a break. I just went from one business to the other. But I was sort of, you know, still in the game doing what eco products used to do so, so part of the business, but still had another business and that's, you know, what I'm doing today. Marc Gutman 43:43 And why is that? I mean, I think we all have this, this dream of being on that proverbial rocket ship, but finding our window, finding our corncob right, whatever that might be, having a great exit and then like why go back into to Kind of startup land again, or at least much smaller and less momentum than what you were experiencing? Why do that and why not just go hang out on the beach and kite board and, you know, play a lot of tennis and hockey? Steve Savage 44:13 Yeah, I mean, I still ask myself that question. I mean, I was still young. I mean, I was 42 at the time. I wasn't ready to retire. I thought boulder clean still had a great opportunity. I mean, it was, you know, only one or 2 million at the time, but I you know, my kids were in grade school or probably junior high, maybe grade school at the time. So it's not like I could retire and pipe board forever, and play hockey and so forth. I know, I had my parents sponsibility So yeah, I mean, I just went from one company to another you know, I I have a lot of energy and passion and felt like I had one more no business to grow. Marc Gutman 45:01 Yeah. And speaking of that energy and passion, I mean, what are you most excited about right now as it relates to 1908 brands and where you're taking the company? Steve Savage 45:09 Yeah, you know, what's the craziest thing is this year as kind of, like eco products. I said, in a way when the economy was falling apart, that was our big year. Ironically, I mean, the years at 19, like brands, I mean, it's been tough. This is a tough category. It's a which is the natural foods channel natural products, dealing with grocery stores and distributors. I mean, it is a very tough industry. There's a lot of marketing money that retailers and distributors Expect When You're a smaller company. You know, you're can't leverage high volume, cost of goods. And so it's been tough, but this is our window. Actually, during this pandemic. We have a plant based EPA registered against the SARS-COV2 that causes COVID-19 we actually were in development of this right before the pandemic hit. And this is our five to 45 million year right and as the world is falling apart, so this is kind of like eco products 2.0 this is really being driven by this plant based EPA registered disinfectant. And you know, since the pandemic started, it's gone nationwide with Whole Foods, all these Sam's Club regionally with Costco, nationwide Kroger so I mean, it's this is I've been working 10 hour days since the pandemic started just trying to get more chemical, more bottles, more triggers, you've probably heard, you know, spray triggers. You can't even find them. You couldn't for a while, but we've gotten lucky. Fortunately, our bottles a little shorter, fatter than most. So the dip tube length of eight and a half inches is a lot easier to come by. So I've been able to get spray triggers. We've invested in more molds to make more bottles. But it's funny, I mean, after slugging it out at 1908 brands for 10 years, you know, our window open and it kind of opened with this EPA registered disinfectant. Marc Gutman 47:19 Now what's hard about putting a plant based disinfectant out on the market? I mean, I imagine it can't be easy. It's probably the easy path is to do something that's chemical based. Steve Savage 47:31 Yeah, chemicals are a lot easier to make synthetically. But you know, this time all based disinfectant. I mean, it definitely works in there is supply of it. So the chemical actually hasn't been the hard part in this. In this time. All base technology has been around for a few years, seven generation and clean well also have a disinfectant with this technology that's EPA registered so So the formula has been around a little bit, it's really been the components, you know, the packaging, and because then this entire category, the cleaning and detergent category has been extremely stressed since this started, I bet. Marc Gutman 48:14 Well, Steve, thank you so much for coming on the show. As we wind to a close, I have a final question for you. You know, if your great uncle William Ken, and your father who, you know, I understand, I know, is no longer with us. If they were able to see you today, what do you think they'd say? Steve Savage 48:31 I hope that they would say they were proud of me. You know, I think they would say that just trying to kind of follow in their footsteps. I mean, they were huge role models, you know, something that, you know, I look up to and, you know, I'm just trying to follow in their footsteps and I hope that they will be proud and so yeah. Marc Gutman 48:58 And that is Steve sax. From echo products in 1908 brands, what does your window look like? Would you even know it if it opened up right in front of you? Steve certainly does. He saw the window wants with corn cups. And it sounds like he's seeing it again with plant based cleaners. Right on Steve. Thank you again to Steve and the team at 1908 brands. Keep saving the world, one eco product at a time. Well, that's the show. Until next time, make sure to visit our website www dot wildstory comm where you can subscribe to the show in iTunes, Stitcher or via RSS so you'll never miss an episode. I like big backstories and I cannot lie. You other storytellers can't deny.

This episode is brought to you by me. If you like this show and want to support it, please visit my courses on Pluralsight and buy my new book "200 Things Developers Should Know", which is about Programming, Career, Troubleshooting, Dealing with Managers, Health, and much more. You can find my Pluralsight courses and the book at www.developerweeklypodcast.com/AboutDan Appleman is an entrepreneur, author and speaker on both technology and career topics. He is currently the CTO and a co-founder of Full Circle Insights, a Silicon Valley marketing analytics company on the Salesforce platform. He is a Salesforce MVP and the author of numerous books including the best-selling book "Advanced Apex Programming". He also authors online courses on Pluralsight.com relating to the Salesforce platform as well as other technology and career topics.Show resources:Follow Dan on TwitterConnect with Dan on LinkedInDan's Pluralsight coursesDan's blogFull transcript:Barry Luijbregts  0:17  Welcome to another episode of developer weekly. This week, I'm talking with Dan appleman, about taking charge of your technology career. Dan is an entrepreneur, author and speaker on both technology and career topics. He's currently the CTO and co founder of full circle insights as Silicon Valley marketing analytics company on the Salesforce platform. And he is a Salesforce MVP, and the author of numerous books, including the best selling book, advanced Apex programming. He also authors online courses on pluralsight.com, related to Salesforce platform as well as other technology and career topics. Welcome then you really are a living legend. It's an honor to have you on the show. Dan Appleman  1:46   I very, it's it's funny, it's funny, you should use the word living legend. When I got into Salesforce. I was at a conference and you'll people who knew me from the Visual Basic days would come up to me and and there was like, Well, what are you doing with Salesforce? And there was the sort of undercurrent like, what he's still alive. So I don't know about the legend part, but living knock on wood still still with us. Barry Luijbregts  2:10  Yeah, you've been doing all of this for quite a long time. And you've pivoted a couple times as well. Dan Appleman  2:16  Anybody who's been in technology, as long as I have had better have pivoted more than once, because, you know, let's face it, the technologies I studied on and learned on and practiced for the first decade of my career are museum pieces. Now, literally museum pieces, I can go to the when I go to the local Computer History Museum in Mountain View. It's a real trip because I walked through there and said, Oh, I own that one. It's like, Oh, I wish I owned that one. And, and so yeah. Barry Luijbregts 2:47  That's how it goes.So today, I wanted to talk with you about career because I think that's a super valuable topic, and way more valuable than learning about the latest and greatest JavaScript framework. This is something that everybody can take something away from, because you are also kind of an expert on career topics as you created a bunch of little side courses on it. A lot of them I actually liked a lot, and a lot of you. So, first of all, why did you get into the career topic?Dan Appleman  3:18  Well, um, so there, there were basically two reasons. One was I had just finished my finished my first Pluralsight course, on apex. And I was thinking, wow, you know, wouldn't it be great to write create a course that would appeal to, to everyone to every developer? You know, of course, like that would do well, and, and, and I think I know a few things about a career. So I proposed to, to Pluralsight. Let me do a career course. And their reaction was, well, we've never done anything like that before. I don't know if anybody would be interested in watching it. But I had a lot of faith in it. Because you Even when I would speak at conferences, I found that speaking truth about what it is to be a developer is all too rare. And if you do speak truth about what we're really experiencing as developers, that it resonates with people, and it's important, so I did that was my first career and survival strategies for developers now for technologists because I broadened it and, and I continued to do career courses ever since because I think they are you know, as you say, we tend to focus on the technology, but the career part is so important. Yeah. Barry Luijbregts  4:40  Because technologies are transient. Like you said, you know, they they comment they go away. So you need something broader to actually keep you alive within your career and your your working life. Dan Appleman  4:51  And and all of the career skills and soft skills. I call them multipliers because they take whatever technology skills you have They multiply, they increase the effectiveness of those skills. And they last forever, they don't become obsolete. So I think that thinking strategically about your career is important. And this is something that these are all things that I wish someone had taught me because I did not know, or do or think about any of this stuff. For the longest time in my career, I would sort of Corinne from opportunity to opportunity saying, oh, time for a new job, what's out there? I didn't think strategically at all. And I really, you know, looking back, if only somebody had talked about these things, it would have been, I think it would have been valuable. Barry Luijbregts  5:43  Yeah, it's definitely not a topic that's been taught in school or a formal thing. So that that's lacking. But luckily, there's now resources out there like your pro site courses, for instance. I think when you talk about career, the first thing you should start Thinking about is well, how do you define success in a career? When is your career successful? When when are you happy with what you're currently doing? So how do you define success? Dan Appleman  6:12  It's incredibly difficult. And, you know, it's really easy to say, Well, I'm successful, because I'm making more money or because I got a title or promotion or, or, or something like that. But, you know, how many of us really know what we want in life? Right? Yeah, we have opportunities and, and, and we follow them. But, you know, do we think about what is important to us? Do we think about, you know, things like work life balance and, and what we're passionate about, and, and all of these kinds of questions, and they're very individual. So it is important to take the time to think about those things. But that doesn't mean it's easy. It's not a case where you can go to someone and say, Hey, you know, well Think about what success means to you. And he sort of dropped blank because that that requires soul searching. And it changes over time. You know, things that I considered a success, you know, 10 years ago are maybe different from what I consider successful today. Barry Luijbregts  7:16  Yeah, absolutely. I have to same thing when I was younger, I'm still pretty young. Actually. When I was younger, even, I found, I thought that I would be very successful if I had, you know, a nice car, nice house and a nice salary. But now I don't care about that as much. I just want to be home for my family for for dinner for my kids. That's how I define my success. Dan Appleman  7:41  And as a technologist, that is really, really hard because everything in our culture says, you know, if you're going to be a software developer in technology, you have to keep learning you have to keep up we have this intense pressure, that any minute that you're not spending, you're reading a textbook or Studying or something like that is is puts your career at risk. And it's all too easy to sacrifice friends and family and, and hobbies and other things to that pursuit. Barry Luijbregts  8:14  Oh, yeah, I definitely did that when I was younger as well. I just learned and worked into evenings and weekends open source thing there a side hustle there, just to just to keep up Really? Yeah, it's it's a lot of pressure. And actually, I got I got burned out. Like, five years ago, I had a burnout because of it. And because of that I had, well, first thing was to actually identify that it was a burnout. That was very difficult because I just stopped being productive. I was tired all the time. couldn't really get out of bed. didn't really see a reason to get out of bed. or sad. It just started crying out of nowhere. And then I just, my wife also said, well, you you're burned out. You're done. So I changed my life. That's Basically what I did as in, I changed how I worked, I stopped my current job, I was a freelancer, I stopped working for, for a company that was, was not fitting my purpose, because it was very frustrating to work there. I think that was a very big thing. And I had a little control over what I did. And I worked very hard. So I stopped that. And I started plural sites, and make Pluralsight courses. Dan Appleman  9:26  And, you know, it's very brave of you to say these things, because, you know, it's not something that that most developers, you know, especially in, you know, still to this day, a lot of technologists are men, right. And that's a hard thing in most cultures for men to talk about. You know, and one of the, the, I suppose, more selfish reasons that I would like to see more women in technology, aside from all of the great reasons like opportunity and so on, is it might cause a little bit of a shift of that culture to to have a greater appreciation for Being Human as a technology worker, right, and not just a coding robot, a lot of us are. So this is something I noticed. And I noticed relatively early when I was on the speaker circuit, and I'd go to all these conferences. And you know, you've been to conferences, you know that a lot of the talks are about the latest technology, the newest technology, what's coming next. Right? And officially, everybody goes to these because we're so excited about the new technology, but I think, yeah, I think the unspoken thing and this is what I started speaking about in some of my sessions was, we're attending these things because we're terrified that we're falling behind. Right, and we're gonna miss something and it'll impact our job and, and so on. And it's okay to speak to that. Right, it's okay to acknowledge that and in one of the messages that you'll see in A number of my courses is that when it comes to learning technology, the bleeding edge, which is the newest technology is the last place you want to be, unless you are a speaker or a trainer, or someone who really makes their living. Talking about the very latest technology, you really want to wait, you know, six months or a year, because if you wait, other people will get rid of the bugs. Other people will be writing blog posts, it's become so much easier to learn it, it's more stable. The bleeding edge is a terrible place to be as a working developer, it's a very inefficient place to learn technology. So unless it's a technology like right now Apex where it is my job to be right at the leading edge for everything else. I wait a year. You know, I look at the technologies about a year old. It's it's just I wasted less time dealing with that. Barry Luijbregts  12:01  Yeah, yeah, definitely Me too. I just, although some technologies I kind of have to get into as a Pluralsight author as well. And I'd like to get into like blazer, for instance, which is a new thing. But for production purposes, I stay away from it as well. And also just for peace of mind, because I don't want to deal with all that. Dan Appleman  12:21  I went through when Microsoft came out with ole and ActiveX. And they took all the component models they had, they had a VB x component model for Visual Basic, and they created this whole new calm, ActiveX thing. And it took a long time for it to come out. And the reason was that they kept changing it. I mean, we build something and they break it, we build something and they break it. It was a miserable, horrible, terrible experience for people who were trying to adopt this new technology. It was, yeah, was that I think that's where I really learned that how awfully stressful and difficult the bleeding edges. Barry Luijbregts  13:04  And we I think we've all been there. So yeah, so we just were talking about defining success and purpose. That's important. So my burnout, I took that time as well to reflect on what I actually found important two things that I felt was important in life. And that wasn't money and learning in the evening and then being the best developer. But spending more time with my family was more important. So let's, let's switch it up a little bit. So there are lots of people that are wanting to start a technology career want to become a software developer, let's say, Where should they start? I get this question a lot. Like, should I go to JavaScript? Should I go to a boot camp? Should I go to school? What should I learn? How should I learn it? What should I do? What are your thoughts on it? Dan Appleman  13:54  So I'll give you a very brief summary. So one of the early Career courses one did in fact, I just finished updating and I think the update should be published within a couple of weeks is called Learning Technology in the information age. And what I came to realize is that learning is a strategic decision, right? People say Where should I start? It is actually not a simple answer, you know, people say you should learn C sharp or c++ or you should learn JavaScript. And that's doing them a disservice. Because when really has to think about how do we learn technology? And what are the different components of learning technology? How do you balance things like fundamentals first, you know, which can be very long lasting with, with general information and, and with skills as one of the things I note in the courses, you know, people, you know, the the way I describe it is, we sort of know the cliche, knowledge is power, right? As I told cliche, we're in the information age and, and that's actually not true. Because one of the consequences of the information revolution is that knowledge is cheap. And information is cheap. I mean, we have so much access to knowledge and information, it's been devalued. So knowing something actually has very little value. The ability to do things with knowledge skills are where there is still value. So that's one aspect of, you know, it's not what do you want to learn is what skills do you want to develop? And then when you think about how do you learn something while learning isn't just I know JavaScript learning is this mix of fundamentals and information and skills and, and curation, which is, you know, what is the order? That's what the question you're being asked is, what is the order? What Where should I start? That's a question of curation, which is all important. So the answer the reason answer to that person is, you're about to invest a whole bunch of time learning technology. It's worth your while to spend a few hours to learn about learning technology to think about how you want to learn technology to think about to create a strategy. And, and that's what that course does. That course is all about, Okay, take a moment. We're going to spend a couple of hours now. And we're going to talk about learning itself, and all the ways you can learn and how to set priorities and how to figure out how to figure out for yourself the order. That makes sense. And that's why I can't really answer the question now. Because the answer is, you know, watch that course, spend a couple of hours and learn how to learn strategically, Barry Luijbregts  16:45  And then to create a strategy for yourself on what you're going to learn and how you're going to learn it. Dan Appleman  16:51  Absolutely, absolutely. And, and more important, how to do it efficiently because, you know, we're all busy. You want time Hang out with your family. So anything you can do to learn more efficiently is worth it. And, and I'm a real believer in that and, and I've gotten much better at practicing it myself and really thinking about, Okay, I'm gonna learn this technology, how am I going to go about it? What's my strategy? What's my plan? How far do I want to go? Because, you know, you don't have to become an expert, you cannot become an expert in everything. So, one of the questions to ask yourself is how, you know, what is what is the point where, okay, I've learned enough of this. Let me move on and learn something else. Barry Luijbregts  17:38  Right. And that's also the question of do you specialize in something or do you want to be a generalist more, right? Dan Appleman  17:45  When I was going to school, everyone told me you should specialize, you should specialize and I said, No, I am going to be a generalist. And in the course of my career, I have at times had expertise in certain areas. Right. But at a certain point, the technology changes or you change. You know, one of the ways I got into Salesforce was, you know, I was I was in dotnet. I was an expert in dotnet. Right, very, very familiar with, with Edyta probably a deeper level than most people. And I've, you know, you talk about personal crisis. In my case, it was about the time that my father passed away and I sort of had this you know, what do I do with myself now, you know, and in the truth is that between that and I just wasn't having fun without net, it's like, they're adding new features and they didn't seem to be, you know, providing that much value for all the effort I was spending to keep up. And then I bounced into the Salesforce world, and it was fun. And I know there are people out there who think Salesforce and think most, you know, evil language in the world, or whatever it was, it was an enormous amount of Have fun. And I was meeting people who were really enjoying being part of that ecosystem. It was a very real sense of community. A lot like I had experienced in the early days of Visual Basic, a little us against the world kind of thing. And I just sort of said, this is this is fun. You know, I'm having fun in the Salesforce platform. I am having a blast in the Salesforce platform.Pays well, too. But yeah. Barry Luijbregts  19:32  That's also important. Yeah. But but that's, that's a very important aspect of anything that you dive into. It has to be fun for yourself. Because there's so much to choose from nowadays. The world of technology is just incredible. It was much, much smaller. But now there's so much. If you look at something like Microsoft Azure, for instance, that's not just one technology. No, there are like 150 services that you can become an expert in. Dan Appleman  19:59  And plus then becoming an expert in just managing them on as your, your AWS is a whole other thing. And, you know, this is one of the things going back to somebody asking I want to get into a career in, in technology and technology's a hard career. And, you know, I didn't see that going into it originally. Because, you know, I saw that, hey, it's a career, I love technology. It's going to be a lot of fun. It's going to be interesting. I, you know, I'm, I'm as much a geek as they come. But what I didn't realize until much later is that the hard part of being a technologist isn't learning the new stuff. It's the fact that all the old stuff keeps going obsolete. And most careers don't have that, you know, like, if a doctor doesn't keep up. It's not like, the ways they treat people don't work anymore, right. Yeah. You know, most careers. Once you've gained the skill, the old stuff doesn't go away even as you're learning new things and But in technology, it is. So it's a hard career. It is, it is one that you have to resign yourself to learning, always. And in that stress of keeping up, so. So that's one aspect that people, you know, I don't necessarily discourage people from getting into tech. But I note this, you know, this is what you're getting yourself into. Barry Luijbregts  21:27  Yeah. And it has to be in your nature a little bit as well as in you have to be a lifelong learner, maybe by yourself, or you, or maybe you get into that. But if you're not, then you're gonna have a very, very difficult time in technology. Dan Appleman  21:39  But if you love technology, you want to learn it. So it's not that heavy lift. It's not that hard to do, right. But when people go into it just for the money, they discovered it, in some cases, that it becomes very costly because you're working for work and then you're also on the side in the evenings and other times struggling To keep up, and the money is costing you a lot. So Barry Luijbregts  22:05  Yeah, and is the money actually that good? Because in your course, the hidden secrets of technology careers, you explained that people in technology careers starts with a high salary, but it typically plateaus quickly. Yeah, I've seen the same thing where graduates, they have their job interviews at car dealerships, and then they pick out the lease guy right then and there. And later on, they get stuck in their jobs because then they plateau. Can you explain why that is? Why do salaries plateau in technology quickly? Dan Appleman  22:34  Why do salaries poplateau  in technology quickly? You know, that's a tough one. But there is no doubt that you know, for most companies, if you want to go past that, you have to really continue to see salary increases you end up having to go into management and which is fine, you know, nothing wrong with management. But it is hard to you know, Unless a company has a real specific technology track, and, you know, part of it is because, you know, when when you've been, you know, working for, say 10 years? Well, the stuff you did five years ago is obsolete. So, you know, why shouldn't a company hire someone cheaper? Yeah. Right. You know, that knows the same things that you do, presumably, at least in the technology side. So, you know, there's a certain amount of that there's a certain, you know, there's definitely age discrimination in, in the technology field. But other companies recognize that there are advantages to hiring, you know, the older technologists because, you know, they're bringing other things to the table, especially those that developed the leadership skills and the managerial skills and the soft skills. Barry Luijbregts  23:48  Yeah, because those are the skills that actually matter. You know, obviously, the skill in the technology matters as well. But if you can't think around it, then it's Have no use? Dan Appleman  24:01  Absolutely, absolutely. Barry Luijbregts  24:03  So you say one way of breaking through that salary plateau would be to become management, maybe a development manager or whatever, what have you. That's, that seems very difficult and quite a leap. Right? Because then you really stepped out of technology. Dan Appleman  24:20  It it, you know, it's funny, because one of the things I really became to came to realize system the past few years, as I'm teaching about careers is that I actually am a rather unique character in terms of my career path, because, you know, I've held an awful lot of titles. I mean, you know, right now, I'm a CTO, and I've been an entrepreneur and a speaker and an author and manager and the VP of software development and all of these kinds of fancy titles, but most of the time when you meet someone who's been working in a career as long as I have, they will respond to exactly the way it is like, yeah, you know, I miss developing software. haven't built anything in a long time, right? they've, they've turned completely to management. But in my career, the one constant The one thing that I've been doing all the time without a break for four decades now almost, is building production software and shipping software. Right. And I say that because, you know, as someone who's in software development, you know, there's a big difference between somebody who's a hobbyist and someone who's shipping product because, you know, shipping product is is releasing things. That's the thing. And, you know, in fact, let's see to today is Sunday. I think my last I think, last week, I'm working on I'm working on a branch that's not going to be out for a while. Last Monday, I put in a commit into our code base, that will probably be in a release not This week, but next week, and it will go out to hundreds of customers, and they'll be using it. So, you know, I'm still shipping software. And I think that gives me a rather unique perspective of what it means to have a technology career. It's possible, but it's rare for someone to keep their head in the game, even while doing all the other crazy things. Barry Luijbregts  26:22  Yeah, and I think for you, obviously, that's possible because you work for yourself, you're an entrepreneur. But for people that work in a company, it might be more difficult. And that will heavily depend on your company culture. Dan Appleman  26:36  That is very, very, very true. And, but it also brings up the other thing when we talk about getting over that salary, plateau. Entrepreneurship, and, you know, I have mixed feelings about it. I couldn't go back now. And it's not for everyone, but it is accessible to everyone. And I created a course called, so you want to be an entrepreneur, which basically is, okay, here's, here's the deal, here's how to do it. And I note that, you know, in the, I think the 1800s, if you look at the United States, 90% of the population were entrepreneurs, they were all small, small business owners. It was only with the industrial age that we got into the whole factory model and employees and so on. So entrepreneurs are nothing special, anybody can do it. Right. It really is one of those things. Yeah, you're not not everyone's gonna be a super billionaire, whatever. That's takes luck and genius, but just, you know, you're an entrepreneur. You're a Pluralsight author, right? Barry Luijbregts  27:40  And I have several businesses as well. Dan Appleman  27:42  So, you know, what I'm talking about most, most entrepreneurs are like, you and I were small business small businesses, you know, or, you know, founders or co founders or, or whatever and, you know, it is possible to busts the plateau. You know, when I first took that first leap by working really hard and doing some consulting, my first year as an entrepreneur, I made about the same amount of money as I did the year before that. The year after that, I doubled it. And the year after that, I doubled it again. And it was like, whoa. Since then, there have been ups and downs. There was one year looking back that I probably should have applied for food stamps. I think that was I think that was during the.com bust during like 2000 to 2003. But that's the the secret of entrepreneurship is people say, Oh, that's so risky. That's so risky. And what they don't necessarily realize it's a different kind of risk. losing your job. You know, being an employee, if you lose your job, you've lost all your income. That's pretty high risk. At the worst of the.com bust, my income didn't drop to zero. It dropped a lot but it didn't drop to zero. Barry Luijbregts  29:00  Yeah, plus, I think also, in the worst case scenario, you could also go and find a job. Sure. Dan Appleman  29:06  You might not like it find the job. Yeah, you can find the job. You can, you know, you can write articles nowadays you can Uber well, or doordash. Because I don't think this is the other challenge right now, when we talk about someone getting new into technology is we always have to be very careful in terms of how we advise people based on our own experiences. Certainly, you know, since I have since, you know, my entry to technology was so long ago, the world has changed. And, and, and one has to be, you know, careful with one's assumptions, and really be thinking about what the world is like now for people and the challenges they're facing now. And right now, the challenge is particularly difficult, because we are now in entering this new reality we are experiencing everywhere on the planet. At a disruptive change, so people are working from home. This is a terrible time to be looking for work. Barry Luijbregts  30:05  Yeah, absolutely. Dan Appleman  30:07  It is. One has to be careful, right, you know, in terms of giving advice, because one has to question all of one's assumptions. Barry Luijbregts  30:16  Yeah, definitely. And especially, we might not be the most typical people to talk about this. Because we have very different careers and most developers that work for companies. Dan Appleman  30:28  Well, you know, I did my time. Barry Luijbregts  30:31  Yeah, Dan Appleman  30:32  I did. I did my time. I was a cubicle dweller for a lot of years. So, you know, I, my, I started my first company when I was like, 31 or so. So the first more than 10 years of my career was, you know, small business and a startup but cubicle, you know, not a not a founder or anything like that just yeah, employee. So, you know, I remember that very, very well. And Of course, Now on the flip side, I've hired people, right? So I'm in the manager position and, and, you know, I try to keep a real eye and sense of what their experiences. Barry Luijbregts  31:12  So as we come to the end of our conversation, let's talk about one more thing. And it is, to me your successful career is one that's also results in comfortable retirement, as in, you're done. And you have enough money to live when you're not working anymore, if you choose to not work, of course. So how do you go about it, you know, as an employee, you might put your money into a big bucket of 401k, or whatever that is in your country. In the Netherlands is similar. We also have a pension fund and usually, the employer also pays a little bit into that and you pay in depth into that yourself as an entrepreneur, you have to do it all yourself. What are things that you can do to make sure that you actually end up with a comfortable retirement? Dan Appleman  31:59  well, You don't end on the easy ones do you?Again, one has to be really, really careful because whenever somebody offers financial advice, they'll say, Well, you know, the stock market has done this for the past six years. And yes, this rule and all this kind of stuff. And right now I look at the US stock market. And you know, we are, we are massive unemployment businesses are shutting down every day. Every sign indicates that the economy is suffering. And yet the stock markets hitting new highs, it makes no sense to me whatsoever. And I know it doesn't make sense to anyone else. And the way I know that is because when I look at the news feeds and the finance pages, you will find exactly on the same page one person who's saying, you know, here's why this is the best time to invest them the other person saying get out of the market, get out of the market. Yeah, nobody, nobody knows. So but I question The concept of retirement in the sense, because if you're having fun, if you're doing what you love doing, and if you enjoy technology, why would you stop? Right? I mean, really, especially nowadays, when you can do stuff on the road, right? I mean, you can, you can go drive cross country, and in the evening in the hotel room, you can work on gigs, or you can work on articles or, you know, this is the this is the golden age of the gig economy and technology as well. Why would you stop? I mean, if if you are in a career, and you are looking and saying, I wish it was over and I was done and I could retire, then I would say you're asking the wrong question. What can you do now to create for yourself that income stream that will be fun that you will want to do You know, and and everyone will tell you that having purpose, when when you're retired, just retiring is a terrible thing. It's bad for your health, having a purpose, having meaning having, you know, something to keep your mind sharp, of, you know, I plan to do PluralSight courses, you know, for as long as they let me because, you know, it's fun, and I get to share my experience and knowledge and, and so on. And, you know, I'm probably will at some point stop shipping code, not because I don't want to keep up but because if you ship code, you're, you know, are responsible for it, and you have to maintain it and know that at a certain point, you don't want to have to do that. But articles, you don't have to maintain articles. You don't have to maintain, you know, blog posts, white papers, books, you know, can always write a book. Anybody can do this stuff. So, but in terms of the financial stuff, the other thing is, take the time learn personal finance, right? Just Learn it. Barry Luijbregts  35:01  Yeah, dive into it. Dan Appleman  35:02  You're all technologists, you can understand basic finance, you can understand this stuff. You know, it's not rocket science. Barry Luijbregts  35:11  Yeah. So there's definitely no magic bullet, or investment strategy. There's no such thing. But I think the best advice here that that you gave is, why would you stop? If you like what you're doing. And if you don't like what you're doing, change it. Dan Appleman  35:27  The best investment you can ever make is investing in yourself, whether it's your skills or your knowledge, or figuring out what it is that you love doing or your health. You know, even when I was still, you know, a starving student or having tough financial times. If I wanted to learn something, I just go buy a book on it, and I would never begrudge the money I would never think twice because you know, anything that you're investing in yourself. That's what pays off. Barry Luijbregts  35:59  Yeah, that is amazing. And a great way to start doing that is to visit your Pluralsight courses and start learning. Dan Appleman  36:07  Please do.  Barry Luijbregts  36:10  All right, thank you very much for this enlightening conversation. I will link to all of your Pluralsight courses in the show notes as well. Dan Appleman  36:18  Thank you so much for having me. I'm very excited about this. And I'm glad that you have found this project to work on as well. And I'm sure it's going to be very successful. Barry Luijbregts  36:28   Yeah, I love doing it because it helps people. Dan Appleman  36:31  Yep. And that's sort of one of the most fun parts of this, isn't it? Barry Luijbregts  36:36  Absolutely. Okay. Thank you for listening and tune in next week for another episode.

Social Media has played an important role in or lives. To beat isolation, to overcome hurdles, and to build communities. Social Media has helped us build businesses, create brands, and increase leads.  In this final episode to observe Social Media Day 2020, we are exploring Social Media Policies – do we need gatekeepers?  We are in conversation with R Ramasubramaniyan a Communication & Brand Architect, Social Media Evangelist and Holds Copyrights On a Social Media Policy .  We will discuss people losing jobs because of their posts, who and when should we draw the lines especially at a time when we are afar and may not have in-person control over contents. What & Where is the thin line between personal & professional posts?  Happy Social Media! :::Podchaser token: 8Sqhd9QR48U7mppPbL2h::::

We’ve been taught to fear pivots and that professional pivots are taboo topics. I’m here to call bullshit. If the last few months have taught us anything, it’s that the potential to pivot is the key to stability and survival. In this episode I break down why I think we as professional have been conditioned to fear professional pivots. I also address how personal bests have allowed me to embrace pivoting despite the status quo. New in this episode is a segment called Bitch, What? Where listeners have emailed in some questions. We cover sexism, professional mental health and even some Revolt specific questions. Tune in and welcome back the RANT from it’s long rest!

Earning Freedom: Conquering a 45-Year Prison Term, by Michael Santos Chapter 10, Segment 2 Months 180-190 ****** Five extraordinary days with Carole lead to the preliminary plans for the rest of our lives. We pledge to build our relationship, growing together through the challenges I’m certain will come because of my imprisonment. Carole wants to marry me now, but I explain the reasons why she should understand more about the prison system’s stranglehold on my life before rushing into marriage.  Although I want to marry her, it’s necessary, I think, that she prepare herself for the unrelenting controls of the prison system and the strain it places on families. Her love comforts me, inspires me, and gives me a sense of belonging. Whether we marry now or not, I’m no longer alone. I stare at the walls, trying to contemplate ways that I’ll be able to provide for her.  I aspire to live as a worthy partner for her while I climb through the remainder of my sentence. Carole returns to Oregon, leaving me with an ache in my heart. I want to hold and kiss her.  Our physical separation leaves me bereft and longing. Writing her each day isn’t enough, but words on a page are all that I have while she’s gone. Despite my wanting her with me, I have major concerns about finances and my ability to support her. Although I still own stock that I could liquidate to raise cash, I’ve been counting on that capital to help launch my life when I leave prison. I love her, but I’m under no delusions about the challenges I’ll face with another decade of imprisonment ahead. Carole doesn’t have the resources to relocate to New Jersey, and I don’t know how I’ll earn them from inside of these boundaries. Like me, she’s 38 and divorced, but it wouldn’t be just the two of us. She has two children: Michael is 13 and Nichole is 11. Although Michael lives with his father, moving Carole to New Jersey would mean bringing Nichole, too. I don’t know how I would be able to take on this responsibility. I stretch back in my chair, run my fingers through my hair, and think of her while staring at photographs of us together in the visiting room. Although I’m confident that I can navigate the challenges of serving another decade in prison, devoting my life to Carole means I’ll be complicating the rest of my journey–albeit in magnificent ways.  When I’m released we’ll both be 49, but I want to begin my life with her now. I’ve got to figure out how to generate enough resources to support her. The only way I know how to earn money is through writing, so I invite Carole to join me in launching an effort to use the knowledge I’ve gained in prison. She agrees enthusiastically and asks how we’ll do it.  I explain that she can start a publishing company; it will produce and distribute books I write that describe the criminal justice system from the perspective of a man going through it.  From our efforts, we hope to build a sustainable income that will support her and Nichole while simultaneously providing guidance to people who need it. ****** After two guards open my door for the 3:00 a.m. census count and pass by, I throw back the covers and get out of bed. It’s time to work. Emmanuel, my roommate, still sleeps soundly, so I’m quiet. I’ve cut holes into tennis balls and slid them onto the legs of my metal folding chair so it doesn’t make noise when I sit at the desk. I’m in my sweats and socks, with only my two book lights illuminating the page as I work quietly in the dark. Since beginning this publishing project, my goal has been to write 15 pages of content each day.  It’s work, requiring a disciplined strategy. I mail the pages I write to Carole each evening.  Upon receiving the handwritten pages, Carole types them and returns them to me double-spaced, ready for editing. We’re a cross-country team, partners in the effort to raise money for her move to New Jersey. At the pace we’re going, we’re ahead of schedule. The manuscript should be finished within a month. This evening, as I’m using a blue pen to edit the pages Carole returned, my friend Geoff lies supine on the floor of my room. Geoff is an urbane cardiologist serving a 36-month sentence for the crime of treating poor people in his clinic and billing Medicaid for medicine and lab tests that weren’t covered. For 30 years he’s owned his Upper East Side medical clinic and the building where it’s located. We’ve become good friends. Geoff’s in his mid-60s, but his daily discipline over diet and exercise enable him to retain a high degree of fitness. In fact, fitness is a top priority for Geoff, and because I enjoy his company, I offer him the use of my floor. He devotes an hour each evening to working his abdominal muscles, with a combination of leg lifts and extensions that he does methodically and effortlessly. Usually, he simultaneously reads his beloved New York Times, or classic literature, devouring books by Tolstoy, Hugo, and Joyce. But tonight Geoff is upset and wants to talk. I set my pen down to listen. While lying on his back, he holds his extended legs steady, six inches off the floor, and tells me about business troubles at his clinic. Before surrendering to serve his sentence at Fort Dix, Geoff gave his business manager, Ted, authority to preside over his clinic. Through Ted’s mismanagement, or possible fraud, Geoff tells me that he’s losing $20,000 a month. “Why don’t you close the clinic down?” I suggest. “I can’t just close it. I employ three other cardiologists, an internist, and several nurses. The clinic sees more than 50 patients a day,” he explains while raising his legs higher, a foot off the ground, and holding them steady. “Then why not sell the practice to the doctors? You’ve worked long enough. You could rent them space, and leave them the headaches. By the time you finish this sentence, you’ll be almost 70 anyway. You could retire.” “I’ve thought about selling. The trouble is I don’t have any way of communicating from here. I’m totally in the dark while I serve this sentence. All I get are messages that Ted needs more money to meet payroll.” “Was the clinic losing money when you came in?” “No. Rather than costing me money, it should be earning 20 to 30 thousand each month. Ted is screwing up the billing, or something.” “You know what you need?” I have an idea. “What’s that?” “An office informant, someone who can tell you what’s going on.” “You’ve got that right.” “Why don’t you hire Carole?” “Who, your Carole?” “She could work at your office, then come visit us here and let you know what’s going on.” “Is she a lawyer?” “No, why?” “Well, I could use a lawyer to sort through the billing mess.” He lifts his legs higher, 18 inches off the floor. “Besides, how would she come visit us both if she’s not a lawyer?” “She can visit me, and you bring someone else to visit you. We’ll sit beside each other in the visiting room and she can tell you what she sees going on in your office. At least you would know.” “Do you think she’d be willing to come to New York?” “I can ask.” “How much would she want to earn?” “She’d have to earn enough to live.” “Living on the Upper East Side of New York City isn’t the same as living in Oregon.” “What’s it cost to rent an apartment near your office?” “Too much. But I’ve got a vacant apartment in the city, and I’ve got a car she can drive. She can use the apartment and the car, and I’ll pay her $2,000 a month. Does that sound fair?” “I’ll call and ask.” While Geoff continues with his leg lifts on the floor, I rush out of my room to secure a spot in line for a telephone. When she answers, the question spills out before I can ask about her day. “Would you move to New York if I could arrange an apartment, a car, and a job that would pay you $2,000 a month?” She doesn’t hesitate, saying she would. “What kind of job?” “Remember I told you about my friend who’s a doctor?” “Yes.” “He needs an office person, someone who can keep an eye on things and report back to him.” “I can do that. How often could we see each other?” “Every week. We’re only an hour apart. When could you be here?” “I’m ready to go whenever the job’s open.” “What about Nichole?” “She’ll come with me.” ****** Geoff’s desperation to resolve his crisis at the office precipitates his decision to hire Carole on the spot. He needs information. People he trusts are stealing from him and mismanaging a business he spent a lifetime building. As a prisoner, he doesn’t have access to information he needs about daily activities in his clinic.  The prison system limits each prisoner to 300 minutes of telephone use each month, and that isn’t sufficient for a man like Geoff, who has existing business interests.  In an effort to get a handle on things, he pays Carole’s expenses to move to New York. We make the arrangements quickly, as Geoff wants Carole to begin at once. I coordinate the deal for Carole, but I saddle her with the challenge of coordinating the complicated cross-country move on her own. I don’t have any responsibilities outside these prison boundaries, and I have enough money in the bank to cover my startup expenses when I’m released. After 15 years, I’ve mastered the challenges that mire other prisoners in failure. In moving Carole to New York, however, I’m knowingly making myself responsible for her and Nichole, her 11-year-old daughter. My credibility with family and mentors who believe in my judgment will be on the line, and maybe, too, the stability I’ve worked hard to create.  Still, I’m confident that we can make it together. “Honey,” I warn her over the phone, “you should prepare yourself for other people’s response to our plans. People are going to think you’re nuts.” “They already do, but I don’t care what anyone else thinks or says about me. I love you, Michael. I’m not staying in Oregon while the man I love is in New Jersey. I need to be close so we can visit as frequently as rules will allow.” “Baby, I need to be sure you fully understand my situation. I love you, and I’m the most fortunate man alive to have your love.  But I’ve got 11 more years to serve, and I don’t have any certainty about earning an income. I can’t do more than arrange this job with Geoff. You have to make this move work on your own, without my help.” “Do you want me to come?” “Yes, more than anything. But I’m used to prison life. I worry whether you’ll be able to handle it. Are you sure you’ve thought through what 11 more years of prison means?” “If you had a life sentence, I’d still choose you. You’re the only man I want to share my life with.” Her firm, unwavering dedication convinces me we can triumph together. “What about your family, your parents?” “I choose you, Michael. Whatever it takes to make this relationship work, I’m all in.” Our conversations and letters deepen my commitment. I want to give her all that I have and share all that I am and all that I will become. Carole’s certainty and radiance warm me like sunlight, bringing out my humanity. I embrace the joy and sense of fulfillment that comes with loving her. Friends and family worry that I’m blinded by love, that I’ve lost focus, and that I’m setting myself up for a fall. “What about when you come home, Michael?” My sister Julie presses, worrying that I haven’t thought everything through. “How can you be sure she’s the woman you want to spend your life with?” “Because I love her.” “But how are you going to take care of her?” “We’ll create our life together. I can help her, just as she’s helping me.” “What about your future? Are you selling the rest of your stock portfolio? Have you thought about what it will mean if you come home broke? Tim and I want to help you, but we can’t support another family.” “I’m not selling the stock. Carole has a job waiting for her in New York, and I’m writing a new book for her to sell. You trust me, don’t you?” “Of course.” “Julie, I’m not going into this blindly. Carole makes everything in my life better and I want to build my life around her. With her I’m not a prisoner, I’m a man, and together we can make this work.” “You’re a man, but you’re still a prisoner. Just don’t hurt her, Michael. She doesn’t know anything about what she’s getting into.” “I’ll never hurt her.” My closest mentors, Bruce McPherson and Carol Zachary, also express concern about this change I’m introducing to my life, and to Carole’s and Nichole’s as well. I understand. The pernicious, toxic environment of prison beats families down, tramples relationships to dust. But I know that we can make it. Whatever it takes, I’m determined, regardless of what odds conspire against us. I want her love and I’m willing to endure whatever struggles come with it. I hope that Carole can too. ****** Those struggles begin to manifest themselves in late December, one week before Carole’s scheduled arrival. Geoff comes to my room to share some unexpected news. “I’m being transferred,” he tells me. “What? Where to?” “They’re sending me to the drug program on the West side.” Geoff will still be at Fort Dix, but his transfer to the other compound will completely sever our ability to communicate. “Carole’s already sent her stuff with the moving company. I can’t reverse her move.” “I know, and I still want her to work in the office.” “But we won’t be able to visit together.” “Can’t she visit me over there?”
 I shrug, not knowing what guards will allow. “You can try putting her on your visiting list, but they might not let her in.” “Then she can write. Look, this is a mess, and there’s nothing we can do about it. I’ve got to be out of here in an hour. When she gets here, have her go to the office. Ted will give her the keys to the apartment and the car. We’ll work out the arrangements once she settles in.” When I call Carole to tell her about Geoff’s transfer, she doesn’t hesitate. “We’ll make it work. I’ll still fill him in on what’s happening in his office, and I’ll look after whatever he needs.” I admire her optimism, her commitment, and her courage. My determination equals hers. But hers is weighted with a high degree of risk. We talk about the logistics of her move and about coordinating delivery of her belongings to Geoff’s empty apartment. Such mundane tasks energize me. For the first time I’m part of a family, cherishing the feeling of belonging. We save two phone minutes from my monthly allotment, as I want to call her after her flight lands. We’re scheduled to visit on the morning after New Year’s, 2003, when I’ll meet Nichole for the first time. ****** It’s after six on New Year’s Eve, and I’m at my desk, trying to ease my anxieties by writing. I burned through the final two phone minutes from my December allotment after Carole’s plane landed and I won’t receive my next allocation of phone or visiting time until tomorrow, when the new month begins. Prison restrictions prevent all contact with Carole, which leaves me completely in the dark about her move. I stand, nervously pacing the floor. My old friend Windward comes to mind–he used to drive me nuts with his pacing.  That was longer than a decade ago, in USP Atlanta. This anxiety is new to me.  I can’t help her with this cross-country transition into a new city. At least I’ll have new phone minutes tomorrow. We’ll be able to talk, but we still won’t be able to visit for two more days. Prisons are not family friendly. While working through my silent worries, I hear an unexpected page. “Michael Santos. Report to the visiting room.” It’s my name being paged, but since I’ve expired my visiting privileges for the month, I’m confused as I walk to the visiting room. I see the guard at the visiting room door and I ask him for confirmation that he paged me. “You heard your name, didn’t you?” “Yes.” “Well, haven’t you been in long enough to know what that means? Strip!” I take off my clothes for the search ritual. The guard authorizes me to enter the visiting room and I see that it’s packed. I walk through the crowds of people to the guard’s platform, and as I hand him my ID card, I see Carole. She’s bundled in a blue, floor-length wool coat, and a pale pink cashmere scarf circles her neck. She’s obviously distraught. As I approach her, she walks to me quickly and wraps her arms around me, crying. She buries her face into my neck and I hold her. “Baby, what’s wrong? Why are you crying?”
She holds me tighter. “What is it? Talk to me,” I repeat urgently, quietly. I put my hands on her cheeks, tipping her head up to kiss her tears. “What’s wrong?” She sniffles, but between them I hear her say “No car, no apartment, no job.” She’s still crying and I pull her tight. “Tell me what happened.” I want to help her, and I suddenly feel the weight of what it means to accept this responsibility of love. She takes a deep breath to steady her voice before speaking. “It’s Ted, Geoff’s business manager. He says he’s in control of Geoff’s practice. He refuses to give me access to the office, and he’s refusing to give me keys to the apartment and the car I’m supposed to use. I’m here with Nichole, everything I own is in a moving truck on its way here, and I don’t know what to do.” I breathe in deeply, needing to soothe her before asking questions. I pull her close, wrap my arm around her shoulders, and walk toward a pair of plastic purple chairs in the back of the visiting room. We sit and hold hands. It’s the only comfort I can offer under the watchful eyes of cameras and guards. She sighs, exhaling with a long breath as she lays her head on my shoulder, and I feel her relax against me. “Don’t worry, Baby, I’ll take care of you.” I kiss her cheeks, taking a chance that in the crowded room, the guards won’t notice. “I’ve got enough money to help you settle.” “You said you’d never sell the stocks,” she says, lifting her head from my shoulder to look at me. “I know what I said, but you’re more important to me than any stocks.  Of course I’ll sell them. I love you, Carole. I’ll do anything for you.” Her head drops back onto my shoulder and I savor the feeling of her weight resting on me. “I’ll pay you back,” she promises. I chuckle at her promise, and then I ask where she is staying. “Did you get a hotel room in New York?” “We left New York when Ted refused to give me the apartment keys. I’ve still got my rental car, so I drove down and checked us into a hotel that’s closer. Nichole’s there now. She’s watching a movie until I get back.” I’m relieved that Carole came to New Jersey. It’s much less expensive here and we’ll need to be careful with our money. I caress her hands and appreciate how soft and feminine they feel inside mine. “Do you want to stay in New Jersey, or would you rather go back to Oregon?” “I’m staying with you.” Her voice so recently quivering is suddenly steady. “Okay, Honey. That’s what I want, too. We’ll make a plan and together we’ll make it work. I love you.” “I love you so much.” She kisses me gently. “Honey, we can’t kiss anymore,” I warn, conscious of the guards. “Tell me how you got in here. I didn’t have any visiting points left for the month.” “I know. I called here all day and I told your unit manger it was an emergency, but he wouldn’t let me talk to you. I decided to drive over and try to talk my way in. Thank goodness Officer Cruz was on duty. He must’ve believed me when I told him I had to see you. He changed something on the computer and here I am. I think he was worried I was going to burst into tears in front of him.” “See, I told you that God’s been protecting me through this journey.  Now he’s protecting you.  And although many people who work for the prison system make things difficult, some are nice.” “Yes, he was very nice. I’m grateful, because I really needed to see you, and I want to come back tomorrow, too.” “Tomorrow’s New Year’s Day, Honey. Holiday visiting privileges cost us double against my allotment for the month. Let’s wait until the day after tomorrow to visit. The rules limit me to a maximum of 30 hours in the visiting room for the month and we can’t squander them.”  She’s going to get an immersion course in the complications of my imprisonment. “Michael, I need to see you! We need to make a plan.” “Okay,” I relent. “You can come for one hour, but it’s going to cost us two hours against my monthly allotment of 30 points.” “I’ll bring Nichole.” ****** It’s cold.  My green jacket and orange knit cap aren’t enough to keep me from shivering when I leave the visiting room. Maybe I shiver more from worry than the frigid December temperatures. I can handle the cold, but as I cross the nameless road that leads to my housing unit, I realize for the first time in 38 years that the local economy is relevant to my life. As the president tries to push us into a second war in Iraq, the newspapers have been reporting on high unemployment rates. These didn’t concern me until an hour ago. But I’ve brought Carole here, thousands of miles away from her friends and family, on a promise. The promise went south. Now two lives hang on my ability to bring her stability, and suddenly the 11 years of prison that await me feel heavier. “Hey, I heard them call you for a visit.” Bob catches up to me, his tone revealing curiosity. “I thought you said you were out of points.” “I was. Carole talked her way in.” “Huh, I’m impressed. It’d be easier to talk your way out. She must’ve charmed them, but that’s like charming a rattlesnake. How’s her move coming along?” “Totally derailed. Geoff’s business manager is refusing to give Carole the job, the apartment, or the car. She’s stranded, and all her things are packed in a moving truck that’s supposed to arrive in New York next week.” “Wow.” We take a few steps with only the sound of crunching gravel and howling wind between us. “How can I help?” “I’ll take care of it. My sister is in Hawaii for the holidays, but when she returns, I’ll have her sell enough stock to send Carole the money she needs to settle.”  “I could get her a few thousand to tide her over if it would help.” “Thanks. I appreciate the offer, but I put her in this mess. I’ll get her out.” “Well let me know if you need anything.” Bob is a good friend, willing to lend me money even though we’re both in prison.  I’m grateful for the gesture. I walk into the housing unit and search for Richard, a young offender I interviewed recently for a story I wrote. While talking with him, I remember Richard telling me that his wife lived only a few miles from the prison. She was struggling financially, like many prison families, because of her husband’s imprisonment. He’s sitting on the stairs, slumped, his elbows resting on his knees. “What’s troubling you?” I ask. He looks up at me and takes off his glasses, rubbing his eyes. “Holidays. I miss my wife and son.” “That’s what I came to ask you about. Do you think your wife would want a housemate?” “Whadda ya mean?” “I’m in a bind. My fiancée and her daughter just moved here from Oregon. They thought they had an apartment, but the arrangements didn’t work out. I need to help her find a new place and I thought of you. Your wife could probably use the money, and they could support each other.” He puts his glasses back on. “That could really help. How old is your fiancée’s daughter?” “Eleven.” “I’m in line for the phone now. I’ll come by your room after I talk with my wife.”  

Episode 001 - Real Estate Secrets All Begin Here This is where it all begins...The show starts NOW. Every week we will be sharing with you (IN UNDER 3 MINUTES) the How, What Where, and When of buying and selling real estate. Everything you need to know so you are not learning this on the Fly. That can be very dangerous to what you pay for a home or what your profit is on the sale of your home. Thanks for Listening and Welcome in! Jay Lieberman Keller Williams Realty World Class Lieberman Realty Group, Inc. DRE#01874717 Jay@LiebermanRealtyGroup.com

Morning prosperity practice How are you this morning? I thought I'd jump in here just for a second because there was a kind of a fun dialogue going on between Meg Cory myself this morning on Facebook. And it was really just kind of about like vibrations and be two point O manifested What's it mean to manifest and I think Corey really had a great one on that where he said you know manifestation it's not like this this kind of this whoo thing were all just pops up and shows up. But it has more to do about creation. What are you creating in your life? And I thought that was awesome, Cory. So kudos to you for kind of pointing that out in that manner, because that is what it's about. When you start recognizing that the world is made of energy, you see all these vibrations. And then you kind of say, hey, well, you know if that's if everything's all energy, you know, how can I use that to my benefit? But how can I create what what kind of life can I create? And the conversation with Megan, I was like, well, it's not necessarily you know, any different it was no different than a business person or somebody who is running a business when they say, hey, what can I create? What Where can I find and add value to somebody's life? What Does somebody want in their life that they value and that's really all kind of one in the same. And most of the times, it's where does that where does that originate? Where does that originate? Does it come from the heart doesn't come from the place of, you know, love and compassion. And that's where you see kind of the hippie stuff and then you know, sometimes in business you see it come from a bottom line and top line or bottom line. But the essence is still something that is being created. Right? It's the essence is getting clear, right? So you've got clarity coaches, let's get clear on what it is you want in life. Well, when you create a business plan, when you write down your business plan, when you write down your, your at home, you write your intentions and your vision board, what would you like to see in your life? What are you doing, you're getting, you're getting clarity, right? You're taking some time to say what's important to you. You're doing the same thing that you would do inside of a business, or at a company. You're like, Hey, what's important to me What's important to this business to make it successful? What does that look like? And you know that that's a big part of it. And I wrote stoicism in here too, because I quote, just jobs. Let me see, I'll pull over here somewhere. Because the hippie 2.0. This isn't no none of this is new. None of this is new. It's just it's just a different verbiage. It's just a different person delivering the same message. And I know that I've talked about this many times that it's a it's not a new message. It's just a new messenger. Right? I was funny because I was having a conversation last night with this gentleman who was in this in this space. And it wasn't until after he and I got done with the conversation when I was when I was like, You know what? It's like, it's like a band member who's your favorite band? You've got raving fans of all kinds of different bands. It's like, all right, well, you know, what kind of fan base do you have? And how do you how do you play to them? And are you giving them what they want? Because that's it. And it's just a different, it's a different set of people who are attracted to a different way of your ability to present what it is that they're looking for. How can you help the world make sense to them? Really, that's, that's it. So for a lot of people...

When 11 year old Elise Sammis applied for the Food Network's Kids Baking Championship, she didn’t think twice about telling them - right up front - that she lives with type 1 diabetes. She says she wanted everyone to know in order to show that diabetes wouldn't keep her from her love of baking, or anything else. Check out Stacey's new book: The World's Worst Diabetes Mom! Turns out, there's another young woman with type 1 on the show this season! You can learn more about Naima Winston here. Stacey met Elise & her mom, Natalie, at an event in South Carolina. They spoke about the show, the stress and her diagnosis two years ago at Disney world. Join the Diabetes Connections Facebook Group! In TMSG - good news at the dentist - and it wasn’t about cavities.. and we'll share a story of a lot of spirit at Walt Disney World Marathon weekend. This podcast is not intended as medical advice. If you have those kinds of questions, please contact your health care provider. Sign up for our newsletter here ----- Use this link to get one free download and one free month of Audible, available to Diabetes Connections listeners! ----- Get the App and listen to Diabetes Connections wherever you go! Click here for iPhone      Click here for Android Episode transcript (rough transcription, please forgive grammar, spelling, punctuation) -----------Stacey Simms 0:00 Diabetes Connections is brought to you by One Drop created for people with diabetes by people who have diabetes, and by Dexcom take control of your diabetes and live life to the fullest with Dexcom. Announcer: This is diabetes connections with Stacey Simms. Stacey Simms 0:23 This week, when 11 year old Elise Sammis applied for the Food Network's kids Baking Championship. She didn't think twice about telling them right up front - she lives with Type 1 diabetes. Elise Sammis 0:36 No, that was very important to me, because I wanted like everyone to know that if you have diabetes, you can still do the things that you want to do. And it was super cool because there was another girl named Naima. She's my super good friend and she had also had type one, and she's super sweet. And we were both like, yay, we both have type one! Stacey Simms 0:52 That's right. There are two young women with T1D competing on this season of the show. I met Elise at an event recently, and I talked to her and her mom about the show the stress, enter diagnosis at Disney World in Tell me something good. Good news at the dentist and it's not about cavities and a lot of spirit at Walt Disney World marathon weekend. This podcast is not intended as medical advice. If you have those kinds of questions, please contact your health care provider. Welcome to another week of diabetes connections. I am so glad you're here. We aim to educate and inspire about type 1 diabetes by sharing stories of connection. I'm your host Stacey Simms. My son was diagnosed 13 years ago right before he turned two. The show this week is airing a little earlier than usual. Yeah, we almost always drop the interview show the longer show of the week on Tuesday. But because the Kids Baking Championship is on the Food Network on Monday nights. I thought it would just be fun to release the show with Elise on the day of her show. I love the baking shows, and we used to watch them. I feel like it was around the clock for a couple of years my daughter got into them right around the same age as Elise between the ages of like nine and 12. We've watched so many of these baking shows, we made cupcakes, we didn't ever compete. My daughter never wanted to be on TV like that. But it was great. And we certainly got a lot of comments about the cupcakes because I would post them on social media and I'll put some pictures up in the Facebook group because these were, you know, really big. I mean, they weren't beautiful, but they were sharks and cupcakes that look like popcorn and you know, all the dramatic fun stuff. And people would say all the time. Oh, it's too bad that your daughter has that hobby. What are you doing about your son? And I'm like, I'm not letting him eat 17 cupcakes, but I'm not letting her eat 17 cupcakes either. You know, it's fine with Type 1 diabetes, you just have to know exactly what you're eating. Right? It does take extra work. But now go ahead eat the cupcake. And with those memories right in the back of my mind, it was even more fun to talk to Elise and to Natalie It is always a bit dicey talking to reality show contestants. You know, we've done this before, and it is always fun. But it's not just about what they can't say because here obviously they can't talk about the show, even though it's taped weeks and weeks months ago, but because you never know they could win the whole thing. They could be off the show before this episode even airs. But I'm so thrilled that Elise is is one of two girls on the show with Type 1 diabetes and it was great to talk to her and her mom and no matter what happens on the show, she is well on her way quite a personality and really just a fun kid. All right, first Diabetes Connections is brought to you by One Drop and getting diabetes supplies is a pain and not only the ordering and the picking up, but also the arguing with insurance over what they say you need and what you really need. Make it easy with One Drop. They offer personalized test trip plans, plus you get a Bluetooth glucose meter, test strips, lancets and your very own certified diabetes coach. Subscribe today to get test strips for less than $20 a month delivered right to your door. No prescriptions or co pays required. One less thing to worry about. not that surprising when you learn the founder of One Drop lives with type one. They get it. One Drop, gorgeous gear supplies delivered to your door 24 seven access to your certified diabetes coach. learn more, go to diabetes connections dot com and click on the One Drop logo. My guests this week are Elisa Sammis and her mother Natalie. Elise is a contestant on this season's Food Network kids baking show. She was diagnosed with type one at age nine and we talked about her diagnosis. But she was already baking a lot by then. And luckily her family realized you can continue to bake and enjoy dessert even with Type 1 diabetes. Being on a big show like this is a great chance to educate and what's really fun is as we mentioned, Elise isn't doing it alone. There's another young woman on the show Naima Winston from Baltimore is her name and I will put some links and information on our episode homepage, where there is also a transcript about Elise about Naima about the show and more information. So please check that out. That's a diabetes dash connections.com. And while you're there, please note every episode from the last four years is there you may be intimidated to scroll through I get asked all the time, what's the best order? I actually think the best way to listen is either to use the search box and put in whatever interests you Disney, Dexcom, Tandem, Omnipod, right or you can search by category as well. If you click on the tab that says all episodes, you'll see another search box to the right and then filter by category. And that is a really great way to dial into what you want the categories including advocates, athletes, artists, actors, education, technology, travel, family, you know, there's a whole bunch of ways to narrow this down because we've got more than 270 episodes now Holy cow. And I really urge you to go take a stroll through and see what interests you. Quick note, this interview was done on the road, I was speaking at the JDRF chapter, the Palmetto chapter in South Carolina. So the sound quality is a little bit different than when I'm doing things in the studio. And I may be a little soft at times. I'll tell you about the technical nonsense that happened. I'll tell you about that at the end of the show. So let's get to it. Here is my interview with Elise and Natalie Sammis. Let me start with you, Natalie. How did you guys even find out about this? How do you get your kids on a show like this? Elise Sammis 6:38 Well, actually, I didn't get my kid on the show. Elise put herself on the show. Basically, we live in the south and hurricanes are prevalent. And about a year and a half ago, at least you think it was Hurricane Matthew and we got five days off of school. And so I was very bored around the house. So I looked up, like, because I like to bake and I was getting into it. So I looked up like baking competitions and I saw like form so that we could, like fill out a form so that we could try out. And so I made a video for it and I sent it into them. And after that we didn't hear until like six months later. Stacey Simms 7:23 So during that five days and your home and baking was that your first foray? Was that your first time into baking or is it something you'd always like to do? Elise Sammis 7:30 I'd pretty much always like to bake from like, I guess like when I got diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes when I was nine, it was really stressful. So it was just really like stress relieving to be able to bake and it was like creative. Stacey Simms 7:46 Alright, so we have an audience that knows about diabetes. But what you just said when I was diagnosed with type one I found it really stress relieving – that could sound strange. What were your thoughts as she was enjoying this as a younger kid? Natalie Sammis 8:06 The two background stories, I think that are important in this piece are that a I am an avid Baker. And so literally, sugar is in my blood at all times. No, I my motto is dinner is always just a means to dessert. That is my life motto since a small child. And also number two, I'm actually an RN, I have my Bachelor's of Science and nursing. So I understand the principles. I understand that Yeah, you skirt the line a little bit closer. When it comes to desserts. It is a little bit more complicated in your carb counting. But it's also it's very doable. It's not off the table. It's not something that someone should be terrified of. It's something that you can balance and put into your life. And also we realized that half the time that we bake, we don't even eat it really we are sharing it with our friends or we're posting it like on social media to feel unify with other people. People It is really, truly a creative outlet for us probably like how people feel with art, but I don't get art and I cannot eat art. So we just go with the dessert side of the world and we like it and we make friends by giving people desserts. Stacey Simms 9:15 How old were you when you were diagnosed? Elise Sammis 9:17 It was the day after my ninth birthday, and we were in Disney. And there was my birthday and my mom actually fed me a chocolate chip cookie for breakfast. Right there. So we were like noticing a lot of symptoms. I was really thirsty all the time. So then my mom took me to the urgent care clinic, the CBS for CBS. And like the MinuteClinic the MinuteClinic Yep, yep. And I got and she got a glucose meter and she thought as a UTI at first. Natalie Sammis 9:52 Right. So she took a blood sugar first and it just read error. When the very first meter read error. The nurse in me problem solving. I thought, ooh, there's something wrong with the machinery that that Wait a second, I know how to litmus test this. So I stuck my own finger, I tested my own blood sugar and it said 96 I still remember the number and my heart sunk. I knew at that moment, deep down that she had diabetes, but I didn't even then didn't want to admit it. Because, you know, that's the worst. So we went to the urgent care and the urgent care. I still remember they looked at us like we were crazy because we walked in. And Elise is holding a Diary of a Wimpy Kid book. And she's just flipping through and reading it and she has a bottle of water in one hand, because at that point, I said, You drink as much as you can. Right? Right, right. Just drink this. And I said, I think my daughter might have diabetes. They look at me, like, does she fall down? Did she pass out? Like I'm like, No, but she's drinking me. Are you from the area? No, we're on vacation at Disney. And they're like, so you stopped your Disney vacation and you think she has diabetes? I'm like, I know. I basically said tell me I'm crazy. I want to walk out of here laughing like I'm just a paranoid Mom, I just cannot in good faith just go back home after seeing the error recording and having those symptoms and I just need to know so we waited quite a while because we were not on the urgent list at that point. And even the doctor said, I think it's probably just a UTI. But he respected my wish to check your blood sugar. And at that moment, their meter read error Hi. And they said he pulled out his personal cell phone and said go directly to Orlando Children's Hospital. Stacey Simms 11:31 Do you remember any of that? I mean, nine is old enough, but sometimes things get confusing. Do you remember like, anything that your mom was saying? Or what's going on in the hospital? Elise Sammis 11:39 Well, I remember that like when I got in there. I was asking like, Is it ever going to go away and everything then I remember the turkey bacon was disgusting Natalie Sammis 11:49 They put her on this restricted carb diet. So all she could eat with like a massive amounts of turkey bacon, Elise Sammis 11:57 turkey bacon. like sugar free jello. Stacey Simms 12:03 So did you ever get back to Disney World? Natalie Sammis 12:05 Yeah, we did we After that we went to Hollywood Studios. We took it that Disney paid for us for a taxi or an Uber. I can't remember which one back to our place that we were staying in the other. My Elise is the oldest of four children. So the other kids and my husband were already at the party because we said go on without us because we had been in the hospital for about three and a half days. And we got in that taxi cab we threw our suitcases in there and we saw the next bus to Disney and we ran our little hearts out and barely caught the bus and we didn't get to do too much that day. And then we went home the next day but Disney was kind enough to give us passes to come back and when we had kind of our life under control a little bit more and we understood more about diabetes in real life. We came back probably three months later in May Elise Sammis 12:52 is a lot better experience than the last. It was a lot more fun. Okay, Stacey Simms 12:57 so after Disney World when you go home You say you figured out diabetes in a bad life? You were already enjoying baking at that point. After all that turkey bacon. Were you worried? Like that's it for baking or cupcakes? Or did your mom kind of jumped right back into it with you? Elise Sammis 13:14 Well, for about a week later, I was like, I don't even know like what I can or can't eat. And so we like kind of researched a lot. And then I was like, wait, I don't have to just not eat sugar. I can just take insulin for it. So then I was like, Well, I can still bake and stuff. And so that's I was like, yeah, you know, it's got really excited about it. Stacey Simms 13:39 That's great. So what a whirlwind diagnosis and hopefully we'll have time I want to talk a little bit more about Disney World later, but let's talk about the bacon. You send in the video. You wait six months later, what do you hear what happens? Elise Sammis 13:53 So like, I've been waiting and then another season came out, and that was like, they just didn't see it. The following, never gonna happen. And then like, six months later after that, I was on the bus and my mom called me She's like, you're not gonna believe who just called me. And I was like Harry Potter. Stacey Simms 14:14 well, she was almost 11. Elise Sammis 14:18 And then she's like, no, it's the kids baking championship people and they want to interview and I was like, Oh my gosh, yeah. So I ran home. We did a lot of Skype interviews, and I had a lot of assignments and I had to make a ton of desserts. And there's a lot of other videos I had to make for it. And there's a lot of interviews as the mom you know, please seeking I mean, this is an exciting time but at the same time it's a lot of hopes for a young woman to have Yeah, yeah. Nervous that after all of this work, she wasn't gonna get on the show. Oh, very, very guarded, I guess will be the word. Natalie Sammis 14:53 I mean, I'll backtracking when she said mom can I turn in the video and I did have to click like I agree and I help fill in. Some of the, like contact information so it was correct, because at that point, you were 10 years old when she turned in the video. And I told I still remember and people laugh at me still, at least still less than me. My caveat was sure I'll turn in this video but you need to understand that you will never hear back from them, they probably will never see it and you're never going to be on that show. And if you're okay with all those three sentences, I'm feeling okay with letting you turn this in. Because I'm more of a realist. I am Elise is a is a goal setter and a go getter and a dreamer. And she proved me wrong every time so I don't know why I keep doubting it. But I just I think I do that out of protection as a mom and so yeah, as time went on, you couldn't even the process is when they Skype, the parent in the room is not allowed to be in the room. You can't be there. They want the kids to stand on their own. They don't want some mom in the corner given them most of coaching and so I would put my ears to like the door but I have a he was four at the time. And he would be like read to me we've got this new dog that was like two months old and an idiot, so I'm literally like hearing every fifth word. And even then I'm like, oh, like so excited out of my mind that I couldn't even concentrate. So I mean, it was crazy. Just week after week, it went on for from March until June, just on and off on enough like, yes, you made it to the next step. Then we would hear crickets, crickets crickets, and you don't want to be the annoying mom. And then they not pick you because you're this weirdo psycho. So you had to play it cool. You have to kind of just wait for them. And then the next kind of like little piece of cheese would come and he would chase after that. Stacey Simms 16:34 so then this is going on for a while. When did you really start to get close? What happens? I don't know how much you can share. So don't tell us what you can't. But how do you know that? This is going to be it? Elise Sammis 16:44 Yeah. Well, we were doing all these interviews and videos and I was it just kept going. And I was like, when are they going to cut to the chase and like, actually do it. And so then we got a call in like early June. They're like, we want to fly out 15 kids, we're gonna send three home and all the other ones are going to be able to be on the show. And I was like, we're finally going to LA. Natalie Sammis 17:09 Yeah. So we knew flying out there all the way to all this work. I mean, this is now we've been up till 2am, baking things having to print that present the next day unless it's work. I mean, huge amount of work. And it's a risk. It's Stacey Simms 17:24 already going home. And then the competition, you know, Natalie Sammis 17:27 oh, yeah. So our goal was to get on the show, and knock it out the first episode. And we didn't do those things so that we can just hang our head forever. Stacey Simms 17:36 What happens when you're there? I mean, you know, kids are generally pretty friendly, I would think. I mean, you want to be friends, you're hanging out. There's got to be a lot of downtime. If you're not familiar with TV production, there's so much downtime, is it hard doing that knowing that they're not going to stay? Elise Sammis 17:52 It was super hard because like, the first day like all of them were super nice, and they're all like super friendly, and like we went to the mall, and we hung out at the pool together. And like, I didn't want any of them to go. But they had to, there was no thing in me that was like, I want so and so to get out. Yeah. Stacey Simms 18:13 So yeah, be nice if everybody could win. But that's not how the show works. Yeah. All right, what can you tell us because a couple of episodes have aired already, but when this podcast airs will probably be further down the road. So I'm curious if you can share anything about what goes on behind the scenes because I've seen the show and some of it looks very ordered. Some of it looks very chaotic. is some of that chaos planned? Or is it just you guys are really doing what you're doing? What do people really knock stuff over? Elise Sammis 18:38 Sometimes they would tell me to ask how are you doing so and so? And they really like good. And then sometimes they would say like, tell all the other bakers you have 15 minutes left. And the other stuff we would just say random things. Yeah, your mind. Natalie Sammis 18:56 Well, it was funny to that. I think there's a couple times that the cameras People I thought it was interesting. They have 13 different cameras going to get all the angles. They have one big overhead camera. And she said, anytime anyone made a mistake, you knew it, because you'd feel the crane. Whoa, hovering over you. So you didn't want the big camera to go on you. You knew that either something's on fire or going downhill fast. So no one wanted the big camera to be swooping in their direction. Stacey Simms 19:27 we haven't really talked about diabetes and the show. That was in your video, some of your audition. Yes. You mentioned it. Was there any hesitancy on your part to put that in? Was that important to you Elise Sammis 19:37 know, that was very important to me, because I wanted like everyone to know that if you have diabetes, you can still do the things that you want to do. And it was like super cool, because there was another girl named Naima. She's my super good friend and she had also had type one, and she's super sweet. And we were both like, yeah, we both have type one. Stacey Simms 19:55 I was gonna ask you about Naima because I'm obviously we're not interviewing her for the show, but I've seen her story. Well, and it was incredible to me. So far the posts have all been, oh, there's two kids with type one on the Food Network. And everybody's been saying no, no, no, you're confused this name and no, you're no, you're confused. Oh, it's really Natalie Sammis 20:12 well, well, even we were confused. But we walk in the first day and its orientation and all the sudden I'm hearing Dexcom alarms and I'm going Elise, Like what? Like, like it is because it sounds too far from us. And she should have it in your bag. And I said, Who's next column? What Where's your Dexcom? And then this other little girl pipes up and says, Oh, that's mine. And that moment, it was that instant bond of like, you have to wait, we have to. It was our first I think your first real friend like you have acquaintances that have type one, but this is the first time she connected with some one else on this kind of level who has type one and I think that's special. Stacey Simms 20:48 So you guys have kept in touch. Elise Sammis 20:50 We have a big old group chat. We all talk every day. Stacey Simms 20:54 That's cool. I wish I can ask you more but I know Yeah. Elise Sammis 21:00 Did any of the other kids talk to you about diabetes? I mean, kids don't always do that. I'm just curious. They were pretty curious. And they're like, what's on your arm? And I was like, Oh, that's my insulin pump and everything. They were super nice and they're like, they didn't really care about it. They were just super sweet. Stacey Simms 21:29 Did any of the parents because I mean my son doesn't bake and I remember when I've been parental settings for sports or there's always somebody who's like, well can you really eat that? You know, anything like that? Natalie Sammis 21:30 No one really I think because we had gotten that far. And they knew we were that serious about baking. They can't bear Yeah, there's two of us they dare not I think what we are all became like very good friends. I think it's always eye opening when you get to know other people that the little bit of understanding of what type one really means day in and day out and on vacation and we were in a very stressful situation and we were up I mean, her blood sugar would just go crazy every time she baked it every time she was on set I wouldn't even let her eat a single carb because I already knew her blood sugar would be through the roof when she's getting stressed her her levels go high and so her Dex have just been going off. I can't believe we can't hear it at the show you you are only there but it almost felt a little good to be able to just kind of explain and see what is really like it Yeah, we were up at 2am and 3am and 4am treating highs and then treating lows and this is our everyday and oh at least go change your pod or and they kind of like look at you with like huge eyes like you do this every day and you're kind of like Yeah, we do. It's all right that like what I am so proud of at least and I don't know if everyone told you this really but she did not once ever use diabetes or her blood sugar level as an excuse whenever she didn't perform how she wanted to perform or when she was stressed or other kids won certain competitions. She Never ever, ever even had that in a thought like it does not hold her back physically or mentally ever. I want to have my little mom sign like “do you know her blood sugar is 328, do you know hard it is to be thinking clearly?!” like, I just wanted to say that like you don't understand how cool she is right now. Stacey Simms 23:19 So but let me ask you because obviously diabetes did not stop you from doing this. But did anything happened during the competition where you did have to leave to change a pod? Or it Did you know, mess you up? Did anything ever happened along the way because it does happen sometimes. Elise Sammis 23:32 Thankfully, like nothing like sometimes the medical my medical person, she was super nice. She would like come over and give me some insulin but I would just keep on baking and she would like BB Stacey Simms 23:46 Yeah, so was this somebody that the show provided Natalie Sammis 23:48 that they had two medicd, so they had one assigned to Naima one assigned to Elise and I'm sure they would cover the other kids who like cut themselves to cut themselves on fire, but they were basically there to hover over The two diabetics. Stacey Simms 24:01 Did you ever catch yourself on fire? Unknown Speaker 24:02 No but someone did we had to slap it down with a giant pan. Natalie Sammis 24:07 Yeah, yeah, there's some fire soon. Yeah. Spoiler alert. Awesome. Stacey Simms 24:13 So much to ask you about the show. But I'm curious as you watch the show, the judges are a big part of it. You know, were you nervous meeting them? Was it fun? Anything stand out. I don't know what you could tell us. Elise Sammis 24:25 It was super exciting meeting them and like Valerie was super nice. And she was just like a mom like the whole time she like was very nice. That was nice. Stacey Simms 24:37 Sweet the judges of Valerie Burtonelli, who we all know from one day to time, all those great shows and then Duff is the.. he did Charm City cakes, right? Yeah. Duff Goldman. We were huge fans. My daughter is in college now. But we watched Charm City cakes a ton. He was our guy. Yes. And you said he was interesting? Elise Sammis 25:00 He really funny and like sarcastic and he was really, like nice about the judging and everything and he was really, like supportive. Stacey Simms 25:08 Maybe you can answer this. They also seem like they're taking it seriously. I mean, they're Valerie's nicer. Some it seems right to the kids, but they're straightforward. They're not telling you Good job when it wasn't right? Natalie Sammis 25:20 Yeah, well, what's actually funny on I never got to meet them. They only let the kids talk to them meet them. I saw them through like closed circuit TV with no audio feeds, because their parents had to have some sort of eye on their child, but I didn't even get to meet them. But when those kids would come back from tastings and judging things and just baking during the day, they would just say, oh, def came over and talk to me and he was funny, and oh, Valerie, like gave me a hug and I trusted the kids in that setting there. They're not the other I don't want to call it other people's judges names and other shows, but they're not harsh. They're not on kind but they are they are very, they're. Stacey Simms 26:03 Yeah. They seem to balance the fact that there weren't a kids show. Yeah. But if you're going to be good feedback, Natalie Sammis 26:07 yeah. If you're going to get that far, though, and how hard we work to get there, those kids can take it. They're not delicate flowers at this point. Stacey Simms 26:15 So of course, you can tell us how everything went in the end of the show, and you won't get in any trouble. even letting a word well done. I obviously can't ask you about the outcome. And I would never. Was it fun are you glad you did it? Elise Sammis 26:29 It was super fun. I'm so glad that I did it because it's such like a good experience. Like you got to meet so many friends. It was really like a lesson to me about patients. Because all those interviews and all the time that was like put into it. It was a lot and yet there's a lot of waiting. So that was a really good lesson for me. Do you still enjoy baking? Is that something you think about? Please do? Yes, I feel like I would always do baking is really fun. In like, it likes me be creative. Unknown Speaker 27:02 This is a good experience for your families. Natalie Sammis 27:04 It was a really good experience me and at least had a great time. We were kind of out there as buddies. And then my, my husband and the other three younger kids flew out for a couple days to visit us. And they decorated our hotel room with balloons galore and messages on the mirror of good luck. And the little kids and me, myself included this kind of trail along on her coattails and got to have this amazing experience. So it was wonderful. Stacey Simms 27:30 I have to ask you, she was three younger children. Do they know the outcome? Because I wouldn't trust my kids. No offense, I don't know your family. Unknown Speaker 27:41 No, they don't. Natalie Sammis 27:42 They even will sometimes, like try to guess and like act like it's real. They're like Oh, so and so did this and they probably did this or that and will be like, oh, whatever you want to think like we don't even validate it because the the what's the number at least that we will be sued if we let information that we Elise Sammis 27:58 will be sued 750,000 Natalie Sammis 28:00 Yeah 13 page contract saying that we will not disclose information so we didn't tell the five year olds Yeah. Stacey Simms 28:07 Anything something else exciting that you all are a part of and I guess this is pretty brand new is your clinical trial for horizon from insolent which is the hybrid closed loop system using Omnipod? So Natalie, can you share a little bit about what is being tested? Is it the full system with the phone app? Natalie Sammis 28:26 Yes, it's the full system. So it involves they gave us a brand new Dexcom transmitter that has the capabilities of obviously talking to the the Omnipod and to the new I don't do they call it a PDM Do you remember lease, I don't know. They still called the PDM. But it's basically a locked out Samsung and they provide that as well. Along with pods that look identical except for this little blue tab. That worked just the same. Also, what I really really like about this, the whole point of it is that you are able to put it in that Automatic mode they call it and with the auto mode, it's every five minutes the Omnipod index home will talk to each other and adjust the Bazell every five minutes as needed. What's cool about it too, is let's say you forgot your PDM you're locked out Samsung somewhere. Even if it has no range, if you could throw it off a cliff even for at least three days, your basal insulin would still be being adjusted because the Dexcom and Omnipod can talk to each other independently. Stacey Simms 29:29 Have you used any hybrid closed loop stuff before? Elise Sammis 29:32 No, this is our first time. Stacey Simms 29:34 All right. How many days? It's only been a couple of days. We started last Wednesday today. To 60 All right, though. Yeah. So have you seen a difference? Elise Sammis 29:42 Yes, it is crazy. Like even we went to Disney World last week, and I ate a ton of junk and everything. And I like went to sleep and it would be a little high but that's what your blood sugar does. And I went to sleep and for the night It would be like a straight line I was so amazing it was it's a big difference. Just the normal taking insulin every time you hear ringing Natalie Sammis 30:09 Yeah, it is just made me feel like less of a nag to like, oh at least check your blood sugar. Oh, I heard your alarm three times a baby. Have you looked at that like that is now silencing our neck. So I have high hopes for it and it really is giving us better control. She's in that crazy stage of life being 11 about to be 12 where it makes no sense. She goes to sleep it looks like she ate a box of Krispy Kreme Doughnuts for no reason and it's nothing but hormones and I don't know unexplained highs and lows. So already this week, it is refreshing to see so many more straight lines. I mean, there's still today we were stuck in the three hundreds for hours and that's just what it is. And but I'm really pleased so far and I'm ecstatic to be able to have it for longer than the three month trial period. Stacey Simms 30:57 All right. Before I let you go you said you have at Disney World, you ran in half marathon full marathon Natalie Sammis 31:04 on Team JDRF. The half marathon half marathon. Stacey Simms 31:07 Yep. So you went back to Disney World. You ran the team JDRF half marathon. Let me ask you first though at least what's it like for you to go back at Disney World? Do you think about diabetes you just have fun when you're there. Elise Sammis 31:18 I have like weird flashbacks kind of. Because I like like remember walking in that same spot being like, all frazzled, like what am I going to do? But then like going back and feeling like Well, I'm kind of normal now. Like, I got it under control. So like happy for me. Unknown Speaker 31:35 That's fantastic. So like, Natalie Sammis 31:37 I had some a mom, I'm going to get weepy no problem very silly. But to see it come full circle to leave Disney World that first time. And you know wonder what your future is going to be like wonder what your daughter's life is going to look like. It's kind of being scared out of your mind. And then to come back to the literally the same place in Disney. I don't know. It has some feel to it. Like, even if you had gone 20 years ago, there's something magic. There's that little spark of Disney that kind of remains the same. So it puts you right back where you were in this time to feel so much confidence. And I still remember on the half marathon, you turn a corner and run into the Magic Kingdom in the it was still dark because it's a ridiculously early marathon. But the castle was all lit up. And I had this like moment of like, Oh my goodness, we've made it so far. I am so happy where where we're at now. We're beating diabetes. I'm not being beaten by diabetes. And at that very moment, as I'm like, getting all bizarre and emotional. I look up and there's Team JDRF fans, right? They're saying that moment of like, oh, then I'm like, wait, I can't praise because I'm practice. So I stopped crying and I kept running and that was it. But yeah, it is a quite a journey, I guess, to come full circle and to go back in that way with so much support and so much like people behind you and helping you raise money for a cause, you know, to help your kid just live a happy, normal life. So it was great. Stacey Simms 33:18 Thank you both so much. I would say Best of luck, but it's all. So excited to watch. To see how this goes. I hope you'll come back and talk to us again. Thank you so much. Unknown Speaker 33:29 Thank you. Unknown Speaker 33:35 You're listening to diabetes connections with Stacey Simms. Stacey Simms 33:41 Alright, so fingers crossed for Elise and for Naima. I am taping this just after the second episode has aired. So who the heck knows what has happened since and what will happen going forward, but we will certainly be following cheering these girls on. Up next. Tell me something good but diabetes connections is brought to you by Dexcom. And you know, when Benny was very little, and his fingers would get wet, right? I'd give him a bath or we'd go in the pool. I would always notice his fingertips. And you know exactly what I mean, right? They were poked so much that they were just full of little little pinprick holes. You could see when they got wet. He is 15. Now, I don't really see his hands much anymore. But the other day, he's such a ding-a-ling. He was doing a project for school. He was using a hot glue gun and he you know, he burned himself a little bit. He's fine. He's fine. But when he came into show me I noticed again and every time I do see his hands, it just knocks me out. his fingertips look normal. We've been using Dexcom for six years now. And with every iteration, we've done fewer and fewer finger sticks, the latest generation, the Dexcom g six eliminates finger sticks for calibration and diabetes treatment decisions. Just thinking about doing 10 finger sticks a day in the past. Makes me so glad that Dexcom has helped us come so far. It's an incredible tool. If you're glucose alerts and readings from the G six do not match symptoms or expectations. Use a blood glucose meter to make diabetes treatment decisions. learn more, go to diabetes, connections calm and click on the Dexcom logo. It's time for Tell me something good. I've got two great stories one was sent to me via Facebook Messenger. The other one I saw in a Facebook group and if you've got a story for me, the easiest way is in my Facebook group at diabetes connections the group or email me let me know what's going on. What is good for you. Melissa wrote in “I have a Tell me something good. I've been listening to your podcast since maybe the summer and my four year old daughter was diagnosed March 28 2019. You are very optimistic. I haven't found a positive thing with my daughter's diabetes. Until today. It's been a horrible nine months with everything. We had our first dentist appointment Since diagnosis I've dropped a lot of ball since April, when the dental hygienist saw the pump. She knew what it was. I didn't have to explain. The conversation got direct to where we treat for Lowes, Skittles and starbursts and gummies. All bed for her teeth. When the dentist came to check, we had a discussion about the candies. He asked for her Endo's name, and he knew her. He's the pediatric chief of dentistry at the local Children's Hospital where her endo is affiliated, he texted an email to find better candies to use instead of the sticky kind. He went on to say collaborates with a lot of specialized doctors in the Children's Hospital to take better care of the kids. And he said get back to me after a discussion with the endo. I found the experience relieving that I wouldn't have to fight this battle. The dentist got it and my daughter was in good hands being cared for. I didn't think I'd ever find anything positive about our new normal. Today I did. So that's my Tell me something good.” Melissa, I'm getting emotional reading what you're saying here. Thank you. She writes for your podcast your optimism, and having somebody to tell the story to understand. Her daughter's name is Katarina, beautiful name. And she told me that it's been difficult to find care for her. You know when they're that little it can be so hard preschools, that kind of thing. But she went on to write that they have been blessed. She's been taken care of by her school nurse in an all day preschool. Her endocrinologist who they love and her mother, Melissa's mom, the grandma, who was able to watch her while the parents are at work, and now the dentist, she writes, “I didn't realize until this how lucky we have been. These are battles. I do not have to fight. Your optimism about any life with T1D is something I was envious of. I wanted some of the burden of this disease lifted off of my shoulders, and I was able to see that I have that after this visit. So I'm a little bit emotional here because of all the nice things she said and just having a place to share that with right. It's important to have people who get it and know important it is that the dentist didn't scold her and say you shouldn't be doing that. But said, Let's find a way to do this that works with Type 1 diabetes. And I think that's fantastic. But if it was a little strange for me to hear, even though I know it, I am very optimistic. I am very positive. I put these rose colored glasses on a lot and diabetes is hard. Type 1 is difficult. Being a parent of a kid with type one it's difficult to it's not all sunshine and rainbows over here. Trust me, I hope I'm open and honest about it. But at the end of the day, we've been really lucky. And I am optimistic and if you're feeling down or things are hard, no judgment, man. It is hard all around. I think I do an okay job of being honest and sharing the ups and downs. But I do know that my general outlook with type one is is an uplifting one. I hesitate to say it because I feel like it's an odd thing to say I feel like it puts me like I'm trying to be uplifting, but the truth is that's how it was presented. To us when Benny was diagnosed, and that makes all of the difference. When you're diagnosed on the very first day you meet a nurse who says, he's going to be fine. I have type one. And I have one child at home and I'm pregnant with my second and don't listen to the scary stories and don't listen to the hard stuff. It's fine. And then the next day, you pick up the phone and call three local people that you know who have kids with type one, because you've met them in your health reporting over the years, and they all say that he's gonna be great. My kids Is this my kid does that it's fine. It really changes than if you don't have those things. And I know how lucky I am to have them. So Melissa, thank you for reaching out. Thanks for a little bit of the gut check, as I like to say the rose colored glasses, but send us any good news and send us anything you want to vent. I hope you join the Facebook group. I'd love to hear more about Catarina. Our other Tell me something good this week comes from the Walt Disney World marathon weekend. That's where Natalie Sammis was when they said they were in Walt Disney World again. Very recently. She was running the half marathon. You talked about with all the jdrf people, they're getting emotional. Well, there's so much going on for that weekend. And I wanted to spotlight Julia Buckley, who's a friend of mine and I've mentioned her on the show before. She is a flight attendant and she is amazing. And she won the Spirit Award for jdrf. She ran on Team jdrf. I don't know how she does it. She flies all over the world comes home runs at Walt Disney World. She always has a smile on her face. So Julia, thank you so much for all that you do. I love some of the pictures maybe we'll throw some of those in the Facebook group as well but to everybody who ran at Walt Disney World, hats off man and now it's a fun race but it's still a lot of work. If you've got to tell me something good story, send it my way. I am so excited. We're getting more and more of these all the time or put them out on social media every week. So I'd love to hear from you tell me something good. Before I let you go, this is not a Tell me something good. This is a Tell me something embarrassing. So I mentioned the very beginning of the show that there were some technical difficulties when I recorded the interview with Elise and Natalie. And real quick, the way I taped the show, usually is that I do the interviews right from my home computer. I have a little setup little home studio. But the interviews are generally conducted via Skype, and then into my computer and then into a backup hard drive. Later on, I record this part of it like a round the interview, right and that goes right into the computer. But when I'm on the road, I don't want to slip my computer. It's only got one input for the microphone, and I had basically needed three inputs. my microphone, Natalie's mic, and Elise's mic. So I use I mentioned that hard drive. I use a recorder for all of you audio files out there, I use an H five zoom. It is a wonderful little recording device and i i only scratched the surface. I know I'm not using it to its full potential. I can plug two microphones in there. And I know I can do more with it. I could use a sound mixer or whatever. But generally when I have more than two microphones that I'm using a plug two and two Each five zoom. And then I have another recorder where I put on a lavalier mic and a little Clippy mics that you see on the evening news or maybe you've done an interview or recorded something for work and they put a little clip mic on your collar. That's a level layer mic, and I use that for myself. And here's the embarrassing part. The recorder I use when I do that is an old iPhone. And I'm not even sure how old it is. It might be a four, it might be three. It doesn't work anymore for anything else. I mean, I don't certainly have service on it. But it is a perfect dumb recorder. And it's like a tape recorder back of the day. And I had purchased over the years, these level ear mics that plugged into your phone. They're fantastic. But when you switch to the newer iPhones and you got rid of the headphone jack well guess where the lav mic plugged in. So I'm out of luck. I can't use my newer phone as a recorder if I want to use the lav mics. So we get to South Carolina. I'm setting everything up. I'm there early and speaking doing a book event before First I'm going to interview with Lisa, Natalie. So I set everything up. Everything sounds good. The stick microphones, the regular microphones, the one if you ever see pictures of me the ones that have the logos on them. Those are plugged in. They're working fine. They're a little low. I'm not really sure. I think maybe Elise was just very soft spoken. So I'm trying to adjust audio levels. I plug my stuff in, and the old phone, the editing software will not open. I use a program called twisted wave. And it's a great program. It's it's up to date, but the phone is so old. I think it was trying to update the the editing software. So I said, forget this. I'll just use my voice memo. So every phone has a voice memo app. It's fabulous for podcasting. It really works well. You can just record your voice for however long and then you email it to yourself. I have guests do this. Sometimes if it's a really short interview. I don't do it much. But you know, once or twice. I've had people do a short segment and a voice memo is great for them. So it looks like it's working. Everything's fine. We do the whole interview. voice memo is there I can hear it. It's recorded Elise Natalie are fine. I can't Email the file to myself. I can't get it off the phone. It's stuck on this old iPhone three, four. It's sitting there. It's It's wonderful. Amazingly, the microphones I was using picked up my voice enough so you heard the interview. It wasn't terrible. It probably wasn't great, I'm sure john kennis my editor worked a ton of magic on it every time he gets a file from me probably shakes his head and said, yes, this person obviously worked with a technical producer her entire radio career. So I'm now in the market for a new level ear mic, because if you know anything about audio, and you heard me say the h5 zoom, you know that you can also plug a lav mic or any kind of really smaller mic into another outlet very easily. And this whole thing could have been avoided if I had just done that. So that was my adventure. I figured we'd just soldier on right you just want the stories. You're less concerned with pristine studio sound, right? Haha. Well, look, I'm going on the road a lot this year. So I figured I better learn how to do that. And figure out how to better get it done. So stay tuned for the continuing saga of how the heck Stacy makes her lovely mix work. Alright, the next stop is not too far from me. I'm going to Raleigh the first weekend in February Raleigh, North Carolina for a jdrf type one nation summit. Then I am going to Maine the following weekend to South Portland, Maine, to talk to the main pea pods, very excited to talk to this group. And we have a very busy schedule after that. Thank you, as always, especially this week to my editor, john Drew kennis from audio editing solutions. Thank you for listening. Remember this Thursday, we do have another minisode coming out this week. I'm talking all about untethered, what that means, why we have loved it. I got a bunch of questions after I mentioned this in a couple episodes back. I talked about receiver a little bit which is a newer, long acting. So I'm going to go through untethered, what it means why it's not just for teenagers, and why we've had such good success. With it, and that is our next little mini episode. I'm Stacey Simms and I will see you back here on Thursday. Benny 46:11 Diabetes Connections is a production of Stacey Sims media. All rights reserved. All wrongs avenged Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Kwab's big bro Kwasi joins the show to talk Boxing's heavyweight division, our 5 W's NFL Edition (Who, What Where, When, Why), the player we would start an NBA franchise with and NFL Week 15 picks

[fusion_builder_container hundred_percent="no" equal_height_columns="no" menu_anchor="" hide_on_mobile="small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility" class="" id="" background_color="" background_image="" background_position="center center" background_repeat="no-repeat" fade="no" background_parallax="none" parallax_speed="0.3" video_mp4="" video_webm="" video_ogv="" video_url="" video_aspect_ratio="16:9" video_loop="yes" video_mute="yes" overlay_color="" video_preview_image="" border_size="" border_color="" border_style="solid" padding_top="" padding_bottom="" padding_left="" padding_right=""][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type="1_1" layout="1_1" background_position="left top" background_color="" border_size="" border_color="" border_style="solid" border_position="all" spacing="yes" background_image="" background_repeat="no-repeat" padding_top="" padding_right="" padding_bottom="" padding_left="" margin_top="0px" margin_bottom="0px" class="" id="" animation_type="" animation_speed="0.3" animation_direction="left" hide_on_mobile="small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility" center_content="no" last="no" min_height="" hover_type="none" link=""][fusion_text]Watch the live interview below [/fusion_text][fusion_text] Transcription (was completed by automated process.  Please ignore any speech-to-text errors) [00:00:01] This is the get sellers calling you marketing podcasts for real estate agents. And I'm Beatty Carmichael. [00:00:06] For simple to do proven marketing strategies focus exclusively on finding sellers and getting more listings. Visit our Web site, get sellers calling you dot com. [00:00:16] And now let's begin our next session of get sellers calling you. [00:00:23] So, hey, I'm Beatty Carmichael and welcome to another session of the Get Sellers calling you real to podcast. And I'm really excited today to visit with a friend of mine that I've met several years back. And I've just always been amazed with what she's done. And from California named to make sure. So, Krista, say hello. [00:00:43] Hi, Beatty. Thanks for having me. I appreciate it. It's wonderful what you're doing. [00:00:48] Well, I am really thrilled to have you on board. I've worked with a lot of agents and have interviewed a lot of folks. And you're one of the very top in the producing writes that I've worked with. And when you and I spoke a couple of years ago, it was just I was flabbergasted with the volume that you drove and the the ease in which you did it. So I'm excited about what you have to share for our listeners today and what they can take away from it. [00:01:15] Yes. So my goal is just to add as much value as possible. So feel free to ask me any questions. I'm an open book. There's nothing that I'm going to hold back. So you ask away. I will deliver. [00:01:26] I will do that for sure. And just also for those listening. Krista has actually started to share some of this and a coaching program. So we'll talk about that maybe toward the end of the call. But, Krista, I would love to find out real quickly for those listening. This is an Internet call, so just being part in any Internet type of interference. But, Krista, give us a little background on who you are and just to establish why it's important that someone wants to listen to this call from you. [00:01:55] Well, I'm just I'm a mom, number one, and a wife. And I have been in the top 1 percent of real estate agents nationwide for about 17 years running. [00:02:05] So no matter what the market was, I found a way to make sure that I was on top of it. So I sold over two thousand homes in my career personally with me. And that's not a big team of people that was with me and an assistant in a transaction coordinator. So just recently, I've changed my mind the way that I run my team because I now I have a team and they're helping me more so that I can focus on my coaching. But yeah, we're. We love it. [00:02:33] I love it. So I have to ask this question to you, because this is one of the things that really surprised me earlier. How much volume do you do? Do you mind sharing? [00:02:43] As far as numbers. [00:02:44] Yeah. Or just anything. Just to quantify. [00:02:47] So my series sold one hundred and sixty nine homes the year before last. I sold one hundred and fifty one. And last year I sold one hundred and four homes just working on my business five percent of the time. So I literally make my 90 members on my coaching fibrosis on real estate because I want to still make sure I'm on the cutting edge of what's happening and I'm managing my team. But yeah, we sold it over a hundred and four homes last year. Transitioning me out of the business and just being kind of the face of it because of our systems and strategies that we had in place. [00:03:18] I love it. So systems and strategies. [00:03:20] That's what I want to head toward. So long. So you did a lot of volume. You've been able to replicate that volume, having it come in independent from you. Talk to me in terms of what do you do? What what type of systems if. First off, let me ask you this. In the marketplace, are you focused on personal contacts or are you going after more cold market? You're buying leads. What's the general funnels that you work with? [00:03:45] Ok, so let me kind of explain my strategy. Number one, we really, really we utilize social media and video heavily. We we teach it. And that's what's helped me grow my real estate business and help me continue to stay in the forefront. And we focus on sellers primarily, but with that, we get plenty of buyers because we are focused on sellers. So we run. We utilize this video heavily. And what I mean by that is many people will use video maybe, but they won't use it correctly. So they'll do video, but then they'll just put it on their Facebook page or they'll put it on their whatever, but they don't do any kind of marketing behind it. So what we do is we we are I call a community market leader. Right. So my goal is anything real estate or or city related, my city thinks about me. They think real estate or they think community. They know my name. And so we're constantly putting out videos and community videos and we know what's happening in town, what's going on, real estate and not real estate related, but community related without ever asking you to do anything in return. So many times people are always selling themselves. Right. I'm the best thrill driving the number one. I'm this. I'm that instead of just serving. So we teach people to serve and not sell. And by serving you inadvertently will sell, if that makes sense. [00:05:04] And also the me, if I don't mind me interrupting. So you're doing these videos as well. What's going on in them in the space? Where are you sending them? What are you doing with the video? [00:05:15] So first we just try to develop trust. So the first and my initial contact is just to run a Facebook. Right. And just boosting is not enough. You need it. Run your ads to your ads manager account on Facebook because then you can target and retarget. You can create look like audiences. You can really, really know what people are doing and make adjustments based upon what is and what's not working. And we just you know, we utilize the reach objective initially. So we reach as many people as possible in the community and they continue to see us. It's like brand awareness. We're getting them to get to know our brand and we're just giving value. Hey, you know, there's this new subdivision that's being built or versus great new family restaurant that was open. Nor here's here's a new activity that's happening this weekend. Right. Oh, and by the way, interest rates are going up or down or whatever it might be. And then we don't ask for anything. So many people will create funnels and landing pages and they'll ask for people's information or phone number. [00:06:14] But nobody wants to give it to you because they're getting bombarded by ads. But once they get to know you like you and trust you, break down barriers, you become more of an authority figure. They're much more likely to want to be able to want to give you their information. Right. So the strategy that we teach agents is the strategy that I use is we teach you how to get to be known. Right. Because in order to be known, you have to be seen. You have to be heard. So the objective is to let your community get to know you like you trust you be seen as the expert and then you ask for people's information. You know, people are doing it backwards. They're saying, give me your vacation, fill out this ad. Right. Thought this lead form when no one even knows who you are. So you've got to really. It's called relationship marketing, right? It's what I call engagement working. But you're developing a relationship with your community. You're getting to be known as the expert authority and then you're asking for their information. [00:07:07] So we utilize but oh, just say this is brilliant. [00:07:11] You're using you're using Facebook, targeting either custom or look alike or or different audiences. You're building up their recognition of who you are and that built up trust. They're seeing you. And we know that if someone can meet you, they're much more likely to do business with you. So by doing the videos or seeing you, they're getting to trust you. They know like you and Mel, you've won a relationship with them. [00:07:37] Yeah. So then we welcome that listing appointment. They're already hugging me and they feel like I know you. And, you know, I'll be walking around town and everyone's like Krista. That was the marquee doing a, you know, high five. And me, I have no clue who would do whatever is at the time. But they feel like they know because they see me. I'm a I'm a. So you got to think about something like you're losing this. You got to understand how powerful social media is. In 30 days, more video content is uploaded on the Internet in 30 days. Then all of the major networks over the past 30 years, so more networked, more video is uploaded onto Facebook, Instagram, YouTube in one month. Then CBS, NBC, ABC, PBS. I can keep going on in the past 30 years. Right. So it's like you have your own digital marketing platform. You have your own TV right in front of everyone. Because people are not even really watching TV anymore. They're watching like my children do not own cable right there and there. They're going to be a virus very, very soon. People are watching videos or watching YouTube. They're watching Facebook. They're looking at Instagram. They want to know about people. What people are doing. That's the new TV now. [00:08:48] You know, this is brilliant for the sake of our audience who may not be as familiar with Facebook advertising, could you do maybe just a short two, three minute primer on what's going on? You know, you're mentioning Reach, you're mentioning all the different type of campaign objectives and give this little primer and then I want to jump back into where we are. And once that foundation is light and take it a little bit deeper, can we do that? [00:09:13] You mean primer on why you should utilize Facebook? [00:09:16] No, not for those people who may not have done anything with Facebook as manager. OK. So that's kind of new to them. Does that make sense? [00:09:23] Yes. OK. So. Well, first, you have to understand this. The average person goes to Facebook for 51 minutes a day. They go there 17 times. There's two point three billion active users on Facebook right now. This is I'm just going to talk about Facebook, because at the same time, we're not going talk about Instagram and all that. Although Instagram is also a platform that you should be looking into because millennials are more on Instagram and they're on Facebook. Right. And we're starting to see a shift from people buying from Facebook to Instagram. And it's cheaper to advertise on Instagram now than it is on Facebook. Well, let's just talk about Facebook. So the average person, the average agent we have found this is this is true stat. So the National Association of Realtors says that only 16 percent of agents are utilizing Facebook. That's that's a step from the net than they are. We found from our research that less than 1 percent of agents are utilizing it correctly. All right. So most agents are doing is they're posting on their personal page or posting on their business page. But Facebook is an algorithm. They want your money. They want you to pay them. So you've got to pay them to get your ads to show up in front of people. If you're not paying Facebook to show up, to have your ads seen in front of people, you're only being seen by the people who are most likely interacting with you. Right. That's your your best friends and your family members. It's people that are that Facebook is putting your stuff in front of people that are engaging. You're not reaching the rest of your community. [00:10:47] OK. So we create ads and we have anywhere from seventeen thousand one hundred and twenty thousand people that we use that see our ads, which means that we we go into Facebook, we go into our ads manager account. That's step one. Go to Facebook. Set up for ass. Set up an ad up. Get a business page. Right. Then you've got to run your ads through your ads manager account. Many agents will just boost. Now, boosting is not sufficient enough because if you're just boosting, you are not able to do anything with that information. Right. When you set up an ad for your ads, manage your account. You're then able to create lookalike audiences. What that means is you're able to say, hey, this ad ran really, really well. We've got great reach, tons of engagement, engagement, meaning people are liking, commenting and sharing. They're engaging with your ad. So you can say, oh, this ad performed so well. I want you to find more people that are like this. Facebook and the Facebook algorithm will find people that are more likely to engage in your ad. They will create a whole new audience. Right now, the second ability, which is so, so important, is that you're able to reach target and retarget means that you're able to as somebody watches your ad on you, it's it's basically you're creating a funnel. You do a video on three chips to sell your house to get maximum exposure. Right. Then you have, let's say, 50000 people see that ad and then you say, OK, you know, Facebook, I want you to find the people that were the most engaged, the ones that watched more of the video. [00:12:19] The ones that liked are shared. And I want you to send them another video on seven months when selling like make sure you did seven things you have to do in selling to make maximize your investment. Right. And then you can take even for a rookie. Now they watch the first video and the second video. Now I want to send them a link for a CMA. Do I know what your house is worth? Well, yes. These people now, you know, those leads are super qualified, highly engaged leads because they've already watched two of your videos. They're not watching videos on how to sell a house for more money if they're not thinking of selling. So now you take you take you know, maybe you got one hundred leads down to 20 that are super serious, engaged, active sellers. Make sense. So that's the importance of utilizing social media and Facebook, because number one, ninety five percent of buyers and sellers say they search online first. Right. We know according to the National Association of Realtors, that buyers and sellers take a minimum of three to six months. They start looking before they ever take action. Your goal is to show up where they're looking, which is on social media, and B, be there when they finally want to act. So you're developing this relationship with them for months and months and months. And they're they're looking at your step because they're interested. They want to know more. So then when they finally want to act, you're in front of them. And they they've now established you as the expert authority. So when they think about selling, they'll think about you or buying. Right. [00:13:46] You know, this is brilliant because I love the process. You know, I remember when you and I spoke a couple of years ago, you mentioned that when you started to do videos, your business just started taking off. [00:13:59] Do you remember that? [00:14:00] Oh, yeah. That's the one thing people ask me. What's the number one strategy you can tell me to do? And I tell them utilize video but correctly distribute it. [00:14:09] Yes. So this is brilliant. So in real simple. So you're you're taking them, you're pushing content out. You're not asking anything from them. So the content that you're pushing out. Give me an idea. Maybe. You know, I know you meant you rented really quickly earlier. Can you walk me through as an agent if I'm going to do this? What type of content content am I putting out and how frequently am I putting it out into this mass audience? [00:14:36] A here's a nugget right now. All right. You want to number one, if you're going to do anything. Pick a knish. So pick a niche in real estate. Maybe you want to work with a retirement company or you want to do homes on deep water. You want to work in a certain subdivision or you want to work with millennials. Pick Aneesh, and you want to do two content videos initially to start like X, like three, two, three content videos just on that niche. Then every single week do another video on that niche and then take that video, what we call video repurposing. Right. Which means you're gonna take that video, you're going to have it transcribed. There's a thing called red dot com. You're going to upload that video on that transcription and that video onto your Web site. So then you start getting search engine optimization through Google. Now, this is not hard. It's easy. You send your video to rabbits a dollar a minute. Right. You do a three to five minute content video on a specific leash because people are searching that specific need to the videos can be longer. But then what happens is as you start to do this on a regular basis, when someone goes to Google to search, hey, how do I buy a home for the first time or what's the best, you know, interest rates or homes in discovery about deep water? Your information is going to come up like crazy because you haven't reached it. [00:15:54] So meeting is super important and you can really gain a lot of traction really, really quickly if you do it on a regular basis because of the capability for the information that you're putting out there to be seen on Google when you see it. Google loves video. So uploading your videos onto YouTube, right? Get you on to Google, uploading your videos on your Web site, gets you on to Google. So when people start searching that, you're going to start showing up over and over and over again. So that would be my first suggestion is picking each and do it. Now, secondly, you want to do your normal videos that you're going to create for your community and for on a weekly basis. You want to do that to a week and you want to keep them short. Right. Like 30 seconds or or under shorter videos have higher completion rates, shorter videos get watched. More people actually click on the length of a video and they won't watch it. So initially when you're trying to grab someone's attention. Baby, you want to raspberries and quack, quack. And if they're interested, then you can bring them down your funnel and start putting out more content to them. That's similar to the first content. And then you can add you can make it longer. Right. So, for example, you wouldn't say, are you thinking about buying a house this summer? [00:17:03] Oh, my gosh. There's three things you need to know. Remember? Right. Hi, I'm Krista Major. [00:17:07] I sold hundreds of homes and then you're going to buy that. You're the experts. They want to keep listening to you. And then you just give a quick tip or two. For more information and for me to get more details, click on the link below for more. No more explanation. And then they then more. Then they're watching these videos and you're bringing them down your file and they can be longer because you've already grabbed their attention. [00:17:26] That makes sense. So. So you're using the 30 second clips for the mass. You're taking your very narrow niche and you're focusing on that. [00:17:36] And these videos are offering information but not asking for their information, correct? [00:17:43] Yes. Not initially. And then after you've been doing it, then you asked for the information at hand. Having a buyer and seller seminar. Mike, one thing that I'm doing this next Thursday for my community is I'm putting on a local business and professional marketing training free. Right now, I'm marketing it on Facebook. I did a video saying, hey, are you a local business, a professional? I can help you. I'm sure you all know I am right. Why? Because I know how to market. Let me show you how to market your local business and empire. And you're your as a as a professional or a local business. Why am I doing that? Because I'm basically going to be doing a little mini listing presentation without them even knowing it, showing them how we do what we do and how they can do that. But at the same time, showing them, hey, here's an example of how I listen market to house, right? Look, we had one hundred and seventy six thousand people on this on this one housing tour. We had over two hundred and fifteen hours of people watching this one video. Will that help you? So basically, I'm going to be helping them, but also showcasing how we market our homes at the same time to like minded individuals who are local professionals or her own local businesses. [00:18:47] I love it. So when you're doing this video out to just your normal group, these whole 30 second clips and you know, if you if you think about selling, click below. [00:18:56] For those people who are listening, you know, they've done nothing like this before and they're going, oh, my gosh, what do I do? What? Where do I go? Where do I send them when they click below? What's the next step? Is it a Facebook page or what are you doing on that? [00:19:09] So they're through. When you create an app through your ads manager account, you can create this video. Last call to action. There's a traffic objective. There is a reach objective. Brand awareness objective. There is a conversion objective, which means you want them to convert. You're trying to get their information right. There's a video of use subjective depending on what objective you choose. It will change your call to action. So we then take them to a landing page. And if you're let's this and you're going, what the heck is she talking about? I've never heard of a landing page. Here's what I've got to tell you. There is going to be more change in the next six years in technology and there has been in the last 100. That is a true start. You are going to see more change in the next six years than we've seen in the last 100 years in technology and social media. You it's not a matter of should I. I'm thinking about it. You have to. You need to make sure that you are relevant, that you're Zillow proof your recession proof your discount broker, proof. Are you adapting to technology and change? You are going to save yourself from being left in the dust. And if you haven't now, it's OK. Like just start right. It's just like riding a bike or kissing for the first time. You get better and better as you do it. You suck it first. You follow your break your name, nails it, scrape up your face, whatever that is, but then you get better. So it's a matter of you saying, I can do this and I'm gonna do it right. It's scary at first. And everyone hates video. They are afraid of it. They're so fearful of it. But here's the deal. [00:20:39] You look at them, you know, you look at video on and who doesn't like the way you look because that's how you look. [00:20:44] Do you remember? This is me. I like myself. Right. Is video, video, video, video. If I told you the stats on why video is so important, you would die and just not using it. All you need is a cell phone. Everyone's got a cell phone. We all have a camera. This is Isabella's hitting record uploading that and have a go at it. Right. It's not not hard. It's just it's simple. So then you take him to a landing page with the landing page. Then you're then they can you know, you're saying, hey, do you want more information you want to get? What's my home worth or any kind of a market analysis? Do you want to hear a seller guide? You a buyer guide? What do you want? So you're basically continuing to take them down your funnel. The first action is the video. [00:21:26] I love it. So. So. So thanks for this. Really great. What's the next step? How do you. So we're talking about doing the videos. I kind of cut you off to go backwards and say, let's lay the foundation. [00:21:37] Let me let you run again from where you are. Does that work? [00:21:41] Yes. So meaning never was. [00:21:47] So that may be kind of an unfair try to loop back around. So where do we go from here? So I've got I've got an agent and there they're excited that what they're doing, what you're talking about, this has obviously been, you know, this and I've always wanted you know, this is just my personal out of curiosity with you, Krista. When I when we talked a few years ago and you're just doing this amazing volume and it seems like it's consistent. Yes, you're out. The thing that blew my mind is how and now I get it. It's these videos. But there's got to be something a little more that you're doing in terms of the content or in terms of, you know, maybe the question that comes up and I'm I'm trying to get my questions on formulated. You know, you're talking about doing like two videos a week. What do you keep saying on those two videos? I mean, aren't you kind of cycling back around and saying the same thing over and over again or you. [00:22:45] Oh, my gosh. Know, so there's so much to talk about. First of all, you have to understand, it's not just real estate, even though I think we as agents, we don't realize how much people love real estate. I mean, anytime you go to a party and someone knows that you're a real estate agent, what do they ask you? And I'm just going to pause for about 10 seconds here. What do they ask you? They know you're older. What do they ask you? How's the market? Right. So your job is to tell them on a regular basis what's happening in the market, what's happening in their area, what's happening in their community, what's happening in their subdivision. And on top of that, though. Bringing in community related events. What's going on in the community? What's new, what's fun, what's exciting? What are they going to do? What's what's different? What's changing? There's just you can fire. Chips, seller chips, costly mistakes, parts of a contract. What does a contingency mean? How much is a deposit? What does the buyer need to do before even looking? What do you need to make sure once you're in escrow? You do. I mean, you just we can go on and on and on. You know so much about your your subject matter as an agent. But I we think that everyone knows it, too. [00:23:48] They don't. Right. So the trick is not just to be real estate, but also be community. You want to do like one to one wanted unity video. One real estate video. Right. One market update a month. What's happening in the market? How's it changed from last month? All right. Your next video, along with that nation, each nation, nation each. The riches are in the niches. People are afraid of meeting as they feel like they're going to lose out on business. When, quite frankly, you will still have the same amount of business. But if somebody is looking for that specific topic, you're going to show up way more often on that specific topic when you do need. But you'll still show up just the same for everything else. So it's a matter of creating video content properly, making sure it gets seen. Remember Facebook, if you want to have to be seen by your community, by the thousands. Right. Facebook will put your information in front of the people that are more likely to watch it. Their algorithm goes in front of people that already expressed behaviors in liking real estate. Liking realtor, dot com, liking Zillow, you know, liking community events. So they put you in front of them and then you can say, OK, for this ad, I want to try to get video views, go put me in front of people that want to watch my videos, that their algorithm, their Facebook algorithm will do that or it will say, I want you to put this this ad now in front of somebody who is more likely to convert. [00:25:10] So I'm going to use the conversion objective. Right. Right now, I just want to get myself to be seen by everyone. I mean, he is the reach objective. So depending on what your objective what your personal objective is for the ads that you're running is going to change what objective you use on Facebook and what you tell Facebook to do. So it's a matter of creating a video, setting up an ad through your advantage, your account, utilizing your your your choosing, your objective, making sure you have a great call to action and awesome pictures that do not look at Z. The less ads you, the better the more it looks like an ad, the less likely people will clip because they're tired of being sold to and then taking them from clicking on that ad to a landing page, which then will put them right into your serum. So we create Facebook campaigns that go directly from Facebook into our CRM and then we then start marketing. Then I'm putting them on our drip drip campaigns call. [00:26:08] You know, this is you're listening to the get sellers calling you podcast to increase sales from past clients and sphere of influence or from a geographic farm, learn about Agent Dominator. [00:26:18] We guarantee your sales in writing or give your money back to learn more. Visit our website and get sellers calling you dot com and like Agent Dominator from the. [00:26:28] And now back to the podcast. So it's brilliant. And as I'm hearing you, the thing that keeps hitting me and I'm going to talk about what you do in coaching, because I'm sure you you teach this step by step. But it seems almost too simple. [00:26:42] Does that make sense? Yeah. You know, it's it's not simple. It really isn't. I mean, it isn't. It isn't. I mean, it is if you just do it, you can really take it to like on steroids. Meaning. Right. So a good example is one of my students just, um, posted in our group. She's like me before the program and showed her Facebook. It was a literally a flat line. OK. That means how many people saw her. And then she's like now cramming. Krista 's program is like way up here because utilizing it correctly. And so it's so powerful, though. Think about this. You go to a open house and you're just hoping to see a couple of people and maybe it's the neighbors. It's a couple of looky loos, like you run an ad on Facebook. I can spend 50 bucks and I can have, you know, seventy five thousand people see me. I can run an ad for fifty dollars and get two hundred hours of people watching my video because Facebook will tell you how many people you reach. How many people saw you. How much time they saw you. So I can show like we teach our students that one guy. We did it after six weeks, already had thirty seven hours of one video being watched. So I was like, that's like 10 open houses, right. That's you doing more than that? More than 10, 15 open houses. Cause it might be. So it's really, really effective because you're constantly being reminded and you're inadvertently prospecting. So instead of cold calling and door knocking, which I do not cold call, I do not doorknock. I haven't an open house like eight years. My community and everyone's still seeing me because I'm showing up or they're looking they are online. They are on social media. So they're seeing me on a regular basis. So they're reminded they can't forget about me. Right. They can't, you know. [00:28:20] So you're taking you know, if you go back to the traditional model of growing a real estate business, you you set aside hours to go prospecting, to drive in business, and maybe those hours or more, you know, like a 30 to twelve. [00:28:34] All you're doing is you shifting. You're not spending prospecting hours. You're doing video hours, running some Facebook ads. And the way I'm interpreting it, you're doing that and then you're going off and playing or doing something else you want. Just letting it drive business to you. I know it's not quite that easy, but it's that's that's what it sounded. [00:28:53] Yeah. And it's it's not that easy. And we all want to make it seem like it's that easy. But you know what it is? I mean, instead of like I don't on weekends, I don't want to buy donuts for the open house. I want to make those with my kids. Right. Well, I want to cuddle with my husband in the morning. And I don't want to have to go to an open house and buy the balloons, put the signs out. I want. And people are there still seeming like crazy. Mean the number one agent for years and years and years. And this is a strategy that I mean, is it's also the exact same strategy that I've used to get agents from across the country into my coaching program. We've had over 500 agents go through our training in the past 14 months. This exact strategy. Right. It's giving information, giving value, producing content, getting them to know me and then say, OK, now I want you by my book. Right or now. Now that you know me. Why don't you let's talk to you about the coaching program. I don't say he signed up for coaching Brigham Young and whatever. They have to know who I am first. But once you develop that trust and respect. It's kind of like being on this podcast right there. People getting to know me. You like me to trust me. You either like me or you don't. You're like, she's way too crazy for me and you're hyper where I go like this crystal girl. Let me learn more about her. That's exactly what as an agent you need to be doing in your community. He's got to get people to know you. And video people are much more. They're sixty 64 percent more likely to buy a product when there's a video associated with it. You are a product. You're a service. So if people are 64 percent more likely to buy you seeing a video, does it make sense that you should be utilizing it? [00:30:23] That's amazing. Now you're an author. Now see some books back there. I want to talk about those. Can you tell me a little bit about the books you've done? [00:30:30] Yes. So I have one book sell a hundred plus films a year, how we use Engage Your Marketing Technology and Legion to sell 100 plus homes a year every year. That's this one. So a hundred percent here. This will be great for agents. Now, here's the thing, too, about what I'm teaching the strategy. You can be a brand new agent. We teach agents that are brand new to utilize this and they may very quickly position themselves as the expert. You don't have cap listings. You don't have to have any experience. You can just start talking about real estate. Right. And people do not know that you don't have any business. Also, here's a little book that I wrote, three clients in 30 days. I interviewed twenty three top producing agents across the country on if they were to lose all their business and they had to start from scratch in a new city with a new note on how they would generate three clients in 30 days. And they gave their blueprint from day one to day 30 of everything that they would do to generate more business. It's called three clients in 30 days. If you had to start from ground zero, no sphere, no contacts, no past clients. Here's your 30 day top racing blueprint. There's that one. And then like this, this is called fire financially independent. I retire early. Your crappy job will quit itself. This basically teaches people how to utilize a lot of Australians that we've taught them in in both the books and and make sure to turn their passion into you, into into their profits, how they monetize it, market it. [00:31:54] I love it. So talk to me a little bit. Talk to me a little bit about your coaching program. So I'm an agent. I'm loving this. [00:32:01] But I'm going I'm overwhelmed. And I know I'm going to need someone to help me walk this through, you know, walk me through it and make it happen. So is your coaching program about this specific or is it larger? Can you tell? [00:32:15] It's much larger. So we've got like three or three or four different programs out there. One is just the Legion program, and it basically teaches you everything I just talked about. Right. How to how to create it, how to create amazing Facebook campaigns that convert into actual clients. Everyone says they want leaves, leaves, leaves. Leaves are easy. And we generate so many leads. But the problem is you want leads that are more tangible that you can actually manage and that are more serious. And we teach you how to create and how to become the community market leader. How to establish yourself, to gain authority and to gain trust. And then how to create marketing campaigns that will get you the best leads that you can get. And then how to put those into systems and processes utilizing CRM so you can be successful. And then we also have more higher level programs where we literally just teach you. I mean, so much more Instagram, YouTube video repurposing other digital marketing strategies. I know. I know. I guess it's pretty intense, you know, because of the listing process, which is if they had it. It's like you're listing presentation on steroids. We get you a marketing campaign and brochures and just tons of stats. We kind of you're almost like buying our higher level programs or almost buying up like a. It was like a little mini franchise that we really helped agents, whether they're brand new or they're in the middle or they're very experienced, how to take their business from zero, you know, to a lot more around. [00:33:44] I was just recently talking to a prospective client and ours and we're talking about different things. And he said now I've also come across this coaching program. Krista, May short coaching. I think you said, do you know anything about that? As a man, you ought to take her up on that because she is amazing in. And what I love about what I'm hearing, Krista, is you've taken what you've applied. This has driven your business sky high and consistently and now you package it where people can really come alongside you. And I really commend you on that, because as you know, before we're talking, we're talking about another friend of mine who once he went into coaching his income, two and a half times increased, you know, two and a half times increase in like two or three years. And just you can't do it without a coach. [00:34:30] And so I'll tell you what, I have coaches. I mean, I have multiple coaches. And the reason I've always been really good at what I do is I constantly educate myself. I mean, it's constant learning and an implementation of what you're learning and creating different habits. And if you're listening to this, you have to understand something. You don't want to be reactive. You need to be adaptive. Right. Do not be reactive. Be adaptive. And you have got to adapt right now. This is where it's going. And the agents that are are utilizing digital marketing strategies and social media. They are adapting to what is no longer a want but a must. In your business, it's a must. And so they take it very, very seriously and know that it's not easy. Meaning we my program is hard. And I shouldn't say that because all of us want to buy it. But you have to work, right? If you're willing to give it the time that it takes and you're willing to put in the energy and efforts. We teach you how to be a 21st century real estate agent. We're not teaching strategies like cold calling or door knocking or open houses. However, if you want to do an open house, we show you how to market. So you actually get butts in seats, right? You can utilize it to your advantage. But we don't teach those strategies. We teach strategies that are actually working nowadays. And we try to open up your mind to think that there is an easier, more efficient or effective way to reach buyers and sellers in the masses. And it's thinking non traditionally, it doesn't mean you can't do traditional things that you've got to start thinking non traditionally and again, not be reactive, but be adaptive. [00:36:03] That makes sense. I want to shift topics real quick for dispersion as we start to wrap this up, but it ties into this. [00:36:10] So at the beginning, you mentioned Europe, your mom, your realtor, your husband. Can you talk to me a little bit about family life, work balance and how you manage that with what you do and taking care of being all these other responsibilities are so important. [00:36:27] Ok. So even before I was a coach, I rarely worked. Weekends or nights and I know some if you are going. Well, no way. Critic is everyone. But here's the deal. Once you develop enough respect from your community and you're seen as the expert authority, people will wait for you. I mean, I just tell people, listen, I've got a family life, work life balance and I do not work on weekends because I need to be the best that I can be Monday through Friday for you. I also don't like to work nights because I'll never be home. So therefore, just like they make an appointment with their doctor or their attorney or their dentist or their CPA. Monday through Friday, 9:00 to 5:00, I'm the same. Right. So I just set boundaries for myself. And occasionally I'll work on a weekend. I mean, very I can count on one hand in the past year how many times I work on a weekend unless it was in my computer at home with coaching. Right. But going to see a seller or a buyer, I just don't do it. I set boundaries. I also have buyers, agents. Now, I'll give my leads to buyers because I don't have the time to work with buyers. So I give my leads away. Take your referral fee and I focus on sellers. I don't have to work as many weekends and nights. I didn't do that for many years. When my coach said, Krista, you're losing a lot of money. And I said, well, why you're not working buyers. I says, you need to give your leads the way I want. [00:37:39] I don't want to lose the money. And they're like, well, you're losing the money because you're not doing anything with them because you don't have the time. And I was like, oh, yes, I'll do that right away. And I also use I use real ball. That's the serum that I use. And we're now kind of dabbling into Katie Couric. We're gonna compare how Katie Core works in conjunction with real love and care. We're sort of testing, but utilizing really good systems and having great workflows. We've got like over and I think of around 200 workflows in real world. And what that means is if somebody takes an action, then there's a workflow behind it. So, for example, somebody request this, request a market analysis, then I've got a workflow. It's OK. You know, pull, pull the cons, deliver CMA, send a postcard, send the thank you card. Right. Make a phone call. A phone call. And it sends it right to our phone and it says, hey, call this person at this time, here's the phone number. So we processed everything in every phase of the transaction. Right. So that way we're not thinking as much. So when you don't think as much, you utilize more time. You have more time. So I definitely have a work life balance. I know it's very, very difficult. I am a workaholic. I'll say I love it, but I do it more, more at my choice than a necessity because my kind of hobbyist sort of work. You know, I love it. [00:38:55] Well, it's definitely shows itself and I commend you on that because so many agents are just working to a frazzle and they lose sight of the most important reason why they're working, which is usually their family. [00:39:09] Yes. Yes. It's difficult. You know, you don't want to go on vacation and not be able to have a break in working every night, 8:00 or every weekend. I mean, you've got to set boundaries. People appreciate them. And also maybe get a help or a partner or somebody another agent can help you with the phone and such that you can't have time. If you take time, you'll you'll save more time. Right. Another really good effect is utilizing the pomodoro effect where you work 25 minutes at a time or your laser focused, then you take five minutes off so that that way what you're doing, you're really, really focused on getting that much more done. Another shows you just love to talk about, which is one thing I want everyone to listen to. It's really, really important is that every day when I wake up, I visualize my day, meaning I'm I see myself succeeding during the day and I see myself having the proper outcome that I have. I also write down six things that I'm grateful for, like I'm good with my family and grateful for my health. I'm grateful for my energy and my business, whatever it might be. I write specifically write down six things, because the more you focus on what you're grateful for, you'll get more of that. Right? So many times people are so focused on what they're not getting or what's not working, they get more of it right. So you want to write down six things you're grateful for every single day. [00:40:18] I also write down six things that I must do that day. So here's an example of it, right? Looks like this. I write down six things that I absolutely must finish today. Right. And then I put the time that it's going to take me. And usually you want to consider about a 10 hour day. There should be six and a half hours of to dos. The other three and a half hours are for the what ifs, the mishaps, the. Hey, can I have five seconds of your time, which turns into five minutes or two minutes. Right. So I time block six things that I actually want to get done. And then at the end of the day, I write down my wins. What works for me? Right. Celebrate your wins. Celebrate your successes. Success breeds success. The more you focus on what's working and the more you focus on your winning, the more winning you're gonna get. Right. Because your brain is a mental roadmap to get you there. So remember, visualize, show gratitude. Write down your six things time. BLOCK them out at the end of the day. Write down what your success, what your wins, what worked because you'll get more of those and then give yourself permission to sleep and get whatever it is you need to work through for the next day and then start over and start again. [00:41:20] This is amazing. It's like I feel like I'm in old firehose of nothing but solid content that I want to go back and listen to this multiple times. [00:41:30] Lots and lots more notes because in you've been calculated in such a short timeframe, so much amazing value. [00:41:38] Thank you. I appreciate it. [00:41:40] Well, you know, successful people are successful for a reason. [00:41:43] And it's like, you know, if this is how much has come out and just a 30 or 40 minute time, I can just imagine how deep that onion goes if I can just dig deeper. But I know we don't have time for all of that. Let me ask you, so back on the books and contacting you. So can you take a. Help me understand if if I'm going to get the books, because me personally, I want at least two of those books, if not all three of them. How do I get them? Where do I go? What do I do? [00:42:12] So the good news is. So right now, I'm giving away gifts and stuff on your train because I can give a free copy of the free copy of Sell 100 homes a year. But I'd love for you guys to go onto Amazon on Kindle right now. The books are selling their homes as 1999, but a fire and three planes in 30 right now. And they'll both help you in saying that I will guarantee it are 99 cents because we're trying to get as many reviews as possible. So we're giving. E-book for 99 cents. You can get on Amazon, the name Kissimmee Shark. You'll see the three looks come out. And then I'll give a free copy and sell 100 homes e-book that you can generate. Give us your your people. I'll give you that. The code is text in code. And that way I'll get there. Their e-mail address. I could markets in later on and I would just pirate what you did. You guys have been on your own. And then it would be great. But if you can give us a review, I'd really appreciate. I know you're going to get mint. Now you read a chapter or two and then go and give us a review. Of course, we're looking for five star reviews because even four stars people don't think is good enough. [00:43:16] Ok. So so for everyone listening, because you speak really, really fast and you throw it out there. Give me the titles of the three books so someone can what? Write it down. [00:43:27] Ok. Can you on and get it? The one you're going to go to Amazon, you're going to say sell the number one hundred plus homes a year with Kristin. Make sure you'll see my book pop up. Sell a hundred plus homes a year. And the subtitle is How We Use Engage Your Marketing Technology and Lead Gen to sell one hundred plus homes a year every year. So sell one hundred plus homes a year. How we use engagement, marketing, technology and lead gen to sell 100 plus homes a year every year. Here's the deal. So you are thinking, Krista, I don't want to sell a hundred homes. I just want to sell one more home. This will help you. This will help you sell one room a month or 20 homes more a year. You know, it's either or you don't have to sell 100, but you'll definitely get some step by step tangibles, things that you can get. The next book is three clients in 30 days. Three clients in 30 days. This teaches you if you had to start from scratch or if you're doing it, you're in your business right now and you want to. [00:44:24] You need to change what you can start implementing in your business right now to generate more deals. And again, you can get all these on. Amazon is going to go to Amazon. It'll give you a Kindle version or whatever the version that you're looking. It's all there. And then lastly, Fire, which stands for financially independent, retire early. Your crappy job will quit itself. Those three books will be very, very helpful. Definitely sell a hundred home would be my recommendation. First to buy as an aged it then three clients in 30. That fire has a ton of marketing information it teaching you how to market as well. And it will give you a lot of tangible strategies. There's also a lot of goal setting and vision and purpose which we all need. We really need to have our clear vision of why it is we want what we want to get there. Fire walks you through that. We've got a great work book to do it. And you can go to Crystal, make sure dot com to find more about me. And also one more thing. Beauty is, baby, I own saying it wrong. [00:45:23] Baby, baby. Either one works if I'm go back and forth. Katie, is it. Yeah. I'm so sorry. It's fine. I get it all the time. [00:45:32] I like knowing you can go to the seven figure ranger blueprint. The seven figure real tour blueprint on Facebook and read them is me and these seven. [00:45:45] Or is it just seven figure? [00:45:46] It's seven figure. Yeah, the number seven. Leave the off. [00:45:50] Yeah, leave the F seven figure. Real true blueprint. And I do two free trainings every single week on Tuesdays and Thursdays in that group. Writers give value when you serve. [00:46:02] Wonderful. So Krista may sure. M A S H O R E coaching dot com and the Facebook group seven figure real term blueprint. [00:46:15] Those are the two places to contact you get crystal, make sure dot com and then the seven figure world, your blueprint on Facebook and yes, go to Amazon, get our book. It's not just it's I actually really read these books. It's a really step by step how to we tell you everything and we don't hold anything back. So many of the people that are in my program actually read my book and then they thought, that's a lot that's going to hire. [00:46:39] I love it. Well, is there anything this has been really great. Is there anything else that you'd like to share? [00:46:44] Before we close out, just implement. Right. I mean, if I can give you any advice at all is just implement and be consistent. It's so important to be as important as it is to implement as much as you can and be as consistent as possible and keep your mind in check. Right minds. It is such a huge part of success. And I don't think people really get that there is a reason why all these great thought leaders like Napoleon Hill and Dr. Maximal Mall and I can just keep going on and on, speak so much about mindset. You've got to have your mind intact to get your business intact. [00:47:18] You know that execution is as you mentioned, that I've read a book not long ago called The Executioner by businessman named Artie McFerrin. It's it's funny, really written because you can tell it to an older man who just put his thoughts down. But what really struck me is it's all about execution. And he made this calm. He said, you know, if I want to make an extra ten million dollars a year, all I do is these things and I'm thinking an extra 10 million dollars. And this guy is worth hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars. [00:47:50] But the things he said he did. [00:47:54] It's all about execution. And he goes through his top five or six things that he's built his business with over the years. And it's just grown in multiples like like doubling growth almost every year for a number of years. It's just, you know, I was over there taking notes, taking notes and underlying all these things. And, you know, it's not one of these professionally written books like Good to Great, but it's one of these that it's like this guy's giving you his heart. And he's been super, super successful for many years and has more money than he knows what to do with. And he isn't pursuing more money. He wants to leave a legacy. And that's what he wrote all of his secrets with. [00:48:33] I love it. That's great. Yeah. Education everywhere. Educate yourself in order for you to go from good to great. You need to help. I mean, we all do. The only reason why I'm as great as I am is because in my business it's only wrong. But it's because I'm constantly educating myself, trying to become better, hiring people to help me get there. People that excel in something that I don't and I don't give up. Right. Many people give up way too soon. They don't see results right away. We teach in our program. This is not an overnight get rich quick. This is this is we're teaching you a system. We're teaching your community to get to know you. So the first three months is all about getting people to know you like you trust you before you even start. Literally generations. [00:49:14] Yes, deadly. I had one question, I had one. One asked that's on that. How long does it take with a video approach in the Facebook? How long does it take to start seeing traction? [00:49:26] It's about four to six months. OK. If you do it right now for does it we we have some people that do it in two or three. But I'm going to be really real. It's not around the four or five month mark. And we have people in month three saying, I don't see any results. And then month four or five, I like I am hiring an assistant. We're just on fire. We're going crazy. We've we've seen crazy results going from so doing fifteen thousand dollars in commissions to one hundred and twenty four thousand writer going from selling one month selling well, making an extra eight million dollars of production in one year. It's just crazy numbers, but it's from the people that are the most consistent and persistent and give it the time that it takes it takes time. [00:50:08] That's really amazing. Well I could spend a long time. I know you're busy and you got to go, but this has been absolutely wonderful. So, Krista, thank you so much for being on this podcast with us. [00:50:18] Thank you so much for having me. I appreciate it. You're great. It's so nice that you get a piece of its value in helping everyone, and I appreciate it. We're listening. And hopefully I didn't talk too fast. You can understand that. [00:50:28] Well, the great thing is as a podcast, as you talk to fans, you can replay it and you can actually slow the audio down and do it step by step. [00:50:36] So. Well, for those who are listening, if you do like this podcast, please subscribe to it. Please like it on iTunes and YouTube. [00:50:45] Real quickly, I was going to tell I'm going to be having a podcast. It's called Fire with Krista, Measure on Fire with Krista Mashore it launches in three weeks. But it should be probably on the time this goes on. Absolutely. [00:50:54] On fire with Krista Mashore. [00:50:57] Yes. On fire records. To make sure. I'll be sure to pump up your your your your podcast when I remind start you on fire. Krista May Shores, if you're listening to this, look for us. We're gonna be doing it. The goal was due Monday, Wednesday, Friday. Will that three a week and just help give you some brisk business strategies? [00:51:13] Well, I'm going to plug it into that one for sure. On par with Krista Mashore. So by the time you get this podcast, go grab that one, too. So thanks so much, Krista. And you have a really blessed day. [00:51:25] You, too. You guys make sure you subscribe to and share his podcast. It helps him if you're listening. You want to help him just like he's helping you. [00:51:33] Absolutely. Thank you so much, Krista. Thanks, Beatty. Be blessed if you've enjoyed this podcast. [00:51:40] Be sure to subscribe to it so you never miss another episode. And please, like our get sellers calling you Facebook page. Also, if you want to increase sales from past clients and sphere of influence, dominate a geographic farm or convert home valuation leads. Check out our Agent Dominator program. We create custom content that differentiates you from other realtors, then use it to keep you top of mind with your prospects with postcards, targeted Facebook ads, email campaigns, video interviews and more. And the best part is we guarantee yourselves or give all your money back. Learn more. They get sellers calling you dot com and select agent dominator. [00:52:18] Thanks for listening to the Get Sellers Calling You podcast. Have a great day. P039 [/fusion_text][/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container]

Julie Holmes is an inventor, founder, entrepreneur and corporate survivor. Her favorite question is “What if?” What if you could transform your frustration into time savings and money making? It might sound crazy but that's exactly what she's been doing for organizations over the last 25 years. An award-winning speaker, Julie has designed and launched solutions from million dollar software solutions to tiny Bluetooth microphones. But, her creative expertise isn't limited to products. She has helped organizations like Expedia, Oracle and FedEx leverage incremental innovation thinking to improve their teams, leaders, and sales processes. Julie shows audiences how to find their inner inventor, embrace their entrepreneur and spot the big opportunities in even the smallest innovations. B.S. in Speech Moving from corporate job to professional speaker Paid to speak Speaking coach Alan Stevens Speaking business coach Jane Atkinson US vs UK speaking styles American...but in a good way West Coast vs East Coast speakers Your speaker positoning Physical products Time for money Creating residual income streams HeyMic Prototyping Donna St Louis Centering your speaking SpeakersU Automation and Process CRM Rory Vaden   Tools: Zoho One, Docsend, Microsoft Powerpoint Books: The Four Steps To The Epiphany by Steve Blank https://www.julieholmes.com/ http://loveheymic.com/   Artificial Intelligence Generated Transcript Below is a machine-generated transcript and therefore the transcript may contain errors. Hey, there is James Taylor and I'm delighted today to welcome on to the show, Julie Holmes. Julie Holmes is an inventor, a founder and entrepreneur and a corporate survivor. Her favorite question is What if? What if you could transform your frustration into time savings and money making? It may sound crazy, but that's exactly what she's been doing for organizations for over 25 years. And award winning speaker Julie has designed and launch solutions for million dollar software solutions to tiny, tiny Bluetooth microphones we're going to learn about, but her creative expertise isn't limited to products. She has helped organizations like Expedia, Oracle and FedEx, leverage incremental innovation, thinking to improve their teams, leaders and sales processes. Julie shows audiences how to find their inner inventor, embrace it entrepreneur and spot the big opportunities and even the smallest innovations. And it's my great pleasure to welcome Julie on the show today. So welcome, Julie. Hello. It's so good to be here. Thank you much. So I know you're just about to get ready. You're giving a big presentation to a lot of speakers in the US as well. How do you feels speaking to speakers as opposed to you're going to be speaking mostly to corporations all the time in associations? What does it feel like when you have to go and speak to speakers? To know what I really love it? I do. I love speaking to meeting planners and the speakers I love speaking to people in my industry. Because all the sudden all the things that I do behind the scenes, I get to go look, look at all this cool stuff you can do behind the scenes. And I can't really take that out to my corporate clients, because they're like, what I don't why I don't understand what you're doing. So I love it. They're my people. But so take us back a little bit. How did you get into the strange world of speaking? Do you know what it's um, my background and speaking goes way back, I actually have brace yourself of BS in speech, you can get that I have a bachelor science and speech. Yeah. So I have a bachelor's and a master's in communication. And I used to teach public speaking and influence and other communication courses at a university. And, and then I went into corporate. And because I had that background, all the time that I was in corporate as whether I was a consultant or in product management or in director of marketing or whether I was director strategy, whatever it was, I was always called upon to speak. So I was forever doing keynotes and thought leadership presentations on behalf of our products and putting together demos and all kinds of stuff. And about three and a half years ago now. I decided I wanted to kind of venture farther afield from corporate, which often happens. And so after 20 plus years, I kind of was like, Okay, let's do something different. And you sit down and you go, What skills do I have? What do I know? Turns out, I know, I just speaking, as it turns out, and going on. So I was really excited about the opportunity to start taking some of my own products to market. So that was the other side of it. So speaking allowed me to do that. Tell me about that transition, because I know there's a lot of people watching listening to this just now who are in the same position that you were in and working in the corporate world, maybe maybe they enjoy the job, but just maybe don't think it's getting the best of them. And they want to move on to speaking. I've ever had it we had a guest on before surely. Now, Shelly Davis, we had a speaker from the US who spoke about she had a three year plan to how to move out of her corporate gig into being a full time. So can you tell me about what was? I mean, how much time did you give yourself to make that transition? Was it you just woke up one day said that's it will handle my notice? Or did you give yourself a few months or a year? or What did that look like? I did a bit of a hybrid. So I started to research it as a profession. In fact, I didn't even know it was a profession until about probably about six or seven years ago, when we hosted a conference for our users, I worked for a software company at the time. And we hired a professional speaker and I was like, wait a minute, that's a job. Like, whoa, hold on, we're paying her to talk, I could do that. I know that stuff. So that was kind of my epiphany. And so I started to really research it. My first stop was I was in the States at the time, my first thought was NSA, the National Speakers Association, joined the Arizona chapter where I was living, I started attending some kind of boot camp trainings and understanding what the businesses speaking looked like. But I hadn't actually kind of started to go out and really sell myself as a speaker or anything like that. And then I had intended for there to be a nice long transition. But as it turned out, we as a family decided to move to the UK, and just that the stars all aligned. And I was like this is great. This let's let's just do it. I didn't cut cold turkey. So I actually made an arrangement with my current company then to hire me as a consultant part time for probably worked for them for about a year. So for about a year, I was kind of half and half. But I was a consultant. So I had a lot of flexibility in my schedule and things like that. And then I also made sure that we have plenty of savings, because I knew that we got starting any business requires you to have a plan, whatever that plan is, for some people, it's a transition plan. For me it was a savings plan where we have money set aside specifically for it. And that was kind of the that was the approach we took. And those those early days. Were the kind of speakers that you looked up the new personally, you can have looked up to or you you you looked at from a file I said, that's the kind of speaking business that I want to there's so many different flavors of speaking business. Whoo, those kind of guiding stones for you? Well, I definitely looked at a variety of speakers, because there's some that I like for the way that they look at the business of speaking I'm quite I'm quite business centric, to me speaking is like the icing on that cake. So I if I can't do the business, right, I don't get to speak. So I have to, I don't spend as much time I think is some other speakers might do kind of focusing on who delivers beautifully. And, you know, how can I match their style? or How can I learn what they know about delivery? I think delivery is important. But I think that managing a business that's profitable is more important. Because no matter how good you are on stage, if you can't run a business, then that's no good. One of my very first connections into the speaking world was Alan Stephens in the PSA. And he was really instrumental, I actually took him on as a coach early on. And he was really instrumental in kind of helping me to see the land, you know, and kind of understand the landscape of professional speaking. And Jayne Atkinson was an important part of the early part of my journey. And, you know, while not a speaker herself, what Jane doesn't know about the speaking business might not be worth knowing. So that was kind of a big a big kick for me was to kind of get those, you know, get those perspectives and learn from them. I mean, those are two great coaches to have. I mean, Alan, in terms of also very good at craft understanding craft, Jane, very, very good at the business side, I remember when I, I started speaking and Jane, wonderful book, the wealthy speaker, she had, I think she's maybe just put out audio, but there's there was an audio version. And I remember my wife and I driving to some speaking gigs I was doing just devouring this audio book or you know, a version of our book. And it's just every time, we just have to stop it every few minutes, because there was just so many fantastic nuggets of information that we had to kind of digest it gradually over time. So there's there's a great coaches to have. And so you mentioned you made this transition, you moved to the UK? What What did you notice were the differences and the similarities between the speakers and the speaking businesses? And there's two different places because obviously, we speak a similar language, but not exactly the same, but quite different terms of culturally, the the industry's in those places. Yeah, it is. It is quite different in my opinion. I mean, fundamentally, it's the same profession. But in terms of style. It is vastly different. I mean, let's face it, Americans are out there, we're busy, artistic, we're big voices and finger hair and whatever else. And the British are very reserved, and they, you know, tend to not kind of go over the top like we might as Americans, there's probably a great happy medium between are a mid Mid Atlantic speaker. Exactly, yeah. And so that was probably one of the biggest things. I think, you know, I remember getting a comment on an evaluation once, but I thought just summed it up perfectly where somebody wrote American, but in a good way. And I was like, I put them on my website for a long time. I can't remember if it's still there or not. But I put it on my website for a long time when I was living in the UK because I thought, all right, that sums it up, right? You know, I am, I am a big girl stage speaker, meaning that you know, big boys, big personality, big hand gestures, you know, I'm not quite east coast. But but that is my style on stage. And you man, East Coast. So explain what you mean, when you say that, oh, so East Coast Americans, you get into New York, right? You get into your New York people, you know, your New York people, they're loud, they got a lot of hand gestures, you know, they talk with their hands alive. So, and it's one of the things I find most endearing about them. I'm always like, this is like a full experience conversation. This is not just me listening, I am experiencing this person. So so that is probably one of the big differences is just in delivery style and what that style looks like. The other big difference is it comes into kind of topics that approach. It's one of the things that I used to tell all the Americans that would come over religion is an important part of America important part of a lot of Americans lives. And because that's generally true in the States, I think a lot of Americans take that religion with them, and they bring that religion with them onto stage. But that is definitely not the most welcome. perspective when you're International. So the farther away from America, are they, the less people want to hear about your religious preferences and beliefs? They're like, you know what, that's a personal that's a personal choice, and good for you and just keep it to yourself. Yeah. dinner parties in the UK, you know, you don't talk about politics, sex and religion, you know, there's just the do tend not to go there. Although although is sex, it is just innuendo. So that's true. Totally admire. So you see, there's obviously the difference in tone different stuff. I mean, I, I really liked because, you know, I think a lot of that American style of speaking comes from the church comes from the evangelical side of the church. And and there's there's something in terms of using colon response that I really like I find is by understanding where maybe British some audiences Don't let me finish a little bit too much. As well, as you kind of have to temper that. What about the businesses, the business itself? I hear a lot of European speakers say, almost look to America, with that's where, you know, if you can make today you can make it anywhere, the new york new york thing, that that's where the speakers get the best money is where all the gigs are. Is that true? I think that it's a it's a bit true and false. I think that from the business perspective, and this is just one person's opinion, I found Europe to be much more relationship based from a business perspective, it's more about who you know, it's much more referral based. So you know, yes, I would get into general inquiries on my website, things like that, the much more often, it's much more about, oh, hey, I introduced you to so and so they're, you know, they're going to call you or let me introduce you to this person or that type of thing. So that network was really important in the UK, and in Europe. So I say, Europe, and I do mean the UK as well, my husband's British, he does get concerned when I reference the UK is being part of your and the everything about the business, I would say that fees are generally in the UK, specifically fees are lower, full stop, like absolutely lower than they are in the States, for the most part, the market in the states is bigger, it just just by sheer volume and quantity, it's bigger. So I think what ends up happening is there's this maybe unrealistic perspective that just because there's more gigs, there's more things happening all the time, more meetings, more speakers, more all of this, that it means that you can build a better business here. I don't know that that's true. Because again, you're in a bigger pond, it's you know, the larger the body of water, the harder it is to find other fish, you know, and it's harder to find opportunities and gigs, you know, they're just, you have to know where to look. And the competition is extreme, I would say in the US as well, you know, regardless of what your topic here is, they will be 10 top notch speakers out there that, you know, they're looking for as well. So how do you even if we just think geographically, we just look at the US? What are some of the things that you do you're going into your in your career? How do you stand apart from all those other speakers that maybe you've been considered alongside you? Well, there's one of the big things is to really sit down and figure out what it is that makes you unique as a speaker, not about your delivery, necessarily, although that could be it. There's, I used to talk about when I spoke at the PSA national one year, I spoke about, you know what it is that makes you unique, your five E's. And but basically, one of them is, you know, what is your experience that you deliver. And it's everything about your topic, and who you are, and your background and all of that type of stuff. For me, it's the fact that I'm an inventor. So what is the things that you know, if you were to sit down and make a list of adjectives or facts about yourself, you know, just list them all out? How many can other people claim. So that helps you to really find what your unique angle is, you know, for you How many people have worked in the music industry, and how many have you know, launched amazing music brands, not very many people. So that would be great differentiator for you clearly it is right. And the creative prowess that comes with that. For me, it's the fact that I have 20 years in corporate and I'm an inventor, not other speakers can say that I named my unique place, this is the key thing about the that you're going to talk about positioning there is having proof points to underpin that positioning. So you can't just say, let's say if it was someone that was speaking, same thing as UNT for I'm an inventor as well, if you haven't invented anything. So you have and I want to move into next is I only know a relatively small number of speakers have done this well, that have not just their speaking business, this, you know, model is often me they are there they're speaking. And then you maybe have there, maybe it's a training part, what they do, or coaching or advisory, and then there's their books, maybe online courses that can have since be around those things. And maybe there's consulting. But there's there's other thing, physical products that and there's a small number of speakers out there who have been able to launch products can successfully in multiple products successfully into the market as well. So this is something that you've done. And so I'd love to know, first of all, what where do you see physical product sitting in your overall business? as a speaker? What was the function of the role of it for you, and just take us through I know you're working on you know, you just worked on the hate you Hey, Mike, there's a microphone, speakers, take us through what that process actually looks like of taking something from inside your head to a physical thing and and how that once again, supports your brand. That's positioning. Yeah, it's um, so when it comes to product and and I do, by the way, I fully believe that things like electronic e courses, and online training, and even books, those are all products, they're great, they're all product. What I find really interesting, and a great challenge is almost your non speaking products. So there are all kinds of products, and I'll make some resources available to your listeners so that they can kind of look at some examples of products. But I do have a big interest in non speaking related products. And there's a couple of reasons why I think they're really valuable, particularly in our industry, speakers, as a rule our time for money. You know, we are in essence trading our time on stage, or our time coaching or our time training, whatever it is we're doing, we're trading our time for money. Now there comes a point where you don't want to do that anymore. Because you don't want to give up that time. You don't want to be on the road, you know, so you have to find, where's your next place that you're going to land? Or how are you going to build a business that can survive that transition. So of course, you can start to do more things online, that's still time for money, you're just not traveling as much. And really, in order to get out of that equation, in order to extract yourself from that equation, you have to have something else to offer the market besides just you. And that is product. Now it could be product because you yourself have become a brand name, which is great, right? There are certainly examples of that, you know, people that have become famous and now they have products that are famous because of them. I mean, that's every celebrity who's ever launched a product. That's great. I don't know that most of us will ever attain that level of notoriety, or willing to put in the time and the hours and the heartache and the struggles that come with creating a brand name for ourselves like that. So I tend to just do things that are more product based. So the products that you're referring to, Hey, Mike was actually a product that I had created before I ever left corporate, I never intended to take it to market. It was a product I created just to solve a problem I was experiencing. So I was the Director of Product Marketing for a software company. And I was forever giving presentations. And I needed sales and my marketing team to be able to take the messages and the phrasing that I was using, why would speak and put that into our marketing. So I needed them to be able to understand the value propositions to repeat them in a more compelling way and to be able to reuse that content. So I wanted to record my presentations. But that was really hard. Because we were going to pay for a full on video crew. And I was usually presenting to hundreds if not thousands of people. So what was the solution for that? So I wanted to video with my phone. But it was terrible audio when I did that. And audio was actually the most important thing that we needed. So I started hacking together a couple different existing products and kind of splicing things together and some super glue and duct tape. And basically, I made myself a Bluetooth microphone, a Bluetooth lapel microphone that I could click on to my shirt when I was speaking and then I could connect it to my phone in the back of the room. And I use that for years, years. And then I was speaking at an event with a person named Steve Clark with a buddy of mine, Steve Clarke. And, and I said I was going to record the event for for the attendees. So they could have a copy of it. And he said, Oh, the acoustics and sound in this room are terrible. never gotten a good recording in this room. And I said no, it's okay. I've got got my phone, I brought a tripod, and I've got my microphone. And he was like, I'm sorry, what do you have? And I showed him the microphone. And he's like, Oh, my God, look at one of these. Where can I get one? And I was like, I don't know, I guess I could make you one. He was like what? And so a week later, just a week, a week later, we shook hands agreed to take the microphone to market manufacturer take it to market. 90 days later, it launched 90 days later, that is a phenomenal amount of time. So easy. So and this is obviously a physical thing. There are electronic components is technology. There's branding, the packaging. So where do you even begin? Is this something like those first ones in 90 days? Did you make them you were in the UK at this point? Did you make them in the UK? Or were you able to get them immediately Southern manufacturing in in low cost countries? Well, yes, we did both. So we actually had a partner in the UK. So that was of all the lessons I learned its partner with somebody who knows what they're doing. If you don't, we clearly did not as the case turns out, I had never manufactured anything, I had never created a physical product before. So I my background is in software, enterprise software. So you know, not a big physical product space. Well, I have a background in sales and marketing. And Steve has a background in sales. Neither one of us are electrical engineers. So we really partnered with, again, a connection that somebody new in the UK, because that's how a lot of business gets done there. We partnered with a connection, and it was a company in Essex, and they have 30 people that work for them in China that actually do what we needed, which was they help product entrepreneurs, source, manufacturing facilities, and they do everything all the communication with China is done through our partner. And they're still a partner today. So in that way, they take it all that back and forth, that usually is kind of going on and, and and we we have a product, we're involved in a separate product, which is also partly manufactured in China. And and I know the challenges that can have when your products being made dices dances miles away from you, as well. So they wait. And when it came to things like quality, quality control, how do you ensure that things I know you're everything you do is always going to be high quality. I've seen some of your, your kits that you send out the clients, your information packs, and they're all beautifully done really high quality. So how do you ensure that your quality is is good, where you're not making in your home country? Well, we did a ton of prototypes. So before we actually said, Yeah, we'll take you know, thousands of these things. We did tons of prototypes. And I you know, used to be this kind of laugh between me and Steve and my family, right? I'd be like, hold on, let me get the box of prototypes out. And like every one of them was numbered and labeled and, and it was every piece of us had an impact on the quality. So we had the casing and we had the microchip, like we had made it all the way through this is what we want it to look like this is how it's going to clip this is what it's going to do all that kind of stuff. And then when they went and it worked beautifully. So then when they said great, we'll put all that together and a new prototype for you. They sent it to us and all of a sudden the microchip changed. And the sound was terrible. I mean cutting out and it was I was gutted, I just want to open it up and and. And so it ended up with we only had the one prototype, I given it to Steve to take to the states because he was meeting with some American speakers and I wanted to get some early adopters and influencers in the States. And it ended up with Steve at a restaurant at like six o'clock in the morning with a tiny eyeglass screwdriver that he'd had to go and purchase from a local drugstore disassembling our tiny little microphone and Steve blind as a bat, right can't see anything without his glasses bleary eyed in the morning, right? He's got his glasses on, we can hardly see. He's disassembling the microphone. And I'm like, I need you to take a picture of the microchip that's inside that microphone, because that's the micro that's the microchip that works. And it was just this, you know, was it was an adventure, like every day was an adventure. And when you again that those prototyping, you get in that first feedback from users, I from speakers, what kind of things would be saying what were the things you've you said, Oh, you know, we need to we need to work on that we need to develop money to make that better. Well, one of them a great example. And this is why there's a lot of value in taking product, progress to the market. So our case for Hey, money is a little black zipper case. But we had shared some pictures on Facebook, of the early prototypes of the case. So this was done in the UK. So we had the case. And we went to our partner in the UK. And we were there as he was. So they were live silk screening them in front of us. So he gotten us a dozen cases, and he was silk screening them. And it was amazing to watch our logo and product information mean, there's some moments during the process where you're like, Oh my gosh, it's real. It's totally real. Um, and so we had showed these pictures. And our plan had been to put two microphones in this case, and everybody was like, that's a really big case. I don't think I want to put that in my bag. Like, I'm not sure I want that bigger case. And I was like, Oh my gosh, the gazes do big change. So we were constantly kind of trying things out and putting sample videos out and asking for feedback and asking for use cases. And even then, you know, we've been we've been shocked and surprised at what the use cases have been framed like. So they weren't what we thought they would be, which is often the case products take on a life of their own. Which markets did you end up finding maybe outside of speakers that actually have really taken to the product? Well, video bloggers would be one. But the array of video bloggers is substantial. Horse trainers and physical therapists and people that want to make videos for YouTube for all kinds of reasons. But mostly they're in a position where they can't be next to a microphone so they're out in the wild somewhere doing something. One of our favorite customers is always sharing videos online and they are the stand up paddleboarding Association and the stand up paddleboarding Association. They take the mic and they clip it to a paddle. And then she does paddle interviews. So she takes your paddle all over it. And it's they're hysterical. I encourage you to go look at them. She's doing interviews all the time and all these paddleboarding what you just described there but getting that feedback, putting things up getting feedback, and changing the packaging GU that's, I guess what we would call incremental innovation, lots of small steps, making things better better. So this kind of ties in because you this is a topic you actually speak on you speak on incremental innovation, as well. So that brings us back. So you go launch this product out into the market. Now I know a lot of not just early adopters, now we're getting more speakers are the markets people are buying it. Where does this is this really just is a product ending up just a is the play really is just as a way of creating some residual income alongside your speaking business or is actually isn't really part of your business. What's the What role does it serve now. So my business model overall, is that my target is that by within the next 12 to 24 months, product sales for all of my products, not just Hey, Mike, but all the products that I create and launch, the product sales for all of those will pay all of our bills as a family. So residual income, for sure, is the primary thing. Now as a bonus, it is also part of the stories that I tell when I speak. So it's a story generator, and residual income. It's also proof point for what I do as a speaker, you know, I talked about innovation, I talked about inventing makes sense then that I need to have examples for that. I going back it goes back to that when you said you your positioning your positioning yourself not just a speaker to market but someone that really understands you're an inventor as well, so that every time you tell that story is adding a stronger and stronger kind of proof points, as well. And one thing I have to ask about Mike, I'm always intrigued by this is, I think as a guy speakers, we have it super easy, because we usually have like this microphone holder called a tie. But we just clip it the thing I've seen how that you can either clip it there, but when you're working some of the women's speakers. And I know this for you know, speakers have had to have the clip on packs for your head. You got your headset mic, you've got all these different things that can have going on. You haven't attached yourself. And Was that something you thought about in terms of where they're actually going to attach? Absolutely. I thought about it, we actually have the Hey, Mike has two back so one is a cliff. And then the other one is a magnet. So I can magnet it appear magnet over here, here here or so I can bag that anywhere. Just say that magnetic magnet magnet ties it somewhere on my shirt. Yeah. So we did I did think of that in the design. Turns out it's not really used as much as I would have thought that's the other thing about product. Boy, you just things that you are like, we have got to have this everybody's going to want this is the critical feature. And then you just find out nobody's ever once used it. Yeah. Hey, Mike has a has a plugin to listen on headphones. So if you wanted to listen back, you know, to a video on your headphones right after you record it you could not remember is that the danger of feature creep? Sometimes it can it comes into. So you're, you're now you're now you're back in the US, you're now building your speaking business back in the US to the product to just can take on a life of their own as well. How does it feel being back in the US and building us speaking business? Do you feel that your this is a relaunch? Or do you feel like you're launching for the first time you're speaking? What Where's your head out with it? Well, I think it's it's probably more of a relaunch, because my branding and my marketing are all pretty solid. So it's not as if you know, like I was when I started in the UK, I wasn't really sure what my brand would be I wasn't, you know, I didn't have all my collateral created. I didn't have all of those kind of pieces and parts and even messaging to a certain point. So I initially started speaking almost exclusively about sales. And it was a good year and a half or two years before I had a conversation with a friend of mine who you might know Donna St. Louis, who is also a global speaker. And I remember, you know, at that moment going, I just you know what, I like sales, but just doesn't really kind of get me up in the morning. She's like, why are you talking about innovation? I've already launched him like, I was always talking. She was like, why are you talking about innovation? And I was like, Yeah, I could do that. But really, that's quite, that's quite common, I see that we're, initially when people start with their speaking Korea that come from a particular industry, they have a particular skill set. And that's the first thing that they go to. And actually, that makes a lot of sense to do that. Because you understand the pain points of your of your clients, because you've lived that you've been in that world. So I would say that's actually a good thing to do. But then after a while, you discovered maybe that's not the thing that you really want to spend the next 10 years building. So you say, so you've made that you're now making that transition into the innovation as well. And once you've got all those proof points at the same time, and I'm guessing you can it's not that you've given over, given off the sales, you're speaking to the sales groups, that it's just you're adding a new product line to what you're doing. Yeah, so it was always I was always talking about improving sales, which is really what innovation is, innovation is just about, it's about improvement always. And even the things that I was saying to sales, I could just as easily called them innovation as sales. So I have a program that's called Little Big Bangs for sales. And it's largely the same content I always delivered. It's just now it's under the banner of innovation for sales, as opposed to sales being innovative. So it's just kind of a different entry point into it. I think the way that I would describe it to especially new speakers coming in is that you start your first year to on a pendulum. So you know, you're kind of constantly trying out new things. And then what ends happening over time is that you kind of center, and then you go, that's where all the pieces have come together. And it's everything from who you know what audiences like the way that you deliver what audiences resonate with your message, what audiences can afford to pay you the fee that you want to earn, who, you know, the collateral, everything, all of that starts to come together. So that you start to feel like you yourself are a cohesive package, that you are able to bring yourself onto the stage. I'm not a super serious person, you know, I'm not going to get up and make people cry during the keynote. And, and it's important that I know that so that I can brand myself properly. And I wouldn't want an audience to have a different expectation of me. So everything about my collateral, my packaging, my marketing, my website, all of that has to come together and the message has to come together to truly represent who I am so that when customers buy me, and they buy the services that I offer, they know exactly what they're getting. And when I arrived, they think that was exactly what I was expecting. And you mentioned those early mentors you had with Alan Stevens with Jane Atkinson as well, you also speak as you member now as well. What are some of the values of the things you find really useful? Being a speaker as you member? Well, definitely for me, it's about process. You know, this is not, you know, my goal is not to spend 24 by seven, you know, doing business building. You know, I like to systemized and automate as much as possible my CRM thing of beauty. CRM is an automation is absolutely one of those things that really works well, if you have an incremental innovation mindset. Because if you're constantly just building and building and making things better and more refined, yes, and that's, so to me, system icing is always what I'm looking for, you know, a slightly better turn of phrase, a slightly better process, a way to get out of me doing everything. So that's always a big a big challenge and a big priority. For me, my time is limited. Every hour that I spend doing something that is not directly related to me selling myself and being on stage and delivering. That's time, that's time that's money out of my pocket. So if there's other things that people can do besides me, that's what I need to focus on. So there's a another great speaker that I really admire, is worried Aiden, I don't know if you know, worried, worried AJ, fantastic, brilliant. And, you know, one of worries, talks, one of his books is actually you know, about this idea of, of do things today that will make more time for you tomorrow. So you're really about investing your time. And so I'm a huge fan of investing my time like that. That's a big part of my business processes. Wherever I can learn processes. That's what I'm after. You know, I do really well, it is kind of learning craft. And I do think that's important to invest in learning craft. But again, if I can't get my business running and keep it running smoothly and profitably, good margin, doesn't matter how good I am on stage. And there's great books all around there in terms of things like, you know, the E myth revisited. Michael Gerber talks about building systems, I'm always in working with our team building standard operating procedures and, and then ways of doing things, then we basically test like you do with your products, then we find the stuff that works. And then we share that with the speakers, you members. And the things that don't work so well. You get killed off and put down to to experience as well. So talk will be talking about tools here, products. Are there any tools that you find particularly useful in the in what you do as a speaker. I have a ton of fans tools. Right now I have my CRM, which has proved to be really, really valuable to me, because it's actually very broad. So I use Zoho one. So it's really specific user one and Zoho one is a, you pay one fee per employee of your company. The reason that's important is most of us are solo printers. So while I have people that work with me, they're all contractors, and they're not officially employees of my company. So and I get them licenses, but I'm not required to buy license for all of them. So for $30 a month, I have access to about 20 or 30 different sets of functionality. The CRM is only one of them. So with Zoho one, I replaced Dropbox, I use it for my email marketing. I use it for my social media scheduling. I use it for my election signatures for contracts and agreements. I use it for my sales IQ, and it has the capability of doing chatbots. I mean, this thing is massive, all the things that it can do all for $30 a month. So I'm a big fan of streamlining because juggling lots of tools is always problematic. Another one that I really like, is a tool called dachshund. So dachshund is a document sharing platform. But it's largely it's very intelligence based, which means that every time I create a proposal, for example, to speak or whatever it is that I'm doing speaking, every time I create a proposal, I send that proposal out using a DOCSIS link. And that docs and link then tells me I get an email as soon as they open it. I can look at that and see how much time they spent on every page of the proposal. I can require an email so that when they access that proposal, I can see specifically who was looking at it, and when then that provides me with a lot of intelligence about what are they most interested in, and who's looking at it. And I can see even things like, I use the same tool to do things like after event reports. So I do beautiful after event summaries that I give back to the event organizer. And there's all kinds of reasons why. But when I do that, now they have a reason to meet with me to go over the event, because I'm giving them something I'm giving them this great product that they can share on the company about the success of the event. But I can also include things like next steps on there. And I've had instances where I've thought a conversation has kind of gone quiet, or I've thought a deal was lost. And two months later, they're opening that same document again. Yeah. And I wouldn't have any way to know that if I didn't have a tool that delivered that. And I think that's because a lot of decisions, especially associations that being made by committee is when it comes to speakers. So you're able to see who the committee members are who's sharing who's seeing it, I use this I do as a slightly similar thing, or but I use video I do. I used to call bom bom by filming a quick video. And it goes out to the process contacted me initially, after I had a discussion with him. And I get it, I see it getting shared with all the other committee members. And like you I just had one this morning, I just saw where I thought an event and kind of it was like going away, it's been a long time hadn't confirmed. And suddenly you start getting notifications and single they're opening and so they must now's probably a good time to to reach out to have that that conversation. That's a great one. So doc send I'm going to put there and any others, any others that you find really useful. Okay, this one's going to be like a bit of a shocker being most valuable tool in my business. I'm in every single day, extensively his PowerPoint. I know people are like, oh, PowerPoint, oh, we hate slides and presentations. I do use PowerPoint for presentations. That's true. But what I actually use PowerPoint for more is all of my collateral is done in PowerPoint. So unless it's collateral that I'm truly sending, you know, like if I'm doing big graphics for like a show stand or something like that, all of my collateral is done in PowerPoint, and I'm just going to you, I'll make examples of these available. But like everything that I do is done in PowerPoint. So all my Word documents, you know, things that are in letter size, everything all done in PowerPoint, really well, I didn't I've never used it for that I've only ever used of presentations. But now you've you've you've turned me attached to using PowerPoint for something a little bit more? Well, the thing is, is that there are a ton of tools out there. But the truth is, is that as speakers like how many tools can you really master you know, and the more you kind of go off and master Adobe Photoshop, or you go and master in design your master something, you know your brains on me. So, you know. So at a certain point, you're taking time away from mastering that I am a master of PowerPoint, in large part because I use it all the time for all kinds of things. So I've used it to do if I can give you a good example, I have one laying around my desk. But like I have voting cards that I use, I design those in PowerPoint, and then I just turned them into print graphics. So you know, that is probably the most valuable tool because it's a tool I always have. I always feel comfortable with editing it. It's got just enough flexibility, but not too much. So it's it's been a massive improvement to my business. But you said yourself, James, I am a nerd when it comes to the quality of my brand. And my collateral. I love good collateral. And yeah, all great, we're going to put all those here as well, all those links, what about if you do recommend one book to listeners, one that you think they should read it and but growing this speaking business could be on the speaking industry, or it could be a book is completely unrelated to speaking, but it's just a good one to read in terms of business. You know, I think one of the best books I've ever read is, it's actually not about speaking at all. But it's called the four steps to the epiphany. And it's really about understanding markets, and finding market potential. It's really about products. But I just remember reading it and thinking, My gosh, this is the slap in the face that I've needed my whole life that said, stop building it. But you know, we always assume that it's like Sim City, you know, we put down a hospital in Sin City, and everybody just starts driving there, you know, and it's not the case. So I always find it fascinating now to go, Okay, I shouldn't build anything that I can't prove there's a need for or prove that there's value for Yeah, that's true of my speeches. That's true. My programs, that's true of my products that I launch. So to me, that was a big, kind of that was an epiphany, four steps to the epiphany. Fantastic. We'll put that link down here as well. And I think you also mentioned that you had something that that listeners can can get from you, you had a document, I think that we're going to put a link here to as well. And that's all related to the the product side, what we've kind of been covering a little bit about on this on this interview as well. Yep, yep, I'm happy to make those resources available. Fantastic. We'll put a link to take you on to Julie's site. And a final question for you. I want you to imagine you woke up tomorrow morning, and you have to start from scratch. So you've got all the skills, all the knowledge you've acquired over the years, but no one knows you, you know, no one, what would you do? How would you restart things? That's a great question. I would I would join the NSA or the PSA. I would I would find a community. Because in that community, you now start to get exponential reach. So, you know, in terms of getting your name out there, it's really hard to do it on your own. I think you know, you're just one voice talking about you. I think it's really important to have a network of people that understand you know what you're doing and can help you to find your market and reach it faster. Fantastic. Great advice. Good, good advice. If people want to connect with you to learn more about what you're doing, where's the best place to go and do that and if they want to learn more about Hey, Mike, this is strictly for speakers. Where should they go for that? So my website of course is Julie homes.com. Just like Sherlock Holmes but the Julie version of that and for Hey Mike It's lovely. Hey Mike lovheymic.com love Hey Mike calm so you can learn more about hey Mike there to connect with me and learn more about what I'm doing LinkedIn is a great place. So you can get ahold of me on LinkedIn or any of my social media channels and here's another tip for everybody if you ever use link shortening, so all my social media channels can be found by going to Julie homes dot VIP forward slash LinkedIn forward slash Instagram forward slash Twitter forward slash YouTube, all of those so just Julie homes dot VIP forward slash, insert the social media platform and you'll be directed to my profile. Fantastic. Well, Julie, thank you so much for coming on today and sharing your insights. I think what you've done not just know speaking side, but also building these products out is a really smart thing to do. And I know you're really passionate about inventing and inspiring other people to to invent things as well. So I wish you all the best with your speaking and thanks for being a speaker, as you remember, and looking forward to sharing a stage together soon. All right, I'll see you soon, James. This episode of the Speakers Life is sponsored by Espeakers. The innovative platform that connects speakers will event organizers and associations. Espeakers provides cutting edge tools that will elevate your online presence. streamline your speaking business and maximize your exposure in the Speaking industry with over 15 years in the business 10,000 speakers in their community and over 20,000 events managed annually each Espeakers is the preferred choice for top speakers. You can create your own profile on a Espeakers today by going to speakersu.com/Espeakers.

This week we answer all of the listener questions we've received recently related to surf travel: What/Where’s been our favorite podcast episode? What’s the strangest food we’ve ever eaten on our travels? What’s the best way to pack surfboards for a surf trip? Is it worth traveling to Costa Rica in the rainy season to get good waves? Where has been our favorite wave to surf? Feel free to EMAIL THE SHOW at GetOutandSurfCR@gmail.com We hold on to all emails and we'll answer your questions on the podcast, so don't be shy! Pura vida, Joe, Niki, PMAC

Cannabis is now legal is so many states we are starting to hear industry jargon enter into the daily vernacular, CBD, THC, oils, edibles, topicals, growers, distributors and of course BUSINESS. How are you feeling about this industry? Will you participate? Are you for it? Against it? What? Where you at? The Empowerment Duo, Brian K. McNeill and his wife, Lisa Santiago McNeill, host a daily show for personal conversation, business information, and spiritual inspiration. They engage their audience with thought provoking conversation and include their comments in the broadcast. It really is a conversation. Listen in or join them live on FB. http://facebook.com/indyatalks monday through friday at 9am EST. Website: http://TheEmpowermentDuo.com FB. http://facebook.com/TheEmpowermentDuo --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/esptv7/support

Welcome To The Mike Dillard podcast, where entrepreneurs like you get the knowledge and skills you need to bring your dreams to life. Well gang, welcome to the new format and the inaugural episode of the Mike Dillard Podcast. Wait a minute… What? Where did Self Made Man go? If you’re wondering what in the world is going on, and why I’ve changed the name of the show, head over to my YouTube Channel and please watch the video that I just posted this week which will give you all of the details. Make sure you hit the subscribe button as well because I’m going to start posting videos there on a regular basis. With that being said, I can tell you this… Part of the reason for the name change is a result of the personal work I’ve done over the past year, that you’re about to discover here today. We’re joined by Gary John Bishop, and this interview is one of the single most profound discussions that we've ever had on this podcast over the past four years. So who is Gary? Well, for the most part, he was just a regular guy meandering through life, when he found himself attending a personal development conference many years ago on a whim. He wasn’t necessarily searching for answers at the time, but he decided to go on the recommendation of a friend, and what he learned during the next few days would completely transform his life. Now you’re clearly into personal development, which is why you’re listening to this podcast right now. But here’s a question for you… Why aren’t the lives of everyone who dives into the personal development process, radically changed? How many people do you know, and maybe you’re one of them, have read all the books, listened to all of the podcasts, and attended all of the events… And yet they still struggle? Well, that’s what you’re going to discover here today. Resources: GaryJohnBishop.com Follow Gary on Twitter | Facebook | Instagram Unfu*k Yourself: Get Out of Your Head and into Your Life Stop Doing That Sh*t: End Self-Sabotage and Demand Your Life Back Music: Music by: Star Party Song: Legends Licensed under a Creative Commons License  

What does it mean to win? You set a goal; you plan; you re-arrange your life; you work... how do you know when you cross the finish line? What will the big win look like? Joe and Kori reverse engineer what it takes to really win and to make sure you don't lose more than it's worth in the process. Every goal is achievable, but there are three things you need to know before you take the first step. If you're a fitness professional, this approach will give your clients the edge! 00:17 Intro 01:15 What / Where is the finish line? 02:20 The finish line can move! 02:45 Are we on track for the goals? 04:10 Breaking the goal down into reachable steps 06:16 We are either winning or learning 08:00 Example of a client whose goal has changed 09:40 The Kindness Diaries 10:15 The only person who is wrong is the person who tells another man how to live his life 11:00 What's a loss? What's a win? 11:30 The level of sacrifice 12:00 Are Your Goals Your Own? 13:14 Summary Kori's article "Are Your Goals Your Own?" https://thedietdoc.com/are-your-goals-your-own Thanks for visiting! Kori Propst, PhD, and Joe Klemczewski, PhD, merge their voices to create life-enhancing conversations and content you can use every day. Kori is the Vice President and Wellness Director of The Diet Doc, LLC—a health and weight-loss licensing company founded by Joe more than 20 years ago. Together, Joe and Kori help hundreds of Diet Doc Program Owners build industry-leading nutrition coaching platforms around the world. Now they're bringing their talent to a daily podcast where nothing is off limits. Motivation, nutrition, weight loss, career, relationships, fitness entrepreneurship, and even guest interviews and features will be dissected and categorized for convenient listening or viewing. What happens when you mix 30 years of psychology, nutrition, physiology, social anthropology, and even literary journalism education with 40 years of business-building experience and almost 90 years (should I say that?) of combined real life? Let's find out! SUBSCRIBE TO THIS CHANNEL: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-diet-doc-life-mastery-podcast/id1385194556?mt=2 http://www.youtube.com/subscription_center?add_user=thedietdocweightloss SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER: http://eepurl.com/geSFfn FITNESS ENTREPRENEUR? Find out how to become The Diet Doc expert in your community! https://www.dropbox.com/s/mv4mwtiignpxkn2/The%20Diet%20Doc%20MEDIA%20KIT%202018.pdf?dl=0 FREE QUIZ: DO YOU HAVE WHAT IT TAKES TO MEET YOUR GOALS? https://www.dropbox.com/s/thmmokbc3kd8uw3/Principles%20of%20Persistent%20Pursuit%20-%20Free%20Assessment.pdf?dl=0 LET'S CONNECT! Website: https://www.thedietdoc.com Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/TheDietDoc Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/dietdocglobal Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/thedietdoclife Podcast: https://soundcloud.com/thedietdoc

Ever wonder why some people leave a bad taste in your mouth after meeting them? Successful marketing requires building a relationship with your audience. Many real estate professionals avoid this and instead grab a bullhorn and shout at their audience expecting the same results. Tune in for today's episode to hear us talk about how to NOT be annoying in your interactions with the public. The re:think real estate podcast is hosted by Chris Lazarus, Nathan White, and Christian Harris. Thank you for tuning in. Please subscribe so you don't miss an episode. Audio length 30:15 [music] [Chris]: Welcome to re:Think Real Estate, your educational and hopefully entertaining source for all things real estate, business, news and tech. [Christian]: I am Christian Harris in Seattle, Washington. [Nathan]: Hi, I am Nathan White in Columbus, Ohio. [Chris]: And I am Chris Lazarus in Atlanta, Georgia. Thanks for tuning in.  [music] [Chris]: Everybody welcome back to re:Think Real Estate. I am Chris Lazarus here with Christian Harris and Nathan White. What's going on guys? [Christian]: Hey fellas what's happening? Alright [laughter]. Today we're gonna talk about being annoying [laughter].  [Chris]: That's a great intro for that Christian. Before we get started Nate how is your CRM doing? [Nathan]: Yeah…anyway… [Chris]: [laughter] Alright. So yeah, we definitely want to talk about being annoying and how not to do that. Today's episode we're talking about marketing. And our good friend Joe Rand over from JoeRand.com just came out with an article a few days ago which was “Stop being annoying-The 3 phases of communication technology and why nobody likes us”. So great article. Nate you found this. Why don't you tell us a little bit about it? [Nathan]: Well I didn't find it. It happened…you know I found it, whatever. I saw it. It was funny because I was having thoughts like Joe was having and Joe was much better with words than I, that's why he has a couple of books right? But I just…I was getting annoyed because like I get on Facebook right and it's just…it's just…It's not even Facebook anymore. What we used to know right. It's kind of like you know how MTV changed. It's all marketing. It's just marketing. And a lot of it it's realtors who won. I mean I'm not…I hate to be that guy to pick on our industry but again we got a content. It's horrible but again you know whether it's from…And I mean I am looking here right now. Some golf advert to realtor, to realtor, to realtor. Like it's just nonstop and it's poor. And I don't know I feel like we find a good you know what would you call it, a medium, and than we go and ruin it and people hate us for it. And Joe you know wrote the article about how to stop being annoying. He offers a 3-part solution. Phase 1 the excitement. Phase 2 solicitation. 3 is the protection.  [Chris]: Let's talk about that. [Nathan]: Well let's talk about it but I want to get to the point real quick on this and then we go back to the 3 phases.  And then he offers he says “What's the solution?”. He says “Well we can't do anything about everyone else”.  I agree 100%.  “But we can police our own behavior”. Instead of using email, social media, phones to make annoying calls that only serve our own interest we need to focus our outbound marketing efforts on providing a service to other people. Think about what they need not what you need.  [Christian]: But being client centric? What. That's crazy. Thinking about other people.  [Chris]: I've never heard of that before.  [Nathan]: I don't think we've ever talked about that have we? [Chris]: No it's completely out of line with this show.  [Nathan]: So Phase 1. Phase 1 is excitement. [Chris]: And so phase 1 like I think he compared it to people getting an answering machine right. Everybody got an answering machine and everybody wanted to see the red light blinking and then telemarketers just ruined it. And then nobody has an answering machine now and people barely check their voicemail. [Christian]: Sure I mean I think the idea is you know I mean there's quite a number of books on you know technology and evolution of it and this plays right into that theme of when something new comes out it's exciting. Everyone wants it. You know it goes back to like the days of pre-TV with you know door to door salesman. You know like being at home is boring so people wanted people to come to the door.  And then that got saturated and you know you had the mail. People enjoyed getting mail and then you know solicitations and advertisement got in the mail and now people you know hover over the recycling bin throwing away mail.  And you know now you're getting that you know with social media. Like you used to enjoy getting on social media and checking in with friends and whatever and now you have to whip 30 you know half of it is solicitations from agents or other marketers, you know, as agents. We're getting solicited for leading this or growing your business that you know by who knows who. You know so self-described gurus. And you know now you have to filter there. Now you know it takes away the joy of what once was. Looking forward to getting online or looking forward to getting the mail or looking forward to someone getting to your house. Now it's annoying. [Chris]: Yeah we find something that we enjoy. We get excited about it. New technology and all the advertisers start catching on to it. They start saying “Oh we can reach people in a new way through this technology”.  And then they start soliciting and soliciting and hounding us left and right through the mediums that we're enjoying. And that's the end game right? Because that's how these platforms make money. It's though advertising. They're advertising companies.  And then what happens next that's what Joe says is phase 3. That's protection. We stop paying attention to them. We develop coping mechanisms to not be solicited and not listen or not pay attention to the ads that are coming on. And I think that this is a big reason why our attention span has now become that's less than a goldfish. Because that has been a coping mechanism to pay…to not pay attention to all of these solicitations that we're getting.  [Christian]: Yeah I mean I would say that part of it is just a medium of social media. Not necessarily being advertised. You know it's you know there's another big leaf. There is a message in that medium so it's not just the only thing they're consuming is the message you know but consuming a message via print versus auditory, versus you know social media. You know like it's gonna do different things in your brain. You respond differently you know.  But it doesn't help that we now have all this extra white noise to filter through to get to what we actually wanna see which is typically you know friends and family and not solicitors trying and sell us something. [Chris]: Absolutely and so let's talk about how we cannot be annoying. You know I friend people in real estate all the time and last week somebody reached out on Facebook, sent me this message. This person is in real estate.  This is what they said “Hey Christopher I almost didn't message you because I don't want to come across spammy. LOL. My wife and I have had some great result with “Thrive”. More energy [cough] mental clarity, weight management. I even sleep better. It might be for you and I think or it might not and that's OK. Just wanted to share what's working for me. Would you be open to more info?” There's absolutely nothing of value that that person delivered to me. And it's just… [Nathan]: If you're not sleeping well it could be of value. [Chris]: Well do I want more energy or do I want to sleep better? I mean does…is it just me or those 2 are completely different ends of the spectrum?  [Nathan]: [censored] I just want my kid to stay in his bed at night and not interrupt my sleep so if they can fix that for me in that email. [Chris]: [laughter] I mean it's what has become of people. And that person is in real estate and they are paddling a multi-level marketing product on the side. I mean do you think that their real estate marketing may end up following similar pattern? I don't think it's a farfetched to actually see that leap being made. [Nathan]: I think-no go ahead sorry. [Chris]: No I mean I…kind of the point I kind of make here is if you're just going out and peddling something in front of somebody they're gonna ignore you. Those are the coping mechanisms that we have developed now. It's no longer…like we don't like being sold things.  [Nathan]: No I am attracted to the brands or things that eat my curiosity. That I don't feel like they're jammed down my throat.  And so I'll use a perfect example and in no form or shape I represent them but recently I have been doing the Purple Carrot Meal Delivery right. And I just hashtag it on my Ohio running realtor Instagram. You know “#purplecarrotblablabla”. The…I take pictures of the food which is really good. But I have had more people reach out to me just through organically saying “Hey can you tell me a little bit more about Purple Carrot?”.  I am not…I am not on there going “Purple Carrot is the bomb bla bla bla”. I put what the meal is. I state you know whether it is cous cous or whatever it may be, insert a joke there and take a really nice picture and then put it out there.  And I have had a lot of people private message me or DM me or whatever you wanna call it and say “Hey can you tell me more about it?”. I am not forcing it down anybody's throat. I am not saying you have to have this”. But it has created interest.  I am a brand ambassador for Prevail Botanicals. You don't see my thread on Facebook with Prevail every day. We use a hashtag. We don't jam it down your throat. Have that people say “Hey what stuff do you use with your sore muscles and your AT pains from running and bla bla bla” and I say “It's Prevail”.  If they wanna know more than they'll ask but I feel it's the same with real estate. Like if somebody is really genuinely interested in real estate they're gonna ask you. Just...you don't have to jam it down people's throats. At least I believe that you're a [censored] realtor. Like just I don't know I feel like we're so over the top. Like over the time. Like “What do you like better this back porch or that back porch?” “What I like is when you don't post [censored] like that personally but…”  [laughter] Like nobody cares right. I just…They don't care about interest rates unless they are buying a house. They don't care about houses unless they are buying a house. So that's me and it works for me. It doesn't mean it works for everybody else. And my colleague, Mr. Harris, has his hand up over there so I am gonna let him talk on that. I am gonna thank you Christian.  [Christian]: Alright. I am gonna play the devil's advocate here for a sec. What if someone…What if someone is listening and thinking “Well how do we know they're real estate agents there?” Where is the balance between letting someone know and being in sales and annoying when you talk about houses? [Nathan]: Because there is a way to be subtle about it. Like you know…like I don't…I just…like when I go to a closing the biggest thing that I do other than my hashtag that's on a separate entity but I check into a closing and I put “Doing a closing thing”. People know…I mean most people know, I don't want to say everybody, but they know that I am a realtor or that in some way I am doing that business. And there's other ways.  I don't know. I just don't want my social media feed filled with that crap and guess what I have taken the option of doing. I have taken the choice of filtering all that out. You know. It's that old advertisement. You don't like something on the TV change the channel. I have changed the channel. So… [Chris]: I think it all comes down to the message. Marketing is required. The marketing is the…it is the whole process of staying top of mind in our sphere but there are different ways that we can do it right.  So an example is, Nathan you just brought up rates. Your typical buyer doesn't care about the rate. Unless they're very savvy. They care about the payment. So if your post on social media “Up rates just jumped again” and all you talk about is the rate than that doesn't really provide any value to them. That your target audience may know that you have something to do with real estate but they're not really paying attention to that message.  On the other hand if you say “Rates just jumped again” so…and then you kind of put that in context and say “Well a $200.000 house now the payment went from on average about 12.000 to now about 13.000” that means something a little bit more that is easier for somebody outside of the industry to understand.  I think that marketing involves us putting ourselves in the potential client shoes. The shoes of the consumer, to understand what is important to them.  If you talk about due diligence right they don't care about due diligence. They buy a house once every 10 years. They don't need to know that stuff every day. They need to know what is going on in the community. Right.  Realtors should be the digital mayor of the community. They should be out there saying “Well we have these festivals going on. I'll see you there”. Or share a personal story that really somebody can resonate with that may reflect around what you do professionally that gives some sort of authenticity and come insight to show that you're human and that you're not just trying to sell them on something. Because that's…that's been the focal point for everything that we do. That's the idea behind client's centricity. Is putting their needs first. We need to do that in our marketing too.  [Christian]: I think you being up an interesting point. It's a lot of it comes down to marketing you know that is that. And in my experience yeah the majority of what is being peddled out there is marketing in real estate you know by franchises, by gurus, by trainers is pretty much the opposite of you know Joe Rants “Don't be annoying”.  You know they say “You gotta be top of mind”. And to them that's making your phone calls and pestering people and going online. And if you go “Oh by the way if you know anyone that can buy or sell a house” like everyone is taught to say that so everyone says it so no one…so it means nothing to no one. People are just like “Oh yeah that's what a realtor says” you know. It's like a stand up. You know that's bad marketing. That is low bar. I am not thinking I am just told to do this and I am gonna do it and supposedly that will give me result. They probably are not the results that you want.  [Chris]: I think you just hit the nail in the head there.  [Nathan]: I do too. [Chris]: Thinking. And that's the problem. If you're gonna market effectively you have to think about what the message is that is gonna solve the problem for your consumer. [Christian]: Well you have to start with who your consumer is. You know if it is the population that you asked well there is your first problem. Like that should not be your targeting market. You know. [Chris]: You've got different segments right. You've got …there might be an itch that you work. And that might be your thing to go after her whether that we based off of a previous profession, a hobby. Whether you're running or cycling or you just love giving back in the community and you're in the philanthropy space. You have geographic which is you can market based off of where you live and where you do business or you can go and just focus on something specific in real estate right.  If you focus on if you're in the equestrian market and you've grown up in the equestrian world and you understand horse ranches better than anybody else that is something that you can specifically market to but the fact is that no matter what you're marketing to, what segment that is you've gotta find out a way to provide value to them.  It's geographic. Share what's going on in the community. I can't tell you how many times I have heard that said, “Share what is going on in the community“ and how little people actually do it.  [Christian]: Yeah I mean even if you don't have all that figured out just be an interesting person [laughter]. I mean like I think like Peter Lorimer or something you know. Obviously he's got a big personality like British accent and stuff but like this guy has hands in everything. And it's all really interesting to watch or listen to. You know, and I get the impression he is trying to sell to me. Like it's always helping agents or you know “Look at this cool thing, this is what I am doing in my life right now”. Like it's never “Hey if you're looking to buy or sell you know in Los Angeles…” or whatever you know yeah I mean you could figure it out.  So going back to kind of our initial conversation about Joe Rants 3 things it's as you were giving that example you know you received a social message whatever it was. It is interesting that we have gotten you know most people think we are related to this. We've gotten so far along the hiatus to the sales pitch that they don't even pretend it's not a sales pitch. They just come up like “Hey I hope this isn't annoying to you” or “I hope this doesn't come off as spammy” [laughter] which really means “This is a standard sales pitch”. [Chris]: Yeah you know “I am about to annoy the hell out of you”. [Christian]: As if that's more authentic and will make it less salesly or you're more likely to you know like they think that that's they know that's a barrier and they think that admitting it will be less a barrier. When in reality that's just like “Oh thankfully I didn't read the whole message. Delete”. Just put it up front so I can delete quickly you know.  [Chris]: Definitely. I mean my response to him was” you know “You should have stuck with your gut. [laughter]. It was definitely spammy and annoying. And shouldn't have messaged me.” But agents do that all the time. Real estate agents they do the same thing that multi-level marketing people are doing. “Hey haven't talked to you in a while. Wanted to reach out and let you know I am in real estate now. Do you know anybody that is looking to buy or sell in the next you know 30-60-90 days”. Whatever it is.  Agents do that all the time and there's…it's actually really easy to not do that. Like if you meet somebody and they ask you what you do the first thing you're gonna say is “Real estate”. And they're just gonna come down and immediately ask you how the market is. That is the instantly question that the buyers or anybody that you meet are gonna ask you once they find out that you're in real estate. So what do most agents do? Well most agents the moment they get asked that question they say “The market is great. The market is great. When are you looking to move?” or “Are you looking to move?”. They immediately position themselves for the time share pitch. And that's the high pressure.  [Christian]: That's desperate. [Chris]: They come off as desperate. And the people that are on the opposite side they don't feel like they're on a conversation anymore. They feel like they're being cornered into becoming a lead. And people don't want to be considered a lead. They want to be considered you know their name and they don't want to be you know a prospect.  So a great way that that can be changed is instead of asking them “Well you know are you looking to buy or sell?”. “Who is your realtor?” “Oh I don't have a realtor I am not in the market”. “Oh great well not everybody is in the market at all time. So who do you call when you need to file your tax assessment? Who do you call when you're trying to figure out how much money you should spend on the renovation and you want to make sure that you don't get negative equity?” “Like these are kind of free services, they're complimentary services that we offer to everybody in the community as part of our company and I'd love to be able to be that person for you if you ever need to reach out. If some of these people end up using me to buy or sell some of us don't but it's not a big deal but we're here for you and we want to provide value”.  Doing something like that the conversation goes a whole different way. People have respect for you for not trying to sell them. They thing that you're a professional and that you don't need to beg for the business and it's just a different impression that we can leave on the people that we meet. [Nathan]:  That's just…it makes me think of this example of why we have a bad name. Next door you know the social site, right? OK right so somebody the other day posted “Hey I got friends looking to move in the neighborhood. If you know anybody looking to sell let me know.” Of course it got like 5 responses right. And one of those responses is somebody I know that is getting ready to least and bla bla bla. What they didn't realize as soon as they responded the person said “Well I am an agent and I've got clients looking in this area, what do you have and I'll let you…” It's the classic [censored] you know. They didn't have anything.  [Christian]: Switch.  [Nathan]: It was just the baiting switch. And my client was just like “Man that is so shady” and I was like “And people wonder why we have such a bad name. When you do [censored] like that it's just horrible”. I like…I wanted to message everybody in that thread and “Hey you do know this person is an agent and they're actually not looking for their family member, they're trying to find new clients. Like it's such a [censored] shady way to do things”.  [Christian]: Do you guys follow the broke agent? [Chris]: [laughter] Yeah on occasion.  [Nathan]: Yeah you're talking to him [laughter]. [Christian] Alright. You know there's a funny you know GIF meme he posted the other day. It was like it was a clip from one of The pirates of the Caribbean movies where Jack Sparrow is being chased across the beach by a mob, you know. It's like I think the subtext was like “You know when someone posts online about their selling their house and these agents just the mob of agents chasing them you know”. It's like pretty much sums it up. [Nathan]: Yeah they go “Opportunity oh my God lets start salivating and jumping over each other”. [Chris]: So lets talk about that. If someone posted online that they want an agent what do you do? [Christian]: They usually won't though. They're usually more cryptic like “I am moving to this area” or “I am fixing my house up to sell”. Like you…I mean no one goes out there and says “Hey I am looking for an agent”. [Chris]: Well like OK so whatever the message is whether that is cryptic or direct what do you do? [Christian]: Well usually there is over 150 replies by other desperate agents by the time I read it so I usually do nothing.   [Chris]: OK. Nate do you do anything on those posts? [Nathan]: It depends. And sometimes yes I will. But I try to spin it from what you said. What value I can give them upfront. And part of that I think it's just being honest you know. So…you know again if they choose you than great. I have never had it happen. Actually no. I take that back. I had person that I did speak with who actually didn't list their home but they appreciated that I was just honest. They felt that everybody reached out to him swung him some line of [censored] and I just told him what I felt. But we all know that's me so… [Chris]: Well you're good at that. So one of the things that has worked for me because I actually have gotten some business off of some of those posts. Everybody is gonna comment “Oh so and so is a great realtor. So and so is a great realtor”. What I have done in the past is I have reached out to them directly. Send them a private message.  [Nathan]: Yeah. [Chris]: If I knew them personally I would send them an email or text. I would just say “Hey I saw your post online. I know you're gonna have a million people that are hounding you for business. Just be careful who you hire. Make sure you vet them properly. If you need anything just know that I am in real estate and…” Throw a couple of credential in there but just let them know that if they have any questions you know we're here to answer it.   I have had more conversations with people like that and I have received probably 6 or 7 referrals off of threads where people were like hundreds steep. I have received 6 or 7 of those referrals where I have messaged different agents and let them know the exact same thing. And people appreciate that. They don't like being sold. They don't like being pressured. And it's just a different environment. You get out of this competition thread and you get into this 1 on 1 message. And people like feeling like they're the center of the universe so you just make them feel that way.  [Nathan]: I agree.  [Chris]: Good so I like being right. [Christian]: So awkward silence yeah. How do you sum up this episode? What are your takeaways here other than don't be annoying? [Chris]: Yeah I mean we've gotta be careful with our message. It's so easy to get out there and just want to tell everybody that you're in real estate. But I think that agents need to put some thought behind what they're saying. And really think about how it's gonna come across to the people that they're delivering the message to.  We've talked about proving value throughout the history of the show. And I think that now more than ever that's gonna be more and more important. Especially with the rise of the high byer where they're getting ads saying “Hey it's so easy don't deal with all the hassle. Don't deal with being hounded by 100 agents when you comment online. Don't deal with staging or showing or any of that just let us sell it.” And people are so willing to avoid us and to avoid the showings and the solicitations that they're willing to give up 20-30% of the total value of their house just to not do that. And I think that that is absolutely insane. So we've got to shift our focus. Anything else guys? [Christian]: I would say if this is confusing to you as an agent forget everything that's you know your broker or the better agents told you about it in prospecting and hounding people and being top of mind. Just think to yourself “Hey would I like someone else to do this to me?”  If the answer is “No I don't want someone calling me pretending like they care about me just to ask if I am looking to buy or sell this year” well don't do it.  If you don't want someone knocking on your door without you inviting them over, don't [censored] do it. You know I mean like it's really not that hard. Stop making excuses about “Well this is my job and if I don't tell them or bug the [censored] out of people, if I am not annoying than I am not doing my job”. Well figure out how to do it not annoying or you will find another job to do.  [Chris]: And I'll just add on to that because calling is important. It's not to say “Don't call your prospects” but when you call them don't say “Hey do you…I can sell your house. I can do this”. [Nathan]: [laughter] Don't lead with that.  [Christian] Provide some value. Yeah. [Chris]: You know provide value. “Hey what can I do to help? I am sure you're getting a million calls right now” or “It's been a while since we've touched base. What…Where are you in the process?”. Make it about them. [Christian] Right and I will add. The value is not you calling them as an agent. You know I have had…I have seen online threads where basically an agent has been told their whole career to provide value but they don't know what that is. They think just them showing up is them providing value.  You know like it's…It reminds me of the scene from Office Space where you know the guy is being grilled like “What exactly did you say you do here?” “I AM A PEOPLE PERSON. WHY CAN'T YOU SEE THAT?!” [laughter]. “I PROVIDE VALUE. WHY CAN'T ANYONE SEE THAT?” Like you're probably not providing value if people can't see that. [Chris]: Exactly. [Nathan]: Amen. Cool.  [Chris]: Hey any final words? [Nathan]: No. Don't be annoying. I agree that what Christian said, if it would bother you than you probably shouldn't be doing that. Just what sounds like common sense is really not common sense or maybe is that whole adage of the easiest thing to do are the hardest things to get done.  [Chris]: I like it. Alright. Well everybody thank you so much for tuning into our 50th episode of Re:Think Real Estate. We appreciate you tuning in and listening. If you haven't yet please go to the website rtrepodcast.com. Subscribe so you never miss and episode and give us a 5 star review on iTunes and Google Play. We'll catch you next week. Cool.  [music] [Chris]: Thanks for tuning in this weeks episode of the Re:Think Real Estate  Podcast. We would love to hear your feedback so please leave us a review on iTunes. Our music is curtesy of Dan Koch, K-O-C-H, whose music can be explored and licensed for use at dankoch.net. Thank you Dan. Please like, share and follow. You can find us on Facebook at Facebook.com/rethinkpodcast. Thank you so much for tuning in everyone and have a great week.  [music]  

Episode 25 of This Strange Life is live! We've got a brief hangout today and we are talking all about the peculiar last interview that Anthony Bourdain gave and some of his interesting quotes about the Clintons and Weinstein. Mickey goes on to bring up has favorite plus size Instagram model GlitterandLazers — Willy and Jimmy give their take that this may just be a form of virtue signaling. We then dig in on Russian bots, Trump and the homeless/human-shit-on-the-street problem in San Francisco before digging into some current events. Most notably, Italian researchers finding a lake on Mars. Is it real or are they just looking for more funding? To round it out, Mike talks about getting a face tattoo, then we consider what life might be like for asexual people. Last but not least we finish off the show with another edition of “He put WHAT WHERE?!”. #thisstrangelife  #TSL  #hangout  #anthonybourdain   #bourdain #models #plussizemodel  #obese  #virtuesignaling #glitterandlazers #russia #trump #homeless #sanfrancisco #facetattoo  #asexual  #ozone  #holeintheozone  #truecrime   #crypto   #bitcoin   #ethereum   #ghosts   #aliens    #joerogan   #jre   #podcast

Here's how I 'm using funnels to hire a support person, funnel assistant, personal assistant, and high ticket sales person... Hey, what's going on everyone? It's Steve Larsen. You're listening to Sales Funnel Radio. Welcome to Sales Funnel Radio where you'll learn marketing strategies to grow your online business using today's best internet sales funnels. Now, here's your host, Steve Larsen. Holy crap, so I'll be completely honest with you. I was actually at church three days ago and I was sitting down and this guy just said the word Super Bowl, and all of a sudden it hit me that that day, later that afternoon was the Super Bowl. I was like, "Hey, guys. I'm assuming today is the Super Bowl." Someone is like, "Yeah." "Oh, okay. I did not know that." They're like, "You didn't know today was the Super Bowl?" I was like, "No. No, I didn't. I did not know today is the Super Bowl." I had a few other friends and stuff they're like making fun of me for it. I don't care. I don't care. Actually, I love the NFL actually. Like, I shouldn't say I love it. I watch one game per year and that is the Super Bowl. I love the Denver Broncos, mostly because I'm from there. If we ever get a good quarterback again, maybe they'll have a good shot at actually doing something good again... Guys, I love low-information diets. I'm trying to cultivate one of them. For years ... I don't really read the news. I used to have a subscription to The Wall Street Journal. Yes I stopped that a long time ago. I had another friend that was like, "Hey, did you see on the news X, Y, and Z?" I was like, "No." They're like, "What? Where do you go to get your news?" I was like, "I don't. I don't." They're like, "Huh, if something important is going on how do you know about it?" I was like, "Because I hear people talking about it." If anything, Facebook will at least give me a skewed idea that something's at least going on. I'll hear it from the filters of a billion people on Facebook. I should go check it out then. Like, "Really?" I was like, "Yeah, it's all about me not taking in too much information. It's all about me trying my hardest to not take in information. There's so much data that's produced every second now, every little nanosecond. I mean there's so much. There's no way you could ever consume the amount of stuff that's produced in your lifetime. What's nice about that is you get to actually choose what it is you actually take in. The hard part about it is that you actually have to choose what you should take in. You know what I mean? I go through and actually ... I wasn't trying to talk about this at all actually during this episode. I try and cultivate a low-information diet as much as I can, much like before our workweek talks about. I've noticed in my life, it's a lot more, I can think. There's a lot more calm in my head. I know there's crazy stuff going on and I'm not trying to be an un-responsible citizen, but I think my best way to contribute to society is to help a whole bunch of people learn how to make a whole bunch of money and help their customers, and I think it's going pretty well so far. You know what I mean? All right, there's my contribution and it's going well. I really don't read much news. I had no idea the Super Bowl was going on, which by the way, I did want the Patriots to win. I was a little bit sad they didn't. Broncos and Patriots those are my teams, if I can even say that. I can't even name players. I barely even know what the teams are. I don't even know what all the divisions are inside the NFL. I'm serious, I don't. I don't feel awkward about that. I'm a little jealous of all the people who know how to talk sports. I don't know how to talk sports at all, at all. Why? It's actually slightly on purpose, especially at the beginning it was very much on purpose. Now it's just a habit, but I am trying to stay obsessed with my craft. Obsessed. I mean, freakishly obsessed. You know what I mean? Straight up fanatical, monomaniac over what I do. Why? You know what's funny? There's a stat I was reading that I heard about. I can't remember what it said, but it said basically if you read like ... If you consume an hour a day of the material inside your industry, just an hour a day or something like that, within a couple of years you'll be one of the top people. That's so awesome. There's so much other noise, there's so many other distractions that other people give in to. All I got to do is I got to start reading, I got to start studying, I got to start reading the greats, understand where they are and I'll be at the top. It's the same thing with you guys. I know that every one of you on here, you're all rock stars, you're all producers, you're all ... We may not all be A type personalities, but we're all go-getters. We all try and get things done. I'm a little bit more of an introvert in person. Depends on how well I know you. That's all I'm trying to say though, is I try to keep and cultivate this low-information diet and I try to do things in a way that ... I'm trying to practice more of what Tim Ferriss is talking about, where he said, he'll walk around and he'll just try and figure out the one thing that he could do that would make all these other things he has to do obsolete, which leads me to the topic of this episode. I know it's five minutes in, but I feel like that was important to say that. Just try and stay obsessed. You know what I mean? Really, try and stay completely obsessed with what you do, and if you can't get obsessed about it, you might not be doing the right thing. That make sense? No one really has to motivate me. I mean yes, I get through slumps. I feel like I just got through a little bit of a slump. Creating the product that I just launched out there was rough. I can say with full confidence that my product freaking rocks. It is worth way more than I charge for it. It is amazing. I absolutely love what I produced. It is so good. Oh, my gosh, I don't know any other product that's out there that does what this one does in the space that it's in. I'm very, very excited and I feel completely confident about that. I just finished it and well by the time you guys get this I'll finish it because today I'm finishing it. That was intense. That was hard. Now it's out. It's done. It's just like Seth Godin says guys, "You can be the first or you can be the best." That's the path to cash. Vanilla is the number-one selling ice cream that sells 10 times more than number two. It's chocolate. Right? Number two sells three times more than three. It's not a linear curve. It is an exponential curve. You can either be the first or you can be the best. We try to teach you through Expert Secrets how to be the first. We try to teach you through DotCom Secrets how to be the best. Funnel hack someone and do what their process is, and then you go improve on it. It's a combination of the two that we're trying to go through and show you guys how to do this stuff. Anyway, powerful stuff, powerful stuff. Speaking of teams, how's this for a lead in? I am realizing that where I am, the big domino that I'm trying to knock over my life right now is holy crap, I cannot handle the number of messages that come into me anymore on my own. I can't, I already wasn't. If you guys have sent me a message I'm sorry, I probably have not answered it. It's because of the straight up volume of messages. It's not out of me being rude, please don't get offended, but I am doing my best right now. I'm going to go to try and duplicate areas of my life that I know are duplicated bowl. There's certain things that I do that I will never try to outsource, that I want to control. I'm sure at some point I actually will outsource those things, it's just I haven't figured out the best way for me to outsource them and duplicate those things. Stay tuned, I've got a plan on something really cool coming up. Oh my gosh, I want to build another funnel so bad. I almost built almost one funnel per day for almost two straight years. I mean that's crazy. I am itching so bad to build a second funnel. I was talking to another buddy of mine yesterday and he was like, "Do not build a second funnel." I was like, "I want to, I want to build another funnel so bad." He's like, "Don't do it." He's like, "I wish someone else had told me that when I was early on in my entrepreneurial game also." He's like, "Russel was right." I was like, "I know, I know he's right." I was known for my speed with these things and it's helpful. I can take a lot of elements from lots of different funnels that I've built and toss them all into just the one. It makes sense, it's time for pure obsession in just that one thing. I don't know the exact moment where it'll be time to move on but I think I'll know and I've got a plan for it. Anyway, so yes anyway. What I'm trying to do right now is I'm trying to go out, I'm creating a hiring funnel basically where I'm going out and I was sitting at a mastermind once, actually was the Inner Circle. I was sitting in the Inner Circle and someone was asking the question, "Hey, how do I find someone good?" It was cool because both Russell and also myself, I raised my hand, and Russell was like, he's like, "You got to hire from within." Meaning hire from within your own community, which is why it's so important that every one of you guys is publishing. When I was going out and I was getting all these odd jobs done for random things I needed built, I had to reindoctrinate them on what my tasks were, what my goals were, what the culture of what I'm trying to build is. You know what I mean? If I hire from within, meaning I hire from within my own audience, my own following and that's where I get my help from, that is 100% the easiest way to do that. You know what I mean? Anyways, that's what I've been doing. This is, I guess, my shout out for it. It was weird when I did a shout out, when Russell did, to his community to find my replacement. That was weird. That was weird. I'm sure some of you guys saw that, but I was sitting there next to him and he goes, "Dude, it's time." We put off making the video to find another funnel builder for weeks. We kept putting it on the list. We're like yes we'll do it, and then we wouldn't. We'll do it, and then we wouldn't. It was back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. I think it's because both of us didn't want to actually admit that it was about to happen. I didn't want to leave, he didn't want me to leave, but the circumstances made it necessary and I'm glad I did. Been able to go build my own stuff and put it all together and things like that. Still involved there. Actually just signed the contract to be a Two Comma Club coach there, which I'm very, very excited about. I already was though, you guys already know that. I guess they just made it official by signing a contract since I'm gone now, you know what I mean? Anyways I already was though. What I'm focusing on right now ... I'm sorry, my thoughts are kind of all over the place. There's a lot of different ideas that I'm trying to lace together here so you can follow what I'm saying. What I'm trying to say is be obsessed, understand that I've never seen anybody ever get to $1 million on their own ever. I've never seen someone who got a Two Comma Club award ever make it there on their own. They always had at least some VA's, there's always some other people, some other team members, things like that. Maybe not straight up employees, I don't want to have straight up employees. Not for right now anyway. I want to help you guys understand that you will need other people on this journey. It is not cool to be a solopreneur. If you've never hired on someone else, if you've never outsourced some jobs or whatever, I dare you to break that mold because you're never actually going to get there on your own. There's literally just way too much to do. It's the reason why every time I record these podcasts it goes off to an assistant, and she turns it into a blog post, and she syndicates it all over the place. If you want to know more about my podcasting strategy listen to episode 60 and 61, and they will tell you about my content engine and super, super powerful. You got to understand that you can't do it on your own, don't try to do it on your own, but be a monomaniac over the thing that you're trying to be the best at. Obsess over it, read things about it, you'll be better than everyone else within a couple years, even if you just consume a little bit each day. Obviously if you speed that up timeline shrinks like crazy also, which is I am convinced why it happened for me so quick. Self-driven to just study my face off, and I can feel another big learning loop about to happen for me, which I need, it's good. I'm in a big application phase right now. I'm just applying all the stuff that I've learned. I'm implementing like crazy and all the stuff that I know, all the things that I've done, all the models that I teach and it's working brilliantly. I mean holy crap, we're doing well, which is very fun. It's exciting, we've worked hard for it. As far as progression moving forward and as far as scaling, the thing that I know that I'm going to need to do next is I've got to get number one and assistant and number two I've got to get a support person. There is way too many questions coming in, I just cannot handle them. What I'm finding myself doing is working in the business rather than on the business and that's a scary place for me to go for many reasons. I am not good in that area. My personality is not good in that area, I'm not good at support. People ask questions and I can't blame them. "Hey, I've got a question about this, this, this, this." For me I'm a self-solver, 99% of the time. It's not like I don't ask questions, I ask tons of questions to everybody, you guys know that about me. I ask questions to the cashier, I ask questions to dry cleaner, I ask questions to everyone at all times, I'm learning as much as I can as I go and I love that. There's also this element of self-solving. No one's going to hold your hand to $1 million, you've got to be able to self-solve, you've got to be able to go and figure out problems on your own, answers on your own. I'm not good at support. As personality goes and even all the tests that I've taken, personality tests, DiSC tests, the 16 personalities test, all of them say you're not going to be good at the support role because I get frustrated too fast. People are like, "Hey, how do I build a funnel." I'm like click. The add funnel button, it's right there, it says it. You know what I mean? I'm not good at that. My personality's not good at that stuff, so I'm trying to find someone who is good at those things. I'm trying to find somebody who's ... It's been fun. I've been going through and I've been funnel hacking the Click Funnels hiring funnel. It's the very funnel that I went through to apply to get the job there, and I've been building it out. It's been a bunch of fun and whatever positions I need you just click on which one you're interested in and you can send in your application, there's several things that I have you do. I have you take the DiSC test, I have you take the 16 personalities test, I have you create a video telling me why you should have the job, and uploading it. There's a lot of things that I have you do, which is awesome. I mean it's awesome, it's a fun application process honestly. Anyway, so this is my extremely soft pitch. If any of you guys are interested go to stevejlarsen.com and at the bottom there it's going to say hiring. You click right there. I mean it says hiring there at the bottom for you. Click right there and it'll show you the positions that I'm looking for. Honestly, right now I'm growing slow as far as personnel goes. I am very slow to expand right now. I'm nervous to ... How should I say this? Things are so much in the testing phase still. Even though the product's done, even though all the pieces are done, even though the things where they need to be going, now that I have the what of what sells down, I'm just making sure I got the how down. I'm tweaking the funnel like crazy. I'm cleaning up the traffic sources. I am keeping the live funnel but I will probably do a split live and replay option as well, which is kind of cool. I'll tell you guys more about that in a little bit. I kind of made it up. I haven't built it yet but I know how it's going to work and it's pretty, pretty cool. That'll be a whole separate episode, but anyway, so I need help and I already have an awesome traffic driver, I have a buddy of mine who helps me with ... He sets up all the processes in the back end, so I'm good at building funnels, but I'm not really good at building the business, he is. He's building the business and he's building the processes. You'd come in and you're going to work with him and he'll help you get integrated in a way that the process is all easy, it's simple, it's fast, and scratches everyone's back... Once that process is set he goes on to the next thing and he builds that piece. Soon I'm going to have to build a fulfillment machine, however that happens, to ship out the stuff that I'm selling because I do have physical products with the webinar that I'm selling as well. It's kind of a different kind of episode, hopefully it's okay, but that's all I'm doing right now is I am so focused on just the product. I want to build something else so bad but I can't, and so what I'm doing in order to keep the creativity juices going because it's not about stopping your creativity as an entrepreneur in the stage, it's not. When you have the thing done, when you have the thing that you're selling ready and it's done and you're selling it and it's awesome, the next piece to go get creative on is more ways to get people in. The next thing to go also do is figure out what you can do inside the business to make it easier and start building up those processes, start building up those internal things you need to so remove you, it's the big domino Tim Farriss was talking about, that's what I'm trying to say. I'm looking at the things that remove me from certain areas. Number one, I have got to have an assistant. It's super honoring you guys, I'm getting asked to speak on tons of podcast shows right now, which is awesome. I'm getting asked to go talk on tons of events, which is awesome. I'm getting asked to have the relationships over here and remember this little detail about this person over there, and it's good, that's awesome, and I want that stuff, those are important things, they've got to be there but I am just not time wise capable of being able to handle that kind of stuff right now. I've got to have an assistant, even if it's just a little bit, a couple hours a day, literally to help me organize my life so I can stay in my creative zone in the funnel building world. Then number two I've got to find a support person. Again, even if it's just a couple hours a day just to ... From my standpoint that's the stuff that I'm looking at and I'm excited for those processes to get put in place so that it helps me stay in the creative zone. How easy is it to get ahold of Russell Brunson? It's not, he's got processes, he's got appropriate walls to protect himself. It's kind of a selfish move, but it's not negatively selfish. It's selfish in that it protects him and lets him stay in the creative zone, that's how he can do so much, that's how he can put so much out is he is always producing. He's never there as the mechanic trying to fix things in the business. That's what the rest of the business is for, the rest of the personnel, the rest of the people there, the employees. They're there working on those processes, they're there taking and removing him from those things so that his only focus is selling stuff. That's what I'm trying to do. It was fascinating to watch that process in person for that amount of time, it's fascinating, and that's what I'm trying to create and do. I've got this funnel that's killing it and I think it'll make a Two Comma Club award. I don't want to call my shot here, but I think by the beginning of fall I think it will make $1 million because we haven't really even started promoted very hard yet. We're just tweaking, we're figuring out the traffic sources, we're figuring out all the different pieces and it's been great. Then as soon as that's up and I feel like it's in a good place where it stands on it's own then I'm going to build another funnel that pays for all the costs of my people that I'm hiring. Does that make sense? Rather than say I can't afford it, I'm asking how can I afford it? I'm like well, there's a really easy spot right over here that I could go sell stuff in that I know everyone wants that would pay for the people that I'm hiring, would pay for the costs of the actual business. The actual cost of the product for me isn't that high and my customers help pay for it, obviously through the purchase of the product. How do I pay for the actual people? There will be a second funnel that is very little impact on my time but at extremely high value that I know will pay for my people. That's what I'm looking at right now, and I just want to drop that out to you guys so you guys see kind of what I'm going through as I kind of take a step back and go, "Okay, my average cart value is really high, my costs to acquire is really low. Awesome, great place. The funnel's doing well. Awesome, cool, let's keep that traffic source going, we'll start discovering others. Let's keep over here, let's keep creating relationships over here, we'll do Dream 100 stuff, awesome. Sales of the product, cool, done. Now let's go look at actual business... We'll go back over here and we'll figure out the pieces. I have seen so many businesses fail when they build a funnel because they really didn't actually have a business. They just had an idea and a product. The funnel is not the business, the funnel is not the business, the funnel sells stuff. The business supports what the funnel is selling, that's the relationship there. Three times now, at least, that's the ones I can remember, I have had people calling after we've launched a funnel either personally or with one of Russell's clients. I've had people and businesses and business owners calling begging me to turn off the funnel because it is about to bankrupt their company, or they just can't handle it and their customers are getting mad. It's exact same thing Trey Lewellen when he sold that many credit card knives and flashlights and survival things that quickly. People are like who's this guys? Did someone just take my money, did they steal from me? He's like no he didn't actually, he had a great product. He just so many sales he could barely handle the volume of sales. That's what I'm trying to prep myself for is a support person who starts out with just a couple hours, we get the process down, and as we scale we turn up the hours of the support person. Frankly I could use a full-time assistant, but we start with a few hours, we figure out the process, and then we turn it up slowly as things need to be done. I am not a fan of just tossing money in random places with hopes that the money solves the problem. I've never seen that happen so we start slow, exact same thing with all these million dollar funnels that we go launch and put out there guys. We just start with a little bit of ad spend, test what's happening, test what's going on up there, and then we start turning it up once the results start coming in. Don't think you got to have hundreds or even thousands of dollars to go test your product ideas on paid traffic sources, you don't. It's the same thing with the way you hire, and the way I saw him hire. He'd vet people out, he'd bring them on in, and then he'd fire them real quick if he needed to, if it really was just not a good fit. It wasn't him doing any of that either, it was Brent, the COO. He literally could stay in the creative producing, selling mode 24/7 which is amazing. That's all I got for you guys. I know my podcast episodes are a little bit long, going for almost 25 minutes now, but it's because I want to fully dive into the idea and the different applications of it. I hope that makes sense as I do these things, what I'm doing with it. I've got a really cool surprise coming up for everybody as well. Something is in the works. It's probably another six weeks out, but I think you guys are really going to enjoy this. It is a big piece of me. I'm really excited for you guys all to have it. I'll salt the oats there. I'm not going to dive into it now. If you are interested. If you're like Stephen I would love to work with you please know that there's a lot of people that come to me without me even putting something out there that's like this, and if you're listening to this after the time of me launching it and you're like, "Hey I would love that." Literally you can go to stevejlarsen.com, stevejlarsen.com, the guy that wanted stevelarsen.com wanted $40,000 so I got stevejlarsen.com. Scroll down to the bottom and it says hiring right there, and you can see the different positions that are open, or if there aren't any at the time that's okay, you can join a list and wait, and be like hey want to be notified next time we have an opening, you really want to get into this. That's my soft pitch, but that's exactly what's going on in the business. This is me telling you what's going on and also saying if you're open to it I'd love to have you. All right guys, thanks so much. Hopefully you got some stuff out of this and you got some ideas. I'm serious about that, learn to be a monomaniac, learn to say no to things so that you can be a monomaniac, you can obsess, you can be one of the best in the industry, whatever it is that you do, and then understand that you don't ever get there on your own. I'm trying to stay in my obsessive zone by finding help because I need it. Anyways guys, thanks so much, appreciate it and I will talk to you later. Thanks for listening to Sales Funnel Radio. Please remember to subscribe and leave feedback. Want to get one of today's best internet sales funnel for free? Go to salesfunnelbroker.com/freefunnels to download your pre-billed sales funnel today.

The good and the bad of my very first info product...   What's going on everyone? This is Steve Larsen and you're listening to the best podcast on planet earth in my opinion and in reality of course. Welcome to Sales Funnel Radio. Welcome to Sales Funnel Radio, where you'll learn marketing strategies to grow your online business using today's best internet sales funnels. Now here's your host, Steve Larsen. Hey, you guys... Hey, I'm excited for this episode. This is something that's been on my mind for probably four weeks now. I've just not ... I don't know. I haven't had the time to actually make it, but I've been making this list and I've been writing this list for a while. I keep walking into my office, my home office, and I look over to the right and I've got whiteboards all over the place and quotes stapled to my wall. A huge black sheet stapled from the top of the ceiling down to the bottom of the floor. I've got big flood lights and film equipment. I've got a whole set up in here. I got a whole studio, but all over on the side of the wall over there, I've been writing this big list down. Weird as it, whatever it is in the morning, my brain turns on real fast. What's been on my mind for the last sort of while is kind of lessons from my first info product. When I first started coming up with this product idea, my little girl was about to turn four years old. Super excited. She's a cutie, a lot of fun. Love hanging out with her. It's fun though. As she gets older and older, it's not that she wasn't fun before, but even now we can have like more conversations, which is crazy. She's only four almost, which is nuts. When I look at her too, I also remember weirdly enough this first info product that I launched is around the same time when we found out that she ... That my wife was pregnant with her. My wife came running out of the bathroom one day and we were excited... We were trying to have a kid. She ran out and she was like, "Oh my gosh. We're pregnant. Ha, ha." I was like, "Wow. Yeah. I'm so pumped." We were so excited. We're so excited. I have, how should I say this, almost the bitter taste in my mouth also during that moment. It has nothing to do with my excitement for the kid. I was so excited for my little girl, so excited for her to come, had nothing to do with that. What the bitter taste comes from still is that I mean we were just broke. I mean broke, broke. I didn't know how to pay for the birth. I don't know how I pay for those. I mean it's one of the reasons I joined the army. I mean I always wanted to anyways, but it is one of the root reasons. It was like, "Crap. I had not figured out how to sell stuff," despite the fact that I have been constantly trying. Up until that point I had been doing real estate, both commercial and residential, door to door sales. At that time I was getting into like eBooks and I was writing a lot of stuff, which I never launched one of them by the way. It'd be kind of cool to show and actually finish that one one day. It's cool how on point I was four years ago when I was writing that thing. It's like right on point. All of it's still valid. I was like, "Oh my gosh." Anyway, different subject. It was hard because like I really just didn't know how we were going to live, how are we going to eat. I was trying to be fiscally responsible.... We didn't have expensive habits. Thankfully neither my wife or I we really had like super expensive taste. It's not that we didn't want to, but we were okay with the fact that we didn't have the money to... Neither of us have really ever been concerned about the other spending a whole bunch of money randomly. You know what I mean? That's not ever been us, but at the same time, we just didn't have any money. I was in school. I did great in school. After a while when I learned how to learn that I started getting straight A's every semester almost, which is awesome. I was deep into school. I was trying to learn. I was trying to outdo my other peers. I'm very competitive on purpose. I was trying to beat them on everything. I was trying to beat my professors even, my marketing teachers. I was trying to show them that they were wrong on a few things. I mean it's just my personality. I run. I'm a sprinter. I know that. Anyway, this product idea though came at a moment when I was really needing something the most money wise. Not almost the most. There was one more intense time than that. I remember I was sitting on the couch at 2:00 AM and it was freezing. I was in our cold apartment. This is in Eastern Idaho, Southeastern Idaho, which if you don't know in the wintertime and even during the summer, like the wind just always blows there. I don't know what is going on over there, but it always blows wind. I'm from Denver. My wife and I are both from Denver. It doesn't blow like that over there. Anyway, I had this idea and it's not like it hit me all at once. The core of it did, but it continued to develop over the course of several weeks. The idea was to create this info product that I could not find anyone else in this particularly industry creating. No one else had done it. No one else understood ClickFunnels enough to pull it off as far as I could tell. ClickFunnels was pretty new. I'm sorry. Let's see. Yeah, okay. This was about three and a half years ago right after ... Timeline wise, ClickFunnels had just opened up, so not quite four years ago then. It's amazing how much has happened in that amount of time. That's crazy. Holy crap. Anyway, I had this idea and I was excited and I didn't totally know what I was doing, but I figured that I needed to go create this product and then start to sell it because it was a blue ocean. No one else had really done it. There was enough people that I could go funnel hack to get kind of an idea of the thing that I should create, like what would be accepted content wise, but I was going to deliver it up in a completely different way than that market had ever experienced before. I was like sweet. Cool. I mapped the whole thing out many times. I wrote out the value ladders. I literally went page by page through Russell's DotComSecrets Ignite program. It was a workbook that he gave for free. After the DotComSecrets book on the thank you page there, he was like, "Hey, I don't want you to sit around, wait around just being bored, so here's three days of this event and the workbook with it." I was like what? Oh my gosh. I took the workbook. I printed it out. It was like a hundred pages. I got it spiral bound and I started hiding in the basketball ... On campus, the basketball stadium box office seats because you could jump through the front window and it was kind of like dark, really fast internet up there. No one would bother me. I would just kind of dodge security when no one was looking and I'd jumped through the window. That's literally how I learned this stuff you guys. That's how I did it. I was just hustling my brains out. It hasn't really stopped. I just haven't stopped since then. I learned it around this entire product. This product was how I learned funnels. That's why it was so near and dear to me. Now I had created stuff before, but not like this. I promise I'll get to the good stuff here in just a moment. Here's the back story with the whole thing, okay? I went and I created the product and it took me eight months, eight months to make the thing, right? I was in school. At that time we had our kid. I had family life with a kid that had just started. I had started with the army. I went away for six months to basics training and all this other stuff and other trainings, pieces like that. Six months I was gone. Anyway, in total, actually creation, took me eight months to make the thing and I launched it and I was so proud. I was so proud. No one else really understood what I was doing, but I was so excited to just have ... It was my first info product to really put out there and it was good. I knew it was good. Nobody else was doing what I was doing and I knew that. I was very proud of the full thing, but the problem was a lot of stuff. There was just so many things. Oh my gosh. If I could go back and just like shake my three and a half year old ago self, I would. What's been on my mind the last few weeks here and now has been lessons from that first product launch. I think the reason it's been popping back up is because I'm about to launch another info product here early January and I know there's another soul in planet that's doing what I'm doing. I know that there's no other one who's even pulling it off closely or even remotely similar to how I'm doing it. I know it's a blue ocean. I have tested the crap out of it for the last year and a half to two years. There's on one else. I'm excited. Very similar scenario as that first info product I launched. When I launched that very first info product though, nobody bought it. I had not even thought about traffic. Looking back, so juvenile and now I'd be like, "Why on earth would I not think about that now?" I just didn't know. I had no idea. It ended up making me like 50 grand just through like one or two traffic sources and it was awesome. It was great. Really, really cool. Well, now I'm about launch a second one and I'm so excited about it, but I wanted to go through a list of kind of some of the ... I wrote them all down here and I'm sure that there are others, but these are like the most stark lessons that I have gathered from that first info product launch and it's totally different this time. 100% different. Like completely day and night different the way I've been handling this thing. Anyway, you know what's funny is I actually go through these with two comical coaching students as well and definitely did this with the latest fad event as well. Went through a few different strategy on how you could pull off. Here's the number one lesson from the whole list. There's about five or six things. What I'm going to do is I'm just going to go through them real quick and I'll explain them as I go. I want to go through these because I need you to understand that if you're about to launch an info product and you feel stuck, I almost guarantee that it is because of one of these reasons. Here's number one, lesson number one is create the revenue before you make the product. This is huge and it's totally counterintuitive to anything else you would ever expect. All right? Even in my marketing classes, like even some of the early mentors I had, they were always like, "Look, go create something brand new. Create this cool thing and then go try and sell it." I was like no. It's totally the opposite. First, you sell it and then you create it. You're like, "Steven, that makes zero sense." Let me tell you how to do it... The reason why is because I spent eight months creating this thing that was amazing, but I did not get paid a dime for it forever. Luckily I created something that was cool enough people could pay me for eventually. I mean that was straight luck. I guessed my whole way to profits. Here's how you do it though. Let's say that you're selling an info product or even a physical product. You can start selling the thing. I mean think about Kickstarter. That's exactly what that thing is. You are buying something that may not even be done yet. What does that tell the entrepreneur? It tells the entrepreneur it's a good idea, right? You currently as the entrepreneur do not create the creativity. You do not create the ideas. You do not have them inside of you. You do not have inside of your own being right now what it takes to make a million dollars from the market. None of us do and I wish I had understood that ahead of time. What you do is you create the product with the first buyers. You create it with them. What I've been doing is I've been spending all my time. I mean I've created cool stuff. I've created workbooks. I mean I've created lots of stuff that goes with it, but I still have not created or filmed the actual thing yet. It's because I am waiting all my time, all my attention, all my focus is on creating pressure, the actual sales message before I start to sell it. I'm not creating the actual thing first. Now if you see the way that Russell rolls things out, if you see the way Russell Brunson and ClickFunnels in general roll products out, a lot of times the way we do it is we sell the thing, we prove that it was good and then we start to ask campaign the buyers. We prep them ahead of time, so it's not like a bait-and-switch. You know what I mean? There's certainly room where you could be really shady with that and we're not. What we do is we say, "Hey look, classes start in two weeks. Buy now for your early bird ticket to get in cheaper," right? Then on the very first module or the very first training, you could do this for physical products too, whatever it is, then we start saying things like, "Hey, what's the number one question or challenge you have with X, Y and Z," and that's just for module one. Well, now we know what to create. They told us what to make. Does that make sense? What's going to blow a lot of people's minds is when you realize that the product rarely sells itself. Rarely ever do you have a product that's so good that it sells itself without any sales copy, without you even trying, where their word of mouth is so strong that you don't need any sales message. What's funny though is when people focus all their time on creating the product and no time creating the sales message, right? They think the product alone is what sells the product. That's not true at all. I have watched Russell sell products he doesn't even know what the product is. It's because he knows persuasive. He knows how to sell. He knows how to create offers. He knows how to stack things. He knows how to create new opportunities. He knows how to invoke that kind of emotion from an individual, right? It's because he's gone through and he creates the actual new opportunity. He creates the sales message. It does not matter really what the product is. It does obviously. It can't be crap. It's got to be amazing. It's got to deliver. It's got to be the coolest thing on the planet earth. You know what I mean? You're creating a brand new opportunity. It better deliver. It better be awesome. Do not deliver junk. That is not my culture. It should not be yours. Okay? What I'm telling you is that you can sell and make money before you actually start creating the product. Then what you do is you create the product with them. You create it as you go. That's all we do. That's all I've done... I have created so many freaking member areas in the last like year. It is ridiculous. My role at ClickFunnels has somewhat shifted. I'm not so much of a front end funnel builder anymore. We're not creating them any front end funnels anymore. My role has shifted. I'm more like a members area, content creating, fulfillment guy now. I don't know why it's totally shifted, but I think that's why is just because we don't create that many front end funnels anymore. It's all about delivering these massive awesome members area. It's all built in ClickFunnels. I mean everything I do and everything I build is in ClickFunnels, but anyway. That's the first lesson is that oh my gosh, biggest thing, why did I wait eight months to collect any check? Honestly, it took a while for word to get out because I hadn't thought about traffic, so really it was like a year. That was rough. Why did I do that? Don't do that. I'm begging you not to do that. Anyway, number one, please know that you should spend most of your time on actually creating the sales message. Focus on getting paid before you make the product as much as you possibly can. Then what you do is that first round through, that first group through who bought your thing, you create the product with them and you say, "Hey, guess what? It's all going to start in two weeks. Go ahead and get your ticket. Go ahead and buy now, so you can get the early bird pricing. It starts in two weeks. When you get in there, very first module, there's a little stop in there, go ahead and answer that questionnaire so that we know we are covering the things that you need most." It's just an ask campaign... Then when we're one week out, "Guess what guys? It starts in one week. Go ahead and get your ticket or go and buy. Then the very first module, get in there, make sure ... Guess what guys? It's starting today. It means you don't have to wait like the people who wait had to wait two weeks ago. Go ahead and get in. I'm going to extend the early bird pricing. You can go ahead. In the very first module, you can go through and make sure you fill out the survey so we can make we're answering it and filling the products to your needs so we can make sure we're helping you the most. Guess what guys? It only started a week ago. That means you don't have to wait. That means you don't have to wait. You can get in there and you can start right now, but go ahead and go to module two and to let us know what is it you're most struggling with. That way we know we can make sure we tailor the product to ..." You know what I mean? It's that same thing. "Guess what? It started two weeks go. Guess what? It started three weeks ago." Then whatever it is, let's say you have six modules and something, that first group through, they're creating it with you. You're making money. You're seeing what works and what doesn't and you're no longer just guessing, creating an entire product, spending all this time and actually wasting a lot of time and frankly probably money that you could have been getting that you didn't. Does that make sense? This is like one of like six lessons and I'm spending a ton of time on it because I just want you to know that. For the love, sell the stuff. Do a great job fulfilling on it. Don't be shady. Let them know that they're the first ones through. You know what I mean?... Let them know that they're going to be creating with you and then a really easy thing to do is let's say you go create module one. At the end of module one, let's say it's on a Saturday. Let's say you released module one on a Monday. Friday do a live Q and A call with everybody. Put the recordings back into the members area. That becomes a value-add. You can toss that in at the end of your stack. That lets you know what holes you didn't fill. That lets you know where the people are not able to understand or follow what it is you're actually doing. Does that make sense? Anyway, what is that? 18 minutes for number one? Let me go a little bit faster here, but I hope that makes sense though, okay? That's one of the biggest lessons I ever learned. Number two, here's the second lesson, let's say that you're hiring out support. Let's say you have a support person or you've got support people or whatever it is. Let's say it's someone who's not totally vested in what it is you're doing. Let's say it is and they just don't understand what your product is. One of the worst things that can happen is when someone starts to ask a front line support person about your product because they may not know about it. What I try to do, what I'm trying to do now is I'm trying to separate support where they are mostly transactional style questions, "Hey, I can't find my login. Hey, I didn't get my receipt. Hey, does this include this?" Right? It's more factual and transactional. I'm trying to leave support to do that stuff while I handle the question on my live Q and As about the actual products and how to use it and how to get the most out of it and how to go crush it. You know what I mean? I'm trying to create that split right there and there's really a few things that I've been doing. I got this awesome guy. I want to interview him so you guys can all meet him sometime. He's so cool. He's awesome. He's been going through and he's been taking a lot of the Q and A questions that I get, support questions that I get and he's making a knowledge base with the most common questions. I think we're using Freshdesk. He's creating a knowledge base with like the most questions and it's not a perfect process yet and it's not a perfect system. I know that and I apologize if some people have gotten confused or frustrated if there's something that's been weird in there. We're still making it better. It'll be awesome. Anyway, that's where the knowledge base is sitting and a lot of transactional questions, a lot of like what things come with what questions. All that stuff is I'm trying to separate that and put that to support and I'm trying to take the other questions about the product and how to use it, how to actually be successful with it. I'm trying to put those in a live Q and A that I'm going to be doing with this new info product starting January. I'm going to be doing that every single week live with a group of people. I'll share my screen and we'll go through stuff. I'll take those things and I'll put them back into the members area so that people know what's going on with there. You know what I mean? That's the plan. The reason why is because there's been a few times where much earlier support people who were with me ... This new guy I have is amazing. His name is Luke. Shout out to you, buddy. I want to introduce him to everybody sometime. He's been amazing. Anyway, very much earlier support people, they weren't as passionate about my stuff as I am, which you can expect. That's totally fine. They might make customers a little bit mad or whatever it is because they may not understand a strategy. That should be something that I handle, not the support person. Anyway, okay, that's kind of a long answer there. Here's another lesson, well, I was originally funnels on SalesFunnelBroker.com for $100. I think they're still out there right now, but that's been changed. I just want you to know that. When I originally was selling that stuff, there's a lot more stuff I had on there for sale for a hundred bucks also. When I was selling funnels, when I'm selling share funnels, things like that, and even with this other info product, when I was selling stuff for a hundred bucks, I did not like the customer that brought. That was way too intense of a product. A whole share funnel and how to set it up, that's way too intense to be selling for only a hundred bucks. That's holy crap. This is lesson number three. Lesson number three is more money equals a better customer. Now I can understand having smaller physical products on the front end of your value ladder. That's a lot cheaper. It's because it doesn't take as much to fulfill on that... Not nearly at all. It does not take nearly that much to fulfill on it. That's a hard thing to screw up. You know what I mean? Like a book or something where it's cheaper and smaller and it's self-explanatory. That's way easier for a customer, any kind of customer, to come through and actually understand. When I was selling stuff that was cheaper that should have frankly been more expensive, that brought a kind of customer that was a little bit more needy. Not that it's a bad thing, but there's a level of self-solverness. They are people who solve a lot of issues or problems on their own. Entrepreneurship is a self-solver kind of a game, right? If you're not in love with solving problems, you're probably not going to make a great entrepreneur. Does that make sense? It's a big deal. All this game is going from one problem set to the next problem set, to the next problem set. The reason why Russell Brunson sometimes doesn't listen to a lot of stuff or go to a lot of other events anymore, he doesn't go to a lot of other people's things anymore, he doesn't read a lot of other people's books, the reason why is because he's on a much higher level problem set, right? He's not trying to figure out how to go from zero to a million or 1 to 10 or even 10 to 100 anymore. He's trying to figure out how to go to a billion dollars. That really ups the kind of person he's trying to learn from. It's the exact same thing with this whole ... Look, more money you charge equals a better customer. I could dive into that a lot deeper for other things too and show some other examples, but I'm going to move on. First lesson, make money first and make the product with the customer. That's huge. Massive value bomb right there. Number two, the live Q and As should be ... Anyway, I wish I had been doing live Q and As about how the product works rather than leaving that to support. That was a dumb decision on my move. Support should be more transactional stuff and creating a knowledge base. Number three, when you charge more money, you get a better customer typically. Number four, I wish that I had first funnel hacked a really hot market and then created a new niche out of that hot market. A lot of times it gets confusing for people... Hey, go funnel hack someone... Model them totally. Then hacks for secrets comes out which says, "Hey, create a brand new opportunity. Totally new niche. Something that's never been created before." You're like, "Wait a second. What? Where does funnel hacking come in and where does creating a new niche come in?" Right? Luckily, I guessed right on my first product. Number one, you go find a really ridiculously bloody, bloody red ocean, right? Something where tons and tons of money is being spent. You find out what they're all doing, then you create a new niche out of one step out of that really hot market. That's one of the easiest ways to ensure a big win. I wish I had done that the first round I've been more purposeful with that, but I frankly wasn't. I just didn't know. Next lesson, nevermind. That one doesn't make sense. Here's the next one, this is going to sound self-explanatory as I say this, but I just didn't understand this either. I wish I had created traffic sources prior to launching my first info product. I didn't even test anything. Nothing... I talk a lot about Tim Ferriss' book The 4-Hour Workweek and it's simply because it's really good, but if you know the story of how he actually wrote that book and put it out there, it took him like a year of planning and preparation and writing. He would drip out a little bit of it here and drip out a little bit there and write little pieces here and there. He did it over the course of like a year. When he came up with the title, The 4-Hour Workweek, what he did is he brainstormed a ton of book title headlines, lots of ideas, a lot of book title ideas and he created an ad for each one of them and he threw them all out to the marketplace and he looked at which one had the highest click-through rate, which was The 4-Hour Workweek, and that's why he chose the title The 4-Hour Workweek. That's why that book is called that. He tested like crazy. He PR'd himself like crazy before he ever, ever launched the thing. He primed the pump way before he ever put it out there, which is awesome. I love how the product Software Secrets was launched. If you hadn't seen the Software Secrets launched, it's amazing. They made tons of money. It's amazing product. I personally use it. I personally bought it. I absolutely love Software Secrets. I think it's so cool, but what's cool about Software Secrets is that for almost a full year, in fact it might have been a full year, they had this podcast where all they did was document the creation of the product. They included their customer in the actual creation of the product. Now when there was this new feature that popped out, they said, "Oh yeah. You guys remember the story behind this feature?" Then they talk about it, right? That's cool because when they actually launched the thing, now they know the stories behind how hard it was to create this thing and the trial and challenge behind this one over here. It's cool because they brought us on the journey. They basically were selling everybody before they actually sold the thing and that's why they did it. That's how they did it. I wished that I had done that before. I wished that I had created pressure and traffic sources prior to actually launching the product. Oh my gosh... Guys, if you can make the event of you launching the product feel like an event, it's like one of the easiest ways to ensure success with this whole thing. Anyway, I have been talking like crazy and I know this is kind of a long podcast. The last few have been kind of long, but I'm just excited to share a with you guys a few of these things that have been going on my head. Anyways, if you're making a product, you're making something that's good, that's ... It could be the first one. It could be something that's also maybe not even your first one. Maybe it could be whatever it is you're about to launch something or you've already launched it, think through ... Okay. I'm just going to recap these lessons real quick. There's one, two, three, four, about five things here. Number one, figure out again how you can actually make money before you start creating your thing. That's going to ease your pain like crazy because the guess work's not going to be on you. The market will tell you what it wants you to create, right? I just went over that. You don't have that inside of you of really knowing what it is to create. You got to ask the market. You might as well get paid while you do it and you can. Start selling before it's ready. That's number one. Number two, separate what support's roles are with your roles. Your role is to sell the thing, make it awesome, help people learn how to use it, help people learn how to consume it. Support's roles in my opinion is more transactional. You know what I mean? It's more let's make a knowledge base. Let's do the things. Let's answer the questions you're answering all the time, Steven. Let's answer all the questions. You know what I mean? It's that kind of stuff and again I'm going to introduce you to a cool guy here shortly. Stuff starts to roll out with this thing. The third thing, charge more money. More money equals a better customer typically. More money typically equals someone who's willing to take more action. If someone spends more money, usually they're willing to do what you say rather than blame random stupid crap on you that it's not your fault, rather than just their own fault for not actually taking action. You know what I mean? Anyway, more money usually equals a better customer. Fourth lesson, find the hot product where lots of money is, then take one step out of that as you create a new niche, right? Don't just create something new willy-nilly. Find out what's actually selling before and go create something new from it. Then the fifth and final thing is create some pressure before you start to sell something. Find the traffic sources... Do some testing. Figure out what is actually selling. Your job is to sell. Just sell. Don't worry about stupid stuff like business cards or office space. That stuff doesn't matter. Sell, sell, sell, sell, sell. Sell for a while and prove what the market wants, then we can kind of automate stuff because the market told you what it wants. Anyway, I've been talking a long time. That was a freaking 30 minute podcast and I'm sorry that it went that long, but honestly, I just hope that you understand more of like ... Gosh, like so many headaches. I can't even tell you how many headaches would have been relieved if I had just done this. I mean this is over the course of like two years of me learning that. Okay? I hope that that 30 minutes cut down two years of you learning how to do this stuff. You might even be amazing at selling that stuff and I hope that you and you probably are, but just the way you structure stuff with your support, with all the different things, all the different pieces, just know that like is ... Those are for me the five huge lessons when launching an info product or products in general. When it comes to selling it, just ... It eases the pain like crazy. I kind of jumped into a lot of that stuff too with our last fad event and it went really great, but anyway. I'm excited to launch this thing. I think it'd be great. I've got a lot more structure in place this time as far as the business wise goes, which usually I don't care as much about, but I'm trying to take you to a lot of the lessons I learned for the first info product. I'm excited to launch it. It'll be early January. Anyway, it's going to be awesome. Anyways, get out there. Launch stuff. Just sell stuff and I'm excited for you and what you're launching. It's cool to hear all the stories. I love when you guys reach out and share with me what you guys got from these things too. It's really fun. Anyway, you guys are all awesome. Get out there... Create products... Put stuff out there... Time is a ticking... Don't waste it. I'll talk to you later. Bye. Thanks for listening to Sales Funnel Radio. Please remember to subscribe and leave feedback. Want to get one of today's best internet sales funnel for free? Go to SalesFunnelBroker.com/freefunnels to download your prebuilt sales funnels today.

It's a bird!  It's a plane!  It's Keep It Weird! This week we are talking about SUPER HUMAN POWERS!  Real life X-Men, Aquamen, and Daredevils!  Do humans have the abilities that we see throughout comic books?  Is it a mutation that they are born with or did they learn to be "freaks?"  What can they teach us about the human body?  And more importantly, what can they teach us about the human mind? Telekinesis, Spontaneous Human Combustion, Human Echolocation, The Ice Man, Sea Nomads, a guy who sticks WHAT- WHERE? and so much more.  Come one, come all, you will NOT believe your ears!

Guest: Bill Deane, Investigative Journalist, speaker, and best selling author of "Smooth Criminal, a One Man American Crime Wave." Bill's best-selling book exposes the consequences of our government freeing prisoners to carry out dangerous assignments. His expertise includes criminal behaviors, law enforcement (CIA, FBI, police, Justice Department), and the consequences of extreme secrecy (innocent American citizens's lives ruined). Bill is a professional on-air broadcaster, capable of telling a vital story in an info-tainment manner. A former major market anchor, news director, and network news assignment editor, Bill is an excellent radio guest. He is currently speaking on broadcast news history. You are also invited to check Bill's blog: www.OurMissingNews.com for daily updates that go beyond the What/Where to get into the How/Why. Bill Deane, Investigative Reporter Expert Will discuss.......•The CIA and its relationship with other law enforcement agencies, such as the FBI, local police, and the Justice Department •The invisible government •Why we aren't getting the real news •Ten ways to identify a con artist •Ten ways to avoid theft and robbery. Bill Deane Credentials•Investigative journalist, IRE •30 years as a network news assignment editor •major market news anchor and news director •demographic researcher •public speaker, national narrations and voiceovers •top 40 DJ •speech teacher •radio and TV producer of 7-hour 600 slide, 40 movie presentation •writer, author of one of this year's best sellers, Smooth Criminal, a One Man American Crime Wave.Please SUBSCRIBE!!!! If you like this show you can find more just like it in The Opperman Report Members Section: http://www.oppermanreport.com/members/ Please support our SPONSORS: Pacific West Bamboohttp://www.pacificwestbamboo.com/ New World Mexican Womenhttp://handcrafted-ethnic-jewelry.com/new-world-mexican-women/ Straw Man!http://www.strawmanmusic.com/ Opperman Investigations Inchttp://www.emailrevealer.com/ You can have your business or web site promoted for as little at $25 per week. Or if you enjoyed our show and would like to support our efforts please make a PayPal donation OppermanReport@Gmail.comThis show is part of the Spreaker Prime Network, if you are interested in advertising on this podcast, contact us at https://www.spreaker.com/show/1198501/advertisement

What & Where is your Conscience?