Podcasts about what yeah

In this episode we discuss Stone Cold Steve Austin who could be set for an imminent return, it's reported he is expected to put over a younger star, could we get LA Knight and Stone Cold in a WHAT/YEAH standoff? Maybe at SummerSlam? We also discuss a backstage altercation after the main event of WWE RAW between Seth Rollins, Kevin Owens, Sami Zayn and Judgement Day - what exactly went down & why? CM Punk's pitch to participate in the Blood & Guts match is REJECTED, Warner Bros Discovery weigh in on declining AEW Collision ratings, Matt Cardona signs with MLW whilst Colt Cabana makes a return to AEW after several months, We also talk about recent AEW Releases, including that of Brian Pillman Jr, R-Truth returning from injury, Undertaker staring down a shark and MORE! Our full podcast can be found anywhere you get your podcasts and we are hosted on: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://anchor.fm/A2theK⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ CHECK OUT OUR MERCH ON PROWRESTLINGTEES! Pro Wrestling Tees: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://prowrestlingtees.com/a2thekwrestling⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Teespring: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://teespring.com/stores/a2thekwrestling⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ COME SAY HI! Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/a2thekwrestling/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ TikTok: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.tiktok.com/@a2thekwrestling ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Twitter: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://twitter.com/A2theKWrestling⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Facebook: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.facebook.com/a2thekwrestling/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ And make sure you subscribe to our YouTube channel! YouTube: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/a2thekwrestling⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ The A2theK Wrestling Show is a weekly show full of interviews, news, previews & reviews! We also feature fun segments such as top 10 best & worst lists, what if scenarios & more! #wwe #aew #wrestlingnews Every week, we'll be taking a deep dive into the latest happenings in the WWE, AEW, ROH, Impact Wrestling & beyond!

In today's episode of Welcome to Cloundlandia, we explore the concept of existing in multiple zones simultaneously, moving beyond the binary and discovering a third space - the Free Zone.   SHOW HIGHLIGHTS Discover the power of existing in multiple zones simultaneously, such as the Free Zone, where you can mine your thoughts and experiences for the most fulfilling outcomes. Embrace your inner world and learn how dedicating time to your internal realms, like "Deanlandia," can shape and enhance your external experiences. Pursue the perfect life by focusing on your unique abilities and playing life like a game, constantly adapting and exploring new opportunities. Consider the changing ideas of success over the last 28 years and how the most successful individuals have achieved their goals. Explore the fascinating connections between technology and dog ownership, as well as the potential for collaboration between humans and animals. Apply the principles of playing life like a game to create even more collaborations between humans and animals. Claim your internal realms to open up new territories of collaboration, using tools like the 'who finder' and vision capability to reach assets. Reclaim your internal world and use it as a new territory to be explored and mined for the best resources and outcomes, without others having to know. Take inspiration from Shakespeare in creating your own projects and claiming your 'andia' to open up new opportunities and experiences. Remember the importance of taking action to achieve success, rather than just believing in it, and use that mindset to pursue your perfect life. Links: WelcomeToCloudlandia.com StrategicCoach.com DeanJackson.com ListingAgentLifestyle.com TRANSCRIPT Dean Jackson Mr Sullivan. Dan Sullivan Ah, mr Jackson, Welcome to the Cloudlandia. Yes yes, But actually we're movable folks, you and I. Dean Jackson We really are. Dan Sullivan And sometimes we operate focused on the mainland, that's true, and then other times we are involved in and focused on called landia, that's true. But I've discovered a third zone, me too. Yes, it's not binary, it's try bin, try, try bear. Dean Jackson Try banger. Dan Sullivan It's try, try, nery. You know, try, nery, and what's? yeah, because my feeling, feeling is that the that most folks are operating simultaneously, trying to integrate their mainland activities And, at the same time, taking advantage of Cloudlandia capabilities, that's true, and they don't have any space in between, which I call the, which, using coach language, i call the free zone. Dean Jackson Okay, i like this. I like where this is going, because it's very familiar with the stock life and having. Dan Sullivan Isn't that strange. Isn't that strange that we should be thinking along the same lines. Dean Jackson Yeah. Dan Sullivan But not really. No, my, you know. Dean Jackson I've been and I mentioned to the couple of times ago this idea of discovering Deanlandia Thinking about my thinking and that I realized I spend a disproportionate amount of time in Cloudlandia. If you think about the, if you include, like consuming content and watching, you know, netflix, or watching all those things as Cloudlandia activity, right, like taking in digital form, consuming something else, seeking dopamine from external sources, that that I'm lumping under the whole you know Cloudlandia thing, screen sucking, as our friend Ned Hololow would call it, and what I've realized. I've made a conscious effort and shifted the balance over the last couple of weeks here on my. my mantra has been less screen time, more Dean time. And I've been taking time to really think about my thinking And you know I've mentioned it to you Last time we spoke that you, you know, i was all stuck in my mind that when you mentioned, when you turned off, you know, tv and Netflix and all that stuff you, you made, you came to the realization that what's going on in your mind is better than what's coming out of the screen, right, basically? That there's a more fulfilling, enriching game going on inside your head than coming out of the screen right, and that was something that's always stuck with me. But I really get it now kind of on a different level, having really dedicated the last couple of weeks to shifting that balance. Dean Jackson Yeah. Dan Sullivan Well, dean, i'll use your term, dean Landia has some advantages. One is that it's a complete prezone, because no one else knows what's going on? Nobody else knows what's going on, And Dean said until he tells you. Dean Jackson Likewise for Dan Landia. I mean, that's really the great thing, right, Everybody has their own. You've got Dan Landia And that's the inner world that we. I mean it's the dominant thing. When you really think about how much time and how much of our external experience is dependent on what we're you know, what we're doing in in Deanlandia or Danlandia, that's shaping everything. Dan Sullivan Yeah, and one of the things that's really interesting about that, because you're you're the only one who has a unique ability of being Dean in Deanlandia. You know it's pretty. Yeah, it's a complete. We just auditioned and accepted another associate coach, and just last last, this past week in Chicago, and and and Ben Laws, who's a member of the Free Zone. He came up about six, seven months ago and, and you know, usually more because they have to go through an audition. And the way it works is, you know, there's a conversation that develops with someone who indicates that they might be interested in being one of our associate coaches, so he makes number 16 that we have and and we don't. You know, we don't add them at a fast pace, you know, i think the last right maybe three or four years, because we really want to check out first of all. You know we do some due diligence and we talk to referrals that the person gets to us and I said you know and and you know, is this person someone who actually enjoys coaching? you know, seems to be coach, like in their way of operating and you know so we check that out and then we check out you know how the family situation is, the home situation, because it's gonna require, you know, more travel and it's commitment. You know we we're not looking for a one-year associate coach, where I mean, are you know the, the average length of the? if we add the previous the, you know the existing 16 coaches, on average they've got 16 years, 16, 17 years coaching you know and you know some of them are year 28 27 and so you know we wanted to. You know we want it to be timeless, we wanted you know, and and because the program is always developing so there's always new things and they can. You know, with skill and with achievement they can jump from one level you know we just brought up five to the ten times level and, and it's our biggest place yours yeah, yeah, and it's our biggest multiplier in the coach. When you think about it, you know, you know. I mean I coach right now. I coach maybe you know 15% of the clients. The other 85% are coached by the other coaches you know, and they're, they're all coaching. People have written checks to strategic coach right yeah and and the other thing is, i've never seen one of them coach you've never sat in on. Dean Jackson I remember you saying that you don't sit in on the session or you're not and you know I've actually never been. Dan Sullivan I've never been you know I've never been in the room or on a zoom call when they're, when they're coaching, and so what happens? they get to the ultimate moment before you know, before it's yes or no, and and that we have an audition panel of coach, coach clients, who have all trained in the role of being a difficult client, workshop client ah after observation many expert oh no, we're. We're completely familiar with the subject of difficult yeah that's what. I mean after observation yeah, workshop, and each of them sort of masters the role, and they have a series. Usually there are a series of questions or there are series of challenges, and the best way to get them difficult is to turn everybody into an extreme fact finder. I don't, i don't understand what you're saying there. You know? could you, you know? could you give you know? can you, you know? can you explain that a little bit more? I'm not quite getting that chip now and so anyway, and launch ratio, he passed with playing colors, you know, and he's, he's in, but he had auditioned three years ago and we've been turning down we just said, we don't think you're ready yet, okay, we just oh wow yeah, he was only three years, and he was only three years in the program, so right, you know he, you know, i mean he, he just had basic toilet training down, but he didn't have it advanced right now we're now. We're looking for volume and velocity yeah, right, exactly and accuracy well, that's exciting. Dean Jackson I mean, that's a good insight into you know how that that process works. Dan Sullivan But the thing and I want to bring it back to your comment of Dean Landia and because usually you know my role is to go in and say good luck, you know, and everything like- that but. I said that that's stupid. We're not looking for luck, right, right right. We're looking for confidence and capability, you know. And so I went in and I said, ben, be yourself. And I had a huge impact on me afterwards, you know, when the verdict was in and there was a pizza and champagne celebration in the cafe. I went up to him and he said that had a huge impact on me and I said, yeah, but being yourself is is the first free zone, hmm. I like that thought that it's true. There's no competition, no one who can possibly compete at being you yeah, yeah you know, and so, anyway, he and then we, he brought it up, i brought it up and we were in the free zone workshop the next day. This is Wednesday, the free zone was on Thursday. Live, you know, we had actual, live human beings in a physical room and it came up as a topic and it went on for about 45 minutes and you know, and people said, yeah, yeah, be yourself. You know, be yourself. You know Oscar Wilde, you know the sort of the outrageous English British, you know, writer, you know he was a novelist and wrote plays and commentator. Yeah, he had a line which I thought was halfway there. He said be yourself, everyone's taken that's the make of yeah, but that seems like a kind of negative approach to it. My, you know my, my approach, and I'm coming back to the Dean Landia idea and the Dan Landia idea. I'm coming back and I'm saying be yourself, because the territory is entirely you. Dean Jackson You just have to take ownership yes, it's pretty exciting when you start thinking like that, like when I love and then embracing, you know your I'm just thinking this morning in my journal about the, you know the uniqueness of our, both the internal things and the external advantages that we have. Like I was thinking about the element of a perfect life. That was a concept that I've been. You know, 25 years ago we did this exercise of. I know I'm being successful when, when I created this program with Thomas Leonard and you know the, i've been really thinking about these, the elements here of a perfect life, and you know it comes down to, i love, like bedrock things, things that are, you know, universal, contextual rocks that, if you look at, we're all, all the elements that go into creating a perfect life. Our time, where it's, you know that's we're all born into, that it's here, whether we before we were here, it's gonna be here after, but it's one element that we're all working within the construct of the speed of reality 60 minutes we're born and the game is already going you think about it as a? video game. Is we're joining the game in process, right, it's already been yeah going on. Then the next level is what I encompass as me or you. You know you've got everything that is distinctly weird. It's strip you naked, put you on a deserted island. That's the everything that you have right now. Is you so that's? and some of those things are factory settings that you can't really change like your. You're a male. Your IQ, your, your genetic health, your situation, you know all of those you're, you know your brain power, you know, yeah, your brain power, and I think that there is an advantage you can't deny. You say yourself life's not fair. It's not fair that some people are born with super high IQs, super physical strength, super genetic, you know health, makeup, and others are born with, you know, other with challenges, in that sometimes people are born with mental disabilities or physical disabilities or all of the things. But when you do an assessment, if you're kind of pushing the reset button on the game and I love your idea of 25 year framework, so I 25 year terms yeah, that you end up with a you know every thing, if we're joining the game in progress, if you're kind of pushing the reset button now you just turned 79 years old, you had a reset in, you know 75 and you kind of make the, the rules up as you go, because that's the great thing about it everything is made up, like you say, and the. But if you do an assessment at any point, if we just kind of do an inventory of what are my you know me advantages that I have right now, if I were just to say, and I think that's all of your, all of the knowledge, all of your physical situation right now, all of those things are what you're left with. And then the next is the environment, which is all of the settings, all of the external things. Like an environment is where you are in the game. If you're born into rural China, that's a different environment than being born in North America or being born in Canada. You've got a moving sidewalk advantage that you're in the mix. You've got geography on your side, you've got the economy. So all of that stuff is an environmental thing that you can change. This is part of the thing is that anytime we could up and move to rural China if you wanted to or change your environment that's where you are thinking comes in with the immigrant thinking. You're thinking where you're leaving everything behind, and that's kind of this thought is where would be the best environment for what you want for this next 25 years? if you're going to set up the plan there, then the next is people. that there's all the people that are involved and that's distinct from your environment, and who you choose to collaborate with. cooperate with, you know, co-habitate with. Some of them are your family, that you're assigned when you come into the game. Dan Sullivan But then there are other Already pre-assigned. Dean Jackson Actually, that's exactly right, pre-assigned, that's exactly right. And then money is the final element, and I think that the thing becomes taking your imagine. My visual metaphor for it is this continuous runway game like Guitar Hero or something, where it's just constantly coming at you at the speed of 60 minutes per hour and you get to move the joystick into whatever environment where you're going to allocate that time and in what environment, with what people, and those environments are either contributing to money or taking away from you or using money to participate in that part of the environment, or you're in an environment that's making money, and so those five elements of the game are a really fun thing. Dan Sullivan And what you just said is true for everyone. Dean Jackson Yes, that's exact, and that's why the framework. Dan Sullivan The truth. the whole thing is how you play the game. And let's take poker, for example. The best poker players aren't the ones who get an unusual run of good cards. Right, I mean, over the course of, let's say, 50 games, they didn't get any better cards than anybody else did. Dean Jackson No, you're absolutely right. It's so funny. That's really the And those are situations. That's a perfect example that this really is. You're playing it like a game and I wanted to, and that was made the distinction of A perfect life, not D perfect life, because A perfect life acknowledges that there are 8 billion versions of it. Everybody is in possession of one life, that they get to play the game and pursue a perfect for them life. Dean Jackson Yeah. Dean Jackson That's a fun game. Dan Sullivan Yeah, someone one of the FreeZone participants on Thursday just casually was talking, then dropped the line. perfect, i said whoa, whoa whoa, whoa, whoa, perfect, perfect, So right, okay, so I'm going to give you an easy approach to perfection, okay, and this is what I've done. Just declare yourself perfect. Yeah, just say I'm perfect. Now, how am I going to expand that over the next 90 days? Right, yeah. And it takes them right back to unique ability, because that's the only dynamic capability that we have is that we have a unique ability that nobody has, which is a more. Which is a more coach, which is a more coachified way of talking about. You have a unique ability. That's where the perfection is, but you haven't fully explored all the different ways that you can be more conscious of that, and you haven't explored all the ways in which it can move into greater capabilities and impact in the world. Dean Jackson Yeah, and I guess, that's a guess. Dan Sullivan So that's what Dean Landy is. Dean has a unique ability, unique to him, and I think I passed on to you a comment that says a psychologist is doing a study on the ultimate paper on outliers And he was very, very keenly interested in talking to me, because the words gone around about strategic coach and the whole philosophy of strategic coach is based, and the practice of strategic coach is based on a concept called unique ability. And the question to me was what do unique people have in common? And I said, well, nothing, yeah. Dean Jackson What do unique people have in common? Dan Sullivan Nothing. Dean Jackson That's the absolute truth, isn't it? Yeah? Dan Sullivan I mean I said I've looked the term up in the dictionary and it's a thing unto itself and there's no similarity to it with anything else. I mean unique either means what it means or it doesn't mean anything. But you can't have a unique ability cult. Dean Jackson I think you're right. The interesting thing is, there's always this room for improvement. There's always room for progress And I think that if I think about perfection as something being perfect, as an asymptotic curve that continues to prove I never levels out, is I like some of these definitions, like I'm a big entomologist too similar to you in looking at? I look at the definitions of things right, and I think that what's perfect is, as an adjective, having all the required or desirable elements, qualities or characteristics, as good as it is possible to be. My favorite one is highly suitable for someone or something Exactly right. There's always this thing that we always have just like a horizon, we always have an opportunity to move forward, and I think that that, but it's nice to be able to think that. Dan Sullivan Yeah, well, i think, the wildcard. There's a couple of wildcard factors here. One wildcard factor is that we live in the realm of time. Okay, Yeah. And time's always moving on? Yeah, and as it moves on, things change You know, Yeah, at least they change in terms of our awareness. you know that we're aware of. Gee, that's something new, you know and everything. And the thing is that there's a high premium here on adaptability, of saying, well, this is the perfect approach here, but you know, next week it might not be. Dean Jackson And being. This is where being alert, curious, all of those things are. Yeah, i was looking back at the last 25 years and I was actually thinking like I'd like round things. I'm moving to where, you know, i'm three years away from being 60, and that will be a 25-year. You know, from 2000 was when I kind of started that 25-year vision, you know, and I would tell it now that I've got three years to get to 60, and then 25 years from there will take me to 85, right, and But I look at what's happened. You know that's 28 years right now, kind of looking forward there, and I think of them as academic years. So you know, 28 seasons kind of thing or whatever. I think about them starting in September. But the I think I was really thinking this morning, think about all the things that have changed in that 28 years from 1996 to, you know, to now, and the richest people in the world right now none of them were even doing what they're doing to get to that point 28 years ago. Dan Sullivan Yeah, and that wouldn't, there was no. Dean Jackson There was no Google, there was no Facebook there was no YouTube. Dan Sullivan But even if you take Berkshire Hathaway, which is outside of its technological realm, i mean Warren Buffett will tell you that all of his money, you know he's in his, approaching his mid-90s now and all of his money's really been made, you know, recently. Dean Jackson Yeah. Dean Jackson Yeah, and isn't that? I mean you think about that Warren Buffett was? He was the richest guy in the world or among them. Then, you know, 28 years ago, that's just So, it was Bill Gates, and you know, you think about some of those, the OG ones, but you think about how much, like the internet was just a baby in the United States And brand new. Yeah, You know, you see that My favorite is seeing that. You know Brian Gumbel and Katie Couric clip of them discussing what is the internet. Dan Sullivan You know, yeah well, and what's this thing dot com? you know? right, exactly. Yeah, what's a, what's hello, What Yeah well, i mean, do you have a clue? and these are, you know, these are people in the middle of the news media, you know. I mean yeah and yeah I mean and, and you know they're at and they're in New York City. You know they're right in the Center of one of the world's great plugged in cities. You know, and they're wondering there was. So, you know, i mean, it's really interesting. Just a little point about that. I had just been, you know, you know, doing podcasts with Mike Kenix and Peter Diamadas and Both of them said they made a statement similar to Everybody now is paying attention to AI. Okay, yeah, that's the first part. The second part was I was in London for a whole week and I had a whole event all day with, you know, 100 strategic coach clients, and The only reason anybody was talking about the AI was that Evan Ryan happened to be in UK at that time and I invited to come for the day and I had him come in and And everybody wanted to know what this was. You know, and, and I was reading the. You know London is very rich with newspapers and, yeah, i, you know I was reading the tele every day, the telegraph and. Nobody, nobody was talking about AI. And I, you know, and I said, and I said this is London, another globally plugged in city. You know, you know. I mean you know on a par with New York. And I said, you know, i bet, if I, if, if I go to Africa and visit all the capital cities of Africa, i bet they're not talking about AI, you know right and yeah, yeah. So you know, I mean we're very, very biased towards what, what we're involved in. We're very, very biased towards what we're excited about you know, and everything like that, but that's Not being in your own India, you know. Dean Jackson I mean, i find your own private India Yeah yeah, yeah yeah, have you taken ownership of your India yet? Dan Sullivan Yeah, you know you gotta, you gotta register it. There's like the land rush, you know you got. Dean Jackson Your grandfather, did you? nobody's Just got a claim. Dan Sullivan I think I think you're hitting on something very, very fundamental Which I'm suspecting is very Recent in human history. Okay, and by recent I don't mean, you know, the last 10 years, i mean the last 400 years, and the reason I say 400 Is because I was watching a YouTube video. There's a author who's dead now I think he died last year, in his 90s by the name of Harold Bloom, a professor at Yale, and His specialty was Shakespeare. I mean, he was considered the Foremost expert and commentator on Shakespeare in history. No one, no one, has written about, spoken about Shakespeare more. And Shakespeare, for Harold boom, shakespeare is the. He has a book, is a huge book. You know, it's a big, thick book and It's called Shakespeare, the invention, the invention of human. And He, you know he makes his case. He's, you know he's got all sorts of convincing arguments and everything like that. But he said Shakespeare was the first writer of any kind, the first dramatist of any kind Who, on stage and of course in the writing, but on stage has characters talking to themselves. And He said it's the first one. Yeah, we've never seen. He said I've. You know, i've explored all the stories and all the you know The religions and everything, and he's the first. He's the first character, but it's not just one character. He created about 25 different characters who do this and And they talk to themselves, they have conversations with themselves, and he said there's a crossover and That the modern world really exists when people started talking to themselves in the ancient world before they did. Because now you're thinking about your thinking and You're now reflecting on it and sharing it with the audience. Who the character doesn't know is there. You know he thinks he's alone, but there's, yeah you know, there's a thousand people watching this take place, but he says it's also the birth of personality and he says you Prior, prior to Shakespeare. You don't get these really incredible personalities, you know, like Macbeth, hamlet and Yeah yeah, you know, shia I like, and Iago and all these amazing, and they're complete universes in themselves. I mean, there, there, they're not. They're not even in service of the pot. They just have this complete, almost endless depth to them. And And I Was pod raid that. And Freud, the you know, the famous psychiatrist rain around the 1900 was asked Who he thought was the greatest expert on human psychology, thinking that he would talk about someone in his field or someone he you know, and that he was going to be humble and Give credit to some other person. and he said well, you know, every time I think I'm on a completely new insight And it's like walking down a new road. About halfway down the road I see somebody walking back the other way and and And it's Shakespeare, and Shakespeare. Shakespeare says I thought it was promising, but not really. You know, i mean, take it for me. And I found that a very striking comment on Freud's perch. You know, i mean he was, he was, i mean he was totally into himself, i mean he was a character himself and he was a personality. But if you put bloom and Freud together, what he's saying is that this is very, very recent And it actually has to beginning with one thinker, and you know it has that has to begin in. So I think we're living in that That world and what you and I are doing today, we're saying, yeah, we didn't come up with the notion that there's a mainland and a cloud land via. You know, we, we simply put names to something that people were already dealing with. Yeah, but it's like it's binary, you know, it's like when you, when you, you know, reach the border for this border of the mainland, then you're in cloudlandia. Dean Jackson But what you're. Dan Sullivan What you're suggesting is Well. That may be true for most people, But in fact it's possible to create a third zone that lies between Mainland the mainland and cloudlandia. Dean Jackson That's the truth. I look at them as the layers there. You're absolutely right. Yeah, it's the one that. Yeah, it's the thing that puts it all together. Dan Sullivan Yeah, It's interesting, this thing of technology and the book, the quarterly book I'm writing. This is quarter 35, so this is book 35. And it's called Training Technology Like a Good Dog. Dean Jackson Okay. Dan Sullivan And it's really getting interesting and I'm doing some reading on the topic of. has anyone else made this connection between technology and dogs? And a really nice piece, an academic piece, pretty recent, it just sort of came out And it makes the claim that dogs are in fact humanity's first technology. And this is the thinking this is the thinking that it's the first time humans have taken another species. You know, have taken wolves and done a deal with them, you know. Basically, but there was no such thing as a dog until there was a collaboration between some canny wolf and some you know response of human being And together they created a new creature on the planet called dog you know, And so so when you look at, you know all the various shapes and sizes of, you know of dogs. I live in the beaches area of Toronto and there's a boardwalk about a two minutes away from our front door. And I go down and walk and boy, they sure come in a lot of different varieties but it's all a creative, but it's all a created species and did not pre exist before humans and another species did a collaboration And I says therefore how have we done with the technology called dogs? And we've done, we've been very creative. You know, we've been very creative. You know I mean it's, it's hard to you. Don't see them often, but sometimes you see a chihuahua down there. You know which are, you can hold in your hand. And I ran into one I had never seen two weeks ago, called a Leon burger. Okay, never heard of it And it's a German dog. Dean Jackson It's a St. Dan Sullivan Bernardish As a matter of fact, I think it's a it's bred from. it's a combination of putting the St Bernard and several other mountain work dogs together called. Leon burger, and it's arguably the biggest, the biggest of the breeds, and they weigh in at about a hundred and forty, five hundred and fifty pounds. They're a big, big dog and very, very tranquil, you know very tranquil, very, you know, very easy to get along with. And I said well, somebody you know, some back there, series of people says let's get a really, really little dog. You know one you can hold in your hand And you know. And and somebody else said you know what we do, we need a bigger dog. We need a bigger dog. But you have to realize, is you're, you're dealing with a technology that was actually created by human beings in the first place. That's amazing. Dean Jackson It was made. Dan Sullivan they're made up, Dogs are made up. Dean Jackson Yeah, i think you say. then what would be the next collaboration? that paved the way for us to collaborate with donkey and oxen. Dan Sullivan Yeah, Pigs cows, you know yeah yeah, but my feeling is the knowledge of developing dogs then led to you know, led to you know all sorts of you know domestication of animals, just spread very quickly after they cracked the code, after they cracked the code on dogs. Dean Jackson Think about that All the yeah, the golden age of carrier pigeons and falconry, and yeah, parrot, we opened up a whole new yeah. Dean Jackson Yeah, a whole new world. Yeah, yeah, i think you're on the front. Dan Sullivan There's a, there's a, there's a parallel weapon. Well, this is the only topic that Peter Diamandis has ever asked me to share at A360. Dean Jackson And. Dan Sullivan I wasn't asked to come on stage, i just did a little 10 minute riff. Dean Jackson Yeah. Dan Sullivan But I said, you know, i had 10 minute riff there And that was, you know, six, seven years ago And but it's, it's been one of those. It's been like a piece of food that gets caught in your teeth. You know, my tongue's been working away for the last five or six years And I've been saying, you know, i think there was something in that little riff I did there. Dean Jackson Yeah. Dan Sullivan That will be useful now when we talk about the technologies that we have right now, and what I've established in the book is that you don't get a good dog unless you establish completely and take responsibility that you're the owner. Okay, and my sense is the same thing with any technology, but especially the ones that were are you know are the hot numbers in Cloudlandia. Dean Jackson I love it. Dean Jackson I mean this is such great. I can't wait for that one to come out. Dan Sullivan Yeah, and you know the book. The book surprises you, i mean, as you go along. And. but the central thing is, i mean it's it's a bit of a diversion, because I'm talking about dogs and I'm really talking about you know, and I'm talking about technology, but it's actually a diversion. What I'm trying to emphasis is what does ownership mean? Are you a human being who's actually taken ownership of yourself, because it makes a lot easier than to be the owner of a dog and the owner of technology? if you've actually taken ownership of yourself And I think that Dean Lambea is a statement I've taken ownership of this territory. Dean Jackson I think that's right And all that that entails And that's the part of the best thing. If you did inherit a land or took ownership of it, part of the great joy is exploring the territory. That's really what Well, i'm putting yeah. Dan Sullivan And the other thing is putting your mark on it you know, Yeah. I think, that's amazing, Yeah, And the land rush. You know they had the homesteading act. It's an act of Congress. And then the various states would have land rushes, They would be territories and they had goal to be a state. Oklahoma is the very famous, you know the very famous example. And so it didn't have Oklahoma, the Oklahoma territory, which was borrowed from the Native Indians who were there. But they were Yeah, but they were very deficient on property lines, they were. They were very deficient on surveys, you know, and they said it was their land, but there was. They didn't register it, you know they didn't you know they didn't go to the, you know to the Native Territory Registry Office and register it And so got a certain date. You know the financial interests and the political interests in Oklahoma set that up And you have to get in agreement with the federal government that you're doing this. You know it's a teamwork thing but on a particular day you could line up at one border of Oklahoma. You couldn't do it from all four borders. You could do it And there was a gunshot or a cannon was off, and then you would go to claim a hundred, a hundred, i think it was a hundred acres hundred acres And you know, and you had to survey it in, you had to put the survey lines in and you had to put stakes, stakes along the way, and you, they had surveyors who were helpers and they would, you know, give the, you know from their understanding, the, you know the specific latitude and longitude. And then they had a registry office and these were movable registry offices because it was dynamic action for like a six month period And by the end of six months all the land was registered, all the land in the state was registered, and then you know, and then they invited people to move in to the potential new state of Oklahoma and once they got a population that was equal to the state of Rhode Island, they could petition for statehood, and that's how the state got created. Dean Jackson Isn't that interesting? I there was a great movie. There was a great movie called Far and Away and it was Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman and it told the story of them coming from Ireland to Oklahoma, to America, where they're giving away land. They saw flyers in the, you know, in England or in Ireland and decided that they would make the track over and start a new life in America. Yeah, it was a very fascinating thing And it's interesting how the Oklahoma Sooners the Sooners got their name because some of them, as you said, before the gun went off, they went in. Dean Jackson Sooner and already, already. Dan Sullivan Yeah, they yeah, that's why. Yeah, that's why the The name has stuck, you know and I'll go home, Yeah and because they were Too soon. they were too soon, Yeah that's right, Yeah that's they had already. They were already there and then they hit, but and then, if anybody else came, they Suddenly emerged and said no, no, we've staked up this territory, we've already done it, you know, and and Everything else you know, like Italy, i was on a bus in Italy and it was on the Amalfi coast, which is a spectacular, you know, spectacularly beautiful part. But we weren't on the coast, we were in a town and I was sitting the closest a passenger could be to the bus driver, so he was on Left, because they, they, they, they drive on the same way we do in the states, you know, on the same side of the road. And we came in a village where we came down, and then there was a perpendicular road, road we around didn't go through. You had to turn, and, and these client and the sign at the end clearly said Turn right the arrow was pointing right and the bus driver turned left and I said I think that's one way. The other way isn't? he says, mere suggestion. Dean Jackson I'm mere suggestion. That's funny. I love it. Dan Sullivan I love it and that that explains that. That explains Italians approach to all laws merely Yeah. Dean Jackson I thought, by the way, your Go ahead, you're about to talk about you're. Dan Sullivan You're about to talk about me, so I want to hear it fully, of course. Dean Jackson I saw your working genius. Dean Jackson Oh yeah through before. Dean Jackson That'd be a good No surprise, but no is identical. Dean Jackson Yes, we have identical working geniuses. Dean Jackson It's funny, yeah, but Useful. I mean, i've got a. 0:54:16 - Dan Sullivan I found it very useful and we're going to give it to all the free zoners You know we're going to give it you know like we do. We did that with the print, which I find useful in its own way and you know. So you know Strength finder. I find that useful. Cold be very useful. Dean Jackson And you know so. I mean they're like interesting. It would be, or be fascinating For, if everybody in free zone did the working genius and they got a way to combine, to show Like we could show the free zone environment with everybody's strength lit up. As You know, if you need Some particular working genius, these are all the free zone people that are. Dan Sullivan Well, it's really interesting because we just created a tool. Our tech team did the Website on the coach website that's called the who finder, and I like you and you go in and just list who you are. In terms of the kind of kinds of projects you like to work on and where your best abilities are And what your best solutions are and you just listed and anybody else can look at that and contact you. Dean Jackson I like that. I'm just good thinking. Something similar among Looking at the, the VCR assets as well vision capability and reach Assets to be able to be where people have Access, capacity or have need. Yeah, as a framework for collaboration, oh yeah. Dan Sullivan So I mean you could, you could just take the who finder and just expand it to include those categories with credit, with credit given to the originator. Dean Jackson But I think those that would really open up a lot of collaboration. Dean Jackson Yeah. Dan Sullivan Yeah, there's one. I don't know if you've met him because he's a Year into free zone. His name is Chad Jenkins. Have you met Chad Jenkins? I have met Chad. Dean Jackson Yeah, i met Chad and he was in Palm Beach, right. Dan Sullivan Yeah, yeah, and he's a multi-company man and in North Carolina. But he in one year has stripped out all of his Activities except collaborating with other people, mainly in free zone, mainly in free zone And then adding their capabilities to the companies that he owns. I like that. Dean Jackson Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, let's come up. Dan Sullivan Let's just sum up a little bit, three things that emerged and you're thinking, since we started at the Top of the previous hour, what let's come through? that Takes what you were already working on further Well. Dean Jackson I like this idea of You know, claiming your and via. I think It's a really interesting concept, but if you take it like a, a new territory to be explored and mined for all the best resources and outcomes, and I Think there's, i think there's really something to that of thinking of it as Property, you know well, I think the the interesting thing about it It isn't that other people have to know That have to know because they can't They can't right the whole point is do you claim it for yourself? Yeah, I Think that's amazing, like I think there's so much of our. That's really where we spend the most time, you know. I mean, it's there, the It's what shapes everything. You know so much of our life experience is our internal, whether we recognize it as that or not, but where our attention goes well, and I think the other thing that is very crucial about this, and And we didn't really get into that, but since That, i'll just use my own example. Dan Sullivan For a long time in my life I didn't claim my India. I didn't and, but I beat myself up For being there rather than being either in the mainland or in clockland. Dean Jackson Yeah right. Dan Sullivan The meantime I was in Dan Dan landia. I thought it was a waste of time that I you know why are you doing this? Dean Jackson I mean, this is wasted time, this is wasted effort you know why you, why What teachers and authorities kind of beat it out of you. He's always yeah, he's always got his head in the cloud. He's always down. Often, if he's often his own world. It's always beaten out of us as a negative thing. Dan Sullivan Well yeah, or or we tell other, we give other people permission to beat us up Yeah. Dean Jackson Well it's true, right, yeah, i mean. Dan Sullivan I mean it's interesting, I think that It's. It's a new world that we're in, but my, my sense is that it really starts, and I'm I feel good about description. You know that Professor Bloom gives that this really really started with Shakespeare. Shakespeare is the first human being to Open the door That this is available to you know, he's, he's available to you. What's really, really interesting, he comes across as a very tortured soul. So I think he only went halfway with this idea. And that is he says we, we need to worship Shakespeare by this. And I said, no, you got to use Shakespeare as a working example and then, in your own realm, do What he suggested you can do and I get the sense that that he didn't do that. He didn't do that. You know he, you know he turned it, you know he talks about it in almost like religious terms and I said, right, yeah, it's like. It's kind of like you have a retrieval dog and You shoot and you kill the duck. You know the duck fall and then you then you point to the pointer. You know you point to that, and instead of going and getting the duck, he looks your finger. Dean Jackson Oh, right Oh. Dan Sullivan Mighty one, Oh mighty one. I love it when you point you know yeah no, no, there's. There's a project here, You know. Go do what, go do what you're supposed to be doing. Dean Jackson Yeah, and I get it. Dan Sullivan Yeah, i got it feeling with I got a gold mine out of this and Yeah, claiming your andia that's the exactly right. Dean Jackson I got a gold mine out of this, and I got a gold mine out of this, and I did, yeah, claiming your andia. Dan Sullivan That's the exactly right. That's just the t-shirt that we're going to, that's right. I mean coffee cops bumper sticker soon. I mean there's the universe Emerging anyway, Same same time next week. Absolutely, i wouldn't miss it. Dean Jackson Alrighty, thanks, dan, okay. Okay, okay, dean.

In this episode, I would like you to meet Charlie Cohen. I met Charlie on LinkedIn and, after examining his profile, felt his story would be an interesting one to bring to Unstoppable Mindset. When we first spoke, Mr. Cohen said that he felt that he did not have an interesting story. I explained that I believed everyone has interesting and inspiring stories that only needed to be discovered. As you will see, Mr. Cohen does have a story worth hearing.   Charlie grew up in Sharon Massachusetts. He received his bachelor's degree from Purdue University and then went into sales. That's only the beginning of his story. I am going to leave it to Mr. Cohen to tell you about his history in his own words.   However, along the way he moved to Israel and married. He now owns his own sales company, and he also is the coach of an American Football team in his town.   There is much more to Charlie's story. He demonstrates an unstoppable drive in his work, his play activities and in his home life. He is inspirational and his story is very much worth your time to hear.     About the Guest: My Name is Charlie Cohen, or Chaim Matisyahu HaCohen. I live in a City located in Israel called Beit Shemish, married for 20 years with 6 wonderful children.  Currently I have my own sales company called Onbase Sales, working nights, during the day I teach at a Yeshiva and teach Talmud.  My hobbies include coaching football, where I am head coach of the Beit Shemish City team the Rebels in the American Football League in Israel.     I grew up in Sharon Massachusetts, graduated from Purdue University with a C+ average.  I was a social chairman for the Delta Tau Delta Fraternity which explains the C average.  With my C average and my experience being social at college, I knew that I was a born salesperson, getting my first job at Pitney Bowes Copiers, class of 93.  From Pitney Bowes rather than the straight path to Pharma Sales, I went to start ups, having the incredible experience founding one of the first cloud/SAAS companies in the World-Softscape.     In my spare time in my 20's I coached youth sports.  One year I had a life changing season taking a team who never won a game, beating a top team, with a girl leading the way as the captain, and heart of the team-on a boy's tackle team.  From the lessons learned from that season-I discovered my unique path and desire to attend a prestigious Torah Institution in Israel, not knowing how to read Hebrew and Aramaic.  My classmates were lifelong religious Jews who grew up reading and writing Hebrew, and 20 years old as well.  I was 32 newly married, many years behind, and had to support our starting family working in sales.   Today I have finished almost 75% of the Talmud, learning successfully under the greatest Torah teachers today, I still sell, and coach football and enjoy helping people, professionally and personally, and spiritually.    Ways to connect with Charlie:   https://www.linkedin.com/in/charles-cohen-onbase-sales-686498195/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CungggFSMT8       About the Host: Michael Hingson is a New York Times best-selling author, international lecturer, and Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe. Michael, blind since birth, survived the 9/11 attacks with the help of his guide dog Roselle. This story is the subject of his best-selling book, Thunder Dog.   Michael gives over 100 presentations around the world each year speaking to influential groups such as Exxon Mobile, AT&T, Federal Express, Scripps College, Rutgers University, Children's Hospital, and the American Red Cross just to name a few. He is Ambassador for the National Braille Literacy Campaign for the National Federation of the Blind and also serves as Ambassador for the American Humane Association's 2012 Hero Dog Awards.   https://michaelhingson.com https://www.facebook.com/michael.hingson.author.speaker/ https://twitter.com/mhingson https://www.youtube.com/user/mhingson https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelhingson/   accessiBe Links https://accessibe.com/ https://www.youtube.com/c/accessiBe https://www.linkedin.com/company/accessibe/mycompany/ https://www.facebook.com/accessibe/       Thanks for listening! Thanks so much for listening to our podcast! If you enjoyed this episode and think that others could benefit from listening, please share it using the social media buttons on this page. Do you have some feedback or questions about this episode? Leave a comment in the section below!   Subscribe to the podcast If you would like to get automatic updates of new podcast episodes, you can subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts or Stitcher. You can also subscribe in your favorite podcast app.   Leave us an Apple Podcasts review Ratings and reviews from our listeners are extremely valuable to us and greatly appreciated. They help our podcast rank higher on Apple Podcasts, which exposes our show to more awesome listeners like you. If you have a minute, please leave an honest review on Apple Podcasts.     Transcription Notes Michael Hingson  00:00 Access Cast and accessiBe Initiative presents Unstoppable Mindset. The podcast where inclusion, diversity and the unexpected meet. Hi, I'm Michael Hingson, Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe and the author of the number one New York Times bestselling book, Thunder dog, the story of a blind man, his guide dog and the triumph of trust. Thanks for joining me on my podcast as we explore our own blinding fears of inclusion unacceptance and our resistance to change. We will discover the idea that no matter the situation, or the people we encounter, our own fears, and prejudices often are our strongest barriers to moving forward. The unstoppable mindset podcast is sponsored by accessiBe, that's a c c e s s i  capital B e. Visit www.accessibe.com to learn how you can make your website accessible for persons with disabilities. And to help make the internet fully inclusive by the year 2025. Glad you dropped by we're happy to meet you and to have you here with us.   Michael Hingson  01:20 Well, hi, everyone. I'm Mike Hingson, and you are listening to unstoppable mindset. Today we have a guest who I find extremely fascinating for lots of reasons. And I'm going to tell a story on him a little bit here. When we first chatted, it was because we had met on LinkedIn. And he wasn't sure he had a story to tell or was in a position to really tell stories. And I kind of disagreed with that a little bit because my belief is that everyone has a story to tell. But you know what, as we progressed, and as I asked him to prepare for the podcast, turns out there are lots of stories. So Charlie Cohen, welcome to unstoppable mindset. Thank you very much for being here.   Charlie Cohen  02:03 Thank you. It's quite an honor.   Michael Hingson  02:05 Well, I'm I think the honor is all mine. And one of the things that I learned about Charlie, and we'll get to it is that Charlie now lives in Israel. He used to live in the US and in Massachusetts, and I'm anxious to hear all about that story. But let's start kind of at the beginning, maybe while you were over here and going through school and anything you want to tell us about growing up and we can proceed from there.   Charlie Cohen  02:33 Yeah, sure. I mean, I grew up in Sharon, Massachusetts. My parents got divorced when I was young, four. So I was like your typical, you know, 70s latchkey kid. I grew up in Shannon, which was a Jewish neighborhood. I lived in an area that wasn't so Jewish. And, you know, it's kind of an awkward kid, I think I would describe myself very not good at sports. As a kid growing up, my father brought me to this thing called out Lipski sports club for kids that were athletically challenged. And I quickly caught up. And no, by nine years old, I was decent in basketball. And, you know, in my school that was like, you know, it was saving me from being bullied and picked on, I found myself getting a lot of fights and picked on that as an awkward, easy target. I think, as a kid growing up. I was actually my mom got married to a wonderful man when I was 10. And he allowed my mother to convince me play football. And football, for me is a kid growing up that wonderful, wonderful things for me, because I had absolutely no confidence, you know, I just really did not feel good about who I was strong, was picked on as a kid, it bothered me tremendously and bullied. And I think football gave me a certain self esteem, and also allowed me to pick on bullies back. So as a practice that I'd get so those kids have been picking on me and I get to hit them. And I was like, there was a movie called The Waterboy. And so I think I kind of imagined myself back like that, like just letting all that rage go. And it was a good outlet for me. Yeah, like we're pretty standard. You know, I strive to be popular like everyone else watched all the movies. You know, I was prom king, which was a quite a surprisement, dorky, 10 year old kid to you know, go to the gym lifting weights being a footballer and, and getting to be prom king and going to college at Purdue University, which is a big school and it was in fraternity their social chairman, doing everything I could have a good time have fun. I was pretty much probably a c plus student, I had a motto which was, you can always retake a party that annoys you take a class but never retake a party. And that was kind of like my life and you know, growing up, trying to be an average, you know, the fun, whatever. I don't think it's too you know, nothing too spectacular. One thing I did do decently during that age Um, as I coached sports is kind of a hobby. So 18 years old, I coach, one of my first teams, I was also a camp counselor. And I was younger too. And I just My father was a coach myself, I'll excuse me was a coach, you know, the family around him were coaches. And I just really, really loved it. And so I started to at 18, and had some amount of fun with it. And just kind of continued.   Michael Hingson  05:22 I'm curious, you said, if I understood your right that you started doing basketball at like, nine and you impart did it to stop being bullied? Yeah, what what do you mean by that? Why did that happen?   Charlie Cohen  05:36 Why was a bully, you know, it looked back, you know, first of all bullying is, to me, it's one of the saddest things, you know, if there's one thing I could ever change in this world, is stop bullying all types of people. It's tremendously horrible. And, you know, kids are weak, you know, kids come off as weak or socially awkward or weak. They're easy targets. So I was just an easy target. And just that, click that plane. And you know, this gave you kind of like a way of being, quote, unquote, socially acceptable, God. And I think that's what it was. I was also I should mention, I was throughout Hebrew school, too. I went to Hebrew school, like an average kid. And I had some hard times in school. And you know, I worked very hard, you know, just not to fall behind in school and the Hebrew school on top of it, I was just the worst student there. And the self esteem problems and everything else. I was just a troubled kid in the class. And they asked me to leave, or I quit, depending on the ask, but I was actually thrown out of Hebrew school. So I was actually a reject from Temple Israel, something I'm very proud of today, because you never know you're thrown out of school.   Michael Hingson  06:43 Yeah, well, you never know how things change and how you evolve over time. Well, you went to Purdue so you spend time in Indiana. Yeah. So from from cold Massachusetts to cold, Indiana.   Charlie Cohen  06:57 Yeah. And that's where I lost the Boston accent. Like I was completely miss Charlie from Boston. And they said that the summer out there, an extra summer at Purdue, and I came home when I heard Hey, Charley, I had been Charlotte, how would it be? And I heard the accent. I heard it was gone. Boston accent   Michael Hingson  07:15 Yeah. So you don't do Paki a kind of Harvard Yard anymore?   Charlie Cohen  07:20 I haven't done it since my 20s You know, I stopped doing it just once you're here and it's over. Once you hear the accent, a little dry sound like that?   Michael Hingson  07:30 Yeah, well, it's okay. There's nothing wrong with having having those kinds of of accents either. There's nothing wrong with being proud of where you come from.   Charlie Cohen  07:39 That's true. You should be inclusive to all accents even Boston accents   Michael Hingson  07:42 as well. Yeah, there's nothing wrong with that my my memories of living in Winthrop for three years and being associated with Massachusetts for some other times around that are very fond. I loved being there and love the accent. And I always found sports fans in Massachusetts. Incredible. Oh, yeah. You know, the if, if the Sox lost the opening game of the season, you immediately heard wait till next year.   Charlie Cohen  08:12 I told my kids I was a big fan before 2004. And I don't care so much. But   Michael Hingson  08:18 yeah, it's it's a different world today. And I was just gonna say I wonder if people say that now since they've had a couple of, of successes in the 2000s. But, you know, nevertheless, they are they're very avid fans back there. And that's okay. It's it's fun.   Charlie Cohen  08:37 It is fun. It's a good healthy outlet. Yeah.   Michael Hingson  08:41 So you went to college and Purdue and all that. And then what did you do with your your life?   Charlie Cohen  08:46 Yeah, so I was a sales guy started off in sales and 93 went back to Massachusetts. After graduation, I took a job selling copiers with Pitney Bowes. And you know, the idea was to be a good pay your dues and get a pharmaceutical sales job, but, you know, get yourself a car, a nice, expensive car. And I traveled with a few different companies and found that wasn't for me and went to startups, which was surprised everyone because I was like, 1984 you know what, I did that. I love the creativity. I love the freedom. I love the honesty within. So I just fell from a salesperson. I just enjoyed it much better than a corporate gig.   Michael Hingson  09:23 Yeah. What? So what kind of startups Did you participate in? Or did you start up?   Charlie Cohen  09:29 Yeah, so I was in a whole bunch of you know, as a kid, I got into the unit. These guys introduced me to. I met some guys that were very into computers. You know, I don't want to stereotype but they needed a salesperson and I I needed someone who knew something about computers. And we made a really cool team and put young guys and they introduced me to email and internet and all this incredible stuff and like 93 or 94 and it bounced around. If you're trying to start a company. We work for companies on the side and I know had two brothers and a father. And we kind of hit it off. And I was getting, you know, I was working for one company that worked for another. And we developed a lot of business together. And they ended up hiring me as a deferred sales guy and in their side of the house and act in Massachusetts in 1984. And we ended up building probably one of the first cloud and SaaS companies in the world, which was really cool. was really that was   Michael Hingson  10:26 escape net softscape. Soft substrate rather not escaped.   Charlie Cohen  10:31 All right, yeah. So in what   Michael Hingson  10:32 in what did it do?   Charlie Cohen  10:34 So So basically, what happened, it was their software guys, they made real software that was working, you know, sold in boxes. And one company in the area asked them to build a database version of the old ones, the old days were flat file that was slow. And these guys wanted a nice, big, fast version of it. So they built this task pad calendar on a database. And we tried to capitalize and sell it, and no one really understood what it was and how to how to use it. And I figured out that you could use it for performance reviews. So you have a huge company, and you say you have 26,000 worldwide employees. And you know, why don't you use instead of paying Iron Mountain $10 and $50. For paper? Why don't you use us for $5, you have a database and query it and do all sorts of cool stuff. And you're like, wow, that's really neat. And no one at the time knew how to host a web server, they didn't know didn't know how to deal with routers, or firewalls or any of that stuff. So we would say, Hey, do you want us to host it for you until you're ready? And they say, Sure. So they pay us a few extra $1,000 to host it. And that's where we got the that's, that's it. That's how we had it. That's a cloud. That's our cloud SaaS company. Wow. Yeah. It's really cool. It's really, really cool.   Michael Hingson  11:47 So how long did you do that?   Charlie Cohen  11:49 So we were there. I was here for a few years, you know. And I kind of from there at the same time, or a little bit before that. I had a hobby and which I was a coach, Coach, I coached football or coach to the sports. And so we did that for three years. And what interfered with that was it's kind of like distorted the football thing. You know, the coach, Hey, you   Michael Hingson  12:12 gotta keep your priorities straight.   Charlie Cohen  12:14 Yeah, so my life and I had that I had an experience that really changed changed my life.   Michael Hingson  12:22 My brother in law is a contractor and Bill's homes, remodels, homes and so on. But as I said, you got to keep your priorities straight. In the winter. He lives in Sun Valley, Idaho, but for many years, in the winter, he would go over to France and was a licensed mountain ski guide in Europe. And so he took people and did off piste skiing. So as I said, you got to keep your priorities straight. And the winner, at least for Gary. Yeah, he doesn't. He doesn't do that anymore. But now he's talking about retiring. So there you go. That's awesome. So you, you, you coach football. Yeah. And obviously, that, that kept you busy. And that, that in a job probably kept you out of trouble.   Charlie Cohen  13:14 That was the idea. You know, I suppose my mom married a wonderful person. And he was always involved in sports and giving back and, you know, it was something he just did. And I always appreciated that and I love coaching. And it was a lot of fun. I got a call. Like, I think in 1995, from from from the Sharon, you know, head of the Pop Warner team asking me to coach saying that there's a team that never won a game, they give up 350 points a game, they never scored in the best play. It was it was a girl. And they said if I was a last resort, if I didn't take this team, they weren't playing this year. And I just thought it was so cool. So I said I'll do it as the best thing ever did. What happened? Well, the first thing I did is I had a coach named Jim, Jim Cummings. And it's actually his son JJ. It was is a big, I think a commander in the Navy. And he was actually featured. He was actually one of the people that did the Top Gun, I guess Tucker, came out. And he was one of the people you know, you know, being a consultant in terms of flying and trying to make the experience in movies real as possible. But he's the father, Mr. Cummings, and he was my coach and Pop Warner in high school. He was the line coach and the defensive coach. And first thing he did is he went to him and I said, Coach Cummings, he I know he retired. But I got a problem. I got a huge project and I need your coach, offense, our coach line, defensive, you have fun because he was never a logical Jonathan's. So he thought it was funny. And I said, I'll deal with the parents. I'll deal with all the stuff. And he said, Okay, I'll deal with you until we work together. And I worked with another person Steve Rabb who was a senior when I was a freshman. He's a great guy. He coached with us and we put together a hell of a coaching staff. And we really gave it. We really, really coached our brains out. We really worked hard for these kids. And it was incredible, you know. So we basically tried our hardest to turn this team around that we were losing games like 14, six and 21. Seven. We had a game against this town called Hopkinton. And which was like two Oh, and six teams. And these guys, these kids have never won a game because they coach and they even call it the toilet bowl. And, yeah, that's really not good, especially when you lose the game 14 to six. So we lost that game. And I was sad myself at the end of the game. I had them all come out, you know, in a circle around me. And I looked at their pants, nice yellow, bright yellow, I had them stick out their fingernails, and I checked their fingers and they're all clean. I touched their foreheads. They're all clean. And the parents all around us. And I said there's one good thing about this game is that your parents don't have to wash your uniforms for next game. That's what I said. And I also said that he lost this game not because that you're stinky, the worst team in the world, but because you have a combined heart of a field mouse, and that just came out of my mouth. But you know, I thought that was that just as I couldn't believe I said that you have the combined out of the field mouse and we're playing this team called North Attleboro and that that name sounds scary North Attleboro, and they were that good. This is like the perennial champions in Massachusetts at that time. And these teams are undefeated, they go to Orlando, and we're planning playing them. The week coming up. And I say to these guys, if you play like this next week, they're going to kill you. And you'll be lucky to go home with your parents. And I made them all promise me that they're going to play 110% And I don't care what the jersey is the Patriots jerseys, a Jets jerseys of the championships. I don't care who it is, you're going to play your guts out, and they will promise me that. We showed up that game against North   Michael Hingson  16:59 Attleboro. And the girl was still playing, I assume. Yeah,   Charlie Cohen  17:03 girls, fantastic, fantastic. I didn't I didn't pick on her during that game. You know, she was she's a fantastic player in person. And we won 13 to 12. We won 13 and 12 She scored two touchdowns. It was funny, you know this, they missed a field goal by an age when kid caught it. Ben Bradley who turned up being a veteran and I racked caught a ball fourth and when he hits times, like 10 years old, caught the ball fourth and one on his hip. You know to North Attleboro, puffiness ran into each other and ran into each other. And then Jesse ran for a touchdown. It was just like, ran out of a movie, ran out of a movie. And we went through to what was one of the greatest, you know, I'd say, before became, you know, this is one of the greatest days of my 20s Definitely, definitely a great experience winning that game blew me away, blew me out of the water. Wow.   Michael Hingson  17:53 You know, and it doesn't get any better than that. But that also proves the value of a coach by any standard, you know, that it's all about the coach, being able to really get the team to do the things that they're supposed to do. Yeah. And there's, there's not enough that you can possibly say about the value of really a good coach. And did kids tell you after that game, that your comment about the amount of heart they have? Did anyone say that that made a difference?   Charlie Cohen  18:25 No, I don't think you know, these are kids. You know. One of the coaches I wanted to grow today is the head coach of York, Maine at that small team. And she had she says, she's doing a great job. I think they got the semifinals. And I'm glad that she's doing well. She's a hell of a hell of a person back then. And her. And her grandfather was a great legend in Shannon as a basketball and someone I looked up to tremendously and copied as a coach, I had the honor to coach his grandchild was just incredible honor for that. But you know, what happened was this like, after that happened, all these movies, these movies came out, like the Mighty Ducks came out. Little Giants came out. And people kept on come up to me laughing at me saying you hear that movie? Ha ha, you're a Disney coach. I'm like, what to like, you know, girl, when it's like, you, you're like the real Disney coach. And everyone thought was funny. And and I thought and I guess, you know, it dawned on me. You know, it's like, the first time I think I ever really made the make, maybe Association and hearing the call of God in my life. Because, you know, I realized that winning that game is a miracle. Like all the things I mentioned about the kid catching it up first and one on his hip, you know, the two players running into each other and the fact that they played so great, perfect. I mean, I couldn't coach him that we couldn't coach a better game. I mean, you can count the errors and mistakes that we made as a team and as a coach in a Pop Warner game, you know, an amateur like, you know, talking, we coach professionally. And that's impossible. I'm not that smart. You know, we're not that good. We're not that we'll practice Just and I realized it was an open miracle for me that the odds of us winning that game, I could play 100 times you lose. And if we've lost 2114, it doesn't mean anything, I still would have been a great coach. And, and I really took it to heart, you know, the message of why God would interfere with the pop board game to make it win. And I think is what you said, there. If we'd lost 21, something, I think I would have told you it was in a great coach was a great team, this person did this dismiss, I wouldn't have accepted it. I think when I realized that the team one I had to accept there was a great coach and I had a gift. And I realized that God had orchestrated all that for me to take home that lesson. And then I wasn't a worthless person, I wasn't someone just, you know, she could drink in or having fun. And my life is a bit more meaningful than that. And that I should take myself a little bit more seriously because I could do some good in this world. And I think that's where it really started for me.   Michael Hingson  20:54 On the other side of it, or the other part of it is, you mentioned God interfering. And I kind of question God interfering in the game. Well, yeah, because was it that or was it you were finally listening to God. And I keep going back to the comment that you made about the amount of heart that they had, and whether they recognized it at the time. The point is that you struck a nerve. And you listen to God, who put those words, you know who, who gave you those words to use, and you had the choice to use them or not. And I think that the God gives us the opportunity and the ability to choose, and that's one of the greatest gifts that he's ever given us, which is the ability to choose, it's up to us as to whether we want to listen or not, I wish more people would really stop and listen to what God tells them. Well, you clearly did that. Look what happened? Yeah, it's   Charlie Cohen  21:55 interesting what you're saying, because I think if I look at myself, I think if I didn't have that, like, pat on the shoulder, look, you're the one you have to fix. If you're a great coach, you have value. I think without that knowledge that there's a value to me personally, I would never even think of of trying to hit my potential as a God fearing person. It just never occurred to me, why not go to the Kentucky Derby? Why not party? Why not have fun? Wouldn't does it matter if I hit my potential or not? I'm a good guy, it doesn't really matter. And, you know, all the speeches that you gave the gifts of football team and everything that came out, and that kind of came back on the full circle. And you know, I look at people, you know, I think that's the number one reason why people don't listen, it's because they think why should I try I can make a difference in this world and doesn't matter anyway. Yeah, I hope if someone hears this, they hear that, that just the biggest lie out there. It's not true. That people, you know, I certainly I believe this. And I've learned this that evil, evil exists only because there's a vacuum, that we don't achieve our potential. And when people don't achieve their goodness that they could do. That leaves the room for evil people to be successful in our place. And I think that that's, that's something I took to heart that if I have a potential for good to do good and be good, I'm going to do my best for God and my world. And everybody you know,   Michael Hingson  23:13 and that is all you can do. Right? As long as you know, you're doing your best you're trying as hard as you can. What more can can you or God ask for?   Charlie Cohen  23:23 I hope I hope I hope I'm doing I hope I'm making God proud. I hope that my ancestors proud I'm making everyone proud, you know, but yeah.   Michael Hingson  23:33 You know, you as long as you're doing your best, and you know you're doing your best. And that's the thing you can stop every day and think about did I do as good as I could today? Could I learn something from everything that happened today, there's nothing wrong with that. I wish more of us and I wish all of us would take a little bit more time to think about that every day. Because that thinking and that opening oneself up really does make a big difference. And in our lives, if we allow that to happen.   Charlie Cohen  24:05 A huge thing he was saying, I tell you, you know, I have a whole I coach today in Israel, the TerraForm within my city. And there's a huge lesson I learned with one of these kids that I that I you know back in that team. And that I realized something incredible that people perform where their self esteem is. So if I think I'm a loser, I behave like a loser. If I think a champion, I'll get myself up there. And then I realized that it's not going to change someone's opinion of themselves. I'll never change their, their their performance on the field. And it was an incredible thing to learn because I learned something about myself that if I thought of myself as nothing that why should we try, you know, one of these kids doing a drill and I'm like, Hey, I don't want to mention his name because he's a doctor today. You know, and you might listen to this. I don't want to mention his name as a kid. One of my favorite players, but he looks at me I say why don't you pick it up? Let's call him Joe Joe making up his day. Why don't you try a little harder? He goes, Why should I we're gonna lose anywhere on Saturday. And the whole team looks at this kid goes, well, he's right. And I was beside myself, you know, because we're working hard to turn that culture chaser ideas around. And this kid just basically just declares mutiny says, Why should we try? What's it matter? We're going to lose anyway, you know what I do it? And I'm like, Oh, my gosh, my season's over. So rather than lose my temper, I pulled them aside. And I said, you know, God, I've had it. We're going to talk about this now. Jojo, either, either on right, or you're right. But here's your take on it. You think you're doing a good job, and I'm nitpicking. I'm always on your case. What you do is never ever good enough. Is that right? goes no, go. Don't lie to me. Because yeah. So you basically excuse me being a nitpicker. He's doing a decent job. And I'm just really nothing like nothing he does is good enough. So he said, Is that how you feel? He says, yes. I said, Well, we both agree on one thing, what you're doing. But here's what we disagree. You think you're doing okay? Because this is your potential, you're hitting your potential. I think you're much greater than that. And therefore you're undershooting your potential. And the question is, is why don't I believe in you more than you believe do? And the kid was stud stopped? And then I couldn't. I said, whatever you want now, but it's your choice. Do you want to be great, or you're the average, if you're great, I'm with you. If you want to be averaged and go home, watch Bugs Bunny. But it's up to you now. And he says, I want to be great coach. I said, Okay, great. I put him back in a line, you know, the drill, and of course, 110% box on over. And I made a big deal about it that jumped up and down and shared and we made him a captain for the day. And it was it was a turning point individual. And I think that that lesson being brought to the whole team took that last game that I mentioned Hopkinton, to kind of get through to everybody. But it's a huge, it's a huge idea that why should I try? We're gonna lose any way the world is going to be destroyed. People are too powerful evils too big. And I think that that's that attitude that I find myself having to fight constantly like, it does matter. You never know if there is a God and He's listening. Who knows what person can make a difference? You know, you did you know, did you win the game? No, that came we lost that story we lost. And that's what the Hopkins Yeah, it took like three, four weeks the Hopkinton game where it's at the heart of the field most iconic, given that same speech after I saw it worked to every kid, except for the girl, girl, the girl I need to give that speech to. But I gave that speech to a lot of kids. And you know, I think we finally got the metrics that week. And you know, when we beat that team, it blew my mind. And even years later, it blew my mind. And it still does to this day, just I just shake my head and say that we   Michael Hingson  27:35 were talking about that. But you talked about Joe Joe and telling him to really live up to his potential. What happened with him? You said he became a doctor?   Charlie Cohen  27:43 Yeah, as a doctor. I don't know how he is in sports. But he's a doctor. Yeah,   Michael Hingson  27:47 but But did he ever acknowledge to you? That your comment, your observation made a difference for him? Do you think that it did?   Charlie Cohen  27:58 I don't know. Listen, when you coach, you don't really? I don't know. You know, I call back all my coaches and say thank you to them. I hope I did. But I probably didn't. You know, I didn't go back to coach Cummings. And I did ask him to coach with me. So that was a nice thing, I guess. But you know, you don't coach for that. I hope so my parents, my mother tells me that people tell her and my father tells me that people tell them that I made quite an impact that they're incredible thing. So with me because I went to Israel, but I get to my parents that people are happy with me.   Michael Hingson  28:28 Well, and ultimately you have to be happy with yourself. But you have to do that, in a way and for a reason that that really makes sense. And it isn't just inflating an ego, you can still look back on what you did and listening to you. Right and talk about it. It certainly sounds like you recognize that you said valuable things to people and invaluable things to people and then it's up to them as to how they want to use it. But you've done your part.   Charlie Cohen  29:03 Yeah, they're also little kids. You know, they were little kids. Oh, yeah. Hopefully they remember something or had to put their degree, I hope they had a great experience. They look back on it with fondness and say I was a good guy. And you know, I wasn't too hard on them. And if I was I'm sorry. But yeah,   Michael Hingson  29:17 so that story, really, but if it made a difference   Charlie Cohen  29:22 made a difference in my life. There you go. So I was going about this company thing, and I was going about my life and having everything in the way I wanted intrigued about when this you know, when this conscious attack hit me, you know, when I realized that, you know, I was really living out a dream that wasn't necessarily mine, and that I wanted to pursue something what I thought would be greater. And so you asked me how well I this is trying to answer that question. How long were they selling software for? So it was about you know, a few years and about 1999 I had that change and I decided I was going to really pursue my dream which I remember Well as was my dream, which is to come to Israel to learn Talmud and to train to be a rabbi, but not a pulpit rabbi, not like a pulpit rabbi like that, but really become, you know, more of the classical, a teacher, you know? Yeah, but the classical sense, you know, the old school because like football in old school,   Michael Hingson  30:20 right? So in 1999, you   Charlie Cohen  30:23 left my job left by, you know, my girlfriend at the time, I left my life and declared myself a religious person, you know, and it was a was a hard, very difficult thing to do. Because, you know, my friends go on to Purdue for homecoming, meeting people on Friday and Saturday night's event that was over for me, you know, and that was important, Israel, that was just a life change itself. You know, deciding to take it upon myself to learn something. That's, you know, the book itself, that Talmud is like 2000 years old, it's written in Aramaic and Hebrew, it's not easy for someone who's not good in school or good in foreign languages. So the idea that I wouldn't go master that was kind of far out there. I would have asked yourself that, like, that was like, you know, definitely far out.   Michael Hingson  31:11 But you did it.   Charlie Cohen  31:13 And still do it. Yep. Still process. It's your horses. Yeah.   Michael Hingson  31:17 Well, it is a process and there's nothing wrong with it being a process. You know, it's fun to, to hear the old joke about somebody practicing law or somebody practicing medicine, and why are you still practicing? Why aren't you good at it? And the answer is that, if you're really any good at it, you're always learning. That's true. It isn't a static thing. And it shouldn't be a static thing. And I think life is the same way. I think we should all be practicing living. And that's because it's an ongoing process. That's awesome. You're 100% right, which is really cool. So when did you move to Israel in what 2000 2000   Charlie Cohen  31:56 I broke up my girlfriend, I went to Israel for a month I went to, you know, I went back and then I went back to softscape, which is the company and I paid off my credit card debts, it got some really big sales, I got a huge sail from the state of Connecticut, that paid for me to pay off my debts in my car, and come to Israel to go to school. And I went to I went to go you call a Shiva for two years, got married, and then went to another issue and is really one, like a real is really a Shiva. You know, people speak Hebrew, little 20 year old kids 22 year old kids are 3232 when we walk around with these Israeli kids, you know, I don't care what they think I'm not trying to, you know, be in class with them. I look at a funny, you know, imagine, imagine some 30 year old guy showed up in high school saying, Well, I want to be a freshman. Excuse me physics.   Michael Hingson  32:44 Yeah. But you didn't.   Charlie Cohen  32:46 Yeah, I did. You know, it's crazy. I didn't do it. I did it. Yeah.   Michael Hingson  32:51 So tell us Oh, you know, what's you're still doing and and so what did you do from a job standpoint? Then you moved to Israel? You went to school?   Charlie Cohen  32:59 Yeah. So what I did is I worked part I worked at night, you know, I my, my like I stepfather's father who was like a grandfather to me and wonderful man. He put himself through law school, he supported himself. So I had, I knew plenty of people who worked at jobs into putting themselves through law school. So I said, I'll do the same. And I worked at night and sales, you know, so I continued my sales profession, I still have the sales profession. I still, you know, feed my family, I still work. And that's my that's my main, you know, job where I make money. Is it sales, corporate sales business to business, which I like, right? Because if I sold insurance, I would never stop. You know, everyone's everyone's a prospect. So I like this business, because you can shut it off.   Michael Hingson  33:46 Yeah. So when did you start your own company to sell?   Charlie Cohen  33:51 So I basically, eight years ago, we had our sixth kid, oh, my wife did. And you know, we need more money. And at the time, I'd worked part time for some Cisco resellers that nothing big and I needed another story because I had so copiers in the 90s. That's great. And I had his awesome startup story in the 90s. It's like 2017. I was like, Well, what have you done. And so I went up to a company in Israel, in Medina city out here, and basically took them from almost nothing to 120 million. And it was like a top four startup in Israel. So it was really cool. I had a team of guys, I got to coach again, and a great bunch of guys, and we really build that company. It's awesome. And that was one thing I did. And after that, I did another company that you know, that's another that we basically saved after two years of no revenue and turned it around. But I started my own company, which basically works with a lot of Israeli startups, helping them sell to America, you know, cheap, easy and, you know, successfully, you know, and so that's what I'm doing today. I'm a pitchman by trade. That's like my specialty.   Michael Hingson  34:57 Kitchen. Well, there's nothing wrong with that. giving giving good pitches and being able to do it effectively, is really what it's about, and telling stories and telling stories   Charlie Cohen  35:08 and being underage to my grandmother's call me that. No, it's Nick. You're annoyed. Yeah, I turned it into that sorry, turn into a job.   Michael Hingson  35:15 Nothing wrong with nudging. I, I've been accused of that. And and I have no problem with it.   Charlie Cohen  35:21 So you're a master salesman to you though. So thanks, man. You   Michael Hingson  35:24 got to do what you got to do, you know? Yeah, but it works out pretty well. So you're coaching football over there?   Charlie Cohen  35:33 Yeah, so I have a real team of adults. And I love it. And it's just so much fun. I just never thought in a billion years that I would come back here. But this to Israel. You know, Robert Kraft is the owner of the Patriots. Also, Mark wolf of the Vikings also helps out. And there's an Israeli Football League here, American Football League. And this team came to beach initially, I heard that I was once a great coach. And they they had to come up with a team to coach that again. And then maybe the head coach has just been great.   Michael Hingson  36:04 There you are. Yeah, it's   Charlie Cohen  36:06 good for my kids to my kids was really so they don't understand what it was like they don't understand what a coach is. They had no idea. So it's fun for them. They can see the excitement, the games, and you know, the hubbub. And so it's good for my kids just kind of see what I was like as a coach, what it is,   Michael Hingson  36:22 what really makes what really makes up a good coach.   Charlie Cohen  36:27 Oh, gosh, that's the greatest question. I think I've heard a long time. And I say it's great because I put so much thought into this. And I found out something there's, there's a thing called it and Hebrews called a meter. A meter is a character trait, a character trait. And one of the one of the schools of thought I belong to is one of these lifelong dedication to developing your positive character traits. And one of the most important character traits they talk about, or that my rabbis Rabbi Rabbi talked about, so the person you know, so imagine, you know, a coaching tree. And so this coaching tree goes back, and he's one of the greatest Jewish coaches of all time, his whole thing was we call I until I until the media good, I seen the good things. And what I can tell you, as a good coach, a winning coach, a winning coach, you have to have a good eye. But it doesn't mean I'm a nice guy could be the most selfish mean person ever, right and manipulative, allotted and corrupt. But if I have to have a good eye and see the talent, so you hear people say, I don't know what he saw in me, but he brought it out. So all good coaches, I think winning coaches have the ability to see the talent, see the good, you know, and I obviously don't want to use that in a corrupt way. I don't want to use it to know to, you know, but I think that the number one thing to win is an eye and Toba a good eye and also from marriage to marriage to and it doesn't mean necessarily a visual eye means a spiritual eye that you see the good.   Michael Hingson  37:59 Well, and you see where everyone fits into that mosaic into that pattern.   Charlie Cohen  38:07 Right, right, right. 100%. And I think that is the key to a winning coach. Because if you if you do that, right, there's no politics, everyone's united, everyone feels good. And you're able to kind of harness different talents and get more together, because people aren't threatened and they know their place. And they know that you recognize their place, and you see where they belong, and that they're important. Like, one of the biggest lessons to me that I just can't drill into other people's heads is if I actually I actually hurt my Achilles, I actually put my Achilles tendon in the second game of the year, because I sprinted to get water for my team, there was a timeout, and I sprinted so fast, I put my Achilles heel, and I ran and God water. And then I did it a second time. And I was limping. And I looked at the guys on the sideline, and I threw the water bottle, left them with them, and they came off. And I said, What getting water for your team is not important. You know? Because it's true. It is, you know, like, getting what you okay, you know, I'm not, there's a defensive coordinator out, there's an offensive physic you know, someone making the play, okay, I'm the head coach, and I'm not doing anything, but I have to sit there and look important, which I'm gonna get water. You know, I've got to get water, I want to do it, I'm gonna do it the best I can. And the water person is so important to me and my team. And I think everyone knows at the end of the year that, that anyone that's on the team is important as a place, whether you're cheering, whether you're getting water, whether you're a star, it doesn't matter. And I wish that, you know, I could carry that away to my community that if I felt that everyone felt that way, I think the world would be a much better place.   Michael Hingson  39:40 Yeah, it's everyone has a place. And it seems to me that the best value that a coach can bring to a team is helping everyone recognize not only their place and that every place is important, but Do you help bring out their desire? I won't say ability, because the ability is probably there but their desire to do the best with that place.   Charlie Cohen  40:12 Yeah, that's the whole. That's the whole 100%. Yeah.   Michael Hingson  40:15 And that you're able to then bringing out the best in everyone by helping them to recognize that they're really probably better than they thought, which is what unstoppable mindset is all about. We love to get people to recognize that they can be more unstoppable than they thought. So I really appreciate the things you're saying, because that's exactly what this podcast is all about.   Charlie Cohen  40:37 That makes me happy because I first met you, I didn't know what I have to offer. Shortcut my self esteem.   Michael Hingson  40:44 There you go see? Well, Coach, you did it. So it seems to me that, and I don't want to oversimplify it. But in one sense, a rabbi as like a coach or a coach is very much like a rabbi in the in the sense that you're, you're clearly a teacher.   Charlie Cohen  41:04 You know, there's, you know, my wife, when I first came to Israel, you know, I was a coach and Israel, they were behind, no one knew what it was. And afterwards, when he was able to cope, Jay was a life coach and was a psychologist, everybody. Some wife says to me, you know, time, everyone's a coach now, and you missed it. And I said, Listen to us, you know, that it was a winning coach, when he coaches is still unique, you know, so like, a winning coach, a winning coach, a coach that knows how to win consistently, you know,   Michael Hingson  41:34 right. So Can Can everyone be a winning coach?   Charlie Cohen  41:39 I think everyone can be a winner. Yeah, I think everyone can be a winner, but you said, you know, maybe your skills aren't to be a coach, maybe your skills are, or to be the best water person or maybe your skills to be the best, you know, quarterback, or the running back or lineman, or whatever I you know, that's the thing, you don't have to be jealous at my job, and honestly, be jealous of your job. You know, I think we all have our jobs, and we all should be the best at what we are at our jobs. And hopefully, we can fill this void, and Dr. Evil out by being so awesome. Yeah, that's what I hope. Well, I'm   Michael Hingson  42:12 I agree, and I, I enjoy doing what I do. I've always enjoyed doing what I do. And I know that in my life, there are choices that I've made that I could have probably done better at, I think that's the biggest issue, you can always still, I think, be your own best coach for you. If you really think about what you do. And that gets back to self analysis. But I think I think everyone can, in a sense, be a coach, but your job of coaching may just be you. Because I do believe that ultimately, yeah, we have to make our choices, and we're the ones that can know best what we really need if we think about it and work at it.   Charlie Cohen  42:54 Yeah, 100%. And I think that for, for me, my own personal experiences, all the external things I was saying to everyone else came back on me, you know, all the things you have the heart of the field mouse, you know, you don't have character, you don't want to pay for your team. It all came back on me. You know, where's my character was my fight? What am I fighting for? Where am I? Where's my character? And it came back on me and that I'm worthy of a finding my character in my spot of honesty. And I think that's what I hope that most people find, I think that most people suffer, suffer with tremendous pain that they don't feel value in who they are and what they are building. What they do matters in the world that I think if I could tell anyone anything, please God don't believe that. That's the biggest lie out there. That's the biggest fake news. I don't mean to be political. Not No, I hear you though. But that's that's the biggest not truth. There is more. There's more realistic consumption. There's more to us than it there'll be clickbait there's more to us than vacations. You know, each and every human being has the opposite opportunity to change the world. And if they don't believe that delivery, free trial.   Michael Hingson  43:58 Well, like Gandhi once said, Be the change you want to see in the world. I think we all so often, probably don't recognize how much we probably are changing the world just by what we do. And sometimes that change may not be for the best. But then we have to look at ourselves to find out why that's the case. If we even recognize that we're changing the world.   Charlie Cohen  44:22 Yeah, it's hard to see but you know, me personally, I think that the fact is that the world is here. You know, we're the world is here. We are a lot of us alive. We have the potential for a great future. We have incredible innovations that could happen any day, diseases cured, food, water shortage, problem solved. And you know, waiting that error that corruption and selfishness aren't important. You know, I think that's what I'm waiting for personally, but a world that corruption and what's in it for me is not the most important thing. Yeah, no, I think we're there. I think there's like people like you a lot of great people out there. And I think there's more good than the newsletter. And I honestly believe that I see it. I believe it. I hear about it.   Michael Hingson  45:11 We look for way too much sensationalism rather than substance.   Charlie Cohen  45:15 Yeah. Before it arquivo always.   Michael Hingson  45:20 So you have six children? I think you said,   Charlie Cohen  45:23 Yeah, well, yeah. As they say, Yeah. Wonderful. Unbelievable. Yeah, I, I wouldn't have probably been the worst, you are the most, you know, I could care less to being a decent good Jew. It's It's shocking to me that the life I live?   Michael Hingson  45:37 And do they all consider you a good coach.   Charlie Cohen  45:40 I don't know. I don't buy kids like me. You know, I try not to be so hard. You know, I, you know, I try to be more very mellow and very easygoing with them. I, you can't coach your kids, because there's too much emotional involvement. You can be there for your kids. But like, I can't coach my kids, do what I'm saying. I can't coach my wife. I wish I could.   Michael Hingson  46:01 Well, she probably thinks she can coach you. But you know.   Charlie Cohen  46:06 If I had half a brain, I would say she can. Yeah, I don't know if I'm that. I don't know if at that point, little video,   Michael Hingson  46:13 whether you listen, but you know,   Charlie Cohen  46:16 I should appear coachable?   Michael Hingson  46:19 How old are the kids?   Charlie Cohen  46:21 So my oldest is 19. And my youngest is eight.   Michael Hingson  46:25 Wow. Well, you know what, I kind of disagree that you can't coach your kids. But coaching is different with kids is ultimately who you are and what you are. And the kind of example that that you bring to them. So you can't tell them what to do. But hopefully you get them to establish a mindset that shows them that you are there for them, as you said, and they can come to you on, you're going to do everything you can to help them with whatever they do.   Charlie Cohen  47:01 100% But what I meant as a coach is I can't use I can't say I can keep you under attack that you will start to cry, you know, you're gonna   Michael Hingson  47:12 Yeah, you know, well, that's, that's some of the best coaching in the world is all about loving them.   Charlie Cohen  47:17 Yeah, that's true. I hope I do a good job. Now, sometimes, you know, when I when when a discipline I'll do is to defend my wife, you know, I have to be a hard, tough it's not because of anything an insult to me. It's because the kids act up to the mother, and I'm coming in as an enforcer to help her. And I'll put my foot down, you know, and I think it's those opportunities to be a tough guy. You know, you know, tell my kids that, you know, my job is to be a good father. You know, being liked, it's not that important to me. You know, my job is to be good. And I'm only tough when it's not personal towards me. You know, when it's about my, you know, something disrespectful to my wife, you know, I say that to get angry, but two things lying and being disrespectful. And besides that, I have no other   Michael Hingson  47:57 lying and what was the other one is disrespectful. disrespect? Yeah. Well, that's the, the issue is that, you know, parents can't always be friends, but they can be parents and True. True. Hopefully, kids learn. Well, hopefully good kids. Well, any kid can learn that by the time at least they grow up when they have to go through it, that they recognize that there's value in it.   Charlie Cohen  48:21 I have great kids. You seriously wonderful, wonderful, wonderful each and every one is so wonderful, uniquely wonderful. Easy. Yeah. Oh, the parent conversations I always have with teachers. It's just like, two seconds that got one of them had to get up. One of the kids get out, you know. Does a great job.   Michael Hingson  48:39 Have we all been over and visited the states at all? Yeah, sure.   Charlie Cohen  48:42 We did. The Disney World thing was great. My mom and stepdad to Disney World. And it was wonderful. You know, we've been a few times my wife has family there. I brought my kids for his bar mitzvah to see a Red Sox playoff game and problem to a Patriots game and I had a blast.   Michael Hingson  48:59 So while they were there, so while they were up there in New England, they get some lobster.   Charlie Cohen  49:05 Nah, no, it's not.   Michael Hingson  49:08 Yeah, that's true.   Charlie Cohen  49:10 I didn't know that. Oh, don't worry about it. I don't expect you to know Jewish law of costumes. It's okay.   Michael Hingson  49:17 Yeah, well, I didn't think about the fact that there's the kosher issue that yeah, that   Charlie Cohen  49:22 works. No worries. It's okay. Yeah,   Michael Hingson  49:25 well, you know, but but going to well go into a game that's kosher. Just just don't eat all the food.   Charlie Cohen  49:33 That's true. You know, and there's so much kosher food today in America. It's just, you know, I used to not eat kosher food, and I don't really miss much the other thing I miss his by pepperoni pizza. That's the only thing I'd say it's like something you're just never gonna get in the kosher world. I never like lobster. So I don't miss   Michael Hingson  49:50 I liked lobster. But what what my favorite Salami is kosher salami.   Charlie Cohen  49:55 Ah, see, there you go. The salt is awesome. Yeah, yeah.   Michael Hingson  50:00 That's always been the best. I've never been a fan of Italian salami, like like kosher salami, I grew up with it. My mother is Jewish. So I count. And we we always the only salami we ever had was kosher salami. And what has always been one of my favorites?   Charlie Cohen  50:15 You said your mother's Jewish? Uh huh.   Michael Hingson  50:18 Well was now she's passed. But yeah,   Charlie Cohen  50:20 yeah. I don't know if you know this, according to Jewish law that makes you Jewish.   Michael Hingson  50:24 I understand. That's why I said I count.   Charlie Cohen  50:28 You do as much as me. That's cool.   Michael Hingson  50:31 Yeah, and I. But I also think that from a religious standpoint, all of us need to recognize that all these religions come from the same place. And it's just crazy the way people think that they're the only one in town and it just doesn't work that way.   Charlie Cohen  50:49 I hope I don't I hope I don't come across like that. You sir. Dude, I do yell at me. If you do I give you permission to be my coach and say to me that that's not what I'm here for. I'm better than that. Don't do that. If I come back, like that smell like   Michael Hingson  51:03 the habit and haven't even heard that attitude once. But I see it as you do so much in the world.   Charlie Cohen  51:09 If I put my ego out there, you know, I always want everyone wants to be right and feel right. So it's like, maybe, you know, I always think if I fell into that trap, you know, but you know, at the end of the day, it is trying to do good. You're just trying to hope that the world survives, and, and that people hear your message about you know, that they can do unbelievably awesome things and grow. And so, you know, I read that book, How to Win Friends and Influence People. And I'm sure you did, too. You know, by criticizing, condemning complaining, it's just not going to accomplish anything.   Michael Hingson  51:41 So I can tell just doesn't it? It just doesn't help having a book. I used to say, I'm my own worst critic, and I've been learning, that's really the wrong thing to say. Because that's, that's still a negative thing. And so what I do believe is that I'm, if I learn to step back and be objective, I'm my own best evaluator. And I might, I can be my own best teacher, but I don't need to be my own worst critic. It's really a question of looking at things and deciding what I can learn. And I'm better at doing that for me than anyone else. If I allow myself to be that way. Wow.   Charlie Cohen  52:28 You're an Israeli and be a big rabbi. Okay.   Michael Hingson  52:31 Well, I want to get over there and visit. You know, I worked for accessiBe, which is an Israeli company. Yeah. Makes products that help make websites accessible. We got to get you how far are you from Tel Aviv?   Charlie Cohen  52:45 Not far at all. Please, please look me up. That'd be great. I'll be happy.   Michael Hingson  52:49 Well, we're gonna we're gonna have to introduce you to folks at accessiBe.   Charlie Cohen  52:53 Not really, it's nice, I'd love to meet everybody. That's wonderful. But one   Michael Hingson  52:57 of the things that I've noticed over the past year and a half is AccessiBe has a culture where it truly wants to make a positive difference in the world. And that's why the company B began, well, the company began because three guys needed to make a bunch of websites that they created for people accessible, but they've expanded that. And I love the accessiBe goal, which is to make the entire internet accessible and inclusive by 2025. And yes, it's a lofty goal. But, but it's, it's an appropriate goal. And I wish more people would buy into that concept. And accessiBe has worked very hard at it. And everything that I have observed about the excessive bee culture is all about being a culture that truly wants to serve. Yes, it's a company that wants to make money. It's a company that sells a product. But deep down, it's a company that has a culture that's servant based, which is really important. That's   Charlie Cohen  54:02 awesome to work for a company that you love and feel that good about. Yeah, I'd be happy to help you guys. You know, I'm a sales guy. I love business to business. Maybe there you go some service.   Michael Hingson  54:11 Well, I'll I'll have to introduce you.   Charlie Cohen  54:15 Wonderful, wonderful. I hope when you come out Israel, I get a chance to see a person tour guides if you bring your wife or we can bring you some tours,   Michael Hingson  54:22 as long as you have wheelchair accessible places to take her. Yeah, we'll figure it out. Not make it work. But we definitely want to do that at some point. And as soon as accessiBe wants me to come over, but we're having a lot of fun doing the podcasts. So they must they must tolerate me and like me, because we continue to do it.   Charlie Cohen  54:41 I appreciate you having me on the show. What an honor. Thank you.   Michael Hingson  54:45 So you've been studying the Talmud for a long time. And I think that is extremely important and valuable. What's the what's a piece of wisdom that you can convey to us? What's something that you've learned that you think people should really take? away from your studies.   Charlie Cohen  55:01 Yeah, I'll tell you something you taught me for 20 years, you know, the Talmud refers an Aramaic, to someone that can't see, so to speak. sygate and a whore, Tara make for great light, soggy, no whore, gray light in rough shape. This was one of those great rabbis of the Talmud, from what 19 years ago, that, you know, couldn't see physically and that's how they refer to him. And I always thought was like, like, like, trying to say something nice, you know, in a nice way. But you said something on one of your, your interviews, I think I saw you, when you said that, you know, those of us are like dependent, and I have a son who's insulin dependent. So I understand what that means. I am blind dependent, and you're not. And then it hit me wow, that's the meaning of soggy, no more. You you make the most of your life. And because you make the most of your life, it is more than enough for you. And probably in reality, you have more life than most people on Earth. And now I got the meaning of that very, very cool phrase, which I always thought was like, a euphemism like, you know, trying to cover up something. But I think now that you gave me a direct, indirect meaning it's literally true. Sagi no more. So that's something I learned this week from you.   Michael Hingson  56:16 Well, thank you. I appreciate that. And I'm honored that you think that way? If, and I certainly want to contribute any way that I can can and that's all we can, can really do. Yeah, is contributed as best we can.   Charlie Cohen  56:32 That's it. I hope people listening here agree with me what I said about you.   Michael Hingson  56:37 Well, thank you. Pleasure, what do you think about SARP? Our potential for the future? You know, again, with all your studies, and so on, what's what's a positive thing that you can think of for the future? What Yeah, what do you want people to take away as a message from all this for? where we're going? Or they're our future?   Charlie Cohen  56:54 No, thank you. There's one thing you know, there's lots of prophecies out there, you know, and whether they're, how do you say this? When you can see into something transparency? Like how old are they I producer, Thomas, this TV show? You know, people freaked out about the Nostradamus prophecies, blah, blah, blah. But like, Yeah, his prophecies here that are written they translated by the Greeks 1000s of years ago? And how close are they enacted? are they and how well do they descri

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Misty Harper-Anderson is someone who values deep connection and authenticity inrelationships. She has led in various faith spaces for the past eight years after spendingthe first part of her vocational life in the corporate world. She is a visionary leader whoappreciates the power of collaboration. Misty is the Senior Director of Event Management for Pulse (https://pulse.org). Additionally, she serves as the Lead and Planting Pastor for Aspen Community Church. Misty and her husband, Bill, live in Eagan. Even though their children are all adults, atleast technically, they spend a lot of time together. Their oldest daughter, Sydney,married a great man, Ludwig, in 2020. Their son, Jacob, lives in Alabama and loves thesouth. Their youngest daughter, London, is now at MNSU Mankato. So, they areexperiencing the empty nest for the first time. This is a family who loves board games,hiking and traveling togetherDanielle (00:18):Hey, welcome to theArise podcast, Conversations on faith, race, justice, gender and healing. And the guest on the podcast is just a dear friend today, Misty Harper Anderson. First of all, you're gonna hear me say that I have a room in her house. I've stayed in the same room twice, and I have, uh, my own drinks in there, LaCroix my own flavor, Misty Ann is truly the embodiment of hospitality, someone I trust, uh, who's willing to have difficult conversations. Someone who's been in the liminal space before and has persisted in that space. She's an event planner, um, a pastor, a church planter, and someone that's hung onto her faith in very authentic in real ways. Love to hear where you're at, what you're doing. Any recent changes you're willing to share. I, I love you. Respect you. I've been in your house. I have my own room there. Um, yeah, , and I've been wanting to get you on the podcast for a long time. I know we collaborated on a writing project a while backElection. And I think after that experience, I was just knocked out. I've written here and there since then, but, you know, it was like a lot of emotional experience for all of us. So yeah, tell me what are you comfortable sharing about what you're doing? I know you have some exciting things going on, so I'd love to hear about them.Misty (01:36):Yeah, for sure. Well, first know this, you still have a room here. It still has your LaCroix water in it, and there were some m and m's there now safely in like a, a jar that's tightly sealed. So whenever you come back, they are waiting for you in your room. Uh, what I'm doing right now, so many things. So, so many things. Um, I, I just accepted a full-time job and, uh, I am really excited about the, the title of, of the position as Senior Senior Director of Event Management. So really it's going to be logistics behind these really large evangelism events. And, uh, I love nuts and bolts and things. I love spreadsheets. That's like one of the nerdy things about me. I love color coded spreadsheets. Uh, so that's new that will start this coming Monday. So in just a couple of days.And in addition to that, I am doing event management for our friend Joe Saxton and, and Steph O'Brien. And that, that part of my work will wrap up probably like the end of November. Uh, and that's been very fun. You know, I have such great love and respect for both of them, and I love AZA is their event, and I love that. And just everything that they represent in this world and how they uplift and encourage women. So it's been such a privilege to work with them. And then I teach a New Testament and Old Testament at Buffalo University, and that too, that will wrap up, uh, the first week of December. And I teach students with intellectual disabilities, so autism, uh, and Down syndrome. And it has been my oldest daughter, Sydney. She said, Mom, there's no other job that's given you that has given you heart eyes than like that job, because it's been such a good passion project for me.I love those students and I'm glad that I get to finish up this with them. Uh, and we're church planning still. We've been in the process of church planting since, uh, fall of 2020. Really, really started to kick things off more like spring, summer, fall 2021. And now we are moving into this model of church that actually comes outta Seattle. Uh, it is in Seattle. It's known as Dinner Church, and we will call it Table Church. But it's simple. It's this, We meet around tables, we share food together. Uh, there is, uh, what's called a short Jesus story. So we just, uh, any, any of the stories that come out of the New Testament about Jesus, because I love the Old Testament, will sneak some of that in there too. Uh, and, and then it creates space for conversation about we're, what we're teaching about, and there are a few things that I really love about this.Something that's just really been on my heart lately is that when we come to these tables, there's no food insecurity. We don't know where people are coming from. We've had people join us who are homeless, to people who come from relatively significant wealth. I mean, at least comfort. And when we're at the table, it is an even playing field, and you only have to share your story or those parts of your story if you really want to. And, uh, it is just this way for us to get to know each other deeply, and for us to build this place of trust. So many people are coming out of situations where they've been hurt by church. And so for us to be able to have this, what's called fresh expression of church, which really is like original church, right? Book of Acts church is what this is. Uh, it's been so beautiful to watch this unfold and it's still unfolding. We're still figuring things out and how, how this will look for us and for our community specifically. So those are all the things, Danielle,Danielle (05:34):That's so many things. I mean, that's funny. You've been on a journey, right? We were, I think we paralleled like being in grad school together for a bit.And then you graduated and what's your master's degree in?Misty (05:46):It's a master of divinity.Danielle (05:48):Okay. So you're a boss,Misty (05:50):, that's the goal, right? I mean, that's the goal,Danielle (05:53):And so I, I know you were on this journey, like what is, uh, what does the next step in life mean? Like, I have my degree, what do I wanna do next? And so I know you've been exploring and allowing yourself to try different things, and I don't know if you'd be even be willing to speak about like what it was like to like live in that unknown or be exploring that.Misty (06:16):Yeah, so incredibly uncomfortable , so uncomfortable. Uh, you know, that part of my story is leaving a really traumatic church experience and, and feeling so confused because that happened just as my seminary time was ending and feeling like, Okay, God, I really feel like you led me into seminary. I feel like this was the right move. And yet here I am, uh, I'm no longer part of a church. Like we didn't have a church to attend. I wasn't working at a church anymore, and that was March, 2020. So it's pandemic. So finding a new place to come together to worship with people, uh, it it was just a really tricky PO process. And we have met some great church planters and church people along the way, and that's been part of this redemptive story for us, Uh, to see, to see healthy churches that are functioning well, people who really love each other.Well, that's been so good. And still, and I'm gonna be real honest here, that Tuesday morning, uh, so a week ago Tuesday, I'd been praying about this, this position that I was just offered. And I, and I've been praying for months, like, God, what, what is it that you want from me? Like, have I really missed so many cues for you? Or have I messed my life up too badly that something good can't come from this? And just so many big doubts. And that morning I'd had it really, my husband who has been working from home, uh, actually went into the office that day. So I had the whole house to myself, and it was my voice raised to God. And I don't mean like raised and praised, I mean like, I was yelling at God and tears and like, What do you want from me? And I'm so frustrated. And in that same time is when I was getting the email saying, Hey, can you send us your resume and cover letter for this job? So then I had to go back to God the next day and be like, Thanks for loving me how I am.But also like he sees, he sees these frustrations. He knows how difficult this liminal space is. And, uh, that is much as I know that I'm seen and known and loved by God. I couldn't feel that then I, I felt so, uh, yeah, not seen, not understood, not heard. And I know that timing and prayer isn't necessarily our timing. And still, I was just getting to the end of my patienceBecause you can't see, you can't see when the end is coming. Right. The, I didn't, there wasn't anything in my path at that moment that even looked like a glimmer of hope to me mm-hmm. and I was at my lips end.Danielle (09:20):Yeah. Yeah. So you've got an invitation to submit a resume and a cover letter. Like how did they find you? Do you know?Misty (09:27):So I'd applied for the job. Okay. And, uh, through an online application process. And they specifically wanted my resume and cover letter to go to a specific person, so that, to the hiring manager. So to send it again, which allowed me the possibility of rewriting my cover letter because I'm an overthinker Danielle, I, I wrote one, I sent it, it was specific to the job, but still kind of generic. And then I'm thinking about this over the course of like, what, three or four days? Like, Mm. I should have said this. So then I did.Danielle (10:00):Yeah. I love it that you gave your chance yourself a chance to rewrite the cover letter yourself permission to say, Hey, I wanna do this differently. And you tried it.Misty (10:11):Yeah. Yeah. And it's paid off. Uh, the meetings with this organization were so good. And now I have a friend who started working with them on Tuesday, and she, uh, has been just talking about her time with them so far, and how it seems to be like real relationship, like healthy relationship between, uh, director level and employee level and management. And, uh, so just, just to even have this hope of, of a healthy work environment mm-hmm. is really encouraging.Danielle (10:45):Right. Because part of what I think was like stalling was this traumatic event at this church organization.Misty (10:52):Yep. Yep. And all of these people who I believe really love Jesus, and yet people who really love Jesus can behave very poorly sometimes. So, uh, and, and I'm not, I I'm guessing that we're gonna have moments of that too in this new position. I am not looking for rainbows and unicorns here. I, uh, I hope to be in a space that, that we recognize when we are behaving poorly and can ask for forgiveness after that. And, and that's been some of the, the redemption, the restoration story from this church experience too, is that there's been lots of healing in those once broken relationships. And while they'll never be what they once were, they're so much better than what they were two and a half years ago.Danielle (11:45):How do you see your experience now as you're mo you've moved through so much liminal space and now you have like many jobs.Misty (11:54):It's too many.Danielle (11:55):Yeah. Too many. Like how do you see that traumatic experience right at the tail end of grad school? Like, has it reframed it for you? Has it cemented things for you? Like Yeah.Misty (12:07):Yeah. Good question. I, one of the things, it's made me more aware. So even going into the interview process for this new position, I was, uh, very upfront with the questions that I had about things like accountability and support for their leaders mm-hmm. . Uh, so how, how does this organization, uh, I don't know that you can actually ensure, uh, that there isn't going to be any bad behavior, but what, what are, what does this organization do to, uh, to try to prevent it anyway, to, to keep their people accountable? And there were some really good answers, and those were questions that I wouldn't have necessarily thought to ask before. Uh, because with the work that I do with our church plant, well, I'm the person that needs the accountability. And, uh, because that's something important to me. I'm, I'm, I'm very open and honest with the people that I'm leading.Uh, with the work that I'm doing at Bethel University, uh, I am accountable to a director who also is very open and communicative and also, and then, and then there's the work with Steph and Joe, and we just know them so well. So it's just not something that I even think about with them. But going into this, it's a larger organization with people that, I don't know, it made me more aware of. I, I want to know the answers to these questions before I would ever say yes. And it, it seems to me like they have really good systems in place, uh, to try and avoid some of maybe that celebrity culture that we've seen in the Christian realm in the last few years. And, and a lot of the shake up and the, the lights that, the light that's been shown on some bad behavior in Christian culture. Mm-hmm.Danielle (13:59):How do you, I think what I hear is you see yourself as part of the change.Misty (14:05):Yeah. Yeah. That's been my part of my hope.It was in the last church too. And, and part of that is there are a couple of things. One of them being a woman in ministry, uh, and coming out of a highly complementarian setting, uh, and also wanting something so different for the church as a whole. And I would, I would say specifically the, the Western church, uh, wanting to be part of something that's so much like in the community, getting to know the people, whether, whether people ever come to your church or not, But getting to know people and really caring for them. Uh, that's been part of the change that I've wanted to see. And now there are ways in which I get to be part of making it.Danielle (14:53):What things do you particularly latch onto as, um, as pre, like, as ways you wanna engage leadership?Misty (15:01):I love being able to see giftedness in people and then to challenge them to use their gifts. I also love learning from other leaders. So for instance, in our church plant, we're small. We are about maybe seven households right now. And, uh, in that, I've seen three other people who are excellent communicators. And so they, they teach for us sometimes on Sunday mornings, but also in that we have people in, even in the small group of people we have, uh, Gen Z through, I think boomers probably. Okay. And, uh, and then people, like my very own son-in-law right, is from El Salvador. And so we have different perspective from him. We have, uh, a family who, the husband in the family is African American, the wife is Iranian. And, um, so just learning different perspectives from different people and how do we incorporate that into our church? Because isn't at the beauty of the kingdom of God is people from every tribe and tongue and nation. And so I think to be an effective leader in our community, in our family, in our church, it's really about seeing people for who they are and how uniquely they're created and celebrating that instead of trying to make everybody be the same.Oh, it's been a really, um, maybe like more like Lewis and Clark style, right? Like, it's taking some time, it's taking some time. This isn't a, a fast trail. Um, cuz when you think about, okay, let's think about really creating a trail and like chopping down branches and making a path and going through storms and, and whatever that means, uh, there's a lot of grit that comes with it and, uh, you don't necessarily see the rewards right away. That's been one of the things that I've had to really hold onto in the last couple of years, is in a society that highly values instant gratification, that's not what this work is about. Mm-hmm. , this isn't about selling a product and seeing profits instantly or quickly. Uh, this is long, hard work that is so beautiful. And some of this, I would guess I may never see the results of it, Right. They may be things that happen in generations to come and can I sit in that tension and, and be okay with it. Mm-hmm. , it's been a lot. That's been a lot of inner work that I've been doing. Mm-hmm.Thank goodness for my therapist and my spiritual director because I don't know how I would do this without them.Danielle (18:03):Yeah. Talk to me a little bit how you care for yourself through this process, because clearly you have your mind around things, you're able to really articulate where you're coming from. And I, my guess is you're doing that with care.Misty (18:15):Yeah. Yeah. Self-care has been a key for me. And, uh, also I'm somebody who loves schedule and routine, and so that's gonna shake up a little bit in this next week. Uh, uh, like physical self care. So exercise has been super important to me. I love to lift heavy weights, , it's a really great way to get rid of some tension and walks. It's fall here in Minnesota right now, and it's beautiful. I know that winter's coming, but for right now, I'll enjoy fall. Uh, but my therapist and my spiritual director really are two key people in my life and functions so differently. Uh, and I tell, I tell my kids sometimes I feel like my therapist, I pay her a copay to be my friend , like, she's so lovely. Uh, uh, but just to have these, uh, so my therapist isn't somebody that I know outside of, you know, my normal life.She is a professional that I've met and, uh, has this perspective of my life that is different from the people who are in my life, who are who, right? She can give me this outside perspective of it. And then, uh, my spiritual director actually is a woman that I've known for, I think 20 years now, or almost 20 years. And she, uh, knows so much of my life and also, um, really is so very connected to the Holy Spirit. And so to have conversations with her, again, with both of these women, it's this opportunity to, uh, see pieces of my life from their perspective, things that I wouldn't see on my own. Uh, so that's been really key for me to, uh, keep, keep calm, uh, to stay focused. Uh, now clearly I told you I just freaked out at God, just a week ago. So that doesn't happen all of the time, but, uh, it does happen most of the time that I can stay focused on what really matters.Danielle (20:29):Yeah. So what, what are like your top three things you would tell to someone else in like coming through that liminal space?Misty (20:43):First, have really good people around you. Really good people. Yeah. Um, my husband has been incredibly supportive. Uh, he just, he's a really supportive man and, uh, has given me the space to like li sometimes physical space, like literal physical space. Like I need to be left alone to process some of these things, but also as somebody that I can have a conversation with. So him, our kids, friends, uh, the people in our church, like these are good people who've come alongside me. Uh, I also am a huge proponent of journaling, and that is because now I can look back, I actually have the same journal for, uh, the last two years. And I can look back on these pages and see some of these repeated prayers and repeated themes. And uh, it helps I think in those times where you, for, for me as a person of faith, where I'm like, Okay, God, are you even hearing what I'm saying to you? And, and then to see maybe the, the gradual answers, whether they're yes, no, not now, whatever they are mm-hmm.And then the third thing is to take time to see what really brings you joy.And I think that I, I read something or I saw something the other day about, uh, people who go through long periods of liminal space and can no longer even remember their why or, um, have like no sense of calling anymore because they are just trying to, Oh, it might have actually been stuff. And Joe, it it, it was this like, you just are so used to disappointment that you don't even know what it's like to like long for something or hope for something more. And that holding onto that hope can be really difficult when it's been such a long time since it's been affirmed.Danielle (22:49):Right. That feels hard to hear.Yeah. And you know, like those seasons of drought when, you know, hope is dangerous.Misty (23:02):Yes, for sure. For sure. Uh, I was in this training a couple of months ago and they were talking about, it was different language, but it was liminal space and how also also understanding how things might not go back to the way that they once were mm-hmm. . And so it's also learning to, to let go of something so that you can lead in the space that you're in instead of holding onto this hope of the past. Can we hope for something in the future, even if there's this hard thing that you have to let go of mm-hmm. that has been a, a theme in my life. I think you maybe know I turned 50 in August. Yeah. Uh, yeah. Yay. And I'm one of those people I'm super thankful for every year that I get, uh, I, I last both of my parents in the last few years and so you bet I'm gonna celebrate every single birthday that I get to celebrate.And I've always loved my birthday. I actually celebrate the whole month. But turning 50, I was thinking about this year of Jubilee and that comes from the Old Testament. And it was like after 50 years you release debts, you release people who had been enslaved to you. Um, like so there are these people that are coming out, uh, and have this freedom, whether it's freedom from debt or freedom from being somebody's servant. Well then also there's this letting go of the person who was holding onto the debt. So there it's this, this idea of, for me it's this idea of, okay, what do I need to let go of that I've been holding so tightly to so that I have a room for whatever God has next to me. And that too has been part of this process in the last couple of years. Okay. I'm holding on to some hopes and dreams of, of things from the past and those things, they're not reality anymore. And so can I let go of them so that I can be open and ready for whatever is next. And it's hard. It's been really hard, but it's also been what's been so good.Danielle (25:15):I just, I would love to ask people three questions. Okay. Okay. What are you reading right now? What are you listening to and who are what's inspiring you?Misty (25:26):Mm, good questions. I am somebody who reads lots of things at the same time, . So, uh, we as our church have been talking about spiritual practices. Uh, we've been calling them Jesus experiment. So I have been going back through some of Ritual Lotus's, the deeply formed life. And also I love that book. I, he is, he is just one of my favorites. I I share almost everything that he has on his Instagram cuz there's so much wisdom there. Uh, and then, uh, the Celebration of Discipline by Richard Foster. Those are a couple of things that I'm reading and I appreciate both of their perspectives. Uh, I listen to a pile of podcasts, so the Lead Stories podcast is one that I listen to every week. I so just for fun, I love The Office Ladies, have you ever listened to that or did you ever watch The Office?Danielle (26:20):No, I know what you're talking about though. ,Misty (26:23):It's so silly and it's so funny. So it's just a really nice way to not have to think about anything, just just to laugh about something. Gemma Kucher, that's another, I think her podcast is called Gold Digger. Like Gold Geo l Digger and that's primarily for entrepreneurs. But, um, I don't know, there's lots of good stuff that she shares too. And then was the last one what brings me joy orDanielle (26:49):What Yeah, sure. What brings you joy? Who or what's inspiring you?Misty (26:52):Oh, what's inspiring me? Well, the other thing that you know about us is our youngest went to college in August and uh, it's been a huge change just for all of us. Uh, so three kids. Our oldest is married and she and her husband just bought a house. So that's been exciting. Uh, our son's in Alabama so we don't get to see him actually very much. And then our youngest moves out, so it's just my husband and me at home now. And while he and I like we are enjoying our time together. Uh, it's been this really weird freedom of we don't have soccer games three nights a week anymore. So that's been so weird. Uh, but to see my kids, my kids really inspire me. So to see Sydney and her husband and they've been married now for two years and worked so hard and now that they, um, are working hard again cause they bought this house and there's lots of work to do and thankfully a lot of super handy.So we can do lots of things, but like to see them coming into their own and finding their own path and life. And now for, uh, London. Uh, so she goes to college the first week is like, Yeah, awesome. I'm on my own and I am making these new friends. And then a couple of weeks later it's like, hmm, there's some conflict between some of these people and I don't like conflict, but I don't really wanna address it. Mm-hmm. and maybe I should just transfer schools. I was like, okay. And then now we are at this place where she's finding where she fits and she is enjoying school and thinking that this will be the uni university that she'll be at for the next three and a half years or so. And to see them all go through such change mm-hmm. and they're doing okay.But, it's hard sometimes and, and too when like, I see her, our youngest who is almost 19, but still my baby mm-hmm. and she's hurting and she doesn't wanna go back to school mm-hmm. . Uh, but to see those things and no, I can't fix them and also I shouldn't fix them because it's part of what makes her her is learning how to take care of some of these things. Um, again, they're figuring it out and they're becoming stronger, better people for it. And uh, I just so appreciate them and all that. I get to learn, learn through them. I hope that they've learned some things from me, uh, but also I learned things from them.Danielle (29:33):Well, I'm sure they're learning things from you because one way to manage transitions is to have strong attachment with your parental figure or figure. And so I think that indicates some groundedness that you've instilled in given to them. So.Misty (29:49):Well, thank you for that encouragement,Danielle (29:51):Yeah. Well, I mean, it doesn't have to be perfect, it just has to be good enough, you know. Yeah,Misty (29:55):That's right. Yeah. There is no perfection in parenting.Danielle (29:59):No. Um, thank you so much for being with me and you know, I'd love to have you back and interview a guest or you know, love for us to collaborate in the future. So thank you.Misty (30:10):Yeah. Thanks for having me. This was so good. Yeah. Talking to you.Danielle (30:13):I know. Me too. 

He was told about his wife's pregnancy before she will even know herself. What? Yeah, check it out.

Prepare to cringe as James Guttman looks back at his time at the Music Together "Mommy and Me" program with his son, Lucas, whose special needs were first becoming apparent. How apparent? He laid down on a baby. What? Yeah. You need to hear this.Preorder James's New Book - "The Expectant Father's Activity Book" Here: https://amzn.to/3klOWMaFollow James Guttman on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram: @HiJamesGuttmanLike us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HiPodImDadRead The Blog That Inspires It All - Hi Blog! I'm Dad: https://hiblogimdad.com/Like HiBlogImDad.com on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HiBlogImDad

We just reached Episode #100! Woohoo! Gary wanted to do something very special for our awesome listeners to show our appreciation to you for being with us & supporting us throughout. We know that It’s every dentist’s dream to be 100% FFS. But many dentists are afraid. Afraid to lose existing patients & think it wouldn’t work in their town. In this episode, Gary decided to interview Dr. Tracey Hughes. Dr. Hughes is one of Gary’s coaching clients who have successfully resigned from all PPO plans & is 6 months into her journey being 100% Fee-For-Service. Just like all of us, her practice too was shut down for more than 30days but has now re-opened and continuing their Fee-For-Service journey. Highlights: Introduction to today’s topic > 00:55 Introduction about our special guest: Dr. Tracey Hughes > 1:31 Tracey’s experience in going out of network, especially about how she resigned from Delta which represented 51% of her patients > 4:00 Tracey talks about the experience in her practice during the first three months being completely out of network > 7.38 Tracey talks about a fun side story that took place when her practice re-opened after COVID-19 > 4:11 Tracey explains how they are a strong relationship-driven practice & how it helps when you are Fee-For-Service > 20:39 About the after photo’s displayed in the practice and how it helps in the ‘new patient experience’ aspect > 22:40 Resources SPIN NOW LEARN MORE SCHEDULE A MEETING WITH GARY Transcript Gary:  Welcome to an another addition to the Less Insurance Dependance Podcast. This is a very exciting episode for us because its episode number 100. What? Yeah, its episode number 100! So I wanted to do something very special for episode 100. And I wanted to actually do an interview. Now those of you who are faithful listeners of the Less Insurance Dependence Podcast will know that normally its just Naren and myself and we share information that will help you successfully reduce your insurance dependence. But, I kinda thought it would be super cool to have a guest on the 100th episode. And let me introduce her, her name is Dr. Tracey Hughes. First of all, hey Tracey how are you? Tracey:  Hi Gary! Thank you so much for having me, I’m doing great! Gary:  Oh, its my privilege to have you. Now let me explain to our listeners why I wanted Tracey to be on episode 100. She is a client of mine and she has also successfully navigated insurance in her practice and is now completely free for service. Its great! You know if I can share a little bit of history. In December of 2019, Tracey resigned from the last PPO plan that she was on. And the last one was Delta— Tracey:  A big one Gary:  —A big one. By the way, it represented Delta about 51 per cent of her patients. So this was not a light hearted decision. Is that a fair statement Tracey? Tracey:  That’s quite a fair statement. I was quite nervous about that actually… Gary:  You were...Rightfully so, 51 per cent of your patients were on Delta PPO. Well, she successfully resigned in December. And I’m gonna let her talk a little bit about what’s happened since. Ofcourse this year’s been different for all of us. But she had January, February, and about half of March out of network. And then like so many offices she was shut down, like all of us. She’s in Louisville, Colorado. She was able to re-open around the middle of May. In fact, I think it was May 18th. Does that sound right? Tracey:  Yes, that’s exactly right. Gary:  I only remember because it was two weeks later than us. My life smiles practice opened up May 4th and Colorado was a little bit behind us based on the numbers and you were able to successfully re-open on May 18th. Since then, you’ve had about half of May, all of June, all of July, and now all of August. Tracey:  Right...All of August...Last day of August today. Gary:  The last day, as we’re recording it is the last day of August. You know, now we have your practice, you know somewhere around six months of experience being out of network. Tracey, can you talk a little bit about your decision to resign from Delta, because I imagine there are many of our listeners thinking “gosh that sounds like me! About half of my patients have Delta, I’m not sure whether I could ever go out of network”. So would you share a little bit about your thought process? And then maybe we’ll talk about what’s happened. Tracey:  Right. I had been in-network with Delta essentially my whole dental career and I’ve been in Dentistry owned practices for about 20 years...and it just got incredibly difficult. Delta got incredibly difficult to work with. I really felt the financial strain. I think my average write off with Delta dental patients was 40% - 42% every procedure I do I had to discount my fee by 42%. And I tell you what, I was feeling it. I just didn’t have enough at the end of the month. Sometimes, it was very month to month and the strain financially of having to discount my fees was almost suffocating. I really really felt the strain of having to discount those fees and the extra work on the back end of having to track down these past-due claims and all the effort that my team members will have to put into it. There was a lot of stress and pressure on my team members, having to keep up with all the hoops we would have to go through just to get the check. Gary:  Tracey, I appreciate you for many reasons, you’re an amazing dentist… Tracey: Thank you. Gary: ...you’re clinical skills are absolutely amazing. But one of the reasons I really appreciate you is because of your integrity and I’m gonna tie this specifically into your practice. And you had one standard of care, whether the patient was a fee for service patient or a Delta patient. Correct? Tracey: That’s accurate. Gary: So you weren’t using different labs if it was a Delta patient, you weren't using like folding chairs, I’m being facetious— Gary: You have a beautiful office...absolutely beautiful… Tracey: Thank you. Gary: And your patients receive one standard of care, there’s no compromise there. So the person that was getting short changed while you were in network was you. Tracey: Right. Gary:  You were the one that was taken out a 40 to 42 percent of a cut on your fees. Tracey:  Right. And it was even above the bare minimum so I would maybe say I’m doing 10 units and the maximum was 1500 dollars and I would still have to discount all 10 units, which was really really difficult. Gary:  You know that’s one of the things that really irritates me about PPO plans. According to their contract, they can set your fees on uncovered services on services that they don’t cover at all. And they have in most states, in most PPO contracts, they have the right to set your fees whether they provide any coverage at all, which seems to me just fundamentally wrong. I mean if they don’t do service like if they don’t have any coverage for implants they shouldn’t be able to dictate your fees. However, that’s not how the PPO plans work, they use it as a lever, to adversely affect dentists and frankly, it’s one of those irritants that I feel are very unfair. Tracey, talk a little bit about what happened, as the holidays completed, we had to give a 30-day notice to Delta. All of a sudden, now here we are at the beginning of the New Year, and you’re out of network. Because there’s a fun side story about your daughter. But before we get into that talk about what happened in January February and March. Tracey:  Well, right from the start of the New Year actually it was quite exhilarating to really receive 100% of my fee for treatment. The patients were very understanding for the most part. We took several months to talk to our patients in person—thanks to your coaching Gary—my team became extremely well-trained and confident in their ability to talk to patients and explain why we were going out of network and I think that was a huge key point to our success. And as we went through the New Year and eliminated the Delta dental contract and started seeing patients it was really refreshing to see how understanding our loyal patients were. They said, ‘oh, that’s easy...You’re gonna submit the claim and the cheque will still come to me within 7-10 business days...Oh, no problem. Sometimes they needed to be reminded and they would say, ‘whoa wait, you’re not taking my insurance anymore..’ and we would just remind them how easy the process was and they were like ‘oh, that’s no big deal’. So for the most part they got it, sure I had a few people leave...um, not nearly as many as I thought so I was very happy with the patient retention. Gary:  What was my message to you? I’ll put you on the spot here Tracey— Tracey: Oh boy (laughs) Gary:  When you were thinking of going out of network and I said Tracey you’re going to lose some, there’s no getting around that if a patient only comes to you because you’re in-network, you know you may lose some. But I remember sharing with you and I said, ‘Tracey, you’re going to lose fewer than you might think’. Gary: And that became rather prophetic. Yes? Tracey: Yes, that was true, very much so. Gary:  I have vivid memories of getting text messages from you, after the first of the year you know saying ‘woohoo I’m free for service, I’m actually getting my full fee. You don’t know how liberating this feels!’ Tracey:  Its very true and I have absolutely no regrets. And I would do it all over again. And my biggest regret—oh, okay—I just said that I have no regrets, I do have a regret. I regret that I didn’t do it sooner. That’s my regret. Gary:  You don’t know how good that makes me feel Tracey. Especially for our listeners. You know, one thing that might be useful for them to know, you’re in Louisville Colorado. Tracey: Right. Gary:  Which is a suburban...Well, there’s parts of Louisville that are semi-rural still. But I would characterize it as very much a blue-collar community, is that accurate? Tracey: Yeah, I would say so. Gary: You certainly have a mix of patience like we do in Life Smiles. Tracey: We do Gary:  You have some executives that are patients of yours. You're not far from Boulder and you have some highly educated people associated with the University of Colorado. Tracey: That’s true. Gary:  Most of your patients are really just great, solid, middle class.  Tracey: They are. That’s true. Gary: So it’s not like majority of your patients are affluent. They’re working-class folks.  Tracey: They are. They very much are. Gary:  Which is very eerily similar to my own practice. We’re in Phoenix kind of our sweet spot is, right in the middle blue-collar, working-class folks and we love em. Tracey:  Yeah, and they’re very loyal people as well. They like to return the loyalty and I think, the willingness for them to stay and come back, even though we made these changes is very apparent. Gary:  How did that feel to you on an emotional level when you know the patient has made a conscious decision to stay with you. Even though it would be easier for them to go to a networked dentist. How did that feel to you emotionally? Tracey:  Well, it really warms my heart. My philosophy in practice is relationship dentistry; to create relationships with people. And we work very very hard to do that. And we see one patient at a time in our practice. We write down little notes, and when they come back, ‘oh, did you have your have your grand-baby join your family this year?’ and we kind of carry on the conversation. So, it’s very personal. And to have them being somewhat hesitant, you can see the wheels turning a little bit when we first talked with them about the changes that we were implementing. And then now we’re to the point where we’re actually going through the second appointment and re-care with them. And it’s like ‘oh its no big deal’, and they just really get it.  Gary:  Especially when you explain to them that, although we aren’t contracted with Delta you can still use your benefits here. You know, a point that I’ve made throughout this podcast is although reducing insurance dependence we’re still gonna be patient-friendly and insurance friendly. Now, the words that the patient might use, maybe not so much to you Tracey, but maybe to a team member is, ‘so you’re not taking my insurance anymore?’ Which isn’t accurate. Tracey: Yeah Gary:  Your team really had great verbal responses. “Oh no, no, we will be happy to do...we’re gonna go bat for you like we always have. We’re gonna use every dollar of benefit that you have and we’ll still file your claims. We’ll do everything we’ve done before, we’re just not gonna be contracted with it.” Tracey:  And that was a big part of it. ‘Oh, I don’t have to do the paperwork, absolutely not we’ll submit the claim electronically for you. I think that’s a big part of it too. People don’t wanna have to do the paperwork. So we still advocate for the patient, to do that for them, to be patient-friendly. Gary:  Right. Now, I’m privy to a side story, that happened when you re-opened. And your daughter, your 16 years old daughter… Tracey: Just turned 16 Gary:  Just turned 16, deserves massive compliments. Would you fill in our listeners to that side story? Tracey:  I would love to, its a fun story. I’m very proud of my daughter.  Gary: As you should be Tracey:  When I called my team to come back on May 18th, for a respectful reason my office administrator decided not to return to work, so I was short-handed at the front, coming back after being closed and figuring out all these new protocols and a little bit of higher stress because of that, and I threw my daughter into the front office administrator position. She’d never had a job, a little bit of an awkward 15-year-old in their communication. Hardly every talks on the telephone— Gary:  Wait, an awkward 15 turning 16 years old? Gary: Remember I raised four of them.  Tracey:  Right. Right…Communication skills, well I thought, well let’s just have her answer the phone and help out. And the fact that we were not in-network with Delta dental anymore or contracted with any insurances really helps streamline the efficiency of the front office. And I truly believe the fact that I was out of network wit hall networks allowed me to really come back, open the office and take the bull by the horns and really move forward successfully. And she was able to talk to patients about insurance, she was able to process payments, didn’t have to deal with all that back end following up on outstanding claims, she was able to spend her time doing what was most important. Which was establishing relationships with patients? It really made the role of an office administrator easy, that a 15 just turning 16-year-old girl came right in and...Honestly, she was probably one of my best friend’s office administrators that I’ve worked with. Now she’s back to school and I miss her and we’re training somebody else. But again training new employees without having all the restraints of the insurance is so much easier, streamlined, and efficient. Gary:  Well, and you’re being very soft-spoken about how incredible your daughter was. But I will simply report that she did incredibly well completely belied her age or experience. She was all about taking care of patients. She was all about letting people know how appreciated they are in your practice. And she gets an A++ on my report card and the data shows, the numbers show that she did extremely well. You know, I don’t think that would’ve happened if you would have lost your office administrator and still been involved...You know one time you had many plans in the practice. Can you imagine, forget her age for a minute, but anyone stepping in with no dental experience and having to navigate all the land mines of insurance? Tracey: No way. Gary:  No, she did incredibly well. So hats off to Cambie she did incredibly well. Now she got some of your value systems for sure and she may have been paying attention at home when we weren’t quite sure whether she’d been paying attention. She might have been paying attention, a little bit. Tracey: She might have  Gary: But she did incredibly well and really the success story has simply continued because now you’re in the stage as you mentioned where you’re now seeing patients returning for the next visit in hygiene. And you’re just seeing loyalty, appreciation. They are letting you know, they are voting with your feet. They are letting you know “Dr. Hughes, I’m not going anywhere else”. I would never leave your practice, I’m a patient for life. Sometimes they also use those words, but I’d rather watch their behavior. Because their behavior is, they’re with you. Tracey:  They are, they definitely have developed trust and confidence in our practice and we’ve even had a patient that was...So we allowed patients, if they seemed hesitant at all to go through this process we said ‘you know what we really understand, this is a new territory we’re treading into and we really want you to be able to try this out. Before you make any decision to leave our practice and stay with us as an outer network provider. There were a handful of patients that we would sort of trying this on. And if they were Delta as you know, the cheque would have to go to the patient. So these patients that we had long term relationships with we allowed them to go ahead and have the check assigned to the patient. We would carry the balance and we would follow up with them or they would call us and say, ‘you know I got my cheque, just as you said within 7 to 10 business days. No problem’. And they were comfortable with it then we collected their balance with a credit card. I had one patient who didn’t have such a great reimbursement out of network and he had already found a new plan with another company that had better out of network benefits. So he was so loyal, he didn’t wanna go somewhere else where maybe Delta would pay 100% he found an out of network plan, but out of network sometimes pays pretty good, it pays 100% of our fee, and he had already switched. Gary:  I mean, talk about loyalty. A patient literally on their own finding an insurance policy, that pays better out of network because they don’t wanna go anywhere else. It just warms my heart, you know to hear those stories. Tracey, we’re kind of coming to the finish line here, um one of the points that I’ve made, you know repeatedly to our listeners here on this podcast is that... a couple of things. One if you are going to be successful going out of network, one of the strongest things you can do is build the relationship-driven part of your practice. And in many ways, I think your practice is a model, relationship-driven practice. I don’t know how to ask you this question without setting you up...But would you agree? Tracey:  yeah, I agree. Its actually on the front door. That’s kind of our tagline as relationship dentistry, but yeah its really really hard. Gary:  It is at the front door. (laughs) Says relationship dentistry… Tracey: Yeah. I work very hard for that, and that’s the way I want to practice. Definitely patient loyalty in return for that is very very high. Patients want to come to us, they don’t want to go to another office and not everybody does, you can’t be everybody's dentist. Some people are more insurance-driven and that’s fine. But that opens the door for more of these patients. But we developed a relationship very early on with the initial phone call. And I like to call and welcome the patient personally. We have little things that, people like—the paraffin hand dip, the TV on the ceiling—but I think more to it is that we just take time for the patient. We see one patient as a time as I mentioned earlier. And I can really get to know the patient and they come back because of that. Gary: You know, I’ll talk about a couple of other things, as we wrap up here, the point I wanna make is that you give your patients many reasons to come to you, other than you’re on their insurance. You give them many reasons. Tracey: Right. I hope so. Gary:  You do. It’s a full list, it’s a very rich list of things that you provide. Technology, you have state of the art technology in your practice. One of the things I love about your office is that the way you have some really beautiful after photos of your patients. That’s something that you’ve really kind f taken it to an awesome level. You ask the patient to sign the after photo and write a short note. Tracey: Right Gary: Those photos are…You can’t help but be drawn to those photos. And you can’t help but read what they have to say. Every one of them has glowing praise of their beautiful smile. Tracey:  It is, and my assistant makes sure as she’s bringing the patient back that she does a tour and she stops and pauses and says, please take time to read these or take a look at these if you’d like to take your time after your appointments. So as they’re coming back up from the treatment room to the consulting room they take time to look at those photos and to read what the patients have written. Gary: Yeah, yeah...You know there are so many reasons for people to choose your office. Well Tracey, thank you...You know Dr. Omar Reed shared with me that um, sometimes people need to know that it’s been done before. Dr. Reed used to use the quote ‘if it’s been done before it must be possible.’ I’m sure you’ve heard that. Tracey: I take that one to heart actually. Gary:  Omar probably said that one time when you were at his courses...But Omar often said that ‘if it’s done before, it must be possible’. I wanted our listeners to hear from you. Hear from this 100th episode. You’ve done it, its possible, you’re in a highly competitive area. I mean it’s not like there aren’t other dental choices… Tracey: Very much so Gary:  Everywhere...You’ve done extremely well and I’ll repeat what you said earlier, you said your only regret is that you didn’t do it sooner. Tracey: That’s true. Gary:  So I just want to thank you. I treasure our coaching relationship, I’ve loved working with your team. Really when we do team meetings, their pens are smoking taking notes. And I know they’re going to apply the information that they learn. But you’re also a wonderful leader in providing them the leadership, the encouragement, and the resources to do their job well. So let me take a minute and say thanks to you Tracey, and thanks for being a voice here on the podcast. Our first interview in 100 episodes and thanks for being like a lighthouse that points the way. And nothing would make me happier than the listeners of this episode to think ‘wait a minute, if Dr. Hughes can do this, I think I can do it too.’ I’m inspired, I’m encouraged. Tracey: That’s very true. Gary: Thank you, Tracey, for being that guiding light.  Tracey:  Thank you so much from the bottom of my heart, I appreciate all your help and coaching to get us to this point. Its something I’ve been wanting to do for many many years. So thank you so much. Gary:  Oh, it’s mutual. Want to take a minute and thank our listeners of the Less Insurance Dependence Podcast, we love what we do here. Couldn’t do it without you, three things you can do to support our work; number one you can tell a colleague about the Less Insurance Dependence Podcast, there might be some dentists out there that haven’t discovered podcasts yet. Hey, let them know about Podcasts and let them know about the Less Insurance Dependence Podcast. The second thing you can do is, you can jump on iTunes and write us a review, help more dentists find us. And the third thing you can do is to hit the subscribe button. You can so that on iTunes or Google Play or whatever your podcast directory of choices. Just hit subscribe and every Thursday when we upload a new episode it’ll be automatically uploaded for your listening convenience. On that note let me simply  thank you for the privilege of your time and tell you I will look forward to connect with you n the next Less Insurance Dependance Podcast. Thanks so much.

Welcome Back! This week I proudly present my most popular episode of all time, My Happy Ending Massage. As you’re about to hear, this night was actually part of an amazing, three-day smutstravaganza I went on in Las Vegas. Don’t judge. I was away from home for weeks. I was facing a big birthday. I was dehydrated. Whatever the reason may be, I did engage in some very questionable behavior and you’re about to hear all about 2/3 of that behavior. The final piece will be revealed in my memoir. It’s worth the wait. To briefly set the table, I’d been working in Las Vegas for several weeks, shooting season 5 of our show Swing, which was all about monogamous couples trying the swinging lifestyle. Just about every night was spent in the middle of the most sex-charged atmosphere you could ever imagine. Plus, we could never find good gluten free pizza. As a result, I was more than a little frustrated. So, here’s a trip back to the penultimate night of a smutty three day bender. A night that literally changed my life forever. Other than the bad pizza, I don’t regret a thing. Plus!!! At 24:10 don’t miss a Screw Confession where a highly ambitious woman absolutely loses it when things get a little too deep. NOTES At 11:58, my dear Canadian friend, Sex & Relationship Expert, Dr. Jessica O’Reilly makes an appearance. One of my favorite people on the planet, I look at Jess as the Great White North Star of Sex. To follow Jessica O’ Reilly go to: www.sexwithdrjess.com @SexWithDrJess To read this story and see many other fun, completely uncensored stories about my time as Head of Programming at Playboy TV, check out my writing on Medium.com Oh…and according to Yelp, the Bad Attitude Boutique on East Sahara Avenue, is permanently closed. No word on the lady in the track suit. CORRECTION: I reported that the floor was cheap vinyl tile. That was incorrect. It was cheap laminate. I do not regret any of the mistakes made in this recording. Sex Ed The Musical is available on iTunes, Stitcher, Podtail, IHeartRadio, Podbay, Spotify and more. Please SUBSCRIBE to Sex Ed The Musical HERE and leave a 5-Star Review! During August and September 2020, everyone in the U.S. who leaves me a 5-Star review will get their own custom jingle performed on my show!!! What? Yeah!

For the third of this month’s Listener Favorite episodes, I present Under Covers “Nadia” These Under Covers episodes came from a desire to share with women all sorts of amazing and true stories of women of all ages, economic, social and religious backgrounds. What I started to realize is that even though we’re all so different, in many ways we are the same. If you want to take a deep dive into the first ten Under Covers episodes, check out this piece all about all of the conversations on Medium.com. This episode clearly hit a chord with my listeners as it is the third most popular episode of all time. I was completely blown away by this woman’s confidence and how she became the total boss of her sex life while she was still a teenager. We can all learn a lot from her. If you’d like to be interviewed Under Covers, please email me today and we can set it up. Also, don’t forget, all 5-star reviews left this month will receive their very own CUSTOM JINGLE performed by me on the show!!! Come on! Leave me some love and I will sing you a personalized jingle. You can’t put a price on awesome! Alright friends, sit back and enjoy my third most popular episode OF ALL TIME, Under Covers “Nadia” NADIA (That’s not her real name). Just like the previous Under Covers conversations, there’s a lot I could share with you about Nadia in advance, but the truth is, I knew absolutely nothing about her when I started this interview. I didn’t know her age, her job, her socioeconomic status, her religious background, where she lived, nothing. And that was 100% deliberate because these are bits of information we all use to subtly judge and categorize each other in advance. I wanted all of that off the table because going into an interview blind is a great way for me to experience these conversations exactly like you will. I never knew what her answers were going to be. This is all about hearing other women’s stories with no bias whatsoever, and realizing that there may be aspects of another woman’s vastly different life that actually resonates with your own. Suddenly, you’re not so alone anymore. Suddenly things make a little more sense. Maybe by hearing these stories, you can move forward with the knowledge that we’re all in this together and the best way for all of us to start healing is to start sharing our differences with each other. With no judgment. So, I will keep this brief. All you need to know in advance is that Nadia is 31, married and polyamorous. That’s where all similarities end…or begin. MEMORABLE QUOTES “There was a decade of my life where I was like, I’m only going to have sex with you if you excite me tremendously. So that was like a lot of really great sex for a while.” “I’ve always felt constrained by the rules of monogamy.” “The thing with rules is that whenever a rule is set, people want to break it.” “I’m always loving multiple people. That’s a thing that is very real for me.” “I think a lot of people often don’t understand that this kind of arrangement actually requires way more trust. Way more communication.” “Most marriages do end and I’m much more hopeful for the longevity of my partnership now that we are open and talking about these things.” Be sure to check out all of my super fun writing on Medium.com. It’s exactly like the podcast only completely different. Sex Ed The Musical is available on iTunes, Stitcher, Podtail, IHeartRadio, Podbay, Spotify and more. SUBSCRIBE to Sex Ed The Musical HERE and leave a 5-Star Review! During August and September 2020, everyone who leaves me a 5-Star review will get their own custom jingle performed on my show!!! What? Yeah!

For the second of this month’s Listener Favorite Episodes, here are EXPERT BLOWJOB TIPS FROM A GAY MAN As you’re about to hear, there is a very funny backstory to this episode and how it all came to fruition. Basically, it was a last minute Hail Mary that turned into a total blockbuster with my listeners. Which, of course, makes total sense. Now as we all know, Michele Bachmann once said, “No one knows his way around a penis like a gay man.” Or maybe she was talking about her husband? Either way, it’s totally TRUE! That’s why on this episode, I went to THE SOURCE! My very dear friend and “gay husband,” Mr. LaRue, to find out exactly what blowjob techniques will blow a guy’s mind. I hate to call out the Blowjob Education Industrial Complex, whose annual operating budget must 7,504,503% larger than the Cunnilingus Community College budget, but the hard fact is that men are in charge of fucking everything. Which is why womenpeople are inundated with scrillions of classes, magazine articles, listicles, podcasts, instagram posts, Facebook fights, and videos all dedicated to making us Blowjob Beyonces. Cunnilingus tips? Heeeey, look over there! It’s a boner! Here is my irrefutable anecdotal evidence: I invited my pal, sex educator Nina Hartley to teach a blowjob class to some of my vanilla suburban friends in my living room, and it was standing room only! And I have a big living room! On the flip side, I had a cunnilingus class in my house and 6 people showed up. That includes me and one friend who happened to be there just to return the Pyrex baking dish they’d borrowed. So yeah, we’re all getting sucked in to the pressure to become blowjob goddesses. That’s why I decided to go right to the source and got some insane BJ tips from my boo, Mr. LaRue, who knows his way around a boner. You are about to learn things that I’ve never ever heard. And that, my friends, is saying something. This, one of my most popular episodes ever, really sucks! In the good way. Be sure to check out my super fun writing on Medium.com. It’s exactly like the podcast only completely different. Sex Ed The Musical is available on iTunes, Stitcher, Podtail, IHeartRadio, Podbay, Spotify and more. Please SUBSCRIBE to Sex Ed The Musical HERE and leave a 5-Star Review! During August and September 2020, everyone who leaves me a new 5-Star review will get their own custom jingle performed on my show!!! What? Yeah!  

Ladies and gentlemen, Bill is in love... with cinema! Today in the Balcony, we're talking about a movie that has the old man smitten and Sean forgot to watch! What? Yeah. Sean really fucked it up this week and thought that he would be able to remember what happens in this movie he watched a month ago but folks, he doesn't! Lots of Boy Scout memories and lots of a gosh darn honest to goodness fawning over this weird sweet movie. 

Halo! xCloud! PS5! Mulan is coming to Disney+ for $29.99! WHAT? Yeah, listen in.

I’m not the most adventurous eater. In fact, you can say I’m downright picky. There are some foods I flat out refuse to try. Brussels sprouts, lima beans, potato salad — even though I’d never tasted them, I was certain I hated them. Then one day my husband made brussels sprouts and I tried them. And I liked them! Hey Mikey! Now, whenever I’m in the mood, I eat brussels sprouts. Believe it or not, your sexual orientation has a lot in common with brussels sprouts. All of your life you can be convinced that you are ONLY ONE WAY. I am gay and that’s it! I am straight and that’s it! I’m asexual and that’s it! But then someone comes along, lays some serious mack on you and the next thing you know you’re getting a hand job from a hot redhead in a dressing room of the Marshalls in Burbank. Of course, I’m speaking hypothetically. But, there’s a pretty good reason why you don’t have to be so defiantly locked in to your sexual orientation. Like any other trait or restrictive beliefs you might have, there’s always some room for fun and new experiences. Which brings us to the concept of Sexual Fluidity. On this episode, I speak with a woman who’s the all-time Sexual Fluidity champion of the world. Her sexual orientation has taken more thrilling twists and turns than the Monaco Grand Prix. And the best part is, she’s happily going along for the ride. Whether you identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, questioning, intersex, or asexual…or a combination of any of these…or none of them, this show has something for you. Because, whether or not you use the correct terminology, humans don’t actually fit in categories. We’re changeable. Evolving. Allowed to change our minds. We’re all fluid. There’s a funny thing about labels. They don’t really matter at all. As W.C. Fields once said, “It ain’t what they call you, it’s what you answer to.” If you’re curious about where you would land on the sexual orientation scale, in 1948, Drs. Alfred Kinsey, Wardell Pomeroy, and Clyde Martin interviewed thousands of people about their sexual histories. They used this data to develop a Heterosexual-Homosexual Rating Scale—more commonly known as “The Kinsey Scale.” There’s no official “Kinsey Test” you can take to find out your designation. However, many folks have collated the questions and created their own versions of the Kinsey Scale Test designed to determine where you would land on the Heterosexual/ Homosexual spectrum. From the folks who brought you such quizzes as, Which Vegetarian Pizza Topping Are You? and Which Friends Supporting Cast Member Would You Most Like To Murder? here’s a very fun Buzzfeed version of the Kinsey Scale Test. Fun Fact: I took the test and the outcome was hella accurate. Also, it turns out I’m a Mushroom and I’d like to murder Gunther. Sex Ed The Musical is available on iTunes, Stitcher, Podtail, IHeartRadio, Podbay, Spotify and more. Please SUBSCRIBE to Sex Ed The Musical HERE and leave a 5-Star Review! During August and September 2020, everyone who leaves me a new 5-Star review will get their own custom jingle performed on my show!!! What? Yeah!  

July 17, 2020 My wife got really serious with me this morning. Sitting on the sofa while I was daily writing. I could tell by her facial expressions that something wasn’t in a positive place. I laid down my writing instrument and prepared for her message. Looking directly into my eyes she very calmly began, “I’ve been thinking a lot lately. This analogy has come to me and I think it should be shared.” Honestly, I was really starting to embrace for what my assumption was painting as horrible news. She continued, “Covid-19 is like Kevin Bacon. As of today. Everybody is seven degrees of separation with it. Meaning, we all know someone who has Covid-19 or has had it.” On this podcast episode we dive deep into that very subject. Covid-19 is our modern day Kevin Bacon. We all know someone who knows someone who knows someone. This isn’t meant to be a Debbie Downer moment but rather a message of awareness. I can’t believe I wrote message. I’m not preaching here. Not my job. Awareness. Due to the strength of the media we are no longer in control of the way we think therefore our actions and reactions are physically being controlled by outlets making key words their story. I have two great examples on this podcast. REM the band. Two songs. It’s The End Of The World As We Know It and Losing My Religion. The titles formulate an opinion and or emotion in your mind body and soul. The titles! Now let me toss in these headlines. Twitter Hacked Affected Obama, Biden, Bill Gates, Kanye West And More. Millions of Twitter lovers and haters tapped into that headline doing all they could to not get the story but the dirt. Everybody wants dirt. To be the first to own the dirt. To compare our dirt to their dirt. The media! You’re under their spell. We all fall for it every day because it’s an addiction. My dirt isn’t moving or empowering but it woke me up. I’m back to normal. What? Yeah. After my daily early morning walk through the forest with Jazzie I stood in the dining room looking at our beautiful table. The very table where we once played a lot of card and board games during the opening moments of quarantine. The very table where my wife and I once shared breakfast, lunch and dinner every day. Yeah, that table where we’d sit during Zoom and Google Meet conversations with family and friends laughing about anything and everything. We’d get together with other teachers and play games. That’s where we once did it. On that table. Back to normal. Oh! Let me share something with you. It’s The End Of The World As We Know It and Losing My Religion. The lyrics from both songs truly have nothing to do with the image your imagination generated the moment the words came into play. Just a title. Just a headline. How are you doing these days? Are ya back to normal? Asking for a friend…

July 17, 2020 My wife got really serious with me this morning. Sitting on the sofa while I was daily writing. I could tell by her facial expressions that something wasn’t in a positive place. I laid down my writing instrument and prepared for her message. Looking directly into my eyes she very calmly began, “I’ve been thinking a lot lately. This analogy has come to me and I think it should be shared.” Honestly, I was really starting to embrace for what my assumption was painting as horrible news. She continued, “Covid-19 is like Kevin Bacon. As of today. Everybody is seven degrees of separation with it. Meaning, we all know someone who has Covid-19 or has had it.” On this podcast episode we dive deep into that very subject. Covid-19 is our modern day Kevin Bacon. We all know someone who knows someone who knows someone. This isn’t meant to be a Debbie Downer moment but rather a message of awareness. I can’t believe I wrote message. I’m not preaching here. Not my job. Awareness. Due to the strength of the media we are no longer in control of the way we think therefore our actions and reactions are physically being controlled by outlets making key words their story. I have two great examples on this podcast. REM the band. Two songs. It’s The End Of The World As We Know It and Losing My Religion. The titles formulate an opinion and or emotion in your mind body and soul. The titles! Now let me toss in these headlines. Twitter Hacked Affected Obama, Biden, Bill Gates, Kanye West And More. Millions of Twitter lovers and haters tapped into that headline doing all they could to not get the story but the dirt. Everybody wants dirt. To be the first to own the dirt. To compare our dirt to their dirt. The media! You’re under their spell. We all fall for it every day because it’s an addiction. My dirt isn’t moving or empowering but it woke me up. I’m back to normal. What? Yeah. After my daily early morning walk through the forest with Jazzie I stood in the dining room looking at our beautiful table. The very table where we once played a lot of card and board games during the opening moments of quarantine. The very table where my wife and I once shared breakfast, lunch and dinner every day. Yeah, that table where we’d sit during Zoom and Google Meet conversations with family and friends laughing about anything and everything. We’d get together with other teachers and play games. That’s where we once did it. On that table. Back to normal. Oh! Let me share something with you. It’s The End Of The World As We Know It and Losing My Religion. The lyrics from both songs truly have nothing to do with the image your imagination generated the moment the words came into play. Just a title. Just a headline. How are you doing these days? Are ya back to normal? Asking for a friend…

Laughing makes you lose weight! What?? Yeah, Diane Sawyer had a doctor on her show who said 15 minutes of laughing equals 30 minutes on the treadmill! Isn't that great! There's real science behind that statement, but if you're trying to get people's attention with humor, you don't have to have a statement backed by science.   The Saturday edition of Finding the Funny, which means I'll be giving you a tip to find the funny yourself! I've written for everyone from the Tonight Show to radio, syndicated cartoon strips, CEO's, companies like wart removal cream makers, and even guests on the Jerry Springer show. I now travel the country showing people how to use humor in business.   So here's your 60 second tip to find humor . . . make a counterintuitive statement, like laughing will make you lose weight, and then come up with funny reasons why laughing will do that. Statements that go against what we normally believe grab people's attention and get them to listen to you. It's sort of like Jay Lenos funny headlines he did on his show. He'd read actual headlines, that weren't meant to be funny, but they were because of the way they were written.   you can also come up with a dozen other, fun reasons why laughing helps you lose weight. You can't eat while you're laughing You may actually spit food out of your mouth while you're laughing Running to the bathroom because you're about to wet your pants from laughing   And that's my November tip. If you want to get people's attention quickly, then say something counterintuitive and then "prove" it with a little humor.   Attending our safety meeting will make you rich! Attending our safety meeting will help you lose weight! Attending the safety meeting will make you popular!   Have some fun and use your imagination, be outrageous. Send me an email if you want some ideas to these, or other, counterintuitive lines . . .I'm happy to help you out!   Remember, when using humor in business, your goal is to grab people's attention, give them a chuckle, and take an action (like attend your safety meeting). Using humor helps you do all of that!    

Dr. Susan Tamasi is a pedagogist at Emory University. Spending the last decade and a half researching, authoring and teaching some of the brightest minds to communicate. The thing is, her approach to education and leaning is filled with a casual and comfortable tone. conventioNOT episodes are filled with interviews, but none quite like this.  Dr. Tamasi informs Mike and McD about the NBC Pronunciation Standards they learned as elementary students and dives deeper into the fundamentals of communication in the US. Shockingly enough, her drive as a linguist isn't to speak all of the languages... but to understand the people who do.  Show Transcription: 00:05 Hey everybody, welcome and thanks so much for joining us on today's episode of conventioNOT, I'm Ryan and I chat with Dr. Susan Tamasi, the program director of linguistics at Emory University.   00:16 What does that mean? That means Susan's studies the way people talk, specifically in the English language, she travels around the country around the world, listening, mostly listening,   00:31 but appreciating and understanding that the idea and the goal is communication.   00:39 We thought it was a pretty good time to share this message, and we can't think of a better person to communicate it.   00:48 I think Ryan and I have admittedly always been students so the way people interact with one another.   00:54 If that's the case, and Dr. Tamasi is definitely the Professor.   00:59 This conversation to me was one of the more fascinating ones we've had on the show, but I think you'll find it interesting, educational and thought provoking. It was heartfelt and pretty deep. Because I think we all need to take some more time to understand communication. If nothing else, just listen to one another. On that note, sit back relax. Check out this episode with Dr. Susan Tamasi.   01:32 We are recording.   01:34 Look at that. So, I guess, Mike, is it like 6am for you? You got coffee? I've got a beer. I do have my coffee. But no, it's noon. I mean, I've been up for a couple hours now. I mean, I'm doing pretty good. I'm well into my work day.   01:55 Our guests, Dr. Susan Tamasi was kind enough today to join us a little bit after work hours, I guess it's six o'clock eastern time, which is probably a little bit closer to what we're trying to record. Anyway, a little bit more casual interview.   02:09 But we're really glad to have you today. I'm excited to be here. Do you think you could take a second to introduce yourself? Sure. So I'm Susan Tamasi. My official title is professor of pedagogy and the director of the program and linguistics at Emory University, where I've been teaching for 17 years now.   02:33 Yeah, I live in Atlanta, Georgia. And I'm really excited to be here.   02:38 All right, right away. That word you used professor of. I've heard that. enunciate, oh, I'm gonna screw up a bunch of stuff today. So say that in normal people where it's like, what does that mean? teaching? It means teaching. That's all it means is what's pedagogy? God's here, go, gee, what's that word? What's the entomology of that word? entomology, the bugs of it.   03:12 One of my old roommates was an entomologist. So we had lots of jokes about me doing entomology around the house.   03:20 He also would bake with bugs, which always made things really, really interesting when they like, oh, a cookie. Oh, it has worms in it. Fantastic.   03:29 So pedagogy references,   03:33 not just teaching, but also the study about teaching and best practices and understanding, you know, different types of teaching and strategies and recognizing what's best for students and for those that are teaching them and the right materials. So I don't actually do research on teaching itself. But the position that I have is teaching focused as opposed to research focused. So yeah, that's, that's my title. How long have you been at Emory for 17 years? I just finished my 17th year. Congratulations. That's, that's quite a tenure. Does that include your time as a student? No. So that was a an additional for earlier on. So I went to Emory in the early 90s, fully dating myself now.   04:24 And then I left and I did a great little stint in the marketing, in marketing in the music industry, and realize that it sounded super cool. And I absolutely hated the work that I was doing. And I hated where I was, and I hated everything about it. So I went back to school for the thing that I started drawing Venn diagrams, and realize that I was really interested, like what drew me to music was youth subcultures and how communities interact with one another and   05:00 And I had been a Russian major at Emory. So I was, you know, also interested in language and how that comes across, and how it connects to community and society and identity. And so I started drawing all these Venn diagrams and realized linguistics was in the middle. So I went back to school for that. And six years after that started teaching at Emory, because one of my old professors needed somebody to come in and help with the program. And I just basically stayed until they started, kept signing my contract, so I wouldn't leave.   05:36 That sounds like such a simple approach.   05:40 What Yeah, sometimes they don't just show back up every year. I mean, clearly,   05:45 something pretty productive in your time.   05:49 I mean, you know, I just, I just kind of hang out until they finally said, Okay, I wore them down, I think, or, you know, I put in so much blood, sweat and tears that they finally said, All right, we get it, we get it. You can you can have this. Yeah. Where are you from that region. Like Originally, I know, you said you like when did your schooling there but like you grew up in that area. So I grew up in a suburb, Marietta east, Cobb, that's about 45 minutes ish north of Atlanta. So it didn't, I didn't go too far away from college. But it was far enough that my parents weren't going to show up. And then I left, I keep coming back to Georgia, I go away, I come back, I got away, come back. But it's it's home. So it's nice to be able to have a job that I love near my family, especially as my parents get older, it's been really nice to have that opportunity. Like, I feel like the time in full disclosure, Susan and I have known each other for a few years. But I feel like that time from what I understand around Atlanta that like, from the let's say, basically, from the time that the Olympics were announced that they were coming to Atlanta to the time with which you're talking about like you go to college, and you go through there, that it becomes kind of an urban epicenter. Was that part? I mean, certainly, that's part of your formation as a young person growing up in around the city that it is, but was that part of what dictated your career? Somehow? Um, I think it might have. So what dictated my career in terms of where I ended up, was the fact that I came from a family from New Jersey and was raised in the suburban south. And so the idea of how people sounded and what language that they used was something that was talked about a lot around my household, or you know, in terms of either making fun of people or just like, Oh, you know, the families just like dialect, right? Like, yeah, yeah. Okay. Yeah. So I mean, that's what I do. I actually, my, my focus now is looking at the attitudes and perceptions that people have about dialects in the United States. So from there, there's a direct correlation. But it was also that I grew up in a suburban environment, I came into the city a lot, I had lots of interactions with people from around the country.   08:15 You know, around the world a little bit. I mean, I was kind of somewhat isolated in that, you know, we had some international students and stuff, but it wasn't nearly what I'm around right now.   08:25 And but it was, it was that experience that you know, you should travel and that you should see people in places and meet different types of people. I think that was the setup. That allowed me to   08:39 kind of see positivity and identity and diversity and kind of explore that throughout my life, both professionally and personally.   08:51 Holy shit, I'm so fascinated what you do, like, I'm sorry, I'm gonna be um,   08:59 this is gonna be awkward, cuz I'm gonna throw some questions out there that may make me so really, I hate being ignorant. Obviously, I hope everyone hates being ignorant. But there are just some things that, you know, I don't want to sound ignorant with any of my questions, but you will not I do something that's really weird that most people have. I mean, people like what do you do for a living? I'm like, I'm a linguist, and everybody just goes,   09:22 I have no idea what that means. And that's fine. And I love talking about it. Also, stop me and ask questions if I skip over something because I talk about this all day, every day. And so some, you know, judging how much detail to go into,   09:40 you know, if it's too much jargon, but like, I just love that this is such a tangible topic, right? I mean, unless you've never left here, your little county lines, um, you've heard some folks say the same words in a different way. You know, and I don't. I love that you're able to trace that back to you know, like,   10:00 Young a young age you had that that? Whether it was an interest or just the ongoing kind of joke in the house, you know, alright, can I say this? Like,   10:11 your family's from New Jersey? So do people in New Jersey think their accent is the norm? And everyone else talks by me? Like, is that just the natural? So the So the answer to that is generally speaking people think that whatever they sound like or whatever people around them sounds like that that's exactly what everybody should be speaking. And in fact, we can we refer to this in some instances when people are pretty secure and confident about their own speech. We call it linguistic security. Michigan tends to have the most linguistically secure people,   10:54 people like,   10:55 Yeah.   10:59 Like, I don't have an accent, like, Yes, you do. Um, New York, New Jersey, and the South East are three areas in the United States that have pretty heavily stigmatized, dialects, ways of speaking, that are talked about pretty openly in the media. You know, growing up, I thought, Okay, well, I mean, I'm Southern, and I have some some parts of my speech that are Southern, but I don't sound like those people over there. Those are the real Southern people. So there's, there's definitely a stigma that's really well known. So it wasn't that, like my family in New Jersey necessarily thought that they had the best speech, but they didn't necessarily think it was that bad. And the people, my family in Georgia, same thing, or they're like, Oh, you know, there are people that are worse. And I understand the perceptions of that some people think it's bad. But you know, this is my people. This is like, yeah, I mean, that's mom's cooking, right?   12:02 That's what it tastes like cast, right. And so I guess it's, well, not only is it supported by media, in a lot of like sitcom media. But there's also like experiences from that perspective. So having lived and worked in the southeast, and then coming from Michigan, and it's funny, I want to come back to this because we were actually taught that we talk normal. I mean, Mike, I don't know if you remember this or not. But like, I remember being taught that the Midwest accent is the   12:30 neutral. Yeah, maybe not good or bad, but just not on any side. If you look at it as like elementary education, like part of elementary education, we taught that right? For us, there certainly is a component with which well, I guess that contributes to your statement, right, Susan? But like, you know, being so confident and an overcomer. And that, but there certainly is in the southeast or in the northeast? And this is kind of a question like, you really can diagnose where somebody is from, I think a little bit easier than you can, let's just say west of the Mississippi.   13:07 I don't want to be so bold as to say why is that right? Because that could I'm sure be a huge answer. But could you give us some indicators on like, how that ends up happening? Can we just include of those five cities? You mentioned earlier? Can we include Boston in the Boston is?   13:22 Like, yeah, no.   13:25 So So there, there are a couple of things to talk about. So the way that language works is language is always changing and transforming. And it always works to meet the needs of its speakers. And as one of the things that happens all the time is light. I mean, one of the there are very few universals about language. The Universal is that language always changes. And now what happens is language will always change at different times in different places, and among different groups of people. So why do people in England sound differently than people in the United States, because people picked up and they moved over and they planted here. And then these two sets of people change differently over time. And so now we have two different lenses and variables. Yes. And so as people come together and split apart, their language continues to change. And so the people that split might sound like them for a little while, but then they'll start to sound a little bit different. So every place in the United States has to some extent, it depends on how closely you want to look or where you want to divide the lines. Everywhere has its own accent everywhere has its own dialect.   14:35 And I mean, in my class, I draw lots of maps and have, you know, people moving across the country and saying that   14:45 what happened was on the East Coast of the United States, so the places that were settled by English speakers earliest these are the areas Boston New York, Charleston, New England, Savannah   15:00 Ron,   15:01 Richmond, these are all the places that had their language set before the American Revolution. It's changed over time, but like that was in place. Now what happened is as those people moved west, this is my little This is my, as people moved west, they all started to interact with one another. So on the West Coast 5060 years ago, everybody's kind of sounded a lot of like, compared to the people on the East Coast, which still had those pretty distinct differences. Now, what's happening is in the last 2030 years, we're watching as the West Coast is changing as well. Northern California sounds different from Southern California, the Pacific Northwest sounds different than fornia. And one of the most interesting thing that's, that's going on right now that we've been able to track for the last 50 years, is there's there's a shift in how people are speaking along the northern part of the US. And it's happening just in cities. It's happening in Detroit. It's happening in Milwaukee, it's happening in Buffalo in Minneapolis, St. Paul Chicago.   16:15 And so those areas that used to be considered just like the common standard American Speech, actually, people speak more differently. Now they're   16:26 versus the rest of the country than they ever did. So now that's an area where I can actually pick out somebody from Michigan a lot easier than I can pick out somebody from most places in the United States anymore. Man, I could speculate all over that. I wonder how much digital communication and therefore so like, if I communicate digitally all day, do I become more Nucleic in the way that my localized accents affect me? If that makes sense, right? I don't know. That's so   16:57 that's a cool subject, man. Yeah, sorry. But those are two sides. So people always say, Well, I mean, and this happened with radio, it happened with TV, it happened with the internet, oh, with x technology, people are gonna start sounding more like, what happens is that doesn't happen.   17:14 What it does happen is you understand more people, because you're used to hearing them, like a standard British dialect, we have no problem hearing now. Because we hear it all the time.   17:26 you're interacting with more people you're hearing more people than you would have never heard before. It's not necessarily changing your speech a whole lot. Because it's still only a small part of what's going on and you don't interact with the radio or TV, you kind of have to have that interaction for it to affect you.   17:44 So people would always say like, oh, the United States, everybody is going to start speaking the same. We're actually speaking differently from one another. But these types of communication systems does allow us to have influence from people that we wouldn't expect,   18:00 or that we wouldn't have had before. I just   18:05 there's no one to answer one of the earlier questions that you guys had, the reason you were taught that you had, like, the standard best way of speaking was when we decided to create a media standard when TV, TV and radio were happening 30s 40s 50s   18:26 they went to the Midwest, and wrote down what people sounded like and said this, and actually, you can still find that booklet. It's the NBC standard national broadcast on people from the Midwest. That's Yeah, it's not Midwest, people found that out. We're like, we're good at something. We're gonna make sure everyone knows it. Right. Like it was, it was democratically American, the West, the East Coast, nobody knew what was going on in the West Coast, the East Coast was to had too much. Yeah, a reminiscence of previous times. It makes sense. I have just so many, because like I admitted earlier, like, once you started getting into this, I just have so many, like, entertaining anecdotes over the years that are very specific to this topic. And but they're all they're all related to travel. Um, and like what you're saying earlier about, you know, the change in the language and you know, that it the further back the roots go, you know, the less altered it has been over time. And I didn't even think about like, West Coast. I mean, in the fact that you say now, there are starting to be, you know, like, pockets of very different language along the west coast. Like, that's just   19:42 that makes sense. You know what I mean, but it's just the 30 years from now, people from Oregon are gonna sound completely different than people from San Diego and like, to me a kid from Michigan, maybe not, I mean, I don't know that's probably an extreme but the idea that you can pick that up um,   20:00 That's such a unique like, you must.   20:04 I love when musicians talk about just noises. You know what I mean? Because it's like, What are you talking about? Man, there's no, there's no beat, like, that's a street car, you know, but you must just hear noise, human noise in a, in a in a very different way. I was gonna say beautiful, but there's probably so much going on.   20:24 It's all beautiful. I love it all. I recognize like, I notice a lot of it, I don't notice a lot of it because I don't want to work all the time. Or sometimes you just turn it off. I've been out at cocktail parties and somebody starts talking about something. I'm like, Oh, can I can you guys make me not like, I don't want to work right now? Do we have to talk about this? And they're like, Oh, yeah, you do this for a living? And then they start asking questions like, okay.   20:50 But I'm actually kind of really bad at telling where people are from based on their speech, because there is so much interaction at this point, unless, you know, something comes out that's very specific of like, Oh, I know that one individual word or pronunciation is rarely used outside of this particular community. So sure, you know, I do that. But you know, when I hear it, I'm like, ooh. And my husband is like, really, you're gonna pick up on that.   21:18 So this might be a little bit of a good pivot point. Right. And so, you know, as we talked, the show is about both. And since you mentioned your husband, one of the things that has always infatuated me about you guys, is that you are in constantly in a pursuit of education about people in a constant pursuit about education around the world, actually, no, that's a big part of the way that y'all invest your resources. They call us y'all, they're almost almost comes off the tongue as if I don't say dollar.   21:52 Ultimately, I know that   21:55 you invest your dollars, and your resources, more importantly, experienced this around the world. So talk to us a little bit about that, because not so much, you know, in the academic format. I'm fortunate enough to see some of the the Facebook post and some of the beautiful pictures that Jamie takes when you guys experienced this, but how does that help inform your travel around the world?   22:17 Um, I mean, you know, he and I have made a pact A while ago, I don't know, implicitly or not   22:25 that I think we made a pact. But I don't know if we actually did,   22:30 it was just a decision that was somehow made that we work too hard just to kind of hang around here that when we have time off. And that's really when I have time off because I have a very specific schedule, as a teacher, that whenever I have any time off, so   22:48 winter break, spring break, summer, that we go somewhere. And as we've gotten older and have had the means to do it, we go broader and broader and where we can go around the world.   23:01 I was actually supposed to be presenting at a conference in Hong Kong this week. So that didn't happen. And I've never, never done Asia. So I'm really looking forward to the webinars not gonna be the same as going to Hong Kong. Well, they, yeah, they said, they didn't even try to do it online. They're like, we're just gonna postpone it for a year. It's a conference that happens every other year. So they're just gonna postpone this time.   23:28 So it's just and it's funny, because I gotta backtrack for a split second. Whenever I tell people that I'm a linguist, the inevitable answers that anybody gets who is a linguist. There are two responses, one Oh, I better watch what I say. Which is kind of ironic, since I'm the one who studies language variation and dialects and all of that. And like, yeah, I'm the last person to judge anybody's grammar. But the what most linguists get as the response is, oh, how many languages do you speak? Ah, that's the same thing. But lol and that's just it like everybody's just because they also use the word term linguist as translator, which is a totally different thing.   24:12 And so when people say, how many languages do you speak, I'm like, one, I speak English. That's what I study. I even I don't even study all of English. I study American English.   24:22 And I study the history of English. So we travel so much, it's kind of funny, because we were like, Oh, you must, you know, know all these languages and go all these places and like, now, it was just kind of really nice to go someplace and not hear people speaking English for a while, and just absorbing observations. Like, I'm not paying attention to what people are talking about, like if people are talking about politics, or if they're talking about somebody's clothing or just like completely banal inane, whatever they're discussing, and not picking up on that making. It's it's   25:00 not pulling me into that, which can happen around here. And I don't try to be judgmental, but sometimes like, what are you guys talking about?   25:09 Because I do use drop a lot. But it just allows me to travel and just watch people and eat and drink and experience architecture in all of the beauty that's around and the amazing aspects of people,   25:28 just by kind of not knowing and giving myself the opportunity to be aware of things that I'm not always aware of. So that, for me is a key aspect of of travel and being able to, to do that. So Ryan, I'm not sure if that really kind of got to what you're asking, but it did, right. I know, because of some of our previous discussions that learning the language, I know you're not the person. And there are people like this who gain a benefit from deciding they're going to go somewhere. And then they use, there are a lot of modalities. Now I think you could teach yourself on language to be able to survive that. And so, you know, maybe five years ago when I learned that this was something that you all invested resources in, right, because affordability hopefully changes for all of us right over time. And that's what we want to so many people spend every waking hour working on. But the possibility of going somewhere with your kind of background. I mean, I think almost I don't like the word assume. But I think that a lot of times it would be assumed or typecast that that you somebody like you would be going there to know all of the language to immerse yourself in that. And so that to me, always struck me as one of the like magical parts about knowing you all as a couple you as a person, because it wasn't about that it is about the way that that informs how you like take in all of the art, you mentioned the architecture and you know the pieces of the creativity in the areas you go that draw you and so there's no shortage of that here in Atlanta. But it's not like it's just too much English speaking though, she needs to go somewhere non English speaking just fine. I love I love traveling around the US as well. It's just really nice. So as you said like it's it's seeing and experiencing a different culture language is definitely a part of that. But it's it's the bigger aspect that I'm that I'm interested in as well.   27:30 And like so we do we learn at least some phrases I can I know probably how to ask for a table for two in order a bottle of wine in a good dozen languages at this point. So you know, we get that down. Before we go places, both of us will have kind of some of the basics. And we've studied languages that allow us to at least get some of those   27:54 general interactions pretty pretty well. We can kind of work some things out. And I've never been to a place yet where I didn't know that alphabet. So that's helpful to like being able to read signs and plaques and things like that. If you went to Hong Kong, you would have known the alphabet now No.   28:14 So I have a year, too. But in Hong Kong, I mean English as an official language. So actually, I'm not really worried about.   28:24 But in Yeah, my job also was to learn when we rent a car, I have to learn all the traffic rules of that country. That's my job as we go replaces. So you know, we'll learn a lot and we have part of that. But we also recognize that we're getting this much of the culture and this much of the language.   28:41 And instead of going back to the same place over and over again, to get a deeper understanding of that, we've made a choice to keep trying other places. So I mean, we recognize that we're getting surface level discussions and observations with people.   29:00 But, you know, it also allows us to have a very much broader view of the world. So   29:08 man, I just leave what I think is a broader view of the world. I don't know if everybody love and I'm sorry, because you You didn't paint this picture. But I've gone ahead and painted it in my mind of Gee, like, just deciding based on language alone, like now, I don't know, mainly English speaking. Let's avoid that one. Like, we don't need that. We know what they're saying there. I mean, because that different forms of English New Zealand was awesome. I'm so excited.   29:38 That is what I was getting at in a very roundabout way, which isn't a strength of mine to be succinct and direct. But if you've been to Hawaii before, yes. Okay. Um, so, you know, Ryan and I grew up suburban Detroit. My wife and I moved to Toronto. We lived in Canada for eight years.   30:00 Where I was often asked like, Are you from the south, and I would often very entertaining conversations with people about how I said hockey and things like that. Then I moved to Hawaii, and   30:15 I had never really lived   30:17 in, in an area where there was a   30:22 what's the right term for a severe alteration of English? I mean, I know what they call it here. I will, I will go one further. It's not a severe alteration. It's such a severe alteration, it's an interaction with other languages. It's a totally different language, pigeon. It's like it is. So you have Hawaiian English, but you also have Hawaiian pidgin English, or a totally different language. And it is, to me, it's the thing of like, in like, because I'm the type of person like, I just love differences in people. Like, that's something ever since I was a little kid, you know, my parents would be like, Michael, you cannot walk up to strangers and ask them about their hair, you know, like I was just like, but I've never seen someone with hair like, so I moved out here. And I'm lucky enough to have met a variety of people, including quite a few fishermen. One of the things that I love and respect the most about a lot of the guys that I fish with, is the fact that they can turn it on and off. So they will literally, they will speak to me and clean No, because they have their nine to five jobs. They're not on the boat all the time, guys, with their nurses mechanics of variety thing. They speak to me in plain English. And then they turn 90 degrees and speak to the other guys on the boat. And the language I cannot I might pick up like a 10th I kind of get what they're talking about.   31:49 And I love it. I just sit back and there's times where they're like, Mike, Mike, and I'm like, What? Like, we're talking to you, man. I'm like, Whoa, you gotta slow it down, or use some directional pointed stuff like, and it's just the best ongoing joke. I mean, I I can guarantee half the time they don't know they've switched. It's generally it's just the way it Yeah, this is the way I talk to this person. And so this is how I say it. When I'm talking. I think.   32:18 I think it's such an incredible ability, like cuz I imagined my buddy at work as a nurse, you know, when he's, he's talking to the doctor who graduated from Washington or whatever. Um, but then he's got to turn around and talk to this patient. And like, a lot of the times the patients and there's communities here in Hawaii, where it's, that's all they speak at home is Pidgin, right? So I cannot communicate to that patient to the same ability that my buddy, can you know what I mean? Like, yeah, and usually wait quicker to like, the thing I love about pigeon is that like, that was three sentences, you just smashed into two words. And the person you're talking to knew exactly, I don't know what you're talking about. But that person knew. And Damn, you got right to the point real quickly. Yeah, no, it's it's an amazing language to listen to. And there's such a connection there. And there was Hawaii has such a history of them trying to smash it.   33:21 Like the educational system trying to push it out. And there was, you know, people being punished for speaking it. And there's a resurgence,   33:29 where more people are learning pigeon, and and,   33:34 you know, using it in different areas. So in night, and you've seen you've given a perfect example, right, why it's important to have   33:46 it one of the other things I study is health communication. So the idea of this, this, like health care provider and patient interaction, where it needs to be, not only when the patient doesn't understand the more standard or doesn't understand English, like doesn't understand why in English, that you have to go into Pidgin to be able to get the point across, but also in a situation where you're also trying to comfort somebody, being able to speak to them in the home language actually, can make things easier and calmer, as opposed to just not just whether or not somebody understands but are you really communicating in a positive way?   34:35 Do you ever wonder why Mike and I spend all these hours talking to people? Well, mostly it's because we're curious. Secondarily, it's because we'd like to share the stories of people as we learn how to become better journalists. In order to help us out we would love if you take a second and give us some feedback on your podcast channel. just pause the episode, go and write us a review. Give us as many stars as you want. We'll love to read it.   35:05 Is that a different?   35:08 Let me let me rephrase that. What is the learning approach to something like that when you are, let's just take the physician example. Right? Because you know, in a lot of times, unless you are from that place originally, you're coming back there to work in that area you a lot of times professionals and healthcare placed in places. How do you how do you bridge that gap? I mean, I know that's your area of study, what are some things that you could share with us that help the layman understand how that gap gets bridged?   35:40 Um, well, one of the things that happens is a medical school does everything in their power to train doctors how to think and speak like other people are not like other people, I'm sorry. Like, it's you now have to think like a doctor, you have to interact with one another doctor, like you are, you are no longer of the people, you are experts in this field, and you need to show that. So you have things like case presentations, where   36:14 studies have found that when they're testing interns and residents on whether or not they can present their their cases, I guess med students, when they if they can do a case presentation, it has more to do with Are you using the right language? And are you presenting it confidently, as opposed to are you actually correct.   36:33 So, so that's one aspect of it. So having crossing that divide can be anything from, I recognize that the way I'm speaking as a health care provider is not the same. And I need to change the way I speak when I'm interacting with patients.   36:53 You know, we talk when whenever anybody switched between two different languages, or two different dialects, or even different just modes of speaking, we talked about it as code switching. So it might be that you're using one set of vocabulary and grammar with, you know, the nurse or the other doctor, and then you turn to your patient, and you make sure that you're using language that that particular community, that particular person can understand. Of course,   37:25 that's hard to do. And you know what, you have to be willing to do that. And you have to be willing to be trained to do that. And depending where you practice and what you're doing, there can be a whole lot that is involved in it. And it might be that it nobody wants a doctor that comes to them and start speaking in a dialect that's not their own, right.   37:47 It's just like, Oh, I think I think you're gonna speak this way. So I'm gonna start speaking because that's just that awful. I'm so it's   37:57 sorry, was that that's a sitcom. I think about so many language train wrecks that happened with sitcoms on health care. I mean, yes. A lot. Do you remember the movie airplane? Course? Yeah. Excuse me, stewardess. I speak jive, you know? And yeah. Oh,   38:15 yeah. Okay, what is happening here? Um, you know, so things could go very wrong very quickly. But it's the idea of recognizing that that people communicate differently and being willing to talk differently, or at least, listen, seems seems like a real crucial theme today. Right? Just maybe the first step is recognition. Not Not knowing Yeah, the answers, but maybe just recognizing, you know, and maybe not trying to answer yourself and listen for a second and say about it.   38:50 On that note, though, I have another question.   38:54 All right, so I'm gonna be replaying that phrase code switching over and over, as it's just a really cool sounding term to NPR has an entire area called code switch, that's a set of podcasts? Well,   39:09 that's what I was gonna ask you and not i'm not presumptuously because I would imagine that the kind of neurological activity and behavior of people with varying linguistic abilities, and I think I'm trying to sound smart, but basically people that can bounce around from language to language or code switch very efficiently.   39:32 Can you talk at all about like the brain act, I'm not asking you to say those people are smarter than others, but is that like something that you've studied or kind of delved into at all? I haven't, there are lots of people who have um, and I mean, so the example of what you were you were you're giving on the boat of your friends talking to you and then talking. Oftentimes when people are switching between   39:56 two languages or two dialects, they don't really recommend   40:00 They do it. They just we, when we're speaking,   40:04 we go for what we think is going to be the best way to communicate.   40:08 And we tried to, there's a thing called linguistic accommodation where we, we want to speak, like the people that we're talking to even minorly. Because it shows us social connection as well. Yeah, yeah. So I mean, languages stored generally in the same place. And I'm not I don't know enough about what's going on in the brain with multiple languages. But you know, you can access it from kids, before they have any idea how to tie their shoes, they're able to switch between multiple languages perfectly without even thinking about it. And it's, it's actually better if you're really thinking about it, you know, you just automatically go back and forth.   40:55 And sometimes you have to make a decision, like if you're, if you're in a place where it's a bilingual place, but you know, that there are different attitudes associated with different ways of speaking. Do you approach somebody you don't know, and you start speaking the language that if both of you speak it, it might connect you as like the local language, but it all could come across as like, I don't think you know this well enough. So I'm going to talk to you.   41:25 You know, there's a lot morally right, yes, yes. So, I mean, there's a lot involved. Oftentimes, people switch between different languages, when they get very emotional. There's certain things that they will automatically say, in one language, or one dialect versus another. Gotcha.   41:46 I know, a couple Spanish, where it's quite well, my wife, the daughter of a Mexican woman, and they're not like, I love you. It's not No, no, no.   41:57 No, it's one of those abilities, though, that I think, you know, when you hear about someone,   42:05 and I'm thinking like Jason Bourne, but that's that's like a stupid example more like, you know, some traveling business person who isn't overly impressive, but can like hang in five different languages, to me that and that's like, maybe a fault of my own that is so exotic, and amazing to me, that I automatically placed that individual's intelligence at like, such. But I think that's because for me, there's nothing more important than being able to talk to other people. And like some prejudice of sorts, right, exactly. Like, I don't think that that that ability necessarily equates to like, that person might not be he might not know how to add, or she may know, you know, not have all that rain.   42:51 So that happens, like some people are just like, sometimes people get elected, you can imagine.   42:59 One reading is a very, very different skill.   43:04 Yeah, let's, let's let's get into that one in a second.   43:08 No, absolutely. So I there's a joke that says, What do you call somebody who speaks multiple languages? Somebody who's multilingual, what do you call somebody who only speaks one language? American? Yeah. Now no. reality. Right. So use you saying that, you know, somebody going around speaking five different languages is exotic for most of the world. That's just their daily basis, you have to speak most communities around the world speak at least two, usually three, and more languages for interacting, because you have small communities that have historically spoken languages. And as people move around, you speak with them. So that's, that's like multilingualism is actually the norm. We're weird and not speaking multiple languages normally, but it also Yeah, for us, it's, we have this idea as Americans that's like, Oh, well, you must be really smart to be able to speak multiple languages must be like a secret agent or something, you know.   44:10 And they're in and the idea of like, but you know, how do you speak five languages, but you can't read anything. Like for us there's a disconnect, but that's, that's a pretty normal, like, Girl. If you grew up in The Hague, you speak for four languages. Yeah. And like, you might not have graduated high school, but yeah, you speak four languages. Like that's just that's the and that was my experience in Toronto. Um, is, is you know, it's a it's a matter of need, right? I mean, man, a lot of people learn a whole new language just for a vacation. When you move there about 30 days in, you get tired asking for the same thing every day. Right? So you learn what the next thing is, and   44:51 it's a it's such a cool topic for me I could go on and on and on about this. I this is tied to this every day.   45:00 For the last 20 years,   45:04 and as a teacher, I pull more people into my world, I'm like, come with me, come talk to me about this, I can imagine that this is gonna be a multi part interview I talked   45:15 a little bit about, like, are asking the expert type discussions, you know, for our listeners in they've heard a couple of them now, Mike, you know, where we're taking a little bit different angle above and beyond just the interview components, but there's kind of, there's this like initiation thing that you have to go through, you have to be interviewed, before we get into the expert part. So I could do this. I know we're getting close to our hour here. But I really, if I could I want to ask one real final question. These from from my camp, which is   45:48 it's no secret to most people who are listening now that we have this time in what started in America with the world that is relative to race and brutality in, in what's going on, right. And so, this show is not about that. And, you know, we are an episodic show, meaning that we talk a lot about things that we hope could be published for years on end. And it's an autobiography, biography type of an interview that we're hoping to achieve today. But when you think about unity across the world, and you think about how language affects unity,   46:24 myopically here in the United States, relative to you know, the current exacerbation has to do with police brutality, and this ever burning, you know, very true   46:36 difference in races in the United States and difference in socio economic ways that that works out in your life, or how does language save us? Like, I don't want to make it so prophetic, but like, how, how does that help? Like how, how do we how do we, how do we become better partners to each other better tribes, as groups to other tribes to let language start to develop peace in this world?   47:04 I love this question. This was a phenomenal question.   47:08 And I do think language can save us. But I also switch it a little bit from not just language, but communication. So it's the idea of being willing to talk to people. And right now what's going on in the United States, being willing to listen, and not passively listen? actively, they call it 360 degree listening, where your brain isn't off thinking about some other stuff. And you're just kind of you're actually listening and processing and thinking through? What is this person telling me? What is this community telling me? What do I not understand? And how can I ask questions so I can understand.   48:02 So I think language can save us by giving us the ability to communicate, but really having the will to communicate and listen and process and think through and speak up. I know, I'm not as good as this as I should be. When you hear something when you hear other people say things that are untrue.   48:26 If not, false, are just on.   48:32 I don't even know the term at this point. Because words are hard.   48:37 Getting You know, when you hear something, it's not always just about correcting but having somebody like, okay, you said this, but what about if you actually think about it from the other person's perspective? Or, you know, what, if you're listening to somebody, I read something the other day that was talking about reactions to these stories that we've been hearing. And in particular, this was the issue that happened in New York City in the park, where   49:05 Amy Cooper called the police. And there was this blog post that I was reading that was talking about how all of these people were saying, Oh, well if it were me, I would be doing something else. If it were no, if I was there, I would have said something if and the blog focused on   49:28 the idea of stop making it about you stop making it about how you're experiencing it and how you feel about it. That's fine process that work with it. But stop and listen to what   49:44 the other people have or you know, all parties you know, the I can't Mr. Cooper, the guy who's I can't remember his first name. Now. That was the birdwatcher that had the police called on him. You know, look at it from his perspective and what was going on. Listen to him.   50:00 Listen to what he has to say. And listen to what he said in the video. So it's I think this is a long winded answer, and I apologize for that. But I think it's the idea of speaking up when you can, listening to one another, the idea of communication, regardless of what language that's in whatever dialect it's in, you know, find a way to understand   50:24 when we talk about people talking to folks with especially that speak stigmatized dialects, like African American English, we use this phrase   50:34 communicative burden, that sometimes as listeners, we just say, I don't understand what that person is saying. Or if it's somebody who hasn't done is non native speaker of English, I'm not going to understand what that person is saying. So I'm not going to listen, or whatever, they're not speaking in a way that I want to follow in that can be politically valid, as you know, in terms of politics, like you've used a term or you're coming from a perspective that I want, don't want. So I'm gonna stop and I'm putting the communicative burden on you to change how you speak. So it's better for me. And that's just not fair. So it's, it's taking that burden onto yourself.   51:18 I hate that you felt the need to apologize for that amazing answer. It's long winded out of need. There's there's no way to none of this is an easy, easy answer. And I, I could not even if I sat down and wrote it over and over again, have have expressed it better than you did. I mean, what I took from that actor is you don't need to speak the most important part of communication isn't what comes out of your mouth. So just shut up. And listen.   51:51 That's the that's the best place to start is just listening and, you know, compassion and greater effort on all of our parts. I that what that communicative burden, another amazing term? There's a version of it, if there's another word, or what was the other link was the other work? All right, yeah. Do   52:16 you guys have very   52:18 phrases?   52:20 But how tragic is that? And you know, what's messed up is like, embarrassingly?   52:26 Well, embarrassingly, I think we all need to just get a little bit better at this, you know, 2030 years ago, growing up in suburban Michigan, it was, it was a lot more acceptable to walk around with that burden. And be like, you know, you're not from here. I don't know why you're talking like that. But you're here, you should talk like us. Like that was, that was a normal attitude from where I'm from. I'm   52:54 like, just, like, just think about think about that shit. Like, I'm sorry to use such a dumb but   53:02 because you move to your 10 years before they did, you have the right to say how people should speak when they move here. And they're seeking the same things that your family was seeking when they came here, and it's just,   53:16 ah, I'm all sweaty.   53:20 Even, even if they are speaking English, the idea of like, well, you're speaking English differently than what I'm then how I'm used to hearing it. So I need I and I'm gonna shut that down. Because I can't understand you. There's, there's this really great study from a professor that I used to work with named Donald Rubin, where he had the same voice, recorded giving a lecture. And then he played it for a group of students. But he had two different pictures. And one was a white dude, I think it was a guy I can't remember, a white person and the other was somebody from East Asia or had features from the East Asia, I should say. And not it's the exact same voice. And the students were like, Oh, I didn't understand that one person I understood. The first one or I didn't understand to the extent that when they were actually questioned, like given up like a pop quiz on the on the lecture, they actually did worse. Because they're like, Nope, I'm not gonna know this person is bad. They just they close their ears do it. And   54:32 hey, thanks for taking time to listen to Mike and I Today, I wanted to talk to you just for one second about reviewing the podcast. It really, really helps us out and it places us higher on search engines, as well as the other podcast channels that publish our show. So if you listen to conventioNOTup, you dig what you hear. Take a second go out, give us five stars, give us a few kind words or just real words, whatever the hell you want to say. out there on the review channel of your podcast show.   55:08 I feel like those are the things that we should know more about as we figure out how to bounce out of this like outrage culture, however, whatever that means to you, because that in its own right is like this incendiary term, right? Like, everybody else is outraged, or I'm outraged or whatever. But ultimately, I feel like combining your first and your answer to the first question, when you say, you know, in summary, like, Listen, stupid.   55:32 The reality is that   55:36 it's what gets communicated. And if you don't pay enough attention to what's trying to be communicated, it's quite possible that you could inform yourself incorrectly. And here are the examples. You know, I mean, not everybody will be able to maybe identify with an example of a lecture in a classroom, but most people probably would, because that is such a distinct thing that I think that almost all of us can identify, you know, when humans are frustrated, at least in my experience, and this I mean, is by what I do, is we reach for a lifeline often, to justify our frustration, and if we can clean to that Lifeline in that Lifeline is incorrect. And it doesn't really save us, right, you know, it's sometimes it occludes us too early. And I wish more people could really approach life with such an open hearted, you know, a perspective, I think that probably requires being open to them when they're young. And when they come to mic, like, like you said, when you're when you're new to the place, so that so that those occlusions don't happen.   56:42 Another good example, to have that beyond the lecture. Example is   56:49 color customer service calls or tech calls. A lot of people have that they just keep hanging up until they get somebody that quote, unquote, speaks American,   57:00 like this person will not be able to help me. Right? Right. That's a real thing like to speak American, like, what a beautiful if we could just get a name and address of everyone who ever uttered that phrase.   57:19 positively, there's a really great   57:24 healthcare communication. Okay, and so we have overseas customer service. Those listeners who know the name of my company, maybe they could do this, I'm not going to link them together this way. But our best incoming customer service English is in the Philippines. Mm hmm. So would you like, like, that's where the phone calls come in. With such English as spot on. Compassion is great. There's very little hang, there's actually, you know, hang up that you could talk about probably from the customer service end, right. And so it's the Philippines. That changes actually, at least in my the past decade that I've been working internationally. Because, especially with healthcare, like you mentioned earlier, that accent is so important, right? However,   58:06 right, wrong, or in different call centers internationally make a heck of a lot less mistakes. A lot of people think it's just about the cost. But we shouldn't typecast that, it's that those international systems, as long as you know, we're able to train them with with the right accent, quote, unquote, right? They make less mistakes, and there's use of data to back it up. I would have never like, I would have just assumed it was 100% function of cost, which is I think,   58:36 is old school ignorant kind of   58:40 presumption. It really is, um,   58:44 oh, man, I'm really, really sharing my ignorance today.   58:49 That but you know, I, like I said, I'm down to be the dude in the crowd that raises his hand and he admits like, Hey, I'm here to be better. Um, I, that's a scary notion and in today's society, but if we all just kind of try a lot harder. That's the kind of unity I don't know. It's, I think it's a lighter question. But you know, I've we've found it sometimes delves into deep, deeper parts of our brains. Um, we asked us of a lot of our guests and I think I'm really really dying to hear   59:23 your response. Doctor, we   59:26 were curious, what do you think the 1516 year old Susie would would would think of what you're up to today where your passions are and kind of, or vice versa? If you if you would rather give some advice to that teenager, you can do that. But I want you to, I want you if you can bounce between now and then.   59:47 Um, I think I think 15 year old Suzy would be surprised, but really pleased with at least with like   1:00:00 The work that I'm doing and where I ended up in terms of a career, the the fact that, you know, me making a couple comments about my mom's accent, and the fact that my cousin's made fun of me for using y'all. It's like, wait, you turn that into a career? Good for you. You've written books on that topic. That's awesome.   1:00:25 You know, I, I think I would be proud of the work that I've been able to do to get people to think about things that they haven't thought about before and think about diversity in ways that   1:00:41 they overlook, oftentimes, I mean, we didn't throw around the word diversity so much when I was 15, and 16. But   1:00:50 But I think the I think that type of thing was in the back of my mind, at that point, I was interested at 16, I was starting to get interested in the idea of travel and other languages.   1:01:04 When I was I think I was 16, maybe 17, when I started studying Russian,   1:01:10 which is what I majored in, in college, still can't speak it, but that's what I meant.   1:01:16 So I think the fact that I would say, Oh, you went with that, but turned it into something different, I think I would be disappointed in the fact that I can't speak Russian fluently, or I can't speak Italian, which is what my family historically speaks, that I couldn't speak anything fluently. I think, I think I'd be like, really, you've had this long, you couldn't, you couldn't have worked with that.   1:01:38 But yeah, I but the idea of me being a teacher and a researcher, and an academic, would have shocked the crap out of me, because I, my parents didn't go to college.   1:01:51 I didn't know anybody who was a professor, I had no, there was no experience that would have made me think like, oh, teaching is the right role for you. And even when I entered a graduate program, I wasn't even thinking about that. I just wanted to learn some more. So I'd be really, really surprised to know that on a regular basis, you know, sometimes daily, I get up in front of 100 people and talk about stuff. And I am perfectly happy doing that. I love doing that, actually, what could the 16 year old version of you want more, you just said your career, I get a smile on your face has only gotten bigger the variety of subjects we've covered today, it's just a, you mentioned something there that I do have to touch upon, just that you forged this past yourself. Um, and that's, it's a common theme. A lot of our guests. I mean, it's called conventioNOTthat for a reason, um, but to me just say both of my parents are educators, you know, my, my dad has his PhD in education. My mom got her master's in the 80s. Um, but they don't, they're not engineers, they don't do what I do. Um, and so I really, I love that this was completely out of nowhere. And nobody you didn't have anybody to look up to and say, Yeah, that looks okay, I'll, I'll go down that path. So, to me, you get an extra applause for   1:03:18 you know, going out on this limb on your own and then making it awesome. Because you I mean, you use there's no way people meet you and wonder if you're happy and in your career and in your in your life, because you   1:03:31 and you're in the right spot.   1:03:33 You know, we get to spend a lot of like, personal time together. And sometimes wine comes out and all that kind of stuff and the nature of our lives. Yeah. Right. Sometimes the nature of our,   1:03:45 my wife, Anna, and   1:03:48 Susan's husband, Jamie, we were able to share some of our observances about where we're good at each other,   1:03:57 with each other, not at each other. But one of the things that is always so inspirational is about the way that that continually becomes kind of like part of our conversation. I always think when when we're in these groups of couples sharing about a line or whatever that might be, and I can't help but think that that's what dictates to like, being able to open up into conversations like this today, or really the way that you do, being able to influence young minds. You know, I mean, we didn't talk a lot about that today. Because, well, there was no reason we didn't talk about it. We're learning today. But I know that that's a big part of what makes you tick is to be able to have those relationships and to follow students getting into law school and making those you know, next steps to influence the world. So I hope that someday we could get you to come back and talk a little bit more about that.   1:04:48 In the meantime, if I want to get a hold of you, or if there's something that I there's this kind of two questions, one, how do I kind of you know, get a hold of you in the appropriate manner. But also, if I didn't want   1:05:00 Get a hold of you. But I want to learn about a career, whether that be in linguistics or as an educator, where would I go? And then I'll wrap us up however we do that, but this is this has really been one of our better interviews. I really appreciate this today. Thanks. I've had so much fun with this. Thank you so much. I'm so my full contact information is through the Emory University website, the linguistics program there and anybody can always reach out to me, send me an email is probably the best way to do it. And I'm happy to answer any questions that people have. There are a ton of resources out there about linguistics and about careers in linguistics. I like to point people to the linguistics Society of America, their website, especially folks that are starting school and thinking that they might be interested in studying linguistics, there's an entire area of wide major in linguistics, or what kind of fields can I work in? If I study linguistics? The short answer is everything. Like it applies everywhere, you can apply linguistics to every single career.   1:06:13 And so they have a lot of resources. There's also some really good books that are out there. There's one called the five minute linguist, and that I just started reading, and it's really, really short vignettes. And there's some videos that are out there that go along with it, of just like some of the key questions that people might have about language. So if anybody's just interested in like, really, really short ways of learning a little bit about language or the types of questions you can ask about language, it's a good book that I recommend. And   1:06:44 what about the ones you wrote? I mean, are those those worth recommending? Well, my textbook linguist language and linguistic diversity in the United States, 2015 by Rutledge   1:06:57 that we're working on the second edition, so that is available and it is online.   1:07:04 And it ends I have a new book called linguistic plants of belief, which talks about p southerners views about dialectal differences in the United States and about views about   1:07:20 man coming out. So that's coming out in October. It was supposed to come out this month, but it's been postponed. I was pulled on to this project with Paulina bounce and Jennifer Kramer some wonderful, amazingly bright women. But yeah, so linguistic planets of belief comes out in October. Okay, yeah, that that's why I'm excited for that October. That's my birthday month so anything going on in October it's gonna be great. It's gonna be well and right now more more to come upon this and I'm gonna be probably relatively certain that YouTube will meet face to face but Mike and I are talking about a South East trip in the month of September in which we will go throughout the southeast as Damn Yankees and experience the world. Everyone can hear us talk time. Yeah, yeah, Kara's   1:08:09 point.   1:08:11 Yeah, can I plug one more thing before we go just because of what our was talking about with what's happening in the us right now. We went to the North Carolina, North Carolina language and Life Project has just come out or not just come out last year came out with a documentary called talking black in America.   1:08:31 And you can look it up online talking black in America was talking Black america.com. But I can't remember. It is a beautiful hour long video documentary that interviews people and talks about what black languages in the United States and its history and its development in the social views that go along with listening and being a speaker of it. And for anybody that is thinking about   1:08:59 how to listen and how to communicate. It's a beautiful time to watch this video. Okay, thank you. I   1:09:07 will share that right away. Thank you. Yeah, we started by Well, well, it's really been a pleasure. I'm almost sad to hear it go to an end or at least better less listeners are but there will be more. I would love to have a Ask me anything about writing a textbook. I feel like that could be something that would be really really cool to be focused on. From from an expertise perspective. I'm good at telling people how not to write a textbook because exactly the process that I went through all the obstacles you trip down along the way right. I always thought that parenthesis tell the story anyways on the inside, right. So maybe maybe you could help set those bumpers on the outside. So just to close us down. If this is your first time listening to us if you found your way to us through Dr. Tamasi. We are conventioNOTnot and we promote ourselves through   1:10:00 Are interviewees and our guests and so on and so forth. So please take a second there are countless interviews out there that aren't similar to Susan's, but they are different. You will find many, many, many different types of careers, many, many different pursuits of happiness   1:10:17 with all of the diversity that we're talking about today, and different types of advice, and so on and so forth. So please take a second get out there, follow us on Instagram or Facebook or Twitter or LinkedIn or anywhere that you might go. We'd love to have you follow there. And we appreciate you listening today.   1:10:36 Thanks, doctor. Thank you guys. So much.

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Cindy MacMillan  0:00  This is Exploring the Seasons of Life podcast episode # 11. I’m Cindy MacMillan and today’s guest is Connie Viveros. Welcome to Exploring the Seasons of Life, a podcast for women over 40 who are trying to be everything to everyone and forgetting themselves in the process. Each week, join Cindy MacMillan as she interviews coaches, spiritual explorers and celebrants from all walks of life about beginnings, endings and the messy bits in-between. Self-love, well-being, and mindset are at the heart of our conversations because once you change the inside, the outside will begin to change as well. Welcome back to Exploring the Seasons of Life podcast. I appreciate that you are spending time with me today and I am so happy to share my conversation with Connie Viveros with you. Connie Viveros is a professionally trained and Certified transformational life coach. She is an inspiring public speaker on transformation and a published co-author of two books. Connie is a longtime advocate for women’s rights and social-change philanthropy and leads personal development seminars and life-changing workshops in California and now online!  Connie‘s personal passion is connecting with women who also believe they can and must make a difference in this world – starting with themselves. She is dedicated to creating inspiring content and programs that empower all women to transform self-doubt into self-love. Oh, Connie, I love that so much. Thank you for being here on the podcast today. I really appreciate it. Connie Viveros  1:35  Thank you. It's a pleasure to be here. Cindy MacMillan  1:37  So what does exploring the seasons of life mean to you personally, or in your business? Connie Viveros  1:43  Well, Cindy, I think this is a great question. It is a wonderful metaphor for life as a whole, but also for honoring the seasons not only of life in general as we go from our infancy all the way to adulthood and then into our geriatric years, you might say I'm actually in my 60s. So I'm in that phase of my life right now, where I definitely feel is a cycle that is ended and both beginning. And sometimes I feel very strongly that this generation and this period of time on our planet is one of the first where we haven't really honored those cycles, those cycles of nature, those cycles of the moon, and I for one, what this means to me, is to honor that that is a cycle. It means we're not always in constant flow, that we actually honor that time where sometimes we retreat. We go into darkness, we go into the gestation period, and we grow something new, we plant something new instead of always being addicted to this concept of being go go go do do do and flow. Sometimes we need to retreat. And I love that that is really what your topic seasons of life means to me both in my life as a whole, as well as the cycles that I'm going through. And I feel very strongly that right now, I'm in a new cycle of my life, like birthing almost a reinvention of who I'm going to be in my for the next 30 years, so to speak. Cindy MacMillan  3:30  Thank you. So what are you birthing right now? Connie Viveros  3:34  Well, what I'm birthing right now, I believe is, and I really dislike this, this word, but I will say many of you might understand the triple goddess, which is the Maiden, Mother, Crone, and I'm choosing to call the grandmother stage. So what I'm feeling very called to birth right now is that wise woman, that wisdom, that keeper of the wisdom, I've gone through my maiden voyage I've been a mother I have raised three grown children, they're all adult children now. And I'm entering into that phase where that level of responsibility no longer I hold it as tightly and I get to in a sense; what do I want to do next? And that I'm choosing to call the grandmother, the wise woman, the keeper of the ancient secrets. And that's kind of flowing in now as I sit in my own gestation my own new birth and cycle of life of saying, what does that look like? How will my classes be this virus clearly has brought about a whole new paradigm in the way we deliver our work. They used to be commonly in-person workshops, and all of that has been reimagined to online. So it's shifting and changing and I'm seeing Oh, new possibility, new ways of growing new ways of working with women from afar from us. From much further distances. Cindy MacMillan  5:01  That's right. When you and I first connected about you coming on the podcast, it was right as the virus was becoming, I'm going to say well known and everything was changing. And we just had to, you know, reschedule the date because you had a lot of commitments and workshops at the time that you had to take care of. Connie Viveros  5:22  I did and I had to quickly you know, reimagine them and redirect them to an online format. And with that, Cindy, unbelievably, they have doubled in size and capacity. We would typically do workshops where I would attract 20 or 30, which is a good number to have in your workshop. So and online, they're bursting with 60 - 70 women attending in attendance, men and women but predominantly women been the energy of everyone is putting their work out there and people are looking and seeking and hungry for, you know, give me some content something to do while I'm in this situation. And as luck would have it, we were able to reimagine it and re approach with online to offer them   Cindy MacMillan  6:12  You're right about people looking for things to do. You know, as I'm going, as I look on Facebook and things like that, I can see that people are starting to get I am going to use the word antsy, you know, because we have been at home now for about six weeks. So they're looking for those things to enrich their lives. Connie Viveros  6:36  Absolutely right. They've gone through sort of the existential crisis of the situation and now they're moving into some like to call it cabin fever. And it's kind of hard to sit on your hands any longer. You know, they've watched enough Netflix they've eaten enough food, they're really looking to create a, I would say routine and I know for myself, that's been really positive thing that I've been able to create a new routine inside this capsule. I can't go to the gym I don't have my girlfriend's to walk with. And so I've created my own. Cindy MacMillan  7:11  What intrigued me Connie was all your work around your nonprofit leadership and social justice work. How did you become interested in working for underserved women? Connie Viveros  7:23  Well, the story is long and winding. And it actually began Cindy, back in the day when we were both in community with Debbie Ford. And at the time, I was so enthralled by Debbie's work. So Debbie's work and the coaching really was first; that was the horse before the cart. We were invited during one of our workshops to help Debbie and her son Beau, who was 13 at the time to build a school in Uganda. And my hand,it was one of those spiritual impulses like my hand flew up in the air and it's like, wait, wait, wait, who whose hand is that up there? And it was okay, I'm in. And upon participating in that, Debbie, as you know, fell ill shortly after around 2009 2010, she was invited to go see the school that she had and her community had built. And she was not well enough to really travel to a third world country for so many reasons. And she looked around the room and said, Connie, why don't you go and I kind of looked over my shoulder like me, like, Why? Why? Why are you picking on me? You know? Anyway, I thought to myself, I remember going home and getting in my car and driving home and saying, why not? You know, I could that would be a it would be a real act of service. And I love Debbie, as you know, and the work we did with her was just so, so deep and incredibly transformational. So I said yes, and upon that trip going to Africa and seeing the school that her organization, The Collective Heart was called at the time changed my life. It changed my life. I didn't know what to expect going to Africa. And there's a little bit of a story there. But I it's kind of long, but I won't tell you the details of that. But in the end, as I stood there in front of the school that we had helped build, there was a vision that I had seen previously in a meditation that was realized in that moment, and I didn't, hadn't connected those dots. And I went, Oh, my goodness, I'm meant to be here. I mean, this was a seed that was called into my life. And here it is. And it's remarkable. So I got on the plane, I came home from Africa from that trip and had a hard time reconciling that children by virtue of being born, you know, 6000, 7000, 8000 miles away their life circumstance, so entirely different and it wasn't okay with me. So I went on a quest, and I spent the next seven, eight years immersing myself in what more can we do? We are wealthy, wealthy, you know, society regardless of what country you come from, there's enough wealth there are enough resources that we have to be able to fix this. And first, it was children be educated, clean water clearly and girl, the empowerment of girls Cindy, became in my understanding through all my years of working in that and research almost, I think it's not, if not the number one of the top three biggest differences we can make to empower our world to move it forward where we create an equal and just society for all just by empowering girls giving girls a voice.   Cindy MacMillan  10:43  You know, when you're telling your story, that's actually putting cold chill bumps on me because I love it so much. So is The Inspired Heart Foundation a culmination of The Collective Heart? Connie Viveros  10:59  Well through circumstances with Debbie's passing and her transitioning and leaving the earth plane, lots of stuff happened and changed. And yes, I came back to the States, I was spending years working in the realm of Africa and women here in the United States through building my own coaching practice began to say, well, that's great, Connie, that you work with girls in Africa and women in Africa. But what about here? We have so many problems right here domestically in the United States. And I said, I couldn't agree more. And that was the impetus. The seed again, that gestation piece that I said, All right, I'll take that on. And you're right, so we created a sort of a bifurcated empowerment program where it was half 50% domestic 50% International. And what I chose to do is take the work I was currently doing with women to help build their personal empowerment, self-love, self-confidence, value, and worth. And we transitioned that into a program for women who didn't have access. We women could pull out our checkbooks and pay $900 $1000, sometimes multiple thousands of dollars for a weekend retreat with a spiritual luminary. And yet there's this whole segment of our society who are living, they can't afford that. They can't afford a weekend off to sit in a women's circle and, you know, talk and feel uplifted and encouraged and, you know, nurtured by other women. And so that became the program here. Didn't think I had much to offer the low income at risk segment of my population. And yet, when we brought our first cohort of women together for a weekend, I asked how many of you have been to a woman's retreat, not a single hand was raised, and Cindy I just took for granted that you know this time in life, most women are participating and circles have some community of support. Not so not so. Cindy MacMillan  13:08  Maybe it's what you're doing online now. How are you bringing the women together? Because I'm getting excited listening to you. I'm thinking, man, how can I do this in Florida? Connie Viveros  13:19  Well, my goodness, we can absolutely collaborate offline after this call, let's let's definitely stay in touch. But it was in person. So if you know this segment of our population, the low income as at risk, they don't have as much access, access to transportation, access to technology, etc. And I knew intuitively that we needed to hold them in a very tight container. I mean, there were some women who came in the door on a Friday night. It was much like the work we did with Debbie it was a weekend and if I had let them go Friday night, they would never come back. And so we held them for the entire weekend. So Friday night, Saturday, and then we would release on Sunday. In that time, we create trust and intimacy and community. And by Sunday, crying hugging you are my sister, oh my god falling in love with and in truth, you know creating that environment where women feel they're not alone in their struggle, and it was huge and I was blown away I let spirit lead the way. And he put me she put me to work in a very, very big way and it's part of what I do, but it's one of the most rewarding. Cindy MacMillan  14:33   I can see where that would be rewarding. Having your heart filled with so much love.   Connie Viveros  14:39  Absolutely. It was already what I was doing. And and the impetus came in a workshop when one of my paying participants and I charge hundreds if thousands of dollars for my work said Connie, every woman needs that how can we make this accessible? And I said All right, I'll take on that challenge and most people who know me know, my middle name is you know, get it done. So you give me a challenge and boom, we get it done. So it's been very rewarding. We've had three cycles of cohorts go through the program. It's a nine-month long mentorship, as well as deep retreat, personal retreat, or transformation where we hold them, we do three retreats a year. Cindy MacMillan  15:22  For it to be nine months, that is some really deep work that you're doing. Connie Viveros  15:27  And we knew it had to be that model, only because they didn't get this way overnight. You know, many of them were coming in, in their from their late 20s all the way through their 60s. And you know that transformation does not happen overnight. And so we knew that the unfolding and unraveling was going to take place and the transformation was in their commitment and showing up for themselves. And at the end of these programs, the testimonials are just this. It's this you know, it'll bring tears to eyes to hear how they've changed and shifted their own lives and who they're becoming just by being given support and encouragement and someone to believe in them.   Cindy MacMillan  16:10  And somebody just to listen to them as well? Connie Viveros  16:12  Oh, I mean, it's remarkable, someone to open their heart, another sister and to sit and hear their vulnerability and hear their challenges. I'll just tell you one little anecdote. One woman came to us a survivor of domestic violence, abuse, she had been in a long-term abusive relationship. And she always viewed herself through the lens of an abused woman as a negative as something that made her very weak. And she stood up in front of the group one weekend and told her story to a standing ovation and responses of you're so strong, you're so amazing. You're so resilient, and she said, I never thought my story was insensitive. In that moment, Cindy, she shifted her perception of what she had been through. And today you wouldn't recognize her from the woman that walked in the door.   Cindy MacMillan  17:10  I love hearing those stories, because I think a lot of us also felt that way when we would go out to our weekend workshops with Debbie as well.   Connie Viveros  17:18  Exactly. And you asked the question to me earlier in your email of you know, was coaching that led me to The Inspired Heart or vice versa? Well, it was the coaching that changed me that allowed me to see more women need to have receive this work, then the other way around, and if we can get this work out to more and more women and men, our world would be a very different, different place to grow up and live in. Cindy MacMillan  17:49  Well, I'm definitely going to be in touch with you though. What I can do here. Connie Viveros  17:53  Thank you. Thank you. I look forward to that. Cindy MacMillan  17:55  You work with self-love, transforming self-doubt to self-love. Can you give us maybe three ways that you do that transformation, to self-love, quite frankly, that we all need and that we all forget. Connie Viveros  18:10  Absolutely. And my pleasure and I would say it starts with the foundation. And I remember starting as a coach and I didn't necessarily step into the coaching arena and life coaching, thinking it was necessarily a spiritual practice. But over the years and I've been doing this now for well over 10 years and this was really Debbie's influence upon me way back then, is how deeply spiritual Shadow Work and transformation is, and it can change your life. Once we remove these layers of shame and guilt and fear. And so my first tip is developing a spiritual self-care practice and that can mean something unique for each and every person. And not necessarily just women. But what is self-care, it's meditation, its nature, it could be a walk in nature, it could be listening to deeply meditative music, dancing art, but find some way that you connect to something that is greater than yourself, that pushes you, you walk toward it until it begins to pull you in a way that inspires something within you. So that would be my first tip. And then a second-deep practice is to connect and find a community of likeminded advocates, people who are your champions. We all surround ourselves with so many different types of community. And I even know for me, I spent years trying to fit in, fit into my birth, family fit into my school environments, my college environments, I have friends that I met through my raising three children. And I never felt like I quite fit. And so for me when I finally acknowledged that, you know, I was a spiritual person, and I was going to go meditate and found people that were also pursuing that greater idea. I took this big deep breath and relaxed into likeminded people, people that encouraged me and motivated me and said, yay, you're doing great. And Debbie's community was a big part of that. Cindy MacMillan  20:31  Yes, you could just feel at home Connie Viveros  20:33  Absolutely. You can just feel your you don't know more pretenses. You're holding your breath trying to be someone or something that you just weren't authentically and I like Debbie's community because we could show up as our brilliant selves, or a hot mess, and we cynically and we were completely accepted. It always shapes it and, and we were celebrated in that way. And the third thing that I think is a very doable thing right now and it sort of is dovetails hand in hand in fist with the first thing is to unplug from technology. I know we believe that this is really our friend and in times like this, Cindy it's actually kept us connected to those communities we've needed. But I believe strongly that there are times and opportunities where we need to go off the grid, we need to completely disengage, put your cell phone away, I like to call it you know, technology fast where I will spend two sometimes an entire weekend where I won't turn on my phone, I won't engage because the inspiration and that is you know, the impulses that come to you from Spirit are in the silence and if we're constantly filling up our time with you know, social media and that syndrome of you know, comparing ourselves and FOMO and all I like to call it JOMO, the joy of missing out, so go for JOMO instead of FOMO. But really, it allows you to get tethered to that spiritual sense. And that's all part of you know, the underlying umbrella of creating a spiritual practice in your life that fulfills you and nurtures you. Cindy MacMillan  22:20  Connie, I do agree with you. Ever since I've been on Facebook, I don't know exactly how long that's been, let's say 10 years. At least twice a year. I can't remember what Facebook calls it's now I don't delete it. But I temporarily deactivate it a week at a time because I can find myself getting caught up in comparison. And I just don't want to do that. So I like what you call it a technology fast.   Connie Viveros  22:51  Detox or whatever you want to call it. Yeah. So we do juice cleanses and food cleanses and exercise cleanses is really we have to do a tech a tech detox and they're finding scientific evidence that you know, we didn't know this when technology and the way in which Facebook came into our lives we didn't know it then because I think it surprised even the people you know, Zuckerberg and his team and all those that have come after him it's surprised them the level of engagement but it's turning into you know, manipulation at its finest in a way that we can't even fully understand and I think for all for us that are awakening and ascending in our spiritual work, we have to be aware and not let us pull us down the rabbit hole and that's really really important that it's become something other than what it once was. What Yeah, and it is getting kind of scary. Cindy MacMillan  23:49  We are this time has flown by, Oh, well. I want to get I want to respect your time but I want to get just a couple more things in. What do you wish you had known when you started out as a coach? Connie Viveros  24:02  Well, I think I would have liked to know that I was going to become a coach. I went into the work for personal reasons because I knew something deeper and something needed to shift in me internally. You said at the top of your show that you know when you change the insides external change, then Debbie was famous for saying that your outside circumstances are a direct reflection of your inner thought-forms. And my outsides looked really great. But I came to Debbie's work as kind of twisted up angry bitch, and I wanted to get to the source of that because I knew that wasn't who I wanted to be. And it was not allowing me to enjoy everything I had, and had I gone into the training, knowing I was looking to become a coach, I think it would have helped me understand the bigger picture of what I was doing at that time. And at the time I just said, I just want my own transformation. And then it turned into, oh my gosh, everybody needs this and how can I be of service?   Cindy MacMillan  25:18  You know, I'm reminded, as you're saying that Connie when I went out to San Diego for the Shadow Process when I went out for that, I remember when I got on the plane to come back, that I would never be the same again. Connie Viveros  25:32  And we weren't what happened in those rooms. And I and I, again, this phrase, I think is overused and misunderstood. But that spiritual bypass, you know, so many of us are doing the spiritual bypass. And I think that Debbie created a container that allowed us to work our stuff out in a safe, holy container, where we didn't have to blather all over the world and our family and our loved ones anymore. We went in one way, and we came out another and we went home more loving and more peaceful. And over time, I know for me, it changed my life. And now my family didn't change my husband anything but my external circumstances didn't change. It was how I viewed them, and how I was at peace with the life that I had created for the first time ever. Cindy MacMillan  26:27  That's right. If you could turn back time and talk to your 18-year-old self, what would you tell her about the season that you're in right now? Connie Viveros  26:37  Oh, I would tell her she's loved and she's she matters and that she's doing just fine. And everything's gonna be okay. You're doing your absolute best and we appreciate and love you beyond measure. Cindy MacMillan  26:54  This is the perfect place to end because that is beautiful. But before we do finish up completely. How can people follow you on your journey? And how can they support you?    Connie Viveros  27:13  Oh, thank you for that question. Well through my classes and my workshops, my website is angelemerging.com and I offer spiritual mentoring and Oracle readings. I have a relationship with sort of channeled information and inspiration. And then my workshops. I have a meetup group as well called Angel Emerging meetup and it's on the West Coast and but like you said, we have online classes now. And then they can contact me by email, which is connie@connieviveros.com. Cindy MacMillan  27:52  And I will make sure to put all of this into the show notes so everybody can have your information. Connie Viveros  27:58  Thank you, Cindy, so much. And you asked how people can help it is just continuing to be the best version of themselves. And whatever they're bumping up against, get some help, get some mentoring, get some, you know, support for whatever it is you're going through. Very few of us can do it alone. Thank you.   Cindy MacMillan  28:19  Thank you very much.   Connie Viveros  28:20  What a pleasure to be with you.   Cindy MacMillan  28:24  Thank you for listening to this week's episode of Exploring the Seasons of Life. I enjoyed my conversation with Connie Viveros and I especially liked it when she said, " I had a hard time reconciling that children by virtue of being born 6,000, 7,000 8,000 miles away their circumstances were so entirely different and it wasn’t ok with me.” Right now, we are in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. It’s our turn to say, it is not ok and how can I help? How can I contribute and make a difference? What feels right to me at this moment? Here are just a few things to consider: Donate to your local food bank Support local nonprofits Check on your neighbors Be kind Take care of yourself If you live in Brevard County Florida consider United Way of Brevard, Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida, The Children's Hunger Project, or The Salvation Army of South Brevard County. There are so many wonderful organizations to consider. Just take action.            Make sure to visit our website, CynthiaMacMillan.com. While you're at it, if you found value in this show we'd appreciate you simply telling a friend about the show, that will help us out. Until next time, live inspired!  

For All Abilities – The Podcast Episode Eighteen  - Stephanie Robertson   In this episode, I interview Stephanie Robertson. We discuss the challenge of her diagnosis of OCD as a very young child and how she has navigated school and work with the diagnosis. To connect with Stephanie, please go follow her on LinkedIn (Stephanie Robertson).  Please subscribe to For All Abilities – The Podcast! Please follow me on Instagram @forallabilities, LinkedIn (Betsy Furler) and on Facebook (For All Abilities). Go to our website www.forallabilities.com for information on our software that enables employers to support their employees with ADHD, Dyslexia, Learning Differences and Autism. Thanks for listening!  Betsy     Thanks for listening to For All Abilities today!    Share the podcast with your friends, they’ll thank you for it!   Get our newsletter and stay up to date! The newsletter link is on our website www.forallabilities.com   Follow me   Twitter: @betsyfurler   Instagram: @forallabilities   Facebook: @forallabilites   LinkedIn: @BetsyFurler   Website: www.forallabilities.com                 Betsy Furler  0:05   Welcome to for all abilities, the podcasts. This is your host, Betsy Furler. The aim of this podcast is to highlight the amazing things people with ADHD, dyslexia, learning differences and autism are doing to improve our world. Have a listen to for all abilities, the podcast, and please subscribe on whatever podcast app you're listening to us on.   Stephanie Robertson  0:34   Hey, Stephanie, welcome to the for all abilities podcast. Thank you so much for joining me today.   Hi.   So I'm gonna have you introduce yourself to my audience. And just tell us a little tell us your full name and a little bit about yourself?   Sure, my name is Stephanie Robertson. I am 36 years old. I'm a native officer. And I, which we like to say around here is pretty rare. I work for Dell Technologies. I'm in channel sales. So I do business to business through third party value added resources, and it's a little complex, definitely a little stressful. We like to call it the Dell personality. But it's been really good for me and I'm interested to see where you know where it's gonna go in my life.   Awesome. Well, we connected because we were in the same sorority in college, but a few years apart, we will Domini and so we connected because of that. And we were in the best already Kappa Gamma Chi and Austin college. And so we I was I had posted that I'm watching this podcast for all abilities and you had volunteered to be a guest I'm super excited, because you have been diagnosed with obsessive compulsive disorder, OCD. And yeah, I am so excited to hear about how that's affected you throughout your life. So why don't we first start with childhood? And I know you were, you had to have been successful at some point in school because our college is pretty hard to get into. So anyway, so tell me what you were like as a child and kind of how the diagnosis came about and, and how your OCD affected you when you were in school.   Yeah, so I think the earliest thing that I really remember related to like OCD and just kind of like finding out about it. My grandparents lived abroad. And so they were living in the south of France, and I was about three or four years old. Maybe just Before my fourth birthday, when my grandmother passed away suddenly, and my parents, there was a big push at the time to be very honest with your children. And so my parents, in the interest of being very honest with their children answered all of my questions about death. very honest. And so, you know, when I, when I would ask things like, well, will we all die? Will you die? Will she die? Will I die? Then the answer to that was yes. And they would say things like, but not for a long time. And I think that that's really shaped a lot of my own parenting, for obvious reasons, but part of it was because when I was four years old, I couldn't tell time. And so a long time for me was 30 minutes in the way that I measured. That was a Flintstone.   I was like,   yeah, yeah.   And so for me, you know, one or two episodes of Flintstones or two to Flintstones was a long time. So that was kind of one of the first times that I really then it came to my parents notice that maybe I thought a little differently or that maybe I had, you know, issues working through other stuff differently than other kids did. And so that started kind of coming out a little bit more after she passed and the funeral and my other grandmother moved in with us for some time and she had a lot of issues around food she was big into like macrobiotics and all of the healthy stuff way before it was cool, if you know what I mean. Yeah. And so like, we weren't allowed to shop on the inside of the grocery store. We could only buy things right in the wall, like the outside walls. We had no sugar cereals in the house because those are poison and all that and you know, my little young brain was just soaking all of that up. And so what was healthy to others became really very unhealthy to me and So my parents called the school and they said, you know, she eating at school because she's not eating at home. And of course, that's a red flag and this, this was in 1989. So OCD wasn't really a thing in 1989 like, not even like a social circle, okay. Oh, you know, people are like, Oh, my, my OCD is kicking up, which is a different topic to me now. But like that wasn't even a thing then people didn't add was saying that. And so to my school, it just panicked them. And so of course they call Child Protective Services. Wow. Because they were like, Why? Why doesn't your daughter want to eat at home? Oh, she thinks he's being poisoned. Cool. Why does your daughter think that that you're poisoning her? So like an active services, came into our lives and interviewed our entire family and me and followed us around for weeks before they realized that no, my parents were not actually doing anything neglectful or abusive. That really what I needed was therapy and about what was going on in my head and, you know, kind of set the stage for how does your child think differently? And luckily, they did that I got a counselor, a play counselor, and I think this all went on from about the ages from five to seven, trying to figure out what was going on. And it   took me years to identify, oh, how about your parents are still scarred by that whole CPS? Oh.   My mom still tells the story and just talks about, you know, just talks about like, being in the therapists office and, you know, the big test today or the big interview day when when CPS came to interview me, and that when they walked back into the office, I guess I'd hidden like, I'd played hide or seek or something so I was little over and my mom didn't see me in the office and she just about lost it like she thought the baby okay. What Yeah, I have to bust through? Ah ha, oh my goodness. Yeah. So we still talk about that. But um, that was kind of the diagnosis and like the recognition and like I said it took, it took a couple of years to identify it and to figure out what do you do with that?   Right and sounds like you were a really, really bright child too, which probably made it all worse because you were able to find more information and remember that information and, and yeah, then you're a little brain was just taking that information and doing all sorts of things.   Yes, I was reading voraciously from an early age. I mean, by seven years old, I was reading Little Women by Louisa May Alcott. Uh huh. And, you know, I mean, like I said, my grandparents lived abroad. So I had a concept of the world and know that it's more than just driving distance from a young guy. So, so I did, I just took in all kinds of information all the time and tried to find places for it. And it didn't always work out. Because at that age again, you don't, you may have a concept of the world but it's not. It's not the concept of the world, right? Where you're trying to filter it in and make a structure.   It was so interesting to me when I had so as you know, my 21 year old son is medically come very medically complex. And he's also super, super bright. And I it was so interesting when he was little how he would make sense of things in the world. Because he was so bright and he knew so much for his age, like he had so many he's always had so much knowledge, but he didn't have all the knowledge, right. So he would, he would move things around in such interesting ways. Like I remember in I think in first grade, he said, Oh, so and so is sick, she's been home. She hasn't been In school for three days, and then he said, I wonder what hospital she's in? And I was like, oh, oh, you think if you're sick, you're in the hospital because that's what his life that's what's his reality. Right. I was like, No, baby. Most people don't have to go to a hospital. Other than that, that, you know. Anyway, yeah, it's so interesting how young children process information and then layers of other issues and your own unique brain structure makes it even more interesting. So how did you do? Were you a good student? Were you over overly over over thinker and all of that kind of type of student? I'm   definitely definitely an over thinker. You know, I think one of the things that I it took me a long time to place and to figure out what the OCD is that it makes you very much an all or nothing kind A person. And so in elementary and middle school and you know, the early years of high school, it meant All right, all right, A's or the world is ending. All homework is turned in, or the world is ending, I think I was in fourth grade. And I went to the nurse's office and I was just sick, I was ready to throw up. It was horrible, because I couldn't find my reading books. And I knew that I had put them in my Cubby, but couldn't find them. And I guess somebody had moved them or something from one desk to another. And so I just, I was so anxious about getting in trouble and not in you know, being the bad kid that didn't add them. And, you know, what would happen? I don't even know what would have happened in my head. Right, you know, and that was just, you didn't have to have a consequence in my head. It was just that there could be a consequence. Right. And, you know, I mean, I made myself sick enough to go to the nurse and I didn't have a fever. So finally, they sent me Back to the classroom after I had, you know, wasted enough time that wasn't reading time anymore. Hmm. And hopefully I would not get busted for not having these books. And then when I got back to the classroom, my teacher was like, oh, Stephanie, your books were on this desk. So we went ahead and put them in your cubby for you. I'm glad you're feeling better. Wow, that was it. So much of my school life was like that it was if you're going to win, first place, you participate. If you're going to do this, then then you can compete then you can do these things. So many nights, late nights up. many weeks and weeks and weeks of studying and things like that. And if there was going to be a win, or something like I've done, I would be in it. And then if at some point, I were to realize that that wasn't going to happen, then it was just out completely out of the money. Yes, absolutely. 100% and I learned I learned how to stop competing and things to avoid Like thinking shopping and be interested in some of the things to avoid that disappointment.   Wow. So that must have been really impactful on what classes you chose and what extracurriculars you chose?   Unknown Speaker  12:18   Oh gosh, yes.   Stephanie Robertson  12:20   You know, I volunteer for the OSU Humane Society when I was 13 years old. And I was the youngest volunteer that they had ever allowed. And I loved it. I got to volunteer in the clinic with the veterinarians and do like medical things. When it was great. And I was like, I'm going to be a vet, and it's gonna be fabulous. And then my freshman year of high school, I failed algebra. And my sophomore year of high school, I had to retake algebra, and I still barely passed it. And then I heard that algebra to follow that. If you wanted to be a veterinarian that you had to take, Chem, and biology and all of these things that have to do with science and math, and I had failed it one time. So obviously, I was not good at math. And I obviously could not go into the sciences and definitely could not be a veterinarian. Wow. And it totally changed the way that I looked at school all of a sudden it was now you're gonna look at the arts and now you're gonna look at the soft sciences and part of the part of the girls can't do that part of the you can't write up part of that this is just not how your brain thinks. And I turned it off for years. And it was like a mental block just can't do that. And so, you know, I mean, in college, I think my degree is not I think it's in I know it's in political science and psychology   that the audience that don't know, we went to Stephen and I both went to a liberal arts college and I was a psychology sociology major with a minor in religion. And I only took statistics I was the only math I took in college and I don't think I took any science.   I took sat three times and eat on our professor finally looked at me and he was like, you need this to graduate, right? And I was like, Yeah, I do. He graded one question on my final. And he looked at me like, how did you get this answer? And I was like, I, I didn't know how to do that one. So I made it up. And this is how I did it. He was like, Yeah, I don't know how you got the right answer. But it's right. So   yay.   Yeah, I just I couldn't science. I couldn't math and I couldn't science for years and years and years all the way through college. And it probably didn't, probably didn't overcome that mental block towards math and finances and science and any of that until maybe five or six years ago.   So that   Unknown Speaker  14:45   2030s   Stephanie Robertson  14:46   now you're working for a tech company,   computer company, so you're aware. I mean, even if your job isn't sciency mathy techie, every one around you is science a mathy type Do people tell us how you got there?   Well, you know, I, when I graduated from Austin college, I wanted to go out and change the world. And you know, I think that's one of the wonderful things about that school is it really encouraged us to encourage us to think big. And it was really hard to think big, and get paid very little. My first few years out of college and I worked in nonprofit and I did all of these things. And at one point, and I worked for a wonderful company called amantha, pet, maybe low cost spay neuter, and and preventive care for cats and dogs. And it was a really wonderful experience but it also I kind of reached a point where I'd I'd plateaued like I wasn't going to move forward without more or deeper experience or more education or just just something more i'd reached kind of as far as I could get at that stage and I didn't want to stay at that stage for another you know, three to five years getting paid, think at the time it was like $14 an hour. And I couldn't afford a new car. And I, you know, my car was breaking down, I lived as close as I could, to the area where we served, which was southeast Austin, where there are bars on most of the windows. I lived as close as I could do that without having bars on my windows. And you know, I got married, and we were looking at a family and all of a sudden, I was like, I can't, I can't pay back my student loans on this. I can't read the family on this. I can't do all of these things. So I need to make a change, whether it's go get more school or go get different experience or whatever the case is, I need to make a change. And right. My husband was very techie. Interestingly enough, he also worked for Dell at the time, but he's very computer techie engineering. He and my brother in law kept saying, Jeff, you need to come to Dell, you need to come to Dell. And so one day we were out to lunch, he is trying to convince Jeff Do you need to come to go and I just looked it up. Like why don't you don't want me back, I can learn how to sell computer will be fine. And literally like they basically had to teach me how to turn it on. And Wow, what's what's in the guts of it and you're going to have these conversations with people about their, their, you know, cloud strategy and servers and their storage and on prem or off Prem or, or hyper converged and all these things that I was like, I don't even know what that is. I can tell you the difference between a laptop and a desktop and after that you pretty much got me and Ernie, listen to music while you're smart, you'll learn and so I was five months pregnant with our second. I was paying still paying for insurance at the time because neither of our jobs provided it. And I went as a contracting agent temp to perm to Dell. And I was like, I've got five months to get myself a permanent job and I'm telling you I applied myself like I never have and I learned That I can learn science and I can learn technology and I can learn numbers and I can do it in a crunch. So, you know, it kind of just, it took that it took that like gut punch moment like, you know, you don't have a choice to fail here. You don't have that luxury of not trying and you don't have the luxury of not winning. You have to do it. Right. Right.   Wow, that was a bill, that was a big change for you. And how do you how do you think your CD affected you both negatively and positively in that change? Because that's a that was obviously a major change in your career and the trajectory of your life in general.   Yeah, definitely. You know, Dell is it's a really interesting place. I never thought that I would find myself in corporate America. Prior to Dell, I never worked anywhere that had more than 50 employees at my location. Even with my large companies, most of them didn't have more than 50 employees, people And going in there the first time, it was so overwhelming, I just went into building two of the seven in Round Rock, which is one of, you know, the three bases in Texas and horses global company. And so I just walked in there and I was like, Oh my god, this is just this building alone to the city. And it was so overwhelming. But they're also really, really, really inclusive. And they give you the resources that you need, they give you you know, the benefits and the time. And when you talk to your managers, they care to learn about you and what helps drive you. And so I found it to be just a really welcoming and inclusive place. And I learned how to use those weird quirks about myself as strengths. So I took Strengths Finder, for the first time while I was at amantha patent, I took it again, while I've been at Bethel and kind of looked at what are some of the consistent strengths and you know, music all kinds of self You know, understanding tests and evaluations and stuff. But one of one of my strengths is achiever. And I guess that basically, I'm really good at picking goals. And then it's followed by the other strength of strategy. So I'm really good at picking goals and problem solving how I'm going to get there. And then making a list and checking it off one at a time. And I kind of finally just let that OCD piece of me take over in that sense, where it was like, Okay, this is a place where it's actually healthy, to let my brain think the way that it thinks. Yeah. And so let yourself be goal oriented. Let yourself be task oriented. Let yourself figure out when is it right to be attacked versus a big, you know, overhead strategy and and play with it and let your brain figure out what it needs to do. And that, weirdly enough has worked. For me in sales and at Dell.   What it sounds like that now what you're doing is perfectly so suited to how your brain works?   Unknown Speaker  21:03   Yes. And kind of   Stephanie Robertson  21:07   make sure difference of the way your brain works differently into a strength for that job.   Definitely, definitely. I will say one of the challenges about a job, you know, like mine, in sales, you know, entails you're partially commission, or many people are all commissioned, right? And so if you want to make money, it's there for the making, but you're going to work for it, you know, and so, right. Dell is known you you work hard and you play hard, but you definitely work hard and you're never really 100% off. That's, that's in that that's just a millennial thing or a Gen Z thing or as we're going forward, people want more mobility and flexibility in the way that they work. And, I mean, that's one of the things that I sell. So I understand it very innately. People want to work when they want to work and Where they want to work and so whenever really off your brains always somewhere ticking in the background towards work. And I realized that that that same piece of OCD that made me really good at this job is also kind of a double edged sword. I can't be completely disconnected In fact, the only time that I have ever been completely and totally disconnected from work since I started was on the cruise this spring.   Unknown Speaker  22:26   Well, I was gonna   Stephanie Robertson  22:29   Yeah, I didn't I didn't get to go on the our sorties cruise I was gonna go and I was signed up and then my son was too sick and I just because you are totally cut off. I was like, I can't be cut off right now. But I will have to say I did go on a cruise a few years prior to that with my kids. And it was I was in a panic for the first 36 hours because of the lack of connectivity. And then I was like, Huh, hold on. I can Do this. Oh, let me grab this book. That's a printed book. Yeah.   I can read.   Or I could just send him out to nothing. And it was It is I, I think cruises are the best thing for people who cannot stop because you are kind of forced.   Yes, yeah. Yes. I was so nervous about it. I love my kids here. It's the first time I've ever been not in connection with them. They're, they're four and five. Now they were three and four when we went on a cruise. And, you know, I just had to believe Okay, my parents are with them. My husband obviously is with them. Oh, I'm just going to have to have to believe that okay. And I'm going to have to believe that my accounts are okay at work and people can take care of them. And I mean, I was probably a wreck and you were a wreck for three days. I think I was a wreck for about 30 to 40 minutes. Like while we were going out of port and then all of a sudden I was like, Okay, well here's my tie, and   I get mad at me out.   I just finally had to let go. I was like, okay, nothing. We're out of Port now like I right, right after was my travel buddy. And she kept picking up my passport and picking up all these things like while we were trying to get on the boat into the gear, Matt, like you need to just stop and once we were finally out of Port, I was like, Alright, we're out of port. I there's no plan to get me back. There's no car to get me back, right? No, that's not me.   Yeah, I'm in the middle of the golf now. So this is how it is.   Unknown Speaker  24:30   Yes, exactly.   Stephanie Robertson  24:33   Well, that's what it does. Do you have you ever disclosed the fact that you have OCD to an employer, whether it's Dell or any other employer? Yeah. Okay. And then they have did they do any accommodations for you? Or is it just kind of like they know that so if there's any, anything that happens, and you kind of already have that does that conversation open   Um, I've talked like, I mean, they all kind of know about me, I'm largely an open book when it comes to things and I try to do a little bit of education around OCD with people particularly because it is such a no just a saying, Oh, my OCD is acting up or, you know, whatever people like to say, particularly in stressful environments, but I don't really need any, like, work accommodations for it from her heart, like you know, so and I work halfway from home, so two days a week. So yeah, you know, they I kind of let them know what's going on like that, that I have it. If I'm having like a particularly stressful time period where it's really flaring up, then I don't have a flare up is the right term, but when it's really bad, then I kind of let them know ahead. It's mostly around stress and, and they've been pretty good about like, okay, you need, you need a mental health day or you just need a break. day you just need a day off and I'll take, I'll take a day of vacation or a day of PVA we call it personal business PBA and it's, it's time that I can just go so you know, a lot of people use their PBA for for, you know, doctor's appointments and stuff like that. And, and I do with my kids, but I also use it for what I call just a mental day, like when the stress is just getting to me and I just have to go. I'll do that vacation time or PDA time, and my boss is usually pretty good about it, because that's the kind of stuff that doesn't I don't really know what's coming. And they'll just write   right and he just kind of at that point need a break.   Yeah. Plus my first boss at Dell, so the best thing ever, that any employer could say to somebody like me, when I was really stressing out about it, of course, I was pregnant and what's going to happen when I go on maternity leave and I just got, you know, got officially hired on and all this stuff. And he just looked at me in he, he I think I had to go to the hospital for a check or something and he just He's like, we sell computers, and they're not going anywhere. It'll be here when you get back. And I was like, wow, that kind of grace is amazing.   Right, right. I mean, that's one thing I have to say about having my son who has been so medically fragile since he was born.   Unknown Speaker  27:19   And   Stephanie Robertson  27:20   we kind of like, have developed this understanding of if like, everyone's going to live. It's really not that big of an emergency. And, and yeah, I don't have OCD. Or I have really I'm kind of like the, I'm not. I'm the person that I think people think fits in the norm box, but I'm really not normal. But people see, like, if you just looked at me on the paper, and but I am, but you know, you I would still let myself get stressed and think I was in control of stuff that I wasn't in control of. And then through his illness, I really became I'm aware of the fact that really a lot of things that we stress out over really can wane and really aren't that important. It's like it's not really an emergency. And, you know, if everyone's alive, it's not really an emergency. Yeah. So, but it's hard to have that perspective. And our coding does not encourage that perspective.   I agree. And I have a bob's like, Man, that's,   that's amazing.   It was it was really great. And, you know, pregnancy is one of the things that really kind of makes that OCD much more prevalent in demand hormones and everything else going on. And yeah, I didn't know that was my first that was a really interesting postpartum period.   Yeah. And I just having a baby. I mean, it's, it's, you know, it's so much responsibility. So much steps that we have to do right. Or you think you   have to do definitely right I, I've always been very open about my mental state with my husband. And of course my family knows because I grew up with it. But you know, I mean, after I had john our oldest, I mean, I thought I had it down like I was like, Oh yeah, I'm wheeling and dealing This is great like I had, this is the chair where we feed him and rock him at night. This is where we paid him. This is where we do everything. And it was all within like, one large bedroom and I had like a sink in the in that bathroom like it was a master upstairs in the little little townhouse, and little townhouse. And I had organized for I didn't have to go downstairs for anything. Like I had everything right there where I could just reach it and I was like, Man, I'm really knocking this out of the park until my mom and my sister like, came and got me and they're like you have to leave your house. Here I gotta I have everything. Like I have everything right here. This is how you should set it up. I am doing well. They're like Stephanie, you're not leaving your house.   She's maybe you don't have it all together as   you know that's what I was like Okay, wow so I really thought that I had this OCD thing down when it came to school or down when it came to work and etc and parenting is what really just knocked it absolutely out of the park through it to pieces had no idea how to pick myself back up together. And you know, I mean, my husband has has a DD diagnosed as well. And there was a few worrying things. Let me tell you. She can't pick up a thought to save his life. And I can't function with the sock in the middle of the room.   Right? Oh, yeah, it's hard.   It's a little wild. But we finally with kids that kind of helps us learn about each other and off and we regularly say in our home, like you just have to, you have to give me grace. Mm hmm. You have to give me the grace to deal with this. Give me the grace to understand about this and for him also. To recognize kind of triggers or points when his add is going to be an issue. And I'll try to just kind of put down things that I need in order to weather the storm. And he started to recognize the same in me like he knows when things are just going to get really like, gridlocked in my head. And this is how things have to be. And so we finally started to get to that point, you know, six and a half years in with two kids that are four and five years old. Ah yeah, and two crazy jobs, but we've we've finally started to get there and and every time that we start to feel like wow, we really have it all together then, you know, like, a curveball and you have to figure it out. But I do think that one of the neat things is about having Jeff with a DD and his diagnosis and then mine is that we are We each have kind of a unique perspective to respect and appreciate each other's strengths and to be more compassionate and understanding with each other. about each weaknesses,   you also probably know more about yourselves than most people know about themselves. You know, because a lot of people have spent that time to really figure out what are my strengths? What are my weaknesses or my you know, and and to be able to know that about yourself and then to the able to communicate it with, you know, with and to someone else. I think that is that's gonna be amazing for your marriage over the year. So what my husband and I have been married for almost 25 years. Well, our anniversary like in a week. And, in fact, I think that's exactly in a week. And I know that our having Henry and all of his struggles made us have to communicate, like you can't go through things like that and not communicate and, and, and being able to be, you know, really communicative, and you know, his, you know, one of my big things is Don't, don't minimize my struggle. My emotion because of your struggle or your emotion, you know, like, like, we can have our own emotions at the same time that that's okay. And yeah, and be able to communicate that and literally say, you know, I know you're stressed, but that doesn't minimize my stress.   And exactly,   that's been actually hard for me because I'm a fixer, and I want to fix every buddy and everything. And so, you know, I would I, especially in the beginning of our marriage, and when Henry was really little, I would just try to make everything smooth for everyone else. Like, even if it meant me not showing emotion, but that's not good for a relationship. What do you know what you're describing that talking back and forth? I think that's what really that's what really helps. And I think that I think, is a as as I think that is a good thing about having a diagnosis of some sort is that it does provide more insight into how you, you will work in the world. And move around around the world.   Definitely, we probably our first four years of marriage, we just kind of duke it out. Like, yeah, thought about those things. We didn't know how to talk about it yet. And, you know, for me with OCD, it's like I said, I'm an all or nothing person. And it's, you know, all winning or if you're going to fail, you just walk away. And so when things broke, then my answer to it was walk away from get over it. Right? Just get over it. And you don't you don't get to mire in mire yourself into depression about it or anything like that. Because then you're never going to get out of there. Yeah, yeah. And I've had to work really hard on learning how to accept that there are feelings and then I'm allowed to feel them. And, you know, that was one of the things that we had a very hard time with, because he's very fighter flight. He is he's gonna fly every time. He does not fight. he avoids it. And I'm like, you get back here and you get over it. did not go well, those arguments, right? And we actually we went to marriage counseling and we thought that they were going to talk about our marriage and like, Well, no, you need to respect each other and you need to do all this. But really actually what they did focus on was they focused on our on our diagnoses, and they're like, you guys, pretty much what they said guys know about yourself, do you know how you function with yourselves and you have to learn how you function with each other, and you have to communicate about yourself to the other person. And that's where we got the concept of, you know, you have to give me grace right now.   Yeah, that's great. That's great. I think that's going to serve you well. And your children too. Do you want to add anything else to the anything else you want to tell the audience or   are you anything you know, I mean,   I always want to say something incredibly profound. I don't always have anything incredibly profound. But you know, I think one of the biggest things just in relation to to my own just weird mental way of Thinking with OCD and everything else is that you know, it's not what people think it is. It's not, you know, oh, I have to have all I mean, I do have to have all my clothes organized in a certain way, but that's not gonna make it or break it thing. The biggest thing about OCD that is so debilitating and so difficult is that feeling of unworthiness and that feeling that you can't trust your gut, that you don't have a gut because everything's always wrong. So you can't trust yourself and you have to create this entire other rational being. And you know, that there is a way for there is a way to function and you can, you can function well and you can even find those things that work for you about it. And talk about Yes, and that when people talk about like oh, my OCD is flaring up or Oh, you know, this is gonna drive OCD people crazy and it's at Facebook with the images were like one line is slightly off right? You know, just to remember that, that that's not what you deal with and not to let it be minimized like that. Because I feel like that just, it tells you mentally, like, really, you can't get over a simple BuzzFeed list, like get over yourself. Mm hmm. You should just be able to push on. And that's not what it is and to not let yourself into let the way that you can get minimized into that because it really is so much more. And if you can figure out if you can give it the weight and the gravity that it has, then you can figure out how to be successful over and beyond it.   Awesome. That is great advice. Ds people want to come up, communicate or reach out to you. How should they find you?   I am on LinkedIn. And I am Stephanie Robertson. I work at Dell.   Awesome. And I will put that in the show notes. Everyone has the information.   Awesome. So thank you so much for letting me be a part of this.   Thank you so much. This was wonderful. I really am Appreciate it.   Thank you. I had a great time chatting with you.   Betsy Furler  38:06   Thanks so much for listening to the for all abilities podcast. This is Betsy Furler, your host and I really appreciate your time listening to the podcast. And please subscribe on any podcast app that you're listening to us on. If you'd like to know more about what we do and our software that helps employer support their employees with ADHD, dyslexia, learning differences and autism, please go to www dot for all abilities comm You can also follow us on Instagram. And you can follow me on LinkedIn at Betsy Furler. And Frank, you are LR Have a great day and we will see you soon.

I walked into the morning air at 5:30 am and literally heard four owls tossing vocals back and forth through the forest. Loud, robust, vibrant and message making. Because I've studied animal spirituality for decades I did take a moment to sit and listen. To become part of the circle of conversation. The owls visit means conserve your energy until the times right. Be observant of your surroundings. Owls normally sit in silence. Remove yourself from the noise. Remember owls can see through darkness. Heavy heavy right? Our days have been overtaken by something we can't see nor can our bank accounts predict. Uncertainty is generating a new wave of anxiety to which we are seeing at our state capitols. Exercising that voice is what we've always done. Until election day or the moment Johnny's school is holding a fund raiser and they need some funding to buy books or sports equipment. Then that voice tends to lean in an opposite direction. First... I grasp the get back to work drive. I want this nation to be stronger than what it was in January and February 2020. My only question is based on where have these protesters been for the other problems we've endured as people? I'm not challenging anyone to do anything but be themselves beyond this moment of speaking out and vocalizing freely. On this podcast we talk about the message of the owl. Mainly because its Earth Day. What? Yeah people used to protest for that too. But found reason to continue ripping down the trees and planting taller buildings and homes too large for the human to use. A couple of days ago a friend sent me a note expressing his love for the planet. He felt that maybe all of this is nothing more than the earth grabbing us by the nap of the neck and saying, "Ironman is a false idol and so is Tom Brady. Give me ten minutes of rest and we can get you back on the road." But no! We've chosen to fight the invisible beast. To take in six weeks of uncertainty and then shout out, "We're done!" What we need is unity. Right now we've got nothing more than choices to go in every direction beyond what we can control. If this didn't work yesterday or the day before we're going to try this then that oh wait how about this? The planet needs a rest. It tried to bring you onboard but oh well. Guess its back to what we truly know. Get up. Go to work. Bitch about our jobs. Hate the boss. Go home and complain about nothing being on television. Only to get up. Go to work. This isn't a new normal. Its a new texture that should include your voice being heard at work. Build your new tomorrow by physically beginning a process of participating with progress. Lets get back to work but lets do it in a way that makes us more than paycheck collectors. You know what unemployment feels like now. Push beyond it.

I walked into the morning air at 5:30 am and literally heard four owls tossing vocals back and forth through the forest. Loud, robust, vibrant and message making. Because I've studied animal spirituality for decades I did take a moment to sit and listen. To become part of the circle of conversation. The owls visit means conserve your energy until the times right. Be observant of your surroundings. Owls normally sit in silence. Remove yourself from the noise. Remember owls can see through darkness. Heavy heavy right? Our days have been overtaken by something we can't see nor can our bank accounts predict. Uncertainty is generating a new wave of anxiety to which we are seeing at our state capitols. Exercising that voice is what we've always done. Until election day or the moment Johnny's school is holding a fund raiser and they need some funding to buy books or sports equipment. Then that voice tends to lean in an opposite direction. First... I grasp the get back to work drive. I want this nation to be stronger than what it was in January and February 2020. My only question is based on where have these protesters been for the other problems we've endured as people? I'm not challenging anyone to do anything but be themselves beyond this moment of speaking out and vocalizing freely. On this podcast we talk about the message of the owl. Mainly because its Earth Day. What? Yeah people used to protest for that too. But found reason to continue ripping down the trees and planting taller buildings and homes too large for the human to use. A couple of days ago a friend sent me a note expressing his love for the planet. He felt that maybe all of this is nothing more than the earth grabbing us by the nap of the neck and saying, "Ironman is a false idol and so is Tom Brady. Give me ten minutes of rest and we can get you back on the road." But no! We've chosen to fight the invisible beast. To take in six weeks of uncertainty and then shout out, "We're done!" What we need is unity. Right now we've got nothing more than choices to go in every direction beyond what we can control. If this didn't work yesterday or the day before we're going to try this then that oh wait how about this? The planet needs a rest. It tried to bring you onboard but oh well. Guess its back to what we truly know. Get up. Go to work. Bitch about our jobs. Hate the boss. Go home and complain about nothing being on television. Only to get up. Go to work. This isn't a new normal. Its a new texture that should include your voice being heard at work. Build your new tomorrow by physically beginning a process of participating with progress. Lets get back to work but lets do it in a way that makes us more than paycheck collectors. You know what unemployment feels like now. Push beyond it.

Pod-Crashing Episode 52 Programming Let’s lay it on the line. I’m not a Trouble Maker or Firestarter but I’ve always been a walker of my own way. I can openly admit that during the thirty three years I invested in Terrestrial Radio I drove a lot of decision makers and leaders over the edge. I truly love those that took that time weekly if not daily to sit me down in their nicely designed programming offices and calmly said, “I like how you try but every so often we need to pull you back. I’d rather have that on my team then someone that makes no attempt at being truly seen and or heard.” Does that mean without that brilliant programming staff and collection of radio consultants that I’m a rule breaker and ball buster on the digital platform? Well… after this episode you’ll have a clearer picture of why people have been known to say, “There are several different ways people host and post their podcasts. You know exactly what you’re going to get when you tap into the source of sound. You can’t say that about Arroe.” I’m absolutely without a doubt 1,000 percent all over the place! But rarely does anyone stop to ask why. They just accept that I’m a weird guy. It all begins with how I program podcasting. What? I know. Drop the vocal tracks. Clean it up. Post the monkey and watch the fans visiting the vocal zoo try to feed the animals. Yeah ok but that’s not me. I look at podcasting the same way I see programming a radio station. It’s not right or wrong in a world still discovering its shape and identity. First let me clarify a serious point of direction. The only reason why I never took the required steps to grow into a pair of radio programming slippers is because of the enormous amount of people that literally knew me best. The experience was like the old Cheech and Chong bit. Look! What is it? Looks like dog dung. What? Yeah! Taste. What? They knew I’d drive people totally insane with unheard of expectations and that’s not fair to a creative mind and spirit. Come on… In 2020 there’s a huge chance you’ve heard and created podcasting and have developed your own opinion as to whether it is or isn’t for you. It really is the Wild West and there are a lot of performers that aren’t in the mood or mindset to reset their sense of freedom. It’s gung ho or no go. I totally grasp the concept of putting everything on the hook and seeing whatever fish is willing to bite in an ocean so large science won’t even touch it. I first began programming podcasts in 2015. Watching how listeners were popping in for lengthy periods of time listening to several episodes at once I knew I needed to provide a variety of guests rather than focusing on music and movies. The mission was to bring more lifestyle into the Unplugged and Totally Uncut picture. People Magazine is brimming with every sort of interview. We needed to be part of that circle of content. At the time I was hosting three different podcasts. Each one had its own personality but in order to get more reach I needed to cross-pollinate the episodes. Which meant it was time to figure out who was tapping in and why. While creating an umbrella effect of podcasts I still needed to find focus for listeners that didn’t want to see camera people teamed up with musicians. So that introduced another podcast that was streamlined to bringing those conversations on demand. Paying close attention to what’s posted is a full time job. View From The Writing Instrument is about authors, songwriters and anybody else that depends on using words to get their art out there. As the program director I had to exercise caution in the way of never putting two published books up back to back. The bigger bang was coming from the presented variety. My side of the business of podcasting was to study how each episode was performing. It the manuscript writers were hauling butt then I had to think about giving them their own podcast. I talk to a lot of doctors and have yet to give them their own space. The hits are there but is it worth being a standalone podcast? I host another podcast titled Like Its Live. It lives up to its name. Every conversation is posted unedited like its live. I took a chance on listeners wanting something that wasn’t edited. To be on the edge just as I am when I pop out an odd ball question with a huge hole of dead air at the end. These conversations are later edited and placed under different umbrella podcasts. The Lyrics From Billy’s Forest won’t ever make it to Unplugged and Totally Uncut. There are certain motivational episodes that would push listeners away like a bad Country song. The same is true with the episodes found on Creativity The Addiction. Unless it has something to do with what the main umbrella is trying to project then it can’t go up for the sake of having something new. Programming my podcasts was a huge gamble in 2015 mainly because the early years for me were about locating a platform that would push what I do out there a little further than most. I didn’t want to be compared to anyone. It had to be its own image or I’d walk away. That meant trusting the gut and tucking in the chin. The programming logs are totally taken from the way terrestrial radio does its game. When you pull back and look at the entire picture a new episode on all the podcast features something new going up every hour. Sixteen different podcasts. One of them always has a new feature. They all fit under the biggest umbrella labeled Arroe Collins. Programming hours are extremely important. The only hours for Unplugged and Totally Uncut are 7 10 1 4 10pm View from the Writing Instrument 8 11 2 5 11pm The Choice’s hours are 9 12 6 and 9pm Whereas Like it’s live is midnight til six in the morning. So what’s the moral of the story? Play with it til you break it. Pick it back up. Glue it together then get ready to break it again. Crafting your sound and image doesn’t just happen. It requires chance and a lot of work. Make it yours. Unique and worthy. Don’t stop at what you think a podcast is. Living it like it’s the greatest thing on the planet. Or like Gene Simmons says nobody will believe it is.

Pod-Crashing Episode 52 Programming Let’s lay it on the line. I’m not a Trouble Maker or Firestarter but I’ve always been a walker of my own way. I can openly admit that during the thirty three years I invested in Terrestrial Radio I drove a lot of decision makers and leaders over the edge. I truly love those that took that time weekly if not daily to sit me down in their nicely designed programming offices and calmly said, “I like how you try but every so often we need to pull you back. I’d rather have that on my team then someone that makes no attempt at being truly seen and or heard.” Does that mean without that brilliant programming staff and collection of radio consultants that I’m a rule breaker and ball buster on the digital platform? Well… after this episode you’ll have a clearer picture of why people have been known to say, “There are several different ways people host and post their podcasts. You know exactly what you’re going to get when you tap into the source of sound. You can’t say that about Arroe.” I’m absolutely without a doubt 1,000 percent all over the place! But rarely does anyone stop to ask why. They just accept that I’m a weird guy. It all begins with how I program podcasting. What? I know. Drop the vocal tracks. Clean it up. Post the monkey and watch the fans visiting the vocal zoo try to feed the animals. Yeah ok but that’s not me. I look at podcasting the same way I see programming a radio station. It’s not right or wrong in a world still discovering its shape and identity. First let me clarify a serious point of direction. The only reason why I never took the required steps to grow into a pair of radio programming slippers is because of the enormous amount of people that literally knew me best. The experience was like the old Cheech and Chong bit. Look! What is it? Looks like dog dung. What? Yeah! Taste. What? They knew I’d drive people totally insane with unheard of expectations and that’s not fair to a creative mind and spirit. Come on… In 2020 there’s a huge chance you’ve heard and created podcasting and have developed your own opinion as to whether it is or isn’t for you. It really is the Wild West and there are a lot of performers that aren’t in the mood or mindset to reset their sense of freedom. It’s gung ho or no go. I totally grasp the concept of putting everything on the hook and seeing whatever fish is willing to bite in an ocean so large science won’t even touch it. I first began programming podcasts in 2015. Watching how listeners were popping in for lengthy periods of time listening to several episodes at once I knew I needed to provide a variety of guests rather than focusing on music and movies. The mission was to bring more lifestyle into the Unplugged and Totally Uncut picture. People Magazine is brimming with every sort of interview. We needed to be part of that circle of content. At the time I was hosting three different podcasts. Each one had its own personality but in order to get more reach I needed to cross-pollinate the episodes. Which meant it was time to figure out who was tapping in and why. While creating an umbrella effect of podcasts I still needed to find focus for listeners that didn’t want to see camera people teamed up with musicians. So that introduced another podcast that was streamlined to bringing those conversations on demand. Paying close attention to what’s posted is a full time job. View From The Writing Instrument is about authors, songwriters and anybody else that depends on using words to get their art out there. As the program director I had to exercise caution in the way of never putting two published books up back to back. The bigger bang was coming from the presented variety. My side of the business of podcasting was to study how each episode was performing. It the manuscript writers were hauling butt then I had to think about giving them their own podcast. I talk to a lot of doctors and have yet to give them their own space. The hits are there but is it worth being a standalone podcast? I host another podcast titled Like Its Live. It lives up to its name. Every conversation is posted unedited like its live. I took a chance on listeners wanting something that wasn’t edited. To be on the edge just as I am when I pop out an odd ball question with a huge hole of dead air at the end. These conversations are later edited and placed under different umbrella podcasts. The Lyrics From Billy’s Forest won’t ever make it to Unplugged and Totally Uncut. There are certain motivational episodes that would push listeners away like a bad Country song. The same is true with the episodes found on Creativity The Addiction. Unless it has something to do with what the main umbrella is trying to project then it can’t go up for the sake of having something new. Programming my podcasts was a huge gamble in 2015 mainly because the early years for me were about locating a platform that would push what I do out there a little further than most. I didn’t want to be compared to anyone. It had to be its own image or I’d walk away. That meant trusting the gut and tucking in the chin. The programming logs are totally taken from the way terrestrial radio does its game. When you pull back and look at the entire picture a new episode on all the podcast features something new going up every hour. Sixteen different podcasts. One of them always has a new feature. They all fit under the biggest umbrella labeled Arroe Collins. Programming hours are extremely important. The only hours for Unplugged and Totally Uncut are 7 10 1 4 10pm View from the Writing Instrument 8 11 2 5 11pm The Choice’s hours are 9 12 6 and 9pm Whereas Like it’s live is midnight til six in the morning. So what’s the moral of the story? Play with it til you break it. Pick it back up. Glue it together then get ready to break it again. Crafting your sound and image doesn’t just happen. It requires chance and a lot of work. Make it yours. Unique and worthy. Don’t stop at what you think a podcast is. Living it like it’s the greatest thing on the planet. Or like Gene Simmons says nobody will believe it is.

Pod-Crashing Episode 52 Programming Let’s lay it on the line. I’m not a Trouble Maker or Firestarter but I’ve always been a walker of my own way. I can openly admit that during the thirty three years I invested in Terrestrial Radio I drove a lot of decision makers and leaders over the edge. I truly love those that took that time weekly if not daily to sit me down in their nicely designed programming offices and calmly said, “I like how you try but every so often we need to pull you back. I’d rather have that on my team then someone that makes no attempt at being truly seen and or heard.” Does that mean without that brilliant programming staff and collection of radio consultants that I’m a rule breaker and ball buster on the digital platform? Well… after this episode you’ll have a clearer picture of why people have been known to say, “There are several different ways people host and post their podcasts. You know exactly what you’re going to get when you tap into the source of sound. You can’t say that about Arroe.” I’m absolutely without a doubt 1,000 percent all over the place! But rarely does anyone stop to ask why. They just accept that I’m a weird guy. It all begins with how I program podcasting. What? I know. Drop the vocal tracks. Clean it up. Post the monkey and watch the fans visiting the vocal zoo try to feed the animals. Yeah ok but that’s not me. I look at podcasting the same way I see programming a radio station. It’s not right or wrong in a world still discovering its shape and identity. First let me clarify a serious point of direction. The only reason why I never took the required steps to grow into a pair of radio programming slippers is because of the enormous amount of people that literally knew me best. The experience was like the old Cheech and Chong bit. Look! What is it? Looks like dog dung. What? Yeah! Taste. What? They knew I’d drive people totally insane with unheard of expectations and that’s not fair to a creative mind and spirit. Come on… In 2020 there’s a huge chance you’ve heard and created podcasting and have developed your own opinion as to whether it is or isn’t for you. It really is the Wild West and there are a lot of performers that aren’t in the mood or mindset to reset their sense of freedom. It’s gung ho or no go. I totally grasp the concept of putting everything on the hook and seeing whatever fish is willing to bite in an ocean so large science won’t even touch it. I first began programming podcasts in 2015. Watching how listeners were popping in for lengthy periods of time listening to several episodes at once I knew I needed to provide a variety of guests rather than focusing on music and movies. The mission was to bring more lifestyle into the Unplugged and Totally Uncut picture. People Magazine is brimming with every sort of interview. We needed to be part of that circle of content. At the time I was hosting three different podcasts. Each one had its own personality but in order to get more reach I needed to cross-pollinate the episodes. Which meant it was time to figure out who was tapping in and why. While creating an umbrella effect of podcasts I still needed to find focus for listeners that didn’t want to see camera people teamed up with musicians. So that introduced another podcast that was streamlined to bringing those conversations on demand. Paying close attention to what’s posted is a full time job. View From The Writing Instrument is about authors, songwriters and anybody else that depends on using words to get their art out there. As the program director I had to exercise caution in the way of never putting two published books up back to back. The bigger bang was coming from the presented variety. My side of the business of podcasting was to study how each episode was performing. It the manuscript writers were hauling butt then I had to think about giving them their own podcast. I talk to a lot of doctors and have yet to give them their own space. The hits are there but is it worth being a standalone podcast? I host another podcast titled Like Its Live. It lives up to its name. Every conversation is posted unedited like its live. I took a chance on listeners wanting something that wasn’t edited. To be on the edge just as I am when I pop out an odd ball question with a huge hole of dead air at the end. These conversations are later edited and placed under different umbrella podcasts. The Lyrics From Billy’s Forest won’t ever make it to Unplugged and Totally Uncut. There are certain motivational episodes that would push listeners away like a bad Country song. The same is true with the episodes found on Creativity The Addiction. Unless it has something to do with what the main umbrella is trying to project then it can’t go up for the sake of having something new. Programming my podcasts was a huge gamble in 2015 mainly because the early years for me were about locating a platform that would push what I do out there a little further than most. I didn’t want to be compared to anyone. It had to be its own image or I’d walk away. That meant trusting the gut and tucking in the chin. The programming logs are totally taken from the way terrestrial radio does its game. When you pull back and look at the entire picture a new episode on all the podcast features something new going up every hour. Sixteen different podcasts. One of them always has a new feature. They all fit under the biggest umbrella labeled Arroe Collins. Programming hours are extremely important. The only hours for Unplugged and Totally Uncut are 7 10 1 4 10pm View from the Writing Instrument 8 11 2 5 11pm The Choice’s hours are 9 12 6 and 9pm Whereas Like it’s live is midnight til six in the morning. So what’s the moral of the story? Play with it til you break it. Pick it back up. Glue it together then get ready to break it again. Crafting your sound and image doesn’t just happen. It requires chance and a lot of work. Make it yours. Unique and worthy. Don’t stop at what you think a podcast is. Living it like it’s the greatest thing on the planet. Or like Gene Simmons says nobody will believe it is.

Pod-Crashing Episode 52 Programming Let’s lay it on the line. I’m not a Trouble Maker or Firestarter but I’ve always been a walker of my own way. I can openly admit that during the thirty three years I invested in Terrestrial Radio I drove a lot of decision makers and leaders over the edge. I truly love those that took that time weekly if not daily to sit me down in their nicely designed programming offices and calmly said, “I like how you try but every so often we need to pull you back. I’d rather have that on my team then someone that makes no attempt at being truly seen and or heard.” Does that mean without that brilliant programming staff and collection of radio consultants that I’m a rule breaker and ball buster on the digital platform? Well… after this episode you’ll have a clearer picture of why people have been known to say, “There are several different ways people host and post their podcasts. You know exactly what you’re going to get when you tap into the source of sound. You can’t say that about Arroe.” I’m absolutely without a doubt 1,000 percent all over the place! But rarely does anyone stop to ask why. They just accept that I’m a weird guy. It all begins with how I program podcasting. What? I know. Drop the vocal tracks. Clean it up. Post the monkey and watch the fans visiting the vocal zoo try to feed the animals. Yeah ok but that’s not me.I look at podcasting the same way I see programming a radio station. It’s not right or wrong in a world still discovering its shape and identity. First let me clarify a serious point of direction. The only reason why I never took the required steps to grow into a pair of radio programming slippers is because of the enormous amount of people that literally knew me best. The experience was like the old Cheech and Chong bit. Look! What is it? Looks like dog dung. What? Yeah! Taste. What? They knew I’d drive people totally insane with unheard of expectations and that’s not fair to a creative mind and spirit. Come on… In 2020 there’s a huge chance you’ve heard and created podcasting and have developed your own opinion as to whether it is or isn’t for you. It really is the Wild West and there are a lot of performers that aren’t in the mood or mindset to reset their sense of freedom. It’s gung ho or no go. I totally grasp the concept of putting everything on the hook and seeing whatever fish is willing to bite in an ocean so large science won’t even touch it. I first began programming podcasts in 2015. Watching how listeners were popping in for lengthy periods of time listening to several episodes at once I knew I needed to provide a variety of guests rather than focusing on music and movies. The mission was to bring more lifestyle into the Unplugged and Totally Uncut picture. People Magazine is brimming with every sort of interview. We needed to be part of that circle of content. At the time I was hosting three different podcasts. Each one had its own personality but in order to get more reach I needed to cross-pollinate the episodes. Which meant it was time to figure out who was tapping in and why. While creating an umbrella effect of podcasts I still needed to find focus for listeners that didn’t want to see camera people teamed up with musicians. So that introduced another podcast that was streamlined to bringing those conversations on demand. Paying close attention to what’s posted is a full time job. View From The Writing Instrument is about authors, songwriters and anybody else that depends on using words to get their art out there. As the program director I had to exercise caution in the way of never putting two published books up back to back. The bigger bang was coming from the presented variety. My side of the business of podcasting was to study how each episode was performing. It the manuscript writers were hauling butt then I had to think about giving them their own podcast. I talk to a lot of doctors and have yet to give them their own space. The hits are there but is it worth being a standalone podcast? I host another podcast titled Like Its Live. It lives up to its name. Every conversation is posted unedited like its live. I took a chance on listeners wanting something that wasn’t edited. To be on the edge just as I am when I pop out an odd ball question with a huge hole of dead air at the end. These conversations are later edited and placed under different umbrella podcasts.The Lyrics From Billy’s Forest won’t ever make it to Unplugged and Totally Uncut. There are certain motivational episodes that would push listeners away like a bad Country song. The same is true with the episodes found on Creativity The Addiction. Unless it has something to do with what the main umbrella is trying to project then it can’t go up for the sake of having something new. Programming my podcasts was a huge gamble in 2015 mainly because the early years for me were about locating a platform that would push what I do out there a little further than most. I didn’t want to be compared to anyone. It had to be its own image or I’d walk away. That meant trusting the gut and tucking in the chin. The programming logs are totally taken from the way terrestrial radio does its game. When you pull back and look at the entire picture a new episode on all the podcast features something new going up every hour. Sixteen different podcasts. One of them always has a new feature. They all fit under the biggest umbrella labeled Arroe Collins. Programming hours are extremely important. The only hours for Unplugged and Totally Uncut are 7 10 1 4 10pmView from the Writing Instrument 8 11 2 5 11pmThe Choice’s hours are 9 12 6 and 9pmWhereas Like it’s live is midnight til six in the morning. So what’s the moral of the story? Play with it til you break it. Pick it back up. Glue it together then get ready to break it again. Crafting your sound and image doesn’t just happen. It requires chance and a lot of work. Make it yours. Unique and worthy. Don’t stop at what you think a podcast is. Living it like it’s the greatest thing on the planet. Or like Gene Simmons says nobody will believe it is.

Hi there! It's been a minute. What can I tell you, the world flipped upside down. Ray Arroyo, a community worker in Chicago and a very good friend. We talk about the odd feeling of having your home space turn into your office. The mental barrier that does not come with that. It's safe to say most of us are BORED! We talk about methods on breaking up the day and methods to train your dog. What? Yeah, I know the conversation took a weird turn. 

This weeks guest is Nathan Hirsch. Nathan Hirsch is an entrepreneur and expert in remote hiring and eCommerce. He is the co-founder and CEO of FreeeUp.com, a marketplace that connects businesses with pre-vetted freelancers in eCommerce, digital marketing, and much more. He has sold over $30 million online and regularly appears on leading business podcasts, such as Entrepreneur on Fire, and speaks at live events about online hiring tactics.Links: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/freeeupmarketplace Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/realnatehirsch LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nathanhirsch/ FreeeUp: https://freeeup.com/FreeeUp Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/outsourcingmasters/ My calendar: https://calendly.com/freeeup-nathanwelcome back to the fuel your legacy podcast. Each week we expose the faulty foundational mindsets of the past and rebuild the newer, stronger foundation essential in creating your meaningful legacy. We've got a lot of work to do. So let's get started. As much as you like this podcast, I'm certain that you're going to love the book that I just released on Amazon if you will, your legacy, the nine pillars to build a meaningful legacy. I wrote this to share with you the experiences that I had while I was identifying my identity, how I began to create my meaningful legacy and how you can create yours. You're going to find this book on Kindle, Amazon and their website Sam Knickerbocker. com.Welcome back to fuel your legacy. This week we have another guest that is not common for our podcasts, which is exciting because we get to learn something new. We have a lot of people talk about mindset. We have a lot of people to talk about different areas. But when we get these kinds of oddities, then I get excited because I'm learning equally as much like you who are listening. So if you wish that I would have asked different questions message me and we can happen back on and ask him those questions, because that happens, right? I see I have that happen all the time. I'm listening to a podcast, I think, Man, I wish you would have asked this. This is the thing I wanted the answer to the message, the person who's running the podcast, ie myself or whoever podcasts you listen to, and say, I would have loved to get this answer from that person. And potentially, you could just reach out to that person and ask them on social media. Most people are pretty accessible, which is awesome, even though it doesn't feel like that they actually are very, very accessible. So this week's guest is Nathan Hersh and he is kind of an expert, entrepreneur. So I had had a conversation with somebody on the self-making calls and they specialize in laying people off, which is interesting, but he's the opposite. And Nathan specializes in hiring people remotely. So if you're wondering like man, how do I get good people into my company. First is I debt identifying candidates and then actually being able to, to that and hire them that's important. So that's what his company does. And then e-commerce. So very interesting thing I'm getting into the, I guess you could say e-commerce industry through learning how to sell my, my books, my merchandise for my brand. So I'm really, really stoked to hear about this and ask lots of questions. But Nathan, go ahead and share with us really where you came from in your childhood, what your story of growing up college wherever it was, and then what was that epiphany where you went from? Okay, kind of undecided or not sure what exactly you want to do with your life to I has a passion. I have a legacy. I know my purpose and I'm chasing it. Yeah, sogrowing on my parent's Teachers so I grew up with a mentality that I was going to go to college, get a real job work for 30 years and, and retire. And I mean, that's what they did. They're retired right now they're traveling the world. There's nothing wrong with that. But I, they always made me get the summer jobs. I was working like 4050 hours a week, all my friends were outside playing that they wanted to teach me hard work at a young age. So from the time I was like, 15 on I was always working like 40 hours a week during summers during vacations. And I learned a lot about sales and marketing and growing businesses. But I also just learned how much I hated working for other people. So when I got to college, I kind of looked at it as a ticking clock where I four years to start my own business. And if I didn't do that I was going to go into the real world and get a job. So I started hustling. I took that summer money and started buying people's textbooks competing with my school bookstore offering better prices. I created a referral program. And before I knew it, I had lines out the door of people trying to sell me their books. So the point where I just got a cease and desist letter telling me to knock it off. So, from there, I didn't want to keep that a school. My parents are both teachers. So I pivoted, I sold some books on Amazon. I thought it was so cool. I could have this Amazon business that was like the storefront. No one really understood Amazon at the time, but I could use my customer service skills and my marketing skills and all that and I did to figure out what products to sell. I couldn't sell books anymore. So I started experimenting with outdoor equipment, video games, computers, and I just failed over and over and over. And it wasn't until I branched out of my comfort zone and down the baby product industry that my business really took off. So if you can imagine me as a 20-year-old single college guy selling baby products on Amazon, that was me. And, and this business just took off. I was making more money than I could imagine as a college kid. I was dropshipping from different manufacturers of different distributors. My parents told me I should probably start paying taxes. So I met with an account And the first question he asked me was, when are you going to hire your first-person? And I kind of shrugged him off, like, why would I do that? It's one out of my pocket, they're gonna steal my ideas. They're, they're going to hurt my business. And he just laughed in my face. And he said you're going to learn this lesson on your own? Well, sure enough, my first busy season came around the fourth quarter, and I just got destroyed. I was working 20 hours a day, my social life plummeted. My Grades went down. And I got to the other side, and I thought to myself, man, I need to start hiring people. So I don't know how to hire people. I post a job on Facebook. Someone shows up for my business. Law class says, Hey, I need a job. I don't know what you do. I didn't even interview him. I just hired him on the spot. ends up being an unbelievable hire. He's hard-working. He's smart. He's actually my business partner. We've been working together for eight years. I was texting him right before That's why we're delayed a little bit. But I just hit the ground running like right from the beginning get super lucky. But there I am as a punk 20-year-old thinking man, this hiring thing is easy you post a job on Facebook someone shows up you make more money you get more time back and I just proceed to make bad hire after bad hire after bad hire quickly learning that hiring not that easy. college kids were not that reliable. No one in person really wanted to work for me when I was 2021. So I went to their whole hiring world The upwards to fivers and hired some good people, people that are still with me today. But I always just hated the process, posting a job getting 100 applicants, interviewing them one by one just took forever. And that's what I had the idea to build my own marketplace free up. So I really took everything I liked and change everything I didn't like and I'm sure we'll talk about free up later on. But that's kind of how I went from broke college kids to books to baby products to eventually starting a freelancer platform.Awesome. So there's a there are a few things that I want to kind of share my perspective on. Because it's funny and this is something I haven't thought of in a long time. So I'm glad We're talking about this right? summer jobs so I was homeschooled so there's not like a summer thing it was like if you wanted income ever, then you just had to go get a job. And I rememberup until I was like ninelet's see when I was six or seven I wanted to play soccer. No money in my house. So I went got you to remember and like the old snapper, lawnmowers or heavy metal and I would shoot the grass right out the back. Anyways, this snapper lawn mower did not have a bag but I would push that thing up and down. are busy street as a six-year-old knock on people's door with my gallon of gas is a kind of cut your grass and I made enough money to pay for my soccer habit right? For the first little bit had the whole lemonade stand everything. By the time I was 1011 years old. I was like this. I am working More than whatever crap I've been getting paid. And so a neighbor woman asked my brother and I had to go and help pull weeds. And I was like, yep, I got two able young sons. They're going to go help you. And you can pay for them, right? So we go, we are businessmen in our mind. We go, we go to assess the job. She shows us what she wants to be done. And we're like, yeah, $5 an hour, or we're not doing and giving me this is a 16 years ago. So I grew up in Idaho. And so back then $5 an hour is still like, above minimum wage, almost right. It was a, it was a decent wage. And the woman like, Nope, not paying that. And so we're like, cool, we're not going to do it. Then we go home. And my mom was like, What are you guys doing back so soon? We're like, well, she didn't want that. She wanted $5 an hour. She didn't want to pay for it. So we're not going to do it. Yeah, that didn't happen. She was just right back over there. And we ended up working for free for the next two weeks. And it sucked. But it is important to do things, both on both sides, one know your value, but to understand the value of money and I think those summer jobs, those things where our parents kind of make us do things that we don't enjoy, at a younger age, they can really, really shape who we become, and, and how we end up operating in the world. So I love that idea of summer jobs and hearing what people did with their summer jobs. The other thing that I think is interesting because one of the focuses of this podcast, obviously is to help you as a listener, understand where your passion lies, what your identity is, and how you want to move forward. And for Nathan, it sounds like and you can correct me if I'm wrong, but it wasn't as much of knowing what you wanted to do. Knowing what you didn't want to do.Yeah, that was part of it. Now there's another part of that I didn't touch upon. I saw I went to school and I grew up in East Longmeadow. My dad was a teacher at Longmeadow. And I got to go to the Longmeadow school system because my dad taught there and it was a much better school system. Now, in Longmeadow. Everyone's parents were doctors, lawyers, dentists, business owners, and I was broke by any means. But I had two parents that were teachers, we were middle class. So growing up, I was friends and I was around with people that had everything in my mind. And I feel like growing up in that experience, you always want more now 10 years later, I kind of realized I don't really care about money, I dress like I dress I don't go out and buy fancy cars. That's just not who I am. But as a kid, that kind of stuff resonates with you. So when you get to college and you want to pursue that entrepreneurship dream, yes, you don't want to work for other people, but there's that monetary component as well. You want to be able to just surpassed that ceiling cap and if you just go get a real job.Yeah, absolutely. And what I found because I think this happens with a lot of people, and it also holds people back. A lot of people, they aren't ready to step out because they think, well, I don't know really what my passion is, I don't know what I want to do. And so instead of going out and just doing anything, doing things, they sit there thinking and thinking and thinking and thinking about what they might want to do. And then sometimes even decide on what they want to do. They go all into it for like three months, and then I hate this, this is terrible. And then they're back to square one. And they start back thinking again, rather than, hey, look, I just know I don't want to do that. I've got a ticking time clock. I've got four years, I gotta succeed somehow because I don't want to have to work for somebody. So what can I do? How can I make money? Just simply asking yourself that question, how can I make 100 bucks a day? How can I make 10 bucks a day? How can I do something that I can do again and again and again, it's not going to get old or In, it's a need that's always going to be needed. Not necessarily that the repetitiveness is always going to be exciting to you. That's rarely the fact but it's something that's always going to be needed. Just ask yourself that question. And it's amazing what people will come up with. And the voids that you can fill in the marketplace to accomplish that.I and I like to focus on low risk, high reward situations, I try to try a lot of different things that don't cost a lot of money. I'll sacrifice my time over money, especially at the beginning, and you never know what's going to work out. I mean, if you'd asked me 10 years ago, if I'd be selling baby products on Amazon, I wouldn't believe you. But that's because I tried a lot of different things. And none of the things cost me that much money. I mean, buying books aren't that expensive. It's pretty Amazon accounts like 40 bucks a month. So I'm trying all these different things and you eventually come across stuff that's work. That works and you read the market and you make adjustments and you listen to feedback. And if you can save your car doing that and putting yourself out there, it can lead to a lot of really awesome opportunities.Yeah, I something that I've noticed is, as I've kind of got into the space of just trying a lot of different things. And for myself, at least one of the biggest fears was the fear of failure, the fear of getting that cease and desist letter, that fear of being shut down from regulation, the fear of getting sued, because you're using somebody else's trademark or copyright or like, just because You're, you're not even aware, right. I for a long time, I would just for my marketing stuff, I could download stuff off Google, Google Images, and throw it on my stuff. And it was until I sat down with somebody like, yeah, you can't like, you can't just do that. Right. Why not? Because that's, that's probably copyrighted. And maybe when you're a small fish, nobody cares. But the moment you make any little bit of money, people care, you know, so I'm like, okay, so it's those little things, but for a long time, I would not I didn't want to fail. I'm so scared of failure so scared of the repercussion that that would hold me from going out and trying. And how did you get over that? Or was that ever even a concern or a thought?It's always I mean, my business partner Connor is more relaxed like everything's gonna be okay. I'm much more like paranoid like every possible thing could go wrong in any different way, which I feel like has its pros and cons. I one part of it makes me a very good entrepreneur because I'm always looking out for things before they happen. Part of it makes me maybe not a good entrepreneur because I'll spend extra time stressing over things I don't have to instead of focusing on what I should be so there's a part of that I mean, I tend to be a little bit more conservative as an entrepreneur, I'm not out there taking big risks, whether dumping big money into stuff or trying to get into gray areas and push the limits and see what can happen. I definitely more on the conservative side. But I mean, absolutely. If you can't handle risk, and you can't handle that, that you can actually lose money in a situation if you wake up and go to a nine to five job. Are you're not coming home with less money than you? You did when you woke up that day, but that can happen in business. So if you're not prepared for that risk that entrepreneurship is probably not for you. But you can go about it in a way that minimizes risks and keeps them as minimal as possible.Yeah, I would, I would, I would say maybe entrepreneurship. If you're in the risky form is not there's a lot of people who have zero risks in their entrepreneurship or very, very low because it's they're already doing it. I think the side hustle is probably one of the best things that ever came about was moonlighting, right? If you're already doing something at your day job, and it's a skill that you're developing, it doesn't cost you anything, there's no risk, you're not going to lose income. If you say Okay, can I do this on the side for freelance work? an extra two hours a day for myself? Right, exactly. And all of the benefits that come with that, from taxes to planning for your future, to savings, to confidence, every Comes with that still when you're even just moonlighting. And there's very little risk, to adding time, and just putting yourself out there.Right. Yeah, completely agree. I mean, I never like to say that businesses are no risk because there's always some kind of risk. I mean, you could freelance and you could mess up some client's business in some way and they end up suing you. Is there a high likely chance of that happening? No, but you can't go into it with the mindset that I'm doing this completely risk-free. That's just not how entrepreneurship is.Yeah, agreed. And from Sorry, I did a presentation last night for some investors. And yeah, it was the same thing. I was like, Look, if you think if anybody ever tells you there are zero risks in whatever you're going to be putting your money into, run, run as fast and as far away as you can. Everything has a risk. But managing the risk is really what it's about and people think I hate risk. No, you just maybe you don't like certain types of risk and learning what risk you like and what you don't like, is important. And so with your parents being teachers, did they always kind of see you as this entrepreneur? or What did they see you becoming when you were in high school and entering college?Yeah, good question. Um, I don't know. I mean, I was always one of those kids. Like I was good at school. I wasn't like the best in the class, but I was fine. I got A's and B's and, and but I always just really didn't like school. I mean, certain things I would like, but there were a lot of subjects that I just didn't care about. And if I don't care about something, I usually don't put a lot of effort into it. I usually spend most of my time focus on stuff that I'm passionate about. So at a young age, there's a certain rebellious person to me, part of me and I think that that concern my parents being teachers, thinking that hey, I was just going to joke around through school joke around through college and that was going to hurt me later in life. And I think that once I started the Amazon business that they tend to be way more conservative than I am. They were kind of not pushing but suggesting that I go out and get a real job and have more stability and health benefits and stuff like that. And I had a really good internship at the Firestone Corporation at their corporate office throughout college, and I ended up having a job offer from them and a few other places after college. And it was between Hey, do I continue being an entrepreneur? Or do I keep the jobs and I had a lot of phone calls, I was really stressed out that last week of college, I still didn't know what I was going to do? And I talked to my parents and I could tell they were really leaning into picking the job and, and maybe doing the Amazon thing on the side. And I talked to my aunt who's an entrepreneur, and I remember spending an hour talking with her just pacing around my lawn, and she essentially told me like, if you're passionate about it, you got to do it, you got to go for it and those other jobs aren't going anywhere. You can always go out and get a real job. So um, I ended up going that route and I think a few years into it. I mean, now they 100% or they've always supported me support tonight, right? Where were they were going to support me No matter what I did if I want to go become a gymnast or firefighter, whatever it was, but I think they probably relax a little bit and realize that Yeah, like entrepreneurship is what I was meant to do. And, and, and they realized that I probably wouldn't have been happy at a real job.Yeah, I know, I know, for me, my parents were always very supportive and encouraging of entrepreneurship. But when I got married, when I was dating my wife, her parents are very much like, institutional, you know, go get a job with good benefits, whatever. And I would say it's, it's taken them a while to even get comfortable with where we're at. They're still not completely comfortable. They still think hey, so what is it that you do? Like they still haven't quite bought into what that I complete idea of entrepreneurship. And what's interesting about that particular situation is his. My father, I guess my wife's grandpa was an entrepreneur, like, his whole life. That's all he did, made his millions through entrepreneurship. And yet his son is a Go get a job nice salary and just like safe very very safe right and yeah for me it's just not for me so it's been interesting watching them kind of adjust to the the idea of I'm never going to have that yet I have everything that they have and he's not in the same manner so tell me the story of who your biggest naysayers were when you started the Amazon and how did you learn to silence them in your mind?Um, so I did a block myself away from naysayers pretty quick, I think on the Amazon thing, trying to tell other people that you're selling baby products where not only does that not make sense, but we're also just in a different time. Like right now everyone knows what e-commerce is right? If you go into like, hey, let's talk about Amazon. com like probably the play shop on Amazon. com. Back in 2008. Yes, people knew about Amazon but it was mostly as a bookstore and no one knew what like being an Amazon seller was like a term didn't exist. So me trying to tell people I sold baby products as on Amazon, and the Third Party seller that thought I was crazy thought I was running a scam. I remember it was a funny story. I, I had, I liked this girl that was in one of my classes. And for one class like I sat in front of her and I was like listening baby products on Amazon and she was just like, looking over the shoulder seeing what I see what I was doing. And I don't think I ever talked to that girl again. She probably thought I was some weird creep doing it for whatever reason. I mean, trying to just explain to people what you were doing was tough. I don't think I ever had anyone that was like you're a failure, you're gonna fail like, I mean, those are just not the type of people I surround myself with. And even the people that thought I was weird probably just didn't say it to my face. So I got lucky there. But I mean, there's been times more on like the free upside where I've gotten like bashing a Facebook group or something. But I mean, there's always going to be people that either don't understand you or put you down or want you to fail or have their issues going on. And my advice is just to block those people and get them out of your network out of your community and move on with life.Yeah, I agree and I'm going to share again, sharing experience, because I think this is a principle that anybody who is going to go starts their own thing is going to choose to follow a passion. I don't care if it's for income or just because you want to do it. There's a weird thing about human nature. People don't like to know that they're being offensive. Okay? I mean, like, if they know they're being offensive, then they're a lot less likely to do it just because they want to be friends most of the time, right? So, and there's always as outliers who just really enjoy being rude, but most people, don't want to be offensive. And what happens is, when you get this passion, oftentimes you tend we tend to share it timidly. We aren't pumped up bad. We aren't excited about it. We aren't like hey, this, this is me and I don't care what you're you're doing. My wife and I, we experienced that when we decided to have our baby at home because we like home birth. This is a good experience for us. I was born at home. So it's exciting, but it's interesting how many people have an opinion about it and if you just stay silent in the conversation, You'll hear people talk about how home birth is so risky and everybody should go to the hospital and all this stuff, right? But if you are just so excited, and rather than saying, Yeah, I think I'm going to have a home birth, right? If you say it like that, then you're going to Oh? Why? Like, why don't you like dogs and people are gonna start question you. But if you say, Man, I'm so excited. This one we're going to have at home, we're going to have a family there and we just go all out on your excitement. People will never say it to your face. Even if they do doubt you as you said, they'll never say it to your face because they're so like, like, Oh, he's committed Tamanna support him, even though I think he's nuts. I'll support him because he believes in it. And so that's a life hack. I think if you don't want negative people around, you just are so excited and so purposeful about what you are doing. The people who are negative the people who don't believe in you, you'll probably never tell you because they're too embarrassed to open their mouth after you just totally sold out on how excited you are about it.Absolutely. I mean, most people Not entrepreneurs aren't that excited about their job. I mean, there's just that's just the truth. So I think that's why entrepreneurs sometimes struggle to relate because I mean, entrepreneurs, we could talk about work all day, I'll go out to dinner with a bunch of entrepreneurs, we'll talk about work the entire time. And it's fun, it's exciting. You take two accountants and throw them in with people working at whatever and have them go out to dinner and not going to talk about work for four hours. And if they did, that was probably a pretty boring dinner. So you kind of have to put things in perspective.Yeah, totally. Totally. Totally. So if you were to focus on a specific habit, mindset or behavior that you've used to create kind of your e-commerce and hiring platform, what would you say that would be? What sorry, one What? Yeah, a habit, a mindset or behavior. So whatever, whatever you feel is like the one thing that's created your legacy the most?Yeah, so for me, it's about finding out what I'm most productive and maximizing that time. I tend to be most productive 6 am to 9 am other people might be in the middle of the night or the afternoon. But whatever that time is, I make sure that that's the time that I'm working that I'm getting the most done. Six to 9 am. No one's bothering me. I'm working on projects. I'm getting organized for my day. I'm brainstorming whatever the most important thing for the day is, that's the time I'm doing it. And I think a lot of our viewers, they think they have to work nine to five or they're, they're working 60 hours a week, but they're not focused on how what am I most productive? And how am I maximizing that time, every single day? And I think that's been a big habit that has helped me just get a lot done. My businesses move fast, they grow fast, we change things quickly. Because every single day, I'm maximizing my most productivetime. So I've heard a lot of entrepreneurs say that and even just business people. How do you identify when you're most productive?It took years I mean, I went to college I slept in I mean, after college, I didn't just go from knots or from sleeping in at college to waking up at 6 am. That's how it worked. I mean, it took me years to realize that hey, yeah, if I buy to start working on a project at four o'clock in the afternoon, that project comes out terrible. And the same thing on weekends and nights. I mean, I think I always knew I wasn't like a crazy night person like I did it to the party in college. But that's not my natural environment. So I think it's a little bit of self-reflecting and knowing yourself, and sometimes it takes a lot of time to figure that out. And a lot of working at different times to establish when you're most productive and when you get the best workout.That's, that's interesting. I've struggled to find out when I'm most productive. So it's a question I like to ask him. I don't know how to determine when I'm most successful yet, but I'm still working on that one. So hopefully I can figure that out before I die. Question about the freedom, the freedom platform. How does that differ from like zip recruiter or some of these other platforms that kind of offer a very similar service? What what what made your special Why did you choose to create your own Rather than may be asked to adapt the services that were already there,yeah, so we're marketplace for pre-vetted virtual assistants, freelancers and agencies, we get thousands of applicants every week from all over the world five to 100 plus per hour us Non Us fixed prices too, we vet them top 1% based on skill, attitude, and communication, get on our platform, one out of every hundred so we're very picky on who we let in. Once they're in clients Jones to browse, they simply put in a request telling us what they need.And we fill it basedon our pre-vetted network from their clients can meet with them, interview them, they can hire them to negotiate rate agree to fix prices, they don't like them, they can always request for options or pass and give us feedback and we'll get them someone else. So it's a very quick and efficient process in the middle. And on the back end, we have 24 seven support in case you have even the smallest issue all about customer service, and a no turnover Guarantee. If someone quits for any reason. We cover replacement costs and get them a new person right away. So that's what we're about the preventing the speed, the Customer Service and the protection. And yeah, I mean, that's those are the four ways that we're different.And is it? So? So I've worked with fiber I've worked with Upwork. I haven't ever used ZipRecruiter.And I haven't ever used a virtual assistant. What? Like what does that one? I guess one of the reasons I haven't is because I'm, I'm worried that I don't, I don't know how to effectively communicate what I need my virtual assistant to do. So how do you help somebody kind of enter that, let's say they want to use your service, and they want their time freed up, but they don't know how to even like, help somebody help them.Yeah, so we have a Facebook group called outsourcing masters where we spend a lot of time teaching people what to do with the talented freelancers, virtual assistants and agencies because we can get you, talented people but like you said, if you don't know what to do, after the fact it doesn't do you much good and a lot of it comes down to setting expectations and a project what you want to be done how you communicate part of it. It comes down to Figuring out Hey, do I need a follower? Do I need to do or do I need an expert? So followers five to 10 bucks an hour Non-Us, they're there to follow your systems, your processes, you should only hire them. If you're stuck in the day to day operations, you know how to do the day to day operations. And you can hire them to free up your hours and get them to do those tasks repetitively. Then you got the doers, we all have different projects that come up when you're an entrepreneur, whether it's writing a blog, article, or website or logo. These are graphic designers, bookkeepers, writers specialist, you're not going to hire a graphic designer and teach them how to be a graphic designer. They're doers, and they're not consulting with you either. And then you got the experts, the high-level freelancers that the consultancy agencies that are bringing their system, their processes the table, and they're there to su high-level game plans to help your business and something that you're not good at. And you could spend the next six months learning Facebook ads, but that's probably not a good use of your time. You can't do that every single part of your business. So at some point, you need to hire experts to hit the ground running right from the get So that's usually the good starting point is figuring out, hey, do I have systems and processes that I need someone to do them besides me? Do I have projects building out that are outside of my core competency that I need to get done? Or do I taking on something new, that's a big part of my business that I don't have the time to master not going to hire an expert right from the beginning. And if you focus on those higher, each one is a little bit different for a follower you're going to create. So PS and instructions and an onboarding process for the doers, you're going to get become better at defining the scope and due dates and what constitutes success and failure. And for experts, you're going to come up with a game plan and tweak that game plan until it's good and get better at executing game plans or collaboration with that expert. So it kind of depends on who you're trying to work with.So with the amount of how, how you navigate this, I assume most people on your platform they're speaking English, or at least communicating in English.They don't speak English at a high level. They don't get a foot into our interview process.Okay, yeah, cuz I'm working with somebody on Fiverr right? Now, and that's not to throw the guy under the bus, he's doing great work. But I feel like I have enabled to communicate my needs to him. It's like, the vaguer I am, the more I get what I want. But then when I want to be, like, more specific than it just like, I don't get what I want, I'm like crap, I don't know how to, like, tell you what I want. Because the more specific I get, the less of what I want I get. So it's just, that's it. And that's happened to me a few times on fiber. And it's not I don't think it's at all the people that I like, I just see it's a typical thing that could happen in that as the process. And so that's where I wonder like, how have you mastered that that communication commission communication channel?Yeah, I mean, I can't comment on your specific situation or could be anything could be you, it could be the free or whatever. But I've had similar experiences at other platforms. And that's why communication is such a big part of our platform and we are 15 pages of communication best practice that freelancers have a memorized get tested on before they get on our platform. I mentioned that we vet them for English before they get on. But we're also very quick to remove people that struggle with communication. And we have to chase that there and clients are complaining that they can't get on the same page. So we spent a lot of time bedding and we know how important communication is, at the end of the day, if you can't communicate, nothing else matters, they might have a great attitude, a great skill set. But if you can't communicate, that's it. So that's why communication is the foundation of our platform. And we're also there to help we understand everyone has a different level of remote hiring experience. So if you are running into issues and we're not trying to get anyone in trouble, we're on the same side here. We're going to give advice and suggestions and what's worked with us and help you come up with a good system to communicate better going forward.Yeah, I love that. That's cool. So in your transition is something that I noticed with our entrepreneurs, at some point the money does come up right there has to be a money conversation. How important do you feel like when you were starting or Now, even starting your textbook business because you had mentioned that you weren't paying taxes for a while, and then they said, okay, you try to pay taxes. How important do you think it is to understand the like how money works? When you're trying to build a legacy? Why is that an important task?In your mind? Yeah, I mean, you have to understand money. At the end of the day, if you don't make more if you don't make money, you can't do much else. And I feel like one of my mindsets and I told me I told my fiance that because she's into, like, volunteer and stuff, I told my business partner this, I mean, you got to make yourself money first. If you make yourself money first, that allows you to help a lot more people, if you're just out there helping people but you're not making any money at some point that helps to go to have to stop like you're going to have to pay the bills, or you're just not gonna be able to help as many people. So it's one of those things you have to be able to make money first, the whole profit-first mentality, and then what you do with that money, how much you donate to charity, how much you invest back into the company to expand other people to help clients customers, whatever you do with it is up to you, you have to be able to generate money. And that has to be the core of your mindset at all times.Yeah. And then how about the from the understanding side of money management, so there's generating money, which is making no money manage if you aren't generating it, or I see a lot of breakdowns is people and I because of my career, I manage people's money, right? But I see entrepreneurs who they go from very little money and they go up to the hundreds of thousands, if not millions of dollars, the companies, but because they never really learned how to manage money, they learned how to grow money, which is important, but learning how to harvest and grow in an effective manner is equally important. I wanted to hear like, why why would that be important and what did you do to educate yourself in that arena?So I'm extremely fortunate. My dad from a very young age taught me to like the power of $1 he made me buy my stuff. I had a And eventually, a job and I had to pretty much buy everything for myself besides maybe like food and necessities and pay for my college and, and all that. And he also taught me about stuff like avoiding credit cards and avoiding debt and how important that is and how important is to save and, and not just buy random stuff that you don't need it and waste that money that you could be saving and putting in a CD and stocks and stuff like that. So I'm kind of a frugal person, because of him. I think at a young age, I probably didn't appreciate that as much. But again, I kind of told you I grew up with people who had everything, they had all the newest video games and newest toys, whatever it was, and I was kind of in the opposite boat. So I think now looking back, I'm so happy. I learned that I know people that are in tons of student debt, tons of credit card debt, they haven't done a good job manage their money, they're buying cars, which are terrible investments, stuff like that. And I think it's that mentality of every time that you make more money. That doesn't necessarily mean your lifestyle just continues to go up at the same pace or even faster. It's a listen, I live a very simple lifestyle too, to what I did three years ago, maybe it's a little better, maybe I can eat out a little bit more or buy the extra thing that I want me because I can it makes me a little bit happier. But I'm not I'm still even though I'm making more money, my expenses are just going up at the same pace and I think that's what a lot of people don't understand.Agree. So, do you feel like that frugality mentality though? And there's that there's a just for anybody listening. There's an I think there's a big line, but it seems a small line, but I think it's a big line between a frugal person who understands money and understands the power of money, and somebody who's a tightwad, or a miser. Okay, so I want to separate these two before I ask this question because, without a proper understanding of the term frugal and how it separates there, you might think something different, but I'm going to ask you this question has the mentality of frugality. How does that play into your growing your business?Yeah, so part of it is understanding like what a good purchase it well, I guess, well separate personal business for business, I only invest money in stuff that I think is going to be an ROI. I told you before about low risk, high reward situations, I do the same thing. When I'm big. I'm not just dumping $50,000 into Facebook ads and hoping it works out I'm starting small and going with the strategy growing up over time and trying lots of different things and seeing what works. I have a little bit of flexibility, I can take a little bit more risk. But I'm still not taking huge risks from a personal side is less to do with like, oh, I'm just not going to spend money on anything and more to do with spending money on things you care about. I love food. I love traveling. I love trying a new food that's exciting to me. That's a great way to live life. I don't care about clothes and I don't care about cars, that those things don't do it for me their physical objects. I don't care what I look like and as So, I'm spending way less money on clothes and cars than the average person in my position making what I make. But I probably spend a little bit more money on food, because that's a passion of mine. So it doesn't mean that you just are frugal and you just never spend any money and you eat peanut butter and jelly sandwiches every day. Although if you don't care about food, I guess you could do that and you can buy more clothes. But the point is to focus on the things that make you happy and not just spending despair.I completely agree. One of the taglines of my other brand, the Samuel Knickerbocker brand is identifying your identity, right and it comes down to values. And when I'm sitting Matt is going over some of this money. The conversation is never and my objective is so they can feel zero judgment and the whole process of review, Financial Review, but it's not about where you're spending your money. I don't care where you're spending your money. I care about do you value where you're spending your money, or are you spending money out of habit habits sedation because you don't know like because you're just aren't aware and so I love that that that came up it's what do you value? I have a friend who values Formula One race cars, and he buys race cars. And he has a lot of them in my mind five or six, seven, and he has a lot of money in cars, and that's something you value is for me I would not put it there I don't value food I would spend on travel, right? or business development because I love the game of business. And I view that as a game not a by me it's just a game as a business as a game and I love the game. But it is interesting because when you're getting married because this goes into marriage. If you aren't aware of what you're your potential spouse values when it comes to money and you get married There's a misalignment of the value of where the money's going. And that's a recipe for disaster and it could kill your business could kill your I mean, even if you're not, if you're just working for your, for another company, as an employee, it could destroy you financially, not understanding. We need to make purchases based on my value system. And you're going to be happier if you're in business. I mean, even as business partners business partnership and marriage is the same contract. You've got to know that you're making those purchases based on your values, your value system,right? I mean, a perfect example is I don't have cable and it's not because I can't afford cable. Most people have cable but it's because I realized I just wasn't watching that much cable, I watch TV but it's a network that looks at Hulu. I have a Slingbox, which is great. It's hooked up to my parent's house or they're retired and they travel they don't use cable. So it kind of works out both ways. And I think the average person You can go through their lifestyle and say, Hey, I'm, I'm paying this every month and pay this every month and realize, okay, I probably don't need this I'm probably not maximizing this and, and really cut back on those expenses and you go through it and you can't cut back on stuff, that's fine too. But I've kind of found that it's not like I'm hiding in a corner, like, oh, I gotta say that extra hundred dollars a month. It's just like, I just don't I don't, I don't get $100 of value out of it a month. It's not something that I need.Yep, I agree. I love that. So let's say we want to learn more about how to start our own e-commerce business. Is that something you do? Do you offer coaching or, or some level of training on how to how somebody might start their own e-commerce business? Or is it just that's what you do?Nope. I do not offer any training or coaching. We have a lot of free content all about hiring and using virtual systems, freelancers and agencies. We're also happy to hop on a phone call free of charge to help although I tend to not consult more there to answer questions and just tell you how I how I've done things and how my classes about things in the past. But we do work with a lot of partners in e-commerce in the marketing space. So if you join the free up newsletter, the Facebook group will direct you to partners that we trust. We want to take really good care of their community just like we expect them to take really good care of our community. And those are the people that we kind of push you towards. Awesome. Ilove that just some people aren't aware of this is the best way to get an expert's advice. Come to the expert with a plan where you can ask pointed specific questions of direction where they can say yes, this direction or that direction, not Hey, what should I do? Who should I call like, that's way too broad of an example? You need to come with very specific things. Okay, I've got up to this point. What would you have given this goal, this is the objective. How do you How would you proceed most likely in this situation? And that's going to help Nathan or any other professional or expert better assist you because now they can answer a quick question and move on and still add a lot of value.Yeah, completely agree. And I mean, buying courses and stuff is great. But there's so much free content out there. And there's so much you can do with that free content. So I would encourage you to join a lot of groups follow people on, a lot of people are giving out great content for free that later have courses and you can decide who you like and who you don't like, I wouldn't just go from zero to buying the most expensive books.Yeah, I 100% agree that make sure you're in alignment and you like the communication pattern of the person teaching the course. So now if we wanted to get ahold of you, where's the best place to get ahold of you? Where are you most active? If we want to reach out to you on social media or LinkedIn or maybe on more podcasts? where's the best place to get more of you?Yeah, join my facebook group outsourcing masters. You can find my podcast outsourcing and scaling show. You can also at the top of the free of website free up with three E's is my calendar is my team calendars. You can chat with one of my VH which is kind of cool. Ask them questions about being a BA and you can understand that and then I'm on all social media channels if you want to follow me on Facebook, LinkedIn, connect with me on Instagram real Nate hearse. I'm pretty easy to contact.Awesome. Love it. So this is a section of my show that gets me the second most excited most excited I saved for last but this is this is I love this part called legacy on rapid-fire. So I'm gonna ask you five questions, looking for one word, one-sentence answers. The only caveat is you have to definitely Lee clarify the answer to the first question. Okay, so the first question goes as this what is holding you back from reaching the next level of your legacy today?Food? Yeah, good question. Oh, man, that is a good question. What is holding me back? I think I have a certain lifestyle in terms of running a remote business and a certain way that I've had an office before and I didn't enjoy that. I want to go back to remote and, and I've kind of I kind of practice what I preach. I only hire people back from I hire People for my platform, I don't work with consultants or coaches or anything along that line. So I have no idea if that's holding me back. I think at some point, I might hit a limit there and what that lifestyle can provide, but it's tough. I don't have one thing that I'm like, oh, if I just woke up, and I changed this, that I would double my business. I don't think it's that I think that yeah if I did certain things if I open up an office, and I hire full time, people, could we expand faster? Maybe, but I probably wouldn't be as happy with the business.Yeah, no, I like that. So inside of like, where you're at and where you where you'd be happy and where you wouldn't, there's always more growth you could potentially have. But maybe that's not what you actually want. So what do you believe the hardest thing you've ever accomplished has beenthe hardest thing I've ever accomplished? I mean, being an entrepreneur is hard. starting businesses is hard. It's probably harder than anything else. So I think just being able to get to this point with an awesome team and a great business partner, it's is probably the thing that I'm most proud of Actually, you know what the thing that I'm most proud of is we've paid out 6 million-plus dollars for freelancers around the world last year. To me, that's really cool.That is awesome. Would you say that's your greatest success to this point in your life? Or would you say something else's? Definitely. That's, that's awesome. And just, I'm gonna bring this out, right? People who have money and the thing that they're most excited about, once they like can provide for themselves is how can we help more people provide for themselves? That's what keeps the if you want to say the rich keep getting richer, it's because they are so focused on how do we get more people wealthy and I really believe that I think most people want to see the average of the world increase in, in lifestyle across the board and that's why they do what they do, doesn't always appear that way. I understand that. But I believe that's in the sincerity of their heart. That's what they're striving for. And everybody goes about a different way and you may agree with them or not, but I think that that is what they're striving for. Out of all the people. I've talked to I think that is there's one consistent thing. So what's one secret that you believe has contributed most to your success?Okay, I've gone through a lot of adversity. I've heard about personal standpoint, I think I've had like 15 surgeries, I've torn different things. I have like a bone condition where I keep having to get bone spurs, like shaved off. And it's one of those things that kind of hit you out of nowhere. And it's like a one to six-month recovery. And I feel like if you can go through that kind of stuff on a personal level, you can handle a lot on a business level.Yeah, agreed. So what are a few books that you would recommend to feel your legacy audience?Yeah, I recommend that the Amazon book, The Zappos book, pursuit, pursuing happiness. No, that's not it. It's. Oh, man. I'm blanking on that on the Simon Sinek book. Start with Why is a great one on anything by Russell Brunson is great. Yeah, those are the books I recommend.Awesome. So this is a this is my favorite part of the show, and which is why save it for last because we get to pretend that you're dead. Just exciting right? Now. So we're going to pretend that we you've died and you have the unique opportunity to come back and you your great great great great grandchildren sitting around a table discussing your legacy. So this is six generations from now. Do you think six generations back this is pre World War One, almost pre Industrial Revolution right along a while back six generations from now, if you were to view that conversation, what do you want your sixth generation grandchildren to be saying about you and about your legacy?I want there to be a lot of families that we helped. I mean, hopefully I remember people showing me like their houses and their cars and how they were provided for their family with the money that they made from the free up platform. And hopefully those people had kids, those kids have kids and, and we kind of helped them with a foundation to help them so I'm hoping that that that's the kind of impactthat they're talking about. Awesome. I love it. Well, hey, thank you so much for your time, and super excited. Hopefully, everybody reaches out And as always, if you got value today, let Nathan know, go and give him some love on Instagram, Facebook, wherever it's easiest for you to connect out or wherever you hang out the most. And then as always, you can go and rank and review this podcast on whatever platform you listen to as well. That way more people get to hear great information, like what you heard today. So thanks a bunch and we'll catch youguys next time on you your legs.Thanks for joining us if what you heard today resonates with you please like comment and share on social media tag me and if you do give me a shout out I'll give you a shout out on the next episode. Thanks to all those who love to review it helps spread the message of what it takes to build a legacy that lasts and we'll catch you next time.Connect more with your host Samuel Knickerbocker at:https://www.facebook.com/ssknickerbocker/?ref=profile_intro_cardhttps://www.instagram.com/ssknickerbocker/https://howmoneyworks.com/samuelknickerbockerIf this resonates with you and you would like to learn more please LIKE, COMMENT, & SHARE————————————————————————————————————Click The Link Bellow To Join My Legacy Builders Mastermindhttps://www.facebook.com/groups/254031831967014/Click here to check out my webinar as well! ————————————————————————————————————Want to regain your financial confidence and begin building your legacy?In this ebook you will learn:- The 9 Pillars To Build A Legacy- Clarify you “why”- Create Daily Action Steps To Launch ForwardWant Sam’s FREE E-BOOK?Claim your access here! >>> Fuel Your Legacy: The 9 Pillars To Build A Legacy————————————————————————————————————

Do you want to make your video viral? Surprising as it may sound but YouTube is not the best platform for that. In this episode, Nate Woodbury shares with us what it means, how a video becomes one, and his strategies in making a video viral. Check this out! Do you want to know how to make a YouTube video go viral? I know how to have a video get millions of millions of views but there's a secret. You actually can't have a video go viral on YouTube. What!? -What? -I'm going to explain how to get a lot of views and what I'm talking about. -So, how do you get a million... How do you get a YouTube video to go viral if it's not on YouTube? I don't get it. -Yeah. So, what viral means is that it's shared a lot, right? So, if the Facebook is the place where things can go viral, if you put a post the people just love. Maybe it's a video of your dog. You know, just really cute. Then somebody else shares that they share it, they shared. So, it spreads and it goes viral, okay? YouTube is really not a good social platform. It's an amazing platform but you're not social. If you wanted to show me a YouTube video, how would you show me that YouTube video? -I usually text a link. -You get the link and you text it? Or you'd message it or you email it. I mean you can't really YouTube it. -That's interesting. -Right? You're not going to like somehow share... We're not connected on YouTube. -It's interesting. -So, things really can't viral... they are trying to fix it. But YouTube just doing so many things right. The other platforms are doing wrong that it's like. They don't want to... They don't want to break what they've got a good thing going. -Yeah. So, but that's interesting though. Because you've heard of videos going viral. And a video can go viral but it can't go viral on YouTube. Somebody can take a YouTube video and have it go viral. Maybe it gets featured on a news station or in a newspaper or somebody else's blog or on Facebook. Even though Facebook and YouTube are enemies. And... -What? -Yeah. If... This is just a side note a little bonus.  If you put a link in your YouTube description that goes to Facebook, YouTube will... And somebody clicks on it they... "What? That person left and went to Facebook? We're going to we're not going to show this video as much." Same thing on Facebook. If you're on Facebook and there's a link, "Hey go check out my YouTube video." And they leave  and they go to YouTube." Facebook is going to bury that post. -Oh, my gosh. -So, they're ay war. Anyway. That's just a side bonus. -So, how does one do it then? -If you... I mean to go viral, you've got to create viral worthy content. And I don't know I don't know how to do it. I have never created a video that's gone viral yet. I have videos that have gotten millions of views. -Which sounds like...? -Well just end the video there. Alright. So my strategy on YouTube to get views to get traffic, there's actually 2 different strategies. 1 is search. Meaning that YouTube is an amazing search engine. People go to Google and YouTube asking questions. And they're looking for videos to watch to answer their questions. And so, I love doing... We've talked about this before. Keyword research before filming. Because you can really pull in all these searchers. I mean people all around the globe right now are asking questions about interior design that you have the answer for. So, just by making videos that answer their questions, you're pulling in that search traffic. And that's... That's kind of the foundation with all the clients that I work with, is we start with keyword research. Finding all those questions and we just go after question after question after question. And you start to build a gradual momentum. I like to look at each video as a machine. So, if you make one video that's pulling in a little bit of search traffic every single month and I set that one aside and it still keeps working but then you make another one. And you set that one aside and each video becomes the machines. And I've got this these army of video machines that are just pulling in traffic. So eventually, you're getting thousands and tens of thousands hundreds of thousands of views every month even though each video is just pulling in there a little bit. You've got a whole pile of them. -Do the videos keep pulling in there a little bit indefinitely over time or do they kind of like put the older videos down the...? -It's a very good question. The answer is they keep pulling their bit all for years and years to come. In fact, I've typically seen it gets better and better over time. -Really. -Which is the opposite of Facebook or email or... I mean if you if you write... You put your heart into an amazing email, right? You just, "I've got so much value." I'm going to you send it out. It gets viewed a lot that day. Maybe it trickles the next day. Same with Facebook. If you put amazing post on Facebook, you know, it might last a week. It's just as if it's a super amazing, it might go 2 weeks. And you get thousands of views on this post, right? A month from now, a year from now. How many views is it getting? -And that's the thing about Facebook too, is you can't really search Facebook. You can only scroll on Facebook and so... Like we know, people don't scroll very far down. -The Facebook's trying to fix that and like bringing up memories. "Remember this happened a year ago?" And that's how they're trying to repurpose old content. But I don't I get annoyed by those most the time. Sometimes they're cute. Sometimes if  it's like, "Oh, look at him 5 years ago." You know, my son or something but... -Anything about my son and I think it's awesome. -But it's not... It's not... It doesn't even compare to what YouTube has done where you can create a video, 5 years from now, it'll still be performing for you. -Yeah. That's one of the benefits. Okay, so that that's one huge way that you can get a lot of traffic. But that's gradual. Usually when you think of viral, you think of something getting a spike like... Also and it just took off. And you can actually do that on YouTube. In a previous episode that we filmed together I was providing you some coaching. I didn't introduce you. -Hi! -Katie Gutierrez. You need to check her out. She's really wanting to do some amazing things on YouTube and that's why I'm here helping her out. And we thought we would film it. So... Alright. In a previous video, we talked about... What do we talk about? We talked about how to make money on YouTube? And I talked about how YouTube has this partner program. Where advertisers pay money to YouTube. Go ahead just yawn. It's okay. So, YouTube as the partner program we talked about. Where advertisers pay money to YouTube to show their ads. 55% of that goes to the creator of the videos. Which is really cool. -That's very cool. So, YouTube is looking for good videos to promote. Meaning, good videos that perform well and bring in more advertising revenue. And that's good for us because we get 55% of that revenue. It's like we've got this partnership. It's not like it it's... We do have this partnership with YouTube. It's really really cool. While you're following the search strategy, if you make 5 videos a week, meaning 5 videos go live each week on YouTube. And you do that for 4 months, there's something magical that happens. -Oh my gosh. -Okay? That sounds like a lot and it is. Their strategic ways of doing it if you've got a busy schedule like we do, okay? We're filming 20 episodes today. Okay. It's lighten up. That's an entire month's worth. Okay. So... -And it's so effortless. -So, if we launch 5 episodes per week and we do that for 4 months, then in addition to getting all that search traffic that's gradually building momentum, YouTube will take one of our videos... Get a high 5 five. High 5 for yawns. She's having a hard time  staying awake in this this topic. When I told her that video can't go viral on YouTube, she's like... -Forget it, I'm done. You know what it is? Is that I have a bad habit of holding my breath? - Breathe. -Yeah. And I realized that I don't and I could benefit from working on it's like breathing. Because then I like hold my breath hold my breath away rather hold my breath and then my breath is like, take a deep breath, you need to yawn." -You're making her nervous. -Stop it Margaret. -Okay, Margaret. So, 5 videos a week for 4 months. What YouTube will then do is pick one of your videos and start to promote it for you. So, you don't have to pay. This is all organic. You just create the great content. And YouTube will take one of your videos and start to put it as a suggestive video next to other people's videos. So have you seen that? When you weren't watching YouTube, you've seen recommended videos. -"You like this, you might like this." -Hmm. So, your videos will start to appear there and will start to appear on the YouTube home screen. And so when your your views are going like this getting gradually was steeper and steeper and all of the sudden you'll just have a spike. And then it will settle down. But that spike not only did it cause a lot of views but it brought in a lot of new subscribers. So, let's say this is your average, we'll keep my hand here. Then you have a spike when it settles back down, you're at a new baseline. A much higher average. And then later to have another spike and another spike. -And those baseline  keeps growing with every spike. -Mm-hmm I've seen a channel double in size in 5 weeks from 80,000 to 160,000 subscribers. -What? -Just because we were... -So I'm seeing it's very very important to be putting out a lot of content all the time. That seems to be like a key. -Yeah, YouTube loves consistency. They love to promote channels that are doing the right things creating the type of content that are going to benefit YouTube. So, if we really are in a partnership with YouTube, if we create videos that we know is going to make YouTube money, they're going to promote it which in turn we get paid 55% of that and when we got a business behind it. You know, we're we make way more. -So, it's like a snowball effect. -So, that's how you make a video viral. It's not really going viral. But it's almost better than viral because it doesn't like... Something that goes viral it kind of it eventually cools down and slows down. Whereas the the videos that YouTube starts to promote... Its promoting it because it's a moneymaker for YouTube. And it will continue to promote that video because it likes to make money. The difference between a video going viral and  what you're talking about is a viral video like you only want to watch that cute cat video one time. But with this like cultivating this YouTube following, you're really creating a loyal follower. And then it's the loyal follower that's going to keep watching all your videos and then if you create this tribe of loyal video watchers. Then all of your videos are more likely to be viral, viral. -Now, that that's really the huge point here. The huge advantage of YouTube is it's not just a marketing platform. This isn't just advertising or getting traffic that turns off. You're actually building a real following. These are real people that subscribe, that love you that want to want more from you and want what you have to offer. So, let me know what you think about that? What do you think about me saying that a video can't go viral on YouTube. Do you agree with me or do you disagree? I'm interested to hear your comments below. And we'll see you tomorrow.

Welcome back from vacation folks! Welcome back to city life, being underpaid and overworked, a general rudeness and much much more. But, maybe instead you can think back to your vacation. Whether you spent your time with your toes in the sand, or your boots on a mountain, or standing in line at the all-you-can-eat shrimp buffet on a cruise-liner, think of it as your happy place. Don't picture your boss, picture your tour guide. Don't picture the hammer you're holding, picture a nice stiff drink. Don't picture the hammer entering your boss's skull, imagine that you're offering tour tour guide a nice drink! Don't think about the cops tasing you, instead imagine that tantric massage you had on vacation. Don't think of the cold cell floor, think of that cooling pillow in your vacation bungalow and drift off to the sweet sounds of us discussing:* Delivery By Amazon* Drink More Water* Rambo Reviews* Work Updates on VacationIt seems more and more that Amazon is becoming what we feared Google would become. Don't get me wrong, Google is still invading every facet of your digital life, but Amazon, they got that tangible, physical side in a half-nelson and they're coming for you next, brother. They're taking over you groceries at Whole Foods, trying to replace your Wal-Mart with their Amazon Go stores, replacing your bookstore with their own Amazon Books, and if two days wasn't fast enough to ship you your items, buckle up buddy, because Amazon is aiming for ONE day shipping and if those slow dullards at the Postal Service and UPS can;t get it done, by golly they'll do it themselves (by contracting some schlep and underpaying them). Just imagine, within the next five years, you'll wake up in your Amazon Bed, grab a cup of Amazon Coffee, order a breakfast pastry from Amazon Blink Instant Delivery Drones, and drive to work at Amazon in your Amazon Self-Driving Car.One of the most annoying things I can think of is having someone tell you to do something *as* you're doing it. You could be sweating your balls off, holding a hammer and nails and your boss would still stop you, make you come to his office, look you in your eyes and ask you to put up the new fence. It's one of the few things in life I feel is justifiable with murder. "Did you hear what John did at work? Yeah, heard he smashed his boss's face in to his desk about a hundred times? Rough stuff man, he'll probably be in prison for the rest of his life. Oh, no, you didn't hear? They cleared him on all charges. What? Yeah, apparently his boss asked him to do the thing he was already in the middle of doing. Oh, man, what a hero."Look, the new Rambo movie isn't perfect. It's not amazing. I've got some problems with it, but it's totally a serviceable revenge movie that also serves as the end of the movie series. Does it end on a great high note? Not particularly. But, it's like a western in that way, giving the hero a bittersweet ending after having accomplished his final task. But professional movie critics these days don't see movies as movies. They seem them as a backdrop to write about their own feelings. Apparently the new Rambo was "decried [for] the script, graphic violence, and what they perceived as racist and xenophobic attitudes toward Mexico". Which, the first one, I'll give you. It's not a groundbreaking script full of twists and turns, but it's not a stinker. The graphic violence? Amazing. I don't remember how many times i "OOOOH'd" as Rambo's traps impaled and exploded dudes. And as for the 'racism'? The one Mexican reviewer I found that didn't like the film, didn't think so.I DO NOT WANT TO HEAR, KNOW, SEE, SMELL, FEEL, OR TOUCH ANYTHING RELATED TO WORK (YOU KNOW THE THING I AM PAYING TO GET AWAY FROM) WHILE I AM ON VACATION.All this and more on this week's episode! Voicemails, news, and lots and lots of talk about tables. Don't forget to join us on DISCORD, support us on PATREON or by BUYING A SHIRT.

Things get testy this week over something that is unexpected: basketball. What? Yeah, Small State Big Takes is going NBA. Be ready. We talk potential MLB playoff SOLUTIONS (as in, new playoff formats). Mixed in there are big takes (some actual big takes like, weird ones). A surprisingly contentious episode this week. Be sure to tune in and SPREAD. THE. TAKES.

This is an episode about Doing Nothing. Well, it's about Doing Something to Do Nothing. It's also about lemons and cows. What? Yeah. Just listen. Show notes: https://lplks.org/blogs/post/041-how-to-podcast-nothing/ Two Book Minimum: The Farmer's Son (or The Cow Book if you're in Ireland) by John Connell The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead  The Book of Flora by Meg Elison The Natural Home by Isabelle Louet She Said/She Said: How to Do Nothing by Jenny Odell Nothing is harder to do these days than nothing. But in a world where our value is determined by our 24/7 data productivity . . . doing nothing may be our most important form of resistance. So argues artist and critic Jenny Odell in this field guide to doing nothing (at least as capitalism defines it). Odell sees our attention as the most precious--and overdrawn--resource we have. Once we can start paying a new kind of attention, she writes, we can undertake bolder forms of political action, reimagine humankind's role in the environment, and arrive at more meaningful understandings of happiness and progress. We Can't Always Be Reading: Heads up! Summer Reading Book Nerd Party!!  Join us at Happy Shirt Printing Co. in North Lawrence for book trivia with Andy Morton, bookish tarot, button and t-shirt making, head-to-head challenges with Brad the Director, snag some swag and free books, and MORE!  Lawrence Beer Company will be on hand to treat your tastebuds right, plus we'll have snacks, music, and lots of book nerdish merriment, because Summer Reading isn't just for kids! Free and casual; ages 18+ (21 to drink). ----------------------------------- 2019 Book Squad Goals Reading Challenge can be found here: http://tinyurl.com/LPLBSG2019 Twice(-ish) a month, the librarians are in, with their favorite recommendations in Two Book Minimum, a toe-to-toe discussion on a book or topic, as well as news from the book world, updates from Lawrence Public Library, and beyond. This episode was produced by Jim Barnes in the Sound & Vision studio. Our theme song is by Heidi Lynne Gluck. You can find the Book Squad Podcast on iTunes, Stitcher, or SoundCloud. Please subscribe and leave us comments – we’d love to know what you think, and your comments make it easier for other people to find our podcast. Happy reading and listening! xo, Polli & Kate

Welcome back to Catfish Lou’s, our home for OMN’s Coffeeshop Conversations. With me today is an unusual gentleman, even for a musician. Not only has he been a drummer on the Portland scene for a long time, but he’s also a Mafia historian. What? Yeah. Usually you think of Mafia music as stuff like the theme from The Godfather, or Louis Prima or Jerry Vale but in addition to his work on the National Crime Syndicate webmagazine, and appearances on national TV, he writes songs ABOUT the Mafia. How about that? Let’s meet Casey McBride.

On this episode I dive into a Indiana High School Basketball game I went to last Saturday, as the Western Panthers beat the Twin Lakes Indians. APR - What it means, stands for, and how it effects the current state of the IU basketball program. Indiana Basketball goes into East Lansing and takes down #6 Michigan State.... What? Yeah you read that right!! Listen in!

Wait. What? Yeah, that's right! We know we complain a lot about screen time these days. The average American spends 5.6 hours looking at their phones as of 2016. That's 35 hours a week and over 2,000 hours a year! If you're going to use your phone that much, you might as well make the most of it by educating yourself, broadening your knowledge and becoming a better human. Check out this weeks episode for the top apps used by Cameron and Ryan and a few hidden gems!

A special astrology workshop with recurring guest and evolutionary astrologer Dena DeCastro. We're taking a deep dive into Venus placement in your natal chart. Venus affects not only your love life but also other partnerships — including your relationship with money. Learn about the strengths and challenges associated with your Venus sign. *Each and every sign is explained. MENTIONED ON THE SHOW Ep 40 - Love & Money Personified with Morgana Rae Ep - 74 - Astrology & Past-Lives: Karmic Patterns in the Birth Chart with Dena DeCastro GUEST LINKS - DENA DECASTRO denadecastro.com DeCastro Astrology on Facebook HOST LINKS - SLADE ROBERSON Slade's Books & Courses Get an intuitive reading with Slade Automatic Intuition FACEBOOK GROUP Shift Your Spirits Community BECOME A PATRON https://www.patreon.com/shiftyourspirits Edit your pledge on Patreon TRANSCRIPT Let’s set you up for this astrology workshop as well as any others we do in the future ... If you know a lot about your natal chart, you may know some of these planets and signs without having to look them up. Feel free to go ahead and listen along right now. For those of you who are beginners or who want to reference your chart and take notes — we are going to explore additional areas of your chart on future episodes, so you may want to start a document or a notebook — the site I most use and recommend is: astro.com There’s quite a bit you can do with a free account. There are a lot of places where you can cast your natal chart online—and I don’t get any kind of kickback for referring astro.com —the reason I prefer Astro is you can store up to 100 profiles with a free account. That’s helpful if you have clients you’re casting charts for, BUT even more importantly, you may want to store the charts of people you’re in relationships with. There’s a partner report in astro you may want to explore for spouses, people you’re dating, family members, coworkers, people you’re in business with … that person you’re about to marry! After you sign up for a user name and password, you’ll be asked to enter your exact birth information. Under the Free horoscopes tab, you’ll find a daily personal horoscope that’s pretty good for computer generated, but for the purposes of our workshops here, you’ll want to look under the Free Horoscopes tab, in the Short Horoscopes list is Personal Portrait. The personal portrait is what astro calls the Natal chart or the birth chart. Now, on that Personal Portrait page, they will offer some highlights from your chart, but that is nowhere close to everything. They may or may not interpret your Venus placement, I’m not sure how their algorithm works. But if you scroll down to the bottom, you will find a list called planetary positions of every planet in your chart and what sign it is in. For this episode, you’ll want to know what sign your Venus is in. You may also want to find the Venus placement of your significant others Of course, if you have an astrology site you like, or a natal chart that was professionally prepared for you, by all means use those. Find your Venus, we’ll jump right in to this conversation and let Dena tell you what it means and what you can do with this information in terms of Love and Money. Dena: So evolutionary astrology is a branch of astrology that focuses on past life and karmic patterns as part of the reading of the natal chart. We look at that through something in the chart called the nodes, the south node representing that past life or karmic pattern situation and then the north node representing what it is in this life that we're here to learn, that we have not experienced in past lives, that we've not mastered. And so we're here learning about that thing which is foreign to us. So it's much more... it's less predictive than some other branches of astrology. In fact, it's not predictive at all. It is more of a personal development kind of astrology, where in the reading, I'm offering people a way to look at themselves differently, not only from this life's perspective but from a soul level perspective. With that knowledge, I'm giving them suggestions about how to best live in alignment with their soul's plan coming into this life. And how ultimately, to live a more fulfilling, content and happy life. So that's the aim of it. So it's not meant for prediction. It is more meant for personal development and for growth. Slade: I actually really like that, because it's a little bit more woo woo and yet, also the personal development aspect of it really brings it down to earth. So, of course I'll link to the show that we did earlier so everyone can listen to that and find out about their node astrology, but what you told me on that show about my own south node in Virgo, has been really impactful going forward from that moment. It explained a lot of things about the way that I operate. It also explained a lot of my relationships with Virgos. Dena: Oh totally. I'm with you on that one. Slade: So anyway, I really love that piece of information. And one of the things that I noticed, talking to you the very first time that we ever spoke, which is that conversation by the way, and the reason why I wanted you back on the show is, well, first I'd love any excuse to talk to you, but... One of the things I found myself recommending to my friends and my clients about your readings is, astrology I've often noticed can have this really, really old, like old testament doom and gloom kind of quality to it sometimes... Dena: Yeah. Slade: Especially if you're looking at things that are computer-generated sometimes, I often tell people, Okay, you need to dial back the negative a little bit. Dena: Dial that back! Slade: And you have a way of speaking about astrology that feels kind of more hopeful and more positive and enthusiastic to me. And I was wondering if you are aware of what I'm talking about and if you get a sense of that as well. Dena: Yeah, you know, I think that in the astrological community, one of the viewpoints is that evolutionary astrologers are too much Pollyanna perhaps, or positive, compared to some others, which will tell you more of the doom and gloom aspects, like if you have an afflicted Venus, that your love life is going to be challenged for your whole life. Some branches of astrology are more deterministic, I will say that. And I am not coming from an, evolutionary astrology is not coming from a deterministic perspective. We embrace the idea of free will as being the prime mover and that once we have self-knowledge, we can make better choices. That's the whole point. We can, the reading itself changes what you can do with your future. It's not telling you that this is the future that's laid out for you. That this is what's going to happen because Saturn squared your Venus and it's gonna suck. Slade: Right. Dena: That it's a... it's saying, here are some choices. I will say though, that it is not all love and light. Anybody whose gotten a reading from me will tell you that we go into the shadow stuff. We go into what is, what are the lower possibilities for you? What are the things that can trip you up or the places where you can get tangled up in old patterns and get stuck. But in knowing that, then you can more likely avoid those places, right? Slade: Yeah, like, to explain what I meant by how that information for me impacted me going forward, what it did was, it just identified a certain thought process or where something's coming from in the way that I think and react to things. And knowing to look for that and to be aware when it popped it's head, I'd be like, Ooo... that's totally my south node in Virgo! And then having a polar companion opposite of like, Okay well so in order to balance out that energy that idea is to move towards this more Piscean way of looking at things. So when I say it's impactful to me, you're right. It's not like, Oh, it's just going to be this way and I'm just screwed to be that way. Dena: Right. Slade: What it does is it allows me to say, Oh, there's my tendency to do THAT, now I'm going to make a willful conscious decision to lean this other way in order to kind of balance that out, or to move away from it. So yeah, I'd like that. I definitely don't want to... I don't want information that I can't change or manipulate in some way. Dena: Right. And I said this on another podcast recently, that I'm always thinking, as I do a reading, how can I empower the client, not how can I disempower the client. Or to be careful not to say things that are going to disempower the client. That's super important to me. It really guides everything that I say as I go through a reading. Slade: Mmm... Well you're doing a good job of it. Dena: Thank you. Slade: So there is some great astrology content obviously online, on social media... Dena: Yeah! Slade: A lot of astrologers do time sensitive current posts about what's going on in the skies and you do a little of that as well. But when you and I were brainstorming astrological topics that we could explore on the show, I talked about how much I try to create evergreen content, meaning, whenever someone comes along and they find this show, even if it's two years from now, I want the information to still be relevant to them. Aspects of the natal chart, or birth chart, are those items that aren't as time sensitive, so I'd love for you to explain to us the difference between transits and our natal or birth chart elements. Dena: Yeah, so the natal chart is the birth chart that you're born with. It is the permanent chart. It's not going to change. However, how you respond to that chart can change. YOU can grow and change. But that chart doesn't change. So when I do a reading that's focused mainly on the natal chart, we're really looking at those lifelong themes and patterns, not the things that are happening now. The transits and progressions and solar arcs, those are three things, three tools that astrologers use. And there are more tools, but those are the three common ones. They tell us what is happening right now in this person's chart. What are the things moving through, that transits from the outside, the cosmic weather. For example, let's say Neptune is currently in Pisces and it may be connecting with something in your chart. It may be trining your moon or, I think it is trining your moon, I'm not sure... Maybe soon.. That is its own set of meaning about what's happening now or in this coming year, or maybe for the next two years. A Neptune transit is two years long, for example. So that's time and that's forecasting. That's not prediction. That's like saying, "Here is the cosmic weather that is around you. How can you best navigate it?" Progressions and solar arcs are a little bit different. They're something that unfolds from the chart itself and I won't get into a technical discussion of those, but they're just other tools that we use to look at this moment in time, but also what's coming down the road, maybe the next year, two years for somebody. To say, what are the lessons that are on your plate right now, what are the themes that are up in your life? And it can be really helpful, particularly if you're going through a challenging time, to understand that there are forces at play that may be affecting you, that are causing this to be a challenging time and there is something you can do about it. There are things that you can do to better work with those energies than if you didn't know about it. Slade: I like your weather metaphor because it's kind of like, if you know a hurricane's coming, then you can close the shutters and go underground. You can respond to those conditions in a different way. Another thing that I do think that astrological transits are good for, and I was just talking to a friend of mine who is going through a really rough life transition, and I said, "One of the things I like about astrology is, it's not a psychic reading. It's actually external, you know? It's like, here's a spreadsheet about stuff in your life." It has a little bit of a disconnect from being so much in our own heads a little bit. It's something that also can give you a sense of... Like if you are really going through something, and you're thinking, gawd, when is this ever gonna end?? I find it really helpful for someone to say, "Well, you know, April something is totally gonna shift." And just having a sense of, oh, okay. I may feel like I'm smack in the middle of it, and then I get a reading with you and you talk about some transits, and you're like, "Oh actually, it's been going on for a long time but you're almost done." That can be the difference between being in a really dark hole in the ground and having a little sense of, okay, I can go for two more months or whatever. Dena: Right. Slade: I love the emphasis on it not being so much about prediction as about conditions, like weather conditions and sort of windows of time as opposed to specific moments. Dena: Yeah. Slade: Well just to get back to the birth chart stuff. So we decided we wanted to do some shows where we focus on some of the bigger elements in birth charts. I feel like for people who are new to astrology, it makes sense for them to study their birth chart or their natal chart first, as a way of learning about this vocabulary and these concepts and how it relates to what they're working with in this lifetime. Dena: Yeah. Slade: So one of those big elements in our birth chart is our Venus. So teach us about Venus. Dena: Haha... So Venus is a planet that most people correlate to love because it's the goddess of love. It is a planet that has to do with connection and relationship. It is also, though, a planet that has to do with money and finances. And so a lightbulb went on for me recently when I was listening to your episode with Morgana Rae about love and money, and I was like, Oh! [unintelligible] Venus. That's the Venus energy coming through in those two things together. She's a very Venutian kind of person. And it just clicked in for me that so many people don't make THAT connection. The connection to money and resources, as well as love and romance associated with Venus. So I'll talk about both aspects, or both faces of Venus. So to begin with, Venus is the ruler of Libra, the sign of Libra, and Taurus. So it's the ruler of two signs. And Libra is a relationship sign. It's about connection and want to connect and wanting to come into balance with a significant other or a significant friend or a significant client. It's about the relationship of the one to the one. And about balance and harmony between those two things. On another level, Venus too is about our aesthetic sensibilities, our creativity, as Libra holds the archetype of the Artist, that which makes beauty. And as we think of Venus also of the goddess of beauty, and Aphrodite. So it's the part of us that wants to make beauty in the world, to bring beauty into our surroundings. The part of us that wants to experience beauty. That can come through creating, through artistry, and it can also come through being in love and through romance and connecting that way. That's all an experience of beauty. And it all brings us that sense of sigh, that sigh of the romantic quality of life. So that's Venus as it's the ruler of Libra. But Venus is also the ruler of Taurus. And Taurus is a sign that is connected to stability, resources, and a feeling of security, and that comes often through having enough resources, you know, that sense of stability and security. So hence Venus' connection to money. And so the Venus in our chart can tell us many things more than just what kind of people are we attracted to and what kind of people we tend to attract. I mean, that's all true and that's something I'll talk more about. But also it tells us, what is our relationship to resources, how do we create more resources for ourselves, how do we find our sense of security, how do we find a sense of stability and a foothold in the world. So really, there's those two dimensions of Venus, particularly love and money, that I want to focus on. Slade: Let me say something really quick about Morgana Rae. Of course I'll link to Morgana's interview when she was on the show as well. Some people know her. I reference her in The Money Shift. She was very influential in my relationship with abundance as an archetype. I just have to say, it's really interesting because if you hear Morgana talk about her story, she started working with abundance and money and financial programming and all those relationships that we have with resources. She discovered this while being a relationship coach. What she found was that people have the same issues with money that they have in their romantic partnerships and that was the connection she made. So anyway, I hope she gets to hear this and discover that there's an astrological basis for her observing that connection. Dena: Yeah. I would love that and I really enjoyed what she had to say in that episode. And I found so much personal value and had some really individual revelations about my own relationship to love and money through that episode. So it connected for me directly back to astrology and what I know there. So I think what I'll do is, I'll walk through some of the sign placements and maybe we will get through all 12. Slade: Okay! Dena: I'll do a little bit on each one if I can. Slade: Let's try, yeah. Dena: Yeah we'll try. So if you know your Venus placement, you can listen to each one and you might be able to find the Venus placements of your friends and family members and partner and be able to also get some pieces out of this. So Venus in Aries. Venus, again, as being correlated to who we are attracted to, what kinds of people we're attracted to and who we attract in. But also the relationship style. So Aries is a spontaneous fiery energy, right? And that's how Venus in Aries people tend to like it in a relationship. They tend to like things spicy and need them a little spicy and spontaneous and passionate, right? And so there needs to be that excitement. This is where we get into differences and preferences. As you know, some people like things more calm and easygoing in relationship, while you see others that's like, oh, they've always got so much relationship drama going on. But that's how some people actually like it. If you need it, right? So Venus in Aries is that energy. And as it relates to money and resources, Venus in Aries is really connected to needing to take on challenges in terms of one's work and financial goals, and being able to do things that feel fresh and new all the time. So there can be a... The shadow aspect of that the tendency to get bored quickly, like have a passionate attachment to an idea or project and then it can kind of fizzle. So that's the challenge for Venus in Aries. In both relationship and money, things can start off real hot and heavy, then go tzzzzz (fizzling down). So that's something to think about with all these Venus placements. It's always the positive and the shadow expression of each, things to be careful of. Venus in Taurus. Venus in the sign that it rules really craves stability, sensual or physical, tactile connection in relationship. A feeling of security and has an intensely loyal component and requires loyalty from the other. So that kind of slow and easy and comfortable style to a relationship is more what suits the Venus in Taurus type. Venus in Taurus regarding money. Again, you know, security and having a sense of stability is primary. So this type of person would more benefit from a job where they feel like, okay I know where my paycheck is coming from, it's pretty predictable. They're not as likely to be your freelancer unless there's a steady stream of abundance that they can count on coming from that. Venus in Taurus types really need that sense of I know I have all my ducks in a row financially all the time. The shadow side of that placement is getting too stuck in routines. Like getting too stuck in things always needing to be nice and comfortable, both in love and money. That we can get in routines as partners or we get kind of bored with each other. Try to keep things too nice, too easy, can be its own downfall. And the same with the approach to money. It's like you can keep yourself a little too small because you're afraid to take the risk of stepping out and doing something bigger. So that's Venus in Taurus. Venus in Gemini, which I think we both have. Slade: Yeeeees. This is me. I'm taking notes. Dena: Okay. Get your pen out. Venus in Gemini. Gemini's an air sign and it's about curiosity and wanting to learn new things all the time. Slade: Uh oh. Dena: There needs to be a huge amount of intellectual engagement with one's partner and/or friends. They have to be someone that you can talk to and have that mental connection with. Mental connection is primary. It's like you have to be on that level with the person where it's like, we can talk easily and I think, my husband, he's a Gemini rising, and so am I. So we're just non-stop chatterboxes with each other. Slade: Oh that's cool. Dena: Which is cool. And we like that. For some people it might drive them a little nuts. But as a Venus in Gemini person, I really like to be able to just chatter chatter with him. I need my quiet time too. But I think that Venus in Gemini also needs to be constantly, have something to be curious about. So that goes for love and for money. And the money aspect, we can easily make money through the word, through teaching, through writing, through speaking and also through learning new things and then repackaging what we learn and giving it back out through teaching. That's part of the Gemini archetype. Teaching and talking. Slade: That's us! Dena: That's you and me! I guess we're doing our Venus. Slade: Right. Dena: So the shadow stuff of Venus in Gemini is going from thing to thing without settling on one thing. With having trouble committing to one thing. That can come up in love or money, and I have to say, I had more trouble with the love part of that when I was much younger and not anymore, but I see that in myself for Venus in Gemini, of the next shiny object that comes by. I'm gonna follow that. And that can happen with money as well. That oh, maybe I should make money doing this! No, wait. I could be that! I'm gonna be a writer this week and then teacher next week and a, this or that. So there could be a difficulty in settling. I do think that abates with age. With Venus in Gemini as we grow up and kind of get our big boy, big girl pants on. And yet some people might not grow out of it as quickly. Slade: Well, and I have to say for myself, the way that that came down is, once I found the right context in which to work, I have a job that allows me to be a lot of different things, from, one day I'm an accountant, another day I'm doing web design, another day I'm interviewing people on a podcast. That variety I think is the reason why the entrepreneurial stuff works for me so well, is because I have it built in to this one thing I do is like a cluster of a whole lot of things. Dena: So true and same with me as well. I never get bored because every reading you do is a different deal. There are no two readings that are alike. So that keeps me constantly engaged. That's super important for those Venus in Gemini people out there to think about is, what will keep you constantly engaged with your mind? What will keep you constantly curious? Because you can get bored really easily with anything that's just even a little bit repetitive or redundant. So alright. With that, we're going on to Venus in Cancer. Venus in Cancer has some similarities to Venus in Taurus. There is a need for commitment and a feeling of emotional safety in relationship and as relates to money. So Venus in Cancer types really need to feel safe in order to connect emotionally with their significant other, with friends. So they're attracted to people who can provide that sense of comfort and safety and a feeling of they're not going anywhere. That significant other is there for the long haul. And so they're drawn to relationships that can provide that. As far as Venus in Cancer money-wise, there's a need for emotional safety in terms of how they make and bring in money. And that again, similarly to Taurus, requires a structure and a certain comfort level with their job or what they're doing to bring in money. I don't mean to make that sound at all boring. It's just that those two signs, Taurus and Cancer in particular, as we go on we'll get to Capricorn as well I see in this way, that they really do need a little more regularity of routine and comfort level in their relationship and work/money-wise. And that is okay. Part of what I like to always get across is we're all wired differently and part of what I like to bring to people is that accepting and validating that wiring is really important. And you can push a little bit against the edges of that, knowing that that is your want, you know? Sometimes you can get a little too comfortable. So here we have Venus in Cancer, the shadow element of it can be going too much into caregiving and nurturing of the other, too much into worrying about, I've got to show up for my work at the expense of myself, you know, sometimes forgetting to take care of oneself because the job or the money coming in means more than taking care of oneself. It's that over-focus on caregiving to the other that can go awry. So that's something for Venus in Cancer to watch. Then we have Venus in Leo. Colourful fire sign. The second fire sign we've come across. Leo is a creative, spontaneous energy. It craves adoration. It craves being appreciated. So own it, if you've got some Leo in your chart, which I know you do. That there is that need for being appreciated, particularly in partnership if you have Venus in Leo, to have the other person do the kind of traditional hearts and flowers aspects of romance with you, and to treat you a little bit like a god or goddess sometimes, you know? It's not something to be shy about. There is that need. And that you can do that for the other person as well. You may have a very romantic quality in the way that you approach relationship and with money. I will say that there's often a creative streak that wants to come through in how you make money. You could easily be an artist or creator of some type that brings in money through your creative drive. So that's something to look at. If you're not doing that and you're a Venus in Leo and you're thinking, Where is my creative career?? You can be doing that as a side line or a hobby. But there is some creative outlet is extremely important for you to have to get that Venus need met. You know, to have that sense of pleasure in life that we get from our Venus placement. And then the shadow side is that, what I mentioned in the beginning and be turned up to a little too high and Venus in Leo people can get too demanding of other people's attention, like, Look at me! It's that I need to be the centre of your universe attitude. And so we have to watch that with Venus in Leo. And know that, okay, it needs to be balanced. That there's two people in a relationship and that there's two people that need equal amounts of attention. So it's just that awareness can be helpful. Venus in Virgo. Another earth sign. It's similar to Taurus but Virgo is about having very high standards and being able to look at a relationship and at how we bring in money as practice, as constant work. Again, that doesn't sound glamourous, but we need Venus in Virgo people. We need people who understand that a relationship IS work. A relationship IS something that takes constant tending. And it's also sometimes about compromise and helping another person as much as it is helping ourselves. So Venus in Virgo people do have high standards for relationships in that they want the other person to work on it as hard as they are working on it. That's important for Venus in Virgo to consider when they're pairing up with someone is, is the partner someone who is able to do this work with me? And to look at it as a constant practice, the conscious practice of relationship because Venus in Virgo is interested in doing that work. As far as it relates to money, is service-oriented profession when you feel you're making a tangible difference in people's lives, where you can see the results. See, touch, feel the results of your work and how it's affecting people. That's going to be extremely important for Venus in Virgo. The shadow of Venus in Virgo is that perfectionism, you know, as we've talked about with south node in Virgo, can be applied to relationship and to one's work, so that it can be paralyzing. In relationship, it could be having too high of standards with the other person, to the point where nothing they do is right. Or I can't find the right person because I'm just too damn picky. That Venus in Virgo as it relates to money is about the, sometimes the Virgo Paralysis, I call it, needing to have things SO neat and tidy and perfect that no risks are taken. You'll notice that theme popping up from the earth signs, that the Taurus and Virgo and as we get to Capricorn, there's a tendency to, in the shadow, be risk-averse to the point where life becomes very confined. So that's a danger to watch for there. Venus in Libra, in the second sign that it rules, is definitely interested in having harmony and calm and peace in relationship. This is the opposite sign of Aries, the sign that we started with, and it's, I talked about the theme of Aries needing things kind of hot and drama, a little bit of drama is okay. Not Venus in Libra. Venus in Libra is opposite of that. There's a need for just a sweetness, a romantic peaceful tone in the relationships. As it relates to money, again, a creative career, an artistic career can be fulfilling for Venus in Libra, but also careers in which you are required to really work closely one on one with people. So with Venus in Libra, there can be some natural counselling abilities, the ability to mentor or work closely with a person on a daily basis, one on one, to have clients, for example. And that that could bring in resources. There's an ability that Venus in Libra people have to pick up on the needs of others and to connect with them very immediately and closely. To be sensitive to the needs of others. And that can be a gift. It can also be the shadow, in that Venus in Libra can get over-concerned with other's needs at the expense of oneself so it's that theme of getting lost in the relationship at the expense of one's own needs, and that can be the classic codependent kind of expression of that. And that can happen when Venus is triggered there. That's the Venus shadow to watch out for. Venus in Scorpio. Another water sign like Cancer. Scorpios are a very different sign from Cancer interestingly, being a water sign too. Venus in Scorpio really craves intensity, passion, Scorpio's ruled by Mars, just as Aries is ruled by Mars, and so there is this need for close, deep connection with the other. It could be 'I wanna be in every aspect of your life and I want you in every aspect of mine'. There can be almost that possessive quality to the relationship and that can make it sound a little unhealthy, and it could certainly go there in its shadow. But Venus in Scorpio really does need someone who can show up as an authentic person and handle going into the deep and difficult areas of relationship. They thrive on that. They thrive on having the hard discussions, the going for the raw truth in the relationship, and talking about what's going on underneath the surface. And so that's something to consider for Venus in Scorpio as they think about partnerships, like, can the other person match me there? Are they gonna be able to go deep? Are they going to be able to go really deep and to handle the intensity of what I want to do in relationship. And then Venus in Scorpio money-wise, again there needs to be that passionate engagement with one's career and often the career can involve confronting or looking at things other people don't want to look at. For example, I have a friend with Venus in Scorpio who is a hospice worker. She deals with people passing regularly. And so that actually something some people might go, Ooo gawd, I don't know if I could handle that, a Venus in Scorpio person can handle that, as far as this is what we're doing to bring in an income, and this is also what they feel drawn to do because they can. They can handle it. So that Scorpio element is really strong there and the shadow of it, again, is that possessiveness that can creep in, the jealousy, the lack of objectivity, being way too subjective and getting even a little paranoid in relationship. That can happen and so it behooves Venus in Scorpio to be aware of that tendency and to watch your thoughts and how they might be going that direction. And to say, okay, maybe I need to take a step back here and get some objectivity or talk to a friend about this or get another viewpoint before I go down that road in my head. Venus in Sagittarius. It's another fire sign. It's the last of our fire signs. The word spontaneity creeps in to every fire sign that I talk about. I think that having spontaneity in relationship is probably the most important for Venus in Sagittarius. There needs to be a huge amount of freedom and space for Venus in Sag people. This doesn't necessarily mean they can't be in a committed relationship. Not at all. Of course many Venus in Sag people are married, right? And you'll hear similar things about Venus in Gemini, like, oh, we can't commit, but I think of course they can and it depends on the whole chart. But within that relationship for Venus in Sag, they need to have a sense that they have a great amount of independence and space within the partnership. And to have room to breathe. Fire signs need room to breathe. Mark that down in your notes, people. Fire needs room to breathe just like the element. So it doesn't mean no commitment. It just means being able to have that dance with somebody where it's like, Oh, you're gonna go out tonight? Okay well I'm going to stay home and do my thing. And KNOW that it doesn't have to mean the relationship's going south. You know, that Venus in Sag person might need to go out more than a person who's got Venus in Taurus, right? Doesn't mean they can't have a relationship. It means they have to understand each other's needs. Venus in Sag also needs to feel like things are always an adventure, like they're on a quest. This is an adventure and there's that sense of looking toward the future with Venus. And so having plans for travel and adventures together as a partnership, that's gonna help them in any of their close relationships. Venus in Sag as relates to money really does need, again, that sense of, almost like Gemini, enlists challenge, excitement, curiosity, being fulfilled. So variety is hugely important for Venus in Sag people. They need to have variety in their work. They could be a freelancer, but they could also have a job that provides that kind of constant challenge and constant variety served up. And then the shadow, of course, is being noncommittal to the point of, they run away from every commitment. That could be the shadow Venus in Sag type is, I'm so averse to getting cornered that then I forget to have a relationship. That can definitely happen with Venus in Sag. Venus in Sag may be perfectly content out there in the wilderness on their own for awhile. They could also end up feeling very lonely later on if they realize, wow, I just really haven't made those close connections because I've been so protective of my freedom. So that's the shadow road for Venus in Sag. Venus in Capricorn is a sign that, again, the last earth sign. It has to do with creating things that last a long time and doing the hard work of creating them. And so in relationship, a Venus in Capricorn appreciates commitment, appreciates structure and stability, just like Taurus. Also takes pride in the accomplishments of having a long term relationship. And this applies to close friendships as well. You know, having those long term close relationships. That's an extremely important priority for Venus in Capricorn. There can also be the high standards element that we talked about with Virgo. There's that willingness to work on relationship and to be committed, that Venus in Capricorn has that is there too with the other earth signs. And then in work and money, Venus in Capricorn is the willingness to do the long haul with things, to be committed, to be enduring in one's work, in one's approach to work. And the desire to create something lasting. The desire to create something that took a long time to make and take pride in that creation. So the shadow road for Venus in Capricorn is too much work and no play. It's over-work. It's workaholism. It's the abdication of pleasure at the expense of relationships sometimes and at the expense of money. It's like I'm just gonna work til I drop kind of attitude, or I'm just gonna treat this relationship like it's a job and business-like. And it can get too business-like, and so that's one of the shadows of all three of the earth sign Venus is a tendancy to make relationship into kind of a business, or too business-like. To the point where it gets boring and all the life gets sucked out of it. And that's something, if you're aware of, can avoid by injecting some of the positive qualities into it, and also tap into other areas of your chart to bring in more spontaneity and breath of air. So then Venus in Aquarius really delights in relationship. In having, again, space, freedom, those are two key words that are common with Aquarius and with Sag. And then also having a sense of, perhaps more distance in their romantic relationships and they often can have quite a lot of friends and have, again, not necessarily just the close besties, but have a broad spectrum of friends of all different walks of life. In relationship, romantic relationship, they need things to be changed up quite a lot. They can also get bored very easily. So the partner would need to be someone who challenges the mind and the intellect. That's the air sign quality. And then also provides a lot of variety and ability for room to breathe. And then Venus in Aquarius as it relates to money is needing to making money through something that they feel is affecting the world for the better in some way. That can sound a little grandiose, but it's that humanitarian urge that Aquarius has to make things better for the next generation, or the next group of people coming up. And so when they turn their attention toward humanitarian things, they're more able to bring in the resources that they need. The shadow road for Venus in Aquarius is aloofness or disconnection. Getting too much in the head, forgetting to connect to the heart. So that's what they have to watch in relationships and in work. It's like they don't feel, they can get disconnected from what they're doing. That can be to the detriment, to both money and to love. And then finally, Pisces. Venus in Pisces, the last water sign. Pisces is an empathic sensitive and very compassionate sign. In relationship, they thrive with someone who is also sensitive because they could pick up on the other person's feelings quite easily, and always be aware of the other person's feelings. So it's important that they be with someone who does not take advantage of that. Who doesn't tap too much into their empathy and sensitivity and use it for the worst. That can be the shadow road. Venus in Pisces is, as a partner, someone who thrives on emotional connection and being able to have a deep spiritual connection with a partner. There needs to be that soul connection, that spark there that feels like we've known each other for lifetimes. That kind of connection. And then with work, Pisces is another sign, because of it's compassion and sensitivity, that works well with being able to do something that helps others. Working on behalf of the underdog, working on behalf of those who need help, that draws Venus in Pisces tyoes and that can be a way to bring in finances. And then the shadow side of Venus in Pisces again is that over-developed sensitivity that can then be taken advantage of. You know, if they're in a relationship with someone who is toxic or not healthy, that they can get too influenced by that and be taken down a dark road themselves. And how they can pull themselves out of that, though, is to, again, remember my needs to have to come first, actually. You know, that I can't lose myself in this. And that comes into play in their work as well. So that is Venus through all the signs. Of course, that was a really brief description of each but I encourage people, if you know your Venus sign, don't just go by the Venus sign. Also think about, if you know a little about astrology, other things in your chart as they might relate to that Venus. Because we don't just have a Venus. We have all the other planets as well and they can help to balance out certain things with the Venus that we might need to. Slade: Yeah! I was gonna point out that, like say for instance you have a Venus in a particular sign. I'll use mine as an example, Gemini. What I might look for in a potential partner, they could have a significant Gemini placement anywhere in their chart and be a little more likely to provide some of those elements, say someone with a sun or a moon or rising sign in Gemini, would still be able to sort of provide some of that energy, right? Like they don't have to have a perfectly matched Venus to Venus kind of situation. Dena: Right, right. So that's another thing that I'll point to here with compatibility and, you know, I often get the question, can you do a compatibility chart for me and my partner? And I don't think of it that way. I don't think that it is a situation where you're either compatible or you're not. You know? Via astrology, for one thing, and that there are so many things involved in each person's chart that you can't do it based on sun sign, or just Venus signs, any of that. It's the whole picture versus the whole picture. So a couple's reading is very complex in that we do consider all of the elements of each person's chart plus the composite chart, which is where you bring two charts together, so it's not just about Venus, for sure. Venus, like any of the planets that you take in isolation, can point you in a certain direction or help you understand a huge amount about yourself but it's not the whole picture. I want people to definitely be aware of that. Slade: Yes, and also knowing that, in keeping with your theory that understanding what you have in your chart then allows you to respond or balance those elements or bring them in, or understand why someone else might need certain things that are different from yours. You could have "Venuses that are not in the same realm as one another" and just by understanding that, well, I have this certain situation in my chart, and my partner has a different requirement, what that can do is then allow you to maybe make more conscious decisions to provide that in the relationship. Or to remember, it's not that this person doesn't want to spend time with me, but they like to go out and do things with their friends and have an independent kind of social life. And just knowing that and being aware of, that that's one of the ingredients you're working with, can allow you to, like you said, use your free will to modify how that's impacting you. Dena: Absolutely. And it is about self-understanding and it's about understanding the other and that's where a couple's reading can be helpful is understanding each other's Venus style can be hugely helpful but then understanding the whole chart as well, and saying, Okay, we just have these certain differences. We have these things that are more in harmony, and how can we maximize the things that work well together and how can we work on the things that are really quite different. And in almost any couple's reading I've ever done, nobody's perfectly lined up and the same. I mean that's just not the way it works. We're attracted to people who tend to make us work on ourselves. Slade: Mmm... Interesting point. Dena: That's why I think we're attracted to them, is like, Ooo, there's a challenge here and something I need to learn and that's why we're drawn to each other at a particular moment. Slade: Or they may have something that you're trying to bring in into your own life, so it's an opportunity for you to study or model that dynamic. Dena: Yes. Slade: And how can I be more like this? Dena: Right. Slade: I have to ask you, I hope it's not too much off topic, but it comes up so much in relationship-oriented readings, like with clients that I do and it probably comes up for you when you do relationship astrological readings. Soulmates. Twin flames. Talk to me about... Is there an astrological basis for these concepts? How do you describe and define those concepts? Dena: And I am probably gonna tick some people off with my answer to this. Slade: Do it! Dena: I'm gonna do it! Because it's what I think. I don't believe that we have one soulmate. And I don't... I just don't have enough knowledge about the concept of twin flames to understand it, really. It's not something that resonates with me particularly. There isn't an astrological basis for those terms as far as I know. But we do... Meaning it isn't, astrology doesn't prove that we have soulmates or twin flames. One way or the other. It doesn't disprove either. We do use the term "soulmate" in astrology at times, particularly as relating to the 8th House, in evolutionary astrology, that is a term associated with the 8th House, that it's the house of soulmates where we do the deep soul work. I emphasize soulmates plural. It's not The One. It's not the one in the sky that's gonna come down and like, we're gonna be happy together forever and walk off into the sunset. It's the one who I am going to do deep soul work with. And there may be, and will likely be, many in a lifetime, including friends that are like soulmate friends. I don't confine it to romantic quality. So my perception of soulmates, and as I have seen it play out in people's lives and in their charts, is that soulmates are people we're here to do deep work with. That the sign and planets in the 8th House can tell us more about what kinds of people that we can do that deep soul work with. That is another topic. It might be fun for another time to go deeper into THAT. But knowing your 8th House and 8th House planets can help understand like, this is the kind of person with whom I can do that deep soul work. So I'm not saying there's no soulmates. I'm saying my perspective on them is that it's not the happy ever after one. It is, okay we have people that come and go in our lives that we have unfinished business with perhaps, from past lives, and so there's that charge when we meet them. Like, okay, this is someone I need to do some work with and we have stuff from before. Maybe it needs to be finished up. But the thing that's challenging I think for a lot of people in considering soulmates and twin flames in the way that I do is, you know, nothing lasts forever. And even if you stay together 'til death, it's not gonna last forever. Relationships do come and go and particularly as we're evolving as a species, it seems like relationships have sometimes a faster burn rate than they used to. Slade: Really?! Dena: In terms of friendships and partnerships that, well, the whole phenomenon of serial monogamy, you know, is a good example of this. Just like we are growing and developing very quickly, and sometimes we outgrow people. And then we go on to the next person. And that used to be considered a failure. Oh, you can't settle down. You just can't be with one... I just see it as, in different phases of our lives we may be with different people and have different needs for growth and that's just what may happen. Now at the same time, I'm married and I intend to be married for the rest of my life. So there's that. It's hard for people to understand how those two things can coexist. How can one believe in marriage at all and still hold the beliefs that we have different soulmates and different needs at different points of our lives. I think it is a choice. We can choose to be with someone as long as we're doing good growth together. And as long as we're both consciously working on the relationship and becoming new to each other. Because we're always changing. As soon as we try to put ourselves in a box and say, Okay, you're my soulmate. This is going to last forever, you're the One, then its doomed pretty much. Slade: Well it's like the concept of a company or an entity that exists over long periods of time. Maybe there is the need for renovation or rebranding or you know, like, it seems like couples who have been together for long, long periods of time have phases within their relationship that they can point to. So, I mean, and I'm saying this to you as someone who is not married, so my opinion about how to be married is very limited, but I would hope that what that means is an ability to recognize that there are phases and changes and different acts in life. Or like movie franchises, there's gonna be a sequel, and then there'll be a part 3. My whole feeling or hope is that, well if I go into it with that expectation, maybe that will allow me the fluidity and the creativity to remake it or to change it as necessary. Dena: Yeah. Slade: Because the commitment is to the person. It's not necessarily to the time period that you met in, or whatever. Dena: Right. Yeah, I like that. And, just recalling, I was listening to an interview with Michelle Obama on Oprah's podcast recently and she was talking about their marriage and how there were some really hard times, which you don't think about when you see Barack and Michelle Obama. You just see, Oh, they're just total soulmates and they just belong together and they have this perfect relationship. She's like, No. There were some very hard years and she's like, If you've been married for 50 years and you have 20 years that are bad, you're doing pretty good, is what she said. And people are like, What?? Yeah! There's gonna be some hard times and some years that really suck and where you're going through either individual things that are tough or as a couple, and any long term relationship that lasts is going to have those different phases. And I think, who knows what the success of a marriage depends on. I don't have the answer but I suspect that a lot of it has to do with what you're saying is that flexibility and fluidity to go through these different phases together and the acceptance of that's going to happen. Slade: it's interesting that you mention the fact that our culture seems to be moving to a place where we're more accepting of the idea that there are different relationships for different time periods in your life because we also see that happening in career, the concept that people have multiple careers in their lifetime has become much more of an acceptable, intentional way of thinking about it. Gone are the days when you picked your major at 19 and you picked a job and you work there from 25 to 65, end of story. There are some professions that do allow for that but the expectation that you're failing if you don't do that is pretty gone from popular belief now. I mean, it still haunts us. But there is at least in the culture a recognition that, you know what, it's an admirable thing to decide, I'm going back to school at 40 and I'm changing my career! We applaud people who do that and so I think that may exist in parallel with... I don't know what it is. Maybe it's a fundamentalist thing. It's a fear-based thing that we're gonna lock everything down and it's just going to be this way forever. Dena: Right. Slade: We're moving as a species into a place where we recognize that things are evolving and changing. We are learning how to be more that way, right? Dena: Yeah. I would agree. I would say those two things are very connected. Slade: Oh, Dena, I could talk to you all day long. There are so many aspects of astrology that we can explore like this. Thank you so much for doing this deep dive and going through, at least speaking to everyone out there a little bit, giving them a taste of what they're working with. I will absolutely invite you back for other chats and we will do some other focused topic areas in this way. Tell everyone where they can go to find you online if they want to follow you or get a reading with you. Dena: Yeah! So you can find me at DenaDeCastro.com and there you can sign up for my list there. I do have a really cool free gift of the nodes in your chart, if you didn't hear about it from the last episode. It's still there for you if you do sign up for my list. I also will more regularly be posting things on Facebook as we go forward, and I have a Facebook, it's DeCastroAstrology. I say that because I just started back on Facebook after nine years away, so it's like getting back up to snuff on that has been interesting. But yeah I'm enjoying getting back into that community and also being part of the Shift Your Spirits community as well. And you can find me there too. I pop in if you have questions about this episode and what have you. Slade: Absolutely. We'll have a comment discussion in the group available for anyone who wants to ask you some good follow up questions. That was great, Dena. Thank you for coming back on the show again. Dena: Thank you. It's always my pleasure.

We haven't figured out how to perfectly navigate social media in our marriage and family which is why we wanted to talk about this subject today. We talk about a few strategies to build healthy habits with social media in our home and we will talk about areas that we struggle with social media. We think it is time to start evaluating how social media is affecting our families and daily lives. There is a lot of good that can come from social media but there is a lot of unhealthy things as well. Aaron gets personal and shares his own addiction to social media we share stories of things our kids have told us because of us being on our phones in front of them and we both share how we can be better at how we engage with it on a daily basis. “All things are lawful for me,” but not all things are helpful. “All things are lawful for me,” but I will not be dominated by anything." 1 Corinthians 6:12 -- Take our 31-day marriage prayer challenge today and join the 1000's of couples who have done it. https://shop.marriageaftergod.com/products/thirty-one-prayers-bundle -- FOR MORE MARRIAGE ENCOURAGEMENT https://marriageaftergod.com https://instagram.com/marriageaftergod SHOP MARRIAGE RESOURCES https://shop.marriageaftergod.com FOR WIVES https://unveiledwife.com https://facebook.com/unveiledwife FOR HUSBANDS https://husbandrevolution.com https://facebook.com/HusbandRevolution READ: Hey, we're Aaron and Jennifer Smith with Marriage After God. Helping you cultivate an extraordinary marriage. And today we're gonna talk about social media and your marriage. Hey, thanks for joining us today. As usual we want to invite you to subscribe to our channel so that you're notified each time we upload a new episode. So I brought up today's topic to you and I said, "Hey, we should talk about social media." Not because we've conquered this beast, or have figured it all out, but more so because we're in the midst of trying to figure it out with having kids and seeing the impact in our family life using social media, not that our kids are using it but how we use it and they notice, but also using it for work and things like that, I just felt like it's an important conversation to have. So I thought, hey, we'll bring up the topic today, and those listening can maybe further the conversation in their own marriages at home because chances are they either want to be talking about it, or they've already been talking about it. Yeah, and a big part of us doing this podcast is to start the discussion in our own home. We've talked about it in the past, and we've tried implementing things, so we're gonna bring up some strategies, and things that we're still struggling with. And hopefully, we can find more healthy habits when it comes to social media, especially in a world where everyone's doing it. It's like social media is just a part of life right now. We were discussing before we started the podcast, when we were talking about the notes, that we grew up in a world that social media like didn't exist and then boom! Social media was everywhere, and there was no training for it, there was no preparation for it, there was no studies on it. It just was, and I also grew up, I don't know about you, but I didn't have a cell phone until I was like 18. Yeah, I was like 18, 17 or 18. But now every single person has a cell phone. Every single kid has a cell phone, and every cell phone is a smart phone, and it's got social media on it. And I think it's just about time that we start evaluating our home life and our use of social media, and the potential dangers of it for our marriages, for our kids, for our health. And just so those listening know, when we're talking about social media, I think everybody uses it in maybe a little bit different way, but it can be-- Or all of it. Or all of it, yeah, some people use one platform, some people use all of them. But we're talking about Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest. Twitter, YouTube. Snapchat, LinkedIn, there's so many. Snapchat, there's a bunch we don't even know about that people use. Yeah, YouTube, did you already say that? Yeah, YouTube, yeah. And so those are all just different avenues that we can have social-- Connections. Connections online, and it's become a way of life, but the question is how are we approaching it in our homes, in our marriages, and what's healthy, what's inappropriate, and I think we should talk about all of those things. Yeah, and I don't want this episode to seem like a downer because it's not. There's a lot of good that comes from social media. Obviously, we've been able to share ministry online in this way and so there's a lot of good that comes from it. A lot of relationship building, a lot of connection and healthy connection through using social media, and I think a lot of people using it would attest to that, but I think they also would agree that there are some negative sides and cons that we need to figure out. Yeah, and I want to start with a scripture just to give us an idea about this because it's not like we're saying social media is bad, you need to just get rid of it, no. For some of you that might be the case. We've had friends that just got rid of their social media accounts and just totally checked out, logged off. Yeah, or at least for a season they did, yeah. But the idea is to have a biblical perspective, a right perspective, a healthy perspective, a sober mentality about social media, so this is in 1 Corinthians, chapter six and it's verse 12. Paul is saying this. He says, "All things are lawful for me, "but not all things are helpful. "All things are lawful for me, "but I will not be dominated by anything." And so this idea of yeah, as Christians, we have this freedom in Christ. This isn't necessarily bad, it's not a bad thing. May be lawful for us, but is it beneficial? May not be lawful for us but are we being dominated by it? And so those are some questions we can ask ourselves and it just helps us look at it and be like okay, may not be a bad thing but are we in control of it or is it controlling us? And so this is just one little bit of scripture that Paul gives us to have a better mentality to be approaching this with. So why don't we share just like a general overview of like where we're at with social media? Yeah, our life? Yeah. Yeah, because we're never on social media. Never. No, actually what's funny is social media is a part of our job, right? Which we, I often use as an excuse. I do too. Why I'm on social media. It's definitely one of those justifiers like, well, I have to do this. Yeah, like I need to keep up, I need to make sure that I'm watching what's going on and responding to people. Because we do legitimately use social media for our ministry online. Everyone that's watching and listening to this episode probably found out about it through social media, so it's definitely important to what we do but it's not everything we do. And so right now I would say I personally definitely have an unhealthy relationship with social media. I would just say that outright. It's actually something I'm currently, I was literally just laying in bed last night, praying about it. Oh, really? Yeah. So it's something that needs to be dominated by me and not dominating me, as that scripture in 1 Corinthians says. Yeah, that's good. And so it's something that I'm trying to adjust and figure out. I can definitely tell that I've got an addiction to it. Like I said, we grew up in a generation where social media just came out of nowhere and we weren't trained, we didn't have parents that grew up with it and said oh, you know, limit face time, limit screen time, limit all this stuff, and we didn't have any of that so it just happened. There's something about that infinite scroll where you just like, I don't know about you but-- Mindlessly scrolling? Yeah, sometimes I stop myself and I'm like what am I doing? I'm not even looking at what I'm scrolling through, I'm just addicted to the scroll. Yeah, like what's next, what's next? There's this, there is actually those pleasure hormones being released when you're on the internet. Studies have shown that it can be addictive. They haven't done enough studies on it but they're doing more and more and they're finding that it's social media itself, social media use is being tied to mental health and depression and anxiety and we can see that on a small level because there's times that we see someone else's life. We're like oh, that's nice. Get stuck in comparison. Yeah, which absolutely if we do that day-to-day and like if we don't have a healthy relationship with the Lord or with our family, like that could just fuel a fire that doesn't need to exist. But where I'm at is I definitely am on social media way too much and the reason I know that, because I can easily justify and say well, I need it for work and I need to be on. You know, yeah, it's unfortunate that I need to be on so much but some examples I can give you and you could probably pull out some examples too, being on the phone doing nothing, just mindlessly scrolling when I should be hanging out with my kids. When I'm supposed to be working, mindlessly scrolling. Like in bed next to you at nights when I could be with you or talking with you or being intimate with you or having a conversation or whatever, I'm scrolling. Okay, so can I share a story real quick? I just thought about this. I wasn't going to share it but 'cause I didn't know until you just said that. If I don't like the story, I'll cut it. Okay. But just go ahead. So the other day, it was probably like two weeks ago now I think, I was walking out to the car and you were already in the driver's seat waiting for me and you were looking down and I knew you were on your phone. Because I'm always on my phone. Well, yeah. And I got in the car and I remember saying hey, can I tell you something and you're all "What?" And I'm like, well, I used to really like it when I'd be walking out to the car and you'd be watching me because I would try and do something funny like dance or make a funny face or just knowing the fact that you're watching me walk out to the car, there was something, I don't know, reassuring and loving about that. Well, I think you're missing it 'cause you know, now you're recognizing it existed and now it doesn't. Exactly and so now there's even times where I go to dance or go to do something and I realize you're not looking at me and so then I feel kind of foolish but then I feel sad. Which is really sad. And I just remember telling you that I like it when your eyes are on me and I think that's one of the detriments to social media is our heads are always down, the eye contact is lost, and we miss those little opportunities or moments to be with each other even if we're walking to the car. I know it sounds silly but-- Well, it's ironic it's called social media. I feel like it's antisocial media, it's like-- Disconnection. Yeah, we have less real connections in life and I have a bunch of friends on Facebook. You know, oh, so many people liked my comment and my wife sitting next to me not liking what I'm doing. You know? It's really unfortunate. And this is us really talking about what we're dealing with. How are you, what's your relationship with social media right now? I would definitely say that I spend too much time on it and that's after cutting out, like being aware and trying to cut those times out so that I'm not on it as much. And having four children now, I am recognizing that my time is limited and very valuable and so I've been trying the last couple weeks to leave my phone in the bedroom during the day when I'm with the kids so that I'm not even on it but I still find myself looking for it or going back to it and bringing it out, asking one of the kids to go get it for me. But one of the biggest things that I've tried to implement recently was when I had Truitt, I had the baby. And with all my past babies while nursing, I would scroll on social media 'cause it was like downtime. I don't know why I just saw it as like this time where I have a free hand, the baby's nursing, everyone's fine, I could just scroll. Yeah, like what's the big deal? Yeah, what's the big deal? But with this-- When people used to read books and like learn something new or... Yeah, I'm just mindlessly scrolling. But I realized very quickly that with this experience with nursing, it's been incredible. I haven't had any like pain or hardship with nursing and so I've really enjoyed it, so I found myself not picking up my phone and then making that a more intentional thing, so now every time I go to nurse-- Like watching the baby, talking to him. Yeah, I keep my phone away from me and I look at him, I make eye contact with him, and I feel like there's this connection that needs to be there especially with nursing moms. And so that's just been a huge encouragement to me and a recognizing of I need to stay off my phone more. Yeah, another example of why it's probably super unhealthy, our relationships with our phones, is when we don't have our phones, the anxiety we feel. Yeah, that's a problem. Where, I don't have my phone. Where is it? Okay. Where is my phone? I think I do that every single time we get in the car. No, you do this. You're like, Aaron, I think I left my phone in the house and I go inside the house and I come back, you're like nope, it was in my pocket. It was in my pocket, I'm fine. It's happened like 100 times. Sorry. You're so kind to always go back and-- I know, I go look for it, I'm like it's not where you said it was. And you're like, oh, it was in my jacket pocket, I'm so sorry. But yeah, those anxieties you're feeling. And I bet everyone that's listening has experienced that. Like oh, where's my phone, or mindlessly scrolling. Like it's a common thing now. I almost feel like if we didn't do it, like if we just turned our phones off, right, I know we would go through withdrawals because I felt it before when we tried going like no technology for a day. It's hard. But we'd be weirdos. What? Yeah, because you'd go hang out with friends and all your friends are gonna be on their phones and you'd be like hey guys, you want to talk? Okay, this has happened to me before and I remember looking around going, okay, I guess I'll just go on my phone. Because everyone else is. Everyone else is. Oh, so I want to give an example. You just brought something to memory. Yeah, the one that just happened? Yeah, it just happened. So we have a really good friend over and she's, we haven't seen her in a while either, and she's talking to us about something, she's just telling us a story. This is why it's so bad, I don't remember what she was talking about. She's telling us a story and I'm on my phone. I didn't even realize I was on my phone. And I heard myself going huh, yeah, yeah. And she stopped and she said "Am I just talking to myself?" And Jennifer was on her phone. No, I wasn't. You weren't listening though. I was with the baby on the couch. Yeah, but I think you were looking down or something. I was not zoned in, yeah. But I was on my phone and Jennifer was like focusing on the baby or something and she just stopped and she said "Am I talking to myself right now?" And she was very kind about it and kind of funny and I looked up and I was all oh my gosh, I'm really sorry. I put my phone down, turned it off, pushed it away. Don't you just want to throw it away at that point? I felt like a jerk. You're just like let's just set this thing on fire. She was literally standing right next to me and I couldn't even listen to her. And I hadn't seen her in a while and it was so disrespectful. How often does that probably happen and people don't say "Am I just talking to myself?" They probably just move on and feel like not valuable. Yeah, Simon Sinek did a TED Talk. I was gonna bring this up. Was it TED Talk or was something else? It was some sort of viral Facebook video. And it was so convicting. And he was just saying, he's like the moment you pull your phone out. Even if you're not on it-- You're telling everyone in your presence that they're not as important. And it's so true. And I know like the feeling I had when she said "Am I talking to myself right now?" Because she literally was talking to herself. I was ignoring her and I was standing right next to her. And how many times has that happened with our kids? Yeah, okay, you gotta tell them the story with Elliott. I didn't want to point the finger at you. Guys, we have a bunch of really sad stories when it comes to social media because of how bad it is and this is why we're talking about it. But this is how people feel. Like people feel this way, kids feel this way, so share. Elliott's five. Go ahead. He's five years old and I don't even know, was it while he was five? Yeah, it was this year, you were outside. I'm outside and I walk out there and he's playing and he always wants me to play with him. And I have my phone in my hand of course and he just he goes, man, kids have a way of like stabbing you right in the heart. So he's like "Dad, what do you love your phone more than me?" And that was a legitimate thing he said and it wasn't like he'd ever heard someone say that before. That was hims telling me like hey, I'm right here and you're on your phone, what are you doing? Like I want you to play with me. That was a wake up call for both of us. I don't know why my son has to be so intrinsically like thoughtful, like the way thinks and he's just got a way of being, he's super intelligent. And I looked at him and I said no. I said of course not but Elliott, you're right, there's no reason why you would think otherwise. And I put my phone down. I said of course I love you more than my phone and I'm gonna work on not being on my phone in front of you. And so just we're not getting to our strategies yet but one of the things that we've done is we've told our kids that they're allowed to tell us to get off our phones. Yeah, well, because we're-- Dad, get off your phone. We're like in training as parents. We're like trying to figure this out. Yeah, we have to figure out how to rightfully and correctly and soberly use our phones. Because social media is not bad but it's bad. And we have to know that we're setting an example for their hearts. Like how are they gonna feel as they grow up when they get their phones? They're gonna remember mom and dad are even still always on their phones and I don't want to be like that. I don't want to be that way. And it's bad. So because of these kind of events that have happened, we're becoming more aware of it and we have got to figure something out. It's got to be fixed, like we've got to put our phones down. And we've tried making rules like not having our phones on us when we're around the kids or not having them in our bed. You know, we've dropped the ball on a lot of those just because of how connected we've been to social media. But I am, as sad as these intimate moments have been with these people that we absolutely love, I feel like they've been wake-up calls for us and I feel like that is what's starting the change. And I'm glad that you're willing to share some of those stories because I feel like people listening will hear those and think, oh man, does my child feel that way or does my friend think of me this way? And maybe they just haven't said anything. And maybe that would be-- Well, lots of people feel that way. I know even though I do it, I feel that way when someone does it to me. I'm like hey, I'm like are we talking, what's going on? Are we gonna be on our phones? Something that we've kind of incorporated within the group of friends that we have is saying who you hanging out with right now? Yeah. And it's like this cue of like, hey, we're all doing something together and you're on your phone. Are you hanging out with your phone and people on social media, or are you hanging out with us? Are you being present? And so it's like our cue to like, oh no, I'm not hanging out with anyone, put it away. Sorry, I'm hanging out with you guys. You guys can use that if you want. Yeah, that's a little tip for your friends. Yeah, who you hanging out with? Just a little vocal reminder of like get off your phone and hang out with us. We know some people that have done like phone baskets where everyone puts their phones in but we haven't done that but I know other people have. Yeah, okay, so moving on. Do you have any stories of like social media and specifically our relationship and maybe how it's caused some either tension in our relationship or temptation for sin? Well, yeah, like I've struggled with pornography my whole life and social media didn't make that any better. Gave more access. It gave me more access to things and it's still a danger and can have temptations involved with it, but I don't give in to those temptations now. But one of the things that has always been hard is like you would be on my, 'cause we have access to each other's phones, you just knowing like oh, he's following that girl or who's that or who's that? And just the things that you would see might make you feel insecure. And then I remember for a while, there were certain people that you would follow and I would ask you like why are you following that person? And we had a good conversation about it a while ago. What was that about? So yeah, there's this girl that I was following and I was following her because I liked her lifestyle and I liked how she looked. It was all vanity in my opinion but I didn't realize that I was even doing it. And I don't know if I was talking about her or he looked over my shoulder and saw that-- I think I looked over, you were in bed scrolling through her feed. Scrolling through her feed and you just asked me like, well, can I ask why you're following her? And that was the first time that I had to stop and consider why I was following someone and really think about it. And I wanted to really think about it because I thought it was an important question. And I thought, you know what, I was even honest with you. I said I don't know why I keep going back to her feed but I'm jealous of her. I think she's really beautiful, she has a beautiful family, they go on these vacations. Did you feel like you'd coveted like what she had? I did, I did. And I would often go back especially in times where I felt discontent or whatever and I don't know why it made me feel better just to go look and see what is she up to? How is she happy? And I remember after telling you that, you said you should evaluate whether you should be following her or not. And after that, I decided not to follow her and it's actually been healthier for my heart. Yeah, not that that woman was doing anything wrong. No, it wasn't her fault, it was my own heart condition and I had to check it. Yeah, and there's a lot of things that we do. Like so something that I've made a commitment to on my social media and I told you about this is I went through and I unfollowed every girl. Not that any of them were immodest or anything like that but I just, I made a decision. I said there was first of all no reason I needed to be following any girls. That was just for me personally. Like if it was a friend of ours, right, because I even unfollowed our friends, I followed usually their husband. And if there was something that I needed to see, you followed them and you'd be like hey, so-and-so did this, did you see that? Or you could share it with me. But I just realized, I evaluated like why am I following certain people, which this goes back to how social media is developed and evolved and what it's convinced every single person of. It's convinced us that if we don't like someone or follow someone, then we must not be friends with them. Right? When I have a lot of friends outside of social media that I don't follow on social media and I actually have great relationships with them. Do you feel like it forces you to stay in communications in other ways with them? Yeah, I mean-- Like better ways? In some ways, but again like the women, I wouldn't contact them privately. Oh, right. So why would I be following them privately? So I got to, I just realized, I evaluated who am I following and why am I following them? You know, is it actually adding benefit to my life? Do I need to be following them? Like I like to follow family and some friends and to see what's going on their life because I can't keep up with them all the time, which is totally fine. So I unfollowed all the girls on both Facebook and Instagram. You've been through there. You've seen there's no girls anymore. And in reality, I didn't need to. If I needed to know something about a friend of ours' wife, you'll let me know. And usually I don't need to know, thanks, it doesn't matter. But that's just one thing that I did and that was something I did for myself and also something I did for you 'cause I was like I don't need my wife feeling insecure about anyone I'm following. Not that you are trying to be insecure or that you're jealous but doing those things inadvertently do cause those situations. And I'll be honest, knowing that you've struggled with pornography in your past, knowing that you had social media accounts was in itself an insecurity because I would always question what are you doing? Who, why? And that was hard for me for a really long time but regaining that trust with you and seeing that you haven't been with that struggle for a very long time now, that we've rebuilt that. And so I'm not as insecure. But you've also seen me make decisions with social media that match that purity. Like you having access to it, me showing you, me talking about it, me not messaging people privately, me not following girls at all. Those are just fruit of the way I'm walking in. It's my way of protecting myself because if I know I'm prone to something, I'm like, well, I should avoid that, right? And so trying to find those healthy boundaries. But again, even on the not being tempted with the lustful stuff, I still struggle with the scrolling. Which could be just as destructive, you know. Yeah, okay, so in talking about social media, one thing that you really wanted to touch on was idleness. We both have struggled with this at times and so-- Right, it lines up with the idea of just mindless scrolling. So the word idle, a lot of times we usually define that as like doing nothing, right? But it's actually broader than that, it's more than that. It's doing something that's meaningless or doing something that's fruitless, right? So it's not just like sitting in your chair doing nothing. That's not necessarily being idle. Being idle is doing things that are worthless. So filling up your time with things that don't matter. With busyness, right? And so in Proverbs 19:15, it says "Slothfulness casts into a deep sleep, "and an idle person will suffer hunger." So there's just this idea of like, the Bible talks a lot about laziness, a lot about idleness, a lot about slothfulness, and this idea that like don't be unwise, a foolish lazy idle person. And there's another scripture I'll get into. But it says an idle person will suffer hunger, right? Now we can look at that and just on the practical reality side, an idle person that's filling their time up with nothing, like I'm just doing hobbies. Well, I need time for my hobbies. They're not gonna be productive, they're gonna, you know. We live in a city that is known for its adventure sports and we always hear about like during the summer, people calling in sick because they want to go bike riding. Or in the winter, people calling in sick because they want to go snowboarding. And that to me is idleness. Eventually someone who has an attitude of that is just gonna get fired, right? So just on the practical side, being idle is not gonna produce income, right? You're gonna be lazy, you're not gonna have a job. But the other kind of hunger I think of is the word, right? An idle person that's filling up their time, me, and this is what I've been struggling with is I'm scrolling, scrolling, scrolling. Then I realize, I'm like why did I just sit here for 20 minutes scrolling when I could've been in the word of God? I could have been praying. That's good. I could have been spending time with you. So the hunger, I look at on a whole 'nother level of like spiritual and emotional and physical, right? You know I hunger for time with you and yet I don't give you time. That's really good, babe. So I look at the the depravity and the danger of idleness and that could be what social media is for many people. I know it is for me and I'm just confessing that, that I can find myself being idle and I'm recognizing it now. Now I go in the bedroom, I'm like oh, I'm gonna read my Bible, I bring my Bible and I bring my phone in too. And then you get a notification, ding. And like I just gotta quickly, ding. And then like 30 minutes went by and like what did I just do? I just wasted my time. So the next scripture is also in Proverbs. It's in Proverbs 31 and this is talking about the Proverbs 31 woman, right? But it's just another way of describing what I'm talking about. 31:27. "She looks well to the way of her household "and does not eat the bread of idleness." Right, so we go back to like a Proverbs 31 woman looks well to her home and doesn't eat the bread of idleness, right? Which is funny 'cause the last one talked about hunger and this is saying you're eating the bread of idleness, like idleness is a food you're eating but it actually gives you no sustenance. That makes sense in what you were sharing and how it's not that you're just sitting there not doing anything, you're doing some-- It's an activity you're doing. You're eating something, it's just not filling you with nutrients. Right, and so in this situation for this woman who's trying to manage her home well and bless her husband and her children. Are you hinting at me? No, well, maybe. This is for both of us, right? I know, I know. You know, she is sacrificing the health and well-being of her home for nothing. That's literally what she's doing. That's insanity. It's crazy. It's crazy. So we just want to like look at these and say okay, are we being idle? Is this fruitless? Is it taking away from my relationships, my relationship with God? Is it's getting in the way of my relationship with my children? And those are some serious questions we can ask ourselves about social media. It's something that I'm asking myself currently, something that I'm praying about regularly, and I'm trying to make changes in. And so maybe what we can go into is some of the strategies that we've implemented, some that we want to implement, just to give like a good idea because the people that are listening and watching might want them because I'm sure that they deal with this too. We just live in social media-ville. It's like life right now. It's true. Okay, so one of the first ones that we started out doing when we first got on Facebook was we share passwords and we're very transparent with giving each other access to each account. And this is just a good overall, being one in your marriage and protecting each other is access. Like my wife knows that she can get on my phone, we have the same password for our phones and for our computers. She can look through my search history, she could be on my phone, she can see whoever I'm following, she can see things I've liked, she has access. Now we've had marriages and people say I don't need to do that, they just need to trust me and blah blah blah. Like they take it to a negative level. That's fine, you want to be that way, go ahead. I'd rather be safe. I'd rather my wife feel like she can trust me, I'd rather my wife. Now you almost never even check. No, but in the past there has been moments where I'll see something that triggers this curiosity of like do I trust you and what are you guys talking about? And I'll click on stuff or visit and then turns out it was nothing and that affirms me. And yeah, I'm at the point now where I don't really need to check in but-- And the goal even if you did-- But I know that I can. Even if you did check in, the goal shouldn't be to see if I'm wronging you. The goal should be to see if I'm sinning because you are my wife and you're my helper. And the advice for us, I shouldn't be checking because I'm like jealous and I want to make sure that you're not talking to anyone. I'm checking to see if you're being safe and my whole goal would be to reconcile with you and to help you walk in purity and vice-versa, right? Not because I just want to see if I'm being wronged here. And so sharing passwords and giving access and verbally giving access, meaning hey, if you ever want to grab my phone. Our pastor does this often. To the men, he's like you have access to my phone. Like he wants the other men to be accountable or him to be accountable to us and he just says if you want to look at my phone, go ahead. I mean, that's what's good about being a part of a good community. So what's the next one? Another one is talking about your experiences on social media, so this is kind of a two-parter. So it'd be like, hey, I saw so-and-so on Facebook say this or do this, did you see? Or you know, just inviting each other into those spaces. So the other part of this is sharing your experiences from social media and feelings that you have because of it. If you're wrestling with insecurities or comparison or-- Or getting mean messages from people. Yeah, are you talking to your spouse about those things and are you inviting them into that space and just talking about it? Yeah, so being open and transparent with your experience with social media so that it's an open conversation, that's good. So what's the next one? So another one is permission to ask questions. This is one that I feel like you're really good at, that we're both really good at in our relationship and it has helped protect our marriage and protect our hearts. And that's just, you know, asking those hard questions. When you asked me why are you following so-and-so, that's a hard question and it made me really consider why. Yeah, and when you're asking the questions, is that before you ask the question on both parties, the husband and the wife, ask yourself why you're asking the question. Are you asking because you're insecure yourself or you're jealous or you're fearful, or you're asking because you actually are interested in the well-being and the purity and the holiness of your spouse? Which doesn't mean if you feel those other things, don't not ask it, it means reconcile first and say okay, I'm feeling a certain way, I need to let them know that. Hey, I just saw you looking at such-and-such and actually I'm feeling a little insecure right now and I want to know why you are following that person or why you were looking at that. And we've had couples, we've had wives and husbands talk on both sides, say hey, my husband just won't stop following these girls that I've asked him not to follow. And he says why, they're friends from school, it's not a big deal. Wives following old boyfriends and vice versa. So there's got to be an openness not only for the questioning but also a permission to be like hey, I actually would appreciate if you didn't follow so-and-so. And that's one of the other ones was being willing to delete those relationships that are just really unnecessary. Because your marriage is the most important thing. Yeah, and here's a good warning sign. If we're being defensive about unfollowing someone on social media, there's a problem. There's a problem. Because guys, it's social media. Unfollowing someone and unliking someone's page and not seeing their posts online does not make you not like that person. Doesn't mean that you don't have a relationship with that person. Now if the only relationship you have is online, then all the more, why is it a big deal? So if there's a defensiveness welling up like what's the big deal, you need to ask yourself why you're being defensive. That's really good. Like why are you trying to protect this social media thing over here versus your spouse who has a concern? So recently I've been telling the kids when they're arguing over a toy or just upset at each other, I always tell them that toy is not more important than your brother's heart. It's true. And so I just think about that in context to marriage and social media and just think like social media is not more important than your spouse's heart. It's not. Guys, marriages existed for thousands of years without social media. It's probably better off without it. Right? So we just remember that social media is, if we're getting defensive, there's probably an addiction there to the platform itself. There's probably some sort of connection to whoever you're being asked to stop following. You got to ask, you got to pray through those things. You got to ask yourself why am I being defensive with that? Another way that we've been really good at protecting our marriage through social media is whenever someone messages me that is a man, I'll usually say please contact at Husband Revolution and I'll tag you right away. Or if it's a friend of ours, we'll just tag each other in that message so that everyone's a part of it and there's transparency there. Yeah, we haven't been perfect doing this every single time but again we talk about things so if someone messages me that's a friend of ours, I'll let you know. Hey, so-and-so messaged me, just want you to know. And so there's an openness there. We have a pretty straightforward rule on just not having private communications with the opposite sex online. So you know, I get people, being on social media, being a social media ministry, I get women all the time messaging me and I usually give very short answers or no answer at all, right? So there is no long-term communication. If they ask for advice, I don't give advice. Just say oh. So one thing I'll answer and this is an example, just so you know. Someone will ask like what Bible version I use. I use ESV. Yeah, really like to the point. Yeah, there's no conversation, there's no, okay, cool. If you want to know more, message Unveiled Wife. And so very short or no answer at all and that's just kind of where I've landed the plane on not getting myself in trouble. Yeah, nope, same here. Okay, so the last one that I have on here is be willing to put it away, whether that's a season of like not logging in or if it's just a daily hey, I'm gonna go put my phone away because I want to be with you, I want to be present with you, I want to be with our children, and be willing. Yeah, I think I would take that. So the willingness should be good, like this is another thing. We've given each other permission to say put the phone away. Which is hard because we get defensive, like what's the big deal? I haven't had, I've been on all day. Okay, okay, I don't sound just like that. And we're like fighting. I didn't say you did. You just told everyone you do. I know, I do, you guys. I get really defensive sometimes. We both do. You'll ask me to put it away and I'll be like I'm not. And then I recognize I'm being defensive and I'm like So giving permission to tell each other please put the phone away. But the willing to put it away part, I think it should go even further and we should be proactively putting our phones away, getting off social media. I think I need to be putting in the other room and not having access to it when I'm with the kids so that they don't see me picking up my phone and you know, oh, it's checking it. 'Cause I'm always checking it for no reason. Like there's nothing. And like I said, like Simon Sinek, you're just letting everyone in the room know that they're less important than your phone. It breaks my heart, you guys, it's so sad. Such a good quote. Actually the whole document, we should link to it. Yeah. So that's what we have for you guys today and, you know, we just want to remind you that a marriage after God is one that values their marriage relationship and like I said earlier, social media is not more important than your spouse's heart. Social media is not more important than your heart, Aaron. I know. And I want to treat you with that respect and love and concern and value. Ditto. And so from this day forward. Till death do us part from our phones. I promise to do a little bit better. -We are gonna work on it. We are. We have to work on it because I don't want my kids growing up feeling less than because of our phones. And I don't want to feel less than. I mean, I don't want you to feel less than, both. Yeah. The other thing a marriage after God should be willing to do is to evaluate these things and look at every aspect of our lives and say okay, what needs to be changed? What needs to be cut out? What needs to be destroyed, put away? And so social media might be that or at least needs to be re-evaluated and put into check, right? Which means as we wrap up this episode, go call your spouse or unless they're watching this with you, listening with you-- Yeah, watch this first and then put your phone away or your computer. Oh, 'cause they're on social media. My point is go have that conversation, go talk to each other about some of the strategies that you can implement that will help protect your marriage. Yeah. Alright, we thank you for joining us this week and we look forward to having you next week. Did you enjoy today's show? Find many more encouraging stories and resources at marriageaftergod.com and let us help you cultivate an extraordinary marriage.

Hey guys, Brandon Olson here. Welcome back. Rank Daddy TV. Today’s episode is gonna be a little different, a little longer. Let me give you kind of a back story. So, in Rank Daddy, in the training, in the group, we had a contest over the Summer. It was a Summer business building contest. The objective was to add as much monthly revenue to your agency as you possibly could. So the grand prize was $1,000, just a drop in the bucket really compared to what growth you guys see, or have seen over the Summer that you’ve put into your agency. So, a lot of growth, there was a lot of competition, it was awesome. So, what we have in today’s episode, the winner, his name is Caleb. Just a regular dude. He’s doing SEO part time. Started an agency literally six months ago he joined us. So at the beginning of this contest, he was only three months in. Total newbie. And what that shows is, that Rank Daddy literally works for anyone, okay? It doesn’t matter if you know SEO, or you think you know SEO, or you don’t know anything about SEO. Caleb won this $1,000, but really compared to what he brought into his agency, what he grew his business, it was insane, he literally added $17,000 in new monthly recurring revenue. So we didn’t count anything that students already had going. This is all newly added revenue to your business. But because of the way he scales his pricing, he starts everybody out a little low, maybe gives them half price to get them in, but by the end of next month, or within a month from now, he’ll be at over $28,000 just from what he brought in during this contest. $28,000 a month in added revenue from the contest. So, just over the Summer. So here’s what happened. You’re gonna notice as you watch, Caleb, like I said is just a regular guy. He hasn’t been doing this very long. Six months total. He’s got another business that he runs full time, and takes his entire … Or the majority of his focus and his time. He’s in real estate. SEO for him is completely part time. So as you watch this, I want you to do this. Keep telling yourself throughout the video, self, if this guy, a complete newbie, just a regular dude can build and scale an SEO business to $30,000 a month in just a few short months, part time, I can do it too. So keep telling yourself, let’s get into my computer, I’ve got this thing downloaded. What happened is, when we announced him as the winner, he was getting message after message after message, how did you do it? What was your prospecting like? What is your pricing? So he hit me up. He said, Brandon, can I just go in and do a Facebook Live? Do a Facebook Live and explain to people exactly what I did so I don’t have to answer? I mean, it’ll be a lot faster. So, literally he was bombarded. So that’s what we got for today’s episode. He literally shares in this Facebook Live, and you’ll see as if he’s doing a question and answer, it’s because people are posting questions as he goes along. We downloaded it, put it on YouTube, so you won’t be able to see the questions. But just kinda be in tune with what he’s doing. But he literally shares exactly how he did it. How he landed the clients, how he used leverage to land more clients, how he priced his deals, and more. He goes into great detail. I’m really, really glad he shared his story. Now this thing is 47 minutes long. If you have to pause it, come back to it. But don’t skip any of it. This thing is insanely, insanely valuable. And remember, as yourself, if this regular dude can do this, why can’t I? And you can. So let’s go. So that’s what we got for today’s episode. He literally shares in this Facebook Live, and you’ll see as if he’s doing a question and answer, it’s because people are posting questions as he goes along. We downloaded it, put it on YouTube, so you won’t be able to see the questions. But just kinda be in tune with what he’s doing. But he literally shares exactly how he did it. How he landed the clients, how he used leverage to land more clients, how he priced his deals, and more. He goes into great detail. I’m really, really glad he shared his story. Now this thing is 47 minutes long. If you have to pause it, come back to it. But don’t skip any of it. This thing is insanely, insanely valuable. And remember, as yourself, if this regular dude can do this, why can’t I? And you can. So let’s go. Rank Daddy. What’s up? It is Tuesday, and I think, yeah, Tuesday here right at noon Central Time. It’s actually 11:59. I’m a minute early, but want to let you guys hop on here. I will give you guys a second, but we’re going to be talking about how I was able to win the 2018 summer contest. I’ve gotten messages after messages, and so I just sent a message over to Brandon, and just really was like, “Hey, man. Can I just come live because it’s going to be so much easier to just come live, rather than texting everyone back individually?” Whatever, you guys jump on, say hey, say hello. I want to see you guys in here, whether that’s a hand wave. Jerry, what’s up, man? How are you? Thanks for joining in. Like I said, guys, whatever, you hop in here, wave. Give me a little wave. Give me a thumbs up. Give me something. I don’t know. As well, want you guys to know this, any questions that you guys have, feel free to let me know. In the middle of this, I’ll definitely be able to answer those, and so wanted to just go through with you guys what my process is honestly, and what I did do to achieve everything I have, and so I’m not done yet. It’s not like I’m just going to kind of go, “Oh well, I’m here”, whatever. Aaron, what’s up? What’s up? Nathaniel, Randy, how are you, guys? Alec, how are you? [Amit 00:01:36]? [Ahmet 00:01:37]? Dude, I don’t know. I’m sorry. The worst pronouncer of names ever here. Jimmy, what’s up, man? All right, guys, so we’re just going to go ahead and kick things off. If you guys are watching this on the replay, say replay. Want to see who all watches this live, and obviously back. Like I said, for those of you who just jumped on, if you guys have questions, feel free to reach out and say them right in the middle of this, all right? I want to help you guys, because like I said, I’ve been getting tons of messages, “Hey, what did you do?”, “How did you do this?”, all this, and so I messaged a couple of people back, and then I was like, “All right. No. I’m done. I’ve got to go live because texting people back so much is just not going to really work out as well.” “It just took forever.” This is honestly what I did, all right? If you guys aren’t in Rank Daddy Pro yet, please, please, please go sign up for it, because that’s why I was able to do what I did. You guys need to really … For those of you who are in Academy, you guys need to figure out a way to upgrade. I don’t know. Get a credit card with 0% APR interest, something like that to make this investment because this is a huge, huge investment, and for those of you who are in Pro, you guys know the value of one, all the trainings, but secondly, our Facebook group. That’s just incredible of a small community that we hope to get even bigger, but just how helpful that it is, right? Whenever you ask a question, it’s all there, and that’s honestly why I was able to do what I did. Now, let’s talk about prospecting, all right? What I did is I literally just came up with a list. I sat down one night and just started thinking, “Okay. What kind of businesses are there? What are the categories?” All right? I’ve got a list pinned up of roofers, landscapers, tree service, a dentist, pest control, towing, restaurants, water damage, painting, contractor, lawyer, a plumber, carpet cleaning, a limo service, car detailing, a mover. I just came up with a big list of … Oh, man. My water is out. That’s a sad day. All right. I guess I’m back. Cool. If you guys can hear me, just give me a thumbs up. It said I had low internet connection for a second, so just want to make sure that you guys can hear me before I start to ramble on. Like I said, create that list there. I’m seeing thumbs up. All right. Perfect. Thanks, guys. Creating that list helped me, and this is what I did. I straight up just did this because a lot of you guys might not know this, but I’ve got a background in the real estate industry, and that’s really what I do kind of more so than SEO, is I buy and flip and sell investment properties, and so that’s really what I do full-time. It’s kind of what I focus on, because there’s big money in that. You can pop off a big chunk of 20, 30,000 bucks at once, and so that’s what I focus on, and I do this stuff on the side, so I haven’t really gotten full into prospecting like I really want to, just because again, I don’t have the time running two businesses, so I just have to pick and choose what I have. What I did is I straight up went on to Google. Again, this is a prospecting method in Rank Daddy Pro, then I’m going to give you guys tips about what they teach you in Pro of what I actually use. What I did is I just created a list like that, and I just straight up cold called. I went on to Google, began at the top of page two, and just started calling people. “Am I the only one? The video stopped playing.” Yeah. It kicked off, so if you guys need to rejoin, go ahead and get back on there. What I did is I cold called them straight up. I also had a virtual assistant help me, and what I would do is, is I made a training video, and if you guys have a Mac, it’s key. Hey, if you guys are on here, I see some new faces hopping on. If you guys have questions about what I’m talking about, anything else, feel free to ask me. If you guys are catching this on the replay, say, “Replay”. You can even do #Replay if you’re really feeling it. So happy to have you guys on. What I did is I had a virtual assistant help me with this as well, is that they would go through, and they would actually go and create lists for me. What they would do is, is they would call, or … They would call. I did that at first. Matt, yeah. Absolutely, man. Happy to help. What I did is, is I had a virtual assistant go through … I gave them a big list, and I told them to go through page 10. Honestly, I probably should have had them go through page like 15 or whatever, but of each industry and each city that I wanted to, so I’m here at the Nashville area, so I gave him like Nashville and a few surrounding areas as well that I thought might be a good idea, and I had him create an Excel sheet of the business name, company phone number, email address if it was there, and I think what page of Google they were on. What I did is, is with all those emails, what I did is I created a MailChimp, and I sent out a MailChimp to that same list about three times. I sent the same thing, and then I mixed it up, but I just sent it over and over and over again, until I got people saying, “Take me off your list”, or whatever just to know that people got it, but that worked. I got a couple of clients by doing that, and then I called people. Just straight up cold called them. One of them is … Actually, I’ve got a follow-up with them tomorrow. Funny enough, this was back in June, all right? He was ready for SEO. He’s a t-shirt printer. They do that, and they do embroider as well, which is something that I didn’t really think of, but they were ready to do SEO, man, and it was t-shirt company population of about 200,000 people. They were ready, and their AC blew out in their workspace, and so he was like, “Hey, I’m not going to be able to. I want to. Call me back in September.” Here we are, so I’m going to get back with him and follow up, and that’s another big thing, is follow up. Make sure that you guys create some sort of … For me, it worked the best creating a Google sheet, and just kind of keeping up with who I called, when I called them, when I was going to need to call them back, things like that, and that was really a great way for me to know who I needed to call when, and it just helped me keep organized, because I feel like I need to be … I’m a very organized individual, so I like to have things laid out to a tee. You know what I mean? That’s what I would suggest for you guys, is to do that. Again, if you guys have questions throughout all of this, feel free and shoot. I did that, and then, this is a really important thing that I did as well, and this has worked for me the very best, the very best, asking for referrals. Now, you can’t just straight up ask for a referral until you do some work for them, right? One client, my very first one, I landed back in I think April or May, and what I did is, she was paying me about two grand a month, and so I literally socked all 2,000 into her. Boom. I was just throwing it in there, PBNs, press releases, Web 2.0, doing tons of stuff to get her up there, right? Population, about a million. I mean, I was throwing stuff. I was just literally like I said all of it to her, and so what ended up happening is, is in July, she had a record-breaking month, like three times what she’d ever made, and so she was just crazy. She’s like, “This works. This is amazing. Oh, gosh”, so I asked her, “Hey, do you know anyone else that could use the same thing?” She referred six people to me. Six that are all clients right now, all right? They range from a CBD oil shop thing. He’s just sells CBD oil and a few Gummies, and things like that to a plumber. I mean, the list goes on and on of just random friends that she has that are attorneys, and a plumber, a CBD oil shop owner, like just random things, but she was like, “Look at what happened. This guy is legit.” That’s really what happened, and I got her from cold calling, right? That’s what I did, but then … My best advice for you guys is your first one, two, three, four clients really, so everything they give you into them to get them up there to generate the most money. Yeah, you probably won’t make a lot or anything at all, but it’s going to be worth it, guys, so make sure that you guys are sowing into people, and giving and putting everything you can into them. Don’t be super greedy. “Oh well, I’m going to just wait until they pay me.” No, no, no, no. Push that in. Sow into them, because guess what’s going to happen, is when you do that, people know, “Wow, they’ve given me everything”, and now look at it. She gave me six new clients. Why? Because I helped her get a record-breaking month because I wasn’t pinching pennies. I was putting every cent into her website and ranking her. Every penny, all right? I mean, yeah, I think I ended up making like, I don’t know, 2,000 bucks for two months of it. I ended up making about $400, so 200 bucks each month. That kind of like made up for my time, just as far as putting into it. You know what I mean? It didn’t really make up for all of my time, but it made up for a little bit, and so like I said, I just sowed into it, right? That’s what I did, guys. I mean, it’s really not that hard, and another big thing is Facebook marketing. That’s another big one, is literally doing this, joining the yard sale groups, buy, sell, trade groups, literally any of that, and just post something like this, “Hey, local business owners, share your website. Let’s see what we come up with”, and make something creative. Make it sound like you’re trying to talk to people, and then say, “Mine’s in the comments”, and you start it off, and you share your SEO agency site, right? You say, “All right. Hey, here’s my company site. I run an online marketing agency.” I just say online marketing agency is a lot easier. People don’t know what SEO is most of the time, so say something like … Literally just do that and don’t spam a group, right? Add some value to it. If somebody is asking for a referral for a chiropractor, give them yours, whoever you go to, a dentist, same thing. Add value so that way, people see you as real, not just as a spammer. You know what I mean? Literally, like I said, just it’s when you get that one client, when you get your first, what you need to do is you need to literally sow every penny that you have to getting them to be number one, all right? Here’s why. Here’s why. Even if you’re like, “Yeah, it’s 500 bucks a month they’re going to pay me. What the heck?”, it’s nothing. Put all 500. Put 700 into it, right? Here’s why. When you can show somebody rankings and say, “Look at this guy. I ranked him. He’s ranking number one”, mobile, on a computer, and in the Map Pack … It’s important for you guys who aren’t using SerpTrack.io, go use that to track your rankings. Literally, Brandon and whoever helped him create that is literally the best-ranking tool out there, so go sign up for that. Plus, it’s cheap. It’s the same price … I was using Rank Tracker before to pay 19 bucks a month, went over to Brandon’s and paid 20 bucks … Oh, a dollar more, and got double the keywords, and I think double or 10 times the sites I get, but like something insane that I was like, “Yeah. Why wouldn’t I, right?”, and he shows you a computer, ranking mobile and Map Pack, especially the Mac Pack. I think the Map Pack is probably one of the most important ranking tools because that shows up the majority of times when somebody searches on an iPhone, and over 60% of mobile of any search on to Google is done from a mobile phone, so yeah, makes sense that the Map Pack’s going to show up, and that’s why it’s important to get you guys up there. Again, I would really highly suggest for you guys to just hustle and cold call people. Call people off of one of the billboards, a van, and here’s a big one that you guys probably aren’t going to like this, show up in their office. Just show up, right? Show up. Dress professionally with a little handout, some sort of a letter, a flyer, I don’t know, something that you can hand them and say, “Hey, this is what I do.” “No.” “Are you guys interested, and if not, you just leave it there”, because who knows? In six months, they might call you back, right? They might, because they might be going through a hard time, one, or two, if they are already doing SEO, their SEO, dude might just suck, okay? Straight up, might just suck. I had a client, and they were with another SEO company for like six months, best-ranking like page four, I think. All I did was on-page SEO on to … They ranked number one in all their cities they were trying to go after, right? Again, my man Jerry here, who is on … I don’t know. He was on. I don’t know if he is. He helped me out big time, and guess what? In Rank Daddy Pro. That’s why it’s so important, guys for you guys to get into Rank Daddy Pro here. Now, I’ll be honest, Brandon didn’t ask me to come on here and sell you guys Rank Daddy Pro and blah, blah, blah. That’s not why I’m doing this. I’m just being honest, giving you guys my opinion about what’s best, because you guys saw what I was able to accomplish, and why was that? Rank Daddy Pro. That’s why I was able to do that. Why do you think that Ed over here is popping off these big clients? One, he actually hustles and actually does the work, and two, Rank Daddy, right? That’s why. A community, right? We ask each other questions, even if we feel like it’s a silly thing to ask like, “Hey, guys. I should probably know this, but I’m just kind of drawing … I’m just kind of having a hard time remembering what that is. What is that?”, and people answer, and boom. There it is, so people … We help each other there, and it’s fantastic. As far as what my favorite niche and population size is, honestly, I don’t really have a favorite niche necessarily because I’ve got a bunch of different clients and a bunch of different fields, and they all work pretty well, from car detailing to a plumber, to CBD oil, to tons of different things. Honestly, I think my favorite clients to go after are probably the ones in the like 1,000 to $1,800 a month range, and I’ll talk about how I also price things here in a minute, but I’m going to wrap this up fairly quick, probably 10 more minutes because I’ve got a tea time this afternoon. Why? Because I don’t really have to work that much, because I’ve gotten this stuff. Yeah. I’m going to continue to push, but guess what? I can work half a day in the morning and go play 18 holes in the afternoon because of this, so it’s fantastic. My favorite population sizes honestly are probably anything under about 300,000. That’s me. Why is that? Because that’s the easiest to rank. Really, all you would need to do is drop a press release, do social signals, Web 2.0s, and of course, this is kind of … You should just know this, but do an on-page SEO correctly, right? That’s kind of a given, but doing that right. Let’s just back it up. On-page SEO, number one. Very, very important. Then, press release, social signals, few Web 2.0s and a couple PBNs, and they’re pretty much top three, and really, once you do the local citations, they’re going to be up there in the Map Pack. Matt, yes. One second. I will go over that. Yes. One of the things that you guys need to look at is what’s going to be easier to rank, 10 clients and a thousand bucks a month in a population of 150,000, or one client going national from very competitive keyword for 10,000 bucks a month? In fact, they’re going to be on you constantly every day. “Hey, how are the rankings? Hey, how are the rankings?” “Hey, how are the rankings? Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey.” They’re going to be on you constantly, but somebody paying you a thousand bucks a month in a population of 150,000 people, yeah, they might message you once a week, but guess what? The upkeep’s going to be a lot less because they know you, they trust you. It’s not going to be a big corporation. It’s going to be a mom and a pop type thing. It’s going to be one dude running it, or a father and son, husband and a wife. You get the idea, so it’s a little bit easier, so I would pick easily a 10, a thousand buck a month clients in a hundred thousand, 200,000 city because you get a rank faster, and when you get those, it just gives you more ammo, more marketing ammo, saying, “Look. Look at me. Look at me. I rank this guy number one.” “I can do that for you”, and that’s a big thing of other clients that I got, is that yes, the one client that had that record-smashing, not even [breaking 00:23:28], so record-smashing month in July. They just saw her, and they saw those rankings and said, “Yeah. She said you’re good. I don’t even need to see other people”, so that’s why it’s important for you to focus on one individual client, or two or three to get them up there to begin asking for a referral. That’s very, very key. Now, Matt asked, “Can you go over a bit of how your cold calls went, stuff that you found worked and didn’t, et cetera?” Yes. This sounds kind of silly, I guess, but get yourself a pair of headphones, all right? I’ve got the Powerbeats3, so you just hook in to your ear. It just looks like this, right? It’s super easy. Super comfortable. The microphones here, you put this one on the other ear, and you just go at it, and you call, and you can’t tell. These things are, I think they’re 150 bucks. I would make an investment in these or something like it, plus, I like these for when I go on a run or anything like that because they’re just super nice. That’s my tip number one, get some sort of a headset, but this isn’t what I would say, is as soon as I would call them, is whoever would answer is I would say, “Hey, just out of curiosity, I found you guys online back on page four or five. Was just curious if you guys have anybody doing SEO or online marketing work for you guys at all.” They would just base on what they would answer, I would kind of lean with that, see how they would answer, and then just say, “Okay. Great. Is there something I could maybe chat to, maybe a manager or somebody who’s in charge of all of your guys’, all of the marketing?” They would usually be like, “Yeah. Sure.” “That’s Jim. He does all of that, or that’s John”, or whoever, and you would get to them, and then you just ask them and just say, “Hey, found you guys back online back to page four or five. Was just curious if you guys have anybody helping you guys rank your website, increase your traffic, get more leads, et cetera.” If they’re like, “No thank you.” Be like, “Would you like to increase your revenue by two times or five times?” Kind of like, “Wait. What? Yeah, of course.” SEO can help you with that, right? One thing is cold calls get a lot easier the more you do them and the more ammo you have. Ammo is clients, and rankings, and things like that. You can say … This is one of the things I love to do, and when I first began, I would use this, because I had already ranked, and this was before I even found Rank Daddy and all, but I had already ranked my real estate investment company up there, and so I would just have them on the phone, say, “Hey, why don’t you go in to Google right now and just type in, ‘Where can I sell my house?’, in whatever their area was, because I knew that I was already up there, and just say, ‘Hey’. Just tell me who shows up number one.” They would read, “Oh, this website.” “Yup. That’s me.” “If you click on that, go to the About Page, you’ll see my name, my picture, all of that”, to give them a validity saying, “Oh, snap. I Googled this, and you just showed right up.” It’s good when you talk to somebody over the phone, is have them actually look up one of your clients, right? Actually, look that up while you’re on the phone with them. Say, “Hey, yeah. Are you in front of a computer?” They’re like, “Yeah, I am.” “Wonderful. Go ahead and hop on there to Google, and just type in there whatever the keyword that your client’s up there for”, and they’re going to say, “Yeah. I see that.” You say, “Yup. I ranked them.” It gives them a validity, so it just gives them validity to see, “Okay. This dude is real. This client here, he’s ranking them, and okay. All right. All right. I’m beginning to see this, beginning to trust this”, so really guys, with cold calling, you’re going to face rejection. It’s just going to happen, and this is a weird trick, I know. This is going to sound so weird to all of you, but it works for me, so you’ll have to find your thing that works for you, is that give yourself some sort of a reward for cold calling people. What I would do, kid you not, I’m a two-year old, it’s so funny, I would literally … I went to Sam’s Club, and I bought a big thing of some fruit snacks, so I literally would, after every couple of calls, I would say, “All right. I can eat a couple of these. For every two, three calls I make, I can get one gummy or two”, however I set it in my own head. What that would do is, is that would motivate me a little bit to call them to say, “Okay. I can’t eat these until I make that call.” I know it sounds silly, but it worked for me, right? Maybe for you, it’s, “All right. I can’t play another round of 18 holes until I make 25 calls, 30 calls. I’m not allowed to do something I enjoy until I make this many calls.” What that’s going to do for you is it’s going to kind of give you motivation to do it, right? Hey, guys. If you guys have any questions, feel free to shoot. Alexis, I’m trying to expand your question there. It says, “See more”, but when I hit “See more”, just brings me to like it or something. I don’t know. Yeah, “Share one of your real estate sites.” We can talk about it. Yeah. Send me a private message and we can chat. Oh, before I forget, yes, this is the last thing I’m going to go over, but if you guys have any other questions, feel free and shoot. Again, got to go play 18. What I did as far as pricing, this has been huge for me, and this has worked so stinking well, is what I’ve done is … All right. Let’s just say that you’ve got a client for 2,000 bucks a month. Aaron, yeah. Literally, it’s exactly what I’m going to go into. This is how I set this up, guys, and this works so well. So well. Let’s just say that we have a $2,000 a month client. Again, guys, in Rank Daddy Pro, it teaches you how to price clients correctly, and how to do it all, and again, a good Rank Daddy Pro community that’s, has other clients and might have them in your own, in that particular area or clientele that you’re shooting for. They might be able to help you, and give you tips. “Oh, hey, I only gave them a thousand dollar a month, $1,500 a month”, whatever. It’s a great way to help, but this is what I did. Let’s just say we have a $2,000 a month client, right? What I would do is, is I would give them a bit of a pricing cut month one and month two, so I would tell them this, “All right. It’s going to take about 2,000 a month”, and this is a good thing for you guys to do. I always send this in an email always. I never tell them a pricing over the phone. I always say, “Hey, I’m going to have to look into it. Let me send you an email.” Here’s why, is you have that in writing proof of what you’re going to offer them, how much, how everything is. It’s just wise to have everything in writing, all right? Now, what I did … Again, I keep on shooting off here. Let’s go back. 2,000 buck a month client. How I present this to them is say, “All right, so the typical price is going to be 2,000 a month, but you know what? What I’m going to do for you is I like to help out other companies because I know what it’s like.” “I get it. I know what it’s like to pay for a marketing channel that’s new and might not generate leads right off the top, and it’s going to take time, and I get that. I know what it’s like. I run a company too”, blah, blah, blah. “I know what it is. What I’m going to do is I’m going to actually help eat some of your costs.” “It’s not that you’re getting any less of a package, but I’m going to actually help you eat costs. Yeah, it’s going to be 2,000 bucks a month, but, you know what? For month one and two, I’m only going to charge you a thousand, or 800”, or you make the determination for what you feel is comfortable for you, and say, “All right. You know what? I’m going to chop that 2,000 in half, so month one is going to be a thousand, month two, same thing, another thousand, and then month three and beyond, it’s going to jump up to the agreed upon $2,000.” What that does is it lets people see, “Oh, wow. It’s kind of like I’m paying for one month, but getting two months out of it.” “Oh, okay. All right.” It’s a lot easier for them to try things out for lesser, for less money than what you talked to them about originally, because it makes them feel like they’re getting a deal, a sweet deal. “Hey, I’m giving you half off”, and that’s how you get to give it to them. I did that. Worked like a charm. Perfect, like you would not believe. Worked incredible, all right? That’s how I do it for everyone of my clients is I give them a bit of a price cut, and honestly, I don’t give them any less. If I lose money, I lose a little bit of money. No big deal, because I know that it’s going to succeed and they’re going to come back month three, four, five, six, seven, and they’re going to keep paying me money, right? It’s a way for me to set myself up for the future to know, “Okay. They’re going to keep paying me. They’re not going to stop paying me.” Any other questions, guys? That’s kind of how I did what I did. I know you’re kind of like, “Did I miss something? Yeah.” Like, “What’s going on?” No, guys. That’s literally it. There’s no secret magic sauce, you know what I mean? It’s just doing it. Hey, Ken. Yeah. How many calls a day was I doing? Like I said, I also run a real estate investment company, and so I did this SEO thing on the side. I wasn’t really focusing on it, so I would only make five to 10 calls a day, if that, and I did for probably a couple weeks, until I landed a couple clients, then I kind of got overwhelmed with a couple of houses. I went to buy and fixing them up, and doing things, so I got overwhelmed and didn’t really focus on it much, other than the clients I had, and so what I did is like I said, is I said, “Okay. Probably, the easiest way for me to get more clients is to have one do really, really well and have a couple do really, really well, and have them just refer people to me so I don’t have to make all the calls and do that.” I was right, and it worked, and yes. Ken, what I did is I … I would definitely encourage you to go watch the first half. What I did is I have a virtual assistant. I picked a bunch of categories, roofers, landscapers, tree service, all of that, and what I did is had a VA go and pull the company name, the website, the phone number, any email address that was on there, and what page they were on to Google on, and when I call them, I always added a couple extra pages, so if they’re on page two, you go, “Hey, we found you on page four or five”, kind of make it sound kind of worse than it is, and so that’s how I set that up. Yeah. Aaron said, “Are you basing price off city?” Yeah. What I tell them, I tell everyone this, is I base what the pricing is on these two things, the city population size and your competition, how much competition do you have in your area online, right? Really, all I do is I base it off a city, and so … I forgot that was empty, man. Did that earlier. Definitely going to have to get some water here soon. How I set things up is right now, I’ve got a plumber in a city of 50,000 for about 600 bucks a month because I know that that’s a lot for him, but it’s going to work well for him, so yeah, I base it all off city population size, and so what I would say is kind of a good rule of thumb, is anything below 150,000 people, consider being in the range. I don’t want to charge people less than 500 bucks, and that’s like rock-bottom. I really don’t take people under a thousand, but I took on a plumber just to again build my ammo, build my rankings to show people, “Hey, I ranked him”, so I’m not making money off of him. I’m going to make money off of him eventually though because I’m going to use his rankings to show other high-profile clients, right? That’s how I set things up, so don’t say no to the little guys because it’s going to help you land a much larger fish. Like I said, anything under 150,000 people, I would probably look at between 500 and a thousand bucks, somewhere in that range, and then population of 150 to 300,000. I would say no more than 2,000 a month, just kind of look in that kind of range. I feel like a good, solid base no matter what is about 1,500 bucks because if you look at it, you run local citations, press release, social signals, PBNs, kind of gives you enough to put into the client, but you also make a little bit, so if they’re not feeling 3,000 bucks a month, chop it in half and see what 1,500 bucks is. You know what I mean? It’s better to get something than nothing at all, and again, clients … Excuse me, the smaller fish are going to help you land bigger clients because new, potential clients want to see rankings of current clients, so if you don’t have any because you’re too expensive and you’re not willing to kind of take a little bit of a hit upfront to get those rankings, then guess what? You’re probably not going to do so well. Okay? Just saying, so that’s what I would do, all right? All right, guys. That is really … Honestly, guys, that’s everything. If nobody has any other questions, I’m going to sign off. I’ve got like I said my tea time here pretty soon, so I got to go get changed and go get ready for that. Going to grab a bite to eat and go play 18 holes. Guess what, guys? You guys can live the luxury life I am … No. I’m just kidding. I’m not really … Listen, guys, I’m not living some extravagant life or anything like that. Just working hard, guys. It’s what I tell all of my employees, is I tell them this is, “Listen, guys. We just have to work hard. We can’t settle. Don’t settle, guys. Don’t settle.” When you have 10 clients, awesome. That’s great. You got 10. Go get 30. When you get 30, you did it. You got 30 clients. Go get 50. You’ve got 50. Oh, it can’t get better than this. Oh, it can, because when you hit 55, it gets better. When you hit 75, it gets better. When you hit 100, it gets better, all right? I’ve made a mistake, especially in all of the real estate side of things for me, is when I close a house, I’m saying, “Oh, man. Feels good. Let me kick back and relax. Oh, this feels great.” Right? Don’t do that. Don’t relax. Don’t settle. I’m not saying don’t go and enjoy yourself, right? Have fun. Live life with your family, your friends. Do fun things. Let this be a freeing experience to say, “I’ve got the money now. We can go play 18 holes. We can go on a little vacation, a weekend in somewhere, to the mountains, to a local beach, a lake house”, something to … Let this be an enjoyable process for you guys, and again, Rank Daddy Pro is where it is at, guys. It’s where it’s at. Go sign up. If you guys haven’t … I’m just telling you this now. That’s why I am where I am, is because of that, Rank Daddy Pro. Go and sign up for it, guys. I’m telling you, go do it. Go do it. It’s worth its weight in gold. “Yeah. So what? It’s a few thousand bucks.” Go open up a credit card and put it on that. Do something. Make an investment in yourself. Yeah, I had to pay too. Guess what? Pulling in almost 20,000 bucks a month. Going to up that to 30 or 40,000 a month coming up soon. Guess what? Got a few thousand bucks. It’s just a tiny, little drop, okay? You have to pay that. You have to pay to play. It’s just the way that it is, guys. It’s worth it. I’m telling you, it’s worth it. Listen, guys, if you guys have questions, feel free to drop a comment on here, and so feel free. Drop a comment, and I would love to answer it here, because it would be awesome if you guys can just leave any questions. Those of you guys catching this on replay, watch it here. Leave a comment here, so that way, I can answer it here, so that’s just like everybody can see it rather than you just sending me a message. Let’s try to keep it all in here, so that way, this helps everyone, and not just you. Guys, that is everything. Thank you guys so much for watching. I hope this has been a big help, just kind of give you guys some encouragement on what to do and things like that, so guys, go make calls. Go get it. Go kill it. Go lock up clients. Go get the job done. Guys, biggest encouragement here, do the work. Make the calls. Don’t hire somebody to do the calls. Make the calls yourself. It’s always the sweetest victory when you can do something yourself and say, “I did this. I made that call. I worked that deal.” “I got that person. I landed it. Boom. I did it. Yes, this is great.” Then, when you begin to land clients, then you can tell somebody, “Hey, this is actually how I did this”, rather than trying to hire somebody saying, “Hey, I don’t know how to make cold calls.” “I don’t know how to land a client. Just go figure it out.” You can’t do that. You got to do it yourself, right? That’s my biggest piece of advice. All right, guys. I will see you guys later. I got to go play 18 holes. I’ll talk with you guys later. All right. I’ll see you.

Progress We all want it. But should it be shown to parents as a sign of things going well? I used to think so, but I've gotten to the point now where I see progress as something that reveals itself. The whole music education infrastructure points to levels and method book with numbers. And everyone means well. But progress becomes obvious when it's actually happening. We don't need levels. Anyway, most exams test performance and not comprehension.  Getting parents involved to the point where they see the small wins every day has been the solution to the progress trap that most piano teachers fall into (I used to be one of them). Listen to this! The parents are telling me their child is progressing.  Not the book. Not me showing them. And no standardized test is showing it. I repeat. The parent is telling me they see their child progressing. So what's the big secret? Get them SO involved by empowering them as coaches and their child that they don't need me. What? Yeah. I am getting rid of myself as the "teacher" as fast as I can. The less I teach, the better the teacher I believe I am. I see myself as the guide who's telling them what's on the path ahead. What to watch out for. How to solve that problem when they face it. Why that will happen. How it may happen. And what the clues will look like when it's happening.  Independence.  That's what the Oclef method is really about.  Independence to go learn any piece you want with your child once they're ready.  How will you know? Well because they've completed 17 pieces on triplets and 12 pieces on 3/8 meter and 4 pieces on left hand extended rotation. And now they're ready for Fur Elise for real. No teacher needed (seriously). The new generation of parents are here and they are busy, but they want to be involved. Really. They just don't know how to get involved in piano education. It seems so hard. But it's not. And any confident teacher knows that their best students have always been the ones who almost "taught themselves". Maybe they got stuck here or there. But the parents are in the lesson, taking notes to apply at home or the child is highly motivated and mature. So why don't we design a system where that happens naturally? We are! It's going to be called Oclef PRO and it'll accompany the Oclef Method. This new software will be the best tool for teachers or schools who want to create their own methodology.  Yes. You can have your own method! It'll allow you to expand your reach as a teacher or school to more people than just the local ones in your area. With the ability for teachers to do peer-to-peer video streaming, build a public or private teaching video library and have all your students custom learning programs in one place.  Why can't a school in Kansas use their method to teach parents and students in California?  We're making it happen. Stay tuned for more.  The tortoise always wins, Julian  

It is our 3rd annual, traditionally overdue, Oktoberfest show. Jeremy kicks it off with horror movie talk, since tis the season. Next, beer brags on Romantic Chemistry and X-Hop. Michael has the "inside" scoop on Toppling Goliath, sorta. The Great American Beer Fest happened, so we touch on that. There's a new product in town for flavoring beer. What? Yeah, we talk about that too. Next is the F D R. Finally, some international flavor on the show, straight outta Germany.Beer in this episode: Hacker-Pschorr Original OktoberfestCheers!

Somehow we got on to the topics of vests today and it TOOK OVER THE SHOW! What? Yeah, Curtis listed off all of the different types of vests and we started playing pretend dress up! Now Steve is planning a "Which vest should I wear?" quiz for tomorrow too. Oh joy! Also on the show we talked about the new season of The Bachelorette, we found out a waitress got fired for sleeping with Orlando Bloom, and we told everyone some really bad financial advice. All of that, Curtis' Whatever, and much more on today's show!

Studio Chaotic - Restarting - On schedule - What? Yeah, i know it sounds incredible. But it’s true. This podcast escaped death by a fraction. Here’s me and Imp deciding the future. There’s a rant about why and a big thanks to one of my Podcast heroes. Mentions and links: Shoutout to Dave Jackson at School of podcasting. My home on the web - Studio Chaotic. Icarus Machine - The band - Prog-metal storytelling. Join our Patreon page here. For as little as $2 per month you get more than just a pre-release of one of our new tunes. You also get our first album - This Sundered World. . Now that is a good deal. @JennyKMusic The schedule: To start with, Studio Chaotic will release episodes every second Friday starting tonight May 5th. JennyK and Imp [ Still here - still talking nonsense - still seriously having too much fun. Saying Embrace the crazy - All is well!

In this episode I share my thoughts on the new Star Wars: The Force Awakens Collectors Edition, Pokemon Sun, and more including the new Cars teaser? What? Yeah. Watch it, it's actually quite intense! Thanks for Listening! Subscribe for more!

According to Adam Grant's book, Originals, procrastinating can lead to increased creativity. What? Yeah, you read that right. My guest today is Glen Perkins. He's a fellow author and appeared on the show a few times during my first year. A few weeks ago, he mentioned that he'd stopped writing for a bit. That led to a discussion about why writers set things aside, but nothing too deep. Then I started listening to Originals. My "ah ha" moment had arrived. After years trying to justify my procrastination tendencies, science was finally backing me up! When we stop working on a project, it leaves our working memory, but when we stop in the middle of a project, our mind ruminates, i.e., mulls it over in the background. The next time you're feeling guilty about playing Minecraft or Candy Crush, relax! Chances are, your mind still is working out the next scene in your book. And when it does, that scene will propel you forward like a rocket!

In this Special Edition - Road Show Episode, we invited our FIGS to the podcast party. Cassie and Alycia share their post-workshop learnings, dreams and goals and ask our FIGS to help spread honey on our "goal toasts". What? Yeah, exactly. And like always, we get raw and deep, so pack your pants... it's going to be an adventure! Listen in and decide who your own FIGS are. Enjoy!

What REALLY happened during the 60 minutes we had with Tony… On this episode Russell tells the story of his hour with Tony Robbins and all the juicy details leading up to it. Here are some cool things to listen for in today’s episode: Find out how Russell was able to get an hour with Tony Robbins. Hear about all the tense moments Russell and his team experienced while waiting for Tony to arrive And find out what Tony thinks about Clickfunnels So listen below to hear all the amazing details behind the scenes of Russell’s hour with Tony Robbins. ---Transcript--- Good morning everyone, and welcome to Marketing in Your Car. All right, all right, so everyone keeps asking me. I’ve been getting hit up all over Facebook and Voxer and everything to hear the story what happened this weekend with Tony Robbins. And so I thought instead of me telling the same story a million times, I’d just tell it once here. So that’s the game plan. So you guys have a chance to hear what really happened. If you haven’t seen the pictures yet, this weekend we had a chance to go and film Tony Robbins, which was super cool. So kind of the backstory behind it. A little while ago, you may or may not remember, he launched his new book called Money. I’m blanking on the subtitle of course, but it’s basically a wealth investing book about how to invest your money to make a whole bunch of money. And he went through and interviewed like 50 of the world’s wealthiest self-made billionaires and found out how they did it and wrote a whole book on it. When the book launched about 10 months ago, he sent me a preview copy and told me what was going to happen. I was like, “I’m really good at this whole book funnel thing. Let me help you with it.” I showed him some cool tips and tricks and things we were doing. He got all excited. He said, “Here’s my team that’s doing it. Can you get with them and help them do it?” So I called his team up and his team was not like an internal team. It was a team he had hired to do this who had never actually done an info product funnel in the past. And was very threatened by the fact that I was willing to help him for free because they were getting paid a lot of money to do it. So they fought me tooth and nail on everything. We actually built the entire funnel in Click Funnels and it was a million times better than theirs and they still wouldn’t use it, it was just nuts. And Tony was like, “I’m so busy speaking everywhere. You’ve got to coordinate with these guys.” And they shut me down. So eventually I just gave up and quit trying. I was like, “I tried to help, but if I can’t help, then I can’t help.” So fast forward to like six months later, Tony gets a hold of me and calls me on the phone. I think I might have emailed him my book results and said, “Hey, here’s what we do with our book. I thought that was pretty cool. If you ever want me to help you with it again, let me know.” And like a month later he called me up so we had a call and I just walked him through the things I thought they did right and the things I thought they did wrong, and some simple tweaks and changes. And it kind of ended there. I didn’t hear back from him for a little while. And then like a month or two later I guess he let go of that old team and was going to bring it all in-house. He said, “We’re bringing it all in-house. We’re going to redo this thing, do it the right way, kind of the way you mentioned. Do you want to coordinate with my team and work with them? That would be awesome.” So I get on a call with their team. And this is kind of a newer marketing team that has just been assembled and they’re in charge of this whole thing and none of them had ever done it before. And so they got on a call with me and I kind of consulted them through how to do it. And then you could tell by the sound of their voices they were like, “Well, okay, good luck. We have to go figure this out now.” At the very end I was like, “If you want, I’d be willing to do it for you guys. It would be really fun for us.” They were like, “How much are you going to charge?” “I’ll do it for free.” They’re like, “What?” “Yeah, pretty much my whole goal in life is to make Tony Robbins think I’m cool, so I’m going to do it for free to make him think I’m cool.” And they were really relieved on the other end. They were like, “Are you serious? That would be amazing.” They got so excited. I said, “The only thing is if we’re going to do this, we’re going to have to redo the videos, because the offering is wrong and the sequencing is wrong. Almost everything is wrong in this funnel. We’ve got to redo it all. So you’ve got to coordinate time for me to go film with Tony so we can re-film the whole thing.” They were like, “Okay, we’ll take care of that.” So that was about a month ago. So for the last month we’ve been figuring out the right offer, the right sequencing, the right upsells, downsells, the order form bumps, all kinds of things with his team. And then we had to find time to film with Tony. So we were hoping to go out and film at his house, and that almost happened. But then Tony was doing Business Mastery in Vegas this weekend and they were like, “How about instead of coming to his house you go and film him during Business Mastery.” I was like, “Oh, crap. All right, fine.” Because that would have been really cool to go to his house. But this was almost as cool. So that was kind of the backstory leading up to this. So then that was this weekend. So this weekend we were flying out. So we woke up Saturday night. So Saturday night, they told us what hotel he was in, which was not where the event was at, by the way. I found out later. And it was in these towers. So they were like, “If you can get a room in the towers and film there, that would be really cool.” So we called and we ordered a suite at the towers suite. This is funny, the cheapest suites are $2,500 a night. I was like, “Oh, crap.” So we got one suite for one night so we could do this whole thing. So we booked a suite. So we get there. When we got to Vegas the suite wasn’t ready yet so I texted Tony’s people like, “Hey, our suite’s not ready yet. We’re set up. Can we come to the event and see what’s happening?” That’s when they told us, “Sure, it’s over at the Cosmo.” So we jumped in a taxi, drove over to the Cosmo and got there at the event and they gave us little name badges that said we were staff so we could come in and do whatever we wanted, which was kind of cool. So we came in, we sat in the back. And then I just watched Tony onstage for like two hours. Which if you’ve never seen Tony onstage, it’s like amazing. I could sit there and watch that for days and not even get bored. So I watched Tony onstage for two hours, which was really, really cool. Then we got a call from the place saying our suite was done. So we had to jump out and leave and go back and get the suite all ready. So we went and got the suite all ready. When we first walked in, for $2,500 I thought we were going to have this amazing suite with this huge view and everything. We walk in and it’s this really gold, busy, nasty, I don’t know. It was a really ugly room to be honest. And then our view overlooked the dead part of Vegas where there was nothing there. I was like, “Are you kidding me?” So we spent an hour getting lights set up and equipment and stuff. We couldn’t find a view that looked good outside. All the views did not look good. I was like, “Aw, dang it.” So finally we found this one spot from one of the bedrooms that actually looked over this kind of cool area and it looked really cool. So we set up everything in this one bedroom. So everything was kind of going good, putting things together. Then I get a text from his assistant that says, “Hey, do you mind lowering the room temperature in the rooms to at least 63 degrees?” I’m like, “All right.” So we go and crank all the air conditioners in all the rooms down to get it down to 63. So it’s like blowing freezing cold air in there, we’re all getting stuff set up and ready. And then all the sudden there’s a doorbell at the suite. Ding dong! And we go and answer it and it’s the head of Tony’s marketing team who’s been helping us with this project. So he came in and was talking with us and we were talking for like an hour and he was the one communicating with the team. Then he gets a text, “Okay, Tony is still onstage.” I think he was supposed to be there at 5:00 in our room. So we get everything ready by 5:00. We were ready for it to happen. And at 5:00 he gets a text like, “Tony’s still onstage for 10 or 15 minutes.” Which in Tony time probably means another hour or two hours. And so we started talking to him and waiting and every 20 or 30 minutes he gets a text like, “Tony’s still onstage.” Okay. And so this whole time you can imagine our nerves are building up and I’ve got this lump in my stomach and I’m sweating cold sweat because it’s freezing cold in the room and I’m nervous and I’m shaking and I can’t stop shaking because it’s so cold and I’m so nervous. It’s just crazy. So finally we’re waiting, we’re waiting. And finally the text that Tony has left the hotel and is coming towards us. We’re all excited, going crazy. So we’re getting ready. And 15-20 minutes later all of the sudden the doorbell rings at the door. And of course in my mind I’m like, “Tony’s here!” I’m going crazy. I had some people in there and I was like, “Record this with your iPhone. I want to capture every cool thing that happens.” So they got their iPhones out to record. I go to answer the door and it’s a lady and she’s like, “I’m here to drop off stuff for Tony.” She had like a green drink and then some makeup, some powder for hair and makeup type things. So she came and dropped it off in the room and she left. “Okay, that was not Tony. But calm back down, relax.” We’re trying to be all cool and not act like little groupies or whatever. And then a few minutes later the doorbell rings again. So we run over to the door and this man comes in. He’s got a headset thing on and he comes and shakes my hand really strong. This dude just let me know that if he wanted to crush my hand he could have. He like shook my hand and I was like, “Wow.” He whispers really quietly, talking to me. He’s like, “I’m security. I need to do a sweep of the hotel.” I’m like, “Sure, come on in.” So he came in and sweeps all the rooms, does an interior sweep or whatever. I don’t know, to see if there’s weapons or bombs or superfans. I don’t know what he’s doing. So he’s coming in and we’re like, “This is so legit.” He’s got security guards sweeping the premise before he comes in. Then the guy says, “We’re clear.” So the guy leaves. So we get a text from Tony’s people again saying he’s in the hotel. He’s upstairs prepping with the scripts. I wrote the scripts for all of the upsells and stuff, so he’s prepping on the scripts, trying to prepare himself for it. So we’re waiting, waiting and a few minutes later the doorbell rings. I’m like, “Oh no, it’s Tony!” So we’re getting all excited again. The cameras are out and it’s the security guard. He’s like, “Tony will be down in 10 minutes.” I’m like, “Okay, you could have just told me that.” Anyway, so we’re waiting 10 more minutes. Then the doorbell rings again, everyone gets excited, we come out and it’s not Tony. It’s the security guard again. He’s like, “He’s coming down the elevator.” I’m like, “Why do you have to tell me that? Why can’t you just wait outside the door until he’s here? You’re freaking us out.” Then we close the door and we’re waiting, like “He’s in the elevator. He could be here any second now. We’re just going crazy and all of the sudden we hear three, four, probably five people coming down the hall.” I’m like, “Oh man, here it is.” I open the door and there’s like Tony’s whole entourage around him and then he comes in and he’s just bigger than life as always. He comes in and he’s like, “Russell, so good to see you. Thanks for taking on this project.” He gives me a hug, which we got the whole thing on tape, which was kind of cool on one of the iPhones. He gives me a hug and then says, “What’s the plan? What are we doing?” I’m like, “We’re filming back over here.” And we were like over an hour past when we were supposed to start, and he had a hard deadline of an hour. So we had like exactly an hour block now. First we had two but then we cut it down to an hour. So we’re like, “Okay, we got to move fast.” So we move him back over to the room, get him all set up, microphones set up, do sound test. And he’s sitting there in his head rehearsing the scripts and stuff. And I’m like awkwardly sitting there like, “Do I say anything? Do I not? This is Tony Robbins. I don’t want to mess with his flow.” And finally he broke out of state and came to me and started asking me questions about my wife, my kids and my family and business and it was really cool. We kind of had a moment there just to reconnect, which was fun. Then he said, “Okay, let’s get started.” So I kind of prepped him on script number one. He had three or four of his content team, who are these girls and they come and like do all the content stuff and they prep things for him. So he was asking questions and they were looking up all the answers for different things he was going to be talking about in the scripts to get exact numbers and stats and details and stuff. So they were looking things up and feeding him lines and everything. Then boom, we start recording. We got the first video done. Then we did the upsell video, then the second upsell video. And then we did a video for the coaching application for his high-ticket sales process. And then we were kind of done and we wrapped up. And so he’s pulling the mic off and I’m like, “Do you mind if I show you something really quick?” He’s like, “Sure.” So we had in the other room our laptops setup because we were building his funnel out in Click Funnels. He had heard about Click Funnels but I wanted to show it to him. I knew he hadn’t actually seen it. I was like, “Hey, check this out.” So I showed him Click Funnels and he was like, “Wow, this software looks amazing.” Which we were just like, me and Dylan Jones, one of my Click Funnels partners, we were going nuts jumping around like, “He thinks it’s amazing.” And then I showed him my book funnel. I was like, “This is how it works. You see page-by-page how the stats are. You see the numbers and you see everything.” He was like, “This is amazing. This is more visibility than I had in my book launch.” I was like, “Yeah, that’s why we use Click Funnels. It’s amazing.” And then he saw one of our stats, which was how many people filled out step one of the order form, but not step two. We had like 90,000 leads and then from that we had like 26,000 sold. He’s like, “Why is that number there?” I’m like, “Well a lot of people fill in step one but they never fill in step two.” He’s like, “We need to make a video to talk to those people.” I’m like, “All right.” So we ran back in the room, re-miked up, got everything ready. And then clicked record, and recorded him saying, “Hey, I saw you filled out step one but not step two. What’s the matter? You need to go get your credit card.” It was really fun. We made a fun video there. We did that and then came back out and we showed him Click Funnels again, showed him the rest of the pages, showed him the pages we had started building for him. And he was really excited and then he said he had to go obviously. He gave me a hug and just basically thanked us for working on this project and said if I ever need anything that he’s here for me, which was cool. He said that I’m one of the few internet marketers he trusts, which was cool. And then walked out the door and he was gone. It was 7:11 when he left, so he was there for almost exactly an hour. And when he left, we all were like, “Ah…” We were stressing out so bad from everything. The room was freezing cold so we cranked the heat back up and we just sat there for like 10 minutes talking about how cool that was. And then we were like, “We haven’t eaten all day. We are starving.” So we went down and ate and just talked for the rest of the day about how cool everything was. So that was the experience. It was amazing. We’re just honored to be a part of it and to have a chance to help Tony and help him get his message and everything he’s doing out to the world. We’re just so grateful for him for allowing us to have that experience. Because it was so awesome for everyone who was involved and it was so exciting. So that is what happened. Now you guys know. And now hopefully our goal is to have this new funnel up and live by the end of the month. You guys have a chance to see it. So you should go buy the book and support him and support what he is doing, because it is amazing. All right, guys, that’s all I got. I’m at the office, time to go work. Have some more fun and we’ll talk to you guys soon!

This week, Sean and Marc have plenty of news from Nintendo. Everything from Splatoon selling over 1 Million copies to Reggie Fils-Aime voicing his opinion on VR. The Dishonored developers also revealed how much control the players will have over the characters, Tetsuya Nomura promises changes to the Final Fantasy VII Remake and Online for Kingdom Hearts 3? What? Yeah it's a thing apparently. So, join us for all of that, plus Marc has his thoughts on Batman Arkham Knight on PC, both guys have been playing some Ori and the Blind Forest, and much more.

This week, Sean and Marc have plenty of news from Nintendo. Everything from Splatoon selling over 1 Million copies to Reggie Fils-Aime voicing his opinion on VR. The Dishonored developers also revealed how much control the players will have over the characters, Tetsuya Nomura promises changes to the Final Fantasy VII Remake and Online for Kingdom Hearts 3? What? Yeah it's a thing apparently. So, join us for all of that, plus Marc has his thoughts on Batman Arkham Knight on PC, both guys have been playing some Ori and the Blind Forest, and much more.

Well we're back and referenced anal sex no less than 12 times in the first 30 minutes of the podcast. We hear @AnthonyCrescenz talk about getting last minute flowers on Valentines Day and the clerk thought he was rich because he dropped 50 bucks on roses. What? Yeah. @AmandaBaramki chimes in on her disdain for Valentines Day. She also talks about how unintentionally hilarious 50 shades of gray is. @KevinGootee and @Mokavida enjoy another afternoon of general horseplay so listen up and stay tuned for the next two episodes released next week and then the week after. Auf Wiederzehen.

You may not know this, but Matt-Man and Jayman are known as the Kris Kristofferson and Johnny Cash of BTR. HA! I'm kidding, actually they're the Don Draper and Roger Sterling of BTR. Okay, maybe not. They're the Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin of BTR. What? Yeah, I guess not. The truth is they're considered the Dylan Thomas and Hunter S Thompson of BTR. Or something. Point is Matt and Jay are fairly familiar with the drinking culture and know a few things about hangovers and how to deal with them. They've got stories galore about epic partying and epic hangovers. There are several different kinds of hangovers a person can suffer from depending on what they drank and how much. Matt and Jay have experienced them all and are here to help. Why are we doing this? Because Matt and Jay expect to be nursing some serious hangovers (Matt more than Jay) during the show because this is Matt-Man's birthday weekend. Not just ANY birthday though. It's his 50th birthday!! OH MY GOD HE'S AN OLD MAN! Anyway, there will be serious celebrating happening on Saturday. PLUS, it's also our Canadian Bureau Chief Jamie Mapleleaf's brithday weekend too! She'll be here to provide some much needed decency to the show.  You'll also hear from the Rev Moneymaker, Guy Ahnurdyck, Drew Peacock, Stubby Stonehenge and more of the IWS Players. PLUS YOU'RE CALLS! Call us up and wish Matt and Jamie a happy birthday. Or, call in and tell Matt just what you think of him. He's excited to hear from you. IWS Website And Like us on Facebook! Follow Matt on Twitter Follow Jay on Twitter

Kiss your film? What? Yeah, well if you don't know, "KISS" is an acronym, and I'll tell you how to use it in your next video or film. Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication, so you too can appeal to your audience's minds in a variety of ways. You just have to incorporate the art of simplicity into your next film.

John Dies at the End is a terrible horrible lie! He dies near the beginning. But his story doesn’t end there, it’s just beginning. After his death, he contacts his friend David and together they battle some weird alien dust mites with the powers of Soy Sauce. What? Yeah it’s that kind of movie. Just off…Read More+

In our 9th podcast we react to a recent news channel's story on how social media, and especially Facebook, can affect your marriage. What? Yeah.

Show: #553-Sampler Length: 4:25 Format: mp3 To listen to this and all new Croncast episodes in full Get Cool! I don't mean to brag but I can wash my clothes at will The ultimate walk of shame in NYC - laundromat You can make a living here face painting or suing people in New York What was the magician's name? Her name? What? Yeah, her. That is awesome The Holiday Deities Betsy busted out to get to Naperville Because you took me to your job interview at the prison on lock down Of course that is normal Am I supposed to leave in two years? You should have left me last year Attacked by a former Olympic Judo champ Reprogrammed by a sloth I need to wake up, eat and take a nap Former Olympians have nothing to look forward No, like Hulk Hogan Oh! And if you use the Twitters, check out Ville - http://ville.ag

Show: #553 Length: 31:48 Format: mp3 To listen to this and all new Croncast episodes Get Cool! I don't mean to brag but I can wash my clothes at will The ultimate walk of shame in NYC - laundromat You can make a living here face painting or suing people in New York What was the magician's name? Her name? What? Yeah, her. That is awesome The Holiday Deities Betsy busted out to get to Naperville Because you took me to your job interview at the prison on lock down Of course that is normal Am I supposed to leave in two years? You should have left me last year Attacked by a former Olympic Judo champ Reprogrammed by a sloth I need to wake up, eat and take a nap Quasi homeless former Olympians have nothing to look forward No, like Hulk Hogan Oh! And if you use the Twitters, check out Ville - http://ville.ag

Show: #553-Sampler Length: 4:25 Format: mp3 To listen to this and all new Croncast episodes in full Get Cool! I don't mean to brag but I can wash my clothes at will The ultimate walk of shame in NYC - laundromat You can make a living here face painting or suing people in New York What was the magician's name? Her name? What? Yeah, her. That is awesome The Holiday Deities Betsy busted out to get to Naperville Because you took me to your job interview at the prison on lock down Of course that is normal Am I supposed to leave in two years? You should have left me last year Attacked by a former Olympic Judo champ Reprogrammed by a sloth I need to wake up, eat and take a nap Former Olympians have nothing to look forward No, like Hulk Hogan Oh! And if you use the Twitters, check out Ville - http://ville.ag

Show: #553 Length: 31:48 Format: mp3 To listen to this and all new Croncast episodes Get Cool! I don't mean to brag but I can wash my clothes at will The ultimate walk of shame in NYC - laundromat You can make a living here face painting or suing people in New York What was the magician's name? Her name? What? Yeah, her. That is awesome The Holiday Deities Betsy busted out to get to Naperville Because you took me to your job interview at the prison on lock down Of course that is normal Am I supposed to leave in two years? You should have left me last year Attacked by a former Olympic Judo champ Reprogrammed by a sloth I need to wake up, eat and take a nap Quasi homeless former Olympians have nothing to look forward No, like Hulk Hogan Oh! And if you use the Twitters, check out Ville - http://ville.ag

Show: #553 Length: 31:48 Format: mp3 To listen to this and all new Croncast episodes Get Cool! I don't mean to brag but I can wash my clothes at will The ultimate walk of shame in NYC - laundromat You can make a living here face painting or suing people in New York What was the magician's name? Her name? What? Yeah, her. That is awesome The Holiday Deities Betsy busted out to get to Naperville Because you took me to your job interview at the prison on lock down Of course that is normal Am I supposed to leave in two years? You should have left me last year Attacked by a former Olympic Judo champ Reprogrammed by a sloth I need to wake up, eat and take a nap Quasi homeless former Olympians have nothing to look forward No, like Hulk Hogan Oh! And if you use the Twitters, check out Ville - http://ville.ag

Show: #553-Sampler Length: 4:25 Format: mp3 To listen to this and all new Croncast episodes in full Get Cool! I don't mean to brag but I can wash my clothes at will The ultimate walk of shame in NYC - laundromat You can make a living here face painting or suing people in New York What was the magician's name? Her name? What? Yeah, her. That is awesome The Holiday Deities Betsy busted out to get to Naperville Because you took me to your job interview at the prison on lock down Of course that is normal Am I supposed to leave in two years? You should have left me last year Attacked by a former Olympic Judo champ Reprogrammed by a sloth I need to wake up, eat and take a nap Former Olympians have nothing to look forward No, like Hulk Hogan Oh! And if you use the Twitters, check out Ville - http://ville.ag

Show: #553 Length: 31:48 Format: mp3 To listen to this and all new Croncast episodes Get Cool! I don't mean to brag but I can wash my clothes at will The ultimate walk of shame in NYC - laundromat You can make a living here face painting or suing people in New York What was the magician's name? Her name? What? Yeah, her. That is awesome The Holiday Deities Betsy busted out to get to Naperville Because you took me to your job interview at the prison on lock down Of course that is normal Am I supposed to leave in two years? You should have left me last year Attacked by a former Olympic Judo champ Reprogrammed by a sloth I need to wake up, eat and take a nap Quasi homeless former Olympians have nothing to look forward No, like Hulk Hogan Oh! And if you use the Twitters, check out Ville - http://ville.ag

Show: #553-Sampler Length: 4:25 Format: mp3 To listen to this and all new Croncast episodes in full Get Cool! I don't mean to brag but I can wash my clothes at will The ultimate walk of shame in NYC - laundromat You can make a living here face painting or suing people in New York What was the magician's name? Her name? What? Yeah, her. That is awesome The Holiday Deities Betsy busted out to get to Naperville Because you took me to your job interview at the prison on lock down Of course that is normal Am I supposed to leave in two years? You should have left me last year Attacked by a former Olympic Judo champ Reprogrammed by a sloth I need to wake up, eat and take a nap Former Olympians have nothing to look forward No, like Hulk Hogan Oh! And if you use the Twitters, check out Ville - http://ville.ag

Show: #553 Length: 31:48 Format: mp3 To listen to this and all new Croncast episodes Get Cool! I don't mean to brag but I can wash my clothes at will The ultimate walk of shame in NYC - laundromat You can make a living here face painting or suing people in New York What was the magician's name? Her name? What? Yeah, her. That is awesome The Holiday Deities Betsy busted out to get to Naperville Because you took me to your job interview at the prison on lock down Of course that is normal Am I supposed to leave in two years? You should have left me last year Attacked by a former Olympic Judo champ Reprogrammed by a sloth I need to wake up, eat and take a nap Quasi homeless former Olympians have nothing to look forward No, like Hulk Hogan Oh! And if you use the Twitters, check out Ville - http://ville.ag

Show: #553 Length: 31:48 Format: mp3 To listen to this and all new Croncast episodes Get Cool! I don't mean to brag but I can wash my clothes at will The ultimate walk of shame in NYC - laundromat You can make a living here face painting or suing people in New York What was the magician's name? Her name? What? Yeah, her. That is awesome The Holiday Deities Betsy busted out to get to Naperville Because you took me to your job interview at the prison on lock down Of course that is normal Am I supposed to leave in two years? You should have left me last year Attacked by a former Olympic Judo champ Reprogrammed by a sloth I need to wake up, eat and take a nap Quasi homeless former Olympians have nothing to look forward No, like Hulk Hogan Oh! And if you use the Twitters, check out Ville - http://ville.ag

Show: #553-Sampler Length: 4:25 Format: mp3 To listen to this and all new Croncast episodes in full Get Cool! I don't mean to brag but I can wash my clothes at will The ultimate walk of shame in NYC - laundromat You can make a living here face painting or suing people in New York What was the magician's name? Her name? What? Yeah, her. That is awesome The Holiday Deities Betsy busted out to get to Naperville Because you took me to your job interview at the prison on lock down Of course that is normal Am I supposed to leave in two years? You should have left me last year Attacked by a former Olympic Judo champ Reprogrammed by a sloth I need to wake up, eat and take a nap Former Olympians have nothing to look forward No, like Hulk Hogan Oh! And if you use the Twitters, check out Ville - http://ville.ag

Show: #553 Length: 31:48 Format: mp3 To listen to this and all new Croncast episodes Get Cool! I don't mean to brag but I can wash my clothes at will The ultimate walk of shame in NYC - laundromat You can make a living here face painting or suing people in New York What was the magician's name? Her name? What? Yeah, her. That is awesome The Holiday Deities Betsy busted out to get to Naperville Because you took me to your job interview at the prison on lock down Of course that is normal Am I supposed to leave in two years? You should have left me last year Attacked by a former Olympic Judo champ Reprogrammed by a sloth I need to wake up, eat and take a nap Quasi homeless former Olympians have nothing to look forward No, like Hulk Hogan Oh! And if you use the Twitters, check out Ville - http://ville.ag

Show: #553-Sampler Length: 4:25 Format: mp3 To listen to this and all new Croncast episodes in full Get Cool! I don't mean to brag but I can wash my clothes at will The ultimate walk of shame in NYC - laundromat You can make a living here face painting or suing people in New York What was the magician's name? Her name? What? Yeah, her. That is awesome The Holiday Deities Betsy busted out to get to Naperville Because you took me to your job interview at the prison on lock down Of course that is normal Am I supposed to leave in two years? You should have left me last year Attacked by a former Olympic Judo champ Reprogrammed by a sloth I need to wake up, eat and take a nap Former Olympians have nothing to look forward No, like Hulk Hogan Oh! And if you use the Twitters, check out Ville - http://ville.ag

Show: #553-Sampler Length: 4:25 Format: mp3 To listen to this and all new Croncast episodes in full Get Cool! I don't mean to brag but I can wash my clothes at will The ultimate walk of shame in NYC - laundromat You can make a living here face painting or suing people in New York What was the magician's name? Her name? What? Yeah, her. That is awesome The Holiday Deities Betsy busted out to get to Naperville Because you took me to your job interview at the prison on lock down Of course that is normal Am I supposed to leave in two years? You should have left me last year Attacked by a former Olympic Judo champ Reprogrammed by a sloth I need to wake up, eat and take a nap Former Olympians have nothing to look forward No, like Hulk Hogan Oh! And if you use the Twitters, check out Ville - http://ville.ag

Show: #553 Length: 31:48 Format: mp3 To listen to this and all new Croncast episodes Get Cool! I don't mean to brag but I can wash my clothes at will The ultimate walk of shame in NYC - laundromat You can make a living here face painting or suing people in New York What was the magician's name? Her name? What? Yeah, her. That is awesome The Holiday Deities Betsy busted out to get to Naperville Because you took me to your job interview at the prison on lock down Of course that is normal Am I supposed to leave in two years? You should have left me last year Attacked by a former Olympic Judo champ Reprogrammed by a sloth I need to wake up, eat and take a nap Quasi homeless former Olympians have nothing to look forward No, like Hulk Hogan Oh! And if you use the Twitters, check out Ville - http://ville.ag

Show: #553-Sampler Length: 4:25 Format: mp3 To listen to this and all new Croncast episodes in full Get Cool! I don't mean to brag but I can wash my clothes at will The ultimate walk of shame in NYC - laundromat You can make a living here face painting or suing people in New York What was the magician's name? Her name? What? Yeah, her. That is awesome The Holiday Deities Betsy busted out to get to Naperville Because you took me to your job interview at the prison on lock down Of course that is normal Am I supposed to leave in two years? You should have left me last year Attacked by a former Olympic Judo champ Reprogrammed by a sloth I need to wake up, eat and take a nap Former Olympians have nothing to look forward No, like Hulk Hogan Oh! And if you use the Twitters, check out Ville - http://ville.ag

Show: #553 Length: 31:48 Format: mp3 To listen to this and all new Croncast episodes Get Cool! I don't mean to brag but I can wash my clothes at will The ultimate walk of shame in NYC - laundromat You can make a living here face painting or suing people in New York What was the magician's name? Her name? What? Yeah, her. That is awesome The Holiday Deities Betsy busted out to get to Naperville Because you took me to your job interview at the prison on lock down Of course that is normal Am I supposed to leave in two years? You should have left me last year Attacked by a former Olympic Judo champ Reprogrammed by a sloth I need to wake up, eat and take a nap Quasi homeless former Olympians have nothing to look forward No, like Hulk Hogan Oh! And if you use the Twitters, check out Ville - http://ville.ag

Show: #553-Sampler Length: 4:25 Format: mp3 To listen to this and all new Croncast episodes in full Get Cool! I don't mean to brag but I can wash my clothes at will The ultimate walk of shame in NYC - laundromat You can make a living here face painting or suing people in New York What was the magician's name? Her name? What? Yeah, her. That is awesome The Holiday Deities Betsy busted out to get to Naperville Because you took me to your job interview at the prison on lock down Of course that is normal Am I supposed to leave in two years? You should have left me last year Attacked by a former Olympic Judo champ Reprogrammed by a sloth I need to wake up, eat and take a nap Former Olympians have nothing to look forward No, like Hulk Hogan Oh! And if you use the Twitters, check out Ville - http://ville.ag

Show: #553 Length: 31:48 Format: mp3 To listen to this and all new Croncast episodes Get Cool! I don't mean to brag but I can wash my clothes at will The ultimate walk of shame in NYC - laundromat You can make a living here face painting or suing people in New York What was the magician's name? Her name? What? Yeah, her. That is awesome The Holiday Deities Betsy busted out to get to Naperville Because you took me to your job interview at the prison on lock down Of course that is normal Am I supposed to leave in two years? You should have left me last year Attacked by a former Olympic Judo champ Reprogrammed by a sloth I need to wake up, eat and take a nap Quasi homeless former Olympians have nothing to look forward No, like Hulk Hogan Oh! And if you use the Twitters, check out Ville - http://ville.ag

Show: #553-Sampler Length: 4:25 Format: mp3 To listen to this and all new Croncast episodes in full Get Cool! I don't mean to brag but I can wash my clothes at will The ultimate walk of shame in NYC - laundromat You can make a living here face painting or suing people in New York What was the magician's name? Her name? What? Yeah, her. That is awesome The Holiday Deities Betsy busted out to get to Naperville Because you took me to your job interview at the prison on lock down Of course that is normal Am I supposed to leave in two years? You should have left me last year Attacked by a former Olympic Judo champ Reprogrammed by a sloth I need to wake up, eat and take a nap Former Olympians have nothing to look forward No, like Hulk Hogan Oh! And if you use the Twitters, check out Ville - http://ville.ag

Show: #553 Length: 31:48 Format: mp3 To listen to this and all new Croncast episodes Get Cool! I don't mean to brag but I can wash my clothes at will The ultimate walk of shame in NYC - laundromat You can make a living here face painting or suing people in New York What was the magician's name? Her name? What? Yeah, her. That is awesome The Holiday Deities Betsy busted out to get to Naperville Because you took me to your job interview at the prison on lock down Of course that is normal Am I supposed to leave in two years? You should have left me last year Attacked by a former Olympic Judo champ Reprogrammed by a sloth I need to wake up, eat and take a nap Quasi homeless former Olympians have nothing to look forward No, like Hulk Hogan Oh! And if you use the Twitters, check out Ville - http://ville.ag

Show: #553-Sampler Length: 4:25 Format: mp3 To listen to this and all new Croncast episodes in full Get Cool! I don't mean to brag but I can wash my clothes at will The ultimate walk of shame in NYC - laundromat You can make a living here face painting or suing people in New York What was the magician's name? Her name? What? Yeah, her. That is awesome The Holiday Deities Betsy busted out to get to Naperville Because you took me to your job interview at the prison on lock down Of course that is normal Am I supposed to leave in two years? You should have left me last year Attacked by a former Olympic Judo champ Reprogrammed by a sloth I need to wake up, eat and take a nap Former Olympians have nothing to look forward No, like Hulk Hogan Oh! And if you use the Twitters, check out Ville - http://ville.ag

Show: #553 Length: 31:48 Format: mp3 To listen to this and all new Croncast episodes Get Cool! I don't mean to brag but I can wash my clothes at will The ultimate walk of shame in NYC - laundromat You can make a living here face painting or suing people in New York What was the magician's name? Her name? What? Yeah, her. That is awesome The Holiday Deities Betsy busted out to get to Naperville Because you took me to your job interview at the prison on lock down Of course that is normal Am I supposed to leave in two years? You should have left me last year Attacked by a former Olympic Judo champ Reprogrammed by a sloth I need to wake up, eat and take a nap Quasi homeless former Olympians have nothing to look forward No, like Hulk Hogan Oh! And if you use the Twitters, check out Ville - http://ville.ag

Show: #553-Sampler Length: 4:25 Format: mp3 To listen to this and all new Croncast episodes in full Get Cool! I don't mean to brag but I can wash my clothes at will The ultimate walk of shame in NYC - laundromat You can make a living here face painting or suing people in New York What was the magician's name? Her name? What? Yeah, her. That is awesome The Holiday Deities Betsy busted out to get to Naperville Because you took me to your job interview at the prison on lock down Of course that is normal Am I supposed to leave in two years? You should have left me last year Attacked by a former Olympic Judo champ Reprogrammed by a sloth I need to wake up, eat and take a nap Former Olympians have nothing to look forward No, like Hulk Hogan Oh! And if you use the Twitters, check out Ville - http://ville.ag

Show: #553-Sampler Length: 4:25 Format: mp3 To listen to this and all new Croncast episodes in full Get Cool! I don't mean to brag but I can wash my clothes at will The ultimate walk of shame in NYC - laundromat You can make a living here face painting or suing people in New York What was the magician's name? Her name? What? Yeah, her. That is awesome The Holiday Deities Betsy busted out to get to Naperville Because you took me to your job interview at the prison on lock down Of course that is normal Am I supposed to leave in two years? You should have left me last year Attacked by a former Olympic Judo champ Reprogrammed by a sloth I need to wake up, eat and take a nap Former Olympians have nothing to look forward No, like Hulk Hogan Oh! And if you use the Twitters, check out Ville - http://ville.ag

Show: #553 Length: 31:48 Format: mp3 To listen to this and all new Croncast episodes Get Cool! I don't mean to brag but I can wash my clothes at will The ultimate walk of shame in NYC - laundromat You can make a living here face painting or suing people in New York What was the magician's name? Her name? What? Yeah, her. That is awesome The Holiday Deities Betsy busted out to get to Naperville Because you took me to your job interview at the prison on lock down Of course that is normal Am I supposed to leave in two years? You should have left me last year Attacked by a former Olympic Judo champ Reprogrammed by a sloth I need to wake up, eat and take a nap Quasi homeless former Olympians have nothing to look forward No, like Hulk Hogan Oh! And if you use the Twitters, check out Ville - http://ville.ag

Show: #553 Length: 31:48 Format: mp3 To listen to this and all new Croncast episodes Get Cool! I don't mean to brag but I can wash my clothes at will The ultimate walk of shame in NYC - laundromat You can make a living here face painting or suing people in New York What was the magician's name? Her name? What? Yeah, her. That is awesome The Holiday Deities Betsy busted out to get to Naperville Because you took me to your job interview at the prison on lock down Of course that is normal Am I supposed to leave in two years? You should have left me last year Attacked by a former Olympic Judo champ Reprogrammed by a sloth I need to wake up, eat and take a nap Quasi homeless former Olympians have nothing to look forward No, like Hulk Hogan Oh! And if you use the Twitters, check out Ville - http://ville.ag

Show: #553-Sampler Length: 4:25 Format: mp3 To listen to this and all new Croncast episodes in full Get Cool! I don't mean to brag but I can wash my clothes at will The ultimate walk of shame in NYC - laundromat You can make a living here face painting or suing people in New York What was the magician's name? Her name? What? Yeah, her. That is awesome The Holiday Deities Betsy busted out to get to Naperville Because you took me to your job interview at the prison on lock down Of course that is normal Am I supposed to leave in two years? You should have left me last year Attacked by a former Olympic Judo champ Reprogrammed by a sloth I need to wake up, eat and take a nap Former Olympians have nothing to look forward No, like Hulk Hogan Oh! And if you use the Twitters, check out Ville - http://ville.ag

Show: #553-Sampler Length: 4:25 Format: mp3 To listen to this and all new Croncast episodes in full Get Cool! I don't mean to brag but I can wash my clothes at will The ultimate walk of shame in NYC - laundromat You can make a living here face painting or suing people in New York What was the magician's name? Her name? What? Yeah, her. That is awesome The Holiday Deities Betsy busted out to get to Naperville Because you took me to your job interview at the prison on lock down Of course that is normal Am I supposed to leave in two years? You should have left me last year Attacked by a former Olympic Judo champ Reprogrammed by a sloth I need to wake up, eat and take a nap Former Olympians have nothing to look forward No, like Hulk Hogan Oh! And if you use the Twitters, check out Ville - http://ville.ag

Show: #553 Length: 31:48 Format: mp3 To listen to this and all new Croncast episodes Get Cool! I don't mean to brag but I can wash my clothes at will The ultimate walk of shame in NYC - laundromat You can make a living here face painting or suing people in New York What was the magician's name? Her name? What? Yeah, her. That is awesome The Holiday Deities Betsy busted out to get to Naperville Because you took me to your job interview at the prison on lock down Of course that is normal Am I supposed to leave in two years? You should have left me last year Attacked by a former Olympic Judo champ Reprogrammed by a sloth I need to wake up, eat and take a nap Quasi homeless former Olympians have nothing to look forward No, like Hulk Hogan Oh! And if you use the Twitters, check out Ville - http://ville.ag

Show: #553-Sampler Length: 4:25 Format: mp3 To listen to this and all new Croncast episodes in full Get Cool! I don't mean to brag but I can wash my clothes at will The ultimate walk of shame in NYC - laundromat You can make a living here face painting or suing people in New York What was the magician's name? Her name? What? Yeah, her. That is awesome The Holiday Deities Betsy busted out to get to Naperville Because you took me to your job interview at the prison on lock down Of course that is normal Am I supposed to leave in two years? You should have left me last year Attacked by a former Olympic Judo champ Reprogrammed by a sloth I need to wake up, eat and take a nap Former Olympians have nothing to look forward No, like Hulk Hogan Oh! And if you use the Twitters, check out Ville - http://ville.ag

Show: #553 Length: 31:48 Format: mp3 To listen to this and all new Croncast episodes Get Cool! I don't mean to brag but I can wash my clothes at will The ultimate walk of shame in NYC - laundromat You can make a living here face painting or suing people in New York What was the magician's name? Her name? What? Yeah, her. That is awesome The Holiday Deities Betsy busted out to get to Naperville Because you took me to your job interview at the prison on lock down Of course that is normal Am I supposed to leave in two years? You should have left me last year Attacked by a former Olympic Judo champ Reprogrammed by a sloth I need to wake up, eat and take a nap Quasi homeless former Olympians have nothing to look forward No, like Hulk Hogan Oh! And if you use the Twitters, check out Ville - http://ville.ag

Show: #553-Sampler Length: 4:25 Format: mp3 To listen to this and all new Croncast episodes in full Get Cool! I don't mean to brag but I can wash my clothes at will The ultimate walk of shame in NYC - laundromat You can make a living here face painting or suing people in New York What was the magician's name? Her name? What? Yeah, her. That is awesome The Holiday Deities Betsy busted out to get to Naperville Because you took me to your job interview at the prison on lock down Of course that is normal Am I supposed to leave in two years? You should have left me last year Attacked by a former Olympic Judo champ Reprogrammed by a sloth I need to wake up, eat and take a nap Former Olympians have nothing to look forward No, like Hulk Hogan Oh! And if you use the Twitters, check out Ville - http://ville.ag

Show: #553 Length: 31:48 Format: mp3 To listen to this and all new Croncast episodes Get Cool! I don't mean to brag but I can wash my clothes at will The ultimate walk of shame in NYC - laundromat You can make a living here face painting or suing people in New York What was the magician's name? Her name? What? Yeah, her. That is awesome The Holiday Deities Betsy busted out to get to Naperville Because you took me to your job interview at the prison on lock down Of course that is normal Am I supposed to leave in two years? You should have left me last year Attacked by a former Olympic Judo champ Reprogrammed by a sloth I need to wake up, eat and take a nap Quasi homeless former Olympians have nothing to look forward No, like Hulk Hogan Oh! And if you use the Twitters, check out Ville - http://ville.ag

Show: #553-Sampler Length: 4:25 Format: mp3 To listen to this and all new Croncast episodes in full Get Cool! I don't mean to brag but I can wash my clothes at will The ultimate walk of shame in NYC - laundromat You can make a living here face painting or suing people in New York What was the magician's name? Her name? What? Yeah, her. That is awesome The Holiday Deities Betsy busted out to get to Naperville Because you took me to your job interview at the prison on lock down Of course that is normal Am I supposed to leave in two years? You should have left me last year Attacked by a former Olympic Judo champ Reprogrammed by a sloth I need to wake up, eat and take a nap Former Olympians have nothing to look forward No, like Hulk Hogan Oh! And if you use the Twitters, check out Ville - http://ville.ag

Show: #553 Length: 31:48 Format: mp3 To listen to this and all new Croncast episodes Get Cool! I don't mean to brag but I can wash my clothes at will The ultimate walk of shame in NYC - laundromat You can make a living here face painting or suing people in New York What was the magician's name? Her name? What? Yeah, her. That is awesome The Holiday Deities Betsy busted out to get to Naperville Because you took me to your job interview at the prison on lock down Of course that is normal Am I supposed to leave in two years? You should have left me last year Attacked by a former Olympic Judo champ Reprogrammed by a sloth I need to wake up, eat and take a nap Quasi homeless former Olympians have nothing to look forward No, like Hulk Hogan Oh! And if you use the Twitters, check out Ville - http://ville.ag

Show: #553-Sampler Length: 4:25 Format: mp3 To listen to this and all new Croncast episodes in full Get Cool! I don't mean to brag but I can wash my clothes at will The ultimate walk of shame in NYC - laundromat You can make a living here face painting or suing people in New York What was the magician's name? Her name? What? Yeah, her. That is awesome The Holiday Deities Betsy busted out to get to Naperville Because you took me to your job interview at the prison on lock down Of course that is normal Am I supposed to leave in two years? You should have left me last year Attacked by a former Olympic Judo champ Reprogrammed by a sloth I need to wake up, eat and take a nap Former Olympians have nothing to look forward No, like Hulk Hogan Oh! And if you use the Twitters, check out Ville - http://ville.ag

Show: #553 Length: 31:48 Format: mp3 To listen to this and all new Croncast episodes Get Cool! I don't mean to brag but I can wash my clothes at will The ultimate walk of shame in NYC - laundromat You can make a living here face painting or suing people in New York What was the magician's name? Her name? What? Yeah, her. That is awesome The Holiday Deities Betsy busted out to get to Naperville Because you took me to your job interview at the prison on lock down Of course that is normal Am I supposed to leave in two years? You should have left me last year Attacked by a former Olympic Judo champ Reprogrammed by a sloth I need to wake up, eat and take a nap Quasi homeless former Olympians have nothing to look forward No, like Hulk Hogan Oh! And if you use the Twitters, check out Ville - http://ville.ag

Show: #553-Sampler Length: 4:25 Format: mp3 To listen to this and all new Croncast episodes in full Get Cool! I don't mean to brag but I can wash my clothes at will The ultimate walk of shame in NYC - laundromat You can make a living here face painting or suing people in New York What was the magician's name? Her name? What? Yeah, her. That is awesome The Holiday Deities Betsy busted out to get to Naperville Because you took me to your job interview at the prison on lock down Of course that is normal Am I supposed to leave in two years? You should have left me last year Attacked by a former Olympic Judo champ Reprogrammed by a sloth I need to wake up, eat and take a nap Former Olympians have nothing to look forward No, like Hulk Hogan Oh! And if you use the Twitters, check out Ville - http://ville.ag

Show: #553 Length: 31:48 Format: mp3 To listen to this and all new Croncast episodes Get Cool! I don't mean to brag but I can wash my clothes at will The ultimate walk of shame in NYC - laundromat You can make a living here face painting or suing people in New York What was the magician's name? Her name? What? Yeah, her. That is awesome The Holiday Deities Betsy busted out to get to Naperville Because you took me to your job interview at the prison on lock down Of course that is normal Am I supposed to leave in two years? You should have left me last year Attacked by a former Olympic Judo champ Reprogrammed by a sloth I need to wake up, eat and take a nap Quasi homeless former Olympians have nothing to look forward No, like Hulk Hogan Oh! And if you use the Twitters, check out Ville - http://ville.ag

Show: #553-Sampler Length: 4:25 Format: mp3 To listen to this and all new Croncast episodes in full Get Cool! I don't mean to brag but I can wash my clothes at will The ultimate walk of shame in NYC - laundromat You can make a living here face painting or suing people in New York What was the magician's name? Her name? What? Yeah, her. That is awesome The Holiday Deities Betsy busted out to get to Naperville Because you took me to your job interview at the prison on lock down Of course that is normal Am I supposed to leave in two years? You should have left me last year Attacked by a former Olympic Judo champ Reprogrammed by a sloth I need to wake up, eat and take a nap Former Olympians have nothing to look forward No, like Hulk Hogan Oh! And if you use the Twitters, check out Ville - http://ville.ag

Show: #553 Length: 31:48 Format: mp3 To listen to this and all new Croncast episodes Get Cool! I don't mean to brag but I can wash my clothes at will The ultimate walk of shame in NYC - laundromat You can make a living here face painting or suing people in New York What was the magician's name? Her name? What? Yeah, her. That is awesome The Holiday Deities Betsy busted out to get to Naperville Because you took me to your job interview at the prison on lock down Of course that is normal Am I supposed to leave in two years? You should have left me last year Attacked by a former Olympic Judo champ Reprogrammed by a sloth I need to wake up, eat and take a nap Quasi homeless former Olympians have nothing to look forward No, like Hulk Hogan Oh! And if you use the Twitters, check out Ville - http://ville.ag