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4 episodes with Ziploc
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2 episodes with Ziploc
4 episodes with Ziploc
2 episodes with Ziploc
5 episodes with Ziploc
2 episodes with Ziploc
2 episodes with Ziploc
Welcome to the KSL Greenhouse show! Join hosts Maria Shilaos and Taun Beddes as they talk about all things plants, tackle your toughest gardening questions, and offer tips that can help you maintain a beautiful yard. Listen on Saturdays from 8am to 11am at 102.7 FM, 1160 AM, kslnewsradio.com, or on the KSL NewsRadio app. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram at @kslgreenhouse. Happy planting! #KSLGreenhouse Guest: Brian Lloyd with Olson's Greenhouse 10:05 Feature: Caring for Spring Bulbs After Flowering 10:20 Should I dig up my trees and start over if half the bark is gone? What can I do about the small flies on my lawn? Is it okay to also use horticultural soap if I used the recommended fruit spray on my apples and pears? What should I do with my endless supply of llama feces before I plant more perennials? Are banana peels soaked in water good as fertilizer? How long should I wait to fertilize after overseeding my lawn, and what kind of fertilizer should I use? Is there a vegetable that does well in partial sun and can be planted now? 10:35 Can in-ground gardens be as productive as grow boxes and, if so, what’s the methodology? What caused my aloe vera plant to wilt and drop off? Are eggshells and banana peels good for gardens? What are some trees or plants that can go near septic fields? Are there any Japanese maple trees that are tolerant of afternoon sun? Is there any hope for my ginkgo tree if I accidentally broke the top branch off last season? What does Thanksgiving Point do with all their bulb type plants? 10:50 How do I get rid of horseradish? How long do I have to keep bindweed in the Ziploc bags filled with Killzall for them to die? Can I put a small limelight hydrangea in a container in full sun?
In Episode 43 of MAHA News, Jordan Sather and Nate Prince deliver a high-energy breakdown of the latest bombshells from the MAHA Commission on childhood health, vaccine safety, and toxic industry practices. They spotlight Trump's blistering remarks against Big Pharma and praise for RFK Jr.'s leadership as HHS head, especially regarding the halting of COVID vaccine recommendations for children, teens, and pregnant women. The duo digs into a wave of COVID-related disclosures, including massive spikes in myocarditis and stroke risks, whistleblower-backed Senate reports, and RFK Jr.'s epic takedown of Senator Patty Murray. They also explore the growing body of research linking microplastics to cancer and infertility, plus the Ziploc lawsuit over plastic toxicity. Mixing deep policy analysis with sarcastic humor and health product talk, the hosts emphasize detox strategies (like Lugol's iodine and zeolite), sustainable alternatives (glass and hemp), and the importance of reading labels and reclaiming sovereignty over personal health. With spirited commentary, a few bathroom jokes, and a call for justice against corrupt officials, this episode makes clear that the MAHA movement is just getting warmed up.
Master of Movies & Food News - Microwaving Ziploc BagsSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Ziploc is facing a massive lawsuit that could change the way you use bags forever. Chicago’s best morning radio show now has a podcast! Don’t forget to rate, review, and subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts and remember that the conversation always lives on the Q101 Facebook page. Brian & Kenzie are live every morning from 6a-10a on Q101. Subscribe to our channel HERE: https://www.youtube.com/@Q101 Like Q101 on Facebook HERE: https://www.facebook.com/q101chicago Follow Q101 on Twitter HERE: https://twitter.com/Q101Chicago Follow Q101 on Instagram HERE: https://www.instagram.com/q101chicago/?hl=en Follow Q101 on TikTok HERE: https://www.tiktok.com/@q101chicago?lang=enSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Kim Kardashian wore $7 million in diamonds to her Paris robbery trial, Ziploc facing class action lawsuit over its 'microwave safe' claims, The new Pope got his own trading card and it has already outsold the most popular basketball players of all-time, TikTok folks are here to tell us how to make and eat human 'dog food'
Happy Hump Day, yo. Looks like we'll get some more nice weather today & tomorrow before some potentially dangerous storms move through the area tomorrow night. In the news this morning, a federal grand jury indicted Hannah Dugan, the Menendez brothers got resentenced, a class action lawsuit against Apple could put some money in your pocket, a man in Manitowoc has been indicted on federal charges for crimes against minors, a Madison woman allegedly shot someone over an argument on social media, Ziploc is getting sued, and the alligator from "Happy Gilmore" passed away. In sports, the Brewers lost AGAIN to the Guardians last night, we recapped the games in the NBA and the lone game in the NHL, and we took a look at tonight's NBA & NHL playoff match-ups. Plus, an owner in the NHL has been suspended by the league for some comments on social media. Elsewhere in sports, a look at some of the games on the NFL schedule that got "leaked" yesterday, and MLB is finally rescinding it's ban on Pete Rose & "Shoeless" Joe Jackson. We talked about what's on TV tonight and we discussed a new health "hack" that basically involves eating the same thing every single meal of every single day. Sounds boring. A woman from Ohio claims a video on TikTok might have saved her life. And another woman from Texas threw a party for her cat that ended up saving a local animal shelter. We discussed a Reddit poll about hobbies that are "red flags". And in today's edition of "Bad News with Happy Music", we had stories about exploding birds, a misspelling that led to an arrest, a massage parlor that got busted for prostitution, a baby that was being eaten by a large rat, and a guy whacking off in a shed in a Lowe's parking lot.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
If you've ever felt weird throwing something in a Ziploc bag and microwaving it, you might be on to something! Find out about a class action lawsuit & more, like a teddy bear "bank", in STUPID NEWS! #PhilShowSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Fidelity log in issues… Australia cocaine bust… Utah family smuggling Mexican oil?... Diddy & Weinstein trials ongoing… Kim testifies in Paris today… Ziploc hit with class Action lawsuit... Email: ChewingTheFat@theblaze.com The Hunting Party TV show… Mr. Beast Games renewed… Hacks has stopped fighting… Madonna biopic on Netflix?... Who Died Today: Tia-Mae McCarthy 26 / James Foley 71 / Eric Slate 52... Robot suicide?... www.blazetv.com/jeffy Promo code: Jeffy... Bison attacks at Yellowstone… Saban will do college sports commission... Michael Jordan to NBC… Joke of The Day… Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Welcome back to another episode of School Counseling Simplified. Throughout April, we're featuring guest sessions with experts in the field, and today's episode is especially exciting. I'm joined by Laura Filtness, M.Ed., a seasoned school counselor with over 15 years of experience and a passion for using picture books to support young minds in elementary settings. Laura's belief in the power of storytelling shines through her work, and she's also the author of the upcoming book My Brain Is Like a Puppy, inspired by her beloved therapy dog, Boss. In addition to counseling, Laura teaches yoga and Pilates, assists clients in home organization through Help You Dwell, and enjoys tackling renovation projects at home. She currently lives in Knoxville, Tennessee, with her two dogs, Brooklyn and Bindu. In this episode, Laura shares why picture books are such an effective tool in school counseling, both for proactive lesson planning and reactive student support. She talks about how a sticky note with a book title and a few theme ideas often serves as her simple yet flexible lesson plan. Having two or three potential discussion directions in mind allows her to pivot based on how students respond. This approach gives students space to take ownership of the conversation while making lessons feel natural and engaging. Laura also opens up about the organization system in her counseling office. For years, she used topic-based book bins and included printed companion resources stored in large Ziploc bags. After relocating to a smaller portable office, she adapted by placing hardcover books on a bookshelf and keeping thinner paperbacks in bins. Her adaptable system ensures that everything is accessible and categorized by topic for ease of use during lessons. We also dive into the logistics and philosophy behind running book clubs. While Laura prefers not to hold small groups during lunch, she makes exceptions depending on the group's purpose. For example, a community-building group might work well during a “lunch bunch,” but more skills-based work is best saved for a designated small group time. Laura uses both chapter books and picture books and recommends series like those by Jory John, Todd Parr, Brenda Miles, Michael Ian Black, and the Way Past series. She shares that Scholastic is a great source for ordering multiple copies of books and encourages creativity, like using different titles in a picture book series. Laura also supports teachers through book clubs at the grade level. She often gifts teachers with books, especially ones she finds at thrift stores, and partners with the school librarian to display themed books during staff meetings. Her collaborative approach promotes a school-wide culture of literacy and social-emotional learning. When it comes to building your book collection, Laura suggests tapping into your librarian's expertise by submitting a wishlist at the beginning of the year. She encourages the use of public libraries, which often allow you to request specific books. Other great sources include thrift stores, your counselor network, and the Dolly Parton Imagination Library, which offers families one free book per month for a year. While YouTube read-alouds are a decent backup, she stresses that nothing beats reading a book aloud in person. To keep track of her extensive book collection, Laura uses a cataloging system in Airtable. Inspired by Laura Driscoll, she created a searchable database of over 700 books organized by grade, topic, and type. This makes lesson planning more efficient and ensures she's covering a wide range of student needs. You can find links to her Airtable in the show notes! For new counselors who are just beginning to integrate books into their lessons, Laura offers encouraging advice: don't overthink it—just bring a book into your lesson and start asking questions. Prompt students with things like, “Have you ever felt this way?” or “What do you think the character learned?” Let students guide the discussion and make personal connections. If you've inherited a library, take inventory so you can assess which topics are covered and where you may need to grow your collection. Toward the end of the episode, Laura shares her journey of becoming a published author. She discusses the publishing process and the inspiration behind her new book My Brain Is Like a Puppy, a heartfelt project born from her experiences with her late therapy dog. She offers insight into what it's like to submit to literary agencies and the steps it takes to bring a story to life. Picture books, she notes, are typically around 600 words and should be thoughtful, concise, and meaningful. This episode is full of practical takeaways and encouragement for counselors looking to bring more creativity and connection into their lessons through books. Laura's insights make it clear that picture books aren't just for young children—they're powerful tools for every age. Connect with Rachel: TpT Store Blog Instagram Facebook Page Facebook Group Pinterest Youtube Connect with Laura: pawsitiveschoolcounselor.com Big Book Database - Airtable Instagram More About School Counseling Simplified: School Counseling Simplified is a podcast offering easy to implement strategies for busy school counselors. The host, Rachel Davis from Bright Futures Counseling, shares tips and tricks she has learned from her years of experience as a school counselor both in the US and at an international school in Costa Rica. You can listen to School Counseling Simplified on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, and more!
Mother of three Kimberly Church recently realized her fourth-grader was "embarrassed" by his lunch...because she put his chips in a Ziploc bag. Source: https://www.tiktok.com/@thestyliststeal/video/7468472948194692382
MUSIC Lil Nas X ended up in the hospital on Monday with FACIAL PARALYSIS. Halestorm will release a new single titled "Darkness Always Wins" on April 22nd. The band's sixth album is due out later this year. Steven Tyler's daughter Mia says he started tying scarves to his microphone so he could hide pills in them. The TLC story will be told in a stage musical called "CrazySexyCool". The musical will premiere at Arena Stage in Washington, DC, in June 2026. Dolly Parton is known all over the world for her legendary country music career, her good heart and her big boobs. Apparently, there's a disease called DPS, or "Dolly Parton Syndrome", that affects female cats. And if you don't know what that is, you might be able to guess. It's officially called Feline Mammary Hypertrophy. TV When Rainn Wilson of "The Office" was on a podcast recently, he sang what he claims are the lyrics to the show's theme music. We get the feeling he channeled his egotistical character, Dwight. Mickey Rourke is considering legal action against ITV, the producer of Celebrity Big Brother, after his early exit from the show allegedly cost him a significant payday, TMZ reports. Check out the trailer for Season 3 of "And Just Like That". ‘Sex & The City' Sequel ‘And Just Like That…' Sets Season 3 Premiere; Trailer Teases Aidan's Back & Carrie's Home Is Plagued With Rats h RIP: Wink Martindale, the iconic game show host known for Tic-Tac-Dough, Gambit and High Rollers, died Tuesday at age 91 in Rancho Mirage, California. MOVING ON INTO MOVIE NEWS: "Jurassic Park" superstar Sam Neill is taking a stand for everyone who refuses to use the self-checkout at the supermarket. Oh, and he'll also be in the next "Godzilla" movie. Uma Thurman wants us all to know that she's just like us, as she washes and reuses her Ziploc bags. Which is great because she narrates the four-part PBS docuseries The Future of Nature. A "Killer Klowns from Outer Space" remake is reportedly in the works at Amazon . . . with Ryan Gosling as one of the producers. The director of "American Psycho" is still mystified that "Wall Street bros" have embraced Patrick Bateman, since the story is, quote, "a gay man's satire on masculinity." ‘I'm giving up': Cate Blanchett says she is “giving up” acting to do other things “with [her] life”. In an interview with Radio Times, Blanchett shared, “My family roll their eyes every time I say it, but I mean it. I am serious about giving up acting … [There are] a lot of things I want to do with my life”. AND FINALLY Do you ever hear a song and immediately think of a movie it was in? Loudwire.com put together a quiz where you have to identify a '90s movie based on a signature song from its soundtrack. AND THAT IS YOUR CRAP ON CELEBRITIES! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
MUSIC Lil Nas X endedup in the hospital on Monday with FACIAL PARALYSIS. Halestorm will release a new single titled"Darkness Always Wins" on April 22nd. The band's sixth album is dueout later this year. Steven Tyler's daughter Mia says he started tyingscarves to his microphone so he could hide pills in them. The TLC storywill be told in a stage musical called "CrazySexyCool". Themusical will premiere at Arena Stage in Washington, DC, in June 2026. Dolly Parton is known all over the world for her legendary countrymusic career, her good heart and her big boobs. Apparently, there's a diseasecalled DPS, or "Dolly Parton Syndrome", that affects femalecats. And if you don't know what that is, you might be able toguess. It's officially called Feline MammaryHypertrophy. TVWhen Rainn Wilson of"The Office" was on a podcast recently, he sang what he claims are the lyrics to theshow's theme music. We get the feeling he channeled his egotisticalcharacter, Dwight. Mickey Rourke is considering legal action against ITV,the producer of Celebrity Big Brother, after his early exit from theshow allegedly cost him a significant payday, TMZ reports. Check out the trailerfor Season 3 of "And Just Like That". ‘Sex & TheCity' Sequel ‘And Just Like That…' Sets Season 3 Premiere; Trailer TeasesAidan's Back & Carrie's Home Is Plagued With Rats h RIP: Wink Martindale,the iconic game show host known for Tic-Tac-Dough, Gambit and HighRollers, died Tuesday at age 91 in Rancho Mirage, California. MOVING ON INTO MOVIENEWS:"Jurassic Park" superstar Sam Neill is taking a stand for everyone whorefuses to use the self-checkout at the supermarket. Oh, and he'll alsobe in the next "Godzilla" movie. Uma Thurman wants us allto know that she's just like us, as she washes and reuses her Ziploc bags. Which is great because she narratesthe four-part PBS docuseries The Future of Nature. A "KillerKlowns from Outer Space" remake is reportedly in the works atAmazon . . . with Ryan Gosling as one of the producers. The director of "AmericanPsycho" is still mystified that "Wall Street bros"have embraced Patrick Bateman, since the story is, quote, "a gay man'ssatire on masculinity." ‘I'm giving up': Cate Blanchett says she is “giving up” acting to do otherthings “with [her] life”. In an interview with Radio Times, Blanchett shared, “My family roll their eyes every time I say it, but I mean it. I am serious about giving up acting … [There are] a lot of things I want to do with my life”.AND FINALLY Do you ever hear asong and immediately think of a movie it was in? Loudwire.com put together a quiz where you have toidentify a '90s movie based on a signature song from its soundtrack. AND THAT IS YOUR CRAP ON CELEBRITIES! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoicesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Nina Sossamon-Pogue knows a thing or two about reinvention. Olympic dreams? Derailed by injury. Journalism career? Cut short with a pink slip. But Nina doesn't stay down for long. Yesterday in Part One, we tumbled through Nina's journey—her high-flying wins, faceplants, and the grit that kept her going. Today in Part Two, we unpack the tools she's created to help others bounce back from life's inevitable wipeouts. Because let's face it: real life doesn't come with a crash mat.Key Highlights of Our Interview:Why the Reverse Resume Matters“When hiring, I ask, ‘What's something you've overcome?' That's where the magic is. Those bottom-line moments define the strength you bring to every table.”The Power of Perspective: Achievements and Challenges Together”“Your resume tells one story, but your reverse resume tells the deeper truth: what you've overcome. Together, they define not just what you've done, but who you are.”“Success vs. a Successful Lifetime: Spot the Difference”“A nice car, a big house, a shiny jet—that's success. But a successful lifetime? That's the legacy, the relationships, the impact. The timeline reveals the whole messy, marvelous story.”Life is a Bag of Legos“Imagine dumping out a Ziploc bag full of Legos. Same colors, same shapes, same pieces. Yet, you'd build something entirely different from me. That's your life—it's uniquely yours to assemble.”________________________Connect with us:Host: Vince Chan | Guest: Nina Sossamon-Pogue --Chief Change Officer--Change Ambitiously. Outgrow Yourself.Open a World of Expansive Human Intelligencefor Transformation Gurus, Black Sheep,Unsung Visionaries & Bold Hearts.10 Million+ All-Time Downloads.Reaching 80+ Countries Daily.Global Top 3% Podcast.Top 10 US Business.Top 1 US Careers.>>>130,000+ are outgrowing. Act Today.
Jason Tartick LOVES his dog and he LOVES his Ziploc! Sean Astin is NOT Skylar Astin (although you didn't ask), Aaron Goodwin's (ex) wife tried to kill him :( :( Oh! Elsa Hosk is *not* "COMPLETELY" nude (but she is selling shoes), Ellie Kemper is Kohls Mom, Robert from Shark Tank is ripped, Madonna's twins' lugholes went down the plughole and Bobby invents a new '25 Things' game! Plus, Pete Davidson dates a "non-celeb" (sure), Pierce Brosnan comments on Instagram, Christine Quinn's dating an Oil Man, Julien Baker is dating bandmate (Lucy Dacus), Venus Williams is dating an Italian film 'star', Quinta's getting a divorce and we're on ENGAGEMENT WATCH for TJ & Amy #newsegmentalert As always, call in at 619.WHO.THEM to leave questions, comments & concerns for a future episode of Who's There?. Want more? Get a ton of bonus content over on Patreon.com/WhoWeekly To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices
In this hilarious and unfiltered episode of Bone to Pick Podcast, comedians Robert Kelly and Paul Virzi dive into their biggest daily annoyances, from embarrassing parenting moments to awkward gym dads and the never-ending debate on phone placement. The guys also tackle delusional sports parents, the rise of Ozempic and weight-loss injectables, mental health therapy routines, and the overhype of Flamin' Hot Cheeto bagels. With outrageous fan-submitted “bones” and brutally honest takes on everything from Ziploc bags to women's sports to overhead bins on planes, this episode delivers nonstop laughs, real talk, and some spicy roasts. If you love raw comedy with zero filter and maximum relatability, don't miss this one. Join our Patreon www.patreon.com/bonetopickcast Here are the top 10 moments you can expect in this episode: “Men, Stop Putting Your Phone in Your Back Pocket – It Looks Ridiculous” “Delusional Parents: Your Kid's Not the Victim, He's the Problem” “Ozempic, Wegovy, and Why Just ‘Eating Better' Isn't Enough Anymore” “Flamin' Hot Cheeto Bagels Are Proof Humanity Has Gone Too Far” “Cheap Ziploc Bags Are Ruining Lives—Spend the Extra 89 Cents!” “Why Every Dad at Youth Sports Looks Exactly the Same” “Busted: Paul Goes to Therapy More Than He'll Admit” “People Who Hover at the Car Wash Deserve Jail Time” “We Don't Hate Women's Sports… But Also, C'mon” “Airplane Rage: Oversized Bags, Entitlement & Overhead Bin Chaos”
The Electric State, Kill Switches, Baidu's AI, Scopely, Careless People, Gemini Robotics An arbitrator instructs a former Meta employee to stop promoting and publishing her book alleging company misconduct; publisher Flatiron Books earlier objected DeepMind's latest AI model can help robots fold origami and close Ziploc bags Future Today Strategy Group, or FTSG. Intel has a new CEO Russo Brothers' Busy, Boring Netflix Sci-Fi Directors Anthony and Joe Russo say they're building a high-tech studio aiming to help artists use AI as a creative tool to make films, shows, and video games Baidu launches two new versions of its AI model Ernie Startup Claims Its Upcoming (RISC-V ISA) Zeus GPU is 10X Faster Than Nvidia's RTX 5090 Pokemon Go is getting a new owner after almost 9 years with Niantic Developer convicted for "kill switch" code activated upon his termination TikTok will play 'calming music' to remind teens to stop using the app F-35 kill switch concerns non-US countries Firmware update bricks HP printers, makes them unable to use HP cartridges Sonos Cancels Its Streaming Video Player - Slashdot Everything You Say To Your Echo Will Be Sent To Amazon Starting On March 28 Musk-led cuts drive US consumer protection agency to ask for Amazon trial delay Host: Leo Laporte Guests: Amy Webb, Glenn Fleishman, and Mikah Sargent Download or subscribe to This Week in Tech at https://twit.tv/shows/this-week-in-tech Join Club TWiT for Ad-Free Podcasts! Support what you love and get ad-free shows, a members-only Discord, and behind-the-scenes access. Join today: https://twit.tv/clubtwit Sponsors: zscaler.com/security shopify.com/twit joindeleteme.com/twit promo code TWIT ZipRecruiter.com/Twit uscloud.com
The Electric State, Kill Switches, Baidu's AI, Scopely, Careless People, Gemini Robotics An arbitrator instructs a former Meta employee to stop promoting and publishing her book alleging company misconduct; publisher Flatiron Books earlier objected DeepMind's latest AI model can help robots fold origami and close Ziploc bags Future Today Strategy Group, or FTSG. Intel has a new CEO Russo Brothers' Busy, Boring Netflix Sci-Fi Directors Anthony and Joe Russo say they're building a high-tech studio aiming to help artists use AI as a creative tool to make films, shows, and video games Baidu launches two new versions of its AI model Ernie Startup Claims Its Upcoming (RISC-V ISA) Zeus GPU is 10X Faster Than Nvidia's RTX 5090 Pokemon Go is getting a new owner after almost 9 years with Niantic Developer convicted for "kill switch" code activated upon his termination TikTok will play 'calming music' to remind teens to stop using the app F-35 kill switch concerns non-US countries Firmware update bricks HP printers, makes them unable to use HP cartridges Sonos Cancels Its Streaming Video Player - Slashdot Everything You Say To Your Echo Will Be Sent To Amazon Starting On March 28 Musk-led cuts drive US consumer protection agency to ask for Amazon trial delay Host: Leo Laporte Guests: Amy Webb, Glenn Fleishman, and Mikah Sargent Download or subscribe to This Week in Tech at https://twit.tv/shows/this-week-in-tech Join Club TWiT for Ad-Free Podcasts! Support what you love and get ad-free shows, a members-only Discord, and behind-the-scenes access. Join today: https://twit.tv/clubtwit Sponsors: zscaler.com/security shopify.com/twit joindeleteme.com/twit promo code TWIT ZipRecruiter.com/Twit uscloud.com
The Electric State, Kill Switches, Baidu's AI, Scopely, Careless People, Gemini Robotics An arbitrator instructs a former Meta employee to stop promoting and publishing her book alleging company misconduct; publisher Flatiron Books earlier objected DeepMind's latest AI model can help robots fold origami and close Ziploc bags Future Today Strategy Group, or FTSG. Intel has a new CEO Russo Brothers' Busy, Boring Netflix Sci-Fi Directors Anthony and Joe Russo say they're building a high-tech studio aiming to help artists use AI as a creative tool to make films, shows, and video games Baidu launches two new versions of its AI model Ernie Startup Claims Its Upcoming (RISC-V ISA) Zeus GPU is 10X Faster Than Nvidia's RTX 5090 Pokemon Go is getting a new owner after almost 9 years with Niantic Developer convicted for "kill switch" code activated upon his termination TikTok will play 'calming music' to remind teens to stop using the app F-35 kill switch concerns non-US countries Firmware update bricks HP printers, makes them unable to use HP cartridges Sonos Cancels Its Streaming Video Player - Slashdot Everything You Say To Your Echo Will Be Sent To Amazon Starting On March 28 Musk-led cuts drive US consumer protection agency to ask for Amazon trial delay Host: Leo Laporte Guests: Amy Webb, Glenn Fleishman, and Mikah Sargent Download or subscribe to This Week in Tech at https://twit.tv/shows/this-week-in-tech Join Club TWiT for Ad-Free Podcasts! Support what you love and get ad-free shows, a members-only Discord, and behind-the-scenes access. Join today: https://twit.tv/clubtwit Sponsors: zscaler.com/security shopify.com/twit joindeleteme.com/twit promo code TWIT ZipRecruiter.com/Twit uscloud.com
The Electric State, Kill Switches, Baidu's AI, Scopely, Careless People, Gemini Robotics An arbitrator instructs a former Meta employee to stop promoting and publishing her book alleging company misconduct; publisher Flatiron Books earlier objected DeepMind's latest AI model can help robots fold origami and close Ziploc bags Future Today Strategy Group, or FTSG. Intel has a new CEO Russo Brothers' Busy, Boring Netflix Sci-Fi Directors Anthony and Joe Russo say they're building a high-tech studio aiming to help artists use AI as a creative tool to make films, shows, and video games Baidu launches two new versions of its AI model Ernie Startup Claims Its Upcoming (RISC-V ISA) Zeus GPU is 10X Faster Than Nvidia's RTX 5090 Pokemon Go is getting a new owner after almost 9 years with Niantic Developer convicted for "kill switch" code activated upon his termination TikTok will play 'calming music' to remind teens to stop using the app F-35 kill switch concerns non-US countries Firmware update bricks HP printers, makes them unable to use HP cartridges Sonos Cancels Its Streaming Video Player - Slashdot Everything You Say To Your Echo Will Be Sent To Amazon Starting On March 28 Musk-led cuts drive US consumer protection agency to ask for Amazon trial delay Host: Leo Laporte Guests: Amy Webb, Glenn Fleishman, and Mikah Sargent Download or subscribe to This Week in Tech at https://twit.tv/shows/this-week-in-tech Join Club TWiT for Ad-Free Podcasts! Support what you love and get ad-free shows, a members-only Discord, and behind-the-scenes access. Join today: https://twit.tv/clubtwit Sponsors: zscaler.com/security shopify.com/twit joindeleteme.com/twit promo code TWIT ZipRecruiter.com/Twit uscloud.com
The Electric State, Kill Switches, Baidu's AI, Scopely, Careless People, Gemini Robotics An arbitrator instructs a former Meta employee to stop promoting and publishing her book alleging company misconduct; publisher Flatiron Books earlier objected DeepMind's latest AI model can help robots fold origami and close Ziploc bags Future Today Strategy Group, or FTSG. Intel has a new CEO Russo Brothers' Busy, Boring Netflix Sci-Fi Directors Anthony and Joe Russo say they're building a high-tech studio aiming to help artists use AI as a creative tool to make films, shows, and video games Baidu launches two new versions of its AI model Ernie Startup Claims Its Upcoming (RISC-V ISA) Zeus GPU is 10X Faster Than Nvidia's RTX 5090 Pokemon Go is getting a new owner after almost 9 years with Niantic Developer convicted for "kill switch" code activated upon his termination TikTok will play 'calming music' to remind teens to stop using the app F-35 kill switch concerns non-US countries Firmware update bricks HP printers, makes them unable to use HP cartridges Sonos Cancels Its Streaming Video Player - Slashdot Everything You Say To Your Echo Will Be Sent To Amazon Starting On March 28 Musk-led cuts drive US consumer protection agency to ask for Amazon trial delay Host: Leo Laporte Guests: Amy Webb, Glenn Fleishman, and Mikah Sargent Download or subscribe to This Week in Tech at https://twit.tv/shows/this-week-in-tech Join Club TWiT for Ad-Free Podcasts! Support what you love and get ad-free shows, a members-only Discord, and behind-the-scenes access. Join today: https://twit.tv/clubtwit Sponsors: zscaler.com/security shopify.com/twit joindeleteme.com/twit promo code TWIT ZipRecruiter.com/Twit uscloud.com
The Electric State, Kill Switches, Baidu's AI, Scopely, Careless People, Gemini Robotics An arbitrator instructs a former Meta employee to stop promoting and publishing her book alleging company misconduct; publisher Flatiron Books earlier objected DeepMind's latest AI model can help robots fold origami and close Ziploc bags Future Today Strategy Group, or FTSG. Intel has a new CEO Russo Brothers' Busy, Boring Netflix Sci-Fi Directors Anthony and Joe Russo say they're building a high-tech studio aiming to help artists use AI as a creative tool to make films, shows, and video games Baidu launches two new versions of its AI model Ernie Startup Claims Its Upcoming (RISC-V ISA) Zeus GPU is 10X Faster Than Nvidia's RTX 5090 Pokemon Go is getting a new owner after almost 9 years with Niantic Developer convicted for "kill switch" code activated upon his termination TikTok will play 'calming music' to remind teens to stop using the app F-35 kill switch concerns non-US countries Firmware update bricks HP printers, makes them unable to use HP cartridges Sonos Cancels Its Streaming Video Player - Slashdot Everything You Say To Your Echo Will Be Sent To Amazon Starting On March 28 Musk-led cuts drive US consumer protection agency to ask for Amazon trial delay Host: Leo Laporte Guests: Amy Webb, Glenn Fleishman, and Mikah Sargent Download or subscribe to This Week in Tech at https://twit.tv/shows/this-week-in-tech Join Club TWiT for Ad-Free Podcasts! Support what you love and get ad-free shows, a members-only Discord, and behind-the-scenes access. Join today: https://twit.tv/clubtwit Sponsors: zscaler.com/security shopify.com/twit joindeleteme.com/twit promo code TWIT ZipRecruiter.com/Twit uscloud.com
The Electric State, Kill Switches, Baidu's AI, Scopely, Careless People, Gemini Robotics An arbitrator instructs a former Meta employee to stop promoting and publishing her book alleging company misconduct; publisher Flatiron Books earlier objected DeepMind's latest AI model can help robots fold origami and close Ziploc bags Future Today Strategy Group, or FTSG. Intel has a new CEO Russo Brothers' Busy, Boring Netflix Sci-Fi Directors Anthony and Joe Russo say they're building a high-tech studio aiming to help artists use AI as a creative tool to make films, shows, and video games Baidu launches two new versions of its AI model Ernie Startup Claims Its Upcoming (RISC-V ISA) Zeus GPU is 10X Faster Than Nvidia's RTX 5090 Pokemon Go is getting a new owner after almost 9 years with Niantic Developer convicted for "kill switch" code activated upon his termination TikTok will play 'calming music' to remind teens to stop using the app F-35 kill switch concerns non-US countries Firmware update bricks HP printers, makes them unable to use HP cartridges Sonos Cancels Its Streaming Video Player - Slashdot Everything You Say To Your Echo Will Be Sent To Amazon Starting On March 28 Musk-led cuts drive US consumer protection agency to ask for Amazon trial delay Host: Leo Laporte Guests: Amy Webb, Glenn Fleishman, and Mikah Sargent Download or subscribe to This Week in Tech at https://twit.tv/shows/this-week-in-tech Join Club TWiT for Ad-Free Podcasts! Support what you love and get ad-free shows, a members-only Discord, and behind-the-scenes access. Join today: https://twit.tv/clubtwit Sponsors: zscaler.com/security shopify.com/twit joindeleteme.com/twit promo code TWIT ZipRecruiter.com/Twit uscloud.com
The Electric State, Kill Switches, Baidu's AI, Scopely, Careless People, Gemini Robotics An arbitrator instructs a former Meta employee to stop promoting and publishing her book alleging company misconduct; publisher Flatiron Books earlier objected DeepMind's latest AI model can help robots fold origami and close Ziploc bags Future Today Strategy Group, or FTSG. Intel has a new CEO Russo Brothers' Busy, Boring Netflix Sci-Fi Directors Anthony and Joe Russo say they're building a high-tech studio aiming to help artists use AI as a creative tool to make films, shows, and video games Baidu launches two new versions of its AI model Ernie Startup Claims Its Upcoming (RISC-V ISA) Zeus GPU is 10X Faster Than Nvidia's RTX 5090 Pokemon Go is getting a new owner after almost 9 years with Niantic Developer convicted for "kill switch" code activated upon his termination TikTok will play 'calming music' to remind teens to stop using the app F-35 kill switch concerns non-US countries Firmware update bricks HP printers, makes them unable to use HP cartridges Sonos Cancels Its Streaming Video Player - Slashdot Everything You Say To Your Echo Will Be Sent To Amazon Starting On March 28 Musk-led cuts drive US consumer protection agency to ask for Amazon trial delay Host: Leo Laporte Guests: Amy Webb, Glenn Fleishman, and Mikah Sargent Download or subscribe to This Week in Tech at https://twit.tv/shows/this-week-in-tech Join Club TWiT for Ad-Free Podcasts! Support what you love and get ad-free shows, a members-only Discord, and behind-the-scenes access. Join today: https://twit.tv/clubtwit Sponsors: zscaler.com/security shopify.com/twit joindeleteme.com/twit promo code TWIT ZipRecruiter.com/Twit uscloud.com
(SPOILERS) I begin by previewing the talk with Jason & going over all your Daily Roundup topics. Then Jason joins me (7:23) to discuss his current collaboration with Ziploc to help save consumers money, how he pivoted his brand to the finance world after the Bachelorette, his Trading Spaces podcast, what financial tips he has for me, his love for the Buffalo Bills, adopting his new dog and much more. PreservedPromos.com. Shoppers can trade in expired promo codes through the Ziploc® Preserved Promo site from March 10th through April 7th, with the offer lasting until June 30th, 2025. Ads: Factor Meals - 50% off your first box PLUS free shipping at https://factormeals.com/factorpodcast Promo Code: factorpodcast Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Interview with Ray Kurzweil Liquid eggs? NYC bodegas have new strategy to keep bacon, egg and cheese prices down Google announces Gemini Robotics for building general purpose robots DeepMind's latest AI model can help robots fold origami and close Ziploc bags An audit found that 10 top AI chatbots, including ChatGPT, Copilot, and Gemini, repeated false claims from a pro-Kremlin disinformation network 33% of the time A study of eight AI search engines found they provided incorrect citations of news articles in 60%+ of queries; Grok 3 answered 94% of the queries incorrectly AI Tries To Cheat At Chess When It's Losing - Slashdot AI Thinks It Cracked Kryptos. The Artist Behind It Says No Chance Pokemon Go is getting a new owner after almost 9 years with Niantic Robots That Don't Walk Are Making Strides Amazon has more than 750,000 robots that sort, lift, and carry packages—see them in action TikTok will play 'calming music' to remind teens to stop using the app FCC chair asks if YouTube TV 'discriminates against faith-based programming' OpenAI says it has trained an AI that's 'really good' at creative writing Bluesky CEO: imagine a 'world without Caesars' The Senate approves Gail Slater, President Trump's pick to lead the DOJ's antitrust unit, by a 78-19 vote; she has been critical of power in the tech industry Times profile of Jessica Lessin Gen-Zers are turning to DVDs instead of streaming their favorite movies Wonder Acquires Media Company Tastemade for $90 Million Denmark postal service to stop delivering letters Hosts: Leo Laporte, Jeff Jarvis, and Paris Martineau Guest: Ray Kurzweil Download or subscribe to Intelligent Machines at https://twit.tv/shows/intelligent-machines. Join Club TWiT for Ad-Free Podcasts! Support what you love and get ad-free shows, a members-only Discord, and behind-the-scenes access. Join today: https://twit.tv/clubtwit Sponsors: monarchmoney.com with code IM threatlocker.com/twit get.stash.com/machines
Interview with Ray Kurzweil Liquid eggs? NYC bodegas have new strategy to keep bacon, egg and cheese prices down Google announces Gemini Robotics for building general purpose robots DeepMind's latest AI model can help robots fold origami and close Ziploc bags An audit found that 10 top AI chatbots, including ChatGPT, Copilot, and Gemini, repeated false claims from a pro-Kremlin disinformation network 33% of the time A study of eight AI search engines found they provided incorrect citations of news articles in 60%+ of queries; Grok 3 answered 94% of the queries incorrectly AI Tries To Cheat At Chess When It's Losing - Slashdot AI Thinks It Cracked Kryptos. The Artist Behind It Says No Chance Pokemon Go is getting a new owner after almost 9 years with Niantic Robots That Don't Walk Are Making Strides Amazon has more than 750,000 robots that sort, lift, and carry packages—see them in action TikTok will play 'calming music' to remind teens to stop using the app FCC chair asks if YouTube TV 'discriminates against faith-based programming' OpenAI says it has trained an AI that's 'really good' at creative writing Bluesky CEO: imagine a 'world without Caesars' The Senate approves Gail Slater, President Trump's pick to lead the DOJ's antitrust unit, by a 78-19 vote; she has been critical of power in the tech industry Times profile of Jessica Lessin Gen-Zers are turning to DVDs instead of streaming their favorite movies Wonder Acquires Media Company Tastemade for $90 Million Denmark postal service to stop delivering letters Hosts: Leo Laporte, Jeff Jarvis, and Paris Martineau Guest: Ray Kurzweil Download or subscribe to Intelligent Machines at https://twit.tv/shows/intelligent-machines. Join Club TWiT for Ad-Free Podcasts! Support what you love and get ad-free shows, a members-only Discord, and behind-the-scenes access. Join today: https://twit.tv/clubtwit Sponsors: monarchmoney.com with code IM threatlocker.com/twit get.stash.com/machines
Interview with Ray Kurzweil Liquid eggs? NYC bodegas have new strategy to keep bacon, egg and cheese prices down Google announces Gemini Robotics for building general purpose robots DeepMind's latest AI model can help robots fold origami and close Ziploc bags An audit found that 10 top AI chatbots, including ChatGPT, Copilot, and Gemini, repeated false claims from a pro-Kremlin disinformation network 33% of the time A study of eight AI search engines found they provided incorrect citations of news articles in 60%+ of queries; Grok 3 answered 94% of the queries incorrectly AI Tries To Cheat At Chess When It's Losing - Slashdot AI Thinks It Cracked Kryptos. The Artist Behind It Says No Chance Pokemon Go is getting a new owner after almost 9 years with Niantic Robots That Don't Walk Are Making Strides Amazon has more than 750,000 robots that sort, lift, and carry packages—see them in action TikTok will play 'calming music' to remind teens to stop using the app FCC chair asks if YouTube TV 'discriminates against faith-based programming' OpenAI says it has trained an AI that's 'really good' at creative writing Bluesky CEO: imagine a 'world without Caesars' The Senate approves Gail Slater, President Trump's pick to lead the DOJ's antitrust unit, by a 78-19 vote; she has been critical of power in the tech industry Times profile of Jessica Lessin Gen-Zers are turning to DVDs instead of streaming their favorite movies Wonder Acquires Media Company Tastemade for $90 Million Denmark postal service to stop delivering letters Hosts: Leo Laporte, Jeff Jarvis, and Paris Martineau Guest: Ray Kurzweil Download or subscribe to Intelligent Machines at https://twit.tv/shows/intelligent-machines. Join Club TWiT for Ad-Free Podcasts! Support what you love and get ad-free shows, a members-only Discord, and behind-the-scenes access. Join today: https://twit.tv/clubtwit Sponsors: monarchmoney.com with code IM threatlocker.com/twit get.stash.com/machines
Interview with Ray Kurzweil Liquid eggs? NYC bodegas have new strategy to keep bacon, egg and cheese prices down Google announces Gemini Robotics for building general purpose robots DeepMind's latest AI model can help robots fold origami and close Ziploc bags An audit found that 10 top AI chatbots, including ChatGPT, Copilot, and Gemini, repeated false claims from a pro-Kremlin disinformation network 33% of the time A study of eight AI search engines found they provided incorrect citations of news articles in 60%+ of queries; Grok 3 answered 94% of the queries incorrectly AI Tries To Cheat At Chess When It's Losing - Slashdot AI Thinks It Cracked Kryptos. The Artist Behind It Says No Chance Pokemon Go is getting a new owner after almost 9 years with Niantic Robots That Don't Walk Are Making Strides Amazon has more than 750,000 robots that sort, lift, and carry packages—see them in action TikTok will play 'calming music' to remind teens to stop using the app FCC chair asks if YouTube TV 'discriminates against faith-based programming' OpenAI says it has trained an AI that's 'really good' at creative writing Bluesky CEO: imagine a 'world without Caesars' The Senate approves Gail Slater, President Trump's pick to lead the DOJ's antitrust unit, by a 78-19 vote; she has been critical of power in the tech industry Times profile of Jessica Lessin Gen-Zers are turning to DVDs instead of streaming their favorite movies Wonder Acquires Media Company Tastemade for $90 Million Denmark postal service to stop delivering letters Hosts: Leo Laporte, Jeff Jarvis, and Paris Martineau Guest: Ray Kurzweil Download or subscribe to Intelligent Machines at https://twit.tv/shows/intelligent-machines. Join Club TWiT for Ad-Free Podcasts! Support what you love and get ad-free shows, a members-only Discord, and behind-the-scenes access. Join today: https://twit.tv/clubtwit Sponsors: monarchmoney.com with code IM threatlocker.com/twit get.stash.com/machines
Interview with Ray Kurzweil Liquid eggs? NYC bodegas have new strategy to keep bacon, egg and cheese prices down Google announces Gemini Robotics for building general purpose robots DeepMind's latest AI model can help robots fold origami and close Ziploc bags An audit found that 10 top AI chatbots, including ChatGPT, Copilot, and Gemini, repeated false claims from a pro-Kremlin disinformation network 33% of the time A study of eight AI search engines found they provided incorrect citations of news articles in 60%+ of queries; Grok 3 answered 94% of the queries incorrectly AI Tries To Cheat At Chess When It's Losing - Slashdot AI Thinks It Cracked Kryptos. The Artist Behind It Says No Chance Pokemon Go is getting a new owner after almost 9 years with Niantic Robots That Don't Walk Are Making Strides Amazon has more than 750,000 robots that sort, lift, and carry packages—see them in action TikTok will play 'calming music' to remind teens to stop using the app FCC chair asks if YouTube TV 'discriminates against faith-based programming' OpenAI says it has trained an AI that's 'really good' at creative writing Bluesky CEO: imagine a 'world without Caesars' The Senate approves Gail Slater, President Trump's pick to lead the DOJ's antitrust unit, by a 78-19 vote; she has been critical of power in the tech industry Times profile of Jessica Lessin Gen-Zers are turning to DVDs instead of streaming their favorite movies Wonder Acquires Media Company Tastemade for $90 Million Denmark postal service to stop delivering letters Hosts: Leo Laporte, Jeff Jarvis, and Paris Martineau Guest: Ray Kurzweil Download or subscribe to Intelligent Machines at https://twit.tv/shows/intelligent-machines. Join Club TWiT for Ad-Free Podcasts! Support what you love and get ad-free shows, a members-only Discord, and behind-the-scenes access. Join today: https://twit.tv/clubtwit Sponsors: monarchmoney.com with code IM threatlocker.com/twit get.stash.com/machines
Gemini Robotics will "lay the foundation for a new generation of helpful robots." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Interview with Ray Kurzweil Liquid eggs? NYC bodegas have new strategy to keep bacon, egg and cheese prices down Google announces Gemini Robotics for building general purpose robots DeepMind's latest AI model can help robots fold origami and close Ziploc bags An audit found that 10 top AI chatbots, including ChatGPT, Copilot, and Gemini, repeated false claims from a pro-Kremlin disinformation network 33% of the time A study of eight AI search engines found they provided incorrect citations of news articles in 60%+ of queries; Grok 3 answered 94% of the queries incorrectly AI Tries To Cheat At Chess When It's Losing - Slashdot AI Thinks It Cracked Kryptos. The Artist Behind It Says No Chance Pokemon Go is getting a new owner after almost 9 years with Niantic Robots That Don't Walk Are Making Strides Amazon has more than 750,000 robots that sort, lift, and carry packages—see them in action TikTok will play 'calming music' to remind teens to stop using the app FCC chair asks if YouTube TV 'discriminates against faith-based programming' OpenAI says it has trained an AI that's 'really good' at creative writing Bluesky CEO: imagine a 'world without Caesars' The Senate approves Gail Slater, President Trump's pick to lead the DOJ's antitrust unit, by a 78-19 vote; she has been critical of power in the tech industry Times profile of Jessica Lessin Gen-Zers are turning to DVDs instead of streaming their favorite movies Wonder Acquires Media Company Tastemade for $90 Million Denmark postal service to stop delivering letters Hosts: Leo Laporte, Jeff Jarvis, and Paris Martineau Guest: Ray Kurzweil Download or subscribe to Intelligent Machines at https://twit.tv/shows/intelligent-machines. Join Club TWiT for Ad-Free Podcasts! Support what you love and get ad-free shows, a members-only Discord, and behind-the-scenes access. Join today: https://twit.tv/clubtwit Sponsors: monarchmoney.com with code IM threatlocker.com/twit get.stash.com/machines
Listener calls with packing tips for Sue include Ziploc Bags for clothes!
Tamo in DC calls in to share a hilariously petty story about her ex—was she justified or just being extra? Plus, we debate whether reusing Ziploc bags is smart or just gross.
Jordan Howell's tips on strengthening your brand and facing cultural headwinds. You can always count on a sweet meetup when Splenda's Sr. Director of Marketing Jordan Howell is in the building. Known for his strong data skills, Jordan is trailblazing a new era of social for Splenda after epic stints as Global Marketing Director for brands like Glade and Ziploc at SC Johnson. Plus, his confidence navigating consumer pushback has led him to notable marketing wins across four continents. Must-hear moments for this episode include: How to turn cultural headwinds into tailwinds, why data should be the backbone of any brief, and how his team reacted to Nicholas Spark's viral chicken salad recipe. Yes, it contains 16 packets of Splenda. What you'll learn in this episode: The challenges of being well-known for one product despite a full portfolio Why chemistry is critical in every client agency relationship Why data serves as a strong foundation for any brief How Jordan's global experience shaped his marketing POV How Splenda is navigating the “Make America Healthy Again” movement How brands can leverage viral social media mentions How Splenda built trust within the diabetic population The most iconic campaigns Jordan led at SC Johnson and Crayola Resources: Learn more about Splenda on their website See Nicholas Spark's viral chicken salad recipe Connect with Jordan on LinkedIn
Listen to today's podcast... CEO Jeff Bezos admitted that he reads in his bathtub. He took a one-gallon Ziploc bag, and put his e-reader inside it. Book in hand…safe and sound. An interesting way to combine two popular stress-relieving pastimes. I am not sure that I am co-ordinated enough to master this even with a Ziploc bag. Bathtubs are the picture-perfect scene to the end of a hard day for many people. I have trouble sitting in a tub. I don't find it very relaxing and my mind usually wanders off to what else needs to be done. Part of the S-O-S Principle that I developed involves finding strategies that get your mind off of the stressful situation. The key is to find something that works for you. Take One Action Today To Build Your #Resiliency! Tips For Building Resiliency and Celebrating National Read In The Tub Day: If you have trouble slowing down to relax, ask yourself why. Are you too caught up in what needs to be done next' Keep the superhuman syndrome in check – we need to take time to take care of ourselves. If the bathtub or a good book doesn't do it for you, find something else that does. Find something that changes the speed, changes your focus and helps to renew your energy. If you are still willing to try the book and bathtub combo to relax, start with a magazine or book that doesn't matter if it gets wet. Looking for more ways to build your resiliency? Take my free on-line vulnerability test at worksmartlivesmart.com under the resources and courses tab. #mentalhealth #hr
Part Two. If resilience were a sport, Nina Sossamon-Pogue would be an all-around champion. She started her gymnastics journey at four, made it all the way to the U.S. Gymnastics Team, and learned early that falling wasn't failure—it was part of the process. But life threw her some unexpected dismounts: missing the Olympic team, an injury that ended her career, and getting let go from a 17-year journalism job she loved. Most people might have stayed down. Not Nina. She launched herself into the tech world, proving reinvention is just another skill to master. Yesterday, in part one, we dived into Nina's journey—her highs, her wipeouts, and how she had kept pushing forward. Today, in part two, we'll explore the unique tools she's developed to help others bounce back from setbacks. Because let's be real—life has no safety mats. Key Highlights of Our Interview: Why the Reverse Resume Matters “When hiring, I ask, ‘What's something you've overcome?' That's where the magic is. Those bottom-line moments define the strength you bring to every table.” The Power of Perspective: Achievements and Challenges Together” “Your resume tells one story, but your reverse resume tells the deeper truth: what you've overcome. Together, they define not just what you've done, but who you are.” “Success vs. a Successful Lifetime: Spot the Difference” “A nice car, a big house, a shiny jet—that's success. But a successful lifetime? That's the legacy, the relationships, the impact. The timeline reveals the whole messy, marvelous story.” Life is a Bag of Legos “Imagine dumping out a Ziploc bag full of Legos. Same colors, same shapes, same pieces. Yet, you'd build something entirely different from me. That's your life—it's uniquely yours to assemble.” Connect with us: Host: Vince Chan | Guest: Nina Sossamon-Pogue Chief Change Officer: Make Change Ambitiously. Experiential Human Intelligence for Growth Progressives Global Top 2.5% Podcast on Listen Notes World's #1 Career Podcast on Apple Top 1: US, CA, MX, IE, HU, AT, CH, FI 5 Million+ Downloads 80+ Countries
Winter survival training becomes the real thing. By m_storyman_x. Listen to the Podcast at Steamy Stories. Some years ago I took over as scoutmaster for a local troop of about fifteen guys. Over a three year period my troop grew from fifteen to over forty-five boys. With this came the need for leaders, and I was fortunate to have twelve active assistants, including two moms, one of them was Amy, the mother of my son's best friend. Amy and my wife Nancy were best friends. Our sons were born within a few months of each other and both had a healthy desire to breastfeed. Nancy & Amy met at a mothers group and became friends. Our two sons were practically inseparable once they reached walking and talking age. As a result our two families spent much time and many activities together. Amy's husband was, unfortunately, a deadbeat drunk, which resulted in me frequently being a “dad” figure to Chris. We even joked on occasions that Amy was my second wife, although not in “that” way. Not that I hadn't had a few accidental peeks over the many years, but we respected the boundaries and that was that.Being a scout leader means that you frequently go on outings with boys, and this requires at least two leaders at all times. Amy was an active participant, believing that if her son wanted to go, she was willing to try it as well. This resulted in her attending many campouts and “high adventure” treks such as repelling, backpacking and canoeing. The boys had attended a number of winter campouts, and I had passed on a lot of my knowledge of winter camping and survival that I learned from my many winters as a kid in the northern part of the country, and my almost annual ice fishing trips into the northern wilderness of upper Minnesota and Wisconsin. Some of the boys wanted a more advanced taste, and we planned a winter trip to the Canadian high adventure camp. This trip would be complete with advanced classes on winter survival, such as how to trap food and deal with blizzard conditions. Getting leader training in the boy scouts is usually just a matter of finding or waiting for the right training class, and then going and getting certified. This kind of thing was regularly done for water training and such, but there were no training classes for winter survival or camping. After a number of calls to council headquarters, they agreed that my own personal certifications and experiences would allow me to create and teach a winter camping and survival class for leaders. The only problem now was how to conduct such a class in Missouri. The answer was to head up to Wisconsin during the early winter for training. A number of leaders enthusiastically agreed with the plan… that was until a few weeks before it was time to go and they realized they were going to have to slog through a foot or more of snow. In the end I had six male leaders and one female leader, Amy, besides myself that could go on the five day training trip. The trip started out normal enough. We left early in the morning for the nine hour drive, hitting the trail head just before dark. We had only planned on hiking in a mile or so the first day to make camp. It took a little while to get all our heavy clothing on and the trailer unpacked and everyone geared up, finally hiking out for our campsite just as the sun was hitting the tops of the trees. I wasn't worried about light, the bright December moon was nearly full and already high in the sky as the sun slipped away. The guys, most of them in their late twenties to early thirties, tossed snow like a bunch of kids and had a great time for that first mile, slogging through foot deep powder in the crisp twenty degree air. It was an easy trek to find the site we selected, following the GPS right to the clearing in the heavy woods. This particular state park had a twisting twenty-eight mile loop trail that was off limits to snow-mobiles. In the summer it was a spectacular hike, with stream crossings and beautiful trees. We didn't need to cook, having had dinner on the road, so we set about putting up camp and starting a fire. The first task was to find dry wood, and I showed the guys how to locate dry wood to start a fire with, by picking dead branches of the underside of pines and whittling the wet outer surface off. Before long we had plenty of dry kindling and I taught them how to build a fire pit that wouldn't melt and put their fire out. With a fire now blazing away in the middle of our campsite, we all set to work putting up our tents. Being a large troop we have been pretty successful with equipment. This trip we were using brand new backpack tents, the trainees paired up in two's, with one tent for myself and a separate tent for Amy. It would be a bit colder sleeping in the two man tent alone, but I was prepared for it and I hoped that Amy was as well. These new tents were nice units with two high tech carbon fiber poles that crossed in the middle, making a tube seven feet long and about four feet wide. It was about four feet high at the center as well. This was the first use and all of the teams were supposed to have put up their tent before we left, partly to make sure all the parts were there, but also to make sure you could set it up. I was hard at getting mine set up when I heard the most awful sound. Imagine the sound of branches snapping followed by paper ripping, followed by the frustrated howl of two grown men, immediately followed by a significant amount of foul language. That combination of sounds generally means trouble, and on a survival trip, it's a sound you do not want to hear, and it was unfortunately the sound I did hear. Even though each tent had been set up once, this particular tent had a set of poles which had a small flaw in the high tech carbon fiber, and when bent, the pole fractured and turned into a knife, lancing through the thin nylon fabric like a hot knife through butter. This was not a good situation. “Well, what do we do now?” I asked the guys, pushing them to work out the choices and make a decision. “Well, we could triple up,” one of the pair with the trashed tent suggested. “You're kidding right?” Came an almost immediate response from Tim, one of the older men. “You know how tight these are. Two man is being charitable, three is impossible.” “We could make them sleep in the snow,” Chris, a twenty something slender guy suggested. "Oh Thanks,” Mark, the other leader with the trashed tent replied. "Well, Amy and Mike have two tents, can they share?” Tim suggested. Amy and I looked at each other. It was the logical choice, and we had shared a tent a few times on family outings. One of these provided an accidental glimpse of her naked body. On that particular trip she was sitting naked on the air mattress in the second room of our large two room tent, facing the hanging divider, when the wind blew through the tent, pushing the bottom up enough for me to see her bare body from the chest down for several seconds. I got a second quick peek under the partition while she spread her legs to pull her swimsuit on. I was never sure if she knew or not. Part of me suspected that she did it on purpose because of how long it took her sitting there naked before the wind blew. We had never overtly done anything, and we didn't want to ruin a friendship, so my ideas of her just stayed as fantasies, with the few accidental glimpses I had seen. “Yes, we can share,” Amy said, confirming what I was thinking. We're adults and I'm sure we can respect each other's privacy.” A couple of the younger guys elbowed each other clearly thinking that it would be an interesting arrangement. With that settled we went about finishing setting up camp. The guys and Amy wanted to stay up around the fire a while longer, but being tired from 9 hours of driving, I said my goodnights and headed into my tent. Now winter camping is different than regular camping. The coldest time of the day is when you're sleeping. I had long ago taught all the boys that you sweat during the day, and at night that sweat will cool and you will be uncomfortably cold. For that reason I always carried a spare set of polypropylene long underwear, wool socks and a wool stocking cap to sleep in. I stripped out of my cold weather gear and crawled into the tent, pulling my boots off last. I rolled my coat for a pillow and put my nylon snow pants next to my boots at the door end of the tent before zipping closed. It was a cool few minutes, but I stripped naked and pulled my thermal ‘longjohn' leggings on before sliding into the down mummy bag. Now I would be toasty warm all night. Amy woke me up when she crawled into the tent, landing on my feet. For a two man tent these were not a bad size, but then, backpack tents are always small. I didn't stir as she moved off my legs and rolled onto her own sleeping bag, with her head positioned at the other end of the tent from mine. The bright moonlight filtered into the tent making it more than bright enough for me to see her as she spread her bag open to sit on the plush insides instead of the cold nylon outer covering. Her eyes must not have been fully adjusted to the light yet, after sitting and looking at the fire, and in some ways it looked comical to watch her feel around for things. She must have thought I was still asleep, because she didn't make any attempt to cover herself as she peeled her layers off, ending up with her bare chest fully on display. Room was tight, and she lay down with her feet pointing toward my head as she pushed her pants down her legs, and tossed them to the end of the tent. Next came her long underwear. Using her feet and shoulders to lift her ass off the ground, she pushed them down her legs and then tucked her legs to her chest to be able to reach to pull the stretchy material the rest of the way off. This pulled her panties tight across her pussy, making my dick almost instantly hard. The last thing to go were her panties, which were interestingly brief. She lifted her ass again, and pushed them down her legs, pulling them up to her chest again to get them off her feet. From my position I had a wonderful, if brief view of her whole pussy exposed for me. If my dick wasn't hard before, it felt like a steel rod now. Amy sat up on her sleeping bag, cross legged, and in the moonlight I could clearly see her nipples, hardened from the cool air, standing out on her firm tits. Even for having breast fed two kids, she had really nice tits. They were easily C cups, and had a bit of sag, but not nearly as much as my wife's double D cups had. She felt around looking for her pj's, and finally ended up on her hands and knees, digging in her clothes bag at the foot of the tent looking for them. Her knees were at least a foot apart, and I had a much longer view her pussy as she bent over, her tits nearly touching the sleeping bag as she rested on her elbows to see in the bag. Too soon for my liking, she found what she wanted and rolled over on her back. Just when I thought the show was over, she lifted her knees up to her chest again, causing her pussy to be fully exposed as she pulled the flannel pj's onto her legs. I swore I could see a glisten of moisture on her lips before she straightened them to pull them up over her body. She sat up and her sexy tits disappeared as she pulled the almost skin tight top over her head and down her body. She moved around and slid into the sleeping bag, pulling the stocking cap down over her ears before curling up for the night. I tried hard to get my seriously hard dick to lay back down before falling asleep some time later. Morning came gray and overcast. I didn't need to look outside to see that the sun should already have been up, but then the forecast was for light snow later in the day. I stretched my arms and legs slowly, inside the sleeping bag, waking my body from its curled position, not loving the idea of getting out of my warm cocoon and into the cold. I looked over and saw Amy's eyes flutter and close again, so I was pretty sure she was starting to wake up. My morning woody became significantly harder as I remembered the show she had inadvertently given me the night before. The more I thought about it, the less sure I was that it was accidental. Either way, I decided I might as well return the favor. I unzipped my bag and pushed the material back so I was exposed to the cold air. I sat up, which had my head brushing the top of the tent and worked the top of my longjohns off. Without looking at her face, I lay back down and lifted my hips off the ground and slid my longjohns bottoms down to my ankles, letting my hard dick stick straight at the ceiling. I heard a short intake of breath, which told me she was indeed watching. I pulled one leg up to my chest, pointing the head of my dick straight at her face, while I pushed my longjohns down and my legs and pushed my wool sock off. Finally I pulled the other leg up, repeating the process and then set my clothes aside. I sat back up completely naked, with my dick pointing out at a forty five degree angle, and dug into the bottom of my sleeping bag for the clothes I stashed there the night before. I pretended to not find a sock, and turned around so my feet were pointed toward the head of my bed and dug around, laying on my side to give her a really good view. I finally pulled my missing sock out and then turned around again. I moved to my knees and bent in half to pull my thermal top on and then lay back down again. I found my underwear and pulled them up my legs to my butt before extending my legs again. The last thing I did before covering my dick with them was to wrap my hand around it and stroke it a few times. I really would have liked to jack off about then, but figured that would have been much too obvious. I lifted my butt off the ground and pulled my briefs up and then went to work on my thermal long johns. My final clothing was a pair of synthetic, insulated exercise pants and a wool sweatshirt. With all my thrashing around there was no way she wasn't awake, but when I looked over her eyes were closed as if she was asleep. I could see her sleeping bag moving ever so slightly down around her waist. I could imagine what might be happening there. I pulled my snow pants on my legs and pushed my feet into my boots before unzipping the tent flap and sliding out. I pulled my pants up and my jacket on before zipping the tent closed. According to the thermometer I hung on the tent, it was a balmy twelve degrees. Amy crawled out of the tent about half an hour later, joining myself and the rest of the guys around the fire. Breakfast was dehydrated eggs with bacon flavor, hot cocoa and instant oatmeal, all made with fresh water from melted snow. I taught the guys how to make fresh water to put in their canteens by laying a piece of plastic in a depression in the snow and filling it with fresh snow and pouring hot water from the fire over it. With snow you didn't have to purify it, unless of course it was yellow. I also made up my thermos of hot coco, which while being heavy, was well worth the weight. We broke down the camp and before heading down the trail we made last trips to the bathroom, one side of the trail for guys, the other for Amy. It was a nice day for a winter hike. We were scheduled for 10 miles, which the guys had thought was way to short when we started, but soon realized that walking through foot deep snow was a lot harder than hiking up a mountain trail. For my part I was defiantly going to be ready to quit when we hit our selected site, just past Johnson creek. We made the creek a bit past two, and stood looking at our camp site. The only thing keeping us from setting up camp was the fact that it was on the other side of the creek, and apparently the spring rains had washed out the footbridge. In the summer it was a simple task to hop from rock to rock or wade the foot deep water. This time of year it had been a very wet and warmer until last week's wintery blast, so the creek was rushing three feet deep and about ten feet wide with liquid ice. There was a thin coat of ice all the way across, maybe a quarter inch or a bit more in thickness, and you could see the water rippling along below the layer. This was not ice that you crossed, not ever! Survival rule number one: In winter survival, you must stay dry and prevent hypothermia at all costs,” I learned this rule very early in life and because of this I always carried my gear and clothes in waterproof or at least water resistant packs or bags. Even so, I wasn't about to try to wade across a three foot deep stream. I might try it in my winter weight gortex hikers if it was six inches deep, but not this. I sent the guys looking for a crossing point both up and down stream. They soon came back indicating they found a downed tree that had been used as a temporary bridge. I followed alone and looked it over. Aside from being slick with snow and ice, it looked sturdy enough. The guys crossed one by one until only Amy and I were left. As usual I was bringing up the rear. Amy stepped onto the log and was almost half way across when a chunk of the icy covering broke loose. Her foot shot out toward the water, and with the heavy backpack on there was no way she would ever recover her balance. I was already jumping feet first into the creek downstream of the point she was falling for before she hit the ice and broke through. The first danger in this is getting sucked under the ice and not being able to get up. I hoped that if I broke the ice enough with my own landing that we would avoid that fatal problem. I watched her go under as my boots hit the ice, fracturing it from shore to shore. I reached for her pack as the current started to carry her past, grabbing and pulling with every ounce of strength I had, pulling her back from under the still solid ice sheet that extended down stream. The cold water started working inside my snow pants and boots, burning like liquid fire where it touched my skin. I could only imagine how badly Amy was as I dragged her sputtering form toward the shore. The guys reached down and helped drag the two of us up the steep slope, water streaming off and out of our clothes. I had been fortunate, only getting wet up to my waist. Amy, on the other hand had been fully submersed, and her body was already reacting to the shock. She was semi-conscious at best, and curling into a fetal position her lips turning blue and her whole body was shaking uncontrollably. I immediately started shouting orders, designating three of the men to build a fire, two of them to get my tent set up and one, Mark; to pull Amy's sleeping bag out and spread it out. I knew what needed to be done, and we didn't have much time. I shucked my backpack and then went to work dragging Amy's pack off her shaking body, tossing it aside as water poured out of every gap. I unzipped my pack and dumped the contents out, along with plenty of water. Fortunately nearly everything in my pack was in Ziploc style waterproof bags. It only took me a second to find what I needed, my camp towel. My next step was to start peeling her water logged outer clothing off with some assistance from Mark, water pouring from the pockets and sleeves as I pulled it off of her. “Mike. Her bag is full of water,”, Mark shouted as he pulled her bag out of its covering. "Ok Get mine then,” I responded as I continued to pull wet outer garments off of her, just tossing them into a heap in the snow. Mark went to work pulling out my bag and stretching it out in the snow. "Put her air mattress down on the snow and then put the sleeping bag on top of it,”, I said as I turned and pulled my own air mattress out and quickly unrolled it. Amy was in bad shape, and I could feel my own body ‘screaming' about the ice water by losing the feeling in my feet. The human body prioritizes blood flow, and the feet are low priority. This was no time for modesty though. I continued to pull Amy's clothing off until I was pulling the final layer from her body, leaving her naked on the air mattress. Mark tried not to stare, but he clearly couldn't help himself as I toweled the excess moisture from her body and stop the acceleration of her loss of body heat. I then picked her unresponsive body up and moved her to my sleeping bag, stuffing her unceremoniously into it, zipping it closed behind her. With that done it was time to take care of myself. I started peeling off wet clothes while I gave Mark directions on what needed to be done, making him repeat back my directions. In order, · get the tents up, · get the fire going, · dry what you can over the fire, · be careful not to burn things, · make hot broth, · there's emergency stuff in my red bag, and finally, · if I become unresponsive, call nine one one and · use my GPS to tell them where we are. The emergency teams would be several hours getting here and by then we would be either dead or recovering. With instructions given and being stripped down naked I wiped off the excess water off my own shivering body. I stepped back into my sopping wet boots and scooped Amy up in my arms, sleeping bag and all. "Bring that air mattress,” I commanded to Mark as I carried her toward the tent that had just been set up. I crawled into the tent with Amy in my arms and set her down. Pulling the air mattress in behind me I stretched her out as best I could and then unzipped the bag. The best thing now was to try to conserve some body heat and get some back into her. With nothing dry for her to wear this was the only thing I could think of to keep her alive. "Ok. Zip us in,” I said as I slid into the bag, trying to straighten her legs and arms out, so I could hold her face to face. Normally a mummy bag is a one person bag, but I tend to like mine roomy and thankfully got myself an oversized bag. I slid down into the bag and pulled her up over me, her cold skin almost painful to touch. "Ok Now go take care of what I told you to do,” I told Mark as I laid back and pulled her to my body, her face resting on my chest and breathing in air from inside the bag. That air would be slightly warmer and should help her. I held her for a long time, her body shaking controllably before I felt like I was making some progress. Her breathing became a bit less ragged and she moved her arms from across her chest between us to having them on my sides and pulling my body against hers. She was still shaking like an imbalanced washing machine, but now her bare chest was against mine, her hard nipples practically poking holes in my chest as she shook. She was still in serious danger, but I felt better about her condition, and my mind started to wander to the situation. Here I was, holding her naked in the same sleeping bag. Somehow when I stripped her down outside it had never occurred to me that I was touching her naked body, something that I might have fantasized about, but never done and never expected to have happen. At the time, my adrenalin was high and my survival training proved itself, as I kept an intense but controlled mindset during a critical emergency. I was able to give leadership guidance to others even as I was in danger for my own life. It was now hours later, and I was mentally decompressing and beginning to be more conscious of the current state I was in. Unfortunately, that line of thought also eventually woke up my previously shriveled dick, which all of a sudden realized that it was nestled into that little gap where her legs met the rest of her body, that ever-present target that was the entrance to all her most private places. Since it had been shrunken to its limit from the cold, as it started to grow once my own body temp recovered, it did so like a missile launching to space, straight into the crevasse of Amy's groin. No matter how much I tried to "think” it to stop, the constant motion of her shivering kept massaging it and caressing the head. I finally gave up and let it have its way, allowing it to work its way up between her legs, the top of it pressing against her pussy. I had to admit that as I warmed up, my mind got more turned on. I had been rubbing her backside for the past hour, to help restore circulation to her body; But I found myself now gently stroking her ass as I lay there. As much as I really wanted to have sex with her, this was defiantly not the time or place. Her core temperature was still in a danger zone and her vital organs could shut down from the shock of hypothermia. I was broken from my thoughts by one of the guys bringing me a cup of hot beef broth and a spoon. I thanked him as he closed the door once again. I was sure I was going to pay hell with the guys forever for being naked with Amy. I rolled us on our sides, my dick still confined between her legs. I unzipped enough to get an arm out and gently spooned the hot liquid to her lips. It took a few small spoonfuls before her mostly frozen brain got the idea and let me put full spoonfuls of the warm liquid into her mouth. By the time I had fed her the whole cup of broth her constant shaking had reduced to sporadic shudders. I wrapped my arms around her, pulling back on top of me. After zipping us up, I pulled her slightly higher so I could get her face nearer the opening of the bag now. I relaxed as I realized I'd become flaccid by the distraction and colder air outside the bag. I was now exhausted and getting very drowsy. Then she moved her legs outward to spread on either side of mine, finally relaxing herself, somewhat. She nuzzled her face into my neck and I felt her breathing slowly change to the regular shallow breathing of sleep. Confident that she was going to be ok, allowed myself to drift off to sleep as well, with Amy still laying directly on top of me. I was dreaming that Amy was changing her clothes in the tent and she crawled over and pulled my sleeping bag open, and mounted me, slowly rocking her hips as she rode me. It was like a wonderful wet dream, until I realized that I wasn't dreaming. My mind slowly pulled me to reality to find that Amy was still zippered tight into my bag with me, and my dick was now somehow buried fully into her. She was no longer cold, but her body was still recovering from shock. She seemed asleep, yet gently rocking her hips, driving her clit into the base of my cock as she nuzzled my neck. I honestly had no recollection of getting this started, but my body was way beyond rational thought. My hands squeezed her firm ass in time with her small rocking motions, the bag limiting how far she could move. Now that I was awakened, it felt like my dick was growing even larger inside her, and her motions were coming more urgent, grinding her pelvis into mine to rub her clit against my dick. I never really had a chance to hold back, my body having been too far stimulated in my sleep to get ahead of it. I pushed her ass down against my dick and with a grunt, started unloading shot after shot of cum into her pussy. This all happened withing seconds of waking up. The feeling of my cum surging into her or the feel of my dick twitching and jumping inside her or the extra contact of pressing her against my dick, or some combination, triggered her own orgasm. With a low groan she shivered all over, a much different shiver than before. I could feel her pussy contracting around my dick, milking it and squeezing the drops of cum from me as her fingers now gently stroked my sides where her arms lay. After several long minutes of our bodies twitching against each other, she sighed contentedly and drifting back off to sleep. I held her tight, not really sure what to think, and at the same time savoring how her soft body pressed against mine and how soft and warm her pussy was around my still partially hard dick. It was after dark when Mark woke me. “Mike,” He said shaking me softly. "Yeah,” I responded groggily. "We have most of the clothes and stuff dry and some food made. Do you want to eat?' "Yeah, why don't you bring us the stuff we were wearing.” “Is she going to be ok?” “Yeah. She's just tired now. Her body heat is restored, but she's been completely exhausted.” “Ok,” He said as he slid out of the tent, returning a few minutes later with a pile of fire warmed clothes. "Here you go.” “Thanks Mark,” I said as he slid out and zipped the door closed behind him. I gently unzipped the sleeping bag and rolled the two of us over on our sides. I started to move away but she pulled me back tighter to her. "No” she cooed groggily. “Easy Amy,” I whispered as I began pulling her arms from around me. She opened her eyes and I saw coherence slowly flood back into them. "Where am I”, she said. It was the first time I sensed that she was truly conscious, since falling into the water. “In the tent. You took a spill into the water,” I whispered. "I did?” she said, in shocked disbelief. “Uh huh.” “I don't remember.” “I'm not surprised. You were suffering from severe hypothermia.” “How did I get out?” “I jumped in after you.” “Didn't you get wet too?” “Yeah, but not as bad as you did. You were all the way under.” She just stared blankly at the roof of the tent for a minute, then slowly she shook her head. “I kind of remember now. I fell off a log and when I looked up I was looking through a window.” “Not a window, ice.” “How did I get out?” “I pulled you out.” “How did I get in here?” she asked as her mind slowly started to put all the pieces together. “I got us here.” “Why am I naked?” “I undressed both of us. All our clothes were soaked.” She looked down at both of our naked fronts and realized that we were in the same sleeping bag naked. “So you undressed me in here?” “Actually, no. Out there. There wasn't any time for modesty, I'm sorry.” “So who saw me naked?” “Besides me? Just Mark. I stuffed you into my sleeping bag as soon as I got you dried off.” “Well, that must have been a thrill for both of you,” She said with a modest frown. "Actually we were just worried about keeping you alive,” I said as I slid out of the sleeping bag and dug through the clothes to find my long underwear and hers. I handed hers to her and then went about putting mine on. She observed my nakedness while I began dressing. "And getting into a sleeping bag naked with me was your idea?” “Yep. Only idea I could think of at the time. It's actually standard protocol for wilderness survival. I didn't figure you'd mind, given the other choice was you would have died within the hour.” “I suppose,” She said as she pulled her long underwear into the sleeping bag. "If you want some privacy, just wait a minute and I'll go out,” I said quietly. "You didn't,” she said. "Didn't what?” “Have me close my eyes or anything before you got dressed.” “Nope, besides, nothing you haven't seen before,” I said as I pulled my winter pants on over my long johns. "They have some food ready if you want some.” “Yes! Actually, I'm starved,” She said as she threw the sleeping bag open and began to pull on her long john top. Once she had her top and bottom on she crawled over to me and kissed me on the cheek. "Thank you.” “For what?” “For everything,” She whispered in my ear before pulling back and staring into my eyes with admiration. "You're welcome,” I answered simply as I helped her pull her now dry snow pants and coat on over her long johns. The last thing to put on was wool socks and then our boots, which were sitting just inside the tent. I crawled out of the tent and then helped her out, walking her over to the fire. The guys were more than happy to see both of us and they let out a big cheer, then made a great fuss over Amy, getting her food and hot cocoa. There was a lot of talk for the next couple hours about the whole incident, all of us working out the stress by talking about it. This was not a ruined leadership training course. The ‘hands-on' impact of this crisis had served to train the team in a way that lectures alone could never have accomplished. One by one, each of the guys talked about how the crisis impacted him, and helped him understand winter survival skills. The men were all really sober-minded, knowing we all still had to get back out of the woods, the next day. When we had warmed by the fire and had our fill of food and had a chance to go to the bathroom, we moved Amy's dried sleeping bag to my tent and I let her get in and settled before coming in to get ready for bed myself. I knew she was awake and watching me, which had a tendency to make me hard. I stripped down naked and then pulled on my sleep clothes before sliding into my sleeping bag and zipping closed. Amy flipped her bag so her she was laying with her head just inches from mine. "Mike,” She whispered. "Can I ask you a question?” “Sure,” I answered with a yawn. "Did we have sex earlier today?” I had dreaded this question. I really didn't know what she remembered or figured out. To be honest, the whole sexual experience with Amy was similar to the wet dreams of my own teen years, when I'd awaken to my ejaculations. Those nocturnal emissions were, more often than not, a disappointing end of marvelous and explicit sex dreams. “Why do you ask?”, I replied. “You didn't answer me,” She whispered. "But I'll answer you first. I half remembered having sex. I've been very ‘out of it', and my memory is still very cloudy, but I'm way to wet for it all to be just me having a sex dream.” “Well,” I whispered. "I was still very cold and shriveled when I fell asleep with you laying over me, and the next thing I knew I was buried very deep inside you and you were straddled & humping me. I have to admit that nature being what it is, I finished within seconds of awakening, even though I don't know how it started.” “I wondered,” She whispered before falling silent. Several long minutes passed before she whispered again. "You know. I haven't had sex for almost five years.” “I'm sorry.” There was silence for a while, then she asked me; “Well, if you were going to start something, how would you do it?” “Well, ” I whispered, stifling another yawn and a pause; “I always have really liked the way your tits look. I'd probably have started by kissing and sucking them.” “Always have?” she asked, raising her head. “Have you seen them before?” It seemed like I had stuck my foot into it this time. Time to fess up. “A few times.” “How many?” she asked, with intense interest. “Oh I don't know. A few.” “Well, why don't you tell me about them, if it's only a few.” “You sure you want to know this?” I was now attempting to get out of talking about it. “Yeah, I do. I mean since I just now found out we just had sex, I guess it's only fair to know what else you've seen.” “Well, first time I saw them was when you were breast feeding Em. I walked in on you accidently while you were changing your shirt after you leaked all over…” “I remember that. I'm not sure who was more startled.” “The next time was when we were at the lake. You remember, you were sharing the tent with us?” “Oh yeah. That summer, What? About six years ago? I forgot about that.” “Uh huh. You were sitting in the tent and the wind blew the divider up. I got to see your whole body while you were putting on your swimsuit.” “Yeah. Nancy had been telling me about how you were always trying to get into her pants when you're outdoors. I got kind of turned on and I couldn't resist flashing you.” “I wondered if it was on purpose,” I asked. "It was. When else,” she redirected, seeking to keep control of the inquiries. "A couple years ago, we were both changing into our swimsuits down at the swimming hole and I accidently watched you change.” “You ‘accidently' watched,” she asked, with a disbelieving tone in her horny voice. "Well, I couldn't help but watch, you looked so sexy striping out there in the woods.” “And you just stood there naked and watched?” “How did you know I was standing there naked? I didn't say that.” Now I was using a disbelieving tone, with a healthy dose of horniness. “Well, I have to be honest… I saw you over there. I took as long as I could changing so you would have time to finish.” “Finish?” “Sure, you think I didn't know you were jacking off over there,” she giggled. "You watched me?” Now we were both feeling guilty and ‘caught'. “Well, I couldn't see what you were doing exactly, but I could tell by the way you were moving what you were doing. It kind of turned me on knowing that I turned you on enough to do that.” “Well, I was turned on, watching you. I didn't know you liked watching me jack off.” “Oh, if you only knew,” she said whistling silently. "What does that mean,” I asked; sensing that she had more knowledge to reveal. "Well, you remember when Nancy was gone for a month last year?” “Yeah.” “Do you remember having to run out to the kitchen to pull your food out of the oven? I'd said that I's just come over to use the computer after you came out of the bedroom?” “Yeah.” I said with an uneasy feeling. “Well, I was actually in the house already. I guess you didn't hear me come in. I was sitting in your living room, in your chair on the computer when you came naked into the kitchen, your dick was hard and all shiny with lotion. You didn't even see me before you ran back into the bedroom. I snuck down the hall until I could see your reflection in the bedroom mirror.” I did remember when she was talking about. I had just gotten done jacking off to a good video of a guy fucking a huge set of tits when she came over. “You watched?” “I not only watched, I pulled my panties down and had my skirt pulled up. I came the same time you did. God! I came so hard watching your cum spurting up in the air like that!” “I guess we watched each other a few times then.” “But I never let on. I didn't want to ruin our friendship.” she said. “I guess so.” I said quietly. We lay there a long time silently thinking and looking at each other. To be continued. By m storyman x for Literotica
As Hurricane Laura raged toward Louisiana’s coast in the US, the warnings were dire. One sheriff, noting the 150-mile-per-hour winds, issued this jolting message: “Please evacuate. But if you choose to stay and we can't get to you, write your name, address, social security number and next of kin and put it in a Ziploc bag in your pocket. Praying that it does not come to this.” Rescue crews knew that once Laura hit land, there was little they could do. They could only watch the storm’s destructive path—helpless in its wake. Whenever God’s people faced calamity in the Old Testament, however, His words were much different, far more certain and hopeful. Whether they faced natural disasters or the effects of her own rebellion, God promised His presence in the midst of their destruction. He said that He would “look with compassion on all her ruins; [and] will make her deserts like Eden, her wastelands like the garden of the Lord” (Isaiah 51:3). And more, God always assured His people of the rescue and healing that would certainly follow if they would only trust Him. Even though “the heavens [would] vanish like smoke,” God said, His “salvation [would] last forever” (v. 6). Whatever the damage, His ultimate goodness toward them would not be thwarted, ever. God doesn’t safeguard us from hardship, but He does promise to never leave us alone, not even in the wildest storm. His restorative healing extends far beyond the ruins.
This week on Dopey! After years of Pursuit we finally got chemist, author, TV host, Documentarian and Director - Hamilton Morris of Vice and HBO's trailblazing show Hamilton's Pharmacopia to come to my Dad's house! He tells of how he became a PSYCHONAUT and also why he hates the term PSYCHONAUT among tons of other stuff psychedelic and chemical. PLUS Adversity Advantage host Doug Bopst is back to talk New Years Resolutions, fitness and more! On this brand new episode of the good old Dopey Show! There are a few Dopeywood Tickets left: https://buytickets.at/thedopeyfoundation/1484803 Join Patreon at: https://www.patreon.com/dopeypodcast Here is what AI said: Dopey Podcast Episode Show Notes:
In this chaotic and laugh-out-loud episode I am joined by Denver Riley and Gaspare Randazzo for an unforgettable conversation about teaching, creativity, and hilariously unconventional approaches to classroom life. From Gaspare's infamous “radiator cuisine” featuring Ziploc-bagged pizza and loose hot dogs to a surprising deep dive into teacher fashion choices, we cover it all. We discuss everything from historical trivia to Christmas memories, with plenty of outrageous stories along the way, including why a Nathan's hot dog sponsorship might just be Gaspare's ultimate dream. Takeaways: Humor Keeps Teachers Sane: From radiator-cooked meals to unconventional classroom management techniques, teachers find unique ways to keep things interesting for themselves and their students. Embrace the Chaos: Gaspar's approach to teaching is proof that embracing the unexpected can create memorable, impactful moments in the classroom. Teacher Lore Runs Deep: Teachers have hidden quirks and fascinating backstories that emerge in the most surprising ways, showing their humanity beyond the classroom. Balancing Professionalism and Fun: Even while maintaining control of their classrooms, teachers can inject humor and personality into their daily routines. Holiday Trivia Sparks Joy: The episode's lighthearted trivia segments highlight the importance of creating space for fun and connection, both in teaching and life. — Want to Learn more about Denver Riley and Gaspare Randazzo? Denver: @keepingupwithms.b_ Gaspare: @standuprandazzo — Don't be shy come say hi: andrea@human-content.com and podcasterandrea.com Watch on YouTube: @educatorandrea Listen Anywhere You Podcast: Apple, Spotify, PodChaser, etc. — A Human Content Production Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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Part Two. I sit down with Nina Sossamon-Pogue, a former professional gymnast who started her journey at just four years old and went on to join the U.S. Gymnastics Team. In her own words, gymnastics is a perfect example of resilience—you literally fall down and get back up, all day, every day, as you learn new skills. That mindset became part of Nina's DNA, and it carried her through some incredible twists and turns. From the heartbreak of not making the Olympic team to leaving the sport for good after an injury, she faced one identity crisis after another. But she didn't stop there. Nina built a successful journalism career that spanned 17 years, only to be let go, despite being a beloved news anchor. And instead of staying down, she jumped into tech—starting from scratch—and reinvented herself yet again. Yesterday, in part one of our conversation, we looked into Nina's journey. Her training, her triumphs, and her setbacks. Then, today, in part two, we'll explore the tools Nina has developed over the years to help others rise above their challenges. Tools like the Reverse Resume and Successful Timeline. We're not talking about your typical resume or conventional ideas of success—we're going beyond that. Key Highlights of Our Interview: Why the Reverse Resume Matters “When hiring, I ask, ‘What's something you've overcome?' That's where the magic is. Those bottom-line moments define the strength you bring to every table.” The Power of Perspective: Achievements and Challenges Together” “Your resume tells one story, but your reverse resume tells the deeper truth: what you've overcome. Together, they define not just what you've done, but who you are.” “Success vs. a Successful Lifetime: Spot the Difference” “A nice car, a big house, a shiny jet—that's success. But a successful lifetime? That's the legacy, the relationships, the impact. The timeline reveals the whole messy, marvelous story.” Life is a Bag of Legos “Imagine dumping out a Ziploc bag full of Legos. Same colors, same shapes, same pieces. Yet, you'd build something entirely different from me. That's your life—it's uniquely yours to assemble.” Connect with us: Host: Vince Chan | Guest: Nina Sossamon-Pogue Chief Change Officer: Make Change Ambitiously. Experiential Human Intelligence for Growth Progressives Global Top 3% Podcast on Listen Notes World's #1 Career Podcast on Apple Top 1: US, CA, MX, IE, HU, AT, CH, FI, JP 2 Millions+ Downloads 50+ Countries
Karen Read, charged twice in the death of Boston Police Officer John O'Keefe, has opened up about her ongoing legal battle, strained personal life, and unyielding quest for justice in an interview with *Vanity Fair*. Speaking to reporter Julie Miller, who was granted unrestricted access, Read shared insights into her life since O'Keefe's death and the impact of her highly publicized case. In what Vanity Fair described as a series of candid, in-home interviews, Read, 44, invited Miller to her former Mansfield residence in August. Read opened up about her relationship with O'Keefe, her pending retrial, and the toll her legal battles have taken. Miller reported that Read, who has been staying with family and friends, chose her previous home as the setting for the interviews. She was joined by a volunteer security guard, described by Miller as someone “who looks like John Cena and has a license to carry.” Facing an uncertain future, Read has prepared for the possibility of another arrest, keeping a Ziploc “go bag” on hand with essentials: Advil, melatonin, a toothbrush and toothpaste, a hairbrush, lipstick, and foundation, as well as her lawyer's phone number. “I'm not backing down now,” Read told Vanity Fair, despite the looming prospect of a life sentence if convicted. According to Read, she won't entertain the idea of a plea deal, even under the risk of severe penalties. “As scary as a potential conviction is, I will go to jail for something I didn't do before I plea out. I will never give them that win.” Read, a former Fidelity Investments analyst and Bentley University finance professor, has assembled a team of criminal defense attorneys, but the cost of her legal defense has been steep. She has sold her home to offset expenses and is now living off the remains of her 401(k), accruing more than $5 million in legal fees. “If I can get the entire truth of this case out in the public forum, that, to me, is priceless,” she said. At the core of her defense are allegations that O'Keefe, her boyfriend of two years, was the victim of a violent cover-up involving other Boston police officers. Prosecutors argue that Read deliberately ran him over in her SUV after an evening out on January 29, 2022, a claim her defense refutes, asserting that O'Keefe was beaten by others. In July, her case resulted in a mistrial, and her legal team has appealed to Massachusetts' Supreme Judicial Court to dismiss two of the charges ahead of a scheduled retrial in January. Reflecting on her relationship with O'Keefe, Read described challenges in their dynamic, with disagreements over his role as a disciplinarian for his niece and nephew, who lived with him. According to Read, O'Keefe struggled to mourn his late sister, the children's mother, and remained hesitant about seeking therapy. “I think that's part of his stock,” Read told Vanity Fair, “this Irish Catholic, south-of-Boston, rub-some-dirt-on-it, drink-through-your-problems mindset.” In detailing the night of O'Keefe's death, Read recalled attending a gathering at the Waterfall Bar & Grille in Canton, after which she and O'Keefe joined others at an afterparty. Feeling uneasy upon arrival, she sent O'Keefe inside, only to leave after he didn't return. She admitted to a fleeting thought that he might be “screwing around,” explaining, “I didn't think he was physically incapacitated.” She left him multiple voicemails before heading home. Prosecutors, who highlight Read's flirty exchanges with O'Keefe's acquaintance Brian Higgins, argue that these interactions hint at motives for the crime. In response, Read openly admitted to seeking validation from Higgins. “I knew Higgins found me attractive,” she said, “It helped me emotionally validate myself, which is embarrassing to admit.” Amid the stress of her case, Read has remained steadfast about her innocence. Addressing rumors that she implicated herself in texts, she explained to Vanity Fair that she and her attorney, David Yannetti, only began communicating after police seized her phone. She said she initially told her parents, “If I did anything in any way, I'll pay my dues. That's how this should work. I want to know the truth — good, bad, ugly.” Read's retrial is set to bring her story back into the public eye, with high stakes and public scrutiny on both her legal and personal lives. Want to listen to ALL of our podcasts AD-FREE? Subscribe through APPLE PODCASTS, and try it for three days free: https://tinyurl.com/ycw626tj Follow Our Other Cases: https://www.truecrimetodaypod.com The latest on The Downfall of Diddy, The Trial of Karen Read, The Murder Of Maddie Soto, Catching the Long Island Serial Killer, Awaiting Admission: BTK's Unconfessed Crimes, Delphi Murders: Inside the Crime, Chad & Lori Daybell, The Murder of Ana Walshe, Alex Murdaugh, Bryan Kohberger, Lucy Letby, Kouri Richins, Malevolent Mormon Mommys, The Menendez Brothers: Quest For Justice, The Murder of Stephen Smith, The Murder of Madeline Kingsbury, The Murder Of Sandra Birchmore, and much more! Listen at https://www.truecrimetodaypod.com
Hidden Killers With Tony Brueski | True Crime News & Commentary
Karen Read, charged twice in the death of Boston Police Officer John O'Keefe, has opened up about her ongoing legal battle, strained personal life, and unyielding quest for justice in an interview with *Vanity Fair*. Speaking to reporter Julie Miller, who was granted unrestricted access, Read shared insights into her life since O'Keefe's death and the impact of her highly publicized case. In what Vanity Fair described as a series of candid, in-home interviews, Read, 44, invited Miller to her former Mansfield residence in August. Read opened up about her relationship with O'Keefe, her pending retrial, and the toll her legal battles have taken. Miller reported that Read, who has been staying with family and friends, chose her previous home as the setting for the interviews. She was joined by a volunteer security guard, described by Miller as someone “who looks like John Cena and has a license to carry.” Facing an uncertain future, Read has prepared for the possibility of another arrest, keeping a Ziploc “go bag” on hand with essentials: Advil, melatonin, a toothbrush and toothpaste, a hairbrush, lipstick, and foundation, as well as her lawyer's phone number. “I'm not backing down now,” Read told Vanity Fair, despite the looming prospect of a life sentence if convicted. According to Read, she won't entertain the idea of a plea deal, even under the risk of severe penalties. “As scary as a potential conviction is, I will go to jail for something I didn't do before I plea out. I will never give them that win.” Read, a former Fidelity Investments analyst and Bentley University finance professor, has assembled a team of criminal defense attorneys, but the cost of her legal defense has been steep. She has sold her home to offset expenses and is now living off the remains of her 401(k), accruing more than $5 million in legal fees. “If I can get the entire truth of this case out in the public forum, that, to me, is priceless,” she said. At the core of her defense are allegations that O'Keefe, her boyfriend of two years, was the victim of a violent cover-up involving other Boston police officers. Prosecutors argue that Read deliberately ran him over in her SUV after an evening out on January 29, 2022, a claim her defense refutes, asserting that O'Keefe was beaten by others. In July, her case resulted in a mistrial, and her legal team has appealed to Massachusetts' Supreme Judicial Court to dismiss two of the charges ahead of a scheduled retrial in January. Reflecting on her relationship with O'Keefe, Read described challenges in their dynamic, with disagreements over his role as a disciplinarian for his niece and nephew, who lived with him. According to Read, O'Keefe struggled to mourn his late sister, the children's mother, and remained hesitant about seeking therapy. “I think that's part of his stock,” Read told Vanity Fair, “this Irish Catholic, south-of-Boston, rub-some-dirt-on-it, drink-through-your-problems mindset.” In detailing the night of O'Keefe's death, Read recalled attending a gathering at the Waterfall Bar & Grille in Canton, after which she and O'Keefe joined others at an afterparty. Feeling uneasy upon arrival, she sent O'Keefe inside, only to leave after he didn't return. She admitted to a fleeting thought that he might be “screwing around,” explaining, “I didn't think he was physically incapacitated.” She left him multiple voicemails before heading home. Prosecutors, who highlight Read's flirty exchanges with O'Keefe's acquaintance Brian Higgins, argue that these interactions hint at motives for the crime. In response, Read openly admitted to seeking validation from Higgins. “I knew Higgins found me attractive,” she said, “It helped me emotionally validate myself, which is embarrassing to admit.” Amid the stress of her case, Read has remained steadfast about her innocence. Addressing rumors that she implicated herself in texts, she explained to Vanity Fair that she and her attorney, David Yannetti, only began communicating after police seized her phone. She said she initially told her parents, “If I did anything in any way, I'll pay my dues. That's how this should work. I want to know the truth — good, bad, ugly.” Read's retrial is set to bring her story back into the public eye, with high stakes and public scrutiny on both her legal and personal lives. Want to listen to ALL of our podcasts AD-FREE? Subscribe through APPLE PODCASTS, and try it for three days free: https://tinyurl.com/ycw626tj Follow Our Other Cases: https://www.truecrimetodaypod.com The latest on The Downfall of Diddy, The Trial of Karen Read, The Murder Of Maddie Soto, Catching the Long Island Serial Killer, Awaiting Admission: BTK's Unconfessed Crimes, Delphi Murders: Inside the Crime, Chad & Lori Daybell, The Murder of Ana Walshe, Alex Murdaugh, Bryan Kohberger, Lucy Letby, Kouri Richins, Malevolent Mormon Mommys, The Menendez Brothers: Quest For Justice, The Murder of Stephen Smith, The Murder of Madeline Kingsbury, The Murder Of Sandra Birchmore, and much more! Listen at https://www.truecrimetodaypod.com
Karen Read, charged twice in the death of Boston Police Officer John O'Keefe, has opened up about her ongoing legal battle, strained personal life, and unyielding quest for justice in an interview with *Vanity Fair*. Speaking to reporter Julie Miller, who was granted unrestricted access, Read shared insights into her life since O'Keefe's death and the impact of her highly publicized case. In what Vanity Fair described as a series of candid, in-home interviews, Read, 44, invited Miller to her former Mansfield residence in August. Read opened up about her relationship with O'Keefe, her pending retrial, and the toll her legal battles have taken. Miller reported that Read, who has been staying with family and friends, chose her previous home as the setting for the interviews. She was joined by a volunteer security guard, described by Miller as someone “who looks like John Cena and has a license to carry.” Facing an uncertain future, Read has prepared for the possibility of another arrest, keeping a Ziploc “go bag” on hand with essentials: Advil, melatonin, a toothbrush and toothpaste, a hairbrush, lipstick, and foundation, as well as her lawyer's phone number. “I'm not backing down now,” Read told Vanity Fair, despite the looming prospect of a life sentence if convicted. According to Read, she won't entertain the idea of a plea deal, even under the risk of severe penalties. “As scary as a potential conviction is, I will go to jail for something I didn't do before I plea out. I will never give them that win.” Read, a former Fidelity Investments analyst and Bentley University finance professor, has assembled a team of criminal defense attorneys, but the cost of her legal defense has been steep. She has sold her home to offset expenses and is now living off the remains of her 401(k), accruing more than $5 million in legal fees. “If I can get the entire truth of this case out in the public forum, that, to me, is priceless,” she said. At the core of her defense are allegations that O'Keefe, her boyfriend of two years, was the victim of a violent cover-up involving other Boston police officers. Prosecutors argue that Read deliberately ran him over in her SUV after an evening out on January 29, 2022, a claim her defense refutes, asserting that O'Keefe was beaten by others. In July, her case resulted in a mistrial, and her legal team has appealed to Massachusetts' Supreme Judicial Court to dismiss two of the charges ahead of a scheduled retrial in January. Reflecting on her relationship with O'Keefe, Read described challenges in their dynamic, with disagreements over his role as a disciplinarian for his niece and nephew, who lived with him. According to Read, O'Keefe struggled to mourn his late sister, the children's mother, and remained hesitant about seeking therapy. “I think that's part of his stock,” Read told Vanity Fair, “this Irish Catholic, south-of-Boston, rub-some-dirt-on-it, drink-through-your-problems mindset.” In detailing the night of O'Keefe's death, Read recalled attending a gathering at the Waterfall Bar & Grille in Canton, after which she and O'Keefe joined others at an afterparty. Feeling uneasy upon arrival, she sent O'Keefe inside, only to leave after he didn't return. She admitted to a fleeting thought that he might be “screwing around,” explaining, “I didn't think he was physically incapacitated.” She left him multiple voicemails before heading home. Prosecutors, who highlight Read's flirty exchanges with O'Keefe's acquaintance Brian Higgins, argue that these interactions hint at motives for the crime. In response, Read openly admitted to seeking validation from Higgins. “I knew Higgins found me attractive,” she said, “It helped me emotionally validate myself, which is embarrassing to admit.” Amid the stress of her case, Read has remained steadfast about her innocence. Addressing rumors that she implicated herself in texts, she explained to Vanity Fair that she and her attorney, David Yannetti, only began communicating after police seized her phone. She said she initially told her parents, “If I did anything in any way, I'll pay my dues. That's how this should work. I want to know the truth — good, bad, ugly.” Read's retrial is set to bring her story back into the public eye, with high stakes and public scrutiny on both her legal and personal lives. Want to listen to ALL of our podcasts AD-FREE? Subscribe through APPLE PODCASTS, and try it for three days free: https://tinyurl.com/ycw626tj Follow Our Other Cases: https://www.truecrimetodaypod.com The latest on The Downfall of Diddy, The Trial of Karen Read, The Murder Of Maddie Soto, Catching the Long Island Serial Killer, Awaiting Admission: BTK's Unconfessed Crimes, Delphi Murders: Inside the Crime, Chad & Lori Daybell, The Murder of Ana Walshe, Alex Murdaugh, Bryan Kohberger, Lucy Letby, Kouri Richins, Malevolent Mormon Mommys, The Menendez Brothers: Quest For Justice, The Murder of Stephen Smith, The Murder of Madeline Kingsbury, The Murder Of Sandra Birchmore, and much more! Listen at https://www.truecrimetodaypod.com
Meet Keith Lorren, a.k.a. The Spice King on Buy It Now. With his aromatic cooking seasonings, he swooned a panel of industry judges, complete with a live cooking demo and an original song. We delve into how his vibrant personality and unique approach won him a spot in the Buy It Now store and a $20,000 prize. Tune in for an inspiring story of perseverance and creativity that might just ignite your own entrepreneurial dreams. You can watch The Spice King's episode on the Buy it Now show titled: Turning Up the Spice.Tune in and get inspired by the real stories behind the entrepreneurs and products featured on Buy It Now. You can find winning products on the Buy It Now Store. Follow TISB: Behind the Buy on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts and make sure to watch Buy It Now on Prime Video. In this episode you'll discover: (03:28): Keith's culinary passion stems from a rich family history of cooking, highlighting the importance of heritage in his business journey.(05:46): Overcoming financial hurdles, Keith shares how he used creative strategies like selling Ziploc bags of spices to fund his dream before scaling up.(10:11) His theatrical pitch included a catchy original song, demonstrating the power of creativity in capturing audience attention and standing out in a competitive space.(16:11): After winning the $20,000 prize, Keith immediately focused on improving his product and packaging, showcasing his commitment to quality and customer satisfaction.
Lisa Schlosberg, an emotional eating coach and licensed social worker, shares her journey from personal trainer to helping clients heal their relationship with food. She explores how trauma, stress, and emotional well-being shape eating habits, while offering actionable tips for overcoming food challenges, understanding trauma-informed care, and reclaiming your body. Tune in to learn how self-care and mindful eating can lead to transformative healing.If you have any questions about this episode or want to get some of the resources we mentioned, head over to LesleyLogan.co/podcast. If you have any comments or questions about the Be It pod shoot us a message at beit@lesleylogan.co. And as always, if you're enjoying the show please share it with someone who you think would enjoy it as well. It is your continued support that will help us continue to help others. Thank you so much! Never miss another show by subscribing at LesleyLogan.co/subscribe.In this episode you will learn about:Lisa's journey with emotional eating and her 150-pound weight loss.The impact of trauma and stress on your relationship with food.Tips for overcoming food obsession and disordered eating.The importance of creating safety and control in trauma-informed care.How to reconnect with your body through mindful eating.Why prioritizing self-care is essential for business owners and leaders.Episode References/Links:Lisa Schlosberg InstagramLisa Schlosberg TikTokLisa Schlosberg FacebookLisa Schlosberg WebsiteLisa Schlosberg YouTubeOut of the Cave PodcastGuest Bio:Lisa Schlosberg embodies the new paradigm of health and healing from a heart-centered lens. She empowers her clients and global community to use their struggles with food and body image as a path to rebuilding the mind-body connection so that they can access deeper authenticity, exercise personal power, and embody a life of freedom. Having lost and maintained 150 pounds for more than a decade by healing her relationship with food (through emotional healing, somatic experiencing, mindset shifts, and more), Lisa founded Out of the Cave, LLC., where she combines her comprehensive expertise as a Social Worker (LMSW), Certified Personal Trainer, Integrative Nutrition Holistic Health Coach, Yoga Teacher, and Public Speaker to guide emotional eaters and chronic dieters back to physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual alignment. Over the last few years, Lisa's signature 14-week online group coaching program has served more than 200 people over 10 countries through the transformational process of healing, inspiring a revolution in mind-body-soul health and helping thousands return to wholeness. If you enjoyed this episode, make sure and give us a five star rating and leave us a review on iTunes, Podcast Addict, Podchaser or Castbox. DEALS! DEALS! DEALS! DEALS!Check out all our Preferred Vendors & Special Deals from Clair Sparrow, Sensate, Lyfefuel BeeKeeper's Naturals, Sauna Space, HigherDose, AG1 and ToeSox Be in the know with all the workshops at OPCBe It Till You See It Podcast SurveyBe a part of Lesley's Pilates MentorshipFREE Ditching Busy Webinar Resources:Watch the Be It Till You See It podcast on YouTube!Lesley Logan websiteBe It Till You See It PodcastOnline Pilates Classes by Lesley LoganOnline Pilates Classes by Lesley Logan on YouTubeProfitable Pilates Follow Us on Social Media:InstagramThe Be It Till You See It Podcast YouTube channelFacebookLinkedInThe OPC YouTube Channel Episode Transcript:Lisa Schlosberg 0:00 We're not going for fearless. We're going for brave. We're going for courageous. That I can do. So feel the fear and do it anyway. That's something I can do.Lesley Logan 0:09 Welcome to the Be It Till You See It podcast where we talk about taking messy action, knowing that perfect is boring. I'm Lesley Logan, Pilates instructor and fitness business coach. I've trained thousands of people around the world and the number one thing I see stopping people from achieving anything is self-doubt. My friends, action brings clarity and it's the antidote to fear. Each week, my guest will bring bold, executable, intrinsic and targeted steps that you can use to put yourself first and Be It Till You See It. It's a practice, not a perfect. Let's get started. Lesley Logan 0:51 Hi, Be It, babe. You are gonna love our guest today. She is freaking phenomenal. I just, I like, find myself just like, listening to her and like, just, oh, it's my turn. It's my turn to talk. It's my turn to say something. I don't want to have Be It Till You See It be about weight loss, but not talking about that sometimes what we don't discuss is how having interesting ways of not understanding how we fuel ourselves or what the way we eat can affect us can actually keep you from being it till you see it. We had this really amazing conversation with Lisa Schlosberg today, and she is a trauma informed coach, but also, like when you, she'll introduce herself, and her certifications are vast and phenomenal, and one of the few people in this world that I think has such an outlook on bodies and eating and food and all these things in a way that, like, it's not even that, it's no judgment. It is completely like, how do we make you be the best version of yourself and not like on the outside, but on the inside, on the brain capacity? Because you are a brave and courageous human who has many, many things to do in this world. And so I hope you enjoy this conversation. I think it will enlighten you in so many ways. I know it enlightens me. And if how you eat, or your relationship with food is affecting you from showing up in this world in the best version of yourself. And I'm not talking the outside version. I'm talking the inside version, if it's keeping you, if it's distracting you, if you're more focused on that than on the things you want to do, you'll hear me talk about my story, like if I can't do the podcast or find the guests, or think about the future, because I'm busy obsessing with something that has to do with eating, then I can't help the people I'm here on this planet to help. And so I wanted to have this conversation, because I do know that there might be some of you who are struggling out there, and if you're not, I think it's a really awesome conversation to listen to, because there are people in your lives who are and even though we can't change things for them, we can be informed in a way that allows us to be supportive. And you'll hear Lisa's roommates were those supportive people in her life at one point. So here is Lisa Schlosberg. Lesley Logan 2:55 All right, Be It babe, this is going to be a fun conversation. I can tell you, because I've already talked with our amazing guests, and she and I are our best friends from a different life. I know it and get us in a room, it's gonna be a lot of fun. That's what I'm gonna say. Lisa Schlosberg is our guest today, and I want you to tell everyone who you are and what you rock at. Lisa Schlosberg 3:12 Thank you. Thanks for having me. Okay, who I am. My name is Lisa Schlosberg, you nailed it. I am these days. I'm calling myself a trauma informed, emotional eating coach in terms of the credentials. I'm a licensed social worker. I started as a personal trainer, became an integrative health coach, and now I work with people who are struggling with their relationship with food and eating and body image in all capacities. So that is who I am, and also what I rock at. And I could, I could tell you more but I guess we'll leave it there for right now. Lesley Logan 3:42 First of all, it sounds like you really like to learn. Lisa Schlosberg 3:45 I do. Lesley Logan 3:47 You went to a lot of school, but I love I do want to get into the journey, because I have worked, I'm a Pilates instructor, and so when I started teaching, of course, everyone came to me for weight loss, and I kept going so science is a thing, and I know that all the websites say that working out can help you lose weight, and it's true, it's part of the journey, but it's not the journey, and there's so much to it. So was that the impetus from you being a personal trainer to the all these things, or, like, how did that, how did you go okay, I'm done counting squats. I'd like to and not to knock, not to, like, the little personal training, but you know. Lisa Schlosberg 4:21 Yes, yes, I hear you. I hear you. Yeah. So my work, very much, like most of us, is informed by my own lived experience. So if we're going according to the BMI chart, I was a morbidly obese child and teenager, so I was over 300 pounds when I was 17, and when I got to college, I really swung the pendulum from overeating to under eating, and then I became very obsessive and controlling and rigid around food, and I lost 150 pounds. And that part felt good for a while, but that's when it got really interesting, because when I had to recover my body from rapid, extreme weight loss and starvation and malnourishment, things got very complicated and confusing, because now I was instructed to eat more and exercise less, when my entire life, I was told to eat less and exercise more. And in that process, I started really feeling feelings. A lot of people who've been through recovery for addiction have similar experiences where you know when you stop drinking, a lot of the feelings that you were numbing with alcohol come up. And I was having that experience, but with food and eating and so part of the long story short answer to your question is at around that time, I was really interested in personal training because I liked working out, and I had lost a lot of weight, and I felt really empowered in the gym, and I wanted to help people, and that was the version of it that it took at that level of consciousness. But as I worked through a lot of my own disordered eating and body image stuff, I learned a lot about the mind body connection and trauma and stress and the relationship that that has on our relationship with food and eating. And so I just kept getting more and more interested in what's going on with my clients, mentally and emotionally and spiritually and socially, because I was realizing that people were not getting stuck in the physical dimension. People were not getting stuck and their answers, you know, they also weren't being fulfilled in the physical dimension by getting a six-pack. And so I just kept kind of getting deeper and deeper into the human experience. And where are we imbalanced? What are we lacking? What are we looking for ultimately, because I had, I got the body that I wanted, and I was, at the same time the least happy and healthy I'd ever been, and also at the lowest weight I'd ever been. So I had a lot of figuring things out to do, and that's kind of how I got there. Lesley Logan 6:55 Yeah, thank you for sharing your journey. I think one of the things having been around a lot of friends who did the physique competitions, and you just look at these men and women these physique competitions, and not a single one of them was happy. Most of them have a story about crying in their car and eating a potato like a sweet potato that's cold or plain chicken out of a Ziploc bag, and like just sounds miserable, and yet, those are the bodies that people, I thought we kind of got past it, but it feels like we're back to like that. And it's interesting, like, even at my thinnest, my lowest weight, and my God, if we can just fucking grab the BMI, be great? There was no joy. There was no joy. It means there was a lot of obsession. And it was a, like, a there's a lot of planning. And like, when am I eating what? And when am I working out, and when am I doing this? And there wasn't a lot of living. There wasn't like, a surprise in the day of like, who could I possibly meet? Or there was never, you never were like, where do you want to eat? You wouldn't go, oh, let's try a new place. That wasn't happening in that life. I mean, do you mind sharing like, I feel like there's a be it till you see it in here, of like, how did you kind of, like, go, how did you for because we, I'm sure there are so many people listening who have either they're given up. They're not trying to yo yo anymore. They're trying to accept themselves. I do think that there's, I try very hard on this podcast to, like, really, it's not just body positivity. Like, just tell yourself you're beautiful, but like, just loving yourself. But how did you be until you see it to love yourself, because there that's a journey that take, that could take forever. Lisa Schlosberg 8:36 Yeah, it's so great to be asked this question, because, as I was, you know, thinking about being here and sharing this story, when I think about my probably number one, be it example in my own life, was exactly at this point, like your radar is going off, because that is exactly what it was, because I remember at that point, and now, you know, I know a lot about how the brain science works And the neurobiology of addiction and food and things like that. But at the time, all I knew was that I was so obsessed about being in control of food and eating, and so it felt very scary and threatening, and to no exaggeration, it felt like life or death to know every single calorie I was eating, every single step I took, every single calorie I burned. That, to your point, is exactly what my life was like. That was all that was going on in my head. So when I realized that, A. that sucked and I didn't want to live that way anymore, and B. it was not sustainable for me. I didn't want to be 30, 40, 50, 60, 70 years old, still counting every calorie, I started really thinking long term, who is the person this is like, where it's all going to wrap up with this episode too. It's like, who do I want to be? Who is the person that I want to be, and what would she be doing? And I remember, like, a specific example, where at the time, I was in college, and I lived very close to a frozen yogurt place, and that was like the thing, right? So all my friends who are not crazy rigid and restrictive about food and eating would, on a random Tuesday night be like, let's go get froyo. And at the time, it was like, absolutely not. I will not join. I will not be a part of that. And if I do, I won't have any, and if I have any, I have to account for every single calorie of it earlier in the day. But then I started realizing I do not want to be doing this five years from now, 10 years from now. So how do I access and embody what the person I want to be would do, and what the person I want to be would do, would go eat Froyo, and she would be scared and she would be anxious. We're not going for fearless. We're going for brave. We're going for courageous. That I can do. So feel the fear and do it anyway, that's something I can do. And so I remember consciously choosing to go live my life and be spontaneous and hang out with my friends and eat some froyo, because that's what I needed to do to actually become that person and feel safe doing it. And I think about a lot of that period of my life was really thinking way long term and realizing and recognizing I don't want to be the person that gets on the scale multiple times a day. I don't even want to be the person that gets on the scale once a day. I don't want the scale in my life. And so where, where am I today, versus where do I want to be in the future? And just starting to identify, what are some of the things that I could do to get myself there. And another specific example that point in my life was I lived with a few roommates who were my best friends at the time, and when I realized I had a very addictive compulsive relationship with the scale. I gave it to them, and I asked them to hide it from me, and I was allowed to step on the scale one time a week, and then I would give it back to them, and they would hide it, and it was like little things like this that were just being it. I don't, I, right now, feel very scared and attached to the scale back then, but I didn't want to live that way anymore, so I identified how I could shift things and just act into it. And then slowly but surely, my brain learned that it was actually safe to release that kind of control. And slowly but surely, I got there. But that's like the number one example I think about. I stopped getting on the scale, I stopped dieting. I stopped counting calories, I stopped, I just, I thought about it like abstinence from the addiction to dieting, and I had to experience withdrawal from that addiction. Lesley Logan 12:34 Which (inaudible) much time in your day.Lisa Schlosberg 12:37 Yeah, oh my god. Time, space, energy, resource, everything, everything. So I like to also be really honest about this with people. When they say, you know, if I don't get on the scale, I'm going to be really anxious about it. I'm like, well, yeah, that's the withdrawal. Your comfort right now is getting from getting on the scale. So if you're not stepping on it, you'll probably feel uncomfortable. That's part of it. Just because withdrawal is hard, is not a good reason to keep doing drugs, as I like to say. So that's what I would say to that. Lesley Logan 13:04 Oh yeah. I have some dear friends who are, like, amazing coaches, and they help people with macros, and I was not having as much energy as I used to have. My strength was also like, not so great. And I was at the gym and I was not able to lift as heavy as I was. And I was like, I am getting older, like I turned 40, but I'm not that old. And it, what is this? And so I, like, you know, inquired, because she's really smart. I see her working out, and, you know, she's home. She sent me the whole packet, and I looked at all of it, and I was like, there is no way I can count macros like this. Are you nuts? Like I, throughout the day, I have to go to this calculator and put it in. Yeah, they've made it easier now. Now you could scan a barcode and it puts all the things in there, but, like, I'm trying not to eat processed food, so there's no barcode. It just began this thing. And I was just like, I have a million emails to write, so I can either write those emails or I could do this. And I was like, and this might not even be the reason why I don't have energy and I'm losing strength. And thankfully, I had this moment where, like, this is going to take me down this other path that is going to keep me from being it till I see it, because the person I want to be in this world does not count their macros. And by the way, anybody who's counting macros, if that is helpful for you, and it's not an addiction, and it's not distracting you from being this amazing person, like, I'm not here to take that away from you. But for me, it is a problem. It is like getting back on the addiction wagon. And so I went and got my blood work done, and wouldn't you know, I just didn't have a lot of testosterone or progesterone. You fix those two fucking things, you have energy and strength again. So the only macro I joke about is, like, I count protein like it is a fucking like, and then once I get some enough protein, I'm like, and now we're having this, but like, not only because protein is so fucking hard to have in our lives, and ladies, we need it, but I just was like, I cannot count the calories. I cannot count how much fat I'm getting. This is not how I want to go because who I want to be in this world is not obsessed with that. It is literally helping propel people's lives forward, and this is taking me away from giving to people like that. So thank you. It's. A fucking journey. You gotta but you have to know. What does it? Can you tell people, just in case, like because a trauma informed coach like you are, what does that mean in your space? Because we've heard it in different types of therapists, but what does that mean in your world?Lisa Schlosberg 15:12 So part of the reason that I use that is because I am a licensed social worker. I've been trained as a therapist, and I understand how the mind-body system works. I say that because I'm not just someone who like read a book about trauma once I know what I'm doing in that sense, but the reason that I specifically talk about it in the work that I do around food and eating is because trauma informed work is really about having people feel safe. That's the foundation of it all. So it means that the client or the patient is in charge. They have control, they have agency. They feel safe. And so the reason that matters to me is because for so many people, myself included, food and eating is a coping mechanism, the same way that dieting and restricting can be a coping mechanism, and these are things that operate to provide a sense of safety and control. So it's very important for me, if the work that I'm doing with someone is to be sustainable and a lifelong approach, which it is, these are not things that you can just take away from someone. This is part of the reason that for me, I'll use myself as an example as a kid, sure, I was put on diet after diet after diet. And the reason that none of those worked, and I would quote-unquote, sabotage them all, was because food was my drug of choice, and without it, I felt like I was not going to survive, and not from a I-need-food-to-live point, but from an emotional standpoint, and that's true for a lot of people. So we cannot do this kind of diet approach of like, just stop eating this way. It doesn't work like that for a lot of people, and it shouldn't. It neurobiologically, makes all the sense in the world that there is a deeper connection there and a way deeper bond there. So it needs to be trauma informed that is, I'm not taking anything away from you. You have full permission you want to keep like, I have people who do my program, and as soon as we start working together, they tell me, you know, because I signed up for this program, I started binging on food because I'm afraid you're going to take that away from me. And it's like, oh, absolutely not. This is a space where I see your relationship with food, however stressful and dysfunctional and quote-unquote disordered it might be, that's serving some sort of purpose, that's making you feel safe in some way. So I consider it a life jacket. And the same way that I would not say, hey, you're drowning, good idea right now to take off your life jacket, I'm going to say I'm much more interested in, how do we get you to feel like you're drowning less, and how do we get you connected to other things that you would consider life jackets so that slowly but surely, gradually, organically, you start to loosen the grip a little bit around your binging or purging or overeating, or whatever it is, in a way that feels safe, so that you can go on the rest of your life without using it like a drug. It has to be trauma informed in that way. Lesley Logan 18:11 Yeah, yeah. Food is such an interesting thing, and having disordered eating is like one of the things that I think is the biggest culprit to why people can't be it till they see it, why they can't do things in life, because disordered eating puts you on a yo-yo of energy and strength or lack thereof, of these things, and it affects your sleep, like all this stuff. For the person who maybe has does not recognize this, they're like, listen, ladies, I've lived a great life, and they exist out there. Or maybe they don't really know the signs. Maybe they don't know in their friends, you know? Like, I think it's really easy for us to pick up on a friend who's addicted to alcohol, or it's addicted to a lot of things. I think disordered eating can be because we can call someone a foodie, or they can call, you know what I mean? Like, there's these different things. So can you tell us what the signs of disordered eating are?Lisa Schlosberg 18:59 Yeah, well, I think because when it comes to disordered eating, it takes so many different forms and versions. It can manifest in so many ways, right? So the more obvious ones are overeating versus undereating. And then there's more, like the picky eating, the kind of orthorexia, right? Where it's not necessarily anorexia, where it's not you're not restricting to a dangerous amount, but things have to fit a very rigid, controlled criteria of what is allowed and what isn't. So it can be very tricky, because it can show up in so many ways. And then there are a lot of people who, I'm sure many people listening have experienced overeating at night and undereating in the morning. We tend to exhibit a lot of these at the same time, and so I think it's challenging to tell, especially because when it comes to food and eating, there can be, in my experience, there's so much shame and fear, embarrassment and judgment that goes into it, that a lot of people who have eating disorders are really good at hiding it and being very secretive about it, that's usually part of the disorder. So I would be less concerned with how do you tell it in someone else, and more concerned with, like, are you in a stable place yourself? Because ultimately, other people are other people, and we can't do much about that, other than be supportive if and when they know it and want it. But I think when it comes to ourselves, for me, what I would get curious about is, do you have a sense of hunger and fullness? Do you know what your body is feeling? Because for a lot of people, you know, without falling into the really scientific answer, we have homeostatic and hedonic hunger. We have physical hunger, we have emotional hunger. And a lot of people, as life goes on, it's almost like the brain stores food and eating as a coping mechanism, and it knows that, hey, you were stressed out that one time, and then you ate a Snickers, and that made you feel better. So I, the hippocampus of your brain. It's my job to store your memories so that the next time you're stressed out, you eat a Snickers. We've figured it out, like I know how to help you. But so your brain knows that food and eating especially high calorie, high fat, high sugar food that's good for survival. It will help you feel better, because it lights up the reward center in your brain, and it also can bring your stress down. So for the reason I say that is because so many people end up later in life saying, oh, I don't know if I'm hungry, I don't know if I'm full, I just know that I was bored, I knew that I was sad, I knew that I was happy, I knew, right? And so at a certain point in life, we actually completely lose the connection to our bodies, but we're all we're driven by emotion around food, and that's not inherently by itself, a bad thing, but it can be a reason that we're eating when we're not hungry. We're eating foods that aren't nutritious for us. We're not in alignment with intuitive eating. We're just being kind of swung around by the emotional nature of life. And then it has everything to do with how we're showing up around food. So that would be the first thing is, like when you eat, are you mindful? Are you present? Are you tasting food? Are you eating when you're hungry and stopping when you're full? Are you connected to your body in the process of feeding it and living in it? That would be my first question.Lesley Logan 22:34 So in Japan, they teach kids in school how to know if they're hungry or not. We don't do this here. You know, that's nothing. And my holistic doctor is a dear friend of ours, and she was talking to Brad, and she's like, yeah, just sit and enjoy your food. And he's like, oh, well, I'm working while I'm eating. And she like, could you just sit and maybe don't do anything but eat the food, you know? And it's like this, whoa, what a concept. Like, we could just sit and like, also in Japan, it is rude and weird to be walking around while you eat. They want you to sit down and they take a bite, and they don't just eat only one thing. They pick around their plate. It's a very fascinating thing. And you're smiling and laughing, because it's like, whoa, you know? And it is interesting, like, it can be a reward. Some people use it as some people's parents use it as a comfort thing. There's all these things. And you said the hippocampus, it's like, how you're raised as a kid, you get the Snickers when you had a bad day at school, and so then, you know, it's you're going to the dentist and you get a lollipop. There's these things, right? And none of and by the way, I don't think any food is bad because, just like my habits coach would say there's no bad habit, there's there might be things you don't like about that habit, but there's actually not a bad habit, because it's serving you in some way. Where I get worried about people is like they get obsessed with it, and it keeps them from, like, no one was put on this planet to be obsessed with food. Everyone was put on this planet because they're helpful and integral in how society works and how we create things and the inventions of things. Could you imagine if inventors were obsessed with food? We would have no electricity. None of us would want a leader of the country to be obsessed we have a disordered eating. So I guess, like, my next question is, you mentioned, like, just trying things out and thinking about things in the future. What are your favorite ways to just kind of explore that? What are your favorite ways of just like, tapping into (inaudible) because I just think, like, yes, abstinence is amazing. And I also think some people go to AA because they need a sponsor and they need to say, hi, I'm so and so and I keep getting on this again, like, what are your, what are your tools for people?Lisa Schlosberg 24:50 Yeah, so I think the number one thing that has become kind of a mantra in everything that I do and coach is you're uncomfortable, you're not unsafe. And the reason this is so important, and I'm going to talk about it, is, A. because I've seen it be such a major breakthrough moment for people, and also because it's really the answer to your question of, like, okay, but how do I do it? Okay, but how do I do it? Okay great. I can, like, envision and visualize and say all the mantras and all that shit, and that's great, but at the end of the day, you're fighting your brain. So I'm gonna back up a second and explain like brain science 101, really quickly. Here's how I like to talk about it. You, as a human being, you are a spiritual being having a physical experience. Most of us have heard that before. Okay, let's make it a little bit more complicated. You have an animal brain, and you live in a social context, and you survive on food. So there's a lot going on. If you feel like your relationship with food is confusing and complicated, that's why there's a lot going on in the human being at any given point. But the reason I'm saying this is because you're a human being, but you have an animal brain. What does that mean? Your animal brain is only designed to keep you safe. It doesn't care. It doesn't know if you are happy or healthy or wealthy or successful. The only thing it knows is, are you moving towards safety and survival or into danger and threat? That's it. So all the stuff that's going on in your human life, in your human brain, if you will, is filtered into is this safe or is this dangerous? Okay, so when things become familiar and habitual and comfortable, when you've been doing the same thing over and over and over and over and over again, right? What your brain perceives is that this is what's safe, even if it's not comfortable, even if you don't like it. Your brain thinks this is what kept us alive this long. We have to keep doing this and doing something else might put our life in danger, which is why, when you start to think about implementing a new habit or doing something different or getting out of your comfort zone, it feels like you're fighting something. You are. It's your brain saying, for all I know, you could die out there. I have to keep you safe on the couch, not ever moving your body like I have to keep you here. This is what you've been doing forever, and this is where we're safe. So in that moment, whatever that moment is, that when you start to move out of your comfort zone. This is where your brain, your body, your physiology, start to contract and react as though they need to save your life. Now we're doing this kind of like fight or flight freeze reaction because we're out of our comfort zone, because the brain thinks that you might actually be in life-threatening danger, but you're not. You're just outside your comfort zone, and those, your animal brain doesn't know the difference. So what I love to leverage is the power of your conscious input, and when your conscious input is hey, I know that this is scary, I know that this is uncomfortable, but we're not going to die here. We're uncomfortable. We're not unsafe. This is something that we can actually survive. We're going to breathe through this. We're going to come out the other side. Because I can tolerate some discomfort. I can't tolerate life, life-threatening tragedy, but I could be a little bit uncomfortable for a bit, if that's what I need to do, and very often, whether it's stepping out of my own comfort zone in my own life, or I'm just sitting with a client and having them breathe through, you know, the tightness in my back and the pit in my belly and the headache I'm feeling because I'm so uncomfortable when we practice breathing through that and saying, okay, so you're uncomfortable, you don't need to react like you're going to die. Then something shifts and it's like, it's like your animal brain gets the message that you are here and you are safe and it's all going to be okay. So that, to me, is like the integrative nugget of wisdom that I would like to share, because it's really us and our own fear of discomfort that gets in the way. It's not the actual discomfort, it's the fear of discomfort. Lesley Logan 29:13 Yeah, isn't that like the thing for everything? Like, yeah, we're talking like we've mentioned food, because you're the expert in this, but also like, it's the thing on every all of it, no one wants to actually be uncomfortable, because that's the scariest thing that has ever happened for them. Your passion for all this knowledge is, like, freaking contagious. Like, I really do love it. And you need a TED Talk someday. I hope you have one. You should, if you have it, you should be applying, especially on that little nugget right there. I could listen to 18 more minutes of that. However, one of the things that I know from our listeners, they are very passionate about things, and then that passion turns into them like self-sacrificing. So how do you prioritize yourself while also helping so many people?Lisa Schlosberg 29:53 Yeah, it's an ongoing journey and challenge. Because I do, I mean, I really love what I do, and I am super passionate about it, and I also have to just be very mindful of my own self-care. And one thing that I've learned to do is kind of the inverse of what I used to do, because what I used to do was like, I would schedule all my work calls and all my clients and all my stuff, and then if I had some extra time, maybe I would prioritize myself, and that sucked, but so now I do my best to insert myself first, like, okay, I know that I'm gonna need this two-hour block to go to the gym or whatever else, take a walk or take a nap, whatever. It changes every day, but I will be very mindful now of if I'm scheduling something. And this just happened a lot this these last couple weeks have been very busy if I'm scheduling something, and I see that I'm starting to do that thing where I'm getting into my own time. It's like an absolutely not, non-negotiable time block. I need to, I mean, I'm the business. I am. I'm the CEO of the company like I, it is my job. And that has been like a a mindset shift that has been really helpful for me too, is it's actually my job to take care of myself, because I cannot do my best work if I'm not at my best, and everyone that I work with is worthy of that, and so it's part of my job to insert myself in my day. It's not negotiable. Lesley Logan 31:34 Oh, my God, thank you. I swear. I did not ask her to say that everyone I swear, but it's so true. So I like go, so I go around and, you know, I get to, I get to teach. And around the world, around the country, and you guys, one of the things I hear people go, oh, I would love to take your class, but I have to go teach. And I was like, okay, when was the last time you took someone else's session? And they're like, I'm just too busy. And I'm like, you know, the thing is, the thing that makes me the best of what I do.And so many people just assume I'm very busy, and I am, like my schedule is full, but the reason I don't feel busy, and the reason I, you know, can do all these things, is because my morning time block, that's non-negotiable, that's all about me, is the reason I can do all of this, and you are, can only be so you will not be the best teacher or wife or mother or partner or dog mom or best friend if you don't take care of you and your brain and your mental health, because you will be exhausted and distracted and eventually resentful, especially if the thing that you do is the thing that you're offering people, and then you don't do it for you, you're gonna be like, this month, this person gets to come four fucking days a week, and I didn't get to go once. And it's like, yeah, but who's whose fault is that?Lisa Schlosberg 32:54 Yeah. Well, that's also, that is what I was thinking. Was like, I remember years ago, I was so called out because I was a personal trainer at a gym, and I had back to back to back to back to back clients, so that when I got home, I was completely out of control around food. I was just out of whack. And I remember saying to my therapist, you know, I have no time during the day. I can barely make it to the bathroom to pee in between my clients. And at one point she just looked at me and she said, Lisa, who makes your schedule? And I was like, I do. And she was like, okay, well, why is it that you don't even have time to go to the bathroom if you are in charge of making your own schedule? And it was really eye-opening to me, of this moment of like, personal responsibility is the foundation of self-care, it was like, oh, no one else is going to take care of me. No one's coming to save me. No one's going to make sure I take care of me. And that was a really tough pill for me to swallow at the time. So, yeah.Lesley Logan 33:55 Yeah. When I first started teaching the job that I had, like in all the people before me, they all had 55-minute sessions. So I had 55-minute sessions. And then I went to the UK to teach, and everyone's like, oh, it's an hour, right? Because I ended five minutes before. And I was like, oh, no, no, I teach 55-minute sessions. Like, oh. And I was like, you teach an hour. When do you pee? When do you wash your hands? Like you're always late. Are we just hoping everyone's late? I was like, No. And then, and then I got to the point I was like, they should be 50 minutes. I need 10 minutes. What if I have a bathroom emergency, like when my husband and I finally met, I've been teaching for a long time, and he was going to a yoga class, and I was like, I want to go this yoga class. And I was like, oh, I'm just going to change my schedule. And he's like, What about the client? I said, well, they'll move or they'll go to a different teacher. And he's like, what? I'm like, well, I'll just be a better teacher if I go to this class and I'll pick up another hour, another time, like, like, this is I'd gotten to that mindset, and I there's so many people who just want to, like, hold on to being busy. Hold on to this thing. It's not even just like a people, it's like this thing. Like, I am this. This is how important I am, only I can do this. You are correct. The more you care for yourself, the more you can actually care for so many people. And it does start with you. It's still, it totally does. It has to be, I think, more and more I'm hoping people are changing how they raise children, that the world doesn't evolve around you, and that, like, I don't eat and breathe to like, take care of you, but you need to take care of you, so you should revolve a little bit about you. But. What are you most excited about right now? Lisa Schlosberg 35:29 Oh, wow, that is actually super easy for me to answer. Long story short, I've been guest teaching at a retreat center for many years, and as of a couple weeks ago, I have landed my first five-day event for myself and my own work. And I will be at the Omega Institute in Rhinebeck, New York, September 7 to 12 2025 and the reason I'm so excited about it is because this is like a total be it moment, because I, year after year after year, like I have memories of me sitting in that hall in like 2016 mapping out the retreat that I thought I would one day be giving. And year after year after year, that's pretty much what happened. And next year is my year. So that was a couple weeks ago, but I'm just still riding the high, like there's I'm having this experience of, I feel very excited, but also really grateful and proud of all the versions of me that had to go into this, actually manifesting into reality. So yeah, so it's like, oh, that's, that's actually super easy. I have been super excited about this for days now.Lesley Logan 36:46 Oh my god. I love that. I love a be it moment like that. I love the visualization, manifestation. And then it happens, you know. And I thank you for sharing that you're proud. I think more of us need to say I'm so fucking proud of the work that I did. Lisa Schlosberg 36:46 I am, I am. Lesley Logan 36:48 Oh my gosh, Lisa, okay, well, I could talk to you forever but we're gonna take a brief break and find out where people can find you, follow you, and work with you. Lesley Logan 37:06 All right, gorgeous. Where do you like to hang out? Where if people are like, hold on, I, maybe, I'm a little addicted to a couple of these things, and I would like to have time in my life to do other things. Where can they work with you?Lisa Schlosberg 37:18 Thank you. So the best place to find me would be on Instagram. It's Lisa.Schlosberg. I am the host of the Out of the Cave podcast, where we have an episode as well. There are over 120 now. So if any of this is resonating with you, there are many hours of content that you can absorb there. And then my website is outofthecave.health. There are a lot of things there. There's an ebook of journal prompts, there's a meditation library, and then there are five different recorded workshops that you can get on all, all sorts of things, disordered eating and healing. And you can always just email me. lisaschlosberg@gmail.com I'm super open to that, and I hope to talk to you soon. Lesley Logan 37:58 Yeah. Well, before I let you go, you've given us so much, but bold, executable, intrinsic or targeted steps people can take to be it till they see it. What do you have for us?Lisa Schlosberg 38:07 Yes, so I love teaching this, because I really live by it. I think of it as a three-step process. So the first is who is the person that you want to be? So as I mentioned before, and I like to clarify, because I know sometimes if you're very in your head, like I am, you can get kind of particular about that you're not thinking about, like, what is she wearing and what does she like to eat? Who is the person that you want to be in quality, what is the energetic blueprint of the human being? And so some of those things are brave, compassionate, patient, right? Who do I want to be? The second part of it is what would they do? So, okay, I know who I want to be, and what she would do is X, Y and Z. You can think of any example. So you're not thinking about yourself, you're thinking about the person you have in your mind's eye. And with that energy and those qualities, what would they do in the situation that you're in or trying to navigate? And then the third is, how do I do that? And what does that like for me right now? And that's exactly like I said earlier, it's like, okay, the person that I want to be would go and eat this frozen yogurt, even though she's really afraid of it. That's what I'm going to do right now. I can give you a million examples of how this shows up, but that is the three-step process that I very literally walk myself through when I'm struggling or questioning or confused and trying to navigate how do I want, how do I want to show up in my life in this moment? Well, I try to outsource it. I always think of that this as like outsourcing to the higher self. I'm not outsourcing like someone else tell me what to do. I'm not giving my power away. I'm saying, hold on, I can connect to the highest, wisest, most resourced version of me and have that kind of guidance. So it's a little bit for the spiritual woo-woo folk out there. But it also, really, I think, supports me in a lot of decision-making. So that's what I will offer.Lesley Logan 40:08 I love that, because it can, the be it till you see it in that is like, it can be the filter you need when you're like, I don't know how to make this decision. It's like, okay, well, if I was this person down the road, how would they make this decision, and then you can go do that, and you get closer like you start to bring it all together. Oh my gosh, Lisa, you're just amazing. Thank you so much for your honesty. Thank you for sharing with us. I think it's such a good topic, because I do think, I do love that the world is thinking a little bit more about being body positive. But what does that actually mean, and how do we take the people who want to be that way and help them feel it on the inside too, you know? And I think it's so easy. It's like, okay, well, then I just won't talk about the thing that I'm doing, because then they don't, people think I'm not body positive. But really, you know, there are steps we have to take along the way, and it's complicated when it comes to food, it's complicated. So you are just so incredible. Lesley Logan 40:59 You all, how are you going to use these tips in your life? Make sure you tag Lisa. Tag the Be It Pod. Share this with a friend, even though it's not your place to worry about, if you have someone who's like it seems to be concerning them or their child, things like that, let them know, because there are wonderful experts, and not just an expert, like there are nutritionists, but a trauma informed person who comes from a place of understanding and kindness and helpfulness, and if anything, I think it's really good to understand, like, business comfort is a safe place to be. So I, that's my take. I just like, oh, my God, we try to make things more comfortable and it's like, you know, live a little bit in discomfort. That's where the good stuff is. That's what they say in the memes, anyway. Life happens outside there. So until next time, everyone, Be It Till You See It. Lesley Logan 41:42 That's all I got for this episode of the Be It Till You See It Podcast. One thing that would help both myself and future listeners is for you to rate the show and leave a review and follow or subscribe for free wherever you listen to your podcast. Also, make sure to introduce yourself over at the Be It Pod on Instagram. I would love to know more about you. Share this episode with whoever you think needs to hear it. Help us and others Be It Till You See It. Have an awesome day. Be It Till You See It is a production of The Bloom Podcast Network. If you want to leave us a message or a question that we might read on another episode, you can text us at +1-310-905-5534 or send a DM on Instagram @BeItPod. Brad Crowell 42:25 It's written, filmed, and recorded by your host, Lesley Logan, and me, Brad Crowell.Lesley Logan 42:30 It is transcribed, produced and edited by the epic team at Disenyo.co.Brad Crowell 42:34 Our theme music is by Ali at Apex Production Music and our branding by designer and artist, Gianfranco Cioffi.Lesley Logan 42:41 Special thanks to Melissa Solomon for creating our visuals.Brad Crowell 42:45 Also to Angelina Herico for adding all of our content to our website. And finally to Meridith Root for keeping us all on point and on time.Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/be-it-till-you-see-it/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
Join us for an insightful journey with Joe Sanhanga, a remarkable e-commerce entrepreneur generating millions annually through unique and high-priced products. Listen in as Joe shares his inspiring story from his roots in Zimbabwe to his educational pursuits in the UK and the US, ultimately landing in Las Vegas. His journey began on platforms like Shopify and WordPress, selling distinctive items such as African-style swimsuits and nano tape toys, before discovering the immense potential of Amazon's FBA and FBM models. Through their conversation, Bradley and Joe emphasized the transformative power of networking at conferences like Amazon Accelerate. Explore the strategies behind Joe's successful transition to selling on Amazon, starting with assisting a soil business during the pandemic and leading to the creation of "Wonder Soil," a private-label product on Amazon. Joe's ventures into innovative products like tanning lamps, vitamin D lamps, and seasonal depression lamps highlight the importance of team collaboration and strategic Amazon sales optimization. With aspirations to surpass a $30 million run rate, Joe shares valuable insights into leveraging Amazon's platform to achieve extraordinary growth in niche markets. Discover the challenges and tactics involved in marketing high-priced products, like a $599 lamp, in a competitive landscape dominated by lower-cost alternatives. We discuss the advantages of having larger margins for experimenting with keywords and bidding strategies, alongside the creative approaches necessary to maintain product visibility amidst Amazon's policies. Joe also shares his experiences optimizing advertising strategies, managing warehouse transitions to Amazon's Warehousing and Distribution system, and utilizing tools like Helium 10's Adtomic to automate and enhance PPC strategies. This episode provides a comprehensive view of the perseverance and innovation required to thrive in e-commerce, offering inspiration and actionable advice for sellers at any level. In episode 604 of the Serious Sellers Podcast, Bradley and Joe discuss: 00:28 - E-Commerce Strategies and Global Perspectives 04:54 - Amazon Product Sales Success Story 05:41 - Amazon Brand Growth During COVID 11:37 - Strategies for High Price Point Products 11:50 - Product Pricing and Brand Strategy 15:23 - Optimizing Keywords for Product Sales 18:21 - Amazon Advertising Strategy Discussion 19:14 - Managing $120,000 of Ad Spend With Adtomic 23:49 - Amazon PPC Management Strategies 27:52 - Optimizing Ad Placements to Lower ACoS 30:51 - Pricing Strategy Impact on Sales 32:45 - Warehouse Cost Savings and Amazon Advertising 34:28 - Inventory Management for Amazon Sellers 38:14 - Optimizing Amazon Listings for Conversion 41:17 - Online Presence and Networking ► Instagram: instagram.com/serioussellerspodcast ► Free Amazon Seller Chrome Extension: https://h10.me/extension ► Sign Up For Helium 10: https://h10.me/signup (Use SSP10 To Save 10% For Life) ► Learn How To Sell on Amazon: https://h10.me/ft ► Watch The Podcasts On Youtube: youtube.com/@Helium10/videos Transcript Bradley Sutton: Today we talked to a $30 million a year seller who is selling, and has sold, some of the most unique products I've ever heard of, including one at a $600 price point, when everybody else is priced at only 40 bucks. How cool is that? Pretty cool, I think. Bradley Sutton: Hello everybody, and welcome to another episode of the Serious Sellers Podcast by Helium 10. I'm your host, Bradley Sutton, and this is the show that's a completely BS-free, unscripted and unrehearsed, organic conversation about serious strategies for serious sellers of any level in the e-commerce world. In my travels recently, one of the things I like about going to conferences and it's what I always tell people about is that you know you can meet different people, network with people and find out about their story, and that's kind of like how I structure this whole podcast. But then I actually did that recently at Amazon Accelerate and I'm glad I did it, because I'm glad I did it. As I went to this one mixer that they organized and I was at first, I was like, oh man, I was so drained after that day and I'm like, oh man, it's gonna be a crowded place. I don't like to be in crowded places, but you know what? I'm going to hop on this little lime scooter from my hotel and go over to this restaurant where the event was and I was sitting down talking to some people at the table and then I met today's guest there, Joe. How's it going? Joe: I'm going good. Thanks for having me on. Bradley Sutton: Awesome, awesome. Now, you said you're in Vegas right now. Right? Joe: Yes, we're in Las Vegas, Nevada. Bradley Sutton: Now, that's not a typical Vegas accent you've got. So where were you born and raised? Joe: Yeah, so I was born in Zimbabwe, raised as well in Zimbabwe, then I moved out to England where I spent a lot of my time there doing some education and stuff and then I got tired of the cold being a Zimbabwean. Bradley Sutton: You went to the opposite, then if you went to Vegas, I cannot imagine a more opposite than cold place. Joe: Oh yeah, 100%. I just went on to Google and I was like okay, I want to go somewhere in America, but I need to find somewhere warm. And I think the first thing that came up on the search was Death Valley, but there was nothing over there. So the second thing was Phoenix and Las Vegas. So, I eventually found myself in Las Vegas just because of the ease of doing business. Ability to meet people here is really good. Bradley Sutton: And did you go to university uh over in UK or in the US? Joe: yes, I did university in the UK as well as in the US, so I got an accounting degree back in uh UK um and then in the US, I did a um was a business management degree with some entrepreneurship uh additional to that Bradley Sutton: was it like a unlv or? Joe: I know this was in um in Phoenix in ASU, yeah. Bradley Sutton: ASU, uh, Sun Devil right? Joe: yes, sir, okay, there, you see it. Bradley Sutton: I always test my I don't know. I'm not going to ask you any kind of mascot because from England I don't know anything about England schools, but I know most of the US schools have mascots here. Actually, I'm wearing a. We'll talk about this later. I'm wearing a mascot from a minor league baseball team is my hat. This is called from nearby to Arizona is Albuquerque Isotopes. But the reason I use this today was because this is very similar, this logo, to our Helium 10 Adtomic logo. I know you and I were talking about Adtomic, doesn't it look like the A from Adtomic yeah, Joe: it actually does. Now I see it when you mention it. Bradley Sutton: So that's why I wore this on purpose. There's a method to my madness, but anyways, before we get to Adtomic, talking about Adtomic, I just want to talk about your e-commerce journey. So when you graduated from, after you know, there at ASU, did you get into e-commerce at all, or at what kind of? Joe: So this was actually still back in England , around 2017 is when I kind of got first into my e-commerce kind of journey, which was on Shopify. Specifically, Shopify and WordPress was where I started out and I bought a random course of somebody online, learned all about basically advertising from like Facebook, from Instagram, from Google, sending it to this website and landing pages that we used to do. And then, within being in that realm, I started hearing this FBA term being thrown around. Bradley Sutton: What were you selling on Shopify in those days? Joe: Oh, so I remember we had to go at, we did these other swimsuits that we did African style print swimsuits, and then we also went on and started doing it was like these little tape toys, sort of like double-sided type tape. Yeah, exactly so we were doing those. It's called nano tape, um, so, yeah, that's basically how, how that started and then, Bradley Sutton: and then that's when you, when you kind of like, learned about the amazon, uh potential. Joe: So I heard, obviously, being in that space, I started hearing this word FBA being thrown around uh, the acronym, and you know. Then I went on Google, searched up, okay, what is FBA? And it's some sort of Amazon selling thing. Okay, and then there's FBM as well. So now I'm like, okay, there's these two terms, what is this all about? And that's basically when I started doing my research and I was like, okay, this Amazon thing seems to actually have some stuff to it. And at the time I think the platform is not the way. It's so different now, because sometimes I've got screenshots of my old dashboards and it just looks completely different. So, yeah, that's how I basically then started with Amazon. Bradley Sutton: Did you start selling like your own account, you know, on Amazon, start selling your own products, or did you just start working for other companies that were selling on Amazon? Joe: Yeah, so to begin with I was working with this other lady. She basically had soil and the way we actually started working together was I created a website for her, put on Shopify, to sell the soil, and then she was bagging up the soil to try and get it to consumers, because her business was mainly sending thousand-pound totes to farmers. But she said, how can I get this you know three-pound bag to people that are at home and want to grow some plants and what actually it was? This was around 20. Bradley Sutton: Soil on Amazon, man, when you think you've heard it all. Joe: It's called Wonder Soil. It's actually one of the rivals to Miracle-Gro and we actually I actually raised it to get the Amazon choice badge. We were on Business Insider as one of the top growing brands on amazon too, um, but basically the cool thing about it was we've tried to find a way to get the soil to consumers and everything worked well, because this was during covid, so people were at home, people had nothing to do, and you know people are growing stuff at home, people. You know we're just trying to, yeah, so the product hit at the right time uh, what year is this 2020. Bradley Sutton: Okay. 2020 okay yeah. Oh yeah, I mean that was a good time. Yeah, during covid, people were always are really trying to make their own gardens and stuff like grow their own vegetables and stuff like that okay yeah this is a private label brand or you're reselling um others? Joe: oh, so we actually have manufacturers in China. Uh, that we get all that product for We've actually gotten rid of our warehouse Now. We've gone full into AWD, so we're getting. Bradley Sutton: Let's talk about that a little bit later in the show too. I haven't talked to many people who are doing that, so I'll be interested in that, ok. Joe: Yeah, so that's, that's what that one. And then there's another lamp company, which is pretty funny, is tanning lamps and vitamin D lamps, so we run through those on Amazon as well. Those are actually the only there's a lamp that can give you vitamin D. Bradley Sutton: It's the only lamp the same like the sun. Joe: Yes, you spend five minutes every other day in front of it and it'll give you. And there's studies on YouTube. People use this lamp, where this lady her name is Carnival Doctor on YouTube. She did a study with a lamp for six weeks and her levels went from 20 something to 40 something vitamin D. She feels healthier than ever and it's perfect. It stopped her from having to buy, you know, vitamin D pills and, of course, all those sorts of things. So, yeah, it's the only one, and you get tan at the same time. So now, that's the difference. So, there's two lamps One gives you vitamin D and one gives you a tan, because there are some people that don't want the tanning effect. So that's what it is. So, it's-. Bradley Sutton: Now what if you put this tanning lamp over your miracle magic soil? Are you going to create some like hybrid plant? Oh my, you sell the most interesting things. All right, there's a third account too, Joe: yeah, so it's basically the third account is also in lighting, but this one is seasonal depression lamps where basically you look at it so that one is its own brand. Bradley Sutton: Did you say depression? Yes, depression lamp Like as in I'm very depressed and I'm sad like that word depression. Joe: Yeah, depression, you're sad. What does that have to do with a lamp? So, you look at this lamp for 30 minutes and you become happy. I know it sounds stupid, but minutes and you become happy. I know it sounds stupid, but that one doesn't give you vitamin D. Bradley Sutton: That one doesn't give you vitamin D. Nor a tan. Yeah, you see. Hey, there's a product idea. You got to combine all three and then, oh my goodness, you'd have the most amazing. Joe: That would be powerful. We've had people that have requested you know, do you have one that does both, or this, this, this? But because of FDA regulations, we've had to separate a lot of the things. Bradley Sutton: Is these three separate companies or is it like the same group of people who's all owning all three of these? Joe: So two of the companies is one group of people and the other one is one person. Bradley Sutton: And then, what do you do in these? Joe: So I run just an Amazon account. So I run just an Amazon account. So running the ads, running the listing optimization, making sure the account is obviously hitting the sales numbers, everything that just literally goes through Amazon and inventory everything. Bradley Sutton: What's the overall projected sales for all three combined on Amazon? Joe: So for all three combined, we're looking at 28. We're on pace to do 28 million this year on all three. Bradley Sutton: Will that be your best, our biggest year yet. Joe: Yeah, this would be our biggest year yet. We've seen record numbers in previous months. In previous, like this past quarter, we'd had record sales as well. I know we had our biggest. We had, I think, our first. We had two days in September where we had 100K sales days, which was the first time we've done that. We also had our highest sales days in the past two years. Nine of those days in our top 10 sales were all in September. So we've had record sales. Especially Q3 was really, really amazing. I think we were up about 800K across the board in Q3 alone. So we're on pace to do a really good year and it sets us up for our plan is to do a 2.5 million month at least once this year in total and that will set us up for a run rate for next year. We want to push over to that 30 million stage. Bradley Sutton: If you're like me, maybe you were intimidated about learning how to do Amazon PPC, or maybe you think you just don't have the hours and hours that it takes to download and sort through all of those sponsored ads reports that Amazon produces for you. Adtomic for me allowed me to learn PPC for the first time, and now I'm managing over 150 PPC campaigns across all of my accounts in only two hours a week. Find out how Adtomic can help you level up your PPC game. Visit h10.me forward slash Adtomic for more information. That's h10.me forward slash A-D-T-O-M-I-C. I'm just curious, before we get into some more details about, like, your advertising because I know that's one of the things that is your specialty these lamps that you're doing like, were these kind of like inventions, or? Or there was an existing market of vitamin D lamps or an existing market of lamps that make you happy Like was that an existing keyword or is this something that you're you guys invented and kind of like created the demand for? Joe: So it's actually crazy. You say that is because the first vitamin d lamp started in 1924. It was a guy by Dr. Sperti is his name. He's the guy who made it. He invented it and he started selling it throughout the US. It was a company in Kentucky, um, but he was just selling it out of his own like little warehouse and then eventually he got old um and then sold off for business and then basically that's where we put it online, um to run it through Amazon, and we first were going like, for example, the vitamin D one it's the only lamp that's there. The only competition are these vitamin D pills that you'll see on Amazon. But our price point for the lamp is like 599. And we're competing against people that can buy a bottle for four bucks, five bucks on Amazon. So it's been a pretty interesting game competing against people that can buy, you know, a bottle for four bucks, five bucks on amazon. So it's been a pretty interesting game. But it moves. It moves um on amazon. What's the price of the product? Bradley Sutton: you said 599 599, 599, yeah, wow, uh, I want to. I'm trying to look at, look for it on amazon right now. What's the brand name called? Joe: SpertI s-p-e-r-t-i, and then you'll see vitamin d we got to show the audience this. Bradley Sutton: Okay, oh, my goodness gracious, here it is. Hold on, this is incredible. All right. Joe: That's it and it's right. That's the first one that's popped up against our competition. All those are competitors on the right. Bradley Sutton: So 500 and Sperti. So that was what the doctor's name was. Who? Joe: made this up. Bradley Sutton: Yeah, Dr. Sperti, that was his name yeah, there was a ready demand for this out there. Joe: Oh, huge, because, if you think about it, vitamin D pills are basically the same target market as us. Yeah, so this is just a non-invasive way that you buy and you keep this for a very, very long time. So that's that. So something interesting. As you go through this, this listing, you're not going to see the word vitamin d anywhere on the listing and you'll notice our carousel images, our images on there. we have our box images because amazon actually took us down because our lamp has the word vitamin d on it. Bradley Sutton: ah, yeah, yeah, I see it in the video there, so you don't have vitamin d anywhere in there, but you probably got indexed for the keyword by Amazon. Joe: Exactly so. That's why we use UVB, which is basically the term for vitamin D. So Amazon is not allowing us to use it, even though we're FDA approved and everything. Amazon is just not letting us go for that. Bradley Sutton: I see some of your main keywords. Yeah, vitamin D lamp. Joe: Oh yeah, we can use them in the back. Vitamin D light. Bradley Sutton: Vitamin D therapy lamp, vitamin D light therapy. Now, I'm just curious. I don't talk very often with people who have this high price point. What is different about having a product that's in the hundreds of dollars? Like, do you approach advertising differently, cause it's not like where I mean. You might now you know you, you might get a hundred clicks with no sale, but still you just get one, the 101st click. All of a sudden, that's $600 of revenue. So, so, like, how is it different, uh, with something like this, compared to your, your other products, which I'm assuming is like more you know, regular pricing 10, 20, 30 bucks. Joe: So the cool thing about it is that across all the catalog that I, that I that I run, I have products starting at like five bucks, all the way to this one that has $5.99. So the landscape with this one is totally different. Like you said, you can set up an ad, you'll get 50 clicks at $1.20 CPC and, based on our margins, we're still clean on a sale. If we get one sale, we profit. So the cool thing about it is you just have to be a bit more patient. However, because we have such kind of should I say a big space for those clicks, it allows us to test a lot of keywords in this space and we really kind of exhaust any keyword that's there without having to really be careful, unlike if I was selling a smaller, less priced product, I can't just throw in all the keywords and just you know it'll go crazy if it's like a $60 product. So with this, it gives me that comfortability to go out and bid higher and also it allows me to, like I said, like if you saw on that page where you searched, my competition were those pill bottles that are like five bucks, six bucks, seven bucks, so I can bid above all of those guys. So I ensure that every time you search the keyword I'm going to be first, because there's no way they're going to bid the same amount of dollars. I'm going to bid because their price points are different. However, they can take a loss on a sale because they have repeat products. So people finish that bottle, they come back and buy another With ours. That person buys a lamp and is done. So we obviously have to gauge it to a point whereby, okay, this is our ACOS target and at this A-cost target we're profitable. So that's now how more I manage that one. It's more ACOS targeting, but I'm basically trying to make sure I stand out for every single eyeball that's there because I have the room. Bradley Sutton: So this is interesting because, regardless of the price point, there are similar kind of scenarios where it would be like this they're probably actual keywords of how somebody who's searching for this exact thing is probably very limited Vitamin D lamp or lamp for tanning, you know for your other product, or it's not. Like oh there's you know 5,000 way, you know 5,000 ways that are going to come up in Cerebro to search for this one thing. You're like it's kind of like that way with coffin shelf. If you're looking exactly for a coffin shelf, that's pretty much it, that's it. Coffin shelf or shelf shaped like a coffin, like there's very limited number of words. The other keywords I get sales from is more like the, you know, gothic decor or spooky things. So how are you doing your keyword research? Like using Helium 10 or amazon, for you mentioned you do a lot of testing for targets. So like, where are you coming up with these keywords to test to see if any of them stick? Joe: So that's. It's more like said, I run Cerebro on a lot of those vitamin D bottle and pills and basically a lot of my. So, like I've said, I've exhausted the keyword vitamin D and the more you get long tail with this product, the less traffic you have. You know, for some of the products you can get long tail with a bunch of keywords and you still have traffic. Like, for example, if it's like a Ziploc bag, I can put Ziploc bag for Legos, Ziploc bag for sandwiches, Ziploc bag for this. You know the list is endless and you have traffic with this. Not many people even know this lamp exists. So what I've actually done is sometimes I go and target competitor company names and key names. So if it's like some company that sells a bottle of vitamin D lamps or vitamin D pills, I'll actually target their brand because when I look at their keyword, it's people that are repeat purchases, so it always has traffic. And but because I can bid high on their own company name, I'm going to show up first and I have the room with my price point to show up consistently and eventually, if you're somebody that is very hooked on buying these products, for vitamin D pills, you're going to see my product and think, okay, what is this? Because it's coming up. I've seen it so many times when I come and buy this product that when you read about our process, you then be like, okay, so this is something that actually can benefit me and can work as an alternative for ingested pills and all the other disadvantages that come with that. So that's basically how I find other keywords and start going for those. Bradley Sutton: You know, price game is something nobody ever wants to play, and you're not playing at all, you're doing the opposite. You know, like on some of these keywords I do see some like people ranking for, like vitamin D lamp, but they're, just like you know, $20 products and they're selling thousands of units. But then are you going after those people too, Like the people who are going after that or how? How, how do you still get sales when people can technically get something one 10th the price? People you just got to like, make sure that they know the value of what you, that yours is different. Joe: Yeah, so that's where we have to communicate that through the listing, and it's because a lot of those $20 lamps that you're seeing there, those are not actually vitamin D lamps, those are seasonal depression lamps. So if you're looking at, can you see that Alaska Northern Lights big box on the right where your mouse is? Yes, that's one of the lamps that I sell. That's for seasonal depression. Bradley Sutton: Okay, I was about to click on that, but no, I'm not going to click on the sponsored ad and charge you $3 right there. So good thing I didn't. Joe: But then if you look at to the left, you've got that product. That's 19 bucks. Those are actually seasonal depression lamps, so they don't give off vitamin D. So somebody would purchase that and then they'll realize that doesn't give you vitamin D. So they'll probably return it and then come back to ours. But if they're looking for seasonal depression those would be those ones. Bradley Sutton: This is just an interesting niche. This is kind of fascinating to me. So then, overall, almost $30 million. What are you spending per month? Or what are you paying Amazon for advertising per month? Joe: So monthly. Right now we're spending total across the board with about 120K a month on advertising budget. Bradley Sutton: Advertising. And then, what's your TACoS then? At kind of, is it different per account? Are you looking at your TACoS? Joe: yeah, so the lamp TACoS are, like, I think, close to two percent um, and then uh, because that ACoS is really low, um. However, with uh, with the one that's got the majority of the products, our tacos right now we are sitting at a 5.38. That's what we just closed out at, okay. Okay, our ACoS is at 15 point. I think it was 15.5 is what we ended on in September. We brought that down from a 20 ACoS down to a 15. Our goal was to bring it down to 10, but obviously we've done about 50% of that target. Now, which is hard, you know, if you're spending, you know, over a hundred K. To bring down a cost by 5% is really difficult. So that's, that's where we are. Bradley Sutton: Are you using Adtomic for all of this spend, all of this $120,000 spend? Joe: We've launched. So with Adtomic, we've put in some rules for some SKUs and we're watching that and I actually had a call with Travis, like I said before, to try and we've got different rules for different products and we're trying to see how we can build out those rules in Adtomic. Bradley Sutton: Like rules that you were just using manually, like downloading search term reports. What are some of the rules? Tell me how you run your PPC. Joe: So most of my rules would come into the shipping product, one where basically first rule is identifying the product, pricing. So if it's a bag so let's say Ziploc bag, right, we've got a Ziploc bag, a four by six size. We have different variations. So we have a hundred pack, five hundred pack, thousand pack. The hundred pack could cost maybe 19 bucks, five hundred pack 50 bucks, other one 99 bucks. So based on those, we make rules where if it's the $19 one, we want to start our bids at $0.40 or something like that. Somewhere it makes sense. But then if it's for the 1,000-pack one, we can start off our bidding at $2, $3. And that's because if somebody then buys it it's $99. So it's more of guiding based on that price threshold of the product and getting that rule in. And then, as we keep going, we want to make sure that if it's not getting any spend after two weeks it'll look back and add, you know, 10 cents to it if it's getting too many clicks. And if it gets like 10 clicks at that price, at that um, 44 cents, uh, whatever, 40 cents, um, and no sales, it'll dial it back by five cents or something like that, just to just to start, you know, bringing it back to see what we can get. So those are. Bradley Sutton: So then, instead of basing your rules in Adtomic, like, necessarily on ACoS, you're like doing it on the, the performance, like clicks and. Are you doing impressions at all, or just mainly clicks? Mainly clicks and then sales? What about your keyword harvesting? Did you set up any keyword harvesting rules on your auto or broad campaigns? Yes, and what's your thresholds there? Joe: So with there we do have our keyword harvesting set up and we usually just go in when it shows us. Then we'll add and accept whatever we want to Others we don't and we basically just throw them in. So we have one that right now has some rules and we've been working with the one that keeps the ACoS threshold in different margins. That's been looking good. So we've actually decided that when we've got launch ASINs because we're planning to launch another 42 products, I think it was soon is put those into the ACoS threshold, get those spending. Then, once we've gotten some traction with those, we start messing with the bids ourselves because we look at these in different silos as well in terms of market share. So if it's like tapes, we might not be the biggest player in tapes, so we can't really go out the income on the market. But if it's like Ziploc bags, Celo bags, we have tons of market share. Our brand is known. The moment you see our packaging on our default listings, you know it's us. So we bid higher on those ones to really just take up and kill anybody that's coming in. And we're happy to take up that high bid because people repeat purchase on those ones so we can lose money on the first sale because we can look at the lifetime value of those customers and it makes sense. Bradley Sutton: How many targeting type, different targeting types are you doing per product? You know for me, sometimes a lot of some. I'll have three main keyword ones, at least, obviously, to start, because then I'll cap it and start new ones, but I'll have an exact, you know, like, like atomic calls, a performance campaign. I'll have a broad campaign with broad targets. I'll have an auto, but then I'll also a lot of times have an ASIN targeting campaign, product targeting campaign. I'll also do a sponsor display campaign. I might do a video, two video campaigns, like a keyword video campaign, an ASIN video campaign and then maybe, if I have, you know, three products in a certain brand, I might have a sponsor brand that's feeding a few of those. Like, are you doing all of those or just you're just keeping it to the basic keyword targeting campaigns? What do you guys do so? Joe: So for every ASIN we basically have five different ads and it starts off with broad, which is obviously our broad keywords, and then we'll go to exact keywords where basically we don't start off by putting keywords in the exact. We let you know, get it from helium and atomic and then we put those in uh based on what it's telling us, and then we've got auto testing. So we uh, or it's called a auto cam, just normal campaign, which is obviously we let that run in the order category. Then ASIN testing, where basically we're running targeting that specific category of that product. And the cool thing about those ascent testing is it helps us identify new markets. So let's say we have a variation in poly and plastic packaging and let's say this product is sitting at number two. We might actually take that product. And then let's say we have other products that are like three, four, five, six in that category. We might take the number two product and move it to mailbags. It'll drop the BSR because of its historical performance and its ability to perform. We might actually start testing a different category just to gain more market share in a different category because we know we've kind of succeeded in that one. So that's more for ASIN testing. Then we have ASIN targeting, where we actually we use our Cerebro to get competitors, Black Box to get competitors Then we obviously target those competitors depending on how many reviews they have. So if it's somebody that's got anything less than four stars, what they're targeting you, because most of our products are sitting within the 4.5 to 4.89 range. So anybody below four stars we're targeting you, and then we also use what's it called. Then those are basically the five that we do per ASIN and then we also use what's it called. Then those are basically the five that we do per ASIN. And then we have started testing some display campaigns. We had VCPM running, which was a waste of money really. It was just the attribution was wrong. So what we're doing now is some display campaigns to actually do some retargeting and basically that's where we've got started going. We haven't done much sponsored brands. Things have just really been working in sponsored product for us. Bradley Sutton: Or the auto and maybe broad campaigns. Did you set any atomic rules as far as when to suggest a negative match or like a poor performing search term? Or how are you managing the spend on your auto campaigns? Because you know, sometimes if you just let Amazon do what they want, they'll just show you for all kinds of crazy stuff and they don't care about how much your spend is. So what are you doing to keep your auto campaigns under control? Joe: Yeah, so what we basically do, obviously we have the loose you select the loose substitute compliments and all that type of stuff. We have those like basic keyword rules that we set our bids at where, and we do that based on our pricing. So, depending on the product's price, we'll add in those rules and then basically when Adtomic starts showing whatever negative is in there, we'll go in and either accept the negative and or reject it. And I remember I don't know if it was Travis who told me we don't want to is it reject the negative or something, because it will completely kind of block it out forever or something like that In Adtomic. If you were to do that on a negative, I think it was if you fully approve a negative. So we kind of just watch it and see if it's really a negative and then we test it out. But that's how we kind of do it. So we haven't really put much rules on that side. It's more depending on the price of the product. Bradley Sutton: And then you said for like keyword harvesting, like if an auto finds something like is it just one for you? And then you, hey, I'll go ahead and move it to one of my manual campaigns. Or do you want to see like two or three orders of some new keyword before you put it to your exact campaigns, or what's your threshold there? Joe: Yeah, usually we try and get up to about five, five orders. Um, cause, that's that we've, we've, cause we've had keywords where you might get an order or two, and then it just starts burning money after that. So, yeah, um, we let whatever's winning win and then if something shows promise and you know it comes up with like five orders, uh, that'll be cool and then we'll add it back in. And the cool thing about it is, if it was obviously like the, the lamps, five orders is a bit too many for a keyword. But if it's the Ziploc bags, we know we can easily get those five orders and it justifies because you know that the, the traffic on those is way more than the people that are looking for the lamps. So it just depends on the product as well. Bradley Sutton: What is what brought you from, I forgot what you said like, from 20 to 15 a cost, like? What specific strategies you think? Like, was it something different? You were doing um, or, or you just change the rules, or what. What can you attribute that lowering of ACoS to? Joe: Okay. So basically, we started a KPI where we looked at the number of ACoS campaigns that are above 100% in our account, because I think we have about 4,000 something campaigns running. So basically, when we sorted that out, we would start off with, like, let's say, 40. Then of those 40, that's our priority for the month and basically, we'd look at what the ad type is. We'd look at what the ad type is, we'd look at where the you know impression share is going. Is it top of search, is it product key, is it product pages or is it in the categories? And then basically sometimes we would notice that, let's say, if it's product search for this specific ad, it's showing a way better ACoS but it's not getting as much spend and impressions as this one. But you know, the product page is just spending money. So what we'll do is we'll change the percentage on the impression share to show more on that specific placement that's actually performing the best. And what we realized is a lot of our ACoS started just, you know, dropping for those campaigns where we doubled down. Yes, it might not spend as much, you might not as much traffic, but if our ACoS drops, you know, by 50% on that campaign, that's a win. So that's what we're doing. And then sometimes it's actually where you're getting a bunch of sales at like 60, 70% ACoS from top of search, but this product page placement is at 20% ACoS but it's not getting as much spend. So now we'll move our spend and our impression share more on that product page and reduce the top of search. Even though it cancels out some sales, the profitability of investing in that product placement on the product pages makes more sense. So that's how we've been kind of juggling the placements and it's been helping really well to cut ACoS. Bradley Sutton: When you launch new products. What's your strategy? Is it strictly I mean, like do you have this big audience that you're able to promote to and then they send a lot of traffic that way, or is it 100% with PPC that you're launching products? What's your strategy? Like? Joe: So 100% of PPC. We have been talking about, you know, starting to get an email list together, but, as you know, with Amazon you don't get that information of your customers, so it's very difficult. If we had like a website, then maybe we could leverage that side of it. But, like I said, 100% of all sales is Amazon and unfortunately, we don't have the customer data. So what we usually do is set up our PPC. Sometimes, depending on the market or the product, what we'll use are the deals, if it's promotions, and sometimes we've actually, you know how you can now put price, the strikethrough pricing. So sometimes when we launch a new product, we launch about a few bucks higher than we're actually planning to sell, and that's because we just want to get the featured offer pricing going. And then, once the featured offer has registered onto Amazon, we'll set a strikethrough price at the intended selling price that we want to and then we'll pump up our PPC. Why? Because now our product is showing amongst everybody else to have this discount of like 20% or whatever it is, and that increases our conversion rate because obviously people are seeing this discount. And then sometimes you might actually get the badge that says lowest price in 30 days and on a new launch. That helps quite a lot and basically that's what we do. Then we start pumping PPC and then, once that ends, we actually noticed with another product where we were averaging about, I think it was 0.78 run rate so which is basically close to a sale a day on that product at 24 bucks. We raised the price to 28 bucks so that we could make a strike through at 24. And then at the end of the strike through because after 30 days when you set the strike through it stops the deal, we actually realized that our run rate went to 0.68 at 28 bucks. So we started noticing that the difference in sales were not actually bad from the price going back to four bucks. That's because we just had forgotten to change it back to that 24. So it actually helped us realize like wait, we were still selling at that 28 bucks, so now we just drop it back and when we drop it back to 24 with that strikethrough it just increases the sales and obviously the conversion rate and the ACoS, which allows us more dollars to spend on that product. Bradley Sutton: Before you switched to AWD, did you guys have your own warehouse? Did you have multiple 3PLs, One 3PL? What were you doing? Joe: So we had our own warehouse and basically obviously we're shipping it from China to our warehouse and then from our warehouse to Amazon, and then basically with AWD, and the fees just got out of hand. It kind of priced us out of obviously doing that route, which is why we went with AWD. And it's kind of been our first kind of-. Bradley Sutton: The new fees you're talking about, like the inbound inventory placement fees and things like that, Joe: all that type of stuff, yeah, it kind of really hit us hard. So we realized, and we priced everything up in Seoul, it's way more lucrative to go with AWD, and you have to have Bradley Sutton: Is that AGL too? Or just like? Are you actually having Amazon ship from China or you're shipping it into AWD? Joe: We're shipping it into AWD. Right now, we haven't fully gone into Amazon shipping it from China, but we're shipping it into AWD. And that's basically where we just noticed that economics-wise it just made way more sense to go with AWD. So we took that big step of obviously getting away with our warehouse and now just sending product into AWD. How big was your warehouse? It was pretty big. It was pretty big. I don't know how many square feet on the top of my head. Bradley Sutton: Do you know how much it costs per month? About? Joe: Yeah, it was close to about. I think it was like 25 grand. Bradley Sutton: Oh my goodness, yeah, so we're talking probably 20,000 square feet or above. They're in Vegas. Yeah, it was pretty big. And then how many full-time employees had to run it? Joe: So we had four people there Bradley Sutton: and then now you had to let them go after you close the warehouse. So then it's not just $25,000 a month, but then probably another $10,000 of salary you're saving. Joe: yeah, so there's a big saving, when you look at it, from everything. And we've kept one person I think it was that basically helps us with inventory forecasting and just helping manage kind of the inventory side of AWD. Because right now we've moved into AWD. But some issues we've had with AWD is when FBA goes out of stock there's like a two-week period we've seen that it takes for that transfer of inventory to go into FBA and that's because AWD hasn't learned our sell through rates yet. So right now, for example, Bradley Sutton: you can't control that at all. Like you can't just force AWD to say, hey, I know I'm going to sell more, send more to FBA. Like you have to wait for them to be able to see it. Joe: Yeah. So you can manually send more. But because we have a catalog of 900 products, it'll be very tenacious to look at FBA for all these products and then go to AWD and manually click one. So what we've done is we put the auto replenishment. But because Amazon hasn't learned our products yet, literally, we had a product that had a sell-through rate of I think it was it'll go through about 300, 400 products a month. We ran out of that product and AWD transferred 10 units to FBA and it took two weeks to get those 10 units and those sold out within a day. So it was just the worst and the worst. Bradley Sutton: I got to start you on Helium 10 inventory management, because helium 10 inventory management is created for people who have three PLs and then and then we tell you, all right, set up a new shipment. But theoretically somebody just asked me to say the other day we don't integrate yet with AWD. I know that's on the roadmap, but like a third-party warehouse, like you know how much inventory is there, so you put the number in and then you know what you know. Helium 10 knows what your inventory is in Amazon. And then so we would just tell you the same way hey, it's time to trigger, you know. So I know you said before like hey, yeah, you might not have time to, you know, be checking 800, but that's the whole point of inventory management where you just you know you better send, you know, 500 units in from your warehouse and so, yeah, we'll get you started on that. Joe: Yeah, that would be a lifesaver because this is how it's impacting my ads now. So you know back in the day, if you run out of stock on FBA, your listing is not showing anymore, your ads are not delivering. However, with AWD, if you've got stock, what it's done now is it changes our seller delivery date. So we realize that with this duct tape, Bradley Sutton: and you're conversion like tanks right, because it says like oh, delivery in three weeks or something crazy like that. Joe: So this duct tape product had delivery in two months. I'm not waiting two months to get duct tape. Bradley Sutton: So instead of the listing going dead, it still shows available, but then two months. Joe: So people are clicking on this sponsored ads and they're like, yeah, I'm not waiting two months to get a duct tape, I'm going to the alternative person which is their competitor. So, I'll add just hitting, hitting, hitting, hitting, no sales. And you're like what's going on? And then now when you look at it and it's fine detail, delivers in two months. You're like that's so. Now we've had to end the crazy thing about when you've got 4,000 ads, because you've got five ads SKUs, you can't go and manually turn all those off and then wait until it comes back in stock to turn it back on. So that's been a nightmare as well. Bradley Sutton: Now Interesting, okay. So yeah, it looks like AWD, like overall pretty decent. You save all those fees, probably thousands and thousands of dollars of fees. You're saving tens of thousands of dollars in warehouse, tens of thousands of dollars in warehouse. But on the flip side, you almost have to, you know if, if you're not using Helium 10, um for inventory management, you almost have to like hire another full-time employee just to manage that, depending on how many SKUs you have, or else, or else you're going to lose, you know too much money. It's not just the lost sales, what's advertising, like you said, very good, very good, uh, very good point. Um, if I were to ask you like, all right, hey, end of the day, not everybody can, can have a business that does 30 million a year. What set? What has set you guys, uh, apart? Obviously, you know you have some cool patent and some product. You know for one of them that that nobody else can get. That's been around since 1920, but it's anybody you know. I'm sure there's billions of or millions of businesses that were made a century ago, that that technically you could sell, but that doesn't mean you're going to be a 30 million dollar seller. So what sets you guys apart, would you say? Joe: I think it's that consistency and never give up mentality when you start off a product, because a lot of things that I've seen with other sellers is they're quick to write off a product because they're not profitable with it within the first kind of initial launch phase. And what I've noticed is we stick out with the product and our launches are in strategies here. So we start off with a launch. So, let's say, we're doing zip bags right and we have these zip bags. They're heavy duty, so it's four mil size. When we start off with a zip bag, we're happy to lose some money on that because we know it's repeat purchases. So we now have to calculate and understand okay, this is the frequency of those sales, this is what we expect to come in, what sizes are winning, and basically having the consistency to keep pushing, even though it might not be profitable to start. Eventually, when you start getting those repeat sales, you'll see the profitability come in and that's where those products, when they start winning. You do the exact same thing with new launches and it's, like I said, that consistency to keep doing that with new launches and new launches and new launches has been a game changer. And then also just not being afraid to test Amazon. So you know, like I said with our vitamin D one, we've thrown different keywords in there, we've thrown different words in there, even at times where you get delisted because Amazon said these things don't work or this is, you can't put that writing, so it's. It's helped us push our listing and appear in different places and we always do tracking to see if it's click-through rates, if it's the title. So, for example, some of our titles have our brand name, which is spot and industrial. That's a pretty long brand name and if you look at our uh, a product of ours on mobile devices, our brand name takes up should I? I say, 40% of the title. So a lot of our keywords and use cases don't actually show on mobile. So what we did test was removing the brand name and leading with the use cases and the product keywords and it started converting better because nobody cared what our brand name was. But if they're seeing that zip bag for Legos, for this, for this, and it's heavy duty and it's waterproof, that's what people want to see and it increased our click-through rates, which increased our conversions as well. So stuff like that and they're minute tests. But if you do that on a catalog and with products at a volume, it can be a massive scale. And when you realize that from a potential of okay, we have 800 ASINs, 50% of them increase in conversion rates by just 10, 20% I mean in click-through rates you're bringing in even way more traffic and if you hold your conversion rates, that increases your sales without having to do any change in bids and anything like that. So those key changes allow you to save your dollars but still gain on all that traffic. Bradley Sutton: Now, if I were to ask you your favorite Helium 10 tool, is it Cerebro, is it Adtomic? Is it Magnet? Chrome extension, what is it? Joe: I would say I love the Chrome extension because it helps me. If I go onto a competitor, straight away I see what they're lacking If they don't have 150 characters in their titles, if they don't have enough bullets, if they don't have, you know, enough bullets, if they don't have enough images. So the moment I see a competitor that doesn't check all the boxes that the Helium tool shows, I'm targeting them. Why? Because if you look at my products I have 10, you know most optimized on your thing. Then at the same time I look at keywords and it gives me a breakdown of how much revenue is in this keyword, how much revenue is in this industry. So before we go launch a specific product like we were launching an anti-slip tape because we want to add to our tape ranges so just looking at that, you'll look at that keyword anti-slip tape. It brings in 600 million a month from all these different competitors. Now I can run those competitors through Black Box and I love Black Box as well because it helps me really fine tune what I'm targeting and who I'm looking for. So, I can say they get X amount of revenue monthly with X amount of reviews. Like I said, if they have anything below four, Black Box shows me those people. Those are easy people I can add to my product targeting campaigns and I know, because our listings are optimized, we'll easily take some sales from those people. Campaigns and I know, because our listings are optimized, we'll easily take some sales from those people. So, I would say the listing Blackbox and also the Chrome extension will be my two favorite. Bradley Sutton: All right. If anybody wants to find you on the interwebs out there, like on LinkedIn or somewhere like you open to saying how they can find you guys out there. Joe: Oh yes, of course, on LinkedIn obviously it's just Joe Sanhanga, my name, and then on Instagram it's j.sanhanga, which is my last name, s-a-n-h-a-n-g-a, and that's mostly where I am on social media. But any questions or whatever I can on LinkedIn, you can just pop it in and I'll try and help where I can. Bradley Sutton: Awesome, awesome. Well, thank you so much for coming on the show and hope to see you at an upcoming event soon then.
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