36 Burst results for "Four Things"
The Maverick Paradox Podcast
A highlight from Aim to be above your business
"In this short talk episode I speak to Jonathan Jay about his experience in buying and growing businesses over the past 25 years. Jonathan bought a total of 53 businesses over the course of six years with five being before the pandemic and 48 during the pandemic. In this conversation he shares the top five mistakes entrepreneurs make when buying a business and the importance of identifying game -changing acquisitions based on the financial numbers, knowing when to sell business at its peak and the value of not being emotionally attached to the business. I create clear thinking and decisive leaders who can amplify their influence. Contact me to find out how I can help you or your organisation. And today our guest is Jonathan Jay. How you doing Jonathan? I'm very good thank you Judith, thank you for having me on. No thanks for coming on board. Now tell me, what's your favourite thing ever? I was expecting this to be a question about buying a business. My favourite thing ever? Oh my goodness, that's such a broad... my daughter, there you go. Can't get better than that. No you cannot, I bet she's gorgeous when she smiles. Even when she's grumpy she's fairly gorgeous. Brilliant. Jonathan tell us a bit more about you. Well this coming year, 2024, is my 25th anniversary of doing buying, selling, owning, growing and all those sorts of things in business. I've actually been in business longer but my first business was sale in 1999, so coming up to the 25th anniversary and it feels like yesterday in some ways and it feels like a very long time in other ways and I'm going to take it a lot easier from next year onwards, spend a little bit more time doing things other than businessy things. Interesting, so when you buy these businesses do you onboard a management team or do you become the CEO for a while or what do you do? Well it's an all depends answer on the different situations. I'm not particularly interested in operations and I'm not very good at it either. I'm not really the people person that's required to do that sort of thing so I always prefer other people to do that. Okay it's always good to know so many CEOs, founders as well they sort of get trapped into running it when they're not the right person. Well yes that's right because at the beginning you do everything yourself don't you? You are the business in every way possible so it takes quite a mind shift change to say that's not going to be me and there aren't any rules about when it stops being you. Does it stop being you after 12 months or 24 months? There's no rule so it just ends up being you all the time because at the beginning you can't justify anyone else being involved. You can't afford anyone else usually but it is a trap so the work on your business rather than in your business, massive cliche now but when Michael Gerber wrote The E -Myth over 35 years ago I think, it was quite a revolutionary change in people's thinking and he encapsulated it so well with that phrase work on rather than in and now I say to people work above the business so you become the investor rather than the doer or just the owner. And how easy is it to do that? I've never heard of anyone talking about being above the business. How easy is it to get there? Well there are very few things in business that are easy because everything takes discipline, effort, hard work, dedication and all of those things but I think it's important because if you do get dragged into the day -to -day you become the bottleneck in your own business and the growth of your business is going to be throttled by your time and your energy and to have boundless energy in our 20s and 30s past the age of 50 maybe the energy level is not quite what it used to be and we look forward to an early night and a good night's sleep so therefore capturing the energy and enthusiasm of other people allows you to do far more than if it was completely dependent upon you. Okay that makes sense. So in the last three years you've bought 48 businesses so tell me about that journey. Yes it's more than that actually, 53. So yeah I did a buy and build in 2019 which is what's that like that was five years ago actually five years back that I've been thinking about for a year prior to that so it really goes back about six years and I bought five of these businesses before the pandemic, 48 during the pandemic and it was stressful at times. I've got to admit that it wasn't plain sailing, very few people I've ever met have done that. There's only one person I can think of who's done it that aggressively and I ran out of energy. I was helping my daughter with her spelling homework and she was reading through the words for her spelling test that coming that coming week and one of the words was unhappy and she looked at me and she said that's you. Wow. And I said oh okay okay I let it go and the next day I said why did you say that and I said what makes me unhappy and she said work and I thought I've just suddenly become a very poor role model and at one point I was hospitalized. I'm not trying to put people off buying a business, I'm trying to put people off buying 53 businesses in like it was actually two and a half years. The stress started to get to me so no amount of money or no obsession with business is worth your health, your relationships, your family and all of those things and I think that early on in our careers we put everything behind our business and our career and then I think again when you tip into maybe when you tip into your 40s then you tip into your 50s you realize that you've got to get your priorities right because you start saying life is too short way too many times you've only yourself repeating that again and again life is too short life is too short so I think it's getting that work -life balance again yeah that was a kind of a new phrase 20 years ago and now it's work -life balance this that and the other but it's but it is very important. So you risked your health doing what you did but why did you do that? No one had a choice to be fair it kind of crept it kind of crept up at me I wasn't intentionally doing that. I had these stomach pains that wouldn't go away and one particular night you know I just didn't sleep the entire night I was just such agony and I was googling appendicitis and that was actually on the other side so it wasn't appendicitis I thought I couldn't figure out what it what it was I always thought my stomach was kind of in the middle and it's not actually it's to the to the side so I figured it was my stomach so I went to the doctor which I don't you know not something I've ever done on a regular basis and the next day I was having a colonoscopy which is not my favorite medical procedure out of all the medical procedures there are available a colonoscopy is not my most favorite one and they couldn't find anything which was good in some ways but what what was causing these the the stomach pains and it was all stress related so that was when I decided I've got to make a bit of a life lifestyle choice here and however big the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow if I'm not here you know because I'm as long as possible and I can't risk um you know I can't risk my health sort of suffering because of something which is let's face it financially based so um so yeah yeah it's a very common trait though isn't it entrepreneurs pushing themselves far too far um because I suppose you just get used to it and then it makes then it becomes harder to let it go oh I mean I I I have been and to a certain degree even now addicted to my phone I mean it's like it's like I get uncomfortable if it's not in my hand or I can feel it in my pocket which is bizarre I mean I shouldn't be looking at my emails at the weekend should I I mean it's like what's happening at the weekend nothing's happening at the weekend so so why am I even looking um so so it's but but I but I also remember the very very first day back in I think it must have been the mid -2000s when someone showed me how I could actually get emails on my phone and it was like oh my goodness I don't have to sit at my desktop to get my I can actually get them on my phone and you think that um you know if you if you again if you go back 20 25 years where we didn't have Facebook and we didn't have social media we didn't have um phones of any description but we still managed okay actually this is going back 30 years we still managed okay and we managed with a fax machine and uh you never hear anyone saying they make more money now than they did back then because they've got phones and technology yeah it it it is meant to improve communication but I don't remember anyone ever saying communication was was bad it was just you worked with what you've got and you didn't expect an instant yeah people these days you send them a whatsapp message and you don't reply instantly it's like a it's it's it's considered to be rude um where you know no one ever got upset when you faxed them and you didn't fax back immediately had it changed for the better not necessarily yeah why did you buy all those businesses in such a short period of time and it was in opportunity um that uh it was an opportunity to grow a grow a a pretty sizable group the fourth largest in the sector um within a short space of time and the pandemic was good in some ways business -wise bad in other ways um and one of the ways it was good it was because there were we just went for it um what it was it was just opportunistic that's all what type of businesses are they are these were all uh child care oh wow okay that made do you do you still have those no well my my business partner took over when I I I decided like I said the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow was not was not as enticing as I thought it was going to be so she took over um uh and and she was the child care expert I I was just the guy with the idea so my contribution was I had the idea and I knew how to do the deals and get the deals done um apart from having a child I I don't really know anything about uh how to run a child care business it's all highly regulated and you know I'm not qualified to do that anyway okay that makes sense so how did you know which of those businesses were good businesses to buy next to other businesses that you didn't buy uh because I looked at 500 so I looked at 500 first and it was kind of like a one in ten um of the of the 500 uh despite that you know some of them were better than others because they're not all created equally um and and some had some inherent cultural issues uh some had reputational some issues had financial issues uh you never get a perfect business right every business something that isn't appealing to someone else um maybe as the owner you live with it but to a new owner they wouldn't think it was um a good thing uh so so yeah so so the the bottom line was having choice of looking at looking at 500 in quick succession so if somebody was sitting there and they were thinking I need to I want to buy a business yeah is there any key things other than the fact that obviously you know the financials if you take the financials out is there any key things that people should be looking at well it is actually the financials the largest part because you want a business that's that's making good money and if you're going to buy a business why would you buy a business making 50 000 a year when you can buy a business making 500 000 a year with the same level of effort um as actually is easier to buy the larger business and the smaller business the larger business is going to be a better business than the smaller business um so they're uh yeah so the financials actually are are absolutely critical uh it's got to have enough staff enough people because you always get some when you buy a business you always get some people you want something that if you've if you've got a business with five members of staff and two leave you've got yourself a big problem uh if you've got a business with 50 members of staff and five leave or six leave it you know you don't notice yeah sometimes they were surplus to requirements anyway uh you've got to have a business that's big enough to be able to afford some good people to run it because you don't want that if uh it if it if it's you and you just bought yourself a job uh and even though it might be a well -paid job yeah we've kind of created that bottleneck that we were talking about earlier yeah and how did what sort of weight do you put on things like the culture of the organization well the that's the hardest part so you know if you buy two businesses one has a nine to five you know you walk in at one minute to nine you leave at one minute to five and then you've got the other which is work hard play hard and you know we're on call we're available anytime we'll do what's required to grow this business you try and put those two groups of people together and they won't mix so that cultural match is is really difficult and getting the staff on side is really important and that you know we did it really well and we did really badly yeah so and everything in between and sometimes it's practice slightly outside of your control as well so um you know you you might have a seller who who is a reluctant seller and some for some reason doesn't want the buyer to be successful and definitely doesn't want the buyer to be more successful than they were doesn't want to show doesn't want to be shown up so they they spike it a little bit with the staff and it's amazing how many people sell a business and then keep in touch with the staff and want to know everything that's going on they can't let go oh i suppose after 20 years of ownership i get that i understand that but uh that that makes things a little bit tricky so the the people aspects are typically the hardest okay thank you that's really that's really a good point so what are you doing now then um i go on holiday a lot and i take my daughter to school i pick her up from school um i watch uh dancing uh uh shows uh gymnastics competitions the other night last night and uh and i i do that i i i fill my day um helping other people buy businesses and benefiting from my experience over the last 25 years so uh these are either business owners already who want to expand by buying another business or they're entrepreneurially minded people quite a few property investors recently are not getting a very good return on property um and uh and see an opportunity in business so it's a it's a combination of all of uh all those different types of people and i i have sort of groups of business owners and entrepreneurs who come together and i guide them through the business buying process so they don't make all the mistakes and there's a lot of mistakes you can make and i've made all of them so i can help people avoid them that sounds really good so is there a top five mistakes that entrepreneurs make when they're trying to buy a business yeah um this is in no particular order because it's off the top of my head but uh definitely uh letting uh emotion rule the decision so ahead so it you turn into a motivated buyer you want to buy it and therefore you've got to make the deal work even though the deal shouldn't work it actually would help you if the deal didn't work um buying a business that's too small so you end up um getting involved because you have to and the business can't afford anyone to replace the exited owner um another mistake is using your own money you should never use your own money when buying a business why would you do that um you know we can we can finance the the acquisition without you having to reach into your own pocket and that's why people can buy multi -million pound businesses without being a multi -millionaire uh you don't need the money to to do that you just need the knowledge and the three mistakes that people make uh mistake number four um is that uh let's see um they uh get the numbers wrong so they don't do sufficient due diligence to understand exactly how much profit the business makes uh what the business will continue to make under the new ownership you know they rush the deal they rush this part of it because it's not very exciting due diligence um it's a little bit like waiting for the house survey to come back when you've already want to buy the house and even if there's a hole in the roof and you're gonna buy that house so people ignore the due diligence or skimp on it that's four thing four mistakes that people make i've done a video i've done actually done a video series of 12 mistakes that people make uh and uh so let me think of one of those for number five for you um so i i think going into an acquisition without enough knowledge of what to do so feeling as though you can make it up as you go along you can pick up bits of information of the internet i mean goodness me if you spend enough time on the internet you'll you'll be so confused because people say different things what you need is a process you need a system to follow you need to say like this is the first thing i do this is the second thing to the third thing and every time i see someone follow the system they get the result if they don't follow the system they don't get the result and it becomes frustrating or it becomes expensive or they end up just not doing it so i think it's really important to follow that process follow that system so there you go there's five mistakes that people make they're really good ones actually and they're things that you don't automatically think of and that i like the idea about not being a motivated buyer because you make mistakes because you just need and like you say you just need to buy it when it's been going on for ages so it's just like i've put i've already invested x amount of time so now it's i might as well just do well it um yes or i've spent x amount of money and yeah i feel as though i i have an obligation to follow through uh which is just not some not a good idea uh at all you you are looking for a motivated seller you're looking for somebody who wants to sell because if they don't want to sell why you know what you're going to do you're going to try and persuade them to sell to you does that sound like it's ever going to be a good deal so you want someone who wants to sell and you'll find that the more they want to sell the better the deal for you so out of all though millions of businesses out there i think you're probably better off finding someone who really is motivated to sell rather than someone who doesn't want to yeah and i suppose the other thing to think about is if you've got another business or other businesses is how does this one adds to the portfolio or does it distract from the portfolio i guess another one isn't it exactly and and it becomes a distraction it becomes a bad distraction if it's small and it sucks up time but doesn't give you anything back uh it's a good distraction um if it's a game changer acquisition and that and that's what uh um that's always what we're that that is a game changer or just something that you want to do how do they how can they tell the difference uh it's usually down to the numbers right okay to give an example a father and son duo who just bought their first business recently with my help um eight million of revenue 1 .1 million of pre -tax profit that's a game changer deal where you know you buy a business 20 that makes 000 pounds a year well that's never going to set the world alight right it's just like why put the effort in you might as well go and buy the bigger the bigger business okay and do you have any thoughts about knowing when to sell when someone should be thinking about it's time to sell yeah when things are going well but no one wants to sell when things are going well because i say well why would i sell things are going well now that's when you get the um most value and things don't go well forever no business goes up and up and up and up and up and up and up every business you know it goes up and down it's like a roller coaster so you need to know when you're going getting up to the top of the the peak and when you're going up to the top of the peak that's when you sell when you reach the top the only way is down and that's when you get the worst value and that's when you become seriously motivated to sell you should be motivated to sell because the business is doing well not motivated to sell because the business is doing badly. That makes a lot of sense and I guess you need to not be emotionally attached to the business because that's when it's difficult to sell. You get the best value if you're not emotionally attached. If you are emotionally attached your value goes down every single time. This is really useful. Thank you so much for that. Before we finish is there anything Jonathan you want to add or leave with the audience? Can I give a plug for my YouTube channel? Yeah go ahead and do it. If you type my name Jonathan J J A Y into YouTube I've got over 200 videos on buying a business and all interviews with my clients who've done it, me doing presentations to groups of people, all different types of videos and there's some free training videos there as well. If anyone's interested in doing this check out the Jonathan J YouTube channel. Brilliant and I think that will help as you said it's always good to have a bit of a template a bit of a process and an idea of what to expect rather than getting super excited and go I've got some money I can do something. Yeah and keep your money in your pocket don't use your own money when buying the business. Brilliant thank you so much for coming on the show. My pleasure thank you Judith. You're welcome and thank you out there for tuning into the Maverick Paradox podcast. I'm Judith Germain your host and thank you very much for listening to us today. The Maverick Paradox. Judith Germain is an author, speaker, consultant, mentor and trainer and the leading authority on maverick leadership. She is the founder of the Maverick Paradox which supports organizations to enhance their leadership capabilities and to help business owners develop and grow their businesses. Judith enables individuals, business owners and organizations to improve their impact and influence. She is also HR Zones leadership columnist and her expert opinion has appeared in national, international and trade press.
Evangelism on SermonAudio
Fresh update on "four things" discussed on Evangelism on SermonAudio
"Who was before a blasphemer and a persecutor and injurious, but I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly and unbelief and the grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant with faith and love, which is in Christ Jesus. This is a faithful source of faith in Christ Jesus. And that's where we'll stop for tonight. We'll be right back. So we began teaching in this series here. We began with teaching the Bible, began with teaching the Bible accurately and then teaching the Bible properly. And we looked at kind of two different aspects of that. For those lessons, we said this in both of those lessons. Nothing else matters if we don't teach what the Bible says. That's the foundation. And when you think about what a church is supposed to be doing Notice, if you will, with me, as we are thinking about this, that accurate and proper Bible teaching. Now watch this statement. Accurate and proper Bible teaching precedes evangelism. Now that may surprise you. You may say, no, no, nothing else is important. Soul winning is the main thing. Well, we're just taking it in the order the Lord gives it. And the Lord gives it into the teaching accurately and properly before he talks about this idea of evangelism. So why would proper and accurate Bible teaching precede evangelism? Well, ask yourself this. If we are going to win souls, to what and with what are we winning them? If we're going to win souls, what are we using to win them with? What are we winning them to? We are not winning them by a well-rehearsed presentation. Now, I'm not against that. The better you can do it, the more comfortable you're doing it. That's better. That's great. That's wonderful. I'm not in any way criticizing that. But a well-rehearsed presentation is not what wins souls. This is not a humanistic thing. It's the truth of God's word. If anyone gets saved, it's the truth of God's word. Some people say, well, I don't want to say the wrong thing. Here's the right thing. Tell them this. Jesus saves. Two words. Jesus saves. That right there is a pretty good way to start the presentation of the gospel. You tell them what Jesus did for you. So it's a very basic thing. The more you do it, the better you get at it, the more comfortable you get. That's all true. But you're presenting the word of God in such a way to explain their need to trust Christ as Savior. So we're not winning them with a well-rehearsed presentation but by the truth of God's word. Some people have asked me, you know, can people get saved? Let's say there's a church who preaches the gospel properly but has other weird stuff happening. Could someone get saved? Yes, because, okay, watch this. If we taught, this would be a false teaching, if we taught that the filling of the Spirit, not the incoming of the Spirit, but the filling of the Spirit was shown by speaking in some type of weird tongue, that would be a false teaching. But if we still taught the gospel properly, people still could get saved. Even though this is inaccurate, this is not what saves them. It's the gospel is what saves them, okay? So we're not winning them to a well-rehearsed presentation but we're winning them with the truth of God's word. It is God's word that convicts and converts a soul, not our words. Additionally, we're winning them to the Christ that's revealed in Scripture. We're not just saying believe in God or any God or a God. We're talking about put your faith in Jesus Christ. And there's a lot of different ideas of who Jesus is so we're telling them the Jesus that the Bible talks about, the one that was prophesied in the Old Testament, the one that came by way of incarnation in the New Testament, the one that was preached on after in the book of Acts and going forward. And so the Bible is what gives us this presentation of the gospel. So we're winning them to the Christ that is revealed in Scripture. We're not trying, when we're talking to someone about the gospel, we're not trying to get them simply to change churches. Does it matter what church you go to when it comes to going to heaven? Nope. Doesn't matter a bit. Now, after you're saved, does it matter? Yes. If you're not saved, it does not matter. So we're not trying to get them simply to change churches but to repent and believe in Christ alone as Savior. So what precedes evangelism? Accurate, proper Bible teaching. Now, let's shift gears because we're talking about the spirit of evangelism. Even though accurate and proper Bible teaching precedes evangelism, it finds its purpose in evangelism. The whole reason we're teaching accurately and properly is so that we can do the evangelism. So we have the truth to give to people. And then after they get saved, to grow them. There are other truths in the Bible besides the gospel, and by that I'm talking about simply trust Christ and Christ alone to be saved. You could put the gospel in a broader definition. There are other truths in the Bible besides the gospel. But all those other truths in the Bible are only truly understood by those who believe the gospel. If someone's not saved, how much of the Bible are they going to understand? Not a whole lot. It's just going to be like, well, I know I kind of know some people and some events, but they don't make the connection. So there are other truths in the Bible. So yeah, we need to teach accurately and properly, but we're doing it to get people saved because until they get saved, they really don't even understand what we're teaching. Now the result of growing in our Bible knowledge is to be conformed to Jesus Christ. And what was the focus of Jesus Christ? Evangelism. How do I know that? Well, hold your place. Let's look in Scripture. Let's see if we can find a verse. How about Luke? Let's just turn to Luke. Maybe there's something in Luke that talks about it. Maybe, I don't know, maybe chapter 19. Nineteen is a good number. I remember when I was 19. It was a couple of years ago, seemingly. Luke 19, verse 10. For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost. So that was the focus of Jesus' ministry. So let's back up for a moment so I don't lose you. Is it important to accurately and properly teach the Bible? Yes. Does that precede evangelism? Yes. But why do we do it? So the purpose of doing this is so that we can do evangelism the right way because we want to do this so we get people to do the evangelism. And then when we win them, if we're teaching the Bible properly and accurately, when we win them, now they can understand because, you know, they have the Holy Spirit inside of them. And the whole purpose, when Jesus came to preach, he didn't come just to say a bunch of words. He came to see people saved. This means then, so now we'll come to a summary before we get to the application. This means that a church that accurately and properly teaches the Bible should also be developing a spirit of evangelism in that church. Now watch this statement. Evangelism is not an activity of the church. This is what gets us in trouble. People say, well, what does our church do? Well, we have evangelism and we have this and we have this and that is not a true statement. What we have is evangelism. Now how we do it is in multiple different ways. A singing ministry should be an evangelistic ministry. It's not a talent show. If you're singing to impress people then you shouldn't be singing, not in a church setting. If you're, I don't know, whatever else is going on, if you're cutting the grass, sorry Larry, if you're cutting the grass because you love cutting the grass, that's not, we're cutting the grass to make the place look more appealing so someone comes by, they don't go like, well, what's that? I don't want to go there. It's all grown up. We want to make it appealing so maybe someone would come in and hear the gospel. So everything we do as a church is based on this idea of evangelism. So evangelism, now watch this again. I'm going to say it again. I'm going to add something to it. Evangelism is not an activity of the church. It is the ministry of the church. The ministry is singular. There's evangelism is our ministry. Now, we have ministries to carry out evangelism, but the ministry is evangelism. Whatever ministry God puts us in, puts me in and puts you in, will include, will be a part of, will be somehow tied to the ministry of evangelism. Go back and look at chapter 1. Look what Paul said in verse 12. And I kind of tried to emphasize that when I said this. And I think Christ Jesus our Lord has enabled me for the account of me faithful, putting me into the ministry. Anyone know anything about Paul's ministry? Did he do any soul winning? Do you think he preached the gospel at all? That is all that he did. Now, he did some other things. We know they started churches and he and you know, these are obviously things he taught a lot of doctrine, but it was it was all about evangelism. If you're not involved in evangelism, you are not involved in the ministry of the church. So we have to ask ourselves this. How does what I do in this church further the gospel outreach of this church? Whatever ministry I'm involved in, whatever I'm doing in this setting, in a church setting, I ask myself, what am I doing to further the gospel outreach? How does this help do this? Okay, uh, Joe Myers helps keep our buses running. Are our buses important to evangelism? Yes, we go out, pick up kids and they come and they get saved. Everything is tied somehow back to this idea of evangelism. Now, this shift gears one more time because still, we're talking about developing a spirit of evangelism. We really haven't got into that part. We've just talked about why we do this, not how to do it. So let's try to work towards the how. So I'm gonna give you a couple of things to fill out. People may begin to go soul winning. Then I switch gears a little bit and use the word soul winning. Talking about that particular type of evangelism. People may begin to go soul winning because they feel obligated, and it's not wrong, I'm not saying any of this is wrong, I'm just saying this is often what you see. People may begin to go soul winning because they feel obligated, pressured, or required to go. And if you feel pressured to go, great, because I tried to pressure you to go. If you feel obligated, great, because that's what I preach about, this is our obligation. If you feel like required, like, you know, I feel like this is just what is requirement, you're right, it is required for us to be soul winners. Now that's how they begin to go. But watch this. But if it isn't in your heart, you will not continue to go. You'll invent various excuses why you don't go. And ultimately be a discouragement to others who do go. So why am I saying this? Because this gets us to what we're going to teach on tonight. The way to develop a spirit of evangelism in the church is to develop a spirit of evangelism in the hearts of those who minister in that church. If a church has evangelism going on, who's going to be doing it? Are the chairs evangelizing? Are the psalm books evangelizing? Does the carpet evangelize? Who does the evangelizing in a church setting? The people. So it has to be in our hearts. If our church is going to have a spirit of evangelism, it has to be in the hearts of those who make up our church. And if it's in our heart, then it'll be in our church. So we're going to go back now to 1 Timothy 1, and we're going to use four things, four observations of what Paul said, or four things that Paul said, to see how we can develop such a spirit in our own hearts, this developing a spirit of evangelism. If it's going to be in a church, it's got to be in us, because we're what makes up the church. So let's go back now to verse number 12. We're going to read verse 12 and 13. Who was before a blasphemer and a persecutor and injurious, but I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly unbelief. And the grace of our Lord is exceeding abundant with faith and love, which is in Christ Jesus. And then look at verse 12, I skipped over that. And I thank Christ Jesus, our Lord, who has enabled me, for that he accounted me, faithful, putting me into the ministry. So here's number one. How to develop this spirit of evangelism in our own hearts. Here's number one. Remember what we were before we were saved. Well, that's so obvious, it is. You ever read the Old Testament about the children of Israel? It's very simple. God said to Moses, tell them, don't forget these things. As soon as you forget these things, you're going to go off and crash. They said, OK, Moses, we won't forget. They got to the Promised Land and off they went and crashed. It's so easy for us to get sidelined, to get involved in all kinds of things, instead of the main thing that we're supposed to be involved in. So let me give you a little statement just because we like to provoke you. The reason that many have no desire for evangelism isn't that they don't know, like they don't know how to or they don't know they're supposed to. Most people, especially in a church like this, you know, we talk about it enough. The reason many have no desire for evangelism isn't that they don't know or don't have time. People say, well, you know, I just don't have time. Yeah, you do have as much time as every other human being on the planet. You have 24 hours in a day. If someone else goes on and you don't has nothing to do with time because you will both have 24 hours. Now, you may not be able to go the same day they go. You may not be able to go as long as they go, but everyone can go. Everyone can go sometime during that week, we'll make it broader, sometime during that week everyone can go, can do something evangelistically. God has given you time. So it's not that we don't know or don't have time, but that they don't care. That's what it boils down to, you just don't care. And the reason we don't care anymore is because we forgot the pit that we came out of. They have enough other things going on in their lives, and sometimes on purpose, to keep their minds occupied so they don't have to consider the lost state of those around them. People use all kinds of other things. People say, well, you know, if people weren't involved in so many other things out of the church they could do more in the church, and that's why they're so involved outside the church. It's not by accident, it's on purpose. And so they get so occupied with all these other things so they don't have to think about, really, what is expected out of them. Now, I've shared this with you sometime in the past. I'm going to share it with you again. I did it, I think, previously by video. I'm going to show you the picture so you understand as I'm reading it. General William Booth, general, not in the army, but he was in the Salvation Army, and that was his title, he's a leader. He started what was called the Salvation Army. It was primarily the idea of winning people to Christ. And then it kind of, and they were really winning the down and outers of, this is in London and England, late 1800s, early 1900s. And then they would try to feed them, try to help them out, but everything that they did after was predicated on this idea of winning them to Christ. They didn't just feed them and clothe them, they tried to win them to Christ, and then they tried to help them out of poverty and try to teach them some things. So it had a social part in it, but after it had the spiritual part. So there's nothing wrong with it. There's nothing wrong with feeding the hungry and clothing the naked and trying to help people who are struggling. There's nothing wrong with that, as long as it's based on getting the gospel. Because if you don't give them the gospel, you're just making them give a full stomach and clothes on their back and give them a warm place to sleep on the way to hell. And so you got to get the gospel to them. And so he had, he spoke this way, and this is kind of a, he had this what was called a vision, and he talked on a lot of imagery at times when he spoke. So he had a big convention, and he talked about this vision he had of the lost. And I'm going to give you a picture. The picture was made, the picture was drawn or painted years and years and years later, but it's based on this vision. So I'll show you the picture so you understand as I'm reading what he's talking about, to help you with the imagery of what he's saying. So here's the picture that was drawn. So he's speaking now, and I'll just read it to you. I'll try to not take too long and try to be, not get too tongue-tied. He said this, I saw a dark and stormy ocean. In that ocean I thought, I saw myriads of poor human beings plunging and floating, shouting and shrieking, cursing and struggling and drowning. And as they cursed and screamed, they rose and shrieked again, and then some sank to rise no more. And I saw out of this dark angry ocean a mighty rock that rose up with its summit towering high above the black clouds that overhung the stormy sea. And all around the base of this great rock I saw a vast platform. Onto this platform I saw with delight a number of the poor struggling, drowning wretches continually climbing out of the angry ocean. And I saw that a few of those who were already safe on the platform were helping the poor creatures still in the angry waters to reach the place of safety. On looking more closely I found a number of those who had been rescued industriously working and scheming by ladders, ropes, boats and other means more effective to deliver the poor strugglers out of the sea. As I looked on, I saw that the occupants of that platform were quite a mixed company. That is, they were divided into certain, sorry, into different sets or classes. And they occupied themselves with different pleasures and employments. But only a very few of them seemed to make it their business to get the people out of the sea. But what puzzled me most was the fact that though all of them, now watch this, all of them had been rescued at one time or another from the ocean. Nearly everyone seemed to have forgotten all about it. Anyway, it seemed the memory of its darkness and danger no longer troubled them at all. And what seemed equally strange and perplexing to me was that these people did not even seem to have any care. That is an agonizing care about the poor, perishing ones who were struggling and drowning right before their very eyes. Many of whom were their own husbands and wives and brothers and sisters and even their own children. The occupants of this platform were engaged in different pursuits and pastimes. Some of them were absorbed day and night in trading and business in order to make gain, storing up their savings in boxes, safes and the like. Many spent their time in amusing themselves with growing flowers on the side of the rock. Others in painting pieces of cloth or in playing music or in dressing themselves up in different styles and walking about to be admired. Some occupied themselves chiefly in eating and drinking. Others were taken up with arguing about the poor, drowning creatures that had already been rescued. But the thing to me that seemed the most amazing was that those on the platform to whom He, talking about the Lord, to whom He called, who heard His voice and felt that they ought to obey it, at least they said they did, those who confessed to love Him much were in full sympathy with Him in the task He had undertaken, who worshipped Him, who professed to do so, were so taken up with their trades and professions, their money-saving and pleasures, their families in circles, their religions and arguments about it, and their preparation for going to the mainland, heaven, that they did not listen to the cry that came to them from this wonderful being who had Himself gone down into the sea, talking about the Lord. So these people used to meet and get up as high on the rock as they could, and looking towards the mainland where they thought the great being was, they would cry out, now watch this, come to us, come and help us, this is what they are saying to the Lord. And all the while He was down by His Spirit among the poor, struggling, drowning creatures in the angry deep, with His arms around them, trying to drag them out and looking up, oh so longingly but all in vain, to those on the rock, crying to them with His voice, all hoarse from calling, this is what He is calling to them, come to me, come and help me, that is very convicting, that is just a portion, it was a very much longer speech than that. So we have to remember what we were before we were saved, we forget that. So we are going to develop a spirit evangelism, we have to take time and realize what did the Lord save me out of, and reflect on that and say, I still need to be concerned about those who are in the same state I was. Now let's go back to verse 13, who was before a blasphemer and a persecutor and injurious, but I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly in belief, and the grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus. This is a faithful saying and worthy of acceptation that Christ Jesus came in the world of safe sinners of whom I am chief. Number two in this developing a spirit evangelism, remember, I got a page here that has that statement on it, remember what we were before we were saved, number two, remember what changed us. The only difference between us and those who are lost is the grace of God. We are not more loved, more valued, or more desired than any other sinner. Sometimes you think, well, that's why the Lord saved me, I work a job, I got a house, I pay my bills, that's why the Lord saved me. No, He saved you because He loved you and He had mercy upon you. You have no more value, you're no more loved, you're no more desired than anyone else. There's some guy who's wasting his life on drugs or booze or whatever other sin it may be. You're going to have more character, you're going to have more talent, you're going to have more ability, you're going to have more intelligence, you're going to have more manners, you're going to have more potential, but none of that matters. It is the grace of God that saved you from your sins when you placed your faith in Christ as Savior. Now watch, and that grace is available to every lost sinner who comes to Christ in faith. That's what changed us, what changed us was grace. And we can look at a world and let me tell you, seemingly, the world is just going, getting crazier and crazier and worse and worse. There's no reason to beat the dead horse. Just look around and you're thinking, man, what a crazy world we live in. What could change this? Only one thing could change this, this is the grace of God. So we go out with the gospel. Will it change? I don't know, but I'm going to tell you, if it's going to change, it's going to be God. It's not going to be the next election. It's not going to be some political party, it's not going to be some law that gets passed, it's not going to be some social program that they institute, it's only going to be the grace of God. That's what changed you, that's what changed me, changed you, changed me, that's what will change them. Never think that someone is too lost to be saved because God's grace is exceeding abundant for them like it was for you. Now watch this statement. You may not have sinned like them. Well, I didn't do what they did, I never did those kind of things, okay. But you sinned enough to go to the same hell with them. I've never acted like that, I've never done that, it's vile and wicked. Okay, it's vile and wicked. But you are on your way to the same hell that they're on your way to. And God's grace saved you and God's grace can save them. It changed you, it can change them. So we're going to develop a spirit of evangelism. We remember where we came from and we remember what changed us. There's a third thing. Back to chapter 1, look with me at verse 15. This is a faithful saying, worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came in the world to save sinners for whom I am chief. Howbeit for this cause I obtain mercy that in me first Jesus Christ may show forth all longsuffering for a pattern to them which should hear after, believe on him to life everlasting. Here's our third. Remember what we're supposed to do. That's what Paul is talking about. Jesus Christ came in the world to save sinners. Howbeit for this cause I obtain mercy that in me first Jesus Christ may show forth all longsuffering for a pattern to them which should hear after, believe on him. Remember what we're supposed to do. God leaves us in this world after salvation. Sorry, the reason God leaves us in this world after salvation is to tell others about our salvation. We can do everything else better in heaven, except evangelism. You think it'd be easier to understand the Bible when you're in heaven? Sure. You're reading, let's say you're reading one of the prophets. Let's say you're reading Ezekiel. And I say, Ezekiel, what in the world are wheels within wheels within wheels? What are you talking about? That's my question to Ezekiel. Ezekiel, what are wheels inside a wheel? Every time I read that I'm like, I have no idea. I've looked it up, I've searched it, I've looked at other things, and at the end of the day I'm still like, I still have no idea what that means. Well, what if Ezekiel doesn't know? Well, we go to the Lord himself maybe and ask him, say, Lord, what does this mean? So everything else can be done better in heaven except evangelism. And the Lord leaves us here for that reason. Go with me to John 17. John 17. Verse 14. I have given them thy word, and the world hath hated them, because they are not of this world, even as I am not of the world. I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them through thy truth, thy word is truth, as thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world. So the Lord is not of the world, but we are in the world, so we can go into the world with the gospel. Jesus didn't send us into the world to make a name for ourselves, to acquire wealth and lands, or to make the world a better place. Jesus sent us into the world to continue his work. We saw that in the book of Luke, to seek and to save that which was lost. Here in John 17, go a couple chapters, John 20. Look at verse 19. Then the same day and evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut, where the disciples were similar in fear of the Jews, came Jesus, stood in the midst, and said unto them, Peace be unto you. When he had so said, he showed them to him his hands and his side. Then where the disciples go out when they saw the Lord, then Jesus said unto them, Again, peace be unto you, as my Father sent me, even so send I you. And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost. Whosoever sends you, remit, they are remitted unto them, and whosoever sends you, retain, they are retained. Notice the connection of sins being forgiven in this idea of being sent out by the Lord. So we continue, we're sent into the world to continue his work. So we're going to develop a spirit of evangelism. Well, we remember where we were, what we were. We remember what changed us. We remember what we're supposed to do while we're here. Then there's a fourth thing to remember, back to 1 Timothy chapter 1, look at me at verse 17. Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen. Here's a fourth thing that we need to remember in order to develop a spirit of evangelism in our own hearts, and that is this. Remember who we are doing it for. Jesus deserves all the glory that he can get, and even more. He will never get too much. Our desire to see souls saved should be founded on our love for our Savior and our desire for him to be glorified. Let's look at this together in Revelation, Revelation chapter 4, if you will. Look at me at verse 8. Revelation 4 verse 8. And the four beasts had each of them six wings about them, and they were full of eyes within. And they rest not day and night, saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was and is and is to come. And when those beasts give glory and honor and thanks to him that sat on the throne who liveth forever and ever, the four and twenty elders fall down before him that sat on the throne and worship him that liveth forever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne, saying, Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power, for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created. Go over to chapter 5, start at verse 8. And when he had taken the book, the four beasts and four and twenty elders fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps and golden vials full of odors, which are the prayers of saints. And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book and to open the seals thereof, for thou wast slain and hast redeemed us to God by the blood, now watch this, out of every kindred and tongue and people and nation. Jesus deserves praise from every kindred, from every tongue, every people and every nation, and hast made us unto our God kings and priests, and we shall reign on the earth. And I beheld and I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne of the beasts and the elders, and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands, which is still not enough, saying with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing. And every creature which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them heard I saying, blessing and honor and glory and power, being in him that sitteth upon the throne and to the Lamb forever and ever. And the four beasts said, Amen, and the four and twenty elders fell down and worshiped him that liveth forever and ever. He is worthy. That's what we're doing it for. We're not doing it to make a name for ourselves. We're doing it so he has as much praise and glory and honor in heaven as possible. It is never about us. It is always about him. I'll give you two statements and we're done for the night. Those believers who remember that they were headed for an eternal hell, only God's grace delivered them when they put their faith in Christ, that God has left them here to tell others about God's grace. And this is how we glorify Jesus. OK, when you remember all these things, that is how you'll develop a heart for evangelism. Which gives you one last statement. That church who has such believers will develop a spirit of evangelism in the ministries of that church. If you have that heart for evangelism, whatever ministry you get plucked into, you're going to have a heart for evangelism in that ministry because that's in your heart. No one has to say, Hey, think about evangelism. You're already going to be thinking about that. You're going to sing a song and when you get up to sing a song, you're not going to say just, Lord, help me not to stumble over my words. Help me not to mess up. Help me not to, you know, fall on my face. Help me not to trip on the stairs up or down. Help me, you know, help me not to drop the mic. You're going to say this, Lord, help people to hear the truth. And Lord, may someone get saved out of this. That'll be your heart because you have a spirit of evangelism. All right, let's pray. Now, Father, I do pray that you would pray.
Evangelism on SermonAudio
A highlight from Evangelism 101
"Gospel is a way of life. As believers, we should be intentional. It should be something we do, is share the gospel. So maybe you're like this when the term of evangelism and sharing the gospel comes up. You're like the guy here on the left that as soon as somebody talks about evangelism, you're like, I'm out. That's it. I'm out. Or you may be kind of like Christian in Pilgrim's Progress, like the guy on your right that seems like the gospel is this burden that just sits on our back, and if we don't share it perfectly, if we don't get them to conversion, all of a sudden we have failed. And these are two avenues that have plagued us quite often when we look at us as believers. But I want to share with you today as the first part of this, this is a burden that's really been on my heart when it comes to sharing the gospel, is I want to remove that backpack from you. And part of the way to do that today as we work through this is we're going to talk about whose role is it anyway when it comes to the gospel. I'm going to take a look at what is the gospel. Oftentimes I think we don't share the gospel because one, we don't know the gospel or we can't articulate the gospel. And then I want to talk about, I object. What are some of the most common objections I've heard? There's really only one that I'd like you to focus in on because in one way shape or form this comes into play every time I've talked with somebody. Turn, turn, turn! What are some ways that we can turn gospel conversations in everyday life? And then talking about just some of the common witnessing scenarios that I've encountered throughout my ministry. So whose role is it anyway? Defining roles in evangelism. If we look back at God's Word itself, John 1, 11 through 13, He came to His own and His own people did not receive Him. But to many that did receive Him, to those who believe in His name, He gave them the authority to become children of God. Who were born not of blood, not of will, nor of the flesh, but of who? God. It's God who gives people the right to become children of God. We don't. It's God who saves. Jeremiah 31, the new covenant. I'm not going to read the whole thing throughout this, but you will see I've bolded some words. Who's the I will? Yahweh God. I will make a new covenant. I will make with the house of Israel. I will put my law in their hearts. I will write it on them. I will be their God and they will be my people. I will forgive their iniquity and I will no longer remember their sins. What part do you play in that? Nothing. Nothing. John 6, 35 through 39. Jesus says, I'm the bread of life. The one who comes to me will never hunger. The one who believes in me will never thirst again. But I say to you that you have seen and yet do not believe. Everyone when the Father gives me and comes to me and the one who comes to me I will never throw out because I have come down from heaven. Not that I should do my own will but the will of the one who sent me. Now this is the will of the one who sent me that everyone whom He has given life, I will not lose any of them. But I will raise them up on the last day. And a very familiar verse, John 6, 44. No one is able to come to me unless who? God. Yahweh God the Father draws him. Are you getting a sense of hopefully like Christian that burden is coming off your back? What part do we play in this? Well, first of all, don't fear. God is with you even in our miserable failings of sharing the gospel. At the same time, what role do we play? Well, the beautiful thing is Yahweh God the Father orchestrated this plan from the beginning before the foundation of the world. Jesus Christ the Son accomplished the plan on the cross. The Holy Spirit applies that plan. What role do you play? John alluded to it in his prayer. You deliver the mail. You declare the plan. You don't change the heart. You don't convince people. You don't convert people. It's a beautiful thing that I get to share with people when I preach in the open air. I tell them right out, right off the gate. I don't convert people. I don't convince people and they look at me weird like, why are you out here? Because I'm here to declare the one who can. And that's what we're there to do. Declare the one who can convert the heart. The one who can convince them of their unbelief to belief. So hopefully the burden if you haven't felt it that you will continue to feel it. It's it's not our role. Our role is just to deliver the good news of Jesus Christ. So what is the good news of Jesus Christ? If I were to ask you, what is the gospel? What would you tell me? Yes. Yeah, what would you tell me? Good news. Okay, what else? Okay, we're all born sinners. We need Jesus as our Savior in order to get to heaven. What else? There's judgment if you reject, okay. What else? Died on the cross for our sins and rose from the dead. What else? We need to be reconciled to God. Okay, we were purchased at a great price. Good. Eternity in heaven or eternity in hell. Eternity in heaven or eternity in hell. Okay, not by works. Can you articulate the gospel in 30 seconds? Can you articulate the gospel in a minute or five minutes? Can you articulate the gospel in 45 minutes? These are things we hopefully should be able to do with as much time or as little time as someone gives us. The Bible declares 30 second gospel message Christ died for the ungodly. You leave that with somebody, they'll ponder it. Who's Christ? Who are the ungodly? Why did he die? Those several words sum up the gospel message Christ died for the ungodly and all of this that you've talked about encompasses in the gospel. But it's not just pieces of it. I know one of the things when we think about the gospel we think about the death burial and resurrection of Christ and that's it. But the gospel is not just the death burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. It's certainly no less than that. But that is the anchor point of who the person and work of Jesus Christ is. His whole life is the gospel. It's the person and work of Jesus Christ that is foundational in the death burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. So let's take a look at what is the gospel message determining the gospel message. The beginning of Mark I know here currently in a sermon series on Mark. So Mark 1 1 the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ Mark tells you that all of his 16 chapters are going to be about what? The gospel of Jesus Christ. He lays out the foundation for us. Luke 24 the road to Emmaus toward the end Jesus said to them thus it is written that Christ would suffer and would rise from the dead on the third day and repentance and forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed in his name to the nation's beginning from Jerusalem and you are my witnesses of these things earlier in the road to Emmaus. Jesus says that the law the writings and the prophets testify to who to him that means the coal cannon the whole Bible testifies to Jesus Christ. Romans 1 16 through 17 Paul declaring I am not ashamed of the gospel for it is the power of God to salvation to everyone who believes the beautiful thing about this is oftentimes we quote 116 but 17 goes on to explain what the gospel is. To everyone who believes to the Jew first and also to the Greek for the righteousness of God is revealed in the gospel from faith to faith as it is written the just or the one who is righteous by faith will live. First Corinthians 15 you're very familiar with it Paul opening up or should might be familiar with it. I don't know if you are not but I'm not going to make a blanket statement. But in case you're not familiar with it now, I know make known to you brothers the gospel which I proclaim to you which you've also received in which you also stand by which we're also being saved if you hold fast to the message I proclaim to you unless you believed to no purpose for I passed on to you as the first importance what I also received that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures and then he was buried and then he was raised upon the third day according to the scriptures. These are all verses that we look at when we think about the gospel itself, but there's four things to think about if you had an outline and I don't like outlines that much they help me get started. I won't negate the fact that they've helped me get started. But as you understand scripture and as you start reading through in your daily time, you're going to start to see things that are like wait a minute. That's really good. I could have I could have used that in that conversation. So you put it in your back pocket. And you have another opportunity and then you get to bring it out of your back pocket and share it with somebody because it's something that God is placed on your heart as to how he can move and work throughout the gospel anybody familiar with what is the gospel the book by Greg Gilbert? Great book. It's a great book. He includes this in page 32. He says whatever else the Apostles might say there are the issues that seem to lie at the heart of their presentation of the gospel. Context change angles change words change and approaches change but somehow in some way the earliest Christians always seem to get at these four issues. We are accountable to God who created us we have sinned against that God and will be judged but God has acted in Jesus Christ to save us and we will take hold of that salvation by repentance from sin and faith in Jesus Christ.
Mark Levin
Sen. Hawley Attacks Mayorkas Over Image Sharing of Hamas Paraglider
"Celebratory free Palestine. Mr. Secretary, what's going on here? Is this typical of people who work at DHS? This is an asylum and immigration officer who is posting these frankly pro genocidal slogans and images on the day that Israelis are being slaughtered in their beds. What have you done about this? Four things I'd like to say to you. Number one, your question to me is that it suggests that it that is emblematic of the man. Stop you see you see how sick this is. this SOB gets on his high horse. You're suggesting that the people at DHS, he made no such suggestion. This self -righteous bullcrap for the appeasers of the enemy is sickening. Sickening. This is all the reality has. This is it. And this is what totalitarian regimes do. They take and they turn it into a fiction. Go ahead. The Department of Homeland Security is despicable. I'm sorry what have you done? This person works for the Department of Homeland Security. Have you fired her? That was one of four answers. Have you fired her? One. Have you fired her? Don't come to this hearing room when Israel has been invaded and Jewish students in this country and cannot be escorted out because they are threatened for their lives. You have employees who are genocide celebrating and you are saying it's despicable for me to ask the question? This is the piece of crap that has the
She Podcasts
A highlight from 405 iOS17 and Clubhouse Pivot
"Hey, everyone. Thanks for returning to She Podcast, the podcast. I am your co -host, Jessica Kupferman. Welcome to Episode 405. With me as always, today, very giggly, Elsie Escobar. Oh my God. Hi. Say hi. Hello. Hello. Oh my God. We sound like we literally have never done this in our lives. Not to say we are on episode four hundred and five. So like four hundred and five. Can't find my earbuds. Don't know why Elsie's face is disappearing. Take extra time to find the mic and the settings. We literally just did this like a month ago. Like it hasn't even been a month, has it? Maybe a month. Yes, I think it has been. Yeah, but but but it doesn't really matter. Hello, Cheryl. It doesn't really matter because we have been doing this since twenty fourteen. Just you and I since twenty fourteen. That's like it's almost a decade. Oh, Cheryl has corrected me. Two months it's been. Oh, it's been two months. OK, yeah, I'm sorry. I apologize. Hello. All I'm saying is. Oh my God, let's continue on. Let's continue on. She's speechless, ladies and gentlemen. I know I'm just no, but given the fact that we we have been gone, we've been gone for two months. Hence, where have we been? Where have we been? Well, who wants to go first? You or me? Who wants to go? Well, hey, listen, I say you go because I'm following your lead. Oh, is that true? The last week, the last week we could have started last week, but it was my May May's birthday on September 4th. And therefore I was like, we are, you know, we're spending time together. Yeah, let's just back this in. Let's back ourselves in. OK, so last week we didn't do it because of May. The week before we didn't do it because I was actually at your house. No, no. You were having surgery. I had surgery on my elbow. Do you want to see that scar? Oh, wow. And look at all the bruising. Why do you? Oh, yeah. Because of the thing I was like, what? Yeah. Wow. Look at that. This is really gross, isn't it? Oh, it's like I'm like Frankenstein. There's no there's no like stitches or anything. Yeah. I had tennis elbow surgery. Funny story. Thought it was carpal tunnel surgery till the day before. And everyone was like, why are you having it done on your elbow? And I was like, I don't know. That's just where they want to do it. No, it's because it was tennis elbow surgery, not carpal tunnel surgery. The week before that I was at your house. Yes. Yes. No, I had surgery on the twenty eight. No, you're OK. I'm right. Yeah. The week before that I was at your house. The week before that, I don't even remember. You know, we did the event and then we did a couple. And then, you know, I think I was at the beach one week and I think you were somewhere. And I don't know, we were busy with family, you know, strong family months like July, August, December. We try not to, you know, we don't push ourselves to record. We don't push each other to record, which I think is nice. Well, I think that there's also another element that a lot of people don't really talk about. And I think that this is something that we would not have been able to do if we had advertisers or sponsorship in our show. So if you have advertising or sponsorship or have a community like a Patreon type of community that is based on ability your to create content, then you don't have this option. I'm just letting you know. Well, you do actually. I mean, you could you just have to tell people in advance when you're not free. Yes, this is true. You would have to plan. Yeah. You would have to pre plan and say you will get content from us 10 months out of the year or eight months out of the year or whatever. That's right. That's right. So, yeah. So we've been doing stuff. I had a good summer, but I mean, all the stuff I said I was going to do in June, like fix my house up and stuff like I didn't do any of that. I did not do one bit of that. I did a lot of sleeping like July was like, I don't know, I just slept so much that I thought something was wrong with me. I thought I had mono. That's how much I slept. Then I was suspicious that there was a carbon monoxide leak in my house that was causing me to be so tired all the time because I'm always that's what Jewish mothers do. They instantly think the worst. So it's like, I'm not tired. Something is slowly killing me, you know, like I'm getting as I have a stroke or something. So that wasn't the case. I guess I was just fucking tired and now I feel better. Yeah. And also, though, but I think it's very bizarre that you just said you were sleeping so much and now you're saying I can't sleep. It is. That's true. I told Elsie this morning, I mean, I have the worst dark circles. You see, I have makeup on them because it literally looks like I've been punched in the like face the last couple of nights I haven't slept. And it's because I've tried to go to bed early if I was just like, no, we're just going to go to bed at like twelve thirty one. It was fine. But as soon as I'm like, I have to go to bed like an hour and a half earlier, I'm panicked about whether or not I'll be able to do it. Then I toss and turn all night. It's a horrible cycle. But hopefully it's just an adjustment and I'll get used to it because the other part is like school is an hour earlier than camp. So I have to get up earlier as well. It makes a huge difference, that one hour. And then God forbid, you know, if if school and daylight savings came at the same time, like I would need a coffin to sleep in, like I would just like become a vampire. It would be the worst. Thank God I get a break from that before before it all begins, before it all starts, before the DST. Anyway, what about you? You just came back from podcast movement. I did. I mean, I just came back as in like almost a month ago, like three. It's almost three weeks. It literally has been almost three weeks. Yes. It's looking back and I go, oh, my God. Oh, my God. Time is going by so fast, because like even right now, if I if I look at that, it's three weeks ago. You're right. Be like, it's I'm telling you, it's really it's going by really fast. Yeah. Yeah. I was there. It's like one week. And then, yeah, so right now it's going to be that this is starting the third week. So I remember what I was doing before and after I visited you. Isaac had the chicken pox. That's right. Even though he's vaccinated. Yes, that's right. He had a pretty disgusting case, I must say, of the chicken pox. Yeah. Because Emily had it, too. She had been vaccinated and it was like four things that we were just like, they don't look like bug bites. But but this was like a rash from like armpit to hip on one side. It was ridiculous. Anyway, I won't talk about that more because it was revolting. But yeah, it's been a weird summer. But good. I'm happy to be back. And I'm excited to be recording with you today because we have all kinds of things that happened this summer. Yeah. And we may as well just jump right on into it. What are we waiting for? I don't know. Let's do it. I know. But wait, I just have to say your T -shirt. Did you wear that for me? I love the Muppets. You do know that, right? I love this T -shirt. It's my favorite. I got this in L .A. When I lived in L .A., that will tell you how old this T -shirt is. So animal, though, almost seven. It's literally almost 17 years old, this T -shirt. Oh, my God. I love this. That's crazy. I love it so much. I remember where I bought it. I bought it at Urban Outfitters on Melrose. Like I still have the memory. I was like, animal.
Timothy Keller Sermons Podcast by Gospel in Life
A highlight from A Preachers Disobedience
"Welcome to Gospel in Life. Throughout the Bible there are signs that point us to the Gospel. Today Tim Keller is looking at how we can discover them and what they teach us. Some years ago in my first, my only other church in a small southern town, a man came up to me. He was in my church and he shook my hand and he said, I really want to thank you because up until I met you I thought preachers hardly ever sinned. And I've cherished that fairly clumsy compliment because it doesn't sound very good, but here's what he meant. His understanding of sin had been totally revolutionized by the ministry there basically. He had understood, like most people I think have understood, that basically sin was a matter of the good people and the bad people, the good guys and the bad guys. And his understanding of sin, which was kind of come from a small southern town, was first you have the bad people. They use dirty words. They beat people up. They drink too much. They sleep all around town. They don't go to church. And then there's the good people. Then there's the preachers. And there's the people who don't break the rules and who come and they're very good. And what, now you know, we have backed away from that. I mean that's the old conservative culture and there's a lot of people who have reacted from that and they've created a liberal culture and what they've done is they've taken the line between the good guys and the bad guys and they've just done it like this. They've moved it 90 degrees. So some of the things that used to be bad are good and some of the things that used to be good are bad. So now, of course, I can cuss and I can sleep all around town, but I work for the environment and I work for tolerance and I make the world a better place. But the good guys and the bad guys, they're still there. The line's still there. Sin is still seeing pretty much as following the rules. What this man was trying to say was that till he understood the biblical concept of sin, Christianity made no sense and it had no power. And I've increasingly come to believe that that really is a problem both inside and outside the church. Outside the church, when people hear the word sin, they think they know what it means, but because they don't know really what the word sin means, they don't understand what the Bible means when we use the word sin, the Christianity doesn't make sense to them from the outside. And on the inside, I believe Christians also, Christians, when they read in the Bible, they see the word sin, they think they know what the Bible means by the word sin and they don't either. You see, if you don't understand sin, intellectually, Christianity will make no sense. A number of you, I'm sure, have come to church today with a friend who comes here regularly. And maybe this first time, maybe you've been coming. And this very often sort of happens between friends like this. If you're a visitor, you may afterwards say, or at some point you might say, there's many good things about this, many good things about this religion, this church, and this kind of Christianity and all that. But I don't completely agree. I differ with you on the love of God. So your Christian friend will say, what do you mean? And you'll say something like this. You say, well, I think Christianity is great, but I believe in a more loving God. I believe that all people everywhere, even people who don't believe in Christ or even people who don't believe in God, all good people everywhere can find God. And if your Christian friend understands the gospel, your Christian friend will kind of sigh a little bit and say, you know, you just left me out. You just cut me out of the herd. You just left me without hope when you said that. And you'll say, what do you mean? And your friend, he or she will say, well, but I'm not good. I mean, there's no hope for me then. If you say that all good people can find God, what about me? I'm not good. And you'll be irritated because, A, you will think this person is just exaggerating. Or B, see, just hyperbole, see. Or B, you'll think this person is joking. Or C, you'll think the person is just being difficult. But no, the problem is you don't understand what the Bible has to say about sin. And the real difference between you and your friend is not on the love of God, not at all. It's on the nature of sin. When you hear the word sin, you think you know what the Bible means and you don't. But it's not only true that without understanding sin, Christianity makes no intellectual sense but also has no spiritual power. I also believe that Christians on the inside who pretty much have the same view of the good guys, bad guys that my friend used to have, if you still have that view of sin, you're going to find out that you say, I believe in the love of God, but you have not experienced much in the way of power. Your life has not been that changed. You have not been lifted up. You have not been turned inside out. You have not found prayer and worship stuff that is so transforming you have to pull yourself away at times. You have not found all your memories healed. You have not found that you can face things in the past that you were so scared of and you can face them with joy. It hasn't happened. And you know it hasn't happened. Why not? You've been here. You've been doing it. You've been kind of running through. You know why? I would suggest, I propose, you don't understand really what sin is either. And as a result, the knowledge of God's love and grace doesn't really empower you. Now, how do you find out what the Bible means by sin? And the answer is find somebody who does obey all the rules and look at that person's life. And that's the reason why my friend said, it was great to see a preacher who obeys all the rules of very goody two shoes, who gave me a definition of sin such that I could see his sin. Now, I'm going to suggest that we do that today, but not me. I mean, there's two ways to go. We get Kathy up here and she could tell you all about this and that would be one way to figure out what the Christian doctrine of sin. The other way is to look at someone in the Bible who is a preacher and who was lifted up by the Bible to show us a very religious person, a very righteous person, a person who was a preacher, a person who was a prophet, a person who was called by God, but who falls into terrible sin. And by looking at that, we get a good idea of what sin is. It's Jonah. Now we see Jonah doing four things. Each one of them tells us something about the real nature of sin. We see Jonah running, sleeping, sinking, and rising. Number one, first of all, we see him running. What do we see? The word of the Lord came to the son of Jonah, son of Amittai, go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it because its wickedness has come up before me. But Jonah ran away from the Lord, literally it says from the face of the Lord, from the flesh. Now, why? Get right to this. God said go and preached to Nineveh. What was Nineveh? Nineveh was the capital of Assyria. And Assyria was up to this time in history, the biggest, baddest, most violent, imperialistic power, the biggest, baddest, most violent, terrible, imperialistic power that had ever risen in world history. And they were already eating countries around them, they'd already wiped some out through genocide and they subjugated others and Israel was threatened. And Jonah knows the message, what's the message? That Assyria's violence has come up, it has gotten to the place, it's gotten full. This is a typical way that God talks in the Old Testament, they talk about the iniquity of the Amrites being full, that their violence had gotten to the place where God was about to destroy them. And they were, he was supposed to send, and Jonah was supposed to go, and the message was, he was supposed to preach to Nineveh, God has seen, God will judge 40 days and you will be destroyed. But now Jonah doesn't go, why not? He tells very clearly in chapter 4 verse 2 why. In chapter 4 verse 2, which we didn't read, he says very, very clearly exactly the reason why. He says, this is why I fled to Tarshish, I knew you were a compassionate God who relents from sending calamity. Now here's what, Jonah knows that God is a holy God and a just God. But he also knows that God is a compassionate and merciful God. Jonah knows that if God wants to smash Nineveh, he doesn't need a prophet, he doesn't need a preacher. If God wants to smash Nineveh, he doesn't need a messenger. But if God wants to save Nineveh, he does. And therefore, Jonah knows that the only possible reason that God would have to send a messenger to Nineveh is he wants to give Nineveh a chance. He wants to save Nineveh, he wants to have mercy on Nineveh, he wants to help Nineveh. He wants to turn them from their violence. And Jonah says, I don't want that because then Israel will be threatened, then Israel will be at risk, and so he runs. There's a great irony here in his running, because if you look carefully, you'll see there are two words, in a sense, in the word. There's two messages. The first message, God characterizes as a message against. God says, go and preach against. Doesn't just say preach to, because God is saying the message you're going to give to Nineveh is a message against. Now the reason he uses the word against is because it's a hard word. It's a word that goes against their desires, it's a word that goes against their hearts, it goes against their lives, the direction. It's a word that's very abrasive, you see. Go preach against. But Jonah knows that even though the form of the message was against, the purpose of the message, it was a message for. It looks like a message against Nineveh, but God was absolutely being for Nineveh. And so Jonah knows, and this is why he's so upset, and the reason he's running away is because in spite of all the Hellfire sermon, the Hellfire message, he knows that God is for the Ninevites, and Jonah's not, so off he goes. But here's the great irony, the other message is, Jonah, I want you to go. Now this is exactly against Jonah's heart. It was the last thing in the world he wanted to hear. Just like the Ninevites, it was the last thing in the world they want to hear. But even though Jonah knew that God's so -called abrasive messages, messages against are really messages for, he knew that with Nineveh, but he refused to apply it to himself. Here's what he said. He says, if I do what God has asked me to do, if I obey God, it'll be bad for me, it'll be bad for my family, it'll be bad for my people, I must disobey God. Now here's what we have. We have here a recap of the history of the human race, and a recap of your own life history. In the Garden of Eden, when Adam and Eve were told, don't eat the tree, they were told don't eat the tree, a voice came to them and tempted them, and that voice sank into their heart, and it had to have sunk into their heart. The voice went like this. The voice said, God has told you to obey, but God, if you obey, you'll miss out. If you disobey, you'll learn new things, you'll become something new, you'll rise, there's great things out there that obedience will hold you back from. You cannot trust God. You cannot trust him to have your best interests in mind, you cannot trust that obeying him is going to really make you happy and fulfilling, you can't trust God. God is against you. His word is against you, and therefore his heart is against you. Now see, Jonah knew that the word was against Nineveh, but the heart was not against Nineveh, but Jonah refuses to believe it for himself. And back in the garden, a voice came to Adam and Eve and said, take the fruit because you can't trust God. That voice assaulted the character of God, it impugned the love of God, it stuck a dagger in the concept of his goodness. Yes, God is a God of power, and you're going to have to deal with a God of power, you're not going to be able to live your life just the way you want, but you can't trust God. You can always have to be wary of God, you have to always watch your back with God around. And I tell you this, Adam and Eve would have had to have believed that before they took the fruit. There's no other reason they would have taken the fruit. And therefore, this is the sin beneath the sin, this is the heart sin beneath all hand sins. And to really throw this into relief, to show you really here now, before I summarize, what is this? What does this mean sin is? Pretty simple in a way, but very profound. I read a book by Harold Kushner who wrote, he wrote some years ago, he wrote, When Bad Things Happen to Good People, it was a best seller, and he's written a new book called How Good Do We Have to Be? And in that, he has a whole chapter on why he doesn't believe Genesis 3, he doesn't believe the story. He doesn't believe in the story, he doesn't think that that was fair, and here's the reason why. He says, I don't believe the garden story, Adam and Eve and the serpent and the fruit, and here's why. He says, this is incredible, God gives them a command and doesn't give them any reason to do it. He says, now something like this, he says, now look, God is setting these people up for failure. He says, all God would have to do is say, now listen, Adam and Eve, I don't want you to eat this fruit, but before I leave you, I'd like to show you a five minute video of the rest of human history if you eat this fruit. So you know, they stick it in the VCR, they're watching it, thank you very much, and he walks away, Adam and Eve would have never eaten that fruit because they would have seen how my goodness, it would have happened to this and this and this, in other words, how dare God give them a command without a reason. If command without a reason is totally arbitrary, and as a result, of course they ate it. I mean, you know, why not? And then why would God punish them for that, what's so bad about that? Just to miss the whole point. You know, I keep going back to this, if you're married or if you ever get married and you're spouse says to you, do you love me, and you say yes, and then your spouse says, what are the reasons you love me? Why do you love me? Be very careful. Now I'll give you some of the reasons that you might give. Well, the reason I love you, the reason I'm faithful to you is you have a great body and we're having wonderful sex. Another possibility is two incomes, I have a much better lifestyle than I have with one. Another possibility is I've always wanted to have a family and I need somebody the opposite sex in order to have a family. Another is that you know what, you're in good shape, I'm in good shape, we love to hike and we love to climb mountains. Now here's the problem. Your spouse, of course, you know, and of course if you hear this, your heart sinks. Because you know what, these aren't reasons why you love him or her. These aren't reasons why your spouse loves you. These are reasons that your spouse loves sex, that your spouse loves money, that your spouse loves lifestyle, loves hiking, loves children, loves family, but why do you love me? Now listen, if you say, well I love you because I love you, you see, there can't be a reason for love except who the person is. You have to say, I love you not because of what you give me, in which case you don't love me, but because of who you are. And God in the garden said, there's really only one command. This is not an arbitrary command, this is not a ridiculous command, this is the command. In fact, if God had given them a reason, it would have been an invitation to sin. He would have been asking him for it. God says, I would like you to do something simply because you love me. I would like you to do something not because it benefits you, in which case you're basically not loving me at all, you're only loving what I'm giving you, I want you to love me. Now dear friends, everybody in this room wants that more than anything else. You know why? We were built in his image. We need it. We want it. We've got to have it. We demand it. We can't live without it. When we find out that somebody is not loving us, but loving us for reasons, those reasons always being benefits, we just go through the room. We can't live like that. And yet, yet Harold Kushner thinks this was an arbitrary command. The essential substratum in our heart was, God says, do something because you love me, and we said, no, I won't. No, I don't trust you. I will only from now on for the rest of my life and for the rest of human history, I will obey you if and only if it benefits me. Only if there's reasons. Only if things look like they're going to try, but, and therefore I have to pick and choose. I have to decide. I'll decide whether my obedience to this particular thing seems to get me where I want it to go. And that's sin. That's the sin underneath the sins. That's the sin at the very heart, and that is, I don't trust God. God is against me. I don't trust God. God is not for me. I will use God. I will do things only if it looks like it's getting me where I want to go, but I'll never do anything out of love for him because I don't love him. And that's the beginning. That's the heart. That's the first. Do you understand, do you see that? You see, one of the, one of the things, test yourselves, test yourselves. One of the things that's so interesting about the narrative is that Jonah just despises these dirty pagan worshipers. You see, they, they all call out to their God in the middle of the storm, ah, he, these Gentile dogs, these pagan worshipers, I'm a monotheist, he says. I don't have this primitive religion, I'm a monotheist. That's not true. Jonah, just like they, does not really have a love base but has nothing but a fear based, a terror based, an absolutely self -centered based religion. If you want to know whether yours is, take a look. Are you like the sailors? They get religious when things go bad. They cry out to their God. You know, there are no atheists in foxholes or little boats in storms. They cry out for their God. In other words, do you find yourself getting religious when things go wrong but somehow all the resolves never stick? That's just, that's a religion of using God. That's a religion of terror. That's a religion of, that's all it is. But are you like Jonah? And that is. Look at what Jonah does. Jonah is with God. Jonah's obedient. Jonah's religion, he's very religious as long as things are going well, he's the opposite. He dumps God when things go bad. The only way you will know whether you, whether you love God and are you, the only way you will know that you're giving God what every person in the face of the earth demands from everyone else, you demand, you refuse to give God what you demand for yourself, which is love for who the person is. And the way you know whether you're refusing that of God, the way you know whether you are arrogating to yourself and saying I know better than God who I should be, I know better than God what I should do, I have more love for myself than God has for me. The way you can know that is you are this way and that way depending on circumstances. Simple as that. You might be the sailor kind, you see, of God user. You only go to God when things are bad or you may be the Jonah kind of God user. You only go when things are good. But one of the things we can see is the big if. If you say I will obey if, there's a good reason. The good reason is the real thing, not God. That is non -negotiable, God is negotiable. If you don't get it, he's out. Doesn't matter if you're religious, doesn't matter if you go to church, doesn't matter if you're a preacher. Or on the other hand, a person who's running all around doing all the, you know, cussing and drinking and beating people up. Don't you see underneath what Jonah doesn't see yet, but he will soon, is you're the same. The essence of sin, God is against me, I don't trust him, I don't trust him, further I can throw him and therefore my obedience isn't really obedience, it's conditional. The second thing we see is Jonah sleeping. Not running, but sleeping. And this is extremely interesting too. I used to think that Jonah was sleeping in the storm because he was so tired, but you know what, when you're anxious and you're guilty and you're so absorbed in your problems, that's not why. I don't know about you, but I find that I sleep more poorly when I'm upset and anxious and all that. Now, if you look carefully, you'll see the storm came up and the sailors did one thing and that is they called on their gods and they started throwing things overboard. But Jonah's response to the storm was to go to sleep. And here's the reason why. This is very interesting to me. Jonah was absolutely at peace in his conscience because Jonah was ready to die for his people. And as a result, he was in absolute peace of conscience, rest of soul. He was able to sleep. You see, he has run, why? He knows that he has given his life for his people. At first, probably he thought, look, I've sacrificed my career. God's gonna deal with me, I'll probably be fired, but I'm being noble, I'm being virtuous, I'm saving my people. And when he saw the storm came, he started to realize, well, that's even better. See, his whole point is, how do I stay away from Nineveh for 40 days? Well, it's even better. It looks like I'm gonna be killed. Fine. You see, how virtuous, how noble of me. I'm willing to die for my people. And then at a certain point, he actually comes up and the sailors say, what must we do? How can we be saved? And Jonah says, well, I got an idea. I got an idea. Throw me overboard. We don't even have to wait for the storm to kill me. You drown me. And all the way along, when you read it, there is absolute calm. Just calm. I think I'll go take a nap. Ho -hum. Ready to throw me overboard? That's okay. Why? Because he is so, he is so absolutely sure that he's doing the virtuous and noble thing. Now what's this mean? One of the biggest obstacles for people to believe in Christianity is that they think they already know all about it. But if we look at Jesus's encounters with various people during his life, we'll find some of our assumptions challenged. We see him meeting people at the point of their big unspoken questions. The Gospels are full of encounters that made a profound impact on those who spoke with Jesus. And in his book, Encounters with Jesus, Tim Keller explores how these encounters can still address our questions and doubts today. Encounters with Jesus is our thanks for your gift to help Gospel in Life reach more people with the amazing love of Christ. Request your copy of Encounters with Jesus today when you give at GospelInLife .com slash give. That's GospelInLife .com slash give. Now here's Tim Keller with the remainder of today's teaching.
The Bitboy Crypto Podcast
A highlight from When Will Bitcoin Reverse? (30 Year Trading Expert's Advice)
"You're chasing price, you're going to have to pay higher prices or get lower prices if it's going down. And so big players don't do that. They let the market push through areas like that. So you'll usually see those rejections support those areas. What's up, everybody? Welcome to Discover Crypto. Welcome to another Saturday edition of the Alpha series here. My name is Kelly Kellum. I am part of BitLab Academy. I run BitLab Academy. We're all about bringing education, building community, giving people the tools that they need so that they can navigate this space. I'm super excited today for our guest, Mr. Christopher Inks, who has a wealth of knowledge over I think a couple of decades at this point. He really understands these markets and moreover, market psychology. So without any further ado, Mr. Christopher Inks, do you feel like you ever struggle with having an attachment to an asset or wanting to let something go because or if you have in the past, how you deal with that? Because I think that's one of the biggest issues I see in the space. They want this asset to do good because maybe it's the first one they bought or maybe they thought they knew, but they can't cut it free. So what do we do there? Oh, yeah, it's tough. It's tough. Again, we go right back to the idea of emotion and psychology and it's really tough. I don't think people give it the honesty that they need to and just how tough it is, right? Because I'll get out here and I'll talk and maybe you'll get out there and you talk and we make it sound so easy sometimes and not that we mean to, but just that we've learned to start identifying these things in ourselves when they come up, right? So I've been doing this in 1995, so what, it's 27 years, something like that. Jesus, a quarter of a freaking century, okay, anyway, but it's still today. I can still find myself maybe holding on to something I shouldn't for a bit longer than I should, even though I know better, even though I've been through it, you know, millions of times in the past. But again, it all comes back to being, you know, being just human beings innately. We are emotional, you know, we're creatures of habit, things like that. And so what happens is you have to have some sort of reminder to check yourself. But even if you have that reminder, if you're not used to being honest with yourself, not just in trading, but in anywhere in life, because what you do in trading is the same thing that you'll do everywhere else in your life, whether it's work or business or, you know, romantic relationships and stuff like that. So you have to start repeating, you have to start getting used to being honest with yourself. And you have to accept that it's okay if you're wrong. The important thing is to understand that you're wrong as quick as possible, so that way you can do what you need to do to change that. There is no quick, easy fix. You'll never, you know, these things about emotion and don't get tired and all these things. I mean, it never goes away. Every trader will tell you it's still there. And if you have something going on in your life, something really good or really bad near the time you're trading, it's still going to affect you. You're not a robot. You know, you do this for 30 years, you're still not a robot. You're still going to have to pay attention to those things. So I think it definitely starts off with being honest with yourself is the first thing in practicing, you know, doing these things and practicing, calling yourself out and saying, okay, you know, am I am I being realistic here in one way you can do as a trader is a trading journal, but in a trading journal, proper trading journal, you're going to have your entry exit. You're going to have your entry, your exit and your stop loss. You're going to have the time when you pulled the trade, what you bought, how much of it you bought, how much you had, whatever you're. That is exactly what I say, yeah, you have to put in how you're feeling at the time. Also, I'm a big proponent of saying over the last three to five days, has anything more significantly emotional happened? Did you have a fight with your loved one? Do kids stress in you? Is your boss you ready to bury him six feet under, you know, put this stuff down there, because what's going to happen is when you're out of the situation, and you look back on it, what you're going to notice is when you have consistent losses, it's going to be emotionally based, it's going to be that you didn't recognize that that was what was going on. And it caused you to get the bad grades. You could chart your trend over time, yeah. And once you see it, then you can fix it, you can address it, you can fix it, but until you actually know that it's happening, until you're honest with yourself about it happening, you have no chance of fixing, you're going to keep repeating that same thing over. Chris, you've been sharing so many great tools here, and one, I want to say how much I appreciate having you on. Before we go, we are coming up on time here. I know it's Saturday morning or Saturday evening, depending on where people are watching from, and I want them to get outside, hug a tree, stare at the blue sky. If it's not a blue sky, let the rain hit your skin, pet a puppy, get out of, you've done your job today, everybody watching, you've done your diligence and getting some education and tuning in here. Before we let them go, would you be willing to share, if somebody sits down at the trading desk, say you could look at Bitcoin or Cardano, or it doesn't matter what asset you pull up, what most basic strategy, maybe three, four point strategy, what are the four things you're looking at to determine if a trade is available? Like, are you looking at volume, RSI, stochastics? Are you looking at the moon phases? What's a basic strategy to jumpstart people and help retune them towards the winning path? All right, well, I'm a big price action volume trader at the end of it. That's what it is. That's nothing you learn overnight, though. It does have a lot of intricacies. I would say if you're a new trader, if you're using TradingView, if you go up to the indicators and you type in pivot points and you pull in the standard, that's this R1, P, S1, S2. I think that's one of the easiest, greatest things for traders to use, especially starting out because it lets you know where your support and resistance is historically coming into where you are. And so if you always look left, you'll learn to look left if you stay in the market long enough, and you'll see these things start to show where you have all this consistent resistance and support, and that's all the pivots are doing. you So, know, I would use pivots. If you get an impulsive breakout above one, you've got a chance of going to the next one. If you get an impulsive breakout, and what I mean by impulsive is you'll have like a larger candle spread compared to other candles locally, and you'll have a spike of volume with it. So you know, if you're getting an impulsive breakout above the pivot, for instance, you would be looking toward the R1 pivot. If you got an impulsive breakdown through the pivot, you'd be looking at the S1 pivot. That's probably one of the easiest things you can do. The other thing you can do is this volume by price level, which is the volume that I have on the side of my screens. And where they pull back, where they don't come out, where they pull back closer to where the numbers are on your chart here, the price levels, those are called low volume nodes. And generally, what you'll have is price will hit them and reject or, you know, coming down or reject, hitting reject, at least the first one or two times, three times before it breaks through. So if you see price rallying up toward or dropping down toward a low volume node, usually, usually nothing's 100%, but more times than not, it's going to find support or resistance there. And it'll take two or three times before it pops through because the market's just not interested at that level. It's telling you at that price level, there's very little market interest. So if you're going to push, push, force price through that part of that level, you're chasing price. So you're going to have to pay higher prices or get lower prices if it's going down. And so big players don't do that. They let the market push through areas like that. So you'll usually see those rejections support right in those areas. They're probably the two biggest things I can, easiest things to look at. I know. I think that's great because volume, volume is one of those things that's so underutilized. And the interesting thing about volume is people think it is one data metric. And in reality, just on your chart alone and similar, you have your chart set up similar to the way I have mine. I have the volume across the bottom. That's one volume metric per bar with the volume is, but then you have the VRVP or we have the BitLab volume on our BitLab trading stack, which is essentially a volume profile at each price level. Then you also have, I mean, there's probably 17 different, then you have the volume weighted average price and yet there's so many different tools for volume and why is volume matter? Because it's showing you a metric of how interested people are at certain levels. That's what better data could you want. Right. So definitely, definitely a good point there. Chris, is there any last things you wanted to say before you wrapped out or anything you have coming up or any special links people can find you out other than your Twitter? Yeah. You know, we just moved to a new platform. We used to be on Discord. Now you can get us over there at members .texaswestcapital .com. We'd love to have you in there. We've got different ways of getting involved, but you know, like you said earlier, you know, yeah, we run a business. Yeah. We'd love for people to come, you know, join us and learn how to trade Elliott Wave or Wyckoff or price action. But the real key at the end of the day is that they learn.
Real Estate Coaching Radio
A highlight from How To Make $1,000,000 Per Year In Real Estate Commissions
"Welcome to Real Estate Coaching Radio, starring award -winning real estate coaches and number one international bestselling authors, Tim and Julie Harris. This is the number one daily radio show for realtors looking for a no BS, authentic, real time coaching experience. What's really working in today's market, how to generate more leads, make more money, and have more time for what you love in your life. And now your hosts, Tim and Julie Harris. Today's podcast is sponsored by Bambi. So Julie and I are always looking to upgrade our staff. Hopefully none of our staff are listening. And so we're always hiring, we're always looking for folks to be coaches for us, always looking for folks to, you know, help us scale the business. And so it's one thing to find a qualified person, it's another thing to manage them. And that's where Bambi comes in. So running a business, your employees can create all kinds of interesting situations like getting complaints because someone on the team smells horrible, like, you know, this person's getting preferential treatment over that person. And that's where Bambi comes in. So with Bambi you get access to your own dedicated HR manager starting at just $99 per month. They're available by phone, by email, and real time chat. So onboarding and terminations, in other words, when you hire somebody, onboarding them into your system and your business, and then, frankly, when you're ready to move on and let them go, terminations run smoothly. Team members reach peak performance and your business stays compliant with changing HR regulations. Like personally, I love hiring people, I hate firing people. Well guess what? Bambi to the rescue. And with Bambi's HR autopilot, you'll automate important HR practices like setting policies, training, and feedback. So here's one of the best things about Bambi, one of the reasons that we chose to work with them, and frankly, one of the reasons we wanted to have them as a sponsor, because when you're working with Bambi, you get a dedicated HR manager. They're US -based, they're dedicated to your business, and giving you access to HR expertise and the personal touch you need. You will have somebody on speed dial to help you with all HR managers. And as you scale up your business, this is going to become more and more important. And if it isn't, you're most likely going to make essentially a mistake, which could result in a lot of, frankly, lawsuits and other sort of inconveniences of owning a business. And get this, HR managers can easily cost 80 grand a year, but with Bambi it just starts at $99 per month. So schedule your free consultation today and see how much Bambi can take off your plate. So while you're thinking about it, go to Bambi .com, that's B -A -M -B -E -E .com right now, and type in real estate training under podcasts. When you sign up, you'll really help the show. Again, it's spelled Bambi, B -A -M -B -E -E .com, Bambi .com, type in real estate training. Three, two, one, and Julie Harris, we are back. I love this topic. I have a feeling every single agent listening worldwide is going to love it too, because it's how to make a million dollars a year in real estate. That's exactly right, Tim. And of course, we can't show you how to do that in one podcast. This is an overview. This is not coaching, it's training. But our job is to educate you, motivate you, and get you into action. So we're going to give you the outline. Well, in essence, what we're showing them is that it's realistic, and it all comes down to relatively simple math that will work in every market. And they can do it. And so that's what we're going to start out with. So Julie, let's hit them over the head with a math bat. Exactly. There you go. That's a good way to look at it. So my note takers, get ready. We're going to do a little bit of math here. A million dollar gross commission income equals 100 transactions at a $10 ,000 average commission based on the national average of about a $400 ,000 sale price. So that is our starting math, right? So whatever, if your sale price is, some of you are blessed with having sale prices that are double that, obviously divide by two. That's right. So if your average sale price is, for example, $750 ,000, you'll only need 55 transactions. Some of you are blessed to have a million dollar average sale price. We've got some coaching clients like that. You'll need about 40 transactions. So adjust your math accordingly, but you can already see that this is doable. Point number one, decide and accept the fact that your success is up to you and only you. Your saying is, if it's meant to be, it's up to me. It is not up to your broker, your market, the interest rates, or who's president. It is up to you. So be responsible for your own success. Own it all. There's going to be at least 4 million sales this year, which means 8 million sides. How many do you need to be involved in? Well, we just told you, if your average sale price is a million bucks, you only need 40 out of 4 million. It's important to remember that even if your goal isn't to make a million dollars, maybe in your market, you don't have to have a million dollars. You can have an incredible lifestyle, take care of all your friends and family and just, you know, live the life of Riley. And that's fine. Adjust accordingly. You know, adjust to, like maybe in your markets, 500 ,000 to have that incredible lifestyle or 300 ,000. The point is, start thinking bigger and realize that you can accomplish whatever you set your mind to. Julie and I are not into woo -woo mindset stuff. That's the reason we always break this down, everything we say with facts and numbers. So hopefully you're appreciating this. Point number two. Point number two, invest your time before you invest your money. People four invest years or more in a college education only to graduate, only sometimes, with student loan debt and a job that they could hate for the next decade or more. You can't skip learning and be earning at the level that you desire. So work sporadically and you get sporadic income. Work consistently and you'll achieve momentum faster. This is a good place for us to plug in. When you join our coaching program, Premier Coaching, and by the way, the link is in the show description below, just scroll down. If you're on iTunes, Spotify, we're everywhere, on 30 different podcasting platforms, of course over on YouTube. Just scroll down. The link to join Premier Coaching is free, but also joining Premier Coaching is free. You do receive, when you join, we get people asking us this all the time, yes, of course, you are entitled to a daily semi -private coaching call with one of our Harris -certified coaches. You can join Premier Coaching right now for free, but here's what I want you to think about. When you join the coaching program, which all of you are doing if you've not done so already, you have got to earn while you learn. Don't wait to earn after you've learned. That's a key point and what Julie and I want all of you to really drill down on. The best way for you to learn is actually for you to learn while you're actually earning. So for example, if you want to learn how to swim, there's only so much blackboard time that swim coach is going to give you before he throws you in the water because you're going to learn faster and pay attention more when you are in the water actually treading water and now the water's getting deeper and now you're actually miraculously learning how to do all the things that he was trying to teach you before. You guys get it? The pressure, the fear, the actual excitement of being in action is going to cause your brain to absorb information quicker and actually going to allow you to apply it faster. That's right. So part of investing your time before your money is to recognize that there are some specific stages of learning and you can't really skip any of these. I'm going to do these relatively quickly because you can get the notes from scanning below and of course in Premier Coaching. So stages of learning. The first one is called formulation. That is literally getting ready to get started and creating your plan. That's why the first level in Premier Coaching includes your business plans. Getting ready to get started. Now some agents never leave that stage of learning but when you do and you're not just having a plan but working it, you go to concentration. Many many of our Premier Coaching clients are in this level. That's doing the actual work just as you said Tim, getting in the pool and treading water and then learning how to kick and swim properly. Doing the actual work, learning and using your skill. You don't have to be perfect in real estate to start being profitable. So concentration can last for quite some time and then once your skill is increasing you get into the exciting part that's called momentum. That is repetitious and predictable success. And then on the other side of that you can get to breakthrough. That's high level implementation without getting bored and falling back to the first stage. A lot of our teams and our brokers are in that level. And a lot of you will recognize that this is similar because it is similar by design to the stages of mastery as often referred to. It's just less tongue -tying. Exactly. I mean let me see if I can get it right. I'm going to give myself a quiz. So it's unconscious incompetence, conscious incompetence, conscious competence, and then unconscious competence. Which all kind of sounds like the same phrase so I did this version of it instead but yes you're right it is the stages of mastery. And we've done a lot of podcasts on that topic. I forget who created that originally it was I don't know Dr. Marston or whoever but the moral of the story is this is very fascinating for you to study all that and then determine where you are in the learning cycle of the four stages because what you'll then realize is once you open your mind most of you and the reason you listen to this podcast every day where there's tens of thousands of you that are listening right now is because most of you are in that conscious incompetence phase. In other words you're in the second phase. You're realizing what you don't know and unfortunately a lot of the times you're learning what you don't know because the market's sort of handed you your butt and you're saying well I guess what I worked in the previous market isn't working now maybe I don't know as much as I actually thought I did. That is really a powerful place to be because then your mind is going to be opened up to learning more information and really adapting. Some of you and unfortunately this is true will refuse ever to allow yourself to have that level of really insecurity and vulnerability and so you're going to force yourself to stay in that state forever and those are the people that chase shiny objects their entire lives. They go from I'm going to be a YouTube influencer to I'm going to do you know postcards to this that the other and then they always end up buying leads and then they get out of the business. So the moral of the story is is that when you're in that stage you have to realize first of all all those things I just rattled off obviously starting with proactive lead generation they have a place. They're all important in the creation of a scaled up real estate practice but you've got to do them in the right order and you've got to do them frankly in the it's not just the right order but you have to do them so that they actually work. Otherwise you're not going to have any work and you're going to go out of business basically and unfortunately that is what's happening to a lot of you. So pay attention you're listening to this podcast because you're wanting to learn because you're wanting to go to the next level. Allow yourself to have that tinge of insecurity within that as long as you don't run from it you're going to find your next level. Which brings us to point number three. You must have the following immediately failure to be great at these specific four things will handicap your success. So make sure you're writing these down and ask yourself where are you with this list. Point A is scripts proactive lead generation scripts open house scripts lead follow up scripts basic conversations with your sphere of influence pre qualifying buyer and seller scripts and closing scripts. All scripts are questions that lead to a close or sometimes lead to you not wanting to close depending on what you find out. But you must be using scripts. If you are at the stage where you're still telling yourself you don't need a script because you're natural everything comes out of your mouth is perfect. It's because you have not lost enough. When you lose enough then you're going to be in that second phase of conscious and competence. That's when you're going to be receptive to actually learning to be a true professional the best version of yourself as a real estate practitioner. I will give you a suggestion. Why not skip the pain of losing and skip the pain of losing transactions and not make the money you otherwise would have and go right to the place where you're going to be eventually anyway assuming you know you actually get there not everybody does and decide that you're going to be the best version of yourself as a real estate practitioner. Scripts are you know we have to sometimes walk away from the word scripts and call them conversation outlines because so many agents will hear scripts and they'll go I'm not going to use scripts. Okay fine don't use scripts. Every professional on planet Earth that's successful uses a script. There are no exceptions to that and I'm not just talking about actors and whatnot. Every single professional everybody is using a script and you know the phases of learning scripts is we want you to memorize the script first. We want you to internalize the script. Then we want you to personalize it and what a lot of you have done and our scripts aren't online they're all copyright and you only get them when you join premier coaching so you could stop searching Google because you're not going to find them. So what you're going to then what agents do again the ones that are hackish to be honest with you is they'll take scripts and then they'll try to create their own. So I want you to think about the absurdity of that. So someone who's probably never sold anything before who just got a real estate license thinks that they can go online and they can hash together enough you know scripts that they can somehow make a script that's going to work. Why would you bother with that? See that's the phases of learning aspect you know creeping back in. You're going to have to accept the fact that if you want to scale this mountain as fast as you possibly can just follow in the footsteps of others follow up the path that other people have already proven works and stop wasting time. It's guys listen the fact is this is the best time to be in the real estate business in at least the past 15 years provided you don't just you know stay at the starting gates and you know ignore the fact that this market demands a whole new skill set versus the old one. That's right so point number B related to this you have to have the following you talked about scripts B is your pre -listing package not your brokers not something you found for free online but a proven powerful and personalized pre -listing package. Now we've done entire podcasts about why that's important so I'm going to move on to the next thing. Well let's just tell them what it is because you always got to remember we do have a lot of new agents so pre -listing package is basically something you send to a listing appointment seller prior to going on the appointment that's designed to in essence be your silent salesman and win the listing for you. There it is that's it. That's what a pre -listing package does that's what ours does it's included with premier coaching make sure you click the link below. All right Julie letter C. Letter C is your actual more formal listing presentation and D is your buyer presentation a lot of you guys have never even heard that phrase buyer presentation. Well that's going to save you from a whole lot of buyer woes and I think we've done podcasts on that as well so that way you end up with a signed buyer agency agreement ideally and you have a commitment from them they have a commitment from you. These are four things that are really critical to getting you into that momentum stage so you can lather rinse repeat again that scripts pre -listing package listing presentation and buyer presentation and I have to stress these should not be you know just your boilerplate stuff that your broker hands to you because what if you're competing against the same agent you know an agent from your brokerage that says exactly the same thing.
DIVORCING PATRIARCHY
Breaking Free From the Patriarchy: The 4 Things You Need to Do
"The Patriarchy isn't a person. It's not a gender. It's a superstructure of power that organizes and operates to protect and privilege its primary beneficiaries, males. The problem with Patriarchy is a problem of inequality. The critical project of the Patriarchy is to be and to maintain absolute power. Now, both males and females can be agents, beneficiaries, males as primary beneficiaries, and females as secondary or benefactors of the Patriarchy. The existence of the Patriarchy depends on two things. One, agents or individuals willing to be in its service, and two, that there are no competing structures that threaten its dominance. Although the Patriarchy has been a dominant structure around the world, since the existence of settled agriculture, like all structures, what has been constructed can be deconstructed. Now, to divorce Patriarchy, you need to do four things. One, you need to make an informed decision to break from an identity formed from the structure of the Patriarchy. That's why we're here. We give lots and lots of information. We do our work and we work hard together to educate ourselves to be in an intellectual community to understand the logic of the Patriarchy. That will inform any decisions that you make in the future. And then there's the informing part that you have to do on your own to understand your own identity and how it was formed from the structure of the Patriarchy. The second thing you need to do is you've got to decide and actually break from being in service to the Patriarchy. The third thing is commit to a life outside the Patriarchy. Those steps will begin your journey. And lastly, just take the first step. This is the process that we're talking about when we say, divorce the Patriarchy.
Real Estate Coaching Radio
A highlight from How To Turn Your STRESS Into SUCCESS!
"Welcome to Real Estate Coaching Radio, starring award -winning real estate coaches and number one international bestselling authors, Tim and Julie Harris. This is the number one daily radio show for realtors looking for a no BS, authentic, real time coaching experience. What's really working in today's market, how to generate more leads, make more money, and have more time for what you love in your life. And now your hosts, Tim and Julie Harris. Welcome back. Today we're going to be talking about how to turn your stress into success. Here's a simple fact. All of us, no matter how organized you are, no matter how drilled down your schedule was, no matter how perfect you think you got things going for you, you're going to experience stress. It's normal, but how you react to the stress that you're experiencing, that is something that you can actually control to a great extent, not 100%. So what we're going to do today is we're going to go through, it's going to be a two -part podcast. We're going to go through a system where you can essentially acknowledge your stress. I'm not going to say manage your stress or manage your time, because those things are often unmanageable, and the very prospect of trying to manage either actually causes you more stress. That's true. Which is ironic. But what we're going to do is take you through a process so that you can really turn what mostly is an unconscious reaction to something external into something that you will find that you can derive power from and focus. So get ready to take notes, and as always, all of our notes are available down below in the show description. If you're on iTunes or YouTube or, hey, we're now on, what's that new video platform called? I forget. Anyway. Something new. Something new where videos actually are also living. And all the other, Spotify, Amazon, everywhere. We're on Google Listen and everywhere. So yes, everywhere that the podcast is listened to, you can also find the notes for our show. We oftentimes will put all of the notes that we're using. Notes are all copywritten, of course, but at the end of the day, we want you to feel free to use these when training your own agents or maybe your small brokerage, whatever. This content is designed to help you first, and then hopefully you're going to help others with this information as well. And while there also, there's a lot of links in the show description below, and you can join the premier coaching program. There's information about our eXp Real Estate Group, which you might want to consider joining all kinds of good stuff. So just scroll down and it's all there waiting for you. So Julie, let's roll into your points. Yes. And it is true that one of the most common questions we get from podcast listeners and coaching clients when you guys text us or reach out, it sounds, you know, it comes in different flavors, but it usually sounds something like this. I feel out of control with my time. I'm spending a lot of time chasing after scarce listings from my buyers, negotiating multiple offers on my own listings, and then putting out fires on my pending deals. So how can I get back into control? You're wondering what's okay to stop doing, or you should be wondering what's okay to stop doing, and what must you never drop when you're feeling out of control. There's an old saying that goes like this. If you're not controlling your time, someone or something else always will. So we're going to give you a multiple step plan. It's a little bit of this is mindset, how to control your, how you're thinking about it, and some action steps. So here are things what to get rid of and what to keep. Well, I mean, just reading your description there gave me a little bit of stress, I have to say. Did you do that on purpose, Julie? No. You'll feel better by the end, I promise. I wanted to share with them something, because the thing that actually drove my stress up a little bit when you were talking about not enough listings, guys, in the next few days, we're doing a podcast that is, I think Julie is now, what, 30 different sources? Yes. I'm actually excited. And in a couple of days, we're going to do a one -part podcast, which is all of the different online sources, resources, other than your MLS, to find listings. And there's quite a variety. We're going to talk about farms, land, ranch, commercial, normal residential, vacation properties, foreclosure, everything. But what we're doing is we're actually giving you guys links of where you can go to find homes that are for sale that are not in the MLS. That's the main thing. So the notes already have, I think it's like 25 or 30 different websites, mostly, well, I mean, they're all websites, where you can click on the link and then you can be taken to a list of a source of homes for sale. Again, these are not in the MLS. And these are almost all nationwide, by the way. Right. And we're going to be doing this the next couple of days. So yes, if you are feeling stressed from not having enough inventory, we're going to cure that in the next couple of days, listen to the podcast. All right, Julie. So part one. You got it. All right. So let's see. What to let go of versus what to keep. So let's see part one. Number one, mindset check. Are you really that busy or are you just disorganized? Take a day to get real about what you're actually managing. Sometimes just dedicating a day or even two days to getting a grip is all you actually need. So don't keep telling yourself you're overwhelmed. Instead, your affirmation is that you are surrounded by opportunity. Isn't that more accurate? This is why this is the first step. When you do that first, you'll realize that your state of overwhelm is actually temporary versus allowing it to become a lifestyle. So I don't, I didn't scan your notes, but did you talk to them at all about the brain dump? I didn't. Yes. You can add it right in here. I was thinking this would be a perfect spot. Bonus point. One and a half. That's right. Bonus point. One and a half. So one of the systems that we've used for decades, especially with coaching clients, is when they're feeling overwhelmed. Take a tablet of paper and I don't know why tablets of paper where you're writing it out is more effective than if you're typing it out. Typing it out almost, I don't know, it doesn't stick in your brain as much. So take a tablet of paper. Take like maybe one of those long yellow legal tabs or tablets and then write down everything that's in your brain. Don't stop writing until essentially everything that's in your mind that you think you should be thinking about is completely cleared out and you can do personal and business and go through every single thing. So that's the first cure because what you're going to find out oftentimes is that you're going to start, like you'll write down maybe 10 or 20 different things and then you're writing them down in different versions. Like you're going to say, take in the dry cleaning and then you're going to realize that you wrote that down as the fourth thing and now you're seeing that you write it down as the 18th thing. In other words, what you'll discover is a lot of thoughts that you're having that are feeling like they're, you know, bogging down your ability to think clearly are the same thoughts. In other words, you don't really have that many things that you think you have more going on in your head than you actually do. So when you write all this down, then you're going to look at this list and there's three filters that you run all these things through and it's called do it, delegate it or ditch it. So the things that you absolutely positively must always be doing are going to be the things that fall into the five categories of the things that make you money in real estate, which is proactively generation, you know, obviously prequalifying, presenting a lead follow up, negotiating, those types of things that we teach in premier coaching. Those are the things that you should not be delegating and you have to do it. So the do it category are the things that you absolutely positively should leave on your list. The delegated category are, there's lots of things you could be delegating, lots of things you don't have to be doing. Lots of things that may be frankly under the delegation category are things that maybe not only not don't have to do yourself, but maybe don't need done at all. In other words, you put them on your list, you thought they were important. Somebody told you they were important, maybe even, and guess what? They aren't important. So get rid of them. And then the last one is ditch it and that's where essentially the lot of the things in your second, you know, the delegated part, they're going to go to the ditch it category and just completely remove them from your list. Or another thing to do is if there's longer term projects or things you wanted to be doing, write them on a completely separate list and then segment your list. But the most important thing is if you want to really get control, and this is a good, this is a really, at the end of the day, this is a mindset point, but if you really want to clear your brain and start feeling a resemblance of control, I did, did this just the other day. Honestly, I had a big, uh, to do list and it was, um, I keep lists. I'm a list guy. I know a lot of people have different systems for it, but lists work for me because I derive immense pleasure crossing them out. Yes, it is very satisfying. That's why it's very cathartic to take a damn thing is bought in that damn list and getting rid of it. Bye bye. That's right. I enjoy that. So that's my payoff. But there's a system. So do a delegated or ditch it, but start out by doing what we call a brain dump and write everything down and then go through it. And then you'll start seeing after you actually write everything on a piece of paper, you will feel better. You will feel some sort of a cloud will lift. It will. It really will. Then you look at all the things are floating around your head and like I said, remove the duplicates first because a lot of them will be duplicates and then go for a do it delegated or ditch it and then you know, move forward. That's a simple system. Well, that's a perfect 0 .1 and a half because remember we started by saying, are you really that busy? Are you just a bit disorganized? Maybe your mind is feeling disorganized because you haven't written it down and done the brain dump, right? So that goes hand in hand. And speaking of the do it part of the do it, ditch it or delegate it. Point number two, proactively generation cannot stop. This is the first thing that agents drop when they get even a tiny bit busy. You must actively pursue new qualified appointments every single work day. And it is the most important action that you take daily, whether you have a, whether you have pending transactions or not, whether you have active listings or not, always on every call, whether it's a home inspector or lender, a past client or a pending ask, you guys should know it by now, whom do you know who could use my help buying or selling real estate or Tim's version, which I like even better. What two or three people do you know who could use my help buying or selling real estate? So make the commitment to a minimum standard of contacts every work day, even when you're feeling busy, refer to our previous podcasts about how to list and sell the homes that you need to sell your magic number as well as lead generation from best to worst. We've done so much work on this with you guys on previous podcasts and in premier coaching. So I'm going to actually, I'm going to reinforce all your points, but I'm also going to give these guys a bit of a relief valve. I have coached people who are just for some reason wired to be disorganized. They're wired to basically be Liberty Gibbets bouncing here, bouncing there. That's just how they are. But then yet they're very successful. And why are they very successful? Because they always lean back into the things that are going to make them money. And oftentimes they have really vibrant personalities and people like them, despite the fact that they're wearing shoes that don't match and you know, things like that. All right. So how do, what's the solution when you're coaching somebody like that? The solution is not trying to find them a solution. The solution is just making sure they do to the three to five things every single day that they should be doing at a high level and then holding them accountable as three to five things and then giving them permission to be whatever the hell they want to do with their time the rest of the day. In other words, they can't, it's too much emotional stress for them to be held to a schedule for more than maybe two or three hours a day at, you know, in other words, they can only really, let's air quote here, time block two or three hours a day. So what are the things they should be doing in those two or three hours? And Julie and I talk about this on the podcast all the time, but obviously Julie's pointing about proactive lead generation. We want to talk about, you know, if you had a listing appointment, presenting, negotiating, all those types of things we teach in the coaching program. But really guys, if you really want to know how to really feel long -term control of your day, your day should come down to having mastered the art and science of really doing only three to five things every day. And those things are, in our opinion, now you can modify, but this is sort of a holistic approach to this, right? You need to be making your self -determined number of contacts per day as determined by your real estate treasure map, which we give you in the first level of Premier Coaching. So whatever your number of contacts per day, you need to be making those per day. You need to be having done all your lead follow up by the end of the day. I'm giving you a whole bunch and you guys choose which ones. Ideally, when you are very, you know, essentially advanced as a proactive lead generator, you should be setting one pre -qualified listing appointment per day. Julie and I are huge advocates of doing some sort of physical workout routine every single day, taking some kind of supplements every single day, showing overt gratitude. You know, I love you Julie, I love you Tim. You know, showing overt gratitude to the people that mean the most to you every single day. If you just basically write down the things that you have to do every single day, the accumulative effect of doing those things every single day will pay off in ways that you can't even understand. It's a multiplication effect. There's a compounding of duplicating those efforts. The obvious one being is that if you're working out and you're, you know, hopefully taking care of what you eat, you're going to see, not right away, but over time, your energy level increases, your physicality increases, same goes with making contacts. But the key to making this work is do those same things every single day and then often will come down to doing what you don't want to do when you don't want to do it at the highest level, which by the way, is the founding principle of our coaching program, but also of anyone I've ever met in life who's successful at any level. They knew that they had to do what they didn't want to do when they didn't want to do it at the highest level over long periods of time. And that's what we're prescribing to all of you guys as well, because it does pay off. So really, if you're wanting to get in control, but you're absolutely one of these people that can't be in control as your coach, I give you permission not to be in control for anything other than those two or three hours, ideally in the morning, because when you get those three to five things done every single day, even if the rest of the day is like a, you know, high speed roller coaster, it does not matter because you did the most important things. Well, that's right. That's the most important thing that you said is what you do with those two to three hours is what's critical. What you're not doing is giving them permission to just say, well, I'm just a disorganized person or go on Instagram or make a bunch of TikTok videos or do a bunch of passive lead generation or go on Facebook and take a bunch of surveys. All this silliness that doesn't lead to anything. That stuff doesn't count. Okay. So we're talking about what to keep and what to ditch. Point number three, deadlines cannot be ignored or procrastinated. You can lose a deal by losing track of time or having misunderstandings with the other side. So remember that people scan through DocuSign without really realizing what they're signing or remembering it or being able to even find it again. You can't be part of that. So use a transaction coordinator if that's getting out of control or if you're your transaction coordinator, you have to be careful with your earnest money deposits, contingency releases, inspection dates. Don't let those fall behind just because you're behind. Get clarity and or get help. And I'll tell you what one of my coaching clients does is when she does new transactions. Yes, of course, that's all in DocuSign and transaction management and transaction coordinators and all that. But in also her alarms, in her phone, she gives herself two or three day warnings. There's a contingency coming up. You've got to release that so that even if she's really super busy showing houses, maybe she's got somebody coming into town and it's a really intense appointment weekend. The alarm is going to save her butt. So that's just a backup plan. There's lots of different things that you can do. But this is one thing that you really can't blow off because it could cost you a deal. Well, I'll give you some exciting news. I know because you and I are investing some frankly, some money and time into developing some A .I. bots and apps for our different businesses, that there are absolutely people that are developing A .I. right now to work directly with the major CRM or transaction management platforms. So agents are going to be able to have an A .I. bot that's essentially going to act as a real live admin who's going to oversee the entire process. It's amazing. And ChatGPT4 and Bard and all these others, this week, ChatGPT4 is releasing a version for their paid users where essentially it's going to start using voice. So remember we were talking about on the podcast yesterday about all this? Well, the technology is here. So you're going to start having a voice. In other words, it's a real human voice. It does not sound like an old fashioned answering machine. That's good. And you know, I just laughed at myself because how many people? They don't know what an answering machine is. Right. Anyway, so back to 2023 or 2024 when you're listening. So the moral of the story is that there are going to be massive advancements in this A .I. technology that's going to make your lives a lot easier, which will give you a lot more room and time to spend on the things that matter most. That's assuming that you know what those things are and you actually know how to do them. That's what coaching is all about. And yeah, a lot of this technology is going to be coming through. I shouldn't maybe necessarily say this, but I know eXp Realty is working on developing a lot of these A .I. bots. Glenn Sanford is unbelievably intelligent about creating these technologies that streamline a lot of agent processes. And really, there's no downside. The experience is better from the customer's perspective, the agent's perspective, the broker's perspective. So all that's coming to a brokerage near you, assuming you're with Juli and I at eXp Realty. There you are. All right, now our final point for today is maybe one of my favorite points in terms of getting agents and brokers really organized and giving you peace. And that is point number four today, keeping your visual accountability, your whiteboards updated. You can't ignore that. You can't put it off, update it every day. In order to know if you are on track ahead or behind, keep that updated. Don't ignore your boards just because you feel like you're currently on track or ahead or hide out from them if you feel like you're behind. Not tracking your business is what will make you behind in a matter of days or weeks. Now, there's a rule in aviation called the one in 60 rule. When a plane veers off its course by just one degree, it misses its target destination by one mile for every 60 miles it's flown. Isn't that interesting, right? It is. You think it's just one degree. What's the big deal? I can find the airport, but maybe it's not the airport you were looking for. You're the plane. Stay on course. Visual is accountability the dashboard of your business. I have to say, Tim, I know you've had this experience too. Once agents start really embracing the visual accountability, and yes, we know you've got all this kept track of in a spreadsheet or your broker tracks it or whatever. We're talking about in your office on whiteboards in front of you. It works because it is visual. They'll say, oh, my gosh, I just feel so much more peaceful knowing and seeing I've got this many listing leads. I've got this many active listings. I've got this many pending, and I've got that many closed, which means I'm exactly three deals ahead of where I should be based on my treasure map. A lot of the stress in real estate really in life is just not knowing stuff, right? Not knowing about your finances, not knowing about what's going on inside your contracts, not knowing whether you're on track ahead or behind. It will give you peace to know. Well, the dry erase boards are the reason that obviously we know about all the technologies and all the widgets that give you creative dashboards that show you all your key performance indicators and all those things. We use those things in our business as well, but it's what Julie just said. The problem with all that technology is that you can hide from it, and it hides from you. A dry erase board, especially a large dominant one, and I was thinking when you were talking how when somebody, we get Premier Coaching clients, they'll post pictures of these big -ass dry erase boards, and they'll put them up on their walls. I'm talking about the monster ones, and that's the only way to do it because it doesn't leave any typically room for anything else on the wall. Tell them what the dry erase board should be because not everybody is a coaching client. Yes, well, they should be, and we'll tell them about that in a minute. What should you track? I like to think of it chronologically, right? Every transaction that becomes a closing starts as a lead, so you track your especially listing leads. Right. I'm looking at my wall. I want to know what the dry erase boards are. That's what I'm saying. I want to know which of them are. Okay. The first dry erase board is? Leads because everything starts as a lead. Okay. Then it becomes a listing. That's the second board is active listings. Okay. Then the last one is closings. You have one in between, pendings, and then you have closed. If your goal is to close 24 transactions, your closed board will be one through 24. As they travel through your boards, they land on the closed board, and you can see, are you on deal number three? Are you on deal number five? Where are you versus where you should be? On the closed board, sellers are in red, buyers are in blue. The other thing you can also do, and this is really fine tuning all of the accountability you have for yourself, is write down on the closed board what the price was and what the commission was, and then also really drill down on what the source of the lead was. We've talked for literally thousands of hours on this podcast of the importance of never just going by how the lead actually showed up in your life. You're going to need to ask secondary and sometimes third. What would be it? Cursary? Tertiary. Tertiary. That's right. That same question more than once. You need to ask them, who originally referred you to me? Where did you originally find me? How do we connect it? The story that Julie and I tell that seems to work is we were in our office when we were selling real estate, and one of our chief transaction coordinators was this gal named Kelly. Kelly was using a prequalification seller form, so she had at her desk buyer prequalification for him and seller prequalification for him. So Julie and I were in our office, and she was doing the seller prequalification, and one of the questions was halfway through the script was basically, so why did you decide to call Tim and Julie out for the job of selling your home? I think that was the question. And she wrote down the answer, but she didn't listen to herself ask the question, and she didn't watch herself write down the answer. So she asked the question two times in a row, and the first way that they answered it was like a sign or whatever. And then she asked the same exact question, and then they answered it, and we watched as they wrote down that it was a referral from so -and -so. And so that was the real tip -off that if you don't ask for what like drill down and really dig into where they're or why they're contacting you, you're going to make the mistake of assuming that they basically are contacting you because of Facebook. Because what happens is that you're at Orange Theory, somebody asked you for a referral for a roofer. You're going to say, Jack's roofing, I don't necessarily have his phone number, my phone's in my car, whatever it is. But the person you're going to talk to remembers Jack's roofing in, say, Georgetown, Texas. So they're going to go and they're going to drop into Google, Jack's roofing, Georgetown, Texas. So the first thing that's going to come up is Jack's Facebook business page, let's say, or Instagram or whatever the hell it's going to be. And then you're going to message them through that app, and then Jack's going to get the message from Facebook that you are interested in having your roof fixed. All the while, Jack's going to then assume, hey, my Facebook campaign is working, you know? Of course. Look, I'm going to post more pictures of my lunch every single day, evidently that's generating business for me. Right. All the while, the real reason that Jack got that lead was because it was a referral from somebody you knew at the gym. You guys get the point? So if you're not asking those real drill down questions, you're really going to lose contact with the source of your business. You're not going to realize how much of your business comes from the things that don't cost any money, signs, for example, centers of influence and past clients, for example. People you maybe like, they could be somebody that an old neighbor, oh, you don't even know. You're going to have to ask. And that's what you'll self -discover, what Julie and I have been coaching all you guys for decades, is the percent of business comes from any kind of marketing and advertising is typically less than 10 % because most everyone chooses who they're going to use as a real estate professional, like 90 % based on the things we coach you guys to do, which cost you no money, which aren't anything to do with marketing, branding, and advertising. Don't misunderstand what I'm saying. Back to the roofing example, had Jack the roofer not had a business Facebook page and that person had gone to Google and tried to search for him, he may not have ever found Jack's phone number to actually make the, you know, to get in contact, right? So it's important that you have a presence online, but you've got to see it for what it is.
Thinking Crypto News & Interviews
A highlight from Greg Dickerson Interview - Fed Continued Rate Hikes Impact on Bitcoin, Crypto, Stocks, Real Estate & Inflation
"So the Fed is finally convincing markets that they're serious about taming inflation, that they're going to keep rates higher. The interesting thing that what Powell said, so at the recent meeting last week, he said four things that were very impactful to the markets and very impactful to investors and their outlook moving forward. One. Link to please visit the link in the description. Welcome back to the thinking crypto podcast, your home for cryptocurrency news and interviews with me today is Greg Dickerson, who is a real estate investor, a consultant, entrepreneur. And Greg, there's so many titles, but you obviously have a huge knowledge of the markets. Yeah. Yeah. Tony, it's good to see you. Well, Greg, you know, as the Fed continues their tightening and cycle they've had some very interesting updates where they pause rate hikes and they went back to rate hikes. Now they're pausing again. I would love to get your thoughts on what is the Fed doing here as best as you can tell us and their strategy. Is it still they're going very aggressive against inflation or they're ramping down? Yeah. So, you know, you and I have been having these conversations for, I don't know, about two years now. Right. I think so. Yeah. You know, pretty much during the entire Fed hiking cycle since inflation, you know, went out of control. So we're seeing disinflation, inflation's come down a little bit, but we still have a ways to go. So the Fed is finally convincing markets that they're serious about taming inflation, that they're going to keep rates higher. The interesting thing that what Powell said, so at the recent meeting last week, he said four things that were very impactful to the markets and very impactful to investors and their outlook moving forward. One, he said we're going to carefully evaluate the data and our policy moving forward. He said carefully a number of times because he understands the impact that these higher rates, the longer they stay higher can have on the markets, especially the credit markets. So that carefully was a very interesting thing that he said. The other thing he said was neutral is much higher than where we are from here. And he was asked the question, well, where is neutral? You know, that R star, that neutral Fed funds rate. And he said, we will know it by its works. So what he's saying is it's higher than where we are now. We don't know how high that's going to be, but once we get there, we'll know it by its works. In other words, it's going to put a lot of pressure on credit markets, you know, moving forward. The other thing he said was, you know, a lot of what we're experiencing in inflation being sticky at this point, he said, we have seen a lot of progress. He said, however, the economy is strong, the job markets are strong. So that's kind of keeping inflationary pressures higher for longer. So, and that was the last thing that he said was, he said that there may be a time when it's appropriate to reduce rates, but that time is not now. So, you know, those were the, you know, things that he really said that were really impactful to the markets. So what was happening is along the way, markets were pricing rate cuts like every quarter. So the Fed would hike and they would say, well, next quarter, they're going to cut. That pretty much happened up until the last meeting. And what we've seen now is the markets are pricing out rate cuts into September of next year and have pushed them out. So I think the markets have finally gotten serious about taking the Fed at their word and not fighting the Fed. You don't fight the Fed on the way up and you don't fight the Fed on the way down. And the markets have been fighting the Fed the whole way on the way down. The markets have won that fight to this point. So now we're at that critical mass because the Fed is really handcuffed. So a lot of people said, well, Powell seemed, you know, visibly unnerved at that meeting that he didn't seem his usual polished, smooth self, but he seemed a bit rattled. And the reason is, is because the Fed knows that they're handcuffed. With inflation where it's at, if they take the foot off the brakes at all, so they have the brakes on the economy right now by raising interest rates. When the economy runs hot, you raise rates to cool it off. When the economy cools off or, you know, runs hot, you put the brakes on. When it's, you know, when you want it to speed up a little bit, it starts cooling, you lower rates and you put the foot on the gas. So what he knows and what the FOMC know are that, we really can't control the inflationary environment that we're in now. Energy, jobs, things like that. Their policy has had no effect on that. They can't really control that food prices, those types of things. So we get into a situation where the credit markets start to crack again, carefully monitoring financial conditions and the environment. There's really nothing they can do. They can't cut rates because inflation will just skyrocket again and run through the roof. So they're in a very difficult spot.
The Podcast On Podcasting
A highlight from Ep382: Don't Be Afraid Of Giving Value
"Don't be afraid of giving value. Don't be afraid of giving actual tangible value that somebody can grab hold of and do something about because that's how people are going to share things. Most hosts never achieve the results they hoped for. They're falling short on listenership and monetization, meaning their message isn't being heard and their show ends up costing them money. This podcast was created to help you grow your listenership and make money while you're at it. Get ready to take notes. Here's your host, Adam Adams. What's up, podcaster? It's your host, Adam Adams. And we are going to be talking about not being afraid of giving value. Here's the thing. I had a conversation recently with somebody who's starting a podcast and it's for their business. And he and I were talking about what he could talk about. And we're outlining a bunch of ideas. He's a coaching client. We're outlining a whole bunch of ideas that he could do episodes on. I started by asking him, what does your perfect listener need to know? What is that perfect, perfect listener? The same person that you would actually do business with. They would hire you and you would be able to support them. They would be able to go further and faster. The investment with you would be nothing to them compared to how much they would make because they did that. I asked him, who do you serve? How do you serve them? And what do they need right now? And he starts giving me some options, some ideas. And one of the ideas, he was like, oh, well this. And I was like, that's great. And he goes, yeah, but I mean, I can't give him all of the details of that. And I'm like, okay, I knew where this is going, but I go, why not? What do you think is going to happen? And he goes, well, if they know all of the things and they don't need to hire me. And so I got to hold some things close to my chest. You don't freaking need to keep anything close to your chest. I wanted to say, I didn't say it like that. I should have slapped him up the side of the head, but he was virtual and I couldn't. So he goes, yeah, I've got to keep some stuff close to my chest. That's private stuff for my coaching clients only. I thought about it for a second and I go, what's the worst that could happen? A couple of them use it and they get successful. Why not share it on your podcast? And I mentioned, I've had other coaching clients in the past few years. I've been helping people with podcasting since even before my company launched in 2019. And I let them know that, hey, when I was doing my real estate podcast that I sold, I sold it back in 2020. When I was doing my real estate podcast, I gave all the goods and people came to me in droves. They flocked to me and I made a lot of money. I was able to raise a lot of equity for my real estate deals and find great deals and be awarded or win deals that I wouldn't have because I gave the good stuff. And I'm talking to this guy and just letting him know that don't be afraid of doing that. That is just some fear that's inside of you. And I thought to myself, because this wasn't the only time I ever had this conversation, I've had this conversation many times, especially when I'm being interviewed on other people's podcasts. When I'm being interviewed on a podcast about podcasting and people are asking me like, you know, what should I do? I'm constantly saying, don't be afraid of giving value. Don't be afraid of giving actual tangible value that somebody can grab hold of and do something about because that's how people are going to share things. I'm thinking right now in my head of this guy named Dave Ramsey. Dave Ramsey, he's kind of famous for teaching people that debt is bad. All debt is bad. I don't agree with it and that's okay. But he tries to share like the paid off mortgage is the new status symbol of wealth replacing the BMW. So he basically says and I hear the wisdom in it. He's basically saying like, instead of having a house that's not paid for and a BMW that's not paid for and now you're shit out of luck if the economy goes bad, pay off the house and maybe just have a Toyota for a while, have a Honda for a while and then graduate to a BMW when you can pay it all in cash. So you don't need that status symbol. Well, Dave Ramsey gives all of the goods. He gives all the goods on every freaking time. He basically only has four things to talk about, but he talks about them in full depth each and every time. And what that means to you is if he's making millions and millions of dollars, if Adam's able to do just fine and work only a few hours a week and have good revenue coming into the business, if other people are able to do this and give away the goods so that you have to keep things like my coaching client said close to the chest, nothing, give out the goods. It will come back to you probably tenfold. So today, this episode is about not being afraid of giving value to anywhere, anyone in anywhere, give the value, even if you're not getting paid for it. And it's going to come back to you. By the way, this was a pretty short episode. I have a lot of these podcast episodes that are solos that might only be three, four, five, ten, fifteen minutes. And that means what I'm asking you to do is rather than turn us off, check out the episode that I've got queued up for you. I'll see you there. You're not alone if you're ready to either get your very first affordable microphone or if you're ready to upgrade your equipment to some legit podcasting studio equipment. Because on all of the forums over the last few months, I'm seeing this all the time. Even my own personal clients that work with my team, they're ready to get that next microphone. They're asking us for it. Additionally, when I'm on discovery calls with potential clients, they're always asking for this stuff. Hey, what mic do you recommend? Hey, what lighting do you recommend? What webcam should I be using? So many questions. And so what we did, my whole team has put together a PDF so that if you're one of those people who is looking to either get your very first affordable microphone or if you're ready to upgrade your equipment to more professional podcast studio equipment, whether it's soundproofing or whatever, we've got you covered by going to growyourshow .com forward slash PDF, and you can download the PDF for free or right there on the webpage is everything that you would have and you don't need to download the PDF either way. Just go to growyourshow .com forward slash PDF, which will put you to the podcasting that me and my team have personally vetted. I'll see you on the next episode.
Evangelism on SermonAudio
A highlight from The Light of the World
"Next year, the Summer Olympic Games will be held in Paris, but before they begin, there is a race or maybe just a relay where the Olympic torch is lit and carried all throughout France, going from city to city until it ends up in Paris, where it lights the big Olympic cauldron at the opening ceremony. Maybe some of you have seen this on TV in the past, but it's a several month event. As this begins, it actually starts in Olympia, Greece, and then will end where the Olympics begin. Well, the passage we will look at tonight tells us that we as Christians are a lot like those runners carrying the torch, but the torch we carry is the light of the gospel and the land that we are to run in is the entire world. And the event that we are ushering in is not the Olympics, but it's the second and final coming of our Lord and savior, Jesus Christ. So with this in mind, please turn with me to Matthew chapter 5, specifically verses 14 through 16. Matthew 5 verses 14 through 16, where Jesus says, you are the light of the world, a city set on a hill cannot be hidden, nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket but on a stand and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others so that they may see your good works and give glory to your father who is in heaven. Well, I want us to take a deeper look at this passage by examining it under three points. First our calling explained in the first part of verse 14. Secondly our calling illustrated in the second part of verse 14 through verse 15. And then thirdly, our calling applied verse 16. Then I'd like to make four uses of this passage, but let's pray together one more time and then we will begin. Heavenly Father, we thank you for the light of Jesus Christ. We thank you for the light of your word. We thank you for the light of your grace. We pray that all of these things would shine upon us now. Give us understanding in the word of God, enlighten our hearts and our minds to what Jesus says to us here in this passage. We ask in Jesus name, Amen. Well, first, our calling explained in the first part of verse 14. Jesus has just told the disciples that they are the salt of the earth. Now he switches to another metaphor, which describes the identity and calling of his disciples in another way when he says you are the light of the world. Now, what does Jesus mean by this description? Well, first, let's consider the light. Light in the Bible is almost always associated with God. He's the creator and dispenser of physical light. Just think about Genesis Chapter one there, we read about how God speaks light into existence and then he makes the sun and the moon and the stars to give light on the earth. But God is also the creator and dispenser of spiritual light. Throughout the Bible, the term light takes on a figurative meaning and it refers to the blessings that God bestows on mankind. So he is the spiritual light source that shines down his blessings of mercy and grace and truth and salvation and life and glory on us. Now, this is especially true of Jesus Christ. Some of his titles include the light of the world, a light for the nations, the bright morning star, the lamp of the New Jerusalem, the day spring from on high and the sun of righteousness. And for those of us who are Christians, the Lord Jesus Christ has shown in our hearts the light of the gospel. Christ has taught us the way of salvation. He has poured out on us his saving grace. He has given us eternal life. He has opened our eyes to see his glory. He has shined spiritual light upon us. So Christ has put his light within us, in our hearts, in our souls, in our church, and now we're considered light in the Lord, not light in and of ourselves, but we're light in the Lord. We're not the spiritual light source, but we are reflectors of that light. We're mediators of that light. We are those who are to shine forth the light and blessings of Jesus Christ to the whole world. So that's the light. But let's also considered the part of the phrase of the world. World here, I think, means Earth, like the previous description. We are the salt of the Earth, not referring to the physical ground, but referring to the peoples and the communities and the societies of the world. But implied in this description of us is, I think, the natural condition and state of the world. If we are called the light of the world. Or the light that shines on the world. What does this mean about the world? What means that the world needs light? If we're the light of the world, the world needs our light. It means that by nature, the world is shrouded in darkness. But not physical darkness, moral and spiritual darkness. Natural man is in the dark. He is completely lost. He is ignorant of the way of salvation. He is enslaved to his sins. He is living in the shadow of death. He is ruled over by the devil and he is under the curse and wrath of God. But this is where we come in as the church, we are the light of the world, and for lights to be useful, they have to shine. They have to emit light, and it is our calling and our duty as little lights to shine forth the big light of Christ on this spiritually dark world. Now, this is the very point that Jesus makes in the next part of this passage. So let's now look at our calling illustrated. Jesus illustrates what it looks like for us to be the light of the world, and he does so in the second half of verse 14 and in verse 15. And there he tells us that we are like a shining city set upon a hill. And secondly, we are like a bright light set on a stand within a house. So let's look at those two illustrations separately. First, we're considered a shining city in the second part of verse 14. Some have likened America to the shining city upon a hill. It wasn't just Ronald Reagan who said that. There's others who have said that in the past. But this is not what Jesus says here. He doesn't say America is the shining city set upon the hill. He says that his disciples or his church or his spiritual nation is like a city set on a hill, and for good or for ill, this city cannot be hidden from people's eyes. We're city set on a hill, and I think this is one place where the eschatological promises of the Old Testament find their fulfillment in the New Testament. What do I mean by that? Well, throughout the prophets, it was prophesied, especially in Isaiah and Micah, that Zion, the city of the living God, would one day be set on the highest mountain for all the nations to see and flock to. Read about in Isaiah two and Micah chapter four. And there the nations would learn the ways of God and they would walk in the light of the Lord. Well, I think Jesus here is telling us that the church is the fulfillment of all of those prophecies, that the church is Zion, the city of the living God. The church is set on the highest of hills and the greatest of mountains. The church has the place of prominence and preeminence in this world. And that's God's doing. God has exalted the church to this highest position on earth. But why has he done so? He's done so, so that all the nations and all the kingdoms and all the societies on earth might see our light shine so the nations would flock into the city of God and learn of his ways and walk in his light. So a city like this cannot operate incognito. It will attract the attention of the world. People will either see it and run to it as a place of instruction and refuge and salvation, or they will see it and charge at it and fight against it as an enemy fortress. But either way, the church, as the exalted city of God, is to shed the light of Jesus Christ upon this dark world. So we're like a city set on a hill for all to see. Secondly, we're considered a bright lamp in verse 15. Here, Jesus moves on to another illustration of the church as the light of the world. And he says this, nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand and it gives light to all in the house. Well, this is pretty self -explanatory and nobody lights a light or turns on a light in order to simply cover it up and hide it. Why do we light a light in a house? Why do we turn these lights on in the church building so that it might shed light upon everybody who's in that place? Well, this is the church. We are a lot like the lampstand put in the house of God in the Old Testament. Remember, there is a lampstand that was to be put in the inner sanctuary. One of its purposes was to light up that entire sanctuary so that the priest could do their work in the tabernacle and in the temple. So they were to do the work in the house of God in order for them to do that. That lampstand had to be burning day and night. Well, brethren, we're a lot like that. Except we don't serve in one tiny little house of God. We serve in the cosmic house and temple of God. And as that bright, burning lampstand, we are to shine light upon all of those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death. So that's our calling illustrated. So Jesus has told us here we are the light of the world. He says that looks like a shining city on a hill. It also looks like a bright lamp in a house. But then in verse 16, he makes a very specific application of these truths to his disciples and to us. He exhorts us in these words in the same way, let your light shine before others so that they may see your good works and give glory to your father who is in heaven. Just like the shining city set on a hill and just like the bright lamp set on a stand, we, as the Church of the Lord Jesus, must not hide our light. We must not cover up our light. We must not disguise our light, but we must shine our light on all the peoples of the world. Jesus tells us here what the purpose or the end goal of this shining our light is, he says, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your father who is in heaven. I think here Jesus tells us the kind of light that we are to shed or shine upon the world. It's the light of our good works, or we could say our beautiful works. People are to see our good works and not just some of them, but they're to see all of them, the good work of confessing the lordship of Christ, the good work of obeying the commandments of Christ, the good work of proclaiming the gospel of Christ, the good work of loving other Christians, the good work of cooperating with other churches, the good work of fighting against our sin, the good work of submitting to those over us in the Lord, the good work of taking care of our families, the good work of helping the poor and the needy, the good work of raising our children in the discipline and instruction of the Lord, and the good work of loving and praying for our enemies. The list could go on and on and on about good works, but Jesus does not limit these things or qualify them. He speaks in generalities here about the good work of the church and both proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ and living out that faith, that profession before a watching world. The point is we are to show the world the beauty, the honor, the value, the glory of the Christian life by our words and our actions. And this should have a practical effect upon the world. It's not to lead to our praise and glory. It's not so that people would pat us on the back and congratulate us and tell us what good moral people that we are. Of course, the Pharisees did all of these sort of things. They did their good works before the eyes of men so that people would praise them. But we are to have a totally opposite motive. And Jesus tells us what our motive should be here. It's not for us, but it's for God. God's the one who has ordained our good works. God is the one who works these good works in us. Therefore, God is the one to get all the glory for our good works. As one commentator says, we are to shine our light and do good works, not to win praise from men, but to win men to praise and glorify our heavenly Father. Our desire is not glory. Our desire is for that glory to go to God. And the apostle Peter says something very similar in First Peter two, verse 12. He says, Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation. So that's our calling explained, our calling illustrated, our calling applied. But I want to touch on four things in this passage that call us to do something with this passage before we end. So first, there is a call to worship in this passage. Jesus calls us here the light of the world, but we have not always been the light of the world. Before the Lord saved us, what were we? Well, we were part of the world. We were part of this dark, evil, depraved, wretched, lost, ignorant world. Our minds were darkened, our eyes were blinded, our hearts were dead to God. We were not just in the darkness, but the Bible says that we were darkness. It was us by nature. We were called darkness. But God had mercy on us. God called us out of the darkness into his marvelous light, and now we are called sons of light, children of light, children of the day who belong to the day, saints in the kingdom of light, light in the Lord, and here the light of the world. So, brethren, we should work hard to win people to praise and honor and glorify our God. But first and foremost, we should praise and honor and glorify our God for calling us out of the darkness into his marvelous light. We should glory in our God for shining the great light of the gospel on us and turning our darkness to light. So there is implicitly here a call for us to worship God, to glorify him ourselves for the work that he has done for us and the calling he has placed upon our lives. So there's a call to worship in this passage. But secondly, there is a call to action in this passage. We are called the light of the world. But that means that we are to be light to the world. We are to let our light shine before others. That's what Jesus tells us, and not as some sort of star in a faraway galaxy that has little to no impact upon this earth. But we are to shine like the blazing sun in all of its glory to give sight, to give life, to give warmth to this cold, dead world. Our Lord and Savior has given us a commission to continue the work that he began in his earthly ministry. And that commission is to carry the gospel torch to the nations, to instruct them in a way of salvation and to model for them a new way of life. So think back to the illustrations that Jesus uses to tell us what we should be doing as the light of the world. But what he is telling us is just as it is inconceivable. That a city built on a hill would be hidden from the public, and just as it is inconceivable that a lamp in a house would be covered up to all in that house. So it is inconceivable that the church would be a secret society closed off to the world. So, brethren, let us constantly and continually remind ourselves of our calling in this world. We are not called to be monks who are shut up in a monastery. We are not called to be scholars who are retired to our studies. We are not called to be introverts who withdraw from the public. We are not called to be spies dressed up in a disguise, but we are called to be the light of the world and to let that light shine. So let us then seek to burn as brightly as we can for as long as we can for the glory of our Savior Jesus Christ and for the eternal good of our fellow man. So there's a call to action. We are the light of the world. That means we are to be light to this world. But third, there is a call to be encouraged in this passage. It's easy to think that we as Christians have little to no positive impact upon this world, especially as we see it getting worse and worse and worse. We can really become pessimistic. Really down in the dumps, really discouraged about our role and our calling in this world, but this passage gives us great encouragement to let our light shine, because Jesus says here that by the way we live our lives, we can actually cause others to give glory to God. We can cause others to give glory to God. Our good works can cause opponents of the gospel to give glory to God by shaming them and shutting their mouths and giving them no reasons to speak evil about the Christian faith. God gets glory for that. They can cause the general masses of people to give glory to God by making them fear God and be of all in all of God for his power at work in us. They can cause other brothers and sisters in Christ to give glory to God by causing them to give thanks to God for our labors of love, and they can cause sinners to give glory to God by leading them to confess with their own mouths that Jesus Christ is Lord and to call upon his name for salvation. So the encouragement is, brethren, your good works matter. Your conduct at home and in the office and at the ball field and in the restaurant and at the park and at family get togethers and at church and on the Lord's day. It matters. It can make a difference. By God's grace, you can have a part in changing the world and leading people to hallow God in their hearts and praise him with their lips. Your good works can beautify this ugly world. Your good works can enlighten this dark world. Your good works can preserve this decaying world. Your good works can add value to this vain world. So please never forget this. Always be encouraged by the words of our savior here to let your light shine before others so that they may glorify our father who is in heaven. But lastly, there is a gospel call in this passage. For anyone here this evening who is still living in the darkness of their sin, there is a gospel ray of hope in this passage that you need to run to. The church is the small L light of the world, but the Lord Jesus Christ is the big L light of the world. Christians can't save you, but what we can do is point you to the one who can. So Jesus is the light of the world and dear sinner, Jesus can rescue you from the darkness and he can bring you into his marvelous light. He is the light of the world who can give you eternal life. He is the son of righteousness who can bring you spiritual healing and joy. He is the day spring from on high who can guide your feet into the way of peace. And he is the bright morning star who can usher in an era of grace and salvation in your life that will last forever. So if you are still in the darkness, if you're still of the world, there is hope for you. Come and believe and follow the Lord Jesus Christ. And the Bible says you will never again walk in darkness because the Lord Jesus will give you the light of life. Amen. Let's pray together. Heavenly Father, help us to consider the words that our Savior has spoken to us to be the light of the world. Give us grace to shine forth pure rays full of holiness and love and kindness to this world that is shrouded in darkness. Please help us to fulfill this calling, this great commission to preach the gospel of Christ, to preach light to the nations and help us, O Lord, to reflect the light and glory of Christ in our very lives. Bless us as a church. Help us to be salt and light. May these callings be ever present in our minds and hearts every day of our lives. Give us grace, we pray in Jesus name. Amen.
The Podcast On Podcasting
A highlight from Ep376: Less Will Go Wrong With A Checklist Like This
"You'd be surprised how many things you can make a mistake when you don't have a good checklist and a lot less will go wrong if you listen to this episode, take a good note and have a checklist similar to what I'm about to share. Most hosts never achieve the results they hoped for. They're falling short on listenership and monetization, meaning their message isn't being heard and their show ends up costing them money. This podcast was created to help you grow your listenership and make money while you're at it. Get ready to take notes. Here's your host, Adam Adams. What's up, podcaster? It's your host, Adam A. Adams. And funny story is that this last week I was playing with different microphones. I switched from a different mic to the mic that I'm using now and I didn't check everything. And I ended up recording a couple of episodes that sounded pretty bad. One of them was a solo episode and the other is an interview episode. And so unfortunately, I'm going to go back and rerecord the solo episode another time. Took me like more than a half an hour the first time. And, you know, time is valuable. Time is money. Time is our most valuable asset. You've heard all of that. And I wasted it. I wasted it by preparing, getting in the right headspace and then pressing record. But I mistakenly didn't have the microphone hooked up to where it needed to be hooked up. And if you don't have the microphone hooked up to the right mic, then it'll sound crappy. And for a solo episode that's about a half an hour, I don't want to put you through that. I don't want to put you through having to listen to that. I don't think that's the right thing to do. And so I'm actually going to go and I'm going to re -record that episode and record it again. So my teammate, luckily, Jen, reached out to me and she says, hey, you know, the audio quality doesn't sound normal. I'm not sure what's going on. And she sent me these two recordings, the one that's a solo and the one with an interview. And I listened to it and I'm like, shit, man, I'm using my webcam mic. So it's because I turned my RODECaster off that disconnected my microphone. And then when I came back, it just, I didn't double check. I did double check in the beginning of this episode before I started recording this one. Of course, I went in and I was like, I need to do this. And it brings me back to when I was a newer podcaster, I was better at using a checklist. I had a checklist of six different things. Today, I'm going to talk about 10 ideas and you can take them or leave them. I'm going to give you like 10 ideas that will go on a checklist that will help you. But when I first started, I kept on recording. I kept on thinking that I was recording an episode, but I never pressed the record button. So I'd sit there for all of that time and energy, but I never even pressed record. Another bad thing is to actually record the episode, but not be using the right mic. And so your sound quality sounds really bad and it's hard to understand you. It's hard to hear you. And the echo and the reverb kind of gets in the way of the content for your listener. And so I had a checklist and a couple of the things were make sure that you press record, make sure that you're using the right microphone. So double check the microphone every single time before you record. And it reminds me of a story that my buddy of mine told me. It's about an airplane and how he literally almost died. I'll share that in a second. Before I share that with you, maybe I'll go over these 10 things that you could use as part of your own checklist. The 10 things that I've got written down here are A, make sure that you get enough sleep. It kind of sucks to go into a recording when you don't get enough sleep. So potentially you could even have as part of your checklist, make sure I go to bed at 9 PM the night before or 10 PM or whatever works for you. Make sure that I sleep in until 7 AM on this day because I really got to be functioning well and sleep is an important part of that. Another thing that you may add to your checklist. The second thing that you might want on your checklist is food. Now, some people say that you are a lot more groggy. It's harder for you to think clearly. Some people and I would say venture to say more of the doctors and neuroscientists are going to agree with this. They say if you eat within two or three hours of recording, your brain function is just not going to be as good because kind of like the digestion, the energy that is taken to digest all that food. It takes some resources from the rest of your body, your mind, and you are likely to have a worse recording if you eat right before, especially if it's a big meal. And so the thought is for you, is that right or is that wrong? If you don't eat, are you stressed? Are you going to be more distracted because your stomach is growling or are you going to have more energy? It's possible you might have more energy by eating. But most of the science would point to don't eat within three hours. So you might say if you're going to have a lunch break and you're going to go out to a restaurant and have a big meal, like let's just say noon, you probably wouldn't want to have 2 p .m. appointment for a podcast if you knew that you were going to be eating or drinking alcohol or something like that. So just make this as a consideration. Am I in a fasted state or am I in a fed state? Whichever one works best for you. Again, I'll repeat that on number two about food that the science would normally point to that you shouldn't eat within three meals of a time that you have to be eloquent, have a time to be able to think sharply, ask good questions to your guests or put out really good content. You just need to consider if food or the lack of food should be part of your checklist. The third idea that I've got for you as part of this checklist that you may or may not use is pre prep. It's what is the pre prep that I've done or am doing or the research? And so, for example, I'll just be completely honest with you. I don't really do a lot of pre prep. I might be a bad example of this, but I don't mind winging it either. I don't mind jumping in. And I think we can always have a great product for our listener by the way that we go into something. So pre prep on a solo episode would be do all of your research ahead of time and pre prep on an interview episode. Like, for example, you read that guy's book or you read that you go to her blog or you see what her company is or you check out what stages he's been on or you listen to her podcast prior to the recording or you read her blog or whatever it is. You do some research on that person. You find them on LinkedIn. You see what they're posting about. You get to know them. You get to know their book. You get to know their podcast and that can arm you with other additional questions. Now, for me, I'm more than happy, at least on my podcast, the podcast on podcasting. I know that I can ask questions that is going to benefit my listener regardless if I do that or not. I'm going to save my time and that's not going to be on my checklist. Might actually need to be on yours. So again, the third thing is your pre prep, which is research, doing your due diligence on the person that you're interviewing. The fourth thing that I have written down that is a huge possibility for you is your wardrobe and makeup. So for example, I don't wear makeup. I can't say that I never have. There was a Halloween that I had a little bit of fun. I'll say that much, but typically saying that's not for me. I don't really have any makeup that I need to wear. It might be because I'm a guy or it might be because who knows, but that's just not something I have to focus on. So the makeup isn't going to be part of mine. But maybe, you know, shaving my beard, maybe giving my beard a trim or doing my hair or putting on a hat, maybe making sure that I have a collared shirt on or a button up shirt or maybe just making sure I have a shirt at all. Because sometimes I record sleeveless. I'll get home from the gym. I'll have some energy. I would have had an idea that came to me while I was doing some curls or some push ups or something. And then I'll have an idea and I'll just run home and I'll get excited about it. Jump right on the computer and start recording. But again, the fourth thing is consider your wardrobe or your makeup. Am I wearing? Am I looking the part that I want to look? Am I showing up the way that I want to show up for my person? And that also goes to your solo episodes, especially if you're recording. Listen carefully, because I've got some ideas here on the wardrobe and makeup on your solo episodes. There's a couple of reasons why you might want to do this. Number one is if you're recording video, then of course, you're going to want to look good on camera. But here's the secondary thing that most people don't think about is if your hair's messed up or even if you like forget to brush your teeth and you got rank breath, honestly, we'll distract you. Honestly, we'll take some of your confidence away. In some cases, if you're not wearing a suit jacket or even a collared shirt or something, for some people, that action, that omission of not putting on a certain thing or having the makeup done or having your hair done or having deodorant on or brushing your teeth or something like that, it will distract you so much that you'll put out bad content. You will not be able to put out good content. And so it gets into our mentality, it gets into our psychology and actually has us put out worse product than we could if we were to dress sharp. So even just doing a solo episode, regardless if we're recording it for the video to be shown at all, it may be in your best interest to look the part. The thoughts in your mind when you are looking sharp and feeling sharp, feeling like you did something like even just making your bed that day, hey, I'm going to make my bed. Now I feel better. Now I can go and do the rest because how you keep your house is how you do everything. That's what they say. So just make it a consideration. Should I add, you know, what my wardrobe or hair or makeup or making my bed is going to be? Should I be trimming my beard, whether I'm using video on or whether I'm having the video off? Make that consideration. Should I put this on my checklist? The fifth thing that you may want to have on your checklist is, am I standing up? I used to have a standing desk and I had a sitting desk and I started recording all of my episodes sitting down and then I found out that it will work better. You will have a better energy if you stand up. And so I would try to remember to go over to my other computer because I didn't have a convertible desk. My desk wasn't able to convert from standing to sitting. I had two different desks. I had a sitting one with three monitors and a standing one with two monitors. I did most of my work on my sitting desk with my three monitors, but when I wanted to put out a good product, I would go over to my other desk and I would stand up. And by standing up, I would have a better energy. I would approach it a little bit easier. And actually, when you're sitting down, you kind of close off your diaphragm. And so it's harder for you to breathe. It's harder for you to catch your breath. And in some cases, you sound like you don't want to be there. So for me, I would try to remember I'm going to get out of this desk and I'm going to go to the other desk. Or for others, you have to remember, hey, I've been sitting down, but for recording, I want to be standing up. And so you might convert your desk. Either way, I'm not saying you absolutely have to stand up for your recordings, but it is a good idea to stand up for your recordings. You will actually have better energy and you'll sound better and it'll just sound like you are more clear and ready. I believe that I think better on my feet. I know that sounds interesting. Excuse the pun, but I really believe that I think better when I'm on my feet. When I'm sitting down, I am more sluggish. I am more tired. I am more relaxed. When I'm standing up, it gives me that little bit of energy. And when I had the two different desks, I actually just closed down that office. Now I just have a home office. When I had that office, sometimes I would start recording sitting down and I'd be like, ah, I actually can tell that I'm not getting as good of a recording right now because I'm doing it seated. And so I had to remember to stand up to either convert my desk or to get up and go to the other desk or whatever it took to actually be standing. Because I would prefer that. And so if that's you, you might want to add that. Hey, make sure I'm standing up. You write down your own checklist and you go down the list. Sleep. Yep. I got plenty of sleep. Food. Yep. I remember to fast. Meal prep. No, not meal prep. Pre -prep. Research. Yep. I know about this person that I'm going to be interviewing. I have some ideas of what I'm going to ask her. And so I'm ready to go. Makeup. Wardrobe. All right. Am I wearing clothes that I feel comfortable in that make me feel energized, that make me feel proud of myself or confident about myself? And same thing with your breath and maybe even your stinky pit in some cases, right? Think about those things. And then the fifth one is standing up. The sixth one is a mic check. This is the one that I keep freaking messing up. And remember, remember for a second, I've got a story about a checklist about my friend literally almost died. Like he was really, really close to dying because he didn't follow the checklist. And so I will share that, but I want to get through these 10 things and we're going to take a quick break and then I'll share the story about my friend who literally almost died. Like not figuratively, actually was so fricking lucky that he's alive right now. All right. So number six was a mic check. What that means, I use Zoom. And so what I do to test my mic is that I go into the Zoom settings at the time that I'm starting it and I check my microphone. I push test mic and then it'll play it back to me and I'll make sure that the sound quality is what I'm looking for, that it's using the expensive mic that I spent the money on. Then why am I not using it rather than using my webcam like I did recently? We're going to get into that. So number six was a mic check. So you do a mic check. You make sure that you're using the right mic. Number seven is you do a pre -interview. These 10 things that I'm giving you, they don't have to be your exact checklist. But this is a framework of how to build your checklist. The seventh thing is to do a pre -interview. Now, I don't have this written down on a checklist of mine. Even back in the day, I didn't have it written down. It was so natural to me. I didn't have to write it down. You might want to. The thing that I would do and always do is before I start recording, I naturally do this. I say, this is who my avatar is. This is who my listener is. Tell me what you would like to pour into them. If you only left this podcast today with me and you only said one thing to that person, what would it be? And so that has always become part of my natural way to go. Before I start recording, I do. That brings me to an extra thing that maybe you should add to your checklist. Cause I've made this mistake before as well. So I'm going to actually give you 11 things. That's funny. I just came up with another one that I've made the mistake. And so I'm typing it down to make sure that I share it with you. I've made this mistake before and it is that I jump into the recording. I might just be meeting the first person for the first time, or I might know their first name, but not their last. And maybe they have a complicated first name or spelled super weird or from a country that you're not familiar with. Like a culture that is new to you, you know, where they have silent letters where you would normally want to use that. Like French language and English language are very different. There's a lot of silent letters in English that are completely different than the silent letters in French. And you get all of these new things like X's do a certain thing in the Spanish language, X's do a certain thing in the French language, X's do a certain thing in the English language. And in some cases they can be pronounced in different ways or the vowels might be a soft vowel or a hard vowel. There's a number of things. And so what I continue to do is I'll actually done this so many times with the person's name where I do all of the other things. And then I jump in, I'm like, welcome back to this podcast, whatever your podcast name is. Welcome back to the podcast. It's your host, Jon Smith. And today I'm joined with shit. How do you pronounce your name? Okay, let's start over. So there's an option. So you should just do it in the beginning as a part of your checklist. Like you should just make sure and verify that you are pronouncing somebody's name the way that they want you to pronounce it saying maybe they go by a nickname. Maybe they go by John or Jonathan. Mel or Melanie, whatever. Maybe they go by something else. So how do you want to be addressed? How do you pronounce your name? Okay, cool. And now you're in, now you're ready. Something that I hear people do is I just mentioned, I'm like, Hey, this is whatever podcast today I'm joined with shit. What's your name? I've recorded a couple of times where I've been in that position where I'm like, crap, man, I actually don't know how to pronounce your name. And then they correct me while I'm recording and I've published it that way. And I don't agree with that at all. I feel like that's the wrong thing to do. I don't think I should have done that. And I don't think you should do that. If you don't know how to pronounce somebody's name, you should get that cleaned up in the pre -interview time prior to ever actually recording. So you might ask them in the pre -interview, you might double check, Hey, how do you pronounce your name or what name do you want to go by? You might ask, what do you want to pour into my perfect listener? This is what they're going through. This is what they're worried about. What are you passionate about? Those are some good things. So I'm going to say that number seven is the pre -interview where you try to figure out all of those details. I'm going to say number 11 is making sure you're pronouncing the name right. Then go back into number eight, the avatar. Who is your avatar? Here's the thing that I've noticed. This happens so many times. Somebody is going to record an episode and they will not have their perfect listener in mind. They'll have a general idea of who might be listening. And they might even think that they have multiple avatars and so they're doing whatever or they might think that they're talking to a whole stage. Yeah, sure.
Telecom Reseller
A highlight from The wireless & Wi-Fi 2-way radio communication for B2B needs to match user requirements for the best end users experience, PRYME and Cardinal Wireless Podcast
"Hello, this is Don Witt with the channel daily news from telecom reseller. And today we're speaking with Dave George. He is the president chief technologist with prime radio. We're also speaking with Frank Swindler. He is the technical director at Cardinal wireless. How are both of you doing today? Great. Thank you, Don. Great here in Indianapolis. Thank you. Let's start with Dave. Can you give our listeners a little overview of prime radio? Yeah, I'd be happy to Don. So prime radio has been around for almost three decades now and was started out by the owner of the company, you know, to develop accessories for the communications industry. And we do that to this day. We don't make the communications devices themselves, but we make a lot of enabling accessories like microphones and speakers and headsets and that kind of stuff. And lately in the last few years, of course, we're starting to merge into the cell phone or smart phone market as well. So kind of has similar requirements. Frank, can you give our listeners a little overview of Cardinal wireless? Sure, Don. We started around late 1980 as a small two -way radio dealership. And since we have grown into a well -established communication supplier here in the Midwest area, carrying a number of name brands. And we try to bring a simplified wireless for work approach to and specialize in providing efficient and cost -effective services with the highest quality of digital or analog radios we have available for the customer. The idea is to help the customer and consistently deliver the quality and professional type expertise of that they have all come to expect. Getting started with our discussions today, how have the B2B communications technologies changed over the past, say, 10 to 20 years for both of your expertises? Would you like to start off? Yeah, sure. I'd be happy to start off. So as Frank was saying, and ironically, Frank and I worked together in the early 80s. So we kind of know each other a little bit. And I used to live in Indianapolis back in those days. So we kind of have a similar background. I've been in the radio communications business my entire career. So coming up on like 50 years now. And I've only been here at the prime for the last 15 or so. So until I came here, I always worked for two -way radio manufacturers. So it's been pretty interesting from my perspective to see the evolution of the technology and its applications and its hardwares over those years. As I said, when I graduated with my engineering degree, I learned about tubes. And I've not seen any of those for a long time. So what's interesting these days, and I'm sure Frank will have more detail on this, is that the fundamentals regarding the need of communications have not really changed. But the hardware has evolved quite a bit. First of all, the purchase prices have dropped significantly, making it a lot more available to more people. And secondly, there's been a lot more enhancements added to the equipment over the years. So the equipment becomes a little more useful to the B2B customer than simply voice communications. So that's been pretty interesting to see that evolution. But it's not unlike what we've seen with other types of technologies like computers and things. What do you think, Frank? You know, I have to agree with what Dave said. That one of the three or four things I can think of, like Dave was mentioning, is the availability of products from manufacturers has opened the door for us to be able to supply equipment to our customers that will communicate in formats that might be proprietary to a particular vendor up until the advent of these available products.
Real Estate Coaching Radio
A highlight from New Mortgage Programs Requiring LOW Downpayments Revealed (In Honor Of 9/11)
"Welcome to Real Estate Coaching Radio, starring award -winning real estate coaches and number one international bestselling authors, Tim and Julie Harris. This is the number one daily radio show for realtors looking for a no BS, authentic, real time coaching experience. What's really working in today's market, how to generate more leads, make more money and have more time for what you love in your life. And now your hosts, Tim and Julie Harris. Three, two, one, and we're back and we are going to be honoring the heroes and the victims of 9 -11 by talking about different programs that are available to first responders, firefighters, policemen, veterans. So what we're going to be doing today is we're going to be focusing in on different mortgage programs. A lot of you probably don't know about that have, you know, requirements for much less down and maybe have some lower credit requirements, things like that. Now these programs are for any, you know, firefighter or whatnot. It's not just available for those that were a part of 9 -11, but at the end of the day, this is our way of recognizing this really historic day in American, if not global history. So with that in mind, Julie Harris. Yes, that's right. And we all know that tragic event of 9 -11 happened more than two decades ago and we can't do anything to go back, but what we can do is honor those first responders. So this podcast is our way of doing just that by educating you, our listeners, real estate professionals about how to help those who helped others and are still being of service every day. We all owe a debt of gratitude to those who have our backs in times of need. So one of the best ways to help is to be of service yourself as a professional real estate advisor. Listen to all of these really great mortgage programs. Most agents and buyers don't know about any of these. These are for first responders and consider doing any or all of the following. There are more out there than just what we're going to discuss, but I chose some of the top ones. It's worth noting, we're not going to get through all these notes today on the podcast because there's a lot of details with links and all of that, so we've made this easy for you. Just scroll down in the show description, the show notes. There's obviously all of our notes from today and we are going to use our notes as closely as we can so that you guys have reference points because we know a lot of you are going to use this for training your own agents and your teams and your brokerage. This information is also fantastic to use in social media. Maybe you want to create some short videos around these different programs. I have to say it is kind of surprising and unfortunate that so many loan officers and frankly so many of you don't know about these different programs. Give yourself a competitive advantage in the marketplace and really learn as much as you can about all the different mortgage products out there. I realize that everyone kind of bemoans the fact that there's not enough homes for sale. Well that's going to start curing itself over the next 18 to 24 months and in the interim you better know how to help all the different folks out there that are going to be looking to purchase a home because you already see this happening. People are starting to say, well how am I ever going to buy a house? Houses are so expensive. I can't come up with a down payment. That's really the focus and obviously gearing it towards honoring the fallen victims of 9 -11. So drill down and if you're thinking that oh my gosh there's going to be a lot that Tim and Julia are about to tell me, you're correct but don't worry. The notes are in the show description below. And while you're there of course, join Premier Coaching. The link to join Premier Coaching is below and you do get full access to the entire first level of Premier Coaching and in addition to that you do get a daily semi -private coaching call with one of our Harris certified coaches. So all of you should be joining Premier Coaching. It costs nothing. It takes 17 seconds to join. You're looking for the next natural step in your real estate business. I just gave it to you. So scroll down and click to join Premier Coaching. Alright so as always our job is to educate you, motivate you and get you into action. So today we're going to lead with five quick ways that you can indeed take action on what we're about to educate you on these different first responder programs. I'm going to go through these quickly. So there's five ways you can do something about this. Way number one, make a video about some of the special programs we're going to expose you to on today's podcast. Send it to your database, post it on your social media and submit a press release to your local media sources. Press releases don't cost you anything. It is, you know, that's a funny thing you just brought that up because it is fascinating how infrequently you hear about any of the local, even the very, you know, the community newspapers talking about these types of programs. That wasn't the way it was like 15, 20 years ago. Well, why is that? It's because of the advent of the three to three and a half percent mortgage on the 30 year fixed, which was the standard issue program for practically a decade it seems like. But you know, people didn't really need to know so much about this stuff when the standard 30 year fixed was pretty good. That's right. And if you're a loan officer, as many of you are also, you know, doing mortgages, it would be a really smart idea for you to make this your niche, having a real master level knowledge of all these different types of products. That's right. So you loan officers as well could make a video, should make a video about some of these programs. Then the second thing, take the information from today's podcast and do a Facebook live session or a series of Facebook live sessions, inviting your friends and followers to learn more about these loan programs. You can split the programs up and even do a weekly series. Way number three, you can do something about this. Work with a lender who specializes in first responder types of loans, FHA, VA, HUD programs, and interview them for a video, a Facebook live session, or some of, especially my elite clients have their own podcasts. You can certainly do it there. The fourth thing you could do is submit an article to your online and offline news publications about these available programs. Much of what you could put in your article, you can find in today's podcast notes. We've done some of the work for you. The fifth thing you can do is to create a first responder seminar or webinar in person or online. Present at a firehouse or several or police station or stations and see how many people you can help once they know about the special programs they probably qualify for. Bring your first responder program lender specialist with you to help answer questions. It's important to note here that though we are focused on first responders in honor of 9 -11, there are also similar programs available in many cities for teachers. That's right. We're going to talk about some of that stuff. Another good, if you're selling in a rural area, the FDA has a lot of interesting mortgage products out there, a lot of creative stuff that a lot of you don't know about, but you should be learning. That's right. I'll bring some of that to future series because this stuff is all coming out of the woodwork now.
The Garden Question
A highlight from 125 - Cultivating History: Exploring George Washington's Mount Vernon Garden - Dean Norton
"The Garden Question is a podcast for people that love designing, building, and growing smarter gardens that work. Listen in as we talk with successful garden designers, builders, and growers, discovering their stories along with how they think, work, and grow. This is your next step in creating a beautiful, year -round, environmentally connected, low -maintenance, and healthy, thriving outdoor space. It doesn't matter if you're a beginner or an expert, there will always be something inspiring when you listen to The Garden Question podcast. Hello, I'm your host, Craig McManus. Dean Norton fell in love with the Mount Vernon Estate Gardens 53 years ago and never left. After receiving a degree in horticulture from Clemson University, he began his career as the estate's boxwood gardener. The historical gardens of the first president of the United States, George Washington, became his responsibility in 1980. His promotion to horticulturalists allowed him to apply the latest plant science and horticultural management techniques for historical gardens. Dean has devoted considerable time to researching 18th century gardens and gardening practices. He has received awards for conservation from the DAR and the Garden Club of America, as well as the Garden Club of America's Elizabeth Craig Weaver Proctor National Medal. He is an honorary member of the Garden Club of Virginia and the Garden Club of Providence. He has been awarded an honorary doctorate from Washington College, serves on several historic property boards, and lectures nationally and internationally. This is Episode 125, Cultivating History, Exploring George Washington's Mount Vernon Garden, with Dean Norton, an encore presentation and remix of Episode 64. Dean, why did General George Washington, the first president of the United States, garden? Well, he really gardened for necessity. The earliest gardens were called gardens of necessity for health and survival. Of course, the most important plant to be planted within a garden were vegetables, something that you were going to have at the dinner table to eat. Vegetables were huge to him. Even during the Revolutionary War, he wanted to make sure that his troops were getting as many vegetables as they could whenever possible. I would not actually call him a gardener per se, but for a year and a half, he became a designer. He totally redid his country seat from a very simplistic design to one following naturalistic design principles. Then that landscape were four very fine gardens that he oversaw. What story does the Mount Vernon Garden tell? Tell us the story of a man that wanted his gardening world to be complete, I would say. He had a very small botanic garden, which he fondly called his little garden. When he was here on site, he was typically doing that work himself on his knees, planting seed and seedling saplings. He kept such good records in that little tiny garden that we were able to recreate that quite nicely. His earliest gardens were a fruit and nut garden and a kitchen garden, but when he changed his design, the kitchen garden remained as it is. The fruit and nut garden became a pleasure garden with vegetables in there as well, which is kind of an interesting combination. He had a vineyard for a while, but the grapes failed, and that became a fruit garden and nursery. The nursery was for plants that he could grow to plant on other areas of the estate and also to grow things just for collection of seed. What is today's mission for the garden? Today's mission for the garden is interpretation. We are trying to share with our visitors what life was like in the 18th century, why these gardens were important. Certainly after 1785, the gardens took on a new role, which was for people to come when he had created here at Mount Vernon. The story of gardeners themselves, the gardeners that Washington hired through the Articles of Indenture, also the enslaved gardeners that worked with the professional gardener to cultivate till to harvest. It's a great story. It's one that we thoroughly enjoy telling. Gardening really hasn't changed much from the 18th century, so the more we're out there digging in the earth, we think of those gardeners from the past. Today's visitors, how do they respond? I'll tell you what, when they come through the gates and they get to the Bowling Green Gate and see the house for the first time, that's exactly what they were expecting to see, this beautiful house that Washington lived in. But then the further they go into the landscape, they're really totally blown away by the amount of landscape and gardens that Washington had. They weren't expecting that at all. I think the gardens are well received, and I think that the stories we tell throughout the estate in so many different areas are certainly appreciated by our visitors. The garden's been there for about two and a half centuries. You've told us that there's four gardens that make up the Mount Vernon Garden. Could we walk through each one of those and you tell us about them? Sure. The panic garden is a simple garden, very small. It was intended to plant things that Washington was not familiar with, although sometimes other things that he knew quite well ended up in there as well. He received 500 Chinese seed, which he planted in one of the beds. None of them came up. So actually, we could show one of the beds with nothing but bare dirt and we would be exactly correct. That was his playground, and he truly loved getting plants he wasn't familiar with and planting them in there, and he did most of the work in there himself. There was an area that he started a vineyard, hoping to get some grapes for making wine, but that failed. That four -acre area became a fruit garden and nursery. Washington kept such good records that the fruit trees are planted exactly as he describes in that particular enclosure. Part of it is a nursery as well, where he grew trees and shrubs, also some other grasses and things just for the collection of seed. The kitchen garden was the first garden laid out in 1760, and that has been cultivated as a kitchen garden since 1760. It's never changed in its purpose, which is the only garden like that on the estate. Both the kitchen garden and fruit nut garden were an acre in size, so that's a significant garden. The nut garden changed from a garden of necessity to a pleasure garden, and that was meant to be the aha moment. When people were strolling around the Bowling Green, they could look through that gate, they saw a beautiful conservatory. The idea was to walk in there and just enjoy the beauty of the flowers, and those flowers were there for their enjoyment and not for their use. I think his gardening world was quite complete. You said the conservatory, would that be the greenhouse? That's correct. It had a greenhouse that he copied from a lovely property called Mount Clare, just to the north of Baltimore. The owner was Margaret Carroll. He asked for permission for some information, and she was thrilled and gave him all that he needed, even his first plants for his collection, to get his greenhouse started. I started studying that greenhouse in pictures. When I think greenhouse, I think a glass top or a plastic top or something like that, and this was constructed quite different. Could you tell us about how it was constructed and it was heated? The greenhouses in the 18th century typically just had glass panes on the south side, this was southern exposure. Also typically they were triple home windows, so you could open top and bottom to allow for good air circulation. This was quite modern, very good. It had a vaulted ceiling, so hot air didn't get trapped up at the corners. It had a wood door on the west side of the structure to keep afternoon sun from coming in. It was too hot. A glass door on the east side to allow morning sun in. It had shutters that closed very tight, so in the wintertime when you got whatever heat you could get from the solar energy, you could close those shutters and retain the heat overnight. It was heated by a stove room on the opposite side of the structure. The fire pit was quite low, and that hot air and smoke would go underneath the slate floor in the greenhouse and then rise up along the back wall and out the chimney. It was very efficient. It housed the semi -tropical plants and citrus trees in the winter. Not for them to continue to fruit, so he had lemons and limes and all that. Just to keep them alive in the wintertime. In all these gardens, he's combining beauty with necessity. How did he accomplish that? The one garden that really does that beautifully is the upper garden, or pleasure garden. He wanted a pleasure garden. He wanted the aha moment when someone walked into there. It's a 10 -foot -wide path, edged in boxwood with this greenhouse at the end. He was concerned, though, in that he didn't want to lose a lot of space to the growth of vegetables, which were still the most important plant that he grew on the property. 18th century horticulture said, look, George, you can do both. Plant your vegetables and then surround them with a border of flowers. The border could be three feet, five feet, whatever you so decide. It's the border that's actually the pleasure garden. So you're really not losing that much space to growing vegetables. How did Washington change his gardens to enhance Mount Vernon's natural beauty? He adopted the naturalistic style. There are four key elements of that. The curve line is nature's gift, management of surprises, random planting, and hidden barriers. If you can do those four things, you're well on your way to a wonderful naturalistic design. The management of surprises, the curve line helps you with that. Around each bend, you can do something different. The book that he's learning all these techniques from was written by a gentleman named Batty Langley. He wrote the book in 1728 called New Principles of Gardening. Washington purchased it in 1759. Langley goes in, he says, once you've seen one quarter of your garden, you should not have seen it all. There's nothing more shocking and stiff than a regular garden. He said every garden must have good shade. If you have to walk more than 20 paces in full sun, your walk is not worth it. Washington really took all these thoughts and comments to heart and made sure he put trees on either side of his serpentine avenues. Around each bend, he added shrubberies in wilderness areas and groves. It really was a complete landscape, and it was all just trying to stay within the qualifications or the requirements of a naturalistic garden. There are many historical events that took place away from Mount Vernon. For long periods of time, Washington was gone. How did he stay in touch with his garden and its growing? Much to his demise, much to our benefit, Washington, during the 45 years he lived here at Mount Vernon, he was away for 16 years, only visiting his house a couple times during all that time. When he is away, he's communicating with the land manager with lengthy letters, three, four, five pages long, giving him instructions to do this, make sure that is done, have you planted this, I want to try to do this next. We have that exchange of letters. Gives us a tremendous advantage in being able to represent Mount Vernon as accurately as we do in today's world. You should be considered the current garden overseer, but there's been many that have come before you. Have you got any good overseer stories about your predecessors? Yeah, there's some. I'm number 37. I don't know if that number is exactly correct, but I'm honored to be the current gardener, whatever number I am. They were all pretty competent in their practices. Washington called one clever because he was so good at grafting trees. Probably one of the cutest ones is when Washington's trying to hire a gardener. He's writing to his land manager saying that the gardener should not have any children, but if he does, only one, but certainly no more than two. He just keeps going on and on, giving almost any option possible for the gardener. He was always looking for the Scottish gardener because they were some of the best. I'm thrilled to be following in the footsteps of so many great gardeners. I hope that I'm continuing their tradition of maintaining a beautiful Mount Vernon. Tell us about the people that worked in the gardens during Washington's time. He hired gardeners under the Articles of Indenture, so they would come over, he would pay their way, and they would have to work that to pay Washington back. Some of them stayed for many years. There was a German gardener named John Christian Eller who was here for a number of years. They had a bit of a falling out, but apparently after Washington passed away, he actually returned because there is something in the notes about a German gardener saying that he used to work here. There is one from Holland, England, and then of course you had your Scottish gardener at the very end of his life, which Washington said that he was dedicated, sober, passionate about his work, and that in short, he's the best hired servant I've ever had. What makes it even better is that he says he has never been happier. I think that's really wonderful, and it certainly rings true for me. For being here at Mount Vernon as long as I have, my life here as a gardener has been a very happy experience. What did the garden go through between Washington's death and until the time it was bought by its current owners? It started to fall and disappear rapidly. Visitors' accounts have been occurring since Washington lived here. People visiting, and they write in their diaries or letters to friends, which is tremendously valuable to us, for that is our Polaroid to the past. Washington died in 1799, and visitors in 1801, 1802 are saying that it's deteriorating, it doesn't look anything like it did during Washington's time, so things just started to fall apart a little bit. You didn't have the money, you didn't have the dedication maybe to do as well. Not to say that work wasn't being done and things weren't being cleaned up as best as possible, but definitely it was noticeable to visitors that it was in a bit of disarray. When the Ladies Association purchased the property in 1858, things started to change, of course, quickly. And of course, Mount Vernon is in their hands today, it's a beautiful, beautiful site. Did they buy it from the family? They bought it from John Augustine Washington, the fourth Washington that owned the property before it was sold to the ladies. It cost them $200 ,000, and with that they received 200 acres, where others said you should take everything down but the mansion, because that's all that's important. They made the decision that they wanted to keep everything that was there during Washington's time, which was absolutely the right thing to do. We have all the outbuildings. It's an amazing opportunity for visitors to come to see an estate, a plantation, as it was during the time of the owner. Are there new discoveries being made through modern archaeology and research, or do you feel like you've re -established everything there? No, there are new discoveries all the time. It's amazing. Archaeology, the science, is becoming more and more exact all the time, with radar and LiDAR flyovers and just all these wonderful techniques that they now have. We're still finding letters that we didn't have before. Eventually we may find the plan that Washington did for the Bowling Green. We have the plan's key that is in his hand, but we don't have the actual plan itself. You can never write the final chapter in this adventure that we're in here from Washington's time till now. We try to represent things as accurately as we can, but we may find a new letter or something that will totally alter our interpretation of what we were using or going on to create an area that we thought was accurate, but new information may change that, and we will go back and make those changes so that it's historically accurate. Where did Washington acquire his plants? Initially, the landscape was completed by nothing but trees and shrubs that he found in his wildernesses surrounding Mount Vernon. So it's certainly a native landscape, and he identified these plants in the wintertime by structure and bud and had them dug and brought back. He did say that he was looking for exotics. He loved plants of all sorts. Now, we don't know if an exotic to him was Mexico or South Carolina, but what we do know is he said he wanted plants outside of his geographic area. People sent him gifts of plants often. Also he ordered from three of the principal nurseries of the time, John Bartram in Philadelphia, William Hamilton in New York, and Prince on Long Island. He ordered a lot of these plants and that he was experimenting with and putting within his landscape. I heard a story about a Franklin tree. Was that ever a part of the estate? The Franklinia, I think it was actually ordered from Philadelphia, and we've tried to grow them any number of times. We can't get them to survive. They're very finicky. They need to be in a spot they're really happy with, and so far we haven't found that spot on the estate, unfortunately. What's the significance of the Bond Plan? A gentleman named Samuel Vaughan visited Mount Vernon in 1784, I think it was, or 83. He was a landscape designer. He did a good bit of work up in the Philadelphia area, actually did some work around Independence Hall. He came and visited Mount Vernon, and in his sketchbook drew the plan of the estate, and then went back to Philadelphia. We drew a beautiful big plan that was very, very accurate. Washington said that you've drawn my estate accurately except that you've enclosed the view with trees, and so the only problem that Washington states is when looking from the house down the Bowling Green, down a vista to the forest beyond, there were two willow mounds that were planted on the Bowling Green. They weren't meant to act as punctuation points. No planting would occur within that, so you had a wide open view to the west. Whatever reason, Vaughan decided to draw trees all in there. In Washington's eye, it was all correct except for that. So it's a beautiful plan, archaeologists have used it, and all the buildings that he shows on that plan are where they find them when they dig in the soil. So he was recording the existence and not proposing new things. There's been some debate about that because Vaughan was a designer, and some say, well, how do we know that this is something Washington had, or was Vaughan drawing what he thought it should be? The written account seemed to support what Vaughan was drawing was accurate. So it's all about interpretation. We could look at two passages somewhere and interpret it both totally differently. I think the Vaughan plan is amazing. I think it's as accurate as we can possibly get. You've mentioned the Bowling Green a couple of times. What grass did they use in the Bowling Green? Their grass was called goosegrass or speargrass. They also had rye, and it's even bluegrass. It was a very coarse grass. Coarse grass was kind of important, actually, because they mowed it with the English sigh, and a very fine -bladed grass would be very difficult to cut with that implement, whereas the wider -bladed grass, they could cut quite nicely if they had a good sharp edge on their sigh, and the sickle, of course, would have been the weed eater. The Bowling Green was meant for games and entertaining and would have been mowed on a regular basis, rigged, rolled, and mowed right up until you may have a drought or something where the grass would stop growing, just like we have in an experience today. What variety do you grow there now? Weeds. It's just, I'm serious. It looks great from a distance, but if you walk up on it, it's just clover and creeping Charlie, and if it's green, I'm fine. We don't want to use chemicals on the lawn. We have a lot of visitors, a lot of children running around, so it's just as natural as possible. We overseed and everything, but no, just don't look too closely. Well, that'd be more accurate to the period, I guess. You know, I don't know. It'd be interesting to see the grass back then. It was maintained in a way that it was intended for them to bowl. They had lots of games with the hoops and other things, so it was used a great deal as a green for entertaining. How do you cut it now? Oh, we have John Deere's to go 13 miles an hour. It's pretty nice. You know, front deck mowers, it's great. Is that a reel? No, my goodness, no. Years ago when I started, our only riding mower was a Toro reel. Now, nothing against Toro, okay, but that thing never worked. Poor man that was operating, he was a World War II vet, and he was always in the shop just standing here waiting for his mower to work. So no, it's not a reel. My dad had a reel mower, and he was always working on it too. My dad's way to fix anything was with a screwdriver, not to actually tighten any screws. He would just beat on it. He was so upset. You've got the serpentine pass. What materials did they use? It was a combination of gravel and clay, pea gravel, smaller grade gravel, and it was cobblestone up around the circle in front of the mansion. Washington said if he could find any alternative form of paving, he would certainly use it because gravel roads were constant maintenance of raking, rolling, adding new gravel to keep them from being muddy all the time. That's exactly what was used in the gardens as well, was a gravel type path. Is that gravel mine from the Potomac? Washington talks about a gravel pit. It would seem as if they got a lot of it from the Potomac, and they would have sifted it to get the right size stone that they wanted. I think there were a couple sources, but not real clear on it. What kind of staff does it take to maintain all this? In horticulture, my responsibility has to do with anything that deals with chlorophyll and manure. The gardeners, just like in the 18th century, they said a garden an acre in size will require one full -time gardener, and so every principal garden we have is one full -time gardener working in that spot. Then we have a swing gardener that does all the smaller gardens and helps in the other gardens as well. We have a landscape gardener that takes care of all the non -exhibition areas. It's truly bare bones. We have some summertime help, college students, some high school. College students love it. We give them as much opportunity to learn whatever they want if they want to work in the greenhouse or use equipment. It's a really great program that we have for that. Then we have our livestock crew. We have five full -time livestock employees that maintain the genetic line of three very rare breeds, and those animals are here for interpretation as well. One thing I just want to share is that Mount Vernon is a very special place. People come and they don't leave real quickly. I've got almost 53 years. Our five livestock staff combined have 92 years of service here at Mount Vernon. It's just truly amazing. Wow. What type of livestock? We have a milking red devon, beautiful reddish -brown cow, aussebal island hogs, hog island sheep, and a Narragansett turkey. So all these are on exhibition at our Pioneer Farmers site, which is a site that we created in the 1990s down near the river. That's a site where we interpret Washington the farmer. That's the livestock's playground. They get to take the animals down there, the oxen, the horses, and work the fields. So it's really very exciting. It helps bring the estate to life. Are you taking the manures and the straw and things like that and using it in compost, or how does that all work? 100 percent. That's all we use. We have huge piles that we are able to windrow with using a manure spreader. We always have these windrows, just these lines of the material that is whipped around by the manure spreader. The row is about maybe eight feet wide, ten feet wide, and it's about six feet high. The oldest windrow is used as the fertilizer used in the gardens. And once that's gone, we windrow the next row over to aerate it again. We just always have a source of compost that we can use in the gardens, and it just works out beautifully for us. How long does it typically age? It doesn't take long, really. We have a pile that's been here for so long that even stuff that is not that old, maybe three months or so, when you mix it up with the other, it turns out very, very well. In the 18th century, Washington would take manure from the stables and just put them in a dung repository for a fortnight or two. You're only talking two or four weeks, and then they thought it was readily available for the gardens. So it was much more rapid for them than it is for us. Are there any special approaches that you take to maintaining a historical garden? The approach to maintaining a historic garden really is visual. We want them to see a garden that is planted in the manner that would have been in the 18th century. We want them to see what an 18th century garden looked like. As far as our actual practices, it is really no different than what would have been going on in the 18th century. Our tools may be a little sturdier, a little nicer, rakes, shovels, soil life, and everyone has one of those on their bill. You can do anything with those. As far as planting, we're definitely concerned about height derangement more than color coordination. We want to make sure the plants we plant are appropriate to the 18th century. Paths, the box which should be trimmed, are very short. They were never intended to be a backdrop for perennials, just as a border. That's the main thing. We want it to look right. The way we take care of it, that hasn't changed for 250 years. What are your biggest challenges with the garden? People, compaction, really the damage that comes from, especially kids, I used to share that the worst pest we can have is a child that's been on a bus for five hours from somewhere, gets here and the chaperones go, go, go, and they just start running. Back when we had big boxwood, they would just go and run and jump in and break a branch of a 150 year old boxwood within 10 seconds and that's hard to control with any kind of spray or whatever. But I developed to have a hard trap that was a bit larger. I found out I put an iPad or something in there, I could catch five or six at a time and I would let them off at the West Gate. The chaperones would eventually find them, but at least we got them out of the garden.
Crypto Banter
A highlight from He's Fired!! (We Had No Choice)
"So, Ryan said that if we were one second late for the morning call, then you're kicked out of the research group and you basically can't ever come back. There's no redemption. Wait, am I allowed to swear? Yeah, I'm allowed to swear. This place is full of shit, bro. You ask and if you ask, there's no way back into the call. There's just no way back. It's finished. So if you get kicked out on the morning call, you're not coming back. So I don't care who you are. I don't care whether you're the host or not a host, we're now making this call live at quarter past. We expect everybody on at quarter past. If you're not on by 20 past, you're out and if you're out, you ain't coming back in. We need to show up on time. We need to show up prepared and the one thing I'm not going to tolerate is people arriving at the morning call as passengers. People arriving at the morning call with no alpha and no value add, just thinking that they'll sit there and comment. I don't accept that shit. If you're not here at quarter past nine, you have five minutes to get on and get the legs. If not, you're out and if you're out, you ain't coming back. We are all there at a certain time every single day and we expect that everyone arrive on time and prepared. So, I mean, I made a rule now because people kept coming late, certain people, I'm not going to mention names. So the morning call is the whole team jumping on in the morning and preparing what's the top news, what's the top coins and I think a lot of people work here just to be on that morning call and this is because of me. I couldn't find the link, I was seven minutes late and now I am in shit. That's it. If you're not there five minutes after the call starts, you're out and once you're out, there's no way back into the call. Don't tell him, but I was 14 minutes late today. I don't think he noticed, so we'll see. Thank you if you are. Thank you if you're Kyle, Sheldon, Rand, Miles, I don't give a shit if you are. Anyway, let's carry on. In the military, there are people getting on. You see a few NBA players, you see a few pretty big gamers. It's too hard to use. I mean, if I lost like $20 worth of ease trying to do it, believe me, people have lost a lot more. Yeah, there's problems. We have major technical issues, as usual. I don't know what to do. I'm serious. Do I just go live like this? I'm luminescent. What else am I supposed to do? This is fun. It's important. We've got to do it. I don't know what to do. This thing is like we already meant to have started two minutes ago. And now Alistair's frothing here with excitement that there's problems. Look at him, salivating like a bloody Kardashian cameraman. Hi, Rand. We're having trouble with the green screen, getting it set. We're doing that thing where it's either the host or the green screen. Can I be adjusted your colour, your green for the preview? Yes. Preview. Wait, there we're back. We clicked preview. It worked. Now, on the black magic card, press the find button. On this thing? Yeah. That one? Yes, press that button. Okay, I'm there. It worked. Well done. You're a genius. This is why you own this company. He's not impressed. He's having his breakfast and matcha and we're late. What can we do? Guys, let's just quickly close off over here. Remember, we do have the morning call as well, which is right now. That is on the Banta Bubbles chart, the newsroom. You can go there. Sign in right now. The call has just begun. It's capped to, I think it's 500. So make sure that you jump in. I see someone says that Karl's going to be late. Yes, I'm going to be late. I'm still on the show. I'm paranoid if I'm late. I'm out. That's where you can hear Rand shouting at people. So if you find that a good time, then make sure you join. There is also a lot of alpha in the group. I've got a problem with it. The problem is that you're not accountable in any element. The language is done. I don't get my translations. The influencer campaign is two weeks old. I can't get involved in it. I just need results. Just need results. I can't get involved in the process. Can't get involved in managing the resources. That's what you need to be doing. So I've given you four things. Now you need to focus on those four things. One, the tech must work. No bullshit, no downtime. Make sure the tech works. You've had millions to know on this tech. No bullshit, no downtime. The ability to patch guests in seamlessly during the show is important. Can't carry on in the middle of the show, interrupting the show, not being able to share screens, audio is not coming through. That needs to be fixed like now. Your responsibilities are very simple. The tech in this office must always work. Must be seamless. I called me in, gave me more work and less time and layered through the deliverables and just basically said that none of the tech should ever give a problem ever again. And it's quite hard to agree to something like that because that's not how tech works. I don't need to know the process. I don't need to know the issues. Everyone else here gets their job done. They manage the resources to get the job done. I'm expecting the same from you. Okay? If I risk doing it and I mess it up, it's a big thing. So I need to get someone who's got the knowledge and has the experience to do it. It's a nice statement, but it's not possible. In some situations it's not. All I do is kid -shadow them and how hard I push on both sides. Is that just the reality of life? It's the reality of life. I don't hear it from anybody else. I don't hear it from you. I don't take it personally. I find as a teacher it's fascinating to learn, but if you're looking for compliments and you feel uplifted in your life, go somewhere else. 100%. And when we're doing this, is our life a reality show? Yes. Seriously, I'm going to be on a weekly reality show. Give them cocktails. You're going to do good stuff. You're going to get compliments, bro. No. Once a year. Give them cocktails. Life will get bad on you. James has had a very tough day. Nothing that a good cappuccino and what we call in South Africa, I've been here for a long time. I've been driving shows. I've been doing pretty much whatever. My job has evolved into pretty much everything here. I'm bored of driving shows. I've finally been off shows. I'm doing projects now. Projects for Cryptobancer. So influencer marketing, translating the languages, moving our broadcasting system over, then not only that, I've been keeping up with all of my stuff, following up on everything every day, but I've also been getting knocked out every day. Also getting a little bit of shit every day. But I also know from being here a long time, sitting here and arguing and making excuses doesn't help either of us. Long -term portfolio. Long -term portfolio. Yeah, it's more higher time frame for your stuff. Yeah, fair, fair. So long -term stuff, bro. So I'm going to help them build the ultimate portfolio. You know how I do that soldier sort of mechanism of understanding the different levels that your altcoins should be inserted into your long -term portfolio. So it's higher time frame portfolio plus strategies and you're preparing them mentally for the bull market and how they're going to act on it and what they're going to do when it comes, et cetera. Okay. Thank you. How long are you going to be? Not more than an hour. No more than an hour. It never stops, no? Working on the run is like, it is really, really, really hard. Some people can... If you don't do something right, you don't stay in your lane, you're going to get hit on hard. A lot of people can't take that. A lot of people will leave. I've seen many people come in and out of these doors that can't hold the pressure. He is a top businessman. He is a man that's savage in his industry and you've got to give him respect. There's a very small percentage of the planet that's got a nice vibe he has. JAMES' TROUBLE James, are you in trouble again? When am I not in trouble? James is always in trouble. Always. James is trouble. We had the disco moment, remember? Last week when Ranz Lightz went on and off five times. It happened again this morning for Kyle's show. But yeah. He didn't shit again. James is going to get fired. Look, I know it's tough here. This is a high performance environment. But if we're going to achieve our objectives, we can only have a high performance environment. But it's my responsibility to make sure that we are executing according to our vision. And our vision is to build a billion dollar business in less than three years. And to me, as I say, culture is the most important thing in a business. It's what separates good businesses from bad businesses. And I won't let the culture of this place decline. It's just not something that I'll do. I won't compromise on culture ever. It took me 17 years to build a $150 million business. I've done it before. This time it's actually about changing people's lives. And if you look at every single person that I work with here, they'll tell you their lives have changed. I don't think anybody's going to complain in three years when they're sitting on their yachts sipping on margaritas. They won't complain anymore. It's a single swim. That's all. So, Rand always striving for success. I think that's very, very good. That's the perfect leader that we need. Yeah, he's an incredible human, incredible business person. And his work ethic is unparalleled. So, I look up to that. I see him as a mentor. Because, I mean, I thought I worked hard. He has four kids and he still works harder than me, which is just mind -blowing. It's insane. So, yeah. What are you talking about? Yeah, so, obviously, Do's been under me and, like, within the business. He's been running the live training sessions. He was very, very afraid of being behind camera in the beginning. But I just had this feeling that he had to get his ass behind cameras. And I think he's more than just doing my charts on Discord. I think he should have a show. I think he will annihilate in the pool. Like, he's really good. But I feel a lot of our hosts are going to struggle in the pool. I think they do well in this market. I don't think they're going to do well. And I think we've got a channel that we're wasting. The fact that we don't have daily shows there. I think we're going to rebrand the channel, the other channel. I think I'm actually leaning towards Banter Plus. Because I think Banter Plus just says everything it needs to say. It's like, it's the better channel, it's plus, it's additional. Plus, it's the better channel. Yeah. If it says Banter Plus, if you're making a step -style channel, people aren't going to watch it. People don't watch the second league. People don't watch Formula 2. People don't watch. People want to watch the best. I promise you, bro. I'm going to move my show. I'm going to move my show to another channel. Soon. Rebrand and move. It's too much of a move. I'll do it when there's movement in the market and there's a full cycle. I'm going to jump. So you want two main channels? Sure. Why? What do I gain if I don't do it? I've got a channel. I've got two amazing channels instead of one. We'll rebrand a channel. Then you can try another show there. But you know, if you get onto the show, you sign a contract, because we don't want to build stars here that don't compete with us. Wait, you know. You know where my loyalty is. I know where your loyalty is. You know what they say. When you marry your wife, you're marrying your best friend. When you're getting divorced, you're getting divorced from the wicked witch of Eastbeck, bro. You can't even talk to her when you're getting divorced. That's what you've got to plan for. You know what I mean? We do have one. We do have one quick problem, and I need the banter fans' help with it, okay? Especially this sniper army. Run is considering his maybe, because we have a second channel coming up. Maybe Dylan should have his own show. So what I want you to do, I want you to go to Run's show today, and I want you to spam the shit out of the comments and say, Dylan must get a show. Dylan must get a show. Dylan must get a show. I love these altcoins. I just love these labels. I love these foods. I mean, I'm doing this stuff every day, and I'm so happy to share it with you every day. We're going to basically park there to pay, so you're going to have two powerhouses driving to one run. Yeah, that's the difference here, because a lot of people aren't there. What you do in the background is your deal. You guys are going so much at the end of it. You're not going to come... I just want to make sure that he has a show and that you... For as long as your show is growing and you have a lot of community... You think I'm good enough to have a show. I don't want to come here and sell one. more So, exactly, this is my point. I was always a reluctant presenter. So Ryan pulled me into the office. We were talking about the show and everything and the possibility of me getting one. It's not something I was always pushing and chasing myself, so it was quite strange to me when he told me I'm potentially not good enough. So, I mean, there is a difference between show business, obviously, and the content work that I do. I know my content is 10 out of 10. I'm not the most exciting or charismatic presenter, but I think I can get better. And I think I can prove him wrong. Yeah, so people want to know if I'm good enough or not. You just need to come look at my charts, really. I mean, look at this tweet. When everyone is getting all depressed, I said to them, Pump town coming for render even though there's a death cost, okay? Look at this. Bang. Perfect. Absolute perfection. Into the trend. TP time. We're out of this trade. Look at this one. Oil. Everyone was so bullish on oil. We got the short lie. We traded this oil completely live on the channel. Look at Rune. Called a short on the live into a banging resistance zone. I mean, there it is right there. Look at this camp. Looking so sad. Rune's coming down right to this zone here. At least 1 .4. Maybe even down there. So, it's all happening in here all the time. Just come look at my charts. They're here in the Discord as well. Look at this. Look at this DYDX. We said it's breaking through resistance. It was a big resistance zone. Looking for support to develop. Look at that. Bang. Now we're going to short this thing. So, you decide. Is my work good enough? I don't know. We'll find out. I like Dylan. Dylan I've known for a long time. In fact, Dylan's wife and my wife are actually very good friends. That's how we met. And when we moved into Banta, I brought him along for the ride. Because I just knew we'd find a spot for him. Now, the ball is in his court. We're giving him the screen. We're giving him the platform. And now he has to perform. And it's kind of cute to see how stressed he gets. Because Dylan's skin -haired beard. And now he's shitting himself in front of the camera. So, it's actually quite fun to watch it happen. We'll obviously support him. I want him to succeed. When you get to 50 shots, that's a lot better if you didn't have to have a phone. You want to embarrass him? Let me show you how embarrassing my first shoot was, bro. This is the first time I ever did fucking live. Live fucking TV, bro. I do really love you. Good luck. Good luck to 50 years. Welcome to Crypto Trader at the World's Best. How bad is this? How bad is this? This is basically true. I am Crypto Man Ryan. And I'll be your host. How bad is this? I'll be your host. You're a mess. I want you. I want you. I want you. I don't want you. I'm so bad. Just for everyone, I know how tough it is making content at this time when shit's happening. And when it's getting more and more and more boring. I'm starting to get my momentum back, which is why I think I'm going to cancel my career trip because I just can't afford a disruption in momentum. I think we need to use this time to build because you're like two green candles on Bitcoin and you know what happens, everyone's going to rush back. When that happens, a lot of changes are going to happen in this business. So the first bit of content we're going to do is Dylan's going to have a show. We're going to finalize all the agreements here, but Dylan will have his show.
The Podcast On Podcasting
A highlight from Ep363: 4 Things You Must Systemize To Prevent Podfade - Chris Hines
"There's nothing worse than reaching out to somebody to do an interview. They send you their headshot in one email, oh, it's in a Google Doc, so you can access it. You gotta send another email to get access to it. Then they send you their bio. They forgot to send their links, then you gotta send another email. That makes you look unprofessional as a podcast host." Most hosts never achieve the results they hoped for. They're falling short on listenership and monetization, meaning their message isn't being heard and their show ends up costing them money. This podcast was created to help you grow your listenership and make money while you're at it. Get ready to take notes. Here's your host, Adam Adams. Hey, what's up, podcaster? It's Adam Adams, and we're talking about workflows. Now, if you're thinking about your podcast and thinking about how hard is my podcast, how tough is my podcast, there's a lot of parts to it that you are probably aware of that get difficult or a little overwhelming, where you have to spend more time and more effort. And so I've got Chris Hines on. Chris actually is an owner at a company called Pod Central, and it's a centralized place for different workflows. And I want to talk to him about what workflows are important. He's been podcasting for over eight years, and it's like, what workflows matter? Which ones should we focus on? And we can find Pod Central and how else could we find these things like so that we can make it a little bit easier on us so that you don't do what's called pod fade. Pod fade is when you kind of give up and we don't want that for you. So let's talk about some workflows, Chris. It's funny because I think I've been trying to get you on the podcast for more than two years and it's finally happened. Cool. How are you today? It has been a while. I feel like we've been connected on Facebook since I started podcasting. It's been so long, but I love it, man. I'm doing great. I'm excited to just be in this industry of podcasting. I love seeing the growth and how it's evolving. Back when I started in 2015, I didn't know it would be like this, the way it is now with so many shows and so many platforms, and I love it. I have a question. Did you build an actual app, Pod Central? Is that like an app on the iPhone and Android? So it's currently just a web app, but something we're working on for 2024 is making it mobile, which won't be all that hard, to be honest, but I want to get the web app completely concrete and like perfect before we go to mobile, but it's been a beast making something like that. I've wanted to make something to help podcasters for years because it was super hard for me when I first started. So I'm making something that just would have helped me when I started podcasting. How long did it take? It sounds like this is years of effort, or how long did it take to make an app? If our listener today is considering making an app to serve their people, how long has this one taken you? I would say about two years since I started, and I'm using the no -code platform called Bubble. And I did pay some developers along the way to do some of the things that were just much more complicated to learn. I would say no -code is not that challenging to learn. It just takes focus. So my process was two hours every day at least for a good six -month period. That right there really helped me a lot, man. Like that sped up my progress, but I think having that advantage of knowing my industry made building a lot easier. Like I wasn't just building something in an industry I'm not present in. Yeah. And how much did you have to spend to developers? I've heard that it can be pennies, middle amounts of money, maybe just like hundreds or several thousand. I've also heard that it can be high amounts of money, like hundreds of thousands to multi -millions to pay. So like how much do you think you've spent on like all of the development with everything? Oh man, that's such a good question. And I keep track of this very well because I want to be able to give people an honest answer. I've spent in total in the two years of building 3 ,500 bucks. And obviously that's not a lot, right? It's not crazy or anything, but I looked at it like if it was something I could learn how to do on my own and it would just take me a couple of weeks, I would rather spend the time. But if it would take me more than two and a half, three weeks to do, I was going to just pay somebody. And that approach has served me very well because some of the things that developers went and did, it would have taken me months to figure out, man. So just having somebody I can go to and say, Hey, here's the money, built this. That has really made my life a lot easier. How do you find the developers though? Twitter. Twitter is like home base for building a product. You can connect with so many people that are building their own things, people that can help you build, people that will help you with marketing. And I think that's what's keeping Twitter alive right now is the startup crowd on that platform, because it's just so easy to go on there and find people that do all kind of stuff. It's insane. And I don't think Facebook has that kind of reach. And I think the problem with LinkedIn is everybody you connect with is trying to sell you. But on Twitter, you can just say, Hey, I need help with this. And you'll have 10 people that reach out and give you advice. What about that new platform threads? I think it might be called that's supposed to be replacing Twitter. I don't think it has a real staying power just yet. I think all the social platforms we have have a place like LinkedIn is for the more serious professional crowd. Facebook is for family and friends. Twitter is where you have different circles of people where you can just talk in public and you will make friends from people that like the stuff you like. Instagram is for showing the lifestyle. I think threads before it has staying power, it has to find its thing, right? I know if I want to find out about news, I can go on Twitter and look at a trending topic section and I'm going to find news. I can search a hashtag and see what people are talking about. Hashtags are like, great. But I just don't think threads has found its, I would say niche in social media just yet. Like all these different platforms serve a different purpose in our lives. And threads is like the new thing that's supposed to replace Twitter. But I don't think it's there just yet. Got it. You've been doing podcasting for like eight years. I want to focus most of today on different ways that we can automate, systemize, make things a little bit easier on us so we don't pod fade. So we don't leave what we need to do because focusing on our podcasts and staying diligent in it can really grow our listener base, our influence, our company. And so if we don't do it, if we fail, if we stop doing it because it got too difficult, then we really lose out on all those benefits. So curious you as somebody who's created an online app, a place where everything can be centralized and had eight years figuring this out, probably a lot on your own. It sounds like what have you learned? I'll ask this. What are some of the top things that the listener, another podcaster needs to automate? I would say number one is collaboration with your team. If you have just an editor, collaborate with them. If you have a co -host, if you have a designer, anybody that you are connecting with, you want to have that close work relationship with them. You want to make it really, really easy. If you don't, that really can slow you down in your process. What I've learned being an editor too, is it's so many things fall through the gaps just because you play email tag or one person likes Slack. The other one likes Facebook messenger, right? So the people you work with are just so important. And again, if you don't have a big team, which most people don't, I get it. But even your co -host, your one editor, your one designer, just make sure you have a good connection with them in terms of communication, because that's going to make getting the content out there a lot easier. What are a couple options for us to be able to collaborate and communicate better with our teammates, our editors or our co -hosts? I would say number one, choose one platform to communicate on. I work with a podcast a year and a half ago and this company, to give a perspective, they have a show where a new episode comes out every day and it's a different host on that same show. So they have seven different hosts for one show. Their ad spend monthly for the show was around 10 grand. So they have the money to do pretty much whatever they need to do. Their problem, one of the biggest issues is they would talk on Google Docs, emails, they will use Slack, they use Facebook. So they use like six different platforms to communicate. I think it's better to communicate in one place because instead of everybody having their favorite platform, you just have one platform. Let's just get it all in one place so nothing ever gets missed. So whether that's going to be Slack or it's a Facebook chat or it'll be email, choose that one platform that works for you and your team and just stick with that. What about other top things that need to be automated outside of just the narrowing and streamlining to one communication place to be able to collaborate? What other things are podcasters missing or what did you miss eight years ago? Man, eight years ago, I was going to say AI before you said eight years ago, because a lot of podcasts are against AI, like agency owners too. It's like, I don't want to use that. I don't want to use any automation tools. And this is the thing. You use the AI tools to speed up the process, not replace it. So instead of you spending an hour and a half or two hours writing a title, the show notes, figuring out keywords, you can use AI tools to give you that stuff and then just iterate and make small changes if you need to, because the AI is good enough to where it'll give you something that's pretty good to work with as a foundation. You just improve it and make it better, put your own spin on it, add your own sauce to it, and you'll be good to go. I see a lot of content creators in general that are against the AI movement. And I would say, find your way to use it and implement it into your workflow. Don't be afraid of it. How about a third thing that we can use for automation? What's the thing that podcasters miss when it comes to making it easy on themselves? This is the biggest one. And this one changed my podcasting career and I get compliments on this all the time. So it's my personal favorite. And that is booking interviews. There's nothing worse than reaching out to somebody to do an interview and they send you their headshot in one email. Oh, it's in a Google doc. So you can access it. You got to send another email to get access to it. Then they send you their bio. Oh, they forgot to send their links. Then you got to send another email. That part of the workflow really makes you look unprofessional as a podcast host. If it's all complicated and all over the place. When I interview celebrities or entrepreneurs with nine figure business, like these people are making big money. So I'm not even talking to them. We're talking to the representatives. If I make the workflow too complicated, I lose the opportunity to work with that guest. So in terms of booking your interviews, try to condense that as much as possible. Like just make it as seamless as you can, because it comes off as your professional and prepare to whoever is being a guest on the show. Even their team, they'll refer you to other people because their workflow was way better than other podcasters. And again, this one completely changed the game for me, like completely. So tell us a little bit more about that. What is a couple of ways that I can book interviews in a more streamlined ways? So the first thing you want to do is figure out what you need to get from that guest. We know that the biggest part of it is booking the date and time and the virtual location for the interview, right? So that's already the main thing. But what I think podcasters miss is getting the content you'll need for your post -production process before the interview. Like don't do it after, do it before. You know, you're going to need a headshot for social media content. You know, you're going to need their bio to read it into the show or put it in the show notes, you know, you're going to need their social media links for the call to action. Get all of that before the conversation, before they even put a time on your calendar, get all of that stuff. So by the time you get to that part, they don't have to do anything else, right? You obviously get their email when they book that time. So I would suggest if you're going to use a form strategy, you can do that. Send them a form that they could just use to complete all of that stuff. Hey, here's a form to be a guest on the show. After you complete this, I'll send you a link to book the interview. That's one simple way to do it. And that could be free. That could be done through Google forms. And once they've done that, you can get their email and you send them a link to your Calendly. That simple. It could be that easy. Now the process isn't as strenuous and exhausting for both sides. Yeah. So is there anything else that you can think of that new podcasters might miss when they could make it a little easier on themselves? One of the things that helped me, this is something I wish I had when I first started because I did a lot of co -hosting shows. Now my content is more solo or interview based. I used to have co -hosts on my shows. We would do round table episodes and stuff. So I think it's good to have a planner. A planner just for the topics are going to cover some of the key points on those topics for research and data, any statistics you want to talk about. And if you're interviewing somebody, you want to have a planner for the questions on the episodes, some of the topics they want to talk about. If they have a book, do you want to know the key points of that book that they want to cover and have that right in front of you while you do the interview? And just having that is great because if I have co -hosts, we all can have a basic document that shows us this is what the show is about. It makes the content a lot smoother. If you look at ESPN and all those shows, it flows so smoothly because on those tables, all those papers you see, that's a production list. Like that's all their content is right there. They have notes and stuff and all that from the night before. If you're trying to be a high level podcaster, that's the kind of approach you need to take. Same with your guests. If they want to talk about this topic, here's a topic. Here are the questions you have under that topic. And having that, I'm really big on preparation. If you notice, all these steps are about preparing because I think when you prepare at this level at every step of the process, when you actually do content, it sounds so much better. It's so much smoother. People ask me why I don't use script. I don't need to. I don't need the whole script word for word because I have so much preparation right in front of me. Yeah. Out of curiosity, like thinking about this planner, can it be an online planner or does it need to be a paper planner? What does that look like? I think the paper planners are great if you're doing solo content. Like for me, I use sometimes post -it notes and I'll put that right on the front of my camera before the interview or something. That's my personal strategy. But I'm actually, I had to build this into Pod Central. I'm not trying to plug the product here, people. I'm just saying I'm making a digital version of that now. So it's just easier to share because I do think that is what is necessary to take podcasting to the next level, to make better content, to have better interviews, to do better round tables, to work with your co -host better. It's better when everybody has a show plan right in front of them. I think they call it a set list for TV shows and stuff. That's the name of it. I haven't been on too many Hollywood sets. But let me talk more about that or ask more about that. Let's just pretend we've got a co -host and a guest, a co -host and a guest. And I'm wondering, do you come up with the questions you're going to ask the guest? There are a lot of questions. A, do you come up with it before you go to the episode itself? B, who comes up with it? Is it a combination of the two co -hosts? Or does the guest send them to you? Or is it just one of the co -hosts needs to figure that out? Lots of follow up questions on this. I think that the listeners probably got a lot of questions. If you've got some questions ready to go, what happens if there's not enough time to go over them? Yeah, just it's hard to put this in a great single question. I really want to understand better about how the planner works if I've got a co -host and a guest. Yeah. So for me, I think number one, I always tell people it's good to prepare questions from what your guests tell you they want to talk about in the booking process. One of the first thing you should be doing is looking at that guest and saying, Hey, what is it you want to cover on the show? And my main go to is what value do you want to provide to the audience? What's the transformation you want to give during your episode? Then they'll tell you, I want to talk about topic a perfect. Now you and the co -host collaborate on the questions you want to ask. I'll ask these, you ask those and we can work off of each other. I think that makes it easier when you work on the questions together. That way you aren't stepping over each other's toes. That's why the collaboration is so great. During the interview, you don't have to ask every question. Like sometimes I'll have like eight questions listed, but you only get to ask three. It's fine. You don't have to ask every question for me. Sometimes I will bring people back onto the show six months later and we'll do another interview and just pick up where we left off. If it's that good a content, we just keep going that way. So I just think the planner is a great way to ensure your content is better. Right? Like on that planet, you're going to have key points to data. I think this is especially important if you're on one of these business shows and you're talking about something that is more data focused, that's attached to it so that you can back up your statements, whatever claim you're making, you want to be able to back that up with some data in front of you. So it's just a way to stay more organized. So it sounds like for the most part, you and your co -host come up with the questions together and for the most part, you would plan to ask a certain amount of them and you're going to need to give yourself grace if you can't ask each of them. And I've got a good example, I think, for the listener right now. Ultimately, I've only really asked Chris, our guest today, I've only really asked him one main question and it was about the top things that need to be automated. And then I just had follow up questions from his answers. So ultimately, we've spent a half an hour -ish on one question. So and I remember I used to host more in -person meetings. Before COVID, I would host multiple meetings each week, every Tuesday, every Wednesday, every Thursday and in different cities. And then I'd host conferences with hundreds of people every quarter or so. And in all of that, I learned something that really ultimately came from working with panel discussions. Panel is like when you have three or four different people as experts. And I remember that other people would be like, all right, we've got two minutes. Maybe we've got two questions. We've got time, they might say, to ask two more questions. And I realized if you got two minutes, you don't have time for any more questions because it would average where it would be more than five minutes a question. And so once we finish a topic, I wouldn't spend the time asking another question. And I think that that happens also when we're just wrapping up an episode. Let's say we're at the very, very end of the episode and we mistakenly ask one last question like this. We might say, what's the best advice you have for a podcaster? Or we might say any other question. And what's going to happen is it'll take like on average more than five minutes. And so if you only got like two minutes, you don't have time to ask another question. So I think that is necessary to pinpoint. So let's go over these top things that need to be optimized, automated, optimized, automated. I'm trying to make up a word here. Optimated, that's a good word. Chris, you can't take that. I made it up. Sorry. My listener knows they heard it here. So first, you said that you need to have a singular place where everybody feels comfortable to collaborate. The second thing you mentioned to automate things, make it easier on ourselves, is to embrace AI, artificial intelligence, to love it, to embrace it, to use it, to partner with it not and to shun it. Because one of the things that you mentioned is it will title an episode for you. They're even editing video. They're even editing audio these days for you. In many cases, it'll title it. It'll write your whole show notes. It'll take the entire transcript. It'll give you the key takeaways. It'll do all of these things. It's being able to do that. And the third thing you mentioned was having an automation around booking your interviews. I use Calendly and a template through my Gmail to get people on my podcast. But whatever we need to do, we need to find a way to do that. The last thing that you mentioned with booking interviews, you had a key takeaway that was about making sure you're getting your headshot bio and links before you ever do the interview. I thought that was a good takeaway as well. And then the fourth thing after collaborate AI and booking is the planner. So if it's just you, you mentioned maybe we could do a paper planner or automatic. But if we have a lot of people involved, the paper is going to get too challenging. So we probably ought to use something online. And that will be a place where we put research data, figure out the guests, the topics, the books, the ideas. And then the last takeaway that I really was getting from you is that more preparation can be beneficial for a podcaster. I wanted you to talk a little bit more about the preparation as we end off about why do you prep and how to prep. You've given some tips, but I want to talk about why to prep and how to prep as soon as we get back from our quick messages.
Timothy Keller Sermons Podcast by Gospel in Life
"four things" Discussed on Timothy Keller Sermons Podcast by Gospel in Life
"This realization dawned slowly for one of the few people who knew both me and my husband Brian before we knew each other. So our friend Sarah Irving Stonebrecker is a history professor in Australia. She was a convinced atheist when she went to Cambridge to do her PhD. She was a convinced atheist when she went to Oxford to do her postdoc. But while she was at Oxford, she went to a series of lectures by fellow Australian Princeton philosophy professor Peter Singer. Now Singer is a very smart man and he's one of the few atheists who stares very frankly in the face the fact that if we get rid of Christianity we can no longer trade on Christian ethics. And he says that rather than agreeing that all humans are equally valuable because they are human, that we need to evaluate beings, human or otherwise, on the basis of their capacities. For example, the capacity for self-awareness, the capacity to suffer, etc. By Singer's calculation, a newborn infant is less morally valuable than an adult cow. As my friend Sarah listened to these lectures, she experienced what she later described as a kind of intellectual vertigo when she realized that her atheism cut against all of her deepest beliefs. She thought that Christianity was the enemy of human rights and racial justice and equality for men and women, but she gradually discovered it was the basis for those things, and so she gave her life to Christ. As we talk with our non-Christian friends, we must never imply that we think that we are better than they are. I believe that Jesus came to save sinners of whom I am the worst. And we must be very real about the massive, horrendous moral mistakes that Christians have made over the last 2,000 years, including we ourselves. And yet, rather than buying into the new atheist narrative that religion poisons everything, if we actually look at the data, even in America today, we find an interesting story. People who go to church once a week or more give 3.5 times as much to charity as their secular peers. They volunteer twice as much, they are half as likely to engage in domestic violence, and they're less likely to commit at least 43 other crimes. Christianity is the greatest movement for justice in all of history. So in this hurting world, let's reclaim morality, like divers pulling treasure from a wreck, and let's flee self-righteousness like toxic waste. Fourth, we must reclaim sexuality. When Snape killed Dumbledore, all doubt in the reader's mind as to whether he was on the side of good or evil died as well. And when we stand for Christian sexual ethics, we move over in our friends' minds from delusion to bigotry. Opposition to gay marriage for Christians is equivalent in my friends' minds to opposition to mixed-race marriage. It's morally repugnant, and it puts us on the wrong side of history. So how can we turn this devastating roadblock into a signpost to Christ? When Harry dived into Snape's memories, he found not a story of hate, but a story of love. And when we dive into what the Scriptures have to say to us about sexuality, we find that it's a love story too. This love song begins in the Old Testament as prophet after prophet compares God to a loving, faithful husband and Israel to his often unfaithful wife. It takes a step forward when Jesus steps onto the stage of human history and declares himself to be the bridegroom. It comes into clear focus in Ephesians, chapter 5, when Paul talks about human marriage as a little scale model of Jesus' love for the church. And it rises to a full-blown crescendo in the book of Revelation when the voice of a great multitude declares that the wedding of the Lamb has come, and Jesus' marriage to his church brings heaven and earth back together. This is why marriage is male and female, and why husbands and wives are called to different roles. Like Christ and the church, it's a love across difference. Like Christ and the church, it's a love built on sacrifice. Like Christ and the church, it is a flesh-uniting, life-creating, never-ending, exclusive love. Marriage is meant to point us to Christ, but it is also meant to disappoint us. Because even the best human marriage could only give us a tiny echo of Jesus' love for us. And let's not forget, Christian marriage was counter-cultural from the first. In the Greco-Roman world, men weren't expected to be faithful to their wives, let alone to pour themselves out in sacrificial love for them. It was fine for them to sleep with other women, and often with other men as well. No wonder Christianity drew more women than men in the first instance. No wonder the church has always been majority female. Far from being the epicenter of misogyny, Christianity is the greatest movement of and for women in all of history. And here's the irony. The sexual revolution of the 1960s was sold to us as the liberation of women. For centuries, men had been finding ways to sneak around Christian marriage and have commitment-free sex, and now, great news, thanks to the pill, women could as well. But in the past 60 years, despite growth in freedom and opportunity, women's self-reported happiness in America has actually declined. Why is that? I believe that part of the reason is that commitment-free sex is a poison chalice. For both men and for women, stable marriage correlates with multiple mental and physical health benefits. But for women in particular, increasing our numbers of sexual partners is actually correlated with negative mental health outcomes, including greater suicidal ideation, increased sadness, increased depression, increased substance abuse. Interestingly, a Dartmouth professor who's not a Christian at all did a study of sex and happiness, and he concluded that the happiness-maximizing number of sexual partners in the last year is, guess what? One. So let's not lose confidence in Christian marriage. But marriage is not the only relationship that is designed to point us to Jesus' love for us. Greater love has no one than this, said Jesus, than that he laid down his life for his friends. People sometimes say the Bible condemns same-sex relationships. I disagree. I think the Bible commands same-sex relationships at a level of intimacy that we Christians seldom reach. Paul calls us one body, knit together in love, comrades in arms. He calls his friend Onesimus his very heart, and he says he was among the Thessalonians like a nursing mother with her children. None of this is sexual. All of this is ours in Christ. And if we are going to reclaim sexuality in the next generation, we need to reclaim fierce, abiding, non-erotic, non-romantic love. I'm not saying any of this is easy or straightforward. I myself have been romantically attracted to women since childhood. If I were not a Christian, it's very probable I would have been married to a woman instead of married to a man today. I'm happily married to a man, have been for 12 years. And actually, I'm not actually as weird as I might sound from that. I mean, I am weird, but for other reasons. It turns out I am the most typical kind of same-sex attracted person. A woman who is attracted to other women, but not exclusively so. So it turns out about 14% of women experience same-sex attraction, but only 1% are exclusively attracted to other women. For men, it's about 7% who experience same-sex attraction and only 2% who are exclusively attracted to other men. And interestingly as well, people's sexual orientation can and does change over the course of their lifetime. Not always, but it certainly is not an infrequent occurrence. And this research has been pioneered by a woman named Lisa Diamond, who is a professor at the University of Utah, and she is herself a lesbian activist. And one of the things she concludes is that when we categorize people as gay or straight, we're not in fact cutting nature at its joints. We're imposing some joints on a very messy phenomenon. We need to recognize and reckon as churches with the fact that we have not typically served our same-sex attracted brothers and sisters well. We have let our brothers and sisters shiver in the dark, believing that they are weird and unwanted and unloved. And if you want to pour paraffin on sexual temptation, what do you do? You leave someone alone. But if you want to reclaim sexuality in the next generation, we need to make our churches places where same-sex attracted Christians are included and embraced. Our brothers and sisters who experience same-sex attraction are not an embarrassment. They're an asset. People today are blocking their ears to the gospel because they think we're homophobic bigots. Our same-sex attracted brothers and sisters, especially those who remain single because of their devotion to Christ, are our God-given SWAT team to burst through those defenses. Because there is no more powerful way to testify to Jesus in this culture. There is no more powerful way to point to the beauty of Jesus than to turn away from your own romantic and sexual fulfillment because you believe in a better love. So as we go out into our communities with the message of the gospel, we must reclaim diversity, we must reclaim the university, we must reclaim morality and we must reclaim sexuality, but we must do all of these things with humility. We must repent of the ways that we have allowed racism to thrive in our churches. We must repent of the ways in which we have abandoned the life of the mind. And we must repent of the actual homophobia that has infected our churches for years. We need to take a hard turn toward the scriptures and a hard turn away from ourselves. Because Jesus is not a relic of the ancient world. He is our modern world's best hope. This talk was recorded in 2019. The sermons and talks you hear on the Gospel and Life podcast were preached from 1989 to 2017 while Dr. Keller was senior pastor at Redeemer Presbyterian Church.
Timothy Keller Sermons Podcast by Gospel in Life
"four things" Discussed on Timothy Keller Sermons Podcast by Gospel in Life
"Tim mentioned earlier that the gospel rids us of pessimism, and that is good news for me because you're about to hear like 35 minutes of pure, unadulterated, very un-British optimism from me. But because I'm British, we're going to start with Harry Potter. And if you have not read the Harry Potter books, you need to block your ears for about 90 seconds now because this is the most terrible spoiler, and I would hate to ruin this beautiful story for you. But in Harry Potter and a Half-Blood Prince, J.K. Rowling sticks a knife into her reader's hearts. Professor Dumbledore is the Gandalf of the series, the only man whose power for good can match Lord Voldemort's evil. But in the sixth book, a weakened Dumbledore stands at the top of the Astronomy Tower, surrounded by his enemies, and he appeals to Harry's teacher nemesis, Severus Snape, for help. Severus, please. And Snape kills him. The scene is devastating. We never liked Professor Snape, but we hoped beyond hope that he was Dumbledore's man, and now his betrayal of his mentor is complete. It's only in the last book that we realize how wrong we were, when Harry extracts memories from the dying Snape's mind and pours them into the magical pensieve, where you can dive into somebody else's past, and there we see that everything Snape has done has been driven by his passionate, hopeless, unrequited love for Harry's mother. We see Snape's anguish as Lily Potter is murdered by Voldemort, and how he vents forth, commits himself to Dumbledore. We hear Dumbledore telling Snape that he is dying from the slow workings of an irreversible curse and makes Snape promise to kill him when the moment comes, and suddenly the meaning of Severus, please, is reversed. When our non-Christian friends look over at the Christian faith, they see an awful lot of things that look like Snape killing Dumbledore. They see a white center religion with a history of racism and scriptures that condone slavery. They see an anti-intellectual mindset and a contradictory Bible that's been disproved by science again and again. They see homophobia, the denigration of women, and a refusal to acknowledge that love is love. In this cultural moment, it's tempting for us to think that the sands are running out on Christianity, that the best thing we can do is batten down the hatches and cling on for dear life while the waves of secularization wash over us. But if that's what we think, I believe we've got it all wrong. The sands aren't running out on Christianity, they're running in. But just as our understanding of Severus, please, flips, when we hear Snape's whole story, when we look more closely at each of these devastating roadblocks, they become signposts to Christ. I believe we have an opportunity before us right here, right now, but there are four things that we need to do in order to grasp this opportunity. We must reclaim diversity. We must reclaim the university. We must reclaim morality and we must reclaim sexuality, but we must do all these things with humility, and not by watering the scriptures down, but by lapping them up. So first, we must reclaim diversity. On February the 23rd of this year, Nigerian street preacher Oluwole Ilesani, stood outside a train station in London, preaching to the commuters as they went by. Two white British police officers came up to him and gave him a choice. Go away or be arrested. I will not go away, Mr. Ilesani replied, because I need to tell them the truth, and Jesus is the only way the truth and the life. Nobody wants to listen to that, said one of the British police officers. They want you to go away. You don't want to listen to that, Mr. Ilesani replied. You will listen when you are dead. You will listen when you are dead. And so he was arrested. What do we make of this? Are we encouraged by our brother's faith? I certainly am. Are we reminded that preaching the gospel always comes at a cost, and that we Western Christians have got far too used to a comfortable life? For sure. But a black African Christian, preaching the exclusive message of Jesus, while white Western has stopped their ears, is a little parable for the religious world today. Forty years ago, sociologists thought that the tide was going out on religion. As the world became more educated, more scientific, more modern, religious belief would naturally decline. But in the last 40 years, not only have we not seen religion declining, but sociologists are now looking forward for the next 40 years and anticipating an increasingly religious world. So today, 31 percent of the world identifies as Christian, and that proportion is set to grow slightly by 2060 to 32 percent. Islam is expected to shoot up from about 25 percent to 31 percent, making it a very close competitor with Christianity. Hinduism and Buddhism are both expected to decline slightly. And the proportion of people who do not identify with any religious tradition, including atheists, agnostics, and nuns, is set to decline from 16 percent to 13 percent. The tide isn't going out on religion. It's coming in. This is surprising to our non-Christian friends. But perhaps what's even more surprising is that Christianity is the worldview of diversity. The first century Jewish man we worship broke through every racial and cultural barrier of his day, and he commanded his disciples to go and make disciples of all nations, and they began at once. We meet the first African Christian in the book of Acts, the Ethiopian eunuch of Acts 8. And Ethiopia actually went on to become the second officially Christian state in the world. Before St. Patrick, everyone went to Ireland, and a thousand years before the Gospel came to America. Today, China is the global center of atheism, but experts believe that by 2030, there will be more Christians in China than in America, and that by 2060, China could be a majority Christian country. At that point, 40 percent of the world's Christians are expected to be living in sub-Saharan Africa. So what about in America? Black Americans are at least 10 percent more likely to identify as Christians than their white peers, and they poll higher on every marker of evangelical commitment, from regular church going to Bible reading to core evangelical beliefs. Latina and Latino Americans are also more likely to identify as Christians, and immigrants of color are planting evangelical churches across this great nation. So I live in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and in Somerville, the adjacent city, English is the third most commonly spoken language of evangelical churches, after Portuguese and Creole. Some white Americans think that immigration is eroding America's Christian heritage. In fact, immigration is a much-needed blood transfusion for the American church. Now, this flips the paradigm for our non-Christian friends. When my friends hear evangelism, they envisage white Westerners forcing their beliefs down other people's throats. But when they realize that most Christians are not white Westerners, and increasingly most evangelists are not white Westerners either, the exclusive truth claims of Christianity can no longer be dismissed. When Mr. Ilesani said that Jesus was the only way, the truth, and the life, he was not saying my culture's cooking is better than yours, but I was starving too till I found bread. So let's reclaim diversity, because Christianity is the most multiracial, multiethnic, multicultural movement in all of history. Second, we must reclaim the university. In 2015, I took a good friend of mine who is an atheist Jewish science professor at Harvard to an event at Harvard in which N.T. Wright, New Testament scholar, was in dialogue with the agnostic chair of the Harvard philosophy department. The title of the event was The Bible, Gospel, Guide, or Garbage. And after the event, I said to my friend, I said, I know that you think that what I believe is crazy. His then girlfriend, who is a much gentler soul than either of us, said, oh, I'm sure he doesn't think that. I said, yes, he does. I believe that the entirety of human history revolves around a first century Jewish man who died on the cross and was supposedly raised from the dead three days later. Crazy, right? My friend said yes. I said, the problem is, I think that you believe some crazy things as well. See, our non-Christian friends think that they are choosing between Christianity with all its crazy beliefs and a perfectly coherent secular worldview that does all the work for them that Christianity does for us without them having to believe in crazy things. My friends, there is no such belief system. For decades now, the idea that the world is becoming less religious and the religion is dying out has functioned in the university not just as a diagnosis, but as a prescription. It's not just what will happen, but what should happen. So what is going to happen when Western intellectuals realize that it hasn't happened? That the question from the next generation is not how Sumer religion died out, but Christianity or Islam, and that atheism, far from being the belief system of diversity and progress, is the belief system of white Western men and communist regimes. Fang Yang is a leading sociologist of religion in China, and he says that the university is going to have to go through a paradigm shift, much like a scientific revolution, when the failure of a secularization hypothesis comes home to roost. In other words, between now and when my kids are in college, there's going to be an earthquake in the university. This should excite us, but it shouldn't surprise us. Because Christians invented the university, and universities like Harvard and Yale and Oxford and Cambridge were founded explicitly to bring glory to God. Christians have written some of the greatest literature of all time. Christians have dreamt up some of the greatest philosophy of all time. And perhaps most surprisingly to our non-Christian friends, and honestly to us as Christians as well, Christians literally invented the modern scientific method, not as an alternative to belief in a creator God, but because they believed in a creator God who was both rational and free. A few years ago I met a Princeton professor named Hans Halvorsen, he's an extraordinary guy. He's one of the top four philosophers of science in the world. And Hans says that not only is it historically the case that Christians literally invented modern science, but that even today science rests more securely on theistic foundations than atheistic ones. In fact he says that atheism does not provide a philosophical grounding for science at all. Other complex theological questions raise my modern science, for sure. But Christians have always been leaders in science, and Christians have always been on both sides of every supposedly science versus Christianity debate. So let's not concede science to atheism, instead let's find the thousands of Christian professors whom God has raised up in universities, in fields from philosophy to physics to psychology to history, and let's learn from them. Let's reclaim the university and this next generation, not as a hostile takeover, but as a homecoming. Because Christianity isn't anti-intellectual. It's the greatest intellectual movement in all of history. Third, we must reclaim morality. Earlier this year I reviewed this excellent book. It's called Atheist Overreach, What Atheism Cannot Deliver. It's by Notre Dame professor Christian Smith, and it's a serious academic work published by Oxford University Press. And in it, Smith evaluates whether today's intellectual atheists are giving us convincing reasons for their high moral beliefs. For example, their beliefs in universal human rights and justice, or their belief that people starving in the slums in Calcutta can make any moral demands on us here now. And this is Smith's conclusion. Atheists, it seems to me, are perfectly entitled to believe in and act to promote universal benevolence and human rights, but only as an arbitrary, subjective, personal preference, not as a rational, compelling, universally binding fact or obligation. This news is deeply disturbing to our non-Christian friends. My friends believe passionately in human rights and human equality, and care for the poor, and racial justice and the equality of men and women. The question is, do they have any basis on the grounds of their atheism for these beliefs? And the answer is no. For many in our culture today, biblical Christianity is a dangerous idea, challenging some of their deepest beliefs. In her book Confronting Christianity, 12 Hard Questions for the World's Largest Religion, Dr. Rebecca McLaughlin explores the hard questions that keep many people from considering faith in Christ. Tackling issues including gender and sexuality, science and faith, and the problem of suffering, McLaughlin shows that what seems like roadblocks to faith in Jesus can become signposts to a relationship with Him. Confronting Christianity is our thank you for your gift to help Gospel in Life share the love of Christ with people all over the world. So request your copy today at gospelinlife.com slash give. That's gospelinlife.com slash give.
WTOP
"four things" Discussed on WTOP
"Now at Liv golf dot com. That's LI V golf dot com 9 38, traffic and weather on the aids Jack Taylor. It's already getting rough out there. It is, it is, we've already had one, maybe two, I think three things, maybe going on the fourth thing now out of the bay bridge, we're in two way operations, all the lanes are open three going east to go in west, late to clear is going to be the westbound side. That was where the last of our few things were happening. But now there's an escort for an oversized vehicle. One truck that will take both lanes. So it's not going across at 70 miles an hour or anything. So speeds are down a bit. It's an unexpected slowdown. As you leave route 8, but again, both your lanes are open, follow the overhead lane control signals. You will find the eastbound slowing unfortunately. That caused a slowdown back quickly back toward cape saint Clair, but at this point you've got again three lanes headed eastbound with two a operation. They will find we're a little heavier, bottom or Washington Parkway south, passing 32 northbound inside the beltway, leaving the good luck road overpass back toward the beltway. Topside outer loop, letting loose, New Hampshire over toward Georgia. You're looking good on two 70, south out of Frederick all the way to the lane divide. Northbound's heavier getting out of urbana back toward Frederick in Virginia, major delays, going south on 95 out of lorton, headed down toward Dale City, kind of in the slowdown. You're riding past an earlier wreck dear Dale City that was on the right shoulder. I don't even think there are any flashing lights left. Then you're stacked in a choir. There's a wreck down before centerport Parkway that was over on the right shoulder. You're kind of going past it with it being heavy and slow. Northbound, slowing found with back toward centerport Parkway. That way looks good both loops between Alexandria and McLean. We've still got some slowdowns in the district. It's a mobile work crew working south on D.C. two 95 toward Pennsylvania avenue. Save big at Whole Foods market. Get a pint of organic blueberries for just four 29 with prime through May 30th while supplies last. Shop in store or online. Terms apply. Jack Taylor, WTO P traffic. Checking your holiday weekend weather, Brian Van de Graaff. Comfortable afternoon in store, highs in the middle 70s should be very pleasant around the DMV. Now into the evening, we'll just see a few clouds here and there. Temperatures will slip back through the 40s, so it will be another cool night. Your
WTOP
"four things" Discussed on WTOP
"Say 15% on long fence decks favors and fences go to longfins dot com today and scheduled your free in home estimate. Money news at ten and 40 on WTO. This is a Bloomberg money minute. It'll be all about the debt ceiling on Wall Street as President Biden and congressional leaders sit down for another round of talks. Stocks began the week with narrow gains amid mixed signals from both sides while President Biden said Sunday that he's optimistic that a deal can be reached, House speaker Kevin McCarthy said ongoing staff level meetings were not productive at all. Treasury secretary Janet Yellen reiterated har warning that the government could run out of cash as soon as June 1st, unless there is action on the debt limit. She says the U.S. is already paying the price for the protracted standoff as borrowing costs rise for securities, maturing early next month. The U.S. auto fleet is getting older, S&P Global mobility says the average vehicle in the U.S. is a record 12 and a half years old, as rising interest rates and high prices for new cars put the brakes on sales. From the Bloomberg newsroom, I'm Larry kofsky, on WTO P a pig to human organ center being built in Virginia on Neil augenstein. 19 lane. Hi, it's Jonathan cotton with a good feed store and springtime can bring a new season of change in growth. There are so many things to look forward to, whether it's walking your dog, taking a stroll through the park with a loved one, or tackling a new do it yourself project. It can be just energizing
WLS-AM 890
"four things" Discussed on WLS-AM 890
"Swamp, you're listening to the Dan bongino show. Here he is, Dan Bon Gino. Okay, so I find it highly unlikely that the four things I discussed before the break are not connected. Highly unlikely, the Hunter Biden announcement and The Washington Post and elsewhere that they're closed in the walls are closing in, Jim, walls are closing in on Hunter Biden. Why? They've known about a Hunter Biden since 2020. All of a sudden, there's this flurry of activity around Hunter Biden. Why is that? Why is that? Oh, because a whistleblower emerged yesterday, incident number two. A whistleblower emerged indicating that there may be a document indicating Biden was bribed as the vice president of the United States by a foreign national. Folks, these things are all related. Also, there was a story not but three weeks ago, four weeks ago, about an upper level FBI agent. It was being investigated by the FBI for allegations of a quid pro quo deal overseas with Ukrainians and others. Conveniently where Hunter Biden was Hunter Biden was doing his work. And then the fourth story is this rapid emergence out of nowhere of this bizarre scandal about classified documents that Biden may have had, but the catch is he's had these documents for years. Folks, they all surfaced all these stories within the last few months. You believe in coincidences, you may, maybe in the sports world, right? I mean, Randy Johnson threw a fastball once and a bird flew by and the fastball hit the burden that exploded. Randy Johnson did not want to kill the bird. It was a coincidence that the bird was there at the time Randy Johnson was throwing a 142 mile an hour fastball. Not that much, but he threw hard. I don't believe in coincidences in Washington, D.C., and I'm telling you, you shouldn't either. Is a whistleblower on this bribery scandal, the same one who gave up the government documents that by that Biden hadn't had Penn Biden center? And is this connected to rumors of Hunter Biden being charged? Now, I want to be clear the direction I'm leaning here because I don't want to confuse anyone. If you're thinking, gosh, they got the goods now. And that's why The Washington Post and others are reporting that Hunter Biden is going to be charged. No, you're seeing this all wrong. Matter of fact, you're seeing it bass awkward. The reason Hunter Biden is likely being charged now is probably because if Hunter Biden's charge, you'll get from the FBI when they're asked questions about this bribery scandal we heard about yesterday in this whistleblower, what's the answer you're going to get from the FBI, folks. We can't talk about it. It's an ongoing investigation. We don't want to interfere in ongoing investigation. You see how it's the other way around? It's the wrong way. Hunter Biden's going to become the sacrificial lamb so that the FBI and others can say there's an ongoing investigation and we don't want to talk about this other stuff. So here's what happened yesterday. It's hard to believe story if it's true and I really hope they're not stringing us along here. The House oversight committee just put out a tweet yesterday. James comer and chuck grasley a two Republicans won in the house one in the Senate, respect respectively. Reveal that the existence of an FBI record. In other words, it's a piece of paper. There is a document out there, right? Alleging that then VP Biden engaged in a bribery scheme with a foreign national. According to a whistleblower, this record details an alleged arrangement involving an exchange of money for policy decisions. That's a big BFD as Joe Biden would say. Now, I just want to be clear, so you don't mistake me for my positions on these things for anything. Other than they are. I am not suggesting to you that there are going to be legal penalties here for any one of significance. Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton, anyone. Merrick Garland's in charge of the Department of Justice, nobody's going to do a damn thing in the Department of Justice to these people. They will only do things to cover up the bigger scandal. You got it? However, just because there are no legal penalties doesn't mean there won't be political penalties and the political penalties are what these people really care about. We can not get to this point of apathy where we're like, because our country and the justice systems become so corrupt that we're not going to expose corruption ourselves because it's just going to be fruitless. It's not going to be fruitless. The point is to do the right thing because the right thing matters and the right thing is exposing the wrong thing. That's the right thing. That's the right thing. And the thing these people fear most, the thing they fear most is political penalties. They don't care about jail time. They'll write a book about it. They'll get out in a week and they're lefty friends will buy a bunch of buy a bunch of the books, make it a multi billionaires. They don't care about that. Look at these guys who got caught spying on Donald Trump, Peter stroke, Andy weissman. They're all superheroes on the left right now. Nobody cares. People love them. But they do care about political penalties. Because power is their ultimate goal and politics is the projection of power. That's what politics is. In a constitutional republic that power is supposed to lie with the people, but the constitutional republic is dying a slow, very painful death. Now think about this. It is our job to expose this because we're not going to let them go through another election where they hide a major Biden scandal. We're not going to let him do it this time. Elon's got Twitter this time if he sticks to his guns and doesn't allow censorship, we are going to have a platform to get out there this time. Stories that may make a difference. They may not. But you know what? It's like the old 50 cents or get rich or album. Get rich or die trying. Listen, I'm going to fix this thing and we're going to die trying. I said to you about a month ago. When this story started to break, right? I said to you with the story with the classified document scandal that there's no way that came out of nowhere. There's no
Bloomberg Radio New York
"four things" Discussed on Bloomberg Radio New York
"Really strong customer value props or propositions You put that package together of those four things that will create a high quality company in which you want to do and hedging both of those risks identify the high quality companies and then wait for that dislocation wait for them to trade off 20 or 30% and then buy or add to positions We had a question for you Yeah Mark you start out your book by writing that you're the oldest and longest lasting Internet analyst on Wall Street What has kept you in the job for this amount of time Because you've certainly could have gone and worked a lot of places Well I enjoy the work and I'm lucky to be covering a sector that's extremely dynamic If you're going to spend the last 25 years working on Wall Street I would want to have either covered Internet stocks invested in Internet stocks maybe software Those are the kind of the two areas that have been the most dynamic in terms of also new companies coming in I mean the Internet created three of the largest cap companies in the world Amazon Facebook and Google And by the way Microsoft and Apple the recent that they are where they are is because they want to create a wonderful services product devices for accessing and utilizing the Internet So it's really been I've been lucky to kind of stumble It was a timing thing I got lucky and stumbled into the Internet not at the very beginning I wasn't the smartest out gore but I got in there Really kind of near the beginning of the commercial Internet and it's been just phenomenal and fascinating to watch these companies grow Is the metaverse the next step of the Internet in some way I don't know but I absolutely think that you want to be long a name like Facebook because of its core business but because it's also building what's likely option value No it is option value in terms of its investment in the metaverse Like I like to see large platforms have these kind of long-term bets like Google with autonomous vehicles and Waymo This is Facebook's long-term given the amount of money that they're putting into it and the resources My guess is that there is a there there and investors are going to appreciate it 5 years down the road So Mark one thing I wanted to ask you in your book you talk about importance of management You talk about having a product You talk about revenues over earnings How do we need to think about some of these companies that are starting out we look at rivian that IPO is it a car companies Is it a tech company It's not expected to be profitable for some time or really amp up production for some time How do we need to look at these How do you look at companies like that I know it's not an Internet company but I tried to do Carol as I really try to focus on this framework There's three or four 5 things I'm really looking for in the company There can be plenty of trading opportunities but to really be kind of a good low core long-term investment If that takes something else and by the way even these great assets like Amazon today I don't think that was a good core long-term investment until something like 2006 2007 when it showed they could innovate in multiple areas go from being an online book retailer to generating or building or really almost inventing the commercial cloud industry and enrolling out these Kindle products You look for those kind of proof points but if I check off the list it's one look for companies that are facing large tams total addressable markets Secondly you look for companies who have just great management teams I know that's easy statement to say So what does it really mean You're looking for companies with great vision like Reed Hastings and 1997 launching this company called Netflix which kind of conjures up streaming over the Internet except you couldn't have streamed anything over the Internet At least it would have taken you hours to download the first 5 minutes of terminator back then But he had the vision to know that ten years from then the business would go streaming People would stream video over the Internet So you look for that kind of industry that vision That's Mark Mahaney senior managing director head of Internet research over at Evercore ISI check out his book nothing but net ten times stock picking lessons from one of Wall Street's top tech analysts It's not this week Still ahead what in the world is going on over at Zillow How an algorithm cost the company hundreds of millions of dollars Some may have said maybe.
Newsradio 970 WFLA
"four things" Discussed on Newsradio 970 WFLA
"Another day. Another unknown they could bring your biggest order yet, or a new cyber threat. Whatever happens, Comcast business will keep you ready with the network that can deliver gig speeds to the most businesses. Comcast business powering possibilities. Restrictions apply. Actual speeds vary free. I heart radio APP is number one for music, radio and podcasts, all in one discover a new podcast from our library of hundreds of thousands of titles. Here's an I Heart radio podcast preview. Maybe that's Lisa and we're just two girls that want to have a conversation with you. Dear 16 Year old Andrea. Hey, gorgeous Dear Younger Lauren. Each episode is stories from people I would deprive myself by myself obsessively because I was eating healthy. I couldn't understand that I had a problem with food. Losing my period scared me. The most high story starts when I was around seven. That's when I started to hate my body. Body image is like our inner picture of our outer Selves. Healthy behaviors are much bigger role in our health and the actual number on the scales. Internal dialogue can be so powerful and often it's super negative and critical in a way that we wouldn't talk to other people that we care about. When you start to share your story that gives other people the courage to share. There's I know you would be proud now of how far you have come in your relationship to food exercise and to yourself. I felt freedom. I've gained relationships I've found my true Sense of self worth. There's one thing I need you to take away from this. You're going to be okay. I'm Amy Brown, co host of the Bobby Bone Shell and host of four things with Amy.
WLS-AM 890
"four things" Discussed on WLS-AM 890
"So aside from expensive appointments and lotions and potions, what can you do? Four things. Watch your diet, especially how much sugar you eat. Get plenty of exercise. That means cardio weight bearing workouts and stretching. Make sure you're getting enough sleep for most of us that 7 to 9 hours of quality, uninterrupted sleep a night. And four. Try to reduce your stress or learn to manage it as best you can. I'm Dr Sanjay Gupta, helping you live a better life. Doctors Without Borders. Teams confront hard facts and conflict in crisis zones When others look away. We step into act because measles still kills more than 100,000 Children. Every year. We're there to vaccinate more than one million because some countries have only one or two mental health professionals we provided over 400,000 mental health consultations last year. The fact is, your support makes our life saving work possible. Picture the impact we can have together. Doctors without borders dot org Look, staying healthy isn't easy watching your diet, hitting the gym, avoiding stress, but a good night's rest helps boost your overall health and wellness. And it couldn't be easier. The new sleep number 3 60 smart bet is the only bet that effortlessly adjusts in response to both of you the results you wake up ready for anything Proven quality sleep. Is life changing sleep during our lowest prices of the season, the new queen Sleep number 3 60 C to spark It is only 8 99. Only for a limited time to learn more. Go to sleep number dot com Podcast central at wls am dot com Featuring lightning ride with Rod Blagojevich exclusively from the Big 89 w L s It's the Bruce ST Change show right here on 8 90. W L s, uh, good morning to you in a happy When's day. It's Wednesday already. Oh, my goodness. This is outstanding. Bruce,.
Todd Durkin IMPACT Show
"four things" Discussed on Todd Durkin IMPACT Show
"You take away your business and you take away your identity and you only have three or four things that you can do that. Truly make your soul saying that make you feel like you're in top of the world. Sit down and really evaluate. What truly makes you happy. Because if you don't know what makes you happy. You cannot be the best in business.
THE RAYHART RUNDOWN
"four things" Discussed on THE RAYHART RUNDOWN
"That's how it starts. Who lost and this is okay. This is relative. Shame of life cards. It's gonna be fun this masturbating yourself close climax and then yelling for your mom or dad and trying to finish before they come roaming running into. Your room is called. Yeah this is actual thing. This is the thing. This is a weird thing. I never saw this toll. Until i. Until i saw this question. Okay it's called. It's fucking weird. Holy is super fucking weird but okay so the thing is master yourself close to climax than yelling for your mom or dad trying to finish before they run and enter. The room is called one of these four things. The mother lode a sub. A suicide. Wake minute to win it or beating. The parents know this old. My god but i can't remember because it's one of the two i know know for a fact it's either b. or c. You know for a fact. It's either suicide rank or minute to win it. So it's not the mother load or beating the parents of his. Take those two away to or taken away. You don't do the video for this. I wanna have like up on the screen. The answers and i want to do like the millionaire type thing like the music and video editing skills we got. Oh okay so you take those two away k single. So it's the suicide wanker. Minutes or masturbate yourself close to climax and then yelling for your mom or dad and trying to finish before they come running into your room. I would like to ask the audience. Thank we were doing a livestream. Yes and you could. Yeah oh my god. I can't wait so fund To win oh unfortunately.
Sprinkled with Hope
"four things" Discussed on Sprinkled with Hope
"You and i are sitting here talking about different a hustled and i keep playing offense. I'm gonna play offense always right. Because that's the only way to be there is no quid. Pro quo. If i do this this has to happen. No you don't plant a seed and sit down cross legged and say okay won't see grow right now seed. Don't work now you don't do that. But how many people you know do that. You know that. Want that instant gratification. If i do. If i take this chorus i better be rich or if i do this. You don't know what that's you know. Top seed that is. You don't know if that's going to grow into a treat go to shrub or how to seize going to serve. You don't know if we're gonna grow it all you plan to see. Keep moving and i plan to so many season. My life haven't thought about him that they've all grown and i stand before you in a forced opportunity like i am in a garden of everything. There's so many things hit me in the head right now is like four things right now. Wish i could talk to you guys about. But i can't because signed nondisclosure agreement i is like my world is opened up in a way. That's why i do five or six of these a day because not in this world. We were talking about beginning. I love doing these because it hold me accountable. Because there's no way i could sit here and talk all this crap that i've been talking to y'all and i don't live by and i'm the manifestation of it and you guys are looking at it on tv you're hearing on the radio. You're seeing it everywhere. This sunday i am the grand. Wait a minute. How do i say that about the state of grand avenue. But that's not it. I'm the.
Brands On Brands On Brands
"four things" Discussed on Brands On Brands On Brands
"That's right your listeners. Just by the notes and how you describe the show that you recording are making a decision if this show is for them or not. This episode is for them or not. Those words are important and the keywords. You also help your episode get found why while because there are computers and algorithms that are written to scan the descriptions you use to describe your episodes and the titles. You've used to describe your episodes and figure out if someone's searching for this on the podcast player. Should we show them your show. Should we show them. Your episode is your show generally about this topic that they've tied in. So you do have to be thinking about how you write these things. Also i'd like to say one of the biggest mistakes. I've see podcasters make consistently. I mean like a lot of podcasters especially when they're starting out one of the mistakes. I see them make on. Their websites is using their show notes as their block. And we'll talk about that. We'll talk about why that matters so the topics that we're going to dive into to get a little bit more specific today about podcasts blogging. i. I'm gonna go through. Keywords the importance of keywords. How to think about them. When writing your show notes also format how to format your show notes the summary paragraph how to write like the structure of that summary and then blogging. We're gonna dive a little bit into blogging in terms of show notes. And how how you convert those into blocks so those are the four things. Go through. and we'll start with keyboards. This is i think by far the most important of all of them. I think a lot of us understand keywords at a macro level or a basic level. But we don't really think about them all the time for every episode recreate and. I think that's a change. We'd have to make in our mindset keywords for every episode should be included in the first sentence and repeated in the paragraphs of.
The Bronx Pinstripes Show - Yankees MLB Podcast
"four things" Discussed on The Bronx Pinstripes Show - Yankees MLB Podcast
"Or let's get to bob segment. This is quickly becoming a very popular segment on on the show. So bob you have the floor. Yeah so i mean it's been two and a half it's been fifteen games. It's been a shit show. We're obviously getting worried if you haven't been worried already so i mean i think it's a pretty relevant question. What can this yankees team do. Turn this shitty start around. What do you guys think they need to do. If i'm the manager of the yankees i am starting by benching gleyber torres and i think because he's not helping you offensively right now so it's not like you're losing anything offensively and he has had so many horrific mental lapses in the field. That i think you need to bench him and and you kind of have to make a statement. I'm not saying he's benched for the season. But that's what. They did with gary sanchez when he looked just pitiful at the plate and he was making terrible mental mistakes behind the plate. That's what you have right now in a young player and gleb retort that you hope is a cornerstone of your franchise bench. The problem with that is that there's nobody to play the position. Tyler way it's going to be called up once jay bruce okay. We retired tyler way again. He's gonna hurt a ball. He's going to catch a ball tagore runner out. That's for sure. That's true my defensive tether wait forever has been the last man on the bench. That's where i like him. I don't like him as the starting shortstop. So it's it's five days four days. It's not it's not the rest of your life. It's gotta be more than if you're benching somebody you gotta make a statement so now you're rolling tile away at for. Yeah almost a week. I'd say like it's it's silly rescue and you got to commit to that if you're going to do it or you move gio over you know and couple of days we wait. Wait for For luke void to come back and hopefully he comes back a little earlier than than the normal. And you can shift things around. Because if that's the case then you can slide geo over too short even more and he's going to get more time over there at the way this is going. He's going to get some more time at shortstop the season if flavored isn't you know check his ass and get this thing. Turn around. my answer is is that these guys do have to change their approach. The they have to. They have to make adjustments. They have to make adjustments based on. Who is pitching based on what. They're doing the way that they're seeing the ball. Their major league baseball players. They need to get extra time in the cage working going the other way. You just have to be better and understand that right now. Your your approach. At the plate the launch angle approach is just not working. It's not working. And if you have to just sit through that and take it until it works. Then that's a major problem will happen during the playoffs. They believe their approach is best. And they're willing to wait for it because they think that's the way that this team and the problem. The problem for this. The problem with this is that it's based on a sample size and when you start getting that sample size smaller and smaller and smaller. The results don't are not the same. The rebound is not the same. The way that you're able to score runs in a small amount of time is not the same so unless you have some situational time in season where you can actually practice this and work on this and effectively execute at some level than when you get to a situation where it's necessary later in the season to not going to be there unless you have a little bit of confidence in you know that this approach you've sprinkled in a little bit more like better. Make adjustments make adjustments if yarborough is coming in. And he's throwing seventy five miles an hour and you're chasing everything make adjustments. Because that's what they did and they own you with a guy that's coming out there like a like a a freaking sunday man. Adult league baseball player. That's with the equivalent. Yarborough the equivalent of me going out there. Throwing seventy five miles per hour and these jackasses swinging missing every time it's embarrassing. Your strategy is undoubtedly the one that needs to happen. Long-term if this team is actually going to succeed in winning championship. I mean i guess. I was taking a more short term. What can they do this week to potentially turn something around. But but i i totally agree with you like the approach needs to change in. The approach has not changed for four consecutive years. When it matters most with runners in scoring position they continued to take the same approach rather than just trying make contact. And sir what are the problems with benching one player right now is. That doesn't make sense. Because everybody is sucking. So i usually been sucking. Somebody here hired the worst an entire team that doing terrible terrible and actually doesn't doesn't really work. It just makes it look like the entire team is like okay. He singling him out when. We're all straw i i. I don't think that works especially with boone. Who just hasn't he's the guy. He's not that guy so it would be out of nowhere. I know he's not but they did it with gary sanchez. Okay they did it with. We've seen this happen. I don't know if it helped the team or not. But i look at labor tour is not doing for the yankees right now. He's just costing them games with his defense and he's not doing anything offensively to help them win. It's bad it's really bad situation. They need to play better at the end of bob. Do you have something really quick. That like poom. Let's do it to turn this thing around. I like what you guys said. I like the idea of letting the some players like glitter tourists kind of reset. Because i think that's what a lot of guys can need. I think it's like when you when you're going back to back games every basically every day and you're struggling and struggling struggling sometimes you got to just sit back for a day or two if you like art screw all that bullshit. That just went down these last two weeks. Now i gotta go into this with the new mentality. A new star fresh start. Let's throw out throw through everything out. That just happened. I got to restart. And i gotta go forward with this. That that's that's one thing benching guys a different approach. Like what you're saying right now is like okay. Look we need to reset. And that's he's listening to the broadcast. Today and sterling was talking about cashew sat Two of their starters and he was basically saying they weren't there they were There were laid on the fastballs. They just weren't there needed a day needed today to get that timing back like very reasonable very very sensible approach here like they got guys back them up. He's he's confidence. Other guys sat two dudes to to help raina. Who's the geek. Murder makes a lot of sense. Yeah i know and it worked. But but that's what he's doing but that's but that's kind of cash who who makes that type of move whereas if unless it's a scheduled off day wounds are sitting you or or garrett bowles pitching and we can use the excuse of someone getting his hand smashed by a baseball because it's hanging out there framed and and You know has a target on it. We all gonna catch caracol today.
Talk Like a Leader
"four things" Discussed on Talk Like a Leader
"Hardest this heroes. Welcome to talk leader. This week's episode is titled four ways to improve your communication effectiveness. Now he's listened to this podcast for awhile. I suspect you're gonna hear threads of things i've said in other podcast episodes this episode. Is i guess you'd say a bit of a collection of ideas condensed into four takeaway concepts that really are a combination of multiple ideas. All in one place. Let's get started with four things. You can do or four ways to improve your communication effectiveness of the first thing you can do. Is you can spend some time and effort. Learning how other people might hear. See or interpret your messages that involves studying something like the disc model and we have resources a disc personality testing dot com have another number of podcast episodes related to the disc model. Those are all targeted at the idea. That if you can use some frame of reference other than your own to understand how other people might see things how other people might hear. Your message is then you can adjust your messages to better fit how they see and things likewise if you better understand how they see and interpret things you can adjust your interpretation so there you're using their language or their filter or their perspective as a way to view the word choice use the tone they use the body language that goes with their word choice tone the whole communication package so learn how other people might hear see or interpret messages. He might add to that how they might hear see or interpreter messages other than you intended them and it really comes down to understanding the difference between you and other people and be more aware and intentional about understanding those differences on the second thing you can do is not to observe your perspective now. This one's kind of hard to describe. It's it's the idea of taking a sort of an out of body experience observing what's going on trying to objectively view the situation you're in to basically check your perspective to see if it's valid to see if you're being unfairly triggered triggered by something someone else said. You're getting irritated. Unnecessarily that kind of thing. I use myself as an example just to kind of paint a picture what i mean by this and tend to be very logical. Very linear very analytical. Very precise in my word choice made the i tend as a general rule in most situations to pick my words very carefully to say exactly what. I'm trying to say so the word choice. The word order means a lot to me. So i i will tend if i'm not careful to interpret others through that same filter. I will assume that their word choice was carefully chosen. In very particular i will be less accepting by nature less flexible to hear the emotion of what people are saying in preference to the specific words. They're using. I will put too much emphasis on words and not enough emphasis on feeling or emotion will observe your perspective means that i can understand about myself and when communication goes badly when i'm feeling frustrated when i'm feeling unheard when i'm feeling like i'm not here and the other person well i can attempt to step out of the moment and basically ask myself guy. Are you being to linear here. Could they mean something other than what you are saying. You are interpreting. Could they be hearing you in a way different from what you think you're saying. Could there be some sort of disconnect that is created by the fact that you're very linear and logical and analytical and that's not their natural perspective and stepping out for a moment is applying really the the first idea of learning how to identify how other people might hear see interpret your messages and take your knowledge of the difference between you and them to observe how you're engaging and how you're perceiving their message so basically you can question yourself and keep yourself out of the weeds so that you don't make assumptions about things based on your perspective an ignore. There's so observe your perspective think carefully about is my perspective causing this problem or is there something legitimately amiss here and then the third thing you can do is learn to listen very actively in the ideas to listen with the intent to understand rather than with the intent to reply. Listen with the intent to capture. The whole message is being said paying attention to body language and tone the whole communication package actively listening. It takes some effort. It takes some focus and maybe every single communication. You have doesn't require active listening but learn how to turn it on when it's necessary
Cross Examined Official Podcast
"four things" Discussed on Cross Examined Official Podcast
"Don't think so. In fact the greatest miracle the creation of the universe out of nothing as already occurred. So when people say. I don't believe in miracles. Sometimes you might want to say to them. Look around your living in one. This universe is a miracle now. Miracle certainly are possible. We have a lot more in both the books while particularly. I don't have enough faith to be an atheist on this issue of miracles. But let's get into the new testament a little bit now from the moral argument. We should know that there's being out there that is the ground of love. Also the being out there who is the ground of justice well if an objective sense i should say excuse me if an if if objective love exists grounded in the nature of god then we might expect that god would intervene to save us from obviously a bad situation which is what we're in here on this earth. We have four things that parma's sin sickness natcher natural disasters or nature and death sin which is when one person does a bad thing to another person nature sickness and death notice. Jesus miracles are around those four things. He lives the senlis life. He calms the storm. Power over nature. He heals the sick and raises the dead. Why because those are the four things that hurt us. Sin nature sickness and death so by doing miracles in those four categories. Jesus is claiming. He's the messiah. he's the savior. He can save us from our predicament. And the very fact that love exists objectively. We know it intuitively. We would expect the being that grounds love to come in some way to rescue us from this broken world and he does in that sense. The phrase love wins is true. It's just the of god whether you choose to accept god's love or reject god's love love still wins because if you accept it you'll be with god for all eternity if you reject it. God loves you enough. So he won't force you into his presence and he was separated from you and that's what we call hell so we should expect somebody to come save us and for those of you. That have the book on faith to be an atheist. We go through a number of reasons to believe that the new testament writers are telling the truth. We already know truth exists. god exists in miracles. Possible we're now..
The Elise & John Show
"four things" Discussed on The Elise & John Show
"But that's not the same thing as wanting white supremacy to be dismantled. Some men don't want sexism to be dismissed. They want the women in their lives to not be sad. But that's different. Because if white supremacy was completely dismantled a lot of things that white people enjoy would be gone and these things aren't necessarily negative things in and of themselves but were they would have to be gone in order to replace them from with things that are better able. So it's just like. I think a lot of white people are struggling with that. Right now. Is when like even the con- the very concept something like reparations will split the room of people who would normally take. Who's who say that. They would take a bullet for you if you told them that. Hey every person of color is going to get fifty thousand dollars a year for the rest of their lives and you don't get it at on. That will split which. I don't understand i had your white. You're right friends would have some issues with that. They might not even realize that that's what they're having issue with. All that to say is Some stuff i have. That's white friends aren't necessarily all four things being changed. But i do believe that they gel so many of them genuinely don't want you to be sad listening like when i say like they. They don't and they don't want to be the person to make genuinely don't want the daily don't want if they get snap their fingers and make sure you will make you happy and healthy and whole and the police would never correct harass you all i generally they push. I believe they push that button. I've generally believed that. Because i have way who where linda i have way for. They care about me. They've they've care about me and they want me to be okay. But they have never marched with me. They have never written there senator. They have never written their congress person. They have never done that. And they'll still vote against the black and brown people self interest but they honestly and truly don't want me matt to be sad right and so that's what we have to realize. Is that like a lot of people. Don't want white supremacy to be over. They just don't want you to be setbacks. In every president color knows that white person in the lives.
WTVN
"four things" Discussed on WTVN
"Today. Given her Mike DeWine released his plan for the state's budget in 2022, he says, this will support Ohio small businesses and strengthen they states communities as well as grow the states. Can these states skilled workforce in the fourth thing? Enables us to do this is that our plan really is possible because of the federal government's funding are careful management of those dollars. We need to keep reminding ourselves that federal support is one time money, and we need to spend it on one time expenses to help Oh, Highlands recover quickly. Also tonight, Columbus City Councilor said to review legislation named for Andre Hill. Under this measure, camp body cameras would have to be turned on every time of police officer exits their vehicle. The law also calls for officers to receive regular CPR training and for them to be required to provide first aid after any use of force instance. Hill was unarmed when he was shot and killed by a now former Columbus police officer Adam Koi in December. Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost announced today he is not planning on running for Senator Rob Portman's U S Senate seat next year. Question was, Where could I do the most good for my state and my country? And I've concluded that as attorney general, I've got a lot more ability to act and accomplish what we call big good in our office. Yost is joining Congressman Jim Jordan and Lieutenant Governor John Houston in saying they will not be running for that Senate seat. Thousands of older Ohioans now have received their first dose of the Corona virus vaccine as the state and the country continues its vaccination efforts. The CDC says nearly 50 million doses of Cupid vaccines have now been distributed. But only 31 million have been administered. Meanwhile, the U. S military saving doses after pausing a controversial plan that would have vaccinated prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, including 9 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. That's a B C's faith of Blue Bay, the covert tracking project says. January is now America's deadliest month since the start of the pandemic as January saw more than 95,000 deaths, which is 20,000 more than what was reported in December. Nationwide. The death toll in the U. S now stands at over 440,000 Americans, Um Allison Wiant stay connected to Columbus in central Ohio on the hour 30. Minutes passed, And as news breaks, America's beverage companies are working together to reduce plastic waste. In our.