We are here at the research symposium and I am here with my friend Michael talking about something very important students mental health. So Michael tell us a little bit about your project. Yeah so my project looked at Fairfield University students mental health and their perceptions of it. So I essentially just created a survey that I sent out to students, freshmen, sophomores, juniors and seniors just asking them how they feel about mental illness and kind of their perceptions on it. I got a pretty good sample size I had 112 people that filled out my survey only 87 completed entirely but this is a really important issue and I was glad to just get you know 87 participants to to answer it. Yeah absolutely after the few couple years that we've all had collectively it's really tough I'm sure for students on their mental health. So what inspired you to want to dive into this was it a personal experience or just something you were feeling as a student in general? Yeah so I'm actually I'm a public health major and throughout my four years here we've always talked about mental illness and how it's affected in so many different ways. I'm actually going to grad school at UConn to become a licensed clinical social worker so mental illness is something I've always been really really into and inspired by and obviously with the pandemic striking at such a tough time in our lives you know I felt that this project would be really important especially now. Absolutely so bringing it here today to the symposium how has it been talking to your classmates and presenting these ideas have you had a good response so far? Absolutely yeah I've had a couple people come up to me and you know I think mental illness is something that a lot of people don't necessarily like to talk to or talk about it's a it's a very touchy subject but you know just having a few students come up to me has been awesome you know just opening up the conversation about mental illness is something that's so important and having them ask questions about the project you know I feel as though I'm able to speak about it confidently and comfortably and so making other students feel comfortable about it is is awesome. That's wonderful good for you Michael so just to wrap it all up what's next for you what do you hope for the project do you hope to take your learnings and implement them here at Fairfield what's next? So I'm hoping to submit this to either the wellness center or the counseling and psychological services you know open up the conversation even more you know I think having good research like this and having the response that I've gotten will be really beneficial and you know hopefully we can have students talk about it more and maybe have some mental illness or mental health classes implemented more and in other majors like the Dolan School of Business stuff like that because you know in in the nursing school we're always talking about mental illness but I don't think that's the case in other majors so opening up the conversation I think is really important and continuing to have good research like this. So impressive congratulations on all your hard work and good luck for the rest of the day today. Thank you very much I appreciate it.


Thanks for checking out this episode of brutal battle beer break today I'm doing a beer from a brewery that actually I really like I haven't had a ton of their stuff But everything I've had I really really like I don't think I talk about them nearly enough on my actual podcast so Giving them their dew at the moment. This is by modern times beer company. They're out of San Diego, California And this is their black house stout They have a normal black house stout, but this is one of their special release ones And it's with coffee toasted coconut and cocoa nibs Sounds very good 5.8% alcohol by buying one of the other things I really want to point out about a lot of their beers that I really like is that they have the IB use on there The SRM which is fun, which people out there don't know what SRM is. It's basically like a color Coding for for beer for like how light or dark it is and then they have the final gravity which You know, it's more of a brewers type thing for the final gravity and that'll help you determine ABV in the end But they also list all their ingredients, which is fun In this case, there was some coffee in it. So they listed where the coffee came are what origins the coffee are from There's 75% Ethiopian Humbella and 25% Sumatran mandaling Which is cool. And then the other ingredients for the beer itself two-row roasted barley flaked barley pale chocolate and Then Munich crystal 60 kiln coffee midnight wheat and oats. So like how they just lay it all out there. It's very cool And also if people are home brewers, it can kind of give them an idea of You know the ingredients they would need to try and replicate this if they wanted to obviously it doesn't have the proportions on there But you might be able to figure it out So let's go ahead and take a look at this It's got a nice tan head on the top. It looks very very dark as you can imagine I don't know why I really feel the need to show it Oh, I haven't really I think on the last one. I didn't actually show the bottle of what I was doing But yeah, there's a modern times special release black house So, you know, that's what it is All right, so I'll smell this smell a lot of chocolate a lot of those cocoa nibs in there Some nice roasty coffee in there as well. I can't really get the coconut though This is an older bottle too. It's not like super sir bottle date I don't think there's a date. There's a bottle date, but I know this this might be about a year old Maybe so maybe that's why I'm not getting a whole lot of coconut in the nose I feel like I have a hard time picking up coconut sometimes though depending on how it's done not something like like death by coconut by Oscar blues, but stuff where it's not as front and center But yeah, I really can't smell coconut It's just like tons of cocoa nib aspects smells very dark chocolatey It's really fudgy smelling too like super fudgy and then Yeah, like a nice really roasty coffee, which is how I really like mine more on the bold end So it's really nice and there's a little bit of like an alcohol on the end of it maybe a little bit of like a Soy sauce note on the end as well Try it really thins out on the finish because it's not an imperial style So usually with beers like this I like it to be imperial stouts just because the body just is more dessert like for me But considering it's just a straight-up stout. I like it. This is good There's a lot of that, you know roasty coffee that I was talking about There's a lot of that kind of chocolatey fudginess from the cocoa nibs toasted coconut Really can't maybe as it warms up because this is still actually pretty cold, but I Can't really get Can't really get the coconut the coffee is really nice on the end though I will say that like like I was saying with the aroma how like roasty that coffee is That's a very nice finish on this beer. It's like a lot of chocolate up front and then a lot of coffee on the end It's nice It's a good beer Considering it's just a straight-up stout. I would like it to be imperial just because there's more body It's more chocolatey than but all things considered. It's nice. It's a very nice beer I like it Modern times. Good job. I'm a fan If you ever do an imperial version, maybe bourbon barrel aged it too, that would be unbelievable So cool, but if you just keep doing this I would like to get my hands on more of it because I enjoy it, but anyway, thanks everyone for checking out this video If you have any ideas, you can just email me brutal battle podcast at gmail.com Also, if you just have any feedback in general, so anyway until next time go ahead yourself an awesome beer


Hey you guys This me want to give y'all a quick update. We're now in October girl this year is going by so fast We are venturing out a lot more. We're doing a lot more indoor playgrounds, but still being safe My husband is like don't get too comfortable Spitting but my husband is like don't get too comfortable. I'm like what what do you mean? I get what he's saying though so Where we were going out a lot the past two weeks, but the numbers are slowly They went down, but then they went there trickling back up again because we didn't too comfortable So now we're gonna ease back out big ease back off and what I mean when we're going out again We're wearing our masks washing our hands But we went from only going to one or two places a week to going out to it every two or three days And do a multiple places in one day. We're gonna stop that just to be safe We're gonna stop doing that because the numbers aren't trickling back up anyway. Oh, we can go talk about this car on the whole Um With that being said JB goes to daycare twice a week now He has to y'all work is when I tell y'all I am forever Grateful for my job, but Christine and I are pulling in Minimum ten hour days we there's no day where we don't work at least ten hours from five to four Five to three five in the morning. We're pulling in those hours. It is ridiculously Busy right now and I think you know, I give all honor and glory to God for blessing me with this job But we are stressed like her anxiety is high and I told her she needs to stop it because we feed off each other We're close. We're friends. So we feed off of each other and y'all I'm laughing because she said one day She said what it was actually this past Monday. She's like guess what me and my husband did I said, what do y'all do? She said we just bench watch all your blogs.  I'm like, oh hell girl What did I say? I'm so sorry if I offended you y'all. I don't be remembering what I'll be saying in my videos She said no, you she said no, no, no, you're funny And it made me feel good because she said they heard her husband watch a lot of different bloggers and by far I'm the most entertaining so I'm like, thank you Christine So thank you to Christine's husband for following me and y'all watching my videos. I do appreciate that. So anyway, um, We're busy. We're stressed It is what it is y'all so JB has to go somewhere so I can get my work done We have started to the point to where I'm homeschooling like this past weekend I homeschooled a little bit both Saturday and Sunday I need to stop that because I don't I feel like I don't have a day off Because I'm basically I'm doing something every day. I need to start scheduling in some meantime I'm too afraid to go to the nail shop and look at my nails girl. I did these myself fall colors Isn't that beautiful? Yeah, it's come through. These are they're a little short for me, but they're cute. I Need to figure out how to start scheduling some me time whether it be a bubble bath Because even in the mornings, I'm getting up early used to be in the mornings I would get up and relax and have a me time Now I'm getting up early doing lesson planning and all this other stuff. So yeah, you guys We have started meeting up with other homeschool parents One of his good friends actually decided the mom decided to homeschool But she told me this class weekend that after this year, it's it for them.  So Stop I'm sure all this is that free too, huh? Oh, yeah I'm gonna get just up on here Is this even though? Why is this not is it? All right, yeah, I'm so country acting.  How you doing it is Saturday? Y'all saw clips of JV was filming child. So y'all have to see what good it is. We went to a oh, is this my Amazon order? And was Amazon just pulled up a body I'll tell them about that I'll tell them about that. Um, so Went to go support my girl D. She's selling candles now. I bought a candle I bought a couple of things from other people y'all did everybody's gang to a little way with D I got thickety-fake. She has a type of figure to wear when she gates wait She gains it in the right places. So I'll say dang girl. You ain't got thick. She said girl Well, I got that's why I got this cover on on D is good people. She used to or she Coordinates the hair store the hair shows JV as she's to keep JB She coordinates the hair events here and feelings and we became really close, you know, huh? We became close and I started to you know, we would do favors for each other like I would keep her kids sometimes she keeps my little boy when we were Only when JB was younger. I would do workshops for her when she would do the hair events. Oh, sorry, baby And so I did it for a while. I didn't like three or four years in a row. I didn't do it last year I offered it this year and I'm okay You know and it was supposed to have been in May, of course due to the due to the coronavirus that was shut down You can't open it JB keep it here then then it was supposed to happen last month, of course that was shut down again. And so Yeah, she does D is like a chameleon. She's very very gifted when I tell you this girl can do so many things. I mean candle making now it was What was she doing the hair hair products we both had our hair products at the same time her leaving spray was honestly one of the One of the best sprays I have ever used she went through a chemist and all of that and I was like, wow It was called quench She was supposed to go come out with different stuff, but I don't know what happened girl What happens all of a sudden y'all let me get this baby. We've only been out for like two hours, but Child okay, so this is what JB wanted me to tell y'all y'all have excuse their coloring So as we are going into Albertsons, I see this woman with the highest hair like it is like What is her name Tammy Faye? It's like the drag queen high Like it is that high and I'm pretty sure I saw this woman years ago And she had some crazy looking wig on like she purposely made it look crazy and it's a she Anyway, so I'm like JB. I have to look at this woman's hair. He said what he's am I said this woman has the biggest hair? So we're walking around y'all. I'm not doing this to make fun of the woman because that's not me You know, I don't purposely make fun. That's what she likes That's what she likes and honestly if she would have caught me looking at her I would have been like I love your big hair, which I do I love is a little too big But I love that I love when people go against the norm Because I'm pretty sure she gives a lot of stares and a lot of but that's who she is So let's just talk about this. So when we were going when we were going in store and I saw her She had this big hair Bigger than mama's. Ain't no like small hair like me. Big hair It's not so country y'all And then and then and and and then I was acting like a ninja I was crouching down walking and then and then when I saw a wall I hit behind it and then and then I was looking at some cars. She was she was over there next to me ran, ran over here, ran over here She and and then and then we were looking at JB didn't want to When we were looking at our chaps, we we we saw her we saw her by the chaps before we were so and then we got to the She was right there at the other side of the rail and big hair We'll be in chase by the granny with the big hair. I said child Little lawyer that hair when I tell y'all know me. I know big hair girl. Look at me that hair It was a wig piece is what it was it was a it was actually It wasn't like a piece it was a wig It was a whole wig that she turned into a ponytail Y'all she turned into a bless her heart bless her heart All right boo boo three things Pick up three things Three things come on sweetheart. Do you want me to nail polish? I nail polish. Okay There's some conditioner Conditioner pick out any any of those okay. All right, so We can do this back here. Okay, and then we're gonna go fill up some water stuff and really learn about capacity So okay, so if you look at this look Look underneath a very small print. It says a number And then f l do you see it? You probably can't see it on there Let me show you See where my fingernail is it hold on baby. See where my fingernail is at Right with my fingernail. You see it.  Oh my gosh What does it say? It says Three zero All right, so that means that it and you can tell us a lot because feel it hold it See how heavy it is now. Which one is heavier this one or this one Which one is heavier by weight that one? Child. Oh, you know why I'm so sorry. That's because I've used this That's why all right, baby So we're gonna try to fill up this bottom and eat all blend What does it say? What number is at the bottom of that oil blend? It's conflated juice Right, but what number is at the bottom of it? What number do you see for me? So that means it's four ounces. Okay, so if I if I could look at it I'm gonna guess about one tablespoon. You want a spoon? Would you like a spoon? No, because I got you don't need to put that in there We're gonna put all of these in here. Okay. Oh, so let's pour Let's pour this one So pour a little squirt a little bit of each oil into this measuring cup. Okay Is it squirting out? Yeah All right. That's more than enough now put a few sprinkles of 15 oh child you Child doesn't know it pour it very slowly Very one thing you learned about capacity We wait, okay. Good job and then most products have what on it Numbers, yeah Now that was fun, honey, that was still that was still learning.  I mean not that y'all. You know, he's so chubby. You're so chubby.  Lord have mercy.  Okay It's a start coming baby You found the flip-flop. Yeah, it's a start coming. They say to stay on Which way we're gonna go? Let's go this way How do you get up there? Dave say hi Let go chickens so we are child Cleaning these rooms because we're having our carpet replaced. You could tell this carpet looks horrible This is the carpet that came with the house. Um, this is what the original looked like and yeah We had a little bit of water damage here, which is why it's doing that.  You know, girl I told you it was scratching his stomach looking around at all this stuff, but we managed to get everything out Um, and the color is very nice. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. You guys I'm in JB's room trying to be quiet because it's too early to want a girl Let me switch to this hand because baby Today we're getting our carpet installed. You can see that girl Amen, we're getting the carpet installed and I'm gonna have to speak to my husband to tell him Look, you know, he gave me a heads up what he's thinking about how he was looking I'm gonna have to explain to him. This needs to be it for a while y'all because Because I'm at home and I work from home. He Feels like oh, you could be home with them and you know manage everything. No, you need to stop this So because I think this would have been the third The third house project we've done this year And two in the middle of a pandemic. I'm gonna tell him now This needs to be it. We need to wait The only thing else that I think we have left to do is to redo the cabinet We need to wait. There's no rush to do anything. It's not a priority But it's it's still another stressor. So Um, I think it needed we definitely need new carpet, but do we need it now? You know what I mean? So I don't know how many people are gonna be up in this house, but I know they better be wearing a mask Okay, so they should be coming in like three more hours I want to run and get jaypees some breakfast before they come here. He ate all his little raggedy ass cereal last night I guess he could have some oatmeal, but Yeah Um, we've been doing so this is what we do what it's kind of shaking up in the household like this So for example yesterday, we do something we have to do something every day So yesterday we worked on his little project and we did language arts. Okay. We read two books um Today we will do math Which will be an online modules. Okay And a little bit of reading tomorrow, you know getting the house in order tomorrow. He's gonna go to child care Then we're gonna go in thirsty and friday And we're going to do a little bit of math a little bit of language arts And then starting next week, whatever I had planned for this week We'll be doing next week if that makes sense, you know going hard. I've gave him a heads up We're going to be going hard starting next week. And he's like anyway Um Y'all so he woke up at like three o'clock in the morning Which is okay because I typically wake up between four and 4 30 Lately I have that but baby he woke up with a little nosebleed um I took him to the couch and we both slept on the couch till six but I slept jacked up to where Here all The way to the middle of my back is was strenuous. I don't know if this is just something, you know with with Y'all know how they say devs come dev comes in threes It has been ridiculous So many losses and I know you guys have experienced and no people have had so many losses Someone that I know and I used to work with at david's bridal Um, I'm not gonna say your name, but she's a sweet girl and we used to always help each other like She was considered a I was a bridal consultant And she was considered a junior consultant But one thing I noticed is that all of the junior consultants were latino They were without worker bees and the bridal consultants were typically White except from me and one other girl, right? I just find that really odd now But anyway, the bridal consultants some of the bridal consultants consider themselves a little bit Higher um, and this was in a certain area of Phoenix paradise valley whereas a little bit paradise valley is very interesting It's it's on the it's on the cusp of on the edge of scott's cell But scott's cell have changed change here in in um, phoenix it used to be that You have to be in a certain economic status to live there now girl. He could be making 40 000 dollars And boom, I'm I live in scott's cell girl, but we used to live in scott's cell about Before we moved here actually before we purchased a house girl. What's the point? Anyway, this junior consultant I always have to do the consultants or the junior consultants were responsible for Rearranging all the shoes some the jewelry that veils y'all Working in a bridal store is no joke. It's a lot of physical work because those dresses can be heavy, baby um We had to go through the racks and rearrange all those dresses When I tell you my body would be sore my body would be sore Yeah, so I would help them though at the end of the shift. I will make sure and go over You know, I'm like, you know, do you guys need any help? They're like, yeah So I would help them and they would say Vivian you like you're the only one that helps us those other girls I'm like, girl, I'll help you but anyway one of them her husband One was that last week her husband had a work injury and fell into a coma Y'all when I read that I felt so bad. I started reaching out to her I said girl, I'm praying for you and your family because she has three small ones Like I think her oldest one is JB's age But the other two are babies like one is two another one's four He slipped into a coma There was no brain activity and they pulled the plug three days ago And when I read that I felt so bad for her then I get on two days ago and my home girl Kirby said I need thoughts and prayers My brother's in the um burn unit. I'm like, oh my god Y'all, so there's a message in this and and when that happened When I read that I started getting a lump in my throat because I'm already because Kirby's a good friend of mine too And I was like girl I said, you know what? And then a little part of me said I'm tired of this. I'm tired of praying over people I just wanted to stop in the Holy Spirit check me and said, don't you ever cease praying Do not ever cease praying. So y'all this is going to be happening. We are not mortal You know, we are not living forever just because we are Christians don't mean that everything's going to be perfect Doesn't mean that everything around us going to be perfect We cannot stop praying and praying over people really like check myself and be like, okay One hunk girl lost her husband. This one's um brothers up is You know in the burn unit. I'm praying up with them.  Yeah, I know I know last night. I get an urgent request Vivian you need to cancel all these classes so-and-so had a family emergency I said what? I said what what what's going on, you know And the manager came back. She said it's so hard, but her brother just suddenly her her sibling one of her siblings She suddenly died. I said, you know what? So that's why I said comes in threes, right? I said wow, but regardless it becomes in threes twos ones fours whatever We always need to continue to pray over people and lift them up in this time and letting them know that god has to last say um and ultimately which is so hard y'all and I look I started crying again over something I saw a um uh preview of a movie that um Viola Davis and Chadwick bossman and some other people as a great cast then I started crying again over him but I read a I'm not sure if it's true because you can't believe everything on on the on uh the interweb I read a Post from his brother his brother's apparently is a pastor Or a preacher something like that a man of god basically and his brother was like The day before he died Chadwick came to me and said I need to let him go I need to let him go And at the end of the day sometimes we be praying for a miracle and praying for that person to be healed But what's so hard? What is so hard is to pray for that god's will be done because that person's tired that that person that you're praying over To be healed they may be tired and suffering Especially if it's cancer. So yeah, we may be praying for a healing because we want them here with us But at the end of the day, we have the trust in and the lord and know that he Um knows what's best for us more importantly knows what's best for that person and y'all y'all now i'm crying Because it can hurt to see someone suffering Especially like with an illness and you want them to be healed You got to let them go And nine times out of ten especially with me and y'all know those of you who work in the medical field Uh me working for hospice most of the time when you let that person go they go ahead and die peacefully Um, they be holding on for other people.  They do not Child pleas they don't so I'm having to really reflect and think about my prayers. Okay. Maybe I I At the end of the day, I you know, I changed my prayer for my one friend I said just lord strengthen her give her the strength give her peace and let your will be done I can no longer, you know, I don't want this person to suffer. Yes.  I'm gonna go ahead and hear and get my coffee. I need to drink some water I can feel dehydrated drink some more water Here I get that oxy coda and work child. I only did half of it because look, um That's the oxy from my breast reduction. I don't play around with those drugs y'all Just give me a little bit. Um, that's especially pain medication. I do not play around with which I just went a little bit Um, and that's probably the all I would take. Okay So let me go ahead and hear y'all with this baby up go take him to get some breakfast real quick. Um I think we got to move our two side tables out of our our bedroom Um, everything is good. So I'll show you what the carpet looks soon. Okay Oh Looks nice, huh Huh, uh-huh is your room. Oh, do you like your bed like this Jamie? Yeah, yeah My bed, you know Okay, we'll put the other night stand right there


if you do good deeds and you avoid bad deeds a lot knows that you have errors you might not understand okay so he's not going to punish you for except that the Quran says over and over and over and over and over again that yes if you are an unbeliever you're going to help no it's another unbeliever it's a coffer coffer doesn't mean disbeliever there's no sense in saying the book doesn't say the only thing it says no the thing is that you have read the wrong translation okay yes excuse me excuse me i read six translations at once after i wrote my comparison of the multiple translations i met with a panel of people who were all raised in islam and who spoke arabic to tell me what i got right or wrong yeah it says the thing you say it never says it all the time


A week or so back, I reacted to the new Fantastic Beasts film, the third entry to this fantastic beast saga. Don't even remember what it's called, because I just can't bother caring anymore. It's like Grindelwald's Revenge, or Rise of Grindelwald, or The Curse of Dumbledore's Army, or I don't know, it doesn't matter. I like millions of people across the globe. Really love Harry Potter, all the movies, the books, I got a whole bunch of Legos. I'm a big fan. So when Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them came out, I was very lenient on it. I said it was a decent start, I wasn't a big fan of the storyline, or the lead character, Newt Scamander, and his ragtag crew of idiots. But I pushed forward with the assumption that these would just get better. We're just slowly building up. But then the next movie came out, oh my gods, it was horrible. What a bad, just a bad movie all around. It killed any further momentum this property could possibly have going for it, which wasn't a lot to begin with. It did the exact same thing the last Jedi did for me. Okay, the first entry wasn't the most exciting, but there was a lot of potential, a lot of promise, and then, dead. But as I am a big Harry Potter fan, I will still press forward and at least see what the trailer has to offer me for the third outing. Do they learn their lesson? Are they gonna wow us this time with the magic and the adventures and the hijinks or what are we gonna get here? Another drab, magic-less, boring affair with a very muddy plot and characters so inconsistent you can't even possibly comprehend their morality anymore. So I let it be known in the trailer reaction that this just wasn't doing it for me. Well, the comments had things to say, and you know what they said? I agree. I'm with you, Adam. This franchise has been nothing to me. Yeah, they should just pull the plug on this whole thing. Some people said like, no they wouldn't do that. Giant movie companies don't pull the plug when film properties are doing well, even if the numbers have been going down ever since the first, and they're not near as high as Harry Potter. Actually, they do. Genius. Remember the shitty Divergent series? They didn't even bother finishing it. I think they did two or three movies and they were done. Did Maze Runner even finish? If so, they certainly didn't put the marketing behind it because I forgot. What about Spider-Man 3? There was supposed to be a fourth but Sony just said screw it, we're rebooting, we're starting over. Spider-Man 3 made more money than the others. So yes, they absolutely could have stopped doing these crappy Fantastic Beasts movies, started from scratch on another magical world adventure, or spun off some more Harry Potter stuff and ruined that because they're all doing this now. But we're pushing forward. And for the most part, I'd say 99% of those comments were in agreement.  It's a shame that these movies aren't very good. What a waste. There is so much you could mine from this world. It's the same thing I actually have been saying for years and years about the Matrix. And then we saw how that turned out. I gotta move past it. So I moved on with my day. I moved on with my life. Until one comment, one individual, so intelligent, so above the rest of us mere mortal peons comes forth with a ...navel of information shouting at me. Mad. He knows better than I. He knows better than you. He knows better than all the Potter heads combined apparently. I think that's what the fanbase calls themselves. I don't like to align that hardcore with anything. I won't call myself a Potter head, but I like Harry Potter a lot. I wouldn't call myself a, what's like a Die Hard Stan called? You know the John McLean film? I would be a Die Hard Stan. What would I call myself? An Ellis? Now before this dramatic reading commences, I will warn you ahead of time. There is some language in here that's probably above your comprehension skills. This person's a genius of the highest level. If midichlorians were real, his count would be sky high. And I will not be sharing the name and icon of this person since we're really focused on one this time and not a whole bunch like with that Sonic fandom attack I had a couple weeks back. That was so good. What is wrong with people? Imagine being so obsessed with one specific property, movie, television show, game, comic, sport, that you just, everything else, it goes by the wayside and you will viciously attack strangers that think differently of you. It's so sad to regale this tale. Is Tony from Hack the Movies? Tony, take it away and I will warn you guys if I break down and cry it's because my fragile ego cannot take this again. The first time I read through this thing I was devastated. I was on the floor sobbing. I was naked, shaking, shivering, cold, alone, scared. I wanted it to be done, but now I need to learn. I need to learn that mistakes were made in my video and the only person that can right these wrongs is the author of this story. And with that, Tony. Sorry, but your criticism of the series is patronizing. You talk in your description of the spark that made the Harry Potter movie so magical, but your criticism of the Fantastic Beasts series shows that you don't really know anything about the franchise. Also, I've pointed out multiple times that the Fantastic Beasts series doesn't have anywhere near the problems that the original Harry Potter franchise had. So the critical approach to this franchise is too inconsistent to make me think that the Fantastic Beasts smear campaign is anything other than that. A smear campaign.  These films aren't for your little kids.   It is an absolute projection for you to criticize the films as being dumb. Some whimsical elements in a fantasy film don't constitute tonal clash, just because the film also contains dark content. You think there's no purpose in Greenance's character? You're just throwing any negative criticism at the wall to see what sticks. A huge element of your denigration of the franchise is patronization. Who is the audience for? It's not smart enough to be for adults. What? Adults have no problem taking franchises that are objectively much less smart and mature, plenty seriously, like Star Wars and the Marvel films.  The Fantastic Bees films are plenty smart and much smarter than the typical blockbuster movie. Rowling has a background in literature and she wrote these stories with the same smart subtext and symbolism that I know is flying right over your head.  You say crimes of Grindelwald got really dark really fast, while saying that the first film was light and about beast. When it wasn't. It was plenty dark and was about Grindelwald attacking New York with credences obscural. You're apparently too slow to follow an actually complex plot. That's the problem. You obviously didn't meaningfully understand Harry Potter's massive appeal. And you're too slow to follow a novelistic plot. Good day, sir. He said it all. It's all true. I don't know why I think I'm smart or even have the capability of understanding the complex minutiae that the Fantastic Bees franchise offers. Here I thought the first film was tonally inconsistent. Ranging wildly between Newt Scamander dry hump in the air to get some sort of a rhino pokemon back into his ball to an orphanage in the depression. Under attack by a human made out of magic itself. A dark wizard on the rise. Political intrigue in the shadows. Storyline that would go over most children's heads and some adults clearly like myself. It's odd though. It's odd because I remember reviewing that movie years and years ago and I swear I said it. It had darker elements and the lighter elements and it didn't really mesh well together.  A clusterfuck narratively with multiple red herrings of sorts. A weird backstory between kids being swapped during a boat wreck. A shipwreck I guess would be the more apt term.  The drab, colorless wizarding world that doesn't even spark the tiniest of flame in a young one's imagination. If the Fantastic Bees movies are for adults maybe don't title them Fantastic Bees and focus the first film on all these colorful creatures full of whimsy.  And then in the very same breath have our two leads walk to their deaths in a slow painful vat of acid water of which there is seemingly no escape. This is the intelligence, the wisdom, the pen to paper that I was supposed to appreciate that somehow not only rivals JR Token but supersedes him? JK Rowling is now the king of which there is no return and I am nothing more than an insignificant little ant or whatever the cute ant equivalent is in the Fantastic Bees property. I just don't get it. It's too smart for me. It's too smart for I think a vast majority of the moviegoers that wanted to see something more akin to Harry Potter which believe it or not has many dark elements. The difference between the two properties though is the balancing act, a careful juggling of both young and old alike. The kids can appreciate it along with adults. There's some scary aspects for sure. There's plenty of dark stuff. Freakin Voldemort drinks unicorn blood to survive. We see an albino horse in the middle of a dark forest with a horn sticking out of its head and a weird entity floating over the top sucking its life force out and we're supposed to think that's childlike. It's a balancing act. It's delicate. You can either do it right or you can hack it up like the Fantastic Bees have done. Shit, the entire character arc of Harry is far darker than anything in this dumbass Fantastic Bees series. Newt Scamander lets his zoo wild because he had a bad lock on his briefcase. Are you kidding me? Are you kidding me? That's smart to you? Harry Potter meanwhile is locked under the steps by his awful relatives who hate him.  Then we find out after several books and films that he was a kid raised to slaughter. He was never supposed to live through this. That was the plan all along.  I mean, that's brutal. That's crippling. Kids and adults can both appreciate it for a myriad of reasons. Please tell me what I'm supposed to appreciate from this new franchise. What character am I supposed to resonate with?  Who lets these sometimes dangerous beasts roam the streets, destroy anything they come into contact with? Should I really fear Grindelwald, a man who's had multiple identities now and will have a third one because Johnny Depp's not back? I think not. I think there's nothing for me to get excited about and it's the film's job to make me a believer again. So while I appreciate the amount of time you took to construct your little book report, you're wrong. You're misguided.  Or stick around and maybe learn something. Thanks for the reenactment, Tony. I appreciate your time. If you haven't, check out Tony at Hack the Movies. It's on YouTube. It's a big deal. It's a very big deal.  You can also stick around here if you haven't by hitting the subscribe button, like the video if you appreciated a good rant. And hopefully I'll see you stick around. Take care. I just put away all the Christmas decorations but here I am all lit up again like the holidays are around the corner. You know what I'd appreciate speaking to the holidays if you gave me a gift. A late one, I know. But still, it's the thought that counts. Just subscribe or tell your friends and family about the channel. It would mean a ton to me. You could even become a Patreon at Patreon.com slash Adam Does Movies or join right here via that YouTube join button. It's just a little gift from you to me after all the gifts I've thrown your way. I think you could do something. If not, whatever. It's fine. Thanks for watching.


Hi there, I'm Sandy Olnok and today I'm going to talk about wax seals in the second half of the video. But in the first half, let's talk about packaging up art that has sold that's going to get shipped to somebody. I want to up my game on the interior presentation. The outside might have bubble wrap and recycled cardboard and everything, but I want to create a treasure around the artwork on the inside. And I'm starting with some nice heavy backer board that I purchased. You can get illustration board or something really heavy so that it is seriously protective of the work. No more recycled cardboard at this point. I put a piece of glassine over the artwork and then wrap the whole thing in glassine. I want to get some stickers made for that center portion, that center piece of tape that says something about the value of what they're about to open and make them feel like they've made a really good purchase. Next up is a card. Always do handmade cards and include a handwritten note to them by first name, thanking them for making an investment in the art because that's what buying art is all about. And then I put in a business card and I need to get my business cards reprinted. I just realized that when I looked at it, I thought, oh man, okay. Another printing job, stickers, business cards. Another thing I want to get is better envelopes for this. My envelopes are fine for mailing in the regular mail, but I need to do something better. So I will be sharing what I'm going to choose for envelopes later on in another video. Then craft paper. Notice that I didn't tape that and I'm going to fold the ends in the opposite direction than you normally would when wrapping a package for a very specific reason. And I may change my packaging for gifts in this same way, but I'm using craft paper. This one is 40 pound. I used to use the stuff that I got from the frame department at my local hobby big box store and it was just not as nice. It wrinkled if you looked at it and this stuff, look how nice that package looks. I have one seam now on this side that I can put a wax seal on. How perfect is that, right? So I got out my wax seal warmer is what this thing is called. I think of it as more of a stove. You put a little candle in it and then you can stick the spoon on it that melts the wax. And I'm using what are called wax beads. You can buy them in all different kinds of colors and put them in the number you put in depends on the size of the stamp you're using, the size of the blob you need. And you just let it sit there. So this is the stamp I'll be using today. It's an S and it's not when I designed, it's just a generic one that's out there. They have lots of alphabet stamps, all different kinds of styles.  And it takes a while. Don't expect to do 100 Christmas cards with this or you'll be at it all day long. You don't need the wax seal warmer. You could just sit there with a spoon and hold it over top of a flame. But that would be a lot of sitting there holding it. This warmer actually comes with a spoon that has a wooden handle. So the wooden handle keeps your hand from the heat of the metal. It's kind of a nice little set. I do recommend it from my limited experience that I have with wax seals. I used a pin to see if it was ready yet. So I stirred it up a little bit and then poured the wax in a circle. If you go round and round, you can make a roughly roundish shape. Some say that you should make it bigger than the stamp that you're using. Some people say make it smaller and just let it squish naturally. Leave it for 20 seconds. It's a great time to clean out your spoon if you're going to change colors. If you're going to keep the same color, then just leave the wax in there and then remelt it next time you make a seal. And then after your 20 seconds, you can just wiggle it back and forth a little bit and it should pop right out real easily. And then you have your finished wax seal. And then I have the finish of my interior presentation, which has a crooked seal on it. But you know, everything is imperfect and that's part of me. There's extra packaging that goes around this to protect it as it goes through the mail. But this is the treasured nut on the inside where I want the person who bought it to feel really special. And that's where I wanted to get into this wax seal thing. But I have so many ideas now for using wax seals on cards. So if you want to get more on wax seals in the future, I will have another video coming up on some ideas for that. Subscribe and hit that little bell so you can be notified whenever I have a new video out. And that is it for me.  I'll see you later. Bye.


If you want a business that works, you're going to have to have clients, right? And to have clients, you need to be able to find them and talk with them in a way that they will actually want to work with you. Some people call this sales conversations, and some people call this enrollment conversations. Well, in today's video, I'm going to be interviewing an enrollment wizard, okay? He's really good at enrollment and he's good at teaching people, training people, helping people to do it effectively. And what's great about, he's not just a sales guy, he's somebody that I can really trust and align with in terms of marketing and sales values. So his name is Jeremy Blanchard, some of you probably know about him. He stands for marketing and enrollment that helps both parties be more clear, be more empowered, energized, and just feeling good after valuing the relationship more than the transaction. And Jeremy's been coaching for eight years and he is actually the director of enrollment for a coaching school called the Academy of Coaching Excellence. And he himself is now running a separate program that is called the Enrollment Bootcamp, which is really an intimate program of 10 to 20 people that helps the participants actually do it, actually find the clients that they want to work with and have empowering and authentic enrollment conversations with them. So I'm really excited to talk with Jeremy today. Jeremy, thank you so much for being here and having this conversation. Well, thank you, George.  And it's just a privilege to get to share some of what I do with your audience and, you know, my intent and desire that it just be of service, however it can be for folks. Totally, totally, yeah. And I'll put links to your Facebook and anywhere in your website, you know, however people can get lots of additional tips and, you know, value from you.   So why is it so hard for them to have the enrollment conversation? That's such a good question, such a good question. One of the things that I've noticed so much, you know, what really breaks my heart is seeing so many coaches out there who are having a hard time with enrollment. And I see so many, I know you see this too, so many coaches who have one or two or three or four clients and they maybe even went through great training and they're out there and they really wish they had a full practice, but they don't yet. And a lot of people graduate from whatever training they got and think, well, where are all the clients? You know, I'm well trained. I should have a business now, right? And for me, it's seeing, and I know you see this too, that at least 50% of it is whatever skill you bring, and then there's this whole other 50% that's the marketing and enrollment skills. And when you, I really suggest when people adopt that view, they then learn to level up both, not just their skill as a provider, but as a business owner. And for me, one of the biggest things that I see getting in people's way of having successful enrollment conversations is that they're worried they're going to be salesy, right? You know, it just comes across all the time, they're going to be the used car salesman, and they think that their role is to get someone to enroll. My, the purpose of this conversation is for me to get you to say yes to working with me. And then nobody wants to have that conversation. Why would you? I don't want to have that conversation. And then that kind of like, I notice a trickle where a trickle effect or a ripple of that, that then they don't want to do the outreach for prospective clients because they know it's going to lead to this conversation that they're dreading. That's a really good point. So there's a kind of a subconscious block of doing more outreach because the actual conversation is not enjoyable. I totally agree with you because when I come to this conversation and regardless of what you want, my job is to get you to pay me and sign up. Then it's, yeah, this is why coach is dreaded because it's no longer about the relationship. Exactly. So how, like, what's the, what's the core idea here that you train or help people to do?  Yeah. So how does it become clear and empowering? Yeah, yeah, great question. So, you know, a couple pieces about that. One is that what I've noticed, there's so many great methods out there.  There's so many great methods out there. And one of the things I've noticed is that there's this particular period in the liftoff of a business that I think is really important when you're still relying on some other source of income and you're in that liftoff period. And there are certain questions that are different in that liftoff period that are different later in your business. When you're in that liftoff period, it's very sometimes hard to ask more deep questions about who is my ideal client and who is my audience. And questions that I think are really lifelong questions for the life of the business. It's like, you're just trying to get your first few clients. So one of the things I've found that I just love is helping people through that liftoff period and there and really focusing on what are the few activities that are most useful to get you a financial foundation. Because once you have a financial foundation and it's more closer to your full-time gig, then you can go, oh, well, let me make a great website and let me figure out Facebook ads like you're an expert at and let me do all this. But before then, it's like, I barely have three clients. How am I going to spend enough time to figure out this question? So that's kind of piece one for me is helping people through that foundation and the way that I think helps when they're having those enrollment conversations is taking the attention off of, how do I get this person to sign up with me? Because you're gonna ask manipulative questions, just like you notice in manipulative marketing. It's like, how do I get the conversion? It's kind of the same thing, but in a one-to-one interaction instead of in a marketing context. And if you shift your attention away from that, there's two questions that I find super useful that we can kind of dig into a little bit together if you want. The very first question is, what does this person really want in their life next? And it's important to see that that may have nothing to do with what I offer. It may because they got on the phone with me. So there's probably some level of interest or alignment with what I offer, but it may not have anything to do with me. And I'm going into that conversation seeing I'm not attached to it being anything about what I offer, but I'm very, very, very interested in what are they actually looking for? You know, are they actually looking for consultants? Or are they actually looking for healing? Or are they actually looking for coaching? And in my kind of coaching and my, what I most love to contribute. And if I'm just not attached and really seeking out what is their vision? What is their vision? Let me give rise to that thing that when I hear them talk about it, they light up, then we've got something to really work with. So that's question number one. And then question number two, and happy to go into these more, is it a great fit for us to work together? And if I could offer coaches anything, it were just those two questions. I find that if you keep your attention on those questions, you don't need a sales script and you don't need all this, you know, fancy language that's gonna ask just the right thing at just the right time. But if I'm just asking myself, well, is it a great fit for us to work together? I'm naturally gonna, the first beginning of the conversation is gonna be, well, what would I need to find out from this person so that I could help them and me see? If it's a good fit for us to work together. And it also naturally allows for the possibility that it's not a good fit for us to work together. So I naturally stop trying to make it a good fit, but just checking out together. Do I see it's a good fit? And then giving them what they need to make a choice for themselves. Well, do you see it's a good fit? And it becomes a real partnership in that way. I love that, yeah. Yeah, I recently have been talking more and more about how I love to see marketing as friendship. Yeah. And it feels great because if I'm trying to just build a friendship with my audience, then I'm not gonna shove something down their throat because it's not what you do to friends. You create together. Hey, what do you want to do today together? You know? Let's figure it out rather than, hey, I'll come with a plan and you're gonna do this and you're gonna. So this is great. And we could talk all day long about these two questions. I want to back up one step and I'm wondering, I'm kind of channeling this, the person watching this who is saying, okay, Jeremy, so what happens if I'm not sure I have people to talk to? And so yeah, how do you, how much, how might you address that concern? Yeah, in other words, where do I find people to talk to? How do I get them on the phone or not get them on the phone? I would love to finally be, you know, be on the phone, be on a person, meeting or whatever with somebody, but how does that work? Yeah, yeah, great question. So the way, again, so my focus has always been on how do I support people in that lift off period and that's such an important initial building period of their business. And what I found is for coaches and everything I'm saying for coaches applies to other service-based entrepreneurs as well. It's just my focus has been on coaches. Referrals has been what I found to be just the most reliable way. And you know, I know for you, relationship is so important for me. Relationship is so important when building a business. And of all the ways to find prospective clients who might be a fit to work together that you would have an enrollment conversation with, referrals is the one that takes the least overhead. In other words, it takes the least building up. I don't have to figure out a system. I just have to call someone in my network who already trusts me and say, hey, do you know anyone who might be XYZ? You know, might have these challenges or these desires. And would you like to connect me with them? Just because. And there's naturally a trust bridge that's created. So the person who gets in touch with you, though they may not have heard of you before, and though it may be the beginning of a relationship, there's a much higher likelihood that they're willing to say, okay, cool. You know, I don't know you, but because we both know so and so, I could see us doing great work together. And I'm not so worried about whether this is, you know, something I need to worry about. So referrals, it has that benefit. It doesn't require a lot of overhead. And it also has the benefit of being very iterative, which is so important at the beginning of a business. So for example, if I'm trying to figure out what my website is supposed to say at the beginning of my journey, I'm gonna spend a lot of time writing the copy and rewriting the copy and rewriting the copy. But maybe this is my first, you know, first client, my fifth client, my 20th client, you know, I haven't worked with that many people. Referrals are really great because I get to have a referral conversation with one friend, practice one way of saying it. The next day I can have a referral conversation with another friend. You know what, oh, I kind of learned something about what made sense to that friend or what didn't make sense. Let me try a slightly different way of talking about what I do, who I serve, what those people's dreams are. And you get to practice and practice and practice and practice. And then, you know, over the course of six or nine months of doing this, which is, you know, how long I work with folks in the program, you've really practiced it a whole bunch. And then you've got your foundation of clients, your financial foundation, and then when it's time to go build and have other marketing methods like the ones you teach, it's, you really, you'll understand your clients a lot better and how to talk about what you do a lot better naturally, not through, you know, wordsmithing to death. That's, oh my God, it's so true. I mean, I think so many people believe that they can, like you said, wordsmith their way to, you know, be in touch with the market.  A lot of people do it on their own or they don't, I personally don't like, I haven't had a good experience with copywriters because it's just not my voice. So I really like that this is, the clarity is happening through conversation. So, all right. And one thing I like what you just said about calling up a, someone you never record, you know, probably emailing, emailing, I guess, right? Or private, you know, Facebook messaging or something like that. Yeah, whatever. Yeah, is that the person that you're contacting might themselves be in need of what you're all in. And so it's actually kind of a low pressure way to say, hey, you know, I, do you say, hey, I've started a business or I'm looking for more clients or do you like to put that in as part of the conversation? I do, I do. You know, I've thought of lots of different ways of doing it. I tried lots of different ways of doing it. And I find one of my core principles in how I teach authentic enrollment is just tell the truth. You know, it seems pretty straightforward. But it's amazing when you put that principle or all these other ideas about other stuff you could do or something like become clear, like, oh, well, that's not the truth. And if right now I'm focusing on building my business and I know I want to do it through referrals, the way to do that authentically isn't to say, hey, let's just call this friends and we're just having a phone call and then slip something in about your business. Like, no, that's not genuine. But I think it's absolutely okay to have a conversation with a friend about your business. As long as you're being very clear, hey, would you like to have a conversation about how you could support me to build my business? And you're telling the truth. And then, you know, I restart those conversations about how you're doing, you know, checking in on a personal level because they're someone who's important to me. And then, but it's already clear by the time they get on the phone, it's not a trick of any kind. And then you don't have to worry either because you already know they said yes, so you're not building up to the question that you're scared to ask. It's like, oh, for me, I'll usually just send a text saying, hey, you may have seen on Facebook, I'm starting this business, you know, it's very exciting to me. I'd love to chat with you. I know you know a lot of people who are the kind of people that I'd love to work with and I'd love your support. Would you be willing to hop on the phone and talk about how you might build a support me in this business building time that I'm in? It's really important and kind of, no, I'll be usually pretty vulnerable with them. I'm so a little nerve wracking to be building a business. And people are very responsive, I found, when you're just straightforward in that way. Yeah, that's a really great, great tip. And so these kinds of contacts will lead to, you know, people see seeing you on email or giving you someone's contact info and say, oh yeah, tell them, you know, George sent you or whatever. And then, do you find that it's, you know, kind of getting into that call or meeting with the referred person? Any tips on that, any, is it challenging to make that happen? Yeah. Yeah, that's a really good question. And my thinking on this has evolved a lot in the last 12 months or so. I used to suggest, oh, well, if they're interested, if you know someone who's interested, could you just be CCS on an email or CCS on an email rather? And I found that that doesn't work so well because there's not permission from that person to, and this is again, a part of the authentic approach to it. It's like, well, if we want high conversions, sure CC me on an email and I'll follow up 14 times and maybe some of those will work. High annoyance also. Yeah, high annoyance, exactly. However, I find about, I think about a year ago, my thinking on this shifted, it was like, you know, I notice all the people in coaching and training around enrollment, a lot of them get really worried about asking people to do that CC. And I used to think, oh, I just need to coach them past that worry. And it's like, no, it's actually kind of a legitimate worry. And a lot of the referrers were worried too. They were like, I don't really want to make this connection. And I eventually kind of took the feedback. I was like, that's true. I don't know if I would want to be introduced to someone and then get a whole bunch of follow-ups. And it's like, well, let me take the wisdom of what they're saying. And the way I suggest it now is actually, you know what I call it, double opt-in. Where the referer asks the person, would you like to be connected? Here's the bottom line. It can even just be by text. It doesn't have to be through a big email with a bunch of explanation of who this person serves. But it can just be, hey, I've got a friend who's a coach. I have the thought that you two might really be great together. Could I introduce you by email? They can do it in person by phone, by text, by email, whatever. And then once they get permission from that person, then making the connection. The result is you get fewer connections than you might have if you didn't do the double opt-in. It takes more energy for the referer. And it might take a little more follow-up on your part to talk to the referer and support them like, hey, did you remember to check in with so-and-so? But just the alternative isn't worth it. It's not worth it to try and force a connection. And it also allows everyone to be more at ease. Once you know that person wants to be in contact with you, it's like, great, let's talk. Yeah, I love that you are teaching this and helping people with that because I totally agree. Because as somebody who has been the person that people want to connect with, it's like, thank you for asking my permission first. And in fact, I even like it when somebody says, hey, George, I thought of a friend who, because of what you've said or because of our relationship, I know that you would really appreciate this person. It's great to get a link to their website if they have one or their LinkedIn profile or their Facebook profile. I mean, whatever it is, something. It's like, oh yeah, you're right. I'm glad, because I haven't been looking for someone like that. I have clients who are looking for someone like this. So thank you. And so it is, it's like when, like this whole entire process, we have to remember, right? Like it's about helping people. Yeah. Like that's what we're here to do. Like there are people who need help over here. And then there's your friend, who may actually need to help too. And then there's you who's like, would love to help people. And it's like, well, let's make this happen. It's a true win-win all around. Yeah, yeah. So anything else you've noticed? I mean, as you've been coaching and helping so many people with this, any other surprises or yeah, any other tips that have come to you in recent months or impacts? Yeah. Well, for me, it's one of the things that I have loved about supporting people in this area. You know, it used to just be, I would support friends. You know, I know tons of coaches because I work for a coach training program. So it used to be my friends would just come to me and my peers in this program would come to me and say, Jeremy, I know you're really good with this enrollment stuff. You know, tell me and I would just kind of give them tips.  And at some point I remember sitting on the couch with a couple, a bunch of coach buddies.  Like I want to learn this from you. And I was like, oh my gosh, duh. Like, you know, it's much better, much more effective for them. And the reason I bring that up in response to your question is because one of the things I found is that the journey to be successful with enrollment isn't tips and tools and systems and processes are good. And they're helpful handle holds to navigate going into that new territory of how do I enroll? How do I find prospective clients? But the thing that really makes the difference is having a community of support and having run this program now for like four years and supported people in other ways for longer than that. I just find over and over and over again that a community of support is almost like if I taught nothing about how to do enrollment. If I skipped all of my training content and all I did was bring a community together and do the coaching part that I do, I think that could have at least 50% of the results that people are getting because there's something really magical that happens. And you know, whether people come into my program or not, I think this is for your audience, I think the thing that's valuable is find a friend, find somebody or some kind of community of support that you can partner with who will be your success partner, who when you encounter those stopping points that are always gonna come up, you know, like, oh, I'm just so worried. I'm not going to enroll anybody. I'm about to talk myself out of it again. You have someone there to keep you going past that stopping point. Cause that's the biggest thing. The difference between people have a successful business and those who don't it has nothing to do with their skills of coach. It has somewhat to do with their skill of enrollment and marketing, but more so than anything, it has to do with their success skill in doing what they said they would do and going past the points where they would have stopped themselves as they extend to beyond familiar territory into the new territory of running a business and having the business be their main source of income. And so that like success team, success community or success buddy, I think is one of the biggest things. I'm glad you said that. Absolutely, because you can go online and read articles about sales all day long, but are you gonna do it? Exactly. Well, when you're in a community of people who are doing it, then you feel this energy like, oh well, gosh, so and so, they're doing me too. Well, let me try and then, oh gosh, well, if it didn't work, then I can come back to the community and get helped and supported by it or share a success story that encourages somebody else. I love that. You're facilitating this. So the program that you are, the container that you offer for this kind of support is called the enrollment boot camp, right? Got it, yep. Okay, so tell us about this. It's, you're still open for enrollment? Yes, I am. Yeah, we're just getting started right now. And if anyone, if your folks are interested, I'd be delighted to chat with them. It's a six month program and it's really an immersion program. It's a coach, it's a training program. It's a coaching program.  I'd rather see 10 or 20 folks really have, you know, a financial foundation and a solid number of clients by the end of six, the six months of the program than see a hundred people all do a little bit of stuff with me. So it's an immersion and I partner with you and you join a community of support that all has a shared commitment and shared like momentum. It's kind of like the wind behind everyone's sails has everyone go further. So yeah, it's a very immersive program and I'd be delighted to chat with anyone who's interested. Yeah, and I think one of the, one of the gifts or learning experiences is just having that enrollment conversation with you. Yeah. And I think people, people would probably learn a lot just by experience. It's like, oh, how does Jeremy do it? You know? Does he touch the stuff? I'm curious how you... Oh, it's such a good point, you know. And just like I teach, it's my sole interest that people find the next best step for them, whether it's me or not. And I often have conversations that end, conversations about the enrollment bootcamp that end in saying, I really don't recommend you do this right now. You know, you only want to enroll a couple clients in the next period of time or you're really looking for a really specialized form of support. And I love referring people and that's why, you know, we're on the phone right now because I so often refer people to your work, either people in my program or people who aren't fit for my work because so often people are looking for content marketing support or building up their marketing principles, the way that you teach. So it's just, I'd like to get to talk to you, right? Yeah, absolutely. It's so great. And so anyway, I hope those watching this got some tips and encouragement. And if you have any comments or questions, leave them below. I'll make sure Jeremy sees it. And I'll also of course have the links to Jeremy's website. Yeah, and the other link real quick that we can offer folks is I have a 90-minute intro webinar that goes over all the principles that I'm talking about in a really step-by-step organized way. It's free and I just love your folks to have a chance to check it out if they want to deepen their income. That's great. Thank you so much for that. Yeah. All right, well, Jeremy, thank you for what you do and thanks for sharing your tips today. Yeah, well, thank you, George. I'm honored to get to chat with you because I just so respect your stand for authentic marketing and your whole journey that led you here and everything that happened before you got here. And there's a few people I ever refer people to because there's so few people who are values aligned to the way we are. So just thank you for being a stand. Thank you so much. All right, enjoy connecting with Jeremy, folks. All right, thanks, Jeremy. Thanks.


Thanks for joining us in day two of PiconIndia 2021, and this is yet another experience sharing session. In this session, we have Manaswini Das with us, who would be speaking about women in tech careers, taking that extra leap. Manaswini is from Bhuvaneshwar and is currently working with Red Hat Middleware team in Bangalore, India. She's an active open source user and contributor since 2017. She has participated both as a mentee and a mentor in various open source programs, including GCI, GSHawk, and RHOSC. She's an outreach alumnus and a processing foundation fellow. She loves sharing her knowledge and sketching. By the way, she's also the chapter lead of Pileadies Bhuvaneshwar. Welcome Manaswini on this experience sharing session. Over to you. Thanks a lot, Sukanya. Thanks a lot for the warm introduction. I hope I'm audible. So first of all, apologies for the background. I can't really help it and StreamYard doesn't have a full-fledged, covering the background stuff. So kindly put up with that. Cool then, I'll be starting since we are already at the top of the art. So thanks a lot for tuning in for today's talk. So I've been there at your place as a student until two years back and I understand your problems about getting an internship, landing your first gig and how do you know about opportunities and stuff like that where students, they tend to constantly struggle and come across difficulties and come across that loophole, the infamous loophole called, you need to get an experience to get an internship and unit and vice versa, of course, like that. So if you want to be a self-taught developer and want to land a job, this is like just the right platform for you. I hope you get some tips and tricks from here. So I wouldn't say that I'm a subject matter expert but I'll try and share some tips just because I've been through all of this. So I'd like to share some tips and tricks that worked for me. So there were times when I didn't even land interviews but I kind of refined my whole approach to it so that it could be, how do you call that? It could be, I could be presentable in a good manner and I can improve and interviews and maybe make the best out of the whole interview journey. So yep, I hope this is of some help to you. Cool, whoops, I think my, okay, yep, there it is. Cool, so you can be anything that you want to become, of course, unless you're willing to learn. So I'm not really a subject matter expert when it comes to other streams of engineering apart from computer science because I majored in computer science. But yep, I cannot speak for them but for people who are looking to venture into the software technology, I can obviously share some tips and tricks. So you can choose any of these just in this picture like it can be into management, it can be data science, it can be systems engineer as well. You can dive deeper into operating systems. You can also be a cybersecurity specialist, maybe a database administrator, network specialist, any of that, maybe you can venture into software testing as well, all of that. So I was amazed at the spectrum of jobs are the whole engineering industry can provide. So I'm going to focus basically on the software industry because I majored in computer science, so cool. So where does it all start? So I would say it all starts as a student because you all agree with me that the software jobs market is pretty evolving all the time like frameworks come in and out. I wouldn't say languages are replaced by languages because languages stay the same but the frameworks are kind of changing all the time. So I know many of you think that the theory that you study isn't that important, okay? And that may be less interesting to you as well. But what if you try to make it more interesting for yourself? Like, suppose you're reading the OSI model and computer networking, which is a very important topic, by the way, if you're interviewing and you will definitely get a question, like guaranteed you'll get a question on networking if you're looking to any technology job, I would say. So it is very important. So yes, theory is important, but try to correlate that with your day-to-day stuff, like the transport layer and OSI model that we have. So pretty sure that you might have come across that preparing a TLS handshake thing in the bottom left corner of your screen when you're trying to open your Gmail, right? So yeah, try to understand how that works because many a times even I was surprised when I first appeared for interviews. I was asked the questions that I used in my daily life and I was almost surprised, like, okay, I know this works this way, but I don't know what works, like how does it work under the hood? So that's what they ask, okay? So yeah, be prepared for those questions. So yeah, try to be curious and try to learn the background stuff of everything, like how message queuing works, how broadcasting works, things like that, how YouTube works under the hood, right? So try to be curious and always feed your curiosity, by the way. So pretty sure once you dive deeper, you'll be able to understand that, you know, there's more to learn than whatever you have discovered. Okay, so there is the sea of knowledge, okay? So I have added this picture for some inspiration. So if you're thinking to start a company of your own as well, that's completely fine and you can go ahead with it, but make sure that you have your feasibility study and your market research before you get started. So I think being an entrepreneur is like a pretty tough job because it's like wearing a lot of hats and doing everything on your own in the beginning. So good luck to that, by the way, hats off to all the entrepreneurs who are doing this. Cool, if you ask me how to get started, then I would say get started as a student.  But I think you have ample time to enjoy and ample time to discover everything and explore things on your own and come across topics that interest you. So okay, it's completely fine if you don't choose this, of course, but I would say that this is my journey, this is just my experience. So this is what helped me further my career. So it is very difficult to land your first internship or your first gig, as said earlier. So you have ample time to explore and try new things. You can try everything. So when I first started, I would say that I ventured into everything. Okay, I thought it was very late. I was just a sophomore and I didn't know get, I didn't know anything. I was just simply attending classes blindly and not even wondering about all of this stuff that we surrounded with works, okay. So yes, it was, but I made it a point to attend some meetups, local meetups from Google Developers Group, Women Techmakers, I'm pretty sure it's happening all across the country, by the way, DeafFist is coming soon. Be on the lookout for that. So I think I attended that and I joined a club that was there in my college. I was lucky enough to have a club, I would say. So I joined there and then I met a lot of people who were just starting off. Then I got to learn, get, then I started with participating in hack the buffets, participating in competitions and applying to fellowships and scholarships that I didn't get through, of course, but that did pave the way for the things that was coming by. So I, at beginning, in the beginning, you won't believe. I even tried Android programming. I tried data science. I explored into everything, okay. So then I started developing things on my own, learning about networking, learning about, building some stuff on my own, how JQuery works, why React came into the picture and stuff like that. So, yes, so I first, I gave my first interview, like first interview ever. So for a startup in Pugneshwar, so then I, they gave me three coding questions as far as I remember. And since I was just exploring, it was followed by an HTML CSS quiz as well, but I have a Goldfish brain, so I don't have a very good memory as well. So I wasn't able to exactly answer the classes and all that stuff that comes along with CSS. So I wasn't able to answer that, but I was able to answer two of those three coding questions. And then that was my first experience that I gained ever. Thank God they had faith on me as a fresher. And also I got to build projects on message queuing and writing some scripts here and there. So that was my first, you can say, my first gate that I opened to development. So that's how it all started for me. So once you start exploring, you get to build projects of my own and simultaneously when you build projects, your concepts get clearer. And, but I would say one thing that I would like to add here, one tip is don't just blindly follow tutorials, okay? So even if you follow tutorials and just treat it as the base of your project, okay? Build things on top of that project and bring in your own ideas and how you can improve it and make it as close to the industry standard as possible, like as close to the other apps that you interact on a daily basis. So I would say basically build a roadmap for your project. And if you're looking for project ideas, then I think hackathons are the best place to start because they get very nice, very cool problem statements and you get to tweak things on your own, come across some last minute changes as well. So I think participating in hackathons will give you a lot of room to develop projects, bring your own ideas into practical implementation and obviously it improves your problem solving skills and also meeting deadlines I guess, yes. So I also participated in a 24 hour hackathon which didn't last 24 hours, I would say lasted for 36 hours but the development was all over by 24 hours but we had to wait for some certain reasons. But yeah, so that was my first ever hackathon experience as well. I think you should get that experience, you should go to hackathon at least once in your life if you're thinking to become a developer, I think it will be an entire new door for you, entire new door of opportunities. So then once you get to grasp of it, you can start contributing to open source, I think it's a good place to start if you're looking to learn best practices in coding because it's used by people all around the globe, right? So yeah, so open source is a good place to start if you want to know the best practices in coding, all the industry standards and everything because they have widely known, well-known projects so I'm pretty sure that they follow the best practices. Also, if you can join a local meetup or confidence or club, it's a good to have and of course, if you don't have access to any of these you can always build your own study group, so cool. So if you ask me why open source software, I included this in my talk last year, that is, you know this, right? Why open source? Because Windows is enterprise as you must all know, we need anti-virus software to use Windows and when I first switched to Linux and I guess late 2017 or so, I was like searching for anti-virus software for Linux because I was so used to using anti-virus software and then the people around me, they started like, okay, what is anti-virus software? First of all, if you're looking for Linux. So yep, talking about Mac OS, I think the security level lies somewhere between Linux or Windows, but yeah, this is some food for thought for you. And I also included this in the last year's talk, like if you're looking for opportunities, you can go for mentorships or fellowships, maybe you can try Outreachy, but you have to be an underrepresented group in tech to apply for it and you needn't be a student, first of all, that's a good thing to note. You can also apply for Google Summer of Code, I think it's the most popular open source program out there and you can also apply for Girlscript Summer of Code if you are into competitions and you can just get started with Hacktoberfest as well. It's right around the corner, like you get to submit, I guess, four pull requests. I think it was increasing to five or six at a particular point of time, but I think it's constant now. It's for like all around the month of October, you'll be creating pull requests, but if you manage to create four valid pull requests, not just for the sake of creating pull requests, then you get to get a limited edition Hacktoberfest t-shirt. So yeah, I think that's a good place to start, even I started with Hacktoberfest. So yep, and also, participating in open source projects and participating in hackathons, it makes way for new ideas, okay? And who knows, you can even start your own startup, maybe on the base of that idea or maybe start a product or maybe a service. Also, you can be a mentor or a maintainer in any of the projects and you can take the power of the community forward. And you also get to speak at conferences just like we all are right now, like meeting in a conference and meeting like-minded people. And obviously, as mentioned earlier, you get to learn the best practices in coding. Followed by that, if you're looking for a paper issue or paper contribution kind of benefits or single contribution economic benefits, then you can go to GitPay, like there are issues and pay for that issue as well. You can go there, but I think it's pretty saturated. I mean, as soon as an issue comes, it gets taken away right away. There is GitHub sponsored as well. So, and also, if you're into cybersecurity or into quality assurance or testing, then bug bounty programs are the way to go as well. I think it's pretty popular on LinkedIn. I see a post every day for people reigning bug bounty programs. So, yes, if you're looking for open source programs, I think this is a very exhaustive list from Tabashini Pathak, so yep, you can go to this. And if you're not into competitions, if you don't want to give yourself that much stress, that's completely fine as well. I have attached some links for blogs and some projects, if you are looking to get started, if you're looking for language-wise open source projects, then I've attached this link as well, the first one. And then if you're looking for other projects, you can read these blogs. And there are even projects listed by Google open source as well. Cool, moving on. Once you have created that whole skill set and your own level of experience with your skill set, then you can go ahead with job search and interviewing. So it is very important to have a public profile on any platform like GitHub or any other open source platform that is available publicly. So, and also if you're into competitive programming, you can replace this with your code forces and or any other platform that you're using, just like we have in GitHub, I think a lot of other competitive programming platforms like code forces have this whole contribution, kind of heat map kind of thing, that we have green dots and also yellow dots during Halloween and stuff like that. So, yeah, you can make sure that your profile is public and everyone is going to kind of go to that profile every time you send your resume and stuff like that and link that to your resume, yes. So often some interviewers ask you to walk them through some past code that you might have written on GitHub. That has happened to me as well. So also just putting the tutorial projects won't help. So because if you just put the tutorial projects and don't understand how it works under the hood, then it is going to be a huge problem for you because you won't be able to maybe answer the questions and tackle what they wanna know. And they may ask for optimized way of rewriting that code or maybe refactoring. So, yep, I would say that play around the code, even if you're using a tutorial that's completely fine but play around the code and try to build in some things of your own because many a times I've faced this question many a times like what are the challenges of what is the most difficult challenge that you have faced as a programmer. So, yep, have something in your mind if you're willing to say that. I think I got this question the most. So, yep, and also if you're looking for jobs, try cold emailing, I mean just write mails but make sure that you invest some time in all of the emails, okay? So, don't just copy a template and because that will make them feel, everyone wants to feel special, okay? Because no one wants to feel ordinary, okay? So, that is human nature, okay? So, they get thousands of these emails and all messages on LinkedIn as well. So, try to give the review of a product or maybe a service that they have developed and you think that you connect with the service a lot. So, I would say that try for a company that has developed projects and or developed services that you're interested in or might have used on your own. I think that provides a good place to start as well. So, the same applies to LinkedIn as well. You can reach out to your alumni as well. That's where having a peer club helps, by the way. So, yep, that helped me come across a lot. That opened a new door of opportunities for me. I would say definitely be in touch with your alumni and let them know of your troubles. I'm pretty sure they will help because they have been in your place. So, also keep a tab on all the jobs and interviews. I didn't used to do that. I used to completely blindly apply on jobs and every time we used to get a call, I was like, okay, I applied for it and stuff like that. But again, nobody wants to feel ordinary. So, I would say keep a tab on all the jobs that you're applying to and also keep a tab on the interviews. Like, create a sheet, I would say. Once I started this, my interview life became a bit easier. So, I would say this is like a very good point that you can take away from here. It's like, keep a tab of what companies are reaching out to you and to what level of interview you were able to qualify and stuff like that. So, that will help you keep a tab of all the interviews that is going on and also don't repeat the same mistake that is while interviewing, try and make a note of all the questions that you weren't able to answer, okay? Or maybe the topics, cool? So, yeah, and try and educate yourself and be a better version by the next interview so that you don't get stuck on the same interview time and again, like same question time and again. And by the way, another tip that I would say about interviewing is that develop a habit of continuous learning. You'll obviously develop a habit of it once you get started, but once you face a few interviews, you may feel at ease, but also one more thing that if you're just trying to remember some terms on the internet and putting that in your answer, it's most likely that the next question is about that term. So, be prepared, don't use any other term that you're not aware of just for the sake of throwing jargon. Don't do that. I have paid a big price for it, even I failed a lot of interviews for it, so I would say that don't repeat that mistake, cool. So, here are some resources if you're looking to get started and prepare for interviews. Interview bit is a very good platform in order to clear your concepts. And also it provides the provision of mock interviews. If you are too nervous to get into a real interview then you can always have mock interviews with other peers and improve yourself. The next thing is obviously lead code. I think you have heard this a number of times. Even Anusha yesterday, she mentioned about lead code. So, you needn't necessarily be a competitive programming expert to do this. You can just learn the concepts like database and SQL relational database, all of that because you get a lot of those questions. So, it also is a very good platform to prepare for interviews, cool. Moving on, so yeah, I forgot to read that quote. That is a job interview is not a test of your knowledge but to your ability, but your ability to use it at the right time. So, even if you don't get through interviews just believe that there are better interviews and better companies ahead and go ahead because I have been disillusioned and disheartened as well. I thought that I'm not, you know, maybe not carved out for this sort of a job because I went for the hard stuff. I went for off-campus interviews and I failed a lot of interviews and I went into the slush as well.  So, all the best. So, yep, talking about interviews like interviewing is a lot like talking but you have to guide the conversation. You have to know what you want and go about getting it. So, again, that is the key because as I said earlier, if you're just throwing to throw jargons and things that you have marked up or maybe memorized and you don't know the concepts, then it's you're going to pay a huge price for it. So, cool. That's all about interviews. So, after you land a job, what do you have to do? Of course, keep up-skilling and then keep exploring new ideas. And I wouldn't really recommend to stick to a particular framework because frameworks keep changing. You can stick to a particular language like Python or JavaScript but the fundamental stuff always remains the same. So, getting a grasp of those fundamentals is going to help you in the long run. And also, keep sharing your ideas, maybe watching videos, keep sharing ideas and also getting new ideas. Like, maybe watch some talks on YouTube or maybe attend conferences like this or maybe write articles of your own. So, also you may have to rebound to job search if you're not happy with the job so be prepared for that as well. So, life is full of surprises. So, it can throw anything at you. So, yep. So, nowadays software engineers, that's what I've noticed that, nowadays the job descriptions, they mention everything, starting from testing, to DevOps, to development, everything. So, keep a tab of the state of the art trends that's going on and, you know, try and learn things on your own. So, that is going to help you a lot. And of course, pay it forward because try and help other job seekers because I was helped by someone who was not even job seeking at that point but I thought that he's a good person and he's very more experienced and you know, have someone to review your resume and or your emails and or your messages because that's going to help a lot. And, you know, pay special attention to every job application because that's going to help as well. So, yep. Don't forget to do that. Pay special attention to all the job interviews.  So, here is some inspiration for you. The first picture is of Ada Lovelace. She's considered to be the first programmer who explained how the notion of a specific engine could transition calculation to computation. So, yep. She's one of the most famous women in technology and every second Tuesday of October is kind of celebrated as the Ada Lovelace day to celebrate all women in STEM. And again, coming to Grace Hopper, I'm pretty sure you have attended Grace Hopper celebration and YAR, maybe Grace Hopper celebration that happens in the US. So, she's the person who this conference is named after. So, she designed a compiler which translated programmers' instructions into computer code. So, that's when we hadn't realized the power of computers. So, yep. Learning about them gives a lot of inspiration and it helps because they paved the way and obviously this helps. This will help you. Learning about them and reading about them will help you get some inspiration as well as keep you going forward as well. So, some of the inspirations, we talked about history. So, why not talk about something, some women who are acing it in the present, right? There's Rishma Sojinni, founder and CEO of Girls Who Code. Then there is Suzanne Wojcicki. Not sure if I'm pronouncing it correct. She is the CEO of YouTube. So, yeah, there is inspiration everywhere. Of course, I wasn't able to include all the list, everything in the list. And if you want to learn more, you can always read their books, read content, read blog posts about them to get an inspiration. There is Indira Nui too. And if you're active on Twitter, you may, if you're into JavaScript, then you may know Alice Pitil and Emma Burstian, the founders of the Ladybug podcast. They create contents, books, projects, podcasts, and also put posts on Twitter that can help you. Following them, following the right people on Twitter will get you closer to where you want to be. So, and also help you connect with like-minded people, by the way. So, make the most of Twitter. Cool. So, again, this is a picture for your inspiration. I would say hang in there. You'll be able to do it. Cool. Time for some questions. I hope I didn't bore you and you were able to sit through it. And hopefully you get some instructions, get some help from my experience. Cool. Thank you, Manaswini, for this amazing and interesting session. When we are almost close to the top of the hour, maybe we can take one or two questions at this moment. Well, we have a lot of inspiration.  So, cheers to these STEM years. Thank you so much for this. Okay, so we have our first question. How to handle job search fatigue from another person? Okay, so that is going to happen a lot, I would say. You wouldn't land your first job in the very first interview, okay? So, be prepared for it, first of all, because the world is hard and you're going to face a lot of stuff, but keep improving yourself in every interview. Just as I said, keep a tab of the questions that you're getting and you're not able to answer, because the ones that you're able to answer, at least you have some idea about it, but the ones you're not able to answer, you have no idea about it. So, it is going to, if you don't get that doubt cleared and if you don't feed your curiosity on to that, I'm pretty sure you'll get that in the next interview and you're gonna be stuck there. So, I would say keep a tab of the questions that you're not able to answer and obviously ask about feedback at the end of the interview. Like, what do you think about this feedback? How can I improve myself? I'm pretty sure some headhunters and the interviewers concentrate enough to tell you some tips and tricks to improve, so be on the lookout for that. Just don't go down to the cell and don't ask and don't be shy, just ask whatever you can and because then I'm pretty sure that you may not meet that person again if you don't have an interview. So, what's the harm in asking, right? Thanks. We have our next question from Anshika Rajiv. She asks, how to make an impact in workspaces when you join it? I would say being active and being consistent because when I joined, don't think that you're a junior developer, okay? There are senior developers. There will always be senior developers, okay? The ones that you hire. Try to learn something about them. Even if someone is junior to you, try to learn something from them as well. So, how to make an impact, I would say, if there is some local talk that is happening, try and organize that. Try and maybe write some blog posts that the company blog can feature about, right? I would say that helped a lot in creating an impact. I would say I'm very active when it comes to organizing any talk or maybe, you know, I'm the one, I'm pretty sure that that is the reason why they always look up to me to fill in in such cases. And I think earlier I thought that, okay, this is just, you know, normal stuff. I'm just being myself and stuff like that. But I didn't realize the exact impact when unless, you know, my manager started contacting me for representing Red Hat in Grace Hopper Celebration India and stuff like that. So that's how we can create an impact. Like even if there is an event that's taking place, you know, share your ideas openly. You never know, they may come across some idea that they haven't thought of at the first place. So be very free and you can say, be very true to yourself and, you know, try and be outgoing and friendly. I think that helps a lot. And also help the other new joiners. I think that is what the workplaces appreciate as well a lot. Thanks, Manjwini. Maybe we can just take one more. How to know about opportunities like fellowships and or scholarships. Okay, this is a tough one. I would say that is scholarships.com. That is scholarships for women.net.  And they often share and also join the flow group. I think they have a flow group in Facebook. Join that. They also share opportunities there. And they also have a WhatsApp group, by the way. I subscribed to that when I was in my, you know, when I was a sophomore. And they also shared very good fellowships and or scholarship opportunities. I would say, even if you come across it, don't just, you know, think that, okay, I'll put it for later. You're not going to go back to it later. I'm pretty sure.  Thank you. Thank you.