Great day. We got a lot of things to cover and not a lot of time So I'm just gonna tell you right now that the crypto market is crashing I think we can all see that around it So I want to give you a little bit of perspective and talk about where I made all my money hint It wasn't in a bunch of these bull markets So I want to talk to you today about just to give you a little perspective first of all We're gonna take a look at Simon Dixon. He's been an early investor since 2011 And he gives you some bulletproof advice for surviving and thriving in these bear markets Also, we're gonna take a look at what I call the good news Fidelity is gonna get into retirement savings account. We're gonna talk about just how much that could actually be We're gonna take a look at how even Congress 21 members are getting into it. And then also we'd take a look at how Fort Worth in Texas my great state is the first city in the US to mine Bitcoin So if you don't think things are bullish, well, you can just take a look at the market itself And that'll just show you what's going on. So let's just break into it, shall we? So let's first do a market recap and see exactly where we are at. So Today not a great day But it is the bear it is the bear market. Let's just call a spade a spade, right? So what I want to do is just show you that these are the bad days and these the days where of course you can short it You can go long and what if not go long, but these the days that me and a bunch of other people actually live for as the price starts to go down and I Talked about this numerous times.  Maybe the earnings are bad for the digital market. Are we correlated? I think we are and you can see it right now like we're down 5.4 percent an S&P Down to 1.9 which almost 2% which is like a horrible day for tradify and even like again Nasdaq Which is what we're more closely correlated to closely correlated to is 4% here. We are 5.4 So again, I mean, hopefully it picks back up, but is that the big thing now? I'll show you exactly what I'm talking about and again.  Is it time to sell? Is it time to and they remember news is great If you want to have anxiety and you want to just you know hear all the bad because sensationalism Totally those sell and that's just how it is. So everywhere you look you're gonna see some pretty negative news But again, if you're here for the day today, that is not what this channel is about This is not investment advice just investment opinion, but I'm here for the long haul and I'm telling you right now These day-to-day operations is not where it's at I'm gonna talk to you real quick about where I made all the money if you if you're new to the channel This this is no surprise to you But if you're not I mean if you're not new if you're new to this to this channel, this is no surprise This is where I made all my money and like I always talk about when in doubt zoom out But this is the Bitcoin chart we can go all the way back to 2014 if you want to it was worth nothing But this is when I started right around here Yeah, November or so when it actually went up to around 19,000. I thought I was a genius see this time frame February 2018 to around right here December 2020 this This is where I made all my money. I don't make money up here buying and selling little stuff right here And of course, I mean you can find those those altcoin gems and things like that But I'm not making money right here. I just I'm stubborn My dollar cost average and I just go this way and that's really what it comes down to that's where I've made all my money It's not rocket science. It's not something that it requires a degree to understand It's just time in the market is more important than timing the market. That's gonna lead me to my next point I'm gonna introduce you To Simon Dixon and if you haven't followed Simon Dixon He is one of the guys that if you go to any video on my channel. Let's see here Let's bring this one up. Let me pause this if you go into The links down below in description These are the guys I watch all the time coin bureau CTO larson the best answers in the crypto verse hash Oh, she biggie crypto stash and Simon Dixon You can find his information and his link right there and you can't miss him He's got the worst thumbnails of all time, but it doesn't matter about the thumbnails because he just gives look at this Goofy But he does like the greatest advice he's been investing since 2011 and what he's gonna share with you right now is pretty much Just gold. It's about two minutes and this is where we're at in the bear market So just take a listen. First of all, let me stop the screen Let me share it the tab so you can actually hear what he's saying He talked about how to survive a Bitcoin market. So just take a listen. Let me mute myself The individual the company in the country now Bitcoin bear markets are awesome for individuals for a couple of reasons The first is that there's less noise when there's less noise you get to consume content like this from people I don't want to toot my own horn But there's not a part of Bitcoin and the crypto sector that I haven't seen having been there right from the beginning So when I share my content, I'm sweet speaking from the perspective of somebody that has achieved all of My wealth by investing in the sector way more than I could ever imagine I was deep in debt before starting trying to create a bank And having supported over 150,000 investors Creating the largest community of investors investing in this sector right from the beginning From the foundations of Bitcoin to the foundations of Ethereum to all of the companies in between and all of the different booms and busts and cycles that we've seen in between and Those that have become incredibly wealthy and I'm talking billionaires Were those that had a longer term perspective and got back to basics And so the great thing about Bitcoin bear markets is Those youtubers that were just pumping leverage trading and wrecking all of their Subscribers that were looking for the next big shiny object and the next Bitcoin killer and then the next Togecoin killer or she burino or all of these different things They all get wrecked. They lose their money. They over trade. They speculate. They create tax liabilities And the YouTube influencer that was pushing what they were being paid to push Disappears during the bear market And you just get the real community of hardcore people that are having the time of their life Because they get to accumulate Bitcoin at cheaper rates the longer the bear market lasts So if you're living by a few of my mantras the mantra that I used in order to take myself from a hundred and fifty thousand Dollars deep in debt. In fact, if it included my mortgage, which was about two hundred thousand dollars three hundred and fifty thousand dollars deep in debt To achieving more financially than I could ever imagine possible Was because each month I set myself a goal that I would have more Bitcoin each month and I did the previous month I measured my wealth in Bitcoin not in the dollars That it was so during the crashes my dollars or my pounds or my euros or my yen or my Remy would buy me more Bitcoin. And so it's a big shift in thinking And that is what has worked for many of the wealthy investors at bank to the future So two things for the individual I'm sorry about that. So, yeah, that's just it. It's the the basics of basics I know like when people take a look at this and like First of all, I know if you just got in you're probably hating me right now because you're like How dare you say those as I see my portfolio just keep going down and down and down trust me I've been right there and I was just as ticked off But as you were when I would see these people going, oh, you just got a dollar cost average just get into it I'm like, how do you know me? You don't know me. I Know you because I've been you. I know exactly where it is. I can't give you financial advice I can just tell you what my story was and that's where it gets to me. So again, you can find this gentleman The link below for Simon Dixon and he's got great advice He's been one of the early investors into Coinbase and a lot of different Exchanges cracking and stuff like that. So he's been around we've seen it all and just the same thing that that keeps saying It's again. It's not rocket science and this again is why I'm also still bullish because it's all about being future proof And we just take a look at what's going on and what's happening right now In the space itself, which if you take a look at it, this is one of the reasons So there was a great story. There's a bunch of great stories actually fidelity There's also the Congress and the Fort Worth, Texas. So check this out So fidelity is gonna allow retirement savings allocation of Bitcoin and 401k accounts and Before I go on Why is this so important that fidelity is gonna allow this? It's because of this, you know much money's out there sloshing around in the world Well, I always talk about this visualization. I'm gonna start from the ground up There's over a quadrillion. That's a real number quadrillion of money each one is little squares is a hundred billion dollars and this is These are contracts options swaps. These are all derivatives That's over at a quadrillion just for that maybe 500 trillion give or take a couple trillion Who knows and then if we take a look at global wealth 360 trillion take a look at real estate 280 trillion global debt is 250 trillion This was in 2020 stock markets have just a measly roughly a hundred trillion. So when I think about this and I'm like Where can it go? The question is like well, how much money is actually in retirement accounts? Maybe take a look at this. This is from March. Jeez. This is March 22 22. This is from ICI global who's that ICI global? Leading associate representative regulated investment funds It's members managed total assets of 31 trillion in the US serving more than a hundred million investors So it's not just some fly-by-night company. This is what they say There's almost 40 trillion dollars in retirement assets. So when I see these types of stories, I'm like this is just the beginning This is great Fidelity level retirement accounts Micro-strategy shocker with the first employer to use a new product Which we made available to other employers by the middle of the year David Gray had a workplace retirement offerings said yes We're gonna start with Bitcoin and then we're gonna move on to other digital assets in the future And that's just fidelity and they've got trillion of assets under mention I want to say 2.3 correct me in my in the comment section, but that's just fidelity so we take a look at that and then we take a look at This little gem congress members are tiptoeing into crypto This was just a research analysis found that 21 members of Congress or their immediate family traded crypto crypto investment products and stocks In crypto related businesses and out of the group Seven members serve on committees in the Senate or house that hold key regulators accountable to me This is just they're raising the the the alarms right now Which is kind of funny because no one raised alarms when all members of Congress were investing into stocks Even though they were part of those regulation committees. It's amazing to me that they're just getting that on the table after. I don't know 5060 70 years allowing them to do that anyhow, that's just that part and then lastly more good news As far as like regular regulation, but just as far as like government getting into it Fort Worth which rise out of Dallas is the first city in the US to mine Bitcoin and they're gonna mine it Right out of City Hall So there's gonna be three bit mine bit mine bit main at minor S9 mining rigs We're on 24 hours a day seven days a week and a climate-controlled Information tech wing forward city hall. So look, I know the market is sucking today And I know what it is But like I've said before When in doubt zoom out and you can kind of see the big picture nothing gets done overnight It just takes a long time and that'll lead me to my last point that will conclude everything for the news But I want to give you an even bigger perspective. I'm I had on Steve Erlich. He's the CEO of Voyager He was also the ex CEO of e-trade and he's gonna talk to you about the things that were happening in the late 90s when stocks are being purchased and how e-trade come about he's gonna talk about Amara's law He's gonna talk about just the things that he hears and sees as the CEO of a billion dollar company for all these institutional investors I was given James a lot of slack for it over on the best answers But you know what after talking to Steve in this interview. I'm like, yeah, I see where things are going So check out this video. It's about it's a long one. It's about 20 minutes But it's got great information especially with what's going on this space So let me just pull that up and that is it after that if you want to stick around we'll do Q&A. Here we go All right, everybody. So as promised I brought in someone who could really give us a little bit more Perspective on what is going on. We've got Steve back on the show CEO of Voyager Digital Steve. Thanks for stopping by Thanks for having me again. I appreciate coming back and spending some time with you Yeah, it's gonna be good time So I know you already had a great interview with DJ over at by the sip by the by the dip sell the tip And I want to expand on a couple of things but first before we do that I want to take a trip down memory lane because I don't Because there are people I don't think we understand where we're going until we know where we've been So I want to talk about just a little bit of a Voyager review. How did we get there? Or how do we get here? I want to talk about your first blog post that you ever did around Voyager And I'll see you talk about being bullish in 2019 and we're going to fast forward to the day What are you seeing as the CEO of a billion dollar company and the different things that are going on? Is it the same? There's a little bit different Then we'll go over just the rapid fire review of what you and DJ talked about Which is the Voyager loyalty program five tiers the token burn the block fine nexo Celsius Season assist debit card equities Canada Europe roll out and then I just want to expand the one part Which is what separates Voyager from the block flies of the world In the eyes of the regulators and talk about that new hire of brian brooks From our occ on the board of directors. So What do you think? We got a lot. Let's get going. You know a lot to cover happy to do it Looking forward to it and hopefully everyone listening and watching actually Learn something or get some more clarity on where Voyager is and where we're going I think that's the big thing So let's start here because again, we don't know where we're going till we know what we've been And I know people will say it's easy. Just flip the switch. Steve. Why can't you do that? Well, this is why I've never run a billion dollar company. That's why I'm glad you're here So let's take a trip So in 2018 you guys launched Voyager and then really in 2019 is when things got going So in february You had your app launch on the ios and that was only in 10 u.s states. I'll remind everybody only 10 Uh, and then you only had 17 cryptos available like bitcoin eith light coin and you also ip owed, right? Somewhere around we did an rto. Yeah, we did an rto in february 19 We did a reverse takeover of what was then a traditional mining company Not a bitcoin mining traditional We took that over and got the approval in february 2019. So we were off and running Perfect. And then in march you did the the rewards in august you added more crypto You had a 4x increase in customers You added from 10 states to 49 u.s states plus you added in 3 os territories My new home Puerto Rico and in october you added eight more cryptos plus you did the android app And you had an interest program of three percent bitcoin sound about right so far Yeah, that was really the kickoff time. Uh, was october november 2019 was when we really it was uh consistent I think with noble con Uh where we met a few folks down there and started building the business Perfect now it's both fast forward to 2020. This is the breakout year as I talk about growth comes with growing pains january 2020 usd becomes fdic insured February you acquired circle invest 40 000 customer base for crypto trading you guys really started to blow up September 2020 you increased the yield to eight and a half percent bitcoin and usd and you added up to 50 more cryptos Offering the platform and in october 2020 you had a merger announcement with lgo, which was the french exchange And now that you've taken that over sound still right on track Yeah, 2020 was pretty busy got a lot accomplished and I think when you flip to 21 Uh, we even accomplished more so it was just all part of Kind of growing growing into our body right growing up and maturing this company. I can see that now Now 2021 Growing pains and balance. This is where we all get these stumbles But this is where business has become great in march You had the wait list implemented and people blew me up for that one customer support and new hires In 2021 you had your audit complete because of the the voyager loyalty program or the the voyager swap Quant stamp did that your token swap was ready june 2021 Thank you for the reoccurring buys and a dca available for me in august He did the token swap bqx lgo voyager and the voyager loyalty program was rolled out in november He did the debit card, which I just got mine about a month ago Yep Yeah, I think that 21 was super busy. Uh, I think probably the number one stat in there The stuff that you you you have on there plus, you know, that's In 21 we've opened a million funded accounts and went from 400 250 million of customer assets january 1st to 5.6 billion by the end of the year so In addition to that in addition to scaling the business we we added a boatload of Of customers and assets which really put us on the map and Kind of leads right into where we are into in 2022 Yeah, perfect. No slacking right and now this year So far you've went from 17 in the beginning to over 100 plus cryptos in the platform You got partnerships with dallas mavericks and then also fun strat and microbelling because you're going to also offer equity or stocks On voyager as well And then you actually did a 10x growth and employment in two years Now you've got to over 250 employees And I think you've got a on speed dial for developer deployment and higher ranks so far so good Yeah, I probably had three requests today to sign off on new developers. So, uh, yeah It's non-stop. It is pretty 22 has started off pretty fast as well But as we've stated it's about bringing more product And you know, we're starting to get there and things are starting to roll out Yeah, great. And the reason of course we did this is because everybody wants things now And I just got to remind people that If not as easy as just going let's flip this switch and get this done There's a process to it. So that's what we're at which leads me to my next point There's some things that only you can give us right now as far as like perspective because you've been You've been around since the 90s when you started off an e-trade CEO and all those things So I want to take you back a little bit and just tell us your thought process and how things are repeating or not As far as the market. So this is your first blog post you ever did in 2018 for voyager And you said hey when I started the mid 90s online trading didn't exist So I want everybody to remember that in the 90s online trading didn't exist You had to call your bro your broker They would go on the floor They would start shouting just like you'd see in the old days and then you would buy those Those those purchases, right? The movie trading places what you saw in trading places in the pits That's how it was And john and pete and tom lee all can contest that because we were all around those days and it was mayhem But that's how you did a trade. There was no there was no electronics in in trading. There was no electronic trading There was no send your trade down to the internet, you know, the internet barely existed Uh in the mid 90s, so We've come a long way, but people fail, you know to forget that that was only 25 years ago It wasn't it wasn't it wasn't a hundred years ago Like when cars, you know when when henry fort took the first car, right? I mean this is 25 years ago And we've come a really long way when it comes to the financial markets But it's interesting because we do make those You know, we're going to go into it the similarities and differences from crypto to the financial markets And there there are a lot and and we'll get into that but I think that People have to have that mindset that even when companies like e-trade and and ameritrade and schwaab You know were built and schwaab was a big brokerage house Before electronic trading, but then e-trade and ameritrade really jumped on the electronic trading bandwagon It took years to build their systems before they even got started to the marketplace Like e-trade started building their systems in 94 Then brought it to the market like 97 98 and and so three four years before they even took their first system into the marketplace So three to four years now we bring crypto companies to the marketplace In a year or two and you're expected to have the same Quality systems that those guys have but by the way we passed them in quality because they're legacy systems now because they're 25 years old And you know, that's the similar that's some of the similarities and differences just on technology Yeah, and it's the same thing here like you talk about because we've got crypto We're moving into the next generation and just because of e-trade and that technology the birth of online trading the 90s Went from 5% and then previous wreck from the previous decade to over 20% that's a pretty big jump in my opinion Yeah, and it's probably the data today probably in the electronic trading because institutions in the 90s You know when it started and then even in the 2000s, they weren't a lot of institutions still trading electronically Yeah, and they were still calling down To their brokers on the otc desks to do it Now today institutions still do a lot of phone business But at the same token they're using electronic systems to execute trades Which is why I think there's such going to be such an adoption In crypto is more and more in you know institutions come in they're going to stop the otc desks as well To manage the orders and they're going to start using you know technology to do that as well Yeah, I think we're right on track and this lead me to my next point In the same year you also wrote this while you're bullish in the crypto market and I found this part interesting this called This thing called Amara's law Which states the impact of all great technological change is often overestimated in the short run and underestimated In the long term. I think that's one of the problems that we have right now With the bear market and you and you talk about crypto should be a long game It's a good strategy with the internet and it should be a good strategy with crypto And just remember in 2001 amazon stock was six bucks less than 20 years. It hit two grand a share So that would be the thing that I come back to you about for perspective Do you see the same thing going on with crypto? Do you see how things are working? Is it the same thing and how do you what do you see as a ceo for these institutional investors? Yeah, that's exactly what I say is that amazon at six bucks, you know to 2020 years later I think the time frame investors today is much shorter than what we thought of 20 plus years ago Um, I think people want instant gratification on a lot of trading, but there's you can have instant gratification on some Uh investing, but then you have to still have a longer term approach Yeah, um, and the similarity to that is that technology infrastructure and technology e-commerce in 2001 were still really early and and the really early days of the internet and most people Probably almost all millennials probably don't even remember dial up, right?  Hope you don't wake the kids up Because the sounds were so loud You you would wake the kids up and and you would get yelled at for that You know in your own house and you were like wait a second There has to be a better way and eventually it came which eventually led to more e-commerce adoption And therefore amazon and others started to really excel same thing here now, right? Like a lot of the tech companies are under a ton of stock pressure We're we're growth companies and You know the growth of our companies will come over time as we keep getting more and more customers And crypto as well as more and more people are Entering the space and becoming part of this. This is the new infrastructure And we'll see all that happen now Over the next 20 years, but you can get instant trading and instant success But you also need to have some patience, you know for long-term success too. Yeah, I got you So before we move on the next one just real quick. What do you see as far as like the institutions? Are they being on the door? Or is it not even a big thing that it's like, yeah, we'll get to it at some point Oh, I think institutions are beating on the door for both crypto and crypto assets Uh and and getting in there And then companies like ours where they look at it and say, wow, you know, you have 1.2 million customers 5 billion of assets Your stock's been under a lot of pressure This is a really good time to get in You know with with the business so we're excited about that list of people that we talked to But you know, we're so we're so well positioned for us for the future between The loyal customer base we have the loyal token holders or shareholders. It's like we just see we see the end game We see like hey, this thing is just going to continue to build. Yeah, I think Yeah, you guys are in a great position I think the retail investor which is what you're focused on on voyager Is in a fantastic position and we just took a look at the simon dixon video. It's the same thing It's a mentality shift. I never made any money in the bull markets I made all my money in the bear markets just investing in dollar cost averaging. Okay So thanks for those pieces. Let's move on to our next piece Which is the question I have let's do a rapid fire review because you had your interview with dj great guy And you guys went over a plethora of items and it's about an hour and a half long or so So i'm gonna link that video down in the description, but for everybody Let's just do a quick review of what was said So real quick rapid fire review the Voyager loyalty program in five tiers. Where are we with that one? Yeah We had a meeting My team In new york. I mentioned that on the dj show as well Putting the whole process together. We're working on a lot of technology development One of the things I pointed out was the way the loyalty program was built the first time Was simplistic. It wasn't overly complex And now we're building much more complex Which means the system and the microservices we're building are more detailed So it's taking us longer, but I think the benefits people will see Such as reduced trading spreads for different tiers and and more cash back and more vgx I mean, there's so many good things that are going to come out of that that program That's being built right now. That's okay as long as it's safe. I mean we see rug pulls every day So i'm i'm just worried about the safety part sounds good And then actually before I ask these questions, let's just do this because everybody's gonna say the same thing Well, when is it when is it when is it give me dates give me dates? Just like we talked about in the very beginning. It's not as easy as you might think So let's just do this vlp5 tiers token berm The debit card equities canada europe rollout All right, i'm in a long-term frame. I don't really care day today or month in month So let's just say like this. Can we do all those things before 2023? q2 Or maybe yeah, say say them again. I think the answer is yes Voyager loyalty program five tiers the token burn debit card Equities getting actually stocks on to voyager and the canada canada and europe rollout Can we get that done? Can you guys get that done before q2 2023 or even how about this by 2023? Let's start there Yeah, we think we're going to get them all done in the calendar year 2022 All of those all of those done Now oh, you know canon is subject to the osc But uh everything else. Yeah, I think that our goal is to get them done in 2022 by the end of the calendar year Great. So real quick token burn. How are we doing with that? I know you you and dj talk You said look if you wanted the token burn for the different transactions It's not way that much anyhow, but maybe as we move into like hotels and travel and air you know Airplanes and maybe all the different purchasing make online and we can do burns that way. How are we looking? Yeah, same thing. I think in the aspect of Burning tokens that people use for withdrawals or payments Uh, we'll burn some but you know Let's have this conversation with someone over twitter dm today and I said there's only 300 million tokens in the marketplace so what level of burn do you think you need to Uh to really make it impactful. Um, and when you start putting numbers like 20 million or 30 million As impactful to burn Where are they coming from? That means people have to be using vgx to pay for withdrawals or pay for you know Merchant purchases to do that. That's a lot of volume to go through. So I think there'll be a turn I know there'll be a token burn. I don't think it's as impactful Uh, just you know guiding expectations here. Don't think it's as impactful as people who Keep mentioning it on twitter. Um Yeah, there are a lot of trolls that do mention it on twitter too, but I think it's not as Yeah, hopefully elan gets that You know Fixed right? I mean that's what we're all hoping for that the bots and the trolls You know at least the bots come out. So But I do think it's it's not It's not that many tokens in the marketplace. It's 300 million tokens And they're going as I said to dj when we have this marketing pool It's going back to the users of the platform. So shouldn't people be excited about that? Like I'm going to use the platform I'm going to use the debit card.  It's not going to create a thin air. That's the big thing fantastic And then the debit card I've been using it so far The only time I got it rejected and you know about this is because I try to pay a huge My irs bill It was a high five figure number and I didn't realize that there's a limit But that's me. That was my first purchase.  How we going looking for like to the masses In a 2020. Yeah, so Oh, no, no, no much before that Uh, and I think your issue is you probably try to use the routing number and account number which is still being tweaked and You know, and that'll be done. You know, that'll be done by the major rollout and it's not that far away We're very close to getting full sign-off from metropart and commercial bank Which is our banking partner and uco, which is our program manager Uh, to also public companies And because they got to go through all sorts of compliance checks bank secrecy act and Other olfak checks and all that and we're really really close and we're going to start bringing more and more people on to the Into the debit card inviting them to use very, you know, very very very near future Uh to get more people on it and start rolling it out Then when we get the full go live from the bank, uh, we'll roll it out to the masses But it'll be done. It'll be into the masses by the end of june. There's no doubt about that I got time sounds good. And then lastly equities stocks How we looking for that one and that looks like a partnership between you fundstrat and market rebellion Yeah, I mean most of the work's being done by our market rebellion buddies Uh, but fundstrat has some good research too that we can incorporate in By the fourth quarter calendar quarter of this year. We expect that to be rolling Um and excited by that because I think your first foray's equities will probably look at some options in there Pretty quickly after that as well Gotcha and in canada europe rolled out same thing into 20 33 again I got time probably because I have it and that's because i'm not i'm not impatient on that one All right, so this will just let's finish this up with this one I think it's a bigger to expand On what separates voyager as a broker from the block fi is the world Yeah, as far as the regulators as people know who have fallen this channel We've seen this happen with a season assist letter with block fi nexo And then recently april 15th celcius said hey if you're not a accredited investor You're not going to be able to earn yield past april 15th If you aren't a credit investor and everything else else that you have on april 15th and before you still will I'm moving forward. We can't because the regulators are working with so How you guys differ what's how does that work out and then is brian brooks the former occ You guys hired as to be on your board. Is he like the ace in the hole and what has he given you as far as like advice? Uh, look, I think brian is Very well connected I've spent some time with brian Down in bitcoin 2022. I had him in the pod that interview will come out shortly Where we talked about regulation and talked about his experience with banking You know great person. I love spending time with brian And he is one of one of a he's a key asset for us because he is so well connected We get to speak to people we get you know get information about what's going on In banking and and crypto, you know industries Uh, but we we differ from those guys in in quite a few different ways one probably the most Most most important way we think is what we do with the assets We strictly lend the assets to major parties where others were actually prop trading And they were actually, you know, I think block five might have had five percent of gbtc at one point in time And people are doing things with the derivatives on that we haven't done any of that and We believe they're customer assets So the way to generate the rewards was to lend an hour and give those rewards back to the consumers now I also said on the you know on dj is that you think about this is that you have an eight percent Inflation right we have hyper inflation It doesn't seem like just any time soon And you're getting rewards on usdc at at nine percent And some states don't want you as an individual to be able to earn nine percent Which just offsets inflation which basically helps you stay Trading water when prices are increasing your dollar you earned a year ago is only worth 92 cents now But hey go go go buy those same goods which when you think about it also leads to a recession Yeah, because You know if you can't buy the same goods at your local hardware store Supermarket and you're buying less their profit margins will be less So what what do companies do when their profit margins are less? They go to their highest cost. What's their highest cost usually employment employees So they cut employees They cut salaries they cut employees and cut bonuses that means the disposable income people have to reinvest goes down So isn't crypto doesn't crypto serve as one of the answers to offset an inflationary environment and A recession it surely does to me truly does to a lot of economists Uh, and why are we letting people outside the us? Earn rewards when the us is you know pushing back on that stuff So to me, I think the differences are as I said how we do the assets how we Talk to customers our information that we put out there I think one of those parties didn't you know didn't properly disclose Or said that they were fully collateralized when they weren't You know we lend it that's what we do and So we think there are significant differences Gotcha So I guess just keep working with the regulators until we get the place where we want to be Okay, so Steve that is it for for this one any last words of wisdom for the retail investor out there Uh hitting being hit hard with this uh bear market Yeah, I would say you know Money is made in the bear markets to be honest with you It's you know, you have to have a little bit of a gut to do it And you know a thick stomach you've got to be able to You know keep investing in Find the the opportunities on the different coins that you're comfortable with This is truly when millionaires get made as in the bear market by making the bets Making taking the opportunity to invest And doing it on the dca basis too, right you keep you keep pushing that point home And I think that's important You know, you don't have to take your your whole 10 000 embedded right now You could do it over $2,500 bets Uh, I should say bets for $2,500 investments You're over time. Uh, you know, so just keep doing it that way. I think that's the right way to do it Rather than trying to make one investment and one big dollar's right away dca away into different coins dca away into different stocks And you you'll you'll you'll come out in the long run the markets will rebound at some point here It's just a matter of way A short-term pain long-term gain. Yeah, exactly right and two things Um the first part is uh as far as like betting there's no regulation for that So go ahead and just do whatever you want as far as betting and gambling in Las Vegas And the second thing is is that peter lynch even said Everybody has the brain power for investing. It's just all depends on do you have the stomach steve? We appreciate you coming by. Thanks so much Thanks, appreciate being here Great and that was it so it was a little bit longer But I think it gives you the right perspective as far as the retail investor. I mean, I know the markets suck I was there when markets suck to 2018 19 20 all the way down, but um if we just Take a step back when in doubt zoom out all the same things I've been saying forever It really does make things manageable and just take a look at the insights of uh some some pretty um Interesting people who have been Down the same path you have when we took a look at simon dixon 2011 investor and now major investor in all these different types of crypto exchanges and you know that And steve who was uh ex-CEO of e-trade and just how far along things have been so that is it So look if you like today's video give it a thumbs up If you like don't like a bit thumbs down But just tell me why so I can fix it and also consider subscribing I think we talked about our time sensitive and now if you got to take off that's cool It's been 40 minutes, but if you want to stick around for some q&a Let's do that right now because there's a lot of questions. I got to go over. All right. Let's go over Let's hit it up so so so Okay I started some because I thought it was so interesting. So let's see here first one. Ah, let's see banners. Let me get rid of this comments Michael michael m it's a live background, but it's fake just like the screen save on a computer Look at the blurred outline around his head. I don't know You can't do that unless you're zack king For green screens. Okay anyhow Great time to buy. I have to agree Dirty dirty day rookie numbers and likes. Yes, that's true Uh, this one here tony and somebody else There hello there rob the mrs. Carol franklin who you recommend to me doesn't seem to be responding to my messages Can you get me in touch with her? I need some of the bitcoin I sent to her to pay the rent Jesus sweet marion joseph So look tony you got scammed. That's just really what it comes down to and um, you see like let me Let me brag something here So you can see what I'm talking about mom ah Okay, look at this out of here comments comments Okay, see that thing underneath me that says dan will never contact you I will never contact you period and then also If it's from an email or something.  I don't even look at anyhow and only the ones that people bring to me so I don't need you to I'm not going to reach out to you because I need you to help me with finding projects. Trust me I got that taken care of so I will never contact you. Let me say that again I'll never contact you period. So then also there's a video you should check out Because people say oh well it's from your email. Well, it's because they can spoof emails and it's very easy to do I lay it out exactly how they do it and how you can check it very easily with a very nice piece of information from google so Just check that out Just look up digital asset news lost everything and you'll find exactly what I'm what I'm saying here I hate to be harsh on that one But it really does Like get to me the scams are not and you guys know that so like when I see these things I'm like come on He's serious. I even on every single show. I got a thing that right underneath me. It says dan won't contact you unbelievable all right Off my high horse. Yes, I know and then I bought a long gate. That's my I'll never see again. Yeah, you know, it's a lot of a lot of trash out there. Sorry Um Kapokon says used to buy lots and lots of coins. I'm going to focus on specific projects that way. Hopefully better You know what? I can't give you the best advice, but that's what I've done Like I used to buy a ton of stuff in 2017. Most of it just went to zero. So live and learn I guess Rob will jump in the pool and Bitcoin is 100k. Yes, I will and then alchemist He says cash is trash Um, I don't think alchemist believes that I gotta tell you cash is great If you want to like Like hide transactions like there's nothing better than cash nothing. It's why the cartel It's it's the currency of choice with the cartel And then also our legato says inflation is more like it was in the 70s. You know that in the in the 70s late 70s early 80s Uh, the president of the fair the president of the fair The chairman of the fed reserve vulgar. He actually raised the rates to uh Over 20 because inflation was 14.5 percent. That's what was recorded So right now we're seeing some pretty heavy inflation So I'm not wouldn't be surprised if we see uh Jerome Powell come on and go. Hey, let's start Let's keep raising and we already know he's gonna come out six seven times and do that So we'll see all right. So that was the comments that I started out that were interesting and then uh Cad Nick says Are you buying doge? I did buy a little bit and you know why? Because if elan apparently eon's gonna buy twitter, right and he's got this big Fascination with doge. I was like, yeah finals buy a little bit again Is this something I'm gonna put all my money into no Is this I'm gonna put like 50 percent of my portfolio into no, but I thought eh Why not when I live when I live once might as well just buy a little bit of doge and go from there The majority majority of my holdings in my portfolio is still bitcoin and ethereum. That's just how it goes So yeah, that's what it is Also, if you want to get into if you want to see me do some really degenerate plays Go over to my second channel digital asset news degen That's where I put a very small percentage of my portfolio And I expect to lose everything because it's really gambling not investment whatsoever Ah stefan. Thanks for being a good man. I try Not all the time. That's just how it is. But I appreciate you. Thank you Ah, let's see. Here's a good question Seattle paddler Robbie think crypto being this huge cycle now with institutions being or do you think it'll still fall the four years having cycles? You know, I thought there was a big four-year cycle and we we laid it out and I kind of based a lot of things on it and now I just see like yes, I know the The next bitcoin having is coming up in two years. And yes, there's going to be Less of the supply as I go from 6.25 to 3.1. How it is So I think that yes The four-year cycles will kind of follow but not like it was before not like when bitcoin went up a thousand next It can't go up a thousand x the market cap is just too high right now I mean, I might be able to get to a million dollars or two million that's after a pretty long time again I'm here for the long haul. So to answer your question I still I think that'll be more like a little bit more like the stock market with some parabolic Bull runs up but not like these huge huge thousand ten thousand x type of thing But I do think there there's still some parabolic runs left in it. That's for sure. All right One day at the gym. I jump in the pool every morning. It's cold What about here's another question question number three? What about world mobile token still doing pretty good? I'm hopefully going to meet those those guys in london when I go down there next week. So, um, let you know but Teams are going pretty good. I mean they're still making progress. It's like care about I should do an updated video You need to get mickey walkins on CEO Let's see. What else? No, that wasn't it. Yeah, just Hey, man. Hey great interview DJ so I just I just took what you said and I just kind of I really wanted to get the perspective from Steve because you already asked the questions as far as like, you know What's going on the loyalty program? What's going on with the Europe? So I wanted to get it from a guy who's already, you know, been there in the early 90s Just kind of give people like like us a little bit perspective of what the markets will do and how to You know Mentally wrap our heads around these these bear or bearish sentiments and things like that Investor brent says is there an expo in london? Yeah, it's a guy from coin bureau has put on something I get to talk about How to minimize taxes Probably one of them are boring talks, but it's it's not so boring when you're talking about 20 or 30% losses It's not how much you make it's how much you keep so that's what's up and then Last one we got to get out of here. I'm a holder with too many alts. Someone's suggesting I convert them to bitcoin and eth I'm so underwater Would this make sense right now? I can't give you any advice, but I can just say that right Right now if it was me I don't remember a lot of things are going to zero A lot of these things didn't come back. I I'm not going to give you any advice I'm just going to tell you to look at two different projects a dash of salt And take a look at the crypto dash And take a look at the crypto called salt and just take a look at their stories behind it because What goes up? Must come down and not all the time will it rebound and that's it So look, thanks so much for sticking with me. It was a long one today. I appreciate you guys coming in and just hanging out But that's it for today. Uh, thanks so much and I'll see you on the next one. Adios


My biggest tip for you is to keep looking out for opportunities while you're at uni because you're only here for a few years so don't wait for anything to happen. For me, I went on exchange and it was really cool because it helped me build confidence and make more friends. It's made my life at uni more enjoyable.


Good evening dear learners, I am Dr. Satish Vishambhalakre from Walchin Institute of Technology Sholapur and I welcome you all for this session on group discussion part 2. In group discussion part 1, we have understood what a group discussion is and the basic difference between a GD and a debate. Now here in group discussion part 2, we will discuss about the skills required for a GD and the structure of a GD. Learning outcome, at the end of this session, students will understand how to participate effectively in a group discussion. Now think about this question and write down the answer for this question in your course journal. So you can pause this video and write down the answer for this particular question in your course journal. The question is write 5 traits required for a GD. Welcome back. So here's the answer. These are the skills or personality traits required for a GD. So the question is what the HR manager looks for when he or she conducts a GD. So basically these are the skills which the HR manager looks for when he or she conducts a GD. First comes communication skills, then team skills, general awareness of students, logical thinking and reasoning ability, leadership, listening skills, flexibility, assertiveness, initiative, creativity, attitude and body language. So let us discuss these skills in detail now. So what traits are tested or what skills are tested? So here's the answer. Communication skills and body language. So a GD primarily tests candidates in communication skills. Candidates with poor communication skills are rejected. So you need to be very careful about your communication skills. So basically whenever the HR manager conducts a group discussion, his first prime objective is to check your communication skills through the GD. So you should take care of your communication skills. That is you should see to it that you develop excellent communication skills. And the next part is body language as well because you also speak through your body language. So you need to show a positive body language in a group discussion. Then you need to take care of your language and content, listening skill and time. Listening skill is very important in a GD. So you should be a very good listener. That is you should not interrupt while other person is speaking. And you should also take care of your time. So you should show your time management skills during the GD. Team player or team skills. So your team skills are also tested in a group discussion. You should always showcase that you are an excellent team player. So it is essential for managers or employees or engineers to be team players. Reason managers and employees always work in teams. Employees who lack team skills cannot be good managers or team players. So you should be a very good team player during the group discussion. Logical thinking and reasoning ability. You should always support your statements with logical thinking and reasoning ability. Now this is one example to show how you can use your logical thinking and reasoning ability to support your viewpoint or to support your statement. I use the example of the GD topic reduction in IAMS fees will affect quality. Now if you want to support this topic you should not simply say it. You have to justify your statement or your stand with logical thinking and reasoning ability and so this is how you can do it. So if the topic is reduction in IAMS fees will affect quality then you can say it this way. Reduction in IAMS fees will result in less funds being invested on study material. Development exchange programs, research, student development activities. Moreover it costs money to attract good faculty, create good infrastructure and upgrade technology. With reduction in fees less money will be available to perform these activities which will lead to deterioration in the quality of IAMS therefore IAMS fees should not be reduced. So this is how you support your statement with logical thinking and reasoning ability. Leadership. A leader should facilitate the group discussion where participants discuss the topic assertively by touching on all its nuances and try to reach the objective. A leader would have the following qualities. She shows directions to the group whenever group moves away from the topic. He coordinates the effort of the different team members in the group discussion. She contributes to the group discussion at regular intervals with valuable insights. He also inspires and motivates team members to express their views. The next skill is flexibility. Be open to other ideas and evaluation of your ideas. That is what flexibility is all about. Never start a GD with a stand or a conclusion. Example. Now if the topic for GD is should India go to war with Pakistan? Some participants tend to get emotionally attached to the topic and take a stand either in favor or against the topic. That is yes India should or no India should not. By taking a stand you have already given your decision without discussing the topic at hand or listening to the views of your team members. Assertiveness. Express your opinion in an empathetic, positive and confident manner. Participants often confuse assertiveness with aggressiveness. Aggressiveness is all about forcing your point on the other person and can be a threat to the group. An aggressive person can also demonstrate negative body language. Whereas an assertive person displays positive body language. So be assertive during a GD. Initiative. Students start a GD to get the initial kitty of points remarked for the initiator. But that is a high risk, high return strategy. Initiate a GD if you are well versed with the topic. If you fumble, stammer or misquote facts it may work against you. Remember you never ever get a second chance to create a first impression. Creativity and awareness. Creativity. So creativity is an idea, creativity and awareness. An idea or a perspective which opens new horizons for discussion on GD topic is always highly appreciated. And awareness of the micro and macro environment is very much essential for a GD. Awareness about your environment makes a good impression. So you need to be creative in a GD. Now let us discuss the structure of a GD. So there are three phases of GD. That is the first part is initiation or introduction that is the start. The second part is body of the discussion that is the middle. And the last part is the summarization or conclusion that is the end of the GD. Now we will discuss ways to start a GD to make a first good impression. So you can start a GD with quotes, definition, question, shock statement, facts, figures and statistics, short story and general statement. Now here are some examples of starting a GD. Now you can start a GD with a quote. If the GD topic is customer is king you could quote Sam Walton's famous saying there is only one boss the customer and he can fire everybody in the company from the chairman on down simply by spending his money somewhere else. You can also start a GD with a question. If the GD topic is should India go to war with Pakistan? So you could start by asking the following question. What does war bring to the people of a nation? We have had four clashes with Pakistan. The pertinent question is what have we achieved? So this is how you can start a GD with a question. You can also start a GD with a shock statement. If the topic is the impact of population on the Indian economy, you could start with the following shock statement. At the center of the Indian capital stands a population clock that takes our relentlessly. It tracks 33 births a minute, 2000 an hour, 48,000 a day, which calculates to about 12 million every year. That is roughly the size of Australia. As the current political slogan puts it, nothing is impossible when one billion Indians work together. You can also start a GD with facts, figures and statistics. So here's the example for the topic China, a rising tiger. You could start with in 1983 when China was still in its initial stages of reform and opening up. China's real use of foreign direct investment only stood at $636 million. China actually utilized $60 billion of FDI in 2004, which is almost 100 times that of its 1983 statistics. So this is how you can start with facts, figures and statistics. You can also start a GD with a small story or a short story. If the GD topic is attitude is everything, this can be initiated with a child once asked a balloon vendor who was selling helium gas filled balloons whether a blue colored balloon will go as high in the sky as a green colored balloon. The balloon vendor told the child it is not the color of the balloon, but what is inside it that makes it go high. Yes, attitude decides altitude. Now the last part, summarization techniques. Most GDs do not really have conclusions. A conclusion is where the whole group decides in favor or against the topic. But every GD is summarized. You can summarize what the group has discussed in a nutshell. While summarizing a discussion, consider the following points. Avoid raising new points, avoid stating only your viewpoint, avoid dwelling only on one aspect of GD, keep it brief and concise. It must incorporate all important points that came out during the discussion. If the examiner asks you to summarize a group discussion, it means the group discussion has come to an end. Do not add anything once the GD has been summarized. So friends, let's do the GD. So these are the references for this work. Thank you so much.


If you enjoy watching Common Ground online please consider making a tax-deductible donation at lptv.org Lakeland Public Television presents Common Ground brought to you by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund and the citizens of Minnesota Welcome to Common Ground, I'm your host Scott Knudson. In this two-segment episode join us at Brainerd Central Lakes College's agricultural showcase for the future of modern food production. Then members of Bemidji Square Dance Club tell us of the joys and challenges to promenade this tradition through our modern culture. Within our food chain it is absolutely essential that we have trust and that is that that consumer trusts that producer. And so when we can open the doors today and bring in the consumers in this case and have that one-on-one communication with a grower or at least see the techniques and the concerns that are going on. So when we walk into a grocery store we know that when we're buying the cava corn or the potato, what have you we know that on the other side there was a producer that he or she is interested in utilizing the latest technology from an efficiency standpoint just to remain in business and to protect that natural resources. So really I look at today as that bridge-building piece between that producer and consumer. I'm Keith Holander, Director of the Ag and Energy Center here at Central Lakes College, Dean of Agricultural Studies. So really what that means is I oversee all of the agriculture programming here at the college. The center specifically here just off the Staples campus has to do with applied research and demonstration. So that involves the latest in science and the latest in technology as it relates to cropping. And we talk about that from local foods all the way over through the agronomy arena and the natural resources. We have multiple partnerships, probably 40-50 private partnerships. The University of Minnesota, North Dakota State University, USDA, Minnesota Department of Ag. Our local FFA chapter was here. The Lions Club helped put this on. Living Legacy Garden was also a part of the process and that's available as well for the people here today. But it certainly is just something that we're able to collaborate and coordinate with the partners. Midwest Machine around the machinery side already off it was on some of the land and technology side with them. So it's just this idea that we're able to facilitate and be a catalyst for partnership in agriculture. We had specific speakers, three that I'd like to talk about specifically. Jake Bryce is a regional manager here for Midwest Machinery and John Deere. And that really allows us here to have the access to that technology. Very site specific technology in all aspects of what we're doing in agronomy. So we're talking about exact seed placement of the right genetic material in the right place for maximizing production and utilizing that soil's resources. Then we had Commissioner Fredrickson came in, kind of gave that legislative update to agriculture. So as an agriculturalist, which we all are because we consume and wear it daily. But it's that idea of what are the issues on a state level and how are they going to impact us and where is our partnership lie with MDA as well as we have a local partnership with Minnesota Department of Ag. And then finally, federal representative Colin Peterson has been very supportive. Obviously, agriculturally he ranks on the committee from a democratic side, but just instrumental, you know, and it's really a non-partisan piece that we have in agriculture and that's really important that we are legislating federally. Part of that we sometimes get a misconception out there, be it GMO or avian flu or what have you. And so to have a friend in the legislature federally is really important and on a national scale because obviously everything we do in Minnesota, we not only affect the rest of the nation, but it affects us globally. So if we look at technology and agriculture, the positive ramifications of that, if I take nitrates, which you think of nitrate and water is such a bad thing, but we have the technology in place now where we're identifying plant need at a very specific site at a very specific level and delivering that nutrient on a timely basis as the plant consumes it in the right levels. You know, we have that very precise process and as that plant grows, it doesn't matter what plant we're talking about, it's wheat or corn, obviously soybeans produce their own, but just the precision, when we talk about precision agriculture, there's a lot of levels to that. That just mitigates that leaching that we have had over years of the nitrates and we do the same things with that chemical. We have reduced our chemical applications dramatically in amount just because we can be so site-specific to identify the particular, if it's a weed or an insect or whatever the problem may be to ensure a safe and cheap food source for our country to just really be specific in everything we're delivering and all of this technology converges and continues to converge on how do we become more efficient. As we look to precision ag, we're a leader in the United States and obviously CLC and the Staples Campus, we're proud to host a lot of that technology here. So obviously the newest wave in technology, especially to agriculture, is the UAS or the unmanned vehicle system, drone as we commonly call them. So we had a quadcopter here today, that's relatively new to us, but we're just demoing today, but looking at that in terms of how do we remote sense problems within the field. So it saves us time obviously from that aerial view and perspective, but with the technology now, we use infrared technology to determine differences in soils, water needs our availability, and then also insect festation. So then that leads us to a point we don't need to treat a whole field area with adjusting the soil nutrient or treating it with a chemical, we can treat specific areas. And that's really where that drone technology is leading us and linking that, but that's really new in its development and doing that, so it's really in that trial stage and that's really what we were about today. In the local foods arena, we had demonstrations in the local foods in orcharding, currently we have an orcharding in North Workshop actually going on right now, but all about those hardiness strains in an orchard setting obviously, apple specific with that. Local foods in terms of the blueberries that we have growing here on site, and then we have greenhouse and high tunnel and production within those, teaching our youth about how to grow the vegetable within that, and of course handle those environments as well. On the agronomy side, we have a lot of research and demonstration going on today in the area of water movement across the soils, and of course when that water moves, what nutrients is it taking with, and so we're looking at monitoring that and what is going on with that. Another arena is how do we mitigate water use, so we're trying to amplify the amount of water holding capacity of sand, so that's another piece that's going on. And then we have a basic variety of trials if you will, and it's that whole idea of we have about a hundred trials going on just within specific varieties, within different seeds, and so comparing those technologies specifically the genetics of those seeds and those comparisons were all available as well today. We have an orchard here on site, so viticulture and analogy. Participants were able to come in and just get some concepts of what we're doing here as far as hardiness with vines. My name is Dennis Emsley Drummond. We're at the Staples Ag Center, part of the Central Lakes College. I teach winemaking and viticulture at the college, basically online, and I've been doing this now for about four years. Today I'm doing tours of the vineyard. We have 32 varieties on about an acre. Most of them are in 10 vines per plot, and we're doing a teaching on training vines, how to deal with mildew, which is one of the biggest problems with grapes, and then different varieties and what can make it in a region three, which is what we are here in Staples. I started working first in Illinois for the family farm. I wandered out west, got into grape growing. Decided on a tan very well and started working, got my master's degree from UC Davis in California and been a winemaker now for about 30 years. I teach fruit winemaking online throughout the U.S. I have about 10 students starting up first of September, and we go over the legalities because the rules are a little different for fruit wines, and then I have some examples here today for the visitors. Well, we have winter here. The wine varieties that they grow in California on the east coast don't make it. They don't survive this winter. So U of M, through Elm Swenson, who was a dairyman in Osceola, have been doing this for about 50 years now developing grapes that are hardy. And so we are trying them in probably the northern part that some of those vines will do, and then there are some independent growers too that we are working with. So some of their grapes are doing quite well in our climate. The grapes behind me, they are called valiant. That's probably the hardiest grape that I know of. It doesn't make the best wine, but it still is worthy of trying because it's so hardy. Well, it's definitely a value-added product. As in you can start with grapes and make something that's worth some money. And it's fun. It's a real fun thing to do. People enjoy drinking wine. It seems to be catching on there about 50 wineries now in Minnesota, and there's about 70 licenses. So there's a lot of people planning to open soon. So it's a really growing deal. So part of what I do is help start up wineries. My favorite part is actually the winemaking because that I think is where the finesse is and where we have to keep our standards up. Growing the grapes is mercy of Mother Nature. We've had a couple of winters here that really haven't helped. Development of vines. A lot of the wineries had to get grapes from other states because of the winter we've had. But hopefully the University of Minnesota has come up with a new variety of two that are coming down soon to be released, and we're hoping we have very high hopes. So it's a very much a growing industry and another reason for people to come out and visit the countryside is to go visit all the scattered wineries. The reason for today is to help people who have started vines and how to grow them. And the second is to promote the online classes that I'm part of. And the third thing is to try and show people what varieties are hard enough for this region. I mean, this is pretty much on the edge of grape growing for it to be profitable. So we need to make sure that they're growing the right varieties and show them how we can test them up here. I recommend to a new wine grower or winemaker to buy northern wine works. It was started by a couple of guys that done a lot of research, travel around the world finding grapes. And it's very well written and it gives some very good tips on how to grow grapes and what wine making to do. And it's a very good start. So I teach three classes for Vesta. It's online. I have anywhere from five to 15 students. And we go over all the legalities. And it's what I like about it is the students can be wherever they are in this evening class so they can work full time and still do my classes, all the Vesta classes, and actually get a very good education in wine making and grape growing and wine business, which I would have loved to have done. I spent about eight years in college and I wish I'd done this online thing but I kept working and still learned the same amount of information. We look geographically. We probably carried somewhere around a hundred mile radius. But really the people that were interested around here are those growers and producers in those specific arenas. So those that might be interested in that wine production or specifically grape growing, maybe in that orcharding piece or local foods, how to improve the techniques they may have at home or somewhere just investigating. And then on the other side of the agronomy piece, we're all interested in natural resources and preserving them. So how are we mitigating water leaching through the soil and taking nutrients with and then also watching the agronomic practices that we have going on. So just that chance to get out and kind of see what the latest is, as well as we have a line of machinery here, a brand new, and so it's got the latest in technology. And in this case today we're really allowing the public just to open the door and crawl into a tractor that probably they've never operated before or never even interested, but just to understand the technology that's going into agriculture today. I think we all have to view ourselves as, you know, we're consumers of agriculture. We wear clothes, those kinds of things. So I think that we all have to see ourselves as vested in agriculture and so therefore I would challenge all the viewers to be knowledgeable in agriculture. Know where that food source is and investigate that and I think this is a wonderful arena here at the college to be able to do that. And it doesn't have to happen in an August day. It can be anytime during the year that we can arrange tours and I have those set up multiple times during the year where you get a chance to ask openly about what's this going on because in our case we're not private so we can display a lot of the data and pieces about what's going on really and kind of be that non-biased truth, if you will. Sometimes people approach someone they think of the corporate farms or what have you and they don't think there's always truthfulness there and I would welcome them to come and share here and I think we could share that very truthfully in that story, you know, so that they take ownership of where their food comes from. Both locally at the local store as well as how it fits in nationally and globally. I'm Tammy Rogers with First City Squares. I'm currently the vice president of First City Squares and we have a group that meets twice a month during September through May and I have children and a husband that come and square dance with me and I consider these my great friends. Our dancers come from not only the immediate area but some of them come from Grand Rapids, from Park Rapids, from Fort Francis. We have about two dances a month during the season and then we do some other things during the summer like the 4th of July parade. I'm Royce Nelson. Besides being a square dancer I am the club caller for the First City Squares here in Bemidji. Square dancing is just moving to the beat of the music. It's entirely different than a waltz or a two-step. You're not out there counting one, two, three, one, two, three so you don't even need to know how to count to do this. It's an interaction. You as a dancer interacting with seven other dancers on the floor doing what the caller commands you to do. The better you are at what you do, the more enjoyable it is for the other seven dancers in the square. You generally know who your partner is, but to meet six other people, interact with them, dance with them, have a great time. It's a tremendous activity. Square dance music has to have a certain steady beat to it and the caller typically takes out the words. He sings the words, he'll sing a few phrases and then he'll give a call. He'll say dos, I do, or element left and then he'll sing a few more of the words. So you have to stay in motion even though he might be singing words or giving you a call. My job as a caller is to give the commands to the dancers. None of this is rehearsed. They do not know what I'm going to call, probably for the better part of it, I don't know what I'm going to call. We start out, they know the commands but it's up to me to put the commands together in a smooth flowing dance sequence and then after I've moved them around they think I've mixed them up. Hopefully I haven't. But at some point in time then it's my job to solve the puzzle I've created, get everybody back with their original partner and get them back into the position where they started. It doesn't really matter very much what type of music it is, if it's contemporary or soft rock or country, as long as the beat is steady. It's really up to the caller what type of music he chooses and they can speed it up or slow it down, especially for lessons. If someone is just learning or if it's a younger group he'll do it at a slower pace but it really is the caller's choice what type of music he uses and so there are different callers. I got into becoming a caller I learned to dance in 1972 when I was just out of college I would have liked to have become a square dance caller at that time but one of my best friends was the instructor and caller then and we didn't need another caller and by the time I'd gotten through college my high school music teacher had pretty much convinced me that I couldn't sing. So I just put it off, I took a 35 year break in there to have a career and raise a family and in 2001 I got back into square dancing the gentleman that started the club had resurrected the club here in Bemidji had just gotten it going decided to retire from his job and moved to Arizona which left the Bemidji club without a caller and I thought that was a prime time to give it a try so I bought some used equipment on eBay came with about a dozen old scratched up records and that's where I started. In a square dance everybody does have a partner a square would always be a square of eight people or four couples the people that come just on their own they would pair up with one of our regular members. There's one couple that will have their back to the caller then going around the square counterclockwise there'll be a side couple an opposite couple and a left hand or a corner couple as the dance gets underway there will be different calls the dancers will move not necessarily in sequence but they're coordinated some dancers might be going right some dancers might be going left but never should they run into each other and it should be a smooth flowing activity square dancing hand movements are generally right left right left so if I do my job well at the end of the dance you will have had a pleasant and enjoyable experience with no herky jerky action. Members can make requests of the caller for a certain type of music that they want but typically it is up to the caller what he decides to play and call to. The music over the years has evolved and people have a lot of preconceived misconceptions about what the music is they think it's all country western twiny banjo fiddle music and in my list of music I have got Bruno Mars I've got Lady Gaga I do an Adele the movement is toward non-traditional music and if the tempo is right it has a required beat you can dance to just about anything. First thing that someone would notice when you walk into a room with square dancers is probably the dresses and skirts of the girls a lot of frills and then you'll also notice the boys are wearing western style shirts and bolos which are it's kind of like a tie but western style then you'll notice how coordinated square dancing is probably it's very coordinated unless the square dancers aren't doing very well and then well you can imagine I have probably danced hundreds of tips that I have gotten through without making a mistake and I can't remember a single one of them but the ones that I have the most fun with are the ones that we messed up so bad that we got laughing and just couldn't continue to dance so it's great fun and if I've told everybody when I'm teaching lessons if you're not having fun you're not square dancing you're doing something else and I don't know what it is but square dancing is meant to be fun and that's the name of the whole game to become a square dancer it takes several years to get really proficient at it to learn the basic movements you can learn them in a couple weekends if you're really going at it but to become really proficient it takes quite a few years at a square dance event you don't necessarily go to that event and dance for two hours straight typically you're going to dance for about 15 or 20 minutes and then take a break and then somebody else might come in and that's called a tip when you're square dancing the music that you'll listen to mostly is a western style music lately they've come up with more modern music as well for a long time the majority was western and that was because of the beat square dancing relies a lot on the beat of the music you need to be able to hear that and western style music had that so that's what stayed with mostly until recently it would be nice if people understood the value of square dancing we don't want it to die as an art it's good for families, it's good for young people it's something young people can do with older people it's not difficult to learn it's a little more difficult when you get older but the callers know how to teach and how to go through the same steps over and over until you're comfortable with them and then they put them into a different sequence and they go over that sequence over and over again even those of us who don't dance well we don't know how to walls we weren't taught square dancing you know when we were young you can still learn how to square dance we get requests every now and then for special events whether it be the fair dancing at the midget state park we just put out the call for dancers and get a group together and go do our thing when I'm square dancing it's really nice because it's just something it's almost second nature when you really get into it thank you so much for watching join us again next week on Common Ground if you have an idea for a Common Ground piece that pertains to North Central Minnesota email us at legacy at lptv.org or call us at<PHONE_NUMBER> to view any episode of Common Ground online visit us at lptv.org to order episodes or segments of Common Ground call<PHONE_NUMBER> Common Ground is brought to you by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund with money from the vote of the people November 4th, 2008


Okay, so since everyone is a little bit confused about our sinks, I thought I would just show you guys a little tour of our bathroom. That's our patio out there. Our whole ceiling is a light box. Bath tub fits all of our kids. And our shower. So, okay, so the sinks. Kanye drew this. Kanye, Axel Vavorit and Claudio Sylvester and kind of all did this sink. And Claudio is the one that said it should be separated from the wall, because it used to be up against the wall, but we thought it would be cooler this way. So, eight versions of this prototype sink was made and it does actually like slightly slope down that you can kind of see. And there's a slit for the water and it goes in. You can put it on as high pressure as you want and no backsplash will come up. Okay, something else I think is interesting is our light switches.  And there's no box around it, which I think is really cool and more visually appealing. I'm in my bedroom and I wanted to show you guys something cool, not just my drapes, but Chloe thought that since I was showing you guys some tech stuff, I should show you guys my TV in my bedroom. Pretty cool, right, Claudio? She wanted me to show you guys this, guys. Oh, my favorite person on the screen. There she is, 130 inch for the bed and it comes up and down. Looks like the floor, you can stand on top of it. And if you don't want it, she does it now, only 747s, private. I've never even heard of this, but whatever. So this is what a private 747 is like, you guys. Never been on one before, so I'm like, oh, my God, there's bedrooms everywhere. No big deal, just like a chill room. This is like endless. We actually brought our trainer on the flight since it's so long, so we can work out here. This is where we're working on, Melissa. You got the weights and everything. This is our gym right here. Clips, squats. This is pretty crazy. You guys, the hallway on the plane. Look, this is for lunches. Team Adidas. It's a double decker, dining room table. You guys.


Well there's two main reasons why you want to get it out of the neighborhoods quickly. The first and foremost is the health reason. This is mixed with a lot of household wastes. You're going to start getting mold, mildew and you just don't want to be around these large piles. They breed disease, they breed bacteria, everything else. The second is they block the roadways, they block the right-of-ways, they block traffic and in order to get some sort of normalcy back in those areas you've got to clear the way for people to get in there, get to their homes and start rebuilding their lives. At this site here the Corps is responsible for moving these piles of debris that you see. All over Staten Island there are what are called TSSs, temporary storage sites and this is where they collect the debris from the local neighborhoods and areas and get them in one central location and the debris from those areas are being trucked in here so that then we can load them with the large crane onto barges and they go up river to Albany, Pennsylvania area. Here you just see huge piles of debris but also in those piles you see the personal touches of people's lives. You see photographs, you see photo albums, memorabilia that people had in their homes clothing and the sense of the scale of the tragedy starts to hit you a little more when you see how much is starting to pile up but we know we're getting it out of here pretty quickly. We've already set 12 barges up the river full of debris and each one of those barges holds about 2,000 cubic yards and the pile keeps getting smaller and smaller by day so we know that the debris out in the whole areas that we're actually getting it out of the areas.