All right, I think I'm going to get started. I know we only have you for an hour, Congressman Welch. So others will join as we get going. Welcome, everyone. I'm Betsy Bishop, President of the Vermont Chamber of Commerce. And today we're excited to kick off our new virtual policy series, starting with Congressman Peter Welch as our first guest from Vermont. Fortunately, he's here in this state where it's nice and safe and we can stay distant and safe. So I appreciate him being here. This series will run each Monday afternoon through December and will bring together government and business leaders to get your questions answered, provide personal access to key Vermont leaders, and bring you up to speed on important policy. I'd like to say special thanks to our sponsors for this event, AT&T, Northfield Savings Bank, and MVP. We're glad to be able to offer this series to our members and members of other chambers across the state. Just a quick couple of notes of housekeeping first. We ask that you remain muted with your videos turned off. I encourage you to watch today's event in the active speaker view. This event is being recorded and we will send you a link to the recording later this week. As a note, there may be press on this call and they may be watching it in the future. Just so that you are aware of that. We did collect questions during registration and we'll try to get to all of them. I also encourage you to use the chat function today in your sidebar. We have staff who will answer questions in the sidebar as well as we will be asking them of Congressman Welch as we go forward. So we have just about 100 people registered for the call today with a great geographic diversity throughout the state. About a quarter of it today are in the hospitality industry and about another quarter in business services and business organizations with the remaining in manufacturing, higher education and retail. So let's now turn our attention to Congressman Peter Welch who was first elected to Congress in 2006 and has become a champion of remonters throughout his career. In Congress, he is a leading advocate for rural economic development, cutting the price of prescription drugs, investing in our infrastructure and expanding broadband and telemedicine in rural America. I will now give the Zoom mic to Congressman Welch. Thank you very much Betsy. And I'm really, really grateful to all of the Vermont businesses that are on this call. And let's get right to it. This is such a challenge and no one knows it better than you and especially the hospitality industry. This came out of nowhere and it was seven months ago when the governor issued his emergency order. And I think all of us in Vermont are rightly proud at how successful this state has been with Governor Scott's leadership to have the lowest COVID infection rate in the country. Thank goodness the health and safety of people we love, our own health and safety is very much connected to the good job that government has done and Vermont citizens have done and Vermont businesses done. But there's a huge economic price of that has been exacted as a result of this. And we got a start in Washington with the CARES package. And it was an unprecedented amount of money, the payroll protection to over $2 trillion. And it was something that was negotiated by Speaker Pelosi and Senator McConnell. And there are two folks who don't see eye to eye on almost anything, but they did that and they did it and thank goodness, President Trump signed it. But I think the reason it was done is because it was so clear that the impact of COVID was universal. It didn't matter whether you were a Democrat in a blue state or Republican in a red state or Republican in a blue state, you were hammered. And if you were working in a restaurant, you're out of work. If you owned a restaurant, you were just desperate to try to figure out, how do I keep the lights on? How do I get to the other side of this? How do I take care of my employees? So the initial round helped with some limitations. We had the payroll protection plan that was helpful and I was the sponsor of this, heard from people around this call that it was too inflexible and we adjusted it and made it flexible. Again, that was bipartisan. That $1,200 check helped people pay their rent. And then the unemployment, it had some controversial aspects to it, but the fact is it kept the economy afloat and helped people save a little money to try to be able to get through. And then in addition to that, there was significant money that went to the state of Vermont. And then I was really pleased about that because that meant that my appeal here, our legislators and our governors, you have much more direct access to them. We're able to hear you about how best to utilize that money to try to keep us going. And here's the challenge. We're seven months in. The money from the CARES program has dried up and we need to take the next step. And I'm gonna say this very explicitly. We're borrowing money and I'm a pay-as-you-go person, but this is a once-in-a-hundred-year event. And my goal is to try to make certain through the assistance that only the federal government can provide that these Vermont businesses, that our hospitality industry, that our performance spaces, our nonprofits, that when we get to the other side of COVID, you'll come with us. And that's a big, big challenge. But that's my goal and it's why I'm a strong advocate of another round of relief. We've got to help those businesses be able to hang on. And I drop into businesses now. I was down at the coffee cart in Main Street. And this is the story a lot of you have had. They had their best January this January, the best February this February. In March, they lost 10 days, but still beat last year. And then boom, they can't sell sandwiches. And PPP helped him hang on, but he doesn't know how long this is gonna go on. So we've got to be there. We're not having the same agreement right now about trying to resolve this new round of aid that we had at the CARES package. And there's a split. I'll tell you what it is. The house did pass a bill 3.4 trillion. That was rejected by the Senate, by Senator McConnell and the president. The house passed another bill. It's a 2.4 trillion. And now we're negotiating on that. And my hope is that we do get an agreement before the election, because I think it'll be tougher after the election. And I just literally got off a caucus call with the Democrats getting a report on where the negotiations are that are taking place largely between Speaker Pelosi and Secretary Mnuchin. And there's three elements in the negotiations. One is the economic aid. And the economic aid continues to be around these categories that are universally beneficial. Whether you're, this I say, whether you're, it just doesn't matter what your political orientation is. If you're out of a job, you need some help. It doesn't matter what your political orientation is. If you run a hospitality, a beautiful bed and breakfast that you just poured your heart and soul into, it doesn't matter what your politics are. When the phone rings, it's a cancellation. That's a disaster. So my real focus in trying to get the Democrats to agree with me is let's get what we can on the economic aid on unemployment, on PPP, on state and local assistance. And I do think we need to help our schools and we need to put some money obviously into steps that are gonna attack the coronavirus. But the one category where I'm hopeful that there can be bipartisan supports on this economic aid that all of us represent people in businesses that are gonna continue to need help until we get that coronavirus taken care of. The second part of the negotiations are really important, but I'm not sure it'll get resolved right away. And it has to do with the language of testing. It has to do with assurance that the administration will give. And I'll be candid on this. These are areas where Congress can appropriate the money. It can authorize the policy. But if the executive isn't interested in actually implementing it, there's not much we can do. So frankly, from my perspective, having a debate about these details in the language is not that important when, and again in candor, I don't have much confidence that the administration has the same sort of focus on this that say our Vermont administration has. And there's gonna be an election, there's gonna be a decision by the American people that's in two weeks with a few extra days and we'll be able to take that next step depending on what the American people decide. So, and then the third element is things that may be poison pills. And I don't know what those are. Those would be some things that maybe the administration wants, but they're really not disclosed what those things may be. But I see that as something in issues like liability protection, which is I know important to a lot of folks on this call. I don't want an inability to reach an agreement on that right now to get in the way of us reaching an agreement on what I think is urgently, as in now, needed financial assistance to our states, to our businesses, to our individuals. So the where it stands at the moment is that there's ongoing aggressive negotiations largely with the speaker and with Secretary Mnuchin on behalf of the administration. I think Senator McConnell has indicated that he doesn't have that much desire for a deal. He has indicated opposition essentially to aiding state and local governments. And but what he's indicated that gives me some hope is that if President Trump agrees, then I think Senator McConnell has said that if it's okay with the administration and the house, then he, Senator McConnell, will put it on the Senate floor for a vote. So I am as a member of, as your representative and as a member of the caucus, I am advocating very energetically that we focus on the economic part of this package and that we do that as soon as we possibly can. And so I do believe that in this once in a century event that the more we do now, the sooner we'll get out of this and return to normal. Keep in mind, the economy is racked not just because there's been a bad business cycle, it's not because there's been bad management. It's not because there's been a failure in any particular region or location. This is a result of a event that created the necessity of the social distancing and really had an impact on our whole economy. So urgent response to that in my view is needed. We are borrowing money and we're gonna have to deal with that. But I have taken the position that doing more and doing it sooner is better than doing less and doing it later. And the sooner we get our economy back to a semblance of normal. And I think we can, then the sooner we're gonna be able to restore, well, the sooner we'll start being able to deal with that deficit. So Betsy, let me stop there, but I'll end where I began. And that is a sincere thank you to folks who are running these your businesses and put heart and soul into everything that you've done. I've talked to many of you and what I know is that in addition to your own personal situation and financial jeopardy and anxiety, you're really close to the people that work for you. And it's like family and you're doing everything you can to try to get through this. And my job is to try to help, it is to get resources to you so you can make it through. Thank you. Thank you Congressman Welch. There's so much to unpack there but that you just talked about. First of all, I think I can speak for many of us on the call that we just appreciate you knowing the struggle and being able to acknowledge directly to the Hill with you. It is really important. I think in other states, maybe they're not as fortunate as Vermonters are to be this close to our representatives. And so thank you. And I think I'll start with a comment that we received prior from Gail Warner at the old Homestead B&B in the kingdom who expressed a thought. I think many Vermonters share and she said, I appreciate your speeches on the Senate floor. They are to the point, good thoughts and content and well-delivered. Your presence in the Senate, she said Senate but it should say your presence in the house makes me a proud Vermonter. So I think that concept of being a proud Vermonter and being proud of having you represent us, I think that's really helpful. Very kind, very kind. I think I'd like to sort of start with the hospitality industry. We've got several questions from folks and I will encourage folks on the call listeners that if you'd like to add a question, please use the chat function and we will bring those into the conversation as well in addition to what folks have asked prior. But I'd like to start with some questions more specifically around the hospitality industry as that has been hit the hardest for certain. And I think you just recognize that. I think Courtney Lowe of the Woodstock Inn and Resort says it best when he asks the question, what will it take to get this next funding passed? And so you talk about some of the struggles. Well, yeah. It would be really helpful for us to know is what will it take? Well, there's two things, okay? One, I think what we have to do on the democratic side in these negotiations that are undergoing right now is focus just on the economic aid. There's the economic aid, there's the health aid and then there's some policy fights and disputes between the White House and I guess really the House Democrats, because those are the players here. My focus right now is let's do the economic aid. And the reason I say that is that times are the essence and anything we do like on payroll protection plan or unemployment, that is a benefit that goes out universally. So we won't have the kind of fights that are legitimate disputes about policy language, okay? I don't want those disputes about policy to get in the way of getting money out the door to keep our businesses going while we deal with the healthcare issue. Now, that's a debate within the Democratic caucus but I'm firmly on the side of move quickly, hopefully before the election on the economic aid. The second thing, and again, I'll be candid but we all know there is an election on November 3rd. One of two things is gonna happen.  And frankly, I think that's really detrimental to the prospects of significant economic assistance just given the position that has been taken by Senator McConnell, okay? Or the American people are gonna say, you know what, we wanna change. So we'll get another bite of the apple. So if there is a new Congress where you've already got the House that has voted for significant economic assistance and where the orientation is to stay the course here and we get a different Senate then they're gonna take our legislation up. So the bottom line, my view, if I were Courtney Lovett, then we'd stock in. I'd say, Peter, do it now. You know, we don't wanna wait two months, okay? And I agree with that. And I'll do all I can to make it happen now. But if we don't make it happen now, I'll do all I can in January to make it happen then. So we're working with some of our partners in DC to try to influence people beyond just Vermont so that we can get chambers of commerce, for instance, across the country talking to, so the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce can talk to their Senator and their members to try to help push this as well as sort of broadening the coalition. I see in the chat that Sophie Zatney from the Chancellor of the Vermont State Colleges is asking, what's the likelihood of spending these CRF funds beyond December 30th? And I think there's sort of two things there. I think that's existing CRF funds we know or until that, but are you advocating for this new phase of funding to be beyond where we are today so that it can carry people into the first quarter of the calendar year or beyond? I am, I am very strongly. And in fact, I've urged Speaker Pelosi to let us have a standalone bill that would extend that December 31st date for utilization of the CARES money for another year. Again, that's money that's authorized, it's available. There was hope way back in ancient history of March that we'd be on the other side of this around now. And that's not happening. So I totally, I believe in that. The HEROES package that we passed, the aid package from the house that hasn't gone anywhere in the Senate does extend that date. I think we'll get there. As you know, Governor Scott is pushing very hard for that as are his fellow governors, Democratic and Republican, and it just makes a lot of sense. So I think we'll get there, but it's gotta be frustrating for you that we're not there. And that's one of those places, as I said, where I'd promote doing it all standalone. I think I know a lot of my Republican colleagues agree with us on that. So one of the other questions that we get frequently and that came Sarah Morris from the Basin Harbor Club and Resort did mention this as well. And that is, what type of input are you getting?  And I'm just talking about the economic aid portion here. Can you anticipate that there will be industry earmarks or a heart? Well, there's two things, okay? Number one, the most important thing is to have it be categorical in that pick winners and losers. So, the aid that went out initially with PPP, it was focused on smaller enterprises. We had to make some adjustments on that as well. But number two, I am open to industry specifically. For instance, our performance spaces. I heard from a lot of folks in Vermont around the country, but this is about performance spaces, like say the Flynn or the comedy club in Burlington to mention too, where the Westin Playhouse. A lot of these organizations are incredibly important in their community. They're part of an ecosystem. A lot of people might go to dinner before they go out to see a performance. But these are places that are gonna be the last to open and to have that revenue coming in from patrons. And the performance venues got together and created an organization that put together a proposal and it resulted in the Save Our Stages legislation that I'm the original sponsor of in the house with Roger Williams, a Republican colleague from Austin, Texas. And we now have over 200 sponsors, okay? And that's to specifically your mark money for them. Now hospitality is in a similar situation, okay? Because people can't really come if there's quarantining. And of course we got bad news last week where because of the spike in the COVID cases, a million fewer people are able to come to Vermont without the quarantine, okay? So what's different here about the performance spaces and the hospitality venue is that that national organization helped put together a coherent package so it wasn't just an entity in Stowe asking for it or an entity in Dover, all right? So my encouragement to folks in hospitality is to do, let's see what you're doing with your fellow chambers of commerce and that is get together but also get something specific that you're asking for because there is an appetite on both sides of the aisle to help you in your counterparts. What you're doing, others are doing, as you know, in every state in the union. So part of the first phase of funding, Vermont benefited in a great way because of the small state minimum getting one point by a billion dollars, which is a huge amount for Vermont. I've been saying for some time now, the hole is so deep and so wide, there's never going to be enough money here or in any other state. Do you expect that small state minimum to hold firm in any other future? Is that just sort of a natural part of the discussions or is that something that we also have to fight for? No, we always have to fight for it but in the past we've always won and we're blessed in many ways. You know, Senator Jeffords was a great advocate of that and champion, he got a force in the transportation agency. We now have Senator Leahy, who's the vice chair of the appropriations committee. So he's in an absolutely critical position to help for monitors keep that small state minimum. Our big state colleagues present it, but that's their problem, that's how we see it. So we'll keep fighting. That's great. I'm gonna ask you to take out your crystal ball a little bit. Karim Horry from the Woodstocker Inn has suggested that many lodging properties and restaurants are trying to plan for 2021. I suppose all businesses are right. And just trying to figure out how long some of these economic restrictions will continue, much of that is up to the states but if we have a change in direction with a presidential election coming up, do you anticipate there to be more national focus on that? And if you could think about quarter one, quarter two of the new year, what do you see for the economy going? Well, you know, he's asking the question that all of us ask. And I mean, it has this special urgency if you're running a hospitality business. The Woodstocker is a beautiful place, right very close to the Woodstock Inn. But you know the answer to the question is gonna depend on the virus. And we've had, it's been terrible in the United States how we've responded as a nation, not as a state by state. Vermont's been fantastic. And Hampshire's done a great job. Massachusetts done a great job. New York. But we've got 4% of the world's population and we've had 24% of the world's coronavirus deaths. And other countries have done really well by doing the things that have to be done but everybody doing that. You know, New Zealand's totally open. South Korea where it started, you know, it was one of the early, South Korea had their first case the same day we had our first case, like January 19th, they're open. And it's because there was concerted, consistent participation in the mask and the social distancing, the washing of hands, those things that you have to do. So we've had an erratic response from the president on that. And you need a unified response at the national level just like for our state to do well we have to have consistent leadership from our governor. And he's provided that. So I think if you have a Biden administration, they've made, he's made, I mean, just look, he mirrors the mask President Trump doesn't. I mean, that's that. So I think there'll be a lot more focus on the public health guidance in a different, in the Biden administration. And that'll be beneficial, I think to all of us. Also, there is promise on the vaccines in this scenario where I think the Trump administration is doing as good a job as we can do. I mean, there's an immense amount of resources going into research with several companies having some promising drugs. Second, there has been, I think, a real acceleration of the approval process without not, not by cutting corners, but by ramping up the capacity to do the clinical trials that are necessary to get to a scientifically based conclusion about efficacy. And then third, and this is really important, there's been a significant amount of investment in ramping up the production capacity to manufacture the vaccines once a vaccine is found. Because if we don't have that ready, you could literally see on day one, there's a conclusion this vaccine works. Well, now what? We've got to manufacture it. So the Trump administration has in fact been doing significant investing in having that capacity for manufacturing and distribution. And by the way, that is a huge practical challenge. A couple of these vaccines that are very promising have to be stored at radically low temperatures, like not your freezer, okay? And UPS and FedEx, they've been building facilities for the cold, super cold storage of this. So I think that we get a vaccine. We've got steps here to get it manufactured and get it distributed. I'm going to take you on a little tangent because you brought up sort of the drug, sort of vaccine manufacturing distribution, sort of all of that, but I'm gonna come back to hospitality in a minute. Rebecca Copans from Blue Cross Blue Shield of Vermont asked a question on this topic. And I just wanna bring that in here. The federal government has invested over $2 billion in supporting private drug manufacturers in developing a COVID vaccine. How can you ensure that the manufacturers who receive those public funds will keep the price of the vaccine affordable to the taxpayers who funded it? Well, she's totally, totally right. I mean, this is another example where whatever is produced will be a significant result of research funded by taxpayers. And let's start with the hope that the drug companies understand this has got to be totally affordable. Number two, I think with the COVID vaccine, my preference is that it'd be free to the consumer because the sooner we get an effective vaccine and the sooner you and I take the vaccine, the sooner we get rid of community transmission. So I think two things, the authority of government should be used to make certain we're not getting ripped off on the price. There's a fairness issue, number two, because the taxpayers are financing this. And number three, more broadly, we deploy the vaccine and the sooner we do it, the sooner it's effective, then the sooner all of us are gonna go back to life as normal. Well, we're all hoping for life as normal. I am one that is convinced that some of these changes may be here to stay. I'm just not sure which ones yet. So one of the things that was in the chat, Lynn Green from Orkidney's Inn in Bennington asked, do you expect any pushback? We talked a little bit about pushback of the small state minimum and how senatorly he can be really instrumental to that. But Lynn Green asked specifically, if we thought that there would be any pushback because Vermont is so healthy and your colleagues might suggest, let's start looking at the states where are less healthy and directing money in that way as opposed to more evenly across the board. No, I don't worry about that. In fact, that's one of the things that I hope does come out of this. We've got way too much division and conflict in this country about silly things, right? It's like the kind of partisan stuff that we do. What does COVID show us? It shows us that it is universal in its capacity to do harm. I mean, everybody from a frontline worker to the president of the United States can get COVID. You know, it's not a red, state, blue, state type of thing. We also see how the impacts of it are just brutal. Five million people who lost their jobs that overnight when we had to do that social distancing, they had employer-sponsored healthcare and boom, it was gone. The cost of healthcare, even with Obamacare, was more than they could really afford. So the things that we have to do to help people through this, they're universal. That's where I get some hope is that seeing that the challenge has universal adverse effects and that the remedies are universally beneficial regardless of your political persuasion. May remind us that we have much more in common than we do that divides us. And we all know this country needs that spirit. We've had it and it's frayed and it needs to return. So that's a hope I have about the experience we have all endured. But that means we focus on what's gonna help you and what's gonna help me and what's gonna help my neighbor. You know, it's sometimes I feel like we see what's happening in Vermont and I feel that spirit is alive and well here. You know, I feel like our COVID incidences are quite low and they have been low and there is this community effort to pull together. And sometimes you think that, you know, Burlington is so far away from Brattleboro that they can't possibly understand but at the same time we're so small and we're able to pull together. So I share that hope with you. I just hope it's rather than later. I hope the right. I lost your audio. Sorry, do you hear me now? I do, yeah. Okay, sorry about that. So I'm hoping just to ask about, you had mentioned the federal assistance and about helping workers as well. And there's been a little bit of competition as things have started to open up a little bit and businesses have needed workers to come back. There's sort of a prolonged effects and the federal assistant has created a bit of a competition for people to come back to work. This question is from Melissa Moore at the Best Western Waterbury Stow. How does the government intend on balancing that assistance in the future with an incentive to get people to work? So I'm just curious what your thoughts are on that. Well, I mean, she's right. Okay, there was a number in the original plan in addition to whatever unemployment a person would get from the state of Vermont there was a supplement of $600. And the economist, by and large conservative and liberal think that has been extremely helpful to the economy and it allowed actually some people to save money and make the rent payment. It's also created some distortion because you actually had some situations where people were making more money by being on unemployment than they were if they went back to work. And also it was creating some resentment among employees who were working and people that weren't were making more money than they were. So the discussions between the House and Senator McConnell on the new unemployment are focused there's a focus on that with an adjustment to address that distortion that you're talking about. One of the things we did learn from this is that it probably would have been better for us we've got kind of an antiquated unemployment system it's all state administered and of course our computers are way behind it was a wicked challenge for our state to catch up and you remember how much Governor Scott worked on that. But in Europe, what they did instead of just unemployment with that supplement the money that went to the employee went through the employer and it was based on the salary that the employee had. So it avoided that distortion that was number one and number two it maintained as much as possible that connection between the employer and the employee. And one of the things I hear from many of our employers is they're concerned about the potential of losing employees who may have to move or have to do something so they're not around when the lights go back on. So message heard and we're working on it but I also have been a co-sponsor of this legislation that would have done it the way some European countries have done it and it appears to be successful without that distortion. Yeah, and I think what I've heard from a lot of folks the business community is they understand the reason behind helping people, right? A lot of people lost their jobs and we needed to do that. So if there's a better way if that needs to be done again I appreciate you understanding sort of that push and because in order to get to successful recovery we, businesses are only as good as their workers who are working for them. So we need to bring them back in and share that with them. I had a question from a couple of the local and regional chambers of commerce on the phone something that I think we've covered before but I just wanted to know if you have seen any movement in allowing 501C6 organizations to take advantage of some of the federal programming a lot of them have been out of this certainly with a PPP so I'm curious about that. In the HEROES Act we did make more flexibility so organizations like yours would be eligible under ours you wouldn't be able to use any money for lobbying which I think is appropriate but as you point out there's a lot of these organization like yours that are providing crucial services to help us address the consequences. So in the HEROES Act we did have provision that would provide opportunity for you to get some of the help. Great, speaking of PPP, Sandy Croft in the chat she's from VEDA. She was asking what is the likelihood that automatic forgiveness will be granted on the PPP loan program maybe of loans up to a certain size so what are the negotiations like on that? Very good, I think a really simplified process for loans under $500,000. I mean, so I think that's gonna be okay. I mean, I say that with real respect for the anxiety that businesses have seen the revenues plunge having a worry that this money that we want to be a grant may be a loan because you don't need loans when your revenues are hemorrhaging and your expenses aren't. So again, that's bipartisan, okay?  So I think we'll be successful there. My understanding is already been significantly simplified for loans under $500,000. So just a reminder to folks, feel free to ask questions in the chat. I'm able to get to them as well as some of our questions as well. So we've got probably about 15 minutes left with the congressman. I've got a couple of questions here but I'm open to additional questions in the chat. Sort of a slightly different subject around the infrastructure and stimulus package and if there is such a thing moving. So Dave Saladino from BHB is asking, what is your perspective on an upcoming infrastructure stimulus package to address pressing needs and to stimulate the economy? We need it. The house past one, a one and a half trillion dollar bill that will include housing broadband, obviously rail, roads, bridges, airports, stations, we need it. And if there's an opportunity to do it where interest rates are as low as they are, this is the time to do it. So the house passed that legislation. President Trump has always said he wants a bigger bill, like a couple of trillion, but I can't speak for Senator McConnell but he hasn't put it on the floor in the Senate. Now I think a new Congress, that'll be one of the first orders of business. I mean, what's gonna happen here? What here's what's happened in Congress in the last couple of years is that the house has really been somewhat ambitious in its legislative agenda with lowering prescription drug prices, justice in policing, and the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act and infrastructure bill of a trillion and a half dollars, lowering the cost of student loans and the list goes on, lowering the cost of prescription drugs I mentioned. In the Senate, Senator McConnell's focus has been on confirming judges to the appellate court and of course now confirming the new Supreme Court justice. But that's it, he literally is not putting any of this other house passed legislation on the floor. And why in the world? I don't know why, all right? But depending on the outcome of the selection, all of that is gonna be actively considered and it's gonna be very, very ambitious and there'll be lots of other challenges, but we won't be facing this division between the house and the Senate where you've got a desire to act in the house and a refusal to act in the Senate. And this has gotta be frustrating for all Americans but the way the Senate's organized, the Senate Majority Leader has the total authority to decide yes or no about putting a bill on the floor. And Betsy, you and I know when we were in the State House, the Speaker, if there was a majority in the House or in the Senate, committee chair in the Senate when I was Senate President, if that committee chair wanted to bring the floor to the bill, to bring the bill to the floor, that chair could. So, we're just not used to this sort of incredible authority that the Majority Leader has. And I wonder about that because, you know, I think about all the businesses through this and I know that a lot of states have different restart, different openings, some are wide open and others aren't, but we're experiencing this economic pain throughout the country. And there doesn't seem to be sort of the traditional pushback that we often hear when we have huge spending bills like this, which is, oh my goodness, we're going into debt. I think this is where you started this conversation, Congressman, is we will deal with that at some point. Certainly my organization, myself in the past, haven't always been like, you know, ready to add more to the national debt or the state debt. But I think in this particular instance, this is a very different time. And so, it's hard for us to understand that calculus, whether it's on infrastructure. One of the things that Vermont needs quite a bit of is really, and the only place that we can get help for this from is from the federal government. And that is with broadband infrastructure. Exactly. And that's in that infrastructure bill. Yeah. No, again, if there are some good things that have come out of this, it is the awareness that you just can't have rural America with any chance whatsoever without having high speed broadband. You just can't, you can't have it. And of course, one of the things that's happening is a lot of folks I'm told by the real estate folks are moving into Vermont. Yeah. And a lot of those folks might be able to contribute significantly to our economic revitalization, but they can't do it without high speed internet. Just can't be done. And again, I'm the head of the internet, the broadband caucus in Congress is bipartisan about 20 Republicans and Democrats. It is a universal need. And, you know, before COVID, we used to talk about kids needing it to do their homework. Now we talk about it because that's how they went to school. And we talked about the advantage of telemedicine, but now for many people, that's the only way they can get access to their doctor. And now it's not just having the convenience of doing some work at home. For many of us, the only place you can work is at home. And all that takes high speed internet. So the case has been made and the need that Vermonters have, I'm their representative, a Democrat is no different than the need that my friend Jeff Bortenberry, who's a Republican in Nebraska, his folks need it in the exact same way that Vermonters who I represent need it. So I just really got one last question for you. And then I'm going to ask you to make some closing comments, but the question is from Bill Parker and Creative Microsystems in the Valley. And, you know, really thinking about the uncertainty and the uncertainty in Washington and really understanding how that's grinding everything to a halt. And so I'm wondering if you can suggest what is it that Vermonters can do to help you press through that? You certainly have a lot of interests that we have in trying to move through that. So I am curious what you could recommend for us. You're muted Congressman. Thanks so much for that. There's kind of two ways. It's such an important question. So much of that requires a creation of a culture. You know, a lot of times in life and in politics, we get into who's right and who's wrong. And most of the time, you know, you're partly right and partly wrong. Or even if the person you're talking to is wrong or you're wrong, it's not with malice. It is just trying to figure out what's the way through. So that kind of respect that we've tended to have and value here in Vermont, it's a way of living and being. And I think the first thing that each of us can do is to have that mutual respect and enjoy of interacting with other people that don't necessarily agree with us and assume that their motivations are exactly the same as ours. Most of us like to think what we're doing is best for Vermont, best for our family, best for our community.  Most of us, that's really true. Even if a lot of times we disagree. So practice that at home. And by the way, I think our low COVID rate is significantly related to that Vermont ethic. You know, nobody really particularly likes to wear a mask. But if you have the satisfaction of knowing that you wearing a mask diminishes the chances that somebody else will get it and neighbor will get the disease. That's a great reason to do it. So practice that in Vermont. In Washington, my job on your behalf is to practice that no matter how difficult the circumstances because I say this and I really mean it. Washington could benefit a lot from a little bit more, a lot of bit more really of them from my way of doing things. So we each do our part here and I do my part on your behalf down there. That's great. Congressman, do you have any closing comments for us that you'd like to leave us with? Well, hang in. I mean, this, you know, seven months and I'm in a fortunate position compared to a lot of people. You know, my kids are older. I'm not trying to figure out how to get them through school. I've got a day job, you know what I mean? Our family is healthy. Folks on this call have a lot of different circumstances but all of you have to run a business that depends on people being healthy to be able to essentially buy your product. And there's a lot of anxiety that's compounded because we don't know when this is just gonna be behind us. We don't know. And it takes an immense amount of fortitude and mutual support to get through this. We will get through it. We will get through it. But we don't know when. But in fact, we do know how and it's gonna be with getting more help financially from the federal government. It's gonna be from creative application of your skills to a totally different circumstance. And it's gonna be with mutual respect and consideration for other people. You know, I have so many experiences and I bet you probably do too. You know, in some of these natural disasters. I remember Hurricane Irene, I was talking to somebody whose home had been ripped in half and I was really, and he just got off the phone with his insurance agent who told him, yes, you don't have flood insurance. And this was a beautiful place, beautiful gardens. And he looked at me and he said, Peter, don't waste your time here. There's a woman down there who's got two kids. She's in a trailer and the thing is destroyed. You know, see if you can help her. It's just, you know, that generosity of spirit. So, you know, I feel very privileged to have this job where my job is to try to help from honors, but each of us can try to help in whatever way we can. We'll get through it. Well, and we will get through it together. So I'm going to ask you one last question. It's not tough at all. Have you voted yet? I have. I voted by mail. And you know what? I'm like, unlike Dr. Fauci, I saw him last night on the 60 minutes and he's gonna vote in person. And he says, you know, you take precautions, it's fine. And they asked him why. And he said, well, he just kind of likes the ritual. So I like going down to the town office or town clerk body, you know, gives me a hard time. And I'm asking who I'm voting for for Congress. It's just, it's just fun to be down there. But Margaret and I did vote and voted by mail and we stuck it in the box down there at the Norwich Town Clerk's office. That's great. So seal sign send next week. So thank you so much for, for having this conversation with us and answering these questions and for fighting for Vermonters in DC. Next week we're gonna have Secretary Jim Condos on to talk about the elections. And that's why I am about that. So thank you for your time. Okay, thank you Betsy, bye-bye. And for those of you who are still on the call our next event in the Vermont Chamber's virtual policy series is next Monday at three o'clock. Secretary of State Jim Condos will be with us to talk about all the ins and outs of ballots, ballots, elections, everything you need to know for the upcoming election. So we hope to see you there. Thank you and have a great afternoon.


Okay so welcome everybody to this session about aligning your customers and product success in a SaaS world. My name is Evelyn Schutt. I'm working for Google Gorilla and I've been working as a scrum master for almost four years but since a few months I'm in a new position. I'm now a community consultant for OpenSocial and the reason I'm having this new position is has everything to do with what I'm talking about today so it will make more sense in the next slides what I do and why I do it. So in 2016 Google Gorilla has started to build their own SaaS product and that was basically the moment that we shifted from an agency to a more product focused company and this session is about how we had to change our approach in how we deal with our customers how we service them and because as I said I was a scrum master before so I had to work with our customers on a daily basis we had we worked in sprints so we had a really extensive relationship with our customers we talked about them about feature wishes and they help us testing and stuff like that so we really had a good extensive relationship with them but when you're selling SaaS your ultimate goal is that you have a very large customer base and you're actually servicing your customers with with less contact moments so actually well the least as you can get so because also they are using the same product so it's a standard product there's nothing customized specific for this customer so the way you have to deal with them is a totally different thing so I will take you through some of the lessons we learned in the past few months actually and things we need to change in our workflow and the way we talk to our clients but first let me give you a very brief introduction of the product because over social it's called and it's a community platform and it's a platform where people can collaborate share knowledge organize events and it's really suitable for an internet or for like a volunteer community it can be even a really big one we serve a lot of NGOs but can also be like your local soccer club for instance and the reason we built this product is because we had the most expertise in this in this yeah in this area and it's also really the next big thing I think even Dries told it in his keynote so we're really on track and open social comes in a few flavors actually three so the first one is our distribution and so it's completely open sourced can be downloaded and as you can see by the numbers it's really active it's been downloading been downloaded quite some times and we also maintain it on the daily basis and we still are improving it and building new features for it the second thing that we have this is our sauce product so that we call it our basic product so it's the standard products you get for an amount that you pay per month so 95 euros per month 200 users and you get some extra specific features on top of the distribution and we also have other pricing plans when you exceed 100 users and the third flavor is our enterprise flavor because we also have customers who have very specific wishes and bigger wishes than the standard product so we built it on top of the basic product but this session is really about our SAS product so the software as a service part because that is also our main focus so in the beginning of this year I think it was April we launched the SAS product and we have now a fully automated via version which means you can go to our website at get over social.com you can fill in some credentials you grab some coffee and in the meantime your your platform is being installed I think it takes 15 minutes it's hosted on platform.sh and yeah you can immediately start using it invite users create some content whatever you want so that's pretty cool I guess and it's also our first step into this big big SAS world so far so good we thought and yes the technical part is in place and it's really good and we're really proud of that but there were two main challenges we had to face and the first challenge was conversion because when you download our platform you first get a 30 day free trial because you can try it out you can really get to know the platform and see this if this is the perfect fit for you and when you think yes this is what I need you fill in your credit card details and you can start using it and you will be charged every month for it so signups were pretty good we had about 30 signups for the trial version but converting them into paying customers that was really hard and because we had automated everything like the entire process we were also not really in contact with them so we had basically no clue why they didn't convert yeah the other challenge that was how to retain our customers so once they are actually on board they are paying customer how do we retain them and it's also a bit of a problem maybe within a product itself because building communities setting it up inviting your users that's one thing but if you really want to have a healthy community that is supporting itself users are very active they're creating content that's totally different thing I think it then can take up to 12 months on average before it's really healthy and it takes a lot of efforts of community managers so I think it can even be a full-time job in the larger communities so that's really really a challenge we have to face so up till the beginning of this year we had focused on technique so the product and its features automation even the updates are automated so with only one push of a button we update all our SaaS instances but we knew that now we had to shift our focus from the more technical point to the more customer facing issues I'm going to tell you four challenges for tips for things we changed but before I do that I want to make sure that yeah that's understood that customer success is not just one team that really focuses on it at least in our company I think it should be really a culture because all these teams are working on a product and they should be yeah they all should be involved in the customer success part so if you look at the marketing team they're already involved even if the customer is actually a paying customer because it's really important that we have documentation stuff in place that when they have to convince other stakeholders that they can show something and also in the buying process and the product team it's also really important in the research phase because they need to be really transparent on their roadmap because okay maybe at this point a certain feature is not in there but if you really be transparent about your roadmap you can show when it's coming or maybe it's not coming then this is also something that in their research is yeah really important to know of course yeah so we are working with an entire company towards customer success but the four things that I will show you now is really yeah related to the things that I was involved and I'm in the in the community team so it's mainly about onboarding and retaining them let's see the first one is about onboarding and we have actually two ways we look at it because first we have to get them on board they have to become a paying customer out of this trial period so yeah again we set up this 30-day trial but they didn't convert automatically so we made a change in there and what we do now is we actually put on our website that they can request the trial so they leave their their phone number and their email and the first thing we do is we call them and we get to know them a bit we ask especially what they're looking for an open social and what are their needs and based on that we set up a live demo it takes about 30 minutes we try to lower the barriers as much as we can but on the other hand customers need also need to be a bit dedicated to to get to know us as a platform and as a company so in 30 minutes we show them around we set up the platform a little bit in their look and feel so that they can relate to it and if they're still interested then they get their 30-day trial and it's also a great way to already be in touch with your customer you can address some early questions but also for us maybe at the end of the demo they're like okay this is not really what we're looking for okay I do not need this this this free trial but it's also available to us because we know then and we can ask them what what are you missing and it's really good feedback for us yeah when we change this this process it was in august up till then the designers were pretty high but it dropped but we don't think that's really bad because yeah we see these trials that are really dedicated and they are really a good match with our product and yeah they are like higher value in our opinion so this is it looks less like 10 a month but if we can convert six of them every month that's really awesome of course yeah the other way of onboarding is when they're really on board and they are this paying customer you don't want to let them lose and think okay now everything will go by itself and yeah we'll get them their money every month no we're still guiding them through the first phases of running their community but we also really checking how they use the platform do they use all the features in there are they neglecting certain parts or yeah every every time we do a new release we send out release notes but sometimes we learn that it's not really that they don't really read it so we also check okay are they using these new features or do we need to show them around so that's all like on one contact but of course we also need to yeah provide a lot of documentation for the cases that yeah they need quick answers so that's also something that we're really yeah dedicate and we work hard on that I think this seems like a lot of efforts and we've also been thinking of yeah automating this process like in the tool itself like building some kind of wizard that lead them step-by-step through the process it's still something on our mind but we took a step back and we're now really talking to them so this is also a great way to learn what this wizard should do in the end so that you're actually building the things they need so a second thing is yeah that you have to position yourself as a as a thought leader because it's not only that you're providing a tool for them if you can also show that you're really into the business that they're looking for that in our case that you're really into community building that you can help them engaging in their platform make sure everybody's active that is most likely that they will choose for you instead of a tool that doesn't provide that and how we do that is different ways so first of all we start blogging about it and we also market this in different social channels of course and I think we blog a lot about it because you have to be out there and you have to yeah you have to reach them over and over again so blogging blogging blogging we also create some more extensive white papers where we give them more in yeah in-depth advice on how to run your community and I think the third and most important thing is that we have set up a service where we consult them in building their communities so really talk to them on a monthly basis we help them set goals monitor these goals and also reach these goals and in the end yeah our goal is of course that their community is paying off and that they renew their contracts over and over and over every month third thing is that you have to listen to your customers because yeah you you get a lot of feedback from them and sometimes it's feedback on features you already have but needs improvement or new feature wishes that they have yeah you have to really gather and store this data because it's most important for us and not only from customers but also the sales team who talks to leads to these trials to to in other conversations all this data needs to be stored and we do that in a way in a tool it's called receptive and this is a nice way of showing that this is something we have automated because we started out in spreadsheets in and in our head but our customer base is growing our leads are are yeah growing as well so the spreadsheet is not enough anymore and this is where we decided to choose for tool receptive as I said which is really awesome and I'm really really big fan of it because customers can get their own account can submit feature suggestions to us and can also set their priorities as you can see on the right against each other and then other nice things that if other customers submit feature suggestions that they can vote on them as well and the same as the product team add some features in here that they can vote on it say man I don't want this or yeah this is a nice feature I wanted and this is my priority and they can also see our roadmap in here so that's part of being transparent again and then the other part is is how we can handle this data because we can create all kinds of smart lists as they call it here with the top priorities and you can look at all of our customers we can look at our customers with a high value or with a low value or or leads so this is really valuable input and we use this on a daily base we check new suggestions and we also use this in our roadmap meetings so we really try to listen and build what our customers need and that's a really big thing for us and it's really handy tool and last thing is measure because in the end you want to know if all this effort you're putting in there and talking to your customers and all these hours are really paying off and but this is also an whole other thing in the size world because you can measure like everything but where do you start and what's what we do is we look at the maturity models that are out there maybe a bit too detailed but I don't have enough time to explain everything about it but it basically is a model which shows the different stages a company can go through from a startup phase to a more emerging phase to scaling phase where you have a really large customer base and on the top it it shows on different pillars what kind of steps you can take if you are going through these phases so in this case it's the metrics and this is also how we addressed it so we said okay what did we do so far we have calculated our monthly and annual recurring revenue we have also counted our customers which was pretty easy we could do it with our two hands at the time but then we said okay now it's growing we need to know more and on different aspects also so on the top you see the core success metrics they tell you something about the amount of customers of the percentage of customers you are able to retain or that are leaving you and the growth in that revenue retention rate is about the revenue that you're able to retain every month or that you may be expanded and on top of that we also need to know how our product is used so we started out small because you can track everything there but we built some analytics inside our SaaS instances where we can track their active users and amount of content created all kinds of things so that we actually know that the platform is used or not and I think last thing is really important because we also measure the customer happiness and because all the figures on top could look really good people are not leaving you platform is pretty active but in the end of six out of ten customers is unhappy your figures could look totally different next month of course so we also track the happiness of the customers and you can do it really difficult you can also start really simple that the person who is in most contact with them that they can can rate the customer in the way they're happy can be really simple like that but these three figures together says well a lot about your customer base so our main lessons in this SaaS journey is and don't think you can automate everything from the start but get in touch with your client talk to them take them by the hand I got it a feedback and measure see if you're doing okay if you need to adapt and I don't think like automating from the start is really bad but it can just be tricky because you're not sure yet if you're automating the correct correct things you're not sure how they're using your product at this point so before I go to the questions some formalities would really nice if you could join a code sprints on Friday there's also a code sprint of open social so if you want to check out our product or even help us out fix some bugs and you're welcome and our tag line is make your people bloom maybe you've seen them already but at the door there is a small present small sunflower you can grow it and you can share your results on Twitter with us maybe you'll get a small price if you have the largest one so take them when you leave questions as in users you mean it's not about the amount of users I guess it's about active users but we also see it it's called the community lifecycle because you start out and your community managers are running the place they are created they're the one who creating content but in the end what you want is that the rest of the users is taking over and start so when that is happening then you're talking about this healthy community so and that's to reach that so that the community managers are just more like facilitating and and not like fully a full-time job creating content and pulling people to the platform that's the moment when you can speak of a healthy community in the community yeah we have a lot of different communities so we have smaller ones we have larger ones and the larger ones have about 50,000 users but we also serve communities that only have 30 users so that's really not a one answer to that yeah in open social yes it's really yeah we started this project because we also have built a community for green wire of a green piece it's called Greenpeace green wire and in there we have 100,000 users so that's something we want to reach with open social as well so 50,000 is already pretty nice and proud yeah that's a good question we're also a bit yeah a bit trying out still because we also are like experimenting with our pricing model but services could read be really interested to extend your business indeed and I think that's also something we're really focusing on now especially because it's also pretty important in our product but I think services could become even even bigger indeed the percentage I think it's 50-50 at the moment yeah yeah yeah yeah because the product is still a bit in the early phase so it can lack some features in cases so that's why this enterprise flavor is there and there's an entire dedicated team who works on building these enterprises yeah yeah that's also a good question because that's our enterprises they the basis is the same so if we add new feature to the to the SaaS version like private messages maybe then the enterprise customers will get it too indeed but so that goes like without any extra costs but sometimes we build like a very specific module that we don't want in the SaaS version we don't put it in the SaaS version but we do upsell it to other customers so it will not be in the standard products but yeah we upsell it in the beginning yes and now it's it's it's doubled so we need a tool because we can't use our hands no so yeah it's still an early phase we're now five months on the road and yeah it's a tough market I guess but we're still really dedicated to it and yeah we will make it work I think maybe one of the tech guys can answer it I'm not sure about the time and if there's somebody else behind me like a next session I think time is up so thanks for attending guys and take your presents


Hi, this is Dr. Don. I have a problem out of Chapter 8 where we're dealing with the difference in two population proportions. In this problem, we're told that we have a study about the effectiveness of using magnetic insoles to treat a form of heel pain, and it tells us that 53 subjects wore the insoles. 48 did not wear the magnetic insoles. We're given an alpha, and we want to answer the question, can you support the claim that there is a difference in the proportion of subjects who felt better? We assume the random samples are independent. When we look at this information, one thing that should jump out to you given these pie charts, that we're dealing with two categorical variables, which we have counts. And when we're given counts and a categorical variables, those are proportions, all proportion hypothesis tests that we run use the z-test. First thing we have to do is identify the null and alternative. Here it says, can you support the claim there is a difference? If there's a difference, that means that the two proportions are not equal. So the proportions of the two groups are different. And if we look at the options there, we would find over here that proportion one equal portion two, and the claim is that the two proportions are not equal. The first thing we need to do is to find the critical values and rejection regions. But we're going to do this using an Excel calculator I built on my website. Let me show you that now. Okay, I've navigated to my website and to the calculator. The link to the calculator is in the page below. There are two forms of the calculator. One version, the one that comes up, you enter the proportions and the n. The one we want, scroll down here, we've got the sample x is given, which means we can put in the counts and the number, the opportunities. So here the count for the first sample was 17, the opportunities were 53. The second sample had a success of 22, and the opportunities were 48. The alpha is 0.07. Now we scroll down here, you can see that this calculator checks to make sure that we can use a normal approximation, which is appropriate because we need to check that in actuality. And as we drop down, we need to select the claim operator. And we just click the drop down button. And in this case, the claim was not equal. So that tells us that the claim is the alternative. And it shows that the null is p1 equal p2, claim is p1 not equal p2. We have a two-tailed test. And as we scroll down, we get our critical value of z plus and minus 1.812. It gives us the rejection region. Any standardized test statistic z less than minus 1.81 or greater than positive 1.81 would begin the rejection region. It calculates the test statistic, which is just the difference in the two proportions. It gives you the confidence interval around that test statistic. It gives us our standardized test statistic minus 1.42. And it gives us the p-value 0.15. Now you would remember that you need to check to see if this standardized test statistic is in the rejection region. Or if the p-value is greater than alpha, this calculator does that for you. It tells us this standardized test statistic is not in the rejection region. p-value is not less than alpha. It gives you a decision that we fail to reject the null because z not in the rejection, p not less than alpha. And it gives us conclusion. At the 7% significance level, there is not enough evidence to support the claim that the two proportions are not equal. So I hope this helps. And if it does help, please consider subscribing to my YouTube channel, Stats Files. Just click the big red subscribe button.


Hi, this is Mitch Mitchell and I'm doing this video because in a few hours I will be going to the airport where I'm going to be going to Orlando For a wedding and then to San Diego for a business conference And I'll be gone for a little over a week And I wanted to do a video today before I left one because you never know if you know Their plane doesn't make it there planes gonna make it there But you just never know and also because I wanted to talk about something tonight Other than the fact that because I'm wearing the sunglasses because I'm going to two places that are normally supposed to be pretty sunny Although Orlando is supposed to rain all weekend and San Diego is supposed to be sunny So at least I get half of it, but last week late last week or heck it may have even been Yeah, it was late last week. I was looking at One of the local news stories, you know, Oprah Winfrey came to Syracuse all these people keep coming to Syracuse while I'm out of town And I'm just missing everyone, but that won't be for much longer Anyway, Oprah Winfrey came to town because Syracuse University was opening up a new media center And she came for that and then she met this lady who I don't know my wife knows her and some other friends that we Know know her but I've never met this lady and she run some program on the south side of Syracuse And Oprah wrote her a check for one hundred thousand dollars to help the program. I mean, this is just positive There's nothing bad that anyone should ever be able to think about something like this because the south side of Syracuse You know, it's not one of the better areas and it really needs development to get more people to live there It's got a lousy tax base So this is very positive stuff and I applaud Oprah for anything that she does along these lines So one of the things I really hate is I hate looking at comments and online newspapers I really do because you know, you just see some of the most negative stuff, but I'm looking at the story And I'm saying okay. This has to be good. Who could find anything to complain about There's always one and there was one guy who said hmm. She always seems to be giving money to only people of one race Really? Are you kidding me? Now luckily for me someone responded to him and what she said is What white people don't only give money to people of one race? Thank you so much for that, you know What is it with people? Why do people have to hate in general? Where do these people come from? I really don't get it. I don't understand the benefit Someone has to just be negative all the time when there's no reason to be now I'm not gonna pick on my friend Scott Craighead in this regard You know, he did a video and he was talking about you know How people are hating on his channel because he talks about all this bad stuff that goes on or whatever and People say well, why are you always being so negative about everything such as said whatever whatever and they're actually kind of missing the point And I understand his point greatly when he is negative He's not negative just for the sake of being negative. He's pointing out negatives in certain things Are there certain things that are negative yet is racism a negative thing?  You name it if it's a bad thing It's a bad thing and you're gonna talk about it in a bad way And you're gonna put it down and say, you know that mess has to stop so, you know along that line There you go. Now if someone does something good and all you can think of is something bad about it Now you've got problems.  Why do people have to hate on your dreams? They have to hate on your goals.  I've never understood that people don't believe me when I tell them this I have never been jealous of anybody in my life. Never. Now have it been envious of some people Yeah, why because now I want to work hard to try to get there And I always think that there are some levels of people, you know that people have in certain things You say, you know what? I want to get there or I want to be better and So I used to spend a whole lot of hours Playing basketball and playing all these sports or whatever and I got pretty good so that you know Anyone my size I could beat it pretty much anything And I've won some some events in a lot of different sports But I'm not gonna sit here and tell you that I probably could have been pro and anything Well, okay, I could have been a professional baseball player if I hadn't hurt myself But for a lot of other things mm-hmm it just wouldn't have got there But you know what I got better than most people that I knew at a lot of things and so You know, but I've never been envious if someone was better at me than something good for them If someone makes more money than I make good for them If you know, I have no problems I have a friend of mine locally and he's always kind of telling me about all these things that he's going to do and whatever Never never and I tell him all the time I hope you do it and he says well, I'm gonna show you and then you know You're gonna have to look at me at a different voice.  I you know I'm happy about that. There's some people I wish wouldn't do good things, but That's a here-and-or-there thing But overall if someone does something good if someone achieves something and they get some glory Alright good for them. Why? Because I'm still shooting for good things I want that ten million dollars in the bank that I talk about all the time got a long way to go Got a really long way to go, but I talk about that all the time And when I get that ten million dollars in the bank because I'm gonna get that I'm gonna be proud of myself now I'm not gonna be stupid and tell everybody I got ten million dollars in the bank But I think some people are gonna know hey I think that guy's got some money that he's not telling us about and that's okay I don't mind that but I don't want people to start hating on me just because I now have money What's that about? So so you're mad because I was able to make a success of myself to make some money and people like to say Well when people start making money they change no people don't change now There are some changes. There are some things that happen for instance I have noticed that when some people get a lot of money other people think oh you should be giving me some of that money Look at all you have you should just give it to me. I'm sorry. No, no one is entitled to that kind of money Maybe your children maybe your mother, you know, maybe I don't know the relationship You might have my mother would be entitled to anything she wanted. I'm just telling you that right now, but And my wife too I want to leave her out But you know no one else that I know my my good friends close friends, whatever They're not entitled doesn't mean I may not give them something just because I like to share with my friends different things here And there but no one's entitled to anything You know, this is not the kind of guy who's gonna have a what do you call it?  No Ain't gonna happen now some people could say oh look when you change. You did oh, I'm sorry. I didn't do that now It doesn't happen now So I certainly didn't change and I'm not saying that you know, I would never talk to any of my friends again Yes there's a lot of motivational stuff that says that if you want to Progress you have to be willing to drop all of your friends or whatever I don't necessarily believe that, but I do believe that there are those times where you're going to start to see that some of those people who you thought were your friends really aren't, you know, people who are going to hate on you because you've now surpassed them and they never saw that coming. And that's just a terrible thing.  And I think that more people should be happy for people who do well.  But like a conversation I was having with someone at lunch today, I said, you know, I am never mad at anybody for the money they make, because someone obviously thought they were worth that otherwise they wouldn't have given them that money. And if you're able to give someone a whole lot of money, you're probably making a ton more. That's just my logic. So let me ask you. Am I wrong in the way I think about haters? And by the way, I hope you check out that link that I put to my friend Scott's video. His language is a little colorful. I'm just going to tell you that right now. Be warned because Mitchell doesn't use any of that kind of language. Never have, never will. But you know what? He speaks from the heart and there you have it. So you know, I think like I said, if you see that in a different way, you're going to see that he's just not the angry young man running around all the time. And I almost hate to say that because I'm actually twice his age and that really depresses me to the no end. And I pick on him from time to time, but he knows my heart's in the right place. You know, we've got to learn how to get along with each other and we've got to learn how to be nice to each other.  Yeah. Okay. So I got a little bit of nerd. I can't help myself. I've been in San Diego, you know, a trip to California. I've actually been in California three times, but I've never left an airport. So this would be the first time I actually leave an airport. It should be interesting. And of course I will talk about it on one of these channels because Mitchell just got to talk. So anyway, I hope you all have a good week. Let me know what you think about haters. What do you think about that? Do you think that for the most part they're valid or they trolls? You know, what's your thought? Do you appreciate people who do well? Let me know and y'all take care.


Aikono Chichō. I never read this book, Salvador, in the psychedelic essence of Salvia de Venor. I now read it, read it on, print them from a website like, why did you go in psychedelics in the first place? Multiple reasons, Aikono. Multiple reasons. One of the reasons I explored Salvia de Venor and I've explored Salvia de Venor more than anyone I know or anyone I've read about hardcore. I want ballistic on this thing.  So when I encounter something that scares me, that I'm afraid of, and there aren't too many things that I'm afraid of now, and I'm not. I try to make sure I am not afraid of whatever it is that my perception or lack of understanding of the information has led me to be.  It's the biggest upgrade I've had to the processing system. More in mathematics, more in dealing with death, more in dealing with life, period. Salvia de Venor was the biggest upgrade to my processing system.  That's how large the upgrade was. I needed time to process that information. I took about three, four, five years off to reread books that I had read before, relearn mathematics, physics, and chemistry.   Right?


On the occasion of International Women's Day 2021, we can all choose to celebrate women's achievements, especially their contribution during the COVID pandemic. Happy Women's Day to all. Communities and countries and ultimately the world are only as strong as the health of their women. And this health starts from puberty to postmenopausal age group. Hence, we must prioritize women's health by awareness and education. Happy Women's Day to all. Stay safe. This year my message goes out to all the women who are in their 40s. We are all heading towards menopause. We are going through a lot of hormonal imbalances.  Be happy, be silly and do things which probably will give you more satisfaction in terms of not just your family responsibilities and your work, probably a hobby which you didn't have time to pursue earlier. Try and take it up now. It could be as simple as gardening. It could be as rewarding as a marathon. It could be cycling. It could be anything. It could be a dance form. Don't have to be great at it. But something else apart from the routine does help you a lot at this phase. This is my personal experience and I wish you all a Happy Women's Day. Women play an important role in every family. Two things I have to say, go for regular annual checkups. Whenever possible, don't skip that. There's a first message and the second one is pursue your passion, whatever you're interested in, so that it keeps you going the long way. Happy Women's Day. I would like to share a message for Women's Day. A strong woman stands up for herself. But a stronger woman stands up for other people. Happy Women's Day. Feminism isn't about making women strong. Women are already strong. It's about changing the world's perspective about women. Happy Women's Day to all. I would like to share a quote which I came across recently. Every woman's success should be an inspiration to another. We are strongest when we cheer each other. Thank you. I, the hand that rocks the cradle, rules the world. Today is Women's Day and wishing you a very Happy Women's Day. You're the best and make the most of this. Take care of your health. Get your health checked out. Happy Women's Day. On this International Women's Day, I would like to wish each and every woman to be happy, fit, healthy and active and empathetic towards other women, not just today, every day of her life. And keep in mind that a healthy woman makes a healthy family and a healthy world. So wish you all a Happy Women's Day.


the truck the same as it's been we have door panels we have carpet we have everything underneath the carpet we have floor mats guys we have the heater core and everything is still under the dash okay we got everything is in here owners look owners manual guys we have a console we got a seat we even have the storage compartment back here still we got the whole back panel all right everything's in the truck still yeah we do have lightweight seats but we still have full interior so let me hear some come on we also have mirrors not making jokes for the people taking them off or anything guys but I still have mirrors sorry I'm not gonna take the mirrors off I just I don't don't think that's worth the time we got headlights we got real headlights that work we got fog lights that work everything under the hood is still there except for obviously I always leave my fender liners out and that's because I'm constantly working on the truck and changing things but just trying to show you that is a truck what's up my car fam I hope everybody's having a fantastic day out there as you can see we are at the racetrack we are at Silver Dollar Motorsports in South Georgia we got frostbite here we're gonna be trying to run the crap out of the truck today see what the best time we could run today is we also got storm so as you see we got both trucks storm has the fans on it because obviously we drove it oh all the way down here and this tracks about a two and a half hour drive so storm drove two and a half hours to get here so we're cooling it down real quick before we make the first pass with storm to see what all the improvements do on the quarter mile time and then obviously we're gonna run frostbite so hell yeah let's get to it round one fight fight fight the five fight been like trembling after some of these passes because I have literally ran the fastest passes down a drag strip I have ever in my entire life with any vehicle I've ever owned today is the fastest I've ever went and I am completely floored completely stoked and I can't thank everybody that has got me to where we're at right now Justin doctor differential speed shop cope racing transmissions John cope at CRT my son over here doing all the videos so you guys get to see and witness all the stuff that we go through to make this stuff happen Ryan my best friend which is owner of storm we came out here we ran storm we got some some data and some time passes from storm as well and guys today was a great day and I know it's just a matter of time within another couple weeks that we are going to completely run the number that I'm hoping this truck will run with the stock block 5-7 in it I did not expect to run what we ran today and man I'm telling you I'm stoked so I'm gonna show you guys the time slips and again you can see on the boards from the camera footage we got the time on the boards as well I did not have a lot of my go-pros inside the cab of the truck today and the main reason for that is I was I was trying to focus on racing and not focus on cameras so much today I was trying to focus on racing focus on the truck and try to run as fast as I can today in the DA that we have and that's something to mention the DA today guys we started out at about 11 to 1200 today and first pass at that DA off the trailer we ran 11-2 at 1-16-93 with a 1-5-82-60 foot and this is the time slip for that pass so that is pass one so you can imagine what I was feeling like when I got handed that time slip because we were hoping for 11-5 today I was stoked when I got that ticket guys like I was I was completely floored when I got that ticket pass number two my freaking jaw literally dropped I was shaking when I got back to the truck my son Clayton and Ryan we were all just like holy crap did that really just happen is it gonna happen today so pass number two now pass number two was a little bit later and the DA was around I want to say at that pass that time we had around I want to say about 1300-1400 DA and we ran 11008 at 1276 with a 1-5-12-60 foot that is a slip for that one and guys that's a 10 almost that mile an hour is 10s all day alright so now we got pass number three pass number three it's starting to get really hot but the truck frostbite is really still wanting to haul some major butch and we ran 11197 at 1941 with a 1-5-75-60 foot that is that time slip all right so we're we're going on to the next pass and temperatures rising DA's going up I think around this pass where we're floating around like 15 to 1600 ish DA's and we ran another 11153 at 118 57 and that was a 1542 this was the last pass that I did with my son in the truck this was his first time literally ever in frostbite on the track to make a like an actual track hit so this was awesome although we couldn't run the truck all the way out they wouldn't let us the rules are usually around if the vehicle's faster than 1399 you cannot have a passenger and obviously we fit that category so but they were cool enough down here at the track that he said if I let out half track he would let it fly and I promised that I would do that and that's what we did so on the very last pass with my son we launched a truck like normal we had a 1628 60 foot with him in the truck we ran a 13447 at 71 and that's obviously after I made the second gear change we pretty much let go let out and just kind of rolled and coasted the track and that was a time slip with my son no biggie there that was just a fun slip to do and a fun thing to do period so so hell yeah guys again I'm super stoked frostbite ran its butt off today if we had a little bit better da around like a thousand nine hundred tens all day tens all day with the tune that's in the truck all day long now keep in mind guys this is with the new holly high-ram manifold so you want my opinion on that manifold frickin get it that manifold on my boosted ram is hauling major rear end on the back end of the track it is going and keep in mind guys I still need a fuel system I'm running out of fuel but the truck is still going and it could even go faster if we had more fuel and it's just a matter of getting those upgrades done and the truck is going to get really ignorant I want to go over the truck today I want to show what's in the truck and we didn't change anything so I don't want everybody to think that we took a whole bunch of weight out of the truck to drop these times that far down we did not now many are going to notice I did not have my tailgate net on the truck today alright we didn't take it off for the race I actually forgot to put it back on and the reason I took it off is last week was my daughter's homecoming dance and I took her and her friend to the homecoming dance and frostbite and they rode in the back of the truck up to the school which was badass I wish I would have filmed that I did not it was dark so it would have been hard to see it anyway but we had fun with the truck that's why the net's off so they didn't have to climb over it in dresses so that's why that's off now let's go to the inside of the truck we're still running the same tires we have my brackets on my my lower control arm brackets are on the truck obviously that was working today very well inside the truck the same as it's been we have door panels we have carpet we have everything underneath the carpet we have floor mats guys we have the heater core and everything is still under the dash okay we got everything is in here owners look owners manual guys we have a console we got a seat we even have the storage compartment back here still we got the whole back panel all right everything's in the truck still yeah we do have lightweight seats but we still have full interior so let me hear some come on we also have mirrors not making jokes for the people taking them off or anything guys but I still have mirrors sorry I'm not gonna take the mirrors off I just I don't don't think that's worth the time we got headlights we got real headlights that work we have fog lights that work everything under the hood is still there except for obviously I always leave my fender liners out and that's because I'm constantly working on the truck and changing things but just trying to show you that is a truck that is how we raced it today that's how we just loaded it back on the trailer that's what just ran 11008 just like you see it and we're gonna crack a tin before the season's over so you just wait wait for some better air we're gonna crack a tin guys frostbite we are gonna make the track at least one more time before it closes up so I am hoping we're gonna hit a tin so guys please cross your fingers for me I want that 10 second pass and that's it guys don't forget hit that like button comment down below what you think we're gonna run in a better DA on frostbite and as always stay safe out there we'll see on the next one