So, Dr. Mark Ritzage, what an honour to have you on the podcast with us today. For those of you who don't know Mark, he is possibly the most famous Mark of our time.  I'm not that famous, I hope not anyway. It's nine o'clock where he is, so he's having a cheeky Heineken, I think. It's actually Cooper's, which is our version of Heineken down under. Sorry, I have to say it's better than Heineken, but it's very similar. It's a Greek can, it tastes of beer. In BBC standards, other beers are available. Other beers are available. Not as it turns out in Tasmania at 9pm in my refrigerator. Cooper's. I enjoy the keepers, but yeah, so Mark's been writing about marketing for over 20 years and obviously heads up the very famous Mark Ritz and Marketing NBA.  Yeah, I was a bit of a strange, really I was an academic gone wrong. They still teach my career path at the consortium, which is like the big doctoral trading thing in America for marketing professors, on how not to do it, how to blow it from a good start, you know what I mean? So I'm a warning case study, do you know what I mean? I'm a prohibitory story of how to get it wrong. So that's where I stay in the academic. So I am an academic theoretically, but yeah, I was a very bad one. I was a very dirty academic from the start. I like to do stuff. I mean, it was a good place to start. How did you go from the academic world into the sort of practical world? Was it just meeting people at universities and then they said, oh, can you come and help? Yeah, basically it was London Business School. I mean, I'm an unusual marketing professor in the sense that I became a professor because I really liked marketing. Most marketing professors became marketing professors because they wanted to be a professor, which is a very different motivation. So I was just into marketing. And I'd done my PhD partly in the UK but partly in the US. I'd gone and taught in the US for four or five years as a junior professor, very theoretical. And then I'd come back to London Business School late 90s. And London Business School was like at the centre of everything and it was still quite applied. It still is, but it was very applied back then. And I decided I was going to be a branding professor, not an advertising professor. And there were many of them in the 90s. It sounds odd now, but there was only a handful of them in the world. And I was in London, so I got tons of exposure and began to get, I began to work for big companies on big branding jobs that I was incredibly unable to service. But of course any good consultant you very quickly learn while being paid what it's all about. And that was how it started. Were there any sort of amazing brands that you worked with where you were like, I can't believe I'm getting to do this at the moment? It was London, right? So I got to work on Ericsson, Sony Ericsson and then Ericsson when that sort of Nokia Ericsson thing was going on.  Like how much money was being spent without any strategic reconnaissance.  So that was very useful. Probably the other big one was LVMH. So I got plucked from my class at LBS to go and work for the LVMH senior team in Paris. So I spent about 14 years in France working across all the brands in the group at the CEO level. So that was hardcore, that was great. And that's probably the one where you get to work on Don Perignon or you get to work on Tag Heuer. It was amazing what we were able to do and how much trust you had because all the CEOs knew each other. So I would be sold from one brand to another on the basis you should get the guy from London in. And so I did 50 or 60 jobs internally over the years on positioning and tracking and brand extension and CRM. So I really got to know it at a very high level and I'm still close to some of those people. Even Sephora, which I know has just started in the UK, I'm still very close to people from Sephora. So yeah, that was a lovely time, really lovely. That must have been fascinating. You were going from different brands, different brand, often in different industries.  How am I going to sort it? It was really interesting. I'm a real procrastinator. So what would inevitably happen would I would fly to Paris or Tokyo or somewhere and I do the famous thing.  But the advantage of all of that was you went in relatively inductive and clean. You didn't go in with some very organised structure and then if we did a three-day job on say brand positioning, every day I would get up mega-early and take day ones into day two and refinangle it and then go into day three and refinangle it again. It was interesting in my 50s trying to do it. I tried to do it recently for a large brand. First time I've done it after COVID and I just found that I couldn't because I was just too old because you really had to get by with two hours sleep. You know, four or five days and so I've stopped doing that. But yeah, it was very inductive which I think was the benefit of it. You teach some stuff from other clients and then you open it up and we do the work and it was. We did the work on Donna Karen's brand with Donna there and I can remember just being a pull on all these examples from all over the world from other luxury brands we worked on to the point where they were just badly in love with it because it was kind of what do you want to do and we can work on these things and we'll come out with a plan for next year for the brand stuff. So yeah, very inductive, chaotically so in a way but it usually worked really well. It was brilliant to be at that higher level doing a very micro thing, the same thing really, the brand stuff for so long. It sounds like you've been a true creative even though you said you're an academic sort of a very bit of a creative trait to leave everything to the last minute. That part certainly was creative for sure. But I guess there's a... You said something there that I thought was interesting that kind of almost... Yes, you've got to do your prep but almost if you do too much prep it's hard to see nearly. Do you recommend that for... It's a key point Chris. There's no such thing as brands in general is one of my key lessons, right? So the minute we try and take what's worked for one brand and import it directly into another even in the same category probably will work as well because the definition of a brand is it's the opposite of a generic so there has to be a slightly different path for each brand based on what's in them. We're not doing commodities, we're doing brands. So I think being sensitive to that and not being too formulaic is I think one of the great strengths and it fascinates me how few marketers are able to move from brand one to brand two to brand three and be able to start from a blank page again. Most of them come in and it doesn't work with an a priori approach which was built from the previous brand but won't work for brand two. Sometimes it works okay but the reality is you go back to diagnosis you go back to understanding the brand that you're now on then to strategy, then to tactics nor I know how brands work, you know, blah blah blah that's not how it should be done in my opinion. So when you were doing all of this where did you get your learning from? Like nowadays obviously luckily people can take your course or take one of our courses or read a million amazing books but I mean where did you get your inspiration from? Was it just hard trial and error or were the people who you... I'd studied it to quite a great degree within the academic firmament. So coming up with a PhD in marketing and then having taught MBAs and having published work of my own I pretty much read everything up until, I mean where are we now? 25 years ago there was a lot less being written of any note. So I was pretty on top of anything that David Archer, Kevin Keller and everyone going back from there had written. You know what I mean? Like Tom Roberts and all those guys I knew all that stuff pretty well and it was pretty good stuff I have to say.  Right I mean what talking about that what do you think has been the sort of greatest evolution that you've seen from doing your brand consulting when you started to where we are today there have been some radical changes I mean obviously the landscape has changed a lot but what do you think? Oh look I think it... I'm a big one to say the fundamentals don't change that much Right. Having said that if someone like me says the fundamentals are changing then they probably are I'm the last guy to say they are but they are now you know I'd say that the obvious one is tactically we've got now this split between digital and traditional which doesn't make perfect sense but that changed things tactically but the big one's probably been strategically in the sense that over the last ten years the role of segmentation has definitely changed it definitely seems less and less valid and the impact of arabo bass has been very positive there are two things for me really bringing mass marketing back as a potential opportunity and obviously they work on distinctiveness but certainly segmentation I think we over segmented things in a far too complex fashion and I think that's been a very big change the idea you can target everyone in the category and not be seen as an idiot is probably the biggest revolution that's happened in my during my time being involved I was actually listening to one of your podcasts the other day you did a lovely talk with Joe Glover from the marketing meetup wonderful chat if you haven't heard of the marketing meetup go and check them out and I thought it was a lovely talk to listen to because you talked a bit about the difference between how to grow a brand if you're a big brand and how to grow a brand if you're very small your your early summary was not great if you were a small brand it bears repeating Chris you're very fucked if you're a small brand because capitalism isn't fair and American marketers have many great strengths but one of their weaknesses is they have this fetish for David versus Goliath and that small entrepreneurial brands will win and it's just painfully not true it's never been true it does occasionally happen but so rarely we shouldn't really talk about it the story of marketing is big brands getting there first when categories are created and then dominating from that point onwards partly because they've got more money but also because their dollars go further because they're already a big brand and it's not fair so yeah I think it's hard when I talk to people at Joe because Joe's wonderful and he has a very optimistic view of that entrepreneurial start-up culture I think it's horrible and destructive and incredibly hard on people and teams and I want nothing to do with it at all and I respect those people very much I have not a bone of entrepreneurial true entrepreneurial what's the right predisposition in me because that definition of an entrepreneur where they'll risk everything strikes me as bananas you're much closer to an entrepreneur than I am yeah no I still think you've made big bets in your life you've moved to different countries you've taken lead where other people wouldn't have those are all big entrepreneurial traits it's an interesting one I still think about this when I left London Business School I can remember the professors, several of them who were good friends of mine saying what are you going to do you're going to Australia what are you going to do have you lost your mind and I can remember not being fazed by it and to this day I don't know over that because I have a gigantic ego or I have no ego at all and I still don't know the answer to the question because if I had a huge ego I'd have to be at London Business School and hello dear boy and I've got the cards and all that or my ego was so titanic that I was able just to leave and go I'll just go to Australia and do it you're right it was a bit of a bold move but there was always financially I was never going to I'm very working class I was never going to risk everything to a proper entrepreneur that risks everything and I'm like I just could not do that I don't think you need to risk everything to be an entrepreneur I mean if you think about it the original French definition is it's a man or a woman who invests more than they have on their gambler so I forget but it's something really trade-out masochistic in Rome and Catholic something really art American entrepreneur is not the same as the original famous George Bush quote the French don't understand entrepreneur it's like their fucking word mate I'm pretty sure they do so you swapped the wonderful weather of the UK for the heat and wonderfulness of Australia and you went over there to go was it Melbourne initially or did you go to Sydney was it? I was married by then to a bar maid from the Windsor castle which is the local pub at London Business School funnily enough she ended up being from Tasmania she was a proper Tasmanian in the sense that she hadn't really been to the mainland at all she'd flown straight to London when she turned 19 big culture shock we met later in London and I kept saying to her when we got back what about this I have no idea what this is what do you think so she was useless so we went around the whole of Australia out of New Zealand and I gave talks at all the universities and at the same time we were trying to work out where do we fancy living and in the end Melbourne was the winner so we ended up at Melbourne Uni at the Business School, Melbourne Business School which is great I would have probably done certainly more than 10 years there first of all as a real professor and then as my consulting kept going I became essentially an adjunct professor so I kind of again my career was gradually petering out as an academic throughout so I became like just a part time academic and by then I was flying everywhere I mean literally two weeks a month on planes partly because I had now the refutation but also Australia has come on a lot in the last 10 years but when I got their 0304 there wasn't any work to do there in the brand space they just didn't get it you know they were Neanderthals when it came to brand stuff it has got lots better but back then it was terrifyingly bad I mean there's some amazing agencies there in Melbourne Clemensha BBDO is very famous they did lots of amazing work on that what I guess is now AB of brands back then it probably would have been its own thing but yeah it's oh gosh what were the brands over there well it would be Tuis and VB it's a fascinating story Australian beer because when I got here my father-in-law would bore the crap out of me with these beers you know he had to show me the difference in the Australian beers and VB was this and Melbourne Bitter was that and Tuis was this I tried these beers what became apparent to me very quickly was A they were all very average and B they all tasted exactly the fucking say and breaking that to him was very hard to do but I had to break it and then of course what happened then I took him to America when I started teaching in the States and I went look you want to see what beers taste like when they're different be all dry the American Revolution had begun and now in Australia thankfully it's definitely happened here as well and it's moved on but yeah the story of Australian marketing for 60 or 70 years was basically an oligopoly you know there were two big breweries three big newspaper companies two big supermarkets and in an oligopoly what you get is basically zero market orientation zero innovation because the companies are phenomenally successful because you haven't got any choice and it was only around the turn of the century when the foreign brands came in and kicked ass that Australian marketing which you know Australian is a very good business culture marketing was just very very prehistoric started to catch up very quickly to the point where it was very strong but yeah 2003 it was frighteningly bad so when you do travel all over the world you've seen how marketing operates and advertising operates in different different parts of the world are there I'm sure it maybe shifts and changes over time but are there any places right now where you think that they've got it or they're better than other places in the world well I'm not I think everyone's getting to this sort of global sort of media line now where you know globally we're all kind of getting good which is nice to see I think the Americans have totally lost the plot but I think the big marker isn't the story of who's who's got it it's kind of who's lost it you know what I mean I went to America in the mid 90s because that's where you went and that's you learned marketing from companies and people that were 20 years ahead of anything in the UK you know and I don't think that's an arguable point they were just so far ahead and you look back to that point and where we are now with American marketing they're off the pace and I say that as someone who loves America loves Americans and I don't get much disagreement from most of the Americans that have international exposure American marketing seems to have not isn't driving it anymore and that's sad but also an interesting opportunity for the rest of the world I think you read something in a marketing recast actually the other day I thought it was really interesting you said how does a brand appeal to everyone when that society is openly opposed to the whole sections of itself which I thought was an interesting observation I think that was on the back of the sad stuff that happened with I think it was Bud Light yeah I used to have I've got a lot of old dogs and one of them got quite annoying and took exception to his own penis and I remember he used to sort of attack his own penis quite vehemently lay usually lay in the evening for some reason he would suddenly sort of go right I'll sort you out and sort of just stop biting his balls of his penis and it's a metaphor for America at the moment it just seems like an old dog that's attacking itself do you know what I mean like it's like there has to be some grace there to realize that I actually think Elon Musk is a bit of a hero I think Musk is trying to forge a path between the two tectonic plates hugely unsuccessfully but bravely non the less and you can tell what kind of media you read with how Elon Musk is portrayed if you think he's a left wing lunar libertarian you're reading right wing press and if you think he's some kind of right wing fascist you're reading left wing press and I think he's genuinely trying to be like he said yesterday you know the unabombers manifesto actually made a lot of sense it's a very brave thing to say in the middle of America and not an untrue thing either right so it's a yeah it's a I've seen it in meetings in the States which I have much less of than I used to have with clients there isn't an ability to call it like they used to be in the States I'm not talking about being rude or politically incorrect but just talk about the real things you have to have it's almost like the sort of old Swedish approach you have to have a pre meeting and a post meeting around the meeting that's not a way to do business you know and I think that the American brands are struggling with it you know what I mean the great example is that Bud Light now are running a competition to win an assault rifle right so they've just swung from transgender transsexual whatever to you know machine guns and assault weapons whatever but it's just like this has to be the low point for American civilization I guess and again I love at the States it's my happiest country so it's sad to see it in that state they are a brilliantly optimistic bunch the Americans maybe not anymore Chris I've met so many particularly American women very talented late 30s, 40s some things who are dotted around the world now and when you have a beer with them you know you're from Philly you're from you know San Diego and they're like I've got two kids I'm not bringing them up in America the minute they had the first gun drill they were off and I could give you and this is not an exaggeration I could show you 25 women I've had a chat with about that I had a few men but especially the mums who go the first time they had the drill when someone comes into the school with an assault weapon I'm an international marketing person I'm gone you know what I mean yeah it's sad and unnecessary but it's like I'm into that I know nothing about the Negro what's the what is the so America's not doing so well which is one that you do think is doing well oh look the second one that's not doing well is the UK but let's not talk about that either they'll get back there eventually I'm very there's a couple of little pockets of great marketing we should talk about New Zealand right so New Zealand has this pointless little economy on it and if ever there was an oligopoly that was you know Australia makes it you know makes New Zealand look terrifyingly bad and yeah we have extraordinarily good marketers extraordinarily good brand management really sensational products very good agency culture and there's really no explanation for it other than the Kiwis are just this sort of it's like they're all blacks you know there's no explanation for that really it doesn't make sense yet it exists you know the Kiwi marketing culture is another one pound for pound they're punching above anyone's weight you know what I mean so I'd always highlight them as a group I think the broad insanity of Thai advertising needs to be talked about more I don't think I've ever seen more any showreel from Thailand always delivers extraordinarily insane shit you know that needs to be... no one's ever talked about that you know Lynn I've never seen a Thai ad that wasn't fucking bonkers in a good way where are these creative people can we get them involved with other brands where else have I been I've also I've got a real hard on for the Germans yeah so the Germans I think the Germans are actually about you know they're a huge market they've always had no idea about marketing they've always struggled with it the long bit the brand building bit it's not been quite years on it I get this sense we're getting more and more Germans in every country who are getting it and I feel great optimism that the Germans are gonna are gonna be a force in marketing in the next 50 years they sure as shit haven't been in the last 50 years but now I feel like they're coming and it's a good thing I think culturally that I mean my wife's half German and I think it seems that there are a lot less repressed than they used to be I don't know if it's about the Danes I've never met a bad Dane or a bad Dutch person but I've also never met a bad German I just find them to be more and more engaging you know they're the good men and women of Europe and I think now they're a liberal bunch obviously and yeah I would expect them to come on now and I get that sense there's a lot of people saying interesting things in Germany about marketing and it's starting to sort of bubble up a little bit and so it should it was a brilliant piece of work that I I'm sure I'll win at Cannes this year it's from a New Zealand mobile phone company I remember it was the one where they were reading out the billboards have you seen that one did Colenzo and Colenzo were the great agency there they win all the awards right pretty sure it is but I'll I'll share it with you afterwards you're really selling it Chris really selling it out I didn't do the case study I watched it once great thanks I'm here all week selling ads when it comes to brands themselves are there any brands again trying to keep it in this positive light that you think are doing great work and really get it at the moment I think across the world you've got to give McDonald's a big kind of salute and partly because the work so good partly because it's been happening for a long time but also because we had all that nonsense about Burger King and all that crap and it was like that was a great example of the pointlessness of creative awards you know it wasn't bad work it just wasn't particularly good work either it was just stuff that wins awards and meanwhile McDonald's work wasn't bad work either certainly wasn't the kind of word that wins awards but it was the kind of stuff that was driving really quite splendid growth, revitalization you know it was doing the job but if you look across many countries McDonald's it's a high watermark for me I think they're doing a really good job got back 20 years there's a question mark whether McDonald's had that kind of future you know and yet they've evolved beautifully with it and I think if you want a long and sure exemplar it would be them so yeah they'd probably be the one I'd look at at the moment I see a lot of work coming out of their arch nemesis KFC and KFC are also strong they've just got this back bench of what seems to be our hundreds not all women but mostly incredibly talented marketing women and they just seem to be breeding them somewhere and there's just layer upon layer of them now they're going off into other companies but they still got that core sort of KFC effectiveness skill and then probably the last one I'd give the most credit to is the tourism Australia guys I don't think have done anything new in the last 12 months or invented anything radical but what they've done is just applied the principles of effectiveness which everyone kind of knows perfectly and done a really good job and that's always good to see you know there's nothing special it's just brilliant you know it's just really all well done so they're the kind of brands that float my boat at the moment who else have I looked at I mean Guinness is the other great story Diageo generally in Guinness I was very struck Neil Shah he'll fucking hate me saying it right that's how good he is Neil Shah who runs marketing for Diageo for Guinness in the UK when they became the best selling pint I sort of forced him to do an interview with me about it and he said I don't I don't want you to mention my name in the article because we really are a team at Diageo and I was like yeah okay mate whatever and then I wrote the article and everyone says that but I just put him in 10 times I thought he was like you know don't mention me at all do you know what I mean and then I saw I put him in there I don't want my name in there he really wanted it all out and I just thought that was so impressive because he said we're a team you know all the way from the late great Ivan you know what I mean he's sadly passed away there were a real team culture but again that backbone of effectiveness nothing new just doing it doing all the basics well and you know prospering as a result they're all brands that strike me that they know very clearly who they are and they know clearly who they're not that really helps doesn't it the other one that really helps is and they know who they're going after when I did that work with the better briefs guys one of the great statistics that came out of the British sample was that I mean on the client side and I'll get this slightly wrong about I think it was about 65% of clients said my brief is very clear on who I'm targeting so straight away 35% of them are like ah sorry I'm clear they don't even know who they're going after but when you talk to the agencies the agencies were like 65% of them said we have no idea who these guys are targeting at the end of the briefing process so you know you get that contradiction between all this rubbish about AI you know what I mean never mind AI two thirds of the big brands in the UK aren't clearly aware of who they're targeting and who they're not that's where we are you know what I mean that's where we are yes it's a it's a tough one I mean and it's also I mean it is an interesting time to be alive I think we're going through some big changes but I mean as you know with the knowledge that you have on behavioral science the sort of culture and the way that humans act think and behave doesn't necessarily change very quickly it's a lot of this stuff this kind of caveman era stuff well we have to put up with this nonsense Chris on a daily basis that the attention is shrinking and the way people's brains work is changing none of which is true right I mean it's I posted something today and I shouldn't have but I couldn't resist there was some shit nonsense going on linked in about how everyone was using chat GPT to to work out how to improve their resume and everyone was going I was 8000 people yeah it's the future blah blah and I just posted a chart from Morgan Stanley showing that 10% of people have ever even logged on to chat GPT in the professional sphere so I'm like yes some of them have but 90% of them haven't so can we just calm down to your point you won't happen but it's not going to happen at the moment for me AIs like the metaverse a massive long term story but in the short term has fuck all to do with marketing yeah good point very clearly put we talked very briefly about a while ago about Byron Sharpe and his work and it's when I read what you're saying it's always interesting you do agree actually on a loss I think there's just a little bit of a mix in some things I think he says which are not quite right can you just explain what the overall position is the homoerotic tension in the room have you ever met we were lovers in the 60s we went back when the war was young no we know each other very well we've been having arguments for 30 years I remember going to the University of South Australia and having some data on TV audiences and some dude in the back row just basically just throwing a bus all over it and me going what the fuck are you talking about just Byron we were off I mean I think what's interesting as you get older is you realise there are certain people whether you want them to or not will travel through your life with you and Byron will obviously be part of that for me the impact Byron's had is sensational your wonderful intro is fantastic but I suspect I'm not but Byron might well be and I think if you look at a couple of this heroic I mean first of all it's Eremburg and it's the Eremburg Bass Institute but it's a lot of it is also Byron pushing it the ability to take something like mass marketing which all of us thought was stupid and make it the right thing to do is astonishing and the ability to push something like distinctiveness Sadians which we hadn't talked about since the 60s and bring it back was super super useful and the only problem I have with a lot of this is there's a whiff of aftershave behind the white coats of Eremburg Bass and what I mean by that is they just have a bit of razzle commercial razzle dazzle this isn't science you know so they all this bullshit we had in the 90s about brand loyalty and brand communities Eremburg Bass went which was great you know but then they went too far with it in order to dominate the dogma and I just feel that last 20% they always go too far they've done a brilliant job of getting distinctiveness to be something we all think about and we owe them a big favor for that but the way they critique differentiation is just wrong it's just not right and so for that reason I think you know yeah but Byron people don't realize what Byron is he has a very good sense of humor he doesn't take himself too seriously on the right day you know what I mean so he's good value he's handled it pretty well you know but he doesn't suffer fools either you know you wouldn't want to go in there you know really nearly you know you could get your ass handed back to you on a tray I'm mildly petrified of him looking at how he should be how he responds properly intelligent schools you know mother fucker I mean you wouldn't want to mess around with Byron he's got the tools to eviscerate people you know what I mean but that's great you know that's what you want you want a few people who are like fuck Byron Sharp you know fuck you know the best story goes when we did that debate so the festival of marketing this would be like I don't know fucking ten years ago now what like a showstopper debate because everyone went to the pub on the final day of the festival marketing so we erase this debate and you know we'd neither of us was doing it for anything other than fun so and I always remember and we had a big call about it six months in advance what we're going to talk about Byron I always remember thinking I'll go in a really big fucking like I'll fret I'll read the red book I'll do this really complex you know fucking argument stuff and I'll spend months like Rambo in the forest you know lifting logs getting ready and then I just forgot all about it and then the day before I did pay got incredibly drunk in some fucking bar in south London and I woke up like 10 a.m. I'm over and I had to go to Waterstones and find a copy of his book and try and read it and come up with anything I was going to you know it's just such a fucking mess you know compared to I was meant to be rocky in the fucking forest it was just me stumbling around Waterstones smelling of piss you know it was oh God you know done it again but how did it go I still beat him yeah you know I still won the debate yeah it doesn't mean I'm right it just means I can I can you know but I think you need those kind of characters the I think that the lovely thing about the both of you is you know everyone learned I mean we're both now doing sort of educationy things and everyone learns in a different way and I think you need that kind of straight academic rigor sometimes but I think you also need things to be put across in an approachable enjoyable fun way and I think that's what I've always loved you for Mark is that these very complex things that often baffle us and we get too into it so to lose ourselves and I think you you clear that path for us and make it so much easier and so so much more and really mean this importantly so much more enjoyable I think that's the lovely thing to say Chris I remember I had a PhD student lovely PhD student who I supervised for four years and when he submitted his PhD he wrote a paper which got published you know the journal consumer research I remember from the very start not understanding any of it and I was like and not because I'm thinking it was just like none of these sentences make any sense like we've got to go through each I like what are you you know and I remember thinking this is prima facie what we should not be doing do you know what I mean where academic still go wrong is if you can you know we talk about it with strategy if you do your work on strategy with great complexity and great thoughts what you produce is incredibly obvious and in the same way if you actually understand the topic you should be able to write it in a way that a child can understand it you know we don't need the big words you don't mean so there you are very very very fine which I'll absolutely take with me thank you thanks it's it's it's I think Rory's the other person is very good at that southern time he is but he has that Colombo thing where he rumbles in you know I mean like he's you know then he solves the crime right at the end there do you know I mean like hang on Rory are you even with us here you know I don't have that I don't have the old Colombo magic at the end you know out of the Mackie pulls the thing I don't have that unfortunately that's a rare that's a Rory skill that you're both marvelous and I know we sort of got to end up very quickly but there's one thing another thing a small thing I wanted to ask about was in advertising there's been this sort of I don't know what happened to it but humor seems to have disappeared a lot I remember growing up I mean that was actually what got me into advertising was watching TV's and they're entertaining me making me laugh I kind of often programming was so bad back in the day the ads were actually more enjoyable than the TV programs themselves frequently do you see that's coming back to all of you seen some not yet I mean it doesn't make any sense though what you're saying even though what you're saying is absolutely correct so we know a couple of things right we know emotion is a massive driver of all kinds of wonderful things in advertising and we know of all the emotions probably humor is the most obvious easiest win right and yet despite the fact we've become aware of this in the last 10 years the preponderance of humor has come down in most ads right but we're taking ourselves awfully fucking seriously now right it's a serious business what we're trying to do right and I think that unfortunately part of the problem is we are this purpose period that we're maybe coming to the end of it I don't know one of its antecedents is the destruction of taking the piss out of oneself and having a bit of a laugh about it because the end of the day doesn't really matter do you know what I mean it's not important the different brands are not that important you know we should be able to enjoy that there are still brands that keep that in mind it's always delightful when you meet someone from a senior position and they reveal to you pretty much earlier in the conversation I'll do my job very well but at the same time it's more to life than that it's a super important thing we're missing that at the moment the earnestness is the antidote to humor and we probably need we need some form of revolution to bring it back and bring it back for commercial reasons but you know we come back to a key point there are too many people working in marketing because of other reasons other than to sell stuff it's okay to sell good products you know what I mean it's beautiful to make brands that are cool and aspirational they don't have to come at the cost of the planet or animals or human rights we can do all that well but at the same time it doesn't have to be this earnest all the time you know what I mean it doesn't matter which butter brand you buy at the end of the day if you start from that you'll make you'll be a much better brand manager and you'll make much more ads but we're not living in that era we're living in an era where it's funny I'll tell you a good story Chris which my editor won't like I got off the phone from my editor you know I've put him through so much shit over the last he's published things he's like and he gets the shit I don't even get the shit he gets the shit so they want a title for the festival of marketing that I'm talking about in October they're after me for a title it's fucking June you know what I mean they're asking me in May for some fucking title I haven't even thought about what I'm gonna say until late September and they want a fucking title so I told the people there I said I want my title to be Sex in the Fast Lane purely on the basis there it's just such a nonsensical fucking title and I'll explain when I get to the festival in October I just gave them that because just to shut them up and then I knew we'd come up with something better a week ago do you know what I mean but I said well my keynote to be Mark Ritzen Sex in the Fast Lane and even Rosso's got a big big debate with him he's like now what's this about sex in the Fast Lane like come on just put it in it'll be alright he's like well there's people that complain about this and I'm like yeah but sex between two men two women whatever sex you want that's the sex we won't be talking about do you know what I mean but yeah so we'll see how that goes that's the kind of thing I'm talking about it's alright the festival of marketing not the festival of cancer you know what I mean we're not trying to cure something important here we should be we should be having fun with this or something's gone horribly wrong well here to having fun and I know I'm massively over time so just to finish one quick one if you just personally were interested if you were to have a dinner party you could have any any five people sort of living or dead any mines spring to the top oh look well that's an interesting one who do I like who do I really like enough to want to hang out with look this is going to come across as quite tween and sentimental neither of which I'm really subscribed to but because I don't spend any time with my wife because we have small children I just like to have a dinner with my wife like if you said look over here is Karl Marx you know fucking Barbara Streisand Kevin Koster and you know fucking Marco Polo but over here you could have three uninterrupted hours with your wife where we could actually get drunk I'll go straight to room two do you know what I mean just because we don't people don't explain the apocalypse of small children properly you know what I mean until it's too late so you know by the time you are able to you know you see those old couples in restaurants who are sort of 65 and they don't talk to each other it's because they're just fucked you know you think they've got a kind of relation no they're just they've been through like the jungles of child rearing and now they decide let's just sit here and look out the window because I can't be fucked doing anything else you know what I mean it's just nice to enjoy silence you know what I mean so you know I'd probably just go with my wife I mean there's four other seats you know what I mean just unfilled preferably that would be great okay well what a mother's answer and your wife will be very happy if she listens to this podcast she'll never listen to this Chris so it's completely you know what I mean it's totally waste she said Chad she will listen to this ever I'll send her those 10 seconds in an email she won't listen to that either by the way please do send me that software you tell me about I'm more interested in that my wife will never know any of this it's fine it's interesting thank you so so much for taking the time to say hi and like I hope you have a marvellous rest of your week and the land of wonder the land down wonder and yeah hopefully meet up in real life sometime soon and yeah thank you for all you do for everyone that really mean it so cheers Chris I'm just increasingly worried as the interview's gone on that your day has got brighter and mine's got darker and it now looks like I'm in the Death Star you're kind of the forces of good and I'm like I might put a blackout on me and launch missiles at people do you know what I mean it was cheery here an hour ago but now it's like you know it's all good I'll turn the brightness up in the editing yeah and also maybe a little like Brad Pitt obviously that's a little bit though it's just a small little tweak there on the edge no worries cheers


Instagram, TikTok, including threads at Y2 for 4channel. On Instagram, it's Y2 for 4 underscore channel. By the way, we are verified with a blue check mark. And you can find me as well at a brand so-called 101. Now in this segment, live in studio with us, we have a very powerful guest in the studio, who is going to actually take us to his journey, the trials and the triumphs of walking through so many careers, but all the way from San Jose in California, from the United States of the America. We're being joined live right here in studio by the one and the only Aaron Phillips. Good morning. Good morning. Thank you. Nice to meet you in person. Hey, this is awesome. Thank you so much for the invite, man. Karibusana, are there some Swahili words that you've already learned? You know what, I'm terrible at learning like new languages and whatnot, but everybody's telling me, you got to learn Swahili. I'm going to learn. I'm going to. Akuma Matata. Akuna Matata? Akuma Tata. Yes. I love the way you said Akuma Tata. It's like one of the common Swahili words. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Lion King. United States, there's a movie called Lion King. I always talk about that. Right. That's where they have the phrase, Akuna Matata. That's how you guys pronounce it. I know, right? Right. Basofasagur Karibu to Kenya. Karibu means welcome. Karibu, thank you. Thank you. So Karibusana. I appreciate that. Thank you. So let's get to know you a little bit. Yes, I've introduced you, come from the United States of the Americas. Yes. They're great. Well, Obama is there. Obama, yeah. So just a little story about you. How did you start up? Why did you grow up in America? Absolutely. And how did you end up in the tech world as well? Crazy, right? It's crazy, right? So I grew up in the Bay Area, which is like San Francisco Bay Area. Okay. And I'm a child of the 60s and 70s. You know, grew up kind of poor. You know, we didn't really have a whole lot. You know, a lot of people look at me right now and they think, oh man, he can't relate to like what people's struggles are. Trust me, we struggled big time. But it was okay. We had a lot of love in our family. You know, the area that I lived in, it was diverse, it was a little diverse. So it helped me in my career to be able to understand people. I graduated from high school and I'm dyslexic. That's the one of the things that I always point out in all the interviews is I'm dyslexic. And I had a lot of issues growing up, learning issues.  I knew I was gonna be successful. But it was okay. I didn't understand what it was because being dyslexic is a little challenging. There's different levels of being dyslexic. But you know what? I always had a drive that I was gonna be successful. No matter what I was gonna do, I was gonna be successful. So I got into the environmental industry. So I ended up cleaning up chemical spills, if you guys can believe that. I went to Alaska cleaning up chemical spills out in the frozen tundra, which was amazing. But you studied for that course as well. A course in chemistry. Actually, what happened is that while I was working that job, I learned that the guys that made the most money were the chemists. And see, I didn't finish college. So I had to teach myself chemistry just to be able to get that promotion. And I did. Took me about a year and a half to figure it out. But I got it. And from that point on, I didn't look back. I started working for the Department of Energy. I worked at Stanford University, you know, very at a very young age, about 24 years old. I always had a high drive, guys. So you have to understand, I never wanted to settle for just, you know, working there was a good job. I was married at the time. My ex-wife thought I was crazy because that I wanted to leave that job. But I knew I was gonna stay there only a couple of years because I just wanted the experience. I didn't care about the money or anything like that. And then that- Was it a toxic job or something? It was. So that particular position was, I used to clean up the spills at the site, but I used to write up reports for the government. So it was Department of Energy. So I worked with the Department of Energy. So there was a little bit. But my background in training and in the industry, we always were very safe. Because in that industry, you had to make sure you take care of yourself. But let's fast forward. I ended up working, say, 17 years for a company, a startup company, an environmental company. And from that point on, I never looked back. I mean, I knew that that environmental was gonna be my industry. It was gonna take me where I wanted to go. We got bought out by a large company. I ended up leaving like 2000, start my own consulting firm about 2003, 2000. No, actually, it was more like 2008. And from there, I started working for a recycling company, a metal recycling company. I became the CEO of the company, worked there for a few years with my consulting company. And then from that point, I moved over to Tesla.  Let me tell you guys- And you got a chance to work with Elon Musk. I used to have to meet with Elon Musk every two weeks. So literally every two weeks, we'd have a skip level meeting, which means that my manager at the time was a guy named Greg Rykow. He was like the CEO of Tesla, didn't have it, but he was like second in command. And I worked for him. So Elon wanted to meet with everybody's, all his direct reports. So he had probably 15 direct reports. So every two weeks, we'd have to sit down. Let me tell you something about Elon Musk. Okay. But he worked there as a global senior manager. For a part called environmental sustainability. I was in charge of global sustainability for the Fremont factory for China, for the Netherlands, the remanufact facility there. So I had my team, I had 400 people underneath me, about 14 managers globally. So yeah. But one thing about working with Elon, Elon doesn't, he doesn't care about PowerPoints. He doesn't care about what you say you can do. He just cares about getting things done. All right. And again, I'm gonna curse a little bit.  And that's what our team did.  We made sure that Tesla was, when I started with Tesla, they were kind of a brown company, weren't green. They were a brown company, but my team ended up just turning the corporation around. We won awards there. Even Elon acknowledged our group, which is very difficult. For Elon to acknowledge you, it's a really, really big deal. He never got a name of our group, right? But he did acknowledge us. And everybody at the factory knew he was talking about us. But yeah, he was quite the person that I could say, I'm not gonna say I looked up to him, because again, he's a very difficult person to work for. But I didn't mind- Very difficult? Very difficult. He would fire you. Well, I mean, one of our first meetings I had with him, I didn't know him at the time. He came in and just went off everybody in the room. And I didn't realize why I was even in the room, to be honest with you. And yeah, it's a pretty interesting story. I'll leave it for another time, but yeah. All right, I'm just trying to also look at what you were doing at Tesla. Member of the executive factory management team for air emissions, meaning that there was like a production site where they had this going on. Yeah, yeah. So one of the things about me is that I'm very good at a lot of things, but I easily bring in, you know, subject matter experts. So we, one of our responsibility was air emissions, was hazardous waste, was trash, was recycling, was, you know, we were in charge of anything that was a byproduct of the factory, we were in charge of managing it, you know, keeping the KPIs, making sure that we had the regulatory agencies off our back, because trust me, in California, there's tons of regulations. What's that? Carbon regulations. Carbon regulations, yes, absolutely. Carbon footprint, basically anything. It was, it came through our group. Right. Somebody who's watching this conversation, they would wonder, how at Tesla, are they having carbon emission? Where is this carbon coming from? And yet it's all about- Okay, so think about it. Electric vehicles, right. Like paint, for it, when you paint the cars, there's organic material that, you know, that gets admitted into the atmosphere. So you have to be able to capture that when you're in the painting process. There's waves of like thermal units that capture that organic material so it doesn't become carbon or go carbon to the air. And we release a small amount. You know, we're really good. In California, where I'm at, California is highly regulated. So we have air emissions that, say, Texas doesn't have, that you really have to be, everything has to be permitted. It's just, it's one of the most difficult states, but it's one of the best states too. But it's one of the most difficult states for a business to run a business like a big, huge manufacturing facility because of the regulations. Interesting. In your scope of experience, comparing like where you worked at, maybe now Kenya from what you've read and what you've known, maybe is there like a comparison to where maybe Kenya is rising up when it comes to also doing something like carbon control and emissions? So I don't know a lot. So I'm learning. That's one of the reasons why I'm here about what the policies are or whatnot. I know I'm gonna be meeting with some government people to talk about that, to talk about like renewable energy and whatnot. So I can't really give you a clear answer on that yet, but I will. That's one of the reasons why I'm here. Okay. All right. Before we talk about dyslexia, you've also worked for other several companies and let me just point it a little bit so that you talk about it. You are chief operations officer at the American Metal Inc. So what was happening in this company? Because there's a lot of also scrap, scrap metal companies that collect scrap metals. And then it has again to go to like waste management. So please talk about it as well. Absolutely. Absolutely. So when I started my consulting business, there was this guy. He knew my reputation and in the environmental industry, everybody knows who you are. So if you talk to people in California, they knew who I am. I've been doing it for a long time and we're highly regulated. So there isn't any kind of shenanigans. You got it. Like if you pick up some waste, you have to manage it properly. It's documented.  I'm gonna take this acid and I'm gonna treat it and neutralize it and dispose of it and then go bury it somewhere. We have regulations. In the metal industry, the metal recycling industry is a little bit different because there isn't these regulations because it's not technically hazardous. So the guy who owned the company was Howard. He hired me to come in, to basically bring the value of his company up. And I had no idea. He offered me a ton of money to leave my business to go work for him. He just offered me this crazy money. But what I realized is two years later, he sold the business and I brought his value up and his company, because I'm very good at metrics and very good at organization. It's system management. I'm real good at that. So that's what I did. I turned his company around. So that was actually really good for me because it gave me some experience in the understanding sustainability to a certain extent and recycling metal to a certain extent. So it was a good experience. It was really a dream job. I came in, organized his company. I think the company was worth about 40 million before I started and then he ended up selling the company for $65 million when it was all said and done. So that really, it just, it's a testament to my career. So every career that I've ever worked at, I learned a little bit and I brought it to the next company. I brought it to the next level. You know, I basically leveled up on everything. So that American Metal and Iron, it catapulted me into Tesla because Tesla had everything that was in the American Metal and Iron. Everything we did there, they did there, but they just didn't have the process to set up. They didn't have the organization. They didn't have the people. They didn't have the trucks. They didn't have all the things that we ended up putting in place later on. So that was a, I loved that job. I loved it. Right. Now when you compare the growth of industries for the American experience and what we have here in Africa, do you feel like Africa is still on that trajectory of maybe trying to discover what they're good at and what they're not good at? And then when it comes to also mitigating things like air pollution, the stories like climate change, recently they're going to have actually a meeting where they're going to have officials from each and every country to talk about that. When you compare the conversations that are being heard in your country, and maybe Africa, do you feel like we are there? And when it comes to also mitigating Africa, we're mitigating or what is the problem with Africa now that you have this experience looking at it from an American perspective? Yeah, so we've been doing it long. I mean, the bottom line, I mean, when it comes to say regulations, cause new energy, it's like we've been doing it longer. So we're not quite there. So we're still, I mean, even though it's as vast as we are, we still have a long way to go. When I'm finding out in Africa, there's a lot of great ideas and great minds here. That's why I'm so excited to be in Kenya. You guys said this is my first time in Africa. So it's coming to Kenya. And just certain individuals that I've talked to, just some basic conversation, I don't know exactly, again, and I don't want to skirt the question or whatever, but really, if I don't know, I'm gonna tell you I don't know, but I'm gonna learn. I'm gonna find out, this is what this trip is for. It's for me to learn to meet, to find out, what is it that I can bring, as far as my experience, because I have experience in everything, in air, in water, out of the place. Yeah, I mean, almost 40 years I've been doing this. So I have experience in just about a little bit of everything. I know people who know people who know people. So it's like what can I do to help Kenya get to that next level when it comes to environmental, when it comes to climate change, when it comes to renewable energy, when it comes to sustainability, what can I do to help Kenya get there? All right. And it's interesting because last week on Monday, we were actually marking a national youth day, which the thing for this year was green skills for sustainable economy. I love that. Let's also get back to your country. Maybe when it comes to also things like carbon control, other things like air pollution and many other aspects of that. Like in your country, what are some of the tools that you guys use to control maybe things like air pollution, soil pollution, water pollution, which is actually part of the environment as well for companies, especially tech companies. Please talk about that. So in the United States, we have a group called the Environmental Protection Agency, the EPA. So the EPA regulates water discharge, the air regulations. They regulate basically toxicity with chemicals or certain ratings that they give processes. So if you're a business, and again, I'm gonna talk about California guys because what your viewers understand, in the United States, it's not the same everywhere. So every state is a little bit different. My state is highly regulated. We have regulations in the state of California that are beyond the federal regulations. So beyond what Washington says, what Biden and all those guys say or the EPA say, we have our own EPA in the state of California.  So one thing about the feds is the feds say, okay, who are the polluters? What is causing all this pollution? Well, typically it's industrial or it's individuals, cars, just say cars. So they're gonna regulate the emissions of the cars. Like for instance, in California, you have to have a smog check on your car. It has to pass a smog check.  So if you have an older car that won't pass a smog check, they're gonna force you to get an abatement device for your car. It sounds harsh, but really it's the reason why California drives the nation when it comes to the environmental regulations. So there's many things. There's caps they put on how much carbon that you can release with your company. There's a ton of things that they do to regulate and again, it just all depends on what we're talking about. We're talking about water discharges. There's local agencies that regulate how much solids that can be released into the water system, how much chemicals, the type of chemicals that can be released. There's certain levels. When we were at Tesla, we had five huge, like 500,000 gallon tanks, the treatment tanks that we'd have to treat every single day, our water, our water treatment. We'd have to test it on site to make sure that it didn't have the metals in there or the solids before we could discharge it. And if it did, we have to re-treat it and re-treat it before we could discharge it. So those are some of the things that I know that Kenya does. I'm gonna take a look at a lot of that, but I know that that's a lot of similar things. I'm sure that there's a lot of discharge that they have on those regulations, but I'm gonna find out, I'm gonna find out. Definitely should be the same path. I would think so, definitely, it's the way to go. Right, for someone who is watching, because Tesla is a big production of electric vehicles as well, but then somebody would say electric vehicle, how is it emitting carbon? How is it polluting the air? Because definitely there's no combustion engine. Yeah, that's a good question.  Because right now, when you think about this, how do you charge the battery? Well, typically it's a carbon, it's a coal generator somewhere that produces energy that recharges your battery.  How do you make that make sense? Well, here's how you make it make sense. So we gotta start somewhere, that's the thing. And one of the things that Elon always talked about, you got it, it's like that first step. The first step is let's produce the cars that are cleaner. When you say cleaner, they're not producing any carbon dioxide from the emissions, that's where most of, if you look at greenhouse gases, carbon dioxide is the most that's in the atmosphere. So we're eliminating the carbon dioxide. Now, what we have is in the process. So to make the car, it's a dirty process to make the car. When you paint it, just like we talked about earlier, there's emissions from the paint. And paint is chemicals as well. Paint is chemicals. When you make the parts, we're taking casting, metal castings, we're firing aluminum metal casting, and there's emissions that come from the actual smoke and from the fire from the casting. So again, that's admitting carbon into the air. So the answer to your question is that there's a dirty process in making it, but there's also a dirty process in charging it. But what's gonna happen in California, this is why I say California's a lot different than the rest of the United States. California's gonna ban gas-powered cars by selling the gas-powered cars by 2030. So what they want is they want renewable energy. We want wind, we want wind, solar, solar power, water.  So now if you have renewable energy that are powering these cars, these cars that are now not emitting carbon dioxide into the air, the air is cleaner. It's a better process. But it all starts somewhere and this is the beginning phases of it. This is like tests that came along and revolutionized how we think about our transportation. So we're in the beginning stages. So we're not gonna really see the byproducts of all this amazing stuff that we're doing for us with the lithium batteries and everything else until later on, until things get cleaner. But this is the first started. This is the beginning part of it. And I think also Kenya, from our current president, just came into office recently. In his manifesto, actually, e-mobility is one of his big agenda. I love it. In a project called the Digital Super Highway, which is embracing EV vehicles. I love it. Motorcycles and so many other aspects and definitely get to see that part as you stay in Kenya. I love it, I love it. Do you feel like maybe it's the future? E-mobility is the future? Absolutely. I think in countries like in St. Africa, you'll see the continent of Africa, like I want to get ready to say we. I feel like I'm Kenyan. You already are Kenyan. I just wanna, I gotta say this, I gotta say this. I feel like I'm Kenyan, even though my father, my heritage is West Africa. My father was Nigerian actually. But I would have been adopted by the Kenyans. So I'm Kenyan, my heart is Kenyan. You have the hardest Kenyan. So I gotta say we. But I feel like that in Africa, there's so many resources here. Like the world turns to Africa for everything that they need. When it comes to Lithium, I remember Elon Musk came out here and I was gotta laugh and I was thinking to myself, Africa should just like, you know what? We ain't selling no more lithium until you guys build factories here and instead of shipping the lithium to outside Africa, it should be right here. Or like the coal ball, all the metals, all the precious metals that you need to make the batteries. It's not just lithium, it's a bunch of other stuff. But I really think that Africa could drive the world. I mean, and it should. And I like what you were saying, the initiative that the president, the new president has. That's amazing. That's where it starts. It's about education too. It's about getting people, because a lot of people don't understand, even in the United States, there's a big, huge pushback when it comes to renewable energy. It's politicized as a whole bunch of, it's just to me, it's just ridiculous.  It's what's best for the environment. I always tell people that, I used to tell my team at Tesla, I used to say, listen, if you guys are stuck, think about what the right thing to do is. We, our team was put together, not because it's this right thing to say or do, sustainability or everyone has sustainability. No, no, no. We were put together to clean up Tesla, to make Tesla a greener place and save the environment. I really believe that. I really believe that. I think that every car that gets produced and it replaces a gas-powered car that would have used fossil fuels is saving the environment. And that's what our job was. Right. I want us to shift gears a little bit, but as we sum up on that part, maybe if you can maybe highlight for us some of the most poisonous substances that are released by some of these tech companies, before we talk about DPX and green health solutions. You know what? I mean, there's a ton of things, because so the EPA has a bunch of different chemicals. So you have hazardous waste and then you have extremely hazardous waste. Now a lot of tech companies really don't, so it's in the process, like say when you make chips and whatnot, they use assets, they use base, they use some metals, there's some heavy metals that are in there. What's probably the, the tech industry really, it's more the industry that I think that's probably the biggest polluters I can say, it's more of the petro industry. There's a lot of organic material that gets released, the methane, the propane, the different gases that are getting released. So tech, there's e-waste that you guys know that you've heard about, that gets landfill, which is bad. It's probably, I'd say probably e-waste, the answer to your question is probably e-waste is probably the most, because e-waste has a lot of chemicals that break down like in the ground. So you think about throwing a computer away into the trash. Well, you know, you just throw it away, I'll set up my, but what happens is that when it gets into the ground, all the chemicals from the components from that were to make the computer, it leaches into the ground and it leaches into the groundwater and that's when we have a lot of issues. So, you know, I, again, answer your question, probably the e-waste in the tech industry, but just the biggest polluters is probably the petro industry. All right, absolutely, got it. Your company, Green Arts Sustainable Solution Inc, which is based in San Jose, California, please talk about it. Was it like maybe one of the companies that's come to the market to actually meet to get this conversation you're talking about? So when I was at Tesla, 2016, we certified the facility a zero-waste facility, which means that 90, so at one point we're at 99.3% of everything that we generated was either reused, repurposed, or recycled. Nothing went to land, well, a small amount of material went to landfill. It was a major accomplishment, okay, huge accomplishment. And I knew in 2006, I said, you know what, this is what I'm gonna do the rest of my life, because I enjoyed doing it. I figured that if I can certify Tesla, this monster facility, they have one of the largest manufacturing facilities, you know, on the West Coast, automotive facilities just ever, 10,000 employees, if I could certify this facility, I could certify any facility. And in 2006, I said, you know what, this is what I'm gonna do. So I left the company in 2017, took a year off. One thing about working at Tesla, I know I'm talking a lot about Tesla, one thing about working at Tesla, it's like a dog's life. They say dog's life is seven years. So if you worked there four years at 28 years, you worked for your company. It's that, they were so driven, so it was just a very difficult place to work at. So I knew that when I left the company, I was gonna start a company, do things a little bit differently, because Elon taught me a couple of things. He taught me two things. He taught me to take chances and don't be afraid. Don't be afraid of any challenge whatsoever. And then he also taught me how to not, not take care of your employees, because he was very difficult. The guy was, he was very, very, very difficult to work for. So I think I'm a little easier boss to work for, but same passion, the same drive that I had at Tesla, I have at my company. So in 2018 I founded Greener Sustainable Solution. We focus on zero waste. So we'll go to a company, we'll teach them how to take the trash that they landfill and either physical trash, so things that generate their production in their office. Take the physical trash and recycle it. Take the paper out. So landfill in the paper, take the paper out. The food waste, compost the food waste. If you're throwing away metals or e-waste or whatever, take all that out of your trash. Don't put it in landfill and let's find a process to actually recycle it. So now I have contracts with companies, big companies, that we manage everything for them. We managed all their trash. We managed all their plastic recycling, metal recycling. And I did it slowly. I couldn't went in there and just said, hey, I'm gonna go get all this business. But I wanted to build it very slow because I believe in scaling up. I don't wanna just get in there and get all this business and then not be able to be able to produce or maintain or I don't wanna look bad and put it that way. I have a lot of friends in the industry that helped me, that given me opportunities. And I did it slowly, very, very slowly. So green earth is my baby. I love sustainability. I love talking about the environment. I love talking about doing the right thing. This is my dream. And I knew in 2016 that this is gonna do the rest of my life. And I know a lot of you guys out there watching me right now. The thing about a career or what you do, you have to have passion. You can be in a bad situation and say to yourself, I'm in a bad situation. I don't wanna do this. I can't find a job and everything else and have this negative thought. But then take for granted the little jobs that you do, the little things that you do that can help you in a year from now, in two years from now to help you get that better job and understand. And that's again, that's always been my mentality. So at green earth, what I'm teaching, what I've taught a lot of my employees is like, look guys, we might not like what we do, but it's helping. And it's gonna help us move forward in our careers. I do trainings. I give trainings all the time. I always tell people, listen, if you learn zero waste and you say that you have a sustainability background, you can walk into any company and get a job doing almost anything in the United States. It's starting to turn here outside the United States. But inside the United States, if you say you have a sustainability background, you can get a job just a little bit. I can meet with just about anybody. You name the corporation and I can walk in that corporation and meet with them. I can get it. No, I don't want a job. I own a company. For the other person. Yeah, but I can go in there and they'll listen to what I have to say. And there's a big company. I can't say their name right now. You're gonna, I want you guys to follow me. Good, next two months. There's a huge company that I just have. I'm not gonna say I landed, but I have this opportunity that you guys are gonna hear this amazing project that I'm working on. There is Biggest Tesla. So just think about all the companies that are out there. There is Biggest Tesla. And I can't mention their name. That's not an NDA, but it's gonna be this monster project. And it's because, again, the passion that I had for the environment being able to articulate, this is what I believe in and this is what I'm gonna do for you. And it's possible. It's possible. There's nothing. Anything is possible. All right, and that brings me to DPX. According to me, it's like, what I understood from that is like a philosophy, which is I explained it as a bold approach to life, that these stands for dream, p, plan, X is a fancy way of executing. Yes, just say what you're saying or chill. Talk about it and how you're using it to advocate for all these costs that you have in terms of zero waste money. Thank you for, I'm so glad to run a DPX.  It is what I believe. It's when I wake up every day. Now I always tell people, you know that saying 24 seven? Well, me, it's 19 seven. I sleep five hours. I sleep about five hours a day. So for those 19 hours when I'm up, I'm thinking DPX. I'm at work, I'm thinking DPX. When I walk down the street, I think DPX. I mean, it's DPX. DPX is this, guys. So as I mentioned before, I was dyslexic growing up. I didn't know I was dyslexic. I didn't find I was dyslexic until I was in my 50s. Like maybe six years ago is when I found I was dyslexic. Yeah, just a little bit to get a little bit of traction on that. Maybe if you can explain what dyslexia is so that a person who is watching can understand you are dyslexic as a kid. So dyslexia is a learning disability.  They're artistic. Even though when I was younger, I was put in a lot of these classes, put in special class classes. It's just a learning disability. That's something it's like these little things in your brain just don't, they don't catch. Like when it's learning, it really affects your reading, your writing, you know, spelling. Remembrance as well? Not so much remembrance. It's more just learning. And I think I'll give you some examples of how having dyslexia, it affected DPX. Okay, so DPX. And there's a lot of children that are dyslexic. There's a lot of people in life that are dyslexic and they don't know it. Even in Africa? Oh, absolutely in Africa. And the problem with that is being dyslexic and you don't know that. A lot of people judge you.  Like I was super smart, very smart, but I had a horrible and high school terrible grade point average, but I'm very smart. Like when I would look at things, I could figure things out. And you wanted to walk in Elon Musk? Yeah, yeah well. But writing it down, you know, was difficult. Spelling was difficult. Just pronouncing words, even to this day.  I have a list. So a lot of us, when I was talking, you said, talk like this with my, you know, with these S's. So that's why now you'll start hearing it now that I said it, but you know, I had a serious list.  So growing up, like if I had, if I didn't have the mindset that I had as a child, I guarantee you I probably would have been a criminal. I probably would have gotten into drugs.  They're out there excelling super smart because what happens, think about this. The older generation, when they see a child and they see them real smart, what did they do? They pat them on the back. Oh, he's so smart. They picked them up, they fire them up, man. He's so smart. And then they go to the children that are struggling.  Or autism as well. Or autism. And they call them lazy. Oh, they're lazy. They don't try. Where this kid in his mind, he's thinking, man, I want to be, you know, I want to be great. I want to be smart. What kid wants to be called a dummy?   So, and then the being in that situation, not know why? And you're trying your hardest to do good in school. But then what happens is that you don't and you can't figure it out. So now you become a clown. So where was your family at this point? And what were they saying? Where's dad? Where's my mother's? So my mother passed away when I was young. So I grew up with my stepfather. So my stepfather raised me and he was gone all the time. All the time. So it was just me, the oldest, my brother and sister. So I had to kind of take the role as somewhat of the parent. I used to go to parent teacher conferences.  But I used to go for my brothers and sisters. So there was no real parent, you know, in my life that was there. Checking my homework or buying my school supplies. I mean, I have stories where, because my father, we were struggling, I used to work eight years old, I used to sell newspapers. So that's just a really good story. I'll tell you that at another time. But I knew at eight years old that my father wasn't gonna be able to buy the things that we needed. So to answer your question is that there really wasn't a parent in my life. A lot of my motivation came from self. Yeah, self motivation. Just thinking about Chaka Zulu. Chaka Zulu, Zulu Warrior was my idol.  And he was the guy that, you know, and I had other people, Alexander the Great, you know, these other people that I would read or hear these stories about that were just these great, like men, I wanted to be like that. So that was my drive, you know? So while I was going through all the things I was going through, there really wasn't anybody, it was all self motivated. And this is where DPX, so let me explain to you about DPX now. In a minute, because we have to shift. So in a minute. Okay. Okay. Well, I need more in a minute, and I'm just, okay, okay. So DPX's dream plan, execute.  And it could be anything. And then you set a plan for it. It's a personal business plan for life. So it doesn't matter if you're poor, it doesn't matter where you come from. It doesn't matter if you grew up in the slums. Doesn't matter. It's all about mindset. This DPX is about changing your mindset. I tell people you're never gonna get rich in five minutes, falling DPX. You're gonna get over time. DPX is a life changing thought process. Okay. And I know you're saying you gotta wrap it up, you know, whatever, but I'm saying. The X in DPX means execute. So D, you have your dream. P is the planning part of it. So you write your plan out. And there's a process to it. And the X is the executed. The thing about a DPX is you have to think about it every day. That's the whole thing about DPX. It's like your song, it's like a theme. When you landed, I was checking out your Instagram story, when you landed in Dubai, it was DPX for life. When you landed at JK, it's DPX, it's not DPX Africa. DPX Africa, yes. So I want your viewers to follow us to see what DPX is really about. Because I want to talk more about DPX, Tesla and all that stuff. You need a whole hour. Yeah, seriously. I need two hours for DPX. And more, right. Seriously. Because it's going to change the way that you think about the things that you do every day, no matter where you're at. And the thing is, it's free. There's no cost. There's no cost here. The one thing that's light, this is what I want to leave you guys with. The one thing in life that a person can't control is what you think. So if you think you're strong, doesn't matter if you're weak, you could be the weakest person in the world. But if you think you're strong and you have that mentality that you're not going to let someone bully you, or maybe you're getting bullied, who cares? But you know two years from now, I'm going to be this manager somewhere because that's part of your DPX. You're not going to let that affect you. But it's about changing the mindset. If you're born poor and you think poor and you're poor, and I'm not saying poor in finances, I'm just saying the poor is the way you think. Mindset, then that's the way when you grow up, you're going to be poor. But if you grew up thinking you're strong, doesn't matter where you came from.  You're going to be that war. You're going to be that Shakazula. You're going to be able to do anything that you want. And you're going to have that from a young age. All right. I'm totally happy to wrap it up because you're supposed to be in another session as well. But also that led to your founding of Dyslexia Africa. Dyslexia Africa, yes. Actually, no, I didn't found it. They actually found me. Oh, they found you? And now I'm their international ambassador. I'm actually going to get on their board. So Dyslexia Africa is an amazing organization. I love what they do. We're going to probably start a branch here in Kenya. I'm looking for an office here in Kenya, actually. So I'm going to probably most likely get an office for Green Earth, and then we're going to share it with DPX and African Dyslexia. But yeah, amazing group. Again, need to follow up more on that. All right. And that would be actually an opportunity for people to get to a space where they can walk and learn and spread awareness. That's exactly what I want to do. I want to have a workshop. I want to do training. I want to teach people how to get into the environmental industry, how to do zero waste, just everything. There's so much that I have to share with this beautiful country and these beautiful people that I've meeting and met. You guys don't understand. The type of guy you'll see. You'll see. I'm not one of those guys just talk. I love, love, love the most. Action. Love action. Less than talk. Actually, absolutely. All right. As we go, for how long are you in here in Kenya? So I'll be here about a month. All right. Yeah, I'll be here about a month. Or maybe it's longer. That might be even six weeks. So we're going all over. All right. For anyone who's been watching and maybe they want to partner with you, they want to support, they want to get more insights. And maybe they even want classes about DPX. How can they get access to you on social media and email? The best way is through Instagram right now. So my Instagram is hey, so h-e-y underscore a-dontay. Get me there. That's one of the best ways. Now, we have an email. It's dpxforlife. No, it's a-dontay at dpxforlife.com. A-dontay at dpxforlife.com. That's where anyone who wants to know more. Yeah, on email. That's our email. They can do it. And we're developing our website. It'll be done in probably a week or so. So you'll be able to get more information. But get me on Instagram. I'm telling you, that's the best way to get more information. So I'm going to go ahead and share it with you. But get me on Instagram. I'm telling you, that's the best way. And you'll see me. I talk every day. I talk into the camera. I'm talking to you guys about motivation, about dpx, about everything. It's a really, really tech. Everything. All around. You know, you've seen it, Brian. All right. We have been speaking to Aaron Phillips. He's the founder at Green Arts Sustainable Solutions, Inc. from San Jose, California, the United States of the America. Right here live with us in the studio on hashtag Thursday Vibes, sport on tech. We hope to let you go. Thank you so much for your time. No, appreciate that. Thank you, guys. All right. We hope to take a very short break. But we are coming back with much more still on that hashtag, which is why in the morning, our 24 for underscore channel on the ground personally at Brian's so-called 101. We take a break. We come back with much more. Stick around.


Hello all, in this presentation we are going to discuss about mnemonics in community medicine. This presentation will be helpful in remembering the headings and confusing points present in community medicine. This presentation consists of nearly 16 slides which is compiled based on the mnemonics which I have come across and through contributions from my friends. This presentation may not cover all the mnemonics which are available. If you feel that I have missed out any good mnemonics which you know, please post that mnemonic in comment section. We can try to impart those mnemonics in next part of this video. If you haven't subscribed to my channel, please subscribe. So we are moving chapter wise from the beginning. So first is this mnemonic epidemiology. So all the 16 slides of my presentation have been arranged chapter wise. So this is an mnemonic from epidemiology. This is criteria for judging causality. This criteria is called as Heel's criteria or Broadfoot's Heel's criteria. This consists of six criteria which is given here. So it is temporal association, strength of association, specificity, consistency of the association, biological plausibility, coherence of the association. As we all know, these individual headings can be understood easily. But while writing in exams, we may miss some of these headings. For this, we have created a mnemonic that is Toxic Shock Syndrome, check BP continuously. T stands for temporal association, S stands for specificity, one more S stands for strength of association, check C stands for consistency, BP that is biological plausibility here, continuously C stands for coherence. So that this is for the criteria for judging causality. In exam, it will be called as Heel's criteria for judging causality or Broadfoot's Heel's criteria. Next chapter is screening. That is here in sensitivity and specificity, we have many confusions in formulas deriving the formulas. So in the earlier presentations I have mentioned, it is always better to keep this phrase remembered. That is sensitivity is defined as positivity indices. Sensitivity is the ability of the test to detect true positives among the deceased. Specificity is negativity in health. You will have to remember this phrase negativity in health for specificity, positivity in disease for sensitivity. So here it is the ability of the test to truly detect the negatives among the people who are healthy. So in predictive values, the most important thing is all the formulas will be having peace. So positives will be here. In negative predictive values, all the formulas will be negatives. In all these four formulas, we have truths on the top. That is true positivity, true negativity, here true positivity, here true negativity. So all these formulas you have to, when you are writing, you have to check whether the truth is on top. In real life also, truth will be valued above everything. So here for the four formulas, for the four entities, we have this truth on the top. So positivity in disease, so all peace means positive predictive value, all n means negative predictive value. If you interchange here exactly the same, t, p means instead of t, here the opposite is f, p the opposite is n. So then you have to, for sensitivity and specificity, you have to exactly opposite the numerator and also you have to include the numerator for the denominator. So that is the ultimate thing about sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value and negative predictive value. When the test has good sensitivity, then we use it as a screening test. When the test has good specificity, we use it as a complementary test. Here the sensitivity, for example in HIV, ELISA is a good screening test because it has good sensitivity. Western Blood Test is a confirmatory test because it has good specificity. So you can remember with the fourth letter, sensitivity for screening, specificity for confirmatory test, sensitivity for screening and specificity for confirmatory test. So fourth letter is the mnemonic here, specificity for confirmation, confirmatory test and sensitivity for screening test. sensitivity for screening test. And we have one more mnemonic with the fourth letter that is we all used to get confused between these vaccines live vaccines and killed polio vaccine. So we have to remember shock and oral. So oral L will be live polio vaccine, shock K will be killed polio vaccine. So oral live polio vaccine by Sabin killed polio vaccine by shock that we have to remember for polio virus strains O P V 1 2 3. So O P V 1 2 3. So O P V type 1 is mostly involved in outbreaks of paralytic polio which is still prevalent in this world type 2 and type 3 has been already eradicated type 2 was the first to eradicate P O P V. So 2 is a potent antigenic strain which was eradicated from the world prior to this type 3. So type 3 has been recently eradicated O V which is most commonly associated with vaccine associated polio. So type 1 type 2 and type 3 O P V. So O stands for more outbreaks causing more outbreaks which is type 1 most potent this type 2 and most strain causing vaccine associated polio is type 3. And for the types of vaccines we have stark as the mnemonic. So that is subunit vaccine, toxoid vaccine, attenuated vaccine or live attenuated vaccine, recombinant vaccine, killed vaccine or inactivated vaccine. So stark is the mnemonic here subunit, toxoid, attenuated, recombinant, killed. Now we are in in nutrition chapter for assessment of nutritional status. We have the assessment methods including this clinical examination, anthropometry, biochemical evaluation, functional assessment and all. So all these things you have to remember by A B C D E F G H. So we do not have anything for G but if you arrange in A B C D E F G H. So anthropometric studies, biochemical studies, clinical evaluation, diet surveys, ecological surveys, functional status, health and vital statistics. So you can keep you can remember this assessment of nutritional status with the mnemonic A B C D E F G H. Food toxicants, we always get used to confuse between endemic acytase, neurolatherism and epidemic drop C. So we have to we always confuse between these diseases and between this mechanism and between this toxicants. So here we have a mnemonic for this, this is sad BSNL. A stands for sanguinarine, A stands for arginine oil, when it is mixed with mustard oil, it creates this toxin that is sanguinarine and ultimately it will cause drop C. So drop C, this drop C is epidemic. So epidemic drop C, you may say endemic drop C, it is not endemic drop C, it is epidemic drop C. So sad BSNL, sad is sanguinarine, arginine oil, epidemic drop C. So BSNL, so B stands for boas atevas, N stands for neurolatherism. So when you are clear with these two, the other one out is endemic acytase, which is nothing but when crotal area is mixed with this gin ginia, pyrosolidin alkaloids will be there. So it will cause it will it will create hepatotoxins and ultimately resulting in acytase and it will cause endemic acytase. So food toxicants, these three will be the confusing thing. So you have to remember two based on sad BSNL and the third one endemic acytase, the third one endemic acytase will be the remaining one. Now in nutrition, we all get confused between what is the lacking amino acid in seral and pulses. So to clear this, we have to pronounce this as seral and pulse. So seral means seral, it sounds with L, so it will lack with lysine. Pulse S, it sounds with pulse S, so it lacks with sulfur containing amino acids that is cysteine and methionine. So that is the mnemonic you have to remember, seral lacks lysine and pulses, pulse, it lacks sulfur containing amino acid. You should not say serals and you should not confuse that also. I am reminding you here it is seral and pulse, you have to remember that way. And protein content of the milk, humans contain 1.1 percentage of protein content, cow's milk and goat milk have about 3.3 percentage that is three times, buffalo's milk have 4 percentage protein, buffalo contain 4.4 percentage protein content in their milk. So now here effects of heat stress, you can remember this way. So effects of heat stress can be heat stroke, heat hyperpyrexia, heat exorption, heat cramps and heat syncope. So how can we remember this is, sheks that is stroke, hyperpyrexia, exorption, cramps and syncope, sheks will be the mnemonic. Then we have in entomology, the diseases transmitted and remember this is diseases transmitted, this is not diseases caused. So mosquitoes will be dealt in the next slide. So for all these confusing vectors, we are going to see the mnemonics. So first we are going to see for the lous. Lous can be remembered with pert, mnemonic pert that is for P stands for pediclosis, E stands for endemic typhus, R stands for relapsing fever and T stands for trench fever. This is a transmitted by rat flea. It is given by the mnemonic bench. So bubonic plague, BEEN stands for endemic typhus, C stands for chigarosis, hymenalopsis, diminuta, H for H. So rat fleas can be remembered with the mnemonic bench. The lous can be remembered with pert. Next we are moving to mite. Mite is we all remember, we can remember itch mite can itch mite causes scabies that is a known fact. The other mite is the trombic load mite. So we have to remember it as misses. So m stands for mite, R stands for rickettsialpox, S stands for scruptyphus, misses m stands for mite that is trombic load mite not your itch mite. Itch mite will be caused by scabies that you can remember it clearly. And this is a transmitted by soft tick is QRS. Q stands for Q fever, R stands for relapsing fever, S stands for soft tick. So where is the soft tick here? It stands for QRS that is Q fever relapsing fever is caused by soft tick, QRS. So then we have this is a transmitted by sand fly. It is it is Q's that is KOOS, K stands for coloizer, O2O we have oriental sore and ORIF fever, S stands for sand fly fever. Here we can remember the sand fly Q's as the mnemonic KOOS. CC fly, CC fly as the name indicates it is C for sleeping. So you can remember it is easily black fly or on co-circuit disease, reduit bug, chagas disease. These are unique diseases you don't have to confuse between these things. And this heart tick also you have to remember by your own because if you remember these by a mnemonic this heart tick will be left one. So this group of diseases such as tick typhus, viral encephalitis, viral fever, viral hemorrhage fever, caseinure forest disease, tularemia, tick typhus, human babyosis can be caused by heart tick. Heart tick will be confused with QRS, soft tick. So here we have to remember the mnemonic QRS. So in mosquito bond diseases many of the students remember this very clearly without mnemonic but some students will confuse for the diseases and the vectors. So for this anaphylase and malaria these are all unique. Anaphylase and malaria, bansonides and brugan malaria disease these are all unique. But Qlex and ADs these are all set of diseases. So for Qlex we visited Japanese bank is the mnemonic. So V stands for West, V stands for viral arthritis, J stands for Japanese arthritis, B stands for Bancraft and Phyleriasis. Diseases transmitted by ADs, CR, YD So C stands for chicken gunia and hemorrhagic fever, R stands for lift valley fever, Y stands for yellow fever, D stands for dengue and hemorrhagic fever. So these are all the mnemonics which we can remember. Qlex we visited Japanese bank, ADs, CR, CR, YD. So principles of primary health care. So the mnemonic here is either you can mention it as IAS or ACE inhibitor. So that is IAS, I stands for Intersectoral Coordination, A stands for Appropriate Technology, C stands for Community Participation, E stands for Equitable Distribution. So here we have to remember this is the principles of primary health care. Most of the time this principles of primary health care, components of primary health care, all these elements of primary health care will be confused with principles of health education and components of health education. So you should be clearly differentiating between primary health care and health education. So elements of health care, here we have eight set of elements. The mnemonic here is elements itself. Elements itself is the mnemonic for elements. So E stands for Education about the health problems, L stands for locally endemic disease control and prevention, E stands for Essential Provision, M stands for Maternal and Child Health including family planning, E stands for Immunization. Here the immunization is not I immunization, here it is a immunization and nutrition, nutrition and food supply, N stands for Nutrition and Food Supply, T stands for Treatment of Common Diseases and Injuries, S stands for Safe Water and Sanitation. So for elements of primary health care, elements E, L, E, M, E and T, S is the mnemonic. Notifiable Diseases under WHO, this is a common question, common two marker and common Viva question. So what are all the diseases notifiable under WHO? So at international level, the following diseases are notifiable to WHO in Geneva under international health regulations. This is, we can remember by the mnemonic yellow cup, cholera, plague and yellow fever. You can remember it as yellow cup that is yellow C cup stands for cholera and P stands for plague, yellow fever, cholera, plague. Now we are with the last mnemonic that is functions of voluntary health agencies. For the functions of voluntary agencies, we will have so many functions, supplementing the work of government agencies, pioneering, education, demonstration, guarding the work of the government agencies, advancing the health legislation. So here we can remember this as the mnemonic as a gasped, so G stands for guarding the work of the government agencies, A stands for advancing health legislation, supplementing the work, S stands for supplementing the work of government agencies, P stands for pioneering, E stands for education, D stands for demonstration. So this is gasped for function of voluntary health agencies. Hopefully this presentation was useful to you. If I get more mnemonics in common section, we can plan for part two of this video. All the best for your exam preparations. In coming weeks, we are going to discuss about important health days and its significance and epidemiology revision. Till then, please subscribe to the channel and click on the bell icon for further updates. Thank you.