Hey, welcome everybody. Welcome to the live stream. Turn that off. How's everybody doing today? Sunday morning. Get some music going. Turn it up. What you doing this Sunday? What's going on with you? How was your week? Today we're going to be going through, we're going to be doing some dad jokes. Of course we're going to be doing some dad jokes. And we're going to be doing some cigar stuff. We're going to do some cigar stuff from Tisva. Tisva. Tisva. Tisva sent me a bunch of stuff to check out. Cigar stuff. If you have someone in your Christmas list that likes to smoke cigars, likes to carry them around, likes to go on trips and take some, and spends a lot of money on their cigars, this would be a great gift idea for them. Okay, so check it out. Stay tuned. Here we go. First dad joke of the day. Let's see. Let's go right to the first dad joke, right? What do you call a monster with a high IQ? What do you call a monster with a high IQ? Frankenstein. Frankenstein. Frankenstein. Frankenstein. Frankenstein. Frankenstein. Frankenstein. Frankenstein. All right. All right. This is a humidador. Humidador. Humidador. Humidador. Humidador. Cigar humidor. Humidor. Humidador. Humidor. Humidor. It's a humidor. It's early on Sunday. What do you think? It's early on Sunday. Man, this is pretty cool. I like the finish of it. This would be good for dad's office or the boss's office or anybody that spends a lot of money on their cigars. Check this thing out. It's wrapped up so nice it doesn't get scratched. Where do you see the finish on this thing? The wood finish. Look at that. Look at that. Shamish. Want to zoom in so that people can see. Then you've got your humidador right there. Your gauge to let you know how humid it is inside. Really nice.  It opens up really nice. Nice hinge that stays open. It's got all your little things in here. You've got a little divider there. You've got a little divider so you can whatever size cigars you have. This is your humidador right here. It gives you your instructions on how to keep it nice and humid. Look how nice that looks sitting on the desk. That's pretty cool. Shamish, you can zoom back out. Humidor. That is by Tisfa. Like I said, they sent me these things to review. I can't have any cigars on the screen. Amazon won't let me have cigars.  I guess they don't like smoking. But humidador. That's the humidador. We're going to go to the next day of joke. Are we ready for a day of joke? That last one, I butchered the last one. What kind of music does a boulder like? What type of music does a boulder like? Rock and roll. Rock and roll. What kind of music does a boulder like? Rock and roll. So the cigar humidador. It's going to be a great gift for your boss, your uncle, your aunt, your grandfather. Anybody that likes to smoke cigars and has a little office and the place where they can keep them nice. Really cool. That's a really good idea. Really good gift idea, the cigar humidador. The next item I have is also from Tisfa. Everything here is going to be from Tisfa and it's going to be stuff that they sent me to review. This one's a travel one. This one's got leather. Nobody could ever replace you. This is pretty good Tisfa. Live your own way. Let's open her up and see what's going on in this little box. Anyway, why was the Incredible Hulk such a great gardener? Why was the Incredible Hulk such a great gardener? Because he had a green thumb. He had a green thumb. Incredible Hulk. Now this is really nice. Leather. Really nice. Has a little pocket up here. You can put whatever you want in there. You open this up. Those are going to bark. It's a live stream. This thing holds six cigars. Has your little thing for your little directions. Has your little dropper for your humidador to drop your stuff onto the humidador. You've got your humidador right here. You open this up. I don't know why it's not coming out. It doesn't come out. It's a pouch. It stays in there. Here we go. We've got a nice little lighter in here. Nice little lighter. This is not just a lighter. I haven't put any fuel in it yet, but this has got a V-cut right here. Zoom in, James. Check this out. It's all right in there. It cuts the tip right off. Wouldn't that be a great gift to have? This is a bonus. You're getting it in this as a freebie. You can zoom back out, James. Let's see if I put some fluid in here. Do you guys want to see it light up? Tisfa. You put your cigar in there and use guillotine. It's got a little gauge over here. We've got some fluid over here. It's got a little hole in here to put the fluid in. I'm not good at this. I was never good at this. And then I can't tell. That should be it. There it goes. Pretty cool. I don't know if you can see it, but it's there. If I put it behind the black, you can see it. I'll set it on fire. It's a little triple jet lighter. Good flame will work in the wind. You always have one in your little travel humidor. That's a really cool leather case. Great gift. Imagine you've got somebody on your list that travels all the time and likes to enjoy cigars. Great gift for them to travel with. It's 10% off. I think everything in here is going to be special today. Take advantage of it. Pre-Black Friday stuff. Humidor was also 10% off. Travel humidor. We'll leave this here in case we have another lighter to fill with stuff. Let's see. Do we have another dead joke ready? Why did the elephant quit his job? He was working for peanuts. He was working for peanuts. That's the way it should be. Why did the elephant quit his job? I have them ready. He was working for peanuts. That's the way it should be. Something like that. I don't know. There you go. I need more coffee. This is another travel humidor. This one is a hard case one. You have all kinds of people that like all kinds of things. This one is a hard case one. Cigar humidor. Let's open it up and see. Look at that. This is cool. I like it. This is a nice little clip to it. Snaps closed. This has a cutter in it. Two stands. When you put them together, they make a little stand. You can sit that on the table. Like I said, I can't have cigars in the stream. You have two of those. You have this little cutter. You always have to cut the end of the cigar off. There you go. That's right in there all the time. You can fit one, two, three, four cigars in there. It's going to hold them in place with a nice foam. Look at that. That's really nice. It's going to cut the end off. That's pretty cool. Let's put that back in. Travel humidor. It's not a humidor. It's just a travel humidor. I didn't see the little humidor thing in there. It's right there. It is right there. There you go. It's perfect for travel. You're getting none on the ball here.  There we go. Travel humidor. What did the shovel say to the sand? What did the shovel say to the sand? I dig you. What did the shovel say to the sand? I'm not dead, but I'm really dead at the egg jokes. Dammit, Seamus. There you go. Cigar humidor travel by Tisfa. The phone holding it in there. With the cutter as well. What would happen if you threw all the books in the ocean? What would happen if you threw all the books in the ocean? It would create a tidal wave. A tidal wave. It would create a tidal wave. It would create a tidal wave. It would create a tidal wave. Knock knock. Who's there? Yodel lady. Yodel lady who? Yodel lady who? Yodel lady who? That's pretty funny. Give me something for that one. This is acrylic cigar humidor. This is cool for the office. You spend a lot of money on cigars. I'll spend $5 or $10 on cigar. I don't taste a difference. Cigar aficionado. But if I was then if I was trying to show off how much money I spent on scent on buying cigars I'd buy one of these.  That's elegance right there, right? So you got your little humidor gauge on the top, right? Brass hinges on the back. All right brass hinges on the back Everything is a laden brass. Well, actually it looks bronze. Actually, I think it's bronze. It's bronze And it's telling me it's about 50 degree humidity in here and that snaps open. What does it snap open? How hard is that? Yeah, oh, that's pretty hard. I got that open and then it stays like that And you can stack your cigars in here.  All right. Oh, so That smells like cedar and he's got your humidor piece and your little thing right there to put your stuff in We'll give you a little instructions on the cigar humidor Take one out from the humidor and inject a small amount of distilled water into the humidifier Then I put it back into the humidor and put it back into the humidor and keep it for about 12 hours Preserve the hydrometer reading now. That's a hydrometer. Okay. That's what they call that. It's a hydrometer and Load the cigar when the hydrometer reading is between 65 and 75 It's still the humidor in a dry space away from direct sunlight. Okay, and it's pretty cool it's recommended the humidity inside should be 65 to 75 and When the humidity is higher than 80 it shows that there is too much distilled water in there All right, so it gives you all your little destructions and what I like about it is that it's nice and clear You can see what's going on in there And it snaps closed and you can just leave that on your desk nice and clear What's your Havan is your legal Havan is in there and and you can impress everybody at the office with that All right. What do you think of that one? Do do you do? What do you think of that one? close her up We're gonna have a garage sale of all this stuff. What do you think? Are you interested in this stuff? We're gonna take two seconds to check out some stuff here making sure That's working there You have 720 there And what happened here? Let's see a day jungle I might have to load up all right Why did the Queen go to the dentist why did the Queen go to the dentist why did the Queen go to the dentist? Why did the Queen go to the dentist? To get crowns on her teeth to get crowns on her teeth What do you think? What else would the Queen go to the dentist the Queen went to the dentist? Queen went to the dentist to get crowns on her teeth. I Don't know it's got to work somehow. All right, Samus back up Artificial intelligence camera it's artificial intelligence. Can you hear that music cuz it's making me Bob? All right, cool.  I drink coffee. I'm drinking coffee The next thing we got coming on in here is a torch lighter. Okay torch lighter. It's another cutter lighter It's a cutter number. We have to know the five We're up to number five already number five check this out. Okay, so this is my tis but what I like about this work Everything comes in a nice elegant box gift pack ready to go. You know look at that So it comes off got the nice little foam in there.  It's nice packed pretty much Similar to the lighter. We just showed you it's got the it isn't pretty much the light It's got the little guillotine light Cutter right there, right? So you put your cigarette cigar in there and it'll give you a nice v-cut in the tip, right? And you want to let's fill her up because a little bit of a pyromaniac, right? Come on. You got you love fire, right?  You like stuff like that, right? I'm sure you do. Okay, so shake it up. Oh What's the light I know what I did wrong here.  She's not turning it with this knife. I got to find something better. Here we go How about the screwdriver Pete? It's a multi knife and I'm using a knife instead of the screwdriver bit It doesn't fit in there. This is Frustrating I'm looking for a tool or something that I could use They don't have much over here. It sure there's got to be something in this thing. Everything's too thick Everything's too thick. Oh wait, what's on the side? Everything's too thick. You can't get it to move at all. You can't get it to move at all Damn it. No, just won't move. Oh, and by the way, it also on the side has a hole punch You can hole punch the cigar on the side. Sorry. I'm not getting this on for you.  I guess just had to warm up a bit There it goes. Oh I feel much better now it works. Okay, just for there it goes it works. Now you can be happy there it goes There it goes. Okay every time every time. Oh, guess what?  It was right there. It's right there Pretty cool.  You can wrap that up nice really cool You're gonna love it. It's gonna be a great gift You know, they're always looking to poke that hole in the cigar or cut the end of the cigar Great great great gift. All right. Um Let's go. We would have got for as far as dead jokes going on now. Um How did the pirate ship pirate ship? How did the pirate get his ship so cheap? How did the pirate get his ship so cheap? It was on sale It was on sale the end of the sale sale. It was on sale It was on sale It was on sale How did he get his pirate ship so cheap it was on sale It was on sale I know I haven't had enough coffee and that's why I couldn't really get that one going I don't know what I'm terrible at filling these lighters I really am really terrible at it. So, uh, we've got another tis for lighter This is oh, they're all triple jet windproof. These things are great And of course they're all this one's 36 off the last one. I just had was 10 percent off This one's 36 percent off. Okay, get it now put it in your cart save it for later Tisford torch triple jet number six Again, nice box, right? Nice gift box the way it's packaged so elegantly You really like to give this as a gift you take the form out This one is a little bit on the round side Right, so it's nice and feels nice in your hand. If you look at it, okay It's also not round. It's kind of triangular, right?  You can pop that right into the cigar Pop a hole in it, right? There you go, right? And of course you got the lighter Gotta open her up and do that, but I gotta fill it up, right? You got right there You got the gauge and how much is filled up, right? And what's nice about it also is this part here Is a hand turning so no no more looking for that screwdriver this you can just turn with your hand All right, and it'll turn and adjust the uh The the height of the flame you want to try and set this one on the let's let's try and burn some stuff Let's try and set some stuff on fire Oh, that's higher Because you know, like I said dad jokes and you just stick that right in there Let's make bets how long is it gonna take me to get this one going? I might be out of this no, it's still in there But oh the other thing that's cool about this is this part here on the top is a cigar holder So you put that down on the counter and you can put your cigar right on it So if you don't have an ashtray or whatever you hold your cigar right there Like I said, I can't have cigars in the stream because amazon doesn't like it Which way is all the way up? I don't know There we go. Oh, that's all the way up. There we go Every time no not every time up. Here we go. I don't have a little fluid in there Because I look in the they have a little Thing in there. I don't see any fluid in there so A little glass gauge in there a little get you know, so you can see and I'm terrible at seeing it I don't even know Let's give it a shot There we go. Boom. All right. So there, you know, it works. You just have to have enough fluid in her All right, and it's pretty cool.  I like that All right, that's a pretty cool gift and it comes with the little cigar holder on top Which is a you know pretty cool little little pretty cool It's a it's a it's a gimmick. It's a little gimmick. It's a nice little gimmick, right? So that's uh, the tisfa that's the tisfa Triple jet circular lighter with the whole punch All right, I got another dag door coming All right, why do dads Take an extra pair of socks when they go golfing Why do they pay why why do they bring an extra pair of socks when they go golfing?  All right. What do we got going on here? We're up to number seven Seven lucky seven lucky seven. All right again tisfa the other one was 38 off. This one's not on sale Okay, this is a torch lighter. This is gone. This is similar to the other one with the cutter But it's got a different kind of cutter on it Okay, let's open them up and it comes with the with with the little key that I couldn't find before So you can adjust the the height of the the flame So oh and this one is got the finish on this is is is like gun metal. It's like rough It's not smooth. It's very I like this. All right. Reminds me of the military might be my army days Um, I like this a lot That's really cool. Want to zoom in shame. I don't know if I can even show you this and how how cool that is Right at the finish is like all like not it's not rough, but it's it's textured right? It's textured so it feels it feels nice on your hand on like it's like it's like orgasmic Right, so anyway, it's got a little cutter in here. You slide this down It's got a guillotine cutter and you put your the end of the cigar in there And you slap the end of it off right right there now It's got your little gauge here see how much fluids in it All right, and it's got of course no fluid in it. I like this lighter. I like this lighter a lot Should we put some fluid in it? Should we put should we try? I haven't really been good at it lately, right? Let's see. Maybe maybe the third time's a charm. Let's see. So we do that Okay, if barbie is so popular how come you gotta buy your friends If barbie is so popular how come you gotta buy your friends? Let's give that a shot. I don't know if shaking it up doesn't any good Wow, look at that second try. I like this light. This is I'm keeping this one Oh spoke to soon there is Triple jet in the wind. It won't go out in the wind, right? I like this lighter a lot good gift. Good gift for your cigar lover friend family member, right? Put the foam in there that I like that a lot That that that thick that that texture on it was really nice I mean you can't get the texture from the video from from watching it but take my work for it. It felt Everything else felt smooth. It's not slippery, but you know smooth and this was like nice in your hand You weren't going to drop this. I liked it. I like the way it felt in the hand Felt really nice in the hand You know, and that's important.  That's Hi, where are we going on here? What are we going on here? What's next? We got uh What kind of shoes does a lazy person wear?  I don't want to think it out. Where do you think it at? all right, um Yeah This is pretty cool. This is a novelty Cool gift whole punch comes in just two of them in here, right? You get two things for the price of one six percent off It's under fifteen dollars If they have everything right and they're a cigar person, right?  You hold that and it sits right on your key chain, right?   So you get one of these little puppies Remember this comes as a set you get in both of these as a set.   What do you think of that? Okay, I mean, I'm sure if you've got somebody that's got everything for cigars They already have the lighter. They already have the humidor. They already have everything they need the other The whole then you get them one of these, right? Excellent. Excellent idea for a gift At least that's my opinion. That's my opinion my opinion. You know what you can do with that Okay, where are we here? Let's see where we are. Oh man What do you call a snake that loves building houses? What do you call a snake that loves building houses? A boa contractor a boa contractor Of course Or no, it's a boa constructor a boa constructor A boa constructor Too early in the morning, man. All right. What do you call a snake? That's good at building things a boa constructor A boa constructor. They all right. There you go. And now I get it. I get it now oh man Couldn't go to facebook today. There's something something on facebook this morning Couldn't go live to facebook Where do fish keep their money? Where do fish keep their money in a riverbank? Of course in a riverbank Come on. Do I have to even tell you right? This is tisva pre-rolled, uh cones pink, okay pink tisva super thin natural dye pink cones burning gmo free as you can see i've used a bunch of these and um burn really nice burn really easy It comes also with a little polker here So it comes with a little fillet so you can fill it up and pack it and pack it and pack it and uh, you know You scoop that up in there pretty cool. Uh, like I said, we've been using them for a couple of weeks now and uh They're really good. Uh preferred now the preferred the preferred method because they're thin and they're they burn really nice. Uh authentic and unrefined purest natural fibers quality guaranteed Okay, super thin natural dye uh super thin pretty cool And it is let's say 11 millimeters. No can't be that 110 millimeters 4.33 inches okay 4.33 inches Then it holds a good amount holds a good amount now and that's the uh the pink cones by tisva These things are pretty good pretty good, you know quality compared to what you know, you're used to getting like I don't really probably use the raw ones, right? That's like the most popular ones the raw ones those were really good Ask me how I know 20 years of fix your variants. Um Let's see Oh, why did the man put his money in the freezer? Why did the man put his money in the freezer? He wanted cold hard cash He wanted cold hard cash All right, but that's a bunch of stuff that tisva sent me to to review to review to you know, and that's that's everything There's everything in the screen. Okay. Um Everything was on sale. Everything's special.  Pretty black friday.  It's you know, it might be an idea. You might say, you know, I don't know what to get them You know, I heat off put it in the cart and keep shopping You know, you never know you might find something later on and you say, hey, I'm gonna go back and get if that that's what I'd rather have Right, that's what I'd rather have. Um I'm getting upset Wait, wait, this is on all time.  Maybe that's maybe maybe that fixed it. All right. You want to go out with one more joke? I think we'll go out one more joke When does it rain money? When does it rain money? When there's change in the weather When there's change in the weather Come on. That was a good one. That was a good one That was a good one All right. That was everything in the stream. Okay, uh Happy shopping. Happy Sunday. Have a good week and I will see you Uh next time I see you


Hey, hey everyone, this is Carlos and the founder and CEO at Product School today I'm here with Rondi Mertis who is the VP of product at Salesforce. Hey Rondi. Hi Thanks to be here. Thanks for being on the show. I was taking a look at your background on LinkedIn and there's a couple of interesting things that I found once you you started Economics and business and your first job was at funding so I got pension fund analyst, right? Yes How does someone go from that role to now a VP of product at Salesforce? What was the inflection point that that took you into this direction? Well, it's funny when I was in college I always steered away from going too deep into engineering because I always thought that oh engineers don't talk to people and it's really boring profession, but I've always had this kind of instinct for for software development and software engineering So my first job followed my path of being a economics major in Finance and then I ended up working for a company that was building software products for retail banking and I was an implementation consultant going out on the road Doing everything from support to implementing to even like building little one-off solutions And as we started to move our product to kind of the next generation We didn't have any product managers so the company recruited a bunch of the implementation consultants to go sit with the engineers to get that product launched and When I moved over there, I realized I Think it's just my nature. I really love this. I love the creativity I love the the building aspect of product management and so I just never left They couldn't get rid of me and so I ended up being the second product manager in that company and That company ended up getting acquired by Oracle So I went from being a product manager and a little company to being a product manager in a much bigger enterprise software organization and then it just Spiral from there. I notice that and you you were at Oracle for around eight years That was in the so usually the 2000s and so and the product definition of product the world of product has evolved quite a bit What was like to to working product at that time when maybe wasn't as mainstream or as cool as it is today The battle days of product management. Well, yeah, it was pretty funny There is no and even today. There's no such thing as a product management degree So everybody comes at product management from different backgrounds and different experiences And I think it's in some ways It's more of a mindset than a degree that brings you into product management And I remember when we were first trying to figure out how to write requirements documents We went and looked at IEEE specifications which are mind numbingly detailed and We used those as our starting Template for how we would build out product specifications where you had to write an explicit detail every little step along the way for every UI and every interaction That didn't work as you can imagine It was ridiculous and then we moved to use case modeling and then agile came along So I've seen this whole evolution of first trying to get inspired more by More electrical engineering pure engineering and think about product management from that perspective to where it is today Where it's really a much more agile But the thing that I love right now is a tool to use as more user narratives Where are you just telling a story and then that story really elaborates what your requirements are and so that's it like a entirely different Way to think about how you put together your product management requirements Totally, and I remember when this waterfall mindset Yeah, almost a roll-around like detail planning before moving into execution. We're now probably on the other side of the spectrum But at the same time when you are in a larger organization with like a portfolio of products where the stakes are really high How do you still keep that type of agility as as you grow Well, it really depends on the organization and the culture of the organization so Organizations can be very large but still have a very agile mindset and have an agile approach to how you implement solutions But you've got to nurture it. You've got to nurture it You've got to have the right people in the organization that will have that kind of point of view of how to think agile I think small how to think incremental because it's actually Incredibly critical for a large organizations to be able to Incrementally develop and have solutions that can grow over time So in your case just to get an idea of of the the the current team that that you You have and like the different product portfolios without, you know, too many specifics But how many how do you define product of your organization? Like what are the main products that you are responsible or teams that you are responsible for? So what I do at Salesforce is our employee service solution And I sit under a broader service cloud umbrella So it's every company that I've worked at is a little bit different What's really unique about Salesforce is that we sit on top of this incredibly robust platform So a lot of what we do as product managers is more about Taking the tools in the toolkit that's available to us from Salesforce And then figuring out how to use those and leverage those for the specific use cases that we're developing against so it's um A product focused on employees, which I think everybody can relate to How do you better engage employees? How do you better serve employees? How do you create better experiences for employees? And I think that is something that from the outside is not always an intuitive Because there are multiple products within an organization Especially in your case you mentioned that that platform that is powering a lot of different products and and use Right and there is this dichotomy between Creating and sustaining the platform making sure there's integrations with additional products or initiatives that sit on top Yeah, that's right and I I've worked at companies that don't have that solid platform And seeing the cost of it and it's as a product manager It's really frustrating to not have that platform that you sit on top of because You're spending so much time in your infrastructure That the time that you can actually devote to that value add that that you as a product person really care about the things that really drive Great experiences for the user personas that you care about um So I always when I get into an organization Encourage let's invest in a platform. Let's invest in a structure that we can sit on top of so all of those Commonalities that go across to everything that you're trying to build We're doing them once and then we get to do the fun stuff Which is create those great experiences that sit on top of them and you can do those more efficiently and quickly And get them out the door more easily Yeah, I see the value in investing in in the infrastructure. I've made the mistake of Creating too much technical debt in the past Yeah, I'm going to go too quickly too fast, especially in smaller organizations where Time is everything So how do you go about making those type of trade-offs with engineers with other pms? So they can understand that sometimes you need to invest a little bit more To go maybe slow in the short term in order to get more long-term gains Yeah, I think it's telling the story You know, it's the the war wounds that I have that I carry with me of Just getting a product out quickly But then being beholden to all the tech debt on that product So you get something out quickly, but then you're you're living with this pain of not being able to take it to the next level Because you're continuing to pay the price That you didn't pay initially and there's a balance to it too, right? I've also seen the other side Where you've got a really engineering driven organization and they want this pristine architecture that you never actually get to that level of The differentiating value that we as product managers fall in love with I think you brought up a good point. It's like the culture or the bias of the organization And some organizations are more engineering driven marketing driven. So now fortunately for us We're seeing more product led or product driven organization um in the case of your current organization like What what is the role that product plays? Um, I would say it it's a pretty traditional road map development requirements gathering What is unique about Salesforce and something that I've really Enjoyed learning more about is that product is very tied in as you can imagine being Salesforce into the sales cycle and the deal cycle and getting More directly involved in kind of working directly with account managers to understand How do they position our product? How do they? develop demand within the their customer base for our product and our solution So it's definitely all the traditional stuff that you think with product management but with a stronger lean towards working closely with the the sales organization And obviously sales is a huge stakeholder for you and also obviously your it's some of your customers are Some of the sales for customers are sales place teams Engineering, I don't want to forget about engineering and design um, especially design because when we think about b2b products at least in the past There was they were almost getting a pass as okay. Well, they can be ugly. They don't they don't need to be as Maybe efficient or nice as a b2c product, but obviously that has changed and For sure is the new b2c in that way. So I want to learn a bit more about how you're integrating design into your process Oh, absolutely. I I think I I've really come to love the the triad of engineering and ux and product all coming together and doing joint discovery from the beginning And in my last role, I actually had ux reporting to me and I learned so much From my ux team and my ux researchers. How to think differently because ux really comes to The table with no bias product. We often come with a bias of what we think the solution should be um Whereas my ux researchers and my ux designers they they come to it a little bit more open-minded And so they ask really interesting questions And then the engineering comes to the table and they sort of tell you the reality of the situation and that Balancing act that happens between product and design and engineering is what creates the best Solutions like I was just the other day Having the conversation with my engineering team and my designer all all together um, and I realized that The cost of what I wanted to do Was more expensive than the value it was going to deliver And cost when you think of cost it's not just in terms of what does it cost to engineer it? But it's also what is the cost to maintain it? How many bugs are going to get logged? How many people are going to confuse how it's supposed to work? And then not use it effectively And I wouldn't have known that without having that combination of us all working together and bouncing ideas off of each other and making sure that um I'm thinking about the engineering side. I'm thinking about the design side and I'm thinking about the product side all together I think you're great. Uh, you gave a great Example, I've lived many times. I continue living that you show up to the room or the virtual room And you have people that are representing There's different interests Obviously, there's a global interest, which is whatever is best for the user, but the approaches can be different Yeah, and where you are as a p.m. Or product lead with Technically, you are not the best designer. You're not the best engineer. You're not the best person The best sales person, but somehow you are negotiating the a potential solution. So how How do you really go about really hearing hearing? What the other team is feeling and then ultimately making a decision that you know is probably not going to please everyone in the room so So starting first with your question around how to hear everybody It's the environment, right And I think as a leader coming in um To the conversation Important for you. It's critical for you to make sure that everybody in the room is being heard um So you need to have that person who who comes to the the meeting And is listening for who's talking and who's not talking And that's a role that I think a lot of times as you've met the product management chain You become more and more that person who needs to be that one to make sure that your product managers Are seeing the full picture but to be negotiating with the the engineering leadership or the design leadership to make sure Um that they're hearing each other as well So let's put ourselves in the worst-case scenario We have this uh situation. We are trying to hear everybody in the room. We make a decision for some reason The users are not reacting effectively to it and it's time to change our mind like In general in the smaller organizations that tend to be a little quicker just because there's less people and also there's less users. So in a way like they Impact both good or bad. It's just smaller than Salesforce for example, so Yes, I just want to kind of bring people into that room into your mind of like, okay Like you are dealing with like a big team where you're responsible for a lot of users for a lot of revenue potentially so How do you go about like not only making the decision but also having the flexibility to adjust as you see more results Right. Well, I think it actually starts Back a little bit that the solutions that you design you've got to design them To enable that agility So I I've had a lot of experiences where I overbaked a solution And I made it too complex or I made it too complicated or too difficult to implement And once something's out there as a feature you can never back away from it It's like you built it you own it forever So I think it actually starts first with the way that you designed the solution in the beginning that you've got to design it for Agility so that you can evolve it you can change it you can Build it in a more complex and complete way as you get that feedback as opposed to Um, and this is definitely something that happened in enterprise software a lot because we Were doing once a year releases or you know The organizations that got really agile are going six month releases And so you felt like you had to throw everything in To the feature or the solution because you had this one or two Times a year opportunity to deliver something So Definitely having more releases and having more of a continuous release cycle helps with that So that you don't feel like you're having to bake everything in front But you're allowing for a simple solution to get out there and then Get the the feedback That you get from your customers to drive. What do you want to do next and what do you want to do next? I mean, that's agile 101 when you do get into that situation where you realize you completely hit the mark Um, it's a tough. It's a tough call to make of how do you back away from that? um And it's that's the position that you don't want to be in so if you can avoid it you want to avoid it all together Yeah, and I and I appreciate your sincerity here because part of What I I try to show is that we're all humans and we don't always have this The solutions or the answers to everything It's really more about through this discovery process and asking the questions where we we try to make progress And it's okay eventually to change our mind as we get new information I know you mentioned design a few times you truly care about about design and you you're coming to thermal like product design Bear curve. So can you tell us a little more about that? Yeah, well, and it speaks to some of the things that we've been talking about but When you initiate a new project a new feature that you want to develop What I've seen is just this um pattern that often happens where you start and you think It's simple for use cases for user stories done We're going to get this out the door in a month And then you start to drill deeper into it and the complexity Increases with time and you start asking yourself these questions and you start concocting these designs and you create this like Really really complex solution At the top of the bell curve and sometimes you stop there and that's the worst place to stop Because if you continue having those conversations with that triad of design and engineering You realize that you've overbaked the solution and you start to simplify and you start to come down the other side of the bell curve and so The thing that I believe I've learned is that you got to know that that bell curve is going to happen You're going to start simple. You're going to over complicate the situation. But if you give yourself enough time To get to the other side of the bell curve You're going to come up with a solution that is more elegant and simple and easy to develop and easy to maintain going forward Yeah, and I like what you said about the bell curve because It's tricky like sometimes especially when I when I hear this. Oh, it's easy It's fast From someone who doesn't have to do it Let us really Understand the other implications that might not be as obvious Before we really pull the trigger Yeah Yeah, I've also used the term defensive product management And what I mean by defensive product management is that When you're designing a solution That you have to think defensively What what's going to go wrong? What are going people going to misinterpret? What's going to generate more bugs? So the more complex of a solution you design the more likely it is to be misused um generate bugs generate um Support tickets that may not be buds, but people just don't understand how you use the solution so they're not doing it effectively It's going to increase implementation time and so it's this Like I'd love to be creative But you at the same time you have to be defensive about what you built and think about all of those other things that can go Wrong and make sure that you're counting for them and you're baking them into what you deliver That to me is one of the hardest things in product I think first having the humility to realize that I don't have all the answers and I want to create space for others and then That I cannot do everything that I would love to do There's a lot of things that sound amazing and yeah, but there's only so many things that you can do at a given point and that type of facilitation and sometimes Sharing bad news say no Um, it's hard. So when when people we have a lot of uh students who are spying pms like I want to be a PM at Salesforce or other cool companies like well, are you really sure like yes? I'm biased and I and I love it But there's also a lot of tough moments where you know, I don't think people realize what it really takes to be an effective PM Yeah, there's a lot of disappointment You know, because I do you think that most people go into product management because they like to build they're builders Right. We're all creators and builders and we love to build things and create things and create solutions and designs and um that The reality is that I've never gotten to build The perfect thing that I wanted to build because reality always Comes into play and so I like to think of it as you You have your dream of what you want And you got to have that dream. You've got to like have that vision that Nor star that you want to achieve but then you also have to accept that You're probably not going to get there But at least you can move along the pathway to get to there But you got to start with a dream and then you got to like Roll it back to what are you actually going to achieve? In the next six months five months one month And you're right. I think the detailed products are never done You can always make them a little bit better. Your dream can always get a little bit bigger And it's just that constant disappointment, but also excitement to To do something in the right direction that I think gives me going at least Yeah, for sure So let's talk about your your philosophies around Building a product team and giving people the opportunity to go to grow once they're in that in that product team um How do you usually go about that? um Are you asking more about how do I recruit people or how do I grow people the ones I've recruited? How do you recruit people then we can dig a little deeper into how do you grow people? Okay So we've talked a little bit about the product management mindset and They're we'll first off You have to understand your organization um Which I've worked in a lot of different organizations and product management means different things to different organizations so When you are recruiting In an organization you have to understand. What does that organization want sometimes organizations? They want a strategist.  They want this the person that can sit beside the Engineering team and write user stories and acceptance criteria and get things executed And there's a lot of phases in between so when you're recruiting Within an organization you've got to understand what that role is so that you can really pinpoint the right person that fits that role um But I'm typically looking for people that they do have that creative mindset that builder mindset That they're looking for how do I make things better? How do I make things more interesting because they've got to have that motivation To grow to have that big idea that's out there um Yes, I think also especially in your case. I love that you're in on on this on the other side of the table giving people the opportunity to to join a product team because This is whole misconception around What degrees someone should take or master degrees someone should take in order to work in product and Even your own story thing is really inspiring So when it comes down to more hard skills or other things that You can you can see on a piece of paper Like how do you identify potentially in a candidate at least to give them the opportunity to show that they actually think big That they can actually build and grow yeah, well It is definitely a a question of what excites you What what makes you interested are you a naturally curious person? Do you? What do you what do you do to? um Learn do you have that growth mindset? And I think there are characteristics that you can see just to talk by talking to somebody to see Do they have that just intrinsic desire to to build and create and learn and um discover and That ability to communicate to Because it's so key with any sort of discovery or any sort of product role to be able to Talk to people and understand what they need and what they want So those are baseline characteristics Of an individual they don't have anything necessarily to do with technical skills And I've always found that people that have that intellectual curiosity they have that creativity They have that collaborative mindset They've got the right base skills. Then are they going to have the right technical skills? So are they going to be able to write effectively? Are they going to be able to break down and decompose solutions? Those are things that are a little bit easier to train on um, but there's certainly like I've had a lot of People in engineering that want to move into product management um, and that is often a nice pathway in but You also as an engineer you come with certain baggage. So you've got to be able to like separate yourself from the technical limitations and really understand the the product side of it and ask that What and why question and not that how question And that's what a lot of engineering people that come into product management They say still focus way too much on the how and you've got to divorce them from that Because now you've got to be thinking about what and you've got to be thinking about why I completely agree. I come from an engineering background And I definitely had that bias and I would default towards okay But how is this going to work or let me do it because I I've done it before right? And I think taking that step back and I'm creating a space to to facilitate Conversations and empowering others for me was like one of the hardest challenges Honestly regardless of the of the background. So I also that's what I want to discuss with you Let's say someone is already in the product org they proven Value they're definitely good individual contributors. They they know how to write effectively how to negotiate how to the decompose complex solutions What are some of those additional characteristics that you need in order to give that person The opportunity to go to the next level and maybe have a team or a bigger Scope of responsibilities, right, right? Yeah, and there are definitely two pathways. So there are a lot of organizations Which I think this is a shame that drive career development Down the management chain But it happened. So it's probably we're speaking to so a lot of times you'll be in organizations That the only way that you go to the next level is that you start to move into management and have people underneath you um And so that's a another completely unique skill set that you need to understand is how do you start managing people? How do you step away from being the executor the one that does things to being the one that relies on others to do things? So that's one one pathway, which is Really like management capability management skill set. How do you manage others and how do you make others affected in their role versus want to do everything yourself For organizations that have more of that kind of technical architect, which is just a pathway to like grow within the product management role Then it is about thinking more strategically away from the execution side of things into that What are we going to do next and it's not just like knowing What you're going to do next, but how do you come out that executive communication skill of how to um Take an idea in the thought process that you have but then how do you pitch it? How do you define it? How do you make others interested in? How do you actually Give people excited about it That's the skill set and definitely something that can be learned with Just how do you put together stories? How do you make them concise? How do you make them interesting? How do you understand what people really care about and Understand and define this metrics so that you can pitch it in a way that it actually looks meaningful and valuable What i'm hearing from from your answer is that maybe what made someone very successful as a individual contributor p.m. Is not necessarily going to make that person successful as a A manager there's a different set of skill sets related to you know telling the story empowering people and motivating them that maybe are not that necessary or at least That critical when when someone Well, and I think there's two but fall in love with the idea of getting the the title. Yeah, um but Then they get that title and they realize that that's not the role that they want it And so in some teams i've actually put together a role of a functional architect Um because i'm you know happy they they don't want to go into management They don't want to be the strategist. They don't want to be pitching the ideas But they're amazing at coming up with these like really complex design solutions and approaches And so I think it's really important for Those that are looking at their career is to take a step back and say what do I really love to do? And what am I really good at? And try to find those opportunities. So don't just go after the director title Um, because it sounds really good, but you don't actually want to manage people Yes, and and I think that is happening for I've seen other companies doing what you just mentioned creating alternative Career paths for people who want to grow as individual contributors They can still have more recognition and a cool title maybe other type of rewards Without feeling the pressure of like oh now I get promoted and you kind of lose a good individual contributor and gain maybe a And not excellent manager. Yeah, for sure Cool. Well Rondi, this has been awesome I learned a lot from you and and I hope this was a good time for you. Is there anything else you would like to share? No, I just um, I see a couple of questions in here Um, so I saw when do you have to have a technical background to join product role? Well, I didn't So hopefully, um, I'm representative of the fact that you don't have to have a technical background But you do have to if you don't come with a technical background You got to spend the time really understanding technology because you it's very hard to be successful without that understanding Um, so I just wanted to ask answer that one question. But thank you so much for inviting you. This was really fun Um, a really great opportunity and I love product school. I think what you guys are doing is amazing Thank you so much. Bye. Bye


We of course need more mobile networks to be deployed everywhere in the world and fixed networks as well And we also need to look at things like content not everybody speaks English or wants to access content in English And not everybody feels that the internet is for them


Ranger Bill, warrior of the woodland, struggling against extreme odds, traveling dangerous trails, fighting the many enemies of nature. This is the job of the guardian of the forest, Ranger Bill. Pouring rain, freezing cold, blistering heat, snow, floods, bears, rattlesnakes, mountain lions. Yes, all this in exchange for the satisfaction and pride of a job well done. Say, have you ever known a fellow that had two left feet or two left hands or ten thumbs? No, I don't mean that anybody actually has a peculiarity like this, but there is a certain type of person who never seems able to do anything right. It's really a terrible handicap, although it can be overcome. Let's drop over to Ranger Headquarters. There's a young fellow there who fits right into this category, and we'll call this story Timid Timothy. Boy, talk about the luck of the Irish. I must have been born at the wrong time. Everything I do is wrong, and I mean everything. Perhaps it just seems that way, Tim. Ever try to analyze why you're not successful at things? Sure, lots of times, but always come out with the same answer.  Hey, hold up there, you raven maverick. Keep calling yourself all those names. The world ain't painted black all over, you know. Well, if you don't mind, I'll disagree, Stumpy. It's painted black wherever I set my miserable feet.  Suppose you and I sit down together sometime soon and make an analysis of your efforts and why they've failed. Bill, that's an invitation I won't refuse. You let me know the time and place, and I'll be there. Okay, Tim. How about a week from tonight at my house? Well, that'll be swell. Well, I've got to run along. There's a hot deal cooking, and I sure hope it's a success. Poor Tim. He sure gets himself into the most harebrained venture stuff. I'll say he does. No wonder he doesn't make a success. Now, when a man goes into business, he got to use head.  Remember the time he bought a hundred rabbits? He was going to sell them to children as pets. Only there wasn't any market, either here in Naughty Pine or anywhere else. How about that time you opened up a bicycle shop? Now, who wants to ride a bicycle in these hills, I ask you? Well, that's why I asked him to come over to the house. He needs a good dose of business education. Maybe Tim is not kind who can be in business for himself. Maybe he should get job and work for someone else. I don't think so, Gray Wolf. Boy's smart, basically. Has that certain sense that makes a go-getter out of him. Only he needs training. There's Officer Sullivan directing traffic. One thing's sure, Tim have fine dad. I'll say. Got a heart of gold and yet he's always a strong arm of law. Hey! Hey, Mike! Weaving to us! Wait! Hey, Bill! Fellas, wait! Okay, Mike. You're just the man I want to speak to, Bill. Sure. What's on your mind? Oh, it's about one of my five sons, Timothy. Oh, yeah. I know him well. I'm a tellin' him. He's a fine boy, but out of all my boys, he causes me the most worry. Yeah? How's that? Oh, with his half-witted business schemes. Now, he's in one up to his ears. Oh, that's all? What kind of a high-flying business deal has he gotten into now? Well, he didn't get himself into this. Exactly. It was sort of handed to him, you might say. What are you talking about? Well, his uncle, my brother, who lives in the east, asked him if he wanted to go into business with him. Well, that's not so bad. At least he'd be in partnership with an experienced man. No, Bill. It ain't that way. His uncle will be in the east, and Timothy will be here in 95. That doesn't make sense. Well, you're telling me, Henry. But let me tell you the rest of it. Where are you listening, young brother? Timothy's uncle was out here about three years ago and bought some timberland for an investment. Well, now he says it's time to be working the timber and cutting it down and selling it. Well, there's something wrong with that. Wait a minute. This is what takes the cake. He asked Timothy to manage the business for him. Oh, I see. And Tim said yes. Well, but get this. Now that he's made his promise, his uncle will send him a cheque for $10,000 to start with. $10,000? Wow! Sounds like a lot, I know, but logging isn't expensive operation, so $10,000 isn't too much. One question, Mike. Can't your boy back out of it? Just admit that the job's too big for him and return the cheque. Now the crazy kid's given his word.  This one time he's gonna make good droughts. Hey, you're putting it pretty strong. Now, I got reason to. It's about time he took his place in the world as a man. Besides, I think this is a splendid opportunity for him. This is one deal that I think's a good one, and it's the only one he's had so far to spend more than anything. But, well, here's the problem, Bill. He ain't gonna make a success of it unless he has help. I think you're right, and I'm sure Ed Banker would be only too glad to help him in his business affairs. Well, I know he would, Bill, but that ain't who I want to help him. No? Who do you want? You. Me? No, wait a minute. I've got all I can get away from you.  But why me? Well, because I trust you.  Will you help him, Bill, for my sake? All right, I'll be glad to, Mike. I'll do all I can to help him make his logging business a success. Oh, well, thanks, Bill. If it's any comfort to you, you've eased the worry in an old man's heart. Hello, Bill. I'm here. Johnny on the spot, or should I say Timothy? Come on in, Tim. Yeah, let me have you cooked. Thanks, Bill. How are things, huh? Pretty exciting right now, Bill. Dad said he'd talked to you yesterday. Yeah, he did. Hope you picked a comfortable chair for yourself, Tim. We got a lot of talking to do. Right. Well, what do you think of this whole proposition my uncle's made me for managing the cutting of his timber? I think it has good possibilities. The main thing is, what do you think about it? Frankly, Bill, I'm scared. I've been such a failure to date it, I'm seriously thinking of calling the whole thing off. Why are you looking at me that way?  What do you mean? I mean, that would be the coward's way out. Where's your backbone? You made a promise, didn't you? Sure, but $10,000 is a lot of money. Oh, wait a minute. Tell me something. Yeah? Is it the $10,000 it scares you, or the possibility that you might make a failure of this, too, that's made you squeamish? Well, that is, you see. Come on, man. Give me a straight answer. Oh, what's the use? Bill, I'm just scared to death that I'm going to make a failure of this, too, and, well, honestly, I could almost cry about it. That's what I thought. Now, you open your ears, young fella, because I'm going to do some talking, and I'm only going to say it once. You're going to make a success out of this venture, or I'll know the reason why. Hello, Bill, Tim. Come right in. Sit down. Thank you, sir. Well, Ed, have you got Tim's account all set up? Sure have. Here are the papers. Have you signed here? Sure. Well, I mean, that is, if Bill says it's okay. Go ahead. Ed is the most honest banker in the world. He's here to help you. You can trust him. Okay. What do I sign? Right where the check marks are. Signing three places. One is a receipt for the checkbook. Here's our authorizations for us to open your account. Thanks. Thanks for all your help, Ed. Don't mention it, Bill. I'm more than happy to do it. Well, there you are, all signed and sealed. Now, if you endorse this check from your uncle, you'll be in business. Thank you. Let me tell you one thing, Tim. Yes? What's that?  Be careful. Bankers don't like to be associated with failure. Why did you take my account if you're pessimistic about the outcome of my managing this venture? I'm not pessimistic. I am realistic. To answer your question, I'm taking your account for one reason. I should say two reasons. One is that your father talked to me as he did Bill. The second reason is that Bill is your advisor. With him helping you, I don't see how you can fare. I see. Thank you. So, you see, Timothy Sullivan, you've got to come through this time. Bill, I'm scared. Really and truly. Don't be. There's too much to be done. And you have one other friend you can count on. Don't forget them. You mean the Lord? Yes, Tim. If you use your head, work hard, and show some common sense, I know the Lord will help you to be a success. I'll try real hard, Bill. Honestly, I will. It's good enough for me. Well, thanks for everything, Ed. Come on, Tim. I want you to make a call and an old friend of mine. Friendship to Sal. Glad to see you, Bill.   Have a look at some timber Tim wants to log. He needs your expert advice. Friendship, he'd love to go. I will be back in a few minutes after I give orders to form. OK, friendship. We'll be right here for you. Boy, what a hunk of man he is. He must be a Christian, too. Yes, he is. He's a wonderful fellow, Tim, and a Christian for over three years now. Well, how'd you ever get to know him? Well, he had a fight, and he became good friends. You had a fight and became friends? Well, how'd you do that? That's a long story, and I'll tell it to you. We have time now, because Frenchie's coming back. We'll go see this timber you're going to log. Well, it looked pretty good, didn't it, Frenchie? No way, Frenchie thinks he's a good son of Tim Bear. Yeah, that's why my uncle bought it three years ago. He thought it would be a good investment. If he's done, she comes right. You can have second growth in 20 years. Some good seed trees here. Frenchie, do you know where Tim can get some good lumberjacks? Oh, no, he was prevention for impossible. What do you mean? We can't log without lumberjacks? No way, I know, but good lumberjacks are working now. Any who not work are lazy or no good. Uh-oh. You see, Bill, we're starting with two left feet already. I'll take it easy, Tim. Uh, Frenchie, do you think this is a good timber? Oh, we, Frenchie, say that for sure.  Yes, I agree. Okay, Frenchie, we'll take you back to your camp, and Tim and I have a lot of work to do. Okay, fellas, hold it down. What's cooking, Bill? Yes. How come you called us in? Not that I mind. It's getting kind of dull and monotonous. Go ahead, Tim. You're on your own now. Ralph, Tom, Stumpy, Henry, Graywolf. Bill's called you fellas together so I could ask you if you'll help me with my problem. Thanks, fellas. I've never been very successful before. No, see here, sonny, if you're gonna start out with them kind of discouraging words, you can count me out. You see, Tim, in the Rangers' Code, there isn't any such word as impossible. Now go ahead and tell your plan. Bill and I'll get equipment and lumberjacks. Henry, I want you to be part-time bookkeeper and timekeeper, because we're gonna have to have a payroll to keep when we hire the jacks. Sure, Tim. By that bookkeeper and I've taken in high school to come in handy. Well, you'll also have other chores to do, such as getting supplies and so forth. Stumpy, Graywolf, Ralph, Tom, I want you fellas to get started out at the timber stand and clear snake roads for the logs and mark out trees to be cut and set up loading platforms for the log trucks to take their loads from. Understand? Good catchin' hot fast. Fellas, I've released you from your duties. Actually, you'll get an extra day off this week. Let's get a move on, then. Henry, see that the boys get all the supplies they need from the warehouse. I've got credit there. I rented a truck from Peter Sanders. Sure thing, Tim. Let's go, fellas. Hey, sounded like Tim's got the bull by the horns now. Tim, that was wonderful. Keep it up, boy. Thanks, Bill. Now for the big question, where do we get the lumberjacks? Well, you'd do better if you'd worry about one thing at a time. Better catch the next train for the lumber mills and get a contract signed to buy your timber. Right. I'll catch the next one for Lumbertown. Meanwhile, would you see if there are any lumberjacks available while I'm gone? Sure thing. Just get that contract, that's all. Say, Jim, will you pass the word around that any lumberjacks looking for work should report to Ranger Headquarters in the morning? Sure will, mister. There's a lot of jacks that come in here to eat. Okay, much obliged. By the way, who do they see? Tell them to see Tim Sullivan. Will you pass the word that any lumberjacks looking for work should report to Ranger Headquarters in the morning? Okay, I'll do that.  Thanks. Now, Ranger, there's a lot of lumberjacks in this airborne house. Well, would you mind if I put this notice in your bulletin board? Yeah. Who's going to start logging? Young Tim Sullivan. Oh, is that so? Well, I'll go right ahead. There ain't many jacks without work these days. I know, but maybe there are a couple that are idle. Tim can get some from each place. He'll have a crew. How'd you make out at the mill? Oh, fine. And you know, I think I got a good contract. Here, take a look at it. What's wrong? Not a thing. I'd say this is a good contract. You mean it? Sure.  This is a red letter D. For once in my life, I'm doing something right. I told you it could be done. Just got to use your head, that's all. Say, in about half an hour, some men should be here looking for jobs. Yeah. Sort of gives me a funny feeling. All these men working for me. I just hope everything works out, that's all. We got to meet those deadlines. No, don't you ever think you're not worrying, do you hear? Sure, Stumpy. I hear. Say, I'd better get busy and keep the ball rolling. Listen, Sonny, we ain't rollin' balls! Okay, Tim, you give the orders. All right. Easy with that last log now. Bill, will you drag Grey Wolf on this? All right, Tim. Easy with that Grey Wolf. She's down. Nice work. Yes, Tim, you've just put the last log on the truck. As soon as the chains are snub-tight, we can roll. Fine, Bill. Well, things are sure going better than I expected. The truck's ready to roll. Tell the driver to take off, Henry. Okay, man.  You should be at the mill first thing in the morning. How does it feel to be in business? Well, to be honest, I don't know whether to cry or laugh. I've just got that feeling inside, knowing I've really accomplished something for the first time in my life. Good boy. Just keep your head, your eyes and ears open. And always remember, two heads are better than one. Yeah, especially when mine's a knucklehead. I'm sorry I said that. I'm trying hard to get rid of that defeated feeling. Okay, forget it. Come on, let's go to work. You've got a deadline to meet by next Wednesday. Tonight's the night left, ain't you all set? Yeah, you said it. We've got a long time between pay, boy. We've got all weekend to spend it. What are you going to do, Slim? Nothing except paying to talk to him. Me too, boy. They won't forget it, sir.  Boy, what a time we're going to have, huh? Five lumberjacks showed up for work this morning. What? Are you sure? Positive. I just got a call from the foreman. When I jumped in my car and raced over here. What are we going to do? I was trying to catch up on my paperwork. But it'll have to wait now, I guess. Let's go round up those employees of yours. Where could they be? Hotels, boarding houses, restaurants? Oh, what's the matter with them? Too much weekend. Oh. These boys work hard and they play harder. I'm sorry to say. I, uh, I think we made a mistake, Tim. A mistake? What do you mean? They shouldn't have been paid until after the deadline on Wednesday. Oh, yeah. Yeah, I see what you mean. And it was me that signed a contract with a middle of the week clause.  Now, don't waste your time calling yourself names. Let's rouse those fellas out and get them to work. Come on. You only bring three men with you. What's wrong with others? Uh, tell him, Tim. Oh, Gray Wolf, 15 of our lumberjacks are too sick to work. And it's all my fault. I could kick myself for letting those men into town Saturday night with their paychecks. Hey, where's my crew? Only a third of my jacks showed up. They're in town, Tom. I see. But how are we going to cut Timmer with no men? That's the big question. Hey, you guys, how about some lumberjacks? These trees won't fall down by themselves, you know. Well, as well, come on over, Ralph. Join the misery peddler society, too, and hear the sad story. What a predicament. We got a deadline to meet them. Half a Monday's already gone. Tim, how many board feet do we need to meet the deadline? Five thousand. And when does it have to be at the mill? It's morning. There's a lot of logs. We can't do it in a day, Bill. The truck will have to leave here just after noon tomorrow to make it. We'll lose a bonus and maybe the contract. Well, what are you going to do about it? Me? Yeah, you. You're the boss of the shebang, aren't you? Oh, yeah. Well, I don't know yet. Hey, I've got it. Got what? You fellas start logging like beavers. I'm going to see a friend of mine. Not yet. And if my plan works... Hey, Tim's taking over like he's been at it all his life. Well, that's the story, Frenchie. Can you help us? Oh, can Frenchie help you? I will say he'll come. My whole crew will be there in half an hour with power source and bulldozers. What did you say, Frenchie? Sure, the whole crew. I can't believe it. I only wanted a man or two and some extra equipment. He must be my boy. We are moving to a new standard team there. Now, the bulldozers, they move equipment. We not start work until next week. So we'll be down in half an hour. The whole crew. Oh, that's wonderful. Oh, you don't know what this means. Oh, never mind, Tim. The Lord at the time is right, no? No, Frenchie. The Lord, he timed this right, yes. Well, there goes the deadline, Lord. I hope he makes it. I told the driver not to take any chances by trying to make up time. Don't want an accident. Good boy. Never risk the lies of your men. What? The ice on the road between here and Lumbertown. I just got a phone call here in the shack. Oh, that does it. Now we're finished. Well, that truck will never get there on time and we'll lose out. I'll wait just a minute. Yeah, what?  What's that? Just this. There comes a time in everybody's life when he's exhausted all his ideas. And every possibility of getting out of a jam is absolutely closed. Do you know what to do in a case like that? No. What do you do?  You pray. I'll guarantee that one or two things will happen. Either God will clear the way for you and answer to your prayer or he'll strengthen you so that you're able to bear whatever happens. Do you believe that? Yes. All right, then. Let's pray. Oh, Father, we come to thee with a prayer on our lips. Thanks for that prayer. I'm sure that whatever happens, I can bear it. Don't sound so dismal, Tim. Now move over, pal. Tim's going to make a call. Sure, Bill. Me? Yes. Well, who shall I call? You're going to call Jim Barton at the mill. Oh, but... Never mind the buts, Tim. Take over. You're the boss. Okay. I guess there couldn't be any harm in calling him. Mr. Barton, this is Tim Sullivan at Naughty Pine. I'm calling because, well, I mean a boss... Save your breath, young man. Oh, boy, what a struggle. But we won, didn't we? Well, here's a payroll for your men, Francine. I'll thank some on the bottom of my heart. If it hadn't been for you, we'd have never... Oh, never mind, Tim, I say. Francine, the boys only get weak exercise with pain. We only lay around anyhow. We get far until the equipment sets up at new location. What wonderful friends I've got. Bill, did you know that the bonus money was given to me? My uncle said I could use it to buy him out and stay in the logging business. But how am I going to repay you and your rangers for all your help? Forget about it, Tim. The only reward I ask for, I've got. And that is to see you take hold of yourself and begin to manage things. Yeah, that's right. Well, thanks a lot, all of you. And I want to say that if I've learned one thing if I haven't learned anything else, when you trust God, He does things. You're so right, Tim. God does things when you trust Him. And if you want to be on the winning side, boys and girls, make sure you're on the Lord's side. See you next week for more adventure with... Ranger...


The POST Primary Alternative Pathway Program, PAP, is an intervention program aimed at providing support for senior primary school students with special needs. The program targets students with severe achievement difficulties and seeks to provide an alternative avenue for them to access a specialized training option designed to fit their unique and special needs. The initiative spearheaded by the Department of Education, Innovation and Vocational Training is being realized through funding from the St. Lucia Social Development Fund, SSDF, within the Ministry of Equity in partnership with the Center for Adolescent Renewal and Education Limited, OK. At a handing over ceremony recently, the St. Lucia Social Development Fund honored its commitment to 13 students by providing the tuition fees to cover the 2021-2022 academic year at care. Executive Director of the St. Lucia Social Development Fund, Alison Mathre says programs like these provide wholesome opportunities for young children to choose and take command of their education and career by aligning their education to their strengths and interests. We need to start by giving children a fair opportunity to earn a good living, learn a skill, and if they want to do the academics, do it. If they want to do technical skills for them to do it and for us to get them a chance for them to do it and do it well. And then we'll find that maybe the attraction to criminal behavior and stuff will not be as good. Care has a wonderful ADP program, fascinating program. Again, I don't even know why the secondary schools are not exposed to a program like that because it's really life skills in a very, very focused way. And like I say, I think care has a great program. I certainly hope that what care does is replicated and we have some more schools providing that sort of assistance. The PAP program will provide beneficiaries access to quality teaching and learning, which caters to their unique needs and will improve their opportunities to experience a more fulfilling academic experience. Parliamentary Secretary in the Ministry of Education, Sustainable Development, Innovation, Science, Technology and Vocational Training, Senator Honorable Dr. Pauline Antoine Prosper highlighted the Ministry's move to and continued intention to provide the best learning and teaching outcomes for all students, despite demographics and learning abilities. Our students learn differently, our students have different needs, and the time has come for us to address the needs of every student. We believe that no child should be left behind, and we continue to work assiduously towards ensuring that our education system is relevant, inclusive and equitable to all learners. The post-secondary alternative pathway program was conceived out of this vision. To date, just over $15,000 have been provided to care from the SSDF in scholarships to 13 students who are enrolled in the educational program. From the Communications Unit of the Ministry of Education, Sustainable Development, Innovation, Science, Technology and Vocational Training, I am Daniel Dubois reporting.


Dali Muga'id recently posted this, she said, we look at beauty and we think it's rare, it's not. It's commonplace. The dua, when you look into a mirror of like Ya Allah, the same way that you've beautified my outer, beautified my inner. I'm already saying Ya Allah, you've made me beautiful on the outside.  Also, a lot of our beauty standards in our own community are based on white supremacist ideals. I get into this argument so much with Egyptian women, they're like, curly hair is ugly. I'm like, we're North African. Most of us have curly hair.  And they're like, what's your problem? I'm like, I have a problem. When our colonizer says, I am beautiful and you are not and you say yes. They came around and took down cities that were far more civilized than them and called them savages. The tragedy is when we believe we're actually savages. This isn't us going back. When I'm fighting for women's rights, I had a, I actually recently broke up with my therapist not to find a new one. But because I was telling her, I'm like, I really care about women's rights. She's like, you clearly have progressive values. I'm like, no, I have very traditional values like specifically 1,400 years old. They are very traditional. Thank you. Oh, excellent. Curly hair too. But this is true across the board.  Oh, women aren't beautiful. Every woman's beautiful. White, black and every shade in between. Again, who are you insulting? Are we really going to go around insulting Allah? Allah's beauty in His creation. Well, Ayatubillah, us showing up as educated, empowered Muslim women. This isn't just for us. This is to bring justice to everyone that is around us. It is to challenge the entire system that said your value is based on white supremacy. It is not a coincidence. When you are going to depict well, Ayatubillah, I know that Isa Alayhi Salam didn't have blonde hair and blue eyes. He didn't. But we're going to depict divinity as a white man. That's not a coincidence. And it's an abuse of Christianity.


When the narcissist sees that you're strong, when they see that you're able to withstand force, pressure or wear, when they see that you're not easily disturbed, upset or affected, you're no longer susceptible to their manipulation. Because you're aware of them, you're familiar with them, you have developed experience, knowledge and good judgement, you are confident, you are self assured, which are all things that the narcissist cannot accept, it intimidates them, it gives them an inferiority complex.


A newly formed partnership between Enbridge Energy and Welles Technology should lead to a brighter and cleaner future. Josh Peterson shows us how a large solar energy project in Bemidji has powered up a successful future. With a handful of special guests in attendance, the moment drew near to power up a new solar technology. Through a newly formed partnership between Enbridge Energy and Welles Technology, the switch was flipped. And just like that, the solar array panned the skyline, capturing not only sun's rays, but plenty of attention as well. We made a commitment in April to work with Welles Technology to put in place their first commercial sale of these solar tracking stands. With plenty of solar technology on the market, there isn't anything quite like this. These large panels track the sun at all angles, capturing the sun's full power 365 days a year. What's kind of unique about this one is that it's designed to work in cold weather, the kind we have in Minnesota and Canada. The new solar array is more than new technology. It's all about the new opportunities that come along with it. For Welles Technology, the partnership with Enbridge Energy has helped plan for the future and secure many new jobs. We have other products, but this is a unique product and it gives new job opportunities for many of my Native American employees. With Enbridge known for their pipelines, they say their commitment lies in a cleaner and brighter future. It continues our efforts along with our climate change policy. It grows our renewable energy business and it also partners with indigenous owned businesses. In Bemidji, Josh Peterson, Lakeland News. The 48 solar panels now operating in Bemidji's industrial park will generate 20,640 kilowatts per year, which is equal to 20,640 pounds of coal. If you enjoyed this segment of Lakeland News, please consider making a tax-deductible contribution to Lakeland PBS.


What's up everybody Jason over Jaspies case breaks dot com twenty one twenty-twenty one upper deck SP authentic hockey two box break Three random teams each number four just sold out last two boxes of the case guys remember note that common ship ten teams or ten spots Sorry, everybody gets your man on teams one combo team yeltsin Prez There you go dice roller customer names and the teams of the combo Rollets Five and a three eight times. Good luck one two three four five Six and it was a eight seven Ryan down a Brian one two three four five six seven eight Hawks down of the ducks All right, Brian. Sorry. You have the Hawks Steve with the Maple Leafs Jim with the Kings Brian Haman with the Stars Steve with the Blue Jaguars Jim with the Lightning Patrick with the others Craig with the senator Steve with the Sabres Jim with the Flyers Sean with the avalanche Steve with the Penguins Ryan You have the Wild as well as the Bruins Brian Haman with the Rangers Craig with the Devils Patrick with the Canucks Steve The Blues Craig with the Sharks Patrick with the Flames Ryan Bradford with the Red Wings and Canadians Steve Burch with the Hurricanes and Islanders Ryan Bradford with the Knights Steve with the Jets Sean with the Capitals Steve with the Combo teams Steve ours are Sean with the Panthers and Brian with the Anaheim ducks And it's TWC this all right, so Here we go guys last two boxes of the case Get a new case fresh case for number five. You see on the website now Shay Theodore our Tammy Panarin I'll take that 29 out of 99 and Again, that's gonna go to the Rangers and Brian Hayden. There you go The bread man and Ryan McLoid to 999 those are the Friday. Yeah, man. I would have been like whoa All right says Gretzky with with the all three teams or is the only Rangers or is he Kings to and others Or is he randomly with those St. Louis Blues to you've seen Rangers gotcha? I Didn't check the checklist. Oh, these are just considered reds. I know they look more like pink, but they're considered red Yeah, who's the Furnier that would have been a massive card. Oh pink sticks And I don't know they could be supporting breast cancer. Maybe I'm not sure I don't think so Where do we see a pink stick? What was our specific card? That was a pink stick. Oh this right here. Yeah That John Gibson. Yeah, I think he just taped it pink. That's all That's what you're talking about It's just a photo that they got so he must have like I said, it could have been breast cancer could have been I don't know daughter Support I don't know Just taped it with pink. That's all yeah, it's probably yeah, I know I know pink is affiliated with breast cancer Yeah, give me some of that It's just the photo. That's all that's all Nothing nothing special. I don't think of the photo very soon. I doubt it. All right. Here we go second box Stampos Eric stall to 100 Hurricanes with that one that's Steve Birch Tyson Bari Tomas Hurdle Wow, where the hell they autographs that All right, here comes one For the blues Colton perico St. Louis blues with that one. That's Steve Birch and last hit of the break And It's a povel to 9 at 99 Colorado avalanche on a medic And actually sorry, there's a third hit Matt Murray For the penguins going to Steve Birch SP essentials All right, one point this dude all he really played with in the front in the playoffs and just dominated in one rings It's just always injured Nice. Well, I had an extra auto. All right. Well, there you go guys a little quick two boxer in the books Got an extra autograph here Appreciate you guys next two boxes will be from a fresh case Jasper's case breaks calm


A set of gloves and a disposable cap were on the table next to her. Is this really the extent of protocol for interacting with a 400-year-old man? Was it the overseer she looked down at her new shoes with disgust? You're worried about protocol at a time like this? Dr. Zhang adjusted his glasses as he examined the tablet in his hand. A time like this? What could you possibly know about that? You live in a separate world from us. That's exactly what X-Intentional Isolation Facility Beta was designed for. 052 tucked her long silver hair under the cap, pushing individual strands away from her forehead and up underneath the protective garment. Overseers aren't supposed to be here. Should I even ask why that rule is being waived today? No, you shouldn't. She pulled a latex gloves onto her hands, accentuating the end of her sentence with a tight snap. And don't. The overseer and the sight director passed the rest of their time preparing in silence. A soft chime and a green icon flashing on the director's tablet indicated that the subject was ready. Dr. Zhang began to speak. 052 spoke instead. No recording devices, no one else. 052 held her security pass up to the reader on a hermetically sealed door. Laches clicked open as her card was acknowledged. Air rushed and passed them from the positive pressurized anti-chamber. She looked one last time at Dr. Zhang. I was never here.  The sight director nodded. 052 didn't bother to wait for acknowledgement as she proceeded into the main chamber. The second door sealed behind her automatically. Before her was a man in a hospital bed. At the center of a mass of tubes, wires and specialized lifts designed to enable movement with the least possible effort. She only knew that this was a man because she had read the file. The person before her was a shriveled husk of cobweb thin strands of hair and translucent spotted skin. Machines registered respiration and heartbeat, assuring anyone who cared to listen that this was a living creature. She sat in the chair placed at the ancient man's side by the research staff. A speaker was wired to the bedside railing next to the man. Goodbye SCP-411. The wasted old man moved his lips, faint noises wheezing out of him, captured by the small microphone next to his mouth, held in place with surgical tape. Several seconds elapsed before a monotone voice emerged from the speaker, reconstructing and interpreting its barely perceptible words. You are the first of the quiet times, some peace and quiet, finally. 052 parsed the response, not an answer to any questions you might ask, no causality issues yet. The monotone voice resumed, suffering, cruelty, the currency by which the world was purchased. Everything that you are is a reflection of this. You will remember the true nature of cruelty in time. She had to be careful now.  She went through the checklist of questions she had prepared, mentally forbidding herself from any desire to deviate from the script. She read aloud the question that she thought fit the answer best. What is the price that we need to pay for this? She didn't like the stilted manner of this conversation. 052 watched it then stream a spittle trickle out of the corner of 411's mouth as his lips moved. She waited for the transcription. Your kind did not just appear in my path. I recognize your faces. All of my life I have seen faces like yours.  The happiness of untroubled days. Illumined by a different star. Your future is clear in my past. You have been and you will continue to be. A different star. This was consistent with the data from the newest alternative set that had been examined. The nature of how it would occur was murky, as all data from SCP-2003 were, but the possibility that escape from 001 was an option had been tantalizingly coming into focus for the past several weeks. There was a future after all. She started to speak the question to the answer. She was cut off by monotone clipped laughter from the speaker. Something about it chilled her. She started again. 411, does humanity exist in your past? Her feelings of relief collided with the unnatural flow of the conversation. Her relation of being able to believe in another path forward was cut with something that felt like poison inside of her. Something about this interaction felt right. Many items provided glimpses of the future. All of them distorted those events through the madman lenses of their creators, human and otherwise. The future was forbidden from the central planning process, but O5-2 felt the need to make an exception, given the vote that was before them tomorrow. The speaker crackled once more, breaking her thoughts, a barren rock, home to terrors beyond imagining. It is well that life has fled. It is even better that life for others continues far away from this place. Well, the next response was an easy one then. She sighed, annoyed with the rules of this game despite the awful gravity of the situation. Is there a future for humanity on earth? That was the last non-pleasantry she had been planning on asking of the decrepit humanoid. Precious little material, but apparently an extended conversation would kill someone out of this advanced age. Then they'd all be truly screwed.  Her vote tomorrow was decided now. She began to formulate the beginnings of the argument she would make to her peers. How would she reconcile? The planet of hands. This is what we are to speak of. I am from there, you know. As you are, child, you shall know more of it in time. I am glad to be here now instead. O5-2 side. Sinality hadn't been mentioned in the file, but it was certainly to be expected from someone who had racked up multiple centuries of life. A brief thought occurred that perhaps 411's other answers should be reconsidered. She banished it quickly. Any chance, no matter how slight, was better than tomorrow's proposal. She focused herself on convincing the others. Greetings, prodigal daughter. Like me, you'll be home soon. The ancient face on the bed twisted into something resembling a polite smile, like she had just walked into the room. That was her cue, thankfully. Greetings, SCP-411. O5-2 promptly stood up, turned around, and left the chamber.


The City of Portland has begun a major repaving project on Outer Congress Street. In addition to resurfacing this important traffic corridor, the number of lanes will be reduced and other changes will be made to make the roadway more pedestrian and bicycle friendly. Brian Naugh Block spoke with Portland's Director of Public Services, Mike Babinski, about the project. Mike, what's going on on Outer Congress Street, repaving and re-marking the lanes? What's going on there? Yeah, indeed. The project is related to a partnering project between the City and Main DOT. Very unique opportunity for us to work together. Main DOT had plans to overlay Congress Street from Stevens Avenue to Johnson Road as part of their normal summer arterial work for this year. They came to us in the spring of this year and advised us of that project. We, in turn, advised them that we wanted to work with them on implementing some phases of the 2007 Congress Street corridor study, which basically looks at providing some lane configuration changes, left turning movements, some bike accommodations, and some improved pedestrian features to help mitigate some of the speeding and the problems on that stretch of Congress Street. And what specifically are the changes that are going to be made as this gets forward? So the overall project has some unique features to it that are building off of the 2007 corridor study, and they generally include maintaining four 11-foot travel lanes west of Garrison Street to Johnson Road, so that farthest west part will maintain the four. In the eastbound lanes at Westbrook Street, we'll create one through lane to a point just west of Westbrook Street, and it will provide a dedicated left turn lane right on Westbrook Street at the intersection of Congress and Westbrook. That lane tends to function as a left turn movement anyway as you're traveling eastbound, so I think that will function as well. Throughout most of the corridor, there will be two travel lanes, a lane in each direction with the center turn lane to accommodate a left turn movement at Waldo Street, at the Stroudwater Village Medical Offices, and then as you're heading easterly toward Hobart Street, depends on which direction you're going. Those will provide, in those locations, left turning lanes for safer traveling as well. In addition, we'll also have bike lanes or at least shoulders that provide a two-and-a-half-foot shoulder lane for biking as well. West of Frost Street, that hill area, we will actually have a bike climbing lane as well, and so that's sort of a unique feature. We've been working with our Bicycle Coalition with respect to trying to accommodate that stretch of the city. There's a lot of bike activity, and so this will be one of our first opportunities to actually experiment and install the bike climbing lane as well. What impact do you expect this to have on the cars that are using it now, 25,000 cars a day, use that stretch of it? It's quite significant, yes. It's very significant, and so to sort of account for that or measure that, we're actually doing this project in phases, it's very unique. So the first phase, which is going on now and due to the nature of traffic, as you mentioned, all the paving work that's going on, the resurfacing, is going on at night to accommodate what's the heavy traffic. This week will be, I would call, sort of week one or phase one where we will literally do the overlay, and then toward the end of this week, we actually will put down the first layer of the lane markings, and then we'll be able to do some data gathering and understand what's the impact. What are we hearing from the public? What are we observing out in the field? What kind of congestion is that causing? What kind of problems? Or no problems, particularly during peak times, AM and PM peak times. And then the third week, we will gather all of our data from that experience, and then hold, our plan is, or at least our third phase, is to hold a public meeting, probably in later July, with Maine DOT and our staff, and then the community, and get some feedback. I'm sure we'll hear from commuters, we'll hear from the Stroudwater Neighborhood Association, the Hobart Neighborhood Association, and that'll inform the final layer of the paint markings that we'll put down. So we're going to do it in two different phases. And people could participate in a survey online about this as well, is that right? They can, very unique, and we, again, that was a feature of our partnering arrangement with Maine DOT. They will host that on their site, and all commuters, residents, anybody can actually go on that particular site and identify their thoughts on how they like it, their concerns, and other comments as well. Great, thanks very much. Okay, thank you.