I just saw you and I had to come over and say, I thought you look really nice. And do you see the way I did that? I paced it a little bit. I didn't just say, hey, excuse me, I just saw you and had to come over. I thought you look really nice. The way you start off the conversation, the way your vibe is, is what her vibe is. She, her vibe is a reflection of your vibe. You control as a masculine person, you control and whether you like it or not, you've got to sort of dominate the vibe. You could be the ponciest spiv from Chelsea or the ponciest, you know, Habba or anything like, but you can be as feminine as you like, but your, your vibe will dominate her vibe, whether you like it or not.  This should be a special moment. And as I said, it should be like paced very well.  And I wouldn't say that, but that's the vibe, right? Okay. Like there's got to be a bit of vulnerability to it. If there's just too much like of you trying to, and it's not, it's not even like being dominant, like that whole idea is like, oh, you've got to go and tell a man. It's just, that's just like weak, you know? You've got to be balanced and you've got to have a bit of vulnerability about you. Otherwise it's just not nice, you know? So, you've said that and I'll just be like, hey, I just saw you and I love your style. It's very sort of Melbourne. Thank you. Yeah.  Like, do you work in fashion? You must do. Yeah, I do actually.  He's a student, I think that's something. All right, thank you for that. Cheers. But, yeah, it's really important that you keep the observational statement sweet as well. As I said, uncomplicated. Just very sort of like just say, the sweetest thing is just kind of just, it comes across like you've just said what you've seen because that's just no pressure. It's kind of like she doesn't feel, oh, under attack. Like, oh, yeah, like the more complicated it is, you could say, oh, it reminds me of like later on. It can be a bit more complicated.  That's fine, but a little bit later, a minute later after you've done the simple stuff, you know, otherwise it's just not normal to just go in there with like line after line and it's just pressurized and it'll put her off. Right, assumption stacking. This is when you kind of, as I said, I did a bit there.  I don't know why. You could, it's just going along with the story with what you've noticed. And it's nothing, you don't have to be too witty. Just, you know, be interesting with what you're saying, really, that's all it is. Now, right, we can do this.  I don't mean the outer bits, I don't mean the whirlwind thing. I mean the shocking thing.  That's your investment, your energy, everything you're putting into that moment, right? Now in the beginning, she's inputting nothing. You're inputting everything, right? So you've got, but then you see what happens. After observational statement, usually, is when they start sort of getting into it. If you've done a good approach, if your eye contacts on, and if everything is, you know, like you've stood right in front of her and you've locked her in, then you are in, in terms of her responding. She will respond, she can't help but respond. So, and especially with the, if she's responding, then her response will just come bigger and bigger. Especially like I've noticed with just yesterday, I was just out for the first time properly. And I've noticed Aussie girls love a bit of banter and most Western European peering women do. You might, if you're in Eastern Europe for whatever reason, it is a slightly different game because you shouldn't expect so much investment from them.  But it's still on.  I'd much rather a Russian girl who's not giving me anything back but standing there. Her body language is telling me she likes me, which is a much more powerful indicator than anything else. Then an Aussie girl who's just like, or an English girl who's given me lots of blah, blah, blah.  You kind of know that the patterns that go into a good approach are not a good approach. But she's just chatty and she's just chatting away and I'm just thinking, right, this isn't going anywhere. So don't be, it depends on what part of the world you're in sometimes, but yeah, usually it's a great indicator of how things should be going, right? So you've got assumption stacking and then she responds to that, to that thing I was saying, oh, no actually, yeah, usually with, as I said, with Western European women, they love a bit of banter. They've got women's rights and stuff. So they've got to speak up. And so they'll get involved. They'll get involved with the whole idea of, you know, oh yeah, yeah, I am actually like, I'm thinking I should be like, open up my own production. What's my character? They'll come back with like responses and stuff, especially Aussie women of now. Am I right or is that just me? They love a bit of banter, right? So it's great, it's great for that. So you've got assumption stories, then you can both get into that. This doesn't have to be an order. This is, none of it, this is an order. You could pick one or two even, just use those two. But the most important thing is, if we go back, this is the most important thing in day game, which guys miss out on is the attraction bit. If you're not doing the attraction bit, forget everything else. Like you can have the nicest conversation. And I've had the nicest conversation with girls for like 10, 20 minutes. I've gone straight to report, authentic communication. Should do that. And it's not going anywhere. I know it's not going anywhere because there's no spark, you know? We're just having a chat. It's like going up to an old person at the bus stop and just striking up a bit of a chit chat, you know, it's that kind of vibe. It's not a sexy one. You've got to remember before this happens, before this becomes relevant here, authentic communication. And before that becomes beautiful and attractive, you must do attraction. You must do a few of these, a few of these for her to then, for this to be juicy as well, right? So this, a few of these has to be done. So always have a self amusement about you. Always like, enjoy yourself. And that comes from warming up. If you warmed up properly, then you would be, you would have this vibe about you anyway. You'd be a little bit more free with how you're acting and she can feel you're having fun anyway. She doesn't need to be with you for it to be fun. And that is the best vibe ever. You can't get a better vibe than that. A bit of knowledge is if she said, I met a girl yesterday who said, I love Tokyo. I've been to Tokyo. She's done a bit of modeling in Tokyo or something. And I've been to Tokyo. That's the time to reveal that you've been to Tokyo. And I wouldn't say, oh, me too. I wouldn't say it like that.  This guy's gone to Tokyo. Not many blokes have just gone to Tokyo. It's just, it's an interesting side of you. So why not reveal it? So yeah, you get the gist of that. Just putting in knowledge in the right way. Not in the wrong way. Not like, oh yeah, let me tell you another thing. I know. For example, if she's looking for a job, oh yeah, you're new to Melbourne. I'll tell you what, I'll get you a job. I've got all the inside knowledge. Don't worry about it. That's the worst thing you could ever do, right?  That you don't want that.


The use cases that we're seeing most kind of represent kind of the vast majority of customers are folks that are using what I would really call big data, sensor data, web data, log data, where they're data that they've really not analyzed before and that is, you know, really, really big. And they bring it into a service and allow them to kind of analyze and see trends, information they haven't actually used before. Specifically gaming. We have five or six gaming customers are using this for behavioral analysis. We have a number of customers using this for digital marketing, kind of looking at cross brand analysis. Other folks are using this for kind of a number of different things, looking at website trends and analysis again at a micro level. So kind of gives you a sense. So Rich, you said three things, cloud, big data and analytics. Yep. I wonder if we could unpack those. It's SaaS based service, right? It's absolutely. Sign up for the service and we not only provide the kind of database infrastructure, the platform of service that we talked about last year, but we also provide some of the integration capabilities. So if you're using big data, you're using web data or log data or sensor data, we actually have an agent technology that we can embed in those systems and load information in it at frankly very, very high rates. We have one customer that's actually loading 10 billion rows of information a day into our service. Okay.  So that's the sort of data, the storage subsystem, right? Yeah. It's a data store. Yeah. Within a cloud infrastructure. So we're talking about a cloud based database, the securities inside the database, right? Absolutely.  So we use Amazon as a platform with our own database. But the fact of the matter is we leverage all of their security services, take advantage of that. And many of the applications we're looking for aren't and doing today are ones where information is being aggregated at a high level. So security is not as big a concern as if you were looking at HIPAA data, for instance. Right. Okay. But so you're not, you know, partnering in Amazon in the sense that they're offering your service, you're utilizing the AWS infrastructure. You guys architected that, which is not trivial. Everybody thinks you can swipe the credit card and now you're on your way. It's exactly right. You really have to think about how to architect it, how to deal with security, how to deal with scale. You've got to deal with all the compatibility issues, the API issues. It's exactly right. Make sure it performs properly. I mean, there's a lot of work there that goes into that. And you bring up a really good point. One of the things that I think is an advantage in the way we look at it is we also provide a console environment for a particular user so that they can look at their instance that's running in the service and know exactly what's going on. What jobs are running, what jobs aren't running, what the performance looks like. If they have long running queries, why they're having long running queries, we give them a ton of information. And then, you know, we're at the Tableau conference. They can also, even though it's a service, connect to their local Tableau, you know, instance and be able to either leverage Tableau in the cloud or traditional Tableau. Okay. And then your analytics piece. Maybe you just touched upon that, but are you talking about an analytics, full-blown analytics platform? Are we talking about a platform to build analytics apps or a combination? Yeah. Most of what we're being used for, if you think about it, is we're a solution right now for the kinds of apps that we're looking at. So we'll build our dashboards and for those particular areas. For instance, we've done that for gaming. We've done it for digital media. We'll do that for some other areas as we move forward. Now, where are you guys based? We're based in California, in Mountain View, right in the middle of Silicon Valley. So it's a nice place to be. And what's head count? Head count today is almost 30 folks. So we're real small, real agile, growing like a weed. So what are some of the markets you're in, your customers are in, I should say? Do you see any, Dom, you mentioned gaming. What are some of the early adopters of your technology and your platform as a service approach? You know, most of our customers, interesting, I think because we're cloud-based, our line of business kinds of folks or medium-sized businesses that look at the cost profile of a service and say, this is something I can now do. You know, I can have my kind of little data warehouse for myself that nobody else, you know, I don't have to worry about all these other things of assembling all the components and all the people that are required to manage it. I can do it kind of myself. And that's what's enabled a number of our customers kind of in the medium line of business, you know, whether it be marketing or a particular area of a business. We have another kind of group that's emerging looking at sensor data on telemetrics basically on cars, which is also a real kind of interesting market because there's all kinds of sensors in cars these days, being able to collect those in real time and understand exactly what's going on from that automobile and how it's being driven and relationship to everyone else in that community is pretty interesting. It allows manufacturers to do a number of different things in terms of fine-tuning performance and fine-tuning usability, et cetera. So, you know, considering the business that you're in and the approach you're taking, I think I know to some degree the answer to this question, but I'd like to get you to expand a little bit on how you see this big data world evolving in terms of on-premise versus cloud. You mentioned you've got a lot of departmental customers. Do you see cloud becoming the dominant deployment model for big data in the enterprise? We've done some coverage at events like Strata and other places. We've talked to Cloud Air, for instance, kind of the market leader, kind of one of the first Hadoop companies. You know, most of their deployments are behind the firewall. Do you see that moving in the direction of the cloud? And is it going to be for all organizations or do you think, you know, the really large organizations that can still hire allegiance of administrators and developers are still going to do it behind the firewall? There's people that are going to build on-premise things for a long time. But I think we're at the beginning of a big trend. Forgetting about big data for a minute. The ability to basically have computing services outsourced to someone else just is the right thing to do over time. Why should companies be spending so much money just focusing and, you know, resources on getting their infrastructure in place to actually support the business? The more, the higher percentage of people can be supporting the business, the better that company is going to be. And Cloud's going to enable that. And so we're at the front end of that. I think for big data, if you tie Cloud to big data, you know, there's an issue with people don't know all of what they don't know about big data. So if you can give them a solution that's low friction, that they can get up and running really quickly, it's going to start to expand, I think, the market. Right now we're in love with social and we're in love with web data. And there's, you know, there's great applications and we're creating great value in those markets. But there's all kinds of things ahead of us. You know, we're just starting to talk about sensor data and we're just talking about all of the different areas where we could put sensors. And I think that market's going to explode. You know, instrumenting applications, instrumenting all kinds of things. That's starting and that gives, doing it in a cloud-based environment, gives you a cost profile and a time-to-value equation that makes it really exciting and I think going to be a big vacuum in the market or in a sucking sound in the marketplace, so to speak. So yeah, really the idea of, you know, you as a business, you as a company, focus on your core business and let us focus on some of the hard work in the database side and the data side of the business and let you focus on the front-end really. Yeah, and if you have a system that can allow you, as I said earlier, to start looking at value fairly quickly, then you can start to figure out how to actually tune those systems and how to get value back to that business much quicker. You know, if you can do that in three or four days to three or four weeks, that's a completely different equation than what we've been operating on over the last 15 years. Now you guys just closed your Series A, the $5 million Series A this summer, right? Yes. So how much have you raised the date, almost $8 million? No, seven, little over seven. The company was growing real rapidly, but as we talked about, a lot of people don't know who treasured it is, so we decided to raise a Series A to really bring on some more resources to expand sales and marketing, pretty classic model. So you used most of the money for promotion? We're going to as it goes forward and we just closed that. That's been closed, I think, three or four or five weeks, so it's relatively new. So ink is drying on that? Yeah, I haven't spent it all yet. Yeah, give me a couple months. Excellent. All right, Rich, well listen, thanks for stopping in, the Cube, a little drive by, really appreciate that. Good luck with the company and its continued growth. All right, keep it right there, everybody. Jeff Kelly and I will be back. This is the Cube. We're live from the Tableau Customer Conference in the heart of DC. Well, sort of, we're actually in Maryland, but we're here at the nation's capital. We saw it last night, we'll be right back after this.


The magnetogorst trough in the south urals has been identified to have significant potential for oil and gas production. This potential has been confirmed by the results of geologic surveys and deep well drilling. Based on these findings, it is recommended that the black shale deposits of the south urals be further studied for their oil and gas potential. This article was authored by A. M. Tyron, A. V. Kolomots, A. V. Snatchov, and others.


This week, the conference gathered more than 350 participants from different levels of security, from law enforcement, from private security, from a local organized committee, that all together put in this pool to communicate and to share their knowledge. And it's shown a very big success that all those experts have been connected together by Project Study. The knowledge management system that has been designed by Interpol Project Study is a very important quarter that experts and as well law enforcement that needs information can speak to each other, can put the questions and can look for answers, can look for measures that can be developed and approved by experts and can be used to secure major events in the future.


Hi there Sophie. How you doing? We's the best buddy in the whole world. Hello there my beautiful lovely talented delightful special internet friends Welcome back to my channel. Thank you so much for joining me here tonight I wanted to talk a little bit tonight about when mental health coping strategies start to fail because this is something I have been experiencing deeply in my life recently Over the past couple months past couple weeks and past couple days in particular Depression has sunk its ugly little teeth and claws into my back and will not let go and here's the thing I am not new to this game. I am not new to the struggle.  It has taken a lot of time effort energy Pain joy to get to the place where I'm like, you know, I'm not doing perfect But I'm doing good and when I'm not doing good. I know what to do I know things that will bring me up whether that is going for a hike Whether that is sitting and binge watching six hours of a netflix show Feel free to debate me on if that's healthy or not, but frankly it helps me So I'm gonna keep going with it whether that's rejecting the call of isolation And choosing intentionally to spend time with people who I like people who I love people who bring me joy I've acquired this list this hand basket of tools to pull on when it starts feeling like life is no longer worth living When it starts feeling like there is no point to existence. It's too painful and it's never gonna stop I found a variety of people that help of things that help of tools to call upon when I get in these places But recently those tools have stopped working And I think when we get to this place because I don't think this is unique to me. It can be kind of scary I know it's been scary to me being like, you know When I when I started feeling all of this coming on what used to work was just to take a day And go into the mountains and reconnect with nature and myself and my dog and my person And that would stabilize me and making sure I'm getting sleep and exercising and all of this stuff It is all simply vaporized and it's effectiveness It's gone from this list of things That I know sustain me and bring me joy to a checklist of survival And that's been frightening to me because why why would the coping strategies that used to work before suddenly stop working? Why does journaling do nothing for me and feel like a waste of time? Why does exercising no longer bring me any kind of joy because it's something I I generally really enjoy Why is it that I don't feel like I can connect with people at all right now? Why do I feel so disconnected from myself even though I'm doing all the right things? And that's why I want to pause for a moment because I don't know about you I tend to be a big fan Of doing the right thing, right? If I have a list of things that I have to do I can get them done. I can check them off one by one And sometimes I treat my mental health like that and I I want to state. I don't think that's a bad thing I think it's important to have things that we call upon But I think I've started treating my mental health and my emotions like they're a checklist Okay, so I'm gonna go outside and then I'm going to journal and then I'm going to try meditation That I'm going to try to learn something new about something in the world I don't know to expand to him as a person because I know that's that's helpful to me Check check check got those things done. Oh, I should exercise check got that done Oh, I should I should probably get to bed before 11 o'clock tonight. All right. Check got that done Now I should be good because I did all the right things I fall into this trap of thinking that if I do all the right things, I will get the same result I'll get a positive result But the reality of our brains is that they are infinitely more complicated than that The reality of our emotions and our experiences is that they don't quite work like checklists Even though those of us with certain personalities would like them to work that way If they could please work that way, that'd be great So my checklist of how to cope with life and depression when it gets dark and scary Has suddenly stopped meaning much It's stopped feeling effective And that's been really unnerving because on top of fighting depression I now feel like I'm doing something wrong and I'm failing And I was speaking with my counselor this week and I expressed to her that everything feels like a distraction Meaningful important things in my life feel like a freaking distraction From the overwhelming feeling that nothing matters Nothing is worthwhile. There's no worth or value in anything. What are we even doing here? What am I doing here? I don't want to exist. I don't want to exist anymore I don't want to be here And it was frustrating me so much that all these coping tools that I I have that used to bring me up Now simply keep me above water right like shouldn't I feel more in life than simply surviving The answer is is yes, it's something I'd like to work towards But as circumstances change as we change as people as the world evolves around us Fortunately and unfortunately the things that are going to help us are going to shift and change too And though it's frustrating and it's okay to acknowledge that the things that have worked for us before May not work for us anymore because we might not be the same people that we were when they were working It can feel agonizing to have a a basket of things that were sustaining me and now they're not but also For the moment. That's okay Using those tools to simply stay afloat if they no longer bring me joy if they no longer bring me up But they keep me here. That's okay If I'm no longer enjoying exercise and I don't want to sleep But I know that these are good things for me. So I continue to do them That's okay If I feel so utterly disconnected from the world and everyone around me And I used to have these plugs that I could plug into but there's no electrical current coming through that outlet anymore If that analogy made any sense, that's okay It just means that the answer is somewhere else and it might take a little exploration to find it I think I was kind of mad at myself and felt like something was broken in me that All of the things that I've learned to do to make it to survive to breathe Were suddenly not working anymore.  But the reality is that things ebb and flow and sometimes the things that used to bring us a lot of joy In that moment just aren't going to and sometimes they're important to do anyways to just make it I'm continuing to remind myself that it's okay If everything I'm doing right now feels like a distraction as long as I am taking time to focus on those feelings And I think maybe that's at the heart of what I'm dealing with as we've discussed I tend to turn things into checklists and sometimes the real work Of healing from things the real work of mental health is not checking boxes It's in feeling things Sometimes the reason why everything in life feels like a distraction from I don't know what it should be is Because I am distracting myself From painful feelings and memories that I don't want to work through that I don't want to face And it might take a little while to get to the place where I'm ready to do that and that's okay If any of this rings true for you If you are a checklist kind of person like I am if you feel like everything is a distraction from the agony of life And it shouldn't be that way If you feel like you have this list of things that was helping you and suddenly they are not and why aren't they? Because it's wrong because they should help because they did before Please know that you are not alone. I am actively in the midst of trying to figure this out But I wanted to take a moment to share where I am in hopes that if you're in a similar place You know, you're not alone and also say it is okay There's no shame in us feeling this way It is so important, especially in these moments to really take time to invest in yourself to find people who are Safe to talk to to try to connect even if it feels meaningless and pointless and like it's not going to work To look to things to bring you joy to bring you a moment of feeling alive if you are really struggling Those things are very much worth fighting for Even if they don't feel like it. There's a quote I like and I don't know who says it that goes the only constant in life Is change and that is fortunately and unfortunately accurate. We are never truly static We are always changing bit by bit as people and sometimes that means with strategies that we use To deal with life or mental illness are gonna have to shift and grow with us If what was working before isn't working anymore, you're not broken. I'm not broken It's part of being human and working through mental health at the end of the day I am worth fighting for and you are worth fighting for it's worth the effort that we put into figuring out How to deal with the darkness whatever that darkness is for you I'm gonna keep fighting for me and I sure as hell hope you will keep fighting for you because you're worth it And I think I'm gonna go ahead and sign off there. I feel like I'm questioning the the Wisdom of posting this video. I don't know if it'll ever see the light of the internet If you're watching it, you obviously know my decision there, but if you listen to this, thank you Thank you to my patrons for keeping this channel floating for supporting me in so many ways I truly appreciate each and every one of you Thank you watching this video for spending a few minutes out of your day here with me today It really means the world to me if you're watching this and you're having a hard time Like I said, you're not alone and we will find a way through this I love you guys. I'm thinking about you and I'll see you in the next video


When Anna talks about her neighborhood, she says the word love louder and slower. This shows the word is important to tell about how she feels. I love my new neighborhood! Now you try it. I love learning English.


Aloha and welcome to Ehana Kako. We're here every week on the Think Tech Hawai'i Broadcast Network. I'm Kei Lee Akiina, president of the Grass Root Institute. Well, here in Hawai'i we have something that is an extremely precious commodity. It's property. Well, we know that land is very precious to us, but our bodies are property, our work is property, our cars are property, our homes are property, and sometimes we don't think a lot about our property rights. But there are some folks in our country who are at the vanguard of defending property rights, something that comes from our Constitution. And I've got two of them today. We're going to have an exciting conversation about the importance of property rights. I've got with me today Timothy Sandofer, who is the head of litigation at the Goldwater Institute, and executive vice president at the Goldwater Institute, Christina Sandofer. They've written a book that kind of summarizes the situation of property rights in the entire country called Cornerstone of Freedom, Property Rights, the Cornerstone of Freedom. I'm going to ask them exactly why they call Property Rights the Cornerstone of Freedom, but you're going to find much of what they have to say very relevant to our situation here in Hawai'i. Please welcome to the program with me the Sandofer. Timothy Aloha. Glad to have you in Hawai'i. Thank you for having me on. And Christina, good to see you on the show again. Good to see you as well. We've had you Skype in in the past. We have. It's a pleasure to be here in person. Well, it's so wonderful to work closely with the Goldwater Institute, the Public Policy Institute, and your forte really is using the law to accomplish good public policy. Tim, you've joined the Goldwater Institute quite recently. That's right. I started in February after having worked at the Pacific Legal Foundation for about 15 years. Another closely aligned institution defending freedoms. That's right. Christina, tell us a little bit about Goldwater. Sure. So the Goldwater Institute, although it's headquartered in Arizona, it works in all 50 states. We work in capitals, courtrooms, and communities. And really what we try to do is enforce constitutionally limited government and protect people's constitutional rights. You're an attorney as well. What are some of the big cases that Goldwater is known for? Well, we do a lot with property rights, which we'll be talking about today. We also work on the Indian Child Welfare Act, which is a very unfortunate race based double standard that is given to Indian children who are going to be placed in foster families or adoption. So we work on those cases as well. In fact, if we just take a short moment here, we interviewed you about the Indian Child Welfare Act. It may sound good on the surface, especially to those who promote the rights of indigenous peoples. But what's the problem for society? That's right. Actually, Tim has taken over this case, and it's one of, he's our lead attorney on it. So why don't you go ahead and... Well, although it sounds like something we should support, Indian Child Welfare, the reality is that the law sets a lower standard for the protection of the health, safety, and welfare of Native American children. So it's actually counter That's right. It's harder to protect Native American children against abuse and neglect. That's right. And harder to find them safe, permanent, adoptive homes because the law says that child protective services, for instance, can't rescue a Native American child from an abusive situation unless, in some cases, that they prove beyond a reasonable doubt, which means that it is literally easier to put a defendant on death row than it is to find an Indian child, a safe, permanent, adoptive family that loves him. Well, you know, Cristina, you and I talked a little bit about how that might even become relevant to Hawaii with all of the lobbying taking place to have Native Hawaiians recognize as a federal Indian tribe. That's right. Yeah. And as Tim said, these are well-intentioned laws, but what they actually do is they end up harming the very people they're intended to help, and they perpetuate these race-based standards when, in America, we should be proud to be free individuals. We should be a color and race-blind society. Well, as a couple of attorneys who've gotten married, your first offspring is a book. That's right. In fact, when the book came out, we sent out little book announcements that were modeled on baby cards. We did. There you go. So congratulations. Thank you. It's a book. Property rights, cornerstone of liberty. First of all, Tim, would you define what we actually mean by property rights? Well, the great legal thinker, William Blackstone, defined private property as that right which we have over tangible objects of the world that is exclusive to everybody else. Well, didn't he coin the phrase a man's home is his castle? That was his predecessor, Sir Edward Cook, who was about 100 years before him. He was one of my great heroes, the greatest lawyer of all time. But what Blackstone came along about the 1760s, and he said he defined property rights in this way. And just like Lord Cook and like John Locke, the famous political philosopher, they all define property in such a broad term. What they're really meaning is your right to own even your own body, right? Your right to possess, say, your lungs or your liver. What right do you have to these things? You didn't earn them, right? You just inherited them. So a lot of people out there will deny that inherited property has any legitimacy. But I inherited my body. In fact, I found it. I didn't make it. I just appeared one day and there I was with my body, right? But the reason I have the right to it is because nobody else has a superior moral claim to it and I'm responsible for whatever my body does. If I were to punch somebody, I'd have to pay them damages, right? Well, it would seem that the idea of property rights is absolutely fundamental to freedom because if we don't have the right over our bodies, the right over the work that comes from our bodies or the land that we own or the right to do in our own domicile or home, what it is we choose to do, we really are forfeiting something that belongs to us. Well, you know, there's a very famous story about an economist who has once asked, what is the cause of poverty? And he burst out laughing and said, poverty has no causes. Wealth has causes. And that's right. We're born into this world totally poor. I mean, we don't even own any clothes when we're born, right? And what we, but what we have is our bodies and our ability to use our bodies to provide labor and then to trade that labor with other people for money, to build a home for ourselves, to farm for food. And you get more and more complicated to the point where you're talking about, you know, airplane engineers or whatever, but they're still doing basically the same thing, using their bodies to provide for themselves and their families as they see fit. That is what freedom means. Now, when we go back to the thinking of the founding fathers of the United States, property rights was extremely essential. In fact, life, liberty and the pursuit of property was the first formulation until the stylist got ahold of it, pursuit of happiness. But by happiness, the right to property was intended. And Christina, how aware today, 200 plus years later, with the growth of federal government, the growth of state governments and so forth, how aware is the average American as to our own property rights? I would say really not very aware. As you mentioned, property rights were extremely important to the founding fathers. And in fact, property rights really are the foundation of all of the rights or the cornerstone of liberty, as we say in our book. You really can't have any other rights if you don't have property rights, the right to own yourself, the right to own a church. If you couldn't own a church, then you couldn't have freedom of religion. If you can't own a printing press, you can't have freedom of speech. Our founding fathers knew that and in our constitution, they mentioned property rights more than any other right. And yet, fast forward to modern day. And although people, I think, are anately very aware of their property rights, even children, as we discussed in the book, sort of have a concept of mine and yours. And you actually have to teach children to share because it's innate. That's right. When we come back from a short break, we'll pick up on how important property rights are across our country and here in the state of Hawaii. I'm talking to the sandifers of the Goldwater Institute. We'll be right back after this short break. Aloha. My name is John Wahee. And I actually had a small part to do with what's happening today, served actually in public office. But if you don't already know that, here's a chance to learn more about what's happening in our state by joining me for a talk story with John Wahee every other Monday. Thank you. And I look forward to your seeing us in the future. Welcome back to Ehana Kako here every week on the Think Tech Hawaii Broadcast Network. I'm Kelea Iakina at the Grassroot Institute, where we like to say Ehana Kako. It sounds like a very old, venerable Hawaiian saying, a Pule Kako, which means let's pray together at the Grassroot Institute. We also like to say Ehana Kako, let's work together. Think of how terrible life would be if we didn't work together and instead worked against each other. So when it comes to building a better economy, government and society, we say let's work together. And that's why we work with groups like the Goldwater Institute who are defending freedoms across the nation and of course helping us to defend freedoms here in the state of Hawaii. So back to lead litigator as well as executive vice president of the Goldwater Institute, Timothy Sandifer and Christina Sandifer. Well, Tim and Christine, we've been talking about the importance of property rights and how little they are really appreciated. Tell me a little bit about what our government has been doing with respect to honoring property rights of the individual. So unfortunately property rights are really have become second class rights here in the United States. And instead of government viewing your right to own property as a right that you are presumed to be free to use your property as you see fit unless you're harming someone else, instead government looks at property as a permission, which is something we say in the book and something Tim's actually written in another book he's since written. And so what that means is that government gives you property. You don't own property and you have to now beg the government for permission to be able to use your private property to build on your land, to invite people into your home to take medications, all sorts of things. For example, if you want to put up another wall inside of your home, you want to cut a window or anything like that, it's now under government regulation. And you have to ask permission. And it's really a shame because when you look at rights like free speech, for example, you are presumed to be free to speak unless you are harming someone, then the government has to come in and prove that you're harming someone. Now aren't other rights, as you mentioned earlier, contingent upon our property rights? For example, we see an erosion of the First Amendment. There are many places which are private property owned by private institutions in which you can't practice First Amendment speech sometimes or perhaps the Second Amendment, the right to bear arms isn't permitted just to protect yourself and the constituents within your property. That's right. There's an old saying among lawyers, the law is a seamless web, but I think it's more more accurate to say rights are a seamless web. Our rights don't divide easily into a right for this and a right for that and a right to do this and a right to do that other thing. Our freedom is essentially one unit. And when you take away a person's freedom of speech, for instance, you find eventually that you have to start taking away their other rights also in order to keep that first deprivation in place. When you restrain a person using their private property rights, say to open a business, then you also have to prohibit them from advertising, which restricts their freedom of speech. You also have to prohibit them from trading, which inhibits their economic liberty.  So all of our rights really are part of a single net, which is our individual freedom. And when our property rights are endangered, then all the other rights in that network are violated too. You know, your work at the Goldwater Institute takes you all across the nation and you've both had your eyes on Hawaii and the condition of our property rights, especially as we take a look at something which is very innovative for the 21st century, the shared economy. And here in Hawaii, we're beginning to experience ride sharing and home sharing and so forth. You've coined a term to talk about people opening their homes and making a little money on the side by giving hospitality. What is that phrase? Yeah, and that's home sharing, right? And it's funny you say it's innovative, and it really is, because now that we have online platforms like Airbnb and HomeAway, people are able, homeowners are able to connect with travelers in ways that they never have before. People are able to come visit new places and learn about homes.  Anybody who has relatives on the mainland is well versed with home sharing. That's right. Now, what are some of the challenges you see for Hawaii in this area? So what we see, which is typical, unfortunately, when the market innovates, when people are able to connect with others and engage in mutually beneficial exchange, and the government has to come in and find a way to regulate it. And so this practice that has been long going on just fine for decades is now something that government is cracking down on here in this state and in other states as well. Government's saying, you can't open your home to visitors if you want to rent for short term. They call it short term rentals or vacation rentals. They're really cracking down here in Hawaii. It's terrible. They're actually sending interrogators out onto the beaches to question people, visitors about where they're staying. They're telling people who are having a hard time paying their bills because it's very expensive to live here that they can't make a little bit of extra money by renting out a room in their home or renting out their home when they're out of town. Well, it's interesting. Today, just this very day when you've arrived here in town, I received a letter this morning from a long-term owner of a vacation rental business.  Yeah, it's a real shame because you mentioned the principle of Ahana Kanako, private property rights allow us to work together in that way.  That's a peaceful way of getting along with people and accomplishing what both sides of that deal want, right? And instead, what we're being told by the government is that's not allowed. And as a result, it turns neighbors into spies against one another. And as Christina was saying, it creates a system that violates our other rights so that the government is sending agents to interrogate people and so forth. Well, another area that's hotly disputed in the shared economy is ride-sharing here in Hawaii, which is a very controversial issue. What's the private property frame of reference with regard to ride-sharing? Well, just as I own my home and I'd like to open it up maybe to visitors, I also may own a car. And there may be people who would like me to drive them around for a little bit of extra money. And again, the market has such a wonderful way of allowing people to work together to do that. So again, we see the internet being used to create these apps like Uber or Lyft, where people can say, hey, I'd like a ride to the airport. Well, you're heading that way. Could you pick me up and I'll give you a couple extra dollars for gas and it'll be a mutually beneficial exchange. And the funny thing is this is also something that's been going on for years and years. Well, when we come back from a short break, I want to take the devil's advocate side. Obviously, the right to share one's car or one's home or the right to regulate what goes on within one's house in terms of building a window or a wall have long been attached to the individual and the individual's property rights. But on the other side, we have the argument that the state needs to intervene for the safety of all society. I'm going to ask you a little bit about that when we come back. My guests, Timothy and Christine Sandifer of the Goldwater Institute will be right back. I'm Keely Akuna with the Grassroot Institute on the Hanukako on the Think Tech Kauai Broadcast Network. Don't go away. Aloha. I'm Richard Emory, host of Condo Insider, a weekly Thursday show at three o'clock that goes all summer long talking about issues living in a condo association. Each week we bring experts to talk about the rights and obligations of owners and boards of directors to successfully run their condominium. It's a great educational show, answers a lot of questions. We hope you'll visit us sometime. Aloha. For a very healthy summer, watch Viva Hawaii. We are here live on Mondays at 3 p.m. and we bring guests like our best health coach Elena Maganto. Eat well and follow her tips. Viva la comida saludable. Hello, this is Martin de Spain. I want to get you get excited about my new show, which is Humane Architecture for Hawaii and Beyond. We're going to broadcast on Tuesdays 5 p.m. here on Think Tech Kauai. Welcome back to Ehana Kako. We have a fascinating discussion taking place with Christina and Tim Sandifer of the Goldwater Institute on private property rights. But before we dive back into the conclusion, let me say mahalo to Think Tech Kauai and all the wonderful people who work here and who make this studio a great place from which about 35 hours of original content is broadcast all throughout the world. And you can find that content on ThinkTechKauai.com. Of course, you can also find our particular programs at grassrootsinstitute.org. Back to talking with Christina and Tim. There is some concern, however, for the safety of society.  We don't want structures on private properties falling down and falling into the road or injuring other people or even injuring the property owners and so forth. And we don't necessarily trust that everybody's going to make good decisions about their primary property, their body. So we have to regulate what goes into the body and so forth. And there are many people who are sympathetic to that need. And indeed, I don't think you would disagree that there's some need in society to have regulation. But where do you draw the line? How do you respond to these arguments, especially with respect to the vacation rental industry or the ride-sharing industry? I think the real concern, you're absolutely right. There needs to be some sort of regulatory system to prevent people from hurting one another. The real problem is that people tend to underestimate the costs that are imposed by restrictions on private property rights or economic freedom and stuff like that because those costs are often invisible. If you make a law that says you're not allowed to start a business unless you get permission from the such-and-such bureaucracy, there's a lot of people out there who might come up with an idea for a new business. And then when they think, well, gosh, if I were to start this business, I'd have to go get permission from the such-and-such agency. And it's such a long process. It costs so much money. I'm just not going to bother. Well, then you can never measure the cost that has resulted from that restriction because the person never starts the business. And so we are deprived of their products or their services without realizing that kind of cost. We have to try and keep in mind the unseen costs that are imposed by restrictions on private property rights and economic freedom. And the best way to do that is to keep an eye on whether or not people's rights are being violated. If a person is harming another person, the government should stop. If the person is just doing something that you think is, you know, silly or unpleasant or something, maybe the government shouldn't intervene in those cases. So we underestimate the cost that regulation imposes. Would you also say we underestimate the capacity for society to regulate itself? For example, with ride-sharing, you've got technology that logs in who the driver is, who the passenger is. All of that is a matter of record in an extraordinary way. They evaluate each other and so forth. Once my daughter, well, sitting around the table, was you still a little girl, said, daddy, why do we have to inspect restaurants? If the food in a one-restaurant kills people, won't they just stop going there? And to some extent, isn't there some kind of self-regulation that can take place? Absolutely. All the things that you're talking about, restaurants have Yelp or, you know, Google reviews, right? And in fact, all of us do this. When we want to try a new restaurant or, you know, if I want to rent out a home from somebody, I will read the reviews and I'll read what people's previous experiences were. Well, you know, we've tried Airbnb a few times and I'm just amazed at how much information you have in the reviews. Yeah. Oh, absolutely. They tell you what sync is working and what not. You get far more information that's coming because the free market makes that information valuable than you'd get under a regulated situation. And unfortunately, often government wants to use a sledgehammer approach instead of a scalpel approach. So there are instances where we really do need to stop people from violating each other's rights or harming each other, but there are already traditional nuisance laws in place for those types of things. Let's take home sharing, for example.  We already have ordinances that protect people from all of those things and so what government should focus on is enforcing those ordinances. In California, the city of Santa Monica recently outlawed home sharing for under 30 days and spent over half a million dollars in just one year trying to catch somebody who is sharing their home for under 30 days. They only caught one person in an entire year and meanwhile, think of all that money and time and energy that could have gone to a police force to actually keep people safe. Well, this is a little bit counterintuitive. You're saying those who promote the share market, those who promote private property rights actually would call for a great older enforcement of law, but they're calling for greater enforcement of the existing laws. Exactly. Or in other words, to get people, catch them after they've broken the law rather than put up so many regulations that we try to control them from ever even getting close to breaking a law. Which tends to punish innocent people instead of the people who did the wrong thing in the first place.  Well, maybe I wouldn't abuse it. You know, let me be free to make my own decisions and if I do harm, somebody punish me then. Well, in the midst of the conflict that we have here in Hawaii between protecting private property rights and looking out after the greater good of people in the name of safety, where have you seen some good solutions to that conflict? Arizona. Arizona. Why don't you tell us about it? Why don't you tell us, Christian? Well, so in Arizona we've passed... Thanks to the Goldwater Institute. And that's right, yeah. Well, about 10 years ago the Goldwater Institute designed a provision called the Property Ownership Fairness Act. And it's very simple. It just says that when government takes away your rights, your property rights, whether by coming in and taking your home from you or regulating your property rights away, it has to pay you for that. So if it's important for government to be able to regulate, it has to pay people for taking away those rights. And then we passed another law just this year called the Home Sharing Act to deal specifically with home sharing. And it says, again, government cities can enforce nuisance restrictions. They can enforce noise ordinances, trash ordinances. But if they're going to go beyond health and safety and really impose what are more aesthetic preferences on a community, they can't do that. They can't outlaw an entire industry. They can't tell people that they can't open their homes up to other people. Instead, they have to focus on true harms. And what this does is it sort of flips the burden of proof. This is a fancy term that we use as lawyers. But all that that means is I ought to be presumed to be free to use my property as I see fit to relate to my community and share things with my neighbors and community. And if I harm someone, government has to come and improve that I've done that. It requires government to think about the costs, to take the costs of regulation into consideration. Well, you know, those are two great remedies. First of all, to compensate people when they regulate them because they're actually hindering their property usage. And then secondly, to wait until you've actually had damage. Exactly. But the key here is to recognize that property is a commodity that has value. Right. And that when we are infringing upon or when we're limiting somebody's control over their property, we're actually harming their economic welfare. That's right, because property also creates value and to restrict what people can do with that property kills that value before it's ever even born. And so that's why it's important to have these restrictions that allow local communities to restrict harmful things or have a noise ordinance or whatever. But it doesn't allow these blanket bans. We don't ban backyard barbecues just because some people tend to get noisy and rowdy at backyard barbecues. We say you can have backyard barbecues, but if you are noisy and rowdy, then you're going to get in trouble for it. And that's the way it should be with home sharing also. I would imagine just picking up on what you've said that we probably have a satisfactory body of law for the protection of property. But what we don't have is a sufficient definition of what is included in private property. And that the more that we let people know, wait a minute, this is my private property. It has value the more we can bring the law to bear on protecting that. Absolutely. And you know, there's always going to be gray areas. And of course, when government doesn't set up a regulation that stops someone from acting, you always risk that some people may be harmed. But the presumption ought to be in those gray areas with the individual, with individual rights, with freedom. Because if you go down the other road, if you go down that slippery slope, then what you have is a system where government is only giving people permissions. It's not allowing people to be free to act. And at that point, as Tim said, you might as well ban all backyard barbecues. You might as well force people to get permission from government before they speak or do anything else. And then, of course, who's going to get the permission, the people who are closest to the government, who know somebody down at the city hall, who are best friends or even who bribe their way in. Or even in situations of public activism, those who use the government and the law to bully private property owners. Well, this has been a fascinating conversation. I wish we could go on and discuss it more, but people who are interested can get your book. What is the title of your book again? Cornerstone of Liberty and they can find it on amazon.com. Thank you very much. Well, Tim, thank you for being here today. Thank you so much. Christina? Thank you so much. Thank you. Well, we have a wonderful couple who are working together to advance the liberties of all people across the country. Tim and Christina Sandifer of the Goldwater Institute. I hope you'll get ahold of their book, Cornerstone of Liberty, Private Property Rights, Cornerstone of Liberty. And you can tune in to see more of this, Ehana Kako, discussion of our freedoms and how we can perpetuate them every week on the Think Tech Hawaii Broadcast Network. I'm Keeley Iakina with the Grass Root Institute. Until next week, aloha.


What do you say you want me to do for you? I want you to reveal a name for my baby. The name for the baby? Yes. Yes, yes, name. Okay. So I have to go to God? Yes, to go to God. So ask for the name? Yes. So the name God give me, you like it? You will like it? If it's from God, I receive it. Okay. So the name is promise. Promise? Promise. Promise. It's a promise from God. She is a wonderful girl. Let me take note of that. Together for Masha. I want you to notice one thing. When he did not, she did not tell him that it was a boy or a girl. The Lord revealed that to him and then he told her name. Amen. Masha. We welcome you tonight and can you please for the camera purposes reveal your name and where are you from? My name is Masha and I'm from Pasco. Masha, can you confirm this prophecy and can you please share with us what month were you on during that time? I was on my ninth month and exactly a week after the prophecy I had her. Next Sunday. Hallelujah. Let's put our hands together for this wonderful miracle and a baby girl. Thank you for bringing her with us and her name, did you name her that? We named her Naomi Promise as a second name because she is a promise from God. We kind of believe it's more like a promise, not a name. So Naomi promise. So you gave her a middle name promise. Yes, middle name promise. Praise the Lord. Masha, can you please share with us how did that prophecy make you feel? Well, it gives you more a vision to move on but it gives you more confidence and a peace. This baby is a wonderful and it's a promise from God. Amen. Let's put our hands together for Jesus Christ for this wonderful, wonderful prophecy. Thank you Masha. Thank you so much.


Not everything you're going to see today will apply to everyone and Each of the product is different. I work with a lot and a lot of different products and no two recommendations I give at a very the same so you will need to pick and mix and adapt to your own product Let me start with this. Are you sure you are not making a mistake to your pricing because as Catherine Payne says The minute you make a mistake in your pricing you're either into eating into your reputation or your profit This is the checklist we will go to And and I'll go I'll be tackling each point in the next 20 minutes Let's start with value. Let's start with understanding is your price, right? And I'd like to illustrate this with an example the example of wine We've all gone to buy wine and either as a present or for ourselves or when we want to treat ourselves We want to buy a nice water, but let's face it. How many of us are wine experts? What do you do when you choose when you want to choose a good wine? You look at the price You might look at the label But if the price is high and the label isn't so nice, you'll probably believe the price Does that mean the wine is actually better? Do you know the wine is actually better? But you think it is and it has changed your relationship with the bottle of wine when you open it You will actually say this tastes good when you have no idea whether it is or not That's how important price is it can absolutely change the perception of Quality and that's the whole point researchers have found that consumers actually associate low prices with lower quality on the other hand they also Are more likely to purchase with a higher purchase price It sounds weird, but when you think about your own behaviors I'm sure you can think of many times where you actually went for a more expensive object than a cheaper object So my question to a lot of WordPress companies who come to talk to me about pricing is Why do you worry so much about being the cheapest? Are you trying to say your quality is lower? So this is the core question when it comes to pricing. What do you want customers to think about your product? When you're in the wine shop when you're looking at the bottles of wine What do you want people to think about it? That's how you need to tackle your pricing Yeah, so that's the point I'm trying to make here if you really want your your Customers to think about quality then you really need to pay a lot of attention about Charging the right price a higher price can mean losing some customers. This is really important. You cannot win them all But it's actually Probable that you will be getting higher quality clients and you will be able to deliver higher quality work to those clients You are what you charge if you forget absolutely everything I'm saying today.  No That's not what I'm trying to say today We need to find the price which positions your product for the value it brings think about the wine The wine analogy again if we're seeing a thousand euro bottle and the 10 euro bottle Is the thousand euro bottle a hundred times more expensive to produce? No But is your perception of its quality and expectation of its quality a hundred times bigger yes the core question you need to answer when you start tackling the pricing is What is your product value now? This is a very difficult question to answer to be very honest Especially with digital products, but there are key questions which you need to ask What impact does your product have on a customer's site? What does it contribute to their business? What is unique about it? What makes it better or different? How much does it change things for your customers? What are they willing to pay for it? So the question to you is how well do you know your customers and many many many people we work with Sometimes tell us yeah, I have a lot of support tickets. I talk to a lot of customers. I know them well But support doesn't necessarily mean, you know them as well as you should Support is great and I encourage a lot of people to remain in touch with clients via support But you need more Talk to them talk to your customers. Many people just like giving you feedback just asking for feedback always works Just create forms ask for feedback Email them ask for answers interview them Be very specific in your questions. I had a client once who told me but nobody will answer He sent out his questionnaire Everybody answered and then he had a long time reading everything through everything because it turned out his customers loved his product Your current customer will help you understand your future customer You will be surprised when you ask clients how they use your product what you find out I've had many examples of people who have plugins and they have no idea They are being used in particular ways which are giving incredible value to to the people using them So talk to your customers understand how they how they are using your products We are always interested in just finding the right customer Even if if that means Frequently turning away some customers the right customer is more important than all the customers so First you need to understand the customer Then you need to test Testing is crucial because without testing you will it's very hard to benchmark in where it is particularly It's extremely hard to benchmark Where you should be lying so testing is the best way of understanding what your price should be What we want to do is find the profit maximization point It's the price customers are willing to pay and which gives you the right balance between profits And unit sales so there's a point where if you go too far Your sales will dip and if you go too low your sales will go higher But your revenues will dive so you need to find the right balance between them That's your profit maximization point. That's value. That's probably the most important point But let's go through the rest of the checklist Tears another common problem is We see a lot of products which are priced as License for one site license for five sites license for 50 sites were unlimited That that says nothing that just says I either want that amount of sites or I don't You're selling only to people who want more of your products. You are catering to nobody else by by not tiering Your tiers should actually shadow your client's lifetime journey Not the volume of websites. So you should be asking What are the features which are most important at a particular time in the customer's journey? And what features are more important as they grow? What features are become more valuable as their business grows? You really need to tear your products meaningfully because this can really change how much revenue you can deliver to your own business So the question of what your customers are willing to pay for as your as your product grows and there's use of your product grows Is a crucial one to understand Customers just want a product that works for them And on the other hand a product which has too many features in the bottom tier might actually turn people away This sounds crazy But in reality if you you are giving them everything you are giving them a Swiss knife and they just want five things They probably will feel they're they're paying too much for it and they will go look somewhere else So think of what clients actually need and what how they can grow with your product lifetime lifetime is a topic which is discussed quite a lot in WordPress and A long time ago all the products were lifetime But now most are in yearly pricing now It's very difficult if you ask a client And you said them what do you prefer do you prefer to pay a price once or do you prefer to pay every year even yourselves? Well, most people will tell you I prefer once But the reality is the best relationship with a client is a fair one A client wants you to stay around a client wants you to support them a client wants you to continue giving updates That means in most cases Lifetime isn't a good idea because that gives you a revenue injection And that client is with you for as long as you survive rather as long as you grow Warren Buffett very famously said price is what you pay value is what you get so in most cases Lifetime pricing is not a good idea. It's not great for the long-term hurt of your business It's not great for you to grow It's not great for reselling. It's very unattractive if you ever decide to sell your plugin or your product There are a few exceptions If your product is really low in value if it just does something really small on a website and it's not very high high in value and It's just one thing then maybe lifetime is easier because people don't want to think about renewing the license every single year Or if your target market has a typically short lifetime of their own If they were target market your target customers are one year or two year sites It usually benefits you to have a lifetime there because they would usually want to pay something and forget about it Or lifetime is also good if you want to get started fast because it gives you that revenue injection to start And then you can continue But in the long term in most cases lifetime isn't a good idea Last one special offers and coupons I see a lot of offers Going out a lot of the time black friday soon, but let's see black black friday to the to the side This is my favorite way of putting it discounting Rarely is a good idea But discounting rarely is a good idea It's a very important difference on where you put the emphasis on that sentence This slide is really important. So I'll bring it back.  Just remove it Why because it gives people anxiety It gives makes people stop and go wait. Should I be getting a better? Price just remove it bring it back when you need it or use you are as instead Discounts are a good idea sometimes black friday I would recommend doing black friday as the only sale of the year Everybody's doing it join in and try and get as much as you can out of it. That's a good idea Small discounts on remarketing ads or emails and what I call last-ditch scenarios So you you've lost a customer. They've stopped the renewal And you know, you're not going to get any more revenue at that point It might be worth trying to give them a private discount to bring them back Otherwise, you're not going to get anything out of them. Anyway, so that's the full checklist Let's go through a few Final final tips when changing prices keep your current customers happy. Keep them in focus They get what they paid for whatever mistakes you may have done with pricing You need your customers to remain with you. So don't raise their prices. It's not a fair relationship There might still be ways you can get more revenue with them as your product grows So don't don't worry too much about that A lot of time I get the question. What about my competitors? What about them? But if you're talking about value, my answer to that is always the same Is your product better than your competitors? If it is, then don't worry about your competitors It's as simple as that It's rare. This is really crucial as well. It's rare that you should stop testing I do not think that a price which has been static for more than I don't know 12 months Is is probably at its price max profit maximization point Keep testing. Sometimes it will go wrong and you have to go back And sometimes it will go right and you have and you should keep it We have seen companies actually triple their revenues in a year


Today we're in 2nd Peter chapter 3. We're going to be looking at verses 1 through 9 as we continue our verse by verse study Here in the book of 2nd Peter So I'll begin reading at verse 1 in 2nd Peter chapter 3 I'll read to verse 7 we'll get into our study 2nd Peter chapter 3 beginning at verse 1 The apostle Peter writes beloved I now write to you the 2nd epistle in Both of which I stir up your pure minds by way of reminder That you may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets and of the commandment of us The apostles of the Lord and Savior Knowing this first that scoffers will come in the last days walking according to their own lusts and saying Where is the promise of his coming for since the fathers fell asleep all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation For this they willfully forget that by the word of God the heavens were of old and the earth standing out of water and In the water by which the world that then existed parished being flooded with water But the heavens and the earth which now exist are kept in store by the same word Reserve for fire until the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men Now I'm going to begin this study here by giving some very basic things in some some foundational elements just to draw your attention to and Then we'll move on into the study But I'll begin by noticing something with you in the first line here in the first verse of chapter 3 verse 1 Notice how he begins he begins by calling them his beloved beloved I now write to you the second epistle in both of which I stir up your pure minds by way of reminder So he's calling them my dearly highly esteemed ones beloveds a word of of endearment now why would he begin by saying you are my beloved well the Obvious answer would be because they were very dear to him. He loved them. He had a shepherd's heart for these people There are those who occupy Ministry positions who don't have a shepherd's heart They've got a businessman's heart or they've got an entrepeneur's heart They want to build out up the people in the sense of numbers, but not necessarily in the sense of the love of the Lord There are quite a number of professional ministers, but the apostle Peter didn't fall into that category The apostle Peter was somebody who actually loved those whom he ministered to and that's why he begins by saying that he has a sincere love for the sheep and a Sincere love of the sheep is is an earmark of a genuine minister of the gospel and he learned that kind of love From a genuine shepherd by the name of Jesus Christ who said to us that that a man ought to love those whom he ministers to In John chapter 15 verses 12 and 13 he said this is my commandment that you love one another as I've loved you He went on to say greater love has no one than this then to lay down one's life for his friends. I Want you to love one another by this shall all men know that you are my disciples if you have loved one for another So tenderly be concerned for and minister to the sheep and and that's what the apostle Peter has discovered That's what the apostle Peter is doing. He's loving the sheep He has a sincere love for them and so it's very easy for him to begin this portion by referring to them in this way Now he speaks here also by saying that he's writing notice verse one a second epistle He'd obviously be referring to the first that he had written He had already stated I will not be negligent to remind you always of these things though You know them and are established in them or established in the present truth It says I'll be careful to ensure that you always have a reminder of these things after my decease And so he's speaking concerning the things that he has written He'd be speaking of the first letter he had written as well as the second one that he's writing to them at this time And he's saying that in both of those letters in both of those epistles.  I'm waking you up I'm trying to awaken your mind. I want to get you guys to be active I want you to live for the Lord because when you live for the Lord when your heart is sold out to him when you're living for Jesus you can have security in your life as I've mentioned recently Sometimes people will say I'm not doing well in my walk with God. I I'm depressed or I'm having just a tough time or I'm going through some hard hard moments or whatever and and when you begin to delve into their their walk with the Lord You discover that the end of they're not in the word. They don't have devotions. They're not in into prayer They're not having fellowship there. They're not doing the the basic the essential things the fundamental things That would strengthen them and so sometimes there needs to be a an alarm clock sometimes there needs to be a reminder Sometimes we need to have that so that we might have security Now he says I'm stirring up your pure minds that word pure means undefiled It speaks of that which is sincere He's speaking of your thinking the way that you think your wholesome thinking and you can have what you call a pure mind Or wholesome thinking By faith and by the word of God we are washed by God's word. I Remember somebody one time sharing how that he was approached by Somebody who didn't have faith in Christ and as they were having a conversation The one who didn't believe in Jesus said to this man your brainwashed I'm Supposing that some of you perhaps in your lifetime as believers may have had somebody say that to you You're brainwashed that's normally intended to be an insult. You guys are brainwashed.  So yeah, I guess you can say I'm brainwashed Well indeed, you know, we have been washed by the water of the word and God gives to us pure minds and ability to have pure thoughts And and that comes through the word of God. It comes to pursuing him. It comes through the blood of Jesus Christ It's made possible by faith. It's made possible by the word. It's made possible through discipline In Philippians chapter 4 verse 8 Paul said finally brothers, whatever is true Whatever is noble Whatever is right Whatever is pure Whatever is lovely Whatever is admirable If anything is excellent or praise worthy Think about such things So put your mind on the things that are above not on those things that are below Allow God's word to wash you and purify you. So he says I'm stirring up your pure minds And he goes on to say by way of reminder that you may be mindful of the words which were spoken before In other words, I'm simply reminding you. I'm reminding you of things that Jesus Christ has given to us Things that the Lord has given to us through his prophets the things that he gave to us by his apostles He's saying I want to guard you against the seductions of false teachers I want to remind you of the writings of the Old Testament prophets and I want to remind you of the instructions that you've received What Jesus has taught and what we apostles have communicated to you because I want to bring encouragement to you That's what the word of God by the way is intended to do. It's to bring encouragement and it's supposed to produce in us a Hope because you don't find hope in this world You find hope in the Lord and in Romans 15 verse 4 It says everything that was written in the past was written to teach us so that Through endurance and the encouragement of the scriptures. We might have hope And so the Lord would give to us hope through his word and as he's speaking concerning the encouragement that God brings And the words that have been spoken by the prophets and the apostles He goes on to say this In verse 3 knowing this first That scoffers will come in the last days Walking according to their own loss and saying where's the promise of his coming? For since the father's fall asleep all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation So scoffers He's saying scoffers will come in the last days. This is one of those primary Signs that you're living in last times a scoffer the word scoffers isn't one that we use very often anymore But it's a word that speaks of mocking it speaks of somebody ridiculing It's somebody who speaks with contempt and they're speaking in this context with contempt against God's word and And they live lives that are are ungodly now obviously we have in our day many who are well known for being scoffers well known For being atheists if you were to Google atheists well known atheists There's a website that will actually give you the top 100 atheists Woody Allen is On that list and you have others like Stephen Hawking and Richard Dawkins Christopher Hitchens Sam Harris There are quite a number of people who are making their Making their fortunes on writing books promoting scoffing promoting atheism you have people on television who who make their living with have by having a atheistic worldview and and they have an antagonism towards faith and sometimes even against people of faith people like Bill Maher and others who make their living out of putting down believers and all atheism atheism is a rising Way of thought a rising philosophy Though it's still a minority. They definitely have impacts and they do have quite a following We have atheists that that we've encountered over the years one in particular comes to mind as I share this concerning scoffers that come in the last days There was a fella that was in our area in Ontario several years ago. His name was Patrick Green and Patrick Green was really upset because they had a nativity scene on the median on Euclid there in the city of Ontario and he was upset about it and I was trying to get the nativity scene removed as I remember and he was quite vocal and I forget What led to this but in response to some of the things that he was doing I wrote a letter to the editor and one of our local newspapers and and I basically just outlined some things concerning atheism and Concerning the fact that I consider atheists to be parasites, you know flattering speech that I wrote But in a sense, you know, I asked the question how many hospitals have been Established by atheists how many universities were established by atheists The greatest math mass murderers that the history of the world has ever seen have been perpetrated by or were perpetrators Who were atheists Lenin Stalin Mao and others who are guilty of seeing? Massacres of their own people to the hundreds of millions all of this came from an atheistic worldview philosophers like Sigmund Freud and others who have undermined the way of thinking of millions and so I just wrote something about that and and I got a letter from Patrick who basically was saying I'm gonna sue you Unless you write a Retraction and an apology to me for what you have said and I wrote back in a cordial way. I might say no what I said was true Patrick and I said Patrick My encouragement to you would be stop fighting the God that is pursuing you You need to open your heart to Jesus Christ who loves you. He gave his life up for you And you need to stop fighting him. It's hard to kick against the Lord and I had heard that Patrick while he never sued as Patrick left and went someplace up north and and It's interesting that in April of 2012 an article came out that I think you might find interesting because I should add this because Patrick even went so far as to call KKLA to argue His atheistic point of view and this was before Frank was actually Frank Pastore was hosting his show and and and Frank was called and asked can you speak to this atheist? And so I remember, you know Frank talking to Patrick and and discussing faith and all with them I remember that and Then Patrick basically disappeared. So in April of 2012 I read an article that says a noted Texas atheist Activists who pushed for the removal of inditivity scene in front of a county courthouse has turned to Christian Patrick Green's conversion comes after he learned a serious eye condition way a bit way a bit I'm not through Patrick Green's conversion comes after you learned a serious eye condition could make him belong Which in turn led to an outpouring of support among the same Baptist Springs Baptist Church in Athens, Texas that he had threatened to sue News of Green's condition prompted Jessica cry to ask her pastor at San Springs Baptist Church If they could help Green the Christian Post reported it He agreed in thousands of dollars and donations were raised on Green's behalf Green said it was Christ's compassion that made him see the light so to speak So now you can clap. Yeah, praise the Lord Yeah It is hard to kick against the prods and so yes Atheism and agnosticism my pastor Chuck speaks of agnosticism in this way He says that that using the Greek word Agnostic has kind of an intellectual ring to it and it does I mean think about it for a moment if you speak into somebody and they say to you Well, I really not sure. I'm an agnostic. It just has this kind of a intellectual Kind of a sense to it and Chuck says they ought to use the Latin because the Latin is ignoramus so but anyway It means literally without knowledge That's what agnostic means when you have the a prefix before noses noses means without knowledge and Ignoramus in Latin is the same word But we use the word agnostic because it has more of an intellectual kind of a feel to it But that's how it is But we don't use the word ignoramus because that that shows what it really is and so we we do that So what happens is that you have in the last days scoffers, but that is something that has existed all along So the Apostle is not simply speaking of just this this atmosphere of scoffing, but he's also referring to the fact that you find this kind of attitude even in the church That there are scoffers even that will be within the church now by context he's referring to false teachers who have infiltrated who have wormed their way into congregations and who are influencing people and he's already been speaking concerning them and he's saying that this is a primary sign that we're in the last days now Now Jesus had warned us concerning False prophets who would enter in and deceive many Jude in verses 17 and 18 had said But beloved remember what the Apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ foretold they said to you in the last times There will be scoffers who will follow their own ungodly desires and so that's exactly what has taken place They have infiltrated and they've begun to influence Now notice how he says they walk according to their own lust They're motivated by their own lust not a desire to honor and please God in other words for them It's it's all about them. When am I going to get out of ministry? When do I get out of doing this job? Basically is what you're looking at and they're they're using as a way to undermine faith a Question, where's the promise of his coming? Now when they say where is the promise of his coming? You need to understand that that's not simply an attack on a doctrine. That's an attack on the whole of scripture When they say where is the promise they're speaking in in reference to the promises of God? And so they're using the word of God as a tool to undermine the faith of God's people So where is the promise of his coming? They're calling into question the accuracy of scripture. They're calling into question God's faithfulness to his word We need to remember that the return of Jesus Christ is part of the proclamation of the gospel and the Bible is filled with Accurate prophecies concerning the imminent return of Jesus Christ Jesus had said if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself That where I am there you may be also Jesus himself had made promises to return and to take those who love him to be with him The writer of Hebrews in chapter 9 verse 28 said Christ was sacrificed wants to take away the sins of many people He will appear a second time not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him And so we're waiting for him and As we continue to wait for him and the Mayan calendar obviously was wrong where a lot of people were actually nervous But here we are. I mean I had someone write me. Are you even a little afraid basically? For you but no No, of course not, you know because we could trust the word of God Because God's word is true. And so that's the whole thing. Where's the promise of his coming? And then they say Because since since the father's fell asleep everything's continuing as it's always been Their argument is kind of what you would call a uniformitarianism Uniformitarianism basically rules out what we would call divine intervention and They're saying things. They're basically Remaining the same they haven't changed since the Old Testament fathers died Everything's uniform everything's the same. God hasn't intervened in any way. So what's his response to that? Well in verse 5 he said this they willfully forget that by the word of God the heavens were of old the earth standing out of water and in the water by which the world that then existed perished being flooded with water and So he says something very interesting notice in verse 5 they willfully forget That by the word of God the heavens were of old willfully they have deliberately Put it behind them Children are born born with an instinct with an intuitive knowledge that there's something greater than themselves You teach children to not believe Children believe they believe in things that are greater than themselves You get older and you start putting away what you at one time believed because now you consider it to be Childish or myth mythological or immature not well founded. I don't believe in a God. I Believe that things Took millions of years billions of years by chance to spring into this unbelievable complex World that we see today Paul in Romans chapter 1 verses 18 through 20 said the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in Unrighteousness because what may be known of God is manifest in them God has shown it to them for since the creation of the world is invisible attributes are clearly seen Being understood by the things that are made even his eternal power and Godhead so that they are without excuse It's obvious. It's apparent someone says that this amazingly complex Universe that we live in is by chance and time They willfully forget Friend of mine was having an argument with an atheist on the job site We worked at FMC. I used to be in a in the Shipping department just up the street And my friend was working in the department that put together street sweepers Those are good-sized machines and all and he would work on them and put them together put them on the street and He was having an argument with the guy who claimed to be an evolutionist and atheist and and so my friend asked his co-worker How did this street sweeper get here? And the guy said that's a pretty, you know dumb question. We put it together And my friend's response was that's where you're wrong He said what happened is last night there was an explosion in the factory and This thing came and that's how I got here And the guy said that's pretty ridiculous But that's his argument for the entire creation Bible says every house is built by some man. He who built all things is God and So just by seeing that there has to be something that is behind all of this Well, there has to be a greater mind than ours and all you know the argument is they willfully forget God gives to you conscience You have an ability to know that something's right and something's wrong Children know that they've lied and there's this that we used to call it a pang of conscience Though conscience, there's a lot of people who are fighting very hard to eliminate and destroy conscience Because they don't want to have any absolute morals and therefore nothing is wrong. Nothing is right You still have conscience not only do you have conscience the ability to know that you're not perfect You also have creation You're able to look out there and see that this wonderful amazing planet that we live on With all the intricacies and everything that is so amazing Had to be fashioned by somebody and that's what Paul was saying and that's what the Apostle Peter is saying He is saying you have to willfully reject that you have to make a determination that you will not believe that God created all things Nehemiah 9 verse 6 you alone are the Lord you have made heaven the heaven of heavens with all their hosts The earth and everything on it the seas and all that is in them you preserve them all the host of heaven worships you Hebrews 11 3 by faith we understand that the world's reframed by the word of God So that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible So they willfully forget in verse 6 He says by which the world that that then existed perished being flooded with water They willfully forget that God brought the flood to deal with sin on the face of the earth They're mocking scriptures accuracy. They're rejecting God's judgments But he says in verse 7 the heavens and the earth which now exists are kept in store by the same word God's word was true in the Old Testament. God's word is true in the new Judgment is coming He speaks of judgment here in verse 7 the heavens and the earth which now exists are kept in store by the same word Reserve for fire until the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men Judgment by fire is an Old Testament picture of purification as well as a destruction of evil In Psalm 97 verse 3 it says a fire goes before him and burns up his enemies round about Isaiah 51 6 says lift up your eyes to the heavens and Look on the earth beneath for the heavens will vanish away like smoke The earth will grow old like a garment those who dwell in it will die in like manner My salvation will be forever. My righteousness will not be abolished fiery judgment He's saying fiery judgment is to occur in connection with the dead judgment and perdition He says of ungodly men so timing wise that will coincide with the final judgment. You want to see final judgment It's found in Revelation 20 verses 11 through 15 where John says I saw a great white throne and Him who sat on it from whose face the earth and heaven fled away There was found no place for them. I saw the dead small and great standing before God books were opened Another book was open, which is a book of life The dead were judged according to their works by the things which were written in the books The sea gave up the dead who are in it death and Hades delivered up the dead who are in them They were judged each one according to his works Then death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death Anyone not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire He goes on to say in Revelation 21 1 now I saw a new heaven and a new earth for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away Also, there was no more sea We'll look at that in some detail next time we're together, but he goes on to say this But beloved do not forget this one thing that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years thousand years It's one day The Lord is not slack concerning his promise as some counts slackness But his longsuffering toward us not willing that any should perish, but that all should come To repentance you ever have somebody When you're sharing with them about the Lord you ever have somebody Say I don't believe in God now look. I don't believe in God if there's a God strike me dead Nothing happened. There's no God you ever have anybody do that I usually take a step or two back just in case God's In a bad mood that day They mocked the patience of God. I was 20 when I gave my heart to Christ. I am grateful That he gave me 20 years to live Which wasn't really living it was dying every day Some of you were older when you gave your hearts to Christ there are some in this room who got saved later in life Aren't you glad at the patience of God?  He was patient and loving and merciful he extended time for you. How many times you could have died in an accident? You could have died in a variety of ways over time, but you didn't you always survived You always survived I Was in the airborne.  We all knew it.  He's gonna die and a chute hangs up in a tree so he springs in this tree and Then he cuts his lines and jumps and the first thing I was there The first thing he was doing was swearing using God's name in vain, and I'm thinking Ignorimus as foolish God gave you mercy. He gave you mercy How many times? Could you have died before you were saved and yet? God was merciful to you. I Was less than 20 before I got saved. I dropped five reds, which are downers second all And I drank almost a half gallon of wine and I suffered through poisoning and I still remember waking up in the back of my little 1962 Ford Falcon station wagon paralyzed looking at the Just looking towards the sky laying there the headliner and Not able to move my head to the left or the right. I was paralyzed and Wanting to vomit and I knew that if I should begin to vomit I would drown in my own vomit I knew that would happen and I remember I hadn't prayed in a long time and I remember praying saying God be merciful to me I'm too young to die. I remember that and I passed out Next morning waking up I found the empty bottle threw it across the street into the field that was across the street from my parents house and went on In sin continued on but never forgot God was merciful to me and a few months later I gave my heart to Jesus Christ and I thank God because there have been many times that I've had close calls Accidents that should have happened that could have taken my life that God was very very kind to me and and I survived We're on the five freeway. We got hit from behind We're going 60 miles an hour.  God is merciful and rather than taking it for granted We ought to thank God for that the Bible tells us in Romans 2 forward Do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness tolerance and patience not realizing that God's kindness leads you toward repentance Don't you understand the Lord is not slack He's long suffering Not willing that any should perish But that all should come to repentance If you're unsafe today The reason you're here and the reason you're still alive Is God has been kind to you We don't use his kindness as an excuse to continue in sin We see it as God extending our time that we might be able to have a relationship with him And if you don't have that relationship You need to have it and you need to have it today


What's going on everyone? Sam here with Leighton Sports Cards and I am ripping one box of 2022 Bowman Baseball Sapphire Edition for Jimmy C. So good luck, Jimmy. Let's pull something huge out of this. Pull like a pheal Watson super or whatever the pink is called.  Drives me crazy. All right, here we go. First pack. Got Simon Muziotti first. Ronnie Mauricio. Autograph is going to be Nico Cavadis for the Red Sox. Nice one there for you, Jimmy. Solid prospect for shirt. I'm a Nico Cavadis. And first of Justice Thompson. I guess I'm just going to hand you everything if that's all right. Pack number two. Got Jose Salas. Elijah Tautis. There you go. Nice first there. Christian Roa first and Jose Ramos first. Thanks for the follow there. Appreciate that. Fidel Montero first. Yankees. Got Dustin Harris first for the Rangers. Nice one there. Robbie Martin Jr. first for the Rockies. And Raquel Binda Castro on the base. This guy, Uzi, is a machine with top loading. Tristan Casas on the base. Lenin Sosa first for the White Sox. Got Victor La Brata first for the Mariners. And Colson Montgomery first for the White Sox. There you go, Jimmy. Nice first there for you. Got an Orange in this. Come on, baby. Big Orange. Ed Howard. Peyton Wilson as well as Michael Oscato. Orange is going to be first of Norhei Vera. 35 of 50 for the White Sox. Nice one there. These Orange Sapphires really pop. They're so nice. Nice Norhei Vera. Christian Hernandez. Arelvis Martinez base. First of Matt Frazier. And first of Max Muncie. There you go. Nice Muncie on the back. That's cool. Really solid props back there. Got Jackson Chorio for the Brewers first. Leo Verpeguero. Averson Artega first. Giants and Rodolfo Nolasco first for the Pirates. Nice one there. And last pack. Good luck here, Jimmy. See a big prospect. Luis Matus. Kevin Alcantara base. Nice. Two autos in one box. Heck yeah. Brandon Jaraba. There you go, Jimmy. You're only guaranteed one, but you got two. Heck yeah. Nice autograph of Jaraba for you for the Brewers. And first of Missile Gonzalez on the back for the White Sox. That'll do it for your box there. Jimmy, congrats on the hits. And those will get right out to you. Thanks again, man.