Happy Monday. Welcome to insurance agent training every Monday two o'clock central standard time That's a habit to look at my watch anytime. I talk about time you guys have any habits that you do Without even thinking about it today. We're going to talk about something that can kind of affect some of that which is confidence and how Confidence or a lack thereof can keep you from closing sales I'm sold that confidence is the number one thing that helps you be a better salesperson Because if you're not sold on what you're selling Then the prospect won't be either think about it this way one thing I think about what I think about sales is I think about all right, so with sales You've got the salesperson and you've got the prospect and I feel like whoever is Either if you're more sold that they're gonna buy Then they are that they're not gonna buy then you make a sale if they're more sold That you're not going to sell them then you are that you're gonna sell them Then they win and they don't end up buying so I feel like it's this kind of this tug of war And I feel like confidence plays a huge role in closing sales in closing business All right Google says the dictionary For says the definition for confidence is the filling or belief that one can rely on someone or something firm trust We had every confidence in the staff Synonyms trust belief faith credence conviction. How much conviction do you have in? The company you work for The product you're selling The price for the product that you're selling Your sales ability and in your ability to close the sale I would say those are the five things that you got to think about how sold are you you got to be a level 10 on All of them because you may say well I'm confident in my ability, but I'm not confident in the product I'm selling then the prospect's gonna fill that because the passion is not gonna pour through you can say okay We could look at another way you could say I'm sold on the product But my sales ability is lacking and if that's the case I promise you you may be sold in the product The passion may come through but if you aren't confident enough in your sales ability to close the sale It will impact your ability to close. I say it all the time Everyone has a gift Everyone's great at something Some people don't know what it is, but everyone's great at something I've always felt like I'm great at getting people to make a decision I'm confident in my ability to get people to buy like in my book I'm so confident Generally most the time if I if I'm sold on the company the product my ability all those things right that if I'm sold on it It's easier for me to close It's easier for me to get yeses and knows when other people are accepting. I want to think about it I'm not sure. I need to retract. I'm not positive. I'm not going all in on it yet as we say around the office At the end of the day Confidence is huge and it can affect your ability to make a sale. This is a great phrase I want to mention confidence is the state of filling certain about the truth of something how certain are you in Your ability in your product in your company in insurance That you are going to close if you're not at a level 10 And you're not confident about who you represent the product you're selling your ability or your ability to close the sale I promise you it will affect sales 100% You will close less sales if you are less confident You see well Cody, I'm used to you. Do you do in white boards and hey Here's how to make 300 grand and here's an overcome objections here sells training and all this all here Here's live dials all this stuff I want to address this today because if you are more confident you wouldn't be struggling if you were more confident You wouldn't fail if agents were more confident then 92% of insurance agents would not fail so one of the big reason one of the big things that gave me confidence is Ways to gain confidence if you don't have the confidence you want and you realize that you're not certain But you know you need to be certain then some ways for you to gain confidence, right is You need to know your product inside and out that will give you product confidence true or false You need to know the company you represent inside and out if you don't know everything It'll give you company confidence true or false, right? You need to know And be certain that the price you're offering is Good enough to get the job done, right? You also need to be confident in your sales ability if you're not certain in your ability to get the job done So ways to get more confidence. I would say learning Soaking up knowledge Repetition role-playing you don't want to jump into an appointment and not be 100% ready and sold You don't want to jump in and say stuff that you that you're like crap Why did I say that right or not be confident in the process because you can be confident in the product But if you're not confident in the process of what you're doing when you get in a home You may be confident in the product. You may puke product. You may you may end up so Disconfident or unconfident in the process that you don't know what to do when to do it and so you're like crap I don't know how to make this sale. So I'm just gonna puke and vomit product knowledge on them right now Who's been in that boat? Right?  I don't just vomit all over people So that's not my style, but it's a lot of people in the sales arena that are they're pukers, man Put it in comments below if you're if you are a puker or if you're like dang it I don't want to be a puker man When you know Right when you know what you're doing when to do it how to do it where to do it Why to do it what to do at every step of the way? That's where that's where training comes in That's why professional athletes train multiple times a day That's why collegiate athletes train multiple times a day. That's why Kobe Bryant Would put up thousands of shots a day over the course of a summer That's why Michael Jordan would still wait lift on game day because it gave him confidence it instilled Confidence it made him ready. So when that time came he was at a 10 rather than running on an appointment Or playing a game at a five, right? Because you have to be confident in your ability you say well, and I want you to evaluate yourself today This is a therapy session brought to you by Cody today What are you not confident in that we can help that confidence like if you had to pick one thing right now that you are? Not hundred percent confident in what is it put it in comments below I want to know if there's one thing that you're not a hundred percent sold on confidence wise then what is it Because if it's product knowledge right that's fixable then fix it if it's your if it's a if it's process related then Let's learn We have trainings like to call to close we have YouTube videos about appointment process We have our insurance wealth University. We have ways for you to get more confident. You see okay. I think there's two There's there's three ways to get more confident in your Ability to run an appointment or your ability to make a call right? There's the learning stage I'm gonna soak up as much knowledge as I can right there's the role playing stage. I'm gonna practice it Right, I'm gonna practice the stuff. I learned and I'm gonna practice it until I'm freaking great at it And there's repetition because without learning it That's you're gonna struggle right because you're not gonna really ever know and if you don't know it's gonna be harder to role play You don't role play you haven't ingrained it into your body. It's not it's not habitual It's not part of you okay, and then the third part of that is you could know it could be a role You could role play it, but if you don't stay consistent with it It's like a salesperson that has a great month and then takes 30 days off They're gonna be ice-cold 30 days later right it's like a basketball player that is great during the season and they take four months off They're going to dwindle and go downhill if you don't stay Consistent so these are ways that if you're not confident in your ability because confidence will affect cells Right it can affect your ability to close a cell 100% So if you're not if you're not closing cells, it's confidence in something or yourself right if that's true For you then how do we make it so that you're more confident in what you do your ability? And how do we get used to a level 10 so that you know? You're practicing it and you're consistent with knowing and practicing so that you're always and the more you role play And the more you practice the better it's something you get people aren't great at the telephone right The first time they pick it up not even the hundredth or the thousand So a lot of times not even a ten thousand time they pick it up But after hundreds of thousands of calls over the course of your career you get pretty good at using this thing It's as long as you're not doing the wrong stuff That's where training comes in you need to know how to use it right if you're using it the wrong way You want to know am I right that's why we did a three-hour live training with you called call the close three hours Because I want you to know how to use it properly. Okay, so you know now, right? Then you've got to practice it and role play it That's where you that's where our cells guys role play calls every morning together, right? It's a it's a it's a requirement. It's not optional like if they're either committed or they don't work here They're either confident Or they're out of a job, right? I mean it's just part of it So you know from training you practice it from role-playing and then it's repetitive you pick it up a hundred times a day and Eventually you say okay. Let's do the math You pick it up a hundred hundred days. Let's say you pick it up a hundred times a day a hundred days in a row, okay? That's ten thousand calls Hundred times a day for three years you're north of a hundred thousand calls and Then you can be a master Confidence is killing you it's keeping you from closing sales and I don't want that to be the case That's why we've created a percent nation so that you can start to have confidence in your ability You can start to learn you can start to know you can start to dive in And I believe it today is the last day to get VIP tickets for under 300 bucks So make sure that you take advantage of that a person nation calm any thoughts comments questions Compliments praises anything else going on over there doing what do you think bro? Hey, hey Tracy I like it. Thanks for chiming in. Thanks for the comment. Thanks for watching Be sure that you share this be sure that you tag another insurance agent right now that needs to hear this You know someone right now that their confidence is not at a level 10 And what you have right now is the ability to help someone so tap be sure you do me a favor and you a favor and Dema favor by tagging an insurance agent in the comments below so that they too can have some freaking killer confidence like you do I want you to know I want you to role play and I want to be repetitive in practice at the end of the day I want you to be at a certain state and I don't mean a certain state I mean a state of certainty. I'm certain and that's the state. I'm in all the time because I promise it's contagious It's I mean it's infectious people will start to be more confident around you because that's how person you are right So be confident start closing sales and whatever it is is holding you back Let's make sure that you figure it out so that we can fix it so that you start making more cells than you currently are today That's what we do insurance agent training and confidence like without without confidence. It don't matter what kind of training I give you you don't have the compliment confidence to implement it. It does not matter Right so start to know start to learn I've spent north of six figures on like personal development and knowing and learning like the last year I would say the last 13 14 15 months. I've spent north of six figures getting around people That are phenomenal that are super successful because it trains it's got me to a much higher Confident level that I am and if you think you're like the greatest in the world Then you're hanging out with the wrong crowd because I can promise you you ain't right. I'm definitely not either So hey, thanks for watching today's training. I love helping you. I want to see more confident I want to see you making sales and I want to see you making some money this year. I appreciate you watching We'll see you tomorrow for live Q&A Actually, that's Wednesday phone phenom tomorrow. I didn't forget about you guys phone phenom tomorrow at 5 Thanks for watching. Have an awesome day Appreciate you guys


Good afternoon everyone and welcome. This is Melissa Armwood stocks. What should I'm here looking at IMTC? This is gapping down live tonight in the post market and I thought I'd review this I don't know exactly where it opens in the morning again. It's nighttime here almost seven o'clock eastern time The stock is gapping Let me just get this up here as you see here. There we go. This is happening right now It's about at 31. I don't know where this opens in the morning, but let's just pretend tomorrow It's 9 25 eastern time five minutes for the market open and the stock is at $30 and 99 cents in the gap It closed at 31 61. Okay, you see if this here the five minutes on the closure This is the gap here. I can get rid of it. I can show you Okay, that's pretending this we were in the close now we have the gap So I NTC had earnings I thought I'd do this and put it on YouTube and and help everyone out tonight because Paul is gonna be running the room for me tomorrow And so I wanted to give everyone the information about IMTC it rates 21 points as of right now Again, this could get better or worse depending on where it opens in the morning But I think this is gonna hold the gap down Now, what does that mean? It means target first targets $30 and 20 cents and $30 stream target This would be 2950. I don't think that gets there unless the market falls tomorrow, and I don't think it's gonna happen Okay, but could it happen? Sure. I think it happened. You don't know where the markets gonna gap until the pre market But I really believe this should hardly even move at all up against itself 31 25 ish 3125 3125 $31 should be the resistance on this So I would like to see nice falling in this and I think that it has it in the pre market And and and I believe this has a good drop in it tomorrow. So good luck everyone Good luck. Good luck to Paul. Good luck to stop. She'll show live trading room Paul will be calling us in the morning as of right now. This is a good gap I don't know like I said if it will open here tomorrow, but it's got to hold that 31 25 ish area This could certainly move a dollar on the day again. This is an earnings gap. So this should get a decent size bar Absolutely, absolutely hundred percent. So I just don't know where this opens in the morning. We can watch it But tip tonight is if this is around this area in the morning looks good Go for it rates 21 points as of today right now tonight. Good luck everyone tomorrow Email me at melissathestockswish.com if you'd like more information about signing up for the live Class the golden gap class, which is April 30th and May 1st And there's also a webinar tomorrow night if you're interested in coming at 5 30 eastern time Again, email me for more information. Have a great night everyone


Live from the Fiat Barcelona Grand Villa Compensator in Barcelona, Spain, it's The Cube at HP Discover Barcelona 2014 brought to you by headline sponsor HP. Here are your hosts, John Furrier and Dave Vellante. Welcome back to Barcelona everybody, this is The Cube, my name is Dave Vellante. Jeff Carla is here, he's the director of HP Converged Systems and Chris Swan who is with AVNET, he's a general manager and looks after the HP business. Gentlemen, welcome to The Cube, it's good to see you again, nice to have you on Chris. Alright, so let's talk about Converged, it's a channel angle here, which was really interesting. I remember when Converged first came out, the channel looked at it like, hmm, what does this mean for us? So take us through sort of where we're at, Jeff, with Converged's infrastructure. Where's the market at and then we'll get into the channel. You know, it's an exciting time around here, around Converged. You're right, we've been on a vector for six years around Converged. Converged infrastructure, now Converged Systems for a little over a year, a year and a half. The market is growing phenomenally. In a world where maybe bare hardware servers are flatter declining revenue, we're seeing 33, 35% kegers. We're moving from a $5 billion TAM to a $15 billion TAM in little as two years. So Converged is alive and well and the only reason it's alive and well is because the business efficiencies that it's delivering businesses of all sizes and the agility that it's enabling for customers to deploy applications and services. Yeah, so now I remember when we first looked at this, there was interest in many segments to give me a single skew. Give me a piece of infrastructure that I can just pop in. And a lot of the channel at the time said, whoa, wait a minute, that's going to strike at the heart of my value proposition. Connect all this stuff. I make it work. Anybody's servers, anybody's storage, don't do that to me. But the market's changed, Chris, hasn't it? Well, it's changed a lot. It's probably changed dramatically right now because when you look at Converged infrastructure, as Jeff was saying, there was a lot of collage, a lot of smorgasbord of vendors putting other vendors' parts together. So as the channel or the VAR community added value, there wasn't consistency. And how could you dictate a business outcome without really having consistency and hardware? And so I think what we've evolved to from Converged infrastructure down to the HP Converged Solutions is we have consistency in HP. HP is going to bring you a solution that will allow the channel to take something to their end user, to the ultimate end user and give them agility, flexibility, and predictability. Whether it's the hardware components or the services components or how they eventually run an application on it and manage it. So where we started six years ago to a bunch of parts thrown together that looked real good and cost-effective to today, where we have very, very well documented, well integrated components that can drive business change. But you and your partners could make money doing that integration because it was complex. And a lot of that complexity is getting stripped away. It's getting tested in the factory. But you seem excited. So square that circle for us. So how have you transformed your business and your value proposition to accommodate that change? Well, let's hit it direct on. The value of the partner community and the value of Avid as a distributor or as a partner at HP is not just putting things together. It's solving business problems. If we're not helping HP and an ISV solve a specific business problem or allow the end user customer to focus on a business outcome, not on hardware, then we're probably off target. So our partner community is moving rapidly towards piece part assembly, tweaking to how am I working with an ISV? How am I looking at cloud? How am I looking at backup and recovery? How am I going to take the edges off the corners for the end user partner so they can very quickly evolve their business forward? I would say, you know, kind of kudos to Avid. They bring together competencies and capabilities that are none or what our customers need to get over the hump of dropping in gear to solving their business problems. I view Avid and the partner community as an extension of our reach. So us together is merely working as one to solve these customer problems. So you guys have an announcement of the Converged Systems 700. It is a single skew product that you guys at Avid are going to be providing. I think it's actually available through you guys first. Yeah. And the beauty thing, you know, we were sitting here one year ago announcing, I guess, and then it was Sharks and Converged Systems and we've learned a lot together. The last year we've learned our customers want a little bit greater flexibility in the configurations. They may want to actually use an alternate top of rack switch within the configurations. They want greater flexibility within the configurations from small, medium, and large. They want greater reference architecture around things like BDI or Link for SharePoint. That's what we're announcing this week here at Discover. And Avid is our primary partner for delivering this flexibility and allowing it to come through Avid. So when you say alternative top of rack, you mean more granularity? Alternate vendor. Alternate vendor. I mean, we're really branching out to include not only all of HP's proven and tested technology, but we're actually offering some level of expansion to non-HP based on the customer feedback that we've been getting. The Converged Systems 700 accommodates some diversity. It will be accommodating some diversity in a control fashion. It's a flexible configuration with limited... And then folks like Avid can bring it together as one skew to deliver it to all the installation on site so we can do some customization or limited flexibility within the configuration. The storage volumes now. There's 100% increase in the ability of adding blade servers now. There's roughly 300% increase in the amount of storage you can have. So you have much more... Is that one really, really fixed configuration? You've got a variety of choice points along a continuum of flexibility. Okay. A lot of people would call that a reference architecture problem. No, you're not going to react. So you've got to explain the difference. That's right. Well, this is delivering as a system. It's delivered with an integrated product to care services. It can be value added with some reference architectures or some specific usage models. We're also announcing a VDI reference architecture with our great partner Citrix that's proven, built on the Converged Systems 700 on how to deploy Citrix's end desktop to allow 5,000 VDI users at a phenomenal price per seat point. All right. So you've got to weigh in here. Yeah, I'm going to. Sure. A reference architecture, to me, doesn't really... doesn't really typify what we're trying to do here. We are going to deliver Avnet in the month of January. We'll deliver fully integrated systems, 700 systems to our partner community. In that integration, there may be customization required. So we are going to then turn a specific configuration to our end users in 7 to 10 days. So there might be that nuance of ensuring that the configuration meets the end users' architectural needs, speed to market, without going through the complexity of reference architectures. It also continues to allow our partners to add value where they want to add value in that they help integrate, migrate that technology into that environment. But we are very excited to be the first distributor and the launching partner with HP to build and integrate in North America to start and pan HP in the near future. Okay. So if I understand it, there's an all HP configuration. Right. Which is out of the box, boom, go. And then there's some level of flexibility that you're going to allow in the configuration. Let's talk about where is that flexibility? You said top of the rack switch? Right now it's a top of rack switch. Other flexibility within HP is the three-part storage. You want an all flash array in your purchase from 700? We've got you covered. You want to change the spindle size. You want to change the memory configurations, the processor. You know, limited flexibility within the configurations and then alternate choices around the top of the rack switch. Okay. Yeah. I would just add to that what I've really enjoyed about HP's innovation here is they haven't drawn boundaries. There's not a boundaries here what's in and out of scope. They want to solve the end users situation to make sure that we get an HP footprint. Oh wait a minute, but compute is out of scope, right? You're not going to be throwing Dell servers in this thing, are you? We don't have a goal of displacing a Gen 9 at all. But right now we are not, there's nothing that is out of bounds. So more importantly is that you look at OpenView and the other technologies that are being announced in Barcelona. So why would you stray away from HP would be the better question. But we're keeping everything in bounds because we want to make sure that HP starts laying those footprints across these environments. I mean too much flexibility defeats the value proposition of the infrastructure, right? Exactly. Too much flexibility also you have a bag of doorknob. You say hey, you put it together. Then you're back to the DIY approach. That's why we're taking a calculated and strategic plan on how much flexibility in the offering and it's best based on the customer feedback. The applications, the workloads, the problems they're encountering. So we are increasing the envelope for some flexibility configurations leveraging our partnership with that and have to deliver that. Is Do-it-Yourself still your biggest competitor or is it other converts plays? Do-it-Yourself is still the majority market out there. Clearly there is a lot of converged players out there that we are targeting as well. And the only way we can target successfully them is have a better experience, deliver a better experience around the workloads for your efficiency. But Do-it-Yourself is still a very, very large chunk of the total available market. So why would people do it themselves? I mean there's got to be a good justification but maybe it's just too hard to get off of the processes. But I mean in concept, if I were a CIO I wouldn't want Do-it-Yourself. What are customers telling you guys? Well, one, in Do-it-Yourself we're seeing a vast array of Do-it-Yourselves. We've got how many different CI solutions out there. So then users are getting inundated with options. So I agree with you. As it's CIOs making a decision and they're going, they're grabbing their heads and saying, stop, all I want is a business outcome. And I guess we're HBs turning the clock back a little bit and saying let's go back and figure out what you really want. If we have to put it in a top rack, okay, let's make sure it integrates nicely neatly into your network. Let's make sense. Why wouldn't you use a three-part? Why wouldn't you use a Gen 9? You cannot come up with a good reason, why not? So let's go back to what you're trying to solve. What is the business outcome you're looking for? What is the total cost of ownership? Some of these other coalitions are starting to run into a new roadblock. What's the thing that will cost year four? Year four, when your first three years of maintenance agreement runs out, what are you going to charge me? I would challenge my competitors to answer that question. So as that CIO starts to look at the total cost of ownership, business outcome, the do-it-yourself, or the build it as you want, starts to go to the side a little bit. And that's where I think HB is not saying no, but saying follow me now. We have got the right strategy. We've got the right formula. Okay, so what I'm hearing is the channel wants the flexibility, understands the value proposition of converged infrastructure. So you guys have sort of compromised on how much flexibility in order to preserve the value proposition. We're getting it right? Very good, very good. Okay, and I presume this is coming from your partners. My part, yes. We have probably right now 40 or 50 in North American gauge partners around the converged solutions, a product family. And they're very excited about the opportunity with us integrating the product in North America. For a couple of reasons. A primary one is really just a speed to market. Right now, coming with a seven to 10 day delivery to a product is a key differentiator. And we will start to deliver those in the end of January, as well as then starting to look at how do you customize or look at them to a specific workload? So let me make sure I understand what's in my converged infrastructure. So it's compute storage and networking. I get that. Hypervisor? HP OneView, our management construct for managing the converged infrastructure. So compute storage and networking management. And hypervisor and beast. Which hypervisor? Well, of course we support Microsoft and VMware. And we extend through our management capabilities HP OneView integration into vCenter as well as into systems there. So we're extending the reach of the infrastructure management and the automation not only into those partners but now we're also announcing the extension of it into HP software and our operations analytics portfolio. So now we've even got a new add on extension that you can drop on top of HP OneView that allows you to seamlessly pinpoint, predict to actually prevent problems from occurring in the infrastructure. All through the open API that HP OneView delivers. Okay, so Hyper-V or VMware OpenStack? Coming in the future? Yes, definitely. So you'll accommodate OpenStack? Definitely. We're going where the market is going. For sure. And what about, so where do I, I'm just trying to understand where the lines are going. How do I back all this stuff up if I got 4,000 virtual machines? We have a variety of backup offerings, if you will, some of our own. Some through partners such as Veeam and others. So we're really providing disaster recovery backup, burrock, we would call it. Choices, again, customers are looking for different ways of actually doing the backup. So that's opportunity coverage? Well, and also the three-part family has now gone, converged infrastructure optimized. So they have backup tools built for converged infrastructure. So what you're seeing as we've talked today about all these different aspects of converged infrastructure, each business unit inside of HP is focused in on how to best utilize their technology and drive it towards converged solutions. And so three-part has now got converged, specific strategy. You're seeing open view backup strategies that are all optimized for converged. So again, what we talk about this, HP is attacking it from all angles. And I don't see many competitors that are coming out like this. So whether it's backup, whether it's virtualization, whether it's hyper-converged, these are all areas, HANA and HP is attacking straight on. Yeah, so I was going to ask about the specific solutions. So you guys have obviously gone hard after SAP, Dana, in particular. Yeah, we're doing great in that space, especially with IBM and their decisions. Yeah, we're doing great in that space. You mean IBM's decision to sell its X86? Exactly, right. Okay, so that's open. You got it. You don't have, at this point in time, if I'm correct, an Oracle optimized solution. Correct. That's one of the areas that we're looking at. Oracle majority runs on HP gear and we're working on some potential reference architecture approach on top of our merge system 700. Yeah, I think that would be a great opportunity for you guys to think about all the effort that DBA puts into having to worry about performance tuning and managing infrastructure when he or she doesn't want to do that. Exactly. Of course, we're tight with Microsoft, whether it be Link, SharePoint. Yeah, so you've got solutions for Microsoft, right? Yeah, definitely. We've had those for a while. SQL, as I mentioned, VDI. VDI seems to be a popular use case. It is. In all of this. Why is that? Right. And maybe you can talk about traction you see there. Exactly. I'll address it. You can answer it as well. From a VDI standpoint, we've gotten over the hump in the technology of graphics, performance. We've gotten over the hump of what through the multi-core processor and the larger memory footprints to be able to post more and more and more desktop images in SQL. Of course, that's driving the cost per seat down. Experience-wise, it's now achieved a common experience you may have with your desktop or your laptop. So that was a key enabler of getting the acceptance, if you will. VDI as a performance, as an alternative to the standard desktop practices. Did you know anything? VDI, I look at it from my channel partners' perspective. VDI, cloud, big data, all the different applications. Our partners are looking for different entry points into a customer. So as they go in there to try to find out the business problems, how the customer's going to handle their desktops, their mobility, their cloud, whatever area of their business, that's where we're training our partners. We're making sure they understand what the end-users are saying in their business and their drive to change their business and become more competitive. So today in VDI, a lot of our partners are looking at how to optimize those desktops, how to optimize other areas of their business. So again, it's less focused on hardware, more focused on business outcome, whichever flavor you pick, and that is the evolution of the channel right now, becoming that business workload expert. You mentioned, Chris, hyper-converged before, so we saw the Evo rail announcement at VMworld, which got a lot of attention. But customers I've talked to, they don't see it yet, so it's created a lot of buzz in the marketplace, which is probably a good thing for you. I wonder, how do you view that announcement, how do you guys play, and what has it done for your business, because you can't really get it today? Well, first and foremost, our announcement was around two different offerings. One, our partnership with VMworld and Evo rail. The second one was an HP IP version around store virtual. So it's our own VSA technology. So we've got two distinct flavors, and the beauty of that is the initial feedback and reaction has been tremendous. Over the first week of the announcement, we had well over 1,500 inquiries, just on understanding more about that ability to get some not-to-see pricing. What is really resonating with our customers is the simplified install and support. So someone that's just a virtualization IT manager or administrator can take this thing and deploy it. It has storage policy built in. You don't need specific SAN and SAN administrators. It's all built in a nice, sweet, single package. Being able to integrate through the user interface, IP addresses, your license and registration, you'll get this thing up and running and scale it, scale the cluster as you need it. So that's a win-win. Huge is a simplicity thing, and I actually think the experience that comes around the world of hyperconverges is to extend through the enterprise as we move forward. It is the new experience that is the bar for us to move through the entire enterprise and the way we design and deliver products in the future. Well, I think that's the bottom line here. You guys are bringing sort of the hyperscale model into the enterprise. Most enterprises don't have a zillion PhDs running around like Amazon and Google, so they need you all to help them. Is that a fair assessment? Well, it also amplifies... Think about what Jeff just said. I'm going to provision and bring up another hyperconverged box in 15 minutes. Self-provisioning. What value is the partner or is distribution going to bring in that environment? The value we're going to bring is identifying when hyperconverged fits in the right application or in the right customer set. So it goes back to understanding what the roadmap is for that customer or where that customer is. So it's getting away from speeds and feeds and hardware, it's getting into business, understanding business... And I can have that conversation around the Converged System 700 with you, Chris, starting in January? You sure can. Actually, you can have it now in December where we're going to start doing budgetary quotes this month and then we'll be in full production in January. Alright, so if you've got a little budget flush money hanging around to your end... Yeah, let's go. Thanks very much for coming on theCUBE. Really appreciate it. Good update, a lot of excitement around Converged Infrastructure and hot new market space that we've been covering here on theCUBE for a while. So thanks very much. Alright, keep it right there, everybody. We'll be back with our next guest right after this. We're going to hit the keynotes and we'll come back here for more interviews live from Barcelona. This is theCUBE.


The commission is made up of volunteers with expertise or interest in historic preservation and design. We generally meet on the second Thursday of the month to review cases. Staff to the commission are our urban design and historic preservation staff. They are available to answer questions if you have them, but please do not interrupt proceedings if you do indeed need to speak with one of them. The meeting generally proceeds with the staff calling the case and describing it. I will call for the applicant to come forward afterward to add to the basic description of the request if necessary or if the applicant wishes to do so. If so, the applicant should keep the presentation to ten minutes or less. The commissioners will then have the opportunity to ask questions. At this point, I will ask if there is anyone in the audience who wishes to speak for or against the proposal. Audience comments shall be kept to two minutes per person. If there is, the applicant will have an opportunity to respond. This rebuttal shall not exceed five minutes. In most of the cases, we will make a decision tonight after all information has been presented. If your case is denied or if you feel that our decision was made an error, you and anyone withstanding have the opportunity to appeal it within 30 days of the decision. If you plan to speak about a specific project, you must have signed in and the sheet is at the back of the room. Also, and so that members of the public understand, commissioners are under strict instructions to avoid discussing DDRC meetings and applications with members of the public or with each other outside of these proceedings to avoid ex-party communications. If you wish to speak during the course of these proceedings, please stand and raise your right hand. Do you affirm to tell the truth in these proceedings? And do we have a quorum? We do. We'll stop. Please read any changes to the agenda since publication. Since publication, we have had three deferrals. The first is 1328 Landing Street, which was a request for exterior changes and preliminary certification for the Bailey bill. This is an individual landmark. Also, 415 Hardin Street, which was a request for approval for side improvements, again, an individual landmark. And then 1006 Woodrow Street, a request for approval for new construction in Old Shandon Lower Waverly Protection Area 8. Thank you. The DDRC utilizes a consent agenda for those projects which require DDRC review but which meet the guidelines and typically require no discussion. If anyone wishes to discuss an item on the consent agenda, I will ask that you speak up after the consent agenda is read and we can pull the item for discussion on to the regular agenda. Staff, will you read the consent agenda? Well, our one case on it was deferred. Okay. They have a minute. Pardon? A minute. They are still on consent agenda. I apologize. Yes. We should have a motion for March 9. I was just about to do that. Is that what you're talking about? Okay. Good idea. And yes, okay. Call for a motion to approve minutes. Some moved. Are there any additions or deletions or changes to the minutes? I think I did that backwards but we already have a motion. All in favor? Aye. Okay. Presentation of cases on the regular agenda. If the staff will please introduce the first case. The first case on the agenda is 1337 Assembly Street. And this is a request for certificate of design approval for a rear addition to the building in the city center design development district. This application is for the addition of a raised porch on the rear of the building. The building constructed in 1900 was originally the Columbia Electric Street Railway Light and Power Company substation. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2011. While the attachment and modification to the existing structure is relatively amenable, the visibility of the addition as well as the removal of original detailing presents a concern for a precedent standpoint. This proposal originated as a staff level approval which is being appealed to the commission at this time. You guys have been provided a brief history of the building which is from the South Carolina Department of Archives and Histories website that has their national register properties listed. And the sections of the guidelines that we're looking at are 5.9.1 preservation of traditional features and decoration. And 5.9.10 additions to existing structures. And the staff recommended denial of this request. And it was found not to meet the guidelines in sections 5.9.1 and 5.9.10 of the city center design development guidelines. Typically a rear addition with minimal physical impact to the original structure would be considered over the large scale of the addition on the highly visible back of this building in addition to the detailed architectural features of this rear elevation make this a unique case. The commission may decide to grant an exception to the guidelines if they determine that the uniqueness of this request will not set a precedent for future proposals. So this is just a comment. It's just a little bit of an anomaly as it is on the rear of the building but the rear of the building is very visible but there really isn't a way to add to this building that's not visible from the public right away. So it was just sort of one of those ones that was a little bit of an anomaly as it is on the outside of the normal rear deck addition. Butcher is here from Lambert Architects to do a presentation or answer any questions. Before I get to that, Ms. Great, kindly remind me, I knew something was off. I forgot to ask for the role to be called. Mr. Brim. Here. Mr. Cohn. Here. Mr. Daniel. Here. Ms. Fuller-Wilt. Here. Ms. Great. Here. Mr. Savry. Here. Ms. for letting us come and talk to you all this afternoon. Your name, please, Josh. My name is Josh Booker. I'm an architect with Lambert Architects. I don't have a whole lot to add to this. It's a pretty straightforward concept. The owner's requesting to add a back patio onto this building that connects to the second floor. Our design intent was to use as minimal as possible structure and to keep it as durable and lightweight as we could as well. Keeping maintenance and everything in mind as well. We worked with the city a couple of times on just some various options as to how to connect that second floor. The rear portion of the building is the least ornate facade and we looked at trying to add a doorway onto the side in the alleyway and there it's just a much bigger mess of detailing and such. So we've located it in the recess panel. We wanted to align that as much as we could. We also wanted to go with as much of an urban feel as we could as well being that we're downtown and in the city we didn't want to do something that had a residential feel to it. Certainly didn't want it to be made out of wood and look somewhat deteriorated over a few years. The concept is this is a place for the employees to work on a nice day outside or enjoy a happy hour in the afternoon while still maintaining as much of the activity in that back parking area as they can since their site's somewhat limited. Other than that, yeah, you guys have any questions? Any questions? Are you going to be losing some parking as a result of this? The intent is to try not to. I believe there might be one space that we end up losing. Obviously, parking's a premium down here so that was one of the objectives and reasons for keeping things as thin and simple as we could. Yeah, we started with a smaller design but because of what they needed for their employees and how they saw themselves growing in the future, this was kind of where we ended up. One other note is because of the size we're required to have the two egress points off of that, one being the stair and then the doorway onto the second floor being our second egress required. What's changed about the occupancy that's requiring a new means of egress? What's changed? We'll have over 50 people up there. I mean, is it a different occupancy than it was before? You have business on the inside. It'll be an assembly occupancy on the outside which just puts us over our limit to having. I mean, you've had interior renovations that have changed the occupant load? With the addition of this patio. Okay. But not inside the building. You haven't had to add an additional means of egress because of something that you've done inside the building. We're revising the first floor but nothing on the second floor, just this patio. But you haven't increased the occupant load except for the patio itself. Okay. Before we go further, do we have anybody in support or opposition that would like to speak? If you'd like to speak, you can come to the microphone. State your name. Have you sworn in? You promise to tell the truth? You know anything about that building? Could you state your name, please? Oh, sorry. Bob Cooper. Mr. Turnip Seed. I did who really make this building look phenomenal on the inside from what it used to look like. I saw for a company, I got two of the other founders. Here, we've grown from five to about 40. And really, our whole goal with this, we bought this so we could have a place to just make it the best place to write software in South Carolina. The kids that we compete, they got chance to go to Apple, Google. It's usually the companies that we're competing with for the kids we hire. We ran up here. I didn't realize it was so far away. And so we looked at the lofts in San Francisco, looked at when those kids go visit those high tech companies, what do they need? Why would they want to stay in Columbia? So if you walk in this building, what we've been able to renovate so far, we brought in old antique flooring, tore up the old cheap carpet, opened it up. It looks gorgeous on the second floor. The goal is to add this deck so the programmers can go out and relax and then to renovate the first floor to make it look beautiful. We've looked for a lot of the old pictures of the original building and tried to figure out because there's so many cutouts on the aisle side. You know, how this thing was completed but it means a lot to us. So we're definitely trying to make it look great for Columbia. I have a question. Are you going to, there's security light on the rear of the building now, right? One more time. Security light. How are you going to cope with that this addition? You know, I don't know. There wasn't a security light there when we moved in. So we had a lot of homeless folks sleeping and there was a fear when people would go out at night because there were people all around that people were nervous getting to their car. So I hadn't talked to the architects about where we located the lights. Some of them are in the alleyway, which would stay where they're at. And I think there's on that backside there's just the one light up on the top. The other two are kind of the doorway areas. You're going to have lights for this treasure. Say underneath in Paris you're going to have lights below. These guys would know that better than I would. We will have all the security grass and security lighting integrated below the patio. Thank you. Any comments or questions from the commissioners? Did y'all work to explore other options on where this was placed? Like on the roof? The only thing we really talked about when they first came to the table was trying to penetrate the building on the alley side instead of on the rear and that just wasn't feasible and ended up being I guess because of the elevation of the floor and where they're actually going to have to do a lot more actually modification to the window on the side of the building. So that was really the only thing that we talked about in modifying this design. I'm not sure if it's feasible or the roof deck or anything. We'll have to answer that I guess. Other comments? I have one other for the architect. Even though this is schematic rendering and I know it's not working drawings what about the wind bracing for this stretcher? How is that going to be handled? Are you going to have x-bracing or wires or roll metal or what? These are all moment frame connections which our structural engineer has assured us is stable moment connections? Yes sir. If you want to flip back to the alley way you'll see it it's essentially a similar design to the Washington Street view. So the issue with adding a door on that side is the floor height is just above where that cross piece comes across and our door height was actually up and into those archways which we felt was more intrusive than the square recesses on the rear back here. I do want to just say a couple things obviously I've read the comments from the staff in regard to the potential precedent and to the compatibility with the existing structure and I did struggle with this a little because certainly this would be within the owner's purview to build an addition to the back of this building. This is open air so it makes it a little trickier but my own feeling about this is that I do think that the historic nature of the building the fact that it is a national register structure and the fact that the location of this deck is very, very highly prominent on the street makes for very specific circumstances for this project and I think that the argument and to quote from the comments with regard to preservation of traditional features that sensitive responses to existing materials, details and proportions as well as patterns of materials and openings is strongly recommended. I think where I personally fall on this is that I think that the idea of being able to provide the kind of amenity that this provides is a wonderful, potentially wonderful idea. I think that the issue or the aspect of something that is compatible in terms of texture and rhythm and materiality particularly in terms of materiality and rhythm I think is a very important consideration because the idea of allowing a deck in the back is because a deck in the back as it says here should occur in areas that are not visible in the street. The problem is you don't have an area that's not visible from the street. I think that there is a solution to this that would be in terms of compatibility with the historically important building. It's a beautiful building that would be compatible with the building. I think there's probably a more compatible solution out there. This is sort of an interesting industrial structure in and of itself I think but it's sort of ad hoc and it's not even though you can see through it it's not transparent. It's got a fair amount of mass and visual presence that to me doesn't really take into account the existing historic structure so I've got real reservations about it from the standpoint of precedent and I do think that there would be a way to reconfigure this and would take more time but to reconfigure this in a way that would be historically compatible with historical nature and rhythms of the building so I don't know how other commissioners feel about that. I haven't heard anybody else voice any concerns about that but I do have those concerns and it's very quiet. If I don't know if you have any response to that or if any commissioners have any other comments. Obviously like I said our parameters we're trying to keep as thin and light as structure as possible. Obviously being heavy and steel it's hard to do at the size that it is but trying to maintain the urban feel and the utilitarian side of this building I suppose really the direction that we were aiming for. Scott has something to add. Scott Lambert. One of the things Tom I think that's a little bit complicated is you can see we're actually connecting to the second floor here so some of the studies we had was moving the stair on the backside to where maybe a little bit less visible but it actually adds more mass to it. So it was a challenge on being able to connect back to the second floor versus dropping you all the way down and then we have another access and you can see also there's an access to the basement here so it's from an egress standpoint it's a little bit tricky with all the different levels we're trying to connect and still gain access to that basement so just to give you a little insight on what the staircase is where it is. Could you get to the microphone and state your name again so we have it on the record? Sure. Thanks. That I-beam is carried out throughout the inside of the building so if you walk in that building there's big I-beams today inside and then a huge one that runs front to back so it is the same style of steel you know the railings are different but the rest of it matches what's inside the building so I thought from my perspective you know I liked you know the fact that that didn't match what was in the building. I guess if you're talking about trying to hide the mass it seems like if you start covering things then you bring the issue back that you're trying to avoid is with some of the population at night you need it open for security purposes I would tank too. Tom is looking at it from that standpoint I'm not suggesting that it would be more massive or that it couldn't be steel necessarily I'm not trying to sort of lead the design in any direction. My only observation is that I think that there would be I think that Scott alluded to the idea of trying to consider different kind of configurations for the stair and that's one of the aspects of it that I'm not sure that that's the proper location just from a massing standpoint from the standpoint of how it relates to the street to have the stair right there in the corner seems not in keeping with the texturing rhythm of the existing historic building so I'm not saying at all that I'm opposed to the idea of an open-air structure I could imagine a lot of different kinds of open-air pavilions back there that would seem more compatible in terms of rhythm and texture with the existing building and I may be the only one among us who feels this way so I just thought that it was important to state those concerns that I had Are there any other comments from commissioners? Anybody want to make a motion? I guess the unique site plan the commission grant approval for the addition at 1337 assembly street Your second? I'll second Have a vote Mr. Broom? Yes Mr. Cone? No Mr. Daniel? Yes Ms. Fuller-Wilt? Yes Ms. Great? Yes Mr. Savry? No Motion passes Motion passes Next case please Mr. Chairman before she starts I have accused myself in this case as I have an ongoing relationship with the applicant on some pending legal or real estate matters. Thank you This is 214 Wayne Street This is a request for certificate of design approval for exterior changes in addition and a request for preliminary certification for the Baileyville and Whaley street protection area This is a one-story brick pool building built circa 1918 which is at the rear of the Pacific Community Association building which is known as 701 Whaley today This was a space for swimming lessons and recreation for the associated mill community Here's some historic photos that show the interior of the pool as well as some large skylights that were originally part of the design Today the roof and skylights are gone as well as most of the or all of the windows however the tile work on the interior is still very well intact So part of the scope of work would include restoring the missing features such as the roof and skylights and repairing the features that are still there The renovation also includes the addition of approximately 845 square feet to the north side of the building and catering space as well as hardscaping along the west side of the building for new courtyard and entry patio The new entry patio also includes a ramp for ADA access Overall staff has found that the proposal meets the guidelines for the Baileyville and for the Whaley street protection area with the exceptions being the placement of the ramp and details of the courtyard First, the proposal for the large brick courtyard area directly in front of the historic building abutting the brick of the building Staff suggest creating a small visual buffer either with a change in material or with a small planting area to break up this brick and visually differentiate the old from the new to be in keeping with the Baileyville ordinance Second, due to the grade change on the lot in the high floor height where the pool is located the entry also includes a brick patio staircase and ramp to lead guests from the street into the building Staff have been explored by the applicant for the placement of the ramp with great consideration being given to its placement away from the historic building which staff agrees with However, there are still some concerns with the current proposed scheme which places the ramp and guard rails directly in front of the lobby area which creates a circuitous route into the building with the ramp and railing obscuring the sense of entry as seen from the street Staff suggest moving the staircase in front of the entry doors to create a direct line of entry to the building with the ramp most likely being moved to the north Staff is happy to continue working with the applicant to work out the details of the ramp location These are just some perspectives that show the sense of entry being obscured slightly with the ramp there This is another scheme that they considered that includes some planting in front of the ramp This is a very rough idea of a staff suggestion that includes the ramp being turned and moved to the north with the stair directly in front of the doorway Staff recommendations are in two parts Staff finds that the project complies with section 17-698 of the city ordinance and recommends granting preliminary certification for the Baileyville with the following conditions The project meeting or exceeding the 20% investment threshold requirements for qualified rehabilitation expenses All work meeting the standards for work is outlined in section 17-698 that a small visual buffer zone be added between the brick courtyard and historic building and that all other details be deferred to staff Second part of the staff recommendations Staff finds that the proposal for exterior changes and addition to 214 Wayne Street is generally in keeping with sections 5 and 6 of the guidelines in section 17-698 of the city ordinance and recommends granting a certificate of design approval with the following conditions The entry stairs move directly in front of the entrance and the location of the ramp be adjusted so that it does not interfere with sense of entry The final configuration being deferred to staff A small visual buffer zone be added between the brick courtyard and historic building and that all other details be deferred to staff Very good. The applicant wish to speak? Never missed an opportunity to speak State name please Richard Burks Phase 2 of I guess 3 pieces to this project A long time coming Thanks staff I got some good recommendations I'd like to see some working together on we're trying to get 72 feet of ramp to get up to the pool elevation It's not an easy fit and we've got 72 feet to work with If y'all have any questions I'd be happy to actually mark Kotterl on this portion and Scott or Josh or Wendy on the Anybody that would like to speak in support or opposition 2 minutes Okay Comments or questions from the commissioners? I have a question Realize that we have to meet the ADA with the disease of the ramp Have you considered the electric lift exterior type? Kotterl, Grimle, Kotterl Landscape Architects We did consider a lift from discussions with the architect and we don't think that's an egress That would now not allow us to get people out and down fast If that you ask about a lift You would have I guess that's an interesting question but you have enough space for an area of refuge I assume An area of what? Area of refuge Patio I hadn't thought of the question but just to clarify that We can't get far enough away from the building to meet the code If the building is on fire we'll be out into the street So that was the challenge So yes sir we did look into the lift idea but if you had more than well it would have to be on some kind of emergency backup but if you had more than one person in a wheelchair you'd be gammed up I might want to not the subject is good enough for me to understand I do want to say thank you for making this improvement I've been looking forward to seeing this Thank you Any comments from commissioners? Well I would echo Mr. Broom's remarks I think it's great that this is finally happening No I think you do too Richard I have a question that's not related to our purview at all but only because I've been hearing about this for years and then I read about it in here too the glass floor over the pool just out of curiosity Very cool So the other question I have and it sounds like maybe we'll make this relatively quick if I understood what you were saying is that you're willing to work with staff on all of these recommendations? Yes I mean in other words let me ask you the question this way if a motion is made with all of these caveats you're fine with that you're comfortable with that there are some things that I think that we need to I don't want to just say I'm willing to do it right out of hand I think we agreed that we'd sit down and try to as we put it yesterday put 14 ounces on a 12 ounce jar you know one point I think we can figure out some stuff on the handicap ramp I'm not a big fan of putting a planner against the side of the building we don't have the side of 701 on Whaley Wayne the brick runs straight up to the wall it was a shippo thing when we did that not putting any planners or plants Scott wants to address that he can I'm sorry when you said it was a shippo thing their recommendation was to or to not do it to not do it to not put the planner in Right so shippo doesn't want anything green up against they don't want to go ahead Lambert yeah so basically with the nature of this building much like the mills there wasn't a lot of ornate landscape right so I think the challenge is Richard's talked about putting just planters but not planting beds for example just to make it softer and I think that's part of what the intended city is but if I'm correct but I think the issue is if we go in and try to create a whole landscaping it's really not consistent with what the original nature of the building is I just wanted clarification I thought that's what Richard meant Right and to clarify we did originally suggest a green strip to separate a little bit of the new patio from the building an understanding shippo's viewpoint not wanting to do that what we were thinking is that having some sort of different paving material aside from the bricks we don't have brick meeting brick but just a visual other paving material there would help separate the old from the new just a little bit more so you could put your planters on that we wouldn't have a landscape buff or anything I'm willing to look at anything I just feel like I'd like to you know I'm kind of an OCD guy anyway so having the consistency as it flows through it's a plausible understanding to me the big deal is getting that I agree with staff's comments getting that ramp right in front of everybody's face as they walk up I'm sure there's a way to do it I'm sure I can't even tell you how many days and plans but as I told these guys when we met with them the more eyes on it the better you get a better product from pounding it out I really believe that we've got a better you know just from what Mark worked on and Rachel producing this morning I think we're very close we just have very tight tolerances it's going to come down to where do we have a five foot ramp or do we have a four foot four foot ramp to get all the hardware I think without getting into detail about that I think that what I'm trying to get at is if you're comfortable getting through that with staff I think we'll probably be comfortable making a motion I just wanted to get clarification on that one other point it's not visible in this rendering is there's a whole nother addition planned on this that was originally the fly so when we submitted to the National Park Service and got approval on the part originally the next there's a whole nother piece to this which was the fly on the back of the stage so that's the reason it looks like visually you just move the ramp to the left hand side of this image you can just put it there but that's actually part of where the future fly will go and access to it so there's another phase to this that's not really represented because that's not part of the project right now just to clarify anything else thank you would anybody like to make a motion I think we have two different motions actually let's make a motion first anybody want to make a motion about the Bailey bill grant approval for the grant certificate of design approval at 214 Wayne Street for the addition and preliminary certification for the Bailey bill based upon the project complying with section 176 98 of the city ordinance with the following recommendation that the project meets or exceeds the 20% investment threshold requirements for qualified rehabilitation expenses that all work meeting the standards for work as outlining section 17-6 98 that a small buffer zone for low plants be added between the brick courtyard and historic building and all details be deferred to staff there a second pardon me if we can amend we are in agreement that a plant buffer zone is not necessarily required here so I didn't want to make that a requirement just an motion to allow us to continue working with them on some ideas for just a simple visual buffer so do you want to amend that motion I'm in the motion for the applicant and staff to evaluate the buffer zone are plant teams I think we can eliminate that qualification from the yeah I make an additional amendment that the reference to the buffer zones and plant teams be redacted do you need me to read it okay that the project meets or exceeds the 20% investment threshold requirements for qualified rehabilitation expenses that all work meeting the standards for work as outlining section 17-698 and all details be deferred to staff at 214 Wayne Street granting a certificate of design approval for exterior changes in addition for preliminary certification of the bill is there a second could we have a vote please if we mention the rent in the motion is that we're voting for just the Bailey bill now right I'm sorry y'all it sounded like they were both included in one motion there is that what you're talking about she said preliminary certification of the Bailey bill and a certificate of design certification for Bailey bill we're banking the motion for was the Bailey bill okay thank you just for the Bailey bill okay and we have a motion the second we did Mr. Broom yes Mr. Cone yes Ms. Fuller-Wilt yes Ms. Grape yes Mr. Savery yes and could we have a motion for the certificate of design approval anybody would you take a motion that we approve the application for exterior changes in addition to 214 Wayne Street as it is generally in keeping with sections five and six of the guidelines in section 17-698 of the city ordinance based on the following conditions that the entry stairs move directly in front of the entrance of the location of the ramp adjusted so that it does not interfere with that with final configuration to be approved by staff and that all other details be deferred to staff we have a second I'll second it Mr. Broom yes Mr. Cone yes Ms. Fuller-Wilt yes Ms. Grape yes Mr. Savery yes motion passes we have any other business we have a second motion to adjourn second all in favor aye immediate adjourned . . . . . . . .