Hey, what's up, Coach? This is Coach Ben from buildmysportsbiz.com. And today's YouTube video, I'm going to go really deep into creating the ideal client for your business. So here's one exercise that I do. And you need a pen and a piece of paper for all of this to make sense. So I did this a long time ago when I realized, you know what? Some of the clients who I'm working with are not the right fit. They're showing up late. They can't afford my program. They pay late. They are not respecting my time. I ran through a lot of clients in the past who simply were not the right fit. And I don't look at that like it was their fault. I look at that like it was my fault. Because number one, I didn't set any expectations with parents upfront. And this is the reality. I don't care how fun the kid is to train. If the parents are hard to deal with, if they're not paying, you're not going to want to work with that kid anymore. And here's my number one qualification of any player that I train now and in the future. And I tell all of my consulting clients and my mastermind the same thing is when you work with a player or an athlete in your sport, you want them to be on the same page as you. And the parents need to be on the same page as you too. It's a family dynamic. It's not just gonna be, all right, this player is really good, so I'm gonna train them. It doesn't work that way. You have to be on the same page with the parents and the player and they have to know what your expectations are before you ever let them into your program. And when I say let them, that means that there's an application process. That means that you're not gonna train everybody, right? And when you are strict like that, that attracts quality people in your program and it deflects and it weeds out everybody else who doesn't deserve to train with you. And I want you to start thinking that way. I want you to start thinking that way where you know not everyone gets to train with me.  I'm very picky with who I work with. Not only in my soccer training business but in our consulting business now, not everybody who applies to work with me is gonna get in. And that's just because I only wanna work with the ideal clients. And this is what I wanna help you figure out right now, right? Here's five things that are gonna help you understand who these ideal clients are. Number one is how long do you want your clients to stay committed to your program? And you need to write that down. So write that down on your piece of paper. This is a piece of mail right here. But I would write down how long I want people to be committed. And I want you to be realistic. Don't put 20 years because kids aren't gonna be trained with you when they're adults, right? But you need to have a realistic expectation of how long you want the clients that you're trained to stay in your business, okay? So that's number one. Number two is what is the age group? What is the age range of the clients that are in that you want to train, right? The players or the athletes that you wanna train, how old are they, right? So now we have a good idea of the exact age of the players or the athletes that you wanna train, okay? So now we're gonna go a step further than that. Are they going to be boys and girls or are they going to just be boys or just be girls, right? That right there is gonna tell you who you're marketing to.  Several of the coaches that I work with now are only working with boys or only working with girls. I personally, in my soccer training business here, it's probably 95% girls that I work with. And in the summer, I attract at that point, there's more high school kids that want to train in our program. So there's more boys at that point that want to come into my private training program in the summer. But 80% a year, it's typically, my marketing is focused on how can I get girls who are between, I would say like nine and 13 to join my program. That is our core program that we offer. And that is what I figured out on my end, right? But your market's probably gonna be different. But you need to figure out who are the players that you like to train, right? So that's really key. The next thing you need to understand, this is the fourth thing, is how much is your program, all right? Is this going to be something that everybody can afford? Or is it something that is more expensive? And it's for parents who have more money, they have more disposable income, they can actually afford it and they can afford it month after month, where it's not going to be an expense. Because if it's an expense, they're not gonna stay in your program for a long period of time because they don't have the money to do that, right? So you need to be very smart and strategic with how you price your programs, right? And this is why you should always have multiple programs. You should have a very high-level program that, yeah, it is for maybe five kids every month. They can join that. And then you have mid-level programs that are more affordable. You can get more players in that. And then you can have a very affordable like monthly clinic or something like that that anybody can do, right? And the last thing that you wanna do is you wanna create a player profile of all those four things I just talked about and you identify, okay, this is exactly who I want to train. This is how they are. This is what school they go to. This is what league they're in right now. This is what part of town they're in. This is what car their parents drive. This is their favorite restaurants to eat at. Like you want to have that so dialed in to the point where by the time you're done creating those first four steps, the fifth step, you're just wrapping everything up into one. And that is your ideal customer. And here's the thing. Like you've heard me talk about multiple times how most coaches and most of your competitors are not gonna think that way. They're only thinking about how can I get more kids to train versus how can I get more quality leads, right? I would rather have 10 kids that I train that are committed to my program for a year than have 100 kids in my program every month that some of them might drop out, right? I don't wanna run my business that way. And it's hard to do it that way. I've done it like that. I've tried it, it doesn't work, right? This is why you wanna attract quality people into your program. But you don't know who those people are until you do this exercise. That's why I would do that exercise if I was you. I promise you that's going to save you so much time of headache and stress in the future if you're working with clients that you don't wanna be with. And that's gonna make you more money in the long term because now you're attracting the right people, they're going to pay you on time. They're going to be committed to your program not only just for one month, but for years if you want them to be, right? So I hope you go through this exercise. I know it's gonna help you. I do that every time I'm looking to start something new or start a new program, I figure out who is the perfect client that I can work with. And then from there, then I go introduce that program to those people, right? And that's how you simplify this whole business. And it does not matter what sport you're in, right? If you're starting a sports training business, you should just only work with kids that you'd like to be with, right? If you're training a bunch of kids who are not respecting you, they're late, they're not, the parents aren't paying. If you're running into those types of problems, you can quickly change that in two seconds if you start to attract the right people and you weed out everybody else. And that is what I do. And I'm telling you, I can wake up in the morning and I can go to bed at night knowing that I'm not stressed out with who I'm working with because I can control who I work with or not, right? And you should have the same luxury to do that as well. This is your business and you gotta treat it like one. And if you keep it open to anybody, right? You're going to attract the wrong people, I promise you. And that is a huge problem. I see a lot of coaches who I help initially with their business, I see that problem happen over and over again. Parents aren't paying, kids are late. Kids don't show up at all. Like the coach is waiting at the field or at the court for all day for people to show up. And that just comes down to the wrong marketing and the wrong structure in place. So I would love to help you set that up with your business. It is something that takes a little bit of time. Those steps I just talked about are key, but I would love to help you out on a more advanced level than that, right? And here's how we can do this. You hear me talk about at the end of every YouTube video how I would love to chat with you over the phone. And that's what I would love to do. If you are serious about starting your sports business or you wanna take your sports business to the next level, doesn't matter the sport, I would love to chat with you on the phone. And here's how it works. You simply just go to my website. It's buildmysportsbiz.com. You see that little bar here? That is my website. You click on that, okay? When you click on that, sorry, when you go to that website, there's a big blue button at the top of the page. It says call coach bin. You click on that button there. It's very simple. You go through an application form. You and me will get on the phone sometime within the next week and we'll schedule a 15 to 30 minute phone call and I can see how I can help you out. And this way you can ask me any questions and I'm here to help out. So that's it guys. Thanks again for watching. I really hope this video helps you change the way that you run your business in the future because if you don't do that, you're going to have the same problem that you're having now. And that's the reason why you're watching this video is because you wanna fix that problem. So I'm here to help you out. And if you want one-on-one help, like I said, let's get on the phone sometime this week and we can talk on a deeper level. All right, that's it. I'll catch you later.


This is Anna Adamic in Montreal, it's named in fact in 1927, please. Could you give me your name and spelling word? My name is Robert Wehres, I was born right here in Montreal in 1957. Could you tell us about your type, what were your conflicts and your other types? Yeah, I grew up south shore, a place called Chateau Gay, raised in a fairly middle-class, standard environment, bilingual family, and as a child actually I lived outdoors, started collecting minerals when I was eight years old, and had a lot of encouragement actually from my dad who bought me books and so on. So by the time I was ten I decided I wanted to be a geologist. So your parents were taking those things out of us? Not at all. My father was a businessman and my mom was a homemaker. Could you talk about your education? High school, education, south shore, I was in Egypt and then McGill University here in Montreal. So why did you choose McGill? McGill had obviously international reputation, still has, I'm still involved with McGill at support level, and had one of the best geology departments in the country actually right here, so it was an easy choice.  No, I enrolled in the PhD program when I started working, but I never completed it. So you chose your career over at the Academy? Yeah, well I actually worked at McGill for a good 10 years. I left McGill in 1990, so from about 1985 to 1990 I was working there in the research institute. When did you first become interested in my first geology or academic geology? Mining, actually when I left McGill it was pretty much an academic career until when I was there, and 1990 the institute, I was 44 when bankrupt actually. So they closed the door, everybody got laid off, and that's when I decided to start a consulting company. But most of my research and academic portion of the career was still indirectly mining, it was all in economic geology, and I worked very closely with mining companies in eastern Canada. So the ties were always there? Full time or? Actually I was pretty much always a contractor, summer jobs, when I started, let's see, I started working when after recently, about 84-ish. So I spent many years working for government actually, just get training in geology, did a lot of mapping, mostly north in Canada of course. So I guess mining, actually I never had a full time job. I was a contractor for many years, traveled all over the place, went from project to project, and then that followed through after I left the institute in 1990 I started a consulting company. It was called Signis Consulting. Can you tell me about it? Well like many guys, I specialized in base metals mostly at the time, worked a lot in copper, nickel, zinc, and so on. We were just four guys really. And we did fund, pardon me? Three other Montrealers, yeah right here. Oh it does matter, they all went off, did different careers. After that, 98, I created a Cisco exploration. That was after the Briex scandal. Price of Gold was crashing, all the contracts dried up. So at that point I took funds I had and bought a small shell company, and that's how Cisco was recently born. This was with Tom Bozinski and... Not yet, no. And was like many other small exploration juniors, it was true spring budgets and pretty much starvation for the next five years. When I started the company I never imagined that the downturn would last so long. But it did and it was only 2003 when basically the market turned around, things started picking up. And it was that year that I met John and Sean through their wives actually, because I'd gone to McGill, did my bachelor's degree with John's wife, and she had become good friends with another woman who eventually married Sean. In 2003 they had come back from Africa and they were back in Canada and essentially for something to do, we're all at a crossroads which is actually pretty extraordinary. Because in 2003 I'd gone to what's called PDAC, which is the annual prospectors and developers association. It's actually still the largest mining convention in the world in Toronto, appears every March in Toronto. So I went to the PDAC to sell the Cisco as a shell, because I pretty much had it for the junior market, trying to survive on raising three, four hundred grand a year. It was very difficult to raise capital in those days. And then we met together, had lunch and we decided, hey, we should get together and do something. So Sean and John were able to get financing for the company and that's how a Cisco was launched. Could you explain to me the relationship between a Cisco exploration, a Cisco mining, or a Cisco goes another way? Sure. So a Cisco exploration was the start of junior entity and eventually we discovered Kenyan Malartic and after evaluating the deposit, making the discovery and getting significantly more financing because we were headed for a mine build essentially. Eventually that got changed to a Cisco mining because now we're building a mine. And after the hostile takeover attempt in 2014, an eventual sale of the mine to Kenyan Malartic partnership, which was a joint venture between Agnico Eagle and Yamana, we was actually mostly Sean and Brian Coates doing the created Cisco Royalties. You were also in charge with Hedley, I think, still? Hedley? No, not Hedley. No, I was involved in a lot of small companies throughout my career. Arizona Mining, I'm still involved with them. So can you maybe compare the cultures at those different companies with a Cisco? The cultures? Cultures, culture of innovation, technological cultures. Well, pretty much, well, why a Cisco for you? Why a Cisco? Oh, because I created it. Arizona, I sit on the board and so throughout my career, I sat on the board of a number of their junior explorers, contacts I made through the industry, you meet people you get along with and so on. They get involved in interesting projects. So you end up sitting on the board seats of other companies and bringing in your own expertise. In my case, of course, it's geology and exploration. In the case of Arizona, it's just one of many companies run by a domestic group out of Vancouver. I first met Richard Wark, who runs that group way back in the 90s when he was doing nickel exploration in Eastern Canada. And so I first started working as a consultant during that period of my career through seeing this consulting. And eventually, yeah, I joined some of his boards and Arizona stories shorter one, a certain extent, by the first start of the company called Wildcat Silver, developing a silver manganese project in Southern Arizona. And that led to the discovery of a much larger, more significant financing, silver project, which is currently still being drilled off and evaluated. You are credited with the discovery of the technologies that Yeah. So could you tell me about the process you applied? I know that was a new way that you... Well, I was new, yes and no. The idea had actually been thrown around in the past. It's basically the initial concept, but geological model is called a porphy gold. It was developed by other scientists and geologists mostly in South America. And a lot of people argue that what we discovered really wasn't a porphy gold, but I could debate that all day by essentially I was convinced that it was certainly an older equivalent because the King and Shield is much, the Roxxon King and Shield is much older than Roxxon in South America, for example, or at least in the Andes. So by applying a modified model, we were able to convince ourselves, or at least I was convinced myself, that the model was applicable to to the Canadian Shield in Northern, mostly North and Quebec in Ontario. That's very simple. There's a lot of debate as the gold is introduced into the crust. And the origins of gold actually was fascinating. There was an article just last week how there was two neutron stars colliding in the galaxy. And if you saw this galaxy 130 million light years away for the first time, gold, the spectral gold was detected as a result of this massive explosion. It's a very significant astronomical event, but for the gold bugs, it was evidence of how gold is actually formed in the universe. So anyways, I digress, I guess. In terms of how gold is introduced into the crust and makes ore deposits, one of the models is that you have magmas of granitory compositions that come up through the crust, and these magmas become saturated water. And when they release their water, the hot fluids, which we call hydrothermal fluids, migrate to the crust and carry metals. It's a very well-established model for pofite copper deposits, for example, in many parts of the world, including the Andes. But a variation on that is pofite gold in which those same magmas rather than bring copper or copper gold in certain conditions, they only bring gold. And I believe that process applies or did apply in the Canadian Shield in very old locks, which are about 2.7 billion years old. So by applying geophysical, geochemical techniques that are used in a more modern, actual logical environment to the Canadian Shield, and compiling information we're able to deduce that the Canadian Malartic camp wasn't your standard Abitibi vein type deposit, it was in fact more of a porphyry system. And again, it wasn't an original idea. It had been suggested before in the literature, but the idea never really caught on. What also didn't caught on, the major implication of applying that kind of model, is that you're shooting for a mining method, which essentially aims to mine a very large tentage, very low grade. The culture in Abitibi has always been one in which you go chasing after smaller, high grade veins through underground operations. When I say high grade, I say upwards of six, maybe six grams per ton, you have to keep in mind that the gold mining industry is a bit insane to the extent that you're mining a whole ton of rock just to extract a few grams of gold. But of course, gold is precious, so economically it makes it worthwhile. So the whole idea was, can we mine as low as one gram of gold in Abitibi? And most of my colleagues, at least way back then, in the early 2000s, they thought the idea was ridiculous. Playing gravel runs a gram of gold, and why would you want to mine a gram? The inspiration for me was a mine called Fort Knox in Alaska, run by Kinross, and I visited that mine, and when I came back I said, Jesus, if they could mine 0.8 grams per ton in Alaska, why can't we do it in Abitibi? Especially since these operations are very energy intensive and electricity is very cheap in the back, it runs four or four and a half cents a kilowatt hour. So I saw absolutely no reason at that point from the mining method why we can build large open pits and mine these deposits. So we had the technology, we had the mining method, we had the economic context at the time which was favorable for gold because gold was out of the doldrums of the late 90s and early 2000s, the price of gold was climbing. That was a bit of a leap of faith, of course. If gold hasn't kept rising through the development of our project we probably, we probably never would have been able to develop it. So as they say all the planets were aligned, it was a huge social challenge came in the Arctic because if the positive had been three more kilometers to the south, we wouldn't have had to move the southern portion of the town. So that was a huge challenge, convincing the town of the Arctic to accept this huge project, moving the southern portion and so on, which is something of course nobody had ever attempted before either. So on many levels from a sociological point of view and geological and mining point of view, model Arctic was a huge, huge challenge, but we just forged ahead and we succeeded in doing it and today still it's Canada's largest online in terms of production. So that's a bit of a history. It was applying a known model in modern geological environments and applying it to the Canadian Shield and it worked out very well, of course, and other companies and followed through and variations on the concept and several other large-tenage low-grade deposits were discovered, another one of which went into production, which is Detour Lake in Ontario and one of which will soon go into production, Rainy River also in Ontario. So it works and I think companies the future of gold mining certainly in Canada will still aim to find other such deposits. Now an open pit deposit, of course, has a much stronger environmental impact and that has to be mitigated and so on. Yeah, this is something I wanted to ask you about. What are your thoughts on that environmental impact? Well today rules are changed of course.  So I think it's well managed by government especially. For example now they, here in Quebec, you have to put up an environmental bomb. You have to put up the money up front for the eventual cleanup. It's set up as a bomb of government holes for the lifetime of the mine and so when the company leaves, even if the project goes bankrupt in between and that's been another problem. In the past a lot of companies have put mines into production, price of the commodity goes down, company goes under and then government's left with a mess and eventually taxpayer has to pay. So that's the legacy of the past and there's still a lot of old mine sites that need to be cleaned up. But again, that is a phenomenon of the past because now you can't open a mine without putting up the money for the eventual cleanup. And the remediation processes is a whole other area of expertise. In most cases there are no issues.  In the case of an open pit in Canada, give it 15 years it'll just fill up with water. Now in some cases depending on what you mine, there is a danger that the water in the pit will be contaminated. So then it ends up having to be contained. But in the case it came to Lardake is actually there are no contaminants. So eventually when 25 years from now it's going to be a lake. Ironically it's going to be probably the deepest lake in Quebec because the pit's going to reach a depth of 400 meters. And what can be done with that lake after that? Well it's a choice. A lot of the environmental activists argue that the pit should be filled. I find that's a completely absurd idea. First of all, if you're talking about 600, 700 million tons of rock that have to be plowed back into the hole. You mount a diesel lead pollution that you have to burn in order to accomplish this. It's really a lot of big CO2 footprint. And for what? To fill up a hole with rock that's going to fill up with water. I mean I find the whole concept absolutely pointless. As long as the tens piles are remediated, essentially become part land or return to being forest land. And the pit goes with water. To me that represents a complete environmental success. It takes time and it doesn't happen in 10 years. You have to give nature time to reclaim. And the engineers the time to do their job. So remediation is usually I would say a 15 to 20 year process. I just want to go back for a moment to Canada and Malartic. So you are also starting this project when there are economic problems, the crisis in the U.S. Did you have any problems finding financing for the project project? For Kingdom of Malartic? Well once again the price of gold was on a continuous rise. After the crash of 2008, honestly we thought we were pretty much dead ducks. The price of our shares went down to I think was $1.40. And well it just wasn't, not just the whole world was wondering what was going on and how much damage it was going to be. But in fact the stock market bounced right back and we had completed a feasibility then. So in the spring of 2009 we were able to do a first large financing of $460 million to finance the project. And there was a lot of appetite on the party investors to invest in this new mine. The whole community was convinced that it was going to be an economic project. Price of gold was going very well and it's going to be robust and it will work out. And of course they were right. It did work out. Can you tell about your investors? They're mostly, let's see at the time, actually a lot of participation from Canadian pension funds, including here in Quebec, some private equity, but also gold funds. There's a few gold funds especially in the US. They're very supportive of good gold projects. For most of us it was probably the worst moment of our careers. And at that point we're 10 years into the project we start with nothing. As far as I'm concerned hostile takeovers are an aberration of the capitalistic system and I wish the government would make them illegal. The only people who profit are a handful of investors and hedge fund managers and speculators. It's terrible for the economy. Always results in lost jobs. In this case loss of the head office and so on. I mean I've never seen anything good come out of the hostile takeover except for a handful of greedy investors. But unfortunately it's something we all have to live with in Canada. The target companies are completely unprotected. It's a bit different in the States. Companies can defend themselves better in the state than Canada. It basically goes to vote and by the time it goes to vote your entire investor base has changed. Everybody's bailed out and its hedge funds and speculators have taken over your stock base and your toast. Once you're put into place it's already game over. Well when you're under attack and it really is you're basically at war and you try to survive your job is to try to get a better deal for your own investors. And so that's what we did. We were able to get to convince Yamana and Agnico to bend together and make a better offer against the Gold Cup. Well mostly right now in the areas that we're working on we have indirectly one project in BC projects and Abitibi projects in James Bay. So we deal where we don't have any projects really. Well we have one grassroots project in Labrador trough so that's territory but for the most part it's pre-territory. So yeah right now everywhere in Canada all companies especially the mining industry not so much other industries but mining industry deals with, has to familiarize itself with the local First Nations communities and basically cut a deal make sure that they're involved make sure that they're going if there is ever a production they're called impact benefits agreements or IDAs and they've become commonplace now and the idea is to is to share the development of the resources with the First Nations communities. Some of the communities are very well organized they're open for business they've got their own private corporations that supply services to the mining industries others much less so certain communities in my opinion need a better job to get themselves internally organized to be able to deal with this new reality. From the mining point of view and there are a lot of conflicting land claims in North and Canada from a miners point of view the last thing you want to do is have to come into an area and cut four different deals right what you really want to do is is eventually sign one IVA and hope that the different communities that they are involved in that one particular area will a little band together and form one group but that's not always the case sometimes the different First Nations communities actually compete with each other which doesn't well it's not very healthy actually it's far more efficient and beneficial to all if they come together and form one united group so there's still some work to be done at that level but when you're dealing with one First Nations community then it sits much easier. Actually I've never had to deal with it thank God. Unions have their place in the world of course but I find unions today to become not governments but organizations that promote a lot of self-interest not always I think in the interest of their own workers. You'd bureaucracies in many cases but I came to the Arctic there was no union the the workers formed their own internal group and many attempts were made by the big unions to infiltrate if you like and unionize them but they refused and the partnership still came like mine still has no union run by the partnership and they're doing fine so I think we live in the world now where workers have to really because they all have to pay their dues they have to wonder whether unions are the best solution for them. You worked all around the world, so could you talk about your projects abroad? Most of the projects actually most of the work I did abroad was on a consulting basis I never actually had we had very little we did some exploration abroad mostly in Latin America I never worked really got involved in any serious project in Asia or Europe or Australia mostly in other words this side of the hemisphere and while I mean you can't generalize I'm still involved in one project in West Africa every country is different every culture is different every country and culture presents different challenges you just have to adapt yourself but you also have to choose your country carefully and I would certainly advise that some countries should be avoided all together so it's uh you can't generalize it's it varies many countries if you don't have inroads you can have solid contacts if you basically don't know what you're doing don't even try for example I would never attempt to go to Russia the few attempts at companies I know have tried to Russia has been trainwrecks for them and I know I have no contacts I know nothing about what their rules are on operations and the rules of the game are in Russia so I wouldn't even attempt it I'm fairly familiar with a lot of countries on this side of the hemisphere but even even here and well for example even in the states some states are hostile to mining you know Wyoming comes to mind Wisconsin you wouldn't even give us a thought it's like forget it a tax structure is about adequate the population is anti-mining and so on I mean there are a lot of places in the world considered mining an evil it's a bit hypocritical because everyone likes to consume on a daily basis the products of mining and and yet they take it for granted all the metals all the concrete all the glass everything they use on a daily basis it's fine but it's it's we call it the NIMBY syndrome not in my backyard and it's a big problem for miners actually most of population feel that many countries that mining should not even be seen or heard and yet the world can't do without it totally yeah exactly especially in there have been areas obviously when you go to rural areas and in the far north people are more familiar with mining they might have grown up in the mining environment like they do when you have a tibbey but certainly in most of the protests we've I've noticed and the anti-mining sentiment comes from NGOs or in urban areas there was mostly opposition to malartic king right here from Montreal never came from really familiar to me what was the most difficult project in your career difficult came malartic the minefield yeah I'm a geologist my job my contribution to the companies is to find the gold and define the ore deposits after that it becomes more of an engineer and environmental and social what challenge but I was here with the country throughout the entire mine build and contribute what I could at that level but that was certainly far more challenging than drilling off an ore deposit and the contribution that you are yeah discovery came already it's interesting it's the most challenging for you oh yeah yeah well the bigger the better and the harder really but the I guess the experience the most satisfying experience I came malartic is becoming where that and that's what actually mining is all about it's it's true wealth creation you start with something which is absolutely worthless that nobody wants and you turn it into a five six billion dollar enterprise and it's real money it's it's not fictitious you're actually creating wealth it translates into wealth at several levels new jobs manufacturing of the equipment that you need all the people get involved all the subcontractors the taxes I mean it all comes out literally of the gold that you're pulling out of the ground and selling so when you consider a project like that to me the simplest way of evaluating well how much real wealth did we create well if you take a ballpark figure and say okay long-term price of gold is $1,500 an ounce and we've found 11 million ounces so multiply 1500 by 11 you're looking at 16 17 billion dollars as well that's created from the ground which was originally worth absolutely zero so you know mining that's the level of which mining really contributes to the economy is by creating wealth out of the ground that is essentially worthless if you don't do the work and that of course applies to any resource extracting you're creating wealth out of nothing but it in terms of mining the the impact of mining is particularly strong because at the end of the day the surface and environmental impact of mining operations in Canada in terms of the whole surface area of Canada is just 0.0001 percent the the footprint in other words is very small compared to other industries such as forestry or especially farming I think it's seven percent of Canada that's that's impacted by farming and make no mistake farming pollutes a lot pesticides herbicides fertilizer goes into waterways etc etc but of course farming industry is is food and nobody questions really are very few people question the environmental impact of farming it's easy to target the mining industry because it's dusty it's noisy or moving rock and making holes and so on but at the end of the day the the relative impact of mining in terms of the wealth created is it's very small and you're talking about as I mentioned creating billions of dollars with the wealth and it goes into the pockets eventually of all Canadians what are your thoughts on the culture of innovation of innovation that comes from the mining industry in Canada today I actually can as a leader a lot of innovation certainly the mining level also a level of my my industry which is exploration GPS technology for example is completely revolutionized the way we work the way we mine the way we survey the ground it's in the 90s I remember buying my first GPS which was a big box and you knew more or less where you were within 100 meters and today you can go buy a handheld $200 garment in an entire and you'll get a three meter anywhere anywhere in the world really you'll get three meter precision in your position so it's fantastic that that kind of technology has made a huge change computing power GIS data processing and last certainly life span of my career it's been revolutionary changes and the innovation continues a lot of innovation and mining methods these days processing war environmental remediation a lot of research goes into it so it's a lot of population things and mining industry is being a primitive industry but it's it's anything but that and just I was amazed I came Malartic when it was built and some of the newer technology was put into place again with GPS technology every bucket full of ore that was extracted from the pit could be located in GPS space and XYNZ all right so basically you could locate in the model overall model of the pit in your deposit you could locate every scoop and know exactly where it came from down to I think it was half a meter position precision so when you're trying to control your mining operation and your grade control a big challenge in the pit like that that mines 50 000 tons of ore a day is obviously to make sure that there are no mistakes made and you're not throwing waste rock into the mill or that kind of technology which allows you to position each scoop very precisely just revolutionizes your whole operation that makes it far far more efficient and that's something that amazed me today in some mines the the trucks are there are no truck drivers everything's automated you have guys sitting in offices in front of the screen with these joysticks a thousand miles away and they're controlling a truck and then an open pit mine in which there's hardly any personnel so that reduces a lot of risk for the workers for the workers no more dangers of open pits collapsing or underground blast and so on there's a lot of automation going into mining operations so that's that's one field I think which is going to evolve very rapidly I can't imagine a mine being entirely run by remote operations but maybe that's what we'll reach one day there'll be no actual humans going underground what is the direction that you want to take for a Cisco well there are actually three assist goes now so there's royalties which is focused on acquiring royalties and building a long-term sustainable income base based on the gold royalty model a Cisco mining we're back to what the original Cisco mining was which is finding gold deposits developing them and eventually putting on the production and their flagship project is called Windfall Lake in northern Quebec and we just recently created Cisco metals which is going to be focused on base metals and specifically specifically zinc we believe we're headed for a long-term supply crunch global supply crunch and zinc and and uh it's it's time to start focusing on that particular base metal well something else you have to keep in mind is that the world takes metals for granted the entire industry governments everybody always assumes that there's always going to be iron there's always going to be copper there's always going to be tin molybdenum there's always going to be a safe stable supply of metals and it's a fallacy actually uh you can't assume on a global basis that all metals will always be available all time even it's been that case in the past but the reality is globally we're slowly running out of resources and it's normal discovery rates are dropping the easy deposits have been found becoming far more challenging to find new art deposits and the population isn't shrinking and consumption is going up china's growth rate is is astounding are huge consumers of resources and uh feeding the world with metals into the 21st century is going to be a huge challenge and i think society and governments at large have to stop stop taking the availability of resources and the mining industry for granted it's it's not it's no longer going to be a nice safe stable environment for many communities yeah i don't really believe in that yeah extremely difficult i think is potentially extremely damaging to to the seafloor environment and it's also extremely expensive i just don't i don't think in this century uh i think we're going to have to run out of ground base to cause us before we consider that looking at commercializing deep sea deep sea mining how do you consider your mentors uh my mentors essentially older geologists that taught me everything they knew or at least their expertise uh certainly uh yeah my thesis advisor miguel uh he's still not retired his name uh anthony wonning jones and he's uh 72ish 73 still very active still has a lot of my grad students and so on he's he's really been the premier economic geology at miguel geologists in miguel now for well over what 30 years uh worked very closely uh when i was doing the research work in labor trough and so on worked very closely with tom clark who's an excellent geologist who's also retired now so uh yeah there are a number of people that you come across in your career that uh very knowledgeable very experienced and uh it's it's uh actually a privilege to work with these people on the business side uh i started too late obviously my career to be exposed to some of the leaders who were the mine builders and the mine company builders in this country didn't really have the chance to interact with them though uh who would you like to connect with who i think oh so again some of the guys are marty industry uh careless on uh he he was a mining engineer actually but ended up creating franco divata based on he was the first one along with seymour shulig to create a gold royalty model and they were very very successful as they are and uh as i said the list goes on and on guys are all listed in the hauling line of fame norman kiebel just published a book uh essentially on the history of tech i haven't read it yet but looking forward to it tech is is one of the great successes of mining industry in canada and fortunately they weren't taken out there's some other companies that have survived because they were smart enough to keep a controlling interest to kiebel family kept a controlling interest of the company and that's another thing we've lost a lot of them great mining companies in this country due to uh i think something to foreign interests or hostile takeovers and uh it's been a tragedy i think uh there are no narandas the falcon bridge and so on uh they're all gone a lot of them yeah yeah and that's another tragedy when when yourself mining assets and head office ends up being in xeric or london it's a big loss the when the head office is not in your own country and you've probably seen this yourself all the funding that goes into innovation research uh scholarships all disappears geology well there are a lot of options you can go into environmental geology you can still work for government to become a government geologist which entails largely doing geological studies and mapping of canada depends what you want uh if you don't want an in environmental geology you'll tend to be closer to urban centers if you're doing government mapping well you may end up one year in baffin island and the next year in the northwest territories and another year in bc you spend a lot of time away from home makes it uh makes it far more difficult obviously to to raise a family when you're you're gone all summer uh in exploration same thing to a certain extent uh you travel a lot you might be might be assigned to projects all over the world so uh i think anyone who wants to become a geologist and start a career in geology has to be ready to be extremely mobile and spend a lot of time away from home certainly in the first 15 15 years of career eventually you move up the food chain and you end up in management so you travel less but certainly in the early years it's it's tough uh i used to take off what four or five months of the year that's changed so they know what it called them the kids of course they're not kids but they're all young geologists in the 20s and 30s they they all do rotations now they're out i can't send a young geologist up for three months in the bush they won't do it so they they go out two weeks and they come back home one week and they go out two weeks in my time i was unheard of but today it's become the standard so times have changed again makes it far more expensive to run an exploration program for the companies i think to rotate all this personnel and managing and so on but it's really become the new norm and i would say socially it's probably you know much better certainly for uh young families they're trying to you know raise their kids and so on what are you the therapist of in life in life well career-wise certainly uh getting lardic and having uh created the assist goes and you know what we got taken out everybody thought that was it it was the end we're all gonna pack up and retire and go do something else but we all came back so still a passion for most of us certainly uh well you know the three three egos as we call ourselves so and uh we're i tried retiring for six months and gotten bored really fast after the takeover there's a more question i just needed a break so but now we're back at it and we're very proud of what we do and uh yeah again it's about mindbuilding it's about well creation and uh it's good for us great for the country great for the economy um no as i said we love the industry i think we're proud of it uh a lot of criticism uh critics out there who who are always uh taking pokes at us we listen patiently try to improve ourselves it's an ongoing process but pretty much everyone who works here i think is uh is impassioned by the industry and uh very proud of what they do okay thank you


I appreciate it, and now, let's do a little chat. I answer all your questions and we'll go from there. All right. Kigg says, click bait, they're leaving, they've left. They've left already. They're in multiple countries already. And I made the case for why would they stick around in the United States of America? All they're gonna do is just gonna get sued and go through the trudgery and things like that. Their UAB, the Bermuda, the licensure, they're, of course, branching out in the EU with the new regulation of Micah that was just passed, and also moving into Canada. So yes, there you go. No excuses. Digital creeps, Walmart is using app, source please. Source please. Yeah, no one talks about B-Chain. Nobody talks about B-Chain, but it was a really good, I thought it was a good product. I owned a fair amount of that. I just thought it was pretty good. I mean, to be able to track different things throughout their lifeline as they went through the shipping process and from manufacturer to shipping to the person's house, then also, as far as drug recalls or medication recalls, it was a pretty good one. And then, of course, they could track everything. You could put that on anything that's fragile or anything that could be spoiled. I thought it was a pretty good product. Just didn't really work out, which goes to show you that even though you've got a really good concept and a really good product, not to say that B-Chain won't make it, but how many businesses have you heard of in your family or you've started yourself or you've done or you've seen that you're like, oh, that's gonna work out pretty well and it just doesn't work. That's just how it is. I've started many of businesses that just didn't work out and you just gotta say, well, that didn't work. What worked, what didn't? And try to pick up the pieces from there. Well, I've heard of Casper say of that. For 20 celebrations for the week-minded or maybe people who have a crippling amount of glaucoma, I don't know, Gary won. Yeah, in all honesty, like Gary got grilled, but isn't he back at his job? So I don't know. DC Comics, DG Comics.  Look, politicians are like models. Politicians are like models. They're all wrong and some are useful. That's it. Yeah, meme. Rob is the only YouTuber I know this to without headphones when husband is around. With anyone else, he will say, hey, don't you have airpods? That's pretty good. Ben showed the wrong screen. Yeah, there was a great screen. He showed us before we started, it was a global liquidity screen. And what was great about that image was you can see that the global liquidity that China and Japan and Korea are really fusing into the global markets, you can just see that's what has been booing the prices potentially of a lot of different securities, which should be stocks. And I thought it was interesting. And then you could take away America and just take a look at those countries and you can say, oh, well, liquidity goes up, they go up. And you can do the actual same, and I did this on the show, the same thing with the Dixie, the strength of the dollar as it goes up and what happens with Bitcoin, it's actually inverse. When the dollar strength goes up, Bitcoin drops. When the dollar strength drops, Bitcoin goes up. And if you take a look at that over a year, it's like a direct inverse correlation. Yeah. Oh, thank God. I have noticed people on YouTube who's repeating crypto rules, using their own word is spreading. Great. I know some people, I haven't talked about this in quite some time when I really should. Here's the rules. See these rules behind me? People have been asking me, because I haven't talked about it. Why do you have these rules? They're making sense. Real quick, everybody, say hello with me. It's all gone, meaning don't invest more than you can afford to lose.  If you invest in 10, hopefully one or two goes off. But just in your mind, it's all gone, and that way it makes you a little bit more of a prudent investor. Everything's a scam until prune otherwise, 100% of scams. Everything's a scam until prune otherwise. Don't use exchanges. Or excuse me, don't leave anything on exchanges. Nothing should be left behind. They go on cold storage. Or if you have to, at least a hot storage device. Don't use leverage. I've heard so many stories about people using leverage, 50, 100X, 10X, and they get wrecked. So you might work out pretty well, okay. But in the end, usually what happens is wrecked. And lastly, take profits. If you can follow, these are my rules, I don't have to be yours. But if you can follow these along, you might be a better, a little bit more happy in things going on. Or you can just say, you know what, Rob?  I'm putting everything in a sheba, selling my house. See you when I get my island, whatever. Gary had rat hands pushing innovation out. That's, I don't know if that's true. It's pretty true. I don't know about the rat hands, but he did push innovation out. And VeChain is backed by Chinese companies, which will be backed by Chinese governments. So there is that. Creek has got a good point. It's a great point. Don't you think the recent Coinbase's news is something somewhat designed to squeeze the government to doing something about Gary gas fee on the Fed? It could, very well could. I mean, look if you, but it's all about your beliefs in Congress. And I gotta tell you, I've never seen that many congressmen and women who were behind the same goal, which would be crypto-neutral assets at this time. In 2017, nobody in very few politicians are talking about it. Now it seems like it's the thing. And they're really saying, Gary, what are you doing? You're screwing this all up and you're pushing everything out. We didn't give you that authority. If you wanna say it's the Howie test, we pretty much believe that you're incorrect and you need update guidance from Congress, not your interpretation. I'm not a politician, but it's what it sounds to me. So for this one, yes, I think that would actually push things. And then at the end of the day, money talks. And I've talked about Gary. Correct me if I'm wrong here in my line of thinking. Some people think that the banks are behind this and they're funding Gary to do all these things. But yet, I mean, we've seen city bank, third largest bank in the United States, 11th largest bank in the world. They've come out with a report that really goes heavy and happily into crypto-ingual assets, more so even crypto gaming. And then also we can take a look at JP Morgan. Diamond hates it, but JP Morgan is offering his different services. And then there's a plethora of the different banks that are out there. And then also like you had Larry Fink, which with this 10 trillion assets under management company. And he's like the future is tokenization of assets. So he's on board. And I'm just like, well, who's not on board? And the only thing I can really think of is the Biden administration because they've put out multiple reports which are very scathing on crypto-ingual assets. So I think me personally, it kind of works with the administration up top. They give the marching orders. Some senators like Elizabeth Warren are against crypto because whatever, maybe you just pulled well and they're gonna push that agenda until Gary gets out or Elizabeth Warren gets out. I don't think that's gonna happen. Or Biden gets out. I think the more likely scenario is Joe Biden is gonna lose this next presidential election. Could be wrong. He's had some pretty poor numbers. Not saying that I don't wanna be political, but honestly, he's bad for crypto. Before anybody goes, before anybody says, yeah, well, Trump was bad for crypto. He didn't like crypto either. So what do you want? So get somebody who does like crypto. Sweet Mary and Joseph, it's not that hard. All right. I'm gonna work my bitkini at Rob's. How do you buy now? Right now I buy with Coinbase until they leave us. I use Coinbase One, paid like 20 bucks a month. I sent it for a year and up to $10,000, there's no transaction fees. So that's what I do every day. I set it in, I set it and forget it. Thank you, Rex.  Rex is my uncle. So he has to say those things. Let's see, hamburger. US has been a complete joke in every way since around 2016. We got a fool who thought building a wall would solve a much more. No, no, no, no, no. Let me just tell you this. So we're working on our projects, web three gaming and the different people that we talked to. And this was actually confirmed today with Ben in global liquidity. They're just saying, look at the Asian markets because the liquidity is swelling over there and America is dying essentially. So they say look towards European markets and cater to them. Hey Chloe, and that's what we're gonna do. So like this product launches and if you know, I mean, we talk about it in a group that we're involved in. And if you know about it, you know what it is. And yeah, it only makes sense to me. Rob, when are you gonna have a loyal pool party for your subscribers? Not anytime soon, unless you wanna swim with this dog right here. But yeah, at some point, yeah, we'll get into its big pool party. I'm still waiting for digital Dave's party in Thailand. Has been ditching me. Let's see, what good is Gensler for the world? Not good for Gensler, it's good for the administration. And I think it really comes down to a weakening of the dollar. Geez, can they escape Swift? No, no. This is a good one. Rob, I know you don't do crypto under your forecast but can you do a forecast of which blockchain will make a pair of sneakers? Like a pair, which blockchain will make a pair of sneakers? Like in the digitalized world, something like that? I don't understand this one. Sorry, I can give you a price prediction right now if anybody's curious. Let's see, let me pull this up. Mm-hmm, nah, not there. So the price prediction Bitcoin 2023 will be between $5 and $250,000. Somewhere within that range, that is what Bitcoin will fall. And you can remind me of that at the end of the year but I think I nailed it. It does look pretty good today. Charles Kincai has noticed, it's 420. It's on all the smokers smoke, right? Let's see, Elizabeth Warren, I hate Gary Gensler. Yeah, that's illegal. How old is Sugarface? Chloe's 14. And the new dog here is just nine. Yeah, I gotta agree, it is pretty tight. Let's see, it's a great question. Now let's finish up with this. Hey, Rob, if we get a big bull run on 2024-25, which I gotta tell you, things are really lining up for that. If we take a look at the Fed call for a recession in Q3, Q4, and recessions usually last 10 months to 14 months, and then we have a Bitcoin halving, that's gonna go off without a hitch in 2024, March or April, that will lead us to 2025, if we think about the four year cycles. So where would I take profits in? Great question. And the answer, well, the answer for some people is you never take profits because you hold your crypto all the way up and you hold it all the way down here, a bag holder forever, and that's it. And you can do that, it'll probably work out for you in the long run, I don't know, but it depends on your crypto, if you're talking about, well, I'm gonna hold tomato coin forever, that's not a good idea, maybe Bitcoin, maybe Ethereum, who knows, I have no idea. But for me, there is a video I did, and it's in all of the descriptions of all of my videos now. It's called why and when I'm selling 80% of my crypto, and there's the YouTube video. Just watch that, and that should answer your questions as to when and why I'm going to do it. When bull run, end of 2024? See, this is the thing. Like, I had the prediction that the bull run would happen just like in the four year cycles into 2021. The problem with not taking profits or not sticking to your plan is you start to get influenced by outside forces and you start to get greedy. And I started to get greedy at 2021, I was like, you know what? I think there's some more room to run. I mean, look, everything's going so well. There's this guy named Sam Bankman Freed, he looks like he knows what he's doing and FTX is doing great. And we've got Voyager and Celsius doing so fantastic. Yeah, that's right. Then before you know it, you're like, well, it just went down 30%. I'm sure it'll recover and it doesn't. And I'm like, shoot, maybe I should have taken some profits and then it drops down 70%, 80%. Depending on your crypto, you're down 98%. So the thing is, whatever your plan is, good or bad, stick to your plan and just go from there. The time right now when it's kind of boring and things are flat, this is when you make the plan because you're the most rational person you're ever gonna be. As time goes on and the prices start to increase, you will get dumber by the day. All right, I gotta go, my dog's keep barking. So look, that's it for today. Thanks so much for stopping by. If you liked today's video, thumbs up, subscribe, all that good stuff and I will see you guys in the next one, adios.


We discuss reading, writing, and everything in between and beyond. I'm your host, Dr. Rita Forsythe, coming to you from Maui on the live streaming network, Think Tech Hawaii, broadcasting from our studio in downtown Honolulu. The title of today's episode is So You Want to Write a Children's Book. Joining me today is Diana Warren, author of A Frazzled Christmas Tale. Welcome Diana. Hi, Rita. How are you today? Very good. Very good. So happy you're here. It's good. So 40 years ago, you and your husband started a business and you were going strong, designing and building custom homes in the Seattle area. And you took a leap of faith, didn't you? You moved to Maui about a year and a half ago. Absolutely. We felt the call to come to Maui since we visited several different times. It was really a necessity, I think, in our lives at the time. Yeah. And you built your own home and you just moved in, I understand. That's been a long process. That's for sure. I bet. Kind of getting in the way of the writing, isn't it? Yeah. You know, how we met is such an interesting story. I wanted to share it with our viewers. So I have some neighbors who know that I just finished a book, published a book called Under the Monkey Pottery about the pond here in Kihei, Isla'i'e Pond. And they were walking along the beach and they saw you taking a picture of your scooter. Yeah. And they said, what are you doing? And you told them, I think, that you were writing a book called The Girl on the White Scooter. Exactly. Yeah. It was kind of funny. It was a nice, beautiful evening with the sunset.  Well, they said, oh gee, our neighbor's a writer too. And so they arranged us to meet kind of like match.com for writers. No, right? Yeah. And we've been getting together ever since to talk about our craft. Yes. Yes. I've learned an awful lot from you, actually. Oh, and me from you too. Yeah, it's really surprising so quickly that we could meet and connect and have so much back and forth. It's been great. Your book, I believe when we first met, you had finished your book and you were deciding whether you were going to query or not and making decisions on the publication of it. And since then, I cannot believe that you've already started this Paper Dolls book and you're already secured an agency. And I can't believe it. I mean, what's it been? A year? It's so exciting. Yes, an agent picked up my new book, Paper Dolls. And now I'm writing Paper Dolls too. So we are on our way. Oh, and happy birthday to you yesterday. I don't know if I've got a chance to say that. Thank you. That's sweet of you. Yeah, for sure. It's been like a year and you're prolific. I can't believe it. I don't even know what you do with your free time. I go on Tink-Tek-A-Waii. Yeah. So listen, I want to ask you, have you always wanted to be a writer? I would say that my daughters have said that I've always been a writer. I've just written little things and little essays and I've tacked them away through the years. Because we've had this construction company, I'm afraid to even say since 1983, it's pretty much usurped all of my time between that and racing kids, right? So building custom homes and all of that through the years and then tucking away my writings that I have to say, I have been a writer all along. Yeah. I think a lot of people can relate to that. And that's why I think this show is important today because so many people want to write and things like building a house gets in their way. So what inspired you to write a children's book? Well, I have to say that I've always been a little bit of a storyteller, which you probably are too, right? And so my kids and my grandkids have been growing up with me telling them stories. And so frequently they'd say, ma'am, will you just come tell me a story? And so we would sit and we'd tell stories over and over and this one story just kept resonating with them and they just kept saying, please, please, come tell the story, the Christmas story. So that's kind of how we started with that one. Well, why Christmas? You know, Christmas has its own mystique, right? Don't we all love the scent of cinnamon and the Christmas trees and the, well, not in Maui snow. I grew up with snow, right? And then all the traditions that surround it. And so I think that that Christmas story with the kids and the grandkids really was one that they wanted to keep hearing over and over. Yeah, wonderful. All right, now let's talk about your writing process. Can you tell me some of your tricks? What is, what do you do?  What's your writing process? Well, you know, you're really sitting down every day to write is wonderful and it's a great idea to do. I have to say with building also at the same time, especially in Maui, that it's been a little bit more difficult to write every day. But I have to say with that one story specifically with this children's story, it had been in my head for so long because I've repeated it and I would tuck little pieces of it away in my computer and then get back to work, right? But I'm saying that writing, it seems to fall into place when you sit down and you can get your thoughts straight, it can just fall into place. So how did you come up with your theme? What's the theme of a frazzled Christmas tale and how did you come up with that theme? Oh, well, it's funny you should ask that because it all started with my daughter when she was, well, now she's in her early 40s. When she was, I would say six years old, she had a little mouse ornament and it was just this cute little thing that pulled in and out of a little tiny stocking. It was adorable. And she would every night place the little mouse somewhere on the tree in her own little hidden spot and she thought it was a great thing. She then would walk down the hallway to her bedroom and yell over her shoulder, night mouse and it was just the cutest little thing for Christmas I think it was just a little cute thing for her. And so she did that every night during Christmas season and I just thought, you know what, if she can feel that that little mouse hurt her then that could be a great thing. Oh, that's so sweet. Yeah. Now I am very impressed with the illustrations of this book, they are phenomenal. How did you find an illustrator? How did you get that illustrator to capture what you had in mind? Tell us about that process because I've never gone through that one. Oh, it's been a blessing. Let me tell you, it kind of fell into my lap. My sister read my story and she has a friend whose daughter drew an illustration and won a little contest. And so she was showing the picture to my sister and my sister said, no, that is exactly, exactly what my sister's story is about. It's just very similar type, kind of vintagey type of look in the watercolor. And so she texted it to me right away and I couldn't believe it myself.  She read my manuscript and she really felt that it was a good fit also. So it was a match made in heaven there. So then we really worked through the process because as soon as she read the manuscript, she drew the picture of the main character, Joe, with his frazzled tail. And as soon as she did that and she sent it back to me, I just thought, we've got this, we've got this. So as soon as she got Joe down, she really took Joe in for the feeling that he had on that first chapter. And from that moment, we just kind of worked out each little character as it went along and tried to make some movement with it. But I'm telling you that this illustrator, being as young as she is, especially, she was a gem to work with. And I would work with her in a heartbeat again. Wonderful. Now this next picture here are some bloopers that she did. And she gave me permission to be able to print them out. So I actually got on a website and connected all of these little pictures together so that I could make it look a little bit vintage-like.  They're absolutely incredible. Well, without further ado, would you read to us from a frazzled Christmas tail? I certainly will. I'm gonna start at the end, if that's okay with you. Of course. It's called, this chapter is the tin box. After Pi, the family brought out the rusty tin box noticed in the library. This was an event. The family gathered around the array of photos. I remember when, no, she was only three. There was laughter. And there were more photos were passed around from the box. My papa's grandpa was, and on it went for quite some time, Joe sat quietly on his limb, his eyes and ears set so he could catch as much of the conversation as possible. Thomas Jr. spoke, this one, see this one? I was named after my papa, Thomas. He leaned forward to the younglings, reached over and tapped at the old photo on the table. You know, he had a heart of gold. I never knew anyone kinder. He was just a boy when his own papa died. He took care of his mama. Yes, it was a hard time for the two of them and they had little money. Even as a young boy, he worked hard and earned enough to get by, kept the family in food. It was obvious Thomas Jr. was deeply affected by his papa's hardship. Times like that shape who we are, right? He said. He wasn't expecting the family hunkered over the photos to answer, but a certain red fox in the tree, knotted slowly and patted his eyes with his charred tail. As storytelling finished, in Christmas Day near to Zen, Thomas Jr. slowly got up from his chair. Well, I must see your beautiful trees since I heard about last year's fire, he said. I expect you already know this family has been blessed each Christmas season. I don't know how to explain. Inspiration always just happened. Yes, I imagine my papa and grandpa had something to do with it. He winked. Thomas Jr. searched the tree for the four antique wooden creations and gently lifted Joe out. Ah, I see the burnt tail here. So strange that is the only ornament damaged. He stared intently into Joe's wooden face as if looking for something. Or is it magic? Then the large worn hands reached out to the round mouse ornament and touched Charlie's leather satchel. You know, I have one of these bags. I brought it with me today. It's the original one from the war. Thomas Jr. turned to Anna. I have a slow walk. Can you fetch it for me, Anna? You'll find it sitting by my coat and it has a gift inside. He winked again. Anna hopped up with excitement and then slid down the hallway in her jingly slippers. She returned in a flash with the old man's worn satchel and a question, grand papa, may I see? Thomas Jr. nodded with a chuckle and unbuckled the satchel and pulled out the package. The family looked on.  They all gasped and then their tears showed what the trust league ornaments meant to the family and now their hand carved fire truck. Clearly, Thomas Jr. was blessed with the same wood carving skill as his grandpa, Stanley, had been. This antique-looking fire truck seemed as if it was crafted by the same hands as the trust league. There were grateful hugs and thank yous in the old man's smile then he reached up with his calloused fingers and hung the fire truck on a tree bow next to the trust league. He said, in case you have another fire, perhaps the red fox Joe might use this fire truck to put it out instead of using his tail. He stared directly into Joe's wooden eyes and then gave a slow wink before turning back to the family and beginning his long hobble down the hallway. As Thomas Jr. left the room, Joe choked up with overwhelming emotion. The trust league all nodded and lovingly edged closer together shoulder to shoulder, heads bowed. They shared a silent tear wiping moment.  It comforted him more than words can say. The trust they could hear the goodbyes and good wishes as the old Thomas Jr.'s coat was lifted onto his shoulders. From the tree they heard old Thomas Jr. say loudly, why, what a handsome scarf. Edna tilted her head, looked thoughtfully at Joe and with a voice thick with emotion said, Done, it was incredibly good day. It was the best Christmas season ever. That's it. I could listen to you all day. Oh, thank you. You're so cute. How fun. Have you read that to your grandchildren? Actually no, because they're all good readers. So the youngest one, I got a picture sent to me of him sprawled out on the couch reading it. And it didn't take him very long at all to find the acknowledgments of his name there in the acknowledgments because he was one of them that pushed me to go ahead and write this book. Oh, that's just to be treasured. Yes, fun. Well, back to our discussion on how to write a book. Now, when I was, as I've been working on my journey as an author, I think the most surprising for me was not creating the book, coming up with ideas, writing the thing. It was the editing, the publishing, the marketing. Yes. And that's not really my forte. I just wanted to sit down in my little office and write my book. And that's not uncommon. That's not uncommon at all. Yeah. There's so much more to it nowadays, so much more. So let's start with the editing. Talk to me about your editing process. Did you use different products for editing? Did you just edit it yourself? Did you hire a professional editor? Editing. Yeah, okay. Well, the editing portion was, I felt very young at this. This is very new to me because I wanted to bring it to a book. So I started off with like Grammarly.com, where you can, yeah, so it's kind of a basic, okay, you've got the sentence structure wrong here. So I did that, I performed that. And then I decided, you know, it takes research for you to see what the options are first on your editing. And one of them, one of my options was to just have a line editor. And I thought, well, that might be a good idea to start with and really hindsight, I think I could have just not done that at all. But it was cheap enough. So I hired someone online. She lived in Australia and she just did a simple line edit for me. And really, I think Grammarly did a pretty good job as far as that goes. You know, there wasn't very many changes from that. But then when I chose my publisher because I self-published, then when we got to the point where almost formatting, then I had the option, whether I wanted to have it formerly edited by one of their team. And so I chose to do that, which I think was probably the smartest way to go. So if somebody goes through the same type route I did for a self-publishing, then there's always that sort of option to choose. And the thing that you have to be careful with editing is the person that's editing is human also. And they have certain ways that they like to see the sentence structure. And I have a tendency because it's a bit of a vintage type of book, I have a tendency to go into more of a passive kind of language. And if I had this editor take out all of my sentence structure, then it would no longer be mine, right? All it would be is an idea and somebody else's English. So you do have to pick and choose, even when the editor does their thing, they send it back to you and you can say yes or no that you want the sentence to be a specific way.  And if you wanted a specific way, then go ahead and be strong about that. And then listen to the editor too because you don't want it to be wrong either. Right, right. And the nice thing about professional editors, especially if you find a good one and I've been blessed with my editor is that they will do a sample for you. So you can kind of shop around for editors. I don't know if you found that. That first line item one did. She did send me a sample. You're right, you're absolutely right. And that's actually a good point. Yeah, and my editor is not cheap, but man, is she worth it? I don't think I would have gotten an agent had it not been for the professional editing. Because I'm pretty good at editing, but boy, the things that my editor pointed out to me, I just thought was brilliant. And did you have to take some voice back on any of your editing? No, she, especially for paper dolls, she said at the beginning she thought, am I going to be able to keep this voice up the entire book? Keep it consistent because it's unique. And then she read along, she realized, yeah, this is working. So she kept it because the whole book is a little strange. It's a crazy murder thriller thing. Nothing like Monkey Patry. The Monkey Patry is a lovely book.  That's what's fun about you, Rita. I love it. Let's talk about publishing. So you self-published, you said. I did. And there are different ways of self-publishing. I mean, I read one book. I did a lot of research. I know that there's one author that actually self-published. I mean, she went, she did everything. She formatted her own books. She added the illustrations the way she wanted them. She had the illustrations digitally done the way she needed them. And then she sent it to basically a book printer. So I know that you can do that. I did not. Yeah, I went the self-publishing route where they hold your hand. And I think that if someone were to start out doing a book, that they should really look at what their options are and realize what they need. And so this one was a perfect match for me. I went with Life Rich. And they asked you questions. And you could answer however you wanted to. What format do you want? What size do you want? What type cover? What, you know, all the basics. But then the things that I did have power through were this is where I want my illustrations set. And then they would send it back to me and say, is this right? Is this how you want it? Where that one person that I read a book about where she had to do it all, where she just like taped it to her wall and with all the formatted pages. And I thought, I can't do that. No, she even had to do her own applications for Library of Congress and the ISBN numbers and all of that. And my self-publishing company did all of that for me. And so that's the whole self-publishing route that I went anyway. So the next part is about marketing. And that part scared me to death when I first started this process. But you know, I'm getting into it. And I really love it. I want to say your website is part of your marketing scheme. And I can't wait for you to talk a little bit about your website, your blogs, all that goes into that amazing tool. Oh my goodness, yes. It was a big deal. OK, when I was writing my book, which only really took three weeks to do, the whole thing in the back of my mind was, how am I going to actually market this? Like you're right, right?  And the whole move to Maui, the process that it took, which is a huge process because we own a construction company. And it was a big deal to buy a piece of property and all of the goings on with the shipments and everything. So I blogged it all. And I had it all on pages. And I thought, well, OK, well, if I do one website that collects that I have all of my Maui projects, all of the, I called it our messy but perfect move to Maui, all of my regular writings. So it'd be a different blog page. And I called it the rear view, the headlights in the rear view, and then a video blog of all of the actual building of our house. So I have a video blog where I went on to YouTube channel and I made videos, produced those, and then I posted them on the website also. So I figured I would have that website set. Now I made one page. And I don't know if you'll see it on there where it says blog at the top. If you do a down button on that, you'll see all my pages in one page is for a frazzled Christmas tale. So then I could I could market my book. So now that I have the website, which I actually hired somebody to do that for me because I was building a house. So I had them design this website so that then I could put into it. But then everybody should have a budget, right?  And my budget did not mean that I could have somebody do my website and keep loading it and take care of all of the SEO services, the social media and all of that. I wanted them to teach me how to do it. So they taught me how after they set up the website, they taught me how to manage it, how to then mark it back and forth so that when I did a blog, then I could market it onto Instagram and Facebook and then link it back to YouTube channel. And so back and forth, the more back and forth that you do on your marketing, then the more algorithms you get toward your name being pushed forward or your website being pushed forward on the internet. So that's what I learned. The marketing is a huge thing. So the more marketing that you can do and then link back and forth between all of the social media, then it draws more followers to your website. So I managed to get followers to my website by doing that. So I want to ask a question from our viewers. What advice would you give budding novelists? Budding novelists. I would say I'm guessing that this budding novelist has all the stores already in their head. I would say get as much down as you possibly can. And while you're getting it down, then definitely take the time to research where you're going to go with it and start working on your marketing. Because you can't wait till you finish the book and then start your online presence. You've got to start doing it now and see what draws people to you and be a human being. Just be you and that's what will draw people. That is so true. Wise words from a wise woman. My final question is, what are you reading? What's on your bedside table? Well, guess what? What's on my bedside table is my air conditioning remote. But I am reading Halfbro courses by Jeanette Walls, which is a story about her great-grandmother and her life in Arizona. So it was kind of an interesting story. It's good. What are you reading? Oh, I am reading The Path Between the Seas by David McCullough about the creation of the Panama Canal because we are traveling to the Panama Canal next month. I heard you were excited. That's great. Yeah, and I know nothing about its epic history. So I need to study up. It is a thick book. Well, that is all the time we have today. Boy, this went fast. And I know it's a joy to talk to you. And you. And we'll get together over coffee next week. Let's do it. That's all the time we have. Oh, my goodness. I want to thank you, Diana, for being my special guest, our broadcast engineer, our floor manager, and Jay Fidel, our executive producer. Yeah. A special mahalo to our underwriters. And thank you for joining us, viewers. Book, book, books will be back in two weeks with my friend and host, Elaine Galant. Until then, read, write, and create your world.


Hi y'all, she was seven, I'm back. Okay, so today's topic is gonna be a little bit tough for some of y'all ladies, and I'm sorry. We gotta go there, okay? We gotta go there. Okay, so today's topic is why some women will never get married, okay? There's a few reasons, okay? And I know a lot of y'all are gonna say, oh, those independent women that don't need a man that they'll never get married. But there's also another set of women that will never get married either. Okay, hold on one second, let me see. Okay, yeah, I was too close. These type of women are the women who keep making the same mistakes over and over and that don't learn from them, okay? These are the kind of women who will, sorry, interruptions, who will keep making the same exact mistake over and over, listening to the same thing over and over, dealing with the same man over and over, the same type of man over and over, and falling for the same tricks over and over, and they will never learn, okay? Part of the reason is because they don't love themselves and they don't value themselves. So they're constantly seeking approval from other people, from men, and they don't realize or they don't see the mistake that they're making at the time because they're not looking at it from a point of view of self-love, okay?  He sees opportunity to use her, he sees opportunity to get what he wants out of her, just to probably live off of her for a while, to probably get her to do things that the type of woman he will marry won't do for him. So when you are in a situation where you're uncomfortable doing something, but you are doing it to keep a man, that's sign number one, that you're not probably gonna be married to this person. Number two is if they have so many conditions in order to stay with you, or be with you, or call you back if it's under condition, many conditions, you're not wife material to them.  You love them or like them or give them more attention than they like, love, or give to you, you're not wifey, okay? I'm just telling y'all because a man who meets wifey, he's her, but she's his number one. He's always calling her. He's always looking for her. He's always thinking of her. He's buying her gifts. He's doing all these things for wifey, okay? For side, for side chick or C chick, I call her C chick because she's side chick to side chick. She's an afterthought. She's the person that he goes to when side chick is mad or busy, or if he hadn't found wifey yet, or something like that, okay? No, the type of man that treats women like that don't really take them seriously, okay? Now, if you wanna be wife, you have to put demands out there. You gotta have standards. You gotta say no. You have to say no all the time, okay? That's a challenge. You have to be respectable looking. You can't have some crazy, outlandish, drama-filled, past baggage that he has to put up with. If you have that and you're dealing with a man and he's promising you this and that, don't even believe him because most men aren't gonna take that baggage as far as they can throw it, okay? They might tell you this, but they're gonna do the opposite. I'm not joking. So if you have all this baggage, all these mistakes in your past, the crazy past and stuff like that, and this man is telling you this, this and that, but he's doing the opposite. You have to look at that. You have to say, why is he doing this? And he says something totally opposite because he's keeping you exactly where he wants you.  Now, I can't believe that stuff.  You're not wife, you're not wifey. So, believe me, there are women or there is a woman that he will do that for, you know? And if it's not you, then you're not wifey, okay? And in order to become this kind of woman, you have to have high standards, okay? And a lot of women will say, well, no, it's not about that. Yes, it is. You take a man and you put high standards on him. He's gonna have to work for you, okay? And that's gonna make it challenging to him.  You're not gonna be like, you know, something that he'll take or leave or you're not gonna be somebody that's a servant to him.   Well, ask anybody who's married. Ask anybody who's married. They'll tell you the story.    It's not gonna be any of that.  No, it's not gonna be none of that. It's gonna be, oh, she was wifey. She was perfect. She was bad. She had this going on. She had that going on. She was respectable. She was pretty. She was smart. I could take her home to my mom.    She used to be this and that. No, it's not gonna be, oh, well, she had five kids and I decided to step up to the play. It's not gonna be any of that, okay? Just face it. Some of y'all have made so many mistakes that it's almost gonna be impossible for you to get married unless you try to marry somebody totally different than what you're attracted to. Okay? Because, let me tell y'all, my mom, she had four kids and she remarried a lot. But it wasn't the type of man that most people wanna marry. I mean, they were older. They had money though.  Well, actually it was just one guy that did that. The rest were losers. One guy did take care of her and her kids and da, da, da, which one of her kids was me. But she had to change her standard. Like if she wanted to remarry, she couldn't say, oh, I want a cute guy, then this, this, this, this isn't that. No, she said, okay, I'm gonna take whatever is going to love me more. You know, I'm gonna take whoever loves me more and I love him and who could take care of me. So if you're in those situations, you're gonna have to switch your taste in men because you're not gonna be able to get the same type of man that a single, respectable woman with no kids is gonna be able to get, okay? It just not gonna happen, okay? When I met my husband, I had a degree. I have no kids. I look better than this. Like, I know a lot of people be making jokes. I'm old and I'm trying to give young people, yes, I'm old and I'm damn proud to be this age. Some people didn't make it, okay? But when I was young, I could have anybody I wanted, okay? But I was very careful of the choices I made because I knew it would affect the rest of my life. I knew that it was, I didn't believe, you know what, first of all, I didn't believe in soulmates. I didn't believe, oh, this is the one for me. I didn't believe any of that, you know why? Because I choose who I want. I have a checklist, okay? I had a checklist. I'm like, if you don't got this, this, this, isn't it? Uh-uh, I didn't go by my feelings. I didn't let my heart leave me because the heart will get you into trouble because if it's not paired with your mind and your logic, you'll get in trouble every time, you know?  Can't do nothing for you, but drag you down.  And if you love yourself, your heart is for you. Your logic is for how you, you know, make decisions in love, okay? So if you love yourself, you're gonna choose the person who's best for you. Not who makes you feel good temporarily because feelings are temporary. Not who you think is going to be the perfect man for you because you have a connection of feeling. No, that's, that doesn't always work because those feelings always change, do you understand? But the qualities in someone is pretty much set. You find a responsible person, they're probably always gonna be responsible. You find a person who's financially stable, they know how to get financially stable. You find a person who enjoys being with one person in a relationship, they're probably always going to enjoy being with one person in a relationship. So when you pick a man, make sure you pick their qualities, not how you feel about them, okay? That's nature, that's gonna happen automatically. Between woman and man, there's always gonna be chemistry, you know?  Are y'all gonna be able to live in a nice place, a nice house? Are you going to be able to do all these things, okay?  And you probably are gonna take a long time forever to get married, or you probably won't ever get married at all because you're not marriage minded when you choose men, okay?  Those looks are gonna fade in a man. Looks can't pay the rent. I've said that a thousand times unless you're a woman. Looks cannot pay the rent with a man, okay? All they can do is lay on your couch and play video games all day. Look pretty, stay there until you get home from work because you know you the one that's gonna be working if you marry a pretty boy, right? So looks, no, don't go by looks. Go by intelligence, the ability to earn a living and provide for a family.   Because that man likes you and more than you like him, he ain't going to wear, okay? So find a man like that. So many women have this fairy tale thing in their mind about marrying the perfect handsome rich da-da-da-da man. You can't get that all rolled up into one unless you are that yourself or at least very beautiful, okay?  You're gonna have to, instead of your heart all the time, okay? A lot of women say, oh, I'm not gonna name names and I do a lot of consulting with women about relationships, but there are some women who are making business decisions to marry and that is the smartest thing in this day and age that a woman can do, okay? She knows her heart. She knows she been in love before as a teenager. She knows this, this, this and that, but she's setting up her future. She's setting up her children's future, her grandchildren's future with the type of man she marries and ends up with, okay? So ladies think like that.   That means you're just another one that got screwed over and left behind. Don't, mm-mm, and I know a lot of these ladies say, well, he wanted to have a baby with me. He asked me for the baby. If he didn't ask you for your hand of marriage first, then obviously the baby was a trap so that you can't move up forward onto someone better because now you have his child and he'll always be connected with you, okay? I'm just saying because a lot of women get confused. If a man is asking you to have a baby before he's asking you to marry, you're in the wrong relationship, okay? That's just dumb. It's really dumb. If you think about it, why would he wanna have a child with somebody he's not even married to when he can go and do the same thing to another woman and another woman and have many kids by many women he's not married to?  So I'm just saying this because a lot of women need to hear this. A lot of women need to hear this. More than you think, and it's pretty sad because I thought women were smarter than this. I thought the child was smarter than this, you know? Look out for number one, always first. If you care about a man more than you care about yourself, you're always gonna lose out, okay? So when a woman truly loves herself, she's looking out for number one first and foremost.  That means she's not trying to please somebody so they can stay because they're trying to please her so she stays, okay? No, you have to flip the script, ladies. And if you're dating a man because he looks good and you think that he's your soulmate and stuff like that, what if he dies? Is that was that it? Are you gonna think that there's another soulmate? I say I don't believe in soulmates. I believe in compatibility and I believe like, you know, people have a lot of things in common.   No, that's BS, that's why I said, if you caught up on this person- So sorry, I got cut off and my show came on so I had to take a break in the pause and come back. So what I basically wanted to tell y'all was think before you make a decision. Make decisions based on your future. Don't make a decision based on someone's potential and use your brain more than use your heart because emotions and feelings are temporary. Decisions and choices are permanent, okay? I'll see y'all on my next video and I'm so sorry for the tough love but y'all needed it. I'm sorry but y'all need to hear it, all right, bye.