Good afternoon everyone. I hope you're all doing well and staying somewhere warm and inside. It's pretty snowy and there's a mix of sleet and freezing rain here right now so not the best day to be doing anything outside. So yeah, the focus of our conversation today is creating a green bank to improve options for financing clean energy and maintenance. I wanted to start with a land acknowledgement. Hopefully you know which tribe or tribes lived in your area where I am. This is primarily Wabanaki land. And we're pretty close to Penobscot land. It's hard to say exactly who was where. I know they all moved around a lot. But, you know, it's important to acknowledge those who came before us who we've stolen the land from. A little bit about me. I studied civil and environmental engineering at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, and then I worked for three years in construction management in Connecticut and New Jersey. And I decided to transition career and move to Reno, Nevada to work for a nonprofit teaching middle school and high school students about energy efficiency and clean energy. And I built a whole energy efficiency curriculum and led both in school lessons with students as well as professional development workshops with more than 50 students with more than 50 teachers over the course of about five years. And then I worked for the Nevada governor's office of energy where I led energy efficiency programs statewide, ranging from weatherization of homes for low income seniors to helping cities, counties and school districts implement multimillion dollar self funding efficiency projects. I moved back to Maine in 2017, and I've been working for revision energy as a designer designing heat pumps and solar systems for a little over three years now. And I've transitioned to houses entirely off of fossil fuels. We transitioned our home in Reno to net zero energy. And our house in Maine, which is an old post and beam farmhouse built in 1828. I turned on the boiler over the weekend for the first time in three years just to make sure it still works. And otherwise we've been heating entirely with heat pumps. Our solar array doesn't quite offset all of our electricity usage, but I think we're about 70% self powered with our solar array. And we've done a lot of efficiency improvements as well. So I have a lot of firsthand experience with transitioning homes off of fossil fuels to clean energy. So before we start talking about the green bank, I wanted to bring up another bill that is scheduled for a hearing next week. I've been working with representative Maggie O'Neill on LD 99, which calls for divesting the public employee retirement system from fossil fuels. I have added up their holdings and identified what I consider to be fossil fuel companies. And they have over a billion dollars in fossil fuel investments. And that's down from one, about $1.2 billion a year ago. And, and that's due to them losing in the market over the last year. And the bill hearing is scheduled for next Wednesday, February 10th at 11am. And I'd encourage all of you to submit testimony in support of the bill. And if you don't want to try to give in person testimony during the hearing written testimony can be submitted online prior to the hearing. And I'll share a link in the chat that has a lot more information about how to submit written testimony as well as some example testimony drafted. The key thing is to say that you're a main resident. If you were a public employee at any point or part of the public employee retirement system, it's really important to acknowledge that. And then to say whatever you want in regards to why you think it's important for them to divest from fossil fuels and, and then encourage them to support the bill. But the more testimony that goes in in advance of the hearing, the more likely it is to pass. So I want to encourage all of you to do that. And also it's kind of a great warm up if there's other bills that you're excited about like the green bank bill. It's good to practice working through their system and know what to do so as a legislative session gets going faster. It will be a less complicated process for you. And so, to me, the primary reason to divest from fossil fuels is because they're a terrible investment. The, the public employee retirement system has over a billion dollars invested in fossil fuels. And that's basically flat lined and actually decreased in the last 10 years. And even leading up to prior to the pandemic, ignoring the effect that the pandemic and the recession have had on the fossil fuel industry. As of December of 2019, the fossil fuel industry was down about 20% compared to 10 years before. At the same time, the S&P 500 had risen over 150% over that same time period. So if that billion dollars had been invested in the stock market in general, it would have, it would have created an additional billion and a half dollars in returns for the retirement system. And so they've literally lost out on over a billion dollars by maintaining these investments in fossil fuels. And it's really just sad and disappointing to me because there was a big push in 2014. And they, and the public employee retirement system said, oh no, we need to, we need to have the ability it's our fiduciary responsibility to be able to invest in fossil fuels. We don't know where the market's going to go. No one can say where the market's going to go and it could be really good for us. And it's been terrible. And it's cost a billion dollars for the retirees of the state. In addition to continuing to fund the climate problem nationwide and globally. And looking ahead, we know that there's no future for the fossil fuel industry. 189 countries have signed on to the Paris Climate Accord. We're rapidly transitioning to electric vehicles and heat pump systems and away from oil heating oil and gasoline powered vehicles and numerous cities, counties and states have made clean energy commitments. And so the fossil fuel industry is waning, and they're never going to be posting the same levels of profits. I know that 10 years ago, there are several years where ExxonMobil was the most profitable company in the world. Well, last year they lost half their value. They're just not good investments and it's important for the future of the retirees in Maine to transition off of them. So again, I hope you'll click on that link in the chat and provide some testimony in support of this bill. It's really important for the future of the retirement system and for the future of a habitable planet. So transitioning to the green bank. The key question. Many of you probably have is what is a green bank. And there's a number of examples around the country and around the world. And it's typically a public or nonprofit institution that uses public funding to leverage additional investment from private lenders into the clean energy sector. And so a green bank will partner with local banks, local credit unions and other lenders to leverage their private investment, which creates a multiplier effect. I'll talk more about some other green banks in a bit, but often they can leverage five to 10 times more private investment than the public capital. For instance, a hundred million dollar investment can leverage 500 million to a billion dollars in private investment. So it's, it's meant to accelerate the clean energy transition. And by partnering with with other local lenders. And so to me the real problem with efficiency and clean energy. We've been working in this sector for more than a decade now. And we know that these projects will pay for themselves, typically within 10 years, some much faster, some take a little bit longer. But the project will pay for itself through the long term energy savings. But many, many families across Maine and around the country can't afford the upfront costs. So if you if you need to spend 10 or $15,000 for efficiency improvements in your house and 20 or $30,000 for a solar bay to provide all your electricity. If you don't have any substantial savings, then you don't have the money to invest. And most lenders require a certain income level. They're looking at your loan to income ratio. And so if you don't have enough income, then you're not eligible for a loan. And many low income families across the state lack equity in their homes or the sufficient savings to be able to move forward. And so there's, I would estimate that 50% of the households in Maine have, have very little ability to participate in efficiency and clean energy or fund these types of projects in their homes. And while efficiency Maine has some incredible programs and offers great rebates. If you get $1,000 rebate on a $5,000 project, you still have to be able to afford the other $4,000 of it. And so there's still a lot of households that aren't able to participate. So here we go. I started working with representative Ziegler who represents me here in in moral, he represents moral Montville Liberty and a handful of other towns Lincolnville. And we, I worked with him to draft LD 1634 and act to create the main clean energy fund. And that bill called for $100 million in bond funding from the state, which is a really big lift. It's a, it's a tough bill to pass. It was carried forward. It was carried forward to the following session last year. And then the session was ended prematurely due to the pandemic. And so the bill died in committee, like so many other bills from last year. But we have used the that time to really build up support for the green bank over the last year, last couple of years. So we're in a very different position than we were a year ago. There's not a bill number yet this year. But the bill is submitted to the Reviser's office. Representative Ziegler is the primary sponsor again. And the lead co-sponsor is Senator Mark Lawrence, who is co-chair of the Energy Utilities and Technology Committee, which is where the bill was heard last year. We have support. We have general support from Michael Stoddard. I think he's limited by the, right now the governor's office is neither supporting nor opposing the bill. And I think he's constrained by them. And so he hasn't, he hasn't come outright in support of it, but we'll see what happens as the session gets started as the bill moves forward. But I've participated in a number of calls with him and he helped me to redraft the bill this year so that it will fit under Efficiency Main. And then Henry Beck, the Main State Treasurer, is in support of this and he spoke on a lunch and learn that we hosted in December. And so much stronger support than we've had in the past. And like I mentioned, I worked with Michael Stoddard at Efficiency Main to redraft the bill so that it will create a new initiative under Efficiency Main. This year we're not calling for any bonds or state funding, which makes passing the bill a lot easier. The bills that require funding have to go through the Appropriations Committee and also require a two thirds vote to pass. And so now without and without requesting any state funding. We don't need to go through the Appropriations Committee and it's just a simple majority vote to pass the bill. And so that significantly increases the chance and makes it a much easier bill to move forward. We are expecting funding from the National Clean Energy and Sustainability Accelerator, also called the National Climate Bank, which I'll get into in a lot more detail later. And I've already mentioned how this will leverage private capital from local banks, credit unions, and other lenders here in Maine. I don't want to linger too much. This, it tends to get pretty technical. These are the types of investments that the Clean Energy Accelerator can invest in. And so they can take on debt in projects. The big thing is offering credit enhancements or a loan loss reserve and loan guarantees. So that would be like essentially setting $10 million aside and using that as a pool for any projects that default. So other local lenders have a reduced risk in investing in these types of projects because the loan loss reserve will limit the defaults on their projects. And so by reducing the risk for other lenders, it allows them to lower their interest rates and makes it easier for them to participate in the new market. And the Michigan Saves is a green bank style program in the state of Michigan that's been around for about 10 years. And they created a loan loss reserve. That's essentially the only thing that they do is they operate the loan loss reserve, and they've partnered with a number of credit unions across the state. And they've been able to leverage their initial investment 30 to one. So $100 million investment becomes $3 billion in projects. And so it's a very powerful tool for working with other lenders and for reducing the risk on projects. The green bank will be able to aggregate and warehouse loans together. So that would be taking, you know, if 100 projects are completed, they can bundle them together and resell them on the secondary market, which provides that capitalization again. So that they have more money to be able to loan out. It basically creates a lot of different tools that allow them to fund projects, and then recapture that funding from other sources, other lenders, and be able to make loans again and again and again. Because the faster it can cycle through the funding, the more projects get invested, and every time they invest in new projects, there's the ability to leverage more private capital. And so it can really move things forward very quickly in the, in the place. And, and then they can also invest in any other financial product approved by the board of efficiency main. And so that gives them additional leeway these these first four investment types are all proven by other green banks around the country and around the world. But as new tools and new approaches are developed. We want them to have the ability to adapt without having to go to the legislature every time there's there's something new that they want to do. And this bill specifically directs 40% of funding to vulnerable communities in Maine. So that includes low income communities, low income households and communities of color. So that provides a strong equity piece to this legislation to help make sure that those who have been left behind by the clean energy transition to date, those who have been most negatively affected by fossil. The fossil fuel industry are being helped. And, you know, it's not just going to middle and upper income households. We've been working for six or nine months now to really build statewide support for this. I led a main green bank summit in June last year and we had over 100 attendees, we had about 120 attendees for lunch and learn event in December. We had various meetings with specific industries in Maine. We met with the main bankers association credit union league and a handful of lenders in January. And we have a follow up meeting tomorrow where we're trying to get the bankers association to commit to supporting the bill. Right now, it sounds like they don't have any objections. But we're trying to get them to advocate in support of it and have the most support that we can. We have a whole array of environmental groups that are supportive including Sierra Club and 350 Maine have really been leading efforts in the state. And then the environmental priorities coalition, which is made up of 32 environmental and nonprofit groups has made this one of their priorities for this legislative session. And so support from environmental community in Maine revision energy is backing this bill and we're working on bringing other clean energy companies on board realtors contractors and architects, both the cities of Portland and South Portland are supportive. And I think that this week, it's looking really likely that the Portland Chamber of Commerce will support this bill. It's very unique, you know, in in what is, you know, primarily an environmental climate bill to have a broad support from the business community as well. So quickly looking at the types of impact that this can have in 2019, the Connecticut Green Bank invested almost $41 million in public capital. By almost nine to one so they brought in $300 million in private capital. These investments together generated almost 18 million in state tax revenues created 3300 jobs. In 2019 alone, the Connecticut Green Bank funded 7600 residential solar installations. In Maine in the same time period. There were less than. I think there were less than 2000 solar arrays installed in Maine in that same time period so the Connecticut Green Bank is funding far more solar than the current solar industry in Maine is currently installing all that equates to over a million tons in CO2 savings from the projects that they've that they've funded. And they've been able to create in Connecticut, as they've been as they've had successful programs, they've been able to dial in and recognize specific gaps in the marketplace. Since they recognize that they were weren't having as much participation from low income communities and specifically communities of color, and they created a program that specifically targets those communities. And they've had a lot of success in installing solar on low income houses in communities of color in in the state. And they've had this opportunity to direct investment into the homes into the businesses that need it the most. So for the Maine Green Bank, there's several potential funding sources. The National Climate Bank, the National Climate Bank is the most likely one to move forward. We're not requesting any bond funding this year. If the National Climate Bank doesn't move forward isn't fully funded. Then we'll try to pursue other funding options moving forward the bill leaves it open so it can receive funding from other sources. But at this point we don't want to. We know that the state budget is definitely strapped due to the pandemic. And there's lots of other priorities that they're looking at bond funding for. So we're not trying to do that. We don't want to receive funding from nonprofits or foundation grants. Right now, I think all of the regional greenhouse gas initiative funding goes to efficiency main already. So we don't want to pull funds from other programs to invest in the Green Bank. We'd like to, we'd like to use new funding. That could be an option. Personally, I would love to see the main public employee retirement system divest from fossil fuels and reinvest in clean energy in the state of Maine through the Green Bank. But currently we're not requesting that in the divestment bill and I think it probably makes sense to have a few years of track record demonstrate that the main Green Bank is a successful investment option. And then try to get the public employee retirement system to invest, you know, three to five years down the road. But that could be an option for funding as well. So this next segment of the presentation is looking at the National Climate Bank or the national level clean energy and sustainability accelerator. And I've borrowed some slides from the Coalition for green capital, which is a national nonprofit group that has been helping us here in Maine create the main Green Bank, but has also been leading efforts for the National Climate Bank. And so the key is President Biden's climate goals are very ambitious and will require a tremendous amount of investment in renewable energy. He has set a goal of 100% clean power by 2035 and net zero energy by 2050. And together, those will require approximately $2 trillion in investment to achieve the climate and clean energy goals that he has set so far. And this slide show was put together in November. So it's not looking specifically at the executive orders that he's signed so far but his commitments on the on the campaign trail. Currently, there's legislation it's actually supposed to be introduced this week that will create a $100 billion national clean energy and sustainability accelerator. And they estimate that that will create over 4 million jobs in the first four years across a whole array of different industry sectors. The bill is the bill was introduced in 2019. And last year it passed out of the House of Representatives twice as part of larger bill packages that Senator McConnell never introduced in the Senate so they never came up for a vote in the Senate. But last year Kamala Harris was one of the co sponsors of the Senate bill. And, and we know that the Biden administration is supportive of this type of investment, and it will probably be included as part of a larger package of infrastructure investments. But they are, they are planning to reintroduce the bill my understanding is this week. When it passed out of the House of Representatives, both representative Pingree and representative Golden voted in support of it. Right now we're pushing to try to get both of them to co sponsor the bill. We've met with Senator or we've met with Senator Collins, and we were encouraging her to co sponsor the bill. We don't know if that will happen yet but you know, it's a stretch, we're trying to push. And we have meetings the Sierra Club has meetings with both representatives and Senator King in the next week. So we're going to be pushing them to co sponsor the bill, among other things. And so, trying to trying to develop support for the federal bill to make sure that we have funding to support the main, the main green bank effort. And it's a pretty simple piece of legislation because essentially it requires an appropriation. And they've actually my understanding is they've actually already created the nonprofit shell that will be the national clean energy and sustainability accelerator. And so it'll, it'll $100 billion in funding from Congress will fund that. And, and then they're ready to go and off to the races on that front. And because of the way that it's structured it doesn't require a major piece of legislation and can probably be passed through the reconciliation process. So, depending on where things go with the filibuster and, you know, with the very split Senate 5050 split with Kamala Harris as a deciding vote. The reconciliation process would allow them to pass this without needing a 60 vote majority. And so that's a great option and very exciting we are still trying to get Republican co sponsors, but even without any Republicans, this could still pass. And it will fund its, it's the clean energy and sustainability accelerator and it will fund a lot of different types of projects, including renewable energy, building efficiency, industrial decarbonization, electric vehicles and electric vehicle charging. It will also support regenerative agriculture and sustainable forestry, which could be really big in Maine. Cross laminated timber could be a big industry in Maine as using our local wood products to essentially store carbon and buildings in the long term. And it can also fund a variety of climate resilience projects, which could include wastewater treatment plants, roads, bridges, where we're planning for several feet of sea level rise. And I think the main climate council is preparing for up to eight feet of sea level rise by 2100. So that's going to require a lot of investment in infrastructure to to help make sure that we're ready for for that and the many other implications of climate change in the state. And so it's exciting to have this as a potential source of funding. Similar to what we've drafted in Maine, the national bill calls for 40% of investment to be made in disadvantaged communities to create jobs and lower energy costs in those communities. It'll have a significant impact for frontline communities that are facing the brunt of climate change, as well as Native American tribes and low income communities around the country. And the fossil fuel industry has had an incredibly disproportionate impact. They, they almost exclusively build fossil fuel infrastructure in low income communities. And, and then if a refinery or power plant is built in your backyard and your property value crashes. And then people can't leave because their house is worthless, and they have no equity to be able to move somewhere else and so they've really been a lot of injustice and inequity in the fossil fuel industry from the health impacts and, and the pollution. And so it's very important to help to address that. And this is uniquely designed to be able to do that. I think I've mentioned, this is a proven model. The Connecticut Green Bank has been the most successful over the last 10 or 11 years, but there's numerous other green bank type programs, ranging from Hawaii to Florida. And then also internationally, I attended the International Green Bank Summit in New York in 2014, and met the director of the Australian Green Bank and the UK Green Investment Bank. And there's efforts in Germany and Japan and Malaysia and all around the world. And so it's a really well proven model that that we know can be successful, both at the national level and at the state level. And from the projections that I've seen, if the National Climate Bank is funded at the $100 billion level. One of the big things that the National Climate Bank will do is pass funds through to state level efforts. And so the main green bank could receive $100 million to $200 million in upfront funding from the National Climate Bank, which is why it's so important for us to support the national level legislation and push our representatives and senators in Maine to support that so that there's funding for the work that we're trying to do in Maine. And then there's a couple of things that we that we can do to support the federal legislation and I'll paste them in the chat. One is that I've worked with the Coalition for Green Capital to draft a sign on letter. And we'd encourage you all to sign on in support of the federal legislation. It's asking our two representatives and both of our senators to co-sponsor the federal bill. And so I hope that you all can sign on to that and share it with others. And then Sierra Club has also created an ad up campaign that will where the sign on letter, everyone's names get added at the bottom and we can tell them how many people have signed on to it. The campaign will send messages directly to your representative and your senators, both senators, telling them that you support the bill and asking them to co-sponsor it. So two different ways to have an impact at the federal level. And I'd encourage you all to sign on to each of those. And like I mentioned, the National Clean Energy Accelerator will provide funding, including startup operating funds and capital for state level green banks. The states in green already have an existing green bank entity. And Nevada, I helped to create the Nevada Green Bank while I was, while I was living in Reno and working out there and spent three or four years trying to push that legislation forward. And, and so I'm excited to see Nevada and green on this and then all the blue states on this map are have green banks in development. And you'll notice that they're, they're happening in a lot of purple and red states at this point, South Carolina, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Missouri, Alaska. There's a lot of different states that are that are recognizing that this is a successful model, and it'll help create jobs and help create local economic growth. And so it's not, it's not a partisan issue and it really shouldn't be a partisan bill. And I'm excited to say I actually I didn't add this into my slide. We've lined up to Republican co-sponsors for the main green bank legislation. And so I was really excited to line up a representative and a senator at the state legislature in support of this. I think this is the last slide on the federal level green bank. But this is highlighting some of the different types of programs that already exist with with the existing state level and local level green banks. And so these types of programs can be replicated in Maine or in other states across the country and and can work like things are ready to go and and can and can move forward very quickly. Using some of these existing programs. It's really incredible with my experience working with other green banks. There's a lot of collaboration and support within the green bank community. The executive director from the Connecticut green bank speak at the main green bank summit we hosted in June. And we had the chief investment officer from the Connecticut green bank speak to the banks and lenders here in Maine. And they want other states to succeed. It's a really unique model because it's not competitive the the idea is not for it to compete with other local lenders. It's for it to crowd in those other lenders and help give them access to new markets that that they're currently not investing in. So in terms of next steps and things that you can do. I'd encourage you all to sign on to the coalition for green capital letter of support and sign up on the Sierra Club ad up campaign. The bill has not been released from the revisers office yet so we don't have a bill LD number. And we don't have a date scheduled for the hearing. Typically they provide two weeks notice before the hearing. And so we should be able to share that information out once we know. But you can, if you if you want to support the main green bank you can start to draft testimony in support of it or draft a letter to the editor for the local paper in support of it. And that's something that I'm happy to help with if any of you are interested in writing testimony or writing a letter of support. Let me know if there's other groups that you think would want to learn more about this that you could help line up a presentation to. We gave a presentation to Portland Society of architects we've given presentations to bankers and lenders. And we're trying to engage as you know a variety of different industries across Maine. We really benefit everyone in Maine, either as an individual investing in efficiency and clean energy in your own home, or just through the job creation and the local economic benefit. Each year, we spend $4 billion importing fossil fuels from out of state. That's $4 billion a year leaving our state economy. And this transitioning to 100% clean energy can keep literally billions of dollars in our state economy and and recirculate that here locally supporting all these other industries in addition to just the efficiency and clean energy. So please let me know if there's other groups that you would like to engage with this and share it with friends and or family. Here's a couple of additional resources. The Connecticut Green Bank is fantastic. I love their annual report. It gives high level overview of the impacts that they've had but then it gives descriptions of some of their programs and has testimony from some of their customers that they've worked with households that they've worked with. And so I really enjoy that each year. And the Coalition for Green Capital has a bunch of resources, both for the National Climate Bank and and for state level things like what we're doing in Maine. And so, does anyone have any questions for me. I did see one in the chat David and the only other quick thing I'd reiterate is the ad up campaign once, once we do have that printed bill number for the state. We can best update folks through that ad up campaign as things arise or more information comes so I definitely want to encourage you to log on there, but Gary did have a question earlier. Do the various CAP CAP agencies in Maine participate in this clean energy effort. Yeah, I think that they're involved in the weatherization programs for low income households. And I don't know the exact numbers but I want to say that they're working with like five to 10,000 households a year in terms of weatherization. 750 homes, 750,000 homes in Maine, 550,000 households. And so if you're doing 10,000 homes a year, it'll take 55 years to reach every house.  And it's not a whole home retrofit. It's not. Typically they're doing weatherization and I know Efficiency Maine has a new low income heat pump program to help fund heat pumps in low income households to help them transition off of propane and heating oil. Again, it's going to be a limited number like the state of Maine doesn't have the money to be able to spend $5,000 or $10,000 on every single house in the state. So we need to drive in private investment and help make the funding affordable. But yeah, no, I mean, certainly great work. I support all the things that the, that the weatherization programs and cap agencies are doing, but it's, it's not the full solution. So I see a question. Where have other state green banks. Oh, here, let me. Let me stop screen sharing. And then we can actually see each other. Where have other state green banks gotten their funding if the national accelerator does not exist yet. So a lot of them in 2010, during the recovery act, after the recession, in the middle of the recession. A lot of them used a portion of the aura funding, the, what is it American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funding. A lot of them use a portion of that as startup funding. So like that's how the Florida program got funded. That's how the Michigan program got funded. That was a portion of the funding for Connecticut. Connecticut used a mix of different things. They received some investment from the state like I think in the first few years the state of Connecticut put $20 million a year into the state green bank. They've also Connecticut has also tapped into Reggie funding from the regional greenhouse gas initiative. And already, Maine is ahead of most states in terms of making sure that the Reggie funds are used for efficiency and clean energy. And so already those funds are going to efficiency Maine for the for the programs that they run. And then, and then the other thing that Connecticut and other states have used for funding is most electric utilities. They have a portion of the cost that everyone is paying is paying for efficiency programs. And so Connecticut and other states have used some of the funding from this collected by the electric utilities that they're required to invest in efficiency and clean energy programs. And so that's another location that funding has come from in other states. And again, I think that money is directed to efficiency Maine. And so they use it for things like rebates on light bulbs if you're going to Walmart or Home Depot LED light bulbs are like $1 a box. And that's in part due to the electric efficiency programs from from the utilities that Maine is directing. And so those are, those are kind of the key ways that the other existing green banks have been funded that that I'm aware of. Yeah, but that's a great question because yeah, ideally, we can do this regardless of anything, but it just seems like it's, it's so close. We can really line up that federal funding we need to invest in infrastructure. I know there's been a bipartisan push in the past few years for an infrastructure bill. And so I think that this can be part of a larger infrastructure bill to invest in our roads and bridges and airports and all that other important community infrastructure. Any other questions. I, in the chat, but does that again, does anyone else have any. Yeah, go ahead, Gary. I know you're preparing to have individuals testify before a legislation regards to this LD 99 I was wondering if you, or is the legislature amenable to video. Something you want to develop yourself and then get into the legislature is, is there a link for that or is that something that an individual could do if they wanted to. Yeah, so great question. Yeah, so this year. I think all the committees are using zoom. So they're not actually meeting in person at the legislature at all. And I haven't participated in a hearing yet it sounds like I was talking to someone who's been in several committees and it sounds like every committee has slightly different setup. Some are more organized than others. They were telling me that it seems like some committees have never used zoom before, which is kind of hard to believe given that we're nine months into a pandemic and it seems like we've all been using it the whole time. But they are, they are lining up in person like the in person testimony that you normally show up to the committee to provide they're doing over zoom. And, and I don't, I don't think you can pre record a message but you but you can do it in person over zoom. I mean that's great because of the fact that if you used to help me develop some kind of testimony, and I tweak it to my perspective of things. And I can line up in the legislature to be just been in the zoom then may announce my name, and I unmute myself and I go and read my testimony and at least get a recording to the legislation that you know these people over here and J main are very much interested in going forward with this legislation, so so so so that would that would be a great benefit I think for all of us. Yeah. Yeah I know it's interesting because it almost seems like it makes public participation easier. You know, particularly for people up in the county or you know kiddery or you know there's a lot of people that have a long drive to get to Augusta. And, and I think, I think it rolled out last session but they've also made it easier to submit written testimony on the legislature's website, where I think in previous years that was a pretty complex process. And now you can do it through the through the website. I have that link in the chat. I have signed up for two committees, myself I've talked to one thus far and they are still getting organized but if you do email or call that committee secretary or staff person and say you want to testify they should be able to line you up and they are starting to break you into actual time blocks to be on zoom so it's it actually yeah it could be a great thing for public participation. I know I've been to Augusta a few times and sat two hours waiting for a hearing to begin and then it finally starts and then you're waiting another two hours for testimony and it can, it can, you know, it's a full day going to Augusta to give three minutes of testimony for a bill. That's probably some of you have experienced. So I see a question in the chat is green bank funding available to businesses of various sizes, and yes, and small businesses are another really important sector that often don't have access to funding medium and larger businesses, the, you know, Walmart and Hanifords have access to all sorts of funding, and can, and can borrow from banks and lenders, and for smaller businesses that don't have a long track record it can be really difficult to borrow money and for facility improvements and things like this. And so that's, that's another really important sector that the green bank will be working with. There's a separate bill moving forward this session for commercial property assessed clean energy or commercial pace. So it's an important way of funding efficiency and clean energy projects for businesses, and it, it attaches the loan to the property tax bill. And so it, it's a way of secure securing the loan, but if you sell the property, it can be passed on to the next building owner and property assessed clean energy is another like well established program around the country. And it's often led by states that have green banks it's often led by the green bank, but there is a separate bill moving forward this session for commercial pace which which will specifically help businesses. And then, is there a sense of timeline for getting the federal legislation through. It's Congress, it's Washington DC, I don't know. But there's, there's a lot of hope it's after this COVID relief package that they're discussing now that the Biden is working on my understanding is that the infrastructure package is Biden's next priority. But I do not have an inside line to the White House to Congress. The commission for green capital has been working really hard on this. And so it's, it's looking hopeful that it will pass this year. I can, I can say it's not likely to pass in February, but hopefully it would pass by June, other than that I don't know, we'll see. Yeah, anyone else have any, any other questions today, and feel free to unmute yourselves if anyone wants to speak. All right, well, I guess I guess we can wrap up then thank you all for for joining us today. Matt was there anything else that you wanted to add in. No, just please. I do encourage you to sign up for that add up campaign and tell your friends and I think that's going to be the best way to keep up to date with both the federal legislation and the state legislation. Perfect.


Welcome to Göttingen. Göttingen is a university city whose population consists of 20% students. The city is greatly influenced by the young population. But why doesn't the city help foster this lively environment on the university's campuses? We want to make campuses greener and more sustainable. The transformation to a green campus can not only profit the mental and physical health of our students and university staff, but additionally it can provide shade and cooling and even reduce the building's energy consumption, which is all the more important in view of global warming. In Göttingen, around 25,000 students learn, work and spend a significant part of their daily lives on our campuses. Because of the close proximity to the city centre, the campus even serves as a meeting place for young people to get together and spend time with their peers outside of the university context. Our campuses unmistakably lack colour and liveliness, which is a strong contrast to the young and fresh minds of all the people on these campuses. As students, we sit inside a lot to study and attend lectures. But when we do get to go outside, for lunch or a small coffee break, we are surrounded by even more concrete, where there could instead be green spaces. Our goal with Grüniversity is to bring the campus' landscape and the spirit of the students together in harmony. This is an example of an area on our central campus that already has some of the characteristics which we want to incorporate more. It is a favourite among students to spend their breaks or to study outside. This shows that in some cases the university is already going in the right direction. But we demand to see more of that. I understand that the size and function of the Plastikatinga 7 is not a huge area, but it could be a green area or something like that. But how can universities initiate transformation on their campuses and how do they identify what needs to change? In response to the Universities for Gold 13 competition, we, Helen, Sophie and Vivian, developed a comprehensive solution for transforming the campus' environment to promote health, sustainability, biodiversity, energy security and a shared sense of belonging. That's how Grüniversity was born. To realise this vision, we have created a toolkit which includes an interactive map and a website. The Grüniversity website serves as the central hub for sharing ideas and networking among universities. It provides a platform for connecting with other institutions, discussing funding opportunities and fostering collaboration throughout the process. Because students and university staff spend a large part of their time at the university, they naturally develop ideas on how the spaces could be improved upon. Incorporating these ideas into the transformation process is a great opportunity for the university. If a university like the University of Göttingen wishes to start transforming its campus, the initial step is to launch a new project on the Grüniversity website. Now citizen students and university staff can explore their campus and mark suitable areas on an interactive map. The next step involves analysing these areas through citizen science. Everyone can contribute their knowledge and interests. Based on this data, areas will be selected for transformation, either by a university committee or volunteers or the Green Office. Imagine the Göttingen 7 Square, a place at our central campus that is predominantly covered in concrete, is selected for transformation. Now everyone is invited to share suggestions for the Göttingen 7 Square on the Grüniversity website. Through a voting system, participants express their approval or disapproval of ideas and the university committee assesses their feasibility before selecting a final concept. Subsequent steps include securing funding which can be achieved through crowdfunding, corporate partnerships or institutional support. It is crucial at this stage to develop a detailed time and financial plan. Following this, specialized partners with expertise in the implementation process need to be engaged. And finally, it's time for action. This is the most exciting phase where all ideas and plans come to life, transforming the once-dropped Göttingen 7 Square into a harmonious space where nature and humanity coexist. One of the last steps involves evaluating the transformation's impact, including mapping the biodiversity and natural habitats and seeking feedback from citizens and students. As you can see, it does not take much to make a great transformation if we are all working together and sharing our ideas and knowledge. Grüniversity aims to reduce barriers so that we can use the potential of all the smart minds at our universities to create more sustainable campuses all over the world.


Welcome you in the course of leadership, emotional intelligence and the CN making. This is module number 62 and we are going to talk about how to be whole act with integrity finding four-way wins. When we talk about four-way wins, remember that we have to satisfy all the stakeholders yourself, your workplace, your home and your community. In that case, remember one thing that when we talk about work-life balance, so work-life balance is basically dealing with zero sum game and generally speaking, life is not like a zero sum game. How this balance go through my name, we will create, we will not create. So the problem is that absolute balance may not exist. When the absolute balance would not exist to the solution we are available with in the context of total leadership is that we have to create an equitable distribution, a asset distribution which makes every stakeholder give their due value, due importance, due time, due attention. And when we talk about this due attention and due focus, we can trade-offs but we would be able to come up with equitable distribution of our time, attention, focus, empathy and rest of the concerns because absolute equal terms might not be possible. So we have to move towards equitable terms based upon their value, importance and concerns. So for that matter, there are certain patterns of stakeholder relationship. The first pattern can be that they can be explosive pattern. An explosive pattern would mean that the situation in which expectations are hardly being met in either direction. The second thing is angry pattern. And then there can be the third way which we call pressure and guilt pattern.  So different types of our matters can be present with our stakeholders at home, at work, at community. And even sometimes it is a possibility that we may be ignoring our own self. So remember if we have all these wrong patterns, then what will be the solution? The solution is that we have to clarify the expectations. And the people would not be able to know how to deal with yourself and you would not be able to know that how to deal with others. So we have to clarify the expectations. We have to share with them, which can be very liberating, from their healthy negotiation and innovation are possible. So we can do settlements and adjustments. So sometimes there is involvement of media these days. And there can be many different forms of media. So what you have to do, you have to remain connected, don't disconnect. The second thing is new technologies are basically reducing interaction. So it is sometimes like evident that the involvement of the technology in our lives is increasing day by day. And we have to be careful about it. The third important thing is that new technologies are more efficient sometimes. No doubt when we are above distances, we will be able to communicate quickly with them. But at the same time remember that there would not be any substitute for the face to face interaction. Face to face confrontation does not change. So that face to face confrontation and the face to face communication is the richest medium we are available with and never try to substitute that with the technology. Now when we talk about stakeholders communication, remember that there is another exercise we need to think about and in this particular exercise, we have to think about the media which we are making our communication easier with our stakeholders. And once you are taking the patterns, once you are understanding the relationships, then you will have to look at which media you are using to communicate, so that your alignment with the other domains is not disturbed with the involvement of the media. What opportunities are there for you to use different forms of communication more effectively?  So different types of media are available to communicate with different stakeholders. Now you will have to look at what is your preference, what is your relationship with your stakeholders, what is the message you want to communicate, how is its sensitivity. If we conclude all this, then dear students remember that the intervention of technology is no doubt present in our lives. We may not be able to finish that intervention, but we will have to be careful about what kind of communication should be done with which stakeholders and what technology to use. And we also have to move towards betterment so that our expectations and our priorities are shared and clear with others. Thank you.


I'm a next player. I've been coaching since I was 16-17 with some club teams just to get a good feel for it. And when I stopped playing at 27, I realized how much passion and love I had for the game. I didn't want to get out of it as an athlete. So I became a coach. And the other experience that I've had throughout my years of playing, I put it into my coaching career as well. So what I've learned, mistakes I made. And what I did was, I compiled all that information, put it in the storage department, which is my head, and I started training and teaching kids the right way to play the game. And that's how I came up with PureTech Soccer Academy. That's awesome. So tell us a bit about your business then. What does your company specialize in? We specialize in private technical training. We don't work on big numbers, as some of the clubs do, some of the academies do. It's all about numbers. Numbers equals tons of, I don't know about profits, but lots of money. We specialize, we charge a higher price, a higher premium, but we specialize in small group training like a private school. What we'll do is that we'll have maybe, our ratio is between one instructor for every six to eight students. So that way they get the highest learning, technical development they could possibly get. A lot of these other institutions, what they'll do is they'll have two coaches for 60 kids and they charge a fortune. So that's the difference between what I'm doing versus what everybody else is doing. I never had teams through my academy, but what I did was I started an IDCAM series where I picked top players in certain age groups and we traveled to Europe and our first trade trip was to Portugal and we played three exhibition games, we won all three and that's how we built the success of these athletes because I exposed them to different parts of the world if they're interested and I also exposed top players to universities in the US if they're looking for a scholarship based on their videos, based on their training development and I hope to get these players all my goal, my rule of thumb in my academy is to get these players to the next level. Fantastic. So you've been coaching for a long time now? 16, 30, 32, 33 years, give or take on 49, 20, 50 this year. I've been training for a long time but it's not just any training. What I do, do not do is that I grab player and I find out what their deficiencies are, what their assets are, what they're good at, what they're weak at and I work on your weaknesses as opposed to focus on their strengths and in order to get them better, let's say for instance, I'll give you an example if somebody comes in and says, okay I'm a right footer, fantastic, I'll assess them, first thing I do with any new player I assess them and I take a look to see what their deficiencies are and I'll work on more of the deficiencies but I always go back to their strengths. The reason being is because they're strengths it's always something that they're going to go back to during the game. Even though you're working on your weaknesses, the weaknesses will come into play once confidence builds. So you've got to repeat that weakness over and over and over so that way they could execute it in the game or practice and get comfortable with it. Love that. So what does a high quality coach in session look like then? For a team or an individual. For an individual. What I do is I start off with some ball, some skills, different types of dribbling using one foot, other foot, both feet, rolls, toe taps, duck walks, I call it duck walks but it's thick talking between the feet and then what I do is I see the progression of the player, how they're developing in the session and if I find that they're developing quick I'll take it to another level. So what I do is called progression stages. I start very basic, I assess them with the basics and then after I turn them into somewhat intermediary which is a little bit higher grade if I see that they're doing good and then I step it up as high as I can if I see that they have the potential and the drive and the passion to continue doing the high-skill drills and eventually we build it up to 1v1 to shoot, give and goes what their footwork is like and then I break down their whole component of their body, their foot, how it's got bones on it I focus like based on like the structure of the player like if they're not opening up their hips and their arms open up the hips to reduce the strike, I need to fix that if they're not hitting it with the toe bone the shot low, high I fix that if passing is big passing with the right technique it's all technique if they're not I want to correct that and if they're listening to what I'm telling them they'll see the progression really, really fast so I break every individual up as an individual I don't paint everybody with the same brush so somebody will say to me hey Ang I want my kid to shoot like so and so on TV well do you know that so and so on TV has been practicing every day for the last 20 years do you know that they're professionals for a reason do you know that they're dedicated to the sport that they love do you know that so and so and so and when you break it down from these parents I say listen not for anything but if your kid wants it I could teach it not a problem if your kid's just going to waste my time your time and everybody else's time in between I'm going to be honest with you I'm going to say listen not for anything but your kid might not want to be here but I want to teach it but if they don't want to be here it doesn't make sense because save your money with all due respect I don't chase money I chase dreams I send them to where they need to go and we develop together as a unit and when they get to where they need to go I take the credit for it along with them we work as a partnership and then after we take it from there so I'll give you an example 8-9 players that play in Europe that live there and they all came from my training academy not my team academy I don't have teams training academy which means that we work together we work on their weaknesses I know what the European clubs are looking for for this kid to succeed so 99.9% of the time when I send the kids to Europe they don't come back because we check off all the boxes that's what makes me unique in what I do so therefore all these kids say wait a second I see so and so made it but they weren't that good I make them as good as they can be and want to be I get into their psyche of the head and I start fixing this as opposed to the body and the feet once they understand the psyche of the game because every game's got a psyche they can develop better and faster because they'll visualise it they'll see it and they'll execute it that's my goal so what do you look for when you bring on a new client then what are a couple of traits you look for in a player a player comes to me I never work with them say for instance you came to me say I want to get better I'm a striker okay I play at this level I always ask them what level you play at okay good highest level doesn't matter I don't think so but the quality of the player the passion that they have do they love the game or do they like the game if they love the game it's like anything else when you left something you're gonna listen you're gonna try to execute you're gonna ask questions and we're gonna work together the other thing that I look at is when they come in the first thing I do is ask them to dribble just dribble grab a ball dribble someone change use your left use your right use both lay down some pylons have them dribble through there what's their body posture like what's their what is their foot do they stiff when they dribble you know what I mean do they look unathletic like what's the situation everything that's registered in my head because like I said before I don't think every player with the same brush just because you come in somebody somebody else might be different they might have good feet but no head some people have good head no feet slow so there's so many variables that I look for in a player and I'm able I don't know how I'm able to do this but maybe tons of experience from when I played all over the world in regards to what are you trying to accomplish when you play are you trying to become that distributor do you like to score goals what makes you happy as a player do you like to compete do you like to communicate do you like to just stand there on the field with with no success you're not moving you're not speaking you're not doing this there's two things you can't teach from what I've learned in my experience is you can't teach height either you got it or you don't if you're looking for that and you can't teach passion either you got it or you don't if you have those two things it doesn't matter about the height but it matters about the passion because the passion is more important than the height depending on how you play the game if you're physical play physical don't change your pattern of playing because you see everybody else say or Lionel Messi no there's only three right everybody else is part of the rest of the pack so I tell these guys who's your favorite player they'll bring up somebody and I'm like do you want to be like them and they're like yeah I'd love to and I said why be like them and it could be you yeah like why do you have to be somebody else that you can't be because you live in a country like Canada US or whatever you got more opportunity where you're from England because it's a professional and it's a lifestyle right so over here I say wait a second what are your goals I want to play I want to get a scholarship okay so let's focus on that route let's focus on making you eligible good enough to get a scholarship with your grades with your ability to learn and listen with your ability to train hard work hard with your ability to speak and we'll find that route what's your goal oh my goal is to play in Europe that's a different lifestyle that's a different game because they played in Europe and at the end of the day you can't play the North American style in Europe because there's two different methodologies and philosophies about the game that's why a lot of people struggle when they went to Europe because European soccer is totally different with the movement communication and everything and they go what's called patterns playing and in North America I've just come back from Florida and I've seen some of the top U19 teams playing in Florida in the Walt Disney Club showcase and I wasn't impressed to be honest with you but I was not impressed the top teams in the state in the country that were there because it's a different game you know what I mean that's not my style but for some people at the end of the day it depends on what you're used to like I'm more like the European style for me to play in the US I could do it but it's not my cup of tea for me to play in Italy I adjust a lot better that's my style playing movement first touch, second touch so that's just my philosophy and how to play it first thing I ask is where do you want to go going forward oh I want to play we have different leagues here OPDL is supposed to be the highest league here it's called OPDL so you want to make an OPDL team position my position is whatever it is I said do you know your roles in that position they're like no I say well every position has a role simplify it right try to make it easier for them to understand mm-hmm okay so what do you want to work on are you allowed to do this or are you restricted from doing A, B and C because every coach is different I have the freedom to do this perfect you have the freedom first thing you need to do is and then I go through the steps of what you need to do in that position they say to me and you but how do you know all these positions I said it's a very simple game every sport is simple if you make it simple if you're the playmaker make plays if you like to score goals if you're not scoring goals as a striker you ain't going to last too long you need to score goals if you're wing backs attack on the flanks if you're a creator if you're a false nine like whatever your position is there's roles for them but they were never taught that so I become that person to teach them what they need to learn to succeed in this particular sport so I simplify things for them the best way that I can so that when they're happier they're more confident they want to play more but at the end of the day they get scalloped that's what I want to do with these players so every kid to me in Piratar Soccer Academy is a project I could turn a bad player into an excellent player just by controlling the mind of them their mind because they don't play they get discouraged they lose confidence and they don't want to play anymore so I make it fun for them those are the type of players who do not know that if you actually take anybody doesn't matter what color or whatever and you say to them listen we're all special we have certain skills that we are great at and once you find out what that skill is take advantage of it it doesn't have to be sport it could be you being brilliant in business selling something real estate whatever it is we're all talented in something if this is something you want to do in love you came to the right place because I'm going to create you to be that person and when they become it how did you do it with so and so that they didn't want to play the problem is clubs in general they paint everybody with the same brush because they don't have time to train that kid individually to make them better so they come to people like myself and say Angel I heard so many great things about the academy what you've done with so and so so you build what's called a resume for yourself that's how I started I built a brand that when somebody comes to me I'll make them better a thousand percent because that's my goal and if I don't make them better so I put the pressure on me because I care about it so much and I have so much passion to make people better that it's almost like an obsession to say okay you know what I need to make this kid great it's not that you're making anybody great you're turning them into a human being that loves doing something over and over that's it completely agree so let me take you back Angelo when you first started pure touch soccer then what was a few challenges you faced getting your name out there getting credibility getting the clients getting the fields to train on getting confidence from the people that you played with or against because they'll always say oh did you hear Angelo so my goal right from the gecko was to put my name and my product out there so what I did was I started off with a mini camp I wasn't working through two years because I had a full-time job but I started off with a mini camp in the summer one week to see how many students like it we promoted it with flyers we brought it to schools we dropped them off we said listen if you're interested hear the flyers give us a call send us an email we'll answer any of the questions that you have so we made a partner that I had at the time and what ended up happening was we got good success based on we had the first class first week we had about 14 kids second class they liked the first week so much they told friends we ended up with 18 kids and we only did a two week camp in the summer so we like you know what this was successful enough to put a brand out there but the biggest problem when you started new business you could lose it just as fast as you built it okay because the first reaction the first response from the customers consumers if they give you bad rep to say it's not worth it you're finished but they never said that because we I never personally spent a lot of money on advertising my advertising has burned them out a referral from Joe Peter Mike hello Angelo my name is so and so because I got your number from so and so one of your students I'm like okay so you know already something's going well and I've been building it ever since from 2004 to today but the only thing that hurt a lot of small businesses like myself you know what it is pandemic facilities were shut down nobody wanted to stand next to each other people had to wear masks like it was a mess over here I don't know how it was over there in England but it was a complete mess so other facilities were closed they were working with limited numbers and for me limited numbers means one thing breaking even I don't work to break even I got a family to three they got a wife and two kids I need to create money for what I love to do to feed my family and to pay me for what I love to do simple why do people go to work money no matter how you slice it or dice it I cannot work for free for the rest of my life because when the bills come in or something else comes in a birthday gift a confirmation a wedding whatever you can't go to say here I'm giving you me because I got no money so number one thing I don't care what anybody says you got to do what you got to do you got a passion for money will come thousand percent I don't care what anybody says I speak what I believe if the kid comes up to me says hey my kid is great no he's not he needs a lot of work I'm not saying that because I want you as a client but the reason why you're with me because you know he needs work right a lot of people are like that they say my kids the best in this age group well let me be the decision maker I'll decide how good your kid is because I would love for your kid to be great and take it to the next level so that will we both win in the end mm-hmm the way the way I do it is I interview the parent first and foremost before the kid because the parent will determine tell me how the kid is going to be so the parent what do you think of your kid I start with the same thing I question them what do you think about your kid oh my kids got tons of potential these a b c and d okay fantastic talk to the kid I don't care how old the kid is I speak to the kid eight nine ten six seven doesn't matter what the age is and then I assess and I question them to say what do you want to do first thing I say is what do you want to do with your life besides education health that's number one I want to be a professional soccer player where I want to play middle I want to play in friends I want to play in England good do you play with the ball every day even on your own they'll say yes or no so once now I have an idea you know what I'm getting into because if the kid says yeah I like to play with the ball every single day fantastic that for me gratifying to the point where we meet we start training and then from there we build the brand together and after we try to get them to the next level that's my philosophy after so where do you see private training going in Canada in the next two to five years we're not going I'm going to tell you something soccer is not our number one sport it's isarchy okay I played isarchy too the highest level you could I was a better hockey player than soccer but because I made the Canadian national team at 15 and it's played all the way to U21 U22 I had no time to play hockey so in hockey the bottom line is this the reason why TERS become who they become because it's 5,000 hockey schools in the GTA Greater Toronto area and no coach no organization will ever occur somebody a player for not getting better never the kid can't skate go see Leonardo the kid can't shoot go see Angelo the kid can whatever can skate shoot it go see Peter like we always send them to the right people the best technical trainer so much so we promote that but over here they don't promote it because they see that they're not doing a great job but they're getting paid from the club the kids want to get better to pursue their dreams so they come to people like me the clubs get upset because they come to people like me because when they go back they're better than everybody else they get upset because their name gets what's the word I'm looking for let's tarnish let's say that your name gets tarnished where did you get better I went to so and so no no no no you can't go there you know what I mean like it's an ego thing and I'm saying to myself but not for anything but if the kid's better for your team that makes you look better as a coach because you're winning more games what's the issue but in hockey it's totally opposite they push people to go to these academies these training clinics these skating this power skating the hitting the shooting the passing we promote of it because we have no time to develop little Johnny we don't because we're running a tactical session based on power play based on what based on what's our methodology of playing 4-3-3-3-5-2 4-2-3-1 like what is it every team is different right so we they don't promote the individual they don't understand a lot of things that's going on with regards to when you go on a trial did you play soccer yeah okay Leonardo you go to a trial you don't know anybody there who are you supposed to make it look good yourself or the team yourself of course it's an individual thing right once you make the team you become part of a team and that's when you build up your technical tactical because you're part of a team now but when you're showcasing yourself you don't want to make everybody else look good and that's why I developed these kids to be the best at these trials these ID camps because you're building the individual but you're still reminding them that once you make it you're not an individual anymore you're part of a group you're part of a team you win as a team you lose as a team but be the difference maker when you win and lose and that's what I want trying to instill in their head to say hey you're still playing for a team which is you and if you don't want to look after everybody else and they get all the success now you're making a mistake so I became a consultant as well so they could always call me say Angela I'm coming over here in Florida and struggling in this particular area and I'll help with it I'll help with it it's only a little phone call to say Angela what am I doing in this situation so I discussed with them I said give me the scenario and I put it on a piece of paper because everything I have is on pieces of paper so every drill I've ever made like I got about 5,000 drills I made them from the top of my head which is not normal because a lot of people go to YouTube they get a drill and they just execute I don't do that I've never done it because I'm so obsessed with becoming the elite of the elite trainer in the world that I need to go above and beyond everybody else you see what I'm saying so when I train these kids I train them to do things on their own in a situation when they're on the field that's my goal for my academy and it's always been and the people want to not say they do it out of jealousy I don't know but it doesn't bother me because perfect so what would you say to another coach either watching this or listening to this interview who want to start a business but are maybe afraid to do so what would you be your number one advice to them? you've got to have the passion to do it you've got to take the players okay so this question's always been asked they're like Angela what do you do with players that aren't very good I said well you call yourself Joe's training academy development program because they started from stage one ABC they said okay they said how about if they start getting better I said well you've done your job how about their coach and you want to start something like what I'm doing what do you do? first of all you've got to see if it's for you because not one of the best players in the world not around now see down on those guys not all of them make good coaches because they can't explain to the players what they can do so that becomes a little bit of a why can't you do this well I'm not you because they're all painted the top players in the world are so fixated on everybody else's success so say how come you can't jump how come you can't do that dunk I did how come you can't dribble through nine players and score like you did against England how come you guys can't do that coach we can't now what happens now you've lost your trust because you're painting everybody has the same brush that you're using so you're painting everybody with the same brush but at the end of the day you can never be successful that one okay so as a coach I'm an explorer have a passion for teaching or do you have a passion for the money which one is it because you have a passion for something believe me when I say this money will come you don't need to sell yourself because it's going to show in what you do how you develop them how you speak to them what do you get out of them do you let the kid fool around and train is not for everybody they think it is that's why you see 5000 academies oh I got ABC when I started in 2004 there was me plus 5000 academies in the GTA now there's 180 you know how many of those 180 are successful one 12 they all left one on their own and they went belly up in a year because they thought but if I'm an angel I'm going to do what he does and people are going to come doesn't work like that because you need the passion to do it you just can say oh by the way I see Donald Trump and I see all these wealthy guys and there were billions I want to be like you can't be like them everybody's we're all created differently and when these guys try it and fail they'll come back and he's looking for a job again I'm saying guys you want to do it you do it but do you have the passion to do it to break down the kids ability to kick a ball or pass a ball do you have the ability to do that or do you get frustrated, delete what's your story what I'm telling everybody to do at the end of the day is do what you think you're best at whether it's assistant coach whether it's a trainer whether it's physical whether it's speed training whatever you do that focus on it and you will never fail a coach who plays doesn't mean you could coach but hey do you know someone so scored I don't care what he scored because at the end of the day can you teach how you score can you demonstrate to show them that they could do it too not everybody could do that because they don't even know what they're doing they just do it you see what I'm saying because a human being doing it I don't know if I'm boring you or not but a human being at the end of the day is broken down into quadrants okay just like the field you got feet you got thighs you got chest you got shoulders you got head you got neck you know what I mean like you got hips be mobile but at the same time you got to do what execute and when you execute what happens people start knocking on door who's your kid what's going on over here they start to take notice of course because you're selling yourself as a brand you're a brand yes my father always said to me he goes in but forget about everybody else your last name is your brand yes do you want to be known as who's you of the best yeah of course that so that's your brand some people say but I don't have a brand yeah your brand is your name do you want to do bad things your brand and you want your brand to take the rest of everything that you did negatively you want people to know you as the greatest or the worst and if you want to take that route to the worst that's your brand and that's what I like to teach these kids because there's people that don't necessarily become pro players but they become very successful business people individuals I'll never forget what you told me I'm like what are you talking about I never forget that time when we were training and you said guys you cannot fight to be the second best you got to be the best or don't participate nobody remembers number two these guys all graduated from universities they all built like apps they all built financial industries and they're like they think me like what are you thinking me for you don't even play soccer anymore it's the rules what you teach us that is so important in life the rule that you taught us can't be can't be rewritten to the point where you told us to do this but you didn't tell us to do this because it benefited you you told us to do this because it benefited my brain to tell me why I'm doing it I'm like oh and I get teary eyed when I do it when they come up to me give me a hug say thank you I'm like oh like for me it's like oh that's special not soccer players but they succeed in everything else then I got the players that became successful playing in Europe so that made their journey the most successful to what they wanted in life you know what I mean so I don't know how to explain but I'm just different because I have too much passion for what I do yeah I mean essentially you're developing people yes exactly you know soccer is just something the person does yes exactly so yeah it's a byproduct byproduct exactly yeah so tell us a bit about how did you get your first client then client? yeah how did you get your first client like I said we we solicited the camp in 2004 the summer and we solicited through what's called the jurisdiction of where you want to hold the camps for instance we're holding it in a certain area called Vaughn Ontario yeah which is Naples which is within the city of Vaughn then there's another concord which is in the city of Vaughn so we decided to do it in Naples in the city of Vaughn and we handed out our brochures in packages to all these schools in the surrounding area to all say hi how are you I'm interested in the camp and at first we had to open it up to the general public because we wanted more volume than quality quantity versus quality just to get our name out there and we ended up with 12 kids is it good and they go to 1,000 flyers not really but at the end of the day it's a good start so now that we're doing this camp now we gotta prove to them and the parents who we are and what we do the first kids specifically I don't remember who it was but I got a photo of six kids that came to the camp they're all plain professional wow yeah which is unbelievable unbelievable nobody's ever done something like that in their life one's in Benfica, one's in Holland one's in two players in Spain one's in TFC Toronto one's in the other one one's in Norway and you think to yourself they're four or five that's how young they were, some of them some of them were eight or nine it was a very young group of talent the parents were there so they were interviewing us just like we were interviewing the kids some of them knew me personally from when I played and they're like okay let's see how I teach the game and what he's gonna do with my kid and then what ends up happening is that you make them better and it comes around and you say if you want to develop go see this guy, you want to develop so when they call me now I already know that they're calling on a referral someone so asked me to call you because my kid needs this now they're getting very specific because they know I specialize in what I do when it comes to soccer can I coach? thousand percent I won many coaches of the year it's too tactical I want to see them moving with the players but it's different training methods between coaching tactically versus technically it's hard to do both very hard to do both that's why when I separated myself from the rest of the pack I became a technical expert in training and breaking the player down rebuilding them in D and that was my goal from a technical perspective love that so where do you see your business in the next five years from now then? without due respect if this pandemic didn't hit I would not have had any glitches whatsoever based on because my goal throughout 12 months over here in Canada you do six months outdoor indoor due to the weather fall winter you can't train outside it's cold it's freezing so I go indoor to outdoor and it's been very very successful for many many years until the pandemic facilities were shut down I couldn't train more than 10 kids at a time especially in the indoor years with fall winter of 2020-2021 it destroyed a lot of businesses it didn't just destroy mine based on the fact that I was still doing private, semi-private team training in the spring and summer so I had to work every day four sessions a day seven days a week for six months that's how I made up the difference in costs and revenue because if you had to rely on facilities especially in this country to make money during the pandemic a lot of people lost everything because they're not available people get sued, you get tickets for having one extra player on the field it's very stringent to the point where they didn't want you to succeed as a small business and it was frustrating for guys like myself because we built a brand for all these years 2004 and all of a sudden they take it away from you and you're like wow now what do you do that's why I ended up going to Florida with my family because if I'm not going to work here I'm going to go to Florida there's no restrictions really you know what I'm saying so it's a different mindset I have to change my game plan but now that I'm back home I'm so busy right now every single day but the problem I'm having right now is the climate change and it's still snowing in Toronto now what do you do see what I'm saying there's always it's not consistent here so therefore the people are telling me hey yeah it's not for anything but what do you want to do with this situation because you enjoyed Florida and I got a lot of connections there are you going to go there for 6 months come back for 6 months what do you want to do so that's the crossroads I'm at right now so as a business owner I got to sit back spoke to my wife and I said what can we do how are we going to do it now the business plan has changed now I need to adjust the new business plan which is how are we going to make this work for the benefit of the students benefit of the parents for the benefit of me and my business that's it love that well Angelo it's been an absolute pleasure thank you so much for taking the time out to share your story I can obviously tell you're very passionate about what you do so I want to encourage you to continue to do it because I know you're changing lives the difference to the clients you work with so if any coach is watching and they're inspired by you by your story, by your business how can they get in contact with you and how can you follow your business such soccer on Instagram I only have my pure touch website on my phone but it's shut it down on my computer because of the pandemic so when you're paying hosting fees for no reason and nobody can register on it because we have nothing to do I told everybody we told all the clients that we were going to take emails to my director email account and we're going to do Instagram or personal messages and then what I do is I do a schedule if they want to get a hold of me come to message me and if I could help them I'll help them there's no issues with that so what we'll do is we'll add your Instagram link to the bottom of this video so any coach can reach out to you or follow your business perfect all right it's been an absolute pleasure Angelo good luck with everything in the future and I hope to thanks for having me you're very welcome I hope to connect with you again very soon perfect sounds good thank you