Welcome back boys to the channel and girls gonna do an afternoon hunt as solo afternoon hunt I haven't I've only done like one solo hunt this year and sometimes it's nice just to go out and have that success Yourself and just I don't know just be out there. So of course I got Rocky with me So he's in the back put in for what we call the sweat line if you guys Want to know more about that you're not from California or maybe in the military and by the way shout out to all the military Active and veterans never said that on this channel I was I'm a veteran myself and I guess you think someone like me would say that more But I do appreciate you guys a lot a lot of people on Instagram and so like that message us all the time talking about Hey, what do I do? I'm from this state and I am stationed in California. How's this whole system works? So anyways, if you want to listen or hear more about that or learn more about that You can check out our podcast the mvm show and there's some a couple Episodes that we've gone to detail about that help you guys out So anyways, I am sweatline meaning I'm the last of the last because I couldn't get your last night to put in for lottery But believe it or not, I'm only like 14th down the line and honestly for Shona beta clock that's Really good. I'm hoping to be in the refuge and start an afternoon hunt by like 11 o'clock I think you have a good time. There is a ton of birds in the closed zone We got a 10 to 20 mile an hour wind out of the north, which is place always does good So anyways, I'm gonna go check out one of my favorite stores Maybe grab a bite to eat head back and sit there and wait in the park lot until get some action How'd you know this Rocky still doesn't like to get in a bit. I should have videoed it But I got a good blind we've been here before just got it just got the decoys out I got a spinner out, but I might take it down. I'm not a big spinner fan We'll see how the birds react to it, but really I'm surprised. I haven't seen that ball I hear some geese coming. I better get off here guys, but I got the shot cam I'm shooting my 12 gauge and I'm shooting heavy metal three inch four shot. I don't think they like that spinner Depper back. He sees it. I think I got the hen I was aiming for the dragon. I think I shot behind it and hit the hen Good boy Good boy. I was thinking that when I was shooting to you.  That was a stud Drake Whidgen And it's like I knew as I was squeezing the trigger I was gonna hit that hand because I wasn't leading that Drake far enough They actually were way closer right here, but this big old bush thing in my way So you can see just because I'm trying to get in some shadows If you got the Sun beaming on you, which he always do in this pit unless it's overcast Trying to create some shadows, but I've had a lot of pentails come over So I'm kind of trying to get a stud though because there's so many I think I think I can pick one Pretty easy so I'm gonna wait till one has a super long pin The closest any of God's like 35 yards. I just held off. I took my spinner down to you I think it was pushing him out there the ways. Where's the Drake's? That was 15 yards. Go down. Go down. Go down. Go down.  I think I got both right here over here leave There's one Go get that other one Get a bird back Good boy. He's dead that heavy metal. I shot him in the rear twice That's why I put another one in him because I knew I hit him once or the bismuth inside that He he's sell a little bit hit the water in my time rock you got to me's dead That's the thing even if you don't make a clean shot That stuff will kind of clean up here your junk Whereas in my opinion if it was still He would have kept going I think Good boy To Drake's in the hand. I'll take that. Come on, buddy Good boy. You want to carry it back there? You want me to carry it? I'll carry it. I'll let you carry it Did I win God it I'll carry it It's over on the right side a couple wedging in the back shutters and fruits on the left and then a swimmer pulse it right in the middle they didn't really do it though, but They weren't that far so I'll take it double on which and drink Good Nice head on a good little sprig to Double double and vision stoked That's a nice one to you. What's funny about that guys is so the guys to the west of me They were doing their widget call like big time. I had mine. I grabbed mine There's whatever however many in that group and I grabbed mine to start calling well soon as they hit the Witching call those birds flared and came right to me Guess what I did? I dropped the witching call and said forget it I'm gonna call it kind of me under around here and then got here. They got the closest point I'd say 25 yards pretty stuck to get a double on which I've been picking on the pentels because I want to get one With a long sprig one just did it awesome And I passed them up You really have a sprig on hopefully I don't regret that and that I feared has come upon me the stinking wind died down to About a four or five and just getting flatter and flatter now. I'm starting to think I should have shot my band tail not good This place dies down about an hour before shoot diamonds I'm starting to not get too hopeful and nothing's flown by me in the last 20 minutes I went from a 15 mile and north of wind 15 20 to basically almost nothing What do you think? I think your dad made a bad call Should have shot those pentels when you give the wind completely stopped went to zero bird stop flying And then it switched to the southeast at like 10 Man of me, huh? I really just need to leave. There ain't gonna be nothing else coming That's how this place always is Pullers you in making you think you're gonna have another chance and you never do for the last hour Definitely should have been tough. I was a bad bad call It's like now that I look back at it. It's like why did I care about a long pin?  I was looking forward to eating it So what does the matter with the pen is taking myself now big time? Well, it was nice to meet the guys at the check station name and talk to a couple guys They actually never even got your name kind of was excited to get a pin toe because I wanted to cook it I can't even get a Drake shoveler to come by Got it. Of course my GoPro dies Literally just died as that group was coming right at me Good boy. Nice Drake, Widgen. Good boy Good boy. I stung him though. He helicopter all the way down. Hold Good boy, good boy. Except for shaking him again. I mean that one didn't have jokers Stone dead. Nice bird.   Do I stay? I guess I will when he made this far Little ways out there boys. I think they're seeing a rocky Sit here up on top and never like to have the dog up on top of me Get him boy Come on Bubba Good dog. I'm two birds in the last five minutes Good boy Drake shoveling. Over here, over here. That's a stud too Some of you shovel a lover just couldn't appreciate that here bud. Here. Hold, hold Lee If you would have had a band it'd really be cool. Yeah, that's a nice bird About as free as they get this time of year. Two in five minutes that Drake shoveler and that other Drake Widgen Last five minutes. I didn't stink and get the one on video, but I'm pretty happy with that actually five. I Definitely had a Drake pinch on that pile about ten of them if I wanted. I Really now looking back down to why I got so picky about that. That was really stupid Those are really nice birds Really nice white caps on these all three of these actually really not a lot of flaking left in that one maybe but These two pretty solid And then he's a stud He's just he's fully plowing to the max shooting the old 12 gauge today the Browning a five with Old faithful heavy metal three inch foreshot He did good today. Today's the first day. I would say down he would lay down and that's what you need on these pits because Him standing up. It's me just too much like the birds see it and flare All right, Darren This is for you He said that this is like Mount Dew on steroids or something like that made in 1956 anybody ever drunk this before that How to watch as a channel we're gonna try it out. Let's see. I didn't even bring the do is brought a ski Anyways, I got a lot set to wrap up Beautiful beautiful California sunset and I hope you guys enjoyed it Don't forget to give this video a thumbs up and we'll see you on the next one


Welcome to Making Your Community Project Sustainable here at TechSoup. We're TechSoup, we're a global network bridging tech solution services for good, and our guest today is Pia Mancini. We're very excited to have Pia here. Pia is a democracy activist, open source sustainer, co-founder and CEO at Open Collective, a platform that enables communities around the world to raise and spend funds in full transparency. Collectives on her platform raised $100 million, effectively unlocking access to impact funds around the world. She's also co-founder and president of the Open Source Collective, a nonprofit that provides a financial and admin home for more than 3,000 open source projects around the globe, granting them access to projects, project directed funding from companies, individuals, and nonprofit organizations. Pia is also co-founder and chair of Democracy Earth Foundation, a Y Combinator backed California nonprofit dedicated to developing technology for democracy around the world. So excited to have her. We'll do an interview here for 20 minutes or so, asking Pia questions about her journey, her approach to fundraising, some insights she's gleaned from fundraising over the years, global impact, her approach to global impact and community stories, transparency and more. And then we'll open it up to the community for Q&A. And so with that, I want to pass the mic to Pia. So hi everyone. So much fun to be here today. So I'm going to be talking today to you about Open Collective and it's just going to be a short presentation, just really focused on the nuts and bolts of what we do. And then I'll be open for chatting and questions. So just follow, build this lead on that. So presentation today is called, the future is collective and how to fund our communities. So obviously for everyone here, but I like to start with this because it's like a level setting and like a group hug moment where we all agree that building a community is very hard work. And just a couple of images to show like where we're coming from, where I'm coming from as well, like why we're doing Open Collective and the type of like curdles that we encountered while doing different things around the world. The guy there with the white t-shirt is my friend, Gonzalo. This is in Buenos Aires when we set up our political party and party on the red or the net party. And the government was asking us to get signatures like in triple signatures three forms per person. This is in the thousand and we had to organize them alphabetically and send them to the right place at the right time as well as printing our own ballots, distributing ballots to 7,000 voting stations in the city only. We've been blessed with a lot of help from taxi drivers during that campaign. But the whole idea here is that like doing these like super difficult kind of tests was what we needed to do in order to prove to governments that we were serious. And so they would let us fundraise. And so it was very challenging for us and at the same time what was very difficult was that we couldn't receive any campaign money until the government who were trying to change accepted us as like a valid kind of player in the game. So the whole game is really twisted from that perspective because the system is enabled, it's designed to expel people. Next to it you'll see our Trojan powers. I'll talk more about that probably over wine at a different time. But essentially we built this Trojan horse and paraded it around Buenos Aires. And it made so much noise that we finally, the governor finally was like, okay, we can let them play. But again, like the hurdle is not nothing. And below there you see some folks from climate activists. This was in one of the cops a couple of years ago and they came together and they hacked together to think like technology for climate change. And we are all hackers here, we got it. So we were builders, right? So we're like, okay, we're gonna do this website, this thing is that. And they were like, okay, but afterwards how do you crystallize all that energy? No one wanted a foundation, a nonprofit to do this work. So we're forcing these circles to twist a little bit to one side and to the end to become triangles because that is the only thing the system understands. And most of our communities folks, they're not triangles, they're circles. We come, we contribute, we take them off, we do one thing, then we do something else. There's no precedent, there is no hierarchical structure. So it's really at odds with who we are. And so we define the collectives of the internet era by the following characteristics, right? Peer production. So like this kind of P2P collaboration and production and energy and creativity that is flowing in this kind of nodal way. They're global, non-territorial communities. And this is hugely important because because they're not anywhere in the world, we can't have accounts anywhere in the world, right? We actually need to be somewhere in the world in that territory in order to cooperate, right? So like the system, the nation state kind of scaffolding assumes that everyone is like inside a territory and that's where you unlock your badges and can actually participate in the game. But all of our communities are not necessarily territorial, right? So we have low trust building opportunities. Again, because you're not face to face or you're not in the same space, we need to figure out how to collaborate in a way that we can do that in a low trust environment because creating like what real trust takes a long time. And so we're here talking about people who are contributing, collaborating, and maybe they're folks who might never meet face to face. So how do we enable that? We need transparent money flows, right? Because in this level of contribution, we need the flows to be transparent. So the structure that previously the firm provided, we need to be able to create it. And again, obsolescence of hierarchy, no one wants to be the president. There's no president of the internet, right? So Open Collective has been sustaining decentralized communities since 2016. So what is Open Collective? So essentially Open Collective is one solution for fundraising and money management that has two parts. One part is a non-profit platform that is an open finances platform that allows collectives to fund, raise and spend their money, make events, have subscriptions, be in touch with their contributors, etc. Plus a network of non-for-profits and fiscal cost that act as custodials of the funds. So Open Collective is not a thing. It's a constellation. It's a constellation of entities. It's the platform and the hosts and the collectives. So tech for fundraising and accounting, access to non-profit status, transparent budgets across the board. There is no hiding where the money is going. Again, this is key in environments where trust takes a long time to achieve. And also think about it, right?  You want to fund money, put money together, mutilate groups, right? We're just going to support our neighborhood. And at the beginning, everyone said, okay, I'll collect the money, $10 here, $50 there. After a certain amount of money, it's a risk for you. Like it's a tax liability. You need to be able to show more or less what the money is going. So it's also like a bigger legal risk for the person holding the money. And it doesn't make any sense, right? We need some sort of structure that allows this to happen in a transparent way. So we have learning and leadership development. This is like some of the hosts to, for example, the solidarity economy school. And so we do have a lot of work that we are doing with Collectives. We want to do more of this. It's one of our goals, an international network. So we have a network of hosts from around the world. The technology is community-led. So we are building this technology with our users and community members, the physical hosts on the platform. We have open roadmaps open. We're obviously open source. We have like our Github issues, like everything is transparent. We have emerging leadership and a network that, in the future, this is one of my main goals is that this whole network, this whole constellation, it's going to be owned by the community that it serves, right? Really like a goal of mine that I would love to be able to bring into the world. So this is actually a slide so many times before. We're from 2015, but essentially it's still so good. So Open Collective sits in like a digital kind of layer between the collectives that are unincorporated and the hosts that hold the money for those collectives. And it's the hosts that are taken to the legacy system, so the nation states. So this is a typical example, and I bet any of the communities here today want to do this. We're trying to raise money. Yes, we need money because we need to buy things. We need to pay ourselves. We need to carry out our craft thing that we love doing. Okay, so do we need to be a nonprofit or a charity? Or hang on a second, what about an association? No, but an association is really, it's not nonprofit status, so we can't receive money from GANs. Okay, how about an LC? No, but that really for profit, like how are we going to justify? We all go through the same questions like, trust me, you are not alone on this. Like it's rinse and repeat. We have the same conversations at the core of every community. So we're trying to solve that, for example, right? So how do we make progress in this? No, this is for example, OCF is one of our hosts, right? Like the beauty of this work is that OCF can hold the money for you and can give your group nonprofit status, right? And so you have your admin team, you have your group, you have your connective, but the money goes to a nonprofit in California. So the platform allows us to raise this money in full transparency and we do this across the world, right? In the US, in the EU, in New Zealand, in Africa, we would love to start in Latin America. That's another kind of fed obsession of mine. And so the online platform is like where everything flows through open connected ink, which is the company that builds the platform and who gave you money, who spent money, where the money is going, how much money you have to the send at any given time. And anyone who has been to a fiscal sponsor or has been through a fiscal sponsorship project before, you know how important it is to have access to this information. Any collective knows today, right now, how much money we're holding for them to the send. And there's a lot of value in that because there's a lot of empowerment that comes from that. So the process is very easy. You create a collective, you select your fiscal host, I need to move my image from here.  That's it, in full transparency, the platform takes care of a lot of the kind of processes and the host, take care of the really hard work of doing the compliance and managing the funds for you. As Billy was saying before, we raised, we essentially unlocked, that's the way I like thinking about it. We unlocked a hundred and five million dollars into the hands of community. This is money that, if you picture it, it's money that we helped move from the center to the fringe. Right, it's money that it wouldn't have been able to go to the hands of these collectives unless there was like a process like this one. And we've had 15,000 communities joining in. So we are now funding like multiple public goods, commons, grassroots communities, climate activists, data trusts, social and political movements. So we started very focused on open source communities because the ecosystem was very ripe for something like this. But we branched out for that, especially the last three years, it's been a bit of a joy ride. And so it just is really this obsession that we have at Open Connective of how Open Connective, as I said, is like a multiplicity of actors at the core is from that makes everything happen. But that platform is in the hands of a company that has investors and ownership. And we are, we believe very strongly in community on tech. Right, we think that because we are here now and we are stewards of this community, of this from today. And I know the team and I know our values, but tomorrow might not be here. So how do we ensure that those values are enshrined when someone else is at the helm, right? Not that someone else is not going to do a good job, but we just have no way of controlling that outcome. And so we think that it's key that the community that uses this, it's fully owner of the mechanism that underpins their livelihoods. So that's it folks. I'm going to finish here because open for questions. And yeah, I'll be here. Thank you. Bea, I want to start with personal journey. You shared a bit about your work in Argentina, but I want to get a little more granular and hear more about the critical juncture that led to the inception of your platform. What was, what was there a triggering experience or moment or collection of them that really brought you to this place? Yeah. So the platform was originally worth three co-founders who started Open Collective and the person who was leading this at the time, Sadie Daman, I think many of you might know him or not. He's a Virgin entrepreneur. And we got together when I was living in San Francisco. I was nine months pregnant. I had no idea what doing a startup was and I had no idea what being a mother was. Now I know. And so we were like, maybe we can do this. And I'm like, sure, why not? Like I'll just pop this baby and then we can get on with it, right? Yes, I know. Optimism is a force of nature. And we got together and we started talking about where each of us were. And so I was coming from Y Combinator, from the Net Party, from really feeling that it was quite unfair for the communities or projects initially. It's really like the Net Party to be forced to become like something that looked like the system that you're trying to change. Because you wanted or not, when you start looking like the system because you're forced to do that, you end up becoming the system. It's this kind of process that happens where you lose your ability to be detached from it and to build around. So I was coming out from that experience like quite, I don't know, tired, dated, whatever. And this thing that I was bothering was like, why, if I want to change kind of the way politics operate, why do I need to become politics? And so, yeah, at the same time, I was coming from that same kind of experience who was trying to do this movement in Belgium to make the startup ecosystem in Brussels like a bit more friendly. And again, cargo, they were like, oh, we'll just do a website. We can connect to Stripe. Oh, we can receive money.  And so they ran into that problem. It's like, where is the pot, the collective pot where we put the money? And so that's when we decided to join forces and solve this problem at scale. We really see communities as an economic and social unit that has no place in the world to interact as an economic and human unit. And so that's what we wanted to build to really abstract out all the clankiness of having to deal with the legacy system and just unlock that power when communities are just unleashed to do what they want to do. Very powerful. I totally hear you. And I want to return to the brief comment you made about a legacy, legacy structure or legacy idea of the nation state later if we have time. Sure. If you need to time box me on that one. This is only a 60 minute webinar. So maybe next part two. Okay. I'll jump right into the fundraising journey and impact question. So fundraisings, of course, fraught with challenges. On so many levels from a power dynamic of funders to grantees and so much more people who have access or obviously first at the funding lists and parties and all. And so you must have had invaluable insights over the years about your own fundraising journey and bringing open collective to life that maybe reshaped your own understanding of the hurdles faced by other makers of public good technology. And I'd love to just hear how you bucket the challenges that kind of, I guess, just became more apparent to you and obvious in a way that previously you just had a blind spot too. Yeah. And that for me is a bit of a painful in a way question because if I had to start open collective today, I wouldn't have made the decisions that I made. And the reason is that when we started open collective in 2015, there really wasn't, you just did a startup, right? You opened the C Corp in Delaware and people wanted to give you money and there was a lot of money in the market. So they were like, yeah, sure, we like open source here. You can have money. And we were like, okay, so how do we do this? And there's like this is that when I give us money and angel investors and we're like, we need money because we actually need to work. And we were very lucky because we have really good investors who understand what we're doing. And they're here for the long call. And also we were very lean. And so we raised very little capital. And so we have a freedom that many companies don't have. But right now we're in this position where like, how do I move forward with this? What are my options for open collective going? Or do I sell open collective? Like if you think in a 50 year time horizon, which I think is the time horizon, the minimal time horizon that we should be thinking. So in 50 years, I think that the problem that we solve, communities need a path to be sustainable and manage their own resources is still valid. Our mission will hold true. But the way we do things might not hold true. There may be new ways of fundraising managing on of that just. But so how do we build a path for the current mission to be protected, Stuart, and at the same time that it's flexible enough that we're not, as you say, locking ourselves into power dynamics with existing actors in the network. And I think that having a seek for open collective ink and having investors on the one hand, it enabled all of this because I would, at the time, we all needed to be paid. I guess we needed salary, right? And so we need to figure out some fundraising. And those were the options available. But I would have done something more in a steward-owned company. I would have baked into the corporate structure, the flexibility that I need now, and I don't have, essentially. That's one of my big learnings. Now with the fundraising itself, because we are very lean, we only fundraise like less than $3 million. And our last funding round was in 2018. And we've been leading of our own revenue since then. But it is very challenging, right? Because, for example, the cost to the network right now, it's a horrible year for everyone, right? There's a big money crunch. Like money now is very expensive, both for non-profit and for-profit. And like our costs don't have, at the same time, the ability that open collective ink has of going and raising money in the market, right? Because costs are non-profits. So they depend on grants, but grant money now is difficult. So I guess what I've learned very early on is that revenue, whether it's your non-profit or your community or for-profit, but like the way you're generating that sustainability, it's key, right? You cannot really, sooner you stop depending on like grants, I think, the better for you in terms of flexibility. That is obviously easier said than done, because at the same time, when there is money, people just want to give you money. And so you're like, we need money to do this, so why am I not taking it? But it sets you also in a dynamic that can be unhealthy and unsustainable. So really think about your core way of sustaining your community.  I think it's very important. Great. Okay, let's talk a little bit about qualitative impact and quantitative impact, how you approach holistically this concept of impact. Because you're so transparent with your roadmaps and budgets and everything else, it's really intriguing to dig into this question of impact. Clearly, you have an engineering oriented approach. And so it'd be great to help the audience, some of whom may not be as technical. Tell us a little bit about the numbers and metrics that tell the story of your global resonance. Yeah, we've had 15,000 communities join the platform. What I like about that number is that it's not active communities. And I think that it's important because it speaks at the solution that we are providing. We want communities to come in when they need this, but also to be able to wind down easily. Because sometimes it's easier to start a project than to wind it down. And so having that flexibility of, okay, this is useful at this stage, but maybe it's not useful anymore. Okay, we'll just close it down. And that's fine. That's the value that we add in the world. I think that it's not about creating these, like, optics metrics that you're always adding because we don't need to create so much structure in the world. And a really beautiful example of that is a project called 1K Project. So 1K Project started during COVID. And the proposal was we're going to fundraise, we're going to give to $1,000 a month for three months to families that are struggling with COVID. And so they raised a bunch of money, and they spent all of their money because they gave all this money away. And then they were like, okay. And then it went dormant. And then when the war on Ukraine started, they were like, okay, let's send $1,000 per family to families in Ukraine. And so we raised, they raised, like, we executed like close to $10 million like that. And I think that from those $10 million, the first stick, going the first like couple of months, it was insane. And again, this is $1,000 per family. So like the number of lives that this kind of enabled is incredible. And now, you know, that is dwindling a little bit because different circumstances. But again, if that collective goes dormant again, that's fine. But the structure is there to be picked up again or we just close it. And so I really like these, because we're very obsessed with growth metrics and impacting in like super large numbers. And I like this idea that maybe we just have 5,000 communities active today on Open Connective. And that's great, right? Because that means that we shoot the purpose, people found us useful, and now they're not active anymore. And by active, I mean that they had activity in the last month, right? Yes. And or the last, hang on, that might be the last year, Nathan might know. And so anyway, it's like we're just tracking a transaction. So yeah, and then we see this flow, so coming and going. And it's a structure that when there's need, we're like first responders. Like people come to Open Connective. And then when it stops working, we have collectives that we've had for five years and they're still going and they're going great. But what I mean, the impact is measured in different ways. I'm also still very interested in, and I can show some numbers. I think that we just don't raise money, for example, in the open source, but we spend money. So we want collectives to spend all their money, pay their members. So I think we paid something in the realm of $23 million to open source maintainers. And that's amazing. So we raise the money and we also spend the money. We pay them. So those are metrics that are like not, like you're sure money flow on the platform, $105 million is great. And I love that.  That's when that is useful. Yeah. So that's some of my thinking around metrics. I appreciate that. Here, when you talk about the structure, it sounds like the design is very much an emergent design that's, as you say, at its most powerful when people want to self-organize and solve a problem in their local community because something demands, has something, someone or something is in great need of support. Yeah. And then it sounds like the guiding principle or organizing principle with the way you're thinking about impact metrics is very much a more like a zen-ish, one most important thing metric. If we get to those communities, we know everything streams down, goes downstream from there. And then if we get them the money, we know once again downstream, we're creating value in the world. Yeah. Yeah. Which to me is a really powerful message in the social sector because I find that oftentimes, people are tracking so many different metrics. And when you ask staff what's most important, it can be difficult for people to stay. Yeah. Like to be clear on where we're going in an increasingly complex environment. And also I think there is like a very kind of a colonial type of power dynamics in that whole kind of impact metrics conversations from the non-profit industrial complex because here we are like, so we are a, not we, but let's say a foundation that has a huge endowment that they are investing in, I don't know, share some trade book and things like that. And there's this concept of perpetual endowment, right? Which for me is like problem number one, right? Because if you have a perpetual endowment, you're not really doing your job because your job is to disappear, right? Like your job is to become obsolete. If you're not thinking about how you're not going to be in the world anymore, you're not really serving your purpose. But the other thing is like this whole colonial thinking of we got your money, right? We got to where we are by like exploiting you or someone else in that country or a community, right? So we have all this money that we got through this kind of really hyper-extractive process. And now we're going to give it to you, but we're going to tell you how you have to spend it because we know better. So it's a never-ending power, very strong power dynamics. And I have, I take a bit of issue with the whole impact metrics conversation, not open collective. Because open collective is a company and we need to be held accountable for the money that we raised and the money that we've brought. But like in the kind of impact nonprofit or social space, I take some issue with this idea of impact metrics because who's deciding why impact metrics? The one that you, this nonprofit decides are the ones that are valid. And so I'm trying to change the conversation and talk about returning money and not giving money because when you're returning, you're returning that money to the people that you took in on the first place, right? And then advocating very strongly, which is what open collective does, of just moving money, no strings attached. We move money from the center to the fringes and then we let communities decide how they want to spend their money because they know best. So that's where my thinking, and I think like open collective's thinking in general kind of states with regards to this impact because it has been so used and so, and I think that you just need to return money and step aside. And sure, there are going to be mistakes and things are gonna work, but you know what? Those communities, those kind of, yeah, communities or organizations or countries that you are returning this money, they need to learn because you do have them in like a colonial power setting for many years. So you know what, they're allowed to make mistakes. I hope they make mistakes because making mistakes is how you learn. And so that's anyway, that's my thinking around that. Sorry, I went on a tangent, but I really would love us to start changing our narrative here, right? Yeah, I appreciate the courage and the clarity. Tell, could you share a bit about how those conversations, like a specific conversation with a funder has gone? I think for most folks, that level of conversation is just out of scope, right? You need a certain leverage or position of power to have, to sit at the table in that particular way. So any story that you care to share about how this conversation is going across the sector? Yeah, no, it's really interesting. I think that in the US, it's a lot harder to have these conversations that for example, in the UK. So I participate in some kind of conversation in the UK happening around new frontiers in philanthropy and investment. And this is the kind of mainstream discourse at that space. This is what we're talking about. We are having conversations with like billionaires and people that are going to inherit billions.  That's what we're talking about. My money story is that my family made this money by doing this in this country. And so we do not feel entitled to this money, but we also do not know how to give this money, right? Because how do we return this money? No playbook, no playbook, yeah. There is not no playbook for someone saying I don't want four billion dollars and you just give them to whom. And that is the conversation that is happening in the UK. We are watching the largest transfer of wealth in history right now happening from like the boomer generation to our generation. And this is a generation that is thinking about these things differently. Again, I found those spaces to be more open and more attuned to this narrative in the UK, maybe because the empire history and the kind of colonial kind of blows, but this is very much the way we are thinking about it. Now in the US, it's a lot less open. I've had conversations like this with folks inside these foreign agents, they're folks with whom I have a level of trust that we are able to talk about this. I think that there is reception at an individual level. I've said these things on stage, by the way, you know, in different places. This is not something that... So I'm happy to keep repeating this because I think it's very important. So no one's going to have... It's not a problem for me. But so we've had these conversations with folks inside some of these like large foundations in the US. And I think at an individual level, we are... I've managed to get some of this kind of narrative understood. I think that at a corporate level, this is not something that it's going to change anytime soon. But I think that like everything once we step, democratic culture is upstream of democratic institutions. Right? So the first thing you need to change is like culture. Once you change culture, that downstream of that, you can't change institutions. If you flip that, you're screwed, right? Because whatever institution you want to do in democratic institutions without democratic culture is not going to change. And it's the same the other way around. Like culture and culture wars are upstream of the political situations that we have to... And so I think that it starts with this. It starts with like more and more conversations and narrative discourse changing happening in these spaces and like flowing out of here until the culture makes that shift that allows for institutions to start perceiving this. Yeah. Yeah. Great insight. And I absolutely agree. Okay, I'm going to ask one more question. Then we're going to do Q&A from the audience. This is, again, we've only been talking for a little while, but it'd be helpful to give the audience in the spirit of one most important thing, what is the one most important thing you would call the audience to action in their own work as makers of public good technology? That's a very good question. One thing. So I think that because I'm talking to a technology audience, this is what I'm going to say. If the audience was different, I would say something else, but I think that when you're building technology and you're designing community tech or technology for the common, so technology for the public good or whatever kind of phrase you want that articulate, I think it's very important. And this is not something we're good at doing. And so I suffer from this. So this is coming from a place of acknowledging that we need to be better at this thing but of bringing in the community at the design stage of your technology. Because if you don't, you end up likely, what ends up happening is that, especially technologists, we fall in love with certain ideas or a way of doing things. And but we are not inviting into the design the people who we're serving. Right. And so what happens is that you end up, and I don't, I'm not talking about like stuff and building and talking about like someone who can poke holes at your arguments that can see and spot your biases. Right. Who can understand that? Look, no technology is neutral. That's a fallacy. But we're going to discuss about that later. But yeah, that's my thinking. And so every technology that you build and you develop comes with certain bias, biases that are inherent to it. And so we need to bring in people at the very early stage of the design process to help us understand what those biases are if not at the end of the process, it's very unlikely that you're going to be able to change things or even understand. So this is something that I say a lot when I speak in like technology space, especially in the web three space, because I go crazy when we're democratizing everything, but then we're building technology and then giving it to the people.  Oh my God, I forgot the word. This is old age people. When in politics, when you have to vote of referendum, it's a bit like a referendum in politics, right? They're like, the political corporation cannot make their minds or come to an agreement and they're like, well, we're going to throw it to the people and we're going to call that democracy without any kind of, without any previous real previous work, without involving them in the decision-making process from the beginning before without allowing people to learn fail, understand why they're failing and learn again. And so sometimes with technology, we have tendency to do this a little bit where we're like, oh, we did this great thing and then we're going to give it to the community so the community can use it and the community, yeah, sure, we'll use it because there's not a lot of tech for the community, but really, is it ours? Did we build this together? And so again, that kind of power dynamic thing inside technology communities is real and I think that we need to break it. And it's real. You've seen it even in the public good tech space as well. The makers who are allegedly explicitly trying to work on behalf of civil society. Yeah, I see for open collective. Yeah, we are like, oh, we open a roadmap and then I'm like, have we ever done a public webinar on how to use open collective roadmap, how to interact with open collective roadmap, how to work, be part of the practice with talent, right? Like, it's not the same thing to say. You're designing for the 1% of us who are going to click through all the links, right? Yeah, yeah, I get it. I get it. So that's a great takeaway and now we'll go to Q&A. Hi, everyone, Nathan here. There's a question. How do you select a host? And how do you choose one? And what I answered and then maybe Pia, you can add more flavor and color to it is I provided a link to or you can see all the hosts, but it's a really important decision. You start with location. Where will money be coming from geographically and where will you spend it? Where will it go? Does that fit with your logistically with what you're trying to do? It's also important to find a fiscal host that has the right tax status and legal entity type for you, like a nonprofit, a charity, a co-op, and that's aligned with your mission. But it strikes me as just a very important decision and also something that the platform tries to help you with. Is that the answer? So first I want to thank you, Pia and Nathan for joining us. Your dedication to positive change through this vision is so beautiful in that you are trying to take these human values and instantiate them through the technology so intentionally through community and it's really inspiring to us. So on behalf of our audience, thank you for sharing your remarkable story. We're excited about the boundless potential of Open Collective.


Think Tech Hawaii, civil engagement lives here. Oh, welcome to Out of the Comfort Zone on OC16 television with Think Tech Hawaii. I'm your host, Arby Kelly, and I am so, so excited for our guest today. I'm actually fan-grilling over here. So one of the things I love about this job, working for Think Tech, is that I get to find people that I think are awesome, that I think are cool. Then I get to sit down on live television and have a conversation and ask them all of my questions. So our guest for today, we are forgoing the book of the week. We are forgoing the body language tip of the week because this person has both. This person is actually someone I want to grow up to be like. Oh my gosh, I'm so excited. So introducing Mark Bowden. Hey there. Hey Mark. Great to be here. Hey, thanks for having me, Arby. It's fantastic to be here. Thanks for having me on your show. I'm really excited. So Mark, our viewers have no idea what you do. Could you just explain it a little bit to them? Yeah, so I'm an expert in human behavior and body language. I travel all over the world helping people stand out, win trust, gain credibility every time they communicate. So I really do a lot of what I've seen you do as well, Arby, which is you're helping people make the best of themselves with the body language that they can use on purpose. I also talk with people and coach people about how they can help judge better other people's body language as well. Also with a better understanding of themselves and their own body language. So that's what I do. I love that. Now I actually, when I was just new as a trainer, one of the first presentations I saw on body language was your TED Talk, Mark, about what did you call it? Oh yeah, so the importance of being inauthentic. I saw that and I loved it so much. So if you haven't viewers, if you haven't had a chance, I'm sure you haven't seen that TED Talk, but you should. It's something I share with all of my clients because I think it's fabulous. But that, could you just go into that briefly for a second, Mark? Yeah, so that TED Talk is really about how important it is for us to put on some behaviors in order to get a better relationship with others around us. There's a lot of talk right now and it's not bad talk at all about authenticity and how important it is to be you, essentially. I kind of take a counter point of view, not because that point of view is bad, it's just the counter point of view is entertaining and there may be some validity in it as well, which is that we're designed really to be different to the majority of people on the planet, apart from our closest friends and family and closest colleagues. And if sometimes we don't act and perform or cause ourselves to have behaviors that make the best of ourselves and also suspend our judgment about other people so that we can see them as more potential friends, we'll miss out on some great people, essentially. You know very well, Abi, because I know you talk about it a lot. The idea of we get judged all the time and I know you talk a lot about your personal brand as well, I think, and that you've got to be seen, you've got to be noticed, you've got to do something that causes you to stand out. And so this is what this is really about in terms of being inauthentic, is that you have to stand out and people who don't stand out for you, you've got to suspend your judgment about them and be more inquisitive and more curious about them. We might miss somebody amazing. So that's what that keynote that Ted Talk was about. I loved that Ted Talk and I think that's absolutely true in real life.   And so I think you're absolutely right, Mark. This is why it's so important to be able to engage people with your first impression, be able to capture their interest and capture their attention in order to build something better. You can't build it by yourself. Yeah, sure. And listen, I've got no problem with the judgments that we make about each other. Some of those first judgments are absolutely correct. But the important thing is to test them out a little bit, be a bit more curious, you know, wonder, you know, this person, they felt really bad for me, but is that really true? Should I get to know them a little bit more? Now the only thing I would say about that is if you or I or anybody out there ever find ourselves in a situation where we don't have a lot of power, where we're, you know, in a risky situation and we do get that gut instinct of, this person is not good for me, this doesn't feel good, then pay attention to it, okay? Get out of there. Get out of there as quickly as you can. But if you're in a comfortable situation and you're okay and you've got, you know, friends near you or you know, you've got access to some way that you could call somebody else and it feels a little bit odd, give it a little bit longer, okay? And get, you know, just get to know the other person a little bit more. You can go back to your initial judgment of, yeah, I don't like them, they're not good for me, they weren't nice, okay? But listen, if you're somewhere where you don't have a lot of power around you, you don't have a lot of agency potentially, then you get out of there as quickly as you can.  And so I love that you put that middle ground of safety and how it's important to have that safety. Right, because that judgment system, it's your safety system. The only reason, you know, you're alive, I'm alive, you know, our viewers are alive right now is that we at times have made some spot on gut instinctual judgments and they've saved our lives. You know, all of us here today. I think all of us have a story like that or at least someone we know does. Yeah, yeah, exactly.  And you know, there are people with those stories. But listen, the majority of the time, that's going to be the case. The majority of the time, actually, we're gonna meet a lot of people and we're gonna feel that they're just not important. You know, they don't seem like a friend immediately. They don't seem like an enemy immediately. We're not sexually attracted to them immediately. So our instinct just goes, who cares? They're not important. And we do it then. I've moved on to somebody else. Yeah. And the chance is that you miss somebody, really incredible. So be a bit more inquisitive. I think the other side of this, Arby, is how do you produce non-verbal communication body language that may attract people into that friend category so that people talk to you more, wanna kind of do business potentially with you more, wanna spend more time with you. And you and I know that there is body language you can do that has that effect on people. Absolutely. And that's something I teach my clients. I don't know if you do coaching clients, but I know it's something you teach. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. I have individual clients who I coach, who are anything from pre-new entrepreneurs in business to, I've got 4,500 CEOs, presidents. I've got prime ministers of G7. So there's some extraordinary people that I get to coach, whether they're new and they've got a new great idea or whether they're running a country sometimes or running a large organization. And I'm teaching this stuff, which is how do you stand out? How do you gain that trust immediately? And how are people gonna see you as credible or you've even opened your mouth? Because they're making that judgment immediately about you. And then they're re-engineering the content to fit their judgment. They're never listening to you. They're judging you. And based on their judgment about you, they're making up the best idea of all the worst idea depending on the judgment of what you said. And I think it's so funny how our brains truly twist the things that people say to fit our preconceived notions.  Right, so we're judging people all the time just like they're judging us. And really that's what this new book, Truth and Lies is really about, which is how to tell what people are really thinking. It's about how to tell even better about what you're thinking about other people.  I mean, I know you're actually there at the moment, Arby, I know that you can feel yourself when you're there and internally, you know you're there. But for me, you're happening on a screen right now, that's happening in my head. So I've got all kinds of great and very positive judgments about you. You're doing very well in my mind, but you're all positive at the moment, yeah? But essentially, that's in my head. It may not be, I mean, I have no idea what's going on in your head now, but I know my judgments about you. The question is, is how would I get to know more accurately what is really going on in your head and put that with my judgments about what's going on? Get the two closer together because that would be the closest that we'd ever get to reading your mind. There are no mind readers out there. That's a magic trick, a party trick, a con that might be done on you if you're unlucky. We can't read other people's minds. We get theories. We get what's called theory of mind, an idea around what's going on in your mind. For us, it always feels very, very true. My theory mind feels very, very true. Even if it's totally off base. Yeah, absolutely. If I think you're happy, you know, it's a theory, you're happy. That's, you know, that's what's going on in my head. If I think you're angry with me, that's how it is. And if you tell me, well, no, Mark, I'm not angry with you. I go, well, yeah, but you are in it the way and I'll make it for you. But you'll say, Mark, I said it was great to be here. I said, well, but you didn't really mean it, did you? So I'll make up a whole bunch of stuff. The key is, is how do we get closer? My idea of you and what's in your mind and what is actually in your mind, how do we get that closer together? As you were saying that of, yeah, I'm happy to be here, but no, you're just saying that. I was envisioning so many different conversations I've heard between couples, between employees, in the office, in new meetings, and you hear these judgments all the time and people just assume, assume, assume, but they're so off base. And so it sounds like your book was written to help people get closer together to where they're really on the same page. Is that right? Right, so yeah, so that's exactly it. And the reason they're off base is that their instinct has read the body language and the instinct is not a brilliant reader of non-verbal communication. It's good, it's really good in life and death situations. It's really great, but when things get really nuanced and complex, it's not that good. It'll tend to default to very negative ideas. It'll tend to get confused and catastrophize. So we can have some really important work situations with some very nuanced relationships going on.  Oh, I've absolutely got the job. Have you ever had that, where you've gone for an interview, we've all done it, I've done it for sure, you go to an interview and you're like, wow, that went great. They were loving me, they were loving me. And the day happens and then the next day and then the next day and it's like, I, where's, there's no email from them. They have a call and a week goes by and it's two weeks. It's like, I aced that interview. Now, where's my job, where is it? And we read it completely wrong because there was a whole bunch of nuances going on. And we just went, it's the case of, I've got the job or I haven't got the job. I've got one signal, you know, which was CEO passed me in the corridor and gave me a huge spell and said, it's great to have you here. And you take that as a goal. She does that with everybody. She doesn't even know who you are. As you were saying that, I have imagined, because neither of us have always been in body language. So I was imagining back to when I was like working for other people and I was like, oh my gosh, I remember that. Yeah, I did that. Yeah, I did that. So for our viewers, if you're thinking, oh, I don't do that. Yeah, you do do that. So the truth in life is full of stuff you've done. I've done. We've all done all these situations where you truly think you know what somebody else is thinking.  Sometimes you were inaccurate. Sometimes it was in between. You absolutely remember that you were very accurate and you go, that is, I am a brilliant body language reader. I'm a brilliant judge of people. You remember the times that you were inaccurate and it was catastrophic because you go, I just don't know people. I have no idea. I thought it was this. It was so different. You know, I got to re-judge the world and everything else in between, you forget. You just, you forgot that. So it's full of all those situations. And what we do in the book is unravel what is it that triggered you into the strong feelings of I know what's going on and how accurate it is using these triggers. You know, how accurate are these language signals? What we all use, all that we read on the internet and how much actual data do we need to make a really good decision? And is there actually a process for making a good decision? I would say there is. It's actually critical thinking. You put aside your instinct for a moment and you start a critical, intelligent thinking process in order to get closer to the truth. You can't know the truth, but you can get closer to it. And it may be actually that you end up going back to judgment and you go, I thought this one out and I was right. They hate me or I thought this out. I was right. They're really attracted to me or I thought this out. I'm really one of my family members is lying to me. So it's full of all these scenarios that we've all been through and certainly we've heard stories about. I think this is so cool. This is so cool. And viewers, we are gonna be right back. So stay on this channel. Don't go away. We're just gonna take a really short break. See you in a bit. I'm Ethan Allen, host of a likable science on Think Tech Hawaii. Every Friday afternoon at 2 p.m., I hope you'll join me for a likable science. We'll dig into science, dig into the meat of science, dig into the joy and delight of science. We'll discover why science is indeed fun, why science is interesting, why people should care about science and care about the research that's being done out there. It's all great. It's all entertaining. It's all a joy. It's all fun. It's fun. It's fun. It's fun. It's fun. It's fun. It's entertaining. It's all educational. So I hope to join me for a likable science. All right. Welcome back, everyone. We are here with Mark Bowden, who is a renowned body language expert. Now, it was my plan to have his book here to model for you and like do a book review, but it's still in the mail. So sorry about that, viewers. But Mark, could you tell us a little bit about the book, a little, maybe some of the stories or some of the tips from the book? Yeah. So actually, let me start with one of the stories that opens the book, which is a story by a friend of mine, Paul Nadeau, who is a interrogator, essentially police interrogator, has interrogated murderers. And in the story that starts the book, there has been a murder and a gang member has been brought in. And it's his job to put the gang member on the lie detector in order to get the truth out of him. And actually, he gets the truth out of this guy without ever putting him on the lie detector.  But this is the important technique in there. When you're watching body language, what you're looking for is changes, is changes. How does somebody change state? It doesn't tell you anything other than this is notable. That moment where they changed, something happened in the environment. It could be a question that you asked them. It could be a thought that they had. Something happened in their environment whereby there was an effect on them. It may be worth going back and talking about that and seeing if you're looking for deceit, for example, you're looking for, do they stick to the story that they were telling you? Or does the story change as well?  That's how it happened, didn't it? And what Paul says is that the guy's body fell to bits. So that's what he's looking for, is where you've got a good liar, but the pressure of the situation means that they can't control their body anyway. They can't counter-measure their real language or save guilt or fear or remorse. They can't shut that off from the world because they've lost control of the body under that pressure. So I think those are a couple of interesting things from the book. Look for changes in people's body language. And also, if you're looking for deceit, how can you create a situation that put people under a little more pressure so they're not so in control if you want to spot a lie? Now, viewers, you could not see, but as he started talking about police interrogations in this story, I was like, on the tip of my seat, like, because that is so cool, that is so cool. I am seriously fan-grilling over here, but I know from a lot of our viewers, Mark, most people are thinking, how on earth do you get into this? So what was your journey? How did you get into body language? Yeah, so I'd be interested in how you got into it as well, Arby, because there's no real one way into this area. There aren't many of us who are in this area. There certainly aren't many of us who get really, really expert in this area. For me, it was I was really obsessed and amazed and curious about animal behavior and human behavior, just biology. Just why, you know, why does that animal do that? Why do they live the way they live? And then for human beings, it was like, why did that human being do that? Why did I do this? And then they reacted in this way. You know, in a way, maybe it came out of confusion. Maybe it came out of a sense of not having power, of going, I'm confused, I don't understand it. Or I do this and then, in order to affect this change in somebody and they don't comply. You know, how can I get what I want with people? So I think I came from that. I then got into visual art, performing art. I was very interested in how we tell stories with pictures, how we cause people to change the way they're thinking and feeling with pictures that they make. And I just, in terms of body language, I just tried to read more than anybody else and talk to the other experts out there, just like you do, like, and get the experts to talk to you.  Will you talk to me? And I was very fortunate in that, you know, everybody who I wanted to talk to would talk to me. In fact, you know, in truth and lies, I have my body language heroes have written some contributions for it. So we've got people like Alan Pease, who you'll know from Australia. We've got Jonah Barrow in there. And I called Scott Rouse, who I love. I mean, we go, like, 10, 15 different experts in human behavior, body language and some animal behavior and handwriting experts as well and cultural experts who've contributed and make the book much richer because of that. That is so cool. And I'm especially pleased because, Mark, you're one of my body language heroes. So I'm like super, super, super excited that you are even on the show. Because I reached out, OK, viewers, how this happened is I saw Mark's new book on LinkedIn because I was following him. And I commented and was like, hey, I'd love to feature this on my TV show. And he was like, yeah, is there anything else I can do? And I was like, there's no way he's going to say yes. There's no way. But you could be my guest. And that's really how I said it. I was like, you could be my guest. And I reached out and he was like, yeah. And we made it happen. So I'm really, really excited you're here, Mark. Well, of course I'm here because you have to. I mean, yeah, I want people to be interested in the book. But the reality is, even if the book, where this new book wasn't out, I'd be here. Because we all need to speak to people who are genuinely interested in this area. There's great knowledge out there. It's got to be shared. It's useful knowledge for people. So of course, I'll come on your show any time. I'll be here next week if you want. So, you know, and if there's a lesson there for anybody, if you have people who you want to talk to, who you're interested in, take the risk and go, hey, talk to me. You know, will you talk to me? Will you tell me about some stuff? Will you listen to what I have to say? Most people out there are genuinely lovely people. And they'll help you out. So here I am. Well, thank you, Mark. I am really excited you're here. Now, we've got about two minutes left in the show. Mark, is there any last minute advice you want to give to our viewers? Yeah, so if it was advice about, you know, how can you use your body out on purpose to stand out and win trust and credibility? Always just think about doing more open body language. Always think about maximizing more than minimizing. When we're under stress and pressure, we'll tend to minimize, you know, exactly. And when we're more confident, we'll tend to maximize to make ourselves a little bit bigger. That looks great. That looks perfect. So the more you can maximize, without encroaching on other people's territory, the more confident you'll feel and the more confident other people will be about you. So if you take nothing else away from this and that, maximize the extent of your body language rather than minimizing it. And viewers, Mark is actually in Canada right now. But I am here in Hawaii. And I see you. And I agree 100%. Make sure you are spreading out. Claim more space. Be more open. Be a little more vulnerable with people. Because that is one of the things that will win them over for you. We have a lot of trainings here on the island about how to win friends and influence people. But what you say is not nearly as important as what you do with your body language. Yeah, that's absolutely true. All right, thank you, Mark, so much for being here. Viewers, we are just about to close up. But Mark, I am thrilled you were here. Thank you so much. I've been a great interview. Thanks, RB, for having me. I'll be back any time you like. Yes, I'm counting on that. See you later, Mark. All right, see you, viewers. Bye.


Daniel asks, are you not as concerned that a blue supermajority will pack SCOTUS and rev up the liberal war against free speech, entity production, etc.? Are we not approaching a situation where a delicate balance between Democrat and Republican must be maintained? I guess so. I mean, I've argued that all along. I've argued for divided government. I won a Democratic president and a Republican House and Senate. I've said that. That's why I wanted Trump defeated before he had the chance to destroy the Republican Party and lose the Republicans, the House and the Senate, as he did in 2018 and 2020. I want a Democratic president and a House, Republican House and Senate, at least until one of the political parties gets a right, a proper conception of rights, because if either one of them have majorities across the board, they will do horrible things and they will violate our rights in significant ways. So I'm concerned about supermajorities in either direction and not just supermajorities, majorities period. I want divided government. I've wanted divided government for years, since the Clinton years, because every time one party gets all of the power, disaster follows. Cobb says, I'm only to support giving you right complete power to crush the woke left. I trust they will restore freedom afterwards. That's what people said when they voted for Hitler. It's exactly what they said when they voted for Hitler. They wanted to crush the Communist and they'll restore rights afterwards.  Once they have that kind of power, they will never, never restore your freedoms. Free trade. Do you think the right will go and reintroducing backward religious tenants into law? Will the Spanish inquisitions be making a comeback? No, I don't think we'll get a Spanish inquisition, but we will get more religiosity. We will get more impact of religion on our culture as the right ascends. And as I said, when we have authoritarianism in this country, ultimately, it'll be some combination of religion and environmentalism or religion and nationalism and environmentalism. Some mishmash of combination of things like that. Exactly the combination I don't know, but something like that. Thank you for listening or watching the Iran book show. If you'd like to support the show, we make it as easy as possible for you to trade with me. You get value from listening, you get value from watching, show your appreciation. You can do that by going to youronbrookshow.com slash support by going to Patreon, subscribe star, locals, and just making a appropriate contribution on any one of those, any one of those channels. Also, if you'd like to see the Iran book show grow, please consider sharing our content and of course subscribe. Press that little bell button right down there on YouTube so that you get an announcement when we go live. And for those of you who are already subscribers and those of you who are already supporters of the show, thank you. I very much appreciate it.


This is St. Cloud State in a minute. Before Atwood Memorial Center opened in September 1966, there wasn't a student union on campus, and residence halls were used for student union spaces. The student union was seen not simply as a place for students to relax, but one that strives to provide real opportunities for personal and social development. In 1961, 80% of the student body surveyed agreed to pay a $5 fee per quarter to support a student union. That would be about $200 today. Originally, Atwood was only the basement and first floor. Phase II completed in 1972 and added a second floor, the art gallery, alumni room, theater, ballroom, and offices. Additions in the early 90s expanded the building east toward the river with meeting rooms on the second floor and food establishments on the main level. Today's Atwood was made complete in 2003 with an expansion to the west with cascade room, more dining, and a skyway connecting Centennial Hall. That was St. Cloud State in a minute.


I'm Mira and I'm currently living in France and I would like to find a job teaching English thanks to the ITT 120 hour course I just completed. So in fact I didn't know about TEFL until I actually asked a friend who I knew was teaching English here and I said I want to teach English as a foreign language but I'm not qualified as a teacher and then she told me about the ITT TEFL course and I was ecstatic because I just had no idea it existed. She told me that it took some time for her to complete and when I saw that there were 20 units I was a bit anxious to begin I thought it might take a long time but once I began I was pleasantly surprised the lessons were easy to follow actually I was having fun with it I didn't want to stop I was doing the lessons up late at night and I really enjoyed it it's very it encompasses all aspects of teaching and I was really pleased to learn about my native language in a way that I didn't think was possible so I learned about grammar I learned about sentence structure pronunciation which I really enjoyed and it's great because they give tips and tricks for new beginning teachers which I am so I greatly appreciated that and gave many exercises that you could do how to teach it was very thorough and I recommend it for everyone I really enjoyed it and after the course I feel very optimistic that I can find a job teaching in France so thank you I had a great experience and I wish you success if you decide to take a TEFL course


Yesterday, this thing closed at $254. The stock went to $27 today. Again, AIPR, right? You look at a name like very. Welcome to Access a Trader, the number one community for those who are committed to taking control of their trading in order to achieve success, profitability, and longevity. Thank you for joining us. Here's Dan Shapiro to help you find your edge, master your process, and own your future. Hey, guys. Good evening, everybody. Welcome to another edition of theaxesatrader.com. Nightly wrap-up show. Hope everybody is doing well. Happy Tuesday. Hopefully, everybody had a good trading day. Hopefully, everybody had a great trading month. We'll get to that in a second. If you are new to the channel, if you can be so kindly, click a like. We'd love to get your continuation of support. And if you are new, hit Subscribe so you can get notified when we are uploaded. So let's talk about it. Last year, as everybody knows, the NASDAQ did not do a lot of good things. We're making a lot of investors happy. 33% decline for the year is no small peanuts. And obviously, the word was, well, we're now going to go even further. All these forecasters, and analysts, and money managers, and this, that, and the other thing, recession, depression, and everybody just kill yourselves, and the world is over. Apparently, the stock market doesn't believe in what should happen or what you think is going to happen. The market is the market. And that's exactly what it's always been, and it's always what it's going to continue to be. And it's going to be irrational. It's going to be completely disconnected from what the reality is. And if you go through the series of events throughout history, the stock market is sometimes disconnected, six months, eight months, even a year away from mainstream and what exactly is going on. If you guys remember, in the generational bottom of 2009, the market recovered two years before mainstream. People were trying to get back in their feet after two, three years of the mortgage crisis, again, losing their homes, losing their jobs, losing their minds, and everything else in between. And the market ripped for two, three, four, five years before people kind of got back on their feet. So there's always going to be a disconnect. This is where a lot of them, especially the newer traders, just don't understand. It doesn't make a difference what you think is right. We've covered this in nausea. The market sometimes becomes so tone-deaf into what's going on on Main Street that it really doesn't make a difference. And this is exactly what we saw in January of 2023, the first month of the year. And again, if you look at the numbers, you're pretty impressive, right? You have the NASDAQ up nearly 11% for the month. You're talking about 10.7%. You had the S&P 500 putting up its best month of January in the last four years. That's pretty evident of the price action we had. And even yesterday, right? If you watched last night's video, I was waiting for, say, we might have one more day, right? One more day of downside bias. And I said, last night's video, I'm ready for both sides of the market. But if we do have one more day of down bias, I'm ready for it. Let's see if we can get it before the Fed minutes. And guess what? We didn't even take out the previous day's loan. This is when you know the market is super strong. The market did gap down this morning. Pretty decent gap up. A lot of stocks gap down. But right when the word mattered the most and the regular session started, nothing that mattered, right? We claimed pre-market lows very, very aggressively on a lot of stocks. We never took out the previous day's loan. That's the key, right? For a market to go lower, it needs to take out the previous day's low. For the market to go higher, we need to take out the previous day's high. And you can see here, we were right in the middle of both two days, but it really does show you and it really does personify how much strength there is in this tape. When we talked about last night, we've had three, right? We've literally had three down sessions since January the sixth that really does show and continues to show amazing strength. Because we had kind of an inside day, both the top and the bottom channels on Nasdaq, the focus today, ironically, was not on the big cap crazy stocks, right? Although some of them did okay. You know, some stocks recovered, Microsoft did really well. Tesla, after having one day of back testing yesterday, we covered up six that can have points today. You had Apple waking up, you had Meta waking up, but the crazy part, and this really demonstrates how strong this tape is, is the small cap stocks, right? Anything that looks like it's an AI play, artificial intelligence, and it's actually putting out a PR AI, that gets the stock going. I don't know how many of you guys remember or how many of you guys were trading during the dot-com era, but it's the same formula. In the dot-com era, they were coming out with anything, like a jewelry store, right? A jewelry store comes out with a PR and says, we are selling our jewelry online, right? The stock would absolutely explode. If you guys remember during COVID, they came out with, well, so and so ABCD were coming out with a PR, we're gonna do COVID testing, stock explodes. So now it's AI, right? Artificial intelligence is all over the place and any stock, if they're smart, they're just constantly running this PR mill and that's exactly what's happening. If you look today, and we'll get to the individual pivots, mostly these smaller cap names with option flow, you have these crazy moves. Look at the stock MSGM, and look at this thing. The stock literally went, yesterday this thing closed at 254, the stock went to 27 today. Again, AI PR, right? If you look at a name like very, and again, we got a nice pivot today in the room, very another AI stock, although they didn't come out with any PRs, they just started pumping one, look at me, look at the expansion volume. They just started coming with option flow, out of the money option flow and talk about AI, right? Here's AI, a company who actually does AI. Again, this is a massive move with expansion volume, the same thing. Even though they didn't come out with their own AI PR, this is the theme, this is where the speculation money is, and again, if you wanna gauge the temperature of how strong or weak the market is, just look for stocks that people are chasing up 100, 200, 300, 400%. Maybe that's not my thing, right? But there's a whole contingency of people that are willing to do so and throw all caution to the wind, and this is exactly why the market continues to be super duper strong, going into tomorrow, you have obviously the Fed minutes. The thinking is 25 basis points, but again, as we discussed in a couple of other videos, we wanna see what, I think the traders investors are looking for what's gonna happen in the future, right? What's their contingency plan in the future? Again, one Fed share comes out and says, well, we're looking for rate hikes all the way through 2024, maybe even beyond. Waller comes out like I mentioned in the last night's video, well, wait a minute, maybe we're at the point that we can start slowing down, maybe at some point we could even start cutting them again. So as long as they don't speak on both sides of the mouth and this trend continues of strength and speculation money continues to inflow into the market, the market again has a ton of room to go higher. Again, is it possible every single day the market goes high? Of course not, this is the repeat recording, right?  You can see it again with your latest inclusion of this morning's dip got bought. I mean, despite some pretty ugly earnings reports, you had Caterpillar, which really shows you what Main Street or what Main Street in America is, right? Farmers, this, that and the third. I mean, look, you have a major Dow stock that's down $9 in the day, it was down a lot more than that. Again, the market doesn't care, it just completely starts engulfing bad news. Look at today after the close, right? After the close, you have earnings, right? You have AMD, AMD beats on the top and the bottom, but it sounded like I read the language, I could be wrong, if I'm wrong, I apologize, it's a little late in the day. I thought I read that they even missed something. They might have missed or there was something, right? If I'm wrong, I'm wrong, but the point is they're still up 4% of the day. It's almost like the market is toned death to the bad news and just absorbing the good news and that's exactly what's taking the market higher. If you look at everything else after the close, EA Sports, it's in the game, right? Not so much, not so much love. You have Western Digital, right? You have Western Digital in the disk drive, I think storage space, you know, getting hit as well. You got match.com, right? Apparently people are not dating online anymore, getting hit as well and Snapchat. Again, like Kylie Jenner said a couple of years ago, who the hell use a Snapchat? Apparently not a lot of people. So yeah, I mean, with all the guidance, again, if you look at all the tech names, they're not really budging that much on some of these earnings reports. Again, which is a good thing. If you're tone completely omitting the bad news and I've made a video constantly over and over again with Netflix or Microsoft or Goldman Sachs and now you have AMD, a little bit of a warning, but porn does still up 4% or 5% on the day. This continues to really fuel the market and the bulls continue to charge higher. So what's gonna happen tomorrow? We have no idea. I think though, if the bulls can withstand the gut punch after Powell starts talking and they take the market and the market doesn't sell off and then we actually rally into the close, I think this market continues and the market continues aggressively. I think obviously the Fed Chairman's words are going to be scrutinized as the old joke says, the first 89 moves of the Fed after comments are always the trickiest as we all know that is the case. But the most important point is, and this is where we wanna see where the cues are. If the cues can just close above this 295 level for tomorrow, I do believe we see that 298 level and ultimately 300. Obviously yesterday's low of 289 is gonna come into play, but again, if you are giving the bulls the benefit of the doubt, I think we all are at least to this point. Everything can change on a dime. Again, we're gonna watch this 295 to the upside tomorrow on the cues for a potential move back into last week's highs. That's it, that's kind of what we are going into tomorrow. If you see about today's session, if you see about today's session, again, I started putting a couple of pivots to the downside. I started putting some pivots to the upside. But if you look at the pivots to the upside, for the exception of Tesla, right?  But for the exception of Tesla, they were all small cap stocks. But that's where this speculation money was. I think a lot of people took off the last day of the month. Again, a lot of people, if you trade an un-prop, or some funds, depending on how your funds are structured, you are closing out your month mark to market.  So I think a lot of people took off as well. So you're seeing a lot of weighting and a lot of fingers crossed to see what's gonna happen for tomorrow. But these are the pivots of today. Apple 142.85, it builds below Conflush. As you can imagine, not a big move at all. Apple did not go down at all. Apple went down to where? Went down what? You know, nothing small. Went down with 40 cents, 50 cents, and then rebonded with the rest of the market. On the video, 191.50, 191.50 builds below Conflush. I thought there was a shot at 86, 87. Not a big move at all, but you know, went down a couple of points, right? So here's your 91.50, 91.50 Flush. Went down to like 87, 87.60s, right? 87.60s pre-market, and then it kind of bounced back here. So yeah, nothing big, nothing big at all. And then you started having these AI moves with your option flow. AI, 18.20, rejected twice, needs to build. Here is AI, right? So here is AI, look at this, 18.20. Once it got above the 18.20, this thing just went out of its mind. I went to 21.34, and here is Tesla, 71 needs to build, not it needs to buy or it needs to build. Here is the 71, right? It got above this 71 area right here. It got above this whole 71 area, went to 74. Again, I like Tesla, they're coming out with a lot of flow. This thing doesn't sell off in the next couple of days. I do think we see last week's highs. Very nice little trade. I get it, I don't trade a lot of small cap stocks, but when I see option flow come in one after another, it definitely gets my attention. Nice move here today. 12.50 calls that came in from March, 8.20, 8.25 needs to build. Look at this, very what it did. It went to 9.45, right? Nice move here. Took out this 8.20, 8.25 area, went to 9.45. Take on the way up next up, 8.50, took out 8.50, went. And guys, watch this PLTR. It closed above the channel on the close. PLTR, not only were they coming for the weekly eights and two weeks out, eight and a half calls, they were coming for the June, they're coming for the June 12s, very, very aggressively. One after another, after another, but this is the highest close in its whole formation here. Right, this is the highest close in the whole formation. If it confirms tomorrow's channel, who knows? Maybe get a push into the eights. So that's it guys. The channel is set up for tomorrow morning. We have Powell, we have a new month. The question is, can we continue this momentum? It doesn't have to be every day, but the key is can we continue this train that started off slowly, picked up steam, and now it's almost on a runaway basis. And hopefully, and I think I could speak for anybody who is a permable, we kind of like that, right? We kind of like that. Even though I don't fall into the permable category, I know a lot of you guys do, and all news is sometimes good news and good news sometimes is great news. So hopefully this is great news continues. Guys, stay blessed. I'll talk to you all tomorrow and have a great night. Take care.


Everybody forced here ripping 2022 Flawless Collegiate football hobby one box number 36 left-side serial numbers We'll do the random right now, and we're gonna go right into the break as well Good luck. Here we go five and two seven times names one two three four five six and seven Richard W down to Q-ling and seven times on the numbers One try it again Two three four five six and seven three down to 23 Richard W three Jason G one Matthew I 14 Nathan Q 18 Nick K 8 Gregory H 11 Brandon J 17 Ruben Y 13 William C 5 Swaggy G 4 Jason G 25 Brandon K 21 Patrick S 10 KC with 9 David V 22 She J with six Scott F 16 Matthew I 12 Ramar's 15 Bobby D to Scott H 20 Adam M 145967 with seven Adam M 146041 with 19 Brayden K 24 Q-ling 23 We'll get those posts. We'll get started in a moment the Adam M's Are separated by order number so order number is how you can differentiate those waving at me don't don't even him Please I'd be great actually All right, here we go. No, he wasn't waving at us. Hey, Glee. No, but if you want I can Probably miss a lot of questions Yeah, I can't even see him now. I had to close out restart Sorry if I miss any questions guys Yeah, nine boxes next. I Forgot what else there was series one. I don't know they I thought I thought some were already listed But I imagine series one will go up tomorrow then for group breaks Yeah, series one breaks are already up Here's the MLB schedule We'll have more on the main channel, but the MLB schedules up currently dual patch six out of ten Trey McBride Six spot is she J She G. I don't know how to say your name. I'm sorry I know it's our buddy in chat there. There you go Hey bride That blue lettering is from Colorado State Let's have like a I think they have like a team like a state flag like alternate That's definitely letters from like that says Colorado State Dual patch two of ten Malik Willis Bobby D with a two-spot Carl. What's up with the power play a man? Why is the power play so depressing for the Bruins? insane It's terrible rookie auto period Winfrey 10 of 20 10 spot Patrick S So it's up Dustin who you chasing with the Royals and in series one Randy Mars campus legends auto three of 25 three-spot Richard W sick Randy Rookie auto emerald david ojabo four of five four spots swaggy G. Yeah, it definitely is not fun To have it not having to bruskin there. Yeah, Prato, and yeah, Pascantino Pascantino was a pretty surprise. It's surprisingly good Next up patch auto Carson Palmer 16 of 25 16 spots Scott F. It's a pretty sick one Game worn Game worn Carson Palmer patch. That's actually awesome. Yo, Scott F. It's a very neat card It's a sick one right here Kenneth Walker the third horizontal RPA four of five four spots swaggy again Very awesome back-to-back hits in the Randy auto in this box through so far Here we go. We've got a Cooper cup diamond gem 16 of 25 16 spot again a Scott F diamond guarantee Go sapphire gem Trevor Lawrence 11 of 20 11 spot Gregory H They haven't they haven't played in forever. That is true, too They played in forever, dude and horizontal RPA Malik Willis 6 of 25 Shiji again with the sixth spot. There you go 6 of 25 Sorry Shane nice Malik three-color Liberty patch there That is gonna do it. Thanks again everybody nine boxes up next


All right, that looks pretty good. I can screw my wires onto there. Now I guess I need to make a switch. Oh, I should probably make a main kill switch too, something that just disconnects the battery from everything. Okay, I'm sitting in my boat. I'm pretty sure the charge controller coil thing is gonna go right back here somewhere. Maybe hanging down a little bit because I don't want it to... I just wanna give it a lot of air space around it so it can stay cool. Well, yeah, right behind. And then the switch. Where do I put the switch? I don't know. Right now, the switch I did have is right up here in the ceiling. I guess I could do that, but that means I have to run the big, fat motor wires all up through here. Kind of wanted to run them more direct just along the side here because it would be a shorter route. I guess it doesn't have to be.  I don't know. All right, I'm gonna have to think about this. Where do I wanna put this switch? I think I can cut a chunk out of this for the switch to mount it. And still have some copper pipe, good thing. I always make my switches out of copper pipe. They've been pretty good.  No, it looks good. How long though? Okay, three parts switch. So I want one piece hinged here. And then I want to touch one thing, and then another thing, and then another thing. Ooh, look what I just found, a big fatty breaker switch. I don't remember the exact specs on it. However, I'm pretty sure, I'm like pretty sure they are within specs for what I'm doing right now.  I did get this guy screwed on. And I just put four of the bolts right through this. Okay, that guy's all wired in. The motor, I've got the negative connected through my big circuit breaker here. That's off, that's on. I think I have first and second speed connected right now. Okay, that guy's on. So when I do this, it should turn on. We'll come on, turn on. Oh, nice, okay. I don't know if you can tell on the camera, but I can tell it's, you know, by the sound that it's. Definitely faster on the second one. Oh, I gotta get this in the water. Oh, no, no, I need to finish wiring. The only thing I have left is the wire from the full speed wire.  Wow, that's it, isn't it? Well, I still have to connect the front two solar panels, but that's, yeah, most of the wires for that are already in here, because they're in here from before. Anyway, yeah, to get the full speed from the battery, just one wire from here to the motor. That needs to be kind of a thick wire. That's gonna be the most powerful. Oh, I guess we should get a shot of the propeller spinning. Good looking stuff. I'm pretty sure I could use some six gauge wire. That looks like six gauge, although it doesn't have any writing on it. Okay, that's the last wire. Oh, beautiful. Kill everything. Yep, nothing works. Oh, that's great. Okay, last thing is to get the spider web off my face and connect the front two solar panels to the motor. I think I'm just gonna use the same switch I was using before. See, before I had all the solar panels on the top going through a switch to the motor, skipping all the, I mean, it didn't have any batteries in it for a while. This boat's gone through a few different changes, but most of the wiring is still here. That's the switch. I just need to wire these two front solar panels into the wires coming into the switch.  I just put those in with wire nuts. This should be fine. Okay, I think that's it. Yeah, I'm totally done. Wait, am I really done? Is that it? Oh, okay, I got the battery going through switches, various speeds, charging the battery. I got the solar panels, two solar panels charging, two solar panels on a switch directly to the motor. I can't test those because they're not in the sun right now. I presume they're working though. Dude, I think that's it. This boat, he's totally ready for business. Oh, man, I can't wait to get this in the water. Oh, I'm gonna have to go to dinner right now, though it's pretty late. The tide's too low to get the boat out anyway. When I pull it up out of the water, I need kind of high tide to get it out without hitting the bottom. Mostly just because of this propeller, wait, the pedal propeller. The motor one's up higher, but the pedal one sticks out the bottom. I keep thinking about taking that off. I don't know, though, no, whatever. So this boat, with the battery in it that it has right now, which is a 100 amp hour, 24 volt sock battery, that's the brand, SOK, they're supposed to be like high quality. We'll actually do what they're rated for, at least. So the motor only uses 39 amps. Let's round it up to 40. 100 amp hours, that means this thing will run full speed for two and a half hours in the dark. No sun help at all. And the solar panels will give me, I don't know, something like 25 to 30 amps. But let's say I can count on 20 amps in decent sun. That's basically half the power of the full power motor. So yeah, if I even have just kind of reasonably sunny day, I can drive this thing for five hours. Full speed, you know how far I can go for in five hours, full speed in this thing? I'm gonna have to do a speed check, see how fast it goes. But like, there's nowhere that I go. There's no round trip that I do that would take me five hours in that boat. So maybe I need to start going to farther places. Man, I can make it all the way to Costa Rica in this thing. Not that I need to go to Costa Rica.


Hello there, this is Bhaveya Kaushal and here are 4 news beyond India that have gripped the world. Tough times prevailed Huawei. After Google suspended its operations, Japan's Panasonic also halted its business activities with a telecom major joining a long list of companies who are doing so. The Lok Sabha elections have gripped the world. With Narendra Modi touted to make a clear swipe, congratulatory messages have started pouring from world leaders including Sri Lanka Prime Minister. Theresa May is under intense pressure after the leader of the house resigned and some others might in the coming times because she failed to provide a convincing summary on the new Brexit date. The new boss of Vodafone has some plans to execute. The CEO and former CFO Nick Reed is slashing the mobile operator's dividend in order to tackle debt burden. Thanks for watching.


My folks, Basel Chapman here on this 14th day of December, Tuesday, and just great programming here at TFNN. We started off today with the market kickoff, Tommy Jr. I did my show, we're going to have Larry Persevento coming up, and then you've got Thinkorswim, Steve Rhodes, Dave White, and back to Tom O'Brien again. So we're looking at the Dow down 164,000, 35,485, right on that 14-beard exponential moving average. And over the technicals are still positive, we'll see, because of the mix of the Dow, it's holding up a little bit better than, say, the S&P. The S&P at this particular point is trading down 50. So the S&P at 46.19, making the arch formation with a little bit of a double top from the 47.43 all-time high on the 22nd of November, goes to 47.13, so three days ago, and now it's pulling back as weekly chart on the front by Friday, that's going to be the most important thing we're looking at for the end of the week. Here we go, QQQ trading down sharply down 7, 385, down 1.82%, that's the biggest percentage drop in the H-pattern under the 50-period moving average. This is serious stuff because it's saying that that NDX around 100 is worried about what the Fed would do, why?  So we're looking at the IWM, it was up and now it's down 90 cents at 215, struggling making the H-pattern. It's got a hold to 212, otherwise that's a big problem. It's at 216, no, 215 right now. Gold pulled back quite sharply, we'll see if gold is still going to be weak going into tomorrow's close, into Thursday what the Fed says, does this become an inflationary factor? It's down 12, it's 1775 right now, and silver, I didn't look at that earlier on, but silver is down sharp, I made a lower low today, not a good pattern at all. Dollar is holding well, but it's really not showing strength. It's up one ticket, 96.37. Crude all, trying to rally earlier on, then it gave back a bunch, now it's down to 1 at 70.29, and it's holding within a range and that's going to be important. Certainly by Thursday afternoon, where the TLT is, the Lehman 20th Treasury Bond Fund trading down 73 cents at 150.36. If it starts to trade and close above 152.80, it's going to 153. That says yields are actually coming down. If all of a sudden you're looking at the TLT below 147 in the next two days, yields are going to skyrocket, they're going to go much higher. So have a wonderful day, stay tuned for Larry Pizaveta coming up and see you soon. Thanks for being here.