Good morning. Welcome back to Why In The Morning Y254 channel. My name is Joy Mochache. You can find me on Twitter on joy underscore mochache. This is entrepreneurship Tuesday. Remember if you want to reach out to us, you can do so. Remember that the hashtags you have to use are hashtag entrepreneurship Tuesday and hashtag why in the morning. And please do so on our social media platforms that's on Facebook and on Twitter. You can find us on Y254 channel. On Instagram you can find us on Y254 underscore channel. Today, I've got authors on the set with us today, authors, their writers, their coaches. They are all these wonderful things and before I introduce them, there is a book in front of us which you had seen as we came in and we're going to be discussing a little bit about what's inside that book and who the author of that book is. If I can move now to introduce our guests. Karibu Sana, this is Mrs. Tabitha Kihaara. She's a director for Maple Brook writers. She's also an author and she's a writing coach and our other guest is Mr. Vincent Ogutu. He's a business coach and an author and as well as a mentor. Karibu Sana Tua in the morning. Thank you. Welcome to Tuesday Entrepreneurship. Thank you. Yeah, so those are many titles and all of them encompass around entrepreneurship, don't they? And so let me start off by asking Ms. Tabitha Kihaara. Can I just call you Tabitha for today? So Tabitha, I'm just wondering, how long have you been interested in your passion as an author? I've been writing for a long time. Actually my love for books started long time ago when I was little. Growing up with a father who was an education officer encouraged us to keep reading and writing. So at an early age, I was able to read the weekly review, the Mosa series, Fist for Q, Nancy Drew, those series that time. Nancy, did you say Nancy Drew? Yes, those days. Yes, so I grew up loving to read books and in 2012, I began writing. I began writing journal papers. That is a note pursuing my master's and journal papers actually you publish for conferences. They are called call for papers. A call for paper comes through a conference. A conference calls for the call for papers. So you send out your work and if they let your work, they accept it and then you get to publish it. So my niche for writing is technology. That's my background. I'm a 90-person and I also love family. So I write about family, children, marriages and I also write about technology. I write about education, I write about e-health, I write about cloud computing, virtualization. So I've written, I've been writing from basically let's say 2011. So I've published my work in international journals. I've traveled to Mauritius, Uganda, Tanzania to present my work. So I love writing. Yes. And Mr. Guto, how did your love and interest for writing and being an author begin? It actually didn't start with the interest of being an author. It started by the love of contributing towards the school magazine at Jamori High School. I was the features manager. Unfortunately that journey did not take long because I was very poor in grammar, although I really loved writing. So that forced me to change and focus in the sciences because I believed that this grammar thing might bring a problem. In future if I decided to follow the writing sages, the likes of Chinua Chebe, the likes of Gugu Hadyongo, because I really love literature. I read most of the African writers when I was in secondary school. And I didn't know what to write. I think that seed of writing was planted then. Then it went through a period of what we say incubation where nothing was happening much. Then after graduating with a degree in chemistry and working for some time, I decided to go back to school. So I went for a master's course in entrepreneurship. And there was a lot of writing and that triggered back the writing. And I could write time papers that were relatively very good quality. And I actually published my thesis. And that triggered something in me. And I said, no, Vincent. This writing thing is cool. So I enrolled again for a PhD. And I did a seminal paper that I also published in the international journals. But meanwhile I was writing my first book which was about life. It's called Life is Like That. Just to share with people life challenges and how I have managed to overcome the many challenges that I encountered in life. And after the first book, the people who read my first book will tell me, Vincent, when are you writing another book? So I wrote another book. After writing the second book, there are people who have consistently advised me, Vincent, we are waiting for the next book. We are waiting for the next book. And I think I've been sold into writing. Nowadays I write consistently. Daily. And we shall talk about the book that you've written in just a little bit. Let me go back to Mrs. Kihara Kedogo. Mrs. Kihara, you are a, actually, you have a club, a writer's club, that is called Maple Brook Writer's Club. What is this club all about? And what are the kind of people that come through to this club and can our youth be interested in something like that? Yes. Thank you for this question. Maple Brook Writer's is a writing club where we have both the young and also the elderly. And we encourage each other to keep writing because we know through writing we get to discover our purpose. We get to find healing through writing. We get to identify our talents. And it's also been come for some of us. So we actually encourage everyone to tell their story because we say the only story that you can tell and tell so well is your own story. And your own story will inspire somebody else because you are authentic and people want to hear from authentic people. They want to hear about your life and what you've gone through and what lessons have you learned. So in the club, we encourage each other to write. We motivate each other. We inspire each other. And we always having book launches. It's amazing. Yeah, it's amazing. It sounds like fun. Oh my goodness. All right. And so please, if there are any youth who are interested in joining Maple Brook Writer's Club, please do feel free to do so. And I will ask you guys at the end to maybe share how they can reach you in whichever way possible towards the end. So please listen up for that. And remember, hashtag Tuesday Entrepreneurship, hashtag Y in the morning. Ah, let's get back to Mr. Vincent Togutu. Mr. Vincent Togutu. It's a beautiful book we have here on set. I can see. And I'm seeing something to do with millionaires on there. Billionaires. Billionaires. Yes. Can we please discuss the content of this book? This book is actually the product of three years of research. We're having studied entrepreneurship at the higher levels. I became curious. How come there are a lot of dollar billionaires in Europe, Asia, and the Americas? And I was wondering, do we have these dollar billionaires in Africa? And what is different from the likes of Jack Ma and the billionaires that we have in Africa? So I started to study the billionaires one after another from their childhood up to where they are now and what they have done. And I realized that all the billionaires that we have from Africa, they have made their money by solving the problems we have in Africa. And that is the motivation behind, yes. They have made their money by solving the problems we have in Africa. Yes. Because when you look at the bigger problems that we have, they're actually not problems, they are opportunities. Right. Yes. So when you look at the population of Africa is estimated to be about 1.2 billion, if all these people eat two meals a day, the farmers have a business, the restaurants have a business. So if you can tap into the supply chain, you will have a role to play, whether you're playing the transport role, whether you're playing the bankers role, everybody has a role to play in solving the problems of the continent. The other problem in Africa is that it is estimated that over 50, over 60% of the population is below 35 years of age. More than 60% of Africa's population is below the age of 35. Which means that these are able-bodied people. Yeah. They have quite a number of years in this world and they can actually work, they can go to school, they can build houses. So they can play a role in solving the problems of the continent. I see. That's wonderful. And that's the content of this book. Yeah. The content of... No, that's just one. If you take for example the person who started CELTEL or Airtel then, Mohamed Ibrahim. He's a Sudanese. And he realized having trained as a telecommunications engineer that Africa needs mobile telephony. People didn't believe him. He came into Africa, started CELTEL and he made all the billions. CELTEL. Yes. So the problems in Africa are actually opportunities. You look at Aliko Dangote. Aliko Dangote started by selling rice, beans, cooking oil and sugar. He still does the same. On a higher scale. Yes, at a bigger scale. He's actually gone into value addition. He's now milling rice, supporting farmers and changing Africa by creating jobs, creating opportunities. He's gone into cement and others. So every person who has succeeded in Africa has succeeded through solving the problems in Africa. And this story is actually included in this book. And remember you guys, if this is Tuesday Entrepreneurship and you're looking for some business ideas, please buy this book. There's a lot you can learn and I think there's a lot of ideas that you can pick up. There are actually 10 examples. Oh, 10 examples. Thank you for that. And please can we go back to Mrs. Tabitha. Mrs. Tabitha, what kind of books have you authored and what genre do they seem to take? I read non-fiction books. These are books. Yeah, these are books that talk about real life experiences. I've written a book about beauty of waiting. I wrote this book because I wanted to inspire women and not only women, people generally, to be able to enjoy their seasons of waiting, to be able to know that even when you're waiting for something, you can be victorious and you can be fruitful. Because all of us are waiting. Life is about waiting. And I wrote it because I got married in 2009 and we decided we were not going to get our baby in the first year of our marriage. So in the second year, we began trying for our baby. We didn't succeed the third year, the fourth year we tried again. And this time we succeeded and we conceived. But in the sixth week, we lost the pregnancy. And in the fifth year, we managed to get pregnant again. And in the twelfth week, we lost the baby. We got a miscarriage. So our hearts are broken because how can your heart not break when you lose a baby? But you know what? Broken hearts are what gives you compassion, they lead you to your purpose and you get empathy for people. And then in our sixth year of marriage, we're blessed with a baby boy. So I wrote this book to encourage people that even when you're going through your season of waiting, you're waiting for that job but for that baby. What should you be doing? So these are lessons from my own life. When I was waiting, I went back to school to pursue my master's. I traveled, I love traveling. I went to Mauritius, I went to Tanzania, I went to Uganda, I went to Zanzibar. I traveled in Kenya, I went to the world life, you know, Savo. I mean, redeem time because you'll not always have it. And seasons come and seasons go, no season is permanent. So I wrote it to encourage people that even when you're waiting, don't be depressed and writing is a way of finding healing. You know when you write, you connect with yourself, you connect with your experience. So you begin to find healing because we say the universe will always react to what you're doing, the vibration you're sending out. The universe receives them and acts towards them. So when you begin writing, you find emotional healing. So for me, it's a way of telling people even when you're going through a season of waiting, you can begin to write, you can begin to redeem time, you can begin to do the things that you've always wanted to do.  Don't keep sympathizing and feeling sorry for yourself. So it's about my journey. And the second one is 40 weeks of pregnancy devotion. When I got pregnant, I began to journal my journey. So I would actually write, like for week one, what is happening in my body in week one, and then I would write the experience. And then I would write a love letter to the unborn baby. So it's actually a journal guide for mothers, for women who are pregnant to be able to connect to pray for them and to walk the journey. And also praying about their pregnancy as they are working through that journey. So I advise women who are pregnant to just work, connect with their babies from that time when they conceive to getting the baby. So they are basically books about my own journey. Yeah, they are real authentic stories. And before I go back to Mr. Guto, I'd like to ask you one more question because you've identified your niche as nonfiction. Yes. You're a writer, an interested young writer. They don't know where to begin with. They don't know what they're good at writing. How can they go about discovering their niche? We say a niche is an area of specialization and it's an area that you love because you have to write about what you're passionate about. You must love it because before somebody else loves it and before somebody else connects with it. So we use what we call a shape tool. A shape tool is a acronym. S is for spiritual giftings. So you begin to discover what has God given you. Is it training? Is it wisdom? And then there is the heart. What do you love? Is it cooking? Is it writing? Is it music? And then we have A, the abilities. Those are the skills that you've gained from school. Like for me, my skills are in IT. So I write a lot about technology. And then we have the P, the personality. Are you melancholy? Are you phlegmatic? And then we have E, the experience. Our good and bad experiences shape our writing. They actually help us to write and I'm writing from my own experiences and giving people lessons of what I learned. So a writer can actually use the shape tool to discover what they want to write about. Yes. And we say that when writing, you need to write something that you're passionate about that will add value to people. Then once you do that, then people will be able to buy your work and you'll be able to earn from it. But you don't start writing for money. You start writing to be able to add value to people and then they can connect with your books. They can now buy your books. Yes. Thank you for that. When you were talking earlier before, you talked about how you started writing in high school. Was it just very high? Yes. Let's go back maybe to your younger years, just a little bit. I'd like to know, do you think that a writer is born or made in high school? And I can imagine, the people maybe even younger than that who started to write in 1960 to write their very first book. Do you think writers are born or made? I would say that writers are made from this aspect. The drive to write comes from experiences, especially personal experiences. My style of writing is telling stories and I tell real life stories. There are a lot of things happening in the world. That affect each and every one of us. Either a loss due to death, either something tragic in the family and writing is a way of healing or relieving or helping others with your experience so that if they are going through the same, they know that they are not the only ones. Others have also gone through the same and they have overcome the same problem. Writing is a way of expressing yourself. It gives you the freedom of communicating. You might be communicating on paper, but in reality, you are actually talking to the reader or the target audience. The writing is actually customized. It is not generalized. You actually write for a specific purpose either to inform or to entertain. My style is to combine that and tell stories in a way that they are plattable. It might be something so serious, so sad but put in a little bit of humor so that when you are already down, the story does not actually make you worse.  Today is Tuesday Entrepreneurship. We are going to discuss a little bit about the monetary benefits of writing towards the end. For now, I would like to ask Mrs. Tabitha in Kenya, I hear that people don't like to read very much. We are not very good readers but when we are doing something, it is probably a newspaper or magazine. How can we change that when it comes to Kenyans? How can we get Kenyans to start to love books again? By the way, Kenyans read. We know they read because we have many rating clubs coming up. We have initiatives like Story Moja who have reading events. We have also digital online stores. So Kenyans are reading. Kenyans are now reading. So there is no problem in that area? Yes, Kenyans are actually reading and that's why we even have book shops. Although we are still not there, to be able to encourage them to read more, we would especially want to encourage parents to begin encouraging their young children at an early age. Even two or three years to begin reading, buy for them books, put them at strategic places. When they wake up in the morning, the first thing they should see is a book. They should develop the love for reading instead of waking up and then watching television and cartoons. I think if you begin from an early age, then it's going to be good for the rest of the generation. I do like what you've said and actually I hope to be a future parent and I do not intend to have a television in my house at all. There will only be books. Please do, feel free. There is a program that we've launched to be the writer's guild. It's an organization, for young writers, that also mentor writers. And now we're actually partnering with primary schools to start writing clubs. Writing clubs and reading clubs in primary schools. So we are starting with 6, 7 to just create that reading culture because you cannot write if you don't read. So you start by reading and then you start writing. So the students who will be involved in the club will read the books and start writing reviews or what they have learned from the storybooks that we have already donated. So we intend every school that would have partnered with to have some form of library where the students who are interested in improving their English, improving their writing, improving their grammar, that they are comfortable. It is their environment and they will be able to learn the reading and the writing. Yes. I'm Ms. Tabitha Kihara. In Kenyan Commemoration of World, sorry, World Book Day, excuse me, Kenyan Commemoration for it, I see that you're going to be speaking. What is this event going to be covering? What does this invent and compass exactly? What do we as Kenyans expect from this? Okay, so this is the World Book Day. This is an annual event that is organized by the UNESCO and its aim is actually to encourage people to read, to publish books, to actually encourage reading culture in Kenya. So today we will be meeting at the Baza Plaza at the American Space. It's on Fibre floor and we'll be having many writers talking about their journey of writing, the challenges they've gone through. And they can also earn from writing. Yes. I see. Well, you know, is there anything you would like to add before I ask my final question? Because there are two things I would like to discuss. No, see that writing is fun. Yes. And our Nigerian brothers have actually been ahead of us for quite some time and it's time to cut up and tell our stories. Yes. Because we have enough stories, we have enough heroes within our setup, within our local setup. We have heroes who have solved the community problems. We have heroes that have mentored and provided direction to the youth to be useful to the society. So we need to tell these stories. Yes. And we can only tell these stories very shortly and quickly because we need to also leave a word behind for our youth and then we need to sign out. Kindly, I'd like to know this is Q's entrepreneurship. We do focus on this being a business also. We have seen the benefits of writing and reading but people, I guess we need to know is it something that can put bread on our tables? Is it something that we can survive on if I decide to be a writer here in Kenya? Yes. We have people like Oyugapala. He lives through writing. We have bloggers who live through writing. So you don't necessarily need to publish a book but writing and people, if you write things that people love consuming, reading and connecting. And once you have a fan base they will continue consuming whatever you do with them. So look for your place and south. Do you have the same mind? Yes, there are many opportunities like in digital marketing. If you find your place you niche then you can begin writing for companies that are in your niche. You can create websites, you can create blogs for people, you can write books. Opportunities are so many. You can hold conferences and get paid for it. You can create the area that your niche is in. Opportunities are many. Thank you for that. And guys, remember that you can also always hashtag entrepreneurship, hashtag why in the morning. And please, how can they reach you if they're interested in reaching you? And then after that kindly share a word to our youth to encourage them to read more and write more. I would like to invite them to our meeting today at the Bazaplazite American Space on Fifth Floor, that's on Moy Avenue. And I would like to invite them to come for a meeting. They'll be able to network with other writers and also they can find us on Facebook Mapo Brookwriters. Mapo Brookwriters, yes. How can they reach you and what would you like to say to them? They can reach me through Facebook, or they can reach me through my mobile. I can give it. If you're comfortable. Yes, 0722-171-838. 0722-171-838. Okay, right. We are there to help. Thank you. Would you like to say a quick word to our youth to encourage them to read more and write more? Yes, it's good to be youthful.  It is a blessing because first, the changes in technology, the access to information through the internet, the access to smartphones that actually brings the world to your phone. Now, what needs to change is our approach to life as young people. We need to start looking at what problems are the society experiencing and what can we do to change because that's how successful people have changed the world. By making solutions to everyday problems. Creating solutions, yes. Creating solutions. Thank you so much for that. And just to add, majority of the people who are successful in 18 years. Thank you for that. That's a perfect way to end this interview because I know a lot of views are around that age. I'd like for you to... How am I repeated? A lot of people who become successful started writing at below. No, just writing. Doing anything. Whatever they did, they started at below the age of 18. 14, 16 years.  And thank you so much for tuning in and thank you so much for coming to discuss the values of reading and writing. We do appreciate it. This is why in the morning, this is why 254 Channel, remember, you can watch us on DSTV Channel 376 on YouTube. You can watch this interview again and please subscribe to our channel. Thank you so much for watching. My name is Joy Machacha once again.


My name is Vilgini Gram. I'm product manager at Diagrid. And in this talk, I will try to quickly tell you where the circuit breakers and other related features in your applications are heading to. And what's the opportunity for cloud native really in here? So let's get started with really the basics. I would say everything we do in software is about more efficiently using the infrastructure primitives and expressing business logic. For example, we have different programming languages which are good for different things. We have Go, Rust, and C++ which are good for infrastructure. We have Java and .NET which are good for backend applications, Python for data processing, and JavaScript. And then we have different frameworks and runtimes to use those. Then we have different kind of data stores which are good for storing data for different use cases for retrieving data. For example, there is database for transactional processing, columnar databases for reporting. There is key value stores, document stores, graph databases, and now vector databases, and so forth. And then as developers, we have to use different clients to interact with these different types of data stores. And the more applications we create, the more granular they get, such as microservices and functions, there will be more networking. So there are different communication styles, such as request, response, publish, subscribe. There are different data formats, REST, RPC, GraphQL, and so forth. And the more data storage there is, again, we have to talk to these different data stores. And I would say this kind of gives us an idea of different trends. I would say going forward, there will be even more polyglotism multiple languages. There will be applications that have to be deployed on different clouds that have to use different storage mechanisms and will have more distributed apps. But we are at CNCF, so this is not the news. Everything at KubeCon is about polyglotism, multi-cloud distributed apps. How is that related? Think for that, we have to look at how applications have been evolving. So not so long ago, we had monolithic applications where the business logic and the middle way capabilities, the repetitive capabilities we need would be in the same deployment unit. So then we got microservices, we got FAS and Lambda. And today we are at the point where we have distributed applications that are composed of modules of different size and shape. There are a combination of functions, microservices, micro-monoliths, services that are not so micro and so forth. And they are all written in different languages, deployed on different places in different shape. And I would say the same way Kubernetes and Knative in the past helped the ops by abstracting the infrastructure. There is an opportunity now for Cloud Native to create new abstractions on top of these repetitive developer needs, which were called middle way in the past, and expose these needs on top of polyglot APIs that can be used by all developers on any cloud. Really, that's the point. So if we look at there, what are those needs? For the purpose of this talk, I grouped them in four categories. I would say every application interacts with other things, and those are either around lifecycle interactions, talking to other services to third party endpoints or some kind of state storage. So let's go into each of these. Today, if you are a developer, once you implement your business logic and you package it in a container, I would say there is very little left to do around the deployment and lifecycle, other than implementing a health point and exposing some metrics, everything else is taken care by the platforms such as Kubernetes and Knative and the Ops Team. So the platform will provision resources for you, it will find the right node, it will start your application and even scale it. You don't have to do anything, so all that is taken care. If we go to the next category of interactions, let's say service A is calling service B. And there are a number of things that can happen in the middle that are completely transparent to the application. Developerism doesn't have to be aware. For example, that networking traffic, that request can be routed to different services, that service discovery. That traffic can be routed to different service instances, that's load balancing. It can be routed to different service version, that's the A-B testing and kernel releases and so forth. The network in traffic can get resiliency properties such as circuit breakers, timeouts and so forth. It can get additional security properties with encryption and access control. It can get, we can observe telemetry. Basically, we can get all of these things without changing the application in any way. And the common way to do that today is with service mesh technologies. We don't have time to go into details of this, but we can briefly see how this has evolved, starting with language specific libraries from within the applications and moving into SideCard to not proxy and going deeper into the operating system. And the point here is that these transparent responsibilities, you don't have to worry about those within your application. They will go outside of your application and even to the core of the operating system. But there are other things that developers have to care about. In this example, I have a service A that's calling, talking to some kind of third party endpoints. And in such a scenario, sometimes you have to perform repetitive things such as connecting to an endpoints. You would need some kind of connector that has to do protocol conversion from one protocol to another. It may have to do transformation of the message or it has to do some kind of content based routing based on the actual message or topic route that to specific application. So all of these things today, they are primarily done from within the applications with frameworks such as Camel and Spring, that's in Java. But what's happening here is that these responsibilities are moving outside of your application in the frameworks such as DAPR, Knetit and they are becoming available to any language. So they're not moving to the platform but moving outside of your application. And the last category, I call them stateful interactions. And the whole point here is if we have two services that has to communicate, and when service A sends a request and that request is stored in some kind of medium between service A and B. Typically that's a message broker where the message is persisted but the same semantic applies if the message of that request has to be persisted to a workflow engine or it has to be stored in some kind of database and you can use change data capture and outbox in order to deliver that to second service. Other patterns here like item potent filter which needs to store requests into database to filter those and so forth. And the point here is previously these responsibilities were done within the application with the language specific frameworks such as I have here conductor, cadence but even those frameworks now are adding support for other languages and these responsibilities are moving outside of your application becoming cloud native with frameworks such as DAPR. So why am I telling all that? That's the key takeaway. I would say that two kind of changes that are happening with all of these repetitive developer responsibilities. On the left hand side, we have transparent responsibilities such as lifecycle, low level networking that are moving into the platform even down to the operating system but then there are other responsibilities that you need to develop to do that impacts the application and the business logic. These are explicit interaction, state tool interactions and they are moving outside of the application into polyglot APIs that you can call from any language that you can call from any cloud and any shape of your application and that's really the opportunity for cloud native to address these responsibilities and offer them to all developers. That's all, so enjoy the rest of the conference and thank you.


I am being recorded for the first time, so I really appreciate the applause. I'm going to try and get through this quickly so that you can get as much of this out of it as you can, seeing as many of you have to leave. So my objective today is to try to give you a sense of, on the other side of the table, what we're looking for and why, because that's really important so that you can showcase that you've got what it takes to thrive in private practice. With respect to my background, I am a lawyer by trade and I've been in the professional resources and development type role for roughly seven, eight years now in large Atlantic law firms. And so I work very closely with associate lawyers. I work very closely with associate lawyers in terms of recruitment, performance management, professional development, and I basically support them in the practice of their law. I'm joined today by my colleague Don Cottro, who is the director of paralegal services and student programs at Stuart McAlvey. So if you have specific questions about the program at our firm, Don is probably better positioned to help you with those details, so feel free to ask questions as we go throughout. So law firms invest a great deal in this process and there's a reason why. There's a lot of hoops to jump through and that's because we're looking for a longer term relationship. It's not just about hiring you for a summer student position or an article in program year. It's about looking for the future lawyers in our firm. And so we want as many touch points as we possibly can to get to know you. There's a lot of talent in the pool and we need to get to know you as best we can to assess the best for our individual firms. So how do we do that? An important lawyer in my life, one of my uncles once said to me, and this was back when I was in law school with Sarah, he said there's a lot more to being a good lawyer than knowing the law. I didn't have a clue what he meant at that time. I just thought I have to get A's or I'm not going to get a job. But there's more to having strong academics to be successful, particularly in private practice. So we recognize as a starting point very, very few if any of you have direct legal experience. It's an unusual thing to apply for a job that you've never done before and that you have no experience whatsoever in doing. So how do we assess whether you've got what it takes to make a go at it? So what we try to do is look for relevant transferable skills that we feel would set you up for success in private practice. What you need to try and do is to set yourself apart from all of the talent in the mix to demonstrate I've got some of those transferable skills. I'd be a good fit at your firm. And so there's a variety of ways in which you can do that and that's one of my key objectives today is to give you some tangible tips, some takeaways that you can implement right away to showcase yourself against all the rest of the talent. So I'm going to focus on three aspects of private practice that are the typical demands that lawyers face on a day-to-day basis. And so when you're looking through our lens, this is what we typically have top of mind. Client service. It's pretty basic. Without clients, law firms don't exist. So it's really important that lawyers focus on delivering the best possible client service every day. That's what sets them apart from other lawyers. There are very many strong lawyers in the legal community who have excellent technical skills. But if they don't focus on delivering top quality client service, clients will walk. It is a very competitive market. Clients have lots of choices. They want consistency and top quality service. They want fast turnaround. They want accessibility. When I email you, I want you emailing me back. And I want to be your top client. I want to be your number one priority. So it's really important that when we recruit lawyers, that client service is a skill that that lawyer can implement on a day-to-day basis. So what can you do as a student who has no legal experience to demonstrate I can adapt to a client service model? Well, first of all, we're looking for those strong communication skills. And years ago, they were called soft skills. Well, in my world, those are the core skills because without effective communication, it's really challenging to deliver top quality client service. So what you can do throughout this process is demonstrate that you're a good listener. Don't underestimate the power of listening. You don't have to dominate conversation. And in fact, if you do that, you know, we're all taking note. They don't listen. They don't listen well. They're dominating conversation. It's not, you know, a back and forth conversation. Ask interesting questions. Demonstrate that you've taken the time to learn about the different firms and the people that you're going to interact with. If you are trying to attract a new client, that's what you would do about that client. If you were to investigate that client, you would learn ways that you can interact with that client, add value, learn about the business. Demonstrate that you have a desire to help and add value that you are solution focused. That's what clients are looking for. Solutions in their business or solutions for a certain litigation matter. Demonstrate that you can go above and beyond what was actually asked of you. So again, for client service, it's not just doing the isolated task. It's looking at the big picture. How can I add more value?  I was a waitress before I went to law school, so things like that are important to showcase. Demonstrate that you've got strong communication skills. So again, in all of the social aspects of recruitment, demonstrate the active listening, converse, ask the interesting questions. Know your resume. So whenever you're going into whether it's a social aspect of recruitment or the interview itself, you can be assured that the people that you're meeting, they have read your resume. Right? And they are looking for interesting aspects of it. So you need to be familiar with it too. And I guess what I would say is if you can always think about treating the firms that you're interested in as a prospective client, if you bring that attitude to the table that I want to learn about your firm, I want to be a part of your firm, then that will help set you apart from all of the other candidates in the mix, because you're essentially coming to the table and saying, look, I'm right for the job, choose me. Any questions about client service? Okay. Another key demand faced by lawyers is business development. So this comes back to the competitive legal market. And more than ever before, lawyers very early on in their careers, this used to be, you know, you talk about the rain makers who were the senior lawyers in any firm, they were typically responsible for generating new business and retaining existing business. Well, in today's market, you're seeing those pressures very early on in the career. In a small firm environment, it could be as soon as you're called. In a larger firm environment, depending on the community you're in, it can be within the first one to four years of practice. Either way, law firms are looking for students, prospective lawyers to be thinking about business development and to have a business acumen. So again, that's the lens we're looking through. You can't rely on clients to be loyal anymore. So this, you know, in combination with delivering excellent client service, you have to be thinking about ways to retain those clients. Now in my work with associate lawyers, many of them are daunted by the notion of business development because they immediately jump to the awkward cocktail party. And quite frankly, that is one method of interacting with clients, but it's more than that. The very basic element of business development is about nurturing and building relationships. So that's what we're looking for, are the skill sets that would help you build relationships. So how can you do that? Again, it comes back to you demonstrating that you have strong communication skills. Are you relaxed in conversation? Are you at ease? Can you maintain eye contact? Because that's important. If you can't maintain eye contact or you struggle with that, it can affect the confidence that others may have in you. So think about those little things when demonstrating that you have those strong communication skills. We talk a lot about the handshake, the firm handshake. The examples I've used in the past, I remember meeting a very strong candidate from Osgood, and he was a competitive hockey player. And when he shook my hand, he did the little tip thing. And I don't know if he thought, because I'm a woman, I can't shake properly or if he shakes all hands that way. But it impacted the way that was the last thing I remembered about him. Despite his excellent application, he conversed very well in the interview. So think about these little things that can leave impressions. It's all about people having confidence in you. We talk a lot about that at the lawyer level. Do you have confidence in this lawyer to handle your work? That is a question I ask. I'm doing performance reviews right now. I ask it about 10 times a day. So it all comes back to that. Do you have a question? It was just in this place. How do you then recover from that to say, okay, I recognize this wasn't as strong. If you're asking questions, can everybody just put your hands up if you agree and if you don't, don't answer? All right, because it would be so boring if we're just listening to me. Well, the answer to that, like anything in law, it depends on who you ask. If you were to ask me this question, I use humor appropriately when there's an awkward situation. So I would say, well, that was a great handshake. Let's do that again. But that depends. You have to really try to gauge, you know, like that would go over very well with me, with others perhaps not so much. I don't know if, Sarah, you have like an alternative suggestion there. Sometimes it's there. Yeah. Go in for it again. Yeah. It would be direct shiver. Yeah. You know? It's just distracting, right? That's it. You don't want the negative distractions because the pool is so strong and so competitive. You don't want any of those distractions, right, when people are looking at the strength of the candidates. You just want all the positives to remain on the table because there's often these tie breakers, right? And I know it sounds terrible because your jobs are on the line, but when you have that many people in the mix, you've got to make a decision somehow. One example could be you then go in for a second shake at the end of the conversation and you make sure that that's a good one. So that's another way to get around that if you don't want to use humor or recognize it verbally. Another one I like to emphasize, you know, think about in advance if I'm very comfortable in a social setting. That's why I do what I do. I really enjoy interacting with people, getting to know people. I ask lots of questions. But if you are uncomfortable with that and it's not natural for you, then think about it in advance. It's like preparing for anything, even the social aspect of recruitment. Think about the ice breaker questions. That can be part of your, you know, your prep in terms of the various firms. Maybe don't go around asking the same ice break or the same question as an ice breaker with all people you meet at the same function. But have like a little list of five, you know, your toolkit per se, if conversing doesn't come naturally. And you're always going to meet awkward lawyers. That's a given. So have one of them for those anyway. Even if you're great at it, you're going to meet an awkward lawyer. That's just a given. The one I do like to emphasize, because the demographics in law firms, you know, we've got lots of generations in the mix. And I think it's fair to say that a lot of those with influence within the firms tend to still be rather senior. I'm in my early 40s. And I, I mean, it's only in the past five years I've started conversing by text. Right? So you've got lawyers who are much senior to me. So if they see you at a function and you're texting, they don't think of that as a normal form of communication. They think of it as being disinterested, rude, and not worth my time. So think about those things as well. You may need to modify your habits when interacting with law firm representatives. Okay. The other thing we look for is judgment. So in again, in the social context, thinking about business development, client service, transferable skills, is this individual client facing appropriate?  I remember being at a reception and a very strong candidate told me about how drunk he was at a party. Well, that, you know, I don't need to know that. I mean, I wasn't offended. I've got pretty thick skin, but not a good choice of conversation with someone you want to hire you. Have a professional demeanor and appearance. So on the choice, on the question of dress, this is one of the trickiest things for people to get their head around. You're on a tight budget. You know, your student attire isn't necessarily fitting for trying to find the job. So you're trying to figure out, what do I wear to the interview? What do I wear to all of the social engagements? And again, it depends on who you ask and it depends on the firm, whether you're looking at a small firm, a small firm, larger firm. What Sarah and I have said in the past is you've, you know, a suit is a great default. Not everybody has a suit at this point. I invested in a suit. I spent too much money on it, but I wore it for six years until it got holes in it in my second year. So if you can make it in the budget, invest in a suit because you'll get lots of wear out of a suit if you're looking to be employed in a law firm. You know, the whole notion of business casual is an individual assessment. It's easier, quite frankly, for men to pull off. This is business casual for me. That's business casual for me. Not for everybody. Some people, like on a Friday, I'll wear a nice jean with a jacket like Sarah's dress today. So this is a tricky one. You have to figure out who you're meeting in the context. Is the classic black the way to go or do people not really fit? I find this so interesting. If you want to wear a red suit, go for it. When I was in law school, we talked about wearing a red suit and you didn't want to be an aggressive woman wearing a red suit. But that was 15 years ago. Okay? To wear a black suit? Well, this is a thing. It's so subjective. It's very comfortable because you don't want to be what you're wearing to be distracting to you so that you can't put your best foot forward in an interview. And on that point, so for example, and this just sounds really silly, but wear clothes that fit. Right? Like I've interviewed people whose clothes are too tight, too big. That's distracting for the candidate and it is distracting for the interviewer. So it's all about trying to look your best and put your best foot forward. And so you need to be comfortable to be able to do that or you're going to be distracted. With respect to color, I think I'm not sure in what context that came up. From my perspective, it's a non-issue. Do you want to wear... I don't know. I mean, I've seen a lot of purple hair although in 2015 it's not supposed to be a current trend anymore. I did see that. But if you have purple hair and you are applying for a job in a conservative law firm, that could be distracting. It could be because purple hair is not typically conservative. So you've got to figure out where you're applying and is that the right fit for you. Because I don't think you ever want to change who you are to fit the mold of a potential employer.  We talk about looking polished. So that means it's not me, they have a class. Ironing your shirt. You wouldn't believe how many people wrinkly shirts. Press your clothes, make sure they're clean, no coffee stains. Look your best. What you're wearing right now is perfect business casual with a jacket and a casual shirt. I feel like I'm going to lose half of you. Anyway, if you have any questions, Dawn or myself, we are happy to answer them at a later time. Okay. So, bold colors like blue, for example, are confidence colors. Like a blue suit or like a charcoal gray. Something like this is more neutral. It totally says that a black suit is typically ill-advised because if you look at the people who are working at firms, they often don't wear a lot of black suits. Yeah. So you want something that's a little bit more... I have a friend that worked in London and he went to work with a brown suit in his law center. Really? London, England or London? He said totally avoid brown suits and tan. I just think you... Well, again, it's about being remembered for the right reasons, right? So if you look your best, I think you can't go wrong. And if you have doubts, ask students who have been hired, phone a clerk in a firm that you're interested in and get their take on it. You know? Okay. See you later. Other things to avoid? Oh, sorry. Yeah. Yes. How many interviews do you have? Oh, I see. Like the process with a given firm. Would anyone know? I know I wouldn't. And I'm pretty picky about stuff like that. That's not to say someone wouldn't. But I think that most firms recognize you have an envelope of a budget for a tire at this age and stage of your legal career. So I think if you choose to invest in a suit, take care of it. And, you know, I think changing the shirt in and out is a great option. Yeah. I love that show, by the way. Yeah. Really? On Netflix? No. I love a good bow tie. And this is about being true to your character. So if you're in an interview with me and you've got a bow tie on and you happen to be sitting with Mark Bursey, who may very well also have a bow tie on. One of the things that most interviewers will say is like in my notes, bow tie. Because it's a way of me recalling you. We meet so many people. So again, I think to set yourself apart in the right way, to show your character, I think is a great thing. And you can do that through good judgment choice, fashion choices. Yeah. There's bow tie day and everything, right? I mean, a good bow tie. Okay. In terms of things, conversation points, the good judgment piece. Again, professional demeanor and appearance, appropriate alcohol intake. I am not a beer drinker. I enjoy a glass of wine. But it does make me flush. So when I go to events like this, I'm working. It's an employment gathering, not a social one. So, you know, go and maybe go to events like this. You know, it doesn't matter if you react strongly to a small amount of alcohol, but monitor your intake at these events. You know, it's a marathon, not a sprint, right? This is an exhausting process over a very short period of time. Many of you have assignments due. You have classes. You may have jobs. So party afterwards is my recommendation. Have fun. But make sure that your alcohol intake is appropriate. Avoid asking questions that deal with money early on in the process. If towards the end of the process you feel you are a strong candidate and there may be multiple offers coming in, that's when you would have a conversation about what's the compensation package going to look like. And you might want to do that through a clerk or a junior lawyer. Not necessarily the recruitment team, but give that some thought. I'm going to ask someone for the first time at a reception. Avoid chewing gum, turning your phones off, all of those things and using humor appropriately are all good things. But again, overall try to be yourself and try to build rapport with the people that you meet throughout the process. I've got a note here to manage the nerves as best you can. So whatever works for you, whether that's making sure you get regular eyes, stay hydrated, practice with friends, scream at the top of your lungs before you enter a certain room. I don't know. Whatever it takes for you to get the nerves in check, because you've got a finite period of time to really showcase what you can bring to the table. And again, you want to be remembered for the right reasons. Workload management.  And the reality is with clients having the high expectations they have and each individual client expecting to be the number one client, in addition to that you've got most men and women now in private practice are taking an active involvement in raising children, actively involved in the community, through volunteerism, sports, whatever it may be. So strong workload management skills are really critical for long term success in private practice so that you enjoy practice day to day. So what can you do at this age and stage to show that you can handle those pressures and manage them effectively? Well, we're looking for people who can demonstrate the ability to multitask, obviously. And, you know, someone who is fairly organized, that's very important to thrive in private practice. So with respect to multitasking, do what you can to demonstrate, look, I have strong academics, but I also do these things, whether it's a part-time job, sports, volunteerism, active involvement with my family. With respect to organizing it's really important that you can demonstrate the ability to plan ahead anticipate next steps.  And one of the four stories can be a senior lawyer walks into a junior lawyer's office and there's paper everywhere and that senior lawyer says, my file is in there somewhere. So it's about having confidence that you've got the ability to have it all well in hand and move files forward. So with respect I know the resumes were due today or they've already been submitted, yeah. So with respect to being organized for interviews and correct me if I'm getting this wrong on the rules now what I would do is depending on how many interviews I would have like a one page cheat sheet for every firm. You know a little bit of history about the firm some interesting facts that you've researched, do some due diligence on those who are interviewing you, maybe do a snapshot of their picture so you don't forget who they are you have a list of three to five questions that you want to ask in an interview and I'm a paper person for stuff like that so I would have a binder if you want to use an iPad or something you could use one note I find is great for that kind of thing just so that you're very organized and whether you're permitted to take that into the interview or not at the very least what you can do is prior to going in scan that one pager, refresh on that individual firm and then as you're leaving that interview you can make notes about that firm which comes in handy as the process progresses so if you wanted to send a personalized thank you you could reference something that was discussed in that particular interview don't underestimate how exhausting this will be and it will be very challenging and taxing on you to remember everything so don't underestimate the importance of jotting things down. The other thing that I often coach our lawyers on is about work ethic and resilience lawyers work really hard and depending on the firm in which you choose to practice that can vary but either way you've chosen a career that you've got to work hard at so it's important that you assess your gas tank and your ability to handle the pressures that come with private practice and having a great personal life so from our perspective we are looking for indicators of that ability to handle a lot of that and so we make note of those who have a calm demeanor when I talk about getting the nerves in check it's important for that because it comes back to the never let them see you sweat right fake it till you make it so putting your best face forward in terms of having a calm and relaxed demeanor that is a great way to set yourself apart anything else on that so then about you I think it's really important and I know it's incredibly competitive to do a fit assessment from your perspective that's really important that you do your own due diligence up front to try and figure out what firms would be the best fit for me so you want to ask about whether if mentorship is important to you do certain firms have mentorship programs what is the culture of the firm like is it an open door policy is their teaming on files what are the expectations of practicing lawyers in terms of client interaction internal interaction what resources are available at various firms to support lawyers in the practice of law some firms have the benefit like the Atlantic regional firms of having dedicated professional resources departments others do not but that's not to say those supports don't exist it may be that a lawyer internally is dedicated to that get a sense from existing students and associate lawyers within those firms don't be hesitant to reach out whether it's through a referral or a cold call and just see if you can go to coffee with somebody and learn more about what is it like to work there on a day-to-day basis because coming back to my original point we're looking for that longer term relationship so I think it's really important on your end to get a sense of that too I think one of the primary goals during articles is not only to be admitted to the bar as a newly called lawyer but it's also to get hired back so you don't want to invest a year of your life at a firm that ultimately isn't a great fit for you meet as many people as you can from the firm to do that assessment at various practice levels the students may be on the staff side as well ask yourself some key questions don't underestimate the fun factor would you actually enjoy working with this group of people day-to-day the practice of law can be pretty grueling so it's important that you would enjoy the people that you'd be working with a question that's often overlooked what kind of client base are at the various firms what are the viable practice areas so we're not looking for students at this age and stage to say I want to practice criminal law or I want to be a business lawyer we're not looking for that if you feel that way already then don't apply to a firm that's never going to give you that kind of an opportunity so make sure you do that due diligence in the firm in the Halifax office we don't practice criminal law we get a lot of applications though that say I have a very strong interest in criminal law so that gets put in the other pile so do your homework up front and then I have stuff here about have fun be yourself be prepared be organized be professional and good luck spaces there kind of gain something or learn something more about the front of that I think importantly it's an opportunity opportunity for you to demonstrate you have done all that homework so even if you position it as look I have met with so and so but I'd like to get your perspective on X don't if anything don't waste that opportunity don't say I don't have any questions that is noted if someone does not have a question for me in an interview that's the last thing I write and that's a tie breaker so take advantage of that and if nothing came up in the course of the interview that's new or caught your interest that you want to follow up on then go back to your standard list of questions because that if anything demonstrates I've taken the time to investigate your firm I've come prepared they don't need to know you've already done you've already got the answers you need but you're demonstrating that I've taken initiative then have to use judgment if it's been a great conversation and the interview has gone long then perhaps ask one question or say look I know we're out of time do you have time for me to ask any questions quiet group mind you there's only 12 of you yes I think it's important to have a big believer in talking about the elephant in the room level Chan who is the partner who leads the recruitment team at our firm is quote unquote from away so what you might want to do through your research is look through the bios or through your contacts at the various firms through the student at the student level figure out what lawyers did come from away securing positions and maybe reach out to that lawyer and you know inquire about his or her experience I think it is important that it's referenced on a cover letter because again that's the initial screening point and so when there's so many talented candidates in the pool when you scan a resume and there's no other connection to this community other than law school then I need to see something in a cover letter that suggests to me a level of commitment to stay in this community and this simply comes back to the point of us from our perspective looking for a long-term relationship and in many cases work isn't enough to keep people in a certain community so I think it's important to recognize it and you then need to be honest about what are your motivators and what is it about Halifax if Halifax is the community that makes you want to stay I don't know if based on other discussions if you have anything to add to that I think that's great advice because if you're not genuine when you relate your commitment to stay these lawyers will know that's what they're trained to do other questions okay by a letter I meant an email sorry is that what you were asking about the distinction okay yes I meant an email and so again taking great care there you know making sure you're addressing it to the intended recipient and I think it's really good to personalize it when you can so if you after an interview make a note of a unique discussion point you could perhaps reference that so if a lawyer gave you advice or commented on something that was of interest you could recognize that in the thank you email again you've got to use your judgment don't write a book I've got a rule about email I like to see it on my screen and if I've got a scroll oh it's painful so thank you for your time or something great meeting you as the subject line and then addressing that person by name trying not to do the cut and paste on all of them personalize them in some way because that is an indicator to us that you've taken the initiative to stop pause personalize attention to detail all of those attributes that we look for in the delivery of client service there was one here was that the same question about there are no trivial questions um this is again this is so subjective right so I remember when November first came out and it's it's around the time of the the schmoozing right and I remember being at one of these events and I'm forming all these judgments and I'm like what the hell are these kids doing coming to these events with these crazy mustaches you know and then someone educated me that it was a very important fundraiser so um it's very subjective it comes down to doing your homework about uh the firms there are some firms that are young and hip and probably wouldn't think twice about not being clean shaven there are other firms that are more conservative and the distinction is typically the client base right and the seniority within the firm like the level of generations in the firm if you're applying to a firm a smaller firm that's all young maybe lawyers in their 30s probably not an issue depending on the client base but I think you need to go into any recruitment process feeling comfortable you know if it looks like you didn't shave for two days that could be perceived as didn't take the time but if it looks like that's how you typically would wear your facial hair then that's just who you are I don't know if I'm explaining that well enough but if it looks like I was out partying all night and I didn't take time to shave before this interview that's not a good thing yeah that's a great tip exercise caution because the reality is the practice of law in this community is still relatively conservative it's a conservative industry the reality your hair looks fine to me and I've always had short hair I would never have made a mental recognition of your hair either way positive or negative yeah you've got long hair Sarah any comments on that you know if someone had ponytails at the top maybe that would be distracting yes but I work with many practicing women who have long hair and they wear it down they never put it up or anything do they like a clip or anything no it's always worn down yes well the starting point is being genuine and identifying that is a conversation point so if you're going to write something about that you can expect it to be discussed in an interview so make sure it's truthful as a starting point things that I have seen people will comment on relatives in the community in some cases students meet a significant other during law school and they talk about that volunteerism I've seen as the connection to that community and wanting to stay trying to think of other things I mean level tells a great story about this he just fell in love with Halifax and he was here for I think two of his degrees so it's a unique to you but my caution would be truthful and honest about that don't just make things up you know if there's no other reason other than getting a job yeah so when does it all start is it next week yeah yeah so everybody is participating in Super Saturday any questions about that stay hydrated don't underestimate the power of a water bottle and granola bars little snacks you know to keep your focus I used to say maybe I don't want to do 10 interviews but they are trying to schedule more than 8 interviews like what's what's a good manageable load that is probably a good Sarah question I think it's a very personal assessment so again I know it's a very tight market and having articles is really important you need your articles to become practicing lawyers so I think there's a general reluctance to limit yourself right because you've got to cast the net wider I think though if you have a sense going in which firms are of more interest to you then focus on your prep give them more weight in your prep right if you know going in which firms you are truly interested in then focus on those firms in your prep so that you can truly shine with respect to pacing yourself I can't even remember what the standard is so like maybe don't go to DOMA stuff Thursday get some good sleep Thursday and Friday and I mean it sounds like we're making a big deal that it is a long day and it's tiring trying to sell yourself repeatedly to people who I mean sometimes interviewers are going to be asking why are we spending like 5 minutes of this 20 or 10 minutes of this 20 talking about that type of thing it can be it can be pretty challenging so if you have to know yourself and if you know I think that is really important though to if you know yourself and you know how much of a gas tank you have don't underestimate rest being hydrated just don't go drinking the night before that's just a smart move drink that night drink afterwards like decompress go out with your friends but this is an opportunity for you to get your foot in the door if you don't prepare yourself it could be a wasted opportunity so approach it as the beginning of the process again it's a marathon and you want to start off strong okay I see you're ready too alright you can reach out to yourself and any of the recruitment team at all of the law firms all of the lawyers are happy to discuss any of your questions a great source of information though are those who are closer to your age and stage of the legal practice so students who are still in the law school clerks are great just go for a coffee and learn what you can about the firms you're welcome


HBCU Digest, and we're back on this particular interview. I can't, I have to have to disclose bias. This is one of five Omega men that I love in this world. Brother who was who supported the Digest from day one and who truly truly is a role model for the HBCU community, Nicholas Perkins, the CEO and president of the Perkins Management Services Incorporated, a proud graduate of Fayetteville State University who is celebrating 15 years in business, doing business with black folks. That's right. Business with black folks and for black folks in a proper way. So my brother, it is always an honor to have you on, man. Thank you, man. I'm just honored for me to be here, brother. 15 years, man. Talk about it, brother. 15 years. You and I got great. Got great coming into the face. I'm telling you, man, 15 years to do that to you. But it's true. Talk about the journey, man. This started from a one-man operation to a multi-million dollar state operation. Just share with people who are looking at this and hoping to follow in your footsteps what that journey has been like. Well, it's been an honor, man. We've been truly blessed to, I have had the opportunity to have the experiences that we've had as a company. It does not seem like it's been 15 years since we began operations. And I have to tell you, I incorporated this company 16 years ago, this November, but we began operations October the 15th, 2015. So on tomorrow, officially will be the 15th anniversary of Perkins Management Services. And I just feel very blessed to have had the opportunity to experience the growth that we have over the years, partner with some of the tremendous clients and have had the opportunity to serve many of our nation's historical Black cause universities, partner with the federal government, service to the Environmental Protection Agency, the United States Department of Transportation, the United States Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Army, the Defense Health Organization. I mean, it's just been such a tremendous ride and to think that this all started 15 years ago in Cumberland County in Fayetteville, North Carolina with one mental health institution where I was the cook, the cashier, the janitor and the food delivery guy, you know? And to see where the company has grown, I can attribute that to nothing but the grace of God to be honest with you. Man, for those of us who are trying to follow in your footsteps and to build a truly healthy and thriving Black owned organization. Yes.  But how have you been able to successfully navigate those to get in places where you're doing business, not only just in our communities, but as you mentioned with the federal government with state agencies, what do you think has been one of the key ingredients to you being able to transition between vendor opportunities and entrepreneurial opportunities? Well, I've always tried to keep my head on the swivel as my football coach would teach us and always constantly looking for opportunities. And I've never been afraid to go outside of my comfort zone.  And, you know, we really started. I mean, we really, after our first contract, we were really a multi-state operator.    We have to identify them and then go wherever they are and have the courage in North to be able to go out and do that. One of the distinguished parts of your career, particularly with HBCUs, is that you've been a multi-million dollar philanthropist at your alma mater and other institutions. You have taught at institutions, you've established professional development and money. And I don't say that in a funny way, but I'm not only in your pockets, but into the institutions on students to get them prepared for the next level of their lives. What has really induced you to say, I want to be multifaceted in the way that HBCUs are preparing these young people? Well, you know, I thought that it was vitally important for me to, as I continued to grow and develop and as an entrepreneur to reach back to younger generations of aspiring entrepreneurs, because I have always felt like entrepreneurship was the way for people of color, especially in the United States. The racial wealth gap has plagued us and continues to plague us far greater than any other race or ethnicity in the United States. And I have always felt like that entrepreneurship was the fastest way for African American people, ultimately to be able to narrow the racial wealth gap and to be able to create generational wealth and transfer that wealth to future generations. And so in order, because in many times, you know, I was almost like a unicorn, you know, so I would show up, you know, and I started this business, I was 25 years old and you know, I'm coming to get the largest contract on campus or the largest contract on the base. And I was very young person, I was very confident, not even some aspects, but at the same time, you know, you know, I was bold enough to do that, but people were not accustomed to seeing the young African American men and women come to do business. And what I wanted to do was to encourage, you know, other young people that, hey, you can go out and do this. So that's why I went into the classroom and I'm going into, I think my either third or fourth year teaching at Howard University, teach entrepreneurship there. And I taught entrepreneurial thinking and creativity and entrepreneurship, you know, for Fayetteville State as well. But I mean, it's just a tremendous pleasure for me really to teach and I probably talk gosh, you know, they give me an auditorium over there, man. My class is always packed, you know, and I had an opportunity to interact with some of the most brilliant minds, you know, and I think that we're going to see some tremendous entrepreneurs to come, you know, in the next decade or so.  Let's talk about that. Because you not only teach about that, but you're also a radio host. You talked about that wealth gap. You've talked about opportunities for black entrepreneurs at length and unafraid. When you look at the urgency for black folks, particularly in 2020, as we think about the social political climate, how can, is there a way to expedite the way that we think about business and getting people ready to do business, particularly as resources and politics are changing and for as little money as we had in our communities before, it looks like it's going to be even less because of job loss and how banks and industries are shifting to try to deal with this thing. Yeah. Is there a way to stay on track with that? Or is it like, does it feel to you like this is a pause button moment for black folks until the country learns how to manage the virus? Well, now more than ever, is it urgent that the real entrepreneurs stand up and find a way to go out and find the new opportunities because these unfortunate set of circumstances that we are under now have caused a tremendous amount of heartache and pain and devastation in not only African American community, but just the country as a whole. But there has to be a period of rebuilding and sifting through the ashes, we are going to find that there are opportunities. And now more than ever, in my opinion, do we need entrepreneurs to go out and create new jobs? And I believe that those who have the courage enough now to go out and try to establish new businesses and sift through the ashes again and find where the new opportunities are are going to see that there is going to be a tremendous amount of wealth on the other side of this, you know, this unfortunate set of circumstances that the pandemic has brought. But I think we have to have a very optimistic view about the future. And I believe that now more than ever, it's needed. You began to see banks like JP Morgan and others who have stepped up and put forward initiatives that are geared toward narrowing the racial wealth gap. And I believe that African American entrepreneurs should hold their feet to the fire in many ways and make sure that it becomes real.  And so, you know, you see now more than I have ever really seen a very strong stance taken by the banking industry to do something about wealth inequality in America because, I mean, it is one of our most present and prevailing issues that have adversely affected our community. So, you know, you have to, the pandemic has been devastating, it has had devastating effects on our business, including mine. But, you know, we have had no of the choice been but to push through. And I think that you will see that people who have persisted through this, when they make it out on the other side will have identified opportunities to be able to grow and diversify. And to be honest with you, many of us would not probably have considered the diversification that we have had to have we not been faced with this challenge. And I think this challenge has tested much of our metal and, you know, has forced us to think through things a bit differently. Do you think that the period of engagement with Black America is sustainable? Because as happy as I am to see HBCUs getting a lot of philanthropic opportunities and a lot of Black folks saying, I want to enroll in an HBCU, I want to think about an HBCU athletics, academics all across the board. Black folks are falling in love again with black colleges. At the same time, we remember that the catalyst for this is a brother getting his neck knee down. Sure. Right? And we know the catalyst for this is a global pandemic. So you're talking about dangerous stuff that makes people pay attention to black people. I am worried, I am worried, bro. Like this is, at some point, people will forget about those things. Do you think that that, do you agree with that? Or do you think that this is something that will keep lasting as long as black folks keep saying, no, no, don't forget about us now? Like, you know. Yeah, well, that's a good point.  You know, Martin Luther King told us that a riots are the language of the unheard and that's so very true. And it takes sometimes unfortunate circumstances like this for people to really begin to pay attention to the adverse impact that people of color have had to deal with as a result of discrimination. And unfortunately, it can be found in just about every way of American life, unfortunately. And it does appear that the African American community now more than ever is awake. But, you know, we have in some ways gotten a bit detached from our past.  And I think for the first time, our country is having, well, I won't say for the first time, I'll say for the second time, our country is having to deal with the issue of race. And in this, what I call a follow-on civil rights movement is in my opinion, having, forcing the country to have to have a real conversation about race and the adverse impact of discrimination in our country.  This isn't right. Look at where African American wealth is in the country right now. You know, this isn't good for anybody.  And, you know, we aren't building any wealth. You know, we are almost like the gas that you put in the car.  Our economy cannot go without African American people. My students did a case study, it was brilliant, on the adverse impact of segregation. And we saw, you know, how we measure the net worth of African Americans and African American businesses during that period versus periods post-integration. We learned that in more recent times, we generate a trillion dollars a year and yet we are still the most discriminated against disenfranchised group and still have a negative, or approaching a negative net worth collectively. And that just doesn't make sense, right? And, you know, so we have to realize that ultimately we can control that. And we are in a country that there is a great deal of opportunity. And I've never seen a massive restructuring of the tax system to benefit poor and middle-class people. So we're not gonna catch up wealth that way, right? In many instances, you know, when you look at our system, I mean, it's set up on inequality and avarice, to be honest with you.  And I believe that, you know, it is, you know, we have a global pandemic, right? But from a micro environment, the African American community has another pandemic that is dealing with, and that's wealth inequality. So let's talk about how we manage that, right? Because you and I have talked privately over the years about the frustration to put it nicely. That we work with some black folks who really get it.  How can we be an HBCU and not do that? And then there are some institutions that do the exact opposite. Almost to the point that sometimes they've tried to sabotage you. Sure. Is that something that you, do you feel as a businessman that we can change, help to change that culture? Or do you just have to hope and pray that people that we do business with particularly African Americans, are just, they're woke enough to understand building an ecosystem of business? You know, it's just something that I've never really quite understood. I'll tell you, again, I say that I was a bit naive whenever I started, I initially thought that once I came out here with 100% minority on food service management company that I was gonna automatically be embraced.  And, you know, the perceptions that followed and were associated with doing business with a black-owned company. And most of these, you know, generalizations had come from previous experiences that people may have had with doing business with black-owned companies at some point, you know, during their career. And, you know, and I'm always a student first, so I studied a lot of that and realized that we, that even during those early times, especially in the 70s when you saw minority business programs kicking in and this wave of black entrepreneurship come through, even during those periods, our companies were never really fully capitalized, right? So even the minority-owned businesses during that period never really had all that they needed in order to be able to scale and be able to deliver services by comparison to their white competitors. And so, you know, HBCUs especially always, often always complain about that. I have that same argument, right? That, you know, it's unfair to measure them against their white counterparts when their white counterparts are often funded, you know, at higher levels than they have been, but yet, you know, have performed in many ways much better, doing more with less. And I think we've all mastered that, right? But, you know, my experience ultimately has been that, you know, I have been blessed to have done business with, you know, tremendous amount of clients, both state and private. And the clients that I have had the most success with and the relationships have been the best with have been those that are student-centric, student-focused institutions. And with presidents that, you know, had a very clear expectation of, you know, what they wanted from their vendor partners and control, you know, their business and finance people, you know, because what I've determined is oftentimes that sometimes if the chief financial officer at many institutions can make or break those vendor relationships, you know, and a president that, you know, have a good handle on that, I think, are the institutions that we see that thrive, you know, and, you know, it's a highly political space that I operate in oftentimes doesn't really have much to do with food at all, you know, you know, me starting a brand, you know, from scratch, that's Perkins, you know, and many people have not had an opportunity to see someone build a company from the ground up. And it's never really apples to apples comparison because if you look at my competitors and where they were their 15th year, they weren't, they were not then what they are now, but someone somewhere gave them an opportunity and were patient enough with them to allow them to be able to grow and to scale and to acquire other businesses and grow into the multi-billion, multi-national corporations that they are now, but it's often always easy to say, you know, look at where we are now, but most of the people who were alone during the times for which these companies were growing and scaling have transitioned on to the other side, so they're not here to tell the stories. But, you know, I look around and see, you know, some of the larger companies and some of the strategies that they use to, you know, gain traction in the HBCU world to me is something that I would never do, you know. You know, I consider myself to be a entrepreneur but I, and a business person, but I've always respected, you know, my clients and potential clients enough to present Nicholas Perkins and Perkins Management as an independent firm, and that's the most, the thing that I'm the most proud of is that I've been able to, over the past 15 years, maintain that independence as I'll continue to grow my company.  And I think, you know, and that's to be said about a number of companies because, you know, we've had to hang in there with our client partners as much as, if not more, than they hung in there with us. You don't want to talk me not to sell out to the white man. No. No. Oh, yeah, I will. Some people don't see it that way. You know, some people don't see that that way, you know, but it's always been something to me to want to be able to own and control my own destiny and be able to have an example that I was able to bring something to the industry and that I was able to maintain my independence.  And those have always been my heroes. And I just think that it's something to be said about entrepreneurs who are able to do that. I'll get you out of here on this last question, brother. Your goal is to be the first independently owned billion dollar black owned business. How close do you think these 15 years have brought you to the goal and what is the next milestone on that journey that you're most looking forward to? Well, you know, and let me say this, the first 100% minority owned billion dollar contract food management company. And so what I've learned about that over the past 15 years ultimately is that it will require organic growth strategy as well as mergers and acquisitions in order to be able to get to that point.  We are also looking to and have been involved in some processes more recently that we are approaching very soon some big announcements about some growth and diversification outside of what people have traditionally known us as. And so I hope to within the next 14 to 15 days be in a position to announce that. So we're excited about that going to our 15th year.  But I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world. I'm able to serve my people. I'm able to employ my people. I'm able to teach my people. And I can tell you I'm very happy starting at 25 and turn 40 next month. This 15 years has been a tremendous opportunity for me. And I don't know if I had a chance to tell you that I'm actually writing a book. Yeah, so I'm actually writing a book with Blair Walker. As you know, Blair wrote, why should white guys have all the fun? So we've been working over the past year just kind of chronicling my life.  And so we look forward to wrapping that up probably in the next couple of months. And we should have a book coming out in 2021. Breaking news right here, man. That's right. Brother, we going great together. We putting on glad together. We couldn't know how to do it. I am so proud of what you've done. And I am so grateful for the role model that you are not only just for me and my family, but for legions of students all over the country. Man, best of success. And can't wait to have you back on for these big announcements, brother. Thank you, brother. You just continue to do what you're doing and serving as, you know, a media outlet to tell our story the way it needs to be told and we need you and we thank you and bless you and the digest and your family. And you continue to go out and do the great work that you've been doing to represent all of us. Oh, boy, let you go. Plug your website. So people will know. Buy food, plug your website and everybody will know. Oh, yes, absolutely. So PerkinsUSA.com.


This Hubble Space Telescope view reveals thousands of galaxies stretching back into time across billions of light-years of space. This image covers a small portion of a large galaxy census called the Great Observatory's Origins Deep Survey, Goods, and it sheds light on just how many galaxies there are in the universe. You may recall that the Hubble Deep Field and Ultra Deep Field views provided an estimate of $200 billion. But recent studies by the Goods team found that, in order for the small size of the older galaxies to add up to the mass of the larger galaxies in existence today, there must have been an additional $1,800 billion of them in the early universe. Unfortunately, the vast majority of these are too faint and too far away to be seen with present-day telescopes. But the James Webb Space Telescope, due for launch in 2018, should be able to see them.


In this video, we're going to see how to get started with Java 17 in Visual Studio Code. So in this environment, I got only two extensions, the language support for Java by Red Hat and the debugger for Java by Microsoft. So first, I'm in an empty folder and I'm going to create a hello.java file. Once the file is created, you'll see the language server is starting. And then once it's started, I can start typing the content with a class snippet and then a domain snippet. And then I can go on with system out. I'm going to create a statement hello from Java with the Java version. So system.getProperty.java.version. And then I will just have to save the file and run it. Then we'll compile and execute the class and I'll say hello from Java 11, which is the Java version used to run my extension. So the first thing I want to do is make it faster. So there's a couple of settings to enable to run the code in the debug console. Once that is set, you'll see that it runs much faster. It still says Java 11, so we're going to fix that next. So back to the settings, I'm going to create a new configuration environment. So Java.configuration.runTimes, I'm going to create a new Java 17 entry. So name Java 17, I will then set the path to my JDK. So I'm currently using SDKman to manage my different JDK environments. So in this case, I will use the Java 17 runtime from the Temuring project. And don't forget to set this runtime as the default Java runtime. So back to my hello class, I can run it again and then it now runs with Java 17. So now I can actually show you actual Java 17 features. The first one is the sealed classes. So I'm going to create a shape.java interface and I'm going to add the sealed keyword. So sealed classes allow me to restrict the number of implementations of a given interface or a class. So I'm going to permit a rectangle for my shape and a circle. So obviously the classes don't exist, so I'm going to use quick fixes to create the rectangle first and the circle, save the file and go to the rectangle to add a couple of things. So as you can see, it's a final class, it cannot be extended. So I'm going to add a width and a length fields for my rectangle and generate constructors out of those attributes. And I will also create a two string implementation. And then I'll do basically the same thing for the circle with radius, a public double radius, create a constructor as well, and then create a two string method. All right, so now I have all my classes that extend the interface shape and I want to compute their area. So I'm going to create a rectangle instance first with the width of one, length of two, and I'm going to implement the missing method area. It's not going to be a rectangle, but a shape, and then I will rename it to shape as well. Now in order to implement my area method, I'm going to use another Java 17 feature called pattern matching and suits expressions. Also, it's still a preview feature in Java 17. So normally you would have to manually set the dash-enabled preview flag in your maybe no gradle build. But here we simply open a folder without any build tool. So we have a non-managed project, so to speak. Fortunately, in such cases, if you're compelling against the latest Java version, VSCO Java will automatically enable preview features for you. So now I'm going to create a local variable var area that will receive the result of a switch expression. So I'm going to switch over the shape and I will switch to a case of rectangle. And the area of the rectangle is the rectangle length multiplied by its width. And as you can see, a switch expression should have a default case to cover all cases. But I'm using sealed classes. So if I add a case circle, which area will be math.py multiplied by the radius squared. So now I've covered all cases, so I no longer have an error so I can display the area of my shape. So shape plus area equals area. And I just have to now run the code. And in the debug console, my rectangle has an area of 2. I do the same thing for a circle of radius 2. Run it and get an area of 12.5. But what happens for a null value? So if I run it, as you would expect, you will see a null pointer exception. Fortunately, the new pattern matching supports null cases now. So in that case of null, I will just return the value zero. When I save the file, run it. I no longer get the null pointer exception, get null area equals zero. And everything is fine. So that's it for today. A quick introduction to Java 17 in VSCO Java. Thanks for watching.


Nope, three's a crowd. So is two. Nah, no dogs. Okay, here we go. Not looking. This ought to be easy. Ah, damn. She's alone. Ah, she got a good look at me. Forget it. Make yourself a hard target. Learn more with us at the VPD Women's Purcell Safety Workshops.