Welcome to Pukipondas, the podcast where I explore big questions with brilliant people. Today's question is, how can schools build children's healthy coping skills and self-esteem? And I'm in conversation with Jo Morton Brown. Hi there, my name is Jo and I work as an emotional health practitioner. So I'm quite lucky because it blends quite a few roles into one. So I'd say that my main bread and butter is delivering counselling and that's with four year olds all the way up to 19. So I'm based at a high school, a sixth form, delivering counselling. I'm a family support worker at a primary school and deliver clinical supervision and then a trainer of mental health, trying to educate adults about mental health that affect children and young people. That's quite a lot of different jobs, Jo. It is. It's great though because I never get bored, never get bored. That's a really nice way of looking at it. And do you find that working across quite a wide range of ages there, does that kind of impact on what you do? Do you have to do very different things with the different age groups or is it similar? Yeah, definitely. So at the primary school, I deliver a kind of, as a family support worker, it's more kind time. So it's like mentoring, so it's 20 minute sessions because obviously children at school, they're so busy and you really can't provide that space for counselling at a primary school sometimes. It's not as easy as that. So I find that that's very much just playing and stories going out and walks around the school playground. And then as you kind of, as they get older, there's this more sense of counselling and certainly for the sixth formers, for key stage five, there's this real sense of appreciation of counselling and them having your time and then really trying to help themselves. And I think that's what's most rewarding is that as they're walking out, you might say to them, you know, just consider maybe the last time that you felt like this. And then when they return the next week, they'll sit down and they'll be like, oh, and I thought about that. And they'll really try and help themselves. There's more of a sense of appreciation the older they get. That's really interesting. And do you think that that's partly because they have got really good at learning throughout their school career? Because I'm not sure you'd necessarily get that great of a response from an adult, would you? Not always, not always. I think because at secondary school, there's this sense of what's encouraged maybe by the parents. So there's on the referral form, it's kind of got is the student willing to attend counselling and sometimes the box is ticked and they're sitting there and they don't necessarily want it, which makes it a lot harder in the first place. But I just think that, yes, as they get older, they there's more of a chance that they want to be there rather than having to be there. Because we both know that if a child's, you know, encouraged and made to have counselling, it's not going to help. It's not going to really get to where you want to go to with them as a journey. Absolutely. So the kind of question for today's episode is around how schools can build children's healthy coping skills and their self-esteem. And I wondered if we could just start thinking about from your point of view, why this matters and why it matters, maybe like now more than it might have done in the past, if you feel that's changed. I think what's changed at the moment is this sense, certainly for students, this sense of helplessness. And I feel that with students that aren't coping, I think what makes it hard for them is just this sense of not knowing how to cope. And it's quite scary, isn't it for adults? I know certainly for myself when I'm delivering my counselling, it's hard at the moment because there is such uncertainty. And we're asking these young people to cope whilst being at school, whilst maybe not seeing their friends as often as they'd like within year bubbles. And I think my biggest observation at the moment is that kids are getting bored with their year bubbles, kids are getting bored with being in the same class with the same people. And that's no disrespect to their peers. But certainly I've got a little boy. I think that he's just missing seeing the older ones or kind of just having that interaction. And I can imagine that that that must be something that must be hard for some of the kids as well. So has your job changed in response to the current situation? Are you seeing different kids or doing different things with them? I think the hardest thing is it's a lot it's more restricted because normally in counselling, certainly at secondary school, normally there might be a game of chess or there might be some some colouring or just some Play-Doh and just some kind of just gentle resources to use whilst interacting and delivering the counselling session. But obviously we can't use resources. And then the hardest thing certainly with the younger ones is that there is there is no resources. There's there's there's nothing like that and not being able to get close and have story time. That's just because I've got one particular child that just loves story time and wouldn't normally come in with grab the cushions on the floor side by side and read stories like literally 20 minutes worth of reading. So that's changed and that's made it harder. And it's when you find it hard as a professional, it's really hard to try and contain that. Yes, really, that's hard. That's been really hard to learn. And then I just think that there's more about this. And I'm not saying anxiety as in an anxiety disorder, but for all our students, but certainly there's more students that are anxious, just in general, just leaving the house, it might be coming to school, certainly more attachment. I've seen a lot of kind of that separation anxiety. And that's not just your little ones. And I almost kind of predicted this back in September. And I said to my boss that actually what we're going to see is all the primary school children, it will be as if for some of them it's their first day at reception school. Certainly for the parents as well. And then for secondary school, it's for some of those students, it's their first day at year seven, first day again. And that was tough, certainly at the beginning of the academic year, seeing that just that separation between kids. And has that settled over time or is that still an issue that you're observing now? I think one thing that I've witnessed is kids are far more resilient than we give them credit for. They are so, so resilient. And we are too, but they really have surprised me. And I think that certainly during to lockdown or during that period of lockdown, I had a certain, I'd say there was a handful of students and there was three at primary school and there was two at secondary school. And I just was thinking to myself, I think to park it thinking that we've just got them back into school, this emotional school based avoidance. You know, gosh, it's going to be so hard in September. And do you know what, Pookie? They have just nailed it. They nailed the return. So actually them having that time of school for some of them have really helped kids grow or maybe giving them a sense of appreciation that actually I'd much rather be at school than at home maybe. Yeah, so they begin to appreciate it in a slightly different way. Absence makes the heart grow fonder, they always say. I like to think so. I like to think so. And how in your kind of family support work role, how has that relationship between school and home kind of been important in this time? Has that changed? That's changed. So I think communication is the biggest thing that I've seen between the school and the parents and the way that the parents respond to the way that the school are dealing with new restrictions and things like that. I'm really fortunate that the primary school I work at, they are absolutely fantastic and the head teacher's brilliant and she really gets well-being. The whole school has this real good focus about well-being and actually I remember back in September, it was the first, they had the first three weeks was just that transition. And it was beautiful, it was really beautiful. So I think that communication is the biggest thing between a school and the parents. And then that obviously filters down because if you have calm parents, then that will help just filter down just the children as well, in my opinion anyway. No, and certainly that's something I've heard said a lot and a lot of my work focuses around creating that feeling of safety and that where the children are gonna feel safe in school that begins before they ever leave home, doesn't it? So yeah, communicating home really matters. And what do we need to be communicating with home? It sounds like you've seen some really good communication happening there but what do we need to be telling families and how can we do that? That's a tough one. I think the biggest thing for families is just to be reassured. I'm mum to a six-year-old and I think that actually the hardest thing as parents is for me personally is I've not met his teacher. I don't know what his classroom is like. I don't know where his tray is. I don't know where he puts his coat and it's so hard. You know, he's not allowed to take a bag in and things like that. So as a parent, it's really hard because there's this sense of you not being able to necessarily share the school day as much and communication between the teacher and the parent is so important. But obviously when you're on a school day and you're all doing respective social distancing and you've got your mask, you haven't got that. You know, did you have a good day or just that little bit of reassurance? So I can imagine for parents, it can be quite challenging too. But who would have predicted that would be where we are? You know, we're a really, my family background is, we come from Scotland. So New Year's Day is really quite big for us. And if somebody was just said to us on New Year's Day, oh, by the way, this is how 2020 is going to be. I'm pretty certain for men, maybe for you, it's nothing like I'd imagined it to have been. No, absolutely. And I think it's difficult as well. I'm personally finding this moment where we are right now sort of heading into winter, very challenging because it feels like I think at the beginning, there was this sense of we can get through this and now it feels like, well, maybe we're still quite near towards the beginning and we don't know what comes next and how do we plan for that? And how, I mean, in your work with children and with families and I guess you work with stuff as well, like what are you doing in terms of preparing for what comes next given that we don't know how long this will go on for and what it looks like and whether there'll be further periods of lockdown or isolation or how do you prepare for that? I just kind of live in the here and now and we focus on, I really think it's important for children to tap into no matter how young they are to tap into like their why. And certainly for secondary school, I think it's really important that we allow and we give a sense of hope. I really believe that school is such a safe place for so many students, not just those students that are PPP students or more of a disadvantage but just for everybody, for a majority of our students, school is that safe place. So I think that it's just making the most of the here and now, okay, it's not great. Yes, your best friends in the year above and yes, you're not being able to see them. But actually, and I do think actually that there have been year groups that have become closer, certainly year seven, eight and nine. So that's the ages of 11 to 13, 14, that they've got closer. I had one student particularly back in September that didn't know anybody in the class that she'd been put in, she's in year eight. So second year at high school and she didn't know anybody in her class. And she would only see her friends at break and lunchtime because they were all part of the same year group. But actually what's really helped her is she's actually made new friends. Oh, that's good. New friends that actually, we wouldn't necessarily sometimes do because we just stay with the ones we've got, don't we? Certainly when we're at school, you just stay with what you know sometimes. I think it goes way beyond school. It does, don't it? I think it does. It's one of the things I always find interesting because obviously I speak at a lot of conferences and things and people always hang out with the people that they know and that idea that sometimes if you mix the groups up, oh, that's a... I love doing that though. I love doing that.  I love it because it just brings a sense of togetherness with the group as well though, doesn't it? Absolutely. And I have to say for me, it's been one of the really good outcomes from lockdown is how actually when we bring people together, we've all got this kind of aim in mind of supporting our children and young people but it doesn't matter if we're a headteacher or a doctor or a parent or a social worker, just everyone's in it together and we're all having to learn. And I feel that it's broken down a lot of those barriers and that, yeah, there's a lot more synergy really which has been really positive. Talk to me a bit more about helping children to find their why. What do you mean by that and why does it matter and how do we do it? So I think it's really important for those students that are maybe struggling emotionally and having far too many tough days with them to actually have this sense of hope and obviously working as a counsellor, I am working with students that are suicidal, that have lost a sense of hope, are feeling completely helpless. And I just think that it's really important that actually we can provide this sense of hope and providing them that actually the way that you're feeling in the here and now isn't going to last forever. It's just getting them to really keep going and working towards getting through this storm. I read this quote that not always is a storm there to destruct things, but actually sometimes it's to create a path. And that's actually, I just want children and young people to realise that we go through these challenging times to help us become sometimes a better person from it and develop empathy and know the power of how important it is to listen to somebody. So I really think that if we can do anything for our children and young people right now, it's just to get them that excitement of tapping into their why. Certainly those in years at secondary school, when you leave, what do you want your legacy to be? What do you want to accomplish in your life? And just give them that sense of purpose. So it's just a really good discussion, a fun discussion to have in small groups if not maybe in a class. And what about those kids who are a little bit further on in their school career and perhaps they're uncertain about what's going to happen about their exams or there's so many students right now who've just gone off to uni and they're having a frankly horrible time. And we know that our 16 to 25 year olds are disproportionately adversely affected by the situation right now and they're less likely to be in employment and just things that pretty bleak for them. I mean, how do we help them to connect with their why and to continue to be hopeful? Because just from where I'm standing, it's a tricky moment for them, like objectively hard. And I think that's the hardest thing certainly from our point of view is that we get to see how and that's not just as professionals for all of us but we genuinely as adults get to see how hard it is for them. And being certainly those that are uni or gone into further education, just that sense of loneliness must be really big and really scary for some of them. I just think that with regards to the kind of the here and now is that it's just having this sense of being in it together and that if they are feeling lonely and scared and not too sure if they've made the right choice or whatever it is, it's just acceptance and just knowing that actually how you're feeling is completely natural, completely natural. And to just kind of acknowledge how they're feeling, just how they're feeling is, I think sometimes it's just the biggest thing and the most important thing. And really the only thing that we can do at the moment is just listen, be there with them and acknowledge that I understand that it's tough right now and actually that you've not got it easy and I understand that. And so it sounds like maybe you're tapping into there some of the sort of distress tolerance kind of skills and that kind of thing. And is that proving helpful and what does that look like in your sessions? I think with the sessions, the hardest thing is no session at the moment is the same and talking about just going back to those that are in exams. So from the school that I'm at, we've got their GCSEs for those in year 11 and we've also got the sick format that I'm at there. They take three A levels. And the hardest thing for them is that I've personally found that we've got two ways. We are either full throttle going for it. Absolutely, every piece of work that they hand in is the most important piece, knowing that if the exams don't go ahead, then they're working each and every piece is towards that central assessed grade. And then we've got other students out there that are just so deflated, so demotivated in a sense that what's the point, what's the point? And it's so hard to try and lift them up because you can't reassure them that actually these mocks are really important because you are going to be sitting them shortly in a few weeks because they'll come back with, they might be canceled, might not be in school. So it's really tough to try and get that middle. And certainly because I deliver in exam workshops to those in year 11. So it's small groups. And normally what I'm trying to tell them is, when you drive a car, there's five gears. And actually what we need to do is, okay, we're going to need to go in a higher gear at our mocks, but then we're going to need to come back down because we don't want to burn out too soon. And we just want to sit sometimes around second, third gear and be ready to go for fifth gear when we sit our GCSEs. At the moment, way too many students are in fifth gear, just like fully going for it. And I'm just worried that they're the ones that are going to have burnout because if they do sit their GCSEs in the summer, you know, they're going to be exhausted from the work that they've been doing already. Absolutely. And that's something that we do tend to see in some of our students anyway, but you're saying you're kind of seeing more of that. And it sounds like that. It seems quite a reasonable response to the situation where they feel that every piece of work might matter. But also, I find myself wondering, could this be a case of, you know, kids in a really chaotic moment in time taking control of something? You know, how well I do my work and how I focus on it is a thing I can control in the same way that sometimes we see that come around sort of food or exercise, for example. Yeah, and there's that healthy and unhealthy ways of coping, isn't it? And I've seen an increase of self-harm, certainly for students that, so once I've seen a student obviously working at the school twice a week at this particular school, it's quite nice because I might see them around the corridors or I did have a drop-in. And that drop-in was brilliant because they might not necessarily need me for weeks or months, but they knew that I was there. So that was really lovely to have that reassurance. But the amount of students that I've kind of passed my door and they know that if my door's open, then I'm free to talk. And the amount of people that have been like, actually, Joe, can I see you? And then realising actually that they've started to kind of go again with regards to that way of coping of self-harming. So where you've got two young people who are coming to you now, saying that they're returning to these unhealthy ways of coping like self-harm, are you finding that you're able to kind of rapidly help them course correct or is it more challenging than that? For some of them, it's a lot easier this time round because there's this certain sense of why they're doing it. And when you're able to say to them that actually, you know, for some of them, one student in particular, bless her, during lock, sorry, before lockdown, she lived happily with mum and dad. Life was kind of on a sense with regards to home. Life was stable. And now, here, after lockdown, parents are splitting up, but they're still living in the same house. And I have so many young people, so many young people who have that, where they're living with both parents, but the parents are separated. So it's just trying to get across to these young people that actually there is so much about, you know, that's out of our control. And I think sometimes it can literally be, you know, a couple of sessions, just identifying what stress they have going into their stress bucket. Okay, and now let's circle what we can and we can't control. And just giving that sense of kind of understanding of actually, you know, this is why you're doing it and not to feel, you know, the shame about it. You know, that actually this is what you did and it's okay. It's okay. There's so much around self-harm that's, you know, I really feel for kids because not a lot of adults get it. And obviously as parents, you know, there's so many parents, promise me that you'll never do it again. It's hard for them. It's really, really hard. So when they've coped in the past with that, it's natural for us to see them automatically feeling or going being drawn back to that way of coping as well. And again, with eating as well, with eating, but just the way of maybe binging or making them so sick, just that control again. And I think it's quite natural, isn't it, that for any of us, whatever coping strategies we've developed, whether they're healthy or unhealthy, when we find ourselves in times of stress that they are naturally the things that we'll return to, particularly if we found them to be effective. So presumably a lot of your work then is about teaching children and young people healthier ways of managing rather than turning to those habits. So what kinds of things do you find yourself teaching young people, what do they find to be effective in place of things like self-harm or binging? I think sometimes it's about who we hang around with. So trying to get young people to realise that there's people out there that are like energy givers that make us feel good and lifted and kind of aspiring and feel good.  So it's for children to become more mindful of who they're hanging around with. Social media is a big, big one of just making sure that if they're online that they're watching the right things, the right people, that they're following the right people. That compare and despair is horrible because now it's on their phone whenever they want it. So it's just trying to get children and young people to realise that they do have this sense of responsibility online in particular. And then trying to get children to realise the benefits of sometimes they're upstairs in their room too much all the time. And it's just trying to get them to go downstairs, go downstairs and maybe when you make yourself a drink maybe just stay down there for five minutes. Maybe instead of taking your dinner up to your room maybe surprise your parents, your carers and sit and have dinner with them. And just trying to get them to interact more and then about kind of just staying active and that being well, physically well. And I'm not asking them to go for runs it's just to get outside with nature, see fresh air, get fresh light and just enjoy those little things in life. Why does it make a difference spending less time in their room and being around the adults at home more? Why is that important? I think because sometimes what they're saying to me is that they feel lonely. And when you feel lonely I find that and I've had friends and even my way of coping when we first went into lockdown for certainly some of my friends was just they just went off radar literally just closed down and went in. But with the students that I work with sometimes they're the students that are saying that they're most lonely. So it's trying to get them to this sense of appreciation. Okay, who is in your life? Who do you feel that you can talk to? Okay, maybe how can we encourage you to talk to them? You know, just to have that exchange of a small conversation rather than how's your day, all right, see you later bye. And then our parents and kids that text message one another when they're up in their room. Like, how's your day and things like that? I'm like, wow, they're just, they're in the same house. They're in the same house, so yeah. And I think that's something to, you know, for parents and carers to think about as well, isn't it? About how can we kind of encourage that sense of connection at home as well? Because we can sometimes be, you know, physically present but emotionally absent.  And I think that's the hardest thing is it's not easy. It's just not easy to try and connect with them. It's certainly if they don't want to be connected, if they don't want to connect with you. I can imagine it's really hard, especially if you're a parent that's really trying as well. I was interested in when you were talking about social media and how, you know, we can end up in this sort of cycle of compare and despair. And I think we're all well rehearsed in the arguments against some forms of social media. But I was wondering if you'd done any work with children and young people around how they can change how that makes them feel, you know, whether there are accounts, for example, that they might proactively follow that made them feel good or they got something from. I think, well, I started at the beginning of lockdown. I started a YouTube channel. Good segue there. Good segue there. Good segue, thank you. So yes, I started this YouTube channel. I don't even know how to edit. I had a college last week get in touch saying, hi, Joe, we really like your videos. We noticed that, you know, you don't know how to edit. Our sixth form students would love to take on a project and help you. Is that okay with you? And I'm like, yes, I have not got a clue what I am doing. And it all started, I suppose. I delivered a keynote speech up in Leeds in February and had some feedback afterwards. You know, you should start a YouTube channel. Felt nothing of it. Mentioned it to my sister as I was driving home. And I literally was just about to finish school and this sudden ending with certainly the year 11th and year 13th or those that are a college, just final. I really felt it. And my sister rang me up and she was just like, Joe, if you're ever gonna start it, do it now. And I started it. And I never thought it would take off as much as it has. But the reason I say about that is it's trying to get children and young people to, because the internet and social media isn't going anywhere. It's not going anywhere. And actually what we need to do as adults, as parents, professionals, carers, is we need to educate them in who they follow, what kind of accounts they have and just monitor them to make sure that the people that they are or the videos that they are watching are of information or of kind of making them laugh rather than that kind of feeling I'm not good enough or I wish I looked like that. So it's just trying to monitor what they're on. And obviously social media, there is only so much as parents that you can do with monitoring. But there are fantastic benefits of social media and just the power of the internet. We can't underestimate that it doesn't have its benefits because for one of my students that I see, she would consider her friends, her really, really good friends as what you and I would call her online friends across the world. She's never met them, she considers them as her true friends. But actually, whilst that's not great because I'd much rather her have friends in person, at the moment, due to the current situation, it's working for her. And actually, if that's bringing her comfort and a sense of purpose and having these relationships online with good people, doing great projects, campaigns, then that's good and that's healthy and that's the most important thing. So yeah. I mean, I'm a bit biased here because a lot of my greatest friends are friends that I met first online. I find it easier to build relationships online than offline and I have now got some great friends in real life but many of them started online. And I guess the difference is I'm an adult with means to travel and can then often turn these online friendships into offline ones and then they feel more real somehow. But I could easily have not done that and these would still be really important. I don't know. I think the online world has a lot to offer and particularly, I think if you either, if you find social interaction hard, so I'm autistic and I do and online is easier or if you kind of find it hard to find your tribe and I think often, so I work a lot down in Cornwall and if there are young people there who haven't necessarily been exposed to, they don't meet lots and lots and lots of different people and they might not have the same opportunity to access things like the LGBT plus community but doing it online suddenly, they can be among people who are more like them and who they don't feel alienated. Do you know what I mean? I think- Who get them and there's that sense of not feeling quite so alone, is there? Yeah, yeah. So I think it can be, it can be really, yeah, I don't know, I'm a big fan but then yeah, personally, I found it to be a really helpful and useful place. That said, I get completely the compare and despair thing and again, it's something that personally as a fully grown adult, I have to be really mindful of. I don't know if you find this as a parent and you went into lockdown and you're trying frantically to work and live and parent and everything all at once and everyone else seemed to be doing it better.  We actually bought school into their home, into their safe place. And one of my private clients that I work with, she is at a college, she's studying three A levels. The campus is so small, yet there's so many students that actually she's only going back two days a week out of five. And it's trying to understand that having to stay at home and motivate herself on those three days where she's at home with the same amount of work coming in is just so hard for some of our kids, so hard for some of them. Well, and likewise we've then got kids who've gone off to university who've not yet met their course leaders or their peers and they've paid huge amounts of money as well and I think that's not insignificant. If you've paid a 9,000 pound bill and you're sitting in a room somewhere that's probably dingy and not as nice as at home even and yeah, you're not accessing the things you talk to. I think it is a challenge, isn't it? So I'm interested to learn a little bit more. I say this, I've watched quite a lot of your YouTube videos, but people listening might not have. So tell us a bit more about your YouTube channel and how you're trying to help with that and what has landed well and yeah, your kind of aims and aspirations for it.  And obviously with children and young people, there's so many challenges that they face and whenever I deliver my training, I always say, you know, that we've all been 16, but have you ever been 16 years old in 2020? No, so we don't know how important their phone is. Like, you know, you and I can maybe spend a day without it, but you know, for kids it's their everything. So I just wanted to reach out to more kids certainly during lockdown because I knew that my kids that I was working with that had obviously then gone over to on the phone counseling was really struggling. So, and then it just got to a point where I now have teachers and parents that email me asking me to do kind of, could you consider doing a video on exam stress? So it's just trying to be the voice of trying to help kids become aware of actually, are you addicted to social media? Okay, if so, yes, let's do something about it. You know, there's so many adults on the internet and on YouTube or, you know, ticked, I'm not very great with social media rather than LinkedIn and YouTube now, but literally there's so many people out there to help others. But I just, and I've only found one lady, but even her video, she's out in America, even her videos for adults as well, I just wanted there to be this safe place for children and young people to go to that would be agreed by their teachers, agreed by senior leadership, agreed by their parents and carers and a safe channel that they could then, you know, have you lost somebody close to you? You know, how to be a good friend, you know, how to be a good listener, what to do if you're having a panic attack, exam stress, just all these different topics. But in a way that parents are kind of knowing that there isn't gonna be any swearing that it's safe and that actually it's just somebody trying her hardest during this time of uncertainty because I'm not too sure where it's going and it's, since we went back to school, it is hard to try and do a weekly video, but it's just for now, whilst there's so much uncertainty, just giving those kids what they need, but I can't be like, yeah, I'm just surprised because it's just me in front of a camera talking. Yeah, but I love it, I love it. And have you found that the children that you work with face-to-face are also accessing those videos or who's watching them? Yeah. So I think that's the most fun thing and sometimes the most embarrassing because when it's fine, when it's strangers, like I had a student from, where was it? New Zealand a couple of weeks ago, hi, I just want to say I really love your videos. That's fine, I can deal with that. But when it's people that know me and certainly those school kids that have had a session with me, you know, letting them listen to my telephone voice on a YouTube video just is completely different, I imagine, but equally they are, Joe, I saw your latest video, you need to say like and subscribe within the first 10 seconds, I'm not saying it. Oh. No, but I don't like saying that bit. No, I never say that bit, I have to say I'm rubbish at that. No, and they always want to know how many subscribers I've got, you know, how many subscribers have you got? And I won't tell them because I don't even know how to look at the analytics if I'm honest with you. But yeah, it's just, I enjoy it and when you do get these comments, I remember when I first started getting an email from somebody out in America and this parent just saying, you know, thank you, you know, it's good to have a trusted, reliable source. I just remember reading it and crying and just like, wow, like, wow. Lovely, I think that's one of the things about this kind of content. So my kids are obsessed as well about how many likes and subscribes and that sort of thing and how many views. But actually, for me, it's about a lot more than that because it's about the impact of each of those views. So, you know, my kids will habitually watch YouTube channels or people who've got literally millions of subscribers, but I've watched some of those videos with them and whilst they enjoy them, I don't think they change how they feel. Whereas I think sometimes, you know, you can make a video and it might only be watched by 50 people, but if for one of them, it meant that they felt differently that day or they did something differently as a result then that's really, you know, really high impact, isn't it? Yeah, and I think I spoke to somebody the other day who was on YouTube that wants to do a collaboration.  I'm like, really? But I think that's the thing is that, you know, this lad said to me, you know, how long does it take for you to do your filming and your editing and everything? And I said to him, I was like, so we've got the smallest house and literally I only have in the mornings, like literally an hour on a Sunday to try and do three videos. That's it. That's it. And then because I don't know how to edit, I just upload it. So that's why just for your listeners, if they do watch it, my pronunciation isn't always the best. We have a train that goes past, which is quite funny because I haven't got time to press stop and to go again and actually this is how it is. Um, yes. So he spends seven hours recording, editing, uploading, doing the blurb. And I have not got that. I don't know about you, Pika. I'm pretty sure you haven't. Seven hours to do that. No, no. No, but then I guess also it's actually a thing that's being done in addition to everything else, whereas for many YouTubers, it's the source of income, their job, their life. Yeah. So it's a bit of a different, I have to say though, one thing I have found is, as I've learned more about it, how it's not a small job. So one of the things I took on over lockdown was working with our local church. So I sing in the choir and I've worked with the priests to create the online services throughout lockdown. So we were doing prayers every day and then communion once a week. And I've continued to record communion live now that we're back at church and kind of editing and uploading that. And even though it's a very, you know, I do a very minor edit. It's not, I think people think that it's really, really easy, but it's actually quite hard, isn't it? I think that's why I don't want to start doing it because obviously you can learn and I'm always up for learning. And there's these how-to videos and there's software that you can buy, but I just, I don't wanna start. And also for me, I think that if I did start, then it means it's actually something serious. When at the moment I work full-time, I run my own business, my little business flourish and it's just a hobby. And it genuinely is a hobby that actually if I was to buy the software or learn how to do editing, then for me it's almost making it into something that I'm not quite ready for. Yeah, and I think there's also something about just being yourself and being kind of raw and real. And certainly it's something I checked in with myself on a few months ago when I made a video for my YouTube channel around perfectionism and good enough being good enough and how actually I had gotten to a point where I would take multiple takes and I just thought, do you know what? Good enough is good enough. And you know, if I were on a stage, which I often am, you don't get a second take then. And you just do carry on. And I have moments, I don't know if you find this, but I have moments where I will be on stage and that's my happy place and my confident place. But still every now and then everything goes and I've got, it's just gone.  And you start again and yeah. I did a webinar yesterday to teachers. So it was with a company that have schools worldwide. So we had two webinars, 600, so fully booked with 600 each.  But actually there is just part of you that has to just live in the moment and just go with it and just enjoy it. And I think, and I know that you love your job as much as I love my job as well. That actually I think that is what we have to do is embrace it knowing that actually whatever we do is good enough. And that hopefully we are supporting those children and young people or supporting those teachers and pastoral staff, social workers to help those precious kids and young people that all need the support. Even if they're the strongest of kids they still need the support. I do and I think that's the other thing is that when you keep it real and you help people realize that you're sometimes muddling through because we all are, that it helps them to realize they can do this too. I think it can be quite empowering for people. Yeah, because I think we are all learning all the time and this has been one of the most difficult things for me about this moment right now is that people look to me for answers and all I've really got is a bunch of questions because we don't know, do we? We don't know what's gonna happen next. Right, and I think that's the hardest thing is certainly for me as a counselor that the hardest thing going back to school in September was as a professional trying to, we're quite good teachers, social workers, counselors, we're very good at kind of almost compartmentalizing whatever's going on in our life.  So we're very good at that as professionals but actually what I found the hardest and then even now it can still be a struggle is sitting with somebody that is worried about the coronavirus and is worried about this pandemic and for me, I'm like, that's in my drawer. It's my drawer. And then it's like, oh gosh. And I think that's really hard just trying to contain our own anxieties in a sense of whilst we're professionally working and it's tough, I've found it tough. I had an epic failure on that front earlier on in lockdown where a parent asked a question at the end of a conference of me and she was saying that she had an adolescent autistic son whose fear of the world and the virus have become such that he literally wouldn't leave the house and what would I recommend? And my response was basically, why would you leave the house? It's so unsafe outside. I don't know why. Yes. And I was in exactly the same boat and I was able then to kind of pull it back and give some advice but I was there with the son. I would have just stayed home for a bit longer. And I'm thinking away. That was what was so lovely about the first lockdown. For me personally, was I was safe. I was at home. The sun was shining and I do think that there was this sense of having an early summer. For me, my husband was furloughed so for 20% less pay, we got 75 days together. And obviously, we'll never get that. 75 days where he's paid to be at home. Like, it was just brilliant. But this time round, and I think like you said at the beginning, we just don't know how long it's gonna last for. And I don't know when there's gonna be the kind of this new normality but then I think about the kids. And I genuinely, I'll never forget, it was the first of May, 2020.  It was horrible. I was crying. I remember sobbing and Phil walked in and he was like, what is the matter? Like, what's the matter? Like, who's died?  But it's just having to allow yourself to have those days is the biggest thing. And to know that we're not gonna always have all of the answers and we can't always be strong. You can try, but it's not always gonna be possible. And if it's not possible, then that's okay. It's the hardest thing, but it is just taking it day at a time. I think just being in the winter now, I think that's having a big difference. And also there's so much, and I'm not getting into the politics, but there's so much disagreements, protests about the whole pandemic and how it should be dealt with with adults. I kind of think to myself, the poor kids that are picking up on this, certainly secondary school, you know, that's not fair. And we're asking them to wear face coverings and there's people protesting saying that they're not gonna be wearing face coverings and made to do what they need to do. And it's like, we're not exactly all setting a best situation for our kids to be growing up in calm. But yeah, I'm gonna stop on that bit because it's hard because I just wish that we could, the kids could just see us, I don't know. It's just hard for us adults.  And that must be hard for them. I think, yeah, no, absolutely. And I think it is difficult because we look around us and it doesn't feel necessarily like we're, yeah, as a adult society role modeling what we would hope to perhaps, but, you know, things will change. It is what it is, is what I say.  And we got through the First World War, the Second World War, the Spanish flu. We'll get through this and just trying to tell the kids and when I deliver the clinical supervision that the sky hasn't fallen. The world hasn't ended. And we're in this together. You're not on your own. We are in this together. When I went traveling, there was in Thailand, they have this saying, or they did, God, 15 years ago. Same, same, but different. And this experience of lockdown, of the pandemic, it's same, same for everybody, but it's very, very different for each and every one of us. But that same, same of being in this situation is something that we can unite us and unite children and young people as well. And what thought would you like to leave people with? How would you like to end today? So I believe that as adults, parents, carers, but more so professionals, that sometimes we underestimate the power that we have and how we can influence children and young people. And I get a lot of people say to me that need, feel as if they need training to become an expert on mental health. Teachers that don't feel as if they're qualified enough. And I might get that.  All you need to do is just offer this sense of professional love. Just be there for your school kids or for those children and young people that you work with. Just be there, just provide that safe space, safe place. Let them be heard. Show them that you're listening. Show them that they matter. Enjoy their excitement with their future. And just realize that every, there's this quote, every interactions and intervention. And just never underestimate the power of what you, your work is and what you can do as a professional because you're fantastic doing what you're doing.


From around the globe, it's theCUBE, covering Fortinet Security Summit, brought to you by Fortinet. Welcome back to theCUBE's coverage of Fortinet Security Summit at the Fortinet Championship here in Napa. I'm Lisa Martin and I'm very pleased to welcome back to theCUBE Kenzie, Founder and Chairman and CEO of Fortinet. Ken, welcome back to the program. Thank you, Lisa. We're happy to be here after almost two years and yeah. I know it's great to see you in person. I was saying before we went live, I forgot how tall you are. So this is a great event, but I want you to talk to me a little bit about some of the amazing growth that Fortinet has seen. 500,000 customers, close to 30% year on your growth, continuing to post solid earnings. Stock has more than doubled this year. What are some of the things that you attribute this growth to and what do you think in your opinion differentiates Fortinet? I think some of the more strategic, long-term investment we made, starting paying off like we're still the only company actually develop ASIC chip, which can making a huge computing power advantage compared to using software to all the security function computing. Because security tend to need about like a certain hundred times more computing power to process the same data as routing switching. So that's where for the network security, definitely the ASIC chip a huge advantage and we invest it very early and take a long term and also a big investment and so far starting paying off. The other thing we also keeping a lot of innovation and internal organic growth for the company instead of do a lot of acquisition and that's also starting making all these different products integrate well, automate together well and that's also driving the huge growth not just network security, but also we see the fabric also has grow more fast. Interesting, so you're really keeping it organic which is not common a lot of these days we see a lot of acquisitions but one of the things a lot of growth another thing that we do know that's growing is the threat landscape I was mentioning to you before we went live that I spoke with Derek Mankey a couple times this summer and John Madison and the Global Threat Landscape Report showing ransomware up nearly 11 times in the last year. Of course we had this rapid transition to work from home and all these devices on accessing corporate networks from home. Talk to me about some of the security challenges that you're helping customers deal with. I think during the pandemic definitely you'll see a lot of security issues starting to come up because work from home we do really need to remote access a lot of important information a lot of important data there and the same time the ransomware attacks starting like I mentioned 11 times compared to like one to two years ago all this driving all this new technology for security so now you cannot just secure the board anymore so you have to secure the whole infrastructure both the internal do a lot of internal segmentation and also go outside secure the one like ST1 the 5G connection and how to secure work from home and their trust and their trust network access environment all these drive a lot of security growth so we see that yeah it's a pretty healthy market It's definitely a healthy market that's one thing looking at it from that lens what are some of the customer conversations how have the customer conversations changed are you now talking with different levels in organizations security being a board level conversation discussion talk to me about how those conversations have evolved yeah security now become very important part of IT and pretty much our top one top two on IT spending now and at the same time whether work from home or some other definitely see the board level conversation right now because you can see if there's a security issue for the company the damage can be huge so that's where the security awareness especially ransomware is very very huge and plus the supply chain issue some other attack on infrastructure so we see a lot of security conversation in the board level in the CEO in the executive level now compared to before it's more IT conversation so it's a drive to huge awareness of security and that's also we see everybody is starting to concern the security now yeah and I'm sure I imagine that's across every industry yes yeah you're pretty much out of vertical and especially a lot of new area traditionally they don't have much security like some SMB some consumer some traditional OTIOT space now it's all security starting to get more very important for them now so let's talk about here we are the security summit at the Fortinet Championship give me your perspective on the PGA-Fortinet relationship first I think it's a golfers outdoor event sports especially during the pandemic that's probably become the most favorite spot and for me also I've been golfing for 30 years never a very good golfer but I love the sports on the other side we see sometimes there's a walking with a lot of a customer a lot of a partner they say hey if we can combine some business and there is certain activity especially outdoor that's also be great and also helping the branding and that's also the way we can contribute back to the community so they say hey then that's first time for us we just love it, guys is going it's great to be outdoors right at Fortinet it's doing an event outdoors showing that yes you can do that safely but also I also hear from some of your other team members that it's a very culturally synergistic relationship the PGA in Fortinet yes exactly, yeah that's where we love this golf and especially walking with a different partner and different customer and also all the team working together so it's a team sports kind of on the other side it's outdoor and all you enjoy so combine walking activity all together everybody love it something that so many of us have missed Ken for the last 18 months or so so we're at the security summit there's over 300 technology leaders here talk to me about some of the main innovations that are being discussed definitely we see security setting little covered whole infrastructure and especially in a lot of environment traditionally no security cannot be deployed like internal segmentation because internal network can be 10 to 100 faster than the one connection so has to be deployed in the internal high speed environment whether inside the company or kind of inside the data center inside the cloud on the other side like a lot of one connection traditionally like whether it's the one or the traditional like cable modern DSL they also need to be combined with security and also in the zero trust access environment to very supporting work from home and also a lot of OT operation technology and a lot of other IoT space utility all these different kind of like environment need to be supported sometimes recognize the environment so we see security setting deployed everywhere whether the new smart city or the like connect the car environment and we just see become more and more important that's also kind of we starting call we call been a secure driven networking because traditionally you can see to this networking just give you the connectivity and speed so they treat everything kind of a no difference but with security driven networking you can make in a networking decision more based on the security function like different application or different content different user different device even different location you can make a different kind of network decision so that's we see is a huge demand right now can make the whole environment whole infrastructure much secure that's absolutely critical that pivot to work from home was pretty much overnight a year and a half ago and we still have so many people who are permanently remote remote probably will be permanently and a good amount will be hybrid in the future some TBD amount and one of the challenges is of course you got people suddenly from home you've got a pandemic so you've got an emotional situation you've got people multitasking they've got kids at home trying to learn maybe spouse is working they're trying to do everything via video conferencing and collaboration tools and the security risks there are huge and we've seen some of that obviously reflected in the nearly 11x increase in ransomware but talk to me about what Ford announced yesterday with Linksys to help on that front in a considerable way yeah that's where we totally agree with you the work from home or kind of hybrid way to work in pretty much will become permanent and that's where how to make in home environment more kind of supporting this remote working and especially like when you have a meeting there are some other things may going on in home activity and also sometimes the data you access can be pretty important pretty confidential that's where whether in the zero trust environment or making the home connection more reliable more secure it's all very very important for us that's where we're happy to partner with Linksys and some other partner here to support in this hybrid working environment to make work for home more secure and that we see is a huge opportunity huge opportunity in a lot of industries I had the pleasure of talking with Linksys CEO Harry Dewhurst just an hour or so ago and I asked him what are some of the verticals since we know from a security and a ransomware perspective it's just wide open right nobody's safe anymore from it but what are some of the verticals that you think are going to be early adopters of this technology government, healthcare, schools I think pretty much all verticals starting to see this work from home and it's very very important for us there's a few top vertical traditionally finance service is spent a lot of money healthcare spent a lot of money on security so they are still the same and we don't see that change much on the other side a lot of high-tech company which is also one of the big verticals for us now I see maybe half or even more than half the employee they want to work from home so that's also making they say they call home branch now so it's just make home office just secure and reliable as a branch office and at the same time certain government and certain education vertical and they all starting to see it's very very important to do this remote they'll trust access approach and at the same time working with a lot of service provider to supporting this both the ETNA and also the SASE approach so we are only companies only SASE company partner a lot of a service provider we do believe long-term all the service provider they have the best location best infrastructure best team to supporting SASE which we also build ourself if the customer don't have a service provider we're happy to support in them but if they have a service provider we also prefer they go to service provider to supporting them because we also want to have a better ecosystem and then making everybody like benefit has women's situation so that's what we see is whether they'll trust SASE or SASE we're happy to work with all the partner to make everybody successful and where are customers in that evolution from traditional VPN to ZTNA for example are you seeing an acceleration of that given where we are in this interesting climate? Definitely because work from home is if you try to access use VPN you basically open up all the network to the home environment which sometimes not quite secure not very reliable right so that's where you see the ZTNA you can access a certain application in the certain like environment there and same time leverage ST1 that's also a huge technology advantage you can load a cost at a multiple link and balance among different costs different connection and different reliability there it's a huge advantage Definitely one of the many advantages that Fortinet has so this afternoon there's going to be a as part of the security panel that you and several other Fortinet execs are on taking part in a Q&A what are some of the topics that you think are going to come up and as part of that Q&A? I see for certain enterprise customers definitely the ransomware attack how to do the internal segmentation how to securely do the remote access work from home is very important for some service provider we also see how to support them for the CIC environment and certain whole infrastructure security whether the 5G or the ST1 because ST1 has a huge demand and we grow very fast we become a leader in that space it's very very important for them we also see like a different vertical space some come from healthcare some come from education they all have their own kind of challenge especially like there's a lot of OTIO device in healthcare space need to be secured and same thing for the OTIO space Tremendous amount of opportunity one thing I want to ask you to get your opinion on is the cyber security skills gap it's been growing year over year for the last five years I know that just last week Fortinet pledged to train one million professionals in the next five years you guys have been focused on this for a while I love that you have a veterans program I'm the daughter of a Vietnam combat veteran so that always warms my heart but is that something is the cyber security skills gap something that customers ask you Ken, how do you recommend we solve this? Yes, we have been doing this for over 10 years we have the program we call the network security expert program at a different level so we have trained over a million people we also committed to traditional million people because there's a huge shortage of the skills of the security expert there so we do work with over like a four, five hundred university globally and same time we also want to offer the free training to all the people interested especially all the veterans and others like even high school graduate high school student there and the same time anyone want to learn the cyber security we feel that that's work space very exciting space and the world fast growing space also still have a huge shortage globally there's a three to four million shortage of the skilled people in the space which is a world fast growing space and so we're very happy to support all the training education with different partner and same time try to contribute ourselves I think that's fantastic we'll be excited to see over the next five years that impact on that training one million and also to see it to your point with how much the industry is changing how much, how fast supporting that's growing there's a lot of job opportunity out there I think it was Sandra who said that I was talking to her this morning that there's no job security like cyber security and it's really true if you think about it yeah totally agree yeah like remember a few years ago when we started first time to do all this interview I said hey it's a very very hot space now it's getting hotter and hotter more people interested now and very thank you the Cube and you give all the support in all these years and we're happy to be here absolutely it's our pleasure well I know you are paired up you said tomorrow with Phil Mickelson for the Pro Am that's pretty exciting Ken I'm not sure I'm a very good golfer but I'll try my best you'll try your best I'm sure it will be a fantastic experience thank you for having the Cube here for bringing people back together for this event showing that we can do this we can do this safely and securely and also what Ferdinand is doing to really help address that cyber security skills gap and really make us more aware of the threats and the landscape and how we as individuals and enterprises can help sort to quiet that storm yeah also we'll be happy to be here and also a big honor to be part of the program and the same time we also want to thank you a lot of partner a lot of customer and join us together for this big IPJ event and thank you for everyone absolutely you guys are a big partner-driven organization I'm sure the partners appreciate that Ken thank you so much thank you thank you Lisa for Kenzi I'm Lisa Martin you're watching the Cube from the Ferdinand Security Summit in Napa Valley


Math Learners. It's Mr. Marks, your friendly neighborhood math teacher. Remember, it's not just about getting the right answers. It's about learning and growing along the way. So why don't we dive right in? First, let's read the problem's instructions. Which equation do you want me to show? Join me in today's episode of Mr. Marks, Math Adventures.


Hi friends, I am Pooja and today we will discuss the following question and the following find the coordinates of the foot of the perpendicular drawn from the origin. 5y plus 8 is equal to 0. Let us begin with the solution now. Now we are given equation of the plane is 5y plus 8 is equal to 0 or we can write this as 5y is equal to minus 8. Let the coordinates of the foot of the perpendicular of point P from origin to the plane B x1, y1, z1 then the direction ratios of the line OPR x1, y1, z1. Writing this equation of the plane in normal form we get y is equal to minus 8 upon 5. Now by dividing this equation by 5 we get y is equal to minus 8 upon 5 where this 5 is equal to under root of coefficient of x square that is 0 square plus coefficient of y square that is 5 square plus coefficient of z square that is 0 square. Now this equation is of the form lx plus my plus nz is equal to d which is the Cartesian equation of plane in normal form. Now here we have l is equal to 0 and n is equal to 0 and m is equal to 1 where lm and n are the direction cosines of the normal and d is the distance of plane from the origin. So comparing these two equations we get here 0, 1, 0 are the direction cosines of the line OP. Now since the direction cosines and the direction ratios of a line are proportional we get now here x1, y1 and z1 are the direction ratios and 0, 1, 0 are the direction cosines and they both are proportional so we get x1 upon 0 is equal to y1 upon 1 is equal to z1 upon 0 is equal to some constant k that is we get x1 is equal to 0, y1 is equal to k and z1 is equal to 0 we mark this as 1. Now substituting these values in the equation of the plane we get 0 plus 5k plus 0 is equal to minus 8. Now this implies k is equal to minus 8 upon 5. Now putting this value of k in 1 we get x1 is equal to 0, y1 is equal to k that is minus 8 upon 5 and z1 is equal to 0 thus the coordinates of the foot of the perpendicular are 0 comma minus 8 upon 5 comma 0. So we have got our answer as 0 comma minus 8 upon 5 comma 0. Hope you have understood the solution. Bye and take care.


Hey, what's good everyone and Marvel comic book friends is behavior again for another trailer reaction This one is Marvel's cloak and dagger. I forgot that this series was coming out I heard about it a number of months ago, and I just completely forgot about it It dropped online the other day as far as what I know about cloak and dagger. I first learned about them recently Like a couple of years ago. It was the ultimate spider-man cartoon that came out a few years ago and cloak and dagger Cloak is the black guy. Dagger is the white girl. I don't know if they're related I don't even know their real names. I just know like the superhero special power names or whatever, but like dagger she can like create or emit light and Use it as weapons or something and like stab people and throw daggers. It's pretty cool and cloak he has this giant cloak thing that can like teleport himself or groups of people or Big things like all across the place like his teleportation is like way more Powerful than night crawlers or anybody else that could teleport like he can teleport through the different dimensions And like I think at one point in time during like the Civil War comic He trans he like they didn't want to create a bunch of damp collateral damage So I think he like teleported the and everybody that was fighting in the Civil War over to What dimension is that it has to do with the fantastic for the negative zone or something like that where the fantastic for Keeps like bad guys. I can't remember, but I forgot this is coming out. They it seems pretty cool So let's just go ahead and press play and me stop talking and you know, we can see what this is about They're not teenagers I guess Just what just happened. It's like you're afraid if I don't do everything perfectly, you're gonna lose me I'm afraid even if you do everything perfectly.  Is it the cloak? Yeah Freeform what is freeform? I saw it. I don't know What that is that's some platform that I just never heard of before if you do know Comment in the comment section below, please I'm gonna see it. Of course. It looked cool. I'm not like super duper excited about it Cuz I don't know much about the characters. I mean, I'm not gonna lie to you Yeah, I don't know much about the others know that she can emit light and make gackers And he got that little cloak thing that you saw at the end it can teleport to like the other side damn there at a universe So well, maybe not that far, but he got a bad-ass teleportation power and I I think this is gonna be 10 episodes coming out early of 2018 So I guess we're just gonna have to see and find out. I am gonna see it. I love Marvel I love comic book stuff. I love fighting. I just love anything good and entertaining and you know This has my attention. So what did you think about the new cloak and dagger trailer? Dude, did you like it? Did it turn you on did it turn you off? Do you agree with anything I said or do you disagree? Let me know in the comment section below Let's get this conversation going and keep it flowing If you liked this video, go ahead and give me the thumbs up and if you didn't like the video That's fine. Just leave me a comment below why and still give me the thumbs up since you watch this on YouTube Go ahead and subscribe to the channel so you get all the content that I have to provide And today is April the 20th 420 if you celebrate that Summer blockbuster movie season is coming. You better subscribe because I'm gonna be covering everything. I love summer movies I love blockbusters subscribe to the channel so you can get it all check out the website Look me up on social media all that good stuff But guys, I just really want to thank you again for tuning in for my trailer reaction to the cloak and dagger trailer Help me get to 1,000 subscribers.


platform is a private initiative supported by government and we're prepared to have the UAE and Nigeria platform. I'm sure that there are some informal platforms already but we're happy to have that kind of platform and of course the government will be fully supportive of it but because of the way that we intend to approach this is to allow a natural is to allow these sorts of things to grow organically through the private sector but once we have them we're prepared to support them the government of course will be very happy to support any UAE in Nigeria business or trading platforms that exist. Now the general procedures and I think I can just probably just repeat this once or twice we have what is called the Nigeria Investment Promotion Council. Now the NIPC is a one-stop shop for business facilitation generally. One of the things that I want us to do is and we have very very highly competent individuals who work there led by lady called Yawande Sadiku who herself used to be in the private sector and very high-open banking and who is now the leader of the the director general of the NIPC. So a lot of questions around what can we do to find good partners what do we need to do to for what sort of issues you may have NIPC and we also have a website the NIPC has a website you know Nigeria Investment Promotion Council also has a website. All of these sorts of questions can be easily answered by the NIPC and I think that that's what will make the most sense because some of them there are questions that you may want to ask especially if you want to cross-check persons who you are doing business with you know there are times when you are not sure of the of the sorts of individuals that you want to do business with. They are ready to help. In some cases you are looking for specific things such as assistance with state governments you know for example of course as you know as I said we have 36 states in Nigeria if you wanted to invest outside of the federal capital territory say you wanted to invest in Kanduna or you wanted to invest in Sokoto or somewhere you will need some assistance with state governments. The NIPC is in a position to do all of the facilitation as required. One of the things we try to do is to work very closely with all the state governments. I chair what is called the National Economic Council which is a monthly meeting of state governments. We held one just on Thursday. All the state governors come together and I chair that meeting so we're able to do a lot of facilitation of businesses and all of that with the NIPC and all other regulators who are usually in attendance. Now what are the procedures for guaranteeing investors and how do you reduce your risk? Well generally speaking investors are guaranteed by the existing legal framework. Existing legal framework including our constitution does not allow expropriation of businesses so government cannot take over businesses and government cannot expropriate property. There is a due process. Constitutionally you are not allowed to do so. This is one of the reasons why I talked about the judiciary especially in enforcement of contracts. With respect to enforcement of contract and we urge our investors to seek proper legal advice and draw legal agreements that of course are binding under Nigerian law. Now what we then do is to protect that as much as we can to protect your agreements, protect legal agreements. Of course sometimes legal procedures can be slow but the truth of the matter is that under our law, under existing laws, we have adequate provision both in commercial law as I said a few minutes ago. We have a new companies and allied matters act which takes into account most of the modern concerns or most of the current concerns that persons who are doing business especially as corporate entities may have and we've tried to ensure that that particular legislation is one that is as forward-looking as possible. So I think that generally speaking we have a legal system that works quite well. As I said there are occasionally delays in the process and legal process sometimes that takes a while but the truth is that we have a legal system that works very well and of course is based on the traditions of English law which most most investors are probably familiar with especially those who do business in any of the western countries. We also have and one of the things that I as a corporate solicitor and corporate litigator at various times would urge is that in your agreement you have arbitration clauses or ADL clauses, alternative dispute resolution clauses so that you are able to go outside the court system to resolve disputes that there may be and in many of the states we now have alternative dispute regulate alternative dispute resolution mechanisms where you can resolve disputes outside of the regular court system. So Anders talked about port congestion and airports not functioning according to international standards or by international standards. Yes there have been some problems with the ports in Lagos and in some senses is a good problem because there is an influx of there is a great deal of trade and activity. Now in resolving that in the short term you know one of the reasons why I was slightly elated coming here is that we are trying to look at how and this is also another business opportunity. We are developing inland ports and trying to ensure that we have inland ports in the various parts of Nigeria where goods can be undelivered. We are also at the moment building a new railway system the Lagos Cano Rail starting from their papa ports which we hope will be we hope the Lagos Ibadon end of it or the Lagos Ibadon part of it starting from their papa port will be completed by February this year. We had hoped it would be completed by March but we found that there are difficulties especially with the corridor the rail corridor some encroachments of the rail corridor and settling some of the issues around those who are built in the rail corridor and ensuring that compensation is paid to them that is causing some delays. So we expect that the rail route will take out a lot of cargo from the ports outside Lagos and that would also help considerably in decongesting the ports. We're working very actively also on all of the airports and all that and for those who visit quite frequently you'll notice that they have been incremental changes some of them the visa on arrival procedure some of them the clearing procedure and all of that. We're working also to ensure that those attain standards that are applicable anywhere in the world. As I pointed out in the course of my presentation the major airports in Nigeria are being concessured and this is really my view the long-term approach is the concessioning of those airports so that private sector can run them. My belief is that the private sector is a much more efficient much more efficient manager of facilities a much more efficient manager of resources and I think that this would be a very good thing for Nigeria and again it's an investment opportunity that is the private the concessioning of the airports. Someone asked also what is the difference between the Nigeria that is projected in the media and the Nigeria I operate in. Well I think generally speaking when you look at how a country is projected a lot depends on where you're at. If you operate for example in any part of Nigeria you probably will find that the news generally is not anywhere near what you might find in you know in the media. The media naturally wants to highlight bad news which is you know I think that's just the stocking trade of this gentleman who is seated here. I mean I think for who is interested in hearing that oh you know nice things are happening in Sokoto state. Nobody wants to hear that. People want to hear that. A train crashed you know plane fell out of the skies. Those are the kinds of things we want to hear but I think that anybody who is functioning within a system and I was speaking to one of our European ambassadors the other day about terrorism and I said that their countries for example were you know school shootings alone shooting kids in school alone 22 in one month. I mean if you if you highlighted only that you wouldn't even want to go to school there in that country of the world. But this is a huge country and there's so many different things that are going on and fortunately for us also in many of the areas where we have the most challenging security problems especially the Hertzman farmer clashes are restricted. They're not you know the major issues are not spread across the country which are some of the security challenges we have. Also the Boko Haram crisis which we believe is more or less resolved except for some opportunistic attacks here and there. That is also in a restricted area it's not across the entire country. Nigeria as we know is a very huge country very very huge country and most people who are in one part of the country really except for social media these days probably don't even know what is going on in in another part of the country. So I think that by and large the sorts of challenges that we face are challenges that are faced you know by many countries of the world and sometimes those challenges are seasonal you have some challenges that are you know that are seasonal but you would try to deal with them as they come and would try to you know also develop long-term strategies for dealing with them. By and large I'm sure that most people who have visited Nigeria or who do business in Nigeria will find that it is generally speaking a safe place to do business and most businesses are unaffected by the major by some of the things that we hear or see in the media. Commercial banks administering credit the whole issue around agriculture and credit for agriculture is one that we're working on very seriously well now the bank of agriculture in the new in the current budget we are capitalizing the bank of agriculture which we hope will be a more direct way of offering credit to commercial farmers but we also want to push the commercial banks to give agricultural credit. It's an important point you've made and we all accept the point that generally speaking commercial banks except one or two are not always they're not always ready to give credit for agriculture and one of the reasons is because the commercial banks by just putting their money in treasury bills make substantial amounts of money but now that the that rates are coming down they are now going to be forced to push out credit and actually give credit if you are making 17 percent on treasury bills they're not likely to invest in any the real sector in any way including agriculture but now that rates are coming down it's becoming more obvious that they need to put out the they need to to give credit and we've been also working with the central bank to ensure that NISEL i'm sure some of us are familiar with NISEL which is a credit which deris credit for agriculture that NISEL is given a much more prominent role to play so that working with the commercial banks you can have lower you can have cheaper money for for agriculture so that that i think is something that we're paying you know great attention to and i and i think that for those who want to do some for those who want to do business in agriculture you might well be able to find credit for many you know it's not just agriculture the real sector generally you know if you don't have a track record of business it many have said that there are difficulties with just accessing with accessing credit but i think with what we're doing at the moment and with rates coming down lending to the real sector will definitely um power sector roads and transportation let me just talk about power sector very quickly especially in relation to business of course many of you would know those who are familiar with the Nigerian business environment know that we there was a power sector reform where most where the generation and distribution was privatized and so we have gencos we have generating companies that are private we also have distribution companies that are private only transmission the tcm is governmental the federal government now we've had some difficulties with the discote that's distribution generating capacity is quite good i mean we've moved on installed capacity something in the order of about 15 000 megawatts of power and there's so many new initiatives in solar and solar renewable energy general we don't really have a problem with generation the problem is with the last mile delivering the distribution and the last mile and because of discos have a great deal of difficulty because of their leveraging they reform itself when it was done from 2005 or so did not really look in particular at the at how deep the pockets of a lot of the discos were the discos find themselves in a situation where they simply don't have most of the resources that were required to do to invest more in metering to invest in distribution assets transformers transmission lines etc so they have so the discos have a problem now what we how we try to resolve that is by saying by doing what we call the eligible customer arrangement now the declaration of the eligible customer means that you can have a willing buyer willing seller arrangement and so you can go outside the discos and if anyone was following some of the news on the bar center recently we'll find that what we're doing now is that we are actually allowing generating companies to supply power directly to industrial clusters including markets going outside for the discos going outside the discos so if a disco that occupies a particular territory is unable to deliver power what we've done is that by the eligible customer arrangement it is possible for a company for a company that's generating power either to a cluster or from the grid to sell power especially to industrial concerns and all that we find that that has worked quite well although the discos of course are unhappy about it but there's no exclusive jurisdiction they don't have exclusive jurisdiction and they are unable to provide where they are unable to provide power we work on the eligible customer or the willing buyer willing seller arrangement at the moment we've done that for quite a few economic clusters and we intend to continue to do so because really the strategy for us is that you cannot rely entirely on power coming from the grid so a lot of off grid power is what we're investing in now so there are several you know small companies that are able to produce either in some cases solar in some cases in some cases thermal capacity and fuel IPPs to provide power across across the country in different in the different economic clusters so that I think is the solution but I very strongly believe that with what we're doing at the moment we will be able to deal with large portions of the power sector of course I don't want to take you through all of the you know the economics of the whole value chain and all of that but I think that with what has been done at the moment we can really make significant improvement in power delivery especially to the commercial clusters um policies to encourage startups several we have several policies to encourage startups and many of those policies revolve around the bank of industry the bank of industry has a new fund specifically devoted to startups the government also has been supporting startups directly recently we set up what is called the technical the advisory group on technology and creativity which is really you know a group of a group consisting of startups several owners of startups and owners of businesses in technology and entertainment and I chair that particular advisory group I've been working a lot on developing policy for the startups the policies include access to credit and all that and that really is from my own office and so we've there's so many in fact just recently just last week I believe it was or barely 10 days ago we were in Silicon Valley with a group of startups talking directly to investors and so many investment decisions were made right there and then I think that there's enough room for startups that we are encouraging that through the bank of industry through CBN funding and we're also encouraging venture capitalists to invest in in our startups and that is in that respect we're doing very well in fact just recently we launched what is called the students challenge where universities across the country are competing for funds for their own startups and all that and this is all this is mostly government supported with with some private sector participation so I think generally speaking startups have very very good opportunities somebody asked about elections and trade what how the 2019 elections may affect trade and investment I don't think it will be significant at all there and the simple reason is that the policies that are in place you know lead out there in a legal framework we cannot afford a situation where an election cycle in any way in any way affects or impunes on investment and that's why all of the investments all of the investment initiatives are backed by law or by executive order so that nothing really changes if however an election an election cycle plays out so I don't think that that will be a significant I don't think it will be a significant problem except of course if you are investing in the politicians you know if you are not investing the politicians it should be just fine raising the value of I think we've talked about that somebody talked about congestion of traffic in Lagos you know well Lagos I think has improved considerably like most mega cities New York Bangkok and several cities you have traffic challenges I think that what has happened in Lagos is that there are of course as you know there are new road initiatives at the fourth main land bridge which again is a major investment opportunity although I know that there are several takers now so there are it's a continuous thing being done we're looking at how in various ways especially where federal roads are concerned how can concession those federal roads overall or hand them to the state government we're recently handed over the airport road the road leading from Lagos airport out to Oshoody and all of those areas to the Lagos state government to enable them develop that facility and told it if they wish so I think that building more roads and also managing the traffic is the only way to go we don't involve ourselves in managing traffic in the states because that's the state function but I believe that with Lagos you know as with any very busy capital city the traffic cycles are also fairly determined unless of course there is a major there's a major problem otherwise most people who leave or work in Lagos have somehow you know managed to look at the cycles you know when the you know when the rush hour is and you know when things are lighter challenging administrative decisions in courts yes that's very that's that's always available and just as you said as a lawyer I have seen or been part of several challenges of administrative decisions and the courts are very frequently rolled in favor of the challenges of administrative decisions I don't think that there's a problem whatsoever with that although what we've also tried to do especially with investments is to create opportunities for investors to arbitrate those disputes and in some cases by going up to the NIPC or some other regulatory authority we try to work out if these are decisions that can be sorted out especially for and this is what I was talking about when I talked about the labs that were held where administrative bottlenecks disturb an investment you know and in this lab structure we bring together all of the regulatory authorities investors and try and get them into a room to work out whatever administrative records there are and this lab structure has worked very effectively because we make sure that all the major regulators are there in the room and as I said I also participate in some of the sessions of the labs local content I think already we've done a lot of work with local content there are two executive orders specifically directed at local content saying that in procurements whether it's procurement of rules of services local content must be prioritized executive order three I believe it is and five orders aside from local content in oil and gas which is regulated by existing legislation so there is ample provision for that logistics and freight forwarding there is a lot of activity around that now especially logistics and just recently I know that mask the shipping company and logistics company working with the with the seat with the with I'm trying to remember the particular body that they're working with one of the world bank one of the world bank groups have come and they're looking at logistics especially with agro with the agro allied industry they're looking at how to deal with logistics bringing farm products from farm to the table and there's a fair amount of what's going on in that respect and mask as we know is one of the major logistics companies in the world and they are investing heavily in logistics right there those who are interested in logistics and all of that that also I think is a good business opportunity and of course where you see some of the big names going into it clearly that must tell you something about the prospect somebody asked why only Lagos and Kando are mentioned in the presentation that's not correct I mentioned several other cities I mentioned about several cities especially with respect to location of businesses when I was talking about malls I talked about those cities but the reason why I mentioned Lagos and Kano in particular is because in implementing now these are the two these are two major commercial centers Potapot is another but in terms of commerce in terms of just trading Lagos and Kano are the top two and what we try to do was to because so many businesses go to those two locations we try to implement some of the reforms in those two locations first of course we're implementing the reforms across the country but in Lagos and Kano we want to implement those reforms there first because that's where you'll find you know that several businesses tend to go especially some of the companies that have come into the country for various reasons as outside of oil and gas most of the non-oil investments have tended to go in that direction somebody asked about estimated billing when will that stop and all of that well this is the point we're making and this is why the discos as we've said lacked many of them lacked the capacity because they simply don't have the investments to be able to do the billing and metering and all that and that's where we're doing the willing buyer willing sell option but we think that with some of the fresh investments we expect will go into discos and in the next couple of months we expect that some fresh investments will come there we think that that and we also have a metering plan there's a major metering plan what we're trying to do with metering is to take it completely outside of the discos and to allow independent companies to meter and to charge for their own metering so that particular metering plan is one that we intend to pursue i think we should start operations by end of september i believe it is to begin the independent companies doing metering once that is done you wouldn't have any estimated billing because meters will be available for all consumers somebody asked about young Nigerians in government there's several young Nigerians in government several i work with practice in fact practically everybody who works with me is under 40 my advisors my assistants technical advisors almost all of them are under 40 so there are several young Nigerians in government question of course is that you know if if if you're looking for a 30 year old minister of finance and all of that yeah it could come you know those sorts of things happen but there are rarities you don't have a macron everywhere in the world you know every once in a while you get a macron but it's it's not it's not the norm generally speaking a bit of experience is also required in order to be able to deliver effectively i think that one needs a bit of experience and what has happened you know what what i think is good is that young people who want to be in government start you know as advisors assistants special assistants and those kinds of things all work in the bureaucracy and several of them are exposed to government and the way that business is done in government several of them of course are the experts that we rely on but it's an amount of you know experience is also garnered by just being there seeing things being done interacting with politicians with bureaucrats and all of that it's not just about being smart you know i mean government is not just being clever it's not just being smart you have to deal with politicians deal with bureaucrats deal with all sorts of tensions sometimes ethnic sometimes religious so i think that a bit of i think working with government is a in those capacities is always a good thing always a good training ground but there is nothing there's nothing whatsoever that stops a young person from aspiring to any positions in government that they may please there are no special things for foreign graduates we welcome everyone and many foreign graduates back home working i have a very substantial number of foreign graduates who work with me many nigerians are also foreign graduates in fact practically every nigerian goes to school in nigeria and abroad so i mean we welcome all of you but we don't have any special provisions for foreign graduates anyone who wants to come home of course is very very welcome um the company asked about concessions for investing in uh cct one of the major things is that if you start a company if you if you are starting a company and if you look at that on premium of incentives which i've just referred to is also available on the nipc website you most likely are eligible for what is called the pioneer status which enables you to have five years at least of free uh tax free five tax free years so you're not paying tax for the first five years so if you come and establish your business you're most likely going to be entitled to no corporation tax etc for the first uh five years and also importation you can wholly own your business even as a foreigner you can repatriate hundred percent of your capital you can engage who you like to work so long as they are technically technical people can engage them to work so they the concessions uh or incentives are all there um i think somebody asked how soon for nigeria well we've only just announced and uh we're also looking at the business case there are several different investment issues around it there is a determination to ensure that i said it's private sector led and we have several you know interested persons who are looking at it i would say that you know uh within a 12 to 18 month period we should expect you know uh actual takeoff if uh if things go in the normal course that we expect them to go but it's not uh it's not starting tomorrow because obviously there are many things that need to be done i think that's about most of the questions that were asked i think yes i think there's a question about sports you know and i i'm not i accept it there's a specific uh thing on sports what we've tried i mean they just as with every aspect of Nigerian life and business entertainment uh we as i said we have the advisory group on technology and and creativity beg your pardon so anyone who is interested in business in any of those areas uh we probably will function within that that context but every aspect of Nigerian uh of of Nigerian life is who is open for business you want to invest in sports depending on what it is or what the specifics are i'm sure that these are areas i will come look at thank you thank you


Howdy guys IndiePixel here, and I wanted to create another series here on how to use Houdini, but this time what I wanted to do what is I wanted to include the Houdini engine All right, and it's specifically for Unity because Houdini engine is different for Unity and Unreal In certain ways, I mean they're very similar in most ways, but it differs at certain points But anyways, what I wanted to do is I wanted to make this little mini course about You know, how do we go about creating a little grass field? All right, so what we're going to do throughout this series is we're going to Learn how to create these little grass clumps. All right, so each one of these little grass clumps is just a series of cards So if we actually look at the geometry, it's just a series of you know cards and All of this is generated inside of Houdini and you'll notice that we also automatically have all the LEDs for these Clumps. All right, and so I wanted to walk through the process of how we can go and create all of these Or all of this grass field here procedurally inside of Houdini and the Houdini engine for Unity. All right, and so that's what we're going to do. We're going to walk through this entire process So I'm going to take you from literally the beginning where we go and create a grass blade and Then we're going to go and create a grass clump and we're going to learn how to export all that stuff out of Houdini into Unity so we can create a prefab out of it And then we're going to learn how to utilize the Houdini engine so we can scatter that grass clump Throughout the entire terrain and in this case, we're just going to keep it in a small little sample cherry. Okay, so Lots to cover. I hope you guys really enjoyed this So let me know if you have any questions and I'll try to get back to you as fast as possible. Thanks so much. Bye