And so I think my name is Aladr Fiki. I'm one of the attorneys here at Kerasan, Francisco Bay Area's office. We take a whole host of questions regarding, especially during COVID-19, regarding unemployment insurance. Employment discrimination has been something that we've been known to speak out for the rights of American Muslims. In today's webinar, we'll touch upon both of those areas. If there are any questions, I'm happy to take them towards the end. So Insha'Allah, please stay tuned. Hopefully it won't take too long in about 20 to 25 minutes, insha'Allah. So again, what are some of the topics we're gonna talk about? Like I said, what do you do if your job has been impacted by COVID-19? Obviously, it's still a continuing crisis. The pandemic is at its worst ever point now in California with almost 3,000 deaths nationwide. What do you do if your job is impacted, was impacted in the past? What were your options? It's good to know for the future. God forbid, if you're laid off, you've got your work hours cut, and if the pandemic continues to have the economic impact it's having. We will touch briefly about some of the leave laws, and most importantly, we'll talk about general religious accommodations and dealing with discrimination because of your religious identity, your national origin, and we'll talk about that. So let's get into it. What do you need to know if your job was lost, your hours were cut, you took a significant cut, or you were furloughed? What happens in those situations? Ordinarily, when people lose their jobs through no fault of their own, they can apply for unemployment insurance. Unemployment insurance is a program that essentially provides temporary and partial wage replacement for people who are looking for jobs in between jobs. They usually, payments every week, they're sometimes paid out biweekly, but they're payments every week for individuals to help them with their living expenses and other such things. Now, there are some basic requirements for receiving unemployment insurance. Number one, number one thing, people ask me, I wanna leave my job, it's toxic work environment, I don't like the work that I'm doing, can I then apply for unemployment insurance? And unfortunately, while I might not support labor laws and laws being that way, currently as it exists, you may not apply for unemployment insurance in that situation.  Now, this is even before COVID. Let's say your boss is to say, I'm sorry, we don't really have space for you. We're changing projects.  Now, what happens if you're let go because of poor performance, other issues, disciplinary issues, then unfortunately, you may not apply for unemployment insurance. Now, during COVID, what it means is if your place of business, your workplace closed because there was no work, the pandemic affected it, and specifically because of COVID-19, your hours were cut, that's a situation in which there was no fault of yours and that's when you can apply. That's the first requirement. The other requirement is that you need to have sufficient prior earnings and it's a very legalistic term. What does that mean? Generally, what EDD, the Employment Development Department, the Unemployment Insurance Agency in California does is it goes back 18 months so, and it breaks it down into quarters. And every quarter essentially looks if you've had one quarter in which you've earned at least $1,300. And if you have earned at least $1,300, you're good to go. If you haven't, there's another formula, which is about $925 a week or so, and you need to have earned at least minimum. Why do I say that's the case? Depending on how much you've earned per quarter is how much you get back in unemployment insurance. Think of it this way. Unemployment insurance, as you know, is something that comes out of your paycheck. It is something in which, you know, you are paying into for a rainy day, such as being laid off that you can then take money. So depending on how much you earn per quarter is how much you'll actually get back as well. The third and final thing, which is a bit tricky, particularly early on during the pandemic and might continue into the next year was you need to show that you're ready, willing and able to work. What do those three things mean? They're not just as simple as some random terms.  That's something that you are, you know, currently in the process. In the past, you'd have to show you've gone to interviews or job fairs, obviously because of COVID it's been harder. In the early parts, EDD weighed that requirement, but now they're still going back as they've determined that there's some sort of recovery happening in the economy where you can actually go and apply for jobs. Even if it's online, you don't obviously have to go to a job fair in person or expose yourself to that risk. But that's something that you have to show that you're ready. Willing means that you're receiving jobs and you're not turning them down simply because you're like, oh, no, I want something different. You don't have to accept jobs necessarily that are not with a new scope. Let's say you're an engineer or a lawyer and you're getting jobs, let's say, to work at a printing factory and that's something that's outside your scope. You can make the argument that that's not really replacing your wages in your interest areas, but you can't simply turn down jobs. And unfortunately, if there's a situation in which those are the only jobs that are available, you would have to take those jobs as well. And the other thing about being able to work is a couple of things. You need to have work authorization.  You know that green car holder sometimes and also spouses of green car holders will get an EAD, an employment authorization document. That is fine in that situation where you are allowed to work there. The other thing is you cannot have some sort of a disability or an impediment preventing you from doing work. Let's say you were injured and hurt and are unable to do so, then you are not considered to be able to work. In that case, you wouldn't be eligible for UI. You'd be eligible for some state disability benefits. Worker's comp, if you were injured on the job, that's a separate area. And for that, you should really be reaching out to your care or others who work on labor law and providing public benefits. But if you're not able to work because of an injury, whether it was on the job, off the job and you're applying for state disability benefits, you may not be eligible for UI. Now sometimes if your state disability benefits are not enough and you can earn some UI, they combine the two. Again, a bit more complicated, but just so you know, these are things that you should be focused on. What's another thing? Another common question people ask is how much can I really get from UI? I touched upon that briefly. The minimum is about $40 to about $450 a week. Plus, I write this an additional $600 per week under the CARES Act. We had the CARES Act up until the end of July. It expired unfortunately, Congress and Senate did not extend it and we're not able to extend it. But what would happen is let's say if you earn $50 per week, you would get the additional 600. So it would be 650 per week. You'd get payments in about two weeks. It would be about 1300 for two weeks. Now there are talks for some of you who've been paying attention in Congress and Senate to allow for $300 a week under unemployment insurance benefits for people under the CARES Act or another form of an act that would allow people to get those benefits. Obviously, you know, people are still struggling. The additional $600 would be ideal. There is an opportunity for people to speak to their Congress members and elected officials to see whether they could push for them to actually get those benefits and have those hires. Now, how long can you get that? The quick answer is you can get your benefits as long as you don't run out of them. You know, Edd will often tell you you've got about 15,000 in benefits and you can use them however long, but the max you usually ordinarily could get is was 26 weeks. Under the new federal laws, what is done especially till the end of this month under this year, so only until the end of this year was you could get 26 weeks plus 13 and Gavin Newsom also introduced laws that add another seven weeks. So that would be up to 46 weeks is how long you can get them. But those 26 plus 13 weeks have to be due before December. So people who've been getting unemployment insurance benefits from let's say the summer or early on in the pandemic are probably starting to see that expire at the end this year. And that's something that's important to keep in mind. Now, what are some things that you should be aware of when you apply for UI? You apply, like I said, you can apply online at ui.edd.ca.gov. You can apply by phone or by mail, I think the best and the easiest option even while the system is clogged is to do so online. One thing to look for is always answer honestly. So that's like all previous employment when you were laid off, what your wages were, all that is important, whether you're currently working because if you provide knowingly or knowingly false statements, there's a penalty, it doesn't mean you have to pay. There's usually penalty weeks, which means that if you received any benefits, you may have to return them with interest sometimes and also let's say you're eligible for UI benefits but you may not get them for the weeks they were serving the penalty. So it might be like three to four weeks you don't get them and obviously a month's worth of UI benefits and not having them can be difficult for people especially in this environment. The other thing to note is once you are approved for UI payments, you have to keep certifying every two weeks that you're still looking for a job, you're already willing and able to work, you haven't found another job, that's something you have to show and sign and certify. Obviously, do not lie on that as well. If you find another job, you should be letting them know so the payments stop in that front but that's something that it's important to know again. If they later find out that you've been receiving payment from a new employer or any other sort of, any of that nature, you will, like I said, be penalized for it and have an interest payment on it. Now, what are the things should you be focused on when applying for UI? All letters from the EDD. So the EDD will often send you a letter once you've applied if you've been approved with a Bank of America card that through which you can then receive your benefits and withdraw money, but all letters from the EDD, whether it's to certify, whether it's to provide a clarification. EDD will also often send a letter to your employer. You don't have to respond to that but just so you know, they'll ask your employer, is it true that this person worked on this from this time to that time, they were laid off? The reason for the layoff that they listed in the application is actually the reason those are all things that they will focus on as well as important for you to listen to and learn. Now, if you're denied benefits, that's another important thing to focus on. You can appeal by sending the notice back and you have about 10 days to respond. Please get the help of an attorney such as ours and others in responding back to this. And sometimes it's just a matter of saying, hey, my wages weren't all put in there. I made a mistake. There were some wages that I had and we'll talk about that a bit later. That's something to do and like I said, please do reach out to attorneys to prove for that consultation. Now, another thing to do is people ask me, can I apply for UI if I was an independent contractor? You've got a 1040 form or others during that time or you have your own business? Generally, the answer is no. Under California law, generally though, something to note is all workers are considered employees unless proven otherwise. Obviously 1040 and those sorts of forms vacillate against, sorry, 1099 and other forms vacillate against that. Sometimes what happens is that employees are misclassified. We know this is an issue through some of the stuff that's been happening around Uber and Lyft drivers. For example, they've been classified in the past few years as independent contractors. There was a California law, AB5 that said no, they are actually employees. We saw a proposition that just got passed, I would say quite detrimentally and unfortunately for gig workers that said that there should be an exemption specifically for people who drive rideshares and they're not employees. But there's a test, if you are not sure if you're an independent contractor or an employee, there's a test that you should know. And the test is called the ABC test. It's a California Supreme Court case. Essentially, number one, you are an employee of the employer and an independent contractor only if the boss, the company that you're working for does not control the work you perform. Let's think of it as if an accounting company was to hire you to do a paint job and you owned a painting company, right? So in that situation, the boss would not tell you ordinarily, the company wouldn't say, oh, you need to paint XYZ, you can do it this way. This is the type of brush you need to apply. That's something in which there's no one controlling you. Number two, you do not perform the core work that the company does. Let's say that in this situation, they asked you to provide help with electrical. They asked you to provide some consulting on accounting. Let's say it's a tech company. That's not the tech company's main work, right?  So they are not telling you how to do it. They're just asking you to complete a job or a project. Number two is you're not performing the core work of the company. Let's say if you're an accounting who was taken on contract for an accounting company, there's an argument to be made that you're actually an employee because they're controlling how you're performing the work that you're doing as well as the core work. Now, the third and final thing is you don't have an independent business doing the work you're performing. Let's say you had your own accounting company or you had an old company that worked on repairs and you were contracted or you were asked to come in for a company, there's a chance that then you're an independent business contractor or an independent contractor. So to use this example earlier, if you're hired by let's say an accounting company to perform some maintenance on their walls or a painting job, you have an independent company, you might be likely deemed to be an independent contractor. If you don't have those, then you're not. Like I said, we generally advise Uber and Lyft drivers to say that they're employees because of the various laws, because of the fact that their work is being controlled, that they can't just do whatever work they're doing. They're told when to take those rides and how to take those rides and they're actually performing the core work of the company, which is ride sharing and they don't have an independent business. People like to think of themselves as entrepreneurs, but necessarily ride sharing isn't one of those spaces. Now, if you're ever in doubt, apply for UI. The worst, they will reject your applications, obviously don't lie and we can always provide advice. Now, let's say you are an independent contractor or a self-employee. What can you do? Are you out of luck in the situation? No, you can apply for something that's come about because of the pandemic and because of the CARES Act, which is Pandemic Unemployment Assistance or PUA. What is PUA? We'll talk about that in a bit. Now, another question, like I said earlier is, people say all my wages weren't reported. This often happens for misclassified workers, such as ride share, people who are paid by cash or by check partly, you may have your wages. You can ask EDD to investigate whether additional wages can be added. So you can document from your 1099s or deposit records or an app in which you're being paid to say like, let's say Venmo or Zell or whatever, that you're getting cash from this company for doing the work that you are and it should be added to your wages. The benefit of adding to your wages is that you will also get more unemployment insurance benefits. I always ask people to collect those records, pay stubs, screenshots of those apps, et cetera, to prove to EDD and you can reach out to them directly. You can try them on the phone. They're often very busy, but mostly through online to say I need to add my wages in that situation. And the way to do that online on the website is you go to the portal, you select claim questions and then you click on to the missing wages from claims on a dropdown menu and then you add and explain why they don't have it. And you'll say, well, my employer's paid me partly in cash, partly in check and that's why they don't have it. And then an auditor from EDD will check in to investigate and confirm how to do that. Let's go back to Pua. Like I mentioned, Pua stands for Pandemic and Employment Assistance. This is for workers who are out of work because of COVID-19 but we're not eligible for UI. What does that mean? If you're eligible for UI because you're an employee, because you paid into it, you have enough wages, you should apply for UI, not Pua. You will not likely get Pua just because you're like, well, I'm gonna choose between one or the other. Anyways, UI is better for you in terms of benefits. But for people who are independent contractors, self-employed and don't have the option to apply for UI, they can apply for Pua. Essentially, it is there for people who are out of work because of COVID-19 and it's also for people who use all their unemployment insurance benefits. Let's say you ran out of the $8,000 that you were due and you wanted to apply for Pua. Pua is something that can help you if you run out of it. Again, another thing to remember, it's till the end of this year unless the benefits run out on that sense. Now, the other thing is you also have to continue to be work-authorized. So if you're undocumented, unfortunately, or out of a visa status, you may not be able to apply for either UI or Pua. And again, what under Pua classifies as a COVID-19 related reason, it's things like the place of employment is closed because of COVID-19, you had to take time off to provide care for a child or a household member who can't go to school or work because of COVID-19 issues. So you had to take care of them and they were dependent on you, including children. You were yourself diagnosed with COVID-19 or had those symptoms and are seeking a diagnosis. You're caring for someone who was diagnosed with COVID-19. You're a doctor, medical provider, the city, that county, some government at first was actually to self quarantine for let's say a couple of weeks or a month and or you had to quit because of COVID-19. That's a COVID-19 related reason and that should make you eligible for Pua. Just something you know. Now, how much can you receive? And the minimum benefit, unfortunately is usually half of the state's benefits. It can be up to about $167 or $190 a week. If you think about it, they're also calculated very similar to Pua, which is like, let's say, you previously got unemployment insurance and now you ran out of your benefits, they look at the calculation and determine how much you got. For self-employed contractors as well, independent contractors, they'll ask them how much you're receiving in this quarter, how much you were getting paid or how much you earned to determine how much you should be getting back. And those are things that are eligible for you as well. And the same thing, it's 26 weeks plus the extension of 13 and then the California extension of seven, so about 46 as well. The benefits unfortunately will run out at the end of this year. As you know, there's a lame duck session in Congress. There are talks trying to extend these Pua benefits. I know that people desperately need them and we're hopeful in Charlotte that they'll pass so people can then continue to make use of it. It's still important to get a sense of how to apply for it and how much people can apply for it in case they're extended. Same way to apply for Pua as UI is to the website edd.gov. Same, they'll ask you to apply for UI. They start accepting applications starting on April 28th over special in the process. Now, another question that we often sometimes come across is what if I'm still being required to work but I don't think it's safe? Now, as you know, for example, in Santa Clara County and counties in the Bay Area, they're moving back and shelter in place order. So there's more reason for people to say, I can no longer show up to work and I need to apply for Pua. You as a worker have a right to refuse unsafe work. You know, this is the OSHA or the Occupational Safety Hazards Act in which if there's a dangerous workplace, you can whistle, blow and report on that workplace, but you also have a right to be free from an unsafe workplace. You can refuse that work, but it's not just refuse a work and don't show up to work. It's that I'm sorry, I can't work and then you have to work towards an acceptable solution. For example, you can demand proper safety equipment, PPE like masks, gloves, proper sanitation. You can also request that, you know, there may be, there should be accurate and adequate distances between you and your coworkers, between you and employees, other employees, customers, clients, whatever your workplace is. You have a right as usual to organize and ask for better safe conditions, right? Some people have asked for like Paxi Glass, some people have said only, let's say five people are allowed in the establishment at the same time. Those are all things that are fair to ask before you quit. That's one requirement that you have that I think is really important because unfortunately it's a high bar, you know, these are things that you should really be looking at. Remember, for UI, you can't quit. You need to have it even laid off, but the exception here is unless there was a really dangerous condition and you need to show that you tried to address and resolve the problem with your employer first, they refused or they didn't provide enough situations. I think as attorneys we tell people to, you know, ask your employer to improve those conditions and you feel forced to, and if you feel forced to quit, usually your employer know you're quitting. I want to be, this to be in writing, I'm quitting because I believe that the conditions are not safe and that precautions are not taking. Why? Because when you do apply for PUA or UI at that situation, then if they ask the employer and the employer says, while the person just quit, you can make the argument that, you know, you quit because you were forced to since the conditions were not safe. Obviously, if you have a health condition or an underlying medical condition that puts you at higher risk, that's sort of like a disability accommodation. So in that situation, they should continue to provide you either an opportunity to work away from home or work hours that put you less at risk. You can apply for, you can always ask for an accommodation for your disability or they can even change your work assignment. Let's say you work in a place that puts you in the front lines interacting with people, you can ask them to shift away from it in that situation as well. And it also applies for people over 16, which is considered a more vulnerable segment of our society as well. So that's something that's important to realize as well. Now, what happens if you or a household member gets sick?  If you get sick, a household member gets sick, use your paid sick leave, especially under California law, unfortunately the state law allows for paid sick leave to be as less as three days. There are some localities like San Francisco that have been providing emergency funds to employers to provide up to like 40 additional hours and under new federal laws, especially starting in April of this year. If your employer has fewer than 500 employees, you have the right to two weeks of additional paid sick days from your employer, especially if you are dealing with COVID-19 or someone in your family is. So another thing is that if your employer has 50 or more employees, you can also get up to 12 weeks of leave and job protection, but that's unpaid, unfortunately. Like I said, with state disability insurance, if you are unable to work because you've got an injury that prevents you, let's say a back injury, you would have to get a doctor's certification to get those benefits as opposed to UI. If you got sick with COVID-19 or others during work, you can get workers comp on that situation. And obviously there's also paid family leave, which is if a family member who could sort of close, like spouses, children, grandparents, uncles, aunts, as long as they're close to take care of them, then you can get certification there in that sense. Now, quickly to recap, if you are undocumented out of visa status in this country, you are unfortunately not eligible for UI or PUA, remember? One of the requirements is that you need to be authorized to work in this country to receive any of those benefits, but you are still eligible for paid sick leave, state disability insurance, meaning if you got injured outside the job, also workers comp and then paid family leave as well. There was a brief fund for undocumented workers and their families that govern in use and passives about $500 one-time payment. Unfortunately, the first version of the CARES Act, which gave people $1,200 per family, up to $1,200 per family, excluded families that had undocumented workers. So that's something we want to be mindful of as well. And I'll briefly pause to see there any questions that have popped up on Facebook as well currently. If you have any questions, please feel free to leave a comment there. I'm monitoring that as well before we go into questions around whether or not people have any questions. So I see that there aren't. I'll move on really quickly and talk about religious discrimination as another topic. So CARES does a lot of work representing people who are affected by religious discrimination. Now, one thing to know is the laws that are applicable are Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion and national origin. These are important areas of focus. This is a situation in which if your employer is discriminating, then that's something that you can use to sue them. The requirement is your employer has more than 15 employees. In California, you have something called FIHA, the Fair Employment and Housing Act. It's also similar to Title VII, but it covers more classes. It also covers like English learner status, sexual orientation, gender. And then also it only requires your employer to have five or more employees. Now, what are these civil rights laws require from your employer? They require that they provide you with a reasonable religious accommodation. Remember, you can also get an accommodation for a disability. We're not gonna focus on that today, the same sorts of elements apply, which is that a reasonable accommodation is one which eliminates your conflict, your need to perform your religious duties and obligations and in the employer's requirement, without creating the keyword as an undue burden on the employer. The employer is not unfortunately required to provide you exactly what you're asking for. Let's say you're saying, I need a prayer room for myself and other employees. That's not something they're required, but they are a reasonable accommodation community that allow you to pray outside. They could designate some space or say that you could pray in your workspace as well. Those are all things that are okay and should be good to go. The other thing is, it also depends on the nature of your work and the workplace, whether or not they can provide an accommodation. If it's like the type where you cannot be provided one that unfortunately them and not be deemed reasonable. And we'll talk about those things. So how does this usually work when you're applying for these things? So you have to have a sincere religious belief that conflicts the job to you. Let's say if your job requires you to be clean-shaven and for some reason whatsoever, most jobs should not. And it's your religious belief that you need to wear or sport a beard, then you should be able to get that accommodation unless the employer can show that causes an undue burden. You have to let the employer becomes aware of the conflict, means you have to let the employer know that there's a conflict between what you need and require and your religious obligation. And the employer needs to have engaged in an interactive process at this time to accommodate the religious beliefs or observances if possible. So they need to make whatever they can. Let's say prayer times, they say, okay, you can take a break at this time, your lunch break could be moved at this time under Ramadan. Let's say they shift your workload to ensure that you're not lifting as heavy objects. They could assign it to another coworker or allow you to come in earlier or later just to use Ramadan as an example. They can, unless it significantly causes an undue burden. An undue burden is like it costs them a lot of money, a lot of modifications. There's no way for them to accommodate, but they're allowed to ask you for more information as to what and how you would like assistance in this situation. So that's something that I think is useful for everyone to know in this case. Now, what is described as religious accommodation? It's very broad. It could be religious dress, how you wanna appear, hijab, a beard, whatever else, coofy, and grooming practices, like I said. That's all covered as well as other religious practices, just prayer, fasting, taking a day off for Eid, for example. And those are all things that are covered. Under federal and California law, there are different standards for what is undue hardship. In federal, it has to be more than minimal, but California needs to be significant difficult to your expense. Like I said, it's costing a lot of money for your employer to provide you with those accommodations or it's expensive for them to shift your job duties around. And it really is case by case and depends on the facts. I listed some examples of religious accommodations in that sense, which is, like I said, asking for prayer times, a bit of a space for you to pray, to take a break so you can coincide with it to wear a hijab or a coofy or a niqab, let's say, for example, to move your work times to accommodate with Ramadan. And also to be able to take a day off before your religious holidays. And requesting one, like I said, there's no magic words. It's what you need to do essentially is let the employer know of your sincerely held religious belief as a practicing person of faith, for example, ask them for that accommodation. But before you do that, it's really important to review the employer hand with the process for doing it. Some of them might designate a supervisor and HR manager and it's important to get to them early as soon as possible so they can know of it. Make it clear always that this is because of your sincerely held religious belief. If you're doing it orally, follow it up with a written email, letter, whatever that is. So you can document it. Always, always, always document these things. And then engage them in dialogue. There's always some give and take and some compromise that can be satisfactory for all parties in this world. And the situation may not always be ideal and perfect, but you can move things in a way that allows you to get the religious accommodation that you need. And in all cases, we're here to tell you that we're here to support and help and push and negotiate with employers on your behalf if that's needed. So, you know, again, just a quick overview before I went in there. There are federal laws, like I said, Title VII Americans with disability. This is for people asking for religious for accommodation based on disabilities, age discrimination, and then their state laws as well. Now, what if you're dealing with harassment at work? You know, harassment is defined under a law as unwelcome conduct that's directed at you, the individual, because of your protected characteristics. What's protected characteristics? Race, national origin, religion, gender, sexual orientation, English learner status, even immigration status in California. If there's conduct, even if it's jokes that are sent towards you, that is unwelcome conduct as long as it makes you feel unsafe. It does not allow you to do that work. That's something that is considered harassment. That's separate from, you know, it can also take the form of like, obviously sexual harassment as well that is directed towards you because of your gender, sexuality, or you know, making unwanted and unwelcome advances as well. That's a bit separate from what is considered hostile work environment in which the conduct that's happening, whether it's your coworkers, supervisors, clients that it's become severe and pervasive, that is now abusive.  These could be like one-time incidents, obviously, but a major incident, for example, that something Islamophobic, homophobic, anything of that nature is said and you no longer feel welcome and are able to do your job functions. That's an example of a situation in which your ability to perform the job is impacted. Obviously, the more it happens, the stronger the case that there is actual harassment. And some example is inappropriate jokes, like I said, any derogatory comments or slurs, physical harassment, obviously, and verbal threats as well. All of these based on the situation that you're at show that there's a hostile work environment. Now, using this, you can also prove, for example, your religion or these conduct, this type of conduct is preventing you from being promoted or hired or being fired. If this is, you know, there are comments that are made or actions that are made or you are now, you know, removed from job duties and that you think is motivating your firing, that's something that's important or lack of promotion. That's something that's important to know might be religious discrimination. So what do we, you know, just to wrap up, advise people, always, always document incidents, dates, times and witnesses. If there's an incident that happens of harassment, hostile work environment, or, you know, you've asked for a promotion multiple times or even a few times and the reasoning given does not jive up, but always report and date who was there, what time it happened. And if you can get a witness, that's obviously helpful. Always review handbook or policy for grievance procedures. Some workplaces have a hotline, a whistleblower hotline to provide those complaints. Some have HR or need you to speak to a supervisor or manager and always complain, always document to your complaint unless obviously that individual is supervisor, boss, manager, coworker is the person convicted of harassment in that situation, follow up with a higher authority than that person and always, always follow it up with a complaint and keep copies of correspondence in the future if you come to care or any other attorneys, they can say, hey, this individual reported this, you had a duty to investigate and stop this and put this into action and you did not. That's why it's important. And we always tell people if you're let go, or if they're saying, you know, by signing this document, you are saying that we've done what we can and you release this of all claims in the future in court and otherwise do not do that without seeing legal advice. Oftentimes, if you're asked, you feel coerced to sign those documents, they may not hold up in a court of law, but they obviously make things more difficult when a lawyer is representing you and is trying to get, let's say, a fair settlement or resolution of the situation. Finally, if the situation is pervasive, like I said, it's very hostile for you in the work environment, there's unwelcome conduct and there's a pattern you're noticing happening with others and yourself. We always recommend people file with government agencies, care can, our attorneys can, including my self income and look at your situation and help you file with the Department of Fair Employment and Housing or the federal agency to help solve the situation. Again, that's something which will only come about if we are able to learn of this. So always reach out to us. I'll pause here really quickly to see if there's any questions that have come up on Facebook and if people have any questions to that effect. Just give me a brief moment to check in, but like I said, I think generally it'll be important to reach out to care if you need assistance with unemployment insurance benefits, if there's a situation in which you are unable to look at get assistance and you're a victim of this harassment that I mentioned. I don't see any more questions there. So what I'll do is I'll leave the contact information there. These are some organizations along with Care California that help on workers rights, advancing anti-discrimination, advancing Justice Asian Law Caucus or based in San Francisco, Care California with our chapters in the San Francisco Bay Area in Los Angeles, the greater Los Angeles area, San Diego and Sacramento Valley as well as Central Valley as well. The Center for Workers Rights, which is based in Sacramento, does great work on unemployment insurance, expanding benefits, allowing people to actually reach out to the Employment Development Department, the EDD. As you know, there's been a huge backlog and unprecedented number of people have applied for this in the situation. So I think that's something that we are looking at as well. So I would reach out to us. Since there are no questions, we'll end early today and talk about luck here for coming in and reaching and speaking to us today. Again, like I said, if there's any questions, please feel free to reach out. So am I.


Hello everyone, welcome to the Indian Radiologist. Over the next few minutes, I will be talking about MRI imaging in endometriosis. This is the first case showing acystic lesion in left adnexa appearing hypointense on T2 on left side and hyperintense on T1 image on right side. This particular layered hypointense appearance on T2 image is called as the shading sign and is very typical of endometrioma. The left adnexal acystic lesion appears hyperintense on first even fat sat image with small dependent T2 hypointense areas of blooming on second and third GR images, suggesting foci of hemorrhage and confirming the diagnosis of endometrioma. Now let us take a look at the second case. These images show acystic lesions showing a layered hypointense appearance on T2, the so called shading sign in bilateral adnexate consistent with endometriomas, ovarian follicles can be seen as the periphery. This particular appearance of hemorrhage containing acystic lesions in close contact with each other within the pouch of Douglas is called as the kissing ovaries sign and is often seen in endometriosis. The same acystic lesions appear hyperintense on T1 weighted fat sat images. Acystic lesions appear hypointense on star images on right side, hence for a lesion which appears hyperintense on T1, differentiation between an endometriotic cyst and dermoid should be done only with a T1 fat sat image to exclude the presence of fat. In addition to the above findings, sagittal T2 images show suspicious speculations along the posterior surface of uterus causing tethering of the adjoining rectum and raising a suspicion of deep pelvic endometriosis. Also the uterus appears bulky with thickening of the posterior junction zone suggestive of adenomyosis. Now coming to the third case, in addition to the hemorrhage containing bilateral adnexal cystic lesions, the T2 axial images show irregular speculated T2 hypointense soft tissue in the pouch of Douglas causing tethering of the rectum. Sagittal T2 weighted images confirm the findings and in addition the uterus appears bulky with thickening of the posterior junction zone and raising the possibility of adenomyosis.  Sagittal GRE images show T2 hypointense areas of looming within the hypointense speculated soft tissue and pelvis suggesting fochoir hemorrhage. These findings suggest likelihood of deep pelvic endometriosis. Overall findings are suggestive of bilateral ovarian endometrium mass with deep pelvic endometriosis and uterine adenomyosis. Coming on to the next case, bilateral adnexal cystic lesions are seen showing T2 shading sign with adjacent ovarian follicles. The right adnexal lesion appears hyperintense and the left adnexal lesion appears isointense on T1 fat sat images. In addition, there are elongated irregular cystic lesions with incomplete septations in bilateral adnexate adjacent to the above mentioned cystic lesions consistent with hematosolpings. The hematosolpings on left side appears hyperintense and the one on right side appears isointense on T1 weighted fat sat images. These varied appearances on T2 and T1 images are due to hemorrhage in different stages. Apart from bilateral ovarian endometrium mass and hematosolpings, there is a lobulated septated cystic lesion in right inguinal region which is the canal of NUK. T1 fat sat image shows a hyperintense focus within this lesion and GRE images show hyperintense areas of blooming consistent with foci of hemorrhage. This patient complained of swelling in the right inguinal region and pain during her periods. In view of bilateral ovarian endometrium mass, hematosolpings and the clinical history, this lesion in right inguinal region is consistent with a canal of NUK endometrioma. Let's take a look at the images of the next case. There is a fairly well defined isointense lesion involving the anterior wall of rectum with irregular speculated soft tissue in the pouch of Douglas. As seen in a couple of previous cases, this lesion shows hyperintense areas on T1 fat sat image consistent with hemorrhage. The patient complained of irregular cycles, pain in rectal region during her periods and constipation. The appearance of this lesion remained unchanged as compared with the previous MRIs and was proven to be an endometriotic deposit rather than C-erectum. Coming to the last case, this patient had a history of previous caesarean section and cyclical pain along the anterior abdominal wall. There is an irregularly marginated heterogeneous lesion in right rectus muscle along the site of previous caesarean scar containing T2 hyperintense foci suggesting foci of hemorrhage. These imaging findings with the clinical history are suggestive of scar endometriosis. It is thought to be caused by implantation of endometrial stem cells at the surgical site at the time of surgery. To summarize the MRI imaging findings in endometriosis, endometriomas can be seen as multiple adnexal cysts with T1 hyperintensity or one or more cysts with high T1 and shading on T2.  Small solid depletions may be hyperintense on T1 and hyperintense on T2. Adhesions and fibrosis can be seen as isointense to pelvic muscles on both T1 and T2 weighted sequences. Speculated low signal density stranding that obscures organ interfaces causing distortion of the normal anatomy which can be seen as posterior displacement of the uterus, casing ovaries sign and angulation of bobble loops. Elevation of the posterior vaginal phonics can be seen with loss of hyperintense signal of the posterior vaginal wall on T2. Thickening, nodules and masses can also be potentially seen. Loculated fluid collections can be seen, hematosalpings can be fairly diagnostic of endometriosis. Uterosecral ligaments are one of the common sites in deep pelvic endometriosis. Normal uterosecral ligaments are smooth and regular in contour. In endometriosis these can be irregular with asymmetric nodularity and thickening. Taurus utrinus which is the site of attachment of uterosecral ligaments on the posterior aspect of uterus is commonly involved in deep pelvic endometriosis. When pouch of Douglas is involved, it can be partially or completely obliterated, suspended or lateralized fluid collections can be seen. In urinary tract involvement, localized or diffuse bladder wall thickening can be seen with signal intensity abnormality. Nodules or masses are usually located at the level of vasicouterine pouch. Involvement of bladder mucosa is rare. Rarely, chest can be involved in endometriosis wherein cataminyl hemothorax, hemothorax or lung nodules can be seen.


For me, the Latino Theater Commons and this day of spending time with everybody has just been a space for us to share, learning about each other's work and to allow us to build a community to make interesting work. I think that, of course, I do think the Latino experience is the American experience and so for me I just want to see us create a community where we don't try to fit into other people's boxes but create our own space. Part of that I think is from my life in terms of being a theater undergrad and not really having a way to figure out what Latino Theater was and reading the work of Irene Fornes and once I read the work of Irene Fornes and actually Adrian Kennedy I understood what it was I wanted to do in the theater. So if what we do is create a space in which people come into that beautiful, flourishing world and learn how to make Latino worlds then I think that we have done our job.


The fear mongering has turned into war mongering over these past two weeks. The Canadian trucker protests were the previous false flag, this is the next one. Both of them have the obvious in common, they're fake, I mean at least obvious to me or someone with their brain still intact, not calcified by fluoride, so let me explain it. Mainstream media are the biggest liars of them all. There has not been one live video feed, one legitimate video, even a legitimate story on what's really going on. They make up whatever narrative they want, such as Canadian truckers protesting. Then just use pictures of trucks, videos of trucks driving, different protests, implying that those are of the event, but if you read the caption in the new story, which people don't do, they literally say this is from somewhere else. Speak to someone actually in those countries, you will find out that what the media is painting as the truth is not what's really going on. The control these people have over the media has detached us from reality. The mass is believing what they are told in that news. Of course, there's a reason they are painting the picture, setting the stage, doing these news stories. They want us to do something next that they are going to tell us. What's their agenda behind this event, that event? In the trucker protest, they recently said that bank accounts related to the protesters may be frozen under Trudeau's emergency order. We know this is all about control. Are they trying to justify attaching bank accounts to health passports? If you give everyone some type of digital identification to verify their health status, you have their personal identity in a database which you can then attach their bank account, social security number. So anytime a person makes a purchase, goes anywhere, you know who, where and what they are doing. Even when the fakest of the fake offense happens, it becomes pretty obvious what they would want to restrict, fuel usage, red meat, but this stuff never comes by force. The sheep will willingly submit to it while it's being blamed on other things out of their control such as inflation. Well, if people can't afford to go on vacation, you don't have to worry about the jet fuel usage. Now, I thought they were going to use the trucker's protest to stage more food shortages or at least it was a possibility, which they still might do. But I honestly didn't expect the freezing of bank accounts related to the protesters. An American convoy is also forming, which means probably another card in their deck is being played. That's something you definitely don't want to see. They do something in Canada and the same thing starts happening in the U.S. Global, new world order, one world order, they're all working together, no countries are separate, they're all one. And that brings up the question of what's up with this warmongering false flag. So Fox News, what's on the TV, it's all warmongering. But this article tells some of the truth. Biden's Russia speech, hypocrisy, lies, and warmongering. On Tuesday, the day before the United States had previously claimed Russia would launch a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, U.S. President Joe Poopypants Biden gave a speech in which he doubled down on his threats of a bloody, destructive war, even though no Russian invasion was forthcoming. Earlier in the day, the Russian government, which has insisted that it has no plans to attack Ukraine, announced that it is pulling back its troops from the Ukrainian border following the completion of a series of joint war games with Belarus. The claim of an imminent invasion of Ukraine has been repeated endlessly by the U.S. government and parroted in the media. In his speech on Tuesday, Biden was compelled on one hand to acknowledge the reality that no Russian attack had occurred while doubling down on the United States' threats.   They'll throw out 10 lies and half a truth, but people don't recognize the truth. If everyone in America, not just America, but any country could talk to someone from Russia, from the Ukraine, another country, after seeing what they've been told about said country in the news by their friends their whole life, they would realize we're the same people, maybe different language, skin color, height, we look different, but most people are honest, hardworking and being manipulated and scared by a bunch of evil lizards. That's when the masses would turn on the government, these people in power. But again, since those clowns have control of the media and people are trusting those media sources, it's a bit of a pipe dream.  The amount that are truly awake in such a small minority, it's not really in the playbook. People reach out to me all the time, and it's usually disinformation or misinformation that they're given. And then they ask, Frank, what do you think of this? And I just tell them it's fake. It's not this. Ignore it. So wars, fake or real, tend to crash the economy, which the top percent benefit from, because they get insider tips before it happens. And Russia is always blamed as hackers when the CIA decides to hit the switch. By that I mean the US government has control over major power and telecom companies, and with a simple phone call can have them do their bidding. We have seen and are still seeing politicians, people in the club, celebrities, whatever you want to call them, benefiting at the expense of everyone else. Before, you know what, they pulled their money out of the stock market.  I shouldn't have to point that out. With war, those that control the food, fuel, necessities, profit beyond what you can imagine. And there are already articles about cyber attacks in the Ukraine. Some mentioning government websites and banks were compromised.  Oh, your bank accounts aren't safe because of cyber attacks. So they will create some new system which they control for everyone to participate in. Thing is, the cyber attacks never happen, you know, they're just making stuff up and hitting power switches off to scare people. So the new systems will be under the guise of being independent. Oh, the government doesn't own this. These are private entities, but that is absolutely not the truth. And yeah, this goes all the way to the social credit system, which I've spoken about before. But the reason the government is going so crazy, the fear-mongering propaganda, war-mongering at this point, it seems like they're really, really buckling down is because in order for their plan to work, they need as many people as possible to participate in their system. Hey, if you don't play the game, they can't win. That's the way I look at it. Don't play their game. Don't listen to them. Don't consider their rules. Don't you start doing that? Hey, they've been playing the game for thousands of years. You think you're going to win? No. So, thank you guys for joining me today. If you can please drop a like on the video, leave a comment down below, subscribe so that YouTube can unsubscribe you next week, and be sure to check that notification bell so you don't get notified of my videos. Therefore, go to frank-defile.com to support me through all of my businesses as usual. I'm always wearing my Wi-Fi shielding clothing underneath. We'll do a little test next vlog for you guys that are curious about it. Thanks again, guys, and I'll see you tomorrow.


This is one that I think, you know, makes sense 100% and it's LinkedIn. It's always working. It's very focused on a business mindset. The community of individuals that is there is there to do business. They show up every single day. Welcome to the Smarter Building Materials Marketing podcast, helping you find better ways to grow leads, sales, and outperform your competition. All right, everybody. Welcome to Smarter Building Materials Marketing, where we believe your online presence should be your best salesperson. I am Zach Williams, alongside my co-host, Beth Popney-Glove. And today, we're going to be talking about social media specifically. How can you as a manufacturer get ROI from social media? It's a question we hear all the time. Frankly, we hear the question, should I even be on social media, which is crazy to even be asking that question today, but we understand there's a lot of opinions and maybe you haven't seen results. And so, we're trying to provide you a path forward on that today. It's always extra special for us when we get to bring in more Venbeo peeps to the podcast. So, to tackle this pretty hot topic, we have brought in our very own social media manager, Ashley Stevenson. She has an incredible passion for social media. We are going to do our very best to get through everything that we want to discuss here. But if you ever want to grab a cocktail, if you see her at a trade show, just get ready because girl is going to let it roll when it comes to social media. Ashley, thank you so much for joining us. Absolutely. Thank you guys for having me. And I'm not sure how I can even follow that up with the grab the cocktail and let it roll. I totally will, but it will be on point and specific to today's topic. I know it's been a pleasure working for Venbeo and working with our building material clients over the past year and a half and really excited to share some of the pieces that we've learned, what we're seeing, trends, that kind of thing that can be helpful for everybody. And I think for context, just for our listeners, Ashley oversees our entire social media team. Yeah. So she has, I think, a really good breadth of knowledge of what's happening across all major platforms, no longer Clubhouse. We were talking about that before the show. RIP Clubhouse. No, but I think we're really excited to have you on the show, Ashley, because you've seen manufacturers go from literally zero to tens of thousands of followers and understand what it takes to get there and then ultimately what's that return. And so for our listeners, why don't you just give us a little bit of insight into who you are real quickly, and then we'll dive into the content that we want to share with everybody. Sure. Absolutely. So I've been in the social media marketing space since Facebook started. Literally, that's exactly when I started doing marketing. So I grew with each one of the platforms as they developed and as they launched. It's part of my DNA and I just can't chase it away. It's just there. So when Ben says I'm super passionate, it's because I know where those bare bones beginnings came from. And I'm excited for where they are now. But yes, every single one of those platforms can get better and what we can do on them can also get better. So we'll be able to see, as Zach just mentioned, we saw building materials companies and our clients in general that we've seen them go from small number of followings and small numbers of engagement to now creating and cultivating conversations and expanding that brand awareness so much. And not to say that 2020 was the reason that it happened, but it definitely was the ingredient in that recipe that spiced it up. Definitely was what made it bigger. It was what made it most important. It was what made it a factor that they couldn't deny or get away from. They had to be there because they weren't able to communicate in any other way with their customers. That's great. And I think for our listeners today, our goal is to help you understand the ROI of social media. But more specifically, how do you actually get it? Like there is a lot of ROI there, but we hear questions and Beth can speak to this, but we hear questions all the time about like, well, should I even do it? Should I be on this platform? So let's dive in and break that down for our listeners. One question we hear often is, well, what platforms are working? And so I point that question to you, Ashley, like what platforms are working today? And that might be a loaded question. But what do you see as the platforms have opportunity for manufacturers? Okay. So, and this, this is one that I think, you know, makes sense 100%. And it's LinkedIn, it's always working. It's, it's very focused on a business mindset, the community of individuals that is there is there to do business. They show up every single day, you're not surprised by anything that they post or who they are. Whereas on other platforms, it's, it can be surprising or there can be comments that come in there. I have noticed in general from LinkedIn perspective that the spam comments aren't there, negative hate comments aren't there as you might see on other platforms. So for a brand or business that knows 100% they need to be on social media, LinkedIn is the one that you can safely get there. You can see growth, you can see interaction. And for this, this climate that we're going through with hiring and employment crisis, everyone in that space wants to learn more about not just what that brand sells, but how you can work for them, who works for them, what does that entire interaction look like? Because I have the time now, I'm online all day long, and I'm not going anywhere else. I just want to learn and research and investigate as much about you as I can. I would say probably two years ago, someone might not be as knowledgeable as about a brand as they are today. They have done so much research. When you research a car, okay, you have looked at so many, you know, every single thing that you want. Now we do that with soap. We do that with jeans. We do that with absolutely every single piece of material that we purchase because we have the time to learn about it and care about it and then share about it. And I think that's what's really important for that space. LinkedIn especially because you get this CEO thought leadership opportunity. You have the salesperson. You have your marketing person. You have your employees on the space that then continue to share and expand that conversation past you. So it's that third-party recognition. It's that we're a community. We speak the same language. We share the same language. We care about the same things. And that's why I think LinkedIn consistently over, even through 2020, regardless, continue to grow and nurture customers and brands. What do you think about LinkedIn in reference to manufacturers that only target the product? Let's say I make a tool or I make a fastener or something like that. Is it still a good platform or is it like, I look at like those kinds of brands. I'm like, oh, that's a really good for like Instagram, Facebook, because that's where those audiences play. Do you think LinkedIn is right for everybody? I think LinkedIn is right for everybody to have actual visibility. Do I think that they need to be spending hours and hours and hours a month on it? No. I think if, for example, the fastener, if you know that your pro is wanting some sort of installation or wants a guide, that is a very visual piece and component where LinkedIn is not super focused on the visual. You'll see a lot of long copy, a lot of long caption. You'll see articles, it's news. Someone is there to read. Whereas with Instagram or YouTube, you'll see that that is based off of a visual consumption piece and they're wanting to learn something very quickly. So depending upon who your audience, your your key vertical, whatever that might be, if you know that they are wanting to learn something very quickly, I don't know if I would focus on it for LinkedIn. LinkedIn is going to be more of the, we've done the business plan. We've rolled out the strategy. We have got all of the pieces. We are telling our entire story together, whereas Instagram is, it's the trailer of the movie. That's a great analogy. So actually, I think one thing people say, which they kindly don't really always say out loud to us, but is definitely in the back of their minds is why do I need strategy? I have an intern who totally gets social media. Maybe I have an intern that I can hardly get off of their phone to like do the stuff that we want them to do. Why do I need to think about this? And I don't mean that rude or derogatory, there's parts of it that are very intuitive. But why do I need to actually invest instead of just post? Right. And I think that's always been a question, even when they first launched. So I don't think that question has ever changed. And I think the response and the answer is always strategy is not just what to post and when to post it who it's who we're talking to, what they care about. Is it going to help your business at the end of the day? What are the goals that are involved? It's an entire, I'm not going to say a formula, but there are multiple pieces that go into it. It's not just I'm going to post a picture on Monday, I'm going to do a video on Wednesday. And on Friday, I'm going to do a third party article. That's not strategy. That is, I mean, that's just picking out an ingredient of what you're going to post. It's not talking about why it's there. It's looking at your traffic. It's looking at when your viewers, your followers are on more often. Is it at night at 6 p.m.? You know, what topic typically got you the most direct messages? What was the main post that regardless has continued to circulate and continued to actually grow even if it was posted months ago? That was what made sense. Do more of that piece instead of circling just regular content. I think that's a good point because one thing social media can provide you is understanding what your audience thinks is insightful and valuable. Like you're in this box, you're in this bubble, and you're like, hey, this product is our best product, and this is our best photo, or this is our best XYZ. The thing that social media does is it provides you real time insight into what your audience and customers are not only saying about you, but what is important to them? What are you not talking about that you need to be? So it's not just about the content that you're creating, but if you're present in the spaces that they're spending time, you're going to have real time market insights and research that you wouldn't otherwise be able to get access to. I'm curious to get your perspective as well, Ashley, on if we talk about real quickly, I want you to touch on Facebook and Instagram because that's where a lot of people spend time. What are you seeing in reference to those channels? Are they dead? Are they growing? How difficult is it for me to see growth? Can you answer those four questions in 60 seconds? Absolutely. So Facebook, I think it's one of those situations where groups are big. Everyone has kind of cultivated or moved towards based off of what they care about versus, I'm just going to read every single person I'm connected to post in my feed. People are not digesting Facebook the way that they used to digest it. Now because it's an older platform, it's been there for so long, there's this expectation of I'm not doing Facebook circa 2010. I'm doing it 2021 and this is what I care about. I just want to see if this group is meeting what's happening here, whose birthday it is, what events are happening this weekend and then I'm off. And then when it comes to Instagram, I would say that brands are having a difficult time trying to hop on the reels trend because they feel like they need to be playful or to be cute or to copy another brand and you don't have to.  It's the most similar to TikTok, which we know has kind of blown up in certain spaces, but if you already have an Instagram presence and you have videos and you have visuals and you have guides, then stay on Instagram and you can convert and do something similar with reels. You can utilize the text, the graphics that come through. You don't have to do the weird trends that is a makeup design. That's not what we're talking about. Ashley, who do you think is doing it well? If you think about manufacturers out there, not just reels, but who's doing a good job on social media, you look at and you're like, okay, these guys are at the top of their game. Everyone has opportunity to improve, but you look at them and you're like, okay, these guys are somebody I would pull inspiration from the form of manufacturer trying to aspire to do better. Sure. No, I think that's a fair question. And I think in order for you to be doing well on the platform, it's not just reels. Like you said, it's utilizing all of the opportunities that are available. And Cambria Quartz, it's Cambria services on Instagram, but they're not just utilizing the feed posts. They're utilizing IGTV. They're doing reels, but they are also focusing on guides, which is an amazing piece that was rolled out from Instagram where you can, it's very similar to Pinterest where you can create and compartmentalize boards and specific information. So if you have someone who's wanting to go and learn something very specific, they can go to the guide section and they can immediately go to a curated feed of those posts about all of those posts. So you're making it easier for someone to find out information about a specific product. It's a manufacturer. It's how to install something. It's, you know, where can I find this fastener? There's an entire space inside Instagram called guides that gives you that opportunity. So Cambria really does a great job of utilizing the entire platform really well. And it's because they understand what's working for them. Everything is really beautiful, high visual. Everything tells story. I'm not confused about who they are. I know exactly who they are, what they're doing and what their niche is, what the market is, what they're trying to offer to me. I know who they are. And I think that that's why they do really well. There's another thing that I would mention about Cambria, of course, which we talk about them from time to time. They're my manufacturer, Crash. We love what they do on marketing. So a lot of questions that we get from manufacturers, and this is across the board from marketing, but it specifically comes up in social media, is how do I speak to my audience? I target architects and contractors and builders and building owners and homeowners and dealers and distributors, like I'm talking to everybody. Who am I talking to on social media? And just like a quick scan through Cambria Quartz's Instagram will show you how they're accomplishing that. And it's basically like there's really beautiful inspiration that's absolutely directed towards designers and architects and homeowners. And then they have guys unloading their track that is targeted towards contractors. And then they talk in detail with other interior designers about the specification process and the inspiration process that's really targeted towards the professional architect and interior designer that homeowners are going to think is interesting because they're interested in things like that, but it's not content made for them. And I think that's an important piece, frankly, again, whether you're talking about your email, your website or your social media, to not try to speak to everybody at every moment in every sentence, but it's okay that this one post is not going to be interesting to contractors. And this other post is not going to be interesting to homeowners because you're tailoring for the individual audience and not to get too into the weeds here, but that's actually where algorithms do come into play on social media platforms. Instagram is smart enough to know what contractors are going to find interesting and not based on the content that they're engaging with on a regular basis. And that goes for everybody, right? So not to get caught up in the, oh, but this doesn't appeal to XYZ. This doesn't appeal to this other person. We've got to be all things to all people at all moments.  And that's not interesting for anybody. It's sex. It's just made the best crunched up face. So let's give it, let's talk about ROI, okay? Which is what we all want. Let's break down, Ashley, if I can put you on the spot. If I'm a manufacturer, let's say I have some social media presences, maybe I'm on a few that you've mentioned. What do I need? What strategy do I need to implement? What assets do I need to start to see ROI? And what does that look like? What does the strategy look like? What are my resources? What does my team look like in order to see that if you're going to distill it down and give me that advice? Sure. So when we work with a client, we do a couple of exercises. We break down and we do a defining brand's conversation where we're understanding who your audience is. We're understanding what you want to talk about as far as consumers, products, placement, who's purchasing it, how it's being used, who's installing, if you're wanting to create pieces for a specific audience, but then other individuals are going to enjoy it as well. What can be used across the board? What's a safe space? What's a safe zone of content that everyone will get around versus what are your highlighted levels that are very specific to certain audiences? We'll talk about defining those pieces. Then we talk about defining a voice and a tone. We talk about how that will be relatable or it will be conversational and knowledgeable if it will be playful and intriguing. We're not saying go out and be Wendy's Twitter, but we're saying that you can have a sense of humor, and I think because human beings do. So making sure that whatever is in the voice also sounds human. It doesn't sound like a robot. It needs to sound like it's human conversation, human connection that's happening with the humans on the platforms that are actually reading it and doing all of those things. So understanding that's all part of setting up and figuring out what this return on investment could be. Sometimes the return on investment is for them just to even understand who's watching them. Who's actually buying from me? Like I'm making things, but I don't know who's actually going there. The return on investment I think can be multiple things. It can be I want to increase brand awareness and brand awareness can be increased not only in followers, but in engagement overall. The sharing of the brand, the talking of the brand, the positive sentiment that exists online about the brand. So social listening is very important as a component in this piece for return on investment. If you're trying to get away from something that happened a couple of years ago and really change how people feel about the brand, that could be what they care about most. It can be we want to drive traffic to a landing page to a sample pack that we're trying to sell or to get to customers to really order. That could be a part of what is their return on investment. So identifying first, defining the brand, defining the voice, defining what assets are available and who that all speaks to. Then we can start charting out, okay, what is this timeline looks like? How frequently could we post? How frequently could we have engagement and conversation? Is that going to involve any giveaways? Is it going to have any contests? Are we going to be utilizing any other individuals in this space? Is it going to come from customers? Is that where we're going to get the bulk of our imagery? Especially from an interior designer perspective, an architects are 100% all about sharing on Instagram and tagging their products that they used 100%. So a great way to give back and have more return is to continue to layer on and reshare those projects that were used with those products. So, Zach, it's not an easy question. It's not. I know it's loaded. Can I say something controversial about ROI on social media? Yes. I think people who question the ROI of social media, and I mean companies not like the individuals within companies who are questioning the ROI of social media are the individuals who have not spent any time on the back end of their platforms because the questions that are coming in either on the posts that are being shared or specifically through the messaging applications within Facebook Messenger, Instagram Messenger, LinkedIn Messenger, they are bottom of the funnel questions. What color is that? Can I get that in my area? Who can I talk to you about this? I have a project coming up. I'd like to talk to somebody. It is actually like transactionally based. So because we're in the B2B world, because we're in building materials, we don't get that very clean B2C X equals Y ROI scenario. What is that life like? What is that life even like? I posted this and 17 people bought it. What is that life like? Right. So we don't live in that clean data world from an ROI for sales, but if you have questions about the ROI of your social media, I encourage you to speak to your marketing team. I encourage you to speak to your social media team. And if they're not getting questions about your products on a regular basis, then that's what I would start with the strategy. But it's very clean and simple. Like those questions, those engagements, those conversations are happening. Well, Beth, can I piggyback off of that? I think you're 100% right.  The other thing too is like, when we interview a contractor, an architect, a designer, a GC, ask them how they find out about products, and then ask them how they validate the decisions. And are they ever questioning it? Like, they're never being like, it was really odd that this waterproofing company was on Facebook. Like that's never, that's never a question that you hear from the channel. It's only a question that you hear from manufacturers. Well, yeah, I mean, like, we talked to a contractor and like, hey, how do you hear about products? How do you validate? And they're like, oh, well, I just DM my friends on Instagram or I talk to them on this Facebook group.  So if you want people talking about you, and frankly, that's hard to measure. Like, actually, that's really hard to measure a private conversation. Like it's just not hard to measure. It's impossible, you know, but what it does for you is you are showing up to the game. Like if you think about the 1950s, it's like asking, well, should I be in newspaper or print advertising? Of course you should. Because that's where eyeballs, that's where time, that's where people are spending time. People are spending time on social media.  Like people are spending more and more time on social media. It's where it's what's consuming our, you know, our entertainment, our education. And if you're manufacturing, you're trying to make sure that you're in those conversations, and you're positioning yourself the right way, and you're positioning yourself as forward thinking, you've got to be in those places. And you also have to be uncomfortable, excuse me, comfortable with the uncomfortable, which is you may not be able to actually measure every single conversation, but it is happening, right? Well, and I would say, I don't want to belabor the point, but I would say you would never question the value of word of mouth recommendations. You would never question that value. Social media is the same. Zach, you and I were talking with a roofing manufacturer this week who said we were like, what's the best way for you to sell roofs? And they said, install a roof in a neighborhood. If we install one roof, we will install 50. It's the first one. That's the most difficult. So that social media is the one roof. Social media is the neighborhood. If you use, if I see my friend post an image, or I see an architectural designer that I follow, which every like all homeowner's fellow designers, if I see them post an image of this beautiful roof, I want to know what's the roof? What color did you get? Where did you get it? How was it? What was your experience like? We just need to reframe our own perception of what conversation looks like. You're saying it exactly right. It's always been difficult to quantify those one-on-one, you know, neighbor over offense conversations, but it's never been questioned that that was valuable. Those conversations have simply just moved online. Agreed. Ashley, this has been great. Thank you for letting us pick your brain. Yeah, thank you so much. Yeah. And for those of you that don't know, Ashley, Beth is absolutely right. Like she is, gosh, she just knows so much about this space and we're so thankful that she's on our team leading our social media efforts. So Ashley, thank you again for coming on. Thanks for having me. It was a blast, guys. For listeners, if you like this content, make sure you go to venvio.com slash podcast to subscribe and get more of it. Until next time, I'm Zach Williams alongside Beth Nikolaev. Thanks, everybody.


Good morning cyber traders Happy Thursday everybody on the first day of summer the longest day of the year has everybody doing good to see you Craig good to see you Mark There you go Michael Ken Jerry good to see you Craig Jason Jerry good to see you out Rogers It was I see you too, buddy everyone Mark Fernando dead fine good good good and all the fellow traders Good morning everyone. So I guess um before we start getting into talking about the SBO T that we started trading about an hour ago, and you can see what a beautiful little run It's doing not as pretty as the other ones of yesterday and a day before that but once again early bird gets the money And we'll we'll talk a little bit about that before and also some other ones that are making the watch list But before we do that let's get right into talking about what happened yesterday Because we had a couple of good stocks that made some big moves and we always like to kind of Talk a little bit about it and let everybody know what they missed and don't worry about it. Whatever you missed It's always a brand new day, but a couple of stocks over on our watch list. I just want to bring up the CB LS Was a nice little move yesterday with that stock just popped you could see one from four all the way to 11 Stock was literally up about 200% Then all of a sudden it came crashing down, you know, that's why but the money was made You know right here you could see on the short side Stock gapped up pretty nice and you could see once the trend kept going lower lower You know just because you think the stock is good. Does it mean that you can't short it There was a couple of them like that and we'll we'll look at them That that did exactly that claps clps That was a pretty nice one more from six all the way to the 17 nice little push not as Nice as a trend as some of the other ones did a couple of nasty shakes out there I know some people got caught on if that one did pretty that one did pretty well was up from really nicely 11 to about the $17 and obviously the typical IQ trade did really well and the h u y a You know, I know we've been trading those stocks on our swing trades have been doing pretty well Fox also Has done very very well, too. I told you this yesterday. I actually held the position overnight Several reasons why we've seen this before Disney sweetened the deal the worst thing could happen to you at Fox is you break even but if Comcast comes in there and Counter offers because we all know about when you're in a bidding war for a company or for a house You don't like to be second You don't want to lose so and that kind of happened twice over here You can see it how it gapped up from 40 to 44 and now it's at the 48 So anyway, if the worst came worst case scenario Well, I'll make a little bit when it dropped only down here to 4750. I know I'm not gonna get hurt The buyout is the buyout but if Comcast comes in there, you know look for the thing Oh, hi already gapped up already You know it's already gapped up pretty nice But we did pretty well on that one and then as fucks was probably the best of them all yesterday That was one of the big morning and actually I I didn't mention the eye Starbucks. I was talking about yesterday I told you this stock hasn't gone absolutely nowhere after everything is going on now Starbucks is in the news, you know with its You know all these you know what's happening in China, you know, they got like 17% fit third 14% of their their money Revenues in China now you have these tariffs that are coming in but then they had all this stuff I actually thought this was gonna happen even before the tariffs when they Would happen when they had those those guys arrested and they closed down the store for one day one day They closed down the store all their stores to teach their employees, you know customer relations stuff like that Let me tell you that's a lot of money right there guys.  I that was probably the best winner of yesterday as the trend goes It was a lot of us sort around eight we sort around 18 right around here once a broke higher highs and you could see What about 18 18 18 18 the thing all the way to 2050, but the stock was pretty good for a day's pay That's all it was you know, no huge huge huge winners Clapsa Grant saying claps is moving again the this CLPS Let me just bring it up. It is moving. It's got good pre-market But once again, it is down by four almost five percent I would back off on it. Listen to spreads pretty big right now. We'll see how she opens up You know, it'll be like a second protocol grant. All right now. What is moving this morning? Well, the big one that's moving this morning is the s-pot Now I was here at eight o'clock in the morning. I know some of you it's always great A lot of you guys are starting to get an early bird gets a worm I got in this position around 20 $2.24. I thought we're gonna have a nice little pop and went to about 250. I'm like, oh, this is great I averaged up. You know, I got out of it. I didn't like how it was trending You know, they came up with some big news that I don't know something about some drug That they got some good results on all timers and stuff like that, which we all knows anything that Could fix any of these major issues we have every day is is big business, but you can see a stock long-term Took a big hit from $10 all the way down to $1.60 So, you know, there's some movement here in the stock not too long ago had a good pop You could see it went from two to about 350, you know But I didn't I wasn't too crazy about the trend so I got out of it But you know what could be I think it was a good thing and we'll see how she opens up though Listen, I'm not afraid to jump back into it. I just didn't see I had the 830 move Great volume. Look at look at the look at the matrix over here. Huge huge I orders everywhere stock already traded 3.3 million shares. That's a lot of damn chairs if you ask me All right, so anyway S spot Fox is going back on my watch list. So you got fo fo x and you got fo x a Okay, they're both the same stock. So those are the two ones we're gonna keep an eye on. All right so put those on your watch list and then It was a couple all the little cheapies here this one I saw had a nice little push Casi she gapped up huge you went from 608 50. She started below support levels right here Let's see how she how she's gonna hold right here. You remember use your your matrix If you don't have the matrix you go use nasaq book viewer, you know, you could see over here. Let me just bring up Casi and You could see see if you see the iceberg orders out there Not as nice as the other ones as the S spot But you know what we got some you got some good movement there and you know stock did trade a million shares So we'll put that on the watch list, you know Couple of the ones I really liked this one earlier, but she was just so damn expensive The DRI went from 95 to 106 on a trend down right now, but it was just expensive stock I'm like, hey, you know what I liked it, but she was a I wasn't too crazy about it. This one on the other hand Automatically this falls in in a two category when you got the scalping five-cent spread, but the HR TX Nice little push starting to get a little bit of a foul still flag right there You could see it moving pretty nicely and then on the losers because we all like to short right shorting is awesome We make a lot of money shorting looks like there were a couple of them out there I mean this one is breaking lower lows. It was a $70 stock stock is down to 18 the VIRX looks pretty interesting on a short Guys, don't be afraid to short man short is I mean everyone There's an old if you there's an old saying people always say it's not the American dream to short to think bad That's like I don't know if any of you guys ever play craps and and then all of a sudden It's like someone's playing the don't pass line and like oh you can't play that. That's the dope No, don't pass line. You know, it's like you're trading against everyone. Listen money's money, right? You're out there for yourself. So don't ever think that you know, you're doing something bad Yeah, we made a lot listen. You saw Starbucks yesterday. How great that was so It's what it's all about by the way want to bring up something also before Before we go is the GEVO. Listen, this is program trading at its best We made so much money with GEVO it went from four over to 24 and it's so funny I got a I got a message on YouTube from from somebody's been following me and able to ask me says hey That's though. What happened to GVO? I bet you that was a good stock, you know, I'm like We're what what today or three days ago, you know, they mean But why is it down to 12?  Well, I'm not a you shouldn't came to us two days ago That's what trading is all day trading. Let me just clarify is you're in and out the same day Okay, once you hold a position overnight You're no longer a day trader or swing trader and this is why people get confused when it comes to trading They don't know the difference. So anyway, but you know any people were are in this position right now And they think this stock was like, oh, but you said it was going higher. I'm like when did you come in the morning? You know, so unfortunately, you know, this is what you have to learn and you have to just learn how to play the game And you know, but listen with GVO, I don't know if it was on your shortlist. It went up pretty fast I to me it's still it's going on my watch list because now, you know as a day trader She's no longer a long. She is now a short, but yesterday. What a great short 20 down to 12 I don't know if your brokerage firm has it in in their inventory, but that's another that's another thing You got to take up with them. But if you did, let me tell you Cleaned up on that one. And by the way, a couple of the stocks are doing really well for us By the way, Shaq on a swing trade is doing great Shake Shaq just has not stopped. You know just kept going higher and higher Shaq and also the GoDaddy trade just like it's always just creeping up little by little. Look at those beautiful trend That's what you want, you know Stocks like stocks like this so they all did really really well. All right guys anything. I'm missing. I did not call out Any anything by the way regarding what the pre-market settings and this and that and how to set up your platform Listen, you if you're a student we teach you in class If you're not a student you got to call your brokerage firm and ask them I could just tell you this a lot of them don't want you to get involved in pre-market because if you're not trained You don't know what you do. You end up doing more damage to yourself than good But you could see most of the money that we make if you let us train you we make most of money in pre-market All right anything. I'm missing. I did not call out Students fellow traders All right now guys, don't forget class today You're starting phase two so we swear things get a lot more interesting in phase two We're gonna teach you a little bit more about falsely flags We're gonna teach you about how to controlling, you know Why losing money is a good thing because if you know why you did it you won't do it again Which a lot of people don't know how to prevent we talk about psychology You talk about shakes, you know what we saw this morning regarding that a spot So this is where things get a little bit more involved a little bit more Intense and then they'll forget next week in phase three is where you guys gonna trade side-by-side with me We're gonna take all this and put it to the test and I'm actually put you to the test and tell you if you're right And wrong and see how we do so don't forget about that class and then also today 12 o'clock You know, that's our middle of the day open house. Anybody wants to come and join us Tell your friends tweet tweet about it Facebook about it Instagram about it YouTube about it But try to try to come out there at 12 o'clock and let's just tell everyone How great trading is all about because once again, it's not for everyone. Good luck everyone. Happy trading and Let's make some money going into this open. All right Now that I'll see you in class and see you 12 and then remember we've got the afternoon meeting at 230. Good luck everyone


He is the cutest! Oh my god! I've made a few videos where I pay strangers to create interesting art to show you guys and it's become one of my favorite video formats to play around with. It got me thinking though, since it's the festive season, aka the time of giving, I could make one of these videos but give you, my viewers, the artworks. Hi lovely boys, but without you really knowing beforehand. So here's what I did. On Instagram, I put up a story asking, What's an image that doesn't exist but you wish did? After 24 hours, I selected a handful of responses and here we are with today's video. I have given these ideas to a friend who has gone and paid various artists to make them a reality. All of the final products have been compiled into a PDF file for me and the reason I had a friend do this is the same as usual. To ensure I haven't seen any of these prior to recording this video. That way, you and I can witness them for the first time together here today. I'm so excited! So let's see which ideas were chosen and how the artworks turned out. Paying strangers to make my viewers' custom art. Artwork reveals. So we're just gonna scroll on down. Okay, the first person. I just want to say I love the name. Chicken with eyebrows, really big eyebrows, very mad. Very descriptive. Okay, here goes nothing. Oh my god! That is so cute! I wasn't expecting this sort of style but it is so cute. Just look at his little wings flapping.  I really love the use of color in this too. Like it's soft but once again the eyebrows are just in your face. It also reminds me of a Pokemon style. I swear there's a type of chicken Pokemon, right? Chicken with eyebrows, really big eyebrows, very mad. I choose you! Oh wait! The chicken Pokemon actually looks nothing like this. This chicken also reminds me of those little tiny Easter chickens as well. So looking at the brief, is this what they asked for? Yes. Okay, scrolling. This one's from Pug-Tay- This one's from Pug-Tay-Tay-Toe. Dwayne the Rock Johnson cross Garfield. Is that emoji? All right, let's see what this looks like. And here we go! Damn! This is not what I expected. Oh okay, I'm just gonna say for some reason I expected Dwayne the Rock Johnson's face on Garfield's body. But we've got the opposite here which we love bulky Garfield. Wait do we? Now we can definitely recognize that this is Garfield. Just the whole face and the shading as well I really like. And just look at all the little veins on his arms. However, if I didn't look at the brief, I don't think I would associate Dwayne the Rock Johnson with this. It kind of just looks like any other like bodybuilder. But what can I say? I'm really proud of Garfield these days. I feel like if I saw this Garfield on the street, I would scream. Speaking of screaming, this is how I think he would sound. I really think he would drink Game of Sups. I'm so excited to announce that I am officially partnered up with the amazing people over at Game of Sups. If you're interested in trying the drinks they have on offer, you can for free! I've seen Game of Sups supporting creators on YouTube of all sizes and genres and I think that's pretty cool. Hope you enjoyed the freebies, link is below. Now did this answer the brief? Yes? Kinda. I was hoping there would be more Dwayne the Rock Johnson in it, or even in his like iconic outfit back in the day. Or maybe the facial expression. Do you think this would be Dwayne's first owner? Yes. Now we're scrolling. Now we have a suggestion from Punch Your Microwave. A cocktail sausage in a dress. I surprisingly love that and I can't wait to see. Oh my god! He is the cutest! Just look at his little face! Oh I did not expect this. Like I really did not expect this. For some reason I really just thought of a Frankfurt in like a Barbie dress. But this is ten times better. Just look at the dress, he literally looks like the emoji. Can we just appreciate his little highlights as well? Even the little sausage top hat bit? Top hat?  And he's kind of accidentally flashing everyone. But I really like the simple cartoony art style with this. Especially the face like I feel like I really gravitate towards those simple cute faces.   What I find really cool about this artwork is that the artist has used like textured brushes on this even though it's so simple. It really just brings the piece together. This is such a banger! No pun intended. Look I couldn't help myself. So this little guy is now part of a new limited time festive merch which you can see on my crown may store. He's on a shirt, he's on a sweater. He's just vibing. Links are in the description below. Does this mean to the brief? Absolutely! Okay so we've got a request from Skipping Alarm 31. Real life upper. I don't know if this is going to be like a realistic artwork of like upper. Or if it's like upper as a person. All right here goes nothing. And I see cuteness! Oh my god look at the style. Is that upper fishing in the air? Okay first thing I noticed about these two. The tongue. I love it. It's so cute. It's just simple and just what I really didn't expect was to see upper in an office job. It's probably useful that he has like a lot of hands. Oh wait and the laptop? It has like the air nomad symbols on it? Amazing! I really like how simple and soft this is. Like the color choices behind these are perfect. Also the cute little fisherman hat. Just adorable. Overall I'm a huge fan of how these turned out. But let's see if they match up with the brief. So the first one he is wearing a hat and he's also fishing. Again it's really cute but is it really real life upper? So the second one he's put into a work environment. Which I kind of lean more towards being real life upper. Because a lot of people do this in real life. Seems so relatable. So yeah I definitely think the second one matches the brief perfectly. We've got from sub guess who 2022. A frog with a top hat riding a skateboard with roller skates on eating cake. Oh my that's a lot. I will say there were a lot of suggestions like this where there was like one thing with a bunch of other things added on top of it. I think I might have liked this one though because it had a frog in it. I love frogs. Oh my goodness oh my god I'm actually speechless. Oh I'm really just taking this all in.  So cute. The second thing I noticed the flames on the skateboard.  I really find the perspective on this really cool. I didn't expect it to be like this at all. I really thought it was going to be face on. But we're just seeing a whole lot of frog belly which isn't a bad thing. He's cute. Oh no I've offended the frogs. There's so much attention to detail in this. But once again it's a fun sort of cartoony style and vibe. Some little details I've noticed are all the little birds in the background. Also the frog guy sweating. He's such a sweaty frog. Also the little stickers and this little tiny target in the background. Also look at all these little legs. And the momma bird. The little flare on the sun is a really nice touch as well.  That sounds weird. He too is available as merch on my crowd made store. But in the form of a vibrant beautiful poster. Just look at that. Links are below. I'm blown away by the artist and I'm also blown away by the frog. Does it answer the brief? Okay so a frog, a top hat, riding a skateboard, with roller skates, eating cake. Perfecto. Now for the last one we have one from Colossal Alex. Pitcher of a baby doing push-ups. Wait do they even have the muscles to do that? I mean Boss Baby probably does. Oh my goodness. It says buff on the bib. Imagine walking into a room and seeing this. He is adorable. I will give him that. Is he going to the same gym as Garfield? Something I really want to point out with this? Just look at the double chin. Like he's still doing push-ups but he's got that baby double chin.  There's just something about the light shadings with this. It just reminds me of wiki how pictures. How to make your baby buff. Does it match the brief? I say yes. As always the artist involved with this video did an amazing job. They all deserve a round of applause. I've included their profiles in the description below so be sure to hit them up if you need any art related work done. Highly recommend. To those lucky instagram followers who suggested these artwork concepts. Thank you and you're welcome. Catch ya later Wobbly Boys.