Morning, welcome to CMC Markets on Friday the 20th of May and this quick look at the week ahead beginning the 23rd of May. Before we do that, however, let's have a look at the events of the last few days because I think they've certainly been interesting to say the least. There's been a lot of irritable rollercoaster, if you like, for markets in general. And I think one thing that I have taken away from this week's markets volatility is that sentiment has become an awful lot more fragile. Increasingly bearish with the moves that we're seeing in bond yields in particular reflecting concern that we are heading for a gross slowdown. That could well be exacerbated by central banks who may be erring on the side of over tightening rather than falling short. And I think that perception is in no better way illustrated by the comments from Fed Chair Jay Powell earlier this week when he suggested that inflation is the number one priority for the central bank, and that any adjustment of monetary policy to tackle inflation was likely to be painful. So I think through that prism sentiment has shifted. We've seen profit warnings from biggest US retailers Walmart, Target, and Coles, and that has prompted a similar, similar weakness in consumer staples more globally. We are seeing a rebound today on the back of the big falls that we saw in US markets over the course of the past two days. But what's interesting I think about the volatility that we've seen this week and this is no better borne out by this S&P 500 chart is that we didn't take out the lows from last week. And I think that's important. It's important in the wider context of the fact that while markets are bearish at the moment the key support areas are remaining intact. And that being said, we could we'll see a further rebound over the course of the next week or so. The big test for me, and I said it last week was the we really need to get back above these areas of resistance here which also coincided with this low level here so 4100 on the S&P 500. If we look at the way markets have behaved since the end of March, we can see that the lows are getting lower. And sorry, the lows are getting lower and the highs are getting lower. So you've got these highs here, lower, these lows here, lower. This is the first instance I think where we haven't taken out the previous low. So in essence, that is slightly encouraging. It doesn't mean that we won't do it. It just means that the momentum to put in a lower low is starting to decline. NASDAQ 100 being a case in point. We hit 18 month lows last week. We've matched those lows this week, managed to rebound off them and in the pre market for the NASDAQ we've rebounded off the 61.8 Fibonacci retracement level from the lows back in 2020 to the highs that we saw the record highs back in November. So we're getting close to a tipping point for US equity markets in terms of key support levels. What I've also noted over the course of the past few days is some evidence and it's not confirmed yet. So let's not jump the gun here. Some evidence of a potential reversal in US Treasury yields. We can see that with this chart here. This is obviously the 3.2% peak that we saw back in back at the beginning of this month. We tried to get back above 3% in the wake of those comments from Powell. Subsequently, we fell quite sharply in the wake of the profit morning from profit warning profit morning profit warning from Walmart, which prompted significant growth concerns. And that is why after peaking at just above 3%, we rolled over very, very rapidly and are now trading lower. So that does raise questions as to whether or not we're getting the potential for a head and shoulders reversal on the US 10 year Treasury yield. Now, what does that mean? Does that mean that the Fed is going to pull back? Is the market losing faith in the Fed narrative? Because the Fed has become increasingly more hawkish. Well, certainly that's my impression. My impression is that the only thing that the Fed is concerned about now is inflation. It's less concerned about unemployment simply because it's a multi-year lows and there's vacancy rates of 11.2 million people. So there's jobs to spare. So I think the perception is the Fed thinks it's got slack to allow unemployment to rise in its efforts to contain inflationary pressure. Now, as we look ahead to the week next week, we've obviously got the latest Fed minutes, which will be slightly staler now, given recent comments from Fed officials. But we also have PCE deflator from core deflator, which is obviously the Fed's, that is the Fed's key inflation targeting mechanism. It's a key metric. And looking at the numbers for that, there is an expectation that the core deflator could well decline from the levels that we saw in March. Where it was at 5.2% and fall back to 4.9% in April. Certainly there does appear to be some evidence of softening numbers on the CPI measure in the US, even if that's not being reflected in PPI. US CPI fell back from 8.5% to 8.3%. And I think there is that concern about inflation being much more persistent over the course of the rest of the year that's prompted concerns amongst Fed officials that they need to go a little bit harder and a little bit faster. They raise rates by 50 basis points in March. They're going to do 50 in June. Now there's potential to do 50 in July as well. And then go 25 in September, October and December. So, certainly the market's surprising in all or afraid of the Fed going an awful lot faster and tipping the US economy into recession and certainly we are starting to see the effects of higher costs on company operating margins. There was some numbers out from Cisco. Cisco systems earlier this week where they downgraded their profit forecast for the year. And that's largely on the back of certainly not just higher costs but also supply chain disruption because of the slowdown in China. So you've got that to add into the mix as well. And while markets are up today, because the Chinese cut their prime lending rate by five basis points, that doesn't necessarily mean that the Chinese economy is going to rebound strongly simply because they are now starting to ease lockdown restrictions in Shanghai, but they're not dropping them completely. And Beijing case counts are starting to rise. So certainly the outlook for the Chinese economy, given this week's retail sales number is not particularly rosy. So, you know, it's important not to get too hung up on, you know, the Chinese economy suddenly starting to fire back to life, particularly quickly given the zero COVID policy that Chinese policymakers are looking to implement. Now, coming back to this chart, there was a bearish reversal here on the daily. We've rolled over, we've come back down. We can potentially draw a nice little line in here. This is the left shoulder. This is the head. This could be a right shoulder forming. But what I'm particularly interested with respect to this 10 year yield chart is what the two year weekly is telling me. And there's a bearish reversal on the weekly as well. So, what this is telling me is that we could well have topped out when it comes to 10 year treasury yields.  Ultimately, what the price action is telling me here is that potentially we could have seen a top in US 10 year treasuries. If we also look at the dollar index, this is a weekly candle chart. We're potentially seeing a bit of a reversal here on the dollar index. So if the dollar does appear to be showing signs of topping out, does that mean that the haven trade that has been driving the dollar higher is coming to an end? And maybe we could well see a rebound in equity markets. You know, what is this telling me? It's very, very difficult to extrapolate it from what we're hearing with respect to the markets and what was hearing with respect to the volatility. But what has been particularly significant, I think, particularly for markets in the US is we've held those lows from last week. So that's the first bit of positive news. We're also seeing potential for reversal of the dollar. We're also seeing the potential for reversal in yields, US 10 year treasury yields. And if we take that and move it over to what we're seeing in say, for example, Euro dollar chart, I've been talking for a move towards parity for a while now. And I still maintain that as my base case. But we are starting to see some evidence of a short term base forming on Euro dollar around about 10340. So that suggests that we could be in for a little bit of a short squeeze. If we look at the weekly chart on Euro dollar, we are starting to form a bullish weekly reversal. Obviously we haven't closed the week yet. So depending on where Euro dollar finishes today, that candle is likely to change. But ultimately we found we do appear to be finding a bit of a short term base on the Euro dollar chart, which could prompt to squeeze back to 10850 or these sorts of levels here. We'd still be in the downtrend that we've been in since January. So a short squeeze higher wouldn't negate my negative Euro points of view, but it would certainly delay any move towards parity while 10340 holds the downside. What we're also seeing, we're seeing a similar picture play out in cable. We've seen an awful lot of narrative this week about cable going to parity, so on and so forth. As a general rule of thumb, when the volume goes up on parity calls on cable or anything like that, usually that's the time to buy it. Now, I'm not going to start saying go all in on cable because many times I've thought along those lines and got burnt for it. And we do appear to be finding a bit of a barrier above 12520. So there is a bit of resistance in 12520. But if we also look at the weekly chart, we've also got a very nice bullish reversal there. And we also have come a long way in a fairly short space of time. Over the past 12 months, cable is down 9% against the dollar. Well, that suggests to me that this move is very overextended. And we really need to see a little bit of a counter move back to certainly 128 and potentially even 130. We're still in the downtrend, but we've become very overextended on the downside. And certainly the data that we started to see out of the UK economy with respect to inflation does suggest the Bank of England might need to be slightly more aggressive when it comes to its interest rate policy going forward. Retail sales today came in at 1.4% for April. That is a surprise to me. I mean, you know, I think it was a surprise to most people. I was expecting another decline, given the fact that inflation hit a record high on the CPI measure of 9% earlier this week. So 1.4% rebound in retail sales for April is certainly very welcome and certainly doesn't tie in with consumer confidence levels that are near at and are now at record lows. But I think the thing with consumer confidence, it's almost like a, it's almost like a state of mind. You're listening to the media narrative from the mainstream media and it's all doom and gloom and oh my goodness gracious me.  And that was certainly I think one of the things that prompted the big rebound in retail sales in April supermarket sales of alcohol and cigarettes were the biggest contributor to the retail sales rebound. So I think I'm more inclined to basically look at the data in terms of what people are buying rather than the sentiment data because it's very easy to be gloomy. When all that happens is you're just fed a tide of negative headlines from the mainstream media. Look at the data and see what actually consumers are doing. Yes, they are struggling and yes, inflation is high. And certainly I think money is tighter than it was before. But ultimately it's really about what consumers do rather than what they feel because ultimately people are always slightly more negative. If they're asked a particular question, then what they actually go and do with that money. So I think it's important to sort of try and draw that distinction. Anyway, so we do appear to be finding a little bit of a base in cable and Euro dollar. And certainly I think that is encouraging and does sort of feed in to my perception that maybe the dollar is starting to show signs of a little bit of waiting momentum in the short to medium term. If we look at the FTSE 100 we can see once again, it's still pretty much chopping in that range between 7200 and 7600. So I don't think there's really that much to see there. Very, very choppy. But overall, we are starting we continue to hold in the range. Now, the DAX did something very strange this week. It popped above my trend line and then came straight back below it. So I'm going to leave it in there. For me that's still intact. The bigger resistance for the DAX is this level here around about 14,380. And this series of highs all the way through here. So we're still very much in a range for the DAX. The bottom of that range is back down here around about 13,300. But for all this week's volatility, we haven't really moved that much in the wider scheme of things. It's really all the movements really been in US equity markets. So that's a quick praise of what I'm thinking at the moment with respect to where markets are potentially going. An awful lot of chop. But I think if we can hold above those key support levels on the S&P and the NASDAQ, then there's certainly potential for a decent rebound. If on the other hand we break below them, and it's important to underline that, then we could well go to 10,500 on the NASDAQ before rebounding. I still think there's potential for that to happen. But while we're above the support levels, then I think you really have to play. You have to play it in terms of selling the rip back to this resistance level here, 12,700 on the NASDAQ, and obviously 4,100 on the S&P 500. So I briefly mentioned the Fed minutes coming up this week. As I say, there'll be an account of the decision to raise rates by 50 basis points, which pushed the upper bound of the Fed funds rate to 1%. Now there were some talk, there've been some talk in the lead up to that meeting that some on the committee were keen on a 75 basis points move. And Paul pretty much ruled that out at his press conference. But obviously since then the data's changed, there's a perception that inflation is likely to be an awful lot more sticky. And I think in the context, I'm more interested in the discussion that they had around the balance sheet runoff balance sheet reduction program. It starts in June with $47.5 billion rising to $95 billion a month after three months in September. Now that was construed, I think, because it's slightly dovish, because I think all the narrative and the lead up to that had been they were just going to start off at $95 and just go $95, $95, $95. In fact, they started slowly with a with a with a view to sort of changing up changing through the gears up to $95 billion suggested that they're a little bit concerned about the effect going all in studs up if you like, would have on sentiment more broadly. That's going to be a disco. I think that could be an interesting discussion. Certainly recent comments from x Richmond Fed President Jeffrey Lacker suggests the cope suggests scope. The further financial markets volatility and we've certainly seen that Patrick Harker or of the Philly Fed has also sort of gone moved into the power camp, saying that it's probably prudent to act. More aggressively sooner rather than later in an attempt to basically drive headline inflation rates down. So it'll be interesting to see how the discussion evolved with respect to balance sheet reduction when those minutes are released. We've also got first quarter GDP second iteration from the US. Now that sort of contraction of 1.4% in the first quarter against an expectation of a 1% expansion. That sort of begs the question as to how the markets got it so wrong. Looking at the wider numbers net trade contributed to a 3.2% drag. An inventory saw a minus 0.8% decline on the back of supply chain disruption. I think it's also important to remember that in q for think there was an awful lot of pull forward of inventory because of concerns about supply chain disruptions, which obviously then wasn't reflected in the q one So you've got a little bit of a fallback simply because companies simply had too much inventory. And certainly I think that was reflected in the numbers that we saw from Walmart and Target. They had inventory that they couldn't shift and it was costing them money. So hence the fact that we saw a big sell off in both those two earlier this week. We've also got cord deflator talk to I touched upon that a little bit earlier. I mean headline CPI has fallen back. Will we see a similarly negative fallback in terms of the PC core deflator, which, as I said, rose to 5.2% in March and is expected to slip back to 4.9. The other measure, the deflator measure is 6.6 and that's expected to fall back to 6.3. So certainly in terms of the inflation story next week is likely to be a fairly important one in terms of of the core deflator the Fed minutes, but also I think in in the overall scheme of things in terms of the growth story for the US economy as well. We've also got flash PMIs for may from Germany, France, UK and US. I'm not really going to cover those in too much detail I think that there's a danger of them not becoming they're not being particularly relevant. And I think the reason why I say that is because all of the readings are in the mid to high 50s, which suggests really strong economic expansion really strong economic activity, and that we know from the official numbers that is certainly not the case. So, not really sure how much value the flash PMIs offer in the wider scheme of things. And that's why while they're important. They tend to be much, they make they tend to be much less reliable, perhaps than the raw industrial production data manufacturing production data factory orders data the ISMs manufacturing and non manufacturing. So, as I say they've tended to I've become less I've become more skeptical about their reliability over the course of the past few months in terms of earnings numbers it's going to be another big week for retail. We've got marks and Spencer's four year numbers and certainly retail has been a sector that's been absolutely clobbered since we since the start of the year. If we look at marks and Spencer's shares in particular they hit 21 month highs in January. Certainly, there does appear to be evidence that Steve row, the CEO Steve row has done a pretty good job in turning the business around the deal with the Cardo has certainly reaped dividends. The overall bearish sentiment about retail in general has really hit those shares and we've come back to the levels that we were in July last year. It's important to note that they haven't taken out those July lows. But certainly I think going forward there is I think way too much pessimism around this particular brand their food division has done very very well. When M&S reported in January, food sales were up 10%. But more importantly, it's general merchandise division saw clothing and home sales increased by 3.2%, which for a division that's under performed for the past 10 or 15 years is a pretty good outcome.  And I think that's helped to generate help to improve the general rate of turnover through the digital channels. Now, at the time M&S said they expected annual profits before tax of at least 500 million pounds. So that will be particularly interesting in terms of whether or not they meet that. And certainly I'll also be paying particular attention to costs costs are going up for retailers. Chairman Archie Norman warned earlier this year that even being partially hedged on energy costs, prices of food and clothing were likely to increase in the coming months. So not only energy costs, but higher freight costs, container costs and wage costs. So four year numbers on the 25th of May, I think will be a key bell, whether in terms of whether or not we see a break below those lows of 129.70 or whether we get a decent rebound. The outlook for retail is likely to be one of squeezed margins. So we could well see a return back to the levels that we saw back in 2020. But overall, if you look at the way the business has turned around, it's been a fairly decent performance helped in no small part by the Ocado deal. Now Kingfisher, B&Q owner, Kingfisher. Earlier this week, we saw Home Depot, the US, post some fairly, some pretty decent numbers. And initially the shares rebounded quite strongly, but ultimately irrespective of how good the numbers were or are, even Home Depot fell victim to the sell off in US retail. Certainly higher mortgage rates could well discourage people from moving house and perhaps encourage them to spend more on home improvement. And the garden so that could well be a positive thing for first quarter update for Kingfisher. When they reported at the end of last year, there was certainly evidence that sales were slowing in Q2, Q3 and Q4 despite the fact that they saw a 33% rise in statutory pre-tax profits, just over a billion pounds. And sales rose 6.8%, the 13.18 billion pounds. But what was particularly notable about those Kingfisher numbers when they reported at the end of the last fiscal year was most of the heavy lifting was done in the first quarter of that fiscal year. Subsequent quarters saw a significant slowdown as a consequence of that. And the reason the heavy lifting was done in the first quarter is because people were stuck at home. So they basically spent money improving their houses and doing up their gardens. And once lockdown restrictions were eased, obviously, people were able to go out and about more and as such spend a lot less money on home improvements on what have you. On a two year basis. Sorry, as we look as we look to this week's Q1 numbers expectations are for an 8% decline from last year's numbers in terms of like the like sales so the can comparisons here will be tough. On a two year basis, the picture is expected to be better with a rise of 16%, a 16% rise. So, main growth areas are expected to be in the growth screw fix division, but also in Poland, they expected to do fairly well in Poland, whether that's as a consequence of obviously events with respect to Ukraine, Ukrainian refugee refugees. So that that could that could factor into the numbers for Kingfisher there. We've also got Ted Baker, another UK retailer that's seen better days but has started to see a rebound. In terms of tech in video. This is a particularly interesting chart because we do appear to have broken down from this trend line here from the 2020 lows. Particularly interesting though is we've managed to rebound off the 61.8 Fibonacci retracement level of that entire up move. It's certainly been a very sharp fall from grace for Nvidia shares when they hit record highs back in November. Obviously they've walked away from the arm deal. Nvidia's biggest business and saw 37% growth in its Q4 numbers. This these will be its Q1 numbers 2023 $3.42 billion in revenue in the last quarter. Data business though is playing catch up that saw a 70% rise in fourth quarter revenue growth to $3.26 billion. So it's guidance to Q1 for this week's numbers, which are on the 25th is for revenues of $8.1 billion, which was obviously 900 million above consensus when they opted to offer that guidance at the end of Q4. We'll hire costs way on those numbers or way on profits in the same way as they have on other tech companies. Certainly $8.1 billion is a high bar. The big question is what will their guidance be for Q2, Q3 and the rest of the year. Okay, so I mean that's pretty much it for this week. Ladies and gentlemen, once again, thanks very much for listening. Hope you all have a great weekend and speech all same time, same place next week. Thanks for listening and have a great weekend.


What makes for excellence in heart care? It starts with one of the most amazing teams of heart surgeons and cardiologists that I've seen assembled under one roof and the region's leading technology in a new $40 million facility. This is the nationally recognized Heart and Vascular Institute of Eastern Kentucky at Pikeville Medical Center. National Heart Health Month has begun and PMC is doing their part by providing free blood pressure, cholesterol and glucose screenings every weekend in February. Freebie Friday will take place across several locations, the first of which will be in the atrium in Pikeville Medical Center. Anyone is welcome and no appointment is needed. Freebie Friday we're going to be offering blood pressure checks, we're going to also be checking glucose, blood sugars and some cholesterol checks and all three of these can help determine heart disease or if somebody's having high blood pressure, we want to get that checked out. If they have high cholesterol we definitely want to get that checked out because those can lead to heart attacks. We have done it before and it was very successful and we was able to get a couple patients straight to the physician to be seen and that's really what we're looking for. The locations later this month will be February 10th at the Whitesburg Clinic, February 17th at the South Williamson Clinic and February 24th at the Prestonsburg Urgent Care Clinic. Scott says it's important to regularly check your blood pressure to be aware of any potential warning signs. Kentucky has a high rate of heart attacks among males and females so we want to try to combat some of that, we'll do some education at these Freebie Fridays as well, answer any questions that we can and make sure we stress the size of a heart attack for both male and female which can be different for both cholesterol-inherited issues. So if you have high cholesterol you definitely want to get that checked at least every three months is usually what the physicians will do. If it's under control they'll do it every three months and maybe even every six months so you definitely want to go and and have those frequent checks with your physician as often as you can. Being the chest pain coordinator I have seen a lot of patients that have had heart attacks and we have caught those and they've done really well. It's very important to get to this hospital if you're having chest pain, come straight to the hospital, don't wait, call an ambulance and get over here and we can treat you. It's time as muscle so when you're here we can get you to the cath lab and we'll get you taken care of and successfully treated. Reporting for Mountain Top News, I'm Nick Colum.


Here with me now from the Los Angeles auto show is Philip Brabeck, vice president of product management at Audi of America. All right, Philip, what is Audi unveiling at the show? Well, we have another great LA auto show, I have to say. And of course, we are unveiling what's behind me, which is, on one side, the R8 V10 plus Spyder. Now, this is our ultimate supercar, the one that gets driven by Tony Stark, the Iron Man, of course. And it's in an open air version, so it's not only that you can reach 203 miles per hour, but you can also open the top and do it with the roof down. And that, of course, is beautiful, because you have that naturally aspirated V10 engine back there. And listening to that is second to none, really. So that's one car we have. And then, of course, for us, the big story is the new A8. And this is, of course, the car we're going to be launching in the second half of next year. And this is the all-new technological flagship for us. So it really is all of all technologies that are going to be coming up. And Philip, the A8 sedan also has a level three autonomous technology. Can you explain that? Yeah, so we have a number of things on the new A8, of course. And one of the things that we're bringing is no less than 40 new driver assistance systems. So of course, because we have a variety of sensors inside the vehicle, and that includes radars in the front, LiDAR system, which is laser-based. We have obviously ultrasonic sensors. So there's a number of sensors that can do unbelievable amount of things for you. Sense your environment. I'll make a small example. When you go into a garage, for example, you will no longer be scratching or hitting anything because we now are able to eliminate that, essentially, with our sensors. And they can help your steering, or they can help you avoid certain collisions. So that's just one little example. We have a piloted parking feature, which you'll be able to control with a smartphone. And then, of course, as you mentioned, level three. So this car has been engineered to have a level three piloted driving. But I think level two, level three, I think for us the most important thing really is that it will introduce the absolute cutting edge of all the driver assistance that we have in the market. And it will be absolutely class-leading at the time when we introduce it. All right, now lawmakers here in the U.S. are getting closer to tax reform. Of course, that would help many consumers. What would it mean for Audi? You know, obviously, as typically what we do is, wherever we do business, and of course in this case here in the U.S. market, is we will obviously adapt to the business environment that is there at the time. We have done that until now and we will continue to do that. So I think one of the aspects of the tax reform has to do with electric cars. And we obviously are strong supporters of electric vehicles. We have a number of electric vehicles in development at the moment that we will be launching in the next 18 to 24 months. So that's one aspect that we are watching very closely. But again, what we're gonna do is we're always gonna adapt to the business environment that's around us and we're gonna continue to push forward. All right, Philip Brabeck from Audi of America. Thank you very much for joining us from the LA Auto Show. My pleasure. Thank you for having us.


Love you. Do you ever like clap to help sink your stuff? I just like making it as hard as possible Not this time Unsink it today's episode is sponsored by Squarespace Well, I still have a bunch of unread emails from the last time that I reviewed your film camera collections And it's not really like they're going anywhere I can't just light them on fire and throw them into oncoming traffic like I do with Baxter's poo So today I'm here with Kalo and we're gonna sip through some camera collections together So we have to chug these as part of My active protest chug.  Do you have enough toilet paper for this? I've been drinking one of these every day for Kodak to bring air chrome back.  I'm not happy about this.  It contains zero percent juice Yeah, yeah, you think they milked this from a plant and made a juice out of this Who knows the flaming hot Mountain Dew plant. What's the premise? What are we doing here?  So we're just gonna go through and check them out All right, let's we got a good flat light here. This is a cool collection I dig this one. This is like half of my camera collection. We got the AE one the Pentax Yeah, seven in the Makina. What do you think this is that looks like a digital camera? It looks like a solar panel. You know what I actually really like is that I was gonna say is the hand Oh, it's kind of interesting move. I don't know. I don't like it I think the don't the X-Pan looks really cool blacked out. Do you want to try and pronounce this guy's name?  They're probably right That was actually pretty good. It's pretty funny. They have a smug mug They do have a smug mug mug if you do work for smug mug. Can you tell them to stop logging me out every two days? Notice me senpai Okay, yeshika flex. Oh, I really like the Nikon fm2. Oh, yeah great cameras Yeah, I'm kind of seeing this guy's reflection down here What if he was just like completely naked in the Everybody has TLRs for some reason I could see that I mean they're easy. It's an easy thing to get especially yeshika They're so cheap got the auto winder wonder if he doesn't use it Just like you the I want you know what I wonder is when you pick up a Nikon fm2 and a Canon e1 Like when would you pick up which one? You know what? I don't like about this collection. You have to commit across the board They bought the like silver versions of most of the cameras except the AE1 here is the black version That's more like an interior decorating. No, is that not what this channel is? I need water I feel like I'm like I'm I feel like I'm on this new like you know when you take drugs. No Dude the first time I chugged one of those the aftertaste was like eggs Isn't that weird? Mm-hmm. Yeah, and then ever since I haven't been able to taste anything That's COVID bro. Oh Some as well someone it looks like someone needs a little TLC on that Polaroid down there when you're covering starts to like look like Yeah, it's like the perfect time to send it in to get it fixed because they have to remove the covering to fix it Anyway, that's true. You know that that Russian camera is super interesting. I have one of my collection Actually, well, it's Greg's okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay the blacks on these photos are too dark dog. Yeah I can't make out any details. You got a CC this thing. You got color cracks What lens does he have for that manult X 700? I picked that up the other day thinking I should shoot it And then I saw my Leica sounds like that happens to you. Oh, it's a 28. Okay I was thinking about getting a new lens for it. See see if that will rekindle my love with that camera There's a manult of 57 one for this supposed to be pretty good. It's like super cheap 57 yeah, oh it's an EOS one and so it is a one and I am right Yeah, I thought you meant the corkboard M6 is definitely taking the cake. It's a is it a 50 though? Where's that 35? I you never be able to tell because the blacks Playing our 52. I like it. This is all I think this one right here is probably the most solid so far Okay, so you know what I would have to say a plus for the effort of presentation Someone maybe is a youtuber themselves because they have a blue microphone maybe they Okay, there's there's a good amount to look here. Okay, we got a Bessel a Bessel a Bessa L, which is not a rangefinder technically. I guess I know it is a range from actually is the You're right, so it's not a rangefinder. It's the um, it's the zone focus one how Stoopid is it that they have a Bessa and a Leica? Also hardcore side note Lauren said that I should buy the MDA Hey, man, my girlfriend's telling me to buy another camera. Do I really have to say no? That's like a old-school Zorkie. I like the one you have Yeah, well, Greg. Oh, is that a messed up SX 17 I thought it was like a squished sx 70. Is this a 4x5 or 8x8? I think that looks 4x5 ish It's a big dude. I would never take that out Oh, that's that's cute.  Let me just like swiggle a little bit Slosh around. I don't want to like diss anyone's collection too hard, but oh, are we supposed to be nice? I really like that strap On the Olympus up there. This isn't the strongest camera collection we've seen We're also jaded. Okay. Yeah, people are really digging on those Olympus at OM ones, man Didn't you say you you wanted to look into the OM ones or something? Yeah, just because I'm Because I have a problem your problem is you don't have one You know what is that an old Leica? No, it's a Zorky I get why they're popular because they're definitely look-alike us for sure I'm a snowboarder. I used to be when I was young So you're used to drinking Mountain Dew I was like, I need new boots because these boots are terrible for me And I'm sitting there looking at all these boots and I'm like I could get these which are cheaper boots But they do the job or I can get these really nice really nice boots And I'm like dad. I don't know which two ones to get and he's like, you know what? I Get the expensive kind because they'll never wear out How old are you? 12 They're just kidding. Why did that? What I'm what I what I what I'm getting at is No Zorkies I'm just looking at the tiny little thumbnail here I feel like this strap is about to be really cool. You ready for this? Yeah Yeah That's a cool strap. I'm gonna say this is a pretty solid collection other than Yeah, there's actually a really solid collection. I disagree. I don't think it is a good collection like m5 I think the m6 is better. Well, yeah, but me is six. I think the m7 is better. Okay, so go ahead and define this Um, you committed to early. You know what? There's something about that That m5 that looks really good right now though.  You want me to tell you the order?  I don't know that Yeah, five dollars at a thrift store Nice Everyone has pentax six sevens. Yeah, that's true What is it about like they're great cameras. They're great wrong But what is it about that camera that everyone has one? Maybe we should throw her away. That'd be a little easier for you right now, wouldn't it? Yeah, is it broken? Yeah Thanks, this is a good collection. It's pretty simple except for I don't know the the olympus. It's an xa2 instead of a xa. It's the weirdest thing olympus was like Oh, yeah, here's the xa and everyone's like, yes And they're like, guess what we're gonna make a sh** your version review flex review What the f**k is a review? I think it's like some off-brand. Is it like jc penny? Yeah Except they probably didn't sell clothes. Does that how what does that look like to you? Silver soles. Yeah. Oh, I've totally forgot to tell you someone hit me up. That's like a us several soles Basically, he got me because he's like, hey, I'm from Kansas. I'm like Did you tell you that? That's all it takes. Yeah, did he say he's from Kansas? Well, they're in the midwest So I don't know. Yeah, but there's a lot of midwest Really, I thought it was just one state one bum ass In a weird way, I like how that's raised how the shutter speed dial is like raised you just grip it easier You can grip it a little easier. I like touching things easier. It's like a little nipple on top Fc fec fc. I like the yashica t4. That's yeah, I love those cameras so much You don't see memias six four five pros a lot like how many times have you seen that camera in a collection Here's my camera collection partially inspired by yours like the hassy is currently undergoing a cla You didn't attach anything my guy film camera collection featuring hot singles in your area. Wow, okay This is a lot to kind of dissect lots of take in this seems like the type of person who would just like Buy stuff and then regret it a month later, you know, I guess I have to finish this by the end of this video. Oh, bro. Like a bro. Look right above it though another m6 And a hassle blab with three different backs. What do you do with three different no four backs? Personally, I would take away some points because the backs are mismatched sometimes you're gonna mismatch in life, bro I think I have a headache because of this Good keep drinking. I'm really impressed uh at the two different like m6s because um, that's my dream You know, some people have like they want to get married get a house. I just want to like m6s. That's my dream in life Veronica, okay. This is solid. Veronica. They're solid if you could limit yourself to one medium format camera That's humble. It means I know what I like and I don't need anything else. Yeah, and I have a big Nutsack. My name is joshua banesh. I'm unfortunately from florida I like this iconic light meter though. Oh, you got an x700. Hell yeah Have you ever thought about that? We at least started our photography journey our film photography journey when cameras weren't insane Didn't you borrow this from someone for a while too? Greg. I still have it.  Oh, okay. What do we got here? We got an intrepid. I'm into that Okay, okay other than the nikons. This is a great collection f3s looks super cool But honestly all things considered I think the f2 is a better camera because I think the f3 started to introduce like electronic You know, the interesting thing here is we have you know, we have two nikons You got a 6 6 you have a 6 9 and then you have an intrepid Yeah, I'm surprised. There's no 6 7 in there. Yeah Okay, this guy says roast me daddy. So let's roast roast. I guess like when you go out Which one do you choose because none of them seem like good options. That's like an old school That's what they called. Uh, that was a pocket camera back on the day. Yeah, how big were their pockets, dude? I mean, actually, I think really what it was is their inside pocket So it could fit inside they had to move all their like knives and Oh m6 I like the uh, the like blue and the orange on this is kind of yeah, is that blue? Is that black? It's black and gold. That does not look black and gold to me. Okay, your eyes check brown Who said that? I think it's a good camera collection except for the holga Well, you have one too. So do you think I'd ever be able to sell my holga? Oh probably but not for like $20 For like $5. I hate that camera Oh, this is the first collection that is I could see myself making love to it Very other than the let's just Hide those nikons. I really don't like that.  They're an acquired taste, man I agree. I don't think these are the better-looking nikons. The f3 is okay But I think the f2 is probably the best looking one Skip pentex 645 in you're gonna you had you're going to be disappointed someday What? Dude you got so many emails. Yeah We could do like five of these I'm gonna be milking this for the next six years, dude. What do you think of the nikon 2080? Oh, yeah, those are great I mean, I don't know from first experience, but they look sexy af. I'm really impressed by the riko r ones Good job. So clap Hidden gems for you. They're hidden gems. Maybe you watched my video. Maybe you didn't maybe you got it on before I did and if you probably not Roland He's like I love your bar of soap He's like a browsing instagram. I was taking a dump.  They're right there click. Uh, he does uh have the same Enlarger that I do Yeah, that's cool. I'm getting enlarged just thinking about it I used to have these uh these speakers. Oh, yeah, what did you do with them? They blew out I was playing too much, uh For I like this mamiya nc 100 is it's kind of different. You don't see too many mamiya like you know, you honestly really don't I I I really do wonder how mamiya glasses for 35 for 35 because you don't sharpest ball you don't I'm just like, I can't do it.  Oh An old bully. What is going on with this? Rolly flex dude. They got the like pistol grip and the prism finder in the flash That's uh, I didn't even know half that existed for that thing before we go I'd like to quickly thank today's sponsor square space Are you a photographer with big aspirations of selling your prints and maybe even your photo books one day? Well, then look no further than square space square space is an all-in-one website building platform that allows you to customize your online presence To the fullest extent of your own creativity with square spaces intuitive user interface You can even build an online shop for all your selling needs and can easily manage shop tasks like managing inventory right from the dashboard What's even better is that there are no plugins patches downloads or updates You will ever need to install square space gives you all the tools and latest template options right there for you to start building from So what are you waiting for if you're ready to build a website? You can start a free trial today at squarespace.com slash grainy days And if you use the code grainy days at checkout, you can get 10 off your first purchase Thanks for joining us. Uh while we were reviewing these cameras. We're gonna go, uh Watch some porn. I mean browse ebay Sound good. Yeah Sounds good. Subscribe to Caleb's channel


I am Dr. Meena Muthaya from Manipal Hospital, Jainagar.  These are very tough times and it's very important for you and your family to stay positive and be positive. We are here to support you. Any review or follow up of you or your family existing medical conditions can be managed by video consultations and you can connect with us 080-009-1-000 or 9632-7-5-6 for the same. Reassuring you and your family for healthcare support that you may require. Stay safe. For any healthcare need call us on 080-009-1-000 or 9632-7-5-6.


I don't know how I'm going to top seeing the Stanley Cup 1 while sitting with Wayne Gretzky eating ice cream. That's pretty badass. A producer that I had catered for in the past asked me if do you know any soft serve ice cream trucks in Vegas. I said I don't but I have these. She goes I saw those but can you ship them. I said if you can get me access for my kids to see this thing. Sure and I didn't want tickets. I just wanted to go and get the kids to see the arena. We did that at the end of the day. She said you can go to the game. We went to game five. We watched the Stanley Cup get hoisted incredible. But when we got there we thought we were having the nosebleed seats and we walked in and we were in the TNT suite with Wayne Gretzky and all these monsters of hockey and everyone on the crew loved it.


You have Muslims that never come to the mosque except through Eid. You can look at that in two ways. You could say that, these people never come to the mosque and criticize them. Or you could say from a different perspective, at least they're coming to Eid. I would rather them come to Eid than not have any association with Islam whatsoever. At least they're coming to Eid. And our Prophet ﷺ said that the hour won't come until people never say in the earth, no longer say in the earth, Allah Allah. When I was at UC Berkeley, I was exposed to people, Muslims, that I was like, oh my God, like, I was so shocked. Some of these people, like, I don't know if they've ever said La ilaha illa Allah once in their lives.  But eventually you will be a person of paradise. So there's two ways of looking at things.


Thank you so much. All right, so how many people did attend my talk yesterday? Okay, so I actually have some workbooks over at the table that I was sitting at over there. So if you want to pick one of those up, it will kind of help you with some of the things we talked about yesterday. And it's just my little thing that I need to get rid before I get on a plane to go home. So actually, I got some of them up here too. So if you want to use abilities, like a workbook that's from our talk from yesterday, please, please grab one of those. So usability testing, has anybody done usability testing before on their site? Okay, a couple people. Okay, so yeah, and we're going to talk about exactly what it is. I just wanted to see if how many people had like kind of experienced something with the name usability testing. So you guys know who I am. I'm Elizabeth Pamplone. I own a marketing agency in Jacksonville, Florida. I'm a marketing minimalist. I create content and we help our clients create one year of content in five days. So I also have the podcast. If you haven't checked that out, it's a two minute podcast on marketing tips. So very actionable things. We put out one almost every Tuesday. And I teach on a lot of different pieces on successful marketing strategies. And this particular usability testing is for websites specifically. And this talk is very, very short because I want you to actually do these things. So if you are sitting at a table by yourself, you will need a partner. So we will at least need two people to a table or four people to a table. So you don't have to move right this second, but you will have to move at some point if you're sitting by yourself. Because if you don't do this usability testing with a partner, you can't really do it because you can't do it yourself. That's the problem. And that's why a lot of people don't do it because they don't realize that it can't be done alone and kind of siloed.  That's what I call it. Or the your Nana test or the Aunt Becky test really is for the person who doesn't really have a clue about what the website is about. But they can navigate it. They can get around. They can access something that they need to access even though they might have never even seen the site before. They might have never heard of the concept before of the business or the organization. They can do everything they need to do with no knowledge of anything about the entire site or the entire subject that they're even looking at.  So that's another one. The first thing that comes to mind when I do the usability testing and I'm actually sitting with someone to do this test which we're gonna do in a few minutes is the branding piece. If your site is not consistently branded meaning the colors are very consistent. You don't have 10 colors going on. You don't have 10 fonts going on. You don't have 10 font sizes going on. And you have your logo in a nice clear format in the corner where it's supposed to be. Then it will make a lot more sense to the person who is either testing the site or using the site in general as a consumer. So I put this slide back up here today because I wanted to make sure that you guys saw this again if you hadn't seen it already. These are the file formats you need for your logo. EPS and AI are editable, logo files, PNG transparent, black, white, gray and full color. And then you need a PDF of your logo just in case your printer or something might need that in the future and then a JPEG of your logo because some websites only allow JPEGs to be uploaded. But I also do for this entire list a square version and a rectangle version of the logo. They might look almost completely different but they should at least look like the same brand. And I do make sure that I have the black version of the square and the rectangle, the gray version of the square and the rectangle, the white version of the square and the rectangle because if you don't have all those pieces when you're actually trying to do things for usability on the site, it can actually, you can run into problems where you don't have some of these pieces. So making sure you have consistent branding is one of the first keys to having a good usable site. However, this is kind of, before you can get to the test, you have to have that going on. So now let's talk about the website itself. I like to break websites down and pretty much everything social media, email marketing down into some very specific elements so that if you're building anything for anyone you always have a formula to follow and then you can always add or take away depending on what the client needs. So we talked about this also in my minimalism classes. What do you even do? What does this site do? And I know that David talked about this this morning as well in the SEO. What is the objective of this entire site? What is your one message? And if you haven't discerned that from your site and you're having kind of some trouble with it or you think you know and then somebody tells you, no, that's not the right answer, then you really want to make sure you're discerning and defining. What is the one thing that when a client comes to this site that they have to do? And I thought that David did a great job earlier of really drilling down and getting people to kind of uncover what the one thing that they need people to do on their site. For example, I've taught this class many, many times and when I do usability testing, not in a group like this, but with like, I would say clients, not necessarily marketers, is I will do the usability test from the podium. And I might do one or two of those to show you guys a couple of things. But when I do it from the podium, people that are sitting out there and I'm working on their site, they just keep telling me, well, you're supposed to do this. How would I know that as the client? You're not there to tell me that if I'm at home on my computer and it's midnight. I have no idea. Why, how would I even know that? So you wanna be really clear about what you want them to do, but you wanna make sure that they can understand that before you don't have to tell them. You don't wanna have to tell them as a personal thing, like they have to call you and go, I couldn't find your pricing. You should be literally right there. So then you need to define your target market. Who are you speaking to? Speaking to one person is really important for the usability of the site. We talked about realtors yesterday, how when they have a site, you can say, here's for buyers and here's for sellers. You're talking to two audiences, but there's a page for buyers and there's a page for sellers that helps them to define what they need from you. And it helps to give them that really narrow focus versus saying, here's the 10 things we offer. I hope you can find the one you need when they don't even know what they need anyway. They need you to tell them that. So we don't wanna talk about niche again. We just make sure that you do have a niche and that you're focusing on that. Again, talking to that one person. And then you wanna look at what does the website need to actually do? So this is the functionality part. Not just what are you telling them that they should do or what's your message, but what is the functional piece that your website has to accomplish? And the customer experience is huge here because if you have everything that you've designed came from between the two ears you have on your head, it's probably not usable. It's usable to you and maybe to people in your organization but probably not to very many other people. And so the usability test is gonna help you to see that client experience from someone else's perspective and really dive down into what does my website actually have to do? And I think David again made a great point earlier, it should do something and it should actually make you money. It should sell something. We talked about privacy policy, things like that earlier as well, making sure you have those things. This is less on the usability side and more on the CYA side. Just wanna make sure you have some of this stuff so that if someone can't use your site and they decide they want to sue you which has happened to some former clients of mine, then you kind of are covered in that way. So when I talk about usability, this is not a marketing tactic. This is kind of something that I do as a web designer, web developer. But it's something that I don't really use tactics at all because they are constantly changing every five minutes and usability is something that stays through that whole thing. It just kind of is a constant. You don't have to worry about it changing. Usability is usability. People will understand more as time goes on and they'll be able to understand more about how a site should function and how sites work because as we've seen in 2007 when I started with WordPress, people didn't understand even what WordPress was it was like early days and then now people are like, oh yeah WordPress, I've heard of that. So people understand things as time moves forward. So that's the only thing that really changes with usability is how much people understand. But even then, you know, there's still things that are standard and consistent from even back in 2007 that still work today. And if your site is not simple, you're going to have usability issues no matter what. You're gonna have just complexity issues. So how many people would say that their site is, they would consider it simple. Simple site, okay. A simple site doesn't mean you have three pages. A simple site means that your navigation, the pages that your homepage, the kind of landing pages people land on first, those places are simple. I have probably 40 pages on the back end of my site but they're not all visible in the menu.  So I lead you to them based on answers you give me throughout the site. Okay, so now it's time for you to actually do the test on your own site and I'm gonna do one site for you up here. And I'm gonna do it to kind of show you what a usability test would look like for you guys. And does anybody would like to volunteer who maybe is sitting by themselves and doesn't wanna move? Okay, so I saw your hand go, so what is your website? Skyrocketradio.com, all right. Oh, hold on, I gotta go on my hotspot, I forgot. Yes, the slides are actually at getabsolutemarketing.com forward slash word camp. Okay, now I'm not gonna look at this site right away. I kind of glanced at it but I didn't really see much. So I want you to tell me the one thing that I'm supposed to do on your site. What is the one thing that you want a client to do on your site? Okay, so the first part is irrelevant. So you want me to buy something. What do you want me to buy? What service? Okay, so if I'm going on here, I should be able to look for, I'm looking for a radio station website and I should be able to purchase it on this website. Okay, you said purchase. That's what I'm looking to buy. So that's what I'm going with and this is the test, okay? So the question you're gonna ask your partner when we do the test is what do you want me to do? I helped him out a little bit because he said, check out what we do. Of course, I could just read it and be like, I checked it out. And then he gets nothing from me. There was nothing that he said but then he said, buy a service and he told me what service to buy. So now I know what consumer I am just so for the sake of doing the test for you. You won't need to know that for your test.  Try to be as specific as you can when you give your answer because you both have to give each other the answer. You do this one thing, okay? You don't tell me where it is. You don't tell me what button I'm looking for. You don't even tell me the name of what I'm looking for. I just know that I'm here to buy a radio website because that's what I'm here for, right? That's what he has built this entire site for. I'm gonna be kind of mean. He knows already, I talked to him earlier. I'm gonna be kind of mean but I want him to see what happens if a consumer comes to your site and they don't know anything. They're just looking. They think they know what they want, right? So the other stipulation of the test is when you tell your person what they're supposed to do, they're gonna pull it up on their screen, okay?  You cannot say, nod, wink, grunt. You can't do any of that.  So that's what you're ready to do, right? You're gonna take notes. But you can't say anything. Now I'm going to try and use this site. All right, so I'm here to buy a radio website. So I see easy ways to use sports radio, country radio, rock radio websites. Okay, and I see that there's multiple websites on this screen. They all kind of look similar-ish. So I'm guessing it's some kind of formulaic thing. But then I see these that are all different. Say goodbye to cookie cutter. Okay, tools to help me make more money. That sounds good. Proven formula. Okay, 35% of all websites, WordPress. Okay, so, okay, sounds good. Oh, they have some broadcasters here that I might trust. All right, well, I'm gonna sign up. Let's do it. I'm ready. I've seen enough. I've learned plenty. Okay, station group website, one to three, four plus. Well, I only want one. So sounds good to me on our schedules. All right, I'm gonna order now. And $400 setup fee. So IO 525 this month and then 125 monthly. There are branded station pages. Now, this is where it might get confusing. I'm not sure what a branded station page is. Let's see, extensions maybe might tell me. Let's see. And you're having such a hard time over there. You're just like, no, no, it's not the page. Premium extensions, job or directory. Okay, I don't see anything about branded pages. Let's go to radio websites, packed with features, page builder, I don't see an explanation of branded web pages at all. So if I go back to my cart, I don't know if I need this. I mean, there's no monthly additional fee. So now I'm stuck, like I'm confused. Like where did I get that info about branded station pages? But it tells me some about it, but I don't know that I know enough to make a decision on how many I need because now I can do more than one. But if I'm doing one to three sites, but if I only need one site, so now I'm confused. So I didn't get enough info through the rest of the site that gave me the info to do this. Now, if I knew more, maybe I already had a conversation with our friend over here, or maybe I had heard him speak at something and I had more information prior, then this wouldn't be an issue. But because I'm here, randomly found him on Google, I'm not really clued into as much as I should be. Now, I did a very cursory look at the site, right? I did not go through everything. So I don't see a search on here, but I don't even know that that would help me because a lot of searches on websites don't work very well. Not that I'm my experience anyway. Let's go to pricing, let's see. Does it have it in the frequently asked questions? Nope. Nope, not even in there. So I would probably, if I was gonna fix it, I would put it in here somewhere, either on the radio website section or in the pricing section. So now I'm like, well, I'm not gonna buy it right now. I'm gonna maybe, maybe I'll book a demo instead because I don't know. And look, I'm gonna say I need help. Oh, but then I'm just sending an email. All right, I'm just gonna book, I'm just gonna book a time instead. Nope, can't. Well, let me, let me see, let's go to March. Is there times in March? Nope. Nope, it won't even let me. Let's look at online demos. Oh, these are just the sites themselves. So I won't get to talk to anybody. So I can't book a time for some reason. And if I try to get help, they're just gonna email me and probably tell me to book a demo. So I'm kind of stuck at this point. I could have gone forward had I know what a branded page was because if I, let's say I moved forward without it, but then they were like, oh, well, you didn't check that. It's actually more because it's an add on now. And like, I would be afraid of not buying it if I needed it or buying it and then not needing it. So do you see how this is working? Like, I'm just working through it as a consumer that doesn't really know. But then again, think about your clients. They don't know what they need. They're gonna do the same thing.  They're gonna bounce before this. Any questions about the test that I just did? No? Okay.  No one's ready. All right, the reason I did the test and I wanted you to see it that way is because I did this at WordCamp Birmingham in 2016. A guy taught this almost exact same class. And I haven't seen it in any WordCamp since. And I took this test. I was in the audience and I was like, my site's fine, I've been doing this 10 years. Like, I don't need this. But I did the test anyway. And he said specifically, you cannot use a client site. You have to use your own site. And all the people in the room are like, marketers, why sites are good? This is gonna be easy. And it was the most eye-opening thing that I have ever experienced at a WordCamp. So I want to encourage you to take this opportunity and do the test with the person at your table. If you're not at a table with a person, find a table with a person and do the test with somebody, especially if you don't have a computer or whatever, find somebody with one, iPad, whatever, because it will change your life, just saying. And then I'm gonna have you guys share at the end. So we're gonna do the test for, I'm probably gonna give you about 20 to 30 minutes. Probably give you 20 minutes for one of them, maybe 15, 20 minutes. And then I'll have you guys switch so you'll do the other person's test, okay? And you guys can share a computer, whatever needs to happen. So I'm gonna give you 15 to 20 minutes for the first test. And then we'll come back and do the other one. So, initial reactions from what you just learned and witnessed. You're crying, still crying, okay? Weeping and gnashing your teeth. I usually get that response, yeah. What else? Too much information, maybe. That might be one of the things, okay? Not simple enough. That's sometimes a good problem to have because then you can kind of figure out, well, what are we actually selling here? What else? Any other insights, like one word, kind of one sentence insights you guys got? Redundancies. Redundancies, that can happen too. All right, so I wanted you guys to go through this again, like I said, because I went through it and it just changed my whole perspective, not only on my site, but on the sites that I built for my clients. Because once I went through it and I was the client in the way, I could see it and go, oh my gosh, what have I been doing to everyone else? Kind of by accident. And so now when I go through and I build a site with a client, we go through this part before we even build the website. I'm asking them these questions in our branding sessions to make sure that when I get to the website, there is no question about what we're doing and why we're building it. Now, usability stuff to happen after the fact, do you have to test still after you build it? Sure, but getting to that point and eliminating some of those downfalls and those pitfalls in the beginning before you even build the site helps so much. So having some of these questions answered first can get you ahead of the game a little bit. Were there any questions about how you might conduct this usability test other than like being in this room, like when you go out in the world and you actually need to do it? Yes. I don't think so. Yes. Okay, so one of my questions I was thinking at the beginning is if we're, obviously we're here, we know what we're doing is that we've got somebody to test it, but when we're out in the wild and we're looking for somebody to test, what's the best way to go about even finding somebody to just like pull off our, you know, the Aunt Becky that will come in and test it for us? How do we find that person the best way to do that? So you can go and even if you're, let's say you don't have anybody near you, you can, one, you can go to a coffee shop, you can literally just ask somebody, do you have five minutes? Can you test this website for me? And you can just pull them aside and see if they'll do that. The other option, and that's when you have a physical person and the thing about having a physical person is if you can ask them to tell their thoughts out loud as they're doing it, that's very helpful for you as the testee, I guess. But if you can get them to do that, you're not just listening to what they say.  Are they darting around the page? Are they, I saw her over here earlier squinting. She had to put her glasses on. She was like, oh, so tiny. And so she said it was so tiny, but he could see what she was looking at based on where she was focused and things like that. Also her body language of was she tensing up when she was trying to find something? Was she nervous about, does she even really know why she's on this site? Does that make sense? You can just feel so much more from a person just from all the non-verbal stuff they're doing. If you cannot have a physical person in the room with you, and this can even be sad to say, some of our spouses aren't the most tech savvy people. And so sometimes you can just get them to test it because that's another great person that you have just right there. But if you don't have that physical person near you, another great option is Zoom. You can actually get some of your friend. Maybe it's just like a friend that lives in another state that you don't see very often or whatever. And you'd have this Zoom call with them and say, hey, I'd love if you just test this website for me. I'll send you a Starbucks coffee, like we had coffee together, right? And so you can get them to go on Zoom, share their screen while they look at the website. You can then see them in the camera and you can watch where their mouse moves. So, and you can get them to do the same thing think out loud, that kind of stuff. And if they're not talking, but you see them moving around, and especially if a person's with you as well, you can ask, I guess one time you can talk, can say, what are you thinking? Like what's going through your mind right now? Like, what's happening up there? You know, is there something wrong? Do you, are you not finding what you need? You know, that kind of stuff. And then they'll say, yeah, actually, because some people don't just verbalize, right? They need to be kind of prompted. So that'd be one way I would find some people. There's always a way to do it, but that's one way. Yeah. Any other questions about the test or how to do it? Like when you're not here? Any other questions about any of the other parts of elements of a website, things we talked about in marketing minimalism because I think I feel like it all goes together. Any other questions about that? No, I did too good a job. Of course I did. So I do have a few things that, oh, is there a question? Okay, Gert, great.  Have you used like third party tools for site tracking like hot jar or Microsoft clarity and how would that fit in your process here? So I would use those if I'd already done a physical usability test because I'd wanna see what a person could get out of, like could work out the kinks for me first. And then I would use something like that to kind of see after the fact if there's anything that was like missing or lacking. Because sometimes like I think Amber mentioned this in her talk, you just need a manual person to look at it because sometimes those tools don't completely do the job because they're only looking at what they can see and it's not always what a human is thinking and seeing at the same time. So I would use them in that way. Yes, and they have the microwave behind you. So in terms of using this testing method in like a UX UI design process, where does this fall? This would be kind of at the beginning and at the end. So I use some of these questions at the beginning to get some of this information first so that I'm not floundering around in the UX part of the UI design. But if I've already built the thing or maybe it's a site that already exists and you're trying to get the client to see the problems, like why they need the redesign or why they need to fix these problems, then I would do it after the site's built also. So I kind of bookend it, but I use the questions at the beginning and then I do the actual test at the end. So I have like, this is terrible to admit out loud, but I have zero faith in the people that are supposed to be using our website in terms of, y'all know the struggle is real. But with that said, I always err on the side of like duplicating links. Like for example, on our about page, it has something about like contact GEP, but up in the navigation menu for every page in the header and the footer, there's got a contact link there too. And when she was doing the usability test, she's like, oh, well, is this different? And I was just kind of wondering, is that, am I doing that wrong? No, I think that you can repeat links like that because they're your call to action. I think what it may be the user, like the user issue with that is that when they see something, they think, like it said contact here and then it said contact again. So maybe it went to a different email or something and maybe contacted just one person because it's on the about page. Maybe it just went to your email versus the info or you know, whatever. So I try to use whenever I have those kinds of links there, try to use different language to get people to do something so that they don't see it as, is this the same thing? Because even though they're worded the same, that kind of is what may be confusing. So instead of you have the contact at the top, that's typical, that's normal, but then on the pages, it might say something like book a call to get started or just get started or things like that to just change the language a little bit. Almost every single like call to action link that I have requires you to book a call with me. They almost all go to the same link but all the titles or the buttons or the links that have the names on them, they all say something slightly different to lead you to action, but they don't say contact us, contact us, contact us, contact us, contact us, so. Okay, that's really helpful, thank you. Yeah, and I did wanna mention something about site maps. I'm actually gonna go to my website. Does anybody else have any other questions? Questions, okay. So I wanted to talk about site maps and just kind of little bits of design that Amber will probably help me for, but we will always be at odds Amber, we will always be at odds, I'm just kidding. But I do wanna talk about the header, like not the header, but the menu first because this may look like the most boring menu in the world. My logo's on the left, my menu's on the right and there's a button on the end. But if you are thinking about your consumer, you don't want it to be overly complicated for them, especially if they're on mobile. It has to be super simple and if they can easily find what they need in the menu, great. If they can't and they're not even looking at the menu, they're like, over one with marketing? Yeah, over one with marketing. Oh, this might be my solution. Okay, I'm a business owner, I'm gonna click here. But even though it says four business owners right in the top, I'm still duplicating it, it's still the same name, but it's different people sometimes more information, sometimes not. Depends on how they learn, depends on what they come in thinking when they arrive on the site. Maybe they come here thinking they need one thing and then based on reading your content, they're like, oh no, I actually totally need something else. Or maybe they get confused while they're on your site and if there's a way for them to talk to somebody by booking some call or something, then sometimes that's all they need, just to talk to a physical person. And that's just so much more helpful, whether it's a chat in the corner that's live or it's a physical phone call they can make, because what I find is that a lot of my people, they are looking for me at midnight while the laundry's finishing before they go to bed. They are not looking for my stuff on a regular average workday, it's like the last thing they do because it's the last thing on their list and they're trying to get other things done.  And this allows them to put it on their calendar and to get the help they need and then I can actually answer their questions and ask them more questions. But sometimes if you have a physical phone number, because that's the way your business works, have a physical phone number for them to call and leave a message if you're not answering or have they chat in the corner that they can get right to someone, even if it's a chat bot initially, so they can actually find the answers they need if they have a question. So I just wanted to talk about that menu because I don't let my clients put a lot of stuff in the top that's like, what we do about us? Like the fewer words you can use in your menu, the better because it's just specific. It says it's the about page. It's telling you about the company. If you have history and staff and all these other things, link those on the about page or have them on the about page, but you don't have to like, let me tell you all the things in like the menu, right? So I try to be as specific there as possible and then put the content on the pages, put more of those words on the pages. So anybody have any questions about sitemap? Yes, or menus? Oh wait, she's got the thing. Forgot. Sorry. For example, for about, but like that could be a drop down and then you could have like history and directory and that kind of thing. I do occasionally, if it's absolutely necessary, I'm trying to think of a client that I've used it on recently and I usually don't actually force them to not do it. I actually did, I think this is the name of like their site link here. Yeah. We had this page for a client and they had a drop down with these three things in it. These are their main products, but what we ended up doing was putting them on this page in this way versus having a drop down with the items because for the most part, people are gonna need to know more information before they get to this point. So now I'm just gonna click on it and click on pond and then go to it. And if they already know they need the pond, they're probably already in it. So they're not gonna just go to the website looking for pond. They're gonna have a login and a separate link and all that other stuff. So, excuse me, this is more for just the basic person who has never heard of this stuff. So that's where the drop down would be needed maybe like up here, but really when they click on the wish pad, they get to see information about it, who it's by, what it is, and then the three products they offer versus having a drop down that says the wish pad and then a drop underneath it, it says pond bay challenge because you wouldn't even know what those were if you were just like, what's the challenge? And you'd click on it, but really you should know what the pond is first, then the bay, then the challenge because they feed into each other. So having it in this format kind of allows you to read left to right. Oh, sorry. So this gives you more of that flow. So we're leading them into something versus kind of forcing them to choose what they need up upfront. The same thing with my site. If you actually looked at my site yesterday, I had a drop down that said virtual and I was actually listening to myself yesterday while I was talking.  So I actually put up a page for marketers and then I have the three things that marketers would be interested in from my site. So instead of saying, here's all the virtual stuff we offer, here's all the in-person stuff we offer, how would you know which one you need?  So I did restructure it a little bit because of that reason and so now I don't have the dropdown anymore and I hated having the dropdown because I knew that it was still confusing but this made more sense and so as I reworked it it made so much more sense to do it this way and say, if you're a business owner and that's what you're here for, I will tell you exactly what you need. Here it is. Here's info about me. You can view the portfolio. That's all a business owner needs to know but for a marketer, there's different things that I'm offering and there's different ways to explain it. So, so I try to avoid dropdowns if I can. I don't like having, especially on mobile, it just gets, it can get so funky the way the menus work sometimes. So, so I try to simplify it down as much as I can so that you don't have that issue. I don't have those in there. I have, like I said, like 40 pages on the site but they don't all, you don't see them all unless you need them. Question, any other questions? You're welcome. Okay, well, it's 2.36. It's a little early but I'll give you some time before the next session. If you have questions for me, I'd love to talk with you. I do have the Pro Toolkit that is free on my website. You can go to getabsletmarketing.com forward slash free or you can go to getabsletmarketing.com forward slash word camp and you can see all those slides. I'll put the videos up there. My password camp talks are up there and then of course a link to the toolkit and all the free stuff is there as well. And I made some exclusive wallpapers because I have time to do these things. And so I'll show you what the wallpaper looks like and how I use it. So this is one of them. And basically it's just three boxes in the background and then you can organize your icons in the boxes so that you can kind of find things. So there's three of them on there. There's a silver, a tan, like a gold and then the green. So anyway, that's on the word camp page and it's in the free library too. So yeah, it helps keep me a little organized because otherwise they'd just have icons everywhere and then I can never find them, never know what they are. So well, thank you guys so much for sitting in here with me and doing the test and participating. And I do have a couple of things up here to kind of give away and share with you guys because I cannot take them on the plane. I literally have only two bags to my name so they won't let me take any more bags on the plane. So please come up and get them and I will gladly give them to you. Thank you so much.


Today, I have the pleasure of speaking with Dr. Francis Dubey of Zengrafin. How are you today? Very well, Tracy. I'm really happy to be here. You know, we're here at PDAC and I was just mentioning you were a shareholder that liked the company so much, you stepped in as co-CEO. Is that correct? It's correct. Again, I've always loved the asset, been involved over five years and I just really got involved last year. Can't wait to get this company launched again and we're doing fantastic things. PDAC is really well timed for us to do it this year. And of course, you've got the electric car, the battery materials with graphite, but you also have graphene. Graphene is actually where our entire focus is on because of the applications that are coming to us. Every week right now there's new applications for graphene.  It's a new revolution and we're at the right time and the right place right now and we can't be more excited about where we're at. Well, I agree with you that you're at the right time and right place, but you're bit of a sci-fi thriller with what graphene is. So if you wouldn't mind talking to the cannabis market out there, they're looking to expand your portfolio, graphene is something you should be looking at. Can you tell them why it's so exciting? Graphene is like the new plastic, the new steel. It was discovered in 2004. The guy's got Nobel Prize for it for physics in 2010 and since then it's just taken off. The guy's using it now. We're starting to see a real industrial revolution based on this material. And the sky's the limit with what this thing can do really. So why zen graphene? I've got a bunch of money. I'm gaming right now. I've made a lot of money in the cannabis market. I'm moving into graphene because it's so cool, but why zen graphene? What's the competitive advantage? There's two things really. We have a unique source of graphite in Ontario that is like no other on earth. It's a very large resource. We'll have decades of production from it. But the other side that's really exciting is we've got 10 different universities in Canada researching applications for our graphene. What we're able to do with graphene is exploding and we're really at the forefront cutting edge on the scientific front as well. So we've got the complete vertical integration from the ground to the final integration product into consumer use. So we're very excited about that. It's a great opportunity for us. So what's the most recent news that you've been most excited about? Honestly, we've got all the permits and all the funding to do our bulk sample. So we are actually in Hearst right now doing the bulk sample, a thousand tons. We're going to have about a 40 tons of graphite from that. We're going to be able to get into the graphene space this year. And we're very excited about that. So what should we as shareholders anticipate in this upcoming spring? Really we want to unlock the value of this deposit. So we're doing three things. One we've got to finish our metallurgy, which we're working on right now. We're hoping to have some news on that very shortly. After that we've got to talk about how we're going to scale up our graphene production. So we've been working with some of the best people in Canada and in the world on how to scale up graphene production. So that will be the key to unlocking it and then getting our markets scaled up. So we're doing all those three boxes and as we do those three things, the value that we're going to build throughout the rest of the year should be fantastic for our shareholders. Well we're looking forward to seeing what happens with Zengraphene next. Thank you so much. Thank you for your time Tracy. Appreciate it. Love being here.