We're on a bit of a quest this afternoon guys. Trying to find the spot I found on Google Maps. Looked like a bit of a skate ditch and we'll spot it through a couple throwies maybe. We're in the back country here today guys. Check it out big water tank here. Some bush. Sun's about to set over those mountains there, the mountain range. On the other side of those mountains it's the Pacific Ocean. I think there's like San Clemente and Laguna Beach on the other side of those mountains. We're out in the middle of nowhere. There's a little drain spot. Pretty rural. Sick. Look at it. Up picturesque. I think that's pretty much it. That was the coolest part. Just this little bank section up here. A little bit of graffiti. It's been buffed before but still a decent amount of graffiti up here. We've got a dog walker inbound so we'll have to chill for a bit, wait for that in the past and hopefully I can bust out a quick throwie or two or more than enough paint. I think he's holding a skateboard. He looks over there. He's got two dogs with him. I thought it was a coyote. He's skating up there so he's probably chill. I'm going to do a throwie here real quick. Why that though? So people click on the video and watch it. Yeah man we're getting this morning main. That's our main. We want to do star. Yeah where do you want to go? Over here? Yeah go there. Yeah yeah do the outline first. You got it. Awesome can control. Feel it in. Go side to side when you feel it in. You can do it like that I guess. Okay let me get the outline for you. There you go. Yeah see how it's like a bit weird? Try to hold the can. Try to hold the can more parallel to the cement. Yeah like that. You got it. You got it. You nearly done. It's just because we're painting on a bank. If it was a wall it'd be a lot easier. Do a little bit of shadow. Do you want me to line it out for you then you can fill it in? Yeah yeah yeah. I'm not good with that. Make the shadow go this way. Okay fill it in. A little quick before the police come. Just like that. Look at the can control. Star. We've got this tin from Home Depot. It was $9.99 or something. Big stomper. We call these cans in Australia stompers because you usually use them to do a big stomper. But I think I'm going to do a little quick fill-in throwy em evening mob with this one. Look at this cap. What is this? Whip cream. Man shaped it properly. So uh the color's cool though huh? That doesn't look too bad huh?


Hello and welcome back. Now, in the series of videos that are going to be coming up, I'll be looking at different quotations in all the literature books that you'd be studying as part of your English Literature GCSEs. Now, these videos that I've created are actually based on student feedback. So when you're leaving reviews and leaving some feedback in your reviews, I pay attention and a few of you students have essentially mentioned that whilst the model answers are really helpful and the overviews that I've offered for the different books in the Literature Paper 1 and Paper 2 exams are really helpful, what you'd also really appreciate is for me to go over key quotations and do some word level analysis. So I'm listening and I've created these videos basically based on your feedback. So do make sure you leave a review and give me some feedback because where I can, I will be more than happy to help and create some videos to cover things that you find essential that maybe hasn't been covered in this course. So now, in the videos that follow, essentially what I will be doing is I'll be going over word level analysis for key quotes for this text that you should be aware of. So let's get started. Now, to really understand Macbeth, I think it'd be really good to essentially look at key quotations related to each character in this play. So what I thought would be really interesting given that there's lots of different scenes in all five acts of the play rather than separating the quotes and kind of doing word level analysis with the quotes according to each act, I think it would be more beneficial if I selected important quotations, which you can also memorize, but also explain to you essentially the kind of word level analysis you can do and what these quotations mean. Okay, so essentially when it comes to Macbeth, the first quotation, which I think is very powerful. And of course, it also can create this sense of foreshadowing this foreboding atmosphere whereby we get the sense that Macbeth is going to be influenced by the witches is so foul and fair a day, I have not seen, which is taken from act one, scene one. Now, this is powerful because it basically echoes what the witches have said, foul is fair and fair is foul, which was at the beginning of the play. Now, in terms of word level analysis, always make sure that you understand that foul and fair, this is a really powerful example of alliteration. And of course, this shows and this really emphasizes to us this unnatural atmosphere that's going to be eventually created when Macbeth does kill King Duncan. But equally, this is oxymoron because foul and fair, they are opposites. Again, that sense of unnatural ease that's being created. And this is obviously before Macbeth essentially encounters the witches. Then in act one, scene four, Macbeth mentions stars hide your fires. And this is after Macbeth and Banco encounter the witches. So the witches prophesied to him that he's going to be King. He's going to be first Thane of Cordo, Thane of Glamis and then Thane King thereafter. In fact, it's the other way around. He's firstly Thane of Glamis when he meets them. Then they predict and prophesy that he's going to be Thane of Cordo, which he's then promoted to by King Duncan. And then he realizes, hang on, if the witches have predicted already that I'm going to be Thane of Cordo, I might actually become King. And I'm really feeling very guilty about this desire that I have to be King. So he's asking the stars. This is celestial imagery, imagery related to the gods, the stars, the moons, the planets. He's asking the stars to hide this dark ambition, this dark desire to become King. And this personification emphasizes this. And of course, what this is showing is Macbeth is feeling incredibly guilty about this wish to become King. The other quotation is when he's talking about his vaulting ambition, which overleaps itself. And of course, the word ambition links the theme of ambition, this idea that he sees his ambition. This is before he decides, and this is once he's talked to Lady Macbeth, he almost is thinking, okay, I can kill the King, and he's reflecting on this, and he's thinking that this ambition is way too powerful. He might not even be able to handle this responsibility if he becomes King. The other key word in this is when it overleaps itself. And this is taken from Act One, Scene Seven. Overleaps itself is personification because ambition is personified as overleaping itself, okay? Now, when it comes to the other one, this is I dare do all that may become a man. This is taken from Act One, Scene Seven, whereby Lady Macbeth basically goads Macbeth into killing the King by questioning his masculinity. Now, this is important because he is using alliteration, dare do, and of course alliteration is being used here by Shakespeare. And this alliteration is really forceful because basically this is showing to us that Macbeth feels really, really insecure to prove his masculinity. The other quotation to consider is when he sees this dagger, he's about to kill King Darken, and he says, is this a dagger which I see before me?  And the other thing is that this is part of an extended rhetorical question. He's wondering if he sees this dagger which he's going to use to kill the King, okay? And this is taken from Act Two, Scene One. The next quotation to consider is when Macbeth, after he's killed King Duncan, he asks, will all Great Neptune's ocean wash this blood clean from my hands?  And he asks this to Lady Macbeth, but of course, he's also just thinking this out loud. Now, when you're doing word level analysis, always remember, Great Neptune's ocean, this is hyperbole over exaggeration, because he thinks that what he's done is unforgivable. He's committed an act of treason, okay? A direct act against God because he's violated the divine right of kings by killing King Duncan. So this is a hyperbole. And on top of that, this is all a rhetorical question showing that he feels incredibly guilty after killing King Duncan. This is in contrast to the following quote, when he and Lady Macbeth in Act Three, Scene Two, they decide to plot against Banquo. So Macbeth remembers, part of the witch's prophecy was that whilst he would become King, actually Banquo's kids would succeed him. So he says that, you know, they placed upon his head a fruitless crown, but obviously he wants to make sure that that's not the case. Okay? So they call him a snake. Okay? This is a metaphor. So we've scorched the snake, not killed it in terms of, so the snake is a metaphor for the threat to Macbeth's power, but also we have sibilants here where they are essentially plotting, so Macbeth and Lady Macbeth, they are plotting to kill Banquo. And of course it shows that in contrast to how guilty he was feeling before, so when he killed King Duncan, he felt really guilty. Now he's become really ruthless. He's also now about to kill and betray his friend. Then he kills Banquo. His ghost appears in his banquet. This is Act Three, Scene Four, and he orders the ghost. He tells the ghost, Dad, can'ts not say I did it. And then you've got Cologne here. Okay? Never shake that gory locks at me. This is Act Three, Scene Four. Now this Cologne is an example of Cesura. Okay? This is when there's a pause midline, but also this is an imperative sentence. He's talking and making orders to the ghost. Now what this does is it emphasizes Macbeth is a little bit cowardly. He doesn't want all the other guests to see that he's actually betrayed his friend and killed him. And this is in contrast to how Macbeth was presented to us at the beginning of the play. That's very valiant, very honest. Okay? So this is a very cowardly act.  Okay? It's really cowardly. The other quotation is now, as opposed to how Macbeth was in Act One, Scene One, when they then encountered the witches in Act One, Scene Three, where he was like really scared of the witches, who are the supernatural characters. By Act Four, Scene One, Macbeth has become totally corrupt and actually he's even trying to command the witches. And he calls them Secret Black Midnight Hags. Okay? And this is rule of three, Secret Black and Midnight. And this is in Act Four, Scene One. Now Macbeth, he obviously is a tyrant. He doesn't manage the kingdom of Scotland well as a king. He becomes really consumed by being influenced by the witches as well as his wife. But then by Act Five, Scene Five, it becomes really obvious that he has been tricked by the witches and he's about to die. So now he's becoming really guilty in terms of being self-recriminatory.  Okay? So there's two quotations to remember from Act Five, Scene Five. The first is, all our yesterdays have lighted falls. Now here, lighted falls, lighted yesterday, is personified. So this is an example of personification from Act Five, Scene Five. He is reflecting. These two quotations show he's now becoming self-recriminatory.  I kind of deserve it. Okay? I made a mistake. I shouldn't have been ambitious. I should not have killed the king. Okay? Then the final and most famous, perhaps arguably one of Shakespeare's most famous quotations of all time up there with To Be or Not To Be from Hamlet is, Life is but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then is heard no more. This is taken from Act Five, Scene Five. It's arguably Shakespeare's most famous quotation. Okay? Now, what this is showing, again, is Macbeth. This is part of the same dialogue in this act. And Macbeth is realizing that he has been deceived by the witches. His life is now brief. He's now realized that he's been deceived and just been used as a pawn, a plaything for them to cause chaos in Scotland. And this notion that life is but a walking shadow, this is a metaphor talking about the brevity of life. Now, this shadow is in a play. Okay? So this is an extended metaphor, play representing life, the brevity of life, how brief life is. Okay? So this shadow is walking upon the stage. Okay? So this is a metaphor for life's length. So they come, they play their part on the play of life and then they are forgotten. After they've played their bit in life, they are forgotten. And obviously, Macbeth is now realizing and reflecting that maybe my life is going to be used as a warning against being too excessively ambitious. So that's it when it comes to the quotations to remember with Macbeth as a character. And do make note of these word-level analysis, word-level quotations, the key techniques that go with each quotation. And I will suggest after that, start, you know, memorizing these quotations and using them in your writing when you're writing modal answers.


What are some AI tools that people in any kind of job or business, what could they be using now to make their lives easier, especially in their jobs?  I guess it depends on the job or what the output that you want to generate, right? So, I mean, everybody knows about bar, about chat GPT, about quad and being able to help you generate ideas and help you refine your grammar or help you flush out some thinking, like mid-journey. There's tools that generate videos, that generate social media posts, that generate even a lot of the tools that we use right now, like Photoshop, they're incorporated like Microsoft, right? They're incorporating these AI features.


So I Don't want to be here this morning. You don't want me to be here this morning, but here we are again The cases across the country are spiking massively We are facing a winter that's going to drive people inside more and more and we're really at risk of seeing case loads go up and hospitals get overwhelmed and More loved ones dying So we need to do everything we can right now To slow the spread of COVID-19 to stop this spike in its tracks If you were planning to see friends this weekend Maybe don't If there was a birthday party or a gathering for dinner you were thinking about doing don't do it We're in a moment right now or even with all the sacrifices. I know Canadians have been making over these past 10 months We are now going to have to really tighten up once again This is frustrating because I know we've all heard stories of people who've thrown up their hands and are not doing their part anymore People who have stopped wearing masks or people who are going out more than they should and it's tempting for all of us to say Okay, well, maybe I can loosen up a bit more too but the reality is We need to go in the opposite direction if there are people out there not following the rules when We know we need to well then those of us who need to are gonna have to do even more Because it's the future of our country. It's the future of our children. It's the future of our loved ones and our seniors It's our economy. It's our businesses. It's everything altogether We're gonna need to have to do this for another few weeks for another few months And we can begin to see the other side of this We can do this We've done it before We know what to do. We understand this virus much better than before We need to reduce our contacts. We need to do it right now I'm not here because it's tempting me to be And I know it's not tempting you to see me here in front of my house once again trying to say He's gonna have to make sacrifices, but that's exactly where we came from We're seeing a rising wave of cases here in Canada, everywhere in Canada as we see it all around the world And we know what we need to do We need to follow the advice of public health We need to reduce our contacts to make judicial, careful to not get together with friends to not celebrate anniversary to stay virtual, to stay at home as much as possible We're back to the moment when we'll see once again getting locked up for a few weeks to lock up to stop the spread of the COVID-19 If we act well for the coming weeks it might be a little easier for the next few months But I want to tell you the truth the next few months will be difficult We're leaving in the winter We'll be even more inside We'll be even more limited The COVID-19 will be able to spread more easily inside And so we'll have to be careful It's been ten months that we've done it People are doing the right thing We've shown that we can control this virus And we're back to the moment when we'll have to do it once again and even more than what we did in the past weeks And it's frustrating because we hear stories of those who aren't following the advice who put themselves at risk who put us all at risk Even if we try to be like them we know we can't and those who follow the advice will have to do it even more And it's not fair It's not fair for anyone But we know what we have to do We know it's time now to gather together and do what we've been able to do in the spring We need to do what we're doing to protect jobs, to support businesses and to keep Canadians safe We need to work together All of us as a team Yesterday I had a briefing with Dr. Tam, Dr. New Minister Haidu and the leaders of the opposition to discuss the current situation All orders of government must come together to stop the spread of this virus This was something I discussed last week with the Premiers at our 21st virtual First Ministers meeting since the pandemic began Across the country we're seeing Premiers and mayors making very tough choices to go into further shutdowns And I know how hard that is and I want them to know that they have my support our support as a federal government The best way to protect the economy is to get the virus under control Doing things to protect people's health is the best way to minimize lasting damage to the economy In the beginning we thought of this as a contradiction that the things we need to do to keep us safe are things that are actually hurting the economy That was how we framed that first wave of shutdowns But we actually now know better from seeing what's happened around the world from seeing how Canadians have made it through that first wave and through this second wave that's ongoing Doing the things that protect our health are actually the best things to do to protect our economy Going into lockdown and supporting businesses while we're in that lockdown is a better way of ensuring their success in a few months in a few years than trying to tough through a virus running around unchecked We know that we need to be there for each other and the federal government is going to continue to be there to help businesses that are impacted by these shutdowns That's a promise I made from the beginning and it's a promise we're keeping This isn't the fault of any individual business and we're going to do everything we can to get them to the other side of this That's why it was so important last night that our government's bill providing unprecedented levels of supports to Canadian businesses became law I want to thank all parliamentarians for working together to get this through These support measures include a new rent subsidy for businesses which will go directly to tenants, not through landlords Up to 65% of rent can be covered by businesses affected by COVID-19 and if your business is facing a public health lockdown then we're also providing an additional 25% rent subsidy through the new lockdown support Combined with the rent assistance hard hit businesses could get a rent subsidy of up to 90% Canadian businesses can begin applying for these new measures as of Monday to be retroactive until the beginning of October Lastly, this new law also means that the wage subsidy has been extended until June of next year securing jobs and support for workers right across the country This program has been a lifeline for millions of Canadians So we're making sure people continue to get this support go to canada.ca slash coronavirus to find out what supports you I would like to thank all the parliamentarians for contributing to the quick adoption of new measures to support businesses proposed by our government These measures include a new subsidy for the commercial rent which will go directly to tenants and not through owners' businesses The subsidy will cover up to 65% of the rent of small businesses affected by COVID-19 and if your company is targeted by a confinement order you can receive an additional subsidy of 25% for your rent thanks to the new support measures in case of confinement Together, these two measures will cover up to 90% of the rent of highly affected businesses Those in need will be asked as of Monday morning The salary subsidy will be extended until June 2020 To get more information visit canada.ca slash coronavirus Just like our government is here to support businesses, we will also continue to send additional targeted support to areas that are seeing concerning situations with rising cases Last week, I announced specific support for Indigenous communities in Manitoba Today, we're providing over $120 million in immediate funding to regions that are affected by outbreaks in Saskatchewan and Alberta This will be used to support public health measures food security and other surge capacity needs Minister Miller and Dr. Wang will have more to say their regular update later today but the bottom line is that we will do everything we can to keep people safe right across the country Right now, we have 52,000 active cases of COVID-19 in Canada and 1,800 hospitalizations More than 11,000 people have died because of this virus Today, Dr. Tam has presented projections of what we could expect if we don't control the current situation If we don't act now, we could count up to 20,000 new cases per day by the end of December And if we increase our contacts instead of reducing them, this number could still be much higher We must be realistic The only way to reverse the trend is to reduce our contacts in person If you don't need to leave reduce your contacts Help us break the second wave and save lives Earlier today Dr. Tam presented the updated COVID-19 modeling for Canada Canada could have up to 20,000 new cases daily by the end of December if we don't limit or reduce our contacts now And if we loosen and increase our contacts we could see tens of thousands more I know this isn't what people wanted to see to hear but we have to be realistic about the situation We're seeing huge spikes in places like Ontario Manitoba, Saskatchewan Alberta and Nunavut with a record number of hospitalizations across the country Overwhelmed hospitals are a problem for people who need COVID-19 care But it's also an issue for people who need other care whether it's cancer treatments or emergency surgery And each new case of COVID-19 every extra week that goes on with more cases puts added pressure on our frontline workers and our healthcare system workers Think about it Our doctors, nurses personal support workers orderly hospital staff They've been on the frontlines for almost 10 months now putting in incredibly long hours being creative and how they can save people and protect people while at the same time trying to keep themselves safe while at the same time having the same worries that each of us have about our loved ones, about our kids and schools, about our parents and our grandparents And yet they keep showing up every single day to be there for us putting their health, their lives and in many cases, their family's lives on the line to keep us safe and they're tired They have been heroes They have been going above and beyond anything they might have thought they were signing up for We need to help them We need to give them a break We need to stop this spike in cases We need to think about them As we think about our loved ones who need medical help who are vulnerable to COVID-19 As we think about the damage this is doing to families and to communities across the country We need to step up now all of us The numbers show that right now more of the most vulnerable Canadians are getting COVID-19 including seniors and outbreaks in long-term care homes in indigenous communities are rapidly rising The only way we can reverse the tide is if we immediately reduce the number of people each of us come into contact with If you live in a region that is experiencing a surge in cases stay home if you can and avoid all non-essential travel To employers who can do so please make arrangements for your employees to once again work from home and if you don't need to don't leave your home and if you haven't already joined the over 5.3 million Canadians who've already downloaded the COVID Alert app 5.3 million Canadians That's over a quarter of all the Canadians in jurisdictions that have used the app who own smartphones We are on our way to making a difference with this app because every use alerts other people that they need to be careful and it's an addition to contact tracing of nurses and public health professionals calling up to see who you might have come into contact with this will catch people you didn't even know you were in contact with It's an easy thing to do to download the app for free It's an easy thing to do to take a moment once you receive a COVID-19 positive diagnosis to plug it in Many provinces give you that code right away as soon as you get your positive case so please plug it in immediately Some other places require you to make a phone call which will take a minute to get the code to plug it into the app but doing our part with this tool will make a huge difference and I said that's 25% over 25% of all people affected in participating provinces that have the app and have smartphones Of course there's two provinces that haven't yet made the app available through their healthcare system I want to directly touch on that right now for people in Alberta and BC If you live in Alberta and BC you can already still download the app for free yourself and put it on your phone and there's two reasons to do that right now as we go through this second wave First reason is I'm still hopeful that the local health systems will put together a system where they can give you that one time code which will allow diagnoses in those provinces to be plugged into the system to alert people but secondly from the minute you download that app it starts to work in tracing your contacts with people who also have the app so if you're in Alberta and you come into contact inadvertently with someone who then goes home to Saskatchewan and gets tested positive you'll be alerted that you should maybe get yourself checked it can work even if your health system isn't yet on board it's free it absolutely protects your privacy and it's an extra tool we have at a time where we need to be using all the tools we have to keep ourselves safe that's what we need to do there's more than 5 million people who have downloaded the app alert COVID so I encourage everyone to do it and once you have it use it if it warns you that you were in contact do a follow-up isolate yourself and if you receive a positive diagnosis type in the code to warn those you know and those you don't know who should be checked it's free it respects your privacy and we now have more than 25% of the eligible population who have smart phones who use it it's an extra tool and we need all our tools to go through this pandemic and this crisis I'm counting on you so download the app help us beat this second wave save lives because that's what's at stake every person that we lose to this virus is someone who has family and friends who loved them who had plans for tomorrow and things they still wanted to do I think about the woman in Toronto who survived the holocaust and recently passed away from COVID-19 forced to flee her home during the war she and her family ended up at a labour camp in Siberia she made it through she got married and had kids who loved her dearly so to her loved ones my deepest condolences for your loss and to the thousands of other families who have lost someone because of COVID-19 my thoughts are with you every loss is a tragedy and each story reminds us of what is at stake in this fight against the pandemic our parents and grandparents our friends and neighbors people who give so much joy to those around them people who are loved I know it's not easy but we must be able to count each other for ten months now our first-line workers in our health system have done an extraordinary job to help us our doctors, our nurses all those who work in our hospitals in our health system are there for us long-term jobs they are going to face incredible and unexpected challenges and they are doing all this while I am in the same stress as all of us am I going to get sick am I going to bring this disease to my children how are my children going to go through how am I going to be able to go through this same stress that we all live they all live in addition to their responsibility to save us all each one they are dedicated to this with their lives they have chosen this journey there are people who have chosen this pandemic and we have to do everything we can to help them to stop this explosion of cases as a government we are going to continue to be there for you for all of you with the help of the federal for the workers, the families, the companies and it will continue because together we are going to go through this crisis if you have to stay at home we are going to be there for you if you have to close boutiques temporarily we are going to be there for you we are going to continue to listen to these doctors and these experts and we are going to take all the necessary measures that are questions of individual protection equipment or vaccines so that Canadians can stay safe and do our part we know what to do we know how hard it is but we know it works because we did it this spring together let's bend the curve and keep each other safe this weekend I'll be virtually joining the G20 as part of our government's work to respond to this virus at home and abroad and on that note today I can also confirm that the Canada-US border restrictions have been extended until at least December 21st we will continue to work with our American counterparts to keep people safe on both sides of the border I can confirm that the border restrictions between Canada and the United States will be extended until December 21 and on this subject we will continue to work with our American homologues to ensure the safety of people on both sides of the border we will continue to collaborate with our partners from all over the world not only to protect Canadians but to rebuild a strong economy that works for everyone today I took the floor during the meeting of the leaders of the APEC and I discussed our response to the pandemic the need to rebuild resilient economies and the work we do to fight climate change this weekend I want to join the other leaders of the G20 to talk about our common struggle against COVID-19 and what we do to protect our jobs and to rebuild our economies so I shared a lot of information this morning but here's the bottom line we have a long winter ahead as the weather drives us indoors we really are in danger of seeing more transmission and far too many more deaths it'll be tough but we know what we have to do wear a mask keep your distance download the app and use it avoid gatherings of all sizes and know that together being there for each other we will get through this merci


Hey everyone, I'm Carlos and the founder and CEO of Product School and today I'm here with April Danfort Who's the author of obviously awesome. Hey, April. Hey, it's good to be here. How are you? I'm so excited to have you after seeing you in other interviews can't wait to talk about positioning You know with an over a hundred interviews in the podcast. We've never touched on this topic. Isn't that crazy?  Well, you know what I got interested in positioning in my my very first job Like right after university job and a startup and I got assigned I was a product marketer and I got assigned to a product that was failing and In the end we we considered end of life thing the product But in the end we repositioned it and this thing that was failing took off and it was wildly successful We ended up getting acquired by a big big company I took over the marketing department for this group in the big company and We repositioned a couple other things that that unlocked a bunch of growth there, too So early in my career. I I got my eyes opened to The power of really good positioning to take something that doesn't look very extraordinary and make it extraordinary So I thought this is really important thing And then I spent a lot of time after that in my career trying to figure out how to optimize the process for actually doing it because it seemed like a thing that I was gonna have to do over and over again and so For 25 years. I was kind of a repeat vice president of marketing at a series of successful startups I think I did seven six of those got acquired four or five years ago I made the switch to consulting and now I just do positioning work and I just work at tech companies and here we are now I'm on your podcast Well, I'm honored to have you here because in the product world It's not clear who owns Positioning you mentioned you've been as a product marketer and a marketing leader at multiple organizations So in your experience this typically who was in charge of positioning? Yeah, so I was we were talking before we started it I get this question so much particularly from product managers And if I do a talk at a product management conference first question like if I say there's any question There's a hand up and someone says who owns it. We need to know who's the owner who's gonna own this thing And I think a lot of bad positioning comes from Individual teams trying to own it which is so I think that's a mistake So typically when we think about ownership, it's generally Marketing or product the reason that is is because marketing and product Generally feel the pain of weak positioning before other teams too So so in marketing you'll notice that your campaigns aren't working so good You'll notice that your marketing doesn't really hit the way you think it's going to hit Sales will feel it in that people don't really understand what you are the pitches are landing kind of flat on the product They'll be all this angst over what are we building and who's it for and we do because we don't have clarity on the positioning But here's the deal positioning actually Forms the underpinning of everything we do in marketing and sales Everything like I can't do a campaign until I understand who is the campaign for and I got a bill messaging So what's our value proposition? So how are we differentiated from our competitors who are our competitors? Same thing with everything we do in sales like who are we going to target here? All of these things are defined by positioning on the product side. It really has an impact on our product roadmap What is it? We want to be where are we going? What are the customers? We're trying to get so here's the thing Because it underpins so much of the company We can't actually perform at our best if we aren't all in alignment on positioning So that means if we really want to do an adjustment on positioning or tighten up the positioning This is actually going to be a team sport So we actually marketing and product and sales and if you have customer success We need that if you have professional services, we need that and importantly I need to see you and the executive team all in alignment on this because we can't all be telling different stories out of the market so if we really want to execute on positioning in terms of Getting the job done and figuring out what the positioning should be that is actually a job for the executive team Now once we've figured out what the positioning should be Then you know you might ask the question. Well, who's the steward of positioning? Like so who's responsible for making sure that we are actually Executing on that position and in my opinion that is product marketing's role So if you have product marketer product marketing as a function in your company Then it's product marketing that should own that otherwise. I think it's a toss-up It's either it's whoever's doing the product marketing function, which is either marketing or product You know, what's interesting like I remember when I started my my current company product school as a founder I still know a lot about the competitive landscape and about my own product and I have access to users but as the business grew realized that it was in my head and What I understood by positioning or like how I position my product was different from what maybe what my marketing leader or my safety They would understand so those type of situations What would be some good practice for all of those teams to align and really have a clear definition No matter who's asked that question Yeah, so there's a few things that I think are really important So, you know the first one is I gotta get the teams on alignment if we want really good positioning We got to have marketing sales product executive team. Everybody's got to be an agreement and alignment on around positioning So we need to get the gang together. We need to work on it together But here's the thing if I get the group together and say, okay, we want to define who's our competitor How are we different? What's our differentiated value? Who's our best fit customer? What market do we intend to win? These are the components that make up positioning. So we want to do that I need to do this in a structured way Because if I don't have a methodology to do this then what'll happen is we'll get the gang together and People will say well, okay. So, um, why does everyone love our product? And this is a this is going to be a bad conversation because what'll happen is Everybody will have an opinion about that and that's all it is is an opinion and this year We'll say well, I think people love our product because of this and sales will say well, that's not what I think I sell this every day and I think they love it because of this a product will say no, no, they love this Mario say no, no, they love this and so there'll be a lot of opinions and Usually what happens if it's a battle of opinions the CEO wins sometimes sales wins marketing never wins Product never wins the battle of opinions. So if we're going to have that conversation We need to have a methodology to do it Which has been a lot of what my focus has been on is how I actually build a methodology So if I get this group together Can we walk through and build the positioning in a structured way? That takes the that takes as much as we can the opinions out of it So that we can build on reality Now an important piece of this methodology is kind of the starting point. So in in the work that I do the starting point is Being able to answer the question Who do we got to beat in order to win a deal? Now for a lot of people That's that's like who's our competition But if you think about it, um You know the word competition can mean a lot of different things like if i'm talking to product managers And I say who's your competition? Generally a good product manager comes to me and they got a list and there's like 80 companies on this list, right? There's like and they'll be like here's my competitive document. Here's all the companies. I'm tracking There's 80 of them. Oh my gosh, and this is who we compete with But if you walk over to sales and said who do we compete with sales will say Oracle That's it Just And they're thinking about who do I see in deals? Who do I lose deals to? Um, the reality is for positioning work We need to be able to position the product to beat Whatever the customer would do if you didn't exist And so that consists of kind of two types of competitors. The first competitor is do nothing So the first competitor is what's status quo in the account? And if you're a b2b software status quo in the account is often I'll do it with a spreadsheet or I'll hire an intern or we'll just do manual processes And if we look at the data on this in b2b 40 of purchase processes ends in no decision Which means you lost to the intern you lost to the spreadsheet you lost the manual process So we need to understand that because we need to position our product in such a way that we win against excel We win against joey the intern But we also have to win against the company decides they're going to go into a purchase process if it's business to business They don't just look at your product. They'll make a short list of products And you got to beat everybody else that's on the short list too Now typically if I talk to sales, they won't be thinking about status quo as a competitor So they don't count that if I talk to product They're tracking every single potential competitor that we that might come out of the woodwork in the next 10 years Because they're thinking about product roadmap and that's fine for product roadmap But in positioning I do not have to worry In marketing and sales about positioning against phantom competitors I only have to worry about positioning against What is actually a competitor in the minds of customers today If some other new competitor pops out of the woodwork 10 years from now No problem. We'll adjust the positioning then. It's not like we're going to carve positioning in stone and never look at it again But the positioning the best positioning I can do right now Clearly positions your product against the alternatives, which is status quo and anybody who commonly lands on A short list against you and that's it So we don't have to position against all 90 competitors It's usually a quite a short list actually when we get down to it Love that because I think it's also this misconception around just shipping features for the sake of it and beating the competitor Well, sometimes it's it's it's just different Yeah, so let's say we get alignment between product marketing sales CEO We all follow methodology and you know feel good about it Then what how do you go from paper to reality? Yeah, so there's a handful of things When I started doing positioning work You know marketers if marketers are doing positioning work the first thing they want to do after we get all in agreement Like so we'll get the gang together. We'll all agree on. Okay. Here's who we compete with here's how we're different This is our differentiated value. These are the customers that are really good fit for our stuff This is the market we intend to win. Okay. Good. We've got the positioning Let's go and what marketers want to do is they want to do messaging next, right? So, okay, great So let's change the headline on the web page and let's redo all the copy and let's go nuts on on messaging um I honestly think there's a good step to do before that which is We kind of want to validate the positioning first Now most people will think that we'll validate the positioning with messaging, right? Like we'll we'll you know Maybe we'll a b test the headlines or the homepage or whatever And that's actually a test of messaging and you know and a lot of other things a test of web page design and a bunch of other things But it's not actually a pure test of positioning like you don't know if the positioning was bad Or you just did a bad job writing copy around it So I actually think if you're selling b2b and you have a sales team The best thing to do with positioning once you have it is to take that positioning and craft A sales pitch deck out of it So I call this a sales narrative. So we'll craft a sales narrative And then we'll build a pitch from that which is usually a deck a demo or a script And then sales and marketing together or in this gig product marketing if you have it together take that Pitch and go test it out on some customers and see how it does and so What you're looking for is does it work better than the old pitch? So are there places where people are getting really excited or are there places where people are getting confused? Um typically in the work I do with companies that I work with we'll do the positioning We'll craft a sales narrative sales and marketing will work together on a sales narrative They'll train someone on the sales team to deliver it and marketing and sales Will then go and do a bunch of these pitches and they'll be tuning the narrative as they go along depending on how the competitor how the uh prospects react to it Once you've done a handful of those And you know my pass fail criteria on this is if we do a bunch of pitches And we tune it a little bit that we'll get to a point at some point where the sales person will say, you know what? This is good. I like this better than the old one I'm not going back to the old pitch and you can stop sitting in on online calls April we're good at that point. I would consider that a pass I would then take that sales rep let them train the rest of the sales team on the pitch And then we're ready to go start working on messaging I think we actually need to validate with customers first before we get into copy Because we might learn something in those pitches with actual live customers about You know particular terminology or particulars in the way we tell the story So we want to validate with customers first then we go to message you And I know there are multiple tools out there that Enable that at scale and can literally identify what are some of the things that resonate as part of sales pitch And um, eventually, you know, just get those good practices across the board because in large organizations with multiple sales reps at a time I can imagine someone saying, you know, that's great. April, but I know how to sell I tell my story I take my notes on the spreadsheet No sales people hate a new pitch They just hate it. It doesn't matter. Your pitch could be Like golden it could be perfect, but it is not the old pitch and everybody's used to the old pitch So when you come with a new pitch nobody wants your new pitch ever So usually what I would do if I come with the new pitch The first thing I would do is I'm not going to try to roll it out to everybody all at once But forget it right because it would be a mute need in sales. They would just say no get lost We're met, you know, we're comfortable with the old one. So usually what I would do is I would pick one I would pick my best sales rep Sometimes it actually be the vp sales if the vp sales does a lot of sales calls I do it with the vp sales But if the vp sales is more of a manager and not an actual sales person then I would take the best rep And I've trained them.  Here's how you pitch it This is the way he's do it. This is the way this demo is going to work So we train for a while right we'd hang out before we go unleash it on customers And then we do this iterative thing on customers like pitch it and then me and the rep would go back Okay, what worked and what didn't work? Okay, let's let's pitch this because a rep knows like especially if you've got a good rep They know what's working and what's not in a pitch While they're in it. So if you catch them right after and say, okay, what worked and what didn't let's tune it Let's tune it. Let's tune it and my whole goal is to get to a point where the best rep I've got says this is a better pitch than the old one because that's a moment And then if I can convince the best rep on the team that this is a better pitch than the old one Then I make that rep go sell the rest of the team. I don't do it. You do it Like your job is to get all these people To use this new pitch and generally that's better Because the sales team will believe the best rep more than they're going to believe me Right, the best rep is going to come and say look, I've done seven pitches This works way better than the old one You guys got to try this out and then we'll train the team and stuff But yeah, it nobody likes the new pitch. Everyone hates the new pitch. You got to work your way into it So how can product empower and help and marketing and sales teams Position the product because I assume that okay, we tested this it seems like it has an X We have a sales champion who's convincing the sales the sales mix to use the pitch and now really for prime time We need to do this at the scale Well, so there's a bunch of things where it's super important for products So first of all what I'm saying marketing in this a lot of the times is product marketing If you're big enough to have product marketing function This is in my opinion the cornerstone of what a good product manager is doing good product manager is Working with the sales team making the sales team making sure the sales team position stuff correctly Making sure that everybody understands now on the product side We typically think about a shift in positioning Um, the immediate impact is there's an impact on marketing and sales There's an impact in the pitch and there's an impact in the way we talk about the product So messaging this is the immediate impact the later impact comes from How does this actually impact the way we prioritize features and what we're actually going to build So if you think about it like um, I'll give you an example I worked at a company where um, we sold the thing and we thought it was a database like it was a database The founders were database guys. They built this sci-fi database There was a bunch of patents and it could do a certain kind of Analytic query really really fast. So that was their whole thing super high performance on analytic queries and at some point we repositioned it to A data warehouse for machine generated data, that's what we were and so in that shift Now you can think about it at the beginning It just changed our pitch the product was the same But it changed the way we contextualized it But if you went back to then we went back to product It's like well hang on If we're not a database anymore and what we are is a data warehouse for machine generated data Like our old product roadmap was all about Making us a better database like what are the features we need to get you to be you know Feature parity with things like Oracle like the other big databases out there Whereas if you look at um a data warehouse, there's a bunch of other things that matter there So in the data warehouse like what were we like we didn't even have reporting Which is kind of a key data warehouse thing So the first thing the product team did was they're like look We're going to have to fill this reporting gap in the short term Which we did through some api stuff and some strategic partnerships with reporting vendors And then we started working on some in-house dashboarding and reporting so that we had some capability internally So this shift in the way you think about the product Is absolutely going to have an impact on your product roadmap and that's where I think product management Needs to really understand the positioning and understand the longer-term impacts of okay So if this is the market we intend to win What does our product need to look like in order to stay ahead of that market next year and the year after in the year after And how do we work with development to make sure we're building the right stuff to really deliver on this positioning Not just today, but the next release of the one after You know in dick at least in silicon, but I've heard so many found they're saying We are the amazon for x or the uber or if uber and pinterest had a challenge We will be and and they in their mind it's super clear right, but in reality What is going on? What's your table this type of definitions when the product is is complicated or too technical you're using A more mainstream product All right, so here's here's where this stuff comes from This whole uber we're uber for whatever or we're you know facebook for whatever rb and b for whatever This the only place where this is even remotely interesting is in a vc pitch So if i'm pitching to raise money It makes a lot of sense for me to compare myself to some high girls unicorn thing whatever Because your pitch your positioning For an investor is really really different than your positioning for a customer So you're positioning for an investor is all about look, you know Great changes are at work here and the world is changing and there's going to be winners and losers Because the market is turning itself upside down. There's going to be fire and explosions And after the smoke clears, we're winning and everybody else is losing That's what we're going to be and this actually works pretty good in an investor pitch because you're pitching the vision You're pitching the future Typically the product that you have right now is not the reason people are investing in you They're investing in you for the thing that you're going to be able to do with five years 10 years whereas Our pitch for customers Is not that at all So our pitch for customers if we might talk a little bit about the vision but in general The customer is giving you their cold hard cash right now For the thing you can do right now you have to prove that there is value today Because if all you got is value a year from now Maybe i'll just wait i'll buy your stuff a year from now when you got that cool stuff call me back And i'll buy it a year from now. So if i need to have urgency and sales right now I need to pitch this in a way that that is clear for the customer. Here's the value you get right now Now here's the problem When you say to a customer a not tech person Imagine maybe even a person who doesn't live in silicon valley and you say, you know I'm uber for cats What does it mean? Does it mean the cats drive the car? Does it mean you know like and and do do people think the thing because if you say you're uber for cats to a vc I think a vc might think about, you know You know the way the business model of uber But if you just talk to a person a buyer that isn't in this vc bubble And say you're uber for cats, it's going to be what does it have to do with cars? What does this have to do with taxis nothing? And so it comes with all of this baggage So you might you might think uber means xyz, but your buyers might say well uber means, you know uber means Nobody makes any money uber means whatever Like there's a bunch of baggage that comes with that So I think you're better to be clear And and if you're going to position yourself you need to position yourself in a market Which means I need to position myself so that the customer understands A comparable that is very much like me. So what are you? Are you crm? Are you database? Are you chat? Are you email? What are you uber is not a market uber is a company? And it's you know and lots of people have lots of different associations with that And unless you happen to be in the rideshare market, why would you compare yourself to that? You're just going to confuse people you're going to say what you're in the you're in the ride hailing market What are you talking about? So I I really hate this uber for whatever comparison. I don't know why people do it and I think it's bad positioning Um, I mean I'm sure that a lot of product people are listening to you right now getting excited thinking. Oh my god I need to bring this to my CEO, right? Or like we need to reposition Certain products. How can someone who doesn't really have all the decision-making power in the world can escalate that so hopefully somebody else can hear can listen Yeah, so I know a lot about this because this used to be this used to be the thing that I did all the time So if we back it up back when I was a VP marketing, so you would hire me as the vice president marketing I had product marketing underneath me. I'm the new vice president marketing I come in and I know a lot about positioning and after a few weeks new on the job You'd start to get this inkling like you know what I think the positioning here is bad And I can see it and I can see it at the results of what's going on in marketing And I'm hearing one story from sales and another one from product and another one from the CEO and I'm like Oh, yeah, the positioning here is not so great. And so There's two things I could do if I'm a rookie, what do I do if I'm a rookie I go I go walk into the CEO's office and say your positioning is terrible. We should fix it You know and what's likely to happen there is the CEO is going to go Who the heck are you? You've been here for five minutes. Like you don't know he like the problem is you You don't understand it. You just need to understand It's sometimes the CEO might be right. Maybe maybe I don't understand. Maybe there is something I don't get Here's a better way to do it.   I'm brand new. I don't know anything I'm just here to listen in on some sales calls So I would listen in on some sales calls and then I would start pointing stuff out. I'd say Hey, did you hear on that last call where the customer said? Hey, are you guys like sales force and we're not anything like sales force like that's bad Why do you think customers compare us to sales force? He's not good Did you notice that you got all the way through the pitch and right near the end the guy the guy thought We were this instead of this. Did you notice that? Hey, did you notice when you got to that this part that people were still asking questions about Stuff you were doing at the very beginning and if I to ask this question enough Eventually, I'd be having lunch with the c or at the VP sales and say You know, you ever notice that people compare us to competitor that we don't compare to or they don't really understand What we do and and generally the VP sales if the positioning is weak the VP sales knows this they've seen this right So VP sales say yeah, it happens all the time like I don't know what it is But it's it's bad, you know our marketing's bad and I'll say well, I got theory I think we got kind of weak positioning I have we ever looked at the positioning. Did we ever do a formal positioning exercise? No, it's always the answer to that No, we haven't and I say all right.  I mean like hey I'm hanging out with sales And I keep seeing there's this confusion between whether or not we're a crm or whether or not we're an email You ever see that out in the field like when you're out and about and like what are we doing about that? And so it same thing eventually I'd be having lunch with the head of product and I'd be like I suspect That we got sort of loose positioning here and we need to tighten it up What do you think right and so eventually I get that I get the head of product in if Sometimes I go do the same thing over and customer success because they're responsible for account expansion So I go in hey when you're pitching expand the center accounts like don't you ever hear this you ever notice this And so now everybody's a little conscious of it Then I go to the ceo and I say look I'm not saying the positioning is bad because I'm new here. I don't know nothing but I don't you know Have we ever done a formal positioning exercise to validate the positioning we've got Because I suspect I'm not saying it's bad, but I suspect we can tighten it up And I'll tell you I hear something a little bit different from sales versus product versus marketing versus customer success And the CEO generally you know the CEO always responds when you go in and have that call they say What's john and sales say That's always what they say and I'll say I don't know man. We should call him.  Yeah, I got april do marketing lady in my office here and she's talking about this positioning thing And what do you think? Guy in sales. Well, I just I've already worked him over He says he's a little yeah, I've been thinking, you know, maybe we should look at this a good idea Then he might make a couple more calls and that's how I get him in but I gotta work everybody else before I get to the CEO And then the key is now I've got agreement. Let's come together and look at it. I'm not saying it's wrong I'm saying let's just look at it and it is what it is Maybe we'll get exactly the positioning that we thought we had but let's just validate it So all right now I got the game together, but but this is perilous now I got the game together I can't just get them all together and say, okay, so let's just you know Why does everybody love our stuff and have this battle of opinions if we get everybody together We've got to work through a structured positioning exercise if we don't we're dead So once it's step one work the team step two get the CEO on board step three get the gang together But then you got to make sure we got a process. Okay. Here's how it's going to go. I'm going to facilitate Here's the steps. We're going to walk through the steps and we're going to validate what we've got And that's how you get it done in my opinion Love it. Um, this has been fantastic. April and I would love to continue chatting with you and unfortunately we are up But um, how can we learn more about your book and your working journal? Yeah, so I so I wrote a book that kind of describes this positioning exercise And when I talk about bringing the gang together we got a methodology My book Is is essentially my attempt at writing that process down Like so if you wanted to do this yourself internally and get the gang together and do an exercise My book can give you a guide book for you know one way to do that The work I do as a consultant is I work directly with companies that want to do that process But they want to have somebody from outside the company be the facilitator and ideally someone who's you know An expert on this stuff and it's done it a couple hundred times Um, so I do that so my book is on amazon It's you know, it costs like eight bucks or something you can buy it there And then otherwise my website is april dunford.com and you can you like follow me on twitter I don't really do anything on social media, but occasionally i'm on twitter and i'm at april dunford on twitter You follow me there. Thank you so much Thanks for joining me. Thanks