Good morning, good day, good evening, wherever you might be joining us from, whatever time zone. We're delighted to have you for another episode of the nonprofit show. We're really excited today because we have one of our favorites back on, Jack, Alotto, Ignacio, Nacho. And he is also the birthday boy. Yes, that's right. It is today is my birthday. Awesome. Well, we got you. I don't know if you can see the screen. I can. A special birthday crown that you get to wear. And so we are so excited to have you back on. I was telling my team, I was like, oh my God, I haven't spent any time with you. So I'm really excited to be able to do this. Yeah. Thank you. I'm getting ready to take a trip to Arizona just to have lunch with you. Well, yeah, do it. Do it while the weather's good, man. Nice. Good time. Well, hey, everybody. We are here because we have amazing partners like Jack Alotto from Fundraising Academy at National University. But our sponsors also include Blumerang, American Nonprofit Academy, Your Part-Time Controller, Nonprofit Thought Leader, Staffing Boutique, Nonprofit Nerd, and Nonprofit Tech Talk. These are the folks that really come with us day in and day out. We have surpassed our 900th episode. We're marching towards 1,000 shows, which will happen around the first of the year. And you can find those all on, as I like to call them, our sexy new app. You can get us through streaming broadcasts and certainly podcasts. Wherever you consume your content, we're going to be with you and we're going to be there to help support your organization. Okay, Jack, we have so many questions. And I love this question. I held it back because I wanted you to answer it. And I might float it to some other of your members of your team. But this is fascinating. And I did take their name off because I didn't want it to be identifiable. But it comes to us from Los Angeles. And the question is, I have a new donor added to my portfolio that I just met with. Honestly, I'm not sure if we're a good fit. The vibe is not there. Should I try to get another development officer to take them into their portfolio? Really good question. It's a great question. And you know, it gives me the opportunity to talk about one of the most beautiful and elegant tools that we have at the fundraising academy. And maybe this bad vibe is the result of having different social styles. Everybody has a different social style. Maybe the donor or the prospect has an analytical social style where they just want facts, figures. They want you to progress in a logical order towards talking to them about your cause. And maybe your style is more of a applicable person. You are more touchy-feely. You want to get to know the person better, but they just want the facts and figures. So before you push that person on, or that prospect to another development professional, try to figure out their social style, and then try to figure out your social style. That's what you could do that free of charge by going to mylearningportal.org at the fundraising academy and watching our webinars on social style. One of the best webinars, and I looked at it this morning that we have there, is on being flexible with your social style. Flexing, being able to determine your donors, our prospect's social style, and flexing to communicate with them. Here's the thing about social styles. It's all about communication. If your donor just wants the facts, then that's the way you're going to communicate with them. So this, before you ask another person to do it, be versatile with it with your social style. Figure out theirs, figure out yours, and then try to communicate with them in their social style the way they want to be communicated with. You know, I didn't think that that's at all what you were going to say, so I love that. I also think, and tell me what your sense of this is, Jack, because I feel like this is not going to be the only time this happens for Name With Health. And so maybe it is really important to do what you're saying. Take that step back. Be a little bit more reflective about what those social styles are, because ultimately you could do the pass-off, and it might not work for somebody else, right? That's right, yeah. Oh, that could happen. You know, early in my career, I remember my supervisor, who I learned so much from her, she and I were touring through a facility that where I was working, and I could tell that she was not getting along with the donor. They just were not communicating. And I remember after the meeting, she turned to me, my boss turned to me and said, from now on, you're going to deal with their not. So maybe it was just a communication clash. And now we have some tools, especially in our cost-selling cycle, where you could get some tools to help you deal with that. Yeah, I love that. And I think, too, you know, Jack, with so many people having been working from home or in smaller groups, we're probably all a bit rusty on this social aspect. So maybe this is just a great thing to be investing in in terms of, you know, time and energy and looking at your own mind and saying, where do I fit and how can I work through this? Because, you know, as we start to, you know, convene more in person, I can see there's going to be some social duress. Yep. Oh, yeah. Absolutely. Really interesting. Okay, good. Well, I hope that helps the name with health. Let's go to, pardon me, Sean from Henderson, Nevada. Now, this is another one that I thought of you when this question came in. Sean writes, I'm setting my goals for 2024. How critical is it from my career and income to have the CFRE accreditation? I am not sure if this is worth my personal and financial investment. Please advise. So why did I think of you when I saw this question?  I had five study groups this past year.  We had a study group specifically for marginalized communities of color. Wow. Yeah. And we had 40 people in that. And here's the thing about it. Typically I'm the instructor. I didn't instruct. I found six fabulous people of color to lead a study group of people of color. Next year, in fact, I just got confirmation. We're going to do two additional study groups other than the ones that we normally do. One is going to be for Muslim professional developments, development professionals. And the second one is going to be for Latinx communities. We're trying to grow our community and definitely have more diversity and access, which is really important to me. But here's the thing about CFRE. So when you achieve the CFRE, you demonstrate that you have a certain degree of fundraising knowledge, which is really important. And I looked at CFRE as an ethical assurance that you are going to follow ethical practices, not only to your donors, but also to the leadership. I looked yesterday at a previous webinar I did, and it was based on the responses of current CFREs to three important things. Here's what the CFREs say. 89% of current CFREs say they have enhanced professional opportunities. That's key. That's a reason to do it. In fact, I talked to someone yesterday who was in a study group, he achieved a CFRE, lives in Ohio. He said that the offers for jobs are coming in. That's what that 89% says. 92% of CFREs said that since they've gotten that certificate, they have more confidence in their ability to do it. One of the most incredible things that happened to me this year was a woman sent me an email, and she said in that email, I have achieved the CFRE, and I want to tell you, Jack, I've gotten rid of a lot of my imposter syndrome as a result, which I thought was awesome. Women, people of color have this imposter syndrome. Some men as well, and she was able to get rid of some of that. The third statistic I will tell you about, 93% of CFREs say they would highly recommend it to their colleagues, the people that they work with in their institution that they should also see deep as CFRE. I think those three statistics fell at all. Jack, can you really quickly, before we move on, and I realize you're not an employee of the organization and all that, but what's a realistic cost and time investment? How long is this journey going to take? I know a lot of people who've taken that test many, many times and have not been able to pass it. Yeah, and my whole big thing is I believe in the power of yet. They just haven't passed it yet, but they could pass it. As far as money, I mean, I recommend three books, and you can get all of those used. I think one of the key books is to get the CFRE study guide. It's the only book they publish. It's about 45 bucks, 50 bucks. You get these used. I think it takes 80 hours of study. In your home state, I talked to a guy last year who had been in the prison system in Arizona and he got out of the prison system and he decided he was going to dedicate his life to working with the prison system around faith-based initiatives. He got his CFRE, and I talked to him on the phone and I said, how long do you think it took? And he said it took him 80 hours of study, and I think that's the key. He knew how much time it would take. The cost to certify and take the test, it's probably about 1,000. I'm going to guess at that. Don't involve me too, but you could go to their website and check out what they say there. And of course, anyone could reach out to me. I'm happy to chat about it. I'm one of their ambassadors. Yeah. Well, you're an evangelist for sure, and I know that it's really an important thing. We have a viewer that just wrote in, I spent about five months studying. Three of those were very in-depth. So thank you for jumping in on that, because again, I think you're not just learning for a test. You're learning for your career and your profession, and so pulling this all together. So that's a great thing. And that viewer, I congratulate him or her. Wow, what commitment, determination. Isn't that a beautiful thing in that viewer? Determination, focus, and a goal-setting to achieve something. I love it. They're going to be successful in their life, whoever that is. That's cool. Thank you. That's great. I'm glad that you said that. And I think that's really powerful and a good opportunity. I think on the nonprofit show, we're all about elevating our sector, making us more professional, earning more money, getting more respect, organizing ourselves so that we can be more competitive in the for-profit and for the nonprofit sector, too. So I'm all about, however, we can navigate ourselves towards better things, right? And you do that five days a week, Julie. You and Jared, I have to applaud you. And I'm going to say to my friends at the fundraising academy, they do it all the time, too. Yeah. And it becomes a mindset. And I think that's what the CFRE thing really helps you achieve, too, with that. Okay. Well, let's go to our next question. I knew you would be like the perfect person to ask that, Jack. But Roland and Stephanie from Tampa, Florida, right in, we're thinking about setting up a board training or onboarding for new board members. Would it be a good idea to do this with a few other nonprofits in our area? Or should this debt be done only with our own nonprofit? We're trying to be efficient and cheap. I love that. I don't call it cheap. I call it cost-effective. Here's the thing about this. I think that joint board trainings are effective to a point. And let's think about some of the topics that would work for an organization that's a ballet company and an organization that's a social service organization. So here's to the point where it would be good to get them together. Well, first of all, they'll form a cohort. They'll be some bonding. All of the legal stuff will be the same for the state of Arizona or California. All of the federal stuff will be the same. The role of the board as stewards of mission will be the same. The role of the board as stewards of finances, policy, creation, all of those things will be the same. They would say separate them and do specific trainings on your programs. The programs of a ballet company, they should train their board members specifically on that. A homeless shelter on homelessness, the statistics, the need, et cetera. So one size in that way doesn't fit all. Board tenure, gift acceptance policies, they may be different. The ballet company may accept plan gifts. The social service agency may not. So it wouldn't be a good thing to put them together. But on lots of things, legal things, state, federal laws, et cetera, the IRS, and in Canada, the taxing authority of Canada, all of those things would be important. Yeah. I like your approach where you maybe do a general onboarding for folks in the nonprofit sector and then doing that next piece which would be a breakout for those individual groups because undoubtedly they're going to be internal issues that are different. But yeah, I mean, I think that when we do our board trainings, one, I'm always astonished by how much board members don't know in terms of just the basic compliance issues and how there's a fiduciary issue here and a responsibility. So maybe to kind of pull that aside and make that more community focused, if you will, that it's not just the ballet or the zoo or the temple or the church, right? It's like literally something that is a standardized issue. And then moving aside to what that individual organization does, I think it's really, really a good idea. Yeah. Yeah, I like that approach. I think that's smart. Well, I hope Roland and Stephanie and that this helps. And I do follow Jack's word, don't be cheap, be cost effective. That always sounds better. All right. Let's go on to Anna from New Orleans. Pardon me. What do you think about starting up a junior or young professionals board? We're kicking around the idea and it seems like it'll take a lot of work on our staff's part. Any ideas on how to make this more successful if we do it? Yeah. So I think the first question that has to be answered is what are your goals? Yeah. What do you want to do? A lot of organizations say, hey, you know, we need more young professionals involved in our organization. Fine, I get that. Every organization that's, you know, prospecting bringing in younger people is really important. But when you set up a junior board, so to speak, you have to have, and it will take a lot of work. Some organizations say, hey, we're going to set up this junior board. They recruit to get people and then they have no idea what they're going to do. It just sits right. And they just sit there. That's the thing that, so aside from having goals, I think that you have to plan what are the benefits to the members? What membership benefits are you going to give to this junior board? What are the benefits? And what are you going to ask them to do? Right? Right? So I mean, answer those questions first. And then if you have, you know, a really said goal, then I would say go. Yeah.  But I want to be careful about ageism. You know, we don't want to look like we're ages because we think they're going to bring something different than those 50 and 60 year olds on the board now. So be careful with that too, guys. I know, you know, I just, I've been in Maui for the week and I was working with the credit union executive society, which is kind of like the professional governing body of credit unions, which are nonprofits. And I was brought over to work with them and their members on attracting, cultivating, retaining next-gen talent. And it was so interesting because the average board member in that world is pushing 80 years old. And so they were like looking at me as a 61 year old thinking that I was next-gen. And I was like, yeah, no. And it was so fascinating to work with them and kind of help them to understand who's coming up, how they work, and why it's different. I'm a big, a proponent of young professional boards. I don't think they should be called junior boards. I think they should be young professional boards. I also think that you can underwrite this. I think there are so many large organizations who look to the value of board service as a training piece and marketing piece. I don't know why you couldn't do this, but yeah, you're going to have to, you're going to have to have somebody from your team navigate this and manage it because it's not going to, this is the whole thing. It's a platform for training. Right? Yeah. Julia, how about if you're on the original board and your staff comes and you say, hey, guess what, we're going to form this new junior board of young professionals. How is that going to make your other board members feel? Oh, a new and improved board is coming to save the organization. Old and tired, it's got to go. So I would be careful of those kinds of things. Yeah, I think it's true. And I also think that it's a, it's a way, I loved how what you started and that is, you know, advising Anna to say, what are your goals? Like, why are you even trying to do this?  Or do you see something specific that you can, you know, put into place and manage it and measure it and then determine if it's working. And there are other ways to involve young people. I knew a ballet company that used to do ice cream social for younger professionals after work or go into their workplace and do, you know, like ice cream giveaway or something like that to get them involved in the nonprofit. And those things were very effective. Yeah, smart. Yeah, I think that's really, really cool. Well, let's do, we only really have time for one more question. And so let's get that dealt with. Judy from Portland, Oregon writes in, we have professional dollars to spend in Q one of 2024. And I think we should have someone come in and talk about fundraising to our whole team, including programming. I'm getting some resistance to this idea. This is a fascinating question. Help me sell this to our leadership. We all need to know how to fundraise. Yeah. Very interesting. I love this question. And I love this person from Portland, Oregon, Oregon because what she's trying to do is create a culture of philanthropy where everyone in the organization, program staff, board, other staff, everyone understands the importance of fundraising. And so kudos to her. A first. And then secondly, I think that we have to understand that money fuels mission. It's what keeps our organization advancing that mission and doing that. So yes, I urge her to go to that, the leadership and talk about a culture of philanthropy and how that culture of philanthropy will bring in more financial resources to the organization and how that will really advance their mission even further than where they are now. Yeah. I agree. And you know, I love that you phrased it that way because after listening to you, I realize there's a bigger issue with this organization. If they're not even thinking that, that they don't celebrate or perpetuate or even steward a culture of philanthropy, this is kind of like a pretty big picture. It's not just for those people in that room over there, right? Right. It's everybody. And I think that's an important thing. So yeah, Judy, good luck with that. I mean, it's, it's, wow, it's, it's bigger than just an event in Q1 of next year. And you know, Julia, I don't know in your career, but in my career, some of the biggest gifts I ever received were because program staff understood the culture of philanthropy and they talked to donors. Physicians would talk to transformational donors about the importance of the work they would do or social workers, whatever. So yeah, get them on board. Yeah, I absolutely think that I've never been a professional fundraiser, but I've certainly been a fundraiser throughout my community as two, two additional generations back and now my child moving forward as a, as an additional generation. And when you can communicate the passion and the need and the commitment to why we all need to be a part of this, that's magical. And so you can't just, I think, and it's not sustainable if you're just like, write me a check and then I'll write you one next time you ask me. I mean, it's got to be deeper than that. I mean, that's what Fundraising Academy has really enlightened me about is that, that whole concept of, you know, relationships and relationship management and, and why and how we do things. So yeah, it's very profound. And I agree with you. I don't think that it's just something that is for the development team. Right. You know, it's not. It's, it's, um, you're going to be hog tying yourself if it's just the development team. Right. Yeah. And, and, and fails at Fundraising fails happen when it's just the development team. Yeah.  It's too much. It's a team sport. Right. It's a team sport. Well, but happy birthday to Jack Ignacio Nacho. A lot of thank you so much. I love you. And I'm so happy to see you today. It's beyond belief. I'm over the moon. Well, me too. Me too. It's been a lot of fun. I always love your wisdom and your joy that you serve with and how you educate us. And so I hope you get to have a fabulous birthday. You should have some nachos. I will. With that birthday. I'm just saying with birthday cake, because, you know, Nacho a lotto has to have nachos for his birthday. I'm just absolutely. Thank you so much. I'm just saying, hey, you know, check out fundraising dash academy dot org. And really they have such amazing programming, free programming, thoughtful programming, team building programming. They, they're adding to their content all the time. So this is not stale stuff. This is stuff that's really navigating a changing society, a changing workforce and a changing nonprofit sector. And so really amazing information that will help any organization, whether you're in the fundraising part of your organization or not. I mean, just in general, the nonprofit sector, I think there's a magical things going on there. Jack, we're going to be announcing pretty soon about your fundraising academy next big event coming in the spring. Cultivate, which is going to be fun. Yeah. And so we'll be talking about that as well. And I will be there this year. Cool. Yeah. It's on my calendar. And somebody wrote in happy birthday, Jack. We love and appreciate you. Thank you. That's awesome. That's really cool. Hey, everybody. We have speaking of awesome. We have awesome supporters here at the nonprofit show. They include Lumerang American nonprofit academy, your part-time controller, nonprofit thought leader, fundraising academy at National University, where Jack comes to us from, staffing boutique, nonprofit nerd and nonprofit tech talk. These are the folks that are with us day in and day out on special birthdays like today for Jack Alotto and every day. So we have a lot of cool things coming up going towards the end of the year and in the new year. We're booking out. We're already almost booked out with guests through the first of the year into February. And we have some really interesting guests and every day, Jack, as you know, it's a different day and something fun to learn. So as we like to end every episode of the nonprofit show, especially on a birthday date like today, with Jack Alotto, we want to send this message along to everyone and it is to stay well so you can do well. We'll see you back here next week. Thank you, everybody. Thank you, Jack.


Yesterday was the most amazing day. I wanted to tell my friend back home about it, so I am writing her a letter. Dear Penelope, life in Washington D.C. is interesting. I see something new every day, like yesterday. Yesterday started like a usual workday. I said yesterday started like a usual workday. I was at work, and I wanted a break, so I walked, and walked, and walked, and walked. Listen. Yesterday started like a usual workday. Listen. I wanted a break. Then I saw something. It was a festival, a big festival. It's the Smithsonian Folklife Festival. Yes, it was the Smithsonian Folklife Festival. Every year, the festival shows different cultures. This year, one of the cultures was the Basque culture. There was dancing, and food, and games. A traditional Basque dance. At the festival, I danced a traditional Basque dance. They are cooking traditional Basque food. They cooked a lot of traditional Basque food. They are playing a game. It's a kind of handball. What do they call it? They call it pelota.  It's a kind of handball, but this game is called pelota. Beautiful. This is traditional Basque art, a traditional Basque ship. This festival is a lot of fun. The whole day was a lot of fun. I want to write my friends and tell them about my day. Listen. Then I saw something. Listen. It was a festival. To tell you about my day, please, my friend, come visit Washington, D.C. soon. There is a lot to do. Until next time, honor.


Hi to welcome everybody back to the independent investor channel live stream for Friday 9 o'clock eastern standard time and give everybody just a chance to make their way in here It's been a interesting week for me. It's like getting kicked in the growing over and over and over and over again this week So as good as last week was it was about as equally as bad for me It's no problem I can reach into the archives for A lot of new investors that are making their way to the investing opportunity right now And trying to make sense of it. I've been doing this a long long time and things are pretty crazy right now I don't I don't know if i'm losing touch Uh, because you know, I've got those tried and true methods of market investing and i'm always trying to Stay as aggressive as I can with my application and you know trying different strategies deploying different things and in the market and You know good on me some of it works some of it doesn't some of the successes come from the lowliest of places And other things that I feel like are You know are my best assets Really don't don't turn out that well. It's just amazing to me how The market can be such a fickle environment for wealth building But I'd like to pose everybody with the simple question and rhetorical question. Where else are you going to go? Um, what else are you going to do in this life to try to? Um establish Some buckets of wealth that pay you back over time It's difficult When you start like I did from scratch and you start from zero and you don't come from any type of head start whatsoever I've had a few Interesting things that have helped accelerate that along just a little bit But I've also had my fair share of downturns. I've had my fair share of you know Hiccups in the market and we are long and I'm talking long overdue for that It seems to me the pulse in the market now Is very complacent We get a hiccup of a couple percent. Everybody loses their mind I I I don't know if we're just shaping up To be just the the worst entry into 2022 that we've ever had in the market I'm we're we're here at all-time highs right now and the market just keeps shrugging along It's really quite amazing and and for a student of the game I I'm intrigued. I really am I I don't know how people sit On the sideline and and and do not participate in financial markets, uh, You know warren buffett makes a Interesting comment that you know if a stock runs up 900 percent You shouldn't be happy. You should be scared. It should freak you out And it's kind of the same application that I have with this market. I don't know where it comes from I I don't know, you know, I'm not um, you know, I'm not a a financial Steward in so far as understanding You know the current environment now and what that could mean for financial markets on the horizon It just feels like something is awry That's what it feels like to me What does it mean for independent investor? In independent investors out there Not a whole lot typical long-term approach to the market Yeah, if you can Find your place in the market and if it is confusing to you and you're wondering what cryptocurrency to buy Because you don't want to buy the s&p 500 There is an order of operations to entering into the financial markets and There's just a few products and a few methods that really do work on the onset for any investor out there Starting that Roth IRA of a self-directed nature. That's the key niche on the on the channel and it just would Tickle me if we could talk about it a little more as if it was commonplace. I I would love You know other channels to kind of You know be recommending this to to new investors I'm I'm just not sure if there's a whole lot of investors out there That are interested in You know the the long-term passive program and I think it's absolutely the best way if you want to approach Investing and and seek out those more aggressive avenues to the market You can absolutely do that But but do it in due time give yourself a chance to establish that bucket That's going to be there and it's going to be your old iron side throughout thick and thin Ups and downs in the market. It'll always be there for you to fund and I know there's a lot of community members out there That have taken me up on this tried and true advice really everything else is is uncivilized It is try to stock pick your way to financial wealth. It's interesting enough and you're going to make money with dividends I A dividend is just about as close to a guarantee in the stock market as I can ever ever get right now Down 17 percent my AT&T position That was supposed to just be the the end all be all of a nice high paying six to seven percent Dividend payer because they were making money hand over fist But it's amazing to me how you put these collective strategies all in the same portfolio And it's as if 2021 if I was going to chalk it up to you guys give you an analogy of what's going on how I'm feeling In 2021 it's it's it's all about kind of just running in quicksand This year I I think slowly we're getting ahead Last week was just a phenomenal week We came off a little bit not quite as bad as I thought it got kicked in the jump this week with highly on Turned out a another fabulous quarter. I I thought And the stock market of course sold off at 15 percent I did not get to listen to the hyzon call this this morning I did read the earnings report and It's amazing to me. I think if highly on we're just to take the unethical road and just start writing things that sound good Instead of telling the truth all the time I think the stock would probably shoot 20 dollars Because I don't know if hyzon and nicola and these other companies live in some sort of fairy tale world But there are big gaps and no no analyst wants to talk about it Nobody wants to talk about the gaps that exist in in these situations. I'm pulling for them I really am I don't I don't wish them not to succeed. I just wish that They could tell the truth delivering 80 units. Where are these units? Where are the validation? What what are they highly on seems to think that they need to validate for the next 68 years before they actually sell this product and it has to be absolutely perfect By the time we get to that point, we're going to have flying semi trucks and it's not going to matter anyway We're not going to need driver buy-in because they're going to be autonomous flying trucks Okay, this is not going to matter at that point So I was a little bit frustrated. I I think the night that the earnings were turned out Uh before I had my opportunity to do my due diligence Then I pushed out the content gave my unique perspective on the company And I I just didn't see it. I just didn't see it. I I did not see How something uh as as good as an order book of 40 new orders that puts them up to about 1590 orders if I'm if my math is correct. I mean, we're looking at 250 orders For a and g nobody talks about that anymore a and g owns the subscription book For highly on to be able to use fuel credits for clients to take a discount even further discount On the natural gas gas purchases specifically the renewable Natural gas purchases that they could inevitably make as a customer of highly on never gets talked about And um, it's it's interesting to me. I I think thomas healy is probably doing the very very best that he can And I think he'll learn I I'm trying to take the high road because a lot of what thomas says And a lot of what he doesn't say is is what i'm kind of critical on and a lot of people A lot of people are are critical the same on this very um very element of It's not charisma. I don't really care about any of that. I I think his focus is on building Um a phenomenal company that's going to be good for the planet and get his solutions out there on the road I get that I just wish that he would earmark I don't think i've ever heard thomas healy talk about driving shareholder value I don't think i've ever heard him say that and I think that's unfortunate I interview a lot of ceos on the independent investor channel and every single one of them talk that way You know, he's drawing a 359 thousand dollar salary The interview that I did with elaine gi this week For you guys that clicked over there and clicked that thumbs up at least for me. Thank you I really appreciate that What what a phenomenal guy does not draw a salary. He only has stock compensation Do you think elaine gi is going to be selling shares? In in his secure product. No, he believes in it and they're they're also making revenue I might add they're trading at 40 cents a share stock pop 16 percent today Again, sorry about that. This is becoming a theme on the independent investor channel where I put promotional content I make a little bit of money for doing so I don't make money doing any of my other methods. This being my most enjoyable It would be great if I could get paid for it. I don't do it to get paid However, I do promotional content to get paid Okay, the irony in the whole thing is people come in and they talk of it. It's a pump and dump That's the big thing that's the escape from thinking is that it's a pump and dump I beg to differ if you fail to go in and actually take a look at some of these companies There's some really interesting stuff coming out right now on the emerging landscape If you if you're not interested in that stuff No problem. I'm interested in all of it. I'm is I'm interested in tesla I don't own the stock, but I'm a steward of the stock market and I think if I can impart to you Any of what it is that I do with my application Finances are intriguing to me And I think that's part of my success is that I'm always looking to drive drive drive As bad as it's been this year for me I still keep chugging along and I think it speaks to my devotion and dedication and There's got to be investors out there that can benefit from A lot of years a lot of ups and downs a lot of tried and true methods a lot of wins Not a whole lot of losses, but some and you learn from them. You really do. I just so happen to be Uh In in deep in the biggest trait of my life right now With highly on so, you know when I look at it I try to look at it through the lens of the ceo And I'm not really trying to apply a whole lot of the criticism that I see online There's some weird stuff. There's some weird stuff and I I'm not really sure if I understand why Banks find it so interesting to jump on the bandwagon with downgrades What is a seven to a five dollar downgrade?  I I don't see the point in it I'm not really sure why the high scrutiny on this particular company. Hell if you think it's going to the pink sheets Why are you spending so much time interested in it? And I I said marked my word man when the Delaney downgrade came Goldman Sachs has increased their position. They just put out another downgrade on it So I don't know what's going on. All I do know is that the sec is asleep at the wheel So thank you for that. It's supposed to be out there protecting people They don't want to protect anybody. They want to allow this circus to to to continue And and why do I mention that as an insight to the the channel and if you're new to my delivery I was with financial institutions for a long time About about about two decades about 20 years. I was with multiple financial planners And it wasn't until the latter part of my Evolution and learning and and asking the right questions. I I think that's where a lot of people go wrong They don't know how to properly scrutinize certain things. They just accept the status quo And as long as they're not being hurt by the status quo, it's okay And so they don't ask those hardened untrue questions. But when I broke away My insight told me that the system In and of itself was aimed at keeping the small person down the system is Exists for the system's benefit, okay and you are a small Insignificant pull on in that game. Okay in that Edward Jones can be on every street corner out there Okay, and to pay that high overhead and rent $5,000 a month $2,500 7500 in some locations. I don't even know it's it's irrelevant. They have no problem It's the best business to ever be in Because it's the only business that I know of that they don't need to have customers coming in And buying product off the shelf. They basically just take your money and make money off of your money That's it in a nutshell Highway robbery and what I'm coming to find out is that I've I've had a few people reach out to me through the yahoo thread And I seemingly am a target. I guess I'm a I'm a retail whale beyond position, which is big for me But why why do why am I a target? Why why do I need to be? Shaken off of my shares. Why is that? And it seems like before we even get this thing moving Unfortunately a lot of retail investors will be shook off of the opportunity, which Honestly guys, I don't wish this upon anybody Because it will be like Robert frost said it will be a path Dodd verged in a wood and I will take the one less traveled by And that will make all the difference. Okay one of my favorites and There is nothing that has proven so true here in the stock market investing and For for you guys that you know are new to this gig I've got multiple strategies multiple applications. Okay, I dive into each one of them every now and then because Instead of being a one channel or a one trick pony on the channel I'd like to be dynamic and I believe that I am I believe I am multiple buckets accounts multiple strategies deployed Some may resonate with some and others that may not But pick pick pick the strategy that is going to be good for you guys and Make it a point to you know come in and Try to resonate with the idea That finances needs to be a lot more And you need to be a lot more involved with your spending list discipline and A perception or a perspective and life that allows you to Um it contribute to your your your personal financial program In a way that you can resonate with don't don't do it because somebody else does it Don't do it because you you're unhappy with what's sitting in your driveway And you're always looking across at the neighbor I always find that funny Gotta make sure that you're doing it for the right reasons and being independent and once you Take that on and you understand the difference between an independent investor program And program like edward jones The disconnect and the differences Can be absolutely black and white and it can make all the sense in the world to you guys. All right So i'd like to welcome everybody. Hope everybody had a wonderful veterans day I'm great to see everybody in the gallery here. We've got a ton of people now that's made their way into the live stream I'm never late. I'm always fired up to talk about my favorite topic Um, you know, some people are good musicians other people are good actors I just just so happen to run the independent investor channel and there's only one of them So welcome guys appreciate seeing each and every one of you guys I See rps in the house man, so i'm gonna drop an invite here I've dropped on to a little live stream rp was doing I think this week anyway Um, I occasionally do that man. I I don't watch a lot of youtube I really don't you got to understand. Um, this youtube thing for me It's interesting man. I I wouldn't say that I'm just fired up all the time to come and create youtube content. I'm really not so Hold on just second Ronnie. I'm a Rp here. This is for you my friend. I told you I'd send you an invite man If you want to kick on here man, I'll bring you on for the whole last part of the The live stream and we can talk highly on between me and you that's totally cool, man Um, but I do want to get into the portfolio reviews. Like I said, we got kicked into growing this week It's no big deal. It happens. I've got iron nuts. It's no big deal But kick in here. We were we were really down this week. Um, we were down Oh, I mean one day I gave back a $15,000 bill. That was lovely That was lovely, but no real changes Amazons come back nicely googles back in the black nicely I've established a couple of the biggest positions. I've ever had my life in these two companies So I'm real stoked real disappointed in Lockheed Martin bowing showing its feet. I wish I could torch AT&T That would be awesome if I could just like seriously get a blow torch and just light it on fire That'd be awesome. I just light it on fire All 326 shares of it or something. I don't know what a dog it's been And then as I have started the transition to the more passive VTI here In the portfolio The idea here is to leverage some of those highly on profits when When they do materialize we're probably looking at a couple years out anyway Um, I really hope I'm wrong. I'm betting on a catalyst at this point I really am and I think I think they're going to surprise to the upside I do next earnings february 22 22 again. I read it evidently I'm just a shithead stock market investor because I read the report and I was happy Everybody else was upset stock sold off. I don't know what type of institutions We're selling But supply chain issues that are being talked about by a 1.5 billion dollar company It is not a reason to Earmark that specific company as the only one that is going through supply chain issues And you know hyzon Strategically put it in their report But basically just said yeah in light of this we're going to deliver 80 trucks this year and I I just I don't understand that I really don't i'm saying one thing Uh, that looks good and then under delivering on the back side That seems to be the way to do it because hyzon popped today at one point up 20 percent It came off pretty heavy but was still up uh sizably and um, you know, I I I don't understand it I I don't want to be uh misconstrued here In my message and if you think i'm wrong, please tell me say ryan. You're really misguided here, man You're you're looking at the wrong stuff here, but um I'm looking at stuff Making my decisions based on what i'm seeing here, but we get back below again Nice swift kick to the uh to the gonads here on this one for sure. That was lovely All right, and this one down again. You can see I I couldn't believe it I was going down doing the reviews and I was like god dang I was down in everything this this week Just horrible disney missed, you know, of course bristol meyers got into them at what nine times forward and and and still they're they're off few bits seven percent Microsoft can do no wrong You know, uh, honestly my passive ETFs are just absolutely killing it keeping me afloat v o o vbk Small cap growth v and q real estate doing fine Sofi we're back in the black there. I took that into some really deep water Really deep water and and she's back up above 23 ish. At least it was for a certain Point been up nicely tail into this week Pfizer's been on fire With tac global tac global share in their product with everybody around the world and stock can't get out of its own way It's down every day. I was up just to touch today anyway But um, you know, we'll see uh visa has been one of my favorites. It's off 10 so like I said got a lot of manure piles sticking around but I'm kind of hopeful hopeful that someday there's a demand for manure out there And that the that I can actually sell this manure at some point I'm sure there's somebody down the line that may in fact want some visa shares down the line. I'm not really sure. We'll see You've heard of these companies anyway. Yeah, so we were down in that. Here's roth 2 Um, not a whole lot of changes. I am satisfied with oil Yeah, big oil's coming back huge So i'm pretty happy with that Exxon mobiles doing doing great alibaba has found its footing. That was nice. They had a huge day Huge huge day before uh veterans day a 78 billion In sales just phenomenal great long play Alibaba great company. Um fabulous fabulous there Now ibm and kd. I I put those in the same category as at&t I I just don't know if they are just dead grapes. I just don't know I see you there rp. Fantastic, man. It's great to see you I get you on here in just a second. Give me about all five more minutes or so just kick back in the vip space I'd pour you scotch if I had one But uh, this is what we've got here, you know the portfolio is taking shape from a framework perspective What I mean by that is this vig. This is the first time I've owned this within the roth And this this is a long To medium term kind of strategy for me to transition these rothi arrays to a little bit more of a passive With a little bit of base in here looking to accelerate the growth with the highly on holding here in here these are large positions in these uh in each of these accounts so um pretty pretty big Shareholding this is this has been a tough one for me. Um, I may have to look at selling some of them for A little bit of tax loss harvesting and it's going to break my heart It really is I'd like to sell as much as I can or as little as I need to To to to offsets about 12,500 dollars in capital gains This year just farting around just doing a little swing trading here in the brokerage account But man, that's going to break my heart man. All of that will go to tax loss this year like I said Everything's just turned to manure and highly on is kind of like a glowing neon green pile of manure right now, but We don't invest for the now we invest for the future man. That's where we are. All right Here's the uh, we can't get this sucker to 20 grand. This is the specialty portfolio 20 grand man This is where some of one channel of my side hustle money goes to So the the the inherent merit message for you guys Is for you guys that are looking to start a side hustle. I don't care if it's ebay.   I love this channel, man. I love it.  This I am an independent investor, man This is what I do but um, it just speaks to I I don't live on this money guys And Geez, man. I I think I thank god every day for my job every day.  All right And here's the dividend growth portfolio. This is doing really well. We need to get this up to 100 grand This is rendered in about two six on the portfolio about 79 holdings across all 10 sectors This is a bad ass portfolio. This is a killer killer way to invest I think we're up to about 600 on this already in rendered dividends So we're doing really really well there and the tsp. I just don't think had a time to click over But over 60 grand here 42 percent on the Personal investment performance over the last year. Um, this is passive investing 101 This is just whipping some ass So you guys that are new to investing man I'll tell you what don't think for a second that you need to come in here and find out some secret sauce from the independent investor channel That that's going to help you obtain riches that that the masses can't enjoy man. This is what it's about This is what it's about and this is just an example of 401k 401k Roth's increased their Um, uh, contribution caps for 2022. Unfortunately, they did not do the same for Roth IRAs Why did they why didn't they do that because it's a powerful tool? That's why Right. They want to keep the thumb on the top of the head of the working man. That's for sure But just started the robin hood account. I'm feeling it out.  It's like I'm in smurf smurf land and I'm investing my money That's why I'm staying close to the the vest. I'm going to make it an aggressive portfolio. I've got vug in it right now It's doing fine. It'll do fine Vig's returned 13 percent of the last jesus umpteen years. I'm good with that until I start to backfill I'd like to put some invidia. I'd like to put some adobe systems in here So robin hood's going to fit the bill for that.  This is a good the aesthetics of this platform. I really do like I've got the mid cap holding in here So this would be a mid cap deal And then here charles schwaab. I started actually 51 58 in that account I've I've invested in a company in this one Uh, I don't want to disclose it yet. Tell you what man. I'm gonna put a little saucer out there I'm gonna disclose it to my viper group if they're interested in it But I'll give you a little hint. Um, it was part of the content that I dropped this week And uh, super super excited about this company man.  He's on point and he is looking to drive shareholder value. All right Here's the crypto. Here's the lottery ticket.  I'm like Jesus man You're gonna evolve as an investor man. It's it's okay And I think some people may pick up on that and be like, you know what Ryan?  Let's just get over that But it's okay for me to evolve as an investor because I involve as an investor and I'm telling you it's okay And I said three or four different times during the video. It's not for everybody. Okay I invested in bitcoin didn't know the first freaking thing what I was doing. It went from 30 to 55 I sold I it was I was up 80 percent in like 40 days Like what the hell is that? So I've got that original 2,500 pulled back to cash and I I decided to go into the shibu inu awimu wa timu And and give my luck a try here. That's a lottery ticket. We'll see what happens Not a whole lot has to happen with 28 million shares But we'll see having a little fun with it guys and after all is said off about About 10 grand from last year's last week off 10 grand and a lot of that had to do with the highly unholding There's no doubt about it. So Guys, there's a pretty good comment group in here But I'm going to bring rp music on because I have been watching rp for a long long time And I want to share his message with you guys. I got a lot of respect I got a lot of respect for a few youtubers. This is one of them. Okay, because The the genuine nature of the approach is very very good Very good channel. So you guys can kick over help him support the message Anyway, let me get this five dollar and 31 cent banner off of the off of the deal here and bring rp What's going on my brother? How you doing man? I'm doing good, man. So talk to me. What do you think about this?  And kind of what your niche is and what your basic message is for for genuine, you know, uh, first time investors things like that So, uh, my name is henry. Uh, I go by dj henry. Uh, I have a channel on youtube. It's rp music tv Uh, I My channel is mostly uh instrumentals and I do like little skits and whatnot Uh, I've had my channel for over 10 years. Um, and I just upload Every now and then but recently I started uh uploading videos on highly on and uh, so a lot of people weren't really covering highly on stock And people that were weren't really giving it a fair shake. So I went ahead and I started covering it I'm not really a big youtuber So, um, I got started making my own little videos and whatnot and you know, people seem to respond well to them I had a couple people, uh Messaging me.  I'm doing the wrong thing whatnot I'm like, why are you so hard trying to convince me? Um to sell my shares in this company? If it's so, uh, if it's so lame to you, why are you bothering with that? But about how about my land here? Oh, yeah, yeah, I've had my fair shake with it But um, now I'm trying to take it a little more serious now and I'm trying to, you know, right now in my basement I'm trying to get a studio set up down here and uh start making a better content for youtube and uh the highly on Discord channel and everybody that follows highly on Yeah, so I don't know if you know this man and you Henry you were making a lot of highly on content for a long time without your face It was just you talking. That's what I remember from the old school I remember your old rp music videos and you were one of About three you and ronnie and paul You guys are the ones that I really liked on the highly on content but Yeah, man, I as far as other people go F it Hi, you gotta just get some tough skin on this man because I I think you do a really good job of Of covering highly on a like it a lot and I think you've got a lot of a lot of potential Um, you know youtube is a cool opportunity as long as you enjoy doing it You know, I feel like a lot a lot of people maybe just do it because it's They're trying to make a lot of money at it Um, and and if you can make some a little bit of money I mean think about a youtube opportunity where you make an extra two or three or four hundred bucks, man Like I always looked at it and I was like, are you kidding me an extra 500 bucks to do a youtube channel? That's incredible, you know, and I never thought it was possible And i'm here to tell you it's it's certainly possible It helps, you know, if you have a another job to supplement that a little bit Um, but also the funny thing is when I started the channel 10 years ago Well, I say the funny thing is but it was actually a crazy story that happened I used to live in west spring from massachusetts and we got hit by a tornado in massachusetts And it was a couple years back and uh, that tornado ended up devastating my neighborhood And I got some footage from it and I ended up uploading it to youtube on my channel And it went viral. Um, a couple news organizations picked it up and uh, youtube immediately contacted me and they set up You know, we want to put you as part of our partnership program and I didn't know what the heck that was or anything So I was like, oh, yeah, I accepted the terms and everything and they uh, they put me through And then uh, I just didn't pay attention to my channel and I got a notification. They kicked me off and They took my video down because the news organization ended up taking the copyright for it even though it was my video Okay I have a couple youtube channels actually I have another channel called henry hustler And uh, you were talking about, you know, you have to have a side hustle and one of my side hustles is I do sell on ebay So I do uh, I do masonry and uh, that's my main source of income I work with my father-in-law and uh, I invest in highly on very heavily. It's like 90 of my portfolio So yes, one of the things and then uh, ebay is on that's that's my side hustle and I enjoy doing that a lot It brings a lot of good income. It brings a about an extra 4,000 5,000 dollars a month just starting on ebay It's good money. So I agree with your message when you tell people they have to have a side hustle, you know, just Pick something up and start making some money on the side. It really uh, it really adds up That's why I'm able to put so much money into highly on all of my uh, some of these items I'll buy them for a couple bucks. I'll flip them for 10 15 times profit Dump the money entirely and keep it going I gotta plug my phone in before it dies. Hold on one second. Yeah, do your thing man. Do your thing That's awesome There we go all those 10 99s.  So you're not going to return That's crazy. Well, henry while I got you on the channel, man I want to hear what your thoughts were I didn't get to talk to you. I was trying to comment on your live stream Because I appreciated you doing that too. I had just got done dropping my video, you know in response to it I thought I thought the street really got it wrong.  Tell me I'm biased man. Tell me I'm clouded jaded I really try to take an objective look at this and I try not to be I try to be as impartial as I can I can give you my bearish case too Because I forced myself to draw up what It's kind of frustrating me a little bit about thomas Um and sherry You know, I think they're just really honest and I think they're trying to do it above board Which is in line with their strategic goal as a company like I I don't think they're lying I think they're telling the the truth. I do it's just How how much more validation do we need? You know, I I kind of feel like I'm I'm being forced to evolve my opinion away from My thesis that I had 18 months ago when I read the very first investor presentation It's like man. Look at these potential customers, man. You got amazon. You got dhl You got all these customers and I think eventually those customers will be one. I do But I think my perspective at the time was that we were a little bit further along past the validation stage And it seems like highly on a nicola or hyzon and nicola, excuse me Are kind of being put given a pass in that they're not they're not doing any product validation Am I wrong in that? No, um, actually, uh, I was speaking about that on my live stream I believe it was yesterday actually where I mentioned, uh, you know, thomas hilly is being honest And uh, somebody called it out and said, uh, well, here we go This is just an echo chamber of a highly on bulls just, you know, validating what they believe in I said, no, you know I'm welcoming anybody bears and bulls to go ahead and speak and see what, um, yeah Basically, let's meet in the middle ground here what the issue is because I saw the same thing I saw a lot of people on the discord channel a lot of people in the highly on, uh, Reddit pages, uh, we have a twitter support group for highly on investors And a lot of people were doing 180s that were getting, you know, really upset And they struck and I said, you know, the the report wasn't all that bad, you know, of course, you know We weren't expecting to have another year delay, but that's across the board in all major industries I just got I just had a conversation with my, um, my brother-in-law He's a sales manager from a walkie tools and he messaged me and told me, you know, we're going through it too We have supply chain shortages and a lot of the inventory that we have that's going to home depot Now is basically the last of the inventory. They're not going to have inventory. They have a backlog right now for over a year So, I mean, I'm hearing it left and right from a lot of different companies Um, and it's not, you know, just highly on so when they come out and they say, you know We're also having a problem with the supply chain shortage Kind of have to give them the benefit of the doubt, you know I know it sucks. You know being a long-term holder, you know, we've already held this, uh, company for over a year and Seems that they can't catch a break Ever since shell became highly on It's been just a bad news after bad news They've they've had good news don't get me wrong But every time they've tried to come up and the stock has started to climb There's a short report that comes out or somebody starts to cover it with negative light and it just out shines anything they do Or if highly on does come out with good news They just they just go silent for too long and they let that news fade and they let These other companies come up and and do nothing. Look at highly on. I mean that highly on Look at uh, nicola nicola. Yeah, they lost less revenue than expected.  I said if um, if we don't have any revenue recognized We're going to drop 10 to 15 percent. So I was already mentally prepared for that. Uh, me too I told everybody, you know, I'm I'm already numb to see the price drop. It doesn't affect me at this point, you know so all I can do right now is is either add to my position or Just, you know, try to talk about the good things that they're doing and and not really pay attention to it Because if you really are a long-term investor and you're constantly paying attention to your stock You're going to make irrational decisions And if you make those irrational decisions, like you're going to lock in huge losses And you only can write off four thousand dollars a year with the irs. Anyway, so I mean nice. Thank you for that I was asking my private group about that tax loss harvesting And I don't know if it's in my best interest to go ahead and take the four thousand dollar loss on a small block Um, I own a fairly sizable position.  Like I don't I don't know who you think you are, but yeah, it's a lot of money, man And um, I work hard for my money as you do, right? So we want to make sure and this was one of the criticisms I don't think I've ever heard Thomas Healy talk about driving shareholder value Um, I tweeted him tonight and I was like Thomas everybody believes in the initiative the the what you're doing. We all believe and I actually believe that You know, even the the share sales and all that stuff However, I twist it it comes across as bad Okay, you know, there was a tweet in the yahoo feed that said look man There's more money being brought into Thomas Healy himself with the stock sales Then the actual entire revenue, you know, the marketing team has been able to generate and You know, I I I I give a pass on all that stuff I just think man, I interview CEOs all the time and I I do come back to this all the time The the demeanor is almost like selfless In that when you're a public company And I'm I'm not sure so sure and I want to give Thomas the benefit out. Thomas is brilliant I'd rather have an engineer who who understands the ins and outs of the business in other words when highly on his 20 years old 30 years old 40 years old and Thomas Healy eventually steps down. I think it will be a monumental Occasion because I think Thomas understands that the mechanics of the business. I really do I'm just not sure if it's taken this much time to understand that as a publicly traded company You're number one charge not number seven not number 612 on the list your number one priority Is to drive shareholder value And that might not resonate with all CEOs. I'm not sure but That's that's kind of the pulse that I get a little bit is I want to see him improve on You know like the Wegman's deal the Wegman's deal There was somebody who hit him up and said hey, can I come to the event and he said no you can't it's private really You see that's not to me. I don't like stuff like that because uh Thomas Healy like you said, you know, he's brilliant everything and the company is it's a great company, but I don't think he's uh Come to the terms yet that this is now a publicly traded company and he does have to bring in share valley He's still running the company like, you know, it's a it's a little private business with his uh With his buddies and everything and uh, I'm not I'm not too fond of that So, you know, I am a bull when it comes to highly on but I'll call it out if I have to call it out And that's something I don't like I really uh wish Thomas Healy would give us more I'm not asking to pump up the the share price. I know I know I am asking for a little more clarity into what's going on You know, we want to know and be up to date with what's going on behind the scenes, you know You went to Wegman's and you posted a picture, you know How hard is it to pull out your cell phone and record some video? But it's just you know, give us a little more insight, especially to put a lot of people at ease. I I'm a bull when it comes to highly on but when I go and I have to write something I feel like at these points when it comes to earnings, I'm gonna have to just step back Because now I'm going into the lions that at this point people want to chew my head off They're like, well, why do you still believe in the company? I'm telling them Why don't I believe in the company they have reservations coming in But yeah, they have the truck the truck runs the truck works. They have a hybrid system that works solutions fun Yeah, the solution is the solution is there. It's the issue is is um is delivering, you know Basically delivering the message and I feel like maybe thomas believes that Repeating the message again and again is tiresome or something But that's literally what marketing is the marketing is Repeating the same message again and again until you drive it home that this is the product that you need And uh until he gets there, I don't know. I think it's going to be a bumpy road I'm hoping that uh, he keeps his promise and he actually comes out with some content Like he said he was when he had his uh camera crew remember that day he had his camera showing Oh, we're gonna have content coming out soon. That's well. This is the problem The stock market isn't what it was 10 years Coming in that are uh That are like going to be long-term investors and a stock people are jumping in and they're day trading They're flipping stocks. They're jumping in and out of them and people don't have patience So if you're not updating them constantly on what's going on The company gets forgotten.  Like How is this happening? So, you know, that's I feel like, you know, if they can bring attention and kind of beat the shorts To their report like Have something ready for them because you know that report's coming out. You mentioned mark delaney Did mark delaney uh drop another short report? Is that what happened? Uh goldman sacks, they didn't name the analyst. It could have very well been mark because mark, of course Is all over every one of those q&a's he's been on every single conference call or earnings call For the history of the company and of course he got his spot again You can't talk. Um, he mumbles I was like I wanted to throw a book at the computer when I was listening to him I was I punched the guy in the face to be honest with you guys are I went and caught the conference call. I was at work and I was like this conference call and all of a sudden You know, I caught it label when I put my headphones in and I'm listening to it It was literally mark delaney just starting to take his question And I'm like, are you freaking hitting me?   Let's talk reality.  No the quest the question is mumbling all over the place, man So it doesn't matter and my thing is like you're going to go from seven to five. Really? Wow I mean really that's like taking a 70 dollar stock and going to 50 that that's a that's a big deal Yeah, you know They know it's not going to go to five, you know what they want to do is they want to drive it as low as they can So they'll come with a ridiculous number. So Originally when he came out with his seven dollar price target, uh It dipped down, but then you know it climbed right back up and it was over eight But you know, they want to cause that initial panic everybody start dumping the shares You know sentiment starts to change start stock starts to light up with bearish up hosts And and they really think that that's going to drive, uh, the majority of the retail investors out and then their Should I have sold mine Henry? I bought more man. I bought more No, I mean I don't give financial advice. I do what uh, you know what i'm gonna do. I see what i'm gonna do I bought more shares myself.  I own a 5,750 shares now. So that's a big position, my friend That's a life-changing position is what that is I hope so. I feel like uh, they should put us on a seat of the board at this point Give us a little specialized division there with the marketing team. I don't know something I mean, I feel like at this point, you know, we do a lot more of the marketing for highly on than a highly That's a fact. Yeah, that's not being that's not being pompous or anything, man I you know how much highly on content I put through and I look because I want to Yeah, um, you know, I make money for doing promotional content through the independent investor channel and Highly on's the only one I do on my own accord And I'm looking to share the story Because I'm just I'm unsatisfied when I if I could read some articles impartial articles every now and then A good one will come across the feed But for the most part man, they're really bad. They're really they're really really bad because Investing sometimes requires you to Rely on the unknown and with highly on that's what it's going to take.   They're potential customers But the information's out there. It's crazy. Yeah, I'm like, what? Yeah I wasn't it is but it's it's those things if you look back over 2021 and you say man like you I think you said it, but I don't think you meant it when you said I think 2021 has been a phenomenal year for this company I think it's been phenomenal battery management system solidifying the board of directors solidifying their upper management Um, the act road show is a slam dunk Yeah, and he talks about the interest that was garnered. Um, I'm a big fan of sherry baker Now you want to talk about a professional on a call? Listen to sherry talk about the financials phenomenal She's a phenomenal addition um The oem solidification with peter built big. Okay, gotta have at least one Okay, you're not going to mass scale up. What does an order mean with mone? They can't fill that order in a year. I can't it's going to be what it's going to be a collection Of the orders that are on the books right now. Let's take the top four, right? They've got a and g They've got agility dep mar and mone. Okay, that's 1590 orders What they're going to do in the year one of production is they're going to jam those through the oem hubs And they're going to spit out a number Whatever that number is is going to be based against that reservation book They're not going to be able to fill that. Okay, but they're going to continually chew into that order book Okay, as they look to turn those products out to the fleet and it's going to be a few trucks at a time five or ten I would say that the agility thousand order is probably going to be an initial delivery of 25 to 50 trucks That's a big freaking order man right there. That's a big order Yeah, you know that's going to be stock now people are going to once those orders and they start getting fulfilled and those trucks start rolling out of the line Then people are going to be wishing they would have gotten into the stock at this price I mean it's it's going to explode at that point. They're going to be a serious player Yeah, my friend. I don't invest this much money. The stock will be fine. Trust me. We're just we're going through times right now Me and you are going to sit some day and look back on this and we're going to say you got to be kidding me. This is You know They were uh People were mentioning to me about the commons engine the whole commons and remarking I'm like, you know, that's that's fine commons is coming out with an engine and everything and it might disrupt their uh their hybrid ex Sales or whatnot So I was defending that a little bit.  He's saying, okay, they're going to come out with this product We need to be able to reposition ourselves for the possibility of sales disruption So we're not going to go ahead and pre-order, you know, all these supplies and all these items. We might not need Instead, you know, we just want to make sure that if that time comes we're ready for that That's a smart ceo. That's a guy that's not going to burn capital and start wasting the company's money To buy things that they're possibly not going to sell instead They're going to be very smart about it and I like that personally if if it comes down to They have to focus more on the hyper truck erx or just innovating the hybrid system itself You know show the highlights of what the hybrid system can do that the commons engine can't do What's the cost basis? What is what does it cost to produce? Is it going to be cheaper for them to have the hybrid system? And what is he doing now? He's not letting the supply strength Stop them. He's going out on a road show right now He's trying to get to those customers that he has a relationship already with and say, hey, you know He's trying to make them Into hyper truck erx customers. He's trying to sell them more products. So I don't see a real issue with it on that conference call he mentioned going to Wegmans and I don't want to misquote him, but he's he said a line that it was We want to basically close a deal You know, we want to go over there to close deals and you might have to replay the conference call back But he says something like that and it caught my interest. I'm listening. I was like, oh, okay So he's not just going over there, you know, hey look at our hyper truck erx, you know and just talk about it He wants to go over there to Sign a deal get something done. So I think you know, I think we're going to be surprised pretty soon I think uh Wegmans is come up. I think Wegmans is definitely going to place an order And wait, wait Wegmans is this is not small potatoes, man But this is and this is what I talk about with the catalyst. So just a couple things on the Cummins natural gas engine Um, what do you what what what that meant to me was that he's paying attention He's paying attention because what the hybrid product is on the c and g side Was aimed at supplementing 120 horsepower Of deficiency and so certain trucks could not run certain routes Okay And so he's going to he's going to monitor that competitive landscape. There are some drawbacks to the hybrid product in that they are terrain dependent, okay And that's fine where it fits it fits. It's a good product. It's a 40 000 bolt on it is what it is The issue is and this is the part that I picked up on is when thomas talked about all the sit-downs they're doing In all the sit with with the freight freight lineers and they always want to ask about the erx They're like that gets us to where we need to be This is where our interest lies. This is where our long-standing Relationship can be solidified is with the hyper trucker x So he said look, you know, you got to kind of go where it's where it's going to go But I I don't I think the hybrid is going to find its place I do because it's it's a twofold product people don't understand for now, you know, you know My original thought on the on the hybrid system was it's something that they would be able to garner more of their More of their profit on because it's something that they didn't have to rely on such a They don't have to rely on a chassis They just you know build their hybrid system and they ship them out to customers or have them built in in mod shops But if thomas heli is going the route of you know, maybe it's a possibility He was throwing that idea out there to to basically let people know, you know I'm going to probably scrap this idea. I'm not saying that's what's going to happen But maybe that's probably an idea that down the line so they could put all their resources on the hyper trucker x Uh highly on is not just you know doing the the hybrid solution They have the hybrid solution. They have the hyper trucker x the battery management system They've already told they're looking for other applications to put their battery technology into they also do software They do over-the-air updates. You know like highly on is fine. It's going to be Totally fine doing what it does if it has to Shelf the hybrid ex it is what it is. Um, but I don't think that's what's going to happen. I think Uh Cummins isn't coming out with their engine till 2024 I think uh highly on is going to go out there and they're going to push the hybrid ex system They can't until that so that was another thing that uh, I had a trucker come back to me and they were like Yeah, natural gas is not the way that they don't have the power and then if thomas alluded to this as well This is an early speck And I don't mean to impugn Cummins. I love Cummins Cummins is an awesome company, man I've used to run on Cummins up in alaska commercial fishing. They're good engines. Okay And I don't have any reason to question Their specs, but it's unproven and thomas said that outright. He said look we're giving proper credence to this They're going after the same niche that we were with supplementing the power deficiency on the on the the uh, uh Natural gas side now. Remember there's What do you come again? What what do you think it is that these big players are now starting to look at natural gas as a solution? Yeah, well said because they're being pushed to do so and I've said this a lot on my highly on reviews I'm like look these guys have had their cake and eat it too if they don't need to change They're not going to change Exactly right and now the competition is coming up and now it's not only by force. It's also by uh The competitors are coming up. It's a big ass industry You know what i'm saying big big companies are not just going to stand idly by and not get their Uh, uh, a piece of the pie with that said a lot of these big companies have been in their niche for a long long time And instead of just partnering with a company like highly on which is more advantageous Sometimes there might be kind of a sharp mentality to go after a specific niche of business That doesn't leave highly on out in the cold. Okay. It doesn't mean that highly on is the only company that's uh suffering from Supply chain shortages right now. They're not the only ones You know and I find that interesting how the the bullseye kind of falls right on them You know the stock falls the way that it did I you know, but uh, we'll just have to wait and see Funny that you know hasn't really gotten a lot of attention. You remember excel fleets, right? Yeah, excel fleets they're down in the gutter too. And I mean all they do is the hybrid solutions but for like, you know commercial pickup trucks, so I know this is gonna sound crazy But you know when I when I was early investing in highly on I saw excel fleets and I was like, you know What would be cool? The excel hybrid solution or something like that like if highly on an excel fleets ended up Getting together and working on something because they both have Relatively small market capture right now that they could the merging together as one company and just take over The hybrid axle market if they wanted to do so They could easily do that But getting back to uh to highly on and and Cummins I think it's These oems had all the time to shine and not raking on Cummins Cummins like you said they make great engines I know a lot of people that drive Cummins engines. So they are some seriously powerful engines But it's necessity By force and it's also they're seeing They're seeing the path is changing, you know I think it was gm gm had like one of the first electric vehicles, right? And they just sat on it They shelled the technology until tesla came around and now tesla's eating everybody's lunch Now everybody wants to jump on on on evs. Look at ford. They're coming out with the ford lightning You got the Chevy fold or bold or whatever And you know, it's going to take them some time to catch up but Competition shouldn't scare anybody away What I said yesterday was you have new companies like rivian you have All these new ev players that are coming out like neo And uh, what's the other one? Fisker all these companies are coming up. They're not afraid of the oems They're not afraid of tesla eating their lunch They're going to go ahead and make a product that they believe can fit their customer base and go ahead and work on that so highly on When they put out their presentation. It was based on 1% of the market just 1% And everybody got excited about then they're like, okay. Well if they only capture 1% so what has changed Were we not expecting that there was going to be competition? If anybody was thinking there wasn't going to be competition coming around the corner, then that's very foolish You have to know that wherever money's being made And I'll tell you this wherever money's being made that's where people move to and they gravitate towards when I was Amazon I used to sell on Amazon I had a great music business. I sold this was like maybe five years ago I sold CDs CDs and cassettes and this was something that a lot of people told me, you know, was antiquated and why are you selling CDs? That's not going to be a good business. I went down to the Goodwill and the Goodwill had a It's basically like An outlet it's the Goodwill outlet where everything gets centralized and they go through and they send them out to all the Goodwill stores And even Goodwill I went down to that location and they had A palette full of CDs and cassettes maybe over a thousand right and I asked the guy I'm like, what are you guys going to do with those? Oh, they're going to get recycled and destroyed I told him it's like really he's like, oh, yeah, we don't sell them We usually we try to put them up on amazon, but we get a penny I was like, oh, okay, so What would you take for a guy tells me 20 bucks? All right, give him $20. I took that whole palette of CDs and cassettes.  They came up on amazon as a penny. You know what I did I charged five dollars for each one plus the shipping cost All right, and some of them believe it or not someone came up really rare and they turned out to be like 100 $200 CDs. All right crazy stuff. It was like classical music. I don't even remember the name some weird Some weird symphony something but I ended up earning that $20 into over $20,000 All right, and less than a year so you know just More of the story is Amazon ended up catching up on my sales. They saw what was going on They bought the licensing rights to reproduce any CDs they wanted and they kicked me off their platform That's what they did So it just goes to show you that They will go around and they will eat your lunch if uh, if you let them you've got to adapt If I would have adapted and changed it I could have kept selling on amazon, but unfortunately that's what they did I think there's a few things with highly on for sure that are going to help spark these catalysts that I speak of I think the innovation council is going to be key to that. I really do if they can solidify some 20 30 40 truck orders from all members of the innovation council that'll put it up around 500 To start that is an enormous start because Thomas Healy talked about it on the q2 earnings report where he talked about The the evolution cycle the the new truck cycle and I think a lot of what is being bearish about all the truck companies He said that trucks are not being ordered right now. They're being ordered, but they can't get delivery, right? Yeah, yeah companies have their trucks on a rotation when everything's good It's not it's not worthwhile for them to keep old trucks because they start to deteriorate They start to become more cost prohibitive or you know cost They start to cost more money. Okay, so the idea is to get into those rotations. That's the key And to you know, maybe you solidify the first year order of let's say five with highly on Now this is going to be the expansion This is going to be when they get in with multiple companies and they've got those initial orders of five eight two six seven 11 You know what you see what i'm saying those are going to be those initial year one introduction now. What's going to happen on year two Is that they're going to bump those up from seven to ten because they like the product They're going to bump them up from 10 to 15 That's when the incremental growth of highly on really starts to take hold Once that starts to happen then the model will already have been built Then it's time to go abroad and we can go to europe and not Not to mention once you start getting those, you know, a couple trucks in the hands of the uh The operators now They're collecting those mileage. They're collecting the mileage data They're improving the system by by selling Tesla what the what you don't must say the more testless we sell the more testless we sell All right, it's going to be the same model where we're highly on the more highly on trucks we sell The more highly on erx is we're going to sell because now they're able to gather more data and data's king They can go ahead and they can improve their system They get the routes they get all the information that they need to make the system even better So um the highly on innovation council I think was that was a catalyst. We weren't expecting remember like I wasn't exactly Then to come out with that Thomas Healy always comes out and surprises us with something and That's going to turn out to be one of the biggest things that he could have done Because to stay relevant and to stay in the game when it comes to competition Innovation escape and if you can't innovate you're going to go extinct a lot of these OEMs that are around today They didn't want to innovate when it was uh nice and early in the time to do so and now they're just trying to catch up So I think that's gonna it's going to turn out to be one of the best things He could have done was that innovation council? And that's awesome. Hey, Henry. I want to thank you for coming on the channel, man I'm going to close it down. We went a few minutes extra. I could talk highly on with you all night And we've kept the group in here engaged. I think there's enough There's a lot of people that kick over from the highly on discord group. So shot out to you guys Um, I didn't get to uh schnellman's comment here. They made me a soldier I guess in the discord group. So I've been anointed for all my work Uh, yeah that anointment probably cost me 50 grand at this point. That's all right. We'll we'll make it up Money and highly on me No, I'm long and strong baby. I ain't caught anywhere Henry rp music tv, man If you haven't checked him out kick over help him support man He'll always be part of the community here on the independent investor This was his first time coming on for the uh for the friday live stream and I really appreciate you coming on I really do man. It was it was it was awesome special Man that was awesome my brother. Thanks. Henry appreciate you. Take care. Have a great weekend brother. Yep. Bye Cool man. So a big shot out there to rp music was kind of cool, man He he was one of the originals putting through content on youtube So kind of take my hat off to that type of initiative and um his thesis hasn't changed Nor has mine Really kind of a weird time. I I think we'll look back on this and be like damn That was kind of a dark time for the for the stock.  I I don't I don't know man. I'm a happy guy. Um a particular stock holding I'm paying attention to it right now. It's got my attention But you know, all I really need is this thing to get up to a respectable level 15 20 Then I'll stop looking at it. I'll go or ultra long on it. I'm just I'm being an active investor The best way that I know how right now and I think right now as painful as it might be Or as painful as it might seem Um, it just seems right to be a little bit more actively paying attention to the to the holding right now Just what what makes sense. So uh, do want to thank everybody for making their way into the independent investor live stream, man We will go ahead and shut it down. We'll be back next week.  You're all part of what uh, what I contend to be One of the many empowered investors in the independent investor community. So guys, take it easy. Have a great weekend. We'll catch you next week