What is going on guys welcome back to the channel critical overload here, so I'm talking about scream 7 in this video here again today We're gonna be going over how exactly they could reboot scream 7 without of course completely Giving us a new timeline, which hopefully they do not do that because there's no reason to do that And yes, I do have to start off by reiterating I will double down on it again that obviously the preferred outcome is for spyglass to sell the rights Because again, they have two strikes. I don't need a third to see who the problem is the problem is spyglass I think they should be removed chances are though. That's not going to happen So I need to just be able to address this in a manner that is Still realistic, I would say But I'm going to talk about how Gale Weathers Courtney Cox and these other two that I'm thinking of if they sign on Can still carry a scream 7 and how it could work So Kevin Williamson has talked about his scream 6 Putting a spotlight on Gale and Dewey in the past But Sydney was still around and I believe he's also talked about how Sydney was supposed to get married during this story Ghostface returned during the biggest moment of her life, etc Then during one of the more recent sequels scream 5 Gale openly confesses to feeling like she started all of this And of course, Sydney suggests.  She wrote the book on this as she loves to tell us It spawned a film which bond a franchise and Ghostface runs wild in pop culture for that universe and our own reality So in screams world one of the major influences on this is indeed Gale Weathers Obviously the preferred again route is for spyglass to sell the rights But you have to remain realistic because the chances are they're likely not going to do that because this IP is one of the more Profitable things they have right now. What else is spyglass doing that people are checking for that's the likely reason They aren't going to sell the rights The only way I can see them selling the rights is if for some reason They aren't able to secure any of the talent that they want for the scream 7 that's currently being overhauled and rewritten in the form of a New draft, but whatever so a full creative reboot as we've seen reported should be set in the same world Obviously and if Courtney Mason and Jasmine are willing to still do the project This is one way it could work Still do a story with a stab revival and a true crime limited series in the works So this is kind of me going over some of the stuff I've talked about in the past But still do a story with a stab revival in a true crime limited series in the works So that it can function as the center of the story's main plot Tara and Sam are off with their mother Christina who has decided to mend that relationship So those three are off in another country and have been gone for about a month or two at this point It's been two years since the New York spree But the announcement of the stab revival and true crime limited series being in the works after the studios initially spent years Questioning if they should even bother doing it due to the last two sprees causing hesitancy in doubt in their decisions This announcement has inspired one or more people to become ghost face these people hate reporters like Gale Hollywood executives media in general and Mindy even because remember Allegedly, she had a successful podcast or YouTube channel platform during the now scraps scrap scream 7 So let's still add Mindy to the list of despised characters for ghost face and let her have a successful podcast in scream 7 Let's keep that idea alive Please anyone who in the killer's mind aides in exploiting crime and opening up wounds and relatives to innocent victims is on the list because They believe profiting off these tragedies is wrong They think that their targets on the kill list have corrupted society, especially Hollywood Gale can carry the story with Chad and Mindy also having significant roles as well The newbies would just be their friends at Blackmore University I would use the college setting a little bit more since we don't really see too much of it in the scream 6 You can say it's Chad and Mindy senior year I do believe a story like this would really give Mindy a chance to shine if written correctly Given she's the latest horror nerd a lot of fans have fallen in love with and given how some have taken issue with her Not taking the sprees as serious as they think she should be Here's a chance to put her in the hot seat with more on the line Since she's a main target for this story in my mind for this to work because of her podcast Also, I think jasmine could do an amazing job with the material She was phenomenal in my opinion during the latter sequence in which anica was dying So if we get to see a level of performance like that if you write her in that same capacity To get those emotions evoked it out of her from a performance from jasmine I think you could be in for a very Good film carried by jasmine brown who many people I see Probably wouldn't agree, but I think Mindy could carry a film Hell if you want to get real nasty and diabolical and out do what you did with anica and that heartbreak that Mindy had to endure Make this character endure having to watch her mother martha die live on a feed Do something there that there's so much you could do with Mindy in scream 7 if she's the focus and if you write it a certain way Like the way i'm presenting here if they go down this quote on quote reboot route Which hopefully it's still set in the same world and of course all this is barring if Mindy or if jasmine courtney and mason even sign on but yeah Have her have to endure watching her mother martha get killed by ghost phase live on some type of feed Um Gale is the killer's main target because just as gale expressed in screen 5 The killer Thinks she started all of this and not billy lumen So this person is in agreement with that thought process and yes Their explanation would include a reminder to gale that her platform was on the rise at the time and that she indeed She indeed did open doors for billy That he never could have on his own open doors for him ghost phase stew anyone else that's don the costume so The opening kill Can be a producer who came to new york to meet with gale to talk about her involvement in the limited true crime series Or even the stab revival Ghost phase's ultimate goal is getting hollywood to pull the plug on their plans for the true crime show and the stab revival By framing gale as the reporter who became desperate for her next big story And because or or and became the very thing that she helped make so famous That is how I could see a reboot of screen 7 working if you still had characters like gale chad and mendy I didn't really go over too much of what chad would be doing because I didn't really think that far But chad would be here still in college. You can give him some side plot obviously He's still a target because it would be something that would impact mendy if he were to die I'm not saying that I would kill him in the story, but that is how I would Quote on quote reboot scream if it ultimately had to happen And keep it in the same universe now if they are not able to secure any of the returning stars It should still be in the same universe. I just have no idea what you would do at that point besides just telling a story with a whole new set of characters Shine a light on true crime make it somebody who's been obsessed with true crime for a very long time They were always willing to or they were always planning to commit a spree Donning the ghost face costume, but there's a more personalized edge Slash motive involved with it as well that they will disclose to the victims during the final act That's the only thing I could see happening that would work If you can't get any of the returning talent back You guys can let me know what you think about my version of a screen 7 if the returning stars again included gale chad mendy and just those three And I guess you could toss in Kirby. I just don't really see Kirby necessary for the story I have in my mind. I'm not against hating coming back though Let me know what you think about this down in the comment section below If you haven't already make sure you go ahead and subscribe turn on post notifications that you never miss a video in the description I'll have links to all my social media accounts. I am on facebook twitter and instagram You can message me there of course to let me know if there are any movies news or reviews You like me to cover in the future and with all that in mind guys. I will see you in the next video


Matthew chapter 19, 27 through 30. Let's begin reading together at verse 27. I'm going to give to you a backdrop, a context, and we'll move into our study. And we're going to see a question that the Lord is asking that will be answered in just a moment. So beginning at verse 27, Peter answered and said to him, See, we have left all and followed you. Therefore, what shall we have? So Jesus said to them, assuredly I say to you that in the regeneration when the Son of Man sits on the throne of His glory, you who have followed me will also sit on 12 thrones judging the 12 tribes of Israel. And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands for my name's sake shall receive a hundredfold and inherit everlasting life. But many who are first will be last and the last first. And so what we'll do is we'll give you a context, a backdrop. I'll remind you of what we've gone through in the previous portion of Scripture and then lead into this and see how that ties in. So you need to remember that we closed our last study by touching on a question that the apostles had asked of the Lord Jesus Christ. The question that they had asked is found in verse 25 and the question simply is who then can be saved? Now that was a very very important question. Who is able to be saved? Now remembering the context, we remember that there was a rich young ruler, a religious Jewish young man, very wealthy who had come to the Lord Jesus Christ and asked him a question related to obtaining eternal life. And when he was given the answer, the Bible tells us that he walked away very sorrowful. The word sorrowful means offended or grieved. He walked away sorrowful without receiving the life that had been offered him. So that's a decision, a decision the young man made. It's a decision that he made. He rejected life in spite of Jesus's invitation. Now Jesus had said in verse 21, he had said, Come and follow me. And if you do so, you will have treasure in heaven, but the young man would have none of it. His heart was firmly planted on the earth. And because he was very rich and because he had pleasure in his life now, he did not desire eternal life. He was too firmly planted on the earth. And that was sufficient for him to reject the salvation being offered. You see, he wanted to serve two masters and you can't do that. You cannot serve two masters. You hold fast to one and reject the other, but you cannot have two masters simultaneously. You cannot serve God and earthly wealth at the same time. And all Jesus did was give him an option.  You say that you want to have life that is abundant. Well, in order to do so, just take what you have, sell it, give to the poor, come follow me, and you will have treasures in heaven. But this man didn't want to do that. You see, Jesus was pointing out that the Christian life is really a life of self-sacrifice that is evidenced by generosity. The Christian life is one of self-sacrifice. And one of the evidences that you're born again is that you have a generous spirit. That's why I said sell all that you have, give to the poor. If you do so, you'll have treasure in heaven. In other words, let go of your support system and exercise the generosity of a genuine believer. You see, in keeping the social commands, that demonstrates that you are actually keeping the higher command, because all of the commands really flow out of one thing, and that is love for God. So if you love the Lord, then you're going to love those who have been created in the Lord's image. And thus, if you're generous of those in need, you're demonstrating the character and nature of the God that you say that you serve. So concern for other people reveals a genuine faith in God, and generosity reveals a genuine understanding of God's nature. In 1 John 3 17 and 18, it says, if anyone has enough money to live well and sees a brother or sister in need and refuses to help, how can God's love be in that person? Dear children, let us stop just saying we love each other. Let us really show it by our actions. So Jesus simply commanded the young man to obey the social commands that are found in the law, and in fact, the young man's inability to completely fulfill the social commands revealed what his faith was really all about. His trust was in his possessions. His love for his riches was greater than any desire that he had to go to heaven. Now, of course, I need to point out, and this is all part of the introduction, Jesus wanted this young man to be saved. It's not that he was challenging him to hear him say no. Jesus was just clarifying for him what it takes to have a real relationship with God. So his call to the young man was really intended to free him from stress and entanglements. But you need to remember that God's word teaches us that he wants people to be saved. I mean, you can see it in 1st Timothy, chapter 2, verse 4, where it says God desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. God desires all men to be saved, not just some, but all men. In 2nd Peter 3, verse 9, it says, the Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some count slackness, but is long suffering toward us, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. You see, the Bible presents very clearly God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. And it's his desire that all come to know him. The Bible is also filled with invitations for people to come to salvation for any who would come. You see in Psalm 34, verse 8, an invitation where it says, oh, taste and see that the Lord is good. Blessed is the man who trusts in him. Or when Paul was speaking concerning his own testimony in 1st Timothy 1, verse 15, when he said, this is a faithful saying worthy of all acceptance that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am chief. All the way in the book of Revelation. And you can see it from Genesis 2, Revelation. Genesis where the Bible says that God said to Adam, where are you? All the way to Revelation 22, 17, where it says, the spirit and the bride say, come. Let him who hears say, come. Let him who is thirsty, come. And whoever desires, let him take the water of life freely. From the beginning when God says, Adam, where are you? As I've mentioned to you so many times, it wasn't that God did not know where Adam was, but God intended Adam to tell God where he was. And Adam was intended by God, God giving to him an opportunity for confession. Adam was intended or God provoked him to say, this is where I'm at. I took that which I shouldn't have. This is the effect of it. And it's a result of disobedience. And so God actually pursuing Adam in the Garden of Edom. We also have the same kind of thing in the last chapter of the last book of the Bible where the spirit and the bride say, come. God gives invitations so that men would be saved. And that's what Jesus Christ was doing. He was giving an invitation.  There are people who refuse that invitation and they have nowhere the amount of riches that this young man did. They'll give up anything. They'll give up heaven for almost anything that gives them pleasure. And so when you read your Bible, you'll notice that God gives invitations, but it's also hinged on repentance. It's also hinged on a change of life, a change of mind that leads to a change of life. So God's requirement is for us to turn or to repent from our sins in order that we might turn to Him. When you look in Matthew, as we already have in chapter four, we note that the first message that Matthew recorded from the heart of Jesus spoke of repentance. In Matthew 4.17, it says from that time Jesus began to preach and to say, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. The first word of the gospel is repent. But this young man refused to do this because his health and his possessions held him back. He wasn't willing to come to Christ. As this is all taken place, I was pointing out to you that the disciples were surprised because wealthy people have tremendous advantages, and that's why in verse 25 they asked the question, who then can be saved? You see concerning salvation, Jesus made it very clear that no one has an advantage over another, even though somebody may be very rich and somebody else may be very poor. Nobody has an advantage over the other when it comes to entering into the kingdom of heaven. Rich people don't enter into heaven because they are rich and the poor have no advantage over them. With men entering into life is impossible because men cannot be saved by their own efforts. So regardless of possessions or accomplishments, we all stand equally before God. Like it says in Proverbs 22 verse 2, where it says, the rich and the poor have this in common, the Lord is the maker of them all. You see each one of us stands as a sinner in need of God's saving grace. You see this again from the old to the New Testament. In Ecclesiastes 720, there is not a just man upon earth that does good and sins not. Psalm 130 verse 3, if you, oh Lord, should mark in equities, oh Lord, who shall stand? First, John chapter 1 verse 8, if we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, the truth is not in us. But one of the most difficult things for a person to do without the help of the Holy Spirit, it's an impossibility, but one of the more difficult things to do is simply be honest before God. My mom, my mom was a real evangelistic kind of woman. I mean, she always looked for opportunities to preach the gospel, to share the love of Christ. I've shared this with you before. It comes to mind even now how my mom was at the doctors and it was a new doctor and the doctor was putting a stethoscope to listen to her heartbeat. And when the doctor put the stethoscope there to listen to her heartbeat, my mom said, do you hear him?  And says, I'm sorry, do you hear him? Hear who? She says, Jesus. She said, he lives in my heart. And my mom would do things like that just to get opportunities to share the gospel of Jesus Christ. My mom was a person who liked to go out and tell people about the Lord. And one day she was sharing with somebody and she gave enough of the gospel where she thought that the woman would understand. And so she said to the woman, would you like to receive Christ as your Lord and Savior? And the woman said to my mom, yes, I would. So my mom said, well, let's pray together, repeat after me. And my mom says to the woman, father, forgive me, I am a sinner. And the woman said, no, hold on a moment. I'm not a sinner. Now there are a lot of people who actually would would respond just like that. No, wait a minute, I'm really not a sinner. Have you ever sinned? Well, I've on occasion, I've done things, but I'm not a habitual sinner. I'm not like a Charlie Manson or something like that. I'm I'm really a good person, you know, and that's where a lot of people are as we we have a tendency of exalting our goodness and a tendency of reducing the holiness of God. And when you reduce the holiness of God and exalt the goodness of man, you're going to naturally think that you're good enough to enter into heaven on your own. So when Jesus speaks and says to him, you want to enter into life, sell all that you possess, give to the poor, come follow me, you will have treasure in heaven. And he went away very sad, very offended, very grieved because he had great possessions. And that's why Jesus said how difficult it is for the rich to enter into the kingdom of heaven. And that's why the disciples would say to Jesus, who then can be saved? Because with the rich, there's so many advantages. And for those who don't have much, there are so few. So how does it work? And so the rich and the poor have one thing in common, God has made them both. And that's why Jesus would say in verse 26, with God, all things are possible. God can do what sinful men cannot do. God is able to change sinful hearts. God is able to save helpless men and helpless women. So it's impossible for men to say themselves. But with God, all things are possible. Hebrews 7.25 says, therefore he is able once and forever to save everyone who comes to God through him. He lives forever to plead with God on their behalf.  God is able. It's when we hold on to our sins. Those are the things that we refuse to turn to him. Then we're left with them because he will not and does not do anything that violates our will to respond to the invitation. And so this young man doesn't want to give what he has. And that's why Jesus said with men, this is impossible, but with God, all things are possible. So there's your introduction. Let's move into our study. So Peter answered, and he says in verse 27, see, we have left all and followed you. Therefore, what shall we have? Now I want you to notice something. I'll touch this briefly and move into our study a little further, but I want you to see this. Verse 27, notice what he says, we have left all and followed you. That's interesting because he's as the spokesman right now speaking for the other men. Remember who he's speaking for, because in the 12 apostles, there's one there named Judas. He's speaking for Judas, too. Think about that for a minute. Is it possible? Is it possible for somebody to be a Judas and still be around others who are genuine and the answer is yes. Does it happen? It happens all the time. How does it happen? Well, Judas was a counterfeit. He was a terror among the wheat. You have the genuine and you have the phony. And every time human beings gather together, including in Bible studies and church services, there will always be somebody there who is part of the we who really doesn't belong to it in a faith way. Judas was like that. Judas was so convincing that even when the Lord on the night he was betrayed began to say, one of you will betray me. One whose hand is with me at the table. The men, his men there at this Passover feast began to ask within themselves and spoke it openly. Lord is at eye. Lord is at eye. And Judas was included in that when he looked at Jesus and said, Lord is at eye. And Jesus said, you have said it. Now the other men didn't even pick up on that because they were so busy doing what righteous people do when they begin to say, I better examine my own heart. He just said one of us is a betrayer. Can it be me? I'll even ask him.  Lord is at eye. Joined in with the others when in reality he was Judas, saling Christ out for 30 pieces of silver. Is it possible for people to have the appearance of being a follower of Christ when in reality they are not? And the answer is yes. And is it possible for a leader who normally could have certain kind of discernment, is it possible for that discerning leader to be fooled by that individual who's portraying himself as the real thing? Indeed. Has it happened? Yes. Does it happen to this day? Absolutely. There are spiritual leaders who trust that the people that are working alongside of them are the real deal. And many people have been fooled by those who have the appearance, but in fact are not real. And so we see that here with Peter when he says we have left all and followed you, therefore what shall we have? So in the midst of the genuine, there's the tear, there's the counterfeit. Now I want you to notice this. Since you say it's impossible for men to save themselves, are we saved? Now if we are saved, what do we have to look forward to? Here's the question, what is the reward that you give for following you? Now there are those who read this and I want you to see it, what shall we have? There are those who see that question and they say what an improper, what an inappropriate question to ask. It sounds like you're a mercenary. It sounds like you're following God for profit. Peter, why are you saying something like that? We need to remember that there is a legitimate reward for a legitimate affection. There is a reward for those who follow Christ that is legitimate. How do I illustrate that? Well there was a time when this illustration would have flown a lot easier than it does today, but the young guy meets the young lady. The young guy asks her out and she actually says yes. And they go out together. They begin a dating relationship and before you know it, the young guy who is a Christian, the young woman who is a Christian, the young man who is respecting her purity and the young woman retaining her purity, they're not having sex. The young man begins to be more and more in love with this young woman. To the point where he starts saying within himself and eventually starts telling other people, I love her so much, I just gotta marry her. And so he one day pops the question, however he did it, will you marry me? And she says, well, okay, might as well. At least that's how it went in my case. And so will you marry me? When Marie and I got engaged, we were at a Bible study. I actually pulled together the old Bible study that I had been teaching, the Bible study in the location that I had met her in and she was seated where she normally sat. I sat in a chair and she would sit next to me on the floor and she would lean against the chair. And I still remember as I was there, I opened up the book of Proverbs and there were a few of the people who used to do the Bible study and I opened up the book of Proverbs and I read Proverbs 31 about the virtuous woman. And then I looked at Marie who was right on my right hand sitting and I read it to her and I said, Marie, I said, when my dad asked my mom to marry him, my dad didn't have an engagement ring. My dad had a ring. It's this ring that I wear, this little red ring here. Some of you have noticed and some have even made comment. This is a ring that cost my dad 57 cents back in 1947. And it's glass and it's cheap, but it means a lot. And so he gave this ring to my mom and I said, my brother Frank, when he asked his wife to marry him, gave this ring to her and Marie, I'm giving you this ring and that's how we ended up getting engaged. She said, yes, she put the ring back, ring on her finger and all of that. And so in engagement, by the way, my sons, both of them gave their wives the same ring as a tradition for our family. So with that said, there is a reward. That's a proper reward in a relationship. For a young man who loves a young woman, the reward is their marriage and the things that go along with being a husband, including the marriage bed. That young man in marrying her, respecting loving and marrying her, the reward that is legitimate, it is proper, is for them to have marital relations. So there is an appropriate reward for love. The love that you have for that woman or that man is appropriate when it is given in a sexual way in marriage. And so it isn't inappropriate, it is not improper for the apostle Peter to say to Jesus, well, you spoke to this young man, you said that he should give up all. Jesus, we've done that. We gave up everything. What is our reward? All you need to do is remember how they were originally called. When you look back into Matthew 4, for example, verses 18 through 22, and you see that there, the Lord Jesus Christ was calling these men to follow him. And when he did so, he spoke to Simon and his brother Andrew. Then he spoke to James and his brother John. And they forsook all in order to follow him. As a matter of fact, James and John, it said left their boat, left their nets and left their father and followed Christ. They left it all. When you look into Matthew chapter nine, verse nine, it speaks concerning the call of Matthew. It says that Matthew was sitting at the tax collector's booth and Jesus said to him, follow me. And Matthew got up and followed him. And so these people are able to say, listen, we gave it all up and followed you. Peter, James, John and Andrew were all people who were successful. They were businessmen. They owned their own fishing business. And they were successful. Matthew was a very wealthy man. He sat at receipt of customs. He was somebody who made a lot of money as a tax gatherer and he gave it all up. And so when Peter is saying, we have left all to follow you, they indeed did. They left their businesses, they left their profit, they left everything behind and they followed. So we're asking a question and the question is a simple one. What do we get for following you? What is it that we're gonna receive as we follow you? Now it's interesting how Jesus replies in verse 28. It says, Jesus said to them, assuredly I say to you that in the regeneration, when the son of man sits on the throne of his glory, you who have followed me will also sit on 12 thrones judging the 12 tribes of Israel. What are you talking about? I don't know, let's go to the next verse. What is he talking about? Well what we need to do is we need to look at the word regeneration. I'm gonna give you a study. I hope this helps you because for those of you who wanna know the Bible, this is an important subject. I'm not gonna give you a thorough study because it's much more thorough than I can give. But I'll give you some things so you'll know when Jesus speaks concerning the regeneration. The word regeneration literally means rebirth. It speaks of the new birth. So he says in the regeneration. So in the rebirth and then he says, when the son of man sits on the throne of his glory, you who have followed me will also sit on 12 thrones judging the 12 tribes of Israel. So let's look at this for a minute. When you look at what is called a prophetic calendar, there are various events that you see in the Old Testament and the New Testament. Events that were intended to be fulfilled or to occur and they are all leading us to understand who Jesus Christ is. So when you look at the Old Testament, there are over 300 specific prophecies that Christ fulfills, over 300. The next event on the prophetic calendar is an event called the rapture of the church. The rapture of the church. I had never heard the word rapture. I was not taught with the rapture of the churches. I'd never heard it in my life. You know, I was raised in the Catholic church. That word wasn't used in my upbringing. Then I stepped away from the church for years and hadn't heard a Bible study or been taught anything about God since I was a young teen. So I was totally ignorant of Christian vocabulary, of words like rapture. So now I get saved. And when I get saved, I'm going to a church, Calvary Chapel, and I'm hearing about an event that is gonna come up. And Pastor Chuck was real excited about it. There was a young man who used to teach the Bible. His name was Lonnie. And Lonnie was excited about this event. So I began to ask, what is this rapture? So I spoke to Chuck Smith eventually. Pastor Chuck and I became close. And I discovered that for Chuck, it was a very important aspect of his theology. Because with the rapture, the church comes in anticipation of being with Christ. And there was an excitement that he had about Jesus and Jesus returning. And so he and I were in conversation. And one time he and I were answering questions on a radio program together. And the question came in and said, what is the most exciting thing? What is it that you're looking forward to? And in our conversation and in the answer, Pastor Chuck was pointing out this, he said, listen, there's only one, the next prophecy to be fulfilled. There's nothing, nothing that needs to be fulfilled. The next one to be fulfilled is called the rapture of the church. It's when the Lord Jesus Christ draws us up. We who are alive and remain after the dead in Christ have been raised. We who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the air. That's called the rapture. It is a violent taking of people from one place and taking them to another. So I was taught concerning the rapture of the church that it could happen at any moment. And yes, I've been a Christian for a long time since 1970. And yes, I've been following Christ for a long time and it hasn't happened yet. And so people say, doesn't that kind of bother you? No, I'm one day closer to the event. It's gonna happen. I'm just one day closer. So how then should I live? I should live in anticipation of them. So we have the rapture. When the rapture happens and the church is taken to be with the Lord Jesus Christ, it's gonna leave the earth without the Christian witness. But there will have been people who are here who have already been sharing concerning the gospel with people. And what happens is there will be people who get saved. Now, as this is taking place, there's going to be an outpouring of the wrath of God in what is called the tribulation. The tribulation is a seven year period of time that's divided into two aspects. There's the tribulation, the last three and a half years, the great tribulation. So during that time, the rapture occurs, you have the tribulation, Christ is outpouring, the wrath of the Lamb, people are being dealt with. Then what happens after that is the second coming. At the end of seven years, the Lord returns. When the Lord returns, there's gonna be a judgment that takes place called the judgment of the sheep and goats. We'll see that in Matthew 25. We'll get there, let's see, we're in chapter 19. We'll get there in five years. And when we get there, what will happen is the sheep and the goats will be separated, the goats go into judgment, and the sheep enter into what is called the millennial kingdom. The millennial kingdom is a thousand year, literal thousand year rule and reign of Jesus Christ and spoken of in the old as well as the New Testament. In the New Testament in chapter 20 verses one through six of the Book of Revelation, it speaks concerning Christ who will rule and who will reign. Now in this millennial kingdom, people have been judged, those who enter into the kingdom are those who are believers, but he rules for a thousand years. As he's ruling, there will be people during that time who do not deposit faith in him. At the end of the thousand year period, Satan who has been in the abuso or been in lockup is gonna be released. He's gonna gather a great horde of people. They will come in opposition to the Lord. The Lord will judge them once he judges them. That's found in Revelation chapter 20 verse seven through 15 and when that takes place, then the millennial kingdom ends and we enter into eternity with the new heaven and new earth. And I say all of that to say that during the thousand year reign, there will be government and that's what Christ is talking about. He's speaking to men who understood that there would be a governmental system. So that's what Jesus is saying here when he says, when the Son of man sits on the throne of his glory, you who have followed me will also sit on 12 thrones judging the 12 tribes of Israel. So there's gonna be a need for judgment or for rulership. And so in Revelation 20 verse six, it says, blessed and holy is he that has part in the first resurrection. On such the second death has no power. They shall be priests of God and of Christ and shall reign with him a thousand years. So during this time, the apostles will have a unique relationship with the nation of Israel. Righteousness will flourish, peace will abound, Jerusalem will once again be exalted. The Old Testament prophet Zechariah said in chapter one verse 17, proclaim saying, Thus says the Lord of hosts, my city shall again spread out through prosperity. The Lord will again comfort Zion and will again choose Jerusalem. So Jesus will be ruling and he'll be reigning on planet earth. Daniel 7, 13 and 14 says, I saw in the night visions, behold one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven and came to the ancient of days. They brought him near before him. There was given him dominion and glory and kingdom that all people nations and languages should serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away. His kingdom that which shall not be destroyed. Isaiah two verse three, many people shall come and say, come let us go to the mountain of the Lord to the house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us his ways. We shall walk in his path for out of Zion shall go forth the law, the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. So the apostles at that time will have a special role. They will judge, he says, the 12 tribes of Israel ruling alongside of the Lord. There will be peace. Jesus will rule. There will be prosperity, health and blessedness. People will still be able to reject, still be able to rebel. There will be a system that attempts to keep that in check. Ultimately the nation of Israel will be purged by the Lord and ultimately they'll move into eternity. And so this is what's being spoken of here. Now I'm gonna move a little bit further and try and make this a little more practical because when you look at verse 29, we'll look at this together. It says, everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands for my name's sake, shall receive a hundredfold and inherit everlasting life. I've said this before, but I believe it very strongly. The most selfish person is the one who goes to heaven alone. The most selfish person is the one who goes to heaven alone. Listen, when you got saved, and I'm assuming that most of us in this room are saved, I'm gonna assume that naturally. When you got saved, it's because somebody prayed for you. When you got saved is because somebody shared with you. When you got saved is because somebody loved you and cared for you.  No matter how violent you could be, no matter how angry you could be, no matter how profane you could be, no matter how rude and intolerant you could be. Somebody loved you and somebody told you. Somebody was praying for you. Now I know somebody who said that every person is normally, normally every person is saved because somebody prayed for him. And this guy walks up to him after the study and he says, I'm sorry, but I was raised in a home with no faith at all. I can honestly say that I'm one of those people that you've never met before who was actually saved when nobody was praying for me. He says, so that may be breaking the rule, breaking the rule that you just espoused there at the pulpit because I don't know of a single person who knew me and prayed for me. And about two or three years later, the same young man came to a Bible study, walked up to the same speaker and said, listen, do you remember me? And the guy said, yeah, I hated you ever since I met you. No, he goes, do you remember me? And he goes, yes, I do. He said, do you remember how I told you nobody prayed for me, for me to be saved? And he goes, I do, of course. You're the one person who's come to me and said that, I do remember you. He says, well, let me correct myself. He says, when I came to you and told you nobody prayed for me to be saved, I was single. When I met my girlfriend who became my wife, her parents told me that since she was a baby, they had been praying for her potential and one day husband, I was saved because of the prayer of my girlfriend who became my wife by their prayers. I am one who's been saved by prayers. Listen, one of the things that makes us selfish is when we hold on to something good and I'm not willing to give it to somebody else. And how good is the gospel of Jesus Christ and how good is life in Christ. And see, my dad, when I got saved at the age of 20 and I've told you my testimony, I won't bore you with the details again other than to make a point. I was 15, I started my alcohol. I actually had been drinking before that but I became habituated to alcohol at 15. I started doing drugs around 16 and I got heavily involved and at my last year prior to coming to faith in Christ, I weighed 170, some pounds and I went down to 145 in a month because I stopped eating and I was only drinking and smoking pot and taking drugs. I lost about 30 plus pounds in a month. And my life was spiraling down and so what happened is my friends began to speak to me about the Lord and eventually what happened is I got saved and my father and my mother were so concerned for me because they saw me wasting away. They saw somebody in his 170, some pounds going down to 145 and I was wasting away. I wasn't eating, I was just smoking pot and drinking. That's what I was doing and taking whatever drug would be given to me or I could take. And so that's what happened. So I lost a considerable amount of weight in a month. When I got saved, I was reading the Bible because I was told you need to read the Bible. And as I was reading the Bible, I got to Revelation 9 as I read through that passage and I saw judgment to come. That's when I walked into my kitchen where my parents were.  I actually believed the Bible. See, I was a brand new Christian. I wasn't smart enough to doubt it yet. I was a brand new Christian. I figured that God, if there's such a thing as a God, he must be capable of preserving his word. He must be capable of doing that.  So I figured that God, God has the capacity to preserve his word. I figured that must be true because if he isn't, then why am I worshiping somebody who's so weak he can't even keep his message intact? See, so it only made sense to me. If there is a God, he is able to communicate. I can communicate, he can communicate. There must be a God with a plan. I've made plans, he makes plans, he just made sense. It was foolish for me to think that one day there was nothing then that just exploded into everything I see. Now that doesn't make sense. Every house is built by some man. He who builds all things is God, the writer of Hebrews tells us. It just doesn't make sense for this.  I simply didn't make sense to me. It just didn't. And so if God is God, he can keep his word. And so when I began to read the Bible, I began to see that God says there is life and then there's condemnation. And that made sense to me. Well, that makes sense. There are judges on the face of the earth. If somebody breaks the law, then they're gonna be penalized. It made sense to me. So it all was just logical. And so I'm reading it and it says, judgment is coming on those who reject him. So I actually believe that I really thought that mom and dad were lost. Because the Bible said they were. So that's what provoked me to go into the kitchen, open the Bible, read the portion. And that's what provoked me to look at dad and to say to my dad, daddy, you're a good man, you're the best man I'll ever know.  And that's what provoked me to say to him, daddy, I love you. And I don't wanna go to heaven without you. Bow your head, you're gonna receive Christ right now. And I was 20 years old, a wild-eyed ex hippie doper, barefoot sitting in the kitchen, pointing to a decent, hard-working good man and telling him he's a sinner when I was the slime of the earth. And he knew it. And I said, daddy, I love you. And I don't wanna go to heaven without you. Bow your head, you're gonna come to faith in Christ right now. And that's how my dad got saved. And that's how my mom got saved. They got saved because God did a work by His Spirit through His Word which caused them to open their eyes to see that God transforms people by the power of the Holy Spirit. And He can take dopers and He can take drugies and He can take violent and He can take whatever and He can say, all things are new. Behold, I make all things new. If any man be in crisis, a new creation, all things are passed away. Behold, all things are become new.  You don't lose anything. See, that's the whole problem. A lot of people, they're, man, what am I gonna lose? What am I gonna lose? See, this rich young ruler was losing his money, he thought, but Jesus said, no, you're investing in the eternal. What you have right now is gonna perish with the using. But when you take that gift of the poor, God recognizes that you will have treasures in heaven, come follow me. And for him, he said, no, so now you got Peter saying, well, we left everything. What do we have?  But don't forget, there's a cost to it. Don't forget. But listen, when you have left father or mother, daughter or brother, when you have left those who love the most, even your lands, listen, it will be repaid to you on this earth and in later eternal life. So I was willing to lose my physical family because I knew I had an everlasting family. I became part of the body of Christ. And listen, body of Christ, I wanna say something to you. This Thursday, this last Thursday, Thanksgiving, this church was able to feed 150 brothers and sisters who wouldn't had a meal if you hadn't given. Thank you for being their family. Thank you for being their family because they left and they have you. See, you don't lose anything. You don't. You gain. You gain. Brothers and sisters in Jesus. And guess what? There's only one race. It's the human race. So it doesn't matter if you're black, yellow, brown, white, polka dot, you belong to the Lord. We belong together. That matters. That matters. That matters because we're one in Christ. And Jesus said, you may lose in a sense. It looks like you're losing, but no, in reality, you're gaining. You may appear to be losing, but in reality, you're gaining. In Matthew 10, 34 through 38, remember how Jesus said, don't suppose that I have come to bring peace on earth. I didn't come to bring peace, but a sword. I've come to turn a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.  He went on to say, anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me. Anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. You're holding on to that and you're trying to hold on to me. You can't hold on to both. You have to let go of one. Which one's it gonna be? For me, as much as I love my mom and dad, and to this day, we'll always love my mom and dad, their memory remains with me. And one day I'll be reunited with them. I was willing to let them go so I could have him. And that's what he's speaking about here. What did you give up? You left all. She didn't give up. You gained everything. And finally, he says, but many who are first will be last. The last will be first. It may appear now to persecutions and losses that you endure and will endure in the future that you have lost everything. But the day will come when you gain everything. While those who thought they had everything will find that in reality, they had nothing. The psalmist said it like this, and I'll roll to some scripture and an application and then a prayer. In Psalm 73, the psalmist said this in verses three through five. The psalmist said, I envy the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. They have no struggles. Their bodies are healthy and strong. They are free from the burden's common demand. They are not plagued by human life, rather human ills. Then he said in verses 12 and 13, this is what the wicked are like. Always carefree. They increase in wealth. Surely in vain have I kept my heart pure. In vain have I washed my hands in innocence. They're always carefree and they're always healthy. Me, I'm concerned with my kids.  These people who've got so much, they have so much going from their handsome. They wear the coolest clothes and they have the neatest hair and they have a great car and the beautiful neighborhoods and everybody knows that they have everything. And I don't have anything. I don't have two nickels to rub together. I'm concerned for my kids 24-7. The only thing I can grow in my garden is weeds and I try not to grow them, but they come anyway. I don't get it. I don't get it. And you can do that, can't you? You can see other people who seem to have it. They have so much and I have nothing. And I have nothing. And that's what the psalmist is saying. They're carefree. They've got everything. They never get sick. They don't need to be concerned about insurance. And even if they got sick, they got the cash they could pay for it. Me, I don't. And then he goes on to say this in verses 16 through 19 of Psalm 73. He said, when I tried to understand all this, it was oppressive to me until I entered the sanctuary of God. Then I understood their final destiny. Surely you place them on slippery ground. You cast them down to ruin. How suddenly are they destroyed? Completely swept away by terror. They think they've got it all now, but they're on a slippery slope and they're doomed. I've been to Cuba. I was invited to go again and I'm planning on going again next year in February to minister and conference and have ministry to pastors and their wives as well as other pastors and leaders in Cuba and the Cuban churches. Been there before and was invited to go again and plan and ongoing. Do you know that? Some of you know this. You can be a doctor in Cuba and you make $25 a month that you can be an engineer in Cuba and the average wage for an engineer with a PhD is $25 a month. Did you know that? I'm sure many of you knew that. $25 a month.  So a PhD in engineering makes $25 a month and a taxi driver is making $25 plus a day. It's a lot better to be a cab driver in Havana than it is to be a doctor, dentist or an engineer. So they have all of this poverty but Fidel Castro, who died, died with an estimated personal value, personal worth of close to a billion dollars. Did you know that? And so a man who brought in communism and destroyed an entire nation and reduced the salaries of people to $25 a month died close to a billionaire. So a lot of Cubans are upset because of how he is and what he did understandably, he is an illustration of someone who gained the whole world and lost his soul and what will a man give in exchange for his soul.  And that's one of the reasons why God does not rejoice at the death of the wicked and neither should we. We should pray for people like Castro and others that they might come to know the wonderful grace of God because without God they can have everything and have nothing and look at the way they treat people but when you have a relationship with God it transforms your entire life and had that man been an evangelical believer in Jesus Christ things would have been different for Cuba. It doesn't matter how much you have.  What matters is your walk with God now and Jesus said you're not losing anything you're gaining. You never forget that. That by the way is a heart of Christianity. That is a heart of Christianity. You give away that which you cannot keep to get that which you couldn't buy. It comes through the grace of God and eternal life comes through Jesus. So this rich young man had great possessions. Peter you left all one of these days with me.  Never forget that. And it may seem sometimes that everything is going bad for you but I've discovered if you give the Lord a little time He turns even that which is sorrowful into joy because He does that. That's what God does. That's what He does. Weeping may endure for a night but joy comes in the morning. Amen. Amen.


Good morning to CMC Espresso. Markets are still quite calm and hardly anyone expects the ECB to do anything that will change that. The inflation rate in Germany rose to zero in the month of May that compares with a minus of 0.3% in April. The report from Germany, Europe's largest economy, is the latest sign that the inflation outlook in the region is gradually improving as European Central Bank officials travelled to Vienna this week for their monetary policy meeting. In addition, the economic sentiment indicator, a monthly survey by the European Union's Executive Commission, rose to a full month high in a sign that confidence is up in the 19 European countries that use the euro. Thanks in particular to greater optimism among consumers that has led to a pickup in inflation expectations. In a sign of confidence, in consumer demand companies were expecting to raise their selling prices, particularly in industry and services, but also to a lesser extent in the retail and construction sectors. So all eyes will be on the money floodgates at this week's ECB meeting, which is expected to be relatively neutral for markets like the euro or the dex and footsie. The question will be when the idle money of the fund managers will find its way back into the stock markets. Now fund managers are sitting on high amounts of cash and it is clear that this money needs to be brought back to the markets sooner or later. It is quite possible that this will be only after the Brexit vote. Many could be waiting on the sidelines by then, but it is clear that if the UK were to stay in the EU, there could be a summer rally in European stocks. There are some, however, who believe it would be better for European integration where the UK to leave the EU because the political opposition would also be smaller than. In the end, I guess whatever the outcome of the vote will be, whatever opinion one might have, it will be very important of where the negotiations and the aftermath will lead. Besides the Brexit vote, there is another date that you should focus and traders should focus on and that is the 21st of June, so two days before, there will be an OMT decision by the German Constitutional Court. OMT are the outright monetary transactions by the ECB and the court will decide if it is illegal that the Bundesbank participates in the unlimited coverage that the ECB has given the buyers of government bonds of crisis countries in 2012. If you remember, Trager said whatever it takes, he will do to save and stabilize the euro. According to Hans Wernersen from the German EFO Economic Institute, a no of the court could have a major impact on the effectiveness of the ECB's policy, spreads on southern government bonds could spike quickly as the financing of the ECB bond purchases would no longer be secured. In China, meanwhile the government is preparing steps to close new loopholes found by those who want to bring their money out of the country. Many Chinese citizens and companies fear that the government could devalue the Yuan, the renminbi as it is called, and try to bring money out of the country before that devaluation is occurring. A resurgence of capital outflows would make it more expensive for companies to repay dollar debt that reduces also fund managers' willingness to invest in the Chinese markets and revive speculative trades like Soros and Kyle Bays who are heavily short the Yuan and expected devaluation to come. The People's Bank of China burned through $513 billion of its foreign currency stockpile propping up the exchange rate last year so that is a relatively costly endeavour they are undertaking. Now market sentiment has changed and has helped to a modest increase in reserves in March and April. When looking at oil hedges, that is another market that traders should be watching in the next days because of the upcoming OPEC meeting in oil, there are still large speculators bullish on a resurgence, they expect another increase in the price of oil and that resurgence of this kind of optimism that we have in the last days and few weeks has often been a sign that the next swing in the price will be facing downwards rather than up Bloomberg reports that net debts of the largest western oil companies have surged by over a third of the past year increasing their vulnerability to another fall in oil prices. The aggregate net debt of the 15 largest North American and European oil groups rose to $383 billion at the end of March up $97 billion from 12 months ago.


Hey there, I'm Jared Jeffery and today I'm effectively going to tell you a story But first I wanted to thank private property for having me back after the real estate industry summits and What we're going to talk about today Really is the impact that social media has had on my business how you can leverage it to Catapult your success whilst building your personal brand along the way But for it to make any sense, we've got to start back at the beginning When did I start what was industry like at that stage? What did I compare it to and how Consistency over time made a big difference more so today then whilst began posting etc. etc. So if we look at it February 2015 and just resigned from a job and No idea what I was going to do and maybe to contextualize that a little bit the job I resigned from was really to help Temporary at a friend's dad's company that sort of became permanent But ultimately didn't feel like it was for me. So The next sort of this thing that I've been around for a while was real estate and workshop houses Used to answer at the front desk for A popular brand in the area. So I was familiar with the area familiar with the industry I sat down with my then broker owner and She said look Joe, why don't you come give it a whack? Let's start on Monday. I said perfect Went away for my final weekend Come Monday walked through the door Excited enthusiastic had no idea what to do, but there was training provided granted So I got the strips. It was Jared you've got to tell everybody, you know that you know in real estate If they're thinking of buying or selling or if they know anyone looking to bar, so you the guy to contact and I thought that's fantastic I'm gonna go downstairs to the pick and pay. I'm gonna bump into strangers. I'm gonna say hey, I'm Joe And a phrase Just so easy doing the role playing in the training room But when it came face to face because it wasn't something I'd continuously done It was frightening So being a 22 year old sort of technologically inclined Hard enough spread the message without having to see people or see people yet I could get it out there if they liked it fantastic if they commented even great I forgot a phone call that would have been the answer so I put it on Facebook and I said hey everyone just to let you know I've now started in real estate If you haven't know anyone looking to bar, so I'm never too busy for the call And what happened? Nothing I think there are three likes and congratulations from family friends that all enjoy a big and didn't really directly impact and the business yet So the next best thing I thought of all what happens if often incentive and agents do it between themselves between Officers within the brand externity. I thought well, I'll give commission to anybody that prefers me Did it work? Not really Again the same family friends. I thought why hard is that work and I'll let people know but again There was nobody in my media sphere of influence that was going to help so 2016 well 2015 heading into 2016 was tough And I think I had one sale to chalk up which was okay But what I didn't realize was happening was whilst I was doing the activities expected For you to succeed or start to succeed in real estate and your day-to-day laugh I was also posting it on social media. I was sharing articles I was sharing just listed other people's mandates in the office anything just to promote myself and hopefully get a lead Whilst I was trying to hunt my own so the advice would come to me through mandates, etc And what I didn't realize was happening was it was all just a build-up It was that consistency that people saw although they didn't necessarily engage with me it was Very unexpected when people said oh, hey, Jared. I saw this or hey, I saw that And then the uncomfortable conversations and pick and pay started to become the norm People swore me in and around the center. They knew us in real estate. They might have had a friend or other friend They might have left my facebook page from a competition I ran So when they said hey, Jared, how's the market? It was unbelievable. They started the conversation with me Not that it turned into many leads at the time either But it was conversations with people and I was starting to become front of mind While it was important was in my area where I'm in Westville and Kawi Shul The average sort of experience of an agent is probably 15 years plus. So coming into it with no experience um, the average age also slightly higher, no offense, um It was harder to compete Because when you sat down in front of the center that may have found multiple agencies for valuation It was experience that more often than not won the mandate if it wasn't a personal relationship so Then it was how do you compete against experience? And that has to be through innovation that has to be embracing the technologies that are available to you now That maybe the older style of real estate isn't accustomed to because it's new to them too So you both on a level playing field. So when you're talking about facebook and social media You can't necessarily talk about 20 years worth of experience and that's okay because they can't talk about that versus facebook so It became a level playing field in that regard But what if I myself facing then was everybody started to use it if I look at 2017 I started doing it on instagram the problem with instagram was All my friends were on it. So none of them buys at that stage, but what it didn't realize was happening was they would tell their parents about me or their friends or friends about me or their friends parents and although 2016 or that kind of 2016 early 2017 didn't necessarily turn into hard leads The conversations were still happening. So it was just a sort of compounder activity That really started to take or make its mark but necessarily take its toll So in 2017 everybody was doing professional photography. Everybody was doing the sort of standard house videography I started doing facebook ads and that was instrumentally fantastic for me That started producing the result a lot quicker I started not necessarily finding status But I was finding bars for listings that previously weren't getting the inquiries on the traditional websites So I continued with that until the industry started to catch up or they embraced it as well But what I did have now on my side was traction And I had momentum so heading into 2018 that start in 2015 The consistency in 2016 and 2017 started to build my momentum for 2018 because now I had three years experience Both in real estate and the social media So it was becoming easier to sort of compete What I didn't realize is also happening. It was building a brand and where that really exploded was in 2019 and I was fortunate I was fortunate enough to find myself in an unfortunate position that forced me to get a business coach And while that's relevant with social media and my personal brand is we broke everything down to a Day-to-day requirement of what is expected of me in order to reach my goals. So That was as little as making phone calls, posting on social media, following up with people committing to meeting new people, etc etc and That was sort of an aha moment because I had this Some experience. I had consistency. I had momentum I knew what to do because I was being Reminded that if I didn't do them, I needed to do them So I had all of this happening And whilst business was fantastic I had to take it to a new level And that was done twofold Video was number one Something that everybody was currently doing but what nobody had done at that stage was stand in front of the camera And I thought well, how do I one up this and if anybody attended the real estate industry summit My theme was in and around that. So what I did was Sort of walked up to the camera introduced myself how I'm Jared Jeffrey. Welcome to my latest listing and I dove into a pool And that made my business explode Again, not so much as I was at the time But other agents were talking about me buyers were talking about it and I was getting so much exposed on the properties That social media started to number started to climb So from a business standpoint, that was a game changer But what really helped and still confidence in my personal brand Was when I started to really be authentically me that when things really started to change And quite holistically not just on a business sort of point of view Where leads were generated which turned into sales. Of course that was happening But what it created was networking opportunities And good relationships and friendships that have formed From just reaching out to somebody and sharing similar stories or similar values in business and The only or the most prominent example of that would be During the initial lockdown Myself and two other agents had to be in Gregor Washburn created a group And a lot Jordan Cumberick created a group where we would share our experience and how we were handling lockdown What our sellers were feeding what buyers were feeding and it was a fairly common Message across the board. So then we took it one further and We started reaching out to people or agents that we knew abroad We had the privilege of hearing from Rob Levy amazing estate agents in Australia And although their lockdown was unique at the time To them similar sort of things and reservations were happening But when they were coming out of the lockdown We then were going to experience it little did we know But we had an opportunity to speak to people like Daniel daggers He's done north of four billion in sales in the UK We spoke to Jordan Cone. It's the number one rematch agents in the world And those would never have happened if one we didn't ask the question Or two if we didn't share our journey on social media And the benefit for that was immense not because Of us being able to take the information from them that being able to share it with so many people around South Africa Where our little group of four grew to one over a hundred and That again just cemented relationships Who a lot of them we still stand such today and we refer business to each other And you can't put a random value on that because it doesn't necessarily equate to One referral art one random but what it has done It just what it has done is create confidence Especially in the marketplace because I see people that are active or that are being proactive and gave us a solution sort of outtake on what then was a Quite a fearful situation so None of that probably wouldn't have happened if One had a solid reputational good presence on social media So that we could see who we're about to get into better with the network with But on the flip side When you start being authentically you again it just cements the confidence or The intrigue for people to want to reach out or do business with you And that's again not just on the business side of things but also from the community involvement And something I'm very passionate about is my area and the community And I've since become a sponsor at Westville Boys High School And none of that really would have ever materialized If I probably didn't start posting on facebook then because social media has been able to accelerate my career in a short space of time That may have taken longer If it wasn't there because like I said we're fighting against experience and innovation at the moment From my current experience is starting to win What's also nice is younger people are coming to the industry They're finding it easier to get ahead or understand because there's a lot more information available at the fingertips which Is modern as the way training and things have happened, especially with zoom, etc, etc So it's hard to put a rad value on that But it's also hard to say you can't not start Because people are along this journey with you and once you start you can't stop And that's something I see happen fairly often is It doesn't matter if you necessarily copying someone or replicating what they're doing I'm not advocating take word for word But if you turn in initiatives that you're passionate about in your area and action it That's okay because the more people that do it the better it is for the community the better it is for the industry And the better it is for you at the end of the day So when you look at it from that standpoint It's okay if someone's doing a cleanup in your area to jump on board And all likelihood a residence is probably going to issue a challenge and jump on it But once you start you can't stop similar to social media Once you start posting or once you get into a position where You're rolling with whatever content you're posting and the value you're putting out there Because every post won't be a hit You've got to keep doing it because somebody's going to read it And it's going to make sense to them on the day and it's going to turn into something for you Whether it's a conversation or relationship or a transaction Is Unknown at the time, but you don't know who is seeing it on your screen Same thing people buy into it. They love to go on the journey with you So when Somebody sees you five years ago from where you started to where you are now That confidence is there and you're going to win 99% of the time when you get to sit in front of someone Versus the person they just called in they feel like they've known you for six years five years 10 years No matter how long you've been doing it because they followed your journey That's just their time to either sell or bar So when you can present and Their values on all likelihood going on with yours You're going to beat the person who's going to drum on about stats or maybe be a little more robotic Because they're following what they've just been told If that makes sense And if that doesn't make sense, that's okay too, but I'd encourage you to start anyways It's going to put you into places or situations that are going to be so far out of your comfort zone Like standing here today and giving this talk But it's an opportunity you can't say no to because you don't know who you might inspire You don't know what relationship might come from it. You don't know that A son of mine only want to deal with someone who's given a talk on private property. I've no idea But if that's the outcome, that's fantastic if it's an opportunity to do something like this similar If it's an opportunity to balance an idea of someone that's always going to be welcomed And that's really the power of social media and solidifying a personal brand And as it evolves and changes and as you grow as an agent and quite frankly as a person The opportunities and the results are fairly endless, but you've got to put in the work And that's sometimes fairly humbling because it's not always go go go go go That social media may make a book to see and that's also okay. Um, there's been times where I've shared challenges and if anything that's provided more solutions and Pulled me away from the negativity then more so than I could ever believed um If I look at 2018 that was a fairly tough year. It was a year I wanted to get engaged uh thought of changing areas sales went amazing so I got a business coach and We set the goals set the activities and put in the work and I shared that and That was a renounding success And some of it probably a bit of luck Some of it certainly down to hard work And some of it was really just The message fit the right people at the right time, which did luckily turn into sales And it's continued to do so If I look at how it's shaped and guarded my career today I had a change in brand and myself and a very prominent agent in the area have teamed up And because of that we've become the most followed Partnership in the area. So we've got an incredible reach We've got similar work ethic similar values and the market has reacted so well to us. It's incredible And none of that would have ever happened or again happened so quickly if I didn't just start way back in 2015 So if you've managed to pull any sort of value from this if you have any questions I'm always available whether it's on whatsapp instagram Facebook, I will always get back to you. I really hope you've enjoyed this and cheers for now


Hello and welcome everyone to this webinar on the most common product management mistakes. Today, I'll be speaking about some of the most common mistakes that product managers are likely to make, especially early on in their careers. You'll find a lot of resources, books, articles, podcasts that talk about everything that product managers should do to launch successful products. But there's also a lot of things that product managers should not do. I learned about a lot of these things either about making these mistakes myself or by observing my peers and colleagues making some of these mistakes. Now, I see many junior PMs whom I mentor make these mistakes repeatedly as well. So my hope is that after learning by learning about these mistakes and some simple tactics on how you can avoid these mistakes will help you become a better product manager. A little bit about myself before we delve into the content. I'm Shipra Kanoria. I'm a principal product manager at Amazon. I am currently leading the product strategy for Amazon Comprehend, which is a collection of APIs within Amazon Web Services that helps developers who do not have any machine learning expertise to extract insights from text documents. These insights can be sentiments, entities, dominant language, or even keywords that you want to extract from your documents. Before Amazon Comprehend, I was with Alexa, where I was responsible for many successful launches. Some of them are timed music actions that allows customers to ask Alexa to play music for a specific duration. You can say, for example, Alexa, play jazz music for 30 minutes. Another one is voice notes, which allows customers to ask Alexa to remember anything. You can ask Alexa, make a note that my nephew wants a Nintendo Switch for this Christmas. I also launched a lot of small features such as alarm-based routines and grew the engagement of Alexa overall by increasing the engagement of the products that I was responsible for by 30% year over year. So before we actually delve into the content, I want to make a quick note here. All the content that I share today is based on my personal experience and it does not express the opinions of my employer. And here's a quick agenda of what I want to cover. I'd first talk about the most common mistakes. I'll share some examples from my career journey and also talk a little bit about how those mistakes may look like in practice. Then I'll talk about how can you avoid these mistakes early on. And I'll end with the biggest mistake that all of us are really likely to make. So let's start with the first mistake. The first and in my opinion, the biggest mistake that product managers are likely to make is to already have a solution in mind and then to try to map a customer problem to that solution. And despite the golden product manager rule that always start backwards from the customer problem, this mistake is really ubiquitous. And in my experience, this mistake is most likely to happen when you're working in a very disruptive field. So you're working with a really cool and disruptive technology. You want to bring that technology to market. You want to build products that use that technology. And in our quest to bring that technology to market, we often overlook if that technology solves a core customer problem. I believe this happens because of two big reasons. The first reason is we are told that, hey, customers don't know what they want. And if you build a product, customers will come. So let's focus on building both of those are untrue. No matter how complex your solution is or how elegant your product is, if your product does not solve a core customer need, your customers are not going to use your product. The second reason this happens in my opinion is there is a race. There is a race to be the first one to get a specific technology to market as there's a lot of pride associated with it. It gives a first mover advantage. But once again, none of those really help increase adoption for your product. If the product does not solve a core customer need, your customers will not come. And you can see examples of this mistake all around you when you see products that had a lot of PR and marketing behind them, products that were using the latest technology, but that failed to gain any customer traction. Think about Google Glass or any AR device for that matter in particular, which were really cool technologies and some of them really elegant products, but didn't gain any traction because they were not solving for a pressing customer problem. I actually made this mistake early on in my career when I was working on Alexa and voice technology was fairly disruptive several years back. So a lot of the features that I was thinking of or I was building focused on the voice aspect of it. That is the technology aspect of it versus really thinking about does voice do a better job at solving those problems for customers? Or does voice present a benefit to customers that's not available to them with existing technologies? So let's say you have defined a problem you want to solve. You're not working backwards from the solution, but you have defined that, oh, this is a customer problem that I want to solve for, and this is a customer problem that I want to build products for. The second mistake that product managers are likely to make is then to use user research to confirm or validate their hypotheses instead of understanding true customer motivations and behaviors. And what this really looks like in practice is asking leading questions such as what features would you like? Can you rank these features in an order of priority or amongst these end choices, what products do you want? The reality is that customers want everything. You will tell you that I want A, B, C and D, but what they say in a survey is not reflective of the actual adoption or whether they'd adopt or not. This can also manifest in the way we analyze our survey results. So let's say you conduct a survey and you're trying to understand how many customers really have the problem that you're solving for. And 40% of the customers say that, oh, I have this problem that you're solving for. 35% of them say I am indifferent to this problem you're solving for, and 25% say I don't have this problem. What happens when we are using user research to validate our hypotheses rather than to understand customer behavior is we focus on that 40% number. We say, oh, 40% of our users have this problem. So it gives us an indication that this is a problem worth solving, but we ignore the 60% that is either indifferent or does not have that problem. And really delving deeper into why they don't have that problem or why they're indifferent to the problem would really hone your product thinking and help you build a better product. So now you have identified the problem that you want to solve for, and you have also conducted user research to define what's the minimum viable product you want to build. You have worked with your engineering team to understand how much time it will take you to build the features. You have added ample buffer to some of those engineering estimates and you've created a really solid product roadmap with milestones and a launch date. Now your team is in full execution mode, and which brings me to the third mistake that product managers can make is as they're moving closer to the launch. They tend to prioritize a launch date over some of the features. What will happen is as you move closer to the launch, you will discover problems. Some tasks took longer than expected. Some integrations are not working as you expected them, and your product testing revealed certain bugs. So now you're faced with this choice of should I delay my launch and prioritize these features and bugs, or should I stick to my launch? And can I de-prioritize some of these features and bugs and maybe launch them as a fast follow? And there is so much emphasis in the product management world on delivering results and on launching products that often product managers would prioritize launch. And they'll say, okay, let's launch and we'll fix things later, or these bugs are not as critical to customer experience. Let's launch without really fixing them and we can fix them later. And once again, in my experience, that tends to be a very, very costly mistake. I made this mistake when I stripped down the minimum viable product for a product that I was building towards bare minimum, because we wanted to meet a specific launch date. We wanted to launch the product before Christmas so that we could get holiday marketing for that product. We could get adoption from a lot of new customers that try our product during holiday times. And we thought that it's really, really critical for us to launch before the holidays to get a good adoption for our product. So, yes, I was like, okay, whatever did not fit within the launch schedule was de-prioritized and we made the launch. And as expected, for the first four to six weeks, we saw really, really good adoption of our product, because we knew that we get a lot of new customers. We know that we get a lot of new trials and we were covered in all the holiday marketing. So customers were trying our products and we were very happy about that. But then we found out that those customers were not sticking around. And when we looked at the reasons of why are those customers not sticking around, they were complaining about the same features that we had de-prioritized to make that launch date. Or they were complaining about the same bugs that we were aware of, but we had de-prioritized to meet the launch date. And that's why I'm saying this is a very costly mistake because once you typically lose customers, it becomes very, very difficult to bring them back or to use your product on a continuous basis. So, let's say now you have launched your product. All your product goals are now focused on increasing the engagement of your product, which actually makes a lot of sense because now that you've launched your product, you want a lot of customers to use it. But that brings me to my fourth mistake, which is you start investing in product growth before product market fit. And what this looks like in practice is you're trying to increase the number of customers who are using your product. That is, you're trying to increase your acquisition, you're trying to increase your trials without first understanding what's the retention rate for your product. Without first determining that is there a core group of users that is using your product regularly? And what happens when you do this? If you don't understand the retention or if you don't make sure that you have a healthy retention before you start optimizing for acquisition is that you end up with a leaky bucket. You have a lot of users that are trying your product, but none of them are staying. None of them are coming to use your product repeatedly. And hence you have a leaky bucket, which is usually very, very difficult to fix. So it's always better to make sure that your product has a healthy retention, has a good product market fit for a core set of users before you start driving more acquisition and more trials for your product. So I spoke about the most common mistakes that I typically see. And here's a recap on how those mistakes map to different stages of a product development life cycle. Early on, when you're thinking about what problems you want to solve or early on when you're in a product ideation phase, you're more likely to already have a solution in mind and work backwards from that solution. You're also more likely to then use user research to confirm your existing hypotheses rather than to truly understand the motivation and behaviors and needs of your customers. As you get into the building phase or in the execution phase, the mistake that you're most likely to make is just a wrong trade off to launch your product at a certain date or to kind of meet a certain launch target, you will just prioritize the date over the right set of features, which can be, as I said, a very, very costly mistake. And after you launch the product, the mistake that you're most likely to make is that you start investing in product growth, you start running marketing campaigns to get a lot of customers to try your product before really establishing a core product market fit for your product. So now you must be wondering that, okay, we know about all these mistakes, but how do we really avoid these mistakes? And the way to avoid these mistakes is really simple. Yes, you may be wondering, ask the right questions, but yes, it is that simple. Asking the right questions at each stage of product development would really help you make sure that none of these are blind spots for you and that you are launching a product that customers want. So how do you ensure that you are working backwards from the problem instead of the solution? The first step is to define who your customer is. What is your customer persona that you're solving for? I'll give you an example in my current role. We build product for developers, machine learning scientists, business people. And the first thing that we always start with is, hey, what's the customer persona we are solving for? Are we solving for a developer who does not have any machine learning expertise? Are we solving for a data scientist who has machine learning expertise? Or are we solving for a line of business user or a business user who has no technical expertise and wants a lot more simpler solutions? So it's extremely important that when you're thinking of what you want to build, you first identify who your customer is. And then once you've identified your customer, you think of what is the customer problem that we are solving for? Once you identify that problem, then you should think about, hey, how do I solve for this problem? Is the technology that I'm using or is the technology that I desire to use even the right way to solve this problem? Or are there other ways to solve this problem? And then you also want to make sure that the problem is big enough for you to solve. There is a big enough market for you to actually be successful as you solve this product. And you typically do that by asking, how do we know this is a real customer problem and how big is this problem? Which brings to user research and to make sure that you are using your user research to understand customer motivations and behaviors rather than to confirm your existing hypotheses. You should ask some of these questions, which is, why is this a problem for customers? Really go deeper into understanding where, what situations your customers are in when they encounter this problem? Are they at their home? Are they at office? Are they in the park? Are they driving? Who are they with? Are they with somebody else? Are they by themselves? Are they with their kids? And really understanding where the customers are when they encounter this problem would make sure that you have a really holistic solution for that problem. You'd also want to ask, how do they solve this problem currently? And the answer to this question may help you determine that, oh, the current solution that my customers have for this problem is good enough. And my solution does not offer any incremental value, and it can also help you determine the size of the market that whether this problem is really worth solving. To make sure that you're making the right prioritization between the launch date and the features, you should first and foremost ask, hey, why is this launch date important? In a lot of cases, the launch date can be important because let's say you have a PR event tied to that launch date. Or especially for retail products for kids toys, you want to launch them in Q3 so that you get a lot of sales in Q4 because a lot of customers buy a lot of toys in Q4 as holiday gifts. So some of those dates become extremely important. But for most software products, you would find out that it is a target that is just set and then is treated as a movable target. Whereas if you delay the launch date by a couple of weeks, it would not really hurt your product as much, but it will really help you increase your adoption, especially if you're prioritizing the right feature set when you delay the launch date. It's also extremely critical to understand the value that the features you are deep prioritizing offer to the customers. Are they truly P1 or P2 features? Are they truly good to have features? Or are they must have features? Do you expect the customer engagement to drop by deep prioritizing any of these features? And understanding the second order consequences of the prioritization decisions you're making. The first order consequence is often very easy because it's like, oh, if we don't have to build for this feature or if we don't have to solve for this bug, we'd be able to launch faster and meet our launch date. But the second order consequences is customers do not like the product or they do not use the product or the product does not work as they expected. And it's extremely important that you are clear about some of those trade-offs as you make this decision of whether you want to deep prioritize features or the launch date. And to make sure that you optimize for product market fit for product growth, you should have a very good understanding of what the retention for your product looks like. In fact, it should be one of the key metrics that you measure in days or weeks after you launch a product because that really tells you there is a core group of products that coming to use your product repeatedly. How often or you measure retention actually depends on your product. The frequency of use depends on your product. A product like Instagram would have daily retention. A product like Amazon would have weekly retention. Or a travel product like Airbnb or Expedia may have quarterly, half yearly or even yearly retention that they measure. But it is extremely important that you first determine what's the frequency that you expect your customers to use your product at. And then build in ways to measure retention for your product. Because if you don't have a core user set for your product, you'll just keep getting a lot of trials without having any repeat usage. The other way to make sure that you're optimizing for product market fit before product growth is to ask what is the churn rate for my product, which is typically the inverse of retention. How many customers are just leaving or not returning back after using my product. Sometimes churn rate can also be measured, especially if you have a product that requires sign up or creating an account. You can also determine how many customers are creating an account. How many customers are signing up for your service versus how many customers are just using it as a guest and then never creating an account. And then you want to think about how can you improve your retention and churn rate. And one advice that I have here is you want to avoid strategies that only increase your retention and reduce your churn in the short term. One of those strategies, let's say is offering discounts, right? You can say, hey, come back and try us. Here's a 25% discount. That's a very short term retention strategy because that customer will come back, avail that discount. But then the next time you want them to use your product again, you'll have to give them another discount. So make sure that you're not overusing those strategies that increase retention just one time. And the best time to use a strategy like offering discounts is when you have made significant improvements to your product and you are looking to capture lapsed users. And you know that by offering those discounts, you can get those customers to try your product, but then your product is good enough. It has taken care of all the prior feedback because of which customers churned in the first place, so they're not likely to churn. And that's a good time to use discounts, but otherwise you should not use strategies that just improve retention in the short term. So I spoke about the most common mistakes and also some ways to make sure that these mistakes don't become blind spots for you or to make sure that you avoid these mistakes. I now want to talk about the biggest mistake that all of us make as product managers, which is to not think about our own career as a product. We are so busy launching and growing our products that we don't take the time to pause and adopt the same mindset to our own careers. I'd highly encourage everyone to think about what a product mindset looks like when applied to their own career. What's the three to five year vision for their career? What are the different milestones they need to achieve to make sure they're making progress towards the vision? And then how can they measure progress against that vision? So yeah, to quickly summarize, I spoke about the most common mistakes that I've seen product managers make. These are working backwards from the solution instead of the problem using user research to confirm existing hypotheses instead of truly understanding customer motivations and beliefs, making wrong prioritization, prioritizing a launch date over features, and lastly, investing in product growth through soon, increasing acquisition and trials before establishing there's a product market fit by having a healthy retention. I also spoke about some of the questions you can ask to make sure that you don't make these mistakes. These are not the only mistakes that product managers make. There's a lot of other mistakes, but in my experience, these have been the most common mistakes that I've seen product managers make repeatedly. And I hope you found this discussion helpful today. Thanks again.


I first met Major McClung in December of 2005 prior to our deployment to Felucia. I served with her for about a year prior to her death and I think the thing that stands out and resonates most with me is that she really lived by her motto, be bold, be brief, be gone. She left an impact wherever she went. It was mostly because of her positive attitude and the embodiment of that can-do spirit that we admire as Marines.