Hey guys, Chris Birch here, entrepreneur strategies, providing more knowledge on investments, on real estate stock options, and just general entrepreneurship. And this evening we are joined by a gentleman who is just north of me in the Baltimore market. We have Todd Sacks with Sacks Realty. Welcome Todd. Thank you very much. Appreciate being here. Thanks for having me on your show. So Todd, if you could tell all of my subscribers here on YouTube and other social media platforms, give us like a, I always say a 5,000 square foot view of who you are and what you do. The high level view. Yeah, the high level. There you go. There you go. Chris, well I'm a real estate broker here in Maryland, so we help buyers and sellers and renters and landlords of both commercial and residential real estate. But we also help them all over the country. We have an amazing broker network everywhere, mostly everywhere. So we give a lot of referrals out to competent agents and brokers throughout the country. But I started in 1989 as a contractor swinging a hammer. I was a builder, contractor, landscape contractor. And through the years, that's what I've been doing. I've been developing houses, building houses, rehabbing, land development. In 2017, I started Sacks Realty and I sort of like the epitome of my career. I just wanted to get more on the management and advisory side of things.  We have a YouTube channel and just trying to provide good value and great information. Awesome, man. Well, welcome. Thank you so much. So myself as an investor in, so let me rewind. In Baltimore, I consider there's really three different types of real estate in Baltimore. You have the inner city down by the harbor, down by the inner harbor and then the east of the harbor. You also have the far west side where I think a lot of people initially hear, oh, Baltimore, you can buy so cheap in Baltimore. You can buy a row home and renovate it. You can buy it for $10,000 and go up and renovate it and then flip it or rent it.  And I guess the pain of picture for both of our viewers, there is a vast difference between those three different types of real estate in the Baltimore region. And my question to you is a lot of my subscribers are new, not that savvy investors. And I've heard stories from different people. They look online or contact the agent and they find a really, really distressed property. It's minimal cash investment of let's say $10,000. The property only needs $40,000 or $50,000 worth of renovation work. They get halfway into the project and the west side of Baltimore comes in and rips out plumbing, rips out electric because you're now an active project and everything's exposed. What areas, and that's the drastic side of the west side that I'm referencing. You also have the, down by the harbor, beautiful new up and coming. You have little Italy and Canton. And a lot of people are seeing great success investing there. And then you also have the counties, which are more the non-inner city brick row homes. These are single family homes that usually sit on a little bit of property. For the new investor, from your experience being a real estate agent, without suggesting to them an area, what are some of the more up and coming reasonable areas for an investor to start looking at? Yeah, that's a great question. So let's just kind of dissect that a little bit. So let's talk about one of the things that you said. And first of all, it's very exciting. You want to invest in real estate, whether you have a lot of money or you have no money. If you really build the right team or really learn as much as you can, you can find there are a lot of different ways to make it happen. Baltimore City, I'm originally, I was born in Baltimore City. My dad was a Baltimore City police officer. We moved out to the county. I lived in, grew up in a place called Reisterstown, which is straight up Reisterstown Road. There's a lot of arteries that come out of the city in all directions. And it's all served by the counties. The counties, a lot of them work downtown. Other people work downtown. But to talk about somebody coming in and ripping out plumbing, I can remember working downtown, doing projects and for investors and rehabbing them. But you can get really, you can have materials and things stolen on job sites no matter where you are. It could be in Baltimore City. It could be anywhere in the county. It could be in your next door, in your next door neighbor, in your neighborhood. I think the big, the key is that when you are rehabbing and things like that, that you protect your materials as much as you can. So you need to know that if you're going to set the outside air conditioning units, you don't do it until it's sold or you're ready to settle. So there are certain aspects.  You want to try and secure your site, secure your materials. I've built in the county and I had a lumber package where it was dropped off. And I go up to the job site and my two by fours are half gone. And it's like, what the heck? And this is in a fluent neighborhood that you're like, wait a minute. And it's a newer neighborhood. And the neighbors are using your studs to finish their basements because they didn't have it done by the builder. So you have to be careful. I'm going to give you guys a couple of resources. So Baltimore depends on your strategies. So if you want to invest in Baltimore City or anywhere, you need to be familiar with the government websites, zoning, planning and review. And I've always said to my investors and agents in an area where you're looking to either work or invest, be familiar with what's going on around town, what's coming down the pike. And the number one place to do that is in zoning plans and reviews, planning and reviews. Because a lot of times when people are planning something, when companies are planning on doing something, they may not always disclose who they are like underarm are going to poor Covington. But years ahead of time, they're going to start with a planning process and a planning review process. And they're going to have public hearings and planning review hearings that are leading up to, well, there's a 255 acre site in Port Covington that an underscored buyer is looking to do XYZ, planning a master business community. So if you started a zoning level and become very familiar with that, you're going to know where the pockets are that are up and coming. And everybody wants to do that. But I'm going to tell you guys something, these are things that can take years to develop. So if you're investing, if you're going to, if you're flip investing, or whether you're rental investing, you may be saying, Hey, this is something big is coming down the pike here in Port Covington. But the neighborhoods around it aren't seeing it yet, the growth. So you're going to have to wait. You're going to have to hope that it happens. You're going to have to wait for it to happen. The next thing would be once it's happening or once it's public, then there's a jump in prices, just like the stock market, right?  But I want everybody to understand that there's opportunity at any time at any price level at any budget, depending on what it is you're willing to do for your money or your return.  But they were interested in putting tax maps back on though. I think the dollar housing, you had to keep it for a period of time, maybe it was 12 months and rent it. But number one, you need to look at, you know, what are you willing to do? And number two, what is it that you have in your pocket or that you have resources to invest? So I'm going to give you a couple, I'm going to give you a couple websites to check out planning.baltimorecity.gov. Okay, that's a big website. They've got interactive maps on that site. They got neighborhood profiles. They have developments that are in progress right now. You can kind of see where the phases are. And the other one's zoning.baltimorecity.gov. And zoning is going to tell you things like, you know, what can be done there. So, you know, being familiar with, you know, I always say when you're looking at real estate, you want highest and best use. So a lot of times when their agents are marketing something or sellers are selling something, they're marketing it as residential, but it could actually be a commercial shop. It could be a storefront. So, you know, you could better things like that. Colleges have always been a safe bet. So universities and colleges. So you've got some big colleges, you know, there's a lot of development going around in the Maryland Institute College of Arts, which is the MICA. I mean, there's a lot of development that's going around there. You know, we have a world renowned college and hospital, Johns Hopkins, that brings people in from all over the world, literally. And those areas have a tendency to be developed. And you know, and then the other thing is I'm going to give you another good one is livebaltimore.com. That is a great interactive map that you can go on and you can actually select whether you want quiet living, entertainment living, they've got, if you go up to it, I don't know what it is exactly anymore. But if you go to neighborhoods, I think is the tab, and it will drop down and we give you a whole lot like if you want water, things like that.  Walk scores, big importance. I think they said they've done a study like 30% of the residents, I think in Baltimore City, and I could be rolling this, but I'm just trying to go by memory. But it's a pretty big percentage of people don't have automobiles.  That's interesting. I've actually, I've used the, they have the interactive development map on the city's website. And it's a great tool because I heard, you know, just as a quick reference, I heard that they were tearing down all of this public housing not far from the Johns Hopkins campus. And I started looking in that area because if the city's tearing it down, that means there's probably a development plan already in place, right? So I said, boom, let me start entering addresses in that region and see, you know, what potential is there. I mean, what type of development is the city putting in, first of all, and then what are the surrounding neighborhoods and, you know, kind of buying, as I would say, just on the other side of the railroad tracks kind of mentality of if the development is already in place, it's already been funded, that might be a good area to start looking. But that brings me to another question. And before, and Chris, so let me just kind of tell you some of the areas, you know, that I like.   Hamden, and you can tell trends, you know, people, you know, neighborhood pricing, I guess, is really determined by, you know, sort of like trends, you know, people flocking to that area for whatever reason, and it might be jobs, it might be whatever. But, you know, the hotter the real estate is the market speaks. So a lot of the value or the pricing is based on, and I always say real estate is what somebody's willing to pay for it, right? The value is realized on what somebody's willing to pay. So years ago, I mean, I was involved in that whole from 97 to 2005, you know, building like crazy, rehabbing like crazy.  Then we had the crash of 2008, which everybody remembers. But we were doing a lot in Hamden and Remington was just kind of coming up. And it was kind of like on the outskirts of Hamden and people couldn't afford to be in Hamden, but they could afford to be in Remington, sort of what you're talking about, going outwards a little bit. And then when 08 happened, it just kind of shut it down and stopped because investors didn't have any money. They didn't know where the bottom was. So basically, that area is picked back up again and, you know, is really doing a lot of building development, a lot of neighborhood style, you know, shopping and restaurants and bars and things like that. The other ones up Upper Fells.  But Upper Fells is really starting to come on too because people like that fells point, kind of lifestyle and living, but, you know, that's a little more affordable the further up you go. And then one that I'm really seeing come on really hot is Dundalk City. So, which is over by Broning Highway where the GM plant used to be, Amazon built there, you know, several, probably five years ago, something like that. They put a big, you know, facility in. It really worked out way better. I think they were planning on employing like a thousand employees.  We updated, we completely renovated on 10 years ago. And before Amazon came in and I could tell you, they've boosted us a lot. So anyway, so go ahead Chris, what were you going to say? No, I think it's interesting from your perspective of being your own brokerage as well as, you know, running your own real estate firm. You have the perspective of not only what the market's doing, because you're seeing active listings, you're seeing contracts, you're seeing this, but you're also seeing where the trends are going, right? So I'll lead into a question about sexuality is what defines you all differently than me just going on Zillow and picking out a real estate agent to work with, and not really understanding that a real estate agent does more than just help you buy and sell your house, just from experience. What does, what does sexuality and your agents, what do you offer that's different for someone like me as an investor? What products and services do you all offer that I couldn't get from going to one of the big brokerages in the area? And not saying that you couldn't get them, get what we offer from somewhere else, because you may, but I think the biggest thing with sexuality is, you know, I'm at the helm, right? I mean, I, you know, so and I don't mean that, you know, any other way than I'm very experienced as a contractor and investor myself. So, you know, I often say, I don't think there are a whole lot of brokers out there or managers that have torn houses down to the ground or built new homes or, you know, subdivided land. So for one, I think that that is, you know, so we understand the investor. We understand and that goes nationwide. It doesn't matter whether, you know, you're looking to invest in Florida or Oklahoma, it doesn't matter. You know, when we get involved, we want to make sure that you are set up with somebody that A is very hyper local, right, that understands that specific market that you're looking to invest or understands what your capabilities are so that they don't just sell you something to get you in trouble.  I always sit down with the consultation, whether it's in person or it's over Zoom or whatever. And I try and understand and guys, a lot of times I'll say like, okay, you want to get in a real estate investing, what do you have in cash? And they'll say, oh, I got a lot. Well, that doesn't work for me.  I mean, I see people that have hundreds of millions of dollars and I see people that have $10,000 or $5,000. I need to know. So whether you're dealing with me or somebody else, you want someone that is going to understand what it is that you need because you don't need somebody to sell you something that isn't going to work out because you'll never do it again.  So not saying that I can prevent you from getting hurt at certain point, you're on your own, right?  But I think one of the things that we have to offer is that we understand the investor and we can advise you professionally from that aspect. And it also goes for buyers and sellers. You know, when we're walking through people's houses to list, you know, we can say, hey, this is about what this is going to cost you. These are the things that you should absolutely do. I was just on a listing appointment a week or so ago.  And I walked around the outside of house and saw cracks in the foundation and suggested that they get a structural engineer to come in and certify that the foundation didn't need work. And I was the only one that picked that up, you know, so they were able to secure a letter from the engineer and that it was fine.  So, you know, I think that's just it. It's not that you can't find competent advice out there, Chris, but real estate agents are they are a dime a dozen. And, you know, and a lot of times we go with the people that we know, instead of the people that we should. And, you know, and that's a tough conversation I have sometimes, because sometimes Aunt Lucy is not the agent that you need. Yeah, I mean, that's an interesting point because I said earlier in this conversation, I just went with someone that I knew. I'm not saying he was good, bad, or, you know, otherwise. He represented me perfectly fine. But in the in the process of that project, he lent zero advice to the project. And it's not a bad thing. But he helped me acquire it. He said, Well, Chris, you know what you're doing, you had the money to buy it and you're going to renovate it. And then I'll be your agent to list it. And that's pretty much his involvement. You know, he studied the market came up with a, you know, fair market price for us to list it. And that was his total involvement. He had no idea the scope of work and all the challenges that we had to deal with going through it. So I think it's important, you know, not selling sacks realty, but go with someone that at least knows what an investor is dealing with. Similar to what you mentioned about the cracks in the foundation, not that the other agents that were there didn't know about it. That just wasn't something that prompted their antenna to go up. But you being an investor as well, it said, Well, you guys might want to take a look at this because you could have a major issue. You're talking cracks in foundation, you might be underpinning your whole house before you can even do anything to it. And as you know, that's astronomically expensive to do. Or what you may end up doing, which is kind of worse yet, is just covering it up. Yeah, that too.  And then three months later, they realize it and they get somebody and say, Oh, yeah, this was covered up. And they can tell, they could tell if you put a band-aid on it.   But I'll give you some advice with Marilyn. So I work with a lot of investors and here in Maryland, we have a law that's called agency. And it's kind of tricky because what happens is in Maryland, we either represent the seller or we represent the buyer. And we are in the first brush, first conversation required to either let you know that even though we don't know the seller, we have to work for them because that's the way the goofy law is. Or you have to sign this document that says, I represent you. And most people are like, wait a minute, man, I don't want to be like exclusive to you. I don't even know who you are. And I'm like, well, I don't want to be exclusive to you either because I don't know. But anyway, so the way I like to work things, and this is just a recommendation and I don't know how other brokers do it. But the way I always like to do it is say, look, you need representation. And in Maryland, it's the law, right? That we represent either the seller or the buyer. So what I always say is, let's just make the representation agreement for the day we're going out looking at houses, you know, or a seven day period or let's outline an area or let's put specific houses that we're going to look at in place. But don't just say, well, we know enough to know that we're not going to turn you away because you don't want to give us exclusivity when you don't even know us. So we understand that if you're an investor, you might want to work with 10 different agents. And that's fine. But understand there is a way that you could still have representation here in Maryland and probably in other states too. And you may not even need agency representation in other states, I don't know. But but anyway, I just wanted to put that out there because a lot of people, well, they call me up and they're like, well, I don't want to be exclusive, you know, to you or be stuck with you. I have other agents that show me stuff too. There's ways around legal ways around, you know, working it out. Yeah. Yeah.  I do have an active MLS list that comes to me in a specific market that I'm targeting to invest in. And I will obviously always use that agent because that's, you know, ethically for me, why wouldn't I? I mean, this this this agent, but he's also he is licensed in Maryland. He wants no part of Baltimore. So he has no problem. Even if I even if I create a search criteria, he's like, I don't want to do Baltimore. You can use my MLS search if you want to and I do. But he's like, if you find something, I don't care who you call. I just I don't have an interest in Baltimore, you know, investments. And I think it's just I think it's an honest way of doing business. I'm under no obligation. So, you know, similar to how you have to operate within the guidelines of a real estate agent and under your brokerage as an investor, you don't always have to. But I strongly recommend you do or you're going to you're going to piss off a lot of a lot of real estate agents. It's just there's no need for it, you know. Well, I always tell people once they use me, they're not going to use anybody else. That's a good way. Hey, look, you know, I say, I say that, you know, with with confidence because, you know, I help a lot of investors in whatever level it is that they're doing a lot of its commercial. But my point is, is go ahead, you know, use your whoever it is that you think you want to. But usually when they do a deal with me, they're like, man, can you check this out? I can do this other deal because, you know, they just want that kind of expertise. And I know that that sounds very arrogant. And I'm really not that way. I don't know. But it's just if you do a good job for people, they're going to come back. Yeah, no, I agree. I agree. Not not moving away from Baltimore City. But you mentioned something to me the other day when we were talking about land investment. And it threw an antenna up because I have I have other investors up and down the east coast here in the US that are heavily, heavily targeting land. Right. And what they're doing is something similar you mentioned earlier in our conversation is they go to these community meetings, these neighborhood commissions, these zoning hearings. And I'm sure they've mentioned it. It's boring as can be. You're going to be there for however long until your specific neighborhood comes up. But you're able to hear whether it be from the city council or the zoning commission, you're able to hear what the plans are in place. Right. From your experience, using like similar to what you said, using the Baltimore City website, are there and I'm not asking you for specific specific areas, but is that probably the one of the best ways to look for the land in the Baltimore suburb region is is studying what's going on, what the infrastructure or highways or maybe road expansion. Is that a good way of targeting investments there? Yeah, I mean, you know, a lot of the that's kind of like few and far between.  So you'll see a thousand like proposed traffic control device on such and such a street. Well, they're speed bumps or, you know, a median strip. I think the more important thing is depending on. So let's just take it from sort of like a sort of like a top down. So commercial real estate really sets the tone for most of what goes on, right. The big money comes in, they set up the commercial infrastructure. Shops job really jobs because there's a there's an economic factor that for every job that's created, it creates like 2.3 jobs, right. So what does that mean, you know, so that means and depending on the areas, it could mean up to seven jobs, right, based on one single hire, because people have to live in an area, they are, you know, shopping, they're, you know, getting dry cleaning done, they're hiring contractors or doing things. So then there's, you know, what we call, you know, like a one three or five minute drive time or one three or five mile drive time, right. And maybe it's not a drive time, maybe at the walk score, depending on how micro it is. But what happens is you want to pay attention to what's happening on a commercial level. So when you see things being injected in the neighborhood like, whoa, they just revitalized that shopping center or they just brought in this Class A tenant or they're building a new super Walmart, they're big things, even if you're not going to the zoning hearings, they're big indicators that can tell you, hey, something's up. So if you're out driving around, the big thing is, is understanding when you're talking about traffic devices like median strips in the commercial real estate, it could be the kiss of death, because if you have a four lane road and they're putting a median strip in the middle and people have to do a U turn to get to you, because there's such thing as drive way, there's a going to work side of the street. And there's a coming home side of the street in most neighborhoods. Right.  And there's a center turn lane, you still might survive. Because people can turn right into your parking lot and get there and get their bagel and coffee.   Chris, these community meetings now they're done a lot differently because through COVID they were done via Zoom. So you had to register like 24 hours ahead of time if you wanted to be a concerned citizen listening in on the hearing. But otherwise, when the, you know, they're hearing these, these neighborhood impact meetings or what have you, they're a lot of times specifically for one neighborhood or one topic or one development plan. You don't have to sit there and listen to 10 different things that are going on until your neighborhood comes up. It's specific a lot of times. So you'll see a sign posted, you know, like a zoning hearing or reclassification or whatever it is, they'll hand write it, they have to post on it and then, you know, they, it becomes public record. It's on the county or cities websites. The city, by the way, Baltimore City has done a fantastic job with updating their web portals. So before it was disastrous, it was a nightmare, but they are one of the best now. Actually, Baltimore County is behind the times, but Baltimore City, you can go on, you can see active permits, you can see active development projects and they're all up to date. And actually, Baltimore City is very efficient in permitting too. I mean, we have, you know, I just put in for some deck permits on some apartments and, you know, it was only a couple of days we had the permits and everything was done online. So, you know, Baltimore City's really has come ahead light years. I think that was in 2006, they revamped their website. Yeah, I had, I'm not 2006, 2016, sorry. Right. Yeah. I experienced that recently with a couple of contractors. They said that it was in, this is during COVID last summer, it was taking the county three to four weeks to get permits and it was taking the city three to four days. And they were just like, you do, they were, they were doing the permit from their phone at the job site. Exactly. Right. So it's from a, from an investor standpoint, that's refreshing. Yeah. Yeah. So I have one last question for you. As an investor, as a real estate agent with your own brokerage, I've been hearing from people all around the country about how the inner cities are seeing the flight of people out to the suburbs. And the reason being is people now we're still in COVID right now, people are, they want space, whether it be a single family home with a yard or, or, you know, anywhere where they have space, because we've been confined for over a year now, you know, limited, limited social interaction. We, you know, half of the restaurants are closed and might not reopen. You mentioned the other day, you drive along Pratt Street down by the harbor, it's a ghost town. And I know these businesses are suffering, but are you seeing that same influx that I've been hearing people moving out of the inner city environment and looking for space? We're not seeing it in Baltimore. We're really not seeing it in Baltimore. I mean, I've heard, you know, I have friends of mine that are in New York and certainly California, you know, it has some type of Exodus happening and people I hear landing in Tennessee and Nashville and Texas, Dallas, Fort Worth and are being, you know, populated by Californians, but we're not seeing it in Baltimore. I mean, I think there's a couple of things that are going on, Chris. One, I think people are very hopeful. They, especially now they're seeing that with the vaccine, they're seeing that, you know, people and the restrictions are being, you know, removed slowly, but surely I think that people, they love downtown. So especially, you know, when your buddies are downtown and, you know, you want the action or you want to be close to work, I think work is a very important, people who want to be close to where they work for many different reasons. So I don't think so. I don't see where, you know, there's an axis of the city in Baltimore, but what I do see is that there's nothing available to go anywhere. I mean, so we're seeing where there's a lack of housing or ready move in, ready housing in the counties. So that might have a little bit to do with it too, because if you want that extra, you know, land or whatever, you're, you know, tired of city life and you want more of a rural life, there's just not anything available. But what we're seeing as a result of the pandemic is the transition of what is desired space. So what we've seen is where open floor plans aren't, you know, they're kind of closing them up more and sectioning them off because they know that they're going to be working from home now more or they're, you know, afraid if there's another wave that they'll be schooling from home so that open floor plan doesn't, doesn't offer them the privacy that they need or the quiet that they need. And then we're really seeing where, excuse me, people are, they're really looking for the outside space, you know, whether it's the rooftop deck or whether it's the, you know, the fixed up narrow, if you're in the city yard, you know, kind of maximizing that space and putting in privacy panels and things that they can enjoy it more. Yeah, I mean, I've heard stories from around the country, but that's an interesting perspective that, you know, in the DC market where I live, it's the same thing per se. People aren't moving out, but they're finding it very hard to find anything. And whatever hits the market, I've seen in my immediate neighborhood, everything selling off market, like they're getting multiple offers, and they haven't even listed it yet. They literally agents are contacting each other saying, Hey, I have a listing coming up. If you want, you know, if you have buyers come take a look at it, and they're writing contracts, like at the steps, basically, so. It's happening. It's crazy, man. We're seeing the removal of appraisal contingencies, people wanting to spend $25,000, $30,000 more than appraisal. You mentioned recently that there was an article about there's basically, right now in today's time, there's more active real estate agents than there are available properties. And obviously coming out of COVID, I'm hopeful that will obviously change at some point. But at the same time, most agents really don't do a lot of transactions. They might be licensed, but I know a couple guys, they're licensed, they'll pull an MLS report for me, but they only do a couple transactions a year. And I think as an investor, there's a plus and a minus to a real estate agent. You're restricted to some point as to what you can tell me what you can provide. As an investor, I could pretty much ask a seller any question, and I'm not obligated or bonded to any license or anything. But I think real estate agents do play a valid part, not that you all aren't needed all the time, but it is helpful. I could probably go pull contacts, I could use prop stream and all these different softwares. But I think agent in a specific market is valuable because I would contact you about Baltimore County because that's where you actively work. You see this day in and day out. So why would I not reach out to an agent? Yeah, I appreciate that. I think we're needed. I think we're needed now more than ever because the internet sites are such a scary place to be.  And I've seen, you mentioned Zillow. I've seen where Zillow, for instance, had a property at $599,000 as a zestimate. I listed it at 680, and they changed it to 680 for no other reason than I listed the price. So I think they are great portals for finding things. I mean, you're going to use my website to look for properties. No, you're going to use Zillow truly or something like that. But I think at the end of the day, it is good to get good, competent advice since it is a big transaction. And an investor, if you know what you're doing, you can do it without a sure. But also, if you found somebody that has a lot of experience with it, and by the way, I could help you in the Shenandoah Valley. So I can't sell it myself, but I have a good friend that is there that's very competent. So guys, if you're watching this, let me know where you're looking to buy or sell real estate. Certainly. I appreciate you. And guys, look, now we've said it throughout this whole conversation, get good advice, study your numbers, reach out to someone like a Todd or someone in your local market.   But I use the advice of an active agent all the time. Well, Todd, that was like a wealth of information. I really appreciate you coming on. Guys, we're going to put all of Todd's information, all of his links and website, all his contact info down in the video description. Don't forget, if we provided value to you guys today, don't forget to subscribe, smash that like button. Comment down below, both Todd and I will be checking comments regularly. We'd love to assist you guys in anything in our markets. So Todd, I really appreciate it. And we'll see all of you all real soon. Thanks so much, Chris. Really appreciate being on the show. And guys, like we both said throughout this entire podcast, educate yourself, find the information before you start spending money. So take care.


the rise of the super cloud. Here's where the super cloud comes into play. We're building something that obstructs the underlying cloud. It's about working across boundaries. Super cloud, super cloud, super cloud, super cloud, super cloud, super cloud, super cloud, super cloud, super cloud, super cloud, because it doesn't get reverted. So, super cloud, super cloud.  I think it represents two main things. One, an opportunity to unleash the power of every cloud and sustainable cost. And two, it represents a career path for the next 10 years. I really think what we're talking about here is the original concept of cloud computing. The ability to run anything anywhere without having to care about the physical infrastructure. And what we have today is not that. Having a multi-tenancy cloud or the super cloud model where we could abstract our services, our protection of the different levels of security tooling. Being able to abstract and speak a common language where you could run in Azure, GCP, or AWS and still have a common language that you can interpret and leverage between all the tooling would be something we'd love to see. We're trying to unleash the whole world of software development on Snowflake, right? That is, you know, I think Dave Filanti from theCUBE, no matter if you read the stuff or not. He referred to us as a super cloud. We're just much bigger than the data cloud. But what I think every organization is going to do is they're going to say there are certain things that make sense for us to run on one cloud, certain things that make sense for us to run on another cloud, but fundamentally what we need is a network with a set of principles and guarantees regardless of where something is running. If you don't call it Edge, what do you call it? I like super cloud, like let's just go with that. You know, this super cloud that's written up here, it's about working across boundaries of technologies. So you have to build with openness in mind. Here's where the super cloud comes into play. It actually abstracts the cloud layer. If this is what customers are demanding, these platforms could actually be built to be interoperable. And fundamentally where we are today is customers are transitioning to a cloud smart strategy. And this really becomes part of a super cloud strategy ultimately, delivering local cloud services, supporting infrastructure as a service, and also application development on-premises as well. So it becomes a very important component of a super cloud strategy going forward. Imagine if you had to speak three different languages with three different people, get lost in translation, if we could speak a common language across all the different platforms and all the different footprints, it would be easier to define our security posture. Maybe another way of looking at it is is hybrid cloud no longer a term we should use and we should only embrace super cloud. We are very aligned to your vision for super cloud. This super cloud dynamic is happening. I would learn a little about everything, learn a little about the various cloud providers and I would focus on building complex distributed systems and architecting those systems. I would learn about how all these things kind of run together. Don't learn a particular technology because that technology will ultimately go away. It'll be displaced by something else. Learn holistically what the technology is able to do and become the orchestrator of that technology. Once you create that common denominator, that's really the secret sauce for what you're talking about as super cloud. But the key to this, it's not just technology, it is these relationships and what is possible between our organizations. That's super cloud.


Do you want to improve your golf power and swing? Watch this Our next caller is John from Connecticut. What's up John? How can I help you? Hey, Sal. How's it going? What's up, man? So first off, just thank you guys for having me on here So kind of a new podcast for me. I'm kind of a podcast junkie But you guys are awesome and I'm a relatively new listener, but I haven't missed an episode So thanks for all the content and keep doing what you're doing. Perfect. Glad to have you So thanks for taking my question It kind of relates to golf specific exercises And I just wanted to give you guys some context and background before I before I ask my question, but so I'm 31 years old now and The past few years I'm I'm kind of You know I'm kind of recovering from what you guys have been talking about on some recent podcasts as far as, you know A cortisol junkie doing way too much cardio to try and stay in shape and really regretting the Neglecting the weights So now I'm back on with like kind of a three by three Splitting up the week and and getting back into the weight. So I'm happy with that and now with golf season right around the corner I'm interested in Adding some golf specific exercises into my routine. So I was wondering what you guys thought about, um, you know Focusing on specific body parts or adding specific exercises or stretching to my routine to uh to gear up for golf season John, this is a good question. Uh for a couple reasons one The golf swing has got to be one of the most complicated. Um, I guess physical Feets in any sport. I'm sure I don't need to tell you that and it's unintuitive Yeah, and then the second part and again, I'm sure I don't need to tell you this but The vast majority of the the distance you're going to get on the ball comes from your technique Right very little comes from your actual physical strength, which I'm sure you I mean physical strength contributes But it's about the technique, uh of hitting the ball the speed and how you're able to transfer the power That you do generate, um from the ground again I don't I know I don't need to tell you that but I want to say that because there's other people listening And just getting stronger Isn't going to make you hit the ball further, especially if getting stronger Uh results in your technique being off a little bit and you can do this by building a lot of muscle So you can build a lot of muscle And now your body's built a little differently. It throws off your swing And although you're stronger, you're not hitting, uh for any further and so it's like, you know, what did I do this for? Okay, so Now that we understand that what's going to help you most with the power from a physical You know power perspective I think we need to focus first on where you think you're weakest now I know it's it's the obvious general answer would be to strengthen your core To do rotational exercises like cable chops Uh upward chops downward chops, you know windmills that kind of stuff. That's kind of obvious But I've worked with um people who you know want to do the same thing you wanted to do And we got their hips stronger and that's what did it for them because their lower body was weaker Do you do you know what areas your body are probably the weakest or areas you probably need to focus on? Yeah, I mean, I think it's mostly core and lower body, which is basically the foundation of the golf swing So I'm wondering, um, you know, maybe I just need to really hone in on those body parts and strengthen those the most Yeah, and the the skills and everything will translate over and and not diminish and I'll just have that much more Uh strength in those areas. Yeah, you know what would you know, it would probably be good. John is using the sled Uh driving forward backwards and laterally because it connects the Everything from the toes up to the hips and the upper body involves the upper body So you're gonna get a lot of strength translated all the way through Of course, you know barbell squats and lunges and stuff like that will make you stronger might help as well But I see the sled being a little bit more transferable In terms of lower body for the golf for golf swinging I like to defer to People that are better at this than than myself or I think any of us in here Not that I couldn't help you if you were a client But I mean, I there's somebody out there that's way better and more qualified to help you than myself And there's a group of guys, um that I follow on instagram We've actually had him on the show before on the youtube channel before Uh, and they specialized golf baseball and fighters. Yeah, they're awesome. Um, brandon is his instagram handle Is brandon pfs So look up look up their group like his whole entire Instagram is like dedicated. He's been working a lot. He's he's the we did a video with him series in here Yeah, did we do it was it golf related to yeah, I think it was right? So if you go to our recently was that It was a lot.  We just go to the show notes and he'll be there. Oh, okay. Perfect. Thanks. Yeah, so awesome Yeah, we'll link in the show notes. Um, but look look them up. They they specialize in in primarily those three sports You will see that he's what's the name of the kid with the the kind of clown hair. That's a badass fighter right now Right. No sugar sugar sugar shame. Yeah, so he's he he works with him So a lot of his current stuff you'll see is kind of related to fighting But if you go deep enough on his stuff or if you look up, he's got programming He's got a lot of stuff around and content around golf baseball and fighting and I just the information that he's providing as far as Cool unique exercises that will translate to the golf course He's got it in terms of our stuff and what we have available already to like in mass performance. We have You know some really good stick mobility Um exercises that will help to you know, improve, you know lateral line in in in terms of like thoracic rotation Things that it'll help to kind of guide your body and put in positions where you can create and and create more torque in that rotation And so that's something to consider And that's why I mentioned too with windmills because not a lot of people spending kind of focus or time on windmills But it really does You know contribute well towards, you know, these types of sports You know the hip hinging patterns an essential part of that whole swing. So You know to be able to strengthen the hips and you know, put some emphasis there. I like personally Zercher squats You know for golfers as well or the way it's like loaded in the crook of your elbows And I think that those are just, you know, some great things to focus on just to strengthen and contribute towards that Thanks, Doug sugar sugar. Sean not sugar shame. Sorry. It's sugar sugar. Yeah, there's no our sugar. Oh malli Sean. Yeah, Sean. Oh malli. Thank you. Okay. Yeah, so he works. He works. He has been working with him for actually years Imagine their friends or whatever, but uh, so the point of me telling you that was that his page looks like it's geared towards All fighters, but they we actually met them and got connected them because we just enrode a actually a golf guide Yeah, so there's it's like an infographic shows all these exercises that are very helpful You know for gaining mobility and speed and it's on our power in your swing Mind pump free.com. Oh, yeah. Yeah, there you go.  Go to mind pump free.com There's there's a guide that's related that we did so what inspired us to get hooked up with brandon was Justin was writing a guide specific for golfers Some priming movements and stuff that will benefit you And that let us down the kind of the rabbit hole of like, hey, who's in our space? That's doing this that we think is doing it better than we are And then that's why we invited brandon. So, you know dig through their stuff I think that they've got great content that will support what we're saying Yeah, that's that's awesome guys. I appreciate it. Um, you know, one of the big things about golf too Is just kind of avoiding injury and uh, you know, maintaining the flexibility and mobility and some of those joints So, uh, it's not just getting stronger and and stuff like that because that can almost Change things like sal was saying in terms of your swing But uh, as long as I can avoid injury in my oblique area in my lower back And kind of get ahead of any issues lingering or potential That's kind of where we come from, right? So that's uh, you know, we the stuff that we have out there is more to bolster And to protect You it's there's bull proof your back and all those joints. So the content that isn't that free guide That's going to be a value along those lines If you wanted more specific exercises in the gym that translate to the golf swing I think that's where you're going to enjoy some of the stuff that that brandon's putting out over there But the the stuff in that free guide that we have and then stuff that's in maps performance Uh, I think will benefit you especially what jesson was talking about with the stick mobility Some isometric work that we have like those things are Kind of kind of bulletproof you and and protect you and and you're right like that's That's going to benefit you more for your golf swing more than than anything else You need free flow movement needs to be smooth and no hitch in that at all So like yeah mobility is at the utmost importance, you know overall in terms of like even just trying to get stronger Okay, great on top of that. Is there one other thing I could ask in terms of like general Weightlifting and resistance training to kind of intertwine with with cardio at this point. True. It's her um, so like Right now like I told you I was just kind of addicted to cardio for a few years and I regret it but um I've been trying to do and commit to three days of full body workouts And three days of cardio because I I just enjoy cardio for the mental aspects and just you know getting a sweat in Helps with everything so How would you guys recommend? You know doing cardio to a point where you're not overdoing it and sending your body mixed signals Um and diminishing the returns and the results and gains you're getting on those You know foundational workout type days be fed keep it under an hour and do it on different times And when your workout workout are also you just said that the number you're the main reason why you do it is the mental benefits So who cares do do it be do what you love. I mean you can follow what adam said Which is yeah, that's the objective physical answer But if you do it for your mental effects and you enjoy it Then just do what you love and just make sure you don't over won't enjoy it if it's diminishing his returns on his other Exactly. So that's that's what I'm gonna. That's how you like obviously We would probably recommend you that's not a high priority if you want to be great at golf But if you for what sal saying if you enjoy for the benefits Yeah, keep doing it, but there's a better way to do it So you don't you know and that would be scheduling it away from when you're weight training Keep it under an hour And you know give you make sure you're fed those things will probably Help the most as far as mitigating any sort of muscle loss or at hindering anything else you're trying to do And keeping it under an hour, but maybe gearing it more towards like a high intensity Would help with the like shredding body fat the higher the the higher the intensity the shorter it should be But the but don't okay do not do cardio to burn body fat The cardio is for stamina or endurance or because you enjoy you want to get leaner look at your diet Okay, it's it's a yeah, it's a much much more effective approach. Yes Okay, all right. Thanks john. Thanks for calling him. Yeah. Thank you guys. Thank you very much. Keep doing what you're doing Yeah, you know, um, I remember as a young trainer. I did not realize just how complex You know improving power and strength so that you see a positive result in a sport was I thought you get stronger. Well, you're gonna see it This is the trap where you see a lot of young trainers myself included where you just start trying to emulate those Swings and things with cables Yes kettlebell swings with you know, and you think you're you're doing them a service because Now we're adding load to that. It literally has no carryover. No trend. This is translated all in fact It actually ruins it throws off your technique. Yes, so Yeah, so in terms of something as complicated as a Golf swing the best thing you can do is keep your joints super healthy and responsive And the other thing to consider too is that you know, when you're it's such a complex movement And you get so good at the body shape and size you have with the complex movement Adding muscle to your body you now change One factor the recruitment pattern shifts and you're bigger your arms are in a different position You know you add a half an inch to your arms and they're in a different position They were before and it'll change the technique especially with golf. No with golf more than almost anything else Yes, it now if it's a sport like football where your body mass is important. Yeah, you can add 10 pounds move a little different Don't matter.  Yep, totally Hey, if you enjoyed that clip you can find the full episode here or you can find other clips over here And be sure to subscribe


Good evening, fellow St. Lucians. I know the past few weeks have been filled with fear and anxiety for many of you, but I start by asking everyone to pause and take a deep breath, just for a moment. As I confirmed, as confirmed by the Ministry of Health, over the past few days, St. Lucia now has two imported cases of COVID-19, also known as coronavirus. Our team at the Ministry of Health has been hard at work doing testing, contact tracing, and quarantine where necessary. Since the start of the spread of the virus in China, the nation led by the Ministry of Health and Wellness has been taking steps to prepare for and respond for the likelihood of the virus being introduced into our country. Due to the novelty of the COVID-19 virus, St. Lucia continues to be guided by the advice and protocols of the World Health Organization and other international agencies. We also continue to have regular dialogue with our CARICOM colleagues in order to develop a harmonized strategy for the region. From the start of the outbreak, the Ministry of Health officials, the Minister of Health, the Chief Medical Officer, and I have been in constant engagement with representatives from the Pan-American Health Organization, CARICOM, OECS, and CARFA. As the virus started to spread to the Caribbean, meetings with various agencies and stakeholders have been held to share information, to allay concerns and to obtain feedback. To date, we've had meetings and consultations with all key stakeholders, including public and private sector agencies, civil society, and unions. The following specific measures have been initiated. As early as January 31st, 2020, we activated the National Health Security Committee to develop the National Response Plan. We undertook assessment of the capacities at the ports and health facilities and other relevant facilities to determine the capacity to respond and identify resource gaps. We undertook training and procurement of resources. Since February 4th of 2020, St. Lucia imposed its first travel restriction on persons traveling from China. Three weeks later, extended to include Japan, Republic of Korea, Italy, and Singapore. The Ministry of Health through the Bureau of Health Education commenced a public awareness and education campaign. On the economic front, I've had day and night sessions with the finance team on the economic impact and efforts we can make to cushion the blow. We've rescheduled the annual budget exercise as we continue to monitor developments worldwide and we continue to dialogue with the Central Bank, the World Bank, the CDB, and the IMF. The virus continues to have untold economic impact globally and in particular St. Lucia. As unfortunate, we've received recent indication of the impending closure of three major hotels. The impact of the coronavirus should be treated as an imminent disaster, like a hurricane. Therefore, on February 28th, 2020, I activated the National Emergency Management Advisory Committee, NEMAC, which is the Implementing Agency in Times of National Disaster. Since the crisis began, there has been remarkable cooperation and collaboration at all levels of the society. I am thankful to the Leader of the Opposition and the members of both Houses of Parliament for their participation and support in our efforts. Our doctors, nurses, and other health personnel, Air and Sea ports personnel, firemen and women, the police have all been going beyond the call of duty. They work longer hours than usual, sacrificing time away from family and loved ones. I have met many of them in recent days, and my government remains committed to ensure that we do everything to support, protect, and all resources to protect our frontline professionals. We all deserve our support, cooperation, and commendation. I have the ultimate confidence in our health team, led by Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Sharon Belmar George, who has been liaising with me and my cabinet at every turn. I also wish to congratulate the Minister of Health, Senator Mary Isaac, for her sterling leadership. I take this opportunity to commend her and her staff on their dedication, commitment, and competence. Together, we have been coordinating and building the medical and health infrastructure that we anticipate will be required. As of today, 16th of March 2020, we have assessed the information received and arrived at the following specific immediate decisions to protect the health and security of our nation. As you know, all schools are to remain closed, and all related school activities are suspended until further notice. This is the first step in social distancing protocol, and should not be treated as a regular school vacation. The Ministry of Education is collaborating with our telecommunications service providers, and will shortly advise of alternative means of delivering our educational instructions to the students. Mass crowd events for more than 50 persons is being discouraged. As a first step, the Jazz Festival has been cancelled, and a meeting with the stakeholders of the cultural and creative industries will be held tomorrow to discuss the way forward for Carnival and other events. A further announcement on the implementation of this measure across all sectors will be made. We have suspended all cruise ship calls from Monday, March 16th, for the next 30 days. All yachting and pleasure craft calls into St. Lucia will be suspended with immediate effect. Effective March 17th 2020, the travel restriction will be further expanded to mainland France, Germany, Spain, Iran, and the United Kingdom. We've also strengthened our protocols for screening visitors arriving at both the air and seaports. As of March 16th 2020, the Ministry of Health activated three respiratory clinics at the Viewfort Wellness Center, the Denry Hospital, and the Grosally Poly Clinic. An additional two clinics will be activated in the coming days to be located at the LeClaire Wellness Center and the Soufer Hospital. These clinics are intended to take the care of persons who have respiratory infections. A hotline will be operational by the end of this week, using 311 number, where citizens will be able to get information on the COVID-19. Mobile telephones will be made available from this week to physicians to provide medical advice via telephone consultation to persons with medical concerns with COVID-19. Further information will be provided during the course of this week. The Governor of St. Lucia has reached out to friendly governments such as Taiwan, Cuba, and India to provide technical support as we strengthen our ability to manage this virus. I am pleased to note that the testing kits for the coronavirus have arrived on the island and staff are currently undertaking training with a testing lab to be set up later this week. This will substantially reduce our waiting time for results from 24 hours to approximately two to four hours. There is no doubt that confronting this virus will test our resources, medical and economic, and will also have a psychological effect. We are now heading to a higher alert levels and we do begin to seek as we do begin to seek cases in the community. We will have to review our decisions and move to more stringent measures. Dealing with these challenges, the virus will pose, will require constant review, adjustments, and change. I will be providing regular updates to the nation as we go along. It is easy in uncertain times to fall prey to scaremongering. Be assured that the information disseminated by the Ministry of Health will continue to be regular and updated based on the World Health Organization and CARFA guidelines. Even in the midst of our fears, we cannot lose our compassion. We must act sensibly and with due attention to our neighbors and to be our neighbor's keeper. If this virus has taught us anything else, it has taught about the obligation we have to care and protect each other. It is in doing so that we shall overcome any threat that COVID-19 could potentially pose to us as a country. As a prayerful nation, we continue to lift our voices and bend our heads in prayer. In the coming days, we will announce a national day of prayer to call upon God's mercy. Taken into consideration the protocol and social distancing, it will not be a physical gathering, but we will ask for everyone's participation. May God bless you all and keep you safe, and may God continue to bless our St. Lucia.


a quick and easy birdhouse out of a Folger's coffee can.  I've been wanting to do this. I'm gonna take this whole Folger's can here. I'm gonna make a little birdhouse out of it. This is a 24.2 ounce. It's one pound point eight two ounces. A pound and a half coffee can thing here. You can use smaller ones, bigger ones, whatever. I'm gonna use this thing to trace me a hole in this so I can get them a hole to go in. Then we're gonna paint it. This is gonna be their perch because I can't I think I used all my wooden dowels that I have for the purchase. So we're just gonna use this for the perch. So let's go ahead and put that right. See that's kind of like that's right in the center.  My pen don't want to write on that.  Okay I got my sharpie here. That should write on it hopefully. I'm just gonna eyeball this. I can probably make the hole bigger. Problem with that is the squirrels around here. If you make the holes much bigger you'll have a bunch of squirrels living in your birdhouse. Next one like this I make. I'll just use my hole saw but I feel like digging it out just to do this. We're using a knife. Take your time you know. This is kind of screwed up but it'll be fine for a birdhouse. It doesn't have to be code and I think I need to change my blade in this too. Anyway I've got this all washed out. We'll put this right dead center of that. The perch is gonna be like that. I've got some gold paint. I must not have brought it out. I'm just gonna paint it gold because that's all I've got other than primer and if a different color for it but I've got I've got gold paint and I'll paint it gold. I think I'm just gonna leave the perch black so I guess it doesn't it doesn't matter. I'd like to use a wooden perch. They just look so much better or now. I probably should have drilled that out with my keyhole saw but I didn't so what I want to do is I'm gonna go ahead and take this over here and I'm gonna spray this and we're gonna let it dry and then we'll put the handle back in it. So the paint has dried. There's a couple little runs in it. That spray paint really really lays it on thick but we're gonna go ahead. We're gonna glue this on here and see the paint where it got real thick. It's not it's not clear dry but now to hang it we're gonna put a couple little holes back here and maybe glue something back here to hang it with and then because you don't want to hang it from this because if it gets too heavy this may come off. You know what we can do though? Hang on a second I got an idea. What we're gonna do we're gonna screw this in here. We're gonna glue this in just using hot glue. Glue it on the other side too so it doesn't come out. Put a little bit down there on that on the inside of that. That way that doesn't come out. Then we're just gonna glue the lid on. I mean think about a bird houses you never have to take the top off right? So this will hold it unless a squirrel gets in it. Make them off with a squirrel but I'm gonna put a little more paint around there. It's a little light but I'm just gonna keep working that around there. It's pretty much on. You can't really feel it snap with all that paint and glue but okay now we're just gonna go around the edge here and I'm almost out of glue but I'm not out I got more glue sticks in there and it's hot if you get it on you so be careful.  Little lady riding a bicycle he's growling. You settle. Now I'm gonna let that sit like that so the glue can run down and then once that dries we'll show you what we came up with. Okay guys so there's a bird house. I had to move the hook. I put a little glue there to cover the hole up but I had to move the hook forward because this is so heavy but you get the idea. Do it however you want it. Decorate it whatever. You can partition this off if you want it on the inside and have a four bird bird house. Yeah there's so there you go. That's pretty cool. So there you go guys. Just a quick easy thing you can do with your kids. You know they can decorate it however they want whatever.  You're reusing recycling. Go green right. Alright Shade Bear the myth man legend. I'm gone for now. Bye bye guys. Take care.


If you're a caregiver or you were in a household or just the type of person who puts everybody else ahead of themselves, then it's likely that you've been neglecting your makeup bag and your makeup case because it's only for you. And because it's only for you to use, you don't really mind leaving it a mess. I know that I will put everybody else's needs ahead of my own and it always ends up making my makeup bag look a mess because it's the last thing on my list. But we shouldn't feel bad about this. It's because we're putting our energy into everyone and everything else and we kind of leave ourselves last. But we're gonna change that today because not only is deep cleaning really good for your mind, but it's also great for your products which is great for your skin. So if you have any dry patches or you feel like you're breaking out, it could be because of the outer packaging of your products or where they're being stored. But also if you feel like your makeup isn't lasting or isn't looking good, it could also be how you're taking care of them and using them. So we're gonna go through it together. We're gonna find a solution. But remember, this is not about being judgmental of your lack of care or how messy things are gone.  But now we're gonna focus on just you.  Also, I have my wrist straps. These are great if you're applying makeup and you suffer with pain in your wrists. I just like to strap up my wrists every so often just to give them a little bit of support. And I also wanted to share it for my spoony friends out there. You're not alone in needing these. Now the first thing that I like to do is clean all of my tools and I'll do this on a regular basis. And most things can be cleaned with household cleaning supplies, but I would recommend getting a disinfecting spray. These are actually designed for makeup. I'll link below what I use. But if you don't have that, don't worry, we can still do a lot of other cleaning, but maybe just put that on your list for next time. So I'm just soaking these in some hot soapy water. I'm gonna set them aside and we can come back to them a little bit later. And then I wanna go through all of the outer packaging and see which ones really need a deep clean. On the outside of your packaging, where you hold your products, that can actually hold on to a lot of bacteria and irritate the skin, especially if you lay your makeup on a sink or on the floor while you're doing your makeup. The oils from your hands, the moisturizers that you might be applying, over time that causes a lot of buildup on the outside. So to break down makeup, I always start off with a little bit of oil. Any oil at all, this will basically break down any dry, old makeup on the outer packaging. However, just because it looks clean doesn't mean it is clean because once we use that oil to remove any buildup, we still need to go and disinfect and remove the oils. I always like to make sure my hands are clean so I'm not just putting bacteria back and then look at the before and after. This is using an oil and then a disinfectant. Literally the product looks like it's brand new and I love that. I love opening my case and seeing products that look new. Just makes me fail fancy. Now if you wanna clean the inside of your makeup, this is also a really important step and you can get special sprays. Again, I'll link it below the one that I use. It's basically an alcohol spray that you spritz over your product. You leave it to evaporate and dry and then it disinfects. Now if you notice any discoloration on the top layer of your products, this can often happen because of the mixture of oils and powders. And what you wanna do is use a spatula to remove this.  Again, if you don't have it, don't worry, you can always just use it for next time, but don't use anything else because you will end up affecting the makeup. Basically all this is, it's just liquid and powders mixing together and then they kind of create almost a paste and as that kind of sits and sets on top of the product, it's just not gonna look good and it kind of ends up looking a little patchy or uneven. It's gonna give off a lot less pigment but as we scratch away that surface, spray it, let it dry, it's like magic. And you don't wanna put too much pressure on this, just a light amount of pressure. Remove any of that excess product and then it should be ready to be used again. This is particularly great if you notice any of your products looking patchy or uneven or losing their pigmentation, particularly for blushes. This is just a great way to bring some more life into them and it's just amazing how well the products perform after this. It's like getting a brand new product. When it comes to lipsticks and lipglasses, firstly, I hate the labels on these tubes because they attract so much dirt when they start to get really sticky so I like to remove them and then I'll also clean down the wand and remove any builds up right at the top as well. This is a great way to make sure you're getting the most out of your lipsticks and your lipglasses because when you take that wand out, it usually has just a little extra old residue sitting there and so then you're not gonna get a fresh application every single time. It's gonna slowly start to build up a little bit of product but by taking two seconds to wipe it down, wipe around the top, you're going to get a much smoother, longer lasting application every single time. For lip liners, I like to disinfect the cap. This is because this is where you get a lot of buildup so I'll just wipe this down with a disinfectant wipe and then also you want to use a sharpener because sharpening your pencils basically removes the outer layer which gives you a fresh application. It's really important with your sharpeners that you're also cleaning them because they can add a lot of buildup. Now, you wanna be very careful with this but what I like to do is unscrew the blade, be careful and then I like to wipe down the blade, get to the inside, take any of the gunk out that might be building up on there, then just put that back in and it's ready to be used and also your pencil is ready to be used as well. I also do the same for lipsticks so I like to clean the outer packaging, I like to clean the lid and sometimes I will spray or dip the lipstick in a little bit of my disinfectant. The most important step though, if you are using a disinfectant spray that is designed for makeup you have to make sure that it has time to dry. You need to let the product fully dry before you put the cap back on. This is just gonna make sure that has time to evaporate and it's not gonna be sitting inside the cap. Now, if you love your mascara and you want the best out of it, I cannot recommend this enough, clean your wand. This is gonna make such a difference. I promise you, the first time I did this, I was shocked. And the thing with mascara is you see that little number right there? That has a little six on it. Mascaras are only gonna be used for about six months. Every product has a little number on it to tell you how long it's gonna last for. Once that first little pop of the cap happens, that just means that the timer has started. So in order to get the best out of your mascara, which is only gonna last you about six months, what you wanna do is clean down the wand on a regular basis. Basically the wand is going to trap any old mascara. So if you feel like your mascara used to be great, but now like a month or so in, it's starting to look really flaky. You just have a little residue sitting on the brush and then fresh mascara is going on top of that and then being pushed onto your lashes. And over time that's going to mess with the formula. So just by wiping this down, it just means we're getting fresh mascara every single time. And I promise you, you will be shocked at the differences it makes. It's like getting a new mascara, it's amazing. You also wanna make sure you're never pumping your mascara or your lip glosses because basically that pushes air inside, which also dries out the product and we don't wanna do that. We wanna get every last beautiful drop out of all of our makeup.  If your eyeliner is almost done and it's pretty much dried out, what you can do with some of them is to flip the sponge around. This is great for getting all the little inky last bits from the eyeliner. Basically the tip can become a little dry, but it still has another tip on most eyeliners on the other end.   And it's also just gonna give you another couple of weeks out of your eyeliner. Once our makeup is clean and fresh, we can start to put it back, but we wanna make sure that our storage area is clean too. I'm gonna be using oil to break down this eyeliner eyeshadow bronzer spill mess that ended up happening here. Basically oil is great for breaking down old, dried in eyeliner, mascara, foundation, concealer. It just basically scoops it all away. However, just because this looks clean doesn't mean it is clean because we still have this oil sitting on the surface and over time that's just gonna end up back in our products. So what we want to do is to clean this down now with hot soapy water. This is going to remove the residue of the oil while also giving us a fresh, clean area ready to put our makeup back on too. I also love that I can take the box out of this case. This just means that I can throw the actual bag in the washing machine, but I do like to still hand clean first just to get rid of any of that foundation and concealer buildup because even with the fanciest washing machine in the world, nothing can beat a little bit of elbow grease. And there you go. Those are all my tips for a tidy, clean, disinfected makeup collection. If there's any issues that you struggle with or you're just unsure about, definitely let me know because I'd love to help you guys out. And of course I didn't clean in this outfit. I actually just needed to film this on date night. So this is just a little bit of B-roll footage. I actually cleaned in my pajamas with a hair mask in, watching Netflix. And if you have any Netflix recommendations, definitely let me know. What are you guys watching at the moment because I need a new show? Because I've been sick for the last month, I feel like I've watched everything on Netflix. But I wanted to remind you guys, as always, to be kind to yourself and your makeup collection because you deserve to feel good and you deserve to take care of the things that belong to you. And I will see you in the next one.


Ladies and gentlemen, it is extremely important in life to sweat for your sweat. Don't steal. Don't steal. Peace of mind is the most important thing in life. Peace of mind is more valuable than money. You want to walk through life with peace of mind. But if you steal, you cannot have peace of mind. If you kill, you cannot have peace of mind. You'll be haunted. You won't be respected. We all know that zombie has a corruption problem. We've been through this before. We've been through this. This is not the first time. In normal circumstances, you would think that people would learn from the past. Power of tears has a very intoxicating effect on people. And it's tragic because the end result is it ends in tears. Look, if you have wealth or properties that you have earned through your hard work, your sweat, your blood, your tears, whatever you want to call it, you have sacrificed a lot of time, effort, energy, sacrificed family time, too busy working hard day in, day out, utilizing your good given talents, gifts, energies, skills, passion, determination, focus, teamwork, and all the ingredients that are needed to be successful. If you've done that from all these efforts and all these ingredients, there should never be a problem explaining what you have, your wealth. And should anyone out there in the public ever challenge you or accuse you of theft, you should welcome that invitation to go public and explain to the public how you got your wealth, to demonstrate to the public that you are clean. If you've done that in an acceptable way, in a clean way, no theft, no corruption, you should be able to walk up, to walk with your head high. You should be able to go to the press, to the media and say, ladies and gentlemen, this is what I've been through in order to acquire these properties.  I worked hard for it. And if you can demonstrate to the public that that property that you have is from your hard work, your talent, skills, energy, passion, creativity, you will be respected. You can categorically tell people that I did not steal. I have never stolen or I have not stolen. This is from hardened money and I can prove to you and I'm happy to prove this to you. It shouldn't be hard. It should not be hard. I think the public is fairly reasonable if you're able to go out there to the media and explain and invite questions and answer those questions from the public. So that the public understands and recognizes that you are clean and your family is clean, then you will be respected. But if you can't explain that in the media, you will never be able to explain it in the courts of law. And trust me, however way you may say you want this case to go to court, the truth is you do not want these cases to go to court or this case or that case. Because if you cannot explain it out there to people, what on earth makes you think that you will be able to explain it to the judge. What makes you think you will explain it to the judge? You see, at the rate we are going and with the poverty that the country is suffering and the corruption that we've been through historically, we don't think Zambians are in the mood to tolerate theft or corruption any longer. I really don't think any right for Zambian would be moved by tears. We're not interested in people crying, complaining about being victimized. The tragedy of this whole situation is people in leadership, their inability to learn from past experiences. And I think the country has now reached a point where we all feel, or most of us, who are thinking correctly that we need to create an atmosphere and a scenario in this country that makes it abundantly clear that people who indulge in theft and corruption will be dealt with and will be dealt with severely. Legally of course. Crying is not going to move people. The question here is did you steal or you didn't steal? If you didn't steal, go to the media, go to the press and say, Ladies and gentlemen, I did not steal. I sweated for this. I worked hard for this. This is my property. And I can tell you how I worked hard for it. I can tell you what my pay was. I can tell you what my salary was. I can tell you what my business was that I set up from my hardened money and how much it was making. Or I can tell you what loans I was able to get in order to secure this property. That shouldn't be a problem, isn't it? It shouldn't be a state secret or a national secret, should it? It should not be a problem. So what is your problem? You want to break down and cry so that people feel sorry. But you don't want to answer questions from the press. Why don't you want to answer questions from the press? Why? You should welcome questions to be asked so that you can explain. People are reasonable if you explain how you got those properties. I think people will be able to assess and make a more rightful conclusion if you feel that what they are suggesting right now is unfair to you and your family. Yesterday I talked about how in a poor country like Zambia someone can be in possession of 69 motor vehicles. Now it's possible of course and there are people in Zambia who are so rich and they can have that. But explain it. Especially if you didn't have it before and now suddenly you have 69 motor vehicles. Explain it. How did you get those? If you have flats, double story or high story flats with millions of kwacha, kindly explain to the people how you got those. Explain.  Explain. Some people will say well those were senior government people or families of government people surely they should be able to access these things and own these things. Of course nobody is denying that but they should explain how it's done. Of course I hope you are not implying that it's okay for them to steal or to be corrupt. I hope you are implying because there is a tendency in Zambia among some who feel that they are entitled to take what is not theirs. There are a lot of people in Zambia who can take a position that belongs to someone else take it without permission and begin to claim that it's theirs and actually believe that it's theirs. They begin to believe that it's theirs. That's how pathetic the mindset is among many but that's theft that's stealing that's theft when you take something that does not belong to you and begin to claim that it's yours when you take something that belongs to the government or the taxpayers and begin to claim that it's yours that is theft when you steal taxpayers money from the government and use those money to campaign for yourself in your constituency so that you can be elected a member of parliament so that your constituents can fall in love with you and believe that you are the sweetest person that ever worked on the planet that's theft you are not allowed to steal from the government in order to finance your bi election that's theft so it doesn't matter what your constituents say in this type of situation if you have broken the law you have broken the law persecution is wrong is bad and should be discouraged but persecution is when you are being unfairly punished for something that you have not done and if you have not done that welcome the invitation to go to the press and even to the courts of law and explain how you acquired that wealth you know that I am the chief executive officer of the Musabwe business organization and it's also there as a cooperative it's only been around for a short time just a few years just last week I mean within the platform we have over 100 people grassroots Zambians a few come from the USA a few from the UK we have one or two from New Zealand and I think about three ladies from Botswana the rest are from Zambia so over three quarters we are from Zambia I think in all the ten provinces grassroots ordinary Zambians and we have discussed and initiated various business pilot projects over the last one to two years and we are proud of these projects and we feel that if they work out we are going to expand them and some of these projects all the 100 plus members of the platform are involved in them but then there are others where it's a subgroup within the platform so an example would be that 19 Zambians in the platform came together and said they fell in love with a farm that was on sale in Chubombo which is on the outskirts of Lusaka and wanted to buy it the value of the farm is 100,000 kwacha it's a 10 hectare farm so 19 Zambians came together under the Musabwe platform saved the money and eventually we were able to secure that farm last week we bought the farm last week 19 Zambians 102 from the USA within the subgroup I think 102 from the UK and I think 102 from Botswana the rest one from Botswana and I think the rest from Zambia so out of the 19 maybe 5 diaspora 10 are within Zambia from different provinces and we bought this farm last week but look at us it's through hard work it's through sweat these are just ordinary Zambians who are trying to get by so they see something they like come together put their money together and buy it they make a down payment on it and now we have it and we plan to grow maize on it this rainy season that's acquiring property and owning property legitimately if anybody were to question any of the 19 to say how did you buy that farm in Chivombu would have no problem answering and if anything would answer with a lot of pride knowing that it might inspire others to do the same thing would be more than happy to go to the media to the press to say we talked about it on the platform in our WhatsApp group we said those were interested raise your hands we started putting money together it built up to a certain amount and we bought the farm would be more than happy to explain that is clean money these are things that we can live to those coming after us this is how you acquire property cleanly without stealing from your fellow citizens without stealing from your brothers and sisters without living a luxurious lifestyle at the expense of others who are powerless this is out of sweat out of talent, good given talent and wisdom that's how we acquired that farm and we intend to buy more land in the months and years ahead we wanted to buy a lot of land this is just the beginning other projects that we have commenced pilot projects, we have a poetry project in Chongwe we have members within our platform who grew soybeans someone from Kapirimposhi we sponsored him to grow some soybeans we have a lady from Nakonde she also grew soybeans even in Osaka soybeans was grown there the price at which the government is buying the soybeans this year is very low they have offered to buy it at 6 6 kwacha pekeji last year they were offering 11 kwacha pekeji so this year they are doing 6 kwacha pekeji so that has really short ended the soybeans being farmers we don't know why the government has done that I'm sure there is an explanation but it has really been difficult on the soya farmers because it's very easy to make a loss at that price but people don't want to be stuck with their bags of soybeans they want to sell them off so those who have no buyers are ending up obviously selling to the government at such a small price 6 kwacha pekeji but here in the Musabu platform we said we'll take care of our members and what we offered our members who grew soybeans at double the price 12 kwacha pekeji so our soya bean growers and our platform who are sponsored for this project are very happy because we are buying their soybeans their 50kg bags of soybeans whatever number they grow we are buying it for 12 kwacha each so they will make a profit but we have to figure out what we can do with that soybeans so that we also don't make a loss and I think what we are going to do is push for value added products arising from that soya beans like cooking oil and chicken feed chicken feed can feed the chickens in Chongwe the cooking oil we can make use of it I think we are about to open a small restaurant not I think we are going to open a small restaurant at the end of this month or sometime in August we have already got all the necessary paperwork it's another one of our pilot projects and obviously at the restaurant we can cook food and we can use that a cooking oil for that organic which is healthy that's good so these are some of our initiatives and we give out loans we are proud of what we are doing but again what is the point of what I am saying it's all out of clean effort money that is attained through sweat that's how it was designed money supposed to toil this earth and work hard for his sweat for sweat don't want free handouts don't want shortcuts don't want what is not yours don't want to steal don't steal work hard and buy your properties start your businesses advance your education let it be out of your sweat then you can truly enjoy and walk with your head hey