who was called Deliver Impact with Empathy, but I've actually changed the name to make it a little bit more accurate. I've worked on a theory and I think actually the purpose or the intent of what I wanna share with you today is that our goal should actually be to deliver impact because of empathy and so that's what I wanna talk about with you today. And I'm gonna actually stay behind the podium for two reasons. One, I have this terrible cold that my children were generous enough to share with me. So I'm gonna probably reference my notes more than I would like and two, the clicker doesn't work so I'm gonna be clicking for my Mac. So 16 years ago, the Agile Manifesto was written out of a desire or a need for an alternative to documentation-driven, heavyweight software development processes. I like to think that at the heart of that movement was a desire to deliver more impact, better customer value, actual customer value. How's it going? How have we done? Well, if it's any indication, in the last 12 months, I've been seeing things like this pop across my LinkedIn feed. Now, missing from those pictures, I'll accept the middle one is the customer. And the middle one actually only has the customer depicted in one or two small places. How can we actually deliver better customer impact if we're not even including the customer in what I would call pretty heavyweight processes that we're developing? Don't get me wrong, it's an easy and tempting trap to fall into, right? We wanna identify a delivery process that we think is going to help us deliver on time, then we architect all of the steps that we think will help us get there and then we tell teams what they need to do to follow all of those steps. As I mentioned, I work at Target and we've been on our Agile journey for about four or five years. And there were definitely parts of the organization as we were on that journey where we mistook Agile methodology as just a replacement for project management methodology in several areas. Currently, I work across our data science, business intelligence, and engineering team of about 800 people. And about eight months ago, I realized something that was a little bit hard to say out loud and is pretty strongly worded. Delivery without empathy is basically useless. And I chose the word empathy because I wanted to convey to people the need for us to get inside of the worlds in the shoes and the experiences of our users to understand and share their pain in a very real way before we started answering questions and providing solutions. But what was interesting as I started to share this idea and theory and socialize it with teams and people, was that people didn't actually know what empathy was. And they either asked what it was, didn't say anything at all, or confused it with sympathy, which is quite different from empathy. I really like what Breine Brown has to say about the difference between empathy and sympathy. Brown is a researcher who digs deep on some stuff you might consider a little bit emotional, but because she uses data to back up what she says, I think she's pretty respectable. So I wanna share this short video with you from her. So what is empathy and why is it very different than sympathy? Empathy fuels connection, sympathy drives disconnection. Empathy, it's very interesting. Teresa Wiseman is a nursing scholar who studied professions, very diverse professions where empathy is relevant and came up with four qualities of empathy. Perspective taking, the ability to take the perspective of another person or recognize their perspective as their truth, staying out of judgment, not easy when you enjoy it as much as most of us do. Recognizing emotion in other people and then communicating that. Empathy is feeling with people. And to me, I always think of empathy as this kind of sacred space when someone's kind of in a deep hole and they shout out from the bottom and they say, I'm stuck, it's dark, I'm overwhelmed. And then we look and we say, hey, I'm down. I know what it's like down here. And you're not alone. Sympathy is, ooh, it's bad, uh-huh. Uh, no, you wanna sandwich? Um, empathy is a choice and it's a vulnerable choice because in order to connect with you, I have to connect with something in myself that knows that feeling. Rarely, if ever, does an empathic response begin. What Brown basically says is that the difference between empathy and sympathy, which aligns to what Webster says, is that it's okay, we're done with the video. The difference between empathy and sympathy is that empathy is actually sharing in the feelings and the pain of another person, not just understanding it. And sympathy is kind of stepping back and being like, hey, what's up, wanna sandwich? And so in the last year, as we kind of explored this concept of empathy, we started to study different products, products that were successful and products that were failures. And as we did this research, I came across this product, this little gem, which was kind of stuck with me, partly because it's somewhat comical, but also because it actually led me to an analogy that was pretty powerful and pretty simple that related to a separate product. And so I wanna take you on this journey with me. In the late 1800s and early 1900s, gasoline-powered automobiles were just coming on the scene in the United States. Well, from where we sit today, it's pretty hard to imagine life without cars. But at the time, the shift was pretty disruptive and a huge change for everybody then, especially the historic mode of transportation, horses, which were still largely present on the scene at the time. So in the normal course of travel, when these cars and horses would have to pass each other on the streets, the result was this panic-inducing event that led to freaked out horses that actually endangered lives. So in 1899, Uriah Smith came up with a solution for it. Our friend, Horsey Horseless, designed a car that looks like a horse, but is actually a car. His thinking fooled the horses into thinking the cars were also horses, but were actually cars. Therefore, the horses wouldn't get freaked out and everybody's lives would be saved. Needless to say, his idea didn't work. In fact, in all the research I did, despite the fact that he filed a patent, I couldn't find any evidence anywhere that Horsey Horseless was ever actually manufactured. And to add insult to injury, Time Magazine actually rated Horsey Horseless as number one of the 50 worst cars of all time, due in part to the fact that the wooden horse head was also intended to serve as storage for the gasoline, literally adding fuel to a potential fire. But what is interesting is that the designer of this product, Uriah Smith, actually filed five separate patents at least in his lifetime. One for our friend, Horsey Horseless, but another, and perhaps the most significant, was for improvements to artificial limbs, which he filed in 1863, after 20 years of personal experience of wearing an artificial leg after losing his own leg at the age of 12. The improvements Smith made to the leg were things like making the knee fully extendable, allowing the ankle to relax when not in use, making the leg lighter and more durable. All changes that actually intended to make the wearer of the artificial limb experience something that was more comfortable and actually more affordable over the course of the life of the artificial limb. And what I found really powerful about this story was that Smith was able to deliver something of value to the market because of how he started. You see, Smith actually literally started in the shoes of the user. And because he understood the pain and the needs and the gaps of the current offerings firsthand, he was able to deliver a meaningful and effective solution to the market based on his actual experience. And what I found in my research was that successful businesses and products started and continued the same way with an in the shoes focus on the user. Let's look at a few examples. There's Apple in the iPod. Before the iPod came on the scene in 2001, all of the portable music players and the market at the time were in the words of Steve Jobs, crap. They forced users to choose between two things. Have something that is physically sized the way you'd like to or something that can hold the amount of music that you would like. Neither option says you would like to choose between. And so the iPod, which was born out of a focus on usability and user experience has actually since then transformed the way that we can listen to and share music on the go. Drybar, Drybar is a salon that's currently in the United States. And all it does is wash, dry and style their customer's hair. Drybar started with Alli Webb, who's the woman in the middle. Alli Webb was a stylist, then a publicist and then a stay-at-home mom. When she was ready to return to the workforce, she identified a hypothesis about what women might be willing to pay for. She tested out her experiment or her hypothesis and then she identified two people that she thought might be willing to go in on this venture with her after she was able to prove out that it was potentially profitable. You'll notice they're both bald, by the way. Her husband and her brother. Drybar today has 70 locations in the US. They have their own product line and they're expanding internationally. If you want to know what empathy is, it's two bald men making a hair salon successful. And finally, Richard Branson. Branson has started and or founded 400 different companies. They range from all kinds of things. A magazine, to an airline, to a record label, to a record business and even a bridal business. I recently listened to an interview with Branson and the interviewer asked Branson how he was able to scale across the number of businesses and differences that he has. And Branson actually said it's easy. Anybody could do it. A business is just an idea that's going to make people's lives better. You see, Branson is insistent that businesses are meant to help people and he's dead focused on helping individuals. That's empathy. He starts with what people need and then goes from there. In each of these examples, I think these people all exemplify a couple of key qualities that Brown talked about in her video that you weren't able to hear. One, the ability to take the perspective of the user as exemplified by the two bald co-founders in Drybar who are able to take the perspective of their hairy headed partners in crime at all of their customers at the Drybar locations. And the ability to stay out of judgment as in the case of Branson. You never hear Branson take credit for his business success by saying that he knew what customers should have and tried to convince them that he had a better idea. In fact, Branson is very, very insistent that no matter how wonderful your idea is, if your customers don't find it meaningful, it's basically worthless. We were at a conference last year and somebody said that those with an IT mindset exist to serve the perceived needs of the business. But those with a product mindset exist to serve the needs of actual users. This is the difference that empathy brings us. It allows us to cross from just perceived needs of humans into understanding the pain in the worlds in the context of actual humans and then delivering solutions and answers that are actually meaningful as a result. To do this at Target, we have a number of tools and techniques we apply that are probably things that you all do or have already heard of. We watch people in their actual work environments. We go work alongside of them sometimes in our stores. We do customer interviews. We do story mapping. But in the last three to six months, we've made a pretty significant shift in our organization. We've started measuring customer outcomes and we've started measuring for customer value and happiness. You see what we've learned is that businesses that are successful and products that are successful are successful because they stay relevant. And they're able to do this not just because they're nimble enough to respond to their customers changing needs and wants, but because they have quantitative tools and feedback loops and mechanisms in place to understand what's still effective and what isn't. And when they see that something isn't effective, they take the next step to ask why. They start to explore what isn't working and why it's not working. They start to understand and experience the world and what's changing to understand what features need to go away and what features need to be added, what product needs to be built and what product is no longer relevant. To do this with our teams, which we've gold by the way, we have 140 teams in our data science, B.I. and engineering organization. All of those teams have been gold. They have customer value and happiness metrics in place by the end of the fiscal year. And this is a hard, hard muscle to develop, but we're working really hard to do it because it's so important. So we start with Dave McClure's pirate metrics, but we've made some changes. This funnel, if you haven't seen it before, is really powerful and effective. I think it was initially built for startups or for applications. Jeff Patton talks about it if you're familiar with Patton. He uses it as well. We've made some changes to make it more relevant for our business intelligence and data science teams. And this is how we talk about it with those teams as they look to measure. So on the beginning and in the way this funnel works is on the left hand side is sort of when your tool or your usage is starting and as you move further to the right, the idea is that your tool or usage is actually maturing. If you're looking at an application, you actually want to get to the point where you're making money from it, right? Now, when your usage is inside of the organization, your business is probably never going to pay you for the business intelligence tool or data science engine that you're providing them. But if you're doing it right, your business should be more profitable and that's where we want to get. And so what we've started to do is to ask people to start measuring usage on the left hand side of their tools, reports or answers, anything that they're providing. Then as they slide along right they start, we've asked them to start looking at things like depth of engagement and session time. Again, that's something that varies based on the tool and where the tool is at in its maturity. Session time should either be long or very short depending how users should be using it and how they should be interacting with it. And then retention. This is another metric that's a little bit tricky, right? And so one of the things we look at right now are asking teams to start thinking about is how many users do you have coming back for a second time, a third time? And what does that usage look like on a repeat basis and what should it be looking like if your tool or your product or whatever it is is providing value? And then referral. I wanna talk a little bit about this. A lot of people talk about net promoter score as being really effective. And I dug in on this a little bit. So there's lots of good reasons to use net promoter score. Net promoter score is a question that sounds like this on a scale of one to 10. How likely would you be to tell a friend to use this product? But what's interesting is that it's not actually a great way to talk about the likelihood of a business to succeed. Because if I use something and I think it's really crappy, I might still say, well, it wasn't good for me, but it might be good for Chris or Sean, right? And so I might rate that a seven out of 10, even though for me, I would probably give it a two. And so what I actually suggest teams do is measure for customer happiness instead. And a customer happiness metric sounds more like this. On a scale of one to 10 or one to three, how likely would you be to make the same decision again if you had to make that decision again? Now I've changed the paradigm of that question to be how useful was it for you in your context? And I'm actually getting really direct responses to something that will actually indicate how successful my business is or how successful my product is. So that's what we're actually asking teams to do. One team, and there's all this really interesting research out there and I think we would all attest to this, right? Like people have survey fatigue, so don't send a million surveys out to your users. One of the ways teams have started to collect data for customer happiness is when they do their regular demos, they survey for customer happiness at the end of their demo. And they've created a really quick tool we use Smart Cheetah Time and there's a great survey application in there. And so people open their laptops, they have a three-question survey while they're all sitting in the room after watching the demo. They fill out those quick questions and they've got their feedback right there once a month or once every two weeks. However, often they demo. So it's a really great way to do that quickly. There's other lots of really great ways you can have a pop-up on the screen, all kinds of things. Yeah? Yeah, that's a great question. That's always an issue around surveys, right? And so that's something I actually talked to teams about. And so what I love to see, we talk a lot about, have you guys ever seen the quadrant of metrics? Speed, value, quality and happiness? Another company came up with it and I sort of stolen it and made some adjustments as I talked to teams. Something that's really important with measurement is that you're always measuring on a balanced way because if you measure, whatever you measure, you're gonna change the behavior of your organization, right? And so if you measure, for example, only for speed, quality often goes down. If you're not watching both of those things simultaneously. And so with happiness, when you're just getting quantitative data like that, right, just opinion, you often get people who are really angry that are willing to respond. The same respondents over and over, you often don't know what the sample is that's responding. So we have a very lean operations team and we wanna understand how to be more effective with our organization. We have to send out these surveys to 800 people and we don't know what part of the organization we're sitting in. So it makes that method really ineffective. And so I know you asked about net promoter score. I'm actually not really a fan of net promoter score and so I never advise people to use it for the reasons I just listed. And I actually get a little bit nervous about customer happiness. I think it's better to talk about customer happiness in an actual conversation. Where I direct teams to spend their time first is on value and that's actually, I think on the very far right hand in revenue. And value you can get to, value doesn't always need to be equated to dollars. But one of the things we're experimenting with right now is trying to correlate the decision that somebody makes that comes out of a tool or out of a report to a change in like an actual quality of decision. So running a regression analysis for people who use a tool to the quality of the decision and impact what's happening in our stores. And again, we're just starting to experiment with this. So putting clusters of things together to say, okay, these are the users using the tool, these are the users aren't. If we put clusters of things together and then run these regressions, what can we see happening as a result of people making their decision using this tool versus not using this tool? And there's lots of nuances like it starts to get very difficult to do that. But there's other measures of value, right? Value isn't just about an increase in profit or a decrease in costs. There's other things like what does the user have to do next? When they leave your tool, do they have to go somewhere else to find a second answer? And I, again, I'm coming from a business intelligence perspective, so this may or may not be relevant for you. But that's something else to watch. And if you have tools that are internal, you have the freedom to build some of the stuff in to see kind of your user behavior afterwards that allows you to get into some of those things. Yeah, customer happiness. Yeah, and here's an example. So there's a car, I can't remember the name of what it does, but they do a survey basically against all the car brands in the US to say, hey, for customer happiness, how did car brands perform in all the car brands of the US? And I think there's like 50 car brands. And Tesla is actually number one. And what they say, this, I wish I could remember the name of it, the question they ask is, if you had to buy a car all over again, how likely would you be to make the same decision? And owners of Tesla's always say they would buy the same exact car again or same exact brand again. And the reason it's really effective is it shows that Tesla understands what their users want or need, right? And so our goal as in the product design or data tool design or whatever it is that we're doing is to understand what our users want or need. I actually read a story, I don't know maybe over the weekend about McDonald's, actually getting out of the health food business and getting back into the hamburger business because they've seen actually a huge drop in profits trying to chase an industry that they just don't understand. And like being a health food eater, I would complete, I also like hamburgers, but being a health food eater, I would agree, like I don't go to McDonald's to get a salad, they sort of suck, right? Like I'm gonna go to McDonald's to get something else. And so I think it speaks to the power of understanding our users in a real way, like for McDonald's, why do you go to McDonald's to get a fast meal? You probably aren't super nutrition conscious, right? You're going to McDonald's for a whole different reason. Maybe you've had a crappy day at work. I can look at seasons in my life when I spent more times in the McDonald's drive-thru than others, right? So what kinds of questions are there? Are there other questions? Yeah. Yeah, that's a great question. I'm gonna talk about that a little bit more in our, hopefully if I have time tomorrow in my session, but we actually have a team that built out a dashboard for our buyers at Target, which is a huge part of our organization. And one of the things that they did is they took, they have to actually take a whole bunch of tools and they're putting them in one of our dashboards and they sit with their buyer kind of pilot group and they build it out and they say, hey, tell me how you interacted with this in the last couple of weeks, what questions did you ask, what was useful, what wasn't? And then the buyers say things like, this is too overwhelming, there's too many, this was their initial session, there's too many features in here, like these are the only things I want. And this initial session, the developers who wrote the tool were like, really? Wow, and so they went back and made changes and they developed this iterative approach now where every two to four weeks they get back together with the developers, they get that feedback and then they make changes. Sometimes on the fly in the room with them and sometimes they go back and make changes depending how real they are. And again, like this is really new for us, actually measuring value, especially as we get all the way down to the right where we're trying to correlate it to actual quality of business decision. This is a new way for us to think, but it's really important. But some of these other things, like if you talk about return users, that's something we've started talking about with our products especially. If you have people that come into your product only once or twice and they don't come back again, it's a red flag and you need to start asking people why.  Is the algorithm that you have driving your search results, for example, not providing something that's relevant? Start doing some research and asking people why and then prioritizing your features differently. Prioritize your work based on your feedback about what's going to drive usability and value for your customers. Does that answer the question? What perspective are you on? What makes feeding for the customers happy? But how do you think the process is going to, the why is off, you know. Yeah. Why a particular customer wants, has to be off the table for a long time. So, I mean that is about the empathy kind of answer to the picture, right? So yeah, that's a great question. And so, and that's one of the things I wanted to call out. So these really do just provide numbers. When your numbers are low, that's how you know where to spend your time to ask why. Because at the end of the day, we don't have the time we would want to spend with everybody. We have to prioritize who we're gonna ask and what features we're gonna ask about. Otherwise, like our product owners are largely visionary. That's why they're product owners, right? But, and because they're great at being visionary, they're thinking about the next great feature to build. But what they have to start understanding is what features aren't providing the value they would expect. And so when they've got numbers, they can start digging into those features and having the conversations. And so, I think it's a great call out. And it's something like, you can't just have the data. You have to be having conversations. You have to have a group of actual users that you're circling back and talking to. Yeah, so here's what's interesting. And you're doing that in person, you're collecting the feedback. And is that like you're going to their desks or how are you collecting the feedback? Yeah. So, I don't know you. I'm pretty direct, right? But if I asked you like, hey, do I look fat in this outfit? Are you going to tell me the truth? Right? Probably not. My husband also won't, by the way, because he's a smart man. And so like what I'm getting to there is that your users probably aren't going to tell you the things that are hard to articulate unless they feel incredibly comfortable or unless they're like me where I'm just going to tell you like, yeah, you look fat, you should go change. And so what things like a survey do if you can do it effectively and if you have people that are willing to do it, it allows them an anonymous voice to say things that they're afraid to say out loud. What things like quantifying usage by looking at some of these number allows you to do is have data that backs up what's actually happening inside of the tool that people might not be actually telling you. So hard truths, right? If you have a shirt in the example that I just gave you, if I have a shirt that I think looks amazing on me, but it just doesn't sell, I need to start asking why. Maybe because it looks fat, makes everybody look fat. Yeah. Yeah. The four of a line words sympathy. I think that the video was showing an example of a lack of sympathy because sympathy is really the genuine feeling of compassion and sorrow for someone else's suffering. So I like the different, we can talk about different things, connections. And I agree with that, but I kind of think that's really a redefinition towards it. That's a good call out. And I think like where I'm really trying to go is that it's not enough just to feel bad for people, it requires us to actually get inside of their worlds. Right? Yeah. Yeah. A process which often is out of the question. Yeah. Yeah. Balance being, getting out of more things than I was creating. Yeah. So that this, I think we all need to use it as well as... Yeah. So I think it's a great question actually. Steve Jobs talks about this a little bit in his, the biography that Walter Isaacson talked about a little bit. Henry Ford is credited with a quote that he actually never said, which is that if he asked people what they would want, they actually would say faster horses. He never said it, but I think it's a great quote. And Steve Jobs also says it in his biography, which is a terrible. And because I'm so like data driven, I had to find out if he actually said it, which there's no evidence that he did. But I think the difference for us there is understanding what's the actual need versus what's the solution the user would point to. So how can we dig deeper to understand the need or the pain the user has instead of asking the user for the solution? I used to work in business intelligence and with business intelligence teams really closely. And what I would say to the team is you need to start thinking about what the next question the business user is going to have after they have the answer to this one. Because that's really where the operations team needs to go next. But they're not able to think of it because they're so heavily invested in operations. And so where that goes with solutions, right? If Henry Ford's false example, the question is what would help you get to work faster? People would say faster horses. As a development team, our job is to take what the users are saying as the solution and kind of break that apart into what they're saying the problem is. Is that making sense at all? I'm not seeing that it makes a ton of sense. So I think it comes down to how are we approaching customers as we're starting to understand. I think it comes down to seeking to understand their world from a way that we're able to understand their problem. And then we have the ability to bring innovation and technical solutions to the table once we understand the problem, right? And so if we can see problems in the world today, I think that we can start thinking about solutions and we can start to see what's the trajectory. If this problem continues this way, what's the trajectory of what that's gonna look like in a year, in two years, or in three years? How can I innovate to provide solutions that will provide not just for this problem today but in two years, three years, et cetera? And then we can continue to iterate on so we can design a skinny experiment, test that out, see if it's true and continue on. Is that helpful? Any other questions? Okay, thank you. Thank you.


Awesome. How's everybody doing? All right. We're going to talk real quickly about building Army 2030. It's really close to my heart because in AFC, this is one of our charges, right? But you can't build something that's going to be successful without experimentation and lots of it, right? What I'm going to explain to you is not only what PC is, but where we came from and why PC is important, not just to the Army, but for the entire Joint Force. So, if you would, go ahead and roll the video. Project Convergence. A campaign of learning, demonstration, and experimentation. It allows the Joint Force and multinational partners to collect data, evaluate effectiveness, reduce risk, and optimize warfighting capability. The multi-phase effort is helping the Joint Force to develop the transformational concepts and capabilities required to fight and win in future competition or conflict. We are developing breakthrough technologies and systems that work in tandem with our sister services and allies. This ensures unrivaled strength, inability, and unity. Project Convergence 22 increases the scope and complexity of the Joint Experimentation carried out in previous years by including multinational force elements, welcoming participants from Australia and the UK. Each year, with industry and research partners, we test hundreds of technologies in demanding and realistic scenarios, gaining a better understanding of how to operate together successfully on future battlefields. We are learning how advances in cutting-edge fields such as artificial intelligence and robotics improve our ability to maneuver across difficult terrain. Our activities stretch across all domains, air, land, sea, space, and cyberspace. They take place from multiple locations separated by thousands of miles, simulating the challenging distances often involved in distributed and large-scale combat operations. The sharpening of network, data, and integration of systems feature prominently in Project Convergence. The experimentation intent is to enable our commanders to make decisions faster than their adversaries and increase the lethality of our force. By optimizing speed, range, and convergence, we will achieve decision dominance and the overmatch we need to prevail in future competition and warfare. Project Convergence, because whoever can see, understand, and act first, will win. Tomorrow is worth protecting. Awesome. Well, that's just the quick little taste of what Project Convergence is going to do this year when you get a chance to get the slides up. While he's getting the slides up, let me quickly describe what Project Convergence is, right? It's an army-hosted, joint-and-combined experiment. It's not an exercise, it's an experiment.  But from our failures, we learn. And that's the most important thing about Project Convergence. Besides the fact that, when I say joint-and-combined, we're really focused, right, not just from an army perspective, but from a joint perspective, how do we solve the problems that our combined joint commanders have and have expressed so we can solve them together and provide them capability in the near term, not seven to 10 years from now? Next slide. So as we build Army 2030, it's also about a campaign of learning, right? And that's just not verbiage that we use, right? We have to look backwards where it came from. So Project Convergence actually started in 2020, right? Very small scale, but the impetus was about how do we take it out of the laboratory, put it in the dirt, test it so that we know we have a better probability of success when we get it to the hands of the soldier? So in 21, we expanded that, right? But it was really a lot of technology focus. Can we do this? Can we take a Navy Aegis sensor and pull target quality data out of it and give it to a Patriot missile system? It's pretty simple, right? But it was challenging. We had to do that. And what we came out of that was, you know, there were four joint message systems that even though they were called joint and we had them, they didn't fit the technology that we had today. And so we had to go back through and update those. We'll test those again in Project Convergence 22. Additionally, if you see right there, the Core 7 things, as in any experiment, we can't just do a one and done. So you'll see as I walk you through what we're doing in 22, you'll see many of these reinstated, right? So joint, all domain, situational awareness. We have to continue to work on that because that's where the COCOM commander gets its cop, common operational pitcher. Same thing with JADC2. We're not there yet. So we'll continue to develop and probably PCNXT as well, right? Integrated Air Missile Defense. We made a lot of successes last year, especially in this realm, but we're not there. And I'll explain some of that as we get to 22. In 22, the Secretary of the Army was very clear with what she gave us as our objective. Go to scale. We have to determine where we may fail, right? Especially in Air Missile Defense. Can we handle 100, 200 missiles from different sources all at the same time? Today we can't. How do we enable AI to do that? That was one of our big challenges for this year, which caused the complexity also of the experiment to go up because now we're over 50% in simulation because I can't put 100-plus missiles in the air at one time during an experiment. The other piece is we've worked at three separate scenarios, right? We'll have a maritime one. We're going to have a land-focused, okay? We also have a brand new one, which is called Gateway. And my counterpart here will talk about it a little bit later, but that's how do we pull in industry partners early so we can understand their technology and how do we integrate it long-term for the benefit of the joint force. We see three things coming out of it. My last slide here will go in a little bit more detail. But the first one is we have to provide that joint service commander a network so he can see what's going on, make his decisions, and communicate that across the joint services. And if you think that we can do that today, I would ask you to come see me afterwards, right? Because I don't think we can. Not at the scale and scope we're going to need to. The second one is we have to look at the authorities and permissions, and this is a perfect time to find that. We've already found right now, even before we're executing, multiple things that we have to do between the joint services. For example, we have to have non-separate agreements between services in order to just put things on the network. That's crazy if we're trying to get to convergence. That's one of the things we're trying to continue to push forward so we can win in the future. And the final one is this is why we brought on Gateway. We have to put a timeline to allow our industry partners to see where our gaps may be, use their technology and their understanding to develop potential solutions, and then bring them out. So we'll talk about that one as I go two slides for now. Next slide, please. Okay, for this year, what are we trying to do? All captured in six broad objectives, most of which exactly align with what the Secretary of the Army talked about this morning with all of her six, right? Air missile defense said that was a carryover from 21. We still have lessons to learn, and I'll show you how in a follow on slide here what makes a difference between what we did in 21 to 22. Same thing with the joint fires. Employing more joint fires in a collective manner so we can converge, not just, hey, it's an Army target, it's an Air Force target, it's a Marine Corps target like we do right now. Here's a target, how can we converge capabilities both non-lethal and lethal on a single target? Because it's that important. The next one is post operations. This is kind of new, right? We've seen it before, but it's just under a new venue. But how do we pulse our capabilities to allow us to defeat this A2AD bubble that most of our threats out there would have? We're going to experiment with that to figure out how from a combined way. Finally, this year we have two partners, both the UK and the Australians, right? We've got to make sure that we have a network that they can have and work with us collectively together to pass that same type of target quality data so we can leverage their capabilities along with the joint force to provide an overwhelming win. We've already talked about determining the authorities, right? But it's about winning. If we can't tell the COCOM commander where those gaps are right now as we experiment, then we're missing an opportunity. And then finally, predictive logistics. You heard the Secretary talk about it. It is a focus because if we can't sustain ourselves and sustain the joint force, we can't have the operational reach required to achieve the nation's objectives. Last year we used this, right? So I talked from an Army perspective, but from the end of the last year, right? Last December, when we finished the last project convergence, we started already from a joint and multinational perspective. So there's a board, right? 57 separate organizations, probably at least with 33-star generals that have provided input to help guide our objectives, what we need to do, and bring the force together that's already assembled out on the western part of the United States right now and have been out there for the last two weeks and will start in earnest tomorrow. Next slide. So the scenarios, right? I talked about three. First one, scenario A. That's the one we're preparing for right now. Second one is a Indo-Pacom focused scenario, right? We're using some islands off of California to do some operations. We have USERPAC out in Hawaii participating.  It's that integrated air missile defense is the focus, but we're also doing pulsed operations in a effective joint fires methodology in order to determine how much we can accept and defend as well as defeat in a counter perspective. The other piece is we're using space in a large way during both parts of the exercise, but it's really focused because the joint capability across the space domain, right, is significantly and has grown significantly in the last several years. And then finally, sustainment. Sustainment in a littoral environment is completely different than what the Army has been so used to for the longest period of time, and that is on ground. So in A, we're focused on how do we do sustainment, gain that operational reach in a littoral environment? And then B, we're also focused on logistics, but now how do we do this? Do we have the capability to do it in a distributed way that we haven't necessarily focused on previously? Also in B, right, is deep sensing. How do we as a joint force to include our soft brother and how do we put deep sensing, provide that target quality data back to allow us to defeat the A2AD network and then give us space for first cab this year as part of our experimental forces to then sense with both autonomy, right, different capabilities on the air platforms and different capabilities on the ground platforms to give them a distinct advantage, not only for the tactical commander, but for the operational commander. Gateway. Gateway is the new part of what we're doing with Project Converged this year, and I'll turn it over to Major General Miles Brown to talk real quickly about what we're doing at Gateway. Hey, good morning. My name's Miles. I'm just going to talk a little bit about Gateway. So as we looked at the Project Convergence landscape over the last three years, we realized there was a need to maintain an entry point, really a nexus for industry to enter, and not just PROMs, but also our small business partners. And that's really what Gateway is about. We started off with about 53 technologies, over 300 that we did science and technology evaluation on. When we started off with about 53, it was pushed into scenario A and in scenario B, but we've been, since the 19th of September, pushing very hard doing system and technical experimentation at Yuma Proving Ground. And the way this experiment, it's really system and technical experimentation. The way I would describe that is con-ops, concepts of operation, not con-imps. This is not about concepts of employment, which is what we're doing in scenario A and scenario B. Can you hear me? Yeah, there you go. This is more about how something works. So what we've done very, very heavily, and I've already done a couple of one-on-one engagements with our industry partners, with the leaders of those industry partners, to determine what is the success criteria of your technology. What is it that you want it to do, or you think it can do? And what we found out since the 19th of September already is that there are some places with these technologies, and some of them are micro, some of them have more of a macro effect. But what we found out is there are things that have worked very, very well, and there are some things that haven't worked.  The takeaway from this is we now will work. We have a pilot going for a Sprint Crata that will be able to push cratas with our eight centers and lab inside Combat Capabilities Development Command. And so we'll push those cratas. We'll also push them into other technical experimentation and system experiments like NetMod X and other things that we do throughout the year that will continue to inform in terms of data collection analysis. One last thing that we are piloting here is we developed a rubric that puts sufficient rigor against each one of the technologies because we're looking at what we need to do for the Army of 2030 and we're pointing toward the Army of 2040. And in a lot of our technologies that we actually field in the Army today were started many, many years ago. So we have to get the azimuth correct on the technology, whether it's cyber vulnerability or other things, to make sure that we are protecting the force, that we're getting extended ranges like the Secretary talked about today to be able to achieve the speed and range to have overmatch. So I'll pass it back to General Jones. Thanks, sir. Thanks, sir. Appreciate it. Next slide, please. Okay. This is not to be taken as the exact way, but this is to use as an exemplar about what we're trying to do. When I talk about the joint force and data is going to be critical not only today, but especially as we move into 2030 and even more important in 2040.  I know everybody here has heard about sensor to shooter. Well, one of the things that we've learned, especially over the last year, right 21, is you can't just go directly from a sensor to a shooter in all cases because there's other indicators and data that may be required to be integrated into that decision, right? If it's all automatic, you may lose all of your ammunition in a single set of targets, and that was not the commander's desired intent, right? So we've determined it says you've got to have those processors in there. We have them, but we didn't call them out as a flowchart type thing. You've got to have the C2 note, especially in the joint environment, right? If we're going to fight converged, you have to have that commander and it's got to flow through his. What he's allocating resources toward. And then finally, the shooters. Don't be confused. That's not just lethal. When we talk about shooters, that's lethal, non-lethal. How do I influence the threat? Because oftentimes it takes multiple feces. Okay, so in project converges in all parts, we will take different sensors from space and the Marines or whoever will take them. We'll try to put them through a Navy processor. I'm sorry, Air Force or an Army processor. Does it work? If it doesn't work, what do we have to adjust to make that flow with target quality data that'll come out? It all is going to go to the JTF commander who then, through an automated way based off his priorities where he's positioned his forces will be able to then pass through subordinate C2 nodes to their access of their air force. Shooters is not necessarily what we want to do. It's effectors. But we're not going to just try with one. It says, okay, we got this sensing from, we're going to process through the Air Force and we're going to try to get the Army to shoot it. What we want to get to is, we're going to try each one of them, but what we want to get to is, when he gets the JTF commander through an automated process, he can figure out that says, hey, I'm going to give these four targets to the Air Force. These nine targets to the Marines and these five to the Army at the speed of machine. That is the success that we need on the 2030 battlefield and beyond to enable the JTF commander and the COCOM commanders to do what the nation has asked them to do. Next slide. So our takeaways. I talked a little bit about this, right? The first and most important one is to provide back, right? So the JADC2 already has a framework. So we've taken that framework and now we're going to give a practical application at the operational level, right? So we're focused on the 3-star JTF level, operational level C2 nodes as a starting point. It won't be where we end, but that's a starting point. So we can at least provide back a means. It won't be the means, but an a means. The second one is, I already talked about our partners. We've got to take our partners with us. And in order to do that, we have to have a partnered network that can accept different partners and process the same data in the same way with our own systems at the speed of machine learning. Finally, those policies that I already talked about, we've already found some. We'll continue to identify those. And that's really for our senior leaders, the secretary, senior leaders as well as joint. That's what we'll provide to them that says, okay, if you want to take this, here's some options or some things that we can look at to make our convergence and warfighting capability a little sharper. And then finally, General Brown already talked about it. It's about investment. What are the big investments, right? The under secretary always talks about it. What are the big bets? If we can determine those big bets, we'll have time and energy as it goes forward. So, that ends what I had to tell you about project convergence. I hope many of you out there have already signed up to come out and see it for yourself. So that way you understand that what I'm talking about is just not PowerPoint deep. We do this in the dirt. This year's PC will inform next year's. So, I'll open up to questions. Oh, I know I didn't do that good a job. Yes, sir. General, to what degree does project convergence take lessons learned from Ukraine, et cetera, external lessons to test it out? Great, great question. So, just make sure everybody heard, right? So, how do we take lessons from other places and how does it get inculcated? Well, first of all, as I said, this is a joint. So, I'm going to start there, right? So, for the Air Force, the ABMS, right, that they do during the year. We take those same pieces together, right? Same thing with project overmatch from the Navy, right? We integrate those with Ukraine. There's already a few that we are looking at, especially how does the threat operate? So, both in a simulation and our live threat, we've adjusted now over the last three months on some of the TTPs that we've seen. But, especially with Ukraine, we also are, since it's a 2035, our 2035, 2030 battlefield, we're very cautious not to get the wrong lessons because I think there's still a lot to be learned from that piece. But, how the threat operates, absolutely, is already integrated in there. So, great question. Thank you. Hey, Guy, if I could... So, the other part is, is that over the last year, as we built the gateway, we're constantly pulling in objectives from downrange. So, those objectives are getting in. So, if I have technology that can be applicable, it's not going to be on a five-ten-year delivery cycle. It's something that can get either advanced technology demonstration or prototype with our ASOL partners that gets pushed out. Yes, sir? Sir, so a question for General Brown. How does a small business contact the gateway and let you become aware of our technologies? Yeah, great. So, we have had an industry portal. It's the first time we did that. AFC put together an industry portal last year. We're going to release the next one, probably in the next 60 days. But we've already had our industry day for the next PC and talked about what's moving forward. But what will happen is there will be an industry portal that will be accessible and then you nominate inside there. And then what we do is we assign really Wranglers inside each one of those technologies, really a primary and an alternate, to work with in a coaching way to make sure that where is the right place. Because in some cases, based on the maturation of the technology, project convergence or gateway, the way activity might not be the best place. We want to put it in a place where it can be the most successful so we can find out how it can be used, how it can be employed. The other thing I would say on that is, often times, you know, especially with small businesses, it's about not necessarily new technology, but envisioning technology that we already have in different ways. Because I would tell you at least 25% of some of the things we were looking at is just the same technology we've had before, but we're applying it now because it's integrated, we have a greater networked capability and machine learning. How do we apply that to solve some of the problems that we have? Other questions? Oh, there we go. Sir, absolutely. Gentlemen, you alluded to it in your brief discussion of shooter descensor and targeting, but is there a thread where you look at the integration of intelligence from a strategic to tactical level into your C2 component? Yes, sir. General Brown just hit it. So in that processor, that's exactly what we're looking at because it's not just the collection of the sensors that are out there and at the strategic level, so if I would have looked at the right hand side, also soft. So physical people on the ground also sensors, especially with scenario bravo, it's kind of like the reverse. So what are the ground sensors and the tactical sensors doing that are going to be then processed in the same way to get target level data and then pass back up to the JTF to be either confirmed or targeted based on what's going on out there. So all both, but most of the pieces with Titan and other things in the processing aspect are also probably more than we can talk about in here. But yes, full sense suite. One thing too though is this was built on vignettes. So this is not an immature mission architecture. This is based on a use case thread. So we didn't just pull something. This is something that we know we will need to do today. We will need to do it in 2030. We will need to do this in 2040. Now obviously that will mature in scale, but the intelligence driver inside that is built into those mission threads for scenario A and scenario B. Other questions? Okay, not seeing any. Thank you very much for the first time out for the warrior corner. Cool.


What's up everyone it's your girl Kenzie here from Layton Sports Cards and I'm ripping a couple of personals here for JJG. We've got a 21-22 Panini Obsidian basketball hobby as well as a 2022 Leaf Best of Sport box. We're gonna start with the best of sports. Good luck your JJ. Yeah sure thing Rowan.  Wow that's a beautiful card. Sick one there. That is from Upper Deck. 2005 Upper Deck. Sweet spot. That's really cool. Orangers on that one. Wow. 2005 Upper Deck car. There you go JJ. Sweet spot classic Nolan Ryan. Sick. All right Ann Obsidian basketball here for you. Here we go first up we have a Jericho Sims rookie. Jericho Sims. Duncan Robinson base and a Josh Giddy rookie for the Thunder. First hit 105 of 149 volcanic auto of Josh Hart. Josh Hart for the Blazers. Got another volcanic auto here. 32 of 99. Jason Williams. This is a kid they called white chocolate right. Jason Williams on the volcanic. White chocolate there. 32 of 99. We used to come in the golf zero once in a while. Yeah we've got gold rookie Evan Mobley 10 of 10. Vision of Chris of 99. What a box of obsidian there. Wow big hit. Thanks as always JJ for hopping in. Congrats and we'll get this right out to you.


Have you ever thought about starting your own landscaping business? Picture this, you're your own boss shaping the world around you one lawn at a time. As we step into 2024, the demand for landscaping services hasn't just grown, it's exploded. From urban jungles wanting a touch of green to sprawling a state seeking the perfect manicured garden, the opportunities are vast and varied, and the best part, you don't need to be born with a green thumb. With the right knowledge, resources, and a bit of determination, anyone can cultivate a thriving landscaping business. It's not just about planting trees and mowing lawns, it's about creating outdoor spaces that inspire, relax, and bring joy. It's about breathing life into concrete landscapes and making the world a little greener one backyard at a time. The seeds of opportunity are ripe for the picking. So, the question is, are you ready to dive into the world of landscaping business? A successful business begins with a solid plan. The nucleus of any thriving enterprise is a well-structured business plan. It's no different when it comes to starting your own landscaping business. A business plan isn't just a document, it's your business's north star, guiding you through the highs and lows of entrepreneurship. Firstly, a business plan should include comprehensive market research. You need to understand the landscape of the landscaping industry, no pun intended. What is the demand for landscaping services in your area? Who are your potential customers? Are they homeowners, businesses, or perhaps both? By understanding your market, you craft strategies tailored to meet your customers' needs, making your business a cut above the rest. Next is a competitive analysis.  It's about learning from their successes and sidestepping their mistakes. Conquering the battlefield of business means knowing both your allies and adversaries. Then comes the pricing structure. How much should you charge for your services? This could be a tricky part. Pricing too high might drive potential customers away, while pricing too low may undercut your profits. The key is to find that sweet spot where your prices are both attractive to customers and profitable for your business. Remember, your pricing should cover costs, labor, materials, and still leave room for a healthy profit margin. Last but not least, your business plan should include a robust marketing strategy. In this digital age, having a strong online presence is crucial. Utilize social media, create a user-friendly website, engage with your audience, and showcase your work. Word of mouth referrals are gold in this industry, so strive to exceed customer expectations every time. To put it in a nutshell, a business plan is your roadmap to success. It provides a clear direction and helps you navigate through the complex world of business. It's a living breathing document that evolves as your business grows and changes. Remember, a landscaping business without a plan is like a garden without a gardener. In the world of landscaping, knowing your niche is key. So let's dive into the nitty gritty of this concept. To put it simply, your niche is a specialized segment of the market for a particular kind of product or service. It's like your own unique corner of the vast market landscape where your business can truly shine. Let's consider the landscaping industry. It's a broad field with numerous potential niches. You could focus on residential landscaping, offering services to homeowners who wish to enhance their property's curb appeal. Or perhaps commercial landscaping is more your speed, catering to businesses and public spaces. There's also the ecological landscaping niche, where you can provide services that support biodiversity and sustainability. Now, identifying your niche isn't just about deciding where you want to focus.  It's about tailoring your services and marketing efforts to attract these specific individuals or businesses. Let's say you opt for residential landscaping. Your target market might be homeowners who lack the time or skills to maintain their yards. They need someone who can not only keep their outdoor spaces looking great, but also provide advice on plant selection, lawn care and seasonal maintenance. So, your services should address these needs and your marketing efforts should highlight how you can solve these problems for your clients.  Your target market might be environmentally conscious homeowners or businesses or even local councils looking to improve public spaces. These clients need services that promote biodiversity, reduce water use and limit chemical inputs. Again, your services and marketing should be tailored to meet these needs and demonstrate your expertise in this area. Remember, choosing your niche isn't about limiting your business. It's about focusing your efforts where you can make the most impact. It's about understanding your clients and delivering the best possible service to them. And it's about setting yourself apart in a competitive industry. By identifying your niche, you set your landscaping business apart from the competition. Because in the end, it's not just about doing business, it's about creating solutions that matter to your clients. Innovation is the seed of success in landscaping. Now you might be thinking, but I'm not an innovator, I'm a landscaper. Well, you'd be surprised at how the two are intertwined. The world of landscaping is continuously evolving with new trends and technologies emerging every year. By staying current with these changes, you position your business at the forefront of the industry, offering services that are fresh, relevant and in demand. Let's take a look at some of the recent trends. One of the key shifts we've seen is the move towards sustainable and eco-friendly landscaping. More and more homeowners are seeking out green solutions from drought-tolerant plants to organic fertilizers. By incorporating these elements into your services, you're not only contributing to a healthier planet, but also meeting the needs of a rapidly growing market. Another trend making waves in the industry is the use of smart technology. We're talking about automated irrigation systems, robotic lawnmowers, and even drones for landscape surveying. These aren't just fancy gadgets, they're tools that can significantly increase your efficiency and productivity, allowing you to take on more projects and deliver better results. Now it's important to note that staying current doesn't mean jumping on every trend that comes your way. It's about being discerning, understanding your market, and choosing the innovations that align with your business goals and values. Remember, the goal is to enhance your services, not to overhaul them completely. Staying current also means looking beyond the industry. Keep an eye on broader societal trends, such as the growing focus on mental well-being. How can your landscaping services contribute to this? Perhaps by creating serene nature-inspired spaces where people can relax and recharge. In the end, staying current is all about adapting and evolving. It's about embracing change, not fearing it. It's about recognizing opportunities for growth and seizing them. And most importantly, it's about ensuring your business is not just surviving, but thriving. By staying current, you ensure your landscaping business is always blooming. Sustainability is not just a trend, it's a necessity. In the landscape industry, this couldn't be more true. As we push forward into the heart of the 21st century, the importance of sustainability in all aspects of business is becoming increasingly clear. You see, in the world of landscaping, sustainability does more than just help conserve resources and protect the environment. It serves as a magnetic force, attracting clients who value their role in preserving the planet. By incorporating sustainable practices into your landscaping business, you're not just making a wise business decision, but you're also taking a stance as a protector of our shared home, Earth. So, how exactly do you infuse sustainability into your landscaping business? Let's dig into that. Firstly, consider using native plants in your designs. These plants have adapted to the local climate and soil conditions over thousands of years, making them a more sustainable choice as they require less water, fewer fertilizers, and less maintenance overall. Secondly, integrate water-saving techniques. This could mean installing drip irrigation systems, creating rain gardens, or using drought-tolerant plants, this will not only save water, but also save your clients money in the long run. Thirdly, composting is another sustainable practice to consider. By using compost, you can reduce the need for chemical fertilizers, improve soil health, and recycle organic waste. This practice can also be a selling point for your business, as it shows your dedication to a greener and healthier environment. Finally, consider the use of renewable energy sources, like solar-powered tools and equipment. This can reduce your business's carbon footprint and is another excellent way to show your commitment to sustainability. Incorporating sustainability isn't just about doing what's right for the environment. It's about doing what's right for your business. It can set you apart from competitors, attract eco-conscious clients, and ultimately drive your business towards success. By embracing sustainability, you're not just growing a business, you're growing a better future. Starting a landscaping business is more than just planting seeds. It's about cultivating a vision, a plan that will grow and flourish, just like the plants you'll tend to. It begins with developing a solid business plan, a blueprint that outlines your goals and how you intend to achieve them. Next, identifying your niche is critical. Understanding what makes you unique in the landscaping world will help you stand out amongst the greenery, but it's not enough to just plant your business and hope for the best. You need to stay current with the latest trends and innovations. The landscaping industry is always evolving and so should your business. And of course, incorporating sustainable practices is crucial. As stewards of the land, it's our responsibility to ensure our businesses are as green as the landscapes we create. With these steps, you are well on your way to building a thriving landscaping business. The future is green, so why not be a part of it?


What is next now from Veery? Kulkuna rumas pale, wenda maybe wukas mama kama mmsani solo? Well, like I said earlier on, this is more of a graduation from soul generation. So, minasuda have to go to Naindelia.  And thanks to you guys, I'll say that again. Kwa zimona banyu wusani, ni kumu mugu. Na kuna vitamin gasani yunga na piga na si piga. Ni hi tiga ni isu. Ile wita, kuna vitamin gasani na piga na wuku inje. Mani na yaa play music, kuna ayo, mani na yaa play music, kuna mani na yaa... M.C.S.K. Kwa jakuwa shuwa, achan na M.C.S.K. isun technical. I'm just talking about the basic love. This basic love, like, I've seen guys, I've seen guys playing my music back to back. I've seen guys calling me for events and for me, I'm taking it as an appreciation of my good work. So, this is a complicated story. I'm just talking about the basic love, and the things that are inside out. You got my attention, come away when we fun. So, I'm just talking about your music and the things that are in front of you. So, I'm just talking about your music and the things that are in front of you. Ladies and gentlemen, Mama Kanda, ya Superstar, kwa gale msa ne me piga pamba na kubale ki African, he rungus dunia wu Ganga niya nini. Isu kwenye mnafaku juandum tajua. Until then, badam tajua. E kupale, lakini kuna kaziake. And other than that, wana jua always representing Africa from the culture all the way to the bottom. And these are our own designers, by the way. Babu, see yo. Babu. Alright, let's talk about your outfit, inspiration behind this amazing outfit. So, I have a visual director. Kamri ukeza kutan nivi. Utona visual director wangu. Alavu uru divi. Asikali uko? Asikai uko sana neza maroka. Na, umbiri. You've one of the successful projects of Saudi Soul. I can say, under Soul Generation, you've rise to where you are right now, an international global star. You produce amazing hits, bro. Anyway, uko pali ju. Shukran. Shukran manze. And all I can say, twice that is amazing. It's my beautiful journey. And the fact that Ima pensia wakeni miko constant. You know, before I started off, I always wanted to be that artist when uko kwa systemu me kubale kahipo hivo. Where you can actually produce any type of music to express yourself. Sile wa auto me kutegemiya pali pali. So, in this wheel ni kubali hivo. Shows na fanyas na sellout back to back. The much I can do, ni kwa appreciate na kwa partia shumbaya sana. Make shum na kuja, zetus na kuja. Did you ever maybe imagine one day you leave to leave your dream? Yo, of course, by the time you're dreaming and you have to believe it, then you end up being there. But at this point, fun facts. Before I was signed with South Soul, nilkwana bia nikamuliza. Why should I sign with you guys? Because I was doing video production, I was doing music, I was doing whatever. But we met at the studio. I can say, whatever you're going through, we'll cut it by half. Because these guys went through a lot that they were not supposed to go through. So they honestly eliminated it. By year one to look for international act, I was flying out. After one song performing a one hour show, nilkwana kwa mamo aja. Na na fly. So you can imagine, like we put in our hard work and the trust, na ika pan out. So that mechanism actually works. No, no, doka suda. Now we have new artists coming up. And all we say, this shows blessings. Now we have to give back blessings to the boys. Miku representative it to the fullest. It's just to make sure I represent my boys to the fullest here. We have to dance here. It's the last dance. And you have to dance it to them. Whether you like it or not. We have to give back blessings to the boys. And for us, with suda, it's more of a graduation. Now we have to give back blessings to the fans and the soldiers. Na ika mamo aja. Amazing performance now. And really, just to ask you this, what is that musical lesson you've learned from so to so? Yeah, consistency. Consistency. I love it. That's one second. Kusema na kutenda. There were days when I was in the studio, I used to be a videographer. Mu tu ane sema, like bianal ka ane, sample song, amapolika. In the next one month, you sung, you already could talk here. After you, isha riliziwa. And you'd see them rehearse every single day. That's a culture you see and it does not fail. Son kajambia. I want to be on that level. How do I get there? Where's if you come up on when you're in Kimbizana now? One a funny rehearsal daily. So they're really not sure doesn't matter that culture. It's called the dub culture. Gwali amjui dub culture. Discipline, order, passion and excellence. That's the dub culture. Not my figure. Kuna doa? Doa. Doa. See doa. Doa. Tuna ongelea zile V2. Doa. Doa. Doa ziko e inje. Laki doa. Muna jion e haja wasani. No. Mu riliziwa now. Is there something that you'll miss out from Saudi Soul as a group? Honesty speaking I still look at them as a group. We've done a lot of projects as a group. And this is just more of a it's very symbolic to them. Guys are doing a lot of projects outside. Guys are doing a lot of projects outside of Saudi Soul. Hence this whole project. But other than that jina nile ile. Jina siwatu jina nile ile. Ni the movement that we're making at the soul generation. But it's more of a movement. So mulewe tukua pa hatu tsongi hatu banduki. Alright maybe as we wind up I believe we'll give them a minute in Saudi Soul. Maybe a message now to Saudi Soul. My message is the journey is very evident and we appreciate it. They've blessed a lot of lives and I'm honestly honored to be here also to bless the lives in the way we've done with our talent with our presence and with our performance. And also the audience themselves. Kupulapapa na menaskani laddans Ioni mapenzi ko apondani. So I'm wishing them all the best. Nyotawi nangali eivi ju. Akuna makosa apu. I'll see you. Let them just keep blessing more lives now jua. What is next now from Viri? Kulkuna rumas pale wenda maybe wukas mama kama msanis solo. Well like I said earlier on this is more of a graduation from soul generation. So mi na suda tukua jina indelia and you mean you know at the end of the day wuki funs wua you must have a point where you're tasted and you're thrown into the deep end kusum pekiako. And thanks to you guys I'll say that again kusimona menyu msanini ngumu mugu na kuna vitaminga sani yunga na piganasipigani. Hitigani isu. Ile vitame kuna vitaminga na pigano uku inje. Mani na play music kuna yo mani na play music kuna mani na wadu mugu jia kwa show. Hachana MSK is on technical. I'm just talking about the basic love this basic love like I've seen guys I've seen guys playing my music back to back I've seen guys calling me for events and for me I'm taking it as an appreciation of my good work. So stagi kukomplike lingala mimi na imu tu unani onise ma pens na kwensha ma pens wuna jokwa ine insid out. You got my attention kama wewe ni fun. Ado eh wesi wuna penda musikia wuna utumi aprotibi kama fun na lafuki doki doko mipi eni fano kumkubwa natu na elewa na iwe. Thank you.  All right a message to your fans. And kama ini kwan mipiana lakina shall give out another one. Ladies not even ladies I mean we're living in a time where there's a lot of war in the spiritual realm and the physical side. Guys just take time to believe in yourself and believe in whichever part that you believe in but also just stay still to kusawa we are making it so mind is just to preach positivity to guys all those blessings in nizimiku wazina kama wana jio if you want to focus on the negative it will kill you there's so much negative right now let's focus on the positive wa kenya medukia patuna celebrate just remember always celebrate tamiya vita ita kudya so wa selia kuna vita achena na ya let's celebrate I'll see you blessings upon more blessings Thank you so much All right good blessings


Alrighty, there's no sound, but let's play this here. It's very cute. Nice. I think what we could do, there's a lot of really good stuff in there. Now, there are a couple of things that have some questions and some suggestions as always. I'm not quite sure what he's doing here, like is he, because we can see that he has, you know, full fingers for all the posing. I'm just not quite sure what he's doing here. That's my first question. I mean, I know he's waiting. That's your classic Sonic pose, but then I thought that he's looking at his watch, like, you know, pretending, looking at the watch and it was a little wait. So I don't know. I'm not quite sure what is going on here. I do like this a lot though. I like that. Going into this with the knees in, jumping. Let's see, you have an immediate... I think even on this, since we're popping, I would probably already move that leg over this way, instead of keeping it in like this. So then go into this. That's also cute. You got some multiples there. I like that is there's a little bit of a hop and adjustment in the legs. That's cute. Visually, I would just bring up that hand out a bit further so you don't have that line right there, all tangent through these points there, some cute details in the fingers. I don't know if you can adjust the lighting where we will see a bit more structure, like here, when you have some of the highlights and shadows in here, maybe. And probably since we don't know where things are coming from, we don't really have to be super picky about eye line in terms of, oh, it has to be that far away to the right. I will keep that eye around here so it's not right there where the nose is. And then even here, go just a bit more inward as probably the absolutely worst color to choose. So it's just a bit more in here. So we're not so edgy here. And even here might as well go a little bit more to the right so we don't lose it. And that's all cute. A nice little stretch there. Even there, you can cheat and bring people just in a bit here. So the main first point, like these are to me all like little detailed things. But when I look at this here, it feels like there's a big ready to go up here. But then we're only here. Might as well kind of tilt up, but it just, it just feels like we're, there's so much energy implied. But then we're suddenly going like this instead of doing all of this up here. And that way you could hold this a bit longer and then zip down into this. And then I will push it. This feels more like it lands and then leans to then get out with the jump out, which is totally fine, but it feels like as we go bigger here, lands and then this be more like a, so a couple more bounces and lean and you might even lean a bit more. And then if you can kind of fake maybe a highlight here or something, so that we get to understand there's a rotation happening. So it's not just like an Easter ball, Easter egg type of thing, a ball rolling, not rolling, but kind of leaning. And that's it. We kind of need to kind of assimilate, cheat a little, little curvature here and have that turn. And then I would, I would make these a bit slower. You might as well have one here and then maybe here and then boom, because right now, because they're so close to each other in terms of placements, I know they're slightly different, but if you watch this in real time, it's super strobie. And they all, they just seem to be hovering here, changing places where you could have one here, here, the next one might be here and you see a bit more. The next one, you know, maybe a bit bigger and then one here and then here, just so they're not all within this area. So one will be here, one here, one here, one here and just a bit further. Does it be further place, but to me would be more than just one frame, two or three frames, but also not stuck in this area if that makes sense. That's kind of that. It's really cute. I really like it. Yeah, it just seems like this feels a bit stunted there. It can go a bit higher. It kind of pushed the craziness just a little bit. And I mean, you could also, I mean, it all seems very nice in terms of the flat shading and everything, but I want to maybe have a little bit of a, like a darker green crack and some of the ice or whatever that is come out details. This might be too much detail if you want to keep it more on the simpler side, but could be also kind of cute to have some stuff happening there. Anyway, that's kind of that. Thanks. All right, there's an email. You can sign up. You can start whenever you want. You can submit whatever you want. You get 16 submissions. Either way, a like and subscribe would be awesome. All right, thank you.


This is the fastest way to feel better right now. When you're going through something stressful, there are lots of ways you could change your state. You could go eat a chocolate croissant or have a cup of coffee. You could go for a walk around the block or you could go talk to someone.  But there is something that mystics, Taoists, Buddhists, monks and holy people have been doing for thousands of years, which is breathe. So do what monks have been doing for thousands of years. Just breathe.


Black Friday is upon us, and there are plug-in bargains everywhere, but how do you choose from the hundreds of deals available? Well plug-in boutique have asked me for my top 5 picks from their amazing specials for this Black Friday season. I'm starting off with an incredible drum plug-in, which is simple to use, but also has some depth. If you look at the top right hand corner of U-Jam's Solid 2 virtual drummer, you'll see how I'm easily switching from one section of the song to another by playing different keys on my piano keyboard. Let's have a listen. Now that's one really easy way to control the drummer in your song. However, if you look at the top half of this keyboard, you'll also see that what I can do is grab one of these patterns, say a verse one here, and I can drag it off onto my door, drop it into a track where the MIDI will be revealed, and then I can customise that pattern to my own needs. So there's two ways of doing things. You can do it the really simple way, or you can go a little bit more in depth, and that's very, very typical of what this plug-in does. In fact, we don't even just have to play patterns, we still have access to individual drums, so we can play them on keys over here. Yeah, so we can get all of those available over there as we normally would do. And this is what I love about the design here, because you can use it really lightly or you can really go into some depth. Another example of this would be the ability to change our drum kit. You can see that there's five available over here as presets, and I'll just play that basic beat again and I'll switch between them. And essentially what that's doing is swapping out drums within our kit. So it's got these preset kits, but of course we can dive in and create our own custom kits. We would just go down to a drum at the bottom here. Let's say, for example, the kick here, I click on that, and you can see I've got four different types of kit available there. So I'll play my beat again. So as well as having these presets, you can also customize those kits to your own needs. Another example would be for the mix of these drums. You can see on the right hand side we have six different mixes available. We've got smooth, edge, retro, big, power, and crush. Let's have a listen to some of those. And as you would expect and hope, you can also customize those mixes as well. Again, you can select each individual drum. You can then adjust its volume from within the mix there. You can do things like adjust its decay, its tuning, how much reverb is on there. And you can even send each individual drum to an individual track in your door where you can get an awful lot more flexibility by applying your own favorite plugins, et cetera, et cetera. So very, very versatile in this way. And as I say, this is very typical of the way this plugin works. Now, there's not just that one pattern available. You'll be glad to hear. There's around about 60 different styles available here. Let's just try a few whole bunch of things for you to choose from there. Now this plugin at the moment, if you head over to Plugin Boutique is actually 50% off. So normally around about $108 now $54. It's very, very cheap for something which sounds this good and is this versatile. But it's not the only UJam plugin which is available on sale during these Black Friday sales. If we look over to the UJam page here on Plugin Boutique, you can see there's a number of different plugins there available which have 50% off. So definitely worth checking out the links in the description down below. What if I wanted to add a nice reverse delay effect to the snare drum in my pattern, which is currently sounding like this. That's what this plugin is for. This is Mirror from United plugins and I simply select a time base here. I'll go for a quarter and then I'll dial in the verb effect here. I'm also going to adjust this blur control as I have a listen. And it's as simple as that. Now of course you could do all of this, couldn't you, in your door. You could grab each individual snare sample, you could reverse it and put it just before the snare, do that across the entire track. The only problem is if you then want to change things, you're going to have to do all of that again. Very time-consuming, not very inspiring. Whereas with this you can simply change the settings of course. Not to mention that these settings can be automated. So you can adjust them through the course of your piece of music. Now if you head over to Plug-In Boutique at the moment, you'll see that this plugin is 50% off, normally $75 or so, down to $37.40. Now there's a lot of other bargains to be had as well at Plug-In Boutique for some of the other United plugins are over there. So just check out their page there. I've got a link for that in the description down below. It's honorable of getting a great reputation in the audio production community and for good reason I think. Here's an example of one of the things they do. This is Smart EQ3. Now you can use this just like a regular EQ plugin. I could accentuate certain frequencies like this, maybe adjust the cue like so. I could attenuate other frequencies like this. All of the things you would expect from a modern EQ plugin and it does them very, very well. But it's really the smart AI features which get me more excited about this plugin. I'll just reset that. Now I have this applied to an acoustic guitar track in my song. I'm going to let it know that by going to this menu up here and selecting acoustic guitar. I'm then going to click on this Learn button and play my track. Now it's analyzed my track and it's found some areas, certain frequencies where it thinks they should be reduced and others where it thinks they should be accentuated. And I can scale that effect by using this handle here like so, yeah? I can even reverse it. Very, very nice features there. I can even focus on certain frequency ranges. If I just want to apply this curve to the high end, I could do that as well. I could even go ahead and split it and treat the low end and the high end separately, yeah? So I could just have less accentuation in the low end, a bit more in the high end. All of that good stuff. I can even have it applied on top of my own EQ curve. So maybe I like what it's doing to the top end here. It's getting rid of some of those nasty frequencies, it's centering the best ones. But overall, I just want to boost this up here so I can do that. And you can see it applies its EQ curve on top of mine as well. Really, really nice stuff. Now, one of the things I really love about this is how you can use it to create space using EQ with different instruments in your mix. So I can take this guitar. I can actually use this button up here, Join Group. Now, I've got this plugin already applied to some other instruments in this mix, OK, which you're going to see in a moment. But first, I'll just give this group a name. Let's call it My Band, OK? What I can do then is start to arrange my mix in terms of allowing the EQ to carve out spaces for different instruments. So I've got my guitar here. I might put the vocal there right on top. I might have the drums here, the bass here, etc., etc. And I can sort of arrange those and experiment and allow this plugin in a smart way to use those EQ curves to carve out spaces. I love this very much. Now, if you head over to Plugin Boutique at the moment, you'll see that this plugin is currently down to, let me have a look, $65 or so. So it's got around about 54, 55% off, OK? So definitely worth checking out. This is a very sophisticated plugin, especially for that money. And it's not the only sonnable plugin which is on sale during this Black Friday season at Plugin Boutique. If you head over to the sonnable page, I've got a link for that in the description down below. You can see that there is the EQ3. There's also this smart bundle, which is really, really good, some good plugins in there. So definitely check out that great value for money. I've mentioned many times on this channel already about how great I think Addictive Drums 2 is even after all of these years. So I'm not going to go on about that anymore. But I did get to thinking, if I had to pick just three kits to go along with the core plugin, which three would I pick out of their amazing selection? Now, for me, I have to say, what's governing my decision is the fact that I record many different genres of music. So I want versatility out of this. My very first pick would be this one, Fairfax. This is just a bog standard acoustic kit. It sounds great on many different genres of music. In fact, it sounds like this. It just sounds so natural and there's still a lot you can do with it. If you go into the kit, you can see that you can obviously mix it. But then if you go into individual drums, you can make a lot of changes to individual drums in this plugin, which makes a kit like this very adaptable to different genres of music. So this would be my first pick. Now, if there's one sort of downside to this kit, the fact that it's all sticks, okay, there's no brushes in there. And sometimes I really like to have the light sound of brushes with acoustic kits. So my second pick would be this one, okay, modern jazz brushes. Now, I don't really record any jazz, not very often at all. So I don't actually use this for jazz, but it's still a great kit for other genres of music when you want to keep things really light. Let's have a listen to this example where there's some hits being done with the actual brushes. So it has that lovely light, delicate feel to it. I also like the swirl sounds once in a while. Here's an example of that. So just an incredibly light sounding and delicate sounding kit. You can mix that up with the other one sounds fantastic. Now, that's the acoustic side of things covered for me, but I do still like to have some electronic sounding drums in there as well. So my third pick in the name of versatility would be this one, real machined, okay. There's some great 808 sounds in here, 909s as well. Let's have a listen to the Tape 808 Dry and also the 909. Now, if we head over to Plugin Boutique at the moment and take a look at this page, you can see that you can get this product, which is Dictive Drums 2 Custom Collection. Now, this is the basic plugin and you also get to choose three kits, all right. You get three kits, three MIDI packs and you also get to choose three kit pieces. So these are individual drums as well to add to those kits that you've already chosen. Now, if you take a look at normally would cost about $200, it's 50% off at the moment. So it's $98. There you can see that. Now, why is this such a great bargain? Well, if we flick over and take a look at the other Dictive Drums products, you can see as we scroll down that even at 50% off, a lot of these will cost say $43 or so. They normally cost around about $90 each, okay. So three of these is still would cost you more than buying the product we just looked at just a moment ago. Keep in mind as well, you do also get those MIDI packs and the individual drum kits as well. Great value for money. If you haven't got a Dictive Drums 2 yet, go ahead and get this I would recommend. If you've already got a Dictive Drums 2 and you want to get some more kits, now is an awesome time to buy them. When I was compiling this list, I knew that there had to be something in here from Arturia. First of all, because I'm a fan boy and secondly, because they're not exactly sort of cheap products normally. So if you can get them at a bargain price, you definitely should. Now why am I such a big fan of Arturia? Well, those of you who watch the channel regularly will know, for example, that this plug-in here is my favorite Revo plug-in of all time. I just love the way it sounds and it's got lots of great options in it. I also often use this pre-tried A, okay. I just love that it adds a little something extra to the signal, especially right at the beginning of the signal chain. I also like this compressor. This is an 1176 style compressor.  They'll often do representations or have plug-ins which are inspired by old hardware, yeah. So this is inspired by 1176, but almost always, maybe always actually. If you click on the Advanced button, which I'm going to with this one here, it's going to reveal some features that often weren't there on the original piece of hardware. I just love this attitude. Let's be inspired by those old pieces of hardware, but it's a new age, yeah. We can do new things that they couldn't do back then or didn't do back then, and I just love that attitude. This is why I'm always impressed by these plug-ins. Of course, they do sound great. Now that's on the effect side of things from Arturia, but I also love what they do in terms of their keyboards, okay. And again, carrying on this sort of idea, I remember trying to program the DX7 when it first came out, back in the day when I was a teenager, and it was an absolute nightmare. So I'm glad that Arturia reproduced the sound of a DX7 without the interface of a DX7. If we click on Advanced here, you can see the interface we have here for adjusting the sounds or the presets in the DX7 here, and it's a joy, I can tell you, compared to the old days. Now, I also enjoy from them things like the June 6, this Roland June 6. Look, these things cost an absolute fortune, thousands and thousands of dollars if you buy them, like on eBay or something at the moment. So the plug-in versions sound just as good in my opinion. You don't have to maintain old hardware. And again, as I say, you often have features on there that perhaps weren't on the original. I also have a real soft spot for the Melotron. Melotron for me is famous for being in strawberry fields by the Beatles, but it's actually been loads of different famous records. One of the original samplers, if you like, I guess. And again, clicking that Advanced button gives us access to all kinds of options for the sound of this instrument. And also just outside of this sort of product range, because this is not based upon old hardware. But I also love their pigments synthesizer. Now, I am still a noob when it comes to programming synthesizers, to be honest with you. So one of the things I like about this is do I need to program it even because there's so many great presets. Yes, I probably still need to program it a little bit just to get it sounding how I want it to. But they have some fantastic tutorials included. If you go over to this panel over here, I'll just go to tutorials. I worked my way through these and it taught me so much about sound synthesis. They really get you, if you spend, you know, half an hour going through these, you'll be well up to speed with creating your own sounds etc. So well thought out plugins. What I decided in the end is if I was going to recommend anything at all, then I guess I would have to recommend this, the V Collection 9, okay. So this is the instrument. These are based upon classic sort of synthesizers, electric pianos, there's even some acoustic pianos in there, I think, as well. But it's mainly those electronic instruments. There's a big collection in there. This normally costs $658. You can see it's down to $328 at the moment. Like a 50% saving, really massive there. And you get such a great range of high quality classic sounds in there. So definitely worth it. Now if you don't agree with me, if you think I've made a bad choice there, then perhaps you would just follow the link in the description down below also to this page, the Arturia page which you can see in actual fact not only is that V Collection on sale 50% off but also the effects collection with all of those wonderful effects and the ones I showed plus many more in there and pigments is also 50% off. In terms of pure innovation, I really think the sonnable products are the winners here. If you want to find out a little bit more about the other products available in their line, check out this video here. I delved a little bit deeper into one of their bundles.