Welcome back. This is Still Why in the Morning. We are on to our first conversation where we're talking about career development. You can interact with us, ask your questions. The hashtag to use is Why in the Morning at Y254 Channel and at Stephanie Ayyeta. We have been joined by our guest. He is the founder and mentor of Living Effectively Mentorship Programme. He is also the Global Communication Specialist at PATH. Thank you so much. I'm glad to have you with us. Thank you for having me. Okay, so tell us a bit about yourself. My name is Douglas Oudo. I'm born again. As you mentioned, I'm the mentor for Living Effectively Mentorship Programme. In short, is LEMP. And the purpose of the program is basically we run a structured 10-week program to equip individuals to discover their purpose and also to utilize their good given potential so that they live an effective life as they also become agents of change in the society. I have over 16 years of experience in the field of communication. My background is communication. And I work for an organization called PATH. As you mentioned, I'm the Global Communication Specialist. And I am married also. I have a little girl called Tarnisha and I don't know if you need me to go to my education. Yes, we'd actually want you to start off by telling us about your career so that we can relate to it because we know that I know that your career has been on an upward trajectory. So maybe you can tell us about your career. But before you go into that, tell us the difference between a career and a job fast and then you get into that. A career is what someone has specialized in and they do it for quite a long time. So they have gained experience of the same. A job I will describe it as something that you do to a livelihood. It may not necessarily be in the path of your specialization or education, but it's just something that you do to get you a living. Okay, so tell us about your career journey. It's a long one. 16 years is quite a long one. First of all, I have, you know, I'll just start because it's a long story. I'll try and cut it short. So after I cleared high school, I went to, I did a diploma in mass communication. And then it was a two-year program. And then after that, I went to study my undergraduate. I went to India, where I specialized in mass communication and journalism. And then I came back to Kenya and started working. I immediately started working in 2006. I entered into the NGO world as a communication specialist. And then as I started working, I enrolled in the state of positive. I started doing my master's in communication, but I specialized in corporate communication. And then that was a two-year master's program. And then after that, I was still working for this international NGO that we were specializing in agricultural productivity. I worked there for five years, and then I moved to a regional position where I worked on behalf of the Australian High Commission. I was supporting programs in 11 African countries. And then from there, I worked there for around three, four years. And then I moved to the UN. In the UN, I was there for close to four years. It's when now I moved to PATH because of the global. I wanted just to have that global experience. And so I worked for PATH. I support 70 countries in communication. Wow. So with that kind of expertise in this field, in the career from experience, how would you advise someone to choose the right occupation or the right career before when someone is out of high school? So how is the, you know, what are the things to look out for to choose the right career? Yeah, that's a very good question, Stephanie. I think very quickly, I always advise because one, because this is something you're going to do for the rest of your life, possibly. And that is why it's called a career. So it's a long-term, you know, profession engagement. And so what I always advise a lot of people is that don't be excited about a profession that has money. Of course, money is a factor, but it should not be the main thing because it has to start with passion. So what are you passionate about? What is it that makes you want to wake up in the morning? And it would be good to do a career that is almost like a hobby to you. And that is how you enjoy the process. And so you have to start by what are you passionate about? And then the second thing is what contribution do you want to make to the world as an individual? Because, you know, I'm a believer that we have been brought here on earth for a reason and for a season. And because we are here for a season and a reason, you have to know the reason of your existence and it has to be connected to your career so that when you're working and whatever you're doing, you are touching lives, you're making a difference in your generation, but at the same time you're also enjoying the journey. Yes. Okay, so your career, basically you're saying it should be linked to your purpose? Yes. Okay. Yeah. And so what happens to the students who are called, you know, by the placement and you're just placed at, you know, any cost that is there because you don't really have an option to choose. This is the one that I chose, but this is the one that I've been called for.  Let me start by saying that I have actually mentored, for the last seven years, I've mentored these kind of people who really feel frustrated, lost, disappointed because they feel they are kind of forced a cost that they really didn't want. And so one of the things, of course, you have to look at different contexts, depends. But one of the things I will tell them, if you have had no choice in your career, probably it's your parents that really convinced you and like you've mentioned also, the cost that you really wanted, you couldn't get it and so you're given a second choice. It is just okay because it has happened, you go through the cost, but at the same time, you should also follow your passion. For instance, I'll give you an example. For instance, for me, I remember when I went into high school, my dad convinced me to do accounting and my elder sister because she was an accountant and I went into accounting, I specialized in accounting, but it wasn't my thing. I was really struggling with accounting, but I continued until when I got an opportunity to university. I started with it because that was the basis, but at some point I switched. When I got into my second year, I switched into journalism and of course now I had this chat with my parents and my sister and they understood this is what I really wanted. If you have no choice, you can still go through it. I've seen people who have gone through the causes that they are, wasn't their first priority, but then at some point they will switch to their main cause. Of course, there is the issue of finances and all that. If it was a scenario, what you can do is if you continue with a cause that you didn't specialize in and you get into a job, you can get an opportunity now that you have an income and still go back to your main cause. You can still study in the evenings and as you do that, at some point you switch careers. I have seen a lot of people doing that. What you're saying is that for one to choose a career first, they have to look at the passion and the interest they are in and it should be aligned to their purpose so that they have fun while they do what they want to do. In case you've gotten into the wrong cause, you find your way to change it along the way or maybe you finish it and you are able to finance it after you get a job. Now, for someone who has done the cause that they wanted to at the university, how do they advance their career from there? How do they develop their career? I like that. I like this conversation because this is kind of my forte. I really enjoy sharing my experience and knowledge around this. You have just gone through your career in university or in college and you have finished. How do you then transition? One of the things, particularly, let me start for those who are still in campus or in college, start taking opportunities to volunteer and do attachment, do internships because this starts laying a foundation for you and preparing you for the outside world. By the time you get to look for a job as you're outside in the world, you have some sense of experience and exposure and knowledge of what goes there. I'm sure you've seen almost every job vacancy advertisement. They always ask for some minimum level of experience and knowledge.  If you're already outside of school, as you're already outside of university or college, as you're still looking for a job, there's nothing that stops you to also volunteer and do internships and do attachments and get an exposure because you'll have a competitive advantage if you go to a job interview and you say I graduated last year but at the moment this is what I've been doing but I'm also looking for a job. It shows someone who has taken initiative to really invest in their career. So I would suggest that there is one. Of course, the other thing is to continue looking. There are a lot of platforms. You can find jobs, you talk to relatives, the networks, people around you. But at the same time, my main thing is don't just sit around. Try and do something. It may not mean necessarily what you studied but as you do that, you're also getting just exposure of how to relate with people, expectations of the job market and also you're getting knowledge of how to position yourself. Okay. So basically they should put themselves out there and not worry about if money is coming in or not because they usually complain. So how do I get the fare to go to this particular job? So how do you advise them? Because there's also the aspect of the finances. So I'm not given any token. So how do I afford to go to the internship or attachments every time? I'll give you my own experience. When I finished college before I transitioned and went to India, I interned. I was actually an intern here in KBC. And I also interned at Transworld Radio and quite a number of them. And what I did was I used to ask for fare from my parents and also my uncle when I came to Nairobi or staying with my uncle. And I will also just ask my cousins, the ones who are working, we had a good relationship. And they saw the initiative and they saw the passion and the hunger I had in getting a job, but also in just building my experience. And they were very supportive because that is also one thing that I think young people need to understand, that if you need people to help you, you also have to show initiative.   So you can ask around and get some fare. I remember at some point when I was starting my internships, I never used to have money, but I will work to the internship. And then there is this aspect of people declining internship opportunities of attachment because they're not being paid. I will shock you that my first internship, I'm the one who used to pay the organization to do internship there. Yes, that means an organization to ask for. Yes. And I was looking at the bigger picture. It wasn't just the, you know, the current, I need money now. I was looking at the bigger picture. And the bigger picture in terms of this is an opportunity for me to earn and get experience and get knowledge and be exposed in the job market. And I know this will pay. And the dividends really paid. You know, now I've been in this field for the last 16 years. And that is how I started. And this was a foundation I was building for myself. So it is important to build that foundation. Okay. And for a person who's already working in the career that they want, but they feel stuck. So what entails, what does career development entail? What steps do they need to take to ensure that they are progressing in their career? First of all, I want to challenge anyone who has a job.  And a lot of people's luck, they stop investing in themselves. So the first thing is ensure you continue. Well, it's part of basically, actually, that is the basic definition of personal development. So you always invest in yourself, you keep in yourself with necessary skills, you get ahead of the game. You learn new softwares, you continue, there are a lot of online courses you can do. Most of them are actually free, you can just enroll and you do. And that is how you continue learning and investing in knowledge. And that is how you continue also getting exposure. And for those who are also working, I always say, do not specialize in your department. Be exposed in what other aspects of the organization. If you're in accounting, have a basic understanding of what HR department does. Have a basic understanding of what administration operations department do. Because that is how you increase your brand equity in the organization, you increase your value. And that is how you become valuable in an organization. But also that is how you get promoted. Because you're promoted based on the value that you bring in. And if you came in with the same value, let's say 5% of the understanding you had and the knowledge and the experience from school or what you've gained over the years and you've not had on it, you're going to be disadvantaged when it comes to job opportunities. I remember for me, for instance, by the time I was finishing my degree, I had nine certificates and I had four diplomas. Because when I was in school, I will go for classes from morning to evening. In the evening, I enrolled for evening classes, I will do a diploma in broadcasting, digital broadcasting. I'll do a diploma in video production and all that. And then I published a book on the north of two novels. And so by the time I came to Kenya and I was looking for a job, these are the things that I became very competitive and employers were really, really looking for me. And from since I started working, just because of how I have invested in myself, I rarely look for a job. Because I get just offers. People will come and say, you know, we want you to work for us. And I've never stopped for the last 16 years. I still do courses. I still attend seminars and workshops. I have a general understanding of what my organization does from in all departments. So I am always dependent on if a colleague goes for paternity or maternity leave or a colleague falls sick, they will say Douglas will be a backfill for this person because I have general knowledge of what the organization does. And that is how you improve your brand equity. Wow, OK. So you must focus on increasing your value every time. And ensuring that you're an asset to that organization. Yes. All right. And what is the place of vision in career development? Vision is important. Vision is the basis. It's the roadmap. Vision is the destination. Vision should be the destination for your career. In other words, you should have a clear idea of what you want to achieve. And of course, vision can be broken in three parts. You can have a short term vision, you can have a medium term vision and a long term vision. I remember when I began, I began as an intern for six months. And my vision was to become the communication manager in the organization. And so it was at the top of my mind as an intern. I was doing it with a mindset of understanding how to manage a communication department in my organization. And that propelled everything that I did. And I had to prove myself. I had to learn. I had to know what management means and what communication means and what are the needs of the communication for the organization. And I was able to achieve that. And then I gave myself another two to three years to get a promotion. And I was able to achieve that.  And I need to work in a big organization that I was. And I have been achieving that. And at some point, I remember I had a vision of working at the UN. And I achieved that. I went and worked at the UN. You know, when I got to a point where I felt I have done my best in the organization, I was managing the program in Kenya. I wanted to go into the region, into work within Africa. Because now I felt I'm bigger now than working in a country program. And I went and worked in the region. I worked for East and South Africa. And reason last year is when I transitioned now into the global position. So you have a vision. And now I have a vision of becoming my boss. So I'm not fighting her. But it's just a vision I have when the opportunity arises. You know, I will be well equipped to take it out to take it up. So I have a vision of my career and I also have a vision when I would want to retire. I want to return, pursue serving God and other things that are of interest to me. Okay. So it's good to have to know the end from the beginning. Exactly. No destination. And how important is, you know, putting down your vision? It's very important. Let me speak to young people because this is where it becomes a bit challenging. And it's never emphasized as such. Let me start with the ones who are in school, who are in university or college. I will encourage you to have a vision of your career. So you know very well, maybe if you're in first year, second year, third year, you know very well when you are potentially going to graduate. And let's say it's by end of the year or by end of next year or something, you already know. So the first thing, the first vision should be I'm going to commit myself to graduate and not just graduate, graduate with the first class owners.  So you have to understand that. And so you have to prioritize education. As you go to school, you know, you have to know this is the main thing now. This is my season. This is my time. This is my opportunity. And you don't joke with education. You actually just take it as seriously as it should. And then after that, you tell yourself, as I'm also studying another part of the vision, I'm in college or campus, I won by the time I graduate, I want to have accumulated at two years of experience. So you start looking for job opportunities. If you can work part time, if you can do internship, if you can volunteer, volunteer is also important because it also, it just shows your character. It also shows, you know, someone who is a getter, you know, a go getter, someone who takes initiative. And then so those are two visions graduate, at least have some level of experience, level of experience and knowledge and exposure of the job market. And then you say, the first year of my graduation after I've graduated, I want to have already worked for a certain organization. By now, you should, as you encompass, you should already have an idea of where you want to work, which organization you want to work to.  So you have to ask God and say, I want to work for this organization. And so it helps you start connecting and building networks. That is very important.  So by the time you get out of school, you already know someone who works at KBC, if you have interest in broadcasting, you know, someone who works, you know, in a marketing firm, if you have interest in marketing, and, you know, you can start tapping, you don't have to go very fast, start tapping within your networks.  And, and so that is why you break that in terms of vision. If you're already working, for instance, like I said, have a vision, where do you see yourself in the next five years? Where do you see yourself? I, I know someone, a previous colleague who worked in the same position with the same salary more or less, or the same for 27 years. Wow. Because of comfort zone. Your stagnant, yes. Yeah, comfort zone. And at some point when us young people came into the organization, got into professional levels who were being promoted every time, there's a lot of resentment and hatred and jealousy from her side, because she thought she deserves the promotion because she's been there for long. But the organization does not look how loyal you are, you know, so to speak, they look at the value that you bring in the organization. Yeah. All right. And you've introduced the aspect of networking. So people, maybe you can debunk the myth that networking is, you know, a form of corruption or something. You've experienced well that you can network with your friends, your family, your neighbor. So, yeah, debunk that myth that networking is corruption. This is one of those topics I enjoy talking about. Networking is key for every person. And it's not just about when you're looking for a job or anything, but even when you're setting up a business. What is networking? Networking is just connecting with the right people and the right opportunities for your success.  You go for people because one of the things I need to really, you know, emphasize about networking is that networking is a given take. Networking is a win win. So as I'm looking for a job, I am depending on you for support, but there's also some value I'm adding in the relationship. Because if you miss that, then it becomes an abusive relationship where it's only one party that is feeding on the other. And so when you're networking with people, you also show what value you bring on the table. And it's the same concept I always say when you're looking for a job or when you go for a job interview. When you go for a job interview, of course you need a job for your livelihood and for your other dreams and everything that you want. But at the same time, what the interviewers are interested to know is what value are you bringing in the organization? And so that is the same concept when you use for networking. And I shudder sometimes seeing how people are sitting on a gold mine called networks. And they have never known how to utilize it. I will ask you a simple question. If any of our viewers who are watching right now, everyone I'm assuming they have a phone and that phone there's something called a phone book. You have addresses. There are people there. If you could just strategically look at those contacts as a potential network, it will do magic to your business, to your career. Sometimes you don't have to call people and ask, I need a job. Sometimes we just check on people because also networking is basically is the establishment and the maintenance of relationships. So you establish, but you also maintain so that by the when the day I will need help, we already have a rapport. We already have a relationship. You and I know very well, you know, of all those friends you last pop when you're in high school. And then all of a sudden they have put you in their wedding committee.   Yes, you know, and that is the same thing when people feel when there is no maintenance of a network. But over and above, networking is very important. I'll just give you an example very quickly. It's a biblical one. So when Jesus comes on the scene, the first thing he does before he puts his before he starts, you know, preaching the gospel, he puts together a network of 12 people. And these are the people that helped him to achieve his mission on the earth. And it's the same thing we should be investing in ourselves, always making sure you have a network and always make sure you have someone. It is ridiculous for me if you're trying to get into the job market and you don't have any new networks or you're not talking to anyone in the job market because how do you know what is going on? How do you know your expectation? Most of the questions are usually here is how what salary should I quote in a job interview? Networks help you because if for instance, if you're trying to get into the world of communication because I've been there for 16 years, I can tell you if you're an entry, there is a certain salary should ask, never ask more than this because that is best on your value and your knowledge and your experience at the level you are. And so I'm able to help even as you go to for interviews.  All right. So that's about networking. Thank you for that. And we also want to know how do you build the right networks? How do you identify the right networks? Good. So I classify networks on different levels. But over and above.  If I'm already working, they are potential networks that I want. But ones are your question very simple. How do I build a network? Number one is make sure that you have a you have a goal. So a goal of a vision in terms of remember the vision we had of I have to have a job at this time.  That is my career. I want to be a marketer. And so who within my network is a marketer or who knows a marketer? And then you start. So as you interact with people, these are questions you ask your relatives, you know, the kind of people I just mentioned, you know, people at church and all that. And then you start getting people's addresses, contacts, and you informally or formally start getting in touch with them. You can do them an email and attach your CV. They say, you know, Hi, Stephanie. My name is Douglas. I am a student or I've just recently graduated. I am reaching out to for you if you ever come across any opportunity in marketing. So that is a very wonderful way of networking.  And they will hand it over to people and say, you know, if you ever get any opportunity in communication, kindly get in touch with me. So that is what that for me, that is one of the very basic but very effective way of networking. Another one is social media. I should not forget this. Social media is such a resource in terms of networking. They someone I come across on Twitter who had put a link of his CV on Twitter and he had done. He had pinned that tweet and I really loved it. And people are so excited and they help him. And I followed the story because I I know eventually he got a job. And so that is also one way of networking. Make sure you if you want to go into your profession, make sure you have a wonderful LinkedIn account for instance. You keep on updating it because that is also how you get because LinkedIn is a group of professionals. It's a world where it is a wonderful effective, you know, an effective vehicle for networking. How do you use your social media? If I go to your social media, what what is it that I get? What are what are the vibes of your social media? OK, do I scan through your social media and the first impression I get of you is just a party animal and yet you want to go into professional professional you know, a professional course. You know, what are the vibes? What do you talk about? How do you package yourself? What is your brand on social media? For instance, you know, because that is one of the best way of networking. And what a lot of people do not know is that most of these organizations by the time they use social media as also part of deciding who when they're shortlisting people to come for the interview. And actually, most of them visit your social media. So they want to see what kind of a person you are. OK. Yeah. And so a lot of us actually disqualify ourselves from job positions and job opportunities because just by virtue of how we use our social media platforms. Wow. OK. So it is very important to brand yourself well on social media if you want to attract the right opportunities. As you come to a close of this interesting conversation, let me quote you and some of the statements that I've had you make in your forums.  And if you're waiting on the Lord, do what we just do. Wait. So what? What do they mean in relation to this? Yeah. Your value essentially goes up best on the problems you solve. And it's good you've mentioned this because I think this will be a really good, you know, conversation, particularly for people who are listening and they're looking for jobs or they are they want to improve their career. You have always to look yourself as a problem solver. And you always have to look for a potential job position as a problem. And the recruiters or the organization is looking for someone to solve the problem. And so you package yourself as a problem solver. When it comes right down to it, what organizations are looking for in terms of employing people is who can solve a problem better. OK. And so when you go for a job interview, for instance, that is essentially what they're looking for. Are you able to solve the problem we have? We have a problem with communication in organizations. So we are looking for communication manager and they go ahead and do for you a job description. They say we are looking for someone who can develop and implement a corporate communication strategy. That someone should be a Kenyan citizen. That someone should have a basic computer knowledge. That someone. So they're already telling you the kind of person they are looking for to solve the problem. So your work is to go and prove to them that the person you're looking for. It is me. It's me. OK. The other aspect of it I don't to forget to mention as you're also looking for a job, nothing stops you from being a job seeker. I mean a job creator.  A job creator basically is you start using the gift and the talents and the knowledge and the networks you have to start making money. I have a novel here which which I brought for you. I published this novel when I was almost graduating in third year. And during my free time, I'll write the novel. This is my second novel. The first one is called Confessions of a Foreign Student. And this novel I am earning money as I'm working because I'm selling it. And so I used my passion for writing to put into a novel and I sell it and I make money out of it. So I want to encourage young people also look for something you can do. Look at your passion. If you're good in writing stories, if you're good in writing poetry, packet that if you're good in making bandazis, if you're good in software development, you don't have to look wait to be employed to start using your skills. OK, so start with what you have. Yes. OK. Thank you for the novel. Can I get the novel? Can I get it? Thank you. I do have my novel right here called The Devil's Favourite Demon. I will definitely have a read, you know, and I'm sure I'll enjoy it. So thank you very much for coming on board Douglas. Maybe you can give us your final remarks as you tell us where people can find you. If the guys who want to join the mentorship program, how will they get in? I can be found on social media. You just go to Facebook Douglas, you'll find me on Twitter at Douglas, I'm also linked in Douglas, and my contacts are there. We also have a website for the mentorship program, LEM, that is L-E-M-P.C-O.K-E. L-E-M-P.C-O.K-E. You'll find all the information about the mentorship program, when to enroll and what we do. OK, thank you very much. Douglas really appreciate the insights that you've given us on this particular topic, career development. We're looking forward to have you again in the show. Thank you for having me. All right, so we have come to the end of the first conversation, but we'll be right back with the next conversation on youth and politics. We have Ram Agoko for that. We continue with the conversation at Y254. The hashtag to use is Y in the morning. We take a short break, we'll be right back.


So Mauro when people approach you and ask I want to become a better service designer Maybe a better designer in general. What do you tell them? well Be curious Observe the world Learn and then act act fast is the idea of acting seems obvious the reality is where many people fade They dream and they don't make things happen Be curious observe learn and dance and especially the last thing Yes, the action is so so crazy important Was this a helpful tip? Let me know by clicking that like button down below and if you're ready to take your service design skills to the next level Go to learn that service design show dot com while you'll find courses by leading service design experts Deeper into the topics we talk about on the show and if this is your first time here I would love to have you to subscribe to the channel so we can keep bringing you more great content like this


Hey guys, how's it going? My name is Jonathan. Today, I'm gonna be talking to you about why your Facebook ads aren't working and the steps You can take to solve these issues All right, so I'm just gonna be talking about Facebook ads and why people think they don't work, right? That's really funny to me because Facebook is an advertising platform They literally made the platform so that people can come on the platform to spend money and they can earn Revenue from it. So the fact that their advertising platform is not working is absolutely It's absolutely false. It's an advertising platform that works and you just need to know how to market more effectively Especially when the Facebook advertising costs are going up So people think you can just Spend a bunch of money and then you put it into Facebook ads, right? You run some PPE at some engagement ads or maybe some conversion ads and traffic ads and like immediately you get results From your Facebook ads, but that's absolutely not true, right? You need to be strategic in your ad spend, right? There's no such thing as an unlimited marketing budget. So what you have to be like really really Focus on is number one. You need to have a good ad So you need to have an enticing offer good ad copy as well as a good video or a good photo preferably a good video Something that's engaging, right? So that's number one That's just the basic most prerequisite thing. The second thing would be have been very strategic in your ad spend So you before even starting your ad spend So you just need to have a strategy in place So what I mean by strategy would be for example, I have this 30-day period, right? If I am able to spend $500 or $1,000 I need to know how much money is going where and how am I going to execute my plan, right? So for example, if I was starting out just a new store or if I was starting literally a new Retail selling e-com or a service or starting a new brand literally selling anything new in the product after Installing your pixel your pixel has zero data, right? So you really need to keep that in mind and you really need to Understand that you really need to buy essentially buy data from Facebook first and then you can do the magic Right the money comes afterwards. So there's often an investment time that people Think that Facebook ads aren't working because it's not getting them the results But in the matter of fact is you're just driving cold traffic in the first place So you can't expect results from cold traffic, obviously because the people don't know you they don't trust you They look at your brand. They see your products. I mean it could be cool It could be engaging they click on it, but they may not buy it at that point in time, right? So digital marketing is so powerful because you can constantly nudge and nudge and nudge people right as opposed to Retail advertising where you just for example, putting out a poster putting out a newspaper Putting out something like in a cinema and someone sees it. There's no way to measure it There's no way to get back the customer and get back the attention that you need to advertise to them again So people need to understand like the power of digital Marketing is not not only if it's from it's reach, right? You need to understand that you're able to retarget these customers over and over again because this data has been already being collected You have already personally bought it with your own money in a sense, right? So the you need to understand that acquiring more customers is not the way to go. You need to retarget your audiences Right. So for example, if I had one month, right? The first month the absolute first month of starting the business like what would I do? Right. So I will immediately get my best ad copy get my best videos get my best photos and Take around two to three variations of that, right? So I'll take for some of one photo I'll take one video and I'll take another video for some more. It could be I'm very very similar, but it has to be a different in some way. So I'll split test that so I'll split test These three things I'll split as these two things and then I will run a basically a PPE app or video video views and this is very very important because Getting the video views Retargeting feature is much more. It's much cheaper than getting a PPE retarget because to actually Entice someone to come on your your posts and to comment it and to like it or to share it, right? It's it's it's harder than for someone to just to scroll through the Facebook feed for example And just watch 25 50% of their video So I feel that you can literally just spend all you had spent in the first month, right? Just on video views So you're just spending spending collecting as much data as possible and then as you transition I guess to when you get a significant amount of data, right? I'm not sure how where's your location? What type of our business you're running But generally after you get a quite a sizable amount, right? Maybe 30,000 or 50,000 Video views from the 25% of 57 50% mark then afterwards then you go and retarget it retarget these people And because you have purchased this data, right? What you're doing here, right? So after the first month, you've already gotten 30 to 50,000 people to see in your video So you've got this running in the background Concurrently you start retargeting these people with another ad another offer So you you you offer like a discount on your existing product or you perhaps offer it upsell something else In addition to the to the to the starting product that you wanted to sell in the first place So in that you're already enticing people to hear here I have a product that I'm very very proud of and I want you to buy but I understand you're not buying Right. So then I just hit you with an air with another retargeting ad a very something smart to do Right. It's so for example for the first ad you may not sell, right? You just show the product don't Try to be aggressive on the ad copy and then on the second ad on the real retargeting ad Then you start you start being aggressive. Then you're offering your discounts or your promotions, etc, etc Okay So what I need you to understand or if you an advertiser right now If you are whatever dropshipping if you use one more customers for your business Don't expect your ad spend to just generate instant results, right? People keep showing the results of the Facebook ads and that's because they have to be strategic Right, you can't just pull up like $300 on your your Facebook ads and expect it expected to work You need to be strategic and there are things and optimizations that you need to go through Before you can really see the results that you want to see Okay, so a lot of people are putting and wasting a lot of money and also Leaving a lot of money on the table at the same time because they are not already reusing the data that they have from what? They have already bought from I hope you gain some value from watching this video and Implement these strategies in your business as well to grow to really grow your business If you like this type of content, I'll be producing much more of it on this channel So subscribe down below. I hope you've enjoyed this video and I'll see you in the next one


Switching gears back to H171, we are focused this afternoon, I think on some level on that part of the bill that relates to scholarships and training and education. And so we have Sonia Raymond and Johnny Flood, who are going to talk to us. And I want to ask both of you, should we stop and do you want us to stop you in the middle while you are speaking, or would you like us, would you for us to wait till after both of you speak or if you'd like after Sonia you speak and then Johnny you speak. What's your preference? Usually after I speak and after he speaks, I mean after each speaks if you have questions to ask of that person that makes sense I think that works for you Johnny. It helps us to know whether we can interrupt you or whether we should hold our questions because usually oftentimes if we hold our questions they get answered. Okay, thank you. Thank you again Sonia for coming this afternoon. You're very welcome. I'll be speaking first. And committee if you're following it, it's section 9 and 10 of the bill, sorry. That's okay. Thank you for inviting me to testify this afternoon, my name is Sonia Raymond, I'm the Executive Director for the Vermont Association for the Education of Young Children. So quality early childhood education has always been essential to our economy, but in these very stressful times that we've all been facing, access to early childhood education has actually become imperative, providing the stability for families that they serve, ensuring healthy growth and development of our children. And when the pandemic hit, many people began to work from home as you know, but there was a portion of our population, our essential workers for whom that wasn't possible. And it was the early childhood education programs that stepped up and reopened their businesses to serve these families. And it was all of you in the Vermont legislature that actually led the nation in supporting these programs until the state reopened, as no other state did. It has never been more clear that an investment in early education is not just the key to Vermont's economic health, but provides the very foundation for young children to develop into well-rounded happy productive members of our society. Even before the pandemic, the very existence of early education was in jeopardy and that hasn't changed. Families cannot afford early education with some paying as much as 30% of their household income, even with state assistance. And early educators can't make a living with a medium average wage at $13.72 per hour, often without access to health insurance. Program capacities continue to decrease and challenges with hiring and retaining early educators have reached a crisis point. Without specific and targeted investments being fully realized, we will continue this decline. The quality of early and early education program begins and ends with qualified early education program staff and leadership, unless we assure that there are affordable entry points into the profession and resources for those currently in the workforce and proper compensation for the important work early educators do. We will not stop the exodus of early educators out of the field and we will never attract new early educators to the field. Addressing affordability for families must be a top priority as well. We cannot hope to have a strong economy if families cannot go to work, yet this is a reality that our state is facing. Most families now face a difficult choice. Do I want to support my family when the majority of my paycheck is paying for early education or will I stay home and begin accessing other social supports for my family? H171 calls for several key actions and investments that are the first steps necessary to addressing affordability and accessibility to quality early education for working families. Changes to our child care financial assistance program over time that move us from reimbursements to programs being based in the market rate to the true cost of care to a structure where families pay no more than 10% of their household income is imperative. These changes when fully implemented will mean that the 70% of working families will be able that are accessing early care and education will be able to afford the desperately needed services and programs. And it will also allow programs to compensate early educators with wages that are commensurate with peers in other fields. This is addressing quality is really a three-prong approach to providing the supports and resources to build a pipeline into early education and to retaining those currently in the workforce. All three prongs are crucial to building the much needed capacity in early education programs. The first that you see in H171 is the funding for scholarships for the current workforce to create a true pathway for those who have little to no education all the way through those who are working to attain their teacher license. While we have scholarships that support early educators in attaining their apprenticeship certificate associate's degree and teacher licensure endorsement, we need additional funding to sustain the current 95 recipients. And additionally, we're missing the crucial step of having a scholarship that supports those that need to move from an associate's to a bachelor's. There are currently 40 early educators on our wait list for this scholarship. We are seeking funding to support 25 BA scholarships this year and the governor's budget allocates 150 for this purpose, but we need an additional 300 to support our current 95 and additional 25 BA. Creating a loan repayment is the second prong for those newer early educators working in private community programs with a degree. This is an important vehicle to retaining those quality early educators. It is this population that cannot afford their basic living expenses, car, rent, food and their monthly student loan and unfortunately are often choosing to leave the programs that they work in to find a position that pays them a livable wage. The loan repayment program outlined in H171 would allow these early educators to remain in community based programs. So the third is the scholarship funds that will be available for our higher education institutions to assist students who wish to attain early education degree and are attending minimally part time. This option makes it affordable for students at our state colleges and universities to obtain early childhood or early childhood special ed degrees to build that pipeline of our future early educators. For in a crucial moment in time, we know that early education is essential to our economy and the health, the growth and development of our young children. We have seen the fragility of this industry, especially over the last year. If we do not address affordability, accessibility and the quality we will and target and make intentional investments in the early education system now, we will lose this industry as we've watched happen in many other states. That would truly be a cost that we can't afford. Are there any questions? Sonia, thank you. You have really sort of set the stage very thoughtfully. A question that I have given your history in this. Is there any data that you are collecting as it relates to how many of your of the graduates or how many of the recipients of scholarships actually go into early care and education? And how long do they and how long do they stay? So, yes, we do have data. So at first, it's important to understand that the current scholarships that we have available in this state right now are targeted specifically to the current workforce, meaning those that are working minimally 30 hours a week in an early childhood program. We don't have long repayment and we don't have scholarships for colleges to give to students that come in, say out of high school or off of another career path and into early education. Those don't exist. So the data we have is specifically for the scholarships that we give out for those in the incumbent workforce. And part of that scholarship program actually is a commitment to remaining minimally in the program they are working in for an additional year after their scholarship completes. Not only do we keep, you know, do folks hold to that commitment, but we then keep data. And I haven't looked at it this year, meaning since fall because we just entered into a new semester. But as of the last semester ending in the data, we have 82 percent of our previous scholars that have remained in the field since this program began in 2015. Thank you. That's that's good information. Any committee, do you have any other questions? OK. Johnny. Hi, everybody. Thank you for inviting me here today. So my name is Johnny Flood. I wear a lot of different hats in this field. So I just want to introduce myself a little bit and tell you what hats I'll be wearing today as I speak to you. So I am an educator. I've worked with middle. I've been a middle school teacher, high school teacher. I've worked with incarcerated youths. I was a classroom preschool teacher for years. I currently work at Vermont Humanities as their literacy programs manager so that part of my responsibilities are overseeing our professional development opportunities for early educators. And I'm also on the board of directors at a local child care center. But today I'm really speaking as an educator and as a member of the Early Childhood Educators Coalition, which is a worker led statewide advocacy group that formed out of the frustration around the reopening plan of last spring. And I think I'd actually like to start there. On May 22 of last year, Ted Brady, our deputy secretary of commerce and community development, he told the Senate Health and Wellness Committee that child care was one of the biggest obstacles reopening the economy on par only with the lack of available testing and PPE. He told the committee that employers were telling him that child care was in fact the single biggest obstacle to getting employees back to work. So for me, another way to say this is that child care providers are one of our most essential professions. They're vital to the proper functioning of Vermont's economy. And yet these essential indispensable workers who we have all leaned on not just since June of last year, but for years and years before that, their wages and working conditions do not nearly reflect the magnitude and the value of their role. Sonya mentioned this, but according to the Building Bright Futures Early Childhood Systems needs assessment, the median wage for a preschool teacher in the state is 1457 an hour. And for other child care workers, it's only 1271. We can compare that to the kindergarten teachers who we send our four and five year olds to at the end of every summer who make thirty one sixty nine an hour, a wage that does in fact reflect their skills and the value of their role in our communities. And while we still ask to raise all minimum wages to at least fifteen dollars an hour, it's important to know in Vermont that according to a report from the National Low Income Housing Coalition, our state's housing wage, the hourly wage our neighbors must earn to afford a two bedroom home at Fair Market Rent is twenty two seventy eight an hour. And in Burlington, it's almost thirty an hour. So the majority of early educators are really condemned living paycheck to paycheck, struggling to afford housing, food and health care. And I think it's also worth mentioning that this is a field primarily staffed by women whose skills, dedication and labor go largely unnoticed and underappreciated. They are in subpar wages and they're largely subsidizing child care costs themselves. This is true of home providers in our coalition who will go without paying themselves for a week or two when they know some of their families are unable to come up with the cost of tuition. And this is true on the other side of mothers who have had to pull themselves out of the workforce to watch their children. In my preschool classroom pre pandemic, I had eighteen three to five year olds in my care every day, which meant constant care, attention, clarity, precision, planning and a lot of reaction. Eighteen kiddos is a lot of noses to be wiped, wet pants to be changed. And more often than you'd expect things like fights to stop and crying children to comfort. And that's all without mentioning the activities to set up, curricula to design and direct classroom instruction to put into practice. In the meantime, in my classroom, I had to meet the Act one sixty six requirements of documentation and assessment, which meant recording at least three pieces of evidence for seventy three different benchmarks for all twenty five of my kiddos. That's that's almost fifty five hundred pieces of evidence to record, write up and grade for each grading period. I had no time to meet with my co teacher for planning. I had very little time to meet with parents. And after working eight thirty to five thirty with that kind of energy output and focus getting home, the thought of attending night classes just to eventually reach what's considered a livable or fair housing wage, frankly, was demoralizing, is depressing and it was devaluing. And honestly, it still feels easier for me to come tell all of you that the people doing this work just need more money. And all that was before the pandemic. Once the pandemic hit, this essential, vital, dedicated, stretched thin workforce was asked to return to in person instruction without hazard pay or state provided PPE in order to save and prop up Vermont's economy for all of us. I should note here that our organization, the EC EC, partnered with Sonya and last summer and they see or the Vermont Association for the Education to Young Children last summer, we partnered to run a health care survey of child child care providers in Vermont. And unfortunately, the results matched what we had known and said to each other for a long time. Results from this survey showed that over eleven percent of child care workers in Vermont are uninsured completely and over 50 percent are underinsured. And for those who do have some type of insurance, the majority were insured through a spouse or a family member, which is never a sustainable or adequate solution. We know people can feel trapped in a job by the health care it provides, but people can also feel trapped in households or relationships for the same reason. And when our coalition asked Dr. Levine if he would advise someone to our job without health insurance, he immediately said no. But again, compared to statewide and national statistics, child care workers in Vermont are both uninsured and underinsured at a much higher rate than the general population. Only three percent of Vermonters as a whole are uninsured compared to 11 percent of child care workers and 36 percent under the age of 65 in Vermont are underinsured compared to over 50. I personally used to take extra unpaid time off from my classroom teaching in order to keep my income under the threshold to qualify for Medicaid because I did not have the extra income to pay for my own insurance. And I had to be very careful about what that looked like. And it should be noted that with all this going on, many child care workers are working side gigs for money, you know, under the table in order to supplement their insufficient income and they aren't reporting it for the same reasons. So I was paying 50 percent of my income on housing in what could generously be described as an efficient one bedroom apartment, and that's not counting utilities, car payments, grocery, student loads and any unexpected expenses. I would also take freelance transcription jobs at night to supplement my income. And with my education and experience in the field, I was actually making more money than many of my colleagues. So so when we were forced back to work without adequate protections, I knew I had to have a conversation with my family. Because of the conditions I was going to be working in. And many of you here actually know my family, my father, Patrick Flood. He's going to be 70 this year. He's pretty solidly in the at risk category.  And knowing that in my work as a preschool teacher, I was going to be in very close contact with those small children and their noses and wet pants and tears and all the secretions that come with that trade. My family told me they would not be comfortable seeing me in person for the duration of the pandemic. So like Sonia said, I left the profession and I now work for Vermont Humanities. And it's a good job with a wonderful organization that does a lot of good in our state. It is not, however, essential to Vermont's economy. I don't think anyone at the agency of commerce and community development would force my current colleagues and I back to in person working conditions to preserve the stability of our economy. And yet now as a non essential worker, I now make nearly twice as much money as I did as a preschool teacher. I have very good health insurance and I can work from the safety of my own home. I can see my parents, my siblings, my niece. While my former colleagues in child care, however, are still working under the same looming viral threat, the same uninsured numbers and the same wages as before. And should be said, like our colleagues in elementary and secondary ed, they're not in line to be vaccinated as a group. And, you know, do these people not deserve a living wage, deserve access to adequate housing, health care? Should our essential and dedicated and skilled professionals in this field be tasked with propping up our state's economy for all of us with, you know, essentially nothing more than a well intention to thank you. So today I'm here to ask the committee, I'm here to ask all of you to look directly at the issue actually before on page eight of this bill, where it stated that early childhood educator compensation will be commensurate with peers in other fields. And I would say their peers are educators. Their peers are the kindergarten teachers who make 31 an hour. Childcare providers are vitally important educators who provide stimulating and nurturing environments for their students at perhaps their most critical developmental stage and they deserve to be compensated for their valuable labor and skills. So we, the Early Childhood Educators Coalition, we really encourage the committee to be specific in your calls for adequate compensation and that entry level wage for child care providers be raised to 25 an hour and that all child care providers receive comprehensive health care. Student loan repayment and scholarship opportunities while a valuable part of a good compensation package, those alone are not nearly sufficient to meet the need. You know, child care is a collective good for state officials, for businesses, for employers, for parents, for grandparents, for teachers, for children, for all of us. We need a child care system that represents our values and we need creative, courageous leadership to get us there. And we can get there. The ECEC, we've been talking with similar coalitions around the country and Multnomah County in Oregon, which has a population of around 800,000. It's only a bit bigger than our state. They just successfully passed an ordinance that all four and five year olds in the county would receive full day, five days a week, child care using their existing mix of public, private and home based care. They did this while also dramatically raising wages for all child care providers to be equivalent to kindergarten teachers and all just by taxing the top 12 percent of earners in the county and no one below that threshold. So we can do this and we owe it to our essential workers now more than ever. Thank you. I think you're still muted. Thank you. You think after a year, I would learn how to do this. Representative Redmond. Thank you, Madam Chair. I'm just wondering if we can send the witness to Washington to advocate on a federal level, because you are amazingly you laid it out so beautifully. So thank you. I'd be happy to go, although I guess these days I wouldn't have to go to Washington. I just stay here, get a different zoom link. Johnny, so what let me if you were to how would you want? How would you suggest to us that we modify the bill? I think, as I said, being specific about what a commensurate compensation package means as it as it stands, it's carefully worded and I understand that, but I think looking carefully at what wages should be deserved to be for these folks need to be and also providing health care. So we're recommending 25 an hour. That's below the median wage for kindergarten teachers. And it is above fair market rent wages in our state. And that childcare workers have access to comprehensive health care. Thank you. That's helpful. We're getting to the point where we have to do word smithing and agreeing and that kind of thing. So that's helpful. Are there any additional questions? Representative Brumsted. Thank you. Thank you very much, Johnny. I am. Wow, that was amazing. And all that is going on in the system, we all sort of hear little pieces in our own communities, but to have it put all together in one presentation, really very moving. I'm curious, I mean, we want to do this. We we've all been working on this for a lot of years. And but one of the things that's a struggle and is hard is that part of the system is private and some of its public and it's all sort of if it was all public and everybody was a state employee, they would get the state employees benefits and that would be, you know, sure, it would cost more, but it would be succinct and a little bit easier to put your head, you know, sort of wrap your mind around it. I'm just curious, you've worked, it sounds like in private centers. And have you thought about that at all? I'm not really sure what my question is, but I wanted to just put out there so you understand sort of what we're struggling with a little bit here. Yeah, I'll say that as a coalition, we're talking about that, but we don't have any hard and fast agreements. But I will I'll say that, you know, there are a lot of home based providers who if we continue, continue, continue to professionalize and raise what it takes to be a childcare provider in the state educationally, those people are going to get locked out of the system and that's going to reduce access dramatically and immediately. And these folks are just as essential. Their labor has just as much dignity as folks with the bachelors or more. So, you know, I like that we were speaking with those organizers in Portland and in Oregon, who who who got that ballot measure passed because they have a similar mix, you know, they had they it's it's there's a lot of ways to provide childcare and they they they were able to incorporate all of those and still increase access, make it of maybe make it completely affordable for families and raise wages. So their system doesn't necessarily need to bring it all under the umbrella of the AOE, for example. Thank you. Thank you, Sonia. I just wanted to speak to your question, Representative Bromstead. So the concept of compensation and you know, paying a livable wage and having the benefits that are they are due. Really, what that entails having access to those benefits, specifically in compensation, mean that programs, including home-based programs, are able to actually charge the cost of care. Right now, as Johnny pointed out, it is on the backs of every one of the early educators in this industry. I mean, that's it. That's that's the simple plain truth of it. And, you know, parents cannot be paying any more than they're paying. They you're basically, as I pointed out, people are up against a wall. These families, they can't pay what what it costs. They continue to the cost continue to go up every year. And that's with us paying $13.72 on average per. So we need to figure out how we fund the cost and, you know, the Blue Ribbon Commission did their work. The think tank did their work. The figures are out there. We know what the cost is. This bill asks for us to really take a fresh look at that and decide how to move forward to create a fund to look at those private public philanthropic mixtures and figure it out. It's going to take a significant investment. There is no question. There's no getting around the millions of dollars this costs. I think the cost to not doing it is going to become far greater to this economy if we don't. If programs were able to charge what they needed to, they would be offering benefits. Look at the YMCA, for instance, right? Look at some of these larger programs or affiliations. They're offering them, right? Some private programs are offering them. That's because they're able to charge what is necessary to actually have a group plan. That would be one way you could assure it. You could start a state plan, which can be accessed, if you wish. By our early educators. That would be another way. But the bottom line is it's an investment in the cost. Just as it is with compensation. Thank you, Sonia. We have a question from Representative Whitman. Thank you, Madam Chair. And thank you so much, Sonia and Johnny, for your great testimony. I wanted to talk more about the cost of care and especially, like you mentioned, that we've found out ways to calculate that. I saw that a couple of days ago, we got the fair market survey released and it included a piece for the difference between what that market rate is and what that cost of care is. And we see that we're not keeping up. My question is adding the component of increasing wages, say to 25 an hour entry. Would that be is that included in some of the studies that you mentioned as well, Sonia, as far as not only what the difference in funding would be to start compensating providers at cost of care, but also that increased wage. And the reason that I ask that is because in the short term. From some of our questions, conversations with Commissioner Brown, there's thoughts of what belongs in the study component of this bill. And there's it kind of comes down to what do we address now and what do we address in January 2023? So I'm interested in kind of what we know right now as far as switching the cost of care. Yes, that was a consideration in these studies. I would say that as we're asking that, you know, what be looked at when you're doing this study is pay, as was pointed out, that's commensurate to others in a similar field or with similar credentials and similar work that they are doing when you take a look at that. You know, you're going to see the clear differences that exist. And I would also say that, you know, this state has undergone the exploration of becoming a profession, early education becoming a recognized profession. I guess it's the way to put it and in that, you know, we are there are several current studies going on. One, which CDD is currently doing on wage and fringe and benefits in the field in Vermont. And I would use that study that will be complete this spring. You know, and the work that's going on within the efforts around advancing as a profession really are taking a look at, you know, what are the skills and experience that folks hold and what is an appropriate compensation? In fact, the whole premise is do not require anything more without compensation, right? Like so we are where we are and you cannot require anything more without fair compensation because the reality is that doesn't exist. But we actually do have the resources we need to really dig into this and look and make some clear path forward. There are the studies that have been done and the current ones that are being done to reference. Madam Chair, you're muted. Thank you.  Do you have another question? No, thank you. Thank you all for the questions. Are there any last questions that folks have for Sonia or Johnny? Or Sonia or Johnny, do you have anything you want to leave us with? I would just say go bold. I know it's a tough time, but honestly, we won't make a dent. And I am just deathly afraid that we are headed down a path we can't come back from. I've watched it sliding over the last five to 10 years significantly. And it really concerns me, especially as the industry is such an important piece of our economy at this point. We just have to find a way and get creative and make incremental steps. I'll second that. Go bold. It's desperately needed. There's tremendous need on all sides of the issue. Representative Wood has a question and I'm going to have to change computers. I just got up. So I'll be back, but Representative Wood will take over. Thank you, Madam Chair. Sonia, you were just making me think when I don't know why it just popped into my head. Do you have any data with regard to the BIPOC population in terms of their access to your your tuition assistance and education programs? Yes, we actually I have to let you know that the most of the scholarships that we are giving out are through the teach program. And that program is very specifically targeted toward diversity and equity within the system. That is actually a requirement that we keep data on all of that. And it is a requirement that that be a focus and target for us within that program. Not, you know, not just for the BIPOC population, but to, you know, financial equity to other socioeconomic pieces, to regional, to programmatic and settings. So there are several equity lens which we look through and keep that on. Thank you. You may also have any final questions and Johnny, just thank you and my best to your dad. I worked with him. So that was the first question I had. I have to say that did pop into my head. When I when I saw your name on our agenda. So thank you both for being here. Any any final questions? OK, great. Thank you very much. And we are now going to. I think that what Madam Chair has asked us to do is to one, you will see that the final version of the budget memo has been populated and sent to you. And I think is up on our website. The other thing that we're going to do this afternoon is to sorry about that little bleep is to now start, I guess, some discussion really. We have more witnesses coming next week on this bill. And as we talked about previously, our goal is to have a bill out of our committee by the end of next week, a week from today. Seems rather daunting when we think about it right at this particular moment. But we haven't really had any discussion as a as a full committee about the various sort of about the overarching thing that then about each individual component and section within the bill. And is that what you were planning for now, Madam Chair? Well, now that I'm back on I was actually going to give people like a five minute stand up and turn around and look at their email where Katie has sent us. But another draft, which hopefully does that so that we can take a look at that and thumbs up with them, you know. Yes, I mentioned that. Yes. Oh, OK. It took me a long time to get on. All right, why don't we take a it's two o'clock by my clock?


Hi everybody So I just tweeted a few minutes ago the slides to this if you want to follow along because the colors on your screen are probably going To be much better than on these because this is all about color So I'm here to talk to you about color specifically the fundamentals of color manipulation tense tones and shades Paul Rand one of the most influential graphic designers for me and probably for a lot of people set up design as relationships Grids and layout typography and of course color good use of color is nothing but establishing a series of relationships So building upon Beth's talk I'm gonna expand on a few foundations that I consider important for this topic for color mixing RGB The most wildly used form of color representation for screens as she said also known as the added of color model Uses red green and blue light to produce over 16 million colors on screen 16.7 as Beth said, I Didn't know that an RGB color wheel is composed of a triad of primary colors the obvious red green and blue In a secondary set that's made by combining these these primaries Cn magenta and yellow and another set in between and so on and so forth until you have a flow of color When we talk about hue we're referring to what most people think of as pure color If we flatten the RGB color wheel We can see the strip organized by hues from reds to magenta and and so forth And the degrees that that goes through like like that showed as well Saturation the other important key factor is the degree of purity of the color When the color is mixed in this case with white like you see the color becomes less saturated less vibrant and Finally value, which I think is the most relevant topic here because it literally Shows how color can create relationships is the lightness and darkness and all the steps in between a color I'm using white and black here, but it can be any color And so when we look at something like this similar to what you would find in an image editing software When selecting colors, we can see these elements come together You can select the hue on the right side from zero to three hundred and fifty nine degrees You can choose a saturation and a value or a lightness This is very similar like Beth said to HSL or HSV HSV stands for hue saturation value or hue saturation and lightness With these fundamental concepts cleared we now have a common language to talk about color manipulation So we're going to use those concepts as I move along This is where these relationships come into play you you see here the topics of the stock 10 stones and shades all come together Let's break it down. So tense a tense You tend to color when you add white to it to a hue or in RGB terms when you add light to a hue The more you add the lighter it gets the colors also Desaturate as they lose that original hue vibrancy So a red is in RGB the values go from zero to 255 So a red would be 255 zero zero if you bring the other two levels up at the same time The red will become lighter A tone is when you add a neutral gray to a color a neutral gray is basically 50 percent between white and black or RGB 128 128 128 You'll notice that the colors get muddy or desaturated more visibly here as we go down the the scale and Last but not least my favorite shade You shade a color when you add black to it or better yet you remove light in RGB So again a red would be 255 zero zero it will go darker if you go down with a red channel So a 128 zero zero be kind of a dark blood red So how do we bring this? How do we bring this all together? We're starting to understand the dynamics we can have here with value and saturation We can use these techniques to create some harmony About a year and a half ago by the 4.2 release cycle. I work on a few changes to WP admin that you see here and you can visit that URL Bringing in tension to the traditionally not the neutral sea of grays you have there If you go to that URL you'll see the announcement blog post about that a year and a half ago and my thoughts behind it and a little bit of explanation of The process that went into that so going through that process I started digging deeper into the WP admin CSS and found a hundred and seventy four individual color declarations in the CSF CSS to WP admin Thanks to Garth Mortensen who helped me compile this list that you see here in a kind of usable way I started organizing them by hue and value, but at some point as you can see like a deep frag of a hard drive back in the Day, I kind of lost patience and I just I just let them be This is still very much a work in progress It's it's kind of the big elephant in the room that that has been hard to take on and we call it the 50 shades of WordPress So I'm doing what I can slowly which I'm hoping tomorrow at contributors day You will come and join the design group and help with this kind of stuff But but I can share a little bit of the process here So we started with the WordPress blue, which is on the top right corner In this display and then we tinted and shaded it basically to create this gradient of colors Somewhere down in the bottom right there. We isolated This dark gray that the highlighted one here, which it looks almost purple there But this that became the the similar value to the the sidebar of WP admin But it has a certain intention because it's it it brings inspiration from the WordPress blue With that we tinted going down and we shaded going up to create a harmonic selection of colors What you see here on the block on the left for example the left column is the colors that are currently in WP admin So a total of all the girls you see here. Wow, they look really blue there They're not as blue The left columns are the current hues The the right columns are the proposals for for change and basically what's happening here is We're figuring out. Okay. This hex value has capitalization in one Declaration the others doesn't or we use black or ha or hex zero zero zero, which is the same thing So stuff like that. There's a hundred seventy four colors because there's all these variants that are basically the same thing But we are trying to match the value of these these different colors to Fewer number of actual shades So we went from 19 colors just on the screen to only nine if you squint your eyes You can see the line between the two disappear And that's how we know it's the right value and if you see the slides on your phone This is gonna make so much more sense You can see a lot of the colors that are already proposed in the design handbook Which is this URL and it's probably the best URL to find about this The 50 shades of gray project is just at the beginning. I'm going to need help with that So if you'd like to join tomorrow the core Design team table at the contributors day, that would be awesome. Thank you so much


On 20 September, almost three months after the North Korean communists launched their invasion, United Nations troops are in the first stages of their all-out drive toward North Korea. Five days previously, they went from the defensive to the offensive, when U.S. Marines made an amphibious landing 150 miles behind the enemy lines at Incheon.  Air Force, Navy and Marine planes give support to ground troops and cut off communist attempts to bring up reinforcements from the North and South. Exactly three months to the day after the city of Seoul fell to the communist invaders, U.M. forces recapture this South Korean capital. These are Marines and U.S. 7th Division troops dancing into Seoul under enemy fire. Street fighting rages throughout the city. The Reds have fortified many of the buildings and red tanks may appear around any corner. It had been hoped that Seoul might be recaptured with a minimum of destruction, but this is impossible as the Reds stage a house-to-house fight in a battle for Seoul. General MacArthur announces the city's recapture on 26 September. There is still fighting in the city, but the main communist garrison is now fleeing to the North. U.N. troops rest as they close another chapter of history. At the Ashiya Air Base in Japan during the battle for Seoul, the 187th Airborne Regiment arrives from the United States. Ammunition and other supplies are loaded on unit vehicles which will be flown to Korea. The paratroopers, 2400 strong board C-54 transports and C-119 flying boxcars for their flight to the combat zone. Kimpo airfield is the destination. The paratroopers are rushed to staging areas as fast as they unload. The same C-54s fly wounded back to Japan. In its first four days of operation, the Kimpo airlift evacuated 313 wounded to Japan. Cargo and passenger planes are coming into Kimpo at a rate of 1 every 10 minutes. Typical cargo is this disassembled 280 ton bridge. These pontoon boats are part of the bridge, which was shipped entirely by air. The airfield is inspected by Air Force leaders past and present. In the group are General George C. Kenney, commanding General Air University, Lieutenant General George C. Stratomire, commanding General U.S. Far East Air Forces, and General Carl Spotz, retired, former commander of the U.S. Air Force. In the background is a captured Yak fighter plane found in good condition. Now land-based at Kimpo are Marine carrier planes aiding in the tactical support of ground forces north of Seoul. This F-7F Tiger Cat night fighter proves especially valuable during this stage of the fighting north of Seoul. F-7Fs are equipped with radar and are very effective against convoys and troop concentrations at night and in bad weather. These Tiger Cats and force airs are being loaded with 5-inch rockets for a strike near Seoul. As UN troops liberate South Korean territory, they find more and more appalling evidence of mass atrocities committed by the Reds. On 6 October, it is estimated that 25,000 South Korean men, women and children, as well as United States soldiers taken prisoner, have been massacred by the retreating Reds. Bodies are found in many different areas, many having been killed by clubbing and burning, as well as by shooting. One of the largest mass graves is found at Tejong, where 6,000 atrocity victims are uncovered. When the fighting ends in Korea, these scenes will be evidence for a war crimes investigation. Seoul Typhoon hits the U.S. Sakai Army base in Japan. With rain and wind ranging up to 110 miles per hour, it is the worst storm to hit Japan in 16 years. Corrigated metal roofing flies through the air like paper. Most of the tiles, shingle and corrugated metal roofs are damaged. The concrete structures withstand the storm well, although windows are broken and there is water damage. There are no military casualties from the storm since most of the troops remain indoors in the stronger buildings, safe from the falling trees and power lines. Among the Japanese in the storm's path, 135 are killed, over 1,000 injured and over 200,000 made homeless. The heaviest military damage is suffered by wooden and tar paper buildings. These tropical storms are expected near the Sea of Japan at this time of the year. October 17 is a suspenseful day for the U.S. First Cavalrymen as they advance into the outskirts of Pyongyang, the capital city of North Korea. The city is known to be heavily fortified and it is expected that the Reds will make a death stand for their capital. It is reported that the Reds have 30,000 men defending Pyongyang. Another Red is added to the 75,000 captured so far. A vehicle burns beside the road. Ammunition explodes in the fire. The attack is led by tanks as the first cavalry advances under fire toward the center of the city. The railroad guides them. Then surprisingly, the enemy fire weakens as U.S. infantrymen reach the heart of the city. The Reds are withdrawing. Although there is occasional rear-guard fire and sniper activity, the main Red Force has begun to flee northward in disorganization. A company medic gives first aid to a cavalryman wounded in the street fighting. As the first cavalrymen over on the city, South Korean troops join them. The ROK forces met heavy resistance on the east side of town, but finally fought their way through after six hours. They are following the retreating enemy northward. An estimated Red Force of 30,000 is now fleeing Pyongyang. South Koreans and first cavalrymen join forces, decide their zones of action and move on. In the eastern area of Pyongyang, near the Tedong River, the South Koreans encounter a pocket of enemy rear-guard troops and pause to wipe them out. Only small arms fire is necessary as the river is crossed by bridge and assault boats. As U.N. forces take over the city, the North Korean Communist government has vanished, presumably having fled north across the Manchurian border. The heavily fortified capital of Korean communism is now under the United Nations flag. As U.N. forces take the North Korean capital at Pyongyang, a new threat to the Reds gets underway at Kimpo airfield. Paratroopers of the 187th Airborne Regiment plan to jump ahead of the Reds fleeing Pyongyang, cutting off their escape route to the border. The planes are C-47 transports and C-119 box cars. There are over 4,000 men in this operation, which consists of two separate drops on 20 and 21 October. The destination is a 0.33 miles north of Pyongyang, where the Reds are fleeing through the towns of Sukcheon and Suncheon. Here they go. Paratroopers bail out in waves from a dozen planes at a time. On the ground, there is practically no opposition. The attack comes as a complete surprise. Watching the jump is General MacArthur, who flew here from Japan to observe this first airborne operation of the Korean War. Flying over the attack area in his constellation, United Nations commander stated, this closes the trap on the enemy. Of particular interest in this drop is the parachuting of heavy equipment, vehicles, and artillery. The equipment drop takes place 10 minutes after the personnel have landed. Most of the material lands without damage, and the paratroopers rush out to put it into action. Transportation found available on the scene is pressed into service. Although the big jump was delayed at the start by bad weather, it moves like clockwork once it gets underway. Casualties are few. Out of the 4,064 men who made the two jumps, only 90 men are listed as jump casualties, and most of these consist of broken legs and sprains. Evacuation is rapid, especially equipped helicopters land to carry the wounded, and they are quickly on their way back to the hospitals. Shortly after the paratroopers take their positions, they are joined by tanks of the first cavalry division which have pushed through from Pyongyang. As these forces join, the last remnants of the Red Army are compressed into an area only 50 miles from the Manchurian border. On 17 September at Busan Air Base, a transport plane arrives with the first big name entertainer to visit the troops in Korea. Hal Jolson, often billed as the world's greatest entertainer, is in the midst of his last road tour. A veteran of years in show business, and months of entertaining troops in World War II, in Europe, Africa, India and the South Pacific, Hal Jolson disregarded his doctor's warning, and at the age of 64, set out to entertain troops in hospitals and at the Korean battlefront. In front of the audience he liked best, Jolson gives one of his last performances. GI audience enjoys his act. Hal entertain Korean war casualties in Japan before arriving in Korea, and already has used up much of the seemingly boundless energy which he put into every performance. It was impossible for Hal Jolson not to give out with all his energy and all his heart. His gaiety and rhythm was infectious, and he knew it could bring joy to others. On 23 October, six days after he gave this performance, Hal Jolson died from a heart attack in San Francisco. One of his last acts in Korea was to raise a United Nations flag. During the month covered by this combat bulletin, the United Nations drive into North Korea moved ahead with surprising rapidity. On 20 September, UN forces were fighting in the outskirts of Seoul, fanning south from the Incheon landing, and breaking out of their old beachhead. By 5 October, Republic of Korea troops had crossed the 38th parallel and were 55 air miles beyond the imaginary border between North and South Korea. On the west, US troops were meeting some resistance north of Seoul. United Nations forces, including US, British and Australian troops, were regrouping, an expectation of a full-scale drive across the parallel after the United Nations voted approval for General MacArthur to send his troops into North Korea. By 20 October, communist forces were staggering, throwing off their uniforms and surrendering at the rate of 2,400 daily. The day before, Pyongyang North Korean capital had been captured by UN troops. Two hours after Pyongyang was declared secure, members of the 187th Airborne Regiment dropped from planes 33 miles above Pyongyang and about 75 miles from the Manchurian border. South Korean troops drove westward to link up with the paratroopers. On the east coast, South Korean troops had taken one son with unexpectedly light resistance and were advancing far to the north. Disintegrating communist troops were attempting to flee to the Manchurian border. There was still fighting ahead, but at this time, it appeared that the Korean War was, as General MacArthur phrased it, definitely coming to an end.