First and foremost, now that we have some super connectors on, Johnny and I talk a lot about elevator pitch and how important it is to have a compelling elevator pitch. And I'm assuming you guys are the masters. Let's start with your elevator pitch for our audience. Mine's really simple. Three words. I connect people. That's it. It's really simple. Then people get like the whole point of an elevator pitch is to get them to ask a question. They say, what do you mean? Or what's wrong with you? Whatever it is, I don't care. I just want them asking some question. You want to make people lean in. So, you know, a lot of the people get the elevator pitch wrong when they're like, Oh, I want to explain everything that I do in one minute. Like I want to get them, they want them to have the exact full picture, but you don't want that.  Right. So broader. So mine's a little longer than Chris's because we can't have the same one. So I go a little bit more in depth and I say, Hi, I'm Jen Gottlieb and I help entrepreneurs connect with the media so they can share their message with the world. So beautiful. What does that mean? Right. And I don't give all the goods, but a little bit of the goods. And what I noticed is it's very shareable. So if I were to introduce you to someone else, I know exactly how to do it. Right. It's not complicated, full of jargon and words I don't even understand. Exactly. Keep it at the fourth grade level. Right. All the bestselling books all time right at that fourth, fourth grade level. But what about for you guys? Let's do it real quick. I want to hear yours. We help driven introverts win at work, love and life. That's great. I love I just got goosebumps. Actually, that was really, really good. Really good. So many of our audience members are introverts and the idea of being a super connector and putting yourself out there is very intimidating. And Johnny and I always say it starts with one great conversation. And I know you guys have some ground rules as well to help motivate those of us who maybe don't feel as outgoing as this other super connectors we've encountered while networking. What are your tips for those introverts in our audience? Yeah. And I love that that's the majority of your audience, because for us it's the exact same about 80% of the people we work with, even big personal brand, big people, like they would consider themselves introverts. It's really interesting to find that out, especially like some people are really big speakers on these great stages and everything. And then they're like, I'm really scared of being on TV. And, you know, I consider myself more of an introvert. So the first thing to think about the way that we really make networking so easy is you think about what's every single person in the world's favorite subject. What is it? It's themselves. That's right. Exactly. So if you like networking the idea of a networking event or whether it's in person or now on Zoom in like a breakout room or whatever it is, it's nauseating for most people, including myself. Like, I don't really, yeah, right. So the thing that I always do is to make it really simple as this. First, think about the four letters, H-O-P-E. So help one person every day. So if I go into an event and I'm like, all right, I don't care about trying to meet every single person and do business with every person, date every person, whatever it is, you know, whatever your goal is. But if I'm like, all right, I'm just going to go in here and I'm going to try to help one person. That's it. And then it removes like all the pressure from me. So then how do I help people go in, start asking questions? So you get people talking. So I've had conversations with people where I didn't say a word about myself and they, at the end of the conversation, they say, Chris, this was the best conversation I've ever had in my life. Thank you so much. And I didn't say, they don't know anything about me. That's okay. But because I can then, I can follow up with them, do all these other things from there. But really, like, that's the easiest way to make networking really, really simple is think about helping somebody else and not making it about you. Same thing for every, anytime you're putting yourself out there, just think about that help one person every day. Well, by simplifying it, and we see it all the time, it just allows everyone to focus on something that actually matters, something that'll actually get conversations going, something to move things forward, but also it takes the pressure off of themselves. So now that they can relax, where then everything else starts to flow much easier. If you're looking at it as I need to get this card as many people's hands as possible, well, now you have this gigantic impossible mission that puts you behind the eight ball that has you doing all this work. And of course, once you put yourself in that position, you start looking around the room, you start looking at all the people doing what it is that they are doing, oh, so well. And then the only thing you could do after that is start beating yourself up and then start drinking, which perpetuates, it moves itself into, you hung over the next day, you're not thrilled about your performance, which is only going to lead you for the next few days beating yourself up even more. Exactly. Yeah, so just go in with the goal to help one person or to learn as much as you can about people. Be interested. And then it's just this magical thing that happened that after you are interested in somebody and you allow them to talk about themselves, they're going to walk away and think you are the greatest human being alive and you didn't even really say anything and that's just how it works. Yeah, and one other thing just to remember, so one of my favorite quotes, and I have so many favorite quotes, and if it was a drinking game of favorite quotes, every time I said that, everyone would be drunk at the end of anything I do. But one is Maya Angelou, and she said, people will forget what you said, feel very angry at what you did. People will never forget how you made them feel. So we always think that with our company, it's the same way, we're like, we're just going to always make every person feel better, like any interaction they have with us, they have to be feeling better than they came in, whatever it is, and that's how we go into anything. Think about that, making somebody else's day, whether that's like getting, being in the elevator here in like our building and like people, we live in a building where it's all like hedge fund people and stuff and they're all miserable and we always get in the elevator and we're like, hey, what's up, you doing great? And I'm like, oh my God, but we try to like flip people's, flip their energy and it's amazing. It's contagious, it really is, it really, if you come into a situation enthusiastic, especially enthusiastic about somebody else, you know, at the end of the day, we just want to be seen and heard and everybody wants that at their core, even if they pretend that they don't and you go into a conversation truly seeing somebody and being excited about learning about them, it takes all the pressure off of you, takes your ego out of the situation, you don't need anything anymore. All you need is to be excited about what that person's saying. It's so easy and then that person feels seen, that person feels heard and then you made that person's day also and then that's what creates a real true connection and that's what makes that person want to help you, want to do things for you, want to work with you. Remember you, right? I mean, that's so important. When everyone else is trying to be remembered by what they're talking about and how important they are and you flip the script and come in and just focus on the other person instead of your pitch and what you have to sell, magic happens. Now, many of us don't have a pitch or a personal brand. In fact, a lot in our audience aren't entrepreneurs per se. So how do we approach it if we don't have our own business and we aren't quite sure what our personal brand is or should be? So I think the first thing is thinking about yourself as your own business. So whatever that is, so whether you're, if you're working somewhere, your freelance or whatever, you should think about yourself as a business. Like you're always in the business of marketing yourself, of promoting yourself, whatever that is. And the thing, a lot of times when we talk about promoting, people get really like being a self-promoter, especially if you're more introverted or quiet or whatever. Like that's a really scary thing. So here's the thing that we say about that, to flip that around for people is that you have a responsibility to promote yourself. If you're good at what you do, if you like yourself in any way, like you don't have to like yourself 100%. I never liked myself 100%. Don't worry. Everything that we do is about 51%. You just have to want it and like yourself. Do these things a little bit more than you don't, but it's thinking about yourself that way and thinking about what your goal is in anything. So let's say that you work somewhere and maybe you want a better job. All right. So go into things thinking about, all right, visualizing that, right? Thinking about how can I get a better job? What's my dream job look like? And then you're going to put yourself in those circumstances where that's going to come up. Yeah. So when we talk about what Chris kind of said, it's your responsibility to share. So we're not even just talking about your job and what you do in the world and how you help people or how you make money, but your experiences. So we all have had experiences that make us worthy of sharing a story and sharing about who we are.  Our experiences can be somebody else's roadmap. So it's our responsibility. If we've had something happen to us, if we've conquered some incredible thing, or even if we've had something bad happen to us and we came out on the other side, okay, or we did something really cool and really bad ass, it is our job to tell people about that so that they can learn from it at the same time and that they can experience it. With entrepreneurs and people with real personal brands, we always say like every day that goes by that you are not making yourself visible to those people that you can help is another day that those people that you can help are going to go pay somebody else that's not as good as you and doesn't care as much as you simply because they can't find you and you are not sharing your experiences and what you do with the world. So be proud and remember that it's not about you, it's actually about the other people that you could help with your experiences. Do you have any tips for our young entrepreneurs who are looking to get more solid and who it is that they are and their experiences in sharing them?  And I even think that all the time and it's this thing called imposter syndrome, right AJ? This thing, it's imposter syndrome and everybody in the world, I used to be on a TV show where I interviewed the biggest rock stars in the entire world like Slash and Sammy Hagar and all the biggest rock stars and every single one of them had imposter syndrome and did not think they were that cool, every single one of them. So it's a normal thing that our brain does. The things that we do don't feel so cool to us because we're too close to them and we're too judgmental about ourselves. But if we were to look at anybody else that did the things that we do and took, and it was them, we'd probably think they're awesome.   And what it is, is you make a list.  And they could be big or small, right? They could be the moment your child said, I love you for the first time. They could be when you ran a marathon. They could be when you made your first sale. It could be- Got your first job, move in the first part. Anything, anything where you were like, wow, I'm pretty cool. That's pretty awesome.  But here's the key. So you're gonna have this list and you still might not even think you're that cool. But this is where it works. Whenever you're feeling like an imposter, you pull out that list and you read it out loud, but you don't read it like you're reading about yourself. You read it as if you're reading about someone else that you are jealous of on social media.  All right, you're reading about somebody else. And I want you to like marvel at that person and get jealous of that person and think, wow, oh my God, that person is really cool. And then remember, oh wait, that's me. If I could do all those badass things, I'm worthy. I'm worthy of putting myself out there, sharing my story, talking about what I do, helping other people, because I am a badass. I love that. Many of us, when we're experiencing that badass moment, we don't think about, well, how are we gonna remember it later? We just have that amazing experience and then we try to move on and chase the next experience. Having time to reflect on how far you've come is really important when we're going into these high pressure situations, trying to introduce ourselves, trying to connect with other people. Now, Chris, you mentioned the 51% and I want to dig in a little deeper on that because I know this is a very important concept that you guys teach and I think it would really benefit our audience who, again, feels like they need to be these massive overachievers to reach success. Yeah, and it's especially prevalent thinking that because you watch anyone like hustle porn online in terms of you gotta be 1,000% blah, blah, blah, and all this and that never, I was okay at doing that, but for a day, it never would last. And then I would think, oh, God, forget it. I'm going back to the couch. And the crazy thing is that I'm really thinking about it and I don't know if I could ever explain it this way, but where I came up with this idea of 51% was actually in rehab. I got sober almost 10 years ago and I was in a rehab in Western Pennsylvania in January, freezing cold outside, miserable, and I remember sitting there and they were bringing these speakers and talking about things.  But I stayed and I listened and I did it and what I realized was it was just, I wanted it just a little tiny bit more than I did. So there was this 49% of me that was like, get up, leave, go home, you don't need this, you don't want this. So then there was that 51% that was like, that kept me there. I stayed and I listened and I let it soak in even though I was miserable. And since that time, I've applied that to everything, everything in my life. So whether that was with just doing something in the morning, that's good for me. All right, maybe I don't want to do it but I'm gonna do it because I wanted it a little bit more than I don't. And what I've found is that anything, like I've been able to accomplish so much just by relying on 51% of me. Now the cool thing is that the 51% leads to days where I can be at like 89% or, I don't think I'm ever at 100, like I'm being honest. But there's days, most of the time I'm above 80, let's say that. But I know that I can always fall back, I just have to want it a little bit more than I don't. And whenever I do that, everything works. And that's how it's always been like since that time. Because before it would be try to go 100% then just be like, I would get miserable or like I would be at some conference or something and get motivated by somebody and they would be talking about like running a marathon. I'm like, all right, I'm gonna go train. I hadn't done anything in two years.  And maybe the next day the same thing.  And then I'd be back on the couch. And then that's what would always happen. So 51%, you just have to want it a little bit more than you don't. And when that happens, it's absolute magic. The best part about that, I think we can all relate whether it's working out or a diet or anything that we want in life. That initial part is always gonna be the hardest. But when you're actually exercising, when you're actually at the event talking to people, when you're actually pitching, it feels amazing. It's the lead up to it that we have to push through. We need that extra percent to get us to take action. Yeah, the cool thing too about confidence and how you become more confident is by doing that little teeny tiny action step, getting the win, right?  That wasn't that bad. That felt okay.  So then the next time you go to take that little tiny action step, it's easier than it was the first time. And so every time you get a little bit more confident, I call it like putting coins in the confidence bank. So you take that little uncomfortable action.    Okay, that kind of felt good. So then subconsciously, we're better for the next time. And then that's how you create momentum and that's how you get close to your goals and that's how you become a more confident person over time. And that bank is such a beautiful analogy because it compounds. So you're putting coins in every day, not thinking about the interest rate and then when you have to get on stage, you have that confidence banked and it's grown over time. And that's such a beautiful thing and a concept for many of us in the audience who want more out of life and look at these people online who appear to be operating at 100%. It's so easy to get intimidated. I'm not Gary Vee. I'm not Jay Shetty. I'm not so-and-so. I can't do this. They're doing 51% too. And then light's camera action, they feel amazing. So getting over that initial hump is so key. Now you guys obviously do live events like us and with COVID a lot has changed in the networking space and a lot of people in our audience as we're going to get into the questions here are now really struggling with the fact that I can't go meet people in person like I used to. My network's not growing. How can we make the most when we are not actually able to go hang out with people, shake hands, hug, do all that fun stuff we were doing pre-COVID? You could also make the argument that a lot of people's roles and jobs and how they promote themselves have changed drastically during COVID. So with this and this transition of these events going more online, let's talk to our audience here and help them craft something that's a little bit more suited for them and the times that we're in. Yeah, I mean, well, we're still meeting people. So we're still, and we still have this magical thing called the internet and I am super grateful for it because if this would have happened 10 years ago, you know, it would have been a much different experience. Oh yeah. We're doing it. Like we just, so just yesterday and the day before yesterday, we went, we sponsored an event that we do every, we've done every year for four years now called the Mindshare Summit and it's an event for doctors and health practitioners and people that are really healing the world and really leading the way in that area and every single year we go to San Diego. It's this big live event. We have an amazing time. We sponsor, we have a booth. We speak on the stage. It's like this experience and this time around, it had to be virtual and Chris and I were like, there's no way that this is going to be as good. There is no way it's going to be as good. It's virtual. It's not the same experience. We're not going to get of the same return, you know, all these things that we're thinking about. Exactly. Of course. But we're like, nope, 51%. Let's just dive into this and just committed. We're committed. Let's just do it. And you know what? We did have to change up what we usually do from the stage, right? We usually have a whole thing that we do from the stage, but now it's virtual. So we had to make it different. But we went with it and we, we brought the exact same amount of energy that we would have brought to the stage. We brought the exact same amount of energy to the Facebook group that we would have brought to any room that we were in physically. Same thing with what I said with wanting to help people, asking people questions, really leaning into people and using that enthusiasm. And it was different. It wasn't the same. But I would say that we got just as big as our return, if not better. And it was, it was a super cool experience. And then have to get on a plane. Yeah, it's about flipping the mindset. But I think the important thing to think about, so we had to put in a lot of work to make that happen. So the thing that I think is important and where I see people fail in terms of building relationships or anything is looking for a magic bullet.  Like, I want to do all this stuff with you. Like, it doesn't really work like that. So another thing that we always say and kind of live by is the extra mile is never crowded. So the internet, social media has made things so easy for people. So easy. So everyone puts in, not everyone, majority of people put in the bare minimum because it makes them feel like they're doing something. And it's also an easy way to then complain and be like, oh, well, I tried. And like, so that trying could just be sending a DM to somebody saying, hey, can I pick your brain? Like, shoot me. You know, the things like that where instead of like actually being thoughtful about something.  Like they're not traveling every single day. And they want to connect even more because they're missing that connection aspect of their life. So what you have to do is you have to always think about, again, getting back to what we were talking about at the beginning, what can I do to help this person? So and really think about that because you guys, I'm sure all the time you get people reaching out to you get horrible networking requests or, you know, pitches and all these things where it's about the other person. It's not about you. Like, why do you want to help someone? Because there's something, you know, in it, like there's some in, whether it's the motivation just helping the person because they had an amazing story or you're like, all right, this person can help me. Like that's just human nature. Believe it or not, I get pitches, which is just people just send their content with no context of how they want me to view it with the do with it. And it's like, I would love to help you. You went through the effort of sending this to me and I'm sure you were a bit nervous, but I don't know how to help you here. And now I have to drop what I'm doing to get engaged with you about content that you have sent me. Do me the favor of telling me what you would like, how you would like me to watch it, what you'd like me to do with it. How am I supposed to put all of this together?  It's all the time. And that person felt like they were doing something and they were, but they were taking the easy route where it would take if you took an extra five minutes to just do more research into you. If they're sending it to you, Johnny, they're doing some research into you, seeing something on social media that you did recently, seeing some court, like a launch you have coming up, thinking about these different things, just personal, literally five freaking minutes can change the game. Five minutes. But what happens is that is like people, again, like the extra miles that were crowded. So they're like, all right, I'm doing something. They learned to send a pitch somewhere and they're like, all right, this is all I need to do.  And sometimes people don't even do that.  So, but it's really thinking about all of these different little things that just like, all right, what can I do to help this person? You have to try harder online. That is just what it is. You have to try a little bit harder, but that's how we're like, Johnny, if someone were to send you an email and they shared a screenshot of a beautiful review that they wrote for this podcast in detail, like on, right, on podcast reviews and say, like gave you five star rating and everything said, look, I wrote this amazing review for you because I love your show. I'd be honored to be on it. How can I make this super, super easy for you? Right? I know that you love this, this, and this and I would be excited to talk about this. How happy would that make you? And would you open that email? First of all, let's just repeat that because it would make me feel that much better. If everyone who's sent a pitch sent a review, it's screenshot of a review with whatever they were sending. Careful what you wish for, Johnny. They can still pitch. To your credit, abs 100% not only. It puts me in a position to where now I feel guilty because you have given me value. What did it take to write that review a minute and a half? Look what you're also saying. You're saying that I value you that much and the work that you do to write a review that I'm thinking about you, that I looked for a way to add value and without working with you, this is the best I could come up with at the moment. And I hope that you take notice. Every one of those points is made. And now I'm on the defense of going, oh, thank you very much. How can I help you? You know, let's now let's start this. The reciprocity begins. And I mean, this is exactly what Dale Carnegie talks about. And these small favors go so far, which is why I help one person out. It really is not saying, drop everything you're doing and give them a full eight hours of your day. But everyone could sacrifice five minutes for someone else. We can give five minutes to someone that we'd really love to connect with that we think we could help. Exactly. So I'm going to ask both of you guys. When you help somebody that you care about in some way, how do you feel? Incredible. That's why we do what we do. Yes. Great. So for anyone listening, just remember that. And the thing to remember is that when you're not asking somebody for help, you're depriving them of that gift to help you. Now, this is what I'm talking about. It's like people that know you especially. And so Jen asked me for help. We're relatively close. Just kidding. I'm going to go out of my way to help. And I'll feel great about doing that. Anyone, but like same thing with like people who work for me or whatever it is, like I want to help people. But you got to make the ask, right? You got to make the ask. And so many people don't do don't make the ask because they're just scared of what the other person will think of them. But this, the amazing thing happened to us where I flipped my mindset about that and now we'll never have a problem asking for help. So we were, it's Santa Monica Pier. One time we were there for conference or something and we're walking in, you know, the Ferris wheel was up there. And I was like, I really want a picture in front of the Ferris wheel. Like, you know, like every girl wants. And I didn't, I hate asking people to take a picture of me. I hate it. I like that is my worst biggest pet peeve. I think it's like a New York or an anti thing. I don't want to put anybody out. Okay. So Chris is like, there's a woman right there. She's by herself. Just go ask her. I'm like, oh my God, it was torture. I was like, okay, fine. I'll just ask her. And would you please take a photo of me and my boyfriend in front of the Ferris wheel?  She gives me back my phone and she was like, thank you so much for asking me to take a photo of you. I used to work at Disney World as a photographer and it is my one joy in life to photograph people and nobody asks me to do it anymore. And you just gave me such a beautiful gift. So thank you. And I was like, oh my God, if I didn't ask that woman for help I would have not been able to give her that moment. So now every time I have a weird thing about asking someone I think about, well, they're going to feel so great if they get to help me. It's a beautiful example of, again, just going that little extra step that most people are afraid of. And there was so much to unpack here. I want to talk first that I think with everything moving virtual, introverts finally have an advantage. Hell yeah. Think about all of the pressure we would put on ourselves to get in the car, to park. I don't know anyone who's going to be there. All that's gone. We just have to show up and turn on the camera. And you could do it with your PJ bottom still on. So as introverts listening to the show, now is the time to take even more action. And the second thing that I want to talk about is the asynchronicity of communication online. Many people will send the one pitch and not hear anything and immediately go, that person doesn't want to help. That person's not interested. Not realizing that right now, Johnny would open his inbox. I would open my inbox. It is slammed with people pitching. And it's not to say that I don't like their pitch or that it's a solid no.  So what are the strategies that you guys have when you have a really great pitch and you want to make sure that you at least get a response? What's the follow-up strategy? Do you use boomerang?  I love this.  And more so now that people are so busy. I know from I use myself as an example all the time that there will be people that will hire or whether as employees or as like contractors or whatever. And the only ones I really wind up ever hiring are the ones who are so good at follow-up that like where it's almost like I know that they're feeling like, oh my God, I don't want to send this. Like I think he hates me. But I'm like, oh my God, I want to work with them. I just don't have the time. And I'll just start in the inbox and all this and they keep following up and keep following up. Six months later, boom, hire him. But and it's just because at right time and it's not because I don't want to do anything with him. I think it's so important for people to remember. So we have a PR agency and we also have these programs where we bring in so many people from the media and we ask them about like, do you want people to follow up? They're like, please. The only way that we are going to feed them is if they follow up. So I think that it's such an important thing. The thing that we like to encourage is so you have the initial follow-up and then let's say nobody gets back to you like a week later, just, hey, just bump it up. That's fine. After that, it's got to be you're bringing them value in some way.  Saw that you opened my email and I can't believe you're not responding. That's like, report spam, goodbye. You'll never work with them, that type of thing. But if you're providing some type of value and just understanding and remembering that there's a person on the other side that's opening that, you're not just a machine and it's so important to understand that. I think the biggest mistake people make is they forget that it's a human on the other end. Like people forget that it's a person because it's really easy in technology to think that it's not, there's not someone with a heart and a soul and a mind that's reading your email that's actually taking it in. And so we always say, be pleasantly persistent. So remember that it's a human being and you know, and say, hey, I understand that you're super busy. If you didn't get back to, if you don't like, if you didn't see it, that's totally okay. I get that you have a lot going on. But I really wanted to, I saw your post yesterday about this, this and this. And I absolutely loved it. And I thought that you would really enjoy this article or I thought that you would really enjoy this pitch idea. I thought of it because I was inspired by the article that came out yesterday that you wrote. You know, just really being thoughtful. Like we said, the extra mile is never crowded, being pleasant with your follow-up, pleasantly persistent and remembering that it's a human and how can you add value to that human every time you send them an email? And I always respond if someone is offering me value when they're following up. I'm like, that is awesome. Thank you. I'm going to respond right now. Now, we've been telling all of our X Factor Accelerator membership participants how important LinkedIn is right now. There is more traffic going to LinkedIn than I would say ever before with all of us now stuck without these in-person networking opportunities. And many of our guys have never touched their LinkedIn. They created it, they have a job, they're happy, they don't even think about it. And we were pushing one of our members to just get some references about what your skill sets are. Not whole hog, but just go out and put a few things out in your LinkedIn that would improve it. And it actually opened the door to a new job, career change that he never anticipated because someone in his network saw that update on LinkedIn and said, oh, actually have this opening you'd be great for. And many people are missing out on these opportunities because they haven't viewed LinkedIn accordingly. And I know you guys are big on LinkedIn and obviously your elevator pitch should be on your LinkedIn. It's the billboard for who you are. What are your strategies or mistakes you're seeing people make on LinkedIn that need to be improved to put themselves out there?  So people who write this to me, like I don't want to have anything to do with it, they say I get this all the time and it's just a variation. I want to connect during these troubled times it's even more important. And for some reason guys, I don't know why, but some dark times, whatever, like there's somebody who wrote some script that says start with this. And to me, it's like an automatic no. Like I just don't want to have anything to do with the actual person. I mean, I think the simplest thing, again, taking an extra minute to just see, what about this person? Who do we have in common? Make it actually real? That's the key, let that's it. Like the generic I want to connect to, I see we have some people in common, but then they don't say any of those people and then they don't realize that any of those people I don't even know. And I'd love to connect more. Like what's in it for me? What does that mean? Exactly. Again, you never want to give somebody a homework assignment. So that's giving me a homework, trying to figure out, all right, well, great. Why are we going to connect? Or what's in it for me? That's like making me think. And like, I don't want to think. Like I just want to delete you and report you to LinkedIn as I don't know you. Now just kidding. But there's something about that one that anything around that, where it's like we're here or six months into it, you're still looking at this as troubled times and dark time, this uncertainty and all this, all right. Then you're not my type of thinker. So my biggest pet peeve, it goes along with this, but and this is also this goes for when you're pitching the media too, you know, because we talk about how to pitch the media to the investor on the media. Anything copy pasted. If I know that you copy pasted something and you're sending it to a million other people and I can tell, you can tell when something is to a million other people. If it is that, then I am deleting you and never talking to you ever. But if you take time to say something and we've been talking about this this whole conversation, something specific about me, or, you know, about what you would like to talk to me about or what you'd like to learn from me or the person that we have in common and it's not a copy pasted thing, I'm going to respond to you because you went out of the way to like write a few things and to do your homework that was like 2.5 seconds. It's so easy. It's so easy. And then with the media as well, pitching the media people make this mistake of writing, you know, writing one pitch and copy pasting it and sending it to a whole bunch of people, right? Like the exact same one. We talk to producers every single day and they're like, I know when somebody copy paste a pitch and it's going out to everybody, I don't even open it. I delete it immediately. But people that say my first name in the subject line and say that they know me from somewhere and say that they read a previous article of mine and it's not copy pasted, I actually respond. So everybody that's listening, if you ever have the urge to send out a million LinkedIn messages to all of your contacts and just to be easy and time efficient, you're going to copy paste the same thing. I'd love to pick your brain or I'd love to connect. That's an automatic delete for everything. But the better thing you can do is to be more efficient. Send three messages but make them super thought out. Do your research. Look into what that person enjoys, right? Where do they go? Look at their Instagram. You can see everything online now and make those three messages really well thought out and you'll probably get three out of three responses. Whereas if you send a hundred copy pastes maybe you'll get one or two. And that's so key because what people are posting on their own they care about. They're already giving you the little breadcrumbs to get in their inbox. If they're posting about it they care about it. So it's very easy again going that little extra mile to find the relevant information of that person and if you think about it from the media's perspective what does the media want? They want to scoop. They want to be the first one to the story. They don't want to know that you've pitched it to a thousand people and they're the fifth puff piece about this. They want to be the first one to declare that you are amazing. That you're something that people need to pay attention to. But many of us aren't thinking about the person on the other end of this.  Exactly. Now we have some questions here from our audience. Hey Jay and Johnny longtime listener here love the show. I just received my master's degree and now that the celebrations are coming to an end it's time to move forward and look for a new job. I've cleaned up my social media to make sure it's appropriate for the nosy future employers. My question is about linked in them. It's kind of up to date and all but it just doesn't really stand out. It reads like the minutes of a very boring meeting which sums up my past few years in any case. I could really use some tips to make it shine. Any advice? Thanks for everything you guys do Maria. We've heard this a lot too that many people have just used their linked in like a resume and don't really think about what someone who's encountering their profile for the first time thinks. What do you guys say? Yeah I think the biggest thing whether it's your linked in people's like a bout page on their website whatever it is there's like this idea that it has to be a certain way. So I think a lot of people for linked in have that idea it's got to be a resume or it's got to be written in like like how a resume is written in some weird I haven't had a resume a long time but in some weird language and all this and they don't talk how they would actually talk if they were describing themselves to a friend. So what I would suggest is doing exactly that. So just having a conversation with a friend and record it and actually talking about like have the friend like hopefully knows a little bit about you but just like to ask you questions and you talk and you answer and you forget that anything about linked in but you're recording it then you just go and you get that transcribed and go to rev.com you know it's a 10 minute conversational cost you 15 bucks to have it transcribed perfectly then you go and you pull all the best stuff out of there and then you write it that way like nobody wants to read like I see this even funny like a lot of people in the media we deal with and like I'll read their bios and the bees will be bringing them in as guests and they'll have like the resume things I'm like I gotta make this good like I gotta make them sound interesting like they're so much cooler than they wrote here like I know that about them so thinking about different things that you want to pull out so we were talking earlier about the lean in moment so one of the big things around that is like credibility markers so what's something interesting that you've done so go back to that badass list so what are some of the interesting things like what's something that's going to get somebody's attention and be like oh wow because that's how are like whether that's a person that you know or a skill or a place that you worked yeah so sometimes it is not the most professional thing remember they're people that are humans they're humans they're real people just like us that like to laugh that you know have kids have family like to go to moves you know like all the same things that we like to do are reading your resume it's not necessarily just like professional people I mean it is but they're humans so put some fun stuff on there and I have I mean it could be out there and it's just going to make someone lean in and it'd be a little bit more interested like oh that person's got a lot to their personality I want to know that person for me when I was an actress I had a resume and I would go into auditions with my resume it's a different type of resume than a LinkedIn resume obviously but I would say the exact same type of thing goes for someone's resume on LinkedIn but I was on a heavy metal rock and roll show on VH1 for 14 seasons it was a really incredible piece of my career really lucrative really amazing and for that audition it was a hard rock and heavy metal show so you would think that I should go in there know when everything there is to know about hard rock and heavy metal and have my resume approve it right that's what you would think and that's what Maria would probably think about her resume it should be completely professional but I walked in there and yeah I did some research on heavy metal music I didn't know much about it but I like googled and I went in and at the bottom of my resume it says this still it says does an awesome Britney Spears impersonation now you would think that I should not write that on a heavy metal audition Britney Spears that's a big no-no right but that's a lean in moment for me for everybody they all like my Britney Spears impersonation so I kept it on there you know it makes me different so I go into this audition and one of the fifth things they ask me is like oh you know because they're humans yes they like heavy metal music but they're also humans they're like that's cool you do a Britney Spears impersonation can I hear it and I did my Britney and when they called me and said I booked the job which was probably one of the biggest jobs in my life they said it was your Britney Spears that got you the job so you never know be you be you and share what makes you different and what makes you special that's what's going to make your LinkedIn profile or resume or whatever it is stand out of course in listening to that I couldn't stop but giggle because if you're googling metal before this interview you better find something else that's going to win you the job and Britney Spears impersonation certainly would do the trick that would take that would take attention away from the fact that you're regurgitating Google facts on heavy metal that you found which would be very apparent I said actually in my that audition tape is on YouTube somewhere I was like you know I listen to everything from Beyonce to Black Sabbath that's what I said like I didn't know that was me I was being me and ironically that's what they liked and that's what everybody likes be yourself 100 percent and that's what so important yeah and that you had had to wear with all to to showcase yourself rather than trying to play this this character and of course I would imagine that is exactly why you got the job right you were not afraid to be who you were going into that interview and that's a that's a wonderful story thank you for sharing it that linked in profile many have this view that it's only going to be read by people in my industry or people who know my job really well so I have to use all this technical jargon and over complicate it and they don't think about the thousands of other people who are going to encounter their profile who might have opportunities for them but they can't decipher anything they've put on that profile so yes talking to a friend and sharing with a friend what you do is going to break it down for anyone to understand what it is that you do and if you're not quite doing the job that you want to do yet paint the picture of what that future journey looks like for you with expressive emotion on your profile so even if you're not in the role you want today someone seeing that can see your potential and just like Luis in our X Factor Accelerator he didn't even think he's just like oh why do I need to do this and all of a sudden someone in his network didn't even know he was looking for a job didn't even know he had this skill and he never would have thought to do it because oh he knows he has the skill anyway why share that and that's why it's so important to paint that full picture of who you are everywhere online because that is your billboard and that's how you open these opportunities now our last question here is about dreaded zoom meetings and many in our audience like Johnny and I are now fully on zoom eight nine hours a day it feels like and it can get really boring so do you have any tips on rocking zoom meetings I'm spending a lot of time in them over the past few months yesterday I had a six month review with my supervisor and it didn't go too well I'm definitely an introvert and was kind of doing okay in the office environment but in this review the main points were that I seem disengaged in meetings and I get it it's tough enough for me to sit through a one hour meeting in the office but sitting at my kitchen table staring at the screen makes it so much harder to engage and concentrate any tips would really help me Justin all right so the simplest thing Justin it might be hard like again extra miles never got a view act do you honestly want to fix it or are you looking for some magic bullets so if you honestly want to fix it like you're gonna have to act at least act like you're into it so I'll give you you guys are great examples like you're nodding the entire time smiling you know doing these little things like it makes such a difference so I guarantee you Justin if you even just watch this interview and see like how when we're talking there you guys are engaged you're doing these little things you want to you want your supervisor like will be it'll be a hundred it's like 180 degree difference if you're just being like yeah okay cool like just little tiny things like that it's so simple and yes do it for even if you're not like that into it it's okay I might not be into what I'm saying right now but they're faking and make me feel good so I'm like wow they love it so don't forget the most interesting like people care about themselves they're interested in themselves they want to feel good I had somebody in an audience once she was such an unbelievable audience member she was so engaged the entire time all this like I looked for her after and wound up like getting her to come to our event like she's like her entire life changed because she was such an unbelievable audience member and so engaged so just show some enthusiasm like again 51 percent Justin like that's it I guarantee I guarantee if you do that even if you feels weird or whatever it your supervise because I know like when people on our team like aren't engaged I'm like all right I don't care how good they're doing like they're not into the zoom meeting it drives me crazy so I really think it's that simple like just be engaged and the more that you do it the easier that it gets but I get it like zoom fatigue is a thing it's a real thing like you get tired from being on zoom and before you know it you know you're leaning back your eyes are glazing over like what I'm doing right now so what you can do and what I'll do is I just try to be you know like with your workouts okay so I don't know if people here work out or go to the gym like you recover to get stronger so you know you go to the gym you make it an efficient workout and then or you try to and then you rest so that the next time you can be really efficient so I do the same thing with zoom fatigue I make sure that no matter what I carve out at least 30 minutes to go outside go for a walk and not look at any screens that refreshes me so that when I go on to my next meeting I know that I can be efficient so I can be leaning in and nodding and you know making the other person on the other side of the screen feel really seen because you do have to try harder on a screen than you do in real life you just do because you can't feel the person so you have to give a little bit more so in order to give a little bit more you gotta rest a little bit more so take a little bit more time off the screen so that you can give a little bit more time when you're on the screen I compare it to theater and television so if you're on the if you're on the big screen your your movement your facial features they're gonna be exaggerated but if you're on a theater stage you need the person in the back to be able to feel your energy and so you're going to have to over exaggerate a lot of those actions and I see Zoom in the same manner the other thing that I wanted to bring up is if you do have a lot of Zoom meetings and you want people to understand that you're serious and that you're engaged we'll show that through your setup through your Zoom setup I mean even my little thing here shows that I want people to that I'm caring about these to go through to make a scene that I'm well lit that you can see my face I've been in so many group meetings where people's faces are dark they're not well lit if you are showing your engagement then all your efforts are lost because you're not well lit I mean it's just it's such a simple thing Lighting is everything a few things jump out at me the key being in the kitchen right sitting at the kitchen table and it sounds like if if you're sitting at the kitchen table you're probably eating at the kitchen table you may even be cooking at the kitchen table and I have a dedicated space in my house for Zoom Amy work from home my fiance as well has a dedicated space and you go in there and you turn it on like that's my Zoom space and then I have my reading space I have my space on the couch and no matter how small your space is you can create that Zoom corner that you know when you're there you turn it on and I will tell you the biggest change for me in all of this was getting a stand-up desk because getting out of sitting and getting out of slouching it allows me to show you that I'm enthusiastically engaged it's just like when I'm in front of the room teaching I don't sit on a stool and teach to show my enthusiasm I have to stand up and I have to use my hands to show that enthusiasm that is just as key and the last piece I did it right before we jumped on here I went to do not disturb on my computer and turned off everything else you want to make impactful Zoom meetings everything else in the world has to be turned off you can't be checking your Apple Watch you can't be surfing your Twitter you can't be checking the time people see that when your eyes go to the other parts of the screen when you're reading all of a sudden people pick up on those signals and you would never do that in person but right now since we're staring at screens it's so easy to be sucked in oh this notification and oh maybe that's a Slack message from so and so and oh is that a new lead that I get to talk to you and all of a sudden your boss is on the other end saying AJ doesn't want to be here AJ's disinterested this is coming up on AJ's performance review so Zoom presence just like owning the room you got to fully commit to it you can't be distracted if you want to nail those performance reviews now we love asking our guests for a challenge for the audience what should they do in the next week that's going to make them stand out or maybe open up that super connector mindset for them there we go go ahead all right so the next week what I'd like you to do and we'll keep this simple is reach out to five people but so what I want you to also do though is just be intentional about who those people are and ideally ideally it's somebody that you have in common a connection in common with to make it even easier so think about all the stuff we just said so seven days I'm only asking you to reach out to five you do them all in one day you can do one Monday through whatever it is but just reach out to five people in the next week and think about before like what what am I looking to get from this and how can I help how can I help them though do not say to those people no you're not I'm saying in your mind no yeah yeah don't say I'd like to pick your brain I'd like you to take to take me to coffee Zoom so I can learn about whatever no reach out to those people and figure out how you can help those people and offer them some sort of value and I can promise if you do that with five people if you reach out to five people and offer them some sort of value something an amazing opportunity will come out of that and remember it's the relationships are the shortcut but relationships take a while to build so but once they happen they're the shortcut everyone has a unique x-factor and your x-factor is when a mindset unlocks a skill set in you that makes you special we would love to hear from both of you what you think your x-factor is mine's enthusiasm oh you stole mine all right I'll have to think of a different one it really is like I show up and anything that I do I do it it's gonna sound weird because I just said it's about 51% but I put everything into anything that I'm doing where I need to show up and I'll show up enthusiastic and as a result I think that I'm really really good at helping people to accomplish things that they never thought possible because I believe in them and show them that enthusiasm okay the x-factor for me is every single time I have a conversation with someone I make them feel seen yeah and I always always no matter what it is about the person that I'm talking to I want to make sure when I leave that conversation they feel seen special and heard in every single way and I think that if you can master that making every single person you come in contact with feel so seen you can you will get every opportunity that you want because they're immediately like we talked about earlier the law of reciprocity is going to kick in they're going to be like wow that person made me feel so good how can I make them feel good so and it just feels great to make someone feel good so I I love that and that's what a lot of wallflowers introverts need to remember if you're you're not out and you're not introducing yourself people are going to read into that and they're through their own fears they're not going to think oh that person's shy or that person is a wallflower they're going to tend to think that person's aloof that person's stuck up so when you can allow others to be seen you're opening so many doors absolutely I can't second it more now for those in our audience that would love to learn more about your be on tv bootcamp that starts tomorrow tell us what it is how do we get access to the media I know you guys are superstars yeah thank you yes so be on tvbootcamp.com and what so basically what we did was we have a system we talked about a little about a bit of the stuff here but in terms of helping people to get on tv to build their careers build their lives build their businesses it so many people think that it's like a black box how do I do that I have to be somebody that I'm not and we say the opposite we encourage people to be more of themselves so and to determine and see exactly from that what are just like Jen talked about what are your badass moments how do you take your knowledge how do you take what your expertise is how do you pitch that in the right way so that people actually open the pitches want to read it want to book you and how to do all of that with people that you already know so we know and we've proven it over and over and over and over that it's not about having to hire a PR agency like us which we have an amazing PR agency but we're very expensive so for a lot of people that can't afford that or that are maybe starting out or you know early in business how to take their relationships that they already have and leverage that to get onto tv we show people exactly how to do it in five days five days and here's the thing so there might be people watching that are listening to this and thinking oh my god but I've never even done a facebook live before I've never been on camera before like I can't even imagine being on tv let alone pressing go live on the social media so many many many of the people that have gone through a boot camp are people that have never ever been on camera before in their lives and what this be on tv boot camp does is not only does it teach you how to pitch mainstream media and get on tv but it also teaches you how to be on camera in general and in life and in a safe space so we provide a really really really safe environment for people to be messy to be imperfect to press the record button and just be exactly who they are to have their Britney Spears moment and just be them because at the end of the day right your mess is your message like the messy parts of you is what makes you special and actually the mainstream media that's what they lean into as well so we just get you know put more coins in the confidence bank each and every single day of our be on tv boot camp and by the end people have have huge transformational experiences that have nothing to do with being on tv a lot of the time and and secretly you guys you know we are a media company but we're really a personal development company that uses media as the gateway because when you can start to put yourself out there in that way and step into your greatness as an expert or as someone that has experience in something that could help other people you really step into that badassery and remember that you are not an imposter that you are enough and it helps you in all areas of your life so that is our be on tv boot camp and everyone that is listening regardless if you've ever had any image of yourself being on tv or not you should join I love that thank you both so much for joining us such great tips to get out there both online and in person and I'm excited for the boot camp this was so fun you guys yes amazing I love talking to you guys great conversation yes love that


My experience with the medical institution we can call it has been pretty interesting. So as a kid I had always suffered from digestive problems.  I had asthma that was severe that I still have to this day since birth and I'd been hospitalized for asthma, but I was not a sickly kid. I didn't miss a lot of school. I didn't have very many health problems, but as I got older in my early 20s I realized hey as a kid you know pooping once every five to seven days is really not normal and it's really not healthy. But as a kid you don't really think about that because that's just how your body is. You don't know that there's another way that's probably better and healthier. Now the caveat was that I was always severely underweight. I did not have a normal BMI above 17 in the normal category until I was almost 23 or 24. So by comparison when I was 18 years old or 17 I weighed my heaviest weight ever which was 115 pounds and even grown as an adult at 23 I was six foot two and weighed 135 pounds. So I was female supermodel skinny and I wasn't anorexic. I didn't have an eating disorder. I just ate normally. I just ate naturally when I was hungry and I was just rail thin. Now my mom has always been very rail thin and she's always eaten right and exercised every day for decades and decades, but I was severely underweight, could never put on weight and I had all these digestive problems. Now the first time I went to see a doctor for them was in my early 20s, my last year of my undergraduate at Clemson and I noticed that I was starting to have abdominal bloating and kind of some pressure in my abdomen and almost in my groin and I realized that you know if I had a big sandwich like I went to Subway at the time and I had like a foot long and had tons of bread and I wouldn't go to the bathroom for like three or four days consistently. I think before that it was a little bit more than once every five days as I became an adult but it was still not even comfortable and regular. I think once every three days was my most common frequency and I started seeing doctors. So the first person I saw was my general practitioner really good guy. I liked him a lot, very genuine and he asked me a couple questions about my bowels and he referred me to this dietitian he liked. So I saw the dietitian and her first piece of advice was to add more fiber.  I mean I'm not withholding food. I'm not avoiding food. I don't have an issue with food. I just eat when I'm hungry. This is just how I am. Now what I later learned with Chinese medicine is that of course if you don't poop for five days why are you going to have a big appetite when there's that much inside of you? Pretty obvious. Now the dietitian first recommended more fiber. This is a very common modern medical approach, dietitian nutritionist approach. So despite eating healthy every day and even being close to vegetarian at that time I tried it for like six months there was no improvement and in fact adding literally brand fiber to my oatmeal in the morning gave me such bad bloating and such bad pain. I had pain for the first time in my life that I couldn't even sleep some nights. So the irony was that you know we thought that brand and fiber would increase the bowel movements but later I started looking at research that suggested in certain people with compromised digestion it only makes it worse because it doesn't actually increase the transit time of a bowel movement but increases the pressure. So I had all this pain no results from the nutritionist. I really liked her but nothing. She refers me to the GI specialist. Now the GI specialist was the only doctor I've ever had that I did not like. I'm a very big believer in conventional medicine. It works. There's no sense I mean it didn't work for me for this but in general it works in the way that it serves its role in society. Now I saw a GI specialist and he palpated my abdomen for about 10 seconds and he asked if I had any other issues and I said asthma since childhood and it kind of piqued his interest. He said huh that's interesting and he wrote it down. So something about the link between asthma and digestive problems was interesting to him. Now he recommended a colonoscopy. At the ripe old age of 22 his very first recommendation was go get a colonoscopy.  I don't have any serious issues besides lack of bowel movements and lack of appetite. So I canceled the colonoscopy and the GI specialist said you know sounds like IBS so that was my last diagnosis and the last time I ever went to the modern medical system for treating my problem. Now years later I had read most of the modern medical biomedical textbooks for digestive disorders. The Yamada or Yamashita textbook on gastroenterology the merc manual and all these things and it was ironic that almost none of them mentioned diet. It was a little bit peculiar to me so some years later elapsed and sometime passed and I became an entrepreneur. I'd been a personal trainer. I took my business online because I love to travel and the stress of running a business and having a day job at the same time made these issues a lot worse and I started having other sleep issues and things that were going on. So around this time I met a guy in a cafe and he was dealing with a very severe almost life threatening illness and he said you know you should check out this dude he does Chinese medicine and it's funny because I lived in China for over a year and yet I never thought about studying Chinese medicine. I never even thought that it would be a path I would go down and so I saw this guy and the very first session this acupunctureist said to me you know it's not surprising that you have asthma and you have these digestive disorders because the lung and the large intestine share the same channel pair in Chinese medicine. So they are literally a channel pair which means they can have shared pathology and they have shared functions on some levels. They both deal with descending. Now that was the first time anyone ever said these two things you have you've had since birth there's a reason for them.  The whole medical system had never even given me an explanation. So now my interest is peaked and he said you know what this is what you need to do and this is why you have these other problems and he completely nailed it. He gave me an explanation. He told me why. He said what we were going to do as far as the treatment approach goes and then he gave me an herbal formula and the very first formula he gave me I had an almost daily bowel movement for 29 days the first time in my life in 26 years that I had ever almost had a daily bowel movement and obviously I felt amazing. Now that was really you know that little thread of destiny that brought me to Chinese medicine. That was just a small piece but for me it is not like I philosophically agree with Chinese medicine or I like the idea of Chinese medicine or it's spiritual and deals with spirit. I'm in this field because it works clinically and in fact many of the patients that we see don't even get results from conventional medicine. So it's ironic that alternative medicine is perceived as something that's ruined doesn't get results but in my experience it's the exact opposite. It's often clinically more effective than modern biomedical practice and that is a little bit about my story about how I found my way to Chinese medicine and since then I've grown to understand how it not only is a philosophy of healing that works clinically for very very very sick people all the way from just bloating to cancer but it's also a philosophy that can help you live a better life and that has been proven over millennia. So I hope that helps there's a little bit about my story about how I was led to this medicine and why I'm here and why I believe that it should be first and foremost viewed as a clinically effective medicine for making serious problems go away and I hope that if you've been pondering whether or not to try it first you should and let you know the results are right there the proof is in the pudding. I hope that video helped give you a little bit of insight into who I am and my experience with dealing with illness over decades and how Chinese medicine helped me a lot. Now the best way to stay in touch is to come grab that free guide five daily rituals to add 10 years to your life with traditional or classical Chinese medicine. You can download that on my website right there for free or in the description box there below.


Good afternoon folks. We're going to start this session where we're going to be talking about biofuels and There are so many issues so much information oftentimes misinformation that is out in the public domain with regard to to biofuels and biofuels are an extremely important part of our energy portfolio and and Thinking about what our energy mix really needs to be as we in terms of what it currently is and as we move forward and Again, there are a raft of technologies so many different aspects and again Every region of the country can be a player in terms of the production of biofuels It's another very very important piece in terms of thinking about our overall renewables portfolio and How it affects so many different sectors of the economy and obviously it's very very important as we look at transportation So to start us off today each of our speakers is going to take just eight or nine minutes and to start off today We will hear from Joanne Ivanic who is the executive director of advanced biofuels USA Thank You Carol I'm going to talk a little bit first about what advanced biofuels USA is a couple of points about some of the policy issues and legislative issues that are ongoing and Then I want to open up to a question. So I'm hoping that most of the time here. We can answer questions and Actually, I can then talk about things that are of interest to you Advanced biofuels USA is a nonprofit educational Organization we are not a trade group. So we don't represent a membership we have been formed to advocate for the understanding development and use of advanced biofuels as an energy security Economic development Military strategic flexibility Climate change mitigation and pollution control solution Biofuels come as as Carol was saying they can come and be made just about anywhere and they have many many values attached to them What we hope to have is an Coherent energy policy in the country that includes this and when it gets down to the agency levels to have a Harmonized regulatory structure one of the problems that we have now and I'm not going to go into the details unless you ask questions Is some of our regulations promote the development of renewable fuels? And then some of them take that away and and hinder the development of renewable fuels We'd like to have the DOE and USDA and EPA regulations in harmony The other important word here is sustainable I'm mostly talking about Transportation fuels land sea and air transportation because I think in in other sessions you've heard about power and heat So in that regard quickly Few policy issues that we're interested in renewable fuel standard Should be continued There should be tax policy certainty Agricultural Department of Agricultural Projects such as the BCAP program the biomass crop assistance program and REAP really need to be funded and The advanced biofuels memorandum of understanding among DOE USDA and The Department of Navy needs to be funded Doe contractings authority they need to be able to think beyond five years when they're doing contracts for fuels so that general statement of policies that relate to biofuels is About what I want to talk about so are there any questions that you all have about biofuels advanced biofuels that I might be able to answer Yeah funding money Financing investment How many more ways can I say that that that is? That is the main Issue and a related issue is market and that's where Government comes in like I said there's these regulations that on one hand given on the other hand take away We have the renewable fuel standard that has a it says that it is valuable to this country to be Putting more biofuels into our ground transportation structure, and on the other hand we have cafe standards the the Energy vehicle energy efficiency standards that don't give you credit for For doing that transition if it decreases your mileage So you might be able to we went to a conference yesterday about next generation engines If next generation's engines are going to get 50 or 60 miles per gallon if they can use higher octane fuels a Great and very cost-effective way to get that higher octane is to get it from ethanol from going to say 30% ethanol blend but You don't get any That mileage may be increased in that future, but right now if you have a flex fuel vehicle, and you use it the Recognition of that is dying is is is expiring so the automobile manufacturers are not incentivized to build vehicles that get that use biofuels if it's going to give you Not optimize the mileage that they can get so we can get optimized performance with higher octanes, but it might affect the Mileage that they might maybe be able to be able to get another way And so that's where their incentive is rather than to go the renewable route So so there's two things the funding and making sure there's a market because without a market you're not going to get funding Yeah, there are some cellulosic plants that should be coming online in the next year or so however The vast majority we are still working on a lot of different technologies a lot of people say There's not a silver bullet. There's silver shot. It depends on what kind of feedstock you can grow or what kinds of agricultural waste or Municipal waste that you can access most economically and then that should be the Technology that is going to be important for you to use and there's still a lot of research and development That needs to be financed to take that through pilot stages Demonstration to get to commercial. It doesn't just leap to commercial these are things that have never been done before and To be able to prove them you do them at a measured pace and that takes a lot of money It takes the this DOE memorandum that we're talking about was only a half a million dollars It can and it can cost a couple hundred million dollars just to build your your demonstration refinery not not even worried about all the way it commercial so so that is We're not quite there yet. We haven't proved it out. We can't do it tomorrow, but we can do a big piece of it tomorrow I think we can take more questions, you know, hopefully later and so anyway, thank you. I think you join Thank you, and and one of the things I wanted to mention because I think that we will hear more in terms of some of our Other speakers with regard to some of the the technologies that are underway because there is a lot that is happening and a lot of plants that are In feedstocks a lot of very interesting interesting things that are happening across the country in terms of soil loss Facilities and so I think We're going to be hearing And I'd be happy to talk to you more about some of that as well as as all of our speakers We're now going to turn to and Stuckel who is the vice president of governmental affairs And she is with the national biodiesel board Thanks for that introduction Carol appreciate it good afternoon everyone as Carol said I'm and Stuckel with the national biodiesel board and The national biodiesel board for those of you that don't know is the trade association that represents biodiesel producers and feedstock Makers all across the country a little bit of background on biodiesel Biodiesel is the renewable fuel alternative to diesel So it is a fully renewable it can be made from a variety of feedstocks We use recycled restaurant grease soybean oil canola oil Camelina oil animal fats algae Are just a few of our feedstocks that can be used to produce biodiesel and most of our plants are optimized to blend on Whatever feedstock is available in their area for example if we have a plant in New York City So that obviously uses a lot of recycled restaurant grease We have plants in the Midwest and that uses soybean oil So depending on where the plants are located usually depends on what feedstock we use We have a hundred and ninety five biodiesel plants in virtually every state across the country and We have been around For about 20 years or so Last year we reached our billion gallon mark in in terms of production Which sounds like a lot and it's a very proud thing for our industry However, when you think about it, we're blending that billion gallon into a 60 billion gallon diesel pool So we're still a relatively small part of the industry And biodiesel has really worked very well due to a lot of federal policies I know that there's been a lot of discussion today and obviously in Congress about energy policy And people kind of reviewing energy policy in the future of it and Carol alluded to that a bit Two policies that have been very beneficial to our industry has been the biodiesel tax credit Unfortunately the biodiesel tax credit did expire at the end of last year It's a dollar a gallon tax credit So we are working with folks on Capitol Hill to hopefully have that tax credit extended It's been really important for our industry in terms of providing stability and capital As well as kind of an outgrowth to provide more diversity for our plants across the country It's a difficult political situation as everybody is aware in terms of getting any policy through Congress let alone tax policies So it seems like the extenders provisions will probably be done in a lame duck session But we're certainly working with folks on Capitol Hill to let them know how important it is to our industry That we do have the biodiesel tax credit extended Our industry supports about 39,000 jobs across the country When we lost the tax credit in 2010 we saw about half of our industry go away So having that stability in that policy is very important In 2010 we were not a part of the renewable fuel standard now The renewable fuel standard is the other part of the federal policy That has been very beneficial to our industry in terms of getting us up and running We are part of the renewable fuel standard. We operate under the biomass based diesel portion of it Like I said, we we have volumes every year that we have to produce last year We are mandated to produce 800 billion gallons of biodiesel and we produced a billion So we're very proud of that this year. We will produce probably around the billion gallon mark as well So having that stability in terms of the renewable fuel standard and keeping that whole is something that that we're very Working very hard to do there's been a lot of talk about changing it or reevaluating it And we feel that from our industry's perspective We've gotten on to a solid footing And feel that it's kind of the next few years are going to be very important to the growth of our industry and Biodiesel is considered an advanced biofuel EPA has designated it an advanced biofuel. It means it reduces greenhouse gas emissions by at least 50% So depending on what feedstock you use to make biodiesel out of we reduce greenhouse gashes reduce greenhouse gases Between 56 and 86 percent. So we're very proud of that and are pleased to be considered an advanced biofuel That's a little bit of an overview of my industry I don't know if I have time for questions or you want to do that at the end The feedstocks that we use to make biodiesel soybean oil is the most popular. It's about 40 Or 40 or so percent 45 percent is made of soybean oil and then the rest is comprised of recycled restaurant grease That's very big animal fats and camalina and canola make up the rest of it and a bit of algae Sure We have a lot of capacity so we certainly are Positive that we're going to meet the billion gallon mark We are around 526 million gallons that we've produced so far. So we're well on our way to meeting the one billion gallon mark And the RIN fraud that you mentioned Unfortunately, there there were a few bad actors that created these things called false RINs Which is the accounting system for how you measure biodiesel production The EPA has done an excellent job in policing them and ending fraud in the system And so we feel very confident. We're working with the obligated parties with the oil with the oil community To find a collaborative effort to make sure that all of those RINs going forward are going to be Validated and people feel very confident in the marketplace And now we will turn to Tom bias who is the CEO of growth energy who can talk about About ethanol and some of the very important policy measures there Thanks, Carol and It's pretty tough act to follow with Joanne and then they talked about both the advanced fuels and biodiesel And I guess I'm here to talk about Ethanol I represent growth energy. We have 79 plant producing members across the country With about 25,000 what we call ethanol supporters anyone that wants to stand up and challenge all this misinformation that's been perpetuated by some of the vested interests that have Expended tens of millions of dollars to try to Stop the production of renewable energy and if you look around and you listen to what's happening in Congress today it's not They trained their sights on ethanol first because ethanol Is a viable alternative? We're 10% of the market in Anytime you start to succeed in producing alternatives those who have the market aren't going to give it up and That's why you've seen a lot of negativity over the past three or four years Because we actually are producing a sufficient amount that challenges market share and we know we can do more As we move forward through the requirements of the And the goals and targets of the renewable fuel standard to get to 36 billion gallons by 2022 It's entirely doable and still bulb and a variety of fronts the groups that previous two speakers Represent as well as Cellulosic ethanol the next generation of cellulose someone asked about that question there's actually been four plants that have Put steel in the ground this year for production next year one of those plants is a member of ours They're building a bold-on cellulosic plant in Emmitsburg, Iowa Next to a corn ethanol plant they're going to capture the efficiencies of both in distribution storage marketing etc and the Corn obviously they into the corn ethanol industry comes from the local farmers But the feedstock for the cellulose will to it comes from corn stover They're going to use about 20% of the corn stover on those fields, which doesn't affect fertility doesn't affect the soil Tilt but it'll be used as a feedstock It'll produce 25 million gallons of cellulosic ethanol the byproduct being Lignin which they're going to take the lignin turn to energy which will power both the corn ethanol plant and the cellulose Cellulosic ethanol plant so the fossil fuel use at those facilities will drop to zero It's exciting new technology, but I think one thing you have to keep in mind The renewable fuel standard which set targets for cellulosic ethanol wasn't even passed until 2007 and Immediately after it passed this nation and the world experienced the worst economic recession in our lifetimes If not ever worldwide with the collapse investors lenders Went to the sidelines and so the industry and investment into the industry Went on hold We're just now starting to see people Come back into the marketplace and start to invest the hundreds of millions of dollars that it cost to build a bio refinery of next generation biofuels But the big missing component to all this Leads me sort of into my my next issue and that's the marketplace We have a renewable fuel standard that says 36 billion gallons by 2022 But we have a requirement and a mandate that 90% of all the fuel That goes into your autos and light-duty trucks be fossil fuel based oil Only 10% ethanol can go in there and so we call that the blend wall We're up against the blend wall. We consume about a hundred and thirty five billion gallons of gasoline annually in this nation 10% of that which is the limit for Alternatives is a hot as 13.5 billion gallons last year. We produced a 14.6 Billion gallons. So there's no market signal Out there for people to invest in that next generation and trust me somebody's going to crack the code on it our member plants using Corn stover other plants that are under construction use things like a Dedicated cane crop not sugar cane, but a fast-growing cane. We got you got alls wood wood waste a number of Types of feedstock so we really have a 50-state solution to our energy crisis and we can do it But we have to crack crack that blend wall and to crack the blend wall Growth energy shortly after we were formed Filed a waiver with the EPA to ask to move that blend wall from 10% to 15% and I grew up on a farm and did a lot of hard jobs in my life Nothing has been as hard as this Every possible regulatory and legal hurdle that one could imagine has been erected We've cleared every one of them, but it's three and a half years And we just finally last week cleared the last federal hurdle to get 15% ethanol into the marketplace And what's what's that do for the industry that sends the signal for that next generation? First generation is capped out at 15 billion gallons So it's not all going to come from there, but the next generation Has to have that market signal now the e15 challenge is not over While we won the regulatory battle on the federal level We have to replicate that in a number of states many states have different rules and regulations on fuel We also have to educate the consumers Because keep in mind As I mentioned earlier hundreds of millions of dollars have been spent by the the people that don't want to see our industry succeed And to run up the negatives passing out all kinds of misinformation I've been in Washington for 25 years in that 25 years. I've heard some pretty big tall tales Whoppers lies, whatever you want to call them, but never one as big as the food versus fuel A campaign that was instituted by the vested interests And let me explain why in the distillation process of the first-gen ethanol plant They primarily uses corn some use sorghum, but the only thing removed from that kernel of corn is the starch That's one third of the kernel The Co-product after we convert that starch into ethanol all the fiber all the All the protein all the oil is returned for an animal feed Now, I don't know how many of you've had some number two corn here recently to eat Nobody it's not a food crop. It goes for pigs chickens and cattle So unless you get some real good grinding teeth, you don't eat number two yellow corn But the co-product in the ethanol distillation process is a very high value high protein Feed supplement called distillers grains it comes out at 27 28 percent protein And it's one third of the volume of the original kernel of corn and 45 percent of the value of feed It's not our product is not made out of Canned corn sweet corn candy corn or popcorn. It's made out of animal feed. There's different types of corn So anyway, we have to overcome the challenges and the perceptions We have to have the right public policy on the regulatory side on the legal side Or legal if need be and oftentimes that has to take place, too And on the legislative side especially What's happening in Congress today is there's a lot of scuttlebutt about eliminating the renewable fuel standard And if any of you want to do anything you can for the next generation of fuels whether it's biodiesel advanced drop-ins Cellulose whatever it is write a letter urge them not to mess with the renewable fuel standard because What it will do it'll stop the next generation We won't stop the first generation because corn ethanol or grain ethanol is the cheapest fuel in the world We're a dollar a gallon under the price of gasoline were two dollars under the alternative octane that they can refine into Oil to make gasoline so we're gonna be around the next generation is what's being stopped So write those letters. It's the only significant energy policy This nation has had since the first OPEC oil embargo in the early 70s. It's working. We're just five years into it. We've already met gen one Requirements as Ann talked about there. They're really ramping up production on the biodiesel Component and we can do this but we can't do it if we roll it back. It'll be set in America back Thanks girl As our speakers have said, you know, starting with the Joe and in terms of thinking about market and the investment that is required in terms of looking at at Cellulose can advance biofuels to you know, what we heard from Ann and Tom with regard to thinking about policy the need to Really think very seriously about the whole role of the renewable fuel standard if we're really concerned about Particularly in terms of transportation fuels and looking at the whole role of oil in the economy and if we're really looking at what we can do in terms of what this means on fuels on security and on economic development let alone a variety of other Environmental issues. So are there other questions in our few remaining minutes? Okay, go ahead You know in the European Union It's required to have the sustainability certification. The REG provides any We don't hear in the US, but do you think that could help potentially with the market perception especially if that's not I think You know, it really helped there the perception of it. This seems like a paradox In the last few years and it seems like that kind of like proof of Really being a A number of our plants are already qualified In the United States we have Like for California to meet our standards we have totally different requirements than we do for the federal government We get tagged with this phony Charge called indirect international land use change which nobody can prove there's no scientific Unity on it. They don't even have Modeling and even the regulatory regulatory agencies at EPA and in California have said well, we know it's not it's not right yet But we're going to go ahead which is kind of a bad way to do business regulate someone before you can prove it But you know, I don't think anyone really challenges as really challenged Our our nation's farmers on the sustainability on how they produce the crop, but I do know a number of plants have Signed up and been approved for for Europe Okay I think it would extend it longer only because if you do the math a fuel consumption the United States keeps coming down And this year it's projected to well the first few months of this year It was down even though we had favorable weather in the winter months high gas prices discourages consumption and The record high prices that we've been seeing this has really put a dampening effect on it right now if you take 15 percent of a hundred and thirty It's a billion gallons. That's about What 20 billion close to 20 billion gallons? And we're producing the capacity is about 14.9 under current production So it would depend upon how fast people build it out The infrastructure, I think you had it on the infrastructure about the retailers That's another one of those challenges that we've had to meet but In in I think everyone will tell you that's not a big challenge most of the tanks that are in the retail Establishments are capable of handling up to e 100 ethanol The pumps Depends upon the age the newer pumps are are are capable of handling 15 percent ethanol. Obviously flex pumps can handle 10 15 25 up to 85 And there's kits coming that soon Will be on the marketplace for less than a thousand dollars to be able to convince one convert one But if you compare the infrastructure challenges that we face in higher blends of ethanol And I think Joanne was talking about the cars that tomorrow They're minuscule to the infrastructure changes for any other type of fuel Compare that to what would it take for hydrogen cell Or electric vehicle infrastructure or for crying out loud natural gas, you know people talking about natural gas It's a huge infrastructure cost to change over And we're still a renewable fuel too. So We think it can be done gas stations rotate their pumps every ten years roughly Especially in the higher volume areas and it's really interesting to hear about the kits I hadn't heard about that and at that low a price to do the pump conversion pretty incredible Yeah, and the only reason they needed to do that Carol and you're probably aware of this is underwriters laboratory, which certifies equipment Said they're not going to certify any existing equipment or recertify existing equipment and Then they ran some tests And used not real-world fuel but used the most acidic fuel they could find out there to see in conjunction with I think the Department of Energy and The tests were designed for failure E10 would have failed on those probably E0 would fail on it We asked him to do that they kind of declined but Okay, great, okay last question You know Well, we don't quite have the resources of our competitor that industry it starts with O and ends with L Maybe has an I in between but we've done pretty well We started national campaign Advertising first time ever for the ethanol industry a couple of years ago On all the cable channels and then last year we partnered with NASCAR to move and you know Racing series needs fuel and we provide fuel and then we provide a high-performance fuel And we got them to switch all of their cars and trucks in their top three series to E15 They've now put two minute over two million miles in competition on it Haven't had any engine issues. They got increased horsepower and they got as good if not better fuel mileage So they became also a third-party validator and for NASCAR if you're not a fan You may be in the minority because I think one in four adults are fans of NASCAR. They have like 80 million followers and This offered us a way to get to the consumer to show them the good value of what a great product and have a third-party validator so Our big challenge is is educating people about the benefits. You know, we know we're cleaner We know we're produced here in America. We know we do reduce our dependence on foreign oil We create jobs jobs that can't be outsourced. It's cleaner for the air and it's cheaper for consumers But it doesn't do you any good if nobody knows it and that's why we've tried to step up and we just two weeks ago Set in place a multi-million dollar PR campaign around the E15 That's currently out there running including sweepstakes so You can win a variety of prizes and other stuff and so far it's going well Let me add a couple of things to that one is our Existence the existence of advanced biofuels USA.  We have a worldwide audience. We get about averaging like five thousand Unique visitors a month. So there's there's people using us and and we just also provide, you know Personal resource of people who call us on the on the racing issue Indy if you don't like NASCAR you might like Indy car and they race on E85 great You start our last panel, but I hope you'll go ahead and ask your question of of our speakers So I want to thank you all very very much really really important issues and there's lots more that we need to do about them