Welcome to the After Hours podcast, hosted by Harry Haas and James Friedlender, presented by My Investing Club. What's up guys? We are back with another episode of the After Hours podcast. Today we have a super special guest, we are Alex, got a pretty good return it. So thank you for coming on with me, what's going on? It's good to be on. And if you guys don't know, we're recording this at 8 a.m. on December 29, two days before New Year, man. Yep. I'm depressed at this year's over. I feel like it went like that. Bro, I haven't explained to everyone that like the last two months, I would say November and December felt like an eternity.   It's crazy. Like when COVID, like when COVID first hit, right?  It was like just about a year old. Now it's like we're going on three years of this. Yeah, bro. Crazy. Our first, our first, I guess, year of MIC, we threw like eight meetups, bro. We threw a meetup every other month because that's that's what we want to do. Our entire mission was to bring traders together because we knew how lonely it was going to be. Right. And then COVID hit.  Now we went from having all that fun and meeting everyone and everything to being forced to be locked down and don't get me wrong.    So I'm glad that it's slowly starting to change. I'm glad that it's slowly starting to get better. And, you know, I don't think this COVID thing is going away, but I think that it's something that we're going to have to get used to. You know what I'm saying? Yeah, I agree. I agree. I think one thing that's really cool, and I went out to dinner with a few friends the other night and we were just chatting about MIC actually. I was saying how it originally was so cool because what we could get together and like meet in person. But through COVID, like, I think what makes MIC so special is we all are really close.  So it was like all the mods, everybody were so close. And it's like, it really is like a tight knit family. So I think it's that's what makes this community so special too. It's true, bro. It's true. Like, like we're having our meetup next month in California. And I'm really excited, bro. Like we got over a hundred people showing up and that's just the people that register. So it might be close to 200 people, bro.   You know, I know, Harry, I'm bummed that you can't make it out. Dude, I'm trying my best. Um, everything's changing daily. So, you know, I hear, I hear care. That's kind of kind of stripped of that stuff. Yeah, like even like here, like we went from like everything was like open to like 50% capacity to restaurants to like if you travel, you have to like quarantine for two weeks too. But if I don't know, because like we might be back to complete normal, like everything changes so frequently and it's like unexpected. Yeah, so you just, you never know. It is what it is. But hopefully we're moving on and whatever we'll move on from the COVID stuff and at least for you, you don't have Tom Diesel showing up. I know I did. I'm trying to get a private jet out here. So what do you guys do for New Year's? Any plans? Well, for me, I'm not really sure yet on anything either.    We're not even having dinner anymore.  So I mean, I don't know what's going to happen, but I really don't know.  I have like the king suite at Angkor, which is like a casino in Boston. It was so fun. Dude, it's sick. It's sick. And we were going to go up before we had like a table at some bar and our club and it was going to be sick. Everyone has COVID, every single one of us. Everyone has COVID right now. So I'm not, I'm not too sure. I think my New Year's is going to be kind of fucked, which really sucks.  I mean, like I'm going to go to Miami and just try to do something over there, but like, bro, to be honest, like, I don't know. It's just, it's just kind of sketchy right now everywhere, bro. I really don't know, but COVID doesn't exist in Miami. So you're good to go. It doesn't exist in Miami. It's just, it's different out there, bro. It's different out there. The lifestyle is different.   Like, what are they selling drugs? Like, how can you make this much money and not work? You know what I'm saying? Oh, yeah. Anyway, bro, I follow your brother. He is a living man all the time. What is what an animal man?  Alex, how did you, I guess, how did you deal with that?  How do you like deal with that actually like day to day? Cause you have a job that technically you can make as much as you want. But you can sit here all day and make money if you wanted to, I suppose. But how do you deal with that? Cause that's tough. Huh. So I don't know, bro. Like to be honest, like I just, it just, it makes me curious, bro. I would say I'm a very curious person. I like, I think it may be just because like we're men, we like to learn how things work.  And if I ever need more ink, I could get ink on this.   To make to make a hundred grand is hard to make half a million dollars. It's very hard to make a million dollars as near impossible to make 10 million dollars a year. I get curious, bro.  Because to me, bro, I'm just, I just want to learn, bro. I just want to learn. So to me, when I see these people and when I see what they're doing, I mean, I just sometimes I get curious if I have the opportunity to ask.   But to me, bro, it seems like real estate and stock market is how these people become mega rich. And if you own a public company, if whatever reason, that's how you become billionaire status, right? Because that's the only way, bro. The only way to become a billionaire, in my opinion, is to have a public company because the valuations are so extreme. Your company can make a hundred million dollars in revenue and you're worth five billion, you know what I'm saying? So for me, bro, it's just curiosity. I always want to know how people are making money. And I've learned that's real estate and stock market. And, you know, I have some stock market holdings. I have some investments. I do like some some things on the side. But, you know, I like to stick to what I'm good at. And I don't really have real estate because it's not something that I understand, you know what I'm saying? Like I have to be educated first. I understand that no matter what we do, we have to learn. So just because I have a spare million dollars doesn't mean that I'm going to go buy a million dollar property and then become a landlord all of a sudden.  I don't know about the landscape.  So I think the people that become mega, mega rich are experts in their field, right?     So that's where I park a lot of my money. I park a lot of my money into these assets that I know are legit. And I know someone that I used to trade with at S&B Capital. I would say maybe he's making. Conservatively, ten million dollars a year, let's say, right? Conservatively, what he does, it takes all 10 million, puts it all in spy.  They think 20 percent a year, right? So I don't I don't want to I don't want to be the guy that tries to master everything. I'm really, really good at the market. And I think I've been looking at spy for the last eight years. And sure, eventually it's going to go down. But let's say the market goes up 20 percent for five years. For the three years that it goes down 10 percent.  It's just a game of time. So I like to park my money into things that I understand. I understand the market. So I park it there. I've been kind of messing around like some venture capital stuff because I'm trying to learn. So I'm parking it there and I have some crypto investments. I hold Ethereum. I hold a little bit of Bitcoin, no shitcoins, because I understand the technology. But real estate, real estate, I don't understand it yet. And when I have the opportunity to learn and when I have the opportunity to slowly dive in, I will get there too. But I already know how to make a shitload of money. It's the market and real estate.    Right.   Yeah. That's good. I love that. I mean, something I've dealt with that's like, so I think it's hard. It's like, maybe it's just private, because I've been trading out three years. And I mean, here, I don't know if you ever felt this too, but like. Mary, how long have you been trading? Almost five, six years now, like a long, long, long time. What's due? I think the hump is like two years.  Yeah. The second year you start to get a little bit of traction. If you could complete that second year, I think it's one. Yeah. And I mean, now, like even for me, like I'm even moving past the day ones, like I've been really still working hard on just getting better. And where I've made the most money this year has not necessarily always been day one thought, but then these multi day runners where they've kind of like held up for day one. They've held up a little bit for day two and then like day three and four, that type of move where everyone's kind of shorting on day one. They're hoping for it to be everyone shorting on day two. They're hoping for you found your niche. Now you found exactly what works for you. Yeah. Yeah. So that was when I really kind of like took off. Like I remember like a lot of people are messaging me like, oh, what'd you see on the tape on LVGN? And I was like, and I messaged a lot of people. It wasn't necessarily about the tape. It was just the fact that this thing had not been breaking down at all. Like it should have. And especially when I when I like a lot of people, they first start longing and then they move into shorting because they understand that long game of being trapped and being a bag holder and being whatever. But I started with shorting. So I almost kind of reversed. That's crazy. I almost kind of like reversed that type of role where I understood just like, you know, you're you're short something and then it's not going down. It's not going down. It's not going down.    I know everyone's saying that and I'm completely in agreement with them. Like eventually it is going to go back to zero. But it's that time of when people start to get emotional and keep fighting and keep fighting. And then we kind of get that bigger move.  You do not try and long that thing.  Like I was like, and it was like a signal that it would crater, you know? Yeah, it's crazy that you started the other way.  Yeah. And I mean, also, I think like a part of it now is that I recognize that like day ones, like and like this is what I've been kind of talking about in the other podcast as well as like the day ones.  So when we have credit, right? When we have everyone long, it's just goes the other way. So I found for a lot of these day ones, like I don't recommend shorting them at all. But I also don't recommend longing them and trying to chase the top either. Like, you know, I get some DMs all the time just about that. So I mean, just for me, like it's just been such a headache every single morning where I'm like, yeah, I'm watching it. I'll take a look, but even for Austin, too, like me and Austin talk a lot on a daily basis, just about like the current market and stuff like that. And it's just been a headache. So I just started focusing really on the kind of multi day runners. And that is what has kind of given me the most edge, not necessarily day two low hang crew, because like, I don't recommend that at all. But the stuff that kind of keep moving and keep moving forward, that's what I kind of focus on, you know, I say and all that. But I think I think the biggest problem is that and we talk, I mean, we've talked to us a million times, just everyone's in such a hurry to get there and they act like to have a job that you can have freedom for the rest of your life, you deserve to make that money in the first year. I mean, it really is. It's like year one, like you said, you have no idea what you're doing. You're two, you're finding a little bit of footing. I found like year three is where like the confidence came in. Maybe it's just because it's more timing, like you're seeing in front of the screens.  And some guy goes, how did you do that? And it's like people just no one can no one pays attention. No one does it. And it's like, you know, the M.I.C. process is there because it actually puts like a I would say a jumpstart to your timetable significantly, you almost can. I don't want to say skip it. You kind of feel like you skip that kind of like very, very newbie stage. And I see it with members all the time. You know, I have two things that. Number one is I have come up on my eight year anniversary.   It's just impossible, bro.  Like the way you have to think about it, bro, is you you have the potential and I'm sure I'm making I think this year is a little three million called whatever called three million, right?  I know a guy that made twenty million dollars this year. Trade, right? I'm a nobody. It doesn't matter. But the point is that it took me and that guy's been trained for 10 years, right? 10 years. Well, it took me years and years and years to get here. And if you think that you're going to make more money than a doctor, a lawyer and an engineer combined in your first year, it's impossible, bro. It's impossible. This is this is like you being a professional athlete.  You have to show up every single day to practice. You have to show up every day. And then once you get really good at it, then you will get your opportunity. But this is your opportunity.   Yeah, it's just to me. There's been a lot. It's no brainer, bro. It's no brainer. But the problem is it's it's it's my mindset is long term, bro. My mindset has always been long term. And that's why I could take those $2,000 days.   And because I cannot afford to be stressed, it forces me to take the easy trade because, bro, I'm 27 years old.  Like, I've been at the extreme highs. I've been at the extreme lows because of trading. I never want to get back to the extreme lows and the extreme highs never feel as good as the extreme lows. So I'm in this middle ground. I'm in the middle ground of I don't make the most money on the year, but you better believe that I am stress free.  And essentially a couple extra million, let's say another million dollars that I make is going to make me more depressed than happy because I'm not going to use that extra million anyway. I'm not going to use it. So why am I trying to do it? It's competition. It's ego. It's everything. It's all the evils inside of you. And to be honest, like I got no problem making three million dollars a year working an hour a day.   I could do whatever I want, but there's no reason to be pushing hard. There's no reason to be forcing because eventually there's going to be like a graph where the more money you make, the sadder you're going to get because the more stress is going to entail. So you need to find a sweet spot between stress free and your goals. Right.  Sure. I mean, 500 to $2,000 a day in your sleep. Sure.  Right. And to me, bro, that's powerful.  That's top one percent. So like, I think people because of social media, because of Twitter, because of all this shit, they try to do more. They think that they got to be the guy that makes 10 million dollars a year. And if you're that guy making 10 million dollars a year, I guarantee it's not stress free. I guarantee that it's not easy. And you have to go back and realize what you want to do. If you want your entire life to be trading, go ahead and make 10 million dollars a year. And then when you become rich and you have no friends, no family, you'll realize that it was wasted.  The guy that's making 10 million dollars a year. Trust me, bro. What he's doing with those extra millions is he's just buying property that he's not using. What's the point? It's true. It's as I get older, too. I just did this whole post on it actually. So this weekend I went to Portland, Maine with my girlfriend and one of my friends and we ran into this couple and we were just we just had a bar. We're talking and I didn't tell him what I do for work. We weren't even really talking about it. But he was a little bit older than his 30s. He was just saying how he's done well for himself. But the best thing he has is he has unlimited time. And he has all this time in the world to spend with his wife. You know, his family, everything.  He was miserable.  So now he thought he just found a new job that pays extremely well, but nothing crazy has no stress, nothing. And he's like extremely happy. And that's something I've noticed in you out in like, because so now I've been watching you trade for like almost four years or whatever.  Everything that moved, you were just in.  But the stress, and we used to talk on the phone about this, the stress was so obnoxious, just not worth it at all. And seeing you now, it's like, you almost are at this like zen. And you're already just like, you're happy, you're good, and you're consistent with what you're doing. And I think that's probably why you make as much money as you do now. You gotta find a sweet spot, bro. Like when I was trading, I was trading at any given day on any given small cap stock. I had anywhere between 50,000 to 150,000 shares any day, right? And by using that type of size, it kind of made me, it kind of made me a little bit unemotional to the size because after you're trading that much size for that much, like for that long, you have nothing to do but be emotionless because you cannot focus on the money. You must focus on the setup. And because I use so much size, when I drop my size down to like 5,000 shares from 150,000 shares, bro, I could get up. I could go get coffee.   And I still wouldn't care. I still wouldn't care because using that much size in the past and dropping it down, brought me back to reality, brought me back to normal. And now, bro, now I never want to use that type of size again.  All I gotta do is keep doing what I'm doing. Just a little bit better.    It's useless. It's useless to me, bro. It's just, sure, I want to make, everyone wants to make 100 million. Everyone wants to make 10 million. Everyone wants to make 20 million. But once you to get to that point, you must first make 100,000. You must first make 500,000. You must first make a million after you make that million.  You've helped this, helped that, done everything that you need. And you still have money left over.   What makes me happy is the question you're going to ask. And to me, making an extra couple million is not going to make me happy.  And because I live a life with low stress and focus on happiness, just so happens that the world wards me with money. Right? Yeah, I love that. I think everyone should at least learn how to trade for like six months. Everyone in the world, because it's really a journey about kind of like self discovery, I think, and you really kind of discover what you want in life because like you're doing something that has like unlimited potential, but it takes time to kind of figure out and it takes a lot of mastering your own emotions and being in control of yourself. And I think a lot of people, what they don't understand is like, see, I have the exact same mindset and exact same approach as Alex, like as far as stress, as far as like everything you just talked about, like the same type of mindset. But I think like and like I believe the same thing for James, too, like we all do, and it's just because we've been around for a while. And I think we've really kind of been able to find through trading what kind of makes us thick and what kind of makes us better.  If I had this, I'll be happy. If I had that, but they don't really have that kind of like, you know, experience or like trading back. Because like I think when people are trapped in nine to five, like that's all you think about till you're like, whatever, it's just money, whatever. Money is a tool, bro. Money is a tool, right? So for example, it's having having a million dollars in the bank. This does not directly lead to happiness. It is what you do with that money that will in turn lead to that. So for example, let's say like, OK, I'll give you an example. So for Christmas, Christmas just passed like five days ago and I bought myself like a new watch.  I bought myself a new watch because I like art. I like timepieces. I like store value, whatever. I spent a lot of money on this watch. And what I did is it made me a little bit happy. Don't get me wrong. Like I was I was happy. Like on a scale from one to 10, I was probably like an eight. But what I did is one of my family members, her husband lost her job because of covid and they've been kind of struggling. They don't really have much money.   And that didn't mean that twenty thousand dollars, which is just a fraction of what I spent on my watch, giving that to her, seeing her reaction, and being able to change her life because of that got my happiness to a 10 on the scale. So the twenty thousand compared to, let's say, the hundred thousand. Yeah. The money, right, spending more money sure made me a little bit happy, but even spending less money and using it for something better brought that happiness scale higher. You know what I'm saying? If you're not happy before the million, you're not going to be happy after.  It's like, like I said, I think it's just hard.  And then you just you compare it to yourself so hard.   When I go out to a steak dinner, I can go out with my friends. I can go by myself. I get steak. I get a drink. I get it makes me generally just smile. I don't know what it is.  I love trying food and everything. You know what it is for me, bro? You know what I really love? I really love being able to click the button that says overnight shipping extra fifty dollars.   It's the best feeling ever, bro. I love that. No more ground shipping for free.  I hit fifty dollars.  Yeah, that was like when I sent you the floating shoe thing and it was in 30 seconds. You're like, all right, I'll be here tomorrow. And I was like, this is crazy. But it's it, dude. It's like these little things in life that really do make you happy. It's like, you don't have to make, of course, I want to make 10, 20 million dollars a year, of course.     And that's the big money is possible.  So by being in here, you have the right foundation and it is up to you to choose how much money you would like to make. Right. If you only want to make five hundred dollars a day, we could teach you.   But before you can master making a thousand dollars or a hundred thousand, you must master how to make a hundred. Right.  If you don't know how to make a hundred, you cannot make a hundred thousand. So stop trying to go for a hundred thousand when you can't even make a hundred. Yeah. And I think the big the big word there that a lot of people forget about is that they focus like on exactly what Alex just said, but they only focus on the hundred dollars or the hundred thousand and they don't focus on the process, which is like the key part of that whole sentence is the process. Is the the steps that you're taking every single morning, the stock selection, the, you know, looking everything up, the flow, you know, the bigger picture. It's it's the process that is going to make you that money. And it's not a story, bro. I had no process. I don't know what a process was. I didn't I didn't get it, bro. And everyone throws around the word process, but no one like no one really explains it. So for me, guys, what a process is that it's a routine and it's a strategy that I could repeat to make money every day. So for me, when I first started, I had no repeatable thing. I had a little bit of a strategy. I was looking for stocks that gapped up and with that. That was my strategy.  I would make money in the morning. The stock would rebound midday. I would get squeezed and I would lose my money. It wasn't until we implemented something to the process called the zombie rule that improved. It wasn't until I started wiring out that things improved. So for me, it took me a while to refine my process.  I'd say it all the time and no one listens. The zombie rule made me a millionaire. The zombie rule made me a millionaire and no one really listens.    Bro, both of us were going for all day faders. We were trading rent just because of stock tanked in the morning and bounce midday. We were like, oh, I'm sure it's bounce. And then it went through high the day.  And let's find, let's create a process. Let's create a routine.  That's where the zombie rule came into play. And then when I started being disciplined with the zombie rule meeting, I followed it every day, bro, I came a millionaire. Yeah. And the thing is that, oh, James, you can go if you want. Go. No, I was just going to say, I hate hearing that people, I hate hearing that people like critique like the zombie rule or they critique like part of the M.I.C. Cross anyway, because at the end of the day, it's all looks back to what we're talking about. It's like, sure, you could stay here all day long and technically trade. Yeah, you could make some money. Yeah, you could lose some money. Most likely you're going to lose some money, but you could stay all day. But what is that extra 500 bucks going to do for you? Right. It's really not going to change much. Your best trades come from that 930 to 1030 slot. After that, it's like you take what the process gives you. It's good money. It's enough. It's plenty. You don't need to stay here all day.  Let's say we finish our trading from, let's say we trade from 9 to 1030. Just make it easy right now and a half, whatever. That's what you make. Well, let's say you make a thousand dollars.   And all of a sudden you still got an hour until the market closed. You could do so much with your life if you just trade the M.I.C. process properly.  And that's why I was actually talking to a member yesterday. His girlfriend DM me on Instagram. Like she lost her father because of covid and one of our members like really helped her like really helped her through it. She's like all he wants for Christmas is just like talk to you. Can you talk to him? I was like, yeah, like I'll call him. Like he's exactly what we want in M.I.C. We want someone that helps other people. And when someone loses their father and the guy is like trading and trying to learn and try to help, I mean, to me, that's exactly the type of person we want. So I was talking to him and basically what we kind of what we kind of got down to is that after a certain amount of after a certain amount of doing this after a certain way of trading after you do all this stuff for enough time, you're going to realize what's really, really important.  And because of that, the world warred him with like a call for me. You know? Yeah, I love that. No, I love that. I love that. Actually, I went back like just like, I don't know, I was just super bored one day and wasn't anything really going on. Also, I live in Canada. So like there's like what you guys have divided by 10. So, you know, I was super bored. So and I was looking at I remember there were a couple of guys who would always trash the zombie rule the bow. They would always like tweet at bow.  So I just searched up like from modern rock. And then I was like, zombie. I was just kind of scrolling down, scrolling down.  Every one of those guys blew up because they were like, they they try so hard to to find something wrong. And they're like, oh, the zombie rule. You're like, I saw a stock fade after 10 30. Like that's that's not a rule. That can't be true. And then all them blew up shorting zombie, right? Even if 30 percent of the stocks go up over high day, keep running after zombie rule. You are going to lose more money on those stocks than you do holding for the fade. It's like the people that said Tesla, Tesla is going bankrupt. Or the market's going to crash three years later. They're all. They're mortgaging their houses to cover everything. It's it's great. The beauty of the M.I.C. process in its simplicity, like the simplicity of it is great. Like I told you as I'm teaching that guy who wants to store next to the shop and like every day he's like, how can it be this easy to make like to make money?  It is easy. It's just, can you stick to it? It is the that's the reason I think 90 percent of people that they fail. They can't fall like a basic guideline, which we have. And like, I don't know. I like this episode a lot because I feel like it really wasn't even about trading or more about like kind of like money and all that stuff. But at the same time, it really does implement back into your day to day trading, just take your money. We're doing something amazing. That's it. And I love it. One last thing before we finish up is you guys have any New Year's resolutions or any things that you're trying to do going into the New Year's? Mine, for sure, I think is just working on like me and my girlfriend both talked about this and we said 2022 is going to be more about like self care. Like my girlfriend is going to graduate from university. And like, you know, I guess like when she was in university, too, it was just like kind of like learning trading. Like you're always stressed out.  Or look at stocks or do whatever. Like, I mean, I can always do that. So like I spent a lot of time with her as well.    I went to do it. I consistently went to the gym five days a week for a year straight.  I felt like really overwhelmed with like life. And I took like a couple of days off and then that turned into a week off.  So I'm going to really try to do that, too. Yeah, that's it happens. I don't know. I think I think for me, my my goal this year is to I really want to find more happiness outside of like kind of what we're talking about outside of anything to do with financials or even just comparison bias. Like I do. I'm one of those people I suffer from it. I find it very hard. I go on Instagram, Twitter, anything.  And I'm like, oh man, like it just it bothers me deep down. I'm like, you know, you got to remember about that, bro.  Like, I know my dude, my girls, uh, friends, like they let's say on an engagement ring, they spent 100 K 75 K that is on a loan. So to me, if you're spending money that you don't have on a ring to show off to other people, you're already fucked. You're already fucked. And that's what everyone does, bro.  It's everyone.   Yeah, I have all those people muted. I literally have everyone on Twitter muted. I have everyone muted except for Alex, Bao, a couple other people. Instagram too.  Yeah, that's why it's just my goal, man. It's my goal. I think it's a good one. Yeah, that's what I do. We do those fuckers.  But Alex, what's your resolution? Um, honestly, bro, my resolution, I guess, is I basically just want to just enjoy my life more, bro. Like I'm, as you guys know, I'm here all day long, seven days a week.   And what I realized is if I even take like a few days off, I feel like a brand new person, but it takes me four, five months of stress to take one week off to my goal, bro, is every quarter I want to take a one week vacation just to start.  That's kind of what I want to do just to start. And also I want to start funneling money into other investments so that I have peace of mind and I have a safety net because the goal is always take that short term money from trading and funnel it into other things. And that's kind of what my goals are. My goals are by the end of 22, 2022 to have all my, I guess, investments set up for me in the right way. And I'm I'm pretty much almost there. I'm pretty much almost there. I should be I should be good in a couple more months, just parking the money in like a couple of different places. Yeah, I love that.   And Alex would literally say to me, take a week off. And then I'd be like, bro, but I can't. And then I'd end up taking like two days off, three days off because like I think I really learned, like when I was younger, I had you guys to kind of learn from. So I was like, oh, you know, what are Alex and now doing? How much work are they putting it in? And you'd see Alex, like on the YouTube lives, like I'm here all day staring at the screen, like I'm working hard. Well, you guys see it, you guys see it of over here. The mentors and moderators lead by example.  Right. The reason why I trade in the morning and walk away is because we have the entire MIC community to run. Right. We have an army of people behind the scenes, right? An army of people working this up as someone has to lead the army. Right. So my job as a leader is not only to lead but to lead by example, to show everyone what can happen. If every day you walk away a zombie time, if every day you make a plan, you can make as much money as me. The only way that's possible is if I do it and I show you because you have no excuse.  What is your excuse not to? I am leading by example. And that's what you guys are doing, too. Yeah, I love it. Oh, yeah. Probably a good place to wrap it up. That's a good place to wrap it up.  Yeah, yeah, let's do it. All right.


Think, tick, Hawaii. When I was thinking about my two distinguished guests today, I was thinking of, we know there's a win and there's a win-win and there's a win-win-win. But when I was thinking about what these gentlemen have to offer, I just kind of ran out of wins. Let's see. First and foremost, they will be employing people. Lord knows we need to employ people these days and this is at a living wage, mind you. Then they will be reducing the bills, the utility bills of their clients. That's always a very nice thing. And in addition to that, they will be supplying not just regular lighting at a vastly reduced energy use, but anti-COVID lighting also, where they will be trapping those nasty old COVID and extinguishing them. And what happens when you get rid of COVID? You create a safer Hawaii, safer for the staff working wherever, and you bring more tourists in and Lord knows we need more tourists to gain more employment, to have more taxpayers to increase the state revenue which will in turn open up the economy any even more. How many wins is that? I've definitely, definitely lost count. So with that, it gives me great pleasure to introduce first Anthony Emondola. He's the chief financial officer for energy advisors and energy advisors. He's going to explain how you can do all these wonderful things without any money upfront and not only pay off the loan, but sponsor this anti-COVID technology that I was just describing. And we have also Andrew Miller of VP sales, nationwide VP sales of FSC lighting. They do all kinds of lighting projects. So they will be supplying both visible and UVC lighting or ultraviolet COVID killing lighting. And if I were to introduce them by their bio sketches, it would take up half the program, suffice to say that they have both been in this business very successfully for a long, long time, although they certainly don't look it. So, Mr. Andrew Miller, please take it away and tell us what kind of technology it is we're getting into, all yours. Aloha and appreciate the opportunity to present. My name is Andy Miller with FSC lighting Vice President of Sales. We're an organization that has been in business for over 50 years now based in Southern California. We go nationwide and into Canada. So today, what we normally do is talk about some of our lighting applications and retrofit opportunities. So we do a lot of that for educational office space, commercial buildings across the country. Today, we're bringing out what's called our safe class solutions. If you wanna put up the first slide there, please. Thank you. So there's a picture of a, that is actually a Walmart distribution center and down below is a picture of our facility. Today we're gonna talk to you about air and surface disinfection solutions. We're really gonna be concentrating on the air disinfection solutions that we can provide.  UV lighting is natural. It comes from the sun.  And we're gonna be talking about that UVA lighting and using that to disinfect. And we're also gonna be talking about UVC lighting. Now UVA lighting, 95% of that reaches the, from the sun reaches the surface of the earth. UVC lighting is completely captured by the ozone layer. So natural UVC lighting never reaches the surface of the earth. In both cases, we are using both UVA and UVC above the out of out of sight in a light fixture. So be very clear, we're not putting this into a space where humans are gonna be present. It is gonna be above the ceiling tiles. The next slide, please. We have two ways to disinfect a space. One is through air and one is through surface. We're gonna focus here on the air disinfection. If you look here on the left, there's a picture of a light fixture with an exhaust band. And if you go over to the, what we're doing is we're gonna pull the air from a space, a room into that exhaust band and we're gonna disinfect it. I'm gonna talk a little bit about that in a second. As you can see here, your pathogens are in the middle of that picture of the room. They are pulled into that exhaust fan and then we are gonna port that clean air out up to eight feet away from the exhaust fan, creating what's called a convection. So you'll basically have the air come and float down at a neutral air pressure and then it'll float down into the space so that the air that's sitting towards the top of your near the exhaust fan will be pulled into the space and you will continuously clean your air space. I'll talk a little bit about the process that from a technical standpoint. So if we go to the next slide, this is actually a process. There are two filters. The first filter is a titanium dioxide filter that is replaceable. And as soon as pathogens hit that filter, what takes place is it becomes, it starts to oxidize.  That's what's going on inside that first filter. Then the air flows over to the UVA chamber. So we begin to really oxidize and start to eliminate the pathogens, both bacterial and viral. And that's inclusive of mold and funguses. Then we take that air and put it into the next portion of the chamber, which is the UVC chamber. That's where the irradiation process happens. And everything is eliminated 99.9%. So it happens fast. COVID-19 takes around 26 seconds to be eliminated. A flu virus takes around 34 seconds.  That being said, then it goes to the last filter, which is a charcoal filter, which is also replaceable. And then we put the air back into the space at a neutral air pressure. And the idea there is that we're not pushing, that are forcing the air into the space, potentially churning up other pathogens that could be present in a room. So it's a fast process. Everything is above the ceiling tile, above the plenum that takes place with UVA and UVC. So nobody is ever exposed to UVA or UVC from our clean box light fixture. The last slide. So in this last slide, we talk about there's no ozone. They're emitted from or created by this fixture. We also cleaning have the ability to surface disinfect with blue light four, five and four, 70 nanometers, which is safe to be under. But the key here is to be able to take the air from the space and remove the pathogens above the plenum. Also, that box does have a few, if you break the seal on the box, it does have a kill switch in it. So again, no human is ever exposed to UVA or UVC lighting. It's dangerous stuff. So we have to be very, very careful and make sure that it's above the plenum. But this happens fast. Like I said, there is a list of bacterial types of cells that it also destroys, like listeria, and salmonella, and E. coli. But this is, it's a fast, easy way to have a room. And if anybody's been talking, learning about how COVID-19 spreads, it spreads through the air much faster than it ever does on a surface. And that's put out by the CDC. That concludes my presentation, Howard. And I appreciate the opportunity to talk to you and appreciate the time. Well, let's dig a little deeper here. As you and I were discussing before the program, the best analogies that I've seen for the COVID aerosols, these are the tiny, tiny, tiny little particles that come out of our mouths as we're speaking. And the analogy was with cigarette smoke. Yes. Picture somebody smoking there.  And what you don't, this is why distancing is so important.  And that also relates to air circulation. So you were talking about circulating the air in the room. The better the circulation, the less the density or the dose of the COVID. Most of us can handle some COVID coming into our nasal passages, but we can't handle, and our immune system will take care of it, but we can't handle heavy duty, dense doses. So the better the circulation, the weaker the dose. So I'm very glad to see that. And I'd like to add, Howard, that this is a continuous application. So we are continually cleaning the air. As long as that exhaust fan is on, you are disinfecting the air in the space. It is not like an HVAC system where once you hit that set point on your HVAC system that the HVAC turns off. This is continuous ongoing process, which can happen all day long. And then you certainly mentioned safety features. So far, this technology is young enough where the FDA or UL have not come out with clear guidelines yet. So that manufacturers, such as yourself, need to voluntarily not subject themselves, comply with all applicable guidelines on a voluntary basis. And I see that you are doing that. We actually are both EPA and FDA listed as well as UL. So there are three, actually three different listings where FDA listed, EPA listed as, because UV lighting is considered a pesticide because you are killing pathogens, you're killing something. But yes, it is a, and we're obviously UL listed as well, that those two filters are also replaceable. So this is a sustainable product for not just COVID-19, but ongoing, there's gonna be something else down the road. And we should mention that go into any hospital room and you're probably gonna find some kind of disinfecting technology in there. And when you go into, say, an operating room or an ICU intensive care unit, you're probably gonna find a lot of this type of technology there, continuous heavy-duty sterilization. So what we're wanting to do is, what I'm wanting to do is bring it into, say, hotel rooms, hotel lobbies, restaurants, bars, shops to help to make those environments safer and open up the economy all the faster because fewer and fewer and fewer people are getting sick. So I certainly commend you on that. If you Google UV lighting, you're gonna find hundreds of products out there, literally hundreds, most of them are very small, very low wattage, and you will notice that they have a lack of any kind of certification. Now, you put yourself at risk by buying inexpensive, uncertified products. But on that cherry note, I would like, now that we know what the technology is, let's see how in the world we can finance this and not only pay off the loan for the lighting, but finance the COVID zappers as well. Take it away, Mr. Anthony Amandola. Aloha, Howard. Thank you so much for taking your time and Aloha, Hawaii. Yes, this is a great technology and it's certainly needed. And so the big question is, well, how do you pay for it, right? Things in the economy aren't exactly where they were six or nine months ago. And so fortunately for energy advisors, we've been funding projects without upfront capital for many years now in Hawaii about the past five years. And historically, we funded energy efficiency projects and renewable solar PV, battery storage, et cetera. And you can, Haley, if you don't mind, you can put that first slide up, thank you please. And so the idea is, okay, now we've got this technology to get us back to some type of normal, how do you pay for it? Well, what we've been doing is we have really good arrangements with several of the banks here on Hawaii, Central Pacific Bank, Bank of Hawaii and First Hawaiian Bank. And they have been over the past several years funding our projects for energy efficiency and renewables. And the entire time the whole story has been how do we help you pay for these upgrades through energy savings? Well, it's a small step to go from energy efficiency to COVID disinfection, COVID upgrades, whatever that solution may be is that we can now combine those COVID upgrades with your typical energy efficiency and your solar PV projects, of which there are many to do on the island. And it's not magic, it's just that when you start at 26 cents a kilowatt hour and you run an air conditioning seven days a week, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, there was a lot of savings to be had. LED lighting itself usually saves about 70%. Solar PV, you can produce close to 100% of what you normally would. So there's a lot of excess savings that are created. And this is not a new model. This model's been around for quite a while. For 20 plus years, folks in Hawaii have been using power purchase agreements to install solar PV. Someone installs it on your building, you use the production to save energy. It's a very small step to then take it to efficiency in the building as well as COVID upgrades because the solution that Andy has presented really is a combination LED COVID upgrade. So you have this very unobtrusive product that needs to be installed in Hawaii anyways, LED upgrades. And now you've got a solution to your COVID issue. So if you could put the next slide up, Haley, I would appreciate it. Thank you, ma'am. So what can this include? Well, a large array of different improvements. First off, COVID upgrades, but we're currently looking at projects on the island that include mechanical systems, transformers, building controls, EV charging is a big initiative in the state right now. And that can very easily be worked into that, water saving. So it's taking that power purchase agreement. And as I was mentioning to Howard the other day, our goal is to reduce your energy usage before you start producing new energy. That's been missing at points in Hawaii's history where you put a lot of solar, a great idea. What have you done though to improve the efficiency inside your building? And so the goal is let's make you efficient first. Let's make you COVID free. And then now let's produce as much energy from solar that we can possibly do. Next slide, please, Haley. So what are some of the benefits? Well, the first big benefit is that there's zero upfront capital here. And again, this is not a black block, it's not magic. What we use is the service agreement, a lot like a PPA for solar. The customer enters into a multi-year service agreement with us. And that can be three years, five years, seven, 10, 20. We're doing all of the above here on the islands already.   Which again is important in our current environment. We all need to be able to have some cash flow that helps us get back to that new normal. There are a lot of other benefits on the financial side because remember, it's not a loan or a lease. It's a little different. It's a service agreement. So we're not encumbering the existing asset, which will mean a lot for some of the commercial real estate guys mean nothing for others, but we're trying to minimize the financial impact on the organization while still giving you those benefits. Next slide, please, Haley. So what's this come on a fund? Well, it's been our goal now for the past five plus years and that's why we originally approached Central Pacific Bank, a local bank that has roots in the community, et cetera. And so the goal here, as Howard mentioned, is how can we create jobs, more jobs, more living wage jobs? We don't need any more servers. What we'd like is jobs that can pay the rent, that can pay for your kid's college and that can give you that quality of life. Well, energy efficiency in general are those living wage jobs, solar PV installation are those living wage jobs. So our goal is, has always been, we work very closely with Hawaii energy, those in charge of the rebates and the incentives on the island. We work very close with the local banks. That's important. It creates local jobs, our profits stay on island. We are plowing that back into the island. That is our goal. We wanna be here. We have selected and we think there's an incredible opportunity in Hawaii because of the high cost of power. So we can take that, we can reduce your carbon. We can help Hawaii become carbon neutral by 45. We can create those living wage jobs and we can help make the air quality inside our buildings livable so we can all get back to work. And so that's kind of the idea here is that we're really plowing this back into Hawaii because that is important to us at energy advisers. Next slide, please. So how has this been applied so far? Well, interestingly enough, we were implementing an LED and solar PV project at Monolani Assisted Living here on Oahu. Well, of course, as you know, the assisted livings have been unfairly hit by the COVID virus. So as we were completing this project in fits and starts as there were outbreaks, the CFO of Monolani has now approached us and said, hey, look, we're gonna need to do something to with their quality. So what we've, this is an example of a project in process. If you look at the lower right-hand corner of the slide, I won't spend a lot of time on anything, but there's gonna be approximately $83,000 of annual savings, net cash flow positive for Monolani once the LED and solar is complete, which should be in about 10 days now. So what we're now doing is looking, working with Monolani on how do we incorporate these COVID cleansing events, this LED? And it's perfect because we're doing the LED so now we can implement some of this improvements in their building. And frankly, it will still be probably a net cash flow positive event once the COVID upgrades have been completed, but now they can have the comfort that that air is being cleansed on an ongoing basis. And additionally, what's interesting is that this doesn't need to happen all at once. We staged it, the LED, the solar and now the COVID upgrades. And that's important for some folks because obviously you can't, not only can take it down all at once. So we have this flexibility and working within our climate and a fund to be able to fund these in stages as needed and as the time permits, because in the assisted living, you've got to take a lot of precautions before you're doing this obviously. And so we feel that this is a really opportune time and the ability to take that energy efficiency, that renewable and pay for those COVID upgrades while again, creating those type of living wage jobs that are needed on the island. And that's what we're trying to accomplish here. And thank you all for your time, Howard. We appreciate you letting us on. Very inspiring talk. And I should have mentioned right up front that I'm with the Hawaii State Energy Office and our mission is 100% clean energy by 2045 and thanks to people like you, we just may beat that. We may have 100% clean energy before then. We are going really, really rapidly. Another point, I keep track of the residential kilowatt hour rate by my own personal bill just arrived a couple of days ago, 28.2 cents per kilowatt hour making that payback even quicker. And since you have your workforce in Hawaii we've been looking at job creation in the clean energy environment. Some people are having to fly in technicians from the mainland. Apparently you've got all your technical people right here. So you keep- So that's an important point. Our goal is to work with locally well-known reputable firms that have been in the market. We work with Amarusco. We work with Hawaii energy systems. We work with those folks that have been on the island have the labor. We're not here to fly, fly people in and out. And so that's, and you mentioned 28 cents. So the comparison for folks is I live sometimes in Seattle at seven cents. So you understand the delta. That's the opportunity. And even an expensive California, I think it's around 14 cents. We're 14 to 17, yes. Yeah. Still you got to speak. Unfortunately. Hopefully as we get more and more clean energy we'll actually be able to reduce eventually that kilowatt hour cost.  When you reduce the lighting wattage you're also reducing the heat created by those lights which enables you in turn to reduce the air conditioning load. Yes. In fact, a material portion of energy savings that occur are because of that heat load reduction. And any final words of wisdom we have less than a minute left. No, well, I wish you all the best and let's hear it for a clean green Hawaii. This is Howard Wake with Anthony Emondola and Andrew Miller. Thank you so much. And up the excellent, excellent work. We're gonna have a clean, prosperous Hawaii. Thanks to people like you. Aloha, see you next time.


Well, more postseason softball and let's bump down the class single-a. Pine River Backus and Sabika both undefeated so far and both looking for that subsection crown. Let's head out to Benaga first of three games on the day. Sabika puts up 10 runs in the first four innings and Ava Racky gets went to work. Strike out here to start the fifth and later in the inning gets a little help from her second baseman, Megan Heina. Look at that play. Throw to first to get the out. Then last chance for the Tigers, but Racky shuts the door. Strike out to end the game. Sabika is your North Section 5A champs. 10-0 in five innings. They advance to the winner's bracket on Tuesday in Brainerd. If you've enjoyed this segment of Lakeland News, please consider making a tax-deductible contribution to Lakeland Public Television.


Shift-in-guess the government of the Republic of China Taiwan is facilitating Mandarin language training for over 200 public officers. Moindesh report from Jolita, Peter. Mandarin is the official language of the Republic of China Taiwan, making it the most dominant language in education, business and media. An overwhelming 200-plus public servants have applied through the Department of the Public Service Training Division to participate in the online program, which commences on February 8, 2021. Mandarin instructor Miss Ting Ting Lu, who is in St. Lu Xia, will be conducting the Mandarin training on behalf of the Taiwan International Cooperation and Development Fund. She said the course comprises three modules and will be taught at the basic and advanced levels. So, besides the Mandarin language, of course, they will improve in the end, right? But I also like to do some cultural exchange, yes, because Taiwan is in Asia and it's farther away from here, the Caribbean area. So, I will introduce some culture of Taiwan, the fast-forward or the lifestyles in Taiwan, so that I want to help the learners understand more, get a better understanding of Taiwan, yes. Over the years, a number of St. Lu Xia students have benefited from free education in Taiwan. Ambassador of the Republic of China Taiwan to St. Lu Xia, his Excellency Peter Cha Yanshan, says his government is pleased to offer assistance to the government of St. Lu Xia in the area of capacity building. In terms of Mandarin, I think Taiwan and St. Lu Xia are longtime friends and also constructive partners. We established a lot of projects that are really good for the benefit of all solutions in nine ways, the national development of St. Lu Xia government. And besides that, we want to enhance mutual understanding between our two peoples. And for that, most important is to know each other's culture, each other's philosophy. Permanent Secretary in the Department of the Public Service, Miss Peggy An-Soudat, has expressed gratitude to the government of the Republic of China Taiwan for making the delivery of the online Mandarin program possible. St. Lu Xia's over many years have visited Taiwan for meetings, training and cultural exchanges. Learning Mandarin will not only strengthen social and cultural exchanges, but will also help break language barriers. We have seen an overwhelming interest evident in the over 200 applications received thus far. I would like to take this opportunity to wish all participants well. Every year, the government of the Republic of China Taiwan hosts a cultural exchange workshop in Taiwan for public officers. However, the program had to be suspended last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. From the communications unit of the Department of the Public Service, Julia Peter reporting.


I'm not sure who needs to hear this, but it needs to be said you can throw the box that your iPhone came in in the bin It serves no purpose. I know you still have it. You don't need it. You've never needed it throw it the bin


We're getting really creative with how we think about risk to survive and to thrive in a risky world. But if our goal is research with impact, failure is not a bad thing. Amazing people, fantastic ideas and phenomenal impact. That is what a knowledge enterprise is all about.


guys shiver 1000 here I was doing a review on the cell phone holder so I thought I'd go ahead and start this thing up it hasn't been running a while I'm not sure last time we went boating was the last time this was ran I'm not sure I'll put a date across the screen if I can find out when that was because I think I I think I videotaped it no you know what I have to check it might have been my solo camp out I think it may have been my solo camp out guys which would have been in December so it's been you know what three months almost three months so let's go ahead and let's try to start this thing up like I said before it's got a half a million miles on it it's got 527,712 so let's see if it'll start there it is you can hear that belt yeah it doesn't it drops a cylinder I'm not sure which one but it keeps eating up coels so yeah that's what it was cuz I know last cuz when yeah it was in December when she took me down the oil like came on it was losing oil pressure for some reason and finally it did go out and she said it stayed out the whole time and coming back it's when she picked me up the next day coming back it stayed out and she said it stayed out on the way back well after she dropped me in the boat off she came home she said it stayed out and when she came to get me it stayed out and then of course on the way home when I was with her it stayed out so yeah you can probably hear it missing there you go when you really get on the throttle yeah you can feel it when you're going down the road it's tacking out about 2,000 rpm so when you're going down the highway about 70 it's tacking out about two grand and once you get it up to that it does it runs fine but it's like you know when you stop and then go to take off it just misses and chugs so it is down a cylinder so I got to do some work on it could be number one number one plug has been was put in cross threaded and her dad did that years ago so I've never I've never changed the number one plug so it could be getting bad and in order to I can't get it out some friend of one break the plug off but it's aluminum head so hopefully I can just strip it out if I can strip them threads out I got a way to fix that that's not a problem but if I break it off and when I pull the head on it so anyway that was a real quick 527,000 miles original engine transmission differential none of that's been touched the only thing I've ever done to this other than maintenance we had to put a radiator on it an alternator and a fuel pump that's the three main things I mean I've put door handles on it they're plastic they break this one still broke I got the parts to fix it let me see yeah and I've put you know three three plugs in at a time but I have put four coils on it a couple times I did a transmission service that fixed it everything works on the truck stereo CD player tape layer everything works horn works all the lights work so yeah we're not gonna get rid of it we're gonna keep it so just thought I'd do a start on it and let it let it run for a minute charge a battery up as you can see there's no check engine lights on which is weird because it should have a check engine like come on when it's dropping a cylinder so I don't know something's confusing me there and what's weird is I have I have put my my code scanner on here and it's coming up with no codes which is weird because it's definitely got a dead mess to it so we do have an ABS light on over here that's because the wires are unhooked from the ABS sensor I can get an ABS sensor for like 20 bucks instead of fixing those ones I'll just get a new ABS sensor it's the right front what happened to that was originally when the ball ball joints I put ball joints on it ball joint broke on that one on the right side over there a couple years ago and of course the belt the trucks not without issues but they're small issues so okay guys thought since we was in here we'd do a quick old start on it I consider an old start it's not a cold start because it's like 80 degrees right now but it is kind of an old start because this truck is used to running every day guys thanks for watching we'll see you in the next one Shay Brown and myth man alleged me gone for now bye bye guys and take care