Hi friends, Janae would be procure with some exciting news. Town meeting day elections for Mayor, City Council, and more will be using Ranked Choice Voting and all Burlington voters get to participate. Unfamiliar with Ranked Choice Voting? Keep watching or visit the link below. Ranked Choice Voting is a simple way to let voters rank candidates in order of preference. First, second, third, and so on. If your vote can't help your first choice win, it counts to your second choice instead. Here's how it works. If one candidate gets over 50% of everyone's first choice votes, they win and the election is over. However, if no candidate reaches a majority, the candidate with the fewest first choice votes is eliminated, and their supporters' votes will count towards their second choice. This process continues until one candidate reaches over 50% of the vote. Ranked Choice Voting is an easy way to give voters more voice, more choice, and makes for a stronger democracy. Learn more about Ranked Choice or try it out for yourself at betterballotvermont.org slash BTV 2024. Hi there, and welcome to Town Meeting TV's coverage of Town Meeting Day 2024. This program is part of a series of forums we are bringing you in advance of this Town Meeting Day, which is on March 5th. Town Meeting TV hosts forums with all candidates and covers the questions you'll see on your ballot, introducing you to community decision makers, and connecting you with the issues that shape your local community. You can find all of our forums at cctv.org slash 2024 or on our Town Meeting TV YouTube channel, where auto-generated captions are also available. On tonight's program, we'll hear from two candidates running for the Ward 4 City Council position. These candidates are Councillor Sarah Carpenter and Dan Castragano. Thank you both for joining us. We have prepared a list of questions for each of you, and you'll have 90 seconds to answer each one. If you're tuning in live, we also welcome your questions at<PHONE_NUMBER>. If you call in, we'll do our best to answer your question, though we will be screening calls to ensure that questions aren't repeated. We ask that when we take your call, you share your name, the town you live in, and the question to be directed at both candidates, not just one candidate in particular. Let's get started with one minute opening statements. We'll start with Sarah. Thanks. Thanks a lot. The question is, why do you live Burlington? And it will be different about the community if you're elected. Burlington is my home. It's my family's home. I've always lived here. So I really do love this city, and I want it to succeed. It needs to be a place that everyone can live comfortably and safely. And we're all aware of all of the issues we have to face, public safety, and housing being the most daunting. And I think I can bring expertise to that and really want to continue my work in having that be my top priority. In particular, I know that staffing of our departments, particularly our emergency services, has been difficult. And as the chair of the human resource community, I think I can bring my management skills to assist with that. The list is long, and I really feel like I can bring those skills to the city and bring my ability to work collaboratively with all of us. Great. Thanks so much, Dan. Thanks, Sinead. Thanks for having us. My name is Dan Castrigano. I'm a husband and father and teacher and community organizer working mostly on climate justice issues. Love Burlington decided to raise, to have a family, to raise our son here in Burlington and care about the city and want to make it better. And I think describing why I'm stepping into the race, why I'd like to serve on city council, I think just looking at what's happening today and what has happened in the last few weeks in the city and decisions made by the city council is why I'm stepping up to run. So it's really hot outside. They were just at the waterfront on my bike. They were high school and college students, college-aged adults running in t-shirts and shorts. We are experiencing the climate emergency in real time. Our climate and ecological systems are collapsing. And that's what I care about the most, especially as a father of a two-year-old. The F-35s ripped overhead again today. They were flying again this weekend terrorizing my two-year-old as we stepped inside and made it really difficult for teaching this week. So I care a lot about a lot of things and want to serve on city council and make Burlington better. Great. Thanks so much. It also looks like we have a caller. So let's see if we can successfully. Hi there. Could you state your name, where you're calling from, and your question? Yes, hi. My name is Bridget Bozek. I'm calling from Burlington, Vermont, Ward 4. My question is from Mr. Casagano, actually. Your campaign page lists a number of issues, including climate action. You state that one path towards reducing emissions is to reduce air traffic at the Burlington Airport that is, quote, not essential for human and planetary well-being. I'd like him to be very specific in his answer in describing how and who will decide what's essential for human and planetary well-being. It seems that this effort to me is going to end up by just closing the airport by reducing flights. And for Sarah, what is her approach to climate action? Great. Thank you. OK, Dan, we'll start with you. Great. Thank you for the question, Bridget. This is what I've focused a lot of my organizing around, organizing with a lot of groups, focused on aviation and reducing air traffic that is not necessary for planetary and human well-being, including the state grounded network, which is based in Europe. So that includes flights like private jets. It is unconscionable that the 0.1%, the global elites, are allowed to fly in private jets, spewing carbon into the atmosphere, fossil fuel toys, basically. It's not necessary, as we experienced, like I said before, just increasing levels of climate and ecological collapse. Burlington's winters are almost eight degrees hotter than they were just in 1970. So things like private jets, things like short haul flights, things like the F-35s, these are things that are not necessary for the well-being of our species, the 8 billion of us on this planet, and our more than human siblings on this planet. The city of Burlington owns and operates the airport. We can be the first airport in the country to ban private jets. It's happened at Schiffel International Airport in Amsterdam in the Netherlands, and that is a concrete step of climate justice. Every gram of carbon dioxide that we can save from going into the atmosphere to fry the planet is good. And this is the intersection of wealth inequality and luxury emissions. That's not necessary for the well-being of our species and for the planet. Thank you, Sarah. Thanks. For me, I think Dan may overestimate the control that the city of Burlington has over the airport. Like many things, we are highly regulated by the FAA, the US Air Force. Our ability to control aviation, I believe, is much beyond us. It also serves as an economic engine for the whole of northern Vermont. And I think we need to do this in a very well-planned way, work with partners like the FAA and experimental fuels and aircraft that go in here, but to reduce and cap it with no overview, no strategic plan, no regional plan, I think, is really misguided. We need to understand the import of the airport and what should be coming to us, what we can control. And much of it, we can't. These are national problems that need a strategic plan from the FAA and the US Air Force. Great. Thank you. Looks like we have another caller. Hi there. If you could state your name, where you're calling from, and your question for both of the candidates, please. Sure. My name is Ollie. I live in Burlington. And my question is about educating about topics that come up before council. Great. Thank you, Ollie. All right, we'll start with Sarah. I'm not quite clear. Educating. It sounded like educating on maybe educating voters on topics that come through to city council. Well, I certainly think we need to do that and probably more of it. I think one area maybe that we are weak in is not being as transparent as we can when issues come before us. They come fast, and they're very detailed. There's not often a yes or no answer. So I would welcome more forums to do that. Certainly, CCTV does that. We try to do that in our NPAs. So I think anything that the council can do to provide educational opportunities, maybe more work sessions, would be useful. Because I think it is very difficult for citizens to understand all of the back and forth. And we get lots of documents that support our decisions. And while they're all public, not everybody really gets to read them. So I concur that we could do a better job in that area. Great. Dan? Thanks, yeah. Thanks for the question. Agreed that we need to, as city councilors have selected, have to educate ourselves about all the issues, have to educate the public, have to do it through all the proper communication channels, have to strike the fine balance of engaging in public, doing public engagement, but doing things in such a way that's quick enough to actually address the crises that we have. I'm the first, you know, I make a lot of mistakes. And there's a lot to learn, even the questions that might come. Like, there's a lot of stuff that I don't know. I'm happy to admit that. And I'm continuing to educate myself. Yeah, and I think specifically appreciate councilors educating themselves on the issues. Great, thanks so much. All right, so the second question we have from CCTV is about city finances. Do you support the proposed tax increase for the city budget, yes or no? And what experience do you bring to the overall financial management of the city? So we'll start with Dan. Thank you. In my last job, I had some decision-making power over hiring and pay for my department. So I've got some expertise there and have taught financial literacy to middle and high school students, but still need to learn more about the city's finances. I know that the ballooning municipal costs affect residents, affect us in Ward 4, and it's unsustainable. And I think looking at it from a holistic perspective and it's basically from a housing and land use and zoning perspective to legalize more housing to have more residents live here in Burlington, such that we can share the tax load better. This is why cities go bankrupt is because of suburban sprawl. And there aren't enough people to pay for things like sewer and water and road infrastructure. I think the city should pass a charter change for a land value tax and should hold property owners accountable and enforce code violations, especially for blighted properties, to make sure that we are using all of the land in Burlington appropriately. And the recent reassessment also of property values also undervalued commercial properties and so putting an unfair share of paying taxes on residents. And yeah, I mean I understand all the issues with inflation and it's basically a yes and for the city budget. There are a lot of other things that I'd like to see happen as well. Great, thank you. Sarah, same question to you. Thanks. I do support the tax increase. It's modest, and we've not had an increase for several years. Unfortunately, we're finding ourselves this year with a gap of about $9 million, which was very difficult to close. One of the ways we're doing that is really an efficiency study that we hope will get about $3 million out of it. We have increased a local option tax for hotels and we've scrimped and scraped. I don't disagree that we need to look at other varieties of taxes. We need to make sure our appraisal standards are kept up to date so that nobody is disproportionately taxed and keep on the state, because 70% of our taxes, which is a different question, are schools. And I just want to add that as executive director of the Housing Finance Agency, I was involved in a lot of budgeting, big budgets, millions of dollars. So I feel like I do know how to read a balance sheet. I do know, understand our financials. And that's critical for a city of this size that we have experience in financial management. Great. Thank you. You guys are quite popular. We have another caller. Hi there. If you could state your name, where you're calling from, and your question for both of our candidates, please. Sure. This is Jim Court. I live in the north end of Burlington. And my question will be about housing. Great. Go ahead. Oh, they're ready for my question. Yes. That's OK. Sure. So my question for both candidates is that, in April, the Motel Housing Program is set to expire, and more people may be without housing in the Burlington area. I'd like to know what the candidate's understanding is of the impending end of that program, and how can the city better support people without homes. Great. Thank you. Sarah, we'll start with you. Sure. Actually, we have not good news as of this minute. There was a proposal in the works in the legislature to extend the Motel Program possibly through June. And it's seeming to go awry. And I think that is hugely problematic. So we need to let the state know about that. We need the time to find the solutions through our Continuum of Care, which is our casework program, working with the Chittenden County Homeless Alliance to find permanent housing. Burlington is the only community in the county that's stepped up with shelters. And it's very frustrating that we're not seeing other shelter opportunities from our neighbors. This is a regional problem that we've really got to tackle together with other communities and with the support of state. We have put in resources, our own resources. We have a special assistant for homelessness. We have park rangers, community service liaisons, community service officers. So we are actually doing a lot, but it is clearly not enough. And we can't just be moving people onto the street without those backup supports. Great. Thank you. Dan? Thanks, yes. I'm aware of the Motel Program ending and firmly believe that housing is a human right. Everybody should have housing, period. The Democratic leadership in Montpelier failed, Phil Scott has failed, and think the Democratic leadership in the city has failed. In the immediate term, we have to stop destroying people's homes. So in 2021, Sears Lane was raised, and there's no alternative. We're displacing the displaced. And it is inhumane and cruel. It was a few weeks ago. It was the coldest weekend of the year. Basically the only time it dipped into single digits. And Battery Park was raised, displacing the displaced. And there are no beds. There are no beds. And it is inhumane and cruel to do that, and basically to just shut people out. So we have to figure it out. It's really complex. This is the biggest city in the state. A lot of folks throughout Vermont come to Burlington if they are experiencing houselessness. We need more low barrier shelters. But we need to act with urgency and a sense of compassion that children should not be sleeping outside in the middle of winter. And we have to act. And the city and the state are not acting. And would take that on at a personal level to act with immediacy and urgency to make sure everybody has a roof over their heads every night. Great. Thank you. Do we have a rubuddle? You may. I just want to disagree. The city is acting. Those folks on battery did find placements. We have done more than any municipality in this state. And in just so far, I will concur that Montpelier hasn't. But I think if you look at the city's track record, it's not enough. And Dan is right. Housing is a human right. But we are peddling as fast as we can. And we need help. Thank you. It does look like we have another caller. Hi there. If you could state your name, where you're calling from, and your question for both of our candidates, please. My name's Chris Gish. I'm calling from Burlington. I'm in Ward 4 right now. I am calling to ask the candidates. Well, I've noticed that Sarah hasn't been the lead sponsor on a lot of resolutions or introduced a lot of resolutions. Maybe you've been the most active member of the City Council conversation. So I want to hear from both candidates about how active they plan to be on the council, how much they would want to push issues, especially given that we have so many things that I think residents understand need to have changes made really rapidly, like housing, climate, public safety, et cetera. So how can voters trust you to push the issues and be a really active member on the council? Great, thank you. We're going to start with Dan, let's go around. Thank you, Chris. Yeah, on the first day, I would figure out what I would want to do. And it would be related to what's on my platform, so climate, transportation justice, safe streets, community safety, and housing. You know, top of my list, as somebody who moves through the city on foot and on bike on the bus almost exclusively would be to basically immediately implement the 2017 plan BTV walk bike plan with quick build infrastructure and with volunteer coordination. That means things like doing traffic calming, especially adjacent to our schools. So I would champion that from the start as champion pedestrian bicycle infrastructure and infrastructure for public transit, especially where I live close to Star Farm in North Ave. If roads are wide straight and flat, people go way too fast and don't want to see any children get killed or injured. So it's really easy traffic calming as you put things like big planters in the road to slow down motorists. That section of North Avenue is really, really fast. The intersection at Woodbury by Hunt Middle School is really dangerous. And so implementing that infrastructure and using my contacts and my friends and my organizing capacity to basically find volunteers and say, if the city does not have the capacity to do this, we'll figure it out. We'll work with the city and we'll do it immediately. There's tons of other climate stuff I would do and housing stuff I would do and would be active at the start. Great, thank you. Sarah? Thanks. Well, I would say I feel I have been active, but it's a city council of 12 people who may not always agree on how do we get to a solution. My style has been both on the council and working professionally is to get things done. It serves none of us to sit and argue points of view and never get to yes. And I think one of the strengths I bring to the council is the ability to have those discussions in a collaborative way, figure out what you want, what you want, and get us together on the same page. I don't feel the need to be the lead sponsor on tons of resolutions. I work with my colleagues on, and my committee members, lots of resolutions come out of committee, so that's really important to understand. We've already vetted them, we've already agreed to them, and that's the process that I think works the best to get things done. We all have pet projects, but we want to get motion going and do it without dividing the council without getting anything done. So again, I think my strength is working collaboratively with any of the councils, whatever party or persuasion they may be. Great, thank you. Another caller. Hi there, if you could state your name, where you're calling from, and your question, please. Yeah, thanks. My name is Annie, I'm calling from Ward 4. I have a question about the climate. Here in Burlington, we had record high temperatures just last month in December, and overall, Burlington has increased by seven degrees in average winter temperatures over the last 50 years, and that's the highest increase of any city in the country. So our situation with the climate here is really urgent, and I'm curious how both candidates plan to urgently address the McNeil plant as the highest non-mobile source of emissions in the entire state. Thanks. Great, thank you. Sarah, we're gonna start with you. Sure, I've spent a lot of time learning about the McNeil plant and what it brings to the community and what it doesn't. The bottom line is it's an asset that we need in the short term to produce electricity. We all want to electrify, and it provides about 30% of our electricity. If McNeil is taken offline, that would potentially raise our rates by 20% or more. There's a plan in place to keep that plant as efficient as possible, things like trip dryers, a sustainability plan, and we do need to learn to phase it out, but at the same time, we've gotta work on other options, reducing fossil fuels, reducing the use of natural gas, which we will be doing, and I think the sustainability of McNeil, when you dig into the way they use scrap wood and the renewability of that as an asset in the short term, it's something we've gotta look at, and then in the long term, as we work at other sources like wind, which the state of Vermont has a terrible wind policy, we could certainly use assistance in getting other options, but for the short term, I see McNeil as a positive contributor, and then in the long term, we've really just gotta focus on how we convert to other greener sources. Great, thank you. Dan? Thanks, yeah. So the 2019 Net Zero Energy Roadmap is flawed. It was written by BED and then farmed out to a consulting agency, but doesn't count wood at all, and it doesn't count the two biggest sources of pollution that the city of Burlington owns and operates, and that's the McNeil Power Plant and the airport, so we need to scrap that and come up with a new plan, a zero emissions plan, basically. I was among the organizers who rallied and advocated for and essentially created the symposium on McNeil, so we brought the two scientists in, Dr. Bill Muma and Juliet Rune Vargas, who clearly showed that burning wood makes climate change worse. Since 2014, the city of Burlington has claimed that we've been renewable. I think that's greenwashing. I think we need to actually tell the truth to the city of Burlington, and we need to phase it out as fast as we can. I think just, for me, a lot of it's just like telling the truth from Burlington Electric Department and just owning up to what comes out of the stack. It's 450,000 tons of carbon dioxide every year. There was a job posting on the city of Burlington website that said a shift supervisor for McNeil Generating Station had said you're in charge of burning wood, oil, and gas in the plant, and that we need a plan to shut it down as quickly as we can. Great, thank you. All right, let's jump back to the CCTV questions. We'll do a final question, and then we all have time for closing comments. So the Burlington School District administrators have proposed a $119.6 million school budget resulting in a tax rate increase of 13.97%. Do you support this budget? Why or why not? And we'll start with Dan. Thank you, Sinead. Yes, I support this budget. It's a lot of money. I was talking to one of my teacher friends who worked at Burlington High School yesterday and got more details about this, but basically I support it. I support public schools. I've been a teacher for 15 years. Now I work in an alternative education setting in the city of Burlington. I know there's a lot more we can do in advocacy and Montpelier and that we have a disproportionate burden in Chittenden County for funding our schools. But basically, strongly support teachers, strongly support the Burlington Teachers Union, strongly support our schools, and support this increase. Great, thank you. Sarah? I mean, I would agree. I don't think we have any other choice to support it. If you look at the entire increase, only less than 4% of it's really operations. There's a chunk of it for the new high school which we also had no choice in, but much of this is driven by the state aid formula and something called the common level of appraisal which is hard to articulate. As we speak today, there's a huge discussion about re-looking at the formula, perhaps postponing these votes, because part of the problem is we don't know how much state aid we're gonna get today or March 5th, but we have to vote on a budget. And it's a sort of backwards system, but I am confident that our school has actually looked at what options they have for reducing budgetary things. So it's really being driven by the state aid formula, which is not working for Burlington, and is, of course, almost 70% of our property taxes. And sort of combined with that, we need to be looking at things like is the homestead credit really working? Is it really income sensitized to where it should be? And I am gonna strongly encourage the state legislature to look at that as well. Great, thank you. Let's move on to closing comments. We're coming up on time. If folks could just take 30 seconds, that'd be great, and Sarah will start with you. Well, thanks. I really, I've been a counselor for four years, something I didn't expect to do when I retired, but I am doing it and I really, really love it and would love to continue. I'm enjoying connecting with all of my constituents. And to be honest, the complexity of what we have to deal with, if it were easier and simpler, maybe it wouldn't be as interesting, but I wanna keep working on the issues we've got, and we've got a lot of them. And I hope to do that with actually many more new counselors to get us on the same page about solving the problems we need to solve. Great, thank you, Dan. Thanks, Shnade. Yeah, my name is Dan Castragano. I hope to earn your vote on or before March 5th. Like I said before, I'm a dad, I'm an organizer, I'm a teacher, and just care deeply about our city and have been organizing and advocating for things that I think will make the city better, will make Vermont better, will make our country better, and I promise to prioritize people and plan it over profit and would be glad to earn your vote and would be glad to serve on City Council. Great, thank you, and thanks to the both of you for making the time to be here this evening. And thanks for tuning into Town Meeting TV's ongoing coverage of local candidates, local budgets, and ballot items. You can find this and many more forums at cctv.org slash 2024, or on our Town Meeting TV YouTube channel, and you can tune into our live election results show after you cast your ballot on March 5th. Please contact your local clerk to find out how to obtain a ballot and to register to vote. In Vermont, you can register to vote on election day. Thank you so much for watching and sharing Town Meeting TV.


Hi, I'm Rusty Komori, and this is Beyond the Lines on Think Tech, Hawaii. I was the head coach of the Punahou School Boys Varsity Tennis Team for 22 years, and we were fortunate to win 22 consecutive state championships. This show is based on my books Beyond the Lines and Beyond the Game, and it's about inspiration, welcoming adversity, and building a superior culture of excellence. My special guest today is one of the star players on our University of Hawaii Men's Basketball Team. He is Jovan McClannahan, and today we are going beyond teamwork. Hey, Jovan, welcome to Beyond the Lines. Hi, Rusty. Thank you for having me again. It's so nice to see you. Jovan, you are such a fun, great player for all of us to watch on the team, but I want to first ask you if you can share about where you grew up, and how did you ultimately end up deciding on coming to the University of Hawaii? Yeah, so I originally grew up in California, the Bay Area, to be specific, and I'm sure many people may know, but it's a town, Voleo. It's like, it's not a huge city, but we do have a little bit of city life, but mostly the Bay Area, to be exact, and how I grew up, I have five brothers, and one of my brothers is a twin, which I was with pretty much every second of my life until we went to college, but I think me having a twin brother really changed my life in the greatest way, and I couldn't imagine without him, but it just made everything so competitive, and it was always a competition to get better, so I can only thank him for that and also thank my family for driving home, like a competitive nature house, and my brothers, we're the youngest brothers, by the way, so just having older brothers, it was just like we're always trying to be better than them, and they're trying to push it, so I think it was just like an incredible environment to grow up in. No, that's so great that you have a twin and that you guys really push each other, and so how did, how did you connect with Coach Iran and ultimately come to UH? Yeah, so great question, so out of high school, like I said, I'm gonna mention my twin a lot because he has a lot to do with my story, so Jade and me and Jade were on the same team, and we were getting recruited by similar schools, but due to our position, like we're not as tall as people that play basketball or anything like that, but when it comes to recruiting, they were like, are you guys a package deal, and they kind of limited our recruitment, so we kind of had to decide that if we wanted to tell, like did we want to play with each other, did we not want to play with each other, and we were like we'll go our separate ways if we can expand our recruitment within schools, like and have more options to choose from, so out of high school, like we didn't really have, like we had division one interests, but it wasn't as like they wouldn't pull the trigger on us because I guess they just didn't know if we were good enough, so and it's difficult to go to a division one, it's not easy, so I respected that and me and my brother Jade and have a growth mindset and as far as like if that's the narrative, then we just have to get better, so we ended up going junior college for one year and I went to Sheridan in Wyoming and he went to a school in Independence, Kansas, and we both had good years. I was a qualifier and pretty much what that means is that if you do one year of junior college because like my transcript in high school was well and I didn't have to do two years to get like an associate or something like that, but I did well, like I said, a couple, a lot of schools were like talking to me, recruiting me, trying to see what I was, what my next plans were and Hawaii was one of them and they kind of came in late in the picture, like very late in my recruitment. Coach Genot and Montgomery, but I mean what they were telling me was it's all that I wanted to hear, like I didn't commit on any school because I was hearing great things, but it wasn't like a pinpoint of what I needed and I think what Genot and Montgomery were offering me was an opportunity to get better, to like learn through my mistakes. I was also like it's Hawaii, I've never been, but they play on a big stage, ESPN like a really good schedule and I just thought all of that resonated with what I wanted and they seemed genuine and about the approach that how my career might go as long as I have a growth mindset like I said and wanted to get better and it's worked out so far, had some bumps in the road early, but very grateful, like I couldn't imagine a better choice for me, so. Well Jovan, all of us here in Hawaii absolutely love that you are here and we just love watching you play and compete and what Jovan, what is it about basketball that you love so much? I think basketball itself, like I just, you know when you just have like a like an urge about something or like a feel for something, like I think it was early, my dad introduced us to the game and like it was like an automatic just love for it, like I didn't, he didn't have to push us to be like you need to go workout or you need to like watch basketball with me, we were like yes basketball, like let's play, let's watch the games, like and I was also a Kobe Bryant fan so and as everyone knows like his mindset, his work ethic, like it all just resonated with our hearts and desire to play, like I think that just kind of was natural instinct for me and my brother, so I think that had a lot to do with it, just like naturally having that urge to play basketball, I don't know why, it was just a burning desire in our hearts and I think with that being said, like you can only grow from that if you already have a love for it and I wanted to get better, I wanted to, I love the game, it's challenging and I think I thrive when it comes to adversity, so yeah that's pretty good. Well Jovan, I love Kobe Bryant too and you know when you're playing in the Stan Sheriff Center, I mean that is such a great environment, how big of a difference is it when the fans are there, I mean does it, do the fans really give you that extra boost? Yes, it's definitely a boost and like I was saying earlier just about COVID, like we didn't have any fans, like you couldn't really do much or like see the community or know what that felt like and I know that was huge in my recruitment when they were talking about it, so the fact that I couldn't feel it early it just kind of felt like I'm like where's the love, where's the, like I need that personally, I need the fans, I need to see like build relationships with the community so I can feel comfortable in the arena and I think as the fans start to come back I started feeling more comfortable within my jersey, within the community, like and just diving into it because I felt the love, I felt all the lo-ha that came from it, so the fans are incredible, like it's, you'd have to plan the Stan Sheriff Center or be there to know but like they're, I'm so thankful for them because they really raised the bar in there and they're like amazing. Well Jovon, I want to talk with you about the Diamond Head Classic this past year and you hit the game-winning shot to help University of Hawaii win the Diamond Head Classic. Tell me in detail about that shot and just that experience. Yeah, that was definitely the crazy experience that I had so far in my life, like I mean you can always, like everyone in any sport can almost imagine any type of game winner on a big stage, like it's just like the rush that comes, it either happens or it doesn't, like you never know when stuff like that's going to happen but there's always a chance for everything and the fact that it could happen like that was just like an experience to come through, like and it's so hard to explain what I was feeling but I do know as a team that just going into Diamond Head that it was, it was like really a goal and like we're going to win this Diamond Head, like Coach Gena always preaches like hey like this tournament has been happening for so and so years, we have not won it yet, it's an incredible tournament, there's great teams obviously, like it's on a big stage ESPN but our team was like listen, we have a great group of guys, like there's no way that it shouldn't be our tournament, this is our court, this is our home, like we have to win it and so I think everyone felt our energy going from game one to game two and got to the championship game, it was a very good game kind of ups and downs but I don't think we ever let up and I think our spirit of like seeing how bad and the fans like even the other team see like saw how bad we wanted to win the championship and like going into that moment we had like a crazy like turnover and it was like wow like it was kind of a shot in the arena like we had no chance to win it because there's something unfortunate happened we just turned the ball over and jitters were probably going through our hearts as anybody would with the pressure of winning the first Diamond Head Classic and we're in the championship so it's like you have to do it now but I guess the guy missed the free throw and he gave us a chance and like that's all you need is a chance so I think I have like four seconds to like we drew up something and I honestly like didn't run the exact thing that we drew up just me being a point guard I'm like okay like I hear you coach but like what I'm seeing right now was like I'm kind of like I only have time to do this so I thought I just had time to drill to the three point line and just pull it and like be confident in the fact that I could make it so I made it and then the rest is history. Well that was definitely an iconic moment in UH men's basketball history and Jovon I want to ask you what what do you like and admire about coach Iran as a person? Yeah as a person I think what I admire and what I tell everyone like even guys that may come here on visits or recruits and stuff like that like they always ask about the head coach of course like he's the man like that's the guy you have to listen to and and respect his word but I would say that he's fair like he's a very fair person like he's straight up and that's all I can ask for anybody can ask for he's not gonna sugarcoat anything and tell you this may be this and it's not that so for me personally he's always been fair with me like always been straight up if I need to get better at this uh he states that if I'm not doing this well if I'm doing this good like he states that so that's all I can ask for is his fairness and and I respect that very much so. Oh I love hearing that insight and what what would you say um in specifically about his coaching now okay why is coach Iran a very effective coach what does he do? Yeah so coach good not as far as affecting the game I think he's very like detailed oriented and like even in practice more so even more nitpicking because in the game there's no there's so many variables that can happen throughout the game and and like he always preaches like you have to be ready for anything I know we're teaching this right now and and but the guy may do this like you never know like so like he keeps us on our toes with knowing that like it's not just what I'm saying like be a basketball player too like you have to be able to I'm going to teach you the game and I know most of you guys are here for a reason because you know the game but as far as like being disciplined in the fact that like just always be on your toes and be ready and and make sure it gives us a chance like that's his main what he preaches the most as long as we're locked in and we do the right things we listen we we can fix a mistake and and get better from that like we're giving ourselves a chance to be great and if we don't do that then we're limiting ourselves as a team so I think that's what he really does well as coach oh that's great to hear and and Jovan how would you describe your team's identity so that's that's an interesting question because there's always like in this new college basketball world like there's always new recruits coming in like transfer portal guys coming in and out of programs but I would say like it's unique with our guys because I've played with most of our guys for like three to four years which is pretty well due to the the new things that are happening in college basketball so I think the identity of our culture is growth like individual growth and and leadership like I started out as a 19 year old here and like I played with Bernardo Noel Coleman uh Juan has been here but he hasn't played but still him like me growing with these guys and and Gennott's like he's preaching like look at the growth like look at the leadership the the talk like it's all grown and um I think the identity is like like get better like just make sure that we're improving as a team and we're holding ourselves accountable to that like don't come back the same player come back with a with a better mindset with a better uh will to want to win like we have to keep raising the bar and I think that we've gotten better every year since I've been here and this is our last year as the the core that has been here um and I think for the new guys coming in it's it's more so just like we're we're going to keep raising the bar like we raised the bar last year the bar has to be even higher this year and I think I was talking to you about that some weeks back um yeah so I think your books are also going to help us with that oh right for sure and Jovan you know Coach Iran has been really building a culture of excellence and what would you say is you know your team's culture of excellence what is it like yeah team coach of excellence I think it's what I'm seeing this year I can I can only speak on the now um because it's just the moment that I'm in but I think what I'm trying to preach and Gennott and like all of our guys like the older guys is that the culture of excellence has to be able to pick up on things learn things and and like make the correction it's it's a difference between like hearing it and it going one one year and out the other uh great teams can can have a coaching point hear the coaching point see the coaching point lock into it and actually execute it the next play like it's either you did it well and it was or it wasn't good enough and and I'm trying to make sure like as a leader that I'm not going to let anything slide Coach Gennott is and none of our guys should like but we have to be able to have a coaching point and execute on it because if we can keep doing that over the course of the year um I think excellence will come at it as it being a great team oh I have no doubt for sure excellence will come and and Jovan I want to ask you about my books what are some concepts that stood out to you in the books yeah um it was three for me that stood out and uh you create the environment discipline drives performance and thirst for improvement um and I'll touch on those things uh you create the environment I think um all great teams know and even you know being a winning coach that it's about how you show up and and prepare for the moment that is about to come like you have to be ever you have to be ready to go for practice you have to be ready to go for a game locked in principally knowing what's at stake and how serious you approach that uh is how serious the environment is going to be so if we can all push each other with the right mindset knowing that you can see that everyone in this gym is locked in right now it's going to raise the bar um and discipline drives performance uh being disciplined as far as like it can go from listening to to executing to um knowing that like I want to make my teammate better being disciplined in the fact that like I we all want to be better in here so if we can it drives performance like it's it's going to raise the bar like I said and I think uh the thirst for improvement wanting to be better uh and I think these three points they just all align with each other and that's why I hit home for me is that as long as we can do those three things and hone in on like discipline uh a winning environment and and like wanting to be better like you can only the arrow can only go up Yovan I'm glad you brought up those specific concepts because yeah discipline discipline leads to habits which lead to success which gives you a chance for greatness and and yeah it's a process and I like how you keep saying that it's it's about a growth mindset I mean you just try to get better every single day and Jovan um Ryan Tanaka uh did a big book donation of both of my books to your entire team and how do you think uh the books will make a positive impact in helping your team yeah I think the books like like I said like if we really dive into the books and I think most guys have on our team because I see that the switching and certain guys like really wanting to improve really locking in and um you could tell like you could just see the energy coming out of them that they're like really locked in to be better and and want to improve themselves individually have better years and as a team and I think your books hit home with just improvement like as far as just building good habits improving and if we can all have that mindset it's like this is a team sport that we play it's one through 15 and it's it's the coaching staff it's the trainers like if we're all locked in on the same page of improving being disciplined having good habits like your books like it can only help us like it can only go up from here as if we have that right mindset so yeah by the way like I really think these books are going to help us oh for sure and and well you know Ryan Tanaka he's also the founder of Bratahood Grimes Bratahood and Sisterhood Grimes and we had your entire team there fairly recently and Ryan's the owner of Giovanni Pastrami Restaurant what did you and your teammates enjoy about that Bratahood Grimes experience yeah so I met Ryan last year and we had the same experience and I think just like you got knowing you guys and like I said you guys are guys that want to keep raising the bar with whatever you do making sure you get better the event even got better this this next year this year actually from last year and I was like wow like this is this is a drastic change and it was a great event last year and the the bar raised even more as far as the energy the time and effort put in by you guys and and the people that came to support us and help us with our endeavors after basketball and I think our team was very grateful for that because we know that the ball stopped dribbling at one point and that they're just trying to let us know that Hawaii is you really lock in and hone in on the culture and want to be here like they can create a space for home for you and that really hit home with us as a team like and I was making sure that they knew going into this like really take this series because like they're they're really looking out for us like they don't have to be here they don't have to help us with future goals and stuff like that and give us advice so I think thank you guys again for like allowing that because things like that can really change their perspective and it changed mine as far as being in Hawaii and and knowing the love that the community has for us and not just being just basketball players well Jovan I was there I talked with you and you know Governor Josh Green is there so many of our community leaders are there and isn't it eye-opening for for your team to just really know like wow I mean it's it's the the whole community is really watching and supporting what you guys do and it's so it's not just really on the court it's off the court as well right yeah it's it's off the court and I like the biggest and I think that's the biggest thing is being comfortable like knowing that like there's true support here like it's it's really like love and and that's really helped me in my journey so far just like I said earlier like my COVID experience through now and it's just like the fact that I feel comfortable in my skin here and like knowing that I can go to the community and like big time names in the community and they're all down to earth people they want to come back to guys like us if they met us or not to make sure that they know that we know that they love us and and they support us and we want you guys to keep raising the bar because there is like kids and and the community that really looks up to this program and I and I think that I'm preaching to the new guys that are coming in like really take that serious and I think the guys that are here have taken that serious and they're really grateful for that so Jovan what what is your major and what are you hoping to do when you have life after basketball yeah so my major is business uh entrepreneurship specifically uh I'm in the Shidler the school of Shidler at UH um it's just like a business school that you get accepted in with due time due to like credits and stuff like that that you have to pass but um my what I want to do with my major I'd say is uh first off learn about business I think that's important in this day and age as as much as like excel and all these things are starting to come to these workbooks and worksheets and and numbers and stuff like that so I think me wanting to know that early is going to help me in the long run and um I personally like my dream is to start like a cafe or a coffee shop uh in Hawaii I know that's not easy but uh that is what I want to do with my business endeavors is from what I've learned uh hopefully come back with some some good type of money to work with and in order to start like my own little cafe in Hawaii somewhere so that's that's my dream oh I love hearing that there Jovan and Jovan let's go back onto the basketball court now when when you're gonna shoot a free throw okay I want to know what is your mindset like what are you thinking what do you focus on as you're there just before doing your free throw yeah I think um before the free throw comes it's really preparation like you know like I'm comfortable at the free throw line because I've been playing basketball for a while now like I've shot pressured free throws I've shot free throws in the gym by myself with my teammates like I think it's about knowing that you've done this many times and it's a it's a free shot uh also relaxing at the line like just like I said if you've known that you've put in work in certain things like there's no like tension there's no I don't know if I can make this so I'm going up there very confidently knowing that I work on this shot a hundred thousands of times before so uh I just go up there and try to just do what I do best and like lock in on on my work and trust my work yeah it's all about that preparation and just really the practice I mean I always say that you know when you practice you have to practice how you'll play and play how you practice what are your thoughts about that yeah that that hits home and I think that's one of the things that cannot preach is as well like and he tells me every day like make sure that like even when I came here earlier like you have to I had to change my game speed like the higher levels you go the faster the game speed the faster the physicality and um I think that you like you have to be ready like the preparation of knowing that the game speed changes so you have to be able to be ready to shoot earlier and be ready to move faster like it's just like because you're playing with bigger stronger faster players so I think just that is the most the most part of it yeah now Jovan I want to ask you about your strengths what what what would you say are your strengths as a basketball player and as a teammate yeah so I'll start off as a teammate um I think they're like I'm a good locker room guy and that's where like comfortability within my my buddies come from like just knowing that I'll be there for them I'll make them laugh and like even though it is a serious sport like we can also have fun and make sure that the camaraderie is there um and the chemistry is there off the court because I think that helps on the court and um as far as on the court I think I I just have like this knack for just excellence and making sure that things are right like if things are right I don't I don't like anything sliding from myself I hold myself to a high standard and I hold my teammates to a high standard so just leadership uh and being able to do different things on the court and affect the game like with passing defending being able to make shots I I think like I'm an all-around player when it comes to that just knowing that I can affect the game in different ways yes I can I can really see that and Jovan um in terms of off court okay what do you guys do as a team off court to really enhance your team bonding yeah I think um just diving into the beach and the water and I know it's typical for everyone to do that out here but I think that's what we need to do more of is like just getting the mud out here like whatever you can do to really dive into the culture and and just go around and see the island like with each other experience that with each other wherever you get from that experience is your experience but as long as we can all see it with each other and like just keep growing within the environment that we're in I think that's the best part of the chemistry that we can build off the court and Jovan you know you're local now and what what are some specific beaches that you love to go to uh I would say Pukulkaya and the north shore is my favorite beach so far wow why why do you love it there um I don't know it's it's it's deep in the north shore um I don't like some some beaches have secret entrances and I don't think this is like a well-known entrance but they're like there's not a lot of people there it's a huge beach like the sunsets there are beautiful um the waves are always just like I love to watch the waves just come and hit the shore and then like I dive into the shore break and if I get dirty it is with these but yeah I just have a fun experience there so so so that's Jovan's private beach at Pukulkaya and that's awesome I love that and Jovan what would you say to some potential recruits that are considering coming to University of Hawaii um I would say that like even though it's Hawaii it's it's it's beautiful it's everything that you may imagine when you when you get here it's still like a grind like it's still a workforce like people are working out here people are getting things done and everything else is just the icing on the cake obviously but um I would say that like really come in here with the mindset that you want to raise the bar and I think that's anybody should do that go into any program like come in want to make it better so if that's your real mindset and that's where your heart resides and as long as you like know that the community is behind you and really dive into the community that you'll have an amazing experience Jovan success can be defined in many ways how do you define success I define success by setting goals that you have individually um actually working towards those goals knowing that like if I do if you have a game plan for what you may want in life that's basketball workforce anything like the fact that you can actually wake up and know that like I'm going to get to my goals I'm going to keep pushing towards what I want in life and and if it reaches fruition like and you see it happening I think that's success because you put in the work for you know that you know you don't know when it may come but as long as you know you're putting in the work and it hits like I think success is more so the journey than because it will happen if you put in hard work I completely agree Jovan you are a man of great character and I want to really thank you for taking time to be on the show today no thank you Russi again like I've had an amazing time on the show I love talking to you I need to talk to you more as well throughout the season too just to make sure that I'm still on the same page you have some great advice for me so thank you again we'll do that thanks Jovan and thank you for watching Beyond the Lines on Think Tech Hawaii for more information please visit Rusty Komori.com and my books are available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble I hope that Jovan and I will inspire you to create your own superior culture of excellence and to find your greatness and help others find theirs Aloha. Thank you so much for watching Think Tech Hawaii if you like what we do please click the like and subscribe button on YouTube you can also follow us on Facebook Instagram and LinkedIn check out our website thinktechawaii.com Mahalo


Well, welcome back to Cheddar everyone and we also want to welcome those of you listening to Cheddar on iHeartRadio All right guys South Dakota and a number of other states are trying to get online retailers like Wayfair to pay state sales taxes Even if that company doesn't have a physical store in that state The debate has made its way to the Supreme Court and a decision should be made today with us now is Melissa Armo owner at the Stock swoosh. Melissa. Thanks for joining us today. Can you put this into can you put this into context for us? How big of a deal is this for internet companies like Wayfair? I think this is a big deal. In fact, I think the outcome of the decision today is a big deal not just for Wayfair But for over stock com Amazon other companies that well that sell a lot of things online This is a big decision today I actually nobody really knows what the outcome is going to be because they thought it was going to side originally Morton favor of South Dakota and now nobody knows but one thing's for sure if they end up deciding in the favor of the states Where they will allow pretty much anything to be charged that the states decide in their favor for the taxes and a lot more States are going to start to charge and you could see a reaction today a negative reaction in the stocks that I just mentioned Whereas right now Wayfair looks great Amazon looks great I mean some of these stocks have been looking great for quite a long time now and they could have a negative reaction Of course, they could have a positive reaction if it turns out to be in their favor just we don't know What's a good outcome for consumers here? That's the problem for consumers obviously. We don't want to pay any more taxes You know as a person that shops online. I'm sure you both shop online, too Why I it's nice to be able to order something and not have to pay the tax Whereas if I would go into a local store here in Manhattan, I would pay a tax So this is to benefit the states It's not to benefit the consumer if they do pass this tax and allow it and it's definitely not to benefit the corporations because then What's going to happen is these big corporations are competing one of the reasons they've done so well as they're competing head-to-head with? Brick and mortar stores brick and mortar retail stores that do have a physical presence in the states and are forced by state law required to Charge their their requisite tax and so it depends where you are in the spectrum if you're like a best buy And you've got a physical presence in a state or if you're like an Amazon and you don't it depends what kind of corporation you are But these stocks have really seen the benefit of sales because they don't have to charge taxes which makes it cheaper for the consumer There's no good outcome here for the consumer if it passes and it's a and all the states are allowed to charge taxes for online Goods and purchases Melissa if South Dakota if that side of the debate wins here aside from regular consumers who stands to lose the most here Will smaller retailers be able to sort of keep up with calculating these taxes and imposing these taxes on their users? You mean if they're if they're not if they if they sign in the favor of the way fair Are you lost me there are South Dakota wins exactly exactly? Yeah Are you saying a small business this could benefit? Not necessarily because you know you're still gonna price shop some certain items that you want You're gonna go get the best price and when you're competing against some of these stores like Wayfair that it has really competitive prices Over stock comm very competitive Amazon competitive It's still hard for any mom-and-pop store any small business to compete with these stores I mean I think they'll find another way that they'll find another way But as far as the consumer you're still I think in a same worth We have to pay less taxes, but you know no matter no matter how you look at it I don't think that the old or the small mom-and-pops can compete against these big retailers And this is the environment that we're going and we're going in an environment where there's less mom-and-pops Less small businesses and more of these giant Gigamongous places that sell stuff that are just becoming bigger and bigger and bigger right? So I mean what I mean is could this be even worse for those small retailers who can't afford to have to charge higher taxes For their customers and then say an Amazon. Yes, definitely. They're definitely getting worse for this. Yes Okay, so I guess my question would be Melissa. There's already over 30 states already taxed internet purchases So how big of a deal is this to report decision anyway? Well, I don't really know exactly who taxes what but if I might be I think it's part of the problem though It's Barry's there are 31 states, but they all have different tax rates in other words if I if I want to buy something I'll mine right now. I'm pretty certain with Amazon. I don't pay almost 9% Which is New York sales tax rate. So whatever the tax rate is It's a it's a less tax rate than it is if I walk into a store and buy a pair of shoes So, right that's why this is so specific and eventually It eventually makes to have to go to Congress and the Congress may have to vote on this because this is becoming a bigger and bigger deal All right, Melissa. We'll have to leave it there. Thank you so much as always Melissa Armo owner at the stock swoosh Thanks for joining us here today. All right guys. It is time to say goodbye Don't go anywhere between bells is starting next


Alright, another day and another video and in today's video, I'm going to be talking about my five simple tips when it comes to optimizing your sleep. You see, for the last couple of decades, we as a society have been reducing our quality of sleep, both quality of sleep and time of sleep. On average, we used to sleep north of eight hours.   Like, here's something simple you can do. You can literally go on PubMed or Google Scholar and type in benefits of sleep weight loss, benefits of sleep for mood optimization, benefits of sleep for hormone, benefits of sleep plus X, benefits of sleep plus Y, benefits of sleep plus A. It doesn't matter. Sleep helps everything.  But I'm going to tell you right now, I'm going to tell you five simple tips that I personally do, and there's so many other different ones out there, but I'm going to tell you my favorite five that I use that's simple and easy. I have some other ones, but these are ones that I kind of go to on a daily basis. So, tip number one, blue blocker glasses right here. These are the non-sexy ones. These are the $15 Uvex ones from Amazon, which I think are one of the best ones. So, blue blocker glasses. And why is it important to wear blue blocker glasses is, it eliminates a blue light. You see, once again, you can go to PubMed. So, blue light, the light from your ceiling, the light from your computer, the light from your camera, it affects your hormones. And I'm going to kind of dumb things down as much as possible now by no means an expert. I learn from experts. So, blue light. So, what blue light does, when you're exposed to blue light at night time, it increases your cortisol a little bit and decreases your sleep hormone called melatonin, which is no bueno. Not good. You don't want to have decrease of melatonin. You want to have a natural progression of melatonin, which puts you to sleep. So, this blocks out the artificial light at night time, which we were naturally akin to. You look at human sapiens, well, think about it. Light's a new invention. It just came in the last hundred years when Nikola Tesla and Edison, before that we had fire, which hold different wavelengths, right, infrared. That being said, do not expose yourself to night light. What I like to do is I like to wear my blue blocker glasses about two to three hours before bed. And at the exact same time, if you are using electronics, you can use programs like Flux or any other type of light simulation device on your device to reduce the exposure of light. So, that's number one, blue blocker glasses. Number two, exercise daily. So, I don't have to sit here and tell you why exercise is important.  And here's even another extra tip for exercising. In fact, if you're having trouble sleeping, if you exercise about an hour and a half to two hours before bedtime, it can be something as little as doing 20 to 30 push-ups before your bedtime. It increases your internal body temperatures, which then automatically forces your body to dispel the heat. So, it actually cools down your body, which is good. Having a colder body puts you to sleep, which brings me to point number three. Number three is have a cold room. And so you can once again go to PubMed or Google and check in the studies by having a colder bedroom gives you a more deep rested sleep. So, that's number three. Number one, blue blocker glasses. Number two, exercise. And if you want, you can time a little quick sprint exercise before bedtime. And number three, keeping your room cold. Number four, if you have one of these little babies, this little diffuser right here can get yourself passion flower, essential oils. You put a little dabs in there and you have it going. Passion flower has been shown to be quite relaxing for the body, relaxing for the mind, relaxing for the nerves, which puts you to sleep. So, I like to have this, I have all these different types of essential oils, put a little dabs of passion flower. So, that's number four, passion flower. Number five, this guy right here, melatonin. Now, I personally don't have this every day. I use this on an ad hoc basis, right? So, I mentioned earlier melatonin is your sleep hormone and blue light, as I mentioned, reduces your melatonin. But if you are traveling or you don't have access to your blue blocker glasses or whatever may be, if you're just having one of those days, melatonin is really good. I would recommend a sublingual time release melatonin, which is really good. I have no particular company. This one's natural factors. They're all pretty much the same. But melatonin is really good. Number six, this one's on an ad hoc basis as well. Now, chamomile tea. It's an instant classic. Your mom probably tells you to drink chamomile tea, but there's been shown in studies to be quite calming for the mind as well, calming for the nerves. So, a simple cup of tea about two, three hours before bed does you well. And then finally, number seven, this one's going to be a little bit different for a little bit of people out there, okay? Number seven, number seven is I avoid dinner about minimum three hours before bed. I don't want, I want to have a gradual circadian rhythm with my eating windows. And you can look at some very interesting studies where they have timing of breakfast, lunch and dinner and how having dinner away. So there's two folds why I do this. Having dinner away from sleeping is really good for maximizing hormones. But as well, it gives me a good window of time for my form of intermittent fasting because I like to have an early dinner and then a later brunch or a late lunch, which gives me a nice 16 hour window of intermittent fasting. So those are the top seven things. And that's pretty much it. Those are the tips. Now there's so many other different tips you can do. So many other tips like you got like sleep rings, like aura ring, which is pretty interesting. You can do like sleep magneto pads. You can do like bio sleep pads. They have all these different apps, bilingual, not bilingual, it's binaural beats, right? For the audio of both hemispheres of the brain, you can do acupressure. So you have acupressure masks that you can do before. But there's a dime a dozen different strategies are like simple strategies almost cost you nothing. Like glasses are like 15 bucks. This is $10. This diffuser from Amazon is like $15. So these are like super cheap things that you can do that anyone can buy off of Amazon. But those are my simple tips that I do. I hope these tips help you out.   Alright guys, that's it for this video. If you have a comment or question, as always, leave a comment below this video. And on PNAS, don't forget to subscribe. Peace.


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What's happening guys? It's Shane here and this is one of my most exciting interviews that I've ever done. I was able to get Antoine from the channel Black Heights on YouTube onto the channel. Now Antoine has over 10 years of experience in tech and he has about five years or so of experience in tech sales. Now tech sales is one of those rare careers that you can get into without any experience and without a college degree and it has a lot of really positive things going for it. There's a lot of vertical and horizontal growth. You can make a lot of money right off the bat and you can make even more money down the line. It's also very flexible. You can do it remotely and most importantly there is a ton of demand and not to spoil the video but Antoine is about five years into his career in tech sales and he's making over $500,000 a year. So this video is going to showcase what's possible if you go into tech sales and you get really really good at it. And Antoine is just a wholesome, really awesome guy in general and I think you're going to enjoy his story. So definitely watch this one all the way through. Let's go ahead, gently tap that like button. Let's try to get this one to 1,000 likes and we're going to jump in right now. Hey guys, welcome back to the channel. It's Shane here and today I'm extremely excited to bring on a guest. This is a very special guest. I've been trying to get him on the channel for a little bit. Very busy guy. I was also busy but I finally got him to come on. This is going to be Antoine from Black Heights. Thank you so much for coming on the channel, Antoine. I appreciate you having me here, Shane. You've been an instrumental person in the Black Heights journey. So the fact that you and I are on this interview right now and this discussion just brightens my day and I was looking forward to this day for many years. So thank you so much for having me on, sir. Well, I really appreciate that and I'm happy I could make that come true for you but it's all you and you make awesome content and just to give a little bit of an introduction for Antoine, basically he has a channel Black Heights. He talks about a lot of different things on the channel but a lot of careers in tech, how to break into tech, tech sales and he is somebody who is extremely experienced in many different areas of tech but specifically tech sales and we're going to get into that a little bit later. We're going to kind of talk about some of the numbers and stuff but he really, really knows his stuff when it comes to tech sales. So this is an interview where people actually commented on my channel. They wanted me to get you on so I'm super happy we're able to do this but let's jump right into it right now. Let's start at the very beginning, the beginning of your career and technology. You first got into technology. You were working in several different verticals and then you discovered kind of tech sales and can you kind of just walk us through that a little bit and how that happened? Yeah, absolutely. So Shane, let me tell you this. I spent about 15 years of my career doing everything besides tech sales. What I mean by that, I started my career off as a software engineer and kind of climbed the ladder from a software engineer to a senior software engineer to a master software engineer and then decided I wanted to be a tech lead, a project lead and so forth in the supply chain SaaS tech industry. So all the industries, the only industry that I've actually ever been in is the supply chain software space. So needless to say, as I continue to climb the ladder, I made the dive into tech sales, given the opportunity and the company that I've been at for over seven years.  So unlike a lot of people when they enter into tech sales, they go through the route of a software development, a business development rep, which are your entry level sales roles. Well, since I've already had a good amount of experience across the entire company, they put me directly in a outside slash inside sales role with a quota of about 1.2 million that I had to find a way how I can bring that revenue into the company. And within the first three months, I sold about 600,000. And by the end of the fiscal year, I was over that 1.2 million making presidents club. So my journey to tech sales is unique because I've had a lot of experience across many parts of the business. But I think with my experience, it allows me to have a lot more success than many people who have gone directly in the sales without a lot of the experiences that I've shared as well, or without the experiences that I've been through within my space and so forth. Okay. So you had all that experience and you kind of made a horizontal shift into tech sales from other technology related roles. But how long have you been working in tech sales at this point? Yes. So Shane, I've been in tech sales for about four years now. So I started off as what one could consider as an area sales director, having both hunter and farmer experience. Many of you may not know what that is, but if you think about a hunter, hunter goes out there and brings in business to the company. They're the ones who are really knocking on doors and pounding the pavement and so forth. And a farmer is one that already has an existing book of business and tries to grow that book of business by planting additional seeds. Got it. Let's get into kind of the really important points here and we'll kind of just briefly go over them. The things I always talk about is demand is probably the most important thing. And then another thing I talk about is job satisfaction. And that kind of ties into flexibility, in my opinion, because the truth is like a lot of the time people will go into a job, it's not their favorite job in the world. But as long as it's a flexible career where if you get tired of it after a few years, you can switch, typically your job satisfaction is going to be pretty good because everybody's different. Not everyone is built to be in tech sales. But having that experience, getting that skill, it might help you later on down the line in something else. And then the third thing I like to talk about is, of course, pay. We got to talk about pay. That's what everyone wants to hear. So if you're comfortable talking about that, you can also bring that up as well. Yeah, absolutely. So let's talk about demand. So if you think about it, every company needs people in sales. Why? Well, they need to grow their revenue. They need to bring in revenue so that they can actually support the business. So sales in general is the lifeblood of every single company. And sales is nothing other than turning a prospective customer into a paying customer. So if you think about the demand of raw and sales rows, you're going to constantly see if you're going to LinkedIn or Glassdoor or any of these searches, you're going to see hundreds of thousands of opportunities open every single year. I think the last search that I did back in April, there was over 400,000 sales rows that exist out there. So you already know that the man is high from a job satisfaction standpoint, right? Job satisfaction in sales. Let me just tell you this. Some people handle stress a little bit better than others. Sales in my career have been probably the most stressful of the rows that I've also had. Now, also what I would say is that sales have been the most flexible in my career as well. So again, I've had rows in software engineering on the consulting side as well as on the development side. I've had rows into project management, project leads. I've had rows into leadership where I was leading a customer support organization, a customer success organization in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia out of this country. And overall, I would say it's the most stressful, but also the most flexible. What I mean by the most flexible is that if you are making your number, if you are exceeding your expectations or even meeting your expectations and you balance your data correct way, you can have a lot more time with your family. I'm a husband. I'm a father to two beautiful kids and a wonderful wife. And on a Monday or Tuesday, in my previous row, we would probably be at the vineyard. I'll probably be working at the vineyard, either working for my boat, right? So the satisfaction is certainly there, but don't get me wrong. When you're working on a big deal, it can be very stressful. Why? Because senior leaders are looking for you to close the deal so that they can report numbers to Wall Street or report numbers to the board of the company if the company is private and so forth. So there's a lot more pressure on you. Therefore, people will say that it's a very stressful job. Now, let's talk about the money aspect of a shame because that's where the rubber meets the road, right? I made a good amount of money within my career, sir. I've made a good amount of money. Let me just say this, right? So living out in the country, being a GM of a division in my company and so forth, it's making anywhere around like $250,000. With a good bonus, I was probably making close to $300,000, okay? $300,000 USD. My first year in sales meeting the quota, I made $378,000, okay? More money than I ever had in my life, right? And it was my first year, right? And let me, something that I didn't say was that I was only in the road nine months, not a full fiscal year, not a full 12 months. So I was only in the road nine months and still made the $1.2 million out quota. So I made $378,000. The next year, the next year, I made $394,000. Well, all of a sudden, the pandemic happened, right? The pandemic happened and I built those relationships with my customers. They love me at this point in time. Well, they have a huge spending budget and they don't want to take their IT operations to other RFP or to other supply team vendors or other vendors that they don't know. So of course, it makes it easy for them to purchase from somebody that they already know, especially if your software or your solutions can solve their problems. So Shane, I was sitting back like you are right now doing some wonderful things, just collecting paychecks, right? Just collecting paychecks because customers will come to me, Antoine, I need this. Antoine, I need this. Antoine, I need this. Antoine, I need this. And let's just pull it like this, Shane. My last year, my W2 shows that I've made $540,000. A little bit over, but let's just say $540,000, right? So that's the type of money that you can make in tech sales. Now, all tech sales aren't equal. I'm in an industry that most of you guys probably have heard of to supply chain now because it's all since the pandemic happened. It's been in the news constantly, right? So people are always talking about demand, supply and all this other stuff. I've been in this industry for 17 years. So it's a huge focus now into most executives' vision for their companies. So of course, they're investing a lot more money into it, which therefore means that they're buying more solutions and software from me. So this year, I'm probably going to pace to probably do a little bit bigger than $540, probably close around 600 or something around those lines. We'll see how it works out. But right now, I'm on pace after this first quarter of closing a good $1.3 million deal to exceed my expectations by a lot more. So the money is there, Shane. It's absolutely fantastic. And I would encourage more people to consider this path. You don't have to necessarily be the person that is the one that's selling. You can be somebody who is a solution consultant or sales engineer, because you like the technical parts of it. You want to remain technical, but you can still be in sales, still making a good amount of money. And that's the money that you can make. You can make hundreds of thousands of dollars. I know people who actually made more than our CEO when we were a private company, and that's like close to $1 million or over a million dollars, Shane. So the money is out here to get, sir. Wow. That's all I can say. I mean, wow. That is incredible. So somebody who maybe just discovered tech sales or they're looking to maybe get into it, what resource would you recommend that is probably the easiest way to get into tech sales for somebody who either has no experience, no college degree, or maybe they do have a college degree, but it's not related, or they're in a job that they kind of want to switch out of and get into tech sales. Yeah. So most recently, I partnered with a company called Course Careers, right? And they do a fantastic job of getting people into sales. And Shane, you probably know this company as well, too. And the gentleman who owns the company, his name is Troy. I had an opportunity to meet him, a fantastic individual. And basically his goal is to help individuals get into sales with or without a degree. And he starts you off at the entry level roles, which is an SDR sales development rep or a business development rep. That is a very good course and a very good bootcamp that you should consider in order for you to get into sales. It's tried and true. And there are a lot of people who are getting results. Now, outside of things like course careers and stuff like that, right? The way they get into tech sales is really to research it, understand if it's a good place for you, understand what your requirements of the job is. And once you know that you are pretty much a good fit for tech sales, you're probably going to want to look at a couple of YouTube videos and understand exactly what the sales development reps do, business development reps do, account executives, account managers, and so forth. And then what you can do from there is either you can go to other boot camps that exist out there, sales boot camps or sales training courses. One of the ones that exists out there that I did when I was going through training inside my company is Miller Hyman's. They exist out there. The Challenger Sales, they exist out there. They have books behind this as well too. You can read a whole bunch of books. But that's the other way that you can take to get into sales as well too. But I recommend, after coming across Course Career Shane and what Troy's mission is, I definitely recommend Course Careers. And I've had a number of my mentors and students that I've coached to enter that program, and they're getting really good results. Got it. And I will put Course Careers Troy made a free training. I will put that down in the description as well as the pinned comment. And also definitely don't forget to check out Antoine's channel, Black Heights. I will also put that down in the description and the pinned comment as well. And I'm not sure. Sometimes they let me link stuff. Sometimes they don't. So if they let me link it, I'll put it somewhere up here as well, either in the cards or on the end screen. Yeah, really in like Course Careers, what they're doing is phenomenal. And I will just say, is there any other advice that you would give to people who are potentially looking to get into tech sales? Absolutely. I think one of my favorite books that I was recommended before actually took on the role itself, Shane, was a book called How to Be a Rainmaker.  They make it rain, right? It's a fantastic book, a short read, but it really gives you a good understanding of the fundamental sales that it's an art, you know, and it's something that you all can learn. And it's something that most people have to do. And it's a lifelong skill that's going to benefit you for the rest of your life. So if you get some experience in tech sales, you can help to influence your career and get promotions and to communicate effectively and so forth that will benefit you in your personal and your professional career. So I recommend that book. I recommend somebody, most of us, to gain some experience in some sort of sale, whether you're going to become an entrepreneur in your life or not, sales will always be pivotal in your life and in your journey. So that's what I got to say on that, Shane, from a sales perspective. And I think that book will give some people a good introduction in what sales really is about and just the art behind it. Got it. I have not read that book, but I'll have to check it out. So I appreciate the recommendation and I appreciate you coming on the channel as well. Thank you so much for doing this interview, Antoine. What you're doing is awesome, teaching people how to get into tech, teaching people how to get into tech sales and these roles that are just, they're changing people's lives.  In some cases, depending on the career that you're going for, college is not necessary. So really love what you're doing. Again, everyone go check out Black Heights. I'll link that down in the description as well as the pinned comments. And yeah, thank you so much for coming on the channel, Antoine. Appreciate it. Thank you, Shane. Thank you so much for having me. It's been a pleasure. Continue to do the fantastic work that you're doing, sharing your personal experiences, but also sharing that, you know, college is not needed for everything, right? And, you know, I think it's waking people to make better career decisions and better life decisions that's going to stop them from going in its endless circle of debt and allow for them to come out of the starting blocks, sprinting versus crawling, as a lot of people are doing today.


A warm welcome to the 19th session in the third module of signals and systems. We have been looking at what happens when you do not quite sample with ideal impulses. And let me quickly summarize the way we have approached the problem, we are going to complete the discussion of what happens in the spectral domain in this session. So we said that if you had this train of non-ideal pulses rather you know pulses that are not quite impulses but which last for an interval capital delta in the whole sampling interval of Ts. So in every interval of Ts you have this pulse, the pulse lasts for an interval of capital delta. And essentially what you are doing is to take a band limited signal or the signal that you want to sample and multiply it by this periodic waveform. We call this periodic waveform P of t so to speak a train of pulses now not impulses. You see the important thing is that the Fourier transform of this has an appearance like this we saw that. Obviously the Fourier transform of P t is again going to have a train of impulses. Any periodic waveform has a train of impulses as its Fourier transform. And the train of impulses that you get in the Fourier transform is obtained by an envelope which we derived the last time. Essentially the Fourier coefficients give you the strength of each of course this is not a uniform train it is not. By a uniform train you would mean a train of impulses all of which have the same strength but here these impulses do not have the same strength. The strength of the impulses relates to the Fourier coefficients here. So the impulse strength so it relates to the Fourier series coefficients. In fact the situation would be like this on the omega capital omega axis the angular frequency axis you would have an impulse lying at every multiple of 2 pi by Ts. The strength of this impulse would be proportional to C0 the strength of this one to C1 and so on. And we also saw the nature of C0, C1, C2 and so on. We saw that Ck has the form gamma 0 sinc. So gamma 0 could be the constant sinc of k times delta by Ts. And of course you could make gamma 0 depend you know you could essentially try and make it independent of delta. I am repeating some of these ideas you know you must fix these ideas in our mind. It is important to review them from various perspectives. So you know it is really samples of an envelope. So I have an envelope like this a sinc envelope and you have samples of this envelope with a spacing of delta by Ts. Now you can visualize the situation as delta by Ts tends to 0. We essentially concentrate around 0. So all the samples start getting crowded here. But when delta by Ts is not 0 we have something interesting. So with delta by Ts not equal to 0 but small enough. How small enough? You know the idea is you want to be able to make use of that main loop. That is the meaning of small enough. You should not have a situation where you take one sample from the main loop and the next sample comes from the side loop. That is not good for you. You want the first few samples to come from the main loop. So small enough so that the first few samples come from the main loop. Let me zoom this to show you what I mean. So C0 is like this, C1 is like this, so is C minus 1 and then C2 and so on. C minus 2 and this. So you know the first few samples come from the main loop. What you observe? The first few samples have decreasing magnitude. Now this is going to be important to us. This decreasing magnitude is going to be important to us. So in fact now let us write down formula. Let us write a Fourier series expansion. That is very easy to do. It is summation k over all the integers. I am sure you must have now got used to this notation k belong to the set of integers. And when we multiply xt by pt, what are we getting? We are getting. Now you see this is a very interesting expression because easily take the Fourier transform of this. We can take the Fourier transform term by term. Why can we do that? We can do that because the Fourier transform is linear. So we can take the transform term by term and then add the terms. Now what is the Fourier transform of one of those terms? That is very easy to see. It is essentially mine. Now of course we assume the Fourier transform exists. We have agreed to do that. Very easy to do this. Very easy to integrate. You can of course combine the exponential terms. So you see suppose the Fourier transform of xt is capital X of omega. What is this expression? This expression is essentially capital X as a function of omega minus 2 pi by T s times k. So it is as if you have taken the Fourier transform and shifted it by 2 pi by T s times k here. You see that is interesting. X omega shifted by 2 pi by T s times k forward and of course remember k can be positive and negative. So it is associated with the coefficient. So you see it is very interesting. Each of these terms actually gives you a shifted version of the Fourier transform. Now you know you will wonder in fact this is exactly what we have been saying all this while. There is nothing new. We have taken the original spectrum and we have shifted it to every multiple of 2 pi by T s and we have added up these shifted versions. That is what we are saying. Let us go back and see. So you see you want to take the Fourier transform term by term. So let us take this expansion here. You found the Fourier transform of this and now the Fourier transform of this can be found by simply multiplying by ck and then you add up all those Fourier transforms taking the summation on all k. So simple. Three step process. We have done this step. Now we multiply that step by ck and then add over all k. Let us do exactly that to obtain the Fourier transform of xt times pT. So therefore the Fourier transform of xt times pT is essentially summation k over all the integers ck capital X omega minus 2 pi by T s times k. What are we saying effectively? We are saying shift capital X of omega by 2 pi by T s times k. First step of course forward for every integer k. Multiply the shifted version by ck. Add up all these shifted versions and there you are. That gives you the Fourier transform of xt multiplied by pT. We have now formally said something which we have been saying by various kinds of illustrations over the last few sessions and in the initial few sessions of this module. We will see more in the next session. We will continue from this point onwards. Thank you.