I am Alexander Lawrence. I am here from SysDig today. I am a principal solutions engineer covering out here in the West helping out people do all sorts of fun and dirty things with containers and Kubernetes and all that jazz. So really what we wanted to talk about today was making my slides advance. That was the goal. Let's try it again. Talking about technical difficulties, huh? So let's reset this and come back here. All right. Now we've got the slides to advance. We're good to go there. So basically SysDig's whole point in life is to make this journey to Kubernetes and containers easier. And a lot of that we are focusing on building in the open source community. So obviously we have a commercial product that we sell and ways to make money. But we fundamentally believe that all of the technology around the K8 stack really should be this open source notion. And what I guess what I mean by that is as the product evolves, as Kubernetes evolves and gets changed, new things come into play, it moves at an incredibly fast rate just by the very nature of the fact that it's open source. That's kind of the whole point about integrating quickly in the OSS world and building newer technology stacks. And so if you're a traditional company who's trying to keep up with the community just by yourself, you're not going to, right? Like look at the evolution of PSPs, how quickly those kind of came out. And then nothing happened for a while. They got super popular for like a month and then they died off. And now we have OPA replacing everything, right? And so basically as these things evolve and come into play, it's really difficult to keep up. And so one of the fundamental philosophies we have here is that the best way to be able to secure your instances, to be able to monitor things, do things in a way that makes sense seeing as K8s as open source is to embrace the community itself. And so SysDig has written a number of things ourselves like the quote unquote open source SysDig, Falco, which we gave to the CNCF, right? We've embraced things like Encore and Prometheus, Cloud Custodian, Trivi, a number of the other open source projects that surround the K8s community. And so it's something we firmly believe in and finding ways to help enable customers and help enable the community to embrace those tools and secure their stuff in a way that just makes sense, right? And so along with that, you know, how do you take all of the tools? How do you take all the things in the world and make them secure your environment in a way that makes sense? Thankfully we have, you know, councils and groups of people like NIST or CIS or other organizations who help kind of define what these standards look like and help drive towards what you should do to run this stuff in production in a way that makes sense. And so like in the cybersecurity framework, they talk a lot about kind of desired outcomes, try to make sure that the language they're doing this in is understandable by everybody, right? They're not trying to use vernacular that's just confusing or difficult to get through. They're looking at how can they apply this to risk management? How do you define what that stuff looks like in your cycle? And then kind of looking at this across the entire span of the security lifetime. So looking at things from both prevention as well as how do you react to events when they do occur. One of the things we talk about a lot in the community and at SISTIG is having security events or having things come out is great to know when they happen, but if you don't know the context of where this stuff happens, it's not actionable, especially in the world of Kubernetes, right? When you have containers spinning up, ever run to the sun, if you don't know where stuff comes from, it's basically useless. You can't know where you need to react to things, where you need to go find stuff. And so having that level of detail integrated into your security solution is something that's huge and it's something that they often point out in these frameworks. As well, NIST has the 800-190 Application Container Security Guide. It's a fantastic guide to read through if you're looking at going into production with stuff like this. It'll help you kind of look at various risks and countermeasures you can take, things you can identify. Effectively, it's just a really strong resource to be able to kind of decide how your posture looks, how your responses should look, what you need to do to kind of take into consideration the various controls you're going through. A lot of companies, SISTIG Included, do try to help make these things be a little bit easier so that when you get into the bread and butter of it, you can have predefined canned rules about certain content, things you need to be going and looking for. We have the Cloud Native Security Hub that SISTIG helps run. It's a community-catered organization that has a bunch of different rules for runtime security and a lot of those harken back to things like 800-190 to HIPAA rules to other types of compliance structures. So definitely something to check out and consider if you aren't doing it today. Really great frameworks to help inform where you should take and drive your instances and your configuration. Compliance obviously is huge, right? All of these standards are typically built in a world where they are kind of just informational guides that help explain what you can do and why things are important, but they basically don't really talk about how to implement. They just say, well, you should do runtime security. You should do EDR type work. You should be able to do inspection of things happening on your file systems. They don't say, well, you do it by instrumenting this or you do it by implementing XYZ thing. That's really where the other kind of big compliance worlds come into play. So if you think about NIST 853, that is a guideline that takes about how to run stuff in a highly secure way, and that's what the FedRAMP spec is based on top of, right? So 853 tells you these are the controls that are important. FedRAMP tells you this is how you should implement these important controls. So it gets extremely confusing and extremely cumbersome, but ultimately it's all about making sure people are protected and secure here and the way that they're running their infrastructure. And all of these evolutions are really about how to do it in the containerized world, because it's just fundamentally different than traditional vms or big iron or things like that. So why would you make all of this happen? Why would you introduce the complexity of containers and Kubernetes and all that junk when it all worked fine on vms and all worked fine on big iron, right? Really, it's kind of these points here. It's all immutable, right? You don't have to worry about stuff being persistent in some ways if you're doing it right, at least. There's quite the debate on that topic today out in the community, but realistically, if you make stuff immutable, you've built applications in a way that they can go down and come back up in a very dynamic sense, and that's a pretty attractive offering for a lot of folks who want to scale or push stuff out in different ways. They're purpose-built, self-contained. I cannot tell you how many times in my career that the wrong Python library is installed or the wrong dependency for like a libc is there or whatnot, and I can't make my thing work because this little component broke. And so containers let you control your world a little bit better. It's really not a new idea, right? We have BSD jails, we have C groups. We have all these things to implement it, but this world of containerization has given us a standard set of APIs and a standard set of way of doing things that just has it kind of more uniform across the globe. I often tell people that there really isn't anything that's ridiculously fancy about Kubernetes, other than the fact that it's kind of given us an operating system for the cloud. So I can build an application one way and deploy that same application anywhere I want it to go as long as it's on Kubernetes, it's going to work. It's a hugely, hugely powerful thing when you start thinking about people who are across different clouds or in different environments, both on-prem in the cloud or something like that. It just gives you specs to work off of. Then also being able to kind of limit and isolate resources is a huge deal. So if you think about things like Styra or OPA and the regular language, and then you think about network security policies in Kubernetes, it gives you a lot of different tools in your toolbox to eliminate connections you don't want or access to things that you don't want. And so it just makes that be a lot easier to handle. It gives you a lot more flexibility in how you approach that. Obviously that flexibility comes with complexity on top of it, but it does let you have more options. And then realistically your developers love it, right? The single biggest thing I see in a lot of my customers today is that it enables our developers to do their job. They're not really being hampered by all the other things that we're used to doing, right? So the security professional isn't slowing them down. The infrastructure team isn't slowing them down. They don't have to request new servers or resources. They can make their container. It has their application on it. They can spin it up wherever they want and they can go about their job. It's a wonderful thing, but you have to find ways to do that in a way that enables the developer and doesn't block them. So that's a huge aspect of things that we have to consider as well. And this whole cloud-native ecosystem, this whole open-source ecosystem has really adopted good ways to do that. And I didn't build out the slide, but these are some of the projects that are out there that are helping enable this. So I kind of mentioned a few of them like OPA or we have things like Ancor or Falco, other tools that integrate directly into that SDLC to make sure that the devs in the world is kind of working in a way that makes sense and you're not trying to block things off so much. So we've got an idea of frameworks. We've kind of talked here a little bit of the different compliance guides and things like that, but kind of getting to the point, what makes up all those different components? What makes up all of those things that you're trying to accomplish and kind of work your way through? And really it's kind of these various areas right here. So we have things like CSPM for the cloud, ensuring cloud security. We've got image scanning. There's the different compliance frameworks, runtime security, forensics, benchmarking, right? There's all these different things. And realistically, to run your environment in a secure way, you have to have solutions across that entire stack. And what it comes down to is that it's hard because there's lots and lots of layers of all this different security stuff you have to take into consideration. So how can you be one small, one agile team trying to do all these different things? It's difficult, right? And a lot of folks end up focusing on just one or two of them and not looking at them holistically. So if we think about CSPM, this is where you have tools like Cloud Custodian that come into play to help you kind of work through that world, kind of figure out what your base configuration should be in your cloud config that you're not exposing things you shouldn't expose, like unencrypted S3 buckets and stuff like that. Most people, when they start thinking about container security, they're just going to pop circles in all of them. They do mostly image scanning. That's kind of the place most people go because that's where the vulnerabilities exist, right? So if I plug all my vulnerabilities, then I don't have to worry about things coming into the environment. Everything else is happy and taken care of. Nothing else bad can happen. The reality is that that's a huge part of it and it's important to remediate your software. It's important to find the vulnerabilities. It's important to plug those holes. But the other components are equally as important and they pretty much get neglected. So I guess what I mean by that is if you think of your environment, if you're going to go run stuff today and you're building out these new applications, most people will say, oh, no, we've got this new thing. I'm using something like Artifactory. You know, I scanned it with X-ray or I used Clare to make sure there's no vulnerabilities in the thing. So I can push that into production. They just let it run. But things show up over time, right? Images age, applications age, packages age, new vulnerabilities appear, and you have to remediate those in some way, shape, or form. And if you don't, you really need to know about what's going on in that runtime context. So if you think about runtime security, this is like where Falco comes into play. So if I have a vulnerability that's exposed, or a overflow attack against that container, they get access to a shell. They can start doing things. If I'm not monitoring that runtime aspect of things, I have no idea if it ever went off or happened, right? And so there's multiple layers here you have to go through to secure all of this stuff. And it's just difficult to figure out what you're going to do, right? And so what tools are out there? What things should you be using? How can you use them? And it's kind of what I'll get into next here. So effectively, when you think about the environment and the tooling that goes along with that, you have kind of these disparate areas that surround the infrastructure. So things like the CI CD pipeline, you've got stuff around cloud security, things like that, to take care of networking like service meshes, or Istio, consoles, stuff like that.  And how do you make it easy? How do you make it simple? There are so many things you can do. And so I kind of made up a little quick list of a few different components to consider. What should I be looking at? What should I pick off first as I start deploying this stuff? Excuse me. And really the first spot, especially in the current modern world is FIPS compliant SSL libraries. Whenever I talk to anybody who's doing compliance or remediation or they're trying to deal with deploying stuff in a compliant sort of way, I don't want to ask I get. What distros, what Kubernetes releases, what library should I be using that can be cryptographically secured? And the reason why this comes up so much is this is really part of the FedRAMP and 853 specifications. So it's an area that a lot of people end up struggling with and have a hard time figuring out how to deploy the libraries correctly. Because if you think about it from a context of containers, even if your Kubernetes cluster is secured, it doesn't mean that the container itself is using the same library that the host is using. You can self-contain the SSL library inside your container as well. And so this becomes a very interesting thing to deal with and somewhat difficult to handle. Not all distros make it easy. You've got to have different ways to handle that. So I've thrown up here how Red Hat does it specifically. But there's certainly ways to go about it and things you can do to make that be a little bit easier. If you think about RBAC trying to get access to... to dictate who can get access to what, who can do what, there's various ways via the Kubernetes API that's native. I think generally the community agrees that's not quite enough and so that's why we have things like OPA coming out. So you can dictate what access a different container has, what entitlement it can get access to, what VNETs or what NICs or IPs it can access. There's certainly a lot of ways to handle who can run what against what in Kubernetes and OPA really has done a good job extending that out to make that RBAC world a little bit easier. There's other projects out there as well like RBAC Manager have never actually used it but supposedly it can do some of the same stuff. I think you'll find stuff like OPA kind of taking over that world more so. It's got a fair amount of flexibility even though it has a little bit of complexity to it as well. Let's see here. Rancher and OpenShift also have some commercial offerings in that regard. We each have some solutions out of the box that try to help you do things like cryptographic libraries and RBAC a little bit easier but kind of your monotone vary based on your configuration and how you're trying to run that. The other area that is kind of a spot to consider is hardening your nodes in your run time. So there's a wonderful tool out there I think by Aqua called Qbench that allows you to do a benchmark against your nodes in your configuration to ensure that you're meeting kind of those base CIS guidelines so that you've encrypted the API or you've encrypted the communications back and forth. You've locked down who can access what portions of the file system like kind of all those basic things you should do but don't happen out of the box, right? When you deploy a fresh Kubernetes instance it doesn't have any of that configuration in place and so I'd highly recommend you check out that project. It's again open source a lot of other commercial tools also rapid and so you can leverage them as well to be able to figure out what your infrastructure should look like. Really easy way to do evaluations and dictate what's going on across those nodes for hardening and things like that. And then kind of finally on the last component to consider it's not talked about a ton but using hardened images, right? Anybody can pull anything down from GitHub or from different repositories that are out there publicly making sure that your distro you're using on those images can help a lot so if you use things like distrilis images you can limit your security profile or your risk profile against those different images and so just kind of a base way that if you're building your own stuff start with an image that is already secured or at least has a minimal profile to it helps eliminate vulnerabilities and other stuff that could show up down the way. So I had mentioned there's kind of a few different easy buttons for doing Kubernetes kind of in a secure way and so most of these I think all of these are actually paid solutions but Rancher has a new one out FIPS Cryptographic Libraries by defaults has a really good RBAC situation it has built-in benchmarking for Kubernetes you can basically manage your kits clusters you've deployed with Rancher or other ones out there as well kind of gives you that potential reporting plane OpenShift also does a pretty good job at this again we mentioned earlier in the Red Hat configuration you can just do FIPS is true in the configuration and it enables FIPS Cryptographic Libraries by defaults has a pretty mature operator ecosystem so if you're looking for other other security tools like QBench or the Cystics of the World or Aqua or Twistlock all those different solutions you can install those natively inside the interface to help kind of build that ecosystem out pretty quickly also has an encrypted data plane by default which is pretty nice right that's one of the things that's in that Kubernetes benchmark you don't have to deal with those yourself with that solution then everybody's favorite EKS it also has a gubcloud solution these days and they're going for a FedRamp Moderate certification across that and so if it's FedRamp Moderate it has FIPS Cryptographic Libraries it has all the APIs your teams love and already work with and kind of handles all of that base stuff that you have to do for the FedRamp based environments so it's also a very nice solution for doing that I know they have aspirations to work further in the FedRamp chain but it's a pretty quick and easy way to spin up a cluster that's going to meet a lot of base compliance needs so talking about tooling this is kind of a catch all slide to kind of hit different areas so like at SysDig when we roll out our solution we wrap a lot of cloud custodian for a lot of the benchmarking just let you kind of do that base configuration in the cloud to make sure that stuff isn't going wrong when you start building your stuff if you think about kind of more recent attacks like the solar winds attack or some of the other ones that have been more recent they really focused on a thing called cloud lateral movement and so somebody went into a region inside their infrastructure that wasn't in use were able to get access to an account that also existed somewhere else moved crosswise to a different region and then did malicious activity right and so if you set up things like cloud custodian you can actually start seeing other accounts that are enabled inside your AWS that maybe you're not touching today that could be a potential vector for attack right so just kind of doing some of the more simplistic stuff and that is super useful in the CICD pipeline like when you're building your application development obviously this is an area that gets the most attention I would say out of anything on the list but there's tools like Clair or Trivy Jenkins things like that to be able to ensure you're at least doing the bare minimum to scan your images at build time so that those don't have a bunch of vulnerabilities or misconfigurations as they come in the networking world you're really talking about like Istio or Envoy to handle where and when services and connects and communicates and then in the threat detection world that's where Falco comes in another CNCF project and then there's a a wonderful little tool called Falco Sidekick little flying hamster guy I think it's technically a gerbil and it is a great way to be able to detect stuff in real time and push data out when things are going on you don't want like shells being opened up or UDP traffic that's not on port 53 kind of the low hanging fruit of the world and customization of stuff that's specific to your environments so kind of expanding on those a little bit in cloud custodians all about posture management and vulnerability management across your cloud built on open standards easily to can reconfigure add additional rule sets able to do remediation as well with that so if someone like let's say you have a policy that requires all S3 buckets to be encrypted and you probably should have that policy it can go in and say well the bucket that was unencrypted or hasn't encrypted should be encrypted and Otto does that for you should warn you that when you do remediation be extremely careful because remediation can sometimes be the bane of your existence as an admin you might kill off your configuration or stuff you didn't want to do but for some of the bare minimum things that's a very very useful thing to have again getting into posture of the image analysis itself Jenkins is out there and it's still ridiculously popular for doing your application lifecycle stuff and then plugging it into other scanning options is always very effective so there's again I mentioned Claire earlier there's Trivi there's Encore Engine, there's a number of solutions out there in image analysis they're all a little bit different than each other and the way they handle it and the way they approach it but the end result is that you're looking at your configuration of your containers you're looking at the packages in those things and you're actually securing that lifecycle so that if there is a problem you can report back to your developers they can go fix it before it ever gets to production and you're kind of working in that workflow that they're used to and like they'll try to push it there's a scan on the registry and say nope that one's bad go back and fix it if they can get that feedback live while they're trying to work on it I think everybody appreciates that a little bit more and then so then there becomes this gap in visibility we've talked a lot about security stuff and that's critically important but a lot of the things I tend to to feel that you can't really secure the stuff that you're not monitoring you're not tracking you don't have a security issue it shows up in a visibility context your memory's changed you're getting different processes running so it's using a different footprint of CPU cycles or there's things being written to from files you're not used to seeing a lot of that activity shows up in visibility it doesn't necessarily show up in security what things should you be looking for what things can go off there's a bunch of different things out there that are going to be showing up and going away so it's really hard to tell when something comes online tries to read something you weren't expecting then goes away right like how do you deal with visibility in a world that's extremely dynamic the pods are short lived you can't just say nothing can run that I don't know what it is because maybe there's services coming online that are important to the dev or they were expecting and so it's a really hard thing to kind of implement this notion of zero trust when your visibility is kind of all over the place we'll talk about it in a little bit with that but along with the notion of how the networking works it's really coming down to a couple of different tools that are out there in the community again Envoy, Istio and then this new world of network segmentation that's come out in Kubernetes is extremely useful for this so basically you can say I can't tell you what IP can talk to what IP but I can tell you from a service perspective or an application perspective what deployment can talk to what deployment or what service can talk to what service and so this whole Kubernetes network segmentation then Kubernetes network security policies lets you say well I've got this ephemeral world I can't exactly tell you who's coming up where or what's running in what location but I can tell you that this communication within this box that's okay right it doesn't matter what it is as long as it's only communicating inside my little world I don't mind and so this is kind of giving you this world of creating policy that's somewhat dynamic that I can say I'm okay with that type of communication I'm just not okay if it talks to someone outside of the active player right and so implementing network segmentation has been a really cool thing it's somewhat again difficult to do because it's a somewhat abstract concept there's more tools coming out now that do what you see here in this picture where you can see the secret squirrel application it kind of maps out where the communication is going to and from and then you can use that to generate policies this specifically is a assisted interface but there's other things out there so it lets you kind of create this configuration that allows you that more dynamic nature that your devs are expecting that your infrastructure is depending on so with that like how do you handle the threat detection again this is kind of where we get into the notion of visibility as well as kind of runtime security so we'll talk a little bit about Prometheus, Falco and Cystig so with Prometheus I think everybody knows this project right it's kind of the bread and butter of monitoring your Kubernetes state this day and age I was using Prometheus way back when I was at Pacific Lutheran University doing a bunch of monitoring there for our Linux instances and it's matured a lot in the last I don't know what 8, 10 years something like that and it it can do a lot of stuff for you in this kind of cloud native world it's wonderful again because it's highly extensible highly flexible and it's terrible because it's highly extensible, highly flexible so I encourage you all to be using it if you're not things like Grafana help you visualize things, there's different data stories you can store stuff in probably the single hardest thing about visibility of Prometheus is that handling the data scale that happens right when you've got one application in one place it's not too bad when you've got 2, 3, 50, 100 different applications across hundreds or thousands of nodes that's a difficult problem to solve right so we're seeing things like Thanos to be able to handle how I display this stuff at scale and handle these things across different spots so it's an extremely powerful tool but think about when you're looking at observability how do I store the data that's relevant a lot of my customers were having issues with this where they were coming on board coming online, their application got really popular it pushed out to the masses and then they suddenly realized their monitoring tool that used to store a week of data stores 12 hours of data and when you only store 12 hours that's great during business hours and so finding ways to scale it and do it well I think is critically important because again you can't really secure what you can't see and so if you're not doing this in a way that's effective it's basically I want to say worthless but it doesn't give you the context you need to actually take action on events or be able to figure out what happened after the fact so if you had a security event on Friday you realized on Tuesday the next week that this was something and I need to go get process data but your PROM has already shifted that data out of the storage store so how do you get that information out of there and so having these things happen in native ways that scales is particularly important Falco is kind of the the other side of the coin right where Prometheus is looking at metrics and data about what the health of an application is and what things were accessed or kind of logging just all the different metrics of the world Falco is looking at the data from a security perspective and so really it's about what process did what when again another great project I encourage folks to go look into effectively anything on Linux it can be able to detect rogue activity and you can write whatever type of rule or syntax you want for there there's hundreds of them out of the box but ultimately the goal here is to look for anomalous activity across your container or Linux infrastructure so if somebody opened up a shell I didn't want if somebody tried to read a protected file like maybe I've got a data location for like a PCI compliant data Falco can detect when there's read actions instead of write actions so you can get that delineation over what happened to something when it shouldn't have and alert on those types of conditions I should just move to the next slide talks about all those conditions here so basically looking for pillage escalation all that type of stuff and then the big point of this is Falco does a good job at detecting everything but how do I get the data out right how do I make it into something I can do something with and that's really where Falco's side get comes into play so Falco outputs the data sidekick takes it in and then you can spawn up all sorts of stuff from sidekick so that could be a lambda that takes action on something it could be an email that goes out something goes into a web UI a slack message whatever your workflow is so that you can remediate when something actually happens right about I don't know 20 minutes ago I had said that when you get alerts it's great but if they don't have metadata or actionable data that goes along with that alert it's meaningless and so being able to output that stuff in a way that works into your workflow to make it actually have something relevant happen is utterly critical to that so the last thing I'll talk about is the open source variant of Cystig this is really the other side of the coin of Falco so it's the metric system that Cystig has and it works in conjunction with things like Prometheus it doesn't replace it but it allows you to inspect fun things happening on the kernel fun things happening on the actual nodes themselves the first time I ever got to expose Cystig it was actually via the OSS Curses UI and so you can go into a terminal pop-up in Cystig and start doing analysis across all the different system calls coming through network ports being opened up basically instrumentation for the entire node and does a lot of really cool fun stuff one of the areas that's pretty fun with this is that we can actually have it call a command to dump system calls so if you think about Wireshark and generating SCAP files Cystig does the same thing but it actually captures system calls and generates SCAP files and so it's actually the same Wireshark filter syntax that Cystig uses to be able to sort through all that stuff and even nowadays it uses EDPF for implementation so you can actually go and grab stuff without having to use a traditional kernel module so lots of other interesting ways to get data with this core of the enterprise products and other stuff that we do but it's the open-source variant is certainly fun especially on just various nodes to get data and see what's going on on them so the Curses UI is super fun I don't know if anybody else likes those or not let's see here so at the end of the day there's a lot of stuff that goes into this like when you're asking the question are we safe are we compliant the answer is probably not we're maybe not hitting all the marks I kind of look at this world as when an auditor comes to me it's really about stacking up all the things that I'm doing to make sure that I'm meeting audit or compliance needs it's not saying that something's never going to happen but these are the tools I put in place to make sure when something does happen I know what it was, I know where things occurred I know who did it I can actionally come back and say these things are the things that happened these are the resources that were touched like if I had a breach in one of my environments to a DB or something or ran an SQL query if I have the right tooling in place I can go back and say well yeah someone broke into the infrastructure they used this account it was a modified thing across my AIM policy or whatever it might be and they ran this SQL query but I can tell you the entire syntax of the query and that returned a null the risk is pretty low because they didn't get any data out as long as I have a way to be able to recreate those stories it puts me in a good position to be able to defend myself when the bad actor does come in and tries to do something so again ultimately I hope we're secure we're probably not but we're doing the best we can and here's the functions and tools we put in place so really from there kind of the call to action is that the security in Kubernetes is extremely hard it's very complex and it's driven from the fact that things change really really quickly and we need to find ways to kind of help accommodate that and keep up the pace of keep up with the pace of change the stance that I've had, the stance that Cystic has is doing that with an open source mindset is probably the right way to do it for Kubernetes it's about the only way we're able to keep up with what changes and there's a ton of tools out there that do it obviously the Cystic solution integrates a lot of these things together but you can use kind of whatever you want to handle it and would love feedback from what you guys have used yourselves or other things that you see out there in the world so we don't have time today for me up at Alex at Cystic.com would love to keep the conversation going and if there's any questions I'd be happy to do what I can to answer them thanks alright well I'll just let you all go then thank you very much


I'm honored to have been invited today to share this very joyous occasion with you and I bring you all the very special greetings of President Mohamed Buhari, GCFR, President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. It is clear that Nassarawa State University has come a long way since it was established 20 years ago, a result of the bold vision of His Excellency the former Governor of Nassarawa State and now Chairman of the APC Dr. Abdullah Adamu. The quality of your alumni speaks of the commitment to that vision by succeeding administration as well as the dedication of the University's administrative and academic staff over the years. Graduates of Nassarawa State University have excelled in almost every field of human endeavor and they have continued to do the University proud. This includes to mention a few, the immediate Vice Chancellor of the University, Professor Mohamed Akaro Meinoma, who is also the current President of the Association of National Accountants of Nigeria, and Haji Aramati Tijani Aliyu, the current Minister of State for the Federal Capital Territory who also received her Master's in Public Administration from this University. You have so much to be proud of and this sixth combined convocation ceremony is a good occasion to reflectively bask in how far you have come. Congratulations to the visitor of the University and the Executive Governor of Nassarawa State, my dear brother, engineer Abdulaz Suley, who has built excellently on the legacies of his predecessor. Let me also commend the Vice Chancellor Professor Suleyman Bala Mohamed, the entire academic and administrative staff whose hard and sometimes thankless work has culminated in the momentous celebration of academic excellence and attainment that we are here today for. May I also congratulate the six illustrious Nigerians who today were conferred with Doctorate Degrees Honoraries Causa, the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubaka Malami, S.A.N., Senator Umaru Aumakura, Alaji Dangote, G.C.O.N., Malam Melekiyari, and Chief Peter Eloka Okocha. Congratulations on this very well-deserved conferment. Congratulations also to the parents, the guardians, relatives, and friends of the graduates. This is your day and you have worked hard indeed to get here. I say to the graduates, you must take pride in this moment, but it is also important that we celebrate this milestone in your journey and see it for what it is. This is a portal leading you into future careers that will define the fate of families, of industries, of nations, and the world at large. The world is waiting for you. Nigeria is waiting for you. Young people like yourselves have been the difference between the relative stability of the old and the possibilities of the new, the bridge between the past and the future. The innovations that have positively disrupted the world, as we know it today, have largely been pioneered by the boundless vision and the boundless brains of young people like yourself. Fresh out of school, eager to apply themselves, to experiment, to try out new things, to make mistakes and to learn from them, you will be doing this great institution and the investments of faith made in you by professors, parents, and guardians a great deal of honor by believing in your own capacity to make a difference.  Education gives you a platform from which to make something out of yourself. And this is as true today as it was two decades ago when this university was founded. What will set you apart as you journey forward is how far you are willing to dream and how much work you are willing to put in. You belong to the most advanced generation in human history, a generation that's not bound by the rigid conventions of the past, a generation that is unafraid to ask questions, one that has inherited centuries of human innovation and advancement, and so you know much more than your predecessors, much more than those of us who are sitting on this stage. But there is nothing impossible to accomplish in the face of persistent, innovative, and collaborative effort. Many of you who are here today are digital natives, heirs of artificial intelligence, robotics, 3D printing, nanotechnology, and quantum computing. You know, first hand, the wide-ranging opportunities of digital and mobile technology, the disruptions in logistics and global supply chains that have allowed for cheaper and more effective trade while opening up new markets and spurring economic growth around the world. It was Franz Fanon who said that each generation must out of relative obscurity discover its mission, fulfill it, or betray it, end of quote. These signs are clear that you, the signs today are clear that you are on a generation that is on the path and with the heart to fulfill its mission. And we see it in the everyday stories of young people like you out there changing the Nigerian and African narrative, one idea, one bold move after another. In June 2021, African tech startups raised over $4 billion in funding with over 564 startups across the continent solving critical problems in almost every sector. Nigeria accounted for 35% of all of these startups. Beyond the numbers are daring young men and women molding a new future from their restless imagination with ambition and remarkable resolve. In the last 10 years, we have watched young Nigerians significantly expand the creative and cultural capital of the country on a global scale with our music, our movies, our fashion, our literature dominating the airwaves across the world. These creative young people have borrowed from the past and the future to invent a present sound, style, and aesthetic that is wholly Nigerian completely invented and filling up auditoriums from Lagos to Europe to the US and reaping every global award available for the ticket. Part of this movement, by the way, is Chokes D General, a fast-rising comedian and graduate of statistics from the Nassarar State University, this university. Now, three things are important to keep in mind as you journey on and I would like to leave you very quickly with these three things. The first is persistence. Persistence, there will be setbacks and things will not always work out quite the way you expect them to. You may fail more times than you will prefer, but when you do remember that failure is never the end. It simply is a signpost pointing you in a different direction and it's like useful data that you can try and use again and try to do better. So, keep at it no matter what. The world has always been pushed forward by people who refuse to take no for an answer. The second is ambition and innovation. Your hands can accomplish as far as your eyes can see. If fortune favors the bold, it does so now more than ever. The complex challenges facing our country and continent-at-large require ambitious thinking and courageous undertakings. The likes of Odoa Ieweni, Somto Ifezwe and Joshua Chibweze, Covenant University students were all in their 20s when they founded the now multi-billion dollar piggy-vest in 2016 and it has grown to one of Africa's most profitable and most respected FinTechs. The founders of the billion dollar Flutterway and Della and Paystack also young Nigerians in their 20s when they started barely six years ago. There's no telling how far you can go. I've been made aware of your university's robust research and innovation directorate. I think you need to honor the investment that has been made on it by finding creative ways to apply the knowledge that you have gained. You are graduating from a school located in the home of solid minerals and in the home of agriculture. What value can you add? What difference can you make? And finally the third point to keep in mind is collaboration. Collaboration is the key to building the game-changing technologies and businesses of this century. It's no longer smart or profitable to go it alone. And I must say that our administration, the administration of President Mohammed Buhari, has in the last seven years worked around the clock to ensure that your dreams and abilities find necessary support to come alive for the benefit of all. So far the federal government has established a 75 billion Naira Youth Investment Fund which provides financial support for small businesses in any field. There's also the new program called Investing in Digital and Creative Enterprises with over 600 million dollars to support young tech and creative sector entrepreneurs and other entrepreneurs through the provision of finance, skills development and infrastructure. In 2021 the federal government partnered with the UNDP and the EU that's the European Union and the private sector to start a program called the Jubilee Fellowship's Internship Program. For the next five years, every year 20,000 students after youth service will be given internship opportunities in private sector companies and in public agencies. The idea will be for the participants to gain relevant career and life skills that will enable them to transition seamlessly into professional business or other public sector careers while also earning very good pay during the period of the internship.  I think that a university education as important as it is does not give you all the knowledge that you require or all you need to go out there and succeed. It arms you more than anything with the skills you need to seek out to organize and apply information constructively. You have countless sources of information available to you at the push of the button. Use them. Don't stop learning. Don't stop acquiring new skills. But let me leave you all with an important task. Our nation is a nation of diverse tribes and diverse faiths and diverse beliefs. But this is how most great nations are formed. The challenge is how to wield all of our tribes into one tribe, a Nigerian tribe, a tribe of Nigerian men and women of all faiths, of all tribes, of all ethnicities and beliefs, committed to a country run on high values of integrity, of hard work, of justice and love of country. A tribe of men and women who are prepared to make the sacrifices that are crucial to building a strong society, who are prepared to stick together to fight corruption side by side, to insist on justice, even where our own friends are the receiving end. A tribe consisting of professionals, businessmen, politicians, religious leaders, students and all others who believe that this new Nigeria is possible. And I challenge you to play your own part in bringing forth this new tribe and the nation reborn. In conclusion, I urge you all to remember, especially those that are graduating today, where you're coming from, this great university, the Nassau-Arts State University, where you have imbibed the values of integrity, discipline and empathy, aside from all the academic attainments. Remember that all of these attainments are attainments that are meant for you to prosper and to develop this society and to develop the world that you're in. Nothing you can achieve, nothing you can achieve will compare to your service to others and your service to humanity. And I leave you with a prayer that your journey will be prosperous, joyful and successful. And that all your dreams will come true in Jesus' name. Amen.


Lactococcus lactis is a lactic acid bacterium that can use oxygen as an extracellular electron acceptor or ferricionide. When this bacterium is blocked from using NAD+, it can use ferricionide instead. This allows the bacteria to survive under conditions where oxygen is present but not available to them. Additionally, when these bacteria are exposed to ferricionide, they become rod-shaped and their acid resistance increases. Furthermore, by using adaptive laboratory evolution, researchers were able to increase the ability of the bacteria to use ferricionide. This could have implications for food fermentation and microbiome engineering, as ferricionide respiration can reduce oxidative stress, promote growth of oxygen-sensitive microorganisms, and shape microbial communities. This article was authored by Liu Yang and Ji Yu, Shinchin Xiao, Ji Yi Zhao, and others.


I'm doing well. How are you doing good? Good. Very well man. Just staying busy.  So it's just it's crazy man. It's crazy. Just staying Changing diapers and all that stuff man. Yeah, it's hard to me Yeah, I haven't been there yet. So I don't know. Oh man. It's yeah. Take your time. Take your time Yeah, it's on your business. You know focus on your business first and then you can have babies way later Yes, that's true. That's true. Yes, man. So what are you working on? So I've made some progress. I made some pages and forms and stuff like that But I want to put everything together. It's kind of overwhelming and I have some question. I write down Ask you about So this is what I made Basically what what mainly I want is application And so I took the campaign from my campaign and I chose the three steps application Good because basically I'm most more like coaching monthly coaching. Yeah So I thought is application and then phone call And then try to start training people. Perfect. It's my main thing So the website I both is this is what I did Man, great job man. Looks good. I love the colors. Oh, thanks. It looks really good. Yeah, thank you I just want to put like it's kind of overwhelming sometimes I feel like I'm doing something good and sometimes I feel like Oh my god, I don't know what I'm doing Yeah No, that yeah, that's what I'm here for man I definitely want to help you and try to try to get on our on our weekly Conference calls as well that cartridge has you you'll learn a lot from those calls Yeah, yeah, I haven't been to one yet to be honest. I I don't know why Yeah, that's you can it's a q&a. So all you do is you they they go for about an hour And they just they just randomly answer everyone's questions, but they do it on screen share And so they can they can visually just like you and I so just like this, but it's with cartridge support Okay, I should they do that every every Tuesday and Thursday. Were you at what country you in? United States, Houston. Oh, you're in Houston. Oh, yeah, okay So yeah, every Tuesday and Thursday at 3 p.m. Central time is when they do it Okay, so it's like a 5 p.m. Here No, no, it's actually 3 p.m. Central time. Oh, okay. That's yeah, yeah So that should be your time right your central time. Yes, but have you heard about the growth funnels yet? Actually, I have I have and and there's so interesting very interesting Yeah, there's so many different ones man and and and I I tend to just stay focused on one Only because this this is simple to me But you can try and both I would compare it You know, I would compare it and and just try try that one and You know try try this one and I just that's why the 14-day trial for cartridge I I encourage people just to take the 14-day trial and and compare it to everything else Yeah, and you'll find which one is better for you. You know, cartridge is just very very easy to me Cartra's right. I love it. Yeah, so it's like that's why I don't even there's always and that's why like My my first mentor that I learned cartridge from Two years ago a guy by the name of maricio He was the one who helped me in the very beginning. So just like i'm helping you he helped me Um, but he actually charged me he charged me per hour and it was fine It was it wasn't a big deal because I really needed to learn it so But he ended up reaching out to me like a few months ago and telling me about the new one and i'm like maricio Man, I just I I've been on cartridge for almost two years. Like I can't go to another Company now. It's just for the price. I I I looked at the pricing is just one time payment You don't have to pay anything anymore. That's why i'm interested What's the what's the one time payment one time payment is 13 47 unlimited so you will have unlimited With all the application like blue funnel mail blue funnel pages Unlimited pages unlimited Domains so instead of having one website or one business You can have as many business as you want with one software That's what I liked about it. Yeah Yeah, and that that's what there's and then after that there'll be a better one, you know after that would be a better one So there's always gonna be better ones, man That's just yeah It's just what you want and then and I've already built up like an affiliate commission over here So I don't even care if there's another better one. You know You're just gonna find what works for you, you know Yeah, so this is what I built This is basically the website page. Nice. Nice. I like it, man and Yeah, so What do you think the best steps to do like? Other than having a website just like that well First of all the website is is one thing And the website is really designed in my opinion To give credibility and give information But before a person gets there You have to Get them So that's where it's going to come down to how are we even attracting clients Because if I'm if I'm on social media and I'm I'm building a personal brand Whether I'm on instagram or I'm on TikTok or I'm on facebook or whatever and I'm I'm organically building a personal brand And I don't want to promote my website I don't want to bring people to my website when when when I haven't captured their information first And and so that's organic when it comes to facebook ads You I wouldn't run facebook ads to a website. So this website. This is not where you're going to run facebook ads to It has to start with the landing page. It has to start with the squeeze page first They called lead magnet or something like that. Yes The lead magnet is where everything has to start like it has to start there first And then and then once that person that should be the only link that you're sharing on all the social media The only link It should go straight to a landing page to a squeeze page. That's when you're building organically like something free like Free program. Yes, that's what that's how you should roll this out exactly So learn how to lose weight without sacrificing your lifestyle I'll put I put together a home workout plan plus weight loss guide plus nutrition guide bonus Normally, this is 97 dollars. Now you pay 27 only that right there that that could be that could be really really good But but here's what I would here's what I would do I would maybe even Clone the page clone it Keep this one, but just clone another one And cross out the 27 and put zero free free And test both of them because again, it's all about the top of the funnel. It's all about how am I attracting the person How am I getting them to my front door? Yeah, like once I get them to my front door like the gym for example Why why is the gym or how let me let me ask you let me ask you this let me give you a perfect example How are gyms?  So successful and and and a lot of them are not even successful But at the same time they're they're a big business. They have a big building They have hundreds of of members How are they successful? Three seven days or whatever that's all they do man every gym will give you a free seven day pass Yes every gym and then once you get that seven day pass and you activate it and you walk through the door That's the cells consultant is going to upsell you on everything else. I should I do that? Right with the 24. Yeah, so you have to so you In this new digital world You building something online you have to follow the same concept You have to give away something for free Upfront just to get that person in the door and then once I get that name and email Then I'm going to share with them my $27 plan Okay, and then then also Then I'm going to share with them my website Because on my website there's a lot of great information and you can read about everything on my website After I've already captured the lead So, yeah Right, so so you can keep this one don't don't don't don't get rid of this one But what I would also do normally this is 97 dollars Download today for free Okay, you know something like that and then the and then the countdown clock Everything the same everything the same but instead of 27 dollars only it's free Yeah, okay, and and and that's the link that you roll out to the marketplace That's the link or something that link goes on everything that link goes on the website field on facebook Twitter linkedin pinterest tick tock the website field that you have in your profile That link leads people to your free download Not the what's not not the website. Uh, not the website not the website Because me me going unless unless now here here here's here's here's the here's the um Here's the side note unless Your you can do that But what you have to do for sure you can you could put your website on everything and direct traffic to your website You can do that for sure But what you have to be doing? 1000 percent is you have to be facebook pixeling them So your facebook pixel has to be on that website And the only way that's even going to benefit you is if you're running facebook ads So so What's that? So i'm willing to do that because my facebook. I just made the thing. I don't have any followers. I don't have any Yeah, yeah, so so if a person is not Given away something for free upfront to capture the lead Then the person is leading people to their website But on that website they're facebook pixeling them because they're running facebook ads Yeah, so I can use their email to market Well, you're not going to have their email Right, you're not going to have their email up front because you didn't you didn't you didn't offer them anything They didn't they didn't go to a squeeze page. You sent them to your website What i'm saying is the the way that that benefits you is if your facebook pixel is on it and you're running facebook ads To everybody who hits your website So the only problem i'm having with this thing is Most of like I have clients. They pay a lot And that's problem if they see that they pay a lot and then I offer something for free That will make it clear very good very very very good very very very good concern Here's exactly how you do it All these clients You need to have their email address And I and I would assume you do yeah, so what you would do is you would simply upload that email list to facebook You would create a custom audience and the name of that custom audience would be clients And so every time you run a facebook ad you exclude That custom audience from ever seeing any ads Okay So that's easy that part's easy As long as you have their email as long as you're collecting their email Then you can have an audience of them and that's an audience that you would exclude From seeing any type of ad on this free download or free program or whatever or discounted program Yeah, that's a good idea. Yeah, so so again you can you can leave your website You can direct everyone to your website. You just have to be facebook pixeling them But again, that doesn't even matter if you're not running facebook ads That's why what I would rather do up front If I don't have the budget to run facebook ads what I need to be doing is I need to be building an email list Because it's the email list that is that that I can monetize in the future And the only way people are going to give up their name and email is if I'm giving them something of value for free So so as a business All the attention goes to your free page And and that that that becomes an online marketing Um approach, but that that's also an offline marketing approach as you're walking around as you got your business cards As you're doing your own self promotion out at the mall the grocery store the park whatever you do as you're out That becomes a marketing piece. That becomes a conversation piece. Hey john great meeting you man It was great meeting you at the park today. Hey and by the way, here's my business card I put together a free download that goes over your body weight tips on nutrition And best foods to eat go to my web page. Here's my website. It's on my business card Go to my web page and I'd love to give you a free copy Okay, that's a conversation that you can have at the park with a random stranger that you that you happen to be working out next to So so all the attention offline online all the attention goes to the top of my funnel the top of my funnel is my free download Yeah What if the um like if I do add And I give a free call Does that work? Oh, yeah for sure for sure, but at the same time Here's here's why it It doesn't work in the beginning because in the beginning no one knows you yet So as you start to run ads to a cold audience of people who don't know you yet It's very hard for them to know you. It's very hard for them to trust you It's very hard for them to like you after just seeing one facebook ad So what you would have to do is keep running ads keep running ads and you'd have to keep You know Keep giving value keep educating people keep giving people tips on weight and nutrition So they can keep seeing you in their news feed on facebook or even on instagram So then you build that brand awareness and then people are likely to schedule an appointment because they keep seeing you So they're like dang that guy's cool. Let me click. Let me schedule. I keep seeing him He keeps giving me value. He keeps educating me on the best foods to eat. Okay. Now. I'm ready to run it now I'm ready to schedule an appointment But see that could have been done for free If I was emailing them That's true So if I just gave them my free download up front I could then be emailing them for free to get people to schedule appointments And you so let me show you what I did for that. I don't know Right way to do it On my communication So let's say I think we need landing Are you able to turn your volume up a little bit or does that as high as it goes? Let me see. Did you hear me now? Yeah, perfect. Yeah So for example, this if I am giving a free ebook Mm-hmm Come on Only people that Don't need like they completely download the thing. Mm-hmm. I will send them email to remind around something that and then after that 10 emails if someone Get on the list And giving something free on the email. Is that a good idea to do it? If you get what I mean, so if they if they Give you something. What do you mean? No, so let's say someone download the book or something free after that They will be on this list And the first email will be welcome to my list. Mm-hmm. And then I share like a personal story and then how How I train people and then free gift with that. Oh, yeah Yeah, that that can work for sure that can work for sure. So you gave them you given them the the the the product up So so in order to start this did you sell them the product up front? Or did you give them something for free? For free And then and then the third email down they're getting another something another something. Oh, yeah, man for sure Yeah, that's really really good But see in in this email sequence is where is where I would have a link to my calendar So I I put it somewhere here like the 10th email something Yeah, yeah, see no you want to put that on you want to put that on every you want to put that on on email number two and on Okay, and and it's not in the email signature. It's not ps By the way, john Yeah, it's not it's not in the ps. It's not in the email signature. It's a real call to action in the email That email is giving value that email is maybe talking about the book they just downloaded That email is is giving value But also in that email my whole objective is to get you to schedule a call So so I'm specifically saying that I'm saying hey and by the way, john If you like to jump on a strategy call where we can go over your nutrition and I can give you all my secret strategies Click the link below and it'll take you straight to my calendar where you can schedule your best time I can't wait to speak to you. Have a great day So I would make that a very clear Call to action in email number two And on maybe not in every email, but every other email for sure For sure not I wouldn't start that on email number 10. I would start that on email number two Well, like email number one the one that goes out immediately. Hey, john Thank you so much for downloading my downloading my free nutritional book. Here's the download link Hope you enjoy it blah blah blah That's the first email, but the next email. I'm going for the appointment Hey, john just wanted to follow up. I know yesterday you downloaded my free nutritional guide Hey, do you remember on page three when I was talking about this this and this Hey, and by the way, if you'd like to jump on a call where I give you all my secret strategies Click the link below. It'll take you straight to my calendar where you can schedule your best time Can't wait to talk to you I'm already saying that in email number two Sounds good. All right. Yeah So I haven't done anything like I I didn't put anything on facebook. I didn't put anything Yes So what do you think is the best way like to start? With you, man, you're in a very what I call a very very very powerful niche Health and nutrition like that's one of the power power ones the biggest the big three Is money financial niche health niche and and relationship niche Yeah, so people pay big big money for for for products and services in those niche You are in a power niche and with you it's so easy in my opinion To build a personal brand you should be giving away tips. You should be doing workout Tips on instagram. You should be doing workout tips on tiktok. You should be doing workout tips on all these platforms So I do that. I I've been doing that for years But so now it's time to promote your link now. It's time. Hey guys and by the way I put together a free guide that goes over this this and this Click the link in my bio to download your free one now Yes, that's that's what you have to start saying in every single video from this day forward That's organic and and I just truly believe that you can build a huge personal brand Just organic alone. You wouldn't even have to run facebook ads to tell you the truth Because you're in that type of industry where you can demonstrate Your content that you create on social media is demonstrations of what you provide and what you do It's very easy for you to for you to for you to show that on social media without having to run an ad Yeah, that's my opinion. You know, this is what I was thinking about it's Just to be honest. I most of my services like More expensive because I prefer to have like 10 clients only That they pay well and that makes sense Oh, yeah, for sure. For sure.  They can do whatever they want with the whole thing with ebook and everything I can give it for free So that's the value. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, and and then and then again from that point on once they get into the front door And they download that Your whole job now is to build the relationship via email But then also direct people back to your social media So in my case, I'm capturing leads. I'm building a relationship via email automation I got my emails going out and then I'm also directing people to my youtube channel Where they're watching videos on youtube and that creates more credibility So so with you It's all about capturing that lead man We have to capture that lead first and then after that I'm going to make them fall in love with me Because in my emails, it's not going to just be text. It's going to be video So so I'm going to send more videos in email. I'm going to direct people to my instagram account I'm going to direct people to my my youtube channel Because once people once people continue to see you and they see you doing Demonstrations working out tips There it only takes a few videos for people to automatically become indoctrinated They automatically look at you and know that you're an authority So upselling them on something expensive later Won't be a problem, but at the same time you have to you have to be able to sort through The people Like you can't just get 10 people and all of a sudden these 10 people are going to be high paying clients I may have to go get 100 and then sort through the 100 to find those 10 That's that's yeah You know, so so if I can give a value and here's the thing too Here's the thing as well as you really get to get get familiar with kartra Yes, you're after high paying clients But as as you grow inside of kartra It's going to be very very easy for you to put together these 27 dollar programs Where you're selling those every day on autopilot. Yeah, that's what I want to but but here's the deal. Here's the deal You wouldn't be able to do that As successful as I know you can if you didn't build the email list by giving away the free guide first Yeah, so it's better to build the email first thing. It's all about the email list man. It's all about the email list But but again, I can't just expect people to give me their name and email just for nothing I have to give them something for free And you know like for first Thing on facebook or something like that. I saw your video mentioning that it's better to do like a production video On facebook It's better to what to do like introduction video about myself on facebook That would be if you're running an ad like if you're if you're running an ad then then introducing yourself Letting people know who you are letting people know what you do letting people know your your experience and your Passion and why you're so excited about health and nutrition And then taking that video and running a facebook ad and targeting everyone in that area That's the strategy But it's not just doing a video putting on facebook and expecting people to see it. No one's going to see it So it has to be at it has to be an ad it has to be an ad Yeah, for sure for sure for sure. Is it okay if I put like a real ad? because I There's a guy he he made some like that voiceover ad or something like that No, man, I wouldn't I wouldn't I would do you I would do you man.  You're fit. You're in shape The brand is you That's what you call a corporate video. You don't want to do corporate videos with voiceovers and and and and slide Like like generic video slides like no none of that man build build your personal brand build you And that's why I've seen many many many platforms or many many personal many I've seen many influencers I've seen many influence or influencers in your space that just crush it man That a lot of a lot of them are female There's a lot of females that that go out there and build an instagram channel or an instagram They go out there and build an instagram account around fitness Yeah, and they do very very well, man. You could do the same thing like you could do the same thing Very saturated What's that? It's very saturated. There's a lot a lot of people doing that. No, but see here's the deal Here's the deal never think it's saturated never never never think that because now The internet and social media has has really leveled the playing field for everyone and here's what I mean by it I don't care what industry may may may seem saturated The reality is is the fact that with billions of people now online With a billion people on facebook with a one billion people on on on tiktok and instagram There's no one out of the billion people. There is not one single person Like you And so when you're dealing with billions of people you only need a few to like you You can show me 50 different trainers and they're good. They could be all amazing But there's gonna only be one That I like there's only gonna be one that I feel I relate with there's only gonna be one that really gets my attention Like look at all the all the all the thousands of people on youtube talking about facebook ads Landing pages cells funnels, but all of a sudden you came to me Yeah, that's true Right like like because at the end of the day You don't need everyone You just need a handful of people You just need a handful of people to like That's it man.  That's a that's a fact But when you're when you're dealing with offline, let's say offline in houston You have you have a gold gym.  Let's just say yeah, that's when there's competition because there's no personal brand They all have the same amount of equipment. They're all similar in in a lot of respects There's no personality in any of them. It's just a box It's just a gym But when you come online you people relate to people Yeah, and so it doesn't matter how saturated in the industry is people are gonna relate to you And that's your client You know, so so never worry about that man, never worry about that. You're gonna do good You're gonna do very very good, but but what i'm saying is is start with a free a free guide Build that email list and then once you have that list then you can offer them more services So just to be clear about the three so when you say free, I have to run at so people can see because not really I don't have zero people Well, what i'm saying Most people Yes But but what i'm what i'm really trying to trying to make clear Is the fact that you happen to be in my opinion and it's not even my opinion I truly believe it's a fact because those are the three power niches health and wellness relationships and and and love And and finances making money online or making money. Those are your three power niches I just truly believe that because you're in a power niche You have the ability to build an organic Personal brand You have the ability to be a huge influencer and you said you've been doing that now for a couple years The only thing you haven't been doing is giving away something of value for free to the audience That's right. Yeah, I never Yeah, so now now that you now if you were to put your link That leads everybody to your squeeze page that leads everybody to your free download if you were to put that link Everywhere now on social media and if you were to promote that link on every single video from this point on That would be organic that would you that would be you building your personal brand That would be you being the next influencer and you did all that with no paid traffic Yeah Now if it was someone different like even even with me for example in my case I don't really have even though i'm in the make money Niche and i'm i'm helping people make money online. I'm helping people with landing pages and sales funnels That's not really a niche where I can just go and produce a bunch of Content it kind of is but it kind it's kind of it kind of isn't And that's why on my youtube channel what I try to do is I try to do more tutorials Where i'm teaching people And and that's how I attract people And so same with you you'd be on social media. You'd be on instagram teaching people How to do certain workouts teaching people how to eat Yeah, right like it's it's very similar but at the same time I just truly believe with with with exercise and health and nutrition The content to put out I I I just think it's easier Like if that was me I'd be working out every day putting out content on me working out Yeah, like that's easy But in my case what I do is I put out content every day of me doing what i'm doing and that's building landing pages Hmm. Okay, and and and what do I say in all my videos? I'm promoting kartra Yes Right like I'm promoting kartra. So That's what I do. Hey christie. I'm on I'm on the line right now, but just go ahead and and listen in and you'll you'll get some No, it's all good It's all good. Listen and listen in i'm just helping my buddy here with his with his kartra account But that that's just that that's just the the advantage that I truly believe you have man You have the ability to create content And in any industry any niche that has the ability to create content without you having to try That's where you can build something massive Organically and that's where we get the whole the whole word influencer from influencer. What is an influencer? An influencer is just a person that found their lane. They found their path. They found their niche And they started posting about that every damn day And they built an audience around it Yeah So so so it it just comes down to being in that type of an industry where you can do that where where the content is so easy to produce You don't want to have to create content In your case what I keep trying to explain It's so easy for you just to document and that becomes your My welcome every day my welcome Right like you're working out. That's your content.  That's your content You're eating something healthy. That's your content. Yeah, that's true, right? So so again, you you probably have already been doing that all I'm saying is you haven't been given away nothing to your audience for free So just to I want to like my personal will be separate from The business like this one. I want to make it as a business Which is not my personal account Okay, is that is that a is that a is that a personal choice? Or is that just what you think you need to do? It's actually personal choice. Okay. Okay. Okay. So that that's Okay, so then I respect that there's people that because I do more than one thing. I am I I'm engineer And I I'm a dj But then so To be one niche one Just a page to share all the fitness in it That will be just one which is the easy fitness coaching the other the other personal account I share like dj. I share food. I share traveling. I share Other things so it's not a clear like if you go to my page, you will not understand that I am kind of Gotcha. Gotcha. Gotcha And see that you can do it that way you could for sure do it that way But that's going to be that's going to be a little slower And and and and now now since you made that clear, which I which that's what I did not I didn't know that two minutes ago If that if that's the case and if that's the approach Then you absolutely have to run out Okay, because you're not going to be creating content around this yourself Exactly, it's going to be more general right like more more general type of content More more corporate So that that that makes sense on why you would be interested in the in the in the corporate type of video that your friend did Just to be honest. I don't really Have enough time to create A lot of content I I make I'm trying to make everything automated. That's why I'm using culture and that's so I use camera for weekly Posting I can do that and I can put content mostly writing or some post with what is the value of like walnut or any kind of food or whatever And I can put it weekly for that and then whenever people feel That they need to help personally one on one I have the system and I have everything to support them Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah, okay, okay So then in your case man ads ads for sure is what is what you're gonna have to be doing I would drive ads to your to your free offer And and and and and that's it like that's all I would be doing I'd be driving ads to free offer and then and then build in a relationship via email email sequels Yes because When you run when you're running ads you're specifically targeting an audience And these people don't know you right? So they're not your engineer friends. They're not your dj friends They're they're just it's just a completely different audience. It's a completely different business. It's it's it's separate from who you are And that's pay advertising. Exactly. This is what I want like some things separate So those yes, but again because there's no face to the brand really because there's no personal branding going on That's why you absolutely have to give that audience you have to give that Visitor you have to give that click a free download Okay You have to start there because especially if there's no branding if there's no face if there's no instagram Person that I think that I can really relate to How how am I going to buy something for 27 dollars right off the bat? I don't even know who this person is What if I put so it's a business and a my name of it is like az to press coaching But the first video will be me Talking about like yeah, hey, I'm found off az to press coaching and I can help people with weight loss possibly in all of these things and So it's like It's the same time it's like personal Which is me But at the same time is not very personal because it's easy for business coaching Which may be there are other trainers because I have two other trainers can work with me. Mm-hmm. Yeah Is that a good idea or keep or keep it just? Personal that's why I asked you about the corporate type video Is it better to do with me or is it better to do it as a hey?  Yes and no what I do do is I coach on facebook ads. So I would I would teach you how to do everything yourself So I just truly believe there's two types of people that I speak to One type of person is willing to learn it all themselves Because once I just truly believe once you learn it You can do it all yourself That's one type of person the other type of person says, you know what david I have no time to learn it myself. I have no patience to learn it myself I don't even care to learn it myself. I'm too busy with what I got going on. I'm an engineer I'm gonna I'm a dj. I got way too much But I what I do have david is I have money and I'm willing to delegate it to you I'll hire you you go run my facebook ads So those are the two types of people one one person has the money and just doesn't want to do it themselves And they'll delegate it the other person doesn't really have the money, but they're willing to learn it themselves So where I'm at now in my career, I'm actually teaching people how to learn it themselves I'm teaching people to do it themselves. I don't really take on monthly clients like that Because I just I just I just I just don't but That would be your next step. This culture is one thing, but your next step is facebook ads It's gonna be it's gonna have we're gonna have to learn facebook ads. We're gonna have to learn instagram ads I've done before what I I I never done like with details and seriously to be honest I didn't just to have likes and page like yeah. Yeah. Yeah, there's a whole bunch more that goes into it, but again What's that? Yeah, I can I can see that it's very complicated. It's more complicated It is but it's not man like once I once I show you like there's There's there's there's really seven steps like and that's why most people don't succeed with facebook ads because they just don't They don't set it up first the right way. It's all about the setup If you don't set it up the right way, it's they're not going to convert They're not going to run the content is one thing having the ad Whether it's an image whether it's a video that's one thing the content. That's one thing But it's the back end It's the back end of the ads manager that has to be set up correctly and there's many steps to it But they're easy like they're easy once once you learn them then they're easy But that's what everyone misses. Everyone misses the back end They don't they don't start off the right way with the facebook ad They think they can just go to their business page boost a post and they're going to get some leads It doesn't work that way Yeah, like at all at all at all Like I invested a lot of money this year in february of this year I invested in a in a coach and a facebook ad coach this year A lot of money more money than I've ever invested in anything in my life But it was worth it and once I learned everything about facebook ads. I'm like, man If I didn't invest that I would have never known this and I would have been wasting my money still on facebook advertising Yeah, that's what I that's what I think a lot of people do they waste their money on facebook ads not knowing You know what they're doing wrong But that would be our next step man. Our next step is to learn facebook ads So okay, do you think my character is done or we need some work before? No, man, that's that's it like you got these pages You got the squeeze pages just going through and making sure that everything is connected. Have you tested everything? Yes, it's some glitches and some weird stuff happening But like for example, this thing I don't understand why this happened. Let's say any Let's say up introduction page The name appears in here Different than the name of the page Yeah, so you can you want to go in and click on settings to the left That's the first thing I do every single every single time I come into a new page The very very first thing I do is I'll click on settings to the left and I'll make sure that the title In the tab Is changed SEO parameters SEO parameters And you're going to change that title Home and this one. Okay. Yeah And what you want to do also Is if this is a page you're sharing on social media Then you want to add an image right there as well So rather than having the word home, maybe maybe name it something maybe put az fitness Application or something like that. Yeah, you could do that And then the image as well You want to you want to make sure that there's an image if you're sharing this link on social media What's the image will go like that? Publicate with the link Like when you go and share that link on facebook It's like that on facebook instagram and twitter as you go and share this link That image pulls Okay So so you want to be able to share it on facebook and have a nice image and the description is right there You know az fitness coaching it is an online fitness coaching service that shows up in the description of your post Okay on facebook So if you click on click on that blue button no image selected Yeah, well I can put like Application this one this is Yeah, you could put that one and and when you go share it on facebook. That's what that's the image that would that would show Okay That makes sense. Is that is that you in the picture? Which one All those pictures. Yeah those are me I'm telling you man.  Why wouldn't you want to be the face of the brand? Because I don't want it's too much work. I I I told you it's but you're already doing it It's something that you're excited about you're passionate about it. You're already doing it. You're already posting That type of stuff. That's true. What it's mean a while Like I don't want to focus on that now. I got you. I got you click apply click the green one Make sure you always click apply Let's do this We uh application Yes And and and can we can we can we chat? Can we pick this up tomorrow or or monday? Yeah, yeah, well, I I mean Whatever whenever you think I'm going to Denver's tomorrow. Okay, so whenever you you have time No, just go back to my calendar. Just go back to my calendar and schedule the next call schedule the next Okay, yes, if you think that this is done and everything is cool on cartra the next step will be uh Facebook Yes, man That's what we have to learn. We have to start driving traffic to this to this to the to the landing page that gives away the offer Yeah, and also I to be honest. I don't want to take your time without any that's why I'm asking you like If you if you charge or you do something about that so we can really work on it Let's let's schedule our next call and let's get on to On to Facebook and let's really see like let me let me have you go through a few things and see exactly how much you know And and then I'll show you everything about it and and then we'll go from there like just Let let's jump into the ads manager. Let's let's have that full call be the ads manager Oh Okay, and let and let's see exactly if you're really going to need my help because I can show you a ton of things That you're that you can easily go do your own research on Um And the only the only reason why I would even charge anybody is if I have to really hold their hand and walk them through it Because to tell you the truth I have videos on my youtube channel and all this stuff So really you can find videos on anybody's channel on facebook advertising Yes, the only reason why people would even pay me is if they really wanted me to hold their hand and walk them through it Which I would be more than happy to do that's what I do But if I can if I can just give you a list of everything you're going to need to do for facebook ads I'll I'll tell you to go go do your own research and and and this is what you need to do And there's a million videos on each topic You can figure it out and then if I can't figure out then we can walk. Yeah, then we'll work together for sure But schedule that the schedule that call sooner than later even even if you're going to go on vacation Like just schedule the call for when you're back I can't be in the just one last question. Sorry if I'm thinking no, no you're fine I just added to try and paypal Uh and the question do I need uh to have business license to do This oh no, you you said stripe and paypal Yes, okay. Good. Good. No, you don't need a business license right now at all Once you do turn this into some money like once you do start really, you know Getting some money going then. Yeah, you'll want to set that up Because this this whole az fitness should be its own entity anyways like it should be either an llc It should be already something if you really plan on on taking it, you know, taking it to the next level But at the same time Who even knows who knows if we're going to really be successful, right? So don't really waste your money on on getting incorporated just yet. It's hundred dollars. Yeah. Yeah, let's roll it out first Let's make some money first and then go in. Yeah, and then you'll want to go and set up in a corporation Oh, that's something. Yeah, but not right now. You don't need to do that like right now at all Okay, something Thank you. So do you have my calendar link, right? I do have my earphone. Awesome. Okay, I won't schedule last thing Yeah, schedule it and then in the list. Let's let's chat. Let's chat next about about facebook ads Okay, next session will be on facebook Yes, let's do that man because that's where it's going to be all at is is that facebook ad site driving traffic to this page So let's let's do that for sure. I will try to put my videos together on the ad that I ordered And so we can nearly like I can post it and see how we can test the app Oh, yeah, for sure for sure Videos put those videos on your facebook business page Yeah, yeah, put those on the business page and then and then we'll we'll run those on our next call for sure Well, sounds good. Yeah Thank you so much. Sounds good my friend. Have a great weekend, man. I'll talk to you soon Okay, buddy. Bye. Bye