Hi everyone, my name is Debbie and today I'm super excited to be here with product school I'm sharing my experience driving product growth I will share from my experience as a founder and then now I'm working within multinational to drive product growth Both internally and externally Okay, let's take a step backwards and just give you a bit of framework around me and then where I'm coming from and where My journey has been so far I would always say that my core focus has always been around business and community I'm so very passionate about that intersection between businesses and the community or societies in which they operate and now the reason why that is is I genuinely feel like businesses cannot thrive if they do not have a good relationship with the community or society that they operate in And then the same thing for the society and they need functioning businesses They need businesses that are growing a skill for them to be able to actually grow and so based off that my entire Journey all through product has luckily found me working within organizations or starting organizations that we're very focused on that intersection between businesses and community and so when I think about product growth I always think about product growth from a perspective of how are you benefiting the customers? How are you benefiting the users? How much value are you providing to them? And then once the value is very clear like everything product management It's very easy for you to get more customers. It's very easy for you to see your your product to grow It's very easy for you to just see a natural referral process happening Because people are getting a lot of value from your product and so based off that I have a PhD in corporate social responsibility I started a if it's that up called Afro hub Afro hub market is pretty much a Marketplace for black owned businesses to gain access to a wider audience of consumers To also help them thrive and grow so we started with a lot of mom-and-pop shops And then we helped them to have an online presence and helped them to release kill beyond their immediate environment and move on to a global space Also, I worked with Yammer specifically well now Microsoft Viva engage and beyond my product role as the product manager for the community space I was very involved in the product growth internally So just driving internal adoption of Yammer or Microsoft Viva engage within the organization itself And then now I work with AWS IQ on a product that is helping businesses to thrive By moving them into the cloud and providing the resources and experts that they can Gain from a gain value from Fun fact, I've lived and worked on three different continents. So I'm originally from Nigeria But then I did most of my schooling in Dublin Ireland as well as Scotland Aberdeen And so I lived there. I worked there and now I am in North America So lived and worked in Canada US as well Okay, now let's go on to the fun facts here So in terms of roadmap, there's just three major things that I'm going to talk about on this call on this conversation today The first thing is just understanding what data-driven growth is Product growth is is very interesting because there's no one that starts a business or starts a product or builds a product That is not thinking about skill that is not thinking about beauty beyond your immediate reach But then one thing is oh, I want to grow my business and then the other thing is I want to grow my product Based on data, I want to grow my product based on what customers want And so I'm just going to touch up around I'm touch a little bit around what data-driven growth is Then moving forward, I will provide a framework the typical framework that we know the a are our framework But I'm going to apply it specifically to product growth and helping us think about it from the angle And then finally I will tell you us about product growth Sorry, I'm going to talk about product the product manager and how the product manager's role is very different when it comes to a growth PM Compared to a traditional PM and how they have to leverage Partnerships and ecosystems to build. Okay. All right. So I think we can go into quick definitions So when we think about product growth The key thing that we're really looking at is what are the strategies that you as a product manager have kept in place? Or what are the tactics that you have as a product manager have kept in place that is aimed at successfully Sustainably increasing your user base. So I have underlined Sustainably here because I feel like a lot of times when we think about product growth We just think oh, I want my user base to increase I want engagement to increase today. I want my revenue to increase today But that's all good and great, but it needs to be sustainable So you don't want to turn x today if when you turn x today in the next few weeks It goes back to where it was in the past. So product growth is sustainable It's it's it moves in a in a sequence that has to continuously grow If your business grows for a short period and it stops growing If your product grows for a short period and stops growing then you're missing out on something now Moving on to the next layer of this is data-driven growth So it's one thing to grow based off, you know Your ideas based off your thoughts as a product manager because we're usually very opinionated But then there's another aspect of growth which is buy data and everything product management ideally should be buy data But when I really say data-driven growth I'm saying how are you leveraging the knowledge that you have about your consumers into your growth strategy? How are you getting data? So are you speaking to your customers directly? Are you having conversations with them? Are you having focus groups? Are you sending out surveys? Are you putting in metrics within your product itself to measure users engagement and to measure what they want and what they're interested in And then based off their needs Are you then adding those things as features to grow your business?  No, you're building the feature because customers actually want that And so when you do it that way you realize that they are more engaged So if you've read the book the book hooked you see that your engaged user happens Because you are actually fulfilling the needs that they want and so you have to you put in less work You're really getting them to move on to the next day I'm gonna think about this from an application perspective So in my current in my experience when I worked at Afro hub when I said at Afro hub We started technically as a business directory So what we wanted to do at the initial stage was just create this space where anyone that is looking for a black-owned business In Vancouver, Canada could easily just go onto this website or these database and then see the different businesses in the different Industries and then patronize them But then when we started speaking to customers more when customers will come on to our website Realize that, you know, we had a lot of pop-ups. We had a lot of Like two boxes where they could give feedbacks or feedback loops So we got a lot of feedback from customers that they wanted to not just find out about these businesses But they wanted to actually purchase the products from this business is from one central space And so for us, it was just a no-brainer that okay So now we've ready scale already grown in the sense that customers know about our application They know about our database But now what customers want to move to the next level is for us to Ensure that the product of this business is I in one space for them And so based off that we're able to launch the marketplace because it was the need of the customers We didn't have to do so much in getting them to actually use the product It was easy for them to use our product. It was great and from the initiative I think from the first three first three months already got our target Activation numbers, which is really great because again, we had built a product to that day wanted So with this understanding in the next few slides, I'm gonna think make us think about Product growth from the key different frameworks that would actually help Okay, so today we're gonna use the pirate metrics which everyone uses you think about this metric from every aspect of a product Manages live where we're thinking it was the acquisition activation retention referral revenue But today I want to apply this more from a growth perspective It's very important first to do it that depends on the stage that you are as a business depends on the stage You are as a product different aspects of this framework could be more important to you And so starting with the first one acquisition It's also important first to know that when we think about growth Growth can happen from two different core types of users It could happen from a new users perspective So new to your product never used your product before or never actually went going on to the next stage With your product and it could also happen from a repeat business a repeat buyer perspective But in the acquisition stage we're looking more at the new users angle in the sense of how do you acquire new users? Where are you putting where your placements? What are you doing in terms of campaigns in terms of marketing in terms of? Conversations sales etc. I know when we think about product growth We always assume that all those other things do not matter But in acquisition they do in product growth even if it's product-led growth Acquisition still involves some level of marketing It doesn't have to be your typical marketing your that everyone uses But there's some level of outreach that needs to happen for new users to actually come to your product The next aspect we look at is the activation and so with activation where it is saying now this people have come into your product now This potential users have come into your product. How do we get them to make their first meaningful action within the product? How do you get them from visitors to requesters? How do you get them from visitors to buyers? How do you get them from visitors to actually putting things into their cart? Within your product for them to move on to the next stage in the funnel and then the next part is retention So we're retention very simple, you know, they've come in you've acquired them They've started playing around with your product. They made a purchase. Wow your first purchase amazing But then how do you encourage them to come back to become return users? Because it's usually cheaper to have a return user Then for you to acquire new users because return users already have an understanding of your product They already understand your value probe They already understand the benefits that you give to them and they have already used your product And so it's usually easier or cheaper for you to get them to come back again But you have to have certain things in place. You have to have certain features in place to encourage this behavior from the users And then there's referral and then revenue All of these are very important when we think about growth because you are as a business or as a product Am I did you're probably trying to make money or make some sort of revenue? Which is important for you to see you are growing as a business. Okay Okay, so that's how the first one acquisition acquisition is the first stage when it comes to growth the end Remember, this is targeting new users. So the key question you have to be asking yourself is how can I put myself in such a place? How can I put my product in such a place that it is attracting and converting users? So these are users that most likely do not have an idea what your product is They don't have enough information about what your product is So anything any messaging that you have to give to them at this early stage in the funnel needs to be very attractive It needs to really touch on your value proposition It must really talk about the needs that they have and then giving them enough incentive or enough information to actually get them to move on to the next stage in funnel Acquisition is so important be especially even from a startup perspective, right? So I think about this from an Afro hop perspective when we started We were really just all up in the faces of the businesses and the consumers that we wanted So from the business perspective remember to two-sided market from the business perspective, you know, we're going to trade fears We're having one-on-one conversations. We're going to anywhere businesses are anywhere black owned businesses are where they're Explaining to them the benefit of coming on to an online marketplace We're explaining to them all the benefits of going online the value that they would get from you know Moving from where they are right now to joining our application And so by being very present and they're not just being present anywhere But being present with the right message we're able to acquire these businesses onto our application And then from the business from the consumers perspective, it's exactly the same thing So a consumer needs to understand what exactly am I going to benefit from shopping online? I'm not just online shopping from your own application And so that means that our word in our you know our home page the words on our home page Needed to showcase the value that we're given to these businesses in our ads in our email marketing You know people have such short attention span So our email marketing means that it needed to be concise needed to be clear The value prop needed to shout out for us to get this users to actually click on the emails that they saw The same thing whenever we placed, you know ads in let's say LinkedIn or we did the display art or where you know We did SEOs we needed to make sure that our value prop was very clear because we wanted to get them from our witness So I know about this product I know about this product that can help me to access a wider range of black owned businesses But beyond that how exactly am I going to what value am I going to get from this? And so we needed to make sure that it was very clear So when you think about acquisition always think about it from an angle of how can I make sure that from the first interaction that my user has Or my potential user has they really understand the value probe They really understand the benefits that they would get from coming on to my product Okay. All right next part is activation. So you've gotten this users Amazing, you know, they've come on to your home page Amazing, how can you ensure that they stay? How can you ensure that they stay a long enough to actually take the next step? So they become active users. So visiting is great, but beyond visiting How can I get them to move on to the next stage in the funnel for us at Afro hub, right? Moving on to the next stage in the funnel pretty much meant browsing the catalog It meant engaging with all products on our application It meant putting things into your cart and not abandoning the cart And so activation is also just as important as acquisition Because you don't want to spend so much money and then marketing is quite expensive You don't want to spend so much money marketing your product and then when they come on to your product They don't feel the need users don't feel the urge. You don't feel the urgency. They don't feel the desire So actually move ahead with the next step on your product. And so with activation, you know things that we use was Personalization so everybody wants to feel like when they come on to your product Everything is targeting them as an individual. I want to see my name or if for example your product is let's say a community or Yes, let's say community. I want to join and feel like this actually is related to me I want to see my interest I want to see things that are passion and passionate about when I join your product or when I start using your product So using things like personalization Educational content and showing that the onboarding process is very smooth Ensuring that users know what to do when they get on to your product is very important If you want to move them for the next to next stage of the funnel All right, then yay amazing, you know for us in Afro hub We had gotten this users to come on to our application. They had not just come on to the application They have browsed through our catalogs after browsing through our catalogs They had kept things into their cart, which is amazing. That is in the acquisition stage. They are kept things into their cart Beyond putting things in their cart. They had actually paid and then Giving us some money. So we're getting some revenue from this users But that is all great and nice if this users do not come back a second time We have lost a huge chunk of users and so with retention What we're really saying is how many of your customers are coming back? Remember earlier on we talked about growth And I said growth can happen from two angles growth can happen from the new users perspective But at the same time a huge component of growth is also repeat business And so with retention we're now looking at those customers that have gone through the first stages And now are coming back to your product and this I think really retention is really where a huge portion of product Management comes into play because these users already have engaged with your product. So they already understand your value prop So the next thing now is beyond the basic value prop What else can your product offer that makes it's important for them to actually stay back? What else does your product offer that makes it important for them to leave their your competitors and stay with your product? And so this aspect of retention is where I believe Experimentation is really important. So with experimentation. We're really saying all right. You've come on to our application You know with Afro for example, you've come on to our application You've seen the benefit of shopping with us. How else can we improve this? Maybe if we did not start with the catalogue at the top left We provided some content about you know educational content about these businesses We showcased these businesses beyond the actual products that they have if we provided that information Will that help you to you know always come back afterwards. Um, so we experimentation You know, I believe that we experimentation It's a very cheap and fast way for you to learn what extra value, you know Consumers would want what did I value their product can offer to your business to your to your customers? And so Retention really gives us the opportunity for continuous improvement. So this person has come back the first come to our application The first time they've come back the second time. How else can we keep providing them with opportunities? How else can we provide them with value? What else can we do to make sure that they always return? The good part about retention is retention is way cheaper than getting new users with new users Yeah, again, like I said earlier, you're buying this new users quote-unquote by putting yourself in so many other places There's a lot of interactions that you have to do to get them to really believe that there's a value in your product But with retention, you know, these are users that already got in some value from your product So it's easier for you to just tap back into that value and increase it And so with retention, you're really looking at how can I engage my customers? And then a good part of this is always by rewarding loyalty From an Afro ops perspective What we really did to grow retention rates was really by providing some sort of reward for return buyers So you would for example recently, I just know did this huge buy from Sephora because as a member that has bought from Sephora over a period of time They would give you a certain percentage during their sale And so you will have extra money to buy more because you think that you're getting a lot of value And so we did very same a very similar tactic with Afro hub, right? Where we really just gave return users more value than initial buyers So for example by your second purchase, you get 50% off by your third purchase You get free delivery by your first purchase You have this and you have that and so adding all of these extra loyalty rewards or rewards to the consumers Thought process just helps them to stay more attached with your product and helps them to feel like I want to come back Because I'm getting more value, right? The next step is referral. So think about this from the funnel again at the beginning stage this consumers have Gotting knowledge about your business. They've seen your value prop. They've come on to your product They have made a purchase Afro, for example, they had made a purchase I'm dead come back and you know bought a second time or bought a third time And then the next part when you want to grow your business is how can you get this users to actually tell their friends? tell their families tell other people about the product that you have and referral becomes really important because Compared to you buying or trying to get new users with referral You are actually getting people that are personalizing the messaging around your business So when I'm talking to my friends about a product that I really really enjoyed I Really ship it in such a way that it fits into their own use case and that is the advantage of referral Referral encourages your retained users to introduce your products to new potential users You're leveraging your users as promoters to accelerate growth for your own business And it creates a very valuable feedback loop So what really happens we refer all is now you can hear back directly from your customers And from the people like if no one is referring your product Maybe that's a problem if I now stop here is in the revenue So from the revenue perspective we're really saying that how can we ensure that we've kept transparent pricing and monetization? Strategies that will help these customers and consumers to stick to our product to still see the value and then Retain or come back again become repeat businesses and even get to the stage of putting our referrals or Telling their friends and families and other people about our product from an Afro perspective You know, we really use the freemium process when it comes to our revenue especially from the business's perspective So for the businesses on our application at the initial stage You know, we told them that hey we wanted to just try this model that we've created We've created this business that can help you access a wider range of customers a wider audience In the first month try it and see you're not going to pay any fees to be on our application It's completely free for you But by the second month depends on, you know The amount of business that you're bringing in you're going to fall into either of the three tiers that we had Where you know for a particular tier is for low No, no value low volume businesses for another CS for middle volume and then finally for, you know The big the big volume businesses and so with this with this model, you know The businesses were able to try first see value based on value decide Which of the different tiers that they wanted to be a part of and then that gave us revenue But at the same time it also gave them a reason to keep staying on our product So think about it from a revenue angle, you know You have to make sure that your product is strong enough and sometimes businesses or customers Do not see how strong your product is so they actually try it and that's why you hear a lot of businesses having You know value based pricing where you have the free for a while And then if you don't want ads for example to Spotify or apple You know, if you don't want if you don't want ads or even youtube you don't want ads and you pay for a certain level Which is the next step All right So moving on I want to now tie all of these things together and think about it again from an Afrohub's perspective For us acquisition really just meant, you know paid ad campaigns So we're you know linked in we were in um, we're on different websites You know, we did SEOs where we are trade fairs We even freemium to come into acquisition parts You know, we really dangled in front of customers the idea that you can Try our product and use it for a period of time And after a while you can determine if you've gotten any value from it And so where we acquire customers just using some of this methods moving forward the next part was activation So now they know about Afrohub But then we needed to make sure that they really felt like they were getting value from the product And so that meant that the onboarding experience and the onboarding system was very good and very strong For both the businesses and the individuals on the application to get both of them to actually engage So we needed to make sure that it was easy for a customer for example that has come to Afrohub To be able to put things into their cart beyond putting things into your cart Wanted to make sure that it was easy for you to go ahead to the next step of payment We needed to make sure that it was easy for you to go all the way to you know Finalizing your your your order and getting it shipped to you Um, and then also trying all of this back to a personalized experience You know when people feel like the product is really targeted to them. Thank you for AI ML You know, they really are they really find more value because they don't feel like they're just a face They feel like this is really really beautiful me So for us activation really was just creating a personalized experience Creating a strong onboarding system that was very seamless and could get customers from Visits all the way to payments in very quick steps. Um, the next part was retention So you've paid the first time and they will want you to keep coming back We don't want you to just leave after a period of time And so we retention and creating things like reward cards creating things like discounts So that when they come the second time, it's cheaper. There's no shipping costs There are other things that you can do that can help them to really really get enough value from the product itself And then just engagement. So gamification You know giving points so for every time that you buy one extra product you get a setting point That just kept them coming back kept them returning feeling like there was more value every single time Beyond that, you know, I mentioned experimentation earlier on just experimenting Adding more value to our products working around the UX making sure that every single time that a customer comes back They feel like your product is better than the last time that they were there And they're just creating this very little experience is think about this It's always a two-way door most times. It's a two-way door when it comes to retention Um, I want you to keep coming back So I'm going to make changes as quick as possible to fit your needs at every given time So that you are staying on the application and you are not going away The next part is referral. So again referral is a very cheap way to to get new customers So giving customers the opportunity to tell authors tell their friends tell their family About your product is we did through referral bonuses, you know, we made sure that reviews were a big part of our product The same thing also just doing with, you know, customer success stories So what are the benefits that you've got in and then saying this over and over again and letting people really see that there is Social proof. Yeah, that's the word So social proof just making sure that others can see that there's a benefit from using your product And then getting them to come back over and over again And then for us revenue was revenue per customer Which is based of how much they paid in extra for the products that they were buying from application From the business's perspective, it was also the fee that we're getting from them for using our application Now before we end this it's also important for us to know that when we think about growth pm A huge part of a growth pm's role is actually partnerships Compared to your traditional pm that, you know, most times you're working with mostly just engineers and your designers and user research A growth pm skill set goes beyond that for a growth pm. You have to understand marketing Marketing lingo. You have to understand sales lingo. You have to understand customer success functions You have to understand seos. You have to understand Clicks, you know, you have to start paid ads all of these things are very important because you are working with sometimes Working with newer users and to get newer users in the acquisition aspect You need to understand how to get those users Also, um, the growth pm does a lot of work that is outside They are all in terms of they they work higher up So they are more involved in business goals If you're trying to improve your product engagement by 10 percent Or if you're trying to grow your user base by 10 percent A lot of times that is tied back to whatever your org's goal or your organization's goal or main body goal is Because you have to make sure that they align and so think about it from like my own angle Um, you know within afro hub within aws within yammer microsoft I did a lot of go-to-market strategies Yes, as a product manager you do go-to-market strategies, but this one you I'm creating call for growth market strategies Um, you know creating adoption strategies creating templates to help other businesses or help users to really use and understand your product So as a growth pm really working on, um, You know really defining growth within an organization or within a particular product A huge part of your work is actually in the market aspect compared to the actual product aspect All right, so just a quick summary of everything we've talked about over the last few minutes Um product growth only happens when you understand your customer needs So you need to make sure that you're you're providing value And the only way you can provide value is by knowing what your customers are looking for Um at every time you want to be in tune with your customers You cannot be a growth pm creating a product that is engaging if your customers do not Feel like they can benefit from it. You cannot be a growth pm if your customers You're not talking to your customers You can't create a growth pm by just ideating within yourself on what customers want They need to engage and for them to engage you must know what exactly they want you need to be in tune with their needs Um, the pirate framework is really great when you think about measuring and optimizing growth It's really great for every aspect of product management But from a good perspective It just serves as a core metric for you to really look at in creating a product that everybody loves Um experimentation. I always turn experimentation always turn two-way doors. Um, they move things faster Experimentation helps you to move quickly without wasting time when it comes to growth because of how the market is And how a user needs change over a period of time you want to try to move as quickly as possible So you need to embrace experimentation and when you can experiment just try it if it doesn't work You can roll back. Um, as long as you know, you've created the right guidelines. I've created the right processes there Again, you know for you to retain your customers You need to invest in continuous improvements Customers should not come to your website or your application over and over again and not feel like they're getting new value So you have to always think about it from how can I improve my product in such a way that I would get customers to come back and um, yeah, so this is this is really it You remember data-driven product management or data-driven growth product strategy is strategy that is Based on the customer needs that is based on what they actually want because You have engaged with these customers either through your in-app product Experience or even outside the products where you're doing surveys or where you're having focus groups So you're having customer conversations customer calls as a growth p.m You need to be very involved in the customer success function within your organization Okay, so I hope this is really helpful. Um, thank you so much for having me I would love to connect with you as many people as would like to connect and you can connect to me on linkedin Um, the information is here in that slide and or you can connect with me on youtube Thank you


Well, how about the Braves? We know they're a great story. So now they're back in a first place tie with the Phillies. Can anybody about activity for them? I don't think any of us thought they would be in this position, but they look like a buyer. Are they going to be a buyer? They are going to try, but they've got some requirements that might not be met so easily. They want controllable players. They don't want to trade any other talented young kids for rental players, like a moustachis at third base. Starting pitcher, yes. Relief pitcher, definitely. They also would like to add offense in theory, but they really don't have a spot they need to fill. Yohan Camargo, guy at third base. Remember, he took over for Batista after Jose Batista was released. Look at his numbers. All right. Since May 20, 790 OPS. That's fine. I was thinking also today, maybe Ender-Enciarte doesn't hit lefties in center field, but I was told, no. He's such a good defender. They don't care. And the Braves crushed lefties. Best OPS against lefties in the National League. So offensively, they don't really have many holes. Veteran bullpen help, to me, would be the number one priority. I would like to see them get a big arm in the rotation to go with Fulton-Evich in Newcombe. I love that one-two punch. But you see, Annabelle Sanchez has done a good job in the veteran role, but I don't think they trust him enough going forward into the postseason run. You give up some of those prospects. I understand totally, but the window of winning is slim to none sometimes. They're back in it. They have the offense. They have the nice combination of stars as far as long guys. You go get a front-line pitcher that can put them over the top and get them in the postseason and then anything can happen after that. Don Troll, you make a great point. Teams don't control their windows. You don't know when it's coming. And when it comes early, as it has for the Philadelphia Phillies and the Atlanta Braves, guess what? You have to take advantage. You don't know if it's going to be this good again next year. So those two teams are going to be two teams to watch at the deadline simply because they have a little bit of urgency right now. For me, it always goes back. And I think you're right. It's a great point. It always goes back to the Strasburg thing, right? It was a little different because obviously they shut them down. But it was the assumption that, well, no worries. We've got every year to get to the World Series. It doesn't work. Now is your year in a down national league nonetheless, right? One quick thing for you to move on to the Braves. Ozzy Alby's, it's amazing. He's taken the league by storm. You talked about his midi slump, Ken. But how about the home runs? He was never, ever a power guy in the minor leagues. He's got 20 now. I don't know how to explain him. Lindor, those two guys, because they did not come up with the reputation of power hitter. And yet they both do it. I wonder if it's just because of the nature of the game, Don Sheldt. The idea of lift that all play hitters seem to employ, the way the game is played, the way it is pitched. I wonder if that's part of it. Obviously these are strong individuals and great hitters. But the power is a surprise. He has a big leg kick, like a bigger guy. Yes, he does. And you see those swings. He has a lean back launch angle type swing. And he's comfortable at the plate. All about timing. So when he went in that slump, he wasn't getting his foot down early. But as you can see in the highlights, he's getting his foot down. It gives him more time to see the pitch and recognize the pitch. And he's putting in charge. And also he trusts his teammates so he can pick the spots where he wants to take shots. He went dead central right there. I don't care what your size is. That's a 35-ounce bat he's swinging. So that's a big man type bat. He's showing power and he's comfortable at the plate. Man, I love this kid. Yeah, it's fun. So we get to watch Alby's braze back in first place in a tie with Philadelphia. What's talking about the Astros though? They're the world champs. They are, for argument's sake, the best team. You know, whether you want to say so or not. But they're bullpen. Now, here's a couple of ways to look at it. Their bullpen's been overall very, very good. They also have worked the least amount of innings, I believe, in the league. They need help still with where they are right now. I believe that's the only weakness that that ball club has. And you've seen them give up a lot of games late inning. Now during the regular season, you can be hidden because they have probably arguably the best rotation of all time collectively. But when you get to the post-season, you get to the upper echelon ball clubs, high-level situations, you got to have a shut down guy. And I believe they don't have it. Can they go with other pieces as far as the starters like they did last year to win it? I don't know, but I think they need to go out and rectify that and get a frontline closer, move Rondon down to the eighth inning, seventh inning, with less leverage situations. But that's the only weakness that ball club has is late inning relief. I would agree. It's a touchy one or a difficult one because they have a lot of really good relievers. And they have the ability to put someone in the bullpen for the post-season. I don't know that it will be Charlie Morton again, but the colors perhaps, you could do this a number of ways. That said, what if you go get Rachel Iglesias from the Reds or Brad Han from the Padres or someone that can hold down that role? It's a lot more appealing. The question is, Iglesias hasn't been in a pen or race. Brad Han hasn't been in a pen or race. None of the available relievers really have been. So if I'm the Astros, I'm monitoring this over the next couple of weeks, kind of trying to figure out what to do, but I'm with Don Trell. They need one more. They can't put Hinch in the same position they did last post-season where he really had to improvise his way to a World Series title. How about this, is Ken Giles done as an astro? That's a good question. And let's not forget, punched himself in the face earlier this season. Well done, Mercy. Danny Kirst is not in there last night. What he did last night was unacceptable. Completely. Unacceptable. And his performance is unacceptable. So where are you going with this? And I would not be surprised if we did not see him in the major leagues for the Astros again. And it didn't mean to cut you off, but as a pitcher, I learned very early. I had a bad game. I was frustrated. I saw Jack McKinn coming out. And I wasn't mad at him for taking me out. I was mad that I underperformed. And I walked and did not look him in the eyes and give him that ball. You want to talk about that old man's strength coming out and he beeline to me. That's the fastest I've ever seen him move. I will never forget the way he grabbed my arm. And he was like, don't you ever disrespect me like that or any other manager like that. It's not our fault that you gave up the runs. You respect us, though, and you stay on that mound. That's why when I saw that clip, I had a flashback. I thought Jack was coming again. You know what I mean? So he needs to be better than that. And that's the reason why right after that, they got on that bat phone. Every team has that bat phone. And they said, you need to get this guy out of here. The attitude is unacceptable. Well, that's the reaction I had. How is it Hinge's fault that he picked so poorly? Listen. There's no way. Well, Hinge lost to all confidence in him in the postseason later. He did. That was obvious. I don't think it ever came back. And I don't think it's ever going to come back. And he's only bad apple over there. As far as the negative energy, everyone talks about him hitting himself, doing things. The rest of the team, everyone's happy, go lucky, hitting home runs, high-piving. You got to get that guy to calm himself down and humble himself and really focus on pitching. Real quick for him to move on.  You've got something coming for the A's. Can you give us a little snippet for open? Sure. What do we got, Ken? My point is basically what we were talking about. And here are the A's. The run differential is better than the Mariners. Mariners are slowing down a little bit, 500 or so in the last 20 games. A's, if they win tonight, 18 of 23. They're rocking. Not going to continue. Okay. But if they win tonight, the Mariners lose their five back in the race for the second wild card. I'd give it two more weeks if I were the A's. You want to see that it's genuine and for real. But what if you're five out in two weeks?  No, that's not what they should do. Billy Bean historically has always gone for it when his team had a chance. I know he rips it up from time to time, but not when his team has a chance. He's going to want to go for it again. And then it's incumbent on ownership to support him. Offensively, they have a chance. Yes. They went away from drawing walks. They went to the launch angle. They have a collective group around Chris Davis that can show power. They're having a lot of fun. And Bob Melvin's done a heck of a job continuing to keep those young guys hungry and believing that they can make a mark in this division. I love what they're doing in Oakland. And the fans are hyped about what they're doing in Oakland. They want to see Billy put some money into it and get a pickup like John Lester, maybe in the rotation. Someone like that, that can really both. And that's what they need, Kevin. Right now, as of tomorrow, they've got three journeymen in the rotation. Right, right. They're going to stay here. It's Anderson and it's Edwin Jackson. We both love it, but it's adjourned. So that's where they need help. That's so many. A couple of years ago, they got Lester. They got Samarj. They got Jacob Hamill. They did it before. They got the veteran. See if they can do it again real quick. Look out here comes Jack. Jack ran up on me. Careful. Jack ran up on me. Like I was acting up in church.


I took my daughter through a mirror maze at a local fair. In one part of the maze, there were warped mirrors. My daughter laughed at the funny reflections caused by the fun-shaped mirrors. Though her face didn't change, the reflections did because of the shapes of the glass. God is the light and we are like mirrors that reflect the light. In order to reflect his nature, we must be facing his being. So all of us who have had that veil removed can see and reflect the glory of the Lord. And the Lord who is the spirit makes us more and more like him as we are changed into his glorious image. As you behold his glory, you reflect his glory. As you focus on his face, you begin to look like him. Jesus told us that if we've seen him, we've seen the Father. May it be said that when people see us, they see the Son. We are not the light, we can reflect it. We are not the source, we can point to it. We are not the Lord, but we can be like him. May we be more like Jesus and all we think, do, and say. May we accurately reflect his image.


Good morning everybody. I'm Y1 Giller, the CFO here at the Naval War College and today for our virtual workout we'll be doing full body workout. Let's go ahead and get ready to get started. Alright so our first exercise is going to be four sets of 45 second squats followed by 30 seconds of calf raises. So for squats.  Down and up. Just like in this motion. Again that's going to be for 45 seconds and then for calf raises we're going to put our hands on our hips and we're going to have our feet shoulder width apart and we're just going to go to our tiptoes and go back down. To our tiptoes and go back down just like so. Again so that's going to be four sets of that. Alright so our next exercise is going to be five sets of 30 second jump ropes.  Let me go ahead and pick up my imaginary one.  Alright for our next exercise we're going to be doing five sets of close grip push-ups followed by 30 seconds of high knees. So for close grip push-ups we want to get on a deck like so. Bring our hands together kind of like a diamond. Put our feet together and we want to just break 90 as we come down. Just like so. Follow by high knees. So you just running in place and you make sure you're bringing your knees up to your chest level. Just like this. Go ahead and try it out. So for our final exercise we're going to do five sets of regular grip push-ups followed by 30 seconds of high knees. So again for the regular grip push-ups you just come down on the deck.  Just like so. And then again for the high knees we're just running in place bringing our knees up to our chest. Go ahead and try that out. Alright everyone thank you for joining in for our virtual workout and on Y-1 Gilleries. Sign it out.


here we go. Okay, hello, welcome to Mindfulness Monday. Today we're gonna, I thought I'd read an excerpt from my latest book, which is Calm in the Mids of Chaos. And I just randomly went like, and I came to day eight, and mindfulness creates interdependence. And I read you bits of it, and then we go into a meditation that I actually quite like, which is the mountain meditation. And it's basically the mountain meditation talks a lot about the thought process behind it is, is the mountain is always there. It's a constant. Okay, and everything around it changes. Okay, but the mountain just stays. And it just keeps being the mountain. And it just keeps staying whether it's raining, whether it's snowing, whether there's 100 people walking up it, or nobody walking up it, or whatever, whatever's happening in the world where COVID has struck, or whatever the scenario is, that mountain stays the same. And in many ways, you are like that mountain. And if we can adopt some of those, you know, fundamental core principles of being the consistent thing that sits in the middle, and allow all of these things just to the clouds, to float around us and come around us. And we stay strong and rooted and grounded as the mountain. There's a lot of sense in it. Okay, because we can a lot of our time be influenced, or pushed, or trauma, or, or, or whatever it is, stress, anxiety, all of these life things that come and hit us in the face, metaphorically speaking. But the mountain just keeps staying there. It keeps strong, it keeps resilient, it keeps this way. So that's the meditation we're going to do. But in terms of the actual book, I thought I'd just read something from it. It says here we are on day eight. And I hope you're all well. Usually we get to a point when we're doing these challenges, when we start to wonder about a few things. Is it really working? Should I carry on? Am I wasting my time? Is this really for me? Or this is fantastic. This is really helping on so many different levels. When it comes to practicing mindfulness, there will be times when you're really excited. And there'll be times when you just feel like you can't do it. There will be days when it feels like you've made massive progress, and others where you felt like there was no progress at all. This is all part of the process. And it's okay to feel this way. Because it's about having that awareness of non-judgmental thoughts, or periods of self-critique, and doing it all with loving kindness, openness, and caring. My definition of mindfulness is awareness of things that arise when you intentionally pay attention, but doing it without judgment in an open and kind manner. I want to talk about compassion today, but before I do, I want to remind you that what we practice is what we grow. During difficult times of the because I was in the virus at the time, difficult times of the virus outbreak, it was becoming increasingly more difficult to not live in fear and uncertainty. The media was belting us with an ever-increasing rate of deaths every day, and the lockdowns were such a new and alien concept to us. The fact that the entire world was being hit by this pandemic was in some ways comforting in others, downright terrifying on others. We're on the brink of becoming extinct as a species. Is that the truth? To you reading this, it might be an absolutely ridiculous notion, but for us, it was a very real concern because of the rates of things that were spread in. It was in certain times, and the reason I mention this is because I think it was the ultimate example, because most of us sat in fear and terror every day, waiting for the other shoe to drop. While others chose to make the most of the extra time we now with our families and filled it with games and laughter, can you see how easy you can fall into a negative frame of mind and then you just get stuck there? How your thoughts can literally terrorize you for days on end if you allow them? Always remember that we practice is what we grow, and we need to practice compassion, loving kindness in times like these. The words we use, the words we should use in our practice are openness, acceptance, curiosity, and non-striving. We all have the desire to be better every day, but we should be patient, trusting, and letting go without judgment. The word for today is compassion, and how do we grow compassion? How do we make compassion something that we really cultivate in our everyday lives? I'm not saying that we'll be happy and compassionate with every experience we have, but I want us to collect those experiences and hold them with care, kindness, compassion, and empathy. We've said before that neuroplasticity is what we can do to help cultivate and change the way our brain works in the long term. Mindfulness has been proven to change the way your mind works, and it significantly increases the compassion and empathy we have for ourselves. It's important for us to remember that our essential nature as human beings is to be loving, compassionate, and have empathy. The world and life can often engulf us with essential, engulf these essential natures and change the neural highways for the worst, which is why it's so important to practice this with ourselves from moment to moment in order to strengthen the compassion within ourselves for others. We're all guilty of having a pattern of self-judgment or striving and self-criticism. Why can't I do this? Why can't I do that? Why can they do this? And I can't. I wish I was them. We are who we are, and it is integral for us to realize this because success is being the best person you can be with clarity, purpose, and moral, essential natures. We find ourselves living in this hurried and stressed world which causes us to lose touch with our natural selves and drop our levels of striving, love, and compassion. Mindfulness allows us to slow down our thoughts so that we can clearly see and remain connected to our deep values. When we are hurried, scared, or worried, our natural compassion doesn't come out, but when we slow down and understand, compassion rises. Mindfulness also brings independence because we all know we're connected, and mindfulness helps us to realize that we are all connected. We are all cells in God's body, as someone once said, and it's true because we're not separate from each other. It stands to reason then, if we get compassion rising in each other and ourselves, it will have a knock on effect and the empathy and our essential natures. We're all interdependent, and if the corona pandemic proved one thing, is that we're all connected. How else did we manage to spread a virus around the world without being in touch and contact with one another? We were all germ taxis in body and one collective consciousness in mind and soul. The virus did not see in terms of race or status, countries or boundaries. We were all susceptible. We were very much connected when we cultivate compassion. It helps us to understand our essential nature. It helps us to learn to welcome all of our experiences with compassion, even the ones in the past which are seemingly unforgivable. Everyone can learn, grow, and transform through cultivating loving kindness, empathy and compassion. When we're holding ourselves and our experiences with compassion and empathy, we can really make a difference to our lives. We need to be present in our hearts for ourselves and for others. There's a very light hearted saying that I came across I would like to share with you. If you can sit quietly after difficult news, if after financial down turn you remain perfectly calm, if you can see your neighbours travel to fantastic places without the twinge of the LSE, if you could happily eat what is ever on your plate, if you can sleep after a busy day without a drink or a pill, if you can always find contentment wherever you are, then you're most probably a dog. That's guy by a gentleman called Jack Cornfield. He says, I love that and I think it's quite funny. It's true, we can strive to hold ourselves in all those unconditional habits and compassion because then we all stand a chance of growing and transforming through our experiences and then we go into the multi-meditation. So what I'm trying to say is that if we can hold ourselves with more compassion, if we can hold ourselves with more unoperness and we can hold ourselves being more empathetic to ourselves, not beating ourselves up or doing the things. If things don't go right today, that we don't throw ourselves away. If you don't feel as if you're progressing as much as you perceive you should be, well just be kind to yourself, but try to make those small things in the day because what we practice is what we grow. So if we're going to be sitting there all day worrying about fear or past trauma or whatever the scenario is, we're going to cultivate and grow those feelings. We're going to grow those emotions. If we're sitting there thinking, how's this going to work out? What am I going to do here? How can I do this? And we just get ourselves into this complete state of catastrophe living, just catastrophizing everything that we've got in our lives. And the reality is nine times out of ten, it's nowhere near as bad as when you thought. And I used to always remember as a kid, you know, your mum would say like, you've got to be back for six o'clock for tea. And he'd be like, right, okay. And then you'd be playing football and then you've got the woods or you'd do something. You didn't have a phone. You didn't have a watch. You were just like trying to work it out in your head. And then when you're running home, you'd say to somebody, have you got a time mate? And you'd say, yeah, yeah, it's quarter to eight. I go, what? It's quarter to eight.  You know, she'd have had the surge party out. There's going to be people with torches walking around trying to find me and helicopters. And she's going to go berserk. And she's going to go crazy. I'm going to be banned for a week. I'm going to have to stay in my bedroom. And bedrooms in those days, they had a bed. That was it. You know, it was just, and I walk in the door and she said, I love driven. I stay, sit down and have a tea. But that journey home, that whole walking down the street, you know, she'd hung drawn and courted me. She, you know, she'd done everything. I was in a right state. I walk through the front door and she says, sit down, tea's ready. And you're like, and we do a lot of that, don't we? We do a lot of that catastrophizing.  Have I said something to upset them? Have I let them down? Oh my God, yeah, I remember.  And oh, I've messed this up now. And we just go off on this thing. And then your phone rings as your friend. Sorry, I haven't called. Been really busy. I thought it was something I said. Why would it be something you said? Well, okay. And that's, and that's what we do to ourselves, consistently do to ourselves. Yeah. So it's about giving yourself some more compassion. It's about being kinder to yourself. It's about, it's about not always thinking the worst. It's about you giving yourself a break, giving yourself a day off, giving yourself the chance to, to move forward. You know, we can't always, every day make huge strides. And I find, I find that I'm doing it more now. I don't know as just because I am getting older, but I find making lists for me works. I find if there's things I want to do throughout the week, I make a list and I, and I sort of check myself off. But if I don't get through as much in the list in one day, I don't then go nuts to myself anymore. I used to be like, oh, why haven't you done that? Come on. You, you know, and I sort of sit for another two hours, but I don't know. I just say why don't do it tomorrow? You know, and I think that's, that's, we now have that bit more compassion in yourselves. You know, for me, if something's not right, I stop now. Like the desk I'm on here is, I bought a desk that is a standup desk. So my watch tells me to stand up now. So I press a button and it goes and I stand up and I work and then after 20 minutes, I sit back down again. And as you know, I'm absolutely useless at DIY, but I was determined to put this thing together. Okay. And you know, you're at that point at some stage where you've got 15 screws left in your hand and you can't find anywhere to put them. And you're thinking, I've done this wrong. Have I got this on back to front? How I got it upside down? How am I going to do this? And I can feel myself. So all I do is I put the screws down and went, it'll still be here in the morning. I'll come back in the morning and I'll have a go again. And I did. But if I, if you would have asked me a couple of years ago, I would have been like, what's this? This is rubbish. I can't do this is that blood. No chance.  But now I just go, okay, 15 screws over. I'll come and work that out in the morning. Right. Okay. I'm going to give myself a break. Yeah. But not be, not be detrimental to yourself. But then when you actually do put it together and touch wood, it does work. Okay. So when you do put it together, it's like such an achievement. And I'm so proud of like me putting this desk together. Because it's not me. I can't do these things. But I just gave myself some compassion. I gave myself some empathy. I took my time. I was very mindful about doing it. Oh, you know, I, you know, okay, I might have thrown the screwdriver once, but it was only once. Okay. It would have been four or five times previously. No, but that's progress, isn't it?   And, and, and just be kind to yourself. Yeah. Just be kind to yourself. I think that's important. You know, I think you can really make a big difference to you and yourself. I had a long conversation yesterday with my sister-in-law who's never, ever compassionate to herself.  And I said, you've got to give it up. What am I going to do? I said, who knows? Well, you can tell me. No, I'm not going to tell you. I said, you know, you can work out yourself, but I can tell you something. If, if you're doing something that gets you into this state, stop. Not worth it. Not worth it. Not worth it whatsoever.  And I can guarantee you that if anything happened to you in that job, they would stick an advert in the newspaper within seven days. Okay. In a, in an, in an, in an happy. Now, Julian's gone. Oh, that's a shame. He's a really nice guy. Who's coming next then? Julian who? Have you met the new guy, Dave? He's fantastic. He's much better than what was that guy's name? You know, it's just like, and that's, that's how this world works. You know? So, so be kind to yourself. Give yourself some compassion. Give yourself some love. Give yourself some time to, to be kind to yourself.   But if it doesn't go according to plan, do you know what? There's always tomorrow. Yeah. And that would never go to them. Hope that makes sense. Any questions? No? My observations? Good. Okay. Well, let's go into the mountain meditation then.  I'm going to have this funky new arm that allows the mic to come closer. And as always with all of the meditations, just right at the beginning, we're going to find ourselves to become comfortable. Begin by sitting in your chair, just becoming comfortable, relaxed. Just giving yourself a few moments. So sensing into the support you have from the chair, maybe the cushion or whatever it is, if you're laying down the mattress, but pay attention to the actual sensations of the contact and find yourself that comfortable position of stability and poise. Your upper body may be balanced over your hips and your shoulders in a comfortable but alert position.  Just sense how when you check in with yourself, how your body feels, just feeling into your feet, your legs, your hips, your lower and your upper body, your arms, your shoulders, just sense and feel like or parts of your body. But then bring awareness to your breath, the actual physical sensations, feeling each breath as it comes in and as it goes out. Letting the breath be just as it is without trying to change or regulate it in any way. Allowing it to flow easily and naturally within its own rhythm and pace. Knowing that you're breathing perfectly right now, nothing for you to do except allowing the body to be still and sitting with a sense of dignity, a sense of resolve, a sense of being completely whole in this very moment with your posture reflected in this sense of wholeness. And as you sit here, you can let any image form in your mind's eye, as we say spiritually, your third eye in between your eyebrows. But I want you to envisage the most magnificent or beautiful mountain that you've ever seen or could imagine. Bring this mountain to your mind, letting it gradually come into greater focus. And even if you can't see it, you may sense it, whatever it is, just allow it to happen, feeling its overall shape, its lofty peaks, its highs in the sky, the large bases rooted into the bedrock of the Earth's crust, its steep and gently sloping sides, a beautiful stunning with landscapes and trees. Just notice how big this mountain is, how solid it is. Perhaps your mountain has a snow blanket on the top and trees reaching down to the base of these rugged granite sites. There may be streams, waterfalls, cascading down the slopes, there may be one peak or a series of peaks. Observe it, notice it, just see the qualities of this wonderful mountain.   You are beyond words and thoughts, a centred, grounded, moving presence as you sit here, and just become aware of the fact that the sun travels across the sky, the light and the shadows and the colors are changing virtually moment by moment in the mountain stillness, the surface, teams with life and activity, streams, melting snow, waterfalls, plants and wildlife as the mountain sits, seeing and feeling how night follows day and day follows night, the bright warming sun followed by the coolness of the night sky, the star studded, beautiful, the gradual dawning of a new day and although it's as the sun rises, the moment just, the mountain just sits, experiencing change in every moment, constantly changing, it's always just being itself, it remains still as the seasons flow into one another and the weather changes moment by moment and day by day, calmness abides all change and in the summer there's no snow on the mountain except perhaps for the very peaks or the cracks shielded from the direct sunlight, in the autumn the mountain may wear a coat of brilliant fire colors in a winter blanket and maybe there's snow and ice, in any season it may find itself at times shrouded in clouds or fog or pelted by freezing rain, people may come to see the mountain and comment how beautiful it is but none of this really matters to the mountain, it remains at all times it's essential, compassionate self, clouds may come and clouds may go, the mountain's magnificence and beauty are not changed one bit by whether people see it or not, seen or unseen in sun or clouds, broil in a frigid day or night it's just sitting there being it's compassionate self, at times it's visited by violent storms buffeted by snow and rain the winds of unthinkable magnitude, through it all the mountain sits spring comes trees leaves flowers bloom birds sing the trees once again streams overflow with waters of the melting stone but through it all the mountain continues to sit and moved by weather by what happens on its surface by the world of appearances remaining it's essential truth it's self-truth the seasons change the weather changes the activities ebb and flow in on its surface in the same way as we sit in meditations we can learn to experience the mountain we can embody the same central unwavering stillness and glumlessness in the face of everything that changes in our lives over seconds over hours over years in our lives and in malmeditation practice we can experience the constantly changing nature of our mind and body in the outer world we have our own periods of light and darkness activity and inactivity our moments of color and moments of drabness it's true that we experience storms of variety and intensity and violence in the outer world our own minds and bodies are buffeted by high winds by cold and by rain we may endure periods of darkness and pain as well as in the moments of joy upliftment even our appearance consistently changes experiencing a weather of our own but by coming the mountain in our meditation practice we can link up with the strength and stability and to adopt this for our very own we can use these energies to support our energy to encounter each moment with mindfulness with compassion with empathy and clarity it may help us to see our thoughts and feelings our preoccupations our emotional storms and crisis even the things that happen to us are very much like the weather on the mountain but we tend to take it personally but its strongest characteristic is its impersonality everything is impersonal the weather of our lives is not ignored or denied it's to be encountered to be honored to be felt known for what it is held in awareness and holding this way we can come to a deeper silence and stillness with wisdom we hold it and our experience with compassion with empathy we live life in kindness mountains have this and much more to teach us we just need to let it in so if you find you resonate in some way with the strength and stability of the mountain you're sitting in maybe it's helpful to use this from time to time in your meditation practice to remind you of what it means to sit mindfully but resolved with wakefulness in true stillness so in the moments that now remain we continue to sustain the mountain meditation in our own silence moment by moment feeling the strength and the stability bringing that courage and that strength and stability and compassion into your life it too shall pass it too shall pass just feel that wholeness as you take a breath breath in feel the calmness the stillness the strength the resolve the compassion and the love and take that into your day take that into everything that you do lean into the fact that you are enough lean into the fact that the things that have happened in the past allow you to be the person you are today kind caring compassionate loving trusting and truthful just like the mountain when you're ready you can take a nice deep breath in with your fingers come back into the room so I think the key to that and I wrote that in here because it talks to us about the mountain as being a solid structure with all these things changing around it but it continues being the mountain this is where the real strength lies and we can be that mountain we can have all of these things happen around us but we just need to stay strong and know that everything passes experience is good or bad we can hold them with compassion with empathy and loving kindness in this way we can live moment by moment we can retrain our brain to think differently we can raise our happiness bar and more importantly we can be our true selves our true essence we can live the life that we meant to live with clarity and purpose and I think that is important I think that being that solid mountain and allowing things to come and go and raise and fall and and not to you know beat ourselves up or run away down a pigeon hole just to you know because of the way our thoughts are our thoughts are just thoughts they may feel real but they're very rarely true and if we can see them as thoughts and label them as thoughts because when we fire a thought it generally fires an emotion so if we can see that thought as being a thought then the emotions really are the reaction to those thoughts and we can just be in that space without catastrophizing or running down roads that get us into a right mucking fuddle as somebody once said so I hope you enjoyed today's mindfulness Monday it's nice and short but very sweet and just think about how you can just allow some of these things just to pass and don't don't get caught into it you know there's a lot of things that I listen to now and you know you hear people talking and I think I'm not getting involved in that it's too low vibrational too tilt at too he said she said she said he said no not for me and just try and keep your vibration high and have a wonderful day whatever you're doing and god bless you and I'll see you on Thursday take care thank you bye


Here are a couple of things that I do when I'm starting to feel a little under the weather, whether it be a sore throat, you feel like you're getting a cold or even allergies. The first would be a peppermint tea with ginger, lemon, honey, and peppermint tea. Next up is elderberry juice. I purchased this through my local Whole Foods, but you can also buy the berries to make your own. Oil of pooling with coconut oil is really good. So I'm gonna show you how I make my tea. I start off by placing everything in a pot of water. This is bottled water that's been simmering now for 20 minutes. I poured in a cup with some honey and that is it. I hope you guys enjoy this video and make sure you check out some of these remedies the next time that you're starting to feel sick. Take care, bye.