Welcome to George H. Smith's Excursions into Libertarian Thought, a production of Libertarianism.org and the Cato Institute, narrated by James Foster. Thomas Hodgkin, Libertarian Extraordinaire, Part 2 In Part 1 of this series, I discussed Thomas Hodgkin's advocacy of radical individualism and laissez-faire. Hodgkin's libertarian views were so extreme that he has frequently and understandably been called an anarchist, though he expressly repudiated the label. If you consult standard histories of economic thought, you will find a more curious label attached to Hodgkin, namely, Ricardian Socialist. This label has been used because Hodgkin supposedly took the labor theory of value defended by the free-market economist David Ricardo, 1772-1823, and developed it into a full-scale critique of capital and capitalists, most notably in labor defended against the claims of capital, 1825. This tract is far from the best of Hodgkin's writings, but it is the most famous. Why? Primarily because it was repeatedly cited and praised by Karl Marx, who was influenced by some of its key arguments. Indeed, in the first volume of Kapital, Marx praised Hodgkin as one of the most important modern English economists. We are thus presented with the anomaly of a radical advocate of private property and laissez-faire being called by some historians an English forerunner of Karl Marx. But we should not be misled by how the ideas of one intellectual were used by another intellectual. The fact that Marx cherry-picked a few arguments and concepts from Hodgkin and adapted them to his own socialistic agenda does not transform Hodgkin into a socialist or into a forerunner of Marx. As Murray Rothbard pointed out in Classical Economics and Austrian Perspective on the History of Economic Thought, page 401, there is no doubt that Hodgkin's ultra-laborism influenced Karl Marx, but his extreme labor theory of value does not make him a Ricardian, much less a socialist. In fact, Hodgkin was highly critical of Ricardo and the Ricardian system, denounced Ricardo's abstract methodology and his theory of rent, and considered himself a Smithian rather than a Ricardian. Adam Smith's natural law and harmony of interest free market doctrine was also far more congenial to Hodgkin. Consider these comments that Hodgkin made in a letter to Francis Place in 1820, just three years after Ricardo published Principles of Political Economy, and five years before Hodgkin published Labor Defended against the Claims of Capital. I think I never saw a book more destitute of facts than Mr. R's Principles, which at the same time has had so much weight. To me it appears to rest on arbitrary definitions and strange assumptions. The first two sentences of the book are radically false. His definition of value is wrong, his explanation of the manner in which fixed capital tends to lower the prices of all commodities into which it enters. I hold to be the best and only good part of his book. It does appear to be built on no sort of facts to contradict many and to have little more merit than a bewildering subtlety. In early 1823 Hodgkin moved from Edinburgh to London, where he became the Parliamentary Reporter for the Morning Chronicle, whose editor was a friend of the Benthamite James Mill. Within months of arriving in London, Hodgkin started The Mechanics Magazine, an educational journal aimed at factory workers and other labourers. At a time when many workers were demanding minimum wage laws, Hodgkin argued that all economic regulations including minimum wage laws should be repudiated in favour of a free, unregulated market. Workers, Hodgkin warned, are not the friends of workers. Indeed, legislators have always belonged to the non-labouring classes of society, and it seems bad, therefore, for the poor man to have any law of this kind emanating from them. Members of the ruling class already have too much power, and to grant them the right to regulate wages would enhance their power even more. Even if such regulations might prevent wages from falling in the short run, labourers would be better served in the long run by looking after their own interests in a free market rather than depending on legislators whose principal concern is preserving their own power. In 1824 while working as a Parliamentary Reporter, Hodgkin observed debates in the House of Commons that led to the repeal of the Combination Laws, which had outlawed trade unions by prohibiting combinations of workers who wished to pressure employers for shorter hours or more pay. These Combination Laws were a chief target of the Benthamites and other free market advocates who argued that workers should be permitted to negotiate freely with their employers so long as no coercion was used. Although some free market types such as Francis Place predicted that the wholesale repeal of the laws prohibiting trade unions would diminish the frequency of strikes, this is not what happened. Repeal was immediately followed by an outbreak of strikes, some of which were violent. Thus no sooner had the old laws been repealed than alarmed legislators passed the 1825 Combination Act. This new legislation, while permitting collective bargaining in matters pertaining to wages and conditions of employment, stated that union members could not molest, obstruct or intimidate. It was unclear, however, how terms like obstruct would be interpreted by English courts. This historical background is essential to understanding Hodgkin's political purpose in writing Labour Defended Against the Claims of Capital, which carries the subtitle, or the unproductiveness of capital proved with reference to the present combinations amongst journeymen. Thomas Hodgkin used the new law against trade unions as an opportunity to criticize the theory of capital that had been defended by David Ricardo and his followers. The Ricardians, such as economist J. R. McCulloch, whom Hodgkin specifically mentioned, were peculiar targets in a way since they had spearheaded the movement to repeal the prohibition against trade unions and collective bargaining. Nevertheless, Hodgkin believed that these free-market economists had fostered, if unwittingly, the widespread prejudice against trade unions by investing capital with productive powers that it did not, in fact, possess. Hodgkin's critique of capitalists was severe and unremitting. He denied that capital has any just claim to the large share of the national produce now bestowed on it. One is almost tempted to believe that capital is a sort of Kabbalistic word, like church or state or any other of those general terms which are invented by those who fleece the rest of mankind to conceal the hand that shears them. The evil effects of capital are seen in the fact that the labourer must give a large quantity of the produce of his labour to the capitalist which keeps the labourer in poverty and misery. Capitalists can grow rich only where there is an oppressed body of labourers, and they have long since reduced the ancient tyrant of the soil to comparative insignificance while they have inherited his power over all the labouring classes. It is therefore now time that the reproaches so long cast on the feudal aristocracy should be heaped on capital and capitalists. Readers familiar with the Austrian theory of capital can easily identify the serious flaws in Hodgkin's theoretical attack on capital and capitalists, see Rothbard's discussion cited above for a brief but incisive critique, but in fairness to Hodgkin three points should be kept in mind. One, labour defended should be read in part as a criticism of crony capitalism to use a modern expression. Hodgkin believed that laws against trade unions and collective bargaining had created an unfair advantage against workers in favour of capitalists. Hence the large profits reaped by capitalists were not the result of natural economic forces but were generated by the coercive laws of government. Two, Hodgkin distinguished between different economic functions that are sometimes included within the label capitalist. Although he stressed that whatever labour produces ought to belong to it, he also emphasised that labour does not refer to physical exertions alone but also to mental activities and skills. I therefore would caution my fellow labourers not to limit the term labour to the operations of the hands. The production of a commodity requires the joint labour and cooperative efforts of many different people with many different skills, including the knowledge and skill of the master manufacturer and of the man who plans and arranges a productive operation who must know the state of the markets and the qualities of different materials and who has some tact in buying and selling. These masters, employers and contrivers and enterprising undertakers of new works are authentic labourers so they have a just claim to their share of profits. The labour and skill of the contriver or of the man who arranges and adapts a whole are as necessary as the labour and skill of him who executes only a part and they must be paid accordingly. Three, another point is even more significant for it clearly separates Hodgkin's critique of capitalists from socialistic proposals. If it is true that the labourer should receive the full product of his labour, it is also true that commodities in an advanced society are the product of a complex division of labour wherein many people contribute to the manufacture of a single economic good. So how can a particular labourer receive just compensation when it is impossible to separate his contributions from those of many others? There is only one way according to Hodgkin, namely to allow labourers including employers, manufacturers, entrepreneurs and others to compete freely in a competitive market. As Hodgkin put it, there is no principle or rule as far as I know for dividing the produce of joint labour among the different individuals who concur in production but the judgment of the individuals themselves. That judgment depending on the value men may set on different species of labour can never be known nor can any rule be given for its application by any single person. As well my demands say what others shall hate or what they shall like. At each stage of production a person must decide how much he is willing to pay for the materials and services needed to produce his share and many such subjective evaluations are reflected in the value of the final product. Hence when something is finally produced under an advanced division of labour there is no longer anything which we can call the natural reward of individual labour. Each labourer produces only some part of the whole and each part having no value or utility of itself. There is nothing on which the labourer can seize and say this is my product, this will I keep to myself. Given the many different people and skills that are required to produce even a simple commodity under a complex division of labour, how should we determine the reward that should go to a particular labourer? Hodgkin answers this question as follows. I know of no way of deciding this but by leaving it to be settled by the unfettered judgements of the labourers themselves. If all kinds of labour were perfectly free if no one founded prejudice invested some parts and perhaps the least useful of the social task with great honour while other parts are very improperly branded with disgrace there would be no difficulty on this point and the wages of individual labour would be justly settled by what Dr. Smith calls the higgling of the market. We thus see that Thomas Hodgkin was not a Ricardian socialist or a socialist of any kind, quite the reverse is true. Rather than draw socialistic conclusions from the labour theory of value Hodgkin employed it as an underpinning for laissez-faire. Only in a free market he maintained can labourers of every kind receive just compensation for their work. It would be impossible to explore the many problems in Hodgkin's critique of capital and capitalists without simultaneously discussing the labour theory of value on which it depends but it should be noted that leading proponents of the labour theory of value most notably Smith and Ricardo were unable to provide an altogether satisfactory account of the profit generated by capital. Although it was generally understood that the capitalist advances wages to workers and thereby forgoes present for future consumption most classical economists failed to understand the crucial relationship between time preference and the interest that accrues to capital. Although Hodgkin appreciated and praised the risk taking role of the entrepreneur he also separated this role from that of the pure capitalist in an artificial manner. All capital investment in a free market is attended with some degree of profit generating risk. Thank you for listening to Excursions. To learn more about libertarian philosophy and history visit www.libertarianism.org


How can I earn money from my YouTube channel? I get asked this all the time. I have a YouTube channel and people say, well, how can I make money? In this video, I'm gonna show you seven great ways that you can make money on your YouTube video channel and we're starting right now. Now, have you wondered, you know, how are these people making money?  Do you have to be, you know, some type of entertainer? Do you have to be a comedian? Do you have to play instruments? And the answer is no, you don't have to do any of those things. As a matter of fact, you can actually make videos without even being on camera. But in this video, I wanna show you seven really simple ways you can make money with a YouTube channel, okay? So let's just get started. Now, here's the truth. There are five billion videos watched every single day on YouTube, five billion. I mean, that's insane. But then I think about it and I watch a lot of videos there. I watch videos on cooking. I watch videos on exercise. I watch video about the news. I watch comedy videos and yeah, I can believe it. And also, did you know that the average viewer on YouTube spends 40 minutes watching videos? And actually, I think I spend a lot longer. I spend a lot longer making them, but I spend a lot longer watching them too. Now, do you have to be some expert actor? Do you have to have some special equipment? No, all you really need is a camera, some software to edit your videos and you're pretty much in business. Now, I gotta tell you, there are plenty of opportunities to make money on YouTube. But the first thing you gotta understand is you have to have a niche. Now, mine is making money online, but it could be playing a musical instrument. It could be comedy. It could be cooking, but you've gotta have a niche.  Now, if you're some celebrity, like the Kardashians, yeah, you could do a lifestyle channel and people are gonna be interested in what you're doing on a daily basis. But if you're the average Joe, you better have a niche. I'm gonna tell you this. It's simple to make money on YouTube. It's not easy to make money on YouTube. What I mean by that is you're gonna have to put in a lot of work. You can't put up a video once or twice a month and expect to ever grow a channel. It's probably not gonna happen. You're gonna have to do it on a consistent basis and on a regular basis. Now, on this channel, I post five videos a week and I do a live. So that's six videos a week. And you say, well, gosh, that sounds like a lot, JR. There are people that do five videos a day, okay? There are people that really hit it hard. Mine is probably somewhere in between. It's not on the super high end. It's not on the low end, but I am consistent. So that's the first thing I'll tell you before we get into all of this. If you think you're just gonna dabble in it and do a few videos and make some money, it won't work out, okay? I wanna be honest with you in this video. Now, the first thing you can do is monetization through affiliate links. Affiliate links are nothing more than links underneath your video in the description where when people click on it, they go to it and you get paid a commission. Now, the simplest of all links are affiliate links. You can find a product on Amazon. You can create an affiliate link to it, put that in your description.  Now, you're not gonna get paid a very high commission. It's a very few percent of that particular purchase price, but it is consistent money. And if they buy anything else within that, I think 48 hour period, you're also gonna get paid on those items too. You can also tie your blog into it. So maybe you'll wanna put a link in the bottom of your description that goes over to your blog. Maybe your blog is selling products. Maybe your blog has affiliate links there. Maybe you have downloadables there. But that's another great way to monetize your channel. The next way to make money is to monetize your channel and make money off ads that run on your videos. Now, this takes zero effort on your part. All you have to do is allow monetization of your channel. Now, this channel was recently monetized and I'll put up on the screen here. In less than a month, I made $156. Now, that's not a lot of money. However, I didn't do anything for it. Those are ads that just run on my videos. And that's not just $156 a month. That's $156 every month from this point forward. And as that number grows, you can see that can grow into a very large number. There are people that literally make millions of dollars a month off ads that run on their videos. So that's a very passive way to do it. Now, I will give you a caveat to this. I had to do hundreds and hundreds of videos before I got monetized. Some people get monetized really quick. Most people don't. Keep that in mind. You're gonna have to put in a lot of effort. You may have to work on it for six months, a year or longer to actually get your channel monetized. Now, I started to push probably, guys, I'm gonna say eight or nine months ago and then I finally got it monetized. It took me that long to do that. It took me a lot of videos, but I'm thinking long-term. YouTube is not a short-term game. It's a long-term game. It's something that you gotta put an effort for, but the upside is once you get monetized, once you start making money on these ads, you're gonna make that money every single month from that point going forward, whether you make more videos or not. Now, it is possible if you just quit making videos that your monetization could go down. However, I don't think you'll do that once you start seeing the amount of money you can make. Number three, funding from your fans. There's a thing called Patreon. If you sign up for Patreon, you can actually charge people a monthly fee. Maybe it's $5, $10, $50, $100, whatever you choose to select, you can charge them that amount of money. Now, what do they get for that? They may get extra videos. They may get behind-the-scenes stuff. They may get downloadables, but you've gotta give them something extra. Maybe they get to see the videos first before the general public sees them, but you gotta give them something extra. And if you do that, you can monetize your channel through something like Patreon. The next thing you can do, number four is master your channel SEO. What do I mean by SEO? That's your search engine optimization. That's gonna have to do with your title, your description, and your tags. And the reason that's so important, that's gonna help you build your channel. If you get good at that, you're gonna get more views. If you get more views, you get monetized, and you make money. There are five important factors to getting your channel to grow. The first one is the number of comments. So I'm gonna ask you right now, if you like this video, put a comment below and also ring the bell. Turn on all bell notifications so that you get notified every single time that I do a new video. The next thing you're gonna wanna look at is subscribes after watching a video. So I just ask you to subscribe, okay? And I ask you to do a comment. When you subscribe to this channel, you're gonna get notified about the next video I do, okay? Once you turn on the bell notifications. So YouTube is looking at your subscription rate too. Are people subscribing once they watch your video? Because they know that if they're seeing subscribers, they're actually building their YouTube audience too. The next thing is a thumbs up or thumbs down ratio, okay? How many people are giving you a thumbs up on this video? And if you like this video, do me a favor right now, write down there, smash that thumbs up button, smash that like button and give me a thumbs up because it'll help my channel. The next is the video watch length, okay? Now this is another important factor and I don't wanna get into this because I did another video on this, but the longer somebody watches one of your videos, the better off your channel is gonna be because YouTube can see through their algorithm that people are interested. So with that being said, you don't wanna have a lot of short videos. You don't wanna have a lot of one, two, three minute videos because you can't get much watch time. I think the optimum is probably about 10 to 14 minutes. YouTube will tell you they want it at least eight minutes long but there are people that do 30 minute videos or two or three hour videos. That's entirely up to you, but keep in mind to get watch time up, you're gonna have to have longer videos. And the next thing is click through rate to the YouTube video. So click through rate has to do with maybe somebody searches a subject about dogs or carpentry or lawn care or whatever it is. And when they see videos, they click on those videos to watch them. So that's another thing you gotta look at is your thumbnail. What does your thumbnail look like? Is it something that's gonna get somebody motivated? Is it gonna make them want to click through because they do look at your click through rate?  Number six, become an influencer. What's an influencer? Well, an influencer is just somebody who has a following. You know, maybe you have a thousand subscribers or 5,000 or 10,000. Keep in mind, you don't need a million subscribers to be an influencer. If your videos are very targeted towards a particular area, minor targeted towards making money online, I've been contacted several times to do a video on a certain product or thing. And I don't do that really right now. I may in the future, I'm not doing that right now, but people will actually pay you to talk about their product or service. And it can be as little as a hundred or $200, but it can reach into the thousands of dollars for you just to mention a product on your channel. And you're starting to see this more and more. I watch a lot of cooking ones. I like recipes, I like cooking in Sahabi. And I see more and more of these influencers, these cooks on the channel, talking about a particular product that they're endorsing.  And they're just selling it to you directly. And number seven, get YouTube red subscribers. What is a YouTube red subscriber? It's somebody who actually pays to subscribe to your particular channel. And in doing so, it generates more income for you. Now, as you can see, there's a lot of ways you can turn your channel into a money-making cash machine, but you gotta do them, okay? You gotta make a video, you gotta get it done. What I see most people do is they get all excited about all the money they're gonna make on YouTube. And they make 20 or 30 videos and they don't see big results and they quit. And that's such a shame because you never know when it's gonna hit. You never know when you're gonna start getting monetized. Now, to get monetized, you gotta have 4,000 hours of watch time in the previous 12 months and 1,000 subscribers. So that's not gonna happen overnight. But if you remain consistent and you keep doing videos and you do your best on these videos, you watch other people who have monetized channels and you emulate some of the things you do, you're gonna do really well. Don't try to copy anybody else's personality. Make sure it's your own personality. People love uniqueness and they don't like somebody who tries to act like somebody else. So just be yourself, whatever that is. The one thing I do hear a lot is how much do I make on these ads, JR? And I'm gonna explain it to you in a really rough terms but basically the more targeted your audience is towards a demographic, the better off you are. If you're doing finance videos and stock investing in real estate, that's gonna rank a whole lot higher than prank videos or entertainment or comedy videos because how could an advertiser target people watching comedy videos? They really couldn't do it. But if their stock brokerage firm and you talk about stocks, they can target that a lot more. So they're willing to pay a lot more for your channel. Now with that having been said, it could be anywhere from a dollar per thousand views on up to maybe $20 per thousand views. The average YouTuber right now is getting $7.60 per thousand views but understand that's across all different types of niches. I just checked mine and I'm at $13 and some change per thousand views which I'm pretty happy with that's up on the higher end. So my channel can make more money with less views but you have to select what you like to do because you don't wanna pick a niche that's not something you really wanna do. Now I wanna give you a bonus. If you look below there is a course down there it's a $97 course. You can get it absolutely free. All you have to do is click and learn and that's all you gotta do. I mean that's it. I was trying to think, there's nothing else you have to do. It's really simple. Click on that. There's no credit card required. Also don't forget, put a comment below. Ask me a question. Have you started a channel? I'd like to see it. What are you gonna do your videos on? I would love to see what you're working on. If you have questions about this or any subject about making money online put it in the comments below. If you like this video give me a thumbs up. Don't forget to comment. Like I said ring the bell. Turn on all bell notifications so that you can be notified every single time I do a new video. Thanks so much for watching this video and I'll see you in the next one. Hey thanks for watching my video. Don't forget to subscribe to my channel and click that little bell right here so you can be notified every time I do a new video. Also click on one of those videos there. Keep watching on my channel.


It doesn't do you any good to make insurance sales if you're just going to lose them all. We had a comment recently, one of our YouTube videos, about six ways to increase insurance customer retention. I want to talk through that. We have six different ways. You want to stay engaged and you want to write these down. Probably a couple things that you may not have heard before. I'm going to go through them. The first one that is pretty standard, you've probably heard this, is to send a thank you card immediately after you get back from making a sale. You add a client, you get back to the office and you write a thank you card to that client. I always try to reference, I'm going to add some ad lib and add some things with this. I always try to add something that was personal that I remember. One thing that's personal. Let's just say that they said, maybe they introduced you to their family.  Try to add something personal. Maybe if it was a hobby, hope your golf game goes well the rest of the year. I always try to think through, what's something personal that can help our relationship? That's why I like to ask those type of things. I also like to ask things about family, occupation, recreation, things that they care about. That's one way. That's a common way. It's pretty generic, pretty simple, but most insurance agents aren't doing it. Most of you watching right now are not doing this and you should be. It's something I always did because it is important. It's one thing to sell it, but we make money off of balance first year commissions, renewals, them buying more policies, them referring us to people. Retention actually ends up adding a lot of additional revenue to your business that you don't normally think about. That's the first thing. Second thing is a monthly newsletter. For those that have followed my channel for a while, you know that I used to mail out a monthly newsletter to every single one of my clients every single month. What I would do is I would always have a recipe, a chance to call in to win a gift card, maybe something about my family or my wife or getting a dog or a new house or whatever. I would reference a certain product, maybe long-term care or something different that they may not have. I always liked when I did a monthly newsletter to design it, have a theme for the month. Maybe it's February, maybe it's Valentine's related. I like to reference those things. That's something that not only they remember, I will still see clients that come into the office, they'll meet with my dad now instead of me. They'll reference a newsletter that I haven't sent out for five or six years that I used to send out all the time. That's one thing to always be top of mind because the point of doing this is if they're going to buy something insurance related, you want them to call you. If they've got a family that talks about it, you want them to refer you. Or if they're thinking about buying a new fridge or getting rid of their insurance policy, you want them to keep the insurance policy. This is some way to stay top of mind. A quick story that I always think about is with a monthly newsletter is I had a client that I would send that wasn't even actually a client of mine. It was an orphaned policyholder of the company. I had sent them so many newsletters, I just add them to my newsletter list even though I took over service in their account, didn't make any money off of it, and never actually sold them anything. I sent them a newsletter every month for a few years. They finally called me out of the blue. I remember his name was Roger and last name started with a B. He said, Cody, we need to buy some life insurance on my wife. You send us this newsletter every month. He's like, I don't know why, but you have been for a few years. I think because of how well you service your clients or non-clients, I think I should just do business with you. What do you think? I'm like, well, it paid off. I think you should. So that's another way to stay top of mind, whether it's clients or non-clients. If it's family and friends, add them to your monthly newsletter. Super important. This got me so much of a personal relationship and credibility with my clients, probably more than anything else I'm going to talk about. This was, it was time sensitive. It cost some money. Let's just say that you have 500 clients and maybe it costs you 250 bucks to actually send this out because maybe it's 50 cents a piece once you have paper envelope and postage. And then you got to have somebody do it. Most people don't have 500 clients, but even if you do, it's worth that small investment to stay top of mind and to keep a really solid relationship with your clients. The third thing that I want to touch on is a birthday card. But I'm going to put a spin on the birthday card that most people have probably never heard of. Right? I'm going to give you the $1 idea. I may have referenced this on a past video, but I've referenced it very little. So I'm going to reference it again. And that is, and this isn't my idea. You know, I can't say that every, every idea I've ever mentioned is original. And that, you know, I've probably heard it from somebody else. And I probably did with this one as well. And I heard from an agent one time that they sent out a birthday card to every, every one of their clients on their birthday and they would add a doll that they would write. Betty, you know, hope you have an amazing birthday. Back in 1942, it cost five cents for a can of Coke. It cost a little more today. However, have a Coke on me and they would have a birthday and they would leave a dollar in the card. You think about that. Yeah, maybe it cost you 500 bucks a year. Who cares? Right? Most people to send out a birthday card, it's always, it's always related to, you know, hey, thank you for your business with me. And they put a business card in it and they make it real business-y, right? Don't make it personal. Think outside the box. Be creative. Send a dollar, right? It's a, it's a, it's a freaking dollar. And that is one way that people will always remember and it's extremely creative. And I've always been impressed by that. I also know an agent that does annual calls to all of his clients. He has thousands of clients and he has, he has some service people that actually do this for him. He does it for an annual review potentially to set appointments to get people in his office. But typically it's just, hey, I'm going to, you could use it to do that. But he's typically does this like, hey, I want to check in. I want to check on you. How's everything going? And they end up getting so many additional lines of business and referrals that they never intend or rewrite. So they never intended on getting all because they did this. And by doing this and making these 3000 calls a year every May that they do this in Arkansas at this one agent's office, his name is Dan. And they get so much business out of that because they spend time doing that in every May like clockwork, they do this and it works and it pays off for them. Okay. So it'll pay off for you too. The fifth thing is, and I know some local agents that their names are Ty and Matt and they do a customer appreciation event every single year.  Maybe it cost them a couple grand to put it on. But they got so much additional, not only did they get additional business, but they got so much more additional loyalty because they're selling Medicare, but not only did they get business from new business referrals, cross selling, people wanting to buy annuities and life insurance and everything else, but they got, they engaged with their clients and their clients felt like they want to stay with them because very few people actually do this and it creates a bond, it creates loyalty with that client. Super important something you should definitely consider. And then the sixth thing that I wanted to add, and it's more relevant nowadays, it's probably not on most, it's probably not on most videos that people put out about customer attention. It's probably not on people's mind, but your brand matters.  But I would encourage you that if they have a Facebook, add them on Facebook and engage with them every once in a while. Them seeing your post and you seeing theirs is only going to help keep you top of mind and it's only going to help that bond and that loyalty and that engagement and it's important. If it's their birthday, also shoot them a video and Facebook messenger. Hey, Betty, hey, happy birthday. I've got a special gift coming out to you. Hope you're having an amazing day. Just wanted to let you know. Hope you have a great birthday and an awesome year. I'm here if you ever need me. Thank you so much. And just keep it simple. Who can't pull out their phone and do a video like that? So think about social engagement. It's important nowadays. Social, most of your clients are on Facebook. If you're not, you need to also be on Facebook and why not add them as a friend on Facebook as long as they're cool with it. I would bring it up at the end of an appointment or end of a call. I think that this is one thing that most people don't think about, but it can absolutely increase the engagement and continue to keep you relevant and in front of them. The only reason we do a good amount of business here is because we put out videos like this constantly and ads and Facebook and Instagram and everything else. And you see us a lot, which maybe creates a little more bond between you and I. And so I want you to think outside the box and think about these six things over the coming months and years to increase customer engagement. All right, let's play a little game. Prospect says, hey, I want to think about it. And you say, ah, you joke. I need more. The video is right there. I'm going to show you what to say and how to say it. Click on it. I'll see you there. Who loves when people say I want to think about it?  I'm not ready to make a decision.


you are more than welcome to disagree but if you're going to disagree at least answer the question first. In discussing the gift that God has given us there are different sides of the view which is fine. Problem is it seems a bit one-sided in our discussions and what I mean by that is that people want you to answer their question. What does this verse mean? What does that verse mean? And fine literally have covered every single verse that someone has thrown at me and we have covered it in even great detail and when I ask someone to answer these questions I never get a response. Am I going to go to the verses that I go to most often that will be John 10 28, John 10 5 or even or even Hebrews 13 won't go there but what I will do is reiterate a statement that I made in just a community post also even in a short video.  If you don't think so then my only question is what does it mean? So here when I ask one more time in for the love of Jesus in Jesus name would you please as a good godly Christian who is working their way to learn the scriptures fight for the scriptures contend for the faith to defend the faith all those things would you please answer this question. I have asked what does Jeremiah 32 and 39 and verse 40 means also easy kill 36 typically what I get is someone saying that it means something else and going to other scriptures tell me what this passage means and if you are even on the right track there could be an objection but the objection is quickly overcome so when we go to Jeremiah 32 39 first he says this is God speaking he says and I will give them one heart one way that they may fear me always for their own good and for the good of their children after them I will make an everlasting covenant with them that I will not turn away from them to do them good and I will put the fear of me in their hearts so that they will not turn away from me now it's pretty straightforward what he says notice again he says I will give them one heart and one way so what is God going to do God is going to work in their heart remember back in in Deuteronomy 10 he tells them to circumcise their heart they can't they will not so 30 he says in Deuteronomy 30 verse 6 he says that he will sometime in the future that God will circumcise their heart so he's speaking about this right now he says I will give them one heart tell me if you disagree if you disagree fine tell me what does this mean he says they make that they may fear me how long always always fear him for their own good for the good of their children he says I will make an everlasting covenant with them now so I'm going to say well yeah Cory the them is Israel fine we'll do we'll do that in just a second but he says that I will not turn away from them and also he says they will not turn away from me so a couple questions whoever the them is will God ever turn away from them the answer is no he says he will not to say otherwise is to either ignore the scriptures or just to lie or just to play ignorant he says I will never turn away from them nor will they turn away from him so whoever the them or they are they will not turn away from him either now some will say well yes Cory but the them and the they is Israel you are absolutely correct he is speaking about Israel my question is is Israel going to be the only ones that will not turn away from him so if you are a Jew who places their faith in Christ is it such that you are so special that God has caused it to where you will be the only group of Christians who cannot turn away but the Gentile Christians can does that make sense is that biblical no it's not and even the state that it's only going to be the Jews we're going to deal with that in a second now going to Ezekiel 36 what does this passage mean figure out what Jeremiah 32 9 39 and 40 means also what Ezekiel 36 25 we've covered before I will sprinkle clean water on you and you will be clean you will be clean I will cleanse you from all your filthiness moreover I will give you a new heart this whole issue of a heart I will put a new spirit within you and remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh here it is verse 27 and I will put my spirit within you so as he says in 32 just like he says in 2 around me I will put my spirit in you in your heart and look what he says cause you to walk in my statues what does this mean if you don't come away with him if you don't come away with the idea that God has stated that he will put his spirit in your heart and he will cause you to walk in his statues the question is then what does it mean that doesn't mean that he will cause you that he will make it so that you will walk that's literally what it says and to say otherwise would be to ignore that well what about these other scriptures will we cover these other scriptures answer the question ladies and gentlemen would you please if this is you answer the question what does verse 27 mean well Cory that only applies to Israel okay fine notice what he says and notice the elements I will put water and spirit I will sprinkle clean water on you so those two elements water and spirit show up well let's go to see if this just is only referring to Israel now it's going to refer to Israel without question Israel is going to have as a nation but at some point in time they are going to have the spirit of the Lord in their heart all of them not every single person that's a Jewish person now but at some point time he will cause the the nation of Israel to do just that because he's going to put their his spirit in their heart and they shall never depart from him they won't turn away from him and he won't turn away from them but the question is is he only going to do that for Israel oh by the way there are Jews now who are identified as the true Jews the true Jews of Israel who also have placed their faith in Christ people like Paul people like Peter those people who have been born again by the spirit who according to the scripture says they cannot turn away nor we each want to turn away from them but is it is it only the Jewish Christians who have placed their faith in Christ is it only the Jewish members of the church the church is made up of Jews and Gentiles all who have placed their faith in Christ only one segment of the church will have this ability or inability to turn away but the rest of us as Gentiles we can turn away does that make sense let's continue John 3 Jesus brings this whole issue of the heart being changed and he brings the same two elements water and spirit John 3 3 he says unless someone is born again he cannot enter the kingdom of God so the first thing has to happen for your salvation is you must be born again born from above and then notice what he says in verse 5 because Nicodemus is a bit confused thinking it means a second time but no Jesus is referring to be born from above born of the spirit he says truly truly I said less one is born of water and spirit which is what he said in Ezekiel 36 so unless one is born of water and spirit he cannot enter the kingdom of God and then he rephrases it so he says so he speaks about being born again then he says being born of water and spirit and in the third way he says it is to be born of spirit he says that which born of flesh is flesh that which is born of the spirit of spirit do not be marvel do not marvel or be amazed I said you must be born again and notice what he says the wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it but you do not know where it comes from so is everyone who is born of the spirit so Jesus speaking of people who are born again who are born of spirit and someone might be inclined because they just want to disagree say well he's just always he's speaking to a Jew which he is a Pharisee he's speaking of Israel however Jesus makes makes a statement also uh John I'm sorry John 1 12 says but as many as received him he gave the right uh he gave the right to become children of God even those who believe in his name so those who are believing in his toys uh piston piston those are that is the present active participle so those those plural folks who are constantly in a state of believing so those even those who are believing in his names who are these people he says who were born the same word that's used born here born not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man what were they born of they were born of God they were born of his will and the same word that's used for born from the Greek word uh Genomai if we go back to John 3 the same word born is from the same word look at the bottom this is the same word the Greek word genomai and so the same people who we speak up in John 3 who are born of the spirit that Ezekiel spoke about that Jeremiah spoke about that Deuteronomy spoke about Jesus says the Bible says in John 1 that those very same people all of those are us whoever has been born including and so this word going back to John 1 this word is all inclusive but as many this Greek word right here to the right this word hasoi so whoever it is all the ones that happen to have been born of the spirit God gave them the ability the power to be sons and children of God now how does this work well remember God has stated that he is going to cause Israel to be jealous in in doing so he's going to bring them back but how is it going to cause him to be jealous he's going to as as the Bible says in Deuteronomy 32 21 he says that they have made me jealous with with what is not of God and they've provoked provoked me to anger with idols so look what God says he's going to do I will make them jealous I will make them he's going to cause them to be jealous with those who are not a people I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation who is that that is a Gentile so what is going to do with the Gentiles the very same thing that he's going to do with the with the Jews eventually that is he's going to put his spirit in their heart how do we know that's the case so if we go to 1 Peter 1 3 notice what he says about us who are born again he says blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who according to his great mercy knows what he says he says he has caused us to be born again God is the one who caused he caused us you didn't do it so God caused us who's he referring to is he referring to just Jews no he's not he's referring to everyone who has been born again everyone who is part of the church now even to make this point even more so 1 John 5 he says whoever believes so not the word whoever's actually not there it says pasta pistol wine so all the believing ones all of those who are believing that's you and I whether you be Jew or Gentile all of those who are believing knows what he says they have been born giga nati which is the same Greek worth issues and being born again in in John 1 and John 3 is from the same word Genomai those who who have been born of God and who love the father love the children of God they love us that we love each other and notice what he says we go down on verse verse 4 he says so whatever and in the word is hattipan so all the ones that have been born of God they overcome the world we have this victory based on our faith now where the faith come from remember who caused us to be born again in the first place Peter says it's God Jesus says you have to be born of the spirit Ezekiel says that it is born from those who have been born because God puts his spirit in them and so going back to the original question you got to answer that question if a person can walk away can turn away and and Jeremiah has to be inclusive of not just what he's going to do with Israel but obviously what he's going to do with Gentiles alike if his spirit is in us doesn't he say in Jeremiah 32 39 and 40 that he will never turn away from us isn't that not what he says and is it also stating that we will never turn away from him if you disagree well then fine fine that's okay you can disagree but do it biblically don't go to 18 other different scriptures which by the way again we've all waited we've asked before we'll answer again but would you please just for intellectual honesty just for the sake of being a good brother sister answer the question see this is why Paul makes a statement in Philippians 1 6 he says for I am confident of this very thing what thing are you confident of Paul he says that he who's the he ladies in gentlemen that's God God who began he began a good work in you will perfect it this Greek word right here epitelec which is from the Greek word to perfect to complete to perform he will complete it perfect it until the day of Christ and I want you to focus on a word another word that I have underlined this word until this word acrid so if someone wants to tell you that he'll do so once you get to heaven once you make it to the eternal state nope that's not what it says until put back on the screen until the day of Christ so this is prior to you making it to that internal state so he will complete he'll perfect it so he'll keep you he'll keep completing you he'll keep working in you he will make it so even up to the day of Christ once you say once you're there then you're there and so it would be difficult for someone to say no by the way while you're answering questions answer that one why would Paul make the statement that he is confident that he will complete it who will complete the very one that began it and you began what the salvation so the very one that began this salvific work in you Paul says emphatically because he says I'm confident that he will complete it until the day of Christ to give you confidence again if you disagree let me put it back on the screen again chair of my 32 for 39 and 40 mainly 40 I will put an everlasting make an everlasting covenant with him and I will not turn away from them and they will not turn away from me what does that mean if you disagree zikio 36 verse 27 I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statue what does that mean I know you're going to say Israel tell me how the same thing doesn't apply to the church as well to the church believe that the Gentile believers because that's the case if it only applies to the Jewish believers well then God has a special class of people who will only be saved completely that makes no sense they can't turn away but we can so answer the question please I look forward to hearing your your your temper you're not going to be able to answer this question in any other way other than what it simply says so if you disagree that's fine but do so with the scriptures in other words answer the question please


Oh, I'll handle this. Give me a sec. One's underneath the site right here. There's two there, too. Boys just staring at the wall.