Aloha, and welcome to Business in Hawaii with Reg Baker. We broadcast live every Thursday at 2 o'clock from 2 to 2.30 in the downtown studios of Think Tech, Hawaii, and the Pioneer Plaza. Our show focuses on positive stories about business in Hawaii, and there are many of those. We've got one here today. This is Vanessa Perez, who is the CEO of a company called S3C2. Now that's a cryptic, and she's going to explain exactly what that means here shortly. But the bottom line is that she is an expert in the powers of LinkedIn. So we're going to be talking a little bit about that network and how best to use it. Vanessa, welcome to the show. Oh, thanks, Reg. It's so great to be here. I'm really honored. Thank you. It's going to be very interesting. LinkedIn has been in the news recently, and we'll touch base on that, I guess a little later. But first, let's talk a little bit about you. Now, I know you've got a little bit of an accent, so where are you from, and how long have you been in Hawaii? I do have a bit of an accent, Reg. You may have picked up, and your viewers may have picked up by now that I'm Australian. Australia, all right. I'm from a beautiful city called Sydney out in Australia, down under. And my journey to come to this beautiful magical island started a number of years ago when I met the love of my life, who's a United States Marine. Hi, darling. Bill. And we met on a joint exercise in Australia. I was serving with the Australian Defence Force. And I had served for 23 years, primarily as a reservist, but I also had some pretty big careers on the side as well. And I did six years active duty in 17 as a reserve. And the majority of my time with the Australian Defence Force was serving with the Special Operations Command, and specifically one Commando Regiment. So I've sort of been around, you know, the military for most of my life, actually. Well, I can't say that I've been around it most of my life, although Hawaii, it's hard to escape from it. It seems to be all over the place in Hawaii. Yeah. But I was a Navy diver, and I did some interesting things. I know. I'm very impressed, Reg. You know, over Vietnam. So we had some stories that we can share someday. But you came to Hawaii how long ago? So I moved here in 2008, and Bill and I had already been married for two years at that time. He was posted here as his last posting cycle before he retired. And, you know, we were trying to have a family, and it's pretty hard to do in two different countries. So I left the Army. I was serving full-time, and I left and packed up the house, and I moved over here with my suitcase and started our new life in this beautiful island. And, you know, I was here for 12 months. And it's such a magical place. And our darling son, Henry, was born here at Castle Hospital, actually, in Kailua. That was a photo of the day that Henry and Bill met, actually. Bill was serving in Afghanistan when Henry was born. And that was the day they met when Bill returned. Precious photo. So, yeah, so I came here for 12 months and I've been here for nearly eight years. Eight years, very good. Yeah, we love it. And so during the eight-year period, have you been focused on, you know, the benefits and the power of LinkedIn this whole time, or? Do you know, I've been on LinkedIn for about eight years. And initially, I wasn't as a fanatic as I am now. But I did, I have been on it. And it's really only in the last five years that I've really been very active on LinkedIn and really started to leverage it and discover the power of it. And that's primarily through my work of working with transitioning veterans.  Because I have a little bit of an interest there and there are so many veterans in town. Yes. What is it? How do you help them with the transition using LinkedIn? How does that work? I might go back a step and say that for two years, I actually worked as a transition trainer. So we actually call it TAPS or GPS in the military. Within the military? So I was contracted, actually. There's a program that's run by the Department of Labor and Department of Defense. And it's a mandatory three-day program that everybody in the military will go through before their transition. And it's designed to give them the tools and knowledge to posture for the current job market. That's so necessary. They didn't have that in my day, but it's so necessary to go through that. It really is, Reg. And, you know, pretty much every veteran, there's somewhere close to 350,000 a year that transition out. And they'll all go through this training. So it really sets them up to start thinking about interviewing skills and resumes. So I did that for a couple of years and found that this was my calling. This was my passion. I loved using my knowledge.  So to be able to pass on that knowledge through this training platform. And, you know, I just wanted to do more, which is why I started my business in 2014. And I just wanted to do more with the military community and beyond to help people posture for transition success. So you had this contract for two years. You helped everybody through this training program. But now that contract is over and now you're doing this freelance. Well, I personally wasn't contracting. I was I was a subcontractor, I suppose, to the company that is contracting. So I should get that clear. And and whilst I loved it, I really, I really wanted to do more. I wanted to do more and kind of bridge the gap between what veterans are learning and some of the newer things that they actually need in transition now. So I like to think that I'm preparing people for the current career marketplace. Well, and that's important because there are distinctions. And what's interesting, at least in my mind, is that, you know, some of the challenges come not only from the mindset of the people that are transitioning out, but also the mindset of the people that they're going to be working with. And so there needs to be this orientation or training for both groups. You know, because I think sometimes the expectations in the private sector aren't always in sync with the reality of the person coming in. And I love that word sync, Reg, actually, I'm I'm using that now and saying that I actually synchronize talent with opportunity globally. And LinkedIn is a key platform, a key tool to be able to do that. And and, you know, you asked how I came about getting into, you know, this fanaticism of LinkedIn. And it really is because one of the gaps that I wanted to bridge between delivering the taps training for the military and what they actually need. And LinkedIn was a was a key gap that needed to be bridged. So I started doing LinkedIn training, coaching, teaching people how to do their own LinkedIn profiles. And for really busy clients, I actually write them or ghost write them. And it's necessary because not everybody is comfortable writing and promoting about themselves. Oh, you're right, even the best writers. So it's good to have somebody do that for them. It really is good. You're right, Reg, you know, the best writers in the world often stumble, you know, over writing about themselves and even I do if I have to write a paragraph about my expertise or my background.  And really, that's one of the big things that I the gap that I wanted to bridge. Now, I think it's also important that this is a service you provide not only the military, but also in the private sector as well. And you can help any person at any level in an organization from junior all the way up to the most senior level. And I don't want to promote you too much. But this also reaches an audience much broader than just Hawaii. I mean, this is a national potentially international opportunity for people to go out and find something to do somewhere else, almost anywhere else. Right. LinkedIn is a is a platform that's global. It's international. And people may not realize that there are four hundred and forty five million professionals engaged on LinkedIn across the globe. It's growing really rapidly. In fact, it's growing faster than Facebook and Twitter combined. And two more people join every single second. You know, so people are starting to see the value and the power of it. And one of the things that I really would like people to start thinking about, you know, I just want to change that mindset a little bit about people for people and help them realize that it's it's not a I don't consider social media. I'd like to people I'd like people to start thinking about LinkedIn as being a professional networking platform, global professional networking platform. And once I start thinking about that, that this is the platform they need to be on to establish their professional credibility to engage with other professionals in their industry or other industries go globally, they can learn on LinkedIn, they can share knowledge, wisdom and insight, they can become an industry thought leader. So it's more than it's a platform that allows you to do more than just find a job. I mean, there's five million jobs on it, but it allows you to do much more than that as a business owner, as somebody who's looking to hire or acquire talent, find it, acquire it. And for people that want to learn, I know we're going to drill down into the details of that a little bit more in the second half of the show. So we can talk about some of the more deeper concepts of what you just mentioned. And it's a very powerful tool and I use different parts of it at different times. You're good on it, Reg. Reg is very good on LinkedIn, you know, thousands, tens of thousands of connections, which is fantastic. You're using it well. To your point about the social media distinction, you know, I mean, I'm also active on Facebook and on Twitter and Google Plus and some other things. And there are certain posts that are acceptable in a Facebook environment. But I've seen people try to put similar type posts on LinkedIn. And they can do that. They can. But they get slammed or people like me, you know, and it's always interesting to see how quickly people are to remind others that this is not Facebook. This is not Twitter. This is LinkedIn. And they have different standards. I don't want to say higher standards, but they have different standards. It's a professional network organization that people go to. In some respects, they get work done. Right. And they don't want to have to deal with some of the silly little pet things and this and that, other stuff that's maybe popping up. It's of interest on Facebook, but it's certainly not of interest to LinkedIn people. And it's a great example to differentiate there. So I consider Facebook social media and it's a great platform to stay connected with friends and family across the globe and be a little bit more social. And you can share information there about what's your favorite meal for lunch and your favorite new bag that you've just bought and what your puppy did that day. That's right. That's right. But it's not for LinkedIn audiences. And you're right, like I'm one of the people that actually say, hey, can you get that back on Facebook? That's not really appropriate for this platform. And in fairness to the Facebook a little bit is that they also they do have business pages that are available that do promote businesses and they do a good job at that and you can put ads on it.  Just, you know, to be to have that credibility and looking to establish you have to be careful in what you post there. And it's, you know, people can start thinking about it is, you know, if you go for a job, for instance, it's really not within the scope of works for people to question you about your family or, you know, anything personal and social. So just think about that. I mean, if you're not able to be questioned about it in a job interview, don't necessarily share it here. People want to know about you, your professional credibility, what your career story is. They want to know that your network have validated that expertise. Well, and how long does that stay on LinkedIn? When you post something on LinkedIn, how long does it stay there? Well, I think whatever you post on the Internet stays on the Internet somewhere. And forever. Well, right, forever. And that's the point I was trying to make, is that, you know, you may be using LinkedIn for in a professional environment, but all of a sudden you get excited about something, you put something on there that maybe is more appropriate on Facebook. It's going to be there and people will see it. And I use LinkedIn, if people ask from my resume or my experience or what have I done, I almost always tell them to go to LinkedIn. And it's all right there in chronological order. I even have links on my website that will take you there. So it all works together. And I want to make sure that what's there, I'm not going to be embarrassed with. Right. And I like to say to people, when you get searched, when people search you, do you like what they see? And LinkedIn is the perfect platform for you to be able to establish your professional online reputation, brand and your credibility. And if you're not proud of what's there, then ramp it up, change it, improve it, enhance it. People think LinkedIn is a platform that they consider at a online resume or the place that you need to be on if you're looking for a job. But it's much more than that, as we'll discover a bit later. But I want people to start thinking about developing their online portfolio on LinkedIn. Start thinking about telling their full career story. And there are ways to post articles and get all kinds of information on there, particularly if you've been published before to put that on there. But let's we've got to take a quick break. Oh, OK. We're going to come back in about 60 seconds and we're going to drive down into the details a little bit more about how to make LinkedIn work for you and whatever needs those might be. This is business in Hawaii with Reg Baker. We're going to be going on a quick 60 second break and we'll be right back to talk some more with Vanessa Perez about the powers of LinkedIn. Aloha, I'm Carl Campania. I hope you please visit us this summer. It's a wonderful summer. It's actually a cooler summer than we're used to. But I hope that you come back and visit us and watch our show Education Movers, Shakers and Reformers here on Think Tech Hawaii. It's at noon every Wednesday. See you then. Aloha, we invite you to join us on our Keys to Success show, which is live on the Think Tech live streaming network series weekly on Thursdays at 11 a.m. My name is Danilia D-A-N-E-L-I-A. And I'm the other half of the duo, John Newman. Our goal for Keys to Success is to provide a platform for professional and personal development tools and profound insights on how to achieve success in life, career and or business. We have incredible guests from all walks of life, including politicians, successful business owners, leaders, entrepreneurs and authors. As this is a live show, there are live mess ups as well, which are fun to watch. Aloha, and we'll see you on Thursday. Aloha and welcome back to Business in Hawaii with Reg Baker. Today we are talking about talking with Vanessa Perez about the power of LinkedIn and LinkedIn can be useful in a lot of different ways. And we're going to talk about, number one, what those ways are and number two, how to make that work for you. So Vanessa, other than finding employment, what else can LinkedIn do for us? Oh, LinkedIn is like, I like to call it the opportunity giant. So, you know, the goal of LinkedIn is to connect talent with opportunity at massive scale. So people don't realize that they actually can do business on LinkedIn. It's beyond, you know, maybe when it was created, it was almost like an online resume platform. And people used to call it the Facebook for Chief Executives. Now, it's way beyond that. If you're a job seeker looking to be, you know, competitive in the current job career market, you should be on LinkedIn. There's no doubt about it. You need to be on LinkedIn. There are five million jobs on there. You have the ability to present your career expertise in ways that far exceed what you could ever do on one or two pieces of paper with a resume. And there's there's isn't there a video possibilities on there as well? I mean, you can do almost anything on LinkedIn. Absolutely. And I know that you've done a video introduction, Reg, for your business and what your professional expertise is. So I really would like to see more people thinking about leveraging the features, the multimedia features on LinkedIn. So you can include video. You can include images. You can include websites. You can upload documents for publications or articles that you've written. And you can actually use it as a publishing platform. And in fact, I think LinkedIn, you know, is is is exceeding some of the newspapers, really, with the amount of publishing that's happening. So I said earlier that there's four hundred and forty five million professionals engaged on it. Every single one have the opportunity to create their own original long form content and publish it. So it's kind of like having a blog. But I'd be encouraging people that when they have a niche field of expertise to actually start documenting that and sharing it with their network so that others can learn from them, share insights and knowledge and wisdom. And your network really value it. Can LinkedIn be used in a form of like a blog? Because I mean, a lot of people have blogs, right? But there's nothing that would be wrong with taking some of those blog posts that they do and just put it on to LinkedIn as well. Absolutely. You're right. I'm working with a client at the moment that's had so many blogs published on other platforms and her website. We're just moving them now over onto LinkedIn so that the net and network get the value of her expertise. And, you know, I work a lot with transitioning military. So some of the posts that I write are to prepare people for transition. And it's great when people say, thanks, I really got a lot out of that. I learned something. Thanks for sharing that. So there's really great positive influence that you can have. And that leads to, I guess, a service that I utilize, you know, and I help a lot of different companies along the small, mid-sized business market and their owners. And sometimes questions come up that I just want to get feedback on what the options are. I maybe have a feel for what my answer is going to be, but I want to know what other options are out there. And so I belong to different groups and I can post a question depending upon the nature of the question into the different groups. And I can get a lot of feedback from people across the country. Yeah. On the question I might have. It's really valuable. I'm not quite sure how many groups they've got, but I got a bit of a feeling. It might be something like four million or something. There's a bunch. There's a lot. So you can really find a group that can provide guidance and advice and knowledge based on what you want to learn. And if you search veteran groups, for instance, I think there are about two and a half thousand of them alone. And the Veteran Mentor Network is a fantastic one for veterans to be part of. And, you know, I see messages from veterans that go, I've sent out 100 resumes and I'm not getting an interview. Can you help? And I'll often send a message, you go, send me a resume and I'll run my eye over it. By the time they do, they've had three job offers.  Well, and even for people that are not maybe professionals in those areas, if I get a lot of questions about naturally about taxes or about estate planning or wealth management, and so I belong to those groups. And we can talk a little bit about what are the, you know, what's the rules in estate planning? You know, can I set up a trust and do this? Can I do that? And they have groups that answer all these questions for you. And it's and you're getting some very talented people. Yes. Engaged in a discussion with you on these issues. I I when I get some time, I like to actually follow some things on there and engage with veterans and offer them tips or people who are after career advice. And I love it. I like to be able to give back that way and people get value from it. It's a great way to learn. So it's a place for employees to go and hopefully look for a job. And they can get so specific, they could say, I want a job in New York. And so they can focus their efforts into a particular location. It's also an area that you can post questions and get answers and get some advice and consultation. But it's also a place that I think employers can go to find qualified people. It's the platform for talent sourcing. I like to say you can find, target and acquire talent. And if I might, I might talk about a specific scenario where I'm working or coaching a veteran at the moment who's in transition. And I coached him to what I call strategically optimizes profile. So it's about using the right words, the right fields, the right number of times. He now in searches for his field of expertise is number one out of 89 million. He's been able to leverage that to engage with decision makers and organisations in Colorado where he wants to retire to. And he's recently six months away from retiring. He's just flown over to Colorado to meet a handful of people that want to hire him. He's been found for his expertise. So it allows you to it's a platform that allows people, whether you're a HR professional, a hiring professional, a placement firm or just somebody running a small business looking for the best talent on the planet. That's a good point. I'm glad you mentioned that because it's not just the employers. It's also some of the search firms that are out there looking for people. I'm doing some talent scouting at the moment for a few small businesses. And, you know, they come to me and they go, we're looking for this niche expertise and I can't give me four minutes. I want to say give me three days. But it actually really only takes minutes to find the talent. And then it's the engaging and you charge by the minute. Should $1,000 a minute. It's so easy to find the people. It's LinkedIn allows you to create the relationships with people, right? You know, it's about engaging, building, trusting relationships. You know, and that's what business is all about in general. And people say you can't do that unless you're face to face. You know, things are transitioning. It's a little different today than it was 20 or 30 years ago. May I tell you I have met some of the finest mentors on the planet through LinkedIn. Hello, Dr. Story Musgrave is an astronaut who's been out of space seven times and fixed the huddle telescope. We remember that some younger viewers may not remember it. He's the most amazing man on the planet. And I've connected. I was introduced to him through another friend on LinkedIn. And he's such a generous mentor and I can send him a message and he'll be in contact within 10 minutes. See, and that's something that you wouldn't be able to do without having the digital world supporting it. Who'd think that you'd ever be able to connect with somebody such a global influencer and amazing person on the planet? And LinkedIn's allowed me to connect with many, many people like that across the globe. OK, so we've got all this power. What else can can LinkedIn do? I mean, it can help build a brand.  So creating a professional brand is really important on LinkedIn and then being able to grow your networks and, you know, engage with people. But you've got to have content there. You know, it's important to have a photo that lets people know who you are. I like to say head and shoulders, make sure you're smiling. And it's not the platform for the family portrait or the selfie. It's the platform for having a professional headshot. And we want to see eyes and we want to see a smile. We want to know that we can trust you. So the photo is important. And then from there, the content that you write, tell us your career story, use images to back it up and validate it. If you've project managed a building, show us a photo of that when it was finished or the stages of it. If you fly an F-18 jet, give us a photo of it so that we know what it looks like. And then whatever that brand is, you want to communicate with your audience. You need to be putting it on there and showing everybody that this is my brand. This is who I am. Yes, it's really important and the content. And people overlook the importance of the skills and the endorsements on LinkedIn. And that's a way for you to define your expertise in line with your brand or what you're branding and marketing yourself for. And it allows your network to endorse you. And that's validation. That's people within your profession, usually, usually people who know you and have worked with you, endorsing and vouching that you have that skill set. Well, in my case, I have to be a little bit careful because I want to make sure that the people who do endorse me and a lot of them put commentary on their little testimonial. But I want to make sure it's credible and it's real. And occasionally I'll get somebody who I've never worked with and I don't really know them. And so they put something on there. And I'm just not comfortable, so I won't show that on there. And it's great. You have the ability to manage what people see on your profile or your portfolio. And recommendations are really fantastic. And I'd like to encourage people to actually seek recommendations and give them to other people that they've worked with who've done a great job. But that's part of validating. You have the choice to send it back and ask for changes. And you have the choice to display it or not. And then you have the choice to reorder them so that if you've had a great one two years ago and you want it up now, you can move it. Now, we're in our last probably 30 or 40 seconds of if Zuri is kind to me. And I wanted to just get your take on the acquisition that Microsoft just bought LinkedIn. Yes. Is that a good thing? How exciting is it, Reg? Like, I think it was the first of June. So it's a recent acquisition that the Tech Titan, you know, bought LinkedIn for $26.2 billion. I think it was the most expensive technology acquisition that we've ever heard of. So it's exciting. And it means that, well, I suppose we'll see how that evolves soon. But it's exciting to see that the global owners of the cloud are merging with the global owners of the network. And we're going to see some magic happen. Oh, the collaboration, the certainties. Isn't it exciting? That's going to take off now that you've got two of the powerhouses combining forces and having that integrated with Skype and all those other opportunities. It's going to be exciting. Linda.com as well. And I know one of the assets that LinkedIn had to offer was Linda.com, which is a learning platform. I mean, when you get your veteran free premium upgrade, you get access to Linda for free, which is video learning. Veterans get a free upgrade? Oh, veterans can get a free upgrade. Send me a message and I'll let you know how to get it. We got to wrap up. Oh, great. It's been fun. And I'm sorry we have so much more to talk about, but we've run out of time. Thank you. This is Business in Hawaii with Reg Baker. We broadcast live every Thursday at two o'clock. Looking forward to having you back again. See you next week. Aloha.


Today I'm going to tell you about a new resource that I've added to my full-time RV life, Camping Arsenal. It's called Hip Camp and I'm going to show you how it works and two recent trips I took using it. Happy Sunday birdwatchers! It's Robin with Creativity RV and if you follow my channel you know that I travel full-time in my RV and usually I like to boondock and sometimes I stay in campgrounds and sometimes I use harvest host because when you are on the road full-time you really need to have a lot of resources and a lot of backup resources to be on the road all year long and to my arsenal I've added Hip Camp. If you haven't heard of Hip Camp to me it's like Airbnb for RVers. Basically anybody that owns land can be a host and invite tent campers or RVers to come and stay on their property. Sometimes that's dry camping or boondocking, sometimes they have more amenities and hookups and sometimes on Hip Camp you'll find people that also have cabins or yurts to rent. I'm going to show you two trips that I recently took using Hip Camp and then I'm going to tell you all about how it works and how much it costs. You guys know that I took a break last fall after I got COVID and I was a little bit run down. You might wonder where I went during that time while I was in Colorado and I just did not have the energy to hook up and unhook and find places and didn't want to stay in an RV park. So I looked at Hip Camp and on Hip Camp I found this big wide open piece of land really close to where I already was. It was like five miles away.  There was no house there. There was no people there just the way I like it. It was just a person's land who rented it to me basically for $15 a night. What is it big boy? There's some big ones. Yep. You can see here that most of the time I was surrounded by cows which the big boy loved. He looked out the window all day and we just enjoyed the sunsets. With Hip Camp a lot of the hosts let you invite other people to come stay with you so I did that. I had a couple of other friends come and stay with me for a few days while they were coming through my area but it was easy. I went onto the Hip Camp site or the Hip Camp app and I instantly booked this. I just went into the calendar said that I wanted to stay for three weeks basically. I think it was 20 days that I stayed there and I was able to recuperate without having to move and recently I was traveling with some friends through Texas. I'm going to show you all of this really soon but we really wanted to hit Marfa, Texas and we were really having problems finding places to camp there. So we jumped on the Hip Camp app and we found that there was an RV kind of hotel there in Marfa called El Cosmico which is so cool. Now they are not an RV park.  They have these old vintage RVs and tiny houses and yachts that are so cool and you can stay there and a lot of people do that for music events and just visiting the place in the summer. That is now what we did through Hip Camp. El Cosmico let Hip Campers stay in their ginormous parking lot for $20 a night. So I think we stayed there two or three nights. There was a group of us and we were able to go and see Marfa, Texas which is a must-see if you haven't been there and really enjoy the area. Besides that, you know, we were looking on free camping apps and it was like well you can go and stay behind this grocery store and I've been pretty lucky and I didn't get the knock on my door and that's what our options were there if we didn't have Hip Camp. That was the first time I realized that Hip Camp lets business owners also let RVers stay on their property almost like a harvest host which is very cool. So in terms of the cost, these trips were pretty cheap. When you're used to boondocking, I know a lot of people that boondock don't like to pay anything for camping, the $15 or $20 a night for a secure spot that's on your route is pretty good but when you go into the Hip Camp site, you're going to see a wide range of costs. I've seen things as low as $5 which is not common and I mean I've seen things in the hundreds because they're offering like luxury accommodations not camping for RVers. Mostly for RVers, I'm finding it's somewhere between $15 and $35 a night depending on the amenities. Take this one for example. This looks like a great spot. It's only $15 a night because it's boondocking. Then take a look at this spot which is an alpaca farm. They let RVers come and stay there. That one is $45 a night I think but that's because it has electric showers, water, and trash so you're paying for what you get. Now if you go into the Hip Camp site, it's really easy to search for places to go. You just put in where you're going and you're going to see so many great places just come up and come up and come up and come up and these amazing pictures and lots of reviews from other users and not only does Hip Camp show you the hosts on private land that they have, they also show you nearby camping like in state parks and national parks and just regular camp grounds and you can't book those through Hip Camp but they tell you about them and then they have a link so you can navigate over to recreation.gov or now a lot of you might be wondering what's in it for the hosts or if you have land you might be wondering if you can use it and I tell you sometimes I think about getting a little plot of land for myself to stay on more frequently but really I think about getting a plot of land now so that I can hip camp it because when you look at some of the reservations if you're in a good area these people are booked and some of them have five, ten campers on their property if they have like 20 acres or something right and they get to keep 90% of the booking fee. Hip Camp takes 10% to pay for the platform and they also have insurance for the hosts liability insurance and there is a credit card processing fee of 3% I believe for the transaction but that is really, really good. I mean it's so easy for hosts to go in and sign up they have to be verified and then they load up some pictures and that's it they can be a host and really quick as a bonus I'm going to tell you guys about a really cool gig for photographers through Hip Camp and you might know that I wrote a book called Work from Home While You Roam the ultimate guide to jobs that can be done from anywhere you can find it on Amazon and there is a whole chapter in there for artists you know writers photography fine artists musicians all that kind of stuff and I almost put this in the book but it was just a little bit too finite it wasn't broad enough for me to put in the book itself but if you are an RVer and you are a photographer Hip Camp now will pay you to go to certain sites take pictures and camp for free so you have to apply you have to show them a portfolio of your work they're looking for high quality actual photographers but I know a lot of you out there may not call yourself a professional photographer but I've seen your images and they're very cool look at this list of sites that you can go and camp for free and then get paid 75 to 100 bucks to take like 15 or 20 pictures and then load them up because Hip Camp really wants people to have a good experience when they search for the sites so I'll put the link for Hip Camp down below and also for the photography gig now I'm not an affiliate of Hip Camp so I can't offer you any killer discounts but I'm going to put a link down below that gives you 10 bucks off as if you were my friend which you are so you can use that and get 10 bucks off on your first trip and try it out I have it now with everything else that I use and I could always go to a truck stop or a Walmart or a rest area but a lot of the time I prefer Hip Camp I hope that you guys have found this video helpful if you have please give it a thumbs up tell your friends about it and subscribe I'll see you guys next week until then have happy travels and be free


CPST is a big service, it's new, so we've got lots of people who've come from a variety of backgrounds been recruited through the pandemic, some who've got quite a long career already and adult social care, some are very new. I think one of the things that people really like with the service is it's an area of work where you can really make a difference to people who are vulnerable so you can see that in ranging the caring support for people you're helping them have better outcomes in their life so it really is quite a rewarding area of work. It's quite fast-paced and it can be quite challenging at times, it's quite high-pressured but it's also very varied. We've worked really hard with the team set up in the middle of the pandemic when we were working virtually as much as possible so we've really employed quite creative ways in terms of building that team and supporting the team to stay in touch with each other and support each other through things like WhatsApp chats and things like that. The team works really flexibly, we are now moving back into the offices so we're hoping to have a hybrid way of working so we can have that benefit of both being in the office seeing your colleagues face-to-face and learning from them directly as well as some of the flexibilities around working from home that we now are quite used to as well. In terms of development we really like to support our teams to learn a number of new skills or if they bring skills with them already to help share them with their team and really make sure we are working in a good quality way with the customers we work for. You may have opportunities to learn about different customer groups and the kind of care and support needs that they may have and how we can support people in creative ways about maintaining their independence or reabling them to be more independent than future. We also have opportunities for you to learn about skills such as negotiation skills, kind of procuring services and that type of thing as well so if you've got a more interest in a kind of commercial way of working then that offers that as well. So it's quite a wide and varied role and we will support people to develop all of those different skills that they need and also there's lots of shared learning within the team so we've got people from various different backgrounds and they all bring some of those different areas of skills with them that they will share with their colleagues. So in terms of career opportunities, CPST is a really good place to start if you're looking at further career within adult social care. So some people have gone into CPST in terms of the broker roles and then management and then they've gone into working in further roles in our contracts and commissionings team and then on beyond that. And other workers we have have been more interested in the kind of the social work and the social work practice side of things and have gone on to workers and assistant care manager and then gone on to do their social work training. We do offer apprenticeships within Wassers It's County Council both in social work and in other areas as well so we have a really good opportunity for career progression within our service.


فشرف بي لشتغالي بالعلم ولا تبغي به ما عشت يا بدا بدا وياله من شراف عظيم الحمد لله رب العالمين له الحمد الحسن والثناء الجميل واشدوا الله إلا الله وحده لا شريك له يقول الحق وهو يهدي السبيل وأشدوا أن سيدنا ونبينا محمد صلى الله عليه وعلى آله وأصحابه والتابعين لهم بإحسان إلى يوم الدين أما بعد وفي كتاب عظيم العلم رتن by الشيخ صالح ابن عبدالله ابن ححمد العصيم نحن في مرحبا المصنف وفقه الله وإن العلم طريقة من أخطاها ضل ولم ينلد وقصود ربما أصابت ثلاثة قليلة مع التعب كثير المقعد الخامس سلوك الجادة الموصلة إليه سلوك يعني أن تتعرف الجادة يعني وصطو الطريق وجادة يعني مرحبا في مرحبا مرحبا يسمى الجادة الموصلة إليه سيجد أن تحصل تحصل هنا هو معنوي ليس حسي لأن المرحب Sometimes it can be a path which is an actual path that you know that you can touch that you can see and sometimes the path is معنوي looking knowledge is a path but it's not a path that you can touch Дen ي الآخر بالعَز system يُسيل إليه every path全部你 are trying to attain everything you are trying to attain everything you are trying to receive and gain it has a path that will allow you to reach it when you come into this message there was a path that will allow you to come to this place the same is when it comes to attaining knowledge there is a particular path for it فمن سلك جاد that مطلوبه أو قفته عليه and anyone who takes the path the middle path جاد that مطلوبه he takes the middle path of the thing that he is trying to attain أو قفته عليه أو قفته عليه means it allows him to reach it ومن عدل عنها and anyone who diverts from it and turns away from it لم يضفر بمطلوبه he will not attain what he is trying to look for he is not going to gain what he wants to receive وإن للعلم الطريقة knowledge has a path من أخبأ anyone who does a mistake in it in that path بل ولم ين للمقصودة that person becomes misguided ولم ين للمقصودة and he will not attain his objective his goal وربما and maybe there is a possibility أصاب فائدة قليلة the case may even be that he attains small benefit فائدة قليلة little benefit مع تعبين كثيرا with a lot of tiredness one will not even attain anything and he is going to get lost and confused another one of the other and he does attain something he attained something very little but the tiredness and the fatigue that he receives and indoors is so high and so great in comparison to the benefit that he is taking so he is really getting little benefit there is a lot of hardship that is put in him and why is the case for this is because the person hasn't taken the path for knowledge there is a طريقة knowledge has a path if you don't take that path for knowledge you will get tired you will wear out and you will never attain what you are looking for or you will attain it and if you do attain it you will attain something very small and you are tired 4 years of your life you went and you seek knowledge you come back as they say رجع بخصي حرنين you come back with nothing or you come back with little benefit for the 4 years of hardship that you put in for the tiredness the sleepiness nights that you endured you really only attain little from it but when the person takes the correct path the correct methodology for knowledge he attains a lot of benefit in a very short period of time and all of that is based upon what brothers the sheikh is going to mention them exactly what the path is and what is it that is going to allow you to be a strong student of knowledge so this is a very frequent question that people ask right I want to be a student of knowledge this is the answer now the author he brings a statement of a زرنوجي زرنوجي we mentioned him the other day he's a book he's got a book in etiquettes of seeking knowledge in which he talks about manners that are needed by a student of knowledge and I said that he is the student of المرغييناني المرغييناني is the author of the كتابة الهداية in which the أحناف the حنفي the حناف the حنفي it's a book that they have become amazed and mind-buggled with كتابة الهداية and as I said over 70 different explanations it's the book زي العي in its كتابة الهداية he's the student of المرغييناني زرنوجي is a student of المرغييناني and his كتاب used to be the most frequently well-taught book still is around the world some places it's very well-taught it's a book it's a book it's a book it's a book it's a book it's a book it's a book it's a book it's a book it's a book it's a book it's a book it's very well-taught but this كتاب has some things in it that are big stream when it comes to seeking knowledge and etiquettes I remember hearing a sheikh of mine who said that there was an individual who studied the كتاب تعليم المتعلم he took this book on board he studied the etiquettes and when he took the etiquettes of this book he started to implement everything he learned from it so one day he saw kids playing football and he stood there as though he was caught by magnet still moved from his position so they asked him what happened to you why are you standing here like this and he responded by saying the teacher that teaches me his son is playing football out of respect for the teacher I'm standing here not wanting to walk away from his son and I go to extreme another one said I've never ever spread my legs towards the direction of my teacher's house so people can't take the etiquettes extreme and this book does talk about things that are a bit extreme unnecessary that isn't what the شريعة commands from you but it's a kitab that has a lot of benefits in it has a lot of a lot of benefits in it it's called in the book of his he said وكل من أخبأ طريق ضلأ half a statement every person who does a mistake in a path he doesn't try the correct path and he falls on the wrong path ضلأ he becomes misguided ولا ينال المقصودة and he will not attain his objective قلأ وجلأ whether it's little or whether it's a lot you as an individual are not going to attain what you are not going to attain your objective what you came out for the reason is because you're taking the wrong path and as you all know the poet said ترجن جاة ولم تسلك مسالكها إن السفينة لا تجلي على اليبس you are hoping for success and you have not tread on it's path وانما يجب أن يتكلم يجب أن يتكلم يجب أن يتكلم يجب أن يتكلم يجب أن يتكلم على the sea it's far you would have to go around the land but if it cuts through the land the duration is fast as he believes so he takes the boat and he drags it on the land can he sail on the land it's because he believes that he can see a shortcut إن السفينة لا تجلي على اليبس sorry there's a path for this there's no shortcut this is how it goes so if you're looking for success it has a path if you don't take its path you're not going to attain success you're not going to attain the objective that you're looking for and this is one of the biggest problems that many people endure which is lack of منهجية are you going to speak about that the methodology of studying and memorizing is incorrect do you see a person who can memorizing something totally wrong and the reason is because the methodology is wrong the path is wrong so this person is getting confused now ننتظر من طاية مشهيه في قتال القوات اللهد الطريب وآفاتها والقصود يوجب التعب الكثير مع الفاديدة القليلة وقد لقوها طريقة قليلا من جابي عند نعن محمد ممتبا ابن محمد السبي سبيل صاحب تاجن عروس في مجومة النهر تسلم أفليه لسنة يقول فيها أحاول غاية في ألف سنة شخصاً أقل من كل فن أحسنة بحوضي مثل جامع الرباجحي تفضه على مفيد الناسهي وطريق العلم ونالته مبنية على أم مين الأوثر رحمه الله ابن القييم العلمة ابن القييم الجوزية في كتاب الفوائد وهي كتاب كتاب كتاب كتاب الفوائد ابن القييم الجهل بالطريق اغنرنس من الطريق الجهل بالطريق المجموع لا يعرف الطريق المجموع المجموع هو اغنرنس المجموع القييمة ابن القييم هو وآفاتها أي وجهل بآفاتها اغنرنس اغنرنس المجموع لا يعرف المجموع الذي ستذهب هو الثاني الجهل بالمقصود أي وجهل بالمقصود اغنرنس المقصد المجموع ما هو المجموع المجموع المجموع يردون سبحانه وتعالى يرفع والذين أوتوا العلمة درجات هؤلاء المجموع الجهل بالطريق المجموع الجهل بالآفات المجموع المجموع المقصود المجموع لماذا ترون العلمة هؤلاء يبن القيم يقول يتعب الكثير الكثير يبقى كثير مع الفائدة القديلة مع المقصود مع هؤلاء هؤلاء يبقى المقصود ويبقى المقصود المقصود يتعب الكثير يقول now he is going to go back to the first what ibn muitoa mentioned in the minimalist though how many things in the universal of how many things this chapter he talks about which one of the three the first one only so the author goes back to the first one و ليس مرتبط على المثادولوجية التي قلت و قلت لك لهذا الطريقة هذه الطريقة كانت تكلمت بلافظ جامع المانع كانت تكلمت بشكل كامل بها محمد مرتضا ابن محمد الزبيدي محمد مرتضا الزبيدي كانت تكلمت بلافظ جامع المانع هذا الطريقة تعرف بلافظ جامع المانع وهي جامع المانع جامع المانع هو أمام التاج العروس هو أمام التاج العروس هذا أنقذ كامل المانع هو أمام التاج العروس هو أمام التاج العروس انه لا يقول هذا المكتب فيه في عتاج تاج العروس انه هو أمام تاج العروس وهناك محمد مرتضا إبلم محمد الزبيدي في منظومة الله يقول في مظوبة منه رقمات منه يسمى ألفية السند ماذا يقول؟ ألفية السند يقول فيها what he says in it فما حوالغاية في ألف سنة شخص الفخذ من كل فن أحسنة يقول أنه لا يوجد أحد يستطيع أن يساعد هذه المنطقة في تحاول المعرفة even in a thousand years المعرفة is too big أنت لا تستطيع أن تأخذ it أنت لا تستطيع أن تأخذ نهاية المعرفة even in a thousand years it's too big ماذا يفعل؟ فخذ من كل فن أحسنة تأخذ من كل فن the best of it أنت لن تأخذ نحو أنت لن تأخذ نحو لن تأخذ كل فن because it's always more to learn than what you already know ماذا يفعل؟ فخذ من كل فن أحسنة تأخذ من كل فن the best portion of it as much as you can how can I do that now this is the طريقة right this is the طريقة and the methodology in which I can the author is going to mention he's going to mention for you two parts or the poet is going to mention for you two parts بحفظ المتن الجامع تأخذه على مفيد الناصح by memorizing a a metin a metin is like this book like الورقات like ثلاثة الأصول they're called متون متون is plural metin is when it's singular it means anything that's not poetry books that are not poetry are called metin originally the word metin in the Arabic language it came from a a ضهر الدب the back of the the riding beast كتاب just means book anything is a kitab but ورعان is a kitab but the metin is more like anything that's not poetry there's no poetry and it's a book that's studied like this okay so the metin is the wording of the author شرح is the explanation نظم is the lines of poetry if the book is turned into a poetry it's called نظم منظومة so you memorize بحفظ المتن you memorize a metin this metin جامع اللي الراجحي this metin it's very comprehensive it's جامع it's a very comprehensive metin is that it? no that's one the second thing is تخذوه على مفيد الناصخي and you take it to a person who is who is ناصح a sincere advisor a person who will sincerely teach it a person who's clean hearted not only that he has أهلية he has the rights to talk about these topics you take it to a person who knows the science and you say teach me this science do you know it? yes can you teach me it? yes you take it from that person so two things he mentions for you the methodology of seeking knowledge بحفظ المتن جامع اللي الراجحي تخذوه على مفيد الناصحي is that you memorize you memorize a book and the author is going to speak about that I'm not going to go into too much details because a lot of people are confused in what to memorize and how to memorize it the second thing is take it to a person who is learned, who's skilled who knows this who can unlock the treasures and the secrets that are in this book you might memorize it and not know it نعم the author then says علم وجادته مبليجة العبارين إذن we learned from this line of poetry what did we learn? we learned that the path of knowledge وجادته جادة as we said in the Arabic language they use it for one or two meanings one I said is وصط الطريق the middle path and some said it's the straight path سواء السبيل the path which is straight that's what the Arabs they say من سلك الجدد أمين العثارة من سلك الجدد أمين العثارة the Arabs they say نعم now the author is telling you that seeking knowledge and attaining knowledge is how many ways فملحة والغاية في ألف السنة شخص فخذ من كل فنن أحسنة بخفض متن جامع للراجح as to first one تأخذه على مفيد الناس صحي it's the second which is by memorizing a book and taking it to a person who has أهلية so the author is going to set you فطريق العلم the path of knowledge and that's what the dead do and it's correct the straight path is مبنيية is built upon على أمريني it's built on two things من أخذ به مع anyone who takes it كان معظم للعلم then he is a person who is honoring glorify knowledge again the book is about تعضيب العلم honoring knowledge if you take these two paths then you are truly honoring knowledge لأنه يطلبه because he is seeking knowledge من حيث يمكنه الوصول إليه he is taking knowledge and he is attaining and trying to seek knowledge in a way that will allow him to really reach the end of it or really allow him to attain a portion of it this will allow you to great gain enough a lot نعم now he is going to tell us in details الحمد لله now he is going to tell us the two that we mentioned in very good details المؤتومة الجامعة للراجح فلا بد من حب ومثقنا أنه ينال العلمة بالاحب فإنه يطلب محالة المحفوظ المعول عليه هو المت جامعة للراجح أي المعتمد عند أهل الفن ولا يمتفع الطالب ونحفظ المظمورة في فندن ويترك مشورة كما يحفظ الفيات الآثالي أول شيء هو فحفظوا ماتنين جامعي اللي راجحي مماريزي اي ماتن هذا ماتن هو راجح راجح يعني أنه يوجد افضل افضل لا مماريزي اي ماتن التي اقوال امرجوح كل افضل اوك مالذي يماريزي يوجد افضل افضل انت with me brothers الماتن الذي يماريزي يوجد ماتن and a lot of the times المختصرات the books that are summarized should observe that anyways books that are summarized should observe اقوال الراجح so the person is memorizing because you're a student of knowledge you have no time to waste in memorizing that comes later now في بداية تطلب at the early stages of seeking knowledge you need to study اقوال الراجح because later that quote that was told to you might not even be a quote to you you might turn out to not agree with that opinion but for now the opinion that the scholars see to be راجح is what they put in the book فحفظ ماتن جامع للراجح that you memorize a book which is جامع جامع means it brings all of the points and it's راجح فلا بد من حفظ brothers it's not necessary to memorize ومنظن انه يلال العلم anyone who believes that he's going to attain knowledge بلا حفظن without memorization فإنه يطلب وحالا is seeking the impossible anyone who wants to gain knowledge and wants to attain knowledge and wants to be a person of knowledge if he's trying to do it without no memorization it's impossible it is impossible to attain knowledge without memorization it's impossible what you're running after is a mirage you know what a mirage is? on a hot, heat sunny day and you're on a clear road when the sun hits the the road it's as though there's water in front of you so you drive faster faster you drive you think you're going to get there but every time it's just moving forward you just never get into it that person and what they're trying to seek is that it's a mirage they're never ever going to get to it


cades have been given more and more social societal responsibilities without any training or handling on how to do such. You know, they're given a spit smock, right? Like police have a thing to put over somebody's head so they can't spit on you. Like this stuff is insane. And that's, that's their, that's their training, right? They're trained to contain and bring things down and to stop and even, even our de-escalation training to go better. But I won't go so, so, so short-sighted as to say that all we need is police reform. I think we need police reform. I think we absolutely need to, the way I've been stating it is we need to divest from police services and reinvest into our community. So instead of just shutting down the police department, what I'm saying is, is remove some of their responsibilities. Let's create a mental health rapid response team and train our dispatchers to know when somebody's calling in, do they need a police officer? Is there a violent armed situation that they are encountering? Are they somebody on the side of the road who just needs maybe something like a transit support or something like transportation support? You got a flat tire, you've been in a car accident. Somebody with a gun doesn't need to be at a scene for a car accident.  Well, maybe if we stop sending police officers to deal with people who are suicidal, that will stop happening. And to save the police officer too, because if they had to take down somebody, that sticks with them, right? And I know that there's a lot of things that can be said about that. But we don't put them in that situation who remove the opportunity for it to go back. And so when I talk about that and when I talk about it from a perspective of helping the police, helping the community, providing more resources instead of just the police are bad, we need to destroy them, then people will start to hear you. And so I really think it's messaging and it's how we come about it. But I also don't think we need to kowtow and bow and acquiesce to anything either. We still need to push hard for these things, but we can adjust the way we discuss it and focus on more reparative than destructive focus. That's really interesting. The way that you're describing it is it seems like they're really receptive to your message and you're kind of demystifying all of these ideas that are seen as, oh, this is the boogeyman, right? And that's interesting because if you hear about a candidate who's trying to win over everyone, trying to appeal to conservatives, you would expect, okay, well, what's getting cut? What's on the chopping block? What are you sacrificing to appeal to them? But that is not the case. Looking at your platform, it's amazing you are running with reparations, front and center, Medicare for all. And so to have that message and to not water it down, but rather explain it, I think that really can go a long way. It just is a matter of reaching out to enough people to win this election or make it into the runoff. That's when you really, that's when you have a huge opportunity. I wanted to ask you about your history in this particular district. And if you were an activist in the district, if you lived in the district, what is your relationship to the district and how do you feel like you can meet the specific needs of the people in that district? Because I think that nationally speaking, your politics are really, really popular. But what do you think is the main issue that is really going to galvanize voters in this district to vote against that incumbent? Sure. So a couple of things. And actually something that we went through last night is a perfect example. We were on a five-hour city council call last night. There was over 80 of us that showed up to speak on one agenda item. We were proposing rent control measures for Ventura County of Oxnard City specifically. And I was so proud and so moved that so many people showed up. Like I said, 80. And there's a wonderful new law that has been passed where they have to give us three minutes each for public comment. No questions. They cannot remove or do anything about that no matter what you're saying. And you know, there's good and bad. I've seen some of the viral videos.  But I think that it's time. I think that that is exactly how we put pressure on these people. And that's exactly how we hold their feet to the fire showing up at these things and letting our voice be heard. So specifically, so Ventura County, so I'm actually a transplant here. I was born and raised on the East Coast of Maryland. I lived there until I was about 24. And I joined the Navy. I went to Chicago for my training, went to Florida for my training. And then I got order station to Point Magoo here in California, Ventura County. I got off of the plane in November and it was 70 degrees. And I said, I'm never going back. What is this amazing place? So I've never liked the cold. Maryland doesn't get enough snow to make it worth it anyway. So I love it here. So I've been here since 2009. I've lived in Port Winimi, a small state, a small military city here. There's two bases in my county, which is really interesting. One is the CB base. It's the major base. It's the actual Naval port as well. And then there's a smaller base, Point Magoo that I was stationed at, which is more aviation. So I was aviation structural mechanic here at Point Magoo. I got out in 2013 and I started going to college. I used my GI Bill. So I've gone to our local community college. I used the transfer program to get into our university here. I graduated with my bachelor's.  I was lucky enough. Unfortunately, yeah. Right. When I graduated with my bachelor's, I was so thankful to get a job at Starbucks as a shift supervisor for $16 an hour. And it was the most money I'd ever made in my life, too. So I was happy, but that was great. But so that was kind of my first. So while I was in the military, kind of in and out, not really involved. To be honest, going to school was really my first, getting to know my community and getting engaged and involved in local events. Nothing activist-wise. I'm not going to give myself that much credit. But then, you know, going forward, when I was working at Starbucks in 2017, 2018, that was when we had some of the worst fires that we had ever seen in California. And the community response was amazing. Like I'm getting chills just thinking about it. It was amazing. We would have people, we had firefighters coming in when I was working at Starbucks and people would say, I'm buying their coffee and do little things like that. Right. And that's how it started. And then we had people start coming in, buying whole buckets of coffee and scones and pastries and stuff and taking it to the lines, taking it out to the firefighters on the line or to the department, to the fire station, and they were taking it out. And so we, as some of the shift managers there, we decided to do that same thing. At the end of our shift, we took a whole bunch of coffee. We got some food and a bunch of different things, masks.  We went volunteer station by volunteer station. And they kept turning us away because so many people had donated and brought them things that they weren't going to be able to use it. And so it took us probably about an hour or two to just find a place that still had need. And I was just so blown away at the community response showing up because this isn't just food. People were bringing clothes to, people's houses were being burned down. People were being not evicted but evacuated from their homes. And so running with just the clothes on your backs, even if you might have your belongings to go back to, people were getting put up in hotels. The city paid for things like that to happen. That was really when a lot of stuff, community-wise, started changing for me. And I saw the beautiful place that I lived in. And it has not stopped. It just keeps going. And through the pandemic as well, there's a bittersweet specific thing that happens here in our community that I wish didn't have to happen but is so beautiful still when I see it. I didn't understand it at first when I saw it. I saw people on the street doing car washes to raise money, which you see boys and girls clubs and cheerleaders and sports teams do that. But these were different. And I pulled into a couple, come to find out they were raising money to be able to bury their loved ones. And so it is actually a regular thing here, maybe not once a month but several times at least throughout the year just in our city. So I can only imagine throughout the state or throughout the country if this exists where they are doing car washes and selling sweets. And they have, you know, what's awesome is some of the food truck vendors show up and give any of the funds they give, they give to the family and stuff like that. And so yeah, but people have to do car washes to bury their loved ones. But our community shows up and shows out to make sure that they have what they need to do so. Yeah. And so all of that has really just made me fall in love with Oxard more and more. Oxard Ventura, the entire community here in Ventura County. I specifically am really close to Oxard so that is where I see a lot of this stuff happening. And it's also the community that needs the support the most. And to go into your, so Bernie Sanders 2016 was what awoke me to any type of politics. For most of my life I was a non-voter, to be honest. I didn't even vote when Barack Obama was being elected. Part of that was I was in the military and I didn't believe in the absentee voting. Because in Maryland at the time they just stuffed them in a basement and it didn't ever get counted unless there was a tie. And those are very electoral things. It absolutely needs to be changed. Yeah, there's some states where the absentee ballots the absentee ballots are only counted. I don't know all of the states, but there are some states where the absentee ballots are only counted if there is a tie. That seems weird. Yeah. Interesting. This also was over a decade ago. So I do not know what current legislation is on the books, especially in Maryland. I have not been there for over a decade. And I might have been misinformed at the time, truly, because that is also another part of it. Yeah, I was going to say that sounds like a big scandal. So I would imagine that's not the case. And I definitely should maybe do some background research on that. But that was my belief. Let me start saying that. It was my belief that my vote didn't matter anyway. So I didn't vote. And that is the point. That's what they want us to believe. So 2016 Bernie Sanders woke me up, started volunteering at the polls. So from 2016, 2017, working with Bernie Sanders campaign, volunteering at the polls, watching the fires devastate our community, the community outpouring. And I just haven't been able to stop since. I volunteered at the polls 2016, 2018, 2019. I got a job at my county elections office. I put on three elections for us in this county last year. Through the pandemic, there was some of the craziest stuff I've ever seen and been through in my life.  And so, but it wasn't until probably last year, if I'm being fully honest, where I started being an activist and actively doing and calling for things. So while I was doing things in my community, and like I said, doing car washes and things like that, and supporting our community members, I didn't know how to do anything bigger. And to be honest, it was kind of overwhelming when even you go to look at all of these social justice programs and things like that, which one do I want to be a part of? Who's doing this? Who's doing what? And sometimes it's so overwhelming that people just, I'm just going to get involved when I can, right? A variety of things like that. So I would consider myself, at that point, a typical American, right? I'm just going about my business, working, and doing the best that I can. Until I saw what Bernie showed us was possible is that our representatives could stand for us. They could fight for us. They could speak to and actually care about us. And that when we showed up, we could actually make a change. And so in 2020, when the pandemic hit and just, they gave us what? One stimulus check of $600 and then said, they went on a three month vacation with nothing and no concern for any of us. So that was when I decided I need to get involved. I found out the DSA wasn't, I didn't have really any intention at the time to create a political party. So that's when I started working with the People's Party. I tried to form my own local chapter here. We helped them protest. I actually protested in front of my representative's house demanding that she fight for Medicare for all, do anything for us. Our homeless numbers were exploding. Every day I saw more and more people on the streets. Our food lines were miles long in every city, not just the poorest town, but the richest towns as well. We're also having food and security issues. And the silence from our leadership was absolutely deafening in their abdication of any responsibility to do anything. They're like, oh, now we've passed an eviction moratorium. So you're fine. Meanwhile, people are still being evicted or forced out of their homes for loopholes and other things that landlords are finding. And so kind of all of that. I don't know if I even necessarily answered the question. No, I think that this is really like, for you to talk at length, that's really important because what I want viewers to do is get to know you and get the opportunity to see who you are, what was the catalyst for your political awakening. And it seems like you have a pretty similar story as a lot of people. Bernie Sanders, on top of that, you have very clearly diagnosed the issues. One thing I will say, I did look it up for your state. So the absentee balance are counted. So I just want to correct that. Yeah, no bad record here. Yes, yes. Okay, so fact check in real time. Okay, but now I'm going to put you on the hot seat. So we know that you have all the answers, right?  I guarantee it. But as a legislator, it's a little bit different. Sometimes you get put into these weird predicaments that are sometimes bad, sometimes morally gray. And I just want to know in hypothetical situations how you would deal with this just from your perspective. So let's say hypothetically speaking, you worked really hard. You introduced a bill and let's just say it's climate change related, right? It's not the Green New Deal, but it's a climate change bill. And you've got lots of co-sponsors. You've got committee hearings on it.  But even though this bill that you kind of worked really hard on, your constituents want it, you stake your career on it, is in this package, there's also a poison pill in that package. And that poison pill is, let's say, it's something to do with funding, I don't know, or defunding public education or police. It's a really bad poison pill. And it goes against everything you stand for. But in that package is kind of your pride and joy as a lawmaker. What do you do? Do you vote for that package, passing what you want and accept that poison pill? Or do you withdraw? I would say there'd be a variety of factors that would go into that. It would really depend where are the stakes. Is it that the Republicans or the holdouts will only vote for this bill with that poison pill in there? If we have exhausted all negotiations, and we've gotten to the point where these senators, let's use a perfect example, what we have going on right now, Kristen Sineman, Joe Manchin, who are holding out or saying that the leftists need to continue compromising and backpedaling. And we've already been talked down from 10 to 6 to 3.5, and now they want us to accept 1.5. And Cory Bush and Jamal Bowman absolutely slanted them on the radio on the other day. It was absolutely, you did a great episode on that as well. That's what we need, is that pushback. So I would do exactly what they're doing and more. And what Bernie is finally starting to do, not only do we go and have on every news show, every day, the problem is always education and information. And so where the major messaging failures are of the Democratic Party is they'll tote and they'll all retweet these same things, these same things, these same things about this garbage, about, oh, it's a gold star veteran day. But we cannot get them to unify on these messaging or on these images, on the platform of what we need. And they're always responding instead of being forward. So I would be on every news show, every day, every radio show, everything I could do, me and the people that would be supporting me and fighting for this. And then you hold rallies in those people's districts.  I would say that at the absolute end of the day, I would exhaust every absolute possible option rallying everybody, letters to the editor like Bernie just wrote. Good on him. Now all of a sudden Joe Manchin's like, hey, we're talking. It worked. And so those are the things that we need to do. I cannot say that there was never a poison pill that I would vote for. If it gets my people healthcare. If it gets my people housing and education. I cannot say that there is not a poison pill I will never vote for in Congress. There's probably some that I'm going to have to. I will do everything in my power and exhaust all option, including sitting with my own two feet in their front door asking them why they want to. I like that. I like that answer because you're being truthful and honest and you're thinking through. You're not willing to just accept it. You're willing to fight. But at the end of the day, you are telling us what you do as a lawmaker. And I think that that's really important. Another hypothetical situation. I love hypotheticals. So you'll have to bear with me. It's insufferable, but I love them.  It's near and dear to your heart. But one of the co-sponsors who you think is gettable is not really willing to support you because it looks likely that you're going to endorse their primary opponent. And they don't like that. They don't want you to do that. So in this situation, what do you do? Do you endorse their primary opponent and say, okay, I'll try to find the support somewhere else? Or do you realize this is pretty crucial? And I kind of need his support. Maybe my endorsement won't do much. Tell me what your thinking process would be in that scenario because it's really tough. I don't know what I would do, but I want to know what you would do as a lawmaker. Sure, absolutely. So I think that in the question is kind of the answer because that's another thing. That's another tool in the toolkit that our legislators aren't using often enough when they get to a point where the roadblock will not move. Joe Manchin won't budge. Kristen Sinema won't budge. Then you go primary them. Like that's the point. That's exactly what you should do. And so that would be the leverage.  I said that really weird, but I don't know how I would go and give them a good one too. I'd probably say it better. But basically set down the line that we need your vote on this. And if you are not willing to do what the people need, then I am going to make sure that you get replaced by somebody that will. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. So use their primary challenger as the leverage instead of it being something that scares you away, lean into it. They're already concerned about it. Like maybe if you vote for this legislation, then I wouldn't think it. Okay, I like that. I like that. One more thing that I want to ask you, I like your tactics because they're very aggressive. Going to the houses of lawmakers is one of the most badass things you can do because that's the number one thing that they hate. Having said that, though, as a lawmaker yourself, odds are you'll face resistance. And let's say you get elected. You win. And then there's this Fox News segment from Tucker Carlson. And he's saying, look at this.  Who's next? He wants to take away your housing. He wants to take away your health care.   They show up just from a personal standpoint. How do you deal with that pressure? Because it's one thing to anticipate it, but when it actually happens that it is inevitable if you get elected. How do you, how do you think you would handle that? I mean, you have life experience.  You've been in really unpredictable situations. How do you think you would deal with that? Because I think that normal people, it would bog them down. But how do you think you would hold up? And it's impossible to say not having experienced that, but talk through your life experiences that you think kind of thickened your skin because I think that's really necessary if you're a member of Congress. Yeah, absolutely. I would say, you know, growing up in my household did a little bit of it. And then anything that I wasn't hardened on, the military definitely helped in that. And, you know, there's some good and bad to that. But I said this on a podcast I was on last time, you know, with what we had, the AOC being yelled at on the floor by Nancy Pelosi and changing her quote. I said, that would never happen to me because there's nobody in Congress that's going to say or do anything worse to me than my RDCs and drill instructors did. Like, you can't, it doesn't matter. I literally face down some of the craziest stuff I've ever seen in my life. There's nothing that you screaming at me is going to do. I would say as far as, you know, I have a purple district here. It's mislabeled as a D plus 20 because the Democrats do have a slight majority numerically. But the Republicans show up in strength and they, the Democrats' foothold isn't as strong as they would like to believe it is. So we're more purple. Do you know the results from the last election in 2020? I have all of that, very much memorized. So let me, let me answer this and then I can nail down all of that for you. Okay, yeah. It's actually, all of that is why, is another reason why I know that this can happen. So, so I've got, say I got Republicans in my district, which there are a lot of, there are a lot of conservative Republicans in my district, even if we weren't a military town, that, you know, definitely adds to it. But all of that, I'm not gun shy. I'm not afraid to go out and take some heat. I'm not afraid to deal with things. What was interesting when I went and protested in front of Julia Brownlee's house was my incumbent.  I didn't realize it at the time, but later I realized in footage and stuff that we watched this, this SUV idled. It was either her or her secret service. It was idled, this car idled outside for three hours. Do you care about the climate? It idled outside for three hours while we were outside protesting. And so what I would have done in that situation is wanted to talk to people. Yeah. People are allowed to be upset. There are a lot of things happening in this country that everybody has the right to be upset about. They're very valid criticism. And the problem is they don't have a place to put that anger or a way to direct it. And so when they show up at your houses, when they've been pushed to such extremes that they're willing to go to your member of Congress's house, they've got something that they need to say to you. Here's that. Here's that. There wasn't a thousand of us. There were maybe 10 people that showed up to that first protest. Okay. So there was in no way, any way, shape, or form. And I guess you could say that maybe you felt your life was in danger. But we said loudly that we come in peace. We played music. We wanted to do things. We had no intention of doing anything harmful at any. We took, we had chalk, we drew pictures on the sidewalk. There was no, there was no threat in any way, shape, or form. And so unless somebody's on my lawn with an AK-47, if they're just out there with signs screaming, I'm going to go talk to them. And so that, that is how you meet your constituents where you, where they are. That is how you handle the unrest and the upset that these people are rightly feeling is you talk to them because our biggest concern is not being heard. And not that it's that we just need to be heard. Having things happen after we're heard. Having our concerns, needs, and abuses heard. Things that are happening and going wrong. They're coming to you crying and begging for help. You close the door. And that's what's happening all across the country. From what's been happening for decades, all they care about is getting re-elected. And you know, I've even had people push back on me, even though you're running non-partisan, even though you're not going to do this, once you get in, you're only just going to be concerned about re-election. And I want to put things in place so that we don't have to do that. And I personally, I don't want to be a politician. I don't have a career goal to do this. So I don't, I don't see that as, as a thing. Yes, I would do my job for the best of my ability as long as my constituents continue to vote me in and said that they wanted me there for them. But I also am not going to, even if, even if I would never do 10 years. But that's too much. It gets too long. I think that, I think that, you know, a good, a good eight years is maybe, maybe, maybe as long as anybody should do. There's some conversations we can have about terms like that. Well, I feel like it would melt your brain if you were in there longer than a decade. I mean, how could it not? Exactly. And you're, you're, you're so out of touch from the people, the time going on around you. How can you, in good faith, legislate for people that die in fine sign, has two $40 million hole? How do you have any concept of what somebody literally counting pennies to go put gas in their cars going? Yeah. Yeah. And that's, that's just that.  I think, you know, if you live a completely different life than your constituents, you're just incapable of representing them adequately. So Daniel, I think that you've given us enough to get to know you now. We know your policy platform and your personality, how you would govern as a lawmaker. But now is the most important part of the interview. Your last pitch to my viewers, folks, if you like Daniel, he's going to give us the pitch. So let us know how we can support you and what you need most. Is it, is it donations, is it canvassers? Help us help you. Absolutely. So first and foremost, money. Absolutely. Donations are the most important thing for any grassroots candidate, whether they're running in the Democratic Party or not. If they are running grassroots, if they have sworn off any type of, I've sworn off lobbyist pack money, corporate pack money. And I'm specifying that because like, say, if I were to work with the sunrise movement, they have a pack. I would take money from that pack. Right. So I don't want to say just a blanket. I won't take any pack money. I will not take lobbyist pack money. I will not take fossil fuel pack money. I will not take corporate pack money. I will not take any fossil fuel industry, any donor money, any insurance company money. Only from the people, grassroots, I'm asking people from 5, 10, 15, my standard donation right now is $22. If you're running in 2022. So Bernie did his $27, right? So I've got the $22. So $22 is my standard small ask for anybody that can. There's also the, if you go to my donation page, which I believe Mike will have in the information below. Also, if you go to voteforganu.com, it's at the top right corner of my website, the contribute button, right yellow. There's also the option where you can put in as little as a dollar. So anything that anybody can give me, I greatly appreciate. And it's absolutely the most important thing that you could do. Because those dollars turn into the postcards that I can print. Those dollars turn into being able to do a campaign ad. Those dollars turn into being able to expand our email and our canvassing program. So first and foremost, absolutely any contributions that any of your viewers would be so kind at to support us with, we would greatly appreciate. You can also go to my website, at voteforganu.com, to sign up for our email list. We're adding a volunteer sign up thing very soon. Because we are going to be hitting the ground running, if not before then, but by December for our canvassing program. So donations, canvassers, anybody in the local Ventura County or LA or Santa Barbara area, we would love to have your support. Anybody who is outside of the state, we are also going to be doing calling and phone banking and text banking so we can support that way as well. And I would just encourage you to go sign up for my email on my website, and then we will send you information and updates with the volunteer. Well, thank you so much, Daniel. It's been a pleasure speaking with you. We will continue to follow your campaign on this channel. I always try to follow and keep in touch with all the candidates that I bring on. Hopefully, we'll be back in touch again, but we'll certainly be wishing you luck here. Awesome. I thank you so much. Oh, and all social medias, all social medias, Daniel for VC, Daniel for VC, Twitter, social media, all the Instagrams, everything of that. Thank you so much for your time. I'm so thankful for this opportunity to be here and to speak with you and all of your viewers. Viewers, I've been a long time, viewers, three years, following Mike at least. He's amazing. Anybody that's new, definitely subscribe. Hit the like, hit the bell, and then go check out my website as well. I appreciate you all. Well, thank you. Well, OK, now you've got to support Daniel, folks. Plug in the human support.  Thank you so much, Daniel. All right, Mike, you have a good one. Well, folks, that is everything. Thank you all so much for watching. If you've made it this far in the program, as usual, we're not going to end the show without thanking all of the people who make the show possible. All of our newest Patreon, Paypal, and YouTube members, as well as our existing Patreon, Paypal, and YouTube members who don't just help the show to exist, but you help us to thrive and grow and expand. And I really appreciate all of your patronage. So yeah, that's all that I have for you. If you want more human support, you can find me sometimes at Twitch. Over on Twitch, I should say, at twitch.tv slash humanistreport. I really want to have a more consistent streaming schedule. It's supposed to be Thursdays at 7 p.m. PST. Hasn't really worked out lately. I did one show, missed the next one, and I'm probably going to miss this week's show as well. But I'll try to be more consistent. But for the time being, definitely make sure that you follow me over on Twitch so that way, when I do go live, you are notified. But I'll stop rambling. That's everything, folks. I will see you all next week. My name is Mike Fragerado. This has been the Humanist Report. Take care, everyone.


What is it? To open the box, please remove the screws as marked on the drawing This is the honorific London classical valet stand Custom made with American black walnut hanger is sculpted from a single piece of hardwood Beautiful solid brass details as well as a personalized nameplate It's a little bit of old-school elegance for the modern world I love the act of taking the time to put together an outfit So it's all set up for me when it's time to get ready to go