Welcome to Keys to Success, which is live on the ThinkTech live streaming network series weekly on Thursdays at 11 a.m We are your host. My name is Danelia D-A-N-E-L-I-A And I'm the other half of the duo John Newman. Welcome to today's show. Mike Lowrie, president of Transcendent Consulting, was our guest on our last show and his words of wisdom can be accessed on Newman Consulting Services website NewmanConsultingServices.com or our landing page Danelia.org Joining us today in the studio as our honored guest is Mrs. Vanessa Perez, CEO of S3 Career Consulting and Network Guru Mahalo for joining us today Vanessa. Well, hi Danelia and John. Thanks so much for having me here today. It's a pleasure to join you Great to see you. Great having you on the show. Thank you so much. I don't know what I'm going to do between two Aussies You know, I can't understand anything anybody says. We'll try not to break out into any slang there John All right, all right. Okay. All righty Vanessa share with us a little about as career networking and consulting and What prompted you to to start the business? Yeah. Well, thanks. I created S3 career consulting about three years ago now and The driving force for me to do that was that I was working with transitioning military and training them to prepare for their next careers And I love the job so much and I knew that I had a lot to offer because I've spent most of my life recruiting and hiring people And I just wanted to do a little bit more so And work a bit more individually and have a wider reach than what I had in, you know, one particular classroom for instance, so So I knew I had a bit more to offer to help veterans prepare and posture for the current career marketplace So I started my business and Initially started writing resumes that got results, you know federal resumes private sector resumes and Really put a lot of emphasis on linked in as being that niche capability and that gap that I provided that Really isn't being provided well enough at the moment in the transition process I know they'll get it soon enough, but you know, it's an important aspect to getting Anybody ready for their next, you know professional opportunities I'm a 27 year retired vet myself. So I'm a veteran and I know exactly what you're talking about and I was there So I know That type of help is essential for our young men and women that are transitioning from the the military back into the civil sector So, yeah, we applaud you for that. Oh, thank you and you know, you know as well that my heart's with the veteran And the military community I served 23 years with the Australian army And as you know, my husband Bill was a 24 year Marine Corps veteran as well, you know, the military Community is our family and and I I do think when You know, people have knowledge that they can pass on That it's important to share that, you know, particularly if it makes a difference. So that's what drives me and I'm so honored to have worked with so many fascinating So many fascinating people at all levels of the military across all services and it's it's a joy to see that You know a little bit of coaching and a little bit of branding and marketing can make the world of difference To their next career success. Actually that that comes into the next question Which is how important is networking to growing a business a new job or advancing your career? Well engaging with people is essential for everything, you know, we're We're creatures that need social interaction and you know, when we're creating something new or when we're Looking at moving into a different area that we may not be familiar with You know, the first thing that you need to start doing is who can I align myself with that can coach me mentor me guide me teach me And who can I network with to promote what it is that I do or what I have to sell or Or what it is that I need to achieve with my goals Um, so professional networking is just a great term to actually encompass all of that And uh, you know, I know we're going to talk a lot more about LinkedIn down the trail But it's it's a really important aspect today to people posturing for career success business success Now networking done correctly could really transform a business and uh When it's done incorrectly it can stagnate a business as well So what are some of your top principles when it comes to good networking, you know I uh, it's a good question. John. Um, I think it just comes back to the importance of being who you are Being genuine authentic having the credibility there too in Giving people the confidence to know that you know what you're on about right If you're offering advice and guidance and wisdom about something You want to you want to really be established as a subject matter expert Or you want people to to perceive you that way or be able to research you and find out And then they can trust you they trust your credibility your professional credibility and Just being yourself and being authentic and genuine is just so important when you're Establishing trusting relationships, whether it be for career personal goals or for business And one of the things that we we say and we teach and our and our programs that In order to read someone's heart you have to come from your heart And once they know that you are genuinely concerned With their well-being and to help them grow and prosper They're very more concept or perceptive to what you have to give them Totally agree and you know when you say give that's really important with building trusting relationships and You know if you offer Your insight and wisdom In a way that allows people to learn from you or grow from what you teach them or that they Are able to create an opportunity or get a mutual benefit from that exchange That's really important. Oh, yes, and you know, it's If you can give without the expectation of something in return Um It's pleasing not only to you but when people can get a benefit from what you have to offer I think I spend about A minimum of 20 hours a week where I actually engage with people within my You know LinkedIn network and I offer insight and wisdom and tips and coaching and you know I write stuff so that they learn from and I wish I had time to do a lot more of it and I'll talk a little bit down the track of something else That I'm just about to start doing that will enable me to give back more great So what's the difference between a networker and like a highly effective networker? And what's a masterful networker because I've heard these terms And I was curious to if you could give us some insight on that, right masterful is a good word, isn't it? I tend to use the term strategic Networking and strategic engagement. Yeah, and I suppose The proof's in the pudding really isn't it? I mean, you know, you're good when you get results Just I suppose the the When you see results come about from what you do Not only for yourself or your business or your career when you see other people Um gaining successful opportunities Because of your networking or your ability to introduce them to an opportunity and I do that daily, you know And it's exciting So It might be a good time to actually talk about strategic networking and and how people can actually use LinkedIn or other sorts of events to do strategic networking and engagement Just just before we get there one of the one of the things and you know in talking to people We all have different personalities.   So we're totally extreme introvert extrovert And so I get it. I get that people are fearful meeting strangers or You know talking about themselves and military are a classic example of Feeling like they're bragging or somehow coming across as in genuine if they talk about themselves Um, I try to get them to talk about their experiences and their expertise instead of themselves But there's a couple of things that I like to challenge veterans to do or anybody that I work with in coaching them If they feel nervous or uncomfortable or introverted and shy One of the best challenges you could set yourself is to meet new people And I like to say your challenge now is to meet four new people every single day It doesn't really matter where you meet them in the car park in the lineup for starbucks While you're getting coffee go and help a mum carry her groceries and Chance meetings Can flourish if we had a chance meeting when we first met So you know and I have a darling friend lifelong friend like you a really great lifelong friend Emma Chapman. Hi Emma She laughs all the time and she says you're the best thing I ever found at Costco And we will be lifelong friends through a chance Meeting you know when you feel nervous about meeting strangers one of the best things you can do is just pay a compliment It starts a conversation Makes the receiver feel fantastic And you know what when you when you give a well-received compliment, I guarantee it'll put a spring in your step You know, actually that's how we met because you walked over to me and said oh my gosh somebody else's dressed as professionally as I am I said, oh, we like the only two people in Hello You're gonna Let's get back to a question. Okay. How does someone network If they want to grow their business, right? Wow Um, I say LinkedIn LinkedIn LinkedIn and a range of other things, right? And I I'm if I might just Cap on a couple of other things about people who are nervous or anxious about you know, meeting strangers as well and You can grow that confidence By choosing your own setting a setting that makes you feel comfortable So if you love to go hiking Join a hiking group and meet people who share an interest or a passion with you And then the interaction can be a lot more comfortable That's a great situation if you don't feel comfortable in a room of a hundred people sipping champagne Don't Don't force yourself to do those things But you know another really great tip as well is Toastmasters is a fantastic organization That really instills confidence in people who aren't accustomed to speaking in front of audiences or speaking in front of people they don't know and it It's a great way for people to build confidence in You know, right being able to engage and interact public speaking is one of the most feared things for for most people You know, uh, they would jump off Mount Kilimanjaro But they are afraid to stand up in front of 20 people and speak their mind In fact, um, they say that 78 percent of men Are more fearful of public speaking than death Yeah, we totally agree. I tend to agree with you. We're going to take a short break Um, this is keys to success on think tech live streaming network series Vanessa Perez president of s3 career consulting regarding network Networking's keys to success. That's actually our theme for this show. My name is danilia d a n e l i a And i'm now the half of the duo john newman. We'll be returning in a minute. So please stay tuned for more keys to success Hi, i'm chris litham with think tech hawaii and i'd like to ask you to come watch my show the economy in you Each wednesday at 3 p.m Aloha, i'm chantel civil host of the savvy chick show on think tech hawaii and i'm going on tour I'm taking you around the world. We're going to canada and then we're going to well We're in america then we're going to san francisco So keep staying tuned 11 a.m. Every wednesday on the savvy chick show. We'll see you next time Aloha, my name is richard emory and i host condo insider We talk about issues facing the condo association throughout hawaii and talk about solutions When you think about it about one third of our population lives in some form of common interest real estate We broadcast every thursday at 3 p.m. Please tune in tune in and thank you. Aloha Welcome back. This is keys to success on the think tech live streaming network series We encourage you to call our hotline at four one five eight seven one two four seven four to join our conversation Or tweet us at think tech h i if you have any questions or comments We've been talking about with venessa pares ceo of s3 career consulting. My name is danelia d an e lia And i'm gonna have to do old john newman. Welcome back to the show Vanessa, all right. Good on you. I know you just Overflowing with information that you want to share. Okay. Alrighty, so let's get right to it. You know What does network What is successful network networking? And uh, when did you Feel that you have become successful in networking, right? I would I would cap on what I touched on a little bit earlier And I think when you start to see results of the professional networking and the professional engagements For instance, um, I've been able to We talked about face-to-face networking and that's a whole lot different to Networking professionally online using platforms such as linked in which is the largest professional networking platform on the planet So I feel like I've really been able to leverage and take Professional networking to a whole new level. I can absolutely meet new people face-to-face in a room and build trusting relationships But then you remove that element of personality and energy and enthusiasm And you're looking at words only To create that relationship to build and nurture that relationship It's a whole different kind of engaging all together. Well, it's interesting because I've watched you I say work a room, but I've watched you network a room and I was in awe of watching you Oh, yeah, you were absolutely fantastic But I'm into you for people who are a little more apprehensive about doing that and not comfortable linked in is a great avenue for them to Absolutely But let's let's look at that. Let's just go back to that. Okay interface-to-face communication. Right. Let's talk about that What do you feel are some of the Key questions that you should ask You know, it's a good question because what you ask people Really allows you to build that relationship and what you ask allows it determines the swiftness of that trust, right? Correct. Um, I love people like I don't feel like I Work a room in a traditional sense because I actually genuinely want to be a hundred people and I want to learn about them and I want to Find what is passionate what they love what drives and what motivates them and what they're interested about And if you want to learn something about somebody really quickly and engage with them on a level We enter maybe an element of vulnerability Find out what they love what they're passionate about. What do they do when they're not working? I can talk to people for an hour and not even know what they do I've known people for years and I didn't even know what they do for a career Because I get fascinated about them and what they love to do and and so I think when you're meeting people that you've never met before your Ability to establish a report instantly is really important and I love to teach veterans how to handshake. Oh, yes Well, that's a part of our Not only not only veterans just anybody no because women usually Feel that they shouldn't give a strong handshake I mean and a man tends to feel that they shouldn't give a woman a strong handshake But that's disrespecting that woman because that woman is a person just as Astute as you are.    This makes and breaks deals Anything is I contact the smile the handshake the right handshake and you know, if you mess it up Just do it again. You know, you could go. Oh I was going to say something Australian Let's don't do this. Let's don't hold on too tight and too long Three shakes is enough So those those that ability to connect Physically with people And when you do it well, it allows you to establish those trusting Relationships or build it really swiftly. So those things are really important How do you connect then because you're not able to handshake with somebody on linkedin or online? How do you connect with somebody online? You know It's all about trust, right? And that one of the first things I say to people when you want to build a swift relationship fast That's based on trust is people need to know more about you If they know more about you they'll determine whether they want to engage with you or not And linkedin's a perfect opportunity for people to create their authentic genuine career story or their professional story and when you let people know about you You know in a way that allows them to get to know you what your expertise is what you have to offer Um, and you present that in a beautiful way you use images to complement the content, right? Then and you have a photo a good quality photo that lets people know who you are How you present what's your style like and if you can and if you can add video And multimedia elements to your portfolio. It helps people get to know you quickly They get to see what energy and enthusiasm is like your style your charisma How you present how you communicate and when you Look at linkedin as not an online resume But a portfolio Of your full body of work and you provide examples and samples and video and images And then you have that content validated by Other network professionals other professionals in your network where they endorse your skills and your expertise And they give you recommendations then all of those things wrap up into The ability for someone that doesn't know you to trust who you are and what you've done Now what you just said is one of the key factors in our program which we Compliment each other our firms Presentation. Oh, yes is Everything it is is how you present it and that's something that people need to focus on I don't care how much you know or how wonderful you are if it isn't presented correctly You're gonna lose. It's one of the unique things that I bring to the table. You know, I serve 19 of 23 years in Australia. I serve it within special operations commands I'm a bit unconventional And I do things differently and it and it and what I do gets results and when people who are changing Career and particularly veterans when they realize that To be postured for success in the current global career marketplace It's about branding and marketing That's about how you present yourself and your expertise or what it is that people need to know about you It's if you and you must have an online identity and online reputation Like stay away from any kind of online Branding at all. It's essential today. Nobody's going to trust your hire unless they know about you People don't realize that every single day. There are two billion names googled. Oh, yes And you will be looked up. So when you're searched What do people see on you? Do you like it? If you don't if you have nothing there And you don't like what people see then you need to shape that And create a brand and identity And Be unique and be different, you know businesses businesses get ahead by differentiating themselves from Their competitors and they don't need to to reinvent the wheel But the key thing is they need to take the time to google themselves And you'll be surprised what you see I mean, we've had people come back to us and said they had a picture of me when I was 12 How did they get that picture of me? You know, you'll be surprised what's out there? And as you said, you need to know what's out there You do need to know what's out there and not only about yourself, but people who share your identity Um, and you'll notice that that when I'm My online identity on linkedin. I'm venessa machin pares Because I'm the only one with that name on the planet It's like 10,000 venessa pares's and I think there's about six in hawaii alone. Is that right? Yeah, I think oh, I have a criminal record which isn't good So so what I need what I do and I teach people to do is differentiate themselves So you don't have mistaken identity. What makes you unique and different right? Yeah, businesses do it Individuals need to do it. Yes in by 2020 it's predicted that 40 percent of the entire global workforce Will be freelancers contractors Um subcontractors, they'll either own a global small business or they'll work for one And and we all know that people aren't working for more than three and four years at a time with organizations Now they're doing gigs and they're doing contracting work And just like any musician who's already launched their last album when they create their next one They have to rebrand, right? You've got to know about branding yourself And what it is that you provide So that people will hire you buy your product or service And and we need to start thinking about ourselves as individuals as a commodity Well, what kind of mistakes did you make through your networking career? And how did you push through those hard times? No, no, we only have a certain amount of time You know one of the things I've produced a couple of books. So I type like this like hello. I can type faster than I speak Me too. I can too Well, look, I'm not going to fall into that trap I'm just going to say yes to you One of the things I do too much of and I've learned to wind it back in and reel it in You know when you are developing relationships with people And professionals online particularly is don't flood them with too much Like I used to write messages this long, you know, and I sometimes a bit too honest You know, I got that honest candid australianness about me And I'll offer people tips about their LinkedIn profile because I because it okay. Oh my god. Like, what are you thinking? Like, I've got to tell you this right and then before you know, they've never met me. They don't know anything about me And I've given them all these things to say this is what you need to fix So I take it back a notch and I just have a couple of exchanges before I Move forward and I ask permission now of people.   You learn so much. Yeah. Oh, yes. Yeah. Now. Now. This is keys to success And we have a signature question that we asked all right. Yes. All right. This is the 64 000 dollar question What are your three success habits My three success habits your networking success my three networking success habits I'm going to go back to what I've already mentioned before because I think it's critical Be yourself. Be yourself. Be genuine. Be honest Be vulnerable Give back when you're growing relationships with people offer give back Help them get ahead and Connect people. There's so much opportunity out there and when you introduce people who have shared interests or goals Connecting that connecting those individuals can create magic Stand back and watch it happen. It's exciting. All right. That's that So what is the last piece of council that you could give our viewers and listeners regarding networking keys to success? And um professional networking keys to success is um, I say If people want to be Postured for the current career global marketplace. Okay, whether it be for personal Reasons business or career They got to be on LinkedIn. Yes They've got to be on LinkedIn. You've got to create Your authentic career story make it engaging. You've got to grow your network. You can strategically Target the people that you need to network with for your business for your career. Okay. You can find your next boss Thank you We're out of time. We'll have to wrap it up Vanessa Perez's words of wisdom with regards to keys to networking success can be found on Newman consulting services web page newman consulting services.com and landing page denilia.org Thank you so much Vanessa for joining us today and sharing your insights to networking success Think tech is the success will be back next thursday at 11 a.m We ask that you tune in again and ask your friends and family to do so as well My name is denilia dea and elia and i'm the other half of the duo John newman and in closing today denilia and i would like to share a quote from ed mat man, which says Perfecting your presentation Perfecting your presentation is the most important work you can do Thank you all


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It brings me no joy to say this, but the recent Boruto game is failing. I'm of course talking about Naruto to Boruto Storm Connections, the newest iteration of one of my favorite franchises of all time, and it's doing worse than Storm 4. By far one of the biggest reasons for this is that Connections as a game has no way for you to invite your friends. Regardless, I still had a lot of fun with my time on Connections, and I wanted to see just how much the player population was holding up, and so with that I decided what better way to test out how active the population is than by jumping onto my PS5 and getting back into the game. If you do want to see more Naruto Storm Connections, definitely let me know down below in the comments, or just let me know if you're still playing the game in general, but with that said, let's go ahead and see if we can't get any matches. Well, we found a match pretty quick, so I think that's definitely a point in the game's favor. You can definitely still find matches if you're just playing online at random times, although I will say I'm not playing this on like a weekday on job hours, so... Hey man! Now that being said, I forgot this game is very different. I'm gonna have to act my best if I'm gonna play here. I wonder if Super Armor on the Ninjutsu's affected people's opinion on the game at all. I know it definitely was... It's probably the craziest thing that they changed overall. Oh, let me go. Other than maybe just the combo system, but I think everybody's pretty much a fan of that. Let me pop off! Let me pop off! Hold on! I got... No! I got him! No way! No way! That is sucked! Sorry! You were supposed to save me! Drop it! Drop it! Drop it! Alright, we're gonna lose a round. We're gonna lose a round. That's okay! Listen, I'm back in the game. I am a fan. All things considered, I am still a fan of this game. I think I'm just a fan of the Storm series though, so I don't know if that's saying much. I'd probably play any Storm right now. But the fact that this one does run at 60 FPS by Native and doesn't have the other annoying issues that the PC version has is definitely a point in its favor for me. They just gotta... They gotta add invites, man. Let's be honest. They're juggled, and I'm still saying they need invites. Oh, if I keep getting bodied by that too. Grab! How did I not react to that? Man, I'm getting cooked. Hold on. No way I didn't counter that. No way. Mitsuki assist. It's OP. Get my guard broken because the guard in this game dies every two seconds. No! Nah, bro, you gotta... You gotta have to do better than that. You gotta have to do better than... I mean, I'm dead. I'm definitely dead. Ah! No! No subs! Oh my God! We got tor- Let me get that rematch. Can I get that rematch though? You mind if I get a rematch? Please? Please? Please? I'll take it. Wait, I don't think we got it. Did we get it? Oh, man. Look at this, man. I mean, I feel like this rank-up screen, I... You know, I get on it a lot, but because look at how bad it looks, man. How do you put something that bad in your modern game? I feel like it's just... It's literally unacceptable. It just shouldn't be there if it's gonna look that bad. That assist is wild, by the way. There we go. I'll take it. All right. Let's go.  I'll take it. Get away from me, Naruto! Oh my gosh!  Naruto cutting me off is actually... It's doing things to my mental. Sarutas not putting in the same amount of work as Mitsuki. I'm awakened. You know what? I got the team awakening. Hold on. Sage mode Mitsuki. Come on. How can we say this game failed, bro? How can we say this game failed? I gotta know. Oh, man. I was popping off. No way! No way! Mitsuki! Help me! Mitsuki! Help me! Mitsuki! Mitsuki! Mitsuki! Sub! Substitution Jutsu, please! I'm tight. I am upset. 60FPS, though. The Jutsu's looking good. Didn't need the slow-mo. Ooh. Okay. Okay. Just to win in this situation, I think. I'm making too many misplays. Hey, who are you trying to counter, boy? Borthor! What's that got? Give me that. Oh, I forgot. You can't combo it like that.  I was just out of chakra. Hey, the armor. The armor is so cheap, dude. I really do think the armor is like a little... It's just the change that I'm not sure the game needed, in my opinion. Because if he dashes at me, is countering even the move when I can just armor up like that? Like, I think if I just do that, I think I'm bound to win more exchanges. He's got a sub. The Borthor Rasengan, that's all I'm cheesing out right now. That is all I'm cheesing out. Hey, if you want to awaken, let's awaken, bro. I saw you charge it up. Let's charge up, Dan. Karma! Ugh. You got to be kidding me. Lost again. Can I get that rematch, though? How does this game work? Do we just get three rematches? No matter. Can I get that rematch, though? Oh, the rank of screen. Ugh. We do get a rematch. And now that he sees that I'm finally learning the game again, is he going to rematch me? I'm not opposed to it. Let's go. I'm not opposed. Back in for the third match. Even if we win, we're going 1-2. So this is purely for pride. I just disagree on the fact that that should have ever hit me in the first place. Look at that armor, baby. Ah, the Chakra armor is not going to get me for that long. Oh, we got a sub out of it, but that's useless. Oh, make him stand up. Oh, talk to him then. Talk to him then. How do we not clash that, man? Mitzki, help. Mitzki, help. That's cheap. Bro, this game is just cheap. You can't have a good time in this game unless you're willing to play cheap. This game is cheap, bro. This is like somebody that, stop. I'm playing cheap now. Blocking. Into a grab. I understand.  I did, in fact, use that strategy on you last time. I can't complain. Oh, your boy. Your boy's getting a little nice, your boy's advancing. That one wasn't going to work. Oh, your boy's getting nice. I'm actually, yes, that was sick. That was sick. I'm playing the game now.  This character is cheap. This character is so cheap. That should not be allowed. How did that come on me through the sub in a block? Through a sub in a block? I got to get my subs back. 14 seconds is too long. All right. We're going into karma. It's me again. I shouldn't hit. What?  Give me that guard break. I know that guard's not that healthy, man. All right. We got him on the back foot. I shouldn't have gotten hit there. Jesus. Jesus. Characters. Oh, that is so broken. Oh, I'm dead. Wait, maybe not. I don't know. We're probably still dead. We're just down in the sub economy so bad right now. I just don't know how I'm feeling. I don't know how I'm feeling on the winnable state of this game. Our subs are coming back. He's out of chakra. We might as well just hit the floor. His team is cheap, man. The guard damage this team can do is wild. I'll take it. We're going to force this up here. I'm low on chakra though. So I think I'm just going to... Oh, no. Cheating-ass character. I should have been throwing the paper bombs all along, man. Cheeeeep. Kaze, Kaze. I'm going for it. Karma. Launch up. I've gotten no other choice. Oh, my God. Sarada. Oh, my... Damn, I just got outplayed on the chakra-ass. That was a good game. Good set. Let's get it to the next one. I'm warmed up now. I'm warmed up. Look, I'm back on my connections arc. Okay, I'm back on the connections arc. I've relearned the connections mechanic. I'm ready for anything the world has to throw at me at this point. Oh, except for this loading... Yeah, I'm doing it again. I'm complaining again. Why they got me going up against pirate Narita? Is he here? He is. He is here. I'm going in there. Again, I feel like... Oh, wow. I feel like I'm ready for pretty much anything, but maybe the player base has just evolved too far for me. But I refuse to believe that. Maybe this person has the right idea. Maybe delaying your sub. Maybe you've got to really delay it in this game. I mean, I'm just going to combo it, though. All right. Attack is too slow. You've got to play a cheaper team than that. You're going to have to play a much cheaper team if you're going to keep up with me. Square Jutsu? Wasn't the Jutsu to use? That was just sick. The jump timing on that was nuts. And there's the super armor again. Again, if you're... If you actively still play Storm, not even just connections and you tried connections, what did you think on the... On just the... Whoa, that was sick. That was good. That was good. What did you think about the super armor on Jutsus? I think that might have been too strong. I keep saying that, but... Again, it's just... It feels too good every time. It feels very cheap. All right. We'll take the ultimate, but now it's time to start spamming some... Some just normal shuriken and stuff. We're just trying to take a cheap little win here. Oh, man. Stop. Oh, my God. I keep throwing. I'm throwing. I can't throw this, right? Surely I can't throw this. Please win. Please win. Oh, my God. I'm panicking. There we go. Holy moly. I was panicking up a storm. Thankfully, the round system is actually... It makes it less heartbreaking to lose health in those matches unless you just... Actually just perma-lose. No way. Oh, my God. Damn, that was a good reset. Got to fly over here. Thank you, pirate Naruto. All right, full screen. We're just going to go into a Jutsu again instead of not... We'll take a trade there though. What hit me? What is going on? What was that? I don't even know what Jutsu that was. I don't even know what Jutsu that was. I'm pissed. I lost so much to it. Oh, was her summoning... At this point, I just got to let the subs come back on this one. Slow me down. Okay. If we could just win this sub-battle. Right. No, no, no. I need to win this sub-battle right here, right now. Naruto assist. I'm going in sub-less. Please, please. I deserved it. I deserved it. I deserved it. Let me get this win though. I need this win. I'm dashing in. Counter it. Oh, sub. Hey, this person's warmed up now. This person's warmed up now. I love to see it. I love the competition. I got to stop one dashing so early and two cancelling my combo because I misread the dash. Mitsuki, thank you. Mitsuki, my goat actually saving me. Unlike the Sarut assist who's only here for the semantics of it all. Thank you, Sarutta. Never mind. Did I say that? I didn't mean that. I did not mean that at all, Sarutta. I'm sorry you had to hear me say that. Team Jutsu! I still miss. Run into it though. I'll take that. I'll take that damage. I could have gotten more. Where's that final sub at? I need that sub. I need it. No, wait. It's not because that's game. I'll take it. We get a win. Finally, it feels like it's been 40 minutes, but we finally get a win and I'm going to go all set long win, win, win. I need that. Give me one more. Give me one more. I need it. Give me one. Oh, the rank up screen strikes again. One more. Yes. And we actually get it. Nice. Back in again, I feel like we can have a stronger performance if I just do a better job of not dropping so many combos to mainly just fear if I'm being honest. I just, I have to just not be afraid of the late sub and just instead trust my reaction speeds like right here. I'm feeling right now. All right. Mitsuki, Mitsuki assist for the safety mix ups. That's not how this game works, but I tried it. I use way too many subs in that battle though. I'll take it dude. The late subs on that did nothing to me. So I feel like saving your subs for too long is probably not the best just because of, I don't know, the game system is very like offense rewarded. There we go. Dude, that's, that's the performance I wanted to see the whole time. Clean sweep. I felt like we were in control that entire time, especially of the sub economy to a quick little range Jutsu into a Sarada call. Armor on the Jutsus. I'm out of here. Shout out Boruto. All right. We burned a sub for him. Okay. So I got him to cancel out. I feel like we're, oh no, please give me that attack. I'll take it up on subs. We've got a Mitsuki to protect. Mitsuki protects a little bit. I break your wide open terrible Jutsu. You can't play these characters online, bro. Some characters are made better than others. I'm speaking like I actually know the tier list, bro. Karen could actually be secret OP and I would never know. I would just, I would never know. I'm just spreading me when I spread false information online. I changed out in a Sarada. Let's try it. No, I thought that would maybe get around it. Get a sub. Get a sub. Thank you. I was too late. Ginori. Still too cheap. Ginori with armor. He's too cheap. I'm embracing the cheapness of connections. Get more people on the steam charts, bro. Even though I'm playing on PlayStation. We need more people on connections. Bring back. Well, I'm not going to lie. Connections, the developers need to update connections. How about that? Let's start with that. Developers, can we get some updates on connections? Then we can get the players back. Round one again. I just got to show up. I just got to perform. There we go.  How did I get so unlucky with that? There we go. Chakra cancel. I'm using, I have to actually use that because obviously it's the, it's such a good defensive option. I mean, it's crazy. It turns their offense against them to the point where you just have to do it to play. Even though I accidentally way too early cancel out of that. If we can force a sub here though, they're not going to do it. I'll take that though. I'll take that all day. Didn't even use any chakra on that one. That was risky. And we're saying on out of there to safety into a meat ski into a dash up. Oh, this could be bad. That could have been really bad. I'm not even going to lie. Oh, except now it's not cheap. Except now it's not a bad idea. It was a great one. We are running away though. I'm not trying to play. I'm just going to arm it up though. Honestly, super armor. What are you going to do? What? G Dory. Thank you. Sorry. Sorry. I said that thing about your assist. Why am I doing that? Oh, man. I'm messing up bad. I'm saving the sub. No, I'm not. No, I'm not. Am I a coward? What a mix. Oh, what a mix with the pots and pans. Sarda, save me. Thank you, Sarda. Oh, Sarda wasn't good enough. Sarda wasn't good enough. Meat ski, save me. Oh, it wasn't good enough. Damn. I didn't even go a lot. I don't think the power of the karma is saving this round. And if it does, then I'm just him. Dara, so what are you doing here? I got to be him. I got to be him right now. I got to be him. Oh my gosh. Yes. Double counter on both. No, no, no, no. I should have just set my feet and countered that I knew it was coming. That would have been a great comeback, though. He's in range. Keep on their back foot. Okay. Come off that. Hang on. Cheap stuff. Oh, it's a grab. Oh, good. Nice. I was waiting. I went a little silent there. Got to sub this. Maybe he wants to wait. In that case, I'm going to make it hurt, though. There it is. There it is. Please combo. No, break his guard at least. Ah, damn. Damn. Now his guard breaks. No. Bro, that was going to be so sick. Regardless, I had a great time coming back to connections. Overall, I'm just kind of sad the developers, you know, shipped the game in its state and didn't add more to it or at least invites, man. No turn, no online modes at all. I mean, come on, man. Kind of disappointing. And it's sad to see the way the game is performing, at least on steam right now, especially with four being higher. That is just a sad sight when any series has a previous entry clocking and higher. But I'm going to leave it off with that. If you enjoyed this video, check out another video on your screen now. I've been Dudley. I'm a big fan of Storm Connections. And I'm hoping the developers can clutch up. Thank you for watching. Goodbye.


Hello friends, welcome back to my channel. Today, we're doing something I'm really excited to do. I'm calling it a mid-year reset. I don't know if it's gonna be quite like other reset videos that have been out there. I have been loving watching them. They're more like organizing TBR car or bookshelves or like video planning. I'm pretty ahead on all of that. I don't really have any plan to do. But what I do need to do is fess up to my sins. Let's just say the devil made me do it. I wanna go through some things with you that I've previously done like whole videos on. I don't think I have enough to say between whole videos and each of these. But they are kind of goals or things that I track throughout the year. And I just thought we'd go through them and how I'm doing on all of them. They're things that you ask me a lot about. So I thought, let's just go through them together. So today in this mid-year reset, we're gonna talk about how I've been doing actually reading the TBR Clido books that I have put on TBR Clido. How my series reading is going, because a lot of you know one of my big goals always is to keep on track of series. We'll talk about that in that section. And then kind of all the other goals that I set at the start of the year. I didn't say that a lot, but we're gonna chat about them and how I'm doing on them. So that's the plan today. We're gonna go through each of them together. Let's start with TBR Clido because that one, it's a little bit of a mess, guys. TBR Clido has been a fricking mess this year. I don't wanna talk about it, but we have to. I need to like cleanse. It's a reset because I'm resetting the guilt by admitting to you by what's been happening. I'm like, you know, we're gonna start afresh, hopefully. So let's go chat about it. So TBR Clido, we're just gonna talk about up to June. So we're gonna talk about the first six TBR Clidos of the year because it's still July when I'm filming this. I think this will be going out in August, but it is still July for me. So it would throw the stats off if I included July's. So out of the 36 books that have been on TBR Clido in the first six months of the year, I have read 29, okay? I've read 29 of them, which you may be thinking Megan, that's not that bad. That is not that bad. Seven books that I haven't read out of 36 that have been on TBR Clido in the first half of the year. However, out of those 29, I only read 14 in the month that it was supposed to be read. Can't get any worse than what it is. Any worse, we're at the bottom. Now I spoke about this when I did this video last year. At least one book every month, I will not read in the month that it's supposed to be pretty much because my book club pick that gets chosen in TBR Clido for my Patreon, I typically always read that right at the start of the next month, depending on how weekends fall. So I very rarely read the book club pick in the actual month. I usually read it right at the start of the next month so that it's fresh for me for the book club. So let's look at these in particular. These are the books I've read per month, okay? So I've read six. I've read all of the books so on January, February, March as TBR.  They're wiped clean, okay? April, I have read five and May and June, I have only read three. I've only read half of those TBR Clido still. I think I've been having to push videos back a bit. I may, I had that video where I read all the Goodreads mystery thriller winners from the past however many years and I was trying not to tell you a lot of the books. I was trying to put them in TBR Clido. I was trying not to tell you about them because I wanted that video to be a surprise. I think I only put one of them on TBR Clido and that video just took me so long to make. I think that was in May, I wanna say. So it just meant that other videos got pushed back and pushed back that were supposed to happen and now haven't, still haven't happened, basically. In terms of how many books I read in the month that they were supposed to be read, January, I read three, February, I read two, March, I read four, April, I read three and May and June, I read one. That's so bad, I only read one book from TBR Clido. Here's the thing, right? This whole year, I felt like I just didn't get off to a good start in like January or February and then the whole year I've been trying to catch up. So like, I've just been reading a lot of books from previous months in months rather than reading the actual books from TBR Clido. In May, I haven't been reading May's books. I've been reading February's books. Do you know what I mean? So in terms of the 14 that I did not read in the month that I have read, but I did not read in the month that I was supposed to read them, 12 I read one month later, one I read three months later and two I read five months later. Sorry, what? Huh? You're what? Where? Are you jogging? They were from January's TBR, weren't they? I think it was Spare and Only Human by Sylvain Nouvelle. I ended up only reading in June when I went on holiday. I just went on January's TBR. I think because they were both audio books that I just thought I'd get around to but wouldn't be in vlogs and then I just pushed them off and pushed them off. But I read them on holiday so it's all good, I read them eventually. My average rating for TBR Clido this year has been 3.65. My average rating so far this year has been 3.7 so pretty much the same. There's very much difference. It's probably been like one one star or something in there that's thrown that off. Actually in terms of individual ratings for TBR Clido this year, I've had six five stars, two 4.5 stars, 10 four stars, five 3.5 stars, five three stars, two 2.5 stars, no two stars, one 1.5 star and one one star. If I were not reading two stars, I thought I had one of every level. No I didn't. That's so annoying. I have almost one of every half decimal point from one to five apart from no two stars. Why can't I have given something from TBR Clido a two star? And then just in terms of genres, I always think it's interesting to see which genres I'm picking the most in TBR Clido. Now these are what I would classify that book's primary genre as. Now sometimes in TBR Clido, sometimes I might land on historical and I might pick a fantasy historical book or you can read a fantasy mystery. Now there's a lot of books that have multiple genres that I can pick from, but these are what I would classify as a main genre and sci-fi is on this list, but on TBR Clido, sci-fi falls under fantasy. It doesn't have its own room. So I have read nine fantasy, three horror, eight mystery, two nonfiction, four sci-fi, which is a lot, I don't read a lot of sci-fi, that kind of surprised me. Four romance, three magical realism and two historical. So not surprising fantasy and mystery are my two most read genres. Let's chat about the books that I haven't read briefly. Okay, I don't want any judgment, but this is all the books that have been on TBR Clido this year that I haven't read yet, but that includes July and August. I've just done August's TBR, obviously I kind of read that yet. So let me pick out the ones that are from previous months from January to June. These are the seven books that have been on TBR Clido from January to June that I still haven't read yet. These are all pretty much books, apart from Daughter of Dr. Moro, actually, and The Floating Admiral. These are all ones I didn't have set plans to read in videos, and so I need to fit them into other videos. The Floating Admiral I have plans, I think I might be doing this video in September. I don't think I'm gonna get round to it in August now. Same thing for The Daughter of Dr. Moro. I don't think I'm gonna get round to the video that this was supposed to be in, but maybe I'll put that in September too. And then these five, we have Spoiler Alert by Olivia Dade, Nevermore the Charles of Morgan Crow by Jessica Townsend, Escaping from Houdini by Carrie Maniscalco, Take My Hand by Deline Perkins Valdez, and Honey and Spice by Bolly Babilola. I have not read them and I don't have set plans to read them. So my plan is just to fit these into any vlogs that I can, but also, you know, I kind of am feeling a lot of dread around these, so I'm not feeling necessarily excited to read them because I'm just feeling guilt. So the plan is, if I can fit these into vlogs that I'm doing, I'll try and get some of them ticked off, but I'm also thinking I'm gonna have to do a video at the end of the year, finishing off any books that have been in TBR Clouder that I haven't read yet, because I can't let it continue any longer. So I mean, we've got like two romances. I'm really excited for Honey and Spice. I need to just read it. And Nevermore, those of you who said it's good, Escaping from Houdini continues a series. I need to make progress in series, we'll talk about that next. And Take My Hand is really highly rated. So you know what? It's okay. These seven books, hopefully I'll get around to them soon. But obviously I still need to keep up with all those books that have just been, oh no, I put them on the floor. All those books that have been added to July and August that I haven't read yet. So I've only read, how many of July's have I read? Oh, okay. I've read three of July's, but I'm gonna read two others this week. And I only have one, which is the Gilded Wolves, which I didn't manage to fit into a video this month, which I do need to read, but I don't know when I'm gonna fit that into a video. So we'll see, we'll see. So series, okay. I might not go back in. I'm gonna go home, actually. Now, if you're right with my hair, you'll know that finishing series is a struggle. It's always a big goal of mine to finish more series. Last year I had a big goal of like, I wanna get down to this many series. It was quite a big goal. This year, the goal I set myself at the start of the year was just to have a net negative in series. So just to finish one more series when I start, easy, right? No, I think this is gonna be my goal for a couple of years to come. I would like to kind of get the series number down a little bit, but it's not happening. It's not happening. So at the start of the year, I was currently reading 34 series, okay? I was currently reading 34 series. So far this year, I have finished four. Not terrible, kind of terrible, definitely not great. I have started eight series. So I have started double than what I have finished. But I am currently reading 41 series. And you may be thinking, Megan, the math doesn't math. Well, out of the four I finished, one was when I started this year. So that's only minus three. So minus three plus eight is plus five. So I should be on 39. However, there were two sneaky series that I thought were done or I thought weren't fricking series that were. I'm so sorry. I know, but like honestly, I just feel so deceived. So the Sheets Graphic Novel series by Brenna Thunner. I didn't realize a third one was coming. So the third one is coming out this year. So I will finish that series this year, but it wasn't on my currently reading series at the start of the year because I thought the series was finished. And fricking night swim has turned into a series. I have for the second book now, but I have no idea, this series could go on forever. I have no idea how long this Rachel Krull investigate series from Macon Golding is gonna go on for. The second one is Dark Corners, which I do own. So we're currently reading 41. So in order to reach my goal of net negative, I have to finish seven series and not even start anymore. God, okay. Let me quickly screen record. I'll just scroll through my series spreadsheet because I know that is interesting to some of you. So here we are.  I don't really like the colors. It was always on my back of my mind to do list to fix the colors, basically. But anyways, so we have, Talking Director of series is the oldest series on my TBR. I would really like to finish that. Obviously the third one was on TBR Cluedo. I would love to finish that this year. Urquiparo, I'm like never gonna finish or it won't be for a long time. So at the moment, I like to just schedule them into like sets of five. I'm only on set two, but I'm gonna do a reread of my Donning or Express at some point in the next couple of months, probably in the winter. So anyways, let's scroll through these series, like these middle grade series. I either need this three here that I started in 2020 and I have not made progress in any of them. I probably need to make progress in them soon or not continue them, basically. So underlined in the spreadsheet means that I own it. Italics over here means that it has not come out yet and bold means I only have to read one book to finish that series, to my knowledge. Like this one by Sean McGuire, the middle game series, do we know? Are there gonna be any more books on that? If you know, please let me know. Cause there's so many series on here, I don't know, is there gonna be more books, you know? So the bold ones, I only have to read one more. I'd love to finish the Daughter of the Smokin' Bone series or the Broken Earth series. Lady Hardcastle, I'm not doing terribly. I'm gonna read the Fatal Flying Affair this month, hopefully. So listen, I'm like almost caught up with that one. But yeah, some of these ones, they're bold. We only have one more book to finish the series. Are gonna be my priority, basically the last five months of this year. Anyway, keep on scrolling, keep on scrolling. There we go, also like this new series from the Kind Worth Killing, the Kind Worth Saving, is there gonna be more in that series?   Oh, I have to mark that as bold because I only have to read one more for that. Also, where's sheets? Cause although that's coming out, we can mark that as bold because I only have to read that one. So yeah, that's basically it. I don't know if that's interesting to you guys. I know some of you like to see it, but that's where we're at. A lot of series you can see, I have only read the first book. I'm really bad at that, we know. But if I could make some more progress this year in some series that would be great. So down here just quickly is my completed series. These are the four series I finished this year. The Girls of Paper and Fire trilogy. I read the whole Bill Hodges trilogy for that Goodreads video that I mentioned earlier. The Themis Files by Sylvain Nouvelle I finished and the King of Skars trilogy I finished. DNF, I think I've DNFed six series, or maybe I should add fourth wing here now. As well, which is one of my last video. So maybe seven series I've DNFed where I've read the first book or The Up and Under by Shona Maguire. I decided to not continue as well. After reading the second book this year, I decided not to continue it. But yeah, the rest of the ones are ones I've read the first book and decided not to continue. And then finally, let's chat through how I'm doing on my other 2023 reading goals. I'm not doing terribly, I'm not doing great. Let's start off on a positive. My first goal was to read 100 books this year as my Goodreads goal, but like aim for 150. I've never read 150 books in a year. It was a goal of mine last year that I did not complete. I'm on track, guys. Yes, yes. I'm on track. I've read 86 books so far this year, which obviously I'm gonna hit 100 probably next month or so. I think at exactly the end of June this year, I had read 75 books. I'm pretty sure, maybe like 74, 76, something around that. So I'm pretty much on track. I don't wanna say, I don't wanna like, you know, touch wood. I don't wanna say it too strongly. But I think I'm on track to read 150 books for the first time ever. I can achieve that. I will be really proud of myself. The closest I've ever got, I think the most I've ever read in a year is like 131, something around that. So yeah, last year in 2022, I read 132 books a year. In 2020, I read 131. So that's always kind of been my limit. If I can push that to 150 books this year, I will be very happy. Next goal is not so good. My next goal was to get my physical TBR under 200. I really, really, really wanna try and do this in the last five months a year. Like I really wanna try and do it. But it's a balancing act with like buying the next books in series so I can make progress in series, buying more 2023 releases so I can read more 2023 releases so I can get into like it's a balancing act as to how I achieve this. The goals get under 200. I started the year on 227 books on my physical TBR. I'm currently on 236. I don't know how this happened. I don't know how I've hauled more books than I've read. I don't feel like I've done that, but apparently I have. So yeah, we're on 236, my physical TBR. I really, really, really want to try and get this under 200. It's quite a big ask now because I've only got like five months to like read 36 books that I haul, do you know what I mean? Like it's, we've got a tighter timeframe. It was a big goal to get it under 200 with 227 at the start of the year. So if we can get it close, but I really want my TBR. Like I think the sweet spot for me with my TBR is like 160 to 180. I don't need over 200 books on my TBR. So I would really like to get that low. So like me saying this to now, it's hopefully gonna hold me accountable guys. And then my final other goal, reading goal for this year was to read more 2023 releases, read more new releases than I had last year. So last year I read 33 2022 releases in 2022, which is not bad. Like that's pretty good. So far this year, I've only read nine 2023 releases. I have not been doing the best at reading new releases. So that is a goal. But I always feel like I read more new releases at the end of the year anyway, because like the first couple of months of the year there's not as many to read. You're kind of maybe reading 2022 releases more. So hopefully we'll ump this up. Like I read two 2023 releases in the last two days. Do you know what I mean? So it is ramping up now. And I'm gonna be doing the Goodreads mystery thriller category, reading that again this year. So that will be quite a lot. So I think we're gonna be okay. I've got some pre-orders I'm really excited about. I wanna get through these. So I'm gonna plan out the rest of my videos for the rest of the year today as well. Hopefully all sometime in the next couple of days cause I'm feeling inspired. And I'm gonna try and do videos that, you know will enable me to do this, fingers crossed. So there we have it. That is one of the things I wanted to chat to you about and reset the energy going into the last five months of the year because I wanna achieve some of these things I'm aiming to achieve. I wanna get better at reading TV arcane effects in the month they're supposed to be read. I wanna hit my series goal. I wanna reach some of these other goals I've spoken to you about. So it felt good checking in with you even though it was like laying bare my truth. I hope you enjoyed this video. Let me know how you're doing on the mid-year point. Well, it's past the mid-year point. It's still July, which is like, you know but at this point in the year, how are you doing on all of your kind of goals and reading goals and stuff that you track? I would love to know. Thank you guys so much for watching this video and I'll see you very soon in another one. Bye.