From The Conversation, this is Don't Call Me Resilient. I'm Vanita Srivastava. The flag is not just violent. The flag can be many different things. The critical question is to ask why are those who acknowledge its violence depicted as killjoys or marginalized or stigmatized? What brings us together today was my realization of how viscerally afraid of the Canadian flag I have become. When I see somebody flying the flag now, I think white supremacy. And when I say now, I mean after the convoy in Ottawa. And I really took a step back to explore this. And I'm not speaking for any other communities. Perhaps many people already felt this way about the Canadian flag. After the graves were found at residential schools, the Canadian flag was flown at half-mast in many places to show solidarity with Indigenous communities. And last Canada Day, many people called for orange instead of red and white. But I'm a child of the 70s, and I grew up to think that this was kind of a safe patch that I put in my knapsack when I travel. And I think a lot of people, regardless of their generation, feel proud to be Canadian. But symbols can and do change. That's part of the reason we started thinking about this kind of a conversation. And I know that protest movements like Land Back, and Idle No More, and Pride, and Black Lives Matter have all raised awareness about challenges to Canadian nationalism and belonging. Both of our guests today have deeply studied concepts of multiculturalism, citizenship, and belonging. Daniel McNeill is a professor and Queen's National Scholar Chair in Black Studies at Queen's University. His scholarship is intersectional and looks at history and culture and the complexities of global Black communities. Also joining us is Lucy Al-Sharif, a PhD candidate in ethnic and pluralism studies at the University of Toronto. Lucy explores questions of belonging and citizenship and asks, what does it mean to be a settler of colour in Canada as she holds up a mirror to her communities? Welcome Lucy, and welcome Daniel. Thank you so much for having me. Thanks so much. When I first started my job at the Conversation Canada, we were coming up to Canada 150. Hello everyone. Happy Canada Day. Today we celebrate 150 years since Confederation. It's a day to celebrate our past and look boldly towards our future. So we were sitting in our newsroom and there was a lot of debate about whether we should acknowledge the colonial anniversary. We have Indigenous peoples living in third world conditions in First World Canada. We're here on Algonquin unceded and unsurrendered territory. Our people have suffered hundreds of years of colonialism. This celebration of 150 years of 150 years of colonialism and policies of genocide. And finally we decided that instead of talking about Canada 150, we were going to talk about Canada 2167. 150 years into the future. Because it was one thing that we could agree on. We could talk about our future in a way that was positive and not necessarily celebrate the 150 years of colonialism. Well, we're only five years removed from that now and I know that in our little corner in our newsroom, things have really changed. We've really grown as journalists. We've really learned how to challenge that colonial project, the 150 year idea. And I wonder what you feel Lucy, have things changed if we've grown as citizens since then? What's really interesting about your lead up in the question is how you've phrased whether we should acknowledge the colonialism of Canada's 150th anniversary. And I think it being a question is really a very privileged position from which particular people like myself as an immigrant to Canada or like many other people can take. For many there's really no question about it. It just seems ludicrous looking back at a time when we actually thought, oh, do we need to acknowledge the genocidal nature of colonialism and Canada's 150 or not? And the way that in 2022 the ludicrousness of that question is really hard to ignore. I joined graduate school in 2012. I had just become a Canadian citizen. I had just made an oath of allegiance to the Queen of Canada which is very interesting because I was born British and I never had to swear allegiance to the Queen. I swear that I will be faithful and bear true allegiance to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II Queen of Canada And now here I am becoming a Canadian citizen and I have to suddenly affirm or swear allegiance to this personage. And what really strikes me when you ask that question is how early voices who were pointing out the ludicrousness of Canada want to see as a celebration of Canadian nationalism and who really question the basis that underpin that celebration. These people were really vilified and they had to go through a great deal of hate speech. What comes to mind is the young woman, Missouma Khan, at Dalhousie University. She's a brown woman. She wears hijab. And at the time she put forth emotion to suggest that Dalhousie Student Union not celebrate the 150th Confederation celebration and the motion was put to vote and the motion passed. Basically Canada 150 according to the Student Union we should not be celebrating this. We should instead be discussing the true history of Canada. Exactly. Her motion was not for all of Dalhousie University. It was for Dalhousie University Student Union. She was vilified and people came after her personally. And the attacks that came at her were very well known attacks that are directed at people of colour and black people and indigenous people whenever we question what's going on with Canada who do you think you are go back to where you came from. You should be grateful that you came to this country and particular attacks were directed at Missouma Khan in relation to her wearing hijab. And they're very specific Islamophobic attacks that were made at her. And what's also interesting about this is Missouma Khan was not an immigrant. Missouma Khan was born in Canada. She had lived in Canada all of her life. Her parents had immigrated a few decades ago but she was as Canadian as anybody else. Except for the fact of course that she was brown and she wore hijab. The attacks that came at her were incredibly hateful. She responded to some of them and what ended up happening that was really mind boggling is that Dalhousie University started to discipline her as she was facing. So what does it mean for a person of color to make a statement like this?  We really need to think about what does it mean to be a person of color living as a settler on indigenous land and what does it mean for us to express solidarity with indigenous people. The stakes for people of color maybe we can bring Daniel into this conversation. There's important connections not just to think about how we approach this in a Canadian context but also a lot of my work is thinking about transnational or translocal connections. In my forthcoming book, Thinking Well Black we talk about a famous book that was written in the 1980s called The Ain't No Black in the Union Jack and that was one of the chants the hooligans and members of the far right used the chants of football games and in marches to try and exclude and alienate people of color in the UK and at that time in the 1980s black was a political term that included people from Asia Caribbean and Africa. When we think about this as a long story rather than just a recent story we get to think about what's changed but also what's continued. As a graduate student in the 2000s I think back to that period and I think back to what were the narratives that were being shared and being repeated in the media and when I think back to that time I was still hearing the narrative and I'm still hearing the phrase that Canada is a nation of immigrants. Have we challenged that narrative? Is that still being repeated? I think it has been challenged effectively to avoid people using that again but the legacy of it, the memory of it continues to inform a lot of debates and to come back to the first point I was saying around the right no black in the union Jack the right no black in the maple leaf I don't think we have those types of narratives anymore but the question then becomes on what grounds is blackness permitted or supported or recognised when it does enter into the Canadian public sphere and I think that's an interesting conversation that we still have to have and as Lucy articulated so beautifully we still have to struggle for. You're talking about the Canadian flag and is blackness a part of Canada? Can we just ask that question? My sense would be that blackness is part of Canada and I think it's an example of struggle to ensure that it is recognised but I think a lot of my work and a lot of the work of great scholars like Richard Iton, Catherine McKittrick and others is to address not just how marginalised groups have fought for recognition within a state that has so often demonised them but also to think about the limits of that recognition and bring up that point around it's not just about blackness being recognised it's also about acknowledging the limits of that recognition also these strategies of recognition can also be part of what Glen Coulthard and others have called a colonial politics of recognition that is intended to sublimate or marginalise or incorporate voices to try and limit and soften or even reduce the radical demands I think that's partly what you both write about when you talk about the brand of Canada we're talking about your analysis of Canada's multiculturalism and multicultural policy what would you say is Canada's current brand? What would you prefer it to be? I'm an immigrant to Canada I had to do the citizenship exam the oath of affirming allegiance to the Queen is really setting the terms of what Canada's brand of multiculturalism of what its brand of social relations is you're all going to live in this country and your allegiance is to the Queen which is allegiance really to white supremacy therefore in relating to indigenous people I am expected to relate to them through the oaths that I have made to the Queen and that white supremacy organises my relationship with indigenous people with black people with people who are from other social groups and so what does it mean for me to come into Canada as an Arab Muslim who is racialised Arab Muslims are racialised in very particular ways and then to say well I want to relate to indigenous people in a different way that you made this oath and the terms in which I came into Canada were about white supremacy these are the social relations that you are expected to have it's really a very interesting encapsulation of what the social relations we are expected to have with each other, with the land of Canada if you look in the citizenship exam and how it describes our relationship to the land of Canada there is extraction, there is tourism that it doesn't really tackle indigenous relations in place indigeneity is always this kind of pre-historic existence so if I was to go back to the question of the brand of multiculturalism in Canada we are all subsumed under this title of whiteness and we relate to each other via white supremacy that's how it is multiculturalism is really an avenue for us to express my belonging to Egypt my belonging to the Arab world my expressions as a Muslim but really beyond that anything that is more political than that is not really in Canada's brand of multiculturalism so when a young courageous woman like Missou Mahan says we shouldn't be celebrating Canada 150 this is a celebration of indigenous genocide she has stepped outside that contract outside the brand of multiculturalism that she was expected to have interestingly enough if a white person makes that statement I'm not saying it's going to be smooth sailing for them but the kinds of arguments the kinds of hate speech that are mobilized are different articulate problems with this model that we have certainly not people of color and not with the same stakes either that's why I was talking about the brand too because it's this idea that we should be grateful can I ask you that same question Daniel about the brand of multiculturalism is the audience for multiculturalism presumed to be the queen just intrude and or generic imaginary white middle class Canadians and I think when we do talk about multiculturalism we're often thinking about how do minority or ethnic groups translate their identities to a presumed white audience and a white audience that is imagined to be fearful or somewhat ignorant about those groups that often leads to a certain oversimplification of ethnicity so it's not as if Iranian groups are encouraged to engage in conversations with indigenous groups it's not as if Caribbean groups are encouraged to engage with those from Africa there is a presumption that these groups are all in competition with each other for the attention of this audience part of the work I'm doing with students to think about an immigrant's guide to Canada where the presumption is not here's how we encourage and train individuals to fit in to a presumed Canadian norm but how do we listen more carefully to the insights of migrants to Canada who have interesting things to tell us about the liveliness, the radicalness, the ambiguity the messiness of Canada so again we're getting back to this idea of avoiding narrowly confining what Canada is and thinking more broadly and more creatively about how Canada can move in multiple directions the sense I get of branding Canada as multicultural is also the idea around defining Canada as welcoming to others and defining Canadians by their positive traits of fairness openness and generosity so I haven't gone through citizenship on the permanent resident I'm profoundly ambivalent around swearing an oath of allegiance to the queen I haven't gone through that but when I have studied the citizenship documents when other scholars have addressed these documents that's what they've tended to find that these citizenship documents continue to address and imagine Canada as open and generous these documents do acknowledge racism in Canada they do acknowledge crimes but they tend to acknowledge those crimes against indigenous groups as distinct to the essence of Canada those crimes happen but the states and Canadian institutions can rectify them these abuses against minority and ethnic groups are not seen as constitutive of Canada that's an important distinction addressing history becomes so important because if there is this presumption that migrants have been given freedom when they arrive in Canada then it's what a lot of philosophers have called a horrible gift of freedom because it not only takes away the agency of our ancestors who struggled for their freedom it also says that because we've given you freedom you should eternally be grateful for it and any type of expression of rage, of anger of frustration is seen as illegitimate you wrote an article for us that said that black Canadian activists are pressure to be quiet pressure to be quiet leaders the terminology that you use also in that article is shy elitism what I'm trying to get at with the question around shy elitism or the concept of shy elitism is this idea that Canadian society may talk a lot around incorporating prominent migrants such as Rosemary Brown into Canadian society Rosemary Brown the first black woman to run for a federal leadership to select me to be the new leader of our party what I'm thinking about with shy elitism is this idea that she's given a degree of prominence because of her connections to McGill because of her connections to prominent institutions in Canada so there is this form of elitism in terms of saying what types of respectable figures can be brought in to Canadian society what I wanted to think about with this concept of shy elitism is how there can be a shy form of elitism in Canada where there is this emphasis on McGill U of T queens as elite institutions but at the same time people are told don't appear elitist Rosemary Brown famously talked about how to talk about transformative issues her and other immigrants would say that it has to be communicated in the most banal possible way to the everyday Canadian voter and what I worry about with this is the emphasis around oversimplifying fails to acknowledge the capacity of audiences to think critically to do the kind of work to search out information what's interesting for me is how invested Canadians are in this idea of multiculturalism and in my research when I asked young Arab Canadians what are the things that you're proud of about being Canadian and they always say the same two things multiculturalism and peacekeeping both of those things are incredibly problematic for various reasons when you talked about being a child of the 70s I was also a child of the 70s I was born and raised in the UK in my early years and when I was in Canada and I had my children in Canada I was also amazed at Canadian multiculturalism I was invited to come into the classroom and talk about Ramadan I was encouraged to share Arabic songs with my children's teachers and when I compared that to the 70s in the UK where there were lots of people who would not even talk to me because my parents were from Egypt relatively Canada was amazing I also immigrated to Canada from the United States after 9-11 and when I compare that to what the situation was like for me and my husband in the US after 9-11 and my husband was an Arab Muslim student coming to Canada was almost a sigh of relief Daniel, you called multiculturalism the myth of the Easter Bunny there was a presentation in the UK and there was a Canada Research Chair on the panel but there was also a scholar from the UK called Paul Gilroy Gilroy made a comment around the lines of we need to think about international conversations in which American voices and North American voices do not drown out all the others and the Canada Research Chair interjected and said surely you mean US you mean US voices dominating all others and Gilroy said no you're not getting off the hook here this is also about Canada you've been going around the world selling multicultural snake oil for years so many times in the 1970's people could say well we're not as racist as the US South we're not as racist as South Africa but that's clearly not the point the point is not for us to have this sense of distance that allows us to feel a little less guilty Superior it's the idea that Canadians are exceptionally superior we're better than those other places we don't just want to think about guilt we also want to think about the idea that shame may be a more productive emotion by that I mean one can often live with guilt you live in it with your private environment but you still go into the public and part of what shame forces us to do is to say that we can't go on simply repeating the same thing simply managing expectations and having a sense of muddling through managing things simply implementing policies sometimes we need to step back and actually ask these deeper perhaps more existential questions around what is this project not just what is this brand but what is this project what constitutes our identities and in performing those identities and cultivating those identities what harm are we doing what are we excluding what violence are we veiling or perpetuating and how are we often failing the ongoing dispossession of land what kind of existential questions should we be asking ourselves in order not to perpetuate the violent system that we're brought into how as communities of color in Canada how many communities are struggling to survive or struggling for recognition what's really important for us to consider is what does it mean for us to think about our relations with other social groups outside of white supremacy what does it mean for me as an Arab Muslim woman with white passing privilege to struggle for recognition in a system that ultimately creates and is anti-black that is fundamentally against indigenous people what does it mean for us to be Canadian who do we want to be as Canadians the real issue in my view with white supremacy it's really insidious how it organizes our relationships with each other as people of color so if I can make gains on the ladder of social and racial mobility by walking over or climbing the ladder on the backs of other people is that ultimately what we want for ourselves as communities it's really important to think about how the system consistently rewards communities and people for engaging in violences towards other social groups it's interesting how I learned this actually from the citizenship study guide how the first person of color the first black person to receive the Victoria Cross was a man who participated in the Siege of Lucknow which is a city in India the British were bombing Lucknow and of course Canadians have sent forces to support the British and the black person had participated in that Siege of Lucknow so well that he got the Victoria Cross and what that spells out to us the way in which this person who is a black person was rewarded for participating in the oppression of brown people it's really insidious the way the white supremacy organizes our relationships with each other my ancestors are from Lucknow oh really? not even my ancestors, my dad if we recognize someone who predominantly white communities racialize as non-whites then we're moving forward in quote-unquote race relations so what I'm reminding of with UC's reflections is wonderful philosopher Lewis Gordon who talks about bad faith and anti-black racism and when Lewis is talking about anti-black racism he says that an anti-black world doesn't just say number one be white it also says number two if you can't be white don't be black and by that he means connected to communities connected to a sense of being in the world that's governed by Euro-modernity let me ask the very basic question because we started off with this idea of how the spark started for this episode and my question to you both is has the Canadian flag become a symbol of violence I think it always has been again it's something that is read depending on the context who is reading it when are they reading it, where are they reading it but I think it's important to remember in the Canadian communities in particular it was always seen that way and now we're starting to feel the trepidation that many people view the Canadian flag with we need to ask ourselves so many questions and I think because of the things that you were talking about with the citizenship guide and the things that were taught in school about who we are as Canadians how proud we are about our multiculturalism all of those things I think like Daniel used the word all those relations we've not been taught to unsettle we've not been taught to shake the carpet beneath us also to really think about what stories are attached to the flag for me as somebody who became a Canadian travelling the world on a Canadian passport how the Canadian passport is received the stories that people attach to me as a Canadian when I'm abroad that maybe are different stories and they would attach to me if I have an American passport it's really important to think about what are the stories that are evoked by the flag Daniel can I ask you the same question has the Canadian flag become a symbol of violence there's a danger of reducing it to a single story so the flag is not just violent the flag can be many different things the critical question is to ask why are those who acknowledge its violence depicted as killjoys or stigmatised and that's the key thing for me to think about how by flying the flag or by using the flag in particular ways there's often this power move to try and silence other voices to claim it for one particular narrative the other way that I think about this is to think about it in relation to not just is or is not the flag violent but to think about when we use it does it prolong violence and so how as scholars we don't just find a way for acknowledging pain acknowledging suffering and for pessimism but also how we address the joy in struggle the different ways in which people have come together to make their feelings the issues legible and audible and visible to different communities thinking about yes we have these feelings that we're associating with a flag but taking seriously how others may associate that flag with pleasure or with joy and how we open up space for those conversations about historical memories it kind of reminds me of this idea of Langston Hughes that sometimes one of the most patriotic things that one can do is to challenge your nation this idea of citizenship this idea of belonging is a fluid thing and we need to keep challenging it thank you both very much I really appreciate both of you taking the time to speak with me today about these very complex issues thank you so much that's it for this episode of don't call me resilient Daniel and Lucy thank you for coming on and talking about this challenging subject as we roll into this year's Canada day let us know what you're thinking after that conversation you can email us the old school way or find us online I'm on Twitter at writevenita that's at W-R-I-T-E-V-I-N-I-T-A and don't forget to tag our producers at conversationca use the hashtag don't call me resilient and if you'd like to read more about multiculturalism nationalism and the Canadian flag go to theconversation.com we have all kinds of information in our show notes with links to stories and research this is our last episode of the season if you missed any of our episodes they're all posted on our website and wherever you get your podcasts if you missed any go back and have a listen if you like what you heard today please tell a friend help spread the love leave a review on whatever podcast app you're using don't call me resilient is a production of the conversation Canada this podcast was produced with the grant for journalism innovation from the social sciences and humanities research council of Canada the series is produced and hosted by me Venita Srivastava my series co-producers are Hailey Lewis and sound editor Ligia Navarro Vaishnavi Dandekar is an assistant producer Jennifer Morose is our consulting producer Lisa Verano is our audience development editor and Scott White is the CEO of the conversation Canada and if you're wondering who wrote and performed the music we use on the pod that's the amazing Zaki Ibrahim the track is called Something in the Water


good morning guys and welcome to a new vlog. it's actually kind of the afternoon because it is 11 24 in the morning and i've just kind of had a relaxing morning because yesterday i went to the beach with my friend and we just like hung out. it was just such a much needed day because we used to like catch up and everything. today is like a reset day and i'm just going to take you along for the ride of resetting for the week. i love slash hate days like today because i like resetting for the week but also i just wanted a day to do another thing which i did have one of those days i think last weekend so it's okay. so a couple things well i have a lot of things to do i'm gonna run to the grocery store. i'm gonna plan out videos for this week just kind of like get my bearings on what needs to be uploaded and everything. when you have a full-time job it takes like you don't have a lot of time to like do other things like laundry and like grocery shopping and just like little things that i don't know i guess i took time for granted because now i'm like oh i have to do this i have to do that and it's like kind of annoying but you know it's just one of those things and i guess like that really does sum up that time equals money and everything like that yeah that's definitely one thing i've learned when you get a full-time job and you actually have to be like at a physical location there's not a lot of time for like all the other shit so we're gonna do all the other shit today so i'm gonna do laundry gonna clean my bedsheets which is fun and yeah so let's start off by the planner. i had my night routine go up on saturday which i can cross that off and vlog today i didn't end up vlogging but i'm gonna film a main like a sit-down video today as well that's also on my to-do list because i'm gonna edit that video and then another video and i think this is gonna go up saturday so i'm just like gonna cross it off because that didn't happen vlog today on sunday which i'm doing so pre-planning so i think tuesday's video is going to be materialism video because i'm gonna edit that today and then thursday is going to be adoption video because if you haven't seen it i think i'm going to do like when to tell your child they're adopted just because i don't know some of my adoption videos do well i don't know but i just had that idea and that's what i want to do i want to film my dream workout routine if i didn't have like a job or like responsibilities like this would be like the routine i would follow and do so i'm gonna film that probably on saturday sometimes i don't follow this but it's good to just have like an idea for the next week so i'm not like scrambling you know so yeah i am just going to probably throw in some laundry now and let's see where the day takes us okay so next after i've started a load of laundry which we have a lot of laundry guys like trust me it's kind of crazy luckily i do some laundry on friday just to kind of like keep it under control and stuff we have a lot of stuff because on fridays i typically just do my stuff so i have underwear and socks because i need that stuff for like just daily living so that's what i do typically on fridays but all the other stuff like my parents laundry and everything i have to do today or like saturday but typically i save it till sunday have that in next up every week i hand wash items so one item being my water bottle for cycle bar because i typically don't wash i wash this like once a week and i think it's fine because i just make sure like the mouthpiece doesn't get touched like i keep it in my car like where nothing is like touching it i don't know if that makes sense but anyway each week i wash this and then each week i wash whatever cups i've been using so one of these cups stays at work and then one of these cups stays at home and i just like use it for water because water is the only thing that goes into it i get a new cup each week i always have a glass of water with me just because i like to stay hydrated and it reminds me to like drink water throughout the day because you can get easily dehydrated and as you guys know our bodies are made up of i think 75 percent of water i don't know if that's like accurate but always have water with me so these i just got on amazon i think if you saw that video um i shared those those are awesome i love them but i also love these babies and these are just the starbucks tumblers i think they're the 16 fluid ounce they're the 24 fluid ounce so i just like big cups and bottles so i don't have to keep refilling it so yeah just gonna get to washing these now this is definitely something i do every week okay so just started the dishwasher got done washing my hand washables and now we're gonna go to the store because i don't have like literally anything to eat so i'm gonna go get some salad stuff and then probably have some lunch because it is about that time it's like noon and i'm starting to get really hungry okay quick story time because this has happened like at least three times since like whole quarantine things started so we always like wear slippers in our house pretty much i go out and start driving in these freaking slippers and i'm like oh i don't have shoes on and i'm going to the grocery store oh my goodness guys i'm glad i caught myself because i'm like i started on the gas pedal and i was like oh you changed shoes i swear okay guys the funniest thing just happened all of these just came crashing down not all of them but like four or five why would you pack it so high like come on just need to get some tomatoes over here what an adventure already good thing that these won't tumble down because i was kind of embarrassing okay so just gonna chow down now it's currently one o'clock and threw on another load of laundry and yeah we're just straight chill in here okay so i just got done filming my video for this week well one of them the other one is already pre-filmed and now i'm gonna go start editing them i'm also going to oh dryer's done gotta get that gotta get the clothes out but i have to i also want to watch manda 3 14 oh nines live stream because she sells like crystals and stuff and i just want to like see so i'll probably have that on in the background while i like edit and everything because i want to edit at least two videos and get them up on youtube i don't know if i'll do like the details with like the thumbnail and stuff probably for tuesdays but i don't know i like to keep it pretty chill um but the editing does take a while so i'm gonna do that i have all this laundry over here to put away this is all my stuff i put my parents stuff away but gonna do the laundry and just start editing which is gonna be fun all right gotta get these clothes out getting dinner off here so we got the broccoli going on i don't know if you guys can see get your broccoli here's the broccoli got my drink finishing up laundry so much fun so we're having salmon and broccoli obviously like our usual yeah so pretty much i just relaxed edited a couple videos finished up laundry i don't know just a bunch of like boring stuff i have to put all my clothes away um that are clean in my room so i'll probably do that after and then i have to boil my eggs and kind of prep my lunch for tomorrow so i'll just show you guys like some of the brief i don't know highlighting that this is what the salmon looks like yum yum so in the evenings each week i always prepare my lunch for the next day so just have my eggs here and gonna get them off in 40 37 seconds i put them in boiling water for 20 minutes and then i take them off and pour ice over them i'll show you guys i'll show you guys so i just take them off and then they sit here for like 15 minutes or more it doesn't really matter how long they sit out i mean you don't want them sitting out for too long obviously but they just sit here and chill no pun intended and then you just like wait and then the shell will be easier to peel off okay guys so like in my night routine i have everything pretty much prepped for tomorrow as you guys can see all ready to go i also packed my clothes for tomorrow i'm gonna wear this like sweater dress thing and then obviously like my bras in there so this is all ready to go and i try to make my room like really nice well i mean picked up at least so i put all my clothes away and um this is from when i filmed it earlier but my bed's made and then i lay out my stuff for tomorrow like my clothes i'm gonna wear a cycle bar tomorrow and that my friends is pretty much it for this video i hope you guys enjoyed it make sure to give it a thumbs up subscribe and i'll see you guys in my next video bye


Defense of the train is your affair, my fine fellow, and don't forget it. Don't touch us. We're peaceful citizens. The payroll's a lack of responsibility. Why, we might have been killed.


And we are live. I'm here with Mark Walsh, really excited. We're going to talk about purpose. It's a topic that I actually really enjoy talking about. I just don't get to talk about it often enough. And I'm really glad Mark is doing a summit about purpose called the Purpose Black Belt, which is really cool. And he invited me to be on a panel discussion.  We'll just, you and I talk about purpose. So excited. Mark, welcome. For those who don't know you, and we just say a bit, Mark is the founder of Embodiment Unlimited. Now it's called, right? And the creator of the Embodiment Conference, which is one of the largest online conferences in history, I'm sure with the last half a million, you know, participants and over 1000 speakers. I was one of them grateful to be part of that. Anyway, now Mark is just launching some really cool programs. The previous one he just launched was called ethical marketing. And this coming wine is called Purpose Black Belt. Fun stuff. Mark, let's, let's chat. Let's talk about purpose. It's a pleasure, man. It's a pleasure. Like, today's my day off. I'd messed up and not had a day off of the weekend because this is one of the dangers of purpose. You just want to work all the time. I was like, I need a day off. And Tuesday was the only possibility, but this was the one thing I said, don't cancel that. I want to talk to George. It's always fun talking to George. So yeah, I'm in Tulum, Mexico. It's a tropical rain happening outside. And I've been at the gym and the dentist today. I've been healthy, happy, good to chat, definitely on purpose myself. Yeah, you know, I saw an Instagram post you made today. Is it okay if I'd mention it? I'd mention whatever it's out there. It's too late. It's a good post. You wrote that, you know, I think one thing, I'm just going to, I'm just going to shift my screen if that's okay, because, you know, might as well bring some, some stuff on, on screen here. You wrote that I think one thing that's been hugely underestimated in the various lockdowns is that many who do contribute to the world through their work are feeling lacking. And this is almost worse than death is that's why there's so much ill health and suicide to people after redundancy or retirement as meaning is not a nice to have it's essential. And it shows both the importance of purpose and the dangers of, of having just one way of fulfilling it. This of course needs to be balanced with other health issues but the real, the real meaning issues of not allowing many to work does need to be considered. I love that. Yeah. And my response to that was, you know, like, once you have basic food, you have safety, like you're not afraid of like dying any moment. And which I know is actually a real issue these days but basic health safety health, you know, shelter. Beyond that, it's like you need to feel appreciated, you need to feel of use to society. If you think about it, what is one way that combines all of it combines feeling appreciated and useful and able to pay the bills purposeful work. Right. It's like, that's why it's so important for us to figure this out but but can you know I know it's made a big difference in your life, finding purpose. How did it happen. I was always kind of a purpose fundamentalists, like, at heart, like I, what do you mean by that.  Like it was really obvious to me as a kid, maybe it was because I had confrontations with death that most kids don't, you know, my cousin who I was raised with as a brother killed himself because he regarded his life as meaningless. And he was my hero. He was like my older brother. And I, I remember resting piece Jason throughout there, listening to the podcast in the sky. And I remember thinking, wow, it's really important that your life means something. Because people will literally kill themselves if it doesn't. Of course. And it was intolerable to me to do stuff that wasn't meaningful. Maybe it's part of my ADHD or whatever but at school I found it very hard to work that wasn't meaningful even at school. People said yeah but then you'll get to A levels which is like high school and then you'll get to university.  And the hoops never end actually.  This is a, this is a racket. And I, you know, the hoops keep going, right?  And, you know, now you've got, you can live, which doesn't make sense to me. I always demanded to live immediately. So I always just didn't really have much choice. I always pursued what was meaningful to me. And originally that was Aikido. And, you know, first time I walked into my Aikido dojo at university I was, it just resonated like my whole system lit up. I was like, okay, this is where I should be. You know, and later on there was, there was another moment where I realized it wasn't quite the martial art, it was what was within the martial art. So it was like a refinement, which is often hell. So I was walking across what's called the Green Line in Cyprus, which splits North and South Cyprus. And I was part of a peace project using Aikido, which for me was the coolest thing ever. And there's Israelis and Palestinians and Iraq, Iraqis and Americans and Serbs and you know, there was Greeks and Turks. And I'd kind of volunteered to help this project and they said, okay, Mark, you know your way around, take the group across the border. And it was on my job to get everyone across this border, which was quite, you know, it was tense. It wasn't necessarily a certain thing. And if you imagine sort of old buildings that haven't been touched for us since 30 years ago and I've got rocket holes in them and you know I'm walking through this area and I just had this moment of like this is exactly what I should be doing, where I should be with these people.  And the contrast between the two, the meaningful and the not meaningful was so huge, I just went I cannot let that happen again. I followed that thread, the red thread of meaning through peace projects and war zones and through starting a business and the conference to what I do now. And to me now it's like a tangible physical thing if you're even slightly off it, I don't sleep well I don't eat well I don't feel good if I'm even slightly off it. And we all get drawn off it because we have ego, we have an ego, and we have temptation to use a very old Christian sort of terminology you know Jesus in the desert you get tempted with money and power and sex. And that can take us off it and because we're human we do that or we just sort of get a bit lost or life gets a bit hard so you know like in COVID a lot of people go into a trauma response and start playing it safe. And when you're playing it safe what you're really what you're which is a, you know, let's just focus on the like you said the hierarchy needs a survival needs. Actually that ends in disaster. So, a bit of a long rant there George, but this is my story. Amazing. I didn't I didn't know about most of it. So it's really cool for me to hear it. It's kind of give me the chills. How similar we were as kids because I also, I was constantly questioning through school, like why why the heck are we learning this math concept like, when am I going to use this right. I mean anything, anything after basic algebra was like, why trigonometry why what's the point because university. Well, university now what am I going to study in university.  Okay, let's go law schools and no one you can make money. Right, right that pay what make money to do what pay off the law school loans. That's right doesn't make sense. All in that's the comedian who did a piece on this. It was fantastic. Yeah. I mean, but you're actually right it's like well said the temptations in the desert like so why do so many people go decade after decade, not living not pursuing their purpose is because they want to look like a family well now they have a family support. Actually a lot of people get stuck right because now they're like why I can't. I can't just do my thing. I was challenged people on that one I'm like is the example you want to give to your kids. Not doing what you love.  You wouldn't understand you know have kids and it's like yeah but I've got other things we all have other things. Yeah, yeah. So yeah that's a big excuse. And I've been coaching people for years on this purpose black belt originally was a live course and then and we did it I think five years ago and then the second time and then I took a bit of time off for the first embodiment conference. And then people just kept eating my when's the next one when's the next one you're doing it again and I was like well life courses are really hard for me to like with the chaos and travel so we made into an evergreen course was also makes it cheaper. I mean it's better for our business it's better for other people so we made it evergreen this time but I've been coaching people for ages on this. So I've heard all the excuses and I've heard all the you know the really good reasons you know when people are in trauma responses and they find it hard to feel into it when people are disembodied so they lose that body radar but I've been very lucky to have through this body practice when they don't have people around them who are meaningful like my peers are people like you George like people like you are people who I hang out with, it would be weird. And let's say we're sitting in a coffee shop in San Francisco. If you're on purpose and I'm not. It just feels weird. It's like you know they're doing what they love and they're doing what is meaningful to them. Yeah, what you're good at what you love what contributes. Yeah yeah let's let's let's kind of start getting to that but I want to I want to invite everyone who is watching the video you have me ability to comment below and I really would be interested to know who is watching this and have you had that kind of experience of I can't live a life without purpose like what's your story like I'm really curious like Mark told his story. My story is that I grew up, like I said I was questioning through school but really just even looking around. I guess my meal part of it is my dad started his own business. So I grew up with an entrepreneurial dad I think that was part of it. Right, it's like it's very helpful like oh well, of course you can, you know, pave your own way or go your own way instead of for somebody else so I think. Yeah, early on that was with him and plus we immigrated. When I was six years old we immigrated to another country to United States. So that also it's like immigrant club you know from an Irish immigrant family immigrants do better man mess with all there is to it. Yeah, because it shows you that some you know something big changes possible when your family moved to hold another country. Yeah, right. That is why I think there's so many good businesses that come out immigrant populations.  Well, so anyway, please comment below I love to know those of you are watching this what is your story of how you know why why what what's your big why like why why why does it. So I want to ask you mark how did you then. How do you. I know you're going to go into this and we're going to talk about this in the summit. The course itself has, by the way, can I just, since this is authentic I'm actually authentically excited about the course. So I, before I we go into more I just want to show people real quick what you put together, just for like two minutes. No, I know I can't. No, no, I haven't all my team did this. They actually emailed me and said, George, can you can you give me your feedback on the sales page. So I read this today. And I make this is really cool like you got this know yourself off the press I mean I gave them the content but they put it the web guys and they put it together. This is the first look actually. And it's going to be even better it's going to you know it's it's kind of talk about those belts because this might be interesting. The white belt which I don't really do is like I'm completely lost I have no idea what I'm doing my life. Okay, that we can call that stage one if people want to put it in the Facebook chat. Stage two is like okay I kind of getting to know myself I've done some personal growth but I want to fine tune my purpose. Yeah, and there's a sort of caveat here in the in the modern in the situation we find ourselves in with people have either had their practical situations rearranged by COVID. Which is a gigantic existential death meditation so that's fantastic for purpose, or they've had their like existential kind of doubt they've had sort of you know they've had time you know they've had a change of circumstances giving them a chance to reflect. So that's sort of orange yellow slash orange bell. That's the sort of like people that want to deepen or clarify purpose or who have lost it a bit and they want to come back to it maybe because of external circumstances maybe because of internal circumstances. The orange belt is kind of like you know what your purpose is you're just not doing it. Because a lot of people say well I know I want to be a younger teacher or whatever and you know but why aren't you doing it. Right. And then the brown belt is kind of like being around people learning the marketing skills kind of you know practical stuff being inspired by people and then they also black belt is doing it. You know black belt doesn't mean you're an expert black just means you're getting on with it and obviously my Ikea background was a little bit inspired by this. Yeah, no kidding. It's so cool. And I want to show people just like you know there's a lot, there's a lot to this. I just really liked the outline as I was reading through it. I just want to at least show it on the screen so that people people can see it you want to pause you can and just see what's what's here. I love it I mean you you include everything from, you know, questions to how it's exercise is awesome. You know the acceptance of death that's a big one for for me actually that's something I want to I'll talk about briefly.  I love I love that. The washes. Not everyone's cup of tea but yeah as we know for about me shing you know you can't please everyone. How to discipline. Okay this is a really good one can we just touch on this for a second because because there's a, maybe it's a misconception or it just hasn't been thought through like a lot of things.  It's kind of like the sense of like, like, well actually no this is a real question for you mark like that. I mean, that you have this inner guidance to do, like you know exactly what you're doing with your day and if you don't know what you're doing with there you should just wait until you know what you're doing with your day. Okay, so so, so this is like, like a silly hippies version of Taoism right like I know like me yeah Taoism Taoism sort of one of the perspectives that is useful for purpose so the three main perspectives that are implicit in most purpose worker. They find the flow find what's harmonious with the universe. There's a sort of Christian perspective which most of the American teachers have which is like, you know God has a special chosen mission just for you and even if they're not religious that's in there. And there's truth to that you know the blues brothers theory, you know run a mission from God. And is that can be a kind of useful perspective but it isn't always and the way the Taoist ones not useful if my pronunciation shit George please tell me. No, it's perfect. Yeah, it's fine. The Taoist perspective is useful in that you find what's useful but it's also a trap in that that's not an excuse to just do what you feel like because actually what you feel like is the sum of your habits, most of the time. Unless you're like deeply tuned into embodiment. What you feel like doing is eating chocolate and going and having a nap. Right which is pleasurable. I mean I like that I'm not saying you should never do that you know I'm a big fan of those things, but it's but it's also maybe not always helpful. So, when people talk about discipline, I think there's a few things. So one, there's always things that are uncomfortable to do when following purpose and getting comfortable with discomfort martial arts are great for that breath work is great for that. You know, talking to attractive people, you know, randomly is great for that is lots of ways to get comfortable with discomfort but that's necessary and that's a skill that you can get better at the second piece is discipline is really just remembering what you love. So, so discipline isn't like hitting yourself with a stick discipline is is about reorienting to purpose. Like, I'm super undisciplined and no one believes me when they say that when I say that, but I'm incredibly oriented to purpose so I don't need discipline. Like, like, I'm bad at discipline I'm super ADHD. Right so discipline does not come naturally to me. However, because I'm searching into purpose I don't need discipline I don't have to, when my alarm clock doesn't goes off I want to get out of bed.  Not too often not too much. But it's it's this idea that finding purpose means you just get to like land around do exactly what you feel like I'd say the opposite purpose is a harsh mistress. Like, if you look at artists who really follow their views. I mean that's brutal.    It's actually self preservation once you're tuned into purpose is more the game. Like that's the other side of it if you want sustainability and longevity and purpose is very interesting. I mean the conference almost killed me. Yeah, literally my resting pulse was 115 Wow. Wow, I went to my doctor and my doctor says you need to rest now. So, this is fascinating because you've just basically turned the word discipline around what it's usually about. Alright, get up, go do stuff, go do the right things go do you know follow a schedule whatever, and you're saying when you're tuned in first of all step one, get tuned into purpose My discipline is having a day off. Right. Discipline. It's actually once you're really tuned in and on fire with purpose that discipline is actually creating a structure that allows you so for sustainably to actually activate and express your purpose in a way that it can be years or decades and not months burnout, you know, get sick of it and go go to a job where someone else provides the structure for you. You can live someone else's purpose. You know, our culture really emphasizes striving and this is where the sort of Taoist truth comes in right that to you know there's a way in which purpose is more like listening than shouting. Right, it's a way in which it is more about tuning in is more about the flow as it were the deep listening. You know, so that's the Taoist truth but then we have to be careful of the sort of mystery that near enemies they call them in Buddhism, you know, that's the new HIV version of Taoism. Yeah, so so I mean, you know, one thing I'll introduce to this and you probably talk about this in the course and I'm sure the summit will have lots of very interesting conversation about about this stuff that like, like we've been talking about okay the day to day, like what is what am I supposed to do today, but I like to look at purpose. I mean just stepping back a little bit looking at the bigger picture. I had a I had a mentor. This is 15 or 16 years ago, who he's passed now, and probably listening to us here, who said, you know, he was from the more the kind of Christian background and he used the word calling right for purpose calling. And he said, you know, George, he was telling me this at 80 some years old he said you know what I've learned about calling is that you don't really understand it. Until you look back and connect the dots and realize, wow, that was my that was my calling and of course that therefore can inform what your next steps are. But it's like, sometimes we don't do that enough. It's like looking back and go, Oh, this is what life has brought me here like, well, yeah, it's like what what have been, you know, people can look at what their innate strengths are what their upbringing is like your upbringing is not random. And even the trauma right that happened to us is not it can be made meaningful. When we say, how can we use that to grow ourselves and to benefit others like what is that is there a through line that together. Yeah, yeah, I mean, we can't make life free from suffering unless we're enlightened, right. So what we can do is make that suffering worthwhile. And that can be done during our life but it can also be done after the event. And, you know, one interesting purpose question is, you know, was everything in my life the good and the bad, if it was all a conspiracy to get me someplace where would that place be. It was all a conspiracy to give me a set of skills. I like conspiracy rather than God's plan but you can do God's plan if you wanted, you know, where it all a conspiracy to give me a certain set of skills. Like for example I used to write a lot of haiku and poetry right. And at the time, people used to say you're wasting your time, you know what's the point in there. And other than the fact that it's great to give the girlfriends, it really wasn't much point but it's really helped me as a copywriter. Now, especially haiku because you have to be very precise and sure, you know, so you don't know where things are going. So that's an interesting question. The third perspective so we've got the Taoist, the Christian which is, you know, God has special plans for you which can be helpful can give you a sense of belief and, and you know that that externalizing can be helpful. And that's actually what I call the European existential perspective, which is just to choose. So, so we've got listening to the flow of the universe we've got the sort of special plans for you but we've also got sometimes it's like marriage, like, that is my wife, the most beautiful woman in the world. Yes, of course she's, you know, it did God make it just for me and me for her, of course, but also it was just a choice.  And then we know this about marketing about niching, or about just getting really, really good at something. Yes, pick one thing. Now you have to have a talent for that thing you have to enjoy that thing. Yes, great. It's the sort of arranged marriage slightly, but it's not random marriage, but like you can just choose and I chose embodiment. Now there's other things I could have chosen but that was, that was a, that was a choice. And I think once you some some people need that perspective rather than the perspective of deep listening and go with the flow, which is other people are too willful, they need that perspective. In the end, I really appreciate that you're bringing in these perspectives because or another way looking at these are tools. These are tools you can use like at this time in your life. What would be more helpful. Do you have you been hustling so much have you been just running and running now you need to actually listen right. And have you been getting a calling but ignoring it right sometimes that's true like there's there's been something and you just kept ignoring it. You could say that's God's plan or your higher self, or your soul, or whatever you want to say like have you been ignoring it maybe you need to just follow it, or, and maybe sometimes there's signs right like, and what you just said here's or maybe at this time, you have several good options. You need to choose and become really good at that option, knowing that you're going to learn a lot about yourself as you work, right, as you as you take the path. There's no perfect wife, or husband or have you, or career dolphin. Yeah, there's no perfect career right so it's like of course these things, you know, you make that choice to commit and to marry and it's in that, in that reducing of options to see this true freedom. And I think that's difficult for our society to understand these days we want to do everything, you know. So I think purpose is like that, as you say for some people it's just the blocks and barriers.  Yeah, yeah, she's great. She's great I know she's studied with you and she studied with me and now she's a colleague. She'll be joining me I think on some of the purpose day.  And also I'm good at this. Right. But the second day is all like, like my friends who are great at this like some of the best purpose coaches in the world because so honestly, like my style is not for everyone and my style won't help everyone find purpose.  I want to show on the screen here. I want to show on the screen for those who are lucky enough to be watching or listening to this before February 26, you can actually join the purpose on it for free. So be sure to check it out. I'm going to be part of it as part of a panel and I'm really excited and I'm excited to kind of listen and watch the other things myself. If you're watching this or listening after February, you can still buy essentially by the purpose summit by by joining the purpose black belt course and the purpose on that comes with it. Obviously the purpose black belt course has a lot of amazing content. We just went through a couple of them. I mean, now there's brown belt we haven't even looked at and then black belt, etc. So who else is coming. Let me see who else is going to be. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, let me just see Steve's been arranging this, not me. So, okay, so Rod Stryker he's a big deal in yoga Kathleen Booker I feel inspired every time I talk to she's got this like almost like evangelical kind of soulful kind of access to spirituality.  Alan Stefani is doing stuff around trauma she was a big hit at the conference and everyone's in love with the land. There's Erica Chalky. There's Erica, Mr branch there he does stuff particularly with young black men that's his cooling. Awesome. He's very passionate about that beautiful case study. Dylan newcomer. I work with him sometimes on focus mate so lovely guy. You know Dylan from focus mate. He's I always say he's the world's second best embodiment teacher. Let's go join first let's go join first he's an amazing teacher. Yeah, awesome.  Thank you. Thank you for doing this. Hey, are we still here or sleep here. Mark, are you still here. My do we lose connection did I lose connection. Oh, you're back. Okay, cool, cool. You're my bed.  If you have enjoyed this conversation if you want to go deeper and talk about purpose, understand the perspectives and apply it to your own to your own life and your own work relationships etc. I hope you join us for the purpose summit if you can, if you can if watching this later, check out the purpose black belt course purpose black belt.com second spell purpose black belt calm. Mark, any parting words of encouragement as we finish this conversation. What to say. So I know a lot of people right now are a bit rundown, maybe, you know, because of lockdown they're not getting that co regulation that community touch that we all need and crave for not everyone but a lot of people are suffering. And I would say that purpose can be an anchor and an energizer when the world is chaotic.  So I would, I would think of reorienting to purpose whether it's through the summit or reading johns book or you know wherever you want to do as a support during this time. That's the last thing I would just encourage people to, you know, if not through me then through someone else to find that that true north in a support. Yeah. And I think as more of us understand how to discover in body purpose, we can help lots of other people do the same. But the beauty for me about everyone finding their own unique individual purpose is that it means we're less easily brainwashed. It means we're less easily put into agendas of high, or, you know, advertising consumerism, things that are destroying our minds and the planet and everything else because it just is so much more attractive to be orientating to purpose and someone else's agenda. So that. So it's a, you know, for me it also is a world changing thing as well as a life changing. It helps us to be a lot more focused a lot less distracted, a lot less distractible. So, yeah, beautiful. Anyway, lots of lots of benefits. I'm inspired yet again. George love talking with you man I always really you bring out the best to me it's the yin and yang thing I think you bring out the best to me and I love talking with you so anytime you want you want me back I'm happy to. Awesome. Definitely will. I better run. Thanks man. I'm a man. Be well. Bye bye.


Friends, if you have not started using video to connect with your meeting planner clients, now is the time to do it. Planners have always needed to visualize what their program would look like in a hotel or destination. And since they can't travel to your destination right now, video is the best way to show off your best assets. Want to learn some great tricks? Stick around. Hey friends, it's Leanne and the way that we sell to meeting planners has really shifted over the past few months. A shift that I feel is actually long overdue in how we present information to meeting planners. And since building relationships and educating our meeting planner clients in person is not an option right now, video is really the best way to communicate with them and show off the assets of our product or our service. And if you have not yet dabbled in video, now is the time to start. And friends, it's perfect for a few reasons. People are not looking for perfection right now. They're also not looking for high budget productions. They are looking for authentic and real experiences through your lens. So now is the time to experiment and try out video on your product or service. In fact, one of the best video series being done right now in our space comes out of beautiful St. John New Brunswick. Victoria Clark with Discover St. John is presenting this amazing series called Sampling St. Awesome and she's showcasing culinary delights from the New Brunswick region. Victoria herself is a delectable delight.  Make sure you check out Victoria's videos up here over on the Discover St. John YouTube channel. And while you're on YouTube, don't forget to subscribe to my channel and click on that little bell to be notified of new content each and every week. So let's dive into some simple tips and best practices about using video. And then I'll share some creative ideas with you. Tip number one, simply use your phone to record your video. Now you can use your DSLR camera as well. Of course, it's going to work fantastic. But if you're not ready to take that leap, use your phone. It works perfectly. The production quality is excellent. You can download a multitude of free editing tools on your phone like Movavi or InShot. With an iPhone, you can get iMovie. And these tools are really easy to learn. And if you need tutorials on how to learn those editing apps, you can watch a couple of videos on YouTube and be caught up just like that. Tip number two, when you're filming, make sure you film in horizontal fashion. Similar to what a TV screen would look like in front of you. You can film in portrait, but you'll get a bigger picture of your hotel or your destination by filming horizontally this way. Watch for your finger and make sure it's not in front of the lens. Believe me, I've done this a few times and I've made that mistake a multitude of times. Tip number three, create a quick script before you start filming. Now you don't have to follow the script verbatim. But knowing exactly what your flow would look like will ensure that you don't miss anything that you want to touch on. And it does give some rhyme and reason to your video. Tip number four, let your personality shine through. There's no need for you to take a communications course or broadcasting degree at a university to be in front of the camera or even be behind the camera filming. Let your personality shine through. That is the key to building relationships in the meetings industry. Tip number five, don't overthink it. Video may look daunting at first, but as you get into it and you use it a bit more, you'll get more comfortable. If you overthink it, that's when you're going to come across as stiff and almost too professional. You want to invite your audience into your story. So be real, be honest and be authentic. Tip number six, do not rely on high production to edit your video. The reason that Victoria's series works so well is it was because it was simple and it was effective and it was engaging. And if you do anything too high quality right now, I find people are almost a little leery of it. We're really in this phase, I suppose, of low budget Zoom webinars all the time. And so that's what people are expecting and that's what people are responding to. They're not looking for perfection right now. And finally, tip number six, upload your final product to a platform like YouTube or Vimeo. You may only use this video once and then you'll unlist it when it's on YouTube, but have it on a platform so that it can be used again and again if called upon. So now you have a bit of the how, let's tackle the what. What is it that we can film for our meeting planner clients? If you're in a hotel, there are a plethora of options to choose from. And I would really recommend that you film video through the eyes of a delegate. So one idea is that sense of arrival.  Perhaps they're passing the lobby bar or restaurant along the way and you can highlight that as they come to the front desk. You'll also want to show them the meeting spaces that they are interested in. And again, to save on time and maybe potential loss of attention from your meeting planner, only film the spaces that would be a good fit for their program. You also want to show off some of your guest rooms and again show them only the guest rooms that they would use for their program, which in most cases includes a standard room, maybe a couple upgrades and potentially a hospitality suite or presidential suite if they're using that. Right now, more importantly than ever, you'll want to showcase the outdoor spaces. People are looking for lots of room. So show them some of the outdoor spaces that can be converted into meeting spaces, reception spaces, even dinner spaces. And for some great fun, maybe film a behind the scenes look. This is when you go into the kitchen areas and kind of show the meeting planner what goes on to create their buffet or their plated dinner. Planners love a look at behind the scenes. Just make sure everyone's cleaned up and wearing a smile when you come through the space. Another great idea is to interview your people, be it your general manager, maybe your director of sales, the director of food and beverage or that crazy bartender in the lobby bar. Interview them, have them bring your meeting planners into the story as well. This isn't all on you to create. And finally, with a little bit more rehearsal, do some edu-tainment. And that is exactly what Victoria was doing with her delectable delights, Sampling St. Awesome's series, is of course she was educating her meeting planners on all the things that can be found in St. John, but she did it in an entertaining fashion. There's something in your hotel or your destination that you can capitalize on to create the same effect. Do some research, talk to your peers and figure out what would work to bring all of your meeting planners into your story. You can find some additional ideas on how to use video in my recent free resource over on my website at liankholderwood.com forward slash creative ideas for hotel sales managers. Friends, if you are trying out video right now and you'd like to share it with the community, please include your links below this video or send it my way, I would love to check it out. And for more sales inspiration and tips, head on over to liankholderwood.com, simply find the sales and service category to find all the advice I have for you on building better relationships with your meeting planner clients. I hope you enjoyed this video and I look forward to seeing your video very soon. Bye for now.


Petroleum-based plastics have replaced many natural materials, but their high recalcitrance results in long persistence in the environment and growing plastic waste. Microbial enzymes capable of modifying or degrading synthetic polymers are emerging as candidates for biocatalytic plastic recycling processes to recover valuable raw materials in an environmentally sustainable way, with a focus on polyethylene, polystyrene, polyurethane, and PET. Recent progress and challenges in the application of polyester hydrolases for PET building block recovery will be discussed. This article was offered by Ren Wei and Wolfgang Zimmermann.


I'm happy to be here, it's rather late in the day, you can't be assigned a graveyard session. My job is to wake you up, but who's already awake? I will be talking about several things. One is the operational agility, which is kind of agile as most of us talk to me about here today. I'll be also talking about what I call strategic agility, I'll show you why this is actually pretty important. How do you implement it? I'd like to begin with a warning, that what you're about to hear is going to be different. This is not the way people say organizations are run. It's not what you were taught in business school, it's not what some of the presentations have been about today, and it may be disturbing, because it may challenge some of the beliefs, some of the deep beliefs in the agile community. And if it's too much stress, take a deep breath, but it will be different. The thing is, when I wrote my 2010 book, I thought this agile stuff is really amazing, because it resolves the conundrum that in general management and struggling with for the last century, how do you get continuous innovation with this system executed? This was the solution to this fundamental problem, and I thought to myself, this is amazing. Most people in general management don't know about it, but when they do know about it, it will take over the world. 2020, I surmised by 2020, agile would be dominating the world. It was pretty enthusiastic. Yay, this is great. We like what we, yeah, but when I presented this kind of stuff in the general management world, it looked like the dracar farm of Harvard Business School. I got a very different kind of reaction, because this is really way overblown. Agile may work in software, but it's not really going to learn in the non-management of the people in the basement with blue hair and tattoos. These are not management, these are the worst managed people in the whole organization. They're going to teach you that management in no way. It may work in small firms, small projects, but it doesn't scale. If you want to have a serious organization and a big farm, it's always going to come down from there. Several millennia have showed us the Exxon. They're always going to be run in big iraq, and they will need big systems and processes. Even CEO of IBM said serious farms don't have names like these. So I roll back into my corner and we'll see. Fast forward to 2018 and what we see. We actually see that Agile is feeding the world. Agile is feeding the world. Five largest firms on the planet are not the big lumbering 20th century dinosaurs. They are now firms that are Agile. Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google, Microsoft. The five biggest firm in the market, Capitalization. The whole wide world. What was the possibility of the garage almost in 2010 has become reality. And why are these firms the largest on the planet? Well, they are continuously innovating. Instant frictionless, intimate value at scale. Instant frictionless. Trust generates pressure beyond the green labs.  Other news? Just an issue of a business review, which is kind of the Vatican of management. The latest issue has three leading articles on Agile. A sign that Agile is now part of the mainstream of the business of the world. And they have this statement that almost 80% global executives rate Agile performance. And it's a high organizational firm that wants the Agile. And we also have reliable knowledge now of how to be Agile. Like my book, that's okay because lots of other books explain how to do it. So to summarize, most firms want to be Agile. We know how to be Agile. And the biggest firms already are Agile. So I won my bet. We live in the age of Agile, two years ahead of schedule. At the same time, not all as well. Although we have made these huge strides, huge progress, not all business review is said from one for the Agile, 80%. One to be Agile, but talking with one of the founders of the movement, Jeff Sullivan, last week, his estimate is that less than 20% of the firms, let's say they are already Agile, less than 20% of those are implementing the basics of Agile. So there's a lot of loose talk on what is actually going on. And there are a lot of false profits. Things that people ought to know that have taken like this. Agile is about twice the work in half the time. Agile is about going faster. Those propositions are fundamentally false. It is about not twice the work in half the time. It's twice the value from half the work. Very, very quickly. It's not about going faster. It's about delivering value faster, just very quickly. And a lot of promising Agile initiatives are closed down by management. We did some of them in the Agile Alliance webinars. General Electric has some great examples just the last few months. They've been a massive effort to start up. We also see that the language of Agile is quite chaotic. These things like this. And when general managers see this image, or encounter this language, they throw up their hands. They look for new people to get serious, for new people have to act together. I will not say that it's chaotic. It's terminology that's operating around. What is going on in Agile? Is it dominating the planet? Or is it something that is just a side-show? So, please if you go and I start to find out. Everybody is learning and socializing. They're implementing Agile. And interested in learning from each other about what works and what doesn't work. Whether it's a sheltered confidential environment so that we can share their roles and what's going on. So we could see what's going on. What's working, what doesn't work. And so we learned a number of things, much that I've already included in the book. And I'll summarize some of the headlines. One is, I guess the biggest headline is that Agile management does work in big corporations. Huge implementations, thousands. It offers 115 of VR. It is actually happening in this large organization. They don't have flaws, they don't have problems. But this is consciously and noticeably and comparatively better than it does actually work. That's the most important thing. But there are other things that we learned. That traditional managers are wandering around organizations with a picture of what management is like and it's sort of engraved in their brain. Summarize that at least the competition. The purpose, the goal of the organization is to make money for the operation to maximize their hold of value. And the main way of doing that is to be more efficient and to have costs and cost the workers not particularly interested in being more efficient. You have to pay social attention. So managers are wandering around the organization with that picture in their mind. And as long as that picture is in their mind it will be very difficult to process. So we really needed to find a way to raise that view image of what is managed, what is the very nature. And we looked around and we found out what is agile. We looked at the document, the changes but it's not of full value. These people are super bright. But people actually walk around with very simple rules of thumb in their brain and 16 elements are simpler. And in my 2010 book I had seven principles and I found that was too much. 16, 7 really absorbed, couldn't even remember 7. 40 flavors, yeah, that's way too much. And what we settled on is that there is really a triad of things which are the core of what these firms are doing. The first is valuing customers, the lighting customers. That's a decent goal of everyone in the organization. Everyone has a clear line of sight. It's the outlay of the living value, the core value of the customer. And you're going to be scaled, be done by small and organized company customers and the whole organization. Underlying that triad is a simple proposition, continuously to the customer, generating that that he is a trust customer, a nice triad and this is his whole big language. This is the base of what we call the law. The law of the customer, the law of the small thing. The most important of you is the law of the customer. It's not a new idea. Peter Drucker, there's only one and he must have thought for some time that it would again be a great length. This is really a greater force even today for the customer, power of the customer so much. This central principle is what drives everything in the Vatican revolution and it's similar to the problem. Useful thing that some evolved around without that change wave when we have to go 20 years into the farm with the periphery we tried to help with but we thought that basically it's an internal process. That's the first thing, the law. The second principle is the law of the small thing and this is what most of the second when I go to play is talking about how small things and it's about not scaling up but actually de-scaling work so that small, self-organizing cost money and a whole host of other lots of variations with the basic idea of that whole work. So you don't try to scale up the organization and de-scale the problem so that it can be handled. I'm not going to say very much about this but this is such a central point and it is in a sense, organization you can have an organization picture on the left, this is a huge helpful part of the community that rather good presentation and today simply a visceral reaction to this just couldn't face up to that's the way agile organization can take a long time. What I described is the Microsoft journey experimenting with one thing so we started to create a couple of things 2010, the studio, 2011 it's either that or the whole development of it 4,000, 13,000, the implement of the reorganization 2014 there was firm-wide interest 2015 had a bank-wide mandate in 2017 that's 10 years and it's a whole project this is not something this is the system how we say the essence of it and then Google will tell me well is that really all you need we need agile HR we have these three laws and then what to do about but if you start the other way around and said what would it like to have an agile HR you would make some progress but the risk of not connecting with our organization with a whole of it wouldn't start in the piece so that's operational agility this is the thing you're talking about strategic definition operational agility is about making existing products better, faster, cheaper profitability is about market creating new customers many more customers we had Thomas Edison we had asked his customers what they wanted, they wanted a faster horse have a mobile phone and didn't need one I can't survive without a broadband customer you didn't want an Amazon not simply making retail better it's also generating new business it's generating new business all these examples are just making existing more existing customers they are looking at new customers people who agile well who have teams that are making the product better, faster, cheaper you will in due course be rewarding money that is something great power and is able to exist on improvements there is no cost lower cost you are busy paying less for it we talked about you are operating a world of fierce competition bloody red ocean while you're in that no one makes original ability and kept making it better and better we saw that in mobile phones 7 we had to response all busy making money what if we did something drastic what if we took away the keyboard to play the buttons I still made people say they took away my keyboard still haven't survived the loss of the keyboard it was quite a big decision to take away a lot of features large screen this leads on to Amazon is different but it certainly lasts and what does it do why does it need specific attention is that simply carrying on it is unlikely to lead those these four reasons the teams obviously tend to focus on customers who are in the telling them this needs fixing that turned away from in particular they resist dropping each say we're going to take away the feature of that decision don't think about your code this whole taking away the most you are cannibalizing your existing cannibalize the iPhone difficult to actually make that a Steve Jobs existence because that is a difficult to mobilize look risky all these reasons are unlikely to cease to keep this happen this was the case of discover weekly Spotify anyone use Spotify it's a music streaming service in 2015 at 60 million users and the problem that Spotify and all the music streaming service how do you find music with the 20 million songs how do you find is that most people spend out there searching so this was a a basic problem and put a lot of effort solution to work on proving there was one team who put four people who had a different idea Spotify where they were white out based on users tastes and they could go on to master the great deal in machine work so it wasn't a huge great deal next to users tastes I suddenly found my latest favorite song talking about why don't we try this out on one Spotify 21 the language is not just a discover weekly it's an organization that must be all obsessed getting a better experience and the organization is working for the house mostly CEO of SRI Silicon Valley who generated whole slew of business creating most famous album is Siri the system had about methodology having those four elements out of crucial pieces so the first step is to get clear of what is the unmet Spotify discover weekly the lead was all of the 60 million users so basically finding new songs and the lead was large and 6 billion the very large the approach is speaking for each user possible enthusiasm to learn how to use Spotify when my daughter started to tell me about the system it generated this enthusiasm and they didn't want to use that and the competition what is the main competition for most of the ideas is that customers will do not people will put up all of the data 60 million users they didn't use that is how you are able to see is this something that can be what you see in the case of Siri they spent 3 years discussing in retrospect operational ability this is not a bad thing you really want to try how you create a cover you live in the 80 batter you will find a lot of time they will survive you are living questions Hi Steve Google Facebook we mentioned 3 companies Amazon they all talk it doesn't much talk about Scrum much of the framework process with respect to their teams in terms of operational and strategic agility how the team grows


The Stop COVID-Dets shorts make it easier for you to go to the presentations that you are interested in. I'm Dr. Raymond Sarmiento, Director of the National Telehealth Center. And I'm Dr. Susy Pineda Mercado, Adjunct Faculty of the National Telehealth Center. Together, let's stop COVID-Dets. This time, I'll be discussing the situation of my beloved, our beloved Kagayan Bali and how it stood at the test of time of this pandemic. Aropo is a challenge and it has become a daily learning experience for everyone. Lalu-lala na po sa mga health workers dito sa mga reyong. We have learned to capacitate each one's strength and have worked in partnership with everyone, including the community involved in the fight. Kagayan Bali is composed of five provinces po with 3.6 million. And it's located in the northeastern section of the Luzon Island. Baka hindi pa po kasi alam at may quiz kayo kung saan nakalagay ito kagayan Bali. It's composed of Batanes, Kagayan, Isabela, Nueva Vizcaya, and Kirino. I'd like to discuss to you, ila na huba naging kaso namin dito sa reyong? As of yesterday, meronapo tayong confirmed cases na $88,679. At madagdag nga po kaha po ang highest namin since we started doing the surveillance, 1,324 cases for a day. With 2,676 deaths, medyo mataas po ang ating case fatality rate of 3.01. And nakakagulatin po ang casatality rate namin, which is at 32.8%. Record hypo siya dito po sa aming reyong. This slide will show the epidemic curve in our region from January 2021 up to the present. It is noteworthy that our areas with outbreak are our four centers of trade, namely, Santiago City, Tugegaro City, Kawayan City, and Ilagan City. Nakakitarin po natin dito sa ating timeline that the peak of cases were seen to have followed the detection of the local variants of concern. First in March, with the detection of the beta and the alpha variant, and followed in the month of July with the detection of the first case of the delta variant. If we talk about the epidemic risk classification of the entire region, it falls under high risk. Santiago City, which is an independent city located in region 2, also falls under critical risk. The province of Isabela, Nueva Vizcaya, and Pirino remains at high risk specification, including Batanes, which is now flagged as high risk due to the detection of three new cases of COVID. We also would like to say that recently siya po ay na-affectuhan ng bagyo at kasalo ko yung nag-recover ko mayo. Kagayan province is at moderate risk. The healthcare utilization rate is at 85.98% while ICU utilization rate is at 88.83%. Going to critical na po kami. Today, mayo na po tayong 122 recorded delta cases in the region. All provinces have recorded cases except for Batanes. Overall po, the entire region is at alert level 4. Maganda po ang participasyon ng ating government hospitals as well as private hospitals. Don't po sa itin na lagan natin. Na dapat po ang meron silang at least 50% bed na iaanokit po sa COVID for government and 30% for private. You could say in this slide that it surpassed for the government the number of beds at 50.43% and it surpassed 15% of ICU beds with 21.72%. COVID mortality trend shows that deaths peak in the month of August though it is seen in the graph that it has already started to increase in April when local variants of concern have been detected. Sa ngayon po, mayo dumadami talaga po ang naman. It's very, very sad to hear and see that there are still cases dying particularly even in level 3 of course and our private hospitals which are level 2 hospitals. For the information of everyone, there are only 3 level 3 hospitals in the region and these are all DOH retained hospitals. One in Kagayan province, Kagayan Valley Medical Center, one in Isabela which is Decent, southern Isabela Medical Center and one in Nueva Vizcaya, the Region 2 Trauma and Medical Center. Testing capacity of Region 2 has increased and is now at 4,442 per day with five molecular laboratories in the region. This is attributable to the Trace Test and Trip or the P3 program which targets to ramp up the testing capacity. However, there are testing challenges namely number one, jida areas of difficulty or even have no access to RTPC or laboratories. There's limited RTPC or testing kits and rapid antigen test kits. There's also shortage of laboratory staff due to them being infected with COVID-19 leading to longer turnaround time. Again, it's very sad to say. Now, there's a lot of health care workers now being positive and of course, if their colleagues are close contacts, nang ubusan na din po ng health workers dito po sa ating rahiyon na magdyu-duti po sa ating mga hospital. This is the greatest challenge that I am facing right now. And the last among the testing challenges, number four is that dada walang po ang provincia na meron kami molecular lab which is Kagayan and Isabela and the other provinces, Bataan, Esquerina, Nueva Vizcaya have yet to put up at least a single or just one molecular laboratory. Tingnan naman po natin ang ating vaccine statistics in line with our preventive tech, isolate trip and the integrate plus strategy yung plus point vaccination. Vaccine statistics show that our vaccination coverage is at 50, 16.54% of our target population which is 2.58 million. This is 70% of the population. And we think that it's still very low. With a breakdown of coverage, we could see that among the frontline health care workers, senior citizens, persons with comorbidities, essential sectors in daigin population priority group BNC are shown on this bottom part of the slide. Senior citizens having the most number of fully vaccinated individuals at 204,745. This is the latest data as of yesterday. Now, let me have some innovations. Let me discuss some innovations for vaccination which include the flying vaccination teams which are composed of our own staff assisting in areas with very low coverage mostly hard to reach areas. We also have the rest, Bacuna Unwills initiated again by the Department of Health Regional Office No. 2 pinartner po namin siya doon sa Philippine Red Cross Bacuna Bus to reach geographically isolated and disadvantaged areas or the Gita areas. And promising. Marami po talaga ang hubunta dahil gusto na po nila talagang magpabakuna. Ang malaga lang sana madagdagan po po ang Bacuna ng anong rayon at madagdagan pa rin po ang ang aming vaccination teams considering there's there's a lot of healthcare workers na po na nagpapositi po. For a more appealing and easy to remember facts on vaccination, naglaunch po kami ng Rest Bacuna Jingle which was composed by our own staff and a TikTok challenge so it's also done for all the local government units who wish to join. Some LGUs also have set up Rest Bacuna Pantry giving Ayuda to those who have been vaccinated and those who wish to be vaccinated. And provided transportation assistance to vaccinees going to vaccination sites. Social media posting on best practices on vaccination was done to encourage local government units to do the same or to do better in vaccination. Innovations and extraordinary measures taken at the regional, provincial and municipal level on the PDIPR strategies into the following. On prevention, number one. In the past month, local transmission has been seen in workplaces with poor administrative and engineering protocol. And in order to address this an initiative of our own region's regional task force and interagency task force is the creation of a sub-task group on workplace management composed of several agencies to name a few. The Office of Civil Defense, of course the Department of Health, Department of Trade and Industry, Department of Labor and Employment and the Civil Service Commission. This monitors implementation of minimum public health standards in workplace settings. Empowering national government agencies, DOCCIS and private institutions and even state universities to have their own COVID response teams called COVID worth, which stands for workplace response teams for health has greatly helped decrease workplace transmission by early detection and isolation of cases. To add, we also have initiated the COVID wars meaning workplace alert system which notifies the COVID response teams of symptomatic or close contact employees. The establishment of communication bureau which includes local government units, national government agencies, information officers, media and other stakeholders which aims to inform and educate the community at the ground level by focusing on IEC campaigns that are translated to our very own dialects was also established. That's for the prevention. Now, let me go to the for the detect strategy. These are the innovations. We created our own COVID-19 information system in region to tag as COVID CODA which enables all disease reporting units access real time data including release of RTPCR results. We have also established the collaborating centers for disease prevention and control in our own office which is composed of the Kagayan Bali Epidemiology Center its training component, diagnostics and laboratory center also located in our regional office and the disaster reduction for health center. The centers are responsible for the coordinated COVID-19 response approach. In addition, we launched the conduct of the applied epidemiology training program and data management and analytics training to equip our epidemiology and surveillance units both at the regional, provincial and local levels other local levels to conduct prompt and efficient surveillance and epidemiology investigations. This is actually a nine month program modular and this ensures act which stands for accurate complete and timely data. Lastly, we have organized a regional contact training team specific for variants of concern composed of interagency personnel in order to strengthen and improve the efficiency of contact tracing of VOCs or variants of concern. For the treatment strategy as an initiative the one line are offering non-stop health services and linkages in nations, emergencies and disasters was established at the regional level provincial and provincial level in order to hasten the referral process and avoid delay in patient care. We also have the mental health network services which includes the following components this is the regional mental health council during COVID-19 pandemic the UNAWA education of MHGAP strategy in COVID-19 management the MITSA the supporting health facilities and LGU mental networking program initiatives and of course our networking for all the mental health and psychosocial support training for NGA Now let me discuss the LGU innovations on prevent strategies the different medium for IEC materials used of Bandilyo, social media platform, regular radiating and local TV programs among others for the defense strategy the LGU's use of the academic develop contact tracing application such as health guard was utilized Ilagan city which is a city in Isabella establish its own COVID-19 molecular laboratory other LGU innovations and the second partnership it volunteer doctors in the region for patients and quarantine to conduct telemedicine and tele consultations mental health services provided in the community such as quarantine therapy for batanes, ikumustahan for Nueva Vizcaya and the adoption of project Gabay in all provinces LGU's recognize the importance of mental health as part of the response As an ending slide the COVID-19 pandemic has really shaken heavily everyone of us it became a global health crisis that has affected how we see the world and how we get to spend our daily lives but as they say which we should never lose hope as to what the future may bring the most important thing now is how we get up together to win this battle Thank you and I am sure we will recover as one Mabalo which is thank you in Imanap We hope that you learn this much as we did from that excellent presentation We also hope that you will join us every Friday from 12 noon to 2pm Manila time on Zoom, Facebook or YouTube So stay safe stay connected and see you online