The first item of business this afternoon is the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body question time. If a member wishes to request a supplementary question, they should press the request-to-speak button during the relevant question or indicate so in the chat function by entering the letters RTS. As ever, I would make a plea for succinct questions and answers to match. I call question number 1, Paul Sweeney. To ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body whether it will reject the annual survey of hours and earnings and weekly earnings average of 4.2 per cent for upgrading the staff cost provision in the financial year 2023 to 2024. Jackson Carlaw. I thank Mr Sweeney for his question. The corporate body is responsible for funding the member's expenses scheme and for determining which indices are used to upgrade the overall provisions, which include the staff cost provision. Individual MSPs as employers determine any salary increase for their staff within the overall staff cost provision. As part of the annual budgeting cycle, the corporate body considers the indexation for upgrading of all provisions, including staff cost provision. Whilst the basket, which is the annual survey of hours and earnings and the AWE, the average weekly earnings indices have been adopted in recent years as a steadier basis for any increase. That is a matter for SPCB judgment rather than automatic application, as we thoroughly consider all factors for the financial year for 2023-24. The corporate body will submit its budget for 2023-24 for consideration at the Finance and Public Administration Committee on 10 January. A bit like the chancellor, I may know but I am not able to say what our deliberations might be concluding, but we will be determining all the industries for all provisions in the coming weeks. I thank Mr Carlaw for his response. I am sure that the bond markets will be listening into whatever decisions are arrived at eventually, but we can all agree that MSPs' offices do make a tangible difference to constituents and they provide a vital public service. All members strive to provide a decent financial settlement in terms of pay for staff, but that frontier needs to increase in line with cost of living. Given that we are faced with an unprecedented cost of living crisis, will the SPCB meet with GMB's Scottish Parliament staff branch as a matter of urgency to discuss their pay proposal in good faith and to agree an appropriate award for members' staff? Presiding Officer, that also touches on the subject matter of the question from Pam Duncan-Gladsie. No, I have to say that the SPCB will not meet with the trade unions because there is not competent for us to do so. We are not the employer of MSPs' staff, MSPs themselves are the employers. Our responsibility is to set the framework within which salary increases can be agreed, but it is for individual members, either together or in concert with colleagues to agree what that level of increase will be. To ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body what discussions have taken place to consider providing cross-party groups with access to broadcasting services in committee rooms. I thank Miles Briggs for the question. He is asking us about broadcasting services for CPGs. The code of conduct specifies that broadcasting facilities cannot be used for cross-party groups, so that limits our discussions. However, the corporate body does recognise some of the benefits that have come from CPGs who are meeting virtually. The updated hybrid equipment is available for any meetings up to 20 rooms in Parliament of facilities for that, and it can be operated without the broadcasting team. They are happy to demonstrate the use of the facilities that are self-operated, and there is planned drop-in sessions next month. I also declare an interest as co-chair of both the Cancer and Chronic Paying CPGs. Those CPGs have a high number of people who are incredibly ill or disabled who would like to attend. As we move back into in-person meetings, we have seen numbers reduced. Could I ask whether it could be looked into to have a pilot study, a pilot project to use the broadcasting facilities in a committee room for the Parliament channel for some committees to cross-party groups who would be able to use that in the future? I know that the member would be disappointed, but it is not possible to facilitate the type of meeting that he has suggested. The code of conduct does limit the use of facilities, and there are practical issues around limited resources and staff time. However, the technology that is being used, teams that can include thousands of participants, it is possible to record the meeting for upload at a future point, and I appreciate the member who will be disappointed by the response, but he may have said that the alternative that I am proposing would result in the same outcome, but I would be happy to discuss it with the member. Question 3, Stuart McMillan, who is joining us remotely. Thank you, Presiding Officer, to ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body what guidance is available to MSPs regarding undertaking particle activity on the parliamentary estate. As he will be aware, the code of conduct for members requires all members to abide by the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body's policies. All policies direct that parliamentary resources are provided by the corporate body to support members to carry out their parliamentary duties and must not be used to any significant extent for any other purpose, including party political reasons. Parliamentary resources include office equipment and furniture, IT, mail systems, meeting rooms, as well as expenses paid to support members in carrying out their parliamentary duties with a met under their member's expenses scheme through financial assistance to non-executive parties or directly by the corporate body. The corporate body has various policies and guidance in place to advise members about their appropriate activity on the parliamentary estate or in making use of parliamentary resources. That includes, for example, specific policies and guidance on the use of meeting rooms and photography on the parliamentary estate. The corporate body appreciates that there can sometimes be a fine line between something that is parliamentary and party political and members must use their judgment accordingly if there is any doubt members are encouraged to seek advice from the contact points provided in the appropriate policies before undertaking any such activity. We have eight questions on the business bulletin. If we have answers as long as that to each question, there is absolutely no way we will get to number eight. Stuart McMillan Scottish Conservatives event for Conservative councillors and Conservative group leaders was held in the member's room on the 8th of November. Can the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body clarify now our political meetings and events allowed to be held on the parliamentary estate? Thank you, and I thank Stuart McMillan for his supplementary. It would not be appropriate for me to comment about any specific use of the parliamentary estate or resources at this point. If the member has any concerns about any such use of the parliamentary estate, he should please follow due process and raise a complaint through the appropriate channels in order that that might be looked into and addressed. To ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body whether it will consult MSP staff trade unions before deciding on upgrading the staff cost provision in the 2023-24 financial year. I wonder if it is in the interest of time if I could refer Ms Duncan Glancy to the answer that I gave in response to Mr Sweeney's supplementary. I thank the member for that referral back to a previous answer. I am sure that I speak for all of us in this chamber when I say that our staff do an outstanding job and I would like to thank all of them now on the record and particularly my own team. They all too face a cost of living crisis and I in the GMB branch recognise what the member said earlier about the no formal relationship between itself and MSP staff, but it is a fact that the staff cost provision allows for annual cost of living increases and it is a basic principle of fair work that trade unions are involved in negotiations. Could the member in the corporate body find some way to engage in good faith, as they have a key role in that, to engage in good faith with the unions so that the corporate body could answer some of the questions that the corporate body itself might have? Jackson Carlaw. I can say that the corporate body has had detailed and robust discussions on all the issues affecting the indices that will be applied when we upgrade salaries in the next annual budget. However, it is the place that we are not an employer and the scheme is quite clear. It agreed by Parliament places a responsibility on us to upgrade the scheme annually using a relevant index as part of the budget setting. I would repeat that individual MSP employers can of course consult with trade unions and they can agree any cost of living award they wish so long as it is affordable within the overall cap provision. In fact, SBCB is aware that many members did indeed make awards that exceeded beyond the inflationary uplift within the scheme itself. Perhaps I might anticipate a question that is coming later, because I think that it is relevant to Ms Duncan Glancy as well. That is to say that the corporate body is currently considering what financial assistance can be provided to member staff. That includes the sort of one-off non-consolidated payments that other employers have made recently, including His Majesty the King. We have had our most recent discussion and constructive discussion today and we will communicate our uncended course of action as soon as possible after these discussions conclude. Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. To ask the Scottish Parliament corporate body if provision can be made for access to the room for contemplation for evening events during recess. The room for contemplation is accessible to building past holders at all times of the day, including during recess. Visitors wishing to use the room must be accompanied by a past holder. The corporate body policy is that should an attendee of an evening member-sponsored event request to use the room for contemplation, an event assistant will support this request and escort the person to and from the room. During recess, member-sponsored events are paused. I hosted an event for the faith groups during October recess. Attendees were forced to pray in the reception as they were not able to access the room for contemplation. I understand that the parliamentary opening hours are curtailed during recess, but as long as members are able to host events that extend outside those hours, surely it makes sense to allow members and their guests access to the rooms for the duration of such an event. I thank Foisal Chaudry for that supplementary meeting that members have arranged themselves to be held within the Holyrood campus. It sounds like this meeting that you speak of was one such meeting. The member or their representative past holder is responsible for supporting meeting attendees with access to the room for contemplation. They should be accessed to the room for contemplation as long as they are accompanied by a past holder. To ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body whether MSPs and their staff are putting their rubbish in the correct bins for recycling or otherwise. I would like to thank John Mason for his question on rubbish. I also thank my colleagues for their efforts in segregating materials for recycling. We achieved a recycling rate of 81 per cent in 2021-22, which is significantly higher than most public sector bodies. I thank Christine Grahame for her answer. I think that many of us want to recycle, but there is some confusion. For example, where does paper stop and cardboard begin? Are plastic bags able to be recycled with plastic bottles? Holding in my hand here, I have a tetrapack bot in the garden in the canteen. It says that it should be recycled, but I do not know where to put it. Before I ask Ms Grahame to respond, I would remind members that props are not welcome in the chamber of any kind. Thank you, Ms Grahame. I am trying to find out what the answer to that is. We could just fill in time a little bit. All recycling bins, Mr Mason, are colour coded and include the text and symbols as recommended by Zero Waste Scotland, so that you can check on their website. Not for profit environmental organisation funded by the Scottish Government and European Regional Development Fund. Those standard colour symbols and text should be consistent across Scotland, helping individuals, including Mr Mason, to recognise the same bin and waste streams at home, work and out and about. There is also a guide to a recycling bin system on our intranet site and regular communications about waste and recycling, and I am sure that he will improve. Thank you, Presiding Officer. To ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body how it will support any member staff who are dealing with added financial challenges and pressures after the Home Working Allowance payment was discontinued in October. There is good recycling and answer, and I say that the corporate body is committed to supporting member staff with the cost of living and is actively considering a suite of measures to support staff. The corporate body believes that this is the right thing to do at this very difficult time, recognising that this is an urgent priority for staff. Members are also reminded that, should they require their staff to work from home, they may qualify for tax relief and in such circumstances, members should advise their staff to contact HMRC directly. I thank Mr Carlaw for that answer and refer to members to my register of interests as a GMB Scotland member. GMB Scotland has highlighted that all member staff, and particularly those working from home, are facing significant additional pressures with increasing energy bills this winter. Staff members have received a blog with advice on saving money, such as changing to LED light bulbs, but they need direct financial help during this cost of living crisis, and I welcome that that is being considered by the parliamentary corporate body. The Home Working Allowance was welcome, but we need to go further. Can I ask that any cost of living support payment goes above and beyond the existing or previous Home Working Allowance so that it can meet the scale of the challenge that people are facing with the cost of living crisis? As I said in response to an earlier question, we are considering this very issue at the moment. We have had constructive discussions over a number of meetings of the corporate body, and I hope that we will be able to communicate soon to members the outcome of those discussions. In addition to those arrangements, the corporate body is considering other measures that include independent financial advice, financial well-being workshops and links to organisations that can provide further advice and support, but the particular item to which Mr Bibby refers should be something that we hope will be communicated to members in early course. To ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body what steps it is taking to improve safety for MSPs both within the Parliament and outwith the parliamentary estate. We take members' personal safety very seriously. With the advice of our specialist security partners, the corporate body has introduced a range of measures to support members when working both at Parliament and when away from the main estate. We keep safety measures under review to ensure that they remain proportionate to the risk that members face. I am very grateful to Ms Baker for that answer. Recently, research or outreach was undertaken by security people to MSPs. Is the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body satisfied with the response and uptake following that? There has been quite positive numbers. 100 members have taken the opportunity for surveys to their constituency or regional office. 38 so far have had home security surveys. I assure members that sufficient funding is available for each member should they wish to pursue a security survey. I encourage members to apply to the corporate body and I am grateful to the member for helping us to promote the scheme and make sure that members know that it is available and that it is fully funded. Today was a good example. I sat barely a few feet away from today's protest during FMQs. I am acutely aware that we need to be an open Parliament and allow public access as much as possible. Although I appreciate physical security checks that are in place for visitors, I can ask what more can be done by the Parliament to ensure the physical protection of members, especially those sitting at the back of particularly vulnerable two-protests. In this case, it was just verbal and not physical. As the member recognised, the corporate body is keen of the Parliament to remain open and accessible. It is always about achieving the appropriate balance. We also had an incident in Parliament today that we will reflect on, but I thank the member for raising that issue. Thank you, Presiding Officer. I forgot to mention that, on my register of interests, I am a member of GMB. That will be noted on the official report. That concludes at Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body Question Time. There will be a brief pause before we move on to the next item of business to allow front-bench teams to change position.


Submit an article from the Open Repository Archive to an efficiency journal. To submit your article to a journal, your preprint must be available in the Open Repository Archive. Here are the three steps to follow. Step 1, log into the journal's website. Step 2, fill in your preprint identifier. Step 3, verify, complete and validate the data. Step 1, log into the journal's website. Either enter your username and password to log or create an account if you do not have one yet. You are logged in. Step 2, fill in your preprint identifier. Click on Submit an article. Select Archive in the Repository field. Browse your preprints page on Archive's website. The Archive identifier is in the section, Site As. Select and copy it. Go back to the journal's website and paste the ID in the Document Identifier field. Specify the version. Click on Search. Step 3, verify, complete and validate the data. The article's metadata is retrieved by the system. Comment field is optional. You can add a note to the editorial team. You may also attach a cover letter. To finish it is necessary to certify. You are the author of this article. You have not published or submitted this article elsewhere. Click on Submit this article to validate. Done. A confirmation mail is sent to your address. Reminder. Three-step process to submit your article. Step 1, log into the journal's website. Step 2, fill in your preprint identifier. Step 3, verify, complete and validate the data. For more information, please consult the documentation on Epochance's website.


Now, before we get too comfortable with Lagrange multipliers, we note that if the constraint function f is nonlinear, lambda times the gradient will contain nonlinear terms. And likewise, if the objective function l is not linear or quadratic, the gradient of l will contain nonlinear terms. And so, in general, the equation that we're trying to solve will generally be a nonlinear system of equations. And the problem is these are extremely hard to solve algebraically, although numerical solutions do exist. Now, we can deal with this difficulty in one of two ways. First, we can focus on the cases where the system of equations can be solved by hand, or we can focus on more realistic problems. Now, since you'll probably have to solve optimization problems outside of a math class, and this is true even if you're a professional mathematician, then we'll focus on the setup and let a computing device solve the equations. So, for example, let's set up the system of equations needed to find the point on an ellipse that is closest to a point in the plane. So, since we're on the ellipse, we require that x squared plus 4y squared equals 16. That's what being on the ellipse means. Now, since all of our variables are on one side, we can define a function of two variables, x squared plus 4y squared, and our constraint then becomes f of x, y equals 16. The distance from a point x, y on the ellipse to the point 3, 8 will be... And again, as this is minimized, so will it square, so it's easier and better to work with our objective function. So, we want our gradient of our objective to equal lambda times the gradient of our constraint, so we'll find those partial derivatives. And if we compare the components, we get two equations. Additionally, since our point has to be on the ellipse, we have the equation of the ellipse as our third equation, and now we have our system of three equations and three unknowns. Now, we can try to solve this, but if we do that, we actually obtain a fourth-degree equation where there are two real solutions. And by the geometry, if you consider what this ellipse looks like and where that point is, it's easy to see that the point 1.626, 1.827 is closest to 3.8, while the other point is farthest. Or, suppose you want to make a box with a constant volume and the material for the top and bottom cost differently than the material for the sides. And we want to set up the system of equations needed to minimize the cost of the box. So, if you want x, y, and z to be the length, width, and height of the box, we want the volume, the product, to be 240. And so our constraint can be expressed as v of x, y, z equals 240, where v of x, y, z is x, y, z. Now, we're trying to minimize the cost, so let's explode the box and determine what our cost function is. The top and bottom of the box have area x, y, so the cost will be the left and right sides have area x, z, so the cost will be, and the front and back have area y, z, so the cost will be. And we're trying to minimize this total cost, so that will be our objective function. And we want the gradient of our objective to be lambda times the gradient of our constraint. So we find those partial derivatives, and that gives us the vector equation. Comparing the components gives us the system of equations. Now, there's four unknowns, x, y, z, and lambda, so we need a fourth equation, and the requirement that the volume be 240 gives us that fourth equation. And at this point we have set up the system of equations to be solved, and we can pass this off to a mechanical device. The problem is that if we try to solve this system algebraically, we end up with a third-degree equation. And so we can solve this numerically, and there's only one real solution, and you should convince yourself that this does actually give us a minimum value of the cost.


What is up everybody welcome back you guys in this video I'm going to simply share with you a super powerful super effective and super just simple cookie cutter funnel that you can be using to capture more listings than you can possibly handle. Obviously you'll have to hire some people out and get an assistant and all that stuff. An assistant but I'm telling you this is how you want to explode.   And as I keep talking about in my videos, I'm just convinced that because you're a local business owner, all your attention and resources and energy and budget should be going into targeting your local area. Those are the only people on social media that that that matter I can get to them on Facebook, I can get to them on Instagram, I can also get to them on YouTube by running targeted YouTube ads. But but but let's just keep this on Facebook learn one platform first roll out one platform first and then focus on other ones. Everything is about local targeting. Everything is about is about online advertising. Okay. Social media. Again, in this very specific case, Facebook. Look, these types of posts that that I see by the thousands right shot to Michelle. You know shout out to Michelle we're friends on Facebook she's a realtor this what she's posting on her personal page. Right, I'm just looking at that in the news feed for the first time. As I come over here and I look at let's see if we can even see she doesn't show her friend count which is fine. But let's say it's 1500. Right, let's say it's 1500 let's say it's 4500. Let's say it's 1000. Once we get past 300 people. Once we get past 300 people whether it's on Instagram, whether it's on on LinkedIn, whether it's on Facebook, whether it's your personal page, whether it's your business page, whether it's on Twitter, whether that's 300 friends on Pinterest, it does not matter if you have a if you have a YouTube channel.  If you ever, you know, get value from these videos please click like and share the video but but but all I'm saying is that if you're building a YouTube channel. 99% damn near 100% of your 300 plus subscribers are freaking across the country sometimes even in a different country. You know around the world. So everything I'm talking about everything I talk about especially on this channel especially these these emails is that you have to be running this to your local area man. You don't have to be rolling into rolling into your running as a Facebook ad to your local area, rather than just posting on social media, all these different platforms, Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube. If you're, if you're demographics, if you're ideal client or your ideal customer is 25 and above chances are they're on one of these platforms and I'm talking 25 to 75.  There's many multi multi millionaires there's many successful billionaires that are in their freaking 80s and they're still crushing it right. So it's like dang what all I'm saying is that that 80 80 year old, whoever the hell they are rich, poor whatever if they're on social media that 80 year old. Yeah, they're probably on Twitter. They're doing events keeping up with news right they're probably on Facebook to keep in touch with their with their family their kids their grandkids. Maybe they're on Instagram to keep up with their grandkids right we're talking about grandpa, 80 years old 75 years old to keep up with their grandkids are on Instagram. Right, so it's like dude if you're anywhere selling products and services to that age group chances are these are the platforms, rather than organic posting. Run these types of post as an ad targeting your local area. And in this case shot to Michelle sounds like she's a super good listings agent. This was a client of hers that hired her to sell their house, and she crushed it she delivered. She got it sold. She, I would assume is looking for another one she is looking for more sellers.  She's a local business owner. Here's what you're going to start doing. Rather than posting this on all these different platforms when no one cares and I mean no one cares out of respect I'm not saying that disrespectfully I'm just saying, think about it, wherever you're at in your local area.  It's like dude if I was a local business owner what any of that be relevant to you any of that content none of it dude none of it right none of it. So it's like man, here's what you're going to do. You're going to start running these as ads directly to your local area you're going to start educating people on what it takes to sell. Michelle, if this is your ideal client a seller start dropping these as ads start doing weekly ads whether it's text and image, or whether it's text and video. If you shut out to that property. Michelle, if you if you went out there, and this was you in video. Hey guys, this Michelle, I am the listing agent I just want to give you a quick intro a quick update on what we did with this property and how fired up we are. It's like dude, if that was a two minute video with her in front of that listing congratulating those new buyers or congratulate congratulating those sellers. And she was just, you know, educating right teaching people via video, how she does it and what she did and and she's able to document this type of stuff via forget about image dude no one cares what your image video if that was you on video you could have used that as an ad. That could have been a setup for your next ad. Hey guys, this Michelle just want to give you a quick rundown and tell you what my experience was working with this amazing couple who brought me aboard last month to sell their house we got it done closed cash everything escrow done. We got it all done within 30 days and let me tell you why I'm so fired up for them and what you guys can expect working with an amazing team like like myself. That could have been an ad you guys set up for the next shoe and here's here's here's the kicker so here's what I'm giving you here's what I'm giving you here's the point of the video. Here's what I'm giving you as you start to run weekly ads targeting your area, educating people on the process of selling in hopes of them reaching out to you to do business regarding selling right. Here's what you want to start doing you want to start doing video and you want to start educating short form two minute video three minute video educating people on the process of selling. And at the end of that video the very last let's just say 10 seconds you're going to say hey guys. And by the way, we put together a 2020 seller guide that's going to give you all of our secret strategies exactly what we do to help people exactly how we help our clients sell their homes at the highest price possible. We put all this golden nugget information in this free PDF that you guys are going to be able to click on and download instantly. So you guys, I started seeing ads like this from Michelle, she lives in my local area. She's educating me on the process that's why it's kind of hard to deal with an image, right and a bunch of texts, educate me. Two minutes spill on what it takes to sell two minutes spill on tips on what I can do to increase the value of my home before I sold it. Tips on what's the difference between hiring a real estate agent versus trying to list the home on my own for sale by owner what's the difference give me two minutes you're an agent. Why should I hire you what's the difference. Talk about some of your experiences talk about some of your clients talk about how you help people don't it's not a pitch it's education. You're educating me weekly on the process of selling that is the front end that is the weekly Facebook ad that you guys put out. When you run the ad right here where it says eight comments that would say learn more. So now I would start seeing this in my new speech so if you live locally. I'm not friends with you on Facebook I'm not I don't like your business page. But your local and as I scroll through my shout out to my 12 year old son now guess that was him eight years ago. As people scroll through dang as we scroll through and see what everyone's up to everyone you know what see what our friends are posting see what's going on and then all of a sudden. Look at this man look at this. That's not where you want to post it run it as an ad but let's keep going to show you sponsored real quick. Here's sponsored. So text video at the end of the video there's the call to action to click learn more once they click learn more they're coming over to this one page. This is what I'm packaging up for you guys. I'm putting a red bow on it and I'm going to just gift it to you this is my thank you this is my gift to you. I appreciate you guys for subscribing I appreciate you guys for following this channel I appreciate you guys for checking your emails and opening up your emails. I appreciate you I packaged up the entire funnel and I'm giving it to you. All you have to do is activate your 14 day trial you're going to need landing pages you're going to need email automation you're going to need an online calendar. I happen to just recommend and be using the best of the best. You'll be able to activate your 14 day trial or click the link in the description profit with Karcher dot online. That is a 14 day trial set up a 14 day trial first okay there is no risk there's no freakin major. You know investment no dude set up a 14 day trial and then let's play around with this import the share code that you see right there below and then schedule a call with me okay. I'll jump on I'll give you all my time for free I will help you put together these funnels. All all this is is plug and play. Obviously you can change the text you can change the image. You can change the color of the button the name of the button you can change all this stuff down here you can change it all. But what I'm providing is the actual blueprint. Here's what here's what's coming in so again the whole goal is to start running weekly video ads at the end of that video I'm telling them to click learn more. When they click on learn more they're coming straight over here and downloading my 20 20 seller guide it can be the same for a buyer guide it can be the same for a 10% off your next beer. It could be it could be a seven day pass to your yoga studio it could be a 14 day gym membership. Activate your gym membership click here right it could be anything the same process of funnels. What I'm giving you here is a funnel blueprint that's all this is man and all you gotta do is set up a 14 day trial. So activate that import this share code and here's what what what what is all involved in this entire funnel okay. They're seeing the ad run they're clicking learn more they're coming over here they're clicking the yellow button they're entering their name and email. Send me your guide now that is the landing page when they hit the landing page when they when they opt into the landing page they then come to this page right here. Thank you for downloading my free seller guide the four points that you're going to touch on in this video jot this down if you're taking notes okay and if you're not go grab a pin let me pause it right now. Okay hopefully you got it I pause it I really did pause it in the background but grab a pen and paper because right these four bullet points down number one I'm thanking them I'm thanking them it's a freakin overwhelming exaggerated to a certain extent. Thank you I am thank you thank you thank you thank you for downloading my free seller guide. In this seller guide we talk about the top 10 tips to increase the value of your home before selling we cover x y and z we cover renovating your kitchen the importance of landscaping having a new roof. What you guys already know you guys again put this in your business perspective like you guys already know what to say you have a pitch we all do right. So number one I'm thanking them for downloading downloading it and telling them obviously what what it you know consist of and what to expect. Number two I'm introducing myself either I'm the author of the book on the trainer of the video. I'm the agent I'm the insurance agent I'm the real estate agent whatever. Introduce yourself it's not a pitch. This is a short 60 second, you know video. Number two I'm introducing myself hey my name is David I am the listing agent let me tell you why I'm so fired up and why I've been why I've been with this company for the past seven years and why every year we have succeeded and freakin broke through our records and we're super excited. Right like that's number two. Tell me a little bit about who you are and then number three. You're telling them to check their email hey and by the way I just emailed you your 2020 seller guide. So check your email and also by the way make sure you check every email that I guys coming out coming out your way because you're not going to want to miss anything I'm dropping content I'm dropping the highest you know pieces of knowledge form of knowledge that that that is available when it comes to selling rule of state this is something I'm fired up about and I have a bunch of content I'm going to be sharing with you guys so make sure you check your email that's number three check your email okay and then number four I'm saying hey and by the way. If you'd like to jump on a call now if you want to strategize if you want to you know to speak with the best of the best I've been doing this for the past 17 years I'm super fired up. And if you really really want to want to want to jump on a call and really get my two cents on what I do for clients and how we're so badass at selling real estate. Click the button below it'll take you straight to my calendar where you can schedule your best time can't wait to talk to you. Those are the four things you guys number one thank you number to introduce myself number three check your email and check future emails I have come in your way and then number four click the yellow button to schedule a call. Bam that's it that's what I'm telling them in that in that in that short for bullet point video 60 seconds on a thank you page but that's what I put together I put together the landing page I put together the thank you page I put together the calendar. And then also I put together the list so as they come to the landing page and they opt in they're on a very specific list I just set it up for you guys here right now. That was the lead that just came in that I just tested, but it's this one right here seller seller. No actually it's not that one it's seller guide my bad seller guide leads look and I'm number one I'm the one that just opted in right I just tested it. So seller guy leads the list is set up for you. Let me let me show you I click on number one and then boom that'll be mine, my name right I just and if I want to delete it I can I can just check I can. I can subscribe to another list I can unsubscribe I can subscribe to a sequence I can assign a tag grant membership I can export I can delete right which is what I'll do with this one. So I provided the list when they opt in they're on a list okay that list should be tied to a sequence that's what I also provided a handful of emails that are already pre written to go out okay so in this very specific case. We're promoting a seller guide in exchange for a lead right people are going to be seeing our Facebook ad they're going to be seeing our weekly ad. They're going to be clicking learn more they're going to be going over to our seller guide page downloading our seller guide right and our whole objective our number one goal is to is to collect hundreds is to get hundreds of leads in our in our local area. Into our funnel that's the that's the bottom line now now here's the email automation here's where that all takes play place. That's what I also set up for you is I set up a handful of emails that are already designed to go out. One's going to go out right away. Hey David, this is Dave just wanted to follow up hey thank you so much for downloading your 2020 seller guide. Here is your link to download your free copy. Make sure you check for my future emails. I am so so excited to get in touch with you Dave. Make sure you read everyone I send out because I'm bringing nothing but fire this year in 2020. That's number one right tomorrow email number two automatically goes out. That's the sequence. Okay, so I set up a handful of emails in the sequence. And I'll finish editing them today. So all this will be done by the time you guys are able to import it. But this is just a handful of emails. One goes out the following day. Hey Dave. Hey Dave this is hey Johnny this is Dave just wanted to follow up. Hey I know yesterday you downloaded my free 2020 seller guide 10 tips to increase the value of your of your property before you decide to sell. Hey do you remember on page three when I was talking about renovating your bathroom and the importance of it and how it can bring more value to your property. Here's what I meant by it. And then maybe a couple sentences by you and then and then and then your whole objective, your whole objective is to get them to schedule a call. Hey Dave and by the way, if you'd like to jump on a call and really dive deep into what I do to strategize with my clients before they sell, click the link below or take it straight to my calendar where you could schedule your best time. Can't wait to talk to you. Two days later, another goes another email goes out two days later another email goes out two days later two days later. So I'm already going to I already I'm going to come in and edit these emails but but even after I edit them, you're still going to want to come in here and put your little personality into it as well. You'll come in here you'll hit the three dots, you'll go down to email content and edit. That's all it is so but but they're already set up for you so one, two, three, four, five, five emails if I want to drop drop another one I can I can X out this line, come to send email, click, drag it down, go through the setup process and then connect the lines to each other. And then boom I'll have another email that that I can send out two days later, or I can send out a day later or four days later whatever I choose all that in the edit okay in the settings, but that's already there it's the blueprint I'm providing the pages as these emails go out okay. These emails are going to are going to pertain to what they opted in for so again this applies for any small business, whatever the heck your offer is people are not going to just give up their name and email. You have to give them something of value for free, and the best free thing to give away of value as a PDF a document a brochure, right something that that that someone can instantly download free of charge to get information to get information on your service to get information on your company to get information on your product to get information about you, right like how simple is that dude. And so apply this to your business and once that once that offer is given on the front end, these emails pertain to that offer so in this case a real estate agent. If it was a listing these next full a handful of emails would have went out a day later a day later a day later a day later. Right for let's just say five days maybe talking about that listing create an urgency to get that person to schedule a call with me for that listing right. If it was an open house, I will be running ads in the beginning of the week open houses next weekend. Every email that's going to hit every lead over the next few days up to the open house leading up to the open house or emails regarding that open house right. So same thing with the with the seller guide. These emails that go out are going to pertain to that seller guide hey john do you remember on page nine. Hey john do you remember on page 13. Hey john when it comes to selling have you considered this and hey by the way, I wrote about this on page 10. If you'd like to jump on a call. Click the link below it'll take you straight to my calendar where you can schedule your best time can't wait to talk to you john. I'm saying to do that in video. As these emails go out. I want them to be able to click a button or click a word that you hyperlink that will take them to a page to another cartridge page which I'm including in this funnel. Okay, so let's get out of here as they click on your call to actions in your emails. What is the call to action to click to schedule a call or to click and have them go somewhere else they go anywhere anywhere anywhere put a link they can go anywhere right that email. What I also included in this funnel. So let me just let me just show you here. It's not just the landing page. Okay, it's not just the calendar. It's not just the thank you page, but it's also. It's also. Let's go to shared funnels. It's also a handful of pages for the email. So as these sequences as your automated emails go out and that's why a seller guide that's what this is all about. A seller guide is powerful because as you as you run Facebook ads and you and you and you get people to click learn more to download your free seller guide as you fill that pipeline with interested leads interested people that live in your backyard. So you develop this this email list, you nurture that list via email automation, and in these emails are either links to your calendar, because you're telling them hey man let's jump on a call. Click here or take you to my calendar, or you're telling them to click here and watch my latest video regarding page nine or watch my my latest video regarding renovating this property before we list it. These are all pages that I'm I'm encouraging you I'm going to just include it you can use them if you want but it can be all part of the email so as email one goes out. We're getting them to click to watch a video right there email number two goes out we're getting them to click and they end up going to this one page right here where it's her on video talking about open houses that's a freakin 60 second video right and then at the end of that video that's an email that's email number two right in the sequence. But again this is for open houses you'll get the funnel and you'll be able to just edit, you can edit all this stuff you guys but i'm giving you the funnel i'm giving you the blueprint. And in this case it's for your seller guide as these emails go out and you nurture that list. The number one objective is to get them to get people to schedule appointments with you, but but then it's also to watch your videos like you want to stay top of mind this is. This is top of mind via video via 2020 plus and beyond via social media via freakin attacking our local area and crushing and dominating that's what this is okay. So so video you have to get over it if you guys aren't doing video you have to start doing video man you just have to.  If I was writing this in some blog, none of you guys would be here.   I can have boogers in my eyes right now. Mouth also live it up and I truly believe that doesn't even care no one even cares like it's like. There's a market for everyone man and when you can when you can when you can attack your local market where you're doing business and you can and you can you can deliver value via video.   You know what I mean so it's like this is nothing different it's just it's strategy it's just truly it's truly where you need to be. When it comes to building your business online like let's let's narrow it in if we're local we're running targeted ads. As they click we're giving them something of value as they continue to stay in our funnel we nurture that email list via. Automated videos and that's that's just what it is you guys simple page i'm able to Facebook pixel them i'm able to keep their attention in each video that is going out. In each video let me show you this. In each video that's going out email number one email number two email number three email number four email number five in each one. There's a call to action to click the yellow button in each video so in the Facebook ad video the call to action there was to click learn more. Over here once I already have you in my funnel i'm going to start nurturing you and building a report with you via email and i'm going to take it a step further and do it.  And i'm really going to take you over i'm really going to get you indoctrinated with my content that's how powerful the stuff is man. When you use it the right way you can touch a lot of people and you can automate it how many of you guys are watching this right now and you know what i'm probably doing. I'm either sleeping i'm either hanging out with my family i'm either playing with my kids right now i'm either eating with my wife or we're doing other crazy stuff right.  As you guys are watching this video i'm probably freaking sleeping. And this is what it's all about man being able to automate it being able to target market be able to give value to our audience in exchange for for a lead in exchange for their information and getting them to the to the to the to the to the finish line. Which is hopefully a successful transaction in whatever the hell you're selling right. So in this case it's it's real estate in this case is given out a seller guide and in this case I am gifting you the entire seller guide funnel. All you got to do is activate a 14 day trial so either that's profit with cartridge dot online you'll see that in the see that in the description. Just see the button below to activate 14 day trial activate the 14 day trial and I have this funnel already done for you like everything so that the let me let me go back all the email pages and again you can change all that stuff. Set all this up set up your 14 day trial import your share code which I'll show you how to do right now, and then reach out to me will schedule the call you get all my time for free.  Like you got to at least plug and play. If you're down to plug and play I will freaking help you and we'll run to the freaking wills fall off right. So, um, here's what I did all these pages right here all all packaged up in a in a freaking red bow for you. So here's what you're going to do. You're going to activate the 14 day trial and then you see the share code right below. Okay, once you activate your 14 day 14 day trial you're going to be able to log in. You'll be able to see your dashboard like this go through all the little you know updates or the all the little freaking notices click through all that and then you'll come here where you see this let this left bar to the side over here. What you're going to do is you're going to come into my campaigns you're not going to have anything over here to the left just yet. You're going to go to my campaigns, and then you're going to click on available campaigns. First of all, cartridge already has so many funnels done for you. Like it's not even funny like they have so much stuff already done for you. Like these are all funnels man like depending on what you're selling. We're all looking to capture a lead. Most of you guys are watching my videos you guys are in the lead business you're looking to get a scheduled appointment. You're looking to capture the lead in the form of giving away something of value in exchange for a name and email giving away a coupon giving away a discount code. Giving away a free download giving away something in exchange for that lead right 99.9% of you guys are that are watching this video are in that type of business. These are all different funnels for those types of businesses like it's not even funny. Not only does this cartridge already have all these funnels done. But again, working with me, I also have a ton of funnels also done for you. And, and that's what you're going to be doing here. So you're going to click on available campaigns you're going to click on the green button, and you're going to import the share code. So you're getting all that you guys you're getting. You're getting. Let's go to let's go to the assets view assets. You're getting eight pages, which which those are all the eight it's the it's the it's the landing page, the thank you page, the thank you for scheduling page. Let's not forget about that as they go to your calendar and schedule an appointment there's a page that they land on after that. That's how you track who schedules an appointment through your Facebook ads manager you create custom audiences and custom conversions around the call confirm page. That's the third page and then the other five pages are in the email. Right. Those are the pages that we're trying to get people to click out to to watch our daily videos on via email. Right. Those are the eight pages and then and then the spots are just for the videos I included the videos also to give you an example of videos forms. Those are the two forms that they fill out they're going to fill out one form on the opt in page to opt in to download your seller guide. And then there's a second form that they would fill out if they scheduled an appointment right two different things. So there's two different forms the list where they land where they land after they opt in. And in fact you know what there's a list that needs to be in here as well which I'll include will be number two. Those are the scheduled appointments so as they go and schedule an appointment they land on a list as well. The sequence is the email auto responder and then in the calendar. So here's what I'm actually going to do I'm going to just I got to do it on this end over here I'll come to my seller guide. And all I'm going to do is I'm going to edit this but I'll just give me one second you guys. Perfect so you guys should have this funnel and then and then once you once you get it all you're going to do is you're going to click on the three dots. And it should be over here click on the three dots and all you're going to do is you're going to click on deploy. Okay. So you're going to import the share code click on deploy and then you'll have everything over here on the left you'll be able to click on my communications and you'll see the list. The seller guide list that that that I included and you and you deployed and imported over here. So you'll see the list the list is seller guide. Seller guide leads you'll see that list you'll see the sequence and then you'll see the pages the pages that you'll see will be these ones right over here. And that's going to be the shared funnels that's going to be these ones right here so you're going to get the seller the seller opt in to that. That's one landing page and then you're going to get the other seller guide one which is this one over here often one I'm including both landing pages so you could test both of them right two different headlines. And that's it two different variations on the headline but makes a huge difference test both of them you get you're getting both of them. You're getting these email sequences one two three four five those are the five and then the call confirm page when they schedule appointment. And then the opt in to that's the other landing page and the thank you page and then the forums are going to be again the seller guide form and then the the calendar form. Okay, and then you'll see a handful of videos to the left you'll click on that and that's just an example of different videos you'll see this. All examples of how simple you guys can keep this these are the videos that go out in the email. But again, depending on if it's an open house funnel or a listing funnel or a seller guide funnel or a buyer guide funnel whatever whatever that funnel can, you know, consist of these videos are you know pertain to that topic right so I included that so you can have an example and then my calendar you have the shared calendar you can go in there just hit the configuration. Hit the dots go in and edit and update that calendar change out the name change the image, all that stuff you guys but the share code is right below. Activate your 14 day trial, and I cannot wait to help you take your business to the next level on social media. Alright guys so hopefully enjoy that everything you need is below schedule a call if needed. And I'll see you guys on our next video over now.


We're now being joined live on the news by security experts, Yahoosa Getso from Abuja. You're welcome to the news brief. Thank you for having me. Thank you for your time. There are now so many mass abductions in Kadena states. Why do you think schools are targeted? Well, I think it is not the schools that are targeted. I think that the response to the government's inability to seek its responsibility. Because if the government is seeking its responsibility, these security challenges we have are manageable. Why? Because we know the government knows where the bandits are. The government knows who are the kidnappers. The government knows who are behind them. We have heard many of these comments and statements credited to Minister of Information, Lai Muhammad. And even the governor himself, in an interview where he granted to BBC English service when he was responding to the arrest of Namdi Khan, who have confirmed this, that they know where they are. They know their locations and they are targeting them. And they are working hard to see how they can manage and deal with them decisively. That what surprised me and what is confusing and invulnerable for some Nigerians is the fact that when the governor yesterday night was going to demolish houses at Manali area in Kadena, he mobilized almost 50 trucks with security agents to those locations. So if governor can have that capacity, if the governor have the authority to manage that, and if the governor can mobilize up to 50 trucks or so, to an ordinary unarmed people who wanted to demolish their houses for one reason or another as mentioned, we are not discussing the demolition but it's a part of it as a subject. When he mobilized the same element, the same security person, to go to where he mentioned that himself and the military and the other security operatives knew about where all these criminals are. Okay, Doctor, what do you think we can do to keep the school safe? What we can do to keep the school safe is the same thing we can do to keep the whole of our community safe. In Nigeria, as far as I'm concerned, based on experience and based on professionalism, there is no word that is safe, no way you can go for people with a radius and you're comfortable that you will be able to go back to your family.  You can be kidnapped, you can be assassinated, you can be attacked, anything can happen. So, Nigeria is a country that is full of uncertainties and this is simply because of the attitude of our leaders. Non-state actors are even warning to state actors. And I wonder, line with the Minister of Information and Otherness, especially the Minister of Defense himself, they have been mentioning that, they know where these criminals are. So if you know where they are, why can't you deal with them? Decisively, I do it right. How do you allow non-state actors to give you an ultimatum? One of the kidnappers, the team leaders who kidnapped the brain-trained students, have given an ultimatum at one time to the government of Kodina State and even to the sovereign state of Nigeria. So Nigeria is a country, it's a geographical location, where we are together, but we're living in the country itself. So the question is, do even Nigeria as a state exist, if it exists, what is the responsibility of the leadership of the country? Yes, very good on that question. Doctor, Dr. Yanzer, you just made a valid point. Now, seeing the parents of these children crying and that the police is against them protesting to know the whereabouts of their children, who should bear the most responsibility here in all of these things happening, do you think there's a federal government or Kodina State? It's both, because both of them, the governor of Kodina State is the chief security officer of the state. And looking at all the security formations, in the whole of Nigeria, there is no state that has the presence of security personnel, security formations, security armaments, security armories, and all what you may ask, in Hapantian area in Koduna, in Katia, in Winglonguari, in many of other places, there are security training institutions and there are established institutions for capacity, they are rebuilding. And so the governor has the responsibility to do what he is supposed to do. And as far as the government, the state government and the federal government will not collaborate. You know, before we used to have 30 of government in Nigeria, but as far as some concern, professionally now we have 40 of government, you have the federal government, you have the state government, you have the criminal government, then the local government administration that is being killed. More or less if you say that you don't have local government administration, you are even right. And if you ask your question, that you ask yourself. Okay, finally, I'll just... People are being killed. What we have the pandemic? Yeah. Doctor, I'm sorry, because of time I'll just ask you, you know, what impact do you think this whole kidnapping issue and education will have on the young people? Do you think they will be free to want to go back to school without fear? Well, not even the children. Nobody have the confidence and nobody have the courage of the safety and the comfort. So parents are no longer having confidence and courage. And the one of the targets is to destroy the educational system. And if government is really serious about it, it's something that we can manage. We have the capacity, we have the ability and we don't need to even get any foreign support to deal with this situation. And as by the intelligence information we are having, a lot of these criminals are moving from Kasala Sokoto and Zamfara and they're moving towards the era of Kabine State, the United States, as well as some other parts of Sokoto State, where they are living, and it's also part of the other part of the Zamfara. And we have made mention of this and they are also restrategizing also to the areas of Jigawa, Kano and even to the United States. So the mandatory activity, if government demots it to its responsibility, I have done my own responsibility. I have communicated to all the state security politicians where I have been trying to reach out to the commissioner of the internal affairs and home affairs and the security of the United States, Mr. Aghwan, but he never picked my call. I had been trying to reach out to the governor of Jigawa State and the governor of New York. Okay, thank you. Intelligence information but they all refused to pick my call. I sent an essay as they are not responding. But I have communicated to the security of the police, the DSS and the civil defense and part of the military I know within these states. Okay, okay. So the military is not safe. We want to thank you so much for your time, you know, for giving all this exposition on this news. Thank you and have a great day. Hello, hope you enjoyed the news. Please do subscribe to our YouTube channel and don't forget to hit the notification button so you get notified about fresh news updates.


All right, so Tara, you're doing a case study with a client. Your client has generously stepped forward to say, yes, I'm happy to be even on a video for a case study. That's awesome. That's a very warm client. And you're wondering, well, what kind of questions should you be asking them? And you could think about, yeah, this year thinking that obviously be a video. It could even be a podcast episode possibly. It could be turned into written blog posts and clips if it could be used different places, clips of the video, clips of the written things. So it's very useful once you record something like this. And the questions that I have for you that you could ask, and by the way, others who are here, please chat below if you have any other ideas for questions to ask during a call like this. But basically, the basic format of a case study is before, during, and after, right? Like before they started working with you, this is what they were feeling. During the work with you, this was their favorite stuff about it. And after their work with you, or now that they have been working with you, this is how the experience is different in their life from how it was. But so the first question would be, and you don't necessarily have to ask it in this order because the first question I was gonna say was what's the difficulty or pain that they experienced before starting to work with you? Why did they come and start working with you? Now, sometimes that might be difficult to talk about. Maybe they're feeling in a celebratory mood, so they wanna talk about the great stuff first. So just kind of feel it out to see which question should you start with. Sometimes they're, so question one is difficulty slash pain experience before. Second one is favorite aspects or exercises in your work.  Or I really liked this framework you brought me through. It was very helpful. So things like that was a, yeah. So, and sometimes that's an easy way to start the conversation too. It's like, hey, what do you really like about working? And then they might also say, hey, Tara, I really like that. I feel like you really listen in our sessions. It's hard for me to talk about this stuff with other people. And you really provide that kind of space where not just you listen, but you also provide insights in regards to blah, blah, blah. So that would be ideal if they could say all those things. And then the third question. So one is difficulty playing before. Two is favorite aspects during. And the third is after working with you, how have things changed for them? So that, you know, the ideal answer would be like, well, gosh, now that we've done three months, six months, six months of work together, I feel way differently about, you know, I know, you know, just for those who don't know, Tara was body image, intuitive eating. My gosh, my relationship with food is a hundred percent, you know, 180 degrees because I used to stuff my face when I felt bad. And it was particularly these types of snacks and junk food. And now it's like, I don't, I look at that stuff and I'm like, all right, it's fun to eat occasionally, but only in, anyway, it's like, it's like that kind of contrast would be the ideal answer. Now, not everyone's going to have that kind of dramatic contrast to share.  Even if it's vague, you could try to tease out of them any specific scenarios. So they say, yeah, I just feel better. Now that I've worked with you. It's not, that's not, it's very helpful. I feel better. I mean, that's helpful, but okay, tell me more. Like in what situation do you feel better?  Now of course, hopefully they're okay talking about all this, this part of the area. How is that different now? Oh yes, thanks for reminding me. Yeah, this is totally, you know, so try to tease out what the transition has been in specific ways. Yeah, that's right. Contrast, you know? And then I have two more questions for you. Question four is, well, so now that you have gone through this work with me, what would you say is the best, who do you think my ideal client is? What kind of person do you think is really most ready to work with me and would get the most out of working with me? What kind of person might you describe? And then they'll say, okay, it's the person who is dealing with this issue, who has maybe tried this, who is willing to try XYZ and is really eager to get this kind of transformation of ABC, you know? I think that's the kind of person. And yeah, and I don't know if they're gonna tell you an age range, like between this age and that age, maybe in certain cases that might be relevant. And then the fifth question is, all right, great. Thanks for describing the ideal client. That's very interesting. What would you now imagine you were talking to that person? Maybe it's actually even a friend of yours, someone you can imagine. Like, oh yeah, that's the kind of person that Tara would really be able to help. Imagine talking to them on this video. What would you say to them in terms of my work? Like, what would you say to help them decide whether or not it's the right fit to work with me? Or maybe they're on the fence. What would you say to help them get off the fence one way or the other? Those are really good. Yeah, I like those a lot, George. Oh, and I'm sorry, Eric Klein, thank you for your suggestions here. I've got questions before. What were you hoping for when you started working with me? And what were you unsure about? Yeah, that's a really good one to like, what were you unsure about? And that's part of like, what would you say to the person who is on the fence? Like, what are they unsure about whether or not this is the right thing for them? And also, maybe what were you doubtful about? Like, when you started, you're like, yeah, I don't know. I mean, I've been trying these other modalities or these other programs and it didn't work for me, but working with you is different. Now that's awesome as a case study or testimonial, it's like, wow.  Why were you ready to try this approach? That's from Eric as well. Why were you ready to try this approach during, because the during stuff, what were the surprises? What worked the best? What challenges and how did we work through them? And then after looking back, what are the three key learnings and results? That's awesome. I love that specificity. What would you tell the you of a few months ago about this work? That's awesome, Eric. Yeah. That's very helpful. That was a really good. And I like, perfect. I mean, and I love that she's willing to be on video, like I said. And so do I need to think like, so what if I were to take a portion of this video? Sure, you can always edit it. Yeah. Okay. And so gosh, this idea of a podcast is really kind of fun, isn't it? And then. Yeah.  Like at the end of the podcast, when you say, hey, for those of you who are interested in working with me, I want you to hear from one of my recent clients who, you know, gave me permission to share this.  That's not great. Yeah. That's some crazy self-promotion there, George. That's, that feels uncomfortable. I'm just going to let you know that right now. That sounds like what? I said, that feels a little uncomfortable. I'm just going to let you know that right now, but I love the idea. I, no, okay, no, I love that you said that because let's think about the person who has listened to the end of a podcast episode. So the problem I have with podcast promotions is they're usually at the front. My God. Yeah. Not the guy with, you know, 10 minutes of ads in the beginning, got to keep fast forwarding until, come on people, podcasters, put the ads at the end. Not the middle. Maybe in the middle is a little, a little manipulative, but I'm, I want to hear the rest of the conversation. So I'm willing to sit through, you know, a one minute thing or I can fast forward quickly. But at the end is very respectful. It's like, I've heard everything. And now I just, you know, I wanted those of you who are interested in working with me and think about this here. You're framing it as those of you who are considering possibly check trying out my coaching, listen on for what one of my clients said about the experience. They could stop anytime. The episode's over. You know, and so they're going to keep listening. They want to keep listening. Yeah. Yeah. They might be curious. Cause I think, yeah, that's interesting. No, it's good. It's, it's really, really good. Those are some great ways. And for those who are saying, gosh, I don't know if my client's willing to be on video or even on audio. Don't worry. You can always do this kind of case study interview anonymously with your clients to say, all right, you have a choice. You could be on video, audio, or be anonymous. And we could do this over writing, over email. And that's totally fine too. You could still use it. You could, you could say it on a podcast episode or on a video. Hey, for those who are interested in working with me, this is what one of my clients just sent me. I'm keeping them anonymous because they wanted to be anonymous. But this is what they said.  I mean, that's vague enough where it could be anybody in the world, right?  So I kind of just said, I'd love to do a case study. And by the way, if you're interested in video and what we agreed upon is not using or linking her full name. Oh, okay. There we go. Which of course is fine.  Yeah, you could use first initial too. I could just write and, you know, Thanks T for doing this, you know. Write, exactly. Yeah, probably not even. But so, yeah, I am thrilled really. I wasn't expecting it, but I'm excited. So I love these ideas and these questions. Yeah, and Eric came up with this one. You can authentically introduce the testimonial clip by saying how grateful you are and how tender it makes you feel. Yeah, that's a nice way of doing it too. But I honestly think if someone's gonna listen to the end of a podcast or read to the end of a blog post, either way, they're open and they're open and they want the ideal client for you, the prospective client wants confirmation that it's not foolish to work with you. And the testimonial goes, well, I'm not the only one who thinks this might be a good idea, you know. Zuzia, that's a very sweet comment. Yeah, that's a nice one. I have a comment, George.  I'm just thinking about when you record the video, Taro, with your client. And some, people often get a sense of pressure like they're in a performance and they're on video. Oh yeah, that's true. And so I think it's important when you're doing it, just like, it's not, we can stop, we can read, you know, it's like, we'll take care of it in post. Like, we can laugh, we can forget. Can we say that again? It's like totally open space. I love that. I love that. It's not a one take. And, oh no, you made a mistake. You should feel bad for the rest of it kind of thing. And that also is good for you because if you get curious about something, it's like, let's go back to that thing and like, so it's total free-forming it. Yeah, just being really casual and conversational around the whole thing. And then I'll just get my editing hat on and go from there. Yeah, perfect. I love that. Well, Tara, I look forward to hearing how it goes. If it's something that does go move forward and you share it as a video, please do send it so that I can include it in the notes of this recording that we're doing. So people can see how it turned out. Yeah, I love that already. I certainly will. Thank you.


There's a new report out on climate change. I heard climate change naturally in the past, so what's happening now must be natural. So it interrupts, but actually that argument is misinformation. Who are you? John Cook. I researched how to stop misinformation. Well, you're not doing a very good job. Fake news is everywhere. But what can you do about it? Well the antidote to fake news is just a little bit of fake news and a dollop of explanation. What? We can inoculate people against misinformation by explaining the techniques used to distort the facts. In other words, explain the poor reasoning in bad arguments. And who are you? Peter Ellerton. We've developed a strategy based on critical thinking methods to analyse the nihilist claims. And I bet you're going to explain it to us. If you insist. The first step in analysing a claim is to break up the argument into its starting assumptions or premises and its conclusion. For example, the argument you just mentioned has two premises. The first one is that climate has changed naturally in the past. The second one is that the climate is changing now. And the conclusion is that current climate change is natural. What's wrong with that? Well to find out, we first check if the argument is logically valid. Does the conclusion follow from the premises? In this case, the answer is no. The argument commits to fallacy or non sequitur. Just because the climate changed naturally in the past doesn't mean it's changing naturally now. And that's it? I'm just getting started. If an argument's invalid, it's often because there's a hidden assumption. In this case, a hidden third premise. If something wasn't a cause in the past, it can't be a cause now. Adding this premise makes the argument logically valid. So now the conclusion must be true? Not so fast. The next thing we have to do is check that the premises are true. In this case, the third premise is false. It commits the single cause fallacy. Ignoring there can be multiple factors that cause climate change. So now we're done? We're done. Although it's worth pointing out the advantage of using critical thinking to debunk misinformation. The computer's talking. No, it's Dave. Where are you? I'm in the Alps. A simple way to expose bad logic is to apply a parallel argument. And show just how ridiculous the argument really is. The past climate change argument is just like arguing that because people died of cancer in the past, cigarettes can't be the cause of any cancer now. We took this critical thinking approach and applied it to the most common myths about climate change. Every myth we looked at had reasoning flaws. And we listened more in this paper, published in the Environmental Research Letters. If I take your paper, will you leave us alone? Sure. Fine. This article argues against vaccination. Actually, that commits the fallacy all.  Cherry picking.


And now we'll have a special address by Marisa Guananja. Hi, good afternoon everyone and welcome to Spectrum. My name is Marisa Guananja and I am a program officer on the Family Economic Security Team at the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. Before continuing, I wanna share some words of gratitude. Nadia, thank you so much for bringing us into this space with the reverence and reflection that this moment deserves and miss your generosity and spirit and love as a colleague at the Foundation. Thank you also to those of you who kicked us off this morning, Sarah Eagleheart, Julio Rivera, Julio thank you for bringing my grandmother into the space and Stacey Abrams. What a powerful way to start this morning. And thank you, Kiesha and Carrie for bringing us here today. Your efforts even over the last two weeks to make sure this conversation is grounded in the context of what is happening while continuing to push us forward to focus on long-term solutions is admirable. Thank you. And welcome to all of you. Thank you for joining us in this space and in these conversations. I wanna start with a bit of a personal reflection. Over the last week and a half, the usual greeting of how are you or how are you doing has taken on a heaviness. Personally, I have been experiencing a deep sadness and reckoning. As a light-skinned Latina who has benefited from the privilege that society bestows on lightness I have benefited from colorism, I have a responsibility to bear, to show up as an unapologetic ally, to engage in the uncomfortable conversations, to make room at the table and to ask whose voice is not here and to make sure that next time they are in the room and they are valued. The current state of affairs has exposed deep racial and equities across a number of systems that clearly devalue black lives. Black people account for 13% of the US population yet make up almost a quarter, 24% of COVID-19 deaths. Black unemployment has always tracked at twice that of white unemployment. After pandemic shutdowns, less than half of black adults are working. Unarmed black men and women are killed at the hands of police at disproportionately higher rates than whites are. And remember, while blacks make, black people make up 13% of the population, they account for 23% of those shot and killed. These inequities are systemic, built on centuries of deliberate action and policies that intentionally discriminate and held some people back, people of color. For the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, and I'm sure for many of you in this room, this is not new news. People of color, immigrants, Native Americans, people in jails and prisons, poor, the ones suffering and dying in greater numbers bear the brunt of inequities in all of our systems, including the ones that will interrogate over the course of the next three days. The work before us, the work before those of us at Spectrum and before the W.K. Kellogg Foundation is to address the structural racism behind these inequities. This is why we are here. So how do we do that? Let's show up as unapologetic allies to the black and brown people that aren't in this room. To the black and brown people, a bit downstream from the capital that we are deploying or the capital we are seeking for our ventures, black and brown workers. At the foundation, I manage a portfolio that focuses on work structures. On the relationships that workers have with their employers, how they are compensated, these work structures are critical drivers of racial wealth inequality. In the portfolio, we have grantees such as United for Respect who organized Toys R Us workers for the first ever hardship fund for laid off workers. A $20 million financial assistance fund created by Toys R Us former private equity owners, KKAR and Bain Capital. Now as Toys R Us reopens, they are doing so with a mirror board comprised of three former frontline Toys R Us employees and organizers who will have access to key corporate information and who will sit alongside the board of directors. The workers have been trained by MIT Sloan School of Management. Is this a model that could be replicated? With that example as context, here are some questions for us to consider this week. Diversity and inclusion are important markers for progress, but they are not sufficient. How can we ensure that diversity and inclusion and capital flows in the C suite in board rooms translate to something meaningful for workers that are often seen as expenses and liabilities to be mitigated? The business practices and decisions that companies make are not made in a vacuum. They are made in the context of a political economy with a fraying social contract that needs to be renegotiated with people of color at the negotiating table. Perhaps it makes business sense to have a cadre of part-time workers to limit the benefits that you as an employer are providing, but then are you also lending your voice to calls for a robust public option? As more and more people talk about transitioning from a shareholder economy to a stakeholder economy, how are we all of us in this room ensuring that the voices of workers and communities help to shape and define what that means? And importantly, what are the mechanisms by which stakeholders, black and brown workers and communities can hold us to account? What you'll hear, explore and learn over the next three days and what we're excited by at the W.K. Kellogg Foundation will provide ideas necessary to move forward and to imagine and build a new future in which all children, families, and communities have the opportunity to thrive. Thank you and I'm looking forward to the conversation.


Welcome to Dungeons & Collaborations, a player's handbook to working with distributed teams. Whereas my clicker gets sent. I'm Roland Lee. You'll find me on the internet at Roland Lee. I'm from Washington, DC. I do a lot of rhyming. I'm a software developer at Etna. Most importantly, I'm a level nine wizard. So show of hands, who here knows what tabletop role-playing is? Cool. Now where are my real nerds at? Yeah, there we go. There we go. Regardless if you have played, or this is the first time you've ever heard it, we're going to have a session zero where we're going to set expectations and get on the same page. So what's tabletop role-playing? Is it like a board game? Sort of. You take turns and you make moves, but there's no winner. Is it like an RPG video game? Kind of. You tell stories with characters, but you're only limited by your imagination. Not with the story in the game, it makes you do. I can say it's collaborative storytelling governed by a set of rules. Where three to five players act as main characters in a story, and another specific player places the Game Master or Dungeon Master, DM or GM. They facilitate the story. They act as supporting characters. They're the terrain. They're the monsters. They also act as a referee and help adjudicate the rules. Where the end goal is not to win, but to create a compelling story using rules as a narrative device. Now that we're all on the same page of what an RPG is, I want to walk you through my journey. And that starts with getting the right game with the right people. Just like having the right culture at a right company, this can spell success or failure. But we're going to tackle the easy part first, the right game. At their core, gains reward behavior, scrabble rewards having a great vocabulary, risk rewards, military strategy, and RPGs are just the same. Some reward combat, some reward storytelling. My approach to a problem is different if I get rewarded for killing the monster versus overcoming my own character flaw. This led me to the game Dungeon World, created in 2012 by Sage Latoura, a senior test engineer at Google, and Adam Kobal, a professional GM. Or as Adam Kobal calls it, hipster, dungeons, and dragons. It has the same genre conventions, wizards, elves, but it's mechanically different. And that's because it's powered by the apocalypse, which actually means there's a fork of a different game. It's weird. RPGs have forks of forks of forks, just like programming. Giving it its distinct feature, the 2D6 mechanic. Which means I as a player will describe an action. I slash the baddie. The GM will then prompt me to make a roll of two six-sided dice. This'll be the same that you'd see in a game Monopoly, Caton, Craps. Then, if I roll a sum of 10 to 12, I succeed, and the GM narrates. You slash them to the ground. Seven to nine. I get what I want, but at a cost. You slash them, but then it gets you back with a dagger. Two to six. I fail completely, but the game gives me experience so my character can grow. Your attack completely whiffs. The baddie kicks you to the ground after your sword falls from your hand. So the game teaches me I can either succeed from my actions, or with the worst case scenario, I can warm from my failure. Now, be it the interview process, or finding people to play with in a niche role-playing game, getting the right people is hard. Here are all the different meetups I could be playing Dungeons & Dragons at in the DC metro area. There's no dungeon world meetups in DC. So how do I follow my passion when it's not available locally? I went to the internet and I found this website called Roll20. It's a place where RPG players can collaborate. It's kind of like Google Hangouts, plus a whiteboard, plus dice rolling. And I was able to find a group there where I could play Dungeon World at a time that works best for me. But just because I have a group doesn't mean it's the right group. And that's something I have to work for. And that starts off with having the right expectations. Be it starting a new job or a new project, knowing what I'm getting into really helps my happiness. And just like we did before, we have a session zero. This is a meeting where we talk about our personal goals and kind of figure out what we wanna be the tone of the game. Say, is the game gonna be like Lord the Rings or Game of Thrones? Both are fantasy, but they're very different. If I think we're going to Mordor to drop off the ring, then halfway through, my teammate slits my throat and says Jamie Lannister sends his regards. I'm not gonna have a great time. But just like professionally, I gotta be adaptable. I'm still playing a really niche game on the internet. Here's a great example of what can be done. Say the player goes, I wanna be a pirate. James goes, that's a dumb idea. I'm saying my game of the desert can't be a pirate. There's no pirates in the desert. But this brings us back to this old advice in RPGs. Never start with no, always ask why. So let's roll it back. Let's say the idea doesn't get shut off and we're then at a standstill. We could say, well, why do you wanna be a pirate? I want a sweet boat.  Here, we're not focusing on the tactics and getting entrenched in it. We're focusing on how do we create solutions for each other? I use this technique a lot when I'm trying to spec out future development with the products and other developers. So we're gonna actually get into some gameplay. I'm gonna kick that off by meeting the party. Here's our game master. He's played by John from Florida. We have Hawthorne, our cleric, who heals people. She's played by Locke from Australia. We have Kyvo, our thief. And he's played by Josh from Texas. He's from Dallas, but don't hold that against them. We have Wisteria, our druid. She's ShapeShifts. And she's played by Lucy from California.  Uri, Ronely from DC. We're five people across four time zones and two continents. So the bare minimum thing we can do is respect each other's time zones. We play from five to 9 p.m. Eastern Sunday nights for me. That means Locke is playing from seven to 11 a.m. Monday morning. So she needs like an extra couple of minutes to get ready. Like, she deserves it. And we'll just get her back up to speed later on. But also, like, when nine o'clock rolls around, I need to get out and get ready for the next day. We're also three men and two women of different races and ethnicities in our 20s, 30s and 40s. So we need to think beyond just the bare bones of time zones and being overall empathetic. In my old group, we're all just 20-something dudes who had the same jokes and the same humor, which was fine. But when I started playing online with people I didn't know, I had to be more thoughtful in my expression. For example, if I said the dragon looks like a Charizard, I can't count on everyone in my group knowing what a Charizard looks like. So who here knows what pair program is? Yeah, okay, mob programming? Okay, we're paired with more than one person. We're gonna do something really weird. We're gonna mob GN this game together. I'm gonna shout out a question like, what color is the dragon? Yeah, it can be green, red, okay. We're gonna go with turquoise, I love turquoise. And we'll do something like this. Our party has just slayed a turquoise dragon and they're looking to celebrate a hard-earned victory. Where and how are they celebrating? Yes, they're at the Alamo draft house reds. So they're all there having a good time hearing this person talk about RPGs. Kyvo, he's eating the Royale cheese. Hawthorne's still kind of skimming the bingo sheet because she really thinks she could get a black ale if she tried hard enough. Uri's bragging to the person next to him how he singly took down the turquoise dragon. And Wisteria is just kind of solidly watching with her hands and her ears like this. And everyone's having a great time. It's Friday afternoon. People are munching, talking. Then all of a sudden, down the ramp, this dwarven man walks down and everyone turns and sees him because most people know who he is. And if he's around, things are probably not good. He approaches the party up in the robe and he says, Greatens, I'm Hannah Meyer. Head the town's guard. Our chaduk has been kidnapped and we need you to rescue him. Our intel says that he's stuck in a cabin in the woods. But stop by Ada, our shopkeeper, and she'll sort it out for your perilous journey. But hurry and make haste. Our party nods, they take this challenge. Player tip, use vivid language when describing a situation. The more details you hear, the more of a shared vision we can create in the theater of the mind. Just like in software development, SYNG is stack trace is much better than just hearing, oh, it's broken.  So we're in a fast forward. The group makes a polite exit of the conference while everyone's still there. And they get dressed and they head off to the shop to see Ada. They approach the shop, it's fairly small. It's like 10 yards by 10 yards. Then there's a counter that wraps around the room and on the other side of the counter, there's wooden shelves that go all the way up to the ceiling. And all the shelves are just basic stuff. Clothes, dry goods, first aid kits. But there is a specific item on one of the walls. It has this oar to it. It's a weapon. What weapon is it? Double-bladed axe. Double-bladed axe, yes. As they approach the counter, it jumps off and loses her mic and says, hello, I'm Ada. Hannah Mara says you're gonna stop over. Is there anything you need is on the house? Or he walks up and goes, yeah, this hike's gonna be a doozy. I might need a new pair of boots because I'm gonna get my good shoes dirty. Yeah, you need good foot protection. Those walls are mighty dangerous as she slowly glances at her left hand. She turns around, grabs the boots from the shelf. And as she grabs the boots from the shelf, she can see that she's missing a finger. She hands them to Uri. And as she hands the boots to Uri, you can see a ton of scarring on her hand that could only come from battle. She hands it to Uri, glancing at her hand again and says, anything else you need, those walls are mighty dangerous. Remember to repeat key details. In remote work, sometimes the audio cuts out or even at the basic level, people just misunderstand what's being heard. And even if they did hear it correctly, hearing it over and over again reinforces importance over minor details. There he goes. Now I'm fine. And walks out. Ada says, okay. Hawthorne then approaches Ada and says, I can use my healing magic to reduce some of the scarring and so you would feel less pain. I don't know if it's powerful enough to bring back the fingertip. Well, that's mighty gracious of you. Thank you very much. You're welcome. But you seem to know a lot about these woods. Is there, are you an adventurer? I now and then. And here's a good tip for you in those woods. Anything can hide in the trees and anything can hide in the bush. You always better be on the lookout. Active listening. This is a technique commonly used in conflict resolution and in management where a listener listens to the speaker and how they say it, then paraphrases it back to them. I find this especially useful in software development and RPGs because we're using, we're in such a high fidelity of information that it acts as a checksum between both parties. After Hawthorne finishes healing, Kyvo's looking at that double bladed axe up there. He just caught his attention because he loves shiny things. And it says, yeah, I got that in my last trip out in the woods. It's yours if you want. We really need our archduke back and you're gonna need all the help you can get. Kyvo, being gracious. It says, thank you. So we're gonna fast forward to the woods here and say that the party's done about a day of hiking or so and they're looking to make camp. And they've made camp and Uri's on watch. Everyone else is asleep. Uri, what do you do? Well, I just took down a turquoise dragon. I think I can handle a simple rescue mission. I'm gonna make my way to the cabin. I'm gonna go into the cabin. You see two goblins on patrol. These are obviously probably the goblins that kidnapped the archduke. What do you do? I cast Fireball. You rolled an 11. Success. They turn to ash. What do you do now? Like I said, this is gonna be super easy. I'm gonna get closer to the cabin and take out the rest and get the archduke back before breakfast. You get to the cabin. You see two goblins guarding the entrance. What do you do now? I cast Magic Missile. You rolled an eight. Partial success. You take one goblah now, but the other goblah knocks the one from your hand. What do you do? Plenty of them. 10, success. What do you do now? I open up the door and say, Uri's here to save you. Don't hug the spotlight. That might have been a real cool series of events for Uri, but there's three other players at the table who have completely checked out because they're not involved. Just like in programming where we try not to be cowboys or rock stars, in an RPG game, don't hug the spotlight. As you burst through the door, you see and smell a dark gas. What do you do?  Ooh, you rolled a six. You pass out. Let's check back in with the rest of the party. Y'all wake up to a sound of explosion as if someone casted fireball a while back. What do y'all do? Well, the shopkeeper said that anything could hide in the trees in the bush. So someone should go look out. That sounds like an amazing idea. I'll turn into a bird and fly around to see if I've seen anything. You see two goblins hiding in a tree or in some bushes, actually, underneath a tree. And one goblin says, what's up with that wizard? Does he know things could hide in the trees in the bushes? I know, right? They're not done with that conversation.  I know, right? I go and tell the rest of the party. Kyvo, what do you do with this information? Well, I got this double-bladed axe. I don't wanna try it out. Okay, what do you do? I'm gonna take them both out with one swing. 12, he got them both. They fall to the ground. Hawthorne, what do you do? I cast Speak With The Dead. This lets me ask three questions, and they have to answer truthfully. Cool, you rolled a seven. This means it works, but you won't be able to use it for the rest of the session. What do you ask? Where's Uri? The boss has probably got him. Who's your boss? He's a mind flayer. And how do we defeat him?  Oh, okay, that's really convenient, thank you. What do you all do with this information? Well, I'll turn to a spider, and I'm gonna sneak into the cabin to scare him. Okay, he's sneaking into the cabin. There's Uri, he's passed out. There's the Archduke, who's also passed out. And there's the mind flayer, I'm standing over him. What do you do now? As a spider, I jump on one of his tentacles, getting right in his face. Oh yeah, he doesn't not like that. He starts screaming around the room. Kyvo, what do you do during all this commotion? Well, I'm gonna sneak in all sly luck to the door while he's screaming, and take him out. Cool, yeah, done so. Hawthorne, what do you do? Well, I heal the Archduke and Uri back to health. Remember, play off each other's work. Just like programming, not everyone has all the skills, so it's important to delegate and collaborate. So the Archduke says, well, I was in the forest doing research, then the mind flayer got me. However, before then, I was able to find these stones of far speech. They'll let you communicate with anyone anywhere in the world, no matter the distance. I want you to take them as a gift for rescuing me. The group graciously takes the gift and says thank you and lets the Archduke on his way to escort the Archduke back to the city. Let's talk about end of session. At the end of our four-hour sessions, Dungeon World asked us to have a retro, where we asked three questions, and for every question we say yes to, we get a point of experience. First, did we loot a memorable treasure? Yeah, we got the stones of far speech from the Archduke. Did we overcome a notable enemy or monster? Yeah, we defeated the mind flayer. Did we learn something new and interesting about the world? We learned techniques to help us better collaborate. We learned how to set expectations and just starting having the right game with the right people. I want to say thank you to John, Josh, and especially Lucy who did all the artwork for this presentation, for teaching me so much how to be better at working together remotely. Here's my information. Twitter, email. Also, if you ever want to reach out to Lucy, here's her email as well. Thank you.