Hey guys if you don't have this game yet and wanna play simply like this video and leave a comment down below, winners will be picked and announced this weekend, good luck. So we have a massive list to go through of what's believed to be characters coming to this game, but let me ask you a question, if you could pick one hero from the Marvel Universe, who would it be and why, let me know down below in that comments section. As it gone guys my name is DPJ and if you enjoy your stay here and would like to show you support hitting that like button truly helps out and subscribe if you like what you see and wanna see more. Okay with so many new players coming to the game, many of them not knowing about this information I thought I'd bring it to the fresh eyes of this community. Before this game was released, dataminers as they do went into the files of the game basically extracting details on heroes believed to be coming to the game due to ties within the files to things like having unlocked cards and being referred to as unlockable characters and there are 15 in total, one of them being confirmed by the devs themselves that she is indeed the first on the list of playable characters that will be coming, so let's check out these heroes and what they can do. So firstly we know cake bishop is coming, so who is cake bishop you are wondering well for this it's simple and I will let them themselves explain this to you. What is that? Our guest finally agreed to help. Remember what's riding on this. Easy doc, deals a deal on my part. That is not what I sound like. Taking aim is the first big post launch operation. It directly advances the story starting at the conclusion of the reassemble campaign. We are so excited to share that the first Avenger to join our expanded roster is Kate Bishop. We love Kate. She is smart, incredibly talented and a master archer. Given the strong connection and friendship between Kate and Clint, we knew we couldn't do one without the other. Taken together, we like to think of their individual hero operations as a double feature. For some background, Clint the original Hawkeye took on Kate as a protege, but in many ways, Kate is the mature one. She is like the smarter younger sister who has to clean up the messes of her reckless older brother. Taking aim operation, you'll get a new hero, Kate Bishop, complete with her own set of skills, gear and moves to unlock and master just like the core launch heroes. You'll also get a brand new story and villain that adds to the ever expanding Avenger's initiative experience. While operations are a way to introduce new heroes, villains and more story, they can also add new regions to the globe. So you guys, I cannot wait for that. So who else was datamined? 14 others guys, so let's check them out. And we're gonna start with Captain Marvel as well as Marvel. And well, if you guys watched a Captain Marvel movie, you should have no problem knowing who these are.  I mean, just go to Miss Marvel's room, aka Kamala Khan, and you'll see a poster of Captain Marvel on her wall. And well, I think it's one of the main movie characters too. It was inevitable that she was coming. Marvel though is a little different. And well, early on guys, Marvel was originally Captain Marvel and was also a man in the movie that changed. So it will be interesting to see how he or she will be portrayed in the game. So Marvel or Captain Marvel is Cree and has genius level intellect, a master scientist and engineer also has superhuman strength, durability and agility and regenerative healing. So it's gonna be interesting to see what role she plays within the game. And like Kate, Bishop and Clint, we might see Captain Marvel and Marvel come together, but might not both be playable characters like it seems Hawkeye ain't just Kate. But we will see. Okay, so next up people we have She-Hulk, who as we know is basically a female Hulk. And originally, as far as I can remember, she is Bruce Banner's cousin.  And then she became the She-Hulk. A regional name of Jennifer Waters, and well like I said her powers are basically the same as the Hawks. But it will be interesting to see how they release her into the game and the story that follows suit. Okay, so next up people we have War Machine, who well I guess you all know about. This I would imagine will be tied into some kind of story featuring mainly Tony, which would be cool, but in actual fact guys, it could also be tied to Captain Marvel. As you may not know, but they actually had a love fling within the comics. And depending on how they want to drop the story or any story for that matter, we could see a few sides of this thing. One thing to remember though, the War Machine armor was never as powerful as the Iron Man armor, hence why Tony Stark never saw a need to use it. And I'm actually curious to see how things play out with War Machine. Because although War Machine is indeed as heroic as they come, there was a brief period I do remember where War Machine was indeed a villain. Can't remember who played this part, wasn't rolledy though, but we will see. Interesting to think about the many different angles they could play out here. Okay so next up we have another two heroes which tied directly into what we have already played so far in the game. And they are Ant-Man and the Wasp. Being confirmed throughout the story that Hank Pym can't no longer shrink down is quite obvious that we will see Scott Lang take on the form of Ant-Man. Now the Wasp in the movie was originally Janet Van Dyne who was played by Hank Pym's wife. Yet his daughter also played the role in the movie too as the Wasp. But I actually remember the daughter from the comics as the Red Queen. So who will we get in the game? His wife's daughter is anyone's guess. Mother or daughter it would be interesting. But if we do get Hope as the Wasp, I do hope we get a Red Queen suit for her. That would be cool. Okay so next up people we have none other than Black Panther. RIP Chadwick. For me Black Panther was always going to come and to be honest I honestly cannot wait. And I can say this character will truly be one of the best additions to ever come to this game. And while I feel most people will agree with me. So some of what the Black Panther can do. The power to draw upon the knowledge, strength and every experience from every previous Black Panther. Superhuman strength, speed, reflexes, agility, stamina, endurance, durability and senses. Genius level intellect, master martial artist, tactician, strategist and inventor. Utilising that vibranium suit and equipment. I mean so yeah this is going to be a great addition and I honestly cannot wait for the Black Panther. Okay so next up people we have Doctor Strange. AKA Stephen Strange. Who is another Avenger we kind of knew had to be dropped into the game. Now playable characters like Doctor Strange for me are truly exciting considering what this guy actually does. It's what I like using for because everything is just a spectacle. Now without doubt Doctor Strange will be another flying character as we've captured Marvel War Machine and the Wasp. I welcome more. And I can see now some of the combos involving the cloak of levitation and hopefully Dragon Fang 2 he's sword. But yeah I don't think I need to go on one more about Doctor Strange. I think we all know of this character and I think we all look forward to him. Okay so next up we have the Falcon. AKA Snap Wilson. AKA Blackwing and AKA well at one stage another Captain America. So yeah the Falcon, Sam Wilson will be added into the game at some stage another according to these data mined files. And well I guess he will be tied in with a Captain America storyline. Now quickly before we move on because I don't think I need to go on about the Falcon either. And the next character we're going to talk about also ties into Captain America. I do wonder if they will acknowledge Falcon's telepathic links with all birds. I mean we didn't see anything like this in the movies but it would be interesting to see it somehow incorporated into the game via his skill set. That would be amazing. Okay so next up another tie into Captain America we have the Winter Soldier. Which don't hate me for this people I still feel the Winter Soldier is the best Marvel movie made to date. I mean man I love that film. Now James Boky Barnes like Captain America is a super soldier. Interesting though I don't think he was ever referred to as the Winter Soldier when the partner of Captain America. He was only referred to as the Winter Soldier when his dude was a brainwashed assassin for the Russians. So to me a fact the Winter Soldier is common it's going to be really interesting to see who we actually get. Will he be introduced as the Winter Soldier as a villain as we play as him and progress through the story that comes with him. Will he turn hero. Pretty cool to think about. Okay so next up we have the Mockingbird aka Barbara Bobby Morse or Barbara Barton. Yes Mockingbird is the divorcee wife of Clint Barton aka Hawkeye. So this is interesting for sure.  I think the villain here was called the Phantom Rider. But yes she's a true proper superhero and she'll be a great addition to the game. Now some of her powers consist of she's proficient in armed hand to hand combat. She's an espionage she also does that gymnastics and she's a martial artist. Enhanced strength and ability healing and halted aging. And also expert marksman and mastery of various other weapons. Especially head trademark to battle staves. So she's going to be a great addition for sure. Okay so moving on and next up we have Quake aka Daisy Johnson. So Quake you might recall from the series Agents of Shields. And besides Nick Fury and Black Widow she's only of our level 10 clearance shield agent. Me personally I remember her mostly for her ties to Camilla Khan aka Miss Marvel in the Inhuman Secret Warriors comic. But it will be interesting to see how she's incorporated into the game. Her special powers vibration manipulation experts by a martial artist. Okay so we're going to move on and lastly I might as well drop these two as a pair. Even though they've had many many more instances apart in the comics. But for the sake of the movies and probably 50% of people watching this most or none of them from the movies over the comics. They are Scarlet Witch and Vision.  I don't think any of the heroes could even put up a fight to either of these two. So we'll start with Scarlet Witch and something seriously interesting about her I still don't think many people know. She is the daughter of Magneto and obviously the sister of Quicksilver too. And in the early days I even think her costume resembled Magneto's. Now Wonder's powers are after charts and here are some of her abilities. She has scientifically enhanced magical abilities, reality warping, probability manipulation, teleportation, matter manipulation, time manipulation, energy projection and absorption. So when she eventually does come it's going to be super interesting for sure to see what she's capable of and the story she brings at the same time. Okay so Vision. So where do we start with this dude? Well according to the movies which is a lot different to some of the much better versions I have read. Vision was basically created by Ultron who was created by Tony Stark using the Mind Stone's power etc etc etc etc. Now more interesting take on this and a much better backstory in my opinion and a one I mostly remember. Ultron or Ultron 5 was actually created by Hank Pym. Ultron rebelled against him and the Avengers and Ultron wanting to get revenge against them. He took a vessel of the human torch and he was modified, memories wiped and then became Vision. Because those of you who do not know the human torch was originally an android. But yeah Vision actually being human torch or an android version of the human torch is so much more interesting to me. And yes this is the same human torch he was later taken by Stanley I believe and incorporated into the Fantastic Four comics. Yeah Vision either way whichever version we get is going to be absolutely amazing. And I also hope we get Gray Vision too because that suit was incredible. And yeah guys that is it. All 14 or 15 characters believe via datamine to be coming to the game. And for the most part I cannot wait. Tell me down below in that comment section who's your favourite after this list and you cannot wait for. Now top 5 I'd probably say Black Panther, Doctor Strange, Captain Marvel, War Machine and Scarlet Witch. But hey that's just my opinion. Well on that note guys we have come to the end of the video. If you guys enjoyed it leaving a like really helps out. If you're new around here and want to see more Marvel's Avengers be sure to subscribe. And if you never want to miss a video I upload you can turn notifications on by hitting that bell button. But guys thanks as always for stopping by. Hopefully you enjoyed the video and hopefully I will see you on that next one.


You need to hit it. Everybody need to gather around for this one. This is a very special rendition. I wasn't saying you specifically, my brother. I was talking to us as a community, as a whole, as a black community, as a market, as a record label, staff, and a company. Yeah. Because this is breaking news and some new information. Hot off the press that may save somebody's life. Yeah. We got the book right here. It's not complicated. It's not. But you're making it hard. Now, I had to go call in a specialist for what I've been seeing on the internet. All this is back and forth and arguing and all these podcasts and stuff. Somebody got to make some sense of all this. And I think I found the right person to do it. Ms. Alicia Price. Yes.  But I think you need to hear it from her. And then I'll follow up with that. Yes. Thank you. They're all yours. Thank you for having me. I am your favorite co-parenting coach. Say it one more time. I am your favorite co-parenting coach. What's a co-parenting coach? I am a co-parenting coach and expert. I work with single parents and divorced parents, also those who have never been married, to figure out how do they cooperatively co-parent. How do you work together as parents to raise your children? That's a damn good question. Yes. So how do you do it?  First, is that in the book?  What page is that on the book? No, we keep it all the way real. Like, really, it's an adult thing. Kids are absolutely not the problem. Adults need to learn how to work together. And it all starts with communication. So part of communicating is listening. And if you're talking, you can't be listening. So I like to work with parents so that they're not arguing in front of their children and they can cooperate. So it's like a workbook. Yes. Yes, it's a guide. You've got to split up what a daddy can say his part and then she can write her part back. Also, they can just kind of pass it. You're like, you're talking to kids and all. I said my little boy like that. Well, this book in particular is for mothers to work through what they have to navigate as it relates to co-parenting and healing from the relationship. But fathers can also gain a lot from the tools in the book. And you mentioned kind of the passing it back and forth. And we do some activities in the coaching in terms of kind of sharing journals and being able to really articulate what it is that you're feeling. Yeah. So it's good work. So you've got to talk about your feelings. You have to. You have to. You have to. It's deep. It's deep. Co-parenting is something that also married couples do. If you're cohabitating, you're still co-parenting.  People think that it's automatically drama. There's something wrong. But we need to learn how to actually hear each other in terms of what parenting looks like. And if we want to break cycles of what single-parent households look like and, you know. When did you get it? The Maury-Povitch show. When did you get it? Like, when did it make sense to you? Were you like, oh? So we were at my son's conferences in fifth grade. And I remember the teacher saying to us, he didn't know until my son stood up and read an essay in class that he didn't live with both his mom and his dad. And it just clicked for me. I was like, wow. Like, if the school didn't recognize that he wasn't living with both of us, then we made it. Like, we made it. We did it. And that was because our communication was seamless. They could tell his dad something that I also knew. And we showed up as a collective, as a team for our son, although we weren't living in the same household. And that's essential to raising our children to be whole, to be healed, to be healthy, you know, to not be out here in the streets in a bunch of drama. We need fathers to be present. And we need mothers to accept them. Keep going. Just keep going. Say what needs to be said. I mean, that's it. That's it. Say what needs to be said. You get this. You know, there's a lot of toxic behavior that's happening, especially in the black community.  And a lot of women are taking a lot of ownership on that role of being a mother instead of really just, you know, recognizing it takes a village. You don't have to do it by yourself. There are a lot of men I've noticed in my work who really want to be present. They wanna be there. They wanna understand what's going on with the mothers, but they just don't know how to communicate sometimes. And if the relationship has been toxic, who do you go to?  Right? So you gotta reach out. You know, and you gotta get support from a neutral party. And so at the Price Dynamic, which is my organization, we provide co-parenting coaching. We provide family mediation. We provide supervised visitation for parents who don't have custody. So that way you have a safe and neutral environment to start to work on some of these skills and tools. How can they contact you and get some of this info? AlishaPrice.com, also the PriceDynamic.com, and all of the products, book, cards, everything is available on the website. Tell me about the cards. So the cards come from actually, I don't know how much you know about the, you know, the co-parenting dynamic. I'm not sure. I know a lot about it. All right. I'm actually an expert at it. Okay, so when we think we know what the other party is gonna say, here's some actual, the cards that are open. But when we think we know what the other person is gonna say, we can't listen, right? So if you're trying to communicate with your co-parent, these cards serve as a purpose or as a tool for having a conversation or making decisions as a team without one person taking over or the authority. So it eliminates all the yelling, it eliminates you assuming you know what the other person is gonna say. And there are prompts that really help you to walk through how to make decisions and set rules for your children. What is your inner voice telling you about this decision?  Are you supposed to shuffle these? No. Cause there was a bunch of safety cards in there. Yeah, so the safety cards, each family member gets a safety card. Oh, you pass these out. Yeah, the green cards are the safety cards. So like your children actually can get them and they can have a voice in the conversation and everybody takes turns. Oh, that's just the one you need to win the argument right here. Nobody can interrupt me while I'm talking. You heard what the lady said, I got the card and I had big joker. You know, and it gives people, gives them some tools, right? Because you know, a lot of times we get stuck in the ways that we've learned to communicate which can be toxic. And we're all about breaking generational curses around here. We need to do things different and we need to support our children and show them healthy relationships. So the cards definitely help with that. These babies need us. Yes, they do. Yeah.  I am, I got some, whatever you need from me, I can let you know. Right on. What it is from, come somebody's baby daddy. Whatever you, if you ever need some insight from somebody's baby daddy that's active in the field. Yes. Still out here. Yep. Like me. I'm gonna do that.  I'm gonna tell you what I know. I am absolutely gonna do that. This the hardest job I have ever had. Parenting, right? It's not just parenting. I told you, being somebody's baby daddy. I am a statistic. It is difficult. I'm trying to do the right thing. Get this stigma off me and change the perception of baby daddy's. Yep, yep, yep. And it doesn't have to be complicated. It really doesn't. It doesn't. It doesn't. We make things harder.   All right, yeah, okay. All right. We're gonna pick the birthday cake up at seven o'clock in the morning. Okay. And then, but how did I start? What did I say? What you supposed to do? You spoke, right? Express your feelings. Yep. Yeah. Yeah. And that's it. That's the thing about it. Me and no. They do. They do. But it is difficult, especially in my work. We see a lot of men who are doing supervised parenting time, which is really hard, right?  That ain't even how parenting works. Right, right. And so we're able to do a lot more support and coaching in that space. And then it also helps, of course, by representation matters. You know, when you walk into an organization and there are black folks there and they understand what you're talking about and can support you through, you know, kind of that court process too. Yeah. Which is... You don't want that process. Right. I didn't even know you was gonna bring that process up. Yeah. You don't want those problems, man. Get you some of these cards and do your thing. Cause going to court is... Listen, coaching, family mediation and utilizing the supports that you have in your community is way cheaper. Yeah, man. Than the court, than the lawyers, and all that goes with that, way cheaper. Yeah. And if you need further instructions, just talk to some people who got a lot of kids.  Yeah. Not like three, four, like seven, eight, nine, 11, or like... You know somebody. 11 kids? Those people got the best type of advice. Yeah, that's common. Every black neighborhood got one person they got way too many kids. Yeah. And they gonna have the best advice. Oh yeah. They've done it all. They got so much experience to draw from. Now my youngest son, daddy, he lives. My middle two, they don't know him and my oldest... Right, they run the gamut. They know every scenario, right? Okay, now I can understand that. That is true. That's why I talked to him. That is true. I know a dude who got six baby mommas. Yeah? I know quite a few, they got more than that. Six, and he was just letting me know that his favorite one, the troublesome one, the neutral one. And that is so real. That is so real. There's a label, right? And the other thing that I've learned in this work too is a lot of the times women don't recognize their power. They act a lot of the times as kind of this victim in the scenario, instead of recognizing that we kind of run shit, or we have the ability to. Oh, I thought you was about to take some accountability. I was like, we done it. We done it. We found the one lady that's gonna hold herself accountable. I told you all that was cold. I bet you do. I was like, nope, we got the power. It ain't our fault. But no, I mean, literally, it's like you can dictate how that relationship will be, because men are defined to you a lot of the time. So if you recognize that power and you use it for the good of your children, it doesn't have to be complicated. And I think through coaching, a lot of people are able to recognize that. I think things could go a whole lot smoother. People learn some better words to talk to each other. That is very true. Better word selection. Yep. A little more patience. Patience, listen, really listen. Not listen to have a rebuttal, but listen to truly, and also not to understand all the time. You might not understand everything a person is saying, but to actually be able to reflect what they're saying is important. Yeah. But yeah, co-parenting is it. We've been talking about it a lot. It's a buzzword. We're talking more and more about what co-parenting is. And I think it's important that people recognize that there's ways to get support around it without avoiding it and then ending up at court. Are you a parent? I am. I have a 19-year-old. Just one? Yep, just one.  Mm-mm. You ain't having no more? Nope, I'm done. I'm done. That is a big age gap, though. Yeah, it's over. 20 years.  Nope, it's over with. It's over. Yeah. Well, I want to let you know that what you're doing for the community is great, and I hope you help everybody. I hope so, too. Because somebody's going to have to make some sense of all this. Yeah, yeah. And like you said, it's not complicated. It's all in about the choices. That's very true. And just to be heard, when we're in the coaching space, you're able to really sit with somebody and support them through what they're feeling, what they're thinking. It really, truly helps. And coaching, we're not there to diagnose you. So it's very different than what people think traditionally therapy is. It's an opportunity. Let me ask some hypothetical questions since I got you in here.  You know, there's people who can't make logical decisions. They make emotional ones, but not logical ones. So we get that a lot. And what I like to tell people is sometimes co-parenting might not even be for you. And you need to recognize who you can co-parent with while you can. So your village is accessible. Sometimes we're forcing a circle into a square. Literally. Yeah. And you might need to parallel parent with that person. Sometimes there's domestic violence in play. Sometimes you've got an extreme narcissist that you just can't talk sense into that person. So instead of trying to force that situation, figure out who in your family can help you in a co-parenting dynamic and use resources. Absolutely. Absolutely. It's OK if you can't co-parent. You don't have to force that. But especially in the black community, it takes a village. And we know that. We understand that. There's always a grandma. There's aunts and uncles that are around. And people are willing to step up and support you with your children. And you just need to be mindful about saying, this is how I need you.  It's a waste of time. It's a waste of time. It's a waste of energy. You said it's so much nicer than me. Oh, I knew you was going to put it right. Because when I say it, they get offended when I say it.  Yeah. Well, we see it a lot. Yeah. We have any questions from the floor? Anybody need help co-parenting? Any co-parents in here today? Nobody? I'm the only one with a child today. All right. I see how it is. I told you I was somebody's baby daddy earlier. You're leading the pack. Hell, yeah. That's how we do it. Well, I'm going to take my cards. I can't wait to pass these out. And it's really a good tool, though. It really is. So you get the whole family together.  You get the whole family together, and you go through the deck one at a time. So the safety cards go to each person for their hand. And then you draw them one by one and read out what the question is. And then everybody goes around and answers. So say, for instance, you're looking at, how do we set bedtime for your child? And that's an issue. Or setting curfew could be an issue. When I created these cards, what we were trying to figure out in our family was allowing my son to fly by himself. How old was he? He was, I think, 16?  He would have been flying by himself. And he was going off to Berkeley College of Music for the summer. Yeah, get him out of here. And I was like, we're trying to figure out who's going to ride on the plane with him one way and the other way. And he was like, I just want to go by myself. So we were both like, OK, let's talk this through. Let's figure it out. Are you ready to do that? And he did. And once we went through this process, because we weren't giving him a voice.  Don't tell him that, because he's 19 now. So how old is he?  You laugh because you know it's true. Black kids be advanced. I was one of them black kids. Exactly. I was one of them black kids. You've been cooking since you were five or six years old? I have. I have. See? That is true. So yeah, we sat as a family to work it through. And then I thought, well, the steps that we're taking to give him a voice, to have him be a part of the way we make decisions that relate to him. Other people should be doing the same thing. And the more that you involve your child, the more that you take your own feelings out of the equation. And that helps you to show up better as a co-parent. Are you listening? You might need to shuffle through these cars a little bit. There's some good ones in here too, bro. How might the decision hurt someone else, J.O.N. here? Yeah. Because we don't think about all of that kind of stuff. Sometimes, you know, we just repeat in what we've seen, which a lot of times is a lot of yelling, a lot of cussing. You couldn't get real petty on these cars.  And that's going to make it complicated. Yeah. Just for a little razzle-dazzle. Well, that'll be the.  That's the family fun edition, where we're going to partner. Now, those would be funny, though. Ask your mama, can I have some of the J.O.N.s, boy, back? We've got to come out with the hood version. I like that. I like that. Yeah. Well, look, I appreciate you coming through here. I thank you for having me. Putting me up on some co-parenting game. Anybody could use that. Yes. What do you tell the step-parents? You know, I tell the step-parents to follow the lead of the biological parent. You know, like if you are with a parent who doesn't feel like they can advocate for themselves, that they can speak up. You still need to be kind of deferring to them and following their lead, because you're not the parent. Until you can build a relationship with their co-parent, you need to fall back, because it will definitely make it complicated. And it can defend the children that are involved, too. I got a book idea for you. Let's have it. I like to throw ideas at you. I love it. Do a book called Other People's Kids. Other People's Kids. I like that. To step-parent addition, yep. Other People's Kids. Other People's Kids. You need to do a whole chapter.  Chapter C, you all in new folks house. Because literally, I mean, I see so many step-parents that make things harder. See? Look, you don't roll the book. They make it harder. They do. Especially, I say this one, too. Especially, in my personal experience, the girlfriend who don't get along with her baby dad. Oh, they on sabotage. But they want so they want their boyfriend to not get along with his baby mom. Oh, that's a doozy. Yeah. Yeah. We see it all. They always be funny-looking, too, though. Tell the truth, it's always the most funny-looking one. It ain't never been. That is very true. It's always the funny-looking one. That is very true. In my experience, that is very true. Yeah. That's just how it go, though. Man falling in love with a lot of funny-looking ones. For real, we do. We always look at some of your older homeboys.  What do they have in common doing like that? I be in Walmart. There's some strange couples in there. Strange-ass couples in there. Definitely. That's a whole other episode. They learn how to come co-parent, though. It's not complicated. Right. At least it don't have to be. Drop the website again. Yes. AlishaPrice.com or ThePriceDynamic.com. OK, and that's Alisha. That's A-L-Y-E-S-H-A. No. A-L-Y-S-H-A. No, that's S. Well, there you have it, folks. There you have it. Zoom in on it. It looked like an E to me. It's an S. Ain't no E in there. No E. See, you would have went to somebody else's website. Ain't no time. What would have popped up? J-O-N. The black market is open.


Welcome to another thrilling and exciting off-the-scale episode of Hibachi Talk here with my good old buddy Andrew the security guy. Hey everybody. How are you doing? Nice to see you. I'm still in town and not traveling. Right on. You have a wonderful lovely guest today. Good to be here for the holidays. Debbie, Kim, Maury, Calla. We have a long history of working together. Welcome, Debbie. We're going to talk about the gym guys and so on. So grab a libation, pull up a chair, sit down, and remember when Hibachi Talks people listen. Oh. I like that new thing. Wow. You didn't pick that up. Yeah. That one may never go away. It may never, never go away. So I'm going to do a little quick cryptocurrency update because we do a little quick on that one. So today is hitting up against $14,000 for a big coin as of this conversation. It's insane. Yeah. It's a $367 billion market cap in cryptocurrency right now. Wow. It's going bonkers. I'm going to tell people to start watching up for something new. I'm going to start giving you some information on new ways of mining cryptocurrencies. So watch for that. I will be giving an update on that in a future episode. A future episode? That's the hook. You got to come back to get the info. You got to come back. You got to come back. And then the $12 that you gave me like a couple of months ago, remember the one that we did on the show? This morning I looked, it was $66, it was $66. Wow. And it was only a couple of months ago. He transferred it and I have like a big coin thing. So it's gone up almost 6X. 6X in that period of time. Just in eight weeks. Yeah. Don't you wish all your stocks performed that way? I know. Well, we're going to learn about masternodes in the near future. All right. Anyway, so Debbie, it's a great to have you on the show. Yeah, welcome. You and I were in the Hanuman administration together. Yes. And you've always been involved in community work and helping the community since the day I've known you, which is quite some time. But still our viewers don't know.  Where did you go to school? Where did you grow up? Well, I grew up in Hawaii in Aina Jaina and I went to school college at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri where I got my degree in occupational therapy. And so that's where I started out. I actually started out as a therapist. I practiced for, I would say maybe five or six years in the field and then I transitioned to long-term care. And in that arena, I worked with seniors a lot in nursing facilities, assisted living, daycare programs, all the different areas that seniors are found is where I was working. So that's where I really developed all of the skills that I'm starting to apply now. It's kind of like I've gone back to my roots. In between, I did non-profit work. So I actually was the executive director at IHS, the Institute for Human Services, following pretty much Claude Dutille. After he left, I was the first executive director. Did that for four and a half years. So but then was that before or after the Henneman administration? That was way before. That was way before. That's when I first met Mufiak. She's through the Pacific Century Fellows Program. Oh, you were part of that program? Yes, I was in the inaugural class, the very first class with David Ige. Wow. With David Ige? Well, you brought the elbows with the elite, I don't know what to tell you. And you did, how many years, was it six or eight years in the Henneman administration? Well, see, he was there six, so. Yeah, I only stayed six. Okay, and so you did that six years ago, and you were the director of? Department of Community Services. Again, involved in the community, involved in taking care of people here in Hawaii. So you have a very nice, a warm feeling background and so on. So now you're going, this is quite the branch out now. Yeah, this is private. This is private, the Gym Guys, right? This is for a for-profit entity, and it's called the Gym Guys. So who and what are the Gym Guys? Well, Gym Guys is actually a national franchise. It's the first franchise of its kind that does in-home personal training. So we're mobile. We come to you many times in a van where we have all of the equipment. We have all, everything that you need to set up a workout in your own home, in your office, whatever space that you prefer. And the convenience factor is what makes us unique, and that most people today don't have enough time.  We bring it right to you, and the workout takes only an hour. And we use a really good formula. We do functional strength training, core conditioning, as well as putting it into an interval format. So we've all heard about high-intensity interval training. Right, right, right.  So we do it in that format, and it's doable. You know, a lot of times, especially if you're not really a gym person, so the person who's going to go to the gym and, you know, really psych, they like getting up, getting out there, we strongly recommend that they go to the gym, continue to go to the gym. What we bring, though, is the expertise to the home for that person that says, you know what, I really don't want to go to the gym. Well, I don't have time to go to the gym. The other thing that we bring to the table, which I think is really critical, and that's what I think sets us apart in many ways, is that we don't think of what we do as just exercise. You know, a lot of times you think getting fit, working out, it's all about exercise, building muscle, building strength. For us, it's really about feeling better and functioning better. Because what happens when you're working, as you get older, you just, I'm looking at your screens right here. What do we do? We work at our school. Yeah, I agree. What do we do when we're looking at our smartphones? Our heads are down. When we eat, we're eating over the table. When we're driving, even, if you notice, people drive like this. Everything is rounded forward. And when that happens, your chest muscles tighten up, your shoulders round forward, your head starts to go forward, and you can start to develop permanent changes in your spine. Your head is pretty heavy. So as your head starts to come forward, it's now pulling everything down.  So at the end of the day, you're sore, right? Your muscles are starting to spasm. So what we do with our exercises is we make sure that everything is in alignment. So it's not just about the workout. It's your ears over your shoulders, over your hips. Are you pulling in your stomach, activating your core, making sure that whatever you're doing, you're staying in that correct posture and alignment. And when you're doing the exercises, not only does the form look good, but are you feeling the right muscle groups being activated? Well, I was told once I suggested how I could lose 40 pounds of ugly fat.  That was something that someone said to me one day. So who's your target market? Like, you know, is it the millennials? Is it seniors? Is it children? I mean, how is that? We can really serve anyone, and we've had the range from a high school student and all the way up to we have a 98-year-old. But actually, the people that I'm really trying to focus on who I think can benefit the most from our services are the seniors. Because many times, and we're thinking of people like our parents' age, or even some of our friends, some of my friends are in their 70s and 80s, what happens is, as you get older, you lose 1% muscle mass. After you hit the age of 50, every year, if you don't do anything other than your normal activities, you're gonna lose 1% of muscle mass every year. There's one study I looked at that said in 10 years, you lose 15%, which is even more. So you're losing it if you don't use it.  Your body takes more to just walk around. And you're stiff and just, yeah. Well, if you're in bed as a senior, your muscles get very, very weak quickly, and getting up out of that bed gets more difficult.  That's just part of aging. So do you rehab, like PT? So if I went to, like I've had knee surgeries and so on, and then I have to go do my PTs afterwards and all that stuff. So are you guys certified to provide those services? So rehab and what we do in personal training is very different. Or I shouldn't say very different. It is different in that the way I look at physical therapy is, you do have a skilled, trained, many times a doctorate degree. And you're specifically looking at progressing them through different functional levels. So insurance, they're guided by insurance, that holds the doctor's prescription. So pretty much, you have to be making progress for the insurance company to continue paying you. Makes sense.   Then there's no place for people. And this is where you could, you could, your organization can be inserted in and continue on with that program and take it to the. Because we don't care whether or not you take two weeks, four weeks before you get to the next level. For us, it's all about making sure that you're functional. And the other thing that we focus on a lot is what we refer to as more functional fitness. We're not so much concerned about how many weights can you lift, how many pounds, how many repetitions for how long. What we're concerned about is, okay, can you reach down and pick up something off the ground? Can you reach up into your cabinets? Are you able to get up out of a chair? Those are the kinds of things that, as you get older, are really important in maintaining your independence. And many times we lose the strength in our lower lakes. And what was fascinating to me is I've been working with Palolo Chinese Home, going in there, looking at their daycare programs, talking to them about what they're doing in their skill nursing facility or their intermediate care facility area. And I was evaluating this one woman who they said she loves to walk. And sure enough, she pops right up and she walks around with her walker. But when I asked her, when I was just standing with her, can you lift up one leg? She couldn't. And then she asked me, can I use my walker? So I said, sure, I gave her the walker and boom, her leg came right up. I said, okay, what's going on here? And what was happening was, she was using all of her upper body to propel herself. So basically very little leg strength to, so she didn't have that. So she really needed to strengthen her lower extremities. And if she doesn't do it soon, she can start to decrease. We've seen people like that. We know, I have friends that have, I've watched them to chariot over this past couple of years as a matter of fact. But they've never been gym rats or they've never been the type to go running or exercising, whatever. And I'm just watching them just, they're now walkers, they now have canes. And they've just kind of made up their mind that that's what it's going to be. And I keep saying to them, I don't think you have to be like that. I think you can, there are ways to get yourself re-strengthened. I think one of them is going to get a hip replacement in a couple of weeks. And I said, so after this hip replacement, are you going to start to get exercise and do things like this? I don't think he will. I think he's just going to continue to just sit, lounge around. Well, you know, you get physical therapy and then once you plateau, then the therapist says, okay, these are your home exercises. Well, we know, even for myself, I don't always do those home exercises. And then are you doing it correctly? And remember I started out by saying one of the unique things about us is we don't just look at form. We ask and get feedback as to what muscle groups are you using? And the perfect example for that is a squat. You've all heard of squat. That's probably one of the best core exercises that you can do, but most people aren't doing it properly. Right, that's a tough. Their form can look perfect. In fact, when I started doing it because I didn't know about exercise until I started doing this, OTs tend to work more with upper extremities. So the trainer said, do a squat. And they explained what I needed to do. You need to weight on your heels, now go down. So I did it. And two people, two trainers actually said, you do a really great squat. You've got perfect form. And then I watched a YouTube video and they told me, okay, the best way to tell someone to do a squat is not bend your knees, is start pushing your butt backwards towards the wall. And then, and this is what I do. I tell them, and now, as you go down, now you can lower your knees. Takes all the strain off of your knees. As you get older, you hear of a lot of people say it all, but that hurts my knees. Well, if you're doing it properly, it's not gonna affect your knees. Well, as you get older, it gets even, and I can tell you, I'm on your work, do I share it? As you get closer to the ground, it's not that easy anymore. It's hard. We have a tendency to not bend over correctly. How many people I've known, including myself, that's throwing your back out, just picking up a pencil because you've bent the wrong way. Yeah, just all of those kinds of things. And you put on a few pounds, which I've done. And so you're carrying those around as well. So there's a whole number of different things that we could just do in our daily lives. Exactly. And you're hitting on a point that I started on where we are trying to teach you how to move correctly all the time. So when I talk to you about posture, everybody kind of starts to straighten out. Yeah, they go, oh. But that means that, okay, you weren't in good posture, but you didn't even notice it, right? So what we do with our exercises is we're constantly queuing people to open up your shoulders, chin tucked back, make sure you have that slight arch, not overextended or rounded, but you want that neutral spine. And in that position, you do your exercises. So you're constantly reinforcing the postural muscles to hold you straight. So that when you do go to sneeze or you get up suddenly without thinking about it, your body automatically moves the way it's supposed to. And that's the thing that doesn't happen to us in everyday life. When you have to go to lift something heavy, people say, oh, I always lift with my legs, put the weight close to my body, and you do it correctly. See them bending over. Okay, hold on one sec. So I told you this goes fast. So we got another, we got, take a one minute break. Angus has some gadget he wants to show. Something to do with fitness. So he keeps it thematic. So we're going to take a one minute break. This is Think Tech Hawaii, Bachi Tak. Gorda Taksar, Debbie Kim Morigawa. Jim Geiss, talk soon. This is Think Tech Hawaii, raising public awareness. Sounds like scuba diving. We say, forget the moan. Dive heart can help children, adults, and veterans of all abilities escape gravity right here on our searchdiveheart.org and imagine the possibilities in your life. Match day is no ordinary day. Pitch, hallowed ground for players and supporters alike. Excitement builds. Game plans are made with responsibility in mind. Celebrations are underway. Ready for kickoff. MLS clubs and our supporters rise to the challenge. We make responsible decisions while we cheer on our heroes and toast their success. Elevate your match day experience. If you drink, never drive. Hey everybody, welcome back to Think Tech Hawaii. This is a Bachi talk. We got Debbie with the Jim guys, but first we got Angus with the gadget. Angus, what's up buddy? How you doing there, Rob? Good to see you, man. Hey Debbie, you're looking really good there, Lassie. Hey Angus, nice to meet you. It's nice to meet you too. High five. High five, awesome.  Sometimes they get a little bit scared. I don't blame them. Hey, you know, I go to the gym all the time. Can you talk about my muscles? Look at that. So we're at the gym, but let me show you what Gorda did to me. He put all this stuff on my waist and I got a picture of it. This is what he did. This is how he motivates me to do my gym. So this is what I have to do. This is what I, when I move around to the gym, I got these strong weights. Very weak, also weak, still weak, not strong. Not strong, no. Still not strong as police. That's how he motivates me to get my exercises done. So I tell you, I do a lot better job than that. Oh, we'll do a fantastic job. Just come give me a call and we'll get you top shape. Awesome. We can do my legs there because they didn't have legs. It was still cheap to buy them for me. Anyway, this is Angus with the gadget. You can say it every segment, but your wing ain't free where you be. Hello? Huh. Nice. There's Angus with some less than motivational motivation for your gym stack. I don't think we want to say weak, weaker, weakest, but it's good stuff anyway. He's always got a good gadget. Thanks a lot. So Gorda, what's up, man? So anyway, so Debbie, so you've talked about core strength and all the things that you do, but let's talk a little bit about gym guys. Like how long has this been around?  Yours has been a year, six months? I just started taking clients in June of this year. The franchise started in 2014, and the owner of the franchise actually started his, the whole concept in 2008. And so the concept has been around, but he first started franchise. It's a very young franchise. So it says gym guys, Urban Honolulu. So you go to your website, you'll see that there. So what's the range of services?  Well, Urban Honolulu really covers just the urban core for me. However, because of the requests and wanting to be able to meet people's needs, we do go out to Hawaii Kai. We have gone as far as Pearl City, and we have started going into Kani Ohe. Good deal. So it's gonna be dependent on my trainer's availability. Yeah, on the schedule, right? So is the schedule, you can do it right off the internet, or right off your website, you can request an appointment. We haven't done that yet, just because right now I'm still building up, but there is that capacity down the road. Okay, so how many trainers do you have right now? Right now I have two trainers. Two trainers, wow, that's awesome. And so two trainers, are you seven days a week?  Squirrely. Well, so we technically started four in the morning and go until 11 at night. Wow. Yeah, all the way through Friday, and then Saturdays and Sundays, we're open from six a.m. till six p.m. Now, it's gonna also be subject to the trainer's availability, whether or not they also work on holidays, and that's all up to the trainer. So what's a typical session? Would it be like three days a week, four days a week? You know, how does it... We usually recommend starting out with at least two to three sessions a week, especially just starting out, and they're hour-long sessions, and they really get you going. So, and like I said, with the high-intensity interval training, you get actually metabolic activation for 24 to 48 hours after the workout. After the workout, so that's pretty impressive. So then how does someone go about signing up, or booking an appointment, or any of those kinds of things? So they just give me a call, and I can schedule them for their free initial assessment. Ooh, free initial assessment. That's what I like.  Around your organs, yeah. Around your organs, yeah. Quite a bit in my case. Yeah, so that's a number that we try to watch because that's an indicator that you're at risk for metabolic disease like diabetes, cardiovascular disease. High blood pressure. So we do the body composition. We do a health screening just to make sure that you're safe to exercise.  So we take you through a warm-up, a stretch warm-up and a little routine so that, again, we can see what your fitness level is.  So then that gives you a baseline, though. That the good thing, as I'm thinking here, is that once you've done that, you've said, okay, now here's your baseline. And then as we progress over the months, we'll be able to measure your progress based on where you were with the baseline. Right. And we see people feeling a difference. Within just a couple of weeks, with your younger, if you're older, sometimes just even one session makes a difference. Well, you'll sleep better. Well, then your metabolism starts to run again. People get sluggish, right? Because if you can't train for whatever reason, you'll start to feel bad. If you're used to training, you know how that feels. And if you're not used to it, you don't even know how bad you feel as part of the problem. So once you get them going, they're like, wow, I feel so much more. They think they'll be tired from the workout and actually have more energy. And that's one of those things that people don't understand. Yeah, so you end up sleeping better, you wake up more stress-free. There's just a constant help. I mean, I think I'd be a lot worse if I didn't go to the gym three times a week. But you know, and you're doing it seven days a week, you're constantly at it. I mean, the focus on wellness is the thing. Because it's diet, it's things you mentioned, resting, right? And exercise is I think a big component of that. And an hour a day is awesome. People can get an hour a day every other day, something like that, and keep that burn. Because you do get the benefit over time, like once you activate that, especially with the high-intensity cardiovascular.  But if you keep doing that every other day, it just stays higher. So then you start burning more calories. So you actually got a metabolic burn going after a while. It can take a while to get it activated again. But that's the state you wanna be in.  That's me, I cheat all the time. And what happens is that your muscles start to adapt. So it takes more to get the same benefit. With the gym guys routine, basically we're constantly changing the workout routine for the younger adults, because you don't want those muscles to adapt. You constantly wanna challenge the body and constantly getting that improvement. Yeah, adaptation is sort of the enemy, right? Like you need the, the point is to adapt, but once you've adapted, you've gotta change quick. The same routine, the same routine and you're starting, wait, I'm not getting any progress here. Yeah, like she talked about plateauing and it happens pretty quick, four to six weeks, if you're just doing the same thing typically, you know, you're gonna- Now that's different for our seniors. For our seniors, we do try to keep it more similar over time and do gradual changes because they have a longer ways to go sometimes to get to where they're going to plateau. But so- Define senior. So, okay, so that's a good question. That's how you feel. That's a really good reaction. Because for us, seniors start at maybe 70, 75, yeah. I still got time. And then I have 80 year olds that, you know, need a lot of work and then 80 year olds that are playing singles tennis. Oh yeah. Pickleball, we see them playing pickleball. Pickleball, that's a big one now. Yeah, it's all relative. And the whole reason you're doing this is so that as you get older, you can maintain your bone density and muscle strength so that it's not so hard to build it back.  And it's all the things you need to do in a weight bar. And I don't know if you've seen a lot of these senior programs. People are able to walk, but all of the exercises are being done in a chair. Yeah.  So you're going to get weaker and weaker. It's inevitable. And that's what's usually the first thing that you see with the seniors, you mentioned it earlier, is your ability to reach the cabinet. You like your flexibility. And then also your strength in your legs, getting down on the floor and then getting up. Right. Yeah, well, it's the first thing you do. You sell the house with the stairs, right? So you get a ranch and now you're on flat.  Sorry, you need to do that. You know, it's just, it's one of those things. I know, but it's the thing. You live in a condo, if you live in a condo, you're not walking upstairs. Right. And you're, Oh, it's all like elevators. And you're getting on the elevator. So there's that balance. Yeah, so take the stairs. You want people to keep walking. Walking is good for the heart, but sometimes people think, I walk. Walking isn't enough for an older person to maintain their strength and to keep their bones. It does help a little bit with osteoporosis for women, but not enough because most times as you get older, you're walking gets less. Now, some people, they say, oh, I walk a couple of miles a day. That's different. But there are other people, oh, I walk around the block. But a mile a day is not that much, you think about it. They do the 10,000 steps, which is what, about five miles? I think a lot of people try to monitor the steps. I know that 10,000 steps and that should be four or five miles, but. Ready? All right. Where is it? So, our. WWW.jimguys.com. So our main website is WWW.jimguys.com. And then if you just, where it says location, type in a Hawaii zip code. You'll get us. Then you'll get us, and everything is right there. And then Debbie will come over and give you an assessment. Dead, you'll come over, set over the page. Find out what you got. I'm thinking I'm going to ask for this for Christmas presents. So then we can do a quarterly update on see how. See how GORO progresses. See how I progress. I do, I am starting to go down the hill. So I got to get that fixed. Anyway, we don't, no gas goes unrewarded. You get an autographed solo cup. Number 141 in the series. Wow. I tell you, there's, and these are, Bitcoin going on in value. Where do you see these things go? Ain't going to happen much. Anyway, so thank you Debbie. It's a great, great scene again. And I would like to have you come back and see how, you know, an entrepreneur. You can give us an update on GORO. We'll see what kind of.  Anyway, thank you for watching. You're watching here on Think Tech. And like we say it in every end of every show. One, two, three. How you do.


Hello, hello, writers. I'm Kristen Kiefer, author of fantasy fiction and creative writing resources. And you are listening to the Well-Sturried podcast, where I share insights, encouragement, and actionable advice designed to help you craft sensational novels and build your best writing life. Always in 30 minutes or less, so you can get back to writing, of course. Ready for the show? Let's get talking. Writers, grab a cup of coffee, settled in, and let's get started with today's episode of the Well-Sturried podcast. I'm your host, Kristen Kiefer, and today is Monday, July 3rd, 2017. If you are considering which publishing path is right for you, pursuing a traditional book deal or going the self-publishing route, then today's episode on the pros and cons of self-publishing your fiction is going to be a great listen. If you would like to read along as you listen in, simply head on over to well-sturried.com slash self-pub-pros. I'll leave that link for you in today's episode description. All right, without any further ado, let's dive in. Think you might like to self-publish your book? Great. There are many valid reasons to opt out of the traditional publishing industry in favor of sharing your work independently. But to truly ensure that self-publishing is right for you, it's important to understand the advantages and disadvantages of both publication paths. In today's episode, we're going to explore the pros and cons of independent publishing, the chosen path to publication for millions of writers worldwide, myself included. You can also check out our episode on the pros and cons of pursuing a traditional book deal using the link in today's episode transcript. All set? Good, let's get started. By first talking about the advantages of self-publishing. Just as one man's trash is another man's treasure, the pros and cons of traditional and independent publishing can be somewhat subjective. Nevertheless, here are nine reasons that many writers are drawn to the idea of self-publishing their work. The first advantage? Complete creative control. Traditional publishing is an industry, which means most publishers are far more concerned with a book's marketability than with the author's creative vision. Often, this leaves traditionally published authors with little to no say over their book's title, cover design, or back cover blurb. A publisher may even insist upon manuscript revisions that authors aren't comfortable making. This is an understandably appalling reality for many writers. No author on earth wants their literary drama wrapped up in pink glitter or their favorite emotional subplot cut for the sake of slicing off more zombie heads. Thankfully, independent authors don't have to worry about sacrificing their creative visions for misguided marketability. Writers who choose to self-publish retain full creative control over the content and presentation of their stories. Advantage number two? A handpicked publishing team. Speaking of creative control, self-published authors have the responsibility of handpicking their publishing team, that is, the freelance editors, cover designers, formatters, etc., who will work on their book. While some writers might see this responsibility as a burden, others will sleep better at night knowing they have full control over who they work with to bring their stories to life. Advantage number three? Higher royalty rates. Traditionally published authors typically take home 15 to 25% of their book's revenue after the book earns out, meaning after sales exceed the initial advance they receive upon signing their book deal. And that's before their literary agent takes their own 15% cut. So when all is said and done, a traditionally published author may earn as little as 12.5 cents for every dollar their book rakes in. It's no wonder that many writers are drawn to these 60 to 80% royalty rates that self-published authors typically enjoy. Advantage number four? Little to no deadline stress. Publishers maintain fairly strict publication timelines via deadlines by which authors must submit completed drafts of their manuscripts. And while it isn't uncommon for authors to request deadline extensions from time to time, the stress of consistently producing work on deadline regardless of extenuating circumstances can be exhausting. Self-published authors enjoy much more leeway. The only deadlines they ever have to meet are the ones they set for themselves. And even then they can always readjust to accommodate for any curveballs that life or the creative process throws their way. Advantage number five? A much quicker publishing process. Despite strict deadlines, the traditional publishing process can actually be quite slow. After inking their book deal, an author may not see their book on shelves for another two to three years. Talk about a frustrating wait. Self-publishers, on the other hand, can list their books online as soon as their files are ready to go. Editing and production may take a few months, but the ability to hit submit and see your book on shelves within 48 hours? Priceless. Advantage number six? No gatekeeping or rejection. Most traditionally published authors spend years querying their manuscripts before landing an agent or a book deal, making that long publication timeline even longer. Never mind the emotional toll of so much rejection. It's no wonder that many writers are drawn to self-publishing. The ability to publish what you want, when you want, with no questions asked, is infinitely attractive to those who simply want to get on with the business of writing. Advantage number seven? More frequent paydays. Most traditionally published authors receive royalty payouts twice a year, whereas self-published authors earn monthly royalties. When it comes to organizing one's personal finances, need I say more? Advantage number eight? Maintaining your rights. When an author inks a book deal, they sell the rights to their manuscript to a publisher for a set amount of time. This exchange isn't without risk. A number of circumstances can leave a contract in limbo, with the book unpublished and the author unable to regain their rights for months or even years. Meanwhile, self-published authors never sign away their rights, so they don't have to worry about the possibility of being left in a creative lurch. Finally, advantage number nine? Greater opportunity for niche publishing. Marketability is a publisher's number one concern, meaning that authors may struggle to nap book deals if their manuscripts fall into niche subgenres or contain storylines that aren't considered mainstream. On the flip side, most of self-publishing's key advantages can be summarized in a single word. Freedom. And that certainly applies to the freedom to publish whatever you enjoy writing, no matter how out there or unpopular it may be. But of course, no publishing path is without its disadvantages, so let's talk about the disadvantages of self-publishing your fiction next. Subjectivity be damned. Here are eight reasons that many writers shy away from the creative freedoms that self-publishing has to offer. First up, and most likely the biggest, the upfront costs. Self-publish writers can earn such high royalty rates because they don't have publishers who shoulder the upfront costs of publication for them. Instead, every dollar required to produce their book comes out of their own pocket. While one can certainly self-publish on the cheap or even for free, producing a high quality book that readers will actually want to buy doesn't come cheap. Most independent authors spend between one and five thousand dollars before their book ever hits shelves, and upfront costs that traditionally published authors simply don't incur. Disadvantage number two, finding a reputable publishing team. The ability to handpick your publishing team, editors, your cover designer, interior formatter, and so on, is both a blessing and a curse. Finding reputable sources that work within your genre, fit your budget, and have availability in their schedules can be difficult, and the process is only complicated by the host of scam companies and poorly trained freelancers who loudly tout their services online. If you're looking to get started with building your reputable publishing team, I recommend checking out the free download linked in today's episode transcript. If you're looking for reputable sources, however, you may enjoy checking out the free download included in the article that corresponds with this podcast episode. The ultimate self-publishing toolkit is a directory of editing, formatting, cover design, and distribution options for self-published authors that won't have you wanting to tear out your hair as you seek to put your publishing team and publishing plan into action. But back to our disadvantages of self-publishing. Number three, potential financial loss. Because self-published authors pay upfront to produce their books, they may face financial loss if they fail to recoup their expenses via sales. This isn't a concern that traditionally published authors ever have to face given that their publisher covers all production costs for them. Disadvantage number four, self-publishing stigma. Most readers now buy books online, and very few take the time to determine whether or not a book is self-published. So long as a book is professionally produced and has an engaging blurb, readers are likely to gobble it up. Nevertheless, independent authors still face some degree of stigma concerning the legitimacy of their work, and that stigma can be easy to internalize. I talk at length about how self-publishing stigma can impact writer's egos in our episode on determining which publishing path is right for you. You can find the link to that included in today's episode transcript. Disadvantage number five, no agent support. Literary agents don't just negotiate book deals. They help authors forge their writing careers by providing advice and encouragement, fighting for their financial and legal rights, and pushing for valuable subsidiary contracts. Without external support, some self-published authors may find it difficult to formulate a strong game plan for publishing success, as well as to expand their books' reach into foreign language markets and other subsidiary streams. Disadvantage number six, less opportunity for acclaim. When most writers dream of successful writing careers, they envision their books on shelves worldwide, translated into a dozen languages. Then there are the bestseller lists, the book tours, the literary awards, and the adaptations. While most of these possibilities are indeed available to independent authors, they are also highly, highly improbable. Self-publishing success typically has more to do with sales figures and financial stability than it does with literary acclaim. Disadvantage number seven, the stress of running a business. Building a career as a self-published author is very much an entrepreneurial act. The author is the brand, their books are the products, and readers are their customers. Every aspect of the small business, from product development to production, marketing, and financial accounting, is in the author's hands. And that can be an exhausting reality. While traditionally published authors face some of this responsibility, the extent to which they must operate entrepreneurially is limited by the aid of their literary agent and publisher. And finally, disadvantage number eight, waiting through a sea of fiction. While publishers can actively work to position a promising book as visibly as possible on the market, self-published authors don't have this advantage. Sure, they can select the genre, subgenre, and age market by which an online retailer will categorize their book, but otherwise, where their book is shelved online is largely determined by algorithms that rely on sales figures, ratings, and author rank, all of which debut authors don't yet have. So, in simpler terms, no matter how high quality a self-published author's debut book may be, it'll still have to wade through a sea of low quality fiction as it fights to gain readers' attention. Without any form of platform or pre-launch marketing in place, this can make earning those first few sales a nearly impossible task. Overall, self-publishing certainly has its advantages and disadvantages. While higher royalty rates and creative control can be especially alluring, the expense and difficulty of operating as a business can lead many authors to choose traditional publishing over the independent path. Think self-publishing might be right for you? Before you commit, make sure to consider the pros and cons of pursuing a career in the traditional publishing industry. You may also wish to check out the other articles and episodes in our publishing blog series, which you can find at well-storied.com-publishing.  Thank you for listening to today's episode of The Podcast, writer. I hope you found it helpful to your writing journey. If so, make sure to subscribe to the podcast so you never miss a new episode, and to give the podcast a quick rating or review. Doing so goes a long way toward helping the podcast reach new writers and lets me know that you're enjoying what I'm creating. You can also give me a shout out directly on Instagram at christen underscore keeper. For additional guidance as you work to craft sensational novels and build your best writing life, be sure to head on over to www.well-storied.com, where I share blog posts, workbooks, e-courses, and other helpful resources for writers. Again, that's www.well-storied.com. Thank you again for tuning into today's episode, my friend. Until next time, happy writing!


Well, it's a pleasure today to have Dr Fred Matianghi with us. He is the Cabinet Secretary for Information, Communication and Technology in Kenya. Dr Matianghi, hello. Hello. Thank you for coming today. Now, Kenya has a bit of an interesting track record with innovation, and you've come here to talk about innovation and ICTs and development. What does innovation mean in your context? Well, it means many things. First of all, development of solutions or products to address everyday needs of ordinary people in our country. Innovation is need-driven, looking at the needs in development, needs in communication, needs in financial transactions, in accessing and moving information, in the use of data to design and develop a number of development solutions. It's all part of what we are describing broadly as innovation. So, across all the fields of ICTs, tell me about some innovations that your country has already come up with, because I know there have been some very important ones, haven't there? Well, yes, indeed. Of course, Kenya is famous for the mobile money transfer service, which is an innovation, popularly described as M-Pesa, movement of money on the mobile platform. But since M-Pesa, Kenya has come up with so many other innovations. Solutions have been developed on collection of revenue, for example, in various places, using mobile-based solutions. Transmission of data and information on health, we're calling M-Health solutions, developed and derived on the mobile platform. M-Education, we're developing frameworks where our applications were information, including education, learning, and so on, is riding on the mobile platform as it were. Several others, M-Agriculture, for example, in M-Agriculture, we have very creative innovations that have come up in Kenya. For example, M-Cow, which is a solution, an application that enables dairy farmers access information and solutions to some of the challenges in dairy farming, which also again rides on the mobile platform as it was. Several innovations have come up in Kenya as a result of the creative potential in the country. For these systems and ideas to work, of course, you need access. How would you grade access to ICTs in Kenya and what would you see as the big barriers that you have to overcome to roll out improved access to your people? Well, we're improving as government, for example. We're putting in a lot of resources to try and improve access to the internet in Kenya. We're increasing penetration every year as it were. But, of course, for these innovations to thrive, to be scaled up to go to the marketplace, several things need to happen. One, of course, we need very supportive infrastructure. I broadly described this in the meeting and discussion we had this morning as an ecosystem that is supportive of innovation. And the ecosystem would include developed infrastructure, ensuring that there is access to the internet, affordable internet across the country as it were. And as government, we're working with private sector players to invest heavily in building the infrastructure, taking the fiber optic cable across the country, ensuring connectivity across Kenya, and supporting private investors who are trying to enhance wireless connectivity across the country as it were. Secondly, there must be an effective linkage between government, private sector players, industry, research sites, or resource sites, as we may call them. We have tried to create that ecosystem also where all the critical actors come together and review a number of things, including the right policies that could support innovation. Three, there's need for supportive financial frameworks that would support innovation. Many of the innovators or those who develop solutions are not necessarily endowed with resources to develop further, to move from incubation to startup to finally marketplace. There's need for resources, much as we're trying to work with the private sector to attract some angel funding to do this. We also as the government have done some work through Enterprise Kenya, which is a resource we have created recently. It's a partnership between government and the private sector where we are putting together some angel funds to be able to do some hand holding for young innovators to move forward. Fourthly, there's need to develop a very strong intellectual property ecosystem where innovators are not robbed of their creativity and their development as a situa. We have strong intellectual property regime in the country. We're trying to improve on it. And then we have institutions like the Kenya copyright board, KECOBO, and the intellectual property agency that is working on this to ensure that we develop a protective frameworks around innovation as it were. Fifthly, of course, is to ensure that we build the capacity of the innovators to be able to know beyond innovation, how do you then move through incubation to startup, then you could marketplace and so on. And again, jointly, the government is working in the private sector to ensure that this is addressed and sorted out. The sixth issue is, of course, the market. To be able to scale up, you're talking about innovations, being able to marketize, to commercialize so that they go to the marketplace and so on. And we're trying to see how we can leverage our relationships with our neighbors so that we create one regional ecosystem that supports innovators so that if we are working within the framework of the Eastern Africa organization, we are calling the East African Corporation, or under the Northern Corridor Integration Infrastructure framework, which brings together Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda, and South Sudan, we have a framework of about 150 or so million people. And that population provides a huge market and environment for innovation to thrive as it were. And the many, many other issues, even if government put together resources, for example, that's not going to be enough. There's need to bring other private sector players. And that's why I hope ITU, for instance, will leverage its responsibility, leverage its institutional network to interest and attract angel capitalists who are computing resources to support innovation on the continent to move forward. Private players also need to help with infrastructure. There is no government anywhere. Whether you look at examples that have been very successful, there's no government anywhere that has been able, in and of itself, to put resources to support sufficient spread of the broadband footprint in their countries. It's important to our private sector players. It's a question then of the classic multi-stakeholder approach. You've got to align all the players in the one direction. Absolutely. It's building a multi-stakeholder approach to supporting innovation. And then, of course, the government being able through policy, through legislation, through collaboration within and without, to provide an enabling environment for multi-stakeholder engagement and involvement in innovation. Otherwise, as I was saying, no government has done this on their own and succeeded. Private sector is critical and the dynamism of the private sector is necessary to do this. Well, Dr Fred Matiangi of Kenya, the Cabinet Secretary indeed for Information, Communication and Technology. Thank you for your time today. Thank you very much. It's a pleasure and thank you for having me.


Over the weekend, thousands toured the booths and displays at the annual Homesport and Travel Show in Bemidji. Josh Peterson shows us how much impact the show has for its vendors. The show is said to offer something for everyone. And during this year's Homesport and Travel Show, a record number of attendees walked the concourses of Bemidji's Sanford Events Center. While the event showcases many businesses, the purpose of the show is to fund the Bemidji Jays so that they can continue running their community projects. It's honestly our biggest fundraiser of the year. We run it to pay the bills for the whole entire year. Heimlog Homes has been part of the show since 1987 and since then the event has been a key part in showcasing their product and their overall business. We found it to be a really good outlet for our people to know about what we have and as a result of that we've built several log homes in the area. While the event is a fundraiser for the Jays, the show also provides an opportunity to help others out. For the organizers of the show, the event offers more than just Homesport and Travel. It's also a great opportunity for nonprofits to get some much needed exposure. Not only do we use it as a fundraiser for ourselves, but we open it up to nonprofits and local businesses so that they can come in and get their name out and hopefully help them as well. Tampo Kills was recognized at the show as having the best nonprofit booth. The camp's program director says that being part of a show like this is extremely valuable. This is one of our biggest events that connects us with the community. We're able to come out and meet lots of families that are in the community and it's just been always great exposure for us. Through the support of both vendors and the public, the Bemidji Jays can now continue helping and supporting the community. From Bemidji, Josh Peterson, Lakeland News. If you enjoyed this segment of Lakeland News, please consider making a tax-deductible contribution to Lakeland PBS.


I have a couple of questions in the pipeline one from Ruth Martenson asking, well, saying you say that households and firms have different inflation expectations. Is there also a difference in inflation expectations between between northern and southern countries or eastern and western regions? For example, the reason for this question is that there seems to be a difference in attitude depending on the geographical and socio-economic background. Yes, there is a difference and again, this is why it's important to have a survey which is run by the ECB to have a consistent measurement of inflation expectations. For example, in Germany, people tend to be more informed about inflation and they have inflation expectations schooled to the ECB inflation target in other countries. Now, why is this happening? It's a good question. We can do more research there. And again, this is one reason why we need more investment into infrastructure here. Build surveys run under mice control trials and see what people respond to. We can have different messages for Italy and have different messages for Germany to manage expectations and have them under control. Okay, so let me take another one, Roberto Motto asking, can it be that households and firms do not respond to policy announcements, but they respond to practical implication of the policy decisions? For example, the mortgage rate that they face is lower after an expansionary monetary policy. So the response found in micro-models may be right after all. Yes, that's a great question. And Dimitris Gergarakos, Oliko Bjorn, Michael Weber and I have a paper where we inform people about recent inflation numbers also about mortgage rates. And we see that the mortgage rates generate the biggest responses on the part of households. But what is surprising is that most people are still relatively uninformed about mortgage rates. And mortgage rates are not directly controlled by the central bank. So one implication of our research was that when we deal with policy communication telling people about the policy rate, for example, the Fed Fund rate in the US is not particularly helpful for households because that's not the rate that they face. If the Fed can say something specifically about their objectives for the mortgage rates, that's going to be more effective. And so it's true, our models may be right in the end, but the transmission mechanism is different. So a related question from Matthias Farkas. What does this mean? So what Roberto asked for? Would this mean that asset prices are more relevant for households because they are more volatile than consumer prices? What is the relationship between SPF and households? Can we think of SPF's expectations as an anchor to household expectations? How about the term structure of household inflation expectations? Well, many questions. Let me start backwards. The term structure for households is typically suggesting that they think inflation is extremely persistent. So if you ask me what inflation is going to be next year and I tell you 5% and then you ask me how much inflation I expect over the next 10 years per year, I will also tell you 5%. So it's kind of very peculiar inflation structure. There is very little mean reversion. And in contrast, professional forecasters don't take inflation as highly persistent. It's number one. Can professional forecasters work as anchors? Yes, they can. There is this very influential paper by Chris Carroll where he has an epidemiological model of information transmission that people gradually learn about forecasters and micro-economic conditions in the economy from professional forecasters. And this channel is operational, but again, it's relatively slow. It takes time for people to absorb this information. And so I guess the evidence I see in the data suggests that there are this information, this information frictions, they create these departures between professional forecasters and households, and it should be incorporated in our models. And finally, the stock market, households who have stocks and hold bonds, they tend to be much more informed in on profits because they have higher education, they have higher wealth, they have higher stakes in tracking this information. But in the U.S., the fraction, for example, of households who hold stocks is very small. And as a result, you know, this is a force, but it's not a very strong force. Okay, let me ask you one question on my own. I remember reading your paper, the paper you wrote with co-authors on adjustments in inflation expectations for a control group around, you know, the J. Powell speech, Jackson's speech last year, where he announced, you know, the results of the Fed strategy review. And I remember that I thought the conclusion one could distill from that paper, disheartening as it was, was more or less the following. When Central Bank speak, the broad public doesn't listen. When it does listen, it doesn't understand. When it does understand, it doesn't agree. So would you agree with this? And if you do agree, do you think the last thing so that they don't agree with what we say? So Central Bank say it's due to the fact that they have a supply side story in mind for inflation? I think it was a very good summary of what we found.  So we can certainly, over time, educate people and explain to them the benefits of average inflation targeting. And people will learn eventually. Yeah, that's a good sin. How much time it will take? I don't know. But again, with some luck and effort, we should be able to overturn this mindset. Okay. I don't see more questions coming. So, unfortunately, thank you very much, Yuri. Again, a very, very good presentation. And I must say this brings us to the end of the conference. Let me express our heartfelt gratitude, particularly for all the panelists and presenters for giving us so much insight into issues that are very relevant for Central Banks and with which we all grapple every day. But also all participants know us best and made the debate so lively. So we hope to see you next year at our next Monetary Policy Conference, hopefully in person. So great day to everybody, or great evening, and see you soon. Bye-bye.


Γεια σας, είναι Vicky και σήμερα έχω ένα βιντεο για σας, συμβουλήσαμε με ένα πολύ εξαφερικό σημερινό. Λοιπόν, έχω πολλές εμμείσεις και εμμείς για τα εξαφερικά εξαφερικά πατές. Και θα σας δείξω τι μπορείτε να κάνετε σήμερα. Λοιπόν, μπορείτε να δείξετε ότι σε τα πατές μου εξαφερικά εξαφερικά, δεν χρησιμοποιήσω το εξαφερικό. Λοιπόν, όταν το βάζετε το εξαφερικό, θα αφηρεθεί τα πατές να με σημαίνει. Οπότε, αν δεν θέλουν και δεν θέλουν, θα αφήρετον αφ attracted. Δεν χρησιμοποιήσω τα εξαφερικά και τη σημαίνω να αφηρεθήσω το εξαφερικό το δασταγό σπάνω λόγω στάνω έξω ξέλω. Λοιπόν, είναι εξαφερικά, έχει τhalf α έναν λόγω, Αλάμμια, και να δώ wife βγω την πίντερρα εξαφερικά. Λοιπόν, είναι εξαφερικά, my room, my craft room όταν είναιδα σπάνω μόνο στάνω. Α majority of my pages are general pages, but I get so many questions from you. but I get so many questions from you and I have a few issues in some of my pages. After discussing this issue with other characters, I think we have come to the conclusion that it has to do with temperature and how dry or warm the weather is where you live. But mediums do make this issue even worse, like this where I have those droplets made out of glossy accents and this is kind of sticky. I will show you how I overcome this issue. Now, on one of my other journals, I don't really have sticky pages, but I will show you which mediums do stick together. Also at this stage, I need to say that I don't have experience with Mod Pods since I never use it. I prefer using Gel Medium and that is why I cannot say my opinion about that. So if you are using Mod Pods and you have any kind of experience with it, just leave a comment below since this is going to help others who use Mod Pods and they are trying to find an answer. Now, as you can see, this page was sticky enough and that was because I used some kind of modeling paste or embossing paste. I cannot remember what exactly it was. Now, this page is kind of sticky and that's again where I have this embossing paste. This is quite sticky as well and that's because I have the glossy accents over those letters. So actually, in my case, I don't get any stickiness out of colors or out of my Gel Medium, but I do get kind of a sticky issue where I use glossy accents or modeling paste. In this journal, I do have some stickiness in this page because of the modeling paste as well as the crackle paint that I have covered those cheaper letters and you can see it even transferred the color on the other page. So today, I am going to show you four different products that you can choose, any of them, and it will help a lot on the sticky pages issue. I have used them all on different pages on my latest art journal, over the glossy accents and the modeling paste and my pages do not stick at all, so I'm really happy with the results. They are all non-toxic and acid-free and they actually are made for artists, so they are pretty safe to use on your projects. I have two jars of cold wax here. One is by Gumplin and the other one is by Dorlands and I also have two microglases. One is by Ranger and another one is by Judikin. What is great about those products is that not only they provide a non-sticky effect, but they also make your pages waterproof. So I'm going to open up the jars so you can see how they look. They do look white, but once you apply them on the page, you will see that they are total transparent. Those two are made out of bee wax and these are kind of vaseline, I would say, and they even smell the same. So I'm going to open up both of them and I am going to apply all of them so you can see how easy they are to apply and what effect they give on your page. To start, I am going to use my Distress Ink, which is a water soluble, that means it reacts with water, and I'm going to stamp this butterfly stamp on one of my Manila tags. I am doing so just to show you the effect once you spray it with water. I am going to spray it now and you can see how it moves the color. So now I am going to do the same process on a different tag and I am going to stamp the butterflies four times with the same ink and then I am going to apply all over each one of those tags a different medium so we can see how it reacts with water. You will be able to see how easy they are to apply and you will see the final result of how shiny each of the tags gets. First I am applying Gumblin Wax. This is very soft and very easy to apply and a little goes a long way. I haven't added too much and you can go even heavier with it. You can also buff it with a piece of cloth. It does not leave your tag super shiny although it does have a very slight shine on it but at the same time it's very slippery which is what we want since once you have that slippery effect it will not stick one page on another. Now I am doing the same process with Dorland's wax. This is pretty much the same. It's not as soft as the Gumblin Wax but it has the exact same effect. It's easy to apply. It leaves the same shine as the first tag and it's also easy to buff it with a piece of cloth. I am moving on to microplaces. These are actually products that are made for waterproofing but after using them on a couple of projects I have also found that they also help that sticky page problem. They are also easy to apply but they are not as soft as the waxes and they feel and smell like vassaline. I am applying them all over the butterflies again and again you can buff them with a piece of cloth and you will see that once I am finished I am going to have the same shine pretty much on each and every one of those products. But waxes are so much softer and so easier to apply and I really have to say that using the waxes really made the surface more slippery than what the microglades did on the page. Since I am making this demo let's check how these products react with water. I am going to heavily spray all over the butterflies and let the water stay for a while so we can see how they perform on waterproofing. So you can see that the water does not absorb on the tag in all four cases and it stays as little drops on top. So this means that it actually made the image waterproof. I can get a little bit of the color out. You can see that those droplets are now colored but you don't get as much of a smudge as you would get if it wasn't covered with this medium. So to conclude I would say that both waxes are great for making your surface slippery and at the same time they work great for waterproofing while the microglases do make a slippery surface which will certainly help on reducing the problem with sticky pages. But if you have a heavy stickiness I would suggest using the wax. Now on the other hand microglases work better on waterproofing so I would get one of its categories one from the waxes and one product from the microglases but if you have to get only one of them then I would go with the wax and that's because you can reduce the sticky problem once and for all and at the same time if you want to make a project waterproof you can go heavily with the wax and you will get great results. And here you can see how I apply my wax on my pages I can go all over the whole page if I want to or I can just go over the areas that I think that they are going to stick and of course you can apply it with your fingers or with a piece of cloth. Just below the video on YouTube or on my blog you will find links to all those 4 products that I have used today. I have also made sure to link to multiple online stores so you can go ahead and check out the prices and decide from where you want to buy them. I hope this video was helpful and if it was don't forget to leave me a comment as well as give me thumbs up on my YouTube channel. If you need art journal inspiration here are 2 videos that I made a while ago. You can click on any of those 2 videos but if you are watching from a mobile device then you can find links to those videos just below in the description area or you can click the info card that just popped on your screen. Thank you all for watching.