Hey guys, it's Nate, aka The Foot Account, and welcome back to the channel. I've got a theory guys, and it's about today's showdown series promo. Instead of going right into Foot Birthday, EA has elected to drop this promo first, and I think I know the reason why. I want to talk about that today, and how I think this promo is going to introduce itself today on a promo Friday, where we see the FC Fantasy cards leaving packs, and no new promo cards coming into packs, but again this promo of showdown is all about the SBC. So I want to break that down today. Will we see good content, SBC's evolutions and the like? Or will he be more excited actually about the FC Fantasy cards and their potential upgrades and all that going on this weekend, even though they're out of packs. We're going to break that down today and talk about a lot of things. If you're excited for it, drop a thumbs up and subscribe if you're new. Let's go over yesterday's Thursday content. There wasn't a whole lot going on, but we did have a surprise SBC, and EA once again tried to mess with us and mess with investors. Let's talk about the SBC content first, starting with the single SBC. I mean, guys, EA didn't say we were getting any of these SBCs, but they dropped one the last three days. It is a right back in the league gun with technical plus, but only a three star week, but high, high work rates for this card. He's not great, but he's also cheap, and that combination is sometimes fun. It's like 50,000 coins to get this card done. He does have the potential to upgrade. Not a lot of people were super excited about this just because it doesn't look like that in saying of a card, but with upgrades, he could be good. And the same case here with Tadebo and Telemans, you can wait to do the SBC for the next basically 13 days. He will have two games in that timeframe where if he has clean sheets and he plays and they were starting to win, you might want to do the SBC just in case. So leave that one there and put that one on your radar because it is alive and upgrading cards. So really, they didn't move too much on the market yesterday, but that was our player SBC that we had. We did, however, have a really good set of Marquis matchups, a tradeable 50K pack. And this is a very cheap set of Marquis matchups as well. Only 12,000 coins to do all four segments of this SBC. You're literally paying 12K for a tradeable 50K pack. That is a no-brainer. I'd like almost never do Marquis matchups just because I'm lazy. I think I might do it this week because that is a really, really good SBC.  We have the chance of packing one. We also had a kit SBC yesterday for a pretty cold kit, I guess. It's very trendy, very basic looking, right? It's a throwback kit, AIK, and it's four squads. But if you want a cool kit, one that you can kind of flex because not many people are going to do an SBC for a kit, you can go ahead and do that. But the real story yesterday is that EA once again dropped the lightning rounds, guys, in the store. The same ones that they dropped yesterday that made prices go down. 85 times 7, the 84 times 10, both tradeable, and the 83 times 100. Why is EA trying to make us lose coins on our investments, right? Because once again, it made the fantasy FC players drop in value, right? I'm still very invested in Ian Mattson from Dortmund. I loved their matchup this weekend. I think he has great potential to upgrade. He's still 41,000 coins. He was down at like 40,000 coins flat. And at once again yesterday with the supply and with those packs being released, even though it doesn't seem like there's a crazy amount of people opening those packs, with that supply, it just automatically makes these cards drop. And you can tell that based off the prices. Once again, these cards were very viable. Pascarose down to 17,000 coins. Again, Kendrava is 26K. Mattson is down. Even some of the more expensive cards like Luis Diaz, 2.1 mil. Martins, 88K. That's like the lowest that I've seen her card. So you're like very cheap investments, like the safe ones, per se, like Le Meleu, Pedro Poro. I guess he's not that safe, but Pascarose is very safe. I would say as well inside of this. I don't know, probably Le Meleu and Pascarose are like two of the safest upgrades for sure. They were really good buys yesterday. Some of the heroes dropped off as well. Brolin was down at like 89,000 coins. McManum is down even further. And it's just again because of EA dropping the lightning round. So if you're not looking to like of today's showdown series promo and you just want to get involved in some of these cards. You probably still can, the prices are low enough. Again, you're just hoping that some of those players this weekend have good performances towards their upgrades and we could start to see those prices go up. So just really another opportunity to invest. And that was kind of all of the content that dropped yesterday. It wasn't that crazy of a day. Now there were some leaks that I do want to talk about and some market movements to cover as well. We'll cover that here in just a second. But let's do a little bit of a breakdown on the showdown series promo that is coming today. If you didn't see the video yesterday, I want to rundown what this promo is just really quick, but also include some of the new info about this showdown series that we do know. And also, first of all, I want to talk about why they're dropping this promo guys, right? We're ending Fantasy FC, which to be honest, we are leaving one of the best menu grinds that we have seen on this game through the entire year.  Tons of great SBCs to be crafting, whether it's the heroes like Alex Scott, Carvalho, or players like Todibo. Of course, who could forget about Timo Werner, right? Timo Werner is one of the better SBCs we've had. I mean, in the last couple of months, to be completely honest with the upgrades that he's charted for, the price, just how insane his card is in game. So many of these SBCs, even this Bujorno card, are very, very good cards, especially with the upgrades. It's been a really good promo. It's been a really solid promo, especially with this combination of the SBCs and the upgrades that we have had. But why did EA not wanna go straight into foot birthday, right? That's what I think I figured out, guys. EA, after having this pretty nice couple weeks of content with Fantasy FC, even though a lot of people are so frustrated with the game, this is genuinely decent content. I think most of us can agree with that, even though these cards aren't going straight into our team and improving the power curve, these are cards that could do that with upgrades and their prices are pretty decent for the most part and they're decently easy to pack, except for the top tier. But guys, that's how it's always gonna be. I think EA has to have a down week, if you will. They have to have a quiet week before they go into foot birthday because that's what EA like to do. They like to create hype and anticipation for the big marquee, big name promos in this game by making the week before those promos pretty quiet, not that crazy. Think about the week before team of the year. We have a team of the year warm up, right? Not a lot going on. It's all about saving packs for team of the year before Black Friday and before Thunder Shuck this earlier on, this past cycle, it was kind of the same thing. It's slower and then you build up in the hype to that next big promo and that is kind of the same thing that I think is gonna happen this week. This is a week, guys, with the daily SBCs for the showdown promo, which is like, that is the basis of this promo. EA is going to try to get us to drain our fodder and drain our coins and spend even some FC points on some pretty crazy store packs that have been added to the code that we are expecting to see in the next couple of days. They're wanting us to chase after that so that then we head into foot birthday excited for the promo but also needing to spend either money or replenishing our clubs through spending more money on store packs because we have, of course, nothing left there after a week of SBC. So that's kind of what I think the hope is for them. Again, we talk about this game going in ebbs and flows all the time, right? This week is honestly probably gonna be a little bit of a dip down from what we've had the past couple of weeks. I'm still hopeful, though, for good SBCs, fun showdowns, and fun cards to try out. I look at my team at the moment and yeah, I know they're not the most meta cards but I'm trying out Timo Werner. I did pack the licked. I was very lucky with that. I'm working on an EVO so I'm just trying to at least have fun and try out some of these new fantasy cards and hopefully some of the showdown cards that come out. But that's enough yapping about my opinions at least on why this promo is right now, when it is. Let's talk about showdown series and what to expect today. Again, it is all about the daily showdown SBCs and also now with the leaks that we have other SBCs. It's gonna be a pretty decent week of some player SBCs if the leaks that we have all turn out to be correct. But the daily showdowns is why this promo is called showdown series. The first thing I wanna talk about, though, is old promo cards are gonna be released back into packs. Last year, they kind of based it around rivalries, right? You had El Classico, Madrid, and Barcelona. You had Benzema and Pedri released for those two. You had the North London Derby. You had Harry Kane and Gabriel Jesus. You had Manchester City and Manchester United cards re-released back into packs. Kind of like, again, showdowns, rivalries. That's why they called it a rivalries re-release. We're expecting the same thing this year, but with some of the cards that have been recently in packs. Now again, any card, any time that gets re-released in packs, Gabriel Jesus, this card last year was re-released. He went from 680,000 coins. And then two days after he gets put back into packs, he drops a very, very substantial amount, like 200,000 coins from 680 to about 480 in the next couple of days. And his price really tanks. Whatever happens, whoever is re-released today, the same thing is probably going to happen. Now again, it's fantasy cards. Sorry, not fantasy. It is the versus cards, fire and ice. It is the winter wild cards and team of the group stage. Those are the three different promo cards that we have seen from EA. Posted on their weekly content that we are expecting to see some of them re-released in packs. Again, I say some of them. I doubt they're going to re-release all of them. And honestly, based off of last year's re-release, it wasn't even that many cards. Maybe like 20 to 25 cards in total get re-released. I'm hoping that it's more than that for sure this year, since we have three winter wild cards teams. We have two teams of versus, fire and ice. And the team, the group stage team, all those cards team very overpriced anyway, because they were so unpackable, right? Like Bellingham, Musiala, Rodrigo. They're great to trade with, but they're also so expensive because they were very difficult to pack. I'm hoping that we have a really sizable team of players that is in packs today. Again, whatever gets re-released, it will drop in price. Some of these cards have been dropping in price. A card that I just traded yesterday was Joao Felix versus Fire. He was gone from 500,000 coins down to 300K. He was 300K flat yesterday. I picked them up, sold them for 370. He's now up to 390. If he gets re-released in packs, he's going to go even lower. He even has a showdown in SPC League as well. Another reason why I'm staying away and just quick flip that card. That's just one word of warning I'll give you is, cards that get re-released will 100% drop today. So be careful about that. But again, we're talking SPCs and showdowns. What showdowns for games that have been leaked are coming soon. That's the key. Like what SPC will we be getting today for a showdown? This is my prediction because this game is coming up very soon and some of the other leaks that we have for showdowns are games that are like a week away. Akanji and Clark, City versus Liverpool. This would be a great set of SPCs for EA to drop today. Bobby Clark, the bronze card. We've talked about this, getting a big upgrade for sure. Akanji hopefully getting a pretty big upgrade as well. The key for this promo and the SPCs is going to be how high rated are the base cards. Last year, they went with 87 rated cards in the showdowns and then had the chance to get upgraded to an 89 with a plus two. I'm hoping this year with the power curve and the way that it's at, they're dropping 88 rated cards with two play style pluses or say that they're going to add a play style plus onto the card that gets upgraded. That's where there needs to be a little bit of extra hype for this promo. And again, if you're EA, you want people to maybe do some of these SPCs and drain their coins so that they open more packs during team of the year type of thing. Hopefully they make some of these SPCs pretty good. I'm genuinely excited for Akanji and Clark today because I think it's very possible they're dropped and Akanji is always a card that's pretty good in game. He's got a four star weak foot. If they upgrade his defensive work rates to high, medium, high, he could be a very, very good card. And yeah, I'm excited for that one today. Hopefully they do the business there and hopefully again, they do something different with skill move, weak foot upgrades or play style plus additions to the winning card whoever wins from the showdown. So that's something to watch out for today. I think they are the most likely to come today. And if the SPCs are good, as always, we try to talk about this every time we have content. If Akanji is really cracked and he's the most exciting card today, watch out for Prem's center backs. They would probably have a drop on the game today. And same thing for Clark, Bobby Clark. If he's the better card and even though they're maybe not the favorite in the game, it's gonna be an incredible game for sure. If he's a really good value SPC and has good play styles, good upgrades and stuff like that, he might make some primarily midfielders drop. So that substitute kind of market impact could be there. Now, what other showdowns are still leaked? Of course, we've got the Felix and the Depai. A lot of hype for this one, but this game is until like March 17th, a long ways down the line. I don't expect to see this showdown today. I mean, they could drop it super duper early, but I wouldn't expect it, especially when we have other showdowns leaked for games that are happening sooner. Esok and Chilwell, another showdown SPC that should be coming pretty soon. Hopefully these cards get juiced as well. Chilwell with pace and Esok with some shooting boost and some play style boost as well. He could be very, very good. Remember last year we had Wout Weghorst. That was kind of the showdown SPC guy from the last two years that was very, very exciting and hype. Esok could be the next Wout Weghorst if he gets the right upgrade and if Newcastle end up winning this game. That's just a cheeky prediction that I have there, but those are the leaks that we have so far. We did have a couple of new ones yesterday and NWSL showdown with McCaskill and Crystal Dunn. Crystal Dunn is going to 100% be the best SPC to do here for sure. McCaskill is a striker or center attacking mid with like block play style. We looked at this yesterday. She has like block and slide tackler and she's a striker, kind of a weird card, but Crystal Dunn is very meta. If you remember this evolution card from earlier on in the year, very, very, very good card. So that's one to watch out for that is a leaked SPC at the moment. And then I do believe we have a couple more showdowns that are leaked. A women's Barclays Super League matchup between Manchester United and Manchester City for Lila, Alhabe as a left back and Paris from United as a right mid. So that is leaked to come in the next week. And then, whooping ahead too far there. We'll talk about Yeshian in a second. We also have Bastoni and LaBatka. So right now, what is that? Five showdown SPCs, either five or six showdown SPCs leaked. That is almost all of them that we will see for this next week, which is why I think EA needs to start off with a banger today with a Kanji and Clark because that could be pretty big. So those are all the leaked showdown SPCs that we have right now. Now, as you just saw, Yeshian is leaked. As a part of this promo as well, it looks like sometime in the next couple of days, hopefully they don't put this off until for birthday. I really hope they don't. I hope this is something that comes out during the showdown series promo as SPCs that they put out before for birthday that we maybe have an opportunity to craft or at least set our eyes out onto craft. Yeshian has been leaked to come as an icon SPC. And with the leak, they show this version of Yeshian, which is a very overpowered centerback version of Yeshian. He's got the hat in game. I know many people who have used this card, and especially when they got him during winter wildcards, they said he was incredibly, incredibly cracked. He only has one play style plus, but he does have a good one block. He's got anticipate and intercept, arguably the best two or the best three if you include block in there. He doesn't have aerial. He does have relentless, but this could be a really fun SPC if it's this version, because how many people would have thought to have used Yeshian as a centerback? If it comes in at a good price, this could be a big one. It could be big, but here's my worry, guys. Same thing that we talked about with the Jarzinio leak. What if they release a Yeshian SPC that is actually for the base goalkeeper version? I'm sure some people would still like that because I use Yeshian in net in my team and he's very good. Look at this card. 1,200 games played in the current club who's selling it. It's very possible that Yeshian SPC could be the goalkeeper one as well. I just hope that these SPCs are a part of this next week of content and not pushed off till later. That is both Yeshian and Jarzinio that are leaked now for ICON-SBCs, which is another reason why I'm holding on still to my higher-rated fodder. I just got a lazy sale, a couple lazy sales. 37,000 coins and 34,000 coins, these 89s. I think I'm gonna have to keep listing those higher because I've gotten more lazy sales yesterday than I have in the past few days. And with not a lot of players probably opening packs with only a re-release out and those SPCs coming, I think I'm gonna keep lazy listing my higher-rated fodder. We also have Pickett coming as a moment's SPC soon. So some NWSL moments links there. Plenty of NWSL SPCs this year for sure. I think the league is just starting up again. Their new season is kicking off and maybe that's why there's a moment's SPC coming. Those are all the leaks that we have right now. I don't know. Actually, you know what? I'm gonna go out on a limb and say that either Yeshian or Jarzinio is gonna come out this weekend. I feel like that's gonna happen.  Now, other SPC things to catch up on, just some housekeeping items, SPCs that are refreshing today. The 84 times five, we've got one last chance to do that SPC three different times. Again, today it is refreshing. I'm gonna do it. I'm not gonna save them. I'm just gonna open them with the exchanges and with the 81 plus player pick out this weekend. I'm still gonna keep ripping through those. Even though there's not gonna be as cool of cards and packs with the re-release, I'm still gonna be ripping through player picks and exchanges, I think, unless the pack weight changes just because this grind is so much fun and is kind of just like unlimited player picks. Doing an exchange every time you get a high rated card, putting it into player picks, keep getting high rated. You can start crafting SPCs. You get fodder, right? It's really, really fun and it's amazing. So I'm gonna keep doing that. Also, if you want to craft the gamble player pick, that is the 86 plus Wild Cards versus Team of the Honorable Mentions, that is gonna refresh today as well. The icon does not refresh today, that'll refresh on Saturday. Other content that we could see today, evolutions, right? Friday's new promos, all about evolutions. There is a evolution leak at the moment that is a showdown Evo. I don't know if that's gonna come out today. It feels weird that EA would maybe drop a showdown Evo that would upgrade showdown cards that were not upgraded from their previous time. I think they might save that until later on in the promo. We'll have to see. I do expect some sort of evolution today though on this game. I've seen some right mids, like Mare's is right now at the top of Footbin. So I don't know if there's anything to do with him being a right mid and maybe potentially there's a right mid Evo upcoming. I don't know. I don't have any leaks, but I do think we'll get some sort of Evo today. And speaking of objectives, we'll probably have some sort of player and objectives today too. They always try to do something around there. And you know, I have a sneaky suspicion with the Future Stars Cup. Sorry, Fantasy Cup that is going away. Now Future Stars, that was a while ago. This Fantasy Cup was so incredible and it's ending today. I have a suspicion that they might give us some draft objectives at some point during the weekend. They like to go cup and then drop some height for draft. And I could see that on this off week of content if you will happening at some point this weekend too. Now let's talk market a little bit. You see, I still have a transfer list full of a lot of cards I've been trading a little bit. There's gonna be plenty of market movements today, specifically with the Fantasy cards. A lot of interest here, right? Because you have even cards that are playing games today on Friday. I believe Barca play Mallorca and that would mean potential for Gundewan to get some upgrades if they're able to win this game. This could be a card you watch very closely today. I know yesterday he dropped down a bit again. He was 260 lows. But again, there's height for this card today if Barca do end up winning. If he were to play, if he were to assist or score specifically as well, there's potential. I don't think he's injured. And I don't know for sure in his case, but that's a card that is playing today as well. I think Napoli might be playing today as well. So the upgrade potential for Poletano to go to a 91. Is he still 46K? All right, that's an undercut. But if there's, I mean, if there's Poletano sitting at 46K, I literally think they play today. So that's a card that I would want to buy just for the fact that if they score two goals, this bro is going to a 91 rated card. And in that case, he will be probably about 10,000 coins more. And that is an investment that I would love to make. It looks like he's not 46K, but that's a price that I like for him, 46,000 coins. But he's starting to go up a little bit. He was around 50K yesterday. So that 46K is an undercut for sure. If we can cop one or two, we will. But yeah, that's the stuff that I would watch for today. And that's where everybody's eyes are gonna be on these cards for the games that are happening this weekend, the investments that people are gonna be holding. And why not, right? I totally get it. The promo is probably not gonna be that crazy. Again, you think about why EA is dropping this, right? It's an off week before a foot birthday. It's probably not gonna go that crazy. So there's gonna be a lot of hype on these cards and a lot of people that are holding on these cards and just waiting to see what happens with these games. And yeah, there's that. Now, if you do want to make an investment as well and you're like, Nate, how can I put my coins to work right now for the next couple of days? We are getting a lot of player SBCs, right? And that, of course, means you're gonna need fodder. 85s are ridiculously low. Four point, I think they were 4.2 or 4.3K earlier. Yeah, this is an incredibly low price for 85. If you can get them for 4.2 to 4.3K, anything under four and a half, I think is phenomenal. Even with the 86 plus player pick that's refreshing today, really you're just hoping that these get required for another sort of upgrade pack SBC or all the player SBCs that we're gonna be getting. I love the 84 to 86s for the player SBCs that are coming out and maybe for some other upgrade packs. I love that fodder investment there. I'm not really investing anymore in the higher tier. I'm just holding, right? Because these cards are up, but now I'm just more so of holding the cards that I've already invested in, hoping for them to rise further with the icon SBCs that we could potentially be getting. So yeah, if you want to go in on fodder, 84s to 87s and include them in there as well for a current fodder investment, I think looks pretty good. But I think it's maybe more lucrative to actually go into the fantasy cards. It is a little bit more risky still to be investing in these cause you guys know it could be one game where the player doesn't play well or whatever the club does not show up for that game. And all of a sudden you have a card that is gonna be dropping because once again for sure there will be panic selling on these cards if they get close to an upgrade threshold but they don't quite eclipse that, right? That is one thing that is for sure to happen if a player's club or the player themselves does not perform well, you're gonna have some panic selling and there is risk to losing coins with this. But on the flip side, there's also a lot of potential to make coins as well. And if you're wanting to again just make a safe play and you're wanting to hold on to a card for a while, go the fodder route. Orban is not a fodder card per se, he could be, right? If he goes to an 89 or a 90 rated, you know his price could go up a little bit because just because of that potential only but really he's more of like a meta card that if he gets upgrades could be super cracked. Again, the fodder investments would be Le Meleu for like 27, 20 AK, Marmouch, really for like 24. Pasquaro for like 16, 17 would be a fodder play for sure. And I don't even know, I mean, Kendreva kind of but Salantina is literally last in the league for Serie A so I don't wanna invest in a card who is upgrading with a team that's not playing that well at the moment. So try to stick to the teams that are playing better too and don't forget about the heroes. Parma, I think Parma played today. So if you can get Brolin for like 90,000 coins or less than that, I think this is a really good investment too. If he goes up to a 90 rated card and hits that potential for an upgrade, it could be a pretty nice looking card as well. So I really would like to pay 90K for him or maybe even 88, maybe we cop a bit here and stock one on the transfer list. But yeah, that's probably a move today as well if you're interested in investing. And if you don't wanna invest and if you wanna trade, there's gonna be great trading opportunities with the cards that get re-released in packs today too. Especially for these rare cards, right? I mean, it goes without saying if they were to release, I don't know, what's a good example? If they were to re-release today this Ice Sun and let's say he drops down to like 900K, this stuff still gonna be a very difficult card to pack and whatever panic selling and whatever drops you have, you're gonna see some rebounds too. Even on some of these cards, we saw some crazy movements yesterday with the road to the finals as Brighton lost big. So this Fati is down bad and you also had an injury scare with Konate. If any of you guys were wondering why Konate started dropping yesterday, he was subbed off during the game, injured, and then he did bounce back up in price because evidently the injury, I think from the news that I've heard, maybe isn't that bad, but he is down still a little bit with that injury scare after being subbed off yesterday. So yeah, that's kind of what's happening today in this game. One last thing, this is how EA's gonna try to get some money over the weekend guys and over this next week. They are dropping a bunch of crazy packs in the store that guarantee old promo cards and a lot of icons. Like some of these packs are crazy. Includes a guaranteed Winter Wild Cards versus Road to the Finals, Team of the Uninventions, or Future Stars player pick, all items untradable. Here's a foot birthday player pack guaranteed from Team One or Two. That's probably gonna be in the new season. It's probably where that pack is being added there. Includes one Encore Player item from any campaign released prior to Showdown series. That's kind of a really interesting grab bag. One Encore Player item from any campaign released prior to Showdown series. Would that include Team of the Year? Not including Heroes or Icons. Hmm, that's interesting. That's a real big one right there because that says any campaign prior to Showdown which would include Team of the Year. All right, we're gonna have to see if there's any fine print text on that pack when it gets dropped. Remember, that is the grab bag player pack. And then there's some other crazy ones. We've talked about the Epic Historical Encore Pack which is four Icons and then an 81 times 35 inside of the pack.  But like, nah, I don't think it's worth it at this stage. They are going so crazy with the Untradable Store Packs this year. It is wild and I really do think it is part of why this game is really... A lot of people are not happy with it at the moment. So hopefully EA can turn it around today in terms of what we expect. I'm not expecting much but hopefully there are a couple of bright spots and some just nice cards that we get to go and craft. Showdowns are always fun because you love the live and upgrading aspect and there's a lot of that right now with Fantasy but if you add another aspect to it with SBCs and live cards, there's a lot of fun to be had here. So I hope EA delivered today especially with some other EVO content and objectives too. I hope they delivered today, guys. So that is the video for today. If you're excited for Showdown Series, drop a thumbs up, comment below if you have any questions and subscribe if you're new. See you guys in the Twitch stream today. The link's in the description and we'll be trying to pack a few of these brand new cards that are in packs and maybe crafting some SBCs all the while watching the Fantasy cards as they move this weekend. So thanks for watching the video today, guys. I appreciate all the support on the channel as always and I'll see you in the stream today. It's been Nate with The Countdown. Catch you guys there. Peace out.


Spiritual development plays an important part in the making of United States Marine. Lieutenant Amy Roof-Brian, Chaplain Corps, United States Navy will deliver the graduation prayer. Ladies and gentlemen, please rise. Let us pray. Holy one, on this day of great celebration, we give you thanks for these young men of Company A who have earned the title Marine. We give you thanks for the gifts and abilities you have given to each one of them, which they now bring to strengthen our Marine Corps. We give you thanks for the drill instructors, company officers, and battalion leadership who have shaped and molded these young men into Marines. We are grateful this day for the families who have supported them every step of their journey, for their mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and friends we give you thanks. We ask, O Holy One, that you be with these new Marines as they continue in their training. Keep them safe and bless them. Remind them to be always faithful to their country, to their core, to each other, and to themselves, just as you, O Holy One, are always faithful. Bless our nation. Bless these new Marines. And God, bless the United States Marine Corps. Amen. Thank you. Please be seated. The Commanding General, Marine Corps Cardiff San Diego, welcomes you to what is a historic event in the life of a Marine. Their graduation from boot camp, approximately 40 weeks each year for the past 100 years, new Marines have departed San Diego for service with units of the Marine Corps around the globe. The primary mission of the Recruit Depot is to provide basic training to recruits enlisted west of the Mississippi, which represents approximately 51% of all applicants in the Marine Corps each year. The Depot is also home to recruiter school and drill instructor school. All our inferture are geared toward one end, producing America's finest fighting force, the United States Marines. This morning, Company A, First Recruit Training Battalion, Recruit Training Regiment, will form in March in the parade. Following the passing review, the graduating Marines will return front and center of the reviewing stand for final dismissal. The staff for today's parade is comprised of Marines from the Recruit Training Regiment. The commander of troops is First Sergeant Bridget E. Bellman, Company First Sergeant, Company A, First Recruit Training Battalion. The parade agenda is Sergeant Tramon K. Stewart, Drill Instructor, Company A, First Recruit Training Battalion, Recruit Training Regiment. The marching units are now being called to attention, and the Agendants' Command, Sound Agendants' Call, will begin today's parade. These are two Marines who display outstanding performances in two individually-graded events. Private First Class Emilio Limas Gutierrez from Baton, 1114, is the Company High Shooter, scoring a 339 out of 300. Lance Corporal William J. Blanco from Baton, 1114, is the most physically fit Marine, scoring a 298 out of 300 on the physical fitness test, and a 300 out of 300 on the combat fitness test. They will be receiving awards from the Marine Corps Association and Foundation. President Today is the Company Honor Graduates Recruiter, Gunnery Sergeant Anthony J. Millaham. Also President Today is the primary marksmanship instructor with the Baton Hut Shooting Average of 219 out of 250. Corporal Tune, 1114, Corporal Salt A. Rodriguez. He's comprised of subjects required to produce basic Marines who function effectively in garrison, combat skills, and practice the personal and professional traits which distinguish them as Marines. Examples of these traits are Discipline, the achievement of a state of discipline which assures respect for authority, instant and willing obedience to orders, and the self-reliance to maintain or improve those traits which exemplify a Marine. Military bearing, consistently demonstrating military presence and personal awareness, as well as the proper wearer and maintenance of uniforms. Esprit de corps, Acquire the common spirit of the Marine Corps that inspires enthusiasm, devotion, initiative, teamwork, aggressiveness, determination, moral courage, integrity, and the burning desire to work with and for others toward neck and ears, Marines have fought and won nation calls. In the harshest conditions, over the most brutal terrain, and against the most formidable enemies, Marines defend the ideals of freedom with grit and tenacity. Though battlefields change and capabilities evolve, history proves that true victory comes from the individual Marine. With steel resolve, the drive to overcome any obstacle, and the warrior spirit to fight on against all odds. It takes that steadfast faithfulness, separate others, to corps, country, and each other that abounds throughout our storied legacy. Marines today remain in combat for deployed throughout the world, confronting every challenge with courage, loyalty, and faithfulness. Their resolve to be most ready when the nation is least ready, to defend freedom anytime and anywhere, to stand ready to aid those devastated by natural disasters, to pay tribute to those who have forged our proud legacy, and to honor the families and loved ones who faithfully stand beside us. For the Marines of Company A, today marks the end of the 13-week recruit training cycle. They have marched countless miles in Camp Hilton, and on this parade deck, and have been trained, as are all Marines, as basic riflemen. In addition, due to an intensive physical training program, their strength and endurance have doubled since their arrival for the recruit depot. They are Marines, qualified to take their places in the ranks of the world's finest fighting organization. The platoons are now being aligned from left to right in order to get them into their exact positions for the parade. The next portion of the ceremony will be our national anthem. We welcome veterans and members of the armed forces to join us in rendering appropriate honors with the military salute. For guests who have not served in the military, it is proper etiquette during the national anthem to place their right hand over their hearts, and for those in the audience wearing headgear to remove it. Will the guests please rise for the presentation of the colors? Ladies and gentlemen, our national anthem. Please be seated. Following the command, parade rest, the parade action will give the command sound off, which signals the band to parade forward at the assembled Marines while playing military marching music. Now presents the assembled command to the commander of troops. Center march, all unit commanders and gunman-bearers march to the front and center of the formation. Historically, it was at this point that command officers would issue orders and instructions to the unit commanders. Following this, the unit leaders would face about, return to their units, and pass the information along to their Marines. Out our nation's history, millions of men and women have earned the title United States Marine. Men who have helped shape our history join us here today. In keeping with the tradition of once a Marine, always a Marine. We would like to recognize them. At this time, those in the audience who have served as Marines, please rise. Ladies and gentlemen, a round of applause for their dedicated service to corps and country. Thank you. Please be seated. Ladies and gentlemen, the battalion commander for First Crew Training Battalion, Lieutenant Colonel Gregory A. Grayson. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. On behalf of our commanding general, Brigadier General Morris and the regimental commander, Colonel Jones, welcome to Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego and the graduation ceremony for Alpha Company! I'd also like to extend a very special welcome to today's parade reviewing official, Sergeant Major Reyes, who currently serves as a Sergeant Major for First Recruit Training Battalion. Sergeant Major, it's a pleasure to have you and welcome. Ladies and gentlemen, the purpose of today's ceremony is to recognize these new Marines and everything they've accomplished. Their journey began 13 long weeks ago when they stepped on the Yellow Footprints and committed to becoming Marines. They arrived as individuals, perhaps a little unsure of their decision, but stand before you as a confident team of smartly disciplined Marines.  But most of all, they came to embrace our core values of honor, courage and commitment, with a clear understanding that being a Marine carries a special trust and confidence and the highest expectations of the American people. Now, as you might imagine, this awesome and very magical transformation didn't happen by itself, and I'd like to thank those who were involved. First, we recognized each Marine's journey started long before they got here. The foundation of their character started with you, in your homes, in your schools, in your communities. I want to thank all the parents, families, friends, as well as teachers and coaches for everything you've done. I assure you that your love and your support was vital to their success. So thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen, for your love and support. Now I'd like to turn your attention to the Marines wearing the distinctive campaign covers. Our drill instructors. It's impossible for me to put into words their passion or gethic and commitment. From the moment a recruiter arrives, there's a drill instructor with them 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. They have spent every waking hour teaching, training, mentoring and leading these young men. Ladies and gentlemen, these drill instructors have made a tremendous and lasting impact on your loved one. And I'd be remiss if I didn't also recognize their spouses and their families who sacrificed equally for the benefit of your new Marine. So please join me in a well-deserved round of applause for the drill instructors and families of Alpha Company. Finally, I'd like to recognize our highly skilled marchmanship, martial arts, water survival and academics instructors. Our incredible chaplain, corpsman and entire medical team who do an amazing job in ensuring our physical, mental and spiritual readiness. And of course, the dedicated recruiter who saw potential in your Marine. In fact, Corporal Rodriguez is joining us from Weaponsfield Training Battalion where he coached and trained the platoon with the highest rifle range score. And sitting next to him is Gunnery Sergeant Mileham who's joining us from just up the road in Escondido where he recruited today's honor men. Job well done gentlemen, keep up the great work. Finally, ladies and gentlemen, if you'll please excuse me, I'd like to address the new Marines one last time as their battalion commander. Good morning Marines! Hey Alpha Company, I know it seems like a lifetime ago when you were offered the challenge of becoming a Marine. When you arrived on your buses and stepped on the yellow footprints, graduation was a lasting on your mind. You're probably thinking, what have I gotten myself into and how do I get these guys to stop yelling at me? Well, you had a lot to learn and some very steep hills to climb, but you did it. You have rightfully earned the title Marine. Be proud of your accomplishment and the uniform you now wear. And finally, as I remarked on your first day of training, whether you serve for four years or 24 years, remember, it's not about you.  It's about that Marine standing to your left and to your right. It's about all these people in the stands and this great nation which you swore to defend. So, serve with honor, serve with courage, serve with commitment and you'll do well. Congratulations again Marines on your tremendous achievement. Please, take care of one another and remain Semper Fidelis. Ladies and gentlemen, it is my pleasure to introduce to you, America's newest United States Marines. Your position in the reviewing area is today's great reviewing official Sergeant Major Michael R. Reyes, Sergeant Major First Recruit Training Battalion. He is accompanied by Sergeant Major Paul F. Egan, Sergeant Major Recruit Training Regiment. Sergeant Major Michael R. Reyes, Sergeant Major First Recruit Training Battalion, Marine Corps Crew Depot San Diego, California. Sergeant Major Reyes was born in New Orleans, Louisiana and reported to recruit training at Marine Corps Crew Depot San Diego in October 1998. After attending Marine combat training, he received follow-on training at Naval Air Station Pensacola, Florida, where he received the Military Occupational Specialty of 6323 Avionics Technician. Sergeant Major Reyes has served in a variety of challenging billets in numerous commands to include Avionics Technician at Marine Heavy Helicopter 466 Miramar Air Station, California. Staffed on commission officer in charge for Avionics Division HMH 461 New River, North Carolina. Drill Instructor and Drill Master at Marine Corps Crew Depot, Parris Island, South Carolina. Quality Assurance Chief at HMH 466 Miramar Air Station, California. First Sergeant at Company B, First Combat Engineer Battalion. And First Sergeant at Second Battalion, Fifth Marine Regiment. Sergeant Major Reyes currently serves as the Sergeant Major for First Recruit Training Battalion, Marine Corps Crew Depot San Diego, California. Sergeant Major Reyes' personal awards include the Navy and Marine Corps Combination Medal with two gold stars in Louis III Award, and the Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal with three gold stars in Louis IV Award. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Sergeant Major Michael R. Reyes, trained here in the past 100 years, and have departed San Diego for combat and conflicts around the world, including places whose names are immediately associated with marine courage and dedication. Names such as Guadalcanal, Terror, Iwo Jima, Busan, Incheon, Chosun Reservoir, Queson, Huay City, Lebanon, Granada, Kuwait, Marjah, Sangang, and our most current operations worldwide. This parade deck is rich in history and tradition, and no Marine trained here ever forgets its sights and sounds, ensuring the success of the difficult transition required to become a Marine. The Company Commander is Captain Manuel A. Ramirez. The Company First Sergeant is First Sergeant Bridget E. Bellman. Ladies and gentlemen, please join me in a round of applause for the Company Staff of Company A, the traditional function of retiring, the Guidance, and the Delta Company First Sergeant, First Sergeant Puentes. Ladies and gentlemen, please hold your applause until all honor graduates have been recognized. 1009 is Private First Class Louis R. Ward from Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. The Honor Graduate for Platoon 1010 is Private First Class Jacob A. Harshbarker from Hillsboro, Indiana. The Honor Graduate for Platoon 1011 and the series Honor Graduate is Private First Class Keanu Joseph Q. Agun from Las Vegas, Nevada. The Honor Graduate for Platoon 1013 is Private First Class Jose J. Garza Jr. from Houston, Texas. The Honor Graduate for Platoon 1014 is Lance Corporal William J. Blanco from Poway, California. Lance Corporal Blanco is also the recipient of the Chesty Puller Award for his outstanding meritorious performance while in recruit training. The Honor Graduate for Platoon 1015 is Private First Class Raymond Corjón III from Fort Worth, Texas. Ladies and gentlemen, the Honor graduates of Company A. The Company First Sergeant will now give the command to the senior drill instructors to dismiss their platoons. Needless to say, this will be the most welcome command they have received throughout recruit training.


Hey, most insurance agents, companies, call centers, et cetera, will never spend $10 million on Facebook ads, which is why you should take it from me, someone that's done it. You should learn, take the meat from this and then implement this into your own advertising marketing. Okay, I'm Cody Askins. I own Cody Askins, SecureAgent Leads, SecureAgent Marketing, 8% Nation. And we have spent $10 million on Facebook ads over the last few years. And so on this video, I'm going to take time and share with you the things that we've learned. Okay, when you spend $10 million over the course of a few years, you learn a lot along the way. Okay, so I'm going to give you three lessons or things that I've learned by spending $10 million.  Okay, well, we have clients that spend money with us. We have agents that buy leads from us and then we take the money they give us and we put it into ad spend. We've been promoting a conference for hundreds of thousands of dollars the last two, almost three years. Okay, we're also putting in money back into our own brands, other call centers, companies, agencies, IMOs, our own, et cetera. And that is how you get up to $10 million over a couple of years. So what I want to start with when I talk about the three lessons we've learned. And I want to keep this pretty high level. I don't want to get in the weeds too much because I want you, when you get done watching this, to be able to follow along with what I'm talking about and actually be able to learn and implement some of these things that we are going to share with you. Okay, so one of the first lessons that I learned, okay, is that when you're spending money, it's all about one thing.  It's all about stopping them in their tracks. And what I've learned is to be a good steward to other people's money, to be able to deliver leads, we've generated over a million insurance leads the last few years, to be able to do all these different things. You need to be able to get someone's attention, stop them in their tracks, okay, and how you do that is a few different things, okay? You need to be creative, okay? When everyone's doing one thing, maybe another thing is actually a better idea to do. That's why I would say that we're pretty cutting edge compared to most of the people in our industry trying to do what we do because we're creative, because we're thinking about different colors, because we're thinking about different shapes, because we're thinking about not only videos, images, gifts, graphics, et cetera, because we are trying to think outside the box with what we are doing when we're spending money, okay? So if your ad looks like everyone else's or if you pay for a course and everyone had done the ad this way and then you do the ad that way, what I've learned is there's a lot of market share there of individuals just like you that bought a course and did what that person said to do. Well, if a thousand people bought that course and a thousand people are doing things this exact way and everyone is in this specific box and they're all doing things over and over and over, you can imagine that that would saturate the market over time and that everyone that's doing things just like that inside of that box, it's going to drive their cost up. Okay, so that's why I'm not a big believer in buying courses. Okay, I'm thinking about coming out with a consulting offer to where we actually can coach people to learn how to do what we've done, okay? But when you think about attention, you don't want to do the same thing for months, quarters, years at a time. You want to constantly be getting with your creative team, your marketing department to change things up when it comes to attention, okay? So we typically reevaluate everything we're doing at least once a quarter, minimum, sometimes monthly. So you're talking about different states that a lot of people are targeting. Hey, if you're talking about Utah, Utah is a, you know, it's a bloodbath. Okay, but we're having success there because we know what the freak we're doing and when you spend 10 million bucks when most other people never have, you learn along the way. So the first game is attention, okay? It's stopping someone. It's getting their attention, it's getting the attention of their eyeballs, the colors, the images, the focus, the text above and below boxes. That's kind of old now, but et cetera, right? You see where I'm going, okay? So that's the first step. The first step is attention, okay? The second step is once you get their attention, what we've learned is the next steps. What are the next steps of what you're going to be doing once you get their attention? Because once you get their attention, that's only half the battle. Then you've got to get them to follow through on that attention, which means, which means that your landing page has to make sense. It has to work, okay? Should you have some type of high intent video, okay? Should you be giving them information? Should you have a strong CTA? How many fields do you want in your form? The more fields, the less likely they are to fill it out, okay? So when it, also you could start, we know what next steps, you could also start to talk about the actual follow up, even after they fill out the form, okay? Whether it be through actually booking automated appointments on a calendar or actually driving inbound calls. What's that follow up process look like? Okay, so once you get attention, you think about next steps. You think about next steps. Now you're actually looking at conversion. I stopped them. Now I want them to convert. Now I want to extract the information. Now I want them to book an automated appointment. Now I want to drive an inbound call. And by doing that, this is where the good marketers, okay, along these, anybody can do this, good marketers, people that are spending tens of millions of dollars, know how to do this better than those that aren't, okay? If there's other people out there that haven't spent this amount of money, then they don't know as much as we know. And that's just how it works, okay? So I want you to think about next steps. What are those next steps for you? What do you want them to do? What next steps do you want them to take? Is it to a landing page? Is there a high intent video? Is there information? Is there a CTA? What's the form look like, okay? What's the actual button color? What's the button text, et cetera? You need to be doing constantly, we are constantly testing, okay? We're testing out lead types right now that people have never tried or developed or done for insurance yet, okay? But when you have a larger department at a company, you can do those things, okay? So we're constantly looking to improve what we're doing, okay, so that's when it comes to next steps. Stop them, then you want them to convert. What does that look like, okay? We've learned that this is extremely, extremely important in valuable information about how do you actually get them to convert, get their attention, increase the buyer intent a little bit because I think it's one thing that I've, I'll say that for a bonus at the end of the video, okay? Let's move to the number three. Number three, never stop learning and then I'm gonna actually release a bonus, okay? Number three is you can't stop learning. You have to always be learning. And the reason you have to always be learning is this thing changes, this whole Facebook ad, digital ad space, this whole ecosystem changes and morphs constantly, okay? Something will work for one quarter and then it'll take a freaking bath the next quarter because you didn't still adapt on how to get people's attention. If you run the same thing, you're at the same thing, the same exact ad for the whole 10 million bucks, it would perform probably 5x worse than it did when we first started using it, okay? So you can never stop learning. That's where you're always doing A, B tests. That's where you're always trying to think out side the box, okay? Well, how do you do that? What does that look like and how can you constantly be improving? Most people give up too easy. That's why always be learning is so important. Most people that are trying to do what we've done and what I've done over the last several years, they give up too quick, they give up too easy, they forget this is a long-term play and that you need to constantly be learning along this long-term journey because it's never going to be the same ever, okay? Even when you buy a course, the course is gonna change in three months, six months a year, okay? That's why they wanna sell you the course because they're giving you old stuff that they're not currently doing anymore, okay? So I want you to think about how can you constantly be always be learning, okay? This is where you can actually start to do your research. This is where you can actually look at what other people are doing. This is what the first thing I think if we're going into a new market, okay? Who is the expert in that market and how can I learn from them, okay? That happens in our space a lot. We get a lot of people that used to buy leads from us that are now selling courses about this stuff that I'm talking about, okay? I want you to think what does that research look like? How do you change? How do you look? And who's doing what you wanna do, okay? Always be learning. Super important lesson. You cannot undervalue this enough, okay? And then the bonus, the bonus is that as an advertising specialist, you can control who sees the ad and what they see, okay? You can't control, you cannot control, okay? And the people that think you can or have lost their mind, you cannot control closing percentage as that varies with the agent. You cannot control the fact that all of them will sit with you and all of them will buy, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, okay? So the bonus is that agents are so short-sighted that they don't see the big picture. They don't see the long-term play. They don't realize if someone just gives me a lead, a lead has a level of interest. A lead has a level of interest from one to 10, okay? It's the agent's job to take that information, that lead, figure out what the interest level is and try to move them up a ladder so they can convert them once they get to an eight, nine or 10 on the interest level gain, okay? So this is what we've learned.  Hey, if you love this video and you wanna learn how to generate high quality insurance leads, then you wanna go there, watch that video and I'll see you there. Today I'm gonna go from start to finish on our entire advertising process to get a lead for an insurance agent and hopefully you'll learn a thing or two about.