Hey everyone, welcome to theCUBE's coverage of the International Women's Showcase for 2022. I'm your host, Lisa Martin. Pleased to be here with Anna Green, the head of Small Medium Business, SMB, for Asia Pacific and Japan at Amazon Web Services. Anna, it's great to have you on the program. Lisa, I am delighted to be here and really excited to be talking about what we're gonna be talking about today, which is diversity and women in technology. One of the great things about International Women's Day, Tuesday, March 8th, is there's always a campaign theme. This year's theme is breaking the bias. What does that mean to you and are we on our way to actually accomplish that? Look, breaking the bias really is about all of us being more self-aware in our workplaces. Really what it means to me is understanding that the communities and the employment, the employee population that all of us work in is diverse. And AWS is a great example of that, right?  I am representing people from across Asia Pacific and Japan. They look, feel and think differently to people in other parts of the world. So really what breaking the bias is about is understanding our unconscious biases and thinking differently about how we approach conversations in the workplace to make sure that we're including everyone in the conversation. And honestly, Lisa, when you do that, you get much better business outcomes. I've seen that for sure. Definitely, there's some stats we can talk about later that I think really articulate that point incredibly well. But I want to talk about your background. You pivoted many times from lawyer to the CEO of ANZ Bank in the Philippines to now a leader at Amazon Web Services. Talk to you about your career path with all those different pivots. How did you get to where you are today? Yeah, I mean, honestly, I recognize that I don't have a traditional orthodox career plan, but that's by intention. I'm somebody who's always been really interested in the world around me. And I would say that my biggest driver is learning and being curious, which as you know is an Amazon leadership principle. So it's probably not a surprise that I ended up here at AWS. But really for me, when I've thought about my career and I have thought about it intentionally, I've been willing to put my hand up and take risks where I think probably others around me were not feeling as safe. And that's a function of who I am, but it's also a function of what I see women wanting to and needing to do more in order to sort of bring their career forward. So as you say, I started my, I had a pure technical lens when I started my career, which was being a lawyer. And I spent a lot of time just learning that and holding that skill set. But I knew Lisa, even then, that that was not what I wanted to do forever. I wanted to do more than simply sit in an office and negotiate documents. Even though that was an exciting career, there was more that I wanted to do. So off the back of that, I moved into banking and was able to learn and build some really important skill sets in terms of thinking about being a leader. And those skill sets include things like running a balance sheet, managing people, thinking differently about risk and compliance, which then allowed me to, I guess, run a bank and run the business. And then finally, how did I then pivot into technology? Well, it was a long conversation. If I'm honest with you, you know, there were conversations back and forth and I thought to myself, am I doing the right thing here? But what I could see for sure was that the world was moving to a technological context. And for me, not to take an opportunity to do a job like running a technology business across Asia, basically in Japan, it just wasn't a possibility for me. I had to take the opportunity. So here I am. And that's one of the most exciting things, I think, is that these days, every company has to be a tech company. Every company has to be a data company, a digital company. One of the lessons we've learned in the last couple of years. But another thing that we've learned is you mentioned skill sets, but it isn't just about those hard skill sets. What are some of those key soft skill sets that you think are really outstanding and really help to break down the bias? Yeah, again, really interesting. So as I'm talking to women, when they hear about my career journey, a lot of them are surprised. They're like, how could you move into technology? And I think the challenge is that a lot of women view technology simply as a coding context. They view it as something that only someone with technical skills can do. And that is simply not the case. So if you look at a recent study by Deloitte Access Economics in Australia, for instance, the soft skill intensive occupations are going to account for 2 thirds of all jobs by 2030. So if you think about that, having a pure technical skill set, certainly if you're going to do something like be a solutions architect or be a coder, it's really important that you must have those skills. But technology businesses are building and growing like no other. So we need all of those soft skills like project management, like P&L accountability and responsibility, like learning how to manage teams. These are core skills that have nothing to do with kind of fundamental technology. Understanding that business context is important, but there are a lot of women out there who could be working in technology now, but are a little bit scared to do so because they're thinking maybe they don't have the skills and I would encourage them to think differently. I think your background with your pivots is a great articulation of, you can take so many different backgrounds, law, banking, into tech. There's probably a fair amount of overlap there, but you also have, you have in and of yourself thought diversity because of your background. I think that's another important thing for women to learn how important that thought diversity can be in any sort of job that they do, whether they're in a technical field or maybe they're in finance or operations or sales for a technology company. You guys talk about builders at AWS. Talk to me about what a builder is, what's that definition and what are some of those key skill sets, hard and soft that those builders exemplify? Yeah, so we are very build focused at AWS because we're building on behalf of our customers. But what that means is that the trades that make you a builder are exemplified by our leadership principles. So things like being curious, as you've just pointed out, Lisa, that these are a tenants of being a good builder, pursuing continuous learning. So whilst you may know that you're good at something, you're not scared of trying something else. You're not scared of training and learning about something else, being able to look around corners and take calculated risks. I mean, whilst it may sound like my career journey has been pivot, pivot, pivot, actually, if we're honest, these have been very intentional moves that I've made with my career to try to learn, as I said, to try to grow. And I've been fortunate and have been intentional also about building that leadership profile. But that's because I'm really fundamentally interested in how business and how people are connecting across the world. And as I said to you, in a building context, really that's about learning about how to build and run digital businesses. And that at the end of the day is, I guess the key message that I would send to everyone out there, getting involved in a career in technology is not a bad move. No, it's definitely not a bad move. I love the curiosity angle. That's one of those things that I'd love to hear. How do you encourage that? One of the biggest challenges, if we look at the stats of girls in STEM programs from primary school to high school to university, as we see the numbers going down, we see them going up in university. And then of course, when we're in, we're looking at the raw tech numbers, the number of women in technical positions is quite low. To your point, there's many other opportunities besides technical positions. How do you encourage women to not be afraid to raise their hand and ask a question, even if they think maybe this is a dumb question? It's such a, I think, you know, honestly, we need to see more women in leadership roles. And I think it's incumbent upon the organizations that are running our businesses, that they make this a priority. Because you can't see, oh, sorry, you can't be, what you can't see, Lisa. And so it's great for us to talk about it. But once we start seeing women having active business-led conversations, that's where we're really going to see the dial shift. I have a 13-year-old daughter. And she's deeply interested in everything on her computer. And what I try to do is encourage her to think differently about the type of roles that she could have if she was interested in, say, for instance, graphic design. She loves drawing, singing.  So maybe the first part is making sure that we are talking about female leaders and what they're doing. I think also what we can do is start building programs where we're involving women in building skills and certification skills. So here at AWS, we've got this amazing event which we've built called She Builds. And I'm an active mentor for that. And what that's all about is kind of connecting women in the tech community and those who are interested with programs that really speak to, you know, the way that women are thinking about their roles. So we have like-minded peers. We have senior leaders. We have certification skills programs, all as part of that. And we also have male allies. It's really important to include our male allies in that conversation. And you will have heard about things like male champions of change. These are very important conversations because again, what we know from statistics is that women are not as likely to build networks and sponsors as men are. And that's not a statement of this mal-intense. What it means is that they just learn differently and think differently as they're building their careers. So if we're starting to get men involved in the conversation in a more meaningful way, it's a conversation that's inclusive. And that's really what I wanna drive. So I'm not sure I answered your question but I certainly got to a couple of points that I was interested in highlighting, which is it's a conversation that has to happen at a grassroots level, at a leadership level and across the organization in terms of metrics, data, understanding where women are and how to build and grow them. Right, but one of the things that you said that I was about to say was we can't be what we can't see. We need to be able to elevate those female leaders like yourself so that more younger women and even women who maybe have been in Techfield for a while can see the opportunities, the leadership. But you also brought up another great point and that is, and this is something I was gonna ask you about who are some of your mentors? And I imagine it's not just all females, it's gotta be men as well because you should point out it's incredibly important to have the men as allies. Yeah, absolutely. And certainly I wouldn't even be having this conversation with you now if I didn't have some amazing allies, both men and women, by my side as I've tracked this leadership journey. Certainly, Phil Davis who is the head of our commercial organization, Greg Pearson. These are people who have taken time out of their careers to sort of talk with me about how we can help to build and grow women leaders. And to me, that's impactful and I feel that that's an authentic engagement because there is a recognition in technology that we need to do more around this issue and I see senior leaders like Matt Garmin leading into the conversation. So for me, that's very inspiring. But I couldn't have answered that question without telling you that the people who probably inspire me most in the organization and within my network are those young women out there who are female founders. Now, I'm going to have to say a couple of names because I get the opportunity Lisa. I've got a part of a networking, a women's networking and mentoring organization. And we have women here in Singapore like Ping Ping Han who is building out an environmental education and sustainability digital business. We've got Francesca Chia who is building Go Get. She's already built it which is an on-demand workforce platform which has over 250,000 people online that are helping people in Malaysia to work and has helped immensely during COVID. So what we're seeing with these young women is that they're actually building the digital businesses of the future. And it's not about, I mean, what I'm seeing them do is invest their time and energy in building, as I said, kind of programs and models that are sustainable. So they're building businesses not just for the bottom line but also to help the communities in which we operate which to me is deeply inspirational. Absolutely and the female founders need much more visibility than they're getting and obviously much more funding. One last point that I want to bring up because this is really important is that there's some data that I know that you have about performance, company performance when there are females at the helm. Talk to me a little bit about that and how can we help get that word out there so more organizations understand the potential they have when they've got that thought diversity. Yeah, it's such a wonderful point and it's so well made now across media but I feel like we need to double down on it because this is not a piecemeal conversation about doing the right thing. Sometimes we view it that way and of course it is the right thing to have equity and diversity in our workplace. But in fact, there's so much data around how a diverse workforce creates better outcomes for business. So in 2020, we had a McKinsey survey that found that companies with more than 30% of women executives were more likely to outperform companies with this percentage. So there is now a huge amount of data that's starting to show us what a diverse and this is not just about gender, this is also about diversity across various lenses, culture, ethnicity, minority groups, et cetera. So and for me, Lisa, it's just common sense. So if you're building a business that is trying to reach the most number of customers, it really is intuitive that you need to have all of those customers represented around the table.  So it totally makes sense from a business lens to build and recruit a diverse workforce. I couldn't agree more. One, I'd like to have one more question. Talk to me really quickly and briefly how are you building your teams to promote effectiveness through that diversity that as you just described can be so leading edge? Yeah, so what I'm doing is being intentional in my hiring practices. So this is something that all leaders can do. And that is really thinking carefully about filling the roles in my organization where I'm given a role to fill, making sure that I'm looking at that diverse candidates, not just the same candidates who might have applied before. And that means sometimes throwing the net a bit wider than what you might usually have and thinking differently about the candidates that are applying. So for instance, in my team, we have 50, 50 men and women. And we all come from very diverse backgrounds. We've got Indian, we've got Singaporean, we've got Australian talent, which means we've got a gender and cultural mix which is actually, as I said, bringing a very different lens to the conversation when we're trying to solve customer problems. And what I would say is collaboration and respect is the cornerstone of the way that we should be building teams. And diverse perspectives mean that our teams and the outcomes that we build are going to reflect the complexity of both the cross-cultural and the diverse gender lens within which all of our customers are doing business today. Anna, thank you so much for joining me today talking about the intentional credits that you've made in your career, how inspiring those are to others and also how we're making progress on breaking the bias. My pleasure, Lisa. It's wonderful to join you and thank you always to theCUBE for bringing us so much interesting data. For Anna Green, I'm Lisa Martin. You're watching theCUBE's coverage of International Women Showcase 2022.


Mix with the heart of a lion, I'ma keep giving my all cause that's just who I am. Robert Kearns and I Recover Loud. Welcome to another episode of Recover Loud. A TV talk show dedicated to ending the stigma of substance use disorder. Presented by Recovery on the Road, a Facebook group that Lori and I started in June of 2020. We started the group to help provide connection, support, and resources to as many people as we could reach. Throughout the years, we've done as much as we can, partnering with different organizations, and helping out where we can. As part of our travels, we got to meet Robert Kearns at Bangor. Welcome to the show. I'm happy to be here. Thanks for having me. Absolutely. My recovery journey wasn't easy, but every bit of it was worth it. For seven months, I was homeless, living in my car. In order for me to stay on my path, I had options. I could have moved home, back to the neighborhood where I was from, stayed with my friends, and gone back to the same lifestyle. Instead, I stayed in an area where I knew nobody, and kept to myself, focused on getting better. It was the first time in my life I was ever really homeless. Though for many years, I couldn't afford rent and would stay with family and friends. I never really considered that homeless until later on when I realized I didn't have any options. My only options at that time were to use the people around me. And being homeless, living in my car, really humbled me. And I got to see what it was like for people who suffer out there on a regular basis. Robert Kearns is somebody who helps those people. He calls in our neighbors without walls, and he's done lots of great things. So I'm glad to have Robert here and look forward to what he has to share with us. Robert, can you tell us a little bit about what you're doing today? The different organizations that you're a part of and what you do on a regular basis? I created the People's Streetlight Outreach in 2020, in March. And it was a direct response to the COVID-19 pandemic. And what happened in Bangor is a lot of people got cast out into the streets because of the shelters closing and limited spacing to have people inside. So what we did is we turned our attention to feeding people and helping people get supplies to survive living outside. And in doing so, we found out a lot of people suffered from drug disorder and mental health issues. And we started delving into tackling those issues for people where initially we were just trying to bring people food. Yeah, and it's really important, though, the work you're doing because, as you said, people had to figure out how to stay alive. Survival mode. My whole time using, I lived in survival mode. And having organizations like yours doing the work that's necessary, I didn't know about them before. I don't know if there was programs before you started it on Bangor, but when I was living in my car, it would have been great to know that somebody was out there and could have given me a meal because I didn't always have money to feed myself. I didn't have friends, supportive friends in this area to really provide those needed supports and the resources. So I appreciate all you do. And I think getting that message out there that you're out on the streets doing this hard work is pretty important. So can you tell us what you do on a daily basis? Where are you going? What did you do? Yeah, we tried to go down to the local bus hub because that's where everyone goes through every day and we try to bring a meal down there every day at noon. And we have a website like you do that we inform people.  I'm working on the largest interactive Google map that has every resource that's available to someone and eventually the state, but we're working on Bangor, Penobscot County, and we're going to have recovery on the road, of course. But what we do is we come down there with food and while we're there, I try to help people get into those services for mental health and opiates and drug addiction treatment and housing. Because I do believe in a housing first model because I've been homeless and I know what it's like to be homeless and it was in the last year and like you were saying, your story is so familiar because I wasn't homeless until I was sober and I started dealing with life on its terms and realizing that I was really slacking on a lot of things and I'll be honest, I thought I had it going on. You know, I really did, but it's snowballs and then learning to live is what I had to do because being a good person and being positive really wasn't enough. I had to relearn how to live and when I encounter these people that are homeless, our neighbors without walls, I see that they have learning how to live from a very darker place than I was and I just had to do something to help them. So Penobscot County Cares is an organization I'm very passionate about. I support all the shelters in town and the warming shelters that have opened up in Bangor. Like you said, when I first started this, there was AA and NA and it was really hard. We fight these battles in a closet where we were using and drinking everything so behind closed doors and to say I recovered loudly is pretty quiet because I ruffle feathers. You know, I said tell it like it is and some people don't want to hear it but I'm educating them because I've had people two years ago tell me I'm crazy that are right by my side now because they see what I see and it's these websites where I can go live and show you what's going on with the permission of the people that I'm with and I never, you know, I try to stick to not giving up anyone's anonymity unless they're willing. Nowadays we are willing to recover loud and say it proud, I want to live. Exactly. And by recovering loud, you know, I do feel that that's keeping me alive. And, you know, when we decided to do this show because we're not TV people Lori and I, we didn't know anything about what was going on when we came to the studio but an opportunity was presented to me where I can reach, you know, more people and, you know, when I started the Facebook group originally it was started to share our recovery journey with our friends and family because I felt, you know, and it was part of my stinking thinking I felt me sharing my joy and my excitement about my recovery was annoying to some people so I started the group just as a way to share that and when it reached a hundred people you know, I had a tear in my eye because there was a hundred people that wanted to share in that journey and then I started seeing people that I had never heard of before and people from Germany, people from England and people from France and South America were joining the group and it was during the pandemic and it showed me that people were starving for connection, you know, in a time when connection wasn't possible and you mentioned the anonymous programs and, you know, they've done a lot of good for a lot of years but what I found in my own journey was I didn't know anything about it because everybody was anonymous and, you know, and I understand and believe their philosophy, you know, to get started but at some point I had to break free from that and I had to start telling people that, you know, these meetings are Wednesday night you know, you can go there at 7 o'clock you can call this person and they'll help you because I didn't know who to call and who to talk to before so having somebody to tell me who was available, you know, like where these meetings were and how to get to recovery you know, that made the difference for me so if I can make the difference for anybody else by getting out there and saying, you know, this is how you do it or this is how I did it and maybe it'll work for you and telling you about every possible program out there because I want to save a life I don't come from a childhood of any trauma or anything like that I was raised by hippies so it started out as a pretty good time and, you know, I would go see the Grateful Dead and have a little fun and stuff, you know it's smoke grass but once I met alcohol I met my new girl and I fell right in love with alcohol and you know, I always thought that if I could keep things functioning that it was okay and then I was a follower to the party like I was the lead singer of the band so it would seem like I was the leader of the party but really a lot of people brought stuff to me and I was an adventurer and I tried anything and that got me in some deep trouble heroin anything that came around I tried it and I realized now that I'm allergic to it and I can't do any of that stuff I overdosed twice when there wasn't Narcan and thank goodness I had people around me that back in the day they put you in the shower poured water all over you and ice and all your friends saw you naked and you were embarrassed and if you survived you were very lucky and I'm very fortunate to have survived the two that I did because that was from Fentanyl but that was before there was this Fentanyl they're creating now it was out of a patch I was drinking it right out of a patch which sounds insanity to me and when I think about the things I've done I think that's, I'm talking about somebody else because I am, that's not me anymore because I had been prescribed it before it did seem so scary to me you know, I was kind of like oh okay I know what that does I know how that will affect me I know I can handle it and then in October of 2018 I had my last overdose we didn't have Narcan there was no Food Samaritan law you know so it was understood that if one of our friends falls out you know we do what we can and then we walk away I was grateful that I was able to walk out you know by the grace of God I came out of that room on my own and you know now I'm on my mission to help others you know speaking of Narcan a couple years ago when I first met you I got to train you in distributing Narcan I've given you a couple hundred doses to hand out can you tell us a little bit about what you're doing in the neighborhood to spread awareness and share that resource well I can say that Narcan you've saved at least one or two lives there's some convenience stores in Bangor that I would supply and I know that they've stood two or three people up and a couple of them are still on a sober journey which I'll be honest if I can save one person I'm golden but saving dozens is just a miracle and I thank you for training me for Narcan I mean when I first heard about the needle exchanges and Narcan and all that I was just as stubborn as everyone else even though I'm an addict I thought you're going to handle all this stuff out you know and cookers and all that and I just I've been educated by this experience of doing the People's Streetlight Outreach I know so much more now than I did as an addict and then getting sober going through all the programs and all that I had so much in my toolbox but I didn't figure it out until the last couple years about what's really going on to me and Narcan saves lives I 100% think it should be everybody should have it you know even if someone has a nasty taste in their mouth about it all you should have it around because some day it'll be one of your relatives and you could save their life and what a gift in Bar Harbor in this park you know I was listening to the scanner I heard there's an overdose somewhere it's right on the grass next to me and these guys had already given six intervenous and I came over my backpack and just started slinging Narcan through the air and he hadn't come around and the Narcan you gave me brought him around and I look over the police and ambulance are running up and we had already gotten it done goosebumps I bawled my eyes out you know because it was beautiful and I still contact with this person I'm on him on Messenger you know and he's still fighting that journey because it's silly as it is sometimes you can stand right up and get the scariest time of your life and go right back out and it just it's painful to watch we're just sharing valuable resources and information you know I belong to some Facebook groups that do not allow me to post and to me that's absurd and those are some of the the stigmas that we're running into one of your groups is a scanner page and I know that when an overdose happens and you bring it up there's all kinds of opinions two sides of the coin on that scanner page about addiction yeah and I mean it shows societies and what are some of the things some of the other kinds of stigma that you see out there and what do you try to do to stop it well the website that I run has 37,000 people you know from all over and like you say some of them are from other countries but the opinions are both sides of the aisle and what I try to do is educate those I try to educate everybody from what I know because we are all different and we all think different and we also all react differently to recovery and drug addiction so it's such a complicated issue really that how can you really fault someone for their own opinion unless it's insanity I don't tolerate the word junkie at all I don't tolerate talking down to anyone that's suffering such a serious illness and I used to get really mad really mad and especially early in my recovery I'd get so mad and I'd get in these fights with people where we'd be meeting each other places and getting mad at each other about recovery that doesn't help anyone and now I just try to engage lightly and just keep the information come and let people know because I've been educated and we have brought people around that would have told me you are crazy to put so much time and effort helping your neighbors without walls you know some people tell me those same people wouldn't help you back and guess what they have they've helped me back more than they know and they don't even know it that this work has kept me alive you know I really think if I hadn't started doing this work I'd be gone you know for almost 20 years I knew using substances as a coping mechanism that was all I had if the power got shut off I got high if I got fired from a job I got high I probably lost the job from getting high I've done it same thing but then it became a celebration when I got a job I got high and kids birthdays Ash Wednesday, whatever it was a daily need it went from a way to escape to a way to celebrate to a way to wake up and then a way to go to bed and people are still out there going through these same things that we went through before and I know when I was going through it I was hopeless I didn't know that there was a way out I didn't know that there were people in recovery that were willing to help me employ me in the right direction and then guide me through the process and then befriend me afterwards a lot of things that people think about when it comes time you know it's always about I have to go away to rehab I have to give up everything I'm doing right now I have to give up my friends, my family my job, all the things that I know I've got right now but I promise you if you start considering the things that you can gain by giving up substances by changing your friends by changing your habits by changing the process because once recovery happens it's not going to go perfect as I said I was homeless for about 8 months living in my car, staying at rest areas on the highway I would drive to Massachusetts just for a different place to sleep at night but it was still better than any day I was using and because I stayed on the journey because I didn't give any get high things got better and it kept getting better and I'm on a journey of self-betterment on a daily basis giving up the drugs didn't make me a great person either I was still as much a jerk as I was when I was using but the recovery process made me into who I am today and I'm not perfect today but I'm going to keep going and I'll never be perfect but I'm going to keep going and Robert, so what drives you today in this recovery journey and helping people? Just seeing my friends and neighbors in pain I see myself and I'm so happy now I wanted to live by example and I was thinking that would be enough but I'm not that handsome so it didn't work out so I need to spread the information so that people know that okay, relapse, let's try this again never giving up never giving up on someone I think is building these friendships and like I said with like 40,000 people on these sites I know a couple thousand of them are pretty good friends of mine that we met through this process and I keep track of them the best I can in the city of Bangor and all these organizations the Bangor Area Recovery Network two years ago I have city counselors calling our neighbors without walls neighbors without walls because I didn't like hearing them referring them to just the homeless and I've had sharps containers put in all over Bangor I put that pressure on and they put every one of them exactly where I put on a map where they should put them because I know where I'm finding them there's drop boxes all over town we're just trying to facilitate everyone to do better and keep the city clean as well because you have to take into consideration the neighborhood's opinion whether you like it or not and so we've tried to soften those edges a little bit we moved our food program away from downtown one park over and we renamed it the People's Park and it's our own park and it's away from the bus hub and there's some congestion and there's restaurants over there they're not trying to have someone hand out food so I get that and we try to facilitate we work well with the police department to a certain extent and the fire department is amazing and I just think everyone's coming around to this new way of thinking that we can make a difference but we have to do it all together we can save lives but all together we can take all this information and make one heck of a dent in a big wound that's across this whole country you know I've seen the progress that you've made in Bangor and I mean it's quite impressive honestly and you know it's a great example of how one person can make a huge difference and there's a thousand people behind me making me like I'm just the game show host there's a million people behind the scene like these guys and without those supports I'm dead in the water and a lot of those people would be like helping and not feel the same way about the treatment as much as they're worried about homeless people so I'm getting in there sharing these informations with people with what I would say is like the older generation and I don't mean to say it in any direction it really needs to be educated nobody's a throwaway we never give up on anyone we never give anybody away I don't care who they are if your heart's beating I'm here for you I've just gone through in the past 30 or 40 days dealing with my mental health because I'm sober I've been doing this for three years now but I still had serious anxiety and depression I don't know why because life is amazing and so I just started taking an herbal supplement and it made a complete difference it's called Cama but it's a everyone that's out here helping we are all going through a lot too it's actually very taxing on you to go through this and see everyone go through this pain and absorb it and try to give back it's heavy you know that it's very heavy so loving people where they're at today providing options and resources that's the way to do it that's the way people can make that decision and get the help that they need and knowing that there's all these other programs out there different options different opportunities different programs, different paths they've all helped somebody otherwise they wouldn't be there that's true so if that's something that's going to help you to get to where you want to be I'll be there chairing you is there anything you're working on right now that might be coming up in the future? what we would really like to do is solidify our 501C3 right now we're a nonprofit corporation in the state of Maine but we're not registered with the federal government yet so I'm going to pay a bunch of taxes but we would like to get our 501C3 our intentions was to open the largest shelter in town the largest food pantry the largest clothing distribution and just really amp it up but all those services are already out and about in Bangor so what we're going to do is liaise on and get with these other organizations and find out how we can all resource together instead of just stretching ourselves to the limit because there's thousands of us but there's just me on the boots on the ground I have some people joining me here and there it's pretty fleeting but we would like to just get back to win the meals and get as much information as we can so that when someone comes to Bangor they say I don't have and I can help them with housing that drug treatment piece mental health I shoot right from the hip I'll tell someone you don't look good if you're up for it we could really make a difference in your life and it's up to you and we can offer and borrow and plead but it all comes down to that person if you're not ready you're not ready because like I said I went through AA for years couple bad relationships getting kicked out of one place to another I was always able to get that next department until this past couple of years when I ended up homeless but it was just a nightmare but you'd think somewhere along the way I would have took that advice that I was actually giving other people but there was no pivotal moment where I quit drinking I just said I'm not drinking anymore on October 15th 2018 well if someone's in the Bangor area what we'd love to do is have someone prepare a meal and come down with me and help me serve people and get to know the process and bring more people abroad but we also have our streetlight people streetlight outreach facebook page and like once a week we do a facebook fundraiser for $400 which covers $50 a day for 8 days so I know there's not 8 days in a week but that extra covers which costs a lot more than $50 a day to do this and then I'll have people come and bring me boxes of food and I put it in our pantry and we build a meal there's a lot of bakes eating but we bring a hot meal and the way someone could help really bring our people streetlight outreach facebook page and look for cues to pitch in Lori and I have joined you a couple of times I wish we were closer to Bangor we'd definitely be there more often because we see the interaction that you have the effect you're having on the people that come and we did come up in the summer time when there was a larger crowd of people and it's great to see the number dwindle I've always said that I would love to have nobody I'd like to show up there with food for 100 and no one's there thanks Robert I love seeing you I'm so happy you made it down today and keep doing what you're doing because you are making a difference that's it from Bangtown to P-town that's what I was saying this morning thanks for watching another episode of Recover Loud please remember if you're struggling or if you know somebody that's struggling we'd much rather talk you through a situation than read about your untimely death tomorrow Recover Loud everybody always reminding me that I'm not alone and even when I'm scared and my feet are frozen you help me keep it going like a semi-colon so imma follow your steps follow the way up on my faith in you and walk on the waves and if I stumble a bit and fall on my face you come and save me with all of your grace thank god


Just feel back with why in the morning the name of the show is why in the morning as I said I go by the name of Barry Moses Well, it's very more than every social media platform and it's a entrepreneurship Tuesday that day that would discuss legal tenders and in studio with me a gentleman who are former students or alumni of Kenyatta University and Currently there they found their way. They're doing though They're running their own business right now in tours and travels and I'll let them Introduce themselves before we can carry on with this conversation Happy new year In February, yeah, I'm Brando Mende. I'm the founder of dream adventures and safaris. All right, thank you Thank you for everyone. I'm Robert Gittonga. I'm the marketing director Dream adventures and tours. All right, Caribou sana when you are in the morning. It's nice to see you guys looking sharp Thank you See Kenyatta University did you guys? All right, so dream adventures. All right, when was it founded and maybe I can pose this to this Founder dream adventures was was an idea that that was in our minds a long time ago when we were still in school but Coming out coming out to to this world We sought to put the idea Into into practice. All right, so dream adventures was in mind for a long time ago But it started working. Let me say slightly working Mid-last year made last year around Kenya is a tourism hub. Yeah, Ken is a good tourism hub So there's business in tourism this this good business in tours in tours and travels All right. So this is something that you saw was lacking in the market No, that was lacking because we have other we have other tour tour companies out here that are doing good So we just wanted something that will come in and maybe even be much better than the current ones and address the issues and address the issues and The common one inches to the common one. Yeah, I want everyone to travel So your target markets at the beginning or currently is the local tourists the Kenyan tourists. Yeah, they don't miss a lot Yeah, the domestic tourists. All right. Yeah, I like that I'll get back to you as the marketing manager Do you think Kenyans are traveling enough? Because if you see since when we had Terrorism attack back in 2010 Most of the hotels started complaining because they don't have Foreign foreigners and when he started like that the government started promoting domestic tourism and Many hotels can attest to that even this December when you went to when you had to go to Mombasa And most of these places most of these joints were filled with domestic tourism So we have seen that most of these major companies and these big companies. They are concentrating on them Middle class middle class or first class citizens from Kenya, but as we are we want to focus in These three people middle class the lower class the common one age So you want to focus on Kenyans in general Kenyans in general your focus is Kenyans in general Especially there's so much progress in local tours. Yeah, you can attest to that. Yeah. Yeah, all right. I like that so much so what is a business in in In tours and travel companies because somebody might argue that It's going to increase the cost of my travel if I book the ticket myself If I book the hotel myself if I go to Google assist or Google travels or wiki travels I can do all these things by myself and save some money. So what is the business for tours and travels? And how do you make your money? And try to convince that person at home who thinks if I go through a tours and travel I'll probably spend extra. Yeah, okay. The good thing with it is that Most of the time we travel in groups. So when you travel in groups, you get to meet new people You get to to to exchange contacts with new people So apart from apart from just going out for fun There's also an opportunity of maybe meeting meeting business personnel or meeting people that might be helpful in a way or another in future. I think traveling alone Okay, traveling alone as compared to maybe maybe booking and an adventure with us And It's not bad. It's not bad. It's not bad. But at the same time At the same time we recommend these two and travel groups because They help they help people bond together All right, so bonding so bonding is one thing bonding is one thing. All right number two Okay, also to add in his point is that You know, there is this thing in economics that is known as marginal cost When you are a lot of people you reduce the cost economics graduate. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. All right So you reduce the cost you see if you attend guys This baby the mode of transport that you'll be using it will be more cheaper than one person The place that you are booking it will be cheaper more than one person. You see so you Yeah, you cut on the cost. Yeah, you cut on the cost and this cost does not all it does not only Reflect to us also to the person all right to that to our clients. All right. Yeah, so it's a very good platform It's a good platform for the traveler. So say Barry wants to travel to to Kaka mega Forests say in August Barry is all alone. I'll consult you guys And then you'll find other people want to go to Kaka mega forest like by and put me together with them Okay, if it's like that if maybe you want you that is your request you want to travel alone Maybe you can say I want to travel to this place. We'll ask you how many people are you? Maybe we'll say two but you know if it's two that will be kind of hard because the mode of transport you lose Expensive so we'll have to to sort for more people. We can advertise that we can tell you also We can do it. Maybe it's your family. You want to travel with your family You want to have your time with only your family? So it'll give you a package for only your family But at the moment that we are we are concentrating because our clients most of our clients are youth 20 to 35 years you see so these people want to meet Other people you see meet and mingle. Yeah, we even have social media platform meeting and mingling Already so meeting in person. You're making it possible to meet people in person and mingle. Yeah, yeah I like that so much. I like that so much that you're promoting local tourism and meeting people in living color and mingling and traveling. All right, so In another case scenario We have the ABN bees Currently if you've heard of them where people rent the apartments To travelers so I can go to a different town and rent an apartment through the app And it's slowly driving people from the hotels to people using this service How are you carbon such things? Okay? Okay, for example if you've booked a package with us via marketing manager or marketing director we shall we shall access the contacts of Maybe the nearest hotel for example and then We'll try and under get the prices the prices for example if you want a package of one week or even Two days we shall get we shall try and get the price. They are the appraisers then after that We shall we shall we shall come up with a proper Proper price or a proper fee to accommodate all all that you need All right. I like that. So you have a list of destinations You haven't listed destinations. There was that you prioritize maybe or recommend to your To your to your clients. Yeah on the regular. How did you compile this list? Did you have to like? Go and talk to the patrons or the owners of these places and tell them We are going to prioritize you guys when we get clients or what was the process for you guys? There are social media platforms whereby you can get the best destinations within Kenya and even Eastern Central Africa So what you normally do after after probably you've visited Their social media platforms there we have their contacts there So when you take their contacts, you can call them then book an appointment with them When you book an appointment with them, you can go there in person you go for benchmarking because you know It's it's much better Where you're taking where you're taking your clients at least you have a benchmark of the place Oh, you look like you need to have visited. Yes. Yes. Yeah, at least all right. Yeah, so make sure You know what the clients are going to experience. Yeah, what happens if the client is not satisfied Okay, the first thing that we do We we check your needs. We check what you want. Yeah, what you reduce the chances of yeah Satisfaction what do you want? That is the most yeah, we ask you. What do you want? We just don't plan anything and tell you Let's go. Let's go. We are going tomorrow. We are going this other day But we ask you first of all, what do you want in this tour? Maybe you're going to Mombasa What do you want to experience in Mombasa?   Are you a person that you want to go to old town? You see we'll ask you all these questions and then when you give those questions to us now We'll give you a good package first of all before even we start the journey You will know where you're going to sleep or which places are you going to visit? Yeah, we're going to take lunch the duration everything you'll have all the information so About them not being satisfied. Maybe maybe it's the hotel that will not satisfy him or her But on our side will have done everything and if maybe they have a problem maybe you have gone to a hotel and you're feeling It's not okay. We'll We'll book another one for you. You see we'll yeah because now the hotel is the one will suffer So we'll transfer you to another place. You see so we you know in this service industry Satisfaction is the key if you're not satisfied today, you'll not tell another person You'll not tell that person that this dream adventure is a good place You see so our key thing before even we don't focus so much on profit We focus on satisfying you because it's a startup. We are after maybe like two or three years When everyone is satisfied, you'll see more profit, right? Yeah. Yeah, I like that. So There's always an up coming up to help people travel with ease There's always a technological invention helping people to travel with ease How are you guys incorporating technology in your field? Okay, let me let me talk for example of The the Ubers Okay, for example, we use we use Ubers Maybe to transport our clients from maybe let me say For domestic domestic tourists. Maybe those ones are coming from let me say for example To JKA So we link up with the Uber drivers. They transport them from from maybe the airport To to our offices so that we can so you don't have to contract like a taxi company You can look you can always go to them. You can always go to them. All right Yeah, so you have the taxi field incorporating technology right there. What about in Areas of accommodation. Is that where you guys incorporate technology? areas of accommodation Most of the hotels nowadays have a website most of them have website so First of all after now you have checked the needs of the client will contact these hotels through their website It's not a must. You know, there's some hotels like example. I grew up in Mombasa. I knew I know some Some good hotels there. So even if today maybe our clients tells me he wants to maybe to go to Bamburi beach hotel Or Milale beach hotel. I already know the place. You see, I don't have to go there the second time I just have to contact them through through their website and sometimes you don't even need to contact everything Yeah, everything is there online. You see so but form so that our clients can be received Well, you know, they can pass on that. Yeah, so you have to contact them and tell them, you know, what they summon So it's coming. Oh, yeah, take care of take care of Units as well. Yeah, I like that. So we're talking about websites Do you guys have your own website as we speak? Okay The website I think it will be out By mid this month by mid this month Yeah, so currently we're just using the social media platforms that exist Such as Facebook Instagram. Yeah, yeah, and Twitter Do you have a YouTube channel as well? Not yet. Not yet. Yeah, all right But very soon we'll be seeing content of your travels on YouTube You can give us a social media handle that you have your camera is number four Maybe the marketing manager is suited to do that Just all the Mike steady Facebook It's dream adventures Kenya dream adventure, then we have also we have Instagram page Dream adventures ke our Facebook page dream adventures and safaris and then our Twitter handle Dream adventures ke dream adventures on social media is a way to find you guys For a splendid trip. So we have pictures on screen right here right now. These are this is one of the trips You guys have organized and I can spot you somewhere in this All right, you took your time to take a trip with the people with your clients. Where is this? This is this is somewhere in Kambu County It was just a it was a bonding trip. It was a bonding trip. Yeah, they are two of our employees here Yeah, this guy in front Yeah, and the lead and the lady at the middle of robot and Brian All right. Yeah We had to take this picture because I'm for our company. Yeah. Yeah, so what activities as well So you we can agree that Kenya is a beautiful country. It's very beautiful Very very very beautiful country. It's very important that we take our time and travel. Yeah. Yeah cross a country. Yeah, all right We can focus on another picture right here. This is still the same. Yeah, the same place What is the name of this water booty right here? This is Adam. This is Adam. Yeah, it's Adam in Kambu County. All right like this. No, so how long did it take you guys to plan such a trip? So that it could be well we took like a week. Yeah, because this one we had organized for For not our clients. Actually, we did it as a company as a startup. We said, yeah, let's organize something For us. Yeah, for us. Yeah, because it is simple. We had a busy schedule So we said even us we want we want to have something small So when you organize this some of our clients said even we are on to be To be part of the trip so it took us for one week we went to rely on to the management We had lunch there good lunch. We had fun activities. Yeah What are some of the challenges that come with this because in every line of business, there's a challenge I'd like you guys to shed some light on this. There are a lot of challenges As far as cost our clients are involved because Client can can book an appointment with you and then you know when he books with you You are supposed to pay at least half the price So yeah, the down payment you're supposed to book with the probably the hotel and maybe and maybe And maybe the the the the to oven Yeah, so some of them are they can book and they don't show up Yeah, so when the book and then they don't show up it becomes a challenge And they don't show up after paying after paying the down payment. Yeah, all right And they expect to be They didn't tell you in advance, so you are already counted them Yeah, you had already done your months. So when you tell them, I can't refine you the cash So they started out in you. That is that is one of the problem. The other problem is capital You know most of the startups, but um, so is a problem for startups. Yeah Yeah, but the good thing is that you know having a background in finance We know how to manage our finances well and how to pitch for other investors so that they can help us because our dream It's not only to be just a small company. Yeah, we want to take the market You want to you know, this leading company in Kenya. We don't want to mention it But we want to over take it in the next like five years By 20 probably by 2023 and you have plans. Yeah Yeah, we want to be the leading to share these plans of these are secret Weapons that you guys out it think we'll shade next time next time All right, so as we come to the end of this it takes this in this line of business Trust is very important For clients to contact a tour and travel company There has to be some form or level of trust and how do you build this trust with your clients?  It's for the youths. Yes So, you know when when you give a when you give your client a good package There's a there's a high chance of him There's a high chance of him convincing another friend who will also convince another friend This is the this is the best so word of mouth is also very Stories from other people actually, you know in any in any company Image is very good. The other thing you have to check reputation from other people that have done trips with us So that's why I told you the first thing that we are concerned is satisfying our first clients When you satisfy them, they will spread the word the outside that there is this company. It's doing good. It's a good platform It's a good place so that one and then also our payment option are very well Actually, we are we are introducing other payments options very soon. There is this Bitcoin something you see Because you want to embrace the technology Yeah, we want to embrace that we have this we have those all other plans actually this year We are doing very many things actually with time will come and share them I like that you're incorporating technology in in every step from from the bookings to now the pain and This is progress for you guys. So as we wrap up any offers for Valentine It's only a few days to go. I think I think you guys you should contact us We should contact you guys directly But maybe you can share it with the viewers just a tidbit or you can reach out you can reach us out via our Facebook page Yeah, for Valentine packages. Yeah, and we also have we also have another package on second of March That will be in Mount Kenya Castle Lodge that is in Crinyaga County. Yeah, all right. I like that And also the point, you know The we have very many offers of Valentine the problem is that we have a lot of them So we can share some of them. That's what he's telling you to go to our Facebook page Because we have four couples for single guys Not everybody's Most are within you know because it will be a workday So we have a thing you don't want to do it outside outside Nairobi and Campbell. So we it's just within so We are planning. We are planning. We want to tell them the prizes everything But no they can contact more us on Facebook page. Thank you very much guys. The Facebook page one last time Facebook page dream adventures and safaris Instagram page dream adventures ke Twitter handle dream adventures ke Thank you very much guys for coming. We appreciate you. Thank you. That's why in the morning Yes, so we had brand the CEO and founder of dream adventures and we and Robert himself the marketing director of dream adventures And they're in studio with us on this particular entrepreneurship Tuesday the day that we discussed legal tenders We have not come to an end of this elder with if he has another one lined up for you guys So don't touch that dial. I go by the name of Barry Moses or it's very more on every social media platform


I'm gonna be honest man. I don't know how you follow up that last episode. That was an Oscar worthy performance Just a peak of cinema in baseball, but ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to the channel My name is Jack the boss right you know be I'm watching episode 71 of Dragon Ball Super today And yeah, we're in sort of a batch of like filler and anime canon I know this one is supposedly I think it goes with the next one and then we're skipping 73 and 74 going to 75 Yeah, I have no idea what we're in for because I don't think it's gonna be attached to the baseball Unless we get a part two and in that case I am here for it But either way we're gonna hop right in if you knew the channel don't forget to drop a sub and let's get started Did I skip it episode? Wait, did I actually am I supposed to be confused? What is going on? Is it like some play or something? I'm being pranked or something. What is this man? I guess it is filler. No, but he's right there Serenity interrupted by Chi Chi One single grain wait, that's not like him. Did you like take his body or something man?  I feel like I didn't miss an episode Like a roach. There are three roaches crawling down. Yeah And why did he say it's so intensely? Silly outfit wait what that's his usual outfit Poor mailman Mailman 71 a What is going on? I'm lost back to Vegeta training with weas Vegeta learning his place with weas His widow's peak. Oh, we're talking about Goku. Okay Yeah, but she was like what about me Think beer is actually afraid I guess they barely won their tournament earlier on look at him Yeah, we know what's going on with Goku. That's why I didn't say right away with beer is I say we resume our training What gel does he use in his hair? You know what it is. Don't you spill the beans weas? And why it take you so long to answer or we says no idea what's going on and he's just trying to encourage Vegeta Oh what he's putting himself Only completed a mere handful of your 100 sparring drills so what I know I mean, there is still a chance that we says no idea what Goku is doing and he's just trying to push Vegeta He knows Vegeta very well at this point It is a certain type of training Like a gohan's been wrapped in this Go on and go to just stalking their own dad. We need disguises, okay Yeah, because the great salmon is not flashy at all. Oh my gosh, wait Oh, no Wait, he has one just for go to him. Yeah, a two great salmon would not be recognizable Where is he going? What is blood doing? This is a movie theater This is a highly emotional scene. Oh My goodness gracious These are his instincts man you heard him actually this is the exact opposite of where Goku would go Who is he looking for? He was earlier too, and why is he doing it while he's doing grocery shopping just take it home for oh my god. Oh Imagine I just killed Bulma. I imagine oh hi. Oh What just happened? Yeah, why did it happen in slow motion? That's hot. I'm gonna find out what's up even if it means inviting him to dinner Yeah, that would be horrible inviting your father to dinner Everything looks delicious. Also. He died earlier in the episode. What did we move on from that? I'm grilling That went on a little long Well, at least he's eating like normal now. Why were you following me around today?  What planet is this storms inside of domes doing snow globes Who is that? Is that hit? I think yes, it's hit Wait, is he the one so was Goku dying at the beginning of the episode like something that happens during this episode And now it's just flashing back and it's hit the one trying to kill him and it's not even on earth I have so many questions so little time Well, ah, he's on the run God dang hits world does look really depressing.  I missed him. He is going in wait. He just shot right past Dude Brother like it's nothing. I still love that effect so much Then why is the elevator moving? Boss man 71 a was that his name. I don't know why i'm getting hunter hunter vibes I don't know can't explain it can at all And he's already there I'm sorry. Oh wait. He's assassin assassin. He's here for him. Oh, yeah, and who are you supposed to be? How is he not scared Oh The name recognition They're all frozen. Oh my god, because isn't he the most famous assassin from this world or universe? That was cute your resistance is pointless I got loads of money. How much do you want hell? You could have my whole fortune.   Was this like revenge the next target? It was just like a meaty. Wait, so goku was the next target and goku said this feels canon, bro This feels very canon Surely we get an explanation from goku because goku knows that hits coming for someone facing imminent danger He sure has a healthy appetite and now it's night time where it seems like he died There aren't many people out there who could possibly pose a threat And pickle knows the few that could and pickle knows who it is. Yeah, we go on was there. He saw the fight, right? Wait, did he not I don't remember why I had simply assumed that you would be keeping track of them yourself Yeah, I was totally counting Three more cool get it. I'm sorry. I think the weas does know what's going on then with hit. Wait. This is where it happens How did he I don't know. How did he know that hit would be coming behind that rock? I mean, there could be a number of people that would want goku dead But the odds of hit taking a hit on goku would be very low because he gained respect for goku during the tournament Oh He's right, but I like the mystery surrounding this though It keeps me guessing just like the whole zamasu goku black thing.  Yeah by you And I don't understand of like why he would even take the hit like I said I thought he liked goku horse I could just claim that I killed you and you could go into hiding I would the great goku respond to such a merciful oh true his pride. I'll say he wants to fight him Now then it's time for me to make the doughnuts.  Long time no see it. How's it going? Well, clearly this doesn't go very well. No time skipping gonna work on me anymore I really think I'd use the same technique on you. He's got something else Do I look that charitable like I said it will take just one stroke and it does I saw it in the future goku I saw it in the intro. I didn't hit him. Maybe he hit dead powers. What is this? That's definitely not times. Yeah, what is this purple aura if punching won't work on him Is it even a defense? Sponges I don't think that has anything to do with time skipping either Seems like a completely different technique. I mean he said it was but I didn't believe him at first What And now we pick up where we left off. I still so many questions now another one tacked on is What technique is that you hear me?  Goku died Okay, well, I didn't know what I was in for but it wasn't that it just killed goku Okay, um, yeah number of questions again I love when the show keeps me guessing but love the reintroduction of hit love him coming back He was obviously the coolest character from that little tournament arc that we had at least coolest new character I mean his and goku's fight was the best one out of all of them But the question posing of who hired a hit to kill goku why hit would even take the job on I guess money Or I guess also not like the shaming goku's pride. Maybe you just wanted an excuse to see him again I don't know of course goku takes the fight because why would he not how did goku know he was coming from so long It was like days away. I don't know. There's a lot to keep me guessing And if this is only two episodes and I like how it's it's got all of this setup for the next one But it's it stopped a lot into that one episode in terms of reintroducing it We got the sea hits world which was sick again the the uh, I guess ambiance of his city His world makes a lot of sense and now I have like more questions Is like does a kingpin like live in each of those little domes? I like them making the callback to frost say oh frost is on the run He's causing chaos there There's just cool little things like that because it's been 5 episode 71 of our dragon ball super watch Do drop us up on the channel if you're new and I catch you in the next one. Be space


They hate themselves.  Their self-esteem is so low that they have to try to bring you down because by bringing you down, they're giving themselves a false sense of being better than somebody else which makes them temporarily feel okay about their own pitiful existence. And they start off as bullies on the playground and they move up to the keyboard warriors. You know those people, the ones that are so tough that they have to hide their insecure selves behind a keyboard. But really, we all know that no matter how old they are, they're still just that little hurting child deep down inside that's just crying for some sort of attention.  They wish that they had the courage to put themselves out there like you. And here's the thing, no matter what you do, you'll never please everybody. So don't even try. It's like the quote says, I don't know the key to success, but I know the key to failure is to try to please everybody. You'll never please everyone. And the more that you become more in line with your vision, the more successful that you become, guess what? The more haters that you're going to get.  So I need you to hear this. You get one life.  So keep pushing forward.  But remember this, no matter what, your haters do not hate you. They hate themselves.


I was blown away by Kanye West I really was it was fascinating this was an unvarnished authentic we've rarely heard a man speak so honestly and so movingly about what he believes Kanye West is is is wise he's he's unique and certainly he's fearless he's a very important voice there's such authenticity to that that it just makes me want to hear more speaking truth to power calling things out and Kanye West does that he speaks truth to power he is one smart guy is Kanye trying to be a force for good absolutely yeah he is very special intellectual renaissance when you consider like people like Tucker or a Kanye Kanye's genius I'm going to make an analogy Kunta Kente and Ruth they got him out on a tree and they're whipping what's your name and they want him to say left-wing liberal Kanye West refuses to live in that box you can't help but like him because he is not apologetic have I reached Alex Jones territory yet no I think I'm telling the truth okay and that's okay if you do I think he's dead on on this one I know for me it just made me think man we can reach so many more people with this powerful movement that believes in freedom I know that what I'm listening to is unique and interesting if Kanye West believes it imagine how many more people out there maybe aren't talking about it but would like to yay West threatening to go to war with Jewish people on Twitter he appears to imply Diddy a fellow rapper was controlled by the Jews on Instagram you just watched a compilation of from media matters that has aged terribly and it's so funny to see all of these Fox News pundits praise Kanye West and then have to turn around and say okay maybe we got a little bit more than we bargained for I just love it you love to see it so it's funny because the GOP they keep inadvertently aligning with Nazis and then realizing oh my god no we disavow we disavow we don't support them and they don't disavow often like it takes a lot to get them to actually denounce one of their own but there's been so many oopsies with Nazis lately or at least over the course of the last year or so that they have no choice but to denounce for example Kanye West isn't the only Nazi that they found themselves in bed with lawmakers Marjorie Taylor Greene and Paul Gosar has spoken at events hosted by Nick Fuentes a neo-nazi Republican candidate Carl Paladino who was endorsed by GOP house leadership at leastophonic praised Hitler on top of that Stephen Crowder said that Hitler was bad and his fans turned on him and said that they disagree because of course oh and then there's also Charlottesville where Trump said that there were good people on both sides so you've got to understand here these aren't just a lot of accidents the reason why the modern GOP party and all of their propagandists keep accidentally aligning with Nazis is because the modern republican party is for all intents and purposes a fascist organization in an article for the independent Patrick Cockburn explains it is worth listing the chief characteristics of fascist movements in order to assess how far they are now shared by the republicans exploitation of ethnic religious and cultural hatred is probably the most universal feature of fascism others include a demagogic leader with the cult of personality who makes messianic but vague promises to deliver a golden future appeals to law and order but a practical contempt for legality the use manipulation and ultimate marginalization of democratic procedures a willingness to use physical force demonizing the educated elite and the media in particular shady relations with plutocrats seeking profit from regime change one by one these boxes have been ticked by the republicans until the list is complete the tea party movement was an important staging post on the road to Trumpism Trump himself possesses all the classic features of a fascist leader though he was somewhat hammed by the institutional and political divisions of power what explains the descent of the republican party into fascism racial division explains much the division of american culture along with the same geographical lines as the civil war explains more add to this the frightening dislocation imposed on white working and middle class americans by technological change and globalization powerful forces are let loose similar to those that once propelled of the rise of european fascism and is now doing the same in america so make no mistake about it the republican party is a fascist organization when you look at the characteristics of fascism they tick off a horrifying number of boxes this is the reality of the situation we shouldn't bury our heads in the sand we shouldn't try to pretend as if that isn't the case we need to accept the reality that one of the two major parties in this country is fascistic they weren't always this way but this was their trajectory because they've been for a while pandering to the most extreme elements within their base electing more and more radical lawmakers who reject the reality embrace fascism and now this is where they've arrived at the logical conclusion to where they were headed and it's time for us to stop pretending as if this isn't the case i still see people denying the reality of the republican party being fascist because how could you say this party is fascist when my dad is a republican my uncle's a republican people i know are republican so they're not fascists well they don't have to be fascists to still support an overall fascist organization see the reason why fascism grows in the first place is because when people become desperate when economic changes occur rapidly people become desperate and that desperation makes them more susceptible to radicalization and they start to look for answers to what's causing them pain and republicans don't want working class americans to look at the system so they deflect and they try to get you to say actually the blame is immigrants it's queer people they're the ones causing you all this pain they're the reason why you're in this predicament this is bound to happen more and more as nazis and more far-right extremists feel at home within the republican party


So we are Vlad and Lana hi guys wanted to take a moment and talk to you about the Importance and some practical tips on overcoming discouragement burnout and Perhaps depression as well. And so we know that from the scripture that anxiety depression Discouragement a lot of times it comes from three sources. The first source is the sin We know that when Samson he committed the sin. He lost his power. The second one is from serving When Jesus when a woman touched Jesus the Bible says the power left him Sometimes you serve a lot and you get burned out that you get discouraged after that And the third one is actually Satan Because it is the devil's goal to bring distress the scripture says that King Saul had a distressing spirit I believe there are spirits that have released to bring stress anxiety Depression burnout discouragement to dishonor courage. And so the first tip that I would encourage anybody who's going through that is to re-anchor yourself in Your identity in Jesus a lot of things that we do I feel like it's to find who we are and We start out well by finding ourselves in Christ But with time we we drift we shift our perspective to begin to draw our identity from work accomplishments our appearance Failures people's opinions or all of the other things that are extra That is like a sand because the Bible says the man who built this house on the sand everything was fine He built it quickly Until the storm came and sometimes when a storm comes in the form of a testing or in the form of promotion And we just fall apart because our foundation our identity is not anchored in Jesus. Yeah, and many times we can lose that Inkerness if I can say like that in Jesus Christ and turn our eyes or our hearts towards something else to draw our identity from And I just want to read Hebrews 12 and the Bible says that So Therefore since we have surrounded Since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith Let us strip off every weight that slows us down Especially the sin that so easily trips us up and let us run with the endurance the grace the race that a God has set before us and so Everything that weighs us down is like a like anything that we don't anchor any Anything if we don't anchor our identity in Jesus Christ It becomes like a stone in our hearts that slows us down that weights us down Like if it's an accomplishment or something or every insecurity if we are Comparisment and those things they are not necessarily sin But they're like a weight like a stone in our heart that slows us down to run the race to live for Jesus Christ And but when we Set our identity and draw our worth from Jesus We need to remove every single insecurity and kind of just refocus our you know refocus ourselves to Where our identity comes from and it's only and it has to come only from Jesus Christ That's so true because Paul or the author of Hebrews. He said that he said that to Lay aside every weight and that weight and then he says sin So sometimes the weight is anything we place our worth in that's not Jesus Becomes the weight those things in themselves are good. Be good-looking is good Accomplishments are good success is good money is good People's opinions are good But it cannot be where you draw your identity from because when you do it brings discouragement It will bring depression. It will bring anxiety. It will bring pride It will bring all of those things that will destroy us eventually and so the first thing that I would encourage you with is to go back and To anchor yourself in Jesus anchor yourself in Christ Paul says so many times in the Gospels He says that in in the Pistols in Christ in him in him in him because Christian life we are defined by Jesus We're not defined by our job. We're not defined by our past. We're not defined by our appearance We're not defined by how many followers we have What people think of us that doesn't define us Like any time we will define ourselves for example by opinions of people that means if they have a good opinion about us our Head is gonna grow this big. We're gonna become so grateful But next day they're gonna have a low opinion about us and then we're gonna literally die and have a Headache and fall into depression and security and those things they just cannot become a base Foundation for our identity the second thing that I would encourage everyone facing discouragement right now or facing anxiety or depression and that is to examine your consciousness and Live with pure consciousness Because let's be let's be honest The thing that brings a lot of anxiety a lot of depression and discouragement is an open door called sin When people live in sin see when Samson Samson had the power He lost the power when he started to compromise and when we begin to compromise We we lose our strength. We lose our passion. We lose our we lose the the courage that we have in Christ And so Paul even says he says that some people have ignored their consciousness and they suffered shipwreck In their faith their faith is destroyed. What is your faith? It's positive Substance is this confidence inside. It's that joy inside. It's that It's that optimism and people who have a shipwreck meaning their inner world is falling apart Because the consciousness is like the ship. Yeah. Yeah, it's true when we don't follow our consciousness and go against That gut feeling, you know that don't do this or do this If we constantly ignore our consciousness, it eventually will destroy our faith and we will be so discouraged Won't be able to pray won't we will not find strength to open our Bible and read the Bible follow Jesus and Our inner world will world will fall apart like you said You have to ask yourself. What is the last thing that God asked me to do that? I've been ignoring What is the last thing that God has asked of me to do that? I've been putting it off because that my friend is the key to courage This encouragement is something that's dissing on your courage and you know what that this is. It's disobedience This obedience will this on your courage you find this encouragement And so because in holiness is righteousness and strength and power So the first thing is Anchoring yourself in Jesus number two is keep your consciousness clear watch for your consciousness Always protect your consciousness. So it stays pure and holy. The third thing is avoid a comparison trap It's the tenth commandment that thou shall not covet meaning don't it's okay to look up to people and learn from them But when you become when you make it your mission and your goal and your happiness depends on being better than somebody else competing Then you're not complete and what competition does and what comparison does is it is it leads you to complaining it Leads you to coveting and then it itself destructs you it destroys you because you no longer can Be yourself. You no longer can celebrate other people.   Yeah people constantly Trying to be like somebody else and if they cannot reach that goal They're depressed they are destroyed inside and it's so destructive. It's true. Nobody posts on Instagram their failures Almost nobody nobody uploads their weaknesses. Yeah, and nobody projects their struggles If you watch our Facebook and our Instagram, we don't post the challenges we go through and the happy moments It's the best smiles. It's it's the best angles best angles And so you got to understand is the social media is one big lie That's all it is and my social media is half of it is a lie, too That's that's not how we live we go through stuff We we battle with things we struggle with things and we just don't post them Nobody does and then you're looking at your struggles. You compare it with what people post and of course you're gonna be discouraged and so the goal is to Not to find again not to find our identity in there and not to live comparing but to live being complete I love the story of Genesis where God completes each day and he looks at that day and he says it is good God doesn't compare the mess on earth with what happens in heaven.  God looks at the earth here So this is good. Why because God wasn't comparing the earth with heaven. Those are two different realms Each person has different gifts each person has different talents. They have a different assignment on this earth Don't compare your life with someone else's. Yeah, and I feel like when people stop comparing themselves to Somebody else. They actually finally Beginning to become the best they are and actually able to grow into the best They could be but when people, you know compared to somebody else it it closes a door There is no opportunity for people to for a person to shine to To become who they are supposed to be and when you start becoming more like you you'll find a lot of people want to be like you When you stop being other people Everyone's gonna want to be you when you're trying to be everybody else you you lose your own Identification lose your own distinct this Distinctiveness and I realized that what attracts people to certain people is because those people they actually became Themselves and they're shining and who they are and that's why this is attracts actually But when you're copying someone or you're trying to like it's it literally it repels people from you Some churches you you walk into a church and you can see like it's a hill song church They're just copy copy of a hill song some is copy of Bethel and I'm like guys Be you like you go to hunger generation and you're like man. This is Weird different you can't put it but that's us Yeah, but that's that's because of us and so we we get criticized for that But I'd rather be criticized for who I am Then be applauded for someone I'm not and so be yourself and you will see a lot of people would want to be like you if You're trying to be like everybody else Nobody's gonna you just gonna find this encouragement and and because it's a competitive thing Look at your life and say it is good and then grow in that learn from others celebrate other people's success We put others when others weep, but don't live your life Getting others approval and trying to be like someone else like you read the scripture what it says that to run the race said before us Run your race. Yeah, the one that God has their own race to run Jesus finished the ministry at the age of 33. He was able to say I finished everything the world wasn't saved yet People were still not doing good, but his race was complete He didn't compare himself with with other guys who lived till 120 and so So the fourth thing that I wanted to share with you is that in order to overcome a discouragement is honor the Sabbath it's one of the commandments the fourth commandment is to To Take a day off This to honor the Sabbath and the rest of the commandments go into don't kill don't lie don't cheat don't Don't steal and don't covet. I really believe that when we ignore that the fourth commandment that is to honor the Sabbath If we will begin to ignore other commandments, we will begin to lie We begin to cut corners. We begin to be jealous.  Actually, you have to understand one thing about the Sabbath is that Jesus said this He said that the Sabbath was made for a man Meaning God created the Sabbath for a man because God knew man needs rest He commanded it because he knew men will never stop working Men will always always run themselves to the ground. And so what do you think about the importance? I think it's very important to take a day of rest at least one day throughout the whole week And actually rest and do things that replenish your soul and things that are fun things that are not your Regular everyday job. It's very important. Like I really like how you mentioned that if we are physically and emotionally Not rested it's so easy for us to go into the sin to go into the things that will break God's heart break God even even break people's hearts because when we are frustrated when we are not rested when We did not have enough sleep throughout the whole week. It will mess up other people around you That's for sure not only yourself, but other people around you.   You will do you will accomplish more with less You know, they did a study. I heard Robert Morris mentioned about chick-fil-a and a chick-fil-a closes on the busiest Week busiest day of the week, you know, Sunday Families go out to eat and it's a fast-food restaurant that people will go out to eat and they close on the day in the airports and all the restaurants are closed and You know on the average a fast-food chain Restaurant chain makes about a million a year a chick-fil-a makes five million a year being closed on the Busiest day of the week.  Jezebel then he ran with the horses overpowered the horses and brought the rain again Jezebel sends a threat and it spooks Elijah so bad I mean this guy literally went over against the whole power of hell and he got threatened by one witch What happened? How come he got so threatened because he was exhausted because he was emotionally worn out because he was physically worn out and Then he ran he became suicidal and the angel came and he gave him a good meal and Elijah slept He gave him a good meal and Elijah slept and then he heard the whisper of God And I really believe that when you eat good you rest good and Start paying attention to God's whispers not God's loud voice, but God's whispers through devotional replenishing yourself honestly That will heal you bring your courage back and I feel like when we like follow and uphold God's Commandment and standards and things like that it will actually Bless our lives beyond and above because if we stay busy busy busy that it doesn't mean we're gonna be more productive Yeah, we're just gonna run ourselves to to the ground But with a being God's you know God's Commandment to take a day of rest we will accomplish more and the fifth principle is Regularly exercise, you know me and my wife we would try to do that regularly to to exercise the care of our health Why do you think it's important for our emotional well-being our spiritual well-being to take care of our body and to exercise? I I think it's very important even like when I Started I Resigned from my job and I started to work at the church with my husband It was such a big change for me and even emotionally and physically my job was different than right now And so I when I started to Go to the gym actually regularly. It absolutely changed my mood. It helped me to Even go through this transition because for me that was a big transit transition from that job to working in the ministry full-time It was it was a big issue for me and Exercise actually helped me to kind of emotionally can guide me through this stage of you know transition and it took me one year to actually Snap out and I gym and exercise was actually a big deal for my emotions and my physical body And I actually noticed that by giving energy in the gym I had more energy back and I was more energetic and better mood and Health-wise and it's just a lot of and you don't have to go to the gym to exercise you can yeah You can dance in your house. I mean go for a run go for a walk with your outside walk And park your car a little bit for anything that you enjoy I think that the key is to find something that you actually enjoy doing it not something that you have to oh My gosh, I gotta go lift weights No something that you enjoy and it's it's the principle of sewing and reaping you get power you get power back Number six is seek community we have a home group and We believe in the importance one of the reasons why people get discouraged a lot is because they don't have friends and They don't have people that they love spending time with I'm not talking about that the forced community I'm talking about the community that actually replenishes you and so um, you know, we are like snowflakes snowflakes in themselves are very weak you can put a snowflake on your hand and It will melt within seconds the warmth of your body kills a snowflake put snowflakes together They close down schools Flip traffic They shut down roads highways. They flip semi trucks Because of the power of community if you Bible says it's not good for men to be alone a lot of people's discouragement and Anxiety will be solved if they stop spending time in front of fake friends and Facebook and some distant friends on Instagram And they actually get real friends and they get real people around their life two are better than one And there's a sense of accountability. There's a sense of connection that's there It's so important because isolation the devil will isolate you before he defeats you And I feel like it's important for some of people that Loaners that don't like people don't don't like to talk to people I feel like for those people they need to actually force themselves to find a community at first Maybe they will not enjoy it at first, but it's gonna be super beneficial like to make good friends and put yourselves Put yourself out there, and it's gonna be very healthy for for that So kind of like not necessarily start with maybe you don't have those people that you enjoy being around And it takes for you to come out of your comfort zone to you know Go to a home group or find a home church and you just step out there and make yourself and Surround yourself with the good company of people even Jesus had friends Lazarus, Mary, Martha the crazy part is the Lazarus, Mary, and Martha they were not his disciples. I Think sometimes Jesus got so tired of his disciples He went and got himself some homies got himself some friends I mean you can you imagine like Jesus spending time with people there and not necessarily following him 24-7 and But they were his friends and so and then at the end Jesus, you know mentioned that he says now I no longer call you servants, but I call you friends meaning Jesus developed that relationship with them I believe in power of friendships is so important and the last thing that I would encourage you with and this applies to pastors This applies to parents.  They will give you sleepless nights. These people they never stop texting. They always undermine you They always harass you. They always Speak ill of you and at the end they will leave you listen to me. They're not gonna change Most toxic people don't change. They change you. They change your life. Judas didn't change He destroyed put Jesus on the cross now We know Jesus had to go to the cross But which Judas is do you have in your life that are currently draining energy out of you? You either need to completely disconnect from them or distance yourself from them Give between them and you a break so that you can focus. I have probably 15 people on my phone. They're blocked Why because of harassment? spiritual manipulation Domination prophetic words that are dead are literally that will give me sleepless days and until I had to say no This stops why because I need to move on these people the devil is sending to distract them from me And so and with the help of my wife, she was saying of that You need to stop that stop reading that and completely disconnect why so you can focus on your destiny I always say if your boat is being rocked find a Jonah and throw him overboard. Oh What's gonna happen with them? Don't worry about Jonah God has a whale for him So so and I think Mariana this year. She mentioned something that a real alike She says that there are two main things the enemy will use is isolation and isolation says this I'm the problem No, no, no isolation says the people are the problem I can't connect with people because they're the problem and the second one is toxic people and toxic people will always tell you that you're the problem Yeah, and you're not the problem and they're not the problem The devil is the problem and we have to learn to Run from isolation trust love people and then get rid of toxic people in our life Today either distance yourself or completely disconnect from toxic people and so you can fulfill your destiny and so you can find your courage once again let's take a moment and pray right now for people who are on Facebook and people who are YouTube and Our live viewers so that God is going to Minister to them. So if you can just start and just pray for people who go into discouragement who lost their power Father God, we just pray right now for people who are discouraged Who are burnt out those who are in the ministry? They've been serving a lot, but they have not been Following your standards to take a day or day of rest and all other things that we mentioned Lord I pray for your grace right now I pray that you will give them grace to follow through the things that they need to follow through God to take that day of Rest to replenish their soul that they will not burn out Lord From ministering to people and to you Lord. We just pray for that in Jesus name Lord I just speak courage right now to those who are discouraged Lord. I speak peace to those who are in the storm I speak that there will be a realignment of their identity. I speak right now that they will get their consciousness Pure consciousness and holiness back Lord. I speak they will honor the Sabbath I speak they will not learn come compare themselves to others But they will be complete in you and Lord I pray also in Jesus name that you will help them to run away from isolation and Help them to distance themselves from toxic people unfollow them Block them if they need to remove them from their life so they can focus on fulfilling their assignment in their life I pray in Jesus mighty name. Amen. Thank you guys for watching Thank you for sharing this video share this with your friends and be blessed in Jesus name. Yes. Thank you guys