Think, take away, civil engagement lives here. Bingo. It's Friday. It feels like we're already well into Friday, given the national events, okay? This is Community Matters. We're talking about a Puerto Rico practicum, and we're going to learn the meaning of that, also the spelling of it in a minute or two, okay? We have three distinguished visitors here, Rob Porro, and he's with the Coastal Management Manager Service in NDPTC, the National Disaster Preparedness Training Center. Welcome back to the show, Rob. Thank you, Jay. What was it, properly named? Coastal? I'm the Coastal Program Manager at NDPTC, you got that right. I'll never forget that. Yeah, okay. All right. And he's the senior man. He's a graduate student, taking a PhD at Urban Planning at UH Manoa. Am I right? You get that right. I am. I am doing it. All right. I'm not telling you. Okay. All right. Next to him, to his right, is John Canner. John Canner is a graduate student at UH Manoa. Also am I right? Also in Urban Planning. I'm also in Urban Planning. All right. See? I got that right, too. And the third one is Shubhanshu Jane, okay, who is to John's right. And he is likewise, get this right, likewise, a graduate student at UH Manoa in Urban Planning. Exactly. You're there for three. All right, fabulous. Now you guys, you want to give more on the way of biography, you know, like how well they do in school? A grade point average? Maybe not into those details, but I'm sure they do, they do pretty well. But yeah, no, so I'm with NDPTC and as you know, NDPTC develops and delivers training for FEMA related to disaster management, right? Natural hazards. So we deliver those trainings nationwide, including Puerto Rico. We've done a lot of trainings down there and have pretty established partnerships with... Why Puerto Rico? Well... Why did you train in Puerto Rico? Did you suspect that something was going to happen there? Well, anything's possible anywhere in the country, right? I mean, natural hazards happen everywhere. So we train in every state, every U.S. territory.  This is going to be on the final exam. It's the National Training Center for National Preparedness, National Disaster Preparedness Training Center. But the N is on the exam and N stands for National. So these guys, they're across the street actually, they're a national organization and they're about disaster preparedness training. Right. That's why they go everywhere. That's why we go everywhere. And so to answer your question, that's why we're in Puerto Rico. But there is something unique about Puerto Rico and there is a reason to focus on Puerto Rico is because it is so similar to Hawaii. We share a lot in common in terms of our patterns of development, our isolation, our the hazards that we face. So that's another reason we train in Puerto Rico and a reason that we got involved in this project at the Department of Urban Planning, which is a student-led project. Practicum is what it's called. It's part of their curriculum and I'll let them get into a little more detail on that. But essentially it's a project-based class where there's a client. And so NDPTC served as a client in addition to the Office of Climate Change, Sustainability and Resiliency at the City and County. We served as a client for this project, this class project essentially. And so I'll let these guys talk a little bit more about what that class is, where it fits in the curriculum and the process of that. How do you spell practicum? It sounds like a bacteria. P-R-A-C-U-Practicum. P-R... Oh, I could spell it. I'm very dyslexic. It's like... Puerto Rico practicum. You can look at this. P-R-A-T-I-C-U-M. Okay. And that's the second point on the exam here. Okay. So what is a practicum? It sounds practical. Practicum is a real-world deliverable that we actually have a chance to not just sit in the classroom and learn from books. You mean you get out. It's about getting out. It's about getting out of the box and learning something new and interacting with a client and giving something that they can use and hopefully increase our skills. That's good training, isn't it? Yeah. Because you're going to do that professionally. And so you want to have skills in that way. It's like when I went to law school, they put us with legal aid and we had to talk to real clients. It took a while to get comfortable with that, too. Yeah. Okay. What would you add to what John said, Shubhanshi, Shubhanshi? And if you disagree, now's the time. Yes, the practicum, I do agree with him. The practicum was about giving us more real-world experiences, working with clients like the NDPTC and the Office of Climate Change, Sustainability and Resilience. And through this practicum, we could interact with researchers and stakeholders and Puerto Rico, like the FEMA joint office, the NOAA office of coastal management. And a lot of community members, and we found such stocking similarities between communities and Puerto Rico. Yeah. Very valuable. Wow. Which was a very valuable lesson to learn how extreme events can really affect both the societies because we are very geographically isolated, just like Puerto Rico. And we have similar socioeconomic vulnerabilities like them. Yeah. To give a little context, the practicum is part of their master's curriculum. It's typically towards the end of the program. And it's, I mean, like everybody's been saying, it's an opportunity to give students kind of on-the-job real-world type training and experience before they graduate. You take one practicum or many practicums? It's one. Yeah. It would be practicum, wouldn't it? I actually don't know the plural of practicum. Just one. And how do you determine how much the student learned, how well the student integrated all this information and what value it was to him and the program? How do you determine that? Well, it's actually, so it's, the intent is to simulate kind of a real-world planning project, right? And so the student class is the project team. So John and Shabancho here were two of the eight students that were part of the team. And it's really up to the students to kind of figure out what the objectives are, what the problem is, how to research it. And you just let them run. We guide them. You guide them. Yeah. This is very valuable. I would love to, next time you do this, but can you make a place that got less busted than Puerto Rico over the next month? Why did you pick Puerto Rico? Because it was busted. Well, like I said earlier, we have a lot of partnerships there. We've done a lot of work there. And obviously, they went through a very extreme, difficult event and are in the stages of recovery now. And so from a planning perspective, it's an opportunity to look at what's happening there, try and tease out some lessons, get some insight on their experiences on the ground, at the community level, and just kind of identify some things that we would need to focus on here in Hawaii. So that's what the students really, really looked at. So it must have been pretty exciting going to a place where you were going to find things that maybe would shake you up a little bit. What was it like for you, John? It was vastly different than I thought it was going to be. Interesting. I mean, I knew it was going to be a great experience who doesn't want to go to Puerto Rico on their summer vacation, but it wasn't vacation. We were there to work. And the amount of parallels between Puerto Rico and here just really struck me. And the amount of the loa that they have is, it was striking. You know, I've never been to Puerto Rico. I hadn't heard a lot about it, but actually going there was such a great experience. And I really took that home with me when we were figuring out how do we formulate lessons learned for here? How do we become more prepared? Well, that was a lesson we found people were collaborating with each other, and there was a loa among them. You went in May, right? This past May, was it? It was June. June. So that was, what, about 10 months after the Maria storm? And still, the amount of damage was, it was shocking. I mean, there was the streetlights. Not many of them worked. There was a few in San Juan, sort of near their business district and where the hotels were, that was slightly working, but we went on the highway and there's this section where you have to get off, and then there's a light that doesn't work, and we sat there for about five minutes going, do we just run this red light? And then when the people started passing us, we were like, oh yeah, that's what you do. Broken. Yeah. And so, but just the amount of resilience that the people had, you'd never know what was going on just from talking to somebody there. Shubhanshu, you said aloha too, both of you guys are into that, and I'm thinking of something I saw in a recent CNN movie on the state of things in Puerto Rico now, is that a lot of the people they interviewed said, we are more aloha now in the troubled times. We are more aloha putting Humpty back together again than we were before. We have learned how to collaborate because we need to collaborate to rebuild our community. Do you agree with that? Did you see that? I read it somewhere that disasters are not just a catastrophe. It's a very important learning lesson. They do overwhelm the local capacity, but it also gives us a chance of rethinking and processing how we can improve ourselves. It has surely happened a lot in Puerto Rico. Both Puerto Rico and Hawaii have a very, it gives a very strong, they have a very strong identity, a cultural identity. And I could, when we were interacting with people, there is a strong sense of resiliency and that is improving and that helped a lot to people to recover. It strikes me, Rob, that if you're on a mission like this and it's either before or after a given adverse weather effect or other disaster, you, NDPDC, want to encourage this development of a collaborative feeling, this development of aloha. You want to describe it to people how it works and encourage them to process it that way so that anything bad happens and they know it pays off to come together. It's part of the guide, isn't it? That's true. That's true. Yeah. In fact, a lot of our training courses really focus on the role of community members in preparing and planning for disasters. We have a few courses that have the word community in it. And that's an important aspect of a lot of the federal doctrine that's on disaster management. It's a recognition that community plays a major role and what community is, is a range of stakeholders. There's a lot of people that have roles and have stake in how a community responds and recovers from a disaster. So yes, we do encourage and highlight the importance of kind of collaboration among all these different players in disasters. OK, well, you know, we do have pictures and we're going to show the pictures. And we're going to, for now, we're going to treat the pictures as a cliffhanger. We like cliffhangers. So we're going to tell you that we're going to have a one minute break and come back and we're going to see these pictures. And they are memorable pictures. You've seen a lot of pictures of Puerto Rico after the storm. These pictures are special. We'll be right back. Hi, I'm Bill Sharp, host of Asian Review here on Think Tech, Hawaii. Join me every Monday afternoon from 5 to 5 30, Hawaii Standard Time for an insightful discussion of Contemporary Asian Affairs. There's so much to discuss. And the guests that we have are very, very well informed. Just think we have the upcoming negotiation between President Trump and Kim Jong-un, the possibility of Xi Jinping, the leader of China remaining in power forever. We'll see you then. Aloha, I'm Wendy Lo and I'm coming to you every other Tuesday at 2 o'clock. Live from Think Tech, Hawaii. And on our show, we talk about taking your health back. And what does that mean? It means mind, body and soul. Anything you can do that makes your body healthier and happier is what we're going to be talking about, whether it's spiritual health, mental health, fascia health, beautiful smile health, whatever it means. Let's take healthy back. Aloha. OK, we have Rob Poro, John Canner, and Shubhanshu Jane from the, well, I guess you can see there from the National Disaster Preparedness Training Center. But they're also from the Urban Planning Department, U.H. Manoa. So I promised everybody, I hope they stuck around because this is really good and interesting and maybe a little bit scary to see the pictures you brought back. Can we go through them now? Sure. So just want to show you guys what some of the things we saw on the trip. So again, we have a lot of partnerships in Puerto Rico. They were gracious enough to take us around the island and show us some of the impacts after Hurricane Maria. And so we'll go through some of that just to show what some of the impacts were. This is in a town called Luisa, close to San Juan, but actually fairly isolated. And it just shows you some of the impacts to infrastructure. This is a road leading to nowhere, basically. And you see kind of a manhole in the middle of the beach there. And we could keep going. Again, just some of the wind damage. This is a structure right along the coast. There's wind damage. There's storm surge damage. You can see the coast in front of it. It's eroded. And keep going. Just another example of coastal structures being pretty much destroyed. I believe this was a Fisherman's Union's building. So after that, they had nowhere to operate pretty much. A lot of coastal development on the coast is kind of the takeaway from all of these. And this is a home right on the coast, similar to what we would see here in Hawaii. And as you can see, erosion, storm surge, wave damage pretty much rendered this home unusable, unlivable. Yeah. It's not going to fall over any minute. Yeah. And so this is kind of a different angle of that same stretch of coastline. These are homes here. Again, similar to what we would see here in Hawaii, coastal homes right up to the waterline. We could keep going. It's an aerial view of the same area. So it wasn't just single kind of single family home is right on the coast. You can see on the left condominium buildings, similar to what we might see in the South Shore. So a closer view of that. So this particular condominium was pretty much rendered inhabitable, basically. Uninhabitable. Uninhabitable. That's right. It doesn't look too bad, but I guess... No. Erosion was eroded away. It compromised the structural integrity of the building. In fact, that building broke in half. You could see on the right hand side of the picture, the balconies are kind of leaning over. That's because the building broke in half, essentially. And so, yeah, another part of the coastline, just give you an idea of the severity of the impacts there. And looking at this picture, you see there's a lot of debris that makes its way into the coast, into the water, right? And so the question is, what do you do with all this? How do you get the beach back? There was a beach in front of all of this. And so we could keep going. Aerial view, there's a great view of what I'm talking about. So this is the damage along the coast. These homes are destroyed, but the debris from those homes are in the water.  And so now you have this problem, not only of erosion kind of causing the loss of the beach, loss of recreation, but you also have an environmental issue with all of this debris in the water and figuring out how to remove it. And so these are the kind of things we wanted to identify as things we need to consider assuming that we're going to be in a similar situation, which I think it's a matter of when, not really if at this point. That was one thing that really hit me. It's just how strikingly similar this area at Rincon is to here. I mean, on the North Shore, we were seeing beach erosion. We're getting a lot of east swells, north swells. And it's taken away the beach. And when I came back, it really hit me. I was like, wow, this could be us. So I thought that was pretty powerful. Yeah. So a lot of those pictures that we saw, a couple of them were from that community of Louisa I mentioned that's near San Juan, which is in the northeast part of the island. A lot of the other pictures were in a community called Rincon. It's a tourist destination, of sorts, kind of a smaller, smaller than, say, the tourist destinations in tourist centers in San Juan, not like Waikiki size, but it's more similar to the North Shore of Oahu. So the draw is the beach. The draw is kind of more ecosystem or ecotourism type of activity. Yeah, a few more pictures. Want to go through them? Sure. So again, this is near Rincon, like I said. So it's a tourist community that also has a large residential community as well. So this is just somebody's home, basically, in the water there. So it's not all doom and gloom. So the trip, one of the positive things that came out of it is provided an opportunity for the University of Hawaii students to meet and talk with the University of Puerto Rico students. Like I said, we have good partnerships in Puerto Rico, one of them being the University of Puerto Rico, the Puerto Rico Sea Grant College program. So they arranged these opportunities to meet and talk with different stakeholders. And this one was really one of the great things that came out of the trip, is the students being able to talk to students from there. And hopefully that kind of initiates kind of a more longer term collaboration between the two universities. It was really great to talk to those students. They're really motivated and passionate. And they were doing a study and going into one of the most vulnerable communities that was in a flood zone. And actually, some of us kind of look serious there because we were hearing a story about a 72-year-old man that swam in six feet of water in his house for almost 18 hours. And out of his three dogs, one made it. So I mean, it was just horrific to hear what some of the people went through. I remember NDPCC had a program within two or three months after the Puerto Rican event here in Hawaii. And a number of people from Puerto Rico came, officials.  They come with passion, and they come with heartfelt advice to us. So I can understand how valuable it was for you to talk to other students. Now, the party at the end strikes me that that's not on a coastal area that lost its coast. That's in San Juan, probably. That picture with the students. That was at the University of Puerto Rico, Mayague West campus. So it's on the west side of the island. Which means, I mean, I just want to ask you one question. I mean, if it wasn't on the coast, then the damage wasn't as bad. Am I right about that? Or was it inland also? Was it in San Juan? Well, there was a lot of wind damage in communities far away from the coast, certainly. There's communities up in the mountains that were not only severely damaged but isolated. And so that's one of the other kind of takeaways from this is how do you deal with, how do you provide relief to those communities that are isolated? How do you prepare them so that they are able to sustain themselves before assistance comes? Because we have communities like that here, I think, along the east side of Oahu, the west side as well. That one road going in, and if that access is cut off, they also may not get assistance right away. When you go to a practicum like this, your head would be spinning trying to see what happened and how it could have been prevented. And how it could have been prevented in a parallel setting here in Hawaii. So what did you learn? I'm back home. I wasn't there in Puerto Rico. You guys are my agents, my proxies, my advisors and counselors, my coaches. What is your advice to me? What did you learn that you bring back for me? One conversation was of San Juan's chief resiliency officer. His name is Alejandra Rodriguez. The officer said that it's really important to plan in the island context. What we are doing is not planning in the island context. More community inputs for planning and a small scale planning would be really good in the context of both Puerto Rico and Hawaii. Understanding that disasters, for disasters, the communities are the first responders too. So involving them through community science projects would be really important. How about some specifics now? What do I do for my house so it doesn't slide into the ocean? Is there anything I can do? You should probably take some of the trainings that are provided by NDPTC. What in the training would you make sure to include based on your experience? They are trainings for Hurrican, how houses can be prepared for Hurrican. They are trainings for how community members should respond during disasters and after. John, you were bursting with some advice you wanted to give me. I think that there are some great programs that NDPTC offers at the recovery. Could you rewrite them after you get back? It takes a long time to get FEMA certification. We definitely found out just how important community is, especially in the recovery process.  One of the people there that is the honorary mayor, Chapa, he actually said that. Your first responder is your community. They are the people that are going to help you in that kind of situation. Really strengthening those bonds and forming more social cohesion. Social bonds, community bonds, collaborative bonds within the community. One thing the pictures demonstrate to me because the pictures were taken in June 10 months after and if I am the owner of the little house that is sliding into. This reminds me of Aniki. My in-laws had a house in Kauai, Kauai. The roof came off. They waited a long time before they could marshal the assets, the resources, insurance proceeds, whatever it was and put something on top of the roof again. They lived under bisqueen plastic canopy for a long time and that is what happened here too. So what did you learn about that? What did you learn about the speed at which you can recover and how to expedite that speed? Well, so the speed varies. There is no timeline to recovery. There is no six-month timeline where, okay, six months were recovered or we are now transitioning to long-term recovery versus short-term recovery. There is no kind of one-size-fits-all. That is kind of a takeaway, right? But there are things that you can do to kind of help and speed up that process. Things you can do prior to a disaster. So that is kind of what we try to do at NDPTC through our training. One, identify kind of things we can include in those trainings by taking these trips, by doing research, identifying lessons from events. But some of our more recent trainings, so we just certified a recovery planning class. It is called community planning for disaster recovery. And it really stresses pre-disaster recovery planning. Because if you kind of look at the issues, I think we have a couple pictures left, but if you look at the issues that they faced, you can kind of think about and talk about with stakeholders, planning stakeholders, what we would do in a similar situation. And you can do that prior to a disaster, right? And so that will help speed things along after that. Let's see the pictures. Yeah, so this isn't damage really, but I wanted to kind of stress this. This is a hotel that used to have a beach in front of it. And so it's not just damages that you have to consider. It's also things that impact economic activity. So if this is a hotel which the draw was the beach previously and now there's no beach, those are the kind of things you need to consider. How is that going to impact the economy, the livelihoods of the people that live in that town? I think we have areas here that obviously the draw is the beach. Waikiki, the beach is all around the island. People come here for the beach. So if the beach disappears, do we have plans in place to restore the beach, right? In addition to the damages to people's homes, because that's obviously also important. But so there's all these different aspects of recovery that you need to consider in the plan. Sure, and it's a moving target too. Correct, right. You know, I think I mentioned there was a CNN movie about Puerto Rico about a week ago on cable. And it was very interesting. And they interviewed a lot of people there, including from the government. And one of the things that came up was the idea about rebuilding. And I think it was the governor of Puerto Rico. He said, we're not just planning to rebuild it as it was. We're planning to rebuild it better because this will happen again, okay? And when it happens again, we want to have less risk, not the same or greater risk. I mean, that's the ideal recovery, isn't it? It's to bounce back, to create something better. I mean, if your new normal is worse, it's recovery, but you're not as resilient as you could be. Yeah. So it means you've got to think about it. Yeah. You have to look at this one area, this one place, and see how it worked in the storm and then figure out how to make the infrastructure, in fact, all the structures, more strong, more resilient than they were. You never can settle for the way it was now that you've been hit. Okay. That's a good question for you, Jimanshu. And that is, you went to a place that was similar to Hawaii, and you looked around, and you saw the similarities, and you saw the damage. In some instances, I'm sure it was not what you expected because it was greater damage than you might have expected because it's greater damage than we have ever experienced theory, even in Iniki. So how do you feel is the comparison between Puerto Rico and Hawaii a good one? Are we safer? Are we less safe? Are you worried more? Are you worried less? What was your reaction seeing that as compared to this? I found Puerto Rico to be very resilient because there's a very strong sense of community, and that makes these, the people in Puerto Rico very, they can have a really good recovery despite the problems that they've faced. When I come to Hawaii, and there are problems of economic disparities, which are much more than probably Puerto Rico, and in case a disaster of that scale would, I hope not, but if that happens in Hawaii, it would be, we have to really rethink how our strategy is going on. One of the things that I could recommend is about small business recovery plans. So at NDPTC, we do give trainings on how small businesses can have a very strong business continuity plan because most of these businesses close down as the power lines go off and there is the supply chain issues. So how that risk can be managed, it would be really important to understand. And it takes all the skills, all these disciplines that you age, really. It's in science, it's in economics, it's in sociology, it's all there. You guys, one time I wanted to be a planner. I still do. You would have been a great planner. Thank you very much. Jubanshi Jane and John Canner and Rob Poroth, NDPTC and UH Minoa Urban Planning. Thank you so much for coming down. Thank you. Thank you. Very fun. All right. Thanks.


You know, it was a great thing when you come from nothing, man. It's great.  Because when I came outside, there was no trees. I didn't have a basketball court right there. I had two motherfucking steps, man. And then it was the first full apartment. And then we lived over top of them.  The screen. You heard a feel what I'm saying. If he was down there baking his motherfucking woman to a certain extent, you heard that you feel.


Good morning everyone, Basel Chapman here, this is the 10th of January, this is Tuesday. The Dow is up $53,000 and $32,570 for this Tiger Financial News Network 10 a.m. market update. Powell is talking overseas. So far, there's been quite a nice response. You can see just real quickly, I'll show you the E-minis, how they've popped very nicely. This is at $830 right here, where others were talking and I don't know if Powell's on right this moment. But we have spiked all the way to $39.27 in the E-mini. We'll see if we're going to give that back or if it's going to continue. But the most important thing right now is that in the the Dow had a reversal yesterday after almost hitting $34,000. Pullback did a Chapman-Roman candle, something else I'll discuss when we get back with the Tiger Technicians Hour. It really needs to get to the $33,650 area sometime today. That'll be a positive. We'll see what happens. S&P held a little bit better. It is now up $483,550 actually at $38.97. It needs to get to the $39.10 area at least, the $9.20 over the next hour. That'll be a positive. QQQ, NDX100 trading up $0.52 at $271.10. Actually had a bit better action yesterday than the Dow and the S&P. That needs a lot more to go. It needs to get to $277.277 over the next four, five sessions. There's a $270 right now. IWM, the Russell 2000, up $0.24 at $1.78. Holding quite nicely. Gold, this is going to be very interesting because gold is just holding beautifully right here. It's up five at $1,883. Leg C in the weekly, leg D so far, still standing in the daily. We're going to be looking at that over the period of the day. Does it go higher? Does it start a pullback? Talking about a pullback, the dollar is down $0.09 at $103. It's really struggling. If you go to Crude Oil, Crude Oil did have a rally yesterday. They gave some of it back. It's up $0.39 cents at $0.74. It needs $0.77 to really show that it's got upside strength. The TLT, that's bonds. Trading down $1.29. So yields are actually running a little bit here, but they've been in steady mode. I'll be back for the Tiger Technicians Hour and check out programming call 30 Newsday. See you in a few moments.


You scare the agent into thinking they need a coach. You know, you take their money and then if they try to back out of the contract, you go after them. This is what I believe. I'm sharing that with you for nothing.  So let me introduce Ricky Karuth. Many of you know him. He's all over social media. The guy's nominating. Been in the business for 17 years. Since 2014, he's sold over 100 transactions a year as an individual agent. Let's get into a topic here as we get started. Talk to us about work-life balance. What does that look like for you? To where you are able to keep relationships outside of work, right? Without having them go awry. Well, man, to be honest with you, I think of it in a way of like, I'm retired. You know what I'm saying? Every day when I wake up, I'm doing exactly what I want to do. Nobody tells me what to do. I wake up at 430 for an hour. I answer DMs on Instagram. I answer every single DM on Instagram because if I'm not answering all these questions that people are asking desperately, asking for help, then I'm not really backing up what I'm saying when I say I want to help the industry and teach agents how to effectively communicate and create unlimited business. So work-life balance for me is that there is no work-life balance. It's all life. There's no real separation for me when I'm at work. Like I'm at work, I'm at work all times. Like when I'm with my family, I'm giving that everything I got. I'm spending time with them, giving them every little drop of energy that I have to enjoy them, them enjoy me, the whole thing. Same thing when I'm doing a real estate deal, or I'm showing property, or I'm making phone calls, or I'm doing a podcast, or I'm traveling to speak, or whatever the case may be, I'm just enjoying every second of whatever's going on. And there's really no, I don't chop it up and say, okay, I'm gonna time block this, I'm gonna time block that.  And so I think I'm just a different kind of person where I can just live this blended life where it's all the same thing and I have a full, I mean, it's not like it happened overnight. Let's say that, you know, like I definitely went through times where everything was all about real estate, trying to figure out how to succeed, working 15 hours a day, getting burnt out, you know, trying to recharge and come back strong and go 15 hours a day for another three week stretch and really try to figure this thing out. So I've definitely been there, but where I am now, see 17 years in the business and thousands of properties sold, I have such a huge database and I built it the right way on relationships and what can I do to help you, not trying to force people to buy or sell anything. And because of that, I built such a huge brand around someone who just wants to help. Somebody who just wants to help people. And so, and around being the hardest working person around, like everyone knows that no one outworks me. And so those two, that the combination of those two things, knowing that I'm just here to help you and that I'll work harder for you than anyone else makes me a magnet to people, you know? People are just drawn to me because they know I'm gonna get the job done. I'm not going to high pressure them or put them in weird situations or if they wanna back out because they get cold feet halfway through the deal, I'm not gonna make them feel bad about it. I'm gonna say, if that's not what you wanna do, then let's get out of this thing, you know? And I'm gonna make them feel comfortable about their decision because that's what they wanna do. And because of those things, it makes it to where I built a business where people come to meet. I built an attraction business so big that I don't have to worry about where my business is coming from. So after doing that for so long, now I'm able to take time and write books and go speak and do podcasts and all that stuff and still maintain this high level of business because a lot of coaches, they get into the coaching industry after two years in the business and 12 properties sold and now they're a guru. And the thing is, is, you know, when they try to make that leap, they don't really have any, they don't have a business. And so I waited like, I got in the business when I was 20, made a meal before I was 23, lost it all in the crash, went back to roofing houses, worked on an oil rig, came back, realized it was relationships over transactions, and then got to where I was selling 100 properties a year. So like I made it, lost it, made it. And so now here I am making it 100 properties a year. Well, I didn't know if that was real or not because I had it before I lost it. So I was thinking, is this real? So I gave myself three years, three years of selling 100 properties a year as a single agent before I decided maybe I should write a book about this stuff and how I did this. And so I just, I wait, I'm really notorious for waiting too long, probably too long, but it's not a bad thing. Waiting too long to do things. You know, like I'm still a single agent. You know, when am I gonna do a team? You know, like I waited so long to hire an assistant. I waited so long to start coaching and writing and speaking. I waited so long to get into social media. I just started doing social media two and a half years ago. I never touched it before then. As far as the work-life balance question, I just think that you have to just do what you love to do. You know, and like, I love roofing houses. I love working on an oil rig. I love delivering pizzas. I love cooking in a restaurant. You know, all the things that I did, all the different jobs that I had, I loved every bit of it, you know? That's just how I am. I guess I'm just a very positive person. I love just being active and productive. And because of that, it makes my life really incredible because literally me producing is my therapy. You know, like all the rough moments in my life, I literally just worked through them. Like I would go to work and work so hard at work, it got my mind off whatever bad was going on. And it like, it helps me cope with whatever's going on and produce more, you know?  I really appreciate what you said there. It's interesting. I was pulling out of the garage this morning, had my daughter in the car, was right around the school and the garage door went up and I said, another day doing what I love. And she got to look at me and I don't think that's the common answer. I think a lot of the people it's like, thank goodness it's Friday. I can't wait till this is over. Like it's this terrible treatment. I know Gary Vaynerchuk talks a lot about this. I feel like if you hate what you do, life's way too short for that. I sat in a convention at which a gentleman who has done deep, deep studies on the human brain, discovered that there's this sense of joy that we were made to have. Like people, it's natural for them to be in a state of joy. It's unnatural for them to be in a state of fear. The only way to really experience joy is to not look at people as things or as a means to an end, but they are the source of our joy. They are the reason that we're gonna experience that. It ties in perfectly with what I think is maybe a secret to why Ricky Karuth is able to be so dang excited no matter what he's doing is because he's looking at the relationship first. It's not like how many deals, like what's it gonna take for me to get over a hundred transactions this year? It's like, how many people can I help? And if I can't help that person, I'm gonna be the first to tell them, I can't help you, you should stay in your house. Is that true? Does that call connect for you? Yeah, I think it's the intention for sure. I think first and foremost it's, am I gonna give it everything I have today? Am I gonna go to bed tonight knowing that I gave it, put everything out there. I left it all on the field and there wasn't a drop of energy. I literally, you know, passed out because I was so tired.  There's no way you could have done any more and with the right intentions to help the most people. When you combine those two things, now you're deadly. I would have to agree with you. I think there's work ethic is often underestimated. To your point, I think that you can have all kinds of good intentions and warm feelings for people and want to help them. But if you don't put in the time and the hours, like Ricky Gerooth is doing, I get them at 4.30 to really respond to strangers that have no direct impact upon your business. They're not coaching clients because you're not charging them, but simply responding because you love the industry and because you love people. That probably is a fuel for you to then go do good for your clients. Well, it is. I mean, the DMs and the comments and the replies and the emails and all that are literally the fuel that keeps me going because the one reason I got into coaching is because I feel like I kind of hit the top of real estate game. Like I just felt like I hit the top. There wasn't anything else that was challenging. It just, there was no challenge there left for me. And so that's why I got into the coaching and man, that I really step into a beehive because it is a super, like it's a totally different. Real estate is local. Coaching is global. And so there's a big difference in the two. If I'm not, like I said, if I'm not stepping up and answering these questions, I mean, these people are reaching out with desperate for help, that just this industry is such a bear because it's so simple, but it seems so complicated. Like it can really fool you into thinking that it's so complicated when really it's so simple. And we're talking about people's livelihoods on the line. This is their, they're trying to support their family with this stuff. This is stressful. This is real, this is real life stuff. And I just feel like these people are reaching out to me for help and if I'm not stepping up and, because there's a lot of people in my shoes that absolutely completely ignore DMs, messages, emails, tag, they completely ignore that stuff. And I get it, like it's a lot of work, but I just feel like I'm different and I feel like I want to be there.  You know, they don't, they can't. There's too many of them, I get it. I do, you know? So I just feel like I'm not doing my job and I'm not doing the industry justice if I'm not doing it. You know, as I, even in my small market of Portland, Oregon, as I see, there's some agents who really want it. And when you're getting started, as you know, trying to fund a family and a business at the same time, you need a lot more revenue than you think you do. And you know, I do see some coaching programs that are really helping people, but I see some that probably aren't a good idea based on the revenue that that agent is bringing in. There's just not enough revenue to be investing in a coach. And so I think that you create a really powerful bridge to, and at some point it may make sense for those people to pay coaching, but for a lot of the people that are just getting started, I don't know that it ever does at that level. I could be wrong. I know you have a different trade that's not saying like, no, it never makes sense. But- It just depends. It just depends on the coach and everything. But you know, you got a lot of, I'd love to know the statistics behind the agents that take out a credit card to pay for coaching that actually don't have the money to pay a thousand a month for coaching and go into debt, go into debt, paying for a coach that turns around and doesn't tell them anything different than what's on YouTube. It's horrible. And then if they try to get out of the contract, they got creditors that come after them. I mean, how is that helping the industry? You scare the agent into thinking that you need, that they need a coach. They have to pay this $1,000 a month or they won't succeed. You take their money and then if they try to back out of the contract, you go after them. You put them in debt. The only thing motivating the agent at that point is how to get out of debt, not the coach. And now we gotta figure out how we're gonna pay this off and they won't let us out of the contract even though it's not helping us.  And I'm just hoping I can spread my message far enough and I already have saved a lot of agents, to be honest with you, so many agents.   I get messages like that all the time.


While the federal government has banned any direct purchase of farm produce involved in the genius farmers and foreign nationals, the new regulation, which is to ensure that Nigerian farmers are not shortchanged, now mandates all foreign nationals to go through licensed local buying agents to do business with the farmers. The Minister of Trade and Investment, Nyi Adibayo, disclosed as the state house correspondent shortly after the weekly VATRO Federal Executive Council meeting presided over by Vice President Yamio Shibajo at the Council chambers of the presidential villa. According to him, the federal government has okayed appropriate mechanisms to ensure competitive prices for commodities of indigenous farmers in a bid to protect them from exploitation and also ensure that they have the appropriate incentives to guarantee their continued participation in their trade. Adibayo said he presented two memos on behalf of his ministry, one of which was for the promotion of agri-business in Nigeria through the right farm gate pricing and ban of foreign nationals and their representative from purchasing agricultural commodities at the farm gates. Earlier on our breakfast show, a former chairman, agriculture and non-army sector at the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Prince Wali Oyekaya said the move is counterproductive as it will make farmers lose their produce. While we produce in Nigeria, 60% of it got rotten, too weighty. By these people, the foreigners that we are trying to buy from buying our farm produce, they add value to what we cannot add value. And for them to be born and to be buying our produce is going to be counterproductive. In the series, there are guys in this of the problem of farmers' manpower days. What happened to the commodity price control? Where is the price control? There's nothing like price control in Nigeria. That is why you see all kind of stuff just coming into the market. And no one is regulating it, no one is controlling it. So it's not the issue of foreigners coming to market world we have at the farm gate, but the policy that is going to be sustainable to really assist the farmers and to bring the price of goods down completely because most Nigerians are complaining about the price of the food stock. Couple with all the infrastructure deficit, couple with all the all kind of other stuff like the security and bandage, price of crude oil, price of diesel, right now diesel is about 600 naira plus. The government is not addressing this. And this is the multiply effect that is going to happen on the consumer. Hello. Hope you enjoyed the news. Please do subscribe to our YouTube channel and don't forget to hit the notification button so you get notified about fresh news updates.


Remember way, way back in the olden times of 2020 when Democrats were rioting across the country based on misinformation that they heard from Democrat state media? Part of those riots involved Democrat mobs actually attacking the White House with the express goal of physically getting Trump and removing him. Some reports say that they planned on even lynching him. Andy Know, a well-known independent journalist who covers BLM and Antifa political violence that the so-called mainstream media purposely doesn't report on, posted a series of videos showing these rioters attacking police officers and secret service agents in an attempt to gain access to the White House. And I wanted to share these posts with all of you because it just goes to show how the media is exaggerating what happened on January 6th and using it as a political weapon because they know that they're going to lose in the coming midterms. And as usual, they're applying their contradictory standards to their political opponents. Oh, and by the way, the time to prepare for bad times is during good times. If you know a big storm is coming, you prepare in advance. The same goes for our nation's future. That's why I recommend stocking up on emergency food from my Patreon supply. And right now, you can save $50 on a four-week emergency food kit. This kit provides breakfast, lunch, dinner, drinks, and snacks, totaling over 2,000 calories a day. Every family in America should have one of these. So go to preparewithdronetech.com and save $50 on your four-week food kit. Flashback. In May 2020, mobs of fat left rioters tried to storm the White House. They were repelled by police who were assaulted and hit with projectiles. You can see them being thrown right there. Democrats and leftists condemned law enforcement at the time for stopping the rioters. Andy's absolutely right here, and I've talked about it a lot on this channel. You'll remember that after this happened, the scandal in the media was that the police and the Secret Service used tear gas against the rioters, claiming that they had only used the tear gas so that Trump could have a photo op. Unsurprisingly, that turned out to be fake news, another hit and run by the drive-by media. They watched Trump for being moved to the bunker, which is insane because they did that because there was an actual threat that they could breach the White House. Also notice that even though these people are actively attacking the White House with the goal of physically getting Donald Trump, the media still calls it a protest. Not an insurrection, not a riot, not a domestic terrorist attack. Can you even imagine how they would react if that was Trump supporters? Oh, wait. We know exactly how they would react. This is why it's so laughable to hear these people memorializing the Capitol Police because some of them were injured fighting with Trump supporters, but years worth of Democrat riots that led to over 2,000 police injured is mostly peaceful. At night, the far-left rioters surrounded the White House and tried tearing apart the protective barrier so they could store in the building. Secret Service and law enforcement were injured by the violent extremists. I'm sorry, someone's going to have to help me here.  It's pretty clear that the Democrats and their state media used that incident as a political weapon because Trump supporters and Republicans are known as big supporters of the police and the police were enemy number one to the Democrats and their media. Which again makes this whole memorializing of the Capitol Police very suspect. The far-left rioters tore apart the barrier outside the White House piece by piece in an attempt to store in the building and burn it down. Many in the mob called for the president to be lynched. For a time, it seemed like the protesters had gotten the upper hand a couple times. They've been able to rip away parts of the barricade and kind of call them away and just toss them. And then the police will go and bring another part of it and kind of reinforce and when they do that, the protesters confront them, they throw things at them and the police try to hold that ground. It has been a very intense push and pull. A Secret Service officer suffered a hen injury after being assaulted by BLM and far-left rioters trying to storm the White House. Dozens of Secret Service agents were injured as well. Interrupt you real quick. It appears as though at least a couple of Secret Service officers, one of them just got hurt. You can see him walking back there clutching his head. And we don't know whether that was bricks or firecrackers or what happened. We weren't able to see what happened. He's not one of the ones wearing the riot shields, but as this gets later into the evening. In addition to tearing apart the barriers outside the White House and assaulting Secret Service and law enforcement, the far-left rioters carried out an arson attack. They wanted to storm the building and in uprising it gets the president. I want to show you all this video as well from the girl on fire. You can see her Twitter address right there, so go check her out. But I had never even heard of this myself. She says what he's saying is not even true, referring to a poster who has now deleted their tweet, so I'm not sure what they said. But these are BLM protesters last summer in D.C., breaching the U.S. Treasury building and destroying property. No D.C. police in sight and none of them got arrested. Which isn't surprising to me because if you actually look into these riots over the summer of 2020, you're going to find that almost none of these people were prosecuted and the Democrats were actively out there bailing these people out. If you present these videos to left-wingers or Democrats, almost always they're going to rationalize it as different when they do it somehow. And what you're going to hear in this case is, oh, well, they weren't trying to stop a congressional process. They were trying to stop the election process, and so that makes it way worse. Hmm, stopping a congressional process, well, would that be anything like trying to stop the confirmation of the Supreme Court justice? A good judge never bases the sages on his... And I'm not even going to get into all the left-wing groups who have actually bombed the Capitol multiple times, and by way, these people eventually were pardoned by Democrats. Some of them even ended up working in Democrat administrations. I know most of the people watching me right now, you guys know better, but share these videos with people who let you know that might think that January 6th was much more than it actually was. The fact of the matter is, left-wing political violence has been a problem in this country going back almost 70 years. Alright, that's all I have for this one. Thanks for watching. If you enjoyed it, please share it, hit that like button, and then leave me a comment on your way out.


You find that within the life of Imam al-Hadi, salawatullahi wa salamuhu alayh, there were a number of places, a number of times in his life where he performed a number of miracles, phenomenal events and phenomenal activities through which his superiority was established over the rest of the creation. In fact, there were a number of miracles that he performed in order to prove to the people that he was the divinely selected and the divinely appointed Khalifa of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And there are very many fascinating occurrences that happened during the life of Imam al-Hadi that exhibit his superiority. However, for tonight we shall mention three of these. Number one, the Imam is divinely protected by Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and the Imam is blessed with the power of wilaya taqweeniyah. The Imam has willaya or the Imam has authority over the entire creation. The historians narrate by way of example that at one time one of the governors of Mutawakkil had suggested that because of the threat Imam al-Hadi poses to the government of the time, they should just execute him. But they should not execute him in any normal way. They should give him the most painful of deaths such that if he was killed in this way, none of his followers would ever dare to openly say that they are affiliated with him. If anybody thought of affiliating themselves with Imam Ali ibn Muhammad al-Hadi, they would think twice. How?  As you know from one of the passions and one of the past times of Mutawakkil, was that he would gather all these wild animals and he would cage them for his own entertainment, for his own pleasure. And there was a den in Samara which contained lions. The historians mentioned that the army of Mutawakkil came, they arrested Imam al-Hadi and they threw him down into the den hoping that he would be eaten alive and his body would be mutilated, he would be eaten up by the lions. The historians mentioned that as Imam al-Hadi was thrown into the den and what we understand from the narration is that he was thrown from a certain height. As he fell down to the ground Imam al-Hadi stood up, he shaked the dust or he wiped off the dust from his clothes, he dusted off his clothes. He stood in the middle of the den. The lions came running towards Imam al-Hadi, they stopped at him. The Imam was seen to be uttering some sort of vicar through his blessed lips. The historians mentioned that the lions stood by Imam al-Hadi, they went down on their four legs and they bowed their heads as if in prostration in terms of humility towards Imam al-Hadi. Hours later the governor comes together with a number of the army and they observe what has happened. They are expecting that Imam al-Hadi may already by now be devoured by these lions. When they come and they observe from the top of the den, they find that Imam al-Hadi is standing in a state of Salat with all khushu in full concentration in Salat, praying to Allah SWT while the lions are seated obediently around him. They find that actions like these, no other Imam from no other sect is able to claim that they can perform acts like these or perform miracles such as these or have any sort of willaya, authority over the creation apart from the Imams of Ahlul Bayt. The governor goes and reports this incident to Mutawakil. Mutawakil says leave Ali ibn Muhammad, i.e. Imam al-Hadi, leave him in the den for three days. Perhaps the lions out of hunger, if the lions are not fed for three days, the lion in itself being an animal with its beastly instinct to kill and hunt out of hunger for survival, perhaps they will devour Imam al-Hadi. Three days later, they come and they see that Imam al-Hadi is in the same state. Three days without any food, without any water in a state of Salat with these lions on his side. This was one incident of how, this is one incident that shows us from the life of Imam al-Hadi, how Allah SWT has bestowed him with willaya taqwiniya. Another incident that happened that also involves lions, surprisingly is during the time of Imam al-Hadi, there happened to be a lady who claimed to be Zaynab al-Qubra, say the Zaynab al-Qubra, the daughter of Amir al-Mu'mineen, alaihi salam, so she came forward to the crowd, to the people of the time in the city of Samara, and she cried out, oh people, I am Zaynab, the daughter of Imam Ali. The people were the leaders of the Talibiyyin within the family of Abu Talib who were present in Samara. They came up to her and they said, how can you be say the Zaynab al-Qubra and that she already died and these many years ago, hundreds of years ago, she said, no, I have been brought back to life by Allah SWT and I am Zaynab, the daughter of Ali. So the people were now astounded and that how can we prove, how can she prove that she is Zaynab? How can we actually be sure? So they were in confusion on how to ascertain the accuracy of this claim, and the fact that she claims that she's been reborn and that every few years Allah SWT renews her youth. They were confused on what to do and how to get to the bottom of this matter. So the historians mentioned they came to Imam Al-Hadi. They said, you are from the grandchildren of Ali ibn Abi Talib and there is this lady who claims to be Zaynab al-Qubra. How can we validate this claim? Is this true? Imam Al-Hadi says, of course it's not true. He says, how can we prove it? They call Imam Al-Hadi to the court of Mutawakil, the court of Bani Abbas. This lady is brought in front of Imam Al-Hadi and she claims to be that she is Zaynab the daughter. Say the Zaynab, the daughter of Amirul-Mu'minim. Imam Al-Hadi then makes a declaration and you got to understand that the entire public, the people of Samara, the residents of Samara had gathered within the court. This is a huge claim. The person claiming to be Zaynab, the daughter of Imam Ali is alive between them, brought back to life, miraculous claim. What goals, what reasons, what agendas they might be behind that? Allahu Alam. Imam Al-Hadi is there to disprove the claim. Imam Al-Hadi is the only one who can disprove the claim.  She makes her claim again. Imam Al-Hadi says, we have a tradition from our grandfather, the Holy Prophet. Whereby he says, the flesh of the sada, the flesh of the children of Ali Amna Abitollib, and say the Fatimah of Zahra, is haram upon the animals. If you truly claim to be from the children of Amirul-Muminian, no animal can devour you. There is a divinity and a sanctity. In regards to their body, you can't be devoured by wild animals.  If they do not devour you, we know that your claim is true.  Motawakil was absolutely pleased with this, and he said, this is a good idea. I think we should do it. The historians mentioned that as they were taking the lady to the den of the lions, she began to cry, and she confessed that she was lying. Motawakil saw an opportunity. Motawakil says to Imam Al-Hadi, well, if what you, your claim that the true children from the lineage of Imam Ali, Amirul-Muminian, said the Fatimah of Zahra will never be devoured by wild animals, see if you yourself fit this bracket or not. So they decided to throw Imam Al-Hadi into the cage of lions or into the den of lions. The narration mentions just like the first time Imam Al-Hadi was thrown into the den and the lions approached him. They stood by his side and they went down on their four limbs as if in a state of prostration. And this is happening in the presence of the entire population of Samarra. And through this, Motawakil's plan failed. He wanted to humiliate and perhaps he thought this would be the best way to get rid of Imam Al-Hadi. But you find that actually the opposite happened. And this incident in itself became a reason for hundreds of people, if not converting to what Stashayu for their love and their respect for Imam Al-Hadi to raise inside of their hearts. Another incident from the Mojizaat that took place during the time of Imam Al-Hadi is the incident of Yunus on Nakash, which shows that from amongst the characters of a divinely selected Imam is that apart from the fact that they have Wilayatakwinia, that they are endowed. They are bestowed with Ilmul Ghayb from Allah SWT. They have knowledge of the unseen. They have the knowledge of the past and they have the knowledge of the future even before it occurs. And one such example, a display of this character by Imam Al-Hadi was during the time of Yunus on Nakash. The historians mentioned that there was a governor of Bani Abbas by the time of Musa Ibn Bagha and Musa Ibn Bagha had a particular gem, a rare stone you could say or a gem where he went to one of the companions of Imam Al-Hadi who was known to work in this industry of rings. He went to him and he said to him that I have got this ring. I need an engravement to be done on this and I need this ring back by XYZ there. The companion said, fine. As he was making the engravement on the ring, the gem or the stone broke into two pieces. You are a subcontracted by the governor of Bani Abbas, the likes of Musa Ibn Bagha who are known for bloodshed, who are known for their atrocities, for you to have damaged one of his belongings. The longings, that even something such as a pure gem, this was definitely leading towards execution. This companion comes running to Imam Al-Hadi and he says to him, yabda Rasool Allah, this is the incident that happened. Musa Ibn Bagha had given me a job to engrave the ring and instead the ring, I have broken it and I'm sure that when I'm someone he's going to execute me. Imam Al-Hadi smiles and he says to him, don't worry. How do you mean don't worry?  This person was summoned to the court of Musa Ibn Bagha a couple of days later.  Please take care of my family after me. Musa Ibn Bagha is summoned me to the court. I know it has to do with the ring and because I've broken it, I'm definitely going to be executed.  Allah SWT will take care of you. For a moment if you and I put our, we put ourselves in the situation of this companion. How much iman and how much yakin does it take for you to submit to the words of their Imam? This is a level of conviction that you are supposed to have within our Imam that even if the odds are against us, if the Imam tells you that something is going to be okay, it's going to be okay. Musa Ibn Bagha goes to sleep that night. Allah knows how he slept that night. But he had iman and he had full belief in the words of the Imam. He had this trait within him, taslim. Total submission to the Imam. Whatever the Imam says goes. Imam had promised him and comforted him that Musa Ibn Bagha will not touch him and whatever happens it will be care, will be goodness. Companion goes to the court the following day and he's trembling and shivering.  Companion says yes. He says I have a problem. Companion says what problem? I was astounded. He says what problem? He says that between both my wives, both my wives like this gem so much, each one of them wants this gem. But because it's so rare, it's difficult for me to find another gem like this. So I have someone on you to the court to ask you if you would be able to carve this gem or break this gem into two parts, into two equal parts. That way I can gift each and every one of them one of these gems. And from here the companion was filled with relief. And he said to Musa Ibn Bagha, yes it can be done. When he was let out of the court, he went straight away to Imam Al-Hadi and he thanked him for comforting him and for assuring him. How did the Imam know that this is going to be care? Ilmul Ghayb granted to him by Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. When we listen to incidences like these, we understand that the Imam has Ilmul Ghayb. Number one, these is definitely not sure. This is an Ilm given to them by Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. And it is incidences like these that show us the superiority of the Imams of Ahlul-Bayt in that they are selected by Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.