all for coming today and I'm going to start out at the top just explaining that today's webinar is really intended as a way for nonprofits that have recently joined TechSoup to just better understand how we can help you, what our offers are and just give you more detail on TechSoup and what it is that we do in the big world of nonprofit technology. And I'll say that if there are folks on the call right now who work for nonprofits and your nonprofit is not yet a member of TechSoup, that taking that first step and becoming a TechSoup member is a critical step in order for your nonprofit to access the offers and services products that I'm about to describe in this webinar. So if you're not already a TechSoup member, you want to take that step and you could do it if you want right now. If you go to techsoup.org, top right hand corner of the website, there's a join button, go ahead and start that process now. All right, welcome to TechSoup and our new member orientation. Some quick notes on how to engage during this webinar. There's a Q&A feature that you should use for any questions that you have. After the webinar is through, we will send you a follow up links to the deck that we share today and that should be helpful for you. And then if you need to use the closed captioning that's available to you through the CC button located in the actual Zoom menu itself. I want to introduce you to our panelists today. You've already met Aretha Simons. She is our TechSoup webinar producer, always wonderful to be doing work with Aretha. My name is Nick Finn. I'm a senior director at TechSoup and I'm going to be your host today and narrator walking through the slides with you. And toward the end of the presentation, we're also going to be joined by Kevin Mulhall who works specifically in the TechSoup customer success department. And then Kelly Garrett, who's an associate manager in the TechSoup client services division. They both have some specific things that I think can be helpful for folks who are new to TechSoup. All right, before we get started into the details of TechSoup, I want to do a quick buzzword alert for folks because sometimes tech talk can get a little buzzwordy and not everybody knows what it means. Although most people do, but I think it's always fair to just make sure we're all starting at an even playing field and we know what these words and phrases mean. So the first thing that you may hear in the world of nonprofit technology is the notion of digital transformation. And it sounds like a big heavy topic. Really what it means is that your nonprofit is becoming more tech savvy and that you are using technology as a way to structure your nonprofit and you are also using technology possibly as a way to solve particular issues that your nonprofit addresses as part of its mission. The second buzzword that you may hear is civil society. And civil society is really non-governmental people and organizations who are working in communities in the United States and around the world to build better communities. It's the civil part of civil society that's really important here because that is us everyday people doing the work that we think is important to do to make the world a better place. And then the third term you'll hear bandied about a bit is cloud adoption, which again can sound a little weighty, but really what that is about is if you've got a nonprofit who's already using a lot of technology tools, cloud adoption is the process of using web-based technology tools. Kind of seems natural for everybody at this stage. If you're alive and using a computer anywhere in the world you're probably connected to the internet somehow. But cloud adoption means that those cloud-based platforms become kind of the central technology product that your nonprofit relies on. So with that said, I want to start with what TechSoup really is and how we can be helpful to you and your nonprofit. So first of all, TechSoup is a 501c3 non-profit organization in the U.S. And we are part of a broader global organization called the TechSoup Global Network.  And that's important because it means that we understand what it means to run a nonprofit. We understand what it means to run a nonprofit budget. And the dynamics of running a nonprofit and having a nonprofit budget are different than what a lot of businesses and large corporations have to work with. And so as we work with nonprofits across the United States we do so knowing very well what the constraints are that other nonprofits have to work with because we have to exist within those same constraints as well. The second thing to address here is that TechSoup's mission, our core function, and all of you on this call have a mission of your own in your nonprofit, our core function is to support nonprofits and charities as they use technology to build a more equitable planet. So there's a lot to unpack there. The first thing is to say that our user base, the people and organizations that we serve are exclusively nonprofits, right? And specifically nonprofits who are trying to leverage technology. We believe at TechSoup that technology is a fundamentally powerful way for nonprofits to work in the world. It provides tools and passive communication that we've never had before. And then finally we believe that when you take nonprofits and Tech and put them together we can do the hard work of building a better planet. And that means a lot of different things to a lot of people. For me it's talking about the environment and having a peaceful world but there's all sorts of ways that we make a more equitable planet and we believe that nonprofits working with technology can do just that. Part of the way TechSoup makes that mission real is we host a catalog of affordable technology products for nonprofits. It has some big names in it like Microsoft, Dell, Intuit, Adobe, but there are many many many many more brands in that technology catalog. You access that catalog and I'll show you how in a little bit at TechSoup.org. And it's important to know that these offers in this catalog come as a result of TechSoup's negotiation with these technology companies because again we know that nonprofits may not always be able to afford the full public retail price of some technology so we try to do what we can to make Tech more affordable to nonprofits. We also know from having worked with these nonprofits over many years that it's not enough to just provide access to products. In fact what a lot of nonprofits struggle with is once they have this product what do they do with it? How do they teach staff to use it? How do they adopt the platform fully? How do they use all the bells and whistles in this software or hardware piece that they know they want to use? How do you implement it? And so TechSoup now offers a whole host of services to nonprofits and those services are designed to help you in your use and implementation of the technology platforms that we provide offers for. We also know that in the big picture plenty of folks would like the opportunity to build their technology skills you know to do better working with Microsoft Excel or maybe you need to know more about how to use InDesign or another Adobe product. So we create content courses and trainings that help nonprofit staff build their tech expertise. And finally like most of you we do our own grant-based programming meaning a funder and we agree on a particular set of objectives and we go out and we try to accomplish those objectives and usually for us that missionary of course is working with nonprofits trying to help them understand the technology they've got how to bring in new tech that they may need and how to implement all of that across the board. So these are the main pillars of what TechSoup is and now I'm going to spend a little time going into a little more detail on some of these that are probably of specific interest to you and your nonprofit. And let's start with the product catalog that I talked about at the top right. This is your opportunity to go into TechSoup.org and see a lot of different products that we have available. I'm showing right now in the slide deck just the homepage of TechSoup.org and just trying to show you visually exactly what that product catalog is right there in the top end navigation hard to miss. You can also access the product catalog by hitting this orange button that's a little bit further down on the page saying browse catalog. When you go to that catalog what you will find is a host of offers from lots of different brands and I'm going to highlight a couple of the ones that a large number of nonprofits really seem to instantly take interest in. The first one is Microsoft. This shouldn't be a surprise they of course are one of the gargantuan technology companies and happen from the start. And I'll say that they have also partnered with TechSoup from the start of TechSoup's existence trying to help us understand how we can better serve nonprofits and Microsoft has been with us for many, many, many years. The offers from Microsoft and the TechSoup catalog have evolved over time certainly as the cloud has become the dominant platform for people to really think about computing on. Microsoft cloud offers have become central to what nonprofits take from TechSoup and those cloud offers are really Microsoft 365 right. Microsoft 365 is the cloud based version of Office. If you're used to having Microsoft Office on your computer with Word, PowerPoint, Excel, maybe a few other programs that you use this is the web based version of it. It's more complex, it's more sophisticated, it's definitely more powerful and sometimes nonprofits need help implementing Microsoft 365 and that's something that TechSoup can work with you on. Another Microsoft product that we still carry is what's called the on-premises version of Microsoft Office. That means that it's just the version you download, you install on a local computer, maybe there are a handful of updates you get over time but at a certain point Microsoft stops updating that program and you would have to get the next or newer version of it to get the latest version. And then finally, of course, Microsoft Windows, if you're not running an Apple product and in some cases even if you are, Microsoft Windows of course is like an essential part of what nonprofits need access to in order to run the computers that they're using and we have access to the full Windows Pro operating system through TechSoup and that is something that an awful lot of nonprofits come to us for help with as well. If you're already running Windows and you just need the upgrade, we can also help you with that. Microsoft's not the only brand, another major brand that lots of nonprofits come to TechSoup for is Adobe. Adobe has been one of the leaders in the creation of graphics and design software. They create programs like InDesign or Illustrator or the perennial favorite Photoshop which everybody loves and then you realize how powerful it is and that there's so much you can learn about how to work with Photoshop. But all these design and visual programs from Adobe are essential parts of what nonprofits use in their communication stack and so from Adobe we have the creative cloud offer which is sort of what it's the big package that lots of designers and design firms use when they're creating visuals. We also have Acrobat Pro DC which is the main program you would think about when you want to handle PDFs, portable document format. Adobe created the PDF like they invented that and so today if you're trying to edit or create Adobe PDFs, Acrobat Pro DC is the main program that you're thinking about. It's not the only one that does it by the way of course, there are other versions of it. Some of them are much smaller and much lower in cost but the Adobe product that does this work best is Acrobat Pro DC and then we have a new offer from Adobe that a lot of nonprofits are expressing strong interest in right now called Adobe Express. It's actually currently available to nonprofits for a zero-dollar admin fee and you can think of Adobe Express as an easier to use, easier to understand version of creative cloud. You don't have to be like a fully trained designer who knows all the ins and outs of how Illustrator works in order to work with Adobe Express. The bar for entry is lower on that one. Intuit QuickBooks is another example of software that tons of nonprofits come to TechSoup for help on and especially during the pandemic we saw how important it was for nonprofits to not rely on paper and pencil accounting systems and it was unfortunate to realize that an awful lot of them still were doing that and suddenly when restrictions came and people couldn't be in the same workspace together, like they couldn't be in the same physical office location, those outdated paper and pencil accounting systems really showed how difficult they made things and so things like Adobe, sorry things like Intuit QuickBooks are a pretty critical product for nonprofits to think about. Again, not the only option for digitizing your accounting stack but QuickBooks is one of the most popular out there. You can get the QuickBooks online plus and online advanced from TechSoup and of course we also have some support services available through us to help you with implementing QuickBooks, transitioning your data into the QuickBooks platform, learning more about how to manage it. As I said, you'll be getting a copy of this deck after the presentation, after the webinar is through. If you're specifically interested in QuickBooks and have questions about it, check this link here in the deck. It will take you to some Q&A on QuickBooks that I think could be helpful. There's a host of other offers available in the TechSoup product catalog, far beyond what you are seeing on this slide but I just wanted to highlight some of the other brands and the corporate logos that you may recognize just to say that there are a lot of offers in that catalog that are worth taking a look at. One thing I do want to highlight is the TechSoup is not just about software. In fact, we are one of the original creators of green tech practices around refurbished computers. We provide access to hardware in a lot of different ways at TechSoup but our refurbished computer program is something that we're very proud of because we were one of the original thought leaders who said, hey, we shouldn't just take these old computers that folks are no longer using and throw them in a landfill that in many cases, if the computer was bought fairly recently, it can be refurbished and it can be reused by somebody else. We've provided access to refurbished computers for a long time now and it's interesting if you go and look at some of the other major hardware vendors that lots of folks have looked at online already. You'll suddenly see how everybody's advertising their green technology offers and refurbished lines of computers. TechSoup was one of the leaders who helped create that entire sector in the economy. Refurbished offers are not the only things that we have. We also maintain relationships for nonprofits with Dell, with Lenovo, and with HP. You're able to get brand new units from those three brands through TechSoup as well. JourneyEd is another popular hardware vendor that works with TechSoup but as I said, our refurbished hardware has been really a fantastic line for nonprofits to look at. Those units generally cost a little bit less. There are warranties that come with them and I think everybody can feel good about not necessarily having to go out and buy just the brand new latest greatest thing but maybe there's an opportunity to be more modest in our consumption and to get something that's been refurbished instead. The way to get to that hardware catalog is a little tricky unfortunately. No website is perfect and that includes ours so I just want to highlight for you how do you find those hardware offers. The first thing you would do is you go to the product catalog on TechSoup.org and then you got a look over here on the left side at the hardware link and then that'll take you to the hardware offers that you would want to take a look at. Okay so we've covered the software elements of the catalog. We've talked about the hardware offers that are available in our catalog as well but as I said earlier it's not just technology itself that TechSoup provides access to anymore. In fact more and more what we see is that nonprofits need help with services around these technology products. Services to help them choose the right kind of licenses for Microsoft 365 or services that help them adopt and implement into it QuickBooks or services that help them establish an entire broad managed IT relationship with TechSoup where we literally help you manage your entire technology platform across the entire year or we have a one-off service called Helpdesk where you have a specific problem with a certain hardware item that needs constant troubleshooting you can set up a contract with TechSoup and we'll just help you manage that thing over time. So the services are available again through the TechSoup.org website under the tab services no surprise there and you'll see several offers that I've just mentioned like Helpdesk Office 365 managed IT. There are many others one that I know in particular is really getting a lot of traction these days these tons of nonprofits of course are really interested in what can they do to replace their website or make some changes to their website and so we do have services to help nonprofits figure out if they can really afford to build out a new website and then if that's a realistic budget assessment for them then to go through the process of figuring out what should that site be what platform should they build it on etc so that's something new in the TechSoup services catalog that's worth checking out. Helpdesk as I mentioned is $35 monthly or 350 annually for the life of for unlimited support on that device. The Office 365 email and data migration service is an important one to call out here we can also help with the installation of office standard that's the on-premises product and then as I mentioned managed IT is sort of a systems wide approach where we can help nonprofits manage their entire tech stack. One other thing to call out here that's sort of interesting remember I mentioned that TechSoup does its own grant based programming as well one of the cool things that we did over the past few years with that grant based programming is we built out something called the digital assessment tool which is an online tool essentially a questionnaire if you will where nonprofits walk through a series of questions across different topic areas and technology and this is really a tool designed to help nonprofit leaders you executive directors or if you've got an IT director it's designed to help them understand more clearly where their nonprofit could do better in its technology use how they could update policies where are areas that your nonprofit may be doing really well already and doesn't need a lot more attention but it's a good way just to help you structure your own thinking about where your nonprofits technology stack is right now where it might need help and so that digital assessment tool link is also available and that services drop down on the site as I mentioned a lot of nonprofits are pretty interested in building out websites building a new website for them and so we do have services around that I want to check that out through that same navigation category as well in addition to website services you know think of traffic that's coming to you we also now have services available to nonprofits who are thinking about their own outbound marketing and outreach so think about things like emails that you may be sending to lots of different groups of people maybe it's your donors maybe it's supporters maybe you have an actual client base that you need to email so we provide services to help with that kind of stuff as well a lot of nonprofits are using google ad grants some of you on this call I'm sure are using google ad grants and they are essentially credits towards google ads that google offers to nonprofits there's some caps on exactly how you can spend it but if you can figure out exactly what the best way to do that is you could use up to $10,000 in ad credits each month for your nonprofit lots of nonprofits struggle with how to optimize that how do you use the full $10,000 in credits and so we've developed a new service working with nonprofits to help them with that and of course it's going to depend on your unique situation which is why it's not a one-size-fits-all solution I also want to call out the education piece that TechSoup now offers more and more which is also available under the services dropdown and that's TechSoup courses TechSoup courses is part of our broader effort to provide educational opportunities to nonprofit leaders and staff who really want to build out their tech skills and you know some examples of TechSoup courses would be like basic tech planning which would include thinking about what your budget is for technology acquisition in the coming year or in our there's a specific set of courses called the Microsoft Digital Skill Center around everybody's favorite excel how to become a power excel user something that I always love to learn more about because I think that program is really great as I mentioned before lots of nonprofits looking for help on email marketing so we have courses around that and Google Analytics and if any of you work with that you know of course that right now Google Analytics is going through some pretty big profound changes and they are retiring Universal Analytics and implementing a new version of Google Analytics and so everybody's got to be thinking about those kinds of things as well over 70,000 learners have accessed more than 200 TechSoup courses which we provide both in English and in Spanish not every course is available with Spanish but we do have many that are again going back to this point that TechSoup itself is a 501c3 nonprofit when we develop these courses they are written very specifically for nonprofits so you're not you're not enrolling in a course and then you start to realize that the course is entirely designed to help educate the sales department of a business right which is something that sometimes happens and but when you're a nonprofit person you're like well that's completely not the reality that I have to live in our courses are designed very much for the reality that you have to live in as a nonprofit worker anyone can sign up for these courses by the way which is a little bit different than the TechSoup.org catalog you know that those catalog offers are only available to nonprofits but the TechSoup courses anybody anybody on this call can just go to TechSoup courses and sign up and then start taking stuff there again like as I mentioned before lots of topics the Microsoft Digital Skills Center again is a real centerpiece of what those courses offerings look like there is a foundational skills track that courses folks asked us to highlight in particular which I think is just an interesting way to look at the different topics that you could see over time that might matter so you start with like some project management basics then some more advanced pieces of excel of course in the pandemic and in the post pandemic period or whatever you want to call this that we're in right now there's some big issues around how do you manage your remote team and so we've tried to do some work around that and of course there's essential pieces of every nonprofit's existence fundraising grant writing I mentioned email marketing earlier before but email is probably the most important channel your nonprofit is using to communicate with other audiences the Google ad grant that I mentioned before tech planning and then of course something I haven't mentioned till now but really critical element of TechSoup's catalog and support for nonprofits cybersecurity really really important for nonprofits and lots of nonprofits need to do better on security to be perfectly honest we don't need to run around with big scary stories about the ransomware attacks that everybody hears about in the news here and there that maybe a school district or nonprofit gets hit with but if your nonprofit is not thinking seriously about cybersecurity and making sure your systems are protected please join TechSoup and look at what's available in that catalog to you it's critical that you protect those systems because you're also protecting your staff and you're protecting your donors and your clients and anybody else that your nonprofit interacts with right so that's the overview of TechSoup so far I know we're going at a good clip here there's a lot to talk about but I'm going to step back here for a moment and bring to the front Kevin Mulhall Kevin and I have been doing these webinars for some time now it's always great to hear what he has to share with nonprofits around the customer success journey at TechSoup and and customer success is really like you're a member of TechSoup you've taken some products how do we help you use them so take it away Kevin. Thanks Nick it's a pleasure to be speaking with you all here today again my name is Kevin Mulhall and I'm a technical customer success manager here at TechSoup for those of you joining us today that may not have heard of the customer success team it's totally understandable our group has only been around for just over a year and I'll actually have some additional details about who we are later in the presentation before beginning though I'd like to start with a quick poll question Aretha if you could thank you so much is your organization currently using Microsoft 365 there's no obligation to answer of course we'll give it about half a minute to field some results and see where we land oh very interesting so as of even two webinars ago we were at 91 percent last week we were at 77 or 78 we're at 59 percent so this is uh this is very very exciting um so my guess uh some newbies if you will so we can go to the next slide so on the slide here we have a breakdown of pricing between the various 365 subscriptions first I want to start um beginning with web only offers such as Microsoft Business Basic and Office 365 Enterprise E1 if you have volunteers you need licensing for Microsoft has a license for that it is the Microsoft F1 or F3 license for the sake of time I'm not going to fully dive into all of what is in here in the chart but I did want to mention something regarding how 365 kind of exists if you will you have as you heard me mention web based the other type of license versioning that you have is what's called a hybrid license a hybrid license will provide you with access to a web based application or applications along with full a full desktop experience um of the applications that you're probably many of you are familiar with word powerpoint in excel the subscription types that include this for example include the office 365 E3 the business standard business premium and the Microsoft Enterprise E3 and E5 offers I also want to draw quick attention to the last item on the slide uh azure for those who may be interested in learning how to use a platform that was designed for additional software as a service features as well as what's called infrastructure and platform as a service thank virtual machines thank databases thank you even recovery disks uh Microsoft kindly offers a $3,500 annual yearly grant for those who are eligible um uh azure has about 200 the last time I checked this was a little bit ago was about 228 or 29 uh different services uh so it's definitely something that's worth taking a look into um next slide please for those interested and ready to begin the journey forward toward accessing Microsoft cloud solutions for your organization there's a three-step process first you'll need to create an account at the Microsoft nonprofit portal next you'll need to have that account validated the validation service component is something that's provided in the back end by TechSoup in conjunction with Microsoft and typically takes five to seven business days to process no Microsoft will communicate that it may take a little bit longer it typically doesn't but that's just so that you're aware and then the final part of the process we'll be introducing what we refer to as the cloud manager or cloud manager tool to an individual authorized account on TechSoup this CSP quote-unquote introducing process will allow you to access the storefront where you're able to purchase licensing if you find yourself stuck in any part of the process we do have a team at the ready to assist by a chat as you can see here in the bottom right corner next slide understanding and moves the cloud can be challenging for organizations we offer a free consultation service during your session we'll be able to amongst other things discuss choosing the appropriate subscription license provide recommendations for services and courses license implementation and ongoing support to you at no cost next slide so as promised a quick overview on what customer success is the customer success and customer success team are a small very small dedicated group focused on assisting customers with some of the following items technology review and planning organizational strategy identifying opportunities for potential financial and volunteer supports triaging managed support projects and services and providing quotes and invoices for bulk product requests so with that I'm going to hand it back on over to you Nick and I thank all of you for your time great thanks Kevin and again that customer success team is really there to help you once you've engaged with the catalog get the most out of what it is that you're working with and if you have specific questions right now again like I encourage you to drop those into the q&a section next we're going to pull up Kelly Garrett who is one of the wonderful members of the client services team and they do the amazing work of talking hands on with nonprofits hundreds of them every day to help them navigate tech soup systems and troubleshoot any problems they may be having so Kelly take it away hi everybody I'm Kelly as Nick introduced me I'm the associate manager for the client services team um client services is going to be the team that you speak with when you contact our customer service we handle account management we can help you navigate the website if you've requested products or services we can help you find your of the filling emails which are sent with the information about how to access the offer that you requested things along those lines and so today I'm just going to be going through some basic tips and tricks that we have for navigating the website and also how to contact us if you do require some support and next slide please Nick perfect so one of the main questions that we get at tech soup is questions about the product itself and a lot of times these questions are actually already answered on the offer details page which is when you go to our website www.techsoup.org you navigate to a product that you're interested in you open up the page and you have the you know the title list at the beginning at the top there it notes what donor partner um provided the offer it tells you what category it's from which you can always go into our catalog and navigate by category as you see up in the top left corner there is the category drop down so if you're looking for accounting software you'd see this product listed there um you also see what platforms it runs on sometimes it might say windows it might say mac it's a multiple platforms things along those lines um when you reach the offer details page you do want to make sure you're reading all three tabs of information and we've highlighted them here for you where it's description on the left subscription details in the middle and rolls eligibility restrictions on the right and you do have to actually click on each one to have a different page of information show up and so we highly recommend reading through all that information going through all of that and then you could always reach out to us if you have any follow-up questions or clarification questions but a lot of the information is listed there or it links to where you could find that information because the products that are offered through tech soup are not unique individual products it's the same product that's out on the commercial or retail market so QuickBooks Online Plus that you get through tech soup is the exact same software that you would get through Intuit the only difference is that it's technically a donated subscription meaning that Intuit doesn't charge you anything for the subscription tech soup just charges you our admin fee which allows us to you know run the program and get things going to you so that's something to keep in mind is that there's not going to be any differences it's just basically a discounted or maybe a donated version of the product but the software service etc should function the same as it does and a lot of our partners are going to be the ones that you'll go to for actual product functionality support since it's their product that they created that's the exact same one that their texts are used to supporting next slide please perfect so if you do have any follow-up questions about what you're reading on the offer details page or you want to have need some help you know changing some information on your tech soup account you have some questions before you register for anyone that's not registered yet you can always come to our help page here it's a great place to get started it does have some contact information at the bottom so for our PR team there's listed information contact info things like that we also have an FAQ some of the questions are listed on this help topics page you can also click that blue frequently asked questions at the very top that was in the box you can click on that tab and that will change you over to our FAQ which has a lot of great information as well we always highly recommend looking at one of the main things that people come to our help page for is accessing their validation tokens we do have quite a few partners that run their own nonprofit portals on a separate website google for nonprofits is a great example of that they have their own google for nonprofits website and portal and you have to get a validation token sometimes to confirm that you've been validated is eligible to access that so you'll see how do I find my validation tokens listed right over there and that's a great place to go to find out more information about tokens and also there is a list of partners that where you can click on the name and it will go take you to the page where you can generate a validation token it's not something we send you something they can get access to um perfect so once you're on here you can click on the contact us link which will take you to this next page and that will take you to the contact us page and this is where you can get in contact with uh TechSoup's customer service um also called account management group which is part of the client services uh team uh on this page as you see there is the first section where you can enter your contact information give us some um give us a little description of what's going on what you need assistance with um I always highly recommend getting your EIN number and for making sure you provide that when you submit the contact us form or when you contact us just in general um it allows us to find your organization in our systems uh quickly the EIN number is a unique number so we look it up we can usually find exactly that organization um otherwise searching my name can sometimes be difficult if there's any abbreviations or acronyms or anything going on there it can throw things off so always have your EIN tax identification number ready when you contact us um if you prefer to speak to someone over the phone we can absolutely do that um at the bottom of the contact us page has our phone number and our hours um and we also have a live chat feature um that chat feature does connect you to a real live TechSoup representative it is not an AI it is someone that you are talking to um a live person and they can give support um through the chat feature too so kind of three options you have here uh contact us by email which is through this form uh calling us at our customer service phone line or connecting with us via chat which this chat button is on most of the pages on TechSoup dot org but the easiest you always will know it's on here for sure so you can always go to our contact us page to find it if you're looking for the chat support feature perfect the next slide awesome so uh for the three ways to get in touch with us there is as I said chat support um this is available from 7am to 4pm pacific time we are located in california so we are on pacific standard time um phone support is uh you have the phone number listed right there and that's available from 7am to 12pm pacific time and our contact us form submissions they are an email um and we aim for three to five business days to get back to you um however with the end of the year I do want to let folks know that email communications are running um are running delayed right now we have a lot of people coming in sending us emails about any of your budget things signing up for stuff things things that they ordered in the year of a fryer um so I do recommend if you have something urgent um chat support or phone support is the quickest way to get in touch with us contact us form which will create an email thread that's going to take a little bit of time right now because we are backlogged um and as a non-profit ourselves sometimes that can happen with our own limited resources so something to keep in mind um last thing I'd like to cover is what uh tech soups client services team can do for you um since we partner with so many different um uh donor partners uh we aren't able to become complete experts in the products we can't help you navigate the information on our product page we do have some information that uh the partners have given to us you know some tips and tricks some frequently asked questions but if you need actual support a lot of times we're going to be telling you to go to the partner that created the product so for example if you're having trouble setting up your quick books online plus account and figuring out how to move things around in there we're going to tell you to contact Intuit because Intuit's the partner that created the product and has representatives or in-depth trained to provide that kind of a product support now if you have questions about account management or are you eligible or you know navigating what but we have available that's something we can definitely assist you with but if it's product it in-depth product functionality questions a lot of times we're going to be letting you know to go to your part uh the partner that provided the product or check out one of the tech soup services offers that we've mentioned earlier today a lot of times you get that IT support that you're looking for at a fraction of the cost that is out there the commercial market and we definitely have that available to folks so something to keep in mind when you contact us is that we might be sending you somewhere else if we're not able to assist you but we will do the best we can because we are we all join the customer service because we want to make sure that we're helping folks out there so let us know if you need help and we'll be able to take it from there great thank you so much Kelly all right well that brings us to the conclusion of today's quick overview of tech soup for new members I want to thank every one of you who came today and I hope that some of this content was helpful for you as you think about particularly what you're going to do in 2023 what your non-profits priorities are but before I close I just want to actually say to each one of you thank you you've made a choice to work in the non-profit movement and I really do think of it as a movement it's a place where people are going because they want to make a difference maybe it's just in the local community maybe there's a larger mission that that non-profit works on that they really care about but I really think it's important for all of us to work with a sense of purpose and I really appreciate everybody who's made the decision to go work at a non-profit and try to help the world and you know we feel the same way at tech soup we think it's really important that we do that work together and that's why you know we offer the things that we offer is because we believe that your work deserves support we believe that tech can really help and we know that everybody sometimes needs a little bit of help managing tech itself so please think of tech soup in the coming year when you need help on it and techsoup.org is where you want to go to join if you have not already done that and with that I want to say thank you and thank you to Kelly and Kevin and Aretha for running our webinar today and I wish all of you the the happiest of holidays


I'm Meredith Moracovitz alongside Jack Curry, day 3 of spring training has come and gone. Jack, I'm going to put you on the spot a little bit. If you had to sum it up with one song title, what would it be? You are putting me on the spot. I usually try and opt for something from the reggae world, but I'm actually going to go with Let It Be by The Beatles, and this is my reason for that because one of the big themes that we've heard about here as the Yankees have reported to camp, there are so many questions about that Astro Sign Stealing scandal and I think the Yankees are just saying Let It Be, but I think Let It Be also applies, Meredith, because it's going to be a really good team and we're seeing that develop. And I think if you're the Yankees, yes, you're out there trying to make sure this team is ready, all the talent is in place, but you just have to let this team be. This team is going to be really good. I'm going to piggyback off of that a little bit. I'm going to do a song title choice of my own here along the same lines. I'm going to go New York, New York. Yes, everyone almost in that clubhouse that spoke was asked about the Astro Sign Stealing. At the same time, while they answered those questions in their best way, what they believe their truth was, they all ended it with, look, we cannot change the past. We need to focus on what we want to get done in 2020 as the New York Yankees. So I'll go New York, New York, but we'll keep it on that theme because Brian Cashman, not too long ago, spoke for almost 15 minutes to the media addressing that Astro scandal. Right, and this is the second time he's spoken about this. You and I interviewed him at Yankee Stadium, and that was the first time he discussed the Astro Sign Stealing scandal. He repeated today some of the same things that he had told you and I. And the theme was, listen, am I upset? I'm absolutely upset. Our organization feels it was potentially deprived of something. But at a certain point, you do need to move forward. I underlined the phrase he used, unhealthy dynamic. He said, it's an unhealthy dynamic if you're constantly reaching back into the past to complain about something good. Meredith, he offered some new nuggets and some new tidbits that we were unaware of. He said he asked Carlos Beltran about the rumors that the Astros were cheating because Beltran was employed by the Yankees last season. He said he has asked other folks with ties to the Astros organization who have come under the Yankees umbrella at some point, and he said no one ever gave confirmation. The Astros wanted to keep that scheme hidden. And it wasn't until fires came out and said something that really led to this entire investigation we are still waiting to see exactly what penalties there may be for the Red Sox who are still under investigation. But keeping it with Brian Cashman, I mean, he's tried to say, turn the page, turn the page. Obviously people are still talking about it. New information is coming out every day and I'll ask you, do you think it's more difficult? Yes. Well, a lot of those guys in that room were on the 2017 team.  I looked in the mirror every day and I was trying to figure out if I was tipping my pitches. Aaron Judge, second runner up to the AL MVP to Altuve. Is it harder for those guys to turn the page than perhaps others? I think it is. But I think you have to figure out a way to do it because we know how difficult this sport is to play. And if you're distracted and thinking about something that you can't control anymore, I absolutely think it can get in the way of your next mission. I thought Cashman was very candid. He admitted that, listen, we never get 2017 back. Yes, that absolutely impacted the games that they played against the Astros. But at a certain point, you do have to move forward and you have to try and beat the Astros this year.  Much like Aaron Boone, Meredith, Cashman said that he wants to move forward from this. But I'll repeat what I've put on Twitter, what I think you and I have talked about. This is not going away. No, it's not. Just because a couple of people say, okay, I don't want to talk about it anymore. Every city the Astros go into for a road series, the reporters from that city are going to want to talk to them about it. The announcers who are announcing that game are going to bring it up. The Astros did this to themselves and now they have to live with it. They sure did. And you mentioned distraction. One guy who had been mentioned a lot perhaps as a tradable guy this off season has been Jay Hap. He was asked whether or not he heard some of those rumblings, if it was a distraction and how he prepared this off season. And he's a guy that's a veteran. He said, no, I've been through this before. I expected that I would probably be here, but you can't change the way you prepare. So he had actually been over at Himes here at GMS starting in November getting ready for the season, throwing a little bit earlier than perhaps he would in years past. Right. I thought Jay Hap, very honest and very cordial during his interview. I always do believe though, as much of a veteran as someone is, when you hear your name in trade rumors, I think it has to cause a little bit of pause, but you're right. He's been through that before, so he understands. I took this away from him too, Meredith. He said in terms of his pitching style for 2020, my strengths are my strengths. You reported on this last year as that I, there were times where he was getting away from throwing his four seam fastball. He wasn't locating it in a good spot. He was getting hit. Jay Hap has had a successful Major League career because of that four seam fastball. So I think that will be back in play this season. Also interestingly enough, talked about some of the new technology that he's trying to take advantage of with new pitching coach Matt Blake and maybe some changes and developments he can make with his off-speed pitches. I don't know if you noticed, even just when they're throwing bullpens here early in the spring, the amount of equipment that's set up out there just to monitor everything to make sure they have a good side-by-side comparison as they progress for spring training. Right. There are cameras set up. There's other technology and computers set up. Matt Blake, the new pitching coach, seems to move from mound to mound, kind of studying each pitcher for a few pitches, offering a couple of words of wisdom. Aaron Boone is right in the heart of all of it. And yes, during a 25 or 30 pitch bullpen session, maybe there is something about spinning one of your sliders or one of your curveballs, and they can go back and look at that footage and say, this is how you grip the ball there. This is where you released it. This is what you want to try and do during the season. A couple of guys of note did throw bullpens today. Luis Severino, Garrett Cole, again, you'll hear more on that from Jack Curry in just a little bit, and also Davy Garcia. Do you think we will see him in the big leagues at some point this season? I do, Meredith, but I think he still needs to get his feet wet at AAA. Brian Cashman a few years back when I was asking him about elevating or promoting a player. I can't even remember what player it was, but he said, listen, we want that guy to conquer a level before we bring him to the next level. Davy Garcia hasn't conquered AAA yet. I think he goes down there knowing that when the Yankees have a need in their starting rotation, he can absolutely be a factor. Aaron Boone spoke very highly of him today, and you could see the excitement in Boone's eyes and hear it in his voice about some of those Yankee pitchers. Clark Schmidt, Michael King, Davy Garcia, all those starters who are some pitchers we might see in 2020. Something to certainly keep an eye on throughout this spring training. You didn't bring your notebook. Anything else in the notebook? It's always here. It's always. It's never too far away. You would never leave home without it. I think I've been watching Severino, and I just keep thinking that Severino is going to have a terrific season. I just feel as if he's a confidence and a power about him as he walks around it that makes sense. There is. And I know anyone watching this might say, oh, what can you read into a guy's body language? I'm a big believer in body language. And I thought Severino's body language sagged when he struggled in the second half a couple of years ago. One more thing is watching Gary Sanchez catch Garrett Cole in a bullpen and just noticing little leaner this year. Boone spoke about that. And both you and I, not giving away any secrets, because hopefully we can do it as the spring evolves. Definitely want to talk to new catching coach Tanner Swanson and what he's working on with Sanchez. Hopefully we'll be able to do that within the next couple of days for you. Are you mad at me, by the way? Am I mad at you? Yeah. I meant to bring you flowers for Valentine's Day. I know it's a little unorthodox, but I didn't have time when I drove here today. So happy Valentine's Day, Jack. Likewise, too. I'll say happy Valentine's since we're on that subject to the love of my life, Pamela. Now she has to watch all the way to the end. 28 years of marriage next week. Well, 28 years. She couldn't wait the six minutes to hear it at the end. Happy Valentine's Day, Pamela and everyone else out there. We will see you again tomorrow.


Hola, amigos. Hey, I didn't see you there. This video was made possible thanks to Babel, the number one language learning app in the world. Spending 10 to 15 minutes every day learning a new language comes in handy when we meet new people and are able to travel again. For me, I really wanted to communicate in Spanish. I can't wait till we can safely travel again and then get to have more conversations with people from all around the world. One of the cities I'd love to check out is Barcelona. Babel has seriously made learning so much easier. The courses are handcrafted by over 150 language experts. It's a science-backed approach, which means you learn much more effectively. Learning a language is not only about learning, but also about showing respect for the culture. And Babel's local experts infuse all of the courses and experiences with local insights. Plus, Babel teaches using real-life situations and dialogues. University studies have also shown that 15 hours on Babel are equivalent to a semester of a college course. Click on the description link below and Babel will give you six months free when you sign up for a six-month subscription, so you can start speaking a brand new language in just three weeks. Thank you, Babel, for sponsoring this video. Hasta luego! Before we start, we want to let you know that we're so grateful for all the support that you've given us. Our mission is to make mental health and psychology more accessible to everyone, and you help us do that. So, thanks again. Now let's begin. All of us hope to be the best versions of ourselves, right? Sometimes we can stress about achieving our goals, and the overwhelming pressure can stop us in our tracks and leave us unmotivated or stressed. Most of us think we need to start with big changes in order to improve our lives and mental health. But what if I told you some simple, small actions you could put into place that could cause some real change? It's the small things that add up and can make a real difference with time, and some with no time at all.  Number one, put your phone on silent and face down. Social media can be on our minds quite often. With our attention being pulled from one place to the next, it's best to slowly peel back our distractions and focus on the present. That means you browsing endlessly like a wide-eyed zombie on social media is a habit undeserving of your time. Leave the zombie look to the horror movies, not your phone screen reflection. Try leaving your phone on silent always. If you need it for work, leave it off when you aren't expecting a call and on the weekends. When you enter a room or go out for dinner with family or friends, put your phone away or face down so the bright glow of your screen won't bother you with a notification. Our phones have a way of causing a bit of undue stress on us. Social media can be unhealthy. Emails from work can distract us when it's the weekend. And those random notifications beside our apps? They aren't even real notifications. Who cares if my long lost cousin Larry posted a new video? He posts them all the time! Number two. If you set your alarm, place it opposite your bed. Do you often wake to the sounds of birds chirping in a sweet morning breeze? The smell of a fresh cup of coffee and splendidly cooked eggs. That's right, splendidly. What pleasures. No? You wake up to the sounds of that horrid alarm tone that was once set to sound peaceful.  And what is it you smell? Not fresh coffee, but dirty socks and last night's takeout pizza. Hmm, pizza. But the point is, our mornings aren't always the greatest to wake up to. That's why sleep is so blissful. But we can't sleep all day.  Which is why, if your sleep schedule is off, you'll likely need an alarm to kick things into gear. If you use an alarm in the morning, it's best to place it near the opposite wall from your bed. Keep it as far as possible while still in your bedroom. Or if you don't have anywhere to be, or you work nights, and make sure your schedule is on track, then wake naturally. I know, kind of contradicting, right? But if we don't need to be somewhere, we should give our brains the relaxing reset it needs, then wake up naturally. But if we're doomed to often sleep in, go ahead and set your alarm, and then put it somewhere far across the room, on its own comfy little pillow. That way, you'll have to force yourself out of bed to turn it off in the morning. Jump starting the awakening process. You can't drassily hit snooze if you're already up and walking, right? Number three, carry a bottle of water with you. Always. Eight cups a day, yay. Yep, that's right, Psy. Eight cups a day. Yup, eight cups a day. That's what they always say and hey, I wouldn't have it any other way. You can even try it today. What do you have to say? Sorry. I was giving myself a little rhyming challenge. That was very nice. I can't stop once I've started the rhyming process. No, it's cool. It's very important that we stay hydrated throughout our day. Drinking plenty of water helps our mood and our memory. Not enough water and we feel mentally foggy and unalert. So try keeping a bottle by your side at all times. This will remind you to drink when you get the chance, and you may realize you've been more thirsty than you thought. My solution? That water bottle by your side? Drink up and drink a lot. Number four, allow yourself to say no. We oftentimes feel pressured into doing things that we don't want to, or we feel guilty if we don't do someone a favor. You only have so much energy to expend in a day. And guess what? I'm fully giving you permission to say no. You don't have to feel guilty every time you turn down your buddy's bowling invite or invitation for our night out with pizza. I mean, pizza is pizza. It sure is good, but you want to talk those tonight. The truth is, we can feel good when we develop confidence and make our own decisions. One way to gain confidence? Stand up for yourself. I know doing a favor is a good thing, but if you're often taken advantage of or simply don't want to do something, say no. And once you do so, allow yourself not to feel guilty, and simply do whatever it is that you want to do. It's tacos for you tonight. Number five, keep a journal and share your ideas. We can often bundle up our feelings tightly, and then shove them into the cold, dark freezer at the back of our minds. You know, like that leftover smelly pizza from this morning? But it's important to get any strong thoughts out in some way. Good or bad. So who are you going to tell these thoughts? Yourself for starters, but not in your head. Get them out in words. Research published in APA's Journal of Experimental Psychology generally found that expressive writing reduces suppressed and intrusive negative thoughts and can improve our working memory. This freed up mental room can allow us to use our cognitive resources to focus on other things and improve how we handle stress. So start writing your thoughts down, or share your ideas and thoughts with someone you feel comfortable with. You can even write down what you're grateful for each morning in a journal to start your day with positivity. Expression leads us to feel better about ourselves and freeze up some space in our mental room, even our old mental freezers. Number six, replace the bad thoughts with good ones. By acknowledging them first. It's best to express what's bothering us by talking to someone or journaling and sorting out these problems on paper. But if unnecessary worries find a way inside your mind, try acknowledging them and then consciously allow yourself to move on. This can be tricky for a lot of people. We tend to ruminate and worry about things that generally won't harm us in the long run. We can be watching a movie with a worry lurking in the back of our minds, or the pain from a harsh comment still weighing down on us. Take a moment, take a breath, acknowledge what you're feeling, and then distract yourself. Lay your feet out. Your favorite scene is coming up. Take a potato chip. How salty. Start up a conversation and tell your friends about how much you enjoyed those tacos last night. Sorry, I must be hungry. Then number seven, think before you react. Someone just said the most annoying thing to you, and you can't help but scream. But you can help it, can't you? And while the odds are, you won't scream. But you sure feel like it. Before you go on to reacting angrily from a bad mood or rude comment, take a moment to consciously question it. How will your reaction change the scene? Your words hold power in many situations. Or better or for worse, you can worsen a situation or improve it. It only takes a moment to decide which will it be. So which small change will you enact first? Do you like pizza or tacos? Share with us in the comments. We'll miss you if you don't. If you found this video helpful, don't forget to click the like button and share this video with someone who might need it. Subscribe to Psych2Go and hit the notification bell icon for more content like this. And as always, is that it? Do you want to say it? Okay. Thank you for watching. We'll see you real soon.


Okay, okay, no. Now, about 28% of you, when I asked if you wanted a Sephora V.A.B. sale recommendations video, said no, I get that, 28% didn't wanna see it, but the majority of you did, and so that's why we're here today, and I'm going to be giving you about 10 or 11 of my favorites. I decided that I wasn't gonna try to do every category or everything that I loved, it's just too much. But the one thing that I did do in this video was I tried to stick with brands or products that you can only get at Sephora. You can get them on their websites, particularly, but at the Sephora sale, you couldn't get them at, say, Ulta or Target or that kind of thing, so I tried to stick with those. And ones that I really look back on and I go, you know what, those are truly outstanding products that I've really enjoyed. So this is your Sephora recommendations video. Hello, everyone. My name is Melissa and I'm 55 years old, and I love all things beauty, makeup, skin care, hair care, fashion, everything that goes along with it. Before we get started on those 10 recommendations, I always get asked about what I'm wearing, so I always show you a glimpse of the shirt that I have on. So here's the picture of this shirt. I really have been enjoying this chiffon, very lightweight springy shirt. It's just one that's really easy to wear, it's flowy, and it just looks really pretty and feminine, and I love the sleeves on it. They're kind of just a little gathered with a ruffle on there. Just fun. So that's what I have on, but the jewelry, the rings, the makeup, everything. If I don't show it today in the video, that will be listed and linked below, along with the press on nails too. So always look out for that. So in no particular order, here we go. The first thing is a foundation. And I always get asked, what is my favorite foundation for mature skin? What lays very pretty on mature skin? And I forgot how much I love this Shiseido Synchro Skin Self-Refreshing Foundation.  That is that not only does Shiseido have special technology that moves and flexes with your face, it has something like seven different dimethicones. What does that mean? That means that it's going to be able to go into your pores and your wrinkles, your fine lines, and it's gonna look very smooth. The technology that flexes and throughout the day, when you smile, when you eat, anything like that, it's not going to settle into fine lines. It also includes a special technology powder. Yes, I said powder, that helps with the coverage of it without it being thick. It's a medium coverage that's very, very buildable, because I need a little bit extra in through my cheek area, and I did that today, and it's just absolutely gorgeous. So I am re-loving this, and I wanted to make sure that I put it in here. I know that every time everybody wants a recommendation for a foundation, well, I'm throwing it way, way back to a foundation that I have loved for years and years, and has been in my makeup stash for a very long time, and I'm excited to use this this summer. This primer from Cal Aray, I am kind of impressed by as well, and it is the So Blown Primer, and it's a blurring primer that mattifies your skin. Now, if you're a dry skin girl, you might be thinking, well, I don't wanna be matte, however, this is different. It still plays well with foundation, as a matter of fact, it's absolutely gorgeous with foundation, I have it on today. The difference is, is that it does give you the property of blurring, but it doesn't feel that slick dimethicone. It just sinks in, and then you're left with this very smooth feel. Is dimethicone or silicone based? Yes, but it also has niacinamide in it. It has collagen peptides in it, and it has another technology that can go in and really blur out your pores and your fine lines. And with the skin loving ingredients in it, it gets my thumbs up, and I find that this just never looks bad. It doesn't matter what foundation I use it under, it just never looks bad, and really have been enjoying this. It's extremely smoothing. Even feeling it on my hand right here, and it's gonna be a little bit hard to see the difference in the two hands, but this hand right here looks smoothed out. It looks almost luminous compared to my other hand. It's beautiful, beautiful primer. I had to give a mention to these two products right here, which is the Brazilian Crush Beja Floor Elastic Cream and the fragrance. And this is my favorite fragrance that they have ever put out. I put the fragrance in here because I love to spray this through my hair and on my clothes, and I just absolutely love the fruity floral, slightly sheer vanilla fragrance that this has. This easily became my favorite as soon as it came out. But what is great is this is the Elastic Cream, and I've been using this, and I really feel like I'm seeing firmer skin on my arms. You know, right here I have the most creepiness where I really sag because of the weight loss, and I really love this cream and how it hydrates, how it holds the hydration, but over time I'm seeing improvements. It's a really thick body kind of buttercream, and I just really love the fragrance of it. I will layer these two on top of each other for an extra long fragrance. Love this, and I definitely wanted to tell you about it. I do have another fragrance that's going to be in here, but I'll save it more towards the end. For a highlight today from Rare Beauty, I have on her Powder Highlight Enhancer, it says, and this one is in Enlighten. Look at the glow that is, that's underneath my blush. That's not even on top of my blush, but look at that glow. This is very soft and creamy feeling on your skin, and it is just a highlighter. No glitter particles, nothing that's chunky, they're just gonna accentuate texture or anything like that. The other thing is it's a glow. It's a beautiful glow. On this one it's a very light toned glow. They do have several colors on it. I am looking to get like the pinkish one to kind of blend in with blush for the summer, and if any of you have these, and you have a specific color that you love, let us know down in the comment section so that we can find it as well. But this is really beautiful, and it has a very nice lasting power to it as well. Now the blush that I just said is on top of it is the new blush from Lys. That's the Stick Blush, and oh my word. This is so pigmented, it's insane. And I know that this isn't the darkest one, but this is crazy pigmented. I fell in love with this so quickly because of how pigmented it is. Very, very small amount is going to go a very long way. You can sheer it out, obviously it's what I have on today, and you can sheer it out, but if you have deep skin, you're going to be able to build this up, and it's just beautiful. I also love the way that it has a little bit of luminous property to it because of the creaminess. I just think it's gorgeous. They have several different colors. I did order one that didn't make it here before this review. But I do love how creamy it is, and I love how saturated it is. And I know that if you're a mature woman that always looks for cream products like this, you're going to like this because a very tiny bit goes a long way, very easy to blend as well. Now this product right here from Give Beauty by Gwen Stefani is exceptional. And I'll tell you what happened to me yesterday. As I'm preparing for this video, I always swatch what I'm gonna do. This is her eyeliner, and this is the purple color. So I always swatch what I'm going to use, right? Well, what's beautiful about this is it's got this smoky undertone about it, but it also obviously is the purple color. So I'm wearing it on my under eyes today and blended up into the eye look completely, kind of brought it out a little bit for a little bit of a wing look, even though it doesn't really happen on me very much. But what's cool about this is I put this on, and then I put another one on right next to it. I think it was from Makeup Forever or it was from the Sephora line itself. And then I was like, whoa, that's insane.  There was, I washed my hands, I even scrubbed the rest of the stuff off and it was still there. So not only is this a dual chrome color where it's shifting between the smoky gray and then that purple kind of chromey color, it's just long lasting. It just looks beautiful. Now this is one that you do have to sharpen. It's not an automatic, so that might be a drawback, but I'm telling you the product in there is great. As far as water line, I haven't been wearing this in the water line at all, so I can't really give you a good review on that and I apologize for that. I should have done that. And the reason being is because when I put something in my water line, I don't really like it to be too dark. I actually like it to be quite bright. So I hadn't really tried this in the water line, but as far as how good it is and how much it really sticks around when you're using it, it's amazing.  It hasn't quite set down yet. So you do have a little bit of time to work with it, but wow, I was just so impressed with it. And I did just talk about Kulfi. I love Kulfi too. I'll put it right underneath this one. Kulfi works in my water line better than any, but that's the blue that I love so much. But this one, it really is that no budge formula.  And this one is just, it's particularly beautiful. The next product, I kind of have to disclaim her a little bit because this one you can get at Ulta too, but I wanted to put it in here because I just recently got sent this from Smashbox and I'm really impressed by this mascara. It is the Superfan Mascara from Smashbox from Mascara from Smashbox and I do really enjoy using this. It is obviously, again, what I have on today, this is very buildable. The brush is a silicone brush, but the little silicone tines or the little brush are really close together, so it does help to separate great volume, great length. And what I really love about it is no smudging underneath my eyes. And at the end of the day, there's not a bunch of flakes and I feel like I'm taking it off with my remover. So this is very long lasting and I definitely wanted to tell you about it because it really is just gorgeous. They sent me a whole package of stuff and this is what I picked out of that package that really stood out to me and I really love. So this is a beautiful mascara. The eyeshadow palette that I have on my eyes today is from Hooda Beauty and it is the matte one and this one is supposed to be the cool mattes. Now I do feel like this is not a true cool tone palette. It is quite warm as you can see that it's on my eyes today. These are burgundy colors, very pretty. All of them are creamy mattes, not cream based, but the powders are quite creamy and buttery and I like that about it. Very easy to blend, very easy to wear. Many looks out of here. I love that they gave you the very lightest to the very deepest. That's how I work my looks and I really like that there is some true cool tones in here. Like I would say that these two up here are true cool but these right here are fairly warm. So you have a good mix of both but I like this one because it was all matte and I love working with mattes and what I did today was I put this pink on my eyelid and then I took the Rare Beauty highlighter and just dusted it a little bit across my eyelids on top and it just worked out really good to give a little bit of highlighting across my lid without having to have half of the palette shimmers. I love Hooda's formula. I think she does a great job and I love that she did all matte palettes and for me, the mixture of cool and warm tones in here really works and I really love it. What I have on for lipstick today is I lined my lips with the Makeup by Mario lip liner in Kevin. This is one that I've been talking about forever. It's not part of the lineup today but I also put on top of it from Give Beauty and I didn't realize that there was gonna be two Give Beauty products in this but it ended up working out that way and this is her lipstick. She doesn't have very many colors. It's kind of like these are my iconic colors that I wear all the time and here you go type thing with her and I kind of like that because she's not out there reaching for everything she can get. This color right here is called Screen My Phone Calls. It's medium saturation, it's just really pretty. It's what I have on. I have a little bit of a gloss over top of it but it's a clear gloss so the color that you're seeing is 100% this lipstick and I like that these are a little bit on the more matte side. There's still a little bit of satin in there but they really are a little bit more on the matte side and they're just beautiful. They're just a great formula. I know that she has a red in there. I'm still like working up the courage to wear reds all the time but this one is really pretty and the color is really beautiful so I wanted to tell you that this gets my thumbs up. One more fragrance and this is a good time to buy fragrances because you get the 20% off and you don't normally get anything off of fragrances no matter where you shop but this is from Clean Reserve and this fragrance is called Skin and what I love about this is it really has that musky scent to it. I'm somebody that loves the musky fragrance but if it gets too much it can become overwhelming. They balanced the musky fragrance in this with a little bit of a clean fragrance so it smells a lot like if you took musk and you took your favorite laundry soap and you mixed them together and then you would have it. That's what it smells like. So there's not a fruity fragrance in this at all. It's just a very clean fragrance with that musk in it and this is one of my favorites and whenever I put this in my hair my husband will smell my hair all the time when I have this in my hair because it's one of his favorites. So I love Clean Reserve anyway. They're a great company and I love that they have such different fragrances that really can fit just about any woman and or a man because I really feel like a man could wear this and it would smell really good on him too. So this is a great fragrance and I wanted to make sure I put it in this video and we're gonna wrap it up and I'm not gonna take a lot of time because I've talked about this so many times but Tower 28 has this concealer and if you're somebody that is prone to breakouts this is a non-commodic... This is a non-commodogenic I'm probably saying that wrong concealer but it's really beautiful on my mature skin. This concealer ticks every single solitary box that I need. It covers really, really well. It takes care of the troughs that I have that make me look darker. It is a great tone as far as not being too cool, too warm so it's not too yellow if you have a cool undertone and I can let this set just a little bit and have to powder it very minutely. I have crinkles and I have wrinkles and smile lines and all of that and it's really hard to find a concealer that doesn't settle into those fine lines but this one doesn't. When I say this in every video let's get real, let's not say that you don't have to set concealer with something either powder or setting spray. You have to do that because if you don't you're gonna get that creasing throughout the day. I sweat, I have power surges, hot flashes and I'm gonna get some settling unless I powder it. So get out to pretty little powder puffs and do what you gotta do there and realize that we all do it but if you're looking for a fantastic concealer this checks all the boxes for me and I love it. There you go, that's all of my picks. I hope it wasn't too painful for those of you that voted that know you absolutely didn't want to see this Sephora Recommendations video but we did it and those of you that really wanted a Sephora Recommendations video these are really, really good products so I hope that you did enjoy this. If you wouldn't mind giving it a thumbs up on your way out of here, I'd really appreciate it. By the way guys, I just learned that about 65% of the people that watch my videos they aren't even subscribed. So if you watch my videos all the time and YouTube just keeps recommending them if you wouldn't just take a minute and hit the subscribe button it would help me so very much because the more people we get in this community the more the channel gets built up and then I get excited about things and I want to share more with you. Hopefully you did enjoy this. Tell me what some of your recommendations are. I always love to hear that. You know I do. That is my favorite thing is to read your recommendations and get a little bit of a chat going down there in the comment section. Everyone, I hope that you're doing well. Please stay happy and stay healthy and come around and see me very soon again right after you've subscribed and you've smashed the like button and take care of yourselves. I love you so very much. Bye my friends.


July 17th, 2014, Eric Garner, confronted by police, put in a chokehold by Officer Pantaleo, pulled down to the ground. His face slammed into the concrete. I can't breathe, he says, 11 times. And then he can't.